Apple Suppliers Said to Be Ramping Up Component Production for Thinner, Faster iPad Air 2
Apple’s supply chain partners have ramped up production for components to be used the company’s upcoming second-generation iPad Air, reports Digitimes. Citing sources close to production, the report claims that the device will remained unchanged in terms of size and resolution, but will feature a thinner profile, faster processor, and an improved Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
iPad Air 2 mockup with Touch ID home button
Apple has also called on touch panel suppliers TPK and GIS to manufacture full-lamination units for the device ahead of its launch this fall. The source also notes that Sharp, Japan Display, and LG Display have also seen their orders increase for the iPhone, likely indicating that Apple is now mass producing screens for the iPhone 6.
Previous leaks have also pointed to a thinner profile for the iPad Air 2, along with reports claiming that the device will feature anti-reflective coating, and an improved Touch ID sensor. It is also most certain that Apple will include a faster processor in the iPad Air 2, as the company will likely integrate its new A8 chip in the device.
Apple will likely launch the iPad Air 2 alongside the next-generation iPad mini with Retina display this fall. The company is also said to be preparing to launch a 12.9-inch iPad in early 2015.
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Apple will reject any wellness apps that store private health data in iCloud
Given recent events surrounding the security of cloud-storage accounts, Apple is keen to reassess any updates to iOS. The company has revealed that any Healthkit apps storing a user’s private wellness data in iCloud will be flat-out rejected from the App Store. That same info, gathered by apps using the Healthkit API, is under even further restrictions when it comes to advertising and data-mining, as well. As 9to5Mac spotted, if an application uses the data for reasons other than “improving health, medical, and fitness management, or for the purpose of medical research,” the app won’t survive. This is just another bit of evidence from Cupertino as to why it rejects applications from the App Store. The thumb-downs go for other possibly less-nefarious aspects as well, including what happens with collected keyboard-activity data. If you’re interested in poring over the updated list of terms yourself, Apple’s got you covered. We recommend pouring a frosty beverage, though — reading the full roster could take until September 9th.
[Image credit: Associated Press]
Filed under: Cellphones, Household, Mobile, Apple
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Apple Developers
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Galaxy Gear S Gets Glamorized! ASUS ZenWatch Gets Priced! – ManDroid Daily
IFA 2014 is almost upon us, and some pre-IFA news has come about today. The ASUS ZenWatch will be officially unveiled at IFA, but it seems that the CEO of ASUS decided to let us know that he is wanting the ZenWatch to have an under $200 price tag. Could sway some consumers out there, and it is much better than glamorizing the watch like Samsung is doing with the Galaxy Gear S. Very ugly and very stupid. Enjoy the Daily.
Android News
Gear S gets glamorized
Android Wear will get better
ASUS ZenWatch gets priced
Sony Xperia Z3
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The post Galaxy Gear S Gets Glamorized! ASUS ZenWatch Gets Priced! – ManDroid Daily appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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Lenovo’s new gaming laptop is surprisingly light for a 17-inch machine
Slimmed-down gaming laptops seem to be all the rage, but most of the designs we’ve seen don’t have anything larger than a 14-inch display. Lenovo, however, appears to be taking a chance on big screens. The company just announced the Y70 Touch, a 17-inch machine that manages to come in at just 7.5 pounds, making it surprisingly thin and light for its size class. Other than having a larger screen, it features the same design as the existing Y50, which is to say it sports a brushed-metal chassis and red backlit keyboard (you can’t have a gaming laptop without red accents, apparently). Tucked on the bottom you’ll find a subwoofer with JBL speakers. Unfortunately, the touchscreen is slightly less impressive: It tops out at 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, whereas many smaller systems now give you the option of playing at 3,200 x 1,800 or 2,560 x 1,440.
Under the hood, the Y70 combines a quad-core Haswell-series Core i7 processor and up to 16GB of RAM and NVIDIA GTX graphics, with a 4GB 860M GPU being the highest-end option. As for storage, you can opt for either a 256 SSD or a 1TB hybrid hard drive with 8GB of cache. Battery life, meanwhile, is rated at five hours — not that you’re likely to travel without a charger. Look for it in October, starting at $1,299. As ever, Lenovo won’t let you configure these to order; there’ll instead be several pre-configured models to choose from.
Lastly, Lenovo also announced a new gaming desktop, the Erazer X315. To be clear, this won’t replace either the existing X510 or X700; this is just meant to be a more affordable option, at $599. For the money, you get up to an AMD Kaveri A10-7850K processor, a 2GB R9 260 GPU, up to 12GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage with 8GB of cache to go with it. Expect that to go on sale sometime in November.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops, Lenovo
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Lenovo unveils super-thin, super-light tablet (and the price isn’t bad, either)
Tablet fatigue: We have it, you have it. We all have it. That said, we’d be remiss if we let IFA go by without mentioning Lenovo’s new Android slate. The Tab S8, as it’s called, is an 8-inch device that manages to be almost as thin as both the Retina display iPad mini and the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4. In particular, it measures 0.31 inch thick and comes in at 0.65 pound, making it lighter than the iPad and almost as light as the Tab S. More importantly, though, Lenovo’s listing it at $199 — about half the price of what Apple and Samsung are selling.
For the money, it even looks like it performs decently, thanks to seven-hour battery, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1,920 x 1,200 screen, 2GB of RAM and a quad-core Intel Atom processor — a first for Lenovo’s Android tablets. On the software side, it runs an unskinned version of Android 4.4 KitKat, so you’re off the hook on software updates until Android L comes out. All told, it actually seems like it might be a good deal. Hopefully we’ll test one ourselves; if not, you can pick one up this month and write a user review for us.
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YouTube and Guillermo del Toro will make one director’s nightmares a reality
Want a shot at filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) peeking over your macabre masterpiece? Sure you do. Come September 22nd, YouTube Spaces is opening its doors to Partners with over 10,000 subscribers and giving them access to a handful of del-Toro-inspired sets as well as pro-grade equipment, in part, to find new voices within the genre. It’s also a promo for del Toro’s upcoming horror flick Crimson Peak. Del Toro (above) will review the finished products and the best one will get the push to either a digital series or fully-fledged movie. As Variety points out, this runs along the lines of the apparently popular competition Legendary Pictures held to help promote the Godzilla reboot earlier this year. Let’s just hope the end results for this contest skew more toward Lights Out rather than, say, #GodzillaProblems.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Google
Via: AV Club
Source: Variety
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‘Minecraft’ hits Xbox One this Friday and an upgrade only costs $5
Let’s face facts for a minute: you’re probably still playing Minecraft on your Xbox 360 more than anything on the Xbox One that’s sitting under your flat-screen. That’s perfectly fine! To sway you into spending more time with Microsoft’s new console, however, Redmond has a clever plan in mind. When the game releases this Friday, you’ll get a hefty 75 percent discount off the $20 purchase price. That’s right, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition could cost you as little as $5. You simply need to own and have played the previous version and have it tied to your Xbox Live account, according to Xbox Wire. Pretty rad, yeah? Just when you’d finally recovered from the news that importing saved worlds from the previous hardware was a thing, boom, this hits like a creep in the night. It’s a bit later than earlier promised, sure, but unlike the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita versions, at least there’s a firm date in sight. Lady geeks and gentlenerds, ready your pick-axes.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox Wire
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Samsung’s Smart Home tech is apparently enough to make KITT the robot car jealous
Samsung is seriously gunning for your potential smart home dollars – enough to draft in (and pay for) David Hasselhoff and his early-eighties partner, KITT. The car ain’t happy. (And did he just say what I think he did?)
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Samsung
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Apple Updates App Store Guidelines, Calls Out ‘Creepy’ Apps for Exclusion
Apple today updated its App Store review guidelines ahead of the launch of iPhone 6 and iOS 8, adding sections for new features such as extensions, HealthKit, HomeKit and TestFlight. Additionally, Apple tweaked its introductory remark to specifically call out “creepy” apps as unwelcome in the App Store.
We have over a million Apps in the App Store. If your App doesn’t do something useful, unique or provide some form of lasting entertainment, or if your app is plain creepy, it may not be accepted.
The new guidelines, primarily in sections 25 through 28, outline what use of the new features would get an app rejected from the App Store. For instance, extensions must provide some functionality and must remain functional without network access. Keyboard extensions can only collect user data for improving the functionality of the keyboard and nothing else.
The sections for both HealthKit and HomeKit include guidelines for user data, with apps using HomeKit not allowed to collect any sort of user data for advertising and data mining while HealthKit is only allowed to collect data without a user’s permission. TestFlight guidelines include limitations on distribution and compensation for beta testers.
Additionally, Apple added some notes to its Metadata section for the App Store’s new app previews feature, noting that apps may only use video screen captures for previews and that app previews cannot display personal information without permission.
iOS 8 will be included on the iPhone 6 this September and likely launch a few days earlier for current devices.
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This tiny, bipedal robot can somersault and run faster than a toddler
Those of you with recurring Terminator-esque nightmares of a not-so-distant future ruled by machines won’t have to worry much about one robot developed by a research team at the University of Tokyo. The group (which happens to be the same one that created a robot that’ll cheat its way to rock-paper-scissors victory every time) crafted a bipedal ‘bot called Achires that can run at speeds up to 2.6 miles per hour. What makes Achires so special is that it doesn’t actually factor in complex biomechanical factors like the zero moment point. Instead, its creators have a high-speed camera trained on it at all times, and the system uses all that visual data to continually keeps the robot’s running posture stable. The end result? A way to get a robot running that doesn’t require the sheer computational horsepower that some of its other bipedal cousins do. A few limitations help ensure that the Achires won’t race into anyone’s night terrors. It’s downright tiny, for one — it’s legs are only about 5.5 inches, and they can only keep up that pace for about ten seconds. Oh, and the very camera technology that allows it to run with proper form in the first place means the Achires can’t break free of its stage anyway — you’re all safe, don’t worry.
Via: Wall Street Journal
Source: Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory
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AIVAnet 