Apple might be looking to bring USB-C support to the iPhone: Report

By tech2 News Staff /  01 Mar 2017 , 09:05

A report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Apple is bringing USB-C to the iPhone. It’s surprising news, given Apple’s traditional reluctance to adopt standardised ports on its iPhone.

Before you get your hopes up, however, The Verge does add that the WSJ report’s wording is not very clear. The report could be interpreted to suggest that Apple is not dumping Lightning in favour of USB-C, but that it’s replacing the USB-A end of the connector with USB-C.

The latter assumption makes more sense because Apple very “courageously” dumped all USB-A ports on its current MacBook lineup and replaced them with USB-C, without taking the trouble to provide adapters.

If you buy a MacBook and an iPhone today, it’s impossible to connect the two without buying at least one adapter.

Another pointer for the latter assumption is that Apple has only recently released its Lightning EarPods and has licensed the ports to accessory makers for making Lightning-compatible headphones and accessories.

USB-C is a better standard than USB 3.0 because it supports a much higher bandwidth and, more importantly, can handle far more power.

Moving to USB-C will lend Apple users at least some peace of mind, as they won’t have to purchase adapters to hook up their iPhones to their MacBooks.

It’ll be certainly be a welcome change if Apple decides to dump Lightning for USB-C, but that’s likely a very remote possibility.

Apple WWDC 2017 is set to be hosted from 5-9 June in San Jose, California

Image Credit: Apple

By tech2 News Staff /  17 Feb 2017 , 09:58

Apple has announced the dates for WWDC 2017 to host and celebrate the developer community. WWDC 2017 is set to start at 5 June and will go on till 9 June 2017 at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose. WWDC or World Wide Developers conference 2017 is its 28th annual conference where Apple will announce future Apple devices and software updates powering Apple products.

The main aim of the conference is to celebrate and host developers while releasing new and updated tools for the community to take leverage from while inspiring them to unleash their creativity in code. One interesting thing to note is that the new Apple headquarters in Cupertino is located just minutes away from WWDC 2017 venue thereby enabling developers easier access to about 1000 Apple engineers to interact with, share ideas or better understand the nuances in programming for Apple products.

Image Credit: Apple

The company will hold keynote address, get-togethers, sessions and labs for developers. Another significant thing the company is doing is to work with local businesses in San Jose to celebrate the return of WWDC. People who want to attend the conference can apply for tickets in coming weeks around Spring.

The entire event will be live-streamed through Apple Developer website and the WWDC app for Apple TV, iPhone and iPad.

We can expect details around the next major iPhone launch, the iPhone 8 or iPhone X or whatever Apple will choose to call its 10-year anniversary device, next big update to iOS and something regarding the Apple streaming service.

Apple fixes battery life bug that cost the MacBook Pro a ‘recommended’ tag from Consumer Reports

By tech2 News Staff /  11 Jan 2017 , 13:15

The latest MacBook Pro from Apple has received a great deal of criticism for its lack of USB-A ports, smaller battery and limited RAM. Topping this criticism was a damning report from Consumer Reports, which cited inconsistent battery life as the reason for not giving the new MacBook Pro its ‘recommended’ tag.

In the course of its testing, Consumer Reports (CR) noted that the MacBook Pro’s battery life varied between under 5 hours to over 19 hours. This inconsistency failed to impress CR.

Apple, understandably puzzled by the widely varying results, approached CR to understand the test process and hunt out the cause for the variation in battery life.

Apple’s investigations unearthed a bug in Safari’s (the default browser on macOS) developer mode which affected the test results. The mode specifically disables the browser cache and is enabled by CR as part of its test process. Apple says that this mode is not used by the average consumer and hence, will not affect the average user.

Describing its test process, CR explains that it disables features like browser cache, automatic screen dimming, etc. to establish a reliable base line for battery performance. Following Apple’s findings, CR ran the tests again with caching off and found that battery life was now consistent.

Apple has since published a patch to fix the issue, but it’s currently only available to subscribers to Apple’s Beta program. The fix will be released to the general public sometime later as part of a larger software update for macOS, says Apple.

In a statement, Apple said, “This is the best pro notebook we’ve ever made, we respect Consumer Reports and we’re glad they decided to revisit their findings on the MacBook Pro.”

CR has promised to report its findings once it finishes retesting the MacBook Pro.

The new Apple MacBook Pro offers much less battery life than claimed: Report

By tech2 News Staff /  09 Dec 2016 , 15:01

Apple’s new MacBook has earned more than its fair share of complaints since its launch. Apple’s “revolutionary” new device introduced the world to dongle hell and that alone has drawn more ire than any other issue with the device.

Folks, including ourselves, have complained about everything, from its exorbitant price to the lack of an SD card slot, USB port and even the much-loved MagSafe connector. One more complaint to add to this growing list comes in the form of a report on 9to5Mac.

Apple promises a “up to 10 hours iTunes movie playback” with the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and also specifies that the test was conducted on a “2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM.”

As far as test systems go, that’s a bog-standard system to test on and a claim of 10 hours video playback is commendable.

When put to the test, however, 9to5Mac discovered that in practice, the battery life rarely crossed the 8-hour mark.

You can find the full details of the test setup on 9to5Mac, suffice to say that the test was run at 50 percent brightness and that the test MacBook Pro used a 3.3GHz Intel i7 (vs the i5 that Apple used) and 16GB of RAM.

A more powerful CPU does equal less battery life, but  it must be noted that both the CPUs in 9to5Mac’s reports are essentially the same, offering a 28W TDP and Intel Iris Pro 550 graphics. The only notable difference between the two comes in terms of clock speeds.

Given this information, one can expect the i7-based MacBook Pro to perform slightly worse than the i5-based MacBook Pro that Apple used, but only in light workload scenarios, like video playback on iTunes.

If the results are to be believed, the 13-inch MacBook Pro offers significantly worse (20 percent) battery life than Apple claims.

Yes, this is nit-picking at its finest. No manufacturer in our experience has ever precisely quoted battery life for their offerings and our regular workflows differ so wildly from laboratory tests that claimed battery life is nothing more than, well, a guideline.

The bigger problem here is that Apple is officially claiming less battery life than their 2015 MacBook Pro (12 hours of video playback), which uses the same CPU architecture used in the current MacBook Pros.

Here’s a Pro-tip, Apple: When it comes to battery life, less is never more.

Apple will make these four Mac products obsolete in 2017

The file photo of Macbook Air. Image: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  30 Nov 2016 , 11:47

Apple is known to add products to its list of Vintage and obsolete products, and 2017 will see the addition of four more products. The list will soon include Mac from 2009 to 2011. Among the product there are 15-inch MacBook Pro (early 2011), 17-inch MacBook Pro (early 2011), Mac mini (early 2009) and 13-inch MacBook (mid 2009).

Once added to the list, either vintage or obsolete, these products will no longer be eligible for repairs and part replacements from Apple or any other authorised service providers. Unless, if they were bought in the US or Turkey until 31 December, 2018 (read more in the exceptions part later). This announcement shouldn’t affect many, but if you still own one of these products then its time to get it repaired/fixed before the year-end.

Apple describes vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. Apple has discontinued hardware service for vintage products, but there are a few exceptions that can be read here.

Obsolete products are the ones that were discontinued more than seven years ago. And, Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions.

Moreover, service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. All Apple Retail Stores and the Canadian, European, Latin American, and Asia-Pacific operating regions follow the US product list, but make no distinction between vintage and obsolete. When applied to Apple Retail Stores and these operating regions, products on the US vintage list (all models) are considered obsolete.

Some of the other obsolete products include the iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPod nano 4th generation, iPod Shuffle second gen, to name a few. See the complete list here.

Minecraft Coming to Apple TV Tim Cook Confirms

 By Luke Jones - 

October 28, 2016 6:51 pm CET 

Microsoft’s all-conquering Minecraft will be available on Apple TV soon, said Tim Cook. It is likely that Minecraft Pocket Edition will come to the set top box.

While Apple’s event yesterday was to launch the MacBook Pro, it was a Microsoft-lite event. Indeed, the company announced Microsoft Office integration in the Touch Bar, as we reported earlier. Also, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Microsoft is working on bringing Minecraft to the Apple TV set top box.

There was no particular fanfare about this. Instead, Cook made a brief announcement and moved on. The CEO did say that users will be able to play directly on the Apple TV. He said gamers can create worlds on the box and said the app will be similar to Minecraft Pocket Edition.


If it is a Pocket Edition of the game, that is good for multiplayer options. Minecraft PE is available on multiple mobile platforms, including Apple’s own iOS. Functionality on the Apple TV will mean users can multiplayer with gamers on other platforms.
Recent Minecraft News

Speaking of the Pocket Edition, it recently received a major update. The extensive Boss Update dropped for the game (also the Windows 10 Edition) a week ago.

The update adds new bosses, Elder Guardians, and a Wither creature. This release should be launching directly on Apple TV.


Microsoft has yet to confirm this, so no official date has been given. Check out the full Boss Update changelog below:
“Ocean Monuments
Guardians and Elder Guardians
Prismarine, dark prismarine & prismarine bricks
Prismarine shard & prismarine crystal
Sea lantern
The Wither!
Nether star
Beacon
Wet & dry sponges
Slash commands (with a handy auto complete feature). Enable cheats for a world in the options screen for access, but note that Xbox Live achievements will be disabled when you’re using ‘em!
Custom key bindings! Hooray for lefties!
A new Creative inventory search feature
Add-On section for world settings
Basic F3 support! (Win 10 only)
Coordinates!
You can change game modes in Realms (note that doing this will restart the realm)
Ability to upload & download worlds in Realms
Ability to promote players as operators in Realms
UI improvements!
Performance improvements!
Tweaks to various mob action/behavior triggers, including fixing creeper explosions
Elder guardian de-buff visuals fixed (feedback from Android beta)
Fishing rods & arrows will fire in more than just one direction
Lots of tweaks to water textures to make underwater more fun
Tweaks to Realms settings
Visual tweaks to sun, moon & stars when rendering in VR immersive mode
Ridiculous numbers of bug fixes!”

This candle will make your room smell like a new MacBook

By Shawn Knight on October 4, 2016, 5:30 PM




One of the perks of purchasing a new vehicle is getting to enjoy that undeniable new car smell. Some new electronic devices, like a MacBook Pro, apparently give off a distinctly unique odor of their own.

It’s that scent that mobile accessory maker Twelve South claims to have “bottled up” and is now selling in the form of a candle.

Twelve South, which got its start in 2009, says on its New Mac Candle product page that the candle exhibits hints of mint, basil, peach, mandarin, sage and lavender which somehow mesh together to create the scent you get when unboxing a new Mac (you can’t make this stuff up).



It’s unclear how Twelve South came up with this concoction of ingredients. Perhaps the team used the Madeline odor camera profiled here a few years back?

The candle, hand-poured in Charleston, South Carolina, is made of 100 percent soy wax with a burn time of between 45 and 55 hours. It’ll set you back $24 and judging from the fact that it’s currently out of stock, it must be pretty popular. Twelve South says it expects more inventory to arrive later this month.

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, this could make the perfect stocking stuffer for the diehard Apple enthusiast in your life.

Apple is expected to refresh MacBook Pro at the end of this month

By tech2 News Staff /  04 Oct 2016 , 11:56

Apple is expected to refresh MacBook Pro according to reports by PetaPixel. This refresh will be the first significant overhaul of Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop lineup in last four years as reported by Bloomberg. There have been numerous rumours about Apple expected to refresh Apple MacBook Pro at the end of this month with no concrete evidence. Earlier rumours stated that the refresh is slated for late 2016, after the Apple iPhone 7 event.

Some of the reports point to an imminent early October release while others point to an end of October release. According to MacRumours, the launch date for the updated version will be after 7 October as the company is aiming to

Andromeda OS coming to a Huawei-made Nexus tablet and a Pixel 3 laptop: Reports

By tech2 News Staff /  27 Sep 2016 , 09:55

As we approach closer to the launch of the Google flagship phones this year, there are speculations floating online about two new devices which will sport the newest operating system from the search giant. According to a report in 9to5 Google, a Huawei-made Nexus tablet is in the works and AndroidPolice states that a laptop, allegedly named Pixel 3 is in the works. Both the speculated devices are expected to run an Android and Chrome OS hybrid OS called Andromeda.

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According to 9to5 Google, there will be a Huawei-made Nexus-branded tablet that will be released by Google which will sport the Andromeda OS. This is in line with the tweet from Evan Blass earlier this month about a 7-inch tablet with 4GB RAM which would be released before the end of the year. Another thing that adds gravitas to the matter is the spotting of trademark filings for a product named Huawei 7P. 

The report further states that while Google is testing Andromeda OS on the Nexus 9 tablet, it will not be officially released on the Nexus 9.

Andromeda OS is being speculated as the next generation operating system which will be an amalgamation of the Android OS and the

Customer smashes iPhones and Macs in Apple Store in France

#APPLE

Image Credit: REUTER

By tech2 News Staff /  30 Sep 2016 , 21:14

An angry Apple customer smashed at least 14 iPhones, 4 Macs and 1 MacBook Air inside an Apple Store in France. The agitated customer went on a clear rampage inside the Apple store in Dijon, France. According to the reports by The Verge and the video posted on YouTube, the customer was calmly going around the store and smashing the Apple devices using an iron ball.

The video showing the destruction of Apple devices is uploaded by user “kekess _______” on YouTube, presumably only to upload videos related to this incident.  This video is one of the three where the angry customer is talking about his rights to return the device and refund. Other videos show him casually exiting the store on encountering security guards and attempting to avoid them outside the store.

Two mall security guards seem to be trying to pacifying and bring him under control while he was trying to escape the guards in the final video.  According to reports by French media website “Le Bien Republic,” the customer is in police custody at the time of writing the story. The reason, identity or the number of devices destroyed could not be confirmed at the time of writing but it sure is troubling. This comes right after the report where it is predicted thatiPhone sales can go further down in India.

A ‘safe’ Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has exploded in China; Samsung scrambles to investigate

Image: Hui Renjie

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Sep 2016 , 14:50

Samsung seems to be in deeper trouble than it already was. A report from China indicates that a new, ‘safe’ Samsung Galaxy Note 7 caught fire and burnt the owner’s MacBook and fingers.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 devices have been blowing up with disturbing regularity, forcing the company to issue a worldwide recall of the device. China was left out of that recall, however. Samsung noted that the Chinese model Note 7s used a battery from a different manufacturer and Samsung considered those batteries to be safe.

CNNMoney reports that Hui Renjie, a 25-year old Chinese tech worker, bought the device fromJD.com, a Chinese e-commerce website, and that the device was not included in the recall, as verified by the IMEI number. Just to be clear, the device in question was brand new, but not part of the replacement batch of Note 7s that is to be sent out to customers affected by the official recall.

Renjie claims to have left the phone charging overnight, only to wake up in the morning to smoke coming from the device. It then suddenly burst into flames, damaging his MacBook Pro and burning two of his fingers.

A Samsung representative apparently went to Renjie to inquire after the device and to collect it for evaluation, but Renjie did not give the device to the representative, stating that he expected Samsung to hush up the situation and that he wanted to go public with the evidence.

There have been at least 4 reports of exploding Note 7s in China, but Samsung has rubbished two of those claims on grounds that the battery wasn’t responsible for the explosion.

Even in this case, some members of Android Central’s forums suspect the cable and/or a faulty charger to be responsible for the explosion. This is just speculation at present.

Regardless, the latest explosion has put Samsung in a tight spot. Their worldwide recall only recently started gathering steam and the bad press was slowly dying out.