Uber gives free insurance to drivers in India

Uber’s reputations in India and the Philippines aren’t stellar, to put it mildly, but the ridesharing company is making amends in both countries. To begin with, it’s providing free insurance to its roughly 450,000 Indian drivers. As of September 1st, they’ll have coverage for death, disability and hospital stays in the event of accidents. It comes a while after Uber had cut incentives, but it’s still an important gesture.

In the Philippines, meanwhile, Uber has put an early end to a one-month suspension on its services by agreeing to pay about $9.6 million in penalties, including a fine and financial help to drivers who were hurt by the suspension. The country had ordered a stop to Uber’s business after it ignored a demand to stop signing up new drivers while officials caught up on ridesharing permits. Uber had previously offered to pay a far smaller fine but had been rejected.

Neither is a selfless act, to be clear. Uber’s India move follows an earlier drivers’ strike that raised complaints about disappearing incentives, and the company was losing potential income (not to mention the goodwill of drivers) every day it let the Philippines ban stay in effect. Even so, Uber’s decision to make back-to-back reparations suggests that it’s another part of efforts to improve the company’s standing following the ouster of Travis Kalanick. Although the company still isn’t squeaky clean, it seems to be more interested in finding peace than the confrontations that defined it in the past.

Source: Reuters (1), (2)

Apple Stores in Omaha and South Pittsburgh Relocating on Saturday

Apple this week announced that two of its retail stores, located at Village Pointe in Omaha, Nebraska and South Hills Village in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will reopen Saturday, September 2 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Both locations have been closed for renovations for the past several weeks.

Apple’s old Village Pointe store in Omaha, Nebraska
Apple Village Pointe will remain located on Davenport Street in an expanded storefront. The additional space should be a welcomed change for both the store’s employees and customers, as foot traffic to Apple stores has undoubtedly increased since the location originally opened in September 2006.

Apple South Hills Village will relocate to a different unit within the shopping mall, and it will likely gain some extra square footage as well.

Each store has received a makeover based on Apple’s next-generation retail design, which typically includes wide, open spaces with some combination of large glass doors, sequoia wood tables and shelves, large video screens for Today at Apple sessions, and light boxes spanning the length of the ceiling.

All new Apple Stores opened since September 2015 have been based on the new design language, including flagship-tier locations such as Apple Union Square in San Francisco and Apple World Trade Center in New York City. Apple has also renovated over 40 other stores to reflect the newer aesthetic.

Via: Storeteller on Twitter

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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September 12 Date ‘Nearly Locked In’ For Apple’s iPhone Event

Apple is aiming to hold its annual iPhone event on Tuesday, September 12, TechCrunch reported today, confirming information shared yesterday by The Wall Street Journal.

According to TechCrunch, the September 12 date is “nearly locked in,” but may hinge on whether Apple is able to complete work on the Steve Jobs Theater at its new Apple Park campus in time. Construction on the theater is still underway, but Apple is said to want to inaugurate the theater with the launch of the iPhone 8, its most radically redesigned iPhone in years.

Because media invites often go out 7 to 10 days before a major event is held, Apple has very little time to make a decision on where the event will be hosted, if a decision has not been made already. With Labor Day coming up next Monday, Apple will need to send out invites by the end of this week or on Tuesday, September 5 at the latest if the event is to be held on September 12.

Should the 1,000 seat Steve Jobs Theater not be completed in time, Apple could elect to use the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, where several past iPhone events have been held. There’s nothing on the auditorium’s schedule for the week of the 12th, so it remains a possibility.

With September approaching, it won’t be long before Apple’s plans are confirmed. If Apple does hold an event on September 12 — and it’s unlikely the event would be pushed beyond that date — the new iPhones could see an official launch on Friday, September 22. If Apple accepts pre-orders, sales could start a week ahead of launch on Friday, September 15.

Apple’s 2017 iPhone event will be its biggest in years thanks to the launch of a redesigned OLED 5.8-inch iPhone with an edge-to-edge display, inductive charging, facial recognition, and dozens of other new features. The new high-end device will launch alongside two standard but also redesigned devices in typical 4.7 and 5.5-inch sizes.

Apple is also expected to unveil a new 4K Apple TV and a third-generation Apple Watch with LTE at the event.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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Upcoming Amazon Prime Video App for Apple TV May Not Be Ready for September Launch

At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple announced that an Amazon Prime Video app would be coming to the Apple TV later this year.

No release date was given, but Apple’s September iPhone event seemed like an ideal time for the app to see an official release. Unfortunately, that may not happen. In a piece on Apple’s troubles establishing TV-related deals, Recode says that according to its sources, the app may not be live in time for debut at the iPhone event.

An Amazon Prime Video app is something that Apple TV owners have desired for years, as it is one of the only major streaming video services absent from the set-top box.

With no targeted launch date on the horizon, it isn’t clear when the app will see a launch, but we can expect it before the end of 2017 based on Apple’s initial announcement.

While an Amazon Prime Video app may not launch at Apple’s September event, Apple TV enthusiasts do have one product to look forward to — a fifth-generation TV with support for 4K HDR. The new set-top box, with an upgraded processor and perhaps other upgraded features, is set to launch in September alongside new iPhones and an LTE Apple Watch.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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Intel Debuts New Xeon-W Chips Possibly Destined for iMac Pro

Intel today introduced its new Xeon-W workstation-class processors at the IFA trade show in Berlin, and the new chips line up nicely with the processor capabilities we’re expecting to see in the iMac Pro.

The new chips, which use an LGA2066 socket and Skylake-SP architecture, come in 8, 10, and 18 core configurations with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz, 48 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, and support for up to 512GB of DDR4–2666 ECC memory.

Click to enlarge
Apple has said the iMac Pro will feature Intel’s Xeon processors, with 8, 10, and 18 core chips available as optional configurations with up to 42MB cache and maximum Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz.

Specifically, Apple could be planning to use the 8-core 3.7GHz Xeon W–2145, the 10-core 3.3GHz Xeon W–2155, and the 18-core 2.3GHz Xeon W–2195. Pricing on the chips starts at $1,113, but a price is not yet listed for the high-end 18-core processors.

According to Intel, the Xeon-W chips offer a 1.87x boost in performance compared to a 4-year old workstation with an Intel Xeon E5–1680 v2 Romley processor, like the 2013 8-core Mac Pro, and up to 1.38x higher performance compared to previous-generation Xeon E5–1680 v4 chips.

Intel plans to release its high-end 18-core chips in the fourth quarter of 2017, which also lines up with the target release date of the iMac Pro. The other chips may see earlier release dates.

Though Xeon-W chips do appear to work for the iMac Pro, there is still some question as to whether they’re the chips Apple plans to use. A June report from Pike’s Universum suggested Apple would use Intel’s server-grade Purley processors with an LGA3647 socket rather than the desktop-class LGA2066 socket.

That information was based on firmware files found in the macOS High Sierra beta, but it’s possible it was inaccurate. Intel announced some Purley chips in July, but that announcement did not include chips that would be appropriate for the iMac Pro.

Along with Xeon processors, the iMac Pro will include Radeon Pro Vega graphics, up to 4TB of solid state storage space, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, up to 128GB of ECC RAM, and a redesigned thermal architecture to support those components.

Rumors based on firmware findings suggest the iMac Pro could also include a Secure Enclave with an ARM coprocessor like the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, but it’s unclear at this time what that functionality will be used for as Apple has made no mention of Touch ID support.

The iMac Pro is positioned as a workstation class machine aimed at pro users with demanding workflows, and it’s priced accordingly. When it launches in December, pricing for the iMac Pro will start at $4,999.

Related Roundup: iMac Pro
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Review: IOGEAR’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock Does the Job, but Comes Up Short on Charging Power

Thunderbolt 3 docks continue to flood the market, and today I’m taking a look at IOGEAR’s Thunderbolt 3 Quantum Docking Station. IOGEAR’s dock offers many of the same features typically seen on other Thunderbolt 3 docks, including multiple USB ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, a DisplayPort port, and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports to allow for daisy chaining, all in a familiar horizontal design used by many other docks.

Most notably, the IOGEAR Thunderbolt 3 Quantum Docking Station looks identical to CalDigit’s TS3 Lite that I reviewed a few months ago, with the exception of color and finish. While CalDigit’s dock has an enclosure of brushed aluminum and black matte plastic, IOGEAR’s has more of a satin matte finish that’s slightly lighter in color, paired with white matte plastic. In size, shape, and port layout, however, these two docks are identical.

Caldigit’s TS3 Lite (left) vs. IOGEAR’s Thunderbolt 3 Quantum Docking Station (right)
The IOGEAR dock looks decent, with its aluminum finish coming close to the silver color Apple uses on its notebooks. A fairly unobtrusive IOGEAR logo is printed on the top of the dock, and it comes with an external power brick and a 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable for connecting to a host computer at maximum speeds.

Meeting the standard for Thunderbolt 3 docks, IOGEAR’s version supports up to a single 5K display over Thunderbolt 3 or dual 4K displays over a combination of Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort. I experienced no hiccups connecting an LG UltraFine 5K display at up to 60 Hz through one of the dock’s Thunderbolt 3 ports.

In line with every other dock I’ve reviewed with the exception of OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock, IOGEAR’s dock includes three USB ports, with IOGEAR opting to go with one Type-A on the rear and one each of Type-A and Type-C on the front for easy access.

All three ports run at 5 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 1 speeds, and the inclusion of a Type-C port is a nice benefit as peripherals start to move in that direction. The USB ports operate at expected speeds once overhead is accounted for, with a CalDigit Tuff SSD running at 325 MB/s write and 350 MB/s read over both Type-A and Type-C, in line with other Thunderbolt 3 docks featuring 5 Gbps USB ports.

As with the TS3 Lite, one of the main limitations with IOGEAR’s dock is that it only supports up to 15 watts of charging power over Thunderbolt 3/USB-C, meaning it won’t be able to power your MacBook Pro over the same cable used for data and video and you’ll need to hook up your computer’s power brick.

Attempting to power my 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro solely through the dock merely slowed the rate of battery life decrease, even under light usage. Depending on your setup such as willingness to use your Mac’s power brick or having another monitor with higher charging power already connected, this might not be a deal breaker, but with many other Thunderbolt 3 docks offering 60 or even 85 watts of charging power it’s an unfortunate limitation.

The real deal breaker, however, is price, unless you’re very careful in shopping around. IOGEAR’s dock carries a list price of $299.95, in the same range as docks with better features such as higher charging power, and a full $100 more than the essentially identical TS3 Lite from CalDigit. You can certainly find cheaper prices on IOGEAR’s dock such as current $225 pricing at Amazon, but even that is still higher than the TS3 Lite.

Authorized reseller Provantage currently has it for $178, but with shipping starting at $27, the deal isn’t quite as good as it first appears. Even with those deals, it’s disappointing how much hunting you need to do to try find a good price on this dock.

As a result, it’s hard to recommend the Thunderbolt 3 Quantum Docking Station unless you can find it at a really great price. The TS3 Lite is generally cheaper for identical features, while other docks like OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock with more USB ports and an SD card slot or Elgato’s dock or CalDigit’s TS3 with more features at the same list price offer better values.

Note: IOGEAR provided the Thunderbolt 3 Quantum Docking Station to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: review, Thunderbolt 3, IOGEAR
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Major App Developers Show Off ARKit Apps Ahead of iOS 11 Launch

Apple this week invited several media sites to its Cupertino campus to show off some upcoming ARKit apps being developed by major companies like The Food Network, Ikea, Giphy, and AMC, according to CNBC, The Verge, and TechCrunch.

Ikea demonstrated its previously announced “Ikea Place” app, designed to allow users to preview what Ikea furniture will look like in their homes ahead of a purchase. The Verge says it’s highly customizable, letting users see the size, materials, and texture of furniture.

The Food Network is developing an app that will let users create custom digital desserts that can then be reproduced in real life through a custom recipe, while AMC and Next Games have teamed up for an augmented reality zombie game called “The Walking Dead: Our World.”

Image from CNBC
GIF app Giphy plans to introduce tools that will let GIFs be added to the real world, and Climax Studios CEO and developer Simon Gardner showed off an upcoming AR game called Arise, which is an augmented reality puzzle game solved by tilting the iPhone to steer a character through the level.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a popular children’s story turned into an app, will take advantage of ARKit to offer kids a chance to raise a virtual caterpillar, feeding it until it turns into a butterfly.

Image from Apple, via The Verge
All of the developers present had the same general opinion about ARKit according to The Verge — it “could be the real game changer in AR.” Many of the developers said it was simple to create an ARKit app, sometimes taking just 7 to 10 weeks to develop. For more on these ARKit apps, make sure to check out the full reports from CNBC, TechCrunch, and The Verge.

Along with these official looks at ARKit, we’ve also seen several developer concepts surfacing in the months since ARKit was announced. Check out our previous coverage for details on what will be possible with the new feature:

– ARKit Roundup: Turn-by-Turn Directions, Precise Room Measurements, and Pac-Man
– Apple’s ARKit Used to Recreate Classic A-ha ‘Take On Me’ Video
– Apple Users’ Mixed Reality Future Teased in Latest ARKit Demo
– Latest Apps to Showcase Apple’s ARKit Include Simple Measuring Tape and Minecraft
– Developers Share First Augmented Reality Creations Using Apple’s ARKit
– Latest ARKit Demo Showcases Virtual Drawing
– Latest ARKit Demos Include Sculpting, Food Ordering, Virtual Pets and Zombies

The first ARKit apps will launch in September following the public debut of iOS 11. When iOS 11 and ARKit become available, Apple’s iPhones and iPads will instantly become the largest augmented reality platform in the world. ARKit will be available on all Apple devices with iOS 11 and an A9 processor or better (iPad Pro and iPhone 6s/6s Plus and later).

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Tags: App Store, ARKit
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Athelas is a home blood-testing device already approved by the FDA

Why it matters to you

Blood-testing Theranos was proven to be a fraud last year, but that hasn’t stopped new companies from stepping in to fill the home-testing gap.

Blood testing startup Theranos may be dead in the water, but that doesn’t mean that the concept behind the disgraced startup has disappeared. Really, it has just found a new champion. Meet Athelas, heralded as an instant blood diagnostics system capable of testing for diseases such as the flu, bacterial infections, and even cancer. Best of all? You can do all your testing from the comfort of your own home.

Founded by Tanay Tandon when he was just 17, the three-year-old startup was initially intended to detect malaria via blood samples. But now, Tandon has expanded Athelas’ capabilities. The cylindrical device (which looks a bit like an Amazon Echo) allows you to insert a slide with a few drops of your blood, and then determines whether your white blood cell count is abnormal. Your results are delivered to you via a companion app, and should be viewable within 60 seconds.

Powered by computer imaging and developed in conjunction with oncologists (who are apparently already lending these devices to their patients), Athelas wants to avoid the nightmare that was the Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos debacle. Of course, it helps that the Athelas team is rife with medical expertise, and already enjoys clinical validation of its results. Moreover, Athelas is FDA-approved, and can be used for imaging diagnostics.

As it stands, the firm expects the device to be used mainly at home, but there are plans for hospitals to take advantage of the device for triage purposes. And apparently, there are partnerships with pharmaceutical companies brewing as well.

“One of our goals is to become a companion diagnostic for a lot of these interesting drugs,” Tandon told TechCrunch.

If you’re interested in trying out an Athelas for yourself, you can either talk to a doctor about potentially acquiring a rental unit, or you can buy an Athelas straight from the the company’s website. For $20 a month, you’ll be able to take 10 tests and hopefully “flag bacterial infections, monitor Neutropenia, and generate White Blood Cell markers.” The device is set to begin shipping on September 28, 2017, and the company promises not to charge customers until they receive their Athelas.

Latest Windows Insider webcast hits Mixer at 10 a.m. PT this morning

Why it matters to you

Here’s your best chance to get the inside scoop on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update before it’s release, hopefully next month.

Microsoft’s Windows Insider program is how the company keeps in touch with its most dedicated Windows 10 users. Millions of users enjoy early access to the next major Windows 10 builds and, in exchange, Microsoft asks them for their feedback on what’s working and what’s not. Communication is a two-way street, of course, and Microsoft also periodically holds Windows Insider webcasts to keep users up to date on the latest happenings.

Jason Howard, a member of the Windows Insider engineering team, took to Twitter to announce the next Engineering Systems webcast:

I'm excited and (almost) ready! The ES team is putting the finishing touches on the content! Hope everyone is able to attend! https://t.co/U9yrqOaUTz

— Jason Howard (@NorthFaceHiker) August 28, 2017

Here are the details on the webcast, which will be hosted on Mixer and will start promptly at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.

Ready for the next #WindowsInsider webcast? Tune in tomorrow at 10am PDT (5pm UTC)! Engineering Systems deep-dive! https://t.co/gKWNaPO4le pic.twitter.com/3eXVhk2LgL

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) August 28, 2017

If you want to know more about the gritty details via a “deep-dive” by the Engineering Systems group, then here’s your chance. With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update just around the corner, this might be the best opportunity to get the inside scoop on just how the Windows Insider team managed to pack in so many new features.

Close to the Metal Episode 53: Windows Mixed Reality isn’t so mixed

IFA 2017, Europe’s biggest consumer electronics show, is about to begin, and with it we’ve received a burst of new reveals. Microsoft is using the show to talk about Windows Mixed Reality, which we went hands-on with, and clarify what the first batch of headsets will do.

The products are a bit different from what the term “mixed reality” lead us to think. Instead of focusing on a blend of virtual and augmented reality, they heavily focus on augmented reality, using built-in cameras primarily for spatial recognition without the use of external sensors.

It’s innovative, and  important, but not for the reasons we first thought. We’ll examine all the latest Windows Mixed Reality news on this week’s Close to the Metal.

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 and Facebook at 10 a.m. Pacific / 1 p.m. Eastern, every Tuesday.