Facebook App Takes on Movie-Making Feature in iOS 10 With ‘Slideshows’
Facebook is shifting the movie-making Slideshow feature from its Moments app to its flagship iOS app in an attempt to counter Apple’s Photos update in iOS 10.
For those unfamiliar with Apple’s big addition to its Photos app coming in iOS 10, a new feature called Memories uses facial- and object-recognition to automatically cluster photos based on people, scenes, dates, and locations, and intelligently creates mini-movies of occasions like vacations, birthdays, and weddings.
Similarly, Facebook’s Slideshow feature, which originally appeared in August as part of its photo-centric Moments app, combines user photos and videos into a short clip that can be customized with transitions, themes, and music soundtracks.
In its new manifestation in Facebook’s flagship app, the feature will now do this automatically whenever users take at least five photos or videos in the last 24 hours. And if users come upon a slideshow in the News Feed, they can tap a “try it” option to make their own. Images can be edited to add or remove images, and themes include Nostalgic, Playful, Night Out, Birthday, Epic, Thankful, Tropical, Bollywood, and Amped.
The move represents a direct attempt by the company to take on Apple’s movie-making feature in iOS 10, which is coming this fall, although both companies are actually playing catch-up to Google, which offered a similar feature last year as part of Google Photos Assistant.
Earlier this month, Facebook attracted the ire of users by forcing account holders to download its Moments app if they wanted to keep synced photo albums uploaded from their mobile devices.
Users were informed by email and via app notifications that these albums will cease to exist on July 7, and that they should either download the albums, or install the company’s photo-centric Moments app to keep them in the cloud.
Facebook is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]
Related Roundup: iOS 10
Tags: Facebook, Moments
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Astronomers discover a nearby ‘hidden’ black hole
Astronomers compared data (and notes, we’d like to imagine) on a “peculiar” source of radio waves, concluding that what was once thought to be a distant galaxy is actually a nearby binary star system, made up of a low-mass star and a black hole. It took data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to realize this — and now researchers reckon there could be more hidden black holes out there.
This new study indicates that VLA J2130+12 is a black hole with a mass a few times bigger than our Sun. The black hole apparently didn’t get spotted because it wasn’t acting quite like the space phenomenon should when it’s found in a binary system. “Usually, we find black holes when they are pulling in lots of material. Before falling into the black hole this material gets very hot and emits brightly in X-rays,” said Bailey Tetarenko of the University of Alberta, Canada. “This one is so quiet that it’s practically a stealth black hole.”
According to NASA, estimates suggest that tens of thousands to millions of these black holes could exist within our Galaxy — which is three to thousands of times as many as previously thought. “Unless we were incredibly lucky to find one source like this in a small patch of the sky, there must be many more of these black hole binaries in our Galaxy than we used to think,” said co-author Arash Bahramian, also of the University of Alberta.
“Stealth black hole” sounds really, really cool. Now let’s get a photo of one, please.
Source: NASA
Airbnb files suit against San Francisco over rental laws
Airbnb’s long-running tussles with home-city San Francisco have escalated even further. The rental outfit recently sued the city, claiming that a new law requiring hosts to register their living spaces with local government before listing them via Airbnb violates federal law. Which law? The Communications Decency Act, which, in part, ensures a website isn’t on the hook for any damages that arise from what users might post on said website.
The argument here is that Airbnb feels the onus should be on the city to keep track of people who skipped the cumbersome rental-registration process and hold the hosts responsible instead of Airbnb. As The San Francisco Examiner reports, violations would carry a $1,000 per-day penalty for each offense. For its part, San Francisco lawmakers say that Airbnb is essentially reading the CDA how it chooses to.”Nothing in San Francisco’s pending ordinance punishes hosting platforms for their users’ content,” city attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey tells TechCrunch. “In fact, it’s not regulating user content at all — it’s regulating the business activity of the hosting platform itself.”
Airbnb filed the suit on Monday in the hopes of stopping the law before it goes into effect in August. The company lays out a number of proposed changes to the upcoming law on its website, including ending the requirement that hosts pay taxes on household items like bedding and kitchen implements. Hosts needing to have a business license is another bit that Airbnb would like to see changed as well.
“We believe that creative approaches are still possible and hope that the City will reconsider its current path and work with us towards building a new system that is legal, workable and fair to everyone involved,” the company writes.
It’s safe to bet that this legal battle is far from over.
Source: The San Francisco Examiner, Airbnb
Xiaomi Mi Max Review
Recently, several smartphone manufacturers have introduced extra-large smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy A9, LeEco Le Max 2, and Huawei P8 Max. While flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10 have trended around 5.2″ for display size, Xiaomi has ignored this trend entirely for their first humongous smartphone: the Xiaomi Mi Max.
With a 6.44″ display, the Mi Max is much larger than what many would consider normal, and it definitely suggests that Xiaomi took the expression “go big or go home” quite literally. Interestingly, Xiaomi is positioning the Mi Max as an affordable mid-range device, one that won’t necessarily compete with LeEco’s phablet, but promises to still offer a great phablet experience.
Recent Xiaomi reviews:
- Xiaomi Mi 5 Review
- Xiaomi Mi 4S Review
- Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review
So how well does the Mi Max deliver on that promise? Let’s find out with our written review of the Xiaomi Mi Max!
Buy the Xiaomi Mi Max now
Design
Typical: if I had to chose one word to describe the Mi Max’s design, it would definitely be typical. While there is nothing particularly exciting about the design here, I appreciate the Mi Max’s aluminum construction as it provides a premium look and feel. There’s also a few design aspects which make the Mi Max less difficult to hold such as its side tapers on the rear and the perfectly positioned power button and fingerprint reader.
While there are plastic caps on the top and bottom of the Mi Max, which presumably house necessary antennas, these caps are fairly continuous with the rest of the design, in both color and feel. With that said, they may be to blame for notable creaking noises while holding the phone and it’s very likely that they do not help with the phone’s weak structure.
Our Xiaomi Mi Max bends with merely a bit of pressure, an attribute which is remarkably disconcerting. After reviewing many Xiaomi smartphones with excellent build quality over the past few years (some half the price of the Mi Max), I found the Mi Max’s poor build quality to be shocking. Whether this will be an issue you for you will depend primarily on how you use the phone, and it is difficult to deny that this is a very considerable flaw with the device.
Many will detest the black border used around the display
The curved “2.5D” glass on the front of the Xiaomi Mi Max houses three illuminated capacitive keys, positioned in Xiaomi’s standard layout. The display’s side bezels are quite small, although many will detest the black border used around the display. It’s a shame that Xiaomi did not reconsider the use of the black border for the Mi Max, as it has been criticized with in the past when implemented in phones like the Xiaomi Mi 5.
Display
The extra-large 6.44″ 1080P display on the Xiaomi Mi Max places this phone well into phablet territory. When I fist started using the Mi Max, I had mostly mixed feelings. On the one hand, I immediately enjoyed the extra screen real estate for videos, but on the other, I worried how feasible it would be to use the Mi Max day-to-day. While it is possible to sometimes use the Mi Max with a single hand, it can get very uncomfortable very quickly. Once you are subconsciously accustomed to the Mi Max’s size, however, it seems much more normal in the hand. Still, its size does tend to make it slide out of many non-jean pockets, which is definitely annoying.
I immediately enjoyed the extra screen real estate for videos
Whether the extra-large size is the best fit for you will depend both on your usage and your willingness to change how you interact with your smartphone. For me, the transition to the Mi Max wasn’t difficult, but I will still be returning to my slightly smaller Nexus 6P, for its practicality.
The display itself looks pretty good; it has good viewing angles and accurate color reproduction. The 1080P resolution seems a bit low at this size, and I would have liked to see Quad HD, even if it meant for a slightly higher price. Sunlight readability could use some work, and while the reduced contrast sunlight mode does help, the screen on the Mi Max can still be difficult to read outdoors. With that said, kudos to Xiaomi for including Corning Gorilla Glass 4, something that we don’t often see at this price point.
Performance
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor strikes yet again in the Xiaomi Mi Max, and helps make the Mi Max performance comparable to phones with higher-end chips like the Snapdragon 808. MIUI, Xiaomi’s custom software, runs very smoothly on the Mi Max, and the base model’s 3 GB of RAM is generally enough for moderate-to-heavy multitasking. It is important to understand that there are different models available as well, although we do not imagine real-world performance differences between models to be significant.
I also had no trouble playing higher-end games like Asphalt 8, thanks to the phone’s Adreno 510 GPU.
Hardware
The Xiaomi Mi Max offers great call quality, and if you chose to use the device in an official market, you’ll receive 4G LTE speeds. However, if you’re in an unofficial market, like the United States, you’ll be limited to HSPA+ speeds on both AT&T and T-Mobile. That’s quite unfortunate, but it’s worth noting that the Mi Max is an unlocked dual-SIM device, and one of the SIM slots doubles as a microSD card expansion slot, allowing you to expand the phone’s storage up to 256 GB.
The fingerprint reader on the back of the Mi Max is accurate and, in my experience, just a hair faster than the one found on the Nexus 6P. That’s pretty good for the price, and many users will appreciate the added convenience when securing their phones.
What did strike me as odd was Xiaomi’s retreat to microUSB, the now outdated data and charging port standard. While some, like Samsung, have decided to allow USB Type-C to mature before implementing it, Xiaomi embraced it just months ago with phones like the Mi 5, so their inclusion of microUSB now feels like a step backwards more than anything else. With that said, microUSB may still be appealing to those who are still using the older standard and do not want to purchase brand new cables.
A side-firing speaker seems to be a nice compromise in this case
The single side-firing speaker on the Mi Max sounded pretty good in my testing, and sounded only slightly distorted at high volumes. While it would have been great to see front-facing speakers for an even more immersive media consumption experience, they would have likely added to the size of the phone. Therefore, a side-firing speaker seems to be a nice compromise in this case.
Battery Life
Battery life with the Mi Max was excellent in my testing, thanks to its very large 4850mAh non-removable battery. Screen on time did vary considerably depending on my usage. Primarily, I noticed that it did significantly better on Wi-Fi than it did cellular data, but even my heaviest usage was not enough to kill the Mi Max in a single day.
While it does support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Xiaomi has failed to include a Quick Charge 3.0 charger in the box. This was more acceptable even with the more expensive Mi 5, as the charge times still weren’t so bad even on Quick Charge 2.0. But with the Mi Max, the battery is much larger, and therefore takes about four hours to charge…on Quick Charge 2.0! Basically, a Quick Charge 3.0 charger is necessary here, and it’s a shame that Xiaomi is requiring users to purchase one separately.
See also: Quick Charge 3.0 Explained31
Camera
The Xiaomi Mi Max is equipped with a very capable 16 MP f/2.0 rear camera with a dual-LED flash. After taking a closer look at the sample images, it seems that the Mi Max’s camera is one of the best we’ve seen at this price point. Images came out sharp and detailed with visually pleasing color reproduction and great dynamic range.
Autofocus is remarkably slow and finicky
The Mi Max’s camera is far from perfect, however. Autofocus is remarkably slow and finicky and, even when holding the device and subject still, the Mi Max would slightly miss focus more than what we normally expect. It also tended to oversharpen images, to the point of recognition in some images.
Just as is the case with virtually all sub-$250 smartphones, low-light is where the camera truly struggles. While it is possible to get a good image with the Mi Max in a darker environment, it simply can’t be counted out on like some other smartphone cameras can. That’s not a major flaw because of the phone’s price, but it is something to keep in mind.
MIUI’s camera app remains easy-to-use while also offering manual control for those who wish to take advantage of it. The built-in filters are nice to play around with, and the different modes like Panorama can be very helpful in some situations.
Software
Xiaomi has shipped the Mi Max with its own custom version of Android, MIUI 7. Although it is running on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, MIUI is a sharp departure from stock Android. And while I do generally enjoy using MIUI 7, I’m looking forward to the production release of MIUI 8, which will bring a great number of UI changes and improvements. At the time of writing, Xiaomi had just begun automatically rolling out MIUI 8 for those on the beta release channel. Normal users can expect the update in the coming weeks.
Since this phone is still shipping with MIUI 7, this part of the review will focus on the MIUI 7 software experience. MIUI has received a number of mixed reviews from Western media, with some criticizing it for being too similar to iOS, and with others praising it for the amount of polish and coherency it offers.
After using MIUI day-to-day myself, I think it’s a great alternative to stock Android, especially for users who wish to customize and tweak. The stock apps are well designed, the UI is remarkably responsive, and the ability to do things like restrict data for specific apps is invaluable. To top it off, the MIUI receives weekly updates, so you’ll be getting bug fixes and new features very often.
With all of that said, the software experience for those importing the device is far from perfect. Reseller loaded bloatware, a hellish bootloader unlocking process, and missing Google apps are major hurdles that importers will face. Even if you do get Google apps up and running with the installer app from the Mi App Store, there are still issues to be had. Random Google app crashes, Google Now issues, failure to place calls with Google Voice, and the inability to do things like consume DRM-protected content can make this experience less than ideal for Westerners.
Gallery
Price & Conclusion
You can purchase the Xiaomi Mi Max in a number of different models globally. Pricing starts at 1499 RMB in China, or about $228, but will pricing will vary based on region. Each model is available in either silver, gold, or dark grey.
The Mi Max is perhaps Xiaomi’s most interesting foray into a single smartphone sub-market. While it has undercut the competition in price, it has also cut corners in many areas, some more than others. The device’s cheap build quality, poor imported device software experience, and lack of U.S. availability are clearly disappointing attributes. But no smartphone is perfect, and the Mi Max has plenty to offer for the price. Its impressive camera, excellent battery life, and smooth performance are all great reasons to buy this phone.
Recent Xiaomi reviews:
- Xiaomi Mi 5 Review
- Xiaomi Mi 4S Review
- Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review
If you are looking for a great extra-large smartphone on the cheap and can get past its quirks, the Xiaomi Mi Max is likely the best fit for you. With that said, similarly sized options like LeEco’s Le Max 2 are promising and, while they may be priced higher, they may also offer a much more refined experience overall.
It will be very interesting to see where this market heads in the near future. But, we want to know, would you switch to an extra-large smartphone? Let us know in the comment section below!
Buy the Xiaomi Mi Max now
Brad Neely’s weird Adult Swim cartoon premieres on Vine
Adult Swim is consistently debuting new shows season after season, but usually not on Vine, right? That’s why the fact that China, IL creator Brad Neely’s Harg Nallin Sclopio Peepio is available on the network is such an interesting change. Neely’s upcoming comedy show can be found via one six-second clip that looks like any other Vine at first, but when you click on it a full version of the 10-minute episode is available (all thanks to the service’s new rules for “select publishers.”)
Adult Swim is all about pushing the boundaries when it comes to both content and the way it’s delivered (especially the topics covered within) so this definitely doesn’t come as much of a surprise. If anything, it’s welcome — we get to check out what Neely’s been up to after the insane and hilarious China, IL.
The full show is debuting on Adult Swim on July 10th, but if you want to check it out right now, it’s available here.
Here’s a full episode of my new show for adult swim.
It airs July 10. https://t.co/daYnv1zuYp
— Brad Neely (@bradneely) June 27, 2016
Via: The Verge
What’s on your HDTV: ‘Shark Week,’ ‘Resident Evil 5,’ ‘Marco Polo’
It’s Shark Week, again. If you’re in any way familiar with Discovery’s summer celebration of all things shark, then you know what to expect. There won’t be any Alien Shark episodes this year, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. What i’m most excited to see are the second seasons of Syfy’s series Killjoys and Dark Matter. Last year both of them debuted with surprisingly good first seasons, and hopefully they’ll be even better the second time around.
Gamers can enjoy a remastered version of Resident Evil 5 on Xbox One and PS4 plus new DLC for The Division, while Netflix is streaming season two of Marco Polo. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Blu-ray & Games & Streaming
- Kung Fu Panda 3 (3D)
- Eye in the Sky
- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
- Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan
- Return of the Killer Tomatoes
- Fastball
- Cloud of Sils Maria (Criterion)
- Terrario (Wii U)
- Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Prison Architect (PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- God Eater 2 (PS4)
- The Technomancer (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
- 7 Days to Die (PS4, Xbox One)
- Castles (PS4)
- Resident Evil 5 (PS4, Xbox One)
- Tom Clancy’s The Division: Survival DLC (PC, Xbox One)
- Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS3, PS4)
- Full Mojo Rampage (PS4, Xbox One)
- A Boy and His Blob (PS3)
- Pharaonic (PS4)
- Steredenn (PS4)
- God Eater: Resurrection (PS4)
- Inside (Xbox One)
- Awakened (Mac, PC)
- Klepto (PC – Early Access)
- Doodle God (PS4)
Monday
- So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- The Fosters, Freeform, 8PM
- American Dad (season finale), TBS, 8:30PM
- American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 9PM
- How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change, HBO, 9PM
- Guilt, Freeform, 9PM
- Rizzoli & Isles, TNT, 9PM
- Angie Tribeca, TBS, 9PM
- Top Gear, BBC America, 9PM
- 12 Monkeys, Syfy, 9PM
- Triptank, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Major Crimes, TNT, 10PM
- Mistresses, ABC, 10PM
- Turn (season finale), AMC, 10PM
- Extra Gear, BBC America, 10:30PM
- Scream, MTV, 11PM
- Hunters, Syfy, 12AM
- After the Thrones, HBO, 1:15AM
Tuesday
- Powers, PSN, 3AM
- The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3AM
- Casual, Hulu, 3AM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- Zoo (season premiere), CBS, 9PM
- Shark Week: Wrath of a Great White Serial Killer, Discovery, 9PM
- Top Gear (season finale), History, 9PM
- The Greeks, PBS, 9PM
- Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
- Uncle Buck, ABC, ABC, 9PM
- Music Moguls (series premiere), BET, 9PM
- Coupled, Fox, 9PM
- 60 Minutes Sports, Showtime, 9PM
- Containment, CW, 9PM
- Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
- Shark Week: Air Jaws: Night Stalker, Discovery, 10PM
- Scream, MTV, 10PM
- F in Fabulous (series premiere), BET, 10PM
- Feed the Beast, AMC, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Wrecked, TBS, 10PM
- Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Wednesday
- Chelsea, Netflix 3AM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- Unsung Hollywood: Rudy Ray Moore (season premiere), TV One, 8PM
- Young & Hungry, Freeform, 8PM
- In A Perfect World, Showtime, 8PM
- Baby Daddy, Freeform, 8:30PM
- Dating Naked: Playing for Keeps (season premiere), VH1, 9PM
- Shark Week: Deadliest Shark, Discovery, 9PM
- The Night Shift, NBC, 9PM
- Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM
- Kingdom, DirecTV, 9PM
- Maron, IFC, 9PM
- Wayward Pines, Fox, 9PM
- Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, HBO, 10PM
- 9 Months That Made You (series premiere), PBS, 10PM
- Shark Week: Sharks vs. Dolphins, Discovery, 10PM
- Another Period, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Royal Pains, USA, 10PM
- The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
- Cleverman, Sundance, 10PM
Thursday
- Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
- Battlebots, ABC, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, USA, 8PM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- Shark Week: Nuclear Sharks, Discovery, 9PM
- Greatest Hits: 1980 -1985 (series premiere), ABC, 9PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
- Beauty and the Beast, CW, 9PM
- Home Free, Fox, 9PM
- Streets of Compton, A&E, 9PM
- Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge, NBC, 9PM
- Alone, History, 9PM
- Shark Week: Jungle Shark, Discovery, 10PM
- Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (season premiere), FX, 10PM
- Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
- Aquarius, NBC, 10PM
- Thirteen, BBC America, 10PM
- Ladylike, MTV, 11PM
Friday
- All or Nothing: a Season with the Arizona Cardinals (S1), Amazon, 3AM
- Marcella (S1), Netflix, 3AM
- Marco Polo (S2), Netflix, 3AM
- Jim Jefferies: Freedumb, Netflix, 3AM
- Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- Shark Week: Shark Bait, Discovery, 9PM
- Killjoys (season premiere), Syfy, 9PM
- US Olympic Trials: Track & Field, NBC, 9PM
- Shark Week: Blue Serengeti, Discovery, 10PM
- Dark Matter (season premiere), Syfy, 10PM
- Outcast, Cinemax, 10PM
- Comedy! Bang! Bang! (season finale), IFC, 11PM
- Vice (season finale), HBO, 11PM
Saturday
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Daytona, NBC, 7PM
- Angel from Hell, CBS, 8PM
- People’s List, ABC, 8PM
- Shark Week: Sharksanity, Discovery, 9PM
- Hell on Wheels, AMC, 9PM
- In An Instant, ABC, 9PM
- American West, AMC, 10PM
Sunday
- US Olympic Trials: Track & Field/Swimming, NBC, 7PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- Shark Week: The Killing Games, Discovery, 9PM
- The $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 9PM
- Ray Donovan, Showtime, 9PM
- Endeavour, PBS, 9PM
- Preacher, AMC, 9PM
- The Last Ship, TNT, 9PM
- Motive (season premiere), USA, 10PM
- Match Game, ABC, 10PM
- Roadies, Showtime, 10PM
- Ride with Norman Reedus, AMC, 10PM
- Feed the Beast, AMC, 10PM
- Declassified, CNN, 10PM
- Murder in the First, TNT, 10PM
- Tunnel, PBS, 10:30PM
(All times listed are ET)
Photonic Swiss watch engraving might keep counterfeiters at bay
Counterfeit jewelry is a big business. Sometimes the fakes are so convincing that it can be nearly impossible to tell if that Rolex you’re eying is the real deal unless you have special equipment or an extremely trained eye. That’s something the folks behind DNAwatch want to address. The team has developed a method for imprinting the crystal on Swiss-made watches with a watermark that’s invisible to the naked eye, but shows up under ultraviolet lighting.
Developer Nanoga says that its technique uses photons, works on glass, ceramic and metal. What’s more, faking the process apparently would be as difficult as counterfeiting the Swiss 50-franc note. “The outcome is a series of layers of atoms that is more than 10,000 times thinner than a hair and does not in any way alter the material’s properties,” according to a prepared statement. Here’s more on the watermarking process:
“In a machine normally used to make LEDs, the substances are deposited onto the surface as a vapor. Using lithographic printing, certain areas are then activated in order to create the watermark. In a form of atomic gymnastics, the atoms that have been activated react when exposed to ultraviolet light, instantly revealing themselves to the human eye.”
Nanoga says that the printing occurs on a nanoscopic scale and that the process is ready for licensing. Now it’s up to the Swiss watch makers to buy in and help you determine a real McCoy from a fugazi.
Source: EPFL
Apple to Announce Q3 2016 Earnings on July 26
Apple this evening updated its investor relations page to note that the earnings announcement for the third fiscal quarter (second calendar quarter) of 2016 will take place on Tuesday, July 26.
In Q2 2016, Apple saw its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003 along with its first ever drop in iPhone sales, and that downward trend is expected to continue into the third quarter of the year.
During its last earnings call, Apple’s guidance included expected Q3 2016 revenue of $41 to $43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent.
The quarterly earnings statement will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, with a conference call to discuss the report taking place at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings release and conference call on July 26.
Discuss this article in our forums
Android Pay officially launches in Singapore
Android Pay is now live in Singapore. Android users in Singapore can now download the Android Pay app and add their cards in order to tap and pay at various stores around the island.
This makes Singapore the third country around the globe — and first in Asia — to get Android Pay, coming in right behind the U.S. and UK. The mobile payment platform can be used anywhere that accepts contactless payments. Users simply need a phone that has NFC and is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
As for its next stop, Google has confirmed that Android Pay should be launching in Australia soon, but there’s no firm date on which to expect that launch.
Protip: Power off your Chromebook before you put it away
A quick tip for Chromebook users — powering down when you’re done using your laptop keeps things running smoothly and makes sure your software is up to date.
Your Chromebook does a good job of going to sleep and staying asleep when you shut the lid, which is the sort of thing you’d want any laptop to do well. But that doesn’t reset and recycle your current session in Chrome OS. And those are both things you want to do when you’re finished working (or playing) for the day. There are two big reasons why — keeping your software current and resetting what’s stored in your memory (RAM).
Your Chromebook uses what’s called Verified Boot along with automatic updates to keep the software current and secure. When an update is available for the operating system, it gets fetched from the Internet and installed alongside the version you are currently running. Before and during the installation process, the integrity of the software is checked by matching it against the official copy. If the tests performed all match, then your Chromebook knows that the software is official and hasn’t been tampered with. (The same process is done each time you start things up, too.) The next time you shut off your Chromebook then restart it, this new copy of the operating system is what gets loaded. The old copy can then be erased and replaced the next time there is an update. This process is also coming to Android N for our phones and tablets because it works really well.
Your Chromebook also manages memory a little differently than most other operating systems. We go into it a little more here, but the short version is that the things you’re looking at and the things you recently were looking at are kept in the memory. Your RAM has a 10MB portion reserved for this, and the only way to free it up is to shut your laptop down. This doesn’t make much of a difference if you were looking at cat pictures yesterday and are going to look at cat pictures again today, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep Google Docs and that boring company spreadsheet in the reserved portion if you’re done with it. You don’t have to wipe this cached data away because it will overwrite itself as you do different things, but there could be a small performance hit if you do things that way. Chrome boots so fast it’s easier on the system (and your battery) to shut down and start fresh for each session.
To be clear — your Chromebook will work just fine if you never shut it off. Chrome is Linux, and some Linux computers go for years without being power cycled.
But to take advantage of the update system as well as the way Google uses your RAM for great performance, the best thing you can do each night is power down. You can shut down by pressing and holding the power button, or by clicking in the status area (next to your account picture on the tray) and clicking the power icon.
