HTC Ocean concept leaks online with no physical buttons in sight

HTC could be heading towards a button-less smartphone future if a recent concept design is to be believed. Called the HTC Ocean, it’s been shown off in a rendered video running a new Sense Touch user interface. What’s interesting is that the new UI relies solely on voice commands and, as the name suggests, touch gestures.

The new phone was spotted and shared on Twitter by usually reliable leakster Evan Blass, who linked to a video he found on Danelle Vermeulen’s website; Danelle is a longtime visual and motion designer for HTC. Danelle says the video is “just a conceptual piece and does not represent any real product from HTC”.

That may be true, but it could inspire future products from the Taiwanese company. The video has since been password protected on Vermeulen’s site, perhaps in an attempt to keep it a secret, although you can still view it on Evan Blass’s Twitter.

From the video, it seems the Sense Touch UI is very slick in operation, although just how slick it will be in the real world of course remains to be seen. But the fact it relies almost completely on voice commands to open apps, call friends, schedule meetings and play music looks mighty clever.

Twitter account LlabTooFeR has further added to the Ocean rumours by claiming current codenames are Ocean Master, Ocean Note and Ocean Smart, suggesting we could in fact see three new devices from HTC in the future. Whether they’ll all be smartphones or if there’ll be a tablet thrown into the mix isn’t yet clear.

ICYMI: In the future, rooms will read your emotions

Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Lab created a wireless detector that can read whether people are excited, happy, angry or sad by checking their breathing and heart rate. EQ Radio has an 87% success rate and doesn’t use a single body sensor.

If you’re interested in the Ghost Robotics video, that’s here and the hacking video showing how a Tesla Model S was remotely controlled is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

A closer look at Olympus’ OMD-EM II flagship mirrorless camera

Is Olympus hampered by its micro four-thirds sensor when mirrorless rivals have APS-C and Fujifilm just launched a medium-format camera? I had a look at the company’s new OMD-EM1 Mark II flagship during Photokina, and the company is doing its best to prove it’s not. By marrying a brand-new 20.4 megapixel sensor to a dual quad-core TruePic VIII image processor, Olympus has made a blazingly quick camera. Combined with a new 121-point phase detection AF system, It can shoot 18 RAW frames per second in continuous autofocus and exposure mode, and a crazy 60 fps with those locked off.

During my admittedly brief tests with the prototype (under controlled conditions), it was able to sustain that 18fps rate for a good 5-10 seconds before it started to slow down. It was then ready to fire again after a brief rest, thanks to the UHS-II card’s nearly 300 MB/s throughput. Photo transfers should be equally quick with the USB 3.0 Type C bus. That kind of speed may tempt news, sports and wildlife photographers who would normally turn their noses up at a micro four-thirds sensor.

The OMD-EM1 II isn’t the lightest mirrorless camera I’ve tried, but it’s a feather compared to any flagship DSLR — another plus workaday photographers. Purists may decry the lack of an optical viewfinder, but the 2.36 million dot EVF has a minimal 6 millisecond delay and very smooth 120fps frame rate. During a brief test, it was just as good as an OVF for focus (if not better), to my eyes. Olympus also redesigned the grip for better handling, and, combined with the sturdy build quality, the camera feels very, very good.

Olympus is finally getting its act together with video, too. The OMD-EM1 Ii has 4K, 30fps video at up to 237 Mbps speeds, and the fast sensor readout significantly reduces rolling shutter, the company claims. Like Panasonic’s GH4, it also supports “Cinema 4K” at 4,096 x 2,160 resolution, compared to regular 4K (3,840 x 2,160). Video is processed internally at 4:2:2 for better colors, and can be output cleanly through the HDMI port to an external recorder.

Olympus also unveiled a battery grip, lenses and other accessories. The 25mm f/1.2 lens will give photographers a fast lens option for low-light, and a wafer-thing focus plane for artistic bokeh shots.

Given the limited time I had with it, the OMD-EM1 Mark II looks like a great flagship. However, Olympus is still battling the mindset that a micro four-thirds sensor is too small for the job. Its toughest rivals, Sony and Fujifilm, also make cameras that shoot fast and do 4K video, but pack larger APS-C sensors. And by launching a medium-format mirrorless camera, Fujifilm is telling serious shooters that even full-frame sensors aren’t big enough.

If the image quality of the OMD-EM1 II matches the speed and specs, Olympus may convince some pros, and serious amateurs, however. That might depend on the price, which we still don’t know, but the original OMD-EM1 ran $1,400. It should arrive before the end of the year.

We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Photokina 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

How to Perform a Clean Installation of macOS Sierra

macOS Sierra is Apple’s latest desktop operating system, which succeeds OS X El Capitan and adopts a new name to bring it in line with iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The OS will come pre-installed on all new Macs once current stock is depleted and is a free download for existing Mac owners.

The main new feature in macOS Sierra is deep Siri integration, bringing Apple’s personal assistant to the Mac for the first time. It also adds new features to Photos and Messages, and includes Continuity smarts like Universal Clipboard and an Auto Unlock option for Apple Watch owners.

This tutorial explains how to download macOS Sierra and perform a clean install, which offers several benefits over the automatic upgrade process included in the installation package.

Benefits of a Clean Install

A clean install can remove annoying quirks and strange behaviors that your Mac may have inherited over time due to driver upgrades, wonky apps, and messy installation procedures. Performing a fresh install can also reclaim lost disk space caused by junk files left by third-party apps, and can generally make your Mac feel a lot snappier, enabling you to relive that feeling of booting it up for the first time.

To complete the clean install procedure described below, you’ll need an 8GB or larger USB thumb drive and an hour or two to spare.

You should also perform a full backup of your Mac beforehand using Time Machine. That way you can restore your system from the Recovery partition if something goes wrong. Alternatively, save a bootable mirror image of your system to an external drive using a clone utility like SuperDuper! ($27.95) or Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.99).

Compatibility Check

Before you do anything, check that your Mac is compatible with Apple’s new operating system. macOS Sierra supports the following:

• iMac (Late 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Air (2010 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)
• Mac mini (2010 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (2010 or newer)
• Mac Pro (2010 or newer)

Another way of checking if your Mac is compatible is to open the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your Mac’s screen and selecting About This Mac. Look just below the OS X version number in the Overview tab – if the Mac model name is the same or a later model year than the one shown in the compatibility list above, your Mac is compatible with Sierra.

Pre-Install Notes

If you want total control of what data gets transferred to the new OS, you can sidestep the Migration Assistant and manually copy any important files and folders on your existing system to an external drive instead. It’s also worth taking a screenshot of your desktop, to serve as a record of how you like things set up.

Some users may find it useful to make a note of the contents of their Applications folder for later reference. A screenshot may suffice (Command-Shift-4, then Space to capture the Finder window), but if not, the following steps describe a simple way to create a list of apps.

Open the Applications folder and press Command+A to select all apps in the Finder window, then press Command+C.

Now open up TextEdit, create a new document, select Format -> Make Plain Text from the menu bar, and press Command+V to paste a list of app names into the document.

If necessary, add details of download locations for any non-Mac App Store apps you use, append any serial numbers you might need, and save the text document to an external drive.Be sure to allow any cloud services you use to complete synchronization before continuing. It’s also worth screen-grabbing or noting down any custom preferences, settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and app-specific profiles you use.

Lastly, de-authorize any services on your Mac, including your iTunes account (iTunes menu > Store > Deauthorize this Computer), since these are usually limited to a set number of systems.

Create a Bootable Installer

Download the macOS Sierra installation package from the Mac App Store. Once it has downloaded, follow these steps to create a USB bootable installer.
Open Disk Utility (found in the Applications/Utilities folder), select the thumb drive in the sidebar and click the “Erase” button.

Name the USB drive “Untitled” if it isn’t already, choose the Format “OS X Extended (Journaled)”, and click “Erase”. Once your thumb drive is formatted and the macOS installation package has finished downloading, open up Terminal (found in Applications/Utilities).

Now, ensure the USB drive is the only disk named “Untitled” connected to your Mac, and then paste the following command into the Terminal window, and press Enter: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app –nointeraction

You should be prompted for your administrator password. Enter it, and the command will create a bootable Sierra installer on the USB drive. The process will take a few minutes to complete, so leave it running.

Restart and Install

Once the USB installer has been created, restart your Mac and hold down the Option key as soon as you hear the reboot tone. Then follow these steps:

Use the mouse pointer or the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the disk called “Install macOS Sierra” in the drive list that appears on the screen.

Once the USB drive has booted, select “Disk Utility” from the Utilities window, choose your Mac’s startup drive from the list, and click “Erase”.

When your Mac’s startup disk is formatted, return to the Utilities window and select “Install macOS”, choose your freshly erased startup drive when asked where to install the OS, and follow the onscreen prompts to complete the installation.

Post-Install Steps

Once the clean installation of macOS Sierra is up and running on your Mac, you can either restore your data from a Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant (found in Applications/Utilities), or begin restoring your apps, files, and settings manually to get your Mac set up just the way you like it.

Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
Tag: macOS
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How to Use Siri in macOS Sierra

With macOS Sierra, Apple has finally brought its well-known personal assistant, Siri, to the Mac. Siri for Mac differs from iOS’ version of Siri in several ways, taking advantage of the larger real estate of a Mac’s display and the Finder file system. Users can also easily transfer or pin Siri’s search results to the Notification Center or documents they’re working on. To help you get started with Siri for Mac, we’ve put together a guide outlining what it’s capable of.

Activating Siri

There are three ways to activate Siri in Sierra. Two of the methods are visually obvious while the third is not.

• The Dock icon sitting in between the Finder and Launchpad logos.
• The Menu Bar toggle in between the Spotlight search and Notification Center icons.
• The keyboard command. Hold the Command and Space buttons for approximately two seconds.

Siri can be enabled two ways. While you’re installing macOS Sierra, there’ll be a prompt asking you whether you’d like to enable Siri. Additionally, Siri can be enabled and disabled in the Siri section of System Preferences. There are several other options for Siri in System Preferences, including language, voice, voice feedback, mic input and customized keyboard shortcuts.

What Siri for Mac Can Do

Siri for Mac can do most of the same things Siri for iOS can do. It can give you sports scores or tell you about the weather. Schedule an event on your calendar, remind you what you need to get done today or find movie times. Here’s a full list of the things that carry over to the Mac.

• Launching and searching for apps.
• FaceTime and Messages
• Sports scores, team schedules, league standings, and player and team information.
• Photo search.
• Maps and navigation.
• Twitter and Facebook posting, plus Twitter search.
• Movie information, showtimes, movie theater locations, movie reviews and award trivia.
• Apple Music, radio and music identification.
• iTunes, iBooks and Podcasts.
• Reminders, calendar stocks, weather, contacts, clock, Find My Friends, email and notes.
• Web search and Q&A, like unit measurements, facts and figures, and simple math.
• Settings / System Preferences

Siri has two new abilities that are built specifically to take advantage of the Mac:

• Finder
• About this Mac

Siri’s Mac-Specific Abilities

Unlike Siri for iOS, Siri for Mac’s dialogue box only takes up a portion of the screen. This allowed Apple to build Siri to be better utilized for multitasking. For example, Siri can be used to send a message to a friend while you’re writing an email or working on a document. It can also find restaurant reservations for you while you’re in the middle of a conversation with a friend.

Because Siri is built for multitasking on a Mac, some of its results are more interactive, allowing you to combine them with other apps. These are some of the things you can do with Siri’s results in macOS Sierra.

• Pin photo results or sports team schedules to the Notification Center by clicking the + icon.
• Drag files from Siri’s Finder search to the desktop.
• Drag and drop search results from photo searches into emails, messages, documents and the desktop.
• Drag and drop map locations into emails, messages and documents.

Siri’s Settings category is referred to as System Preferences to better match macOS’ verbiage, but Siri can also do some things on a Mac that it can’t do on an iPhone. These are new settings abilities Siri has gained:

• Putting your computer to sleep.
• Changing your desktop wallpaper.
• Changing your display settings.

Finally, there are some specific hardware requests that Siri can fulfill. In addition to asking Siri to turn up your volume or turn off your Bluetooth, Siri can tell you about your Mac.

• How fast your Mac is.
• How much memory your Mac has.
• What your Mac’s serial number is.
• How much free space your Mac’s hard drive has.
• How much iCloud storage you have.
• What version of macOS you’re running.

All of Siri’s Mac abilities can be used at any time. Siri will pause any audio or video you might have been playing when you activated it. This includes audio and video in your web browser, like SoundCloud tracks or YouTube videos.

Siri’s dialogue box will also stay on your screen no matter where you are, whether on the desktop or in a full-screen app. It’ll also stay in place as you navigate to different spaces. Siri can be deactivated by clicking the small “x” in the top right corner of its dialogue box.

Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
Tag: Siri
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Apple in Talks to Acquire Luxury Carmaker and Formula One Team McLaren

Apple has approached British luxury carmaker McLaren Automotive about a potential acquisition, likely to be valued at between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion, according to Financial Times.

The California technology group, which has been working on a self-driving electric vehicle for more than two years, is considering a full takeover of McLaren or a strategic investment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations who said talks started several months ago.

A tie-up with McLaren, whose expertise ranges from automotive engineering and on-board computer systems to novel chassis materials such as carbon fibre and aluminium, could accelerate Apple’s secretive automotive project. Apple and McLaren declined to comment.

McLaren, headquartered in Woking, Surrey, manufactures high-performance sports cars, including the P1 and F1. The carmaker also has a British Formula One team competing as McLaren Honda.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tags: ft.com, McLaren
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Canary expands its wings with Flex outdoor security camera

Canary first launched its current indoor security camera in 2014, promising full HD video recording and to warn you of any activity inside your home, recording it at the same time.

But the first Canary cam can only be used indoors, but now there’s a new model, that can be used both in and outdoors. The Canary Flex is billed as the first connected indoor/outdoor security camera. It’s fully weatherproof, making it ideal for capturing crooks coming up to your front door and, like the original model, the Flex will only alert you of strange happenings that it deems to be worthy of your attention.

• Canary: What is it, what does it do and how does it work?

It shouldn’t let you know every time a squirrel runs past for example. You needn’t worry about power for the Flex either, as Canary claims the built-in rechargeable battery is good for a few months use before it needs replenishing.

But to make sure you never run out of juice, Canary offers a similarly weatherproof magnetic wall plug.

If you already use a Canary security camera, you’ll be well aware of the companion app, but for those who don’t, the app acts as the main hub for all recorded content and notifications.

You can view recorded clips on your phone and even tap into the camera to view a live feed, call the police or set off the built-in alarm, which goes pretty darn loud.

Adam Sager, Canary CEO said: “Of all the firsts to be proud of, it is that we continue to lead the industry not just in what we build or how we protect our customers’ data, but in knowing that we are bringing people into a new relationship with their homes and meaningfully improving their lives”.

• Canary All-In-One Home Security System review
• Canary vs traditional security systems: What’s the difference?

Along with the launch of the Flex, Canary is unveiling a new subscription plan called Membership. Membership will let you access the previous 30 days of recorded footage and provide unlimited storage and unlimited video downloads.

Membership will cost €9.99/month for one device or €14.99 for 2-3 devices. Canary is also increasing the free video access limit from 12 hours of footage to 24 hours. The Canary Flex weatherproof security camera will be available in Europe from early 2017.