MacRumors

Kanex today announced availability of its GoPlay Sidekick wireless game controller for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. The pocket-sized controller, introduced at CES 2017, can be purchased from Kanex's website starting today for $59.95. A company spokesperson told MacRumors it will also be available on Amazon next week.

The console-inspired game controller features pressure-sensitive buttons, dual analog joysticks, trigger buttons, a directional pad, and a Lightning connector, while one of its more interesting features is its patent pending protective clamshell case with an integrated stand that props up an iPhone during gameplay.

The controller, certified under Apple's MFi Program, connects to Apple devices over Bluetooth 4.0 and offers up to 20 hours of gameplay on a single charge. It works with almost any controller-supported game on the App Store.

Competing products sold by Apple include the SteelSeries Nimbus Wireless Gaming Controller and HORIPAD ULTIMATE Wireless Game Controller, each $49.95 in the United States. Prices vary in other countries.

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 11 update to its public beta testing group, two weeks after providing testers with the second beta. The tvOS 11 public beta marks the first time public beta testers have had access to pre-release tvOS software, and this third beta corresponds to the fourth developer beta.

Prior to tvOS 11, public betas were limited to iOS and macOS software likely due to the slightly more complicated tvOS beta installation process, but now public beta testers can access all software platforms with the exception of watchOS thanks to new installation procedures.

The tvOS 11 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.

Compared to iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, and watchOS 4, tvOS 11 is a minor update that brings few changes to the tvOS operating system. It's minor enough that it received no time on stage at the Worldwide Developers Conference aside from a mention of an Amazon Prime Video app coming to the Apple TV this fall.

According to Apple's release notes, tvOS 11 introduces automatic light/dark appearance switching based on local time, Home screen syncing options for syncing content between two or more Apple TVs in a household, new background modes and notification support, plus new tools for developers and improvements to Mobile Device Management.

Additional tvOS 11 features may be unveiled ahead of the operating system's public release, which is expected to be in the fall alongside other software updates.

Apple has shared a new 60-second black-and-white Apple Music ad starring chart-topping American country singer Brantley Gilbert.

I love the feeling out here. The freedom. The simplicity. The open road. This is my home. No matter where I go, my heart stays here. With my friends, my family. Just country. There's nothing that replaces the feeling of getting out there and letting it all go in the wind. People you meet, memories you share, and the soundtrack that drives it. My country. My people. My music. Apple Music.

The commercial features snippets of Gilbert's latest single, The Ones That Like Me, plus country and rock classics such as Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf.

"I've never been one for commercials," says the man who's certified back-to-back platinum for Halfway To Heavenand Just As I Am. "But when we started talking to the folks at Apple, they were saying, 'We want to capture you, the way you live and the values you hold. We want people to see your world, show them what you hear and respond to. If they see you, it says everything.'"

The ad debuted on NBC's pre-race show for NASCAR's annual Brickyard 400, sponsored by Gilbert and his label, on Sunday.

Gilbert has released three studio albums since signing with Big Machine Records in 2011, with four chart-topping singles such as Bottoms Up. He also wrote country singer Jason Aldean's popular singles My Kinda Party and Dirt Road Anthem.

When Pinterest acquired keyboard app maker Fleksy last summer, development was paused on the company's well-known iOS and Android keyboard apps as the team was integrated into Pinterest's projects. The companies said that Fleksy would continue to exist with minimal updates, but otherwise not much news has come out about the keyboard app, until today.

Now, Barcelona-based keyboard startup Thingthing [iOS App Store Direct Link] announced in a blog post this morning that it will take over development of the Fleksy keyboard, while the original Fleksy team continues to work at Pinterest (via TechCrunch). Thingthing said that thanks to the deal, the company is "closer than ever to our goal of bringing you the world’s first Keyboard as a Platform (KaaP)."

The company highlighted improvements coming to Fleksy + Gif Keyboard on the iOS App Store [Direct Link] and Android devices over the coming months, including: "A new brand, more themes and extensions, continued focus on data privacy, awesome auto-correction, new services thanks to our open keyboard as a platform, [and] ongoing support to all of you!"

For now, the company updated Fleksy with a few basic bug fixes today, while a "very, very big" product launch is expected sometime this fall.

Thingthing users are used to being productive, using the keyboard’s interface to improve their typing experience and reducing time to realise day-to-day activities, which are performed naturally in Thingthing.

Still, a lot of you have requested more languages, more services, more customization, a better auto-correct, etc. This is exactly what we’re bringing to you: what you asked for.

Thingthing's chief technical officer mentioned that the developer intends to "vastly improve" upon the current Fleksy keyboard with these updates, building the keyboard up into a platform of its own with extensions for apps like Spotify, YouTube, and more. The upcoming brand refresh will be centered on changing the design and feel of the app and its logo, while the Fleksy name will remain in place.

Earlier in July, a report by The Korea Herald suggested that Apple and supplier LG Display were working on a deal that would see Apple investing $1.75-2.62 billion into LG Display's OLED manufacturing, specifically a plant that would be exclusively devoted to Apple orders. Today, Reuters has provided a few more details on LG Display's plans to enter the OLED display market for smartphones, which rival Samsung Display currently dominates.

In total, LG Display plans to invest $13.5 billion into boosting its output of OLED screens over the next three years, covering TV screens and specifically hoping to "make inroads against rival Samsung in smartphone displays." LG Display is already the OLED leader in large-screen television displays, but now the supplier is said to be seeking a strong foothold in the OLED screen market for smartphones, coming in the wake of OLED-backed iPhone 8 rumors and Apple's reported plans to go OLED-only on iPhones beginning in 2019, and perhaps even 2018.

LG Display will invest around $4.5 billion for a new production line that will create flexible OLED panels to help bolster its position in the auto display and smartphone market, and another $2.5 billion will be saved for another line of "large-size OLED screens." In regards to lines dedicated to small and mid-sized OLED displays, it's said that Apple will help out with getting the lines up and running, continuing the investment rumors began earlier this month.

Around 5 trillion won is earmarked for a new line for flexible OLED aimed at bolstering its position in auto displays and smartphones while 2.8 trillion won will go toward a separate new line for large-size OLED screens. Both production lines will be located in Paju, northwest of Seoul. Its planned 15 trillion won investment over three years implies an average of 5 trillion won in capital spending per year, above its usual 4 trillion won, but analysts said it will probably not be enough.

"For small and mid-sized OLED, it is expected to receive additional investment from somewhere else, perhaps Apple," said Lee Min-hee, analyst at Heungkuk Securities. "One production line for small and mid-sized OLED can require nearly 10 trillion won in investment. LG doesn't have the firepower to single-handedly build a lot of OLED production lines."

Apple's current OLED deal with Samsung will see the manufacturer supply 92 million OLED panels over the next two years. In The Korea Herald's report from early July, it was rumored that LG Display's OLED output for Apple would gear up in 2019, aligning with the end of Apple's contract with Samsung. A rumor this week has also pointed towards Apple's plans to develop its own OLED technology to reduce its reliance on suppliers like Samsung Display.

Apple's launch of the first-ever OLED iPhone is widely expected to be coming later this fall, in the majorly redesigned "iPhone 8," while more iterative updates in the "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus" will receive traditional LCD screens.

Google launched a new feature for its Search and Maps apps today that aims to help users stay on top of events when a natural disaster or other crisis occurs near their location (via TechCrunch).

Called "SOS Alerts", the notifications will appear at the top of Google search results and Maps when a user looks for information about an incident or the affected area.

In the Search app, Google will offer an overview of the incident using maps, relevant news stories, emergency phone numbers where available, websites, and any other information that might be useful. In the event that the user is in close proximity to the incident, Google may also send notifications directing users to further details.

The same information will show up in the Maps app where relevant, for example in search results, with real-time updates detailing road closures and traffic and transit updates.

Google has worked with several organizations to bring the feature to its Search and Maps apps, including the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, and Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

Google Maps and Search can be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Facebook is planning to release its own smart speaker to compete with similar connected devices offered by Amazon, Google, and Apple, a report out of Taiwan claimed on Tuesday.

However, instead of voice recognition functions in the vein of Siri or Alexa, Facebook's speaker will focus more on displaying visual imagery via a 15-inch touch panel, according to sources in the supply chain.

Market watchers predicted high growth for Pegatron going into the second half of the year, with the manufacturer already fulfilling iPhone orders for Apple as well as Surface and Xbox One orders for Microsoft.

Amazon is reportedly working on a successor to its popular flagship Echo speaker for release later this year. The company hopes to steal the spotlight from Apple as it prepares to launch its music-oriented HomePod speaker, costing $350.

Research firm Strategy Analytics claims worldwide smart speaker shipments reached 5.9 million units in 2016, 4.2 million of which were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2016. The smart speaker market is expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2022.

(Via DigiTimes.)

iRobot CEO Colin Angle today told Reuters that he hopes indoor mapping data collected by Roomba automatic vacuum cleaning machines can be sold to a company like Amazon, Apple, or Google in the near future.

iRobot's latest line of 900-series Roomba vacuums use simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology to map rooms while they clean, memorizing room layout and the location of furniture. Angle believes that mapping data collected by the Roomba could be used to make other in-home smart devices like lighting, thermostats, and security cameras smarter.

"There's an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared," said Angle.

Guy Hoffman, a robotics professor at Cornell University, told Reuters that the kind of spatial mapping technology iRobot can deliver has the potential to be a "major breakthrough" for smart homes.

Right now, smart home devices operate "like a tourist in New York who never leaves the subway," said Hoffman. "There is some information about the city, but the tourist is missing a lot of context for what's happening outside of the stations."

Angle believes that iRobot could reach a deal to sell its maps data to "one or more" of the "Big Three" (Amazon, Apple, and Google) in the next couple of years, but cheaper technology from competing companies and privacy concerns could potentially halt the company's plans. Angle says iRobot will not sell room data without customer permission, but he believes most people will give consent to access smart home functions.

Indoor home mapping has the potential to be valuable to companies like Apple, especially with Apple poised to release its augmented reality platform with iOS 11, but it's unclear if Apple would be interested in or need such data. Functionality built into Apple's own upcoming devices like the iPhone 8 could potentially allow for in-home maps that could bolster smart home devices if rumors of enhanced augmented reality features are true.

Last week, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group representing Google, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Intel, Samsung, and other tech companies, asked the United States International Trade Commission to reject Qualcomm's request for an import ban on some of Apple's iPhone and iPad models that use Intel chips.

The group said that banning Apple products that use Intel chips would enable Qualcomm's anti-competitive behavior and cause supply issues, resulting in harm to consumers.

Qualcomm today responded to the CCIA in a court filing, accusing the group of launching a "coordinated effort aimed at misdirecting" the ITC, reports Reuters. Qualcomm also said that the import ban it requested is not focused on Intel's chips, but the patented technology used in iPhones with Intel chips.

In its filing on Monday, Qualcomm argued that its import ban is not actually about Intel's chips, but instead concerns the patented technology that surrounds the Intel chips in current versions of the iPhone. Thus a ban on importing the phones would not hurt competition in the long term, Qualcomm argued. "Apple can purchase and utilize any LTE modem it chooses so long as it does not infringe Qualcomm's asserted patents," the company wrote.

Apple and Qualcomm have been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle following Apple's decision to sue Qualcomm in January for charging unfair royalties and refusing to pay quarterly rebates.

The fight between the two companies has escalated since then, most recently leading Qualcomm to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple and request an import ban for some iPhone models.

In a statement to Reuters on Qualcomm's filing this afternoon, Apple once again complained that Qualcomm makes a single chip in the iPhone but "for years [has] been demanding a percentage of the total cost of [Apple] products - effectively taxing Apple's innovation."