Google will reveal the next Pixel in greater detail at an event happening October 15 in New York, the company confirmed via invites sent to media today. We already know the Pixel 4 will be revealed at this event, because Google has already dropped some official images and feature details for the new Android smartphone, but we’ll probably see more besides given that the invite promises “a few new things Made by Google.”
Here’s what we know so far about the Pixel 4: Everything. Well okay, not everything, but most things. Like it’ll use Google’s cool Soli radar-based gesture recognition technology, for both its updated face unlock and some motion controls. Infinite leaks have show that it’ll have a body design that includes a single color/texuture back, what looks like a three-camera rear cluster (wide angle, standard and zoom lens lily), a 6.23-inch OLED display can the XL with image resolution of 3040×1440, with a 90Hz mode that will make animations and scrolling smoother.
The animation Google sent out with the invites for its 2019 hardware event.
It also has rather large top and bottom bezels, a rarity for smartphones these days, but something that Google apparently felt was better than going with a notch again. Plus, it has that Soli tech and dot projectors for doing the new face unlock which might require more space up top.
In terms of other hardware, there’s less in terms of solid info to go on, but there are rumours of a new ChromeOS-based Pixelbook plus new Google Home smart speakers, and we could also see more of Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service which launches in November. Google could also show off additional surprises, including maybe Chromecast updates, or an update to Google Wifi to take advantage of the newly certified Wifi 6 standard.
Basically, there could be a lot of surprises on hand even if the Pixel 4 is more or less a known quantity, and we’ll be there to bring you all the news October 15 as it happens.
Google will reveal the next Pixel in greater detail at an event happening October 15 in New York, the company confirmed via invites sent to media today. We already know the Pixel 4 will be revealed at this event, because Google has already dropped some official images and feature details for the new Android smartphone, but we’ll probably see more besides given that the invite promises “a few new things Made by Google.”
Here’s what we know so far about the Pixel 4: Everything. Well okay, not everything, but most things. Like it’ll use Google’s cool Soli radar-based gesture recognition technology, for both its updated face unlock and some motion controls. Infinite leaks have show that it’ll have a body design that includes a single color/texuture back, what looks like a three-camera rear cluster (wide angle, standard and zoom lens lily), a 6.23-inch OLED display can the XL with image resolution of 3040×1440, with a 90Hz mode that will make animations and scrolling smoother.
The animation Google sent out with the invites for its 2019 hardware event.
It also has rather large top and bottom bezels, a rarity for smartphones these days, but something that Google apparently felt was better than going with a notch again. Plus, it has that Soli tech and dot projectors for doing the new face unlock which might require more space up top.
In terms of other hardware, there’s less in terms of solid info to go on, but there are rumours of a new ChromeOS-based Pixelbook plus new Google Home smart speakers, and we could also see more of Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service which launches in November. Google could also show off additional surprises, including maybe Chromecast updates, or an update to Google Wifi to take advantage of the newly certified Wifi 6 standard.
Basically, there could be a lot of surprises on hand even if the Pixel 4 is more or less a known quantity, and we’ll be there to bring you all the news October 15 as it happens.
Linux is everywhere these days. For the ultimate proof, look no further than Windows. With the release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, Microsoft is shipping a Linux kernel with its operating system. Not that long ago, that would have seemed like an April Fools’ joke.
While Linux may provide the backbone for a large part of the internet, it wasn’t created from nothing. Before Linux, there was Unix, and the newer operating system owes much of the credit for its current popularity to ideas born in the 1970s and even the 1960s.
What Is Unix?
While Unix itself strives for simplicity, describing exactly what it is isn’t easy. The original Unix was an operating system from AT&T, but these days, the UNIX trademark belongs to the Open Group. Unix is also used as a category to describe an entire family of operating systems.
Then there is the Unix philosophy. This serves as a general guideline for Unix programs to follow, with the core being that each program should do one thing well. Instead of aiming to pack in every feature imaginable, a Unix tool should simply do its job, ideally producing output that can feed directly into the input of another program.
These days, there are many Unix variants available, in both free and commercial varieties.
What Is Linux?
Linux is another term that is more difficult to describe than you may imagine. Technically, a complete Linux distribution is a “Unix-like” operating system, but this is just the beginning.
Many people use Linux as a shorthand term for what would be more accurately described as GNU/Linux. Linux itself is just the kernel, the part of the operating system that does the core computing and interfaces with the hardware. The core utilities that run on top of this kernel are just as important.
GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for “GNU’s Not Unix.” The GNU project doesn’t contain any original Unix code, but provides all the utilities you would expect to find in a Unix operating system. This is a key difference between Unix and Linux.
Unix vs. Linux: A Brief History
Even the creators of Unix didn’t create it whole cloth. Instead, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie took inspiration from an earlier operating system, Multics. At Bell Labs, these two took concepts from that operating system and rewrote their own in C, which Ritchie designed and helped develop.
Unix was not open-source software. Instead AT&T sold commercial licenses, but it wasn’t the only company working on Unix. Academics at Berkeley initially developed an add-on called the Berkeley Software Distribution, or BSD. Eventually BSD became its own complete Unix.
In 1980s and into the 1990s, various companies began selling their own Unix offerings. These included IBM’s AIX, Sun’s Solaris, and Xenix, which later became SCO UNIX.
Linux Takes the World by Storm
In addition to the various Unix offerings, several Unix-like variants were available too. One of these was MINIX, which was intended for academic use. A software developer from Helsinki named Linus Torvalds was frustrated with the limitations of MINIX and aimed to create a similar kernel that could take advantage of the new PC he had bought.
At the same time, Richard Stallman was searching for a kernel. He had begun the GNU project in 1983, building free drop-in replacements for various Unix utilities. What he didn’t have at the time was a free, open-source kernel. Torvalds was already using GNU utilities with his kernel, and eventually so were others.
Linux quickly saw widespread interest. By the mid 1990s, the project had exploded in popularity due to the free-by-design nature of both the kernel and GNU toolset. Even as various other free Unix operating systems became available, the commercial nature of the first 20 years of Unix loomed over them. This still affects the Unix vs. Linux battle to this day.
How and Where Is Unix Used These Days?
Right now, popularity might be the main difference between Linux and Unix. That said, there are freely available Unix distributions that run many of the same software as Linux. The two most popular are FreeBSD and OpenBSD, both BSD variants, as the names imply.
Then, of course, there is Apple. Any Apple device you buy these days, be it a MacBook, iPhone, or even Apple Watch is running a Unix-like operating system. On an iPhone or Apple Watch, you would never know this from using them. That isn’t the case on a Mac computer though.
Simply launch the Mac Terminal app, and you’ll have access to standard Unix utilities like ls, pwd, and even editors like vim. These tools can be quite powerful. For an introduction, see our beginner’s guide to the Mac terminal.
Linux Is Everywhere
Linux might be everywhere, but that doesn’t mean you see it. Android, the most popular mobile operating system in the world, is a fork of Linux. You wouldn’t know that from running it, but behind the scenes is a version of the Linux kernel modified for use in mobile devices.
Much of the internet runs on Linux. While Windows and Unix variants power some servers, the vast majority of servers run a Linux distribution. Much of this has to do with the free nature of the operating system, but also how robust it is, which means less downtime. Unix isn’t less robust by any means, but the popularity of Linux means that most people will choose it in a Unix vs. Linux shootout.
One of the most high-profile appearances of Linux in the past few years is the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This lets you run Linux utilities on Windows, which is a major boon for web developers and software engineers. We have a guide on how to get started with the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Are You New to Unix or Linux?
Running a computer with either Unix or Linux is easier than ever before. Windows doesn’t run Linux at its core, but it’s still possible to at least run Linux on top of Windows. Any Apple device you buy has a variant of Unix at its core as well.
If you’re looking to run a “true” Linux on your computer, that’s easy as well. You could always install one of the countless Linux distributions on your computer yourself. Would you prefer a computer with Linux pre-installed? Look no further than our list of awesome Linux laptops.
One of the most popular uses for the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer is as a media center. Indeed, it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a Model A, a Raspberry Pi Zero, or a Raspberry Pi 4.
While the later model will naturally offer superior performance, all models can deliver a compact, affordable, low-power, media center solution.
Several Raspberry Pi media server options are on offer. We’re going to walk you through them below, looking at the features, advantages, and disadvantages of each.
Why Use a Media Server Distro for Raspberry Pi?
Various media server solutions are available for Raspberry Pi. These range from video only servers to audio-only solutions, with most handling all types of media.
We’ve rounded up the best media server solutions for Raspberry Pi:
Formerly known as MiniDLNA, ReadyMedia requires installing on a standard Raspberry Pi operating system, such as Raspbian Buster. Start by mounting the disk drive(s) with the media data on, and then use the standard installation command:
sudo apt install minidlna
Unlike the other examples here, some manual configuration is necessary, as described in this video.
Once installed, this simple tool is compatible with DLNA/UPnP-AV, which means that any DLNA-compatible device on the same network should be able to detect your Pi and play media from it.
Fast, lightweight, and easily configurable, ReadyMedia is the option to choose if you just want to stream your media and have no interest in indexing it.
2. Kodi Media Streaming With OpenElec
Perhaps the most recognized name in this list, Kodi is available for the Raspberry Pi.
The most popular option is to write a full Kodi distro to your Raspberry Pi. Of these, OpenElec and OSMC and LibreElec. You may already know that OpenElec is available on NOOBs for easy installation.
However, you can also do this manually, writing a full Kodi-based distro to an existing Raspbian installation using:
sudo apt install kodi
But wait a minute. Aren’t the Kodi-based media servers in fact media centers? Well, they’re both, which is how they come to be in this list.
While you might use these distros (or manually install Kodi) as a media center/HTPC solution on a Raspberry Pi, the provision of DLNA/UPnP means that Kodi (and its forks) can be used as a media server.
If you’re already using a Kodi-based distro, then you don’t need a media server as you already have one. Simply open Settings > Services > UPnP and enable Share video and music libraries through UPnP. You can then stream content from your Kodi-based system.
Looking for an audio-only media server solution for Raspberry Pi?
With support for custom extensions and Python, JSON-RPC, and JavaScript APIs, Mopidy is more than just a music server. Whether playing tracks from a disk-based library or streaming from Spotify, SoundCloud or Google Play Music, it could be the most powerful Raspberry Pi music server available.
In the video above, Mopidy is installed on a Raspberry Pi embedded in a retro cassette player. With the buttons and volume hooked up to the Pi’s GPIO, audio playback is via a custom Mopidy extension.
NFC tags in the cassettes are used to prompt playback of specific Spotify playlists. This is just one way that Mopidy’s extension support can enhance your audio enjoyment. Learn more at www.mopidy.com.
4. Build a Raspberry Pi Streaming Server With OpenMediaVault
Admittedly closer to a NAS than a media server, OpenMediaVault is the smart choice for Pi owners wishing to access their media files from any device on the same network.
Setup is straightforward, but lengthy. You may run into initial problems mounting any hard disk drives that you have connected to your Pi. This should be quickly overcome, however, enabling you to configure the system correctly.
Among the features with OMV are support for a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and stats to assist in system monitoring. There is also EXT3/EXT4/XFS/JFS filesystem support and RAID can be set up for HDD mirroring.
SSH, FTP, TFTP, SMB and RSync are all supported for direct connection to your OMV device. You’ll typically access it via your web browser, however, by opening the IP address.
Various plugins are also available for OMV, such as a Bittorrent client.
If you prefer to simply stream from a desktop or dedicated media server to your Raspberry Pi, seek out Plex. A popular name in home media streaming, Plex can be used to stream content to all manner of devices.
Thanks to Plex’s popularity, you’ll be able to enjoy media streamed via Plex on a wide selection of devices. Mobile apps are available for Android and iOS. Meanwhile, media streamers such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and many Smart TVs also have Plex clients.
You’ll even find clients for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, as well as Windows, macOS, and Kodi.
Note that Plex demands that your files are named in a specific format. This enables the software to pull the appropriate metadata from the web. Doing so gives you details about the media files in your library, e.g. album or DVD covers, track listings, etc.
Described as the Raspberry Pi’s “Swiss Army Knife of streaming music” Pi MusicBox streams cloud audio to a connected speaker. This might be from Spotify or other online services, or local or networked music from your NAS. There is also support for TuneIn and other web radio services, and podcasts from iTunes.
Pi MusicBox has USB audio support, as well as wireless connectivity with Spotify Connect, AirTunes/AirPlay, and DLNA streaming. This means that music served through your Raspberry Pi can be played back on any mobile, tablet, or Smart TV.
Pi MusicBox is based on Mopidy (above) so if you’re looking for a preconfigured Mopidy solution, try this. Learn more about the software at www.pimusicbox.com.
Finally, Emby, a media server solution with support for photos, videos, and music. Apps stream your data to Android, iPhone, iPad, and Windows tablets, along with Android TV, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox One, and more.
Parental controls can be set up with Emby, making this the perfect family-based home media server for Raspberry Pi. Emby fulfills the multiple roles of Raspberry Pi photo server, video server, and audio server.
There’s also DLNA support to simplify the streaming of content to and from your server.
Several options are available to install Emby. The simplest solution is to use the DietPi low-footprint Raspberry Pi distribution. With this installed, you can simply select the Software Optimized menu option then Emby Server.
We’ve presented you with seven options for setting up your Raspberry Pi as a media server, capable of delivering movies, photos, and music to devices around your home at the touch of a button.
Set up for each solution is fast. You should have a Raspberry Pi media server up and running in minutes, ready to stream files across your home with ease. It’s just one of the great uses for a Raspberry Pi.
Looking for a VPN tool for macOS or iOS, but don’t know which service to choose? If you’re looking for an affordable and reliable VPN solution for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Android device, Hotspot VPN might seem like an attractive option.
But does it deliver the private, secure, fast, and reliable VPN solution you’re looking for? Let’s find out.
Why Choose Hotspot VPN Unlimited?
Virtual Private Network (VPN) services should be fast, private, and secure. So why choose Hotspot VPN?
On offer is a product described as an “ultra-fast VPN,” something we’ll come back to later. Hotspot VPN offers unlimited browsing and streaming, and will keep you safe and anonymous when using a public Wi-Fi network.
Hotspot VPN supports content unblocking, which means you can use an overseas VPN to access certain sites. For example, many people in the UK use VPNs to access the US version of Netflix and its larger library. You can take advantage of more than 1,200 servers around the world to protect your online privacy and hide your IP address with Hotspot VPN.
How many devices do you want to protect with your VPN subscription? Hotspot VPN offers protection for up to five simultaneous connections from your account. So while you might have the app installed on more than this, only five can connect at once.
The ad-free service has no restrictions on use and offers “high quality” customer support, along with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pricing for Hotspot VPN Unlimited
Thinking of signing up for this VPN service?
All you need to do is head to Hotspot VPN’s pricing page and select a package, add your email address, then pay. The service accepts major credit cards; there is no support for Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrency) or PayPal.
Three packages are on offer:
The 1-month plan is $9.99 per month
A 12-month plan is $27.99 a year, which works out to $2.33 a month
You can also select the “Lifelong plan” for a single $59.99 fee
Of course, there is no guarantee how long any VPN service service will stick around. As such, you might prefer to take the monthly or annual plan if you’re careful with cash.
Where Can You Install Hotspot VPN Unlimited?
Hotspot VPN is available on Apple devices, as well as Android. You will find two versions in the App Store: Hotspot VPN Unlimited Proxy X, and Hotspot VPN Best Super X+Free. The Unlimited Proxy X version is what’s linked on the developer’s website, so we reviewed this version on a first-generation iPad Air.
In addition, Hotspot VPN has a desktop version for macOS. The installation file for this is hosted on Google Drive, which is a bit out of the ordinary. In any case, the Mac offering has a similar appearance to the mobile app.
You can sign up for Hotspot VPN on the website, or via the app. You’ll need to give permission in both macOS and iOS for the app to add a VPN configuration to your system.
Once your username and password are confirmed, simply sign into the Hotspot VPN app to start using it.
The Fast connection option selects the nearest quick VPN server for you to connect to. In testing, the first such VPN was based in the Netherlands. As I’m in the North East of the UK, this is not too surprising.
An alternative Advanced connection is also available. When tapped, this states “IP address hidden”—but isn’t this the point of a VPN anyway? It’s not entirely clear what the Advanced mode brings to the party.
The side menu is largely for account management and feedback, though it also holds a tool for switching Protocols. These are not clearly labeled other than Protocol A, Protocol B, etc., with each configured in a specific way. For example, Protocol B is more suited to security and unblocking content.
Like the Advanced connection option, this feature appears useful but brings a degree of obfuscation to an otherwise simple app.
What Can You Do With Hotspot VPN Unlimited?
Hotspot VPN features a straightforward user interface that makes the app easy to use. But what other benefits does it offer?
Get online quick: The Hotspot VPN app has a smart, intuitive user interface. With the app open, simply tap the Connect button to get online. You can select VPN servers from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen.
Surf anonymously: Hotspot VPN is designed to retain your privacy while surfing the web. So long as you’re not signed into websites and apps, your activity will be completely anonymous.
Stream video: When testing Hotspot VPN with Amazon Prime Video, we streamed an episode of The Grand Tour. The quality setting was set to Good, with the iPad situated within six feet of the router. Despite problems with the Prime Video app displaying TV and movie show covers, the video streamed well, with some occasional pixelization.
Is Hotspot VPN Really “Ultra-Fast”?
Hotspot VPN claims to be “ultra-fast,” but what does this really mean?
To find out, we compared connections using the Speedtest.com mobile app. On the first attempt, with the VPN enabled and connected to a London-based server, the Speedtest app also connected to a London server. You’ll notice the low ping rate (which is good).
Following this, we ran the test again with the VPN disabled. The Speedtest app connected to a UK server, this time closer, in Gateshead. Again, see the solid ping rate.
You’ll notice the results with the VPN connected are noticeably slower, although the ping rates also differ. It’s worth highlighting that the connection to the VPN dropped during the speed test, despite proximity to the router. It’s not clear why this happened, but certainly raises some questions.
Ultimately, “ultra-fast” appears to be marketing jargon. With everything considered, it’s likely that Hotspot VPN is no faster or slower than other VPN services.
“Hotspot VPN guarantees a strict no-logs policy for Hotspot VPN services, meaning that your activities using Hotspot VPN Services are provided by automated technical process, are not monitored, recorded, logged, stored or passed to any third party.”
“We do not store connection time stamps, session information, used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses or other data.”
The recently updated privacy policy does not provide specific information about encryption protocols.
In addition, the policy states that “Hotspot VPN stores limited personal data for the whole period when the Hotspot VPN Services are used and for no longer than 2 years after last use of the App and/or the Services.”
How Private Is Hotspot VPN?
One of the key reasons to use a VPN is privacy. While the Hotspot VPN website details the level of encryption in use, we don’t know what VPN protocols is employs. There’s also no mention of OpenVPN support.
So while Hotspot VPN boasts a detailed logging policy, the service is something of a riddle. Any questions over the privacy of a VPN service should be a red flag.
Should You Use Hotspot VPN Unlimited?
Hotspot VPN is an affordable VPN service for macOS, iOS, and Android. We tested it on an iPad and were reasonably impressed.
In terms of the software and service, the app is good, the VPN service works, and the privacy policy is satisfactory. There is some question over its suitability for torrenting, but for video streaming, Hotspot VPN works fine.
Better still, the service is affordable, with one of the best VPN subscription prices available.
However, despite a logging policy that instills confidence, the absence of information about protocols and encryption should encourage you to look elsewhere for a VPN.
iTunes is the best music player for Mac users as far as convenience. Every new computer comes with it pre-installed, and if you have an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you’ll need it to sync music and back up your device.
But there are valid reasons to dislike iTunes. The rise of Spotify and other music streaming services have made iTunes less useful, not to mention that iTunes software is slow and bloated.
Unless you’re absolutely tied to the iTunes ecosystem for some reason and have no choice but to use it, consider switching to one of these alternative music player apps for Mac.
Vox Player comes with all you’d expect in a music player, including speed and performance. It supports FLAC playback, music organization features, built-in internet radio, and you can also connect it to SoundCloud and Last.FM.
One more feature to note: Vox offers an optional Premium plan, which comes with unlimited cloud storage and playback for your music files, synchronizing playlists across devices, advanced 10-band equalizer presets, BS2B, and Hog Mode that silences all other sounds so you can listen to your music uninterrupted by alerts and notifications.
If you’re looking for a feature-packed but lightweight music player, you might want to try Strawberry Music Player. This nifty music player app was forked from the now-defunct Clementine back in 2018, and provides all the power you need in an MP3 player without any bloat.
Music management is Strawberry’s top selling point. It comes with a cover manager, queue manager, playlist management tools, music format transcoder (with FLAC support), CD ripping tool, and an advanced tag editor for batch editing music files.
Out of the box, Strawberry integrates with about a dozen different internet services, including music streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz, Subsonic), album art services (Last.FM, MusicBrainz, Discogs), and scrobbling services (Last.FM, Libre.FM, ListenBrainz).
It’s not the prettiest application—based on the Qt5 framework which isn’t exactly known for its visual factor—and even though you can tweak the appearance a bit, you’ll always be stuck with a clunky default interface.
Many converts from Windows to Mac ask for a music player app that’s similar to Foobar2000. With the advent of DeaDBeeF, we finally have an app we can recommend. In fact, DeaDBeeF even supports advanced Title Formatting scripting that’s directly compatible with Foobar2000.
DeaDBeeF is a lightweight cross-platform music player that’s feature-complete and smooth as cream, with stable builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It isn’t the prettist of apps, but it’s powerful with support for many audio and chiptune formats right out of the box (including MP3, OGG, FLAC, NSF, VTX, VGM, and more). Pretty much any format supported by FFMPEG is also supported by DeaDBeeF.
DeaDBeeF also supports numerous metadata/tag formats, including ID3v1 to ID3v2.4, Xing/Info, and VorbisComments, with an easy-to-use tag editor. Just because it’s lightweight doesn’t mean it won’t serve as a great music organizer app.
Other useful features include: tab-based interface for separate playlists, 18-band visual equalizer, gapless playback, replaygain, auto-download of album art, shoutcast and radio streams, and a built-in audio format converter.
Musique sells itself as “a finely crafted music player,” and it seriously lives up to that claim. It’s simple, it’s beautiful, and it fits right into any macOS machine.
Simplicity is the name of the game here, but simple in a way that doesn’t sacrifice beauty or usability. To me, it feels like an ultra stripped-down version of iTunes—what iTunes could have been before it went ahead and became a bloated mess of features I personally never use.
Other features include the ability to browse folders and files, a queue-based playback interface, and auto-loading of lyrics for songs. Musique isn’t the app you want if you have a massive music library and need organizational features to keep everything neat and orderly. But for casual music listeners? It’s absolutely perfect.
Quod Libet has a strange name—it means “whatever you wish” in Latin—but don’t let that turn you away. This open-source music player for Mac was released back in 2004 and continues to receive regular updates to this day.
Not many people have ever heard of it, which is a shame. It’s a simple piece of software and nothing about it will blow your mind, but it’s intensely practical and easy to use. The sheer simplicity is what makes it the closest antithesis to iTunes on macOS.
And it’s packed with features: support for all kinds of media formats (including FLAC), smart replay gain, ratings-weighted random playback, Unicode tags, built-in internet radio, configurable user interface, advanced library management, and so much more.
Which Music Player for Mac Do You Use?
There are valid reasons to keep using iTunes; I wouldn’t say everyone needs to switch away. It’s great for managing podcasts, for example, and the features are useful if you can handle the bloat. And if you’re using Apple Music, you have no other options except iTunes for playback on your Mac.
But if you have a lot of downloaded MP3s, one of the above alternative music players for Mac may actually serve your needs better. And don’t stop at just music! Check out our list of best Mac apps to install on any MacBook or iMac.
Every September at the Apple Event, company executives try to get the crowd excited about new services or an App Store redesign. But most people in the audience are there for one product: the new iPhone.
This year, Apple has once again released three iPhone models at different price points. Let’s see what’s new in the long-awaited new iPhones and what makes them worth an upgrade.
What Are the New iPhones in 2019?
The 2018 iPhone models iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max each get a counterpart this year, but with an array of exciting new features and names that make a bit more sense.
iPhone 11 is the base model that comes in six colors: black, white, purple, green, yellow, and Product Red. It’s the same size and weight as iPhone XR, and comes at a slightly lower price, starting from $699. It also comes with several improvements we’ll get into later.
iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are what they sound like. These are “pro-level” models designed for iPhone photographers and videographers, as well as Apple geeks who want the latest and the greatest.
The iPhone 11 Pro models come with advanced display and camera technology. In addition, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is slightly bigger and heavier than its predecessor iPhone XS Max, while the iPhone 11 Pro is a bit bulkier than the iPhone XS.
With the Pro models, color options are more reserved than what’s on offer for the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max come in space gray, silver, gold, and the likely new favorite midnight green.
As far as pricing is concerned, there are no surprises. iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999, while an iPhone 11 Pro Max will cost you $1,099 or more.
Specs for the iPhone 11 Line
Before we delve into the highlights of the new iPhones, here are the main specs you’re probably interested in.
iPhone 11 Specifications
Display: 6.1-inch LCD display, 1792×828 pixels at 326ppi
Dimensions and weight: 5.94 x 2.98 x 0.33 inches, 6.84 ounces
Main cameras: Dual 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide cameras
Front camera: 12MP camera
Storage capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
iPhone 11 Pro Specifications
Display: 5.8-inch OLED display, 2436×1125 pixels at 458ppi
Dimensions and weight: 5.67 x 2.81 x 0.32 inches, 6.63 ounces
Main cameras: Triple 12MP Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras
Front camera: 12MP camera
Storage capacity: 64GB, 256GB, 512GB
iPhone 11 Pro Max Specifications
Display: 6.5-inch OLED display, 2688×1242 pixels at 458ppi
Dimensions and weight: 6.22 x 3.06 x 0.32 inches, 7.97 ounces
Main cameras: Triple 12MP Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras
Front camera: 12MP camera
Storage capacity: 64GB, 256GB, 512GB
The 5 Best New Features in iPhone 11
New iPhones traditionally come with under-the-hood tweaks and performance improvements, but it’s the new capabilities that make upgrading worthwhile. Here are the five most noticeable features that might persuade you to get the new iPhone 11.
1. Ultra Wide Camera
The second camera on iPhone 11 (and the third on iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max) is the new Ultra Wide camera that allows you to capture more of the frame.
For photos, the Ultra Wide camera is tremendously useful for sweeping landscapes, shooting in cramped spaces, and those group photos where you just can’t fit everyone into the frame. And with videos, a wider frame will help you capture more of the action.
2. Better Front Camera With Slo-Mo
Selfies and FaceTime are here to stay, so Apple predictably upgraded the front camera in the iPhone 11. It can now take 12 MP photos (for comparison, the front camera in iPhone XS was 7 MP) and shoot 4K video. That will bring selfies, video calls, and live streaming to a whole new level of quality.
But what nobody saw coming is the slow-motion feature in the iPhone’s front camera. Whether these “slofies” are worth upgrading for is yet to be seen, but a more powerful front camera is definitely welcome.
3. Night Mode
The iPhone 11 is much better at taking photos in low-light conditions. With the new Night mode that activates automatically when you need it, you’ll be able to take natural, well-lit photos in darker conditions without having to use the flash.
To do this, the camera takes multiple photos with optical stabilization. Your iPhone’s software then fuses the best-lit parts of those photos, while correcting the contrast, reducing noise, and fine-tuning the colors.
4. Spatial Audio With Dolby Atmos
Nearly every iPhone user enjoys playing games and watching videos on their device. And the new spatial audio playback that supports Dolby Atmos will make those activities a lot more enjoyable. The sound in the new iPhone 11 has become more immersive, so you can get impressive audio even without additional speakers.
5. QuickTake
Video gets quite a lot of spotlight in this iPhone release, with the seamless switching between cameras and the 4K video for the front camera. QuickTake is a less spectacular, but still super convenient, video feature. It allows you to take a quick video just by tapping and holding the shutter button.
If you ever use Instagram Stories to shoot videos, the way QuickTake works will feel instantly familiar.
Will You Upgrade to the iPhone 11?
Whether or not you should get a new iPhone this year depends on which model you own now and what you generally use your iPhone for.
If you taking photos and videos, playing games, and watching content on your phone are all priorities to you, iPhone 11 has quite a lot to offer. This is especially the case for someone who’s still on an earlier iPhone without the newer bells and whistles.
In its first half-decade of existence, PopSocket has grown into one of the most popular — and imitated — smartphone accessories on the market. In 2018 alone, the company generated $90 million in profit. Not too bad for a little Colorado-based upstart.
So, where does an utterly dominant accessory maker go from here? Beverages, naturally. Delish was the first to report the existence of the PopThirst line. You may well have missed it in the wake of this week’s iPhone news. I was on a plane with limited Wi-Fi access, I swear. Whatever the case, the weird little retractable phone holder that has captured the world’s imagination $15 at a time is now headed for the lucrative field of refreshments.
It’s an odd evolution of the brand, to be sure. But why not strike while the iron (and coffee) is hot? I know plenty of people who swear by the phone accessory, and the pop-out gripper looks to fit pretty well on a matching koozie for hot and cold beverages, alike. Pop it on a can of La Croix to find yourself on the cutting edge of the 2016 zeitgeist.
The cupholders feature a wide range of styles, from leopard print to camo. They’re up for pre-order on PopSocket’s page for $15 a pop. They’ll go on sale September 15.
What streaming means for the future of entertainment | Emmett Shear
In a talk and demo, Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear shares his vision for the future of interactive entertainment -- and explains how video game streaming is helping people build communities online. "I am excited for a world where our entertainment could connect us instead of isolating us -- a world where we can bond with each other over our shared interests and create real, strong communities," Shear says.
Facebook on Monday announced a number of updates aimed at video creators and publishers, during a session at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) taking place in Amsterdam. The updates involve changes to live video broadcasting, Facebook’s Watch Party, and Creator Studio, and they include enhancements to tools, expanded feature sets, and improved analytics, among other things.
The highlights include better ways to prep for and simulcast live broadcasts, ways to take better advantage of Watch Party events, new metrics to track video performance, and a much-anticipated option to schedule Instagram/IGTV content for up to six months’ in advance.
Live Video
In terms of live video, Facebook says it listened to feedback from those who have been broadcasting live on its platform, and is now rolling out several highly-requested features to Facebook Pages (not Profiles.) The changes are an attempt to better accommodate professional broadcasters who want to use Facebook’s live broadcasting capabilities instead of or in addition to other platforms, like YouTube.
Through the Live API, publishers can now use a “rehearsal” feature to broadcast live only to Page admins and editors in order to test new production setups, interactive features, and show formats before going live to a full audience. QVC has tested this feature, as they broadcast live on Facebook for hundreds of hours per month, and have wanted to try out new workflows and formats.
Publishers will also be able to trim the beginning and end of a live video, and can live broadcast for as long as 8 hours — double the previous limit of 4 hours.
This latter capability has already been used by NASA, who broadcast an 8-hour long spacewalk, for example, and it also leaves room for broadcasting things like live sports, news events, and Twitch-like gaming broadcasts.
Most notably, perhaps, is that the company realizes live broadcasters need to serve their audiences outside of Facebook. Now, publishers will be able to use apps that let them stream to more than one streaming service at once, by simulcasting via the Live API.
Live video recently rolled out to Facebook Lite, as well, the company also noted.
Watch Party
Facebook additionally announced a few new updates for its co-watching feature, Watch Party, which include the ability for Pages to schedule a party in advance to build anticipation, support for “replays” that will let others enjoy the video after airing, the ability to tag business partners in branded content, and new analytics.
As for the latter, two new metrics are being added to Creator Studio: Minutes Viewed and Unique 60s Viewers (total number of unique users that watched at least 60 seconds in a Watch Party.) These complement existing metrics like reach and engagement.
The Live Commenting feature, which allows a host to go live in a Watch Party to share their own commentary, is also now globally available.
Creator Studio
And wrapping all this up is an update to Creator Studio, which is what publishers use to post, manage, monetize and measure their content across both Facebook and Instagram.
The dashboard will soon add a new visualization layer in Loyalty Insights to help creators see which videos loyal fans want to see, by measuring which videos drive return viewers.
A new Distribution metric will score each video’s performance based on the Page’s historic average on a range of metrics, including: 1 Minute Views, Average Minutes Watched, and Retention. This feature, rolling out in the next few months, will offer an easy-to-read snapshot of a video’s performance.
Creator Studio will also now support 13 more languages for auto-captioning: Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi, Italian, Malay, Russian, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. These are in addition to those languages already available, which included English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
Instagram & IGTV Scheduling
And finally, publishers and creators will be able to publish and schedule their Instagram Feed and IGTV content for up to 6 months. In a few more months, Instagram Feed and IGTV drafting and editing will also become available, the company says.
This feature was alreadyspotted in the wild before today’s announcement, and sent the social media management and influencer community abuzz. It also follows an update to the Instagram API last year to allow scheduling by third-party applications. However, a native feature is not as limited as some of those other options.
The feature is now open to all creators and publishers with Facebook Pages, whereas before some were seeing it labeled only as “coming soon” or were not able to get it working. Story scheduling is not yet included here, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see it added further down the road.
The Android tablet market isn’t exactly a hotbed of excitement and activity, which makes it all the more impressive that Samsung continues to iterate its own tablet lineup in smart, meaningful ways that push the technology forward and deliver a stellar experience. Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S6 (starting at $649.99) is no exception, and this latest offering expands the definition of what a tablet can be while retaining or refining everything that’s been its predecessors.
Thin, light and luxe design
Samsung has been delivering outstanding body design on its tablet lineup since the introduction of the all metal and glass Tab S4, and the Tab S6 continues this tradition with a full metal back and glass front that’s lighter and thinner than its predecessor. The look and feel is more reminiscent of the Tab S5e, which was released after the S4 earlier this year and which acts as a more economical alternative to Samsung’s flagship lineup. The S6 manages to feel just a touch more premium than the S5e, though both are class-leading in terms of their industrial design.
The brushed finish of the back looks great, and feels nice in the hand, and if you have larger hands you can even one-hand this device when reading for limited periods of time. Samsung has also shrunk the bezels, giving you a more front face-filling screen than on any previous tablet, which does a very good job of putting the gorgeous sAMOLED display in focus. More than ever, this feels like one big sleek, metallic hand-held display – the future, in your hand, reduced to the essentials in an awesome way.
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Display and cameras
The display on the Tab S6 isn’t much changed from the one used on the Tab S5e and the Tab S4 – but that’s actually great news, because Samsung has the best tablet display in the business when it comes to watching media. The 10.5-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel Super AMOLED display gives you true blacks that are outstanding, and impossible to replicate on any LED-based display, and Samsung offers a range of color options to choose from, including ‘natural’ settings for photo-accurate editing, and enhanced saturation modes for getting the most out of eye-popping movies and videos.
That display now comes with a neat new trick on the Tab S6: An integrated fingerprint reader. This authentication and unlock method is new for this generation, and replaces iris/face scanning as the only biometric unlock option on the Tab S4. It performs very well in my testing, and has the added cool factor of being just an amazing big of whiz-bang tech magic, especially if this is your first time encountering and in-display fingerprint reader.
The great display makes a fantastic editing surface for photos and videos, and that’s why it’s super interesting that Samsung went out of their way to upgrade the cameras on the Tab S6 – adding dual camera options, in fact. There’s now a super wide angle lens in addition to the standard one, which gives you a lot of creative options when it comes to both still photography and videos.
While the Tab S6 is great for editing, I still wouldn’t lean too heavily on the built-in cameras for actually capturing content. They’re fine cameras, augmented by Samsung’s built-in software, but the super wide has a fair amount of distortion and not the best resolution, and in general I still think you should avoid shooting too much with tablet cameras in general. Still, it’s nice to have the option in case you’re in a pinch.
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Your pen pal
I mentioned editing above already, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 has an added advantage over other tablets in this area: The S Pen. Samsung’s stylus is updated in this version, with Bluetooth connectivity that gives it additional super powers like the ability to act as a remote for the camera, presentations and other software.
The S Pen still performs best as an actual stylus, however, and it excels in this capacity. For pressure sensitive applications including sketching and painting, it’s fantastic, but where it really shines in my usage is in editing photos using software like Lightroom from Adobe. Stylus input means you can get super specific and accurate with your edits. This applies to editing video, too, where the stylus works well for making concise trims to video timelines.
You can also easily create handwritten notes with the S Pen, and if you do using Samsung’s built-in Notes application, you get automatic OCR and search indexing. In my testing, I found that this worked really, really well – surprisingly so, considering how bad my handwriting is. For printed characters, the Samsung Notes app had no trouble at all identifying words accurately in my scrawl and retrieving the right results when searching by keyword.
Since this S Pen uses Bluetooth, it now has a built-in rechargeable battery. Like Apple’s Pencil, it charges wirelessly, attaching magnetically to the tablet to power up. Samsung has designed a groove in the back of the tablet to receive the S Pen for charging, and while this isn’t sturdy enough for you to trust it to hold the stylus when you throw them in your bag unprotected, the Tab S6 cover accessory nicely wraps the S Pen with a fold-down flap for easy storage.
A true workhorse
Samsung’s official case options include a back panel protector/detachable keyboard combo that are probably the best accessory of this style available on the market for any tablet. The back cover includes a reusable sticky surface to ensure a solid fit which will be more reliably fixed than a magnetic attachment, and it has a multi-angle kickstand that works wonderfully to support the tablet on any table or even on your lap.
As mentioned, there’s a top flap that provides protection and easy access to the S Pen, which is a very clever way to keep that stored without complicating matters. The cover has a finely textured surface that increases grippiness, and it has proven resilient in terms of not picking up dirt or grime so far.
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The keyboard attaches via magnets to one side of the tablet, folding up to protect the display when not in use. It’s slim, but it still had defined keys with actual travel that feel really good to type with, and there’s something you probably weren’t expecting to see on an Android tablet keyboard – a built-in trackpad.
All of this is designed primarily for use with DeX, Samsung’s desktop-like software experience that’s aimed at boosting productivity (though you can use the trackpad in the standard Android interface, too). When it works well, the DeX experience truly makes the Tab S6 feel like a mini desktop, giving you the power to tackle tasks in multiple windows – including in multiple windows for the same apps. It’s great for things like seeing Slack open and working in multiple browser windows, along with your email client, for instance.
That said, there are definite limitations to DeX, including the need to re-open all your windows when switching back from standard Android mode, for instance. Not every app behaves well in this novel mode, either, since third-party ones especially aren’t designed for it, and there are quirks to the windowing (like overflowing and weird-sized windows) that make it occasionally a little strange to work with. Still, all in all it’s great to have the option, and can really increase your ability to do work on the road in the right circumstances.
Bottom line
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is, without a doubt, the best Android tablet available. It combines top notch hardware with Samsung’s evolving DeX approach to mobile productivity, and while DeX isn’t perfect in all settings, it’s at the very least not doing any harm and you’re better off having it available vs. not. Meanwhile, the Tab S6 working in standard Android mode is an excellent, super-fast media consumption and photo editing powerhouse. If you’re in the market for a tablet, the Tab S6 is an easy choice.
Andrew Helton, Editor, Google Research Communications
This week, Graz, Austria hosts the 20th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2019), one of the world‘s most extensive conferences on the research and engineering for spoken language processing. Over 2,000 experts in speech-related research fields gather to take part in oral presentations and poster sessions and to collaborate with streamed events across the globe.
As a Gold Sponsor of Interspeech 2019, we are excited to present 30 research publications, and demonstrate some of the impact speech technology has made in our products, from accessible, automatic video captioning to a more robust, reliable Google Assistant. If you’re attending Interspeech 2019, we hope that you’ll stop by the Google booth to meet our researchers and discuss projects and opportunities at Google that go into solving interesting problems for billions of people. Our researchers will also be on hand to discuss Google Cloud Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-text, demo Parrotron, and more. You can also learn more about the Google research being presented at Interspeech 2019 below (Google affiliations in blue).
Organizing Committee includes: Michiel Bacchiani
Technical Program Committee includes: Tara Sainath
Tutorials Neural Machine Translation
Organizers include: Wolfgang Macherey, Yuan Cao Accepted Publications
Building Large-Vocabulary ASR Systems for Languages Without Any Audio Training Data (link to appear soon) Manasa Prasad, Daan van Esch, Sandy Ritchie, Jonas Fromseier Mortensen
Multi-Microphone Adaptive Noise Cancellation for Robust Hotword Detection (link to appear soon) Yiteng Huang, Turaj Shabestary, Alexander Gruenstein, Li Wan
Improving Keyword Spotting and Language Identification via Neural Architecture Search at Scale (link to appear soon) Hanna Mazzawi, Javier Gonzalvo, Aleks Kracun, Prashant Sridhar, Niranjan Subrahmanya, Ignacio Lopez Moreno, Hyun Jin Park, Patrick Violette
Contextual Recovery of Out-of-Lattice Named Entities in Automatic Speech Recognition (link to appear soon) Jack Serrino, Leonid Velikovich, Petar Aleksic, Cyril Allauzen
An Investigation Into On-Device Personalization of End-to-End Automatic Speech Recognition Models (link to appear soon) Khe Chai Sim, Petr Zadrazil, Francoise Beaufays
Developing Pronunciation Models in New Languages Faster by Exploiting Common Grapheme-to-Phoneme Correspondences Across Languages (link to appear soon) Harry Bleyan, Sandy Ritchie, Jonas Fromseier Mortensen, Daan van Esch
Unified Verbalization for Speech Recognition & Synthesis Across Languages (link to appear soon) Sandy Ritchie, Richard Sproat, Kyle Gorman, Daan van Esch, Christian Schallhart, Nikos Bampounis, Benoit Brard, Jonas Mortensen, Amelia Holt, Eoin Mahon
Better Morphology Prediction for Better Speech Systems (link to appear soon) Dravyansh Sharma, Melissa Wilson, Antoine Bruguier
Large-Scale Visual Speech Recognition Brendan Shillingford, Yannis Assael, Matthew Hoffman, Thomas Paine, CÃan Hughes, Utsav Prabhu, Hank Liao, Hasim Sak, Kanishka Rao, Lorrayne Bennett, Marie Mulville, Ben Coppin, Ben Laurie, Andrew Senior, Nando de Freitas
