This week on The CultCast: It’s official — Apple’s next iPhone event happens September 12! Tune in to catch our hardware predictions. Plus, we take a look at the leaked iPhone 8 UI, and how the new phone will work without a Home button.
Then we’ll regale you with the story behind the evolution of the Apple logo, and the story you’ve never heard about the purpose of its iconic bite. And stick around for an all-new What We’re Into, where Leander tells us why Game of Thrones has turned into his most despised show!
Episode
CultCast #299 – iPhone 8… keynote date!
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Apple’s cryptic invitation confirms September 12 event
- After months of anticipation and a flurry of rumors, Apple finally sent out media invites to its big iPhone 8 event today, welcoming the press to come to Apple Park for the big date.
- Apple’s keynote is set for September 12, which is in line with previous rumors that circled the second Tuesday of September as time when the keynote would take place. The event will take place in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park.
- Apple is expected to present three new iPhones on stage: the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus and the premium iPhone 8 models. Other products that could make an appearance include a new Apple TV with 4K video support as well as the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE.
Without a Home button, here’s how the new iPhone 8 UI will work
- Across the bottom of the screen there’s a thin, software bar in lieu of the home button. A user can drag it up to the middle of the screen to open the phone. When inside an app, a similar gesture starts multitasking. From here, users can continue to flick upwards to close the app and go back to the home screen.
- The new model’s overall size will be similar to that of the iPhone 7, but it will include an OLED screen that is slightly larger than the one on the iPhone 7 Plus (5.5-inches)
- The new screen is rounded on the corners, while current iPhone screens have square corners. The power button on the right side of phone is longer so it is easier to press while holding the device in one hand, according to the images and the people.
- The phone will still have six vertical rows of apps, showing 24 icons on each page, excluding the dock, a grey bar at the bottom that houses commonly used apps. The dock is redesigned with a new interface similar to the one on the iPad version of iOS 11
- Apple also plans to include a stainless steel band around the phone which the glass curves into
iPhone 8 inductive charging may be a wee bit slow
- According to the latest rumor out of Asia, Apple will use an older standard for its inductive charging feature which means recharging could take longer than expected.
- All three new iPhone models are expected to pick up the inductive charging feature this fall. Instead of using the full 15 watts of power supported by the Qi Ver. 1.2 standard, Macotakara claims Apple’s tech will only draw 7.5 watts.
- Every time I’ve used inductive charging, it’s been slooooooow
Today in Apple history: Rainbow Apple logo gets a modern overhaul
- August 27, 1999: Apple replaces the striped, multicolored logo it used since 1977 with a new single-color version.
- Apple’s first corporate logo was actually not the memorable “bitten apple” logo at all. A riff on a Victorian woodcut, it portrayed Sir Isaac Newton sitting beneath a tree with a solitary apple dangling over his head. A quotation from William Wordsworth’s The Prelude ran around the image’s border: “A mind forever wandering through strange seas of thought, alone.” It was created by long lost Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne.
- After less than a year, Apple replaced that logo with the bitten Apple version we have today. Designed by 29-year-old Rob Janoff, it coincided with the debut of the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire, which marked Apple’s graduation from a small startup to a serious business
- Jobs gave Janoff — who does not receive any royalties for his design — two directions for the Apple logo. 1) Don’t make it cute. And 2) Find some way to visually incorporate the Apple II’s revolutionary 16-color display, which was the first PC to include a color display.
- The “Glass” themed logo was the next evolution for the logo and was featured on the first ever iMac. The bondi blue iMac looked ridiculous with a rainbow logo, and needed something fresh
- Today, the company uses a more modernized flat monochromatic logo. The logo comes mainly in 3 colors; silver, white and black.
- The bite
- According to Rob Janoff, the bite on the Apple logo was to really let people know that it was an apple and not a cherry. The bite also played along with the computer buffs at that time because it had a similar sound off to the word ‘byte’, a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunication.
What We’re Into
Blade Runner 2049 short film reveals what happened in 2036
