It had always seemed obvious that Foxconn’s reason for buying display-maker Sharp was to acquire the capacity to make OLED displays for future iPhones – and a supply-chain report today supports this.

Sharp will set up one 4.5G and two 6G AMOLED production lines with monthly capacity of 13,000, 11,500 and 34,500 glass substrates respectively, with total monthly capacity of 9.85 million 5.5-inch equivalent panels.

While the source is Digitimes, this one seems likely to be at least broadly accurate.

Apple currently used OLED displays only in the Apple Watch, still relying on older LCD displays for the iPhone, but numerous reports suggest that the company plans to switch to OLED screens for iPhones at some point in 2017 or 2018.

Image: OLED display under microscope via Reddit

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: AMOLED, Foxconn, iPhone, OLED, Sharp

Shopping analytics giant Kantar Worldpanel reports that Apple’s smartphone has experienced its first fall in market share in urban China since 2014.

“For the first time since August 2014, iOS share did not grow in urban China in the 3 months ending February,” said Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia. “iOS declined 3.2 percentage points between February 2015 and February 2016.”

Kantar said that the increasing popularity of local smartphone brands was the main reason for the fall …

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Android, china, iPhone, iPhone SE

Many were skeptical that the work iPhone at the centre of the San Bernardino controversy would prove in any way useful to the FBI given that the shooters left it untouched while destroying their personal phones, and so far that skepticism seems justified. Despite having had access to all the data on the phone for more than a week, the FBI has apparently not yet found anything of value.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: FBI, iPhone, San Bernardino

As it generally does following the release of a new version of iOS, Apple this evening has stopped signing iOS 9.2.1 for all devices. This change comes two weeks after Apple released iOS 9.3 to the public and less than a week after the release of iOS 9.3.1, which squashed a handful of bugs that plagued the initial version.

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Filed under: iOS Tagged: Apple, iOS 9.2.1, iOS 9.3, iOS 9.3.1

Early this morning, we told you about a new iPhone 6s passcode bypass vulnerability that allowed handlers to access photos and contact details without needing to verify with a passcode or Touch ID. The Lock screen vulnerability was made possible by Siri, and let users bypass the security provided by the Lock screen passcode and/or Touch ID.

If there’s a positive spin to put on such a vulnerability, it’s that fixes can be implemented server side without the need for an iOS update. Apple today has fixed the passcode bypass method by forcing Siri to request your Lock screen passcode whenever a user tries to search Twitter via Siri while at a secured Lock screen more…

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: bug, fix, lock screen, Low Power mode, Night Shift, passcode, Security, Siri

As the United States heads full speed into election season, Apple has been a topic of conversation for a variety of reasons thus far. Republican candidate Donald Trump has said that he will “get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country,” while he also last month called for a boycott of Apple when it refused to comply with the FBI’s request for help unlocking the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen.

Now, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has commented on Apple in a new interview with New York Daily News. In the interview, Sanders echoed some of the comments from Trump, noting that he would appreciate it if Apple would move some manufacturing to the United States.

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Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, iOS, manufacture, Tim Cook

T-Mobile is kicking off a new iPhone and iPad promotion tomorrow that will let you get 50% off up to $200 on a new iPad when you purchase any iPhone on one of T-Mobile’s installment plans.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: iPad, iPhone, T-Mobile

Apple appears to be taking its new Apple News app to the place that news often breaks (then spreads), Twitter. The Twitter handle @applenews has been dressed for the job for several months now although it’s been inactive before today and it isn’t yet marked “verified” by Twitter; Apple execs Phil Schiller and Roger Rosner are among those that follow the account, however, which suggests it’s an official Apple property. Here’s the first tweet that was shared today:

Follow us here for top stories & great reads from your favorite publishers, curated by our U.S. editors.

9to5Mac reported based on job listings last summer that Apple’s News app will employ human editors to curate stories featured within the app, and Apple recently started promoting the editor’s pick section within the app around iOS 9.3. Now it looks like Apple is going one step further and will use Twitter to drive attention to the Apple News app on iPhone and iPad…

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: apple news, Twitter

Twitter is rolling out a new ‘feature’ to its iOS app today, prioritizing Direct Messages in the timeline by adding a prominent icon inline to tweets in the timeline. Tapping the new Direct Message button opens a new message with one of your Twitter followers, linking the tweet from the timeline as the starting point of the conversation. In the blog post, Twitter says updates for the app are rolling out from today.

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: app, direct messages, inline, Twitter

If you’ve been holding out since last November when we first learned that Sony had plans to let gamers play PS4 titles on Mac, your time has finally (almost) arrived. Sony has already tested the 3.50 update with PS4 owners trying the beta although the pre-release version lacked Remote Play for Mac, but tomorrow that feature will be included in the public release for all PlayStation 4 owners.

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Filed under: Mac Tagged: gaming, Mac, playstation 4, Sony