RTX 5090 may be NVIDIA's biggest ever gen-on-gen performance uplift, with GPU on track for 2024
NVIDIA's Blackwell graphics cards of the GeForce variety are on target for later this year, and are set to offer the "biggest ever" generational performance lift from Team Green, if a new rumor is to be believed.
This comes from AGF on X (formerly Twitter), a leaker who has been quiet for some time, but has just appeared back on the scene.
In a fresh tweet (highlighted by RedGamingTech over on YouTube), AGF claims the gen-on-gen performance boost will be the largest stride forward NVIDIA has ever taken - at least in the contemporary era of GPUs, we assume - mainly because Blackwell was initially designed to go up against a monster RDNA 4 MCM flagship graphics card.
Samsung's budget-oriented Galaxy Z Fold 6 will lack S Pen support, report claims
While Apple continues to refuse to enter the foldable smartphone market companies like Samsung and Huawei are going all-in. We're getting ever closer to the expected launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 lineup, and while there has previously been a single phone there will likely be two this time out. Now, a new report claims that one of those phones won't have a key feature that has previously been a cornerstone of the Galaxy Z Fold family.
With Samsung expected to try and make one of the two Galaxy Z Fold 6 devices cheap enough to appeal to a whole new audience, it's now been said that the company intends to drop support for the S Pen on that model. The stylus will continue to be supported on the high-end version, thought to be called Ultra, but those who look to save some cash are going to have to make do with stabbing at their phone screen with their finger rather than the S Pen which will be available to buyers of the more costly model.
That's all according to an ETNews report which also notes that a report by the display analysts at DSCC expect Huawei to surpass Samsung in the first quarter of the year in terms of global foldable smartphone market share. That's a big deal for Samsung and would mark the first time that there has been such a thing in the cards. The Huawei Mate is thought to be the reason behind the switch, but Samsung will hope that the launch of its Galaxy Z Fold 6 lineup can swing things back in its favor. That might explain the two-pronged approach here.
An 18-karat gold Apple Vision Pro? If you have to ask how much, you probably can't afford it
The Apple Vision Pro definitely isn't an impulse purchase for most people thanks to its $3,499 starting price. But that price could well turn out to be cheap when compared with the price that will likely be charged for a special 18-karat special edition version that is already being offered by Caviar.
Caviar is of course the Russian outfit that has built itself a reputation for launching custom phones and other devices the likes of which few can realistically afford. The company takes high-end iPhones and covers them in gold and leather as a matter of course, but things have been taken to a whole new level with this special Apple Vision Pro.
This Apple Vision Pro is what Caviar is calling a Rolls-Royce experience thanks in part to a new headband that is made from the legendary Connolly leather, the same outfit that supplies the British Royal Court and yes, Rolls-Royce. That leather is apparently soft yet durable and is considered by some to be one of the finest that money can buy. And now you can get it attached to Apple's spatial computer.
First foldable iPhone tipped for 2026 and to be like an iPad mini when opened
Unlike competitors like Samsung and Google, Apple is yet to enter the foldable phone market, but that is surely going to change sooner or later. Reports have so far suggested that the first foldable device to come out of Apple Park will be something similar to a 20-inch laptop device, but a new report suggests something more iPad-like is in the air.
That's according to a report by The Elec citing Omdia Kang Min-soo. They were speaking at the 2024 Korea Display Conference and when attention turned to Apple's foldable plans, they made it clear that we might not have to wait too much longer for Apple to enter the foldable fray.
According to the report Apple is expected to launch a foldable iPhone in 2026 with a display size of around seven or eight inches. Such a size would make the unfolded iPhone into something more akin to an iPad mini - the current iPad mini has an 8.3-inch display. It's thought that Apple could use the fact that the iPhone can turn into an iPad mini-like device as a key differentiator, especially when compared to competing foldable devices from the companies mentioned earlier. It remains to be seen whether iPad-like features, such as Stage Manager, would make the move to iOS as part of that move, however.
This impressive knock-off AirPods case has a touchscreen borrowed from an old Apple patent
Apple patents tons of ideas all of the time and even incentivizes its employees to apply for patents as well. But not every patent turns into a product that you will eventually buy in the Apple Store, and a lot of them never do. One patent that has so far not launched first surfaced back in 2021 and allowed for a new AirPods case with a touchscreen display on the front. Now, it seems while Apple didn't launch such a thing, someone else did.
Counterfeit Apple accessories and devices are nothing new of course, and the United States says that it deals with hundreds of thousands of counterfeit AirPods reaching its shores every year. But there's so far been nothing quite like this.
The fake AirPods case was posted to the X social network by leaker @lipilipsi and spotted by MacRumors. There's a video that shows the touchscreen in use with various different kinds of information displayed when swiping from side to side.
More macOS Sonoma 14.4 woes - now printers aren't working, either
Apple released the macOS Sonoma 14.4 software update recently and while it brought with it new emojis and support for transcripts in the Apple Podcasts app, it also brought with it a number of bugs, it seems. Recent reports have suggested that the new software update is causing issues with some USB-C and Thunderbolt docks, now it seems printers aren't faring much better.
The previous reports said that some people who connected input accessories like mice and keyboards via a hub were finding that they no longer worked after updating to the macOS Sonoma 14.4 software version. Some also reported the same problem when using their monitor, too. While the problem doesn't seem to be impacting everyone, people have already taken to social media and even Apple's own support forums to report the issue. Now, it seems that people are having similar issues with printers - but it doesn't matter how they're connected to the Mac which rules out hubs, it would appear.
Apple Insider reports that a number of macOS Sonoma 14.4 users have reported that they can no longer print after installing the same update. Posts on Reddit and again, Apple's own support forums, suggest that the problem isn't one that users can easily fix. According to one Reddit post, macOS Sonoma 14.4 removes the core CUPS software that is required for printing which in turn means that there is no way for the Mac to talk to the printer and ask it to do its job.
Continue reading: More macOS Sonoma 14.4 woes - now printers aren't working, either (full post)
Popular OmniFocus Mac, iPhone, and iPad task manager app comes to Apple Vision Pro
OmniFocus is a task management app that has been around for what feels like forever, and it quite possibly has actually been around that long. It's already available for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the web - and now it's also available as a native visionOS app on the Apple Vision Pro for the first time.
The update, which is available for download from the visionOS App Store as OmniFocus 41 right now, joins other OmniGroup app OmniPlan and is sure to not be the last Apple Vision Pro app from the long-time Apple platform developer.
In a blog post detailing the new update, OmniGroup says that this release includes all the same functionality that was introduced in OmniFocus 4.0 across the other platforms but with a decidedly spatial twist. As an example of that, bad counts now float over the Perspectives Bar in a three-dimensional space in a way that simply isn't possible on other platforms. The Inspector and commonly-used buttons are also in a new location outside the application window, something else that couldn't be done elsewhere.
Apple's iPad Air could be the next tablet to make the OLED switch after iPad Pro
As Apple reportedly gets ready to launch its first iPad with an OLED display in the form of the 2024 iPad Pro, a new report claims that the high-end tablet won't be the last of Apple's lineup to make the switch to the new technology.
The report, which is based on research by Omdia that was first picked up by The Elec, claims that Apple will start to look towards the iPad Air as the next tablet to move to OLED after the iPad Pro, but it won't happen just yet. Alongside the new OLED iPad Pro, Apple is tipped to be ready to launch new iPad Air models within weeks, likely alongside the new iPad Pros, but they will continue to use the existing LCD displays.
So when should we expect the iPad Air to also make the move to OLED? Omdia researcher Kang Min-soo, speaking on Thursday at the 2024 Korea Display Conference in Seoul, said that the researchers at their firm believe that Apple will launch an OLED iPad Air in 2028. However, the technology won't be quite the same as the higher-end, and more expensive, iPad Pro.
TikTok wants users to call their Senators to stop it being banned in the US
The House of Representatives has voted on a bill that could result in TikTok being banned across the United States, and now the app is requesting users contact their Senators to tell them "how important TikTok is to you".
The message from TikTok is the second to be pushed out to users requesting them to contact their representatives to tell them how much they like TikTok, as the first message asked users to call House representatives. However, the prompt for calling lawmakers may have backfired on the company as officials have now claimed TikTok is attempting to "interfere" with the legislative process, as offices were inundated with calls, many of which were from teenagers.
The latest prompt from TikTok stated, "The House of Representatives just voted to ban TikTok, which impacts 170 million Americans just like you." For those that don't know, the bill has been passed in the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate where if its passed will then go to President Joe Biden who said he would sign it into law. If completely passed TikTok will have six months to sell itself or be hit with a nation-wide ban.
Engineers release terrifying and impressive video of a robot talking like a human
NVIDIA and Microsoft-backed humanoid robot Figure has published a new video of what it calls "Figure 01", a humanoid robot powered by OpenAI technology designed to simulate speech.
Figure, which raised $675 million in Series B funding at a $2.6 billion valuation received funding from companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI's Startup fund, NVIDIA, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and much more. The goal of the company is to develop "next-generation AI models for humanoid robots" and judging by the latest video posted by the company they are well along the way of achieving that.
The new video shows an engineer chatting with Figure 01, with the engineer asking the humanoid robot, "Can I have something to eat?" to which the robot responded, "Sure thing," and then proceeded to hand over a red apple. Figure 01 was then asked why it "did what it just did" while it was picking up trash from a table. The robot explained that it gave the engineer the red apple as it was the "only edible item I could provide you with from the table."