Apple’s hooking up music creators on iOS with lots of new software updates and features today. In addition to releasing a new Music Memos app and enhancing GarageBand for iPad Pro and iPhone 6s, Apple’s Logic Remote app which works with both GarageBand, Logic Pro X, and MainStage on the Mac has been updated with full iPad Pro support and an iPhone version for the first time.

Logic Remote is a companion app for Apple’s audio programs on OS X that lets you use multi-touch on the iPad and now the iPhone to control the desktop apps. Previously only available on the iPad, version 1.3 includes an iPhone version for the first time, but note that the iPhone version only works with Logic Pro X and not GarageBand. It’s also limited to “transport control, dual channel strip faders, automation recording, and access to key commands,” according to Apple.

Additionally, the update supports native iPad Pro resolution which makes the app appear sharper on the larger iPad display. Version 1.3 also lets you use Logic Remote from more than one iPhone or iPad at the same time, and includes “fixes and enhancements to improve connectivity” according to the release notes.

For iPad Pro users, Logic Remote “extends the usable range of mixer faders, the keyboard and other Touch Instruments” and “allows you to access key commands alongside Smart Controls and Touch Instruments” on the larger tablet. And if you’re looking for an iPad Pro deal, 9to5Toys has you covered today.

Logic Remote 1.3 for iPad and iPhone is rolling out now on the App Store.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Logic Remote

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Apple turns its store logo red every year for World AIDS Day

Bono’s Product RED campaign to fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa has partnered with Apple for so long that you could easily mistake it as an Apple-created initiative, and this year the effort turns 10 years old with more than $350 million raised according to the Financial Times. In marking the decade-long effort to raise awareness and eliminate the virus/disease, FT highlighted Apple’s roots in the campaign:

The late Steve Jobs was involved with Red, designing and selling a Red-branded iPod. Apple has maintained its connection since Jobs’ death in 2011. Two years ago, Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, and his colleague Marc Newson, ran an auction of specially designed products, including a Leica Digital Rangefinder camera the pair customised, which sold for $1.8m. The auction raised $13m for Red, matched by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Apple’s design chief Jony Ive shared his take in the piece on how Product RED has had a humanitarian reach, challenging the idea of any corporate effect.

Does Sir Jonathan think Red affected how companies think of corporate social responsibility? He demurs. “I’m much more interested in how a mother feels whose daughter is still alive than whether Red has had an impact on other companies.”

He adds: “The thing that first struck me was that the magnitude and ugliness of the problem would normally be cause for people to turn away. I loved the way Bono saw it as a problem to be solved.”

You can read the full piece on a decade of Bono’s Product RED campaign here.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: AIDS, Bono, HIV, Jony Ive, Product Red, red

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Apple today released a brand new app for iOS devices called Music Memos that allows songwriters to quickly and easily record audio and develop song ideas.

Apple’s press release for the new app notes that Music Memos was inspired by the fact that many musicians have long used the iOS Voice Memos app as a way of quickly capturing ideas in audio on their iPhones and iPads:

Musicians and songwriters around the world have used the Voice Memos app on their iPhone to quickly record ideas, and many hit songs first started as Voice Memos. The new Music Memos app is inspired by Voice Memos and takes the functionality even further by adding musician-friendly features designed specifically for songwriting and developing musical ideas. With Music Memos, you can record any musical instrument through the iPhone’s built-in microphone in a high-quality, uncompressed format, then name, tag and rate it to start building a library of your ideas.

So like Apple’s old Voice Memos app, you can quickly start recording snippets of audio, but the Music Memos app adds in features for musicians including automatic notation so you can see the chords you’re playing. And much like features it has in GarageBand and Logic Pro, the app will build a song by analyzing what you’re playing and automatically adding in, for example, drum and bass parts. Additionally, you’ll find a built-in tuner tucked under the icon in the upper right hand corner of the app.

Once you’re ready to take the Music Memo and start an actual composition, you’ll be able to access the recordings from within Garageband or Logic Pro across all your devices. You can also email your Music Memos to share your ideas with collaborators, or for those that distribute music on Apple Music, share directly to your Apple Music Connect artist profile page.

Here’s a look at the app’s features in action on the iPhone:

And the iPad:

The new app comes alongside an update to Apple’s GarageBand iOS apps that enhances the app for iPad Pro users and adds 3D Touch functionality.

You can download the new Music Memos app for free on the App Store now.

And The Verge has a video walkthrough of the new app:

Filed under: Apps Tagged: App Store, Apple, audio, iPad, iPhone, music memos, Musicians, songwriters

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Apple today is releasing a new update to GarageBand for iOS that includes enhancements to take advantage of the iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch Retina display. The new version, previously only shown in iPad Pro marketing material, shows more of instruments and tracks in a single view than on smaller iPads and iPhones. New 3D Touch features are also being included for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users. Separately, Apple is releasing a new music app called Music Memos, and adding a new Live Loops feature to GarageBand for iOS. 

From Apple’s press release on the new software:

“Musicians around the world, from the biggest artists to aspiring students, use Apple devices to create amazing music; the innovative new Music Memos app will help them quickly capture their ideas on iPhone and iPad whenever inspiration strikes,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “GarageBand is the most popular music creation app in the world, and this update helps everyone easily tap into their musical talent with the powerful new Live Loops and Drummer features, and adds support for the larger iPad Pro screen and 3D Touch on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.”

GarageBand was notably among the list of Apple’s own apps that weren’t updated for the bigger display in time for the iPad Pro’s release. Rather than reflecting the version shown on the iPad Pro’s marketing site, GarageBand scaled the version on iPad minis and iPad Airs up to present a bigger version without more context. Today’s release shows what Apple has been working on during this time and should be a significant update for GarageBand users.

Other apps like iMovie were ready in time for iPad Pro’s release in early November and included features that take advantage of the more powerful iPad. iMovie on iPad Pro can edit multiple 4K video streams, use shortcuts with Smart Keyboard, view a full-height Media Browser, plus pixel-for-pixel 1080p video.

More details on what’s new in GarageBand from today:

GarageBand for iOS is the world’s most popular mobile music creation app, and the new GarageBand 2.1 update introduces Live Loops, an entirely new and intuitive way to create amazing music. Inspired by DJ hardware controllers and drum machines, Live Loops makes it easy for anyone to create music by simply tapping cells and columns in a highly visual grid to trigger different looped instruments and samples. The loops can be performed, arranged and remixed live, and GarageBand automatically keeps all the beats in sync with perfect time and pitch. To get you started, Live Loops comes with a library of Apple-designed loop templates in a variety of genres including EDM, Hip Hop, Dubstep and Rock, or you can create your own loops from scratch.

GarageBand 2.1 for iOS also includes the new Drummer feature with nine EDM and acoustic virtual session drummers that provide their own signature sound, as well as an expanded selection of amps for bass players. Advanced GarageBand users can now create even more dynamic and polished sounding songs using new automation features, controls recording and a new simple EQ. GarageBand 2.1 looks stunning on the expansive 12.9-inch Retina® display on the new iPad Pro™ and gives you access to even more controls and room to play. And on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the app now supports 3D Touch, allowing you to play with more expression. For more information about the new GarageBand for iOS, visit, http://ift.tt/17Hmt6m.

The new version of GarageBand for iOS is rolling out on the App Store today. Here are the full release notes for version 2.1:

What’s New in Version 2.1

• Use Live Loops to create music by triggering instrument loops and DJ-style effects in real time using Multi-Touch gestures*
• Add a virtual Drummer to your song who takes direction and performs realistic acoustic & electronic drum grooves
• Record adjustments of any Touch Instrument control knob in real time
• Create and edit automation curves to control the volume of any track
• Shape the sound of a Touch Instrument or audio recording using Simple EQ and Compressor
• Plug in a bass guitar and play through vintage and modern bass amp rigs
• Adds over 1,200 new Apple Loops and sounds
• Record up to 32 tracks simultaneously**
• Use third-party instrument apps in your song with Audio Unit Extensions***
• Directly import or export GarageBand projects using iCloud Drive
• Use 3D Touch to play keyboard sounds with polyphonic aftertouch****

* Live Loops is available on iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad (4th generation), or later devices.
** 32 tracks is available on iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, or later devices. Multi-track recording requires compatible third party audio interface.
*** Requires compatible third-party Audio Unit Extension instruments apps from the App Store.
**** Polyphonic aftertouch is available on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

And just in time for today’s release, our friends at 9to5Toys are featuring a giant iPad Pro deal for new customers looking to save on Apple’s biggest tablet.

Filed under: Apps, iOS Devices Tagged: GarageBand, iPad Pro

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Siri percolated throughout all of Apple’s platforms in 2015. It started with iPhone in 2011, iPad in 2012, debuted on Apple Watch in early 2015 and Apple TV with the new model a few months ago. It’s quickly becoming a premier feature on these platforms, with live-as-you-speak transcription and radically new features like ‘Remind me about this’ contextual tasks when inside apps. Except for one platform of course. Mac OS X has been ignored and left abandoned with regards to true voice searching and Siri. It’s 2016, and I want Apple to bring Siri to the Mac.

Especially with Apple Watch, it’s just become natural for me to ask for stuff with my voice. For little things like timers or messages, I like to speak. Siri voice recognition has got significantly better for me in the last year, I have come to rely on it. And not having it available when I’m working on my Mac is a huge pain.

There is the potential for Apple to make Siri on Mac even more powerful than a straight iOS port too. You could create more complicated actions for Siri to execute, in a world with multiple apps. ‘Open apple.com and a text editor side by side’ would be a cool command to quickly set up a workspace desktop, for example. Opportunities to integrate with the Mac features of Spotlight also exist, such as finding files using natural language queries as introduced with OS X El Capitan.

The Mac may also be a nice testbed for third-party app integrations with Siri, given the more flexible environment. I’m not hoping or expecting for this more advanced stuff. Simply reproducing the Siri from my iPhone on my MacBook would satisfy me.

In terms of user interface, it seems like a simple problem. Just like the iPad, present a full screen overlay with the Siri conversation in the middle of the screen. 9to5Mac reported Apple was developing Siri for Mac in this manner for early internal versions of OS X Mavericks, but obviously it didn’t get released. On iOS, Siri is activated with a long press of the Home Button. The Mac doesn’t have an obvious primary button, but it could implement an activation by a long-press of the fn key or similar. Apple could even expose an app wrapper for it, so avid users could drag a Siri icon into their dock.

When thinking about why Apple hasn’t done something, it’s worth considering their motivations for intentionally not doing so. It is possible that talking to your computer is a weird concept to grasp. It’s true that talking to a phone is a lot more natural as the microphone is close to your face. Even on Watch, it’s easier with a quick raise of the arm.

Moreover, the Mac microphone is potentially further away from your mouth when you speak. Unless you use a headset, it will be more difficult for Siri to be able to hear you which could impact performance and recognition. However, Apple has opted to include a Dictation feature across the system. Press the fn key twice in any text box and it will dutifully transcribe your speech into text. The accuracy is pretty good too. I believe newer Macs include directed miss for better input too, to further combat this issue.

Initially, you could argue that Siri was a hallmark feature of the iPhone and that Apple wanted to keep it exclusive to encourage people to buy iPhones. This line of thinking would be somewhat reasonable in late 2011 but now its pervasive everywhere on the iOS side. It doesn’t feel exclusive anymore. In fact it feels like a necessity, a voice assistant is practically a core feature of modern operating systems these days. And OS X is worse by not having it.

At least from my perspective, the reason Siri on the Mac hasn’t happened is because Apple hasn’t gotten around to finishing it for a public release. There have been other priorities for engineering resources to tackle. Siri is one of the few big features (Control Center is another, but even that is more recent) that the Mac still misses out in comparison to its iOS/tvOS/watchOS siblings. Perhaps 2016 is the year Apple will find the development resources to bring Siri to OS X, as the platform seems to have reached a level of system stability and feature maturity.

What do you think? Are you itching to see Siri on the Mac? Let us know in the comments below.

Filed under: Feature Request, iOS, iOS Devices, Mac, Tech Industry Tagged: Apple, Apple TV, Apple watch, iPad, iPhone, Mac, OS X, Siri, tvOS, watchOS

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The iRig Keys Mini is an electronic MIDI music keyboard that connects to iPhone and iPad with a Lightning cable. Although it isn’t regularly advertised, iPhones and iPads have had great support for MIDI input instruments and other devices for a long time. Since iOS 4 in fact, Apple gave the developers the ability to interact with MIDI peripherals. Simultaneously, the App Store has bloomed a wide ecosystem of sophisticated music creation and audio production apps. This makes for a perfect storm of capability and functionality: not only are MIDI accessories possible, they can really be used to make music on iPhone and iPad.

Read on for my full review of the iRig Keys Mini piano keyboard for iOS ($79.99).

First off, it’s important to note that the iRig product is made to work with iPhone and iPad, it’s an official MFI accessory. Often, musicians connect MIDI devices to iPad by using a kind of hack — plugging in a USB MIDI device with the iPad USB Camera Connector. This works surprisingly well for a number of accessories but it isn’t official or as elegant as a true MFI MIDI keyboard.

The iRig is not an unofficial oddity. It has a MFI sticker on the packaging. Setting up the iRig with an iOS device is extremely simple — you just plug it in. The iRig itself is compatible with multiple computing accessories, so the I/O connector on the hardware is actually a mini-USB port. There’s a mini-USB to Lightning adapter bundled in the box, as well as a normal USB and mini-USB connector for using the iRig with a laptop.

For iPhone and iPad connectivity, it’s as simple as plug and play. There’s no setup at all once you put the cable in both ends. The iRig is powered by the source device, which is very convenient for people like me who don’t want to manage yet another accessory with a rechargeable battery. The octave buttons illuminate with a red glow to confirm the device is getting power.

Although this review is focused on using MIDI with iOS, I did briefly test Mac compatibility. Plugging in the keyboard with the USB adapter automatically brought up a ‘Device Installing’ notification on OS X. After a few seconds, the iRig keyboard was ready to use.

iPad Pro and iRig Keys Mini are the perfect match, size-wise.

As a piece of hardware, the accessory is well-built. It’s made of plastic but feels sturdy; you can sling it into a bag without much worry. It’s almost identical in width to the iPad Pro, so symmetry of the size is nice to look at on a desk. The accessory houses 15 white and 10 black piano keys, obviously setup in their normal pairings. Above the row of keys is a header bar containing volume options, octave switches and the iRig logo. My biggest complaint with the way this thing looks is the size of logo: it dominates the fascia and screams too much. I would greatly prefer if iRig scaled the logo way smaller or, even better, removed it completely. The product would be very elegant with a pure white faceplate.

Standalone, just plugging the keyboard into an iOS device is useless of course. You can change octave and see the red indicator lights flash, that’s about it. (By the way, the keyboard will alert you when you are reaching the ends of the sound spectrum and should consider adjusting the current octave in use through the illumination.) Crucially, the keyboard makes no sound without the brains of an app powering it: you need MIDI-aware software to actually do something with it.

iRig has made its own apps to use with the keyboard; iGrandPiano and SampleTank. These can be used with the touchscreen only of course but come into their own in collaboration with the physical accessory. The Grand Piano really does sound like a piano, with high quality effects and reverb. I’m not a real musician but I have a lot of fun playing the piano through the iRig.

You can adjust octave and volume settings straight from the keyboard, so your hands don’t have to rejuggle between the iPad screen and the piano keys. The app also features a recorder and metronome to keep in time with the beat. After creating a masterpiece, the app can save out the file as an audio clip or MIDI file. This means you can import the raw MIDI notes into another app, perhaps on the Mac, for more serious editing or stitching into a larger composition.

SampleTank uses a piano input interface to abstract over a myriad of different instruments from drum kits to organs to woodwind instruments. It also supports an autoplay feature, so you can let the app play a constant repeating rhythm whilst you jam out using the iRig. The volume and octave settings of the app are independent to the keyboard, enabling some simple compositions.

The recommended apps aren’t perfect and have some minor niggles throughout: adjusting the knobs in iGrandPiano is a frustrating affair. The real beauty of the iRig hardware, however, is that it isn’t limited to the apps IK Multimedia have created. You can use it with any MIDI app. There’s a lot on the App Store but arguably the best comes for free from Apple: GarageBand. The iRig works flawlessly with Apple’s music app. As well as interoperating with the keyboards, you can play the drums, sample and strings, as well as control the plethora of smart instruments GarageBand includes.

GarageBand also allows true music composition to take place, due to the ability to edit and compose tracks together. It’s a lot more comfortable using a physical hardware instead of the touchscreen to make tunes, in the same way that a physical typing keyboard is better to write documents than a soft on-screen keyboard. The biggest feature GarageBand has to enhance the iRig, though, is the ability to use GarageBand in the background. This works with MIDI instruments too. I have started casually playing tunes whilst watching Twitter or reading Safari on the iPad Pro. You can see the red ‘Recording’ banner in the screenshot above. To enable this feature, switch on the ‘Run in Background’ option in the GarageBand settings. It even works with the iPad ‘asleep’ and locked! The app receives the input from the keyboard and the notes keeps playing.

Sadly, a problem that plagues all three apps is the lack of iPad Pro support. All of the apps are upscaled from their 9.7 inch iPad counterparts, so look ugly and don’t take advantage of the additional screen real estate. Apple has demoed an iPad Pro optimized version of GarageBand at its events, but the app has yet to surface in the App Store. Hopefully, iRig also has software updates in the pipeline for its software.

In terms of issues, I have very few complaints. The shortcut function keys inscribed into the keyboard are nonsensical to me; without looking at the manual you wouldn’t know how to activate the VEL, KNOB or RESET functions.

Very occasionally, the keyboard would just stop working … inexplicably. Pressing keys did nothing. I couldn’t work out if this was a problem with the accessory, the app I was using or the iOS system. When this happened, I unplugged it from the iPad and replugged and the issue went away immediately. Still, it happened so infrequently, it isn’t really a problem. My guess is it software related, so perhaps future iOS versions will nail the stability for good. In general, I would also suggest that the product is slightly too expensive for what it is. Once you start hitting the $100 mark I would start to expect a more premium finish of the product.

I can’t say how much fun this product is. I don’t have any real instruments at home and having something reasonably portable to bash music on is hilarious. I’m now on the search for a good soundboard app that works with MIDI keyboards. For more professional use, it works great although maybe you should consider spending a bit more on the full-size version. Also, I really wish that iPad Pro GarageBand update would come out though with editing panes and instruments visible on screen at the same time. That will take this product to the next level.

The iRig Keys Mini costs $79. Its big brother sibling, the full size 37-key version, is available for $149. Find out more information on the IK Multimedia website.

Filed under: Apple Music, iOS, iOS Devices, Mac, Reviews, Tech Industry Tagged: GarageBand, iPad Pro, irig mid, keys, MFi, MIDI keyboard, Music

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Rumors of Apple Car (codename ‘Project Titan’) continue to swirl and there’s plenty time left for Apple to solidify or change its plans, given the expected launch of the new automobile is still five years away. However, that isn’t stopping car company executives weighing in on the rumors. Whilst GM execs diss the idea of Apple investing in an electric car as a ‘gigantic money pit’, an executive from Ford seems enthused by the prospect. In an interview with Trusted Reviews,  Don Butler, Executive Director for Ford Connected Vehicles, said that they welcome competition and thinks technology companies can pull it off.

“We welcome others joining. We welcome the activity that’s in the space. We think it’s exciting. It’s actually changed that we are embracing,” said Butler, speaking to TrustedReviews at the CES 2016 tradeshow in Las Vegas. “So I think Apple can do it. I think Google can do it.”

Watch the full interview in the video after the break …

Regarding autonomy, the Ford exec believes that the industry will reach Level 4 autonomous driving. This means that cars will be able to drive themselves in well-mapped areas in well-mapped conditions, i.e. main roads, highways and cities. He also suggests that companies like Apple or Google could partner with companies like Ford to speed up innovation in the car sector. Today, Ford is a close partner in Apple’s CarPlay system, promising to bring integrations to cars in 2016.

Ford seems to be bullish on the adoption of the technology and the integration with technology companies. However, Dave Anderson, a representative from automotive integration at Nvidia was not as convinced regarding Apple’s entrance. He warned that the process of making cars is arduous and involved, claiming both Apple and Google have a lot more learning to do before they can release their own successful electric vehicles.

It is likely that Apple’s presence in the vehicles industry has grown since it made an appearance at a global car conference in November, leading executives to consider the proposition more seriously. Last week, Elon Musk described Apple’s electric car efforts as an ‘open secret’, claiming it could be compelling. The tangible Apple Car will remain a mystery for the foreseeable future, however.

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple Car, Tech Industry Tagged: Apple Car, autonomous cars, car, Electric Vehicles, Ford, rumors

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Apple wanting to expand its presence in India isn’t a new development, but according to a new report from the India Times, the company has recently taken a major step in accomplishing that goal. According to the report, Apple has just filed an application with the Indian government to open its own branded retail stores in the company.

Apple filed the proposal with the department of industrial policy and promotion, or DIPP, which confirmed that it has received the document.  “We have just received Apple’s proposal. We are examining it,” DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant stated.

The company reportedly left specific details out of the proposal, only stating that it wishes to operate its own branded retail stores in the country and to sell products online. It’s unclear how large of an investment Apple wants to make in India, although in the past it has expressed its extraordinary interest in the country, citing significant growth in the country as its motive.

The Indian government has been relaxing its requirements on foreign company investments, making it easier for company’s like Apple to establish a presence. In the past, India has required that any company perform a certain percentage of manufacturing in the country if they want to operate retail outlets.

Apple’s relationship with India has been growing over the past few months. CEO Tim Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in September to discuss the possibility of Apple increasing its presence in the country. Apple also signed a deal with consumer electronics retail chain Croma that saw Croma build Apple-dedicated retail spaces in six of its retail locations.

Last year, revenue for Apple in India also recently broke a billion dollars thanks to its launch of an aggressive trade-in program. Apple has said in the past that its growth in India is outstripping that of China, and an increase in retail availability would only expedite that process.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, India, retail, retail stores

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It was only a few months ago that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus were made available, but rumors regarding the upcoming iPhone 7 have been circulating for several months now. Rumors have ranged from design changes to new software features to new hardware features and more. While it’s certainly possible that Apple could go all out and introduce every rumored feature with the iPhone 7, it’s likely some of the speculated features are either not real or will be held for future generation devices. So, we want to know, which of the rumored features has you most excited for the iPhone 7? Participate in the poll below and read on as we discuss each of the rumored features…

One of the most often rumored changes suggested for the iPhone 7 is the removal of the headphone port in an effort to make the device even thinner. This would mean that Lightning headphones would be required for users who wanted to a wired solution, although it is expected that Apple would strongly push wireless solution instead. We reported earlier this month that Apple is developing revamped, cord-free Beats ahead of the iPhone 7. The wireless Beats are expected to charge via an accompanying carrying case, as opposed to micro-USB like current Beats headphones. A KGI report suggested that the iPhone 7 will be as thin as the iPod touch at around 6mm.

A considerably sketchy report from November suggested that Apple is testing various iPhone 7 models, each with different features and designs. The report suggested that Apple is testing wireless charging technology, multi-touch Force Touch, dual-cameras, USB-C, and in-display fingerprint recognition. Multi-touch Force Touch/3D Touch would mean that you could press harder with two fingers to bring up different options than what appears when you press harder with one finger, while in-display fingerprint recognition would presumably allow for Apple to eliminate the home button entirely, something that has been tossed around for a long time now. This report should be taken with a pretty decent dose of skepticism, however, so don’t get too attached to any of these features.

Two separate reports have suggested that the iPhone 7 will feature a waterproof design. The first came last September and also mentioned that the device will feature a dust proof design and a “new casing material,” which would make the iPhone 6s the last model to feature the metallic frame. A second source corroborated that report a few weeks ago and added that Apple plans to introduce wireless charging this year. The exact technology remains unclear, but the report suggested that it would be similar to the inductive charging mechanism used with the Apple Watch.

As far as camera technology goes, an Apple patent application suggested that the next iPhone could feature a twin-camera system. A variety of possibilities can be associated with a dual-camera set up, including optical zoom. By fitting two separate camera modules behind the lens, and creating a single lens with both standard and telephoto sections, you’d be able to switch between two different focal lengths. Another possibility is that one camera module could be shooting still images, while the other records video, taking the Live Photos feature of the iPhone 6s to an entirely new level. Theoretically, you could also record normal speed video and slow-mo video at the same time with a twin-camera set up.

Most recently, code discovered in iOS 9 suggested that the iPhone 7 could feature new Li-Fi technology. If you’re like me, you’d probably never heard of Li-Fi until today. Li-Fi is an alternative to WiFi that is said to be 100 times faster and capable of speeds of 224Gbps. It is wireless and uses visible light communication instead of radio frequency waves, allowing it to transfer more information than WiFi.

Other rumored changes have included a 32GB base model, finally getting rid of the overpriced and under-performing 16GB. Some rumors have also suggested that Apple will adopt a new screen technology, although whether or not that appears with the iPhone 7 remains to be seen. A report from November claimed that Apple would begin switching to OLED screens by 2018. Apple is said to be developing thinner and brighter screens in a secret Taiwanese lab, but it’s unclear how far along progress is.

For me personally, I’m most excited about the iPhone 7 potentially being more durable than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. I’m no stranger to water damaged devices, so the addition of a fully waterproof coating would certainly be welcomed. The potential new camera technology, however, is also very interesting. While I’m a fan of Live Photos, I feel like a dual-camera set up could take the feature to an entirely new level. One of the iPhone’s biggest selling point has always been its camera and should Apple devote most of its attention to that feature with the iPhone 7, it has a chance to truly knock it out of the park and put the device even farther than other devices on the market.

As always, all of these features are rumors and nothing more. We won’t know what Apple actually has up its sleeve for the iPhone 7 until it officially announces the device later this year. Nevertheless, it’s fun to speculate. Let us know the feature that excites you the most in the poll above and in the comments below!

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: Apple, iPhone 7, Opinion, poll

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Microsoft today has updated its OneDrive cloud storage app with a handful of new features and capabilities. The update bumps the app to version 6.8 and includes additions like iPad Pro optimization, 3D Touch support, and more.

With iPad Pro optimization, PDF annotations are now pressure sensitive, meaning your writing and drawing will be darker the harder you press on the screen and lighter the softer you press. Furthermore, the Apple Pencil is now supported with improved optimization, as well.

The full changelog is below:

• Your lines have never looked so smooth! PDF annotations are now pressure sensitive, including support for Apple Pencil and 3D Touch displays.
• Plenty of bug fixes and stability improvements.

Microsoft OneDrive is available for free in the App Store.

Filed under: iOS Tagged: Apps, Microsoft, OneDrive, update

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