Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suffers catastrophic failure during flight test

It’s been a bad week for commercial space flight. Earlier this week, the Antares rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded on takeoff and now Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is confirmed destroyed. Unlike SpaceX’s Dragon or the Antares rocket, SpaceShipTwo was designed to be lifted to launch altitude by the purpose-built transport aircraft, White Knight Two.

It’s currently being reported that one of the two pilots was killed, while the other is being treated for serious injuries, but as with most sudden-event reporting, a great deal of contradictory information is still zinging around the airwaves. Some reports indicate neither pilot has been found, while the BBC is claiming one is still alive.

Virgin’s official Twitter account noted the initial release at 10:07, the ignition of the rocket seconds later (same time stamp) and officially noted the explosion (defined at that point as an “anomaly”) at 10:13 AM. All reports indicate that the explosion happened relatively soon after engine ignition.

Meanwhile, photos of the wreckage have already surfaced online:

As anomalies go, that one is a doozy. Virgin is promising an update and statement, but has only said it will work with authorities to investigate the spacecraft’s destruction and is principally concerned with the fate of the two pilots.

Today’s launch was supposed to be a triumphant return to powered testing for the first time since January. Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic conducted successful unpowered test flights of the suborbital spacecraft and had even joked about taking Richard Branson into space as a Christmas present. The company has drawn the ire of critics who claimed its much-publicized pre-sales events, in which celebrities and the rich and famous paid to reserve seats on hypothetical flights, were little more than fundraising efforts on the backs of credulous enthusiasts.

The original SpaceShipOne won the coveted Ansari X Prize for successfully reaching space twice in two weeks; SpaceShipTwo was based on that design. Virgin Galactic had previously hoped to begin manned flights within 2015, but that effort will likely be halted as all eyes turn to post-launch analysis and disaster response.

An interview with Zoltan Istvan, leader of the Transhumanist Party and 2016 presidential contender

ExtremeTech has never been particularly interested in politics. That being said, as the focus of politics and politicians inexorably shifts towards technology, we might just jump in the water for a dip.

Many might imagine that concerns of a more socio-political nature — like who is able to accrue what particular powers or possessions, and from whom — would persist independently of technological influence. Others, like the Transhumanist Party founder Zoltan Istvan, might offer that socio-political issues already are, at heart, technological issues. Now seizing the day, and a rapidly expanding number of like-minded transhumanists, Istvan has announced that he will be a contender in the 2016 US presidential race.

If you haven’t heard of transhumanism, or you’re not quite sure what it means, I suggest you readour introductory story about transhumanismbefore diving into the rest of this story. In short, though, transhumanism (sometimes referred to as H+) is about improving or transforming the human condition through technology. Brain implants, genetic engineering, bionic limbs, indefinite life extension — these are all examples of the topics (and elective surgeries) that a transhumanist would be interested in.

The Transhumanist Wager

In his recent book The Tranhumanist Wager Istvan outlines three laws:

1. A transhumanist must safeguard one’s own existence above all else.
2. A transhumanist must strive to achieve omnipotence as expediently as possible — so long as one’s actions do not conflict with the First Law.
3. A transhumanist must safeguard value in the universe — so long as one’s actions do not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

If energetically adopted, these deceptively simple maxims ultimately compel the individual to pursue a technologically enhanced and extended life. Zoltan and other supporters of transhumanism have come to see the choice to accept or reject these principles as something far more fundamental than the choice between liberal or conservative principles. In other words, it is a more compact predictor, a simpler explanation of your worldview, motivations, and actions than any current party provides.

It is for these reasons that Zoltan has founded the Transhumanist Party and is now taking this first major step to grow it. At this point in the game, the next major step — getting access to all the state ballots — could prove challenging. With these ideas in mind, we present an interview with (possibly) the next US president: Zoltan Istvan.

Zoltan Istvan

Why did you decide to run for the US presidency?

Zoltan Istvan – The most important goal of the Transhumanist Party and my 2016 presidential campaign is to spread awareness of transhumanism and to address the issue that society will be greatly changed by radical science and technology in the next 5-15 years. Most people are unaware how significant these changes could be. For example, we might all be getting brain implants soon, or using driverless cars, or having personal drones follow us around and do our shopping for us. Things like anonymity in the social media age, gender roles, exoskeleton suits for unfit people, ectogenesis, and the promise of immersive virtual reality could significantly change the way society views itself. Transhumanism seeks to address these issues with forward-thinking ideas, safeguards, and policies. It aims to be a bridge to a scientific and tech-dominated future, regardless what the species may eventually become.

While the Transhumanist Party has almost no chance of winning this election, its goal is to get on as many state ballots as possible, so people will see its promise and recognize what it stands for. By doing so, we’ll let citizens know an exciting political movement is afoot that focuses on using technology and science to enhance the human species. And maybe sometime in the future, many people will want to join it. Furthermore, I’m hopeful other political parties will take notice of transhumanism and incorporate its ideas into their own philosophies.

On a final note, it’s my hope that others will start to run for various political offices, both locally and nationally, under the Transhumanist Party banner. This way we can show the country that future politics should be far more science and technology inspired. This would be a great step for the direction of the America.

Xbox One readies shift to 20nm – but can a smaller node help it match the PS4’s performance?

Ever since the Xbox One and PS4 were unveiled as being based on 28nm technology, it’s been clear that both Microsoft and Sony would transition to smaller nodes as soon as those technologies were ready for prime time. It now looks as though Microsoft may make this jump before its rival. A sharp-eyed member of the Beyond3D forum picked up on the LinkedIn profile of one Daniel McConnell, an SoC designer at AMD, which discusses how he, “Successfully planned and executed the first APU for Microsoft’s Xbox One game console in 28nm and a cost-reduced derivative in 20nm technology.”

So what could it mean for Microsoft’s console to make a quick jump down to 20nm? In theory, such a shift could give Microsoft several advantages. Power consumption and die size both come down modestly at 20nm, which improves yields and price structure. The system chassis could theoretically be redesigned with new features or MS could target a cheaper model with certain capabilities removed. In the past, both Microsoft and Sony have used these periodic revisions to target modest improvements to storage capacity, performance, peripheral hookups, or other similar options.

The current Xbox One SoC – a 28nm APU made by AMD

But I think there’s an interesting question here, that strikes at the concept of what a console actually is and what Microsoft can or can’t get away with doing. For decades, consoles have been presented as fixed units. Sure, the external shell and some of the I/O hookups might change over time, but an Xbox 360 purchased in 2005 should be just as fast as an Xbox 360 bought in 2014. Consoles have been inviolate, even as PC hardware shifts fairly rapidly.

As Microsoft looks at its plans for a 20nm die shrink, it has to be asking if there’s a way to change the Xbox One’s design to better match the PS4. And it probably can — as we’ve previously discussed, there are two unused GPU partitions on the system that would give it a significant GPU performance boost. It might also be able to increase the size of the shared ESRAM cache.

The problem, though, is optics. Early adopters of the Xbox One can’t be particularly pleased that they bought a now-useless doorstop in the form of Kinect 2.0. No one is going to be happy if Microsoft rolls out a new version of the Xbox One (Xbox 1.5?). And the company would risk bifurcating its dev teams between haves and have-nots. For a company whose message has already been badly diluted and confused, the presence of two different types of console would be problematic at best. Furthermore, McConnell’s profile makes it clear that Microsoft chose to drive engagements that would minimize costsover increasing performance in future iterations of the SoC.

Xbox One internals [Image credit: iFixit]

We’ve toyed with the idea of upgradeable consoles in other posts, but after the problems the Xbox One has had with brand and message, I think shifting the system’s design now would only confuse and frustrate users further. 20nm die shrinks are also expected to be relatively modest, with the following 14/16nm technology delivering more raw performance and the bulk of improved thermals.

What about DDR4?

One intriguing option Microsoft might take would be to outfit the console with DDR4. There’s been a great deal of discussion over whether or not the Xbox One’s quad-channel DDR3 memory bus is a problem for most games, with some general consensus that it likely is. Microsoft could close this gap, at least in theory, by upgrading to a faster form of DDR4. 8GB of DDR4-2700 or even DDR4-3200 would improve memory bandwidth by 25-50%. The question, however, is whether games could be programmed to run equally smoothly on both sets of hardware.

Again, that’s problematic. If memory bandwidth is really the issue, Microsoft might wind up having one console that can run 1080p safely, while the other is stuck in 900p territory. Is it possible to build a resolution toggle into games? PCs certainly have done it for years, but it’s not clear if this is possible on the console side.

Microsoft could theoretically swap out the DDR3 on the Xbox One for DDR4 without changing any of the underlying specs, but I suspect this will be difficult. DDR3 and DDR4 have very different latencies and matching the two well enough to make them identical at the design level might be more trouble than it’s worth.

Watch out: If you installed the PS4 2.0 firmware update, don’t use Rest Mode

Remember the big PS4 2.0 firmware release that shipped earlier this month? Well, it turns out there is a bug in this update that can prevent the PS4 from waking properly from Rest Mode (i.e. hibernation, sleep). Affected users are being required to hard boot their systems, and that could potentially cause major problems. There’s no official word on when we’ll see a bug fix, but thankfully there is a workaround for the time being.

Earlier today, I saw a report on CNET regarding a bug in the latest firmware that prevents the PS4 from coming out of Rest Mode. I’ve been using firmware 2.0 “Masamune” since it was released, and I’ve been using Rest Mode on and off since then without any issue. Incredulous, I grabbed my DualShock 4, and jammed on the PlayStation button. Nothing happened. I touched the power button, and the screen remained blank. I decided to hard boot the machine, and I was finally greeted with a screen scolding me for powering off thePS4 improperly. It did a quick scan of the file system, and everything worked out for me this time. Luckily, nothing was ruined.

Of course, not everyone will be so lucky. Hard booting can cause serious problems, and lead to corrupted data. If you’re currently running the 2.0 firmware, you should refrain from using Rest Mode. When you’re done using your console, turn it off completely. Until Sony issues a patch, consider Rest Mode armed and dangerous. It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s a lot better than dealing with an unresponsive PS4.

If you’re having problems getting your console to boot properly, Sony recommends using safe mode to fix your issue. If you’ve already been bitten by this bug, I recommend that you wait until Sony releases a patch, and then sideload it onto your PS4 with a USB stick to prevent further headaches.

Combine this firmware faux pas with the Driveclub disaster, and October has proven to be a difficult month for Sony. Of course, this isn’t the first time Sony has pushed out a bad update for its consoles. Just last year, firmware 4.45 caused huge problems for PS3 owners. This just serves as a reminder that blindly installing updates isn’t a good idea. Next time, let’s wait a few days before we install that big, feature-rich firmware update.

Your next smartphone or EV will recharge to 70% in just two minutes, thanks to new lithium-ion battery tech

Scientists at Nangyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can be recharged to 70% capacity in just two minutes. In addition to being able to charge your smartphone or electric car in just a few minutes, this new lithium-ion battery (LIB) can also endure more than 10,000 charge/discharge cycles — or about 20 times more than current LIBs. Perhaps most excitingly, though, NTU’s new Li-ion tech has already been patented, is compatible with existing battery manufacturing processes, and has “attracted interest from the industry.” Unlike many other lithium-ion battery advances, this one might actually hit the market within a couple of years.

As you’re probably aware, modern life (perhaps a little unnervingly or depressingly) is inextricably linked to batteries. How long a device lasts on battery power, and how long it takes to recharge, have a direct impact on most aspects of our work and social lives — and it’s only going to get worse as wearable computing, electric vehicles, and the internet of things take hold. While we do occasionally see incremental changes and improvements to battery technology, we are still mostly beholden to lithium-ion battery tech that was commercialized by Sony way back in 1991. NTU’s new lithium-ion battery design, which allows for ultra-fast recharging and extreme endurance, could be the big breakthrough that we desperately need.

Titanium dioxide — otherwise known as that cheap white powder that’s used in paint, sunscreen, solar panels, and more.

NTU’s new battery, developed by Chen Xiaodong and friends, replaces the LIB’s customary graphite anode with a gel of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes. It’s news to me, but apparently titanium dioxide — a very cheap, plentiful substance that you might know as titania — is very good at storing lithium ions, and thus electrical charge. By using a nanostructured gel, the surface area of the anode — and thus its ability to quickly pick up lots and lots of lithium ions — is dramatically increased. The NTU research paper seems to mostly focus on the process used to create these titanium dioxide nanotubes. In short, though, they just stirred a mixture of titanium dioxide and sodium hydroxide — at at just the right temperature, the stirring encourages the TiO2 to form long nanotubes. Suffice it to say, this simple process is “easy to integrate” into current production processes. [DOI: 10.1002/adma.201470238 - "Nanotubes: Mechanical Force-Driven Growth of Elongated Bending TiO2-based Nanotubular Materials for Ultrafast Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries"]

Read: Stanford creates ‘Holy Grail’ lithium battery, could triple smartphone and EV battery life

Currently, one of the biggest problems of lithium-ion batteries is that they can’t be charged very quickly. By replacing the graphite anode with NTU’s titanium dioxide gel, the researchers say they’ve created LIBs that can be recharged to 70% capacity in just two minutes. Furthermore, because the new gel is much more resistant to microfracturing and dendrite formation, the new batteries have extreme endurance of over 10,000 charge/discharge cycles — about 20 times more than current LIBs. This second feature is obviously big news for electric vehicles like the Tesla Model S, which will need a costly replacement battery pack every few years. “With our nanotechnology, electric cars would be able to increase their range dramatically with just five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for current cars,” says Chen. The first feature — ultra-fast recharging — is awesome news for just about everyone.

NTU Singapore says the new LIB technology has already been patented (presumably the method of making TiO2 nanotubes), and has attracted interest from the industry. Chen says the first generation of fast-charging batteries should hit the market within two years. In the meantime, software-based fast charging solutions and power-saving modes should keep us out of the electro-mobility chasm for a little longer.

Assassin’s Creed Unity locked to 900p @ 30 fps, due to Xbox One and PS4′s weak CPU

Ready for yet another Assassin’s Creed game? Too bad! Ubisoft is releasing Assassin’s Creed Unity$59.96 at Amazon on the Xbox One and PS4 later this year, but it might not be the next-gen experience you’ve been hoping for. A Ubisoft representative caused an internet uproar earlier this week when he explained that the game is currently limited to 900p at 30 fps on both consoles. Sub-1080p game releases are slightly disappointing in general, but the specific wording around this game lead many to believe that the PS4 edition is being intentionally hobbled for the sake of platform parity.

In an interview at Video Gamer, Ubisoft’s Vincent Pontbriand explains the large amount of AI computation required for Assassin’s Creed Unity is what’s impacting performance the most. The CPU — not the GPU — is the bottleneck here. If that’s true, that certainly explains why both versions of the game are running at a lower resolution and frame rate. While the PS4 does have a superior GPU, both consoles are using very similar AMD Jaguar CPUs.

The crux of the issue comes down to the way Pontbriand explained the limitations. Specifically, he said “We decided to lock [both versions] at the same specs to avoid all the debates and stuff.” To some, that was PR-speak for “The PS4 is being hobbled to make it look on par to the Xbox One version.” However, that doesn’t actually seem to be the case.

Read: Xbox One vs. PS4: How the final hardware specs compare

In a statement made to Kotaku, a Ubisoft representative unambiguously states “We did not lower the specs for Assassin’s Creed Unity to account for any one system over the other.” Considering that Pontbriand claims in the original article that the engine could run at 100 fps on the current hardware if the bottleneck around AI computation wasn’t in the mix, I believe Ubisoft’s denial. This seems like a legitimate limitation of the CPUs in the current crop of consoles — not a back-room business deal.

It is notable that it’s the relatively wimpy Jaguar CPU that’s being scrutinized, and not the usual my-GPU-is-bigger-than-yours argument that has dominated Xbox One/PS4 hardware spec debate so far. If developers are already running into issues with complex CPU-limited tasks, then it doesn’t bode overly well for the rest of the eighth generation.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring issue for this generation of consoles. For many developers, there is a choice that has to be made between next-gen graphics or next-gen gameplay. Ubisoft is obviously willing to sacrifice frame rate and resolution in favor of drastically improved AI, but that seems to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many gamers and members of the enthusiast press. Frankly, it’s just disappointing to see so many games fail to hit 1080p60 in a world where 4K televisions and high frame rate video are proliferating so quickly.

Android 5.0 Lollipop: All the details and features of Google’s sweetest treat yet

Google revealed many details about the new version of Android a few months ago, but we didn’t get a name — it was simply “Android L.” Now there’s finally a name and a version number to go with it. Android 5.0 Lollipop is a seismic shift for Android in both design and features. With all the details of Android 5.0 now in the wild, it’s time to tell you all about the latest, largest, and greatest Android release yet. Buckle up and sit back: There’s a lot of awesome new features to run through.

Materially different

Google’s last design language was known as Holo, but that has been replaced by Material Design. This was thoroughly previewed when the developer preview was released, and Google went on to update the design guidelines for developers to start making Material apps. However, Google is stressing something new with the unveiling of Lollipop — consistency across devices.

From your phone, to your tablet, to your watch, to your car,  to your TV — it’s going to be Android Lollipop all the time. Well, as soon as your device maker gets around to pushing out an update. There will still be manufacturer skins, but Google is trying to create a vibrant new UI that OEMs will have a hard time covering up. The use of “hero” colors in apps is an example of this. The header color will carry over to the status bar (if the developer supports it), and that color is then shown in the header when you open the app switcher. OEMs loveto skin the app switcher, but doing so now will mean taking away useful new UI cues, so why bother?

The preview of Android L came along at a time when there were almost no Material apps to test, but that won’t be a problem when Android 5.0 starts rolling out. It wasn’t clear last spring just how important (and cool) animations were going to be in Android 5.0. Developers have been trying to come up with ways to fake all the subtle button morphing and panel layering of Lollipop on KitKat devices, and these do add something, but Android 5.0′s native support for Material Design is going to make even cookiecutter apps looks amazing. The updated UI samples and upcoming SDK are looking great.

Battery life fixes

Android phones have long suffered from battery life issues caused by the way apps and services can behave in the background. Any app can be granted the power to wake up a device and keep it awake (called a wakelock). This is an important feature of the platform, but sometimes apps are coded poorly or there’s a minor incompatibility that causes a device to stay awake too long. Android 5.0 is supposed to prevent that while also providing you more information about when you’ll have to charge up.

Google is also introducing a power saving mode, which has always been missing from stock Android. It’s not as extensive as what Samsung or HTC are doing with their low-power modes, but it’s a start. You’ll be able to restrict syncing, background data, and screen brightness when you need to eke out a little more battery life. This mode seems to have the same basic options as it did in the preview, but it’s probably tuned better.

The battery use menu has also been revamped with a better graph containing information about which apps and processes are causing drain, rather than just foreground tasks. You also get estimates of remaining battery life based on current and past usage patterns, and a time until charged reading when plugged in. That’s especially cool for devices with Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 2.0 feature, like the Nexus 6 (which calls it Turbo Charger).

Notifications

One of the headlining changes available in the preview of 5.0 was the updated Notification system. The entire look and feel of notifications on Android is changing with easy access on the lock screen, a revamped pull-down menu, and a new heads-up style floating notification that pops up at the top of the screen.

The changes to the layout and location of notifications were already known from the preview, but they are no less notable now. Lock screen widgets are gone in Android 5.0, but that’s probably a worthwhile tradeoff. Lock screen widgets never really took off and having easy access to notifications — even on secured devices — is a big deal. One tap on a notification and you can unlock the phone to the corresponding app.

The final announcement of Android Lollipop includes a few new features of notifications. For one, notifications will be intelligently ranked based on the contact they are from or the app that produced them. So a text message from a favorite contact is at the top and that nagging alert from a social game is down at the bottom (you should really turn those off).

Also new is Priority Mode, which sounds fantastic. Basically, the volume slider has a setting for limiting notifications to only important items. So the text message from above would get through, but the other stuff doesn’t bother you. This appears to be an expansion of the Do Not Disturb setting from the preview, but much more refined.

Security

A recent development in Android land is the news that Android 5.0 will include encryption by default, something that has made the intelligence and law enforcement communities none too happy. You can encrypt an Android device right now, but it’s actually quite a pain. You need to plug the phone in and leave it to do its thing for at least 30 minutes. If something goes wrong, your data could be forever lost.

On Android 5.0 this will happen automatically from the start, so you don’t have to worry about anyone harvesting your data if the phone is lost or stolen. Even if you have a lock screen, unencrypted data can be accessed with a variety of workarounds, but there’s no good way to break the kind of strong cryptography utilized by Android.

If you do lose the phone, the new version of Android comes with factory reset protection or a “kill switch.” It’s an opt-in feature, so it won’t happen automatically like with iOS. You’ll be able to set the phone or tablet to require your Google ID and password to trigger a full wipe of the system. That means a stolen or lost Android Lollipop device is a useless brick to anyone but you.

Google is also confirming that Smart Lock will come to stock Android. This was discussed at I/O 2014, but didn’t show up in the preview. Smart Lock is a way to automatically disable your secure lock screen when a trusted Bluetooth device is paired. For example, you could set your Android Wear watch to automatically bypass the lock screen when it’s connected. Lose that connection and the phone will ask for a password again. You can do the same thing with a fitness tracker or even a Bluetooth headset.

Google’s Nexus Player: Fourth time lucky in the living room, or just YASTB?

Along with the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, Google has also released its umpteenth attempt at taking over your living room: the Nexus Player. The Nexus Player, made by Asus and Google, is technically the first device to run Android TV — a version of Android 5.0 Lollipop that has had its interface specially tailored for use on your TV. Outwardly, it would appear that the $100 Nexus Player is just YASTB (yet another set-top box) like Amazon’s Fire TV or Apple TV that’s months or years behind the competition — but who knows, maybe there’s a method in Google’s incessant living room madness?

Way back in 2010, there was Google TV — a cut-down version of Android that essentially just put the Chrome web browser on your TV. Google never really had a strong strategy in place for Google TV, and it was crippled by a lack of content (all of the major content providers except for Dish have blocked it). Unperturbed, Google, Logitech, and a handful of smart TV makers released a few versions of Google TV, but eventually retired the product in 2013. Next up unto the breach was Chromecast — a simple HDMI dongle that allows you to stream content to your TV from your PC or smartphone. Chromecast has certainly been well received among nerdy, power-user types, but it hasn’t exactly revolutionized the living room for mom-and-pop consumers. At some point, there was also the Nexus Q — but Google doesn’t like us to talk about that particular misstep.

Google is back yet again with Android TV and the Nexus Player. Android TV appears to be a full version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, meaning it can download and install apps from the Play Store, including streaming services like Netflix and Hulu — and you can buy or rent a movie, of course. Google Cast (the tech underpinning Chromecast) is integrated. Android TV can be controlled with a remote control, an app on your phone or tablet, or a gamepad (in the case of the Nexus Player, there’s a $40 gamepad sold separately). Like Google TV, a number of TV makers will integrate Android TV into their smart TVs (expect to see lots at CES 2015), and there’ll be third-party Android TV set-top boxes from OEMs as well.

Curiously, like Google TV, the Nexus Player is actually powered by an Intel Atom processor — a quad-core Valleyview Bay Trail part clocked at 1.8GHz. There’s 8GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi, and as far as I can tell no SD card slot. As I mentioned previously, there’s an optional gamepad that you can buy for $40 (pictured below). I’m sure Android gaming on the Android TV will be at least as good as on the Ouya.

Boy was the Nexus Q beautiful — but it was useless, too

So far, so good. Wait, did I say good? I meant bland. Bear in mind that the Nexus Player costs $100 — $15 more than the Amazon Fire TV, $5 more than the Roku 3, or a full $50 more than the Roku 3500R HDMI dongle/streaming stick. I’m really not sure what Android TV brings to the table, other than tighter integration into Google’s larger ecosystem — a feature that might be beneficial on your smartphone, but is probably detrimental in the living room where Amazon has better content deals in place. Android TV might become interesting at some point — perhaps when you have a full complement of other Nexus/Android Lollipop devices — but for now it feels like Google is just trying to keep a hairy toe past your living room doorjamb.

The Nexus Player will be available exclusively from the Play Store (and only in the US for now) for $100. The optional gamepad will cost $40. The Nexus Player was originally meant to go on sale at the start of November, but it seems Google has pushed the date back; as of right now, there’s no listed release date.

Apple SIM and the death of the SIM card

Let’s not delude ourselves here: Apple’s iPad event was spectacularly dull. You just know it’s going to be anticlimactic when Craig Federighi forces us to sit through 30-plus minutes of iOS and OS X news before Tim Cook was allowed to unveil the — big surprise — thinner and lighter iPad Air 2, and the sniveling footnote that is the iPad Mini 3. In fact, there is one interesting feature of the new iPads — but it was relegated to a page on the Apple website, rather than shown off on-stage. It’s called the Apple SIM, and it’s the death knell of the humble — if rather annoying — SIM card.

Apple has always had it in for the SIM card. Ever since the first iPhone, which used a fiddly paperclip-actuated SIM holder, Apple has shown that it won’t be beholden to clunky, old, or slow-moving technologies that it has no direct control over. With the original iPad, Apple was the first major device maker to move to the smaller micro-SIM (3FF) standard — and in 2012, Apple forced through a new nano-SIM (4FF) and was again first to market with the iPhone 5. Even now in 2014,

The evolution of the GSM SIM card. It’s hard to believe that the SIM was originally a credit card sized piece of plastic. Shown here, from left to right, are the standard SIM (1FF), mini (2FF), micro (3FF), and nano (4FF).

In each successive case, it has always been about making Apple products smaller, thinner, and lighter than the competitors. SIM cards, with their fixed dimensions and the removable tray, are a straight-up design constraint. There’s no getting around it: As it stands, you simply cannot make a device thinner than a SIM card tray, and a significant amount of design and manufacturing time has to be invested into placing the SIM slot (both on the logic board and externally on the chassis) and ensuring it’s reliable. Moving parts are thebane of industrial design.

There is an alternative to the SIM card, of course: the embedded-SIM. Rather than including a removable SIM card and tray mechanism, the manufacturer can solder a SIM card permanently onto the device. Not only does this remove the need for a SIM card tray, but it also allows for the SIM itself to be reduced to just a tiny chip on the logic board (there isn’t actually much in a SIM card, but because it has to be held by clumsy human hands they can’t be shrunk down much further than the nano form factor). Way back in 2012, when ETSI started working on embedded-SIM, Apple showed a clear interest in the new standard — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the iPhone 7 or iPad Air 3 debut without a discrete SIM card.

iPad Air 2, showing the new Apple SIM carrier selection screen

For the time being, though, Apple has the next best thing: The Apple SIM. In the US and UK, the LTE versions of the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 will come with a reprogrammable SIM card — the so-called Apple SIM — that can switch to different carriers via the Settings menu in iOS. In theory, this allows you to switch between your AT&T contract and perhaps a pre-paid T-Mobile deal, to get the best of both worlds. In the future, when the Apple SIM inevitably rolls out to the iPhone (presumably the iPhone 7) maybe you’ll be able to open up Settings and select one carrier for cheap international calls, and then switch back to your main carrier for data. And of course, when you travel, rather than having to hunt down a local SIM card, Apple SIM would let you easily use a local carrier for cheap data and calls.

Prior to the iPhone, it was all about removing the battery to insert the SIM card — a constraint that Apple didn’t want to adhere to

The concept of a software-programmable SIM is certainly very cool, and a whole lot more revolutionary than the new gold color option or the inclusion of last year’s Touch ID sensor.

The problem, of course, is that today’s Apple SIM is clearly just a waypoint towards a future where the SIM card is removed from the equation entirely. It might be the iPhone 6S, or maybe the iPhone 7, but eventually Apple will do away with the physical SIM card and tray, replacing it with a tiny chip on the logic board and a SIM/carrier selection screen within iOS. If Apple does it properly and includes every carrier and MVNO you might ever want to use, then we have nothing to worry about — in fact, that actually sounds like a better solution than slotting in new SIM cards.

If Apple exerts some kind of control over Apple SIM, though, or is somehow tardy or restrictive over adding carriers to the selection screen, then you might soon find yourself lamenting the death of the SIM card — for ultimately, that is what this is all about. Apple has forced the adoption of smaller and smaller SIM card standards with the success of the iPhone and iPad, and I see no reason why it would stop with the nano-SIM. If Apple kills off the SIM card, then other device makers will surely follow suit.

New MasterCard combines a fingerprint sensor with NFC

For awhile now, there's been a number of companies trying to simplify payments for everyone. Google did so with Wallet and, most recently, Apple announced it would be doing something similar with the soon-to-be-launched Apple Pay, among others. Not surprisingly, MasterCard's, synonymous with paying for stuff, is working on a product of its own. In partnership with Zwipe, a company that focuses on biometric tech, MasterCard has built a charge plate with a built-in fingerprint sensor and NFC, albeit for trial purposes. The Zwipe MasterCard, as it is currently known, is said to be extremely secure -- all data is stored directly on the card, rather than an outside database, for example.

Samsung revamps its lower-end Chromebook with faux leather

It's taken a while, but people finally seem to be embracing Chromebooks as the low-cost laptops that they were designed to be. Samsung's already earned our plaudits for this year's Chromebook 2, but what if you just don't have $400 to spend on a new piece of hardware? Never fear, for the company has also refreshed the lower-end model from 2012 with better specs, but the same $249.99 price-tag. The low cost doesn't mean that this new (old) Chromebook can't be stylish, however, as Samsung has coated the top lid in the same faux-leather backing that we've seen on plenty of the company's other gadgets.

Facebook now actively seeks password leaks to protect its users

Facebook knows that password leaks endanger its users, even if it's another website that's been hacked, because people tend to reuse their log-in credentials (remember that recent Dropbox issue?). That's why it has developed a process that actively monitors news of huge security breaches and scans "paste" sites like pastebin, which hackers typically use to distribute username and password dumps. Upon finding a collection of email addresses and passwords, the system uses an automated process to check them against the social network's user database. Facebook says that doesn't mean it has copies of people's passwords in plain text, though: it encrypts or hashes stolen passwords first before comparing them to similarly encrypted log-in details. In the event that the system does spot an exact log-in combination that's also used on Facebook, it walks the user through changing his password the next time he logs in.

Apple announces new iMac and Mac Mini

The most eye catching reveal was the new iMac with Retina Display. The display features a huge 5120 x 2880 resolution that packs in 14.7 million pixels, which Apple is referring to as '5K'.

If 4K just isn't enough for you, Apple hopes that the 5K resolution of the new iMac will tempt you instead. It means you can view and edit 4K video full size whilst leaving room on the display for tools and apps.

Launched 30 years after the first Mac, Apple has crammed some impressive components into the new iMac, with a choice of a 3.5Ghz Intel Core i5 or 4GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM as standard and an AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics card to handle the ultra high resolution.

It's shipping today with a base price of $2499. Whilst this is still a high price tag, Apple hopes that people will look at the prices of 4K TVs and decide to go with the more versatile iMac.

The Mac Mini also got an outing today with some updated features and a new more wallet-friendly price.

It now comes with fourth generation Intel Core processors that excel at graphics performance. Wireless AC Wi-Fi and two Thunderbolt 2 ports are also included. The standard model features a 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive starting at a suggested retail price of $499, which is $100 cheaper than the previous version.

If you're after a more powerful machine, you can get one with a 2.8 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 8GB of memory, Intel Iris Graphics and a 1TB Fusion Drive starting at a suggested retail price of $999

Like the new iMac, the Mac Mini starts shipping today.

These new products will be able to interact each other as well as the iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 thanks to Apple's latest operating system, the mobile iOS 8 and OSX Yosemite, which Apple announced would be available today for absolutely free.

Getting Apple's devices to work seamlessly together has been a focus for Apple, such as using Airplay to stream media from an iPhone to an Apple TV without needing to connect to Wi-Fi, or sending and receiving texts or phonecalls from any Apple device.

Along with the announcement that OSX Yosemite will be launched today for free, the iOS 8.1 update will be available for free from October 20.

Apple iPad Mini 3 vs Apple iPad Mini 2: What's new?

We loved last year’s iPad mini, even going as far as to award it the prestigious 5-star seal of approval in our official review. So to say we’re excited about the 2014 update is an understatement.

But, what really sets the iPad mini 3 apart from its predecessor? Let’s compare the two and see what’s new.

Improved Features

Headlining the new features on the iPad mini 3 is something we were hoping would be included in the 2013 model, and that’s Touch ID. We’ve had Apple’s fingerprint scanning tech on two generations of the iPhone now and now it has finally made its way over to both the iPad mini 3 and the iPad Air 2. There is a slight visual change with the addition of the sensor, as the classic home button has been tweaked with a sapphire glass coating and aluminium ring.

Touch ID adds in a number of handy features, aside from using it to unlock your slate, with our favourite being able to use it instead of a password in updated apps like 1Password and Scanbot.

The iPad mini 3 will also ship with iOS 8.1 out of the box, Apple’s first major update to the operating system that has caused much controversy since its release last month. Along with notable bug fixes, iOS 8 brings iCloud Photo library to everyone, but it's still in beta.

In the camera department things look very similar to last year, there's still the 5-megapixel shooter on the back, 1.2-meg Facetime HD camera up front and it'll shoot 1080p video.

Screen tech

Both previous iterations of the iPad mini have come with 7.9-inch displays with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the new version doesn’t change anything there. That means the iPad mini 3 boasts a resolution of 2048 x 1536, the same as the iPad mini 2 and the iPad Air.

It if it ain't broke, don't fix it

We’re yet to see a major redesign for the iPad mini, as this new model still sticks to the same blueprint as its predecessors. Actually, everything is the same - it weighs the same (331g) and has the same thickness (7.5mm), making it thicker than the full-size iPad Air 2.

Even though rumours seemed to suggest that Apple might be doing away with the rotation lock switch on the side, we’re happy to confirm that it is still sticking around.

Gold is also joining the colour options available for the iPad mini 3, giving you another choice if you’re not a fan of Space Grey or Silver. Or if you just want to match that new iPhone 6 you picked up last month.

Under the hood

Last year’s iPad mini 2 saw quite the jump from the original mini, taking the same internal specs from the iPad Air and squishing them into the much smaller form-factor. An A7 64-bit processor and 1GB RAM, along with the 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of internal storage options were the order of the day, but what’s changed this time around? Well nothing really.

Apple didn't divulge all the specs for the iPad mini 3, in-fact they barely mentioned it at, but the Apple website confirms that the iPad Mini 3 has the same A7 chip with a 64-bit architecture and M7 motion coprecessor as last year's iPad Mini.

Wi-Fi has been given a boost too, to the ac standard, which should speed up all those downloads.

Apple has seemingly decided that its small slate is about as good as it can be at the minute, as the changes we've seen here are few and far between. Touch ID is nice, but is it enough to make the masses upgrade? We'll have to wait and see.

You can pick up an iPad mini 3 from £319 for 16GB, £399 for 64GB and 128GB for £479. Add £100 extra if you want to upgrade to the model with 4G internet.

Apple iPad Air 2 review: Hands-on

But as Tim Cook said, how can you improve on what people were calling the best tablet on the market? It’s not like it can get much thinner or slimmer while preserving the screen size, right?

 

Read more: Apple iPad mini 3 review: Hands-on

Well, no. Wrong. The new iPad Air 2 is 18% thinner than before – almost to the point of it being worth risking it without a case, such is the impressive frame on offer here.

Well, if you're one of those that is only going to use this tablet at home, then the good news is it's the perfect thing for it.

The iPad Air 2 is very much the darling of the Apple ball, with the thinner frame dazzling in the hand, and the chamfered edges adding a new premium edge.

Read more: Apple iPad Air 2 vs Apple iPad Air: Should you upgrade?

Sure, there's not a lot different here, but what can Apple really do? The thinness and the weight of the tablet makes it very tactile indeed, and the new camera will (unfortunately) entice a new wave of users to start using the new iPad Air as a camera.

The really cool thing about using the iPad Air 2 is the screen is enhanced on a tech level - the amount of air in between each component has been reduced to zero, according to Apple at least.

The result is richer colours and fewer reflections - and at least comparing it to the iPad mini 3, which is essentially the iPad mini 2 rebadged, it's much easier to view web pages and whizz around on the Air 2.

The other big thing that go me slightly excited, although for no reason, is the A8X processor included. I say for no reason simply because there's nothing right off the bat that really can make full use of it - but the demos we saw of real time video editing with really rather powerful effects certainly impressed.

Early verdict

The iPad Air 2 is the perfect tablet for those that have been holding on to an older device and are quietly hoping their loved one picks up on the subtle hints to buy them a new slate this Christmas.

Sure, it's not a massive upgrade on the original iPad Air, but for the swathes of people that didn't buy that model but fancy a new device, this is the perfect mix of longer battery and improved design in a class-leading tablet.

Apple iPad mini 3 review: Hands-on

Coming in at £319, it's the same price as last year's model, but where that was the iPad Air shrunken down into  more impressive frame, this time we've got, well, the same the iPad but with the ability to check it's your finger.

Read more: Apple iPad Air 2 review: Hands-on

That means no zero-gap screen, no improved A8X chip (the mini 3 is stuck on the old A7 that debuted last year) and while the new iOS 8.1 update brings time lapse and panorama to the mix, the slow motion video is gone due to the lack of grunt.

There are some upgrades here: you can now get it in gold and the shell is slightly refined with a chamfered edge along with an improved back.

But beyond that, there's very little on show here that makes it easy to see where the extra cash is coming from, especially when last year's model is now on sale for a lower price. The TouchID extra does allow you access to more secure apps, as well as paying for goods with your digit from the sofa, but beyond that it's hard to see who would want the new model when the cheaper one is out.

Early verdict

It's hard to work out the iPad mini 3. It's a good tablet only in the sense that the last model was very good indeed. But where that stunned by shrinking down the awesome bits of the iPad Air into a tiny frame, the iPad mini 3 is just a rebadged version that brings a fingerprint scanner into your life.

The full review of the tablet might reveal some hidden treasures, but for now it's hard to see who would want the iPad mini 3 when the older version still exists on the market.