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Boeing top-dog, James A. Bell, joins Apple

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Former interim CEO of The Boeing Company in 2005, James Bell, joins Apple’s Board of Directors as of October 1, 2015. James Bell was a top-class leader at Boeing, overseeing the Boeing Capital Corporation and Boeing Shared Services during his illustrious, 38-year career with Boeing. His decades of experience are set to benefit Apple in the areas of finance, strategic planning and complex organization leadership.

source: flickr/nostri-imago
source: flickr/nostri-imago

Top-Notch Ex-Boeing CFO

James revealed that he is an avid user of Apple products, and that he holds a tremendous amount of respect for the innovation of Apple across the industry. He is also a board member at J. P. Morgan Chase, Dow Chemical Company, the Chicago Urban League, World Business Chicago, the Chicago Economic Club and New Leaders for New Schools.

Bell also happens to be a trustee of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, and has been known for his active involvement in projects beneficial to the community at large. Bell retired from service at Boeing in 2012 as the most successful African-American employee ever, in The Boeing Capital Corporation’s history.

Diversity in Apple’s Boardroom

This retired Boeing CFO creates diversity in Apple’s boardroom, as is reported by CNET, and is the eighth member to join Apple’s board of directors. Apple is happy to have him on board, being yet another of Tim Cook’s staffing changes.

Cook welcomes James Bell in a statement saying: “James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing as corporate president and CFO.”

James Bell is likely to bring many benefits to Apple’s manufacturing industry, as well as strategic insight into planning and leadership. His financial experience should also prove an asset to Apple, with James. A. Bell having a decorated background in accountancy.  James A. Bell is the sole African-American member of Apple’s Board of Directors, as well as the first.

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Two separate A9 chip manufacturers create power usage differences in new iPhones

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Apple decided to opt for two manufacturers for their A9 chip, used by both the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6s Plus. This is far from convenient and it is not often that you see the tech giant using two separate manufacturers.

Battery and power usage performance differences have cropped up, leaving many iPhone users unhappy. A9 processors were sourced from both Samsung and TSMC, the manufacturer of Apple’s earlier A8 chip. Samsung has in the past carried out manufacturing of processors for Apple, producing their A7 range, however this time around Samsung has disappointed.

Two Manufacturers – 2 Hour Battery Difference

Even though they are essentially the same processor, the Samsung manufactured chip has higher power usage resulting in a shorter battery life than the variant from TSMC. The TSMC chipset gives iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s battery life up to two hours more battery life, according to tests conducted across numerous forums and message boards.

Tests conducted using an unofficial application created by user Hiraku Jira reveal that 70% of the devices tested utilize the TSMC A9, here’s hoping your device is one of them. Testing is most likely to reveal other small performance differences, although the difference in power consumption is the first, most noticeable between the two.

Reddit Battery Tests
Reddit Battery Tests

TMSC Chipset Offers Best Battery Life

This difference between seemingly identical devices has caused quite an uproar over the last two weeks. Some users cannot find evidence at all of the two hour battery-life difference, but tests are conclusive and the Samsung A9 is the inferior chip.

It is unlikely that Apple will make this same mistake again, but current iPhone owners are stuck and there is nothing you can do about it, short of upgrading. This A9 incident has made it clear that experience wins at the end of the day, with trusted manufacturer TMSC clearly outshining their competitor Samsung.

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Apple’s new patent showcases inductive charging for future iPhones

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An Apple patent application details their development of inductive charging. Basically put inductive charging is wireless charging, although at current rates device charge slowly. The patent application filed was termed “Inductive power transfer using acoustic or haptic devices”.

This technology plans to utilize coils already present in your devices to facilitate wireless charging. A dedicated charging source is needed, but no additional hardware is required to be attached to existing technology. This patent has excited users over the possibility of seeing fully operational Apple inductive charging by next year!

apple-patent-inductive-charging

No need to change existing hardware

Apple’s patent elaborates on acoustic coils, already present in your speaker and microphone, which will receive a wireless charge. Another technology already in place in certain devices is Apple’s Taptic Engine. This allows your device to sense movement, bumps, tap pressure and even your heartbeat. The only drawback to using existing coils to facilitate charging is the fact that they are very small, and this would result in an extremely low charging rate for devices using larger batteries.

Apple also proposes a docking station that is set to integrate with all existing products. The two only devices in the pipeline known to benefit from Apple inductive charging is the Apple Watch and the distant, possible Apple iRing.

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Charge Multiple Device

The patent for Apple inductive charging is the most advanced example of inductive charging and shows a device capable of, for the first time, charging multiple devices without the need of any physical, cabled connection to a power source. The charging of multiple devices is made possible by tessellated triangular coils present in the charging unit. Complex arrangements of electromagnetic current is now possible using these coils, as each coil can operate independently and as part of a large system, simultaneously.

This unique system of electromagnetic charging is likely to still undergo a lot of research and development, but signs are good that we will soon see wireless charging in everyday use.

 

News

12.9“ Apple iPad Pro to arrive first week of November

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November will see the launch of what is believed by many to be one of the world’s best tablet computers. Apple’s mammoth iPad Pro is set to be available to customers in the first week of November according to Japanese Apple news provider Mac Otakara, citing what they refer to us reliable sources.

They report that the 12.9“ Apple iPad Pro will be launched in the first week of November, although whether this will actually happen is left to be seen. Mac Otakara have a hit-and-miss record, incorrectly forecasting the launch of Apple products in the past. They did however see success in 2013, when they correctly forecast the change to the home button on Apple’s iPhone 5S. Lets hope the are right again!

Great Specs

The Apple iPad Pro sports a 12.9-inch touch-screen. The size increase is a vast improvement upon it’s current largest display, at a meager 9.7-inches. Although the 12.9“ LED has a fantastic high resolution, capable of rendering at 264 pixels per inch. One drawback is the fact that the iPad Pro’s display lacks 3D touch functionality.

This stunning tablet will however fill the gap by adding support for the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil stylus has single-pixel pressure sensitivity, greatly enhancing upon the stylus platform in its’ entirety.The Apple iPad Pro is aimed at facilitating a high level of productivity, whilst not sacrificing the quality of the display in any way. Performance is solid. The 64-bit 19X third generation processor is very quick and is stable enough to supply top-notch performance for many years.

iPad Pro- Replacing Your Notebook

The 12.9“ Apple iPad Pro is being pushed as a complete replacement to a laptop and certainly carries enough features to do the job. At a cost of $799 (USD) for the 32GB Wi-Fi-only version the iPad Pro makes a great alternative to, but at a higher cost than, a run-of-the-mill notebook.  For those than can afford it the 12.9“ Apple iPad Pro is a top-end piece of hardware, integrating many of Apple’s new devices such as the before-mentioned “Pencil” and Apple’s Smart Keyboard. A must-have for any Apple fan, here’s holding thumbs that Mac Otakara has it right.

News

iOS 9.1 Beta 4 released to developers by Apple

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Developers and public beta testers across the world received access to the fourth release of the iOS 9.1 Beta. This publicly accessible beta comes just one week after the last build. The new 13B136 beta build can be obtained via Apple’s over-the-air update service, and is also located through the Apple Developer Center.  Users should however be advised that once you update to iOS 9.1 there is no going back. Downgrading is not supported. This fourth beta update is roughly 1.4GB, bigger than most supplied by Apple.

Vast Performance Benefits

This OS is much quicker than previous versions, with applications such as Safari and Spotlight opening lightning quick and run smoother than ever. App delays in general appear to be gone. Camera opening and response sees slight improvements. A new suggestions feature has been added in this release. Located as “Battery Life Suggestions” under “Battery” in your “Settings, you can choose to automatically disable background Apps after a chosen period of time, saving you battery life.

Please note that this context menu will not be accessible if you have optimized your device already. iOS 9.1 also features compatibility updates for the fourth generation of Apple TV, as well as the new 12.9“ iPad Pro, rumored to be launching in the first week of November. This in turn brings updates for the Apple Smart Keyboard and their new improved stylus, the Apple Pencil. Unicode 8 support is also supplied by this update, as is the ability to disable contact photos.

ios-9-beta-4

Great Performance & Functionality

Overall the fourth beta of iOS 9.1 is a fantastic success and a vast improvements over prior versions. Users across the world are reporting fantastic functionality and a great boost to the speed of your device. The enhancement provided by this beta update has been long overdue, although minor details still need to be addressed. Problems appear to be isolated and not directly operating system related. Anyone who wants a sturdy replacement operating system is encouraged to update to iOS 9.1 beta 4, but be warned, update servers appear to be very busy due to the large demand and traffic congestion resulting in slower-than-normal download speeds can be expected over the next few days.