Author Archives: JC Torres

For years, Apple's mobile and desktop worlds have been distinct and separate islands of their own. Lately, however, the company has been working to bridge the two together, like running iOS apps on Macs with Catalyst. It turns out that Apple's newly revealed ARM-based Silicon processor maybe smashing those two worlds together in more ways than one. A new leak has surfaced pointing to the almost dreamy possibility of an iPhone running on an Apple Silicon running macOS, possibly when connected to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

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The Raspberry Pi opened up a whole new world of DIY projects but it has ironically been more difficult to actually produce a "normal" RPi-powered computer that doesn't look like a Frankensteined contraption. There are, of course, some kits that let you easily assemble a Raspberry Pi desktop, laptop, or even tablet, but those look more like things you'd rather leave at home than be caught dead using it outside. It's for that exact use case that CutiePi was born and now the ready-to-use RPi Tablet has launched on Kickstarter to bring all that to everyone willing to take the risk.

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The deadline for affected apps to implement Apple's new single sign-on or SSO experience has now passed. Announced mid-2019, the system was praised for its privacy-focused implementation compared to what the likes of Facebook and Google have been offering on apps and services for years. While few will contest Apple's intentions and the security of its system, there are some who are still on the fence about it. In fact, one app will be throwing out all third-party logins because of the problems that Apple won't tell you about Sign in with Apple.

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When Apple launched its Arcade service last year, it was poised to revolutionize mobile gaming if not digital gaming in general. It was praised for not trying to milk gamers with IAPs and ads and its subscription-based model promised to give developers and publishers a steadier source of revenue. It might have been too early to celebrate, however, as news of some significant changes underfoot seem to suggest that Apple Arcade isn't yet the profitable gaming service Apple envisioned it to be.

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One of Android's selling features is its openness. Some of it is by design, like the ability to use different app launchers or default apps. Others, however, are products of some rather involved hacking and development, specifically rooting and custom ROMs. Unfortunately, it seems that the latter set of superpowers might soon be coming to an end as Google ramps up its efforts to secure the Android platform, a move that could also make that same platform less attractive to a particular class of users.

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Although things look less grim compared to the start of the year, there is still some uncertainty on whether it would be wise or even safe to hold massive events and trade shows. The organizers of IFA, one of the world's largest tech expos every year, think it's OK to do so in September. It seems that Samsung doesn't exactly agree and has reportedly decided not to participate this year, paving the way for other companies to do the same.

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Almost everyone who has a smartphone these days has played a mobile game, even those that probably don't remember (or admit) whiling time away in Candy Crush or Disney Emoji Blitz. Most of the time, however, mobile gaming is targeted at a certain consumer class ready to splurge on expensive smartphones with beefed-up hardware, leaving those with entry-level budget phones out in the cold. MediaTek is now promising that it has their back with the launch of the new Helio G35 and Helio G25 made exactly for this tier.

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The smartphone market is notorious for a high "turnover" rate, where smartphones are quickly made obsolete by newer models or by the lack of software updates just after two years. In contrast, camera makers are trying to sell the image of a company that cares for your four-digit investment, pushing updates that bring new capabilities on models older than your smartphone. That's the message that Fujifilm is trying to convey with what it bills as the biggest firmware upgrade in the history of its three GFX cameras, the oldest of which is now more than three years old.

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Apple's decision to ditch Intel in the long run for its own ARM-based silicon was naturally received with mixed reactions and opinions. While the benefits on power efficiency are almost unquestioned, there have naturally been concerns over performance, especially when trying to support Mac software not yet built for the new chips. There will naturally be a need for some sort of CPU emulation, a piece of software formally known as Rosetta. Emulation incurs some performance penalty but if "accidental" benchmarks are any indication, Mac users might have very little to worry about.

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Facebook is probably one of the last Big Tech companies you'd associate with virtual and augmented reality technologies but it has actually invested a lot of its resources into VR and AR, not even counting its acquisition of VR pioneer Oculus. Of course, Facebook's ideals for VR are more on the casual and social side and its Facebook Reality Labs is working on making that technology be less obnoxious and less uncomfortable, as if you were simply wearing rather large sunglasses.

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The excitement over the prospect of upgrading your home into a smart home can easily be doused by the thought of having to install those IoT devices yourself. Sure, you can get away with some smart bulbs and smart plugs but the real magic happens when you add smart thermostats, smart security cameras, and smart locks to your house. If electrical jobs are not your forte, Google is now offering the help of third-party pro services to do that for you. Presuming, of course, you're going all-in on the Nest platform.

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Although Google loves to talk about how it uses the latest AI and machine learning technologies to power its anti-malware systems, Android's security and its sibling privacy are almost points of ridicule for the mobile platform. Of course, that gives Google even more reasons to double down on improving Android's security and privacy features. Such is the case with Android 11 and Google developers are now sharing the changes that will affect how users interact with apps and permissions.

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