MacRumors

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is testing wireless charging modules intended for use in the 2017 10th anniversary iPhone, according to Nikkei. However, Nikkei's source says the feature's inclusion into the iPhone 8 is dependent on yield rates.

"But whether the feature can eventually make it into Apple's updated devices will depend on whether Foxconn can boost the yield rate to a satisfactory level later on," the source said.

The modules are intended for the 2017 iPhone, but it's unclear whether all 2017 iPhone models will include wireless charging or whether it'll be reserved for higher-end Plus models.

In January, it was reported that Apple was exploring extended range wireless charging for the 2017 iPhone. Extended wireless charging is seen as superior to existing wireless charging solutions because it does not require the device to be as close to a charging mat or source. In February, there was speculation that Apple was working with Energous, the company behind WattUp, a wireless charging technology that uses radio waves to charge devices up to 15 feet away, on wireless charging technology.

Apple has also been hiring engineers experienced in wireless charging in recent months. In May, the company hired two engineers from uBeam, a startup focused on a wireless charging technique that uses ultrasonic waves to charge electronic devices by converting those waves into electricity.

The Cupertino company has also filed many patents for wireless charging technology, though it has publicly downplayed the usefulness of wireless charging, largely due to the need of a charging mat plugged into a wall.

The 2017 iPhone, which is expected to feature a major redesign with a glass body and edge-to-edge OLED display that integrates a Touch ID sensor and front-facing camera, will arrive in September 2017.

Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 10.2 to developers this afternoon, marking the second major update to the iOS 10 operating system. While iOS 10.2 doesn't include a single main feature like the Portrait mode that was introduced in iOS 10.1, it does include several smaller features.

There are a bunch of new emoji that were first introduced in Unicode 9, plus there's a new video widget and handy new settings for preserving your camera preferences when taking a photo. For a full overview of the new features, make sure to check out our video.

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Emoji - Unicode 9 emoji are included in iOS 10.2. Some of the new emoji include clown face, drooling face, selfie, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more. There are more than a hundred new emoji, including several profession emoji available in both male and female genders, such as firefighter, mechanic, lawyer, doctor, scientist, and more. Many existing emoji have also seen significant redesigns.

Wallpapers - There are new wallpapers in iOS 10.2, which use the same graphics that were shown off in iPhone 7 marketing materials.

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Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra update 10.12.2 to developers, just one week after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.1 and more than a month after launching the new macOS Sierra operating system.

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta 1 is available for download through the Apple Developer Center and through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store. A public beta will likely be available for public beta testers later this week.

It is not yet clear what improvements the second update to macOS Sierra will bring, but it will focus on bug fixes and performance enhancements to address issues that have popped up since the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.1.

macOS Sierra includes new emoji introducing Unicode 9 characters like clown face, drooling face, selfie, face palm, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more, plus many profession emoji available in both male and female genders.

Apple has also updated the artwork on many existing emoji, adding detail and making them look less cartoonish and more realistic.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10 update to developers, one week after releasing the iOS 10.1 update and more than a month after launching the iOS 10 operating system. As a major 10.x update, iOS 10.2 will likely bring bug fixes, performance improvements, and perhaps a few new features to iOS 10.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 10.2 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.

We don't yet know what features are included in iOS 10.2, but the prior update, iOS 10.1, introduced a new Portrait photography mode for the iPhone 7 Plus' dual-lens camera system. Should new features be discovered in today's update, we'll update this post.

Apple has called iOS 10 its "biggest release ever" for iOS users, with a revamped lock screen, a Siri SDK for developers, an overhauled Messages app, a dedicated "Home" app for HomeKit users, new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos, and redesigned Maps and Apple Music apps.

What's new in iOS 10.2:

Emoji - Unicode 9 emoji are included in iOS 10.2. Some of the new emoji include clown face, drooling face, selfie, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more.

Wallpapers - There are new wallpapers in iOS 10.2, which use the same graphics that were shown off in iPhone 7 marketing materials.

Camera settings - There's a new option for saving your last known camera settings. This will let you preserve the last Camera Mode, Photo Filter, or Live Photo setting. "Preserve Settings" is available in the Settings App under "Photos & Camera."

Videos widget - There's a new widget available for the Videos app, accessible on the widgets panel by swiping to the right on the Home screen of an iPhone or iPad. The Videos widget displays movies and TV shows in the Videos app, and a tap will cause content to play automatically.

Emergency contacts - There's a new feature that will automatically notify your emergency contacts when you use the Emergency SOS feature on iPhone or Apple Watch. A popup notification shows up when you open the Health app after installing iOS 10.2.

Apple Music - There's a new option to sort playlists in Apple Music by type, title, and recently added.

While the iPad Pro lineup has increased Apple's tablet revenue based on higher price points, helping offset a lengthy slide in units sold, the latest data from market research firm IDC claims the iPad Air and iPad mini lines accounted for more than two-thirds of Apple's tablet shipments in the fourth fiscal quarter.

Apple officially reported 9.26 million iPads sold in the quarter, representing late June to late September, but it does not break down its tablet sales by individual model. IDC did not share its methodology behind calculating iPad Pro sales specifically, but vaguely notes that it uses proprietary tools and research processes.

Despite selling some 600,000 fewer iPads compared to the year-ago quarter, Apple's tablet revenue remained flat at just over $4.2 billion in the quarter. The reason: iPad Pros cost more. The higher ASP is important for Apple as the worldwide tablet market continued its slump last quarter.

IDC estimates tablet shipments dropped to an estimated 43 million units in the quarter, marking a 14.7% year-over-year decline. Apple led all vendors with 21.5% market share, up slightly from 19.6% in the year-ago quarter, while Samsung trailed in second with an estimated 6.5 million shipments and 15.1% market share.

Amazon and Chinese competitors Lenovo and Huawei rounded off the top five with an estimated 3.1 million, 2.7 million, and 2.4 million tablet shipments respectively in the quarter. Amazon saw explosive 319.9% growth due to its Amazon Prime Day sale in early July that led to a huge surge in shipments of its Fire tablets.

During its recent earnings call, Apple financial chief Luca Maestri said the company is "highly successful" in the tablet market, with 82% market share of premium tablets priced above $200. Meanwhile, IDC said other vendors are "racing to the bottom" with low-cost, sub-$200 traditional and detachable 2-in-1 tablets.

"The race to the bottom is something we have already experienced with slates and it may prove detrimental to the market in the long run as detachables could easily be seen as disposable devices rather than potential PC replacements," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC.

Apple today released iOS 10.1.1, the third official update to the iOS 10 operating system, one week after releasing iOS 10.1 with Portrait Mode and just over six weeks after providing the new iOS 10 operating system to the public.

Today's update fixes bugs including an issue where Health data could not be viewed for some users. iOS 10.1.1 can be downloaded as a free over-the-air update on all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models compatible with iOS 10.

iOS 10 is a major update that includes features like a redesigned Lock screen experience, a revamped Messages app with a full App Store, a Siri SDK for developers, new looks and features for Maps and Apple Music, and tons more. Make sure to check out our iOS 10 roundup for details.

Update: Apple has subsequently stopped signing iOS 10.0.2 and iOS 10.0.3, meaning that users can no longer downgrade to those software versions.

Benchmarks for Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar are beginning to collect on Geekbench, providing a closer look at the notebook's performance improvements and energy efficiency.

The entry-level model, powered by a Skylake-based 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, currently has an average multi-core score of 6,970, indicating the notebook is only up to 7% faster than the early 2015 base model 13-inch MacBook Pro. Last year's comparable model, equipped with a Broadwell-based 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, currently has an average multi-core score of 6,497.

The late 2016 model is also slightly faster than last year's mid-range 13-inch MacBook Pro, while slightly outperformed by the higher-end model.

The notebooks are each calibrated against a baseline score of 4,000, which is the score of Intel's high-end Core i7-6600U processor.

While the performance improvements are negligible, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro sans Touch Bar's 15-watt chip is more energy efficient than the 28-watt chip in last year's entry-level model. The lower power consumption gives the 2016 base model comparable battery life to last year's model despite having a smaller 54.5-watt-hour battery versus the 74.9-watt-hour battery in last year's comparable.

Given that the non-Touch Bar model's 6360U chip would typically be appropriate for the MacBook Air, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar should be a more accurate comparable to last year's base 13-inch model. However, it is also $500 more expensive. Benchmarks for that model should be available next month when Apple begins shipping the Touch Bar notebooks to customers.

CNET has published an extended interview with Jony Ive in which the Apple design chief discusses some of the design decisions that went into developing the Touch Bar in the company's new MacBook Pro lineup.

The contextual OLED Touch Bar replacing the function keys on the new Macs was developed for at least two years, during which time Ive's team explored the idea of larger, haptic-rich trackpads. According to Ive, "a number of designs" were explored that "conceptually make sense", but were later rejected.

When we lived on them for a while, sort of pragmatically and day to day, [they] are sometimes less compelling. This is something [we] lived on for quite a while before we did any of the prototypes. You really notice or become aware [of] something’s value when you switch back to a more traditional keyboard.

Ive explained that his team's point of departure was to see if there was a way of designing a new input that could be contextually specific and adaptable, yet also something that was mechanical and fixed. This required the development of a "difficult prototype" with a mature software environment, in order to work out if the idea had any real-world traction.

One of the things that remains quite a big challenge for us is that you have to prototype to a sufficiently sophisticated level to really figure out whether you’re considering the idea, or whether what you’re really doing is evaluating how effective a prototype is.

Ive said that after testing the designs, his team were unanimously "very compelled" by the Touch Bar as a viable input device, but that the real challenge was to integrate it into a specific product without compromising its existing design.

You sort of change your hat, because you have to figure out how do you then productize it, and develop the idea, and resolve and refine to make it applicable to a specific product. To do that in the context of the MacBook Pro — while at the same time you’re trying to make it thinner, lighter and more powerful — the last thing you want to do is burden it with an input direction that now has a whole bunch of challenges specific to something like touch.

Asked if the Mac community's expectations and emotional ties to their devices affects his design considerations, Ive emphasized that his team "don't limit ourselves in how we will push – if it's to a better place", although "what we won't do is just do something different that's no better".

Apple has published detailed design guidelines on how developers should use the Touch Bar, steering them away from use cases that would suggest it functions as a second display. When pushed, Ive refused to elaborate on why Apple "doesn't think a touchscreen is a particularly useful or appropriate application of multitouch", because it would lead him to have to talk about things his team are currently working on.

However, reiterating comments made in an earlier interview with Apple executives Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi, Ive said that incorporating the Touch Bar "is the beginning of a very interesting direction" for the Mac. Rumors have circulated recently that Apple is considering introducing a customizable e-ink keyboard in future Macs, possibly next year, although the veracity of these claims remains unclear.

You can read CNET's full interview with Jony Ive here.

In the newest collection of drone videos capturing the ongoing construction of Apple's upcoming spaceship campus in Cupertino, California, noticeable progress has been made in the month since the last update, mainly in the surge of landscaping additions to the grounds. Apple has been working on the construction at its second campus for over two years, and was just completing the nearby parking structures and making headway into the main building one year ago.

Today, the end of the project is finally in sight, as important structural parts of the constructrion finish up and more focus is placed on additive elements, including solar panels. In Matthew Roberts' drone video, solar panel installation is estimated to be 50 percent complete, and "major landscape changes" have been seen on the site, with large trees sprouting up everywhere around the campus.

On the inside of the ring-shaped building, the garden, pond, and outdoor dining areas are being prepped for their final stages of construction. In the last few updates, the large water feature at the center of Apple Campus 2 received a lot of focus from workers, gaining an outline, large boulders, and its foundation over the last few months. This central area is also expected to include a few jogging and cycling trails, which are just a few amenities for employees coming to the campus, also including basketball and tennis courts.

In a second video, shared by Duncan Sinfield, it's mentioned that the Cupertino City Council have approved of the partial demolition of the nextdoor apartment complex, called The Hamptons. Apple wanted to buy all 342 units at The Hamptons to own the entire property, but negotiations ultimately failed to go through. Now, it's expected for the company to renovate the portion it does own and create "nearly 3x as many units" in the area.

Construction on Apple Campus 2 is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, with employees moving in towards the beginning of 2017. The campus will continue to be touched up as Apple employees get settled in, however, as landscaping projects are expected to be continued through at least the middle of next year.

Apple has published a detailed support document highlighting the capabilities of the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports on the new MacBook Pro, unveiling some previously unknown details and outlining the different adapters that are needed to connect various accessories.

According to the document, while all of the ports on the 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar offer full Thunderbolt 3 performance, only two of the four ports on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar support Thunderbolt 3 at full performance.

The two ports on the right side of the machine have Thunderbolt 3 functionality but with reduced PCI Express bandwidth. For that reason, Apple recommends plugging higher-performance devices into the left-hand ports on that machine.

Late-2016 MacBook Pro models vary slightly in the data speeds they provide to each Thunderbolt 3 port.

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016) delivers full Thunderbolt 3 performance on all four ports.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) supports Thunderbolt 3 at full performance using the two left-hand ports. The two right-hand ports deliver Thunderbolt 3 functionality, but have reduced PCI Express bandwidth.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports) delivers full Thunderbolt 3 performance on both ports.

As for USB, all of the USB-C ports on all MacBook Pro models offer USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gb/s) transfer speeds when connected to a USB accessory.

Other interesting tidbits in the document include the fact that six devices can be daisy-chained to each Thunderbolt 3 port on the MacBook Pro, and only one power supply can be used to charge the machine. You can attach multiple power supplies, but it's only going to draw power from the one that provides the most power.

Power supplies that exceed 100W have the potential to damage the Macbook Pro, and accessories like the USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter or the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter can only provide up to 60W of power, which will offer slow or delayed charging in the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Apple recommends charging the 15-inch model with the power supply it ships with.

Apple also outlines powering attached devices with Thunderbolt 3 ports. The 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar can power two devices that use up to 15 watts and two additional devices that use up to 7.5 watts. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with no Touch Bar and two Thunderbolt 3 ports can power one device that uses up to 15 watts and one device that uses up to 7.5 watts.

If you're planning to purchase a new MacBook Pro and are confused about which adapters you're going to need so it will work with your existing equipment and accessories, Apple's support document is a good reference to check out.