Today’s topics include talk that a basic feature could be missing from the Next Apple iPhone, virtual reality Web browsers in Samsung’s Gear VR Headset, Microsoft and Autodesk are teaming up for a HoloLens design, and why Facebook’s CEO and his wife are pledging their fortunes to charity.
Apple could be looking at dropping the long-standard 3.5mm headphone jack from its next generation iPhones, instead possibly replacing it with a Lightning or a Bluetooth connector to help make the phones even thinner.
According to a story in the (London) Daily Mail, the latest rumors about Apple’s plans for the headphone jack originated from the Japanese technology Website Macotakara.
The next iPhones could be equipped with a thinner, single, multipurpose Lightning slot that will double as a headphone port and a charger.
Samsung has released a beta version of an optimized Web browser for Samsung Gear VR users who want to browse the Internet using their Gear VR virtual reality headsets.
The new beta application, Samsung Internet for Gear VR, was unveiled Dec. 2 by Samsung and is available through the Oculus Store.
Samsung Internet for Gear VR supports 360-degree streaming, 3D video streaming and all HTML5 video on the Internet, as well as voice recognition, along with an on-screen keyboard.
Autodesk, known for its computer-aided design technology, is teaming up with Microsoft to make HoloLens a part of the modern product designer’s technology toolkit.
Ben Sugden, studio manager for HoloLens, wrote that Microsoft is partnering with Autodesk Fusion 360 on a system the company believes could change the way industrial designers, mechanical engineers and other product development specialists work together.
Autodesk Fusion 360 is a cloud-based platform that integrates computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering, computer-aided manufacturing and project collaboration into a single toolset.
Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan announced on Dec. 1 in a letter to their newborn daughter Maxima that they will be giving 99 percent of their fortune to charity.
In the letter, Zuckerberg wrote “As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. We will give 99 percent of our Facebook shares—currently about $45 billion—during our lives to advance this mission.”