Apple makes a significant portion of its money off of its hardware. The gross margin across all of their hardware products is roughly 40%. When you sell millions of iPhone in a quarter, you generate huge amount in profits, enough to be the most profitable company in the world. With hardware being such a significant portion of Apple's profits, this means that a much smaller portion of their profits.

The best way to sell an even higher number of hardware devices is to provide good software. Apple began doing this with their iOS devices from the beginning, and allowed 3rd party developers to create software in 2008. By doing this, Apple has created a vast ecosystem of applications. This strategy has been so successful, that there are over 2.2 million applications available.

In order to provide an even better experience between their devices as well as provide an even more consistent experience, Apple had made a few of their applications free. The list of applications includes:

Previously, these applications were only available when you purchased new hardware. For instance, if you purchased a new Mac you could get Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for free. Similarly, if you purchased an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you could receive them for free as well. If you did not receive the applications for free they would cost between $5 and $20 each.

The rationale behind making these applications for free is not entirely known, but there may be a few possible reasons. The first is that by providing the applications for free, Apple is able to provide even more value for the amount already expended for hardware. Most particularly, this strategy may provide a boon to iPads. In particular, if a user purchases a new iPad having professional-level applications available will make the purchase even more worthwhile. Additionally, by providing the applications for free on both platforms the experience when going between both iOS and macOS will be even more consistent.

Given that Apple does make so much money from the hardware, it seems like a rounding error to provide these applications for free. If you decided to not purchase them before, you can now go ahead and get them for free.

As most may be aware, Apple is a very secretive company. Apple prefers to keep to themselves until they are ready to announce a product. There are only a few times when Apple will reveal a product before it is available. A few of the product that they have done so include the iPhone, the Apple TV, and the 2013 Mac Pro.

It is not often that Apple reveals what they are working on. However, Apple has done just that, although not as explicitly as they did with the iPhone or the Apple TV. Apple invited a handful of journalists to visit their "Machine Lab" on Apple's campus across from One Infinite Loop. Apple did not show off any physical product, but they did describe what they are working on.

In June of 2013, at their World Wide Developer Conference, Phil Schiller unveiled that Apple was working on a revolutionary design for their high-end Mac Pro. This came on the heels of many "pundits" indicating that Apple lost its way. This lead to Schiller giving the infamous "Can't innovate my ass" quote. This is when Apple unveiled the all new Mac Pro.

The design of the Mac Pro is a very customized design that had not been tried before. The thermal core of the Mac Pro is triangular. The Mac Pro has dual graphical processing units occupying two sides of the triangle thermal core. The third side has the processor. The thermal core is designed to move all of the heat up through the central core and out of the top of the Mac Pro.

The exterior of the Mac Pro is smooth. However, from Apple's own wording, the interior design, while ambitious, has ultimately not worked out as well as they would have hoped. In reality, the tolerances for the thermal core were too close and if Apple changed any of the internal components, the Mac Pro would not be able to work properly.

Due to the tight tolerances, the Mac Pro has lacked any upgrades since its introduction in 2013. Apple has made some slight upgrades to the Mac Pro. In reality, they are not upgrades as much as a better value for the same price. The new base model comes with dual AMD D500 GPUs, and a 6-core processor. This is up from the 4-core and AMD D300. The higher-end model comes with an 8-core processor and the AMD D700s. This is up from the 6-core and AMD D500 processors. For now, these are the only changes to the Mac Pro.

At this same meeting, Apple did provide some details on their new Mac Pro. Apple is currently working on a new modular Mac Pro. The modularity is not necessarily end-user modularity, but more likely, for Apple to be able to upgrade the Mac Pro on a more regular basis, but it will not be with the current form factor. Apple indicated that this new Mac Pro will "not be available this year".

Alongside the new Mac Pro, Apple also indicated that it is working on a new display. This goes against what some reports indicated before. Previously, it was reported that Apple was completely out of the display game, since Apple partnered with LG to work on the LG Ultrafine 5k Display that was introduced in the fall with the MacBook Pro with Touchbar.

Apple did not give any more specific information about the Mac Pro. However, they did mention that they are working on a new iMac model that is geared towards professionals. What this entails, is not entirely clear. It is entirely possible that Apple will have even more powerful processors, and possibly even higher maximum amounts of memory. One of the better items that Apple could put into an iMac Pro would be a 6 or 8 core-processor with the possibility of having 64 or 128GBs of memory.

All that we know is that Apple is working on these items. There is no information as to when the redesigned Mac Pro or the iMac Pro will be released, but it is only a matter of time before the new Macs are released. One thing that I would like to see is any new information about a new Mac Mini, but there is no new information about it.

Earlier this week Apple released a few products. None of the released hardware products are new, however they all have some upgraded internals. Let us start with two upgraded iPhones.

iPhone SE

The first upgrade was to the iPhone SE. The iPhone SE was released about a year ago in March of 2016. The iPhone SE has the same internals as the iPhone 6s. This includes Touch ID, an A9 processor, M9 motion co-processor, and 4K video recording at 30fps. All of this in a 4-inch Retina screen. When the iPhone SE was released, it came in two sizes, 16GB And 64GB models.

The upgrade increases the two model sizes. They are now 32GB and 128GB models are the same price, $399 and $499 respectively.

This upgrade indicates two things. The first that the iPhone SE is not a one-off, and is likely to be continued in the future. It will likely be a phone where the internals are upgraded every two years. The second item is that the 16GB Model of iPhone is officially retired; except for maybe refurbished phones. The updated iPhone SE is not the only iPhone with a new model.

PRODUCT(RED)

PRODUCT(RED) is a program that raises awareness for, and provides funds, to help eliminate HIV/AIDS. Apple has been supporting (PRODUCT)RED since October 2006 when they unveiled an iPod Nano. Since then, Apple has added many other PRODUCT(RED) items over the last 11 years. The latest release is a particularly important one for Apple.

Apple has released an iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that is Red and White. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are the same exact specifications as the Black, Gold, Rose Gold, and Silver models; except for one aspect. The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone does not come in 32GB, just like the Jet Black model. It does come in 128GB and 256GB models.

The 128GB iPhone 7 model is $749, the 256GB is $849. The 128GB iPhone 7 Plus is $869 and the 256GB is $969. This is the same as the Jet Black iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available for order on Friday, March 24th, at 8:01 AM Pacific Time.

iPad

One of the most anticipated products is a new iPad Pro, in particular the 12.9-inch model. Unfortunately, there was not a new version of the iPad Pro being released. There is a new 9.7-inch iPad.

The new iPad replaces the iPad Air 2 and is a slight upgrade. The new internals of the iPad include an A9 Processor, this is the same processor that is in the iPhone 6s. There is also the same Motion co-processor, the M9. This is the same as the iPhone 6s.

Besides the internals, the iPad is slightly heavier than its predecessor. The updated iPad is 1.05 pounds, versus 0.96 pounds. There are a couple of things that are no longer on the iPad. The fully laminated display and antireflective coating are no longer on the iPad. This is not the only thing has been dropped from the iPad.

The price has been dropped. The 32GB Wi-Fi Model is now $329, while the 128GB model is $429. This is down from $399 and $499 respectively. The Wi-Fi + Cellular models are $459 and $559 for the 32GB and 128GB models. This is down from $529 and $629 for the 32GB and 128GB Models.

The iPad will be available for order on March 24th, at 8:01 AM Pacific Time.

Accessories

Apple considers itself a fashion company. One of the ways that Apple keeps ups with fashion is by adding colors to some of its accessories. There are a few areas where this is the case. The first is with new iPhone Cases. There are a few new cases.

Cases

For the various iPhone models here are the new colors:

Leather:

iPhone 7/iPhone 7 Plus

• Berry
• Sapphire
• Taupe

iPhone SE

• Saddle Brown

Silicone:

iPhone 7/iPhone 7 Plus

• Azure
• Camellia
• Pebble

Watch Bands

While iPhone Cases provide some fashion, the Apple Watch bands do allow individual expression.

SportBand

• Azure
• Camellia
• Pebble

Nike Bands

When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 2, one of the models that were not immediately available; the Nike+ Model. There are two distinct aspects to the Nike+ models. The first aspect is a custom watch face that is only available on the Nike+ models. This is still the case. However, the second distinct aspect is the watch band options for the Nike+ Watches. These watch bands are now available on their own.

The watch band options are:

• Black/Volt
• Anthracite/Black
• Pure Platinum/White

These bands are available for $49.

Woven Nylon

When Apple introduced the Woven Nylon bands, many of them are two colors. The majority of the band is one color, while a second color is an accent color. The Spring 2017 colors are below.

• Berry
• Tahoe Blue
• Orange
• Red
• Pollen
• Midnight Blue

All of the colors, excluding the Midnight Blue, are tai-colored. Each of these bands are $49.

Leather

One of the more chic materials for watch bands is Leather. There is a new Classic Buckle design for Spring. There are some new colors as well. These are the colors that are available:

• Berry
• Black
• Midnight Blue
• Red
• Saddle Brown
• Sapphire
• Taupe

These bands are available now and cost $149.

Hermès Bands

When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch, one of the companies that they partnered with is Hermès.

There are a few new Hermès bands available.

38 mm versions

• Fauve Barenia Leather Single Tour

• Fauve Barenia Leather Double Tour
• Bleu Zéphyr Epsom Leather Double Tour

42 mm versions

• Lime Epsom Leather Single Tour
• Colvert Swift Leather Single Tour
• Fauve Barenia Leather Single Tour

These bands are available for $489 each.

Software

Beyond the the hardware updates and accessories, there were some software updates released as well. The first is everyone's favorite software product, iTunes.

The new version, 12.6, has one new feature, 'Rent Once, Watch Anywhere'. This new feature will allow you to rent a movie on your iPhone you can watch it on your Apple TV.

While in theory this should have been the way it worked before, but it was almost never the case. This requires iOS 10.3 or tvOS 10.2 in order to work.

Clips

One of the more modern change to the Internet, in the last 13 years, is the rise of social media. There have quite a number of social networks that have gone bust in the last 15 years. Some of these include Plurk, Friender, Peach, Orkut, and Pownce.

Apple has attempted to create a social network, with Ping. Apple eventually realized that their attempt at a social network was not going to work, so they ended Ping. Instead of attempting to build another social network, Apple has done what they are good at, building applications. Apple has created a new application called Clips.

Clips is an application that allows iOS users to create videos that have special effects. The application is very like other applications that are available. The key to Clips is that you can share the clips that you make with individuals through Messages, or by posting to Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, or even YouTube.

If in one of your clips, a face from your Photo library is recognized, Clips will automatically suggest that you send the clip to the subject of the video.

Clips will be available in early April on iOS. It will be a free application.

Swift Playgrounds

The last update, which is a minor one, but one that is much appreciated for some developers. Swift Playgrounds is now available in five more languages. These languages are:

• Simplified Chinese
• Japanese
• French
• German
• Latin American Spanish

The Swift Playgrounds update is available now.

Final Thoughts

These updates, while minor, are great updates for each of the product. This may just be a prelude to more announcements that may come in a few weeks.

When Apple announced their World Wide Developer Conference they announced that information about their scholarships would be announced later. Apple has now announced the Scholarship information.

Apple's WWDC Scholarship program is designed for those that are 13 years old, as a registered developer and enrolled in a course of study, or an alumni of STEM organization.

There are a few requirements for applying. They are as follows:

• Personal Information
• School Information
• Create a Swift Playground

The Personal Information must include your Apple ID, and a PDF, PNG, or JPG, that includes your membership information.

If you are a student, you will need to provide a current copy of your schedule in PDF, PNG, or JPG. If you are a member or alumni of a STEM organization, you will need to provide a PDF, PNG, or JPG of your membership information as well as your local leader's information.

The biggest requirement is that you will need to create a visually interactive scene in a Swift playground that can be experienced within three minutes. This could be just about anything, but it is a requirement to be awarded a scholarship.

The requirements for the Swift Playground are:

• The Swift playground you submit should be created entirely by you as an individual. Group work will not be considered.
• The Swift playground should be built using Swift Playgrounds on iPad or Xcode on macOS.
• The Swift playground should function properly and run on the latest releases of Swift Playgrounds and iOS or Xcode and macOS.
• All content should be in English.
• The .zip file size should not be more than 25 MB.
• Any resources in the project should be included locally in the zip file that you provide, as your Swift playground will be judged offline.

Scholarship recipients will receive a free ticket to Apple's WWDC 2017 conference as well as free lodging. Applying for a WWDC Scholarship will be available on March 27th, the same day that entry into the WWDC lottery will begin.

I, like many people, am constantly using my iPhone. The most common thing that I am doing with my phone is listening to audio. I can be listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or even just music. If you encounter me out and about, there is a 90% chance that I will have headphones in my ears. Headphones are one of the things that I will most likely have on me at all times. This has been the case since around 2005 when I got my first iPod; the iPod Mini.

That is not to say that I did not use headphones before, far from it. I used to listen to cassettes as well as CDs, and I even had a 32MB, yes, 32MB, Diamond Rio MP3 player. Since cassettes, CDs, and the Diamond Rio MP3 player were all around well before smart phones, I had to use wired headphones in order to listen to my music. Given that I am constantly listening to something, a good and comfortable set of headphones is an absolute must for me.

I should go without saying that I have had a slew of different headphones over the years. This does include a couple of bluetooth headphones as well. As with many people, once I find a pair of headphones I like, I will continue to buy them until they are no longer available. Luckily, my headphones of choice are Apple’s EarPods. Even though I have always had a phone that has AppleCare with it, I have not always gotten my headphones replaced under the warranty and instead opted to buy additional pairs.

History

One of the items that almost any Smart Phone needs is a way to listen to audio. All Smart Phones have at least one speaker in order to provide audio feedback. Most Smart Phones include a pair of wired headphones in with the phone. Apple’s iPhone is no exception. Apple has been including headphones with some of their products since 2001 with the introduction of the first iPod. Apple has modified their headphones in the intervening 16 years.

The second set of headphones that had a different shape were the Apple In-Ear Headphones that were introduced in September of 2008. The In-Ear Headphones consisted of three different size inserts that would allow the user to determine the best fit. The In-Ear headphones differ from the Earbuds by being ones that provide a seal inside the ear.

The shape of Apple’s earbuds remained the same from 2001 until September 2012, when they introduced the EarPods. The EarPods were developed by scanning thousands of ears and creating what is a shape that would fit the largest number of ears. It does not fit every year, but they do fit most.

With the release of the iPhone 5, Apple introduced a new connector, the Lightning connector. This connector is the one that is still on the iPhone, as well as the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPod Nano. With the release of the iPhone 7, Apple announced a radical change, the removal of the headphone jack; a staple that had been there since the release of the original iPhone in 2007. Headphones are still included in the box, as they have been since 2007. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus now include EarPods that have a lightning connector instead of the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.

AirPods

At the same event as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus introduction, Apple also introduced their first Apple-branded wireless headphones, the AirPods. The AirPods have the same shape as the EarPods, just without the wires. This is actually a bit of an understatement, the AirPods are actually much more than just a simple pair of wireless headphones.

Wireless

Traditionally, when one thinks of wireless headphones, they picture a set of headphones that do not connect directly to a device with wires, but still have a wire connecting the two different earbuds. That is not the case with the AirPods. Many headphone manufacturers provide Bluetooth headphones, but they have a wire connecting the two ear pieces together. This is not the case with the AirPods. There is not even a charging cable that connects to the AirPods. The AirPods are truly wireless.

The Wireless aspects to the AirPods are provided by a custom chip that Apple has designed; the W1.

W1 chip

The AirPods incorporate some proprietary hardware, Apple’s W1 chip. The W1 chip, as I explained in my review of the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones:

The W1 chip is an Apple designed chip that is specifically for being able to quickly pair with any iOS 10 or macOS Sierra device. The W1 chip also enables is the syncing of the pairing information between all of the devices using the same iCloud account. The synchronization with iCloud is designed to allow your devices to automatically switch, without having to go through the tedious, “un-pair”, “re-pair” dance that is typical of Bluetooth enabled devices.

1. Enable Bluetooth on the device.
2. Open the lid on the AirPods case.
3. Press the synchronize button on the back of the case.
4. On your device tap on the AirPods.
5. The AirPods should connect to your device.

The Case

1. Place the case within a few inches of the device
2. Open the lid of the case.
3. Wait a few seconds, a popup will appear. The AirPods are now paired

Battery Life

Switching Devices

Controls

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap on to Bluetooth.
3. Click the information button next to the paired set of AirPods to open the settings.

• Siri
• Play/Pause
• Off

Issues

Feature Requests

Final Thoughts

Back at Apple's September 2016 event, where they announced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple unveiled a couple of new products. The first, was a new set of wireless headphones; the AirPods. These have the same shape as the EarPods, however they are entirely wireless. This was not the only new headphone announced by Apple. the second is the Beats Solo 3 Wireless Headphones. These are the focus of this review.

Backstory

Beats was originally started by musical artist Dr. Dre and music industry producer Jimmy Iovine in 2006. Beats was created to make headphones as well as a streaming music service. In May of 2014 it was announced that Apple had purchased Beats for $3 Billion. The streaming music service was folded into Apple Music in July of 2015.

The Beats line has a variety of different headphones, from the Beats X, in ear headphones, to the Beats Studio, over the ear headphones. The Beats Solo line has both wired as well as wireless versions. The Beats Solo 3 Wireless and AirPods have something unique in them, a custom chip. The chip Apple has dubbed the W1.

W1

The W1 chip is an Apple designed chip that is specifically for being able to quickly pair with any iOS 10 or macOS Sierra device. The W1 chip also enables is the syncing of the pairing information between all of the devices using the same iCloud account.

The synchronization with iCloud is designed to allow your devices to automatically switch, without having to go through the tedious, "un-pair", "re-pair" dance that is typical of Bluetooth enabled devices.

Solo 3 Wireless

This is my first pair of Beats headphones, but definitely not my first pair of headphones in general. The Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones come in a decent size package and includes as number of items. These items include: a Carrying Case, micro-usb charging cable, a 3.5mm headphone with Microphone cable, and a carabiner, to attach the case to a bag.

The 3.5mm headphone with Microphone cable is to connect the Beats Solo 3's to any device that has a standard 3.5mm connection. When you connect the 3.5mm cable, the Beats Solo 3's headphones will automatically power off, but the music will continue.

The Beats Solo 3 utilize Bluetooth to be able to connect to devices wirelessly. The Bluetooth protocol used is Class 1, which is likely Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE). This means that they are able to be used with any bluetooth enabled device; whether it is an Apple device or a non-Apple device, the W1 chip enables this functionality.

Pairing

As mentioned above, the W1 chip makes it easier to connect to iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and watchOS 3 devices. The pairing of the devices is quite simple:

• Make sure bluetooth is on
• Turn on the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones
• Hold down the power button on the Beats Solo 3 headphones for one second.
• Follow the on screen steps.

Those steps are easily summed up in three screenshots.

Once the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones are paired, you can being listening to whatever audio you would like.

Battery Life

Apple rates the Beats Solo 3 wireless at 40 hours of time between charges. I have not thoroughly tested the battery life, but I have not had to charge them more than twice since I received them. Even if the battery life is not 100% as advertised, it is likely close to the 40 hours.

Given that I purchased the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones on Black Friday, I was able to use them in the cold. By cold, I don't just mean around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It was zero degrees outside while using them. This is definitely not recommended. I went outside when they had 80% battery life remaining. Within 20 minutes the headphones were completely drained.

It should be noted that the Beats Solo 3's were under a hat and covered by a hoodie as well. I don't know if this was just a fluke, or if this is how they behave in the extreme cold.

Wired

One of the benefits of the Beats Solo 3 Wireless is the ability to also use them wired. and not just wirelessly. There is one thing to note about using them wired, besides the headphones powering off when plugged in. The cable is truly designed to only go one direction. While you could plug in to either side, the cable is designed to have the straight plug in the headphones, and the 90 degree angle side plugged into the device. If you switch the two, you will only get mono sound; however, it will be much louder which may be what you are attempting to achieve.

Adjusting the headband

One of the aspects of the Beats Solo 3's is that the controls are on the opposite side of those on the EarPods. This does take some time to get accustom to.

The second thing that the headphones actually collapse, to close. While this is not unique, it is something that you should be aware of.

Sound

One of the complaints that many individuals have of the Beats line in general is that it has more bass than other headphones. I tested a few different headphones in order to compare the Beats Solo 3 Wireless to to other headphones. The Lightning EarPods that come with the iPhone 7, the 3.5mm EarPods, the Xbox One Headset, and the Beats Solo 3 Wireless. The Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones definitely had the most bass, but ultimately did not sound the best, compared to the others. Weirdly, the 3.5mm EarPods with the 3.5mm to Lightning adapter, sounded the best. Even better than the EarPods with native Lightning adapter.

Downsides

One of the downsides of the Beats Solo 3's is also one of its benefits. The Beats Solo 3's are designed to sit snugly right on your ears, and they do. However, this poses a problem for those of us who have glasses. The Beats Solo 3's may ease up over time, but I am not sure if this is the case, given that they are designed to fold, so they are meant to maintain their shape. You can adjust the headband of the Beats Solo 3's, but when this is done, the Beats Solo 3's do not fit as well on one's head.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones work just as advertised. They seamlessly switch between devices. The battery life, provided you do not use the in a super cold environment, is really good. If you wear glasses, the Beats Solo 3's may require some adjustments so your glasses will not dig into your temples. The Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones are not inexpensive, by any means. If, however, you are looking for a pair of on ear headphones and you have the means, the Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones may be the right choice for you. You can buy them from Amazon or Apple.

There have been no changes to availability for the carriers. However, for Apple the following changes have occurred:

iPhone 7

• Apple - AT&T - 128GB Black has improved to match the others, 3 business days.
• Apple - Sprint - All models are now 3 business days.
• Apple - T-Mobile - All models are now 3 business days.
• Apple - Verizon - All models are now 3 business days.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, for all intents and purposes, are the tenth iPhone that Apple has released. The complete list is as follows:

• Original iPhone
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4s
• iPhone 5
• iPhone 5s
• iPhone 6/6 Plus
• iPhone 6s/6s Plus
• iPhone 7/7 Plus

There have been a couple of others phones, the iPhone 5c, and iPhone SE. These are not in this list because the iPhone 5c had the same internals as the iPhone 5, with a plastic-colored back. The iPhone SE used the same form factor as the iPhone 4/4s/5/5s, but used the iPhone 6s internals. The iPhone 5c was a one-off product, and as of this writing, the iPhone SE is also a one-off product.

One of the items that some may notice is that this is the first time that Apple has used the same general external design for the iPhone for a third year in a row. As Apple has indicated, using the same design for the third year has allowed them to perfect the design. The changes to the design include the moving of the antennas to the top and bottom of the phone's case. One of the benefits of using the same design for three years running means that Apple knows the tolerances of the case extremely well. Knowing the case so well provides two different benefits. The first is that Apple is able to squeeze every millimeter out of the design and provide the best device possible. The second benefit for using the same design for a third year running is that for its 10th anniversary, the next iPhone can have a radical and entirely new design; which is rumored to be the case for next year's iPhone. One of the things that Apple ended up removing from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is the headphone jack.

Headphone Jack and Lightning to 3.5mm

One of the items removed from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is the 3.5mm audio jack. The reason it was removed is two fold. The first is that one of the that Apple is able to make the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus water resistant, to some extent, by removing the headphone jack. The second The second reason is that Apple believes that the future for audio is wireless, and this is the first step to the future.

The Lightning to 3.5mm adapter fulfills its purpose and provides a way to connect existing 3.5mm headphones to the iPhone 7 Plus. The adapter requires iOS 10, and will not work on iOS 9 nor any other devices with previous versions of iOS. On iOS 9, you will get the following dialog:

However, On iOS 8, you will get no notification at all. No indication that there is even something plugged into the Lightning adapter. After using the lightning to 3.5mm adapter on my old EarPods, I attempted to plug in the lightning to 3.5mm adapter into my iPod touch running iOS 8, and briefly wondered why I did not hear anything coming out of the headphones. Hence, using the lightning headphones, or the lightning to 3.5mm adapter quickly becomes habit.

You can use the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter on any iOS device running iOS 10 that has a headphone adapter. If you attempt to plug in both types of headphones, they will switch between them with the one that was plugged in last being the one that takes over.

One of the side benefits of removing the headphone jack is that there should now be less interference since everything in the phone is digital. While the technology that I own may be advanced, my car, is not. My car is old enough to the point where there is not even an auxiliary jack to plug in a 3.5mm adapter. Instead, I have to rely on an FM transmitter to be able to play anything over my speakers. One of the things that I have noticed is that there has been a significant reduction in interference, as in I have not heard any. This was not the case at all with the iPhone 6s Plus.

Downside

The only downside to having the headphone jack removed is when you need to charge and still want to be able to listen at the same time. This has actually occurred a couple of times in the short while that I have had the phone. I am not opposed to dongles, and would really have liked to have seen Apple come out with a dongle that is capable of charging and listening at the same time. It likely would not be a cheap dongle, but for those of us who could use it, it would be very helpful. Belkin has filled the gap and the Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar dongle is available for pre-order.

Overall the removal of the headphone jack may annoy some, but it is not been a big issue for me, excluding the desire to charge and listen at the same time. The removal of the headphone jack is not the only change that has been made, that relates to audio.

Speakers

Even though the iPhone has always included a set of headphones in the box, there are times that the use of headphones is not always convenient. Often during these times we end up resorting to use the built-in speakers with the iPhone. This could be so we can listen to music with others, or for any other myriad of reasons. The sappers in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have bene doubled. There is now a second speaker near the ear piece. The dual speakers do make the sound much better, since it is now stereo. Apple states that the new speakers make it twice as loud. Even if it is not twice as loud, it is still much louder than just having one speaker.

While the bottom speaker outputs both high and low levels of audio, the bottom speaker tends to output more of the tones at the lower range of the auditory spectrum, while the top speaker puts out more of the high-end. It is possible that this is entirely due to the capabilities of each speaker cavity. There is more space at the bottom of the phone that could account for this differentiation. One way to test the difference is to cover up the bottom speaker and listen to something just out of the top speaker, and perform the same test with the top speaker covered and only exposing the bottom speaker.

Even though both speakers are at different angles, the sound that emanates from them is pretty good. It is no where near as loud as the iPad Pro, but it is most definitely a vast improvement over previous iPhones. The changes in audio are not the only changes with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. There have been some changes around the cameras as well.

Camera

iPhone 7 Plus Dual Camera

The Camera is one of the biggest selling points to any iPhone. Since the introduction of the first 5.5-inch phone in 2014 with the iPhone 6 Plus, the Plus camera has always had a single feature that differentiated it from the non-plus sized model. That feature has been Optical Image Stabilization. Optical Image Stabilization has allowed 6 Plus and 6s Plus owners to have slightly less blurry photos by providing a way to stabilize photos. The 4.7-inch iPhone 7 now has optical image stabilization as well as the iPhone 7 Plus. Here are a couple of examples of some photos. These are either the iPhone 7 Plus or the iPhone 6s Plus and will be labeled as to which camera they was used to shoot the photo.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have a whole new camera. Instead of the previous five-lens camera, it now includes a brand new six-lens camera that has a ƒ/1.8 aperture. This is a wide-angle lens. The ƒ/1.8 is an improvement from the ƒ/2.2 aperture that was present in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The iPhone 7 Plus still has a slightly better camera setup, one that includes an entire second camera.

The second camera on the iPhone 7 Plus has a 56mm telephoto lens that provides a feature not seen on an iPhone, optical zoom. The optical zoom allows a user to zoom to 2x. The 2x zoom, being an optical zoom, allows for close up photographs of anything. The second camera has a special mode that is designed just for it. Before we dive into the effect that requires the second camera, here are some examples of photos that have been taken with the digital zoom. These are alongside the non-zoomed pictures.

Depth Effect

During my testing, the iOS 10.1 beta was released. This update included the Depth, or Bokeh, effect feature that was announced during the September event, but was not available for the iOS 10 release. This effect will use the 56mm telephoto lens to take a picture and provide blurring of the background. This is similar to what many SLR cameras are capable of doing. This effect does produce some very intriguing and fun photos. The effect is intended to be used for portraits and is designed to look for faces, however the feature is also capable of being used on other objects as well.

To be able to get the Depth Effect, there are a few parameters that are needed. The first is that the subject in the picture needs to be within eight feet of the camera. During my testing, I attempted to get a picture of a squirrel, but I could not get close enough to be able to take a picture of said squirrel, due to it being more than eight feet away.

As of this writing, the depth effect is still in beta. Below are four pictures. Two with depth effect, and two without. Not to toot my own horn, but the ones without the depth effect are probably some of the best pictures I have ever taken with a camera, and I am definitely no photographer. Below are some examples of photos with and without the depth effect. If you click on any of the images, it should open up to the full size.

As you can see from the pictures with the depth effect, there are still some issues. For example, the leaves along the left side are blurred, when in reality they should not be. For these photos, the depth effect is not really needed, so if I do end up using these images somewhere, I will not likely use the feature all that often.

It is likely that Apple will fix some of these issues before the effect is no longer beta. One way that Apple could, in theory, allow enhancements to information later is to provide an option to save the raw image files along with the depth information, and then provide an option to create a new version of the files with any updated algorithm applied. I do not know if this is actually possible, but if it is, it could go a long way to providing even better pictures later on.

FaceTime Camera

One of the actions that Apple did not really anticipate was that people would want to take selfies. Because of this, the FaceTime camera was available until the iPhone 3GS. But this camera was only a VGA quality camera. There was a minor bump with the iPhone 5, to 1.2 megapixels, The camera on the iPhone 5s and even the iPhone 6 only saw very slight improvements. However, Apple got serious with the iPhone 6s and included a huge improvement to a 5 megapixel camera. The camera in the iPhone 7 and 7 plus is even better. The new FaceTime HD camera is a 7 megapixel camera that takes even bette pictures than before. The FaceTime HD camera has the same a ƒ/2.2 aperture as it had before.

Wide Color

One of the new features that was introduced in late 2015 was the 27-inch iMac that supported the DCI-P3 color gamut. The DCI-P3 color gamut allows for even richer colors than were previously available. At Apple's World Wide Developer Conference keynote, Apple announced that iOS 10 would support this wide color gamut. This would be in preparation for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. These both support the Wide Color Gamut. The downside to this is that the only devices that have the wide color gamut, for now, are the 21.5-inch iMac, the 27-inch iMac, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, the iPhone 7, and the iPhone 7 Plus. Over time this will change, but fight now, it is a limited set of devices that are able to display the wider color range.

Color example for iPhone 6s Plus

Color example iPhone 7 Plus

If you do not have a device that is able to see the wider color gamut, many pictures that have been taken on an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus will appear to be more saturated than other pictures.

Home Button

One of the changes made to enable the water resistance nature of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus has been the new home button. The new home button is not a traditional button. It does not actually physically depress like previous iPhone home buttons did. Instead, there is a haptic feedback engine behind the home button that simulates the feel of a button press. More on the haptic engine in a bit.

With the home button not being a physical button there is a slight change. With the new home button, the Touch ID sensor to detect that a finger is present. What this means is that your finger must be covering a bit more of the home button for it to function. This is in contrast to previous iOS devices where you could press down on a sliver of the button and it would work. It is a minor change, but one that any iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus owner should be aware of.

Haptic Engine

This engine is similar to the one that is present in the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and the Magic Trackpad 2. None of these devices actually has a physical button, and they all simulate the experience of a button press.

With the new haptic feedback mechanism, you are able to select how intense the feedback is. When you set up an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, you will be given three options. Apple labels these as one, two, and three. However, they are better described as light, medium, and heavy intensities. You can select which intensity setting is best for you. Personally, I chose the most intense. No matter which setting you choose, this is what you will feel when you press the home button.

One of the side benefits of the haptic engine is that developers are now able o incorporate a number of different vibrations into their applications. There are a total of 7 in all. Three notification indicators, Success, Warning, and Error; three "impact" intensities, light, medium, and heavy. The last vibration is a "default" vibration. The "default" vibration is a very slight, single vibration.

The addition of the haptic engine will not only allow better notifications, but will also allow developers to be able to provide even richer experiences for their users, by incorporating feedback within their applications. This could be quite useful for game developers. I am hoping that many game developers add haptic feedback to their games.

Apple has incorporated the vibration in a myriad of ways. For instance, when you tap on a toggle switch, it will vibrate. Similarly, when you pull to refresh, the phone will vibrate as well. Another example is within the keyboard. When you are using the keyboard, if you hold down on numerous keys, a popup for alternatives to the characters will appear, and these will have a very faint haptic feedback effect. All of these are system-wide and provided without a developer needing to do any work.

There are some examples within Apple's own applications, outside of the system-wide . For instance, within the music application, if you bring up the list of songs or artists, you will see the quick jump along the right side. If you move your finger up and down this list you will get some haptic feedback.

While this may be the limit of what Apple has implemented, there are a lot more ways that developers can integrate the new haptic engine into their applications.

Silicon Case

When you are spending multi hundreds of dollars on a device, you want to be able to protect it. The basic way that most protect their device is with a case. Apple sells two of its own cases, the Silicon case, and the leather case. I have always opted for the silicon case and I did this time as well. Even the silicon case has changed a bit. Apple has included a suede or felt interior of the silicon case for the last few years. The case for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus seems to have a bit more lining on the interior. Given how susceptible the Jet Black Jet Black iPhone is to scratching, this is probably a decision specifically for that model more than any other. Even so, it will be a nice addition for all iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, even if they protect just a little bit more than before.

iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 7 Plus cases

Final Thoughts

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus provide a great upgrade for those who wish to upgrade their iPhone. If you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s, the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus may not seem like a huge upgrade, however with the new A10 Fusion processor, the speed increase will be extremely noticeable. The removal of the headphone jack has been a boon for being able to make the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus water resistant and dust resistant. The new dual cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus will be a boon for those who do not always want to carry, or those who do not know, a stand alone digital camera. If you own an iPhone 5s, or any prior phone, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are tremendous upgrades that will make your iPhone owning experience significantly better.

I do not recall exactly when I bought my first AirPort Extreme base station. It was probably sometime around late 2009 or early 2010, when I moved into my house. I upgraded from the 5th generation and added a 6th generation model in 2014. Within the last week, with no change in configuration what-so-ever, I began receiving the follow error message when I tried to access usps.com.

Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.xfinity.com/" on this server. Reference #18.bda04968.1474239094.10f163b

Let me go through my Network Setup. I have a 5th Generation AirPort Extreme that is directly connected to my cable modem. Connected to this is a 5 port switch in my second bedroom/office. Connected to this is a 6th Generation AirPort Extreme. The two AirPort Extremes are connected via Bridge Mode, where the 6th Generation AirPort does not do any DHCP serving, but still provides services. I have three networks total, my standard 2.4GHz network, a 5GHz network and my Guest Network. To have bridged mode work as well as possible, you need to setup the same network on both AirPort Extremes, so that is what I setup.

At first I figured it might have been a temporary Comcast issue. I hardly ever need to go to the usps.com website, but there were a couple of packages that I wanted to track, and having to turn off wifi to do any tracking, while not the end of the world, was quite inconvenient.

I did the first set of maintenance that one does, I rebooted the cable modem as well as the 5th Generation AirPort Extreme. This did not fix anything, So the next step was to contact Comcast.

I contacted Comcast, and since it worked when directly connected via cable modem, there was not much else that they were able to do. As with most of their other things to test, they asked me to directly connect to the cable modem. When I connected directly to the cable modem, everything worked, so that clinched that it was something on my network.

I began doing some google searching, as one does, and I came across this thread on the Apple Discussion Forums.

I tried a couple of the things that they suggested in the thread. One of the suggestions was to make sure that "Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol" was enabled. That was already checked, so that was not the issue. Another suggestion was to disable the Guest Network. When I did this, it fixed the issue. While this worked, something told me that this was not the issue.

I did some more testing. I remembered that I had not yet rebooted my 6th Generation AirPort Extreme, so I rebooted this and there was no change. I switched the network names on the 6th Generation AirPort Extreme. When I did this everything worked fine. Yet, this is not how it is supposed to work. When I switched the names back to the original names, the original behavior returned.

Since I was back to square one, this is when I decided to use an suggestion from the Apple Discussion thread and decided to disable the Guest Network on the 6th Generation AirPort Extreme. After I disabled everything worked. I left the guest network disabled for 30 minutes, and re-enabled it again. When I double-checked everything, it continued to work.

I cannot explain what caused the contention between the two guest networks, but leaving one of them disabled seemed to fix the issue. I do not know if this is due to clearing out some cache, or some other issue. If that had not worked, my next step would have been to downgrade the firmware to the previous version and see if that fixed the issue.

I will admit that my network configuration is a non-standard one, but it seems to me that the two AirPort Extremes should be able to handle the communications without any issues. However, given the number of wireless networks in my area, it could easily be that they all got confused and needed to be reset. One of the suggestions from the Apple Discussions thread was that it could be an issue with ISP caching. Ultimately, this may still be the case, and it could just be that it is temporarily working and may stop working again in the future.

One of the things I also opted to do was to enable IPv6. When I did this, I noticed a horrendous slowdown in internet connectivity. After having it enabled for a couple of days, I ended up turning it off. The speed decreases were just too much to handle.

The thing to keep in mind is that no matter how good technology gets, it is still bound to have problems every once in a while.

Here is the availability for the evening of 09/19/2016. The biggest change has been Verizon where times have slipped at least a week, but upwards of three weeks

iPhone 7

• Apple - Most of the iPhones that were '1 to 2 weeks' are now 7 - 10 business days. T-Mobile is still 2-3 weeks for every model.
• Sprint - 32GB Rose Gold has gone from 'Available' to 10/8.
• Sprint - 32GB Gold has gone from 'Available' to 10/1.
• Verizon - 32GB Rose Gold has slipped a week from 10/5 to 10/12.
• Verizon - 128GB Rose Gold has slipped a week from 10/5 to 10/12.
• Verizon - 128GB Gold has slipped a week from 10/5 to 10/12.

iPhone 7 Plus

• Sprint - 32GB Rose Gold has slipped a week from 10/12 to 10/19.
• Sprint - 128GB Black has slipped from 10/10 to 10/23.
• Sprint - 256GB Black has slipped a few weeks from 9/23 to 10/16.
• T-Mobile - 128GB Gold has slipped about a week from 10/4 to 10/10.
• T-Mobile - 256GB Black has improved from 10/16 to 10/3.
• Verizon - 32GB Gold has slipped three weeks from 10/5 to 10/26.
• Verizon - 32GB Silver has slipped two weeks from 10/12 to 10/26.
• Verizon - 32GB Black has slipped a week from 10/26 to 11/2.
• Verizon - 128GB Rose Gold has slipped two weeks from 11/2 to 11/16.
• Verizon - 128GB Gold has slipped a week from 10/26 to 11/2.
• Verizon - 128GB Silver has slipped a week from 10/26 to 11/2.
• Verizon - 128GB Black has slipped two weeks from 10/26 to 11/9.
• Verizon - 256GB Gold has slipped a week from 10/12 to 10/19.