Fully Charged: Rose Gold leading iPhone 6s preorders, and NASA launching 4K channel
All the tech news you need to get this week started off right
Rose Gold is going well for Apple
We don’t have hard data here, but it appears that Apple’s new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus colour – Rose Gold – is pulling significant demand after preorders began early Saturday. According to AppleInsider, Rose Gold has been the first colour on both models to sell out of launch day stock across various territories.
Again, there’s no word on how many units are available for each colour; it might simply be that Rose Gold is available in limited quantities and that’s why it’s becoming harder to find. In any case, if you want Rose Gold and you didn’t already preorder one, you might be waiting weeks longer compared to the other models.
[Source: AppleInsider]
Read More › Apple iPhone 6s hands-on review
NASA launching 4K channel
NASA provided one of the best reasons to have a 4K monitor this summer by starting to upload 60fps YouTube videos in the Ultra HD resolution (see above), and now the U.S. space agency is taking it a step further: it will launch a full 4K-centric TV channel on 1 November.
The agency has partnered with video delivery company Harmonic to create NASA TV UHD, with content pulled from the International Space Station and other ongoing NASA missions, plus remastered footage pulled from the archives. The channel will stream online, and Harmonic is in discussions with pay TV companies to put NASA TV UHD on cable, satellite, and optical networks.
[Source: NASA]
Read More › NASA is uploading 4K 60FPS videos
iOS 9 has Siri training
One of the biggest perks coming with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is the ability to say "Hey Siri" at any time to bring up the virtual assistant. Currently, that function only works if your phone is plugged into a power source, but the new devices will remove that limitation. But in any case, if you’re running iOS 9, you’ll need to do a little Siri training before activating the feature.
9to5Mac spotted the feature in the iOS 9 GM build released last week, with the OS offering a series of voice prompts that help Siri become better accustomed to your voice. While some of its readers thought that it was a "Voice ID" feature of sorts to distinguish your voice from others, 9to5Mac says that doesn’t seem to be the case – but it is there to improve accuracy in usage.
[Source: 9to5Mac]
Read More › Apple iOS 9 hands-on review
Brazilian teams back in FIFA 16
Due to a change in how Brazil’s professional football league licensed its players, last year’s FIFA 15 saw the annual simulation drop all of the Brazilian pro teams (the national team remained). However, EA Sports was able to fix the situation for this year’s edition – at least partially.
In an announcement over the weekend, EA said that Brazilian teams are back in for this month’s FIFA 16, with 16 teams making the cut with their correct crests and kits. However, they won’t be featured in the career mode, since it appears to be a late addition (an online update is required) – the teams will only be available via the "Rest of the World" team menu, which applies to most other game modes.
Still, it’s a start, and it bodes well for next year’s edition too. And just a reminder: you can grab the FIFA 16 demo now across all platforms.
[Source: EA Sports via Polygon]
Read More › 10 things you didn’t know about FIFA 16