Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla has revealed its new car. This time it is,  Blade Runner inspired, electric pickup truck called Cybertruck. There will be 3 versions available:

• Single motor rear-wheel drive with 250 miles of range, 7500-pound towing capacity, and 0-60 mph in under 6.5 seconds. Starting at $39900.
• Dual motor all-wheel drive with 300 miles of range, 10,000-pound towing capacity, and 0-60 mph in under 4.5 seconds. Starting at $49900.
• Triple motor all-wheel drive with 500 miles of range, 14,000-pound towing capacity, and 0-60 mph in under 2.9 seconds. Starting at $69900.

All models are made of ultra-strong glass and polymer-layered composite that can withstand even bullets.  Also, all versions come with Autopilot, but "self-driving" costs additional $7000.

Cybertruck is available to preorder, but first models won't be delivered until late 2021.

Interesting links

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• Microsoft Flight Simulator - Official Gameplay Trailer

Image credits: Tesla

MacBook Pro 16' imminent release?

According to DigiTimes new 16-inch MacBook Pro could be released by the end of October. At the moment, there is no information about any Apple's event, so people are speculating whether Apple is going to just release new laptop model together with Mac Pro.

It looks like the rumors about imminent release might be true. In the latest beta of the macOS 10.15.1, people found images of the 16-inch MacBook. New model looks to be slightly bigger than 15-inch predecessor, and has noticeably smaller screen bezel.

Interesting links

• Create the Perfect UserDefaults Wrapper Using Property Wrapper
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• Using Web Bluetooth to communicate with Bluetooth devices
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• Asynchronous Communication: The Real Reason Remote Workers Are More Productive
• Why The 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Illusion Battle Took Nine Months To Make
• Bruno Simon's Portfolio

Image credits: MacGeneration

Microsoft's Surface event

Here’s a quick recap of everything Microsoft announced this week.

Surface Laptop 3

Refreshed Surface Laptop lineup got USB-C and, for the first time, an AMD Ryzen 7 processor. Additionally, the device now comes not only with 13.5-inch screen, but with 15-inch version as well.

The Surface Laptop 3 starts at $999 for the 13.5-inch version and $1,199 for the bigger one.

Surface Pro 7

Beside newer processor and support for USB-C there is nothing new. Although, Microsoft has slashed the price by $150, and new model starts at $749.

Surface Pro X

This is a brand new model in Surface Pro lineup. It is slightly bigger with 13-inch screen, but it is 3mm thiner than Surface Pro 7. It has ARM-based Microsoft SQ1 chip and swappable SSD storage.

The Surface Pro X starts at $999.

Surface Neo

Surface Neo is dual-screen PC, powered by Intel's Lakefield processor. Each screen is about 9-inches and both add up to a 13.1-inch total display size. New device comes with a USB-C port and supports the Surface Pen,

The most interesting part is a keyboard that folds over one of the screens. When you dock the hardware keyboard, Neo recognises that, and the part that is not covered by keyboard becomes a smart input area. Microsoft is calling it the Wonderbar.

All of that is possible because Surface Neo is running a special version of Windows called Windows 10X.

Surface Neo will be available in 2020.

Surface Duo

Surface Duo is dual-screen phone that runs Android. Each screen is 5.6-inches and both add up to a 8-inch total display size. All of that is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip.

Surface Duo will be available holiday 2020

Surface Earbuds

Microsoft announced a new pair of wireless Surface Earbuds that supports voice commands. They work with all the major virtual assistants:  Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana and Bixby. They can also translate speech in real time into around 60 languages.

The Surface Earbuds will be available later this year for $249.

Interesting links

• What’s New In ARKit 3?
• Error Handling in Swift Combine Framework
• Swift Memory Management and Performance
• Swift 5 replaces IntroSort with TimSort in the 'sort()' method
• Building a Scrapbook Layout with CSS Grid
• An HTML Element Potentially Worth $18M to Indiegogo Campaigns
• Amazon's Beautifully Designed And Failed Three vs. Two Column Layout Experiment
• Building Your Color Palette
• Multi-Agent Hide and Seek
  

Image credits: Microsoft

Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha

Xiaomi is not afraid experimenting. Xiaomi Mi Mix series is a perfect example. This time Chinese manufacturer presented new phone from this line - Mi Mix Alpha. This phone is almost entirely made of screen. Display wraps entirely around the device to the point where it meets the camera on the back. Here is the full specification:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+,
• 12GB of RAM,
• 512GB of storage
• 108-megapixel camera,
• support for 5G
• 4050 mAh battery

This phone will be available for about $2800.

This phone is really cool concept. Everyone is so focused on foldable phones, that Xiaomi surprised us with something simpler yet still interesting, and maybe even functional.

OnePlus 7T

OnePlus has presented the budget phone for people who are tired of flagship and expensive devices. Here is the specification

• 6,55-innch Fluid AMOLED display (2400×1080px)
• 90Hz screen's refresh rate,
• Fingerprint reader built into the screen
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+,
• 8 GB of RAM
• 128 or 256GB of storage
• 48-megapixel tripple camera
• 3800 mAh battery
• OxygenOS based on Android 10

OnePlus 7T will be available from $599.

Google Play Pass

One week after premiere of Apple Arcade, Google announced their own game service. Google Play Pass will cost $4.99 per month and will give access to 350 games and apps. All games/apps will be free and without any in-app purchases. For now service is available only in US, but Google says that it is planning to extend service to other countries.  

This is interesting move from Google. If the games/apps in the bundle are good then it is win-win scenario for Android users. The only question I have is, how developers are getting paid? So far, Google didn't share any details on that topic.

iOS 13.1 & iPadOS 13.1

This week Apple released iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1. The later is the first official release of the dedicated operating system for tablets. iOS 13.1 has been released in less than a week after the premiere of the new iOS, and is the fastest released major update so far.

iPhone 12 design

According to newest rumors,  next year iPhone will get major redesign. New frame will be  similar to one from iPhone 4. Also, new iPhone will not have notch. All Face Id sensors will be hidden in the upper bezel.

Disney news

There was plenty of news related with Disney. Here is tl;dr:

• Marvel's Kevin Feige to develop Star Wars movie
• Spider-Man returns back to MCU
• Deborah Chow will direct Obi-Wan Kenobi series

Interesting links

• Announcing .NET Core 3.0
• Web Design in 4 minutes
• Stop Infinite Scrolling on Your Website - Now!
• How to learn D3.js
• NES Emulator Part #4: PPU - Background Rendering
• How Sid Meier Almost Made Civilization a Real-Time Strategy Game
• How one NASA image tells dozens of stories
• Top 15 Biggest Companies by Market Capitalization 1993 - 2019

Image credits: Xiaomi

This year, I celebrate May the 4th by recreating the Binary Sunset scene, from Episode IV, using html, css and svg. You can check it out at Tatooine.live.

So far site works properly only on Chrome. On other browsers there are some performance issues and glitches. For those who uses browsers other than Chrome I prepared YouTube clip.

Enjoy and happy Star Wars day!