Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box - TechCrunch

Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching. If you can get past the creepiness, the new Portal TV let you hang out with friends on your home’s biggest screen. It’s a fresh product category that could give the social network a unique foothold in the living room where unlike on phones where it’s beholden to Apple and Google, Facebook owns the hardware and operating system.

Today Facebook unveiled a new line of Portal devices that bring its auto-zooming AI camera, in-house voice assistant speaker, Alexa, apps like Spotify and newly added  Amazon Prime Video, Messenger video chat, and now end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp video calls to smaller form factors.

The $149 Portal TV is the star of the show, turning most televisions with an HDMI connection into a video chat smart screen. And if you video call between two Portal TVs, you can use the new Watch Together feature to co-view Facebook Watch videos simultaneously while chilling together over picture-in-picture. The Portal TV is genius way for Facebook to make its hardware both cheaper yet more immersive by co-opting a screen you already own and have given a space in your life, thereby leapfrogging smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

There’s also the new pint-size 8-inch Portal Mini for just $129, which makes counter-top video chat exceedingly cheap. The 10-inch Portal that launched a year ago now has a sleeker, minimal bezel look with a price drop for $199 to $179. Both look more like digital picture frames, which they are, and can be stood on their side or end for optimal full-screen chatting. Lastly, the giant 15.6-inch Portal+ swivel screen falls to $279 instead of $349, and you still get $50 off if you buy any two Portal devices.

“The TV has been a staple of living rooms around the world, but to date it’s been primarily about people who are physically interacting with the device” says  Facebook’s VP of consumer hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We see the opportunity for people to use their TVs not just to do that but also to interact with other people.”

The new Portals all go on pre-sale today from Portal.facebook.com, Amazon, and Best Buy in the US and Canada plus new markets like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, and France (though the Hey Portal assistant only works in English). Portal and Portal Mini ship October 15th and Portal TV ships November 5th.

The whole Portal gang lack essential video apps like Netflix and HBO, and Boz claims he’s not trying to compete directly with Roku, Fire TV etc. Instead, Facebook is trying to compete where it’s strongest, on communication and video chat where rivals lack a scaled social network.

“You’re kind of more hanging out. It isn’t as transactional. It’s not as urgent as when you sacrifice your left arm to the cause” explains Boz. Like how Fortnite created a way for people to just chill together while gaming remotely, Portal TV could do the same for watching television together, apart.

Battling The Creepiness

The original Portal launched a year ago to favorable reviews except for one sticking point: journalists all thought it was too sketchy to bring Facebook surveillance tech inside their homes. Whether the mainstream consumer feels the same way is still a mystery as the company has refused to share sales numbers. Though Boz told me “The engagement, the retention numbers are all really positive”, we haven’t seen developers like Netflix rush to bring their apps to the Portal platform.

To that end, privacy on Portal no longer feels clipped on like the old plastic removable camera covers. “We have to always do more work to grow the number of people who have that level of comfort, and bring that technology into their home” says Boz. “We’ve done what we can in this latest generation of products, now with integrated camera covers that are hardware, indicator lights when the microphone is off, and form factors that are less obtrusive and blend more into the background of the home.”

One major change stems from a scandal that spread across the tech sector, with Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook all being criticized for quietly sending voice clips to human reviewers to improve speech recognition in what felt like a privacy violation. “Part of the Portal out-of-box experience is going to be a splash screen on data storage and it will literally walk through how . . . when we hear ‘hey Portal’ a voice recording and transcription is sent, it may be reviewed by humans, and people have the ability to opt out.”

But if Portal if battling the perception of creepiness, why make human reviews the default? Boz defended the call from the perspective of accessibility. “We say ‘oh they’re good enough” but for a lot of people that might have a mild speech impediment, a subtle accent, who might use different words because they’re from a different region, these assistants aren’t inclusive.” He claims more voice data reviewed by humans means better products for everyone, though better sales for Facebook wouldn’t hurt.

Instead, Facebook is leaning on the evolution of the smart screen market in general to help its camera blend in. “The more value we can create, not just any one player but as an entire industry, that allows consumers to feel – ‘yeah, I both am comfortable with how the data is being used and why’.”

Hands-On With The New Portals

If you can get past Facebook’s toxic brand, the new Portals are quite pleasing. They’re remarkably polished products for a company just a year into selling consumer hardware. They all feel sturdy and elegant enough to place in your kitchen or living room.

The Portal and Portal Mini work just like last year’s models, but without the big speaker bezel, they can be flipped on their side and look much more like picture frames while running Portal’s Smart Frame showing your Facebook, Instagram, or Camera roll photos.

Portal TV’s flexible form factor is a clever innovation, first spotted as “Codename: Ripley” by Jane Manchun Wong and reported by Alex Heath for Cheddar a year ago. It has an integrated stand for placing on your TV console, but that stand also squeezes onto a front wing to let it clip onto both wide and extremely thin new flatscreen televisions. With just an HDMI connection it brings a 12.5 megapixel, 120-degree camera and 8 mic array to any tube. It also ships with a stubby remote control for basic browsing without having to shout across the room. TechCrunch.

Portal TV includes an integrated smart speaker that can be used even when the TV is off or on a different input, and offers HDMI CEC for control through other remotes. The built-in camera cover gives users piece of mind and a switch conjures a red light to signal that all sensors are disabled. Overall, control felt a tad sluggish but passable.

Portal’s software is largely the same as before with a few key improvements, the addition of WhatsApp, and one big bonus feature for Portal TVs. The AI Smart Camera is the best part, automatically tracking multiple people to keep everyone in frame as zoomed in as possible. Improved adaptive background modeling and human pose estimation lets it keep faces in view without facial recognition, and all video processing is done locally on the device. A sharper Spotlight feature lets you select one person, like a child running around the room so you don’t miss the gymnastics routines.

The Portal app platform that features Spotify and Pandora is gaining Amazon’s suite of apps, starting with Prime Video while Ring doorbell and smart home controls are on the way. Beyond Messenger calls and AR Storytime where you don related AR masks as you read aloud a children’s book, there are new AR games like Cats Catching Donuts With Their Mouths. Designed for kids and casual players, the games had some trouble with motion tracking and felt too thin for more than a few seconds of play. But if Facebook gave Portal TV a real controller or bought a better AR games studio, it could dive deeper into gaming as a selling point.

WhatsApp is the top new feature for all the Portals. Though you can’t use the voice assistant to call people, you can now WhatsApp video chat friends with end-to-end encryption rather than just Messenger’s encryption in transit. The two messaging apps combined give Portal a big advantage over Google and Amazon’s devices since their parents have screwed up or ignored chat over the years. Still, there’s no way to send text messages which would be exceedingly helpful.

Reserved for Portal TV-to-Portal TV Messenger chats is the new Watch Together feature we broke the news of a year ago after Ananay Arora spotted it in Messenger’s code. This lets you do a picture-in-picture video chat with friends while you simultaneously view a Facebook Watch video. It even smartly ducks down the video’s audio while friends are talking so you can share reactions. While it doesn’t work with other content apps like Prime Video, Watch Together shows the potential of Portal: passive hang out time.

“Have you ever thought about how weird bowling is, Josh? Bowling is a weird thing to go do. I enjoy bowling, I don’t enjoy bowling by myself that much. I enjoy going with other people” Boz tells me. “It’s just a pretext, it’s some  reason for us to get together and have some beers and to have time and have conversation. Whether it’s video calling or the AR games . . . those are a pre-text, to have an excuse to go be together.”

This is Portal’s true purpose. Facebook has always been about time spent, getting deeper into your life, and learning more about you. While other companies’ products might feel less creepy or be more entertaining, none have the ubiquitous social connection of Facebook and Portal. When your friends are on screen to, a mediocre game or silly video is elevated into a memorable experience. With Portal TV, Facebook finally has something unique enough to possibly offset its brand tax and earn it a place in your home.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/18/facebook-portal-tv/

2019-09-18 12:01:38Z
52780387051237

Apple Watch Series 5 Review Roundup: Always-On Display Solves Biggest Complaint, But Little Else to Warrant... - Mac Rumors

The Apple Watch Series 5 is set to launch this Friday, September 20, but the embargo for the first reviews of Apple's latest smartwatch ended this morning. Several journalists and media outlets were provided with review units, so we've gathered together some key takeaways and highlights.

Not a lot is new with the Apple Watch Series 5, and it's identical in design to the Series 4. The exception is the display, which uses a lower power (LTPO) OLED screen that enables Apple's new always-on display feature.

To accommodate the new always-on display, Apple has created new battery-optimized watch face options that allow you to see the time and your complications at all times. Apart from a new built-in compass and a new international emergency calling feature for LTE models that contacts the local emergency services when SOS is activated, other new features are software-based and will come courtesy of watchOS 6.

As you'd expect, the focus of many of the reviews is on that always-on display. TechCrunch's Catherine Shu says it "addresses a longstanding issue with the device," but one that has been understandable because of battery considerations. To get around this, Apple has "made a bit of a compromise" by offering an always-on watch that lasts the same stated 18 hours as its predecessors.

Apple's employed some clever fixes to ensure that the new feature won’t totally sap battery life. Each of the faces gets a low-power, always-on version. In the case of the Meridian face that I've been using (new for WatchOS 6), it's white text on a black background. Hold the watch up to your face, however, and the colors invert. The active version is easier to see, and the always-on version uses less power.

While complications and other features are still on display, they're simplified, removing any power-hungry features. That means the second hand disappears on the standard watch face, and when the watch is in workout mode, the milliseconds will disappear until you bring the watch back up to your face.

Ultimately, Shu reckons "there's probably not enough here to warrant an upgrade from last year’s model, but some welcome new features like the always-on help keep the line fresh."

Daring Fireball's John Gruber says that the always-on display "solves my single biggest complaint about Apple Watch since day one. Its not perfect," he says, "but it's more than good enough. No other feature or improvement to Apple Watch to date has ever made me this happy."

As for the built-in compass, Gruber says that "while it's fun to play with, I don’t recall ever needing a compass in my entire life." However, he was impressed by the way it overcomes the problem that magnets pose to traditional compasses.

Traditional compasses spin randomly when you bring a magnet near them. Series 5's compass won't do this, because it uses the gyroscope to see if you're actually moving. The compass won't be fooled by a magnet because it can tell the watch itself isn't spinning around. Smart.

The Verge's Dieter Bohn starts his review by covering the new materials for the Apple Watch casing, specifically the more expensive titanium and ceramic.

There are some subtle weight differences on the more expensive materials, and they also have sapphire glass on the front of the Watch. But you should not spend the extra money on those more premium materials in the hope that they’ll be better from a feature perspective. They're the same Apple Watch; you'd just be paying more for something fancier. Some people like doing that!

Bohn also admits his long-running desire for an always-on screen, which is made possible by the low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO for short) display that Apple has designed.

I love the always-on screen on the Series 5. Apple's implementation is better than other smartwatches I've used for two reasons: it legitimately doesn't hurt the battery life as much, and Apple keeps a little color visible in ambient mode.

For whatever reason, I've never been able to get earlier Apple Watches to show their screens with subtle wrist movements. I've always had to cartoonishly raise my arm. An always-on screen means I am a little bit less of a jerk in conversations and meetings.

Bohn confirms that the display doesn't deplete the battery faster than the stated 18 hours, although he notes that "the Series 4 usually outperformed that estimate."

Apart from the new compass and LTE-based Emergency Call features, Bohn sees little else to recommend existing Apple Watch Series 4 owners and admits he's more excited about features coming with watchOS 6, like the new health features and the dedicated App Store, which he thinks are worth checking out first before anyone thinks of upgrading.

More Apple Watch Series 5 reviews can be found online: Wired, iMore, CNBC, BuzzFeed News, USA Today.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/18/apple-watch-series-5-review-roundup/

2019-09-18 11:41:00Z
52780386963567

Facebook introduces Portal TV, a video chat camera accessory for your television - The Verge

Facebook is bringing its connected device strategy to the television. The company today announced Portal TV, an accessory that brings the company’s wide-angle video chats to the biggest screen in the house. Portal TV is begins shipping November 5th for $149 — or you can also bundle two Portal devices together and take $50 off.

Portal TV is one of three smart video chat devices the company is announcing today. You can read about the others — the 10-inch Portal and the 8-inch Portal Mini — here. The device’s largest model, the Portal Plus introduced last year, is still on sale.

Plug Portal into your TV using the HDMI port, sign into your Facebook accounts, and you can begin making calls using Messenger and WhatsApp. WhatsApp calls are encrypted end to end, which may be a selling point for people who want more assurances that Facebook isn’t mining the contents of their calls for advertising or other purposes. (Other people will continue to balk at the idea of a Facebook camera and microphone in their home.)

The device, which resembles a slimmed-down Microsoft Kinect, uses Facebook’s Smart Camera technology to pan and zoom as people in the call move around the room. This is especially useful with small children, who are forever dipping in and out of frame in other video chat calls, Facebook executives told reporters on Tuesday at a product demonstration in San Francisco.

You can disable the camera and microphone via a tap or a sliding cover at the front of the device. Like other smart speakers, Facebook audits a subset of anonymized recordings and has human reviewers listen to them to improve the service. But you can now opt out of this recording feature in the app’s settings, the company says. (For more on the device’s privacy features, see Facebook’s explainer on the subject.)

When you’re ready to make a call, you can say “Hey Portal” to wake up the device and ask it to call a person in your network. Once the call is live you can apply augmented reality effects to your face and voice. These carry over into the device’s “Story Time” feature, which lets you narrate children’s books while donning a variety of virtual costumes.

Portal TV also introduces a new picture-in-picture mode that lets you keep one eye on friends and family members while you watch another show. Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, who runs Facebook’s AR and virtual reality products, told me he could imagine using the feature to watch a Facebook Watch show together with his father. (Picture-in-picture mode currently only works with Facebook’s original series, though the company is working to bring it to other streaming services.)

You can also watch Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, CBS All Access, and other streaming services through Portal TV, on the off chance that you don’t already have access to those services through a streaming stick, set-up box, smart television, or video game console.

For people who spend a lot of time video chatting with friends or family, or who would like to do more of it, Portal TV could be worth a look. The way the camera frames and tracks shots is legitimately impressive. And the TV screen could enable larger families to talk with everyone crowded together in the living room in a way that a phone or desktop computer can’t compete with.

Facebook’s hardware products will likely continue to be dogged by privacy concerns. But the larger issue for them might simply be that their rivals in home hardware — Amazon, Google, and Apple — are so far ahead of them in building an install base.

Portal TV, if nothing else, is a product that none of those rivals have yet built: a camera for the TV, seamlessly integrated with your network of friends and family. Whether or not it succeeds on a large scale, I expect Facebook to keep trying. Its rivals are building a new social infrastructure inside the house using voice and video chat, and Facebook can’t afford not to compete.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/18/20871173/facebook-portal-camera-price-release-date-availability

2019-09-18 12:00:00Z
52780387051237

This Is The Year To Get An Apple Watch - BuzzFeed News

BuzzFeed News

The Apple Watch Series 5 has an always-on display that stays dim — but readable — at all times, until the wrist is raised.

I’ve been living with various models of the Apple Watch for the last four years, and with this year’s new Series 5 for the last four days. What I’ve gleaned from testing the Series 5 is that its new features — an always-on display, increased storage capacity, faster processor, free emergency calling around the world (for the cellular model only), and compass (lol) — all make the Apple Watch a more capable, independent smartwatch.

But by far the most impactful change to the Apple Watch this year has nothing to do with the Series 5 at all. Alongside the debut of the new watch, Apple dropped the price of the perfectly capable Series 3 to a more accessible $199. For people who have always considered the $400–$500 price tag prohibitively expensive, this might be a good time to finally consider getting an Apple Watch. Just not the newest one.

If you are interested in the Series 5, there’s really only one feature worth discussing: the always-on display that finally makes the Apple Watch a bona fide timepiece. Previous models required a twist or raise of the wrist to wake the device’s screen, but the display on the Series 5 always shows the time, like a watch is supposed to. While you’re typing or exercising, the display is dim but still readable. When you raise your wrist, the screen brightens.

BuzzFeed News

The Apple Watch Series 5 has an always-on display that brightens when you twist or raise your wrist.

Being able to glance at the Series 5 meant that I spent less time gesticulating my arms.

Another (positive) side effect of the always-on display is that, when the feature is turned off, there are significant battery gains. Apple claims its latest watch’s battery life is 18 hours, which my testing found to be true. With always-on disabled, the battery lasted over 21 hours (with sleep tracking!) and was still at 43% when I woke up the next day.

BuzzFeed News

Despite the much-improved battery, the Apple Watch Series 5 is still not a device you can take on a multiday hiking trip, given that it needs to be charged at least every 1.5 days.

I’m sold on the Apple Watch — but not necessarily on the Series 5. Unless you prefer (and can afford) the newest model, it doesn’t make sense to pay a premium on a device that’s still very much in progress.

I got my first smartwatch, a first-generation Apple Watch, as a gift in May 2015. There was so much not to like about the Apple Watch then. The battery life barely lasted a day, the watch needed an iPhone nearby to do just about anything, and the third-party apps were an absolute mess.

Every year since, Apple has incrementally added new features to its watch: waterproofness and swim-tracking in the Series 2, cellular connectivity and a stair-tracking altimeter in the Series 3, and a built-in ECG heart rate monitor and an ever-so-slightly larger screen in the Series 4.

As someone who has patiently waited on a smartwatch — any smartwatch — to deliver on the future Inspector Gadget’s Penny promised, the Apple Watch still hasn’t quite met the mark. As my former colleague Charlie Warzel noted last year, it feels like a luxury device for a future that isn’t quite here yet.

Being able to leave my phone behind and stay connected has long been a pipe dream. But cellular plans for wearables are costly and complicated. Most carriers charge an activation fee and a monthly recurring fee for the watch — around $10, not including additional service fees, just for being able to use the mobile data you’re already paying for. Even with that added cost, streaming media over cellular data on the watch is currently limited to Apple’s own apps: Apple Music, Apple Books, and Apple Podcasts. However, Apple recently made streaming functionality for music, radio, and podcasts available to third-party developers in its latest software update, watchOS 6, so there may be more on that front soon (here’s looking at you, Spotify).

The Apple Watch’s battery is where the device needs to improve most. The Fitbit Ionic smartwatch can last up to five days — yes, DAYS — or 10 hours with GPS tracking on a single charge. The Garmin Fenix 5 lasts up to nine days or 15 hours in GPS mode. The Apple Watch’s battery can last up to merely 18 hours, and just six hours (or five hours with LTE I’m on) with GPS tracking.

And yet, despite its shortcomings, I’ve worn an Apple Watch almost every day for the past four years. It is, in my opinion, the best smartwatch for people with iPhones. There’s no doubt that the Apple Watch allows me to interact with my phone less (again, a good thing). I listen to podcasts every morning during my bike or bus ride to work, and being able to control the volume or pause/play the audio without taking out my phone is wonderful. As someone who is constantly running a little late, the ability to add custom messages as one-tap replies is killer. (Mine is: “Running behind! Be right there.”) One of my watch’s most frequently tapped features is pinging my iPhone when I can’t find it.

BuzzFeed News

An Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular service can make and receive calls when your iPhone isn't nearby.

But the primary reason why, after rigorously testing various Garmins and Fitbits, I prefer the Apple Watch is because it meets the very specific tracking needs of someone who works out outdoors and it doesn’t look like a clunky black box in the way other fitness wearables often do. The Apple Watch is surprisingly elegant for a GPS watch that can track biking, running, and open water swimming. Devices that can track all three of those activities typically look like they’re made for Men Who Do Triathlons. Not a bad thing! But not great if you have tiny wrists and want to wear the watch with regular clothes too, not just aerodynamic sportswear.

In fact, the Apple Watch is a pretty decent fitness tracker and training tool. One of my favorite (free!) apps is Nike Run Club, which has a number of guided runs available to download offline on the watch. You can leave your phone at home, connect Bluetooth headphones to the watch, and listen as a coach helps you work through different running distances. I also like to use Strava to record my bike rides and MySwimPro for pool and open water swims, but the GPS tracking for the watch’s built-in Workout app is far superior to its third-party counterparts. The default maps come out smooth, while routes recorded using Strava and MySwimPro occasionally go haywire. I recently discovered a $2 app called HealthFit, which can export the Apple Watch’s smooth GPS maps from the native Workout app to services like Strava or MapMyRun.

The best part of all of the above is that you don’t need the newest Apple Watch to experience the best the watch has to offer. The perfectly good Apple Watch Series 3, first released in 2017, is getting a big price drop with the arrival of the Series 5 — and, for most people, it is a fantastic smartwatch.

Apple is offering the Series 3 for $199 for the noncellular model, the same price as Fitbit’s Alexa-enabled Versa 2 and less expensive than Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 series (both pool swim tracking wearables that don’t offer open water tracking). You could opt for slightly less expensive, used Series 3 watches on Swappa, an electronics marketplace, but, unless you buy a device in mint condition, you won’t benefit from Apple’s limited warranty and a new device’s fresh lithium-ion battery, which degrades over time.

At $199, the Series 3 has a compelling price, and, thanks to annual software upgrades, it feels just as capable as a fitness tracker and smartwatch as the newer models. Plus, people who are not at risk for atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat, don’t need the electronic cardiogram feature designed to detect arrhythmia on the Series 4 and 5. The Series 3 is pool- and ocean-proof, and also offers high/low heart rate detection a GPS. It’ll get watchOS 6’s new Noise app for hearing health and the Cycle Tracking app for gaining period and fertility insights. The biggest difference between the older and newer models is the screen size, below, which is a nice-to-have, but not a must. You can compare the two for yourself here.

And if you already have a Series 3, this is great news for you, and the environment. As Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental initiatives, said during a 2018 presentation: “We also make sure to design durable products that last as long as possible. That means long-lasting hardware, coupled with our amazing software. Because they last longer, you can keep using them. And keeping using them is the best thing for the planet.” (If you’re starting to see your battery life dwindle on an older Apple Watch, you can get a replacement for $79.)

The Apple Watch Series 5, which starts at $399 for the aluminum case model, is available Sept. 20 in stores, and can be preordered online now. Apple’s new Studio lets you create any variation of watch and band you want. The Apple Watch Series 3, available now, is $199 for the aluminum GPS-only model and $299 for the aluminum cellular model.

More on this

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/apple-watch-series-5-review-always-on-display

2019-09-18 10:02:00Z
52780386963567

The iPhone 11 Pro Max has 23 percent more battery capacity than the Pro - Engadget

Sponsored Links

Chris Velazco/Engadget

When you check the iPhone 11 model's technical specs on Apple's website, you won't see specific information about its RAM and battery capacity. Those are information you'd usually discover later when people start taking new devices apart for teardown reports. The documents Apple filed with Chinese regulatory agency TENAA and first seen by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, however, can give you an idea of what to expect. Based on the filing the tech giant submitted, the iPhone 11 Pro Max comes with a 3,969 mAh battery and 4GB of RAM.

That's over 1,000 mAh bigger than the iPhone XR's, 1,311 mAh bigger than the iPhone XS battery and almost 800 mAh larger than the iPhone XS Max's. It's also 859 mAh larger than the basic iPhone 11's, which the filing says has a 3,110 mAh battery and 4GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the iPhone 11 Pro comes with the same amount of RAM and a 3,046 mAh battery. That explains why Apple claims that the Pro Max model can last up to 5 hours longer than the iPhone XS Max, while the Pro model can last up to 4 hours longer than the iPhone XS.

We'll find out for sure when teardown reports from websites like iFixit come out, but we can confirm that the new phones have fantastic battery life. During our tests, we found that the iPhone 11 Pro lasted 12 hours on a single charge, while the larger Pro Max would mostly last between 13 and 14 hours. The XS, on the other hand, lasted 9 to 9.5 hours on a single charge when we tested it last year.

Via: MacRumors, 9to5Mac

Source: iPhone 11 (TENAA), iPhone 11 Pro (TENAA), iPhone 11 Pro Max (TENAA)

In this article: apple, gear, iphone, iphone 11, iphone 11 pro, iphone 11 pro max, mobile

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Comments

127 Shares

Share

Tweet

Share

Save

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/18/iphone-11-tenaa-filing/

2019-09-18 09:03:30Z
52780386104181

The iPhone 11 Pro Max has 23 percent more battery capacity than the Pro - Engadget

Sponsored Links

Chris Velazco/Engadget

When you check the iPhone 11 model's technical specs on Apple's website, you won't see specific information about its RAM and battery capacity. Those are information you'd usually discover later when people start taking new devices apart for teardown reports. The documents Apple filed with Chinese regulatory agency TENAA and first seen by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, however, can give you an idea of what to expect. Based on the filing the tech giant submitted, the iPhone 11 Pro Max comes with a 3,969 mAh battery and 4GB of RAM.

That's over 1,000 mAh bigger than the iPhone XR's, 1,311 mAh bigger than the iPhone XS battery and almost 800 mAh larger than the iPhone XS Max's. It's also 859 mAh larger than the basic iPhone 11's, which the filing says has a 3,110 mAh battery and 4GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the iPhone 11 Pro comes with the same amount of RAM and a 3,046 mAh battery. That explains why Apple claims that the Pro Max model can last up to 5 hours longer than the iPhone XS Max, while the Pro model can last up to 4 hours longer than the iPhone XS.

We'll find out for sure when teardown reports from websites like iFixit come out, but we can confirm that the new phones have fantastic battery life. During our tests, we found that the iPhone 11 Pro lasted 12 hours on a single charge, while the larger Pro Max would mostly last between 13 and 14 hours. The XS, on the other hand, lasted 9 to 9.5 hours on a single charge when we tested it last year.

Via: MacRumors, 9to5Mac

Source: iPhone 11 (TENAA), iPhone 11 Pro (TENAA), iPhone 11 Pro Max (TENAA)

In this article: apple, gear, iphone, iphone 11, iphone 11 pro, iphone 11 pro max, mobile

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Comments

Share

Tweet

Share

Save

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/18/iphone-11-tenaa-filing/

2019-09-18 08:31:20Z
52780386104181

Google adds new Assistant voice option for nine languages - 9to5Google

While Assistant in the U.S. has 11 different voices, Google users in other parts of the world only have one. Google Assistant on Android, Home, and Smart Displays is now adding a second voice in nine different languages.

Assistant launched with a single voice — known as “Holly” — before gaining a male one in 2017. Last year, Google added six new voices at I/O and rounded out the year with two more. Google also switched to a color-based naming scheme where Voice I became Red, Voice II Orange, etc.

This system was born out of Google not wanting to apply any labels on voices. It actually makes for fun whimsical names like “Sydney Harbour Blue” and “British Racing Green.” Both are clearly identifiable, while being actual colors. The last addition was in April with the John Legend “Cameo” voice that brought the U.S. English total to 11.

This week’s expansion is focused on giving the rest of the world their first alternative. Nine Assistant languages are gaining a new voice: English in the UK, English in India, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Korean, and Italian. After the roll out, “Red or “Orange” will be available, with Google randomly assigning a voice during set up.

Behind-the-scenes, all of today’s additions were built using DeepMind’s WaveNet speech synthesis model. Deep neural networks create raw audio waveforms that are more realistic and natural with great pitch and pacing. Google took care to make sure Assistant understands the way people in those countries talk, accents, cultural references, and geographic markers. The goal is to create voices that sound like a natural speaker.

From the Google app, a new Google Assistant voice can be selected by navigating to “More” in the bottom bar > Settings > Google Assistant > Assistant tab > Assistant voice. It will be available on Android phones and tablets, Google Home, and Smart Displays this week.

---

Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://9to5google.com/2019/09/18/new-google-assistant-voice/

2019-09-18 08:00:00Z
52780386879966