TheNewsGuru

Tag: iPhone

  • Apple to open retail outlet in South Korea, starts hiring already

    Apple Inc has announced plans to open a retail outlet in South Korea, its first in the country that homes its archrival, Samsung Electronics.

    “We’re excited about opening our first Apple Store in Korea, one of the world’s economic centres and a leader in telecommunication and technology, with a vibrant K-culture,” Apple said in a media briefing on Friday.

    The iPhone maker listed hiring notices for 15 positions dated Thursday on its website, including a store leader and business manager.

    The listings did not specify the exact location or when those who are hired will begin working.

    “We’re now hiring the team that will offer our customers in Seoul the service, education and entertainment that is loved by Apple customers around the world,” Apple said.

    Apple declined to comment on where in Seoul its retail store would be located or when it would start operations.

    But South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said in a report on Friday that construction was underway for the store at a location in a southern district of Seoul and that the work will likely be completed by the end of November 2017.

  • 8 Apple products coming in 2017

    8 Apple products coming in 2017

    It was a big year for Apple in 2016, with the launch of several eye-catching tech gadgets, including the launch of beloved iPhone 7.

    Especially, while the iPhone 7 took a bold step to dump the headphone port, the MacBook Pro, released in 2016 October is the first laptop with a touch-sensitive strip above the keys, and Apple continued its mission to switch its laptop line to USB-C.

    In 2017, with Apple marking its 10th anniversary, everything is expected to be different.

    Here is a roundup of the launches Apple is expected to make this year.

    Apple Watch Series 3 (or at least watchOS 4)

    The Apple Watch Series 2, unveiled in September 2016, is the classic second-gen product. If 2017 sees only a minor update to the watch, or no update at all, at least we seem assured of a fourth update to the watchOS software, and after the delights and fundamental interface rethink of watchOS 3 that could be almost as significant an upgrade as new hardware.

    iPad Pro 2

    Something big is to be expected on the iPad front in 2017. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro dropped in late 2015 and its 9.7-inch cousin debuted in spring 2016. The iPad Pro 2 is widely expected to make a spring or summer 2017 launch. While Apple’s iPad has become outshone in recent years by the newer Apple Watch and more lucrative iPhone, it has been speculated that Apple would like to fix that especially with a 3D Touch for a nice start.

    iPad Pro mini

    The iPad mini once felt like the future of the tablet, but cannibalisation by the new, larger iPhone formats have seen the line somewhat neglected. It is expected that ‘Pro’ rebranding and substantial redesign will put an end to that. There is also the expectation of Apple Pencil compatibility.

    Apple Car (or car-related software)

    Apple’s car-related research is one of tech’s worst-kept secrets: it is understood that several hundred Apple employees have been working on a project codenamed ‘Titan’. But the great mystery concerns the form these developments will take. It now seems that an electric Apple Car or iCar is less likely in the near future, with moonshot-addicted companies like Google more likely to make the running until the concept goes mainstream. A better bet for Apple would be self-driving car software.

    MacBook Pro 2017

    The MacBook Pro got a major and long-overdue revamp in late 2016, getting a spec bump, a slimmed-down design and a cool new Touch Bar feature. But as satisfying a product as the MacBook Pro 2016 is, the spec bump wasn’t quite enough to please Apple’s pro and more demanding consumer customers. A further update to the Pro line in 2017 would allow Apple to make minor tweaks to the specs on offer, potentially tempting the pro users who were put off by the limited allocation of RAM or the older processors.

    Mac Pro 2017

    Update to the Mac Pro is long-overdue. Prospects had been looking bright for a late-2016 update, with one well-placed source indicating that it would launch by the end of November. But March 2017 now seems the earliest we can expect a new Mac Pro. It ought to be a good one given that it has been kept waiting for well over three years.

    Standalone Touch Bar keyboard

    Apple’s 2017 12-inch MacBook may acquire a Touch Bar above its ultraslim keyboard; but more appealing still would be a standalone wireless or USB (or USB-C) keyboard with the Touch Bar built in. That way iMac and Mac Pro owners can join in with the fun, without having to buy entirely new machines.

    Tenth-Anniversary iPhone

    The comparatively conservative updates in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 suggest there might be something bigger coming down the pipe for the anniversary iPhone, iPhone 8 that will launch this year. Curved OLED screen? Wireless charging? Augmented reality features? Who knows what Apple’s got up its sleeve for what could be the iPhone’s last great hurrah?

  • WhatsApp stops working on older Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7 models

    WhatsApp stops working on older Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7 models

    Popular instant messaging app WhatsApp has stopped working in older smartphones. Anyone using a smartphone running Android 2.2 Froyo or older versions of Android, apart from an iPhone 3GS or iOS 6 and lower versions of iOS, will find that WhatsApp has stopped working on their smartphones.ImageFile: WhatsApp stops working on older Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7 models

    Notably, the market share of these devices is quite low – 0.1 percent for devices running Android 2.2 Froyo, 2.6 percent for devices running iOS 6, and the iPhone 3GS is itself a 7-year-old phone.

    Windows Phone 7 users will also be affected in the same manner.

    The Facebook-owned company has advised that anyone with the above-mentioned older handsets who want to keep chatting with friends via WhatsApp will need to buy a newer phone or upgrade to a newer operating system.

    WhatsApp had initially said that all BlackBerry (those not running Android) models and some Nokia handsets would also find themselves unable to get onto the chat app. But in November last year, it gave these users a reprieve until June 30, 2017.

    “We are extending support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60 until June 30, 2017,” the company wrote in an update to its blog.

    The changes are arguably largely to allow WhatsApp to more deeply integrate encryption and other privacy services. Such technology stops messages from being read, and has led to WhatsApp facing criticism from governments who believe that WhatsApp conversations should be made public.

    It’s also likely to allow for more rapid introduction of new features. Rumoured updates scheduled in 2017 include a new feature that would allow people to edit or entirely delete messages after they have been sent.

  • Apple set to reduce iPhone production by 10% in Q1 2017

    According to a new report from Nikkei, Apple will reduce the production of iPhones by about 10% in the first quarter of 2017.

    The news comes after Flurry Analytics showed that Apple still maintains a lead in holiday activations.

    This isn’t the first time Apple has cut back on iPhone production as a similar event occurred this year in the January – March quarter. That cut on production was around 30%, which Nikkei Asian Review says was caused by slowing sales of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

    Though production of the iPhone is set to slow down in the coming year’s first quarter, that didn’t stop Apple from being another holiday hit this year.

    Apple devices saw a significant lead over Samsung in terms of device activations this past holiday.

    Apple came in first at 55% of the total activations, with runner-up Samsung following in at 21%. According to Nikkei, the latest models “sold more sluggishly than expected” and shortages of the camera sensors on the new devices have curbed Apple’s “ability to meet demand for the phones”.

    Zac Hall and Benjamin Mayo postulated what 2017 will bring for Apple products, and we’ve taken a look back at everything we know about the 10th anniversary iPhone thus far.

     

  • WhatsApp soon to let you edit or revoke messages after sending them

    WhatsApp is set to let users of the messaging platform to edit or revoke messages after they have been sent.

    The feature, which is available in WhatsApp’s iPhone beta version, WhatsApp said it is disabled by default, meaning users have to turn it on manually.

    Aside the edit option, iPhone users of WhatsApp now have the flexible control to revoke any message that is already sent, meaning the sent message never existed.

    These upcoming features on WhatsApp work by long pressing a sent message. However, the feature to revoke sent message only work if the recipient is yet to see the message from the sender.

    Currently, WhatsApp lets users delete messages on the device level and the deleted messages remain visible to the recipient.

    Unfortunately, there is no word from the messaging platform on when the feature to edit or revoke sent messages will be available for Android beta users.

    Meanwhile, WhatsApp earlier received an update that brought two new features – streaming videos while they download, and animated GIF image support to the Android app earlier this month. Before now, these two features were only available to WhatsApp beta users only.

    With the WhatsApp video streaming, users are able to play videos right away without waiting for it to finish downloading.

    The animated GIF image support means that users can now send GIF via the attach file button which will open the Gallery on the device, and users can find the right GIF image to be shared.