One connector to rule them all

EU lawmakers voted overwhelmingly (540-40) in favor for rules that would establish a common charger standard for mobile devices. It has not been decided which connector is the chosen one, but proposed charging ports include Micro-USB, USB-C and the Lightning connector. Looking at the already wide adoption of the USB-C, it's rather safe to say that it will be chosen. Fortunately, we won't have to wait long for the decision, the European Commission should adopt new rules by July.

Apple wants to make SMS one-time codes safer

Apple's WebKit team published a proposal to change the format of SMS one-time passcodes. The idea is to make the two-factor authentication process more secure. The proposal describes two ideas to achieve that:

1. SMS one-time passcodes would be associated with a URL. It would be achieved by simply adding the website's URL to the SMS itself,
2. Standardized format of two-factor authentication SMS code would allow applications to detect passcodes; automatically extract them, and complete the login process without further user interaction.

Here is an example of such SMS message:

011970 is your Brain Archives authentication code.
@brainarchives․com #011970

So far Apple and Google have backed the proposal.

iOS 14 to support the same iPhones as iOS 13

According to French website iPhonesoft, iOS 14 will be compatible with all iPhones supported by iOS 13,  including:

• iPhone 11,  11 Pro & 11 Pro Max,
• iPhone XS & XS Max,
• iPhone XR,
• iPhone X,
• iPhone 8 & 8 Plus,
• iPhone 7 & 7 Plus,
• iPhone 6S & 6S Plus,
• iPhone SE,
• iPod touch (7th generation).

As for the iPads, iPhonesoft informs that iOS14 will drop support for the iPad mini 4, and will support following devices:

• 12.9-inch iPad Pro,
• 11-inch iPad Pro,
• 10.5-inch iPad Pro,
• 9.7-inch iPad Pro,
• iPad 7th, 6th & 5th   generation,
• iPad mini (5th generation),
• iPad Air (3rd generation).

iPad turned 10

This week is the 10th anniversary of the original iPad announcement. iPad supposed to become the "post PC" device that would replace personal computers. 10 years later, we know it hasn't done that yet, but current generation of iPads and iPadOS is closer than ever. Although, tablets hasn't become as popular as smartphones, iPad helped Apple take over this market.

Google's new business communicator

According to report from The Information Google is working on a new communicator for workplaces, that will combine the part of GSuite functionality, like Gmail Google Drive & Hangouts.

Dope links

• Atomic property wrapper in Swift
• Translucent “Now Playing” Bar
• iOS App Security: Best Practices
• Post Mortem: App Store Outage on January 24th, 2020
• React Native is the Future of Mobile at Shopify
• Intro to PWAs and Service Workers
• Introducing Yarn 2 ! 🧶🌟
• TypeOfNaN JavaScript Quizzes
• A long list of (advanced) JavaScript questions, and their explanations ✨
• How Smashing Magazine Manages Content: Migration From WordPress To JAMstack
• Using NSwag to Generate a Vue Client for an ASP.NET Core 3.1 API
• Intrinsic Sizing In CSS
• Memory Management Reference
• Understanding The GIT Workflow
• Words Are Hard - An Essay on Communicating With Non-Programmers
• Postwoman • API request builder
• Are you unique?

Image credits: Lucian Alexe

Samsung Galaxy S20

XDA Developers leaked the photos of the successor to Samsung's flagship phone - Galaxy S10. What's interesting, Samsung is not going to just increment the number to S11, instead they are going to jump ahead to S20. Probably Samsung is naming is based on current year.  Other visible differences are:

• front facing camera cutout is closer to the center of screen,
• rear camera has 4 lenses:  regular wide, an ultra-wide, portrait, and a macro,
• body is less curved.

For the rest of the spec, we'll have to wait until February 11th.

New iPhones and iPads with faster 5G

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, this year iPhone will support both sub-6GHz 5G (slightly faster than LTE) and faster mmWave 5G (closer to WiFi transfers). Previous reports suggested only the the former, so this week rumor is a nice surprise. Of corse, it is possible that faster 5G will be available only in selected models of iPhone.  That would line up with  last week rumors,  that new iPhones might have staggered rollout.

Also, according to DigiTimes, upcoming iPads will get faster 5G as well.  Although, this feature might be limited only to iPad Pro lineup.

New MacBooks coming soon

Apple has register portable and unreleased Mac in Eurasian Economic Commission database. Common sense indicates that might be new 13-inch, or maybe even 14-inch, MacBook Pro with a scissor keyboard. Regardless, of the screen size, new Mac will be released within couple of weeks.

Windows 7 is dead

After 11 years, Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 7. Although, users should not get any bug fixes or feature updates, Windows 7 will share the fate of Windows XP, and Microsoft will be releasing critical security updates for couple more years.

New Microsoft Edge is out

Microsoft has finally released the stable version of the Edge browser based on the Google's Chromium web browser project. New Microsoft Edge is available on both Windows and macOS.

Cyberpunk 2077 delayed

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed by 5 months.  In the special statement,  CD Project Red (CDPR) announced that the released date has been moved to September 17th.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most anticipated games of this year, and it is not a surprise, that CDPR want to polish the game and release the best game possible. CDPR did similar move with Witcher 3, which also was delayed for 3 months and turned it to be one of the best RPGs ever. So, there is nothing to worry about, all we need to do is be patient.

SpaceX Crew Dragon Launch Escape Demonstration

On Sunday, SpaceX performed the final test of the Crew Dragon. The goal of this mission was to verify the escape mechanisms of the Crew Dragon capsule.

Less than one and half minute after Falcon's 9 launch, Crew Dragon separated from the booster. Seconds later rocket itself was destroyed. Meanwhile, Crew Dragon achieved safe distance and parachuted in the ocean.

The test looked to be successful. If the telemetry confirms that, it means that SpaceX will be in the home stretch to send first astronauts into space.

Dope links

• How to fix slow List updates in SwiftUI
• Common pitfalls when using Keychain Sharing on iOS
• Full Stack Pronounced Dead
• Kubernetes for Full-Stack Developers
• What is the CSS ‘ch’ Unit?
• The Apple Archive
• The Witcher -  Interactive map of the continent & timeline

Image credits: XDA Developers

Apple Gaming Computer

According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News Apple is going to announce a gaming computer during this year WWDC. The report claims that new machine may be a a laptop or all-in-one desktop with a price tag of up to $5,000. So basically it could be a new MacBook or an iMac.

This rumor is so sketchy on so many levels. First of all Apple, just released a brand new, large-screen, laptop that is arguably gaming capable. Second, both iMac and iMac Pro are long overdue for an update, so they might get a hardware upgrade around WWDC. Also, iMac Pro is VR capable, so, without a doubt, newer hardware will be more powerful.

Beside that, Apple is focusing on Apple Arcade, which has small Indie games. Those, compering to AAA titles, are not that demanding, and most of today's computers could run them easily.

So as you can see, I take this rumor with a grain of salt. But in every rumor there is a little bit of truth, and I believe we might get updated iMacs. But the updates will be related more with VR than traditional gaming.

Emoji engravings on AirPods

Since last year, customers could engrave their AirPods with custom text. This year Apple extended this option with emojis. Unfortunately the number of emojis is very limited, but it includes the most popular ones:  smiling face, thumb up, heart, dog, alien, and even poop.

This feature is very silly, but I have to admit that those emojis look pretty dope on the charging case.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite

Samsung announced the budget versions of 2019 flagships. They offer some the of premium features at more affordable price points, which at the moment are still unknown.

Here are the specs:

Galaxy S10 Lite

• 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display (2400 × 1080),
• CPU: Snapdragon 855,
• 6GB or 8GB of RAM,
• 32-megapixel f/2.2 front camera,
• Tripple lens rear camera:
  • 5-megapixel f/2.4 macro lens,
  • 48-megapixel F2.0 wide-angle lens,
  • 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide with a 123-degree angle lens,
• 128GB of storage,
• 4,500mAh battery.

Note 10 Lite

• 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display (2400 × 1080),
• CPU: Samsung’s Exynos 8895,,
• 6GB or 8GB of RAM,
• 32-megapixel f/2.2 front camera,
• Tripple lens rear camera:
  • 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide lens,
  • 12-megapixel f/1.7 wide-angle lens,
  • 12-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens,
• 128GB of storage,
• 4,500mAh battery,
• SPen for hand writing and controlling the phone.

Dope links

• Building Pager view in SwiftUI
• Vue v3.0.0-alpha.1 released
• What You Need to Know About Vue3 in 2020
• Vue 3 and Composition API by Alex Kyriakidis
• Collection of essential Vue Composition API utils works for Vue 2.x and v3.x
• Generating color schemas as a developer: A simple guide
• AirPods Pro Bluetooth Latency
• Every iOS wallpaper from 2007-2019
• Music used in Apple Ads
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - Official Announcement Trailer
• LEGO RC Solaris Urbino 18 Articulated Bus

Photoshop for iPad

Almost a year after it was first announced, Photoshop for the iPad has been released. And it is not just a psd viewer. It is fully featured Photoshop optimized to touch interface. Of course it doesn't have all the futures that desktop brother has, nevertheless it is one of the most powerful image editing applications for the iPad.

One other fact worth pointing out is that Adobe now have the ARM engine for the Photoshop. This might be important in the future, when Apple decide to transition from Intel to ARM processors.

Office app for iOS & Android

Microsoft launched new Office app for mobile devices. It combines Word, Excel and PowerPoint into single download. Beside from the ability to read and edit Office files, it will allow to browse documents and create a new ones using ability to scan text and tables.  

At the moment Office app is still in Beta, but soon it should replace Word, Excel and PowerPoint in the AppStores.

Interesting links

• How to build a Spotify clone for iOS with AutoLayout programmatically
• 22 short tests of Combine -  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Static Types in SwiftUI
• .NET Core 3.0 AWS Lambda Benchmarks and Recommendations
• You Don't Know JS (book series) - 1st Edition
• 10 Good Practices for Building and Maintaining Large Vue.js Projects
• DNS Record Crash Course for Web Developers
• How Figma’s multiplayer technology works
• iOS 14 Concept
  

Image credits: Adobe

AirPods Pro

Apple has officially announced the noice cancelling AirPods.  Here is quick specification:

• All new design
• Powered by H1 chip,
• Active Noise Cancellation,
• Transparency mode which allows to hear the surroundings,
• Customizable fit and seal with silicon tips in 3 sizes,
• The Ear Tip Fit Test allows to check whether we use the best tip for our ear,
• Sweat and water resistant,
• Smaller charging  case which can be charged either wirelessly (Qi charging) or using Lightning cable,
• Up to 4.5 hours of listening time,
• Up to 5 hours with Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode,
• Up to 3.5 hours of talk time,
• In total, about 24 hours of battery life with charging case.

AirPods Pro will be available from October 30th, starting at $249.

iOS 13.2

Together with AirPods Pro, Apple has released iOS 13.2. Here is what's new:

• Support for AirPods Pro,
• 70 new & updated emojis,
• iPhone 11 and 11 Pro gets new camera feature - Deep Fusion, which improvs indoor photos and photos taken in medium lighting,
• New privacy option that allows to share Siri and dictation recordings with Apple,
• Siri can now read received message when using AirPods or PowerBeats Pro,
• App can be deleted right from context menu after long pressing the app's icon,
• HomeKit allows to watch and store video streams from security cameras.

Newest iOS is also a source of information about newAir products:

• AirTags
• Smart Battery Cases for iPhone 11 & 11 Pro

16' MacBook Pro saga continues

Last week, we were anticipating imminent release of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. This week report from Ming-Chi Kuo keep us in check.  According to him, the new model will be release in mid 2020.

I still think new MacBook Pro will be released together with Mac Pro, which will come this fall. Beside that, new information about the laptop has been found in macOS 10.15 Beta and it looks like the laptop is ready for production. Unless Apple is waiting for parts, like new Intel processors 🤨

Apple TV+

On November 1st, Apple launched their TV streaming service - Apple TV+. It costs $5 per month, but if you recently bought an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV or Mac you will get 1 year subscription for free.

Fortunately for me, I'm in this group and I signed up for this 1 year promotion 😬 Unfortunately, Apple TV+ is lacking content. At the moment, we can only watch couple episodes from 7 series in total. We will see how Apple is going to keep customers on their platform, but so far, in terms of content, it doesn't look good. Especially if we compare it to Disney+.

Google buys Fitbit

Google has just announced that it's buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion.  The deal is similar to the accusation of Nest and Fitbit will become one of the companies under Alphabet umbrella.

I'm wondering whether Fitbit will stay in the market of smart-bands or they will try to compete with Apple with smartwatches. Right now, Apple is dominating this market, so it will be good to see some strong competition. Such competition might not be good for Apple or Google, but it definitely would be good for end customers.

Star Wars news

Last week we got The Rise of Skywalker trailer, this week we got trailer for The Mandalorian. Beside good news there are also the bad one. Because of tight schedule (at least officially), Game of Thrones showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, are no longer working on new Star Wars trilogy. This is a bummer, new trilogy was rumored to be set during the Old Republic times. But not all is lost. Maybe involvement of Kevin Feige in Star Wars franchise is reaction to GoT showrunners' departure.

Beside all of that, the Jedi: Fallen Order is coming in couple of weeks, and EA has already released the launch trailer.

Interesting links

• Dependency Heck
• Dark color
• Ahh shhgit!
• How I remade the new Star Wars poster! (photoshop)
• Planting 20,000,000 Trees Will Actually Have This Impact
• The Witcher - Main Trailer
  

Image credits: Apple