EHang shows footage of its passenger drone in flight

EHang has been talking about its 184 passenger drone for ages, but there’s been a curious absence of footage showing manned flights. Thankfully, it’s rectifying that situation: the company has posted a video showing the EHang 184 in action through a series of manned tests. The clip shows both single- and double-seat models going through the paces, including extreme conditions such as typhoon-level winds, intense maneuvers and high-altitude climbs. There’s a definite Blade Runner vibe — EHang’s personal vehicle like one of the sci-fi franchise’s Spinners, just with rotor blades.

The vehicle does have controls (which are supposed to be simple), but the allure is that you can simply pick a flight path and have the drone do the heavy lifting.

This is a heavily edited clip, of course, so it’s only going to portray the EHang 184 in the best possible light. There are undoubtedly flaws and challenges the company isn’t showing. However, this does bode well for the company’s plans to fly its drone internationally in 2018. This is a real, tangible machine that appears to do what it promises. The main question is whether or not there’s enough of an audience. The framework isn’t really there for passenger drones right now — it’s still assumed that individual travelers will take a car, or a helicopter if you need to fly.

Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: EHang (Facebook)

Patreon lets creators share progress through Snapchat-like stories

Even Patreon is getting into the trend of cloning Snapchat. The funding service is introducing a mobile Lens feature that lets creators produce Snapchat-like stories that disappear after 24 hours, giving backers a behind-the-scenes look at a project without the hassle of shooting a formal video. And unlike Snapchat (or Instagram, or…), you can limit posts just to backers without having to create a special account, share private links or otherwise jump through hoops.

Lens is available in the newest versions of Patreon’s Android and iOS apps.

While the similarities between this and the many, many other Snapchat imitations are difficult to ignore, there are certainly plenty of incentives to hop on the bandwagon. This gives creators a way to keep backers interested, especially with long projects where silence might spark doubts. On top of this, Lens is arguably part of Patreon’s reparations following its pledge fee fiasco — it’s proof the company can offer tools that support all creators, not just its biggest clients.

Source: Patreon

Apple’s latest patent teases a Pencil that can draw in mid-air

Apple’s next Pencil could eschew the iPad Pro entirely. The Cupertino company has filed a patent for a stylus that can be used on any flat surface, and maybe even in the air, as spotted by Dutch site TechTastic. The patent title being “Content Creation Using Electronic Input Device on Non-electronic Surfaces” gives us a few ideas of how Apple might pitch this. Which is great considering how light on details the rest of the patent, filed last July and made public in January, is.

An external sensor (along the line of a Leap Motion) could track the stylus, or its movements could be recorded with onboard accelerometers and positioning sensors. There’s also the chance for feedback via an LED light or a small screen on the device. And really that’s about all we have to go on.

What’s interesting is that one of the patent drawings shows off a bevy of devices with touch screens, including a first-gen iPod and a laptop, alongside an iPhone, iPad and a Watch. Apple might not end up releasing this — a patent isn’t a commitment to production — but it does seem more compelling as a stylus versus just serving as an on-screen pen as it currently does.

Via: TechTastic (Dutch)

Source: WIPO

Discovery, Scripps merger gets approval from European Commission

Discovery Communications Inc. announced today that the European Commission has approved its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive. The merger was announced last July and both companies’ shareholders voted to approve the $14.6 billion deal in November. Discovery, which owns TLC, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel will gain Scripps holdings such as HGTV, Food Network and the Travel Channel and once combined, the company will control around 20 percent of ad-supported, pay-TV audiences in the US.

Discovery agreed to some concessions in order to get the EC’s approval. It will allow third-parties to distribute two Polish TV channels — TVN24 and/or TVN24 BiS — on a non-exclusive, unbundled basis as part of the agreement. Discovery says the acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of this year, though it stills needs approval from US regulators. While it certainly hasn’t attracted as much regulatory attention as the AT&T/Time Warner deal, Discovery’s acquisition of Scripps hasn’t yet received the go ahead. The Department of Justice reportedly sent the two companies a second request for information in October and Discovery shareholder John Malone said in November that the proposed merger was getting a “little more of a look … than we would have expected.”

“We are pleased with the positive decision of the European Commission,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav, said in response to today’s approval. “We believe that joining the Discovery and Scripps Networks’ family of brands and assets will allow us to better serve our passionate fans with more content on more platforms worldwide, while at the same time optimizing our business for greater efficiency.”

Via: Variety

Source: Discovery

Apple Allows Behind-the-Scenes Look Into Audio Lab Used to Test HomePod, AirPods, and More

At the same time that reviews launched this morning for Apple’s upcoming HomePod smart speaker, a few websites also shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the audio lab where Apple tested the device. Apple invited journalists into the lab last week, and Jim Dalrymple of The Loop shared his experience in a post today.

Images via The Loop
Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, noted that the lab where HomePod was tested wasn’t only for HomePod, as Apple also focuses on speakers found in iPhone, iPad, Mac, and AirPods, as well as the audio performance of Siri and Apple TV. For HomePod, Apple vice president of hardware engineering, Kate Bergeron, said the project began six years ago with a “small, focused team.”

“HomePod started by us asking a question: What would it mean if we decided to design a loud speaker where we could put it in any room, and that room wouldn’t affect the sound quality,” said Bergeron.

Once testing began, Apple used multiple chambers to study HomePod. The first became one of the largest anechoic chambers in the United States (first image), allowing Apple engineers access to a non-reflective and echo free room to put the speaker’s sound through its paces.

Another room was made to focus on voice detection and Siri recognition, while the third was a “Noise and Vibration” chamber (second image) built to detect and help prevent electronic noises and buzzing from escaping HomePod when it’s plugged in but not playing music.

The chamber itself sits on 28 tons of concrete. The panels are one foot thick which is another 27 tons of material, and there are 80 isolating mounts between the actual chamber and the concrete slab it sits on.

The chamber is designed to be -2 dBA, which is lower than the threshold of human hearing. This basically provides complete silence.

Because the audio lab was built to test many products in addition to HomePod, Apple’s senior director of audio design and engineering, Gary Geaves, hinted that progress made on the speaker in the lab has led to advances in other, unnamed Apple devices. “There’s been certain catalysts in the development of HomePod that are feeding other products,” said Geaves. “That’s one of our advantages—we work on a bunch of different areas of audio.”

HomePod pre-orders began on January 26, and remain available for launch day delivery of February 9 in the United States, although Apple Store pickup has now become unavailable in all three launch countries. For the U.K. and Australia, delivery estimates have also slipped today, with the current shipping date marked as February 12.

To read more about Apple’s HomePod audio lab, be sure to check out The Loop’s full article.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
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Apple Plans Second Data Center for iCloud Services in China

Apple is planning to build a second data center in China, with an operation date set for 2020 and location in Ulanqab City, according to a report today by Xinhua Net (via Reuters).

Located in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the second center is said to provide various iCloud services for users on the Chinese mainland. Plans are for the center to run on 100 percent renewable energy sources, similar to other data centers built by Apple.

Apple Inc., the United States tech giant, will build a data center in Ulanqab City in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, after its first data center in southwestern Guizhou Province, the local government has announced.

The Ulanqab City data center will be Apple’s second in China, following an announcement last summer for its first China-based data center located in the southern province of Guizhou. The first center was set up in partnership with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry and in accordance with the country’s new cybersecurity laws.

At the time, Reuters reported that Apple was the first foreign tech firm to announce amendments to its data storage arrangements in China to comply with a new cybersecurity law that was implemented in June, requiring foreign firms to store data within the country. While concerns about surveillance and data security were brought up, Apple assured reporters it had strong privacy and security protections in place, stating that “No backdoors will be created into any of our systems.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: China, data center
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Apple Watch Had Record Year With Estimated 18M Shipments in 2017, Topped Entire Swiss Watch Industry Last Quarter

Not only did the Apple Watch just have its best quarter ever in terms of sales, but it also had a record-breaking year overall, capped off by topping shipments from the entire Swiss watch industry combined last quarter.

Apple Watch shipments topped an all-time high of 18 million units in 2017, according to estimated data from research firm Canalys, an over 50 percent increase compared to the roughly 12 million units Apple shipped in 2016.

Canalys claims that 48 percent of the shipments were the latest Apple Watch Series 3 models, while 52 percent were Series 2 or older models. Among the Series 3 models, around 13 percent of customers opted for an LTE-enabled model, while 35 percent of people were satisfied with the Wi-Fi and GPS version.

The keyword is estimated, since Apple doesn’t actually reveal Apple Watch sales on a standalone basis. Instead, the device is grouped under Apple’s expanding “Other Products” category, alongside the Apple TV, Apple Watch, accessories like AirPods and Beats, and as of next quarter, the HomePod.

Apple analysts, who closely examine the “Other Products” revenue and other clues to estimate Apple Watch sales, each have similar totals. Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies estimates Apple Watch shipments totaled 17.4 million last year, while Horace Dediu of Asymco comes in at 17.7 million.

I am at 17.4 m for 2017. So consensus is this ballpark so safe to assume this range is correct. https://t.co/jB1JjxoVc9

— Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) February 6, 2018

Canalys estimates Apple Watch shipments at 18 million in 2017. My estimate has been 17.7 million.

— Horace Dediu (@asymco) February 6, 2018

On an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Apple Watch had its best quarter ever during the final three months of 2017, with over 50 percent growth in revenue and units sold for the fourth quarter in a row, and strong double-digit growth in every geographic segment that Apple tracks.

Cook added that sales of Apple Watch Series 3 models were also more than twice as high as Series 2 models in the year-ago quarter.

Interestingly, it appears that this growth has resulted in Apple Watch shipments coming in higher than all Swiss watch brands combined for the first time last quarter, according to IDC research director Francisco Jeronimo.‏ In other words, Apple is now the biggest watchmaker in the world.

For the first time, #Apple shipped more Apple Watches in 4Q2017, than the entire Swiss Watch Industry shipped watches! Apple is the biggest watch maker in the world #AppleWatch pic.twitter.com/G6M6TJ7uO2

— Francisco Jeronimo (@fjeronimo) February 4, 2018

The key takeaway here is that the Apple Watch continues to grow at an impressive rate as the device approaches its third anniversary in April. Apple Watch also remains the world’s most popular smartwatch by a significant margin, and is now even giving the iconic Swiss watch industry a run for its money.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Tag: CanalysBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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European Regulators to Review if Apple Acquiring Shazam Will Significantly Hurt Competition

The European Commission today announced it has accepted requests from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden to assess Apple’s proposed acquisition of Shazam. The agreement is still pending approval.

The regulatory body will consider whether the transaction may lead to a significant adverse affect on competition in Europe:

On the basis of the elements submitted by Austria and the countries joining the referral request, and without prejudice to the outcome of its full investigation, the Commission considers that the transaction may have a significant adverse effect on competition in the European Economic Area. The Commission has also concluded that it is the best placed authority to deal with the potential cross-border effects of the transaction.

The European Commission didn’t specify how the deal could hurt competition, but Shazam does have partnerships with European companies like Spotify that could be affected by the acquisition. However, it’s standard for major acquisitions to be subject to review, so the deal may be approved of without scrutiny.

Apple confirmed it plans to acquire Shazam in December in a statement provided to MacRumors and other publications:

We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms. Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement.

Shazam is a popular service that can identify the name and lyrics of songs, music videos, TV shows, and more. It has apps across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and iMessage, while the service has been built into Siri since iOS 8. The app is also integrated with streaming music services like Apple Music.

In September 2016, Shazam announced that its mobile apps had been downloaded more than one billion times since launching. Shazam’s original iPhone app launched in 2008, and uses machine learning algorithms to identify audio clips. The app has since expanded into areas like augmented reality.

Tags: European Commission, Shazam
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Apple Considering Offering Rebates to Customers Who Purchased Full-Price iPhone Batteries

Apple is considering providing rebates to customers who purchased full-price iPhones before its reduced-cost $29 battery replacements were made available, reports Recode.

Apple confirmed that it is exploring the option following an inquiry from U.S. Senator John Thune, who asked whether Apple would offer rebates to customers who had already purchased new batteries at higher prices.

Has Apple explored whether consumers who paid the full, non-discounted price for a replacement batter in an effort to restore performance should be allowed to seek a rebate for some of the purchase price?”

Apple vice president for public policy Cynthia Hogan answered Thune’s inquiry today and said that Apple is indeed looking into whether a rebate program can be provided to customers. “Yes, we are exploring this and will update you accordingly,” she told Thune.

Apple began offering customers with an iPhone 6 and newer low-cost $29 battery replacements starting in December following outrage over the company’s decision to introduce an iPhone-slowing power management feature in older devices.

Though the power management feature was first introduced in iOS 10.2.1 early in 2017, the details behind how it works were not fully discovered or explained by Apple until December. As it turns out, in older devices with degraded batteries, the power management feature can result in processor throttling at times of peak usage. Replacing the battery in affected devices solves the problem.

When Apple made $29 battery replacements available to customers in late December it also provided some customers who had already made a purchase with refunds, but the company limited refunds to batteries purchased on or after December 14. Customers who purchased a replacement battery before December 14 at the full $79 price have not been able to get their money back.

Should Apple make a rebate program available to customers who previously made a battery purchase, it would presumably cover customers who purchased replacement batteries earlier in the year.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7Buyer’s Guide: iPhone 8 (Neutral), iPhone 8 (Neutral)
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Apple Seeds Second Beta of iOS 11.3 to Developers

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 11.3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and two weeks after releasing iOS 11.2.5, an update that focused primarily on bug fixes and security improvements.

Registered developers can download the iOS 11.3 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

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iOS 11.3 is a major update that introduces a long list of new features, like Messages on iCloud for storing your iMessages in iCloud, and ARKit 1.5, a new, upgraded version of ARKit that can more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces and recognize and place objects on vertical surfaces like walls.

There are four new Animoji on the iPhone X (dragon, bear, skull, and lion), and in the Health app, there’s a new Health Records feature that aggregates all of your medical records in one easy-to-access place. Health Records are limited to participating institutions, though.

AirPlay 2 features have been introduced in iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, allowing audio to be played to multiple Apple TVs, and for HomeKit, iOS 11.3 introduces official support for HomeKit software authentication options.

Other new features include a new “For You” section in Apple News that displays the top videos of the day, support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML) for more accurate location when placing an emergency call in a supported country, more information about app size in the Updates tap in the App Store, and a new Privacy screen and icon that will show up whenever Apple asks you for info. iBooks has also had the “i” removed from its name, so it’s just “Books” now, and the App Store now lets you sort reviews by most helpful, most favorable, most critical, and most recent.

In the future, Apple plans to introduce more detailed information about the health of a device’s battery. The update should provide a lot more data about battery health, and there will also be an option to let customers turn off the power management feature entirely, though Apple does not recommend disabling it. The new features will be available in Settings –> Battery and are available for iPhone 6 and later.

Business Chat, which will let you interface with businesses like Wells Fargo, Delta, Hilton and Lowe’s right in the Messages app is coming when iOS 11.3 is released, and improvements to Apple Music will bring better support for music videos. Users will be able to stream music videos without adds and create and view music video playlists.

iOS 11.3 will be released to the public in the spring. Spring kicks off on March 20, so iOS 11.3 will be in testing for quite some time.

Update: According to Apple’s release notes, starting with iOS 11.3 beta 2, users performing tethered updates or restores on iPhone X will need to use iTunes 12.7.3. Apple says certain features, including Face ID, may not work as expected when using an older version of iTunes.

Apple also says that the current beta does not support the 6th-generation iPod touch, but support will be added in a future beta release.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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