FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2023--

TikTok's latest slang 'DNI' can be used in various ways, here's what it means and ways to use the term

Apple is about to hold its biggest event of the year: the iPhone launch. This year, however, it will bring a whole host of new products, including Watches and AirPods too. And those products could be notable as much for their ports as much as any new features they will bring, as Apple is widely expected to finally make a long-rumoured change away from the classic Lightning connector. Here is everything Apple is expected to show at the event on 12 September, which it has called “Wonderlust”. iPhone 15 – four of them It is a long time since just one iPhone was introduced during the iPhone event, and these days Apple seems to have settled on a fairly reliable line-up of four. This year that means there should be an iPhone 15, an iPhone 15 Plus, an iPhone 15 Pro and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The two larger phones generally are the same as their smaller counterparts, beyond the obvious difference in size, and those sizes should be the same 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches as the iPhone 14 line-up. This year however there will be a small distinction between the Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will have much more modest upgrades, which mostly bring it in line with the existing iPhone 14 Pro. It will get the Dynamic Island and a faster chip, rumours suggest. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will get the more meaningful upgrades. They will include a new chip in the form of the A17, an action button instead of a mute switch, and camera improvements. The camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max will get its own addition: a periscope camera. That technology has already come to some competitors and means that a long lens can be folded into a small space, allowing for extra zoom capabilities, though it will not fold so small that it will fit in the smaller-sized phone. And all of those iPhones will switch to USB-C rather than the Lightning port that has been on the phone for more than a decade. It remains to be seen whether that will add new capabilities straight away, and last time Apple switched connector it caused quite a stir given the requirement to buy new cables and peripherals. Apple Watch Series 9 The Apple Watch Series 9 is also expected to be a fairly small upgrade. It will get a new processor that will make it faster, but on the outside it will stay the same, in the same design. That upgrade could be the first substantial upgrade to the inside of the iPhone in years. As well as making the Watch run faster, it could also improve its battery life. Apple Watch Ultra The Apple Watch Ultra – first introduced last year – is also set to get its own upgrade. Those too are likely to be limited. It will get all the upgrades from the normal version of the Apple Watch, such as its improved processor. Rumours also suggest that it could be lighter and come in a new, darker colour. AirPods In recent days, rumours have suggested that Apple could be launching new AirPods Pro too. It’s unclear whether that’s just a change of ports to match the iPhone’s, or something more significant. It also remains to be seen whether Apple will offer that case on its own, or require people to buy a whole new set of AirPods to get it. The AirPods Pro case does have wireless charging, so even those stuck with the old version can theoretically power up their iPhone and earphones with the same charger. Other accessories The switch away from the Lightning port doesn’t only affect the iPhone and the AirPods. There are plenty of other devices that still use that port: the AirPods Max, Apple’s Mac peripherals like its keyboards and trackpads, and one of the iPads. Apple could use the event to announce that all of those will be making the switch too. Or it might wait until more relevant events: iPad launches for the tablet, for instance, and Mac launches for the keyboard and other accessories. Headset The headset was revealed in June at Apple’s last big event, its Worldwide Developers Conference. Since then Apple has been largely quiet about it – and the developers that have been using it since have been sworn to secrecy. The headset isn’t due until early next year. But Apple will almost certainly use the event to remind people that it’s coming, and perhaps give some updates. (A potential surprise for the iPhone would be if it can capture the three-dimensional images and videos that can be viewed in the headset, and were a key part of Apple’s demonstration of it. It certainly makes sense that it would be coming to some iPhone in the future.) Surprises? Apple is well-known for introducing surprises at the end of its events. But in fact, they are actually quite rare – especially these days, and especially at iPhone events where Apple wants to ensure the focus is on its biggest products. So there is of course some chance of a big surprise. But it seems unlikely, given how action packed the event already seems to be. Read More Apple announces major event to reveal new phone Apple says its new product is making people ‘audibly gasp’ The powerful technology hidden in every iPhone – and all around you iPhone 15 could bring two major changes to fix battery life iPhone owners to receive payouts from Apple iPhone 15: Global smartphone demand collapses as Apple aims to take top spot

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 12, 2023--

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When the Apple Watch first launched back in 2015, there were 10 Watch faces. Now, there are more than 50. The newest among these is the Snoopy Watch face, designed in conjunction with the Charles Schulz Studio. The Independent sat down to talk to Gary Butcher, human interface designer at Apple, Eric Charles from Apple Watch product marketing and Paige Braddock, chief creative officer at Charles M Schulz Creative Associates to discover everything about the new Watch face. This is not the first time Snoopy has been on watches and he’s even appeared on high-end models like the Omega Speedmaster. As Eric Charles explains, “There’s a deep horological legacy of Snoopy appearing on watch faces from his early as the 1950s, and on Apple Watch, we’ve been able to bring Snoopy to life in whole new ways.” There 148 different animations for the Watch, which would run for 12 minutes if you played them one after the other; it’s tempting to try. They were all developed from an intense brainstorming session. Braddock, who was hired back in 1999 by Charles Schulz himself to work as an illustrator at the studio, reveals the creative dynamic: “Both Apple and peanuts have strong identities and a strong desire to connect in an authentic way with fans. “At the Schulz studio, we wanted to be authentic to Snoopy’s DNA and simultaneously explore the Apple Watch technology. Everyone knows that Peanuts is a comic strip that exists in a different decade: there are no smart phones or iPads in the comic strip. “But with mutual respect, it is possible to coexist as a modern tech company and a comic strip with a rich historic legacy. I always feel like a true collaboration is not one thing eclipsing the other, it’s finding a balance and working with contributors’ strengths.” As Braddock points out, there’s something about Snoopy for the Watch that’s a great fit. “If you look at a comic strip like this, it’s basically a four-panel storyboard. Even the aspect ratio from the comic to the watch face is almost the same. We sourced numerous animated sequences directly from Schulz’s original comic strips.” Snoopy’s look has evolved over the decades, from the fifties when he walked on all fours, to the sixties when he discovered he could do it on two legs. The shape of his canine head also changed. The collaborators had to decide whether the animation should be two-dimensional like the comic strip or 3D like the Snoopy Show. This led to a style that looks anything but electronic. Braddock again: “Ultimately, we chose to keep the watch animations as close as possible to the original Schulz drawings. Charles Schulz had a very specific and rare pin nib that he used. It was a nib that you had to dip in the ink bottle each time to fill it with ink and it meant he could create a varied line from thin to thick. “This sort of active drawing gives the character life. It’s obvious when you see these drawings that they’re handmade and not digital, and this is the feel that we wanted to preserve in the Watch animations.” But then Apple’s engineering kicks in. When you look at Snoopy on the Watch face, there’s a level of subtlety that you only notice after a while. Sometimes his activity is based on the weather, sometimes on what you’re doing. For instance, when you go swimming, so does Snoopy. Sometimes he even interacts with the Watch face itself, specifically with the minute hand. Gary Butcher expands on this: “One of the things we were especially excited to do is to have Snoopy and Woodstock interact with the minute hand of the watch. He can lean on it, He can throw things that bounce off of it. He can kick it when he wants to be fed. And he can jump up on it to wave to Woodstock on the other side.” This is one of the things that might mean you find yourself checking the time more than you actually need to. One time, he’ll peep out from behind the minute hand, his body magically hidden. Next, he’ll be skating and bounce off the minute hand because it’s in just the wrong place. Another time, a flying Woodstock will drop a bone for a recumbent Snoopy, which will bounce off the minute hand into his mouth. Then… look, you’re going to have to discover these things for yourself. On your birthday, Snoopy will celebrate. He’ll decorate his dog house for Christmas, or dress up for Halloween. In the creative process, they realised that with a little ingenuity, they could make these animations appear at different times. “To maximise the chances you’ll see those animations,” Butcher says, “we figured out we could simply rotate certain animations. I say simply rotate but under the hood is a really sophisticated scene layout engine being driven by an equally sophisticated decision engine.” Sometimes the rotation only needs to affect certain frames of the animation. If Snoopy is standing on the minute hand, he’s affected only when he’s up top, and his free fall into leaves below is unchanged and he falls naturally downwards, otherwise he’d shoot off sideways. “Each animation is only five seconds long, but by looping the whole animation or even just a few frames at the end, We’re able to keep certain scenes alive for much longer,” Butcher says. There’s more detail yet. Look closely and you’ll see the backgrounds are made up of dots – just the way it used to look in newsprint. Monday to Saturday has a half-tone dot background, but then bursts into colour for Sundays, again, just like it appeared in newspapers. This is called the Sunday Surprise. Eric Charles comments, “What I love about the way we’ve designed this watch face is that you may never see all of them. Because I live in California, I may not see the winter animations. I may never see the icy ones. I hopefully will never see the stormy ones either.” The team wanted to surprise and delight. Charles goes on to explain that they sought to find more and more content, all day long: “Those two words, surprise and delight, were basically the mantra of how we looked at this project. A certain animation can show up at 10.09 but when you raise your wrist again and it is still 10.09, what else can we serve you? What else can we present to you?” The mission to present Snoopy to the world was key to the endeavour, it seems. Paige Braddock says, “I don’t want the generation that uses modern devices to miss out on this really fantastic character. And I think Apple Watch is a bridge for some of those fans to discover – or rediscover – Snoopy.” Read More The Apple Watch has a major issue but Apple is working on a fix Don’t believe your eyes: how tech is changing photography forever Police to trial use of drones as first responders to emergencies Don’t believe your eyes: how tech is changing photography forever Police to trial use of drones as first responders to emergencies SpaceX launches world’s most powerful rocket – and then it disappears

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NEW YORK & TEL AVIV--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 6, 2023--

Scientists have come up with a potential solution to deal with dust on the moon which makes conducting research tricky. Dust erodes space suits, clogs machinery, interferes with scientific instruments and makes moving around on the surface difficult. But they reckon moon dust could be melted using a giant lens developed by the European Space Agency to create solid roads and landing areas. Using a fine-grained material called EAC-1A, developed as a substitute for lunar soil, scientists used a 50mm diameter laser beam to heat the dust to about 1,600C and melt it. Then they traced out bendy triangle shapes, which could be interlocked to create solid surfaces across large areas of lunar soil to be used as road. However it would take about 100 days to create a 10 x 10m landing spot so it is not a quick fix. To make matters worse, the lens needed for the laser to work would be difficult to transport from Earth and could also get dust in it which may reduce its functionality. “You might think: ‘Streets on the moon, who needs that?’” said Prof Jens Günster, of the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing in Berlin and co-author of a report on the possible solution. “But in fact it’s a kind of depressing demand [even] early on. It’s very loose material, there’s no atmosphere, gravity is weak, so the dust gets everywhere. It contaminates not only your equipment but other nations’. No one would be happy to be covered in dust from another rocket." Dust has blighted previous missions, such as the Surveyor 3 spacecraft (damaged by dust kicked up by the Apollo 12 landing), and overcoming this challenge is a priority for Nasa, which aims to establish a permanent lunar outpost. Transporting building materials to the moon would be too expensive, so there is a need for unconventional solutions. “You need to use what’s there and that’s simply loose dust,” said Günster. The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.