Riders just have to have their phone mounted on the front of the bike to control its electric motor. There's also the option to include slope sensors that detect when the bike is on a hill and kicks in for extra help.
Friday, September 9, 2016
The 'world's lightest' electric bike is not cheap
Riders just have to have their phone mounted on the front of the bike to control its electric motor. There's also the option to include slope sensors that detect when the bike is on a hill and kicks in for extra help.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Sony’s Signature Walkman and headphones are $5,500 of ridiculous
Like a grand old dinosaur that’s being left behind by the
evolution of the tech industry, Sony is in desperate recovery mode
here at IFA. The company has new phones, a rather nice pair of noise-canceling headphones, the imminent PS VR, and... a truly outlandish combo of music player and headphones that costs a mighty $5,499.98. I guess there had to be some outlet for Sony’s classic wild-eyed grandeur.
Sony’s new Signature audio series consists of the gold-plated NW-WM1Z Walkman, which weighs in at 455g (1lb) and $3,200, the $2,300 MDR-Z1R
closed-back headphones, and a desktop headphone amp whose price I
haven’t even dared to look up. First impressions? The portable media
player barely qualifies to be called portable. This new 256GB Walkman
glints beautifully under IFA’s bright lights, and its hefty case is
machined to a perfect finish, but its weight is overwhelming. I
simultaneously love it for its looks and hate it for its impracticality.
Typical Sony, then!
The headphones are a merciful 385g (14oz) and sit very
lightly on the head. Their comfort is irreproachable, but I’m a bit more
dubious about the need for a four-stranded Kimber Kable to
hook Sony’s two new products together. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of
the sheer excess on display here, but that’s the sort of thing that
wears off rather quickly, leaving people with a setup that’s bulky,
heavy, and not nearly mobile enough to be shown off to the maximum
number of people.
All that being said, when Sony decides to build a kickass
set of headphones, it usually does a pretty good job, and the Z1R do
indeed sound dramatic and dynamic. Their bass response goes deep (and
may be a little elevated for the sake of a more thrilling sound), while
vocals come through forcefully and prominently. I didn’t listen to them
long enough to draw firm conclusions, but the WM1Z plus Z1R combo was
certainly not laid back — Sony says it wants you to feel the music
rather than just hear it, and its tuning appears to be in the service of
that goal.
I’m probably being silly in trying to assess Sony’s
Signature series in the usual manner. It’s rather obvious that Sony is
aiming to delight fans of its brand and its signature over-engineered
opulence. Comparing these against things like the recent $999 Focal Elear
misses the point of why you’d buy the Sony set. Getting Sony’s
solid-copper, gold-plated Walkman along with its partnering headphones
is a rather opulent approach to obtaining a matched set of audio gear.
It’s the sort of thing you’d probably dedicate a room — or at least a
corner — of your house to. Listening to it would be a ceremony. The UI
lag (yes, the Android-based software is slow) would be like waiting for a
fine wine to mature.
A lot of the cost of Sony's new Signature series goes into obtaining the best materials and achieving the highest quality. But we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought that would be the reason for people to own a set. This is a pair of extravagant gadgets whose appeal resides in that very extravagance.
What to expect from Sony’s PS4 slim and Neo event
On Wednesday afternoon — just a few short hours after
Apple will be making some big announcements of its own — Sony will be
holding what it’s calling a "PlayStation meeting" in New York. The
company says that it will provide "an update on the PlayStation business
and PS4," and it’s widely expected to announce two new versions of the
PS4, much like Microsoft did with the Xbox One at E3 this year: a
slimmed-down variant of the current console, followed by a tease of a
much bigger update.
Though nothing is official just yet, and there will
likely be a few surprises, a number of recent leaks and reports give us a
pretty solid idea of what will be announced onstage. The Verge will be reporting on the event live from New York, but for now, you can catch up on exactly what to expect below.
Sony has already admitted that the much rumored PS4 Neo — a more powerful version of the console — is in the works. Speaking to the Financial Times ahead of E3,
Andrew House, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, explained that Neo
would be a more powerful version of the console, with faster
processors, improved graphical capabilities, and support for 4K
resolution.
That said, it’s not quite a leap to a new generation —
the Neo and PS4 are expected to play all of the same games. "It is
intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4," House
explained. "We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle."
Instead of ushering in a new generation of game
experiences, Neo is meant to appeal to early adopters of tech like 4K
and virtual reality. With native 4K support, games will look much better
if you happen to have a very expensive 4K TV, while the improved
processing power will likely make PlayStation VR games both look better and
run smoother compared to the standard PS4. PSVR launches in October,
and will support all versions of the PS4. It’s unclear when exactly Neo
will launch, but it’s likely to be after PSVR hits store shelves, and
probably in 2017.
The upgrades sound a lot like Project Scorpio,
Microsoft’s impending upgrade to the Xbox One that adds similar
features and will be launching next fall. Scorpio still remains
mysterious, however; we don’t know what it looks like or how much it
will cost. Hopefully Sony will unveil a bit more of its new console than
Microsoft did.
A second, slimmer PS4
Like every PlayStation before it, the PS4 will likely be
getting a good deal smaller very soon. And this isn’t just idle gossip:
we’ve already seen what looks like the soon-to-be-announced PS4 slim. Images of the device first surfaced in late August, thanks to a posting on auction site Gumtree, and not long after videos began to appear online showing the device in action. (Though most were subsequently removed.
As is the case with most slim redesigns, the new PS4
doesn’t appear to be a massive change. It’s smaller and has rounded
corners, but otherwise maintains the same angular look as its
predecessor. The big question is whether it will have some added
functionality to go along with its new look. With the Xbox One S,
Microsoft not only made the console smaller and sleeker, but also added
new features like support for 4K video. It even removed the pesky,
bulky power supply.
Unfortunately, looks aside, early reports peg the PS4
slim as being largely the same as the base PS4 — so likely not a console
that will entice you to upgrade.
A (slightly) upgraded DualShock 4
Alongside the leaked images and video of the slim PS4, we’ve also seen what looks to be a new version of the DualShock 4 controller.
Though "new" might be overselling it. Based on what we’ve seen, the
controller is identical to the previous DualShock 4, but with one slight
difference: the colorful light bar is now visible from the front, so
you won’t have to turn it around to see lights flash when you’re being
chased by police in Grand Theft Auto.
It’s possible that there are some other changes under the
hood, such as an improved wireless range, but for the most part, this
looks like a slight tweak to an already solid gamepad.
A few new games
The best way to show off gaming hardware is with, you
guessed it, games. And so there’s a good chance that Sony will have a
handful of new, visually impressive titles that help showcase how good
4K games can really look. Just as likely is a new game or two that
highlight how much better VR games run on Neo. Just what those games
might be is anybody’s guess, but Sony has a huge range of exclusive
franchises that could get the job done. New Ape Escape anyone?
Xiaomi will reportedly begin selling the Mi Box as soon as next month
The glowing green liquid in this Razer–Maingear gaming PC probably won't kill you
Give other people the impression that your gaming PC is highly radioactive
Available as a customizable build, the R1 Razer Edition starts at $999 for the most basic (read: boring) model, but can easily be amped up with the inclusion of the aforementioned custom cooling system, glowing LED lights, and bespoke power supply cable sleeves. The actual breakdown of the partnership comes down to Razer supplying the case design and Chroma lighting systems, while Maingear adds the hardware know-how for actually building the PC.
The R1 Razer Edition starts at $999 for the most basic, boring model
And of course, all the actual computer parts can be selected to your specification, with options for RAM, different graphics cards, processors, LED color, coolant color, power supply, motherboard, and more. The most expensive build I could cobble together topping out at about $13,618.99 for a computer (which, at that price, should ideally be able to run a backup copy of the simulation from The Matrix.)
The R1 Razer Edition can be ordered from Maingear's website, with computers shipping as early as the end of September, depending on the level of customization in your build. Just don't drink the coolant.
Microsoft is reportedly working on a Slack competitor
Microsoft is taking Slack head on, and reportedly doing it under the Skype umbrella. According to MSPowerUser,
the software giant is developing new messaging software that closely
mirrors Slack functionality. The new effort is called Skype Teams, and
it promises to cater to the the same large teams and newsrooms that
already use Slack every day, while also leveraging Skype’s core feature
set.
Skype Teams, per MSPowerUser, looks very much
like Slack, in that it features both channels and private messaging for
groups, as well as file-sharing and fun things like emojis and GIFs:
In addition, the new service will feature Threaded Conversations, where users can respond directly to a comment a la Facebook threads. Users will also be able to start video chats both within channels and in private messages.
Microsoft has already released a Slack competitor in its overhauled SharePoint app,
which launched this past spring. That app brought the 15-year-old
service into the mobile era, allowing users to manage content and
documents on the go. But with Slack currently at a $3.8 billion valuation, Microsoft is wise to push hard to stay relevant when it comes to team productivity.
Bragi’s new wireless earbuds are simpler and a lot cheaper
One of the first companies to venture into the world of
making truly wireless earbuds has revealed a second generation product.
Bragi, the company that turned $3.3 million of Kickstarter funding into the Dash,
just announced a new pair of wireless earbuds simply called the
Headphone. The Headphone is based on the Dash in many ways — the new
earbuds sport the same size, overall design, and basic function — but
they're cheaper and much simpler. Bragi will sell the Headphone in
retail channels for $149 this November, but you can preorder them
starting today for $119.
You can use the Headphone to take or make phone calls and
activate your phone’s voice assistant, they allow for basic streaming
music playback (though there's no onboard storage this time around), and
they swap the Dash's touch controls for physical buttons. The Headphone
has the Dash’s audio pass-through feature, where you can hear the
outside world in your headphones, but there’s no fitness tracking, and
the carrying case doesn’t recharge the earbuds when you stow them away.
As Bragi CEO Nikolaj Hviid put it to The Verge: “the Headphone is a racing bike, where the Dash is much more like a Formula 1 car.”
The benefits of taking the Dash and dumbing it down a bit
are threefold, and the first is that dramatic price cut. (Backers of
the Dash Kickstarter will also get an extra $20 off, bringing the price
down to $99.) Second, the Headphone will be capable of squeezing twice
the life — six hours — out of the same 100 mAh battery found in the
Dash. Third, the Bluetooth connection between the earbuds and your phone
should be stronger, according to Bragi.
Better
battery life and a lower sticker price seem like luxuries compared to
the prospect of an improved (or even reliable) Bluetooth connection.
Tenuous Bluetooth connections are the problem that has most consistently plagued the first generation
of truly wireless earbuds. It’s the kind of problem that kills the
whole idea of the product in the first place, but it was one that
startups were willing to roll with if it meant beating the likes of Jabra, Samsung, or even Apple to market.
Bragi was no exception. While the company went out of its
way to replace the Bluetooth connection that syncs the two earbuds
together (it chose a hearing aid technology called Near Field Magnetic
Induction instead), Bragi still used Bluetooth for the phone-to-earbud
connection. This led to hiccups in the audio streaming during my time
with the Dash, especially when the phone was in my pocket or out of the
line of sight. Hviid says that Bragi was able to use everything it
learned from the Dash about this problem to fix the experience on the
Headphone, but we’ll have to get our hands on the new product to make
that call for ourselves.
The other problem Bragi ran into with the Dash was
production delays. Bragi says that the Headphone is supposed to start
shipping in early November, but Hviid told me that the company isn’t
starting production until October — a tight turnaround, even for a
company with one product under its belt.
In
addition to the Headphone, Bragi also announced another firmware update
to the Dash today. The company promises that this update — version 2.1 —
will improve the accuracy of the Dash’s heart rate tracking, as well as
improve the Bluetooth connection. It follows the 2.0 update issued this
past summer, which made the Dash louder and allowed for better fitness
tracking. With 2.1, Hviid said the company has been working for months
to work around the consequences of having a lot of radios in a very
small headset. “All of these components, it’s a huge amount of
components, and they disturb the Bluetooth range,” Hviid said. “But most
people will see remarkable improvements with 2.1. We’re actually very
proud of what we’ve done.”
Hviid was careful to note that customers shouldn’t expect
software updates like these for the Headphone. “The Dash is a computer,
the Headphone is a headphone,” he said.
Spacecom is seeking $50 million or a free flight from SpaceX after Falcon 9 explosion
SpaceX may be on the hook to compensate Space Communication Ltd. for the satellite that was destroyed during the explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket — either with a free trip or $50 million, according to Reuters.
The construction, launch preparation and operation of the
AMOS-6 satellite, which would have been used to "significantly expand
the variety of communications services provided by Spacecom," reportedly cost the company
more than $195 million. The officials from the company also noted that
it could also collect upwards of $205 million from Israel Aircraft
Industries, which built the satellite. SpaceX hasn’t said what kind of
insurance it purchased for the rocket, or what that insurance might pay
for, Reuters reported. SpaceX wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The satellite would have been used to provide wireless connectivity to parts of sub-Saharan Africa
Spacecom has been hit hard by the loss of the satellite,
"with its equity expected to decline by $30 million to $123 million."
That’s not all — an acquisition of Spacecom by Beijing Xinwei Technology
Group required the launch of the satellite to go off without a hitch.
"In a conference call with reporters, Spacecom's general counsel Gil
Lotan said it was too early to say" whether Xinwei was still interested
in buying Spacecom.
Follow Me
Follow Me on Google plus https://plus.google.com/100653016007073789109
and on my blog for new tech news
and on my blog for new tech news
Michael Kors' giant Access smartwatches are here for your fashion needs
Michael Kors has announced the availability of its new smartwatch line, dubbed Access. The new smartwatches, which were originally teased earlier this year,
run Android Wear and come in two styles. The "Dylan" is a sporty style
targeted at men, while the "Bradshaw" is all-metal and designed for a
female audience. Both watches are big and chunky, much like Kors’ analog
watches, and start at $350. Unlike with many other smartwatches, there
is no discernible difference in size between the men's and women's
versions.
The big pitch for the Access watches, which otherwise
share the same functionality as many other Android Wear watches, are
their customizable watchfaces. The various faces are designed to mimic
the analog designs on other Michael Kors watches, and can be customized
with a variety of colors right on the watch itself. It’s even possible
to have the watch switch to a different face at a set time of day, so
you can easily match your day and night outfits. The company says there
are hundreds of possible combinations between the display face, color,
and sub dials.
The Dylan and Bradshaw are also designed to mimic the
look of Kors’ other watches, and are thus larger and heavier than many
other Android Wear watches. Otherwise, they share technology with Fossil’s Android Wear watches:
a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 processor, color touchscreen, speaker, 320 x
290 pixel display, and activity tracking, but no heart rate monitor.
I had a chance to demo the Dylan for a few weeks and
found it to be uncomfortably large and heavy. You really have to love
big watches to want to wear it all day long. The display is lower
resolution and lower quality than others, and has a flat spot on the
bottom. It’s not very pleasant to look at, with jagged lines and
washed-out colors. On the plus side, it’s very readable outdoors.
Customizing the watchfaces on the watch itself proved to be very tedious
and fiddly, and I much would have preferred to do it from an app on my
phone.
The Access smartwatches are available in the US, UK, and
16 other countries starting today. The company is also announcing that
activity trackers, which start at $95, and additional straps for the
smartwatches are available, as well.
Intel is buying the computer vision company that powers Tango and DJI's drones
Movidius powered the first generation of Tango devices,
which consisted of Android tablets (and later phones) that were able to
map their surroundings in real time using an array of specialized
cameras and sensors. The company’s follow-up act was a much bigger deal:
helping make DJI’s Phantom 4 drone better able to sense and avoid
obstacles.
In a post about the acquisition, Movidius CEO Remi
El-Ouazzane says that plan is combine his company’s expertise in
on-device hardware with Intel’s cloud computing and AI. He also says
that Movidius will "remain focused," and a spokesperson for Intel tells
us that all of Movidius' 180 employees will be "integrated" into Intel's
Perceptual Computing group.
Intel, for its part, sounds a lot like Intel in its blog
post. "Computer vision will trigger a Cambrian Explosion of compute,"
writes Intel SVP Josh Walden. But it’s no surprise that Intel is
interested in picking up a chip company that’s focused on computer
vision, because Intel has had computer vision on the brain for awhile
now. Intel started demonstrating sense-and-avoid drones back in 2015 and has been aggressively pushing its RealSense brand. Here’s a module for robots it showed last month, and here’s a VR headset that also does 3D tracking in space. Intel also acquired another computer vision company, Itseez, back in May.
Intel says it "will look to deploy the technology across
our efforts in augmented, virtual and merged reality (AR/VR/MR), drones,
robotics, digital security cameras and beyond." That’s not a small list
of product categories and very few of them have proven themselves out
in the mass market in a major way. But if any of them do, Intel
obviously intends provide the chips that power them.
First Click: Forget the iPhone's disappearing headphone jack, what about the home button?
Multiple reports have suggested the home button as we know it will disappear with the next iPhone. Instead, they say, it'll be replaced by a static version that only simulates the feeling of being clicked using the technology found in the new MacBooks' Force Touch trackpads. (And how do those work? The short answer: magnets.)
The iPhone's mechanical home button is a part of its character
The thought of this depressed the hell out of me. I love the tactile aspect of gadgets — the clicks, taps, and snaps of buttons and switches. They give an object character and stage presence, but they’re also functional. After all, how do you know you’ve clicked something until it clicks? And while I’m no zealous Apple fan, I’ve always been certain I preferred the iPhone’s mechanical home button to the glassy touch buttons of most Android handsets.
My antagonism toward a static home button wasn’t helped by some hands-on time I had with prototype tech from a Cambridge-based company that's supposed to perfectly recreate the physical feel of buttons in glass displays using directed vibrations. The results were... not impressive. It didn't feel like a physical button was being simulated at all; it felt like the displays were just buzzing when I touched it.
More recently I tried out Force Touch in the 12-inch MacBook. It was, at least, convincing. Several times I clicked the track pad over and over as the machine powered on and off, and on each occasion I was pleasantly surprised when the immovable surface suddenly gave way under my fingertip and clicked up at me.
Verge colleagues have told me they can’t tell the difference between Force Touch and Apple's mechanical trackpads, but I think this is only because the company is clearing such a low bar. While Force Touch is able to trick your brain into feeling physical movement where there is none, it still only feels like half a click. The sensation is small and the travel is shallow. As a button it definitely feels real, but it doesn't feel good. In fact, it’s just like the 12-inch MacBook’s keyboard — mushy, unsatisfying, and a design decision Apple is just telling us to get used to.
A button’s just a button though, and there are counters to my complaints as well as arguments in favor of dropping the mechanical version. First, the Force Touch tech on the new MacBook isn’t bad, it’s just not great. Apple could probably improve upon it if it wanted. Second, although the utility of the new iPhones’ pressure-sensitive displays is hit and miss, when it works it's fantastic. For example, pressing down on the edge of the screen to access the app switcher (instead of double-pressing the home button) is something I’ve become completely dependent on using the iPhone 6S, and going digital with the home button could mean similar additional functionality, dropped in right under your thumb. Third, removing the mechanical home button would hopefully mean less broken iPhones. Not only does Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo suggest the change could mean improved waterproofing, but broken home buttons are a factor in iPhone repairs. Any mechanical part is prone to wearing down, and the home button is no exception. Electronic waste is not a trivial issue, and I'm happy whenever changes are made to increase a device's longevity. (A counter argument: Apple is notoriously and shamefully hostile toward non-authorized repairs. A new home button might become tougher to replace.)
The digitizing of mechanical parts is not new of course, just look at the fate of the click wheel. It started off in the first generation iPod in 2001 as an honest-to-goodness spinning dial, before being replaced the following year with a capacitive version. And here’s where my preemptive nostalgia for the mechanical home button seems silly, because when I got my first iPod in the mid-2000s I never knew what the mechanical click wheel felt like and I didn't care. I didn’t know to miss it because I’d never experienced it. The capacitive version was impressive enough.
The click wheel remains well suited for music players. It’s a good way to scroll through content that's best displayed as lists — winding through artists, albums, genres, etc. It’s also a nice example of craftsmanship. It's something tactile you can feel and appreciate, as opposed to engineering ingenuity Force Touch, which is still a marvel but one that's hidden and invisible. Perhaps for these reasons, physical dials survive in high-end MP3 players like those made by Astell & Kern. Just as with mechanical keyboards, they appeal to connoisseurs, but have been phased out of the mainstream in favor of more efficient designs.
Ashes to ashes, switches to skeuomorphs
So even if the home button survives for this year’s new iPhones, they're almost certain to disappear in time, like so many other physical interfaces. We've already heard rumors that the new iPhones in 2017 won’t have a home button at all, following Jony Ive’s ambition to create a phone that looks like a single sheet of uninterrupted glass. To me, that seems even less palatable than the simple digitization of the home button, but it’s probably inevitable. That's the story of consumer tech: ashes to ashes, switches to skeuomorphs.
I’m still going to be sore about losing the headphone jack though.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Noted Apple analyst drops yet more iPhone 7 details
None of the supposed iPhone 7 announcements, specs, or features would be particularly shocking in and of themselves, but together they give a solid overview of what Apple is likely to have in store. Kuo's detailed note, cited by AppleInsider, MacRumors, and 9to5Mac, certainly sees the analyst putting his cards on the table.
- Five color options. The current rose gold, gold, and silver models will remain, but space gray will be replaced by a "dark black" option and a separate "piano black" model with a glossy finish. Kuo says that supply may be limited on the piano black iPhone, with Apple possibly restricting it to higher storage tiers at first.
- Those storage tiers will get a boost, according to Kuo: the base model will jump to 32GB, as earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal, and will be joined by 128GB and 256GB variants.
- The iPhone 7 Plus will have 3GB of RAM, apparently to aid the performance of its dual-lens camera system, while the smaller 7 model will stay at 2GB.
- The dual-lens camera system will be comprised of a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera, both with 12-megapixel sensors. The combination is said to offer optical zoom-like functionality as well as "light field camera applications," which sounds like Lytro-style refocusing after the photo has been taken.
- The phone will feature IPX7 water resistance on par with the Apple Watch, though it's not clear if Apple would advertise such a thing. The previously reported move away from a clicking home button is said to help with this.
- No headphone jack, as you may or may not have come to terms with by now. Kuo says Apple will put EarPod headphones with a Lightning connector in the box alongside a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter. As for what Apple will do with the space formerly occupied by the jack? It'll be taken up by a new sensor to improve the iPhone's 3D Touch experience.
- Apple's new A10 processor could be clocked at up to 2.4 or 2.45GHz, a major jump over the A9's 1.85GHz, though power concerns could drive the final clock down a little. It will be manufactured by TSMC.
- The device is said to have the same wider color gamut as seen in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which will work particularly well for photos taken with the new camera. It's not clear whether it will use the iPad Pro's True Tone technology, which matches the display's temperature to ambient light.
- Speaking of True Tone, the camera's flash will have four LEDs — two warm, two cool.
- The earpiece receiver will be a legitimate speaker in its own right, working with the regular speaker to provide stereo sound when the phone is held in landscape.
- The proximity sensor will switch to laser technology.
- FeliCa NFC support for the Japanese market, which would be the biggest news for me out of the entire list.
A 7-inch Google tablet built by Huawei could be on the way
Here’s something you might not have been expecting:
alongside two new phones, it’s possible that Google will also announce a
new 7-inch Android tablet very soon. According to Evan Blass, it will
be released “before the end of the year,” sport 4GB of RAM, and be made
by Huawei.
There hasn’t been a lot of online chatter about new Nexus
tablets. But we’ve been tracking the rumors of the next Nexus phones
fairly closely. In fact, we should note that it’s not even correct to
call them Nexus phones anymore — the latest rumors have them named Pixel and Pixel XL. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that his company intends to be “more opinionated” about phone design, and that opinion could translate into using the “Google” and “Pixel” brands in lieu of Nexus.
All of that leads us to assume that whatever tablet we’re
talking about here will also not be a Nexus, but instead get some other
name. As for what that name will be, your guess is as good as ours.
However there have been (surprisingly few) clues: Huawei took out a trademark on “Huawei 7P” earlier this year and Tech Times summarized some other tibits here — including some “hazy” speculation on possible specs.
It’s been a rough couple of years for Google’s Android tablets. 2014’s Nexus 9 did not age well at all and the Pixel C was a beautiful piece of hardware crippled by bad software
at launch (at least Android N has made it a more viable device).
Basically, Android tablets need a comeback, because outside wild
innovations like the Yoga Book, the hasn’t been much interesting
happening in the space.
But for most Android users, the Platonic Ideal of an Android tablet has always been the Nexus 7:
cheap, durable, decent-looking, and surprisingly pocketable. Bringing
back that size with the kind of quality we hope we can expect from
Huawei (which makes the Nexus 6P) could almost act as a kind of fan
service.
Google is expected to hold an event on October 4th,
where it could announce two phones, a Daydream VR headset, a new
4k-enable Chromecast dongle, and now — apparently — a new Google tablet.
If all that comes to pass, it will be a very busy day.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
First Click: Is Google right to axe the Ara modular phone?
Project Ara had its share of fans especially in its original interpretation, inspired by Dave Hakkens’ 2013 Phonebloks concept. A phone that could be upgraded over the years and help reduce electronic waste was so utterly Googley that it was hard not to like it. But Google’s engineers soon found that the early modular-everything design was too unrealistic to bring to market. So in May, it announced a compromised vision with an ecosystem built around an Ara frame that included non-removable components like the display, battery, CPU / GPU, memory, and sensors. It had its fans, but many more detractors, with some calling it a boondoggle and others saying the new Ara was too heavily compromised. Even Hakkens himself, voiced displeasure.
At the time, our Ara poll showed that 75 percent of those who responded would only buy Ara if it was priced the same or less than an equivalently specced iPhone or Samsung Galaxy flagship. In other words, few saw Ara’s modularity as added value.
So, assuming the story now corroborated by sources speaking to Reuters, Recode, and The New York Times is true, what do you think? Was Google right to axe the Ara phone?
Apple’s iPhone 7 announcement: what to expect
September is upon us, which in the tech world means it's
time for Apple news. As it's done for the past four years, Apple is
holding an event to unveil the next generation of its biggest products.
This time around, it'll be held on September 7th and is expected to
bring new versions of the iPhone and Apple Watch.
It should be an interesting launch. This is technically a
generational leap for the iPhone, but it sounds like Apple has taken a
different approach this year, with subtler physical changes to the
phone. This'll also be the first time Apple has updated the Apple Watch,
so we can’t depend on history to tell us what kind of changes to
expect.
As always, The Verge will be in San Francisco to
cover the event live. You should check back here on the 7th for our
live blog and nonstop coverage. But for the time being, read on below
for all the nitty-gritty details on what we're expecting to see.
iPhone 7
It's a new iPhone with a new number. That usually comes
alongside a brand-new design, but this year it seems more like Apple is
going to tweak its existing formula — improving things here and there
and maybe laying the foundation for some bigger changes down the road.
Here's the deal:
A new(ish) design: Hopefully you like
the iPhone 6, because the iPhone 7 is supposed to look pretty much the
same. The big difference is that it's expected to have a cleaner look,
with some (but not all) of those unsightly antenna lines disappearing
off the back. It's a small change, but this mockup at MacRumors suggests it could have a strong effect.
No headphone jack: This obviously isn't a
new feature. In fact, it's the very opposite of a new feature. But it's
turning out to be The Big Story of the iPhone 7. Apple is expected to remove the headphone jack
— a standby of consumer electronics since the invention of consumer
electronics — from the next iPhone, meaning all headphones will have to
be wireless or connect through the Lightning port. There are certainly upsides to Lightning headphones, but there are a whole lot of downsides, too.
If you have a lot of devices that work with a 3.5mm headphone jack (and
who doesn’t?), you're going to have an annoying tradeoff to consider.
Possibly new Pods: Without a headphone
jack, Apple will probably want to offer another way to listen to music.
Rumors have been really sketchy on this front, so take this all with a
grain of salt, but they point to two possibilities: the Apple will make new EarPods that terminate in a Lightning connector instead of a headphone jack, or that Apple will make wireless earbuds, supposedly called AirPods.
Another camera: It’s not for selfies. Apple is expected to add a second camera onto the back of the iPhone, which it could use to produce higher-quality photos or offer a zoomed-in view. For example,
Huawei’s P9 uses a second black-and-white camera for added sharpness
and detail, while LG’s G5 uses a second camera to offer a zoomed-out
perspective. Bloomberg says Apple will have a twist on the latter approach, with the second camera offering a zoomed-in view.
The second camera is only supposed to show up on the
larger iPhone model (the 7 Plus). But the smaller model will probably
get some camera updates of its own, like image stabilization, which has
been exclusive to the Plus model for the past two years.
Goodbye 16GB: I don't know that there's a new feature more deserving of a "finally!" than this. Apple is finally expected to stop putting 16GB of storage in its entry-level iPhones and instead bump them up to 32GB, according to The Wall Street Journal. That's a much more reasonable amount of space for 2016.
A clickless home button: Apple is expected to make a very subtle but very big change to the home button — it won't click in. That's according to 9to5Mac,
which says the new button will be pressure-sensitive and use haptic
feedback to make it feel like you're pushing it in, even though it won't
physically move. It’s a trick Apple has already pulled off on some of its MacBooks.
A blacker black: If there's one good
reason to buy the iPhone 7, it may be this. After years of dealing with
whatever that "space gray" nonsense is, some vague rumors have suggested that Apple is going to make a black phone again. Not totally, 100 percent, wonderful iPhone 5 black. But more like what the Apple Watch Sport uses.
Everything else: You know the drill. The
new iPhones will of course be faster, with new processors, maybe more
RAM, and something that gets described as "magical." The removal of the
headphone jack has people suggesting that the iPhone 7 could be more
water resistant, though it's not clear if the phone will actually be
waterproof. The phone will probably get a little bit thinner, too.
Everything not: As always, there are a
bunch of other sketchy rumors that pop up but seem like they probably
aren't bound to come true. This year, that includes the iPhone 7 having a
dual SIM tray, a blue color option, wireless charging, or a smart
connector. It's possible Apple is looking into these things, but there
hasn't been a lot of evidence suggesting they're happening this year.
Apple Watch
When the keynote kicks off, it'll be almost two years to the day since Apple first unveiled the Apple Watch (though it was another eight months before it hit stores). A lot has changed about the Apple Watch in the time since — all through software
— and this first hardware update is likely to reflect those changes.
Namely, Apple taking a step away from the Watch as a communication
device and a step toward its use as a fitness device. Here's what we're
expecting:
Square as ever: There's no sign
that Apple plans to significantly change up the Apple Watch's design
this year. Or even next year. That said, don't be surprised if some new
band options show up.
GPS: This is probably going to be the biggest new feature on the Apple Watch. And while it may not sound like much, the addition of GPS
should be a real help for runners, since it'll let the Watch track them
even when they leave their phone behind. Anything that makes the Watch
more independent is an important step forward.
Getting faster: Normally a speed bump
wouldn't be all that exciting — pretty much without fail, every new
Apple product comes with a marginally faster processor than its
predecessor. But that's particularly important here, since the
first-generation Watch is pretty darn slow. Apple needs to do better on
speed, and the updated Watch should be a start.
Everything else: Other rumors have
suggested that the next Watch will have better waterproofing, a bigger
battery, a barometer, and the ability to do more things over Wi-Fi — but
evidence for some of those is shakier than others. One other big
question is whether the Watch will have a camera. An early report from 9to5Mac last year
said Apple was heading in that direction, but that's just about the
last we heard of of it. Given Apple's shift away from messaging, it
wouldn't be surprising if this feature got scrapped.
All the rest
Alongside the new iPhones, Apple should announce a release date for iOS 10
— probably a few days to a week before the phone launches. WatchOS 3
may roll out alongside it, but Apple could hold it back if the next
Watch isn’t shipping until a later date. MacOS Sierra will likely come later as well.
There hasn't been any word about Apple planning other
hardware updates for its September 7th event. But that doesn't mean for
certain there won't be anything. Plenty of products are due for an
update, including:
- The MacBook Pro, which is soon expected to get a slimmer design and a touchscreen strip above the keys
- The MacBook Air, which Bloomberg reports is being updated with USB-C
- The iPad Pro, which was announced at this event last year
- The iPad Air, which hasn't been updated in two years
- The iPad mini, which was last updated after this event last year
- The Apple TV, which had its new version announced at this event last year
But chances are most if not all of those are on hold
until later, as word usually leaks out ahead of a planned unveiling.
That means we could be looking at a second Apple event sometime in
October or early November — or just a really, really long event come
September 7th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)