Новости за 13.09.2017

Earlier this year, AT&T announced it would be offering free HBO to customers on Unlimited Plus, its top-tier plan. Now, it’s extending the same deal to Unlimited Choice, beginning September 15th. The Unlimited Choice plan starts at $60, caps data speeds at 3Mbps, and only allows for standard definition viewing, or streaming video at about 480p. As with AT&T’s other plans, there’s also a limit of 22GB a month before your data might be throttled.

AT&T and Sprint are the first two carriers to announce discounts on the iPhone 8. They’re two pretty different deals, and they both have their perks and limitations.

One of Apple’s most interesting new mobile updates is an augmented reality toolkit called ARKit, which will show up on iPhones and iPads next week with iOS 11. Even before the official release, developers have used ARKit to realize some pretty clever ideas. But yesterday, ARKit felt like a minor sideshow to the big news of the day. Where Apple was effusive about augmented reality earlier this year at WWDC — and competitors Google and Facebook have steadily stressed it as a sea change in human-computer interaction ... Читать дальше...

In early August, the transportation reporter at Arlington, Virginia’s NBC affiliate filmed a video as he approached a Ford Transit van that appeared to be piloted by a man dressed up as the front seat of a car. Despite the fact that the man’s hands were clearly poking out of the costume, and the reporter’s earnest prompt of “I’m with the news, dude,” there were no apparent answers. The video went appropriately viral, and only then was it uncovered that this wasn’t just a goof, it was a test being... Читать дальше...

Apple introduced three brand new iPhones yesterday. Three! They include the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which have faster processors and better cameras than last year’s iPhone 7 — and now you can charge them wirelessly. And then there’s the iPhone X, a $1,000 smartphone that Apple is basically trying to market as a gadget from the future that arrived a little early. It’s the first iPhone ever to have an OLED screen, and even better, that stunning display basically runs edge to edge. iPhone X comes with... Читать дальше...

The Essential Phone’s reviews might be turning out more mixed than Andy Rubin and his team would’ve wanted, but now it’s time for consumers around the US to see the Android smartphone up close. Sprint has announced that beginning tomorrow, September 14th, the Essential Phone will be available for purchase in all of its retail stores, online, and by phone.

As if there weren’t enough reasons to despise flying coach, a new report says it could put you in danger in case of an aircraft emergency.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has introduced a bill to Congress that, if passed, would make it easier to do research on marijuana.

I have a soft spot for cool maps, whether it’s fantastical artwork or something that documents real world history. Modern Map Art Prints recently caught my eye on Kickstarter: it’s offering backers a map that you can turn into a unique work of abstract art.

A drone flew chilled human blood for 160 miles over the hot Arizona desert — smashing records for transport of biological samples on a remotely operated vehicle. The blood was still in good condition after the three-hour flight, which means that the growing role of drones in rural medical care really could have the potential to save lives.

The startup Moona has debuted a smart pillow pad on Kickstarter that not only adjusts the pillow’s temperature throughout the night, but has an app to give you an analysis of your sleep patterns.

Apple announced the Apple TV 4K yesterday, an updated version of its living room set-top box that adds support for 4K and HDR video and boosts the processing power. There’s not much else new compared to the prior fourth-generation device: it offers the same apps, Siri remote, and a centralized TV hub that aggregates video from participating content providers.

With Tuesday’s announcement of the iPhone X, which comes with an edge-to-edge OLED display and starts at a staggering $999, it’s worth reflecting on how such a once-luxury device could transition to mass-market status and then flow back toward its premium perch. When details about the phone, nearly all of which leaked ahead of the time, began surfacing months back, its eye-popping price was immediately the subject of controversy. Was Apple doing the industry a favor by giving its flagship product a nearly four-digit price tag... Читать дальше...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took seven years to travel nearly 2.2 billion miles to reach Saturn. But once it got there in 2004, it started taking some breathtaking pictures of the planet, its rings, and many moons.

In a blog post released today, Facebook says it will change its guidelines on who can earn money through Facebook, as well as what kinds of content are acceptable to monetize.

Rolls-Royce has become the latest company to enter the autonomous shipping arena, revealing plans for a 197-foot-long (60m) autonomous vessel that will perform missions including patrolling, surveillance, mine detection, and fleet screening. The company says it’s seeing interest from the world’s major navies into autonomous ships, rather than vessels that are remote controlled. It expects that over the next decade, there will be an introduction of crewed and uncrewed autonomous ships and fleets. Читать дальше...

In July, The Verge learned that Facebook was testing a standalone group video chat app called Bonfire. Now, as spotted by The Next Web, it appears it’s popped up in the Danish Apple App Store.

If you live in a US city, you may occasionally visit your local bodega — a type of convenience store that has long resisted the pressure of franchise chains and branding. Bodegas are known as charming local small businesses frequently staffed by adorable cats, providing a variety of minor necessities at semi-reasonable prices. So naturally, there’s a startup that wants to destroy them. The company is literally called “Bodega,” and it’s either the worst-named startup of the year, or one of the... Читать дальше...

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the Toronto International Film Festival.

If you’re in the market for an Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular in the US, it will cost you $10 a month for service on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. (This is after the first three months, which are free on all three carriers.) Sprint is the lone holdout to announce monthly pricing for the Apple Watch, but if it wants to stay competitive, it will likely offer a similar deal.

MLMs take the worst parts of the gig economy, then make you pay

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Apple’s big September event was yesterday, which means two things: the company introduced new iPhones and cut the prices of its older models.

Among all the hubbub at Apple’s iPhone event yesterday, something else was released that wasn’t mentioned onstage: new urBeats3 earphones. The modestly priced earphones come with a Lightning connector and are featured in three colors: matte silver, matte gold, and black.

In March, Nintendo released quite possibly the best entry yet in its revered Legend of Zelda series. This week, the iconic Metroid returns with an excellent new title on the 3DS, while an inventive new Super Mario is coming in October. That’s three of the company’s biggest franchises, all in the same year. (Oh, and Nintendo also released a brilliant new piece of hardware with the Switch console / tablet as well.) In virtually every area it operates in — hardware, software, even expanding to new platforms like mobile ... Читать дальше...

Apple’s new iPhone X is billed as “the future of the smartphone,” with new facial recognition and augmented reality features presented as the credentials to back up this claim. But these features wouldn’t be half as slick without a little bit of hidden futurism tucked away in the phone’s new A11 Bionic chip: Apple’s new “neural engine.”