‘Finder for AirPods’ App Can Help You Track Down a Missing AirPod

The lightweight nature and small size of Apple’s AirPods have caused concerns for current and future owners of the Bluetooth headphones, centering around how easy it could be to lose them. iOS developer Deucks has made an effort to alleviate some of that worry for owners with a new app called “Finder for AirPods,” [$3.99 Direct Link] which measures Bluetooth signal strength from a lost AirPod to guide the user in a hot-or-cold guidance system.

Similar in interface to Bluetooth trackers like Tile, Finder for AirPods uses an arc to assist users in finding a lost AirPod nearby. To begin the process users must choose which AirPod is missing, place the available AirPod in the Charging Case, and use an iOS device that’s already been paired with the AirPods to begin searching for the missing headphone. Deucks said he lost one of his AirPods immediately after buying them, resulting in the inspiration for Finder for AirPods.

I actually lost one of my AirPods on the first day, I spent hours looking for it and then thought of making an app that will help me find them, which it did.

MacRumors has tested out Finder for AirPods over the last few days, and as a general indicator of where the small AirPod is hiding the app has the potential to be helpful for users afraid of having to pay $69 for a replacement AirPod. There are some shortcomings, however, namely the possibility for obstructing environmental factors that play around with the Bluetooth signal to the app’s detriment.

In multi-story homes, Finder for AirPods’ signal can be unstable when the user is on one floor and the hidden AirPod is on another. Similarly, the app’s two sentence help phrases — “You’re getting closer” and “It’s around here” — fluctuate far too often to be successful guidelines. On the bright side, an unstable signal can have a positive aspect: once users know what to look for, they can eliminate certain locations in an area where the signal is reacting poorly and move to somewhere until the bar becomes stable, bringing them closer to their lost AirPod.

Otherwise, when near an AirPod that’s on the same floor, the meter is useful as an indicator of getting hotter or colder in the search. Users will have to already be near the lost AirPod due to the close proximity required for Bluetooth tracking between the paired iOS device and the missing headphone. For this reason, the tracking reliability also depends on the battery level of the missing AirPod — if it’s completely dead, users will be out of luck when trying to use Finder for AirPods.

Finder for AirPods is available on the App Store for $3.99 [Direct Link]. MacRumors was given a free code to test out the app.

Tags: AirPods, Find AirPods
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This is Project Neon, the new look Windows 10

MSPowerUser has obtained leaked images of the new look Windows 10 operating system, currently codenamed Project Neon. It’s said to be a minor update to Windows, and will roll out to computers later this year, after the Creators Update in April.

One of the main updates in Project Neon is a feature Microsoft is called “Acrylic”. Acrylic is where the background or sidebar will blur slightly to put more focus and attention on the app being used. There can also be blur within the navigation of an app. MSPowerUser has found out these features are called “Side-Nav Acrylic”, “Background Acrylic” and “In-App Acrylic”.

The update will also usher in a new feature for apps like Groove Music, where the artist photo and info will get smaller when you scroll down the page. If you already have the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build running on your machine, you may have noticed some of the new features already.

The design and interaction updates will make their way across to HoloLens as well, with visual elements being highlighted when you focus on them either by looking at them, or using a controller and cursor.

It’s not a monumental update to Windows 10 by any stretch, but the addition of some new animations, and design consistencies will be welcome nonetheless. It’s expected that Microsoft’s own apps will be updated first, with third-party integration to follow soon after.

Anova has a $99 version of its popular sous vide cooker

Tender, flavorful pork. Or chicken. Or anything else you can stuff into a ziplock bag and gently simmer in hot water. That’s the aim (and poor explanation) of sous vide — a cooking technique where digital machines can help to ensure temperature consistency, and often throw in some WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity on the way. Established player Anavo has announced three new Precision Cooker models, adding a $99 entry-level device with Bluetooth, a new mid-range model with WiFi that replaces its main cooker, and a pro-level cooker with touchpanel and what the team says is a “far more intuitive interface”.

The pro model will be able to store your recipes so you can move your cooking away from your smartphone. (It also has WiFi connectivity to wirelessly start things up when away from home.) The company was also showing off its Precision Oven. Revealed a few months ago, the company pitches it as the evolution of the oven and the microwave. As well as the promise of even temperatures throughout, it can also steam cook and even sear meats to keep the moisture inside. There’s no price, but it’ll land late in 2017.

While we didn’t get to sample any melt-in-your-mouth delicacies on the show floor at CES, the company does have prior form: Its Anova Precision Cooker is one of the best ones out there. With a cheaper option, and pro-level option for sous vide maniacs, now might be the time to start mastering a new cooking technique. The entry-level $99 cooker launches in spring.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Tilt tells augmented reality stories to kids with a rug and duvet

We’ve seen plenty of augmented reality storytelling apps, but Tilt goes a step further by tying them into colorful textiles that you’d actually want to put in kids’ rooms. The company’s SpinTales “Jungle Rug” and “Enchanted Duvet” ($99 each) work with mobile apps to let children dive into stories. And based on a quick demo at CES, it actually looks simple enough for kids to use on their own.

The Jungle Rug features a variety of colorful characters, while the Enchanted Duvet comes with fairy tales. Each product comes with three free stories, and the company says it’s working on developing more. At the moment, it’s focusing on public domain fairy tales and properties like The Jungle Book (the original Rudyard Kipling version, not Disney’s). You just have to hold up your phone or tablet to the specified areas of the rug or duvet to activate AR experiences, which could involve Little Red Riding Hood’s house popping out from the duvet, or a tiger crawling out of the rug.

Tilt says it has a patent on implementing AR technology with textiles, as well, which might make it a more tempting partner for big companies. The company also brings with it plenty of experience in the textile industry. It was spun off from Welspun, one of the world’s largest textile makers. It’s not hard to imagine a company like Disney licensing Tilt’s technology for their own product.

Delphi’s autonomous system will be available to automakers in 2019

Automotive supplier Delphi has made a of a habit of showing off its self-driving and other research vehicles at CES in recent years, and 2017 is no different. Except now it’s ready to commit to a 2019 launch date for its self-driving suite for automakers. I got to take a ride in a specially outfitted Audi on the streets of Las Vegas and walked away impressed.

There’s no shortage of autonomous systems being developed by automakers. Each uses a slightly different strategy to unlock the complex puzzle of a car driving down the road on its own without putting the occupants and those around it in danger. Delphi and its partner MobileEye are little different: They’re building a solution for any company that wants to outfit vehicles with nearly turn-key autonomy.

Automakers dipping their toes into this research area should take note. During a drive through Las Vegas it was clear the company is on the right track. Unlike other systems that typically drive so cautiously there’s a concern that the vehicle never finish its route, the Delphi system navigated city streets like an actual human.

It was able to do this thanks to a plethora of sensors on the front, side and back of the vehicle (all told: nine cameras, 10 radar and six Lidar). Together, they feed data to three processors that crunch the information to set the path the car, while also controlling the steering, brakes and acceleration.

While it’s not something that would be included in the launch of the car, a display was installed into the dash of the autonomous vehicle that showed a visual representation of how the car sees the world. It also showed how the company is using both traffic signal recognition and infrastructure data to see and verify using two sources if a light is red, yellow or green.

But while all of Delphi’s tech will be available to automakers in 2019, it’s expected to arrive on ride-sharing vehicles first. This mainly has to do with the high cost of the sensors and computers. But as more self-driving vehicles hit the road, the cost will come down and maybe sometime in the mid 2020s the rest of us will be able to buy our very own robot car.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Original iPhone Prototype With iPod Click Wheel Surfaces Online

An early prototype of the original iPhone has been shared online by Sonny Dickson, with a collection of images and a video that provide a glimpse into one version of the iPhone that Apple created and tested before ending up with the first iteration of the device. The prototype includes some similar features to the first generation iPhone, like an aluminium chassis, multi-touch compatible screen, 2G connectivity and Wi-Fi, but its entire user interface is taken directly from the click wheel system of Apple’s original iPod line.

Called “Acorn OS,” the prototype software includes an on-screen click wheel on the bottom half of the screen and a menu system on the top half, and the two are bisected by a bar with rewind, menu, play/pause, and fast-forward buttons. On the menu are options such as “Favorites”, “SMS”, “Music”, “Settings” and “Recents,” and it’s navigated by circling around the click wheel to go up and down, with a center press confirming an action, just like on the iPod.

Instead of the modern touch-driven interface we now call iOS, it featured an operating system dubbed “Acorn OS” (this was an internal code name, and it unclear if it would have kept that name if it had been released), which is derived from the acorn shown on boot.

Not much else is known about the device, apart from the fact that it differs heavily from the iPhone we know today, and that very few units running “Acorn OS” exist, with most of them likely being destroyed by Apple, a company in which there is a specific job role in relation to the destruction of prototypes.

Dickson references Apple’s patent for a “multi-functional hand-held device,” filed and published in 2006, as proof that such a prototype did exist at one point and could potentially have been an alternate version of the iPhone. In one of the patent’s drawings, a click wheel can be seen as a possible input method for the proposed device. The patent’s abstract describes a product with “at most only a few physical buttons, keys, or switches so that its display size can be substantially increased.”

It’s well known that to get to the current version of iOS we have today, Steve Jobs originally placed “iPod Father” Tony Fadell and Macintosh executive Scott Forstall in a head-to-head competition to come up with the best mobile operating system possible. The two teams represented a clashing idea that Jobs had for the iPhone: enlarge the iPod’s OS or come up with a compact version of the Mac’s OS. Forstall’s team won, and it appears that today’s shared prototype is a bygone leftover of the losing side’s work.

Check out more images of the iPod-inspired iPhone on Sonny Dickson’s website.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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Tim Cook Made Lower $8.7 Million in 2016 as Apple Missed its Own Performance Targets

Apple’s annual shareholders meeting will be held on February 28 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time in the Town Hall building at its Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino, California, according to an SEC document filed electronically today. Admission is open to all shareholders of record on a first come, first served basis.

A primary item of business on the agenda is to elect the Board of Directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders in 2018, with Apple nominating the same eight individuals currently serving on its board: Tim Cook, Al Gore, Bob Iger, James Bell, Andrea Jung, Art Levinson, Ron Sugar, and Sue Wagner.

The filing reveals Apple CEO Tim Cook made $8.7 million in 2016, down from $10.3 million in 2015 and $9.2 million in 2014. Cook’s earnings included a base salary of $3 million, non-equity incentives of $5.37 million, and other compensation of nearly $378,000. Other named executives netted nearly $23 million apiece.

Apple Executive Compensation in 2016

• Apple CEO Tim Cook: $8,747,719
• Apple CFO Luca Maestri: $22,803,569
• Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts: $22,902,892
• Apple services chief Eddy Cue: $22,807,544
• Apple hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio: $22,807,544
• Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell: $22,807,544

Apple noted it did not meet its target performance goals for both net sales and operating income in 2016, resulting in the senior executives receiving only 89.5% of their cash incentives. In 2015, the executives received 100% of their cash incentives as Apple met its performance goals for sales in that year.

Tags: Tim Cook, SEC
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OnePlus’ first offline store in India lets customers experience its latest products

OnePlus wants you to experience its brand.

OnePlus has opened its first Experience Store in Bangalore, India, giving prospective customers the ability to experience its latest products, including smartphones, accessories, and lifestyle merchandise. While it won’t sell phones at the store — that’s still exclusive to Amazon India — customers will have a first-hand opportunity to try out the products before making a purchase online.

The retail space measures over 14,000 square feet, and is split into four areas: a service center in the basement, a retail and community zone in the mezzanine and ground floors, office space in the upper floors, and culminating in a rooftop cafe and lounge. The store is located on prime real estate in Bangalore’s high street — Brigade Road, and will officially open doors tomorrow, January 7, at 2 p.m. IST. OnePlus has several launch-day offers planned for those interested in visiting.

The initiative is one of several OnePlus is undertaking as it seeks to build an overall experience centered around its brand. The company doesn’t make a lot of money selling phones, so it is branching out into accessories and merchandise, categories that have higher margins.

This is Huawei’s Daydream VR headset

Daydream was launched in November 2016, as Google’s rethinking of a mobile virtual reality experience. Launching initially on the Pixel handsets and with the Daydream View headset from Google, the universe is slowly expanding.

When Google first demonstrated Daydream as an evolution of Google Cardboard, it outlined that Daydream would require a specific specification of device, but also established a reference design for viewing Daydream content.

• What is Google Daydream and what devices support it? Google’s Android VR platform explained

That has come to fruition with the reveal of Huawei’s own Daydream headset. Confirmation doesn’t come from Huawei, but from Google itself.

Unlike Google’s Daydream View which uses a soft fabrication for its viewer, the Huawei VR headset looks a lot more like the Samsung Gear VR, using a rigid casing that the phone clips into. Here’s it’s pictured with the Mate 9, but we suspect that you’ll be able to change the caddy inside to accept a different phone, like the future Huawei P10.

There’s a simple strap construction with a foam-padded selection for your face, along with a focusing dial on the top. The field of view is said to be 95 degrees.

• Best VR headsets to buy in 2017, whatever your budget

As with Daydream View – and one of the appealing things about Daydream – is that it comes with a remote control. Also pictured is the remote that looks identical to the existing version from Google in every way, so we suspect that Huawei was the OEM manufacturer of Google’s remote too.

There’s no word on when Huawei will be unveiling the Huawei VR headset – Google just says “at a later date” – so we suspect that this will be to coincide with a major device launch, either at Mobile World Congress 2017, or later in April 2017.

• Huawei P10: What’s the story so far?

The Morning After: Friday, January 6th 2017

Hey, good morning!

We’ve reached the midpoint of CES, and we’re meeting airport robots, staring at self-balancing motorbikes and asking Ron Jeremy about his vision of the future. Of course.

You’ll never drop your bike in a parking lot again.
Honda’s amazing self-balancing motorcycle defies gravity

Honda’s Riding Assist know-how finally has a proper home. After years of researching balance technology in its Uni-Cub mobility vehicles, the company. Honda’s bike doesn’t just help a person keep a bike upright, though. The motorcycle also keeps itself upright, even without a rider.

Sex robots and holographic faces.
Ron Jeremy predicts porn’s … present?

Porn star Ron Jeremy’s vision of the sex industry’s future isn’t so far off from the one being pushed by futurists and the media. He sees the return of big-budget porn, VR-connected male masturbators and sex robots with holographic faces. It could be a sexy future.

Too faithful to be considered a mockumentary.
‘Star Trek’ fan film loses fair use case, moves to jury trial

After successfully raising over a million dollars to create a professional-grade homage to the Star Trek brand, producers of fan-flick “Axanar” were hit with a lawsuit. They were assured that it would be dropped, but were eventually still taken to court. The filmmakers stood their ground and argued a case of fair use, but ultimately lost.

Just feed it your boarding pass.
LG made a robot for inside airports

LG’s humanoid-sized Airport Guide Robot will do exactly that. Feed it your boarding pass and it will tell you how to get to your gate and when your flight is going to take off. Heck, it’ll even walk you to you boarding area.

Sony baked speakers into its new TV’s OLED screen.
Sony’s new 4K OLED TV is a thing of beauty

Sony didn’t have too much to show at CES this year, but it did finally reveal its first OLED 4K TV. The horrifically named XBR-A1E comes in 55-, 65- or 77-inch sizes, capable of spitting out Ultra HD and high dynamic range (HDR) with ease. The most intriguing part, however, is the “Acoustic Surface,” which integrates the speaker into the screen itself.

But wait, there’s more…

• Naughty America is persona non grata at the world’s biggest tech show
• Dell’s new XPS 27 is an all-in-one with ten speakers and a lot of power
• This e-paper backpack is the kind of crazy we deserve