iPad Air 3 Cases

We just keep seeing new rumors that show that the iPad Air 3 will be similar to the iPad Pro, something that I am really hoping for. Now, we have a new case that fits an iPad Air with the specifications of an iPad Pro. This case is likely from a third-party, but whoever made it seems confident that the iPad Air 3 will be similar to the iPad Pro. Evidence of this is clear with the indents and creases for four speakers, a Smart Connector (for Smart Keyboard), and LED flash. Even if this case is from a third party, there are many likely true rumors that support this case's design.

Image Credit: Nowhereelse.fr

Apple Recalls International Wall Plugs

If you have a wall adapter (doesn't affect U.S. models), you may want to check if you are affected by a new recall by Apple. Apple says the plugs could cause electric shock. These adapters were designed for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Continental Europe, New Zealand, and South Korea. Affected models were also sold in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. To check your model, look in the slot of the plug (shown below). If it has 4 or 5 characters or no characters at all, your model is considered affected. If it has a three letter regional code, it is a redesigned model and not under recall. To receive a new, redesigned adapter from Apple for free, just check out their recall page. Stay safe everyone!

NOTE: Digits depicted in affected models vary. Affected models are not limited to the numbers "4913" and can be 4-5 characters, or have no characters.

iTunes Radio No Longer Free

A while back, I talked about how Apple will cease playing iTunes Radio for non-Apple Music members. Today, that change is in effect. You must be have an active Apple Music membership (or trial) to be able to listen to iTunes Radio. However, this choice doesn't affect Beats 1, however Beats 1 is not customized radio. An Apple Music membership costs $9.99/month for an individual and $14.99/month for a family.

Apple Pay and ATMs

Wells Fargo and Bank of America are planning to add Apple Pay into their ATMs. What this could mean is that you could tap your phone to an ATM to do standard ATM functions. How security would be handled has yet to be disclosed. In addition, Android Pay is already available for Wells Fargo. This would mean there would be a faster rollout for Apple Pay at Wells Fargo ATMs. There are over 12,000 ATMs owned by Wells Fargo in the U.S. and 16,000 owned by Bank of America in the U.S.

"We've been working on the technology that allows us to hook to digital wallets, leveraging NFC on mobile phones to replace the card at the transaction at the ATM. Right now the wallet that we support is Android Pay... But we're also looking at lots of different mobile wallets and evaluating which ones are going to be appropriate for our customers. We'll likely add more mobile wallets throughout the year."

- Jonathan Velline

iOS 9.3: Updating Accessories

By now, it is clear that the independence of iOS devices from their computer counterparts is in full swing. Apple is now making the iPad Pro able to update accessories in iOS 9.3. For example, a keyboard could potentially be updated, if an update was made, via the iPad Pro. This is actually pretty cool. It opens up the potential for the ability to update all kinds of stuff, if this ability rolls out to other devices, like iPhones. Imagine being able to update your speakers or Wemo switches, without the need for any separate apps. iOS 9.3 is currently in beta, but will probably come out in the coming weeks.

Image Credit: MacRumors

1 Billion Active Devices

Apple has announced that they have an install base of one billion active devices across their iPhones, iPads, Macs, iPod touches, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches. And that's not how many they have sold, but how many have used an Apple service (i.e. iCloud) within the past 90 days. That's pretty crazy. Apple has sold about 75 million iPhones, 5 million Macs, and 16 million iPads in just the first quarter of 2016 alone. Onward to 2 billion!

iPad Air 3 Could Have LED Flash

After about 5 years (not counting the original iPad), the iPad has never had LED flash for its camera. That could change with the iPad Air 3. It could potentially have LED flash according to Nowhereelse.fr. This would further enhance the iPad's picture taking capabilities, although the iPad is usually not the first choice for a camera, due to its size. In addition, it could have four speakers, similar to the iPad Pro. After this, the only real feature it'd be missing from the iPhone would be a vibrate function and 3D Touch.

Leaked iPhone 5se?

With more and more rumors suddenly surfacing of the iPhone 5se, the 4-inch version of an iPhone 6, we now see a new photo of what could be the device. In the photo below, courtesy of Gijs Raggers, there is an iPhone 5 (a 4-inch iPhone) to the left of a device resembling the iPhone 6. Both phones are 4-inches, suggesting that the phone on the right is the iPhone 5se. If it's real or not, I'll leave that to you guys. My only thoughts at the moment is the naming scheme of this "iPhone 5se." Apple has been lately been good with the continuity of their device's names, using words like "Air" and "Pro" interchangeably between their Mac line and iOS line, but they take what could've been "iPhone 6s Mini" to "iPhone 5se." This makes no sense to me, as the iPhone would still have all of the features of an iPhone 6s. Size doesn't determine name, as we have seen with the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus. This will continue to trigger my OCD until Apple offers an explanation or a different name.

Apple Watch Hermès Now Available Online

I forgot to mention yesterday that the Apple Watch Hermès collection is now available from the Apple Online Store. They start at $1,100 for the Single Tour Band. Needless to say, these are high-end bands. Although these bands aren't exactly my style, I do like the idea of having professional watch makers make bands and watch faces for Apple Watch.

Potential March Apple Event?

From multiple sources, a March event could be used to announce several products. At first, this event was thought to be to announce an Apple Watch 2, however, it is more likely that new bands will be released. In addition, an iPad Air 3 (fingers crossed for Apple Pencil support) and an "iPhone 5se" could be announced. The iPhone 5se is expected to be a 4-inch iPhone that would look similar to an iPhone 5s. Let's hope for some great announcements until then.

Google Paid Apple $1 Billion To Stay As The iOS Default Search Engine

Although Apple seems all to happy to use Bing in its Siri functions today, Google actually paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 to be the default search engine according to Bloomberg. Quite a lot of money when I'm sure many people would've changed the setting to Google either way, but I'm not complaining. As for if this contract between Apple and Google will continue, we can't be sure about that yet.

Music Memos

Apple released a new app on the App Store called Music Memos. It lets you take recordings of music to capture quick music ideas. For example, if you suddenly have an idea for a way to bridge two songs together in a medley, use Music Memos to save the idea. I literally could've used this yesterday. It can actually detect chords that you play and even has a built in tuner. Actually, once you record a piece of music from a piano or guitar, it can get really cool. If you need to know the chords for a specific song, record it, and Music Memos can figure it out for you. It can even tell you the key it's in! Music Memos is available for iPhone and iPad on the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link].

Li-Fi Spotted in iOS 9 Code

iOS 9 has references to Li-Fi. What is Li-Fi? Well, as you know, Wi-Fi uses radio waves, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to communicate information across different devices. Li-Fi stands for Light Fidelity, as opposed to Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). Here's the kicker, it's 100 times faster than normal Wi-Fi. Li-Fi uses light waves to help devices reach 250 gigabits/second. Imagine entire YouTube videos being loaded by the time you blink your eye, or apps downloaded for that matter. In fact, your computer installing or rendering information will probably take the most time. It should be noted that Li-Fi is in testing stages, but it is interesting to see it in iOS 9. Hopefully, we'll see this implementation very soon.

Apple Honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On Homepage

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so Apple has dedicated their homepage to honor him today. It features his famous quote, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"

Remembering #MLK: Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?"

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 18, 2016

Apple Watch 2 Not To Come In March

Recent rumors suggest that the Apple Watch 2 will not come until the later half of 2016. It was originally suggested that it would come out this March, but Apple has just started trial productions of the new wearable, according to TechCrunch.

"As with anything related to Apple hardware announcements, the tea leaves are hard to read and the companies plans can change (the advantage of never publicly announcing hardware). But as of now, March seems like it's a bit too early to count on Watch 2.0."

- Matthew Panzarino 

Apple Ending Ad-Supported Radio

iTunes Radio Stations will cease to use ads, as part of Apple winding down its iAd platform. Unfortunately, that means you will need an Apple Music subscription to listen to iTunes Radio Stations. Beats 1 is the only station that will be free. Apple Music subscriptions cost $9.99/month for individuals and $14.99/month for families. 

iPad Keyboard Shortcuts

A lot of people don't know that there are keyboard shortcuts for iPad similar to that of OS X. This requires a Bluetooth or wired keyboard for your iPad. If you use the command and tab button, you can cycle through your open apps in OS X. The same goes for iOS. In iOS, if you have less than 7 apps open in Multitasking Center, then you'll see Print Center and iCloud Drive. I hope this helps.

OS X 10.11.4 Beta Improves Live Photo Support

iOS 9.3 and OS X 10.11.4 betas were released the other day to developers and we now have an idea of where Apple wants to take their operating systems in the coming weeks. Live Photos were a big deal for Apple, but in OS X, they were only viewable in the Photos app. This changes with OS X 10.11.4. They are now viewable in the Messages app, which, in theory, is where you'd see most of your Live Photos (aside from the Photos app). Just use the Live Photo icon in the photo you receive.

Image Credit: MacRumors

iOS 9 Is Now Installed On 75% of iOS Devices

After four months, iOS 9 is now installed on 75% of active iOS devices. For scale, this is faster than iOS 8 adoption, where it would've been at 68% of active iOS devices. This is just slower than iOS 7 adoption, as it would've been at 79%. Apple said that when iOS 9 adoption hit 50% in its first month, it was the fastest adoption iOS in history. iOS 9.3 is going to come out in the coming weeks hopefully, so there's another reason to upgrade.

Amazon Prime Offers 20% Off Pre-Order and Newly Released Video Games

Amazon has a new Prime-exclusive deal that gives 20% off all video games sold by Amazon. These games must be pre-ordered or ordered through two weeks after the game's release. This is a pretty good deal. It's comparable to Best Buy's Gamer's Club but with the convince of Amazon Prime. A perk of this is that there is much better stock on Amazon and there's free release day delivery (and free shipping in general). This applies to amiibo as well. Which means you can get 20% off of the second wave of Animal Crossing amiibo with a Prime account. Just when you thought buying amiibo at the MSRP was crazy. Now, it should be noted that your Amazon Prime account must be a paid account. People who get a free Prime account referral are not eligible. And as far as I can tell, this deal isn't going anywhere. I hope this helps.

iOS 9.3: Night Shift

Apple released the beta of iOS 9.3 today to developers. One of the new features is called Night Shift. It reduces the amount of blue light the screen emits. Blue light is known to make it harder to fall asleep. iOS will enable Night Shift when it is sunset in your area. And knowing how strained my eyes can get while looking at my iPad's screen on a late night, I am looking forward to this feature.

AmpMe

AmpMe is the app that I've been looking for forever. Have you ever played a song on your phone for a group of friends but your phone wasn't loud enough and you didn't have a speaker? Well, now you can use AmpMe to synchronize your music across multiple devices to make your music louder. In other words, you can have your music playing on multiple phones at the same time so you can hear it better. It's the perfect solution for when you need that extra boost of sound. It also works across iOS and Android. AmpMe is available from the Apple App Store [Direct Link] and the Google Play Store [Direct Link] for free.

AmpMe - Be The Speakers from AmpMe on Vimeo.

Facebook Messenger Desktop App Leak

According to TechCrunch, Facebook is developing a desktop app for Facebook Messenger. This report actually originated from a leaked photo. The photo shows an app similar in layout to that of the iOS app. It should be noted that many products Facebook makes don't actually get released into the public and fade back into the drawing boards. This could be the case as it would seem odd for Facebook, a service that has focused heavily on its website for desktop use, to use an app. We'll probably hear soon if this is a real thing.

Image Credit: TechCrunch

EarPods 2.0: Lightning or Wireless?

With the iPhone 7 not having a headphone jack, a question is raised: Will the iPhone 7 come with EarPods that have Lightning connector or will they be completely wireless? A few theories speculate on this issue. Obviously, they could be Lightning or wireless, but other theories say that EarPods may still have a headphone jack with an adapter. Another theory is that EarPods may not be included at all. Perhaps the Beats line will be updated to reflect this change? 

Sprint and AT&T No Longer Offer 2-Year Contracts

Sprint and AT&T are no longer offering their 2-year contracts on smartphones. Why is this a big deal? Because that means there are no more major carriers with two-year contracts. T-Mobile stopped doing it in 2013 with their "Un-Carrier" campaign and Verizon did it last year. It should be noted that existing Verizon customers may renew a two-year contract. As far as I can tell, Verizon is the only carrier to let existing customers do this. Anyways, choose your carrier wisely.

Black Milanese Loop Leaked

Apple started the trend of creating black metal bands with the Link Bracelet to match the black casing of certain Apple Watches. Now, Apple is expanding this color to the Milanese Loop. A leaked store page was quickly removed today on the Czech Republic Apple Online Store. It showed the images below and almost confirms that we'll see this band in the near future. It's nice to see more bands that are able to complement different Apple Watch cases.

Image Credit: MacRumors

Chinese New Year Commemorative Apple Watch

Apple has created a Chinese New Year Apple Watch Sport. This is only available in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. On top of that, they are only available from February 15 until February 22nd. Chinese New Year is February 8. They start at $518 in Singapore. Although there is no sign of these models coming to the U.S. anytime soon, it's nice to see Apple creating bands and cases to match certain holidays. Perhaps we will see more combinations to reflect certain cultures, traditions, and holidays.

Image Credit: MacRumors

What No Headphone Jack Means For The iPhone 7

When I first talked about how the iPhone 7 won't have a headphone jack, I wasn't happy to deliver that news. However, there are a few points to note. First, albeit unlikely, Apple may not remove the headphone jack and the many rumors are false. Second, the lack of a headphone jack does open up the potential of iPhone 7 implementing wireless charging. While this is a possibility, it is quite clear that most people would not want to see this change. 

iPhone 7 Could Be Waterproof

With the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus showing more water resistance than previous models, the iPhone 7 could potentially be waterproof. Since the iPhone 7 doesn't have an "s" in its name, patterns show that this iPhone would have a large redesign. New materials are being considered for this phone, which could support this waterproof theory. Apple would love to change water-resistant to waterproof. In fact, we've already seen this technology in its early stages in the Apple Watch. Although it wasn't waterproof, the Apple Watch (with the exception of watches with leather bands) was able to be fully submerged in water and even capable of being used to track a swimming workout (although the touchscreen wasn't functional). Hopefully, improved versions will make it into future Apple products.

iPhone 7 Plus To Have 256 GB of Storage Option

The iPhone 7 Plus could potentially have a 256 GB option. All current iPhones (and iPads) have a maximum of 128 GB. In addition, the iPhone 7 Plus could have a larger battery. It would have 3,100 mAh battery. The iPhone 6 Plus had a 2,750 mAh battery. It should be noted that this is the "Plus" version of the iPhone 7 and not the regular iPhone 7.

What To Expect In 2016 From Apple

Happy New Year! It's officially 2016. That means that it's time to discuss what Apple may have up their sleeves for this year. This year, we can expect the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, however, we may also see an iPhone 6c. Not only that, but the iPhone 6c is expected to be only 4-inches, down from the iPhone 6's 4.7-inches. Wow. Apple has some weird new year's resolutions. Apple Watch 2 may also make a debut with a better battery and faster processor, along with watchOS 3. Speaking of watchOS 3, we'll also see iOS 10 (iOS X?), and OS X 10.12! Finally, we may see an iPad Air 3 (fingers crossed for Apple Pencil support) and an iPad Pro 2. Anyways, I wish all of you have a wonderful 2016!