MacRumors

Security camera company Canary recently announced a trio of new features coming to its smart home security system and mobile apps, including two-way audio calls between a Canary camera and smartphone, a live security feed with reduced latency, and an all-new web app with live streaming.

Rolling out over the course of this week is a refreshed version of Canary's "Watch Live" feature, which "dramatically" reduces the latency of live videos being recorded by the Canary camera. The company said it's done away with a five second delay previously found in Watch Live, allowing users a "virtually real-time" look into their home while watching on an iOS or Android device.

Prior to the release of 2.7.0, you may have experienced a delay of about 5 seconds between what you saw in the Canary app and the activity that was actually occurring in an environment. With the new and improved Watch Live experience, latency has decreased, giving you a virtually real-time view into your home.

To achieve this, we completely redesigned the backend of Watch Live to prioritize real-time video delivery. By implementing a dedicated video pipeline, and adding adaptive video quality to the Watch Live experience, we were able to make Watch Live truly live.

Canary also announced a user-requested feature that enables two-way audio calls between the security camera in a home, and a user with a smartphone outside of the home. Called "Canary Talk," the company described the feature as a home intercom, allowing users to simply tap a microphone button when in Watch Live to have their voice broadcast to anyone in the vicinity of their Canary. At-home users can then respond to the call by simply talking anywhere near the Canary.

Canary Talk will be available in the new version update 2.7.0 on the company's iOS and Android apps, but will debut first in the Canary All-in-One device, then launch sometime in September for Canary Flex devices. No matter which Canary it's used on, Canary Talk will require the company's $9.99/month subscription membership.

Whether you’re using it to talk to the kids, a nanny, an aging parent, your new puppy, or to ward off an intruder, Canary Talk gives you a voice at home no matter how far from it you are.

Additionally, any Canary membership users can now stream live video and view recorded content from their camera while on a desktop or mobile browser. The company said that the introduction of its new live-streaming web app will help Canary users watch their home while they are at work, without needing to bring up their smartphone.

The 2.7.0 update for Canary is available to download now on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

A collection of Apple suppliers have shared revenue reports today, which also provide a glimpse into the upcoming "peak" iPhone and Apple Watch manufacturing season. Starting off, Foxconn looked back at its profits in July and reported consolidated revenues of NT$315.06 billion (US$10.62 billion) for the month, which marks an increase of 7.53 percent year-on-year. For the first seven months of 2017, Foxconn's combined revenues were NT$2.2 trillion, increasing by 1.64 percent year-on-year (via DigiTimes).

Those watching Foxconn's revenue report are now expecting the October-December period to be the "peak of 2017" for the company, thanks to its status as one of Apple's biggest suppliers and the launch of the iPhone 8 sometime in September. Foxconn's revenue will increase "gradually" in August, according to market watchers, and will continue until the end of the year. Holiday spending traditionally helps increase Apple and its suppliers' revenue, even boosting Foxconn's December period in 2016 in the face of an overall year that saw its first-ever profit decline.

Some market watchers expect Foxconn's revenues to increase gradually beginning August and the growth will last until the end of 2017 with the fourth quarter being the peak of 2017 for Foxconn.

Apple Watch supplier Quanta Computer announced revenues for the second quarter of 2017 at NT$235.37 billion (US$7.93 billion), growing 3.3 percent from the previous quarter and 13.3 percent from the year-ago quarter. Today's report stated that next-generation Apple Watch shipments will begin in the fourth quarter, gradually increasing Quanta's financial performance in the second half of 2017 -- a sentiment that's been shared in previous supply chain reports due to Quanta's status as the sole supplier of the "Apple Watch Series 3."

With the notebook market entering the traditional peak season, its server shipments expected to enjoy growth and the next-generation Apple Watch set to begin shipments in the fourth quarter, some market watchers expect Quanta's financial performances to gradually pick up in the second half of 2017.

In other supply chain ramp-up stories, TSMC has entered mass production on the iPhone 8's A11 chip in the third quarter of 2017. The next-generation chip is being crafted with a new 10-nanometer FinFET process, and originally began production back in May after a month-long delay. TSMC is also using its 10nm manufacturing process to build the new iPad Pro's A10X processors, and it's predicted the A11 processors will also find their way into the "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus."

In addition, TSMC has already started mass production of 10nm FinFET chips in the third quarter, driven by Apple's orders, the report indicated. TSMC's 10nm FinFET process has been adopted by Apple for its A10X processors for use in its 10.5- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro tablets and A11 chips that will power the upcoming iPhones.

There have been numerous reports from Apple's supply chain in recent weeks, timed ahead of the rumored announcement of the iPhone 8 in September. These include a report centered on Lumentum and "massive" orders it has received for components related to its vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Such technology is believed to be for the advanced camera and 3D sensing features of the iPhone 8.

Last week, all three new iPhones were reportedly entering volume production, and Samsung Display began gearing up to operate seven of its next-generation OLED lines at full capacity earlier this month, all aimed at the iPhone 8. In terms of the main suppliers for Apple's next-generation OLED smartphone, Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron are predicted to hit a sales high in the period running from September to November of this year, due to shipments of finished iPhones that will "start gaining momentum" as soon as this month.

U.K. smart home solutions provider LightwaveRF announced on Monday that its forthcoming product range, which includes a light dimmer and smart socket, will be fully compatible with Apple's HomeKit platform.

On October 3, LightwaveRF will launch its new Generation 2 Link Plus smart hub, Smart Dimmers, Smart Sockets, and a Smart Radiator Valve. The Link Plus connects to a Wi-Fi router and controls the LightwaveRF smart home system for lighting, heating, power and security.

"This is a further exciting development for LightwaveRF," said chief executive officer Andrew Pearson. "We look forward to working with Apple as a HomeKit technical partner and a supplier to its retail outlets. The exposure and awareness from this partnership should enhance our market visibility and greatly benefit our customers via easier management of their smart home solutions. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Apple as we launch further HomeKit compatible devices for both the UK and international markets."

The new LightwaveRF range is said to be the result of a two-year research and development program, with new features of the system including built-in energy monitoring, color-changing LEDs to indicate status, and wire-free two-way switching.

The new range will be sold in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates through Apple retail stores, online via Apple.com, and other chosen retail outlets.

Apple Maps has been updated with transit data in Hungary, enabling iPhone users to navigate with public transportation directions in Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Győr, Pécs, and other regions of the country.

In the Budapest metropolitan area, supported vehicles include the Budapest Metro, BKV buses and trams, and BHÉV trains.

MÁV-START trains are also supported throughout Hungary for long-distance routes, such as between Budapest and Debrecen.

Apple Maps gained a Transit tab in iOS 9. The feature lags several years behind Google Maps, but Apple's public transportation support is exhaustive, mapping all station entrances and listing departure times. Apple Maps also provides detailed advisories about service interruptions and other changes.

At launch, the feature was limited to Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. Since then, Apple has been working to expand support for public transportation to other cities around the world.

For a regularly updated list of cities with Apple Maps transit, visit the iOS Feature Availability page on Apple's website.

Fast Company published a report this week exploring why third-party accessories that make use of Apple's Smart Connector remain few and far between, almost two years after the connector first debuted on the iPad Pro. The magnetic Smart Connector allows the iPad Pro to communicate with and power compatible accessories, like the company's own Smart Keyboard, without the hassle of wires.

The first supporting third-party accessory, Logitech's Create Smart Connector keyboard, launched the same day as the iPad Pro in late 2015, shortly followed by the Logitech charging base, and more recently a Logitech keyboard for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. However, this close partnership between Apple and Logitech is one of the reasons for the dearth of Smart Connector accessories from competing vendors, according to the report.

"With an iPad Pro keyboard on the market already, we are evaluating the market's appetite for another iPad Pro keyboard and identifying if there are any gaps that we can fill," a spokeswoman for Incipio told Fast Company. "So we are developing with having a point of difference in mind rather than developing to be quick to market."

Other issues are said to relate to procuring Smart Connector components, with manufacturers reporting longer lead times compared to other accessories, making them time- and cost-prohibitive. "For a business like us, we've got a very rapid product development cycle," said one vendor source, who asked to remain anonymous. "When you've got a long lead time component that's close to six months, that's just not tenable."

Meanwhile, some accessory makers simply preferred Bluetooth as a better fit, especially for iPad keyboards, with more room for maneuver in terms of accessory design. For instance, the Smart Connector only works with keyboards in landscape mode, whereas some users prefer to type in portrait orientation. The issue of Bluetooth battery life has also been minimized, with smaller batteries now lasting for months rather than weeks.

There are only four Smart Connector accessories currently on the market – three offered by Logitech, one by Apple. Fast Company was told by Apple that multiple companies are now developing Smart Connector accessories, but going on this report, iPad Pro owners looking to further exploit the potential of Apple's proprietary connector could be in for some wait yet.

Kicking off this week in iOS gaming was an appearance I made on the Australian games podcast, GameHugs. It's an industry-centric podcast that explores the backstory of web sites and studios in the world of video games (and often mobile games). On the most recent episode, I get into what goes on behind the scenes running a site like TouchArcade, as well as the odd chain of events that led me to TouchArcade — including, but not limited to, getting banned from the MacRumors forums. It's a fun story, but if that's not your cup of tea, as usual there are always tons of other things going on in the world of iOS games.

I've mentioned it in previous roundups, but things are starting to get real when it comes to the impending release of iOS 11 and with it, what we've been calling the 32-bit app-pocalypse. We started casually compiling a list of our favorite games that have yet to be updated, which grew into this gargantuan article filled with some amazing titles that likely aren't going to work in the future. It's worth skimming through, as if you've been buying iOS games for a few years now I'd be really surprised if you didn't own at least one of the games on the list. It might be worth one last play through before iOS 11 steamrolls everything next month.

We've been giving Sega a pretty hard time surrounding the launch of the "Sega Forever" lineup of free with one-time unlock classic emulated games, as most of the re-released titles perform worse than the first time they hit the App Store, back in 2009. This week, they released Ristar, which as mentioned in the tweet above includes a new emulation engine. This new engine is loads better than the one used in the rest of the Sega Forever lineup, making Ristar a game worth checking out just to experience the difference. Hopefully Sega quickly updates the rest of its library with the updated emulator.

If you've got kids who are into Minecraft either on the Mac, or Minecraft: Pocket Edition, chances are you've heard about Minecon. If not, it's an event Mojang puts on that is the place to be if you even remotely care about the game. It features meetups, developer Q&A, and other things along those lines. The problem is, Minecraft is a very inclusive game and an expensive conference with a limited number of tickets is fairly exclusive. In the future, they're shifting the event to be focused around livestreaming and interactive community events that everyone, not just people at Minecon, can participate in. This seems like a really cool move. Watch the video above for way more details.

In regards to games to look forward to, one title we're super stoked for is Darkest Dungeon coming to iPad. We've known it's been in the works for a while, but now we have a release date: August 29. Darkest Dungeon is an award-winning RPG that currently is only available on Steam. The iPad port is going to have a really cool feature: totally cross-platform Dropbox save syncing. I'm always a huge fan of this sort of thing, and really wish more developers took the time to implement it — particularly when porting games like this.

The International is taking place this week, which is basically the DOTA 2 equivalent of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl being sandwiched together into one massive week long event. Between games, they announced that they were going to reveal a game Valve has been working on. Valve fans have been dying for Half Life 3 (or Portal 3, or any other sequel) for years now, and many thought this would be it. What they ended up revealing is a likely free to play fantasy collectable card game called Artifact. The crowd reaction was incredible:

While I'm sure Artifact will do very well, particularly if they tie in the Steam Marketplace, yet another digital collectable card game is close to the most boring thing Valve could have announced. Regardless, with these kinds of games the key is to get as many people as possible playing them. Platforms have yet to be announced, but it really wouldn't surprise me at all if Artifact came to both Mac and mobile. Whatever it's going to be on, it won't be released until next year.

When it comes to to digital collectable card games you can actually play right now on both Mac and iOS, Hearthstone's new expansion launched this week. Aside from loads of new cards, Knights of the Frozen Throne also features some really cool single player content. Blizzard is releasing new missions each week until players finally face off against the Lich King himself. Oh, and per the above video, the Lich King is really into reading mean tweets.

Last, but not least, is a puzzling lawsuit by Gamevice. If you haven't heard of them, they make some pretty cool MFi controller accessories that you stick your iPhone or iPad in to play them in a form factor that's pretty close to the Nintendo Switch. In the eyes of Gamevice, a little too close to the Nintendo Switch, which is why they're taking them to court for patent infringement. If Gamevice is successful in their lawsuit, they could put a stop to Nintendo Switch sales all together. It seems unlikely, but as a spectator sport, watching these patent cases evolve is always interesting.

That's it for this week in iOS gaming, but as always if you enjoy these sorts of things be sure to check out TouchArcade. We review tons of games, post way more news like this, and have a weekly podcast that's also a great way to keep up in the world of iOS games.

For some vehicles, when an iPhone is plugged into the car's USB port music playback begins automatically, and it always starts in alphabetical order at the top of the user's iTunes library. Because of this, many users will hear the same song, usually beginning with an "A," over and over again each time they plug their iPhone into their car. This week, a potential solution to that problem has been soaring up the iTunes charts in the form of a ten-minute silent song called "A a a a a Very Good Song" [Direct Link].

Created by Samir Mezrahi, the song allows users a full nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds to find the song they actually want to hear after connecting their iPhone to their car through USB. Mezrahi is charging $0.99 for each download of the music-less track, although Apple Music subscribers can simply add the song into their library for free.

A a a a a Very Good Song launched on iTunes on Wednesday, August 9, and as of the writing of this article it sits at #46 on iTunes' Top Songs chart. The song has climbed 21 spots in under a day, when Engadget reported that it was at #67 early on August 10. If it continues to climb, the song will surpass artists like Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, and Miley Cyrus.

For any CarPlay users, or for those who connect to their vehicle through Bluetooth, the automatic iTunes playback phenomenon is not as much of an issue. For those who do face the problem, it's been discovered within a wide array of different brands and car systems. As one Redditor pointed out, for users who don't have an Apple Music subscription and who would prefer not to pay $0.99 for a ten-minute silent track, they can also make a silent recording of their own and add it to iTunes.

Hints about when Apple Pay is coming to Germany have been few and far between over the last year, with negotiations between Apple and German banks allegedly stalling due to conflicting views over fees and controls.

The last rumor came back in May and suggested that Apple Pay would launch in the country in the fall or winter, but today one MacRumors reader provided us with another potential hint that Apple is gearing up to introduce its mobile payment system in Germany imminently.

While setting up a new Apple Watch on the fifth regional betas of iOS 11 and watchOS 4, developer Philipp Ebener was presented with the option to add German bank cards to Apple Pay for the first time.

Philipp reports that he wasn't able to register any of his German credit cards with the system, but the fact that the feature has been partially enabled suggests full activation could come with the official public launch of both operating systems.

Apple will release the final version of iOS 11 and watchOS 4 at its next major event in September, where it is expected to debut new iPhone models and a new Apple Watch with LTE for a standalone cellular connection.

Smart thermostat company Nest this week announced a new energy saving initiative coming on the day of the total solar eclipse, August 21, 2017. During the eclipse, clean solar energy will be reduced and in some areas of the United States traditional power plants will have to fire up in order to cover the energy shortfall for a brief period of time.

Nest's solution is a "Solar Eclipse Rush Hour" setting that will be sent to thermostats across the U.S. days ahead of the eclipse. The program will help offset the drop in energy production during the eclipse by automatically pre-cooling homes ahead of time. Once users notice the message, and agree to participate, the Nest Thermostat will lower the temperature of their home before the eclipse.

So, we’re encouraging people across the US to help offset this drop in energy production by pre-cooling their homes before the eclipse. If you don’t own a Nest thermostat, you can manually adjust the temperature by one or two degrees during the eclipse. If you join, a few hours before the eclipse hits your area, your Nest Thermostat may automatically pre-cool your home so that you can save energy during the eclipse. After the eclipse, your thermostat will go back to its regular schedule.

The company said that with enough Nest devices participating, users will be able to "meaningfully reduce" energy demand during the eclipse. Of course, if the temperature becomes too warm during the time of the eclipse, users can still manually change the temperature at any time. Once the eclipse has ended, Nest will go back to its regular schedule of warming and cooling.

Nest's new Solar Eclipse Rush Hour is part of the Rush Hour program that began back in 2013, which has a similar energy-saving goal. In that program, Nest Thermostats warn users of when a high-demand energy period is coming, particularly during warm days when many people will activate their air conditioners. If participating, Nest will automatically pre-cool the home and keep its energy output low during the Rush Hour -- enough to keep users comfortable -- and then return to regular programming afterward.

Over the summer, a rumor came out that Nest was potentially considering adding HomeKit support into its smart thermostat products. However, a subsequent report that cited a Nest employee said that the company has "no immediate plans" to support Apple's smart home platform and "no roadmap" for such an update. Apple has a few smart thermostats it highlights and sells in the HomeKit section of its online store, including those made by ecobee, iDevices, and Honeywell.

In regards to the eclipse, the partial phase will hit Oregon at around 9 a.m. PT on August 21, with totality occurring about one hour later. For more local times on when the eclipse will be near your area, and the safety precautions you should take when trying to view the event, check out NASA's web page.