Tech Industry

After a few months of speculation, Twitter has officially announced its plans to extend the length of tweets by no longer counting mentions and media attachments towards the 140 character limit as well as some new announcements including the ability to retweet yourself and the removal of the ‘.@’ convention to simplify the service. Twitter will roll all of these updates in the coming months.

The headline change is that Twitter handles (@mention), embedded photos, videos and other media attachments will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. This will allow users to fit more content into every tweet as metadata will not use up valuable characters.

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[UPDATE: Video embedded below.]

Tim Cook featured at StartupFest this morning, in an interview with Neelie Kroes discussing Apple’s influence in startups and entrepreneurship culture. Cook covered many topics including the role of entrepreneurs and the App Store, the startup climate in Europe, economic optimism, technology in education, Apple Watch and more. We’ve included some snippets of the talk below …

In the interview, Tim Cook says Apple gives entrepreneurs the ability to sell their app instantly worldwide through the App Store. Apple provides technical and marketing assistance to clear the path so the developer can focus on their product. Most young companies should be principally focused on the product; Apple tries to help ease the frictions to fuel more entrepreneurs to do exactly that. Apple is bringing an app development center in Naples to kickstart the app economy in places it hasn’t yet been.

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Changes are coming to AT&T’s Next program starting in June. AT&T Next, the company’s monthly payment program for buying smartphones and tablets, is shifting from four options to two options and adding ways to lower the monthly payment.

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Via Weibo, the above image is claimed to be a real photo of an actual iPhone 7 back, not a mockup or case. Most interestingly in this picture is the new rear camera — it appears to be bevelled and protrude outwards. The camera is also aligned differently compared to current iPhones; it is positioned closer to the top-left corner. The camera hole also appears to be slightly larger than the current 12 megapixel shooter in the iPhone 6s. Unfortunately, people hoping for the camera bump to go away will be disappointed with this leak, as it suggests the bump will continue to be a part of iPhone design for at least another year.

On the positive side, the new design of the camera does suggest that substantial improvements to photo and video quality are on the cards. Whether the image truly shows an actual iPhone 7 back (not merely a dummy case) is hard to assert due to the low-resolution but the design mirrors previously-leaked schematics. The same source correctly leaked the iPhone 6 design too, adding to its legitimacy. More photos below …

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In a press release, Apple has announced it is opening a new development office in Hyderabad, India. The team located here will apparently focus on improving Apple Maps, which is deeply integrated across Apple’s hardware and software as dedicated apps and embedded in other services, like Siri. The new center will create up to 4000 new jobs in the local economy. It is currently unclear as to the nature of the workforce, as Apple has preferred to keep its core software engineering team in California with most working solely in Cupertino.

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Economic Daily News is reporting that Apple suppliers have begun hiring en-masse this month as they prepare for assembly of Apple’s upcoming flagship iPhone, the iPhone 7. The new iPhones (coming in 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch sizes) are expected to debut in the fall, following tradition. The report comes via CNBC.

Interestingly, the report notes that the surge in hiring at Foxconn and Pegatron is happening earlier than usual (‘at least a month earlier’). Apparently, the new Apple iPhone includes a ‘more complex design’ than previous models meaning suppliers need more time to train staff about the assembly process. This somewhat contradicts previous leaks in the rumor mill which indicated the iPhone 7 would look very similar to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus …

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A new report from CBC News details the progress being made to unlock the FM radio chip that many smartphones feature. Many smartphones have an untapped FM chip inside them that users are unable to take advantage of and while many Android devices are confirmed to have the chip, the iPhone also has despite Apple not officially recognizing it.

A petition has been running in the United States to urge carriers and manufacturers to unlock the hidden FM chip in smartphones. The campaign has gained significant steam since its inception, so much so that carriers are starting to agree to unlock the chip…but Apple has yet to comment.

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Google parent company Alphabet has once again surpassed Apple in terms of value based on market capitalization. CNBC points out that Alphabet (GOOG) saw its market cap around $498.56 billion during trading today, while Apple (AAPL) saw its market cap down around $496.69 billion.

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Taylor Swift is continuing her partnership with Apple Music, with yet another ad featuring the singer and the streaming service. The new minute-long commercial features Taylor Swift dancing around to ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness.

Swift demonstrates using the Apple Music discovery features (via the ‘Friday Night Rocks!’ playlist) to find the track. The ad ends with the slogan ‘Dance like no one’s watching’.  Watch the ad after the jump …

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What’s the one thing cooler than using an Apple Watch app to summon your Tesla from the garage to your front door? Asking Siri to do it for you. That’s what developer Sam Gabbay has achieved, using Apple’s HomeKit.

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Reuters is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook will visit China later in May to meet with government officials and address current tensions between Apple and China, seen by many as the main driver of revenue growth for the company going forward.

Apple has faced some significant setbacks in China in the last few weeks. The company has had to stop selling iBooks and iTunes Movies in the region following new governmental policy that restricts online publishing. Apple also ceded exclusive rights to the iPhone trademark after losing a court case, although it plans to appeal.

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Apple is today introducing an Apple Music plan aimed at students. The service is identical in features to the standard plan but rather than paying $9.99 per month, qualifying students can subscribe to Apple Music for $4.99 per month. The offering is rolling out today in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and more countries (via TechCrunch). Prices vary per region but the discount should be around 50% of the normal Apple Music price.

To qualify, students must be currently attending an eligible university or college and gain the discount for up to four years. Apple has partnered with UNiDAYs to verify people who sign up to the student plan are legitimate students attending a school.

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In a statement, Apple has said that it will appeal a Chinese trademark ruling which saw the company lose exclusive rights to the iPhone name, allowing other Chinese companies to use the name for leather goods products. Obviously, the iPhone is Apple’s cash cow so the initial ruling was a big blow allowing legal dilution of its most-valuable brand.

Apple will take the appeal to the Supreme People’s court, the highest court in the Chinese law system …

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In the middle of seemingly stalling profits and a general slowdown of the smartphone industry — like Apple‘s notable first quarter of YoY growth drop in years — Samsung seems to be enjoying a moment of sunshine bathing.

Eleven months after losing the leadership to the Cupertino giant, the Korean manufacturer has climbed once again to the top of the US vendors’ list, as per a Counterpoint Research report (via Business Korea)…

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The iPhone 7 had been rumored to be dropping the analog 3.5 mm headphone jack, in favour of wireless Bluetooth or Lightning cable headphones for audio output. However, a new iPhone 7 component leak posted on Weibo disagrees with previous reports, depicting a board that includes a 3.5mm jack (in the top right of the photo above).

The 3.5mm jack is large (relative to the thinness of the phone), dates back more than a hundred years and has been superseded in terms of signal quality by the modern digital solutions, so it is plausible that Apple would want to abandon it. However, the idea of removing the port has been controversial (with complaints about existing accessory compatibility). This Chinese leak indicates it is sticking around …

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