Apple may introduce augmented reality functionality into the iPhone’s camera

Why it matters to you

Augmented reality capabilities like object recognition and facial detection may soon be coming to the iPhone’s camera app.

Google isn’t the only company looking to cash in on the augmented reality craze. Business Insider reports that Apple plans to integrate augmented reality tech directly into the iPhone’s camera app.

The new feature would reportedly take the form of computer vision. Apple’s work-in-progress camera app will be able to identify objects in-frame and recognize faces, according to the report. And it will be made available to developers in the form of a software development kit.

More: Apple’s patent for a VR headset looks a lot like Samsung’s Gear VR

The most recent news we’ve heard about Apple’s augmented reality plans suggest that Apple may have as many as 1,000 engineers working on an AR-related product in Israel — a product that will make its way to the next iPhone, at least according to analyst Steven Milunovich and his team at UBS. The report, from Business Insider, also highlights that Apple has recently made a number of AR-related purchases, including PrimeSense, a 3D sensing company in Tel Aviv, and RealFace, a facial recognition company also based in Tel Aviv.

The Cupertino, California-based company is far from the first to enter the AR arena. Google Goggles, Google’s eponymous object recognition app, recognizes landmarks, barcodes, books, and works of art, and parses text of labels and signage using optical character recognition. And Amazon’s Flow app can decode QR codes, scan business cards, and recognize tens of millions of books, DVDs, and packaged products.

Apple’s system sounds nearly as ambitious: an app that can identify objects that users point the iPhone’s camera at in real time. It will rely on machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence that “learns” and improves over time, and a database of 3D objects that Apple will either license or build itself.

More: Apple CEO Tim Cook suggests company may prefer augmented reality over VR

Beyond those basics, the project’s implications aren’t clear. Google’s Project Tango, an augmented reality platform, leverages sensors to measure the depth of surroundings, but the iPhone lacks the hardware necessary to perform that sort of tracking. Apple Insider speculates that Apple’s brand of machine-learning-powered object tracking could be used for spatial mapping, and that facial recognition, meanwhile, could be used to apply Snapchat-style filters to people’s faces.

Spearheading the project is a team comprised of employees from recent Apple acquisitions. The iPhone maker purchased PrimeSense, the Israeli company behind the motion-tracking hardware in Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, in 2013. It bought Metaio in February 2014, FaceShift in 2015, and Flyby Media in January 2016, all of which specialize in virtual reality and AR technologies. And it hired a senior optics manufacturing engineer specializing in heads-up displays, camera systems, and image sensors in September.

More: Apple could be planning new wearables push, starting with smart glasses

The project builds on another reportedly in development at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters: AR glasses. According to Business Insider, Apple is developing a compact pair of AR eyewear that connect wirelessly with an iPhone and show images and other information in the wearer’s field of vision.

If anything is for certain, it’s that an updated camera app will debut far ahead of a headset. Bloomberg reports that Apple has begun talking with suppliers about the glasses and has ordered “small quantities” of displays for testing. The publication pegs 2018 as the product’s earliest possible release window.

Until then, Snapchat’s Spectacles will have to do.

Updated on 03-02-2017 by Christian de Looper: Added new Business Insider report saying that Apple had as many as 1,000 engineers working on AR.

Kaspersky Lab report says 2016 saw a threefold increase in mobile malware

Why it matters to you

Mobile malware is on the rise — so you should remain vigilant to ensure you don’t fall victim to it.

It looks like mobile malware is on the rise. Kaspersky Lab recently announced its Mobile Virusology mobile malware report, which compared mobile malware in 2016 to that of 2015. The results? Well, for starters, there were three times as many malware installations in 2016 as in 2015 and a total of 8.5 million malicious installations were identified.

That is a pretty huge number and Kaspersky highlights just how big in its report. According to the company, that volume of malware equates to around 50 percent of the mobile malware detected in the previous 11 years.

More: Possible Russian hacker network may be responsible for new MacOS malware

Kaspersky also looked into the type of malware being installed, revealing that the most widespread type of trojan was related to advertising and it accounted for 16 of the top 20 malware programs. Advertising trojans are basically able to root the device, then aggressively display ads on the screen. Not only that, but they render the device unusable and can even head to the Google Play Store and buy apps without any user input.

Advertising trojans, however, weren’t the only mobile malware in the report. Mobile ransomware was also used quite a bit. In fact, more than 150,000 unique users in 167 countries fell victim to mobile ransomware, representing a 1.6 times increase compared to in 2015. Mobile ransomware basically overlays app windows with messages, making it impossible to use the device until the user pays a ransom. Generally, that ransom falls in between $100 and $200 and has to be paid in the form of pre-paid iTunes gift cards, according to the report.

In many cases, users themselves unknowingly installed the malware. For example, an app masquerading as Pokémon Go on the Google Play Store was downloaded as many as 500,000 times.

So where is mobile malware the most prevalent? According to the report, Russia, Australia, and Ukraine were the top three countries affected by the malware but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful no matter where you live.

Student project helps self-driving cars learn by wrecking them in your web browser

Why it matters to you

Want to learn about deep learning neural networks, or simply want to try and crash an AI-powered car? You can do both with the “Self-Driving Cars In A Browser” project.

German software engineer Jan Hünermann watches two autonomous cars — one colored pink, the other turquoise — race around a track. There are various obstacles set up to confound them, but thanks to the brain-inspired neural networks that provide them with their intelligence, the cars smoothly navigate these obstacles with the confidence of seasoned pros.

From time to time, Hünermann throws a new obstacle in their path, and then watches with satisfaction as the cars dodge this new impediment. Best of all? The longer he watches them, the smarter the cars become: learning from their mistakes until they can handle just about any scenario that comes their way.

More: DeepMind has an AI bot that maneuvers through mazes and grabs objects on its own

There are a couple of unusual things about the scenario. The first is that Hünermann is only 17 years old, impressively young to be coding autonomous cars. The second is that the cars don’t actually exist. Or at least they don’t exist outside of a couple of crudely-rendered sprites in a web browser.

This is Hünermann’s “Self-Driving Cars In A Browser” project; one which… well, does what it says on the tin, really. It’s a web app designed to “create a fully self-learning agent” that’s able to navigate a pair of cars through an ever-changing 2D environment. The “ever-changing” bit comes down to the individual users, who are able to use their mouse to click and drag new items onto the preexisting map.

Picture a solid vector suddenly appearing in the middle of the freeway on your commute to work, and you’ll have some sympathy for what Hünermann’s long-suffering cars are faced with!

The idea for the project hit Hünermann a couple of years ago when he was a high school sophomore. Like every else who follows tech, he marveled at the news coming out of Google DeepMind, showing how the cutting-edge research team there had used a combination of reinforcement learning (a type of AI that works toward specific goals, through trial-and-error) and deep learning neural networks to build bots which could work out how to play old Atari games. Unlike the intelligent agents that make up non-player characters (NPCs) in video games, these bots were able to learn video games without anyone explicitly telling them what to do.

At the time, Hünermann was focused on building iOS apps and websites for computer-based extracurricular activities. With limited resources, however, he decided to follow Google’s example. He went ahead and downloaded DeepMind’s paper, read it, and decided to have a go at coding his own project.

“I was really interested in this field of deep learning and wanted to get to know it,” Hünermann told Digital Trends. “I thought that one possible way to do that would be to create a self-driving car project. I didn’t actually have a car, so I decided to do it in the browser.”

The virtual cars themselves boast 19-distance sensors, which come out of the car in different directions. You can picture these like torch beams, with each beam starting out strong and then getting fainter the further away from the vehicle they are. The shorter the beam, the higher the input the agent receives when it comes into contact with something, similar to parking sensors which beep more rapidly the closer you get to a way. When taken in conjunction with the speed of a car and knowledge about the action it is taking, the cars provide 158 dimensions of information.

More: Neural networks? Machine learning? Here’s your secret decoder for AI buzzwords

This data is then fed into a multi-layer neural network. The more the cars drive and crash, the more the “weights” connecting the network’s different  nodes are adjusted so that it can learn what to do. The result is that, like any human skill, the longer the cars practice driving, the better they get.

They’re not perfect, of course. In particular, the cars can tend to be a bit optimistic when it comes to the size of a gap they can squeeze through, since the sensor positioned at the front of the car spots open road, without always taking into account the cars’ width. Still, it’s impressive stuff — and the point is that it’s getting more impressive all the time.

“One thing I’d like to add is more intelligence so that the cars can realize that they’re stuck, and back up and try another route,” Hünermann continued. “It would also be really interesting to add traffic, and maybe even lanes as well. The idea is to get it to reflect, as closely as possible, the real world.”

If you want to follow what he’s doing with the project, Hünermann has made the code for the demo, along with the entire JavaScript library, available on GitHub. Given that real-life self driving cars are based on the same kinds of neural networks used here, Hünermann’s creation is a great way to get to grips with a simplified version of the tech that’s (no pun intended) driving real-world autonomous car projects.

As to what’s next for himself, Hünermann is off to study Computer Science at university in England this year. “I’d like to do this as a job,” he said. “I’m absolutely fascinated by this area of research.”

Who knows: by the time he arrives in the U.K., he may even be legally old enough to drive himself!

Student project helps self-driving cars learn by wrecking them in your web browser

Why it matters to you

Want to learn about deep learning neural networks, or simply want to try and crash an AI-powered car? You can do both with the “Self-Driving Cars In A Browser” project.

German software engineer Jan Hünermann watches two autonomous cars — one colored pink, the other turquoise — race around a track. There are various obstacles set up to confound them, but thanks to the brain-inspired neural networks that provide them with their intelligence, the cars smoothly navigate these obstacles with the confidence of seasoned pros.

From time to time, Hünermann throws a new obstacle in their path, and then watches with satisfaction as the cars dodge this new impediment. Best of all? The longer he watches them, the smarter the cars become: learning from their mistakes until they can handle just about any scenario that comes their way.

More: DeepMind has an AI bot that maneuvers through mazes and grabs objects on its own

There are a couple of unusual things about the scenario. The first is that Hünermann is only 17 years old, impressively young to be coding autonomous cars. The second is that the cars don’t actually exist. Or at least they don’t exist outside of a couple of crudely-rendered sprites in a web browser.

This is Hünermann’s “Self-Driving Cars In A Browser” project; one which… well, does what it says on the tin, really. It’s a web app designed to “create a fully self-learning agent” that’s able to navigate a pair of cars through an ever-changing 2D environment. The “ever-changing” bit comes down to the individual users, who are able to use their mouse to click and drag new items onto the preexisting map.

Picture a solid vector suddenly appearing in the middle of the freeway on your commute to work, and you’ll have some sympathy for what Hünermann’s long-suffering cars are faced with!

The idea for the project hit Hünermann a couple of years ago when he was a high school sophomore. Like every else who follows tech, he marveled at the news coming out of Google DeepMind, showing how the cutting-edge research team there had used a combination of reinforcement learning (a type of AI that works toward specific goals, through trial-and-error) and deep learning neural networks to build bots which could work out how to play old Atari games. Unlike the intelligent agents that make up non-player characters (NPCs) in video games, these bots were able to learn video games without anyone explicitly telling them what to do.

At the time, Hünermann was focused on building iOS apps and websites for computer-based extracurricular activities. With limited resources, however, he decided to follow Google’s example. He went ahead and downloaded DeepMind’s paper, read it, and decided to have a go at coding his own project.

“I was really interested in this field of deep learning and wanted to get to know it,” Hünermann told Digital Trends. “I thought that one possible way to do that would be to create a self-driving car project. I didn’t actually have a car, so I decided to do it in the browser.”

The virtual cars themselves boast 19-distance sensors, which come out of the car in different directions. You can picture these like torch beams, with each beam starting out strong and then getting fainter the further away from the vehicle they are. The shorter the beam, the higher the input the agent receives when it comes into contact with something, similar to parking sensors which beep more rapidly the closer you get to a way. When taken in conjunction with the speed of a car and knowledge about the action it is taking, the cars provide 158 dimensions of information.

More: Neural networks? Machine learning? Here’s your secret decoder for AI buzzwords

This data is then fed into a multi-layer neural network. The more the cars drive and crash, the more the “weights” connecting the network’s different  nodes are adjusted so that it can learn what to do. The result is that, like any human skill, the longer the cars practice driving, the better they get.

They’re not perfect, of course. In particular, the cars can tend to be a bit optimistic when it comes to the size of a gap they can squeeze through, since the sensor positioned at the front of the car spots open road, without always taking into account the cars’ width. Still, it’s impressive stuff — and the point is that it’s getting more impressive all the time.

“One thing I’d like to add is more intelligence so that the cars can realize that they’re stuck, and back up and try another route,” Hünermann continued. “It would also be really interesting to add traffic, and maybe even lanes as well. The idea is to get it to reflect, as closely as possible, the real world.”

If you want to follow what he’s doing with the project, Hünermann has made the code for the demo, along with the entire JavaScript library, available on GitHub. Given that real-life self driving cars are based on the same kinds of neural networks used here, Hünermann’s creation is a great way to get to grips with a simplified version of the tech that’s (no pun intended) driving real-world autonomous car projects.

As to what’s next for himself, Hünermann is off to study Computer Science at university in England this year. “I’d like to do this as a job,” he said. “I’m absolutely fascinated by this area of research.”

Who knows: by the time he arrives in the U.K., he may even be legally old enough to drive himself!

Apple’s newly redesigned website shows you how to use HomeKit

Why it matters to you

Don’t know how to fully take advantage of your smart home? Apple’s new website is here to help.

Don’t know how to use HomeKit? There’s an app for that. Well, actually, there’s a website for that. Apple has just unveiled a new website for you to better understand your smart home and its many connected devices. Now, when you visit apple.com/ios/home, you’ll be able to watch a 45-second film that introduces Home and its many capabilities, including how it works with a Honeywell Lyric Round thermostat, Kwikset smart lock, and iHome smart plug.

“With the Home app, you can easily and securely control all your HomeKit accessories,” Apple notes on its updated site, “Ask Siri to turn off the lights from your iPhone. See who’s at the front door on your iPad. And even control things remotely with the help of Apple TV. The Home app makes all your connected devices work harder — and smarter — for you.”

More: Growing list of devices compatible with Apple’s HomeKit

Noting that more than 50 brands worldwide now boast products that are compatible with the HomeKit framework, the website makes clear what kinds of tools and appliances can be integrated with Apple’s smart home platform. From lights to range extenders, AC units to garage doors, there’s not much that you can’t control from your Home app. Apple also assures users that all products are reviewed and approved by their internal team to ensure that they’re safe for public use.

Apple also touts the availability of room-based control, which means you can have Siri turn on your kitchen lights or set your bedroom to a specific temperature. Like other smart home hubs, you can set “scenes,” allowing for a cascade effect of smart home functionality. For example, you can get the Home app to turn off the lights, shut the garage door, and turn down the thermostat all at once when you leave the house.

Finally, Apple gives a shout-out to Apple TV, which can serve as your smart home hub if your phone just feels too small sometimes. “Apple TV also enables your home to carry out certain tasks automatically. For example, you can trigger an accessory or scene based on the time of day, your location, sensor detection, and more. Set it up once and you’re done,” the website notes.

So if you’ve been waiting for your crash course in your Apple-based smart home, here it is.

The best Micro USB cables to keep your gadgets juiced up

We’re starting to see a shift toward USB Type-C cables, but for the moment, Micro USB remains the standard go-to when it comes time to charge your smartphone and other gadgets. These cords may not be the most exciting pieces of tech in your home, but they’re essential for keeping your arsenal charged. Not all Micro USB cables are created equal, though, so we’ve rounded up a list of the best. Whether you’re looking for extra features, durability, length, or simply a reliable cable, you’ll find it here.

More: 30 of the juiciest portable battery chargers money can buy

Monoprice Premium Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 6 feet
• Warranty: Lifetime
• Price: $4

Let’s start with something cheap, simple, and reliable. Monoprice does offer cheaper cables than this, but the Monoprice Premium cable still only costs $6. It features gold-plated connectors, with Micro USB at one end and USB at the other. This is a USB 2.0 cable, and as such, it charges and syncs data quickly. The connector heads are made of a smooth, glossy polycarbonate, so they’re tough even if they’re not great when it comes to grip. The cable comes in either black or white, and there’s even a 3-foot version if length isn’t an issue.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Scosche FlatOut LED Micro Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 3 feet
• Warranty: 12 months
• Price: $10

Scosche has really put a lot of thought into the humble Micro USB cable and the end result is a flat, feature-packed offering. The cable has a built-in LED on the Micro USB connector, which glows red while your device is charging and turns blue when it’s done. This enables you to tell whether your phone is charged or not at a glance. The cable also features Scosche’s reversible EZtip, which means you can plug the Micro USB end into your phone with either direction, which is really handy. Sadly, the USB end is normal. Some people complain that the cable doesn’t stay in the phone’s port as securely as a regular cable, but we didn’t have any issues with it. It also supports fast charging and has no trouble with syncing data. It’s even available in 10-inch or 6-foot incarnations.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

TYLT Flyp Duo Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 3.3 feet
• Warranty: 12 months
• Price: $26

Here’s another feature-packed cable with a flat, tangle-free design. This TYLT cable has a reversible USB connector at one end, and at the other end, you have both standard Micro USB and Lightning connectors. The idea is that you’ll only have to take one cable with you to charge all of your devices. It could be attractive for households with a healthy mix of Android and Apple devices. Charging is fast and efficient and the cable can also handle file transfers with ease. It has a rubbery, soft-touch finish and comes in a range of vibrant colors, not to mention black. There is also a 1-foot version available.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Anker PowerLine Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 10 feet
• Warranty: 18 months
• Price: $7

When it comes to smartphone accessories, Anker is generally a name you can trust, and this Micro USB cable is no exception. It’s long and strong, with integrated Kevlar fibers and heavy reinforcement at the stress points to ensure longevity. It also supports fast charging and syncing speeds. This 10-foot cable is reasonably priced and ideal if your outlet isn’t close to where you want to sit. It comes with two Velcro ties, too, so you can coil any excess cable if need be. It’s also available in 3- or 6-foot varieties.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Volutz Equilibrium Cables

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 10 feet, 6.5 feet, and 3x 3.3 feet
• Warranty: 24 months
• Price: $16

You can get five different cables at an assortment of lengths from Volutz. If you’re expecting poor quality, then get ready to be pleasantly surprised. These are tough, nylon-braided cables that are actually pretty thick, so they don’t tangle easily. The colored connectors are quite large, but the circular design makes them easy to grip and pull out with your thumb. They can handle fast charging, too, and there’s no problem with syncing data. The design might be loud, but they’re a steal given the price.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

The best Micro USB cables to keep your gadgets juiced up

We’re starting to see a shift toward USB Type-C cables, but for the moment, Micro USB remains the standard go-to when it comes time to charge your smartphone and other gadgets. These cords may not be the most exciting pieces of tech in your home, but they’re essential for keeping your arsenal charged. Not all Micro USB cables are created equal, though, so we’ve rounded up a list of the best. Whether you’re looking for extra features, durability, length, or simply a reliable cable, you’ll find it here.

More: 30 of the juiciest portable battery chargers money can buy

Monoprice Premium Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 6 feet
• Warranty: Lifetime
• Price: $4

Let’s start with something cheap, simple, and reliable. Monoprice does offer cheaper cables than this, but the Monoprice Premium cable still only costs $6. It features gold-plated connectors, with Micro USB at one end and USB at the other. This is a USB 2.0 cable, and as such, it charges and syncs data quickly. The connector heads are made of a smooth, glossy polycarbonate, so they’re tough even if they’re not great when it comes to grip. The cable comes in either black or white, and there’s even a 3-foot version if length isn’t an issue.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Scosche FlatOut LED Micro Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 3 feet
• Warranty: 12 months
• Price: $10

Scosche has really put a lot of thought into the humble Micro USB cable and the end result is a flat, feature-packed offering. The cable has a built-in LED on the Micro USB connector, which glows red while your device is charging and turns blue when it’s done. This enables you to tell whether your phone is charged or not at a glance. The cable also features Scosche’s reversible EZtip, which means you can plug the Micro USB end into your phone with either direction, which is really handy. Sadly, the USB end is normal. Some people complain that the cable doesn’t stay in the phone’s port as securely as a regular cable, but we didn’t have any issues with it. It also supports fast charging and has no trouble with syncing data. It’s even available in 10-inch or 6-foot incarnations.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

TYLT Flyp Duo Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 3.3 feet
• Warranty: 12 months
• Price: $26

Here’s another feature-packed cable with a flat, tangle-free design. This TYLT cable has a reversible USB connector at one end, and at the other end, you have both standard Micro USB and Lightning connectors. The idea is that you’ll only have to take one cable with you to charge all of your devices. It could be attractive for households with a healthy mix of Android and Apple devices. Charging is fast and efficient and the cable can also handle file transfers with ease. It has a rubbery, soft-touch finish and comes in a range of vibrant colors, not to mention black. There is also a 1-foot version available.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Anker PowerLine Cable

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 10 feet
• Warranty: 18 months
• Price: $7

When it comes to smartphone accessories, Anker is generally a name you can trust, and this Micro USB cable is no exception. It’s long and strong, with integrated Kevlar fibers and heavy reinforcement at the stress points to ensure longevity. It also supports fast charging and syncing speeds. This 10-foot cable is reasonably priced and ideal if your outlet isn’t close to where you want to sit. It comes with two Velcro ties, too, so you can coil any excess cable if need be. It’s also available in 3- or 6-foot varieties.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Volutz Equilibrium Cables

• Quick charge: Yes
• Length: 10 feet, 6.5 feet, and 3x 3.3 feet
• Warranty: 24 months
• Price: $16

You can get five different cables at an assortment of lengths from Volutz. If you’re expecting poor quality, then get ready to be pleasantly surprised. These are tough, nylon-braided cables that are actually pretty thick, so they don’t tangle easily. The colored connectors are quite large, but the circular design makes them easy to grip and pull out with your thumb. They can handle fast charging, too, and there’s no problem with syncing data. The design might be loud, but they’re a steal given the price.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

DIYer’s air cannon can fire a Nerf dart right through an empty aluminum can

Why it matters to you

YouTuber Giaco Whatever is known for his crazy, potentially deadly inventions. A high-powered air cannon for firing Nerf darts is his latest.

Remember that time you shot your kid brother in the face with a Nerf gun and he cried? Well, you should both consider yourself lucky that you didn’t have YouTuber Giaco Whatever’s terrifying homemade Nerf dart blaster at your disposal instead.

In his latest video, intrepid inventor Giaco Whatever, aka Giacomo Di Muro, shows off his do-it-yourself Nerf-firing air cannon, which is capable of launching foam Nerf projectiles with a whopping 400 PSI of pressure. To put that in perspective, it’s about the level of pressure you’d feel 870 feet underwater. To put that in even more alarming perspective, it’s enough pressure to drive a Nerf dart through an aluminum soft drink can.

More: Totally rad Nerf gun prosthetic makes hands look boring in comparison

“I had this crazy idea to test if it’s possible — and in how many ways — you could make a Nerf gun lethal,” Di Muro told Digital Trends, reminding us of why we’re only going to say nice things about him in this post. “[It was] pure curiosity, I guess, and since I have a YouTube channel, I feel like I even have a reason to actually do it in case someone else was wondering.”

The resulting video is intriguing to watch, as well as weirdly ominous — with its close-up, methodical, jump-cut style ratcheting up the tension before we get to see to Di Muro’s poor, unwitting Red Bull can meet its maker. We wish he’d invest in a slow-motion camera, though!

Di Muro said that building the air cannon was very straightforward, and is something he’d done plenty of times off camera — although not necessarily for this application.

So what’s next for the man whose previous home builds have included a frightening spinning top attached to a bunch of razer blades? First up, he wants to extend the barrel of his latest air cannon to achieve even more power (he’s already ordered an additional 100 Nerf darts from Amazon).

“I now wanna try to do different projectiles,” he continued. “I’m really excited to see if I can make an ice projectile.”

Did we mention what a great, handsome, benevolent friend Giacomo Di Muro is. We heartily recommend that you subscribe to his YouTube channel. Please. And maybe alert the authorities just in case.

Will the next iPhone switch to USB Type-C? Nah, but the cable might

It looks like Apple’s next iPhone cable will switch to USB Type-C, rather than the next iPhone itself.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the next iPhone, though to be called iPhone 8, will come with a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector.” So, naturally, we assumed Apple might ditch its Lightning connector for USB Type-C. Now, however, Ming-Chi Kuo has contested that report.

The notoriously reliable KGI Securities analyst said he believes Apple will launch three new iPhones this year, and while they will support fast charging via USB Type-C, they will still retain the Lightning port. Kuo’s research note was obtained by MacRumors, and it suggested that Apple will add UBS Type-C to one end of the iPhone’s power cord. Currently, it’s a regular USB connector. 

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?

USB Type-C is well-known because it allows for quicker data transfer. It also allows your devices to charge. That means you can use a single cable with a USB Type-C connector to quickly transfer data to your device while you charge it. Keep in mind Apple recently ditched every single port on its old machines and replaced it with just Thunderbolt 3 ports on the latest MacBook Pro.

So, if Apple does switch to a USB Type-C iPhone cable (but retains the lightning connector for the phone), you will be able to plug the new iPhone into the latest MacBook Pro. If you have older Macs or PCs, you’ll need an adapter for the new power cord.

Check out Pocket-lint’s Thunderbolt 3 guide for information about how the port works.

Snapchat’s cavalier attitude draws the eye of Wall Street watchdogs

Snapchat’s parent company has finally filed for its IPO, and Wall Street has questions. Beyond what Reuters reports is the “richest” initial public offering since Facebook, is news that an investor committee advising the Securities and Exchange Commission will review some of Snap’s more, ahem, peculiar moves. Like if denying shareholders voting rights will extend into hiding executive pay and “other governance matters.”

The worry about that first bit is it could set precedent for other highly-valued tech companies to do the same. Instead, Reuters says that Snap “insiders” and early investors have control of the company — not folks who jumped on the $17 per-share IPO. The company is currently valued at $33 billion according to Recode. As of this writing, shares were trading at $25.93.

While voting rights aren’t a requirement, they’re a standard practice that a company performs to foster a sense of transparency. You could even say that getting shareholder votes is the point of an IPO. What Snap is doing here is railing extremely hard against any sort of transparency. It’s the antithesis of Google’s whole mission of “don’t be evil” motivation from its 2004 IPO.

For those well versed in investor jargon, “the question becomes, since there are no common shareholders’ proxy votes to do, what does that do to the level of disclosures it [Snap] will have to do for annual meetings and annual reports.” That’s from the chairman of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee Kurt Schacht.

But, given how Snap has shrugged off responsibility and criticism in the past, perhaps we should’ve seen this coming. The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee will meet on March 9th to discuss, among other things, “unequal voting rights of common shares.”

Via: Recode

Source: Reuters