Phil Schiller talks HomePod & the tech behind it

Now that HomePod is ready to start getting into the hands of customers, Apple is trotting its execs out for a myriad of press interviews.

Its marketing honcho Phil Schiller sat down with the Sound and Vision blog to talk about the Siri-powered smart speaker. The publication had a short 15-minute slot to talk to Schiller.

Still, they were able to learn quite a bit behind Apple’s motivation in designing HomePod, what they consider to be most important and what really separates the device from other smart speakers like Amazon’s inexpensive Echo speakers.

One question I’m sure many people had for Apple was “why now?”

Competition has been mounting in the smart speaker race, so people had pondered why it took so long for Apple to throw their hat in the ring.

Schiller’s response was simple: this was just when it made sense. As for the technology behind HomePod, it’s pulled from across Apple’s ecosystem.

It all came together as Siri gained marked improvements last year.

Also, Apple really doubled down on machine learning and deep neural networks, Apple Music is hitting its stride, HomeKit growth has been huge and the sound team has made huge improvements in audio. All of these pieces are essential to the HomePod experience and it took until now for all of that to come to fruition.

He went on to explain why HomePod sounds great from any position in the room.

The microphone array in HomePod listens to the reflection of the music off neighboring surfaces, senses where the bookshelf is, or if it’s in the corner of a room or against a wall, and then uses machine learning to understand what it’s hearing, interpret the sound, and adjust the audio.

Using advanced software and the A8 chip, HomePod intelligently beams center vocals and direct energy away from the wall while reflecting the ambient reverb and back-up vocals against the wall for dispersion into the room.

HomePod also sports an accelerometer sensor, allowing it to know every time it is moved in order to run a scan and check again for its position in the room. Privacy has been a significant concern for users so Schiller reiterated Apple’s approach to protecting user privacy.

All “Hey, Siri” voice processing is done 100% locally on the device.

It is only after hearing the hot word that the device transmits anything to Apple. And when it does, voice queries are sent anonymously with a Siri ID and the entire process is encrypted.

Schiller goes a long way in painting HomePod as a device that is significantly smarter than the other smart speakers, even if everything is apparent on the outside.

There are plenty of other tidbits in the interview that are worth checking out. If you’re interested, do head on over to Sound and Vision to give it a read.

Read More

tvOS 10.1 jailbreak could be a possibility, suggests nitoTV

In a series of tweets published on Friday, Kevin Bradley, also known as nitoTV, mentioned that although nothing is certain quite yet, there are chances that a jailbreak for tvOS 10.1 could be released in the near future. To prepare for the eventuality, nitoTV suggests to either restore or downgrade to tvOS 10.1.

Very little is known so far about that possible tvOS 10.1 jailbreak, but Bradley told iDB that the yalu102 jailbreak from Luca Todesco should be adaptable to tvOS. 

Apple released tvOS 10.1.1 last week, and depending on your configuration, your Apple TV may have already been automatically updated to that version. Thankfully, and because tvOS 10.1 is still being signed by Apple, it is still possible to downgrade to that version. Likewise, if your Apple TV is running an older version of tvOS, it is also possible to update to tvOS 10.1. In order to restore to tvOS 10.1, you will first have to download that firmware and install it following a simple set of instructions.

Despite a jailbreak being released last year by the Pangu Team, the Apple TV has largely been ignored when it comes to jailbreaking. And understandably so. The market for it is much smaller than the iOS one, which means jailbreak hackers prefer to concentrate their efforts on the bigger piece of the pie. As nitoTV rightfully notes, if it wasn’t for his devotion to Apple TV, we users would probably be left with nothing at all.

Again, while nothing is set in stone, it is definitely encouraging to see that something is happening at all.

Read More

ReachBoard lets you peek at your iOS clipboard in the Reachability view

For a lot of people, the space that comes up when you invoke Reachability is considered wasted space. It becomes a giant gaping hole of nothingness on your screen any time you use the feature to one-handedly use your large-screened iPhone.

A new free jailbreak tweak called ReachBoard aims to make good use of that empty space by filling it with anything that may be residing in your clipboard.

Let me just start by saying that ReachBoard works with all kinds of content. It works with text, URLs, and even images. So, no matter what you might have in your clipboard, it will appear in Reachability after you install ReachBoard, which is pretty cool.

This tweak comes in handy when you want to be able to look at something while simultaneously doing something else in an app, because it lets you bring up a sneak peek preview of whatever is in your clipboard and is easily invoked and dismissed.

This is great for comparing two different images that you might be looking at on the internet, keeping a steady eye on a body of text while typing it out, or even to quickly open a link you’ve copied after you’ve finished a different activity in another app.

I will mention that this tweak only works inside of apps, so you won’t ever see ReachBoard while you use Reachability on your Home screen. I would assume this is to keep aesthetics looking good, and moreover to make the tweak serve a purpose, as you would never really need to see your clipboard while on the Home screen.

Even if your device doesn’t support Reachability natively, you can use this tweak in tandem with another tweak called ReachAll, which brings Reachability support to your device regardless. With that setup, ReachBoard works perfectly fine, so iPhone SE & iPhone 5s users and earlier can still enjoy its uses.

ReachBoard adds a preferences pane to the Settings app where there are a few different options you can configure. Those include enabling or disabling the tweak on demand, choosing a theme, and choosing a duration after which the interface will dismiss automatically.

While not everyone is going to have a use for a tweak like this, I find that it’s more utilitarian than a lot of jailbreak tweak releases recently, so I can say that this is actually something worth checking out if you’re still clinging onto your jailbreak and want to try a utilitarian-style jailbreak tweak.

Read More

Heart Throb lets you favorite pictures in your Photos app with a double tap

You can favorite any of your photographs or screenshots in the stock Photos app on your iPhone to help filter your most-loved memories from the rest. In order to favorite a picture, you normally tap on the heart-shaped button at the bottom of the app.

Heart Throb, on the other hand, is a new free jailbreak tweak that brings Instagram-like favoriting capability to the stock Photos app. With it, you can double-tap on your photograph to “favorite” it.

The fact that so many media apps use this double-tap gesture as a liking shortcut means that it should already feel familiar to you. In fact, I’ve been an Instagram user for a long time, and I often scroll through my feed and double-tap to like pictures, so having this functionality now built into my stock Photos app feels pretty native to me.

What’s more is the tweak even comes with a nice little heads-up display, as shown in the screenshots above, which shows when the gesture is successful. When you like an image, you’ll see a heart icon pop up; on the contrary, when you unlike an image, you’ll see a broken heart icon pop up.

Because the double-tap gesture you’re now using to favorite images in your Photos app was originally dedicated to zooming in on them, you might be wondering how to zoom in now. The developer was clever and re-routed the zoom-in functionality to a triple-tap gesture on an image, so you’re not actually losing out on any functionality. Instead, you’ll just be using a different gesture for each function.

It’s worth noting that Heart Throb is intended only for the stock Photos app on your iPhone or iPad and doesn’t work with third-party image viewers like Google Photos. So, don’t get any crazy ideas folks!

Heart Throb can be downloaded for free on your jailbroken iOS 9 device from Cydia’s BigBoss repository today.

Read More

Twitter rolling out enhanced Explore tab to iOS users

Twitter on Thursday announced that it has begun rolling out an enhanced Explore tab for its mobile users. The updated feature combines trending topics, Moments, search and live video into a single spot to make it easier for users to see what’s happening on the social network.

Over the past year, we’ve been exploring different ways to make it simpler for people to find and use trends, Moments, and search. During our research process, people told us that the new Explore tab helped them easily find news, what’s trending, and what’s popular right now. 

Twitter reassures users that none of the popular features are going away, they’re just getting easier to find. The updated Explored tab will begin hitting iOS devices today, and Android in the “coming weeks.” Just make sure you have the latest version of the official Twitter app installed.

Source: Twitter

Read More

How to find out your AirPods firmware version

Most Bluetooth headphones have a firmware that can be periodically updated, and AirPods are no different. These firmware updates tend to be extremely small in size and usually offer bug fixes and stability improvements in order to fix issues users may encounter (ie. quick battery drain, etc…).

In this post we will show you how can find out what your AirPods firmware version is.

What is a firmware?

A firmware is a software programmed into engineered products and systems. The firmware contained in these devices provides the low-level control program for the device. Think of it as the software for the hardware. Most electronics manufactured in recent years contain a firmware. Your TV remote is the perfect example of a simple product that contains a firmware. In that case, the firmware is used to control what happens when you press a button, for instance.

Similarly, your AirPods have a firmware installed on them that allows the device to operate. When you double tap on your AirPods to invoke Siri, the firmware is controlling that.

Why would you want to know your firmware version?

While this information will be useless to the vast majority of people, nerds like us just like to know the nitty-gritty details about their electronics. Personally, as an AirPods user who has encountered small issues with the earphones in the past, I just want to keep track of the firmware version to find out if Apple has made some changes that may result in better user experience for me.

For instance, my AirPods have trouble connecting with my Apple Watch on a regular basis. Will a future firmware update change this? I want to know.

How is the firmware updated?

Although Apple doesn’t provide any details about this, the firmware of your AirPods can likely be updated after installing a newer version of iOS. If that newer version of iOS contains a firmware update for AirPods, then the AirPods firmware will be updated next time the devices are connected to each other.

As far as I know, you cannot manually force an AirPods firmware update, neither can you prevent one from happening, unless you refrain from updating your iPhone to the latest iOS version.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to tell what’s included in a firmware update for AirPods. Maybe Apple will release this information in the future, but I find that very unlikely.

How to find out the firmware version of your AirPods

Finding out the firmware version of your AirPods is quick and easy. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > About. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the AirPods cell. Tap on it, and you shall see information about your AirPods, including your model number, serial number, firmware version, and hardware version.

As of this writing, the firmware version of AirPods is 3.3.1. As future iOS versions are released, I will make sure to keep track of my AirPods firmware version and see if any update was made, indicating possible stability improvements.

Read More

Rumor: Apple working with LG on dual cameras for iPhone with 3D photography features

A future iPhone could enhance the iPhone 7 Plus’s depth-of-field Portrait photography mode with all-new “3D photographing” features, according to a new report Thursday from The Korea Economic Daily. The outlet is reporting that the Cupertino firm has teamed up with LG Innotek on a next-generation dual-camera module with 3D photography features, likely to be used in select 2017 iPhone models.

Here’s what sources told the publication:

Apple is now studying how to apply its 3D camera technology into LG Innotek’s smartphone camera. Since LG Innotek also has its own 3D camera and related technologies, such joint efforts will likely to bear fruit sometime within next year.

The report stops short of detailing possible 3D photography enhancements that the new dual-camera system may provide so we can only speculate at this point. Of note, LG Innotek is the exclusive supplier of the iPhone 7 Plus’s dual-lens camera system.

LG already used its 3D camera technology in the 2011 Optimus 3D handset and Apple owns advanced 3D camera technology via its $20 million April 2015 purchase of Israeli firm LinX Imaging. It is widely believed that LinX technology is powering the smarts of the iPhone 7 Plus’s camera.

LinX has solved most of the problems associated with combining multiple images captured from different points in space, such as registration errors and occlusion related artifacts, and Apple probably used those innovations in the underlying software algorithms powering Portrait shooting mode on the iPhone 7 Plus.

The iPhone 7 Plus, Apple’s first iPhone ever with two cameras out the back, uses its dual-lens camera module to create a depth-of-field effect, also known as bokeh, that keeps faces sharp while creating a beautifully blurred background.

Taking advantage of advanced machine learning, Apple’s custom image signal processor and the sheer power of its in-house designed A10 Fusion chip, the system simultaneously takes an image with both cameras to create a 3D map of the scene that helps determine the amount of DSLR-like blur for each individual pixel.

Source: The Korea Economic Daily

Read More

10.5-inch iPad Pro rumored to target education and enterprise markets

Apple may position its rumored new 10.5-inch iPad Pro model as the go-to tablet in the education and enterprise markets, if a report Tuesday in DigiTimes is anything to go by. The Taiwanese trade publication learned from Asian supply chain makers that the Cupertino firm’s decided to add a new screen size to the lineup because existing 9.7-inch models proved too small and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro too expensive for business users and students.

DigiTimes writes:

Apple is launching the 10.5-inch iPad mainly because 10-inch and larger tablets have been popular among enterprises and the education sector in the US, the sources said. Its existing 9.7-inch iPad may be too small and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro too expensive for such procurement, the sources indicated.

The 10.5-inch iPad Pro will be reportedly outfitted with an in-house designed A10X chip, a higher-clocked version of the iPhone 7’s A10 Fusion chip with additional graphics cores. The same chip should be used in a second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, too.

Shipments of 10.5-inch iPads will reach two million units in the first quarter of next year and may reach five to six million units in the year, the sources said.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo first reported in August and October of this year that Apple might add a brand new form factor to the iPad Pro family with a new screen size measuring at either 10.1 or 10.5 inches diagonally.

DigiTimes adds that Apple will also launch lower-priced 9.7-inch iPads to “compete with Android models.” If I’m reading this correctly, 2017 iPad lineup will focus on 9.7, 10.5 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models while the existing 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 will get a price cut to “compete with Android models.”

Another possibility: Apple kills the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and instead aims a third-generation 9.7-inch iPad Pro at consumers, with 10.5 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models focused on education and enterprise markets.

I don’t think Apple should fragment iOS devices with new screen sizes just because Android makers are doing the same thing, but it may in fact be a good idea to create a new display size falling somewhere between current 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pros.

As much as I wanted to own a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I’ve managed to resist buying it because every time I grab this thing and hold it in my hands I realize it’s just too humongous a piece of glass to be carrying around comfortably.

On the other hand, I sold my iPad Air 2 because its form factor was increasingly becoming inadequate for my needs and I needed more pixels for comfortable side-by-side multitasking because I suffer from vision problems.

I’m very excited for this new iPad Pro screen size.

You? Thoughts? Hit us in comments!

Source: DigiTimes

Read More

Open source Darwin code for macOS 10.12 Sierra now available

Apple today released open-source Darwin code for macOS 10.12 Sierra, 9to5Mac reports. Darwin, for those unfamiliar with it, forms the core set of Unix components upon which macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS are based, including drivers and the unencrypted kernel along with its BSD portions.

Apple typically releases Darwin code shortly after major macOS releases, and Sierra is no exception. Anyone interested in the intricacies of Sierra’s inner workings can now grab a copy of Darwin via this direct download link.

At post time, the new files had yet to appear on the web UI at opensource.apple.com.

Apple debuted Darwin as an open-source Unix operating system back in 2000. It’s since updated Darwin on a regular basis as its software platforms have been advancing.

It’s important to note that macOS is not Darwin, or vice-versa. While macOS does run on top of Darwin’s foundation, it adds a bunch of things like Carbon and Cocoa APIs, Quartz Compositor and Aqua that make it usable to end users.

It’s these (closed-source) unique layers on top of Darwin that give macOS all the functionality, like the graphical UI, high-level services, applications and so forth.

In other words, Darwin cannot run any software made for the Mac out of the box.

That didn’t stop enthusiasts from taking the open source Darwin code to create all sorts of forks. For instance, projects such as “Darwin-on-arm” modify the Darwin code to let it run on other computing platforms, like the Raspberry Pi or Beagleboard.

And other Darwin distributions, like OpenDarwin and PureDarwin, include patches and even kernel extensions which Apple’s Darwin code lacks.

Source: 9to5Mac

Read More

NotificationPop lets you use a 3D Touch gesture to open notifications

Although I enjoy the Plus-sized iPhones, I don’t very much enjoy having to reach all the way up to the top of the display to tap or drag on a notification banner when someone texts me.

Now, jailbreakers can work around this with a simple 3D Touch gesture thanks to a new free jailbreak tweak called NotificationPop.

With NotificationPop, whenever a notification banner appears on your screen, you can use a 3D Touch gesture anywhere on the screen to launch the notification. Essentially what happens is the 3D Touch gesture simulates a tap on the banner.

If it’s a text message, it takes you right to the conversation. If it’s a Facebook notification, it takes you right to the Facebook app. If it’s a Twitter notification, it takes you right to the Twitter app… etc.

Since the 3D Touch gesture can be applied anywhere on the screen, even from the bottom, this tweak makes life so much easier for people with smaller hands or for people who have the Plus-sized iPhones like I do and struggle to use it one-handed.

NotificationPop doesn’t have any options to configure, so once you install it you can pretty much begin using it.

It’s a free download from Cydia’s BigBoss repository for any jailbroken iPhone that supports 3D Touch. Moreover, the developer has made the tweak open source, so you’re free to view the source code on Github if you’re into that sort of thing.

Read More

Here’s a special tool Apple uses to recover data from MacBook Pro’s non-removable SSD

iFixit’s teardown analysis of both the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has found a non-removable SSD inside soldered to the logic board. In contrast, non-Touch Bar Pros use a removable PCIe-based SSD, simplifying upgrades.

iFixit discovered that Touch Bar Pros include a hidden connector on the logic board that leads nowhere which, as reported by 9to5Mac, works in conjunction with a special tool to let service technicians rescue data in case of a hardware failure.

The mystery connector on the logic board, pictured top of post, give Apple a way to access data on a dead MacBook Pro’s soldered-down SSD, using a special tool you see photographed below.

9to5Mac reports that Apple will be offering any 2016 MacBook Pro customers still under warranty attempted data transfer in the event the device doesn’t boot, according to sources familiar with Apple’s repair process. An authorized service technician simply inserts a faulty logic board in the holder to transfer data.

“Apple’s new customer data migration tool is specifically designed for the 2016 MacBook Pro and includes a logic board holder with power adapter that allows repair staff to insert your logic board and connect it via USB-C to another MacBook Pro,” explains 9to5Mac.

The company will reportedly offer to transfer data for any Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro’s logic board, SSD, Touch ID or wireless card failures as long as the machine is still covered under the standard one-year AppleCare hardware warranty.

“Since Touch ID is also attached to the logic board, Apple will have to replace both together if one or the other fails,” notes 9to5Mac. Certain Touch ID issues may not require a hardware replacement because Apple stores will have parts to do Touch ID calibration.

Image courtesy of iFixit

Source: 9to5Mac

Read More

This tweak keeps Google Maps from nagging you when Location Services are disabled

While most people grant Google Maps access to their location for navigation purposes, not everyone uses Google Maps for navigation. Other users primarily use the app for region exploration and keep Google Maps from accessing their location for privacy reasons.

If you’re one of these people, and you hate seeing the location services warning alert every time you open the app, then you should install a new free jailbreak tweak called Google Maps – No Location Services Alert right away.

With no options to configure, the tweak gets to work immediately after installation. When it’s installed, you will no longer see the prompt above when you have location services disabled for Google Maps.

The tweak works when location services are disabled for Google Maps itself, as well as when you temporarily disable location services for all apps on your iPhone or iPad.

If you’re still stuck thinking why in the world someone would use Google Maps without giving it location access, there are a number of reasons, starting with the fact that Google crowd-sources anonymous data and not everyone is comfortable with that from a privacyperspective.

On the other hand, you can still use Google Maps to look up locations and get directions from point A to point B when you type them in manually even when you have location services disabled, so the app is still useful even without location services. The only major thing you really miss out on is real-time navigation.

Google Maps – No Location Services Alert does a great job of keeping the persistent popup from appearing every time you launch the app, so if you’re a part of the group that doesn’t give Google Maps location access, then this is a tweak for you.

You can find Google Maps – No Location Services Alert in Cydia’s BigBoss repository right now for free, and it works with all jailbroken iPhones and iPads.

If you’re not already using the Google Maps app, you can download it for free from the App Store.

Read More