Another week, another leak for Apple.
In the past several days, talk of Apple’s next big iPhone release, believed to be known as the iPhone 8 or iPhone X, has hit a fever pitch. Reports have centered mainly on its screen and whether the handset might nix its Home Button in favor of a virtual alternative, but there’s also been talk about the smartphone’s size and battery.
This is Coins2Day ’s weekly roundup of the biggest Apple news this week. To see last week’s roundup, click here.
Meanwhile, Apple’s stock hit an all-time high during the week and the company’s senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue shined a bit more light on Apple’s rumored plans (or lack thereof) to acquire a big media company.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a weekly Apple news roundup without talk of what might’ve been.
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Read on to learn about all the week’s biggest Apple news:
- An Apple patent surfaced this week discussing a technology by which users would touch a device’s touchscreen to activate a virtual Home Button in an iPhone. The virtual button would let users move around a built-in operating system and make mobile payments with fingerprint recognition. Apple currently uses a physical Home Button, so a virtual alternative would represent a big change. It was one of several iPhone Home Button rumors to surface this week.
- Apple will offer a bigger battery in its next handset, believed to be known as the iPhone 8 or iPhone X, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. However, the bigger battery will be placed inside a device that could come with a case about the same size as the smaller iPhone 7 with a 4.7-inch screen. In other words, Apple’s next high-end handset might come with a long-lasting (and big) battery that can live inside a nicely sized device.
- Apple this week announced that it will be holding its annual developer confab, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. Apple traditionally holds the show in San Francisco. Apple said in a statement that it made the change so it could be “just minutes” from its new headquarters, Apple Campus 2, in Cupertino, Calif.
- Speaking at the Code Media conference in Dana Point, Calif. This week, Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue said that his company isn’t planning on making a big media acquisition, as many rumors have suggested. Instead, Apple wants to create “unique” content that’s unlike anything media companies are currently producing, he said.
- Apple is said to be testing a fifth-generation Apple TV. The report, which surfaced this week from sources speaking to Bloomberg, said the new device could offer Ultra HD video streaming and deliver better color accuracy than the fourth-generation Apple TV Apple released in 2015. The fifth-generation model could hit store shelves this year.
- Apple’s stock hit an all-time high on Monday of $133.55, pushing its market cap to $712 billion. Apple’s previous high, reached in May 2015, was $132.54.
- A report this week from Gartner revealed that Apple was the number one global smartphone maker in the fourth quarter, topping its arch rival Samsung. Apple captured 17.9% of the market on 77 million iPhone sales, just topping Samsung’s 76.8 million smartphone sales and 17.8% share.
- Did you know that the Apple Store could have been the Apple Cafe? A report this week detailed Apple’s plans in the late-1990s to develop futuristic cyber cafes instead of retail stores. Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs ultimately nixed the idea and instead pursued retail stores.
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One more thing… Apple this week released a trailer for its upcoming Carpool Karaoke show. The one-minute clip shows several prominent celebrities, including the series’ creator James Corden.
