Apple Given Didi Chuxing Board Seat Following $1 Billion Investment
Shortly after making a $1 billion investment in Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, Apple was given a seat on the board, reports The Information. News originally suggested Apple had not received a board seat as part of the deal, but regulatory filings suggest a board appointment happened late in June.
Tim Cook with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu
The board appointment occurred in late June, according to a regulatory filing. It reinforces the gravity of Apple’s investment, which influenced Uber’s decision to sell its China operations to Didi at the end of July. Didi had a large lead in market share but Uber hoped Didi wouldn’t be able to keep raising capital. The Apple investment, while not the deciding factor, was personally disappointing to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, say people who know him.
Adrian Perica, Apple’s head of mergers and acquisitions, represents Apple on the board. A former Goldman Sachs investment banker, Perica has been with Apple since 2009 and has handled key acquisitions like Beats.
Known as the “Uber of China,” Didi Chuxing is the most popular ride sharing service in China. Apple’s May 2016 investment in the company came amid rumors Apple is developing its own electric car and was instrumental in helping Didi Chuxing acquire Uber’s Chinese operations in a $35 billion deal at the end of July.
Apple’s $1 billion investment in Didi Chuxing was a first for the company, but it does provide Apple with access to data and expertise on both electric an autonomous car technology, something that will undoubtedly come in handy as the company works to develop its own car product.
Apple’s “Project Titan” effort, described as an “open secret” by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is Apple’s car-building project. Apple is said to have a secret facility in Sunnyvale where it is developing car prototypes, and the most recent rumors suggest Apple is also focusing on autonomous driving software as part of a two-prong approach that will allow it to both develop its own car and create software that could potentially be used in third-party vehicles.
A partnership with a company like Didi Chuxing, which employs thousands of drivers, could give Apple a resource for testing future software products.
Tag: Didi Chuxing
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Netatmo Healthy Home Coach Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Netatmo
Like Netatmo’s first product — the Urban Weather Station — the Netatmo Healthy Home Coach is a cylinder that sits in your home and monitors the conditions around it. Announced today and available now, the $100 Healthy Home Coach tracks the same things as the indoor module of the Urban Weather Station — air quality, humidity, temperature, and noise. But, like the name suggests, the Home Coach also offers advice based on what it senses about the conditions in your home.
According to Netatmo, the advice takes your specific family into account. For instance, if you have a baby, you’ll be told if you’re keeping your home too cold for the well being of the child. You’ll be told to ventilate rooms if the air quality is poor. And you can monitor noise levels and the rest of these measurements in real time and see their recorded history in Netatmo’s iOS or Android app.
Do you need a coach?
You’ll obviously need to tell Netatmo quite a bit about your family to get tailored advice, and I’m sure some parents will bristle at the idea that an app knows more about how to care for their child than they do. Knowing the conditions in a specific room can be quite helpful, but that’s what the indoor module of the weather station is for. Honestly, I’m not quite sure why the Healthy Home Coach is being introduced as a new product rather than a software update to the existing app.
Air quality monitors
- Elgato Eve Room
- Withings Home
- Netatmo Urban Weather Station
Still, if you just want an indoor module, the $100 Healthy Home Coach will save you money over the full $180 Urban Weather Station and maybe that’s what Netatmo is doing here — rereleasing the indoor module on its own at a discount with free advice packed in. That’s fine, and like the existing Netatmo monitor, the Home Coach works with HomeKit so you can ask Siri to check the status of your home.
Hopefully, you’ll also be able to use the Home Coach to set up triggers via Apple’s HomeKit app, so a fan automatically turns on if the air quality dips below a certain point. That’s something we’ll look for when we test it for a full review.
Outlook
You can buy the Netatmo Healthy Home Coach now via the company’s site as well as at Lowes, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Amazon. Again, it’s $100 here in the US. In the UK, you’ll be able to purchase it for £100 starting October 15 on Netatmo’s site. The Healthy Home Coach is not available in Australia for now.
At the very least, I expect the Healthy Home Coach to take accurate readings — the Urban Weather Station does. If the advice actually adds anything to the experience that a person with common sense couldn’t figure out by looking at the readings, then the $100 price could be well worth it.
ELAC Uni-Fi UF5 review – CNET
The Good The Elac Uni-Fi UF5 sounds twice as good as speakers that cost twice as much. It’s crazy value for money.
The Bad Build quality could be better, bass definition suffers with complex material compared to some other speakers, and they may need an expensive amp to perform their best.
The Bottom Line The Elac UF5 are our favorite speakers under $1,000 combining unheard-of transparency with enough kick to tempt rock and dance fans.
Speaker designer Andrew Jones is on such a winning streak right now that, if he was a professional poker player, he should be hurtling out a side door as two burly men with goatees and cummerbunds dust their hands and warn him never to come back.
Following up his uniformly excellent Elac and Pioneer speakers was never going to be easy, but the new Uni-Fi UF5 floorstanders are superb. This speaker effortlessly combines the glorious midrange of the UB5 bookshelf speakers with the “rock” tendencies of the Elac Debut. If you’re hemming and hawing about which of the Elac models to buy let there be no doubt: It should be this one.
It’s not perfect — the build quality is behind Elac’s competitors, for example — but as before it’s the sound quality that you’re paying for here. We haven’t yet found a model under two thousand bucks that can hold a candle to these.
While the Elac UB5 was almost a carbon copy of Jones’ earlier Pioneer EBS73, the UF5 is its own animal. It’s better (and cheaper!) than the EFS73 floorstander. So the Elac UF5 snatches the crown from the Pioneers to become our new king of affordable tower speakers.
Design
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Have a decent size living area? Floorstanding speakers are what we recommend. The UF5 adds three 5.25-inch aluminum woofers to the same concentric 1-inch soft dome tweeter and 4-inch aluminum midrange driver used on the UB5.
The speakers are big at 38 inches high by 10 inches deep by 8 inches wide. To help with stabilization, they come with a set of screw-on feet and are fitted with carpet-piercing spikes. There are rubber caps in the box for use with hard floors. Elac’s UF5, UC5 center channel, and UB5 bookshelf speakers have extra-beefy binding posts that work with thick audiophile cables fitted with spades or banana connectors.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
The veneer is the same vinyl the company used with previous Elac models, and it’s also the one chosen by Klipsch. It’s fine, if prone to damage, but in general the speakers’ build quality isn’t quite up to the standard of the work Jones did with Pioneer, or even Elac competitors like Bowers and Wilkins or Klipsch.
The driver surrounds are probably the weakest part of this design. While they look OK with their silver finish, they don’t quite sit flush with the front of the speaker if you run your fingers around them — they may even feel “spongy”. We noticed early on in our testing that one had even come unseated and was audibly vibrating with bassy material. Pushing the surround in with a finger stopped the noise but we don’t remember this happening with any other speakers.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
If you prefer something a little sleeker, the company will also make a Slim version of this speaker and others in the UF range. It’ll come with the choice of a satin black or white painted finish. The slim version of the UF5 is also little thinner and a touch deeper and will cost an extra $400. Despite the change of dimensions, the company says the internal volume is the same and it will sound identical.
Nubia Z11 review
Nubia is still a relatively unknown brand in the Android world, but the Chinese company has been making in-roads into the competitive European and US markets with a slew of fantastic smartphones. Nubia is hoping to continue their rise in popularity with their latest flagship offering, the Nubia Z11, which has recently been released in Europe, with an US launch imminent as well.
- Nubia Z9 review
- Hands on with the Nubia Z11
Does this high-end smartphone bring enough to the table to stand out from the crowd and can it survive in the increasingly-competitive US market? We find out, in this comprehensive Nubia Z11 review!
Design
The Nubia Z11 may not have the most eye catching or original design, but it’s still a good looking phone that features a solid build quality. The device basically features a rectangular slab design, with a full metal unibody construction that puts its build quality at par with a lot of current generation flagships.
The rounded corners and slight tapers around the back and sides make it more comfortable to hold, but because the metal body doesn’t have any sharp or flat edges to help with the grip, the phone can be a little slippery and difficult to hold onto at times.
If you’ve come across a Nubia smartphone before, you will be familiar with the red accents that the company uses with their devices to make the phone stand out a bit, such as the ring around the camera and the bright red capacitive navigation keys that are found below the display. This particular unit is the standard silver model, but there is also a black and gold dual tone version that is more flashy, and looks really good and more unique.
Taking a look around the device, the volume rocker and power button are on the right side, and are positioned well enough to be comfortably within reach of your thumb. The buttons are also made of metal, with a nice tactile feel to them. On the left is the dual SIM card slot, with the secondary SIM slot also doubling as a microSD card slot, and up top is the headphone jack and IR blaster.
An IR blaster isn’t something that is often seen with smartphones anymore, but does provide a convenient way of controlling your television and other peripherals. Finally, at the bottom is the USB Type-C port which is flanked by what appears to be dual stereo speakers. However, the dual speaker grill design is present just for the sake of symmetry, with only the right side housing a single speaker unit.
Display
The Nubia Z11 comes with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, but unlike other competing flagships, the display resolution is 1080p instead of Quad HD, resulting in a pixel density of 403 ppi. The display gets very bright, features very saturated colors and good viewing angles, and provides plenty of sharpness. Doing anything, including reading text, watching videos, and playing games, is enjoyable, so unless you are using this device for VR, you aren’t going to easily notice the difference in resolution.
The Nubia Z11 features an eye catching display, but what makes it really stand out is that there appears to be no bezel on the left and right sides of it, something that Nubia was able to achieve by curving down the sides of the screen.
This design aspect is something you will be familiar with if you’ve used previous Nubia flagships, but it remains impressive to look at, and really makes it feel like you are holding just a screen in your hand. With the side bezels being so thin, the phone also feels a lot more compact when compared to other smartphones that feature 5.5-inch displays.
The curves on the side aren’t as drastic as what you will find with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge or Galaxy Note 7, but that didn’t stop Nubia from adding some software tweaks to take advantage of these slightly curved sides.
You can perform a variety of functions, like adjusting the display brightness by sliding two fingers up and down along the edges of the display, swiping up or down from the edge to switch between apps that are running in the background, swiping repeatedly from the edge to close all recent apps, or holding along the edge and swiping inwards to quickly switch to a specific homescreen.
This feature can be really useful, but is a little awkward to use, with there also being the fact that some of them aren’t that much faster than doing things the traditional way. I also ran into a lot of issues with accidentally triggering these features by just holding the phone. Fortunately, all of them can disabled if you come across the same problems, or don’t find them particularly useful.
Performance
Under the hood, the Nubia Z11 packs a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, backed by the Adreno 530 GPU and 4 GB of RAM, which is the standard processing package across the board when considering 2016 flagships. The black and gold version of the device not only looks better, but also comes with 6 GB of RAM and double the on-board storage.
The performance has been perfectly fine with the 4 GB of RAM version of the device. Even with Nubia’s heavy skin, it’s been very fast in day to day use, and handles launching apps, browsing the web, watching videos, and playing graphically-intensive games well. The only exception to the otherwise smooth performance is when it comes to multi-tasking, with the experience feeling very slow and clunky.
There is no dedicated recent apps key, so the way to access it is via a long press of the back button. The recent apps screen itself takes a few seconds to load. The apps are laid out in a horizontal swiping view, allowing you to see only a couple of apps at the same time, and swiping back and forth to switch between apps is a lot slower in comparison to something like the card stack layout of stock Android.
Hardware
64 GB is the available on-board storage, but as mentioned, the black and gold version with 6 GB of RAM doubles that to 128 GB. Expandable storage via microSD card for an additional 256 GB is an option as well, but since this utilizes the second SIM slot, users will have to make the choice between expandable storage and dual SIM capabilities.
There is a single speaker unit that is bottom-firing, which isn’t an ideal placement. However, the speaker itself sounds fine, and doesn’t get distorted or sound tinny at the highest volume. It is on the quieter side though, and can be a little difficult to hear with the volume set at around the 50% mark or lower.
On the back of the phone is a fingerprint sensor, that has worked extremely well. It is fast and accurate, doesn’t require a lot of time to setup, and there have been no problems when using it to unlock the phone. The scanner has been very reliable, and rarely has it misread my fingerprint, which easily puts it at par with some of the best smartphone fingerprint sensors currently available in the market.
The Z11 comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, and while Nubia claims that their battery optimizations will allow up to 2 days of battery life, my experience hasn’t matched that claim. With regular usage that involves social media, surfing the web, and a couple of hours of watching videos or playing games, the device comfortably allows for a full day of use, which is fine, but nowhere near what Nubia claims the battery is capable of.
If battery life is a concern, the device comes with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, allowing you to get back to a full charge in a short amount of time.
Camera
When it comes to the camera, the Nubia Z11 may not be packing any fancy dual lens setups that we’ve been seeing with a lot of other smartphones, but you do get some rather interesting features here. Up front is an 8 MP camera, which is definitely more than good enough to take care of all your selfie needs. On the back is a 16 MP shooter, with a f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization, and phase detection auto focus.
The camera app is straightforward and easy to use, but it does feel very iOS-like. You can swipe left or right to switch between different camera modes, and there are some built into this camera that make it unique and a lot of fun to use. For example, there is a Clone mode, that will overlap several photos to make it appear as though there are multiples of a person or object in a single shot. It does a good job of stitching these photos together for the most part, but it isn’t always perfect.
Another interesting mode is called Electronic Aperture, that lets you select an aperture from as wide a f/2.8, to as narrow as f/44. Changing the aperture will effectively change the shutter speed from as quick as 0.3 seconds to as long as 72 seconds, with the longer shutter speeds allowing you to capture some silky smooth motion blur with moving objects, while still keeping everything that is stationary in focus.
The Z11 has three types of stabilization built in to allow you to use this feature with just your hands, but in my experience, the results were still much better with a tripod, especially if you are using shutter speeds that are over a minute long.
The general picture quality is actually quite good. The shots taken are pleasantly sharp and detailed, and there’s enough color to make them pleasing to the eye, but without going overboard and looking oversaturated and unnatural. However, it does have the tendency to overexpose and blow out highlights, but this issue can be alleviated by using HDR mode.
What I like most about HDR mode with this camera is that it will automatically take a standard shot and HDR shot in one take, which can ultimately save you a lot of time, and avoid the hassle of switching back and forth between HDR and standard modes.
In low light situations, the camera tends to hunt for focus a lot, which makes the shooting experience feel a lot slower. That said, shots taken in poorly-lit environments still have a relatively good amount of detail. There isn’t a whole lot of grain or noticeable noise reduction to be seen, but there are still problems with properly exposing highlights, which is also seen with day time shots.
Software
On the software side of things, the Nubia Z11 is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with version 4.0 of Nubia’s user interface, which drastically changes the entire Android experience. The interface is cluttered with bright and cartoon-ish icons, there are a lot of transparency effects, and there is also no app drawer.
It is jam packed with a slew of interesting features though. If you long press on the fingerprint scanner, or hold the volume down button and volume rocker, you will get the option to take a long scrollable screenshot, a standard screenshot that you can crop different shapes like hearts or circles out of, or create a recording of the screen.
My favorite feature has to do with how this phone handles split screen multi-tasking. To enter this mode, all you have do is swipe up from the bottom of the display, but instead of giving you a list of applications like you would see with other smartphones that feature split screen multi-tasking, the Nubia Z11 splits the screen into two separate desktops.
It’s a very different approach, but by doing it this way, you are able to use virtually any application you want, with the exception being the camera. That said, just because you can use any app doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. For example, apps like games can open in the split screen view, but these aren’t exactly split screen friendly. However, apps for social media, email, text, and web browsing all work just as you would expect.
Specifications
| Display | 5.5-inch IPS LCD display 1080p resolution, 403 ppi |
| Processor | 2.15 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Adreno 530 GPU |
| RAM | 4/6 GB |
| Storage | 64/128 GB expandable via microSD up to an additional 256 GB |
| Camera | 16 MP rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, OIS, PDAF, dual LED flash 8 MP front-facing camera |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.1 GPS + GLONASS NFC IR USB Type-C 1.0 |
| Battery | 3,000 mAh |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Dimensions | 151.8 x 72.3 x 7.5 mm 162 grams |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
Pricing for the Nubia Z11 in the US is still to be determined, but in Europe, the device is currently priced at €499 (~$560) for the standard version, and €599 (~$673) for the black and gold edition. Hopefully these prices are not an indication of what the eventual cost in the US will be, as these will make the Nubia Z11 a rather expensive smartphone to get your hands on.
There you have it for this in-depth review of the Nubia Z11 ! The big question here is whether this smartphone is worth getting over other current generation flagships. The Z11 is a solid high-end device from Nubia, but it doesn’t necessarily offer a lot of compelling reasons to be considered a better option that its competition. Had it released in the US a lot earlier, it would have garnered a lot more attention, but at this point, there are numerous great options at different price points, and Nubia might be a little late to the party.
Nexus owners: Android 7.1 Nougat coming in late October
Google has confirmed that it will be running a beta programme for Android 7.1 Nougat starting later in October.
That will come as welcome news for Nexus owners, with the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P joining the Pixel C as the first devices to get access to the beta.
The aim of the beta is to enable developers to prepare their apps for the new features that Android 7.1 will offer. It’s only an incremental update to Android 7.0 Nougat, but does have a few additional changes, like support for Daydream VR and the new app shortcut feature, which will give you more options from an app icon, a little like Apple’s 3D Touch options.
Google has confirmed that other Nexus devices will get access to the beta in the future, so we’d expect the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 to follow on, probably in November.
The beta programme might make your device unstable or give you some elements that don’t quite work properly and if you don’t want to take that risk, don’t worry: there’s good news.
Google has also said that the final release of Android 7.1.x is due in early December, when it will roll out to all devices – the new Pixel and Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Nexus 9 as well as some Android One devices.
For many, the big thing will be support for Daydream VR, meaning you’ll be able to take advantage of the Daydream View headset which launches in November.
Remember that you won’t be getting all the features that were announced on the Pixel phones – like Google Assistant – because some of these are staying as Pixel exclusives, including the Pixel Launcher.
For now, Google has said that if you device is enrolled in the beta programme then you’re all set to get the Android 7.1 update.
- When is Android 7.1 Nougat coming to my phone?
- Google Pixel exclusive features laid bare: What your regular Android phone won’t get
- Google Daydream View preview: The Pixel-perfect VR experience?
MIT’s Foundry software is the ‘Photoshop of 3D printing’
Because the materials from a 3D printer aren’t the most functional, their output has largely been limited to prototyping in the past. That should change in the near future with devices like MIT’s own MultiFab, which can print up to 10 different materials at a time, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of how to design such complex objects. That’s where the new program called Foundry, created by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory comes in.
According to MIT CSAIL, Foundry can import objects designed with traditional CAD programs like SolidWorks and then assign specific materials or properties to different parts of the object. While creating a multi-material object in the past might have required days of work and multiple 3D printers to create (assuming it was possible with existing technology at all), CSAIL says these sorts of designs can now be created in mere minutes. Rather than manufacturing a separate piece for each material in the finished product, the entire object can now be printed in one fell swoop.
“It’s like Photoshop for 3D materials,” said Kiril Vidimče, the PhD Student who is also the lead author of a new paper on Foundry, “allowing you to design objects made of new composite materials that have the optimal mechanical, thermal, and conductive properties that you need for a given task. You are only constrained by your creativity and your ideas on how to combine materials in novel ways.”
To show off their work, the CSAIL team built skis with retro-reflective surfaces, a ping pong paddle and an artificial bone they believe could one day be used for planning out surgeries. But for a real test of the software, the team spent an hour teaching the Foundry system to non-designers and then tasked them to build three multi-material objects — an artificial bone, an integrated tire and wheel, and a teddy bear. The Foundry newbies were able to build the three objects in 56, 48 and 26 minutes respectively.
Source: MIT CSAIL
Mac Sales Continue to Slide Amid Lack of Updates
Amid a continuing decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple is also experiencing a decline according to new PC shipping estimates from Gartner. During the third quarter of 2016, Apple shipped an estimated 5 million Macs, down from 5.4 million in the year-ago quarter for a 13.4 percent decline in growth.
Apple’s 3Q 2016 market share comes in at 6.7 percent, down from 7.3 percent in 3Q 2015, securing the company’s position as the number five worldwide PC vendor after Lenovo, HP, Dell, and Asus. While top PC vendor Lenovo saw a small drop in shipments, HP, Dell, and Asus saw growth in the range of two percent.
Gartner’s Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q16 (Thousands of Units)
Lenovo shipped an estimated 14.4 million PCs during the quarter, while HP shipped 14 million, Dell shipped 10 million, and Asus shipped 5.4 million. Acer, the number six worldwide PC vendor, was nearly on par with Apple’s shipments at 4.6 million units sent out. Shipments from other smaller manufacturers were at 15 million, a 16.2 percent decline from the year-ago quarter.
In the United States, Apple shipped an estimated two million Macs, a 10.7 percent decline from the 2.3 million shipped in 3Q 2015.
Gartner’s Preliminary U.S. Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q16 (Thousands of Units)
According to Gartner’s estimates, overall worldwide PC shipments fell 5.7 percent to 68.9 million units, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of decline, which it said is the “longest duration of decline” in the history of the PC industry.
Apple’s U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-3Q16 (Gartner)
IDC also released its own shipment estimates, noting a 3.9 percent decline in overall worldwide PC shipments. According to IDC’s numbers, which are very similar to Gartner’s, Apple shipped 5 million Macs during 3Q 2016, a decline of 13 percent from 3Q 2015.
Almost all of Apple’s Mac line is in desperate need of an update. Aside from the Retina MacBook, no other machines have received updates in 2016, leaving customers to eagerly await new models.
According to rumors, Apple is planning to introduce a revamped MacBook Pro as soon as next month, said to feature a redesigned, thinner body, a flatter keyboard, a wider pressure-sensitive trackpad, and most notably, an OLED display touch panel that replaces the physical function keys.
Touch ID may be built into this panel, and it will include updated Intel processors, improved graphics, and USB C/Thunderbolt 3 support. Other Macs, like the Mac Pro, the Mac mini, iMac, and the MacBook Air are due for updates, but it is not yet clear when these machines will receive refreshes.
Tags: IDC, Gartner
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Google announces Android 7.1 Developer Preview, coming late October
When will Android 7.1 be available for your Nexus? Sooner than you think.
Google has announced Android 7.1, Nougat’s first maintenance release, with a developer preview coming later this month.
According to Google, this “incremental update” builds on the strengths of Android 7.0, but adds some important new features, including Daydream support, A/B system updates, an app shortcut API for the new default launcher, and the long-awaited ability to use image keyboards.
Available as a Developer Preview later this month, Android 7.1 won’t be bundled with Google Assistant on regular Android devices — as expected, that’s a Pixel-only feature for now — but it will have support for many of the features we saw previewed on those phones earlier in October. This includes an API for rounded app icons and improved wallpaper filtering, as well as the aforementioned app shortcut support that will allow for five “key actions” taken directly from the home screen icon.
Google is also highlighting two important features for developers, though they also spill over to users: image keyboard support, which allows for non-text overlays as primary input methods; and storage user intents, which allow developers to send users to a screen that can “clear unused files and free up storage space on the device.”
The Android 7.1 Developer Preview will be released towards the end of the month for the Nexus 5X, 6P and Pixel C, according to Google, though the final release will include all devices, such as the Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Nexus Player and select Android One devices, that were included in the wider Nougat rollout.
It also appears that the Pixel and Pixel XL will receive an update to Android 7.1.x — whatever the public release is called — when it is released in “early December.” It remains to be seen if most manufacturers already testing Nougat for their flagships will skip Android 7.0 altogether and move to 7.1.1, since Google says it is “working with our partners to bring Android 7.1 to devices in the ecosystem over the months ahead.” Hopefully, devices like the LG V20, which ships with Android 7.0, and those being updated imminently, like the Moto Z, will not be negatively affected by this ambitious rollout plan, since they likely knew of Google’s intentions far earlier than the public.
Who’s excited?
Android 7.0 Nougat
- Android 7.0 Nougat: Everything you need to know
- Will my phone get Android Nougat?
- All Android Nougat news
- How to manually update your Nexus
- Join the Discussion
Samsung Galaxy S8 rumor roundup
After the catastrophe of the Galaxy Note 7, what can fans look forward to in the next Samsung flagship?
2016 started as a promising year for Samsung, with the Galaxy S7 series earning critical acclaim and commercial success. But the contrast with where we are now couldn’t be starker. Battery fires and a bungled recall process led to the cancellation of the Galaxy Note 7, making it the most calamitous smartphone launch ever, by a wide margin.
Samsung will already be looking ahead to its next flagship, the Galaxy S8, to pull it out of this quagmire and rebuild consumer trust. So what can we expect from such a crucial product? Let’s take a look.
Galaxy S8 build and form factor
Samsung has been slowly refining its metal and glass design language over the past couple of years, so it’s reasonably likely it’ll stick with this into 2017. A glass back allows Samsung to easily build in wireless charging, and it’s shown over the past year how the use of curved glass can create a phone that feels luxurious and unique.
Metal and glass have worked well for Samsung.
Speaking of which, there’s also the question of whether we’ll see an “edge” model Galaxy S8, as we have the past two years. The latest reports from Korea suggest that, like the Note 7’s subtly curved display, the GS8 might come in two models, both with Edge screens.
Sources said the company has already started securing display panels in two sizes — 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch — from its own display-making unit Samsung Display, the world’s sole producer of double-edged screens.
That might make the “edge” monicker redundant, so it’s possible we might instead be looking at a Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.
Galaxy S8 display — the first 4K Galaxy?
The next generation of flagship Samsung phones could significantly bump up the pixel density. In recent months rumors have swirled from the Korean press that Samsung will use a 4K display in its upcoming flagships.
Samsung Display showcased a 5.5 ultra-high definition 4K display with a pixel density of 806 ppi for virtual reality devices at the Society for Information Display, a display trade show, in California in March,” said an official of UBI Research.
“Considering various factors including the production yield rate for the next-generation display expected to improve in the coming months, the 5.5-inch AMOLED will be deployed in the next Galaxy smartphone, presumably, named the S8.”
The use of a curved display and a 4K panel would give Samsung two key differentiators for its new phones. While 4K is largely overkill for most things you’ll be doing on a phone, it’s a huge step forward for VR — a panel with 800+ pixels per inch would allow for much more detailed virtual reality experiences.
Of course, a 4K screen would also present some unique battery life challenges. Like Sony’s Xperia Z5 Premium, Samsung might choose to run in Quad HD mode in most apps in order to save power. The phone might only crank up to 4K when viewing photos or Ultra HD movies, or when using the Gear VR.
Galaxy S8 specs
Aside from the rumored display size and resolution, there’ve been indications that Samsung could choose a powerful new GPU from chip designer ARM to power a possible 4K display. The ARM Mali-G71 would be a significant upgrade from the earlier generation graphics processors used in the Galaxy S6 and S7.
According to ARM’s own documentation, the chip offers “40% better performance density and 20% external memory bandwidth saving compared to Mali-T880.” The Galaxy S7 and Note 7 use a variant of that GPU, the Mali-T800 MP12.
The docs for Mali-G71 provide reference specs based on a 16nm FinFET process, but Samsung is likely to use a more efficient 10nm process in its 2017 Exynos chip — which potentially means it’ll be even faster than ARM’s reference numbers.
The Mali-G71 is rumored to outperform the GPU used in Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 830, raising questions over whether Samsung will once again use a mix of Snapdragon SoCs and Exynos processors in various regions.
Galaxy S8 cameras
Cameras are one area of smartphone hardware that has yet to plateau, and in the past year we’ve seen plenty of innovation in this area from Apple, Google, Huawei and of course Samsung.
Samsung focused on low light performance in its 2016 flagships, and we’d expect this trend to continue into the next generation Galaxy phones — expect brighter lenses and bigger pixels, and for Samsung to likely remain around the sweet spot of 12 megapixels for its main camera.
But there’s been speculation over whether Samsung might take inspiration from the iPhone 7 Plus’s unique telephoto camera. As a company that’s always sought feature parity with Apple, we wouldn’t be surprised if a next-gen Galaxy eventually incorporates a second lens for clearer zoomed-in shots.
Galaxy S8 release date
An unveiling at or around Mobile World Congress is a good bet.
For the past three years, Samsung’s flagship phones have broken cover right before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. This year’s MWC show begins February 27, so an announcement date shortly before this is a good bet.
There’s been some speculation that Samsung might seek to launch the Galaxy S8 earlier than previous years in order to counter the fallout from the Galaxy Note 7. While this is certainly possible, we’re not sure appearing to rush a product to market after a previous model suffered serious quality assurance issues would be seen as a good thing.
However Samsung handles the launch of the Galaxy S8, expect the specter of the Note 7 to remain, and for Samsung to underscore additional steps it’s taking this time around to ensure the new phone is safe.
In light of recent events, the Galaxy S8 will be a vitally important launch for Samsung, as it looks to recover its reputation, and move past the biggest crisis in its corporate history.
First look: WatchAir Smart Antenna
Plucking HD signals out of the air is easy — but this wireless antenna system and DVR can make it smart, with some improvements.
A decent part of my hiatus away from Android Central has involved one thing — cutting the cord. And I’ve taken the $150 a month we were feeding to the cable company and whittled it down to about $83 with streaming services. That’s a savings of about $800 a year, which I’m now free to waste on other toys. (That’s how I see it, anyway.)
But this huge step into the future has also taken a step backward, with the use of an over-the-air antenna. Those of us of a certain age remember when an antenna was the only way to watch television. But they never really went away, and now they can handle high-definition signals. They’ve still been kind of dumb, though. You plug it directly into your TV, scan the channels, and go from there.
WatchAir hopes to make what has basically been a dumb operation — catching wireless signals from the air and showing them on the TV — and make it smart.
To do things right you want your antenna to be as elevated as possible, and facing toward the weakest signals. That’s not always possible, though, meaning I’ve got HD antennas attached to my windows, pointing the wrong direction.
WatchAir hopes to end that, taking what basically has been a dumb operation — antenna sucks in signals and feeds them to your TV — and make it smart. I got in on the Kickstarter campaign at $161 total. (They’ve since sent out review units, for what it’s worth.) There’s a lot of potential here, and a lot still left to do before this is a viable product I could recommend.
Let’s take a quick first look.
What it is
The idea of WatchAir is simple. It’s a high-def antenna that takes the TV signal and beams it to your phone or tablet. Or to any number of streaming boxes, like Roku, Android TV and Apple TV.
Or at least it will. It’s important to note at the outset that we’re in the early days of this project. The basic functionality — playing on a phone or tablet — works pretty well at this point. Other features, not so much. But WatchAir has a public roadmap of what it expects to have working in the weeks and months ahead. I’m eagerly awaiting proper support for streaming boxes, as well as Chromecast.
The ability to put an OTA antenna anywhere — not just near the TV — is key to getting a better signal.
The other major feature is (erm, will be) the ability to record, either to the 7GB of available internal storage, or onto a microSD card, or USB storage.
WatchAir is a singular product with two forms. One is “Upright mode,” wherein it acts as an OTA antenna and is mounted on a window or wall — wherever you can find the best signal. To that end, the WatchAir app (once connected) will help you find the best mounting location. For me, this was a pretty big selling point. I’ve been using OTA antennas for a little while now, but neither of the televisions in my house in a place where I can face an antenna to the west. And so I have issues with some local channels. I’ve got WatchAir in a different room, mounted against the glass. (The power cord is a little unsightly, but I’ll do my best later to tuck it out of the way.)
You also can use WatchAir in desktop mode. That’s where you connect an existing antenna (via an adapter), then use the app and recording features in the same manner. So you essentially get a cool little high-def over-the-air DVR. Do note that this isn’t a streaming service in the traditional sense. You’ve got to be on the same network to watch anything.
What it’s like to use
Setup is simple enough, I guess, if you’re used to setting things up all the time, and are used to the quirks of Wi-Fi Direct, and can deal with quick-start instructions that fail to mention that at some point you need to actually plug in the product. (Ah, the joys of Kickstarter.) WatchAir did run into some early software setup issues but quickly communicated them to users, and I was up and running in just a few minutes.
The WatchAir app still needs some work, but you can see the potential.
The apps themselves — on Android and on iOS — are nearly identical. They’re easy enough to use, but they’re not great. Design elements native to Android and iOS tend to be ignored. (Though I’d say they’re a little worse on Android than on the iOS version.) The thumbnail views are a nice touch, but the schedule grid is a little easier to quickly browse — at least until you end up in a subcategory that’s blank and leaves a ton of empty space. Like I said, the app still needs some serious work.
Either way, you tap a show, then hit the play button that appears at the top. (I’d rather see an option to play right from the thumbnail.)
If that seems like a lot of little gripes, well, it is. But don’t let that overshadow my excitement for WatchAir. This is the sort of bridge that we need to see between the archaic, analog world and the digital, smart future. Taking free, over-the-air content and doing something smart with it.
That’s not to say that you should rush out and buy WatchAir right this second. It’s very much still in its early stages, and growing pains are evident. If you’re an early adopter and don’t mind a little wonk — and have some money to spend on said wonk — have at it. The more cautious among us should wait. But if you’re a little adventurous and looking for a cool little way to make cutting the cord a little more mobile friendly, give WatchAir a look.
See on Kickstarter
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