Looking back on another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes Apple FaceTime issues, broken iPhone 14 Pro camera, serious power issues with keyboard haptics, Apple’s secret repair upgrade to the iPhone, Apple Maps turns ten, Apple backs the App Association, and the ongoing saga of a foldable iPhone takes on a new twist.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many, many discussions that have taken place around Apple over the past seven days (and you can read my weekly Android news roundup here on Forbes).
Apple confirms FaceTime issues
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro owners who purchased the new handsets are experiencing issues with FaceTime and iMessage. Even with an update to iOS 16.0.1, the apps are unusable. As of now, there is no news of a full fix, but Apple has confirmed the issue:
“…the company has confirmed additional issues with iMessage and FaceTime. In a new support document, Apple also admitted that “iMessage and FaceTime may not complete activation on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro” and acknowledges that issues may still occur even after updating to iOS 16.0.1.”
(Forbes).
Audible Grinding Wounds Camera iPhone 14 Pro
It’s not the only problem. Some users report that the phone makes grinding noises and vibrations when trying to take photos with third-party apps such as SnapChat and TikTok, severely distorting camera images and in some cases damaging hardware of the camera. The problem doesn’t seem universal, but MacRumors has collected user complaints on several social media sites and its own forums, as has The Guardian. Some YouTubers have also documented the phenomenon:
“The distortion and vibration are most likely caused by the camera’s optical image stabilization gyroscope, which when operating normally corrects hand shake and shake so the camera can absorb a bit more light without taking blurry images (although iPhone cameras have some sort of “optical” zoom, it’s done using different physical lenses, not one lens with mechanical parts that can physically zoom in and out).”
(Ars Technica).
Apple has confirmed that more software patches are in the works to fix the camera shake issue. Until then, Apple’s own apps cause no audible issues.
(Bloomberg).
Battery impact on the haptic keyboard
Of course, problems always come in threes, so the third iPhone problem this week is here, and it’s related to the haptic keyboard. iOS 16 improvements to keyboard feedback may negatively impact battery life, Apple confirms:
“In the support document, Apple explains how the new keyboard haptics feature changes your iPhone: “Your iPhone’s keyboard may make a sound or vibrate when you type.” As we’ve explained in the past, you can enable this feature in the Settings app under the “Keyboard Feedback” option in the “Sounds & Haptics” menu.
“At the bottom of the support document, however, Apple has a small warning for users who enable Keyboard Haptics: “Enabling Keyboard Haptics may affect your iPhone’s battery life. “”
(9to5Mac).
Repair secrets inside the new iPhone
The iFixit team conducted its annual teardown of new iPhone models to find out how they’re built, what components and techniques were used, and perhaps most importantly, how easy third-party repairs will be. .
The iPhone 14 may look quite similar to the iPhone 13 on the outside, but there’s been a major redesign of the internals. The handset is now constructed so that the front and back of the phone can be opened to make repairs. It’s fair to say that the team is impressed:
“The back glass is simply attached with two screws and a single connector… And as a bonus, removing the exact same screws as the back glass gives you access to the screen. Just two screws, and the screen and back glass are immediately accessible. Incredible. This is a radical overhaul of the phone, and the new approach impacts most aspects of the design. The addition of an all-new opening surface introduces a world of engineering challenges. There’s twice the perimeter to seal against water, lots of radio frequency complications, and a whole world of part changes.”
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are, unfortunately, a different story…because the hardware tells the same story as the last few years of clumsy internal designs unfriendly to repair:
“It’s the same familiar process as the 13 – and the last five years of iPhones, for that matter – and entirely different from the all-new procedure we discovered in the iPhone 14. Apple has left its innovative new design completely out of its flagship phone….the problem with that is the ridiculously borderline difficulty of repairing the rear glass.Apple’s price for repairing the rear glass on the 14 Pro Max is $549, a price that seems absurd but actually reflects the difficult process.”
(I fix it).
Apple Maps is ten years old
Launched in what looked like a sloppy state at best, Apple Maps has always caught up with the competition. Ten years after its launch, the disaster of a launch is behind it as Apple works to improve the app. Is it on Google Maps? Mostly, if you ask the US market, but it has a way to go elsewhere in the world:
“I’m also lucky enough to use Apple Maps as I live in a major metropolitan area in the United States. A colleague of mine in Europe isn’t happy that Apple still doesn’t offer bike directions to Amsterdam, the cycling capital of the world And Apple The redesigned maps are only available in a handful of countries outside the US, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, although Apple started talking about the new maps in 2018.”
(The edge).
Apple and the App Association
Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum reports on claims that Apple contributes to the App Association (ACT), which represents small business app developers. Since the Apple App Store is one of the primary routes to market, this medium is worth noting:
“The group, known as ACT, says it is not beholden to Apple, but has confirmed that it derives more than half of its funding from the company. Former employees say the percentage real is much higher.
“…ACT leaders championed the role of the company. ACT President Morgan Reed said in an interview that it “doesn’t pass the laughter test” to say the association is Apple’s front. “Our job is to make sure that we pay attention to how the government can impact, unintended or otherwise, all of these small companies that make cool software products,” Reed said.
(Bloomberg).
And finally…
Apple’s latest patent filing is curious. Yes, it continues Apple’s R&D efforts around a foldable iPhone, but it also hints at a new protective screen coating branded as “self-healing”:
Apple proposes that while the screen can span the entire device, it can be made up of three elements. Two would be regular, fixed screens, while the third would be a flexible part that connects them together… Apple proposes that this flexible layer could itself “include an elastomer layer”, and that is the self- healing. The elastomer is stretchy, but can spring back to its original shape – an analogy would be memory foam in some mattresses. Typically, this ability to return to a previous shape is triggered by heat, such as the body heat of a person sleeping on a mattress.
(MSN).
Apple Loop brings you seven days of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column Android Circuit is also available on Forbes.