Google snaps up key Apple chip designer

While we don’t know what Google has up its sleeve, its latest hire gives us an idea of what we could possibly expect from the tech company. Google just hired John Bruno, the founder and head of Apple’s silicon competitive analysis group, which is basically the team that helped give the iPhone and iPad processors and edge over competition. It isn’t clear yet what he’ll do for Google but his job title, as seen on LinkedIn is listed as “System Architect.” Bruno began his career at ATI and later became chief engineer at AMD, while there he led the design of Fusion processors.

Google has been taking in new talent, including veterans from Qualcomm, which makes it look like they’re looking to create more custom processors. The only chip that is currently made in-house is the Pixel 2’s Pixel Visual Core imaging chip. We can only speculate if Google is looking to create a full-fledged processor for its phones or build more specialized chips to make their products stand out more. We’re sure we’ll find out soon enough what the company is up to.

Source: Engadget

Niantic’s ‘Pokémon GO’ gets exclusive experience on iPhone and iPad with new AR+ Mode

Niantic Inc. and The Pokémon Company are taking full advantage of Apple’s augmented reality capabilities courtesy of the ARKit framework with a new feature they’re introducing into Pokémon GO. A new AR+ Mode is coming to iOS 11 devices that include the iPhone 6s and newer, iPad 5^th generation, and all iPad Pro models. If you activate AR+ feature in encounter mode, this puts the individual Pokémon you encounter more accurately positioned within your surroundings. With the help of ARKit’s 3D AR scaling, its size will also be more accurately based with perspective and size changing depending on whether you move closer or further away from the creature.

Speaking of moving closer, those who do get closer have a chance to get special capture bonus but you also must know that the Pokémon will be aware of your proximity so it might flee if you come too close too quickly. But some of the benefits of being in AR+ Mode include being awarded things like Expert Handler bonus, which gives you more XP and Stardust.

Chromebooks to get Snapdragon 845?

While we expect the next batch of premium smartphones to carry the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the company has also been talking up the “Always Connected PCs” idea of having Windows 10 run on the ARM architecture. And it looks like Microsoft’s operating system won’t be the only one possibly running on the Snapdragon 845. According to the Chromium commits spotted by XDA Developers, there is a possibility of Chromebooks being able to run these. The first of these commits reference a new board called “chezea,” while the following one defines “chezea” as a new board overlay for a reference device that runs the Snapdragon 845. We won’t be surprised if this is the case, though, as Chrome OS is considered a lighter operating system than Windows 10.

Source: GSMArena

Wikipedia updates iOS app to bring ‘Black’ mode to the iPhone X

Here’s one more developer taking advantage of the iPhone X’s immersive display. Wikipedia just updated its app for iOS to introduce a new Black mode that works great for an OLED screen like that on this device. On top of this, version 5.7.3 of Wikipedia also introduces faster article loading and less data use and will have images downloaded only when they’re about to be displayed or saved. The appearance option to have info boxes will also be open by default. Aside from these, Wikipedia also did some spring cleaning within the app.

Source: 9to5Mac