Vizio is the latest TV maker to launch support for Apple’s AirPlay 2, which makes it easy to play content from an iOS device or Mac on the larger screen, and HomeKit. HomeKit integration allows people to control the TV using Apple’s Home app or with Siri voice commands. Vizio has started rolling out an update to its SmartCast 3.0 software that includes support for both, but it notes it’s a process that’ll continue through “the coming months” before all compatible sets are updated.
Speaking of which, Vizio is far exceeding other TV manufacturers in terms of how many past and present models are eligible for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. SmartCast TVs dating back to 2016 will receive the two features. Meanwhile, other companies are limiting the convenient add-ons to 2019 sets or, in some cases, their TVs from last year.
LG also recently rolled out AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to its latest models. Samsung led the pack with AirPlay 2, but it opted not to include HomeKit. Instead, it was the first TV maker to get the Apple TV app, which provides access to movie rentals / purchases and Apple’s subscription TV channels, including HBO.
After unveiling it at CES 2019, Vizio has announced that it's finally rolling out support for Apple's AirPlay 2 and HomeKit platforms. Coming via an update to its SmartCast 3.0 platform, it'll let users play videos, music and photos directly from iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. Best of all, it'll work not just on its recent 2019 TVs, but on Vizio SmartCast models dating all the way back to 2016.
Apple device owners will be able to stream movies with 4K and Dolby Vision and play songs, or mirror photos, web pages, presentations and other content to Vizio SmartCast TVs. Thanks to AirPlay's multi-room powers, you'll be able to simultaneously stream to AirPlay 2 compatible speakers at the same time, in sync. That'll let you use a HomePod, for example, as a TV speaker, or listen to content in another room.
HomeKit support, meanwhile, lets you use an iPhone or iPad as a Vizio TV remote, or play movies, TV shows and music using Siri. A Vizio TV can also be used in "scenes" or automation programs just like any other HomeKit accessory. If Apple isn't your thing, Vizio TVs also support Google Assistant and Alexa via previous SmartCast 3.0 updates.
Vizio's SmartCast TVs range from $260 for a 40-inch V-series model to $3,500 for the 75-inch P-Series Quantum X. The update makes them a lot more useful to Apple owners, but Vizio said the update just started rolling out, so it might take a while to arrive to your neighborhood.
July is almost over. So after you double-check your UltraViolet account, it's time to look over quarterly results from Apple and Samsung to find out what's working (services) and what isn't (high-end phones). Plus, the new look for Android Auto is rolling out and you can pre-order a Switch Lite.
Now whenever you are in Android Auto and following a route, the information is shown along the lower portion of a car's display -- no more launching Spotify and wondering if you're about to miss a turn while choosing a playlist. The weird, notification-style layout of the home screen is gone. Instead, Android Auto's home screen now resembles a tablet with all your apps in one place.
The UltraFine 5K Display by LG has returned to Apple's store after a months-long hiatus, with just one notable change. The updated version of the 27-inch monitor is compatible with the USB-C output from recent iPad Pros, making it a viable option if you need a large secondary screen for media previews or screen mirroring.
Apple — which can't count on people splurging on pricey new iPhones the way they used to — is shifting to focus on its services business. It's not hard to see why, either: in the last two quarters, iPhone sales have dipped significantly year-over-year while Apple's service revenue continued to climb. Not coincidentally, CEO Tim Cook revealed that its Apple Card would launch in the US sometime in August.
Solid sales for Macs ($5.8 billion) and iPads ($5.02 billion) prove that diligent hardware upgrades do make a material impact on the bottom line. More importantly, Apple saw its wearables business -- which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats and more -- swell by nearly $2 billion since this time last year.
So what does Samsung do when the money isn't rolling in quite like it used to? The electronics giant still showed an operating profit of $5.6 billion over the last three months, but that's less than half of its haul over the same period in 2018.
Besides the upcoming Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Note 10, Samsung said it's going to focus on midrange devices like its all-screen Galaxy A80. For larger screens, it's looking to make 8K 'mainstream' this fall.
New school year, new gear. Maybe you're due for an upgrade, or maybe you broke your phone over summer break, or maybe you just want a new toy. Either way, you might be looking to refresh your slate of devices before heading to campus. For the mobile section of our back-to-school guide, we considered the best phones you can get on a student-friendly budget. We also threw in our favorite smartwatches for both Android and iOS users.
Following the company's financial results (almost 100 million PS4s sold!), Sony's financial chief Hiroki Totoki warned that US plans for expanded tariffs on Chinese products could force a price hike on PlayStation consoles. Passing higher costs to consumers could be the result. It's TBC whether or not widened tariffs will apply in the first place -- that depends on the US administration's negotiations with China.
The US raised tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods back in May, to 25 percent. A further tariff expansion would cover another $300 billion in products, including PlayStation systems -- and consoles are typically sold at slim profit margins in the first place. And the Playstation 5 isn't far away.
Amazon's Ring security service is working with as many as 200 law enforcement agencies, according to an email obtained by Motherboard. A few days ago, the publication learned that Ring forged partnerships with a number of law enforcement agencies.
Some of those partners are reportedly required to advertise Ring home security cameras in exchange for free units and access to an anonymized portal that allows them to request security footage from users. A Ring spokesperson denied that the program was supposed to be a deep, dark secret, but the company never disclosed the number of partnerships it maintains.
At E3 for each of the last two years we've seen previews of Remedy Entertainment's supernatural action game Control, and on August 27th, players will be able to experience its world for themselves on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. You should read through our impressions after an hour-long demo in June to understand what it's like to pick up The Director's gun and attempt to make your way through "The Oldest House" -- a government agency headquarters that has come under attack by a supernatural force.
That agency is the Federal Bureau of Control, and your character, Jesse Faden, has supernatural abilities of her own to rely on. Last year narrative director Anna Megill told Engadget "we're trying to make something unexpected," with a game that's the studio's least-linear experience yet, compared to games like Alan Wake or Max Payne, and with far fewer cutscenes than its last effort Quantum Break.
An NVIDIA RTX trailer from E3 2019 shows more of how the game plays, and its developers have posted streams with even more to share, but the recently-posted "Story" trailer is all about how nightmareish the game feels. Given how much Remedy titles deliver in terms of atmosphere, that may be all you need to determine if this is one to check out once it's released.
Jaybird is back with another attempt at truly wireless headphones with the Vista, a redesigned model that looks to fix the various issues that held back the company’s Run and Run XT models. The new buds improve on the old ones in nearly every way, including more reliable connectivity, a lighter design, better battery life, and USB-C for charging.
Jaybird already released a pair of truly wireless headphones this year in the form of the Run XT, but they were a lightly updated version of the company’s original truly wireless Run model from 2017. They also stuck with the same design and all of the same problems that the first-generation model had.
I’ve been using the Vista for about a week as my main headphones, and so far, they have held up as well as any other top-notch truly wireless headphone on the market today.
The connectivity issues have been completely fixed with the Vista, thanks to a new JBS1 chipset and connectivity system. The Jaybird Run design tried to change the formula for truly wireless headphones by using two Bluetooth connections. One was meant to connect the right earbud to a phone or computer, and the other was to communicate between the headphones (instead of Near Field Magnetic Induction, which most headphones used at the time). That design didn’t work to keep the headphones in sync.
The Vista solve that problem by using two independent connections to the user’s phone. In all my time using the headphones, I never had an issue. The new system also means that you can use each earbud independently, should you only want to wear one earbud.
The Vista also have a new look that still features the replaceable wing / ear tip design that Jaybird uses on all its products. As someone who has a particularly difficult time finding earbuds that fit, I didn’t have any issues with the Vista staying securely in my ears, even during a sweat-soaked run outside.
The Vista are also even lighter than before, weighing in at six grams each. (For comparison, a single AirPod weighs four grams.) Like the Run XT, they’re also rated for IPX7 waterproofing and actually feature a new waterproofing system. The hardware components are completely sealed off in an internal capsule, which the company says should help make them even more resistant to sweat than simply coating the parts with waterproof materials (like it has done for its other headphones).
The case is similarly smaller and lighter than before, and it uses USB-C instead of Micro USB to charge. Despite the fact that both the earbuds and case are smaller, the battery life is actually better on the Vista than on the Run. Jaybird claims six hours of use from the buds and another 10 hours with the case (up from four hours and eight hours, respectively).
The Jaybird Vista are set to cost $179.99 — the same price as the old model — when they release sometime in August.
Apple reported earnings for its June quarter on Tuesday that were above expectations, and the company's revenue returned to growth after two straight down quarters.
The stock rose more than 4% in after-hours trading.
Apple's guidance was strong and beat analyst expectations, suggesting that demand for Apple products is stabilizing headed into the critical second half of the year. Apple also declared a cash dividend of $0.77 per share.
Here's how the company did versus what analysts were expecting:
EPS: $2.18 vs. $2.10 estimated by Refinitiv consensus estimates.
Revenue: $53.8 billion vs.$53.39B estimated by Refinitiv consensus estimates.
Q4 Revenue guidance: $61 billion to $64 billion versus$60.98 billion estimate by Refinitiv consensus estimates.
iPhone revenue: $25.99 billion vs. $26.31 billion estimated by FactSet.
Services revenue: $11.46 billion vs. $11.61 billion estimated by FactSet.
"We're very excited to report a return to growth for the quarter, and it's a record revenue for Q3 as well, best we've ever had," Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC's Josh Lipton.
Apple's revenue was up 1% from the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share were down 7%.
"Great services quarter, unbelievable wearables quarter, significant progress on iPhone, and off-the-charts significant progress on China, compared to where we were the previous quarter," he continued.
Apple said that it had spent over $17 billion on share buybacks of almost 88 million Apple shares, and had also paid out $3.6 billion in dividends and equivalents during the quarter.
Strong wearables and services growth
Apple's iPhone revenue was slightly lower than what analysts expected, partially offset by strength in the Mac and Wearables divisions.
The iPhone accounted for 48.3% of Apple's overall revenue, the first time that it hasn't contributed over half of Apple's sales since 2012.
Apple's wearables business includes Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones. In a statement, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the product category was "accelerating."
Services revenue, which includes subscriptions, App Store fees, and other online services, grew by 13%, slightly under analyst expectations. Services margins were over 64%, contributing to Apple's bottom line.
Cook said in a statement that Apple plans major launches for several new products in the second half of 2019.
Critical Chinese market
Apple also outperformed expectations in China, which had been one of the main factors in disappointing quarters earlier this year. Cook said in an interview with CNBC that a Chinese VAT tax cut had been a big help, and that he saw no signs of a nationalistic boycott of Apple products in China.
"The VAT reduced from 16% to 13, that's clearly a big help. We took some price action, that's a big help. We introduced trade-in and financing, that's a big help. The more subjective thing is, when the countries are meeting and talking, that's better than not," Cook told CNBC.
Apple said that it had $9.61 billion in sales in its Greater China category, which also includes Taiwan and Hong Kong. Cook said that Apple returned to growth in mainland China.
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