Technology news

Walking into your local Apple Store and getting a battery replacement for your iPhone is pretty cheap at the moment. Just $29. But when 2018 comes to a close, that temporary pricing — introduced in response to last year’s throttling controversy that affected iPhones with aging batteries — will be going away.Ahead of that change, as noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has updated its battery page with the new rates that will begin on January 1st. In 2019, out-of-warranty battery swaps will

MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory Intelligence and Decision Technologies Group yesterday unveiled a neural network capable of explaining its reasoning. It’s the latest attack on the black box problem, and a new tool for combating biased AI. Dubbed the Transparency by Design Network (TbD-net), MIT’s latest machine learning marvel is a neural network designed to answer complex questions about images. The network parses a query by breaking it down into subtasks that are handled by individ

Breitbart published a leaked video from Google’s first all-hands meeting after the 2016 US presidential election on Wednesday, in a move that could serve as ammunition for claims that the tech company has acted in ways that are biased against conservatives. In the meeting, a series of Google executives acknowledges the disappointment and fears of many of their employees in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election as president, while also acknowledging that the process was fair and t

Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 4 today, which it touted as being thinner than previous models. This is only partially true: the upcoming fourth-generation Apple Watch is the thinnest since the Series 3, which had an 11.4mm case compared to this year’s 10.7mm version.However, if you compare the Series 4 to the first-generation Apple Watch, you’ll find that the newer model is 0.2mm thicker; the original came in at just 10.5mm when it launched in 2015. (Of course, the Series 2

Apple unveiled the newest generation of its flagship iPhones today, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The models share a lot of the features that their discontinued predecessor first introduced to the iPhone line, like Face ID and Portrait Mode, but now they’ve been fine-tuned and improved. One of the biggest upgrades is the switch to Apple’s new A12 Bionic processor, which is said to be 15 percent faster than the A11. It’s also notable that these features are now available in

Apple’s big iPhone event has come and gone, with the company highlighting its new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR models along with the updated Apple Watch Series 4. But one thing was conspicuously missing — Apple’s AirPower wireless charger, which was announced at last year’s iPhone event, and still has yet to come out.Today marks the one year anniversary of Apple’s AirPower announcement, which was shown off alongside the iPhone X and Apple Watch Series 3. At the time,

This article aims to share a series of advices, stemming from lessons learned through designing for kids over a period of twelve years. There is one resounding lesson: kids are not just a target audience. They are interesting, complex beings with thoughts and dreams bigger than giant unicorns, and they possess a broad range of emotions. The only way to design something meaningful for them, is to get to know them on a level that forces “adult logic” into the back seat. From

Every few months, Apple refreshes Beats’ lineup of headphones with some new color options. We’re getting another one of those refreshes today, with colors that match Apple’s new phones, the iPhone XS and XR.
Three new colors are coming to the urBeats3. They now come in yellow, blue, and coral to match some (but not all) of the iPhone XR colors.
The urBeats3 are pretty typical in-ear earbuds, but they terminate in a Lightning cable so that they can plug directly into phones lik

Spotify is improving of one of its most annoying, arbitrary limits. The music streaming app has increased the cap for maximum number of offline downloads, which was previously stuck at 3,333 songs per device (on a maximum of three devices).As reported by Rolling Stone, that limit has now been raised to 10,000 songs — and you can download that many tunes on five different devices instead of just three. So you’re looking at 50,000 in all. “At Spotify, we’re always working

The main downside of AppleCare+, Apple’s extended warranty program, has always been that it’s pretty much worthless if your device is lost or stolen. That’s been the primary factor that steers some people towards getting phone insurance through their carrier. But following today’s introduction of its latest iPhones, Apple is changing things up — and it’s going to start offering optional loss/theft protection.As detailed on this updated AppleCare+ website, App

Today, the European Partliament voted in favor of a sweeping and controversial new copyright directive that critics say could threaten the internet’s most basic practices around linking and sharing images. But while the broad strokes of the directive are alarming, many of the details are still unclear, and big tech companies seem to be holding their fire for fear of antagonizing regulators.
The strongest initial opposition has come from Reddit. “Today’s vote dealt a significan

Justin McAnear, Tesla’s vice president of worldwide finance and operations, is leaving the company. McAnear originally came to Tesla from Apple’s finance team in 2015. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
“Several weeks ago, I announced to my team that I would be leaving Tesla because I had the chance to take a CFO role at another company,” McAnear said in a statement to The Verge. “I’ve truly loved my time at Tesla, and I have great respect for my colle

According to a report by Fast Company, Google is giving its popular bundled email client service, Inbox the axe early next year. In March 2019, we’ll have to say our goodbyes. First launched in 2014, Inbox was sort of the antithesis to its name. It was, on the one hand, the same thing as Gmail, at least from the backend. But from a user experience perspective, it offered a less-cluttered design that allowed users to “focus on what really matters,” according to early press mate

A year after Apple Music launched to a lukewarm reception, the company overhauled the streaming service’s design. Since then, it has made smaller tweaks year after year, continuously improving the layout and functionality of the service. That will continue in iOS 12. Now with over 50 million songs in its catalog, Apple Music will gain some new features that will make it much easier to quickly find the music you want.
The biggest feature coming to Apple Music is called lyric search, which

Following Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone X, the company is back with new devices that fully embrace notch-life; with the three new iPhone models, the home button is officially dead and new devices going forward will start using Face ID as the security unlock system. There’s also an updated Apple Watch available later this month. Here’s a quick recap.Apple XS and XS Max are your new $1,000 iPhonesApple confirmed essentially everything that was leaked in the days leading up to

Apple included a spare dongle in the boxes of the iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus, 7, and 7 Plus phones, but it isn’t so generous this year when it comes to including a 3.5mm audio dongle in the box. The 3.5mm dongle is no longer a free accessory and the new iPhones won’t ship with Apple’s own fast Lightning to 3.5mm audio jack adapter. This includes the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, and the iPhone 8, which used to include the free dongle.Instead, Apple will still sell you the dongle separately

NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams is about to embark on a whole new adventure in space: commanding the first operational flight of Boeing’s new space capsule, the CST-100 Starliner. And when she flies, it will mark just the second time that the Starliner has ever hosted a crew.
Boeing has been developing the Starliner as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative to send NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station on private US spacecraft.

Less than one year since it was released, Apple has discontinued the iPhone X with the introduction of its three new iPhones today. With the iPhone XS starting at a price of $999, and the addition of the cheaper $749 iPhone XR announced today, the iPhone X has become redundant. The iPhone SE and 6s have been removed from Apple’s website as well, marking the end of iPhones with headphone jacks.
Despite rumors of low sales since its launch, Apple earnings showed that the iPhone X actually s

Apple just announced the iPhone XS and XS Max. They’re iterations on last year’s iPhone X, but the XS Max at least stands out in one very notable way: it’s so much larger. The Max has a 6.5-inch screen, making it a bigger phone than even the latest model in Samsung’s famously large Galaxy Note line.
The event just wrapped up, and Apple has let us out into a demo area with phones to check out. Our initial impression: they feel like iPhone Xs (or however you pluralize iPho

I just spent a few moments playing with the new iPhone XR, which feels like it will be the default iPhone for many people this season. Not only does it have a very similar design to the more expensive iPhone XS model, it has many of the same features for a considerably lower price.
The main thing is of course the display, which is a 6.1-inch LCD with a notch at the top. It’s very nice — as nice as any previous iPhone LCD, which have always led the industry. Looking closely at the no

Apple didn’t leave its HomePod smart speaker out of today’s big iPhone event, with CEO Tim Cook sneaking in a few new features for the product at the tail end of the keynote presentation. In an upcoming update, Apple’s home speaker will let you search for songs via Siri by asking about specific snippets of lyrics. You’ll also be able to make and take phone calls from the device, as well as ping your iPhone in the event you’ve misplaced it somewhere in your home, si

The new iPhone XS and XS Max have prices starting at $999 and $1,099 and start shipping out at the end of this month. The iPhone XR starts at $749 and begins shipping out in October.The iPhone XS is the “most advanced phone we’ve ever created,” according to Tim Cook. It has a 5.8-inch OLED display with a 2436 x 1125 resolution. Meanwhile, the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5-inch OLED display with a 2688 x 1242 resolution. The iPhone XR, which you can basically think of as this year&rs

Apple will release tvOS 12 on September 17th, the company announced today at its fall event. Back at WWDC, Apple announced it was bringing Dolby Atmos support to the Apple TV, as well as a new zero sign-on feature, which is an evolution of single sign-on that has been present on the platform since 2016.While single sign-on required users to input their credentials for their TV provider, zero sign-on only requires you to be connected to your provider’s Wi-Fi network in your home (if they s

It’s not just the iPhone Xs being announced today: Apple today revealed the iPhone Xr, a cheaper iPhone for the masses. Aside from a lower price, it comes in a sweet gamut of colors, including red, yellow, coral, blue, white, and black. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be a little more patient to buy one. It uses a 6.1-inch ‘Liquid Retina’ LCD display – slotting it between the Xs and Xs Max size-wise – although the resolution is ‘only’ 1792&time

Apple announced the iPhone Xs and the iPhone Xs Max today, and a key part of the upgraded iPhones is the camera. The dual camera system has a 12-megapixel wide lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with improved true tone LED flash. The front camera is still a 7-megapixel lens, but it is twice as fast as the previous generation. The company said that it has improved image signal processing through the new A12 bionic chip, so there is better red-eye reduction, segmentation of details

After the usual months of leaks and rumors, Apple has officially introduced the iPhone Xs – that’s pronounced ten-ess, in case you’re wondering – along with its sibling the Xs Max. Apple says they’re the most advanced iPhones ever, but that comes as a surprise to no one. (Apple also announced a cheaper model dubbed the iPhone Xr. You can read more about it here). Design-wise, there is a new gold color this time around, and Apple says it uses the most durable g

It’s that time of year again. Apple CEO today Tim Cook took to the stage to announce all of the latest and greatest in Apple hardware. Here’s what’s noteworthy. Apple Watch Apple today introduced the next generation of its popular wearable, Watch. In Series 4, COO Jeff Williams promises “every detail has been reconsidered, and it’s just beautiful.” The screens are significantly larger, over 30 percent larger, actually. Even with the larger screen, the footpri

Apple is unveiling its Apple Watch Series 4 line of smartwatches today. It’s the first major design overhaul of the Watch since its debut more than three years ago, and the changes are immediately obvious. The Watch’s screen now goes nearly edge-to-edge, thanks to a larger display. This larger display lets watchOS 5 show more information through Apple’s built-in app complications.
Developing. Check out our Apple event live blog for the latest updates!Continue reading…

Motorcycle riders die at a rate 28 times higher than that of people behind the wheel of a car. It’s safe to say, then, that motorcycles theoretically stand to benefit from the recent boom in the development of driver assistance technology. There are unique challenges, to be sure, but the application looks more possible than ever, thanks to a new video of a self-driving motorcycle released by BMW Motorrad, the company’s two-wheeler division.
BMW Motorrad says it’s been working