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Weekly Rewind: NASA's human tissue bounty, the iPhone's true cost, and more

top tech stories 06 19 2016 nasawr head
NASA
In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from this week. Everything from the action at WWDC and E3 to the possibility of alien life, it’s all here.

Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2016: iOS 10, WatchOS 3, MacOS, Siri, and more

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Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) marked a big milestone for the company, as iOS reached its 10th iteration. Although iOS 10 and Siri were the stars of the show, WatchOS 3, tvOS, and MacOS had some pretty big updates, too. Although Apple didn’t show off new devices at WWDC, that doesn’t make it any less exciting. The developer conference revealed some key hints about the future of Apple products and presented the company’s vision for its future.

Read the full story here.

Everything Microsoft announced at E3 2016: Xbox One S, software updates, games

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E3 2016 kicked off this week, and Microsoft delivered one of the most exciting, feature-laden showcases in recent memory. Microsoft’s dedication to cross-platform play via the new Xbox Play Anywhere initiative stood out among a veritable smorgasbord of trailers and gameplay demos, and the announcement of two powerful new Xbox One console versions reinforced the company’s support for the game development community.

Read the full story here.

NASA offers $500K to anyone who can grow lifelike human tissue for space experiments

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NASA is offering $500,000 to split between the first three teams that can successfully grow human organ tissue in a laboratory. The agency then hopes to study this tissue in an effort to make deep space travel less harmful to the body and save astronauts from extreme experimentation. It’s a NASA priority to understand astronauts’ physical and mental health while in space – but this can prove difficult as any experimentation puts the subject at risk.

Read the full story here.

How much would it cost to build the iPhone in the US? MIT crunched the numbers

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MIT recently did a study to determine just how much it would cost Apple to build the iPhone in the U.S. rather than in China. In fact, the researchers did two studies — one looking at how much it would cost to only assemble the iPhone in the U.S., and the other looking at how much it would cost to manufacture components and assemble the device in the U.S.

Read the full story here.

Green is gorgeous in Hazang’s handmade bamboo speakers

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Bluetooth speakers have come a long way in a fairly short time, not just technologically speaking but in terms of design as well. You’ll still find plenty of the utilitarian black or gray boxes that abounded during the early days, but more companies are pushing the boundaries, whether it’s the gravity-defying Meizu Gravity or a wooden enclosure instead of the standard plastic.

Read the full story here.

Starting in 2030, all new cars registered in Germany must have zero emissions

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Hammer, dropped. Dismayed that CO2 emissions from motor transport have not dropped in the country since 1990, Germany is taking what some will consider an extreme measure. Others will think it’s about time. As of 2030, all new cars registered in Germany must be emissions free, according to The Globe and Mail. Just to be sure that’s clear, zero emissions will be the rule for all new cars allowed on German roads starting in 2030.

Read the full story here.

Aliens have probably once existed, according to leading astrophysicists

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Some 3,000 planets have been identified outside of our solar system. A whopping 1,284 of those were announced just last month by the team behind the Kepler space telescope. What was once a difficult and uncommon discovery has become something of the norm – new planets seem to pop up regularly. “Improvements in astronomical observation technology have moved us from retail to wholesale planet discovery,” writes University of Rochester professor of astrophysics Adam Frank.

Read the full story here.

Snap a photo of your meal and this AI-powered startup will tell you how many calories it contains

friends using smartphones to take photos of sausage and pork chop and beer.
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It’s the dream of any foodie who watches what they eat to be able to snap a photo of their meals and have their phone instantly tell them how many calories they’re about to consume. That’s the mission statement of a new startup called AVA, which promises to do away with the dreary manual logging process of rival healthy-eating apps in favor of an altogether more streamlined process. Using AVA’s “intelligent eating” service, users will simply take a photo of their food, text it to AVA, and then receive health and caloric information in return.

Read the full story here.

Amazon readying for music streaming battle with new stand-alone service

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It’s better late than never for Amazon, which is preparing a new music streaming service to directly compete with products from Apple, Spotify, and Google. Although the online shopping giant currently features a similar offering through Prime Music, Reuters cites information from two inside sources that the new service will have a more “competitive catalog of songs.” The service will have a basic $10 per month tier, matching competitors. Amazon is currently working through deals with labels for the service, which is expected for a late summer or early fall launch.

Read the full story here.

Boeing’s solar-powered airplane looks ridiculous, but it might just be crazy enough to work

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The first solar-powered airplane completed an intercontinental flight four years ago last week. NASA’s Pathfinder made headlines with its pilotless, sustained flights in 2014. Just two months ago, a solar plane made history after it traversed the Pacific Ocean. It may be a slow and steady progression, but the solar-powered airplane race is heating up.

Read the full story here.

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Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
The iPhone 14 Pro’s A16 chip comes with a huge hidden cost
An iPhone 14 pulled apart, revealing all of the components inside.

When Apple launched the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro lineups this year, one of the biggest differentiating factors between the two models was the silicon inside. Apple’s new A16 Bionic is exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus still use the last-gen A15 that debuted with the iPhone 13 series. The reasoning behind this decision comes down to the manufacturing price of the A16, which turns out to be more than twice the cost of the A15.

A teardown of the iPhone 14 devices was done by Nikkei Asia, which allowed the site to take a closer look at the various components of each part, such as the cameras and processors. According to Nikkei Asia’s findings, the production costs for the iPhone 14 Pro’s A16 chip are about 20% more expensive to make than the previous iteration, coming in at a total of $110. This is about 2.4 times more expensive than the A15 that debuted in the iPhone 13 series and is recycled in the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models.

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The stable iOS 16 update is finally coming to your iPhone early next week
Man holds an iPhone 13 Pro with the iOS 16 logo on screen.

Apple's Far Out event was jam-packed with one announcement after the other. We saw the Apple Watch, iPhone, and AirPods Pro all get a refresh. The iPhone 14 series is the major announcement, and the lineup will ship with iOS 16 out of the box. But current-gen iPhone users need not wait long to experience the stable iOS 16 update. In fact, you can get iOS 16 starting next week.

Apple's iPhone 14 and 14 Plus launch press release reads: "iOS 16 will be available as a free software update on Monday, September 12." So if you are an iPhone 8 and above user, Apple will roll out the latest iOS version for you on September 12.

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Apple plans to put more ads on your iPhone, report claims
iOS's App Library page shown on an iPhone 13 Pro.

Apple is planning to put ads in more of the apps that come pre-installed on the iPhone, a new report has claimed.

While the tech giant already includes ads in its News, App Store, and Stocks apps, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on Sunday that it recently internally tested ads in Apple Maps and could incorporate them into other software such as Podcasts and Books, too.

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