MacRumors

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has announced a new MFi Headset Development Kit, a reference platform that is designed to help "Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod" accessory makers quickly develop Lightning-based headphones.

The development kit, available through Apple's MFi Program, includes a form factor reference design and other resources to help MFi licensees create Lightning-based headphones. A reference iOS app is also available.

The MFi Headset Development Kit demonstrates the advantages of Lightning-connected headsets over conventional analog headsets. For example, digital connectivity with an integrated, high-performance DAC and headphone driver delivers high-fidelity audio to the headphone speakers. In addition, Lightning-connected headphones can interact with an iOS app to create a more custom audio experience, such as personalized EQ settings.

Multiple credible sources have confirmed that Apple plans to remove the 3.5mm headphone plug on the iPhone 7 series in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector for audio output, charging, and connectivity, but only a handful of Lightning-equipped headphones are available today.

Apple introduced new MFi Program specifications in June 2014 that allow third-party manufacturers to create headphones that connect to iOS devices via a Lightning cable, but the rollout has been slow. Philips has unveiled Lightning-equipped Fidelio M2L and Fidelio NC1L headphones, pictured above, over the past two years.

Apple may also release Lightning-equipped EarPods, but a more recent conflicting rumor said the iPhone 7 will ship with standard 3.5mm EarPods and a 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter. Apple is also believed to be exploring Bragi Dash-like wireless headphones (AirPods?), but it may hold off on adopting the technology until 2017 or later.

Those interested in learning more about Lightning-equipped headphones can watch our video: Lightning Headphones: Are They Better or Just an Inconvenience? We also shared a video showing what an aftermarket 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter looks like as they begin to reach the market.

Over the past few weeks, some Apple Watch wearers have noticed that a growing portion of Apple's band inventory has been marked as "sold out," with many styles, sizes, and colors, now included in that group.

While Apple has made it clear that its first foray into fashion accessories will follow a "seasonal" cycle, with certain styles leaving its store forever once sold out, the array of bands unavailable on the store paints an erratic picture of shortages from all three of the Apple Watch's seasonal collections: Spring 2015, Fall 2015, and Spring 2016.

Tracked in the U.S. on both Apple.com and the Apple Store iOS app [Direct Link], the Classic Buckle currently has the most significant stock shortage of any of the Apple Watch bands, totaling 13 out-of-stock color options in both the 38 mm and 42 mm sizes. The smaller 38 mm wrist size option is the most affected, with only one band -- Saddle Brown -- available to purchase. Behind Classic Buckle, the Sport Band has 12 out-of-stock options on Apple's store, the Modern Buckle has four, and the Leather Loop has three, with varying sizes affecting availability for the latter two bands.

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Samsung Display will remain the global leader among AMOLED display suppliers over the next few years, with shipments estimated to increase to 560 million units by 2019, according to Taiwan-based DigiTimes Research.

Samsung Electronics, which produces the company's lineup of Android-based Galaxy smartphones, is expected to remain Samsung Display's largest customer over the next few years, with its in-house AMOLED panel demand projected to grow from 239 million units in 2016 to 290 million units in 2019.

Apple is rumored to release its first OLED-based iPhone in 2017, moving away from traditional LCD technology it has used since 2007 for at least one iPhone model. The report estimates that Samsung Display will supply Apple with 40 million AMOLED panels in 2017, 80 million units in 2018, and 120 million units in 2019.

LG Display, AU Optronics, Japan Display, and Foxconn-owned Sharp may also share production of OLED panels for future iPhones.

Earlier this year, DisplayMate found that Samsung's Galaxy S7 makes a compelling case for Apple to switch to OLED display technology. Possible benefits include increased brightness, improved color accuracy, improved screen visibility in bright environments, and more efficient power consumption.

A number of China-based smartphone vendors, including Vivo, Oppo, GiONEE, Huawei, and Lenovo, have also adopted or decided to adopt AMOLED panels in the future, with Samsung Display's combined shipments to them projected to increase from 99 million units in 2016 to 150 million units in 2019.

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday in the United States, ride hailing app Uber today announced a suite of safety improvements for its driver app, aimed at "predicting, preventing and reducing the number of crashes on the road." The update comes in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Governor's Highway Safety Association, and focuses on parsing out more information to the company's drivers to ensure the safety of its customers.

As part of the update, Uber will send out daily reports to drivers with detailed statistics showing their driving patterns, as well as comparisons to other drivers in the city, "with suggestions on how to provide a smoother, safer ride." According to a more detailed report in the company's engineering blog, multiple readings taken from GPS and accelerometer data in the smartphone will fuel these statistics, and also provide a new "speed display" in the driver app to alert them of potentially passing the speed limit.

Other basic features include reminders to take a break and safety messages to inform drivers about regulations from Uber, like mounting their smartphone to the dashboard instead of holding it in their hands while driving. The safety-focused update will begin as a rollout in 11 United States cities (the company left which cities unspecified) in the next couple of weeks, with more planned to be added after that.

In addition to the new features of its driver-focused Partner App, in today's blog post the company remarked on the overall positive impact that Uber has had on drunk driving accidents, specifically focusing on the city of Atlanta. Using a chart made available by the Atlanta Police Department, which shows every DUI made in the city from 2010-2016, a noticeable down tick in drunk driving arrests can be seen: dropping from 2,243 to 1,535, or a 32 percent decline, in that time period.

Uber used the dataset to correlate that dive in DUI arrests to the implementation of the ride hailing service in Atlanta in 2012, along with a surge in use a few years later in 2015. As the company itself points out, however, "many factors" could be affecting drunk driving trends in Atlanta, so it's difficult to directly attribute the two statistics to one another.

Still, the company mentioned that "it's heartening to see that these incidents are declining over time." It also cited its own survey data, released today, wherein 90 percent of riders said Uber helped generally reduce drinking and driving, and 80 percent said it helped personally on the same issue. No specific ranking was given, but according to Uber the same survey revealed that the app is "riders' top choice for trips" when inebriated, coming on top of public transportation, taxis, and other ride hailing apps.

Previous Coverage: Uber Update Spotlights 'Upfront Fares' While Burying Surge Pricing Notifications

Apple has consistently been securing exclusive content, like Drake's latest album "Views", Taylor Swift's "The 1989 World Tour" concert film and music videos from The Weeknd and Eminem. In a new feature from Rolling Stone, Larry Jackson, Apple Music's head of original content, said the goal of securing that exclusive content is to put the service "at the intersection of all things relevant in pop culture."

Jackson says that the model is "MTV in its Eighties and Nineties heyday. You always felt that Michael Jackson or Britney Spears lived there. How do you emotionally conjure up that feeling for people?"

Apple's deals with artists not only include exclusive streaming windows for singles and albums, but funding for music videos. For instance, Drake's "Hotline Bling" music video was funded by Apple, as were two videos for The Weeknd's "Cant Feel My Face" (one of which was not released).

The goal is to help artists feel like they can do interesting things with Apple. Monte Lipman, head of Republic Records, home of Ariana Grande and The Weekend, tells Rolling Stone that the Cupertino company has been prepared to do things other companies haven't. "Lately they've been very clever in coming to us with what we consider groundbreaking opportunities," he said.

Many of these opportunities include contributions from Apple executives. Tim Cook "weighed in" on the production of M.I.A.'s "Borders" music video while Swift says Jackson helped her brainstorm, make plans for and edit her concert film. That collaboration led to the Apple Music commercial where Swift raps along with Drake and Future's "Jumpman." The commercial helped increase "Jumpman" sales 43 percent, according to Rolling Stone.

However, Apple's strategy hasn't always worked out. Jackson says the company was in talks to host Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo." West eventually pulled out of talks to put his album on rival service Tidal, which he co-owns with Jay-Z. He chose Tidal over Apple Music because he "wanted to work with his friend," according to Jackson. While Kanye West initially said the album would "never" appear on Apple Music, the album did eventually come to the service.

Ultimately, Jackson told the magazine that the philosophy at Apple Music is "to go and get it done" when it comes to securing original content The service also has deals with Keith Richards, Selena Gomez and the Black Eyed Peas. Most recently, Apple gained the rights to exclusively launch Dreezy's debut album "No Hard Feelings." The service will also soon start hosting original video content like Dr. Dre's "Vital Signs" TV show and a six-episode documentary series co-produced with Vice.

Apple may be planning to introduce a Force Touch home button on the iPhone 7, according to analysts at Cowen and Company (via Business Insider). Citing supply chain "field checks," Cowen and Company predicts the iPhone 7 will do away with a physical home button, instead adopting a home button that sits flush with the phone.

Apple's Force Touch technology will reportedly be built into the home button to provide haptic feedback when pressed, much like the Force Touch trackpad on Apple's most recent MacBooks. With haptic feedback, iPhone users would still feel the sensation of pressing on the home button even without a button to actually depress.

Cowen and Company has a mixed track record, but it's worth noting that we've heard two other rumors about a redesigned home button on the iPhone 7. In April, DigiTimes said Apple was testing a touch-sensitive home button that fits flush with the phone, and a highly sketchy image of what was said to be an iPhone 7 with a touch-sensitive home button surfaced in mid-June.

Given the unreliability of each of the home button rumors, the information should be viewed with some skepticism until confirmed by a more reliable source, but when viewed alongside rumors of improved waterproofing and the removal of the headphone jack, a flush home button is not a rumor that seems entirely out of the question.

For several months, we've heard mixed rumors about the possibility of better water resistance in the iPhone 7, but it appears to be shaping up to be a potential feature. Last week, The Wall Street Journal, often a reliable source, lent credence to the rumor by suggesting the elimination of the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 will improve its water resistance.

At the same time, The Wall Street Journal has said the iPhone 7 will feature only "subtle changes," a sentiment echoed by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said the iPhone 7 will be a modest update without "many attractive selling points." A revamped home button seems like more than a minor change, so we'll need to wait for additional information to resolve some of the conflicting information we're hearing about Apple's next-generation iPhones.

If the physical home button is replaced with a Force Touch home button in the iPhone 7, it will bring Apple one step closer to eliminating the home button all together, something that is rumored for the iPhone 8, coming in 2017. Apple is said to be planning on introducing an edge-to-edge display with built-in Touch ID functionality and no home button.

In iOS 10, there's a new Face Gallery in the Watch app, which is designed to let users customize their Apple Watch faces in watchOS 3 right from their iPhones. Tweaking an Apple Watch face from an awkward angle on a wrist and on a tiny screen can be a hassle, making the Face Gallery a welcome addition to the Watch app.

Face Gallery is accessible through the Watch app in iOS 10, available via a new "Face Gallery" tab, which replaces "Explore" and "Featured" tabs that have been combined into a new "App Store" tab.

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"My Watch," the section the Watch app opens to, has been updated with a direct view of all the faces you've added to your Apple Watch, allowing for quick tweaks to complications, colors, and other options. Creating entirely new watch faces on the iPhone is done through Face Gallery, which displays all of the available watch faces in one easy-to-see scrollable grid.

Selecting a watch face opens up full customization options for choosing the look of the face, its color scheme, and the complications you'd like to use with the face. Faces created on the iPhone are then synced over to the Apple Watch by tapping "Add", and then you can swap between them with left and right swipes through the revamped watchOS 3 interface.

Face Gallery will be available in the fall when iOS 10 and watchOS 3 are released to the public.

For details on new features coming in iOS 10, make sure to check out our iOS 10 roundup. Don't miss out on our previous videos, which have covered watchOS 3, tvOS 10, and macOS Sierra:

- WWDC 2016 Overview in Seven Minutes
- iOS 10's Overhauled Lockscreen
- The New iOS 10 Photos App
- The New iOS 10 Messages App
- macOS Sierra - Siri
- iOS 10 Hidden Features
- watchOS 3 Overview
- iOS 10's Redesigned Apple Music Experience
- 3D Touch in iOS 10
- The New Home App for Controlling HomeKit Devices
- Everything New in tvOS 10
- Apple's Upcoming Apple TV Remote App

We've also got roundups for all of the upcoming operating systems, including watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and tvOS 10.

Apple last week sent out a memo to employees, inviting those in wheelchairs to help the company test an upcoming watchOS 3 feature that adds a dedicated wheelchair mode to the Apple Watch.

With the wheelchair setting, Activity options can be customized for wheelchair users. Wheelchair pushes contribute to all-day calorie goals, there are wheelchair-specific workouts, and the "time to stand" reminders are replaced with "time to roll" reminders.

During the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple said wheelchair tracking had been in development for months through a partnership with the Lakeshore Foundation and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which saw 300 people in wheelchairs participating in more than 3,000 hours of activity research, and the beta testing period will give Apple more time to refine and perfect the feature.

In its memo to employees, Apple said it is committed to improving the Apple Watch experience for users in wheelchairs, which is why retail employees in wheelchairs are being invited to test watchOS 3. While retail employees have been invited to test iOS and macOS betas in the past, watchOS 3 betas are restricted to developers and internal corporate testers because downgrading from a watchOS beta is not possible without a proprietary adapter.

It is not clear if employees testing the feature are receiving the same watchOS 3 beta updates as developers, but it seems likely. With the retail beta test and developer testing, Apple is hoping to collect more data on movement and better optimize the new wheelchair exercises available in the workout app.

Apple offers some of the best accessibility features available in smartphones, smart watches, and other devices, and along with wheelchair activity tracking, the company's latest operating system updates bring a range of accessibility improvements to iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

Apple today made some changes to its recently introduced "Trade Up With Installments" payment plan, which is designed to let prospective customers trade in an old iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone, putting the value of the device towards a new 24-month iPhone installment plan.

Previously, Apple's Trade Up program relied on a 24-month installment loan from Apple partner Citizens Bank, but Apple is simplifying the service and instead relying on financing plans handled by carriers. Trading in a device at the Apple Store will now allow the value of the device to be applied to the purchase of a new iPhone from a carrier. Credits can be used to lower the cost of an outright purchase or to reduce monthly payments.

It is no longer necessary to undergo a credit check to trade in a device, nor do customers have to agree to a 24-month installment loan or minimum financing. Going through carrier financing does mean iPhones purchased through the program will be locked to the carrier a customer chooses, while phones previously available through Trade-In were unlocked.

Old wording:

Available to qualified customers with a credit check and eligible U.S. credit card. Monthly payment may vary depending on condition and type of device you trade in. Offer only available on presentation of a valid, government-issued photo ID (local law may require saving this information). Requires a 24-month installment loan with a 0% APR from Citizens Bank, N.A. (subject to any interest, fees, or other costs payable to the issuer of the credit card). Requires financing of at least $239.

New wording:

Sales tax on the full value of new iPhone and any applicable fees may be due at time of purchase. Value of your current device may be applied toward purchase of a new Apple iPhone via an available carrier financing plan.

With the changes comes an update to the site explaining the program, with new wording that calls it "Trade Up" instead of "Trade In" and new maximum trade-in values of $250 instead of $300. Apple has also removed all of the information on monthly payments based on trade-in, as pricing will now vary by carrier and trade-in value.

The program is otherwise unchanged, continuing to offer customers a way to apply the value of old devices to a new purchase. Estimated trade-in values, which are based on phone quality, range from $50 for the iPhone 4s to $250 for the iPhone 6 Plus. Customers are also still able to trade in other eligible smartphones from companies like Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, HTC, and LG, with all trade-ins done through Apple partner Brightstar.

Apple also continues to offer its dedicated iPhone Upgrade Program, which remains unchanged. With the iPhone Upgrade Program, customers can purchase an iPhone through Apple and trade it in each year for a new device.

Apple "is being more conservative" when placing its orders with chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, once again suggesting that the 2016 "iPhone 7" will face a weaker demand in comparison to normal cycles, due to a dearth of hardware innovation in the handset (via Nikkei). Apple wasn't specifically mentioned during ASE's recent shareholder meeting, but a reference to "the big client in the U.S." overtly ties in with Apple, which contributed 31.2 percent of ASE's $8.73 billion revenue in 2015.

"The big client in the U.S. is a little more conservative when placing orders this year," said Tien Wu, ASE's chief operating officer, ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting.

"In the smartphone market, meanwhile, other players besides Apple are more aggressive regarding booking chips this year," Wu said. But, he added, "I don't think anybody is overly aggressive this year, so I don't think there would be any serious inventory correction issue similar to last year."

The doom and gloom forecast for iPhone sales this year have reached a high point in the middle of 2016, with recent reports suggesting the iPhone 7 is unlikely to reverse recent year-over-year declines in sales for the company. Most rumors cite the same reasons: consumer apathy due to a lack of innovation in comparison to last year's iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

The biggest hardware revisions of the iPhone 7 are predicted to center around the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, the addition of a new dual-lens camera (possibly only on the 5.5-inch model), and restructured antenna bands. Otherwise, the devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 6s form factor, with a mega-cycle upgrade hitting in 2017 in time for the line's ten-year anniversary.

Florida resident Thomas S. Ross has filed a lawsuit against Apple this week, claiming that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod infringe upon his 1992 invention of a hand-drawn "Electronic Reading Device" (ERD). The court filing claims the plaintiff was "first to file a device so designed and aggregated," nearly 15 years before the first iPhone.

Between May 23, 1992 and September 10, 1992, Ross designed three hand-drawn technical drawings of the device, primarily consisting of flat rectangular panels with rounded corners that "embodied a fusion of design and function in a way that never existed prior to 1992."

What Ross contemplated, was a device that could allow one to read stories, novels, news articles, as well as look at pictures, watch video presentations, or even movies, on a flat touch-screen that was back-lit. He further imagined that it could include communication functions, such as a phone and a modem, input/output capability, so as to allow the user to write notes, and be capable of storing reading and writing material utilizing internal and external storage media. He also imagined that the device would have batteries and even be equipped with solar panels.

Ross applied for a utility patent to protect his invention in November 1992, but the application was declared abandoned in April 1995 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after he failed to pay the required application fees. He also filed to copyright his technical drawings with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2014.

While the plaintiff claims that he continues to experience "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money," he has demanded a jury trial and is seeking restitution no less than $10 billion and a royalty of up to 1.5% on Apple's worldwide sales of infringing devices.

Ross v. Apple, Inc. was filed with the Florida Southern District Court on June 27. The case number is 0:2016cv61471.