Through the years, Apple has expanded into many markets, like the MacBook and AirPods. These have been big changes for Apple and it seems like they’re running out of ideas. But this isn’t the case, with their newest rumored leap into the world of Augmented Reality or AR.

Apple is also implementing some new software features with the release of iOS 16, such as interactive widgets and a more glanceable iPhone, to keep people from spiraling down a TikTok hole, when all they went to do is check the weather.

Apple has been using AR for years in iPhones such as recognizing text in an image, and the demos it uses to show the internals of its products. One good thing is all of Apple’s devices work seamlessly with each other. This makes it easy for customers to keep everything in sync and have a flawless experience when putting in Airpods, they automatically sync with your iPhone.

Credit: https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/4/23150897/wwdc-2022-apple-ar-glasses-software

When the user turns off their iPhone, it doesn’t fully shut off. It goes into a low-power sleep mode where the Bluetooth chip inside remains active. The Bluetooth chip is responsible for enabling features like Find My and Apple Wallet cards to function when the iPhone is powered off.

The Bluetooth chip has no mechanism in place to digitally sign or even encrypt the firmware it operates. Academics at Germany’s Technical University of Darmstadt figured out how to take advantage of this exploit to load malware onto the powered-off iPhone, giving the hackers access to the iPhone’s location and ability to run other programs. This special feature remains active 24 hours after the iPhone is powered off.

But here’s the catch… to take advantage of the Bluetooth chip, the iPhone must be jailbroken first, which is one of the most difficult things to do.

Overall, features implemented by the low-power sleep mode add a decent layer of security because users can locate their lost or stolen devices, even when the battery is drained. Now that this issue arose, Apple can begin working on a security patch to resolve this exploit.

Credit: https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-find-my-malware-attack-vulnerability/

These leaked images of Motorola’s Generation Three Razr series give a first look at the improved cameras and mix of an old and new design. The casing houses two 50MP frame / 1.8 main sensors and a 13MP sensor for zoom-in and ultra-wide views.

The RazrThree also boasts an FHD+ interior folding display and a hole-punch 32MP selfie camera. It’s supposed to come with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage.

Differences Between Gen. 3 and Previous Models

The Razr 3 has a design of the first model released in 2019, with some new placements of buttons and small design tweaks. The fingerprint reader moved from the chin, or lip of the first generation Razr, to the back of the second-gen Razr, and is rumored to be integrated into the power button. This third generation of Motorola Razr flip phone may be the flagship phone, hopefully satisfying the customers who purchased it.

At this time, the price is unknown. We can estimate that the price may be around the same as the previous models, which weren’t exactly cheap. The first-generation costs $1,499, while the second generation with 5G costs $1,399. These came with several flaws such as disappointing camera quality, creaky hinge, bulky screen, and the odd placement of the fingerprint scanner.

Credit: https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/8/23062542/motorola-razr-3-leak-upgraded-camera-boxier-design-foldable

Wi-Fi Seven is the upcoming successor to WIFI Six. Wi-Fi Seven is projected to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and the ability to handle more connected devices at once.

Wi-Fi Seven Explained

Wi-Fi Seven is the latest standard in development, one generation above the current Wi-Fi Six technology. Wi-Fi Seven focuses more on speed. Speeds are rumored to achieve speeds greater than 40Gbps. To compare, Wi-Fi Seven will be four times faster than Wi-Fi Six and SixE.

Wi-Fi Seven offers improved wireless technology such as Multi-Link Operation (MLO), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA); Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO); and Target Wake Time (TWT).

Wi-Fi Seven Features Breakdown

Multi-Link Operation allows devices to use multiple radio bands to send/receive data over one connection. This not only improves speed, but also reduces latency, and allows data to travel freely without interference from other networks.

Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) divides channels into Resource Units (Rus) that create smaller data packets, which transmit data to multiple users simultaneously.

Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) provides even simultaneous data streams to a crowd of users at once. This allows for applications like video streaming and gaming to work flawlessly on Wi-Fi.

Target Wake Time (TWT) helps conserve battery life on mobile devices by putting them in sleep mode until the network is accessed.

Lastly, Restricted Target Wake Time (RTWT) reserves bandwidth on the router for certain uses such as video conferencing and gaming. The overall goal here is reserving battery life, and balancing network resources with this new feature.

Wi-Fi Seven Projected Release Date

With Wi-Fi Seven still under development, it isn’t expected to be finalized until sometime in 2024.

Credit: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/wi-fi-7-explained-everything-to-know-about-tomorrows-fastest-wireless-spec

Release Date

Apple Glasses are rumored to be released sometime in late 2022 or early 2023, the next big move for Apple! Apple Glasses could either run on one of two operating systems, Starboard, or glassOS, much like watchOS, iPadOS, etc.

Apple Glasses Cost

According to a credible rumor source, John Prosser, the price of Apple Glasses would be $500. Seems a reasonable price to me, considering all the hi-tech that is put into this through Augmented Reality.

What the Apple Glasses Will Do

The Apple Glasses would display information from your iPhone to your faces such as text messages, photos, emails, maps, and games. There are plans in the works for a dedicated App Store for third-party apps to work with the glasses.

Apple Glasses are even rumored to not require prescription lenses, as special tech inside called optical subassembly, which adjusts the clarity of the image for people with poor eyesight.

Apple Glasses’ patents suggest that the user would have the ability to change out the background instantly, a beam that projects images directly to the user’s eyes, and lastly, allow the user to view parts of the map called Look Around, like Google Maps Street View. This could enable someone to digitally teleport from one part of the world to another part.

Apple Glasses could also help users see better in the dark, thanks to depth sensors that provide a clearer vision of the user’s surroundings. The glasses could also track the user’s finger and hand movements via Apple Rings. This would improve accuracy and the ability to sense what the user is holding. This is useful if they are holding an Apple Pencil, the glasses could translate those writing gestures into handwritten text that appears on the glasses.

Credit: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-glasses

It was a quiet and beautiful Saturday afternoon in October 1933. Will had just come back to his family farm from the nearby volunteer fire department in Farmersville, PA. When Will came into the farmhouse, his Mom advised him that a blade from the windmill was broken, halting their ability to grind wheat and pump clean drinking water for the family and their animals. Will’s mother also added there’s a Firechat from FDR tomorrow if he was interested.

Will got a replacement windmill blade from the family shed and he approached the windmill. A month ago, while he was over at his neighbor’s farm, he had helped to replace a blade damaged by a storm. His own windmill had been damaged yesterday by another storm. Today it became especially important that he fixed his own windmill because the water pump that provided fresh drinking water was out and didn’t want to miss the president’s Fireside chat that was tomorrow.

He got a ladder, tools, and the replacement blade. It took him a while to climb to the top. Once there, he replaced the blade with the new one. Once on the ground, he put away his tools and went inside. 

The next day, Will went to the windmill and felt proud of his work to fix the broken blade. His family had drinking water again and was able to listen to FDR speak about the progress the country had made during the Great Depression.

Will’s favorite part of the speech was when FDR talked about financial speculators who didn’t know anything about farming helping to raise the prices of farm commodities higher.

“It is true that in July farm commodity prices had been pushed up higher than they are today, but that push came in part from pure speculation by people who could not tell you the difference between wheat and rye, by people who had never seen cotton growing, by people who did not know that hogs were fed on corn — people who have no real interest in the farmer and his problems.

In spite, however, of the speculative reaction from the speculative advance, it seems to be well established that during the course of the year 1933 the farmers of the United States will receive 33 percent more dollars for what they have produced than they received in the year 1932.”

Source: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/october-22-1933-fireside-chat-4-economic-progress

Uber’s 2015 Expectations

Five years ago, Uber had grand aspirations for self-driving taxi technology which would allow them to eliminate their drivers lowering labor costs and reducing wait times.

Today’s Announcement

On Monday, Uber announced they were selling off their self-driving division to Aurora, a California based self-driving vehicle company. 

Uber’s announcement is essentially an admission of failure or at least an admission that self-driving cars will take longer to develop than expected.

What Problems Did Uber Have?

Uber never proved that it could develop a safe and fully-autonomous vehicle.  The death of an Arizona woman in 2018 demonstrated that Uber’s technology could not be left unsupervised.   This need to retain human supervision defeats Uber’s whole rationale for self-driving cars — labor reduction.

Uber responded to it weak competitive position by stealing the technology of one of its main rival- Google’s Waymo. Google sued Uber and the Google employee whom Uber recruited was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

New Reality: What is Uber’s New Plan?

The company that Uber is selling its self-driving technology too has ties with a fleet of car companies like Toyota, Hyundai, and Chrysler.  Uber hopes to monetize its technology through an indirect partnership with these companies.

Hopes for self-driving taxis are not dead, but Aurora expects them to come more slowly than expected, arriving after self-driving trucks are deployed. Uber announced they will invest $400 million in Aurora and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will take a seat on Aurora’s board.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/uber-gives-up-self-driving-dream/

Apple’s fall product launch this year is expected to touch off a wave of upgrade purchases, analysts say, with fans eyeing the iPhone’s rumored new 5G capabilities and boxier look, similar to that of the iPad Pro.