You may have seen our recent blog post on the switch to a universal charging solution, i.e. USB-C. If not, you can check it out here.
As we expected, European lawmakers have announced a provisional agreement which requires electronic devices to be equipped with a USB-C charging port. This will include smartphones, tablets, headphones, consoles and speakers.
This legislation will come in to effect by Autumn 2024.
So yes indeed, your next (or next-next) iPhone will use USB-C instead of lightning!
Laptop manufacturers will be subject to the same requirement, but have been granted an additional 40 months to get their products in order.
Why is this a good thing?
> USB-C charging allows for higher current and higher voltages, which means faster charging. Some new phones with USB-C can charge at 100W; fully charging the battery in less than 30 minutes!
> Faster data transmission - transfer photos, videos and files between device 10x faster with USB 3.0, as appose to USB 2.0 (Lightning).
> Wider compatibility. Imagine having one cable to connect Android phones & tablets, Windows PCs, monitors, speakers, game consoles, MacBooks, iPads, and now; iPhones.
> More manufacturers = more options and better quality at lower prices.
> Consumers will save money. £260 million is currently wasted every year on unnecessary charger purchases in the EU.
> Reduced e-waste - Unused and discarded chargers and cables account for11,000 tonnes of waste every year in the EU.
Soon you will add your old lightning cable to your drawer of obsolete "will keep it anyway just in case" chargers - even if it's just for a bit of nostalgia in 10 years time.
Thanks for reading!
See Our Blog for the latest industry news, tech tips, company updates, and anything else we feel like writing about.
Before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1440, books were reserved for the rich. A book in those times cost as much as a small house, and have been estimated to cost anywhere from 1-10 years wages for the average worker.
All books were made to order, individually hand-written by literate scribes. Materials such as parchment and sheep-skin vellum were extremely expensive.
Imagine one person standing at the front of a room reading an original text out loud, whilst a team of workers furiously and painstakingly jot it down with a goose feather onto dried animal skin. This would explain the amount of errors and variation that crept into ancient literature.
And they weren't transcribing The Hungry Caterpillar, oh no... It was The Bible, The Qu'ran, Greek Dramas & Philosophical Texts, Dante's Divine Comedy etc.
Shortly after the printing press came the library, where scholars came together to read and share books. More and more of the population gained access to books over time, so reading became a source of entertainment and education for the average working man.
The role of the librarian became increasingly important - someone to procure, organise and distribute books worth reading to those that that sought them.
In the age of Wikipedia, search engines and AI-generating algorithms, an incredible abundance of information is available to any person at any time, and is constantly being updated and refined.
Your device stores everything that has ever existed, in perfect condition, and can make recommendations based on everything that you've ever seen or searched for. Thus, your Netflix account becomes infinitely more efficient than any human librarian could ever be.
As we enter deeper into the information economy, we expose our planets entire collection of data, which we bring to people in order to create value.
The kindle e-reader is the bridge from public library to universal access to information. From this handy device, any one can gain insight and leverage at a much quicker rate than they ever could from scouring book shelves.
E-books typically cost £2.00-£8.00; less than half of a paper book. With an e-reader, you have instant, anytime access to a warehouse filled with book shelves, plus your own personal librarian, for just a few hundred pounds.
The only downside - the charging ports often fail and are easily damaged. Fortunately, we can repair them at a low cost; reconnecting you with your personal library!
Phone batteries degrade over time - even if you don't use them. To extend the life of any smart device, the battery will need to be replaced at some point.
When should you get your battery replaced?
On iPhone's, you can view your battery health in Settings. The percentage given is a measurement of the batteries actual capacity versus it's design capacity. Older iPhones start to struggle at around 85%. iPhone X and above can usually survive into the high 70's. Generally, the capacity decreases linearly, but in the case of a faulty battery, it can drop off drastically - we have seen batteries at 1% on a few occasions.
It's worth noting that the battery health data in iOS is not always accurate. We use an alternative software program, and a physical battery programmer to check capacity.
We usually advise customers to get their battery replaced if they cannot get a days use out of it. If you unplug your phone when you get up in the morning, you shouldn't have to charge it again until you go to bed in the evening.
Heavy use - hours of GPS navigation or video streaming - will drain the battery significantly. 16 hours of regular use should suffice though.
If you have a high-spec phone, that is less than two years old, then you'll know the joy and peace of mind that comes with a battery that lasts for two days.
When battery capacity drops, it can cause performance issues. The battery cannot provide adequate voltage to components like the CPU. Therefore, the device will employ "dynamic frequency scaling" - otherwise known as "CPU throttling". This slows down the device to conserve energy and prevent shutdowns. This might explain why your device feels more quick and responsive when it's plugged in to charge.
If your battery is damaged or defective, it can bloat, and push the screen out of the housing. This is a hazard - the battery can crack the screen, or even explode. It will also discharge extremely quickly.
The headline feature is the customisable lock screen, which will allow users to pick from a selection of fonts and colours, and add widgets to their lock screen. Notifications now roll up from the bottom, and you can link different focus modes with different lock screens.
Other changes and upgrades include:
> Some much-needed and long overdue improvements to the Mail App.
> Improvements to iMessage - you'll be glad to know that you can now undo and edit sent messages.
> Lots of functional and aesthetic improvements to the Home app.
> Apple Maps now allows you to add stops to your journey. Google Maps still king though.
> A dedicated medications section within the Health app, which enables the user to set reminders for their meds.
> You can now use the Fitness app to track activity (steps and calories burned) without an Apple Watch.
> Seamless voice-to-text dictation - this looks sweet in the demo.
> The "live text" feature now works on videos as well as photos - you can select text from a video, and instantly look up or translate it.
> Instant photoshop - isolate a subject from the background, then drag-and-drop into another app - neat!
iOS 16 is currently limited to developers, but will be available for public beta in July, before being officially released alongside the iPhone 14 in September. This gives Apple a few months to test and refine the new features.
The following devices will no longer be supported, and will not be compatible with iOS 16:
> iPhone 6S & 6S Plus
> iPhone SE (2016)
> iPhone 7 & 7 Plus
> iPad Mini 4
> iPad Air 2
> Apple Watch Series 3
These devices will run as normal on iOS 15, but will not receive any new features or design changes. App developers will stop releasing updates for these devices over time. They will, however, continue receiving security patches for approximately 2 more years.
The 6S has soldiered on admirably with 7 years of software updates, and is ready to be put to rest. It's a tad surprising and disappointing to see the iPhone 7 go - seeing as the iPad 5 and 6 will continue on with the same A10 processor. We still sell and repair a lot of iPhone 7's, but expect most users will upgrade this year. If you're still rocking a 6S or 7, and choose to upgrade to an 11, 12, 13 or 14, then you'll be blown away by how far phones have come.
Feeling tired or groggy this morning? Your phone may be partly to blame. As always, we are here to provide you with the information and tools that you need to manage your technology.
We are designed, or have evolved, to get a lot of ultraviolet light during the day, and very little at night. The more that we can sync with our body's natural biorhythms, the more healthy and energetic we will be. Unfortunately, modern life and technology has made this difficult, especially when it comes to sleep.
The best thing you can do is eliminate screens an hour - or preferably two - before bedtime. This has been shown to improve sleep quality - allowing people to get into the deepest stages of restorative sleep. Studies show that participants who viewed screens before sleep took longer to nod off, and experienced more sleep disruptions than those who didn't view screen.
Screens emit high levels of blue light, which stimulates brain activity and decreases melatonin secretion - the hormone which triggers sleep. By activating "Night Light", "Night Mode" or any other blue light filter on your phone, tablet, laptop and other screens, your device will shift to a warmer display, with less blue light waves, and more red light waves. You can schedule your light filter to activate in the evening, a couple of hours before bedtime. Alternatively, you can wear blue light blocking glasses.
At the very least, be sure to turn your screen brightness on your phone, computer and TV way down in the evening.
Our visual system is very sensitive at night. Viewing bright light between 1AM & 4AM has been shown to significantly affect sleep quality for days after exposure, as well as supressing dopamine production - the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and motivation. If you wake up in the middle of the night, a quick scroll through Facebook could have a similar effect to jet lag.
We can set our internal body clock in the morning simply by viewing daylight. This will trigger cortisol release, and set melatonin to release in 16-hours time. Failure to do this can mean we secrete more stress hormones and less sleepy hormones in the evening. Unfortunately, screens do not properly initiate this process. We need natural daylight ASAP. This means that cruising Instagram for an hour upon waking, could affect your energy levels and subsequent sleep cycles.
Then there's the type of content that we are viewing on our feed. Stimulating content signals to our brain and body that we must remain active and engaged. If your Aunties political memes get you riled up, probably best to avoid her timeline before bed. We want to wind down, not up.
We know that using an alarm to wake up isn't ideal. But we all have things to do and places to be. One thing we can do though, is stop hitting the snooze button. Being repeatedly woken by an alarm can disrupt important biological processes, leaving you more fatigued than if you'd just gotten up the first time. It's so tempting, and the bed is so warm, but you've gotta get up and go.
Thanks for reading!
See Our Blog for the latest industry news, tech tips, company updates, and anything else we feel like writing about.
