ISBN-13: 978-3-659-93713-2
ISBN-10: 3659937134
EAN: 9783659937132
Book language: English
By (author) : Dileep Keshava Narayana
Number of pages: 52
Published on: 2018-09-17
Category: Informatics, IT
The iPhone 6S is here, but what we really want is the iPhone 7
iPhone 7: what we want to see
The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have only just launched, but these weren't the phones we were looking forward to.
The
next new iPhone we really want to get our hands on is the iPhone 7, and
we've got loads of great ideas to help Apple create a corker.
We're talking curved displays, higher resolutions, iris scanning tech, more storage and stunningly good cameras.
What will it cost? Probably the same as the iPhone 6S
iPhone 7 news and rumors
Believe it or not, there are already a few iPhone 7 rumors knocking around the web-o-sphere.
Persistent Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities claims that the iPhone 7 will be the thinnest iPhone to date - but Apple's not just going to shave off 0.1mm. He's claiming the iPhone 7 will come in between 6mm and 6.5mm.
Considering the iPhone 6S is already a svelte 7.1mm, that's quite a reduction.
Meanwhile a Digitimes source claims the iPhone 7 is in for a big resolution jump, with QHD and 4K panels being mooted as potentially featuring in the handset.
This
isn't totally out of the question, as a number of Android handsets have
QHD screens, and we even have 4K smartphones now, but for Apple to make
the jump it would be a big deal.
1. Three screen sizes
Don't
get us wrong, we're thrilled Apple now has handsets which offer more
real estate for your apps and games - but there's still a pocket of fans
who find 5.5 and 4.7 inches simply too big.
We're calling on
Apple to launch a third handset in the iPhone 7 range. A smaller, more
budget focused option to appease those with dainty palms.
The iPhone 6C
was heavily rumored to arrive alongside the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but
alas it never materialized. Our focus then, switches to a potential
iPhone 7C - which we're sure will gain a lot of traction in the rumor
mill over the coming months.
We see it as a 4-inch handset with similar stylings to the iPhone 5C, with up to date power under the hood, a 3D Touch display and Touch ID.
2. A resolution your movies and games deserve
You
can now record 4K video on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but play them
back on the handsets and you won't get the full experience.
With
the iPhone 7 it's time Apple boosted the resolution of its handsets.
We'd take a full HD resolution on the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, but if the
iPhone 7 Plus turns up with anything less than a QHD screen then us and
Apple will be having words.
QHD is now widespread throughout the
top tier of Android devices, and we're even seeing 4K screens sneak onto
our smartphones. Don't get left behind again Apple, please.
3. Wireless charging
Wireless
charging remains one of the most frustrating technologies around,
because while it's here, it works and it feels like living in the
future, it isn't as widely supported as we'd like.
An iPhone 7
with wireless charging would be great, especially if the same charger
worked for the Apple Watch too. And if it could support both wireless
standards as well, like the Galaxy S6, then that would be just swell.
4. Curved displays
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
wowed us with its delightfully curving dual screens earlier this year,
and it's fair to say we're rather smitten with this futuristic look.
No image such sultry curves on an Apple designed smartphone. We're
going weak at the knees already. Go on Apple, wrap that screen round the
edges of the iPhone 7 and we'll more than likely be in love.
5. No more 16GB models
iOS 8
adoption stalled last year, and we reckon it because people with 16GB
iPhones didn't have enough free space for the 5.7GB over-the-air update
and don't want to use iTunes because, well, iTunes.
The fear is users will experience the same issue when iOS 9 rolls out on September 16, and with no expandable storage option it's rather limiting.
When
your software updates are too big for your entry level products, your
entry level products clearly don't come with enough storage.
How about starting at 32GB for the iPhone 7? We can't store everything in iCloud, even when it's working properly.
Apple
gave us our first iPhone megapixel camera boost in four years with the
12MP sensor inside the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. But why stop there?
People
love using their iPhones to take pictures, Apple can't tell us that
enough, so keep on innovating. 12MP is a good start, but spend some time
with the 16MP snapper on the Galaxy S6 and you'll be seriously
impressed.
Of
course it's not all about the number of megapixels, and Apple continues
to do great things behind the scenes to improve your snaps.
The
Live Photo feature also seems like a little bit of a gimmick at the
moment - and similar to the sort of things Samsung was doing on the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5. If Apple can harness these new found abilities into something more productive on the iPhone 7 that would be impressive.
7. Look ID
Touch
ID is great, and it's got even better on the iPhone 6S with the second
generation scanner tech making it more responsive than ever, but we want
more.
The iPhone 7 has the chance to take biometrics to the next
level, with iris recognition. It won't be the first to the eye scanning
tech (check out the ZTE Axon Elite), but you just know if Apple jumps on
board it'll be slickly implemented and a joy to use.
Want to
unlock your new iPhone? Just give it a knowing glance. Need to purchase a
new must-have application? Give the iPhone 7 your best Blue Steel and
boom, it's downloading.
Need a name for it? Look ID. You're welcome, Jony.
The device bears a striking resemblance to Futurama's Bender.
The more believable shot — showing a rear shell — carries a dark Apple logo and generally takes the form most expect the iPhone 7
to adopt. An iPhone 6-esque design carries a dual camera module in the
upper left, surrounded by a small rise in the material rather than a
separate ring, as on previous generations.
The back is also unmarred by antenna breaks, with those instead curling
around the top and bottom. It goes off the rails with the supposed
addition of a Smart Connector adjacent to the Lightning port, though.
While the Smart Connector makes sense on the iPad Pro, its appearance
here would be puzzling — especially in the indicated location.
A second set of somewhat more dubious shots depict a device with no home
button or headphone jack. Captions accompanying the photos indicate
that the button and Touch ID sensor are integrated into the display
itself.
While it's true that rumors
of home button-less developments have circulated for years, that
feature has yet to make its way into the iPhone 7 conversation.
Whispers of a headphone jack-less iPhone 7 have been picking up steam,
however, and we may yet see such a change when the new device is
announced.
Apple is preparing
to hold a media event on March 21 at which it will likely announce a
new 4-inch iPhone, though the iPhone 7 isn't expected to make an
appearance. The flagship models are more likely to be refreshed in
September, their now-standard timeline that puts them at the top of
consumers' minds going into the holiday season.
YouTube offers 1,80,000 videos on “How to make an omelette” and 2,81,000 on
“How to tie a bowtie.” Photo used for representative purposes only.
The researchers at the Cornell University in New York call their project "RoboWatch."
Scientists are teaching robots to watch how-to videos and derive a series of step-by-step instructions
to perform a task, an advance that may help future ‘personal robots’ to do everyday housework
such as cooking and washing dishes.
The researchers at the Cornell University in New York call their project “RoboWatch.”
There is a common underlying structure to most how—to videos and there is plenty of
source material available, researchers said.
YouTube offers 1,80,000 videos on “How to make an omelette” and 2,81,000 on “How to tie a bowtie.”
By scanning multiple videos on the same task, a computer can find what they all have in
common and reduce that to simple step-by-step instructions in natural language.
People post all these videos “to help people or maybe just to show off,” said graduate student Ozan Sener, lead author of a paper on the method presented at the International Conference on
Computer Vision in Chile.
The work is aimed at a future when we may have “personal robots” to perform everyday
housework — cooking, washing dishes, doing the laundry, feeding the cat — as well as to
assist the elderly and people with disabilities, researchers said. A key feature of the system
is that it is “unsupervised,” said Sener who collaborated with colleagues at Stanford University.
In most previous work, robot learning is accomplished by having a human explain
what the robot is observing.
Here’s a (arguably) horror story for your holiday reading. In a memorable event that marks the beginning of SkyNet and the doom of mankind (kidding, kidding,) Microsoft-built AI, XiaoIce, has been officially invited to act as a weather reporter on Chinese news channel Shanghai Dragon TV, reports the Times of India.
A chat engine that can be reached through several major Chinese social networks, XiaoIce was originally developed as an experiment by a team of Bing researchers in China. XiaoIce got immensely popular with Chinese social network users, with 500 million conversations at the latest count, and the top influencer rank on China’s Twitter equivalent, Weibo. Cortana’s Chinese counter part, XiaoNa, can now also connect with XiaoIce to ask questions.
Joining Hands with Microsoft Xiaoice, Dragon TV Launches First AI Program Ever (PRNewsFoto/Microsoft)
XiaoIce got so popular since Microsoft has taken great pains, using Bing’s data and all the machine learning prowess at its disposal, to give the AI a distinct personality, linguistic naturalness, contextual awareness, and even a sense of humor; all of which, as it happens, is a nice fit for weather reporting. XiaoIce has had a successful debut on the breakfast program this Tuesday morning.
As an effect, human reporters and TV anchors are now fearing for a mechanical revolution in their business that may see them lose their jobs to smart-talking, much more knowledgeable AI. This is not the first time robots have been tested in the news industry in China however: social media giant Tencent reportedly built a business-report-writing robot, who wrote a “flawless” 916 -word article that instilled fear in local journalists. While these AIs will only serve a supplementary role to human work in the near future, some may be tempted to join Elon Musk’s camp and take the possibility of a robot takeover very, very seriously.
Iranian researchers at the University of Tehran unveiled yesterday the latest generation of their humanoid robot, named Surena III. In a demonstration, the adult-sized robot walked across a stage, imitated a person’s arm gestures, and stood on one foot while bending backwards.
Dr. Aghil Yousefi-Koma, a professor of mechanical engineering who leads the Surena project, tells IEEE Spectrum that the robot is designed as a research platform to explore bipedal locomotion, human-robot interaction, and other challenges in robotics. He also hopes Surena can help show the importance of engineering careers to students and the public, adding that he views the robot as a symbol of technology advancement “in the direction of peace and humanity.”
Photo: University of Tehran/CASTMeet Surena III, Iran’s newest humanoid. An earlier model, Surena II, stands in the back.
With a sleek plastic casing and bright LED eyes, Surena III is 1.9 meters (6 feet 3 inches) tall and weighs in at 98 kilograms (216 lbs). It’s equipped with a host of sensors, including a Kinect-based 3D vision module, and its joints are powered by 31 servomotors. The control software running on the robot and a monitoring system used by human operators to supervise its functions are based on the popular Robot Operating System, or ROS.
Surena has yet to demonstrate that level of mobility and dexterity, but the Iranian humanoid has been making steady progress in the past seven years. The first version of the robot, unveiled in 2008, had only 8 degrees of freedom (DOF). Surena 2, announced in 2010, had 22 DOF and could walk at a pace of 0.03 meters per second. Now the third generation of the robot has 31 DOF and a walking speed nearly 10 times as fast, at 0.2 m/s.
Dr. Yousefi-Koma, who heads University of Tehran’s Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST), where Surena was developed, says he followed the DRC events and, although Surena was not developed to participate in that competition, “one of the best applications for this robot may be employing it in disasters.”
He says Surena III, funded by the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran, is currently able to walk up and down stairs and ramps, adapt to irregularities on the ground, grasp objects, and also kick a soccer ball. He sent us footage showing some of those capabilities:
To build Surena III, the Iranian researchers significantly upgraded the robot’s sensors and actuators over the previous version. The vision system now allows the robot to detect faces and objects and track a person’s motions. A speech system can recognize some predefined sentences in Persian. Encoders embedded on all joints, six-axis force/torque sensors on the ankles, and an IMU on the torso help the robot remain stable. To power Surena’s hips and legs, the researchers used a combination of Maxon brushless dc motors, harmonic drives, and timing belt-pulley systems. The upper body usesROBOTIS Dynamixel AX and MX servos.
The group also completely revamped the software system. It’s now based onROS, and Dr. Yousefi-Koma says it “enables the robot to simultaneously communicate with the environment, manage its behaviors, monitor its sensors, and detect unwanted faults in the system.” A supervisory system with a graphical interface allows the researchers to monitor all joints and sensors, and a SDK with integrated C++ libraries allows them to more easily create and test new behaviors for the robot.
Photos: Image: University of Tehran/CASTSurena III kicking a ball, walking up a ramp, and walking down a set of steps.
About 70 students, engineers, and professors from Tehran University and five other Iranian institutions helped design and build Surena III. Local companies developing robotics software and speech systems also contributed to the project, and Dr. Yousefi-Koma expects that some of the technology developed for the humanoid could find applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and other industries.
He says his group will focus now on the robot’s interactions with humans, and they want to make it more autonomous as well. They’re also preparing papers about the project, hoping to present them at IEEE conferences in the near future. And they are already making plans for Surena IV.
I’m seeking professionals who might be interested in becoming a small business owner by taking over these books. But I’m also looking for professionals who might be interested in starting a scratch agency!
Apple is expected to add the Force Touch controls found on the Apple Watch to its next iPhone 6S.
The rumour has started amid the Mobile World Congress announcements from other manufacturers. It suggests that Apple, unfaltering, is powering ahead with its next incremental smartphone upgrade.
Of course this isn't fact but comes from sources of Apple Insider who claim there will be two devices once again. The codenames are N71 for the 4.7-inch model and N66 for the 5.5-inch version. Both are expected to feature Force Touch.
Force Touch was announced at the Apple Watch launch event. It gives the device the ability to recognise the difference between a normal touch and a press. This should mean the depth of controls from a single finger touch can increase meaning even less tapping and swiping, theoretically.
Apple has called Force Touch its "most significant new sensing capability since Multi-Touch."
According to another source Apple planned to add Force Touch to the iPhone 6 but it suffered calibration issues. The way it works on the Watch is by measuring variations in the flex of the screen – suggesting the iPhone 6 may have a more flexible screen than the current model.
Other rumours of a dual camera system have been kicked back as this is expected to be a more incremental upgrade
