In a new article released by Apple today, “Developers Preview New Ways to Make Payments, Send Messages and More Using Siri“, they released a few previews on how a few payment providers have created a Siri experience for their service/app.

Developers are previewing new Siri integrations for payments, messaging apps and more, creating new experiences using “Hey Siri” to simplify everyday tasks using just your voice. Siri can already help you send an iMessage to a friend, but with the introduction of SiriKit for developers, messaging apps can now tap into the power of Siri. You can use your voice to do things you couldn’t do before, like ask Siri to send a secure payment without ever opening an app.

I’m really happy to see Monzo (formerly Mondo) on the list, and they’ve proven to be a really forward thinking (now official bank) service!

There are a few more previews in the article as well, which aren’t for payments, but show some future third-party integration with Siri.

With all of these integrations coming to Siri, it may finally become useful.

There’s been constant rumours and opinions, but it seems pretty clear now that the next iPhone will be lacking a 3.5mm headphone port.

I’m not going to ramble on about whether I think it’s a good idea or not, because the decision to remove it has already been made, so there nothing anyone can do to bring it back.

My question is that, will Apple provide a pair of Lightning EarPods, or even a pair of wireless EarPods^[1]? And also, which one will be included in the box of every new iPhone?

I can see it being the wired version included in the box, but I will definitely be purchasing the wireless pair if they are available. That’s if they’re reasonably priced. I won’t be spending any more than £50 on a pair.

Once you get a pair of wireless earphones, the power becomes another issue, and they will obviously need internal batteries. So how will they be charged? I’m hoping they will be individual buds, so there’s then two extra batteries to charge.

I also don’t want another charging cable, because that means keeping my iPhone, iPad, Watch, and potential AirPods charged up, will be a nightmare!

I think that they should be charged the same way that an Apple Pencil is, via a male Lightning pin, which can then connect to your iOS device to charge. In my opinion this will need the 80/20 quick charge method that the Watch has, to make sure you can quickly get a decent charge, and get back to listening. Because you don’t want a situation where your away from a power source, your earphones go flat, and you have no way to listen to anything!

A small idea I had was if the earpieces themselves would have a kind of dock/case, like the case the current EarPods come in, and then they would both be charged simultaneously by an internal battery in the case. Which then could be charged by a lightning cable like your iPhone/iPad. This would be a middleman battery, but more bearable than having to charge two buds separately, or having to wait until you get home to charge them.

Anyway, we will all see what happens at Apple’s September event.

In a few hours I’ll be on a plane towards Greece, so I thought I’d write something here before I left.

I’ll be in Crete for two weeks, and hopefully I don’t come back too sunburned! (My skin doesn’t appreciate UV radiation as much as others)

I’m not taking my DSLR camera, because my iPhone 5S hasn’t disappointed me yet with the camera quality, so I’ll be taking a few with that. I’ll be posting these to my Instagram, most likely to my Story, because otherwise I may clog up peoples feeds.

So if you want to check out Crete from the eyes of my 5S, then I would suggest you follow me on Instagram, I’m @lordchrishannah. (Yes, I am actually a Lord. I own a square foot of land in Scotland 🤓)

I won’t have too much internet while I’m over there, but I think the Hotel should have decent enough WiFi for me to catch up in the evenings. So I’ll still be contactable, but preferably on Twitter at @chrishannah.

(Also, it’s pretty cool that I can now write random person posts on this blog, it’s one of the main reasons I merged my old one and App Recap!)

It’s finally here, the official trailer for the next Star Wars movie!

Doesn’t it look awesome?

The problem with the iPad is both hardware and software related. Anything work related you can do on an iPad can, in most cases be done faster on a Mac. No question. – Dan Counsell

This is probably the most common idea behind a the majority of iPad articles, whether it can truly be a device that replaces your Mac.

Well Dan Counsell (Founder of RealMac Software), has written his thoughts on it, and I thought it was worth sharing.

It has just been announced that Castro, a podcast app for iOS will receive a very hefty overhaul in the form of Castro 2.

With the official launch being on the 15th August (my birthday), they have released a trailer video which shows how Castro 2 will work.

When I first heard about another podcast app coming, I was initially hesitant to even check it out, because how good Overcast has been to me.

But after watching the video myself, and also checking out the more in-depth article they have on their blog “Castro 2.0: The Servers”, I’m really impressed with the work that has gone into Castro. It also doesn’t just copy the standard conventions of listening to podcasts, especially with the idea of having a general inbox for new episodes, and then a queue for ones you want to listen to.

Even Marco Arment, the creator of Overcast praised Castro:

Competition is matching a feature checklist. Innovation is defining the roadmap. @supertopsquid, true innovators: http://supertop.co/castro/#trailer – Twitter – @marcoarment

If it was just another podcast app, I probably wouldn’t care too much about it, but I’m definitely looking forward to playing with Castro.

It could well become my next favourite podcast app.

Just so I can have it "in writing" if they turn out to be correct.

As I mentioned on Twitter, the dates for the next iPhone (probably iPhone 7):

• Announcement: 7th September
• Pre-Order: 9th September
• Launch: 16th September
• Launch: 16th/23rd September (Updated: 20th August)

Stephen Hackett has written his thoughts on the rumoured OLED touch bar, which could be replacing the function keys of the next line of MacBook Pros.

The iPhone’s solution was to get rid of all of these plastic buttons, and make the entire experience — keyboard and all — take place in software running on a touchscreen.

I think this flexibility has a lot to do with what Apple is up to with this probably-new MacBook Pro.

He puts forward some reasonable concerns, and it’s a point of view I haven’t seen from anyone else.

Recently, John Voorhees reviewed Notebooks for iOS on MacStories, and I decided to give it a try.

From about a week of testing it out, I can see it becoming a very helpful and fundamental app to how I study, research, and organise my third year at university. I will be doing a major project, along with some smaller modules, so the flexibility, document structure, and organisation will suit this well.

It’s way different to any other text editors, and I probably wont directly do my typing in Notebooks, but it will used for more collating. If you deal with any type of project, then I would suggest giving it a quick look.

I have only downloaded this on my iPad so far, but I’ll probably end up getting it on my Mac as well soon.

You can read John’s full review on MacStories, and download Notebooks from the App Store.