The AppAdvice Tech Week in Review: Google I/O, 'iPhone 7s' and More
Google I/O was the focus this week in the technology world. Elsewhere, an Apple Pay competitor called it quits. Here’s a look back at the week that was.
Top News Stories
More ‘iPhone 7s’ rumors
It continues to look like the 2017 iPhone is the one most folks are going to want to buy, not the “iPhone 7,” which is expected to launch this September.
At least one of the 2017 models could feature a glass casing, according to Allen Horng, chairman and CEO of Catcher Technology. A previous rumored suggested that the “iPhone 7s” could also feature an edge-to-edge display.
Though Apple typically releases iPhones with new designs in even-numbered years, this cycle could be different as 2017 is the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone.
Google I/O
As expected, Google unveiled a slew of new products and services at its annual I/O Conference in Mountain View, California.
Google Assistant is a Siri competitor. Unlike Apple’s digital assistant, Google’s product excels at understanding and answering follow-up questions to the original query.
The company also unveiled two new communication apps – Allo and Duo.
Allo is a messaging app that offers Google Assistant built-in. Duo is a FaceTime-like video chat app.
Finally, Google Home is an Amazon Alexa-like device that brings the virtual assistant to your humble abode. Activated by voice, users can accomplish a number of different tasks like search Google, play music, and turn on lights.
CurrentC is all but dead
One of Apple Pay’s larger competitors has been nudged out of the market. The company behind the product, CurrentC, the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), has recently announced that it’s now taking its business in a different direction.
Also making news:
On the App Store
This week, we continued to update our popular AppLists. Now called AppCollections, these lists focus on games and apps for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. New lists this week include: Get Excited About Apple Pencil Thanks To These Apps, The Best Hidden Object Games, and Best Text Editors for Focused Writing.
Other app news:
Recommended apps
Get to Know Apple TV
AppAdvice continues to ramp up its coverage of the Apple TV. We believe that Apple’s “hobby” device is going to see huge growth in the coming months thanks to tvOS.
Here are a few of the Apple TV stories that we covered during the past week:
Wearables and Other Accessory News
In the market for a new Apple Watch band? We had you covered this week.
We also published some new accessory reviews:
What will be making news next week? Stay with AppAdvice to find out.
Brent Dirks, Karen Freeman, and Sandy Stachowiak contributed to this report.