MacRumors

A new wearable tech device revealed this week, called the "Tap," aims to simplify typing methods on devices lacking traditional keyboards (via Bloomberg). Made out of a soft foam material, Tap slips onto each finger of your hand and can translate 31 different taps into letters and numbers that are then transmitted to a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or tablet.

All Tap needs is any flat surface -- "a table, a chair, or even your body" -- and for users to overcome a slight learning curve. Each finger on Tap is designated with a vowel, so the rest of the alphabet, and the usual array of special characters and punctuation, can be input using a combination of various finger taps.

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That might sound slightly complex, but its creators at Tap Systems, Inc say that it takes about one hour to master Tap thanks to the company's TapGenius App. The app is described as a mnemonic-based learning tutorial that combines an educational system for users to wrap their heads around Tap's new input style, with a gaming-style experience.

While Tap's current market purpose lies in quicker texting and typing within smart devices, the technology's creators see it as an evolving creation over the coming years. Possibilities include music creation, video game control, and other applications that could open up "a world of creative possibilities" for Tap's users. As it stands, the device already has some interesting practicality for visually impaired individuals, who could possibly learn Tap's new input system and become a nimble typist on a smartphone without the use of dictation.

"Tap brings an entirely new dimension to how we can interface with the digital world," said Ran Poliakine, Tap's co-founder. "Tap's fundamental technology is applicable not only to language, but also to music, gaming and control. It is a new modality that opens up a world of creative possibilities. We are partnering with creative developers and select OEMs to help us unlock its full potential. Our goal is to create an ecosystem in which our partners utilize Tap to deliver new and exciting experiences for our users.

Tap is currently in a beta test in San Francisco, with an expected ship date for a consumer model "before the end of 2016." The company will also be making a Tap Development Kit available to a few developers to begin implementing the technology in their apps, games, and even interactive AR and VR experiences.

Anyone interested can join Tap's waitlist to be the first to receive new information about the device as its development progresses.

Tag: Tap

A large number of MacBook Pro owners running OS X El Capitan are reporting widespread system freezes since installing the 10.11.4 update to Apple's Mac OS.

Hundreds of MacRumors forum members have been posting to a dedicated thread to discuss the issue, which spans 20 pages at the time of writing. The problem appears to be concentrated on 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros (Early 2015) running 10.11.4. Users report that their system becomes totally unresponsive at seemingly random times, with no way to regain access to their Mac other than to force a hard reboot.

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The issue was initially reported by MacRumors forum member Antonnn on March 25, four days after Apple released what is the third update to the Mac OS. In Antonnn's case, the freezes have been occurring "about once a week", first when browsing in Safari, but then also during the use of other Mac apps, including Adobe Photoshop and several third-party browsers. The freeze seems to affect not only the screen and mouse cursor but also the Mac's Force Touch trackpad, which completely loses feedback.

Many other users have since reported similar freezes after updating to 10.11.4, with some 15-inch MacBook Pro (Mid 2015) owners also experiencing issues. One potential cause has been identified from crash logs as a system framework or an Intel Graphics driver bug. The issue is also being reported after installing Safari Technology Preview Version 1 and OS X 10.11.5 Public Beta 1.

Video by MacRumors forum member appleofmy"i" experiencing the freeze issue.

Apple Support is apparently aware of the issue but have so far offered no concrete solution. Meanwhile, some users have resorted to downgrading their system to 10.11.3 by restoring from a Time Machine backup or performing a clean install.

We'll update this post throughout the day as we learn more.

Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Apple has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing company and Uber competitor Didi Chuxing, reports Reuters. The move is a strategic investment that will help the Cupertino company better understand the Chinese market, CEO Tim Cook told Reuters.

Didi-Chuxing

"We are making the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market," he said. "Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well."

Didi Chuxing, which has raised several billion dollars in funding, says the investment from Apple is the largest it's ever received. Didi Chuxing dominates the ride-sharing market in China, completing more than 11 million rides a day and owning 87 percent of the market in the country.

Although Apple has hired many employees in recent months with automotive backgrounds, likely for its secretive Apple Car project codenamed Project Titan, Cook insists Apple is currently focused on the in-car experience. However, he did not deny what the future may have in store for a potential Apple Car. "That is what we do today in the car business," he told Reuters. "So we will have to see what the future holds."

Cook also used the deal to underline Apple's confidence in the market, saying that it reflects the company's "continued confidence in the long term in China's economy." Apple's sales fell 26 percent in Greater China in the second quarter of 2016, causing Carl Icahn to sell his full stake in the company. Apple was also recently forced to take down its iTunes Movies and iBooks stores in the country. Cook will visit China and meet with government officials this month.

With Apple shares dipping below $90 this morning, Google's parent company Alphabet briefly overtook Apple as the world's most valuable company hitting a market cap of $498 billion compared to Apple's market cap of $494 billion. Apple and Google shares continue to fluctuate and the two companies are neck-and-neck for the top valuation, but Google remains in the lead.

Apple's stock has seen steep declines in recent weeks, following its first ever drop in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003. Apple's share price is down again amid rumors of weak demand for the upcoming iPhone 7 and there's no relief in sight as Apple is also expecting a revenue drop in Q3 2016.

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Apple's guidance for the quarter includes expected revenue of $41 to $43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent, compared to $49.6 billion revenue and gross margin of 39.7 percent in Q3 2015.

Google parent company Alphabet previously overtook Apple as the most valuable company in the world in February of 2016 following a strong Q1 2016 earnings report.

Earlier today, Apple was ranked the world's most valuable brand by Forbes, assigned a brand value of $154.1 billion compared to Google's $82.5 billion.

xcode-6Apple's app review process has become significantly faster during the first five months of 2016, according to AppReviewTimes.com, a website that tracks average App Store review times for both the iOS and Mac App Store using data crowdsourced from developers on both platforms.

App Store approval times have dropped to an average of two days, compared to between eight and ten days in May 2015, based on 328 reviews submitted in the last 14 days. The shorter process has been well received by the developer community, which had grown accustomed to weeklong waits.

"A lot of the way that we build software for iOS is controlled around the fact that you have a one-week release cycle," Button Inc. founder Chris Maddern, whose team has done work for Uber Technologies Inc. and Foursquare Labs Inc., told Bloomberg. "It can now happen within hours of submitting them, which is really awesome because it speeds up the development cycle."

Last December, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller took over App Store leadership responsibilities from iTunes and services chief Eddy Cue. Schiller now leads nearly all developer-related functions at Apple, and WWDC 2016 next month could serve as a good opportunity for him to announce shorter approval times on stage alongside new versions of iOS, OS X, and other developer updates.

While much attention has been placed on Apple's first quarterly revenue decline in thirteen years, with some suggesting that the iPhone maker may push deeper into services to combat the slowdown, there is evidence to suggest that Tim Cook and company have bigger plans in store.

Apple analyst Neil Cybart of Above Avalon notes that Apple is now on track to spend a record $10 billion on research and development this year, up nearly 30 percent from 2015 and significantly more than the little over $3 billion per year it was spending on R&D just four years ago.

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Cybart believes that the most likely explanation for Apple's increased R&D spending is that the company is looking to make a long-term pivot beyond the iPhone, which currently accounts for nearly two-thirds of the company's revenue. His predicted product of the future: the widely rumored Apple Car.

"Apple is not spending $10 billion on R&D just to come up with new Watch bands, larger iPads, or a video streaming service," he wrote. "Instead, Apple is planning on something much bigger: a pivot into the automobile industry."

Apple's R&D spending has experienced a significant uptick since mid-2014, which Cybart attributes to Apple Car development over the past few years. There were similar quarter-over-quarter spikes in spending leading up to the release of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, as illustrated in the chart below.

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The analyst added that Apple has likely already spent upwards of a few billion dollars on Project Titan, the alleged internal codename for the Apple Car, with R&D spending likely to hit at least $14 billion per year by 2017 or 2018. He predicts the odds of Apple releasing an electric vehicle are at least 80 percent.

There is one very simple reason for my high degree of confidence: Project Titan is a long-term pivot. I don't consider Titan to be just another project that Apple has been tinkering around with in the lab for years like an Apple television set or Apple Pencil. Instead, Project Titan is much more about building a foundation for Apple that will literally represent the company's future.

Apple is widely rumored to be working on an electric vehicle that could launch by 2020. The bulk of research and development may be centered in the Santa Clara Valley area, near Apple's existing Cupertino headquarters, led by a team that includes former Tesla, Ford, and GM employees and other automotive experts.

Related Article: Apple R&D Reveals a Pivot Is Coming — Above Avalon

Google today announced "Gboard," a new third-party keyboard application for iOS devices that directly integrates the company's search capabilities into an iPhone or iPad's keyboard. With the new Google button in Gboard, users can search for information, send what they find, discover GIFs, emojis, and more, without having to exit a messenger app to visit Safari or Chrome.


In its blog post, the company gives an example of someone needing to look up the address of a restaurant, normally forcing them to leave the app, perform a search in a mobile web browser, copy the address information, return to Messages, paste it, then send it off. With Gboard, Google hopes to streamline that process into a headache-free card system built around the smaller UI space required of third-party keyboards.

With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of things—restaurant info, flight times, news articles—right from your keyboard. Anything you’d search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours. With one tap, you can send it to your friend and you keep the conversation going.

In addition to the basic search feature, Gboard lets users search for emojis -- unlike Apple's first-party keyboard -- by typing in key words like "dancer" to find the corresponding character. There's also a section that lets users browse and search for GIFs, and even glide typing for those who prefer sliding to text instead of tapping each key.

Google mentioned that Gboard "works in any app" with a keyboard, although it's available only in English within the United States at launch, with more languages planned soon. Those interested can download it from the App Store today for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google

Taylor Swift this morning tweeted out a new ad for Apple Music, this time showcasing a playlist called "Friday Night Rocks!" recommended to the singer within the For You tab of the music streaming service.

taylor swift darkness ad
The new commercial plays out in a way similar to Swift's previous ad, which saw her lip syncing to Jimmy Eat World as she prepared for a night out. This time, however, she dances around her living room alone to the tune of The Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love."

After the last ad, Apple Music head of content Larry Jackson confirmed that the company had created a series of commercials with Swift, and would continue a steady rollout of them, akin to the release of singles on a record.

Previous Coverage: Apple Music is 'Distractingly Good' for Taylor Swift in New Ad

Apple has been named the world's most valuable brand in 2016, according to the latest Forbes rankings, despite posting its first negative-growth quarter since 2003 with declining sales across its iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines.

Apple-Most-Valuable-Brand-2016-Forbes
Apple's recent slowdown was not enough to prevent the company from securing the number one position in the list for the sixth consecutive year, ahead of rivals Google and Microsoft. Forbes placed Apple's brand value at $154.1 billion, up 6-percent from 2015 and nearly double Google's value of $82.5 billion.

Coca-Cola, Facebook, Toyota, IBM, Disney, McDonald's, GE, Samsung, Amazon, AT&T, BMW, and Cisco rounded out the top fifteen. Apple Watch fashion partner Hermès ranked 48th on the list. Other notable companies listed include Intel (17th), Verizon (21st), HP (38th), Sony (76th), Netflix (79th), and T-Mobile (93rd).

Apple remains the world's most valuable company with a market cap of over $510 billion, despite its stock being down around 30-percent from May 2015 highs. Google parent company Alphabet trails closely behind, and briefly surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable company in February.

Apple also topped Interbrand's most valuable brand list in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Update: AAPL is down nearly 3 percent in trading today, resulting in Google parent company Alphabet's market cap once again briefly surpassing Apple's. The two companies will likely continue to trade positions until the volatility settles.

Tags: Apple, Forbes

Microsoft is set to merge its team of Sunrise Calendar app developers into its Outlook team, in a move that signals the end for the popular standalone calendar app (via The Verge).

Sunrise Calendar was designed by former Foursquare engineers and won many fans for its ability to seamlessly integrate with various online services and incorporate social networking and event information from Google Calendar, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Sunrise
Microsoft acquired Sunrise in February 2015 in a deal rumored to be worth around $100 million. The company subsequently announced plans in November to merge Outlook and Sunrise into a single app. That plan appears have come into effect and Sunrise will be removed from the App Store in the "next few days", says Microsoft, with the app's online backend services to cease functioning altogether on August 31, 2016.

Microsoft has gradually been introducing features to its Outlook email and calendar app, and recently added Facebook, Evernote, and Wunderlist support. Skype for Business and OneNote integration are expected to follow soon, while Touch ID support was added in March.

Microsoft Outlook is available as a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Google is working on a standalone hardware device that will integrate the company's search and voice assistant technology, reports Recode.

According to sources, the product is said to be similar to Google's smart home enabled OnHub wireless router and is set to compete against the likes of Amazon's Echo.

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OnHub wireless router (Image: Google)

Google declined to comment on the rumor, but the project, said to be known internally as 'Chirp', is expected to be officially announced at next week's Google I/O developer conference, where voice search and intelligent personal assistance are to take center stage alongside the company's latest forays into virtual reality.

In 2014, Google acquired connected device company Nest, which reportedly had its own designs for an Echo competitor running Google's search technology, but scrapped the plans because of concerns over consumer privacy.

After launching the Echo over a year ago, Amazon announced in March two new additions to its lineup of voice-controlled smart hubs that house the company's personal assistant, Alexa.

Apple has been unsuccessful in its attempts to retrieve data from a waterlogged iPhone that belonged to one of two Florida teens who were lost at sea last summer, reports ABC News affiliate WPBF 25.

14-year-old Austin Stephanos' iPhone 6 was found in an abandoned boat off the Bermuda coast in March, eight months after he and friend Perry Cohen, also 14, went missing during a fishing expedition that began at Palm Beach County, Florida, in June 2015.

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The two boys' parents, who had been locked in a court battle over the iPhone's fate, recently agreed to hand it over to Apple after the company said it would do everything it could to recover information from it in the hope that it would shed light on the circumstances of the teens' disappearance.

With the iPhone in Apple's possession, a dedicated forensics team disassembled the damaged device, cleaned its components and performed a chemical report as part of an exhaustive diagnostics and repair process. But despite the team of engineers working "around the clock", Apple has been unable to glean any data from it.

The news was released by Austin's father, Blu Stephanos, via a statement read by the family's attorney, Michael Pike. "Although they were unable to restore the phone to a functional state, I want to thank Apple, Inc. for their hard work and generous assistance," Stephanos said.

"If the FBI turned to Apple when they needed help, I see no reason to doubt that every possible means was employed to get Austin's phone working again. It's our understanding that Apple had a team assigned to the iPhone around the clock, and for that we are truly grateful."

Stephanos' statement went on to suggest he would keep the iPhone as a memento of his son, but the parents of Perry Cohen seem intent on exploring other options.

Pam Cohen, Perry’s mother, issued a subsequent statement which likewise thanked Apple for its efforts, but she also claimed that Apple had offered to hand the phone to other experts in the field who may be able to pick up where Apple left off and continue the work.

"We look forward to working cooperatively with Austin's family toward this transition," said Cohen. "We are not giving up on the iPhone's potential for evidence until all viable efforts have been exhausted."

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.

Norway-based company Opera Software today announced the addition of a new power saving mode to its Opera web browser, which is designed to extend battery life when the browser is used on a notebook computer like Apple's line of MacBooks.

According to Opera, the new power saving mode, which is available today in the developer stream, can extend laptop battery life by up to 50% compared to earlier versions of the Opera browser and to Google Chrome, giving heavy web users up to three hours of additional battery life. Opera's testing was done on a Lenovo X250 with a Core i7-5600U processor and 16GB RAM running Windows 10, so it is unclear how much battery savings Mac users will see.

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The feature works through various optimizations like reducing activity from background tabs, adjusting page-redrawing frequency, and tuning video playback options.

"It's extremely frustrating to run out of battery on your computer, whether you are out traveling, watching videos, or you have just left your charger behind. Our new power saving mode will nudge you when the laptop starts to consume battery, and, when enabled, it can increase the battery life by up to three hours," says Krystian Kolondra, SVP of Engineering for Opera.

The power saving mode can be accessed whenever a laptop is using battery power by clicking on the battery icon located next to the address field in the browser. It is also able to detect when a laptop battery is running low, offering up an option to enable the mode. Today's developer update also includes optimized animated themes and better memory management techniques to improve performance.

The introduction of the power saving mode comes just a few weeks after Opera added a built-in virtual private network (VPN) feature to its web browser. The developer version of the Opera browser with the built-in power saving mode can be downloaded from the Opera website.

fbiIn a briefing with reporters, FBI director James Comey said that he expects litigation over the encryption of mobile devices to continue, as encryption is "essential tradecraft" of terrorist organizations like ISIS, reports Reuters.

Comey indicated that the debate involving both legal and privacy issues over whether the federal government can compel tech companies to unlock personal devices in the interest of national security is far from over in a briefing with reporters at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Since October, FBI experts have examined nearly 4,000 devices and have been unable to unlock around 500, according to Comey. He thinks none of these devices are the same model as San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5c, which means the method the FBI used to unlock that phone would not work on these other models.

The U.S. Justice Department dropped two lawsuits against Apple in the past couple of months. The first case was an attempt to order Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, but the Justice Department dropped the case when it found a contractor that could unlock the device for under $1 million. The second case was a New York drug case, which was dropped when investigators unlocked the phone in question by hand.

Comey also confirmed reports that the identity of the contractors who unlocked the iPhone 5c is a closely-guarded secret within the FBI, saying that he had a "good sense" of the identity of the third-party contractor but was not aware of its identity. Finally, the FBI director mentioned that WhatsApp's new end-to-end encryption was already "affecting the criminal work [of the FBI] in huge ways."

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.

newitunes122logoApple allegedly has an aggressive plan to "terminate" music downloads from iTunes within two years, reports Digital Music News citing sources with "close and active business relationships" with Apple.

Apple is also rumored to be considering a three to four year timeline for the shutdown of iTunes downloads, but overall discussions with Apple executives are said to focus "not on if, but when" the company should retire music downloads. Termination of music downloads could be staggered by country based on the popularity of streaming content in different regions.

Back to the story, the sources indicated that a range of shutdown timetables are being considered by Apple, though one executive noted that "keeping [iTunes music downloads] running forever isn't really on the table anymore." Also under discussion is a plan to "ride the [iTunes music download offering] out for the next 3-4 years, maybe longer," when paid music downloads are likely to be an afterthought in a streaming-dominated industry. [...]

According to one source, an initial shutdown could take place in 'tier 1' countries like the United States, UK, and leading countries in Europe and Asia, with 'tier 2' and 'tier 3' countries experiencing a staggered shutdown in subsequent years.

The timeline is unclear because Apple's iTunes business continues to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, but it is on the decline due to the rise of streaming music services. According to music industry Mark Mulligan, iTunes music downloads will be worth $600 million in 2019, down from $3.9 billion in 2012. Mulligan believes Apple's download business could be 10 times smaller than its streaming music business by 2020.

Apple is also said to be considering ending music downloads due to the confusion it causes with Apple Music, mixing downloaded music purchases with Apple Music content.

Late last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Music now has 13 million paying subscribers, up from 11 million users in February. Apple Music originally launched on June 30, 2015 in more than 100 countries and at its current growth rate, Apple is on track to have 15 million subscribers at its one-year anniversary.

Update: Apple rep Tom Neumayr contacted Recode and said the report that Apple would stop iTunes music downloads in two years is "not true."

Related Forum: Mac Apps

siri_ios_7_iconDarren Haas, one of the last remaining members of the original team that developed Siri, has left Apple to work at General Electric, reports The Information. Haas worked on Siri before it was purchased by Apple in 2010 and has been at Apple since then working on cloud engineering services.

Haas's departure follows the departure of Steve D'Aurora and comes amid rumors that Apple's efforts to move its cloud infrastructure in-house has been slowed by "political infighting" between the iCloud and Siri engineering teams.

Political infighting has engulfed Apple's engineering ranks after the company decided to extend the software platform built by Siri's team to Apple's other Internet services such as iCloud and iTunes. At GE, Messrs. Haas and D'Aurora are working on a similar cloud software platform.

Earlier this week, other members of the original Siri team, including co-founders Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, debuted Viv, a next-generation AI bot able to carry out complex tasks by mimicking the "spontaneity and knowledge base" of a human assistant.


In a demonstration at TechCrunch Disrupt, Viv was shown to be far more advanced than Siri with improved contextual awareness and an ability to craft in-depth responses to complicated questions on the fly. Viv's creators plan to build it into a range of products from cars to smart refrigerators.

Rumors suggest Apple's 2016 iPhone 7 will look very similar to the iPhone 6s, with major changes to the iPhone's form factor actually coming in 2017, the year that marks the 10th anniversary of the device's initial launch. Apple blogger John Gruber recently shared some tantalizing details about the 2017 iPhone, which may see some radical design tweaks.

In the latest episode of his podcast The Talk Show, Gruber said he's heard "scuttlebutt" suggesting the 2017 iPhone will include an edge-to-edge display that eliminates the top and bottom bezels on the device, with the front-facing camera, Touch ID, and other sensors hidden under the display.

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Concept image via ConceptsiPhone

I think next year's phone, the 2017 model, the one that will come out in September of 2017. What I have heard -- now this is not really from the rumor mill but just scuttlebutt that I've heard -- is that it will be an all-new form factor.

And there have been some rumors, I guess, but what I'm saying is that I've heard this independently and it is completely getting rid of the chin and forehead of the phone. The entire face will be the display. And the Touch ID sensor will be somehow embedded in the display. The front-facing camera will somehow be embedded in the display. The speaker, everything. All the sensors will somehow be behind the display.

What I don't know... I have no idea, but whether that means that they're going to shrink the actual thing in your hand to fit the screen sizes we already have, or whether they're going to grow the screens to fit the devices we're already used to holding... I don't know.

Previous rumors have indicated Apple is planning to introduce a flexible OLED display in the 2017 iPhone, and an OLED display panel would allow for an edge-to-edge screen design. Apple has already signed a deal with Samsung for a portion of the OLED panels it will need for the devices.

Multiple rumors have suggested one 2017 iPhone could include a 5.8-inch OLED display, which would perhaps mean Apple plans to have the display wrap around the edges of a 5.5-inch device, but it is not clear how such a screen size would work without top and bottom bezels as suggested by Gruber.

Along with an OLED display, the iPhone coming in 2017 is rumored to include a glass shell, like the iPhone 4 and 4s, rather than the aluminum body that's been used for the iPhone 5s, 6, 6s, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, and SE. Long-range wireless charging and expanded biometric features like iris or facial recognition are also features that have been rumored, along with a 10-nanometer A11 chip from TSMC and NAND flash memory supplied by Samsung.

Apple has been working on developing touch and display driver integration (TDDI) chips since 2015, which would let the Touch ID fingerprint recognition system be embedded directly into the display, allowing for the elimination of the Home button. Analyst rumors have previously suggested the Home button will be removed in the 2017 iPhone, in line with what Gruber has heard.

With Apple planning major design changes for the 2017 iPhone, there have been rumors indicating the devices will not feature an "S" name, with Apple perhaps skipping the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus to move directly to the iPhone 8 or another name.

Related Forum: iPhone

safaripreviewiconApple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced on March 30. Apple uses Safari Technology Preview to test features that may eventually be introduced in the release version of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 4 includes a long list of bug fixes and updates for networking, media, JavaScript, CSS, web APIs, Web Inspector, rendering, and accessibility.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Release notes are available on Apple's Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while aimed at developers, it does not require a developer account to download.