Prime Real Estate: The Fight for Space in the iPhone X
As the launch of Apple’s iPhone X approaches tomorrow, eager users are set to enjoy battery life normally reserved for Apple’s Plus-size form factors in a phone more closely resembling a non-Plus variant in its dimensions. The reason for this advancement is not an energy density development, but rather a smaller printed circuit board (PCB) inside the iPhone X, according to a February report from KGI Securities.
深圳的朋友拆了，還真的兩個電池 pic.twitter.com/7wzrBLVsFy
— Anson Chen ☂ (@AnsonChen) November 2, 2017
This smaller PCB is thanks to a technology referred to as substrate-like PCBs, or SLP. Depictions from the report show a PCB with more layers than a traditional iPhone PCB thanks to application processor and RF signal-chain dedicated PCBs married via an interposer, creating a layer stackup nearly twice that of a conventional iPhone PCB.
However, this doesn’t come close to telling the whole story. While a new PCB stackup may offer some more flexibility in component placement, it’s important to remember that the opposite side of the board from the A11 isn’t empty in an iPhone 8. There are plenty of components there too — the NFC chip, display drivers, Wi-Fi combo chips, and power management ICs have all often found their homes directly opposite the workhorse application processor.
After all, 4.7-inch iPhones and their 5.5-inch “Plus” siblings have similarly sized PCBs, with battery capacity suffering as a direct result in the smaller phones. Herein lies the real problem in trying to improve battery life in these smaller form factors.
iPhone 8 Plus PCB rear side, courtesy of iFixit
Reducing Component Footprint
To make the iPhone X PCB smaller, Apple had to devise a way to make the components on the PCBs occupy a smaller aggregate footprint. A quick glance at the above PCB shows that the board is densely populated with ICs and passive components. A natural first question is to ask if components can simply be eliminated.
A great candidate for simplification would be the RF chain. Indeed, previous iPhones have seen up to four variants for different carriers around the globe as they featured switches, filters, and amplifiers focused on the specific bands needed for these region-specific carriers. The number of variants has dwindled over the years to the current number of two and have been distilled into one model that has CDMA network capability and one that doesn’t.
By supporting fewer bands per model across more models, Apple could reduce the overall size of the RF chain and save board space. A glance at the iPhone X tech spec page will show you that’s not what Apple has done, as it supports the same exact bands as the iPhone 8 models across two versions.
Thus we have to look elsewhere than the RF chain for component reduction. Another way to reduce component size would be to press IC suppliers to shrink their own packages. The best example of this may be the original MacBook Air, where Intel provided a smaller package for the CPU to help Apple hit its at-the-time tiny form factor.
If a supplier were to do this, it would certainly make sense to include it in the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus as well, so there would be expected to be some sort of cost or volume pressure on the component preventing it from being more pervasive. An example might be a package that includes an interposer, which are expensive interconnect structures that allow multiple high-density pinout devices to be housed within the same package. This is the very same concept that is said to be used to mate the RF and main digital boards within the iPhone X.
The concept of moving multiple components into the same package is not new. Most of Apple’s A-series chips have stacked DRAM inside of them, and Apple has made efforts to reduce package size with TSMC’s InFO packaging. The Apple Watch employs an even more integrated approach with its System-in-Package (SiP) solution, including a variety of active and passive components within the same lidded enclosure. This is the direction of mobile devices in general.
Deciding whether to house components on a multi-layered PCB or push the level of integration to on-package, or even on-die, is a careful weighing of cost, space savings, and performance impacts. Moving things on-package generally improves performance as signal routes become shorter and require less power to run, but at the expense of things like more complex packaging and substrate solutions.
Putting circuits on-die provides the ultimate performance benefit, but increases die size, which can affect component yield and ultimately cost. The key with a lot of these concepts is understanding that SLP in itself doesn’t really help.
Substrate-like PCBs
When component manufacturers refer to new PCB technology as substrate-like PCBs, they are referring to the interconnect density afforded by the substrates found within IC packages. Pushing feature sizes down to as little as 15 microns, these new PCB types help to get interconnect density to rival IC packages. This is really helpful for high-density routing like memory or PCI busses. Squeezing more routes in on a layer, along with smaller via features also similar to package substrates, will ultimately help to use fewer layers to route a PCB.
Substrate-like PCB with microvias
An iPhone X’s memory is, however, already integrated into the package, and it doesn’t have wide, high-speed data interfaces like you’d find in a traditional desktop platform. Thus, this is likely not the main innovation directly benefitting the iPhone X. The interposer between boards is likely helping out here.
The interposer will allow the digital and RF boards to essentially be designed separately, before being interconnected by the interposer that sits in between them. This type of multiple step approach is common in PCBs, as they often start with non-conductive cores which are then built up with successive metal and dielectric layers, letting the fabrication house add small vias layer by layer for a complex PCB. The interposer extends this concept by integrating an ever tighter interconnect pitch, normally reserved for device packages, and greatly inflating cost.
Circuit boundaries on an iPhone 8 Plus PCB
This separate PCB approach will help Apple achieve better isolation between its digital and RF circuit sections. Indeed, close inspection of an iPhone PCB will show dashed-looking lines separating circuit types from each other. The above image shows the audio and RF sections separated on an iPhone 8 Plus PCB.
Separating these components is important, as interference from neighboring components can cause things like decreased dynamic range in analog and RF circuits, or compromised signal integrity in digital circuits. As a consumer device, radiated signals are also a concern. Apple made efforts to increase self-compatibility and standards compliance when it patented and subsequently introduced and improved sputtered coatings for chips found in its mobile devices.
All of these steps help Apple to place components closer together, and it offers more freedom in where to place them in proximity to each other. However, the board space is still largely consumed. Aggressive efforts may claim perhaps up to 10 percent of the board space back, but more is needed to significantly cut down PCB size. Apple’s engineers need to exploit more than just the X and Y dimensions.
3D Techniques
To truly make advances in the space needed to house all the components in the iPhone, the height of the PCBs must be leveraged as well. 3D and 2.5D IC techniques such as chip stacking, through-silicon vias, interposers and other techniques have gotten a lot of exposure in recent years for device packaging, but they can also apply to PCBs to some extent. PCB vendors have been embedding simple passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors in PCBs for years.
These features were first intrinsic to the process, whether through resistor films, printed winding traces, or using the PCB dielectric as the foundation for a capacitor formed across layers. Embedded physical components are now rising in prominence, with vendors even planning for embedded active components in the not too distant future.
Embedded and formed wafer level components
Though it has gone somewhat unnoticed, Apple has already been employing this technique with its A-series application processors. Several years ago, leaked packaged parts began to show curious voids on the underside where the normal interconnect array would be expected. These voids are likely spaces for passive filtering components to nestle inside the package.
Apple A11 chip with embedded components
This achieves two things. First, it decreases the amount of board space needed to seat all components. Second, it often carries a performance advantage because proximity to the metal inside the device is one of the key performance drivers of active devices such as this.
The capacitors and inductors used to filter and bypass the power on the application processor serve to prevent voltage droop in changing current demand scenarios, as well as provide a bypass route to ground for high frequency noise. Placing it as close to the device as possible cuts down on unwanted parasitics which reduce these components’ effectiveness.
Passive filtering components for the A11 on an iPhone 8 Plus PCB
By extending this concept to PCBs, Apple can utilize any extra space within the PCB to house these components. Examination of the rear of an iPhone 8 Plus PCB shows there are numerous passive components sitting on the rear of the PCB behind the A11.
The more of these components that can be embedded within the board stackup, the more space efficiency the design can have. At an extreme, the PCB would have these components untouched, with an interposer (or perhaps multiple, interspersed with bonding material to match the boards) having a cutout in this area so that the digital and RF boards could be laminated together. This concept in itself presents technical challenges, and a gradual adoption rather than a momentous shift should be expected for embedded components.
What should be clear moving forward is that the internals of PCB stackups could prove to be just as interesting as their surfaces and the x-ray shots of component dies that we have come to expect. Perhaps we’ll get a glimpse at some of these concepts once the teardowns start rolling in.
Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Qualcomm Accuses Apple of Helping Intel Using Qualcomm Software
Qualcomm on Wednesday filed yet another lawsuit against Apple, this time accusing the company of breaching software licensing terms and using Qualcomm code to help Intel, reports Bloomberg.
According to Qualcomm, Apple breached a contract that dictates the use of software that’s designed to make Qualcomm chips work with other iPhone components. Qualcomm also believes Apple may have used its access to that software to help Intel with its own modem chip development.
Since 2016, Apple has been using LTE chips from both Intel and Qualcomm in an effort to diversify its supply chain and move some production away from Qualcomm. The iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, and 8 Plus all use a mix of Qualcomm and Intel chips.
In light of the ongoing legal battle with Qualcomm, Apple is said to be considering eliminating Qualcomm chips from its devices all together, instead adopting chips from Intel and possibly MediaTek. Rumors suggest Qualcomm has been withholding software from Apple that Apple needs to test prototype devices for next year, forcing Apple’s hand.
Qualcomm and Apple have been involved in an escalating legal fight since the beginning of the year after Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion. Apple has accused Qualcomm of charging unfair royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with” and failing to pay for quarterly rebates.
Apple has since stopped paying royalties to Qualcomm until new licensing fees have been worked out, as have Apple suppliers, significantly impacting Qualcomm’s profits.
Qualcomm has since levied several lawsuits against Apple, accusing the company of patent infringement and asking both the United States and China to block imports and exports of some iPhone models.
Tags: lawsuit, Intel, Qualcomm, Patent lawsuits
Discuss this article in our forums
YouTube Kids App Gains New Look, Kid Profiles and Updated Parental Controls
Google is updating its YouTube Kids app for iOS devices today to introduce profiles and a dynamic app design that changes based on a child’s age.
With kid profiles, each child who uses the YouTube Kids app on an iOS device can have their own profile, which allows for the custom design feature. When entering a date of birth, the YouTube Kids app will adapt the look of the app to be age appropriate.
Younger children will see less text when using the app, while older children will see additional content on their home screens. Kids can also set their own secret passcodes for their profiles, which can be overridden by parents.
Along with kid profiles, YouTube Kids is gaining a new setup process with clearer parental controls that offer up more detailed information.
Today’s new profile feature is available in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, and Zimbabwe.
The YouTube Kids app is designed to give children a way to watch kid-appropriate YouTube content while filtering out mature content that’s not suitable for younger audiences.
YouTube Kids can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: YouTube
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Don’t lose your texts! Here’s how to save text messages in Android and iOS
Sending text messages — or iMessages, SMS, and MMS messages — is one of the main things people want their smartphones to do, even more so than making phone calls. For many, it’s the primary way they stay in touch with friends and family. We send dozens of messages in a day with silly jokes, important information, images, and videos. All of these messages can be easily forgotten over time, however, or lost because of a simple mistake. After all, many of us have accidentally deleted a text conversation and neglected to back up our smartphones or tablets before an upgrade.
The simplest way to preserve text messages is to save them, but doing so isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. You can’t save a text as easily as an image, but it’s certainly doable — it’ll just take a few more steps that may be considered convenient. Lucky for you, we’re here to show how to save text messages in Android and iOS. You’ll be sharing texts in no time.
If you use iMessage check out our guide on how to use iMessage in iOS 10 and iOS 11 or head over to our picks for the 15 best iMessage apps.
How to save text messages in iOS
Before you begin saving text messages, there’s one thing you need to install, if you haven’t already: iTunes. Some people have been having an issue with Apple’s music and iOS-syncing program, but for this, you need to be able to make a backup of your iPhone or iPad in iTunes. Yes, you can make and save backups using iCloud, but it’ll be easier to get to your texts (and other data) in the future using iTunes. You can download the latest version from here.
Step 1: Making backups and saving texts using iTunes
Making an iOS backup will save most of the data stored on your device, including iMessages, SMS messages, and MMS messages. If you haven’t already, make a habit out of creating regular backups.
Begin by launching iTunes. Then, connect your iOS device to your computer.
In iTunes, select your iOS device by clicking the corresponding icon in the top-left corner of the window.
Go to the Summary tab — you should see a section labeled Backups on the right-hand side. Under Manually Back Up and Restore, choose Back Up Now. Once the backup process is done, the Latest Backups sections should be updated to show your most recent backup. Alternatively, you can go to Preferences > Devices (Mac) or Edit > Preferences > Devices (Windows) to confirm that the backup was successful.
Step 2: Accessing your backed up messages using iExplorer
Your messages are now saved, but that’s only the first part of the process. The more important part is being able to access them on your computer whenever you want. Enter iExplorer, a premium program for MacOS and Windows that can, among other things, sift through your iTunes backups and retrieve your various messages. It’s $40 for the basic version, but you can also use the demo version for a limited time.
Download iExplorer and follow the steps to install it. Mac users will need to be running OS X 10.9 or higher, while Windows users need Windows 7 or above. Afterward, launch iExplorer.
In iExplorer, find the section labeled Browse iTunes Backups in the left-hand column, and pick the backup you want to pull messages from. Within that backup, select Messages.
iExplorer will bring up your text messages, with a conversation list located on the left. Pick a conversation to see your messages on the right, including any images and videos attached to them. You can also sort the conversation list by name, date, and number of messages.
Once you’ve selected a conversation, you can export them as a PDF, TXT, or CSV file. You can also choose to only export the images or attachments.
Using just iExplorer
The aforementioned iExplorer can pull texts from an iTunes backup, yes, but the program can also pull texts directly from your iOS device. It’s perfect for those who want to avoid iTunes as much as possible.
Start by downloading and installing iExplorer. Afterward, launch the program and it should open on the Device Overview screen.
Next, connect your iPhone or iPad. In the left-hand column, click your device’s name. On the Device Overview screen on the right, click Data > Messages. Keep in mind that if you’ve never made a backup on your computer, you’ll only see an option to Load Backup Data. You need to make a backup within iExplorer first before it can access your messages, so click it to begin the process. Once done, continue to the next step.
iExplorer will load all of the messages currently on your iOS device. The left-hand column will have a conversation list, and clicking any of the conversations will bring them into view in the right-hand column. You can sort conversations by name, date, or number of messages, as well as filter conversations to show only images, videos, or attachments.
You can export entire conversations, including attached media and documents, using the export options below the open conversation. They can be exported as a PDF, TXT, or CSV file.
Are you wondering if there are other ways to backup your iPhone? You can try these six iTunes alternatives.
Editor’s Recommendations
- SMS to PC and back again: Here’s how to send a text message from a computer
- How to block text messages on iOS and Android
- This isn’t the end of printed photos, it’s the golden age
- Virtual assistant comparison: Cortana, Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Bixby
- How much RAM do you need? It’s probably less than you think
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a ride through the history of self-driving cars
Why it matters to you
Self-driving cars are a dream a long time in the making. Here are the 8 landmark events which got us to the present day.
Seemingly within just a few years, autonomous cars have gone from science fiction fantasy to reality. But while it seems like this technology emerged virtually overnight, the path to self-driving vehicles has taken a whole lot longer than that.
While it’s not easy to compress the near-100 year history of the field into just eight milestones, we’ve done our best. While there are dozens of autonomous vehicle projects which didn’t make our list, here are the major stops on the road that you need to know about as self-driving cars get set to change the face of transport as we know it!
The driverless dream begins
It didn’t take long after the birth of the motorcar for inventors to start thinking about autonomous vehicles. In 1925, the inventor Francis Houdina demonstrates a radio-controlled car, which he drives through the streets of Manhattan without anyone at the steering wheel. According to the New York Times, the radio-controlled vehicle can start its engine, shift gears, and sound its horn, “as if a phantom hand were at the wheel.”
As an amusing aside, Houdina’s name sounded sufficiently like that of the famous escape artist and illusionist Harry Houdini that a lot of people thought this was Houdini’s latest trick. Houdini visited the Houdina Company and got into a physical altercation, during which he broke an electric chandelier.
John McCarthy’s robo-chauffeur
In 1969, John McCarthy — a.k.a. one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence — describes something similar to the modern autonomous vehicle in an essay titled “Computer-Controlled Cars.” McCarthy refers to an “automatic chauffeur,” capable of navigating a public road via a “television camera input that uses the same visual input available to the human driver.”
He writes that users should be able to enter a destination using a keyboard, which would prompt the car to immediately drive them there. Additional commands allow users to change destination, stop at a rest room or restaurant, slow down, or speed up in the case of an emergency. No such vehicle is built, but McCarthy’s essay lays out the mission for other researchers to work toward.
No Hands Across America
In the early 1990s, Carnegie Mellon researcher Dean Pomerleau writes a PhD thesis, describing how neural networks could allow a self-driving vehicle to take in raw images from the road and output steering controls in real time. Pomerleau isn’t the only researcher working on self-driving cars, but his use of neural nets proves way more efficient than alternative attempts to manually divide images into “road” and “non-road” categories.
In 1995, Pomerleau and fellow researcher Todd Jochem take their Navlab self-driving car system on the road. Their bare bones autonomous minivan (they have to control speed and braking) travels 2,797 miles coast-to-coast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California in a journey the pair dubs “No Hands Across America.”
The Grand Challenge is too challenging
In 2002, DARPA announces its Grand Challenge, offering researchers from top research institutions a $1 million prize if they can build an autonomous vehicle able to navigate 142 miles through the Mojave Desert.
When the challenge kicks off in 2004, none of the 15 competitors are able to complete the course. The “winning” entry makes it less than eight miles in several hours, before catching fire. It’s a damaging blow to the goal of building real self-driving cars.
Parking gets smarter
While autonomous vehicles still seem way in the future in the decade of the 2000s, self-parking systems begin to emerge — demonstrating that sensors and autonomous road technologies are getting close to ready for real world scenarios.
Toyoto’s Japanese Prius hybrid vehicle offers automatic parallel parking assistance from 2003, while Lexus soon adds a similar system for its Lexus LS sedan, Ford incorporates Active Park Assist in 2009, and BMW follows one year later with its own parallel parking assistant.
Google searches for an answer
Starting in 2009, Google begins developing its self-driving car project, now called Waymo, in secret. The project is initially led by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View.
Within a few years, Google announces that its autonomous cars have collectively driven 300,000 miles under computer control without one single accident occurring. In 2014, it reveals a prototype of a driverless car without any steering wheel, gas pedal or brake pedal, thereby being 100 percent autonomous. By the end of last year, more than 2 million miles had been driven by Google’s autonomous car.
The big car manufacturers dive in
By 2013, major automotive companies including General Motors, Ford, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and others are all working on their own self-driving car technologies. Nissan commits to a launch date by announcing that it will release several driverless cars by the year 2020.
Other cars, such as the 2014 Mercedes S-Class, add semi-autonomous features such as self steering, the ability to stay within lanes, accident avoidance, and more. The likes of Tesla and Uber also begin actively exploring self-driving technology, while Apple is rumored to be doing so.
The first autonomous car fatality
Sadly, but inevitably, the first autonomous car fatality takes place. The incident occurs in Florida while a Tesla Model S is in self-driving Autopilot mode. The Tesla’s human occupant dies when the car hits an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, failing to brake in time after the trailer turns in front of it.
The death sparks renewed debate about self-driving cars and some of the technical and ethical issues surrounding them on the road. It’s a setback, but one which underlines the fact that — like it or not — autonomous cars are well and truly here.
Editor’s Recommendations
- Toyota to put its driverless car through ‘extreme’ testing in California
- China’s Baidu, Changan enter the autonomous vehicle fray
- Convoys of ‘self-driving’ trucks are heading to U.K. roads
- Toyota’s latest self-driving car prototype has two steering wheels
- Tesla Model S news roundup: All you need to know about the world-class EV
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a ride through the history of self-driving cars
Why it matters to you
Self-driving cars are a dream a long time in the making. Here are the 8 landmark events which got us to the present day.
Seemingly within just a few years, autonomous cars have gone from science fiction fantasy to reality. But while it seems like this technology emerged virtually overnight, the path to self-driving vehicles has taken a whole lot longer than that.
While it’s not easy to compress the near-100 year history of the field into just eight milestones, we’ve done our best. While there are dozens of autonomous vehicle projects which didn’t make our list, here are the major stops on the road that you need to know about as self-driving cars get set to change the face of transport as we know it!
The driverless dream begins
It didn’t take long after the birth of the motorcar for inventors to start thinking about autonomous vehicles. In 1925, the inventor Francis Houdina demonstrates a radio-controlled car, which he drives through the streets of Manhattan without anyone at the steering wheel. According to the New York Times, the radio-controlled vehicle can start its engine, shift gears, and sound its horn, “as if a phantom hand were at the wheel.”
As an amusing aside, Houdina’s name sounded sufficiently like that of the famous escape artist and illusionist Harry Houdini that a lot of people thought this was Houdini’s latest trick. Houdini visited the Houdina Company and got into a physical altercation, during which he broke an electric chandelier.
John McCarthy’s robo-chauffeur
In 1969, John McCarthy — a.k.a. one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence — describes something similar to the modern autonomous vehicle in an essay titled “Computer-Controlled Cars.” McCarthy refers to an “automatic chauffeur,” capable of navigating a public road via a “television camera input that uses the same visual input available to the human driver.”
He writes that users should be able to enter a destination using a keyboard, which would prompt the car to immediately drive them there. Additional commands allow users to change destination, stop at a rest room or restaurant, slow down, or speed up in the case of an emergency. No such vehicle is built, but McCarthy’s essay lays out the mission for other researchers to work toward.
No Hands Across America
In the early 1990s, Carnegie Mellon researcher Dean Pomerleau writes a PhD thesis, describing how neural networks could allow a self-driving vehicle to take in raw images from the road and output steering controls in real time. Pomerleau isn’t the only researcher working on self-driving cars, but his use of neural nets proves way more efficient than alternative attempts to manually divide images into “road” and “non-road” categories.
In 1995, Pomerleau and fellow researcher Todd Jochem take their Navlab self-driving car system on the road. Their bare bones autonomous minivan (they have to control speed and braking) travels 2,797 miles coast-to-coast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California in a journey the pair dubs “No Hands Across America.”
The Grand Challenge is too challenging
In 2002, DARPA announces its Grand Challenge, offering researchers from top research institutions a $1 million prize if they can build an autonomous vehicle able to navigate 142 miles through the Mojave Desert.
When the challenge kicks off in 2004, none of the 15 competitors are able to complete the course. The “winning” entry makes it less than eight miles in several hours, before catching fire. It’s a damaging blow to the goal of building real self-driving cars.
Parking gets smarter
While autonomous vehicles still seem way in the future in the decade of the 2000s, self-parking systems begin to emerge — demonstrating that sensors and autonomous road technologies are getting close to ready for real world scenarios.
Toyoto’s Japanese Prius hybrid vehicle offers automatic parallel parking assistance from 2003, while Lexus soon adds a similar system for its Lexus LS sedan, Ford incorporates Active Park Assist in 2009, and BMW follows one year later with its own parallel parking assistant.
Google searches for an answer
Starting in 2009, Google begins developing its self-driving car project, now called Waymo, in secret. The project is initially led by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View.
Within a few years, Google announces that its autonomous cars have collectively driven 300,000 miles under computer control without one single accident occurring. In 2014, it reveals a prototype of a driverless car without any steering wheel, gas pedal or brake pedal, thereby being 100 percent autonomous. By the end of last year, more than 2 million miles had been driven by Google’s autonomous car.
The big car manufacturers dive in
By 2013, major automotive companies including General Motors, Ford, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and others are all working on their own self-driving car technologies. Nissan commits to a launch date by announcing that it will release several driverless cars by the year 2020.
Other cars, such as the 2014 Mercedes S-Class, add semi-autonomous features such as self steering, the ability to stay within lanes, accident avoidance, and more. The likes of Tesla and Uber also begin actively exploring self-driving technology, while Apple is rumored to be doing so.
The first autonomous car fatality
Sadly, but inevitably, the first autonomous car fatality takes place. The incident occurs in Florida while a Tesla Model S is in self-driving Autopilot mode. The Tesla’s human occupant dies when the car hits an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, failing to brake in time after the trailer turns in front of it.
The death sparks renewed debate about self-driving cars and some of the technical and ethical issues surrounding them on the road. It’s a setback, but one which underlines the fact that — like it or not — autonomous cars are well and truly here.
Editor’s Recommendations
- Toyota to put its driverless car through ‘extreme’ testing in California
- China’s Baidu, Changan enter the autonomous vehicle fray
- Convoys of ‘self-driving’ trucks are heading to U.K. roads
- Toyota’s latest self-driving car prototype has two steering wheels
- Tesla Model S news roundup: All you need to know about the world-class EV
Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
Everyone likes Apple apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.
These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged.
Cranky Weather
There’s always something to complain about, especially when it comes to weather. Cranky Weather gives you hilariously twisted weather reports for every situation.
Available on:
iOS
Remote Drive
Turn your iPhone or iPad into the wireless flash drive for your Mac. Have full access to your Mac files – use your iOS device to stream videos, and view photos and documents, from anywhere within your home.
Available on:
iOS
SafeRide/WalkSafe
SafeRide/WalkSafe is a travel safety app designed to give you peace of mind, especially when traveling alone. You can feel safe and secure by using SafeRide/WalkSafe when you take a taxi, use a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft, or walk alone at night.
Available on:
iOS
MosaLingua
Learn Italian in no time with this app. MosaLingua’s effective and addictive teaching method will help you memorize loads of vocabulary, key phrases,and conjugations in record time.
Available on:
iOS
Vocabulary
Looking for tips for improving your vocabulary? Whether you are trying to strengthen and broaden your vocabulary for school or personal growth, the key is a commitment to regularly learning new words. This app can help.
iOS
Translate for Safari
The app is a Safari extension that translates and speaks aloud the entire web page of Safari app. A must have app to translate and speak aloud web pages of Safari.
Available on:
iOS
Editor’s Recommendations
- Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
- Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
- Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
- Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
- Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
These Terminal commands will take your MacOS skills to the next level
The MacOS Terminal can be pretty intimidating. It’s the kind of tool that can make anyone feel out of their depth. It lurks there in your Utilities folder beside all those other applications you only ever need to launch when there’s something seriously wrong with your Mac.
This application is a powerful tool that allows you to access the deepest recesses of your Mac and fiddle around with things that you may have thought were off limits. It’s frequently used by system admins and software developers, but it’s easy enough for the average person to use as well.
Let’s take a guided tour through the four most useful MacOS terminal commands, and how you can use them to tailor your MacOS High Sierra experience.
How to open the terminal
This is probably the most important part of this guide since many people don’t know that the Terminal even exists. To open the Terminal, all you need to do is open your Finder, click on Applications there on the left sidebar, and then open the Utilities folder all the way at the bottom. The Terminal icon looks like a little black window, ready to take your commands. The icon is fitting because that’s exactly what the application does.
Terminal is an interface through which you do nothing more than issue text commands to your Mac. Once you issue a command, the Terminal will respond in one of three ways: recognize and accept those commands, not recognize them, or prompt you for further input. It’s that simple.
The commands below will help familiarize you with how the Terminal works, and what you can use it for in your everyday life.
Keep your Mac from sleeping
Full command: caffeinate -u -t 600
This command accomplishes one very simple problem: keeping your computer awake for a period of time. Just open the Terminal and type in ‘caffeinate’ and your Mac or MacBook won’t go to sleep until you terminate that Terminal window. You can also set a timer, by typing ‘caffeinate -u -t’ then how long, in seconds, you want to prevent your Mac from sleeping.
The completed command would look something like this: ‘caffeine -u -t 120’ — and that’ll keep your Mac from sleeping for just two minutes.
Change screenshot formats
Full command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
MacOS makes it really easy to capture screenshots of your whole screen (Command + Shift 3) or just part of your screen (Command + Shift +4). However, it always saves those screenshots to your desktop as PNG files. That’s not always a bad thing, but sometimes you just need a JPG. If you’re not sure why that matters, check out our breakdown of image filetypes for the full explanation.
This Terminal command can solve that problem. It allows you to change the filetype your screenshots will be saved as — in this example, we’ve used JPG which will make all your screenshots save as JPG files. You can change it back at any time by typing the above command but instead of JPG, type PNG.
Show detailed file paths
Full command: defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
By default, when you open a folder in MacOS, the top of the window will show the name of the folder, but not where it is. For instance, open up your Pictures folder and the top of the finder window will just say Pictures, not ‘users/yourname/pictures.’ It’s not a problem, but it can be irritating, especially when you’re moving folders around or digging through folders trying to find a particular file.
This terminal command shows the full path of a folder in the Finder window of that folder. If nothing else it’s a helpful way to get an idea of how your files are arranged and keep your Mac nice and organized. Undoing this change is just as easy as typing out the above command again, and replacing YES with NO.
Show hidden files
Full command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Sometimes you just need to dig into the sensitive guts of MacOS to fix some problem or another, and that will require accessing files that your Mac would prefer you left alone. By default, most sensitive files and folders are hidden from view, including from Spotlight and Siri searches. With the right terminal command, you can peel back the curtain and peer into the darkest reaches of your Mac.
The above command un-hides all of your delicate system files. If you’d prefer those go back to being hidden, just re-enter the above command but swap TRUE with FALSE.
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- The 30 best Mac apps if you’re new to Apple!
- Here’s how to take a screenshot on a Mac — it’s easier than you think
Samsung offering free DeX or Gear VR with Galaxy S8 or Note 8 purchase
Available now through November 18.
Flagship phones are great, but they also have a tendency to be quite pricey. Samsung regularly runs promotions to help defer the cost of its Galaxy devices, and the latest one allows buyers to grab a free DeX Station or Gear VR with the purchase of a new phone.
You’ll need to make your order through Samsung’s website to claim your free gift, and with the DeX Station and Gear VR (with an included controller) regularly costing $149 and $129, respectively, this is a really solid deal to hop on if you’re looking to do some early shopping for the holiday season.
Eligible devices include the Galaxy S8, S8+, S8 Active, and Note 8. The deal is live now through Saturday, November 18, so be sure to act fast to ensure you don’t miss out.
See at Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+
- Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
- Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
- Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
- Get to know Samsung Bixby
- Join our Galaxy S8 forums
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What are Zigbee and Z-Wave? Everything you need to know!
Your connected home can be built a lot of different ways, but likely starts right here.
Maybe the most fun part of new tech and internets of things and stuff is all the crazy names attached to it. And there are a lot of them.
Two of the most popular, for now anyway, are Zigbee and Z-Wave. They are fun to say and have similar sounding names, and are mostly used for the same things. But there are some differences. We’ve seen more than a few questions about them and since we like to geek out over this sort of thing, we can talk about what they are and what they are used for. And bees.
What is Z-Wave?
Samsung’s SmartThings uses Z-Wave to control just about anything.
Z-Wave (or ZWave or Z Wave) is a way for two or more things to communicate wirelessly. It’s a low-energy mesh network where devices can communicate directly with each other by sending very reliable and very small low-latency bursts of data, but it still requires a hub or gateway so a device can control all the other devices. It’s almost exclusively used for residential applications — you use it around your home or small office — while other standards (like Zigbee, which we’ll get to in a minute) are better suited for industrial and wide-scale commercial applications.
Z-Wave is represented by names we already know, and there are 1,700 different products that are Z-Wave-certified.
Z-Wave is very well suited for home automation. Devices like door locks, thermostats, and light switches don’t send large packages of data and often only send or receive data while they are actually in use. Your garage may have a security system in place, but the door opener only needs to know when it’s time to open or close the door. Data speeds are capped at 100kbps and the maximum recommended distance between mesh nodes is 40 meters, though older Z-Wave gear has a maximum throughput of 9.6 kbps and a 30-meter range. A data packet can hop between four nodes before it’s discarded but Z-Wave’s network mapping is pretty good so the shortest distance with the fewest hops will usually be used.
Z-Wave transmits on the unlicensed Part 15 ISM band (Texas Instruments .pdf file link) at 908.42MHz in North America and 868.42MHz in Europe. Other countries have specific frequencies that Z-Wave is regulated to use and all this is important because Z-Wave can use the same radio frequency bands as consumer cordless telephones. This isn’t an ideal situation, but it does keep Z-Wave completely clear of the crowded 2.4GHz band that Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a host of less popular standards use.
Z-Wave was introduced in 2001, and as of 2012 is an option in the ITU’s (International Telecommunications Union) G.9959 standard for wireless devices under 1GHz.
What is Zigbee?
The new Echo Plus is also a Zigbee controller!
Zigbee is also a low-power wireless mesh network standard, designed specifically so devices will have a long battery life. Zigbee can be used for residential applications and it works well, but it’s also well suited for industrial and large-scale commercial use. The network layer supports star (a central hub and devices connected to it) and tree (groups of star networks connected to one linear backbone) networks as well as a generic mesh node-to-node layout. Every Zigbee network needs at least one controller device but can support more than one.
Zigbee is designed to work well in places where wireless is congested, but it also works great in our homes.
Support for numerous types of network topology and support for multiple coordinating devices are part of what makes Zigbee a good choice for more complicated applications. Zigbee support is included in microcontrollers with their own flash storage so automation routines can be built and triggered as needed by software. Other types of Zigbee devices include routers which can act as a network extender and ZEDs — Zigbee End Devices which can only receive data from a coordinator device and can’t relay data back.
Zigbee is one of the global standards covered by the IEEE 802.15 group. It operates in the unlicensed portion of the 2.4 GHz bands but can also operate in the unlicensed 902 to 928 MHz (Australia, North America, and South America) and the 868 to 868.6 MHz (Europe) ISM bands. Transfer rates cap at 250 kbps in the 2.4 GHz band, 40 kbps in the 915 MHz band, and 20 kbps in the 868 MHz band. Data rates will be slower than the maximum, partly because Zigbee has more overhead. It was designed to operate in “hostile” (think crowded, congested and always changing) 2.4 GHz band and has built-in collision avoidance and retry abilities. Typical range is between 10 and 20 meters depending on any obstruction, but in outdoor long-range applications, a range of 1,500 meters (line of sight) is possible as the output power of a Zigbee radio can reach 20 dBm at 100 mW (a lot stronger than you think).
Zigbee was named after the dance worker honeybees perform when they return to the hive. Bee’s zig-zag. Zig. Bee. And yes, I’m serious. 🐝
So which is better?
That’s going to depend on who you ask and what they are doing that uses either standard.
Z-Wave is more mature and easier to develop applications for. Almost every device will use the same Intel MCS-51 microcontroller and familiar names like Carrier, Honeywell, Black & Decker and Samsung are part of the Z-Wave Alliance and help keep Z-Wave robust yet simple in design and operation.
When it comes to consumer products, one is not better than the other.
Zigbee is great for devices that are hard to reach. A Zigbee certified device must have a battery life of over 2 years to pass testing. the protocol is just really friendly when it comes to power requirements. But Zigbee networks can be far more complicated, and even if you’re producing a simple switch you’ll need to be able to support any network configuration. Zigbee also competes for bandwidth with high-speed protocols like Bluetooth and IrDA (Infrared Data Association) that are built to use every bit of bandwidth possible for applications like voice or video transmission. This is why multiple network topographies and great collision and retry features are a big part of the standard.
So, yeah. It really depends on what you’re trying to do! SmartThings is a perfect use case for Z-Wave. A small hub in your house lets you control up to 230 devices with your phone, or over the internet or through Google Home. Zigbee is a better fit for something that needs to be able to stay connected under any conditions. Something like this SHURE wireless microphone developed in 2011 that was able to transfer in real time and in a very congested area. Though these microphones are now end-of-life with the dawn of 600 MHz cellular connections.
For the things we as consumers love to use, both are great. The characteristics of Z-Wave make it more robust in a house filled with walls and multiple floors, but Zigbee devices are also trouble-free in the home most of the time. And there are cool gadgets that use either protocol or even both. you can do amazing things in your home with SmartThings or Wink hub and control it all with your phone or you watch or something like an Amazon Echo or Google Home.
These products and services work with Google Home
Google Hardware
- Google Wifi review
- Google Home review
- Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
- Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?
Google Wifi:
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Google Home:
Google
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Chromecast Ultra:
Google
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Amazon Echo
- Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
- All about Alexa Skills
- Amazon Echo review
- Echo Dot review
- Top Echo Tips & Tricks
- Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
- Get the latest Alexa news
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