Flagship iPhones now expected every 3 years instead of 2..

                     

Currently, Apple develops and sells a major new iPhone every two years. It’s the famous “tick-tock” cycle, where Apple introduces a new flagship like the iPhone 6 and then follows it with an upgrade, the iPhone 6s, before returning to another major release. A new report suggests Apple will bump this “major” upgrade cycle from every two years to every three.

Nikkei suggests that will begin with this year’s iPhone 7, which isn’t expected to offer major upgrades over the iPhone 6s. This thought isn’t new. In fact, most pundits now believe Apple will launch a major iPhone upgrade in 2017 but will be relatively conservative with its changes this year.

What is new is that Nikkei suggests Apple will continue this cycle of launching a flagship every three years instead of every two, due to “smartphone functions have little room left for major enhancements” and “a slowing market.” The report said Apple’s iPhone 7 will “look almost identical” to the iPhone 6s but that it will feature an upgraded camera, improved battery life and water resistance.

Nikkei also provided some insight into what to expect in the 2017 iPhone, again pointing to an OLED panel but also noting it will feature components that allow it to “create more complex tactile vibrations on the display because of a tiny, but high-performance motor equipped inside.”

My guess is that Apple is going to watch the market and will adapt accordingly, depending on what’s available and what it feels it needs to add to its smartphones to remain competitive. That may mean a 3 year term between flagships this year, but Apple could move just as easily back to a tick-tock cycle if it felt it necessary.

SOURCE NIKKEI

Microsoft’s FlashBack tech could give mobile VR a huge upgrade

                         

Microsoft has been putting a big focus on augmented reality with the HoloLens headset, but the company is also cooking up some clever new virtual reality technology. A recent paper published by Microsoft Research, in conjunction with Rice University Ph.D. student Kevin Boos, details a system called FlashBack that could bring high-end VR experiences to cheaper devices.

FlashBack works by compressing detailed 3D environments and saving them to your device where they won’t take up very much space. Then, when you need a specific setting or object, referred to as a “mega-frame,” those files are automatically decompressed. This removes the need to constantly render a VR environment and also means you don’t need a fancy graphics card to make it work.

                         

The result is almost like watching a 360-degree video on YouTube, just interactive. FlashBack can render a large, fast-moving object like a car. It can even recreate massive environments like a basketball arena or an entire Viking village.

                   

The paper claims FlashBack will deliver framerates eight times faster than a mobile device that’s rendering locally. It could also reduce mobile VR latency and energy consumption by a factor of 15 and 97 respectively.

                  

FlashBack is still just a prototype, but it has the potential to revolutionize mobile VR. If Microsoft can get this technology to the market it could have an exciting competitor for Google Cardboard, Gear VR, and even the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

SOURCE FLASHBACK (CACHED), FLASHBACK DEMO