Innholdsfortegnelse for #375 i Techlife News

2018 was a big year for Apple, with leaps forward in its MacBook, iPhone, and iPad lines. Discover what the future holds for the world’s most exciting tech firm by looking at rumored product reveals, analysts theories and shareholder expectations in a special New Year issue. AGGRESSIVE SALES STRATEGY Towards the end of the 2018 season, Apple offered up some of its biggest discounts and upfront savings in the company’s history, a clear sign that the firm was ready to up its sales strategy and adopt a different approach. Indeed, Apple has managed decades of premium pricing and a strict policy on offering no discounts, but its Black Friday sale offered more gift cards and savings than ever before, offering $200 gift cards to savvy holiday shoppers . The iPhone…

VOLANTE VISION IS COMING This year’s Farnborough International Airshow - one of the world’s most closely-watched annual air shows - was unlike any other. Not only did Boeing and Airbus battle it out to unveil their next generation airliners, Airbus with its latest version of the A320 and Boeing’s 737 narrow-body jets, but the UK showed off their next generation Tempest combat aircraft, which will be flying by 2035 . And alongside the latest innovations in air travel, and a performance from The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic team, came a more unusual unveiling. Aston Martin, famed for its luxury high-end cars, used the event to show off its Volante Vision Concept, a product it believes could revolutionize the skies and transform the way we travel from city…

YOUR DATA IS IN SAFE HANDS Data has never been so important. Every time you search for a business on Google, message a friend on Instagram or add an item to your basket on Amazon, companies around the world trade your data, building up a profile of who you are as a consumer to sell more of their products and services, and deliver relevant adverts to you across the web. Without data, Facebook and Google would not be the multi-billion-dollar businesses they are today, and many of our most beloved online services, like YouTube, Gmail, and WhatsApp, would not be free for us to use. However, as consumers become more digitally savvy and brands have an increasing influence on the way we live our lives, it’s never been more important…

GOODBYE, STAN LEE Stan Lee, the legendary Marvel Comics writer, and publisher, has died aged 95. The icon was responsible for characters including Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, and the X-Men, making him a real-life superhero around the world, with millions of adoring fans. In this special edition of TechLife News, we look back on his impressive career and explore how his imaginative mind helped create one of the world’s most successful movie franchises. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Born Stanley Martin Lieber, Stan Lee started his career back in 1939, when he became an assistant at Timely Comics, a firm that would evolve into Marvel Comics by the 1960s. The job paid just $8 per week, and during his early years at the company, he was responsible for filling inkwells, proofreading,…

OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE PAST YEAR CONTINUES As aficionados of all things Apple, it’s thankfully relatively simple for us to look back on an entire year of upgrades, updates, rumor and news each December. In common with all of us, it seems that Apple likes to wind down a little as a given calendar year draws to a close. December, a month steeped in various holiday traditions all over the world, is habitually a quiet time of year for the tech giants. So, what we’ve been doing is looking back on the great year that 2018 proved to be for Apple. Last week we looked at the first half of the year, from the iOS updates of early January, through to groundbreaking and even record-breaking news in June. Here’s a…

CASHING OUT – WHY PHYSICAL MONEY IS IN TERMINAL DECLINE Analysts and financial whizz-kids have been predicting for years that electronic payments will overtake old-fashioned notes and coins but with the rise of Apple Pay, it looks like this will now become a reality. In the UK , e-payments including debit card swipes are set to overtake cash as the most frequently used payment method. In 2006, 62% of all payments in the UK were made with cash. In 2016, that fell to 40%. If current trends continue then the figure could be as low as 21% by 2026. At the same time, the number of times people used ATMs and the amount of cash drawn from them are both falling fast. 2016 saw the lowest number of withdrawals for…

AN AFFORDABLE iPHONE FLAGSHIP When Apple unveiled a trio of new iPhones last month, it was the XR that generated the biggest response. A brand new model with a stunning new design, the XR is considered as a “low cost” version of last year’s iPhone X, but with all of the biggest features we have come to know and love, including facial recognition and Face ID, a stunning all-glass display, and the fastest and most powerful smartphone chip ever included in an iPhone. As the new device gets ready to launch to the public, we take a closer look at the new iPhone XR and explore how the model may, unexpectedly, become one of the biggest selling smartphones in the history of the iPhone. A STUNNING NEW DEVICE Alongside the…

COMMUNICATION REINVENTED Whether you’re sharing your baby’s first steps on FaceTime or collaborating with your business partner on WhatsApp, it’s impossible to deny that technology has changed the way we communicate. Emoji are part of our vocabulary, paying our share of the bill on iMessage is the norm, and augmented reality helps make everyday messages more fun. This week, we explore how our iPhones have transformed the way we speak, look at the immense power of the Chinese messaging app WeChat, and consider where we’re headed in the future… THE RISE OF EMOJI It’s hard to imagine what life was like before we had emoji on our phones. Those grinning yellow faces have become part of our everyday lives - and whether you’re a fan of them or not, they’re…

When Apple first publicly showed off the iPhone X at a keynote last September, executive Phil Schiller hailed the new handset as “all-screen” and “beautiful to look at”, adding descriptively that “the display fits edge-to-edge, top-to-bottom”. He branded this display “the Super Retina display”, reflecting its improvements upon the Retina displays long featured in Apple devices. In all, he hailed the screen as “the first OLED display great enough to be in an iPhone.” GREATEST NITS: WHAT MAKES THE PHONE X’S SCREEN SPECIAL Many people who have habitually bought a new smartphone year-after-year for the last decade might wonder why it took so long for Apple to finally integrate OLED technology into its iPhone screens. After all, OLED technology has been included in Samsung phones since 2008. However, it seems…

FLYING SOLO It’s hard to imagine the internet without Twitter. Whether we’re following a breaking news story, tweeting along to our favorite television shows or watching celebrities argue over music, the social network is a major part of our everyday lives. Whilst Facebook and Instagram are for our friends and family, Twitter is our window to the world - to engage in debates, understand new perspectives and have real-time conversations with people from all walks of life. Twitter was one of the first social networks to make its way to the iPhone with the release of iOS 2, but it was a third-party developer that created the app rather than the company itself. Indeed, Twitter has a history of being open source, and relying on developers to create software for…

LIGHTER, BRIGHTER, AND MIGHTIER Having only just unveiled a range of new iPhones and the Apple Watch Series 4, many thought Apple was set for the festive season. However, the Cupertino firm stayed true to tradition and held their ‘More in the Making’ event this October, introducing a bunch of new hardware for everyday and professional users alike, including an all-new MacBook Air made from 100% recycled aluminum that’s lighter, brighter, and mightier than ever before. This week, we unbox the new device and explore how it not only sports a breathtaking all-glass design but is also helping to save the planet… STUNNING RETINA DISPLAY Over the past five years, Apple has slowly been upgrading its hardware lineup to include Retina displays, first with the MacBook Pro and since with…