Author: batteryforpc

Sony has a simple, straightforward way to entice would-be Xperia 1 buyers in the US: offer a bundle that might be hard to refuse. The tech giant is starting American pre-orders on June 28th, and those who purchase ahead of the July 12th release will get a pair of the company’s WH-1000XM3headphones at no extra cost — that’s $350 of (frankly excellent) wireless audio for free. If you’re buying the Xperia 1 to watch movies mid-flight or stream music during your commute, you might have everything you need.

Of course, Sony can afford to do this in part because the phone costs a hefty $950. You’ll still be getting quite a bit for the money between the super-long 6.5-inch 4K OLED screen, a camera system with eye autofocusing and Dolby Atmos audio. However, the price is still tough to swallow in a country where Sony phones are still quite rare. The headphones should make the Xperia 1 more palatable, even if you have concerns about the usefulness of that 21:9 ratio display or the relatively modest 3,300mAh battery.

A new feature in an upcoming version of Apple’s iOS will enable iPhones to look at images and identify which parts of that picture are cats or dogs.

The feature isn’t for the public. It’s for developers to build image recognition features into their apps.

Apple has been investing a lot of resources into computer vision, which is a core underlying technology for self-driving cars and augmented reality.

A new feature in an upcoming version of Apple’s iOS will enable iPhones to look at images and identify which parts of that picture are cats or dogs.

The software, called VNAnimalDetector, basically draws a digital rectangle around any part of a photograph containing an animal and labels it as either a cat or dog.

The software shows Apple’s continued efforts to take complicated and tricky machine learning techniques, and package them as part of the iPhone operating system.

It also emphasizes Apple’s large investment into computer vision, a subset of computer science that focuses on enabling cameras and other sensors to “see” and understand the real world. Computer vision is also a core underlying technology for self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses.

The detector also suggests that Apple is very aware of how many pictures of their fuzzy friends iPhone users take. Apple’s Photos app has been able to identify cats and dogs from user photos since 2016.

The software is part of Apple’s Vision framework, which gives developers tools for image recognition, and it isn’t intended for end users. Instead, the Vision framework is designed to be built into apps. Apple also built a detector for humans, which can take an image as input, and draw rectangles around any people in the picture.

It was previously possible to identify cats or people using machine learning. Lots of computer scientists and big companies have made pet detectors in the past. But VNAnimalDetector makes it easier to build into apps, in as little as four lines of code, according to a presentation at Apple’s annual developer’s conference earlier this month.

Other new advancements in the Vision framework include the ability to identify whether two images are similar, additional facial recognition abilities and the ability to identify which objects are in a photo, even if they’re not pets.

Additional technical information about the Vision API is available on Apple’s website. Additional cat photos can be found all over the internet.

The Galaxy Note 10 is launching soon, complete with a brand new design and a few novel features, but this Samsung flagship will be at least as expensive as the Galaxy S10 series that launched earlier this year. And if you’re gunning for a 5G version of the Note 10, then you’ll have to pay even more.

But Samsung is also doing something it hasn’t done before; it’s working on a brand new flagship device that won’t be as expensive as the S10 or Note 10. Moreover, this rumored Galaxy A90 phone will deliver 5G connectivity as well as 45W charging speeds — something that hasn’t been available on any Samsung flagship to date.

Leaks from the usual suspects say the Galaxy A90 will run on the same Qualcomm processor that powers some of the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 versions, including the 5G models. That’s the Snapdragon 855, of course — a chip found inside many of this year’s Android flagships.

Both A90 models will also feature 6.7-inch displays with in-display fingerprint sensors, according to @OnLeaks, as well as triple lens cameras. However, the camera specs won’t be identical. Also interesting is that the 5G phone won’t have whatever Tilt optical image stabilization, whereas the 4G version will get it.

Unlike the other Samsung flagships, the A90 isn’t supposed to feature a front-facing camera. Instead, the triple-lens camera will have a pop-up rotary design which will let you use it for both selfies and regular photos.

The other leaker that has referenced the Galaxy A90 in the past is Ice Universe, and he also mentioned the same Snapdragon 855 SoC for the phone:

Previous leaks also claimed that the Galaxy A90 will get 45W fast charging, which is even faster than what the Galaxy S10 can do. We’ve seen conflicting rumors about the Note 10’s battery charging speed, with Ice saying that the Pro version of the phone might still support 45W, while the regular model will only support 25W.

That said, we have no idea how much the Galaxy A90 phones will cost or when they’ll be available. The Galaxy Note 10, meanwhile, is expected to hit stores in the second half of August.

Something to look forward to: Microsoft’s Surface line owes a big part of its success to Intel’s CPUs, but the company has been playing with competing silicon in its labs, possibly paving the way for an AMD-powered Surface laptop. The Redmond giant’s longstanding relationship with Intel is said to be less than rosy due to the Skylake blunder and is looking to diversify the chips it’ll use in upcoming devices.

Microsoft is expected to unveil new Surface devices later this year and into the next, and while many enthusiasts are looking forward to see the mysterious dual-screen Surface that’s been passed around internally, the most interesting development might come in the form of an AMD-powered Surface laptop, with similar looks to the previous generation design and a USB-C port instead of the proprietary Surface Connect.

In a new report on Petri, long-time Microsoft watcher Brad Sams noted that a 12nm AMD Picasso SoC is one of the options explored by the company to reduce its reliance on Intel chips.

AMD’s APUs already power Xbox, so a closer partnership that extends to laptops is something enthusiasts have been dreaming about for years – a Zen+ CPU core coupled with a Vega GPU at the heart of the upcoming Surface laptop.

Sams says the Redmond giant is also cooking up custom ARM-based silicon with Qualcomm for its upcoming Surface Pro code-named Excalibur, possibly a derivative of the powerful Snapdragon 8cx we’ve seen in extensive benchmarks against Intel’s i5 8250u. Judging by the official info on the 8cx Compute Platform, this could be a boon for enterprises looking for 5G, full hypervisor support, and a host of security features.

This doesn’t mean Microsoft is giving up on Intel for larger members of the Surface family, but seeing as the company is looking at both Qualcomm and AMD, the tech giant will have to work hard to keep up in the consumer market, and a recent internal memo proves it’s starting to take AMD’s recent innovations more seriously.

We’ve heard quite a bit about Project Catalyst and what it means for developers who want to bring their iPad applications to the Mac with macOS Catalina. Apple is using Catalyst itself to improve existing Mac apps like News and Home, as well as bring new apps like Podcasts to the Mac.

Now, evidence within the macOS Catalina beta suggests Apple has more in store for Project Catalyst.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith took to Twitter this week to showcase evidence that Apple is working on Catalyst versions of two new applications: Messages and Shortcuts.

As for Messages, Smith explains that a “surprising amount of the UIKit Messages app” works on macOS. This includes things like iMessage effects, which have long been missing from the macOS Messages application.

Interestingly, the Catalyst version of Messages on the Mac looks different than the iPadOS 13 version. It’s designed to look like the current macOS Messages app found in Mojave. This makes it more than just a direct port of the iPad Messages app to the Mac. Smith suggests that because Apple put this amount of work into bringing the UIKit Messages app to the Mac, it’s something the company has considered, or is still working on for a future release.

Just for reference: this isn’t a ‘marzipanified’ version of the Messages app from the iOS Simulator. This is the ‘native’ Catalyst UI coming from the macOS 10.15 system frameworks. Just like Shortcuts, it’s all there, and mostly works if you know how to talk to it.

If you compare this Catalyst version of Messages w/ what’s in iOS 13, you’ll see the UI layout is pretty different. In fact, it’s modeled to look way more like the macOS version. I’m not convinced this work was done purely to present the ‘share in Messages’ sheet in UIKit apps.

What’s also important to note is that Messages on the Mac still lacks features such as the iMessage App Store – which has become popular for things like sticker packs, games, and more. That’s likely a big motivator for Apple to bring a Project Catalyst version of the Messages app to macOS.

Smith’s latest discoveries around Messages on the Mac come following his blog post shortly after WWDC demonstrating how Shortcuts could work on macOS Catalina:

Turns out, Catalyst on macOS Catalina includes all the Shortcuts frameworks, including all the ones necessary to bring up almost its entire UI. So I built a dummy app that does just that, which you can find on GitHub.

What applications currently available on the iPad would you like to see come to macOS? Let us know down in the comments.

Chrome OS has become one of the best operating systems on the market today by its ability to seamlessly combine traditional web browser experiences with progressive web apps, Android apps and Linux apps. Now, Google is looking at shaking up the Chrome OS experience, for better or worse, by sometimes preferring Android apps over web apps.

As it stands today, when you’re browsing a website that can be installed by Chrome OS, you’ll see a handy little icon in your Omnibox. Clicking this Install button puts the PWA (progressive web app) into your Chrome OS launcher, just like any other app.

When a developer creates a PWA, they need to describe the detailsof the app to your browser. As part of this, the developer can also specify “related applications,” such as the iOS or Android version of the app, and whether or not they would prefer you use one of these apps instead of the web app.

A pair of commits in the Chromium Gerrit source code management indicates that Google is looking at making Android apps a higher priority by redirecting to the Play Store for some apps.

This CL allows Chrome OS to query ARC for whether a PWA has a supported related app available and installable. If it does, the installation action redirects to the Play Store.

With this change, under the hood, if a developer marks that their site has a Chrome OS specific app (“chromeos_play” to be precise), Chrome OS will open the Play Store for you to install the Android app, instead of the web app. If your Chromebook isn’t compatible with the app, the web app will install as normal, but there’s currently no way to choose for yourself to stick with the web app.

Some applications have minor (or even major) differences between their normal web site, Android app, and PWA that tend to make one of the options better than the others. Having the freedom to choose whether to install the web app or the Android app is one of Chrome OS’s major strengths, and this change seems to somewhat infringe on that freedom.

As this change is just now appearing in Chromium code, it should arrive with Chrome OS 77. Additionally, since it requires a change from web developers, Google will likely share more information about this change to Chrome OS app installation in the near future.

9to5Google’s Take

I personally hope that Google makes this optional before it launches. There are some apps, like Twitter, which have excellent PWAs that I would prefer to keep using. Thankfully, in that particular case, Twitter does not currently list any related applications.

Messages, one of the quintessential apps on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is the home of iMessages, Apple’s exclusive device-to-device messaging protocol indicated by those well-known blue chat bubbles.

If you’re an iPhone user you know how the Messages app works, but in iOS 13, the Messages app is getting some useful new features that are worth highlighting. Read on for a rundown of everything that’s new, and check out our list of how tos for instructions on how to use all of the new features.

User Profiles

Messages in iOS 13 lets you add a photo of yourself (or an Animoji) and a name that’s shared with people when you message them. This lets people know who you are even if you’re not in their contacts list, and for your contacts, it adds a photo and your specified name.

You can set your Messages profile to share with Contacts Only, to always ask before sharing with someone, or to automatically share with anyone you message with.

Revamped Search Capabilities

Messages has had a search feature for a long time, but it’s not particularly useful. That’s changing in iOS 13 with an entirely new search interface and new search capabilities.

The search interface, accessible by swiping down on the main Messages screen and tapping the search bar, brings up a list of recent contacts, links you’ve received in Messages, photos people have sent you, locations shared with you, and attachments you’ve received.

Search itself is more functional, offering up a full list of results organized by date for a given search term, without grouping those results by person. For example, if you search for “cats” and had multiple cats conversations with someone, each incident with the cats search term is listed individually in iOS 13, which is not the case in earlier versions of iOS.

Messages Info Pane

When you tap on the “i” icon at the top of a conversation with someone, there are new sections that let you get a better look back at the kinds of media that’s been shared.

There are separate sections for photos, links, attachments, and locations.

New Memoji Customization Options

iOS 13 adds new customization options for Memoji, which are the animated, emoji-like characters that you can customize to look like yourself and other people.

There are new options for makeup, teeth, piercings, earrings, headwear, and glasses, along with more hair styles and additional colors to add to hair and other accessories.

Memoji are available devices with a front-facing TrueDepth camera and animate based on your own facial expressions. Memoji, like Animoji, can be used for animated videos with your own voice, and in iOS 13, there are also new sticker options.

Animoji and Memoji Stickers

Apple has added a number of different Animoji and Memoji stickers with classic emoji-like poses and faces, such as heart eyes, brain exploding, shushing face, laughing with tears, crying, shrugging, face palm, and more.

With Memoji, these new stickers are similar to something like Bitmoji, letting you express yourself with a character that looks like you through a series of stickers. The Animoji are more detailed than a traditional emoji and feature the same Animoji characters but in emoji form.

Animoji and Memoji stickers are available in the Messages app pane at the bottom of any Messages conversation. Just tap on the App Store icon and then choose the icon that looks like multiple Memoji faces.

Memoji and Animoji are limited to Apple’s newest iPhones, but Animoji and Memoji stickers are more universal and can be used on all Apple devices with an A9 chip or later.

While Memoji and Animoji stickers are accessible in the Messages app, you can also use them in other places like Mail and Notes through the emoji icon on the keyboard.

New Animoji

Animoji are animated, 3D emoji characters that you can control with your face. Like Memoji, Animoji use the TrueDepth front-facing camera on modern devices, with more than 50 muscle movements in different areas of the face monitored to replicate facial expressions and emotion.

There are more than 20 Animoji characters that have been added over the last couple of years, and iOS 13 includes three more: a mouse, an octopus, and a cow.

Dual-SIM Support

iMessages in iOS 13 adds support for two phone numbers when using the dual-SIM functionality available in the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. There’s no longer a need to choose a number to use with iMessage – both will work. Users can select which number to choose when starting a new conversation, and c