Apple iPhone 8 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

If Apple does everything right, the iPhone 8 will deliver on expectations that have been building for years. Sure, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were undoubtedly among the best phones of 2016. They delivered speedy performance, robust storage capacity, water resistance, exceptional cameras (especially the 7 Plus) and a host of other terrific features.

The rumor mill is working overtime on the iPhone 8.

But despite CEO Tim Cook’s prerelease promise that the iPhone 7 would provide “things we can’t live without,” it was instead an incremental upgrade at best — an evolutionary step rather than the revolutionary leap many of us were hoping for. In fact, with the omission of the headphone jack, the iPhone 7 straight up lacks a thing some of us can’t live without.

All of this fueled a widespread sentiment that Apple was holding back its more impressive hardware and software innovations for the upcoming 10th anniversary release. After all, it wasn’t so long ago when we could count on Apple’s newest iPhone to thrill us with boundary-breaking innovations.

And some early rumors suggest that the iPhone 8 could be a throwback to the Apple of ten years ago — a remarkable breakthrough that will once again redefine what a phone can do. Can Apple possibly deliver on such lofty expectations? We anticipate the debut to come in the fall of 2017 — early September, if Apple sticks to its usual schedule. Until then, we’ll keep track of the iPhone 8 rumor frenzy below.

Specs we might see on the iPhone 8

• Apple’s next-generation processor (perhaps the A10X or A11)
• Ceramic or glass body (iPhone 4 flashback!)
• Extended or edge-to-edge display
• Wireless charging
• Virtual home button (or perhaps no home button)
• Enhanced water resistance
• Dual-lens camera-enabled AR capabilities

Will it even be called the iPhone 8 — or the iPhone 10, the iPhone X, or something else entirely?

We don’t know exactly what Apple will call the next iPhone, and its haphazard approach to model numbering is to blame. In 2016, we got the iPhone SE — a minor, midcycle update closely based on a previous design — and the iPhone 7. Our expectation is that Apple will forgo the midcycle “S” refresh in 2017, and make this next phone a major update — perhaps the iPhone 8. That noted, Japanese blog Macotakara has reported that the next model could be called the iPhone 7S. And Apple could always hit us with something from left field, like the iPhone X in the tradition of Mac OS X (X being the Roman numeral for 10, of course).

The ‘iPhone 8’ will take design cues from the iPhone 4

One of the best-looking iPhones could inspire the new “premium” iPhone 8. The Touch Bar MacBook Pros finally get a Consumer Reports recommendation after a software fix, and do you want Apple Glasses?

by Brian Tong

5:10

Close

Drag

Aluminum no more?

Apple may shift away from the aluminum body used for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6S, according to a rumor reported by Digitimes. Manufacturers Foxconn and Jabil are allegedly building the next phone’s body with two reinforced glass panes — one for the front and one for the back — held together by a stainless-steel bezel and frame. The report’s sources claim that this new construction could reduce Apple’s costs by 30 to 50 percent and provide better quality control.

The iPhone 5C offered up a rainbow of options.

Apple

Red iPhone could be in the works

New colors would be an easy way for Apple to mark the significance of the 10th anniversary iPhone. In December 2016, a video surfaced purporting to show a “Jet White” iPhone 7. Macotakara reports that Apple may add to its recent palette of white, black, and mellow metallics and introduce red to the lineup — a callback of sorts to the less expensive iPhone 5C’s rainbow of options.

Can Apple take it to the edge?

There have been rumors about the possibility of an iPhone with an edge-to-edge display since the run up to the iPhone 7. In November 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the next iPhone could include a curved and/or OLED screen — a possibility echoed by veteran Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Of course, neither move would be all that innovative. Samsung has been stretching the boundaries of its displays for some time — there is a rumor that the front of the forthcoming Galaxy S8 could be 90 percent screen — and the Xiaomi Mi Mix’s 6.4-inch screen nearly covers its entire face.

Apple could make the home button virtual to gain more screen real estate.

TechDesigns/YouTube

You might not be able to go ‘home’ again

One way to extend the display would be to ditch the home button. In 2015, Apple filed a patent for a transparent fingerprint sensor. And with the iPhone 7’s solid-state button, pressure-sensitive screen, and the increasingly capable Siri, do we even need a physical home button anymore?

With all that extra real estate, Apple could slim down the top and bottom bezels and squeeze a larger screen into the same size body. Of course, Apple doesn’t commercialize even a fraction of the patents it files — so this one is far from a slam dunk.

Will the iPhone get wireless charging?

Apple’s wireless AirPods may have been just the beginning. Next year’s iPhone could do away with the iPhone’s sole remaining traditional connector — the Lightning cable — and charge up wirelessly instead.

The analyst and tech press have been making lots of noise about this one: The Verge reported that Apple has been staffing up on wireless-charging experts and the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Foxconn, one of Apple’s main manufacturing partners, is making wireless charging modules for the 2017 iPhone. It’s worth mentioning that Samsung’s top-tier phones have supported wireless charging since 2015’s Galaxy S6, and some Lumia phones (both under Nokia and Microsoft) had it back in the day, too.

A more toilet-proof iPhone

Of course, if Apple ditches the Lightning port, it would ostensibly make the phone that much more resistant to water and other intrusive substances. In fact, The Korea Herald reports that the next iPhone will have a higher water resistance rating — IP68 compared with the current generation’s IP67, for those keeping score. Again, in this category, Apple would be playing catch up: Samsung’s Galaxy S7, from 2016, is IP68 certified.

Cameras as a portal to augmented reality

Apple CEO Tim Cook is talking a lot about dual-lens cameras these days. Probably because they can help a device place virtual things in your real-world view. (Other phones in the Google-sphere are already doing this — albeit badly.)

Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro supports Google’s Tango AR software.

Sarah Tew/CNET

It’s possible that the next iPhone could come equipped with a dual-lens camera that could scan the world and overlay 3D objects onto it with great accuracy. For example, such an iPhone could recognize people or objects when you point the camera in their direction. (Apple already does something a little like this with iOS 10’s facial-recognition software.)

Now that sounds like a more useful application for advanced optical technology than selfies.

We’ll update as more rumors and stories surface during the long lead up to the launch. This story was last updated January 19, 2017.

Harvard’s soft exosuit makes walking 23 percent easier

Harvard Wyss Institute researchers have been working on a soft exosuit with DARPA’s financial help for years. While they were able to present a proof of concept in 2016, it’s only now that they’ve found out just how much the suit can actually help its wearer. According to a new study published in Science Robotics, Harvard’s exosuit reduces the energy a user needs to exert while walking by 23 percent. It does that by providing assistive force to the ankle at the perfect moment when you take another step.

Team leader Conor Walsh said that’s the highest percentage of reduction in energy use observed with an exosuit:

“In a test group of seven healthy wearers, we clearly saw that the more assistance provided to the ankle joints, the more energy the wearers could save with a maximum reduction of almost 23% compared to walking with the exosuit powered-off. To our knowledge, this is the highest relative reduction in energy expenditure observed to date with a tethered exoskeleton or exosuit.”

Of course, assistive force wouldn’t be as helpful without an effective design. As Wired explains, the muscles and tendons from the hip to the knee need to work together in stabilizing the leg to achieve an efficient stride. So the researchers couldn’t stop with something that only covers the ankles — they had to use garters to connect the ankle straps to a hip girdle. The result is the exosuit’s current form, which you can see below.

That said, the researchers admit that they need to conduct follow-up tests. For one, they had the subjects offload the exosuit’s cable-based actuation, electronics and battery units before conducting the experiment. Those make up an additional 17-plus pounds that would have changed the wearers’ situation. Further, they found that the subjects’ gaits changed depending on how much assistive force they provided, which was between 10 to 38 percent of the ankle force needed to take a step. They still need to explore the possibility that the reduction in energy is a result of the subjects’ change in gait rather than the assistive force itself.

In the future, Harvard’s exosuit could help the elderly and patients suffering from Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy and other conditions to walk well on their own. As you can guess from that DARPA funding, though, it also has a potential military application: the agency hopes it can help soldiers carry heavy supplies far longer than they’d normally be able to.

[Image credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University]

Via: Wired, New Scientist

Source: Harvard’s Wyss Institute

Android One in the U.S. could signal the rebirth of ‘Nexus’

Glitzier mid-range Android One phones for the U.S. might be ‘Nexuses’ in all but name.

Android One is supposedly coming to the U.S. this summer, according to a report from The Information. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem all too exciting. Android One — the range of low-cost phones from less-known brands, aimed at emerging markets — hasn’t been a huge success. So who cares about a handful of low-specced, plasticky, entirely forgettable telephones arriving on U.S. shores, even if they do run stock Android and come with fast updates and do other nerdy things.

The U.S. market, though, is nothing like the countries Google has targeted with Android One thus far. India, for instance, is much more price-conscious, with dual-SIM and FM Radio seen as a necessity. The U.S. is less focused on super, super-cheap handsets, and to move phones in any meaningful number, you need to play within the carrier system and back it up with marketing money. (You’d also imagine Project Fi would range the phones, since Google will eventually need something less expensive to replace the Nexus 5X/6P in that lineup.)

The U.S. market, though, is nothing like the countries Google has targeted with Android One thus far.

According to The Information’s report, Google is indeed planning to spend serious dough selling Android One when it arrives in the U.S. Like existing Android One devices, the U.S.-bound models will almost certainly be co-branded (LG is a rumored partner), even if Google has final say on internal hardware and control over the software.

So what do we have so far, then…

• A co-branded phone from Google and a manufacturer partner.
• Stock Android, with updates straight from Google.
• Prices likely to be “affordable” for the U.S. market — so perhaps between $250-400 outright.
• Probably some kind of limited carrier tie-in, complementing direct sales via the Google Store and Project Fi.

Well toast my marshmallows if that doesn’t sound an awful lot like a Nexus.

That’s not to say Google will resurrect the moribund (but fondly remembered) brand name. Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer himself said there were no plans for any new Nexus devices, in interviews given around the time of the Pixel announcement. Let’s assume that’s still the case — these new phones could still turn out to be Nexuses in all but name.

With LG rumored to be involved, a mid-range Android One phone could emerge as a modern successor to the Nexus 5X.

They wouldn’t necessarily be Nexus 6P-level “Nexuses” — or even anything high-end enough to tread on the toes of the Pixel range. Instead, imagine a series led by modern re-interpretation of the Nexus 5 or 5X, perhaps powered by one of the promising mid-level Qualcomm chips like the 625, or the rumored 660. That could be complemented by Moto G/Honor 6X-level competitors at a lower price point.

This kind of approach would have a few important benefits for Google. Just as it used the Nexus series to guide the Android ecosystem, it could use Android One to influence the (currently rather sorry) state of mid-to-entry-level Android phones, as sold through carrier stores. If it’s willing to spend the effort and money required to get Android One phones on store shelves alongside — let’s just pick one at random here — the LG X Power, it could nudge everyone in this “affordable” segment towards doing a better job on software.

That’s how Google will cater Android One to the U.S. market, not by selling dirt-cheap Android phones directly to consumers. (As an aside, you also don’t spend serious marketing money, as Google will reportedly do, on phones like the current crop of low, low end Android One devices. Android One phones for the U.S. will have to be different.)

Huawei would be a natural Android One partner for the U.S.

I also want to mention Huawei here, because I’m almost certain the Chinese manufacturer will be an important player in Android One in the United States. In fact, I’ll just go and call it: I predict Huawei will release an Android One phone in the U.S. before the end of 2017.

Huawei, if you remember, was originally in talks to build the Pixels, before it found out there’d be no co-branding opportunity. That opportunity would surely exist for an Android One handset, and Huawei is still desperate for an inroad into the U.S. market. (Sure, it’s released the Mate 9 SIM-free and unlocked, but it lacks the carrier partners necessary to shift the phone in large numbers.) Through Google and Android One, Huawei could get Huawei phones on carrier store shelves — which could be the key to the brand establishing an American foothold.

And look no further than the Honor 6X and Nova for examples of Huawei making compelling hardware at less expensive price points.

Whatever brand name the resulting phones bear, the core experience will have a lot in common with Nexus. At one time, that series of phones was all about affordability and a clean, fast software experience. By bringing Android One to the U.S., Google and LG (or Huawei) will be able to push for mass market sales via carrier stores, while also providing a less expensive upgrade path for folks using a Nexus 5 or 5X.

Will any of that actually happen? Stay tuned in the months ahead!

TAG Heuer CEO hints at new high-end Android Wear piece for 2017

TAG Heuer CEO says the company will release a new smartwatch in May.

If the smartwatch is supposedly a dying product, someone forgot to tell TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver. In an interview with Swiss paper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (brought to our attention from TechCrunch), Biver shares his positive outlook on the future for smartwatches and says the Swiss timepiece manufacturer plans to release a follow up to the $1,500 TAG Connected, announcing they hope to release the new smartwatch in May.

Biver’s confidence in smartwatches comes mainly from his company’s success with its first attempt at creating a high-end smartwatch. He states that TAG Heuer saw strong sales for the pricy wrist piece, selling 56,000 units over the past 14 months — well exceeding the company’s initial goal of 20,000 units. But he also cited optimism from a Reuters interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, in which Cook boasted about the Apple Watch’s strong holiday sale numbers. Biver says he still considers smartwatch technology to be in “the Stone Age” (if we’re to trust Google Translate), with plenty of future potential just waiting to be tapped.

The timing for a new high-end smartwatch couldn’t be better, with Google set to release Android Wear 2.0 in early February alongside a pair of new watches they’ve been developing in partnership with LG.

While Biver made no direct reference to Android Wear 2.0, he did outline some specs to expect from the new TAG Connected, including better GPS (accurate to within one meter), longer battery life, and a more powerful display. TAG Heuer also plans to leverage it’s strengths as a traditional watchmaker by offering more sizes and colors to accommodate the variety of styles and wrist sizes found in the different markets it services.

Julian Assange says he’s willing to return to the US

Infamous Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had previously said he would return to the US to face trial if the US granted clemency to Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of violating the Espionage Act after leaking a massive amount of classified government information, including 250,000 diplomatic cables. Earlier this week, President Obama commuted the vast majority of Manning’s remaining sentence; she’s now set to be released this May. Since then, the question has been asked if Assange would stick to his word — and today, he said he might actually do it.

“I stand by everything I said including the offer to go to the United States if Chelsea Manning’s sentence was commuted,” Assange said today on a Periscope Q&A. “It’s not going to be commuted (until) May. We can have many discussions to that point.” This comes after he had previously indicated that he wouldn’t be coming to the US. Assange’s US laywer stated earlier this week that Manning’s release after being imprisoned for seven years was “well short of what he sought.” That’s despite the fact that the Wikileaks account tweeted just last week that this offer was still on the table.

If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017

Regardless, this is all talk until Assange actually does something. He’s been holed up in the Embassy of Ecuador in London since 2012 after violating his bail conditions.

Twitter met its diversity goals, but still has work to do

Eighteen months ago, facing criticism as part of an overwhelmingly homogenous tech industry, Twitter gave itself some clear goals for hiring a more diverse workforce in 2016. Now that the year has wrapped up, Twitter has released its first diversity report since the somewhat puzzling hire of Jeffrey Siminoff as VP of diversity and inclusion. And while the company is still largely white and male, the results are a promising step in the right direction.

At the executive level, Twitter is making a point to highlight the appointment of BET CEO Debra Lee to its board as well as the hire of global creative director Jayanta Jenkins. (And, for another PR boost, Jack Dorsey was also named the CEO of the Year by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.) With Jenkins and Lee on board, the company hit its goal of having six percent underrepresented minorities (that is: non-white, non-Asian) among its leadership team. Twitter had exactly zero underrepresented minorities in leadership roles in 2015.

Meanwhile, down among the rank-and-file Twitter flock in the US, the company is now 57 percent white, 32 percent Asian, 3 percent black, 4 percent Hispanic/Latinx, 3 percent multi-racial and less than 1 percent American Indian or Native Hawaiian. Underrepresented minorities also make up 9 percent of the technical positions at Twitter, a bump up from 7 percent in 2015. (We should point out, however, that unlike Apple and Facebook, Twitter does not report actual hiring numbers, only overall percentages.)

As for the gender balance, Twitter’s female employee population grew from 34 percent to 37 percent worldwide — beating it’s goal of a one-percent increase. Women now make up 30 percent of Twitter’s leadership roles and around 15 percent of its technical positions.

While that final statistic was the only one that fell short of the target, Twitter is already re-calibrating its diversity goals for 2017. By the end of the year, the company hopes to be 38 percent female and 13 percent underrepresented minorities overall, with 2-3 percentage increases in each of the other important categories.

Via: Recode, TechCrunch

Source: Twitter

USA Today will livestream Inauguration Day in VR

USA Today announced its VR news show back in March and tomorrow it will offer a more immersive look at the Presidential Inauguration. As President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, USA Today’s “VRtually There” program will provide coverage from the Capitol, National Mall and along the inaugural parade route. The livestream will begin at 9:30AM ET when VIP guests take their seats and scheduled music performances begin. To watch, all you have to do is fire up the YouTube app on you VR headset of choice. If you don’t have one, the “VRtually There” coverage will be available as 360-degree video for desktop and mobile users.

Source: Business Wire

Investigation clears Tesla for fatal Autopilot crash

Last May a Tesla Model S ran into a tractor trailer in Florida while in Autopilot mode. The collision resulted in the death of the driver Joshua Brown and prompted an investigation by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Today that government agency concluded its investigation and found no defects with the vehicle’s Autopilot or Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) features.

The NHTSA noted the systems “are not designed to reliably perform in all crash modes, including crossing path collisions. The Autopilot system is an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that requires the continual and full attention of the driver to monitor the traffic environment and be prepared to take action to avoid crashes.”

Both the NHTSA and Tesla have shared data that shows that the driver did not take control of the vehicle ahead of its collision with the tractor trailer. The agency stated that the Autopilot system does prompt the driver to maintain control of the vehicle and requires they place their hands back on the wheel to continue working. It also reported that the automaker recently updated the system with a “strike out” system that locks drivers out of the feature if they fail to keep their hands on the wheel.

Concerning today’s news, a Tesla spokesperson told Engadget, “at Tesla, the safety of our customers comes first, and we appreciate the thoroughness of NHTSA’s report and its conclusion.”

Tesla’s blog post about the fatal collision said that the car may have been confused by the white tractor trailer and bright sky, “neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.”

While this is good news for the automaker and systems like Autopilot in other vehicles, the NHTSA did note that, “the agency will monitor the issue and reserves the right to take future action if warranted by the circumstances.”

Source: NHTSA

‘Breath of the Wild’ will be Nintendo’s last Wii U game

The Wii U has had a difficult life cycle, and Nintendo is ready to leave it behind. Speaking with Polygon, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last internally developed game for the system. “From a first-party standpoint, there’s no new development coming after the launch of Breath of the Wild,” he said. “We really are at the end of life for Wii U.” While understandable, some may be surprised at how quickly Nintendo is ceasing software development. The 3DS, for comparison, still has a handful of games coming out in 2017, including Pikmin and Fire Emblem Echoes.

The message is simple: Nintendo needs all of its teams developing for the Switch. While the company has some third-party support, it’s likely to be weaker than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The system, like all Nintendo hardware, will thrive or die based on the number of top quality games the company was able to ship. With the Wii U, that number was clearly too low. The titles that did ship were mostly stellar — Super Mario 3D World, Splatoon and Mario Kart 8, to name but a few. Nintendo needed more of them, however, and has acknowledged the problem in interviews.

The Wii U isn’t being killed off entirely, however. Fils-Aime told Polygon that Nintendo will continue to sell existing games both at retail and on the eShop. Other online services will also continue, including server support for multiplayer titles such as Super Smash Bros. “Sunsetting is quite some time in the future,” he said. “The ongoing activity from an online standpoint on [Mario] Kart and Splatoon is significant. We’re going to continue to support that.” Nevertheless, Nintendo’s focus is pretty clear. Starting on March 3rd, the company is betting its future on the Switch.

Source: Polygon

Teenage Engineering’s next synth wirelessly syncs with Basslet

I love a good collaboration. So when I spotted a Teenage Engineering representative jamming on the (as yet unreleased) OP-Z while wearing a Basslet wearable subwoofer at this year’s NAMM convention, I was curious. It turns out, The Swedish synth maker (of Pocket Operator fame) has been working with Lowfelt (maker of Basslet) to have the two gadgets play nice together — and it makes a lot of sense.

As a refresher, Teenage Engineering is famous for off-beat synthesizers that marry Swedish design with pouting EDM-style sounds and quirky extra features like video output. Most of the things the company makes are portable, and have either a tiny speaker, or require the use of headphones. Basslet, is a wearable “tactile” subwoofer that translates bass sounds into something you can feel. Putting the two together is a logical move.

Basslet will already work with anything that has a 3.5mm audio port. The problem is, you’ll always need Basslet’s companion dongle — which adds another link in the chain (plus it needs charging). What Teenage Engineering will do with the OP-Z, is bake the dongle right into the synth, or at least the required wireless connectivity, so you can just plug your headphones in and play.

I had a quick demo on a very (very) noisy trade show floor, and the benefit was instantly obvious. What would otherwise have been a hard-to-hear beat suddenly leapt out, with every kick drum enhanced by the thudding Basslet on my wrist. Making music on the move will become a much more immersive experience, and not having to pack that pesky dongle will really be handy. Generally in life, we need less dongles, this much we already know (someone please tell Apple).

The bad news is, the OP-Z isn’t slated to be released until fall this year.