The Engadget Podcast Ep 12: Surface Envy
Managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O’Brien to talk about the value of the Esc key, the Nintendo Switch and the impeding Gilmore Girls resurrection. Then they’ll relive Microsoft’s big Surface event and dig in on future of Twitter… and whether or not it even has one.
The Flame Wars Leaderboard
Wins
Loses
Winning %
Mona Lalwani
3
1
.750
Christopher Trout
2
1
.666
Dana Wollman
10
6
.625
Devindra Hardawar
10
9
.526
Chris Velazco
3
3
.500
Cherlynn Low
6
7
.461
Nathan Ingraham
4
6
.400
Michael Gorman
1
2
.333
Relevant links:
- Apple unveils a thinner MacBook Pro with an OLED ‘Touch Bar’
- The Switch shows desperate Nintendo is the best Nintendo
- The first official Netflix ‘Gilmore Girls’ trailer is here
- Windows 10 ‘Creator’s Update’ arrives free of charge next spring
- The new Microsoft Paint lets you share terrible 3D doodles
- Microsoft passes on updating the Surface Pro
- Microsoft’s big-screen Surface Studio is an engineering marvel
- Twitter will fire around 350 employees in hunt for profits
- Twitter promises ‘meaningful’ safety updates next month
- Does anyone want to buy Twitter?
- Twitter’s troll problem likely killed Disney’s bid
You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.
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The Morning After: Friday October 28th 2016
Apple’s big MacBook event introduced a new family of Pro machines, with nary a mention of the MacBook Air. The company also expelled standard USB 3.0 ports in its new range, replacing them all with (USB-C-shaped) Thunderbolt 3.0 ports — but hey, at least there’s a fancy OLED “Touch Bar.” Meanwhile, Turkey’s government shut down internet across 11 cities in the Kurdish area of the country, Oh, and Twitter killed Vine.
There’s still a headphone jack.Apple’s thinner MacBook Pro comes with an OLED touch strip, different ports again.
An even richer Retina display, more processing power, and a smaller model along with it: Apple’s newest MacBook Pro (like its newest iPhones) is a possibly divisive upgrade for the company’s faithful. The new OLED Touch Bar on the 15-inch model had some compelling use cases from Apple, but we’re still waiting to see how it all handles during a review.
Dongles for days.Your new iPhone and new MacBook will need a new cable to connect to each other.
Apple went all in on Thunderbolt 3.0 for its new MacBook Pro. But while it’s evolving its ports , it also just made every iPhone owner who wants one of these computers buy a new dongle. Sold separately.
Just ask first.The FCC has some new privacy rules to help protect your data from internet providers.
If internet service providers want to collect data about what you do and where you go on the internet, they’ll have to ask first, thanks to some new rules approved by the FCC today. That’s a change from before, when ISPs only had to offer a way to opt out of tracking behaviour like browsing habits, app usage and location or financial data. Expect to see an updated TOS from your internet provider any minute now.
Is this what a modern TV guide looks like?The Apple TV gets a guide, but it’s missing something.
Finding something to watch on streaming services isn’t quite easy enough, even with that new Siri Remote, so Apple’s TV solution is … TV. Really, that’s the name of its TV guide app, which detects the services you’re signed into and lets you browse through their content all in one place. TV works on the iPhone and iPad too, but at least so far, it doesn’t work with Netflix or Amazon. We’ll see if that changes before it launches on Apple TV in December.
Gone in six secondsTwitter killed Vine because it doesn’t fit
Twitter announced that it’s killing its six-second video app in the next few months. There are many reasons why, but perhaps the strongest is that it didn’t really fit with CEO Jack Dorsey’s vision of “the people’s news network.”
But wait, there’s more…
- Watch Apple’s MacBook event in less than nine minutes
- The original emoji character set is going to MoMA
- Turkish government cuts off internet access in 11 cities
- Alphabet’s experimental companies are getting better and losing less money
(Lead image credit: @Darth)
LG’s latest 5K screen is Apple’s new flagship display
If you’re eyeballing Apple’s new MacBook Pro line, but you need even more screen real estate than 15 inches of Retina display — LG has already got you covered. Taking the place of Apple’s own, discontinued Thunderbolt Display, the LG 27-inch UltraFine 5K and 21.5-inch UltraFine 4K displays are stepping up as the new go-to companions for the MacBook Pro’s sharp new screen and limited port variety.
The biggest selling point for both models is the ability to charge your new MagSafe-less laptop over the same Thunderbolt 3 connection that delivers video, audio and data. That, plus the three USB-C ports on the back led Phil Schiller to describe them as “the ultimate docking station” during today’s presentation. Both models also bring an additional FaceTime-ready camera and microphone setup with built-in speakers. At the pixel level, the 27-incher brings 5120 x 2880 resolution with 218 ppi, while the smaller model has 4096 x 2304 4K resolution with 219 ppi. One Thunderbolt 3 advantage: you can adjust settings like screen brightness and speaker volume without the need for a separate cable or dedicated buttons on the monitor itself.
The larger model will run you $1,299.95 and the smaller is selling for $699.95. Only the smaller model is available for pre-order today, but it should ship in late November, with its big sibling coming sometime in December.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello again” event.
Source: LG Newsroom, Apple Store
The new 15″ MacBook Pro can push four 4K monitors at once
Thanks to that discrete Radeon graphics chip in the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, users can run nearly 43 million pixels worth of lag-free screen real estate from their laptop. Tucked into the tech specs for the new notebook is the clarification that Apple’s new top-of-the-line portable machine can power four displays with 4096 x 2304 4K resolution with zero lag at 60Hz and full color. If you’re in the market for a 5K flagship monitor, the new MacBooks can still power two of them alongside the built-in retina display as well.
As 9to5Mac points out, the little 13-inch sibling doesn’t have quite the same graphics horsepower due to its integrated Intel Iris GPU, but it can still run a single 5K monitor or two 4K monitors simultaneously with zero lag and no drop in resolution on the built-in screen.
Of course, that much resolution won’t come cheap — although 4K monitors are widely available at this point, your 5K options are still relatively limited. And a new laptop, plus a pair of LG’s successor to the 5K Apple Thunderbolt Display will cost a wallet-flattening $5,400 total.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello again” event.
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Apple Tech Specs
Apple’s ‘Hello Again’ event by the numbers
Well, that was unusually brief. Apple debuted just three new products during its “Hello Again” event held today. The company showed off its new almost-all-in-one TV app (which somehow doesn’t include Netflix), a fully revamped Final Cut Pro X and the newest additions to the MacBook Pro line. There wasn’t even a “one more thing” moment. Man, I sure do miss those. Here are some numbers, because how else will you know how many input ports Apple decided to remove from this year’s model?
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello again” event.
Watch Apple’s MacBook Pro event in 9 minutes
In contrast to Microsoft’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to announcements just a day earlier, Apple’s “Hello Again” event was a more focused affair. However, there was still a lot to take in. How does the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar work, exactly? And what’s this TV app that Apple introduced? Don’t worry about having to spend ages reading (or watching the full replay) if you don’t have time, though. We’ve recapped the entire presentation in a 9-minute video, so you can get the gist of Apple’s media shindig in the time it takes to grab a drink.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello Again” event.
Belkin Debuts New Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD
Belkin today announced the launch of its Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD, which is designed to work with the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports on Apple’s new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro machines.
Created to be a “complete single-cable docking solution,” the Express Dock HD features 40Gb/s data transfer speeds, 85 watts of power delivery for charging, and support for a single 5K monitor or two 4K monitors.
“Belkin has a long-standing history of designing complementary peripherals and accessories for the industry’s most innovative hardware products, such as the all-new MacBook Pro,” said Steve Malony, vice president and general manager, Belkin. “The new Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD and its exceptional single-cable docking solution for notebooks was developed with a deep understanding of consumers’ needs for ideal connectivity solutions.”
The Express Dock includes Two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, three USB-A ports, one DisplayPort, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an Audio In/Out port, and a second Audio Out port. Up to five Thunderbolt devices can be daisy-chained from the dock and it includes a 170W power adapter to supply power to attached peripherals while also charging a MacBook Pro.
Belkin is also introducing a USB-C to HDMI adapter and two Thunderbolt 3 cables in 0.5 ($29.95) and 2m ($69.95) sizes. Pricing on the Express Dock and the adapter has not yet been announced.
Belkin’s Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock and USB-C to HDMI Adapter will be available soon from the Belkin website and from Apple.com. The Thunderbolt 3 cables are already available from both Belkin and Apple.
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Does the iPad Air have a future at Apple?
During its Fall 2016 event in Cupertino on Thursday, Apple debuted its newest MacBook Pro as well as an overhaul of Final Cut Pro X and an all-in-one video entertainment app simply titled, TV. But surprisingly, there was not a word spoken about iPads.
First, a quick recap: the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2, were both released in 2013. They then both received updates the following year with the release of the Air 2 and the tepidly-received mini 3. But in less than a year, Apple had already moved on to something newer, bigger and more expensive. The iPad Pro 12.9-inch dropped in September 2015, along with the iPad mini 4, and was joined by a retina-enabled 9.7-inch Pro this past March.
That means we haven’t seen a new iPad Air in two years. And while the older models are still receiving OS updates, their A8 processors are decidedly pokey when facing the Pro’s A9x. In fact, benchmark tests indicate that the A9, which is really a desktop chip crammed into a tablet, performs nearly twice as well as the previous version.
So if Thursday’s event is any indication, it would appear that Apple is far more focused on its Pro models than the rest of its products. Just as today’s announcement of three new MacBook Pros — the base model of which, offers similar specs to the existing MacBook Air at a slightly higher price — likely spells the eventual end of the MacBook Air line, Apple’s recent release of the 9.7 and 12.9 inch iPad Pros could be bad news for the older iPads.
Given this timing — release, update within a year, then nothing for the next two — does not bode well for the iPad Air line, especially with the more recent release of the Pros. What’s more, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro offers superior performance in the same form factor as the Air 2 for just $200 more. So why would Apple keep the Air 2 around when it could simply eliminate the model and force consumers to shell out an extra two bills for the Pro? Remember this is a company that recently eliminated the iPhone 7’s headphone jack in favor of selling us $180 wireless AirPods and just today rolled out a series of laptops that can’t connect to any peripheral you already own without an adapter.
In the end, there’s no way to confirm that this is the end of the line for the iPad Air. Apple is notoriously secretive when it comes to upcoming product announcements. There are some unsubstantiated rumors that the next Mini could be announced in the spring of 2017, and maybe the Air will be brought along, but we’ll have to wait for March to find out.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello again” event.
Apple Releases $49 Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter Alongside New MacBook Pro
Alongside the new MacBook Pros, which only include four USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support, Apple has released a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.
Priced at $49, the Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter will allow customers who purchased a new MacBook Pro to connect Thunderbolt 2 accessories like hard drives to one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports in the new MacBook Pro.
Because the adapter is bidirectional, it can also be used to connect Thunderbolt 3 devices to a Mac that’s equipped with a Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 port.
The new Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter is not yet available in Apple retail stores, but it can be ordered online. Deliveries placed today will ship on November 4 at the earliest using the fastest shipping method.
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The new MacBook Pro goes all-in on Thunderbolt and USB-C
The rumors are sadly true: Apple is ditching standard USB ports on the new MacBook Pro. Instead, the next version of the laptop will feature a quartet of Thunderbolt 3 ports — that are the same shape as USB C. More than that, MagSafe is going extinct as well. Meaning, any of your other chargers won’t work here in case you trip over the new one and rip it in half. The one port Apple didn’t get rid of? The headphone jack. But hey, there’s always next year for that sort of courage, right?
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “Hello again” event.
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