Episode 88 - Apple Rises, Vine Falls
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(music one)
Welcome to episode 88 of Geek Bytes Podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia……I’m Edgar Acosta
Every podcast we bring you the roundup of the week’s best Geek and Tech news, then we discuss that news and anything else we’re interested in that week.
In Geek News this week, we’ll talk about Apple and Microsoft product announcements, the death of Vine, Automated Beer Delivery, the new Lando Calrissian and much much more..
Now let’s Begin our show with Geek News
(Music 2)
Geek News
We begin with…
Apple Announcements
Apple announces new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and A New Apple TV App.
Touch Bar (Play Video 1)
Replaces the function keys and changes based on software surfacing certain menu items and controls.
- The TouchBar is a Retina display with multitouch, responds to gestures and taps.
- Apple also added touchID fingerprint sensing to the right of the touch bar. In place of the power button
New MacBook Pros
It’s been 4 years since the last MacBook Pro and some things have improved.
It has a new T1 secure chip, intel Core i5 and i7, and a 67% brighter display with 67% better contrast, 25% more colors. The trackpad is twice as big as the last gen of MacBooks and it has second gen butterfly-mechanism keyboard (found on 12-inch MacBook) Battery life up to 10 hours.
The 15-inch has core i7 Radeon Pro GPU with Polaris and up to 2 TB SSD, 16 GB RAM. the 15-inch is 15.5 mm thick and weighs 4 pounds. Speakers claimed twice dynamic range. Starts at $2399
The 13-inch has i5 or i7 Intel iris graphics 8 GB RAM. The 13-inch model is 14.9 mm thick and weighs 3 pounds. Starts at $1799
Both have four thunderbolt 3 ports that support USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort and more and all can charge the laptop. Headphone jack. No SD card slot. The new MacBook Pros come in silver and space gray.
Apple TV
Apple added a TV app to Apple TV. The new app accesses TV shows and movies from across installed apps including on demand and live streams. Partners at launch include CBS, HBO NOW, Hulu, Starz, Showtime and several apps from cable channels.
Significantly Netflix was not announced. The TV apps is also coming to iOS. Siri now supports launching live channels as well including schedules. The TV app is coming to Apple TV, and iOS in December in the US.
R.I.P. Vine
To help make the company more profitable, Twitter said it will discontinue the Vine app in the coming months A source told the Verge some of the Vine staff was laid off Thursday. Twitter will keep the vine postings and vine website online after the service is shut down. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-results-idUSKCN12R1GW?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
Self Driving Beer Delivery
(Play Video 2)
Uber-owned Otto has completed its first self-driving truck shipment.
An 18-wheel Volvo semi carried a shipment of Budweiser beer 100 miles from a weigh station in Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs without human intervention.
A human driver had taken it from the Anhueser-Busch plant in Loveland to the weigh station and remained on board during the autonomous leg of the journey.
A Colorado state patrol vehicle followed the truck to monitor the journey. http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/25/13381246/otto-self-driving-truck-budweiser-first-shipment-uber
Microsoft VR and stuff
Microsoft had some great announcements this week
Microsoft also showed viewing Remix3D objects in HoloLens Windows VR headsets coming from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer that require no external sensors, starting at $299.
Microsoft also announced the SurfaceBook i7. As the name implies it has an Intel i7 processor, double the graphics performance of the previous Surface Book and promises 16 hour battery life. The Surface Book is up for preorder from Microsoft.com and ships in November for $2,399.
(Play Video 3)Microsoft announced the Surface Studio an all-in-one desktop. It has a 28-inch 192 ppi PixelSense touchscreen that is 12.5 mm thick and capable of 13.5 million pixels. It also has an Intel Core Processor, 32GB of RAM, a 2 TB hybrid hard drive and an Nvidia GTX 980M GPU. A hinge on the back allows it to be repositioned and lay almost flat. You can preorder the Studio today for $2,999 though it will only be available in limited quantities. Preorders get the Surface Dial haptic feedback input device for free. Others can buy it November 10th for $99.
https://youtu.be/BzMLA8YIgG0 http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/10/26/13380462/microsoft-surface-studio-pc-computer-announced-features-price-release-date http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/26/13417028/microsoft-surface-dial-announced-surface-event
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/windows-10-creators-update-will-be-coming-for-free-this-spring/ http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2016/10/26/windows-10-creators-edition-brings-game-streaming-custom-tournaments-dolby-atmos-support/
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/10/26/13418678/microsoft-upgraded-surface-book-16-hour-battery-life http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/26/13418440/microsoft-alcatel-idol-4s-vr-headset-t-mobile-leak
Pokemon Scare
Starting Wednesday October 26th through November 1st, Pokémon Go will run its first in-game event. Halloween related monsters like Haunter and Zubat will show up more often and players will earn candy at a faster rate with double rewards for transferring pokémon. http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/24/13380560/pokemon-go-halloween-event-candy-ghosts
Sherlock back in Jan
BBC has announced new episodes of Sherlock are coming to both the United States and United Kingdom on January 1, 2017–barely two months from now.
http://nerdist.com/sherlock-season-4-premiere-date-revealed-in-new-trailer/
Saved By the Bell Dinner
(Play Video 4)
There's a Saved By the Bell-themed Diner in Chicago made to look exactly like The Max diner in the show. It's called Saved By The Max, and it's hilariously awesome. The detail that went into to making this a reality is crazy. It looks exactly like it looked in the classic '90s series.
The menu for the diner was created by Michelin-starred chef Brian Fisher so the food here also tastes great! The restaurant serves dinner every night and brunch on the weekends. The characters from the series even have their own themed dishes on the menu, which you can check out in the menu that I posted below.
Mario Lopez and Mr. Belding even showed up for the opening night.
Donald Glover will play a young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo movie
According to Lucasfilm, the movie, helmed by The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, will depict Lando in his "formative years" as a young scoundrel in the galaxy's underworld.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/21/13362626/star-wars-donald-glover-lando-calrissian-han-solo-movie
That’s it for the show
If you like the podcast and want to help support us you can find out all the ways to do so at geekbytespodcast.com/support
Thanks for watching and listening.
For the Geek Bytes Podcast I’m Ramon Mejia and I’m Edgar Acosta. Now Go Geek out about something.
(Music 4)
Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0