There’s a lot of Apple news today on this Thursday, January 18th, so let’s start with iPhone batteries. Apple CEO Tim Cook chatted with ABC News about numerous topics yesterday, but the recent flap over Apple reportedly “throttling” the performance of older iPhones is still a hot topic, and Cook apologized again for what he sees as a misunderstanding over the reason for it: to make sure the phones still worked as the batteries got older.
Cook says that a near-future iOS update will include a lot more battery data, including more battery health metrics users can see, and the option to not have the phone throttled due to power issues, although we’re not entirely sure how that’s going to work. Cook also said they’re going to start bringing home Apple’s off-shore $250 billion-plus cash horde now that the tax laws have bent their way, but they’ll still pay an amazing $38 billion in taxes on the pile of money.
Cook also said the company will invest tens of billions in their U.S. infrastructure and employment over the next five years, including the Reno data center expansion he helped break ground on yesterday that will run entirely on alternative power sources. Plus, most Apple employees will be getting a $2,500 gift of Apple stock, a nice perk as the stock market marches ever higher – and Apple creeps up on a trillion dollar valuation. Only about $100 billion to go!
Want to work for Apple? Cook says they desperately need software and hardware engineers, so kids, take those Swift classes and learn to code. Cook said they’re hoping to hire 20,000 more people over the next five years. And by the way: The Apple Park “spaceship campus” is now officially complete.
Spare no expense
While most people are perfectly happy with the photos they get from their very capable smartphone cameras, pro photographers are bit more nit-picky, and of course, there’s always that little sliver of the market that demands the biggest, bestest and most cutting-edge photo tech out there. For them, there’s this: The Hasselblad H6D-400c. Thought you’re 12-megapixel phone pix looked good? Try 400 megapixels with this bad boy.
That’s right, the rightly named 400c shoots massive 16-bit-depth frames that result in file sizes of 2.4 gigabytes per photo, so you know some spendy data cards are going into this thing. Which is appropriate since the camera costs $48,000, and that doesn’t include any lenses, so prepare to tack on several thousand more dollars for the glass you need.
This ultimate Hassie is actually pretty portable, but it’s unlikely many will be strapped around the necks of tourists; it’s more for studio, archival and scientific work. That said, it does shoot 4K video in RAW format, and in the grand scheme of cinema cameras, fifty grand is sort of middle-of-the-road, so hey, it’s a bargain at some level. Check out more information about the 400c at the link.
The future looks bright. And flexible. And really, really big.
We’re still decompressing from last week’s big CES show, and as usual, TV’s were headline tech at the event. DT Senior Editor, the Honorable Caleb Dension (Caleb Denison is not a real judge), ran around Vegas all week looking for the best TV tech, and settled on 6 new sets that will set the standard going forward – including tech from legacy companies, and some new players. Sony wowed us with two amazing panels, while LG pushed flexible TV tech in new directions.
Then there were the low-cost, high performance leaders, including Samsung and up-and-comer TCL. Hizzoner has all the details and video at the link, so get ready for 8K, flexible, super-bright TVs – because they’re on the way.
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.
