Affinity Photo image editing app is now out for Windows
If you’re looking for a much affordable alternative to Photoshop for Windows, you may want to check out this indie-made image editor. Affinity Photo, the same program that won Mac App of the Year in 2015, is now officially available for Microsoft’s OS. Its developers released a beta version for the platform in November, but the full version (with all the features Mac users enjoy) is now available for $40 until December 22nd — $50 after that. The app’s developers have also released a huge update for Mac with a bunch of new features that will also come with the newer Windows app, including the ability to edit 360-degree images.
In addition to “an all-new way to edit 360-degree images,” Affinity Photo version 1.5 offers all these:
- Macros to record and replay a set of commands
- Advanced HDR merge producing deep unbounded 32-bit images
- A full tone mapping workspace for both HDR and LDR images
- Focus stacking to achieve large depth of field from multiple images
- Full batch processing to process large folders of images in one go
- Direct PSD write-back
- 32-bit editing including OpenEXR import & export
- Automatic lens corrections based on profiles of thousands of lens & body combinations
The free update also adds support for the Touch Bar, the secondary OLED screen that takes the function keys’ place on the latest MacBook Pro. To read more about version 1.5 and to buy the app for either or both platforms, make sure to head over to the app’s website.
Source: Serif
Samsung to Pre-Empt Apple’s ‘iPhone 8’ With Bezel-Free Display and Virtual Home Button on Galaxy S8
Samsung will beat Apple to the punch in next year’s smartphone wars by including features in its Galaxy S8 handset that have long been mooted for the 2017 “iPhone 8”, such as a bezel-free wraparound OLED screen with a virtual home button embedded in the display.
Bloomberg on Thursday referred in its favored manner to “people with direct knowledge of the matter” who said that Samsung is targeting a March release for the redesigned S8, but that launch could be delayed by about a month as the company adopts tougher testing procedures in the wake of the Note 7 debacle. Apple’s smartphone launch cycle usually runs on a yearly September release.
Samsung is understandably wary of the dangers of rushing its smartphone development after quality control reportedly suffered in the company’s race to release the feature-rich, but ultimately fire-prone, Note 7.
“Since the phones have a record of burning up, it needs time for these phones to be verified as safe. How safe the phones turn out to be is more important than any hardware innovation,” said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co. “It will take about a month or two for people to actually start opening their pockets,” he said.
The bezel-less devices will come in sizes similar to Samsung’s 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch S7 Edge models. Samsung is also said to be introducing a “significantly differentiated” voice-activated personal AI assistant in the handsets that will be able to send text messages, make phone calls and manage calendar schedules. The AI technology will come courtesy of Viv Labs, which was founded by the developers of Apple’s Siri and acquired by Samsung in October. Samsung is considering scrapping dual-cameras on the S8 due to high manufacturing costs, Bloomberg sources said. According to a separate report, the models will also drop the headphone jack.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi made a splash back in October by debuting an almost bezel-less display with the Mi Mix “concept phone”, boasting a screen that covers 91 percent of the front of the handset. While Xiaomi’s limited-availability phone was more a proof of concept than a device ready for the mass market, both Samsung and Apple will be relying on the mainstream appeal of similarly standout features to boost unit sales in a stagnant market short on innovation.
In the near term, Samsung is desperate to bounce back from the impact of this year’s Note 7 recall and discontinuation, which could end up costing the company more than $6 billion. The Korean-based firm reported a 17 percent drop in net income in the three months ending September, and has advised investors to expect a multibillion dollar slump in earnings in the December and March quarters as its market share struggles to recover.
As well as a bezel-free OLED display and virtual home button, Apple is said to be readying an all-glass casing and wireless charging for its 10th anniversary iPhone, with the possibility of a new 5-inch premium model and two lower tier aluminum models also in the offing.
Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: Samsung, Galaxy S8
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Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge is now available in India for ₹50,900
You’ll be able to buy one starting December 15.
Samsung is continuing to roll out the Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge in global markets. The color variant is now available in India for ₹50,900, with sales kicking off December 15. The phone will be up for sale online, as well as offline stores.
Samsung is set to introduce the Pearl Black variant tomorrow in “select markets,” so we’ll have to wait and see if the color option will be made available here. If you’ve been holding out for a Galaxy S7 edge, now’s as good a time as any to get it.
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Galaxy S8 may feature an ‘all-screen’ bezel-less display
Get ready for a bezel-less panel on the Galaxy S8.
Following on from rumors that Samsung is ditching the home button on the Galaxy S8 (as well as the 3.5mm jack), Bloomberg is now reporting that the phone will feature an “all-screen front” with a bezel-less display:
The bezel-less displays will provide more viewing real estate while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the the lower section, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details haven’t been released. The new phones will only come with wraparound displays using organic light-emitting diode technology, the people said.
Samsung Display is said to have invested significant resources into creating a panel with a display area ratio exceeding 90%. The panel will feature a fingerprint sensor that’s embedded within the glass, negating the need for a dedicated home button.
It looks like Samsung will also retain the 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch form factors with the Galaxy S8, and the company will stick to offering a combination of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and its in-house Exynos SoC for various markets.
The Galaxy S8 won’t be the first to feature a bezel-less panel. Xiaomi has that honor with its revolutionary Mi Mix, but the phone is sold in limited quantities in China. If Samsung decides to go bezel-less with the Galaxy S8, it will be the first company to do so at scale.
Bluetooth 5 is here with double the speed, four times the range of Bluetooth 4.2
Next-gen Bluetooth will be rolling out in the coming months.
Bluetooth 5 was announced in June, and today the Bluetooth Special Interest Group revealed that the spec is now finalized, making it ready for adoption. The new standard offers double the bandwidth, four times the range, and eight times the broadcast message capacity of Bluetooth 4.2.
Increased bandwidth leads to lower latency, and more range means that the connection to a paired device won’t cut out after five feet. The SIG claims that with Bluetooth 5, you’ll get whole-home coverage, and far less interference with similar wireless technologies. You’ll also be able to transmit more data using the protocol thanks to the increase in message capacity.
Commenting on the launch, the SIG’s executive director Mark Powell talked about how Bluetooth 5 can benefit the nascent IoT market:
Bluetooth is revolutionizing how people experience the IoT. Bluetooth 5 continues to drive this revolution by delivering reliable IoT connections and mobilizing the adoption of beacons, which in turn will decrease connection barriers and enable a seamless IoT experience.
This means whole-home and building coverage, as well as new use cases for outdoor, industrial, and commercial applications will be a reality. With the launch of Bluetooth 5, we continue to evolve to meet the needs of IoT developers and consumers while staying true to what Bluetooth is at its core: the global wireless standard for simple, secure, connectivity.
The first consumer products with Bluetooth 5 will make their debut early next year.
The 2017 iPhone 8 may be called iPhone 7S after all
We’ve been reporting on news and rumours surrounding the 2017 Apple iPhone for a while now, with many of them saying the next iteration of Apple’s smartphone will be a major redesign to coincide with its 10th anniversary.
- Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?
Well, Taiwanese suppliers have now thrown a huge spanner in the works and said that we’ll see none of the predicted features next year. That includes a curved OLED screen, glass body, a home button replaced by an embedded fingerprint scanner and wireless charging. Instead, 2017 will now apparently usher in the arrival of the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S as is now customary since the iPhone 4S.
The suppliers are saying we won’t get the super-specced iPhone until at least 2018 because the features Apple wants won’t be ready in time for a September 2017 unveiling.
The same suppliers also say the only real difference between the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7S will be the processor, changing from an A10 chip to an A11, which will be smaller thanks to a 10 nanometer fabrication process.
With this new information, we’re not sure who to believe. A jump straight to iPhone 8 is out of the ordinary for Apple, but we can see why the company would do it, and several different analysts, all of whom have been reliable in the past, have been pointing to an iPhone 8 for September 2017.
- Apple iPhone 7 Plus review: Big changes from the big iPhone
It also seems strange that Apple would only change the processor chip for a new phone. Some people already think the current iPhone 7 doesn’t represent a huge upgrade over the 6S, so they’re almost certainly going to think the same with the 7S if that’s the case.
We’ll take this one with a pinch of salt for now, and will update you with any further news as and when we hear it.
PaRappa the Rapper coming to a smartphone near you, time to jump, kick…
There’s a lot of talk about Mario’s mobile debut at the minute, with Super Mario Run to be released for iPhone and iPad on Thursday 15 December, but there’s one games character coming to smartphone that has us even more excited.
Not content with giving us a remastered, 4K version of the original PaRappa the Rapper for PS4 early next year, Sony is bringing the hip-hop pooch to mobile too. We’re not yet sure if it will be the full PaRappa experience, as on PlayStation One all those many moons ago, nor do we know whether there are plans to release the app outside of Japan, but just the thought has us jigging around like Sunny Funny on a cake rush.
- Best PS4 game trailers for 2017: The Last of Us 2, new Uncharted, PaRappa The Rapper and more
The game will be part of a push by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s mobile games publishing arm, ForwardWorks, to bring classic PlayStation characters to mobile in different forms. Hot Shots Golf, Wild Arms and Arc The Lad are also titles planned for the start of 2017.
After the unbelievable success of Pokemon Go and undoubted interest in Super Mario Run, who can blame it?
We’ll bring you more on PaRappa’s smartphone outing when we know more, but in the meantime you can watch him in all his PSOne glory with an entire playthrough video below. Naturally, it contains many spoilers.
Windows 10 desktop apps are coming to mobile thanks to collaboration with Qualcomm
Microsoft and Qualcomm have announced a new partnership that will mean device manufacturers can build Windows Mobile devices capable of running full Windows 10 desktop apps.
- 10 features you’ll love in Windows 10
- Microsoft Windows 10 Creators Update: What’s new?
Microsoft has already tried doing a similar thing before with Windows RT, but the first device to be released as part of the project, the Surface RT, was a bit of a flop. While the hardware was decent, the fact it couldn’t run full desktop apps and didn’t have mobile versions of some popular apps meant it was a little bit useless.
Thankfully that’s now all set to change and now Microsoft is ready to release products with the best of both worlds: “For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Window they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC”.
Microsoft added: “hardware partners will be able to build a range of new Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs that run x86 Win32 and Universal Windows apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office and popular Windows games”.
These new mobile devices that are capable of running a full Windows experience will be primarily targeted at non-power users. Those who want Windows in an affordable, light and mobile device.
New devices can be expected as early as next year and will likely use a Snapdragon 835 processor, although Microsoft has already demonstrated Windows Enterprise running on a mobile device with a Snapdragon 820. The more powerful 835 processor should make things even quicker and more power efficient.
Fans set to launch new classic World of Warcraft server this month
At the end of August, Blizzard released Legion, the sixth expansion for its long-standing fantasy MMO World of Warcraft. One contingent of the game’s fans probably didn’t buy it: The 800,000-strong players who maintained an expansion-free “vanilla” version of the game on their own server, Nostalrius, until the megastudio shut it down last April. Some hope remained while Blizzard pondered whether to launch their own “pristine” servers without expansion content or third-party add-ons. But fans tired of waiting for a studio-blessed Legacy iteration of the game have once again created their own server, Elysium, which is set to go live on December 19th.
The new server won’t have anything new, which is the point: Players will enjoy a version of World of Warcraft rolled back to 2006, just before the launch of the first expansion The Burning Crusade. It’s largely built from the code used in the old Nostalrius server. After Blizzard had the old Legacy version shut down back in Spring, a 250,000-signed online petition convinced them to invite some Nostalrius administrators to a sit-down; in good faith, they withheld the server’s source code in hopes that the studio would release an official classic instance of the game for Legacy-loving players to use.
But according to the Nostalrius team, Blizzard didn’t follow up with them, and after no announcements for a non-expansion server at November’s Blizzcon 2016, they publicly released their classic server’s source code to the Legacy community. The Elysium Project, which included several Nostalrius team alumni, rolled the code and player information from the old server into its forthcoming release. After stress tests in the past weeks, the team announced that Elysium would be ready to launch in a couple weeks. Whether Blizzard will similarly serve this new Legacy server with cease-and-desist orders is unclear.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: The Elysium Project
BBC tests 4K iPlayer with ‘Planet Earth II’
For four glorious minutes, Brits will be able to watch Planet Earth II in 4K. The broadcaster is releasing some “experimental footage” in the ultra HD resolution today, which viewers can watch until “early next year” on a small number of Panasonic TVs. It’s a short clip, featuring a frog in a luscious jungle and a jaguar stalking its prey. The new footage also uses Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG), a form of High Dynamic Range (HDR) which promises sharper and more colourful images. The BBC says the test clip is an “early but important step” towards offering 4K full-time on iPlayer.
Planet Earth II, like its predecessor, has some stunning cinematography. From back-rubbing bears in the Canadian Rockies to cliff-diving penguins on Zavodovsky Island, the show has captured some extraordinary scenes. With this in mind, it’s no surprise the BBC has chosen the documentary series for its 4K test. We would have preferred a full episode — the entire season, even — but we’ll take four minutes over nothing at all. If you bought a 4K TV on Black Friday, or suspect you’ll be unwrapping one this Christmas, the footage should be perfect for impressing family and friends.
Here’s the full list of compatible TVs, via the folks at Wired: Panasonic, CX680 Series, CX700 series, CR730 series, CX800 series, CR852 series, CZ950 Series, DX902 Series (65,58,50), DR852 series (65,55), DX802 series (58,50), DX750 series (65,58,50), Dx720 series (58, 50), DX700 Series (58,50), DX680 Series (55,49,40) and DX650 series (55,49,40).
Via: Wired
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