The United States Food and Drug Administration announced today a new pilot program designed to help Apple and other technology companies develop new digital health accessories faster while maintaining some government oversight.
The Steve Jobs Theater, an underground 1,000-people auditorium on Apple's new mega-campus, has been nearly finished ahead of Tuesday's iPhone 8 keynote. You've seen the latest drone footage of its entranceway above ground and now Bloomberg's Alex Webb offers a detailed look into its interior.
If you needed another proof that Apple has indeed drastically scaled back its autonomous and electric vehicle initiatives, here's one: multiple engineers on Project Titan—many of whom originally joined the iPhone maker from Detroit car makers and suppliers—have now left the Cupertino giant to join the secretive automotive startup Zoox.
Chris Lattner, a former star Apple engineer who built early versions of Apple's Swift programming language in 2010 before a team was formed to further the project, has joined Google's artificial intelligence (AI) team, according to his announcement on Twitter on Monday.
Apple is planning to release an LTE-flavored version of its smartwatch later this year, reports Bloomberg. Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet's Mark Gurman says that the wearable will feature an LTE modem from Intel that will reduce its reliance on the iPhone.
In current Apple Watch models, a connection with a smartphone is required for tasks such as streaming music and sending messages. An LTE chip would obviously allow the Watch to complete these tasks independently, meaning users could opt to leave their phone at home.
Apple is already in talks with carriers in the U.S. and Europe about offering the cellular version, the people added. The carriers supporting the LTE Apple Watch, at least at launch, will be a limited subset of those that carry the iPhone, one of the people said. However, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. in the U.S. plan to sell the device, according to other people familiar with the matter.
It'll be interesting to see how carriers price their Apple Watch data plans, given the device's tiny display and limited capabilities. You would think it'd be relatively inexpensive. The report also notes that it's possible the LTE-flavored Watch could be delayed beyond this year.
Additionally, Daring Fireball's well-connected John Gruber claims he has heard this year's Apple Watch will also feature an all-new form factor. He doesn't offer up any details, but if true, it would mark the Watch's first change in design since its initial debut two years ago.
Source: Bloomberg
In addition to an upcoming HomePod rival with a fifteen-inch screen, Facebook's secretive “Building 8” hardware lab is also supposedly working on a dedicated video chat device for the home that would make it seem like people are in the same room, according to Bloomberg's sources who spoke with reporters Mark Gurman and Sarah Frier.
Facebook is poaching Apple veterans and tasking them with building a “Siri-style voice assistant” that should power the company's rumored wireless speaker and another upcoming device dedicated to video chatting, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Three weeks after an Irish lawyer uncovered the official names for iPhone 7, AirPods and other then-unreleased gadgets from trademark filings last year, Apple's favorite trademark office in Jamaica made it a lot harder to conduct those kinds of searches.
Looking to diversify its offerings beyond songs, Apple Music rival Spotify will promote podcasts from established producers in its mobile app and via ads on buses.
Facebook TV, the social networking giant's “higher end” version of YouTube, is supposedly coming in two weeks “after several false starts”, Bloomberg has learned from sources.
Windows giant Microsoft will outfit the next version of its mixed reality HoloLens goggles with an extra AI processor that will let the device recognize speech and images in real time, without having to send the data back to the cloud for analysis.
Apple's new ARKit framework for building augmented reality experiences for compatible iPhone and iPad devices is off to a great start and already Facebook is taking notice, according to a new report Thursday from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The author claims that Facebook has been hard at work developing an inexpensive headset, code-named “Pacific”, that is expected to bring virtual reality experiences to the masses without requiring a beefy computer or a compatible smartphone.
“The idea is that someone will be able to pull the headset out of their bag and watch movies on a flight just the way you can now with a phone or tablet,” reads the article.
It should be priced aggressively at $200 and release at some point next year, representing “an entirely new category”. According to people familiar with the plans, the device will provide a similar interface to Samsung’s VR Gear that users could control by a wireless remote.
The headset should be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile chip that would make it superior to Samsung's Gear VR headset in terms of gaming in virtual reality. Unlike the current Oculus Rift hardware, the upcoming gizmo won't include positional tracking technology.
An excerpt from the article:
This means that the device won’t be able to tell where its user is spatially, which is useful for tasks like virtual rock climbing. A future version of the product will have that technology, according to a person familiar with the plans.
According to sources, the headset will let users play immersive games, watch video, use social networking apps and so forth. It resembles a more compact version of the current Oculus Rift and will be lighter than Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
Handset maker Xiaomi and its manufacturers are said to build 2018's Oculus-branded device.
And later this year, Facebook allegedly plans to announce a more affordable wireless headset that it is betting will popularize virtual reality “the way Apple did the smartphone”.
Oculus spokesman Alan Cooper said via email:
We don’t have a product to unveil at this time, however we can confirm we’re making several significant technology investments in the standalone VR category.
Facebook's said it’s also working on yet another device, code-named “Santa Cruz” and best described as a wireless Oculus Rift “with the full power of the original device sans PC.“
Facebook acquired Kickstarter-funded Oculus startup in 2014 for about $2 billion.
IDC estimated that Samsung leads the pack in terms of VR device shipments with 22 percent of the global market for VR devices, followed by Sony, HTC and Facebook's Oculus Rift with about five percent of the market, or less than 100,000 units sold.