The Audio Pro Addon C10 has consistently been one of our favourite wireless speakers in the three years since its arrival, winning three What Hi-Fi? Awards on the trot in its price category (‘under £500’). Now, the Swedish firm has released a sequel with enhanced functionality, sound quality and design.
The C10 MkII expands its predecessor’s feature list (which includes AirPlay, Bluetooth, aux and RCA inputs, and access to music streaming services via wi-fi) by adding AirPlay 2 and Google Cast streaming smarts. That now gives owners three ways of using the C10 MkII in a multi-room environment – with Apple devices (via AirPlay 2), Google Cast-compatible speakers, and Audio Pro’s other wireless speakers (via the Audio Pro app). These new features are, Audio Pro says, a direct response to customer demand.
In the name of improved sound quality, Audio Pro has also enhanced the electronics and revised the bass port design, while the dual tweeters and woofer that have helped make the original such a sonic class-leader in its field remain.
The number of preset buttons has been increased to six, too, allowing owners quick access to any playlist and radio station they wish to allocate to each one, without the need to use the control app. And last but not least, the new C10 also boasts a magnetic fabric mesh speaker grille to hide its koala-resembling frontage and bring it more in line with the firm’s latest speakers, such as the G10 and BT5.
Unsurprisingly, those extra features and improvements come at a price over the original C10, which had an RRP of £299 but can now be picked up for £259. The Audio Pro C10 MkII is now available to pre-order now at Richer Sounds for £360 in Arctic White, Storm Grey or Coal Black finishes. Will it prove to be a new favourite of ours? We wouldn’t bet against it.
MORE:
Our pick of the world’s best wireless speakers 2021
Apple’s next iPad Pro may face supply constraints at launch due to issues in production, according to a new report in Bloomberg. Apple’s suppliers are said to be having trouble with low manufacturing yields for the new Mini LED display rumored to be the key feature of the new 12.9-inch model; one manufacturer has reportedly paused production.
Nikkei reported last week that iPad production had been delayed by a shortage of displays and display components, though the publication didn’t specify which models had been hit. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the new iPad Pro lineup is still expected to be announced later this month.
It’s possible, though, that the larger model may have a later shipping date. The smaller model reportedly won’t use the Mini LED display, but other upgrades across the line are said to include a faster processor similar in power to the M1 chip in Apple’s new Macs, as well as an upgraded USB-C port and better cameras.
An iPhone with cheese grater texture similar to the iMac Pro? Industrial designer Sarang Sheth shows what this would look like and why it is a bad idea.
The Apple iMac Pro, announced in 2019, got a complete new design, with the front provided with a unique hole pattern. Many Apple fans reminded it of the very first generation of Mac Pro, where often the comparison with a cheese grater was made. Some time ago, Apple filed for a patent for an iPhone with a similar cheese grater texture, which could contribute to more efficient cooling.
The opinions about this iPhone design were certainly not only positive on the internet, but that didn’t stop industrial designer Sarang Sheth from visualizing this idea. Sarang made for Yanko Design a concept of a iPhone 12 Pro Cheese grater Case. The characteristic cheese grater design gives the phone a special and cool appearance. Yet there seem to be more disadvantages than advantages to such a design.
Sarang Sheth about of his design: “We present the Cheesegrater Case for the iPhone 12 Pro. Made from a TPE bumper and a machined aluminum backplate, the case puts the familiar cheesegrater texture on the back of the iPhone to help it cool more efficiently (well at least in theory). In theory, it’s also perfectly suited to mince cloves of garlic or grate some Parmigiano Reggiano.”
iPhone 12 Pro case
Sarang has not only visualized the patented design, he also delves deeper into the potential practicality of this invention. He believes it is a bad idea, he cites several reasons for this. First of all, a textured metal case would attract dust, dirt, and lint. Moreover, you would not be able to charge the phone wirelessly.
In addition, such a cheese grater structure would make the device unnecessarily thick – which is unlikely to be Apple’s preference. In addition, you may wonder what such a 3D design does to the hand position. It doesn’t seem very comfortable. In addition, you may wonder why a smartphone must have desktop-quality heat dissipation. Does Apple still have some surprises in store for us? For example in the field of Augmented Reality (AR).
In any case, it seems unlikely that Apple will use such a design for the iPhone 13 Pro, which is expected around September. There is, however, good hope that the controversial notch will finally decline in size this year, it will still not completely disappear though.
Ilse is a Dutch journalist and joined LetsGoDigital more than 15 years ago. She is highly educated and speaks four languages. Ilse is a true tech-girl and loves to write about the future of consumer electronics. She has a special interest for smartphones, digital cameras, gaming and VR.
After several senators criticized the company, Apple said on Sunday it would send its chief compliance officer to an April 21st hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bloomberg reported.
Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday demanding that the company send a representative to the hearing, saying Apple was refusing to participate. In the letter, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) ,and Mike Lee (R-UT) say Apple “abruptly” decided not to provide a witness for the hearing on digital markets focused on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.
“Apple’s sudden change in course to refuse to provide a witness to testify before the Subcommittee on app store competition issues in April, when the company is clearly willing to discuss them in other public forums, is unacceptable,” the senators wrote in the letter. “We strongly urge Apple to reconsider its position and to provide a witness to testify before the Subcommittee in a timely manner.”
But on Sunday, it appears Apple sent a letter to the senators saying it was “surprised” by their letter and that it had intended to participate, but simply sought a change in the date. “We have a deep respect for your role and process on these matters,” the letter reads. The company will make Kyle Andeer— who Apple says has represented the company before the US House of Representatives and several states—available on April 21st.
“We look forward to sharing our perspective on our App Store,” the letter states.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge on Sunday. Its App Store practices, including the 30 percent fees it charges developers, have been under scrutiny from lawmakers in recent months. Apple also has been battling with Fortnite publisher Epic Games, which sued the iPhone maker for what it claims are violations of antitrust law. That trial is slated to get underway May 3rd.
The company leaves a void that brands like Motorola and TCL are well-positioned to fill
LG’s exit from the smartphone business felt inevitable in the weeks leading up to it as rumors mounted. When it was finally confirmed, Avi Greengart, a longtime consumer tech analyst and president of Techsponential, noticed a trend toward nostalgia in the reactions to the news.
“I’m not getting a lot of people saying ‘What will I do to replace my LG G8X ThinQ?’ I’m getting ‘Aw, my first phone was an LG flip phone, and it was durable and reliable and I loved it.’”
As someone who spent many years covering the digital camera market, it’s a very familiar moment to me. We mourn the loss of the brand that gave us our first flip phone or our first camera with a tweet and a broken heart emoji. But truthfully, we moved on long ago, as did most of the rest of the phone- or camera-buying population.
Things weren’t looking good for LG’s phone business in 2016 when it introduced the modular G5, and the ecosystem’s failure to take off perpetuated what would become years of losses for the mobile division. In 2020, the smartphone business recorded an operational loss of around $750 million for the year; the company promised to “closely review the direction of the business,” and we know now how that turned out.
While most shoppers have moved on, there are still gaps left in the market when a Kodak or an LG packs it in. “This is a void. When they do leave, this will be a void,” says Ryan Reith, program vice president for IDC’s Mobile Device Tracker division. He says that through last year, LG still held close to 10 percent market share in the US.
In particular, the company still had a solid foothold in the prepaid device business. Greengart doesn’t think there will be any lack of appetite to snap up that share of the market. “The competition there is brutal. The real question is will US carriers invite a new brand in — someone like Xiaomi would be my longshot.” The company’s Redmi and Poco lineups might be good candidates, with a focus on bringing high-end features and solid performance to affordable handsets.
Greengart also notes that OnePlus already has a foot in the door at Metro by T-Mobile, the carrier’s prepaid sub-brand. Samsung has already announced that it will sell two of its least expensive A-series phones, the A02s and A12, through prepaid brands like Cricket and Metro this spring.
As for the sub-$300 space in general, there’s no shortage of brands ready to pounce. “I would say the two brands that are probably going to take that share going to be Motorola and TCL,” Reith says. He notes that Motorola is already well-positioned to pick up LG’s Latin American customers, which was recently about 30 percent of its mobile phone business. Even on an individual device level, there are obvious heirs: one of LG’s last bestselling devices is the Stylo 6, and its sole competitor, the Moto G Stylus, is quite frankly a better phone.
TCL has also made it clear in the past couple of years that it’s eager to get its own brand devices into more consumers’ hands, in addition to the phones the company already makes for other brands. Reith says he’s “bullish” on the company’s prospects, as more US shoppers have become familiar with the brand name by way of its TV business. If one thing’s certain, it’s that more than a few companies are in a good position to fill that void LG leaves behind. As Greengart puts it, “Undoubtedly there will be plenty of substitutes; in fact there already are.”
Although LG only had a small presence in the premium market, there’s a gap left there too — even if it’s mostly symbolic. The few devices the company still sold were an alternative to the two dominant brands in the US: Apple and Samsung. Especially considering the lower cost of entry to the S21 series this year, those remaining customers will likely be easily scooped up by the duopoly. “The market is mostly Apple and Samsung in the United States,” says Greengart. “If it was concentrated before, it’s even more concentrated today.”
Realistically though, the market had already spoken. LG’s efforts at bold, unusual designs in the premium space never caught on and spelled serious trouble for the business. Reith points to the LG Wing as an example. “To come up with a design like that… it takes so much money for R&D, that when you put that out and it only sells thousands of units — not hundreds of thousands, but thousands of units — it’s a big, big loss,” he says.
LG’s premium devices may have been interesting and unique, but the market spoke, and the company’s mobile phone exit became seemingly inevitable. That’s how these things work, and a multitude of companies are ready to swoop in and pick up where LG left off. But whether you follow mobile tech closely or just have a special place in your heart for your old flip phone, many of us will still take the opportunity to pause and shed a digital emoji tear.
News stories about chip shortages for various applications have become so common in the past few months that they now sound like background noise. It’s no secret that demand for PCs and other electronics is high, but sales of personal computers have actually beaten all the expectations in the first quarter as they increased by 55% year-over-year, according to the latest data from IDC. Apple seems to be the biggest winner here since its shipments have more than doubled.
The industry shipped as many as 83.981 million PCs in Q1 2021, up 55.2% from the same quarter a year ago and a modest 8% decline from Q4 2020, which is a seasonally strong quarter. In fact, most Top 5 PC suppliers demonstrated over 50% year-over-year PC unit sales growth, an indication that they were eating the lunch of smaller players, which is not particularly surprising as they could procure more components and ship more machines.
Lenovo remained the market leader, selling 20.4 million computers and controlling 24.3% of the market. HP came in second with 19.237 million systems shipped and 22.9% market share. Dell landed in third with 12.946 million PCs and a 15.4% share.
Apple was in the distant fourth place, shipping 6.692 million Macs and owning 8% of the market. But Apple’s sales were up a whopping 111.5% year-over-year, probably one of the biggest YoY jumps that the company has ever seen. Acer was the No. 5 PC maker in Q1 2021 with 5.837 machines sold and 7% of the market.
“Unfulfilled demand from the past year has carried forward into the first quarter, and additional demand brought on by the pandemic has also continued to drive volume,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “However, the market continues to struggle with setbacks including component shortages and logistics issues, each of which has contributed to an increase in average selling prices.”
Demand for PCs began to skyrocket in Q1 2020 as many countries went into lockdown, sending hundreds of millions of employees and students home. All of these people had to buy new PCs for their remote work and learning, yet the supply chain was not ready, so shipments of PCs dropped year-over-year in Q1 2020 to 54.1 million units (from 59 million in Q1 2019), creating a large number of backorders. This differed demand has been affecting the supply chain since then, and shortages are expected to persist for quarters to come. But that decline in Q1 2020 created a low base effect for Q1 2021, which is why we can observe such tangible growth.
“There is no question when entering 2021 the backlog for PCs was extensive across business, consumer, and education,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “The ongoing shortages in the semiconductor space only further prolong the ability for vendors to refill inventory and fulfill orders to customers. We believe a fundamental shift has occurred around the PC, which will result in a more positive outlook for years to follow. All three segments — business, education, and consumer — are experiencing demand that we didn’t expect to happen regardless of many countries beginning their ‘opening up’ process. Component shortages will likely be a topic of conversation for the majority of 2021, but the more important question should be what PC demand will look like in 2-3 years.”
An Australian judge has ruled that Epic’s lawsuit against Apple in Australia will be temporarily suspended as the two sides prepare for a trial in the US, Gizmodo Australia reported. Apple had asked for a permanent stay of the case in Australia, arguing that the US and Australia cases were very similar, and that the matter should be settled in the original jurisdiction of the United States.
The two companies are fighting over Epic’s battle royale game Fortnite, and the fees Apple charges. In August, Epic set up its own in-game payments system, effectively circumventing Apple’s App Store payments and avoiding the 30 percent surcharge Apple collects on App Store purchases. Apple then removed Fortnite from its iOS App Store for violating its rules. Epic fired back with an antitrust lawsuit seeking to establish Apple’s App Store as a monopoly and tried to rally Fortnite fans with a protest video mocking Apple’s iconic “1984” ad.
In November, Epic filed a similar legal claim against Apple in Australia, saying the iPhone maker’s conduct was “unconscionable, and breaches the Australian Consumer Law as well as various sections of the Competition and Consumer Act [of] 2010.” Epic has also filed similar claims against Google and its mobile app store.
Australian Judge Nye Perram ordered Friday that the case in that country be temporarily stayed for three months. He also said the proceedings will continue to be suspended in Australia if Epic continues to pursue its case in the US, but could bring the case back to Australian courts depending on the outcome in the US.
On Thursday, Apple and Epic filed proposed findings of fact documents for the US court case, which is set to open in California on May 3rd.
Neither Epic nor Apple immediately replied to requests for comment from The Verge on Saturday.
Senate Judiciary Committee leaders are demanding that Apple provide a witness for an upcoming hearing on app stores and digital competition after the iPhone manufacturer has refused to participate, according to a new letter to the company released Friday.
In the letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) say the company “abruptly” decided not to provide a witness for an April hearing on digital markets focused on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.
“Apple has been aware for weeks that the Subcommittee was planning a hearing on this topic and was engaged in discussions with our staff regarding who would testify on Apple’s behalf,” the senators wrote to Apple Friday. “Yet a little more than two weeks [16 days] before the planned hearing, Apple abruptly declared that it would not provide any witness to testify at a hearing in April.”
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge Friday.
Apple’s App Store practices have been under intense scrutiny by lawmakers over the last year. In 2019, the House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation into competition in the tech industry, including Apple’s App Store. Throughout the probe, lawmakers homed in on the 30 percent fees Apple charges app developers. In a Verge interview last June, Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) called the practice “highway robbery.”
The criticism extends to the app developers themselves. Fortnite publisher Epic Games sued Apple last year, accusing the company of violating US antitrust laws after it removed the popular battle royale game from the App Store. The trial is set to begin on May 3rd.
“Apple’s sudden change in course to refuse to provide a witness to testify before the Subcommittee on app store competition issues in April, when the company is clearly willing to discuss them in other public forums, is unacceptable,” the senators wrote. “We strongly urge Apple to reconsider its position and to provide a witness to testify before the Subcommittee in a timely manner.”
Linux could make it to Apple silicon even sooner than expected. A pull request for the Linux 5.13 kernel submitted on Thursday and spotted by Phoronix looks to add “initial support” for the Mac Mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models equipped with an M1 chip.
Developer Hector Martin submitted the pull request. He is one of two members of the Asahi Linux project devoted to porting Linux to Apple silicon (at time of writing; the project is open to contributions from other Linux developers).
Martin said the initial merge would include:
UART (Samsung-style) with earlycon support
Interrupts, including affinity and IPIs (Apple Interrupt Controller)
SMP (through standard spin-table support)
simplefb-based framebuffer
Devicetree for the Mac Mini (should work for the others too at this stage)
He also said that Asahi Linux is “developing an initial bootloader, m1n1, to take care of as many hardware peculiarities as possible and present a standard Linux Arm64 boot protocol and device tree.” More details about m1n1 are available on GitHub.
This isn’t the first attempt to port Linux to the M1. Corellium announced in January that it got Ubuntu to run on the platform, but that was a proof of concept for a custom kernel, not an effort to bring Apple silicon support to the core Linux kernel.
Phoronix said the Linux 5.13 kernel is likely to debut some time around June. It also warned against expecting a stellar Linux experience on an M1 Mac even if this pull request is approved, though, because optimizing the graphics will take a while.
Still, progress is progress, and efforts to bring Linux to the M1 have also revealed more information about the chip’s system architecture. Now, it’s just a matter of hoping that Apple doesn’t muck up all that work when it releases the M1’s successor.
As a Freeview PVR, the Humax Aura is hard to beat , but its incomplete smart platform requires a pause for thought
For
Excellent recording and playback
Full-bodied, exciting sound
Useful Aura mobile app
Against
No Netflix app
HDR picture could be better
User interface a touch convoluted
Even without an Oxbridge education, the Humax Aura PVR has managed to achieve a double first. It’s the first Freeview set-top box from Humax to use the Android TV operating system and also the first to be 4K HDR-enabled. How could we not be intrigued?
The Humax Aura can be a number of things to different people and it feels as though it has been priced to interest everyone. The most obvious use is as a Freeview Play recorder, with enough internal storage options to capture hours of live Full HD and standard-definition television.
With its Android TV platform, you can also use it as a Chromecast with benefits – a way of adding over 5000 apps and streaming services to feed your television or projector with plenty of 4K fun. With its USB sockets, hi-res audio and 3D home cinema codec support, there’s an option to use it for local film file playback too – it’s quite the box of tricks.
Pricing
The Humax Aura costs £249 for the 1TB model, which can store up to 250 hours of HD (or 500 of SD) programming, and £279 for the 2TB model, which can store up to 500 hours of Full HD (1000 of SD) programming.
If you’re serious enough about live TV to want to record it on a regular basis, then the extra £30 for double the amount of space feels like a no-brainer.
Features
Humax has had great success with its What Hi-Fi? Award-winning FVP-5000T set-top box and, four years down the line, a replacement has been long overdue. For both specs and looks, the Aura is the upgrade we’ve been waiting for.
Stand the two next to one another and the sculpted lines of the low slung Aura more easily fit into the category of contemporary industrial design.
The Aura is a tidy 26cm by 20cm box that takes up about the same space as your wi-fi router. Its gloss black body is accented by an LED strip on the underside, which changes from red to blue to violet to orange depending on whether it’s off, on, recording or recording in standby. It’s a useful indicator and reminiscent of K.I.T.T from Knight Rider in standby mode.
But if it’s a party at the front of the Aura, then around the back is the serious business. Here you’ll find the single HDMI 2.1-out along with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 (Type A) sockets for local media. There’s also an optical audio-out and a LAN connection if you’d rather leave the 2.4/5GHz wi-fi alone.
The Aura remote is fully featured, with dedicated buttons for just about everything you could need, including shortcuts to streaming services, recordings, the guide, the Freeview Play platform and the Android TV homepage too. You’ll need to pair the remote with the Aura box using Bluetooth for the Google Assistant voice system to work.
Humax Aura tech specs
Tuners x3
Ports HDMI 2.1, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, optical-out
OS Android TV 9
Freeview Play Yes
Storage 1TB/2TB
Dimensions (hwd) 4.3 x 26 x 20cm
Weight 764g
The Humax Aura’s three Freeview Play tuners bring access to over 70 non-subscription live TV channels and over 20,000 hours of on-demand entertainment through the catch-up services, with BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My5 all present. Those tuners allow you to pause and rewind TV, as well as record up to four channels while watching a fifth one live.
Unlike the older FVP-5000T, there’s no built-in app for streaming live TV or your recordings from the box to other devices around your home, though Humax says the same DLNA support will be added to the Aura in a forthcoming firmware update. The Aura mobile app will detect any DLNA or Chromecast-enabled devices on the same network as your box and allow you to play recordings or live channels to those, sourcing it from the Aura as a server.
For the time being, the Aura mobile app is a handy tool in its own right. It brings a full view of the electronic programme guide (EPG) to your small screen and allows users to schedule recordings, watch recordings and even enjoy live TV on mobile – just the ticket for keeping track of Countdown while you put the kettle on.
The Aura’s big-screen offering is also bolstered by Android TV, and that means another 5000 or so apps from Google Play are at your disposal, with subscription services such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, alongside more UK-specific apps, such as BT Sport and UKTV Play.
There are significant gaps, though, including Britbox, Now TV and the Netflix app. Somewhat ironically, Netflix is actually one of the few non-catch-up apps available on the older FVP-5000T. Fortunately, the Aura’s built-in Chromecast functionality allows users to cast these missing apps from mobile, tablet or browser instead, but that solution won’t suit everyone. It’s also worth noting that casting won’t work for either Apple TV or Apple Music, which are also missing from the Aura.
Away from the video side, the hi-res audio support is a welcome addition. It means those connecting the Aura to a decent external speaker system can get a strong performance from locally stored or streamed audio files, even if connecting through the HDMI, which can handle up to 24-bit/192 kHz levels.
You’ll need to download a third-party app such as VLC to play local media and Plex if you want to connect a NAS drive or similar from your home network. The Aura’s support for 4K HDR (HDR10 and HLG) and 3D audio codecs offers the potential to do justice to any high-quality movie files you own.
Thanks to the quad-core 1.8GHz CPU and 3GB RAM combo, the whole experience feels snappy and well put together. From the remote to the on-screen navigation, the user experience will bend to your bidding without complaint.
The twinning of Freeview Play and Android TV 9.0 doesn’t make for the easiest of combinations, though. Each offers its own home page experience, leaving the user unsure as to which one to use. You’ll find some apps on both, but others just on one, and both home pages have their own settings menus. Fortunately, the shortcuts on the remote mean that you can sometimes go straight to whatever it is that you’re looking for, but that doesn’t really excuse the poor integration of the two interfaces.
Each interface is good in its own right, at least. We particularly like Freeview Play’s Kids’ Zone – a brightly coloured area with TV programmes specially selected for younger viewers. Content can be searched according to duration and timeslot, and parents can use this to block certain apps and channels from appearing.
Picture
The picture quality through the Freeview Play tuners in both SD and Full HD is every bit as good as that of the FVP-5000T. Watching Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is on BBC2, we get some inviting shots of a French antiques market on a cloudless summer’s day. The cobbled streets and stalls are bright and colourful, but with a realistic sense of tonality and texture.
The Aura trades a touch of detail for this better blending and, while some might prefer harder edges to stone walls, it feels like a well-judged decision from Humax. There’s a proper sense of complexity to the bright blue TV shelf as one of the bargain hunters haggles over a few Euros. It makes for a more natural aesthetic to the picture and feels believable when upscaled to 4K.
That arrangement is justified even further when switching to SD on the BBC News channel. Low-res content can seem particularly harsh and blocky when upscaled, but the Aura’s slightly softer approach smooths out a few more of those unwanted edges than its predecessor and adds some much-needed subtlety to clothing colours and skin tones.
However, the app platform is not quite as adept. Compared with a budget streaming stick, the Aura’s skill with a 4K HDR app is a little less assured than it might be. We watch The Boys on Prime Video and while the picture is punchy and dynamic, some of the finer detail is lost, particularly at the brightest and darkest extremes of the contrast spectrum. Viewing a scene set in the White House, the backlit silk curtains are missing folds in the material and the Aura doesn’t reveal the number of freckles on ex-CIA Deputy Director Grace Mallory’s skin that we might expect.
The other slight drawback is that not all users will find the dynamic range and refresh rate content matching system easy to use. There are a few options and, without the right ones selected, app TV shows and films are often displayed incorrectly; motion is juddery and streams are often jumpy. It can be fixed using the remote while viewing, but it isn’t easy to do. Quality standalone streamers have options to automatically match the dynamic range and refresh rate of the source material, and the Aura should really have the same.
Sound
The Aura’s hi-res music support offers an excellent opportunity to get good quality sound from this box through both locally stored files and streamed music services. Plugging it into our reference system, we fire up the Tidal Masters version of Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival and, by the standards of PVRs and video streamers, we’re struck by how well it captures the recording.
There’s a spacious sound to the vocals and guitars that gives a fabulous feel to the acoustics of the room where the recording was made. Compared with other, similarly priced streaming products, there is an added dimension to the track. There’s a good dose of dynamics that brings excitement and character to all of the instruments. We can visualise the drums at the start of the track and every time the first snare of each bar is hit with an accent.
The back and forth between the guitar and the vocals is like listening to a conversation. It’s a cohesive sound from top to bottom and we feel confident that there’s little we’re missing in the music. Some streamers at this level might offer a touch more crispness to the rhythm, but not without some loss of the excitement we get with the Aura.
All of that translates to an enjoyably emotional feel for home cinema as we switch to AV with the Live Aid scene at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody on Prime Video. The thuds of the kick drum are wonderfully solid and offer a genuine sense of timbre and resonance as the pedal first hits the skin at the beginning of the set.
When Brian May plays his solo at the end of the piece, it’s like he’s making his guitar sing. Again, the sense of place is captured brilliantly in a credible rendition of the sound of the old Wembley Stadium full of 72,000 people clapping in time and singing along to Radio Ga Ga.
Sound such as this is a huge leg up for any home cinema device. Whether capturing the atmosphere of a rock concert or the special effects of an action scene, the Aura really delivers on this front.
Verdict
The Humax Aura does its main job well. It’s an excellent Freeview recorder for both Full HD and standard definition with an easy-to-use TV guide, plenty of space and handy remote recording features. The problem is that Humax has offered – and is charging – more this time around and this box doesn’t deliver these extras quite so well.
If you’re going to promise more apps, then the omission of the most popular one of all is an issue. You also need to make sure your handling of streamed TV and film content is up to the same high standards as the competition, and that isn’t quite the case with the Aura. Tacking on the Android TV platform also means that the overall user interface loses a little focus.
While the Aura is spot on for sound, opting for the cheaper but still brilliant Humax FVP-5000T and buying a Google Chromecast with Google TV as well is a better option in terms of overall performance. The experience won’t feel much more split than the Aura already does but, more importantly, the smart offering will be more complete and a little better for picture quality too.
That said, if you have your heart set on a single box solution for your TV recording and video streaming, the Aura is a solid choice.
Apple knows that iMessage’s blue bubbles are a big barrier to people switching to Android, which is why the service has never appeared on Google’s mobile operating system. That’s according to depositions and emails from Apple employees, including some high-ranking executives, revealed in a court filing from Epic Games as part of its legal dispute with the iPhone manufacturer.
Epic argues that Apple consciously tries to lock customers into its ecosystem of devices, and that iMessage is one of the key services helping it to do so. It cites comments made by Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddie Cue, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, and Apple Fellow Phil Schiller to support its argument.
“The #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage … iMessage amounts to serious lock-in,” was how one unnamed former Apple employee put it in an email in 2016, prompting Schiller to respond that, “moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us, this email illustrates why.”
“iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones,” was Federighi’s concern according to the Epic filing. Although workarounds to using iMessage on Android have emerged over the years, none have been particularly convenient or reliable.
According to Epic’s filing, citing Eddie Cue, Apple decided not to develop iMessage for Android as early as 2013, following the launch of the messaging service with iOS 5 in 2011. Cue admits that Apple “could have made a version on Android that worked with iOS” so that “users of both platforms would have been able to exchange messages with one another seamlessly.” Evidently, such a version was never developed.
Along with iMessage, Epic cites a series of other Apple services that it argues contribute to lock-in. Notably, these include its video chat service FaceTime, which Steve Jobs announced would be an open industry standard back at WWDC 2010. FaceTime subsequently released across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but it’s not officially available for any non-Apple devices.
It’s said that money can’t buy everything—and the world’s most valuable company seems to be learning that lesson the hard way. Nikkei Asia Review today reported that even Apple’s supply chain has been weakened by the global chip shortage.
Apple has devoted a lot of time, expertise, and cold hard cash to making sure it can keep pace with consumer demand. The company is TSMC’s biggest customer by far; it’s also said to be responsible for roughly 50% of Foxconn’s revenue. That means it’s often given special treatment, especially when it comes to order fulfilment.
But—surprise!—even Apple can’t make components appear out of thin air. Nikkei Asia Review reported that “chip shortages have caused delays in a key step in MacBook production,” namely “the mounting of components on printed circuit boards before final assembly,” according to the outlet’s anonymous sources.
The report also said that iPad production was delayed by a lack of displays and unidentified display components. That hardly comes as a surprise, given that display panel supplies have suffered in recent months, and that the hardware display drivers on which those panels rely are suffering their worst shortage in 20 years.
Nikkei Asia Review said that “Apple has pushed back a portion of component orders for the two devices from the first half of this year to the second half” because of these delays. So far it’s able to keep pace with demand for its existing products, per the report, but it’s not clear how these delays might affect its plans for new devices.
This might also explain the lack of announcements from Apple so far this year. With the exception of its annual developer conference, the company hasn’t revealed anything new since announcing its custom silicon in November 2020.
Yet there are signs that Apple is working on a redesigned iMac, redesigned MacBook Pro, and new iPad Pro models that are supposed to debut this year. It would be a surprise if the company lumped all those announcements in with the products on annual update cycles—namely the iPhone and Apple Watch—or some new devices.
The company might start to reveal some of these leaked devices in the months leading up to WWDC21, of course, and it could technically have a rapid-fire series of announcements in the end of the year. But for now it looks like even Apple’s plans have been thrown off by the supply issues affecting so much of the tech industry.
Apple’s new iPad Mini could look the same as the current model, if new photos are to be believed. The snaps come courtesy of Sonny Dickson (via 9to5Mac), who has been leaking Apple devices since the iPhone 4.
The snaps supposedly show the next iPad Pro too, although there isn’t any additional information to go with them.
All Dickson says is that the Pro models will have a triple camera array and that the iPad Mini will have a central camera up top. He also notes that Mini will be slightly thicker than the current model.
This conflicts with previous reports that said Apple would redesign the Mini. Supposed changes include a larger, 8.7-inch screen and a near bezel-less design. Indeed, such was the scope of changes that it was claimed the new device would be named the iPad Mini Pro, suggesting more power to go with the cosmetic refresh.
However, others have contradicted that report, too. Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said the next Mini will have a screen between 8.4 and 8.9 inches, but its design language will remain “broadly the same” as the current model. Japanese blog Macotakara agrees with the 8.4-inch screen, but says the device will look similar to 2019’s iPad Air.
There’s no word on when we might see a new iPad Mini, but the new iPad Pro should be with us very soon indeed, complete with a Mini LED screen. Here’s hoping the next generation of Mini isn’t far behind…
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New filings show both sides’ legal strategies at work
On May 3rd, Fortnite publisher Epic Games will finally have its day in court, forcing Apple to defend kicking Fortnite off the iOS App Store last year. Epic’s antitrust lawsuit is bigger than a single game; it’s a direct challenge to the App Store model, the most significant legal challenge Apple has faced since the Xerox days.
Last night, both sides filed a document called a “proposed findings of fact,” essentially laying out every factual claim they’ll rely on in their arguments. The documents run more than 650 pages in total, giving a detailed roadmap of how each side sees the case — from the early days of the iPhone to Epic’s specific preparations for picking this fight with Apple. But the filings also bring the case into focus, raising three questions that will be central to the trial over the coming months.
The heart of the case is the so-called App Store tax — a 30 percent surcharge Apple collects on purchases made through the App Store. Fortnite was kicked off the App Store for dodging that tax by installing its own payment system, which is forbidden under App Store rules. Now, Epic is making the case in court that the rules should never have been put in place.
You often hear that this case is about whether the App Store is a monopoly — but Epic’s argument is more subtle than that, drawing on antitrust ideas around legal monopolies and abuses of market power. As Epic sees it, Apple’s monopoly over iOS is legal, but it’s using the market power from that monopoly to dominate the secondary market for app distribution. Epic compares the situation to Microsoft’s antitrust case in the ’90s: a legitimate monopoly over Windows, extended illegally to the secondary market in web browsers.
It’s a good theory, but it only works if you see the App Store model as fundamentally separate from iOS. In its statement of facts, Apple describes the exclusive App Store as a fundamental part of the iPhone, part of the broader offering that makes the devices valuable. “Apple wanted to ensure that iOS devices were more protected from those malware and instability issues and quality issues that the PC world was used to,” Apple claims in its filing. App Store exclusivity is part of that, but so are security measures like the code-signing and hardware root-of-trust systems. On the software side, there is a range of private APIs and OS-level entitlements that are only enabled after App Store review, tying the systems that much tighter together.
Of course, it’s inconvenient for this argument that Google is offering a competing mobile operating system with none of these restrictions — to say nothing of Apple’s own macOS, which allows side loading. Clearly, it would be technically possible to allow competing app stores on iOS. The question is whether the court sees that as changing Apple’s business model or changing iOS itself.
One of the biggest challenges for Epic is that the App Store model is fairly widespread. Consoles like Xbox and PlayStation operate on basically the same playbook, delivering games digitally through an open but curated digital store that’s locked to the hardware and controlled by the manufacturer. That alone doesn’t make it legal, but it adds credence to Apple’s claim that the App Store lockdown isn’t trapping consumers. If you don’t want to play Fortnite on an iPhone, you can play it on a console or a PC. Some devices come locked into a specific distribution channel and some don’t, giving users the chance to vote with their feet.
Epic’s counter to this argument, as explained in the filing, is that “video game consoles operate under a radically different business model than smartphones.” Development for console games is slow and expensive work, and consoles are useless without a steady supply of those games, so console manufacturers are under immense pressure to attract developers. That means hardware itself is often sold at cost, leaving App Store commissions as the primary source of profit.
Apple is different, Epic argues, because most of its profits still come from iPhone sales. “Developers do not participate in those profits,” the filing argues, “even though the availability of apps contributes greatly to the sale of devices.”
On some level, this boils down to the argument that console companies are nicer to developers, so their platform power is less of an issue. The constant competition between Xbox and PlayStation gives game developers leverage to extract more favorable terms. But iOS and Android don’t compete for app developers in the same way, and the lower cost of mobile development means the competition happens on vastly different terms. Apple has given people lots of reasons to buy an iPhone, which means there’s less pressure on any given line of business. But that’s well short of the standard for monopoly power, and Apple ultimately comes away from the console comparison looking pretty good.
Underneath everything else, Apple is facing a profound question of how much control it can exert over its own devices. For critics, this is Apple’s original sin, using industrial and graphic design to lure customers into a walled garden, then locking the gate. For fans, it’s Apple’s genius, integrating hardware and software to deliver a more purposeful and powerful user experience. But it all rests on Apple’s ability to maintain a closed stack, using hardware integration to control what happens in software.
This trial won’t undo that stack, but it could limit what Apple can do with it. The Epic Games fight started over payment processing, but the same legal standard could allow for alternative app stores or limit the restrictions Apple can place on rogue apps like Parler. It’s a first step toward setting regulatory limits on how tech companies operate, similar to the regulations on wireless carriers or banks. At its most basic level, Epic is arguing that Apple’s ecosystem has grown too big and too powerful for it to be run entirely out of Cupertino, and it’s time for it to be directly accountable to antitrust law.
Hundreds of pages in Apple’s filing are devoted to the benefits of that system for developers and iPhone owners, much of it undeniably true. There really is less malware on iOS devices because of Apple’s software controls, even if scam apps sometimes slip through. The system really does generate a lot of money for iOS developers, many of whom couldn’t compete outside of Apple’s walled garden. The shift to digital distribution really has saved money for developers who don’t need to distribute their product through brick-and-mortar retail anymore.
But in a sense, all of that is beside the point. Abuses of market power aren’t excused just because they’re sometimes helpful, and classical monopolies like Standard Oil or Bell Telephone had lots of side benefits, too. The bigger question is whether courts are ready to dive into the mobile software stack and start dictating the terms of how tech companies can set up their marketplaces. That’s a hard question, and it won’t be settled by a single ruling or a single case. But one way or another, it’s a question this court will have to take on.
HMD is announcing six new midrange devices today led by the Nokia X20, a midrange handset priced starting at €349 / £299.99 (around $415). It will release in “select markets globally” such as the UK starting next month, but we’re still waiting on HMD to confirm exact US pricing and availability. I’ve been using the phone running near-final software over the past week, which has been enough to get some rough first impressions about the device.
To be frank, the Nokia X20 isn’t the most exciting device. But HMD’s promises about ongoing software and hardware support for the phone make it compelling.
The Nokia X20 is specced like a device at this price point is expected to be. It’s powered by a modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 processor paired with either 6 or 8GB of RAM (my device has 6GB), 128GB of expandable storage, and a 4,470mAh battery. It’s got a 6.67-inch, 1080p 60Hz display with a small hole-punch notch and four rear cameras including an ultrawide, macro, and depth sensor.
The company says it’ll provide three years of monthly security updates for the X20 after launch, three years of OS updates, and to ensure the hardware doesn’t give up the ghost before software support ends, it’s also extending its normal manufacturer’s warranty by an extra year. “In the majority of places,” a company spokesperson says, “that extends it to three years.” If all goes to plan, the Nokia X20 should still be under warranty when it receives its Android 14 update.
In the past, HMD has generally been good at updating its phones over time, though ComputerWorld’sAndroid 11 upgrade tracker reports that it’s been more sluggish lately. Recently, HMD updated its Nokia 8.1 and Nokia 3.2, which released in 2018 and 2019, to Android 11 as part of an upgrade roadmap that includes over a dozen of its devices.
Three years of security updates is a little less than the four years Samsung recently said it would offer for its Galaxy devices, but Samsung’s warranty varies between one and two years depending on whether you’re in the US or UK. Apple recently updated its 2015 iPhone 6S to iOS 14 (five years after its release), but its standard limited warranty also typically only covers new phones for between one and two years.
Along with aiming for three years of use, HMD has also made a couple of other decisions with the Nokia X20 in the name of being eco-friendly. First, in the EU it’s joining Apple and others by not including a power brick in the box, just a USB-C cable. What you do get in the box is a 100 percent compostable phone case. It’s a neat idea producing a case that won’t end up in a landfill, but the accessory itself is frustrating to use. The portion of the case that covers the phone’s volume rocker just isn’t flexible enough, making it hard to press the side of the button that I wanted.
The speed and performance of the phone was generally fine, but I saw the occasional hitch while switching quickly between apps, which made me question how this phone will perform after three years of OS updates. Otherwise, I didn’t have any problems with performance in everyday usage. The X20 supports Sub-6GHz 5G, which won’t matter much to you now but could in three years’ time.
You can find a selection of photo samples below, but in my time with the phone I was underwhelmed by the Nokia X20’s camera performance. The phone has a total of four rear cameras: a 64-megapixel main camera, a 5-megapixel ultrawide, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro.
HMD Nokia X20, macro camera.
Ultrawide camera.
Performance in daylight is broadly fine, but when things are more dimly lit you quickly start to lose detail and definition. Neither the ultrawide camera nor the macro camera have the resolution to take decent photographs, and the 2-megapixel macro camera in particular is a pointless and puzzling inclusion.
HMD’s Nokia X20 can’t make any big claims about being a flagship hit, but its modest price tag and HMD’s promises about continued support could make it a safe, dependable smartphone if that’s what you’re after.
Photography by Jon Porter / The Verge
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