Apple Announces All-New Store Opening at Century City in Los Angeles Later This Year

Apple has announced it will be opening an all-new retail store at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, California later this year.

Apple’s new retail design includes sequoia wood tables and shelves
“We’ve got something special in store for you,” says Apple. “Introducing the all-new Century City. Join us this fall.”

Apple’s plans to open a more spacious store at Century City were first revealed by MacRumors last month, as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to modernize its chain of nearly 500 retail stores around the world.

Apple’s upcoming Century City store via MacRumors reader Pete Nichols
Apple will be in a prime location at the center of the shopping mall, which is undergoing a $1 billion expansion and modernization. The new store will be opposite an upcoming Rolex watch store, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Apple’s current store at Century City opened in June 2005 and has significantly less square footage. The larger store will provide the space needed to accommodate more products, increased customer traffic, and Today at Apple sessions.

Apple’s current store at Westfield Century City
The new store should also be based on Apple’s latest retail design, including large glass doors, sequoia wood tables and shelves, a large video screen for Today at Apple sessions, and light boxes spanning the length of the ceiling.

All new Apple retail stores opened since September 2015 have been based on the updated design, including Apple’s flagship Union Square location in San Francisco. Apple has also renovated over 40 existing stores with the newer look.

Apple has yet to provide a more specific date for the store’s grand opening, but it appears it will be at least a few weeks from now, based on the lack of intermediate Today at Apple sessions on the store’s calendar through at least October 17.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Ties iPhone 8 Plus in DxO Labs Camera Test

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 produces generally better results than the iPhone 8 Plus when shooting still photography, but falls short of Apple’s handset when it comes to recording video. That’s according to the latest comprehensive smartphone camera test conducted by Dxo Labs, in which the two phones essentially came out tied overall.

The reviewers singled out Samsung’s device for its “phenomenal” photo sub-score, which as the first smartphone to achieve 100 points in the category, “breaks new ground and makes the Note 8 the current class-leader for stills, thanks to excellent zoom quality, good noise reduction and detail preservation, and fast and accurate autofocus”.

The Note 8 is Samsung’s first foray into the world of dual cameras and is a great success, offering the best zoom capabilities of any mobile device we’ve tested to date. Add to that PDAF autofocus, optical image stabilization, Auto HDR, and a massive 6.3″ Super AMOLED display, and there’s plenty for smartphone photography enthusiasts to get excited about.

Overall, Note 8 achieved a DxOMark mobile score of 94 points, making it the joint-leader for smartphone image quality alongside Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus, which the site previously praised for having the best smartphone camera they had ever tested. The Note 8’s low-light photos showed less noise and more detail than its rivals, although HDR mode tended to clip highlights and highly backlit subjects didn’t always turn out very clear.

In terms of video, the Note 8 was notable for offering good exposure with fast convergence, fast and stable autofocus, as well as good noise reduction, white balance, and color rendering. However, while the Note 8 trumped Apple’s phone when taking stills, its video performance suffered due to residual motion when holding the camera still during recording, earning it a video sub-score of 84. In comparison, the iPhone 8 Plus achieved 89 in the same tests.

DxO says it has analyzed the image and video quality of over 10,000 cameras, lenses, and mobile phones, and its tests are generally respected within the industry. The company also sells some consumer-facing products like the DxO ONE camera, which can be plugged into an iPhone’s Lightning connector.

The full review is worth checking out, and includes additional photos and analysis of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s dual cameras compared to its rivals.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
Tags: DxOMark, Galaxy Note 8
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Buy Now)
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Test drive ‘Gran Turismo Sport’ on PS4 next week

Sony is offering up a four-day GT Sport preview, a week ahead of its long-time-coming release. (That’s October 17th, in case you forgot.) PlayStation Plus members can preload the demo October 7th, and will be able to take a few cars for a spin from October 9th through October 12th. The demo will offer the first chance for players test out GT Sport’s new features, including a photography mode and custom livery for the racing car of your choice. The teaser will also have a new matchmaking system built-in to ensure you’re racing similarly-skilled drivers and not just getting lapped all the time.

The demo will also include a campaign mode, and any money earned here will be transferrable to the game itself — up to $1 million of it, at least. The game will also be the first in the 20 year-old franchise to connect to PlayStation VR, although Sony isn’t saying whether the demo will include this feature.

The game has take its time getting to the PlayStation 4, but Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi believes the GT team has “strived to create something that delivers an unprecedented experience in terms of the graphics, sound, and physics simulation; an experience that can only be enjoyed on PlayStation.” Playing ahead of launch might have its own benefits too: there’s those real prizes.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things: The Game’ Just Debuted on the App Store for Free

The second season of Stranger Things doesn’t hit TV screens for another few weeks yet, but fans of the Netflix original can stoke their excitement in the meantime by downloading the official new iOS game, released today on the App Store.

Like the popular TV series, Stranger Things: The Game not only evokes authentic 80s nostalgia in its thematics, but also with its use of retro sounds, graphics, and gameplay, all mixed into a classic top-down shooter style.

The action adventure includes seven playable characters each with unique abilities to help players solve puzzles, while locations from the hit show that appear in the game include Mirkwood Forest, Hawkins Lab, and Jim Hopper’s home.

There are Eggos and Gnomes to find, two unforgiving difficulty modes, a never-before-seen TV trailer to unlock, and a content update for the game that’s expected to drop on October 27, to coincide with the Stranger Things season two debut on Netflix. 

According to TouchArcade, the game offers over 10 hours of gameplay, with six dungeons to explore and over 30 quests, and there are no in-app purchases to speak of, so this is no quick money grab.

Stranger Things: The Game is a free download for iPhone and iPad available now on the App Store.

Tag: Netflix
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What is Windows Mixed Reality? It’s simpler than you think.

All right, let’s cut to the chase. What is Windows Mixed Reality? You’ve probably seen the headlines by now, companies like Dell, Samsung, and Acer have all announced their own versions of virtual reality headsets built to be compatible with Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform, but let’s look at what that actually means.

What is mixed reality?

You’re going to get a different answer from everyone you ask, but at its core mixed reality is a term used for any technology that layers digital, or virtual, elements over the real world. Pokemon Go is a good example. By looking through your phone’s camera, the game is able to create the illusion that digital elements, the Pokemon, are really in the space around you. That’s mixed reality.

At this point you might be wondering whether that’s any different from ‘augmented reality’ and the simple answer is: no. For the most part, AR is synonymous with MR. There are some experts out there who would disagree, who might define AR as something different entirely, or who might suggest ‘mixed reality’ is a spectrum, with AR and VR at opposite ends. They’re not wrong.

However, companies like Apple and Microsoft use these terms interchangeably, which means you’re going to see them being used to describe the same technologies and products. The academic distinctions are still up in the air, and they might change over time.

What’s special about Windows Mixed Reality?

Windows Mixed Reality is the name for Microsoft’s particular brand of mixed reality. It’s a unified platform like Windows, but for mixed reality headsets.

All Windows Mixed Reality headsets have inside-out tracking, which means the headset can tell which direction you’re looking without having to look for external sensors like the lighthouses you use for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

That means you can use room-scale VR anywhere, not just where you have your sensors set up, and you don’t have to worry about stepping out of range of the sensors. That alone sets these headsets apart from their competition.

Despite the name “mixed reality,” however, these headsets will be compatible with standard virtual reality. In fact, most of the launch applications will focus on virtual reality experiences.

Think of Windows Mixed Reality as you do Windows itself. It’s a platform which Microsoft wants manufacturers — like Samsung, Acer, and Dell — to build products for. In the same way that Dell makes laptops which run Windows, it’s also making mixed reality headsets for Windows Mixed Reality.

Is it different from virtual reality?

Not really.

Think of Windows Mixed Reality as VR, plus a little extra. Microsoft is working to make sure Windows Mixed Reality headsets will be compatible with existing VR experiences and games, particularly those on the SteamVR store, but on top of that you’ll be able to take advantage of ‘mixed reality’ experiences which layer virtual elements on top of the real world.

That’s why all of the Windows Mixed Reality headsets have inside-out tracking. How developers end up using those capabilities will remain to be seen — though the upcoming Halo: Recruit experience is promising. But for now at least, Windows Mixed Reality headsets are providing a reasonably priced and standardized entry point into the whole virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experience, and giving HTC and Oculus some much-needed competition.

Despite what the name may have you think, Windows Mixed Reality isn’t important because it’s pioneering a new type of experience. Instead, it’s refining a range of virtual reality and augmented experiences and bringing them to more affordable price points, with native Windows support.

This futuristic ‘spinning drone’ may one day fight our battles

Why it matters to you

If it gets made, it’ll likely make a beeline for the battlefield, but we’d still like to try it for ourselves first.

While drone technology has certainly come a long way in recent years, tech firms are continuing to research and develop a range of designs for more efficient flight, take-off, and landing.

In the U.K., defense and aerospace specialist BAE Systems has been working with students at Cranfield University near London to design a futuristic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that alternates between fixed-wing flight and rotary-wing flight.

While similar designs already exist, a flashy sci-fi-like video showing off how the drone might one day operate highlights a few differences with BAE Systems’ so-called “Adaptable UAV.”

For example, when in rotary-wing mode the drone can be launched and recovered via a special pole onto which the machine docks, made possible by the large hole in the middle of its main body. Watch how the entire aircraft spins rapidly as it comes in to land.

“The pole constrains the lateral or sideways movement of the UAV when being launched or recovered so strong winds cannot dislodge them, and avoids any damage to personnel nearby,” BAE Systems explains in a report.

BAE says the design incorporates not only adaptive flight control, but also advanced navigation and guidance software. The fixed-wing element affords the autonomous flying machine greater speed and range, while the rotary-wing mode allows it to hover for a safe vertical take-off and landing.

If, as its creators envisage, the drone ever finds its way onto the battlefield, multiple machines could be sent out in one go, returning quickly to base once the mission is complete.

The company talks about how the UAVs could “better adapt to evolving future battlefield situations and, through working together in a swarm, tackle sophisticated air defenses, as well as operating in complex and cluttered urban environments.”

Commenting on the drone’s design, Professor Nick Colosimo, BAE Systems’ Futurist and Technologist, said, “The battlefield of the future will require novel solutions to meet emerging threats and to keep human operators safe wherever they may be.

Colosimo adds, “The Adaptable UAVs concept and related technologies are one of a number of concepts being explored through close collaboration between industry and students in academia.”

This isn’t the first time BAE has invested in drone technology research. Last year we heard about an extraordinary project focusing on the idea of “growing” drones from molecular building blocks in just a few days.

Russian Facebook ads reportedly targeted crucial swing states

More details are emerging about the Russia-linked ads Facebook handed over to Congressional investigators just days ago. According to multiple sources who spoke to CNN, a number of the paid posts specifically targeted two states that were crucial to Trump’s victory in November: Michigan and Wisconsin. Facebook has already revealed that the 3,000 ads (viewed by roughly 10 million people) focused on “divisive social political messages,” including issues about race, LGBT topics, immigration, and gun rights. But, the latest info sheds light on the geographic and demographical targeting of the promotional messages — two aspects Facebook has not discussed in detail.

Trump beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Michigan by just 10,704 votes. Wisconsin too was a tight race, with Trump grabbing victory by 22,700 votes. Just days after the results were announced, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg swiped back at his critics by claiming it was “crazy” to think that fake news on his platform swayed the election. He’s since said he regrets those remarks. But, bogus articles were just part of the machinery used by nefarious forces, along with promoted events, and ads. The latter saw Facebook’s comprehensive (and controversial) ad targeting tool utilized to target groups in key areas of Michigan and Wisconsin, people with knowledge on the matter told CNN.

Facebook is cooperating with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russia’s alleged social media interference during the elections. However, it’s not the only one in the dock. Twitter also recently handed over evidence of over 1,800 Russia Today accounts that posted targeted ads in the US. Total Spend on the advertisements, which were also created during the 2016 election, came to $274,100. Despite its willingness to hand over data, it seems the company has not shut down several accounts associated with the so-called propagandist news outlet. As Recode points out, the @RT_com, @RT_America, and @ActualidadRT are still fully active. What’s more, they have not reportedly been banned from advertising on the platform.

Elsewhere, Russia Today has lost a powerful soapbox. Google — which is also being rounded up as part of the Senate’s extensive investigation — just removed Russia Today from its premium YouTube ad program (known as Google Preferred). Facebook, Google, and Twitter will be questioned by Senate lawmakers on November 1st.

Source: CNN, Recode

DelivAir uses drones to deliver to people, not physical addresses

Drone deliveries — the impatient consumer’s Holy Grail — have been in the pipeline for some time, and while Amazon is pioneering the cause, (although Rival 7-Eleven has completed nearly 100 aerial deliveries to date), its model is still somewhat encumbered by factors at odds with the advantages drone delivery technically offers. Recipients need to be present at an address, for example. Now, though, Cambridge Consultants — the team that brought us intelligent bins and Renaissance doodling — has developed a drone delivery system that’ll get you your stuff anytime, anywhere, in a matter of minutes.

Let’s imagine you’re out having a nice walk in the middle of the countryside when you start feeling peckish. Using Cambridge Consultants’ DelivAir app, you’d place an order for a snack, and the delivering drone would use GPS and your smartphone signal to navigate to your location, periodically asking for location updates during its flight, until it’s within visual range. Once it arrives, you point your mobile phone flash LED to the sky, where it’ll blink a coded pattern to let the drone know it’s delivering to the right person. Then, while staying a safe height above the ground, the drone lowers the package into your very hands using a stabilising winch, which you then unhook. The drone then makes its merry way back to base, and you’ve got your snack, or whatever else it is you urgently need in the middle of countryside.

Of course, there are multiple applications for this type of service, fervent consumerism aside. It could be used to take a puncture repair kit to a stranded cyclist, or essential supplies to remote areas as part of disaster relief efforts. There’s life-saving potential, too; DelivAir could swiftly get EpiPens or defibrillators to people in urgent need. “Drone delivery is fast and ideal for something that is needed immediately. In that case, a consumer wants a delivery directly to them as a person – not to a location,” said Nathan Wrench, head of the industrial and energy business at Cambridge Consultants. “Our DelivAir concept has the potential to revolutionize the delivery process, by removing the address restriction that other drone technologies are limited by.”

Indeed, DelivAir’s ultra-precise delivery concept makes perfect sense for drone application, but as is the case with Amazon, 7-Eleven and other drone delivery champions, there are still question marks hanging over the mainstream roll out of this kind of service. Instant gratification is a shopper’s dream, but a once-blue sky dominated by hundreds of buzzing delivery machines sounds decidedly dystopian. Still, unlike Amazon’s plans to rain packages out of the sky, at least DelivAir’s concept — which places the package neatly in your hands — retains some social decorum.

Instagram expands its slick shopping experience to tempt you to spend

Why it matters to you

If you’re an avid online shopper and you love Instagram, best lock all the doors or your credit card may make a run for it.

With as many as 80 percent of Instagrammers following at least one business account, the photo site has become an effective way for brands to connect with fans and, in many cases, boost their bottom line.

With the holiday season fast approaching, smooth and seamless shopping experiences are about to land in a big way for Instragram users who follow Shopify merchants. The ecommerce giant has just announced deeper integration with Instagram, offering thousands more of its merchants the opportunity to sell goods on the platform via a tagging system that Instagram has been testing with select brands for almost a year.

“Merchants selected by Instagram and Shopify will be able to start tagging their posts with products in Instagram to showcase to their over 800 million monthly active users,” Shopify’s Zabrina Hossain said in a post announcing the expansion. “With Shopify’s 500,000-plus merchants in categories like fashion, jewelry, beauty, furniture, and home decor, it’s a perfect match to Instagram’s inspired community.”

Instagram’s shopping experience starts with a “tap to view products” message that appears with an image showing various items on sale. Tapping it shows up tags — one next to each item — revealing the names and prices of the pictured products. Tapping a tag takes you to a page offering more details about the item, and if you like it enough you can hit the “shop now” button to make a purchase.

The media-sharing service designed its current shopping platform to make it easier for its users to find more information about an interesting product appearing in their feed, which in turn helps them to make a more informed decision about whether to make a purchase.

Instagram, which started testing its shopping platform with select merchants in November, 2016, said it was aiming to “create something that was less transactional and more immersive. Something that gave people more time and space to browse and evaluate products, making mobile shopping feel just like shopping.”

Shopify’s news this week means Instagrammers are likely to see even more pathways to a slick shopping experience — good news if you love online shopping, but bad news for your bank balance.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 vs. Samsung Galaxy S8+: It’s all in the details

The Galaxy S8+ is still the best Android phone available today, but the Mi Mix 2 has a lot going for it.

The Galaxy S8+ is going strong five months after its release, with the phone breaking Samsung’s sales records. The South Korean manufacturer introduced the Infinity View display with the Galaxy S8 series, offering a dual curved display with minimal bezels at the top and bottom. The 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display on the phone is one of the best available on a phone today, and coupled with a class-leading camera, it’s easy to see why the S8+ is so popular.

Xiaomi, for its part, attracted considerable attention with the Mi Mix last year, and the company has refined the bezel-less formula with the Mi Mix 2. Xiaomi retained the razor-thin bezels, but tweaked the overall design aesthetic to make the Mi Mix 2 much more conducive for everyday usage. The phone will also see a wider release this year, and with 42 LTE bands onboard, it will work on all major carriers around the globe. Let’s find out how the Mi Mix 2 fares next to one of the best phones in the market.

What’s the same

Both the Mi Mix 2 and the Galaxy S8+ have top-notch hardware in the form of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (Exynos 8895 in the international variants of the S8+), along with ample amounts of memory and storage. The Mi Mix 2 has a slight edge when it comes to memory options, with the base variant offering 6GB of RAM. The Galaxy S8+, meanwhile, has 4GB of RAM. That said, you’re not going to run into any bottlenecks on the Galaxy S8+.

Samsung’s flagship wins out on the storage front thanks to the presence of a microSD slot, but both phones come with 64GB of internal storage as standard. When it comes to the software side of things, both phones are running Nougat. The Mi Mix 2 features the newer 7.1.1 build whereas the S8+ is still on Android 7.0 Nougat.

Where the Mi Mix 2 wins

There are plenty of options available if you’re looking for a phone with minimal bezels — including the Galaxy S8+, Galaxy Note 8, LG G6, V30, and the Essential Phone — but Xiaomi’s implementation is one of the best out there. Last year’s Mi Mix was certainly not the first phone with thin bezels, but the overall design and top-notch internals resonated with the enthusiast community.

That’s true with the Mi Mix 2 as well, but this time around, Xiaomi is making the device much more accessible to a mainstream audience. The design aesthetic of the phone is a significant improvement over its predecessor, with Xiaomi decreasing the screen size to a manageable 5.9 inches.

The company’s decision to move the front camera to the bottom bar means three sides of the Mi Mix 2 have ultra-thin bezels, which leads to a highly immersive experience when viewing videos or reading text. With the Mi Mix 2, the content is always front and center.

If you’re looking for a phone that will turn heads, get the Mi Mix 2.

The Galaxy S8+, Note 8, and LG’s offerings are commonplace in Western markets, but if you’re looking for a device with a more radical design language, the Mi Mix 2 is the ideal phone to get. The fact that it now has 42 LTE bands make it that much easier to recommend.

The rounded corners and curving sides make it easy to hold and use the phone, and the ceramic back holds up to tumbles far better than glass-backed designs. Furthermore, the fit and finish are right up there with the likes of the Galaxy S8+.

Another area where the Mi Mix 2 handily beats the Galaxy S8+ is in terms of battery life. Xiaomi phones are known for their battery prowess, and a lot of that has to do with MIUI’s memory management. I routinely got over a day’s worth of usage out of the Mi Mix 2, even in scenarios when I was using cellular data for the better part of a day. In the same conditions, the S8+ barely made it through until the evening. This is in spite of the Mi Mix 2 sporting a slightly smaller 3400mAh battery (versus the 3500mAh battery on the S8+).

Where the Galaxy S8+ wins

Samsung has been the industry leader in display segment for a few generations now, and its Super AMOLED panels are the best displays you’ll find on a phone today (they’re “great enough” to be on the iPhone). The Quad HD panel on the S8+ — with a resolution of 2960 x 1440 — is amazing: you get saturated colors, deep blacks, outstanding brightness levels, and an HDR mode for Netflix and Prime Video.

The Galaxy S8+ nails the basics, and has a ton of fringe features.

The S8+ is one of the most feature-packed phones available today: you get IP68 dust and water resistance, wireless charging, and a traditional headphone jack (something that’s becoming less and less common on high-end devices). Then there’s Samsung Pay, which makes mobile payments incredibly convenient. The S8+ also wins out when it comes to the software side of things (as long as you ignore Bixby).

Another area where the S8+ excels is the imaging department. The 12MP camera at the back takes consistently great photos, and as you’d expect from a Samsung flagship, there are plenty of shooting modes and effects to choose from. Photos taken with the S8+ tend to be more saturated, and the phone does a much better job in low-light scenarios.

Mi Mix 2 to the left, Galaxy S8+ on the right.

Which should you buy?

The Mi Mix 2 offers an exciting design in a ceramic body, and you’ll easily get more than a day’s worth of battery life consistently. One of the key features on the Mi Mix 2 is the fact that it has 42 LTE bands, making it compatible with carriers around the world.

The Galaxy S8+, meanwhile, has an outstanding display and a camera that’s in a league of its own. The S8+ also wins out when it comes to the software side of things. MIUI 9 offers a ton of customization options, but it’ll be a while before we see a stable global ROM.

While the Mi Mix 2 is a compelling option — particularly with global LTE connectivity — it doesn’t make much sense to pick up the phone in the U.S., where the Galaxy S8+ can be bought for as low as $600. Xiaomi isn’t ready to enter the U.S. market for another year or two, and even if you pick up the Mi Mix 2 from a reseller, you’re on your own when it comes to after-sales service. When you consider the fact that the phone will run up to as much as $530 after duties, you’re better off with the Galaxy S8+.

The Mi Mix 2 is a much more enticing phone in the 30 or so odd countries where Xiaomi will officially release it. The Galaxy S8+ retails for the equivalent of $1,000 in most of these markets, and the Mi Mix 2 will be sold at around the $500-$600 price point. Right now, all we know is that the phone will be making its way to India — Xiaomi’s second-largest market — sometime later this month, which is likely to be followed up by launches in other Asian markets.