Demand for iPhone 8 wanes, Apple reportedly reduces production

Review: Apple iPhone 8 Plus

With the excitement surrounding the iPhone X, it seems to have overshadowed the new iPhone 8 devices. Reuters even quotes Rogers Communication’s chief executive who says demand for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have been “anemic.” This response from the public reportedly has Apple telling its suppliers in Taiwan to reduce production by nearly 50 percent in the following two months.

Apple’s shares fell nearly 3 percent on Thursday prompting analysts and investors to wonder about this staggered release of the company’s new devices. The iPhone X is expected to drop on November 3^rd. However, there are analysts that think the weak iPhone 8 sales won’t hurt Apple’s overall phone production as well as its revenue and margins as consumers might still consider buying older models. Demand might also surge once the new iPhone comes out—but again, that might not be for the iPhone 8.

OnePlus 5T render leaks online, shows a full-screen display

We reported earlier this month that OnePlus might not be releasing the OnePlus 5T. But the rumour mill is not letting this die. OnePlus seems to have pulled OnePlus 5 off the shelves and just might be looking to release the updated version next month (which is roughly the same time when the OnePlus 3T came out). New leaked renders coming out of China show what the OnePlus 5T could look like. What the renders show, as you see above, OnePlus seems to be joining the full-screen, nearly bezel-less bandwagon. The Home button doesn’t seem to exist beneath the 6-inch screen but we see a fingerprint sensor above the OnePlus logo at the back.

Some of the rumoured specs for this device include an 18:9 aspect ratio, a dual-rear camera setup with optical image stabilization and a 20-megapixel and 16-megapixel rear setup as well as a 16-megapixel front camera. Joining another trend, the OnePlus 5T might do away with the headphone jack. It’ll reportedly run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. Again all of these are speculation at this point, OnePlus is still keeping mum about the possibility that this device is coming out.

Source: GizmoChina

Google Chrome for iOS adds drag and drop support, new widgets

Safari, for obvious reasons, is the fastest browser on iOS. But if you’ve been a Google Chrome user for years, you might be more comfortable using the Chrome app on your iOS device, especially with things like tab syncing and Google continuously improving the app. This time around, Chrome gets the drag and drop support for the iPad into its app. This means you can drag URLs from other apps and into Chrome or you can drag URLs out of the app and into other apps like Notes or Evernote. You’ll need to have a support iPad running on iOS 11 to get this feature to work, though.

If you don’t have this, Google is also introducing two new Today widgets. One is called Quick Actions and as its name suggests, you can do things like start a new search, begin an incognito search or a voice search, and scan a QR code. If you use 3D Touch on the Chrome icon, these are the same shortcuts you get. The other new widget is called Suggested Sites and it gives you quicker access to the sites you frequent.

Source: Cult of Mac

Apple tax might force Facebook to make a new subscription tool exclusive on Android

Facebook is looking to help out publishers monetize their content on its platform. The social network plans to introduce a new subscription tool for its mobile app that will either put up paywalls on certain articles on Facebook’s news feed or redirect readers to the publishers’s sites to buy subscriptions. The issue with bringing this feature to Apple is what can be called Apple tax, where Apple requires app developers to pay as much as 30 percent off an app’s revenue to the company. And, of course, Apple wants in with this new tool, since they reason it is being coursed through the Facebook app. However, Facebook wants to give all the revenue to the publishers.

The two tech giants have been at an impasse for months already. But the tool is already ready to be released on Android in the coming weeks. According to Facebook, they are already working with publishers like Hearst, Washington Post, and Tronc. Whether Apple and Facebook can work it out is something we can’t say right now.

Source: Recode