Apple iPhone 7 Plus used to shoot ESPN’s ‘Body Issue’

Apple plays its part in the ESPN “Body Issue” cover this year. Its iPhone 7 Plus smartphone was used to shoot the cover with Chicago Cubs infielder Javier Baez. The image shows Baez in the nude and shot in portrait style. To show off that it’s been shot using Apple’s current flagship phone, the company seems to have purchased the back cover of the issue to say it was shot with the phone. In the middle of the page you see an iPhone 7 Plus set to a white background and the words “Cover shot on iPhone 7 Plus” with the device seemingly set to Portrait Mode, which is an iPhone 7 Plus-exclusive feature. There is also fine print on the bottom of the ad saying that the photo is edited with a Mac.

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iMCO Watch is the newest Alexa-powered smartwatch

You may or may not have heard of CoWatch, an Amazon Alexa-powered smartwatch that launched last year. The device just got rebranded and is now called iMCO Watch. It just launched in India via Yerha.com, an Indian e-commerce startup. The iMCO Watch also brings Alexa’s voice assistant feature to the wearable and will let you do what most smartwatches do, such as asking for the weather or controlling your smart home. It can be activated via a crown button on the side of the device or tapping on the Alexa icon on the display. You don’t get voice activation here, though. It runs on Cronologics OS, which is an Android-based operating system. It works for both Android and iOS but with the computing happening on the watch or the cloud, you really don’t need a phone for it to work all the time.

The iMCO Watch is made with mostly stainless steel and it sports a ceramic ring. The smartwatch also comes with water and dust resistance. It has a 400 x 400 pixel AMOLED display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB onboard storage, and a slew of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and heart rate sensor. It comes in Mineral Silver and Carbon Black for ₹14,990 (around CA$300).

Source: Android Authority

The first full-production version of the Tesla Model 3 goes to Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced last week that the company’s Model 3 was entering into full production then. Now, the first car rolls off the assembly line and heads to the CEO himself. Tesla investor and board member Ira Ehrenpreis was the first on to place a deposit on the car but he gave it to Musk as a gift for the CEO’s 46^th birthday. Ehrenpreis will then get the number two car off the production line. Musk, of course, teased an image of the car, which is the first mass-produced car and most affordable vehicle from the company.

Tesla has a goal of producing 500,000 units in 2018, which is definitely a big bump from the 85,000 units the cars sold back in 2016. What’s driving the demand for the Tesla Model 3 is that it costs around US$35,000. It does, however, feature a simpler design that the Model S and Model X and the first available version of the car has fewer options to choose from, such as exterior color, wheels, interior, and the ability to enable Tesla’s Autopilot functionality. All-wheel drive and bigger battery packs seen in the Model S and X, will come at a later date once production of the cars are fully operational.

Source: CNET

Review: Ecobee 3 Lite smart thermostat

By Gadjo C. Sevilla

Ecobee is an innovator in the smart thermostat and smart home automation space.

The Ecobee 3 Lite smart thermostat is a more affordable version of the popular Ecobee 3 and integrates with Samsung SmarThings, Apple HomeKit as well as Amazon Alexa for voice control.

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