Amazon launches Alexa, Echo, and Prime Music in Canada
Finally.
One of the problems with climate change is getting people to realise it was anthropogenic – created by people. It’s the same problem with social networks – they are manmade. If they are not serving humanity, they can and should be changed.
Apple Glasses: What are they and when are they being released?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=sJciRIZQTg4
WANT
Back to the future: Google’s vision for Toronto is straight out of the 19th century
Even if the negotiations fall apart thanks to Google’s demands or the city’s recalcitrance, there’s still good news: the most important parts of Sidewalk’s plans, the parts that would most determine whether the city’s eastern waterfront becomes a livable, green place that could accommodate Toronto’s burgeoning growth, don’t require Google’s impressive piles of money at all. The city could do it on its own — if it actually wants to.
There’s also this article from John Lorinc. The conclusion I’m coming to is that the plans aren’t bad – it’s Google’s involvement that makes them dodgy.
Toronto’s ‘city of the future’ is being built next to a relic of our past
Hollywood studios join Disney to launch Movies Anywhere digital locker service
Sounds like a good service,
a good ten years too late
Sonos Unveils New Sonos One Smart Speaker, Voice Assistant Integrations, Revamped App, and More
Super Nintendo Classic Edition review: the perfect way to play 16-bit classics
I’ve given up hope of getting one of these and am instead going a nerdier route via ROMs and a Raspberry Pi.
A small-screen iPod, an Internet Communicator and a Phone
Horace Dediu on the evolution of the Apple Watch
The Lessons and Questions of the iPhone X and the iPhone 8
A preview of the first wave of AR apps coming to iPhones
I’m a woman in computer science. Let me ladysplain the Google memo to you.
This is a thing that can happen now…?! (thanks y)
•Apple Plans to Release a Cellular-Capable Watch
And all-new form factor. Making the watch an independent device would be a very good thing.
iPhone Pro? iPhone 8? iPhone Edition? iPhone UniBrow?
Whatever the new expensive iPhone is going to be called, because of Apple’s (surely accidental?) release of HomePod firmware, we now know 1. the rumoured edge-to-edge-with-unibrow screen is real, 2. its resolution, 3. it has some crazy infrared face-detector thing.
This has spawned some speculation about the UI on such a thing. Since the chinless design means it’s almost certain the bottom strip of the display will include space for a virtual home button, it would make sense if the navigation bar wound up there too. This would also be easier for big-phone users to reach.
Another issue is: does Apple embrace the notch or hide it? The leaked device icon implies that they will embrace the notch (have the status bar match the colour of the screen rather than the black of the notch). I dunno. It is rumoured to be an OLED screen like that in the Apple Watch and some Android phones, and in OLED screens black pixels are actually off, so they can match the bezel exactly.
The other thing is the crazy 3D face-reading camera. Presumably that means TouchID is out. But taken alongside Apple’s new and potentially yuuuuuuge ARKit, 3D sensing cameras could mean some amped-up AR jazz up in this piece. Sadly, as close as these long dreamed-of technologies get to reality, it just makes my brain skip ahead to Apple Glasses and how close those might be. Can never stop dreaming those dreamin’ dreams!
Hackers Leak Episodes Of ‘Game Of Thrones’ After Massive HBO Hack
Episodes 3 (already aired) and 4, but they may have more
UPDATE: heh I forgot I had kinda already posted this. Although it was only a script when last reported.
HBO hacked: Game of Thrones data leaked
Script for the next episode, plus episodes of some other shows no one cares about
How much will the new iPhone cost?
Horace Dediu is predicting the price ceiling will be $1100, so perhaps $999 for the starting rung of the fancy (Pro?) model
Transcript & slides from a great talk about Keeping VR Weird, basically. I used to love Mondo 2000 when I was a teen.
•The Rowdy World of Rap’s New Underground
“SoundCloud rap” 😟
SoundCloud sinks as leaks say layoffs buy little time
Well that sucks.
Daring Fireball: Speculation Regarding the Pricing of and Strategy Behind This Year’s New iPhones
Thorough explanation of why a high tech OLED “iPhone Pro” would have to cost a lot ☹️
RED’s ‘Holographic Media Machine’ Feels Like an April Fools’ Joke
Red is weird. So it seems like they want to release a smartphone-based camera system. Makes sense given their business and the state of the industry (smartphones have eaten the low- and even mid-range camera market). But the press release-cum-pre-order says its “modular” and what you’re buying for $1200 here isn’t actually a camera, it’s a fancy phone gussied up with features and/or marketing buzzwords like “holographic”, “nanotechnology”, and “multi-dimensional audio”. Further “modules” not available at launch (Q1 2018).
But I still remember how skeptical people IN THE CAMERA INDUSTRY were about the Red One before it came out, and they delivered. (thanks Karim!)
Apple’s AR is closer to reality than Google’s
ARKit hasn’t been out for long and already some pretty crazy things are going down