The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, takes a road trip. In its place, I’ll offer a text-only (no podcast) summary of breaking stories with a tip o’ my hat to my former website, Apple Daily Report.
Apple’s latest iPhone ad is a 30-second “Romeo and Juliet” spot highlighting the dual-camera system introduced with iPhone 7 Plus.
Apple has said that the random shutdowns plaguing some iPhone 6s models may be more widespread than it first believed. Apple initially said that it found that battery components in a particular batch of iPhones were exposed to the air for too long before assembly, causing the batteries to cut out. As noted by 9to5Mac, it has now updated its statement to say that some customers with phones from outside this batch have also experienced shutdowns, and that it will be issuing an iOS update to help track down the cause.
Apple’s director of AI research Russ Salakhutd has announced that the company’s machine-learning researchers will be free to publish their findings. This is an apparent reversal of Apple’s previous position.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, the Shanghai Consumer Council says it received eight reports from Chinese users claiming their iPhones spontaneously caught on fire, but Apple inspected the devices and says “external physical damage” is to blame.
