MacRumors

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has predicted a consumer backlash if Apple drops the headphone jack in the upcoming iPhone 7 in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector for audio output, charging, and accessory connectivity.

"If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people," claimed Woz, speaking to The Australian Financial Review.

"I would not use Bluetooth – I don't like wireless," he said. "I have cars where you can plug in the music, or go through Bluetooth, and Bluetooth just sounds so flat for the same music."

With Apple widely expected to drop the headphone jack in next month's iPhone 7, rumors indicate the company will include Lightning-equipped EarPods in the box, as well as a Lightning-to-jack adapter to allow users like Woz to connect their existing wired earphones to the device.

"Mine have custom ear implants, they fit in so comfortably, I can sleep on them and everything. And they only come out with one kind of jack, so I'll have to go through the adapter," he said.

Asked what would have to change for him to consider using wireless in the future, Woz added: "If there's a Bluetooth 2 that has higher bandwidth and better quality, that sounds like real music, I would use it. But we'll see."

Bluetooth 5, announced in June, is expected to be faster, with longer range and a higher transfer rate, but when the standard will be ready for adoption remains unclear.

While the consensus is that Apple will remove the headphone jack in favor of Lightning, Intel continues to position USB-C as the open standard of the future for digital audio. The port is seeing wider adoption in popular Android-based smartphones.

"I think USB-C is going to be the future," said Woz. "One of my favorite Android phones, the Nexus 5X, uses that connector. It gives it a higher level in my own thinking."

Popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go was today updated to version 1.5.0, adding new features to make gym battling more straightforward. New to the game is a "Pokémon Appraisal" feature, which will see in-game Team Leaders offering tips on each Pokémon's attack and defense abilities to help trainers determine which Pokémon to use in gym battles.

While longtime Pokémon players are often already aware of which Pokémon are ideal to use against other Pokémon in a battle, the appraisal tool offers valuable information on abilities and weaknesses for those who are newer to the Pokémon universe.

According a blog post on the update, it also includes unspecified "minor bot fixes" and a promise that Niantic is working hard on "new and exciting features" that will be added to Pokémon Go in the future.

- Implemented Pokémon Appraisal: Trainers will now be able to learn about a Pokémon's attack and defense capabilities from their Team Leader (Candela, Blanche, or Spark) to determine which of their Pokémon have the most potential for battle.
- Fixed a bug that kept defeated Pokémon at 1HP; these Pokémon will now return as fainted Pokémon. We're working on rebalancing the training battle, stay tuned.fixes

Earlier today, a report suggested interest in Pokémon Go is steadily declining, so Niantic will need to implement new features to keep players interested. Daily active users, downloads, and the amount of time users are spending on Pokémon Go each day are said to be "well off their peaks and on a downward trend."

Pokémon Go can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Back in 2015, Jawbone sued Fitbit for "systematically plundering" confidential information, stealing patented technology, and acquiring trade secrets from former Jawbone employees, and since then, the two have been embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute.

It looks like Fitbit is temporarily off the hook, though, as the United States International Trade Commission today said Fitbit did not steal Jawbone's trade secrets, putting an end to Jawbone's efforts to win an import ban against Fitbit. Without the ban, Fitbit will be able to continue importing and selling its fitness trackers in the United States.

U.S. judge Dee Lord ruled there was no violation of the Tariff Act and that neither party "has been shown to have misappropriated any trade secret." The International Trade Commission previously invalidated Jawbone's patent claims and said Jawbone was "seeking a monopoly on the abstract ideas of collecting and monitoring sleep and other health-related data."

In a statement given to Business Insider, Jawbone said it would seek a review of the ruling before the full Commission and will proceed with its trade secret case against Fitbit, which is set to be heard by a jury in California. Fitbit, unsurprisingly, said it was pleased with the decision.

"We are pleased with the ITC's initial determination rejecting Jawbone's trade secret claims," said James Park, CEO and Co-Founder of Fitbit. "We greatly appreciate the ALJ's time and diligent work on this case. From the outset of this litigation, we have maintained that Jawbone's allegations were utterly without merit and nothing more than a desperate attempt by Jawbone to disrupt Fitbit's momentum to compensate for their own lack of success in the market. Our customers can be assured that we remain fully committed to creating innovative products that consumers love, and that we areexcited about the pipeline of new products coming out this year."

Both Jawbone and Fitbit make popular fitness tracking devices, but while Fitbit has continued to produce new activity trackers, Jawbone has not released a new fitness-related product since 2015. Earlier this year, following reports suggesting it was going out of business, Jawbone said it was committed to creating new wearable products. Jawbone is now said to be working on a clinical-grade health tracking device related to heart monitoring.

Popular app Instapaper, designed to allow users to save notable news articles to read at a later time, has been acquired by Pinterest. Created by Marco Arment in 2008, Instapaper was one of the first apps that implemented read-it-later functionality, and it was certainly one of the most widely used and well-known apps in the genre.

Instapaper, available on iOS, Android, Kindle, and the web, was first sold to Betaworks in 2013 and now it belongs to Pinterest. Pinterest plans to use Instapaper to encourage Pinterest users to save more articles to the site, a feature that's existed for several years but isn't often used, and some of Instapaper's search functionality will be integrated into Pinterest. In a blog post, Instapaper said the acquisition would also give it the resources to grow its core mission -- "allowing our users to discover, save, and experience interesting web content."

Instapaper provides a compelling source for news-based content, and we're excited to take those learnings to Pinterest's discovery products. We'll also be experimenting with using our parsing technology for certain Rich Pin types.

Instapaper will continue to operate as a standalone app and service, and no changes are expected for end users. The company will, however, be ending development on Instaparser on November 1, 2016.

While its parent company Walmart remains one of the most notable Apple Pay holdouts in the United States, British supermarket chain Asda now appears to be testing the mobile payments service at select locations in the United Kingdom.

The supermarket chain, which has 626 stores across the U.K., recently confirmed on Twitter that Apple Pay is something it is "currently trialling in a few of our stores," but it remains unclear if the testing will lead to a wider rollout in the future.

A few Asda customers have recently tweeted about the newly enabled Apple Pay support at superstore locations in Aberdeen, Scotland and Ferring, a small village located about 60 miles southwest from London, England.

In 1999, Asda was purchased by Walmart, which recently completed a nationwide launch of its own QR code-based mobile payments solution Walmart Pay in the United States. Walmart was initially committed to the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium and its now indefinitely postponed payments service CurrentC.

In related news, Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, and digital banking service B introduced Apple Pay support for cardholders in the U.K. last week.

LG recently unveiled a trio of new Bluetooth speaker collections ahead of the IFA 2016 tech conference taking place in Berlin September 2-7. The new speakers are called the PH2, PH3, and PH4 and "run the range from casual to audiophile grade" in order to suit the listening style of each LG customer.

The cheapest speaker starts with the small PH2, measuring 3.8 inches in diameter and just 1.5 in thickness, along with 2.5W of power inside. It also comes with a strap that can attach the speaker to "a variety of surfaces," making it ideal for listening to music on the go. The PH3 offers an iterative improvement with 3W of power and a more robust frame measuring in at 3.5 by 4.9 inches. This middle tier also includes a candle-like top half that includes "five different multicolored light modes."

"LG's new line of Bluetooth speakers combine powerful sound performance with compact, portable design," said Tim Alessi, senior director, product marketing for home entertainment at LG ElectronicsUSA. "Understanding the busy lifestyles of many of today's consumers, we sought to create a diverse lineup of audio products that deliver a seamless listening experience in any situation or setting."

Finally, the taller and cylindrical PH4 introduces the most features of LG's new bluetooth speaker lineup: water resistance, 360-degree sound, and a longer battery life with 16W of power. Concerning battery, both the PH3 and PH4 will last up to ten hours, while the PH2 is said to get up to six hours of consistent music playback.

Each speaker uses LG's 360-degree omni-directional output to deliver consistent audio to any room or outdoor space, with the single and dual passive radiators in the PH3 and PH4 "giving them audio abilities that far exceed most speakers their size." All of the new speakers also come with the standard auxiliary input ports and include an "advanced multipoint connectivity" feature that lets them connect two different Bluetooth-enabled devices at once, so two users can control audio output to one speaker simultaneously.

Because the company revealed the speakers ahead of their official debut at IFA 2016, the price and release date for the new line wasn't disclosed. LG did say that customers in the United States can expect a launch sometime this fall, however.

Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer today refuted reports from over the weekend that the ride-hailing company was seeking out buyers for a potential purchase -- reportedly including Apple -- outright telling Business Insider that "Lyft is not seeking a buyer." According to Zimmer, Lyft itself was approached for a purchase opportunity, which was misconstrued in reports by The New York Times and Bloomberg as Lyft actively seeking out to be bought by a major company, including potential candidates like Amazon, General Motors, and even rival Uber.

Zimmer said these reports "crossed a line," leading to the company needing to address them head-on and break its usual silence on these types of rumors focused on mergers and acquisitions. The most ire seems to be aimed at the Bloomberg angle on the story, which specifically stated that Uber "wouldn’t pay above $2 billion for Lyft," coming in far below Lyft's reported $9 billion estimated value.

"We have to be careful with this type of thing for confidentiality reasons until Friday, when we feel like the line was crossed in that it was characterized as us trying to and failing to sell the business," Zimmer said. "And as Friday happened, with both that characterization and the Bloomberg report, we said enough is enough. We need to let people know that we're not looking for a buyer, so that's not a legitimate part of the story. I think it shows a bit of overstepping on Uber's part with the Bloomberg story that fully demonstrates who is behind this."

Zimmer's language targets Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick as the catalyst behind Lyft's M&A rumors, although he didn't go into specific details regarding how he believes its rival began the chain of rumors that led to the reports over the weekend. Zimmer also declined to tell Business Insider which companies did in fact approach Lyft with a purchasing opportunity, with the publication saying that Lyft "isn't quite ready to be transparent" due to apparent confidentiality agreements set in place at the company.

Lyft is currently the second-largest ride-hailing app in the United States behind Uber. Although Zimmer believes this rivalry makes it easy for outsiders to view the company as bitter, he mentioned that he and the company are happy with Lyft's current trajectory. "We're focused on being an independent business and having the largest impact on car ownership as we possibly can," Zimmer said. "I don't think [independence] is a requirement, but I believe right now it's the best path."

Starting today, Facebook will begin testing autoplay videos -- including ads -- with sound in its iOS and Android apps. Facebook told Mashable the test will be limited to Australian users and rolled out in two different ways to gauge how users react. In both versions of the test, sound will only play if the iPhone's volume is turned up, and sound can also be turned to "always off" in Facebook settings.

In one version of the test, sound plays immediately as the video begins, if you have sound enabled on your device. Another group is able to turn sound on during the test session using an icon that will sit to the bottom right of videos.

Both groups see a pop-up message informing them about how to use the controls, and sound will only play if the smartphone's volume is up. If you don't want to annoy your workmates, sound can also be turned to "always off" in Facebook settings.

The test is interesting given that Facebook's own research concluded that mobile users prefer having the choice to opt in to sound, with 80% of people reacting negatively towards both the platform and advertiser if sound is unexpectedly played. But, given that Facebook is an advertising-driven company with aspirations of pushing deeper into video content, autoplay sound may eventually be a necessary evil.

After launching its point-of-sale system app in the United States in 2013, Shopify today announced that both the company's POS app and physical hardware will finally be made available to business owners in the United Kingdom (via TechCrunch). The app and "Tap, Chip, and Swipe" card reader work in conjunction to accept various kinds of retail payments from customers, while also providing merchants with data about their business, like stock shortages and daily cash intake.

“The UK is Shopify’s second largest market,” Hailey Coleman, Product Growth Manager at Shopify, told TechCrunch via email. “The launch of the Shopify POS app and card reader provides small business owners an easy and secure way to accept payments anywhere. Now merchants in the UK can run their entire business with Shopify.”

With its NFC-enabled card reader and connected app, Shopify allows customers to pay with any mobile wallet app, including Apple Pay and Android Pay, and traditional cards from Visa and MasterCard. On the compatability side of things, the Shopify POS app functions with the iPhone 4s and later, the iPad 2 and later, and any version of the iPad mini.

With the new system, business owners in the United Kingdom can also run every aspect of their small business with Shopify's products. The app and card reader not only enhance the retail store shopping experience, but both tie the physical store into the owner's online marketplace, "if they’re using Shopify to power their e-commerce."

After weeks of intense usage, new data from Axiom Capital Management (via Bloomberg) paints a picture of Pokémon Go's overall waning popularity as August comes to a close. With research lead by Senior Analyst Victor Anthony, the investment advising firm collected various user engagement statistics -- and even figured out how much attention Pokémon Go brought to augmented reality gaming -- in a handful of charts.

According to Anthony, many other popular apps, which saw a decline in daily active users because of the Pokémon Go phenomenon, were scrambling to figure out ways for former reliable users to return to their app. But now the executives of Tinder, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat "can breathe a sigh of relief," since everything from daily active users, downloads, and the amount of time spent on Pokémon Go each day "are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend."

"Given the rapid rise in usage of the Pokémon Go app since the launch in July, investors have been concerned that this new user experience has been detracting from time spent on other mobile focused apps," [Anthony] writes.

If these declines prove enduring, this would cast aspersion not only on the viability and popularity of Pokemon Go, but augmented reality gaming at large, according to the analyst.

Anthony believes the fad-like quality of Pokémon Go could ultimately leave little lasting impact on augmented reality gaming "at large," due to its fleeting popularity of a few weeks in mid-to-late July. Although not mentioned by the analyst or Bloomberg, it's also worth taking into account how many players actually used the AR camera when catching Pokémon, and consequently how many considered it an "AR game," when it became widely known that turning the mode off made capturing the creatures a slightly easier task.

While it was on everyone's mind, Pokémon Go made waves in both mainstream mobile gaming, and even sent Nintendo's stock rising, despite the company's small stake in both Niantic and The Pokémon Company, the game's creators. Niantic is still pushing out updates to Pokémon Go, attempting to fix issues with the game while also introducing it into new markets like Thailand and 14 other Asian countries.