Tuesday, January 22, 2019

BETT 2019: HP Brings Rugged AMD Chromebooks To Education Market


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Apple CEO Tim Cook in Davos for World Economic Forum, Does Education-Related Interview

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, meeting with world leaders, mingling with other CEOs of major companies, attending dinners, and doing interviews.


According to reports on Twitter, Cook met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and attended a dinner with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and more.


Cook also sat down for an education-focused interview with German site Bild, and while the original interview appears to be unavailable, Apple Must shared some details on what was discussed.

Cook's interview came on the day that Apple announced the translation of its Everyone Can Create curriculum to German, French, Spanish, and Italian on Apple Books, expanding its availability to additional countries.

According to Cook, Apple believes that "creativity is something everybody is born with," and "education is a great equalizer."
"People are not born with the same resources but many are born with incredible opportunities to learn and to move up and do incredible things in live." [..]

"I was born in a very rural lower middle class environment. I loved it and it's great for me but the thing that enabled me to do other things and to be at Apple today is education."
Cook says Apple's education-focused content like Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create is "for the people." "If it has an indirect effect on our business, that's fine," he said. "But frankly, this is from the heart."

Apple, Cook said, has created 1.5 million jobs across Europe with its iOS app economy, with the number of available app-related jobs growing each year. Cook believes that Apple's apps offer an "outstanding" educational opportunity, offering tools that can help kids learn faster when paired with great teachers.

Additional details about Cook's trip to Switzerland may come out over the course of the rest of the week, but thus far, it's not clear what else the CEO has done while in the country. The World Economic Forum lasts through Friday, January 25.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.


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Australia's Commonwealth Bank Now Supports Apple Pay

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Commonwealth Bank (CBA) today implemented support for Apple Pay, making it the second of Australia's "Big Four" banks to offer the payments service. CBA is the biggest retail bank in Australia and was a notable Apple Pay holdout.

Multiple MacRumors readers in Australia have reported being able to add their Commonwealth Bank cards to Apple Pay, and Commonwealth Bank is listed as a partner on Apple's Apple Pay site in Australia.


Commonwealth Bank first announced plans to support Apple Pay last month, giving in to consumer demand after a years-long dispute with Apple over fees and access to the NFC chips in iPhones.

When announcing Apple Pay support, Commonwealth Bank Group Executive of Retail Banking services Angus Sullivan said that the bank had heard many requests from customers asking for Apple Pay, leading to its implementation.
"We are committed to making changes that benefit our customers and simplify our business. We will continue to look for more opportunities to innovate and listen, to ensure our customers get the best experience when they bank with us. Responding to customer demand for Apple Pay underscores our commitment to becoming a better, simpler bank.
Commonwealth Bank, along with NAB and Westpac, tried to collectively bargain with Apple to attempt to force Apple to open up the iPhone's NFC capabilities to support other digital wallets, like those offered by the banks themselves.

Apple said that this would be harmful to consumers and would stifle innovation, a position that Australian regulators agreed with when denying the banks authorization for collective bargaining.


ANZ was the only one of the four major banks in Australia to support Apple Pay when it launched in the country in April 2016. Other smaller banks later implemented support, but Commonwealth, NAB, and Westpac continued to hold out amid negotiations.

It's not clear if NAB and Westpac will implement support now that Commonwealth Bank has done so.

Bankwest in Australia is also now supporting Apple Pay, along with ASB Bank Limited in New Zealand and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Canada. Multiple smaller banks in the U.S. have implemented Apple Pay support as well, with a full list available on Apple's website.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

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Apple Extends iPod Touch Trademark to Include Gaming Devices

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month approved for publication a trademark application from Apple for the term "iPod touch" that would extend protection to cover "Hand-held units for playing electronic games; Handheld game consoles" under International Class 28 (games, toys, and sporting goods).

Apple has held a trademark for the iPod touch name since 2008 under International Class 9 (audiovisual and information technology equipment) with the following description:
Portable and handheld digital electronic devices for recording, organizing, transmitting, manipulating, and reviewing text, data, audio and video files; computer software for use in organizing, transmitting, manipulating, and reviewing text, data, audio and video files on portable and handheld digital electronic devices.


As part of its justification for the new trademark application under gaming consoles, Apple submitted a screenshot of its iPod touch overview page scrolled to the "Gaming" section, with red arrows calling out the product name and the "Buy" button.

The iPod touch has of course been a handheld gaming console since its launch over a decade ago, so it's unclear why Apple has waited until now to extend its trademark coverage to include the area. It could be a purely defensive move to protect against competitors or other challenges, but given rumors last week of Apple working on a seventh-generation iPod touch some three and half years after the last update, there's naturally some speculation that there could be more to this.

We haven't heard any specific rumors about what to expect in a seventh-generation iPod touch, but we expect Apple to keep spec upgrades fairly minimal in order to maintain a low price point to appeal to customers who can't or don't want to step up to an iPhone.

Apple's new application will be published for opposition on February 19, and unless viable third-party opposition to Apple's claim appears, the company will be granted the trademark later this year.

Related Roundup: iPod touch
Buyer's Guide: iPod Touch (Caution)

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Netflix Debuts New Integration for Sharing Movies and TV Shows in Instagram Stories

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Netflix today launched a new Instagram integration that's designed to allow Instagram users to share their favorite movies and TV shows in Stories, reports Variety.

The feature can be used by selecting a title of choice within the Netflix app for iOS devices, tapping on the "Share" icon, and then selecting "Instagram Stories" as an option.

"We're always on the lookout for ways to make it easier for members to share the Netflix titles they're obsessing about and help them discover something new to watch," said a Netflix spokesperson. "We hope our members enjoy this new feature!"
From there, Netflix opens up Instagram with a screen featuring the show's name and artwork, with an option to share it to Stories or send it to close friends.

Instagram has been allowing third-party apps to integrate with Stories since May 2018, and other integrations include Spotify and SoundCloud.


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Huawei Launches New 'Honor View 20' Smartphone With 'Hole-Punch' Camera Cutout

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Honor, a smartphone brand owned by Huawei, today unveiled its newest device, the Honor View 20. The device launched at an event in Paris, and several tech publications were able to go hands-on with it.

A mid-range device, the Honor View 20 is the first Honor-branded smartphone that features a hole-punch notch in the display, maximizing view area with a single cutout just for the camera. This isn't the first device under the Huawei umbrella to have a hole-punch cutout - the Nova 4 also has a similar design.


The Honor View 20 is a 6.4-inch LCD display with rounded corners, the aforementioned camera cutout (which houses a 25-megapixel camera), a small bezel at the bottom of the device, and a speaker grille at the top of the casing. There's a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, a 48-megapixel rear camera paired with a second camera sensor for detecting objects in 3D, a 4,000mAh battery, and a Kirin 980 system-on-a-chip.


TechCrunch's Romain Dillet said the hole-punch cutout "definitely feels different" from an iPhone notch, but it looks weird located on the left side of the device. Still, it "looks great" when viewing photos and videos, and after just a few minutes, "you barely notice it."

"I hope more companies are going to follow this trend," writes Dillet.


CNET's Jessica Dolcourt was also able to give the new smartphone a try, calling it "visually mesmerizing." The display, according to Dolcourt, "feels as close to an edge-to-edge screen as we're likely to get right now."
You might have opinions about the hole-punch camera, just as you might have strong feelings about the notch. But it never got in my way. It either fits into an unoccupied corner of whichever app you open, or falls into the navigation bar of that app. It all depends on how the app maker laid everything out in the first place.
The Honor View 20 launches in Europe and Asia and is priced starting at 569 euros or 499 pounds for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Huawei's devices are banned in the U.S. and so the new smartphone will be difficult to obtain in countries like the United States, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.


While hole-punch camera cutouts are a growing trend, with even Samsung set to use the technology, it's not clear if it's something Apple is aiming for. Most front-facing camera setups are not as complicated as the TrueDepth camera system, which, in addition to a standard camera, incorporates a dot projector and infrared camera for facial scans.


Rumors have suggested Apple will cut down on the size of the notch in 2019, and Apple's ultimate goal is said to be an uninterrupted edge-to-edge display with no compromises like a notch, but it's not known if and when the company will reach that goal.

Tag: Huawei

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Twitter Starts Rolling Out Simplified Web View, Preps Updated Dark Mode

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Twitter today announced that it has started rolling out a new, simplified interface on the web, which is available to some users starting today.

The updated interface features a two-column design instead of the current three-column layout, and there are a number of new features aimed at making it easier to use Twitter on the web.


Twitter is gaining an emoji button, quick keyboard shortcuts, an upgraded trends feature, an advanced search interface, and more.

According to Twitter, some users are seeing an opt-in option to give the new interface a try as of today, while others will need to wait to see the new design. Those who do not prefer the updated look can opt out.


Twitter is also working on an updated Dark Mode feature, according to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In a reply to a Twitter user complaining about the current Dark Mode interface, which is more of a dark blue than black, Dorsey said Twitter is planning to fix it with true black color in the future.


There's no word on when Twitter plans to introduce the updated dark mode, but those unhappy with the current version will be glad to know an update is coming.

Tag: Twitter

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