For the morning of March 19th, 2019, Apple unveiled an updated iMac, NVIDIA showed off a Raspberry Pi competitor, Instagram will let you buy things without leaving the service, Call of Duty is coming to mobile, and a lot more.
Apple News
Yesterday, Apple announced a couple of new/updated iPads with the Air and Mini. Today, it surprised everyone with another announcement: an updated iMac.
The new iMac looks the same, but its guts got better. This includes 6 and 8-core chips. [9to5Mac] Similarly, you can add up to 256GB of RAM (for Chrome, probably) if you want. Of course, that also adds $5,200 to the price. Oof. [9to5Mac] Oh, and if you want to buy the thing as maxed out as it comes, that will set you back $15,699. What a bargain. [AppleInsider] That rumored Apple TV service that’s expected to be announced next week? Apparently, Netflix won’t be a part of it. Ouch. [MacRumors] Okay, so this isn’t really “news” per se, but The Verge got to take a look at the first iPhone prototype and it is so cool. Since this isn’t really news, is it called “olds”? 🤔 [The Verge]
Microsoft and Windows News
Like pretty much every day, Microsoft didn’t have a lot going on this morning. But there’s always at least one thing, right?
Microsoft is letting PC players check out Halo: The Master Chief collections before it’s released. Neat. [The Verge] I’m not sure if this is Google or Microsoft news, so I’m just putting it here. The two companies worked together for a year to understand a new Windows flaw. That’s the level of comittment I think we can all appreciate. [Ars Technica]
Google and Android News
Compared to most days, Google has been pretty quiet this morning. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that the company is expected to announce its new game streaming service at GDC later today. Keep an eye on Review Geek for coverage of that!
Google is beefing up Tasks with time-based notifications and better integration with Gmail and Inbox. [9to5Google] Speaking of Inbox, it’s getting shut down “by April 2nd. ” Back to Gmail you go. [Engadget]
Other News
Interestingly, some of the biggest stories are coming from the “other” category today. Mostly because of GDC, but still. Some cool stuff, especially from NVIDIA.
NVIDIA announced a Raspberry Pi competitor called Jetson Nano. It’s faster, beefier, and $99er. [Liliputing] Also! It’s bringing ray tracing to some older GTX cards, which is beyond cool. Beyond. [Engadget] NVIDIA also announced a bunch of stuff for GeForce Now. So much stuff. [NVIDIA Blog] Call of Duty is coming to mobile! Android and iOS are both getting a mobile version of the game. It’s so cool to see AAA titles like this show up on mobile. Welcome to the future, enjoy your stay. [Engadget] In VR news, Qualcomm is working on a headset that can be connected to a PC or work as a standalone device. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. [The Verge] Qualcomm also announce da new chip just for smart speakers. Your smart speaker is about to be a smarter speaker. [Engadget] In other VR news, HP announced a new Pro VR headset. [Ars Techinca] Instagram is adding a checkout page directly in the app so you can buy stuff without ever leaving the service. There are so many things I don’t like about this, most of which revolves around how much money it’s going to cost me. [9to5Mac] Firefox hit version 66, which blocks autoplaying videos by default. This is a good step in the war against internet annoyances. [The Verge] Did you watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix? Well the company’s next interactive show is “Man vs. Wild” with Bear Grylls. Insert joke about drinking pee here. [Engadget]
There we go—the biggest stories from this morning. Crazy how much happens before…whatever time it is where you live.
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