Apple's HomePod speaker comes to US, UK, and Australia on Feb 9

After a delay to market late last year, Apple's heralded HomePod smart speaker is coming on February 9 with preorders happening this Friday. Unfortunately, HomePods is coming to three markets -the US, UK and Australia with other countries (possibly Canada) getting the devices in the spring.

HomePod is a new product category from Apple. It looks to be taking on Sonos in terms of MESH enabled Hi-Fi streaming speakers but also looks to compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers which have been available in Canada since last year. Seen as a delivery methof for Apple Music, Siri, HomeKit and other Apple ecosystems, the HomePod is expected to bring big sound in a compact package.

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Apple partners with the Malala Fund to support girls’ education

Here’s one piece of good news. Apple becomes the Malala Fund’s first Laureate partner to help boost the organization’s efforts to support girls’ education and advocacy for equal opportunity. The partnership will hopefully double the organizations ability to award grants by its Gulmakai Network, which supports programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Nigeria, as well as extend funding programs to India and Latin America. The initial goal is to extend the secondary education opportunities to over 100,000 girls. On Apple’s part, they will assist by providing technology as well as helping with curriculum and research to make sure policy changes are being implemented everywhere so that girls can attend school and complete their education. Apple CEO Tim Cook will be part of the Malala Fund’s leadership council.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who started the organization, says, “My dream is for every girl to choose her own future. Through both their innovations and philanthropy, Apple has helped educate and empower people around the world. I am grateful that Apple knows the value of investing in girls and is joining Malala Fund in the fight to ensure all girls can learn and lead without fear.”

Is a headphone jack-less Sony Xperia in our future?

Is the Japanese tech company Sony going to be ditching the headphone jack, too? New FCC posted documents show an upcoming handset with a charging mode schematic that shows off a dongle that splits into a USB port and a headphone jack. This seemingly addresses that common complaint about phones without a headphone jack. The adapter measures 20cm and offers USB Type-C port. The device itself measures 152.8 x 72.4mm, which could easily house a 5.7-inch 18:9 screen. We could perhaps see this device debuting at MWC next month.

Source: GSMArena

Android Oreo will now show you Wi-Fi speeds before you connect to the network

You’ve probably tried to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot and realized that it’s slower than your mobile data connection. To help you save the time and effort (with some requiring you to sign up or provide personal information), Android Oreo started rolling out a new feature that will show you the estimated speeds of Wi-Fi networks before you connect to them. It won’t show the exact bandwidth readings but you’ll see categories like slow (under 1Mbps), OK (1-5Mbps), fast (5-20Mbps), and very fast (20Mbps and above). It might be too conservative for you but it is a pretty useful feature when you need it.

Source: Engadget