More Galaxy S8 Leaks; Netflix Will Have 20 Originals in 2017; Toys Pulled From Stores for Spying; Google Hits 100% Renewable Energy in 2017

SamMobile often has accurate tips about upcoming Samsung products, and according to the latest, they say the Galaxy S8 will lose both the headphone jack and physical home button. 9to5google.com reports it will have a USB-C port like the Note 7, and won’t jump to 4K screen resolution. There should be an optical fingerprint sensor in the display, too.

Netflix will debut 20 original unscripted shows in 2017. Arstechnica.com says they will be competition and reality shows. One will be ‘Ultimate Beastmaster,’ 10 episodes that will follow athletes over obstacle courses, with the winner in the finale being dubbed ‘The Ultimate Beast!’

Some high tech toys are being pulled from some store shelves, and a consumer council in Norway is demanding that the Federal Trade Commission and the European counterpart to it clear all of them from shelves. According to thenextweb.com, ‘My Friend Cayla’ and i-Que from Genesis Toys let kids communicate with the toys via a smartphone app. The company claims all communication is between the app and product, but apparently it really gets sent to the company’s Nuance server. Nuance underpins Siri for Apple and Dragon Naturally speaking. The data can apparently be used for marketing and shared with third parties. Not cool for toys that tout a ‘safe internet’ for kids.

Google has announced that it will power its entire worldwide operations with 100% renewable energy in 2017. According to techcrunch.com, they will be able to claim to be world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, and will be twice as large in that respect as Amazon. Some of the power comes from energy credits, but Google says it plans to further diversify into renewables…particularly to get away from as much reliance on wind power.

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Alphabet & Chipotle Test Drone; iPhone 8-No Home Button, etc; Samsung to Kill Phone Jack; iOS 10 Bricking Issue Supposedly Solved

It’s really all about the food, right? Alphabet and Chipotle are testing drone deliveries at Virginia Tech, according to 9to5google.com. So far, the Project Wing drones have only flown short distances, and they have pilots standing by…but it’s a peek into the future when you could have a burrito or pizza delivered to your door in 20 minutes or so by…drone. The drone won’t expect a tip, either!

There have already been plenty of rumors about the iPhone 8 next year being ‘all glass’. Zdnet.com says expect a full front screen with no home button..it’ll be haptic and under the screen. The screen may also wrap around the edges. As for Jony Ive’s all glass phone, don’t expect that…actually, according to bgr.com, it may be a Zirconia ceramic and polymer body. One of the new Apple Watch 2’s is ceramic. It’s stronger and more scratch resistant, dissipates heat better than aluminum, and no antenna bands….they can transmit right through it.

The hating goes on over no phone jack on the iPhone 7. Meanwhile, thenextweb.com says Samsung is considering following Apple’s lead and ditching it, too. On top of that, Sammy may roll out their own proprietary jack like Apple’s Lightening connector, so they can charge licensing fees to accessory makers. It looks like we can kiss universal standards like USB and phone jacks goodbye when it comes to phones.

Some users upgraded to iOS 10 yesterday, and bricked their phones. According to macrumors.com, the only cure was to plug into your computer and update through iTunes. That’s fine if you were near your computer or have a computer…some don’t. Apple put out a statement within hours, saying the bug is squashed, and it’s all clear…but you might want to wait another day in case. Messages has gotten a lot of add ins, and there’s a redesigned lock screen and much more, when you finally download it.


Apple Will Ditch iPhone Home Button in 2017; VW To Make a 2019 Electric Model that Will Charge in 15 Minutes

iPhone8 Mockup

All the rumors have said Apple plans a radical redesign to the 2017 iPhone. Earlier this year, there were stories about this year’s model losing the home button. That didn’t happen, but according to macrumors.com, the redesigned 2017 phone….which we’ll call iPhone 8…will finally lose the venerable home button, to make way for a flexible edge to edge, curved OLED screen.

Volkswagen is working on a 2019 electric car that will go 300 miles after a 15 minute charge. According to techcrunch.com, they will preview an electric Golf sized model at the Paris motor show this year. It is expected to roll out in late 2018 or early 2019 as a 2019 model. 300 miles on just a 15 minute charge could be a real game changer for electric cars if it’s priced for mass appeal.

Photo: macrumors.com


Tesla Not Alone in Looking to Solar Powered Cars; iPhone 7 May Have Had a Secret Outed

A Chinese solar panel maker is looking to make solar powered vehicles. Hanergy actually announced this last year, according to techcrunch.com, but this week rolled out 4 prototype vehicles in Beijing. They are running and driving prototypes…apparently not self-driving at this point. Right now, the range is about 50 miles, comparable with the Fiat 500e and VW e-Golf. If you also plug in and charge overnight, they say the cars have a 200 mile range.

There have been rumors of this for a couple months, but they’ve been sketchy. Now bgr.com says Macotakara is claiming the home button on the upcoming iPhone will be flush and not actually move. Vibration sensors under it will trigger it, and make it feel like a mechanical button. It will reportedly be pressure sensitive, too, allowing Apple to incorporate 3D Touch on both the screen and home button. Macotakara also claims that the new Space Black color will be in the lineup, although they say the Dark Blue won’t. If so, there will be 5 colors…Gold, Rose Gold, Space Grey, Silver, and Space Black.


Apple Exploring Eliminating Home Button on iPhones & iPads

They have several patents relating to this, but macrumors.com picked up a report from DigiTimes out of Taiwan indicating that Apple is working on an in-house single-chip solution to integrate touchscreen and display drivers onto one chip. It would also include fingerprint sensors, which would allow Apple to lose the home button, and build phones and tablets with edge to edge screens. They could either make smaller devices with the same sized screens as now, or make them bigger… and of course make them thinner than ever! Synaptics has a chip that has most of this functionality out now, but it looks like Apple is going to roll their own solution.

It’s not a whole new box, but Sony will roll out an upgraded PlayStation 4 next month with a 1 TB drive…double the storage of the previous edition. Theverge.com says the Ultimate Player Edition will also be 10% lighter and suck up 8% less power that the present model. They have not announced pricing yet, advising to check with retailers. Besides the PS 4 announcement, Sony also made changes to the app…available now on Android and iOS.