iOS 7, scan the world in 3D and Affleck responds: #StuffToKnow this week

Well it finally arrived, and wow is iOS7 simply stunning. There are a few things in different places and that will take getting used to — it’s like having a fresh new iPhone. Kickstarter is helping a company scan the real world via a docking station hooked up to your iPad (I kid you not it’s amazing). Oh yeah, and we can run our computers on light soon. Cool, huh?

TECH

Apple iOS 7 review: a major makeover that takes some getting used to, but ultimately delivers

A truly elegant complete revamp of the iOS interface was finally released on Wednesday. It is by far the biggest revamp of iconic “i” devices since its initial launch. It was in so much demand that iPhone activation servers crumbled under the onslaught. The hashtag #iOS7 was trending on Twitter before and well after the launch.

The best hidden features in iOS 7

There are many smaller new features that are overlooked by most review articles. This one shows them in a very clean interactive gallery which is worth a look to the owners of the new iOS. There are quite a few treasures in this new bundle. Jony Ive did us proud.

iOS 7 bug lets anyone bypass iPhone’s lockscreen to hijack photos, email, or Twitter

Now before I get ahead of myself, all is not rosy in the new land of flat colours and soft gradients. In a not-so-great escalation, a bug crept in with the update to the new “more secure” iOS with a rather simple to execute hack. In the meantime you can prevent control center from appearing on your lockscreen by going to “settings,” then “control center.”

Structure sensor turns your iPad into a mobile 3D scanner
This is a freakishly impressive new Kickstarter project, although I wonder how much of that is already possible and what is potential. But they are giving the SDK out to everyone so who knows what will come of this. This is something phenomenal in its scope of potential: being able to recreate any real world object or environment into a 3D model within minutes is simply stunning and in a weird way makes me think for once StarTrek was behind us.

9 things you didn’t know about the Samsung Galaxy Gear
Now even though it didn’t look as good as I had hoped, the smartwatch rolled out by Samsung shouldn’t be passed over so quickly. It’s has a few plans up its sleeve. Though personally I’m still waiting for the rumoured iWatch next year.

Ray Dolby, audio pioneer and founder of Dolby Laboratories, dies at age 80
In sad news, the man who brought us the sound that accompanies our tech has passed. Dolby founded his namesake company in 1965 and grew it into an industry behemoth in audio technology. His work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the creation of a number of technologies that are still used in music, movies and entertainment today.

INTERNET

Both Google and Apple have made office suites free. What now, Microsoft?
Well yeah… one can see more and more why Steve Ballmer is going to leave Microsoft. The Office suite is the golden egg of the Redmond company, the Windows operating system might be the flagship but the suite is the money-maker.

Google CEO Larry Page is going to try take on death with the launch of a new company called Calico
Google’s new startup, Calico, may one day be epic. In a Google+ post (have to love that), Google CEO Larry Page called it a long-term investment that could be 10 times better than any of the other various anti-aging remedies. Oh, and it will be much cheaper.

ENTERTAINMENT

Ben Affleck responds to ‘Batman’ backlash: ‘I handle sh*t’
Well Ben Affleck had to say something about the onslaught that came after the announcement he would play Batman. By the way, the reaction was hectically negative. Just have to mention this about the web quickly: they find out the US government spies on their every online activity without a warrant and their reaction is lukewarm at best. They hear an actor they are not fond of is cast for a role they are fond of, and they react like their mother was violated.

NICE FIND

Graphene computer chip runs on light, not electricity
Because of the leaps in fibre optics technology, most of the information that you see in today’s world is transported by light. You are probably reading this because it was delivered to your screen at least at one point via optics. As it is done rather inefficiently, however, nearly if not all computer chips need electricity to work, and scientists have yet to find a way to have the chips also work via light. At least not until graphene came along.

And for the Android fans…