iPhone 7: Specs & features expected for Apple’s next flagship

A new dual-camera system, storage and RAM upgrades, a tweaked physical design, and possibly the Smart Connector that debuted on Apple’s iPad Pro line. Those are just a few of the upgrades possibly expected for Apple’s next flagship iPhone lineup, not to mention a lot of discussion over what it has planned for its bundled headphones now that it’s expected to ditch the old 3.5mm headphone jack with iPhone 7. Here’s what we know so far.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: 5.5-inch model, Apple, Dual-Camera, features, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 plus, OIS, specs

Adonit launches new $79 Pixel stylus as worthy competitor to Apple Pencil, compatible with iPhone and iPad

The stylus market was shaken up last fall with Apple’s first-party entrance into the race with the Apple Pencil, which works in concert with special sensors in the iPad Pro display for pixel-accurate recognition. This left third-party stylus accessory manufacturers in a quandary — how can they compete with the officially-endorsed Apple Pencil? The Pixel stylus is the answer from Adonit, on sale today for $79.99. Not only is Adonit’s stylus $20 cheaper than Apple’s, it has a huge advantage in terms of iOS device compatibility.

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: Adonit, Apple Pencil, iPad Pro, stylus

9to5Toys Lunch Break: Panasonic 50″ 4K UHDTV $500, mophie 32GB Space Pack $40, Bose SoundLink Mini II $179, more

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

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Add a 50-inch Panasonic 4K Smart LED Ultra HDTV to your home today for $500 shipped, 65-inch $1,000, more

mophie-space-pack-black

Get more space and 2X the power with the mophie 32GB Space Pack for iPhone 5/s/SE: $40 shipped (Reg. $110)

Boost your iPhone’s battery w/ mophie’s juice pack reserve case for $40 Prime shipped (Reg. $60)

bose-soundlink-mini-ii

Many acclaimed Bose speakers & headphones now on sale, SoundLink Mini II $179 shipped (Reg. $199)

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Here’s your chance to finally save on SONOS, all speakers now come w/ a free gift card

WWE 2K-iOS-08

WWE 2K on iOS and Android now on sale for just $1 (Reg. $8)

KAMI paper puzzle game goes free on iOS for the very first time today (Reg. $2)

App Store Free App of the Week: Pull My Tongue goes free for the first time ($1 value)

Transistor action-RPG for iOS once again matching its lowest price yet: $3 (Reg. $10)

Awesome Note 2 task/calendar app for iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad: $2 (Reg. $4)

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Review: We flew DJI’s impressive Phantom 4 drone towards a wall at 20MPH and nothing happened

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

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Add 5TB of external storage to your Mac, PC or Xbox One: Seagate USB 3.0 Expansion Hard Drive $110 (Reg. $130+)

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

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Green Deals: Philips Hue Lux A19 LED Light Starter Kit $40more

bowers-wilkins-t7

Treat yourself w/ all-time low prices on Bowers & Wilkins headphones, speakers

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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Jaybird’s new Freedom Bluetooth earbuds have an Apple-inspired metal design

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 32GB Space Pack, 5TB, 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Best Buy, bose headphones, Bose speakers, Daily Deals, djay 2, free apps, Gold Box, Mophie, SoundLink Mini II, video games, WWE 2K

Parallels Access 3.1 adds native iPad Pro resolution, Apple Pencil support, 3D Touch features, more

You may be familiar with Parallels for its virtual machine software that lets you run Windows alongside OS X on a Mac, but the company also offers a service and mobile app called Parallels Access that lets you remote into your Mac and Windows VM from other devices. Parallels Access for iOS is updating to version 3.1 today with enhancements for Apple’s latest iPhones and iPads plus new features for all users.

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Filed under: Apps Tagged: Parallels

Pebble 2 + Time 2 w/ built-in HR monitors & bigger screen, all-new 3G wearable Core unveiled

Pebble has just unveiled its latest smartwatches, and has done so in the most Pebble-like way possible, by launching a new Kickstarter project. The smartwatch maker has returned to the platform it used so successfully with the original Pebble, and the following iterations, with a true second generation Pebble and a second generation Pebble Time along with an all-new 3G wearable called the Pebble Core.

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Filed under: Tech Industry Tagged: Accessories, Kickstarter, Pebble 2, Pebble Time 2, smartwatches

Opinion: What can we expect from the 2016 MacBook Pro, and will it be worth the wait?

Apple has kept us waiting a long time for a new MacBook Pro. It’s been more than a year since the last update, and that was a minor one. It added Force Touch to the trackpad, provided faster flash storage, an extra hour of battery-life and faster graphics. All fine as a refresh, but nothing to get too excited about.

The latest report suggests that we’re now going to have to wait until Q4 this year before a new model is released. Unsurprisingly, that report points to a next-generation MacBook Pro with a thinner and lighter design, with cues taken from the 12-inch MacBook. More power-efficient processors should allow a thinner casing without sacrificing battery-life.

But it also suggests a couple of new features: Touch ID, and a touch-sensitive replacement for the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. At first glance, Touch ID might sound welcome but no big deal, and the touchscreen a bit gimmicky, but – executed properly – I think they could make a huge difference to the usability of the machine …

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Filed under: Mac, Opinion

Twitter announces mentions and media will soon stop counting towards 140 character limit, adding ability to self retweet

After a few months of speculation, Twitter has officially announced its plans to extend the length of tweets by no longer counting mentions and media attachments towards the 140 character limit as well as some new announcements including the ability to retweet yourself and the removal of the ‘.@’ convention to simplify the service. Twitter will roll all of these updates in the coming months.

The headline change is that Twitter handles (@mention), embedded photos, videos and other media attachments will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. This will allow users to fit more content into every tweet as metadata will not use up valuable characters.

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: 140 characters, character limit, mentions, personal, self retweets, Twitter

iOS 9 brings Spotlight Suggestions for search to 7 more regions

A redesigned Spotlight search screen is one of the key features in iOS 9, and Spotlight Suggestions powers this space with content from the App Store and iTunes, news sites, local businesses, and much more. Localization is key in providing a useful experience with Spotlight Suggestions, however, so the feature isn’t on by default for all regions and languages.

Apple has added support for seven more regions and languages now, though, bringing the total number of supported locations to 26. These are the latest regions to gain Spotlight Suggestions support:

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Filed under: iOS Tagged: iOS 9

Review: OtterBox uniVERSE case integrates popular accessories as modular components

For the last week or so I’ve been playing with a new OtterBox product called the uniVERSE case. It’s a modular system that allows users to swap in and out various accessories that are made to slickly mount to the case.

The company has partnered with makers of various smartphone products— camera lenses, speakers, tripods, card readers, battery packs, etc— and each has made a module that easily attaches to the new uniVERSE case.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: case, iPhone, lightning drive, modular, Olloclip, OtterBox, PolarPro, SanDisk, Seek Thermal, Universe

The UE Roll 2 is this summer’s best Bluetooth speaker, but we don’t recommend you buy it

The Ultimate Ears (UE) division of Logitech has been making some of the best Bluetooth speakers out there for quite some time. When I reviewed the waterproof UE Roll last year, it became the no-brainer summer music purchase, especially as 9to5toys caught it dipping down to $50 a few times in the past few weeks.

It is super-portable, mostly flat, rugged and so waterproof you can bring it into a pool with its own little floatie. This is the speaker I take with me on most trips because it is small in the backpack yet still sounds great, pairs easily with multiple devices and even has iOS/Android apps for creating alarms and checking battery. Obviously if you are throwing a house/pool party, you’ll want something more substantial like UE Boom and Megaboom.

Today UE upgraded the Roll with 15% better sound and 100-ft wireless range (up from 66-ft) along with some new color/designs (pictured above). Here’s the full official specs update …

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Filed under: iOS Devices