Over the years of true wireless earbuds, Sony has consistently kept its place among the best with its 1000X series. Just when it seems like others may gain ground through software tricks or beefed-up noise-cancellation, the company adds new features or improves audio quality to ensure it continues to dominate.
With this year’s WF-1000XM5 true wireless earbuds, there’s a notable caveat: At $300, these are the most expensive earbuds yet from Sony – and a chunk of change above rival headphones. These earbuds are undoubtedly the company’s best and most comfortable design in its premium model so far, which was one of the few remaining riddles Sony needed to solve – aside from the complicated, unmemorable name, the WF-1000XM5. Not exactly AirPods, is it? If you can afford them, the buds launch on August 4th and are available to pre-order now. And check out the full review right here.
– Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Microsoft is promoting the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie by giving away a limited batch of pizza-scented Xbox controllers. Apart from the built-in scent diffuser, though, these are otherwise stock Xbox controllers with TMNT style, in four variants that reflect the four ninja turtles. To win one – they won’t go on sale – you'll have to follow Xbox Game Pass on Twitter X and retweet a post before August 13th. If you absolutely must operate a pizza-scented controller, these will be out and about at Microsoft's Experience Center on New York's Fifth Avenue for an August 2nd promo event.
It’s long been rumored Musk is keen to bring fintech features to Twitter.
Twitter’s rebrand to X is officially underway, and CEO Linda Yaccarino has offered some new clues about what it may mean for the company. In a memo reported by CNBC, Yaccarino suggested payments and banking features could feature prominently in Elon Musk’s new vision. Back in January, the Financial Times reported he wanted “to offer fintech services such as peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts and debit cards” to users.
Is it time to replace your notebook with something high-tech? There’s been a boom in e-ink tablets to replace your myriad notebooks with something that can connect to the internet, detect your handwriting and more. We tested a bunch of the most popular e-ink tablets available – and we have recommendations.
A Premium Single subscription is going from $10 to $11 a month.
Hot on the heels of price bumps at Peacock, Apple Music and YouTube, Spotify is the latest to inch up the prices of its services. Spotify has announced it's raising the price of all its Premium plans. In the United States, this means a Premium Single subscription is going from $10 a month to $11 a month — its first increase since Spotify launched over a decade ago. Its Premium Family and Student plans are also going up by a dollar, now costing $17 and $6 per month, respectively. Premium Duo has the largest bump, going up two dollars per month from $13 to $15.
Apple is now making its Vision Pro developer kits available. If you qualify, you'll get a loaned mixed reality headset as well as help with setup, expert "check-ins" and extra support requests beyond what developers normally get. You're submitting an application, not buying a product like the old Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit, so you'll need to detail your existing apps and overall team talent. The company will favor creators whose app "takes advantage" of the Vision Pro's features. Apple also demands developers keep the Vision Pro in a secure workspace only authorized team members can access.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-our-verdict-on-sonys-newest-noise-canceling-earbuds-111504008.html?src=rss
In a series of tweets last Saturday, Musk said the company’s famous bird logo and name would soon disappear. The company will change from Twitter to “X.” According to Platformer, Musk emailed staff later over the weekend saying the company would become X and his note “was the last email he’ll ever send from a Twitter email address.” And a lot of those changes have now happened.
Twitter’s own account is now all “X” branding, and it’s rolled out quickly elsewhere. Twitter employees are getting an “X” tag to their Twitter handles, next to their blue check, while the “X” logo has already been projected on a building, like a bat signal for self-aggrandizing tech executives and their minions. (I’m still not sure what this tweet (X?) even means.)
X.com was once an online bank co-founded by Musk in 1999. It eventually became PayPal and was bought by eBay. Of course, we already have SpaceX, his recently announced AI venture is called xAI and Twitter’s holding company was rammed to X Corp in April. Musk has also talked about how X would help Twitter become an “everything app.”
Terms that still need to be rebranded: subtweets, retweets, fail whales.
– Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Plus, we chat with the director and writers of Netflix's ‘They Cloned Tyrone.’
AI can now place us inside South Park episodes – should we be worried? This week, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham chat with Edward Saatchi, the CEO of The Simulation, about his company’s new AI technology that can generate TV episodes, movies and more. We preview a test South Park episode featuring Devindra and discuss if this technology is actually a good thing for creatives. Also, Editor at Large James Trew joins to discuss his piece on AI-powered immortality.
Some redditors were very excited about a new World of Warcraft feature called Glorbo. Just one problem: Glorbo isn't real. Their faux enthusiasm for Glorbo caught the attention of a blog named The Portal, which publishes "gaming content powered by Z League" – often tenuously rewritten subreddit scraping, seemingly done by AI. (We hope it’s not a human.)
Redditor u/kaefer_kriegerin noticed The Portal was turning discussions from some gaming subreddits into blog posts. They decided to try to trick the content farm into covering a fake WoW feature. The ruse was a success. The Portal's now-deleted blog post even quoted u/kaefer_kriegerin as stating, "Honestly, this new feature makes me so happy! I just really want some major bot-operated news websites to publish an article about this."
The best VPNs stay out of your way, and you'll barely even notice they’re running. But ExpressVPN internet speeds outperformed even our baseline internet speed measures. The service is likely circumventing traffic shaping by the internet service provider or a similar anomaly because every other VPN will hurt internet speed in some way. It was also easy to access geo-blocked content using ExpressVPN, with little-to-no buffering – which is the cheeky reason a lot of us invest in a VPN.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-twitter-rebrands-itself-as-x-and-ditches-the-bird-111524841.html?src=rss
As competition finally starts to figure out foldables, Samsung’s ready to prove it can still deliver them best. Its next Unpacked event is teasing a new generation of foldable phones, flanked by smartwatches and tablets. Here's what we're expecting.
While it hasn’t named the new hardware, the company is expected to reveal the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5. This year, though, the priorities are inverted. Where the book-style Fold is usually the main attraction, this year the Flip clamshell might get the most attention, with a substantially expanded front screen to go up against competition like Motorola’s Razr+. Both the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 may adopt a “waterdrop” hinge, which narrows the gap while closed. Why should we care? It’ll be a slimmer foldable and have a smaller gap when the device is closed.
Wearable-wise, the company has not-so-subtly hinted the Galaxy Watch 6 will appear at Unpacked, and reports even hint at a Classic or Pro version to bring back the physical rotating bezel. (Some people are obsessed with smartwatches with a rotating bezel.)
Rounding out predictions, expect to see Samsung’s latest premium Android, the Galaxy Tab S9. We’re expecting to see base, plus and ultra versions of the laptop with upgraded screens and maybe even IP67 dust and water protection.
Samsung is streaming the event on its YouTube channel, starting at 7 AM ET on the 26th. Don’t worry if you’d rather sleep in — we’ll be liveblogging along and will hopefully get some hands-ons with the new devices. Stay tuned.
Mitnick became a White Hat hacker and cybersecurity consultant after prison.
Once the world's most wanted computer hacker, Kevin Mitnick, passed away at 59 on July 16th. The first time Mitnick infiltrated a computer system was way back in 1979, but he wasn't convicted until 1988 when he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for copying a company's software. He broke into Pacific Bell's voicemail computers when he was under supervised release and continued to hack into cell networks, as well as company and government websites, as a fugitive in the ‘90s.
Mitnick was also involved in the theft of thousands of files and credit card numbers, but his obituary says he "never took one dime from any of his 'victims.' Mitnick eventually ended up spending five years in prison, which he described as a "vacation" by the time he was freed. From there, he changed the course of his career and became a White Hat hacker and cybersecurity consultant.
That's a significant $2 increase with no official announcement.
I hinted at this yesterday, but here are the finer details. YouTube Premium has jumped by a significant $2 from $12 to $14, while the annual price went from $120 to $140 per month, a savings of about $28 over paying month by month. Last year, Google hiked the family Premium plan to $23 per month and charged existing month-by-month subscribers the new fee.
According to The New York Times, Google is testing a new AI technology, codenamed Genesis, which can generate news articles. The tech giant has reportedly demonstrated the tool to The Times and executives at The Washington Post and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal. Based on reports from people who witnessed the pitch, Genesis can whip up copy from the data fed to it, whether it's current events or other types of information. Google believes journalists could use it as an assistant to automate tasks and free them up for other things. Some journalists fear it could well free them up from their jobs.
But the bots aren’t quite there yet: CNEThad to issue corrections after being made aware of substantial errors in most of the 77 machine-written articles it published under the CNET Money byline. And just earlier this month, Gizmodo's io9published a Star Wars piece full of errors attributed to the Gizmodo Bot.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-what-to-expect-at-samsungs-unpacked-2023-event-next-week-111516314.html?src=rss
Netflix has removed its $10 Basic tier — once the service's cheapest plan without ads — in the US and the UK. The company has updated its pricing page to say new and rejoining members in both countries can no longer sign up for the Basic tier. If you’re already on the plan, you can keep your membership as is (and pay $10 a month) until you cancel or change your subscription – or Netflix changes its mind, I’m guessing.
If new members don't want to pay for a Standard plan, they must now make do with the Standard Ad-Supported tier, which costs $7 a month in the US and £5 in the UK. It supports Full HD streams and viewing on two devices at a time, like the no-ads Standard plan but lacks offline viewing. How many ads are you likely to see if you want to save money? Netflix says you’ll get an average of four minutes of ads an hour at around 15 to 30 seconds each, which, of course, you can’t skip. Streaming services are all looking to get more money out of us, whether they’re closing off their cheapest plans or increasing their base prices. YouTube Premium seems to be following suit.
Apple is working on its very own chatbot, according to Bloomberg sources. Engineers have cheekily named the toolset AppleGPT, but it’s actually called Ajax, as the large language model (LLM) was built using Google’s JAX framework. Sources indicate Apple has multiple teams working on the project, with one team devoted to addressing potential privacy concerns. This move comes after Apple CEO, Tim Cook, told Good Morning America that generative AI is something the company is “looking at closely.” According to Bloomberg, John Giannandrea and Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, are leading the initiative.
In 2023, when new generations of phones never seem quite as exciting as the last, Nothing has made the Phone 2 stand out. Its eye-catching design captures some of the best qualities of clear plastic gadgets from the ‘90s, but in a more sophisticated way. Nothing’s Monochrome UI asks users to be more thoughtful about how they use their device while giving them tools like the Glyph interface that can surface info and notifications in novel ways. It’s also very similar to the company’s first phone.
The changes that matter most are the ones you can’t see.
After almost six years, Beats is back with new over-ear noise-canceling headphones. A significant update from the Studio 3 Wireless, the new Studio Pro is a familiar formula reconfigured from the inside out. A second-generation version of Beats’ own audio chip powers this new model, delivering improvements to active noise cancellation (ANC), spatial audio with dynamic head tracking and wired audio modes via USB-C connection. The one thing that hasn’t particularly changed? The $350 price.
Robosen announced a new auto-converting Transformer today. After launching its self-transforming Optimus Prime in 2021, the company set its sights on Grimlock, the Autobot-allied leader of the Dinobots, who changes from a robot into a mechanical T-Rex. The Grimlock collectible stands 15 inches tall in robot mode and 15.4 inches in dinosaur mode. Robosen describes its auto-transforming as “the epitome of auto-conversion” – all for just $1,699, or $1,499 for pre-orders.
Don’t go poking around your kitchen drawer gadget graveyard just yet. The first-gen iPhone, sold by LCG Auctions, was apparently a factory-sealed device in "exceptional condition." The auctioneer noted the former owner was part of Apple's engineering team when the iPhone debuted. The lot drew 28 bids, including five over $100,000. In recent months, LCG Auctions has sold two 8GB variants of the first-generation iPhone for $39,000 and $63,000.
This particular listing stood out by being a rare 4GB model. Apple only produced this model for two months. It's unlikely the buyer will actually open the package and use the phone, but if they did, they wouldn't even be able to make a phone call, since 2G networks are long gone in many parts of the world. Even selfies and FaceTime won't work, since there's no front-facing camera. And the main camera wouldn’t offer much when it comes to photography, anyway, with its 2-megapixel sensor. Aww, cute.
The first iPhone, launched in 2007, faced rivals in the Nokia N95, the Samsung BlackJack and the BlackBerry 8800. If you want a different, less notable slice of mobile history, all of those are under $20 on eBay.
Amazon’s new approach to Echo Buds has produced interesting results. The company was only going to improve things so much at its previous midrange price point – there’s a limit to how much tech you can add to a $150 set. Going for the budget buyers instead of building a high-end set of $300 earbuds makes more sense, considering Amazon’s approach to pretty much every other kind of device it makes. Still, the company created low-cost Echo Buds with sound quality that punches above the price point.
Well, not me, but my colleague Devindra Hardawar. During a time of Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strikes and the growing presence of AI in the creative industries, Devindra was thrust into an episode of South Park, entirely produced by the Showrunner AI model from The Simulation, the next iteration of the VR studio Fable. Audio of his voice, a picture and a two-sentence prompt: That was all it took to create a (middling) unofficial episode of the cartoon series. Read how it was made and check out the simulation.
E-bike company VanMoof has declared bankruptcy for all its Dutch entities and aims to find a buyer in the "next few weeks." The news came through a mass email to Dutch employees, which was subsequently shared on Reddit. Bankruptcy proceedings have come to VanMoof less than two years after it claimed to be the "most funded e-bike company in the world" while announcing a $128 million investment. But trouble has been brewing for some time, with it allegedly costing more money to sell and service its bikes than people were paying for them. VanMoof told employees there are "no funds to pay the salaries" long-term and gave them a six-week notice period, during which they are expected to work before their final payments. The company’s bikes were impressive premium rides, but it’s struggled to sustain the business side of things.
The trend has taken off online, despite no real evidence of its benefits.
“Let’s see what a Snickers bar does to my blood sugar,” Justin Richard, a 52-year-old Toronto-based TikToker says just before eating the candy bar on camera. In the following clip, Richard eats a cup of broccoli before eating another full Snickers bar, to show how variations in his food intake can impact his blood glucose – to the shock of none. Continuous glucose monitors (or CGMs) have long been used as a tool to track blood sugar levels for people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Here’s the thing, though: Richard does not have diabetes. Not only are CGMs questionably useful for healthy individuals, but they can be expensive. Malak Saleh takes a closer look.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-an-unopened-first-gen-iphone-just-sold-for-190000-111552947.html?src=rss
How many times have you posted to Threads this week? After becoming the fastest-growing social network of all time, new data from analytics firm SimilarWeb suggests engagement on Threads has substantially declined from initial highs.
Threads saw daily active users decline from 49 million on July 7th to 23.6 million on July 14th, SimilarWeb writes in a new report. That’s still… millions, of course. And in the United States, which reportedly saw the highest engagement, use plummeted from 21 minutes per day to just over six minutes in the same period. To couch these estimates, SimilarWeb’s analysis is based only on Android app use, but it tallies with other companies’ findings – and anecdotally, I’ve seen my close friends and Threads favorites post a lot less.
In a Threads post on Friday, Instagram’s top exec, Adam Mosseri, suggested the company wasn’t particularly focused on engagement metrics at this stage. (Of course he’d say that.)
He wrote, “Our focus right now is not engagement, which has been amazing, but getting past the initial peak and trough we see with every new product and building new features, dialing in performance and improving ranking.”
– Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
One of the last traces of the early Xbox era is going away. Microsoft is replacing Xbox Live Gold with a Game Pass Core tier on September 14th. The $60 per year (or $10 per month) subscription is necessary to play most online multiplayer games on consoles, but the other benefits will soon be a little more constrained. The company is sunsetting Games with Gold, which offered a steady flow of titles for Live subscribers. Instead, you'll get a base collection of more than 25 games with new entries two to three times per year. Most of them are first-party games, like Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4 and Halo 5, but there will be the occasional third-party project, like Among Us and Human Fall Flat.
‘This risk is real,’ warned the Dutch whistleblower.
A typo has apparently routed millions of US military emails — some containing highly sensitive information — to Mali. The problem stems from entering .ml instead of .mil for the receiving email address domain. According to the Financial Times, the one-letter mistake has exposed data like “diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords and the travel details of top officers” — and much more. Although the misdirected emails have (so far) landed with a contractor tasked with managing Mali’s country domain, control of .ml will soon revert to Mali’s government, which has ties to Russia.
Lt. Cmdr Tim Gorman, speaking for the Pentagon, told the FT the Department of Defense “is aware of this issue and takes all unauthorized disclosures of controlled national security information or controlled unclassified information seriously.” He said emails sent from .mil to .ml addresses “are blocked before they leave the .mil domain, and the sender is notified that they must validate the email addresses of the intended recipients,” which suggests the misdirected emails may have come from US military workers’ personal accounts.
Computer monitors keep evolving rapidly, with new technology like OLED Flex, QD-OLED and built-in smart platforms in the last year alone. That’s on top of big improvements in things like color accuracy, size and resolution. As there are a lot of products in this market and a lot of features, it can be overwhelming, so we’ve researched the latest models for all kinds of markets, whether you’re a gamer, business user or content creator. Read on to find out which model is the best for you and your budget.
Russian authorities are banning government employees from using Apple devices for official state use, according to the Financial Times. As of Monday, the country’s trade ministry will prohibit the use of iPhones for all “work purposes.” Other agencies, including Russia’s telecommunications and mass media ministry, either have similar mandates already in place or plan to enforce some soon. The Financial Times reports the ban covers all Apple products – no, not Yuri’s AirPods, too? Well, officials will apparently be able to continue using those for personal use.
The ban comes after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed at the start of June it had uncovered a “spying operation by US intelligence agencies” involving Apple devices. The FSB said thousands of iPhones, including those in use by the country’s diplomatic missions in NATO countries, had been “infected” with monitoring software. The FSB claimed — without showing evidence — that Apple had worked closely with US signal intelligence to provide agents “with a wide range of control tools.” The company denies this. The move comes when Russia is also trying to reduce its dependence on foreign-made tech.
To celebrate Nintendo’s first home console’s anniversary, we’ve taken a closer look at some of the major ways it’s shaped gaming since 1983. That includes innovations (at the time!) like the d-pad, the idea of gaming franchises and game characters and mascots that have stood the test of time.
Ahead of its full launch later this year, there's plenty to test out in the latest iOS beta. Its new StandBy feature might not be a smart display killer, but it’s possibly a free alternative. Other highlights include a revitalized FaceTime experience, a streamlined Messages app and a long-overdue solution for sharing contact details.
To the shock of none, Elon Musk tweeted the company was suffering an approximate 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt burden. According to an estimate research firm Sensor Tower shared with Bloomberg, advertising spending fell by 89 percent to $7.6 million during a two-month period earlier this year. The admission comes in the same week Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program began paying out some creators, including a handful of controversial far-right influencers. On Friday, Musk also claimed the social network could see “all-time high device user seconds usage” sometime this week.
Writing in his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports there “should be another launch” after the company’s annual iPhone event in September, with a new slate of Macs likely the focus of whatever Apple has planned. “October is too early for new high-end MacBook Pros or desktops, so the first beneficiaries of the new [M3] chip should be the next iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro,” he notes.
In the past, Apple has typically announced new iPad models alongside its latest Macs, but it sounds like that won’t be the case this time. “I wouldn’t expect any major upgrades until the M3 iPad Pros with OLED screens arrive next year,” Gurman writes.
Ubisoft has teamed up with OWO to release an Assassin's Creed Mirage edition haptic feedback shirt. You'll apparently be able to feel parkour, impacts and "exclusive sensations never felt before" — yes, really. You might want to close the door while you're playing, from the sound of it. OWO's shirt includes haptic points on your chest, stomach, lower back and arms. The trick is an algorithm that adjusts nine wave parameters to simulate interactions ranging from the wind to a dagger. Details of pricing and release date are TBC, but it will work with PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game comes out October 12th, and the OWO shirt will include a game code. OWO's Founder Edition shirt sold for a heady €499 ($560).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-russia-bans-apple-devices-for-state-officials-111540456.html?src=rss
Virgin Galactic, having flown its first commercial spaceflight in late June, is ready to take civilians to the edge of space, briefly. The company plans to launch its first private passenger flight, Galactic 02, as soon as August 10th. Virgin isn't yet revealing the names of everyone involved, but there will be three passengers aboard, alongside crew.
The company says it's establishing a "regular cadence" of flights – and it needs that. Virgin Galactic has operated at a loss for years and lost $500 million in 2022 alone. The business won't recoup all those losses anytime soon, even at $450,000 per ticket. But the focus is pretty clear: make the case for space tourism… at least for the one-percenters.
Blue subscribers will need a significant following to get a cut.
Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program for creators has officially launched — and it’s reportedly already begun paying eligible Blue subscribers. Elon Musk announced the initiative in February, but with scant details about how it would work, nobody knew quite what to expect. However, some high-profile users report they’ve received notifications about incoming deposits. The bar is high to receive a transfer from the Musk-owned social media company. The support post says the revenue-sharing system applies to Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations subscribers with at least five million post impressions in each of the past three months. One user claims they’re set to receive over $24,000. Going to need more to get into space, my friend.
Sony’s Access controller will be available worldwide on December 6th. It costs $90 and pre-orders open July 21st. The new accessibility-focused controller comes with four 3.5mm aux ports, enabling players to connect external buttons, switches and other accessories. The box includes 19 button caps and three stick caps to help you find a configuration that works best for you. You can even pair up to two Access controllers and one DualSense together to create a "single virtual controller." That means two or even three people could control the same character, granting friends and family members the option to lend a helping hand.
It’ll bring women's players to Ultimate Team for the first time.
EA's long-standing partnership with FIFA ended after FIFA 23, marking a new era for EA's flagship soccer series. EA Sports FC 24 will hit PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on September 29th. EA says more than 19,000 authentic players, 30-plus leagues and over 100 stadiums will be represented in the new game. The company has also secured exclusive deals with the English Premier League and UEFA to use their branding and retain access to competitions like the Champions League.
The Associated Press (AP) and ChatGPT parent company OpenAI have reached a news-sharing agreement, but it doesn’t involve AI chatbots quickly churning out content but enabling better training of OpenAI’s algorithmic models. It looks like AP will receive access to OpenAI’s proprietary technology as part of the exchange. AP doesn’t use generative AI to write articles, but it already uses similar technologies to automate corporate earnings reports and cover local sporting events.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-virgin-galactics-first-private-passenger-spaceflight-will-launch-next-month-111540932.html?src=rss
Apple just launched its iOS 17 public beta, meaning you can test out the latest iPhone software if you’re willing to live with a bug or two. I’ve been using iPhone 14 Pro with the developer beta for the last few weeks and there are plenty of features and upgrades to dig into. While some of the more exciting features weren’t available until mere days ago, some nice quality-of-life improvements are here from the get-go. If you’re intrigued by Apple’s new Journal app, though, I’m afraid that won’t arrive until later in the year.
But if you want machine learning to transcribe your friends' voice notes, or turn your iPhone into a smart display, then you might be willing to dip your toe into the public beta. You can access the iOS preview by enrolling on Apple’s website, which will nudge the beta to your iPhone’s Software Update section. As always, remember to back up your iPhone first and ensure it’s compatible. (iOS 17 will work on 2018’s iPhone XS and newer devices.)
A note on Developer betas
This year, instead of releasing the iOS 17 public beta in July, Apple released its developer beta for iOS, iPadOS and macOS Sonoma for anyone with free developer accounts. Normally, to access betas right after the WWDC keynote you’d have to pay $100 a year for a paid developer account. This means anyone (yes, even you) could have dabbled with this early build starting in early June. Not that we’d advise doing that. Early releases of iOS, including its public beta that’s out now, are often rough around the edges, while apps are prone to restarting or not working as they should on Apple’s very latest mobile OS. The developer version is that, times five.
Messages and FaceTime
Photo taken by Mat Smith / Engadget
Apple continues tugging me toward Messages, yet I’m stuck with WhatsApp because all of my friends and family are on it — even those with iPhones. iOS continues to make being a WhatsApp user a challenging decision to stick with.
I’m already in love with audio message transcription. The next time that certain friend leaves a lengthy 12-minute monologue, the iPhone’s machine learning tricks will auto-transcribe the contents of that voice note, audio quality (and accent) permitting. In my experience, it was accurate with both my British voice and my colleague Cherlynn’s American accent.
Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget
Most of Messages’ biggest upgrades are siloed away behind the plus button, which helps keep the interface tidy. Check-In is Apple’s take on automating the “text me when you get home,” doing half the work once your iPhone detects you’ve returned. If your phone detects that you’re not headed in the right direction, Check In will even notify you that you might have made a mistake.
Apple has integrated a lot of settings to make Check In work how you want it to. You can use it when your destination isn’t your home, or even set it up for a timed period when perhaps you’re home alone, but are expecting visitors. More information from your phone can be shared when you're delayed, including battery levels and signal levels.
Apple has now consolidated its stickers into one drawer, encompassing live stickers, memoji, emoji and third-party stickers. Live Stickers, which you can make by tapping to ‘lift’ subjects out of photos (it can still be a person, a pet or an object, as long as it’s visually distinct enough), get archived in their own sticker drawer. With iOS 17, you can also apply some sticker effects, like “shiny” and “puffy” that undulate when you move your phone, taking us back to pencil cases of the ‘90s. Or maybe that’s just me. Beyond Messages, stickers can be applied directly from the sticker drawer to your photos and documents.
FaceTime has received a few updates this year, but the most notable one is video voicemail. While you could send videos on Messages, you can now leave spontaneous video (or voice) messages in FaceTime when someone doesn’t pick up your call. In iOS 17, thanks to further refinement of Apple’s Continuity Camera, across Apple devices. You can now display your FaceTime video calls on Apple TV, tapping into the cameras already in your iPhones, iPads or MacBooks. Any recorded messages you receive will be stored in FaceTime’s Recent tab, along with your missed calls. You can even take FaceTime calls — audio-only — on your Apple Watch.
You can record FaceTime video messages through both the front and rear cameras and amp up the visual pizazz with Portrait mode and Studio Light. Apple has opened up these video effects to Zoom, Microsoft Teams and more. Gesture-based AR effects are along for the ride too, including fireworks (two thumbs up), confetti cannons (double peace signs) and when you make a devil horn sign? Laser beams. Of… course. I soon learned you’ll have to hold these poses for a little too long in order for your iPhone to recognize and trigger the AR effect. It’s a delight when they happen, though.
StandBy
Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget
Apple hasn’t launched a smart display (yet), so it’s making your iPhone into one. With StandBy, you'll get a different view when your phone is horizontal and charging. This consists of widgets, calendar info, music, your photos, news, sports scores and more. If you have an iPhone 14 Pro, it’ll always be visible due to the always-on display. You’ll have to tap to wake it on other devices.
Itl even transitions into a low-light smart display later at night so you can use it as an alarm clock. Given the strides Apple has made with its widgets on iPhones and Apple Watch, I’m intrigued to see whether this is a useful new feature for when I’m not actively using my iPhone. I’ve loved seeing my photos on my Nest Hub, but let’s be honest – I’m looking at, and nearer to, my phone, pretty much most of the day. The iPhone will automatically separate your photos into places (and its own photography) and people recognized in your own contacts. You’ll also get music and podcast controls for audio playback, which looks a lot like CarPlay.
Apple has folded its Smart Stacks into these StandBy widgets, so you can swipe between smart home controls, calendars, weather and more, customizing what information is a swipe away. Incoming calls will also feature a nice landscape version of iOS 17’s new Contact Posters.
Contact Posters
Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget
Contact Posters are the most significant visual upgrade to iOS 17. It’s a new way to show your contact’s incoming calls, contact profiles, FaceTime and Messages. You can edit your profile from the top left corner of most of those native apps, mixing together different fonts, photos, and color options – I like the monochrome photo filter paired with a pop of color, like it’s a fictional magazine profile headshot. There are almost infinite options here, and it does help to make calls from your favorite people seem, somehow, more glamorous. You don’t have to have taken photos in portrait mode either to make the cutout outline of your head and name; as long as the iPhone detects the object, like stickers, it’ll do the rest.
NameDrop
This has been a long-time coming, right? NameDrop, using the same AirDrop transferring tech, can share your contact details (and your gorgeous new Contact Poster) just by bringing two devices close together. You can fine-tune what contact details are shared, like your work or personal email, or even choose to receive only. Photos and even links on Safari can also be shared through this method, and AirDrop will even continue transferring content even if you step away, through the internet. This is all done through the usual share button on both native and compatible third-party apps.
Everything else
If you recall from Apple’s WWDC keynote last month, these are just some of the major highlights of what iOS 17 has to offer. Apple says its enhanced keyboard language model ushers in an improved Autocorrect, while any corrections should also be easier to fix. Any autocorrected words are temporarily underlined so you know what was changed. If you tap on an autocorrected word, you’ll see the original version pop up and you can tap it to put it back. Duck yes.
Regarding voice assistant Siri, it can now handle back-to-back commands if you want to both set a timer and turn off a smart light. Siri can also be summoned even while you’re on a call with someone.
The Fitness app now has a trophy case to show off your best workout runs, custom workout plans if you pay for Fitness+ and the ability to adjust the sound mix of workouts, prioritizing either music or trainers’ voices. Meanwhile, News+ subscribers will now be able to tackle crosswords, while News+ audio stories will now also be available in the podcast app.
Photo taken by Mat Smith / Engadget
Inline predictive text, a la Gmail, is also built in, so iOS will occasionally nudge your messages along with predictive single- and multi-word additions before you even type them. Thankfully, it’s a very light touch so far. Then again, maybe it’s just learning how I type – I’ll circle back once the OS officially launches in the fall. And you can turn it off in settings if it’s not working for you.
What’s still to come
The iOS 17 beta gives you a taste of what’s coming to your iPhone later this year. There are a few tempting features not available to test just yet. That includes the third-party journaling app killer, Apple’s own Journal app,. Where you can “write about and reflect on everyday moments and special events in your life.” The company says it’ll tap into on-device machine learning to personalize what you might like to write about, including photos, locations, music and even workout data. I’m waiting to see how it all works in practice. And if you’re going to be writing about your deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings, you will be able to lock your Journal from prying eyes.
There are other features I’m still waiting to try, including new auto-generated song suggestions for your own existing playlists and Conversation Awareness, which is coming to second-generation AirPods Pro. When you start talking to someone while still wearing your buds, the device will lower playback volume and enhance the voice of people in front of you, while still minimizing background noise.
Wrap-up
Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget
Yes, there are still a few mysteries to iOS 17 ahead of its full launch, but plenty to test out in the beta. I’m still getting to grips with StandBy. It might not be a smart display killer, but it’s possibly a free alternative. Other highlights include a revitalized FaceTime experience, a streamlined Messages app and a long-overdue solution for sharing contact details. But some of the most exciting parts are still to come, making this a less essential beta than some recent years. Most of us can wait for the fully-formed public release, arriving later this summer.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-17-preview-public-beta-facetime-standby-iphone-120025938.html?src=rss
The Perseverance Rover has found evidence of organic compounds in the Jezero Crater on Mars. Don’t get too excited: These compounds could have also developed in nonbiological ways. But even if it’s not proof of organic life on Mars, the results hint at complex organic conditions for the “key building blocks for life.” Organic molecules like those observed in the Jezero Crater contain carbon and often hydrogen atoms. They’re the core components of life as we know it on Earth.
The rover found organic materials in all ten targets it observed on the crater floor. “Our results support observations by previous robotic missions to Mars that the Red Planet was once rich in organic material, compounds made primarily of carbon and hydrogen, and that some of that organic material can still be detected billions of years later,” co-author Joseph Razzell Hollis, a London-based astrobiologist, told Gizmodo. “Each detection, each observation, gives us a little bit more information that brings us closer to understanding the history of Mars and whether it could have supported life in the past.”
Hopefully, scientists can maintain this level of excitement. They’ll have to wait for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which isn’t expected to launch from Earth until at least the late 2020s.
Just a year ago, Apple announced the biggest software update the iPad has ever seen. iPadOS 16 ushered in Stage Manager, a completely revamped multitasking mode. There were several other new features, as usual, but Stage Manager, in particular, brought the iPad closer than ever to a Mac or Windows PC experience. iPadOS 17, on the other hand, is a subtler update. We preview the beta, which is out on public release now.
It understands 40 languages and can speak its responses.
Google Bard’s latest round of updates includes expanded linguistic skills. It can now respond with spoken word in addition to text. It can do so in nearly four dozen languages. Users can now converse with the AI in Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish, among others, as well as access the platform from more places on the planet, such as Brazil and "across Europe." Users will have the option to either read or listen to the AI's generated responses, as well as have more control over how friendly Bard is, with five distinct AI tones: simple, long, short, professional or casual. Those are only available for English-language requests at the moment.
The immensely popular online game creation platform, Roblox, is coming to VR, thanks to the Meta Quest. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement, which was followed by an official Roblox blog post. A beta version of the app, according to Zuckerberg, launches in just a few weeks, via the Quest platform’s dedicated App Lab. This is going to be a fully cross-platform title, so anything you interact with or make on your phone or console should be accessible in VR.
The team will be holding a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday.
Elon Musk has a new AI company. A website has appeared for xAI, which will embark on the self-described mission to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The announcement comes after filing documents revealed the existence of a company called X.AI Corp earlier this year. Musk also said in April he wanted to start a venture for “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” which “hopefully does more good than harm.”
Not much else is known yet about Musk’s latest venture. He tweeted yesterday: “Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality.” The company webpage notes the team will host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14th.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-researchers-find-evidence-of-organic-matter-on-mars-111523432.html?src=rss
