4 Apple TV Rumors You Can Sink Your Teeth Into: Features, Functions and ...

As the blogosphere and Wall Street clamor over the snippets of 'news' leaking out about plans for the iPhone 6 and 'iWatch' wearable, both of which are expected to be big sellers, one of Apple's most successful products has been overlooked.

The Apple TV isn't as public as the other products. People have them at home and use them every day, but no one really talks about it with their friends. But with over 20 million units sold since 2007 ( 10 million in 2013 alone, and 80% year-over-year jump worth over one billion dollars), it's clear that it is in demand as more and more consumers cut the cable cord and turn to independent and web based content providers for their media.

We haven't seen an Apple TV hardware refresh in two years, so it makes sense that an updated device is likely on the horizon. Before we get into the release date specifics, let's take stock of the rumors surrounding new features and functions.

1. Live TV Streaming/DVR Capabilities

There is compelling, if not one hundred percent convincing, evidence that Apple is engaged in high level talks with Comcast about coordinating live television streaming and recording on any new Apple TV, which in this scenario would essentially become a cloud-based set-top box. These talks started with Time Warner, but have moved to Comcast since the two companies announced a merger. In an FCC document released during the merger process, Comcast flat out says Apple is 'exploring' the development of a set-top box.

The Wall Street Journal (link above) reports that the discussions are stalled over issues including how consumers would log in to the service, which company would control that data (BIG DATA!), and connection speed guarantees (basically, Apple TV streams would be part of a prioritized cable connection separate from the 'public' Internet). From an outside perspective, a collaboration seems like a win-win for both companies. Apple gets to offer live TV and DVR services and immediately become a power player in the in-flux television market (through media rights, hardware sales, etc), while Comcast attaches itself to a beloved global brand that stands in stark contrast for the abject hate often directed at cable providers.

2. Motion control

This rumor is also highly likely to turn out true. Apple acquired Israeli 3D sensor technology company PrimeSense, the team behind the original Xbox Kinect tech, in November 2013. And, as AppleInsider reported in early March, a bunch of camera-centric job positions were posted and filled on the Apple TV team:

'Job titles include Camera Algorithms Developer, Camera Tuning Framework Engineer, Media System Performance Engineer. Qualified candidates must have experience working with camera capture frameworks.'

So, cherish your remotes for a while more. Soon, it appears, they'll become a quaint artifact of the past. Although...

3. Touchscreen remote

Now this is a real rumor, totally unsubstantiated, but fun to consider. Even with motion sensing tech (and maybe Siri integration? Again, that's my thought, no evidence at all), it would be surprising if Apple ditched a physical control completely.

German online tech outlet Curved posted these awesome conceptual renderings of a touch screen remote. Even if it doesn't happen, at least we got to geek out!

4. Release Schedule

In February, Bloomberg (link above) reported an April release date, which, though that timeline no longer seems likely, points to at least an announcement in the coming months. This past week, we received the strongest evidence yet in the form of a market research note from KGI Securities. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at the firm, posted a note detailing KGI's confidence in a 2014 release, and shooting down the rumor of a full-fledged Apple-branded television set: 'Considering the high cost involved in creating a TV supply chain, we don't expect the iTV to debut before the TV ecosystem improve.' His note also included a 2014 product release roadmap (below) which, while rumor for now, fits with the information we have so far regarding the other products included.

Amidst the rumors, one thing is for sure: we will see multiple new hardware releases from Apple in 2014. And - will keep you in the (infinite) loop until the moment the announcements come.

HTC One M7 vs HTC One M8: Which to Buy, What's the Difference (comparison)

Back in March, HTC unveiled a better version of the last year's flagship device, the HTC One M8. Since its launch, we've done a few comparisons to help users find out about the big differences between the HTC One M8 and flagship devices from other OEMs.

However, if you're still hooked up with the last year's HTC One M7, and want to know if its really worth upgrading to the latest and greatest offering from the Taiwanese OEM, read on.

Amazing Build Quality and Design

Before I proceed, let me tell you one thing: both devices are amazing - in terms of hardware, software, build quality etc. Coming over to the build and design, HTC One M8 looks strikingly similar to its predecessor, and features an all aluminum body, but it's a bit more polished and better. They both look great in hand, and HTC revealed the latest HTC One M8 in a few new color options, including gray, gold and the traditional silver color.

HTC One M7 received a lot of recognition across the globe because of its beautiful design, and was also named as the best smartphone of 2013 at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in February.

HTC One M7 measures 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm and weighs 143g, while its successor is 146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm and weighs 160g. The latest flagship device is a little heavier, but thinner, and the difference is minute when it comes to weight.

Bigger Display, But With The Same Resolution

HTC One M8 comes with a slightly bigger 5-inch display with a 441ppi pixel density compared to 4.7-inch in its predecessor with 468ppi pixel density, but it still boasts the same resolution.

The different in the screen size shouldn't bother users, but they should get a some what similar screen area due to the inclusion of on-screen navigation buttons.

Comparatively Faster

This is one of those areas which received the biggest bump when it comes to technical specifications and performance of the device. HTC One M8 is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz with 2GB of RAM, compared to the Snapdragon 600 on its predecessor with the same amount of RAM.

The new processor makes it a lot faster compared to HTC One M7, and offers a good user experience, no matter which app you to try to run or task you perform.

Storage

The all new HTC One M8 comes with 16GB of storage on board, compared to 32GB on its predecessor. But, there's a major change here: the new HTC One M8 comes with microSD card support of up to 128GB, a feature which was missing in the One M7.

It's not just the microSD card support, HTC One M8 comes with 65GB of free Google Drive storage as well which helps users save their data in the cloud so its accessible no matter which device they are on.

Duo Cameras

Image via HTC

This is another major change in the latest flagship device. HTC One M8 comes with an improved Duo Camera - although it's still UltraPixel. The camera is accompanied by a depth sensor with UFocus which lets users focus on an element in a photo, while the remaining part is blurred out. It's not just uFocus, the new camera comes with an array of editing features to improve the picture quality.

The new HTC One M7 also features a 5MP front-facing camera compared to a 2.1MP one found in the last year flagship.

Other Changes, Software, Nano-SIM and more

HTC One M8 comes with the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Sense 6.0. The HTC One M7 is also running the latest KitKat update, but it features Sense 5.5 UI, but worry no more as HTC has promised to deliver the latest Sense 6.0 to the device in the coming months.

The new flagship comes with support for a nano-SIM card, while the HTC One M7 came with micro-SIM support. But, that's not a pretty big issue as it can be handled easily, or you could just get a nanoSIM from your carrier.

Additionally, the HTC One M8 comes with other software improvements which are not present in its predecessor, with the most interesting one being Motion Launch. It lets you turn on the screen and perform a few tasks without pressing any button, unlock device, and more. The HTC One M7 will not get the Motion launch due to hardware limitations.

As far as the battery is concerned, the HTC One M8 rocks a 2,600 mAh battery which is 40 percent more efficient than the 2,300 mAh found inside the HTC One M7. In addition, it comes with an Extreme Battery Saving mode that can extend the battery life of the smartphone to 14 days on a full charge - impressive isn't it?

The new HTC One M8 is available for $199 with a two-year contract in the US, while T-Mobile is selling it for $0 down with 24 monthly payments of $26.50.

Wrap Up

There you go. The new HTC One M8 comes with several improvements and new features when compared with its predecessor. But, if you're thinking whether it's worth upgrading, well, if you ask me, I'd say, Yes. The device looks beautiful, and the internal upgrades will make you notice the difference in first use. Rest is up to you. The handset is available from various retailers and carriers in different regions.

Finally, A Wearable Generator

As we barrel into the future, we're going to need more electricity for all the gear we'll be festooned with. And that's a tricky prospect than it might at first seem; if you're going to wear the technology in question, you shouldn't have to take it off just to recharge it. And a team of researchers in South Korea might have finally solved this problem, with this wearable thermoelectric generator.

Heating Up

As you may have guessed from the name, this particular generator is powered by your body heat. It's actually not a new idea; scientists have been studying thermoelectric concepts for decades. But until now, wearing one on your body was limited by the materials available; inorganic materials generated more power, but were too bulky and rigid, while organic materials didn't generate enough power to be viable. So how to beat that? New materials!

Body Glass

They pulled it off by using glass fabric. It manages to solve two problems with one material; the fabric won't let go of the heat it collects, and its flexibility makes it simple to use and to wear. With that in place, the researchers were able to create a highly efficient thermoelectric generator that could be glued to any place on your body.

Body Heat

This doesn't mean you'll be wearing Google Glass powered by your own body heat tomorrow. This is still a prototype and the team is still working on various issues surrounding, well, strapping something that leaches your body heat to you. But it's undeniably a breakthrough that's likely going to be developed into an actual product, since it has applications everywhere from outdoorsmanship to wearable computing. Don't be surprised if, sooner rather than later, the wearable gear you buy doesn't even have a USB port to charge it up, thanks to this research.

Amazon Smartphone Set For September 2014

Last week, Amazon turned heads with its announcement of the Fire TV set-top box, a relatively low-stakes play that generated both high levels of interest and mixed reviews. 'It's a set-top box, save your excitement for something bigger.'

Well...over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that everyone's favorite online marketplace will announce it's first flagship smart phone in June, 2014, as 'part of a braod push into hardware that would pit it against' Apple and Samsung. Them's fightin' words!

According to WSJ sources, developer demos have already begun, and the phone would come to market in September, likely setting it in direct competition with Samsung, Apple, Google, Huawei, HTC and others for holiday season sales. The report claims the phone 'hopes to distinguish' itself with 'a screen capable of displaying seemingly three dimensional images without special glasses' and 'retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras...to make some images appear to be 3-D, similar to a hologram.'

In this writer's opinion, a few nifty hologram tricks won't be enough to make Amazon's first phone play a hit. Retina-tracking tech, one assumes, would be used to scroll or manipulate the screen using eye movements, which would be a major first in smartphone tech. But, as with most nascent technologies, it's yet unclear if such a system will work smoothly in a wide-release consumer product. In fact, evidence points to the contrary: HTC's EVO3D, which included a glasses-free 3D feature, and Samsung's Galaxy S4 both included eye tracking, yet only in certain apps and to ill effect. The trend hasn't been a hit, else more phones would be in on the action.

What is clear (though not included in the report), is that Amazon's business model is significantly different, at least on the surface, from its competitors. Rather than derive the majority of profit from the device sales, Amazon views the devices as access points to Amazon's web-based, but increasingly real-world, services, like Amazon Fresh.

But do consumers want what is basically a constant advertisement in their pocket? Commenters on C-Net (who are obviously not a random sample of American consumers, but still) point out Amazon's lack of third party app support on the current Fire tablet line (no Google Maps, for example), and bemoan the Amazon's sales motive; Combat_Wombat writes, 'Amazon's tablets are geared towards one thing: selling you Amazon stuff. People don't want their phone trying to get them to buy stuff from one firm all day.'

How pervasive is this sentiment? And will it change rapidly? Amazon is banking on the answer being yes. With Apple's app store dominating the (admittedly newer) Amazon app store five-to-one, and new, larger iPhone's on the way, it seems Amazon would be misguided in attempting to follow the same path. Perhaps the company is wise in using its hardware to increase use of its other services, like Instant Video (and its slate of new original 'TV' content). Apple set the model by building an immersive ecosystem of hardware and software that consumers both felt comfortable in and never had to leave. Amazon has and is growing the software half of that equation, and, though its hardware half has been relatively narrow in scope to date, the company is clearly ready to double down and step out of the url.

New Contact Lenses Will Give You Infrared Vision

Admit it: You want superpowers. It's human to look at Spider-Man swinging between buildings or Superman soaring through the air and think 'Man, I want to do that.' Alas, we are not quite there just yet. But we are getting closer and closer to giving human beings the ability to see in infrared with just their contacts.

Hot, Hot Heat

You might be wondering how your flimsy contact might ever contact the necessary bits and pieces to detect invisible light spectra, and the answer is 'graphene.'

What, you might ask, is graphene? It's a carbon allotrope that's essentially a honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms. Everything built from carbon, from carbon nanotubes to diamonds, is built on graphene. And it turns out the stuff is highly useful.

Carbon Copy

Graphene happens to react to infrared light; we've known that for years. But the response wasn't great, so the team at the University of Michigan that developed the sensor took another approach and measured how the light affecting the graphene affected a current running through it. Essentially, there are two sheets of graphene with an insulating layer between them. As the infrared light hits the first layer, it releases electrons, which head towards the second layer, which has a current running through it. Measuring the response there gives the data needed to create an infrared camera effect.

Seeing In The Dark

It's always reasonable to ask about the real-world applications of academic work, and in this particular case, there are a lot of them. For example, fitting your camera with an infrared attachment would be a matter of clipping on a lens filter, and doctors can use this technology to monitor your circulation. And, yes, there are 'commercial applications.' Basically, sooner rather than later, you're going to have contacts that let you see formerly invisible light.