Tim Cook Shares First Photos Taken With iPhone 7 Plus
Following the announcement of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook today tweeted out a link to some of the first official photos that have been taken using the advanced photography capabilities of the larger, 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.
Taken by Sports Illustrated photographer David E. Klutho, the pictures come from the Titans-Vikings game that took place earlier today. Using the iPhone 7 Plus, Klutho was able to take advantage of Apple’s new dual-lens 12-megapixel camera, and the 2x optical zoom feature exclusive to the larger model iPhone.
Klutho’s shots provide evidence of the crisp and bright photos that can be taken with the iPhone 7 Plus and its second 12-megapixel telephoto lens, but the collection lacks an example of improved low-light photography that Apple touted in the debut ad for the iPhone 7.
Later in the year, the camera app on the iPhone 7 Plus will also be getting a new feature called “Portrait,” letting users create photos where the two cameras intelligently detect faces in the foreground, while adding an artful blur effect to elements in the background.
The smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 7 packs in similar high-quality photo-taking abilities, without the second telephoto lens and 2x optical zoom. Both new iPhones were announced alongside the Apple Watch Series 2 and AirPods last week in San Francsico. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are expected to arrive this Friday, September 16, with the lucky first batch of pre-order customers already receiving shipment notifications.
Check out the rest of the photos taken using the iPhone 7 Plus here.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Discuss this article in our forums
Galaxy Note 7 explodes in New York, injuring 6-year old boy
A 6-year old Brooklyn boy was watching videos on a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Saturday evening when it burst into flames as he was holding it. The young boy’s grandmother, Linda Lewis, told the New York Post that the resulting fire was enough to set off alarms in her house, and her grandson was taken to Downstate Medical Center to treat burns on his body but was later released.
Lewis told the Post, “he doesn’t want to see or go near any phones. He’s been crying to his mother.”
Lewis says the family has been in contact with Samsung but declined further comment.
Late last week the phone maker advised all Note 7 owners to return their handsets under the official recall program, working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
If you are holding on to your Note 7 after Samsung advised you to power it off and return it, this is the risk you’re taking. The folks saying “it probably won’t happen to me” — including popular media personalities, are right. It probably won’t. I’m sure Ms. Lewis didn’t think it would happen to her grandchild, either.
Return your Note 7 under the recall. Nobody wants to see this type of story.
We wish the young man and his family the best and hope for a speedy recovery and resolution.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
- Here are all four Note 7 colors
- Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
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Drones can defend themselves with an anti-laser jammer
There are plenty of efforts to make drone-destroying lasers. But what about protecting those drones? Adsys Controls thinks it can help. It’s making Helios, a passive jammer that confuses laser weapons. If it detects an incoming laser beam, it detects the traits of that beam (such as its pulse and wavelength) and interferes with them to prevent the laser from locking on and toasting the drone. The company won’t say exactly how this interference works, although it may be a counter laser. The one certainty is that it’s reliable — this is “permanent protection” against subsequent lock-on attempts, not just a momentary break.
You may have to wait a while to see Helios in action, since there’s no mention of contracts at the moment. Also, it’s not certain how well this works. Can a laser target a part of the drone without the jammer catching it? And is the system quick enough to stop higher-power lasers that can burn a drone within a few seconds at most? Still, drones don’t really have anti-laser defenses right now. Any protection is bound to be helpful, and Adsys’ solution could be highly effective if it lives up to the hype.
Via: New Scientist
Source: Adsys Controls
GekoGrip Modular magnetic air vent car mount (review)
One of the most dangerous things you can do is drive a car. According to the Association for Safe International Road Travel, globally almost 1.3m people die each year from automobile accidents. In the US, there are roughly 37,000 fatalities each year, which totals about 10 deaths per 100,000 people.
If you’ve paid attention to the tech sites lately, you’d know there are Samsung Galaxy Note 7s that catch fire due to faulty batteries. So far there have been roughly 35 incidents out of 2.5m devices, which means driving a car is much more dangerous yet we ignore the statistics when we drive distracted.
Distracted driving, or texting, and not using your smartphone or other mobile devices hands-free, is one of the most dangerous things you probably do every single time you get in a car. Using your smartphone while driving is illegal in almost all states in the US as well as many countries around the globe.
I live in San Diego where the fine for using a phone in the car is $161. In other cities the fines are as low as $20 which is asinine. These fines are not enough to distract many drivers from using their phones which not only endangers themselves and their passengers, but also the innocent drivers who are doing their best to make it home to their loved ones.
The government may not be enough of a deterrent for you to prevent you from using your cell phone, but it’s your responsibility to drive as safely as possible. All it takes is one accident and you could ruin someone else’s life forever.
It’s time you got a cell phone mount for your automobile. If you already have one, then kudos to you. Parents, if you’re reading this and have a young driver in the family, a cell phone mount is an absolute must-have for your loved one.
I’ve recently been using Mobei’s GekoGrip xM3 series Magnetic Air Vent Car Mount for smartphones and tablets, and it’s one of the easiest and most reliable mounts I’ve used in a long time.
Let’s check it out.
Design & Usage
The GekoGrip mount is designed to attach onto the air vent in your automobile. There is a magnet housed in the front end triangular shaped top piece, with a ball joint connected the four prongs that push onto the vent. The ball joint has a threaded exterior, so you can screw down the nut over it to keep your cell phone mounted in a position that makes your phone visible in a position that is comfortable for you to see.
In order to attach your phone to the magnetic mount, you will need to stick on one of two included metal pieces either on your phone directly, or in between your case and smartphone.
The round metal piece is has an sticky surface on one side and it’s designed for those who go case free. The other rectangular piece, has a felt side to protect your smartphone from scratching when it sits in between your case and smartphone (metal phones like the iPhone are not drawn to magnets since they are made from aluminum so you will need to use one of the metal pieces).
Once installed, which takes a matter of seconds, the magnet has plenty of power to hold the smartphone in place even when it’s upside down. In the picture above, I’m using a relatively large Note 7 and a somewhat rugged Caseology case.
Once in your vehicle, all you have to do is push the four pronged end into the cross section of your vent and then screw down the ball joint.
Once installed in the air vent, which does take a decent amount of force, it stays firmly in place.
Simply hold your phone up to the magnetic portion and the phone sticks very easily. There’s nothing to tighten down, and it’s one of the easiest ways to mount your phone in your automobile. The only downside is your phone will block the air vent. In San Diego, that’s never an issue for me since the weather is pretty consistent and I almost never use heat or A/C. Most other regions though, do experience a wide range in temperatures, so you can leave the phone off the mount until your car has come to the temperature you’re comfortable with before attaching the phone.
If you’re concerned about the phone falling off on its own, don’t worry. I have an off-road suspension on my truck, which is not a smooth ride, especially in California where our roads are riddled with deep pot holes. Not one time did the mount move, or shown signs of letting go of my Note 7.
From opening the box, installation to putting in use, it took no longer than a matter of minutes to add in a safety feature all cars should come standard with these days.
Summary
The GekoGrip Modular Magnetic Air Vent Car Mount is available for purchase at Amazon for $19.95 with free Prime Shipping. The mount is rated to hold up to 300g, which means it won’t hold your full sized tablet, but it will more than easily keep your smartphone mounted in a safe position while you drive.
The statistics prove driving can be a dangerous activity, but distracted driving is simply asking for trouble. It’s almost inevitable for some to use their smartphones while driving, especially those who stream music to their car or need GPS to get around town, so you might as well make it safer by installing a mount. The GekoGrip air vent mount is a smart choice, especially when you factor in the ease-of-use and quality for $19.95.
Watch the Milky Way’s birth in this Caltech simulation
A team of Caltech astronomers created what could be the most accurate computer simulation of our galaxy’s birth. See, according to computations for older simulations, our galaxy should be surrounded by thousands of dwarf galaxies. In reality, though, there are only around 30 dwarf galaxies nearby. Astronomers thought their computations were incorrect, because we still don’t understand the true nature of dark matter that permeates every corner of the universe. However, the Caltech team found out that it’s not dark matter that’s the problem. Their computations were able to achieve the current state of our galaxy simply by incorporating the effects of supernovae.
“We had thought before that perhaps our understanding of dark matter was incorrect in these simulations, but these new results show we don’t have to tinker with dark matter,” says team leader Andrew Wetzel. “When we more precisely model supernovae, we get the right answer.”
A star’s explosion can be massive and powerful enough to blow away other stars and even small galaxies. And by taking its effects into account, the team was able to conjure up a simulation that shows the actual state of our galaxy’s environment.
In order to create the simulation, which you can watch below, the team used 2,000 computers to crunch data. It took a whopping 700,000 CPU hours for all those computers to complete the task, though it could’ve been worse. According to Popular Mechanics, it would have taken a single computer 80 years to do the same thing.
Via: Popular Mechanics
Source: Caltech
Tesla’s next Autopilot update will rely more on radar
Today Tesla announced that its upcoming Autopilot 8.0 update will rely more on radar than previous versions of the semi-autonomous feature. To boot, it will penalize inattentive drivers.
Tesla said that it would combine the radar sensors (added to vehicles starting in October 2014) along with advanced signal processing to see the world. Initially, those sensors were supplementary with the onboard cameras handing most of the input.
The automaker is now putting that radar front and center in order to help the cars travel through bad weather conditions like, snow, fog, dust and rain. Traditional cameras become less reliable as the visual field becomes more dense. That’s where the radar will come in. “Even if you’re driving down the road and the visibility is very low and there’s a multi-car pile up, the camera can’t see it, but the radar would and apply the brakes,” Elon Musk says.
Tesla does note that reflective surfaces create issues with radar. It gives the example of a concave soda can amplifying its return signal. These sorts of false positives are why the automaker was only using radar as a supplement to other sensors early on.
Tesla is confident it’s been able to reduce those sort of false positives with the upcoming software update, which creates 3D snapshots of the world with all the vehicle’s radar sensors to determine the actual size of an object. It will also use fleet learning to reduce unintended braking from large stationary objects (like street signs) appearing over ridges by assigning geolocation data to those items.
Musk believes that the update would probably cut accidents by more than half. However, he cautions that it isn’t flawless. “Perfect safety is really an impossible goal. It’s really about improving the probably of safety,” he explains. He adds that Autopilot is called beta is to reduce the driver’s comfort level while it’s on. “It’s really not beta,” he says.
The update will also penalize inattentive drivers. If the car determines that the driver doesn’t have their hands on the wheel and throws its audible warning three times in an hour, it will lock the driver out of the feature. In order to re-enable Autopilot, the car will have to be pulled over and put in park.
Musk also notes that the drivers that end up with the most warnings to pay attention to the road are veterans of the system. They become too reliant on its benefits.
When pressed about whether the upcoming update would have saved the life of Joshua Brown, whose Model S slammed into a semi truck while in Autopilot, Musk says Tesla “believe[s] it would have.”
The exec notes that the update could potentially roll out in the next week or two, and that the company believes it “will improve not just the safety, but the comfort and feel of Autopilot.”
Source: Tesla
Watch Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot balance on one foot
Humanoid robots still have problems staying upright, especially in tricky situations, but it’s evident that they’re making some progress. IHMC has posted a video showing Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot balancing on one foot on the edge of a plywood board about 0.8 inches thick. The feat is a “lucky run,” IHMC admits (it’s rare that the robot stays poised for so long), but it’s relatively effortless. The worst you see before the fall is shaking as IHMC’s algorithm sometimes makes poor estimates of the robot’s state.
As brief as the balancing act is, it’s telling. After all, many humans wouldn’t last that long on their first try… at least, not with the same level of grace. It may just be a matter of refining the technique to get robots that are surefooted in situations that would trip up their organic counterparts.
Via: IEEE Spectrum, Popular Mechanics
Source: IHMC Robotics (YouTube)
Best T-Mobile phones
The best phone options available through T-Mobile.
Whether you’re a long-time T-Mobile subscriber looking to upgrade your phone or you’re switching and want to find out what’s available at a glance, we’re here to help.
We’ve broken down the best devices available to buy through T-Mobile. Check out our reviews to learn more about each of these and if you’re ready to take the plunge, we’ve included links to buy directly from T-Mobile.
- Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- HTC 10
- BlackBerry Priv
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge
Samsung really delivered with this year’s flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. They brought back great features, like expandable memory via microSD and a bigger battery, and improved on the sleek, one-piece design of the Galaxy S6. Plus, they’re both water and dust-resistant.
These devices are beautiful, featuring a stunning QHD Super AMOLED display, protected by Gorilla Glass on the front and back. Both the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge take amazing photos, even in low-light conditions, and include must-have features like Samsung Pay and wireless charging. Oh, and they’re also VR-ready with the Samsung Gear VR.
The Galaxy S7 edge features the curved screen edge and a slightly beefier battery.
The 32GB Galaxy S7 is available via T-Mobile in Black Onyx or Gold Platinum, while the 32GB Galaxy S7 edge is also available in shimmering Silver Titanium.
Check out our Galaxy S7 review and Galaxy S7 edge review for more.
See at T-Mobile
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Sometimes, life is better with a stylus. The Galaxy Note 7 is the sixth-generation iteration of Samsung’s popular phone-tablet hybrid. It has everything you need for being extremely productive on the go, as well as enough firepower for mobile gaming. The Note 7 features many of the same specifications as its flagship predecessor, the Galaxy S7, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 12-megapixel Dual Pixel rear-facing camera, which snaps photos almost as well as a DSLR.
The Note 7 is also equipped with a long-lasting 3500 mAh battery and a pop-out pressure sensitive stylus that’s perfect for artists and serial note-takers alike. If you’re in the market for a smartphone powerhouse, consider the Galaxy Note 7.
T-Mobile offers the Galaxy Note 7 in Black Onyx, Silver Titanium, and a beautiful Blue Coral.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall FAQ
Note: Samsung has issued a broad recall for the Galaxy Note 7 due to issues with the battery. While our recommendation for the Note 7 stands, we advise checking with T-Mobile to ensure that it has received new stock of the phone with batteries from an updated supplier. Follow the link above for more information.
See at T-Mobile
HTC 10
If you want to stand out from the crowd of Samsung and Apple devices, the HTC 10 is a great option. Featuring a solid aluminum body, this thing runs like a dream and features one of the best cameras available for Android phones. It also allows for expandable storage via microSD, a pretty decent battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0, and amazing audio quality for when you’re listening to music.
T-Mobile offers the HTC 10 in Glacial Silver with 32GB of built-in storage.
Check out our review for more.
See at T-Mobile
BlackBerry Priv
BlackBerry is back — on Android! The Priv is BlackBerry’s first phone built on the Android OS and is definitely worthy of your consideration. For starters, if you’ve owned a BlackBerry in the past, you’ll probably be happy to see the option of a slide-out physical keyboard — one of the key features that separates the Priv from the rest of the pack. But it also sports a great battery, a pretty decent main camera and a build that feels solid in your hands.
Check out our review for more.
See at T-Mobile
Twitch-produced live shows will feature closed captions
Twitch is making its own live broadcasts much friendlier to deaf and hearing-impaired viewers. The live streaming platform’s weekly show that airs every Friday, the Kappa Theater panels and all the TwitchCon 2016 events it’s streaming later this month will feature closed captions. Even better, Twitch won’t be using speech-to-text software that could mangle sentences — the company has hired human stenographers to type out captions on the fly.
While the stenographers Twitch has hired will only be working on company-produced videos, you can also take advantage of the new feature if you’re a broadcaster. It won’t be easy, since you’ll have to provide the captioned content, but you can check out more details on Twitch’s Help Center if you’re interested. To note, the caption system is new, but this is more of an expansion than a debut. The AbleGamers Charity team took it for a spin back in August, when they held a weeklong streaming marathon featuring broadcasters with disabilities.
Source: Twitch
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