iPhone 8 Dreaming in Full Swing

Apple's latest iPhone was barely out of the gate when rumors began percolating about the company's next new phone.

Although the iPhone 7 garnered mostly tepid reviews when it was released this summer, initial inventories sold out quickly, and the company had to scramble to meet demand.

That demand may have peaked, though, which may be why chasers of the next big thing are looking down the road.

"You can rest assured that next year being the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, Apple will come out with something special," said Wayne Lam, principal analyst for telecom electronics at IHS Markit.

"Whether it's a completely new 10th anniversary model in conjunction with the regular iteration model of the iPhone 7, we'll have to find out -- but most likely, there will be drastic design innovation coming with the iPhones in 2017," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Historically, Apple likes to make a big deal out of decade-length anniversaries," observed Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Since 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, it's easy to assume the company will use the opportunity to prove that it hasn't lost a step, and continues to lead the industry in both design sophistication and delivering value to its customers," he told TechNewsWorld.

Block of Glass and Aluminum

Anticipation for the next model may be higher because the iPhone 7 failed to tick off many items on the wish lists of Apple fans.

"My impression is they were holding back on the 7, so they could make a whiz-bang splash on the 10th anniversary," said David McQueen, a research director at ABI Research.

The next iPhone will be Apple's vision of the smartphone of the future, he added.

"Long term, what the iPhone will be is a block of glass and aluminum with as few buttons, bumps and holes as it can have," McQueen told TechNewsWorld.

Apple may be taking a step toward that phone of the future with the display rumored for the next iPhone. It reportedly will be an OLED display that will occupy most of the front of the phone -- or all of it, by wrapping over its sides.

The OLED part of that rumor is a solid bet, maintained IHS' Lam.

"Apple's move to OLED display is all but assured through our supply-side intelligence," he said. "This opens up lots of design possibilities for them on next year's groundbreaking iPhone design."

Edge-to-Edge Screen

OLED screens have better contrast, brightness and deeper blacks than LCD displays, and they're also more flexible, which would allow Apple to create a curved phone with an edge-to-edge screen.

"I find the edge-to-edge display most credible," Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told TechNewsWorld.

Embracing OLED technology will help Apple keep pace with its competitors.

"Samsung has been doing curved OLED screens for years, so it's not a cutting-edge phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination," noted Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research.

"This is Apple just playing catch-up to other people," he told TechNewsWorld.

The beauty of the edge-to-edge screen is not expected to be marred by a home button or fingerprint reader. Both will be built into the screen itself, rumor has it.

"I'm particularly intrigued by the idea of a display-enabled fingerprint reader," Pund-IT's King said. "That could simplify both the phone design and authentication processes."

Glass Body

Some Apple watchers, including widely respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, believe there will be three iPhone models: two conventional models with 4.7- and 5.5-inch displays, and one with an edge-to-edge rounded screen.

All of the units will have glass bodies to facilitate wireless charging.

Apple's wireless charging is expected to be truly wireless. Existing wireless chargers require a phone to be placed on the charger. Apple's charger will charge a phone through the air for short distances.

"Wireless charging that requires no contact would be a technology innovation," Technalysis' O'Donnell said.

There are some drawbacks to charging devices through the air, he added. It's very inefficient, so it's not the greenest way to charge a phone.

Then there are possible safety issues.

"Power signals flying through the air could freak people out," O'Donnell said.

Need for a Home Run

Many of the rumors about the next iPhone may be unfounded, suggested Kevin Krewell, a principal analyst at Tirias Research.

"The iPhone 8 rumors are all over the place," he told TechNewsWorld.

The phone seems to have every item from everyone's wish lists.

"It's likely two or maybe three of these ideas will come to pass in the next iPhone, but none of them are groundbreaking innovations," Krewell pointed out.

"They're all very nice enhancements and will keep Apple's iPhone competitive with phones from other vendors," he added.

However, that may not be what the company needs with the next iPhone.

"With sales slipping and margins reportedly under pressure, it's important for Apple to come out swinging with the iPhone 8. The company needs to prove that it's still an elemental force in mobile innovation -- not just one of many companies delivering quality products," noted Pund-IT's King.

"Apple is so profitable and so deeply embedded with millions of customers that the company could survive and even thrive if the iPhone 8 fails in the marketplace," he added, "but the same might not be true of company executives tied to the new device. If the iPhone 8 fails to hit a home run, any number of execs could be headed for the showers."

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Facebook Denies Ransomware Infiltration

Facebook on Monday denied that its network and Messenger app were being used to spread ransomware to its users, contradicting the claims of Check Pointresearchers Roman Ziakin and Dikla Barda.

The two researchers last week reported they had discovered a new method for delivering malicious code to machines, which they dubbed "ImageGate."

Threat actors had found a way to embed malicious code into an image, they said.

Due to a flaw in the social media infrastructure, infected images are downloaded to a user's machine, Ziakin and Barda explained. Clicking on the file causes the user's machine to become infected with a ransomware program known as "Locky," which encrypts all the files on the infected machine. The user then must pay a ransom to the purveyor of the malicious software in order to decrypt the files.

"In the past week, the entire security industry is closely following the massive spread of the Locky ransomware via social media, particularly in its Facebook-based campaign" the researchers wrote in an online post. "Check Point researchers strongly believe the new ImageGate technique reveals how this campaign was made possible, a question which has been unanswered until now."

Bad Chrome Extension

Facebook has disputed Check Point's findings.

"This analysis is incorrect," Facebook said in a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by spokesperson Jay Nancarrow.

"There is no connection to Locky or any other ransomware, and this is not appearing on Messenger or Facebook," the company maintained.

"We investigated these reports and discovered there were several bad Chrome extensions, which we have been blocking for nearly a week," Facebook noted. "We also reported the bad browser extensions to the appropriate parties."

Most social media sites, including Facebook, have protections in place to block spam and dangerous file types, said Marc Laliberte, an information security threat analyst with WatchGuard Technologies.

"This most recent attack bypassed Facebook's protections by using a specific type of image file that supports interactivity via embedded scripts, like JavaScript," he told TechNewsWorld. "Facebook has since added the image file type -- SVG -- used in this attack to their filter."

Cloak of Legitimacy

What makes this attack so devious is that it's cloaked in legitimacy.

"The JavaScript embedded in the image is not malicious," explained Alexander Vukcevic, virus labs director at Avira. "It leads you to a website that looks like YouTube."

At the website, you're told you need to download a browser extension to watch video at the site.

"The browser extension then downloads the ransomware," Vukcevic told TechNewsWorld.

Ransomware like Locky has become a big threat to consumers, observed Javvad Malik, a security advocate for Alien Vault.

"Most are not technically savvy to spot or defend against ransomware," he told TechNewsWorld. "While a lot of effort is put into educating consumers around the dangers of clicking on links in emails or opening attachments, there is an inherent level of trust that people put in social media platforms, which is being abused by this current threat."

Consumer Protection

While Ransomware is always a serious threat to consumers, this new twist on its distribution raises the bar even higher, WatchGuard's Laliberte noted.

"Consumers simply do not expect malware to be delivered via a Facebook message," he said. "Most people probably consider social media sites to be a safe space, so the lack of concern and vigilance makes it powerful as a potential infection channel for malware."

For consumers concerned about an ImagteGate attack, Check Point recommended not opening any files downloaded to a device after clicking any image. The same is true for image files with unusual extensions, such as SVG, JS or HTA.

Users also should keep their operating system and antivirus software up to date, Avira's Vukcevic added, "and make backups. Even if you're never infected with ransomware, you never know when something might go wrong with your machine."

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JuJu Offers Speedy Model-Driven Software Approach

The JuJu cloud platform developed by Canonical integrates a wide variety of cloud services and servers on both public and private clouds using an innovative model-driven software approach.

That success has changed fundamentally the nature of software operations as organizations move to cloud-scale services, according to Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical.

The impact on cloud operations is very much like the transition that happened with the big data community, Shuttleworth told technology writers and analysts during a teleconference earlier this week.

"That brought about a velocity of change in the data field -- the same thing we believe is happening with the cloud software," he said.

Juju is an interesting approach to managing installation and configuration in a visual or model-driven way, observed Al Hilwa, program director for software development research at IDC.

"In this sense, it brings many of the benefits of modeling which have typically been used in software development to the realm of software configuration and life cycle management," he told LinuxInsider.

What It Does

Canonical developed JuJu as an open source service orchestration management tool. The platform facilitates fast deployment, integration and scaling of software using a wide choice of cloud services or servers.

JuJu is built around a service modeling tool that provides a quick way to model, configure, deploy and manage applications in the cloud with only a few commands. JuJu can deploy hundreds of preconfigured services, OpenStack, or an organization's own code to any public or private cloud.

"The big challenge today is for corporations to operate the same way on the public clouds and the private infrastructure," said Shuttleworth. "JuJu solves that problem."

JuJu lets users integrate complex software to scale very quickly. It gives operators an effective way to share the cost of integration and operations across all of the consumers of the software, he said.

How It Works

JuJu employs preconfigured bundles and customized charms, which are available from the JuJu app store.

Charms are sets of scripts that simplify the deployment and management tasks of a service. They are regularly reviewed and updated.

Bundles are collections of charms that link applications together. That enables the deployment of whole chunks of infrastructure in one action.

"While the tool is competitive with other configuration management tools in some ways, it is really intended to operate at a higher-level of abstraction across multiple software domains," said Hilwa.

Juju's success will rely on two factors, according to Hilwa. One is its support for multiple environments. The second is the ecosystem support it receives to install and connect more and more products.

Costly Operations

"The cost of operating software today is shifting. Organizations have to learn to optimize operations cost rather than purchasing strategy effectively," said Shuttleworth.

Ubuntu is the platform that most people use as they move into the cloud. That is true just as in the previous generation Linux started replacing Windows and Solaris, largely on RedHat and Suse, he said.

"In this generation, Ubuntu is very much the lead platform," Shuttleworth claimed. "We see more than 50 percent of software consumers, like big banks, moving to Ubuntu today. They are moving to Ubuntu because of the operations in the cloud we are talking about today."

Playing With Models

Software is becoming more complex because of microservices, noted Shuttleworth. Today's software has massive components that run on hundreds of nodes instead of a few nodes. The pace of change has never been seen before.

"The way to handle all this is to change to a model-driven operation," he said.

JuJu is the open source version of the model-driven software approach used for data operations of companies like Google, Amazon and Goldman Sachs, noted Shuttleworth. All of these large companies have their own homegrown versions.

"JuJu solves the problem of how do you operate on a public cloud and on a private infrastructure in exactly the same way," said Shuttleworth. "The big picture story today is operations across two widely different domains."

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Gadget Ogling: Big Bendy Screens, Chatterbox Robots, and TV in the Cloud

Welcome, dear friends, to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that's distracted itself from the shellshock of the election just long enough to cast a beady eye over the latest gadget announcements.

Spied from inside the comfort of a warm blanket this time around are a curved monitor, a robot with Alexa integration, and a cloud-based DVR from TiVo.

As always, we are sworn to inform you that these are not reviews, and the ratings reflect only how much I'd actually like to try each, assuming my nerves hold up long enough to handle any gizmos.

Around the Bend

A little more than four months after moving to a new apartment, I'm at long last about to start setting up my office. Goodbye, Ikea dining table. Hello, fancy new desk. When I actually have my new setup, I'd like to have a monitor at long last to complement my laptop. AOC's latest is under serious consideration.

The AG352QCX, pictured above, is a 35-inch, curved behemoth with two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 input, VGA, DVI, audio in and out ports, and DisplayPort 1.2. That's plenty enough for most people's purposes, though a second HDMI port would have been welcome.

Do note that when I say I'll have an "office" for "work," I fully intend to spend plenty of time in that little nook playing games as well, so a monitor designed for interactive action is high on the priority list. The 200-Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time, along with FreeSync (which smooths gameplay and reduces screen tearing), should help make sure I get the bad guys before they get me.

The 1080p resolution is not fantastic for the price -- Pounds 699, approximately US$866 -- when we're edging toward 4K and Retina displays becoming commonplace. That's more a concern for desktop usage, though. The lower resolution will be less noticeable for high-refresh rate gaming taking up the entire screen.

It fits my needs, giving me extra screen real estate while working, and a monitor on which to play games in the off hours. It's probably a little too large for me, though, even if the curved screen does look great.

Rating: 4 out of 5 I'm Working, Honestlys

Rolling Robot

Regular readers may note that there is virtually zero chance of me giving a low rating to a cute robots with giant eyes, even if those peepers are on a screen and not physical eyes.

Omate's Yumi has a 5-inch display for a face and can show different expressions, while it has a light ring to alert you to notifications. More practically, it has Alexa integration: A microphone and speakers let you issue commands and receive feedback from Amazon's personal assistant.

It has wheels, so it is somewhat mobile. Unfortunately, it can't rotate its head, and while there's a camera for video calls, Yumi needs to stay in place for that, so you can't chat to a relative through the robot while walking around your home.

The little cherub is winsome and with the helpful Alexa integration, I would not hesitate to bring one home. Still, there are better-looking alternatives already on the market, and I suspect plenty more are on the way.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Adorabots

TV Everywhere

Less of a product announcement than a leak, the first few details of TiVo's cloud-based DVR have seeped into the world. It seems the Mavrik saves all the shows you want to watch later in the cloud, and you'll be able to stream them whenever you want.

Certainly, there are streaming services around, like Hulu and HBO Go, which provide consumers a way to watch shows soon after they air. These services are decentralized, though, and without paying for a whole bundle of them, it's unlikely you'll find it easy to watch all of your favorite shows.

A system like Mavrik should cut out the wait time, and save the shows you want instead of relying on each service's cherry-picked portfolio -- as long as you have the cable package to match, that is.

The box connects directly to a TV antenna, according to the leak, though it appears you can stream both live and recorded shows and movies using an app. Mavrik would have been dead on arrival if TiVo didn't allow users to stream content to whichever device they prefer to watch on, so in-app streaming is heartening.

There are other cloud-based DVR systems around, though none really have the brand value of TiVo, meaning this could become a commonplace setup in relatively short order. It will require a subscription, of course, but the likely utility of Mavrik just might make it worthwhile. The cost of the subscription plus a cable package nullifies the convenience for me, but it just might stick for others.

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One of the Best New VR Things: Buying a Car

I had a fascinating experience last week. I got to see and experience the new Jaguar I-Pace, the company's electric answer to the as-yet-unannounced Tesla Y SUV, long before I'll actually get to see the prototype. I didn't just get to see the car -- I got to understand intimately why the car was created and what went into its design. I got to experience aspects of the vehicle viscerally, without actually getting into it.

My experience was possible due to an alliance between Dell, HTC and Jaguar. It dovetails with a project that Nvidia and Audi have undertaken to showcase cars in dealerships without the dealerships actually having to floor the car. It opens the door, ironically, to an even more localized experience than Tesla has with its store front dealerships.

I think VR eventually will change how we buy most physical things, and I find it amazing that it is starting with cars first. I'll focus on that this week and close with my product of the week, which has to be this amazing new car from Jaguar. I loved it so much I got on a list to order it.

Virtual Reality

There are three visual technologies in the process of coming to market right now. There's augmented reality, which Google Glass showcased and nearly killed. AR overlays information over the real world -- usually through some kind of small head-mounted projector muck like a heads-up display. Like heads-up displays, AR doesn't really change what you see -- it enhances or augments it.

The newest of the new visual technologies is mixed-reality, which uses massive computing power to render and blend the real world with what is rendered. In its final form, you can't tell the difference. It is pretty rough and more proof-of-concept now, with Microsoft's Hololens the closest to production. That's largely because it cheats, though -- it is more an augmented reality device.

Virtual Reality is a fully rendered technology that places you in an environment. There are low-end offerings that use smartphones, which actually are surprisingly good. High-end versions use high-end PCs, as well as workstations and headsets from firms like HTC and Facebook subsidiary Oculus Rift. They now can create experiences that are ever harder to distinguish from reality. This is the technology that Jaguar, Dell and HTC demonstrated.

Car Showcase

Firms like Audi and Jaguar are working to figure out how to get people more excited about new cars, how to find new ways to engage and drive purchases, and how to assist in the car ordering process. This last is where Audi and Nvidia focused their effort.

Their project enables a space in dealerships where a prospective buyer can put on a VR headset and then see the full range of options. It's as if the customer's perfect car were right there. Options include not only interior and exterior finishes and colors, but also features. Customers then can experience each feature or package as they would if they actually were driving the car. They can figure out, before paying for it, whether the car is worth their money.

This is particularly important for newly launched cars. Mistakes often are made in ordering, because people either don't realize they want a feature or it accidentally gets left out. That happened to me last month, when I got the Mercedes I'd ordered. A feature I'd asked for was left off the final order sheet due to changes made to the ordering system.

Had I been able to see the rendering of the car I'd ordered, I would have caught the omission and not have missed this important feature (built in garage door opener and self-dimming mirrors).

This is just the start, though, and Jaguar, Dell and HTC took it further. (I should point out that the Dell workstations used to create and show this technology used Nvidia graphics solutions, so Nvidia is in both systems.)

VR on Steroids

What Jaguar did was add significantly to this experience by changing the presentation from just a showcase for the car to a showcase for the whole story that surrounds the car. Manufacturers can hope we fall in love with a car at first sight, and some of us certainly do, but a far more powerful way to sell us on a car is to build a compelling story around it. It's like the difference between seeing actors' head shots vs. getting to know them and experiencing their art.

They started our tour by taking us up above Earth to about where the Space Station orbits. That gave us an amazing, almost god-like view as they walked us through the birth of the car and built the car out with each storied major component, while both showcasing and telling us the back story.

We then plunged to Earth were we could see the rendered car perform on roads. We got to sit in the car and have each major feature showcased, with Jaguar's top designer explaining why each feature existed and, in some cases, why particular decisions were made.

As a result, the car wasn't two dimensional for us. We left understanding deeply why the car was the way it was, and that helped drive a higher level of lust in us.

The Future

I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, because VR will allow you to do this wherever VR capability exists, potentially turning your future living room into a dealership. In addition, you could build driving experiences into presentations and embed cars into other content -- like VR games.

The next time you play a driving game, might actually play it with the car you own or the car the advertiser wants to sell you. Finally, they could actually give cars virtual personalities, much like in the movie Cars. Your car, or the car the firm wants to sell you, could be the hero of a coming virtual movie. That would get your kids wedded to the cars you drive and go well beyond what many of us did when young and named them (yes, I did that).

Wrapping Up: Massive Change

This is only one of the massive changes we will see -- not only in the automotive market, but also in the appliance market, the home market, and anyplace where seeing something rendered could assist in the offering's sale or use.

These experiences won't be limited to VR. As we move to mixed reality, we'll be able to see products as they would exist in our homes and cities long before they are actually built.

As we move to self-driving cars, this may be how we gain back the fun of driving -- by virtually driving in game-like settings while the real-world car we're riding in safely transports us to where we want to go. I've seen the future of cars -- and most of everything else -- and that future is virtual!!

It is rare I get this excited about a car that doesn't yet exists. The last time it happened was when Infiniti brought out the FX-45 and made it look just like the amazing show car. I fell in love and bought the first one that came to Silicon Valley.

Well, it happened again with the Jaguar I-Pace, an amazing all-electric SUV that makes the Tesla X look stupid.

Granted, one reason the I-Pace makes the Tesla X look stupid is that Tesla apparently missed the meeting that explained "SUV" means "sport utility vehicle." The X is not sporty -- you'd never take it off-road -- and it has poor utility, because the back seat doesn't fold down.

The X is also incredibly unreliable because of an excess of tech, like the electric gull wing doors, which not only are wicked expensive, but also seem to break constantly.

The I-Pace, in contrast, uses more advanced batteries that help give it a range of 300-plus miles. Its focus is on performance: Its zero-to-60 time is 4 seconds, and if delivers far improved on- and off-road handling. It's all wrapped in an extremely attractive body.

The only sad thing for me is that this car likely won't have the advanced rain and snow eliminating headlights Jaguar has been developing with Intel. They're due in 2020, while the car arrives in 2018.

Although this is a concept car, I spoke with some of the engineers, and it is almost identical to the final car. The only big difference is that it will have a fold-down back seat, so Jaguar clearly didn't miss the "utility" part of the "SUV" class name.

One of the interesting aspects of the I-Pace is that it uses water cooling. Heat is the enemy of batteries, so that decision allows the company not only to make the car look more like others, but also to gain value as a result.

In the end, the I-Pace is a drop-dead gorgeous car. I loved it so much I signed up to order one. Further, it is a showcase for how VR can be used to sell cars, so I had two reasons for making it my product of the week

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Instagram's Two New Features Are Major Game Changers

Instagram is very quickly becoming the place to go for everything. Its newest major release: live streaming.

The app is following Facebook's lead and launching live video within Instagram Stories. You'll be able to easily record live footage and see who's watching and commenting. The process is similar to Facebook Live, which isn't a total surprise, since Facebook is Instagram's parent company. Will Instagram be the new place to discover viral videos like Chewbacca Mom? It's possible. However, unlike on Facebook, live videos on Instagram Stories will disappear when you finish recording, so this seems slightly less likely.


Instagram is also upgrading its direct messaging platform. Instead of just sending text, you'll be able to send individual friends and friend groups photos and videos that will disappear after a matter of seconds. Yes, this is almost identical to Snapchat. However, one major benefit of disappearing photos and videos on Instagram, is that when you share with a group, you can see everyone's responses in one thread. This way, your photos can initiate a larger group chat, rather than just a one-on-one conversation.


Live video will roll out to select users today and become available to everyone in coming weeks, but the new features for direct messaging are available now. Click through to check out how both will look in-app.

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