Apple’s Next iPhone Will Have a Curved Screen & USB-C: Report

The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki is reporting that Apple’s next iPhone, the 10th anniversary edition, will have a curved display manufactured by Samsung.

Apple had been studying flexible organic light-emitting diode or OLED screens similar to those used by rival Samsung Electronics Co. and had asked suppliers for prototypes, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.

People with direct knowledge of Apple’s production plans said the Cupertino, Calif., company has decided to go ahead with the technology, and it will release a phone model using the OLED screens this year.

The most striking paragraph from the article is this one:

They said Apple would introduce other updates including a USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector. The models would also do away with a physical home button, they said. Those updates would give the iPhone features already available on other smartphones.

This is absolutely bonkers.

February 28, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple’s New Spaceship Campus is Officially Called Apple Park, Opens in April

Apple Park

Apple has today announced that its new spaceship campus that has been under construction over the last few years will be officially called Apple Park and will open to employees in April.

Spread over 175-acres in the Santa Clara Valley in California, the new HQ includes a 2.8 million-square-foot main building with the world’s largest panels of curved glass. Apple Park also includes a 100-seat theater that has been named after Steve Jobs and is situated atop a hill within the new campus.

Apple Park Steve Jobs Theater

Here are some highlights of Apple Park:

  • Runs entirely on renewable energy.
  • Includes a 1000-seat theater/auditorium.
  • 17 Megawatts of solar panels on the rooftop.
  • Includes a visitor center, along with an Apple Store and a café.
  • World’s largest naturally ventilated building
  • Includes a 100,000 square-foot fitness center for Apple employees.
  • Two miles of walking and running paths

I can’t wait to visit this.

February 22, 2017 ✚ Permalink

GitLab Accidently Deletes Production Data; Discovers that their Backups Don’t Work

TechCrunch, reporting on the GitLab.com meltdown this morning:

According to The Register a folder containing 300GB of live production data was erroneously deleted by a GitLab sysadmin — with just 4.5GB remaining by the time the delete command was cancelled.

Holy shit!

Mad props to the team at GitLab for owning up about their mistake and being so open and upfront about the status.

February 1, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Tim Cook on India during Apple’s Q1 2017 Earnings Call

Apple had their quarterly earnings call yesterday where they announced record first quarter results. The company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion (compared to $75.9 billion in Q1 2016) and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 (compared to $3.28 in Q1 2016).

iPhone and Mac sales and revenue are up, whereas iPad sales and revenue is down compared to the year-ago quarter. Revenue from Apple’s Services business and from Other Products (includes Apple Watch and Apple TV) are also up.

During the earnings call, Brian White from Drexel asked,

I didn’t hear much mentioned about India. How did India perform with the iPhone, and how should we think about it for 2017, especially with the 4G network going up?

Tim answered,

That’s a really good question. Despite the de-monetization move in India that created lots of economic pressure there last quarter, despite that, we had all-time record revenue results. And so we were very happy about that. The de-monetization impact has not worked its way through yet; it’s still definitely having some overhang, but I think in the longer term, it’s a great move. I feel really good about how we’re doing there. We are in discussions on a number of things, including retail stores and fully intend to invest significantly in the country and believe it’s a great place to be.

[Via iMore]

February 1, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple Increases Pricing of Apps on the App Store in India

iOS App Store

Apple has today sent out an email to iOS developers notifying them of upcoming changes to the pricing on the App Store. According to the email, the pricing of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) will increase in India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Apple mentions that this price change is due to change in tax laws in the India, Romania and Russia, but it doesn’t mention why the pricing is changing in the UK. It’s likely that Apple is merely adjusting the pricing to be in line with the falling value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar.

If you’re in India, here’s what the pricing change means and how it’ll affect you.

(more…)

January 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Atlassian Buys Trello for $425 Million

Atlassian — the Sydney-based giant that owns products like JIRA, Confluence, HipChat, Bitbucket, SourceTree, etc. has today announced that it will be acquiring Trello — the beloved project management app. The deal is worth $425 Million according to Business Insider.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-Founder and CEO of Atlassian, writes:

Trello’s pioneering use of an intuitive visual system has been embraced by all kinds of teams to do everything from managing marketing campaigns to tracking action items from team meetings. Organizations in nearly every country and as varied as the Red Cross and Google have adopted Trello to get work done.

We’re thrilled to welcome the talented Trello team to Atlassian and look forward to working with them to change the way teams work together. Deep investments in R&D have long been a cornerstone of Atlassian’s business and we will continue that tradition with Trello.

My immediate concern upon reading this was how would Trello change under the Atlassian culture. Mike clarifies:

If you currently use Trello as either a free or paid user, you can rest assured that we will continue to offer Trello as a standalone service. We’ll be working with their product team to help them accelerate development efforts.

Over on the Trello blog, Michael Pryor, the CEO of Trello writes:

We’re excited about partnering with Atlassian because we both share a philosophy of empowering teams everywhere to work in their own style. We envision a world where hundreds of millions of people collaborate in teams however they like, with their imaginations being the only constraint for what they can accomplish. As part of Atlassian, Trello will be able to leverage investments in R&D that will enhance the product in meaningful ways. Our team will be able to focus on improving the core experience of Trello for all users. We are certain that Atlassian understands the unique and novel reasons why Trello is so successful and well-loved.

Atlassian & Trello do sound like a great fit, but I’m still concerned.

January 9, 2017 ✚ Permalink

1,200 Wi-Fi Hotspots to be Launched in Mumbai Soon

Mumbai — the financial capital of the country will pretty soon go live with 1200 Wi-Fi Hotspots, according to the Hindustan Times.

The project envisages providing wireless internet access across the city through a network of 6,000 MTNL hotspots at 1,200 locations across the city. It will offer speeds of up to 20Mbps (megabits per second), equivalent to 2.5MB/s (megabytes per second).

Under the scheme, the first 1GB of data or the first 30 minutes of use – whichever comes first – will be free. After that, you will be charged at competitive rates.

The municipal elections are set for next month, so I’m hoping to see this go live some time next week.

January 7, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple Plans to Make iPhones in Bengaluru in India

Shilpa Phadnis, reporting for the TNN:

Apple plans to make iPhones for the Indian market in Bengaluru. Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker for Apple, is setting up a facility in Peenya, the city’s industrial hub, to manufacture the iPhones. The facility will start production from next April, according to industry sources.

I really hope this see-saw of news ends soon.

December 30, 2016 ✚ Permalink