Apple to broaden iPhone lineup with more screen

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple is expected to unveil on Wednesday new iPhones, playing up eye-grabbing edge-to-edge screens in a bid to strengthen its position in a largely saturated global smartphone market.

Apple has remained mum about revelations planned for the event at its spaceship campus in Silicon Valley, but the timing fits its pattern of annually introducing iPhone updates.


In a first for Apple, the event will be streamed live on Twitter.

Speculation includes talk that Apple will introduce three new iPhone models infused with features from a premium iPhone X that debuted last year with a $1,000 price tag.


Top among those features will likely be edge-to-edge screens that promise to provide about 30 percent more viewing space without increasing the size of overall handsets.

“I think they are trying to set a new high bar,” analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said of new iPhones expected to offer more display without increasing the size of the handset.

“The big thing is going to be how they fit such a massive screen into such a small device.”


One new iPhone was likely to be priced slightly lower than the X model to “capture the next wave of buyers” in markets such as China, western Europe and the US, according to Moorhead.

While the iPhone has made Apple the world’s most valuable company, worth more than $1 trillion, it has slipped to third place among smartphone makers as Chinese-based Huawei has grabbed the number two spot.

Still, analysts say Apple has a formula that works with a loyal customer base and steady sales.

“Apple doesn’t have to prove anything, other than that they are willing to segment the market more,” Technalysis Research chief analyst Bob O’Donnell said, while pointing out that the company will likely be “offering a wider array of choices.”


Two of the iPhone models predicted to debut on Wednesday were expected to have prices higher than the iPhone X, which has been a hot seller.

While iPhone sales have slowed, Apple profits have risen along with the average purchase price of its handsets.

The newest and priciest iPhone “didn’t help Apple grow its user base but handsomely contributed with dollars to top line, bottom line and market cap,” Counterpoint Research analysts said in a note Tuesday.

Taking on Galaxy

Samsung, the world’s biggest smartphone maker, last month unveiled its latest flagship handset, the Galaxy Note 9, and next month Apple rival Google will hold an event at which it is likely to showcase new Android-powered top-end Pixel phones.

Google took to making its own smartphones to showcase the capabilities of the Android operating system that it makes available free of charge to handset makers. Android smartphones have come to dominate the market.

Apple’s event comes with the global smartphone market largely saturated, without a major catalyst for sales ahead of a likely rollout of 5G, or fifth generation wireless networks, expected in 2019.

Research firm IDC expects worldwide smartphone shipments to decline 0.7 percent in 2018 to 1.455 billion units, with growth likely to resume as 5G devices become available.

“We still believe the smartphone market has some healthy growth in the years to come, although finding and competing in those markets and segments is increasingly more challenging,” said IDC analyst Ryan Reith.

Apple has sold more than a billion iPhones since the first model was unveiled by late co-founder Steve Jobs in 2007.


The company is in the unique situation of controlling the hardware and software in its mobile devices, with content for users required to go through its App Store that takes a percentage of revenue.

Finding new streams

With the smartphone market showing little room for growth, Apple has been working to diversify its revenue streams with software, services and other devices including its smartwatch.

The event may see the Apple Watch getting its first significant redesign since its launch three years ago.

“I think that in the long run the watch will be a much larger business than people give it credit for; where Apple can iterate and grow,” analyst Stephen Baker of NPD said.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has touted fitness and health features of the company’s smartwatch, which dominates that market.

The culture-changing company behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad hit a historic milestone last month, becoming the first private-sector company to surpass $1 trillion in market value.

The landmark was the latest victory for Tim Cook, who faced skepticism when he took over as chief executive in 2011 from Jobs just before his death. /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

Google rules out using artificial intelligence for weapons

SAN FRANCISCO – Google announced on Thursday it would not use artificial intelligence for weapons or to “cause or directly facilitate injury to people,” as it unveiled a set of principles for the technologies.

Chief executive Sundar Pichai, in a blog post outlining the company’s artificial intelligence policies, noted that even though Google would not use AI for weapons, “we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas” such as cybersecurity, training, or search and rescue.

The news comes with Google facing an uproar from employees and others over a contract with the United States military, which the California tech giant said last week would not be renewed.

Pichai set out seven principles for Google’s application of artificial intelligence, or advanced computing that can simulate intelligent human behavior.

He said Google is using AI “to help people tackle urgent problems” such as prediction of wildfires, helping farmers, diagnosing disease or preventing blindness.

“We recognize that such powerful technology raises equally powerful questions about its use,” Pichai said in the blog.

“How AI is developed and used will have a significant impact on society for many years to come. As a leader in AI, we feel a deep responsibility to get this right,” Pichai also wrote.

The chief executive said Google’s AI programs would be designed for applications that are “socially beneficial” and “avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias.”

He said the principles also called for AI applications to be “built and tested for safety,” to be “accountable to people” and to “incorporate privacy design principles.”

Google will avoid the use of any technologies “that cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” Pichai wrote.

That means steering clear of “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people” and systems “that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.”


Google also will ban the use of any technologies “whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights,” Pichai said.

‘A good start’

Some initial reaction to the announcement was positive.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which had led opposition to Google’s Project Maven contract with the Pentagon, called the news “a big win for ethical AI principles.”

“Congratulations to the Googlers and others who have worked hard to persuade the company to cancel its work on Project Maven,” EFF said on Twitter.

Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor and fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, tweeted: “Google’s AI ethics principles owe more to (English philosopher Jeremy) Bentham and the positivists than (German philosopher) Kant. Nevertheless, a good start.”

Calo added, “The clear statement that they won’t facilitate violence or totalitarian surveillance is meaningful.”

The move comes amid growing concerns that automated or robotic systems could be misused and spin out of control, leading to chaos. At the same time, Google has faced criticism that it has drifted away from its original founders’ motto of “don’t be evil.”

Several technology firms have already agreed to the general principles of using artificial intelligence for good but Google appeared to offer a more precise set of standards.

The company, which is already a member of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence including dozens of tech firms committed to AI principles, had faced criticism for the contract with the Pentagon on Project Maven, which uses machine learning and engineering talent to distinguish people and objects in drone videos.

Faced with a petition signed by thousands of employees and criticism outside the company, Google indicated the $10 million contract would not be renewed, according to media reports.

But Google is believed to be competing against other tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft for lucrative “cloud computing” contracts with the US government, including for military and intelligence agencies.                   /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

Pope Francis urges youth to use information technology wisely

 

Pope Francis on Sunday urged the youth to judiciously use information technology (IT) lest "the psychology of the computer let us think that we know it all."

 

Speaking at an encounter with the youth at the University of Santo Tomas, the pope said having many modern means of communication can help but there is a danger of accumulating information.

 

"Today with so many means of communication, we are overloaded with information. Is that bad? Not necessarily ... It is good and it can help, but there is a real danger of living in a way of accumulating information. We have so much information but maybe we dont know what to do with that information," he said through an interpreter.

 

 

 

He warned of the risk of becoming museums of young people who he said have everything but may not know what they want to do with them.

 

The Pope said the challenge is to learn how to love and "through that love, that information bear fruit."

 

"We dont need youth museum but we do need holy young people," he said.

 

Also, he said the youths should learn to use their hearts, minds and hands - "to think, to feel, to do, and all that harmoniously."

 

The Pope also warned against having the psychology of a computer to "think we know it all."

 

"Let us not have the psychology of a computer to think we know it all," he said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com