This week, there was bad news from BlackBerry, some stunning images from the far reaches of the solar system – oh, and a little something about a new iPhone! It's all waiting for you inside this week's Week in Geek, so settle in and read on.
Monday 21st March
Big news from the big Apple
Monday was Apple announcement day – which means there was a bumper crop of good news for Apple fans. As well as the public release of iOS 9.3, Tim Cook and Co. also announced both a new iPad and a new iPhone.
First up, iOS 9.3. This latest update has been available on the iOS public beta system for a while now – but Monday saw its official release.
As well as fixing security issues and fixing bugs (including the infamous '1970' bug), 9.3 introduces a few really useful new features. These include the ability to lock Notes with Touch ID and a cool new 'Night Shift' mode that reduces the amount of blue light given off by the screen in the evening. It looks a little weird to start with – but several medical studies have suggested that this could help you get a better night's sleep.
Next up we have the new iPad – or should I say iPad Pro.
Apple introduced its 12.9-inch iPad Pro late last year, and on Monday they announced a more user-friendly 9.7-inch version. It has all the tech of its big brother crammed into a standard sized iPad chassis – and even manager to pack in a few improvements.
The main one is a new 'True Tone' display, which changes the colour and intensity of the screen to match the lighting conditions in your environment. This should give the iPad a more natural look – as if you were looking at an actual piece of paper. Take a look at the video above to see it in action.
Finally, we have the iPhone SE– which is going to be great news for Apple fans with tiny hands.
The iPhone SE is basically a cross between an iPhone 6S and an iPhone 5S, packing all the technology of the 6S into the body of a 5S. This includes the A9 processor, 2GB of RAM and the excellent 12MP camera. The only 6S tech missing is the Force Touch pressure-sensitive screen.
The best thing about the iPhone SE, though, is the price. Starting at just £359 for the 16GB model, the SE is significantly cheaper than Apple’s previous budget handset, the iPhone 5C.
If you want to know more about any of the announcements Apple made on Monday, you can watch the whole event in the video above. Or, if you don’t have an hour to spare, take a look at Agent Cooper’s excellent rundown of the whole event.
Tuesday 22nd March
Another nail in BlackBerry's coffin?
On Tuesday we heard news of Facebook’s plan to pull their social networking app from the BlackBerry app store – a bold move which doesn’t bode well for the one-time leader in the smartphone game.
This announcement comes only a month after Facebook announced that support for WhatsApp on BlackBerry would be pulled by the end of the year, which was a bad enough omen in itself! This just adds to the growing list of apps being slowly and quietly taken down from both the BlackBerry and the Windows Phone stores due to the platforms' steadily decreasing popularity.
BlackBerry’s latest operating system, OS10, now supports the Amazon marketplace, which is a third party Android app store – that’s right, Android apps can now run inside OS10 – and their latest smartphone, the Priv, seen above, is a full Android handset which doesn’t rely on the BlackBerry app store at all.
Whether this is a full commitment from BlackBerry to make more Android handsets in future remains to be seen – but with many developers feeling that their apps are better off outside the BlackBerry marketplace, it’s easy to see why another Android/BlackBerry hybrid might make an appearance in the near future.
Wednesday 23rd March
Shape-shifting robots and the return of The Tick
A few weeks ago, we reported on Google’s new AI system which has managed to beat a human grandmaster at the ancient Chinese game of Go. For some, this was a sign of the impending robot apocalypse that will soon destroy us all. On Wednesday, this came another step closer...
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new kind of shape-shifting metal alloy that can both heal itself when damaged and even change shape completely. The material works by combining a porous rubber foam with a soft metal alloy called Field’s metal. When the metal is cool, the material is hard and the shape fixed. However, if you heat the metal up then it becomes soft and the shape can be changed. Field’s metal has a melting point of 62 degrees Centigrade so it doesn’t even need to be heated very much to allow it to change shape.
So what could this new material be used for? Well the researchers at Cornell have said that in the future it could be used for wings that change shape allowing a vehicle to change from a plane to a submarine on the fly. They also suggest that it could be used for search and rescue robots that can change shape in order to fit through small gaps. It sounds like we’re one step away from the T-1000 to me!
Don’t worry though, it’s going to be a few years before we have to worry about shape-shifting deathbots. As you can see from the video above, the material is still very much in the development stages. However, seeing it transform from a cylinder to a cube is still pretty impressive.
On Wednesday we got news that Peter Serafinowicz has been cast as The Tick in a new live action TV show based on the comic book series from the 1980s.
The big, blue superhero with amazing strength and almost constant amnesia will be hitting the screens again in a pilot commissioned by Amazon on their Prime Video service. This will actually be the third time that The Tick has had his own TV series following an animated series in 1994 and a live-action series starring Patrick Warburton in 2001.
Like any superhero, The Tick fights crime with his trusty sidekick, Arthur, an accountant whose superhero alter ego is a giant moth. Star of Vinyl, Griffin Newman has already been announced as Arthur while Valorie Curry will play his sister, Dot.
Amazon have yet to announce a release date for this new pilot but we’ll bring you more updates as and when they become available. In the meantime, take a look at one of the classic episodes from the animated series in the video above.
Thursday 24th March
Stunning images from NASA and a long-awaited launch in Japan
On Thursday, we had an exciting announcement from NASA, who released stunning close-up images of Ceres – a dwarf planet that’s the largest object in the solar system’s asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The images come from the space agency’s Dawn satellite, which has been orbiting Ceres for more than a year. It’s currently just 385km above the surface of the planet – lower than the International Space Station is above the Earth.
Ceres has long fascinated astronomers, who believe that the planet’s exterior was once covered with water ice. For a long time, researchers had been puzzled by low-resolution images of the world's surface which exposed a number of mysterious ‘bright spots’.
The latest images seem to confirm that these spots are traces of what scientists believe is magnesium sulphate, believed to be deposits left behind when salty ice on the planet’s surface evaporated in the distant past.
Currently, scientists believe that Ceres might be hiding large quantities of water ice just below its rocky surface. Dawn has indeed detected large quantities of hydrogen in the upper layers of the planet – indicating that their hypothesis might well be correct.
Praise the sun! Thursday also saw the Japanese release of Dark Souls III– the latest instalment in the hard-as-nails RPG franchise from developers FromSoftware.
For the uninitiated, the Dark Souls series focuses on intricate third-person combat with a truly punishing difficulty level and an emphasis on huge (and hugely frustrating) boss fights.
But it’s more than just challenging gameplay that’s endeared the Souls series to legions of gamers: the games are fantastic feats of world-building, with a particular focus on creating a bleak but evocative atmosphere, imbued with a sense of desolation and decay.
Many publications – including Edge and Digital Spy – declared the first Dark Souls to be the single greatest game of the last console generation, and while the second title didn’t quite live up to the reputation of the first, many fans have high hopes for the new instalment – particularly as chief designer Hidetaka Miyazaki is back on board.
If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan, Dark Souls III is out now. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until April 12th to discover what punishments FromSoftware have in store – although you can check out the English-language trailer above.
Friday 25th March
Batman and Superman duke it out while gamers descend on Brum
On Friday, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was released in cinemas across the UK – pitting two of the most famous comic book characters of all time against each other.
The film is set a couple of years after the events of Man of Steel, which saw Superman take on Zod – destroying half of Metropolis in the process. The huge amount of destruction has convinced Batman that Superman is a threat to humanity, and he sets out on a personal vendetta to stop him. However, in a development nobody could have predicted, the appearance of a much more powerful enemy soon means Batman and Superman have to work together to save the world.
Batman V Superman sees the return of Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel, while Ben Affleck makes his first appearance as the Caped Crusader. Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa also makes an appearance as Aquaman before he gets his own film in 2018. Finishing off the cast of superheroes is Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman, who's also getting her own film next year.
If you like the sound of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice then take a look at the trailer above. The film is now showing in cinemas across the UK.
Friday was also the first day of Insomnia57 – Britain’s biggest gaming festival – at the NEC in Birmingham.
Taking place over four days, Insomnia57 features LAN gaming areas, e-sports tournaments, Q&A sessions with special guests and an exhibition hall where gamers can try loads of the latest games in development.
One of the biggest aspects of any Insomnia event is the number of e-sports tournaments, where gamers compete to take home the crown – along with a nice chunk of money. At Insomnia57, the top billing goes to the Hearthstone 'Truesilver Championship' event, where the winner will take home a $10,000 prize. Other e-sports events include DOTA 2, Rocket League, Counter-Strike and Street Fighter V.
Another favourite part of Insomnia is the 'BYOC' gaming area. BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer/Console) allows you to take your gaming rig along to the event and take part in a giant giant networked gaming event. The games go on 24 hours a day for the duration of the event – and you can even stay at an indoor camping area so you’re never too far away from the action!
If Insomnia57 sounds like your type of thing, then the bad news is that if you're reading this then you’ve probably already missed it. But the good news is, Insomnia58 will be happening in August and Insomnia59 in December – so you still have plenty of gaming goodness to look forward to for the rest of the year!
That wraps up another week in the world of tech, science and geeky entertainment – but be sure to come back next Sunday for another fascinating Week in Geek! And for more fantastic articles from our Agents directly to your inbox each month, get your name down below for our Geek Squad newsletter!