MacRumors

Following confirmation that Samsung has discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 amid its well-publicized fire-catching problems, the company today gave the first indication of how much the move will cost it for the third quarter of 2016. In a report by Bloomberg, Samsung is said to have cut its third quarter operating profit by $2.3 billion and adjusted profit expectations from 7.8 trillion won ($6.9 billion) to 5.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion).

The company's projection "effectively erases all the mobile business profit that analysts had been projecting," with revenue expected to dive from 49 trillion won to 47 trillion won. On the wave of Samsung's woes, Apple shares reached a record high this year, but Samsung had yet to divulge its potential quarterly loss. Analyst Greg Roh said that Samsung's prediction accounts not only for defective units, but also "the inventories of Note 7s in the channel as well as the components they bought a few months back.”

“This is a huge cutback,” said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co. “It means Samsung has reflected not only the sales loss from the shutdown but it also means it would bear the costs of the inventories of Note 7s in the channel as well as the components they bought a few months back.”

Samsung’s mobile division was projected to report operating income of 2.7 trillion won in the quarter, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. HMC’s Roh said the revised outlook probably erased that number. “We expected the mobile division to see about 2.6 trillion won previously but it will only see a mere 0.3 trillion won in the third quarter,” he said.

Samsung's manufacturing division -- which sees the output of semiconductors, glass panels, appliances, and other materials -- is expected to keep the company profitable for the quarter.

As the recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones continues, the company has begun delivering fireproof shipping boxes to customers affected by the exploding smartphone (via TechCrunch). In one video shared by XDA Developers, the contents of the box are revealed to include three smaller boxes within the larger packaging and a static shield to place the Note 7 in.

Dropbox for iOS is being updated today with iOS 10 support and new features to improve the file storage and sharing experience.

With Messages integration, Dropbox users can select Dropbox files from within the Messages app and share them with friends and colleagues, alleviating the need to open the Dropbox app and copy a link. A new Dropbox widget can be added to the lock screen, providing easier access to tools for creating, viewing, and uploading files.

There's a new tool in the Dropbox for signing PDFs, and there are options for getting notified when a file has been updated by a colleague so it can be refreshed with a tap.

Dropbox now includes support for picture-in-picture, a feature designed to let iPad users watch videos while performing other tasks. Split-screen support for compatible iPads is also coming in the near future, but won't be included in today's update.

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

Casper has announced it now accepts Apple Pay on the web through Safari on both its desktop website on Mac and mobile website on iPhone and iPad.

Casper is a New York-based startup that sells an award-winning foam mattress exclusively through its website. The online retailer's product lineup also includes a pillow, sheets, foundation, and dog bed, available in the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Apple Pay on the web is a convenient and secure option for online payments, eliminating the need to repeatedly fill out account, shipping, and billing information for a more seamless checkout experience. Compatible devices include iPhone 6 and later, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and later running iOS 10 or above.

Apple Pay on the web is a new Safari feature on iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, expanding upon in-store and in-app payments. The feature started rolling out in September on websites such as Staples, easyJet, Indiegogo, StubHub, and Wayfair, with other committed partners to follow.

Last month we looked at Bose's wireless QuietComfort 35 noise-canceling headphones ($350) and came away with the feeling that – at least for those willing or able to test premium waters – Bluetooth-based audio fulfillment was finally a possibility.

So it would be remiss not to turn next to rival premium headphone maker and well-regarded German audio company Sennheiser to see what it has to offer in the wireless noise-canceling space.

Sennheiser has dipped its toes into the NC market before with the PXC 250-ii, PXC 450, and its lauded wireless Momentum series, but the firm announced its flagship PXC 550 travel cans ($400/£330) in an almost direct response to Bose's QuietComfort transition to Bluetooth, which makes comparisons here inevitable. First though let's look at the design and features of the PXC 550 headphones on their own terms.

➜ Click here to read more...

Accessory manufacturer Netatmo has launched its home monitoring system, called the "Healthy Home Coach," which connects to a smartphone app to inform users of their home's air quality, humidity, temperature, and noise level (via Engadget). As a plus, users of the company's smart indoor climate monitor will be able to integrate the system with Apple's HomeKit and use Siri to interact with the Netatmo device.

Netatmo designed the Healthy Home Coach with the same aesthetic of its security and weather devices, but with the specific goal of elevating the well-being and user awareness of a home's healthy environment. The company says that the device allows users to discover the precise noise level for sound sleeping, and guides them in adjusting a humidifier to hit the target humidity levels for someone with asthma.

The Healthy Home Coach can also tip users and tell them when to adjust the ventilation of a room to balance out air quality -- for better concentration, according to Netatmo -- and warn them when their home's temperature isn't at the right level. The device's connected iOS app pushes out these notifications and tells users when the air quality, temperature, humidity, or noise level is acting out of their pre-set parameters, so they can subsequently address the warning before it becomes a problem.

Anyone interested can purchase Netatmo's Healthy Home Coach from the company's website for $99.99. Although the range of the system isn't given, Netatmo says that it is "easily expandable," so additional monitors can be added into other rooms of a home where only one device can't reach.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today granted Apple another patent that could help the company create a bezel-free, edge-to-edge display for future generation iPhones. The new patent describes "electronic devices with display-integrated light sensors" and specifically refers to methods by which the company could stack the iPhone's ambient light sensor underneath the display, instead of next to it on the iPhone's bezel (via AppleInsider).

In the patent, there are a few configurations through which Apple could execute the technology. One showcases the light sensors -- which help the iPhone detect the ambient light in a room or outside -- integrated directly above the touch-sensitive layer of the display (figure 6), while another has the sensor placed next to the touch-sensitive layer without intersecting it (figure 9). The patent notes that the methods of executing this technology aren't limited to just light sensors, but could be used for "a proximity sensor, or any other sensor."

In a typical device, a light sensor is laterally displaced from an active display region of the display along a front face of the device. Additional space is therefore provided in common devices at the top, bottom, or side of the active display area to accommodate the light sensor.

This can result in an undesirable increase in the size and weight of the device, if care is not taken, displays may be bulky or may be surrounded by overly large borders. It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved electronic devices with light sensors and displays.

In the above images, there are two sections of the device's display that Apple notes in the patent as "AA" and "IA." AA is considered the display area that functionally gives information to the user and which responds to touch-based input, while IA -- covering the proposed screen-integrated sensor technology -- is referred to as an "inactive border region."

The patent describes the inactive region of IA as covered with an "opaque masking material such as a layer of black ink (e.g., a polymer filled with carbon black) or a layer of opaque metal," and surrounding the active region of AA. The ultimate goal of IA is apparently to hide components in the interior of a device from user view by camouflaging the region to look similarly like the active display it borders.

In effect, this could mean a future iPhone would successfully lose the bezels of the current generations and gain an edge-to-edge display, but not all portions of that display would be interactive.

Last week, Apple was granted another patent hinting at future iPhone technology that could integrate a fingerprint sensor directly into the display of a device, instead of requiring a separate component and taking up space below the screen of iPhones and iPads. With these two patents, Apple is slowly discover ways to remove the bezel from the bottom of an iPhone (Home Button/Touch ID) and the top (light sensor), although it remains to be seen how the company would handle the front-facing FaceTime camera and speaker in this scenario.

In the midst of stories surrounding the hacking of at least 500 million Yahoo user accounts and the secretive scanning of private emails at the behest of the government, Yahoo Mail users are now finding it difficult to leave the service after the company "temporarily disabled" email forwarding earlier in the month. According to several users speaking to The Associated Press, the ability to more easily leave Yahoo Mail with the email forwarding feature -- which ensures old email is sent to a new account -- has been removed completely.

Jason Danner, owner of an information technology business in Auckland, New Zealand, said it is all "extremely suspicious timing" for Yahoo to get rid of the feature amid news that undoubtedly has many of its users interested in setting up accounts on other services. Without providing a comment, Yahoo referred to a line on the company's help site to explain its action of "temporarily" removing the feature "while we work to improve it." Anyone who has already set up email forwarding prior to the change won't be affected.

This feature is under development. While we work to improve it, we’ve temporarily disabled the ability to turn on Mail Forwarding for new forwarding addresses. If you’ve already enabled Mail Forwarding in the past, your email will continue to forward to the address you previously configured.

Several people speaking with The Associated Press said that recent news surrounding Yahoo was causing them to consider leaving Yahoo Mail. One user said a "certain amount" of government surveillance is expected to be going on at most times through smart devices, "but providing the U.S. government unrestricted access — that really, really violates our privacy." The same user opted to leave an out-of-office message on their account in lieu of the traditional email-forwarding ability.

The feature has been “a basic concept for 15 years for just about every email provider out there,” said Brian McIntosh, who owns a small technology business and first alerted the Associated Press to the issue. “All of a sudden it's under development,” McIntosh said in a telephone interview. “And only at Yahoo.”

Following the original Reuters story about Yahoo's email scanning, the company called the article "misleading" and said that the scanning program "does not exist on our systems." A second report from The New York Times cited a source that claimed Yahoo enacted the program because of an ordnance from the United States government, which was seeking information on an unspecified state-sponsored terrorist group who used Yahoo Mail for communication.

Other companies, like Google and Microsoft, have come forward saying they got no such request from the government. An Apple spokesperson said, "We have never received a request of this type. If we were to receive one, we would oppose it in court.” Throughout all of this, Yahoo is finalizing its sale to Verizon, with the latter company now reportedly asking for a $1 billion discount.

Update 10/11: A Yahoo spokesperson contacted MacRumors with the following statement:

"We’re working to get auto-forward back up and running as soon as possible because we know how useful it can be to our users. The feature was temporary disabled as part of previously planned maintenance to improve its functionality between a user’s various accounts. Users can expect an update to the auto-forward functionality soon. In the meantime, we continue to support multiple account management.”

Update 10/14: Yahoo has re-enabled mail forwarding and explained its move to temporarily disable the feature in a blog post.

Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. The feature was temporarily disabled as part of this process.

Apple has revealed its official iOS 10 adoption rate figure in an update to its developer support website, showing that over half of devices that access the App Store are running the platform – a slightly slower migration than iOS 9 achieved last year.

As of October 7, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system powered 54 percent of all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices.

Apple's numbers are lower than recent data obtained from Mixpanel's iOS adoption tracker, which put adoption at 55 percent on the last day of September. Just over two weeks after iOS 10 was released to the public, its adoption rate was recorded at 48.16 percent based on the same data feeds.

Last year, less than two weeks after iOS 9 was released, Apple said it was installed on more than 50 percent of active devices, making it the operating system with the fastest ever adoption rates.

iOS 10 had some early installation issues that could have put some off downloading the update, but features like a revamped Messages app with stickers, a Siri API for developers, and new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos have ensured a steadily increasing install base.

Facebook yesterday officially launched its 'Workplace' platform, an organization and business collaboration tool to rival the likes of Slack.

Previously known as Facebook Work, Workplace combines social network, chat messenger, and productivity features to help teams work together online. The app includes groups, custom profiles and ad-free news feeds, including tools for team members to make audio and video calls as well as host live broadcasts.

There's also something called Multi-Company Groups, which allows employees from different organizations to work together.

Workplace is free for non-profits and schools, but Facebook will charge commercial users of the platform $3 per month for organizations of up to 1,000 people, and as low as $1 per month for organizations comprising over 10,000 employees.

That contrasts with Slack's Standard plan of $6.67 per user and its Free tier, which has some search and archive limitations.

Workplace exists as a web interface and an iOS app similar in style to Facebook's other mobile offerings. The app is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]