Following a surprise Mac Pro update today, Apple has now listed the repriced models on its online store. Essentially, this is just a pricing adjustment: the former $3,999 model is now the $2,999 base model, while the previously built-to-order 8-core model with dual D700 GPUs is now the high-end stock configuration.
The base model Mac Pro with a 3.5GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs, and 16GB of RAM is available to purchase now for $2,999 online and at select Apple Stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, and select other regions. Online orders ship in as little as one business day.
The higher-end model with a 3.0GHz 8-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs, and 16GB of RAM is listed as "currently unavailable" online, with no purchase button yet. Just moments ago, the model was listed as available in "30 business days," but Apple has removed that timeframe.
Today's reshuffling raises the entry-level Mac Pro to a 6-core processor with 16GB of RAM for $2,999, compared to the former base model with a quad-core processor and 12GB of RAM. Likewise, Apple used to sell a high-end 6-core Mac Pro for $3,999, but has today bumped that model to 8-cores for the same price.
There are no other hardware changes to either model, but upgrade pricing for built-to-order configurations is now cheaper. Upgrading from 6-core to 8-core or 12-core, for example, used to be $1500 or $3000 respectively, but it is now $800 or $2000 respectively. AMD FirePro graphics upgrades are likewise cheaper.
Apple also announced that it is working on a "completely rethought" version of the Mac Pro, as well as a pro display that works with the system, but Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller admitted that "you won't see any of those products this year."
Apple invited a small group of reporters to Cupertino on Monday for a roundtable discussion about the future of the Mac.
Apple revealed to them reshuffled Mac Pro configurations and pricing, but the bigger news was that it's working on a "completely rethought" Mac Pro that will feature a modular design. The all-new Mac Pro, which won't launch until at least next year, will be Apple's highest-end, highest-throughput system.
Apple also said that it's working on new iMac models that will be unveiled later this year, but it remained tight-lipped about what to expect. Meanwhile, Apple said the Mac mini remains an "important" product in its lineup, and one that it will continue to sell, but it did not reveal any plans for future updates.
It isn't often that Apple pre-announces new products in its pipeline, but there were growing concerns that Apple no longer cared about professional users, and this is Apple's way of proving otherwise. Apple stressed that it remains committed to the Mac and pro users throughout its entire media briefing.
Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller apologized about the "pause in upgrades and updates" to the Mac Pro, and promised that Apple will have "something great" to replace it, according to TechCrunch. The Mac Pro went 1,202 days without any update prior to today, per the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.
"If we've had a pause in upgrades and updates, we're sorry for that — what happened with the Mac Pro — and we're going to come out with something great to replace it."
Schiller also apologized about the current Mac Pro's lack of upgradability and expandability, per Daring Fireball:
We're not going to get into exactly what stage we’re in, just that we told the team to take the time to do something really great. To do something that can be supported for a long time with customers with updates and upgrades throughout the years. We’ll take the time it takes to do that. The current Mac Pro, as we’ve said a few times, was constrained thermally and it restricted our ability to upgrade it. And for that, we’re sorry to disappoint customers who wanted that, and we’ve asked the team to go and re-architect and design something great for the future that those Mac Pro customers who want more expandability, more upgradability in the future. It’ll meet more of those needs.
Schiller said Apple chose to be more transparent with today's news because it "cares deeply" about pro users that "invest so much" in the Mac:
“We’ll talk about what’s going on and frankly be a little more transparent with some of the things we’re doing, some of the places we’re going, because our pro users desire that and we care deeply about them and we’re dedicated to communicating well with them and helping them understand what we’re doing and what we’re up to. We want to be as transparent as we can, for our pro users, and help them as they make their buying decisions. They invest so much in the Mac, we want to support them, and we care deeply about them. So that’s why we’re here.”
The overall tone was that Apple is committed to the Mac, even if the iPhone accounts for some two-thirds of Apple's revenue.
We’re committed to the Mac, we’ve got great talent on the Mac, both hardware and software, we’ve got great products planned for the future, and as far as our horizon line can see, the Mac is a core component of the things Apple delivers, including to our pro customers.
In the end, the comparatively small but vocal community of pro users was loud enough that Apple likely felt it needed to respond now, rather than keep its plans for new products under wraps until later. It's exciting news for Apple's pro customers, even if some patience is still required until Apple's roadmap materializes.
Microsoft recently debuted a new iOS app called "Sprinkles - Camera with Fun Ideas" [Direct Link], which launches alongside the recent explosion of camera-centric application updates that offer various filters, emojis, lenses, and captions for users to mess around with. The app officially launched on April 1, suggesting the company intended it as an April Fools' prank, but it's only recently begun to be noticed online, and as of writing remains on the App Store's "New apps we love" section.
Sprinkles has a slight advantage above its competitors from Facebook and Snapchat thanks to Microsoft's AI and machine learning abilities, which can "do things like detect faces, determine the photo subject’s age and emotion, figure out your celebrity look-a-like, suggest captions, and more" (via TechCrunch). The app can tell when a subject is frowning, for example, and automatically input a relevant caption, like "turn that frown upside down."
Similar to Snapchat, Sprinkles will include filters and emojis related to the day of the week or the time of day that will surface on their own each time the user opens the app. Sprinkles acts in a similar vein to Apple's recently announced app "Clips," in that it isn't a social network itself, but allows users to create images and videos and share them elsewhere on Facebook, Twitter, text, or email.
Sprinkles is a camera with fun ideas. Snap a pic and automatically get new ideas for witty captions or add your own quip. Captions are unique to what's in the picture, so try different things such as coffee, food, pets, and selfies! Have fun with face-detecting Smart Stickers that fit your face perfectly. Choose from hundreds of Emojis and stickers and find even more with a quick web search. New captions and Smart Stickers are added frequently, because fresh fun is the best fun.
Microsoft is known to create apps specifically tailored for iOS devices, last year having launched "Microsoft Pix" on the App Store as a way for users to automatically adjust their photos using smart AI. In November, the company even debuted its classic Solitaire game for PCs as a standalone iOS and Android app that included Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and Tripeaks.
In the midst of a flood of reveals and announcements surrounding the Mac Pro and iMac, Apple today gave a hint as to what the upcoming Mac Pro will be able to accomplish for high-end, professional users. Although little information was given about the revamped Mac Pro, Phil Schiller described it as the "highest-end" desktop system the company has created yet, and that it will be "designed for our demanding pro customers."
TechCrunch asked Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, what the boost in the "pro" aspect of the Mac Pro will mean for the company's power users. In response, Federighi mentioned software capabilities in the virtual reality space, as well as tasks centered on high-end cinema production.
I ask who, exactly, the pro customers are that needed the more powerful GPU in a Mac Pro most.
“There’s certain scientific loads that are very GPU intensive and they want to throw the largest GPU at it that they can,” says Federighi. “There are heavy 3D graphics [applications] or graphics and compute mixed loads. Those can be in VR, those can be in certain kinds of high end cinema production tasks where most of the software out there that’s been written to target those doesn’t know how to balance itself well across multiple GPUs but can scale across a single large GPU.”
Virtual reality is a noticeable shortcoming of Apple's current Mac Pro line, as well as its iMac desktop computers. Although Federighi doesn't go into any more detail about how VR support might function on the Apple ecosystem -- including which headsets will be supported, and what software will take advantage of VR -- it's an interesting tidbit of information regarding the upcoming Mac Pro line launching sometime after this year.
In regards to virtual reality and augmented reality, in recent reports Apple has been more closely aligned with development on the latter technology, which doesn't require a cumbersome headset and can be used with technology already on modern smartphones, as it was in Pokémon Go. Still, specific hardware has been rumored to be in the pipeline by Apple, most recently including an Apple-branded pair of AR glasses that would connect to iPhones and "show images and other information in the wearer's field of vision," but they're predicted to be far from launch.
Rumors currently suggest that Apple's AR glasses could launch in 2018, but any news regarding an Apple-branded VR headset have been quiet for over a year. As such, it's likely that the upcoming Mac Pro will support third-party VR headsets from companies already in the market.
Apple today introduced reshuffled Mac Pro configurations and pricing, and revealed that it's working on a "completely rethought" Mac Pro alongside an Apple-branded pro display that will launch beyond 2017. However, Apple remained tight lipped about the Mac mini, beyond noting that it's an "important" product in its lineup.
"On that I'll say the Mac Mini is an important product in our lineup and we weren't bringing it up because it's more of a mix of consumer with some pro use. … The Mac Mini remains a product in our lineup, but nothing more to say about it today."
Apple last updated the Mac mini in October 2014, a span of over 900 days, according to the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.
The current Mac mini models, which are designed to be connected to a display and peripherals purchased separately, range in price from $499 to $999. The base model is equipped with a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000.
Apple and other technology companies in Silicon Valley will now find it more difficult to bring foreign workers into the U.S. through the H-1B work visa program, thanks to the Trump administration's follow-through of one immigration-related "America first" promise. In January, the administration drafted an executive order outlining an overhaul of various work visa programs, including H-1B, that tech companies use to hire integral employees from outside the U.S.
The original draft proposal stated that tech companies relying on foreign hiring did not serve "the U.S. national interest," and now the Trump administration has rolled out a collection of policy shifts to begin pivoting the program to better serve American workers (via Bloomberg). The changes began last Friday when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency "made it harder" for tech companies to bring foreign workers to the U.S. using the H-1B work visa.
This week, both the USCIS and the Justice Department issued memos outlining a rallying of support for the new administration's focus on American workers who have the same skills as foreign workers. Allegations against the H-1B work visa program point towards tech companies abusing the cheaper cost of foreign workers as a money saving measure, which the USCIS has repeatedly referred to as "fraud and abuse" in its new memo.
The Justice Department has warned employers "not to discriminate against U.S. workers," and is readying investigative plans that will "vigorously prosecute" any company who is reported to violate the new rules.
The Justice Department cautioned employers petitioning for H-1B visas not to discriminate against U.S. workers. The warning came as the federal government began accepting employers’ H-1B visa petitions for the next fiscal year. The H-1B visa program allows companies in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations such as science and information technology.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate employers misusing the H-1B visa process to discriminate against U.S. workers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Civil Rights Division. “U.S. workers should not be placed in a disfavored status, and the department is wholeheartedly committed to investigating and vigorously prosecuting these claims.”
While the new guidelines will make it tougher for tech companies to hire foreign workers, they don't make it impossible. In the USCIS policy memorandum released last week, it's detailed that companies will have to provide more evidence to prove that the computer programming position in question is "complex, specialized, or unique" in some way that justifies the position being filled by a foreign worker whose skills could not be found in the U.S.
Associate professor Ron Hira, who has researched the H-1B work visa program, previously pointed out that the changes will directly affect companies hiring for cheap labor, while companies hiring for legally skilled workers will have less of an issue with the policy shift. "This is a step in the right direction in terms of tightening up the eligibility," said Hira. "You’re going to have to beef up your argument for why you need this person."
In an interview with Bloomberg, Carnegie Mellon University professor Vivek Wadhwa said that while the H-1B visa is "flawed," the solution to the program's problem -- namely declining salaries -- lies in the green card.
"The H-1B visa is a flawed visa, but the problem is the next step - the green card. Because what happens is that when people have applied for permanent resident visas, they're now stuck in this H-1B visa loop. The easiest fix to the immigration problem, this issue about declining salaries, is to untether the visa from the [hiring] company. In other words, if a company hires someone on a H-1B visa, and [the employee] gets someone offering them a higher salary, then they can leave and continue over there. This way there's no cheaper labor anymore."
For Apple, the company has cited concern for the specific ways that Trump's order "will affect many visa holders who work hard here in the United States and contribute to our country's success." In a letter penned by Apple and a collection of various tech companies back in February, the group said that it is "critical" that the U.S. continues to attract intelligent workers from around the world, while telling the Trump administration that they are available as a resource "to help achieve immigration policies that both support the work of American businesses and reflect American values."
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Apple today reshuffled its Mac Pro configurations and pricing, marking the first "update" to Apple's pro-oriented desktop computer in over three years. Apple also confirmed it is working on a "completely rethought" Mac Pro with Apple-branded pro displays that will launch at some point beyond this year.
The former $3,999 model is now the $2,999 base model, while the previously built-to-order 8-core model with dual D700 GPUs is now the high-end stock configuration for $3,999. Both models are equipped with 256GB PCIe-based flash storage, four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports.
The former quad-core model with dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs and 12GB of RAM now has 6-cores with dual D500 GPUs and 16GB of RAM, while the 6-Core model with dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs is now 8-cores with dual D700 GPUs and 16GB of RAM. There are no other hardware changes—not even Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Meanwhile, Apple said an all-new Mac Pro will be a high-end, high-throughput modular system that will "take longer than this year" to complete. It will be accompanied by an Apple-branded external display in at least one size, essentially marking the return of the discontinued Thunderbolt Display.
With regards to the Mac Pro, we are in the process of what we call "completely rethinking the Mac Pro." We’re working on it. We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so that we can keep it fresh with regular improvements, and we’re committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers.
As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.
In the interim, we know there are a number of customers who continue to buy our [current Mac Pros]. To be clear, our current Mac Pro has met the needs of some of our customers, and we know clearly not all of our customers. None of this is black and white, it’s a wide variety of customers. Some… it’s the kind of system they wanted; others, it was not.
In the meantime, we’re going to update the configs to make it faster and better for their dollar. This is not a new model, not a new design, we’re just going to update the configs. We’re doing that this week. We can give you the specifics on that.
The CPUs, we’re moving them down the line. The GPUs, down the line, to get more performance per dollar for customers who DO need to continue to buy them on the interim until we get to a newly architected system.
Apple said that Mac desktops represent roughly 20 percent of overall Mac sales, with the Mac Pro accounting for only a "single-digit" percentage of Mac sales, perhaps as justification for the elongated refresh cycle. 1,202 days had passed since the last Mac Pro update, per the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.
Apple also suggested that the "trash can" design of the current Mac Pro has restricted its ability to truly upgrade it.
Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi via TechCrunch:
I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner, if you will. We designed a system that we thought with the kind of GPUs that at the time we thought we needed, and that we thought we could well serve with a two GPU architecture… that that was the thermal limit we needed, or the thermal capacity we needed. But workloads didn’t materialize to fit that as broadly as we hoped.
Being able to put larger single GPUs required a different system architecture and more thermal capacity than that system was designed to accommodate. And so it became fairly difficult to adjust. At the same time, so many of our customers were moving to iMac that we saw a path to address many, many more of those that were finding themselves limited by Mac Pro through a next generation iMac.. And really put a lot of our energy behind that. [But,] while that [upgraded iMac] system is going to be fantastic for a huge number of customers — we want to do more.
It isn't often that Apple pre-announces new products in its pipeline, but there were growing concerns that Apple no longer cared about professional users, and this is the company's way of proving otherwise. Schiller reiterated that Apple is committed to the Mac and has "great products" planned for the future.
We’re committed to the Mac, we’ve got great talent on the Mac, both hardware and software, we’ve got great products planned for the future, and as far as our horizon line can see, the Mac is a core component of the things Apple delivers, including to our pro customers.
Apple's repriced Mac Pro configurations are now listed on its online store, but the 8-core model is "currently unavailable."
Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller and software engineering chief Craig Federighi have confirmed that Apple is working on new iMac models that the company expects to launch later "this year," as reported by TechCrunch.
Apple did not share specific details about what to expect from the refresh, but Thunderbolt 3 ports and faster processors are likely at the very least. At least one model will reportedly have the option for a new and likely faster AMD graphics chip, but few other iMac rumors have surfaced to date.
Federighi thinks the new iMac models will address "even more of the pro market," as noted by Daring Fireball:
That is a pretty incredible evolution that we’ve seen over the last decade. The original iMac, you never would’ve thought as remotely touching pro uses. And now you look at today’s 5K iMac, top configs, it’s incredibly powerful, and a huge fraction of what would’ve traditionally — whether it’s audio editing, video editing, graphics, arts and so forth — that would’ve previously absolutely required the Mac Pros of old, are being well-addressed by iMac. But there’s still even further we can take iMac as a high performance, pro system, and we think that form factor can address even more of the pro market.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said he expected new iMac models to launch in the mid first half of this year, but that timeline appears to be inaccurate as we move further into April.
Mobile chat platform WhatsApp could be set to roll out peer-to-peer payments in India, which is home to its largest market with over 200 million users (via TechCrunch).
According to India-based media company The Ken, WhatsApp plans to use a cross-bank payment system called UPI, which is backed by the government, to enable payments between users within the next six months.
WhatsApp has neither confirmed nor denied the claim, but there are precedents for the messaging service to move into mobile payments. During a visit to the country in February, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton met with India's IT minister and said the company was "in the early stages" of exploring how it might incorporate payment systems into the platform.
Last week, Swedish-based phone number lookup service Trucaller introduced user-to-user payments in India via a tie-in with ICICI Bank, which makes use of the same UPI system WhatsApp is said to be integrating.
Facebook has had a payments system in its Messenger app for some time in the U.S., but WhatsApp is far more popular in India and is already being used there as an e-commerce portal despite not yet offering any features that explicitly support the practice.
Samsung launched Samsung Pay in India for select Samsung Galaxy series devices last month, after it partnered up with Axis, HDFC, ICIC, SBI and Standard Chartered banks, and embraced the UPI standard. Apple spoke with the Indian government about introducing Apple Pay back in 2015, while talks with several banks in the country about incorporating the system are said to be ongoing.
United States President Donald Trump today signed into law a bill that reverses Obama-era broadband privacy rules preventing Internet Service Providers from selling a subscriber's web browsing history and other personal information without permission.
The now-reversed law would have limited what ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T could do with sensitive customer data like location, browsing history, and other personal information like Social Security numbers. Under the law, which would have been enacted at the end of 2017, ISPs were also required to strengthen protections against hackers and security breaches.
Going forward, Internet Service Providers will not need to get permission from customers to sell customer data like web browsing history, but following customer outcry and confusion over the repeal of the law, many ISPs have said customer data won't be sold.
Comcast, for example, says it has "no plans" to sell individual web browsing history, while Verizon says it "does not sell the personal web browsing history" of its customers.
Internet providers argued that the rules were confusing to customers and discriminatory and unfair because they didn't apply to tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook.
Privacy advocates like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed the rollback of the law and have argued that privacy protections are desperately needed to keep consumers safe.
For end users, the repeal of the law effectively maintains the status quo because it was not enacted before being shuttered, but it's worth noting that the resolution contains language preventing the FCC from enabling similar privacy rules in the future.
The repeal is the first step the Trump administration plans to take towards deregulating broadband internet service providers. According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, President Trump has "pledged to reverse" net neutrality rules passed in 2015.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Apple today updated its investor relations page to announce that it will share its earnings for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2017 on Tuesday, May 2.
The earnings release will provide a look at sales of the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus following Apple's record earnings results during the first quarter of 2017. It will also provide some insight into sales of the new MacBook Pro, which came out in October.
Apple's guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2017 includes expected revenue of $51.5 to $53.5 billion and gross margin between 38 and 39 percent.
The quarterly earnings statement will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, with a conference call to discuss the report taking place at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings release and conference call on May 2.
Apple today began sending out emails to customers who purchased popular automation app Workflow in the last few weeks, letting them know that they'll be receiving a refund for the purchase price of the app.
Apple is handing out refunds because following its recent acquisition of the Workflow app and team, it made the Workflow app free to download and removed some key functionality.
A MacRumors reader shared his refund email with us, and we've also seen several reports of Workflow refunds from Twitter.
Dear iTunes Customer, Thank you for purchasing Workflow by DeskConnect, Inc. Workflow is now available for free in the App Store. Since you recently purchased this app, we have issued you a full refund in the amount of $3.23. These funds will be applied to your original payment method and may take up to five business days from the issue date to post to your account.
Regards,
iTunes Support Team http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/
For those unfamiliar with Workflow, which is now owned by Apple, it's an automation tool that allows users to create a variety of workflows to automate tasks like creating GIFs from a series of photos, translating an article, posting photos to multiple social networks at once, calculating a tip, and tons more.
Following Apple's acquisition of Workflow, there was an update to remove certain features, including workflow functionality that involved Google Chrome, Pocket, LINE, Telegram, and Uber, likely for legal reasons.
Apple plans to keep Workflow available in the App Store, and it is now a free download. [Direct Link]
Longtime industrial designer Christopher Stringer, who has been with Apple for 21 years, is leaving the company, reports The Information.
Stringer, who is part of Jony Ive's industrial design team and had a hand in designing the iPhone, notably testified in the ongoing Samsung v. Apple legal battle back in 2012. As he's been working alongside Ive for many years, Stringer has had a hand in designing everything from the iPhone and iPad to the Mac over the last 20 years.
Ive's industrial design team is notoriously private, so little else is known about Stringer, or where he might be going after Apple. His departure comes nearly two years after Jony Ive took on the role of Chief Design Officer and took a step back from the day-to-day management of the company's design team, a task that now falls to Richard Howarth.
Stringer is the second longtime Apple designer to have left Ive's team over the course of the last year. Daniel Coster, who was also on the team for more than 20 years, left in April of 2016 to join GoPro.
Despite the changes to the industrial design team, and some mid-2016 rumors suggesting Jony Ive might be on his way out, Apple's design chief is said to be as devoted and involved as ever.
Apple today debuted a new promotion for some of its older Beats products, dropping prices by as much as $50 depending on the item.
The Beats Solo2 On-Ear Headphones in the Luxe line of colors are available for $149.95, a $50 discount off of the regular $199.95 price. Beats Solo2 Headphones are the previous-generation model without wireless connectivity and Apple's new W1 chip. All Luxe colors are discounted, including Red, Silver, Blue, and Black, but other Solo2 models are not available for a lower price.
Along with the two sets of headphones, Apple is also discounting its Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker, dropping the price from $229.95 to $199.95. The Pill+ is available in Red, Black, and White.
Apple does not say how long the discounts on its Beats products will last, so customers hoping to get a deal on a speaker or a set of headphones should purchase right away. Discounts are also available in Apple's retail stores.
Just one week after releasing iOS 10.3, a major update that included Apple Filesystem and Find My AirPods, Apple has released iOS 10.3.1, which appears to be a minor update to address bugs and other issues that have popped up since the release of iOS 10.3.
iOS 10.3.1 is available as a free over-the-air update for all iOS 10 users, and it can also be downloaded via iTunes.
According to Apple's release notes, iOS 10.3.1 includes bug fixes and improves the security of your iPhone or iPad, and a security document suggests it fixes a Wi-Fi-related vulnerability. The release notes do not go into more detail about what bug fixes might be bundled into this release, so we'll update this post if and when we learn more about the content of the iOS 10.3.1 update.
Production on the 2017 iPhone is moving along, with Apple recently having placed orders for 70 million OLED panels, reports Nikkei. Samsung, as we already know, will be Apple's sole OLED supplier, and will provide Apple with the panels.
Demand for the 2017 iPhone, which is expected to feature a major design overhaul with an edge-to-edge display, glass body, and a premium price tag, is expected to be high as it typically is in a year when a new look is unveiled. Apple and Samsung are gearing up to meet demand with the large panel order.
Nikkei's info comes from a supply chain source and also matches with estimates provided by IHS Markit analyst David Hsieh.
"Apple has ordered 70 million units of OLED panels from Samsung this year, while Samsung is preparing to churn out as many as 95 million for Apple in 2017, in case demand exceeds expectations," Hsieh said.
There have already been rumors suggesting the OLED iPhone will be in short supply when it launches in September, with the majority of the stock unavailable until later in the year, and Hsieh also believes that could be the case. "It is also possible that some of these 70 million handsets will not be shipped to customers this year and be carried over to next year depending on demand," he said.
Nikkei's industry source, in addition to covering panel orders, also shared some details on the upcoming device that echoes many rumors we've heard in the past.
The site believes we will see a premium OLED iPhone with a 5.2-inch screen and no home button, which will be sold alongside standard 4.7 and 5.5-inch devices with LCD screens and home buttons. All three iPhones will include wireless charging functionality (lately said to be inductive) and waterproofing, while at least one model, presumably the OLED iPhone, will include a 3D sensor that supports facial recognition.
Other features rumored for the iPhone 8 not mentioned in Nikkei's report include camera improvements, a faster and more efficient A11 processor, Touch ID built into the display, True Tone ambient light adjustment, and perhaps augmented reality functionality enabled through the camera.
JEDEC, the organization that develops global standards for computer memory, has announced it will be previewing its next-generation DDR5 standard for RAM in June 2017. The standard is expected to be finalized by 2018, at which point chipmakers like Intel will be able to add support for the technology.
As noted by Ars Technica, DDR5 RAM will double the speed of current DDR4 RAM while offering greater power efficiency.
DDR5 memory will offer improved performance with greater power efficiency as compared to previous generation DRAM technologies. As planned, DDR5 will provide double the bandwidth and density over DDR4, along with delivering improved channel efficiency. These enhancements, combined with a more user-friendly interface for server and client platforms, will enable high performance and improved power management in a wide variety of applications.
It might be quite a while until DDR5 RAM goes mainstream, however, as the first computers with DDR4 RAM did not arrive until two years after that standard was finalized. Apple itself has yet to even adopt DDR4 RAM, with nearly every current Mac equipped with older LPDDR3 RAM, which maxes out at 16GB.
• MacBook: 8GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM • MacBook Air: 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM • MacBook Pro: 8/16GB of 1866/2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM • iMac: 8/16/32GB of 1867MHz LPDDR3 RAM • Mac mini: 4/8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM • Mac Pro: 12/16GB of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC RAM
Apple said the 2016 MacBook Pro does not support DDR4 RAM because of battery life considerations. DDR4 memory's low-power variant LPDDR4 is not supported by Intel's Skylake processors powering the latest MacBook Pro models, and using regular DDR4 RAM would have reduced space for batteries.
The MacBook Pro uses 16GB of very fast LPDDR memory, up to 2133MHz. To support 32GB of memory would require using DDR memory that is not low power and also require a different design of the logic board which might reduce space for batteries. Both factors would reduce battery life.
The often reliable Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said Apple will release a 15-inch MacBook with 32GB of desktop-class RAM later this year, but it is unclear which Intel processor the notebook would use.
Amazon today announced a new way for its users to add funds to their Amazon accounts, called Amazon Cash. By visiting a participating retailer, Amazon users will be able to show a barcode to a cashier, choose an amount between $15 and $500, and pay the amount in cash to see it transferred digitally and able to be spent on Amazon.com.
As TechCrunch reported, Amazon Cash is aimed at "cash customers" who don't shop online as consistently as everyone else, including people who are paid in cash, who don’t have a bank account or debit card, and who don’t use credit cards. The entire process doesn't require any sort of fee to be paid by the user.
This "cash customer" (the unbanked or "underbanked") accounts for around 27 percent of consumers, said a 2015 report from the FDIC.
While they may have money to spend online at times, there isn’t an easy way to do so. Until today, they would have to buy an Amazon Gift Card in a designated amount or add cash to prepaid payment cards, to be used at checkout.
More broadly, the service could appeal to anyone who just wants to deposit some cash in their Amazon.com account, without hassle.
These customers will be able to use the Amazon iOS and Android app to bring up their unique Amazon Cash barcode, which will be reused any time they want to add more money to their account. After telling the cashier how much they want added and scanning the barcode, the customer pays at the register with cash and the amount instantly appears in their Amazon account. Confirmation of the money's arrival will be sent to users via email, text, or push notification.
Amazon Cash will even let users print out their unique barcode at home and bring it into the store in lieu of using a smartphone. Those who have a smartphone with a cracked screen are also recommended to print out the barcode instead of using their phone.
Participating U.S. stores at launch include: CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Sheetz, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG’s Grocery, with more coming soon. The service is launching now across the U.S.
Mobile chat platform WhatsApp could be set to roll out peer-to-peer payments in India, which is home to its largest market with over 200 million users (via 
