New Report Suggests Apple Could Delay ‘iPhone 8’ Launch to October or November

Apple could delay its rumored high-end iPhone with a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge OLED display until October or even November, according to a new report out on Wednesday.

In recent years, Apple has released its iPhone updates in September, but according to Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN), suppliers are encountering “technical issues” in the production of the upcoming “iPhone 8” because of differences in the display lamination process and challenges involved in integrating the 3D sensing front camera system.

The report tallies with a rumor that circulated last month suggesting the iPhone 8 may go on sale later than usual, due to the switch to an OLED display and the new technology needed. In such a scenario, the launch of an iPhone 7s and 7s Plus would go ahead in September as scheduled, with the higher-end iPhone 8 coming later in the year.

Such a staggered release would be highly untypical of Apple, and it’s hard to imagine the company holding a September launch event for “S” cycle iPhones with no mention of the highly rumored OLED device. However, it is possible the higher-end phone could be revealed at the same time but launched in limited quantities or at a later date. Barclays analysts recently claimed that Apple will launch its “10th anniversary iPhone” in the usual September timeframe, albeit in short supply until a full stock arrives in the fourth quarter.

Earlier this week it was reported that Apple has placed an order for 70 million OLED panels from Samsung, anticipating high demand. Samsung is preparing to be able to produce up to 95 million panels in 2017, said the sources.

Market watchers are said to be analyzing the pull-in of orders for passive components from the iPhone’s supply chain to see whether production of the new iPhone devices is on track, according to EDN. Apart from the edge-to-edge OLED display, the “iPhone 8” is expected to include wireless charging, no physical Home button, and perhaps 3D facial recognition and/or iris scanning. In addition, rumors suggest that Touch ID could be embedded in or under a True Tone display.

(Via DigiTimes.)

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
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Apple Music 2.0 on Android: Here’s what your phone can do now

Apple has finally updated its Android Apple Music app, bringing its feature set to parity with the iOS 10 version.

Apple Music 2.0 has had a facelift and gains several new abilities, so Android phone owners now have a valid competitor to other big music streaming services, including Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and, of course, Google Music. It’s no longer hamstrung in comparison to the version for iPhone.

You can get a free three month trial of Apple Music if you’ve never signed up before, so worth giving it a go. After that, it’s £9.99 a month for full access, £14.99 a month for a family subscription with full experience for up to six different users, and £4.99 for a student membership.

Here’s what Apple Music 2.0 offers now:

Apple Music for Android new features

• New design to make it look like the iPhone equivalent.
• You can see song lyrics appear in Now Playing as the track continues.
• Library has been rejigged to include separate Downloaded Music option, to just show your offline tracks.
• A For You section shows recommendations for playlists, albums and more.
• A Browse section highlights new music and curated playlists.
• You can now also access Apple’s livestream radio stations, including Beats 1.

Like other streaming services, Apple Music has millions of songs available to stream online and download for offline listening. There are thousands of playlists in any musical genre that takes your fancy, curated by experts, and the app gives you recommendations for music based on your listening habits.

The service is now available in over 100 countries and can be downloaded from Google Play here. Alternatively, in countries where Google Play is not available, it can be downloaded from Apple.com.

Tablets for kids: How to setup an Amazon Fire tablet for children

Kids love tablets. They love the interactive games, they love having access to video to watch and they love all the apps. The big problem is that most adults have a tablet setup for themselves, meaning you’re only a few clicks away from content or buying temptations that you don’t want in the hands of your child.

One of the best tablets for kids is the Amazon Fire, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the price, secondly, Amazon has put a lot of effort into providing parents with controls to ensure that the Fire is a safe place for kids. 

Which Fire tablet should I buy?

Once you’ve accepted that children don’t need the latest and most powerful tech, there are few choices to be made. Amazon sells different versions of its Fire tablet and we’d heartily recommend the basic Fire model, as it’s ideal for children. 

All the Amazon Fire models run on the same user interface and offer the same software features, including all the controls you need to make it safe for your kids. This is an advantage over a regular Android tablet, which doesn’t, and it’s at least £290 cheaper than an Apple iPad, although if you’ve bought a lot of iTunes content or have iOS-specific apps in mind, that might be a barrier to your choices.

Amazon Fire

The regular Amazon Fire tablet is a 7-inch tablet, powered by a quad-core processor and offering Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB for charging and a microSD card slot for memory expansion. It’s a plastic build, but if you’re buying it for a child, you’ll want a case to provide all-round protection.

The Amazon Fire comes in 8GB or 16GB storage options, and with or without “special offers”. Special offers means lock screen advertising and if you really want to protect your kids, opt for no special offers, at £10 more. If you want more storage, that’s £10 more too. 

Buy the Amazon Fire on Amazon from £49.99

You’ll also want to put it in a case. There are lots of options on Amazon, but we’d recommend the MoKo Shockproof Defender (pictured above in pink).

Buy the MoKo Shockproof Defender on Amazon for £14.99 

Amazon Fire Kids Edition

However, there’s a special model specifically for kids and this is an Amazon Fire tablet that comes in a foam bumper cover. It’s the same spec as the Amazon Fire above, but comes with 16GB storage and no “special offers”, so the tablet itself with worth £69.99 and about £5 for the cover. It also comes with a 2-year no quibble guarantee if you/they break it (pictured above in blue).

The big kicker here is that you get a 1-year free subscription to Fire for Kids Unlimited. This is a subscription service that provides access to loads of content specifically for children. We’ll talk about it more below, but bear in mind that at the end of the year, you’ll have to pay, or lose the access it provides. 

Buy the Amazon Fire Kids Edition for £99.99 

How to setup your Amazon Fire for Kids 

Now to the specifics. When you buy an Amazon product, it needs to be registered to an Amazon account. With Amazon allowing Households, it’s best to have any child’s device (Fire or Kindle) on your account, setup with a child profile. 

This way you don’t have to create a new Amazon account for them, you don’t have register an email address for them or provide payment details for them, and Amazon knows that the user is a child and can create a space specifically for them on your Fire tablet.

Amazon Fire tablets – like the Kindle – can be split into two areas. The first area is the full interface with full controls, which you’ll have access to as an adult, with access to all your content. The second is Fire for Kids.

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How to set-up Fire for Kids or FreeTime

Fire for Kids (called FreeTime in the US) is a safe area where you can control all the content, set time limits and daily goals, turn off the web browser, turn off the camera and gallery and so on. 

Here’s what you need to do:

Setup a child profile in your Amazon Household – you can find that in your Amazon Account settings, under Amazon Household
That child profile will appear on your Fire tablet, you can switch users by tapping the icons on the lock screen, or by swiping down from the top to change user.
In your (the adult’s) profile, click on the Fire for Kids icon on the home screen and pick the child profile you want to edit, by tapping the settings cog.
You’ll get the menu to change goals and time limits, manage content, remove content, turn off the web browser, turn off the camera, show or hide the profile and enable a password for the child.
Ensure you have a password on your own profile. 

As Fire for Kids is designed for children, it’s a safe place and instantly recognisable, turning the background blue, so you can see at a glance that they’re in the right zone. 

To exit Fire for Kids, they can opt to exit a profile, returning to the lock screen with all the user profile icons on it. This is why it’s essential that you have a password on all the adult accounts, to stop them then entering your area and getting full access again. 

Children don’t get to change settings themselves, so that all has to be handled from the adult profile. 

Importantly, when in Fire for Kids mode, there’s no access to purchasing from Amazon Apps at all. 

Note that you don’t have to have a separate Fire tablet to do this, you can use Fire for Kids on an existing Fire tablet you might have.

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Adding apps to Fire for Kids

One of the things you’ll need to do in the regular Fire for Kids app is nominate the content that your children will have access to. This gives you complete vetting, as you’ll be responsible for allowing access to various apps and games – unless using Unlimited/FreeTime, which we’ll get to in a second.

It’s easy enough to add content, but you have to follow these steps: 

In the adult profile, head to Amazon Apps and find the app or game you want, download and install it.
Open the Fire for Kids app, and open the profile of the child you want to grant access to.
Tap “Add Content” and then pick the category, e.g., Games & Apps, and select the apps you want to allow the child to see.
Hit done at the bottom of the page.
Sign back into the child’s profile to access the app.

This can be repeated for books or video content that you’ve purchased from Amazon, but bear in mind that you’re responsible for the suitability of this content. You could, for example, grant access to a video app that has inappropriate content or books that are for adults.

Equally, you can assign games that have advertising or community features that you don’t know about, so make sure you check that everything is appropriate for the child you’re granting access to. Fortunately, Fire for Kids blocks in-app purchases.

What is Fire for Kids Unlimited? 

Unlimited is a label that Amazon applies to further subscription content. On Kindle there’s Kindle Unlimited and here there’s Fire for Kids Unlimited. As we’ve mentioned, this is a service that comes free for 1-year with the Fire Kids Edition tablet, but you can also subscribe to it separately, if you’d rather buy the £49.99 tablet.

It has tiered pricing: it’s £1.99 a month for Prime subscribers for 1 child, £4.99 a month for Prime subscribers up to 4 children. For non-Prime subscribers, it’s £3.99 a month for 1 child, £7.99 a month for up to 4 children. Amazon also offers a free 1-month trial, which you can sign-up for here, if you want to give it a go.

Fire for Kids Unlimited provides a couple of benefits over the regular Fire for Kids offering that comes with all Fire tablets. Amazon curates content and makes it available to children through the Fire tablet, so that they have access to age-appropriate books, apps, videos and web content.

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This opens up the range of content that’s available to children, allowing them to make some additional selections, like accessing more books, without parental intervention. Unlike the content you might assign, this is all verified appropriate by Amazon. You retain the ability to add more content, as above, if you want to.

The Fire for Kids Unlimited content is broken down into different age ranges, something that you can nominate in the child’s profile and if you have older children who want more content, opting for Unlimited is a good way of knowing they have access to content without constant requests to buy or grant access to more stuff.

Whether you think that Fire for Kids Unlimited is worth it will very much come down to how much content you think your kids need, how much time they spend pestering you and whether you think the subscription will outweigh the amount you spend on buying fresh content for them.

It’s worth noting, however, that books that you download through Fire for Kids Unlimited don’t then appear on a Kindle linked to that child’s profile.

• How to setup an Amazon Kindle for children

Summing up

Of all the child-friendly devices out there, Amazon’s approach is one of the most comprehensive. There’s a range of sensible options for parental control, from setting time limits to options to grant or provide age-appropriate content.

Best of all, your child’s account remains under the umbrella of your Household and you are firmly in control, whether that’s through their own tablet, your tablet, or from your web browser.

Keep a closer eye on Tigger with this smartphone-controlled pet door

Why it matters to you

A smart pet door that you can control via a smartphone aims to give pet owners greater peace of mind.

If you’re never quite sure if your precious pet is in or out of the house and you’d really prefer to know, then SureFlap’s smartphone-controlled pet door can help you out.

The new Microchip Pet Door Connect technology is an expansion of SureFlap’s existing smart door that works with RFID-collared and microchipped pets to ensure it only opens for the right animal, TechCrunch reports. The new kit includes a custom-made smartphone app that lets you schedule curfews and remotely lock the door with a single tap, while notifications will let you know when your pet has left the building — or returned home.

The app will also collect and organize data on your animal’s movements in and out of your home, a feature designed to highlight any changes in their routine which could be a sign that all is not well with your furry friend.

In addition, if you’re away for a few days and have a pet sitter staying or dropping by, you can share access to the app and set permissions, too.

Designed for cats and small dogs, the flap itself is easy to install and works via the included Hub device, which acts as a link between the flap and the internet.

Commenting on the connected pet door, SureFlap boss Nick Hill said, “We saw an opportunity to bring something new, innovative and beneficial to pet owners. Our app-controlled pet door gives owners greater peace of mind by allowing them to check in on their pets when they’re away from home.”

Hill added that the technology is “non-intrusive and runs seamlessly in the background until it is needed.”

More: Pebby the robotic toy means you’ll never miss your pet when you’re out

The Microchip Pet Door Connect system is powered by four C batteries that should offer at least six months of use. Shipping is expected to begin this summer, with both the complete set — the door, the Hub, and the app — selling for £160 ($200).

Victory for parents! Amazon to refund $70M of in-app purchases made by kids

Why it matters to you

If your kids made in-app purchases on the Amazon app store between 2011 and 2016, you could be in for a payout.

There was a time, not so long ago, when kids could pretty easily rack up a hefty bill with unauthorized in-app purchases on their parents’ mobile devices, Mom and Dad only learning about it when they saw their credit card bill. Indeed, the ease with which such transactions could be made ended up getting several tech giants into big trouble with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

While Apple and Google agreed to reimburse parents to the tune of millions of dollars several years ago, Amazon has been challenging the FTC’s demands to cough up. Until this week.

The FTC said on Tuesday that Amazon has finally agreed to refund affected customers for inappropriate purchases made via its app store between November 2011 and May 2016. Details of the refund program, which is reportedly worth a colossal $70 million, will be announced soon by the online retailer.

Last year a judge rejected Amazon’s request to refund the purchases in the form of gift cards or online credits, so customers can expect to receive payments direct to their credit or debit card.

“This case demonstrates what should be a bedrock principle for all companies — you must get customers’ consent before you charge them,” Thomas B. Pahl, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a release. “Consumers affected by Amazon’s practices can now be compensated for charges they didn’t expect or authorize.”

More: 18 major Kindle Fire problems, and how to fix them

This story began six years ago when Amazon started allowing in-app purchases, with 30 percent of each transaction going straight to the company.

In the early days there were no protections in place so that children, or anyone for that matter, could easily make in-app purchases without the permission of the account holder.

The FTC eventually went after Amazon — as well as Apple and Google — in an effort to get it to offer refunds to customers for any unauthorized purchases.

“Amazon’s in-app system allowed children to incur unlimited charges on their parents’ accounts without permission,” the FTC said in 2014, adding that “even Amazon’s own employees recognized the serious problem its process created.” However, the company insisted it was making refunds in relevant cases and was also rolling out safeguards to improve the operation of its app store.

In April 2016, the court examining the case agreed with the commission, describing Amazon’s system for informing customers about in-app charges as insufficient.

Whereas Amazon has until now been appealing against orders to refund customers, other tech giants settled some time ago. Apple agreed to refund more than $32 million to users of its App Store in 2014, while in the same year Google started paying back $19 million to affected Play Store customers.

All three companies have since overhauled their respective stores to make it much harder for unauthorized in-app purchases to take place.

DirecTV doubles its live 4K broadcasts for this year’s Masters

Last year DirecTV made history with the first live 4K broadcast — the PGA Masters Tournament. It was only one channel, sure, but up to that point anything we’d seen in UHD had been pre-recorded. For the outfit’s return trip to the 4K links, DirecTV is doubling the number of channels available. CBS is handling production duties for channels 105 and 106 from April 6th through the 9th. The former will feature views from Amen Corner, while the latter is dedicated to holes 15 and 16.

To catch all the ultra-detailed action you’ll need a Genie HD DVR model HR54 or newer, a 4K TV (of course) and the DirecTV Select package or higher. Still waiting to upgrade your display? You’ll have a channel dedicated to Amen Corner and holes 15 and 16 as well. An interactive leaderboard with scorecards and player bios will also be available.

And if you aren’t a golf fan, well, the boys of summer are back and in UHD via DirecTV, too. That’s in addition to the soccer (football to everyone else), basketball games and UFC matches the telco has offered previously. With DirecTV crowing that it’s the “established leader” in 4K sports programming, hopefully it won’t be long before we see other sports getting the UHD treatment here.

Watch @bubbawatson use his driver to skip the ball across the pond onto No. 16 green. #themasters pic.twitter.com/6l0nKeSidE

— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 4, 2017

Source: AT&T

Watch a NASA simulation of Cassini’s upcoming Saturn crash

On April 26th, NASA’s Cassini probe will begin diving in and out of the gap between Saturn and its rings in what the agency calls its “Grand Finale.” The spacecraft will orbit the gas giant it’s been observing since 2004 22 more times before taking the final plunge into its atmosphere in mid-September. Since we won’t be able to get a front-row seat to that show, NASA has released a video simulating the probe’s last months, which you can watch below the fold. If that’s not enough, you also download the “Eyes on Cassini” app for Macs and PCs so you can virtually ride on board the spacecraft and experience its last orbits and final plunge yourself.

Thanks to Cassini’s work over the past 13 years, we now know more about Saturn, the structure of its rings and the nature of its atmosphere. It also sent back loads of data on its moons, telling us more about Titan’s methane seas and canyons, among other notable characteristics. We also have Cassini to thank for the closest photos we’ve ever seen of the planet and its natural satellites.

The probe’s final orbits are a full mission on their own. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said “what we learn from Cassini’s daring final orbits will further our understanding of how giant planets, and planetary systems everywhere, form and evolve. This is truly discovery in action to the very end.”

Source: NASA

OmniGroup Releases OmniOutliner 5, $10 Essentials Edition and Pro Upgrade

OmniGroup on Wednesday released OmniOutliner 5, which it is calling the biggest update to the outlining app ever. Available in both a $10 Essentials edition (replacing Standard) and an improved Pro version, the changes to the former are said to focus on simplicity for the newcomer, while the latter brings extra features for the power user.

The new Essentials edition features a redesigned interface that aims to keep the focus on outlining, and includes ten original themes, including dark and solarized color schemes, as well as typewriter and distraction free modes. Live document statistics, filtering, and zoom features are also available in the new stripped down content window.

In OmniOutliner 5’s new Essentials edition, your entire focus is on your own content: there are no distracting sidebars or panels. You can choose to work in a window or in a distraction-free full-screen mode, selecting from a set of beautiful built-in themes. As you write, you’ll be able to see some key statistics about your content so you can track progress towards your goals. But our goal is to help you focus on your content and whatever task you’re working on—not on the tool you’re using.

The upgrade to Outliner Pro brings over the new focused UI of Essentials, but adds slide-in sidebars, saved filters, and comprehensive custom settings to control styling. The more advanced environment also includes document password encryption, keyboard shortcut options for every menu item, and support for OPML editing. Other features include:

• Smarter Paste — To avoid bringing in extra styles when copying data from outside sources, Paste now removes styles but retain links and images. Use the new Paste with Original Style to retain the styles from your source content.
• New File Format — While .ooutline files are zipped by default, package files are still available for scenarios where that makes more sense, like for version control.
• Inspector Sidebar — The inspectors are now contained in a sidebar, allowing you to show or hide them on a per-document basis.
• Style View — When selecting a style in the Styles sidebar, rows that are affected by that style appear highlighted in the outline.
• Side Margins — Lock the outline column to a specific width and keep your outline centered in the window with side margins. Customize the color of the margins per-document.
• Specify Column Widths — The Column Inspector now has an editable field for the column width. The outline column can also be set to automatically resize with the window or be set to a specific width.
• Resize Column to Fit — Select a column and have OmniOutliner adjust the width to fit your content for you with the Resize to fit button in the Column Type Inspector.
• Column Resizing — Columns can be resized by dragging anywhere on their right edges. Dragging the left-most edge also resizes the outline column.
• Style Preview — A preview of the style you are inspecting is shown at the top of the Selection Style Inspector.
• Multiple-Row Focus — Focus on multiple selections by command-clicking them in the sidebar section list.
• Focus Indicator — When focused, a focus bar appears to remind you that content is hidden and provide easy access to unfocus.
• Excel Export — Export to the Excel (xlsx) format.
• PowerPoint Export — PowerPoint export now places embedded images on corresponding slides. You’ll need to manually re-position them, though.

Both versions of OmniOutliner 5 require macOS 10.11. With the Essentials edition, OmniGroup has lowered the app’s entry price from $49.99 to a more affordable $9.99. The upgrade price from Essentials to Pro is $49.99, while the new list price for Pro has been lowered to $59.99. Mac and iOS apps are sold separately. OmniOutliner for iOS costs $29.99 and is available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. The new Mac versions are available in the Trial download via the Mac App Store (with in-app purchases).

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Amazon Wins $50 Million Deal to Stream NFL Thursday Games on Prime Video

Amazon has won the rights to broadcast 10 National Football League Thursday night games live online this season, as part of its video content strategy exclusive to Prime subscription members.

The company paid $50 million for the one-year deal, according to Bloomberg, taking over from a similar agreement Twitter had last year that saw the social media service sprout an Apple TV app for users to watch the games free of charge. Amazon has made Prime Video apps available for iPhone and iPad, but has yet to offer one for Apple TV.

Image via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
The games will continue to be broadcast on TV by CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network. The short-term deals reflect the football league’s strategy up until 2021, when the traditional broadcast deals start to expire. After that, NFL will reportedly treat tech companies as potential suitors alongside regular television networks.

Amazon offers original movies and shows as part of its Prime Video service. Early last year, the company began offering Prime Video as a standalone $8.99 monthly subscription deal with an option to cancel at any time, as an alternative for those who don’t want to sign up to the all-in $99 Amazon Prime annual subscription.

Tags: NFL, Amazon Prime Video
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Reebok will introduce plant-based sustainable shoes this year

While others try shoes that lace themselves or have 3D printed soles, Reebok will have “plant-based” footwear on shelves this year. Adidas already sold a sneaker produced from ocean-plastic, but Reebok’s “Cotton + Corn” push is focused on shoes that are made from sustainable, growing materials, that can even be used as compost after they’re worn out.

According to Reebok Future head Bill McInnis “We like to say, we are ‘growing shoes’ here at Reebok. Ultimately, our goal is to create a broad selection of bio-based footwear that can be composted after use. We’ll then use that compost as part of the soil to grow the materials for the next range of shoes. We want to take the entire cycle into account; to go from dust to dust.”

While the shoe itself won’t arrive until later this year, Reebok says it’s using DuPont’s Susterra Propanediol to create the sole. It originates from “non-food source” industrially grown corn, while the upper will be made of organic cotton. Last year, the Future department the Liquid Speed shoes made with 3D drawing technology, and this next project will fit right alongside them. More importantly, McInnis claims this is “just the beginning,” and expects to use it as a blueprint moving forward.

Source: Reebok