Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News

Apple’s WWDC keynote was jam-packed with an array of new features, apps, and tweaks designed to make our Apple device prettier and more powerful than ever before. Come September, Apple devices new and old will have an assortment of new tricks to try in iOS 13, iPadOS, and watchOS 6, and to hear Craig Federighi and company deliver the news, they’ll be nothing less than ground-breaking, earth-shattering, and straight-up revolutionary.

But while the new updates may indeed be as dramatic and delightful for iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches as Apple says they are, they’re not exactly new. At least not for anyone other than Apple users anyway. Most of the marquee features Apple announced yesterday have already been done before, and as the crowd whooped and hollered at every obvious applause break, Android and Fitbit fans were likely smirking rather than clapping.

Dark Mode

Yes, Apple delivered dark mode for the menu bar and Dock with Yosemite and expanded it to apps with macOS Mojave last year, but Dark Mode on smartphones is old hat. Google’s has had a dark theme on its phones for years, and Samsung introduced a system-wide dark mode with its One UI redesign earlier this year. When Apple says Dark Mode is “thoughtfully designed to make every element on the screen easier on your eyes and is seamlessly integrated throughout the system” just remember that Galaxy and Pixel users had it first.

Apple

Download Manager

This feature is so overdue Apple doesn’t even have a fancy name for it. In iPadOS, you’ll be able to “see your active and recent downloads in Safari and access them easily from the new Downloads folder in Files,” thanks to the existence of a bonafide downloads manager. Talk to any Android user and they won’t be able to remember a time when they couldn’t do that.

WatchOS App Store

The ability to search, download, and install apps on your wrist is a huge step for the Apple Watch, but it was a bigger deal when Google launched the Play Store for Android Wear watches back in 2017. And Google even let developers build watch-only apps back then too. Granted, the state of Wear OS and compatible devices leaves much to be desired, but Google can at least claim it reached watch independence way before Apple did.

Doug Duvall/IDG

iPad home screen widgets

One of the biggest WWDC announcements (aside from that $999 display stand that doesn’t actually include a display) is the emergence of iPadOS. Long overdue and incredibly exciting for iPad fans, the new OS finally breaks the iPad free from the constrains of the phone-first iOS and gives the tablet a bright future as a true Mac replacement.

But while there’s a lot that’s new, the most striking visual change–widgets on the home screen—arrived on Android with Honeycomb way back in 2011. We won’t discuss how sorry the current crop of Android tablets are, but hey, at least Google got one thing right.

Desktop browsing on iPad

At long last, the Safari browser on the iPad will no longer default to the mobile version of websites. Apple has finally realized that iPad users deserve the same internet experience that you get on the Mac, so it’s opening up the full desktop version of Safari in iPadOS. However, anyone who’s used a Chrome tablet will just snicker since they’ve had a full browser all along.

Is Nikon about to launch an 8K camera? It may well now be more likely following Apple’s WWDC 2019 event.

Along with many new introductions and changes shown off were some impressive new video-editing capabilities. David Earl, from Apple’s Logic Pro X marketing team, took to the stage to demonstrate just how effortlessly Final Cut Pro ran on the new Mac Pro, even when tasked with juggling three streams of 8K footage at once.

The video shown was described as 8K ProRes raw footage originating from a documentary shot in Kenya, which was said to have been captured and edited in HDR. Earl mentioned that the documentary followed National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale – who just happens to be a brand ambassador for Nikon.

Nikon’s current DSLRs and mirrorless models, such as the D850 and Z7, only capture conventional footage at 4K and Full HD, although they can be used to create 8K timelapses. And while some timelapse footage was shown off by Earl, the majority of this appeared to be either captured at a more standard frame rate, or at a faster frame rate and slowed down. 

Earl went on to state that there were more than 33MP in every frame, and a sensor with at least this pixel count would be required for 8K capture. It’s highly likely that a new Nikon Z-series body would use a different sensor to the 24.5MP and 47.3MP sensors we’ve already seen in the Z6 and Z7 respectively, in order to position them at a different level in Nikon’s lineup.

Now, 8K cameras do, of course, already exist, and there’s every possibility that the footage was from an 8K camera from another brand that was simply capturing Vitale going about her work. The question of who-shot-what-with-which-camera is not entirely clear here; the implication is that Vitale is behind the camera, although the final frame appears to show her photographing a rhinoceros.

Whatever the facts behind the footage, the arrival of Panasonic’s 6K-ready S1H has raised the bar for video capture on full-frame mirrorless models, and Nikon hasn’t added any cameras to its Z system since the original Z6 and Z7 that kicked off the line last year.

WWDC 2019 kicked off on the same day that four new product codes registered by Nikon were spotted, leading to speculation that a slew of new cameras would hit shortly. Nikon has only announced three cameras this year so far, all budget compacts, despite stating back in 2017 that it would be placing greater focus on higher-end models. So we’d be very surprised if we don’t see a third Z-series camera with some new tech on board before the year is up.

Go to Source

If you live in a city, you’ve probably noticed ranks of pay-to-ride scooters springing up like motorized weeds along the sidewalks, but are they truly practical – and could they even replace your car?

The e-scooter boom was particularly visible at GreenTech Festival in Berlin – a new event dedicated to sustainable technology, and hosted by Formula One world champion Niko Rosberg (a man who, during his career, must have amassed a yeti-sized carbon footprint).

The show floor was populated by electric cars from Tesla and Byton, flying taxis from Ehang and Volocopter, sustainable fashion companies and a business that specializes in tasty snacks made from insect flour. However, the sector with the most booths was last-mile mobility – chiefly e-scooters. Companies including Tier, Flash (now rebranded as Circ), eFloater and Ono all presented their own vision of clean, two-wheeled transport.

“The way people move through cities is changing,” Boris Mittermüller, chief operating officer of Circ told us. “They’re still using cars, but the car is not the best vehicle any more. 70% of cars are single-use – it doesn’t make sense. Car ownership is going down.”

According to Boston Consulting Group, about 35% of all personal trips cover distances of under 3km – a distance that could be walked, but is much faster made by e-scooter. Unlike a bike, a an electric scooter won’t leave you sweaty when you reach your destination, and it’s much cheaper than hailing a ride-sharing service. They’re also easy to ride, and don’t require training or a license.

Speed of change

The appeal is clear, and startups are popping up seemingly overnight to meet demand. Speed is the name of the game: the fastest E-scooters can hit speeds up to 35mph, and the startups supplying them move just as fast. In 2018, Circ was only a glimmer in its founders’ eyes, and at the time we spoke to Mittermüller, its scooters had just clocked up a million rides.

While Lime, Lyft, Uber and Bird battle for top spot in the US market, there isn’t yet a clear market leader in Europe. Circ is making big inroads, though, and hit the million-ride milestone much faster than its competitors on the continent – and it has no intention of hitting the brakes.

“There are a couple of big markets about to open up: Germany and Italy, and hopefully the UK at a certain point this year or early next year,” said Mittermüller. “Like most other escooter companies, we’ve seen tremendous growth – but much faster. If you look at growth rates, they are exponential in terms of existing customers and new customers.”

Hit the brakes

E-scooters certainly aren’t for everyone, though – they depend on riders being a certain height, weight, and level of mobility. They’re also not great if you’re carrying anything more than a backpack. Nor can we see them taking off in historic cities with equally historic cobbled streets, and they don’t perform well in rain, ice or extreme heat.

 The rules of the road can be problematic too, and vary hugely between countries. Are they suitable for riding on the pavement, or are they restricted to roads? If the latter, do they need to be taxed and insured? Who’s liable in an accident? Should riders wear a helmet, and do they need to provide these themselves?  

Then there’s maintenance and waste. Scooter batteries are often non-replacable, which means that when the battery dies, the entire scooter is destined for scrap. That’s before you consider those thrown into rivers, hurled into trees and otherwise trashed.

Not all scooters are created equal though, as the huge range of designs on show at GreenTech Festival showed, and some are more robust than others. The offering from Hamburg-based eFloater was particularly striking – a chunky, three-wheeled design that uses similar self-balancing technology to a Segway.

Circ’s custom-made scooters are also a little different – a fact that Mittermüller says is key to their success. “We firmly believe that a superior scooter will be a huge differentiator, and this is why we build our own vehicles,” he said. “We took the time to build a scooter that is much better than what our rivals have. Those are electrified consumer toys – they’re not comfortable or safe. Our scooter has wider handlebars, a lower center of gravity, is more robust, and has more safety features.”

Mittermüller says the feedback from riders bears this out. Passengers in Paris, for example, have a huge variety of scooters to choose from, but consistently report that Circ’s feel safer and more comfortable.

Beyond two wheels

E-scooters are clearly a winner with riders, but why are there so many startups dropping them onto city streets? It’s partly due to convenience for the founders: starting an e-scooter service has relatively low costs compared to a more ambitious car-sharing service.

“From a tech standpoint, you have technology that is ready for e-mobility,” says Mittermüller. “Strong batteries are available at a reasonable price, and you have IT that is at a stage where you can use it in a robust and reliable way to communicate with the vehicle – to lock and unlock it, and also during the journey. This made us very confident.”

Circ is also looking beyond the scooter to other forms of ‘micro-mobility’, including vehicles capable of carrying cargo and others with a seat. E-scooters are just a convenient entry point.

So could a shared e-scooter replace your car? Potentially, if you live in a city (as two thirds of us are predicted to do by 2050) in an area with reliable public transport for longer journeys, you’re physically capable of riding, and you don’t mind getting damp occasionally.

They’re never going to replace a car if you live further than a couple of miles from a docking point either. Electric car owners might suffer range anxiety if they stray too far from a charger, but e-scooters are on a different level (though at least they can be carried if they run out of juice).

E-scooters aren’t the only option, though: if you’re looking for a zero-emissions option and feeling brave, a French startup is offering pay-as-you-hop pogo sticks to let you bounce around the streets of Paris. Suddenly scooting to work doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

Go to Source

We had pretty well expected iTunes to be dramatically changed with the debut of macOS 10.15 Catalina, but we didn’t think Apple was going to outright kill it. But, now that iTunes is no more in the new Mac operating system, you still need to manage your iPhone and iPad in a post-iTunes world, and Wccftech has spotted how.

Signs had pointed to some of its content offerings splintering into their own apps, which has happened, but it had seemed like iTunes would still stick around. It seemed like it had to, because it has long been the main tool for managing files, syncing content, backing up and restoring iPhones, iPads and iPods. 

In macOS 10.15 Catalina, that will no longer be the case, as Apple laid out the future at WWDC 2019. Instead, you’ll be looking at another tried-and-true tool within the operating system: Finder.

In macOS 10.15, when your iPhone, iPad, or iPod is plugged into your Mac, you’ll be able to find it using Finder. If you open Finder, you’ll see your device in the left side panel under the Devices list.

When you select your device in Finder, you’ll find a familiar interface. Finder will provide all the tools you need to update and restore your device, manage backups, and sync content between your Mac and mobile device. The interface looks awfully similar to how it does on iTunes today.

You’ll still be able to manage what music, movies, shows, podcasts, audiobooks, books, photos and file transfers between your devices. Even though Apple has introduced specific apps for some of these content types, you won’t have to go through each individually to manage the synced content.

So, when you update your Mac to macOS 10.15 Catalina later this year, be sure to remember iTunes is out and Finder is in.

Go to Source

A barfing cat isn’t anything especially out of the ordinary, as any cat owner can tell you. But late last week in Elder Scrolls Online’s new Elsweyr expansion, I saw a talking housecat with an eyepatch barf while casting a spell that was supposed to drop me and some friends behind enemy lines. Instead, she plopped us almost right in the thick of them.

And this tale gets weirder still: It wasn’t a hairball that messed her up, but rather the aftershocks from her wild bender from the night before. (At least she had the decency to feel bad about it.) Even more bizarre things await in Elsweyr, whether they be emo necromancers or dragons that spit insults as readily as fire—and yet for all that, I can’t shake the feeling that Elsweyr isn’t quite weird enough.

Leif Johnson/IDG

Maybe I’m expecting too much from the setting. With a name that basically amounts to “Elsewhere,” it should be ripe for the kind of trippy landscapes we’ve come to expect from the Elder Scrolls series, whether they be the mushroom houses of Morrowind or the laser-latticed skies of Arteum in last year’s Summerset chapter. Northern Elsweyr, by contrast, looks a lot like Sedona, Arizona.

That means it’s a land that’s not quite living and not quite dead, so it’s a fitting stage for the core conflict of undead armies struggling for dominance over the living (to say nothing of the few big lizards skittering about). But that also means it’s a very “earthy” place, and for that matter, it doesn’t look too different from the neighboring zone of Reaper’s March that has been in the game for years.

If you’re seeking weirdness from the environs, you’re most likely to find it in the architecture of the native Khajiiti people (or cats, or whatever). It’s the very definition of “eclectic,” as it pulls from liberally from a grab bag of Asian styles ranging from Indian and Arabic to Cambodian and still manages to create what feels like a coherent aesthetic. The appeal lies in the details: in the friezes and giant statues of cats mounted on cats lining dusty passageways. The debts to real-world styles mean the cities aren’t as otherworldly and memorable as what we saw in Morrowind, but the near-total absence of these styles in other games imbues them with a surrealism all their own.

Leif Johnson/IDG

The details in the architecture also serve as another example of how ESO excels at giving dignity to races that normally get treated like cat barf in games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Beyond the core game, ESO first did this with the orcs with its Orsinium downloadable content from 2015, which provided the first hints that ESO would survive following its bumpy start and massive redesign. In Summerset, developer ZeniMax Online Studios dared to do the same with goblins (of all creatures), and last year it even managed to make the lowly Argonians come off as one of the most fascinating races on the continent of Tamriel.

Leif Johnson/IDG

And so it goes with Elsweyr, as this chapter elaborates on the culture of the Khajiit in ways we’ve never seen before. We get to tag along with them in their moon-based rites, largely free of the expected druggie jokes about moon sugar. We learn the reason why some Khajiit look like house cats, why some look almost like people, and why still others look like lions. (It’s not clear which form they prefer.)

All those wonderful architectural styles come together in the main city of Rimmen, which in turn is stuffed with every kind of crafting table and merchant within easy reach. It’s enough to make it an appealing alternative to the core game’s crowded village of Rawl’kha, whose many similar conveniences have made it a de facto endgame hub (and lagfest) for years. Elsweyr also gives players a big new house that’s right around the corner from all these shops just for playing through the main quest, and it’ll only get bigger as ESO’s planned “Season of the Dragon” sequence of downloadable content drops two new patches in the coming months. Elsweyr, ZeniMax fervently seems to hope, is a place that players will want to call home once the questing’s done.

Update: Your existing Apple Watch may be ready to get upgraded to the newly announced watchOS 6 in the next few months. You’ll find some more details in the software section below…

Donning an Apple Watch in 2019 is a little more tempting because of new deals, fresh features, the watchOS 5 update and a higher app count. It’s a fantastic smartwatch series, as long as you’re expecting an iPhone-tied convenience gadget, not a life-changing piece of technology. 

Why? Two versions of the watch makes our best smartwatch list, but smartwatches aren’t a game changer or revolutionary like smartphones from ten years ago. They’re just an everyday awesome add-on; truly an accessory.

Apple never ended up calling this the ‘iWatch’, but it really is “my watch” – with all its iterations the company has proved it’s the Apple’s most personal and customizable gadget yet.

We’ve put together the guide below to talk you through the differences between all five iterations of the Apple Watch. There’s the original Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 1, Apple Watch Series 2, Apple Watch Series 3 and now the Apple Watch Series 4.

It’s a complicated mix of smartwatches now with over 100 different flavors with the variety of case materials, colors, sizes and interchangeable Apple Watch bands too, so there are a bunch of a tough decisions to make.

What Apple Watch models are there?

It’s best to think of the Apple Watch in five distinct generations, so far. There was the original device that was released under the name Apple Watch in April 2015, but you’ll struggle to find retailers selling this device now and you’ll probably only be able to get it second hand.

We wouldn’t recommend buying that watch now as it won’t be able to run with the latest watchOS 5 software and will miss out on the latest features, so you’re better off buying a more recently released Apple Watch.

It was replaced by the Apple Watch Series 1 in September 2016, which is largely the same device but with Bluetooth 4.2 technology and a faster dual-core chipset. The original Apple Watch is now referred to as Series 0, but you probably shouldn’t worry about that if you’re buying a new watch as it’s difficult to find it.

The Apple Watch Series 1 is easier to find through third-party retailers, but Apple has now stopped selling the device.

Alongside the Series 1, Apple announced the Watch Series 2 (which we refer to as the Apple Watch 2 to make things a little simpler). This brought new technology like built-in GPS and water resistance and a slightly larger battery.

Apple is no longer selling the Watch Series 2, but you can buy find this from a limited number of third-party retailers.

2017’s smartwatch is called the Apple Watch Series 3 and it comes with LTE technology (if you want it) as well as a variety of fitness features and improved GPS.

Then there’s the most recent version – the Apple Watch Series 4 – that comes with a larger display than the other versions and some new heart rate features too. If you’re after the very best Apple Watch, this is currently it.

Apple Watch price comparison

Largely the pricing for the Apple Watch works by how old the product is. If you want the Apple Watch Series 1, you’ll be able to find that for a lot less money than the Apple Watch 4.

Below we’ve got a live widget that will show you the latest deals for all the versions of the Apple Watch if you want to see the exact price right now. Bear in mind you can also get the Apple Watch 4 or 3 on a contract because of the LTE features, and you can’t do that for the other two devices.

IKEA has just announced a new range of gaming accessories which are 3D-printed, including a wrist support that can be tailored to fit your own personal size. The idea with these goodies is to help you play better, offering accessibility and ergonomic improvements not normally seen at a relatively affordable price level.

Specifically, IKEA is introducing the Uppkoppla range, developed in conjunction with Unyq and Area Academy, with three initial prototype products having just been revealed. Unyq is on-board, thanks to its expertise on the customization front, with experience in producing medical wearables, like custom-made scoliosis braces.

IKEA observes that this is a neglected area – there might be plenty of choice in terms of gaming mice or keyboards, but not accessories related to supporting these peripherals – and thus it’s offering the wrist support alongside a mouse bungee and customized key caps.

As mentioned, the broad idea is that these products are going to be priced affordably, so the everyday gamer or computer user can benefit from the sort of costlier innovations normally reserved for the likes of esports pros.

The wrist support is the most interesting offering, as it provides a platform for your wrist while mousing, keeping it in a more ergonomically suitable position. The idea is to increase your comfort levels, and hopefully defend against potential strain.

As mentioned, the support is manufactured to suit your wrist perfectly, with an app provided that scans your hand via the phone camera to obtain the correct dimensions.

Taming the cord

The mouse bungee, if you’ve not heard of one, is essentially a stand which holds the mouse cord, and keeps it out of the way. This will be appreciated by those who play the likes of frantic shooters, and have felt the annoying drag of the cable on the mouse as they scoot it sharply around the mat.

That said, there are already affordable mouse bungee products out on the market, such as the one offered by Razer at $20/£20.

The other innovation is the key caps, which have a textured surface to help prevent your fingertips slipping on the keys.

These gaming products will be sold online (and not in IKEA stores), and you’ll be able to order through a special app, which is in the pipeline.

As you can see from the above video which shows the app, it’ll also be possible to personalize these accessories in ways such as adding your nickname or clan name for a couple of extra bucks.

While IKEA hasn’t officially announced pricing for the Uppkoppla accessories, which won’t go on sale until 2020, the app seems to indicate that these products will range in price from $25 (around £20, AU$35) to $50 (around £40, AU$70), with small additional charges for extra customization as mentioned.

Via Engadget

Go to Source