Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone could cost over $1,000

To mark 10 years of metal and glass slabs, Apple is expected to debut an ultra high-end version of the iPhone alongside its next scheduled update. According to a report from Fast Company, Tim Cook and company will likely roll out three new phones this year: the incremental iPhone 7S in the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch sizes, as well as a slightly larger, even more expensive 5.8-inch iPhone 8 with an edgeless OLED display and a few completely new features.

To really play up the 10th anniversary bit, Apple may even call the new flagship model the “iPhone X,” and the price is expected to shoot up past the $1,000 mark. That’s not too far-fetched by Apple’s standards, considering a maxed-out iPhone 7 Plus already costs $969 unlocked. We’ve heard rumors of an OLED iPhone before, but Fast Company’s sources seem to confirm its existence. They higher-end screen alone is expected to cost Apple twice as much as the LCD displays it currently uses and with only Samsung’s OLEDs meeting Apple’s strict tolerances, the company is reportedly hogging up manufacturing capacity as well. There’s also a chance the iPhone 8/iPhone X will eliminate physical buttons entirely by incorporating the Home button into the screen itself and replacing the side buttons with touch-sensitive inlays in a metal frame with a glass back.

Probably the most interesting rumor about the next-generation iPhone, however, is Apple’s partnership with Lumentum. According to Fast Company’s sources, Apple plans to incorporate Lumentum’s 3D-sensing technology into the flagship phone in some way — which could mean anything from better camera performance to advanced augmented reality features or even a facial recognition system that could supplement Touch ID. Of course, these features are just rumors at this point, so take them with a big lick of salt for now.

Source: Fast Company

Intel will finish a $7 billion semiconductor factory in Arizona

Intel plans to complete Fab 42, a semiconductor factory in Chandler, Arizona, with an investment of more than $7 billion over the next three to four years. At its peak, the factory will employ about 3,000 process engineers, equipment technicians, and facilities-support engineers and technicians. Fab 42 will produce 7 nanometer chips and is “expected to be the most advanced semiconductor factory in the world” — whatever that means.

As noted by New York Times technology reporter Farhad Manjoo and others on Twitter, Intel’s investment in Fab 42 wasn’t the result of new federal subsidies or credits. However, the company chose to announce the move at the White House, where cameras captured Intel CEO Brian Krzanich offering President Donald Trump a gift and explaining how regulatory US tax policies have “disadvantaged” his business in the past.

Thank you Brian Krzanich, CEO of @Intel. A great investment ($7 BILLION) in American INNOVATION and JOBS! #AmericaFirst🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/76lAiSSQ1l

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

Intel isn’t alone in using the president as a way to generate media interest in an existing business deal. In December, Trump gave Sprint a signal boost when he congratulated the company on its decision to bring 5,000 jobs to the United States. Despite Trump’s attempts to take credit for the deal, it was in fact put together months before he was elected.

Intel also isn’t the only tech company making moves in Arizona — most recently, Uber moved its fleet of custom, self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs to the state after a tiff with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Source: Intel

Windows 10 is getting a picture-in-picture mode

Microsoft just made it easier to use multiple applications at once on Windows 10, especially when dealing with video-focused programs. The company released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15031 to developers today, and the main attraction is the introduction of so-called Compact Overlay windows.

The new feature allows users to run a program in a small window that’s pinned above other applications, so it can be seen without being as intrusive as a standard window. Compact Overlay windows appears useful when dealing with video. For example, keeping a YouTube clip or Skype call visible in the corner would make it easier for users to do things like take notes or check email while not losing sight of the video.

The good news for developers is that Compact Overlay windows “work just like normal windows in all other ways,” so it should be relatively painless to adapt existing programs to be compatible with the feature. It’s unclear if Compact Overlay windows can be resized or used with Snap (a feature just pulled from Xbox One). We’ve asked Microsoft to clarify. The update also adds full-screen Game Bar support for 52 games, including Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto titles.

Microsoft isn’t the only company dabbling in picture-in-picture modes. Apple last year debuted a similar feature for MacOS, which works in much the same way, but is only compatible with Safari and iTunes. Compact Overlay windows are only available to developers at the moment, although Microsoft says that the Skype Preview and Movies & TV apps will soon be updated to take advantage of the new feature.

Source: Windows

SpaceX aims to launch ISS resupply mission on February 18th

After one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded on the launch pad last September, SpaceX sprinted to get back on track, and achieved a successful comeback launch in mid-January. To deal with the backlog of launches delayed by the accident, the company set an ambitious schedule of liftoffs every two to three weeks. The first of these, they announced today, will be an ISS resupply mission using one of their Dragon capsules set to fly on February 18th.

Targeting Feb. 18 for Dragon’s next resupply mission to the @Space_Station — our 1st launch from LC-39A at @NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 8, 2017

The shipment will include tons of supplies and equipment, including an instrument to monitor the ozone layer from outside the space station. But unlike the comeback launch, which lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the resupply mission will hopefully be the first to launch from pad LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The pad is likely key to meeting their rapid launch schedule after their previous Florida site at Cape Canaveral is still undergoing repairs after the September failure. Future liftoffs are planned for the new pad, including a commercial satellite launch for Echostar that was bumped up to late February to fit in the ISS resupply mission.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: SpaceX (Twitter)

Verizon is releasing its own Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch

Carriers are no stranger to selling smartwatches, but offering one of their own? That’s rare, but Verizon is giving it a shot. The carrier (and Engadget corporate overlord) has unveiled the Wear24, a network-exclusive Android Wear 2.0 watch that will sell alongside the LG Watch Sport. It hasn’t revealed full specs at this point, but the initial indications are that it’s on the higher end. On top of the expected LTE data, you’re looking at Android Pay support, a 450mAh battery (slightly larger than LG’s 430mAh pack), IP67 water resistance and a 1.39-inch AMOLED screen. We’ve asked about the presence of a heart rate monitor.

The Wear24 isn’t arriving until March, so you’ll have to ‘settle’ for the LG model if you want an Android Wear device from Big Red as soon as possible. However, you will save a little bit of cash if you’re willing to wait. Verizon’s own device will sell for $300 with a 2-year activation, or $30 less than its LG counterpart. Given the feature parity, it might be the better choice if you absolutely want cellular access. And if you don’t, there will be other Android Wear 2.0 options on the market before long.

Via: Android Headlines

In love and lures: ‘Pokémon Go’ brings players together for Valentine’s Day

Why it matters to you

Pokémon Go creatures will be easier to catch and a doubling of candies makes leveling up and evolving much faster.

Do you play Pokémon Go with your significant other? Could you find love with someone else who loves the walking-encouraging title? That is what developer Niantic is hoping will transpire with its Valentine’s Day event in Pokémon Go, which begins on Wednesday and runs until February 15.

Niantic’s new event isn’t designed to actually match people together romantically, but it will bring them together and make group play more profitable. That is because in this update, lures, the in-game items that attract Pokémon to Pokéstops, will last a whole six hours — 12 times longer than they usually do.

That should mean a lot more loitering around particular hotspots, which will lead to you meeting more players than usual when you go out hunting for new pocket monsters to crush up into candies.

More: ‘Pokémon Go’ sprints to $1 billion milestone ahead of generation 2 update

Of course, you’ll be hoping that the people you bump into on your hunt are on the same team as you. Even if competitive elements in Pokémon Go are relatively light, they are still there.

But in reality, everyone, whatever team they belong to and whether playing together or alone, will be able to benefit from the longer lure times, as it should mean they catch more Pokémon. That goes doubly so for pink Pokémon. Niantic has also made monsters like Clefable, Clefairy and Chansey all more common and Cleffa, Igglybuff, and Smoochum will be more commonly hatched from eggs.

Better yet, every Pokémon transfer, catch or hatch, will earn double candies, meaning you can evolve and level up your little monsters much quicker than usual.

The Valentine’s Day event will run from 11 a.m. (PT) on Wednesday to 11:00 a.m. (PT) on February 15. That is plenty of time to catch a good number of them, if not “em all,” but will you be able to find love along the way?

Kickstarter project sells world’s first ink made out of air pollution

Why it matters to you

While air pollution remains an ever-present problem, there is at least a new way to make use of it.

Let’s be honest: Unless you’re the heir to the Parker Pen Company fortune, there is nothing overly exciting about the way that ink is made.

Unless you ask the folks behind Graviky Labs, that is. They found a way to recycle air pollution — which causes more than 7.2 million deaths each year — by using a proprietary method to transform it into something you can write with. The fluid ounce of ink needed to fill a pen can be gathered from 45 minutes of car emissions, courtesy of Graviky’s smart process, developed while the founders were studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

More: Social media posts can help predict pollution in some of the world’s biggest cities

“We started as a small DIY experiment while at MIT Media Lab 3.5 years ago,” Anirudh Sharma told Digital Trends.

The research involved repurposing the soot particles produced by almost all air pollution sources. In the original iteration of the project, a soot-catching pump was connected to an HP C6602 inkjet cartridge and Arduino to become a 96dpi print platform.

“Since then we’ve taken our system through numerous iterations and eventually made something that’s deployable,” Sharma continued. “In 2016, we partnered with Tiger Beer to do an art campaign, which received further positive feedback. [Following that,] thousands of artists, environmentalists, and nature lovers have written to us to bring these inks to them.”

The result is a new Air-Ink Kickstarter campaign, which offers the innovative ink to customers for the first time. Five different grades of Air-Ink have been produced for the project, with the product being applicable to everything from fabric and outdoor paints, to screen printer, oil painting, and markers.

It functions as both a neat science exercise and a provocative statement on pollution. As Sharma notes as part of the campaign, “Each stroke made with Air-Ink arrests particulate matter, which would have otherwise ended up in the lungs of common people. Scaling this is saving lives.”

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can pre-order a bottle of Air-Ink for $25, with higher price points also including entire printing sets. Shipping is set to take place in June.

Don’t sweat it: New Denon sport in-ears can handle any workout you choose

Why it matters to you

Denon’s latest wireless in-ears can handle any workout without breaking a sweat while delivering the audio quality the company is known for.

Denon is renowned for its audio gear — particularly its home audio products. And while the company has offered headphones for quite a while, it has been ramping up its efforts aimed at more active users of late. The latest example are the company’s AH-C160W wireless sport in-ears, which are launching this month.

The AH-C160W in-ears are designed to be tough, with a sturdy mechanical structure and IPX5/7 certification, which means they are resistant to all sorts of moisture, including sweat. The electronics inside the headphones are protected by Nanofics liquid protection, and the included Comply foam ear tips are treated with SweatGuard to keep them clean. Over-the-ear hooks keep the headphones safely where they should be — on your head.

More: Denon’s newest wired in-ear headphones are designed for audiophiles on the go

Using 11.5mm drivers and the company’s own digital signal processing, the AH-C160W aren’t just meant to be tough — Denon is aiming for fantastic sound as well. While one of the main goals is great-sounding music, the company has also made taking and making calls a priority, with Clear Voice Capture noise reduction, which helps make communicating while in noisy environments easier.

For connectivity, the headphones use high-power Bluetooth Class 1, which helps maintain a steady connection better than many other Bluetooth headphones. To make using the headphones easier, multilingual voice prompts are included to help you get connected. These prompts can also clue you in on battery life, meaning you should never have to worry about running out of juice while in the middle of a run or while you’re on your way home from work.

More: With its latest reference headphones, Denon aims for great sound — and looks

The Denon AH-C160W sport headphones come with one set of Comply foam ear tips, four pairs of silicon tips, four types of foam rings, a USB charging cable, and a carrying case. The headphones will sell for $150, and are available in black, blue, and white. You can’t buy them just yet, but Denon says they will be available sometime this month. For more information on the AH-C160W, see the company’s website.

Intel’s Core i7-7700K CPU reached 7.3GHz using liquid nitrogen and liquid helium

Why it matters to you

This test shows how far Intel’s new seventh-generation desktop processors can go, but only in extreme cooling conditions.

Prior to Intel’s reveal of its seventh-generation Kaby Lake desktop processors in early January, Asus held an Absolute Zero event challenging attendees to push the limits of those new Intel chips. German overclocker “der8auer” accepted the challenge and pushed the new Intel Core i7-7700K CPU to a clock speed of 7.3GHz (7,328MHz). That is rather high considering the chip has a max turbo speed of 4.5GHz right out of the box.

But don’t get excited and think your liquid-cooled system will enable the Core i7-7700K to break the 7.0GHz ceiling. Der8auer and his team used liquid nitrogen and liquid helium to set that new overclocking record. Typically, they use 79 to 132 gallons of liquid nitrogen per day during overclocking events, which costs around 30 to 40 cents per quart. By comparison, 26 gallons of liquid helium costs around $4,200, which lasts for only 15 minutes.

More: Intel responds to AMD’s Ryzen onslaught with some Core i7 and i5 updates

“If you work constantly with [liquid helium], it lasts 15 minutes,” he said. “That’s quite funny if you calculate it. Liquid helium reacts different from liquid nitrogen because it’s lighter. The nitrogen we put into thermos flasks and fill it into the cooler, which is not working with helium. We have to fill the liquid helium with a lance directly from the original flask into the cooler where it shoots into the cooler and cools it down.”

Liquid helium is around 70 degrees Celsius lower in temperature than liquid nitrogen. However, it evaporates quickly, with one quart lasting around 10 seconds before it is gone. He said that once the lance is opened, they are spending $4.71 worth of liquid helium per second.

Of course, the expense came out of Asus’ pocket, but that is still rather expensive considering it is only being used to overclock a desktop processor. Thus, to make sure all those dollars weren’t for waste, the team had to make sure their plan was 100 percent perfect before deploying the expensive coolant.

Unfortunately, the achievement wasn’t accomplished without a few tragic losses along the way. Several processors lost their lives during the experiments because the team didn’t know how far they could increase the voltages. The chips’ sacrifice for the overclocking cause brought on their ultimate destruction due to the unknown effects of certain voltages.

The team initially overclocked the chip to 7.2GHz using liquid nitrogen with all four cores and eight threads online. He said they had the option to disable some of the cores and threads to reach a higher initial overclock speed, but he wanted to see the chip’s full potential. After saving the validation file, the team then introduced the liquid helium aspect into the overclocking setup.

“We cooled down the CPU to negative-248 degrees Celsius, which allowed me to overclock the CPU to 7,328MHz at four cores and eight threads,” he said. “This is the highest value ever reached by a four core Intel CPU. That was, of course, I would like to say, a milestone for me personally.”

Android user? Good luck getting a date with someone using an iPhone

Why it matters to you

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in dating — not only do apps like Tinder help us find dates, but apparently, gadget preferences may also end them.

It turns out that politics and religion aren’t the only indicators of compatibility — smartphone preferences are as well. Apparently, when it comes to finding love, one person having an iPhone while the other has an Android can be a deal breaker. As per a recent survey of more than 5,500 American singles aged 18 and over conducted by dating site Match.com, Apple users are particularly picky when it comes to finding their mates, especially if that potential mate is swiping on an Android device.

In fact, iPhone owners were found to be 21 times more likely to pass negative judgment on someone for having an Android than having an iOS device. But this is a two way street — Android users were 15 times more likely to scoff at an iPhone owner. And worse yet, if you’re slow on the uptake when it comes to updates, you might have trouble finding love with either Android or iOS users — as per the survey data, owners of older smartphone models are 56 percent less likely to get a date than those with the latest technology.

More: Goodbye static backgrounds: Our favorite free live wallpapers for Android

 “We look for so many other ways in which we’re compatible with potential partners, why shouldn’t phones be on the list?” Abby Rodman, a psychotherapist in Boston, told MarketWatch. “Where a person lives, what car they drive, and what they do for a living are all things we weigh before embarking on a relationship. That may be pitiful commentary, but we’re also looking for compatibility in the non-materialistic: political viewpoints, religious convictions, and fundamental ethical values.”

Among those non-materialistic judgments include a date’s proficiency in grammar (the inability to tell “your” from “you’re” is a no-no for 39 percent of single folks) and surprisingly enough, dependency upon social media. It turns out that 58 percent of those surveyed said they were turned off by people who complained on Facebook, and 50 percent would rather not date someone who spent “too much time” on social media (though “too much” seems like a subjective measure).

“If you’re living every breath of your life out loud on social media, you may be perceived as not being reliable enough to honor the sanctity of another’s confidence or of a romantic relationship,” Rodman noted. “Complaining in cyberspace may be perceived as childish. You’re not really doing anything except spouting to no one in particular about your crappy boss or bad hair day.”

In any case, one thing is clear — technology is having an ever-increasing impact on our dating life.