All the essential iPhone, iPad, Apple and apps news from the last week
Apple Music Festival
Apple has announced this year’s big music event – renamed from the iTunes Festival – with acts including Elton John, Britney Spears and Alicia Keys topping the bill in London. Tickets are free through prize draws, and the whole thing will be live-streamed for those who can’t make it there.
Healthcare purchase
Apple has acquired a young health startup called Gliimpse, pointing towards the continued improvement of its own healthcare platforms like HealthKit, ResearchKit and CareKit. The company is focused on building a secure platform for logging and sharing personal health data.
Apple vs. Samsung
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, it’s newest and most powerful smartphone, was roundly thrashed by Apple’s almost year-old iPhone 6s in a hands-on speed test. Good news for iPhone owners ahead of the iPhone 7 launch next month!
iPhone touchscreen bug
According to iFixit, a manufacturing defect found in 2014’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is starting to affect some handsets. The ‘Touch Disease’ makes the touchscreen unresponsive, and Apple has yet to officially comment on a solution.
Woz wants headphone jack
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak isn’t sure about the reported removal of the headphone jack from next month’s iPhone 7, suggesting the move would “tick off a lot of people.”
Siri improvements in iOS 10
Thanks to machine learning techniques, Siri could start sounding a lot more natural from the release of iOS 10. A deep neural network will aim to make the assistant sound a little less robotic and a little more human.