Month: January 2017

 Apple, Inc.

After software fix, Consumer Reports now recommends the newest MacBook Pro

Dan Uff January 12, 2017 0

After a software fix that remedied some battery issues, the world's leading consumer magazine, Consumer Reports, is now saying that it can recommend the new MacBook Pro to customers.

Consumer Reports in an update to its original MacBook Pro evaluation said it has finished retesting the battery life of MacBook Pro laptops running a macOS 10.12.3 beta released earlier this week. As the battery problems are no longer present, the publication can now recommend the laptop series.

"With the updated software, the three MacBook Pros in our labs all performed well, with one model running 18.75 hours on a charge. We tested each model multiple times using the new software, following the same protocol we apply to hundreds of laptops every year," the report said.

The reevaluation comes after the late-2016 MacBook Pro lineup failed to garner the publication's recommended rating for the first time ever. Specifically, Consumer Reports blamed the rating on extreme variations in battery runtime tests.

The publication found wild fluctuations in battery life runtimes for each of Apple's new MacBook Pro models, both with and without Touch Bar. In some cases operating times vacillated from 16 hours in one test to as little as 3.75 hours in another.

Following the poor showing, Apple revealed it was working with the publication to resolve what at the time appeared to be unusual results not indicative of real-world use. Apple spends substantial capital on special machinery, facilities and man hours to perform rigorous quality assurance testing before putting a product up for sale, suggesting the Consumer Reports test was somehow anomalous.

Earlier this week, Apple in a statement to AppleInsider said a hidden developer setting in its Safari web browser was enabled by Consumer Reports during testing and triggered an obscure bug that led to inconsistent battery life readings. The issue was resolved in a macOS 10.12.3 beta that should see public release soon.

"This is not a setting used by customers and does not reflect real-world usage. Their use of this developer setting also triggered an obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons which created inconsistent results in their lab," Apple said. "After we asked Consumer Reports to run the same test using normal user settings, they told us their MacBook Pro systems consistently delivered the expected battery life."

Portions of this article were taken by AppleInsider.com.

(Video): Drone Crashes into Space Needle

Dan Uff January 12, 2017 1

Click to View:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_u5tAXFHoQ&w=560&h=315]

Sony Playstation 4 sales rise to 53.4 million after the holidays

Dan Uff January 12, 2017 1

Sony announced that it has sold 6.2 million units adding up to close 53.4 million in sales of its Playstation 4 game systems after the holiday rush has come and gone.

(CNBC): The figure, calculated between 20 November and January 1, marks an almost 9 percent rise from the 5.7 million units it sold in roughly the same period a year ago. The last figures Sony gave were on December 7 when it said it had exceeded 50 million PS4 sales. It's important to note that this was during the holiday period so included some of the sales that had happened.

PlayStation 4 software sales during the 2016 holiday period reached more than 50.4 million copies globally through digital downloads of games or those sold in retail stores.

"We will aim to continue the momentum this year by broadening the PS4 title portfolio, further enriching the revolutionary gaming experiences on PlayStation VR and high quality gaming experience on PlayStation4 Pro*6, while also expanding network services," Andrew House, global chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the company's gaming business, said in a press release on Thursday.

The PS4 console, released in November 2013, has become an increasingly important device for Sony as it struggles to grow in other areas such as smartphones. Gaming is one of its strongest businesses and the PS4 currently leads offerings from rivals Nintendo and Microsoft in terms of sales.

Sony is keen to keep momentum strong with its PS4 and last year released a slimmed-down version of the console as well as the PS4 Pro, a more powerful model. Sony also unveiled the PlayStation VR – a virtual reality headset that is compatible with the PS4. The Japanese electronics giant has not given any sales figures for the device, but Jim Ryan, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe told CNBC in October that it could sell "hundreds of thousands".

But Sony will face heightened competition in the coming year with Nintendo's latest console, Switch coming out in March, and Microsoft'snext Xbox slated for release later this year.

Microsoft Employees sue over PTSD Claims

Dan Uff January 12, 2017 1

“Two Microsoft employees who had to watch ‘horrific images’ of murder, child pornography and bestiality as part of their ‘online safety’ job have sued the company after developing post-traumatic stress disorder,” June Williams reports for Courthouse News.

“Henry Soto and Greg Blauert say Microsoft failed to warn them about the dangers of the job and failed to provide psychological support. They sued the company in King County Court on Dec. 30, alleging negligence, disability discrimination and violations of the Consumer Protection Act,” Williams reports. “The men were customer service workers assigned to Microsoft’s online safety program, responsible for deciding whether content should be removed or reported to law enforcement.”

“They say they never were told about dangerous psychological impacts of the job, which included viewing child pornography, and were not allowed to turn down the assignment,” Williams reports. “Instead of providing trained therapists for the safety team, Microsoft developed a ‘Wellness Program’ that advised employees who were disturbed by images to take ‘walks and smoking breaks’ and redirect thoughts by playing video games, the men say.”

Read more in the full article here.