Kwikset has announced that its Kevo smart lock's touch-to-open technology will only work on iOS 10 if the Kevo app is open and visible on an iPhone's screen, due to a bug related to Bluetooth LE peripheral mode.
Kwikset said it is working closely with Apple to support a solution that will restore the functionality as quickly as possible. iOS 10 will be publicly released later today, so the fix will likely be included in a subsequent software update.
In the meantime, Kwikset offers some temporary solutions for continuing to use Kevo's touch-to-open functionality:
- When at your door, open the Kevo app on your iOS phone or smart device, making sure you can see the app on your device screen and touch the Kevo smart lock on your door - When at your door, open the Kevo app on your iOS phone or smart device, making sure you can see the app on your device screen, and use the app to lock and unlock the door (In Home Locking and Unlocking) - If you have a Kevo key fob, the Touch-to-Open functionality of Kevo will still work
Kwikset said the iOS 10 bug does not affect the security of Kevo smart locks, while the sending, receiving, and revoking of eKeys is also not affected.
Update: Kwikset says iOS 10.0.2 addresses the bug. The update fully restores Touch-to-Open functionality.
Twelve South today announced the launch of a revamped HiRise, its popular stand for the iPhone and the iPad. The HiRise 2 features an all new design with with a smaller overall footprint but a heavier overall body, so it's better able to hold up larger devices like the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
Due to its small size, it's not recommended for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but it works with all other Lightning-based devices, including Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. It charges all kinds of Apple devices, like the Magic Mouse, the Apple Remote, and even the upcoming AirPods (through the included case).
Along with a new design, the HiRise 2 comes in two new colors, a matte black to match the new "Black" iPhone and a matte white shade.
The basic HiRise 2 is priced at $39.99 and is available in black or silver, and users must provide their own Lightning cables. The HiRise 2 Deluxe is available in black, silver, or white for $59.99 and ships with both an MFi-certified Lightning cable and a micro-USB cable so either iOS devices or devices that require a USB cable (including many iOS device battery cases) can be charged.
The HiRise 2 is available from the Twelve South website starting today.
Apple opened pre-orders for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, and T-Mobile has now revealed that the smartphones shattered all of the carrier's previous iPhone pre-order records. T-Mobile said pre-orders from Friday through Monday were up nearly 4x compared to the iPhone 6 series two years ago.
T-Mobile also announced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus set a single day sales record for any smartphones ever in the carrier's history, although it stopped short of sharing any specific numbers. iPhone 7 was already T-Mobile's top pre-registered smartphone ever, topping pre-registrations for both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available beginning September 16 at T-Mobile stores in the U.S. and on its website. Its prepaid brand MetroPCS customers will carry the smartphones beginning September 23. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models from AT&T and T-Mobile do not support CDMA networks such as Verizon and Sprint.
T-Mobile is offering a free 32GB iPhone 7 to new or existing customers who trade in their fully functional iPhone 6 or later sans water damage or a shattered screen. A two-year financing agreement is required.
In the midst of the publication of multiple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus reviews, one tidbit within The New York Times' mostly positive review of the 2016 iPhone briefly looked forward to the much-anticipated "mega cycle," ten-year anniversary model of next year's iPhone. According to the publication, who spoke with two anonymous Apple employees, "next year’s iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen."
While not new information, the comment does continue a rumor of a drastically redesigned iPhone in 2017 that will introduce an edge-to-edge OLED display and eliminate the top and bottom bezels, where the front-facing FaceTime camera and Touch ID Home Button are currently housed. The redesigned Home Button of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (which isn't an actual button, but packs in Apple's Taptic Engine to mimic a button press) will be completely gone in 2017, and fused with the OLED display, along with Touch ID functionality.
But taking the leap to the 7 may be a wise bet, even for late technology adopters. Apple is likely to continue making iPhones without headphone jacks, and next year’s iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen, according to two people at the company who spoke on condition of anonymity because the product details are private. Apple declined to comment on next year’s iPhones.
With an all-glass, edge-to-edge display, Apple design chief Jony Ive's vision of an iPhone that looks like a single sheet of glass could finally come true in 2017. Regarding the display, it's said to be flexible OLED rather than an LCD, allowing Apple to introduce a thinner device that consumes less power and offers a better display with higher contrast ratio and more true to life colors.
It may also feature edges that are curved on both sides, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. That curved model could potentially be placed as a 5.8-inch premium addition to the line, with the other 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch, lower-priced iPhone 8 tiers including flat LCD displays.
Coming up sooner, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be launching this Friday, September 16, to the first round of pre-order customers. While an iterative design, Apple has made a few notable changes to the iPhone line this year, including the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, a flush Home Button, improved water resistance, and major overhauls to the camera, especially with the dual-lens system on the iPhone 7 Plus.
Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for the U.S. cities of Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, enabling iPhone users in the areas to navigate using public transportation, including buses or light rail.
Transit routing options in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area include Port Authority of Allegheny County buses and light rail, while directions for Central Ohio Transit Authority buses are provided in the Columbus metropolitan area.
Apple introduced Transit in Maps as part of iOS 9 in select cities around the world, including Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. The feature has its own tab in Apple Maps on iOS 10 when entering directions.
The feature has since expanded to a number of regions around the world, including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Honolulu, Kansas City, Miami, Montréal, Portland, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, parts of New South Wales in Australia, and parts of British Columbia in Canada.
Although Apple revealed a lot of information about the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last week, the technical specifications of each device's mAh battery capacity and RAM were left undisclosed, as per usual with iPhone announcements. Now, new information from a technical certification obtained by Chinese site TENAA (via WCCFtech) appears to confirm previous rumors that placed the iPhone 7 Plus with 3GB of RAM and the iPhone 7 with a 1,960 mAh battery.
Specifically, the performance specifications list the iPhone 7 with 2GB of RAM and a 1,960 mAh battery, an improvement over the 1,715 mAh battery in the iPhone 6s. The rumors of an improvement in battery life emerged over the summer from OnLeaks' Steve Hemmerstoffer (who's known to share details and part leaks on devices before they launch), as well as an alleged iPhone 7 battery image leak that marked the new iPhone as having a capacity of 7.04 watt-hours, larger than the 6.61 watt-hour battery in the iPhone 6s.
The iPhone 7 (left) and iPhone 7 Plus (right)
The iPhone 7 Plus appears to be facing a similar uptick in battery, with the filing depicting the 5.5-inch iPhone as having 3GB of RAM and a 2,900 mAh battery, another slight but noticeable improvement over the 2,750 mAh battery in the iPhone 6s Plus. What might be more interesting to some is the inclusion of 3GB of RAM, which has been rumored as a potential upgrade in the larger-screen iPhone 7 Plus because of the increased resource demands of the dual-camera system. A seemingly legitimate Geekbench benchmark test gave more credence to the rumor last week.
The resolution of the display for each iPhone also falls in line with what was previously known, with 1134 x 750 (326 ppi) for the iPhone 7 and 1920 x 1080 (401 ppi) for the iPhone 7 Plus.
If accurate, today's filing also pinpoints an interesting return to the battery life of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which Apple lessened in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with lower-capacity batteries to potentially make room for 3D Touch's Taptic Engine. The iPhone 6 had a 1,810 mAh battery, while the iPhone 6 Plus has a battery capacity of 2,915 mAh.
As we near September 16 and the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, more information and opinions regarding the new smartphones will continue to come to light. This morning, embargoes lifted on reviews for Apple's new smartphones, with the consensus stating the models are "terrific," foundational blocks for future iterations, but if you skip this generation you won't be missing out on much.
The official launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is still three days away on September 16, but the first reviews of the new smartphones have started showing up online this morning. Some of the sites have been quietly testing out the new handsets for around a week, and general impressions have been positive, despite the lack of a radical design overhaul compared to last year's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
The Verge offered perhaps the most balanced perspective on the iPhone 7 series, which it called "terrific phones" but also "incomplete", given that the wider color gamut, and the real potential of the Taptic Engine and the iPhone 7 Plus's dual-lens camera – which rely on software updates – won't be realized at launch.
The Verge said non-adopters "won't actually be missing out on much" if they don't get an iPhone 7, which it described as a "transitional step to a vision of the future" and a "foundation" for how the next generation of iPhones will integrate into our lives.
The entire time I was using the iPhone 7, I felt like I had a prototype of next year’s rumored drastic iPhone redesign disguised as an iPhone 6. All those bold bets on the future are legitimately exciting, but here in the present using the iPhone 7 in a case feels a lot like using a iPhone 6S with a weirder home button and more adapters.
Meanwhile, Mashable offered a more enthusiastic line of thinking for early adopters, calling both devices "worthwhile upgrades" that "inch us ever-closer to the completely sealed, moving-parts-free ideal of a smartphone slab". The review notes that both phones are "fast" and the stereo speakers "really shine" when it comes to gaming, while battery life was impressive, with the larger handset closing in on two days with moderate use.
It also put the phones through some underwater ordeals, the result of which was "pretty awesome" and offered peace of mind for those prone to dropping their phones in the toilet, but it didn't recommend going for a swim with the devices.
I had a good time placing the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus under running water and dropping them into water-filled containers and sinks. Not only did they hold up, but both phones continued to function in the drink.
Each time I tried this, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were unharmed. I fished them out of the water and dried them with a cloth and then continue using them. One thing you cannot do right after submerging your phone, though, is charge it. Apple recommends letting the Lightning port dry out for five hours before attempting to charge either device again.
TechCrunch got hold of a glossy black iPhone 7 and remarked that it definitely showed scratches and abrasions after a weeks' use. It also mentioned that the home button's Taptic Engine feedback makes it feel as if the whole bottom half of the phone is clicking, yet it called the implementation a "flawless transition" from the physical home button that prepares users for when the button disappears entirely. It said Apple's new flagship devices are "fast, capable, and functional" and "probably the best portable cameras ever made".
This is quite simply the most sophisticated camera and image processor pairing ever seen in a smartphone or any camera period. There have been a couple of other applications of dual camera setups in phones, but the execution is crude by comparison.
The optical zoom works great, and the 56mm lens naturally adds that nice compression of facial features and slight blurring of background that a standard lens gives, especially up close.
It won't be long before Apple customers begin to receive the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus handsets themselves, as the September 16 launch date approaches. Images have emerged online of iPhone 7 shipment batches ready to leave factories in Zhengzhou, China, while some customers have already received shipping confirmation.
Amazon appears to be readying a cheaper version of its popular Echo Dot speaker, if a tweet that showed up briefly on the company's Twitter account this morning is anything to go by.
The voice-controlled smart speaker that houses Amazon's personal assistant Alexa was announced back in March, costing $89.99, and is a smaller, palm-sized expansion to the company's flagship Echo product that lets users expand the capabilities of the latter device to different rooms of their house.
Now it seems Amazon is almost set to offer a cheaper "all-new" version of the Dot at $49.99. The tweet, which was quickly deleted from the company's Twitter account but picked up by some users, linked to Amazon's existing page for the Echo Dot, which is currently sold out.
Recode queried the deleted tweet with Amazon spokespeople but they declined to comment, suggesting the pre-emptive tweet was a genuine accident.
It's not the first social media announcement blunder we've seen this month. Last week, during Apple's "See You on the 7th" event in San Francisco, Apple's re-animated Twitter account began posting video clips of the new iPhone 7 complete with pre-order links before the phone had even been mentioned on stage. Amazon was also guilty of briefly taking its iPhone 7 accessories landing page live before the event had started.
When Apple announced its wireless AirPods last week to compensate for the lack of a headphone jack on the iPhone 7, some observers commented on the "inevitability" of misplacing or flat-out losing one of the earbuds, which cost $159 a pair.
California-based accessory company Spigen thinks it has a solution to that dilemma in the form of the AirPods Strap (patent pending), currently available for pre-order on Amazon for $10.
The "tangle-free" cord attachment snaps onto the bottom of the arm of each earbud without impeding the microphones, and Spigen promises they "keep your AirPods in place around your neck, in your pocket, or anywhere you can hang a strap".
While there's reason to question the logic of attaching a cable to a technology whose sole aim is to be cable-free, the accessory would seem to answer to the worry some undoubtedly have about keeping the AirPods safely together, although Apple's earbuds do come with a carry case for when they're not in use.
The AirPods Strap is listed as having a release date of October 17, which is around the time Apple is expected to make the AirPods available to buy.
Apple's wireless headphones offer users 5 hours of music playback, and the carry case doubles as a battery pack, holding an extra 24 hours of charge in a small, 2-inch tall frame. The AirPods feature Apple's new proprietary W1 chip, allowing them to pair seamlessly with the host device, activate Siri with a touch, and automatically pause playback on removal.
Ahead of the public launch of iOS 10 coming tomorrow, Apple today made the Messages App Store live, aggregating all of the apps, games, and sticker packs that can be used in the Messages app and making them available for download.
The Messages App Store looks almost identical to the iOS App Store, so the interface will be immediately familiar to iOS 10 users. There are featured apps and stickers displayed at the top of the store, along with editorial picks like "10 iMessage Apps We Love" and "Games in Messages? Sweet!"
Apps for the Messages App Store are already available, including titles like Games With Friends, Tic Tac Toe, Star Walk, Carrot Weather, Yelp, IMDB, OpenTable, Zen Brush 2, and more.
A number of sticker packs are also available from well-known app developers, including Pac-Man, Star Wars, Angry Birds, Hello Kitty, Crossy Road, and more. iOS 10 sticker packs and apps started rolling out earlier today.
On devices running iOS 10, the Messages App Store and apps compatible with iOS 10 are immediately available. The Messages App Store is accessible by following these steps:
- Open the Messages app - Tap the App Store icon to open the app interface - Tap the icon at the bottom that looks like four circles - Tap the "+" button to open the Messages App Store
The Messages App Store is a little bit sparse right now because apps are still being released, but when iOS 10 becomes available tomorrow, there will be dozens if not hundreds of apps and sticker packs ready to download.
iOS 10 is expected to debut at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, September 13.
Nintendo today released its promised Super Mario Run sticker pack designed for the Messages App Store, offering Nintendo fans a selection of high-quality Super Mario stickers to share.
The Super Mario Run sticker pack can be downloaded on an iOS device, but it is not listed in the dedicated Messages App Store nor can it be installed on a device running an iOS 10 beta or the iOS 10 golden master.
When iOS 10 becomes available to the public tomorrow morning, the Super Mario Run sticker pack, along with other sticker packs, will be accessible. We expect to see iOS 10 released right around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 13.
Unveiled at Apple's September 9 event, Super Mario Run is an upcoming Mario-themed endless runner. In the game, Mario runs forward continuously while players jump to collect coins and avoid enemies, and there's also a "Toad Rally" battle mode for competing against other players.
Apple is promoting Super Mario Run heavily, including offering a new "Notify" system in the App Store that will let players know when it's released. According to the Super Mario Run Stickers app, Super Mario Run will see an official launch in December of 2016.
All @names, such as @MacRumors, will no longer count towards the 140-character count, nor will media attachments, retweets, or quoted tweets, but links will still eat up 23 characters.
Twitter declined to comment publicly on The Verge's leaked release date, nor is a source for the launch date given, but the change has been in the works for months. Twitter announced the news early to give its developer partners time to make any needed updates to products using the Twitter API.
Twitter has used a 140-character restriction for each tweet since it launched in 2006. Reports earlier this year suggested the microblogging site was considering eliminating the 140-character limit altogether, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later said the limit will remain in place. Still, Twitter has been exploring ways to allow people to better express themselves and has said it has additional plans to make existing uses easier and enable new ones.
Boston law firm Block & Leviton today announced it has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of iPhone Upgrade customers who are dissatisfied with how Apple handled iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus pre-orders last Friday.
When customers who participate in the iPhone Upgrade Program went to pre-order an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, they were forced to reserve a device from a local Apple retail store rather than being able to make a traditional online purchase. Many retail stores did not have sufficient stock to meet demand, leaving some customers unable to select the model, color, or storage capacity they desired.
Many iPhone Upgrade Program members were unhappy with the ordering process and an inability to reserve a desired iPhone for launch day. Apple has responded to customer frustration and has been collecting customer information to attempt to get customers their iPhones as soon as possible. Apple's efforts have not, however, prevented today's lawsuit, which claims iPhone Upgrade Program users will face future upgrade delays due to the situation.
But, the lawsuit alleges, iPhone Upgrade Program customers, unlike every other customer, were shut out from reserving the most in-demand phone models and colors.
These customers are unable to "get in line" to reserve their favored devices. Instead, they are told to simply "check back." In the meantime, they will continue to be required to make monthly payments on their older iPhones, and their eligibility for future iPhones will be delayed, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit asks Apple to reimburse iPhone Upgrade members who are forced to make extra payments while waiting for a new iPhone, make upgrade members eligible for a 2017 iPhone in September regardless of upgrade delays, and seeks to require Apple to make all of its iPhone inventory available to upgrade members.
Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program, arguably designed for the company's staunchest fans, allows customers to upgrade to a new iPhone each year. Customers can upgrade after as little as six months, so long as they have made 12 iPhone payments and trade in the iPhone in question when upgrading.
At last Wednesday's media event, Apple introduced two new processors - the A10 Fusion for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and the S2 for Apple Watch Series 2. Although Apple only briefly covered the S2 during the presentation, it did spend a good deal of time talking about A10 Fusion. The 'Fusion' suffix refers to the heterogeneous architecture that the A10 features, which has two high-power, high-throughput cores and two much smaller cores that are more power efficient.
Apple also introduced another very important piece of standalone silicon in its new AirPods, dubbed the W1 chip. In total, this represents a great deal of engineering work done by Apple over the last year, and the A10 is the most significant to Apple's system-on-a-chip (SoC) line since the company's transition to 64-bit.
Apple unveiled the biggest technical changes featured in the A10 at the very beginning, boasting a four-core CPU with 3.3 billion transistors. While Apple never disclosed a transistor count for the A9, it very likely fell somewhere in the middle between the 2 billion count on the A8 and the 3.3 billion of the new A10. A transistor count well under 3 billion seems probable for the A9; otherwise it would have been worth boasting about on its own.
The 3.3 billion number for the A10 is well over 50 percent larger than the A8, and the large jump is likely mostly thanks to the addition of two new, albeit small, CPU cores along with a greatly enhanced image signal processor (ISP). Apple also disclosed that the GPU remains a six-cluster design, while benchmarks suggest that the L1 and L2 cache sizes remain unchanged.
Ahead of the official launch of iOS 10 tomorrow, apps designed for the new operating system update have started hitting the iOS App Store, including those that will be available in the Messages App Store.
Rock-Paper-Scissors [Direct Link], for example, a Messages app that allows two people to play a classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors right in Messages, is now in the App Store. It is not, however, showing up in the dedicated Messages App Store, which will presumably launch tomorrow. Other apps for Messages, like Snappy Browser, are also starting to become available.
The Messages App Store is an app storefront located within the Messages app, accessible on a device running iOS 10 by tapping the app icon, opening the app drawer (tap the icon that looks like four circles) and then choosing the "+" store icon.
Using the Messages App Store, iOS 10 users will be able to install a huge variety of sticker packs and apps to enhance the chat experience in Messages. Stickers are used a lot like emoji but can be animated and stuck on top of chat bubbles, photos, and more, while apps can do things like offer weather updates, a Safari browser for looking things up without using Messages, provide collaborative food ordering tools, and more.
iOS 10 offers a huge number of new features for developers, and in addition to Messages apps, we'll also be seeing apps that can take advantage of the new features in Maps and apps that offer third-party Siri support. Expect to see significant app updates coming out throughout the week, leading with tons of app releases tomorrow.
Google today announced the launch of Cardboard Camera for iOS, which lets users "capture 3D 360-degree virtual reality photos" without the need for technical VR equipment. Photos taken with the app are three-dimensional panoramas in which users can tap and drag to look around "in all directions," with sound recording the moment the photo is taken that plays back each time the image is revisited.
A few examples of Cardboard Camera's interactive panoramas
Cardboard Camera uses a similar photography style as panoramas in the iOS camera app: users simply hold their iPhone vertically, tap the record button, then rotate slowly in place to capture their surroundings. Users will also be able to share albums filled with VR photos directly within the app by generating links to email, text message, or share on social media.
Whether you’re hiking on the Olympic Peninsula or attending your cousin’s wedding, go beyond the flat photo or selfie. With Cardboard Camera—now available on iOS as well as Android—you can capture 3D 360-degree virtual reality photos. Just like Google Cardboard, it works with the phone you already have with you.
The company said that if any of the VR photos taken with Cardboard Camera are viewed on Google Cardboard, anyone "can relive those moments as if they were there." Previously, Cardboard Camera was available on Android, with more than 5 million photos captured on the platform.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom today announced that the company is "taking the next step" to protect its users from online abuse with the wide launch of a new comment moderation feature in the photography-focused social network app. Referred to as a "keyword moderation tool," the feature will let each user type in words they find to be offensive, effectively hiding any mention of them in the comment section of their posts.
The comments containing the harsh language will still be available for other Instagram users, but the company believes that allowing each user to determine which words to hide from their personal collection of photos will cultivate a "positive and safe" environment. To deal with abusive accounts, Instagram already lets users swipe to delete comments, report inappropriate comments and block accounts.
Systrom refers to the keyword blocking update as the "first feature" for dealing with online abusers, suggesting Instagram is continuing to keep an eye on the issue and add more protective updates to its mobile app in the future. Once the app is updated, gain access to the comment moderation setting by following the steps below:
Go to your Profile tab.
Tap the Settings gear icon in the top right corner.
Find and tap "Comments."
Toggle "Hide Inappropriate Comments" to automatically hide keywords that are "often reported as inappropriate."
Or, add your own custom keywords in the text box, separating each with a comma.
Tap "Done" to save your changes.
After previously allowing high-profile users, like businesses and various brands, to have access to the new feature, Instagram said that today marks its wide rollout to every user. Those who have yet to download the app can find Instagram for free on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]
Specifically, some customers enrolled in the program were unable to select the model, carrier, color, or storage capacity they desired, or any iPhone in some cases, due to limited stock seemingly as soon as pre-orders began.
The underlying reason appears to be that iPhone Upgrade Program members were placed into a separate stream than regular pre-order customers, and forced to reserve a new iPhone from a local Apple retail store -- many of which were sold out. Some customers were not even able to access the reservation system at all.
Since then, it appears that Apple has acknowledged those concerns and is attempting to help make the situation right for those affected.
Over the weekend, Apple updated its upgrade reservation page with fine print that recommends customers call its support team at 1-800-MY-APPLE and mention the iPhone Upgrade Program. By doing so, the company said a Specialist will help customers find the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus model they want.
Due to high demand, the model you’d like may not be available. Please call 1-800-MY-APPLE and mention the iPhone Upgrade Program. A Specialist will help you find the model you want.
A number of MacRumors readers that followed through with calls said Apple was very apologetic and is manually collecting information while it works on a solution. Each customer was told they would receive a phone call back within 24-48 hours, but it isn't entirely clear what action Apple plans to take.
The guy I talked to apologized profusely for Apple dropping the ball on this, took all my info regarding what model I wanted, and while he didn't promise anything, said they are working on a solution for it. He said they will call me within two business days with more information and sent me his direct contact info should I have questions. The whole call took about 30 minutes.
Some customers were given the impression that Apple will be prioritizing orders for iPhone Upgrade Program customers, possibly with some in-store stock reserved specifically for upgraders on launch day and possibly afterwards.
They've said that they are looking to prioritize iPhone Upgrade Program upgrades over the next couple of weeks so that we can get our phones. I highly suggest anyone who had the same issues I had to call and ask to speak to someone in the iPhone Upgrade Program department.
They transfer you to a special group who will take down all your info and what iPhone you want. They say they will then be in touch in 48 hours letting you know when your iPhone can be picked up. They told me they were very sorry that iPhone Upgrade Program users had issues and that they weren't prepared and are trying to make it right. They said their goal is to have iPhones ready for pickup on launch day for Upgrade Program users who call in.
Whether those enrolled in the iPhone Upgrade Program receive their new iPhones on launch day remains to be seen, but it is clear that Apple is doing what it can to improve the situation. In the meantime, customers can try their luck at Apple retail stores on September 16 on a first come, first served basis.
Twitter's planned update that will make additional characters available for tweets is coming on September 19, reports 
