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7 of the Most Revolutionary iPhone 6 Features
Sony Agrees To Settlement In 2011’s PSN Data Breach Case
The iOS8 Beta Is Incredibly Buggy And It Costs $99 Too
EU Would Like Google to Make the “Right to Be Forgotten” A Global Thing
Skylens Smart Goggles Enable Pilots to See Through Fog

7 of the Most Revolutionary iPhone 6 Features

Posted: 25 Jul 2014 06:00 AM PDT

As the most highly anticipated iPhone that Apple have released yet, we look at some of the iPhone 6's most revolutionary (potential) features.

Like a Japanese bullet train or that post-holiday season turkey gut that we all get right around the time Santa has scuttled back off up the chimney and away back to Northern climes, Apple are dependable as ever. Every year, come September, the company releases a swish new iPhone to keep our thumbs a-tapping and a-swiping away on a screen and their profits well and truly through the roof. Not that we complain (often) though, as we still seem to go out of pocket just to pick one up. However, despite posting giant profits once again this year, stiff competition from Android and Windows Phone handsets (yes, even Microsoft’s mobile operating system is finding its own), there's now a growing sense of consumer fatigue as Apple have failed to be as innovative as their rivals. So as companies like Samsung and LG take a threatening stance that could genuinely do some harm to Apple's market share, the iPhone 6 could be the most revolutionary iPhone yet.

1. The iPhone 6 Can Help Save Your Life

Well, sort of. With the iPhone 6 Apple will be pushing iOS8, the latest iteration of its handy dandy operating system. Rather than brining cosmetic changes, Apple's stance with iOS8 is genuinely interesting as it puts a huge focus on fitness and health, reflecting the way that so many of us have used our iPhones in the past whether it be from a helpful food tracking app, to a pedometer to something that provides general tips and tricks to improve our bodies. Also included in iOS8, however, is Healthbook, an app so fancy that one of the features announced to developers earlier this year at Apple's WWDC 2014 developer event, is that it will be able to collect data from third-party fitness apps (or even the Nike FuelBand wearable if you so prefer) and send the data off to doctors who can then tell you if you need to go in for a check up or do something about your current habits. There's no word on how effective it will be, but on its own that's a huge, ground-breaking thing that will become available to us.

2. The iPhone 6 Could Have The Biggest iPhone Screen Yet

One of the most likely pieces of info out of iPhone 6 Rumour Town is that Apple's new iDevice will launch in two variations – a 4.7 inch version and a 5.5 inch version. Screen size is hardly a revolutionary game and upping the screen size ante just gets you an upgrade to 'phablet' status anyway, but for the iPhone 6 this would be pretty huge. For one, it would appeal to the Android crowd who have long enjoyed ranges of screen sizes, especially large ones and it also means that for those who like their mobile gaming with a little more oomph in them than Flappy Bird, they'll now have an adequate screen to go along with it. The two version option will also give Apple a chance to to test out the duo business model after their ill-fated iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C experiment, so if they pull this one off we could be seeing more iPhone releases in a year than ever before.

3. The iPhone 6 And Its Bigger, Better Battery Life

Ask any iPhone user and they'll likely tell you that their biggest gripe with Apple's flagship device is its battery life. If you though that the iPhone's battery life sucked like a vacuum cleaner stuck on its max setting, then boy must you have been surprised when iOS7 rolled around and made the problem approximately 300 times worse. Unfortunately, battery life is a delicate balance of the size of the battery and its output and traditionally Apple have sacrificed the latter in order to get the battery in the phone at all. However, this year there was a bit of a technology breakthrough meaning that the iPhone 6's battery could be 15% more powerful than its predecessors and we finally won't have to roam around looking for random USB sockets when our phone hovers dangerously low on the battery side of things.

4. The iPhone 6 And The Sapphire Screen

Yes, it might sound like the title of a budget Harry Potter movie but hear me out when I say that the iPhone 6's sapphire screen could be brill. If not as a back of the box feature then for your wallet as a sapphire glass-built display can make it a lot harder for the screen to get scratched, making it far less likely that you'll crack the thing into a billion tiny, stabby pieces and that you'll have to fork out to get a new one. This rumour has been hovering around since February and one tech blogger tested out what appear to be the iPhone 6's sapphire glass display on video by rubbing the thing with sandpaper. A weird experiment? Indeed, it was but it held its own, which is enough proof for me that the iPhone 6 will be perfect for my clumsy tendencies.

5. The iPhone 6 Could Be So Slim That You'll Forget It's There

It's just as well that the glass of the phone could be a lot more hard-wearing as you'll want at least one other part of the iPhone 6 to be incredibly sturdy if other speculation is to be believed. Some are suggesting that the iPhone 6 will be the thinnest yet (hence the need for those aforementioned tiny batteries to be more powerful than ever), like the tip of your thumb level slimness. I'm not sure if this clarifies as a revolutionary or even 'necessary' feature but when the iPhone 6 inevitability does well and people inevitably chalk it down to the slim aesthetics of the device and how they appeal to fashionistas and appearance conscious consumers, we'll likely see several other phones following suit, which is a bad or good thing depending on how much you care about your phone's general cosmetics.

6. The iPhone 6 Will Let You Buy Things Without Money

Ok, don't get carried I way – I meant physical money. Apple reportedly left out NFC (near field communication) from the iPhone 5S as they wanted to continue being considered as a 'minimalist tech company', whatever that means, but they're apparently throwing that mantra out with the iPhone 6 as it's set to have NFC capability all of its own. What will this let us do? Well most notably it'll mean you can ditch that paper money at home and no longer will pennies get lost in unfortunate trouser pocket holes as in connecting your relevant money details to your phone (via your PayPal or bank account etc.) shops with the tech will let you pay for things with just a swipe of your smartphone. With passwords and whatnot too, that'll even make it harder for you to get robbed of your hard-earned earnings, so the benefits are all round on this one.

7. The iPhone 6 And Automatic Unlock

When Google announced Android L at their I/O developer conference earlier this year, everyone went stark, raving mad over the automatic lock feature which could see the device automatically unlock by swiping a connected wearable over it. Sorry to steal your thunder, Goog, but Apple have recently filed an automatic unlock patent all of their own with Apple's take on it seeing iDevices unlock in designated 'safe areas' such as the user's home or their place of work. Questions have popped up about this one quite a bit – namely, what happens if bad people take advantage of your automatic unlock function – and there aren't any answers to that just yet because of how little we know about the feature or Apple's policies surrounding it, but the chances are come September we'll know everything once Apple release the iPhone 6.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories, New Apple Patent Suggests iPhone 6 Could Pack 3D Photography, iPhone 6 Shows Up on Amazon Japan, Specs and Launch Date Are Revealed

Sony Agrees To Settlement In 2011’s PSN Data Breach Case

Posted: 25 Jul 2014 06:00 AM PDT

2011′s hacking of the PlayStation Network comes back into headlines again, as Sony agrees to a class action lawsuit settlement that could be worth millions.

On Wednesday, the US District Court for the Southern District of California preliminarily approved Sony's offer to a $15 million settlement over the PlayStation Network data breach of 2011, where hackers gained access to customer's personal information and forced the online service to shut down for many weeks.

After the consequences of the breach, which cost Sony in the "billions of dollars" to correct (not to mention a huge kick to the gut reputation wise), you'll remember that the company later publicly apologized and reimbursed PSN users, offering up free games, trial-memberships to PlayStation Plus, and free credit reports.

While a show of good accountability, it did nothing to stop the filing of a class action lawsuit in April 2011 by the Rothken Law Firm of California, who accused Sony of allegedly failing "to take reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data."

Sony denied the allegations being brought up in the class action lawsuit up till now (charges the company cited had been previously dismissed by the trial court), but through Wednesday's actions and wanting to escape further legal costs, the company has agreed to terms with a settlement that still needs to be approved by the judge in charge.

Inevitably, the $15 million settlement is expected to be divvied to all plaintiffs involved through the means of free PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games, free PS3 themes, free subscriptions to the Music Unlimited service and PlayStation Plus, and free funds to the Sony Online Entertainment Station.

There will be two different tiers to the settlement reimbursement process though, with those who did not take advantage of the "Welcome Back" benefits package in 2011 given the option to choose from two items from one of the aforementioned groups, and those who did with only one selection.

Both parties will fall under an aggregate cap of $6 million (for the non-Welcome Back group) and $4 million (for the Welcome Back group), and once both claims are reached, all parties will be rewarded one month PlayStation Plus membership.

Awards of real cash value – of up to $2,500 – might be eligible to those who can prove if some form of identity theft was somehow acted upon them. When all affected parties are accounted for, the rest of the settlement ($2.75 million) will be paid in attorney fees per the of terms of the agreement.

The final hearing to the class action lawsuit, putting a thankful end to the circumstances surrounding the 2011 PSN data breach, is expected to commence on May 1, 2015. There, the judge will will assess the reasonableness of the settlement and give their approval.

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The iOS8 Beta Is Incredibly Buggy And It Costs $99 Too

Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:00 AM PDT

After buggy iterations of Apple's new operating system have not impressed, the company release the most stable build of the iOS8 beta yet.

If you want your smartphone usage with a side of encouraging tips to help you lose weight and get your sweatpants on to, well, get your sweat on obviously, then you need look no further than iOS8. Apple announced the latest iteration of their operating system at WWDC 2014 earlier this year, revealing to developers the fitness-related tricks that they had up their sleeves. What will we be able to do once developers have have tested it and tinkered with it? In addition to an app called 'Healthbook', some features include iOS8 being able to hoover up details about our fitness (e.g from third party fitness apps or even the Nike FuelBand wearable) before sending them off to doctors to make sure we don't need to go in for a shot, or any other jabby solutions for our arms. Those features won't be available right now though and you'll actually be paying to bug test the thing.

The reason? iOS8 is still in beta, with iOS8 beta 4 (the one that's available now) reportedly being the most stable build so far after beta 3 received more complaints than you could shake an iDevice out but the list of known bugs as released by Apple themselves doesn’t paint a particularly pretty picture for the operating system that's regarded as reinvigorating for Apple's business after the iPhone itself has been less than revolutionary in recent instances. Furthermore, iOS8 could also power the rumoured iWatch that Apple are said to be working on so they'll definitely want to iron out those kinks as son as possible.

As it stands though, only a few of the bugs seem completely dealbreaking, with some examples including "A restoration of an iCloud backup onto the same device the backup was taken from may not work properly. It may result in crashes of some apps" and changes to the people picker in the address book means that some aspects of it just straight up aren't working (or are breaking when they do). If you want to go rooting around for any harsher bugs than that then you could always test it for yourself by signing up for an Apple developer account which is currently the only official way to gain access to the iOS8 beta. It'll set you back by $99 to do so, so it's probably just best if you wait for the free release later this year, yeah? Full bug list at the source link below.

Source: BGR

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories, Microsoft's Smartwatch Could Look Stunning On Our Wrists In Q4, New iOS 8 Features Announced by Apple

EU Would Like Google to Make the “Right to Be Forgotten” A Global Thing

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 01:55 PM PDT

Every now and then, the European Parliament takes a decision that affects people beyond the borders of the Old Continent. This time, the EU wants Google to give all citizens, not just the European ones, the right to be forgotten.

Ever since Google announced at the end of May that it will give its European users the clean slate, the rest of the world started being envious. The criteria that needed to be fulfilled in order to be granted the right to be forgotten were quite a few, and Google took some security measures to make sure that only the righteous ones have their info removed from the search engine results. Going through all the requests must have taken Google quite a while, but according to a recent report, the search giant granted half of the requests that were processed until now.

Billy Hawkes, the Irish data protection commissioner, pointed out in an interview with Bloomberg that the right to be forgotten cause some stories to gain more public attention than they previously had: “The more they do so, it means the media organization republishes the information and so much for the right to be forgotten. There is an issue there.”

Christopher Graham, the UK information commissioner, mentioned in an interview with the BBC that “The polluter pays, the polluter should clear up. Google is a massive commercial organization making millions, millions and millions out of processing people’s personal information. They’re going to have to do some tidying up. They won’t do all the tidying up that some people might like, because if you embarrass yourself, there’s not much you can do about it… all this talk about rewriting history and airbrushing embarrassing bits from your past, that’s not going to happen.”

Despite all these problems, the EU wants to force Google’s hand to impose a feature (good or bad) to the rest of the world, where to be frank, the European Parliament has no authority.

Cory Doctorow from BoingBoing was right to say that this could lead to a global disaster, as other countries would feel entitled to extend their local measures to affect the entire world. Now that would be interesting to see!

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about how Google gave Europeans the clean slate, and the US Senate bill that could make the kill switch a mandatory feature in smartphones.

Skylens Smart Goggles Enable Pilots to See Through Fog

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 01:16 PM PDT

When not flying over war zones, the greatest danger that pilots could face is bad weather. Luckily for them, a new type of smart goggles called Skylens enables them to see through fog.

Fog is only one of the dangerous factors that could determine a flight to go wrong, others being dust storms and torrential rain. Until now, landing or taking off on such weather conditions was practically impossible, but Skylens turns the table in the pilots’ favor. These new smart goggles are the work of an Israeli startup that thought that pilots could use some help in this department. For the time being, the Skylens smart goggles are only recommended for pilots of small business jets or helicopters, but the future versions of the product (if any) should also have jumbo jet pilots among the target audience of the manufacturer.

The multi-spectral cameras found in the plane’s nose are able to feed video to the goggles. On top of that, such additional information as altitude, speed and an artificial horizon is displayed, so as to help the pilot maintain the plane in a level position.

Dror Yahav of Elbit Systems, the makers of Skylens, pointed out that, so far, the smart goggles have been a success: “We have had 150 pilots try it out in rain, snow, haze and dust on five types of aircraft. They really like it.”

Elbit Systems estimates that the Skylens smart goggles will be made in a marketable form in 2016. Given that there are two years left until this proof-of-concept becomes a reality that pilots can use, the manufacturer couldn’t mention a price.

While most people who have learned about this news appreciated the idea, some mentioned new possible applications for these smart goggles. For example, one commenter even said that the Indian Railways could use such a device, while another one pointed out that Skylens would be great for driving. Regardless of the means of transportation on which the smart goggles will be used, the goal is the same in all cases: to prevent accidents and human casualties.

Best of all, it’s great to see the enthusiasm of people who heard of such news. Necessity is the mother of invention, so similar products will most probably be launched in the near future.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the smart glasses that enable nurses to see through your skin, and the Atheer One smart glasses that enable 3D interaction with Android apps.