More PlayStation 5 details

Wired published an article that shares more information about next-gen console. Here is the short summary:

• It has been officially confirmed that next console will be named PlayStation 5,
• It will be available for holidays 2020,
• CPU will be based on AMD’s Ryzen line and a GPU based on Navi family,
• It has been confirmed that ray-tracing support will be hardware based
• There will be no HDD only SSD,
• There will be 4K Blu-ray player,
• PS5 will use 100-GB optical disks,
• New data structure mechanism will allow gamers to install only single-player or multiplayer campaign instead of installing the whole game,
• There will be new system that will allow to check what players can do in games and quickly join in,
• New controller will be called DualShock 5,
• New controller will have "adaptive triggers" that offer varying levels of resistance, which can be adjusted to game we play,
• The force-feedback system is now based on haptic engines instead of rumble motors,
• Next-gen controller uses a USB Type-C connector for charging.

Apple's Sleep app confirmed in a leak

The App Store screenshots for the Alarms app for Apple Watch include text that mentions the rumored Sleep app. This is another confirmation that Apple is working on it. The Sleep app supposed to come with iOS 13, but was removed before iOS 13 beta was released.

If we take in consideration that battery life in Apple Watch Series 5 is worse than in previous model, it looks like that for the Sleep tracking we will have to wait till next year. If Apple won't be able to improve battery life software-wise, then we won't see it until new version of Apple Watch is released.

Interesting links

• Indie game makers open up about the money they actually make
• The Making of “The Aviator”: Animating a Basic 3D Scene with Three.js
• How to organize your Three.js code in a cleaner way
• Vue 3 – A roundup of infos about the new version of Vue.js
• Interview with a Pornhub Web Developer
• This Is What Happens When You Re-Upload a YouTube Video 1000 Times!
• What to do when you get Sherlocked by Apple

Image credits: LetsGoDigital

Apple started shipping iPhone 11 & Apple Watch Series 5

Reviewers started getting their hands on newest versions of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Watch.  Long story short, if you want an iPhone, then buy iPhone 11, the Pro version is for photo enthusiast, or people who prefer smaller, OLED screen.

The always-on display in Apple Watch Series 5 is a good step forward, but if you own Series 4 you are good for another year.

By the way, now we have confirmation that all new iPhones have at least 4GB of memory. There are reports that the Pro versions have additional 2GB of RAM dedicated to the camera.

iOS 13.(1)

Together with new iPhones, Apple released iOS 13. Federico Viticci wrote excellent review of new operating systems. Overall iOS 13 is a good step forward, but is has many bugs and issues, which might force Apple to release iOS 13.1 earlier than usual. If the rumors are true, iOS 13 will be the shortest living version of iOS ever.

Pixel 4 event

On October 15th, Google is going to host an event related with launch of Pixel 4. To be honest, I don't know why Google even bother to do this. It's not like we already know almost everything.

Interesting links

• Some thoughts on GraphQL vs. BFF
• CSS Naming Conventions that Will Save You Hours of Debugging
• Serve 'Dark Mode' Images Natively
• SwiftUI & Combine: Better Together
• Apple Music playlist lists with music used in its ads
• We Recreated Every Apple Wallpaper
• Donkey Kong Arcade on 12 different platforms - Part 1 & Part 2
• 35 Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2019
  

Image credits: Timothy Eberly

This week Apple had their annual iPhone event. This is what have been announced.

iPhone 11

The successor of the iPhone XR looks following:

• 6.1‑inch  Liquid Retina HD display (1792x828px),
• Screen with Haptic Touch (no 3D Touch),
• A13 Bionic CPU/GPU,
• 4GB of RAM,
• 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of storage,
• Dual 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide rear cameras,
• 12MP TrueDepth front camera recording at 120fps (slowfie),
• Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos,
• Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Gigabit-Class LTE,
• 1h longer battery life than in iPhone XR.

iPhone 11 comes in Black, Green, Yellow, Purple, Red, White colors from $699 for the base model.

iPhone 11 Pro & Pro Max

The successors of the iPhone XS look following:

• 5.8‑inch  Super Retina XDR (OLED) display (2436x1125px) in Pro model,
• 6.5‑inch  Super Retina XDR (OLED) display (2436x1125px) in Pro Max model,
• Screen with Haptic Touch (no 3D Touch),
• A13 Bionic CPU/GPU,
• 4 or 6GB of RAM*,
• 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of storage,
• Triple 12MP Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto rear cameras,
• 12MP TrueDepth front camera recording at 120fps (slowfie),
• Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos,
• Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Gigabit-Class LTE,
• Pro has 4h longer battery life than in iPhone XS and Pro Max  5h longer than XS Max.

iPhone 11 Pro models come in Midnight Green, Space Grey, Silver and Gold. iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 and the Pro Max starts at $1,099.

(*) We don't have official specification from Apple. Available reports are contradicting each other. Quite possible that the amount of memory depends on amount of storage, like in iPad.

Apple Watch Series 5

Newest Apple Watch also got small upgrade:

• Always-On Retina display,
• new Apple 64-bit dual-core S5 chip,
• 32 GB of storage,
• Compass,
• Aluminum, stainless steel, titanium and ceramic material finishes,

Apple Watch Series 5 starts at $399 for 40mm model and $429 for 44mm version.

iPad

Apple has also announced the successor to the 9.7-inch iPad:

• 10.2-Inch Retina Display,
• A10 Fusion chip,
• Support for Apple Pencil 2 and Smart Keyboard,

New iPad starts at just $329.

Apple TV+

Apple shared more details about their upcoming streaming service:

• It's launching on November 1st,
• Monthly subscription will  cost $4.99,
• Apple also offers 1 year of free subscription with purchase of Mac, iPad, iPhone or Apple TV.

Interesting links

• How Apple’s Apps Topped Rivals in the App Store It Controls
• Unit tests best practices in Xcode and Swift
• Accessibility in SwiftUI
• NES Emulator Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• How scrolling textures gave Super Mario Galaxy 2 its charm
• noclip - A digital museum of video game levels
• How Avengers: Endgame's Visual Effects Were Made | WIRED

Image credits: Apple

Sleep tracking in Apple Watch

New rumors surfaced about sleep tracking in Apple Watch. According to anonymous sources, Apple Watch will allow to track sleep quality without any additional hardware, which means this might be only a software update which would track :

• user's movement,
• heart rate,
• noises

Tracked data should be accessible via Health app.

Smart Watch bands

Patently Apple noticed that Apple has been granted new patents for watch bands and bracelets. In the future Apple could create following Watch accessories:

• band with biometric authentication sensor,
• band with visual indicators,
• self-tightening band.

Apple already has couple of patents for watch bands and we still haven't seen any smart one, so Apple is probably just trying to be ahead of competition in terms of patents, rather than trying to start production of a new product.

Apple Music on the Web

Apple launched a brand new Apple Music web player, which is currently in a beta state. Service itself looks and behaves like the Music app from macOS Catalina, so even the Windows or Linux users will be able to use Apple Music on their computers. For me, lack of lightweight client for Apple Music on Windows and Linux was the biggest blocker keeping me from switching from Spotify. I will wait a little bit to see how it will turn out. Then I will evaluate what both streaming services have to offer and maybe I will do the switch.

USB 4 standard finalized

The USB Implementers Forum has announced thatUSB 4 standard is finalized and ready for wide deployment. Here is  tl;dr version:

• up to 40Gbps data throughput,
• up to 100W power delivery,
• backwards compatibility with earlier USB standards, including USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, as well as Thunderbolt 3,
• will use USB Type-C connector.

Hopefully this will convince manufacturers to produce more accessories with USB-C connector.

Multiplayer in Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red confirmed that multiplayer in Cyberpunk 2077 left the stage of R&D and is officially coming to the game. As the multiplayer is still under early development, it will come later to the game. Next April we will get single player campaign, then couple of (free) DLCs, and after that, there will be multiplayer beta.

I'm curious how company known for single player masterpieces will tackle the multiplayer mechanics.

Interesting links

• Modeling app state using Store objects in SwiftUI
• Why users will love new Sign in with Apple
• Introducing Cyborg, an Open Source iOS Implementation of Android VectorDrawable
• A complete guide to Oauth2 protocol
• Anthoine Hubert's Accident - a gentle look at the facts

Image credits: Apple

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker | D23 Special Look

On Monday Lucasfilm publicly released  Star Wars Episode 9 teaser trailer which has been shown to the audience at D23. In my opinion this is perfect teaser. It doesn't reveal anything related to the plot, but still keeps me hyped about the movie 😀Can't wait for mid-October when the full trailer will be revealed.

Apple improves Siri's privacy protection

Couple weeks ago, we could saw, on various services, that big companies like Apple, Google or Microsoft employed 3rd party contractors to listen to voice recordings send via Siri, Google Assistant and Cortana. This of course caused a discussion about the privacy of the voice assistant users. This week, Apple released a statement addressing that issue. The key points are following:

• Contractors will no longer listen to recordings,
• Reviewers will have access to less information about users,
• By default, written transcripts of Siri recordings will be send to Apple,
• Opting out from sending any data (including transcripts) requires disabling Siri,
• Users can opt in to also send the recordings to the Apple.

I think this is great improvement. Apple still need to have the user data to improve Siri and people can choose how they want to contribute. I'm also glad that the data will not be accessible outside the Apple, which should be the case from the very beginning.

Apple's September event

Apple started sending invites for the upcoming September event, which will take place on September 10th. What's interesting, invite itself contains colorful Apple logo, which might be hinting new color options for the iPhones.

iPhone 11 Specs Leaked

The alleged specifications for upcoming iPhone 11 lineup have leaked. This leak comes from unverified source, so I would take them with a grain of salt. Also, Banjamin Mayo from 9to5mac says it's not real.  That being said, if some of those information are somehow true, then they look interesting:

• 6GB of RAM in Pro models,
• Storage for Pro models starts from 128GB, which is significant upgrade from current 64GB,
• Much bigger battery. Basically the 11 and 11 Pro models are getting the battery with capacity from current iPhone XS Max,
• Pricing is the same as for current models 😞, but the spec is better, so at least that's an improvement.

There is also a rumor about about Apple Pencil support in iPhone Pro models, but I think, at the moment, this is only wishful thinking rather than something that could we see this year.

Well, we are going to see whether those leaks are true in couple of days.

Apple allows 3rd to repair iPhones

Apple allowed independent repair shops to fix out-of-warranty iPhones. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Apple regarding the blocking users from fixing their iPhones outside authorised services. There is event entire Right to Repair movement. Fortunately for us, Apple is slowly loosing their restrictions:

• Apple will provide genuine part replacements, tools, training and manuals.
• Independent repair shops will be allowed to repair only (for what we know at the moment) out-of-warranty iPhones,
• The shop must have an Apple certified technician that will perform the repairs.

This is great news, I hope this will be soon extended to other Apple products.

Interesting things

• Composable styling in SwiftUI
• Random SwiftUI tutorials
• Introducing URLSessionWebSocketTask - Native WebSocket implementation using Swift 5
• Github Actions CI for Swift Projects
• Cyberpunk 2077 – Deep Dive Video + Q&A panel with developers
• NetNewsWire 5.0 for  Mac
• Inside the insane deadmau5 CUBE V3!
  

Image credits: Lucasfilm