Apple iPhone 2020: Gesture controls, MicroLED and curved screens?

The future of the future iPhone?

If you thought the iPhone X was a design departure for Apple, Bloomberg says it’s just the start of a major redesign push for Cupertino’s halo handset. The fiercest competition in tech could arguably be the evolution of the smartphone, along with VR, AR and AI. And after Apple essentially started the smartphone craze with the original iPhone a decade ago, the pocket computers have grown into a half-trillion dollar industry with no end in sight.

So, what’s next after OLED displays and notches? Bloomberg says the infamous “people familiar with the matter” claim Apple is working on a “touchless gesture control system” and concave curved screen tech. The new MicroLED screen tech may also come into play.

Samsung introduced a limited number of touchless gesture controls a couple years back, but as you may have noticed, so far it hasn’t exactly taken off. Can Apple make it work? Bloomberg says we’ll know in about two years.

What’s zero divided by zero, Siri?

More Apple news now, this time about Siri, the one-time ground-breaking “personal digital assistant” tech that has since been somewhat overshadowed by Amazon’s pervasive Alexa and Google’s “Assistant” AI. To that end, Apple has gone and poached Google’s top AI guy, John Giannandrea.

He’s going to head up Apple’s “machine learning and AI strategy,” and like chief product designer Jony Ive, he’ll report directly to CEO Tim Cook, according to the New York Times.

Whether AI is a force for good or the eventual tool to subjugate all of humanity is an actual concern these days, and in an email to Apple staffers, Cook said “Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear,” including privacy concerns. Giannandrea is 53 years old and has a long history in tech, and he’ll be joining several other AI luminaries at Apple as Cook tries to get Siri back up to speed.

Here’s your clean slate

So, how hard is it to design an electric car? Easy, right? Ditch the engine, toss in some batteries, a voltage controller and an electric motor or two? Well, like they say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, but it’s clearly not. DT car guy Miles Branman recently talked with two of the people behind what many consider to be one of the most exciting EV announcements in recent electric car history: the Jaguar I-Pace.

According to many pundits, the I-Pace could be a serious challenger to Tesla’s supremacy, and much of that credit goes to Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, or as he likes to be called, Doctor Z. But along with Dr. Z, the I-Pace is also the brainchild of electric car evangelist Ian Callum, who took a unique approach to designing the car, which could become the base upon which numerous e-Jags eventually emerge into the EV market. Check out the full interviews, videos and tech insights from these electric car design leaders.

We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.

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