Benjamin Mayo

Longtime HomeKit accessory maker Eve Systems today announced a handful of updates to its smart home range. The Eve Extend is finally shipping and available to buy, allowing Eve users to connect its Bluetooth accessories to the full range of your home Wi-Fi network.

Eve also unveiled Eve Water Guard, a smart water detector coming next year, and enhancements to its Eve Thermo smart radiator valve. The company is also debuting an EU version of its Eve Light Switch, launching in countries beyond the US this October.

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Apple is apparently readying a new under-display integrated Touch ID fingerprint sensor “as early as its 2020 iPhones” next fall, according to a report today from Bloomberg. The report says it would be an addition to the existing Face ID authentication and unlock system, allowing users to authenticate with either fingerprint or face biometrics.

The publication says the feature may slip to 2021. This echoes a timeframe suggested by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said Apple would launch an iPhone with both Touch ID and Face ID in 2021.

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Apple is about to launch its flagship iPhone 11 lineup next week, but these high-end models only make up about half of Apple’s total phone sales volume. Its cheaper SKUs are also important to its business. Currently, it offers the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 as cheaper models. It is possible that the iPhone 7 will no longer be sold once the iPhone 11 is released.

A report from Nikkei says the company is planning to launch a new 4.7-inch iPhone in the spring, a spiritual iPhone SE successor — at least in terms of price point.

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Apple today announced that it is relaxing some notarization requirements for Mac apps. For apps outside of the Mac App Store, macOS Catalina will only run notarized software. However, developers have found it difficult to adopt notarization.

To ease the transition, Apple is temporarily relaxing some of the things that the company previously mandated for an app to be notarized.

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Apple’s iPhone 11 event is quite literally a week away, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for a few last-minute leaks. A Geekbench test result has surfaced that purports to show CPU statistics for the iPhone 11. More specifically, this is supposedly a benchmark for the “iPhone 12.1,” which is the successor to the iPhone XR.

The Geekbench score reports 5415 for single-core and 11294 for multi-core. If real, this would mean the new iPhone lineup is about 12% faster for single-core tasks, but the multi-core result is essentially unchanged compared to what the current iPhone XR scores.
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The App Store has a lot of games to play on your iPhone and iPad. With the new Apple Arcade subscription service, you can access more than a hundred titles that run on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and even the Mac. However, touch controls only go so far.

With iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, you can now connect your iPhone and iPad to game console controllers, like the PlayStation 4 DualShock controller and the Xbox wireless controller. Here’s how.

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Apple announced a new scheme that will allow independent repair shops to offer official servicing of iPhones that are out of warranty. The new Independent Repair Provider Program gives small repair businesses access to the same Apple-genuine parts, training, and resources as Apple authorized service providers.

The company said it trialed the initiative at 20 stores across North America, Europe, and Asia. It is today launching the program for the United States and will announce further regions in the future.

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Apple today announced that it will be reinstating the Siri audio program later in the year with some new policy changes. Apple apologized for how it previously handled user data.

The company says it will no longer retain audio recordings by default. Users will have to opt in if they want Apple to use voice samples, and Apple will aim to delete any recordings that are inadvertent activations.

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Apple will premiere its Apple TV+ original TV show Dickinson at the Tribeca television festival on September 14.

The company will screen the first episode to festival attendees and then hold a panel with the show screenwriter Alena Smith, and stars Hailee Steinfeld (who plays Emily Dickinson) and Jane Krakowski (who plays Dickinson’s mother).

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Apple is testing a new type of search result format for some questions. As spotted on Reddit, Spotlight Search can now answer some typed-in questions with direct answers, rather than a generic list of web results.

The listing highlights the extract, which should hopefully answer the question, along with the source website and a button to report a concern if the result is inappropriate.

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Apple and Siri hit headlines at the start of the month as a report highlighted how Apple hired teams of contractors to listen and review audio clips from customer’s Siri interactions.

Apple responded by halting the Siri grading process. Ultimately, this put a whole host of people out of work. The Irish Examiner spoke to contractors in Cork who were impacted by the decision.

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Apple Music today launched a new curated playlist on the service, called “New Music Daily”. Unlike most Apple Music human editorial playlists, New Music Daily is refreshed every single day.

The debut lead single on the playlist is Taylor Swift’s “The Man,” from her brand-new album, and the cover art also features a photo of the singer. Presumably, Apple will be featuring lead artists in the artwork on a rolling basis.

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As we approach Apple’s September iPhone event, Bloomberg has posted its breakdown of Apple’s current product pipeline. This includes a few new iPhone 11 details, information on forthcoming iPad Pro updates, and a look to 2020 for new AirPods and a cheaper HomePod.

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Apple has just registered a lot of products with the Eurasian Economic Commission database, from iPads to Watches to iPhones and even the iPod touch.

However, most of these filings do not represent new products and are merely updating the database to account for the fact that these hardware models will soon ship with new versions of their respective operating systems, like iOS 13 and macOS Catalina. There are a handful of wholly new devices too, including what looks to be model identifiers for the upcoming 16-inch MacBook Pro.

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With the iPhone 11 announcement only a couple of weeks away now, the hype train is getting to its peak. We believe Apple will officially unveil the new 2019 iPhone lineup at a media event on September 10, but official press invites have not yet been sent out to confirm the date.

Today, ChargerLAB claimed in a tweet that the iPhone 11 will finally drop the 5W charger, and come with an Apple USB-C charger instead and a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box. This should mean that the iPhone ships with a fast charger for the first time, even though the connector on the actual device will still be Lightning.

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