At long last, we have a date with the new Apple iPhone 8. The Wall Street Journal says Tim Cook and company have scheduled September 12 as the day they’re going to take the wraps off the long-awaited handset, among other things, which may include a new 4K Apple TV streaming box, and possibly a third-generation Apple Watch that may work as a stand-alone device for phone calls and other duties.
The timing is pretty typical for Apple, as they usually set a mid-September date to show off their new toys, while giving them a cushion of three months to get the stuff into stores both retail and online before the holidays. Rumors about production delays for the iPhone 8 have dogged the company all summer, so we’ll know what the real timeline is soon enough. Meanwhile, the iPhone 8 rumor roundup marches on.
Will it have wireless charging? Augmented reality? An bezel-less OLED screen? Levitation? Magical superpowers? Anything is possible it seems. We’ll have all the answers in just a couple of weeks. Better bring your wallet.
While the trend for fitness wearables has been weak to getting weaker, fitbit is moving ahead with a new device called the Ionic, and it’s really more of a smartwatch than fitness tracker.
Of course, the $300 Ionic is primarily for tracking your workouts (or the lack thereof), and includes enhanced functionality including a better heart rate monitor, GPS, and a new blood oxygen sensor for really drilling down on your Vo2MAX – or your sleep apnea. It will also pair with new fitbit Flyer Bluetooth headphones and you can stuff about 300 songs into its 2.5gb memory. Plus, there’s now a watch-based coaching service athletes can subscribe to.
Additionally, fitbit is rolling out FitBit Pay with a slate of partners including Starbucks, because we all know that post-workout triple mocha with cream is a mandatory thing. There are numerous watch band options, an Adidas edition and much more, so hit the link for all the lowdown on the FitBit Ionic.
It’s almost like being there. Almost.
Looks like everyone’s going all-in on augmented and virtual reality, or “mixed reality.” While Oculus, HTC, Samsung and Sony duke it out in the virtual reality space, power players Apple, Microsoft and now Dell are also angling towards the AR and VR venues. Dell just announced their first AR/VR headset, the Dell Visor, ahead of the IFA show in Germany. The Visor features dual 1440 by 1440 pixel resolution video panels, putting it ahead of the Oculus and HTC headsets.
It also connects to a PC with just a single USC-C cable, simplifying things there. But no, it’s not wireless. Well, not yet. Front-facing cameras let it pull double duty as an AR headset, and it has a cool flip-up feature for re-entering actual reality in case you kind of forget where you’re at. Oculus-type hand controllers let you manipulate the virtual world. You’ll need a hot-rod PC to make the Visor work right, and no surprise, Dell has a few options there as well.
The Dell Visor goes on sale for $350 plus another $99 for the handsets, and they’ll start shipping on October 17.
We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.