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Tech analyst Ben Thompson has written an interesting piece arguing that the iPhone XR is Apple’s play for the medium-term future of the smartphone market, suggesting that the spec will matter more in two years’ time than it does now … The Stratechery post suggests that Apple learned the lessons of the iPhone 5c. While Thompson positions the 5c as ‘a bit of a failure,’ I think it would be more fair to say that the device was less successful than Apple hoped, but for the right reason....

Warning! Spoilers for Avengers #31 below Tony Stark has always been thought of as the son of a genius who became a genius himself. While there’s no questioning his incredible intellect or his heroism as Iron Man, his father might not actually be the man he thought it was, spelling big changes for Tony’s family history. In previews for Avengers #31 by Jason Aaron and Gerardo Zaffino, it’s heavily implied that Tony’s parents are up to something sinister....

The Myth of Empires gameplay combines open-world survival games with RPG skills such as farming, crafting, base building, horse taming, mounted archery, and multiplayer guild creation akin to an MMO game. The Myth of Empires is currently in Early Access, and the developers are still taking feedback on improving the game. But, right now, everyone is just amazing and thinks if PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox console users can get their hand on this new game or not....

Take nearly $300 off cellular 11-inch iPad Pro Kenwood’s 7-inch CarPlay Receivers are up to $100 off Best Buy’s official eBay storefront currently offers the previous generation Kenwood 7-inch In-Dash CarPlay and Android Auto Receiver DMX7706S for $330. Also, find it directly from Best Buy. Normally fetching $400, today’s offer saves you $70 and matches the best price we’ve seen in the past. Featuring a seven-inch touchscreen display, Kenwood’s CarPlay and Android Auto receiver is a must-have upgrade to your ride....

Battery life is one of the most important factors for smartphones these days. Apple doesn’t make it particularly easy to compare the lifetimes between iPhone models, so we’ve collated all the specs so you can break it down, and help with your buying decision. The latest entrant to this arena is the just-announced iPhone SE 2nd-generation. But how does the new iPhone SE battery life compare to the rest of Apple’s iPhone lineup?...

iPhone blood pressure measurement could become a thing — requiring nothing more than a short selfie video… You can currently get blood pressure readings on your iPhone, but that requires a gadget. Quartz reports that the simple approach, which needs no additional hardware, has so far shown itself to be accurate around 95% of the time. That could be a life-saver, as high blood pressure generally has no symptoms, hence the nickname ‘the silent killer....

Mockups of rumored iPhone 11 features Macotakara, the Japanese Apple news blog that frequently reports reliable information about hardware in development, has shared new information about the iPhone 11 and its rumored bidirectional wireless charging feature. The site also has new details about what wired charging solution to expect with the next flagship iPhones. According to the latest report, Apple’s next-gen iPhone will include a feature like Samsung Galaxy S10’s Wireless PowerShare feature....

The iPhone 12 Pro price in India makes it so expensive that it’s actually cheaper to book a return flight to Dubai and buy it there than it is to buy it locally … That was the conclusion of India Today, who did the sums. iPhone 12 Pro Price in India for 128 GB: Rs 1,19,000 ($1,620) iPhone 12 Pro Price in Dubai for 128GB: Rs 84,000 ($1,114) Of course, this is probably not legal....

The document shared with AASPs states that some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users may experience mic failure after updating their phones to iOS 11.3. They may also see the speaker button grayed out during incoming and outgoing calls. Other symptoms include no audio during playback for voice memos or videos creating by the affected iPhones. The document describes the steps to troubleshoot the issue, such as disconnecting any Bluetooth or other audio accessories and running audio diagnostics....

I found the repurchase behavior figures of the same study quite interesting. It would seem that Android users are the most loyal to their type of smartphone when it comes to buying a new device. 89% will buy another phone running Google’s platform, while only 84% of iPhone users will buy another one of Apple’s smartphones. BlackBerry users are third, at 61%. Also interesting is that 33% of Symbian S60 users and 36% of Palm Pre users would buy an iPhone....

Pieces in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal suggest that the real target of Apple’s second courtroom patent battle with Samsung may be Android. Jury selection begins today for the second patent case between the two companies after mediation attempts failed. Apple is seeking around $2B in damages for five patents it alleges Samsung has violated, while Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple is in violation of two of its own patents....

iPad and iPhone production rates are beginning to catch-up with demand, Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar has said. He believes Apple’s on course to achieve 14 million iPhone 4 sales in the current (September) quarter and another 15 million by the end of the year. iPad sales continue to be strong. LG has apparently managed to boost display manufacturing, beefing up iPad supplies. Apple should sell between 5 million and 6 milllion iPads in the current quarter, the analyst said....

An Apple patent application for a metallic glass process may hold the secret to the beautiful iPhone 11 Pro finish on the rear glass. The rear glass is a subtle yet lovely design feature of the flagship iPhone, looking more like a metal than a glass — and that may be because the material includes the properties of both… In its promotional video for the flagship device (below), hardware SVP Dan Riccio drops a few clues about the matte glass back, but doesn’t get into specifics....

Screen Time in iOS 12 offers a lot of different options for reining back how much you, or your kids, use your iPhone and iPad. You can track your activity, and also set time limits for apps and categories of apps to ensure you get some downtime. Here’s how to set an iPhone time limit for a specific app that you just can’t put down. To use Screen Time and set up iPhone time limits, you need to be running iOS 12 on your device....

Morgan Stanley says that the iPhone X is proving such a hit in China that it is accelerating the rate at which existing iPhone owners upgrade, and the rate at which Android users switch to iPhone. Analyst Katy Huberty also echoed an earlier report that the iPhone X rapidly overtook the iPhone 8, despite the head-start of the lower-cost phone … Huberty believes that there is plenty more room for growth, reports Yahoo Finance....

Apple’s next-generation iPhone is about a month away from reality and carriers around the globe have begun taking steps towards the device’s launch. We heard a few weeks ago that the fifth-generation iPhone has appeared in carrier databases at couple of high-profile European iPhone carriers, and today we are hearing this once again: from Korea. We cannot absolutely confirm that the new device is in the KT (Korea Telecom) system, but it sounds and looks likely....

AT&T is notifying its customers this evening of a settlement for “Internet Taxes” charged to its loyal customers… If you paid taxes, fees or surcharges (“Internet Taxes”) to AT&T Mobility LLC (“AT&T Mobility”) on internet access through certain services including iPhone data plans, Blackberry data plans, other smart phone data plans, laptop connect cards and pay-per-use data services on bills issued from November 1, 2005 up to and including September 7, 2010, you might be eligible to receive benefits from a class action settlement....

Yesterday we saw case manufacturer Olixar and retailer MobileFun start accepting pre-orders for an iPhone SE 2 screen protector that shows off an iPhone X-style bezel-less display. Today the first case has also been listed for the yet to be announced iPhone with new renders. As we reported yesterday, we’re treating this screen protector with skepticism as it would be unlikely for Apple to add a flagship feature like a bezel-less display and Face ID to its budget iPhone....

We all know that iPhoto and Aperture for Mac are on borrowed time: Apple has already announced that the Mac app is going away in favor of a new iCloud-infused Photos app next year and iOS 8 doesn’t even allow users to launch the old iPhoto app. However, that’s not stopping Apple from giving iPhoto for Mac and Aperture for Mac final farewells. The Mac App Store was updated this evening with updates for iPhoto and Aperture that “addresses compatibility with OS X Yosemite and stability improvements....

Iron Harvest is one of the classic real-time strategy games that offer both the single & multiplayer mode. It’s a newly released game on September 1, 2020, developed by KING Art and published by Deep Silver. Although the game is quite new and the reviews are mostly positive on Steam (Windows users), some of the PC users are still encountering a couple of common issues with the game like performance issues, crashes, stuttering, etc....