Samsung does its own Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge teardown

While iFixit is quick to tear apart new devices to gauge repairability, Samsung has its own look inside the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. The company offers a breakdown of the components that make up the two handsets rather than a step-by-step process. However, it does include a bit of an explanation on that cooling heat pipe. iFixit noted that the part was more like a “copper twig,” and Samsung says the pipe condenses vapor to liquid in order to keep the temperature down. The feature is meant to lend a hand with processor-heavy tasks, like gaming, dissipating heat with that pipe and a thin thermal spreader. There’s a close-up look at the rest of the device as well, if you’re after a different perspective than the teardown earlier in the week.

Samsung also debuted a new version of its “Over the Horizon” jingle for this year’s Galaxy line. The company tapped jazz/funk band Dirty Projectors for the remake, which certainly gives the tune a new spin. In an attempt to get the song stuck in your head, the Samsung theme has lyrics for the first time as well. Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge owners can opt for this to be their ringtone or alarm and the full version of the song will be available in the Music app. For now, you can enjoy it here:

Source: Samsung

New electric GT racing series to feature Tesla’s Model S

As soon as next year, Formula E will have some company. The Electric GT World Series was announced this week, aiming to field 10 teams for its first season in 2017. What’s more, the new series will be the first all-electric GT racing series. The plan is for those 10 teams to put 20 cars on the track at seven different races during the first year. In true GT (Gran Tourer) form, the series will use production cars that are available for consumer road use. Series officials say there’s only one current vehicle that fits the bill: the Tesla Model S.

More specifically, Tesla’s P85+ sedan will be the base model each team will use during the first season. The older Model S is more suited to racing than the newer P90. If you’ll recall, the P85+ touts 310 kilowatts of power alongside 443 pound-feet of torque. It also offers 85 kilowatt-hours of energy storage, more than the current Formula E cars pack in. Of course, cars on the track won’t get the same 250-mile range drivers on the open highway experience, but the extra juice will allow for longer races than the Formula E series. And those Formula E cars get a battery swap mid-race.

In terms of racing trim, the Electric GT World Series will make a few modifications to the stock vehicles. First, it will adjust the brakes and aerodynamics to increase grip. Tweaks will also be made to boost the suspension, brake cooling and steering in addition to an overall weight reduction. However, the heart of the car — the powertrain, battery and programming — won’t be touched. In the seasons that follow, there could be more some variety in terms of makes and models as they arrive, but the entire field will be Teslas to start.

During the first season, the series will debut in Europe before moving on to North American and Asia. Details are still being nailed down for dates and locations, but the events will be held at “world-class” tracks. In fact, talks are underway to take the fleet of Teslas to Barcelona-Catalunya, Donnington Park, Nürburgring and more. Stay tuned, as the schedule is expected to be announced before the end of the year.

Source: Motorsport.com, Transportation Evolved

Toyota strengthens autonomous car program with new hires

Toyota wants to build a road-ready autonomous car by 2020, and it’s tracking down the right expertise to help it achieve this goal. The car company announced it’s welcomed the 16-strong software engineering team from Jaybridge Robotics — a firm specializing in autonomous industrial vehicles — into the fold. To be clear, Toyota hasn’t acquired the company, which will continue to support its current client base; it has, however, hired most if not all of Jaybridge’s experts to work on its in-house self-driving car program.

The Jaybridge team will take up residence at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) near MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s one of two multidisciplinary research centers developing AI, robotics and autonomous vehicle technologies in collaboration with nearby universities (the other’s in Silicon Valley, near Stanford), which Toyota has put aside a cool $1 billion to support. And we could see the contribution of the TRI’s newest staffers sooner than you might think.

While Toyota would obviously like to put autonomous cars on the road as soon as possible, it’s always been of the mindset that any assistive tech born out of its research that improves driver safety should be rolled out to consumer vehicles as a priority.

Via: The Wall Street Journal

Source: Toyota

Apple schedules a March 21st event to ‘loop us in’

Apple has been keen on a spring event in years past, and today Cupertino confirmed 2016 will be no different. Tim Cook & Co. will host the latest product announcement in just over a week on Monday, March 21st. Reports indicate that we may be in for a new 4-inch iPhone, a 9.7-inch iPad Pro and some Apple Watch updates. There’s likely to be software news as well, and we could be in for an unexpected “one more thing,” too. You can bet your biscuits we’ll be there to cover the shindig, so keep an eye out for liveblog details and more ahead of the big day.

Under Armour will sell partially 3D-printed shoes for $300

When Adidas showed off its Futurecraft 3D concept late last year, it wasn’t really clear how close to reality 3D-printed shoes were. Well, they’re much closer today. Under Armour is debuting its UA Architechs, a new training shoe that has a 3D-printed midsole. Okay, so this isn’t quite reaching Adidas’ dream of personalising shoes based on individuals’ needs, but 3D-printing does have its uses.

The midsole here provides what Under Armour refers to as a “dynamic stability platform.” It’s an interlacing lattice structure that’s supposed to bring all the benefits of “energy returning” foams, while offering improved stability. The idea is to create a shoe that’s just as suitable for cross training as it is for weight lifting.

Whether 3D-printing is actually required to create this lattice, or if regular manufacturing techniques could handle it just fine, isn’t clear. But it’s nonetheless an important step along the journey to creating a 3D-printed shoe for the masses. The UA Architechs are being produced on a super-limited run — only 96 will be made — and will be sold at $300.

Via: Kicks On Fire

USA Today announces VR news show ‘VRtually There’

The New York Times is already using VR to take you inside the news, and USA Today is looking make the catching up on events more immersive, too. The USA Today Network plans to debut “the first branded news experience presented in VR” this spring. What does that mean exactly? USA Today will have a virtual reality news show, and it’s called “VRtually There.”

The show will take on “a true network approach” with scheduled segments from newsrooms around the US. Examples of those segments include music news from Nashville, the latest in automotive from Detroit and political stories from Washington DC. There will also be plenty of tech news from San Francisco and the latest tips and tricks from USA Today’s Reviews.com.

USA Today is no stranger to virtual reality, having already tapped the platform for a number of featured stories. While today’s announcement doesn’t mention specifics, the news outlet’s existing VR content is available on Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR as well as the upcoming Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. For folks who don’t own a headset, 360-degree videos are available for desktop and mobile users, too. We expect we’ll be hearing more about “VRtually There” as we get closer to the show’s premiere, including exactly when we should tune in.

Waze’s cleaner and smarter design arrives on Android

Nearly five months after Waze rolled out its 4.0 update to iOS users, the service is finally doing the same for Android. That means the app on Google’s platform now features a cleaner and smarter design, making it easier to navigate roads, share destinations and report any issues you may spot during your trip. Waze says this version is all about improving the experience for drivers and, as such, you’ll start noticing less clutter on maps, brighter buttons and color-coded pins. As usual, you can grab the update from Google Play.

Source: Waze (Google Play)

Apple Reiterates: Force Quitting iOS Apps Doesn’t Help Battery Life

It’s been a long-standing belief in some circles that using the multitasking feature of iOS to force quit apps can help save an iPhone’s battery life, or improve the speediness of the software when the smartphone becomes slow. Earlier in the week, an iPhone user decided to email Apple CEO Tim Cook to put the issue to bed once and for all, and instead got a reply from Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior VP of Software Engineering (via 9to5Mac).

Asked specifically whether Cook quits apps to save battery and if it’s truly “necessary for battery life,” Federighi jumped in with a concise “no and no.” Although far from an official condemnation of the force quit belief by Apple, it is the most the company has directly said about the myth in the six years since multitasking became available in iOS 4.

Image via 9to5Mac
The simplistic nature of swiping apps off of the multitasking landing pad, and subsequently “quitting” them, helped create a widespread belief that an iPhone’s battery could be preserved for a little longer. But as many have pointed out over the years, doing so could in fact do the complete opposite: you could be shortening the battery life of your iPhone.

A few exceptions can be made to certain processes, but for the most part when an app is pushed into the background it becomes completely frozen and ceases to use any of an iPhone’s battery power. As relayed by a former Genius Bar technician, Scotty Loveless, force quitting an app purges all of its code from the RAM of the iPhone, requiring it to be re-loaded upon the next time you visit the app.

If it’s an app you’re going to often — a weather or traffic experience, for example — all of the forced closing and re-opening actually can worsen the life of an iPhone. Exceptions can be made by toggling off a feature called “Background App Refresh,” which the Facebook app was found to be suspiciously circumventing in recent months, but in all other occurrences the process of force quitting each app to prolong battery life is erroneous.

Plus, iOS closes apps automatically as it needs more memory, so you’re doing something your device is already doing for you. You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor. The truth is, those apps in your multitasking menu are not running in the background at all: iOS freezes them where you last left the app so that it’s ready to go if you go back.

Unless you have enabled Background App Refresh, your apps are not allowed to run in the background unless they are playing music, using location services, recording audio, or the sneakiest of them all: checking for incoming VOIP calls , like Skype. All of these exceptions, besides the latter, will put an icon next to your battery icon to alert you it is running in the background.

In the case of the Facebook app, the company’s mobile app was discovered to be the cause behind cases of dramatic battery drain, even when Background App Refresh was turned completely off. The social network site eventually implemented a fix for the problem, citing the major culprits as “CPU spin” in the app’s code and silent background audio continuing to emanate from the service’s auto-play videos after the app was closed.

That was a rare case, however, and users should stick closer to Federighi’s succinct advice today instead of continuing to put long-term strain on the smartphone. If you’re ever really concerned about daily battery usage, Apple offers a simple but useful tool to keep on top of things. Go to Settings > Battery > and scroll down to Battery Usage. “Last 24 Hours” and “Last 7 Days” can give you a full picture at where the heaviest-hitting battery life apps are coming from.

You can also restrict specific app access to Background App Refresh — or turn it off altogether, although that can drastically hinder certain apps’ key features — in Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

Related Roundup: iOS 9
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‘Blockhead’ Plug Provides Space Saving Solution for Apple Wall Adapters

Ten One Design today announced the “Blockhead,” a side-facing plug for Apple chargers that will allow users to place the large wall adapters flush and parallel with a wall to save space, and open up more possibilities for charging behind large furniture. The accessory replaces the detachable prongs that ship with Apple products, and Ten One Design promises Blockhead will fit “every MacBook” and “every iPad” adapter, with one caveat regarding older model iPad minis.

Specifically sculpted to be a companion for Apple’s chargers, the company promises that Blockhead will provide a “strong” grip and electrical connection in lieu of using Apple’s first party prongs. Thanks to the geometry of the plug’s design, Blockhead also points the Apple adapter’s plug downwards instead of straight out from a wall, which Ten One Design says “protects against cord stress.”

Blockhead directs your cord downward at a more natural angle. It looks great and protects against cord stress. By turning your adapter sideways, Blockhead brings its center of mass closer to the wall. This means less tension on the plug and a lot less falling out.

In comparison to Apple’s chargers, the Blockhead plug is 1.2 inches thick, noticeably slashing the thickness of the MacBook wall adapter’s required 3.8 inches of space. Thanks to the Blockhead’s design, the new plug can also house two adapters on one outlet, or even adjacent plugs on a traditional two-prong extensions cord.

The accessory will work on any Apple charger rated for 10 watts or higher, so it is compatible with all MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook models, as well as all iPad models aside from the original iPad mini. Those interested in the Blockhead plug can pre-order the accessory on Ten One Design’s website starting today, with shipping estimated to be in “late April.” Users will be able to choose between one plug for $19.95 or a “Blockhead Stack” of two plugs for $34.94.

Tags: Ten One Design, Blockhead
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Apple Sends Invites for ‘Let Us Loop You In’ Media Event on March 21

Apple today sent out invites for a media event that will be held on Monday, March 21 at the company’s Town Hall auditorium located on its 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California, reports BuzzFeed. As with most Apple media events, it will kick off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Several products are expected to be showcased at the event, including the new 9.7-inch iPad, the 4-inch iPhone SE, and new Apple Watch bands. There’s also a possibility that some Mac refreshes could be announced as the time is right for updates, but there have been no rumors confirming that is the case.

Headlining the event will be the 4-inch iPhone SE and a new 9.7-inch iPad. Rumors suggest the iPhone SE will look nearly identical to the iPhone 5s, but it will include new internal hardware that brings it in line with newer Apple devices. It is rumored to have an A9 chip, an improved camera, and NFC support for use with Apple Pay.

The new 9.7-inch iPad has been referred to as the iPad Air 3, but recent rumors have suggested it may instead be branded as an iPad Pro. The device is said to include many iPad Pro features, like a four-speaker design, a Smart Connector for connecting accessories, and display improvements for Apple Pencil support. It may also be the first iPad to feature a rear LED flash.

Apple also plans to introduce new Apple Watch bands at the event. Existing bands will likely be available in new colors and there may be new product lines, such as a rumored nylon band and a Space Black Milanese Loop.

Apple will be live streaming the event on its website and through the Apple TV. MacRumors will also provide live coverage of the event, both here on our website and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

Related Roundups: iPad Air 3, Apple Watch, watchOS 2, iPhone 5se, iPhone SE
Buyer’s Guide: iPad Air (Don’t Buy), Apple Watch (Neutral)
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