Month: March 2016

Andrew Cunningham

Behold, the iPhone SE.

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CUPERTINO, Calif.—It's a big day for small phones. Today, Apple announced its anticipated “iPhone SE,” Apple’s first new 4-inch phone since the iPhone 5C and 5S were released in the fall of 2013. 

The phone is a throwback in a lot of ways. It's got the same 1136x640 resolution screen as the iPhone 5 family, and its general design borrows much more from those older phones than it does from the thinner, more rounded 6 and 6S. It looks like and is probably best described as “an iPhone 5S but faster.”

Apple VP Greg Joswiak introduced the device, noting that there was great demand for a smaller iPhone. "We sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015," he said.

Andrew Cunningham

Long-click on a tile to make is start wobbling. One way to create a folder at this point is to press the play/pause button. You can also drag apps on top of one another, but it's less consistent.

14 more images in gallery

CUPERTINO, Calif.—The new Apple TV and tvOS are mostly superior to the hardware and software they replaced, and they began the work of building the Apple TV into a platform rather than just a streaming box. That platform mostly seems solid, and its biggest problems are mostly the same ones that every streaming box has—battles between content creators and content providers make it hard to get everything you want, when you want, in the way you want it.

At today's product event, Tim Cook announced a free update for tvOS. The tvOS 9.2 update goes a long way toward fixing the problems that are within Apple's ability to fix. These mostly fall into three categories: improving text input and the sign-in/setup experience, decluttering the home screen, and improving navigation. On all three accounts, things have markedly improved.

Text input

This was my single biggest complaint with the Apple TV as it shipped—the new software keyboard required a ton of laborious swiping back and forth on the Siri Remote, and it made signing in to apps and setting the box up a giant pain. Using an old Apple TV remote or universal remote could restore the old software keyboard grid, but it was barely better.

At a town hall event on Monday, Apple announced a few new interchangeable bands for the Apple Watch. The company will now sell a woven nylon band option that features a four-layer construction and comes in some flashy colors, including light blue, pink, and yellow. The Sport band collection is receiving some new colors as well, and Apple has also added a black version of the luxe Milanese Loop band.

According to Tim Cook, about one-third of Apple Watch wearers regularly switch out their wristbands. That's a particularly interesting figure when you consider that each Apple Watch comes with just one band—if you want extra options, you'll have to shell out more money. Additional bands don't come cheap, either: the Sport bands are $49 each and the Milanese Loop along with the Classic Buckle straps are $149 when purchased separately. If nothing else, this points to the trend of Apple Watch wearers wanting extra wristbands to personalize the look and feel of their smartwatch.

Apple didn't mention any new partnerships with fashion houses or other design companies, nor did it touch upon its hyped partnership with Hermés that it announced last fall. The luxury leather bands start at $1,100, making them significantly more expensive than the base model of the Apple Watch itself. Apple didn't get into pricing for the new nylon bands, but Apple's store website should update with the new bands and pricing soon.

Just a month ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation accused Apple of a public relations marketing stunt when the company refused to comply with a court order to help the bureau unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

"Apple’s current refusal to comply with the Court’s Order, despite the technical feasibility of doing so, instead appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in a court filing. Those remarks came days after Apple CEO Tim Cook published a message on the gadget maker's website telling consumers that the government's "overreach" would "undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect." In Cook's eyes, Apple was being asked to implement a backdoor of sorts to its mobile phone's encryption.

But would Cook take his biggest stage, during the latest product launch of new shiny gadgets on Monday, and again rail against the government's demands? Would Cook, or anybody from Apple, take a swipe at the government and play into its hands while unveiling a new iPad, iPhone, or other product during a live-streamed event from company headquarters? Would that happen just one day before the much-anticipated court hearing?

NASA subsidizes the Russian space program through astronaut launches, like Jeff Williams on March 18, but for how much longer? (credit: NASA)

When it comes to space, Russia talks a good game. It speaks of sending humans to the Moon in 2029. It is building a large, $3 billion cosmodrome in far Eastern Russia. And at present it can boast of being NASA's only means of getting astronauts to the International Space Station.

But behind a reliable program of aging rockets that date to the 1960s (the Soyuz and Proton launch vehicles), most of Russia's successes have come in conjunction with NASA during the last two decades. Beyond this participation in the space station program, however, lies a much beleaguered science program. Russia has not had a successful interplanetary mission in more than three decades since 1984’s launch of Vega 2, a probe to Venus and Halley’s Comet.

Now comes more concern for the Russian space program. Amid the country's budget problems due to a slump in oil prices and western sanctions for its intervention into Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev intends to cut funding for Russia's space program by 30 percent, Reuters has reported.

That green box in the middle of this Aperture Science scene indicates it's running right in the middle of the adaptive performance curve. (credit: Alex Vlachos)

Officially, Valve's SteamVR performance test seems to require a high-powered Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card or better for high-quality "VR ready" performance. At a GDC talk last week, though, Valve Graphics Programmer Alex Vlachos detailed how a number of adaptive quality programming tricks let him run Valve's impressive Aperture Science VR demo passably on a four-year-old Nvidia GTX 680.

That's especially impressive because VR graphics can often push even high-end graphics cards to their limits. In virtual reality, the graphics hardware has to push two separate views (one for each eye) at a rock-solid 90 frames per second to avoid a nauseating delay between head movement and the view shown on the display. That leaves the graphics card only 11.1 ms per frame to render what can be complex 3D scenes.

The VR environment also means the user can often move the first person "camera" (i.e. their head) wherever they want, as fast as they want. Unlike a standard first-person engine, which usually displays the world only at standing or crouching height, a free-roaming VR engine needs to be potentially ready to display any object from any distance and any angle, rendering it quickly at a convincing level of detail. And a VR engine can't just slow to a crawl when scenes get crowded or complicated, either. Remember, dipping below 90 fps can be literally sickening.

Verizon FiOS TV app on Xbox One. (credit: Verizon)

Verizon is telling customers that its FiOS TV apps for Xbox game consoles and smart TVs will be discontinued, limiting the options for hardware on which to view live programming.

Several people have reported receiving an e-mail from Verizon that states the following:

On March 31, 2016, the FiOS TV app you are using to watch your FiOS TV programming through a Smart TV or an Xbox gaming system will be retired and will no longer be available for use. Sorry for the inconvenience.

But we have great news; you can watch your FiOS TV content using our FiOS Mobile app from your smartphone or tablet. This app allows you to stream TV content in and out of your home and so much more.

Verizon's website still lists the FiOS TV app as being available for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Samsung's smart TVs and Blu-ray players. Verizon says the "app allows you to enjoy FiOS TV without the need for an additional set-top box"—for the next 10 days, anyway.