Sony Xperia XZ news and rumors

To say that Sony’s mobile brand is one dogged by turbulence is a bit of an understatement: The Xperia division recorded a loss of $544 million for the 2015 financial year. That’s partly thanks to tribulations brought on by its parent company’s continued restructuring — it cut 1,000 jobs in Europe and China early last year.

But also to blame are an inexplicable series of management missteps: The Xperia Z3+, one of the first smartphones to sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset, was initially plagued by reports of overheating, and when Sony’s latest handset, the Z5, became available in North America an off-contract capacity, it bizarrely shipped without a fingerprint sensor.

Sony’s desperate for a hit, needless to say. Last month, leaked images showed a previously unrevealed Sony handset that’s slightly different from the company’s established design language. Now we’ve got a few renders, and a name — the Xperia XZ. Here’s everything we know so far.

Availability

The Sony Xperia XZ made its official debut in India in 2016 and began shipping there last October.

Design

Sony’s next flagship device isn’t the Xperia XR — it has been wrongly named by notable leaker @OnLeaks. The device is in fact the Xperia XZ, thanks to the Czech version of Sony’s website which accidentally leaked the name as well as the existence of the Xperia X Compact.

Still, these renders from @OnLeaks may indeed show what Sony’s upcoming handset looks like. Keep in mind that we cannot verify any of these images or the name of the handset — take everything with a grain of salt.

So, here comes the first one… #SONY #XPERIAXR (moniker TBC)
Roughly 146.4×71.9×8.1mm pic.twitter.com/gPPhKLsJjw

— OnLeaks (@OnLeaks) August 7, 2016

The smartphone is actually quite similar in looks to the Xperia X — there are the same button placements, and the rear camera sits in a familiar place. The top and bottom bezels are a little thick.

More: Get more out of your stylish Sony with these Xperia X tips and tricks

But previous images do show that the handset, which GSM Arena reports might be the “F8331,” features geometry that’s a little more angular than this year’s Xperia X. The aesthetic might almost be described as brutalist: the phone’s top and bottom edges terminate harshly at the edges, and there’s no sign of the rounded, sloping corners of the type on the Xperia X. Rather, the prototype’s longer edges taper at its front and rear, evoking Nokia’s Lumia series of Windows Phones. It’s not entirely seamless — the phone’s rear cover sports a discolored tab near its bottom, presumably to accommodate antennas, and a camera and flash dominate the top-left side. The image’s source claims the screen is larger than that on the Xperia X.

More: Sony Xperia X review

It may not be long before Sony blows the lid on its skunkworks phone, though — it’s scheduled to make an appearance at September’s IFA conference in Berlin. And even if it did, it might be bound for destinations overseas: according to leaked documents obtained by Xperia Blog in July, Sony plans to “defocus” its mobile business in the United States, India, China, and Brazil in the coming months in favor of alternative East Asian, European, and Middle Eastern countries.

Specs

The design renders from @OnLeaks and the leaked images clearly indicate the phone will have a USB Type-C port, a first for Sony. The former leaker also says the Xperia XZ will have dimensions of 146.4 x 71.9 x 8.1 mm. That’s slightly larger than the Xperia X — it’s dimensions are 142.7 x 69.4 x 7.9 mm.

A profiteering user of Njuškalo, Croatia’s dominant classified ads website, has listed a unit of the unreleased smartphone for sale. The seller describes it as ” a new model of Xperia X Performance,” and provided a few specifications.

According to the listing, the phone features a 5.1-inch display, 23MP rear-facing camera and 12MP front-facing camera, 3GB of RAM, and “non-slippery” metal housing. A USB Type-C port appears to be on tap and so too does a 3.5mm headphone jack.

This article was originally published on 07-25-2016. Updated on 04-04-2017 by Kyle Wiggers.

Google forms group of major players to reduce patent disputes

Why it matters to you

Google wants to protect Android from litigation. PAX might just help it do that.

When it comes to patent infighting, Google’s laying down the law. In a blog post yesterday, the search giant announced PAX , a patent licensing group founded to “[promote] innovation and healthy competition.” Its members will agree to the terms of an “Android Networked Cross-License Agreement.”

PAX, which Google describes as a “patent clearing house,” counts Google, Samsung, LG, Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn, Nokia device maker HMD Global, HTC, Chinese smartphone company Coolpad, BQ, and Allview among its founding members. It will grant royalty-free patent licenses that cover Android and Google Applications on “qualified devices” — namely, smartphones and tablets that ship with Google’s proprietary Android services.

More: The 18 most important patents Google takes home with Motorola

Google says that this will shore up the Android ecosystem’s more than 400 partner manufacturers and 500 carriers against intellectual property disputes. “[This] ensures that innovation and consumer choice — not patent threats — will continue to be key drivers of our Android ecosystem. PAX is free to join and open to anyone,” Google said in a blog post.

According to Google, PAX’s members own more than 230,000 patents worldwide.

PAX, on its face, is principally aimed at heading off legal spats over Android’s core features.

In 2011, Oracle accused Google of infringing on intellectual Java programming language property the former acquired from Sun Microsystems in early 2010. And in 2012, Apple sued Samsung for violating software design patents including Android’s pinch-to-zoom gesture, the slide-to-unlock motion used to unlock Android’s lockscreen, the kinetic rubber-banding effect at the bottom of settings menus, and universal search.

More: Microsoft announces tenth Android patent deal

It’s also meant to combat the pricey licensing arrangements sought by companies which claim Android violates their intellectual property.

Microsoft is reported to be earning $2 billion a year from licensing email, calendar, contacts, and signal strength patents to Android handset manufacturers like Samsung, Acer, ViewSonic, Quanta, Onkyo, and HTC.

And in 2011, Rockstart, a patent holding company jointly owned by Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Ericsson, launched lawsuits against Google and Android partners like HTC, Huawei, Asus, LG, Samsung, ZTE, and Pantech.

More: Google is letting budding inventors search through patents in 11 more countries

In a report commissioned by lawyers from Apple’s law firm and an executive from Intel, analysts estimated that about $120 of the $400 cost of a representative smartphone is spent on patent licensing — about 30 percent.

In 2012, Google went so far as to acquire smartphone maker Motorola — and its collection of 170,000 patents — in order to “protect” Android software and devices.

PAX represents a more open — and permanent — solution

“In Latin, the word ‘pax’ means ‘peace,’” Google said. “We encourage […] companies large and small around the world to join us in PAX and enjoy patent peace.”

New law repeals ISP privacy rules that would limit sale of users’ browsing data

Why it matters to you

President Trump’s decision makes it easier for internet service providers to use your browsing history to deliver targeted advertising.

President Donald Trump has signed off on the repeal of legislation designed to limit internet service providers’ capacity to retain and sell users’ browsing history. This development comes after both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives voted to remove the limitations put in place while former President Barack Obama was still in office.

The legislation was designed to prevent both home and mobile internet providers from sharing their users’ browsing history, app usage, and other private information without their consent, according to a report from Ars Technica. Users would have had to opt in to allow their data to be sold.

Now, ISPs will not require customers’ consent in order to analyze their browsing history for the purposes of advertising. For bigger companies with their own advertising platforms, this means that users’ browsing habits can be fed directly into the mechanisms that determine what ads are delivered to an individual.

More: If ISPs get their way, your web browser won’t be ‘sensitive information’

However, this repeal also means that ISPs are free to sell user data to third parties. Companies could potentially leverage existing customers to provide new revenue streams by treating their browsing history as a resource that can help advertisers reach receptive audiences.

It remains to be seen to what extent ISPs will take advantage of the access to user data granted by this repeal. In January 2017, a group of companies including AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, and Verizon published an open letter that stated their intention to allow customers opt out of their browsing history being used for advertising.

There are now fears that Trump might make changes to other legislation related to internet access, like net neutrality rules. Both net neutrality and the legislation that prevented ISPs from sharing user data without consent were facilitated by the FCC’s 2015 decision to reclassify ISPs as common carriers — something that White House press secretary Sean Spicer criticized in a briefing held last week.

Waze nears Android Auto release with a beta set to launch soon

Why it matters to you

Many drivers love Waze’s social approach to traffic reporting, and the upcoming Android Auto version should make the app easier and safer to use than ever before.

Waze is a popular navigation app for many drivers, thanks to its crowdsourced traffic updates. You’d think, then, that having been owned by Google for the past several years, the app would be a perfect fit for Android Auto. Somehow, that version hasn’t released yet — though news this week suggests drivers may not have to wait much longer.

Waze is now sending invites to its beta users to test drive the app on Android Auto, according to Android Police. The email says the beta will go live soon, but doesn’t specify a date. It links to a Google Docs signup page, where those interested can register. If you haven’t joined the beta community, you can do so here.

More: Spotify and Waze partner to bring music to your ride

Some of Waze’s data, like traffic updates, are already featured in Google Maps, which Android Auto uses for navigation by default. However, Google Maps doesn’t offer drivers the ability to report incidents themselves while on the road. When Waze debuts on Android Auto, it should make that process much easier, with the help of hands-free voice commands and your car’s infotainment display.

News of the long-awaited Android Auto release comes at a pivotal time for Waze, which in February announced it was expanding its Carpool service to multiple cities around the United States after testing in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel. With about 80 million active users, the app has a strong install base to go toe-to-toe with ride-sharing alternatives like Uber and Lyft — though adoption has been slow in the initial test markets.

Additionally, in March the company announced a partnership with Spotify to integrate playback controls conveniently within the navigation interface. Waze has worked with other developers as well, and began sharing its routing and guidance data through its Transport software development kit last year. The SDK has been used by Lyft as well as emergency dispatch, parking, and food delivery services worldwide.

Apple patent points to a Touch Bar for the next Magic Keyboard

Why it matters to you

If Apple is preparing to introduce a stand-alone keyboard with a Touch Bar, expect context-sensitive function keys to become a prominent feature of MacOS.

Last year, Apple made some major changes to the MacBook Pro, not least of which is the addition of an OLED Touch Bar that grants users access to context-sensitive function keys. Now, there’s evidence that this same functionality might be transferred to the company’s stand-alone Magic Keyboard.

A new patent application submitted by Apple last week suggests that the company has some ambition to offer a Magic Keyboard that’s fitted with a Touch Bar. Illustrations included in the application depict a laptop keyboard and a stand-alone keyboard, both bearing an OLED strip, according to a report from 9t05Mac.

This isn’t confirmation that the next Magic Keyboard will feature a Touch Bar, but it at least demonstrates that Apple is weighing its options and planning accordingly. Response to the Touch Bar being added to the MacBook Pro was mixed, but most would agree that the idea has potential.

More: Apple aficionado, huh? Here are 20 games you need to play on your Mac

A stand-alone keyboard with a Touch Bar would allow a whole new sector of users to take advantage of its benefits. Currently, the hardware component is exclusive to the MacBook Pro line, which means that users who work with an Apple desktop have no way of introducing it to their setups.

If the Touch Bar was available as part of a peripheral, a much broader swathe of the wider Apple ecosystem would be able to utilize it. In turn, this would encourage developers to make sure that their software makes full use of its abilities.

Apple has been interested in a keyboard with this kind of functionality for some time. In October 2016, it was widely reported that the company was in talks with Sonder, an Australian startup responsible for a line of keyboards that use E Ink display technology to produce reactive, customizable keys.

Bell FCX helicopter concept adds and subtracts — no dashboard, no tail rotor

Why it matters to you

Your idea of helicopters could start changing very soon.

Helicopters are getting safer, smarter, and more efficient. Bell Helicopter recently showed images of the FCX-001, a helicopter concept that incorporates new and emerging technologies in aircraft design, according to a Bell announcement.

Standout design attributes in the FCX-001 included a rotor-less tail boom, hybrid propulsion systems, new airframe composition materials, variable cabin layouts, and modified landing gear. The helicopter’s rotor blades will be able to morph to accommodate varied needs and both the pilot and the passengers in the cabin will make extensive use of augmented reality. If you picture a helicopter with lots of windows, no tail rotor, and no dashboard for the single pilot you’ll be on track with the more visible changes.

More: Augmented-reality headsets could help helicopter rescue pilots fly in dense fog

Bell tasked a collaborative group of problem solvers, consisting of engineers and graphic designers, with creating the FCX-001 concept.

“For the past 80 years, Bell Helicopter has imagined the art of the possible and brought those dreams to life,” said Bell Helicopter President and CEO Mitch Snyder. “Six months ago we created a dedicated team to focus on emerging technologies and how we could incorporate them into our products. Among that team’s first tasks was to display visually the technologies and innovations that present a roadmap that we envision bringing to market.”

The FCX-001’s propulsion system combines a thermal engine core for the primary propulsion with electric motors to power an anti-torque tail boom system. Basically, the heat transfer engine drives the helicopter and the electric motors keep it from spinning in the opposite direction of the main rotor blades. Those main blades have modules on their tips that change to improve performance in different conditions.

The helicopter airframe, meaning the body and structural components not counting the engines, will be made from sustainable materials. The design and engineering goals for the airframe include strength, visibility, and room. The structure will incorporate technologies to harvest, store, and distribute energy — think harvesting solar and wind energy while moving through the sky.

In the absence of a physical dashboard, the FCX-001 pilot will use augmented reality with artificial intelligence to control the aircraft. Passengers will have the ability to access the same augmented reality tech to hold video conferences, check the news, share documents, or stretch back and watch a movie.

The new-tech Bell FCX-001 helicopter concept isn’t quite as far-reaching as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, but it comes close.

Close to the Metal Ep. 37: Does the Windows 10 Creators Update live up to its name?

Holographic computers, 3D printing tools, gaming and streaming tools baked right in — Microsoft promised the world and then some with the latest batch of upgrades to the Windows 10 platform, known collectively as the Creators Update.

More: The latest Windows 10 update hones Edge, but doesn’t deliver for creators

But Redmond may have oversold the scale of the so-called Creators Update. The Hololens still hasn’t found its way into consumer homes, so any holographic features are conspicuously absent from our build. That’s a big disappointment, considering murmurs of Vive compatibility before the rollout.

Without any futuristic augmented reality features, gaming takes center stage in the update. A new game mode, meant to smooth out choppy gaming performance, doesn’t actually deliver on its promise, providing basically no boost to average framerate, although it did help bring up minimums slightly. Built-in streaming accomplishes its goal of simplicity, so you can go from ordinary gamer to streaming champion in just a few clicks. With limited access to Beam, the Microsoft streaming service, it’s unlikely you’ll find a following.

Finally, Paint 3D rounds out the list of big new features, but it too fails to deliver on lofty claims of easy modeling that are thrown off by a limited perspective while editing your creations. Without any alignment or size tools, you won’t be able to take those models to the 3D printer without help from another 3D rendering program.

We’ll also cover a number of changes to the Edge browser that help bring it in line with a competitors, and updates to a number of Windows Store apps that may actually bring users out of the classic desktop and into the Universal Windows Platform, at least for a few minutes. They might not be the most exciting changes, but they may be the most successful in the whole update.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that takes a deep dive into computing and PC gaming topics. Each show, we’ll focus in on one topic, and leave no stone unturned as we show off the latest in hardware and software. Whether it’s the latest GPU, supercomputers, or which 2-in-1 you should buy,  we break down the complicated jargon and talk about how user experience is affected in the real world. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Tuesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.

Is there a rocket ship in your News Feed? It’s another Facebook experiment

Why it matters to you

If you spot a rocket ship icon in your News Feed on Facebook, it means you’re using an alternative news feed that company is testing.

Seeing a rocket ship pop up on your Facebook newsfeed? Don’t worry — your account hasn’t been taken over by spacemen, nor are you alone in noticing this change. Rather, it would appear that Facebook is testing yet another version of News Feed for its users, which means that some of you are seeing this new icon at the top or bottom of your smartphone screen (depending on whether you’re an iPhone or Android user).

As TechCrunch reports, it appears that the rocket icon is part of Facebook’s attempt at offering a News Feed that is comprised of posts, articles, and other content from sources you aren’t currently following, but would likely like. In fact, the items that appear in the rocket ship feed are pulled from Facebook Pages that bear some resemblance to things you already “liked” on Facebook or things your friends have liked.

More: Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey parts with Facebook after rocky tenure

While the rocket ship is new, the experiment itself is not — an alternative News Feed was previously tested with a small square icon. However, that test was only seen by Android beta users, Mashable reported. iOS users, on the other hand, saw another similar test with a News Feed labeled “Explore.” But the most recent experiment appears in both the iOS and Android version of Facebook mobile, and also affects users who haven’t selected to be part of beta tests.

It would appear that the rocket ship test is being carried out across the world and a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the experiment in a statement to Mashable, noting, “We are testing a complementary feed of popular articles, videos, and photos, customized for each person based on content that might be interesting to them. We’ve heard from people that they want an easy way to explore new content they haven’t connected with yet.”

Need a light? Here are the most amazing lamps in the observable universe

The lightbulb has evolved dramatically since Thomas Edison first demonstrated his newfangled incandescent in 1879. The ability to simply cast a little light with the flip of switch may have been an adequate selling point in the pre-incandescent “dark” ages, but nowadays we want more than a basic guiding light.

More: Light up your life with the best LED lighting solutions on the market

With the advent of LEDs, design enthusiasts are making lighting into something of an art form that’s actually accessible to homeowners. And connectivity lets many of them perform all kinds of helpful tricks, like alerting you of incoming calls, which is useful for those of us who suffer from phantom vibration syndrome (it’s a thing). From levitating lamps, to devices with built-in digital assistants capable of ordering takeout on our behalf, here are 12 of our favorite lamps on the market.

Heng Balance

The Heng Balance is one of the more original lamps we’ve seen in recent years. “Heng” means “balance” in Chinese, and the overall design was inspired by traditional round fans and window frames. A series of lights run along the inside rim, and unlike most lamps, there’s actually no switch on the Heng Balance. Instead, the unit uses two balls with embedded magnets, which attract one another and activate the lamp once close enough.

Read more here.

Lightest

Like the Heng, the Lightest lamp also uses magnets. However, the Lightest’s magnetic base and lamp repel one another, enabling the lamp stand to levitate just above the base. You can even 3D print your own lampshades for even further customization.

Read more here.

Lumio

Lumio is a versatile lamp that’s capable of dishing out a little light at home and on the go. The lamp is designed to resemble a hardcover book, and as such, the interior “pages” fan out a full 360 degrees. Magnets along the exterior also allow you to mount Lumio onto virtually any magnetic surface. Needless to say, if visionary and Lumio-owner, DJ Khaled, is any bellwether of technological integration, the units should be selling like hotcakes in no time. #MajorKey

Read our full review here.

C

GE has designed the C to work in tandem with an array of compatible smart home appliances. The LED table lamp uses Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa, allowing you to order takeout, preheat the oven, and even listen to the latest news. As the smart home market continues to grow in the coming years, we can only expect to see more products like C in the future.

Read more here.

The Pretty Smart Lamp

The Pretty Smart Lamp lives up to its name. The web-like device can help you track down your phone and connect to other smart home devices. Its light sensor automatically adjusts brightness based on your surroundings, and features a variety of colors and lighting sequences, for when you’re going through your blue period. It comes in a variety of styles, too, so if you don’t want something that looks like a glowing crystal sitting on your bedside table — who are you?! — there are other options.

Read more here.

Flyte Levitating Lightbulb

More lightbulb than lamp, the Flyte is a wirelessly-powered light that floats in the air as if by magic. In reality, however, this is due to magnetic levitation. The contactless light draws power from the wooden block that sits directly beneath the device. Inside the snazzy wooden base, electromagnets attract the bulb’s base, while slightly stronger magnets repel, making the bulb hover in air. Point being: David Blaine has nothing on the Flyte.

Read more here.

AI can turn apples into oranges but can’t turn an iPhone photo into a DSLR shot

Why it matters to you

The research appears to be the most wide-ranging style transfer program yet, but don’t panic — the attempt to turn an iPhone photo into a DSLR photo was among the list of failures.

Comparing a painting to a photograph is like comparing apples to oranges but an artificially intelligent program can imagine what a photo of apples would look like as oranges, then actually turn that image into that fruit. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley used artificial intelligence to craft the strangest style of transfer software yet, capable of turning paintings into photographs, horses into zebras, winter into fall, and a number of other unique style transfers.

Popular apps like Prisma turn photographs into different styles of paintings using AI programs trained to mimic certain styles. But, those apps are trained on what is called paired data — the AI is created using so many sample images that the system has already learned the difference between a landscape and a selfie.

More: Forget turning photos into paintings, this software copies another photo’s style

The research group at UC Berkeley, however, uses unpaired data. In other words, it can take two photographs and transfer the styles to the other without a reference image. To do that, the team had to teach the program to learn the relationship between two photos. By training the network using many photos and checking the results with both software and actual people, the team developed a program that could “successfully” transfer styles without that reference image.

“Successfully” is used loosely since the researchers’ knowledge that systems using that reference image still had superior results. The goal, however, was to build a system that works without the reference since getting that reference data can be expensive or difficult in a number of scenarios.

Some images transferred better than others — while transferring objects with a similar shape like a horse to a zebra created some impressive results, objects with different shapes did not work, like trying to change a dog into a cat. An attempt to turn an iPhone photo into a DSLR photo is also included among the team’s list of failed image transfers.

While the real-world applications for turning an apple into an orange is questionable, because the system doesn’t need that reference image, the program is widely varied on the types of style transfers it can tackle. The program was successfully able to create a shallow depth of field from a reference photo and reimagine what historic paintings would look like if the painter viewed the scene in an entirely different season. The program was also able to create style transfers for specific artists instead of only a single painting, like turning a photograph into a Monet but not necessarily Starry Night.