We always give the same advice when reviewing a phone: don’t buy something today in the hopes of future updates making it better. Usually this advice applies to software, because so many promises that bugs will be truly addressed come to nothing.
For 5G, that advice still holds — but there is some nuance to it. I don’t think you should buy a phone because it has 5G, but if the phone you already were looking at has 5G, go for it.
Theoretically, MagSafe means your phone’s case, charging capabilities and attachment points no longer need to be a package deal. Every case can be designed to transmit wireless power, and you can easily pop off any accessories (like your credit card wallet or lens mount) that might get in the way. Want to swap out your PopSocket or phone ring? No need to wear out the adhesive; magnets could let you swap them out multiple times a day.
Removing the port would mean Apple could avoid — if it wanted to — transitioning its smartphone line over to the USB-C standard it now uses on MacBooks and higher-end iPads. It would also allow the company to make devices even thinner, using the same logic it employed when it removed the headphone jack. Waterproofing could become even more effective with fewer holes in your phone, especially if Apple can convince us (and cellular carriers) to embrace an embedded SIM card instead of including a SIM slot in each phone.
Apple showed off leather cases during the keynote, including a new Leather Sleeve, and in the fine print on the iPhone 12 announcement page, it says that leather cases for the new iPhone models will be available starting on November 6.
The inclusion of earphones is likely due to legislation in France that requires all smartphones to include a “handsfree kit” to protect children under 14. The obligation is based on the precautionary principle, because the risks of exposing developing brains to electromagnetic waves are not considered by French law to be clearly known.
For you, the knowledgeable iPhone and iPad user who’s read this review, iOS and iPadOS 14 may not go down in history as groundbreaking updates. Yes, widgets are the hot new feature and every app developer’s doing them, but, on the surface, you may think both iOS and iPadOS 14 mostly revolve around smaller app updates, a few design tweaks, and several quality-of-life enhancements. That was my impression too when I started testing iOS and iPadOS 14 last June. But I’m asking you to look beneath the surface and consider how Apple hasn’t put the future of its platforms on hold this year.
The company is today releasing Lens Studio 3.2, an update to its tool that allows designers to create new Snapchat Lenses compatible with the LiDAR scanner built into the iPhone 12 Pro and 2020 iPad Pro.
A new app called Mycons, launched today, is tapping into the iOS 14 homescreen customization trend by making it easier for anyone, including non-designers, to quickly create their own custom icons, as well as shop premade icon-and-wallpaper packs from designers.
Similar to Apple’s own widgets for Apple Music, Spotify’s serve as a means of quickly getting back to something you were recently listening to.
The elaborate scene is a collaboration between Apple and Heavy Eyes, a Brooklyn-based design studio behind many recent Hermès displays across the world.
The past month has, for me, been a process of unbundling all of my iPhone’s functions. I started using an actual flashlight, we got a kitchen timer, and so on. As I go back to using the original tools, I’m reacquainting myself with a kind of tactility: Feeling the weight of an actual flashlight, tapping physical buttons, twisting the dial on the timer.
The 116 works were created by the artist from March to June at his home in Normandy.
They chart the unfolding and progression of spring in the garden of the farmhouse where he was living with his dog Ruby and two of his long-standing assistants.
I wonder how long before somone try to fool Penn & Teller with some tricks involving MagSafe?
But a third-party kickstand should be right around the corner, right?
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Thanks for reading.