Apple’s red iPhone 8 and 8 Plus go on sale tomorrow

For over a decade now, Apple has worked with HIV/AIDS charity Product RED, raising over $160 million for the non-profit to date. That money comes from the sales of scarlet-colored covers, cases, Apple Watch bands and rarer, special edition devices. A recent rumor suggested the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus would be next to receive the Product RED treatment, which has just been validated by Apple. The deep red editions will be available to buy online tomorrow and in stores from Friday April 13th for the same price as existing models.

There’s no Product RED version of the iPhone X, but a new claret-colored $99 leather folio case for the flagship will also be up for grabs tomorrow. And for anyone interested, it’s a win-win. Not only do you get to be the envy of your boring, Space Gray peers, but have the added benefit of knowing some of your cash is going towards a good cause.

Source: Apple

‘Vandals’ combines street art and ‘stealth noir’ on your iPad

Paris-based indie developer Théo Le Du Fuentes goes by the name of Cosmografik, a fitting pseudonym for the creator of Vandals, a turn-based puzzle game that focuses on street art. Arriving on iOS, Android, Mac and PC on April 12th, it’s being co-produced and published by ARTE, a public European TV and digital network founded in 1992.

ARTE’s chief of web and video, Adrien Larouzée, says that the company is interested in media that helps us get to know more about other cultures and peoples through telling stories, and Vandals fits the bill.

Along the way, you’ll come across various bits of history regarding street art and the artists who have become famous for it. There are photos of the artists and their work along with descriptions and informative text to peruse either as you find them in each level or as a larger archive accessible from the main menu.

Ostensibly a stealth game, Vandals has you avoiding the cops and painting the walls in different cities like Paris, New York, Berlin and Tokyo across 60 levels. It’s turn-based, so you can think through your strategy and plan your path to gather as many extras as possible while trying to exit the level. Le Du Fuentes (who also made Type:Rider) said that Vandals‘ main levels will take most people around four to five hours to complete while gathering all the extra bonuses could take up to 10 hours.

In the iOS version, you swipe toward an adjacent node; your character walks to that space and any enemies move as well. You’ll need to pay special attention to the environment too. Sometimes you’ll need to toss a bottle behind a policeman to distract him. Other times you’ll have to drop into a manhole to pop up elsewhere, out of sight of a city camera or police dog.

Each area has the same final task before you can leave: Draw your own painted street art. Once you make it to the end of each level, you’ll use a set of tools familiar to anyone who’s played with an art app before. You can draw freehand to produce anything you want using your finger in the mobile version or the mouse on your computer. These “masterpieces” can then be shared on your favorite social network. Le Du Fuentes noted that despite this freedom, there haven’t been any drawings of male genitalia (though I have no doubt that will probably change once the game is released to the general public).

The art uses both muted and bright colors to lead you to your goal; the result is a noirish feel in each city, with each soundtrack providing a sense of place. The Paris levels sound like jazz from the 1920s, while New York levels have a distinct saxophone-and-bass-fueled background. Vandals is a beautiful game and almost relaxing to play. The turn-based structure allows for a more meditative approach than other real-time stealth games, and you can always try levels again if you don’t solve the puzzle the first time. ARTE’s Larouzée noted that there is typically more than one way to “beat” a level, too, which allows for creative problem solving rather than trying to find a singular solution.

If this sounds like your thing, you can pre-order Vandals on iOS right now for $3.99. The Steam version will run for $5.99 when it is released later this week on April 12th, and in keeping with its international theme, the game supports English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Apple Introduces (PRODUCT)RED Edition iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Available to Order April 10

Apple today introduced a (PRODUCT)RED edition of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, available to order on Apple.com starting Tuesday, April 10, after 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and in Apple Stores starting Friday, April 13.

PRODUCT(RED) editions will be available with 64GB or 256GB storage for the same $699-$849 and $799-$949 prices as the equivalent iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models in space gray, silver, and gold.

Notably, the red finish is complemented by black front bezels, compared to white bezels on the (RED) edition iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Otherwise, these are identical iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models as unveiled last September, with the new color introduced mid-cycle likely only to bolster sales.

Orders begin Tuesday, April 10 after 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning Friday, April 13 at Apple Stores and other resellers in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Availability in Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and other regions will follow later in April, with Chile, Colombia, India, Israel, Turkey, and more regions following in May.

Apple also introduced a new (PRODUCT)RED edition iPhone X Leather Folio, which will be available for $99 beginning Tuesday, April 10 from Apple.com, Apple Stores, and the Apple Store app around the world.

(RED) was founded in 2006 by U2 frontman Bono and activist Bobby Shriver to raise funds for The Global Fund, which helps people affected by HIV or AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in eight African countries, including Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia.

(RED) CEO Deborah Dugan:

Today’s announcement is further evidence of Apple’s leadership in and commitment to the AIDS fight since the beginning of (RED) in 2006. The more than $160 million Apple has donated in the last 11 years today equates to more than 800 million days of lifesaving ARV medication that prevents the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. We’re honored that Apple has dedicated its resources to our purpose, and can’t wait to see customers bring our mission to life through the purchase of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition.

Apple has partnered with (RED) for nearly 12 years to sell a variety of red-colored devices and accessories. For each product sold, Apple makes an unspecified contribution to The Global Fund, raising over $160 million to date.

Apple’s vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak:

This special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone features a stunning red and black color combination and also offers customers the opportunity to make an impact in fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus improve on everything we love about iPhone, including Retina HD displays that are more beautiful than ever, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone with the A11 Bionic and more advanced cameras for unbelievable photos and videos. We are proud to support (RED) with this bold new iPhone and hope customers think it is as special as we do.

Apple introduced a (PRODUCT)RED edition iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in March 2017. The special color was discontinued alongside the launch of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X in September 2017.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8Tag: (PRODUCT)REDBuyer’s Guide: iPhone 8 (Neutral)
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HP’s Chromebook x2 is a detachable tablet too

HP is joining Acer in making Chrome OS devices that can do away with the keyboard. It just unveiled the Chromebook x2, a 12.3-inch laptop that’s really a detachable tablet — unlike the earlier Chromebook x360, you can leave the keyboard behind instead of merely flipping it behind the screen (though you can do that too). There’s an included pen for note-taking and sketching, and you’ll find a 13-megapixel rear camera on top of a more conventional 5-megapixel front shooter.

It’s a fairly powerful machine, too. We wouldn’t describe the 1GHz Core m3 as “high-performance” like HP does, but the 2,400 x 1,600 display, 4GB of RAM (8GB is an option), 32GB of expandable storage and claimed 10.5-hour battery life make it more powerful than a garden variety Chromebook. And while the fully-attached combo isn’t the lightest at just under 3.2lbs, the 1.6 pounds of the tablet portion is considerably easier to carry when you’re scribbling in OneNote or watching Netflix.

And importantly, it hits a price sweet spot. The system will sell for $599 (keyboard and pen included) when it arrives in June. That’s considerably more than many Chromebooks, but it’s on the low end as far as detachable tablets go. HP not-so-subtly pitches the Chromebook x2 as a rival to the iPad Pro, which currently starts at $649 without a pen or keyboard. With that said, the two are frequently different beasts — the iPad is primarily a tablet that happens to have keyboard support, while the Chromebook x2 is really a laptop with some convenient tablet functions thrown in.

Source: HP

‘Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration’ Release Date and Mac Requirements Revealed

Back in February, Feral Interactive announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration would make its way onto macOS this spring, as a direct port of the 2016 PS4 game and the sequel to the series reboot Tomb Raider from 2013.

In a follow-up announcement today, Feral revealed an April 12 release date for the title as well as pricing and the official system requirements that Mac owners will need in order to run the game at an acceptable performance.

As well as AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will support the following Intel integrated graphics cards: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 540, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 550, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650.

Feral says the game will be supported on the following Macs:

• All 13-inch MacBook Pros released since 2016
• All 15-inch MacBook Pros released since Late 2013 with a 2.3GHz processor or better
• All 21.5-inch iMacs released since Late 2017
• All 27-inch iMacs released since Late 2014 (models with an Nvidia GT 755M graphics card are not officially supported)*
• All Mac Pros released since Late 2013

*Late 2012 models with a 2GB Nvidia 680MX graphics cards are also supported.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration can be pre-ordered on the Feral Store for $59.99, which includes the base game and all the DLC ever released for it. It’s also worth checking your Mac’s hard disk space before purchasing the game: Customers who download it from the Mac App Store will need 37GB of available storage, while purchases from Steam will come in at a less weightier 27GB.

Tag: Feral
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NASA wants to make the first Starliner test flight a fully operational mission

Boeing

NASA hopes to accelerate the timeline for accelerate the timeline to certify private companies to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The Agency is turning a previously scheduled Starliner test flight into a full-fledged mission. It’s a bold move, but some scientists worry that such an aggressive venture could jeopardize crew safety.

The updated schedule, proposed by Boeing in a contract modification, would add a third blue-suited crew member to the Starliner “Crew Flight Test” and extend the mission from two weeks to a full six months, according to Florida Today.

NASA’s current contract with Russia to ferry astronauts to the ISS aboard Soyuz spacecraft expires in 2019. Purchasing additional Soyuz seats is not an option, due to the long lead times involved. However, the two private contractors, Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, will likely not be certified for four-person crews by that time.

“It was clear to us that we needed to provide NASA with additional flexibility to ensure the station remains fully staffed and fully operational until the Commercial Crew Program providers can pick up a more regular cadence of flying long-duration crew rotation missions,” Boeing said in a statement.

“This contract modification provides NASA with additional schedule margin if needed,” Bill Gerstenmaier of NASA added. “We appreciate Boeing’s willingness to evolve its flight to ensure we have continued access to space for our astronauts.”

In 2014, NASA awarded a $4.2 billion contract to Boeing and a $2.6 billion contract to SpaceX for two test flights and six operational missions. Boeing and SpaceX will both launch unmanned test flights later this summer, and the original plan was to follow those missions up with second test flights with two-person crews before the end of the year.

Schedule pressure was a factor in the two shuttle disasters, and scientists on the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have warned the agency not to be too hasty. As recently as 2012, however, NASA expanded the scope of the Dragon capsule test launch by packing it with supplies for the ISS and proceeding with the launch as if it was a regular operational mission.

At a presentation in March, NASA’s Kathy Lueders admitted that the new timeline was aggressive but achievable, reported Space News. “In a perfect schedule, it all could come together,” she said. “We really want to give them the time to do this right. Yes, we want them to do it as fast as possible, but we’re not willing to sacrifice the safety of the crew.”

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Coinbase may register with SEC as brokerage firm

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reached out to the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission regarding registration as a licensed brokerage firm.

This would expand Coinbase’s roster of cryptocurrencies to include those that the SEC has classified as securities. Additionally, this would likely pressure Coinbase’s rivals to register with the SEC and submit themselves to government oversight.

Coinbase president Asiff Hirji said that the increased regulations would result in Coinbase listing more currencies because it only wishes to list coins which have “some amount of regulatory certainty.”

“The assets that we do list have all had some amount of regulatory certainty,” Hirji told CNBC. “As soon as there is more regulatory clarity than there currently is, you would expect us to start listing more assets.”

The Wall Street Journal reached out to Coinbase for comments regarding its claims, but Coinbase declined to comment on the matter of registering with the SEC.

Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies currently face very little in the way of oversight from the U.S. government, but that is slowly starting to change things to the rise of initial coin offerings, which is where startups sell investors tokens in exchange for cash. The rise of ICOs has prompted the SEC to take a closer look at digital currencies, with SEC chairman Jay Clayton saying that most of the tokens offered through ICOs were securities, and thus could only be legally traded on licensed exchanges.

This increased regulatory oversight is what prompted Coinbase to slow down when it comes to listing new currencies. By becoming a  licensed brokerage firm, however, Coinbase is likely hoping to increase the number of currencies it can offer while also staying on the right side of the law.

There are some downsides to registering as a brokerage firm. The SEC has wide-ranging powers to investigate brokerage firms in order to ensure they are complying with various regulations. If Coinbase is registered as a broker, the SEC would have the power to examine its trade records, cybersecurity, and policies, which would prevent market manipulation and insider trading.

That being said, Coinbase is already under the government’s gaze when it comes to tax matters, as the IRS has started cracking down on the trades taking place on Coinbase.

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Researchers can now create 3D-printed structures made entirely of liquid

Scientists at Berkeley Lab, in conjunction with the Department of Energy, have devised a way to construct 3D structures completely made from liquid. They used a modified 3D printer to inject tiny streams of water, some as small as one millimeter in diameter, into silicone oil to sculpt tubes of liquid within another liquid.

This technique could be used for liquid electronics and to create flexible devices. Visiting faculty scientist Tom Russell said, “It’s a new class of material that can reconfigure itself, and it has the potential to be customized into liquid reaction vessels for many uses, from chemical synthesis to ion transport to catalysis.”

As New Atlas explains, the water doesn’t disperse into droplets when it’s injected, due to a nanoscale “surfactant” coated inside the injecting tubes, which surrounds the water, reduces surface tension, and separates the water from the silicone oil.

A “nanoparticle supersoap” comprised of gold nanoparticles and binding polymers forms around the water threads and locks the structures into place. It’s like a protective flexible glass sheath shrunk down to a molecular level. The scientists created a number of different structures, some of them several meters in length.

“This stability means we can stretch water into a tube, and it remains a tube,” added Russell. “Or we can shape water into an ellipsoid, and it remains an ellipsoid. We’ve used these nanoparticle supersoaps to print tubes of water that last for several months.”

The team modified a regular 3D printer so it could extrude liquid through a syringe. The printer could then insert the needle into the oil and inject the water streams into a programmed pattern.

“We can squeeze liquid from a needle, and place threads of water anywhere we want in three dimensions,” said Forth. “We can also ping the material with an external force, which momentarily breaks the supersoap’s stability and changes the shape of the water threads. The structures are endlessly reconfigurable.”

The technology may also lead to fabrication of complex coatings with specific magnetic properties, or even electronics that can repair themselves.

Funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Russell developed the process with researcher Joe Forth, and the results of their findings were published in March in the journal Advanced Materials.

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If you’re a Best Buy customer, you may want to check your accounts

If you’re a Best Buy customer, you’re going to want to check your credit cards. Just a day after Sears, Kmart, and Delta admitted that they were affected by the breach of the data firm [24]7.ai, Best Buy has come forth with a statement of its own, effectively raising its hand to say that it has been impacted as well.

“Best Buy offers chat services for customers coming to us via their phone or computer,” the company noted in a blog on its corporate website. “We, like many businesses, use a third-party for the technology behind this service and that company, [24]7.ai, told us recently that they were the victim of a cyber intrusion.”

This hack (in fact, a piece of malware) happened between September 27 and October 12 of 2017, and as a result, it would appear that payment information “may have been compromised.” And if [24]7.ai compromised customer payment information, that means that Best Buy customers were likely affected.

Best Buy notes that since the data firm gave notice of the potential risk, the company has been hard at work attempting to solidify “the extent to which Best Buy online customers’ information was affected.” And thus far, the electronics giant seems to be quite optimistic. In fact, it says, “As best we can tell, only a small fraction of our overall online customer population could have been caught up in this [24]7.ai incident, whether or not they used the chat function.”

This is much better than Sears, Kmart, and Delta, who collectively believe that thousands of their own customers were likely victims of this attack. All the same, even if it is only a “small fraction” of Best Buy’s customer base, for folks who are impacted, it’s still far too many. To that end, the company noted, “We are fully aware that our customers expect their information to be safeguarded and apologize to the extent that did not happen in this case.”

In response to the attack, Best Buy has set up a website that customers can visit in order to ask questions or address concerns. Best Buy will also contact affected customers directly, and has noted that they will not be held accountable for any fraudulent charges that resulted from the data breach. Furthermore, the company is offering free credit monitoring services where needed.

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Xiaomi is setting up three new smartphone factories in India to meet demand

Xiaomi is furthering its commitment to local manufacturing by setting up three new factories in India.

Xiaomi started assembling phones in India back in 2015 — committing to the government’s Make in India initiative — and now the company is announcing that it is launching three new smartphone manufacturing facilities in the country. Xiaomi made the announcement at its inaugural Supplier Investment Summit, where it is hosting 50 global smartphone component suppliers to educate them about the intricacies of India’s manufacturing ecosystem.

The goal with the summit is to facilitate component makes to set up shop in India. Although Xiaomi, Samsung, and other Android manufacturers have set up factories in India to locally assembled devices, the components for the phones are imported from other countries as there’s no ecosystem yet in the subcontinent. With Xiaomi being the country’s largest smartphone vendor, it is looking to drive the change on this front.

Should all the 50 suppliers decide to set up base in the country, Xiaomi says it would lead to the “biggest ever single investment in the electronic manufacturing industry,” bringing in added investments of $2.5 billion and create over 50,000 local jobs. That’s certainly an ambitious goal, and it remains to be seen whether there’s enough skilled labor available for setting up component manufacturing facilities.

The new manufacturing facilities should alleviate long-standing supply issues.

Xiaomi started assembling phones back in 2015, with its first factory set up in partnership with Foxconn. A second factory followed last year, along with a powerbank plant that was set up in collaboration with Hipad Technologies in November 2017. Xiaomi says that over 95% of its phones sold in the country are locally assembled, which is an interesting statistic as it means an overwhelming majority of sales are from the budget Redmi series. The Mi Mix 2, then, accounts for less than 5% of Xiaomi’s sales.

With its upcoming plants, Xiaomi is also looking to manufacture integral components that go into its phones. Its upcoming factory in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu (also in partnership with Foxconn) will leverage Surface Mount Technology to locally manufacture Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). With the particular component making up almost 50% of the value of a phone, Xiaomi is looking to save costs by manufacturing it locally. The company says that by Q3 2018, nearly all of its locally assembled phones will come with PCBs made at its Tamil Nadu facility.

From Xiaomi India head Manu Jain:

Xiaomi’s high-quality, well-designed products at honest prices have been instrumental in disrupting the Indian smartphone industry. In 2015 we extended our long-term commitment to the Indian market by joining the ‘Make in India’ programme. Today we are deepening this commitment with three more smartphone factories and our first SMT plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA units.

Xiaomi is one of the pioneers in the country to start local assembly of PCBAs, and I believe we will continue to play a key role in transforming India into a global manufacturing hub.

The new factories should hopefully make it easier for local customers to get their hands on Xiaomi’s latest phones. Two months after its launch, the Redmi Note 5 Pro is still incredibly hard to get a hold of, and boosting local manufacturing should alleviate that particular issue.