Rumors about a new iPhone 7 and a petition of angry fans, a friendly hobby Apple and Samsung with unmanned vehicles, the fate of the mobile OS BlackBerry and Project Tango and other news …
The main event of the first weeks of the new year was the CES exhibition. Although the number of interesting new products is noticeably less than a few years ago, there was still something to see.
A whole series of materials devoted to CES was published on the pages of MR, so there is no point in dwelling on the past announcements again. Instead, let's talk about the news behind the scenes.
Apple
First of all, this is a huge number of rumors, leaks and predictions about a new iPhone. A couple of such gossip Apple even had to be officially refuted, which happens very rarely. In particular, information that, under pressure from European telecom operators, the company had to start developing an application for migration from iOS to Android.
On the one hand, such rumors were more than dubious anyway. On the other hand, there is no smoke without fire. And if until recently the right to sell devices to the Apple company was considered insane happiness and a great honor almost on any terms, now the situation is beginning to change. Telecom operators are less and less inclined to put interests Apple above their own, and iPhone is beginning to be perceived as just a good offer rather than a magic wand that can work a miracle. The idea that someone can demand something from Apple in an ultimatum manner no longer seems wild in itself, and this clearly makes the company nervous. After all, there is always a mass of the most dubious gossip about players of this level, and usually none of them even thinks about arranging official refutations of each inscription on the fence.
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Rumors about the possible abandonment of the physical key in the new iPhone look a little more reliable. In any case, they have been running on the network for a very long time and from time to time are even confirmed by leaks that have leaked into the network.
In particular, such a conclusion can be drawn from the photographs of the front panel iPhone 7. First, it turned out to be larger than that of the 6S. And secondly, an additional loop departs from it, which may belong to the built-in fingerprint scanner.
For comparison, this is how the same panel looks like on iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.
Just in case, let me remind you that the photographs may well turn out to be fake, and in any case, any far-reaching conclusions cannot be drawn from them.
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The same can be said about the rumors about the abandonment of the standard 3.5 audio jack. There is no official confirmation of this information, but many fans of the brand are still very afraid of this possibility.
It even went as far as a petition in Apple, which by the end of last week was signed by over 200,000 people. Apparently, the need to throw away your favorite headphones in a landfill and run to buy a model with a new plug tempts very few. Although, in any case, there will certainly be some kind of adapter – he likes and knows how to make money on such things Apple.
Arbor number 70. Goodbye 3.5mm
In general, the situation is unique. In any case, I can hardly imagine that fans of Samsung Galaxy or HTC One wrote such petitions six months before the announcement of the new flagship, simply being frightened of some rumors. After all, if a new smartphone turns out to be unsuccessful, no one bothers to buy any other instead. There are enough good manufacturers of mobile equipment these days, you can choose anything and for every taste. So why worry so much about some rumors? Moreover, Apple will still do their own thing, no matter how many petitions you write.
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But the possibility of a double camera in the future iPhone is hard to believe, even if there is no doubt about the presence of the patent itself.
Among the advantages of such a solution are the improved optical zoom, the ability to simultaneously shoot two videos with different speeds or different resolutions, the ability to take high-quality pictures right during recording. But there is no hint of 3D shooting, this topic Apple is clearly not very interesting.
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Smart cars
It is no coincidence that such a heated discussion of the still unannounced device is not accidental, because despite the successes Apple in many areas, the main product for the company is precisely iPhone. Although in a few years the situation may well change.
First of all, we are talking about 'Eplomobile', about which all kinds of rumors have been circulating for a year now. The company's interest in this area is obvious, but what exactly the 'apple' car will look like is still completely unclear. Moreover, it is quite possible that it is unclear in the first place Apple.
Offtopic: 'Smart' cars
Although who knows, maybe work in this area has been going on much longer and much more successfully than is commonly thought? In any case, the company has registered the domains apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto now.
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Moreover, Apple is far from the only manufacturer of mobile equipment that has decided to take up 'smart' cars. Samsung is clearly not going to give such a tasty morsel to its main competitor, and most likely it has also been working in this direction for a long time. Domain names, however, the Korean company has not yet registered. But it officially announced plans to modernize the Speedway race track at its disposal – it will be converted for testing unmanned vehicles. In addition to the Korean company, the Yongin city government is also involved in the project.
The track will include all the main elements of city roads, such as intersections or pedestrian crossings. And at the same time, a special obstacle course, where it will be possible to test all possible emergencies.
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Atypical smartphones
Having learned about plans BlackBerry to start developing smartphones based on Android, brand lovers (both current and former) were divided into two categories. Some were sincerely happy that the world of faceless 'bricks' on Android will finally be replenished with interesting and original qwerty sliders. And others were no less sincerely worried about the impending death of BB OS.
At the moment, it is too early to draw any conclusions about the prospects for BlackBerry Priv, but the company itself is optimistic about the future. This year we are expecting at least a couple of new devices on Android, and it is very possible that for BlackBerry this will become the main focus.
However, the owners of previous smartphones BlackBerry should not worry – even if we really don't see new devices on the old OS anymore, it will not be abandoned yet. And it's not just about the love of users and all sorts of altruistic considerations. The company does not want to just stay at the bottom of the trough in case of possible problems with Android, and its own OS is the simplest and most obvious 'plan B'. So in 2016 BlackBerry 10 OS will receive at least two major updates aimed primarily at security. Information about this was published in the official blog BlackBerry.
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A few days ago, photos of a budget smartphone Microsoft Lumia 650 appeared on the network. Apparently, the device will receive a metal frame, which is not typical for budget MS smartphones. Although, in my opinion, it would be better for the company to focus on the hardware inside, and not on the outside.
According to the information available at the moment, the characteristics of the smartphone are as follows:
- 5-inch HD screen
- Snapdragon 210 processor @ 1.1 GHz
- 1 GB of RAM
- Battery 2,000 mAh
Everything here will depend primarily on the price, but something suggests that it will not be attractive against the background of budget Android smartphones. As for the case materials, the decisive argument here will be the OS rather than the design of some kind of frame. Those who need a budget smartphone on Windows 10 will buy it anyway, and the rest will pass by anyway.
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I've already written about Nextbit Robin a couple of times. This is a device from Nextbit, which includes several well-known personalities in narrow circles. For example, the likes of Tom Moss (one of the founders of Cyanogen) or Scott Croyle (the designer who had a hand in the series HTC One).
The developers believe that in the world of boring smartphones Nextbit Robin will be a breath of fresh air – it will be something new and interesting, not like all other manufacturers. A smartphone for people that will take into account all the needs of a modern user and instead of abstract 'innovations' and 'killer features' will offer something really convenient and useful.
In any case, this is the case in words. But what will happen in practice is still unclear. Many people liked the concept of the device, but it all reminds me of another soap bubble. And what exactly is admired by so many fans of mobile technology, it is still unclear at close range.
Take the same work with the cloud, which is almost the main feature of the smartphone. If there is not enough space, the smartphone will automatically upload all unnecessary photos to the cloud and delete them from memory, and at the same time get rid of unused applications. Both can be returned to their place literally in one click – just click on the familiar shortcut on the desktop or in the application menu, and after a dozen or two seconds the application will start again.
I will not even talk about how much such 'helpfulness' of an overly smart device can cause problems in conditions of a poor signal or an expensive Internet. Just backing up photos (including those with automatic cleaning of disk space) has long been in Google Photos, and the 'cloud storage for applications' is actually a regular backup of the settings with the subsequent reinstallation of the program from Google Play.
However, those who were really hooked on the idea of Nextbit Robin now have the opportunity to pre-order its GSM version.
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Google and Lenovo have officially announced the smartphone formerly known as Project Tango. Let me remind you that we are talking about a device capable of analyzing the surrounding space in almost the same way as the person himself. Analyze objects located around it, memorize and recognize a familiar route, draw up a three-dimensional map of space and create 3D models of objects.
The price of the smartphone will be more or less democratic, about $ 500. Little is known about the technical characteristics – the screen will be about 6.5 inches, one of the Qualcomm solutions is chosen as the platform.
The main question here is not so much in the hardware as in its unique functions. For developers, all this may really be of interest (only games with augmented reality are worth what), but why such a smartphone will be needed by ordinary buyers is a mystery. Everything rests primarily on software that has yet to be created.
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And at the end of the issue – a drone light show from the company Intel, which got into the Guinness Book of Records. Although the video does not evoke any special emotions, it certainly looked very cool live.
So far, this is not very similar to the birth of a new art form, but who knows what will happen next. So it is not far from the ballet of flying robots.
