iPhone 7 design to stay mostly unchanged apart from removal of headphone jack

This week’s round-up of technology news

Rumours are swirling that the tech giant will make few changes to their flagship product (Getty)

Apple is set to keep almost exactly the same design for its new iPhone – with one small tweak.

The iPhone 7 will mark the first time that Apple keeps largely the same external chassis for three years, if the reports are true. It will mark a major break with tradition for the company, which until now has run on a “tick” and “tock” process that sees the phone’s design changed once every other year.

But one major change will include dropping the headphone plug that sits at the bottom of the phone, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Getting rid of that hole in the bottom will allow Apple to make the phone even thinner and allow it to be water resistant, the report said.

Apple will instead use the lightning connector that sits in the bottom of the phone and is used for charging and other features to connect to headphones, previous reports have indicated. Though switching to that new port will probably annoy many users by making old headphones defunct. Apple is expected to offer converters for existing plugs and emphasise that the change could provide better quality audio to headphones.

But otherwise the phone will reportedly stay unchanged with minimal adjustments to the antenna lines that run around the back.

Instagram grows to 500 million users as it flies past Twitter

Instagram now has a bigger “population” than almost every country in the world, with more than 500 million people using it.

The site is growing fast, having doubled its size over the last two years – it had just 400 million users in September – which means that it has quickly dwarfed most of its rivals. Twitter, for instance, has seen its numbers get stuck at around 300 million and is having troubling finding ways to grow.

Twitter and Vine videos become get longer

Twitter and Vine are going to extend the maximum length of their videos as the company looks to get more people engaged with them.

The company has revealed the it is testing rules that will allow the six-second looping videos to actually get much longer – as long as 140 seconds. It made the announcement along with a range of other changes intended on changing the platform.

Twitter videos will also become much longer, with a maximum length of 140 seconds – previously users could only upload 30-second videos.

Google health tools aim to make it easier to self-diagnose

Google is rolling out new health tools aimed at making it easier for people to self-diagnose.

The company says that 1 per cent – millions – of searches on its website are related to people’s symptoms. But the unclear information and confusion is leading people to experience “unnecessary anxiety and stress”.

With a new feature that is being rolled out, Google hopes to solve those problems and help people find out what might be wrong with them.

“For individual symptoms like 'headache,' we’ll also give you an overview description along with information on self-treatment options and what might warrant a doctor’s visit,” product manager Veronica Pinchin wrote on a Google blog. “By doing this, our goal is to help you to navigate and explore health conditions related to your symptoms, and quickly get to the point where you can do more in-depth research on the web or talk to a health professional.”