The Apple Beat: Pressure mounts on Apple to make iPhone 7 truly great

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

“Skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been,” that’s a quote by the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, which Steve Jobs referenced during the momentous launch of the original iPhone in 2007.

Jobs continued by saying, “we try to understand as we develop our product road map, what’s going to be exciting in the future. And that’s one of the advantages we have over our competitors. Our competitors tend to put the cross hairs on where we are now, and by the time they come up with a product that tries to match where we are now, we’re beyond them. We’re one or two generations beyond, moving faster than they are.”

That was the spirit of innovation that powered the Apple engine and that’s what made the iPhone such an audacious, brave and, in hindsight, timely invention. But the world has changed and while Apple is still the most valuable company, the pressure is on to see if it is still the most innovative.

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WhatsApp now lets you share documents on web app

The web client for WhatsApp isn’t being left behind after the release of the desktop client. WhatsApp is bringing it up to par with mobile apps by letting users share documents. Before you could only share photos and videos as well as take photos using a webcam. To access the feature, simply head over to the attachment icon in the conversation window.

Source: Android Central

YouTube tries out messaging feature within app

Courtesy of Google via AP

To share YouTube clips, what you’d usually do is copy the URL and send it using some other app. YouTube wants to keep you within its app by introducing a new messaging feature. They are currently testing it out with a small number of users on iOS and Android to see if it’s a viable addition to the app. Having their own messaging feature will encourage users to stay within the app and ease the sharing process for its users. It will also give YouTube more opportunity to show more ads to over one billion users of the service.

Source: AP via Yahoo! Tech

Sony reportedly plans to retire its Xperia C, M, and E brands for Xperia X

Sony has been in the process of rebranding its smartphone efforts; thus, the release of the Xperia X line during MWC 2016. With the new line out, it was seen as the end of the Xperia Z line. However, it looks like that isn’t the only line of products getting cut by Sony. According to reports from Chinese media, even the Xperia C, M, and E brands will be getting cut, while the Xperia X will be developed all the way up to 2018.

The Xperia Z brand was considered the line of premium devices from the Japanese brand, while the C, M, and E brands were more budget-friendly and highlighted specific features like waterproof ratings or battery life. The Xperia X line is seen to expand beyond just smartphones and incorporate all the different consumer electronics Sony develops. Not only is this seen as a way to consolidate its efforts but to also give them room to diversify outside of smartphones and into the growing Internet of Things market as well. Speculation about upcoming Xperia C, M, and E devices will be that they’ll be renamed to fit into the Xperia X brand.

Source: Xperia Blog | Via: SlashGear