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Apple Vision Pro to debut with over 150 3D movies from Disney and others

Apple Vision Pro to debut with over 150 3D movies from Disney and others

by | Jan 17, 2024 | Technology


Apple Vision Pro is now available for pre-order in the US with sale kicking off from February 2. Ahead of the launch, Apple previewed the entertainment experiences launching with the mixed-reality headset. The Vision Pro is set to debut with over 150 3D movies from Apple TV+ and Disney. Some of the movies that would be available in 3D are Avatar: The Way of Water, Dune, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.


Apple said the Vision Pro users would be able to access 3D versions of eligible movies when they become available to rent or purchase from the Apple TV app, and users who own or purchase movies with a 3D edition will be able to access that version on Apple Vision Pro at no additional cost.


Besides, several streaming apps, including Disney+, would offer 3D versions of their latest and most popular movies on Vision Pro at launch. Apple confirmed that other streaming apps will debut new 3D editions alongside or shortly following standard 2D releases for the Vision Pro. The company said that Vision Pro users would be able to watch both 2D and 3D movies with Spatial Audio and in an environment to make the experience immersive.


Apple Vision Pro: Specification


Powered by the M2 chip, the Apple Vision Pro headset features a pair of micro-OLED displays with a combined pixel count of 23 million. The display supports Dolby Vision. Besides, the mixed-reality headset features a new R1 chip for high refresh rates.


For Audio, Apple has confirmed a Spatial Audio system with dual-driver audio pods for each ear which will support Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio. The Spatial Audio System will use audio ray tracing technology to create an immersive listening experience. Additionally, Apple has confirmed that the customers will get an option to pair their AirPods with the headset.


The Vision Pro headset will run on visionOS operating system, which the company said will “seamlessly blend digital content with a user’s physical space to provide an infinite canvas for apps, games, and other spatial experiences”.


According to Apple, apps can be placed anywhere within a user’s space and scaled to the perfect size. Users will also get the option to transform their space into dynamic vistas with realistic soundscapes called ‘Environments’. visionOS will allow apps to open in these Environments. Users can adjust the immersion of an Environment, including the volume of the ambient sounds, using the rotating Digital Crown on the headset. Other features on the visionOS includes SharePlay for shared streaming with other Vision Pro, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV users. Another notable inclusion is the Travel Mode, which will stabilise visuals when travelling.


Apple said that the Vision Pro headset will support up to 2.5 hours of video playback. With the external battery connected through a USB-C cable, the headset will last a complete day.


Apple Vision Pro: Apps and services


Apart from the company’s own Apple TV, Vision Pro will support streaming content from other platforms like  Disney+, Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Red Bull TV, IMAX, TikTok, and more.


Apple has collaborated with Disney to bring 3D editions of select movies from Apple TV and Disney Plus for Vision Pro users. With the Apple TV app, Apple will offer a curated section with immersive films and videos featuring 180-degree 3D 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio.


Apple has announced a new free app called Encounter Dinosaurs which will come pre-installed on the Vision Pro headset. Apple said that with the app, “users can peer into the Cretaceous, a period more than 66 million years old, where dinosaurs roamed the earth and Mother Nature reigned supreme”.


The visionOS will come with Apple’s App Store with dedicated apps and games built for Vision Pro, alongside regular apps.

First Published: Jan 17 2024 | 11:30 AM IST



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Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024: Where to watch livestream and what to expect

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024: Where to watch livestream and what to expect

by | Jan 17, 2024 | Technology


Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024 on January 17


Samsung is hosting the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 on January 17 in San Jose, California, US. At the event, the South Korean technology giant would unveil smartphones in its flagship Galaxy S-series – Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24. Alongside, the company would announce artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features that are set to debut along with the Galaxy S24 series.


Samsung had earlier confirmed AI-powered features such as AI Live Translate, which will provide audio and text translations in real time during phone calls. Samsung is expected to announce more such AI features powered by its Gauss model during the event.


The global launch event will kick off at 11:30 pm (IST).  It will livestream on Samsung’s website and official YouTube channel. You can watch the livestream in the video embedded towards the end of this article.


Below is a round-up of expected specifications:


Galaxy S24 Ultra: Expected specifications


  • Display: 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, 120Hz


  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy


  • RAM: up to 12GB


  • Storage: up to 512GB


  • Camera: 200MP primary sensor, telephoto with 10x digital zoom, up to 8K video recording


  • Battery: 5,000mAh


Galaxy S24 Plus: Expected specifications


  • Display: 6.7-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, 120Hz


  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy


  • RAM: up to 8GB


  • Storage: up to 256GB


  • Camera: 50MP primary sensor, telephoto with 3x optical zoom, up to 8K video recording


  • Battery: 4,900mAh


Galaxy S24: Expected specifications


  • Display: 6.2-inch fullHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, 120Hz


  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy


  • RAM: up to 8GB


  • Storage: up to 256GB


  • Camera: 50MP primary sensor, telephoto with 3x optical zoom, up to 8K video recording


  • Battery: 4,000mAh


Galaxy Unpacked 2024: Watch livestream

 

First Published: Jan 17 2024 | 11:02 AM IST



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Apple dethrones Samsung as top phone maker for first time since 2010

Apple dethrones Samsung as top phone maker for first time since 2010

by | Jan 17, 2024 | Technology



By Vlad Savov


Apple Inc.’s iPhone dethroned Samsung Electronics Co. devices to become the best-selling smartphone series over the course of 2023, the first time South Korea’s largest company has lost the top spot since 2010.

 


The iPhone accounted for a fifth of the global market with close to 235 million shipments last year, research firm IDC estimates. Samsung, whose shipments slumped double-digits to 226.6 million, came in second, ahead of Chinese device makers like Xiaomi Corp. While Apple has dominated the holiday quarter in recent years, its surge ahead of Samsung over a full year is unprecedented and suggests Apple is weathering an industrywide slump better than rivals.

Apple benefited from aggressive offers that have enticed a shift toward premium devices. It managed to expand shipments in 2023 despite a lukewarm reception late in the year for the iPhone 15 in China — its biggest international market — where Huawei Technologies Co.’s growing popularity and a widening ban on government use is depressing sales. 


“While we saw some strong growth from low-end Android players like Transsion and Xiaomi in the second half of 2023, stemming from rapid growth in emerging markets, the biggest winner is clearly Apple,” IDC research director Nabila Popal said. “All this despite facing increased regulatory challenges and renewed competition from Huawei in China, its largest market. Apple’s ongoing success and resilience is in large part due to the increasing trend of premium devices, which now represent over 20% of the market.”


The shift up the smartphone price chain has been driven in part by attractive trade-in offers and interest-free financing, IDC said. Apple was the only player in the global top three to register growth, of 3.7%, but it has not been immune to the wider decline. Sales in China of the latest-generation iPhone are significantly down from its predecessor, with some analyst expecting those drops to deepen.


Part of Apple’s challenge in the world’s biggest mobile market comes from local tech powerhouse Huawei, which reclaimed some of the market share it lost after US sanctions by releasing the Mate 60 Pro smartphone running on an advanced made-in-China processor. Apple this week introduced rare discounts on the iPhone in the country, of as much as 5% per handset, as it sought to stem further erosion of sales.

First Published: Jan 17 2024 | 9:29 AM IST



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What AI can do to science, will be most interesting: Satya Nadella

What AI can do to science, will be most interesting: Satya Nadella

by | Jan 16, 2024 | Technology



Artificial Intelligence may have given new tools to science, but the most interesting thing to watch out for will be what it can do to accelerate science, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said on Tuesday.


He also dismissed concerns that AI cannot be governed or regulated.


“There is nothing that cannot be controlled or governed by humankind for better use and this is one of the easiest and simplest technologies. What is needed is that it is governed properly and I’m sure it will happen,” Nadella said.


He also said that the last thing the world needs is technology creating a divide and “we need to be watchful of it”.


Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024, Microsoft’s Chairman and CEO said Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been gaining a lot of scale recently with the advent of ChatGPT and many other platforms.


“First time, I actually became a believer was when I saw GitHub Copilot, that actually made me a convert,” he said.


“But, what AI will do to science is probably the most interesting thing for me,” he said during a conversation with WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.


“What can be done about energy transition, what can be done about cancer detection, what it can do with molecule behaviour. So far what we have seen is that it has brought new tools to science, but we are yet to see how it can accelerate science,” Nadella said.


On the technology front, the top Microsoft executive said he is always anchoring back to three things, quantum, AI and mixed reality or embodied AI or call it humanoid robots.


“Can we give birth to a new quantum revolution that I want to see,” he said.


He also said the world is not seeing any economic growth if adjusted for inflation but AI can trigger economic expansion just like it happened when PCs came into picture.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Jan 16 2024 | 10:57 PM IST



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US SC allows court order to take effect potentially costing Apple billions

US SC allows court order to take effect potentially costing Apple billions

by | Jan 16, 2024 | Technology



The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a court order to take effect that could loosen Apple’s grip on its lucrative iPhone app store, and potentially affect billions of dollars in revenue a year.


The justices rejected Apple’s appeal of lower-court rulings that found some of Apple’s app store rules for apps purchased on more than 1 billion iPhones constitute unfair competition under California law.


The appeal stemmed from an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games, maker of the popular Fortnite video game. Epic lost its broader claim that Cupertino, California-based Apple was violating federal antitrust law, and the justices also rejected Epic’s appeal Tuesday.


But in turning away Apple’s plea, the court lifted a hold on an order to allow app developers throughout the US to insert links to other payment options besides its own within iPhone apps. That change would make it easier for developers to avoid paying Apple’s commissions.


Epic, based in Cary, North Carolina, had claimed that Apple’s app store which was launched in 2008, a year after the first iPhone went on sale had turned into an illegal monopoly that stifles innovation and competition while generating billions of dollars in profit for Apple.


Epic tried to offer an alternative way to get its mobile app, attempting to evade the developer fees inside the app store, which collects a commission of 15% to 30% on subscriptions and other digital transactions.


Apple ousted Epic from its app store after it tried to get around restrictions that Apple says protect the security and privacy of iPhone users while also helping to recoup some of the investment that powers one of the world’s most ubiquitous devices.


Last month, Epic won a jury trial against Google and its Play Store for apps on Android phones in a lawsuit mirroring its action against Apple. A federal judge still must determine what changes Google will have to make to its Play Store.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Jan 16 2024 | 9:47 PM IST



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YouTube making money off new breed of climate denial, monitoring group

YouTube making money off new breed of climate denial, monitoring group

by | Jan 16, 2024 | Technology


In a statement, YouTube did not comment directly on the report but defended its policies


YouTube is making millions of dollars a year from advertising on channels that make false claims about climate change because content creators are using new tactics that evade the social media platform’s policies to combat misinformation, according to a report published on Tuesday.

 


The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) used artificial intelligence to review transcripts from 12,058 videos from the past six years on 96 of Alphabet Inc’s YouTube channels. The channels promoted content that undermines the scientific consensus on climate change that human behavior is contributing to long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns, the report said.

 


CCDH, a nonprofit that monitors online hate speech, said its analysis found that climate denial content has shifted away from false claims that global warming is not happening or that it is not caused by greenhouse gases produced from burning fossil fuels. Videos espousing such claims are explicitly banned from generating ad revenue on YouTube, according to Google’s policy.

 


Instead, the report found that last year 70% of climate denial content on the channels analyzed focused on attacking climate solutions as unworkable, portraying global warming as harmless or beneficial, or casting climate science and the environmental movement as unreliable. That’s up from 35% five years earlier.

 


“A new front has opened up in this battle,” Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH, said on a call with reporters. “The people that we’ve been looking at, they’ve gone from saying climate change isn’t happening to now saying, ‘Hey, climate change is happening but there is no hope. There are no solutions.'”

 


YouTube is making up to $13.4 million a year from ads on the channels that the report analyzed, CCDH said. The group said the AI model was crafted to be able to distinguish between reasonable skepticism and false information.

 


In a statement, YouTube did not comment directly on the report but defended its policies.

 


“Debate or discussions of climate change topics, including around public policy or research, is allowed,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “However, when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we stop showing ads on those videos.” CCDH called on YouTube to update its policy on climate denial content and said the analysis could assist the environmental movement to combat false claims about global warming more broadly.

First Published: Jan 16 2024 | 5:14 PM IST



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