MacRumors

Several reports in recent months have covered Apple's struggle to ensure significant components for the upcoming iPhone X can be produced in large enough quantities to meet demand, with the main culprit being the 3D sensing modules that power the phone's TrueDepth camera and Face ID technology. In a surprise development, a new Bloomberg report today claims that Apple overcame its production challenges by quietly telling suppliers they could reduce the accuracy of the face recognition technology to make the iPhone X easier to manufacture.

Apple's production struggles have centered on the complex 3D sensor, which consists of a dot projector, flood illuminator, and infrared camera. The flood illuminator beams infrared light, which the camera uses to establish the presence of a face. The projector then flashes 30,000 dots onto the face which the phone uses to decide whether to unlock the home screen. Specifically, Apple has had trouble making enough of the fragile modules that combine to make up the dot projector, as Bloomberg reports:

Precision is key. If the microscopic components are off by even several microns, a fraction of a hair's breadth, the technology might not work properly, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The fragility of the components reportedly created problems for Apple suppliers LG Innotek and Sharp. At one point, only about 20 percent of the dot projectors the two companies produced were usable, according to a person familiar with the manufacturing process. The suppliers therefore slowed production in an effort to prevent breakages but lowered the required level of precision to compensate – a decision apparently mandated by Apple.

To boost the number of usable dot projectors and accelerate production, Apple relaxed some of the specifications for Face ID, according to a different person with knowledge of the process. As a result, it took less time to test completed modules, one of the major sticking points, the person said. 

It's not clear how much the new specs will reduce the technology's efficacy, and Apple has declined to comment. However, as the report notes, a downgraded Face ID will probably still be far more accurate than Touch ID, where the odds of someone other than the owner of a phone being able to unlock it are one in 50,000. Even so, Apple is famously demanding on suppliers and manufacturers to help it make technological leaps and retain a competitive edge, which makes this story about the company choosing to downgrade the accuracy of Face ID all the more surprising, regardless of whether real-world functionality remains unaffected.

The delicacy involved in this production challenge has reportedly been further hampered by Apple losing one of its laser suppliers early on. The dot projector uses something called a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL. The laser beams light through a lens known as a wafer-level optic, which focuses it into the 30,000 points of infra-red light projected onto the user's face. According to the report, California-based Finisar failed to meet Apple's laser specifications in time for the start of production, and now the company is racing to meet the standards by the end of October. That has left Apple reliant on fewer laser suppliers than it originally expected.

As it stands however, Apple appears to have overcome the biggest production hurdles. Sharp is reportedly working to bring the production yield for dot projectors above 50 percent, while LG Innotek has already surpassed that level, which both companies are said to consider acceptable. As a result the 3D sensor shortage is expected to end in early 2018, according to the report.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts Apple will have two to three million handsets available on launch day and 25 million to 30 million units for the holiday quarter, down from his previous forecast of 40 million. Pre-orders for the iPhone X begin this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple has said there will also be some stock of the smartphone for walk-in customers arriving early to its retail locations on November 3, the official iPhone X launch day.

Following the debut of the iPhone X in September, Apple employees have been using the device in public, leading to a range of "in the wild" iPhone X photos and videos showing off new features and the device's revamped design.

The latest iPhone X video is short but demos a new app switching feature that's unique to the device. On iPhone X, you can swipe left or right on the display to quickly switch between apps, a process that's smooth and seamless in the video that was discovered on Imgur and then shared on Twitter.

On previous devices, app switching was largely initiated through the Home button, but with no Home button available, Apple found a simpler, more intuitive solution for the iPhone X. iPhone X users will also be able to use a swipe upward and hold gesture to get to the traditional card-based app switching interface.

In other iPhone X news, Apple tonight revamped the Apple.com homepage to focus solely on the iPhone X ahead of pre-orders.

The page has an iPhone X front and center along with the pre-order time, and it features several animated sections highlighting various iPhone X features like the edge-to-edge display, Face ID, the TrueDepth Camera, the improved rear camera with Portrait Lighting, the A11 Bionic processor, and wireless charging.

iPhone X pre-orders will kick off in just two days on Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time. The first pre-orders will begin arriving to customers on Friday, November 3, the official launch date for the iPhone X.

Honda is set to release the first motorcycle that comes equipped with CarPlay, reports CNET. The new 2018 Honda Gold Wing motorcycle features a 7-inch LCD in the dashboard, which offers support for CarPlay, just like a standard in-car dashboard.

An iPhone can be connected to the bike via USB in the trunk or the storage cubby in the tank, and then accessed through the touch panel. To use CarPlay with the Gold Wing, a Bluetooth headset is required.

According to CNET, CarPlay in the Gold Wing works well, and can be controlled through the left grip or a rotary controller on the tank.

Yes, you do have to connect a Bluetooth headset, a requirement mandated by Apple, one that is a bit frustrating since most CarPlay interactions don't require voice. Still, once enabled it works well, controlled either via four-way controller on the left grip or a central, rotary controller down on the tank -- though frankly I can't recommend reaching down to that while on the go. Still, having intelligent navigation and access to your media on the bike is great.

Honda's new Gold Wing is 90lbs lighter than older models, and it features an 1,800cc engine with a double-wishbone front suspension. CNET says it's narrower and more attractive, but has much less cargo space than before. Additional information on specs can be found on Honda's website.

Pricing on the 2018 Honda Gold Wing starts at $23,500, and it will be available for purchase in February of 2018.

CarPlay is now available in more than 200 vehicles from a wide range of manufacturers, and there are also several aftermarket solutions available for cars that don't come with native CarPlay support. Along with motorcycles, CarPlay is also now available in some new semi trucks from Volvo.

Apple recently purchased PowerbyProxi, a company that designs wireless power solutions, reports New Zealand website Stuff. Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio told Stuff that the PowerbyProxi team will be a "great addition as Apple works to create a wireless future."

"We want to bring truly effortless charging to more places and more customers around the world," Riccio added.

PowerbyProxi was founded in 2007 to develop wireless charging technology that lets people charge smartphones and other devices without requiring a cord. PowerbyProxi has developed the Proxi-Module, a modular wireless power system that can adapt and integrate into a wide variety of products and situations, delivering up to 100 watts of power to devices like drones and robots.

The Proxi-Module, which features a modular, waterproof design that lets it adapt to a range of use cases, is said to offer the highest power density of any solution on the market with an end to end efficiency of 91 percent, offering "unprecedented performance" with reduced power and heat losses.

PowerbyProxi has also been working on the development of the Wireless Power Consortium's future Qi wireless charging standard and has received accolades and funding for its work. Apple is also a member of the Wireless Power Consortium as of February 2017.

In a statement, PowerbyProxi founder Fady Mishriki said his team is "thrilled" to be joining Apple.

"The team and I are thrilled to join Apple. There is tremendous alignment with our values, and we are excited to continue our growth in Auckland and contribute to the great innovation in wireless charging coming out of New Zealand."

Apple in September unveiled the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, and all three new devices are equipped with Qi-based wireless charging capabilities that allow them to charge from Qi-certified wireless chargers.

Apple is already developing its own wireless charging mat that can charge the iPhone, the Apple Watch, and the AirPods at the same time, and with the addition of PowerbyProxi, Apple could expand into a range of other charging accessories for both home and retail use.

It's not clear how much Apple paid to purchase PowerbyProxi, nor did Dan Riccio elaborate on how the PowerbyProxi technology will be used by Apple in the future.

A bug in the built-in Calculator app in iOS 11 is getting some major attention this week, despite the fact that it's been around since iOS 11 was in beta testing.

At issue is a calculator animation that causes some symbols to be ignored when calculations are entered in rapid succession. You can try it for yourself: Type 1+2+3 and then the equals sign into the Calculator app quickly.

Due to animation lag introduced when adding two or more numbers together, your result is more likely to be 24 than 6.

The same goes for many other calculations -- the Calculator ignores some inputs unless you're entering numbers slowly enough to account for the light-up button animations that highlight the keys that are being pressed. Symbols do not register when tapped while a number button is still highlighted, resulting in incorrect calculations if you're inputting numbers quickly. Reddit user cplr describes the problem:

Any iOS developers will see what is wrong here: the bug is that the animation that lights up the button is blocking touch events until the animation completes. This is the default behavior for animations, but to make an app feel responsive it's best to find a way around that (it can be a one line fix, but sometimes it is complicated).

There are hundreds of complaints about the problem on reddit this week, but it's an issue that's been discussed on the MacRumors forums since the iOS 11 beta testing period. Throughout the beta testing process, the animation lag was not addressed, nor has it been fixed in any of the iOS 11 updates released so far. It's also still present in iOS 11.1.

Some users have experienced similar issues when using older versions of iOS, but the animation lag is noticeable enough in iOS 11 to make the Calculator nearly unusable when attempting to make rapid calculations.

Apple seem to be aware of the issue, because as The Loop points out, Apple employee Chris Espinoza says more than 70 people have filed a Radar report on the bug, alerting Apple to the problem. With it receiving so much attention, we could potentially see a Calculator fix in the next iOS 11 update.

With the launch of iOS 11, Apple introduced an entirely revamped App Store that includes a "Today" feature for prominently featuring app content.

"Today" includes both an "App of the Day" and a "Game of the Day" feature, with apps that are swapped out daily, and as it turns out, getting featured as an app or game of the day can result in a huge boost in downloads for developers.

According to 30 days of data sourced by Apptopia (via TechCrunch), apps and games that are featured see a major surge in downloads. An app featured on a weekday could see a download boost of up to 2,172 percent.

While games are often some of the most downloaded apps in the App Store, it's apps that see a bigger increase in downloads from being featured. Games, for example, see a maximum gain of 963 percent, and that's for a free game.

On average, in total, games see a 792 percent boost from an App Store feature, while apps see a 1,747 percent boost.

Free apps and games are of course more popular than paid apps and games, receiving much higher interest overall when featured. Weekday featuring also resulted in higher download gains than weekend featuring.

To gather its data, Apptopia looked at apps and games that have been featured by Apple over the course of the last 30 days. 5 out of 30 apps of the day were paid apps and 11 of 30 games were paid games.

Apps that are not as well established and well-known did better than apps that are already widely downloaded. As an example, Starbucks was featured and was downloaded only a "handful" of times more than the day before it was featured, as most people who would use the app likely already have it.

Apps that were already ranking within the top 20 of their respective category before being featured, only received an average download boost of 44%. For games ranking within the top 20 of the Games category, it was 37%.

Apple's App Store feature boosted a total of 19 apps from being unranked overall to being ranked on the overall charts, which, in some instances, means an app jumped more than 1,000 rank spots.

The new App Store in iOS 11 is a radical departure from the way the App Store was set up in iOS 10, as it splits apps and games into two distinct App Store categories to bolster app discovery. In addition to featuring an App of the Day and a Game of the Day, Apple also highlights apps through interviews, behind-the-scenes looks, app lists, and more, which also likely bring significant attention to developers lucky enough to be chosen for a feature.

Apple today shared two new tutorial videos on its YouTube channel, walking users through the steps required to use the new Portrait Lighting feature on the iPhone 8 Plus.

The first video focuses on how to shoot using Portrait Lighting, while the second video covers how to add Portrait Lighting effects when editing a photo.

Portrait Lighting is a new feature that's available on the iPhone 8 Plus and the upcoming iPhone X.

Portrait Lighting is designed to let you add studio quality lighting effects to your images, with Apple using two cameras to create a depth map of an image along with machine learning techniques to decide how to adjust the lighting in a scene.

The feature works in real-time, but it can also be added to images after a photo has been taken.

Portrait Lighting effects include Natural Light, Studio Light (lights up your face), Contour Light (adds dramatic shadows), Stage Light (spotlights your face against a dark background), and Stage Light Mono (Stage Light, but in black and white).

A new video posted to YouTube recently by Brooke Amelia Peterson has provided a detailed glimpse at the iPhone X in Space Gray (removed, but still available on Reddit). Peterson is the daughter of an Apple engineer and in the video she visits the company's 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California.

While touring the campus (which begins at around 2:10 in the video), Brooke and her dad stop for lunch at Caffè Macs, and he takes out an iPhone X to pay for their food using Apple Pay and Face ID. Brooke then takes a longer look at the iPhone X, swiping through the Home Screen's pages, and activating Control Center and the Cover Sheet through the right and left "ears," respectively.

The video provides glimpses at the new and elongated Side Button, as well as the Space Gray coloring on the back of the iPhone X. Brooke opens the Camera, Calendar, and Notes apps, and her dad sends an Animoji of an alien to show off the new facial recognition features coming to the Messages app. Her dad also briefly mentions that his team will be moving to Apple Park in December.

Pre-orders for the iPhone X will begin this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, and Apple today just announced that there will be some stock of the smartphone for walk-in customers arriving early to its retail locations on November 3, the iPhone X launch day. For more details about Apple's upcoming tenth-anniversary smartphone, check out our iPhone X Roundup.

Update (8:45 a.m. PT): The video has been removed from YouTube.