iPhone 7

The latest Consumer Intelligence Research Partners data for the April to June quarter showed that Apple was attracting more Android switchers than at any time in the past 12 months.

The good news for Apple is that relative to earlier quarters, they attracted a higher percentage of iPhone buyers from Android phones. In the past three quarters before the June 2017 quarter, Android owners had represented 14% to 17% of iPhone buyers. With lengthening upgrade cycles and a growing percentage of owners with the most recently released models, continued platform switching will be important to the success of the next iPhones …

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If you’re in the market for an iPhone now and can’t wait for new models later this year, T-Mobile is kicking off a new promotion to discount the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for customers. The deal starts today and discounts new iPhones by up to $400 after trading in a qualified iPhone.

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We’ve been seeing some impressive augmented reality apps of late, but if holding your phone out in front of you feels a bit too artificial, an LA-based startup has an affordable alternative.

The Mira Prism is a $99 headset with a slot for an iPhone 7. Instead of the Google Cardboard approach of having the screen face you, it instead faces the inside of the visor. You then see the augmented elements reflected on the plastic in front of you, and the real world through the glasses …

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The official unveiling of the iPhone 8 is still several months away but that hasn’t stopped the Chinese manufacturers from producing their usual clone hardware in advance.

EverythingApplePro got his hands on one of the ‘working’ clones which have surfaced online in the last couple of weeks, and it really doesn’t take much to notice how bad they really are. Video of the device in action after the jump …

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KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo has sent out a new report with his top predictions for the 2017 iPhone lineup: two iterative updates to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as well as the all-new OLED iPhone 8. The analyst believes that the iPhone 8 will feature the highest screen-to-body ratio of any phone on the market, thanks to the addition of the ‘notch’ at the top of the screen and a virtual home button.

However, KGI dampens spirits by stating that the virtual home button will not support fingerprint recognition, and that the OLED iPhone will not include a Touch ID sensor of any kind …

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A Greenpeace campaign to highlight the environmental impact of planned obsolescence has slated iPads and MacBooks for their poor repairability scores, but praises the iPhone 7.

It follows a separate report earlier this year in which Greenpeace labelled Apple the most environmentally friendly tech company in the world …

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The latest Kantar data shows that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus remained the top-selling phones in the USA for the three-month period ending in April, with a combined market share of 20.1%. Total iPhone share grew 5.8 points year-on-year to hit 36.5%.

Samsung didn’t fare so well, though there was also some mixed news for Apple …

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Consumer Reports today is out with its latest smartphone ratings, highlighting recent releases from Samsung. The iPhone 7 is also in the mix, even though it’s nearing 9 months on the market at this point.

Given the iPhone 7’s age, it shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that it was beat out by newer flagship devices from Samsung and LG…

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Several iPhone 8 related leaks surfaced over the weekend, backing up a radical new chassis design first seen in April. The new schematics include the various characteristics we’ve seen reported for the OLED iPhone in the past including the elongated power button, vertical dual camera and lack of a physical home button.

Most notably, an orange outline traces the purported screen area of the iPhone 8. Based on this schematic, the screen will be effectively bezel-less on left, right and bottom sides whilst the top edge will cut inwards to accommodate the front camera, earpiece and sensors. More pictures after the jump …

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Although the iPhone 8 is apparently entering production verification testing this month, the rumor mill continues to disagree about several details of Apple’s upcoming radically-redesigned phone.

In this latest alleged schematics photo via Sneakleaks, an iPhone chassis is shown with a Touch ID fingerprint cutout below the Apple logo on the back of the device. This idea was last seen in an April leak. However, the rumors have not come to consensus and there are still many contradictory reports about the fate of the iPhone 8 Touch ID …

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Apple is expected to launch three new iPhone models this year, two iterative updates with similar industrial designs to  iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and one major radical new phone tentatively dubbed ‘iPhone 8’.

A new set of photos have surfaced on Weibo purporting to show molds for all three of the new phones. They don’t really reveal anything what we haven’t seen rumored before, but it’s interesting to see the new size in context. More photos after the jump …

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Apple earlier this month launched a new website and video series focused on helping users get the most out of their iPhone cameras, and today the company has further expanded the series with four new how-to videos…

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The iPhone 8 is expected to debut later this year touting a 5.8-inch OLED ‘bezel-less’ display incorporated into a new-design glass and stainless chassis. There have been many rumors about Apple increasing the price of the model above the current iPhone range (128 GB iPhone 7 Plus tops out at $969), with some people referring to the device as an ‘iPhone Pro’.

Higher component costs support the idea of a premium price tag, and this is exactly what Economic Daily News is reporting today. It claims that the 3D Touch module in the OLED iPhone will cost Apple 150% more than the equivalent parts in the LCD iPhone 7 …

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Apple has long showcased the capabilities of the iPhone 7 camera, but now the company is working to help everyone take great looking images with the device. Today, Apple debuted a new series of videos, as well as a new website, focused on educating users on how to take the best images with their iPhone…

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According to a new report from Digitimes, TSMC has officially begun production of the Apple A11 SoC, set to feature in the iPhone  8 later this year. The foundry apparently wanted to begin mass production in April but faced issues with yields. TSMC will be the sole supplier of A11 chips for the upcoming iPhone refresh.

The A11 chip is also expected to be included in the iPhone 7s spec bump phones, which will seemingly use the same chassis design as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, although this is not universally supported by the rumors.

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There have been a few reports recently about delays in the production pipeline for Apple’s next-generation iPhones. A new report from Economic Daily News claims that mass production of iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s is on track for the new iPhones to be announced by Apple in September and go on sale in October.

According to EDN, via Digitimes, one of the big issues was manufacturing of the new substrate-like circuit boards set to feature in all three new iPhones. Yields of these components have apparently now been improved.

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In a lengthy report from JPMorgan, the analyst uildreaks down its latest predictions about the upcoming 2017 iPhone updates.

The ‘modest upgrade’ iPhone 7s models will reportedly use glass backs in addition to the radical OLED iPhone. It says the OLED display will be edge-to-edge horizontally on the iPhone 8, not vertically (pictures after the jump). The analyst also claims that the iPhone 8 may come bundled with a free pair of wireless AirPods and predicts the total added cost to Apple of all the new technology inside the OLED iPhone …

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Indian news network NDTV caught up with Apple’s SVP Marketing Phil Schiller for an interview after his visit to the new App Accelerator in Bengaluru.

The discussion touches on Schiller’s management of App Store and Apple’s developer ecosystem, Swift adoption and his thoughts on voice-only assistants like the Google Home or Amazon Echo. Whilst Schiller would not gave any praise to its competitor’s products, he did say that these kind of devices are convenient in some situations …

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The latest iPhone 8 leak is an image of a purported case for the device, via KKSneakLeaks. This (admittedly) bare bones clear case gives some clues as to the device’s characteristics by the shape and cutouts in the accessory. Most prominently, the case includes a camera cutout that would snugly fit the vertically-stacked dual camera that we have seen so much in recent weeks.

It also has a noticeably longer power button and notably lacks any hole for a rear Touch ID sensor to reside. This again supports the idea that Apple will successfully integrate the fingerprint scanner into the display, rather than an earlier leak which placed the sensor below the Apple logo on the back. The general proportions of the part also confirms that the physical size of the device is comparable to the 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

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Although there are still many doubts about the iPhone 8 rumored design, mocked up above, a new schematic has surfaced on Weibo today. This drawing (embedded after the break below) is a more detailed version of what we saw yesterday and includes label annotations for many components.

The new dual front and (vertical) back cameras are visible and a rear Touch ID sensor is nowhere in sight, again implying it will be integrated into the OLED display. What’s most interesting about this latest leak though is that it indicates the parts used by the iPhone 8 for wireless charging …

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Apple is reportedly in talks with partners to launch its own person-to-person payments service, extending the breadth of Apple Pay and closely competing with services like Venmo or Square Cash. Recode reports that the company wants to announce the payments-between-friends feature later this year — although plans can change.

Recode says that Apple has also held talks with Visa about the possibility of creating virtual Apple prepaid debit cards. This would allow users to spend the money they get from the new peer-to-peer payments service instantly without having to wait for the money to clear in their bank account.

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