The MacBook of 2021 could kiss the keyboard, and Intel, goodbye

Imagine for a moment it’s the year 2021. Lebron James is President of the United States, we’re using the iPhone X2 (pronounced “twelve”), and Apple has a new MacBook coming out. What would it look like? How would it be different?

If you follow Apple rumors and patents, you know Apple is up to something much bigger than the just-launched new MacBook Air. Behind closed doors, Apple’s been working on a mysterious new laptop, codenamed “Project Star” internally. Calling it the “next MacBook” might even be a stretch, since the reports call it a “new device family” apart from the existing brands.

So, take this for what it is: Pure speculation. But using information from reports, rumors, patents, and just plain conjecture, here’s how we imagine it would be to transport to 2021 and buy a new MacBook.

The Touch Bar has swallowed the entire keyboard

Opening up the new 2021 MacBook for the first time, you notice something strange. It has no keys. In place of the conventional keyboard and trackpad is a second, monolithic black screen. Your nervous reflection stares back as you wonder how you’re supposed to type. It’s as if the Touch Bar, once a strip of OLED at the top of the MacBook Pro, has grown downward to fill the entirety of the bottom half of the clamshell device. You didn’t much like the Touch Bar to begin with, but you now see that it was merely a stepping stone to this much bigger sea change.

Furkan Kasap/Behance

As you connect the mental dots, the lack of a keyboard isn’t as surprising as you first thought. A string of devices have shown up recently, ranging from the Lenovo Yoga Book to the Asus Project Precog, each finding ways to cut out the keyboard. Your previous laptop, the MacBook Pro, already had a keyboard with almost no physical feel.

As you boot it up, the floating digital squares fall into place and form a virtual keyboard beneath your fingers. As they touch the glass, you feel the physical vibration trigger at the end of each fingertip.  It doesn’t feel quite like typing on the older keyboards you grew up on, but you’re able to touch type thanks to the effect of the haptic feedback. While it looks like the Touch Bar, it feels like the artificial feedback on the trackpad on your old MacBook Pro.

It feels strange at first, but the content you’re working on fills the entire screen, helping you focus on the task at hand.

You pull open the settings and find that you’re able to rearrange the layout as you like, including the size of keys and the functionality tied to certain apps. You open up the Mac App Store and find it full of apps that are already available on your iPhone. CEO Tim Cook said Apple wasn’t interested in merging iOS and MacOS operating systems, but when it comes to apps, the opposite was happening behind the scenes. The process began in 2018 when Apple changed API structures to help developers port more and more iOS apps over to the Mac. That was just the first step. Nowadays, the two platforms share the same architectural backbone.

You attempt to fold it around, but it doesn’t have a 360-degree hinge. Instead, all interaction within apps on the upright screen happens on the second display. Steve Jobs’ disdain of touchscreen laptops was one thing he’d said Apple still takes seriously today.

Furkan Kasap

You install Photoshop, launch it, and watch as the digital keyboard disappears entirely. In its place is a unique sets of dials, switches, and buttons custom designed by Adobe. As your MacBook instructs you, you learn that most key commands and buttons have been replaced with gestures, swipes, and clicks. It feels strange at first, but you notice immediately how the content you’re working on or watching fills the entirety of your screen, helping you focus on the task at hand.

The way this new Macbook automatically connects through your phone’s 5G hotspot makes it seamless.

As you get familiar with your new laptop, you begin to notice a number of other interesting things about it. First off, you notice you can’t download applications directly from Safari. You search for “Google Chrome” in the search box, but the first result is a link back to the Mac App Store. After doing some research, you realize it’s because this version of MacOS doesn’t allow downloads outside of the Mac App Store.

Apple’s A-series chip has been brought over from the iPhone to power this version of the MacBook, and with it, certain restrictions on what you can install. Apple is always after more control over its products, and the processor and application choice was the next evolution of that instinct. Once the T2 ARM chip was brought over to the iMac Pro to help out with Siri integration and security, it was only a matter of time.

By the year 2021, Apple may very well may be putting its own advanced A-series chips in its MacBooks. Illustration: Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

The second thing you notice is that your new MacBook is always connected to the internet. It comes with 5G LTE built-in, automatically pairing to your iPhone when it’s out of a Wi-Fi signal. On your first day with the laptop, you worked at the park during lunch, and even pulled it out on the bus ride home. LTE has become commonplace in laptops thanks to Qualcomm’s rapid influence, but the way the Mac automatically connects through your phone’s hotspot makes it seamless.

Ending your first day with the new MacBook, you couldn’t be happier. Winding down, you decide to watch some Netflix in bed. You tap on the first episode of Stranger Things season five and pull out your headphones. Your finger reaches around the edges of the device looking for a headphone jack. Your finger finds a single USB-C port, but that’s it.

You toss them aside and search for the AirPods in your bag. You find one ear, but can’t find the other.

Some things never change.

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Crazily-named Royole Flexpai phone folds up for a glimpse of the future

You’ve probably never heard of Royole before, a Chinese smartphone maker that’s going to make headlines with the Flexpai, one of the very first folding smartphones we’ve seen. Whether we can legitimately call the Royole Flexpai a smartphone is up for debate, as is the question of whether we’d actually want to use the device on a daily basis; but there’s no denying it’s a fascinating glimpse of what a near-future design trend may bring us.

With its 7.8-inch screen, the Royole Flexpai — a name we can never say enough, because it’s so fantastic — sounds more like a tablet, but the flexible screen allows it to fold in half without breaking, making such a large device more pocketable. Royole doesn’t really talk about the device’s overall size when folded, but the screen becomes 4-inches. There’s still quite a lot of bezel at one end, so the device will be larger. It lists a 7.8mm thickness, which we take to be in its unfolded state. Expect at least twice this when folded. Or the equivalent of carrying two iPhone XS Max’s around, back-to-back, in your pocket. It also weighs a massive 320 grams, so it’ll feel about the same too.

An unnamed Snapdragon 8-series processor with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM powers the Flexpai, and the 4:3 aspect ratio screen — just like some iPad tablets — has a 1440 x 1920 pixel resolution. There are two cameras, but unusually they’re mounted at the side of the screen and not on the back of the device. There’s a 20-megapixel and a 16-megapixel lens, with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization too. With the screen folded up, photos can be taken with the camera facing in either direction, and the software adjusting what the screen shows accordingly. Calls can also be taken from either side of the phone. Providing the energy is a 3,800mAh battery, and the operating system is Royole’s own, which is based on Android 9.0 Pie.

There’s no doubt the Flexpai is a lot of fun. However, you probably won’t want to buy one unless you’re in China, as the carrier support is limited to Chinese networks at launch. It costs from around $1,300 for the basic 6GB/128GB model, or up to $1870 for the 8GB/512GB. A limited number will be released in December, and pre-orders can be placed now.

What’s interesting is this may give us an idea of how much a Samsung, Huawei, or LG foldable phone may end up costing. Expect it to be more too, due to Royole’s limited run of devices and lack of internationalization needs.

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Eerste vouwbare telefoon is de Royole FlexPai

Niet Samsung, niet LG en ook niet Huawei is de eerste met een volledig vouwbare telefoon. Een kleine Amerikaanse start up gaat er met de eer vandoor. De Royole FlexPai is de eerste van vele vouwbare telefoons die we binnenkort mogen begroeten.

Persoonlijk kijken we enorm uit naar het tijdperk ‘vouwbare telefoons’. Niet omdat die onze levens nou enorm gaan veranderen maar omdat ze fabrikanten dwingen na te denken over toekomstige vormgevingen. Momenteel zit die, laten we eerlijk zijn, enorm op slot. En als we ergens een broertje dood aan hebben dan is het wel saai. De Royole FlexPai lijkt op een iPad mini die je in tweeën kunt vouwen. Het scherm meet 7,8 inch en je vouwt het scherm naar buiten toe waardoor hij altijd te zien zal zijn.

Echt loepzuiver is het scherm niet want over de volle 7,8 inch wordt een resolutie geprojecteerd van 1920 bij 1440 pixels. Dat levert een pixeldichtheid op van net iets meer dan 300. Het scherm is een flexibel AMOLED dat beschermd lijkt door een plastic laag. Omdat het altijd aan de buitenkant zit vermoeden we dat het wel eens snel kan gaan krassen. De FlexPai draait op een eigen OS genaamd Water OS maar is gebaseerd op Android 9.0 Pie. Android biedt momenteel (nog) geen ondersteuning voor smartphones met een dergelijke vormgeving. Om toch het maximale uit de interface te halen heeft Royole hem daarom zelf maar gemaakt.

Flinke prijs

In geopende toestand lijkt de Royole FlexPai nog het meest op een tablet, in gesloten toestand juist op een telefoon met dubbel scherm waarbij ieder scherm z’n eigen taak heeft. Er lijkt ook een nachtstand-modus te komen waarbij je hem half gevouwen naast je bed kunt neerzetten waarna een klok zichtbaar wordt. Qua processor is er gebruik gemaakt van een Snapdragon 8-serie van Qualcomm met 8 GB aan RAM en 128 of 256 GB aan opslaggeheugen. Er zijn twee camera’s van 16 en 20 megapixel met een maximale lensopening van f/1.8. Er is een batterij van maar liefst 3800 mAh om aan de hogere energievraag van het scherm te voldoen. De 128 GB variant moet een duizelingwekkende 1318 dollar kosten, omgerekend 1160 euro. Inclusief BTW is dat zelfs 1400 euro. Innovatie mag wat kosten. Echt slim is het trouwens niet om er ééntje te importeren; het toestel ondersteunt de 20 band niet die hier veel voor 4G gebruikt wordt. Mogelijk werkt hij hier dus niet lekker.

Apple Officially Obsoletes iPhone 5, Ending Repair Support

Apple has updated its vintage and obsolete products list to include the iPhone 5, six years after the smartphone’s launch.

The iPhone 5 is now classified by the company as vintage in the United States and Turkey, and obsolete in the rest of the world. The addition was spotted by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

Apple defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five but less than seven years. Macs and other products on the vintage and obsolete list are generally no longer eligible for hardware service.

The iPhone 5 introduced some major design changes to Apple’s smartphone lineup when it was announced in September 2012.

New features included a lighter aluminum-based body, a taller screen with a nearly 16:9 aspect ratio, LTE support, and Apple’s A6 system-on-chip.

The iPhone 5 was also the first Apple smartphone to include a Lightning port, replacing the 30-pin design used by previous iPhone models.

Tag: vintage and obsolete
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Twitter Adds Floating Compose Button and Tests Option to Switch Between Latest and Top Tweets

Twitter has added a new compose button to its official mobile app for iOS that’s designed for one-handed scrolling and tweet composing.

Located in the bottom right of the Twitter interface, the new floating icon can be tapped to start composing a tweet.

Meanwhile, a 3D Touch or long press gesture on the button causes three options to fan out in a radial menu that includes quick access to drafts, images/videos and the GIF gallery.

Elsewhere, Twitter has announced new tools for users to report spam. The standard Report Tweet options remain as usual, but flagging a suspicious or spam tweet offers the following additional options:

• The account tweeting this is fake.
• Includes a link to a potentially harmful, malicious, or phishing site.
• The hashtags included seem unrelated.
• Uses the reply function to spam.
• It’s something else.

In addition to the above, Twitter has started testing an option to quickly access a classic reverse chronological timeline, as promised back in September. The feature, currently only available to a small number of users, comes in the form new icon in the top right of the interface providing a shortcut to switch between the latest and “top” tweets in the feed.

Once the feature officially rolls out, it should allay user frustration with Twitter’s curated selection of tweets, which often includes a mishmash of relatively old tweets, ads, and tweets your friends like.

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Spotify Grows to 87M Paid Subscribers and 191M Monthly Active Users

Spotify today reported its third quarter earnings for 2018, announcing that paid subscribers for its streaming music service have grown to 87 million and total monthly active users (including the free tier) now reach 191 million. This is an increase from 83 million paid subscribers and 180 million total users that Spotify had in July 2018.

In terms of year-over-year growth, paid subscriber numbers have grown 40 percent in comparison to 2017 and MAUs have grown 28 percent. Spotify touted its various multi-partner bundles as a big help to signing up new subscribers, which are also retaining users for longer and driving churn lower. The latest bundle includes Spotify, Hulu, and Showtime for $4.99/month for students.

Spotify is in an ongoing race with Apple Music to add more subscribers, and as of now Spotify is still winning in terms of paid subscribers. It’s been a while since we’ve heard news of updated Apple Music subscriber numbers, with the last count in April 2018 putting Apple’s service at 40 million paid subscribers. Apple Music does not have a free tier like Spotify, but counting users on the three-month free trial along with paid users, Apple’s service hit over 50 million subscribers in May 2018.

These numbers refer to global paid subscriber users, and in a report over the summer it was suggested that Apple Music is actually ahead of Spotify’s paid subscriber count in the United States. Both Apple Music and Spotify were said to have more than 20 million paid subscribers in the U.S. as of July 2018, and at the time Apple was “a hair ahead” of its rival.

Looking into the fourth quarter of 2018, Spotify expects paid subscribers to reach 93-96 million users, while monthly active users are predicted to break the 200 million user milestone and sit somewhere between 199-206 million users globally.

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Apple in Talks to Buy Stake in U.S. Radio Group iHeartMedia

Apple has held talks with iHeartMedia to buy a stake in the U.S. radio company, according to a new Financial Times report citing people familiar with the matter.

iHeartMedia is currently $20 billion in debt, with audiences gradually turning away from radio in favor of digital music services like Spotify and Pandora. The radio group filed for bankruptcy in March, and has been in contact with several potential investors ahead of a deadline later this month to file a reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court.

iHeartMedia is hoping Apple will take an equity stake worth millions of dollars, according to FT sources, although discussions between the two companies are still in the early stages and no deal has been agreed. Apple declined to comment, while iHeartMedia did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The report suggests Apple is angling for a deal in order to gain a platform for wider distribution of its Beats 1 radio station and increase awareness of Apple Music:

A partnership could see Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station, which is only available through its apps, make its debut on broadcast radio. Extra distribution would give Beats 1 and Apple Music greater awareness among older audiences who are later adopters of streaming services. A deal would also put the Apple station into more cars or kitchens.

Despite being billions of dollars in debt, iHeartMedia remains the largest radio broadcaster in the United States, with more than 850 stations operating across the story. One music industry executive who spoke to FT described the potential deal as a “power move” by Apple, as it aims to persuade more artists and labels to strike exclusive or early releases for its streaming service instead of its biggest rival, Spotify.

Apple Music surpassed 50 million subscribers and free trial users earlier this year, giving it a bigger share of listeners in the U.S. than Spotify, although Spotify is still the global leader with more than 80 million paying users around the world. Earlier this year, Apple acquired music recognition app Shazam for $400 million in order to improve Apple Music’s listening recommendations.

Tag: iHeartMedia
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Autonomous package-delivery robots are ready to steal your mailman’s job

Starship Technologies

The machines are here, and they’re going door to door in a neighborhood near you. Well, that’s if you live in the Bay Area in California or the city of Milton Keynes in the U.K. But don’t worry, this isn’t some Terminator-style robot army ready and willing to enslave humanity; these robots simply want to deliver packages for you.

Autonomous delivery robot manufacturer Starship Technologies claims this represents the world’s first commercial rollout of autonomous package-delivery robots in the world. An army of hundreds of wheeled delivery bots are due to commence delivering packages directly to customers’ front doors.

What makes Starship Technologies’ delivery robots interesting isn’t simply the fact that they make us feel like we’re living in the future. They also promise to cut down on package theft in cases where packages are left unattended. That’s because customers can use an app to say when and where they want their package delivered, and then keep an eye on the delivery robot’s progress in real time. Customers will pay as little as $10 per month for the service.

“We’re excited that, thanks to our technology, local communities across the globe will never miss a home delivery again,” said Lex Bayer, Starship’s CEO, in a statement. “Today, more than ever, people lead busy and diverse lives. The hassle of needing to rearrange your life for a delivery will become a thing of the past. No more having to switch your working-from-home day, reschedule meetings, visit a locker, drive to a post office, or contact a courier — all because of a missed delivery. Starship gets packages to consumers when and where they want them. This is the only service of its kind available in the world today, and it works around your lifestyle.”

This isn’t the first time Starship’s autonomous delivery bots will take to the street. The robots are already being used for deliveries in places like college campuses. Earlier this year, the company raised an additional $25 million, which its co-founder told Digital Trends would go toward expanding its fleet to more than 1,000 robots. The newly announced delivery service in San Francisco will commence before the end of the year; it has already kicked off in the U.K.

Although Starship is certainly on the cutting edge when it comes to this kind of technology, it’s not the only startup working in this space. In both Germany and Norway, the national postal services are busy introducing their own delivery robots, which will be delivering mail and packages to customers in the very near future.

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Who’s Bugdroid? Meet the cute mascot of Android

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Having a recognizable logo is important for a company’s branding. When you see the golden arches of McDonald’s M, Nike’s swoosh, or the Starbucks siren, you instantly know what they are. No further signage or explanation is required. Sometimes good logos go beyond simple recognition to convey something about the brand behind them, like Amazon’s logo with the arrow that goes from A to Z, signifying the fact it sells everything.

Before the operating system came along, android usually meant a robot with a human appearance or form, so it makes sense that Google’s Android logo is a friendly-looking green robot. But that friendliness and openness also conveys something about the platform, which was conceived as a path towards open standards for smartphone manufacturers and developers.

What is it called?

The Android mascot was never officially named. For a while the name Andy was associated with the logo — potentially referring to Android’s creator Andy Rubin — but we’re not sure where that came from. The Android team called it Bugdroid, and that name is as close as you’ll get to an official moniker.

When Google mentions Bugdroid, it still generally refers to it as the Android mascot.

Bugdroid goes viral

Who created the Android logo?

The Android logo was created by a designer called Irina Blok while she was working for Google. The idea was to create an open source logo for the developer community. The fact that it was open source, just like the Android platform, meant that anyone could create their own version of it, and they did.
Blok’s design was simple enough to become iconic, appealing to a much wider audience than the development community it was initially aimed at. She went on to work at Adobe, Apple, and Facebook among others.

After its release, the cute Android mascot began to pop up everywhere with all manner of strange makeovers, including ninjas, pirates, and even cats. One of the smartest artworks depicted the Android mascot taking a bite out of the famous Apple logo. Because Google didn’t claim any ownership or try to push design rules or restrictions, the mascot has appeared in countless forms across the world.

Bugdroid quickly spread to t-shirts and keychains. The mascot craze even gave rise to plastic and plush collectibles with endless versions. Google eventually launched Androidify, giving you the chance to design your very own version of the Android mascot that looks just like you.

Now more than a decade old, Bugdroid is still going strong and continues to serve as the instantly recognizable face of the Android platform. Every new version has a Bugdroid to match, and Google has a lawn on its Mountain View campus dedicated to previous Android version Bugdroid statues. Google also celebrated 10 years with a special Android Jetpack browser game that challenges you to navigate the mascot through the air collecting sweet treats and avoiding bugs.

We have no idea what Android Q will be called, but we’re sure the Android mascot will be front and center when it’s unveiled.

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Twitter tests homescreen button that offers more control of your timeline

Twitter said last month that it wanted to give its community more control over the app’s timeline. Recent changes include giving access to the reverse-chronological timeline that the company ditched in 2016, a move that at the time annoyed many of its users.

Currently, you need to dig into Twitter’s settings to switch between the reverse-chronological timeline and the alternative that includes things like “best tweets first,” recommended tweets, and “in case you missed it” posts. But now Twitter is testing a single button on the timeline to make switching a whole lot easier.

Sometimes you want to see the latest Tweets, first. We’re testing a way for you to make it easier to switch your timeline between the latest and top Tweets. Starting today, a small number of you will see this test on iOS. pic.twitter.com/7NHLDUjrIv

— Twitter (@Twitter) October 31, 2018

With the non-chronological timeline, Twitter “timelines” are hardly worthy of the name, with the list of tweets a result of various algorithms picking out posts that you’ll apparently find a whole lot more interesting than those appearing on the old-style timeline.

Enough users have evidently been putting in complaints over the last couple of years, prompting Twitter to start offering both types of timeline, and Wednesday’s news reveals that the company is focusing on the idea that you might want to flip between the two from time to time.

“We’ve learned that when showing the best tweets first, people find Twitter more relevant and useful. However, we’ve heard feedback from people who at times prefer to see the most recent tweets,” the San Francisco-based company said last month.

During the testing phase, the button is only appearing for select users, but should Twitter deem it a success, we can expect to see it roll out to the entire community before long.

If you’re a Twitter user that isn’t part of the test group but you’d like to view the reverse-chronological timeline, then you can do so by tapping on your profile picture, then on “settings and privacy,” and then “content preferences.” After that, simply toggle the button beside “show the best tweets first.”

Whether you’re new to Twitter or a long-time user, Digital Trends has some top tips on how to use the microblogging service like a pro.

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