Apple unveils the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus

Apple yesterday unveiled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus at its iPhone event 2016 at long last after months of speculations from iPhone lovers and industry watchers. iPhone lovers can now shout hurray!

The iPhone 7 body is similar to the 6s, with two different black models: a matte black model, and a shiny new “Jet Black”. It has stereo speakers, is water and dust resistant and has a longer battery life. The redesigned home button is now a touch surface

There is now two extra hours of battery life for an average day for the iPhone 7 compared to the iPhone 6s, courtesy the new A10 Fusion CPU. The iPhones are still about the same price but comes with an upgraded storage capacity ie 32 GB 

iPhone 7 Plus has two 12-megapixel cameras on the back (dunno why two cams are needed in one place). One lens is a 1X wide-angle lens; the other is a 2X zoom telephoto lens. By the way, there is no headphone jack but you now have new wireless air pods replacing that

And my favorite is that Super Mario is coming to the iPhone courtesy Apple and Nintendo. Now I just might buy my long awaited iPhone to bring back those childhood memories.

Pre-orders start Friday, and store availability starts on September 16 in the US.

Apple releases new, personalized playlists to Apple Music subscribers on iOS, macOS betas

Apple has begun rolling out new, personalized music playlists  to Apple Music subscribers. It was originally introduced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. New tunes are added to Apple’s ‘My New Music Mix’ Playlist every Friday and its offers 25 tracks of songs and artists you would like selected based on the songs you most frequently play.

Apple is challenging Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” which is highly popular. This will definitely pose a threat but it is yet to be seen if the equally popular iPhone company can have more than just a bite of this apple.

Apple may soon acquire Jay-Z's Tidal

Apple may soon be acquiring Tidal. According to the Wall Street Journal, Tidal is the subscription streaming-music service co-owned by Jay Z, Beyonce and Kanye West and Apple is in talks to acquire it. Both parties are yet to comment on it.

It will be interesting to see if JayZ will sell Tidal which has just 3 million subscribers when it was birthed with the idea to give Spotify's 30 million and Apple's 15 million subscriber streaming service a run for their money and allegations of discriminations on those platforms.

APPLE ANNOUNCES BIG CHANGES TO ITS APP STORE

Apple is changing some things about downloads from its App Store. 

According to industry sources, Apple is bringing some big changes such as search and subscription access. App developers stand the chance to make 15% more off sales where an app can keep a subscriber for a year or longer. Unlike previously where only certain apps, like news services, dating apps and streaming services were paid for, now all apps can be sold. 

For you Apple lovers, this may pay you better as developers may opt for monthly fees instead of one time payment.

Apple invests $1bn in Uber's largest Chinese competitor

Friday the 13th is traditionally seen as a day with a bad omen. Hopefully, that may not be the case for Uber, as they received news that might just be any businesses' nightmare yesterday. Their biggest rival in China, Didi Chuxing (formerly Didi Kuaidi) got a massive investment from Apple of $1 billion Dollars. This funding and strategic partnership with Apple could be a game changer for Didi Chuxing, the largest taxi-booking and ride-sharing service app in China Uber as its biggest rival.

                                           Pic: courtesy Reuters/Jason Lee

Uber's CEO, Travisk Kalanick, apparently seems to be taking this latest strategic move in 'ride-sharing wars' with a sense of humor and joked about this in his tweet yesterday.

 "travis kalanick (@travisk) tweeted at 8:10 AM on Fri, May 13, 2016:

girlfriend owns @apple shares which makes her a didi investor... #Smh #ridesharewars #domesticissues #thanksALotTim
(https://twitter.com/travisk/status/731018873168764929?s=09)"

Car manufacturers and people in technology are increasingly forging new partnerships and this will be increasingly beneficial for Apple which is looking to strengthen its hold in the Chinese market after spotlight from regulators, as well as Didi Chuxing.