Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you

The Wrap – June 8, 2018

All of Apple’s big announcements from WWDC, what’s new from Sonos, tidbits from Computex, and a 60 hour phone reviewed. All that in The Wrap. Tune in.

Transcript

For the week ending the June 8, you’re tuned into The Wrap, Australia’s fastest technology roundup, and this week was packed with news, so let’s get stuck in.

This week, that starts with Apple, because there was a lot from the makers of the iPhone this week, starting with, well, the iPhone.

If you own an iPhone, Apple was talking up iOS 12, the next generation of its smartphone operating system, offering some interesting features made very much for your health.

The next version of iOS will bring with the ability to monitor your screen time and allow you to switch off, helping you to know just how long you sit there playing with Facebook, and maybe help you get some sleep.

If you’re not interested in that, consider the speed improvements, because iPhones as old as the iPhone 5s will see speed boosts with iOS 12.

The Apple Watch will also share updates with a new walkie talkie mode and automatic workout detection, while the next Mac OS will bring iOS-like apps to the desktop alongside a special dark mode, great if you’re working at night.

And Apple TV was also part of the announcements, and if you’re thinking that this year is the year you buy a new sound system, the 4K Apple TV will support Dolby Atmos, the 3D surround sound technology that fires sound around you by bouncing audio off the ceiling.

Of course, you’ll need a Dolby Atmos sound system to get that special sound, but at least you won’t be looking for films, as Apple’s 4K movie list should support Atmos, as well.

Not every speaker being released is designed for 3D sound.

This week, Sonos added a new option to its range, and while it’s made for the TV, it’s not a 3D sound speaker. Rather, the Sonos Beam is still a soundbar, but one with smarts, allowing you to talk to it and control other parts of your home.

If you happen to have a multiroom system by Sonos already in your home, that should mean you can talk to the Beam and get it to play music, and come July 17, Apple’s HomePod speaker will talk to Sonos, as well.

That’s because from that date, Sonos will roll out support for AirPlay 2. We’re hearing it will be compatible with the new Beam, the Playbase, and the Sonos One, and these should act as a gateway to a bigger Sonos system, which is great news, too.

This week also brought some interesting concepts from elsewhere in the world.

For instance over at Computex, Asus talked up the Precog, a two screened laptop that used the bottom screen as the keyboard, while Intel and AMD both mentioned stupidly fast processors that were on the way.

The classic video game Street Fighter turned 30 with a special game collection that made us wonder just how much money we’d wasted on the arcade games in the past.

And Lenovo showed off a new phone that was rumoured to be an all-screen phone — you know, no notch, chin, and just the entire front being screen — but alas, the Lenovo Z5 wasn’t that. It was actually kind of ordinary.

What was special arrived in a review, and fresh off the Motorola announcement last week, we’re ready with our thoughts on something rather surprising: a phone that lasts longer than a day. In fact, even more surprising, it’s a phone that lasts longer than two days. I know, you’re stunned, you don’t believe it, but shockingly Motorola’s Moto E5 managed to hit a staggering three work days in our test this week, pulling 60 hours of actual use.

We had a pair of wireless headphones and a smartwatch connected, so it wasn’t exactly doing nothing, and yet Motorola’s E5 managed to hit an impressive 60 hours run time in a $229 phone.

It’s not all peachy, and to get that battery life, Motorola had to make some compromises. For starters, while you get a big 5.7 inch screen, it’s not exactly high res out there, and you also only get 16GB of storage, with only half available. Fortunately there’s a microSD slot to upgrade, and support for two SIMs.

But they don’t slow it down. What will is the guts and it’s just slow enough to spot lag and slowdowns. You won’t see it in everything, and we found we could type without pause, but some apps took an extra second or two to load, and it is noticeable.

The camera isn’t great, either, but there’s a fingerprint sensor, a big screen, and a positively massive battery, and that makes it feel like this budget phone has been made for seniors and kids, since you won’t have to charge it as often and it offers a massive screen for very little.

For $229, it’s definitely worth a look if you’re buying for someone who doesn’t need the best, but does want a battery that goes on and on.

Not like this show, which is now over, and you’ve been listening to The Wrap, Australia’s fastest technology roundup. The Wrap appears every Friday at PodcastOne and Apple Podcasts, and we’ll be back next week for more tech in five. Until then, have a great long weekend and a top week, and we’ll see you next time on The Wrap. Take care.

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