keyword: Apple

yes,-older-apple-tvs-can-also-be-calibrated-with-your-iphone

Yes, older Apple TVs can also be calibrated with your iPhone

Apple’s new TV calibration feature, which uses the iPhone’s front-facing sensors to sense and tweak the output of the Apple TV, works with the company’s older streaming boxes, 9to5Mac reports. The new feature will arrive with tvOS 14.5, which is due to release “early next week” for the 2017 Apple TV 4K and 2015 Apple TV HD. Apple says viewers will see “much more accurate colors and improved contrast” after calibration.

The calibration feature was announced alongside the new Apple TV 4K. It works by having you hold up the front of your iPhone to your TV, so it can sense how the screen is outputting different colors. If the phone’s light sensor sees that color is being outputted inaccurately, the Apple TV can adjust its output to compensate. The process only covers the Apple TV’s content, and won’t affect the TV’s built in apps or other devices it has plugged in.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV HD and 4K owners can access the calibration feature via the Video and Audio section in the Settings app. As well as requiring an Apple TV updated to tvOS 14.5, the feature also requires Face ID-equipped iPhone running iOS 14.5. Both FlatPanelsHD and CNET note that the feature doesn’t work on TVs with Dolby Vision enabled after testing it with older Apple TVs running the latest tvOS 14.5 beta build, though it’s not immediately clear why this is.

Between this and the news that Apple’s redesigned Siri Remote will also work with older Apple TVs, Apple is making it pretty easy for existing Apple TV owners to hold off on upgrading.

xiaomi-mi-watch-lite-review:-fitness-tracking-on-a-budget

Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite review: Fitness tracking on a budget

(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite joins the Mi Watch as a part of a duo that wants to put smarts on your wrist for significantly less money than an Apple Watch or a Samsung smartwatch. 

If the Mi Watch is considered affordable, then the Mi Watch Lite is proper cheap, going toe-to-toe with a raft of Amazfit Bip watches available around this price – and other budget options you should probably steer clear of. 

For that cut price, the Mi Watch Lite offers a mix of smartwatch and fitness tracking features and battery life that can make it through a week. You’ll inevitably have to live with some shortcomings, but it feels like ones that don’t detract from what is a decent budget smartwatch.

Design & Display

  • Measures: 41 x 35 x 11.9mm / Weighs: 35g
  • 1.39-inch display, 320 x 320 resolution
  • Size options: 41mm
  • 5ATM waterproof

Like the first Mi Watch – the one that never made it out of China – the Mi Watch Lite is a square affair, featuring a 41mm case made from plastic.

Pocket-lint

It weighs in at 35g, so it’s by no means a heavy watch, and it’s paired up with a TPU strap that’s removable. It just takes a bit of time to get it off and get something else on there.

There’s your pick of black, ivory or navy blue case colours, or the choice of five ‘fashionable’ Morandi colours including olive, pink and ivory. 

On the wrist, the Mi Watch Lite doesn’t look hugely different from other budget square smartwatches out there and the colour options are nice – but it would be stretch to say it gives them a more stylish look. It’s pleasant enough looking, but the larger Xiaomi Mi Watch is visually more appealing.

The Lite offers a single physical button on the side of the case that’ll wake the screen up and launch the app menu screen. That screen is the touchscreen kind of course. It’s a 1.4-inch TFT LCD type, so not the AMOLED kind you get on the more expensive Mi Watch.

It’s a good quality screen for the price and certainly doesn’t have that washed-out look you sometimes find on smartwatches this cheap. The backlight offers 350 nits of brightness, so it’s not one you’re going to struggle to see at night or during the day. It still offers good colours and it’s generally a nice screen to glance down at. 

What’s more problematic is the controls: tapping is prioritised over swiping through screens. You can scroll through some screens, but it’s slow moving when you do it. It’s generally less of a problem if you’re checking a notification or looking at one of the widgets, but when the sweat comes during exercise, it’s more problematic and frustrating to handle.

Like the round Mi Watch, Xiaomi has made the Lite suitable for swimming and showering by slapping it with a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means it’s good at depths up to 50 metres.  

Software & Performance

  • Works with Android and iOS
  • No third-party app support

Xiaomi uses its own in-house operating system for the on-watch software experience and it has Xiaomi Wear (Android) and Xiaomi Wear Lite (Apple) apps for that time spent away from the watch itself.

Pocket-lint

Our screen control frustrations aside, it’s a very easy watch software to get to grips with. Swipe left and right to see widgets showing off data like heart rate and weather forecasts. The main menu screen is a mere button press away.

Like the Mi Watch, that main menu screen doesn’t include any text, so it’s up to you to quickly establish what launches what here. There’s some simple settings you can tinker with on the watch like screen brightness, watch faces, do not disturb mode, idle alerts, and setting up a password for security.

The companion Xiaomi Wear app is broken up into three sections letting you dig into your health and fitness stats, track workouts from and adjust settings. There’s no third-party app support here, so if you’re thinking of connecting it to the likes of Apple Health or Google Fit, you’re out of luck.

Pocket-lint

The app itself – much like Zepp Health’s Amazfit and Mobvoi’s TicWatch – doesn’t feel the most polished or slick, but it does make it easy to adjust watch settings and delve deeper into your data if you want.

Sports & Fitness Tracking 

  • GPS and GLONASS
  • Built-in heart rate monitor
  • 24/7 fitness tracking and sleep monitoring

Like the Mi Watch, the Lite is one that’s built to track your fitness and health – and has the key sensors on board to deliver that.

Pocket-lint

There’s built-in GPS and GLONASS satellite support to map outdoor activities. There’s accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors for indoor tracking. And there’s 11 sports modes in total, including running (indoors and outdoor), cycling, trekking, swimming (pool and open water) and freestyle modes for those activities it doesn’t cover.

What you’re missing out from the Mi Watch are the Firstbeat-powered training features, stress tracking, the ability to take blood oxygen measurements, automatic exercise recognitio, and wider satellite support.

As a stripped-back sports and health monitoring watch, the Lite performs pretty well. GPS accuracy during our testing was reliable in comparison to a Garmin running watch. For indoor workouts, heart rate data was usually closely in-line with a chest strap monitor for HIIT and indoor rowing sessions – although we didn’t have to raise the intensity too high outside to see some odd spikes in heart rate.

If you’re less concerned about smashing out burpees and nailing 5K PBs, the Lite’s core fitness tracker features work well without really offering ways to make improvements or motivate you to move more.

Pocket-lint

Step counts during our testing were within acceptable range of the Fitbit Sense, and it’ll capture distance covered and calories burned. It offered similar accuracy to the bigger Mi Watch for sleep monitoring, though doesn’t capture REM sleep stages or offer any kind of insight or advice to improve sleep.

If you choose to continuously monitor your heart rate, then based on our experience, resting and average heart rate data seemed high compared to the data captured on a chest strap and a heart rate monitoring pulse oximeter. While there’s no stress monitoring here, you do still get guided breathing exercises, though there’s nothing groundbreaking on that front in terms of how it’s delivered.

Smartwatch Features

  • Over 120 watch faces
  • View notifications
  • Music controls

For this low price you’re obviously not going to get an Apple Watch equivalent here, so you won’t be able to make payments, put music on it, or even download apps.

Pocket-lint

What you can do is view notifications from a paired Android or iPhone, control music playing on your phone from native and third-party apps, check weather forecasts and set alarms. 

Notifications can only be displayed and not acted on and some messages can look a little messy at times in the manner they’re displayed. Music playback controls work well and dedicated screens to show-off weather data work without issue, so there’s definitely some nice elements here.

You do get a nice array of watch faces too, with the ability to store multiple faces on the watch itself and download more from the watch store, which you can find in the companion app. There’s a good mix of analogue and digital faces and additional ones if you want to pack it with data or keep things simple.

Pocket-lint

That’s really your lot though. Aside from some timer and alarm features, Xiaomi keeps it basic, which some will be satisfied with and others possibly not so much. 

Battery Life

  • Up to 9 days in typical use
  • 10 hours GPS battery life

The Mi Watch Lite comes packing a 230mAh capacity battery, which Xiaomi says will get you up to 9 days in typical use. That typical use is based on lab tests where heart rate monitoring was set to be the biggest interval option, 100 notifications were received by the watch, and it tracked one 35-minute outdoor exercise session a week.

Pocket-lint

The likelihood is that most people are probably going to be working out more than once a week or wanting to monitor heart rate with more detail. Our testing time didn’t reflect Xiaomi’s lab testing conditions. We had continuous heart rate monitoring on at 5 minute intervals, had notifications turned on and tracked five outdoor and indoor workouts a week. It ended up lasting about 5 days in our testing time, which is short by 4 days of that claimed 9 days life per charge. 

Those GPS battery life numbers seem to add up as well, offering the kind of drop off in 30 minute and 1 hour outdoor runs that suggest it could reach to those 10 hours when you want that hit of mapping data.



Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today


By Britta O’Boyle
·

Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.

When it comes to charging, there’s a large cradle that clips around the back of the watch and you’ll have no concerns it’s going to budge or fall out when it’s charging. It’s pretty well locked in place.

Verdict

The Xiaomi Watch Lite is a cheap smartwatch that is surprisingly nice to live with once you accept the compromises you have to make with it.

You’re not going to get that same high-quality display or some of the richer health and fitness features and insights you’ll get on the Mi Watch, but what remains offers a familiar and good experience.

It’s a solid albeit basic fitness tracker, competent smartwatch, and doesn’t do too badly as a budget sportswatch all considered. Compared to smartwatches in and around it at this price, the Mi Watch Lite stands out for the right reasons.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Amazfit GTS 2

If you can stretch to spend more, the GTS 2 will get you a more impressive hardware and richer fitness tracking and smartwatch features. 

  • Read our review

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Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

new-touch-id-magic-keyboards-work-with-all-m1-macs,-not-just-the-imac

New Touch ID Magic Keyboards work with all M1 Macs, not just the iMac

The Touch ID sensor in Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, which debuted alongside the updated iMac earlier this week, works with any Mac fitted with Apple’s M1 processor, Rene Ritchie and MacRumors report. The catch is that, for now at least, the keyboard is only sold with the new M1-equipped iMac, which is available to preorder from April 30th.

Apple has been shipping MacBooks with built-in Touch ID for a while now, but this is the first time it’s been available in an accessory. The biometric security method can be used for logging into the device, as well as authorizing purchases and signing into some third-party apps. The new Touch ID keyboard is available with a compact layout, as well as a full size keyboard with a numpad.

You can only buy them with the M1 Mac (for now?) but you can use them (with Touch ID!) on other M1 Macs, or just as BT keyboards (no Touch ID) on Intel Macs/other devices. https://t.co/mOOp5mbmg2

— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) April 20, 2021

The bad news for owners of older Macs is that the Touch ID functionality in the new keyboard won’t work with any Intel-based machines. The keyboard itself will reportedly function, just not the biometric security. As Apple’s press release explains, the new keyboard requires the Secure Enclave in the M1 processor to encrypt the transmitted fingerprint information end-to-end.

Although the Touch ID keyboard is currently only available with the new all-in-one, MacRumors notes that Apple has previously opened up exclusive accessories for general sale. For example, it started selling the gray keyboard, mouse, and trackpad for anyone to buy in 2018, after previously limiting them to the iMac Pro in 2017.

congress-is-diving-into-the-app-store-fight

Congress is diving into the App Store fight

For years, tech companies like Facebook and Amazon have faced the brunt of antitrust criticism by Congress, and Apple has gotten far fewer questions. But that changed on Wednesday, when Congress finally sunk its teeth into Apple as part of a hearing titled “Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores.”

The hearing brought in representatives from companies like Spotify, Tile, and Match Group, a dating app company, to explain how Apple’s App Store fees and walled-garden business strategy harms their companies. All three companies gave harsh testimony, accusing the iPhone-maker of anti-competitive behavior over the burdensome fees it charges some app developers on its App Store.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Apple, coming just a day after the company announced an iPhone-linked item tracker called the AirTag in direct competition with Tile. Speaking to Congress, Tile’s General Counsel Kirsten Daru said that once Apple decided to develop its own item-tracking devices and services in 2019, the two companies’ friendly relationship dissolved.

“If Apple turned on us, it can turn on anyone,” Daru told lawmakers. “And Apple has demonstrated that it won’t change unless someone makes them, making legislation so critical.”

Apple’s shifting platform relationships were a theme in the hearing, with each company testifying to how quickly Cupertino’s collaborative outreach could turn competitive. Match’s Chief Legal Officer Jared Sine told lawmakers that app store fees amount to the company’s single largest expense, totaling around a fifth of the company’s total sales. Spotify’s Head of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez said that Apple’s business model equated to “a classic bait and switch,” luring developers into its app store and suddenly changing the terms to benefit the iPhone-maker.

“We all appreciate app stores and the roles that Apple and Google have played in helping to create many of the technologies that have defined our age,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the subcommittee, said on Wednesday. “We’re not angry about success… It’s about new products coming on. It’s about new competitors emerging. This situation, to me, doesn’t seem like that’s happening.”

WHAT IT MEANS

Sen. Klobuchar, who chairs the committee, is using these hearings to build support for her Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Act, which she introduced in February. The bill’s provisions don’t line up perfectly with the App Store problem, but there are a few key provisions that would make it easier for companies like Tile to push back against Apple. In particular, the bill would make it less difficult for law enforcement to bring cases against tech companies for engaging in “exclusionary” conduct, something Sen. Klobuchar has been eager to highlight in interviews.

“I don’t think people realize there’s this 15 to 30 percent tax on major companies people enjoy getting music from, like Spotify, that Apple or Google assesses, that there’s all this exclusionary conduct going on,” Klobuchar told Axios on Wednesday.

For the most part, the companies giving testimony seemed happy to agree. Throughout the hearing, all three representatives argued that legislation is necessary for companies like Apple to change their behavior. But Spotify and Tile argued that the committee should also look into proposing federal legislation specifically targeting app stores.

“We respectfully request that some consideration be given to app stores right now,” Tile’s Daru said in light of discussion over Klobuchar’s larger bill.

Outside of federal legislation, states like Arizona have introduced their own measures to make developer-friendly changes to Google and Apple’s app stores. Many of these bills, like Arizona’s, have failed following intense lobbying efforts by tech.

“They are fighting so hard because it’s core to the maintenance of their monopoly,” Sine said.

THE HIGHLIGHT

Biden’s nominee to be the next Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission is also ready to turn up the heat on the App Store. At Lina Khan’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, Klobuchar asked Khan about the power companies like Apple and Google have in regards to their app stores:

Khan: It’s really the source of the power. Basically, there’s two main options so that gives these companies the power to really set the term in this market in some cases. I think you’re absolutely right that certain terms and conditions really lack any type of beneficial justifications. So, I think in those cases we need to be especially skeptical and really look closely.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Earlier this year, Klobuchar said that the committee would hold a series of hearings aimed at competition in the tech sector, including Facebook and Google’s dominance in the ad market. The hearings have yet to be scheduled.

apple-targeted-in-$50-million-ransomware-attack-resulting-in-unprecedented-schematic-leaks

Apple targeted in $50 million ransomware attack resulting in unprecedented schematic leaks

Apple has been targeted in a $50 million ransomware attack following the theft of a trove of engineering and manufacturing schematics of current and future products from Quanta, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures MacBooks and other products for Apple.

The leak, first reported by The Record, was carried out by REvil, a Russian hacking group that’s also known by the name Sodinokibi. The group had already begun posting the stolen images on April 20th, timed specifically to coincide with Apple’s latest “Spring Loaded” event, after Quanta refused to pay the $50 million ransom for the data. The group is now hoping to get Apple itself to pay up by May 1st, promising to continue to post new images from the leak daily until it does.

Quanta has confirmed that its servers were breached in a statement to Bloomberg, commenting: “Quanta Computer’s information security team has worked with external IT experts in response to cyber attacks on a small number of Quanta servers.” Quanta also says “there’s no material impact on the company’s business operation” as a result of the hack.

REvil has a history of similar ransomware attacks, Bleeping Computer points out, with the group also carrying out similar hacks on Acer and other companies in the past several months. But the Quanta attack — by virtue of its connection to Apple and the potential to reveal unannounced Apple hardware — marks the group’s highest-profile target yet.

The company hasn’t clarified the extent of the leak yet, but images leaked by REvil so far include schematics for Apple’s just-revealed iMac redesign — which, prior to yesterday, hadn’t been seen by anyone outside of Apple’s sphere of influence, lending credence to the fact that the documents are indeed accurate. The schematics also include warnings on nearly every page: “This is the property of Apple and it must be returned,” and they specify that the documents are not to be reproduced, copied, or published.

Also contained within the revealed files are manufacturing diagrams for Apple’s already-released 2020 M1 MacBook Air refresh and an as-yet-unreleased laptop that features additional ports in line with the existing rumors for the upcoming laptop refresh from Apple.

These documents were stolen and are being leaked to extort Apple and Quanta. Due to the nature of their origin, we believe it would be unethical to extensively report on their contents. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this post with any new information.

brydge’s-new-keyboard-for-the-m1-ipad-makes-it-more-macbook-like-than-ever

Brydge’s new keyboard for the M1 iPad makes it more MacBook-like than ever

Brydge is announcing a keyboard and trackpad accessory for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (via 9to5Mac). Like the company’s previous accessories, the Brydge 12.9 Max Plus will let you take your iPad from being a tablet to a laptop, just by connecting it to the accessory. With Apple’s new M1-powered iPad Pro, some might already be thinking about using it to make a MacBook replacement, while others may just be excited for the way you can now neatly attach it via magnets.

The answer to whether this will help replace your MacBook with an iPad is more or less what it’s always been: it depends on whether you can do all your work with what’s available on iPadOS. The iPad Pro has been more powerful than a lot of MacBooks for years, but hardware is only part of the equation. While the 12.9-inch iPad Pro may now have a processor as fast as a MacBook’s and a better screen to boot, it’s still using an OS that, for some, won’t be able to fully take advantage of those features. If you’re fine with the limitations of iPadOS, then the Brydge 12.9 Max Plus could be a new solution for taking the iPad into laptop mode.

The iPad will attach to the new Max Plus magnetically, instead of using the clamp system used by previous Brydge keyboards. That system required you to wedge your expensive tablet between clamps that then held onto that breakable glass — a nerve-wracking and not terribly pleasant experience. This brings Brydge’s offering more in line with the Magic Keyboard, and users will likely appreciate increased ease in switching between laptop and tablet mode. Easy, magnetic attachment is something that’s generally been associated with Apple’s iPad keyboards instead of third-party ones.

While Brydge’s built-in trackpads have generally not compared favorably to Apple’s, the company is hoping to change that by adding native multitouch support. With the Max Plus, Brydge is also playing the size comparison game — its trackpad is the largest on an iPad keyboard, according to the company’s site. That may be a nice bonus if you’re the type of person who likes to use the mouse a lot.

The Brydge 12.9 Max Plus is available for preorder on Brydge’s site, and it’s expected to ship in June. It comes in three color options (space gray, silver, and white) and costs $249.99 — $100 cheaper than Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

amazon-one’s-palm-scanning-payments-are-coming-to-whole-foods

Amazon One’s palm-scanning payments are coming to Whole Foods

Amazon One is expanding to its biggest area yet: the company is now testing its palm-scanning payment technology in Whole Foods, starting with a single store in Amazon’s home city of Seattle.

The company has been using Amazon One payment technology in its Amazon-branded stores in the Seattle area (including Amazon Go and Amazon Books), but the Whole Foods rollout will make the most substantial expansion of the technology yet. The company says that thousands of customers have already signed up with Amazon One.

According to an Amazon FAQ, the palm-scanning technology analyzes “the minute characteristics of your palm — both surface-area details like lines and ridges as well as subcutaneous features such as vein patterns” in order to identify a customer, allowing them to use the biometric scan as an alternative (and, theoretically, faster) method of checking out than fumbling around with a credit card or cash.

Customers will be able to register their palms at kiosks in the supported Whole Foods stores, allowing them to associate a physical credit card to that palm scan. (Amazon One users who have already registered may have to re-link their cards once to be able to use them at Whole Foods.) And of course, Amazon One users will be able to link their Prime accounts to their scans to get the subscription service’s discounts when shopping.

Amazon One will debut at the Madison Broadway Whole Foods in Seattle as an additional payment option for customers, with plans to expand it to seven other Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area over the next few months. Amazon hasn’t announced plans to further build out the palm-scanning payment system outside of the Seattle area.

All of this, of course, assumes that you’re OK with Amazon building an ever-larger database of biometric information linked to its customers, something that some experts have raised concerns about. That’s particularly true given that Amazon’s data — unlike other biometric security systems, like Apple’s Face ID — is stored in on the cloud, rather than secured locally on a specific device.

apple-now-lets-you-extend-a-mac’s-applecare-plus-coverage-beyond-three-years

Apple now lets you extend a Mac’s AppleCare Plus coverage beyond three years

Apple’s Mac computers typically come with a one-year warranty that you can optionally extend to three years by purchasing AppleCare Plus. The extended warranty also adds coverage for accidents and physical damage. But now, Apple is giving Mac customers the choice to keep AppleCare Plus going for even longer than the usual three-year limit.

As noticed by MacRumors, there’s a new support page that confirms people in the United States can convert AppleCare Plus into an indefinite annual subscription once the coverage they paid for upfront lapses. Apple says the recurring annual coverage must be purchased “within 30 days of the end date of your original coverage.” Once you’ve moved to annual billing, it renews automatically.

AppleCare Plus covers up to two incidents of accidental damage each year. Accident claims require a $99 deductible for a damaged display or external damage. More severe damage (like water incidents) have a deductible of $299. Either way, it’s far cheaper than paying for out-of-warranty repairs or buying a new Mac altogether.

Presumably this new policy means that Apple will continue to support covered Macs for as long as it has repair parts for a given machine. Part of Apple’s terms and conditions on this says the company will automatically cancel your plan (and provide 60 days’ notice) if it doesn’t have the necessary parts anymore.

AppleCare Plus falls under Apple’s services division, so giving customers the option to stretch out their warranties means more peace of mind for them — and more revenue for Apple.

Apple’s extended warranty for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch can also be converted into continued monthly coverage for customers who bought upfront coverage, which normally covers those products for a total of two years. As with the Mac, the renewing coverage must be purchased within 30 days of the original coverage end date.

apple-approved-another-secret-gambling-den,-masquerading-as-a-puzzle-game

Apple approved another secret gambling den, masquerading as a puzzle game

This morning, I wrote how Apple’s $64 billion-a-year App Store isn’t catching incredibly obvious multimillion-dollar scams because the company isn’t even bothering to audit its most profitable apps for fraud, and how app developer Kosta Eleftheriou is showing the company how it’s done.

But that’s not the only kind of scam Eleftheriou has been uncovering in Apple’s App Store — he has also discovered that Apple’s review teams have been approving games that transform into secret gambling dens when you access them from certain countries (or via VPN). We wrote about two of them last Thursday as if they were an isolated incident, but he’s now found at least two more, suggesting this may be a trend — including a match-three puzzle game dubbed Lucky Stars that turns into a casino if you open it in Russia, and a game called Vegas Pirates that does the same.

The developer – “Marina Misko” – has several gambling apps, all posing as games for kids 4+

These have been on the App Store for several months, and even had multiple updates approved by Apple! pic.twitter.com/iE8pbljeh9

— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) April 20, 2021

In some ways, they’re even more egregious examples: while it might be more shocking that a kids’ monkey-collecting-bananas game would transform into a gambling den, these new apps would seem to invite extra scrutiny with their gambling-oriented visuals and the fact they pretended a Russian news organization was their “developer website.”

They’re both gone now.

If you’re looking for shock value, Eleftheriou also spotted this unrelated app the other day:

Apple is testifying before Congress today — and in an incredibly high-profile court case against Epic Games next month — about how its App Store protects users, justifies the company’s traditional 30-percent cut (reportedly $64 billion last year alone), and shouldn’t be broken up. These kinds of discoveries are giving the company’s critics a lot of ammo.

android-12’s-third-developer-beta-helps-apps-get-more-from-cameras-and-haptic-hardware

Android 12’s third developer beta helps apps get more from cameras and haptic hardware

Android 12’s third developer preview has arrived, and among its host of updates are new OS-level tools to help app developers get more out of the camera and haptic hardware found in modern Android flagships. App launch animations, call notifications, and linking between apps are among the other tweaks made in this release.

It’s a developer-focused beta, meaning much of this could change before Android 12’s full release later this year. However, it’s likely to be the last preview before Android 12 enters beta next month and receives an official unveiling at Google I/O, meaning the preview should provide some useful hints about Google’s priorities for the next major version of Android.

First up, the preview gives developers more options for how to offer haptic feedback in their apps, an important development given the big strides Apple has taken with haptic feedback on its devices. Google says these new haptic feedback options should help with everything from UI events to effects in gaming. The APIs are optimized for the Pixel 4 at the moment, and Google says it’s working with other manufacturers to expand support across more devices.

There’s also better camera support for ultra high-resolution sensors, like those with Quad or Nona Bayer patterns such as the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Platform-level APIs will help developers make better use of these cameras, Google says, which should translate to better performance from third-party camera apps.

There are also a couple of tweaks to the general look and feel of Android. Call notifications are getting a new template to make them more visible, easier to understand at a glance, and more consistent with other notifications. The way Android handles links to specific apps is also changing to open your browser by default, rather than the standard app chooser dialog box. Finally, app launch animations are also getting a makeover, including new splash screens.

There are also many more under-the-hood tweaks Google is making with the third developer preview, touching everything from how apps offer alarms, to machine learning and debugging options. If you’re a developer, you can grab the new preview now from Google’s developer site for the Pixel 3 and newer (or else you’ll receive the new preview as an update if you’re already running the developer preview). The new preview is also available in Google’s Android emulator.

apple’s-airtags-will-work-with-android…-sort-of

Apple’s AirTags will work with Android… sort of

Apple’s AirTags have one feature not mentioned during the announcement yesterday: they’ll work with Android to a limited extent. As 9to5Mac noted, there’s a support article on Apple’s site that details how AirTags will work with an Android device if you don’t have your iPhone handy.

The way AirTags function is by securely communicating with Bluetooth devices and iPhones equipped with ultra-wideband that are in the area. If AirTags exclusively worked with Apple devices it would severely limit their effectiveness, particularly in regions where iPhones aren’t as popular as Android.

Any NFC-equipped phone should be able to just tap the AirTag to get more details.
Image: Apple

AirTags won’t work out of the box with an Android device, nor can you use an Android device in lieu of an iPhone with one. Instead, it will only work with Android devices equipped with NFC and only communicate when the AirTags are in Lost Mode.

First, you’ll need to use your iPhone to activate Lost Mode, which is supposed to show you on a map where your AirTag has wandered off to. Then if someone with an Android device finds your lost AirTag, they can hold it up to their NFC-equipped phone and get details on how to contact you. They’ll only be able to get details if the Lost Mode is activated, which should help with privacy concerns.

The Android support makes AirTags way more useful, but if you want the full experience on an Android device, you’ll probably want to take a gander at Tile’s offerings. The company is reportedly working on an AirTag competitor that should work on both iOS and Android. Samsung also has its own AirTag competitor, Galaxy SmartTags. Like the AirTags and planned Tile offering, the Galaxy SmartTags use UWB to provide a more exact location for a lost tag. The Galaxy SmartTags only work with Samsung Galaxy phones, but unlike AirTags and the Tile tag, Galaxy SmartTags are available now and start at $29.99.

Related:

big-ipad,-mini-led:-why-apple’s-new-ipad-pro-display-is-better-and-brighter

Big iPad, Mini LED: why Apple’s new iPad Pro display is better and brighter

Apple’s latest iPad Pro might look very similar to the model it’s replacing, but it contains several major upgrades on the inside. It’s got the same powerful, energy-efficient M1 chip as the latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and now the redesigned iMac. Cellular models have made the jump to 5G. The front-facing camera can zoom and pan to keep you in focus on video calls. But aside from the processor, the biggest technical leap is exclusive to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro: it’s what Apple calls the “Liquid Retina XDR,” a new display that adopts Mini LED backlighting to achieve higher brightness and greater contrast than any iPad (or Mac) that the company has ever made.

Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro can reach 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness — on par with the ultra-expensive Pro Display XDR — and portions of the screen can hit an eye-searing 1,600 nits when playing HDR content. That’s brighter than many 4K HDR TVs on the market.

For comparison’s sake, the previous iPad Pro topped out at 600 nits. Full stop. These measurements also obliterate Apple’s Mac lineup. The 16-inch MacBook Pro can go up to 500 nits. The flashy 24-inch iMac introduced yesterday? Also 500 nits. Things move a little closer when you look at the iPhone 12 Pro’s OLED screen, which can hit a max brightness of 800 nits and 1,200 in HDR.

But Apple isn’t yet ready to make the switch to OLED for its tablets, and the reasoning probably comes down to the brightness advantage of Mini LED — plus the company’s promise that this iPad Pro, with its fancy display, still has the standard 10-hour battery life that iPad users have come to expect. Either way, this is an upgrade that should be plainly evident to the eye.

What is Mini LED?

Unlike OLED, where individual pixels are self-illuminating and can fully turn off when not needed, Mini LED is more of a natural progression from the LCD screens that have become such a mainstay of consumer electronics. But where this new approach differentiates itself is in the size and quantity of LEDs behind the screen. During its Spring Loaded event, Apple’s Heidi Delgado said that the previous iPad Pro had 72 LEDs, but the new “Liquid Retina XDR” manages to pack in over 10,000 of them. Apple accomplished this by miniaturizing the LEDs to a size “120 times smaller in volume than the previous design.”

Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro has over 10,000 LEDs.
Image: Apple

The Mini LEDs are grouped into over 2,500 local dimming zones that can individually brighten and dim based on whatever’s being shown on the display. This granular level of control, according to Delgado, results in customers “seeing the brightest highlights along with subtle details in the darkest parts of an image.”

The dimming zones can light up and dim based on what’s on-screen.

Apple isn’t first to Mini LED

Though this might be the first time Mini LED has found its way into a tablet, the technology has already appeared in TVs. TCL really sparked the trend in 2019, and apparently Samsung and LG took notice: their higher-end 2021 LCD TVs now utilize Mini LED backlighting as well.

A visualization of TCL’s Mini LED implementation on its TVs.
Image: TCL

Here’s how TCL explains the visual improvements:

LED LCD TVs have two parts of the display that combine together to create an image. The “LCD” (liquid crystal display) part of the display creates a picture and the “LED” (light-emitting diode) part of the display makes light that shines through the picture so your eyes can see it. So the benefit of thousands of precisely controlled mini-LEDs in an active matrix backlight is more powerful light that is more smoothly distributed across the screen, more precisely controlled for sharp contrast and more effective in creating vividly saturated colors that dazzle the eye. Mini-LED simply delivers dramatically better picture performance.

The huge uptick in LEDs could also result in improved panel uniformity; some owners of the previous 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros have observed uneven backlighting. Having exchanged one or two for this very reason, I can vouch. The “panel lottery” is a thing with pretty much any device — TVs, laptops, tablets, etc. — but making the move to Mini LED should help with consistency.

What’s this I hear about MicroLED?

MicroLED is seen as the next major leap in TV display technology and the potential successor to OLED. It shares many of OLED’s best traits (like self-emissive LEDs), ups the brightness, and comes without most of the associated drawbacks since the technology is inorganic. But right now, MicroLED is extremely cost prohibitive and really only found in ultra-premium luxury TVs from Samsung.

Final impressions on the new iPad Pro will need to wait until we get it in our hands. But as someone who uses the previous 12.9-inch model daily for productive and creative purposes, I’m very curious to see what Mini LED adds to the iPad experience.

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apple-ipad-pro-129-(2021)-vs-ipad-pro-12.9-(2020):-what’s-the-difference?

Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) vs iPad Pro 12.9 (2020): What’s the difference?

(Pocket-lint) – Apple revealed the fifth generation of the iPad Pro 12.9 during an event in April 2021, replacing the iPad Pro 12.9 fourth generation that launched in March 2020. 

The iPad Pro 12.9 (5th gen) launched alongside the iPad Pro 11 (3rd generation). You can read all about how all Apple’s iPad’s compare in our separate feature, as well as how the new iPad Pro 11 specifically compares to its predecessor in another feature.

Here we are focusing on how the new iPad Pro 12.9’s specs stack up against the old iPad Pro 12.9’s specs though. Which should you buy or should you upgrade?

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What’s the same?

  • Design and colour options
  • Battery and audio
  • Rear camera
  • Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard Folio compatibility

The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and iPad feature the same design, with both offering the identical measurements, along with an aluminium frame, square edges and super-slim bezels. They both feature Face ID at the top of the display and both are compatible with the second generation Apple Pencil and the Smart Folio Keyboard. They also both come in Silver and Space Grey colour options.

Both offer the same dual rear camera comprised of 12-megapixel wide and 10-megapixel ultra wide sensors, with 2x optical zoom out and 5x optical zoom and they also have the same four-speaker audio array and 10-hour battery life.

What’s different?

Despite offering multiple similiarities, there are a few differences between the fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9 and the fourth generation iPad Pro 12.9.

Display

The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display, compared to the iPad Pro 12.9 (2020)’s Liquid Retina display. Both have the same size and resolution, but the newer model offers a 1000nits max full-screen brightness and 1600nits peak brightness (HDR). 

The older model, by comparison, has a 600nits max brightness. Other screen technologies like the fully-laminated display, True Tone and ProMotion technology are on both models though.

Front camera

The iPad Pro 12.9 (5th gen) comes with a 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera with ultra wide camera, offering 2x optical zoom out, a feature called Centre Stage that sees the camera follow and track you as you move around a room, and extended dynamic range for video up to 30fps.

The iPad Pro 12.9 (4th gen) has a 7-megapixel TrueDepth camera. 

Processor

The fifth generation Apple iPad Pro 12.9 comes with Apple’s M1 chip, which is also found in the new iMac, making this model very powerful. It has an 8-core CPU, 8-core graphics and next-generation Neural Engine. There’s also a choice of 8GB or 16GB of RAM.

The fourth generation model comes with the A12Z Bionic chip with Neural Engine. There are no RAM options and while still powerful, it likely won’t match the fifth gen model.

5G connectivity

The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and iPad Pro 12.9 (2020) both come in Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and Cellular options, but the fifth generation model offers 5G connectivity in the Wi-Fi and Cellular model, while the fourth generation model has 4G LTE.

Storage options

Both the iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and the iPad Pro 12.9 (2020) come in storage options of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The fifth generation model also adds a 2TB option though.

Thunderbolt/USB 4

The iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) model has a Thunderbolt/USB 4 charging and data transfer port, while the iPad Pro 12.9 (2020) has USB-C. It means the newer iPad Pro 12.9 will offer quicker data transfer than its predecessor, though not everyone is likely to need that.

Weight

The fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9 is a little heavier than its predecessor. The Wi-Fi only model weighs 682g, and the Wi-Fi and Cellular model weighs 684g, while the fourth gen Wi-Fi only model weighs 641g and the Wi-Fi and Cellular model weighs 643g.

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Conclusion 

While the design of the fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9 and the fourth generation iPad Pro 12.9 are the same, along with the rear camera, battery and audio capabilities and the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard Folio compatibility, there are a few differences.

The new iPad Pro 12.9 comes with a new, more advanced processor, RAM options, a 2TB storage option, new front camera with new features, an improved display and 5G capabities. 

For some, the new features will be exactly what you were after – like 5G capabiities and the M1 processor – which will make spending the extra money on the 2021 model over the 2020 model worth it. For others, you might skip the upgrade this time round or opt for the 2020 model to save a few pounds if you’re investing in the iPad Pro 12.9 for the first time.

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

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Hackers Threaten to Leak Apple Product Data if Ransom Goes Unpaid

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

We might learn more about Apple’s latest products sooner than expected. BleepingComputer has reported that a cybercrime group called REvil is threatening to leak “stolen product blueprints” unless it’s paid a $50 million ransom by April 27.

The report was published mere hours after Apple revealed a completely redesigned iMac that has USB 4 support, the first iPad Pro models to feature its M1 chip, and other new products. That probably wasn’t an accident—this way REvil can take advantage of all the hype.

BleepingComputer reported that REvil stole the product blueprints from Quanta Computer, the second-largest notebook original design manufacturer in the world, alongside what the cybercrime group described as “a lot of confidential data.”

Right now, it seems like the information stolen from Quanta Computer was limited to the MacBook line, which likely includes the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models (the current MacBook Pro made our list of best ultrabooks and premium laptops), but the company may have had blueprints for other Apple devices as well.

REvil has already published “over a dozen schematics and diagrams of MacBook components on its dark web leak site,” according to the report, but “there is no indication that any of them are new Apple products” at the time of this writing.

The group has given Quanta Computer—or, presumably, Apple—until April 27 to pay a $50 million ransom in exchange for the stolen data. That ransom will double after the deadline expires; it’s not clear when the affected files might actually be leaked. 

Neither amount would be significant to Quanta Computer or Apple. The former reported $709 million in annual profit as of September 2020, according to Fortune, and Apple’s market cap is well over $2.2 trillion. They can afford it.

The problem is that paying a ransom, or even negotiating with a group like REvil, can make a company a more appealing target in the future. It’s kind of like the “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” rule cited by politicians in every modern action movie. Except, you know, with product blueprints instead of some kind of deadly weapon.