Warning, this episode may or may not contain a Tim Cook impression.
Sometimes it happens organically, but we make no promises that one will occur.
Viewer discretion is advised. That was a great opportunity for a Tim Cook impression.
Buy your mom an impression. At their It's Glowtime event this morning, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 lineup.
New AirPods and a new Apple Watch, along with old AirPods and an old Apple Watch
that you might have thought was new if you aren't terminally online.
Thankfully, we are. So here's the lowdown. Apple kind of flattened out the iPhone lineup this time around,
bringing the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus two chip generations up from the A16 Bionic to the A18,
which means these new non-pro iPhones will have Apple Intelligence in beta in the US next month.
A lot of that kind of tomorrow energy going on at this event, but we'll get into that.
The non-pro iPhone 16 start at 800 bucks and now have the customizable action button
introduced with last year's 15 Pros, as well as an all new camera control clickable slider button
that's also on the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Max.
It not only serves as a proper shutter button when taking photos in landscape mode,
it can be lightly pressed to bring up additional UIs for fine focusing or changing modes by sliding
your finger, kind of like you would do with physical knobs on a dedicated camera,
evoking memories of the iPod click wheel and Apple's history
of brilliantly emulating familiar hardware on new tech.
Sorry, that sounded sarcastic, but it was genuine. I struggle with giving earnest compliments.
Clicking and holding the camera control button will activate the new visual intelligence feature,
which will let you use a photo to search the web, prompt Siri or chat GPT,
and even add an event from a poster to your calendar.
It's like what Google Lens pretends to be and is actually really cool.
I'm sorry, I just, I don't, I don't know how. So wait, all the iPhone 16s sound pretty similar right now.
Why would I pay over a thousand bucks for the 16 Pro or Pro Max,
other than to get that exclusive color that seemed like it was Poo Brown,
but is actually called Desert Titanium and doesn't actually look like Poo to everyone's surprise.
Well, you don't want the regular old 18, you want the A18 Pro.
It's got a bunch of upgrades that will let the 16 Pros run Apple intelligence 15% faster
than on the iPhone 15 Pro. Not that we would know at this point, it hasn't come out yet,
but the Pros also have larger displays, studio quality mics that enable customized background
noise removal for video recording and upgraded cameras that support recording 4K 120 video.
Hey, if it's good enough for the weekend to film a music video with, it's good enough for me.
Next up, the new AirPods 4 have an H2 chip
and also an upgraded version with ANC and a wireless charging case,
while the AirPods Pros have gotten upgraded hearing testing abilities that help them function
as clinical grade hearing aids. I don't know, sounds like boomer s*** to me.
Apple also showed off the new Apple Watch Series 10 with a bigger display and the thinnest design ever.
It now can run the translate app directly on watch and adds sleep apnea to the list of conditions
it can detect, continuing the watch's transformation into basically the tri-quarter from Star Trek.
At their next event in October, Apple will reportedly unveil new iPads and Macs,
packed with new buttons that activate features that will definitely become available at some point
in the future. Press them to get an estimate on how long you have to wait.
You press the button and it's like, This feature will be available sometime next year.
There's no Tim Cook impression, but that was like almost Craig Federighi.
Your friends and family can now message each other.
An occasional kiss. I want...
Send little kisses over the internet. IFA 2024 kicked off in Berlin last Friday,
and some of the tech there really put the funk in internazionale von KÃ¶stelung.
That's what IFA stands for, by the way, according to Jacob. And the world.
Nanoleaf showed off its SensePlus battery-powered smart switch that it's been working on for eight
years, although that's no guarantee of success as Concord has shown.
The switch uses a proprietary protocol called LightWave to control all Nanoleaf smart lights in
a room, while two configurable buttons on the SensePlus can use matter to control other devices.
Then there's Lenovo's Auto Twist AI PC concept, which has a motorized 360 degree hinge,
allowing the display to follow you around, like it's asking for a restraining order.
I know you said you're done using me first off, but actually I have something to talk to you about.
You like close the window and then like walk away and it's like, is that it?
More helpfully, the laptop can detect when it's not being used
and close itself to prevent any real snoops from gaining access.
Oh, interesting. Meanwhile, Acer showed off a gaming laptop concept called Project Dual Play.
Its touchpad pops out and flips over into a controller that further separates into two
smaller controllers, Nintendo Switch style.
Wow, but if you're into gaming products that actually exist, there's the Techno Pocket Go,
a handheld PC disguised as a chunky gamepad with AR glasses as a display.
It evokes a cyberpunk dystopia, where the majority of the population are forced to use
the younger sibling controller.
If you're more into home gadgets, the wireless power consortium,
the minds behind the Qi wireless charging standard, announced the key standard.
You're supposed to say it the way that other people said the other one wrongly.
Apparently it's called that because it's for kitchens.
Key transmitters can be baked into countertops, and deliver up to 2200 watts to
compatible smart appliances. These appliances will be cordless to make them dishwasher safe,
and to also render them useless if you ever move.
I thought that was a genuine feature. Welcome to an older s*** of your building.
We don't have countertops like that. There is a benefit, though, if you accidentally knock over a blender or something,
it'll stop spinning. Yeah, it'll never spin if you live anywhere else.
Never spin again. On the even weirder side, there's the air purifier table from Switchbot,
the only company brave enough to ask the question,
what if we just made an air purifier, but then we gave it a little hat?
So you think you got what it takes to watch the QuickBits, do you?
Well, feast your peepers on this. AMD's Jack Quinn spilled some big beans this week.
In a statement at IFA, Wynn said AMD will be integrating their consumer and data center GPU
architectures, RDNA and CDNA respectively, into a unified UDNA architecture,
making a more accessible platform for developers, and hopefully,
more effectively competing with NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem.
But it seems AMD won't be competing with NVIDIA's flagship gaming GPUs,
as Wynn told Tom's hardware, TeamRed is reprioritizing mid-range GPUs,
saying, quote, I don't want AMD to be the company that only people who can afford porches and
Ferraris can buy, and that's why their high-end X870E motherboards reportedly won't cost more than
$800. It's a board for the people. For the people in higher tax brackets.
Meta's rumored budget headset, the MetaQuest 3S, is expected to launch on September 25th at Meta's
Connect event, but a render of the headset was recently released online, thanks to reliable
leaker, Meta. The render was originally spotted in the files of the MetaQuest client for Windows,
and posted to Reddit, and it seems to show a design that combines elements of the Quest 2
and Quest 3. Likewise, third-party accessories for the 3S have already appeared on AliExpress,
including apparently real photos of the headset. I don't know, though. This could still all be
just a prank. What if we're all in the metaverse already? I mean, we just don't-
Amazon's Audible has started to invite certain US audiobook narrators to train AIs on their own
voices. Narrators who opt in will be compensated for any audiobook that makes use of their AI voice,
though likely at a lower rate via a royalty share model. Narrators can still choose which
productions get to use their AI voice model, and will be able to use built-in tools to edit the AI
narration to correct things like pronunciation mistakes and pacing. But I mean, at that point,
why not just record the audio yourself? It sounds like you have time.
Well, let me just edit this AI version of me to see if it's any better.
Oh, what was this delivery? What is this guy, an idiot? Sonos is still suffering from its software
issues. According to a report by Mark Gurman, reporting on something other than Apple?
Right. What are you doing, Mark? Stay in your lane. What are you doing, buddy?
The company's app troubles have caused it to delay the launch of two products, one of which is a
set-top box codenamed Pinewood. Sonos is also scaling back production of its Ace headphones,
as they haven't exactly been flying off the shelves. Do you want to buy headphones that
will break in a couple months? For no reason? Worth a shot. Oh yeah, by the way, Sonos makes
headphones if you forgot or were never told. Gosh, I wonder why they aren't selling.
And researcher, and I guess fashion designer, Teresa Barton, is recycling old NVIDIA GT730
graphics cards into purses that cost $1,024 exactly, which is one way to make enough money
to finally afford an RTX 4080. Barton also offers higher-end purses fashioned out of
H100 AI chips for over $65,000. These repurposed GPUs aren't functional, according to Barton,
they're ethically sourced from data-centered dumpsters. But the fan still works, which should
mean your wallet and keys get excellent airflow. I could use that better in my pants, really.
And we'd appreciate more airflow this Wednesday when the next episode of Tech Link drops.
So come on back, if you're a fan. I'm sorry, oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make that
joke. That was not, please. Please come back with me.