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Helium launches $51M-funded ‘LongFi’ IoT alternative to cellular – TechCrunch

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With 200X the range of Wi-Fi at 1/1000th of the cost of a cellular modem, Helium’s “LongFi” wireless network debuts today. Its transmitters can help track stolen scooters, find missing dogs via IoT collars and collect data from infrastructure sensors. The catch is that Helium’s tiny, extremely low-power, low-data transmission chips rely on connecting to P2P Helium Hotspots people can now buy for $495. Operating those hotspots earns owners a cryptocurrency token Helium promises will be valuable in the future…

The potential of a new wireless standard has allowed Helium to raise $51 million over the past few years from GV, Khosla Ventures and Marc Benioff, including a new $15 million Series C round co-led by Union Square Ventures and Multicoin Capital. That’s in part because one of Helium’s co-founders is Napster inventor Shawn Fanning. Investors are betting that he can change the tech world again, this time with a wireless protocol that like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth before it could unlock unique business opportunities.

Helium already has some big partners lined up, including Lime, which will test it for tracking its lost and stolen scooters and bikes when they’re brought indoors, obscuring other connectivity, or their battery is pulled, out deactivating GPS. “It’s an ultra low-cost version of a LoJack” Helium CEO Amir Haleem says.

InvisiLeash will partner with it to build more trackable pet collars. Agulus will pull data from irrigation valves and pumps for its agriculture tech business. Nestle will track when it’s time to refill water in its ReadyRefresh coolers at offices, and Stay Alfred will use it to track occupancy status and air quality in buildings. Haleem also imagines the tech being useful for tracking wildfires or radiation.

Haleem met Fanning playing video games in the 2000s. They teamed up with Fanning and Sproutling baby monitor (sold to Mattel) founder Chris Bruce in 2013 to start work on Helium. They foresaw a version of Tile’s trackers that could function anywhere while replacing expensive cell connections for devices that don’t need high bandwith. Helium’s 5 kilobit per second connections will compete with SigFox, another lower-power IoT protocol, though Haleem claims its more centralized infrastructure costs are prohibitive. It’s also facing off against Nodle, which piggybacks on devices’ Bluetooth hardware. Lucky for Helium, on-demand rental bikes and scooters that are perfect for its network have reached mainstream popularity just as Helium launches six years after its start.

Helium says it already pre-sold 80% of its Helium Hotspots for its first market in Austin, Texas. People connect them to their Wi-Fi and put it in their window so the devices can pull in data from Helium’s IoT sensors over its open-source LongFi protocol. The hotspots then encrypt and send the data to the company’s cloud that clients can plug into to track and collect info from their devices. The Helium Hotspots only require as much energy as a 12-watt LED light bulb to run, but that $495 price tag is steep. The lack of a concrete return on investment could deter later adopters from buying the expensive device.

Only 150-200 hotspots are necessary to blanket a city in connectivity, Haleem tells me. But because they need to be distributed across the landscape, so a client can’t just fill their warehouse with the hotspots, and the upfront price is expensive for individuals, Helium might need to sign up some retail chains as partners for deployment. As Haleem admits, “The hard part is the education.” Making hotspot buyers understand the potential (and risks) while demonstrating the opportunities for clients will require a ton of outreach and slick marketing.

Without enough Helium Hotspots, the Helium network won’t function. That means this startup will have to simultaneously win at telecom technology, enterprise sales and cryptocurrency for the network to pan out. As if one of those wasn’t hard enough.

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iOS and iPadOS 17 drop support for iPhone X, first iPad Pros, and other old devices

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Enlarge / StandBy and other iOS 17 features won’t be coming to some older iPhones.

Apple

Apple sometimes releases new operating systems without changing the system requirements—but this year isn’t one of those years. The iOS 17 update will drop support for several older phones that can currently run iOS 16: 2017’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and the original iPhone X.

Apple’s system requirements list the “iPhone XS and newer,” which should encompass the iPhone XR and all subsequent iPhone X-style notched iPhones, plus the 2nd- and 3rd-generation iPhone SE.

The iPadOS 17 update also drops support for most of the pre-2018 devices that iPadOS 16 still supported, including the 5th-gen $329 iPad and the very first 12.9- and 9.7-inch iPad Pros from 2015 and 2016. All other iPad Pros, the third-generation iPad Air and later, and the 5th-generation iPad mini and later will all run iPadOS 17, though the older a device is, the more likely it is to miss out on a handful of newer features (like Stage Manager).

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)

Most of the iPhones and iPads supported include an Apple A12 Bionic chip or newer (or, for newer iPad Pros, M1 or M2 processors). The 6th-generation iPad and its A10 chip is the sole exception—these cheaper iPads usually use hardware that’s a few generations old to keep the price down.

As for Apple’s other iOS-related platforms, watchOS 10’s system requirements don’t change much. It will still run on any Series 4 or newer Apple Watch, but it does require an attached iPhone running iOS 17. If you have an older phone that can’t upgrade, you won’t be able to run watchOS 10 even if your watch hardware meets the requirements.

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Apple reveals Vision Pro, a AR/VR headset unlike any other

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Enlarge / Apple’s Vision Pro headset

CUPERTINO, Calif.—After years of speculation, leaks, rumors, setbacks, and rumblings of amazing behind-the-scenes demos, Apple has made its plans for a mixed reality platform and headset public. Vision Pro is “the first Apple Product you look through, not at,” Apple’s Tim Cook said, a “new AR platform with a new product” that “augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world.”

“I believe augmented reality is a profound technology. Blending digital content with the real world can unlock new experiences,” Cook said.

The headset, which looks like a pair of shiny ski goggles, can be controlled in a “fully 3D interface” without a handheld controller. It solely uses your eyes, hands, and voice as an interface, and the unit lets you “control the system simply by looking.” Icons and other UI elements react to your gaze, and you use natural gestures like tapping your fingers or a gentle flick to select them—no need to hold your hands awkwardly in front of you constantly.

In video demonstrations, Apple showed users walking around and grabbing things from a fridge without taking the headset off. And to further keep you from feeling isolated while wearing the headset, a system called EyeSight will display your eyes when someone is nearby, conveying “a critical indicator of connection and emotion.”

Floating 2D apps can be placed to float around your “real world” space, which remains visible through the semi-transparent display. Elements in this interface will cast shadows in the real room around them and respond to light, Apple said. These apps can also “expand fully into your space,” like a pulsating 3D animation in a mindfulness app.

Apple CEO Bob Iger came out to demonstrate a number of customized Vision Pro experiences, from Disney+ support to ESPN sports broadcasts with a wide array of stats filling your room to a virtual Mickey Mouse that walks around your space.

A floating 4K Mac display will appear when users glance at their MacBook display while in the Vision Pro. From there, users can interact with use a virtual keyboard or their voice to type, or make use of a physical Magic Trackpad and/or Magic Keyboard.

While watching movies (including 3D movies) on a virtual floating screen, the device will automatically dim your surroundings to be less distracting. The headset can take spatial photos or videos with the click of a button, which you can re-experience as panoramas that you feel like you’re actually inhabiting, Apple said.

Over 100 Apple Arcade titles will be available to play via a floating screen and a handheld controller via Vision Pro “on Day One.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Apple’s iOS 17 will focus on “communication, sharing, and intelligent input”

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Apple

CUPERTINO, Calif.—As has long been a tradition, Apple publicly announced the key features and other details of the next update to the iPhone’s operating system. Apple’s Craig Federighi said the new operating system would focus on “communication, sharing, intelligent input, and new experiences.”

Beginning with communication: as a follow-up to iOS 16’s customizable lock screens, iPhone users can now customize their own “contact poster” that appears on other phones when a call comes in. Posters will appear not just for calls placed via cellular or FaceTime, but with third-party VOIP services like Zoom or Skype as well.

Apple is also adding features for people who like to leave voicemails—live transcription can render text on your phone as the other person is speaking, so you can decide whether to pick up even if you can’t hear or aren’t listening to what the person on the other end is saying. And FaceTime callers will be able to leave video messages, too.

Some of iOS 17's new features.

Some of iOS 17’s new features.

Apple

The Messages app gets a handful of minor updates, including (blessedly) improved search, audio message transcription, and new organization options for iMessage stickers; all of the iOS emoji will also be available to use as stickers. You can also easily create stickers of people using the same AI features Apple uses to separate the subjects of iPhone photos from the photo’s background.

AirDrop is picking up improvements, too. AirDrop transfers can continue over the Internet if the device you’re sending to moves out of range. iPhones (and Apple Watches) held near each other can automatically share contact information between phones, like the “Bump” app used to back in the old days.

Moving onto the “intelligent input” features, Apple is trying to make autocorrect in iOS less frustrating. The keyboard will more readily learn custom words as you type them.

A big new feature is a “Standby” mode wherein an iPhone can act as a sort of smart display. When charging and placed horizontally, the iPhone’s lock screen will display information like weather, calendar appointments, and notifications, behaving similarly to an Amazon Echo Show or a Google Nest Hub. Last year, Apple brought a (sort of) Android-style always-on display to the iPhone Pro models for the first time, but it mostly just showed the time of day.

Apple also announced iPadOS 17. The iPad’s operating system is still largely identical to iOS, so most of the new iOS features will also make their way to Apple’s tablets. But iPads will finally get a couple of missing iOS 16 features, including the customizable lock screens and the ability to put interactive widgets on the home screen. The Health app will also migrate from iPhone to iPad for the first time.

Apple’s 2023 WWDC keynote is ongoing. We’ll be filling in this post with more details, or you can follow along live here.

 

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