Apple Will Ditch 16GB Entry-Level Storage Option In Favor Of 32GB With iPhone 7, Reports WSJ

Just as had been suspected, hoped, rumored and reported a number of times in the past, it seems that the iPhone 7 indeed will see Apple ditch 16GB as the entry-level storage option in favor of a 32GB solution, if the latest report from the Wall Street Journal is anything to go by.

In a piece in which the reasons for why buying an iPhone right now is a bad idea are discussed, the WSJ “confirmed” that those looking to pick up the least expensive iPhone 7 will receive 32GB of storage rather than the anaemic 16GB that has been on offer for many, many years now.

As iOS itself and the apps that run on it have grown over time, the use of 16GB iPhones has become more and more difficult, especially if you try to install games, or try to record any video in 4K quality using the newer 6s series of iPhones.

The jump to 32GB is one that many have requested of Apple of late, and the iPhone 7 (as well as iPhone 7 Plus for that matter) looks like it may be the first handset from the Cupertino-based company that gets that increase. There will of course be other models available with more storage capacity options as well, should users wish to have a little more breathing room.

The new iPhones are expected to have more storage for those photos. Instead of 16GB as a starting point for the entry-level iPhone, the new starting point will be 32GB, according to a person familiar with Apple’s iPhone plans. Hallelujah! I’ve long said that keeping the 16GB iPhone was just a ploy for Apple to get people to buy the 64GB model—for $100 extra.

Apple is not expected to buck its own trend and allow removable media to be used with the next iPhone, so as ever, buying the right one is key. As many have found out over the years, it’s easy to chew through storage on an iPhone once you start recording in 4K video and shooting photos of the family. Our recommendation? Work out how much storage you think you need and then buy the next model up.

Leaked iPhone 7 Shell Has No Headphone Jack, Dual Speakers [Photos]

An alleged iPhone 7 shell has leaked online with no headphone jack and dual speakers for stereo audio.

Spotted by the Nowhereelse.fr, the shell is apparently one of two prototype designs for the iPhone 7 with the other having just one speaker and no headphone jack.

Additionally, the rear shell once again reveals a larger opening for the camera, corroborating rumors that Apple will beimproving the camera on the next generation 4.7-inch iPhone.

It's widely expected that Apple will introduce a dual lens camera for the 5.5-inch iPhone; however, it's unclear if the company will unveil both an iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 7 Pro.

Finally, the leaked shell once again shows us a new simplified antenna band design.

Installing iOS 10 Seems To Be Giving Users Extra Storage

With iOS 10 now available for installation by developers in its initial beta form, those who have done just that have spent the last few days poking around the operating system to see what they can find. While hidden features or simply additional features that Apple didn’t get around to mentioning are often discovered, one Redditor appears to have discovered that iOS 10 leaves devices with more accessible storage than previous iOS releases.

In one example, a 128GB iPhone went from having around 113GB of available storage with iOS 9.x.x installed, to a massive 122GB when rocking iOS 10 beta 1.

With an increase of around 8%, iPhones and iPads with larger capacities obviously receive a bigger storage bump than those with smaller capacities. That said, the anaemic 16GB devices currently on sale will gain just under a gigabyte of available storage if an 8% increase is accurate. Free storage is not to be sniffed at, no matter how much there is!

The real reasons behind this sudden increase in storage are unknown, but there are three potential reasons – all are shots in the dark at this point, though at least one of them is very unlikely, indeed. We’ll see if you can guess which it is.

It’s perhaps more unlikely than not, but the increase in available storage could just be down to the fact that iOS 10 takes less storage space compared to iOS 9. It’s certainly possible.

It’s also possible that iOS has altered the way it calculates capacity, moving from a 1024 to 1000-based counting system. 113.46 GB is equivalent to 121.83 GB if you switch systems, for example.

Image shared by a Redditor showing a 128GB iPhone 6s running iOS 9.3.2 (left) versus a 128GB iPhone 6 running iOS 10 beta 1 (right)

The least likely possibility is that the Apple File System (APFS) for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS has been implemented in this first beta release of iOS 10. I doubt it at this stage, especially given the filesystem’s infancy, limitations, and fact it isn’t due to ship until next year.

List Of macOS Sierra 10.12 Compatible Macs

If you’ve been literally stuck to the Internet today to make sure that you don’t miss a single thing to come out of Apple’s opening keynote during this year’s WWDC, then you’ll no doubt already be aware about macOS Sierra. No, that’s not yet another Apple software platform to power a new wave of devices, but rather a reimagining of OS X to bring it more in line with the company’s other platforms. Many Mac owners will be looking forward to embracing that update come the fall, but it appears that not all Macs in operation will be able to get in on the macOS action.

As we already know, Apple continually tries its hardest to make sure that as many devices as possible are supported when never firmware drops. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s iOS or macOS, Apple genuinely seems to want to try and bring the new features and improvements owners of old and new.

With that in mind, sometimes the hardware requirements necessary to operate the software efficiently sadly rules out certain pieces of kit, which is exactly the case now as Apple has had to rule out Macs that were manufactured from the year 2007-2009.

If you are a Mac owner, and you are looking forward to getting to grips with macOS Sierra, and you most definitely did love the new features that were introduced, then if you have one of the following Mac machines you will be golden come September this year.

Here’s the list of Macs supported to run macOS Sierra:

• MacBook (late 2009 and later).
• iMac (late 2009 and later).
• MacBook Air (late 2010 and later).
• MacBook Pro (late 2010 and later).
• Mac Mini (late 2010 and later).
• Mac Pro (late 2010 and later).

If you’re machine doesn’t fall into one of those brackets, then it looks like you have a couple of options available to you; either accept the inevitable and make do with the extremely pleasurable and capable OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Or, if that doesn’t cut it, bite the bullet and invest in a brand new Mac computer that is not only capable of installing macOS Sierra, but if you actually wait to make that investment, may be one of the first new breeds of Mac to actually ship with it pre-installed.

New In iOS 10: You Can Delete Stock Apple Apps, Download Them At Will From App Store

In the midst of all of the Apple WWDC madness and excitement you can be forgiven for getting caught up in all of the major announcements and missing some of the smaller changes that Tim Cook and team didn’t touch on for one reason or another. As the keynote was happening, and as a slew of Apple’s executive team were introducing and demoing key new features within iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, the company engineers were secretly uploading a number of apps to the App Store against Apple’s own developer account.

Curiously, all of those apps are ones that generally come pre-installed as stock apps on iOS out of the box.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist with a first class honours degree in rocket science studies to work out what’s going on here. The fact that a number of pre-installed apps are now hosted on Apple’s App Store page is interesting enough. But it’s the fact that the App Store actually recognizes that they are installed on a device that really puts the icing on the cake.

As part of the run up to WWDC and the iOS 10 speculation, we had heard a little rumor suggesting that users would eventually be able to delete stock Apple apps from the device. We just didn’t know how that implementation would work. We know how it works on.

The list of pre-installed apps available on the App Store includes:

1. Stocks
2. Weather
3. Maps
4. Notes
5. Mail
6. Music
7. Watch
8. iTunes Store
9. Voice Memos
10. FaceTime
11. Calendar
12. Videos
13. Tips
14. Calculator
15. Compass
16. Contacts

Early access to the iOS 10 beta 1 has also confirmed that device owners will be able to delete some of the pre-installed apps from the device, such as Mail, Weather and Compass, as can be seen in the screenshot from iOS 10 below.

Screenshot credit: Jorge

They will then be able to be downloaded again from the App Store at the user’s discretion should they see fit. This is particularly useful for those people who get a new iPhone and iPad, create a folder called “Apple”, “Junk”, or something similar, and then simply relegate the stock apps that they don’t use to that folder never to be seen again.

The self-contained nature of the apps will also more than likely mean that Apple will have the ability to update individual apps as and when it deems it necessary rather than having to push out a full iOS update if a change to an app is needed.

iOS 10 will land this coming fall alongside the iPhone 7. A developer preview is available to download right now.

tvOS 10 For Apple TV Announced: Features, Release Date [Everything You Need To Know]

Apple has finally announced the arrival of tvOS 10 along with the various features it will pack for the Apple TV 4. Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference opening keynote is generally used to introduce the latest version of iOS and the desktop OS for Mac, but this year is a little different with the Apple TV 4 having landed onto the scene late last year. The Apple TV 4 has gained some serious traction amongst consumers all over the globe, with the underlying App Store playing a huge part in that popularity.

Keeping up with the increasing number of unit adoptions, Apple has officially introduced tvOS 10 as part of the initial WWDC announcements in what looks like Apple’s fastest evolving OS to date.

We’ve already seen tvOS 9 evolve into a much matured platform than what it set out as in the beginning, so now that the first major update for the OS has been unveiled, let’s jump directly into what Apple has actually announced with tvOS 10, and how it will improve the user-experience for those who are just starting to embrace the Apple TV as part of their tech stack.

Features

-New Apple TV Remote App With Siri

This one literally replicates the Siri Remote on your iPhone and uses, voice for Siri control, touch for navigation, and you guessed it, even motion controls to play games. Sweet!

-Siri

Speaking of Siri, the digital assistant on the Apple TV has gotten a massive upgrade. Saying things like “Find high school comedies from the ’80s”, will now show you results based on that particular query. Incredibly, it can also search through YouTube for you.

-Live Tune-In

What’s TV if it’s not live. Using Siri to say for example, ” Watch ESPN2″ will simply launch the action right on your TV. Interestingly, Apple says the feature will also be available on the iPad.

-Single sign-on

Users will now be able to log in once and access all streaming apps from your TV subscription without having to do that independently for each and every app. Oh and it’s being flowed over to iOS as well. Needless to say, this alone is a huge update in itself.

-Dark Mode

Finally! No more white’s blinding you in the middle of the night thanks to a much needed Dark Mode which throws in the good ol’ dark grays and blacks.

-Automatic downloads

Download an app on your iPhone and it will appear on the Apple TV as well. Simple, not ground breaking either, but glad to see attention being paid to such things.

-HomeKit Support

Your Apple TV can now issue commands via Siri to control all smart devices in your home that are HomeKit compatible. So you can now turn of the lights, adjust the temperature and much more, from the comfort of your couch, or well, if you’re in the room.

-Revamped Photos and Apple Music

Apple Music app carries an all-new design, making sure that the user never feels lost, including the addition of a new Search tab.

The Photos app now sports a Memories feature which makes it easy to “rediscover meaningful moments in a user’s photo library and share them on the big screen.”

-Keyboard improvements

While you could use the iOS keyboard on your iPhone or iPad to enter text easily on the Apple TV, tvOS 10 now prompts the iOS keyboard to appear on your iPhone or iPad whenever the keyboard appears on the Apple TV. Of course this assumes your iOS device and Apple TV our signed in with the same Apple ID.

-New Apps

Arriving in the coming weeks will be some new apps new including Sling, Fox Sports Go, and Molotov which offers over 100 live TV stations.

-New tvOS APIs and tools

With ReplayKit developers will be able to add recording and live broadcasting features into their apps. PhotoKit meanwhile will allow for third-party apps to access photos and videos stored in the Photo Library and iCloud Shared Stream.

There is also support for badges just like iOS so that users can be alerted that an app needs their attention, and gaming is also set to be enhanced with support for up to four game controllers on one Apple TV, as well as Game Center enhancements.

Release Date

The initial developer facing pre-release beta 1 of tvOS 10 is available to download and install today. Developers can access this through the usual developer.apple.com website, provided they are registered and enrolled members for the Apple Developer Program.

The first public facing version – or the final build – of the platform will make its way into circulation this coming fall, alongside the release of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra 10.12.

iOS 10 Beta Compatibility For iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

After a number of months of speculation and conjecture, Apple has finally used the opening keynote of WWDC 2016 to provide the world with its first glimpse of the next major iteration of iOS – the iOS 10. As is historically been the case, the run up to this year’s WWDC conference has included a number of discussions about not only the new features and integrations to be offered with iOS 10, but also the devices and hardware that it will support.

Apple generally tends to want to get as many consumers as possible in on the latest firmware action, meaning that the company does its very best to support as many devices as possible, both old and new. Once again, as we saw with iOS 9, it looks as though it won’t disappoint.

In an ideal world, every new major release of iOS would simply install and run perfectly on all Apple devices that are still in use. That would ideally include all iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices still in circulation and used on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, that is a pipe dream that doesn’t really have a basis in reality, with many older devices simply not being equipped with the hardware and processing power needed to run feature intensive software platforms efficiently. To that end, it looks as though Apple has had to drop support for the 4-inch iPhone 4s, the device which was released back in 2011.

Still, even with support for iPhone 4s being dropped, the list of compatible devices that will be supported by iOS 10 is still fairly comprehensive. Here’s a complete list of all the iOS 10 compatible devices:

iPhone

• iPhone SE
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 5s
• iPhone 5c
• iPhone 5

iPad

• iPad Pro, 12.9-inch
• iPad Pro, 9.7-inch
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Air
• iPad mini 4
• iPad mini 3
• iPad mini 2
• iPad mini 1
• iPad 4
• iPad 3
• iPad 2

iPod touch

• iPod touch 6th-gen
• iPod touch 5th-gen

If your device is listed above, then congratulations, but be mindful that just because your hardware supports the installation of iOS 10, it doesn’t necessarily mean that every single new feature of iOS 10 will be available on that hardware as Apple restricts certain features based on hardware capabilities of the device.