CultCast #272 - Five Years!

This week: 

• We celebrate 5 years!
• We regale you with some of our favorite stories from past shows
• Our hardware expectations from Apple’s rumored March event
• Why iPhone 8’s wireless charging will probably be lame
• Apple has five teams working on their next-generation charging tech
• Why iPhone 8’s camera could pump out industrial-grade slow motion
• Steve Jobs gets a beautiful new home on Apple’s spaceship campus.

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We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a  thanks for the great music you hear on today's show.

On the show this week

@erfon / @bst3r / @lkahney

 

iPhone 8’s wireless charging won’t be as good as we hoped

http://www.cultofmac.com/468709/iphone-8s-wireless-charging-wont-good-hoped/

• If you were hoping Apple had developed a spectacular new wireless charging system for iPhone 8, you’re going to be disappointed come September.
• A new rumor claims that Apple won’t be using range charging technology developed by Energous as previously expected, but instead one of the existing solutions already found in rival smartphones like those made by Samsung.
• Adding fuel to that fire, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has only recently approved a version of Energous technology that delivers very low power over just a few inches.
• The iPhone would require higher levels of power and a wider range. A solution that meets these requirements is yet to be approved by the FCC.

 

Apple has five different teams working on wireless charging

http://www.cultofmac.com/469187/apple-five-different-teams-working-wireless-charging/

• According to a new report, the company currently has not one or two, but five different groups inside Apple currently working to develop wireless charging technology for future iPhones.

 

Sony’s new sensor could bring super slo-mo video to iPhone

http://www.cultofmac.com/469189/sonys-new-sensor-bring-super-slo-mo-video-iphone/

• Apple has used Sony’s camera sensors in a number of iPhones, including the new dual-lens cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus.
• Sony unveiled the new senor during a lecture at the 2017 International Solid-State Circuits Conference capable of shooting 19.3MP still images at a frame rate of 120 fps. It can shoot 960fps video in 1080p. The iPhone 7 only shoots 120fps video in 720p.

 

Apple Said to Debut New iPad Pro Lineup, 128GB iPhone SE, and Red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus at March Event

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/20/ipad-pro-march-event-128gb-iphone-se/

• Apple will host a March event to introduce a new iPad Pro lineup and other products, according to Japanese website Mac Otakara.
• In terms of the iPad Pro lineup, the report claims Apple will announce new 7.9-inch, 9.7-inch, 10.5-inch, and 12.9-inch models. The 10.5-inch model may not ship until May, while the other sizes are said to ship in March.
• If the report is accurate, it could mean has Apple plans to refresh the iPad mini 4 with a new 7.9-inch iPad Pro version, update its existing 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, and introduce an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which is has been rumored to feature an edge-to-edge display without a Home button.

 

Apple’s ‘spaceship’ campus will be named Apple Park

http://www.cultofmac.com/468939/spaceship-campus-will-officially-named-apple-park/

• Apple’s enormous new spaceship campus finally has an official name: Apple Park.
• First conceived in 2011 by Steve Jobs, Apple Park has been under construction since 2013 and is rumored to have cost Apple upwards of $5 billion.
• The 175-acre plot will open for business in April, although work won’t officially be completed until late summer.
• campus’ 1,000-seat auditorium will be named the Steve Jobs Theater as a tribute to the company’s co-founder.
• “Opening later this year, the entrance to the 1,000-seat auditorium is a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fiber roof,” Apple said in a press release.
• “The Steve Jobs Theater is situated atop a hill — one of the highest points within Apple Park — overlooking meadows and the main building” 
• The campus will house around 12,000 Apple employees,
• And includes a new $75 million gym.