Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes the iPhone 8’s diminishing new features list, the challenge of selling a $1000 iPhone, the return of the iPhone 6, the future of the Mac, secrets of Portrait Mode, HDR going RAW in Lightroom, what is the iPad good for, and why people are switching to Windows 10.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).
iPhone 8 Losing More Features?
Some curiously bad news from Mac Otakara in regards the new hardware in the iPhone 8. Following last week’s news that the curved screen would be dropped, more features appear to be in danger of being removed from the tenth-anniversary iPhone. Forbes contributor Gordon Kelly:
“Multiple prototype models exist for this model and the development continues to be carried out in parallel with EVT [engineering validation tests]. The production level of development on various models are being done such as the models with IPS TFT, AMOLED, the model with or without home button, in addition to the models with a new glass, aluminum chassis, white ceramics etc.”
OLED was thought to be a shoo-in at this stage, so it’s concerning to think this could fall by the wayside like its once mooted revolutionary charging.
Mac Otakara has landed some big exclusives in the past, but does have some notable misses. Nevertheless the idea of various smartphone designs being tested before release is common… but it’s unusual to not have the big ticket choices (like OLED or LCD) locked in much earlier in the process.
The $1000 iPhone
Following the same trend as Samsung and Google (see this week’s Android Circuit) Apple is expected to price the iPhone 8 from $1000 in the US market. Hopefully there will be enough new hardware to promote, much it will be familiar to the wider smartphone world. Can the price be justified?
This would mean the iPhone 8 has the largest display of any iPhone ever made and is significantly larger than any current mass-market smartphones (though the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus will change that). The good news for those worried the iPhone 8 will be too big is corroborating reports say Apple will shrink the top and bottom bezels to make it smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus.
The pain point is Nikkei claims the iPhone 8 will be the most expensive smartphone Apple has ever released. Again this ties in with a recent report from KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo that this flagship model will cost in excess of $1,000.
Read more on the price implications here on Forbes.
A Brand New iPhone In Old Clothes
There’s a new iPhone in town, as a gold-colored iPhone 6 arrives with 32 GB of storage - double the entry-level storage of the original 6. But if you want this handset, you’re going to have to look outside of America, not in your local Apple store. Benjamin Mayo has more:
Apple is not selling the 32 GB iPhone 6, which is only offered in a gold casing, at retail stores or on its website. It continues to sell the iPhone SE as its low-end option which has better internal components than the iPhone 6, but does not have a larger screen.
Whilst Apple is keeping quiet, Taiwan Mobile is pushing the ‘new’ iPhone as a special limited-edition promotion. It is advertising it as the cheapest iPhone ever to be offered on its network and is already accepting pre-orders. The carrier is selling the device for ‘free’ with a NT$1,399/month contract plan (about $45 USD) that lasts for 30 months.
Read more about the not-new-new smartphone in Taiwan on 9to5Mac. Alternatively head to Apple Insider to find out about the Indian variant.
The Future Of The Macintosh
How do you solve a problem like the Macintosh? As all of Apple’s development focus switches to mobile hardware, does Apple still want to be a PC manufacturer? The signs are that it does not, argues Daniel Dilger as he takes a comprehensive look at the macOS machines’ ecosystem:
Thinking about the future of Apple's Macintosh becomes more realistic when grounded in facts. It's no accident that several Mac models have not been updated in many months, but it's also true that Apple faces real constraints in dramatically expanding its Mac sales. Here's a look at what's involved, and what's possible for the future of Apple's graphical mouse-based computing platform.
Settle in to read Dilger’s editorial at Apple Insider.
Secrets Of The Portrait Mode
The dual camera lens on the iPhone 7 Pus is still one of the big selling points of Apple’s phablet, with the ability pull out depth information allowing the out of focus bokeh style effect in the portrait mode. Now the patent on the method has been published we can find out how Apple’s magic works. Mikey Campbell reports:
Importantly, the method requires an alignment of the focus stack so that any pixel in any frame is correctly lined up with corresponding pixels in other frames. With all pixels in alignment, a specialized imaging algorithm is able to determine points or planes of focus using edge detection, sharpness metrics or any similar technique. Conversely, the system is able to detect background pixels at different depths and select them if they match a target blur. This explains Portrait Mode's ability to parse minute object details like hair from the background.
Lightroom Lets In HDR Raw
Adobe’s mobile version of Lightroom is adding another high-end feature for photographers that is going to increase the wow factor of pictures from top-end smartphones. It can already shoot in RAW mode for regular pictures, but now the ability to use the RAW file format in HDR images has been added.
Adobe says the photos are made by stitching together three RAW images. That in itself is pretty standard process for creating an HDR photo, but Adobe claims it can deliver “greatly increased dynamic range” over what your phone would typically put out.
The typical benefits of shooting in RAW remain here, too. You get a 32-bit file with more color information and more flexibility to alter the exposure or white balance. As usual, Adobe is using its own DNG format for the RAW files.
What Is The iPad Good For…
Apple released a number of online adverts this week promoting the iPad and its ability to replace a desktop computer (you know, computers like the MacBook and MacBook Pro), and it struck me that there is an issue here. The first iPad was launched in 2010, and Apple is still trying to explain to the world what it is for as it fights the growing challenge of Windows 10-powered tablets:
If you can successfully make the argument that the form-factor someone needs is a tablet-like screen, perhaps with an attachable keyboard, then Microsoft’s ‘reference design’ of the Surface 3 illustrates the viability of a tablet machine running Windows 10. Samsung’s recent announcement of the Galaxy Book range of 10- and 12-inch tablets running Redmond’s code takes its designs and lessons from the Android tablets and pairs them with the expansive and much more flexible Windows 10 OS.
Is that necessarily the case with an iPad? Apple’s advertising and marketing around its tablet is still focused on basic software functionality such as note taking and being able to use printers. There’s no doubt in my mind that for the core functionality of a personal computer in 2017 the iPad is capable. The question is whether that message is getting through to consumers faster than Microsoft and its manufacturing partners can establish Windows firstly as a viable alternative, and then as the logical choice for a tablet operating system that can replace a laptop.
And Finally…
There was a time on the internet when you couldn’t spend any time on LiveJournal without someone saying that they were giving up and moving away from Windows to Mac. How times have changed. Although we’re not at the floodgates opening threshold, there are more people writing up their move from Mac to Windows every day, with the latest to gain prominence coming from Owen Williams on the Charged newsletter:
But recently, I realized I’d gotten tired of Apple’s attitude toward the desktop. The progress in macOS land has basically been dead since Yosemite, two years ago, and Apple’s updates to the platform have been incredibly small. I’m a developer, and it seems to me Apple doesn’t pay any attention to its software or care about the hundreds of thousands of developers that have embraced the Mac as their go-to platform.
…The new MacBook Pros, released in late 2016 were interesting, but something of a half-hearted shrug in the direction of long-time users: they’re okay machines, but they sure aren’t interesting at all. Their hardware is underpowered, focusing on thinness and a gimmicky touch bar rather than power or functionality, the previous tentpoles of the Mac.
Apple Loop brings you 7 days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
