APPLE ANNOUNCED THE WWDC 2021 AS ONLINE-ONLY EVENT

TECH NEWS

Apple just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place on June 7th through June 11th this year, and that like last year it will be an online-only event. The announcement, as is typical for Apple, is opaque when it comes to details, but there might be a tantalising hint: are the memoji character’s glasses simply showing a reflection from their laptop? Or could Apple finally be gearing up to announce its long-rumoured VR headset or AR glasses? WWDC is when Apple typically details changes coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS with the occasional hardware surprise. Last year, it also dedicated a significant portion of its keynote to announcing its Mac lineup’s transition to its own Apple Silicon processors. With this transition still underway, it seems likely that Apple will have an update to share about its progress. New hardware tends to be less of a focus at the developer conference, but it’s not unheard of. It’s not surprising that Apple has opted to make its global conference for developers online-only given that the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt around the world. Facebook’s F8 developer conference will be virtual this year, and San Diego Comic-Con and the 2021 Anime Expo have also confirmed that their physical events will not take place.


XIAOMI ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST FOLDING PHONE, THE MI MIX FOLD

Xiaomi has resurrected its Mi Mix series with the Mi Mix Fold, the company’s first commercial folding phone. Unlike previous outlandish Mix devices and concepts from the company, the Mi Mix Fold is a pretty conventional folding phone that uses a big-screen-on-the-inside/small-screen-on-the-outside design similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series and Huawei’s Mate X2. The inner screen is an 8.01-inch 4:3 OLED panel with 2480 x 1860 resolution, a standard display brightness of 600 nits (900 peak), and support for Dolby Vision HDR. Xiaomi says the display is able to withstand being folded 200,000 times. The outer screen is 6.52-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi is making big claims about the Mi Mix Fold’s audio capabilities, with four Harman Kardon-tuned speakers and what the company describes as 3D panoramic sound. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 paired with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. Battery capacity is 5,020mAh, and Xiaomi says the 67W fast-charging system should get you a full charge in 37 minutes. More recently Xiaomi unveiled its latest concept phone, featuring a “quad-curved waterfall display” that curved on all four sides. There’s no word yet on a release outside of China.

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