MacRumors

iFixit today released a collection of all-new Fix Kits for iPhone 7 devices that guide users through replacing batteries, cracked screens, and even the front and rear camera modules and sensors on an iPhone.

The new battery Fix Kits for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus join previous kits already available for iPhones as far back as the iPhone 4s. iFixit said that these battery replacement kits help bring a dead iPhone back to life, and include all the usual tools needed for the replacement process: a collection of screwdrivers, tweezers, iFixit's own Opening Tool and Opening Pick, and more. Battery Fix Kits start at $44.95 for the iPhone 7 and increase to $49.95 for the iPhone 7 Plus (pictured below).

The cracked screen Fix Kits are newly available for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus as well, and include parts and tools for users to replace a broken iPhone 7 screen on their own. Contents include a custom driver, steel bits, opening tools, tweezers, and a replacement screen backed by iFixit's lifetime guarantee, but users will have to transfer their old display's home button assembly to retain Touch ID functions. Cracked screen Fix Kits cost $134.95 for the iPhone 7 and rise to $164.95 for the iPhone 7 Plus.

There are also new iPhone 7 repair components in the Small Parts Kits section, aimed at the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus's Lightning Connector, front camera and sensors, and rear camera. The small parts Fix Kits vary more drastically in price, with an iPhone 7 front camera and sensor cable kit costing $34.95, and an iPhone 7 Plus Dual Rear Camera kit priced at $84.95.

While each Fix Kit has a guide for users to follow, iFixit has also published a few How To videos on its YouTube channel, including an iPhone 7-specific playlist, to make following along to some of the repair kits even easier.

Depending on the issue at hand, and the iPhone model, out-of-warranty repairs directly from Apple can cost as much as $349 for an iPhone 7 Plus. Similar to iFixit's recent battery replacement Fix Kits for MacBook Pro devices, users have a chance to save money if they try out iFixit's guided replacement kits, as long as they are also up for the challenge of an at-home repair.

Facebook today announced an update coming to its iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as its main website, that is aimed to make birthdays more "meaningful" for users based in the United States.

Two weeks ahead of your birthday, Facebook said it will now send you a message in your News Feed with the option of creating a fundraiser. If you opt-in, you can choose from any of the 750,000 U.S. nonprofit organizations on Facebook and set a funding goal. Then on your actual birthday, all of your friends will get the usual notification to send you a happy birthday message, which will also include a prompt to donate to your organization of choice.

Facebook said the update is a way to streamline a popular birthday tradition, which sees people dedicating the day to a specific cause instead of asking for gifts of their own.

People often dedicate their birthday to support a cause, and we’ve seen people using Facebook to raise money for causes they care about. For those in the US, we’re now making it easier to do this by giving you the opportunity to create a fundraiser for your birthday directly on Facebook.

Birthdays have always been a part of Facebook, and we hope to continue providing you with a variety of experiences that make celebrating on the platform fun and meaningful for you and your friends.

The company has supported user-generated fundraisers in the past, earlier this year allowing each Facebook user to create fundraisers for six specific categories: education, medical, pet medical, crisis relief, personal emergency, and funeral and loss. With those fundraisers, and presumably the new birthday-focused fundraisers, users were able to make a donation to the cause directly within the Facebook app.

The birthday announcement also included a new celebratory video that will appear whenever a birthday of a close friend is coming up. Similar to the social network's previous anniversary videos, it combines pictures and status updates that include both you and your friend.

Yesterday, Facebook announced a few design changes also coming to its mobile apps, including circular profile pictures, easier to tap buttons, revamped comment sections, and more. The company said that the changes should make the Facebook app "more conversational and easier to read and navigate."

Facebook is available to download for free on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

iDevices, the company behind several HomeKit-enabled light switches and outlets, today announced the debut of its latest product, the Dimmer Switch. iDevices' new Dimmer Switch, like its wall switches, is an in-wall product designed to replace a traditional light switch.

The Dimmer Switch includes customizable dimming capabilities that can be controlled via the iDevices app, the Home app, or using Siri thanks to built-in HomeKit integration (for Echo users, it also has Alexa support). In-app dim range settings prevent low-level bulb flicker, and it remembers the last brightness state.

It fits into any standard rocker faceplate to integrate with an existing lighting system with no extra wiring required, and it's installed like any standard wall switch with support for single pole, 3- and 4-way setups.

Along with serving as a way to dim lights, the Dimmer Switch features a built-in LED night light that keeps it well-lit in the dark, with users able to set the night light to any color.

"The iDevices Dimmer Switch enhances our extensive line of premium smart home solutions and brings us closer to our goal of creating products that seamlessly integrate into the walls of any home," says Chris Allen, iDevices President. "With Hubbell's long history in the electrical industry, and our expertise in the IoT marketplace, we have the combined strength to continue our evolution towards flexible, 'invisible' products that fit any home, new or old. The iDevices Dimmer Switch is one of many innovations to come, forever changing the smart home as we know it."

iDevices is selling the Dimmer Switch starting today for $99.95. It can be purchased from the iDevices website.

ESPN is releasing a new tvOS app for the fourth-generation Apple TV that allows viewers to watch up to four live sporting events simultaneously.

The multicast feature means a sports fan could, for example, watch two NFL games, an MLB postseason game, and an NBA game on a Sunday in October all at once, with each stream taking up an equally-sized quadrant of the TV.

There are multiple viewing modes to select from, including one with a large stream on the left alongside three smaller streams on the right.

The idea isn't new—there's a similar two-stream feature in the MLB.TV app for Apple TV—but ESPN says its implementation offers up to four streams and has a streamlined user interface, according to Recode.

A massive four-hour power outage that affected 17 cities and counties across Taiwan on Tuesday had no material impact on the production of new iPhones, according to industry analysts speaking with Nikkei Asian Review.

Apple's contract manufacturer TSMC also said its operations were not affected, as did fellow iPhone assembler Pegatron, according to Reuters.

The power outage caused a massive blackout in Taiwan, affecting more than 668,000 homes and businesses across the island, according to the South China Morning Post. The incident was blamed on human error at the Datan Power Station in Taoyuan, south of capital Taipei. It was Taiwan's worst blackout since 1999.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently said Apple will begin production verification tests for the so-called iPhone 8 in late August, followed by mass production in mid-September. The high-end device is expected to launch in extremely limited quantities in September alongside the so-called iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.

Twitter this week began expanding a new section of the Explore tab on iOS and Android, where it will populate tweets aimed at each unique user based on their own interests. Twitter confirmed the update's appearance to BuzzFeed, and it follows a few months after Twitter debuted a notable redesign for its mobile apps and website.

The new categories in Explore include topics such as "Popular in Literature," "Popular in Video Games," "Popular in eSports," and more, with tweets taken from a combination of accounts followed and not followed by the user. Like other quiet updates, some users may have noticed these changes weeks ago, while others will just begin getting them now, and they can be found by tapping the magnifying glass "Explore" tab on Twitter's iOS app, then scrolling down below Trends and Moments.

Twitter said that these topics will be "based on what they know about your interests," but it wasn't made clear exactly how Twitter gains that information, although liked tweets and followed accounts are likely sourced. The company said that it will "eventually" give users more control over this section and allow them to tell Twitter when they don't want to see a specific topic, further helping the app curate personalized tweets.

Now you can view tweets sorted by topic, without having to follow anyone, right in Twitter's Explore tab.

Twitter's algorithms will show you these topics based on what they know about your interests. Eventually, the platform will give users more control over what they see, the spokesperson said. The company will roll out controls that allow people to tell it they don't like a topic, which will inform Twitter's decisions on what to show them.

The update is said to be another bid by Twitter to smooth the introduction process for new users, presenting them with their favorite topics in lieu of making them scroll through a lengthy list of suggested accounts that might tweet about topics they enjoy.

Many recent Twitter updates have focused on gaining and retaining users just joining the platform, including a switch from "favorite" stars to "like" hearts in 2015. Twitter also tested out changing the "retweet" icon into a "sharing" icon late last year, hoping that "share" would be more recognizable and understandable by new users than Twitter-specific lingo like "retweet," but the change never rolled out to a wider user base.

The troubled introduction of new users onto the platform was a problem highlighted during Twitter's most recent earnings report, where it was announced that the social network hadn't grown its user base at all in the second quarter of 2017.

The new "Popular" topics feature is expanding globally this week on Twitter's mobile apps, and users can download Twitter for iOS on the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Google's second-generation Pixel smartphone will be made by HTC and feature "squeezable" sides to perform different functions, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.

The filing essentially confirms that the Google Pixel 2 will borrow the squeezable frame from the HTC U11. Screenshots included in the document show the feature is to be called "Active Edge" and will launch Google Assistant by default. Other possible functions include turning on the flashlight, launching the camera, and taking a photo.

LG is said to be manufacturing the Google Pixel XL 2 and will put its own stamp on the larger handset by including a 6-inch AMOLED display with a 2:1 aspect ratio, but it's also likely that the XL 2 will share the same squeezable frame of the smaller device. Based on leaked images, both handsets are rumored to do away with the headphone jack, although this was not confirmed in the filing.

It's still not clear when Google's second-generation Pixel smartphones will be released, but the original version was unveiled in October of last year, so a fall release is likely. (The original Google Pixel FCC filing appeared exactly a year ago on Tuesday.) That would put Google's new phones in direct competition with the iPhone 8, which is expected to launch in September alongside iterative "S" cycle updates to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Facebook today announced plans to make several changes to the Facebook News Feed with the intent of making it "more conversational and easier to read and navigate."

The "look and feel" of News Feed is being refreshed with improved color contrast to make typography more legible, larger link previews to make it easier to read links, circular profile pictures, and updated icons and Like, Comment, and Share buttons that are meant to be easier to tap.

To improve conversations, Facebook plans to implement a chat bubble-style comment design, which the company says is aimed at making it easier to see which comments are direct replies to another person.

Facebook plans to simplify navigation with the following features:

- See where a link will take you before clicking on it
- See whose post you're commenting on, reacting to, or reading while you're in the post
- Return to News Feed once you've finished reading via a more prominent back button

Facebook says the design changes will be available users "over the coming weeks."

Facebook is also starting to roll out several new camera features that have been in testing over the course of the summer, including the ability to create GIFs that can be shared on the social network and a new feature for starting a live stream from the camera interface.

Walmart's streaming movie service VUDU will be available on Apple TV starting on Tuesday, August 22, following the official launch of the new VUDU app, reports Variety.

With the launch of a dedicated Apple TV app, VUDU users will no longer need to AirPlay content from an iOS device in order to watch VUDU content on the Apple TV.

VUDU first confirmed work on an app for the fourth-generation Apple TV in March, so the app has been in development for some time. Prior to the announcement of an Apple TV app, a VUDU engineer said the company had not been able to develop an app because of Apple's policies preventing third party services from selling movies within their apps.

The current VUDU iOS app adapts to those restrictions by allowing users to download movies and TV shows that have been previously purchased on the VUDU website, and the Apple TV app presumably works in the same way.

VUDU allows customers to rent and purchase a wide range of movies and television shows, including new releases, and it offers services like a disc to digital conversion, digital copies of Blu-rays and DVDs purchased within stores, and free ad-supported movies. VUDU is already available on a range of other platforms, like Roku, Chromecast, consoles, and more.

Popular Facebook-owned image sharing site Instagram is today being updated with comment threads, a small but long-awaited feature that will bring better organized comments for the first time.

With comment threads, comments on Instagram will more closely resemble comments on Facebook, with replies clearly listed under top-level comments. Prior to comment threading, all comments, even those that were replies to existing comments, were listed in one general thread with no organization.

Comment threads help you keep track of conversations and make it easy to respond to a specific thread. This update will make your feed an even better place to share interests, get inspired and connect with others.

Now, when you hit reply underneath any comment, your response will automatically be grouped right underneath it in a thread.

Instagram says these updates are part of Instagram version 24, available from the App Store today.

Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]