Apple’s new iPhones can fast-charge, if you have the right adapter

One of the biggest (and most widely predicted) improvements that Apple revealed at its event yesterday was the addition of wireless charging for the iPhone. The glass-backed phones will allow for Qi inductive wireless charging, which means that you can charge them using ubiquitous third-party surfaces. But there are perks if you’re willing to continue to use a wire to charge your phone: You can fast charge the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X battery to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.

There’s a catch, though. In order to make this work, you’ll have to separately purchase Apple’s (or a third party’s) 29-watt USB-C charger and USB-C to lightning cable; neither will come packaged with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus or X. The charger will run you $49, while the separate cable is $35 at the Apple Store (sorry, the Apple town square). Not an insignificant chunk of change, to be sure.

There appears to be some good news for MacBook owners, though. If you own a 2016 or later edition of the MacBook Pro with a USB-C charger, it looks as though you can use your 87W or 61W USB charger to quick charge your iPhone 8 or X, regardless of the difference in wattage. It’s welcome news that Apple has introduced a fast-charge capability for the iPhone (and let’s face it, it’s well past time), but it wouldn’t be Apple if they didn’t make us shell out for extra chargers and cables.

Via: 9to5 Mac

Source: Apple (1), Apple (2)

iPhone X vs. 8 and 8 Plus: Display Sizes, Cameras, Battery Life, Face ID vs. Touch ID, and Other Tech Specs

Apple on Tuesday hosted its first-ever event at Steve Jobs Theater, where it unveiled the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.

iPhone X is Apple’s new flagship smartphone, with a stainless steel frame sandwiched between a nearly edge to edge OLED display on the front and glass on the back. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus also received a glass-backed design, but otherwise the devices look virtually the same as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

iPhone X starts at $999 in the United States, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus start at $699 and $799 respectively.

If cost wasn’t a factor, the iPhone X is undoubtedly the better smartphone in more ways than one. But the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are very capable smartphones as well, so when there is at least $200 or $300 in savings to be had, it’s worth considering which of the three smartphones best suits your needs. Find out ahead…

iPhone X vs. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus: What’s the Same?

• A11 Bionic: All three iPhones have an A11 chip. It has two performance cores that are 25 percent faster, and four high-efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster, than the A10 chip in iPhone 7. The chip has a neural engine for facial recognition and an embedded M11 motion coprocessor.

• Wireless Charging: All three iPhones have wireless charging based on the Qi standard. Each device can charge by being placed on an inductive charging pad, such as Apple’s upcoming AirPower mat or third-party options from accessory makers such as Mophie, Belkin, and Incipio.

• Fast Charging: All three new iPhones are “fast-charge capable,” which means the two devices can be charged to 50 percent battery life in 30 minutes using Apple’s 29W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapters, sold separately and included with 12-inch MacBook and late 2016 or later MacBook Pro models.

• Water Resistance: All three iPhones have IP67-rated water and dust resistance like the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

• Storage: 64GB or 256GB.

• True Tone and Wide Color: iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus have True Tone and Wide Color displays. True Tone automatically adapts the color and intensity of the display to match the color temperature of the light in its surrounding environment. Wide Color is use of the P3 color space.

• 3D Touch: Deeply press the screen to preview emails, messages, and other content, and access convenient Quick Actions.

• 4K video recording at up to 60 FPS and 1080p HD video recording at up to 60 FPS.

• LTE Advanced with VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and read-only NFC.

• Lightning connector.

iPhone X vs. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus: What’s Similar?

• Rear Camera System: iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus both have 12-megapixel rear-facing dual cameras consisting of a telephoto lens and a wide-angle lens with ƒ/1.8 aperture. Both have quad-LED True Tone flash, optical zoom, digital zoom up to 10x, and support for Apple’s new beta Portrait Lighting feature.

Where the iPhone X prevails is with dual optical image stabilization. iPhone 8 Plus only has optical image stabilization for the wide-angle lens. iPhone X’s telephoto lens also has a faster ƒ/2.4 aperture compared to ƒ/2.8 for the iPhone 8 Plus. Of course, the iPhone X prevails much further vs. the single-lens iPhone 8.

• Front Camera Sensor: While the iPhone X’s new TrueDepth system as a whole is a significant change, the front-facing camera itself is a 7-megapixel sensor with ƒ/2.2 aperture, Retina Flash, and 1080p HD video recording on all three iPhones. The difference on the iPhone X is support for Portrait Mode selfies.

• Battery Life: All three iPhones have similar battery life for internet use and video playback over wireless. iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus also have identical battery life for talk time and audio playback over wireless, which are two areas where the smaller iPhone 8 does fall much shorter.

iPhone X

• Talk: Up to 21 hours
• Internet: Up to 12 hours
• Video: Up to 13 hours
• Audio: Up to 60 hours
iPhone 8 Plus

• Talk: Up to 21 hours
• Internet: Up to 13 hours
• Video: Up to 14 hours
• Audio: Up to 60 hours
iPhone 8

• Talk: Up to 14 hours
• Internet: Up to 12 hours
• Video: Up to 13 hours
• Audio: Up to 40 hours

• Memory: iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus are believed to have 3GB of RAM, while the iPhone 8 likely has 2GB of RAM.

iPhone X vs. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus: What’s Different?

• All-Screen OLED Display: iPhone X is Apple’s first smartphone with an OLED display, which has benefits such as improved color accuracy and contrast ratio, true blacks, and a much higher 1,000,000 to one contrast ratio. And without bezels, beyond a notch for the TrueDepth front camera system, the iPhone X is nearly all screen.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus still have LCD displays with top and bottom bezels like every iPhone before them, but they do gain True Tone functionality like the iPhone X. True Tone automatically adapts the color and intensity of the display to match the color temperature of the light in its surrounding environment.

iPhone X

• 5.8-inch OLED display
• HDR
• 2436×1125 pixels
• 458 PPI
• 625 cd/m2 max brightness
• 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio
iPhone 8 Plus

• 5.5-inch LCD display
• —
• 1920×1080 pixels
• 401 PPI
• 625 cd/m2 max brightness
• 1300:1 contrast ratio
iPhone 8

• 4.7-inch LCD display
• —
• 1334×750 pixels
• 326 PPI
• 625 cd/m2 max brightness
• 1400:1 contrast ratio

• New Size: Despite having a large 5.8-inch display, the iPhone X’s all-screen design allows it to be between an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in both size and weight. For that reason, the iPhone X is the best choice for a smartphone with the maximum display size vs. one-handed usability.

iPhone X

• Height: 5.65 in (143.6 mm)
• Width: 2.79 in (70.9 mm)
• Depth: 0.30 in (7.7 mm)
• Weight: 6.14 oz (174 grams)
iPhone 8 Plus

• Height: 6.24 in (158.4 mm)
• Width: 3.07 in (78.1 mm)
• Depth: 0.30 in (7.5 mm)
• Weight: 7.13 oz (202 grams)
iPhone 8

• Height: 5.45 in (138.4 mm)
• Width: 2.65 in (67.3 mm)
• Depth: 0.29 in (7.3 mm)
• Weight: 5.22 oz (148 grams)

• Face ID / TrueDepth: Apple replaced Touch ID with Face ID on iPhone X. Simply raise the device, look at it, and swipe up on the screen to unlock the device or authenticate your identity for Apple Pay. Apple said there’s a one in a million chance the facial recognition system could be duped by a stranger.

• No Home Button: Given the lack of a Home button, the iPhone X has an elongated side button. Siri is activated by double tapping that side button, or by saying “Hey Siri” as previously. Other gestures include swiping up to return to the Home screen, swiping up and pausing to view multitasking, and tap to wake.

• No Gold: iPhone X comes only in Space Gray and Silver.

• Animoji: Animoji are Apple’s new set of emoji-style characters that animate based on an iPhone user’s facial expression. Animoji take advantage of the iPhone X’s new TrueDepth camera system, which features several new 3D sensors to detect your facial expressions in real time.

Conclusion

iPhone X has many of the best features of an iPhone 8 Plus, including a larger display, yet the device is closer to an iPhone 8 in size.

iPhone X benefits from far superior display technology and the TrueDepth system, which powers Face ID, Animoji, and Portrait Mode selfies. But the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are equally as fast, support wireless charging, and still have a Home button with Touch ID for those who prefer fingerprint authentication.

Apple markets the iPhone X as the “future,” and that’s likely true for its smartphones, but it’ll cost you an extra $200 or more to get there.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone X
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New Interview Reveals More Details About Upcoming tvOS/iOS Social Adventure Game ‘Sky’

Game developer thatgamecompany appeared on stage at the Apple Event yesterday with a title that will be launching exclusively on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV soon, called Sky. The game is described as a “social adventure” where players navigate a world in the clouds alongside their friends, and marks thatgamecompany’s first game in five years, since 2012’s Journey.

Journey was a game that automatically matched players with random other people online throughout the adventure, but it was impossible to join up with a specific friend. In its press release for the game, along with a new interview with president and creative director Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany explained that many fans wrote them after Journey and asked for “a game where they could play together” with friends and family members.

The idea of a wider audience playing the game on smartphones, not just video game consoles, led the developer to launch Sky mobile first and exclusively on Apple devices. This will make it easier to play the game with others, and thatgamecompany said it is “a game specially created to be played, and shared, among loved ones and family.” During the keynote, the company confirmed that up to eight players from anywhere in the world can play together at a time.

We wanted as many people to love games, and so we were encouraged to explore this idea at thatgamecompany. Which brings our games, for the first time, to mobile – a platform that many have access to, the world over.

It’s hard to explain the game, but a good place would be to say that Sky is a game specially created to be played, and shared, among loved ones and family. If you can imagine the delight of visiting a theme park where lasting memories are made, we envision Sky will sometimes feel like that.

In a six-minute interview with Geoff Keighley, thatgamecompany president and creative director Jenova Chen — who was on stage during Apple’s keynote — said that it’s “difficult” to summarize the entire game, but many of its mechanics surround “giving” to and helping out other players. Sky is set in a “whimsical” world above the clouds, where a great civilization once resided but is currently in ruins. Chen mentioned that the idea behind this world and the game as a whole was to build a theme park of sorts, where players can return daily and spend minutes or hours discovering new lands alone or with friends.

He also hinted at frequent updates and changes coming to the world, stating that it is “constantly evolving” and when players return there might be new places and sections of the world that open up that weren’t there before. Because of the consistent additions and new discoveries happening in the game, Chen compared Sky to a television series that players can return to and experience new chapters in the story and game environment.

A specific release date and price point for Sky have still not been revealed by thatgamecompany, but Chen mentioned that it should arrive on tvOS and iOS “this winter.” The company encourages those interested to stay up-to-date on development through a newsletter sign-up than can be found on the game’s webpage.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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Disney Is the Only Major Hollywood Studio Not Backing Apple’s Plan to Sell 4K Films at $20

Apple yesterday revealed the Apple TV 4K, a new set-top box that will bring all the features of the fourth-generation Apple TV, along with the ability to stream 4K HDR video content. This includes iTunes 4K movies, which the company confirmed will be sold for the same price as HD movies at $20 apiece. Users will even be able to gain access to 4K movies they’ve already purchased in HD at no extra charge.

When it made this announcement, Apple showed off a list of Hollywood studios during the keynote that will support 4K movies on iTunes at this price: 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures. In a new report today, The Wall Street Journal noted that the major absence among this list is Disney.

The one absence from Apple’s list of big studios selling movies in UHD is Disney. It wasn’t immediately clear why the company behind Star Wars and Marvel couldn’t reach an arrangement with Apple. It currently sells its films in 4K on other digital stores, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.‘s Vudu, for $24.99.

Disney’s absence is particularly notable given a longstanding close relationship between the two companies. Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger is on Apple’s board of directors and Disney was the first studio to sell television shows and movies on iTunes.

Apple is said to have made deals with these studios so that 4K films would not rise above $20, but a few weeks ago it was reported that some studios were vying for $25-$30 for each 4K movie on iTunes. It isn’t currently clear why Disney films — which include Marvel and Star Wars — won’t be available in 4K on iTunes, but the WSJ pointed out that Disney currently sells its films in 4K on apps like Vudu, but at a higher price of $24.99. If talks fell through with Apple, that price tag is likely the reason why.

Apple’s negotiations with participating studios reportedly went down to the wire, ending just weeks ahead of the September 12 reveal of the Apple TV 4K. Some studios are also said to still be interested in offering movies on platforms like iTunes just weeks after they debut in theaters, suggesting time frames and prices like 17 days after a theatrical debut for $50, or four to six weeks from release for $30. These talks are still ongoing and it remains to be seen if Apple and iTunes would ultimately take part in such a feature.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Tag: Disney
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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Apple Offering Pre-Approvals to iPhone Upgrade Program Customers Ahead of iPhone 8

Apple has emailed customers enrolled in its iPhone Upgrade Program with instructions on how to get a head start on the iPhone 8 pre-order process.

Apple advises customers to open the Apple Store app on their current iPhone, choose their preferred iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus model, and get pre-approved for an iPhone Upgrade Program loan. The window to get pre-approved ends tomorrow, Thursday, September 14, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

Pre-approved customers can then return to the Apple Store app when iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus pre-orders begin on Friday, September 15 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time to complete the process.

This year, it appears that iPhone Upgrade Program members will be able to use a Trade-in Kit with a prepaid shipping label to return their old iPhone to Apple, rather than being forced to visit an Apple Store to complete the upgrade process. The mail-in option should make this year’s launch a less frustrating experience.

While the iPhone X is Apple’s new flagship smartphone, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus shipping estimates could become lengthy soon after pre-orders begin, so getting pre-approved is highly recommended.

Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program lets customers upgrade to a new iPhone after they have made at least 12 payments towards their current iPhone and trade it in upon upgrading. The full cost of the iPhone and included AppleCare+ coverage is spread out over 24 months with zero percent interest.

Here’s the monthly cost breakdown for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X in the United States. The program is also available in the UK.

At this time, the pre-approval process doesn’t appear to apply to the iPhone X, which can’t be ordered until Friday, October 27.

(Thanks, Timothy!)

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone X
Tag: iPhone Upgrade Program
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You Can Now Use the Nintendo Switch Voice Chat App While in Other Apps or When iPhone is Locked

Ahead of the Nintendo Direct coming this afternoon, Nintendo recently updated its Switch Online voice chat iOS app with a few useful tweaks to the way the software handles chatting online with friends. Prior to the update, you had to keep the app open at all times to hear and be heard by your friends while playing games like Splatoon 2.

Now, Nintendo explains in the app’s update notes that you can both browse to other iPhone apps and lock the device, and voice chat will continue to function in the background through the Nintendo Switch Online app.

The expanded functionality of voice chat should greatly enhance the usefulness of Nintendo’s app and online services, which will turn into a monthly paid subscription sometime in 2018. Pricing and tiers include $3.99/month, $7.99/3 months, and $19.99/year.

The app first launched on July 18, a few days ahead of Splatoon 2’s debut, allowing gamers to visit SplatNet 2 on their iOS device to look at previous match statistics, check out current stages in rotation, and invite friends to Private Battles on the Switch console. Nintendo’s upcoming 45-minute Direct will begin this afternoon at 3 p.m PT and plans to focus on games coming to Switch and 3DS consoles.

Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo Switch
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WhatsApp co-founder leaves to start a nonprofit

Just about three years after his company’s acquisition by Facebook, Brian Acton has announced he’s departing WhatsApp. Eight years ago Acton, along with Jan Koum, launched the messaging app that now counts more than a billion daily users, quickly spreading across many mobile platforms to create a worldwide community of users even in areas where iOS and Android hadn’t reached yet. Now, thanks to the “flexibility” from selling a company for $22 billion (Forbes estimates his wealth at $6.5 billion) Acton is launching a non-profit that is “focused at the intersection of nonprofit, technology and communications.”

There aren’t a lot of details on his decision or exactly what will come next, but it comes at a time when Whatsapp is moving on from its original form. Beyond squabbles with governments over encryption and privacy, the platform has added filesharing, mobile payments, status updates and acting as a communication tool for businesses.

Source: Brian Acton (Facebook)

The always-cold pillow is no longer a fever dream

The cold side of the pillow is one of life’s oddly satisfying phenomena. But no sooner have you felt its gratifying chill caress your cheek than it vanishes. The cold side of the pillow could be more than just a pleasant sensation for your conscious mind, though. It’s pretty well known that your body dumps heat as you drift off to sleep and your core temperature follows a rough nightly cycle, much like brain activity, hormone levels, breathing patterns and so on. There are various studies that suggest you can game the system, cool yourself down and minimize those restless nights. That’s the intent behind the Moona smart pillow pad: A temperature-regulating pad that keeps the cold side of the pillow cold, indefinitely.

There are a number of temperature-regulating products pitched as sleep aids you can buy already. These range from simple mattress toppers that improve air circulation under the covers to cooling gel inserts for pillows. There are fans designed to slide in between your mattress and duvet, and elaborate mattress covers that pump air or water through a network of channels to create a microclimate under your sheets. From what I can see, though, there’s nothing quite like the Moona pad.

For one, it’s the only “active” device targeting the pillow area exclusively, and also the only such sleep aid with smart functionality. The main bulk of the product is a memory foam pad you slip into your pillowcase, which is tethered to a barrel-shaped hub destined for your bedside table. This cools and heats water, sending it down the tether and pumping it through a mesh of water pockets in the pad. The hub also has sensors that monitor room temperature, humidity and ambient light level.

The pad itself has a built-in sleep tracker, not just so users can observe that information, but also to educate the machine learning side of things. Naturally, you control Moona by way of mobile app, setting up a personalized temperature cycle: How cool you want the pillow when you’re trying to get to sleep, the setting you want during the majority of the night, and the waking temperature.

According to the creators of Moona, you wanna keeps things pretty cool during the night and warm things up in the morning. The change in sensation as the pillow pad begins to heat up is said to rouse you naturally, in the same way sunrise alarm clocks do. Within the app, you can set your bedtime and what time you want to wake up and let Moona adjust the temperature profile automatically. There’s also a nap feature that’ll do exactly the same thing, but condense the temperature changes into, say, a 20-minute window.

The sleep tracking element of the device adds another layer to this. When you first load up the Moona app, it’ll ask you questions about your sleeping habits. Over the first ten days of use, it’ll hit you with follow-up queries and continue to adjust your temperature arc. From then on, it’ll look at your sleep score (having tracked your sleep quality over time), and keep tweaking the temperatures and timings as it tries to find the right sequence for you. You can still adjust the settings manually, of course. You may want the pillow pad to get extra-cold in the summer to wake you up in the morning instead of heating up, for example.

How effective these promised machine learning smarts perform over time, I couldn’t tell you. I did try the pad out briefly, however, and it was glorious. The sustained sensation of the refreshing, cold side of the pillow touching my cheek was extremely pleasant. It’s like eating a delicious chocolate cake but not becoming desensitized to the flavor, where every bite is like the first. The hub part is effectively silent, too, though you can hear the hum of the water pumping around the pad when your ear’s pressed against it.

The low monotonous drone could be an issue for some, but it felt like relaxing, white noise to me. After roughly five minutes of laying down, awkwardly asking one of the device’s creators questions from a horizontal position, I had to rise on account of feeling groggy enough that I could nap right there, mid-briefing. One of the main issues for the Moona team, in my opinion, is asking someone to keep this in their bedroom. The thing has been designed to be as inoffensive as possible, but the hub, the pad and the tether won’t blend into your bedroom decor quite like decorative cushions and candles.

Then there’s the fact that it’s quite a niche device for a very specific use case. In the same way air purifiers can be a hard sell because most people don’t care so much about what they can’t see, I don’t imagine people buying this just to see if it helps them get a better night’s sleep. And all of this is important, because the Moona team is taking to Kickstarter today to raise $50,000 to help launch the product. Early bird pricing starts at $219 — $399 being the final RRP.

With Moona basically being production-ready, the hope is to ship units to backers by next summer. But with all crowdfunding projects, you have to remember that it might not get funded, there could be manufacturing delays, and numerous other things could go wrong from now until launch, so proceed at your own risk.

Source: Moona (Kickstarter)

The iPhone X leaves a home button-shaped hole in my heart

The first thing I do every morning is roll over, reach over to my nightstand, and frantically grapple at my phone to stop the alarm from going off. To do so, I instinctively mash the home button several times, with my head still face down on my pillow. Oh sure, I know that I could just hit the Stop button on the touchscreen to turn the offending sound off, but I’m much too groggy at that time to do anything beyond what feels the most instinctual — pressing a physical button.

Now, with the iPhone X, that option appears to be going away. Instead of pressing a button to unlock your phone, you’ll be swiping up from the bottom of the screen. This triggers a cascading window of apps to appear, which you have to drag down and flick away to get to the home screen. According to Senior Mobile Editor Chris Velazco in his brief hands-on with the device, he found it incredibly natural to use, despite the fact he’s been using an iPhone for years.

I don’t doubt his experience, but color me skeptical. I’ve also been an iPhone user for years — ever since the iPhone 3G — and I’m not convinced touchscreen gestures will ever replace the convenience and the practicality of a home button. For one thing, having to swipe up and then swipe again to get to the homescreen doesn’t sound like it’d be much faster than a single button press.

And then there’s the issue of Touch ID going away. Instead of using fingerprint sensors to unlock your phone, the new iPhone X will use Face ID, a facial recognition system that uses a combination of infrared light, the phone’s front-facing TrueDepth camera and specialized neural networks to authenticate your identity. According to Apple, this is a far more secure way of locking your phone. It states that while there’s a 1 in 50,000 chance for someone to steal your Touch ID phone, the chances drop to one in a million with Face ID.

I’ll concede that it does seem pretty cool that you can just look at your phone to unlock it. However, this also requires you to have the phone in front of you. I know for me, I often unlock the phone in my pocket before I even bring it up to my face to look at it, just so I have it ready to go.

There are also times when I need to unlock my phone when it’s charging — in order to install updates, for example — and I reach out to where my phone is sitting on its dock to press the button. When I’m cooking and constantly referring to a recipe on my phone, I like being able to unlock the phone without picking it up — I just touch my thumb on the button to bring it up again. Sure it won’t take that much longer to hover my face over the phone for Face ID, but there’s something about being forced to look at my phone to unlock it that strikes me as needlessly annoying.

Then there’s the issue of using it for Apple Pay. In the demo Craig Federighi did on stage, he had to press the side button twice, look at the phone and then place it on the terminal for Apple Pay to register. Right now, all I have to do get Apple Pay to work is to put my phone on the terminal with my thumb over the home button. It’s unclear if the side-button press is necessary in all instances of Apple Pay, but if it is, that sounds like a small nuisance as well.

These minor pet peeves aside, the main reason why I hold the home button dear to my heart is its simplicity. You press it to do everything — to unlock your phone, to pay for things, to get back to the home screen after watching YouTube for far too long, to turn off the alarm, to trigger Siri and to get out of a crashed app. There’s something comforting about a tactile physical failsafe button that no fancy soft touch gesture could ever replicate.

When Apple got rid of a tactile home button and replaced it with a haptic version for the iPhone 7, I was unnerved for a few days, but adjusted. When I found out the iPhone 7 didn’t have a headphone jack, I was incredibly annoyed (and still am to an extent), but I learned to live without it. And I know, that if I used the iPhone X for a few days, I’ll eventually get used to not having a home button too.

But a home button wasn’t a problem that I needed to be solved. For extra screen real estate that I never asked for. Of course, there’s always the option of the iPhone 8 for those who want a new phone and still desire a home button. And we really don’t know if the button-less design of the iPhone X will trickle down to the rest of the line. And yes, when push comes to shove, I’ll probably get used to not having that button. But I’d miss it all the same.

Nintendo makes voice chat less of a disaster on Switch

Nintendo has rolled out an update for the Switch Online app that might finally make it usable. See, unlike what Sony and Microsoft did for the PlayStation and the Xbox, Nintendo has chosen to put its new console’s chat functions in a separate app for Android and iOS. Unfortunately, it was clearly not ready upon launch and suffered from a bunch of serious issues, including not being able to use another app on your phone — not even to check important texts and calls — if you don’t want to get kicked off a voice chat. Your screen also has to be on the whole time you’re chatting with friends, which could drain your phone’s battery. This update solves both problems.

In the gaming titan’s update notes on iTunes and Google Play, it said version 1.1.0 of the Switch Online app gives you the power to continue voice chats while using other applications. You can also continue planning matches with other players even if your phone’s screen goes to sleep, unless you activated the Power Saving mode on Android 6.0 and later. If you don’t want to switch off Power Saving completely to be able to enjoy the new feature, you simply have to deactivate battery optimization for Switch Online in settings. While the only other entry in version 1.1.0’s update list is bug fixes, the other two are likely big enough to make the app relatively enjoyable to use.

Source: Nintendo of America (Twitter), (iTunes), (Google Play)