Gear Live Gadget News and Reviews

iPhone Duo Review: It’s Not the Next iPhone. (Video)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Product Reviews, Videos,

For nine years, you've used every iPhone the same way, by swiping. The iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable, changes that for only the second time, and it's the first time Apple rebuilt the hardware to do it. After a week with it, the Duo has a spot in my pocket. So does my Pro Max.

A Retailer Says Sony Killed Its Last Cheap 4K Blu-ray Player. Sony’s Store Won’t Restock It.

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech,

If you own a stack of 4K Blu-rays, the UBP-X700/K was the easy answer to "what player should I buy?" It was Sony's last budget option for 4K discs. Sony's Japan webstore now lists it as out of stock, with a note saying it will not be restocked.

That listing is the hardest piece of evidence anyone has. The discontinuation was first reported by Kunkoko, a Japanese retailer, and picked up by FlatPanelsHD. Sony hasn't said anything publicly. In the US the player is sold out at Walmart and Best Buy, though other Sony 4K models were still listed at Best Buy when the report ran.

iPhone Duo Review + Pre-Order Problems with Andru Edwards | Power On with Mark Gurman (Video)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Videos,

I've had an iPhone Duo for a week. Mark Gurman has a pre-order with a November ship date. That gap ran through most of our conversation when I joined Mark on Bloomberg's Power On podcast as his first outside guest, the week Apple's first foldable ships.

Miyamoto Says AI Can Have the Labor. His Warning Is for Developers Who Enjoy It Too Much.

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Video Games, Artificial Intelligence,

Shigeru Miyamoto expects generative AI to take a lot of work off game developers' desks, and he does not sound worried about it. What he does sound worried about is that developers will miss that work once it's gone, for the wrong reasons.

He made the comments at a press conference marking his acceptance of Japan's Order of Culture, the first one ever given to a game developer. Asked about generative AI, he called it a "similar shift" to the earlier tool changes he has worked through, and said it lets a designer's "true individual capabilities" come to the fore. The quotes are translations via VGC, which reported his remarks from Game Watch.

I Tested a Ridiculous Number of iPhone Duo Apps. Start Here. (Video)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Software, Videos,

Load a tape in Deck-Man, close your iPhone Duo, and the album starts playing. Open the phone and it stops, with clicks recorded from a real cassette player to sell the bit. I tested a ridiculous number of Duo apps ahead of launch, and these 25 are where I'd start on day one. The best fits are the ones that give the fold a job.

Sam Altman Says We Can’t Patch Our Way Out Anymore. His Fix Is More of the Same Technology.

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Artificial Intelligence,

Patching bugs one at a time has been the shape of security work for decades. Find the hole, ship the fix, move on. Sam Altman told a room of Stanford Graduate School of Business students that the approach has run out of road. "I no longer think we're going to be able to just patch all the bugs," he said.

His reasoning comes in two halves, both about speed. AI models keep getting better at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities, and the targets move too slowly to keep up. He called it a problem "we have not, as organizational leaders or countries or individuals, taken seriously."

Apple HomeView Has a $299 Problem… (Video)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smart Home, Videos,

Apple's new HomeView does two things I'd use every week: it holds a recipe while I cook, and it takes FaceTime calls so I don't have to prop up my phone. I tried it at Apple's Welcome Home event, and I get the appeal. Then I looked at how Apple priced the wall-mounted version, and the math stopped making sense.

Tesla Cancels the Cybertruck in Australia and New Zealand, Seven Years After Taking Deposits

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Transportation,

Seven years is a long time to hold a place in line. That is roughly how long some Australians and New Zealanders have had a deposit sitting with Tesla waiting on a Cybertruck. This week Tesla emailed them to say it is not coming.

The email is short and flat. Tesla's "plans to produce Cybertruck" for those two countries "have been discontinued." Deposits get refunded within 30 days, counted from when a customer receives a follow-up email confirming their details. Tesla also has a suggestion for anyone still in a buying mood. Order a new Model 3 or Model Y and you get a year of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) at no cost.

The iPhone 18 Pro Camera Finally Breaks Its Biggest Rule (Video)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cameras, Videos,

Every iPhone main camera before this one picked an aperture at the factory and lived with it forever. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max get to change their minds. Six tiny laser-cut blades, controlled by a microscopic precision rotor, let the main camera physically switch between f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4.0, reading the scene to decide in real time.

Apple Says Stores Have iPhone Duos Today. It Also Said Walk-In Stock Is Limited.

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones,

If you are weighing a drive to an Apple Store this morning for an iPhone Duo, Apple has given you two answers in the same week. Marketing chief Greg Joswiak told TechRadar that walk-in buyers should find phones waiting: "we didn't ship them all away during the pre-order, we have them available at the stores, we're excited." He added, "I'm sure we'll have some happy customers."

Days earlier, Apple told 9to5Mac that stores would have "limited" iPhone Duo availability for walk-in customers in the countries it listed, among them the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia. Both of those are Apple's words, on the record, inside the same week. Neither one tells you how many phones are behind the counter at the store nearest you.