Review: Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

Text and photos By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

iPhone 7 may not have been the huge overhaul many expected but it is a solid and worthy upgrade that will fundamentally change where and how iPhones are used. New camera capabilities are transformative and show innovation in imaging on smartphones is leapfrogging the camera industry.

Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus may, on the surface, look like mere updates to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S designs of the past two years.

While this is a fair observation that brings to question Apple’s desire or ability to evolve on past designs, there are a lot of features and functions that are brand new to the iPhone line that aim to keep it at the forefront of the smartphone industry it has helped create. 

“We have created a product that is the most deliberate evolution of our founding design,” says Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive at the start of the video explaining the iPhone 7’s design and construction. The company understands this is an evolutionary chapter in the iPhone’s history, but it doesn’t make it any less significant.

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Elon Musk announces Oct. 28 release date for SolarCity solar roof

We’ll most likely be seeing for the first time Tesla and SolarCity’s new solar roof product on October 28, if Elon Musk’s tweet is anything to go by. The Tesla founder and CEO just announced on social media that this solar roof will be working with version 2.0 of Tesla’s PowerWall solar storage and battery for the home as well as with the Tesla car charger. This integration is seen as moving beyond showing off how these companies can seamlessly work together to showing Musk’s “Master Plan: Part Deux,” where he aims to create a fully self-sustaining solar-powered energy ecosystem that is linked to his zero emission goals between home and transportation.

Tesla is in the process of acquiring SolarCity but it has been facing opposition from shareholders that could cause a delay in the deal. The demo, which could show the value of the system and the partnership, might further Musk’s plans and help soften any opposition to his plans to join Tesla and SolarCity together.

Aiming for Oct 28 unveil in SF Bay Area of new Tesla/SolarCity solar roof with integrated Powerwall 2.0 battery and Tesla charger.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2016

Source: TechCrunch

When do we get hooked on Netflix?

Netflix just released the latest set of "hooked" episodes of some of the most popular series streaming on the service. You know, that one particular episode that completely SUCKS YOU IN and makes you want to continue watching. It's that one episode that has kept 70% of viewers watching and completing the season. However, in doing reseach of our viewing habits, Netflix also discovered that this isn't just an observation of us here in Canada but it's pretty universal.  Canadian viewers were pretty much in-line with global hooked episodes for a number of series. 

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Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to pledge $3 billion to help fight disease

Aside from being the CEO of the biggest social media site, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are working on a bigger cause: helping cure all diseases. Through the couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, they plan to invest over US$3 billion over the next decade with an aim of curing all diseases by the end of the century. The three goals the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has include bringing scientists and engineers together, develop new tools and tech, as well as boost the movement to fund science needed to treat diseases. They plan to work with the top scientists from around the world to work on this

Chan, a pediatrician by profession, talked about this plan at an event hosted at the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay campus, which houses the school’s state-of-the-art hospital. Present at the event were well-known scientists, investors, and politicians like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (who is a partner of the Initiative), former US Secretary Janel Napolitano, and investor Ron Conway. The first investment by the initiative will be $600 million to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent research center at Mission Bay where engineers, biologists, computer scientists, and the like can collaborate.

Source: CNET