In this week's round-up of the most fascinating stories from the world of tech, our Agents check out the latest consoles from Sony, investigate artificially intelligent, self-driving toy cars, and discuss a little something called the iPhone 7.
But as usual, that's only the start of it – so grab your favourite drink and settle in for another captivating Week in Geek!
Top trending tech news
Apple announce the iPhone 7
Of course, the biggest tech news of the week was the announcement of the long-awaited iPhone 7, which Apple unveiled in a special event on Wednesday evening.
The new device looks broadly similar to last year’s 6S and 6S Plus offerings on a superficial level, but close inspection reveals a few notable differences. Firstly, the mechanical Home button is gone, replaced with a touch-sensitive panel with vibrating haptic feedback. More controversially, Apple have also removed the industry-standard 3.5mm headphone jack – meaning all headphones will have to connect through Bluetooth, a native Lightning connection or an adaptor.
There’s also an improved camera with optical image stabilisation as standard, and the Plus model even features a second, telephoto lens, bringing true optical zoom to the iPhone for the very first time.
All told, a pretty exciting update for iPhone users. You can get the full lowdown on the new device in Agent Cooper’s Meet the iPhone 7 article, or check out Agent Hall’s report on the announcement event for details on the new Apple Watch Series 2 and a very exciting collaboration with Nintendo!
Nintendo crush another freeware PC parody
Speaking of Nintendo, the Japanese company are well known for being ruthlessly protective over their intellectual property. A couple of weeks ago, we reported that they'd shut down a fan-made Metroid 2 remake– and so it comes as no surprise that the latest Mario-inspired parody game has also been hit with a copyright takedown from the ban-hammer brothers.
The fan-made game in question, No Mario’s Sky, is a mash-up between Hello Games’ mega-hyped No Man’s Sky and a 2D version of Super Mario Galaxy, and was created for the Ludum Dare 36 game jam by developers ASMB Games.
After Nintendo toad ASMB Games to take the title down, fans were left chain chomp-ing at the bit for the game – but the developers have managed to re-koopa-rate their losses, and have since re-released the game with a new name and without Nintendo assets. As a result, everything between the companies is thankfully now just peach-y.
In the newly titled DMCA’s Sky, 'Spaceman Finn' must search for 'Princess Mango' in an infinite procedurally-generated universe while fighting off ‘Moombas’, and you can grab the game from the developers’ itch.io page. The new version is practically identical to the original title – but this time without the pesky copyright-infringing assets.
We think the game is great – and hope youlakitu. (You’re fired – Ed.)
Sony announce two new PlayStation 4 consoles
While it was somewhat overshadowed by Apple’s announcement, there was also big news from Sony this week. They ended months of speculation on Wednesday with the announcement of not one but two new PS4 consoles.
First up there’s the new, slimmer PS4. As reported last month, a prototype of this device recently leaked in the UK, so there weren’t too many surprises in store.
The new machine replaces today’s standard PS4 consoles, so it doesn’t have a new name: from now on, this is the PlayStation 4. It’s smaller in every dimension, features redesigned eject and power buttons, and is cheaper to boot: the console will set you back £259 of your Earth Pounds when it lands on September 15th.
Perhaps more exciting is the PlayStation 4 Pro. This is the long-rumoured upgraded version, featuring souped-up graphics capabilities and a fancy new processor.
The main benefit is that it’ll allow you to play games in 4K resolutions – which, given the increasing prevalence of ultra-HD TVs, is a very welcome development. It also enables ‘high dynamic range’, or HDR, graphics – allowing for more detail in areas of extreme light or darkness. The new device will cost £349 and hits the streets on November 10th.
New on the High Street
Hot Wheels enters the self-driving car market
Like most geeks, we’re overgrown children at heart here at Geek Squad HQ – and this week, a very exciting high-tech toy caught our collective eye.
This new set from Hot Wheels looks, at first glance, like a typical Scalextric-style slot-racer, but a closer look reveals something startling: the cars are controlled by artificial intelligence! Just put the track together in any configuration you like, pop the cars down and off they shoot, whizzing around the racecourse as if controlled by gadget-mad ghosts.
Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. You can also take control of the cars yourself, or compromise with an AI-enhanced assisted-steering mode. Up to four humans can take control at once, but the number of AI-controlled cars is unlimited.
With companies like Apple, Google and Tesla all competing to bring electric, self-driving vehicles to market, it was inevitable that we'd see toymakers getting in on the act – a sign of the times indeed!
The Hot Wheels AI starter set hits the streets in the US next month priced at $99, or about £75, with a UK release expected shortly after. Find out more over at the Verge– or check out the video above!
Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary
Star Trek reached an incredible milestone on Thursday, as the legendary sci-fi series celebrated its 50th anniversary! The first episode of the original series, The Man Trap, aired at 8:30pm on Thursday 8th September 1966.
More than any other show, Star Trek has demonstrated the power of a loyal fanbase. The original series was scheduled to be cancelled after its second season, but a campaign saw over 100,000 letters sent to NBC asking to for it to be renewed. Star Trek fans even managed to convince NASA to name the first space shuttle Enterprise!
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry famously pitched the show as “Wagon Train to the stars” when trying to drum up interest and studio backing, and over the decades it’s never strayed too far from that pioneering spirit. Star Trek has endured through five TV shows, six captains, seven Enterprises and 13 movies – and with Star Trek: Discovery set to beam down to our screens in 2017, there’s still plenty of new life and new civilisations for us to seek out in the final frontier!
To celebrate this auspicious anniversary, our Agents took a look at what Star Trek got right about modern technology– check it out for a fascinating read.
Movie and TV news
Warner Brothers flag their own websites for copyright infringement
When Google opened the floodgates by allowing companies and individuals to request that pages be removed from their search results, it was supposed to be another weapon in the arsenal against copyright infringement and online piracy.
Unfortunately for film studio Warner Brothers, it seems they’ve accidentally been censoring their own content from the web by asking Google to remove links to the official websites for films including The Matrix and Batman: The Dark Knight! Not only that, but they've also been targetting legitimate streaming sites like Amazon and Sky.
News blog Torrent Freak first noticed the error, and immediately began to poke fun at the studio. They also learned that WB had used anti-piracy firm Vobile to make the requests on their behalf. The firm uses automated systems to find and report allegedly infringing content – but it’s increasingly apparent that mistakes can happen with the technology!
It seems the takedown requests were the result of several “glaring errors”, which had inadvertently made it harder for the public to find legitimate content. According to Google’s transparency report, Vobile had submitted more than 13 million links for removal – but thankfully, Google were able to spot the mistakes before removing them.
Sony's flagship 'action cam', the FDR-X3000R, hits the High Street this month
As our own Agent Plummer found out, there's a growing market for 'action cams'– small, rugged video recorders for use by sports enthusiasts, pet owners and anybody else who needs high-quality video in a super-portable package.
This month, electronics giant Sony are throwing their hat into the action cam ring with the launch of the catchily named FDR-X3000R.
The new camera comes with a wide-angle lens for capturing scenes of busy action, and shoots 4K-resolution video at 30 frames per second. And if you're more bothered about looking cool than packing the highest possible number of pixels, shooting in standard HD supports up to 120 frames per second – allowing for super-smooth slow motion video.
It's all wrapped up in an elegant and futuristic white body that'll look great strapped to the handlebars of your mountain bike.
And finally...
New York Times publishes its shortest ever story – and it's about email
Anyone who's worked in a large organisation knows the perils of hitting 'Reply All' to an email – indeed, thousands of unwary office workers have been caught out by sharing what they thought were private thoughts with hundreds of colleagues!
But even when the messages are more innocuous, Reply-All messages can still be annoying – as one after the other, countless frustrated users ask the entire organisation"Can I be removed from this email chain please?""Can you remove me too?""Please remove me from this list!"
Old-media heavyweight the New York Times weighed into this fraught situation this week with the publication of their shortest-ever article, in their 'Tech Tips' section.
The headline, sure to go down in history, read "When I'm Mistakenly Put on an Email Chain, Should I Hit 'Reply All' Asking to Be Removed?"– and the article simply read "No."
Author Daniel Victor discusses the article here, and I think we can all agree that this advice is as sound as it is succint – although we're doubtful that all of our colleagues will get the message.
That's it for another Week in Geek – but be sure to check back next Friday for another round-up of the most crucial stories from the world of science, technology and geeky entertainment! And for more great articles from our Agents straight to your inbox each month, get your name down below for the Geek Squad newsletter.