Thứ Hai, 3 tháng 10, 2016
iPad sales aren't what they used to be. With the release of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, it's clear the iPad's future is for professionals. Apple is rumored to be considering an "iPad mini Pro" with a 7.9-inch screen and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro could be replaced with a slightly larger 10.1-inch model, according to the often-reliable Japanese Apple blog Macotara. An iPad mini Pro would have all the features that would make it a "pro" tablet, including the True Tone display introduced on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, a Smart Connector on the side for magnetically connecting to accessories like a keyboard, quad stereo speakers, an improved 12-megapixel camera with True Tone flash and a new four-array microphone setup. The iPad mini was last updated in 2015 with the iPad mini 4. As I wrote in my review, it's basically an iPad Air 2 with a smaller screen. An iPad mini Pro would have all the features that would make it a "pro" tablet. A larger 10.1-inch iPad Pro would break with the 9.7-inch display that has been the standard size for the iPad since it launched in 2010. It could get the same microphone upgrade the iPad mini Pro is rumored to have. Moving to a larger screen could also give Apple the screen estate it needs to potentially increase the resolution. Not to mention a larger screen would give people more space to work on and create things. It's unclear if Apple might ditch the 4:3 aspect ratio if the larger iPad Pro turns up. The rumor corroborates a previous report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that claimed Apple would introduce a larger iPad Pro; his report, however, claimed the tablet might have a 10.5-inch screen. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro will also reportedly get upgraded with all of the iPad mini Pro's improvements. Most notable of all is the new iPad Pros will reportedly keep their 3.5mm headphone jacks. Apple removed the jacks on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to make room for a larger battery, larger Taptic Engine and seal them for water-resistance. Macotara believes the new iPad Pros will ship in 2017.
Thứ Bảy, 13 tháng 8, 2016
The most controversial change on the new iPhone 7 will be the removal of the headphone jack. You'll either love it or hate it. Accept dongle hell, go Bluetooth or buy new Lightning-based headphones. In the run-up to the announcement, which is widely expected to be Sept. 7, we've been trying to make educated guesses as to why Apple will drop the jack. Here are some possible reasons Apple will use to defend its choice: The headphone jack is analog and the iPhone 7 will support high-resolution audio so it needs a digital input. Apple wants to make thinner iPhones and the port's thickness is a limitation. Complete water-sealing. To sell you new Lightning earbuds and headphones. To squeeze in a bigger battery, the port had to die. Bluetooth is the future, no matter what you think. Get over it! The best hypothesis has been: stereo speakers. In all of the leaked images that have surfaced of the alleged iPhone 7 and 7 Plus there are two sets of speaker holes on the bottom flanking the Lightning port. A new report from Nowhereelse.fr, with alleged design schematics of the new iPhones, suggests that may not be the case and there will be no secondary speaker. The iPhone, for those who don't know, only has a single downward-facing speaker. Image: Nowhereelse.fr iPhones prior to the iPhone 6 all had dual speaker grilles flanking the connector port, but none were stereo speakers. No iPhone has had stereo speakers. One of the benefits of the iPad Pro is its enhanced audio. Both the 12.9- and 9.7-inch iPad Pro have four speaker grilles that output stereo sound. With less space to fit components, it would be tough to squeeze in a secondary speaker into the already tightly packed iPhone. Stereo speakers would be a good, but not great reason to ditch the headphone jack. But if that's not the reason, then what will be? It's starting to sound like whatever the reason is, it won't be one we'll be thrilled with.
Thứ Sáu, 6 tháng 5, 2016
This week on MashTalk, we sift through all the rumors to try to decide: Is the iPhone 7 going to have a damn headphone jack or not? Plus, we discuss the exciting (and possibly unsettling) news that robots are becoming capable surgeons. Lastly, our longest Rapid Reactions round ever features a debate about sex in self-driving cars. Yep. Listen to the episode on iTunes or on Stitcher. You can also subscribe to MashTalk on iTunes by clicking the button below to get our latest episodes, instantly. If you like MashTalk, please fill out our audience survey. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Thứ Ba, 3 tháng 5, 2016
The iPhone 7 will not have a headphone jack. It will have a headphone jack. It won't have a headphone jack. The rumor mill just can't decide if Apple will kill the headphone jack on its next iPhone or not. For months, speculation has been the iPhone 7 will be the first iPhone to eschew the 50-something-year-old 3.5mm audio jack. Apple will reportedly release new Lightning port-based earbuds and headphones to compensate. Apple could ship a 3.5mm jack-to-Lightning adapter for with the headphone jack-less iPhone 7 to ease the transition for users. Or it could not include one and sell the damn dongle like it always does when the company nixes ports from its products. (My money is on Apple selling the adapters and making bank.) The latest iPhone 7 leak published by Nowherelse.fr, a blog with a history of sometimes being right with leaks on unreleased Apple products, claims the iPhone 7 may come with a headphone jack after all. Image: Nowhereelse.fr The purported iPhone 7 Lightning cable assembly, which you can see in the image above, shows what is clearly a headphone jack (the white component to the left of the blue-marked rectangle). So it's settled then, the iPhone 7 will still have a headphone jack, right? Wrong. The iPhone 7 is not expected to debut until this fall (September or October if Apple follows history). We're at least five months out. While it's common for next-generation parts to leak onto the Internet months in advance, these parts don't guarantee anything. So-called next-generation iPhone parts start to "leak" every spring — many of them turning out to be completely off base. The fact is, these leaked parts, which are almost always posted on some Weibo account in China, can't be verified in any capacity. They could just as well be from an Android phone that so closely resembles the iPhone, seeing as how phones are all so similar now. Case in point: In March, an image of a metal phone with cleaner antenna lines claiming to be the iPhone 7's new body popped online (from Weibo and picked up by Nowhereelse.fr, no less) and sent every Apple blog on the web into a frenzy. The "leaked" image was not of the iPhone 7. Li Nan, Meizu's vice president of sales and marketing, took to Weibo, to take ownership of the phone design for the company's upcoming Meizu Pro 6. The leak could have been from a disgruntled Meizu factory worker or from anyone with access to the phone, though it can't be ruled out that Meizu reps might have "leaked" the image themselves to drum up interest for the Pro 6. (Riding the iPhone's perpetual buzz is common marketing tactic in mobile, and it rarely, if ever, backfires.) Look back far enough and you'll see the story is the same every year. So-called next-generation iPhone parts start to "leak" every spring — many of them turning out to be completely off base. Apple is a secretive company. It prototypes many different versions of its products, some of which get sent to factories in China, for small batch productions. Not all of all them make the cut. The ones that don't meet the company's high quality bar get scrapped and tossed back into Cupertino's reject pile, likely never to be seen again. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple plants a fake rumor or two to throw Internet sleuths off. Just as it's possible Meizu may have staged its own leak for the Pro 6, it's not out of the realm of possibility the company has slowly leaked out the notion the iPhone 7 won't come with an headphone jack. There are two reasons why Apple would do such a thing: 1) to temper expectations from users and essentially get them used to the idea of an iPhone with no headphone jack, or 2) to steer fans off and then surprise them with an iPhone 7 that does retain the jack, proving all the "rumors" wrong. I'm as excited for the next iPhone as anyone (my busted iPhone 6 is barely hanging on), but let's not allow all these potentially dubious rumors to drive the conversation. And that is, nothing is official until Apple makes it so. Oh, and anything you hear about the iPhone 7S or iPhone 8, which aren't supposed to come out until 2017 and 2018 — HA! As my colleague, Mashable senior tech correspondent Christina Warren put it perfectly: It's way to early to talk about the next iPhone. Her TL;DR: It will be Apple's fastest iPhone ever It will have Apple's most-advanced optics There will be at least one extra feature you can't get on any other iPhone. It will come in rose gold. Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted in an interview on CNBC's Mad Money the company has big plans for its products, despite slowing iPhone sales. "We're going to give you things that you can't live without that you just don't know about today," Cook told Mad Money's Jim Cramer. "That has always been the objective of Apple." For Apple's sake, we hope the iPhone 7 will have something more groundbreaking than 3D Touch and Live Photos. Put that fingerprint sensor underneath the display, maybe? Stay safe out there Apple fans (and haters). There's a lot of BS coming out the rumor mill. Don't be a fool and step in it. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.From somewhere in China
BS until Apple says otherwise
Thứ Bảy, 23 tháng 4, 2016
With the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge launched and in the running for best Android smartphone of the year, all eyes are now on Samsung's other flagship phone: the Galaxy Note. Samsung's next Galaxy Note, presumably called the Galaxy Note 6, won't arrive until this summer, but we're already hearing some chatter about it. According to SamMobile, which has a reliable track record when it comes to Samsung-related rumors, Samsung is testing two variants of the Galaxy Note 6, one with a curved screen and one with a flat screen — both have Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. But unlike last year, where the Korean electronics giant launched the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+, both with identical tech specs, with the only differences being the Note 5's stylus and flat screen and the S6 Edge+'s dual curved glass sides, there will only be one model this year. That makes sense since the S7 has a 5.1-inch screen, the S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch screen and the Galaxy Note will reportedly have a 5.8-inch screen (0.1 inches larger than the Galaxy Note's 5.7-inch, if you care). A larger battery is also another feature Samsung is looking to include in the Galaxy Note 6. A larger battery is also another feature Samsung is looking to include in the Galaxy Note 6. The report claims a 4,000 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery. The Galaxy Note 5 only had a 3,220 mAh battery. Other rumored specs include both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 823 processor and Exynos 8890 chip, 6GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. We wouldn't be surprised if Samsung brought over the S7/S7 Edge's microSD card, water-resistance and fast wireless charging to the Note 6, too. No mention of what kind of camera the Galaxy Note 6 will sport, but it'll likely be the same 12-megapixel rear shooter and 5-megapixel front shooter (both with f/1.8 aperture for killer low-light performance) from the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, along with the same ultra-fast dual pixel autofocus system. The phone is expected to be one of the first to run Android N, the next version of Google's mobile operating system. We won't know for sure until Samsung announces it, but it all sounds like a lot to get excited for if you're looking to upgrade to the next Note. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
