The Information

Chinese tech giant Tencent has agreed to make some of its most important apps available on Apple's Vision Pro headset ahead of its launch in the country later this year, The Information reports. Tencent is one of the biggest multimedia companies in the world and its apps and services are ubiquitous in China. It owns Weibo, WeChat, QQ, WeBank, Tencent Pictures, and games such as Honor of...

Apple is actively building prototypes of at least two foldable iPhones following over five years of research and development, The Information reports. Citing individuals with "direct knowledge" of the project, the two iPhone prototypes reportedly fold widthwise like a clamshell. The devices are in early development and do not feature in the company's mass production plans for 2024 or 2025,...

Apple pays British chip architect Arm less than 30 cents per chip in royalties, The Information reports. Apple licenses the underlying technology used in the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod from Arm. Despite being one of its biggest and most important customers, Apple represents less than five percent of Arm's annual revenue, with the company paying the least of any of...

Apple has explored using its Vision Pro headset to diagnose and treat mental health problems, among other health monitoring capabilities, The Information's Wayne Ma reports. Citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Ma explains that Apple has experimented with using the Vision Pro to track a user's facial expressions to detect depression, anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress...

Apple etches iPhone displays with small QR codes that let it precisely track the number of defective screens that are thrown out by suppliers, according to a new report from The Information. One barcode is the size of a grain of sand and can be viewed only with special equipment, while the other is on the inside of the display along the bezel. Apple spent millions of dollars developing the...

Apple is considering switching production of micro-OLED displays for future versions of the Vision Pro headset from Sony to Chinese manufacturers like BOE and SeeYa amid supply chain challenges, The Information reports. Sony, the current supplier of micro-OLED displays for Vision Pro, has apparently shown reservations about expanding its production capabilities for the components amid...

Chip supplier TSMC has taken the unusual step of not charging Apple for defective 3nm chips ahead of the introduction of the iPhone 15 Pro and the A17 Bionic chip, The Information reports. The ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro is widely rumored to feature the A17 Bionic chip – Apple's first chip manufactured with a ‌3nm‌ fabrication process. The ‌3nm‌ node allows transistors to be even more densely packed,...

Apple is running into difficulties with iPhone 15 Pro and ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max display manufacturing, which could lead to a limited number of devices being available at launch in September. Rumors have suggested that the ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro and ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max will have slimmer bezels than the iPhone 14 Pro models, and it is this decrease in bezel size that is creating issues. According to ...

The Information's Wayne Ma today reiterated several features that Apple apparently developed but did not announce for the Vision Pro at WWDC earlier this month, including various fitness and wellness apps, full-body tracking, and more. Ma said some of the features could remain in development, while others may have been abandoned. Apple is not releasing the Vision Pro until early 2024, and...

Apple's mixed-reality headset will reportedly be the most complicated hardware product ever made by the company, sporting an unusual design that has proven to be an unprecedented challenging to manufacture, The Information reports. Apple headset concept by Marcus Kane The headset apparently features an "unconventional curved design, thinness, and ultralight weight." Several renders seen by The...

Microsoft is planning to launch a privacy-focused version of ChatGPT amid Apple's apparent lack of grip on emerging AI technologies, The Information reports. Microsoft's Azure cloud server unit plans to offer a version of ChatGPT that runs on dedicated cloud servers where the data is kept separate from that of other customers later this quarter. Data on this isolated server will not...

Siri and Apple's use of AI has been severely held back by caution and organizational dysfunction, according to over three dozen former Apple employees who spoke to The Information's Wayne Ma. The extensive paywalled report explains why former Apple employees who worked in the company's AI and machine learning groups believe that a lack of ambition and organizational dysfunction have hindered ‌...

Apple has heavily invested in developing its own MicroLED technology for almost a decade to break away from Samsung as a supplier, The Information reports. The iPhone X's flexible OLED display supplied by Samsung Apple's MicroLED displays have reportedly taken much longer to develop than expected, forcing it to deepen its ties with Samsung until the technology is ready. MicroLED offers better ...

Apple is working on new software tools that will allow both developers and customers to create augmented reality apps for its widely-rumored AR/VR headset, according to a paywalled report today from The Information's Wayne Ma. Interestingly, the report claims that customers will be able to create and release AR apps for the headset via Siri, even if they do not have the ability to code:With...

Apple's mixed-reality headset will feature a physical dial for switching to a view of the real-world, a waist-mounted battery pack, small motors to automatically adjust its lenses, and much more, according to The Information. Concept render based on purported leaked information by Ian Zelbo The paywalled report purports to reveal a broad range of previously unheard-of specific features for...

Apple planned a major generational update for the iPhone 14 Pro's graphics capabilities, but was forced to scrap plans for the new GPU late in development after "unprecedented" missteps were discovered, according to The Information. In a paywalled report, The Information claimed that Apple engineers were "too ambitious" in adding new features to the graphics processor designed for the ‌iPhone...

Apple is seeking to improve Spotlight search, but is still years away from launching a search engine to rival Google, according to The Information. The paywalled report explains that Apple's search technology faces a setback amid loss of talent to Google. In 2018, Apple sought to bolster development of a web search engine by buying machine learning startup Laserlike, which was founded by...

Apple is developing a larger 16-inch iPad that it hopes to release in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a report today from The Information's Wayne Ma. This would be the largest-ever iPad model, topping the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. "A 16-inch iPad would likely be geared toward creative professionals such as graphic artists and designers who prefer a larger screen," the report says. No...

Apple's mixed-reality headset will feature iris scanning to authenticate payments and log into accounts, setting itself apart from Meta's new Quest Pro headset, according to a paywalled report from The Information. Concept render based on purported leaked information by Ian Zelbo Two individuals, who apparently helped develop Apple's headset, told The Information that users will be able to...

Earlier this week, The Information's Wayne Ma outlined struggles that Apple has faced during the development of its long-rumored AR/VR headset. Now, in a follow-up report, he has shared several additional details about the wearable device. Apple headset render created by Ian Zelbo based on The Information reporting For starters, one of the headset's marquee features is said to be lifelike...