The next MacBook Pro may have a fingerprint-reading power button
That widely rumored MacBook Pro update may have more than just an OLED touch strip to draw you in. A 9to5Mac source (who has reportedly supplied “reliable” info in the past) claims that Apple will give the Pro a fingerprint-reading Touch ID power button, much like what you find on recent iPads and iPhones. Just how it would work isn’t clear, but it’s reasonable to imagine logging in without your usual password or taking advantage of macOS Sierra’s Apple Pay support when shopping online.
While you’ll supposedly have to wait until the fall to see whether or not the rumors are true, there is evidence to suggest that this isn’t just daydreaming. Code in MacOS Sierra references both the OLED bar and Touch ID, for example. And when you combine this with reports of Thunderbolt 3-capable USB-C ports and it sounds like the MacBook Pro is getting a major (if long, long overdue) upgrade.
Source: 9to5Mac
The best tech for students who like to party
That’s all students, right? Right? While not everyone will be headed to toga parties on frat row (we applaud your decision there), all of you are going to need some gear to keep you amused when class isn’t in session. In addition to some of the more predictable stuff, like speakers and a Chromecast, we have some more off-kilter recommendations, including an electronic dartboard, a USB turntable, a “music festival survival kit” and even a vaporizer, if that’s your idea of a good time. Check out the gallery below for all our party gear picks, and make sure to peruse our full back-to-school guide right here.
Source: Engadget’s 2016 Back-to-School Guide
Apple May Build $1 Billion Research and Development Center in Vietnam
Apple may be planning to build a research and development center in Vietnam, reports Vietnamese site BizLive. Work on the R&D center, which will be located in the Vietnamese central province of Da Nang, was uncovered following a local government meeting on foreign direct investment.
Da Nang, image via VnExpress
Rumors earlier this year suggested Apple would invest up to $1 billion to build an Asia-focused research and development center in Vietnam, designed to “enhance its competitiveness over major global electronic manufacturers present in the country.” Last October, Apple also established an Apple Vietnam LLC in Ho Chi Minh City, led by Gene Daniel Levoff, Apple’s VP of corporate law who is also in charge of international operations.
Companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung have had investment projects in Vietnam for several years, but the R&D center will be Apple’s first major project in the country.
A final decision on whether the research center plans will move forward is expected in late August.
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Analyst claims Apple Watch 2 due later this year
Across the land, armchair speculators are all talking about one thing: if we’ll get a new Apple Watch this year, and what features it’ll get. But Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities, believes that his wild speculation might be worth paying attention to. He’s told his clients — as reported by MacRumors and AppleInsider — that a second Apple Watch will arrive in the second half of this year. His note suggests that the device will get a faster processor, GPS, barometer, better waterproofing and a bigger battery.
Some of those additions would easily pass a smell test, like the addition of a built-in barometer and better waterproofing. Those seem like the sort of decent, incremental refinements that Apple is famous for producing year-on-year. But the more capacious battery seems a little harder to swallow given Sir Jonathan Ive’s well-publicized aversion to adding power at the expense of thickness. Although it’s likely that smaller internal components may provide enough space to cram a few more mAh inside the case.
We’re not so sure about Kuo’s claim about GPS being added to the device, given the power such a module currently requires. With the first-generation Watch, you’re likely to get through a day of normal use with 20 to 30 percent of charge left in the bank. GPS requires an order of magnitude more power, and Polar’s dedicated running smartwatch has a 500mAh battery and can get 8.5 hours of GPS on a full charge. The first-generation 42mm Apple Watch has a 205mAh cell, and unless the company has developed a new low-power module, it’s simply not going to happen for a while.
The report also mentions that LTE support will come to the watch in 2017 and that the 2018 version will be medically reliable enough for FDA approval. LTE in a smartwatch isn’t impossible since we’ve already seen it in LG’s Urbane LTE, but we expect that Apple will, again, need to research low-power options before adding it. As for FDA approval, we can’t speculate on something that’s so far away, although Apple is one of a handful of tech companies with the money and patience to see something like that through. Not to mention, of course, that it’s already made in-roads into drug research using its ResearchKit platform.
Way back in 2013, TUAW ran an analysis of Ming-Chi Kuo’s analyses and found that “Half of Kuo’s predictions ultimately turn out to be either partially or substantially incorrect.” Like when he suggested that prices for Apple Watch would start at $1,000 (it didn’t) or that Apple would launch a HDTV in 2015 (it didn’t) or that the non-Retina MacBook Pro would be killed off forever in 2013 (you… you get the idea).
Via: The Verge
Source: AppleInsider, MacRumors
Bloomberg: iPhone 7 gets new home button, drops headphone port
Another report has suggested that Apple is taking a different tack with this year’s iPhone. Bloomberg reporter and renowned Apple scooper Mark Gurman has published a story claiming that the new handset will have a design “similar to the 6 and 6s.” We’ve heard this before — it suggests that Apple is holding back on a big aesthetic change until next year, when the iPhone celebrates its 10th birthday. Gurman is also reporting that the next iPhone will ditch the headphone jack — again, something that’s been rumored for some time — switching instead to “connectivity via Bluetooth and the charging port.” (Get ready for lots of Lightning headphones.)
The iPhone is known for its sublime photo-taking capabilities, however recently Android manufacturers — particularly Samsung — have managed to close the gap, if not create leads of their own. Apple is reportedly working on a dual-camera setup for this year’s model which will produce “brighter photos with more detail” by merging separate images shot with each sensor. The configuration will also help to sharpen photos captured in dark conditions, as well as retain image quality as the user zooms in.
Finally, Bloomberg is reporting that the new iPhone will have an updated home button similar to the MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad. Instead of a physical click, the new button will trigger a series of vibrations under the surface. The reasons for this are a little unclear — it could provide new functionality, or simply serve to save some space under the hood.
We’ve heard these rumors before, but Gurman’s story gives them greater weight. If they prove accurate, this year’s iPhone launch will be quite unusual. We’re used to a “tick-tock” release cycle — a numbered iPhone, followed by an iterative “s” model — which would make this year the iPhone 7. A largely unchanged design, similar to an “s” phone, would buck this trend, raising expectations for a more dramatic handset in 2017.
Source: Bloomberg
The After Math: Sentimental Sunday
It was a top notch week in terms of longing for the simpler times of yesteryear. The action was capped off with a ringing endorsement from none other than Clint Eastwood himself. But while that angry old man busied himself with yelling at clouds, Sony put the Kibosh on its helpless superhero series. The US announced it will let a private company land on the moon. Archive.org posted a gaggle of old Nintendo Power issues. And Apple stayed insanely rich. Numbers, because how else are you going to know how long it’s been since you could get away with being openly racist?
Apple buys a Seattle-based AI startup for $200 million
Apple has snapped up a Seattle-based startup called Turi that specializes in machine learning, likely in an effort to boost its products’ AI capabilities. Ever the secretive corporation, Cupertino hasn’t released details about the acquisition besides confirming it to Recode and other publications. A spokesperson merely answered all questions with this statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” According to GeekWire, though, the company bought the startup for around $200 million.
It’s still unclear what Apple plans to do with Turi, but a Bloomberg source said its machine-learning technology could give Siri new ways to interact with people. Since company also uses AI to recommend songs and apps, predict words you’re about to type and to recognize images, among other things, it could do a lot more than improve Apple’s voice assistant.
The source added that the acquisition would enable Apple to connect with the growing community of AI researchers, as well. Unlike the tech titan, which is very tight-lipped when it comes to the products it’s developing, Turi has a better relationship with third-party researchers. It even held a machine-learning conference for data scientists in July.
Machine learning & artificial intelligence startup Turi has been acquired by Apple, sources close to the deal tell CNBC. $AAPL
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) August 6, 2016
Source: GeekWire, CNBC
Apple May Build $1 Billion Research and Development Center in Vietnam
Apple may be planning to build a research and development center in Vietnam, reports Vietnamese site BizLive. Work on the R&D center, which will be located in the Vietnamese central province of Da Nang, was uncovered following a local government meeting on foreign direct investment.
Da Nang, image via VnExpress
Rumors earlier this year suggested Apple would invest up to $1 billion to build an Asia-focused research and development center in Vietnam, designed to “enhance its competitiveness over major global electronic manufacturers present in the country.” Last October, Apple also established an Apple Vietnam LLC in Ho Chi Minh City, led by Gene Daniel Levoff, Apple’s VP of corporate law who is also in charge of international operations.
Companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung have had investment projects in Vietnam for several years, but the R&D center will be Apple’s first major project in the country.
A final decision on whether the research center plans will move forward is expected in late August.
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Apple’s Store app knows what you want and when it’s in stock
Apple’s Store app (not to be confused with Apple’s App Store) that provides info about its bricks-and-mortar retail locations adds a few decent features today, including knowing when your order is ready to pick up, for less in-store loitering time.
The update also adds the ability to recommend products that Apple thinks you’ll like or would be useful based on the devices you already own (a little like a permanently up-selling salesperson in your pocket, let’s just hope it’s a useful one).
You might not have known that Apple Stores run workshops, but they do, and the Store app will flag any that are taking place at your nearest shop, let you see if something on your favourites is in stock and it’ll even let you scan in-store items to check that they’re compatible with the gear you’ve got at home.
The update’s available to download now, but Apple does point out that only some of those features are available globally — exactly which ones are available will depend on your location.
Source: Apple Store
Accessibility Software Suffers Following Apple’s Faceshift Acquisition
Back in September, MacRumors uncovered evidence that Apple had acquired Zurich-based real-time capture firm Faceshift, in a move possibly related to the development of biometrics for unlocking devices or authorizing payments through facial recognition techniques. Apple later confirmed the purchase in a statement.
Before the acquisition, Faceshift worked closely with game and animation studios on technology designed to quickly and accurately capture facial expressions using 3D sensors.
One of the lesser known aspects of Faceshift’s business was licensing out its face tracking SDK to other companies, one of which was Xcessity, a small Austrian firm that specializes in designing human-computer interaction software to improve accessibility.
One of the most popular products made by the firm is KinesicMouse, which enables disabled people and those with degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease to control a mouse through facial expressions. The functionality of the KinesicMouse software – which is also used in hospital settings – depended heavily on the SDK developed by Faceshift, which received a royalty fee for every purchased license.
Earlier this week, Xcessity CEO Markus Pröll revealed in a tweet and a post on the Xcessity forum that Faceshift had revoked the license following Apple’s acquisition of the company, and that he would no longer be able to develop or offer the software:
The Faceshift SDK is the result of a research team that focused on this topic for several years at the university ETH Zürich. Whilst it would not be impossible to create such a software it would take way too much time and resources. Believe me after about four years of development I have tried about everything.
I don’t know who or why the decision was made to cancel the existing license agreement. I want to explicitly mention that I don’t make any claims that Apple or Faceshift is responsible for the cancellation. On this part I am left in the dark just as you are. All I can tell is that the guys from Faceshift have been very supportive through all those years.
The news came as a blow to users of the software, and Pröll says he has received “quite a few messages” from people who really depend on the app. One user of the software told MacRumors:
People like me depend on this affordable solution to access computer games. It brought me back to gaming although I have suffered from muscular dystrophy since I was a child. Shame on Apple for locking down such a solution.
If the license cancellation is indeed linked to Apple’s acquisition of Faceshift, the KinesicMouse software would appear to be an unfortunate casualty, given Cupertino’s stated commitment to accessibility. MacRumors has reached out to Apple for comment and we’ll update this story with any forthcoming response.
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