Apple is gearing up to make an iPhone made almost entirely out of glass, according to one of its biggest suppliers. The company will look to differentiate itself by dropping the metal in its current construction, according to the firm that provides much of that metal.
Many rumours have suggested that the phone set to be released later this year - likely the iPhone 7 - will appear mostly similar to the existing 6 and 6s. But in 2017, the company is expected to completely re-design the phone, bringing in new screen technologies and an entirely new look.
That rumour had led to some speculation among local suppliers that the Taiwanese company that makes much of Apple's metal casing would lose business to the ones that make its glass screen covers. But Allen Horng, the chief executive of Catcher Technology, said that the company will still be able to supply products to some of the phones - while apparently confirming that Apple will bring in the glass design.
“As far as I know, only one [iPhone] model will adopt glass casing next year,” Mr Horng said after the annual shareholder meeting last Thursday. “I don''t think this move will have an impact on Catcher''s revenue as glass casing still needs a durable metal frame which requires advanced processing technology and would not be cheaper than the current model.”
Delete All: Google Chrome to lose its most annoying feature
Google Chrome is finally going to stop people from accidentally deleting everything they've been doing. A future version of the app will stop the backspace button from also functioning as a “back” button, helping avoid people accidentally pressing it and so destroying everything they've done on that site.
The feature has already been rolled out in some experimental versions of the app, and has upset some users. Developers have said that the feature is only being partly enabled for now, in case there is “sufficient outcry” and it needs to be rolled back.
Fingerprint technology coming to a Mac near you
People will very soon be able to unlock their computer remotely. Upcoming versions of Mac OS X will be able to tell when a person's phone is near the computer and then use its TouchID fingerprint sensor to unlock it, according to MacRumors.
That update could be announced in June, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. It's likely to be a part of the new version of Mac OS X, called 10.12, which will be made available to the public in the autumn.
Major changes for Facebook news feed
Facebook is testing potentially the biggest change to its news feed since it launched. The site is planning to split the feeds up into separate topics, according to screenshots that seem to show versions of the new look being tested.
Some users are already seeing their news feed divided up into categories. Those can include topics like TV and movies, music or travel.
People who have the new feeds are instructed to add different subtopics into those particular feeds. So if a person has a “TV & Movies” feed, for instance, they'll be given the option to tick all of the films they like and Facebook will show stories and posts that are about those topics. – The Independent