iPhone 6 Plus Batteries Delayed

iPhone 6 Plus batteries at the reduced price of $29 will be delayed by a few months. Until late March or early February. That’s quite a wait. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus batteries are at a two week delay, nowhere close to this time range. It seems that the larger battery is a bit harder to produce, and it’s in high demand. Good luck to those who need this battery.

100 Million iPhones In Use

According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, 100 million iPhones are currently in use. Not just sold, but in use. About two-thirds of these iPhones are composed of iPhone 6 models and later. This means that two-thirds of current iPhone users have a larger screen, have access to Apple Pay, and have the lock button on the side of the phone. The chart is below and shows data as of September 2015.

Image Credit: CIRP

Walgreens Becomes First Apple Pay Loyalty Program

Implementing one of my most anticipated features for iOS 9, Walgreens is now supporting Apple Pay's new loyalty program. Although not fully implemented, it will essentially let you walk into a Walgreens, use Apple Pay to pay, and your Walgreens card will be sent with your credit card. No barcode scanning required. As for how this will work with Walgreen's acquisition of Rite Aid, I have no idea what will happen, but I assume Rite Aid will carry this over into their stores.

Image Credit: MacRumors

iPhone 6s Plus Doesn't Bend!

Remember how the iPhone 6 Plus had cases of bending in people's pockets? Well, Apple has cleared that off their reputation thanks to the series 7000 aluminum they used in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus! FoneFox did a video on bending it. Trying to intentionally bend it with hands, proved to do minimal damage. When a stronger man assisted, not much more damage occurred. Be sure to check out the video below, however viewer discretion is advised.

iSight Camera Replacement Program

A small number of iPhone 6 Pluses have a faulty iSight camera that causes fuzzy images, even while the camera is perfectly still. Apple has started an iSight Camera Replacement Program for iPhone 6 Plus. If you have unusually fuzzy images from your iPhone 6 Plus, check your eligibility on Apple's site for the program. You will need your serial number.

Why There's Nothing Like iPhone

Apple has launched a new ad campaign for iPhone called "Why there's nothing quite like iPhone." It talks about unique features of the iPhone. It's a really well done site with fancy graphics. It talks about the camera, hardware, software, security, apps, and more. Please check out this site, it's really cool and makes me want to buy one even though I already own one. I'm sure there's an illuminati joke in there somewhere, but until then, I hope this helps.

Image Credit: MacRumors

Apple Pay Rewards

If you have a credit card, you most likely know how rewards work. For example, one credit card may give you 2 points for every dollar of gas, 3 points for Amazon purchases, and 1 point for all other purchases. Then, after you've collected 10,000 points, you learn that the best reward to spend them on is a soda or something. Apple is supposedly doing this with Apple Pay, hopefully, with better rewards. It's not known how this will work, but we think it'll be revealed at WWDC this year. Perhaps this will incorporate iBeacons into it, where you walk past certain products and your points unlock sales for those products. WWDC's keynote will be on June 8th.

iPhone Wars: Revenge of the C

If you bothered to keep reading after you read that derpy title, then congratulations! You're about to be 10% more informed tonight because you read this post. Anyways, remember the iPhone 5c? It's kind of like a smart car. It's colorful, a bit quirky, and made of plastic. We now have reason to believe that there will be an iPhone 6c coming out this September. So if you're a fan of Apple products made out of cheap materials, then you'll have the perfect iPhone to match that little Apple Watch Sport of yours. This also means that the regular iPhone 6 will be replaced by the iPhone 6c. We don't have any word on the fate of the iPhone 6 Plus and whether there will be an iPhone 6s Plus or an iPhone 6c Plus. "iPhone 6s Plus." Almost sounds like the name of every Samsung phone ever.

Image Credit: Nowhereelse.fr

Apple Pay Update At 'Spring Forward' Event

One of the smaller announcements at Apple's "Spring Forward" event last Monday was a quick update on Apple Pay. They noted how Apple Pay is accepted at many more places. Soon, you'll be able to buy a frosty Coca-Cola from a Coca-Cola vending machine with Apple Pay. Say goodbye to the days of flattening your dollar bills to oblivion. Apple Pay is available at 40,000 Coca-Cola machines currently. By the end of the year, we hope to see 100,000 this year.

Apple Releases 'Shot on iPhone 6' Gallery

Available on Apple's website, you can now view amazing pictures selected by Apple that were shot on iPhone 6. I feel that it should be noted that most of these photos were taken with the built-in Camera app alone. That means there were few third-party apps used to edit the photos. Be sure to check it out!

Easily Turn Off Notifications for Specific Apps

In iOS 8, turning off notifications for specific apps is much easier. Before, you would have to turn off sounds, badges, and lock screen notifications, in addition to notification styles. If you want to turn off notifications for a certain app just go to Settings > Notifications > [App Name] > and turn off Allow Notifications. I hope this helps!

Raise To Listen

If you receive an audio message on your iPhone, you can quickly listen to it by raising your iPhone to your ear. Be sure the feature is enabled in Settings > Messages > Raise to Listen. This will enable you do listen to audio messages without tapping your screen. I hope this helps!

JetBlue Will Accept Apple Pay In-Flight

According to USA Today, JetBlue will be able to accept Apple Pay using iPad minis equipped with an NFC reader. This will allow passengers to pay for food and drinks with their phones. Next week, intercontinental flights from JFK to Los Angeles and San Fransisco will have this amenity. All JetBlue flights will hopefully have this by June, just in time for summer. Eventually, the flight attendant manual will also be available for the flight attendant to reference.

50% of Phone Activations in Q4 of 2014 Were iPhones

Apple took half of phone activations in quarter four of 2014. Trailing behind at 26% was Samsung. At the end of this train, we find Blackberry with 0% of phone activations, lucky enough to even be acknowledged. This was conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. To learn more, check out their report.

iPhone Usage Most Popular in Alaska and Montana

Chitika Insights conducted a new study that shows iPhone usage by state. It notes that iPhone is most popular in Alaska and Montana. This study was taken from December 25 through December 31. If you're wondering, Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Indiana have the least amount of iPhones. These states only have 40-44% of people using them.

Water Damage Checker

In certain models of iPhones, there is a special indicator in the SIM Card slot that will indicate how severe water damage is. Just open the SIM Card slot (on the side of most iPhones) and shine a light into the port. If you see red, purple, or blue, there is severe, moderate, or light water damage respectively. If you don't, either there's no water damage or your iPhone isn't equipped with one. 

iPhone 6s May Have 2 GB of RAM

Following footsteps with the iPad Air 2, the iPhone 6s, the unannounced next-generation iPhone, may have 2 GB of RAM. This would be a vast improvement of the iPhone 6's 1 GB of RAM. Combined with the iPhone's 64-bit architecture and A8 (probably A9 by the time the iPhone 6s comes out), I'd like to see the awesome demo Apple would use to demonstrate its power. Anyways, we can only wait.

Wi-Fi Calling

If it works with your carrier, you may be able to have Wi-Fi calls. This lets you get much better signals for calling from a Wi-Fi network. Just go to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling > and switch the switch to enable it on an iPhone. I hope this helps!

(I don't have a carrier that supports Wi-Fi calling, so I couldn't get a screenshot! Sorry!)

WeMo and HomeKit: Update

Several months ago, I talked about Belkin's plans to integrate HomeKit with their home automation product line, WeMo. Now, we know that this will be a reality thanks to MacObserver.

"WeMo will continue to evolve as we deliver on our promise of being the most approachable entry point to the connected home, and it is a natural progression based on Belkin's long-term partnership with Apple that compatibility with HomeKit will be a part of that evolution.

We are currently in conversations with Apple, but no specifics have been finalized at this point. Though our primary goal will always be to create a robust WeMo platform and unparalleled user experience for both current and future WeMo users, we are actively engaged in bringing HomeKit compatibility to fruition in the very near future. Stay tuned."

Note how this spokesperson says "very near future." We can only hope we'll get more information on this as soon as they say it will. As for how this update would apply to existing WeMo products, I don't know. I'm sure myself and many other people hope that it's a software update. Otherwise, people would have to buy all new WeMo devices. At $50 a pop, that's an expensive update. It should be noted that WeMo devices are capable of receiving software updates. However, it should also be noted that HomeKit devices use a chip for their capability. Of course, because Apple and Belkin are in talks together, they may allow Belkin to make a software update with the chip's code on it. I assume the chips are mostly intended for new home automation products from new brands. I could ramble on about this all night. Anyways... Let's hope for a software update.

Auto-Delete Messages

If text messages are clogging up your phones storage, you might want to consider having them auto delete after a month or a year. Just go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages and select your preference. I hope this helps!