It's Wednesday, August 02, 2017. Hey, good morning!  That SNES Classic that everyone wants is going up for pre-order this month, as Nintendo tries to ensure people who want one can actually buy one. Meanwhile, Sony is happily making more money, in part thanks to PlayStation, and more glimpses of what we might see in the next iPhone. Keep your payment info close by.  In case you were worried about more false starts, Nintendo has confirmed that SNES Classic pre-orders will open later this month. We still don’t know exactly when that will be (it goes on sale September 29th), but considering the NES Classic’s short production run and the considerable demand, we’d suggest keeping an eye out for updates. | | Profits!  When Sony nominated Kaz Hirai to lead the corporation, he laid out an ambitious strategy that he titled One Sony. Hirai identified three key markets where he wanted Sony to be a leader: Digital imaging, gaming and mobile. Five years later, and Hirai's managed to hit two out of three targets, with Sony's most recent financial reports vindicating his plan. The company saw its sales and operating revenue increase by 15.2 percent year-on-year, mostly thanks to semi-conductors and financial services. Sony's lucrative digital-image sensor business provides the chips for pretty much every smartphone worth a damn -- and given that many use dual lenses on the back and one up front, that's a healthy bounty for Sony. | | Details from a firmware leak include a faint death knell for the Home button.  Apple's latest secret leak was from its own documentation, and we’re hearing even more tantalising details that may (almost certainly) come with that new iPhone. Some pointers inside the firmware for Apple's incoming HomePod suggest facial-expression detection and that a new iPhone could have a screen resolution far beyond that on existing models. | | The EMALS goes 'Top Gun.'  This is the best way to launch a jet. | | Goal-line technology and video assistant referee are just the beginning.  Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It may not be as big as American football, baseball or basketball in the US -- at least not yet -- but there's a much larger interest in it here now than five or 10 years ago. One of the problems with soccer is that, unlike pro sports organizations such as the NFL, NBA or MLB, it has never been quick to adopt new technology. For decades, FIFA, the sport's governing body, opposed cutting-edge ideas that could keep referees from making the wrong calls. “We shall rely on human beings,” former FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in 2002. Fifteen years later, Blatter's no longer at the helm. Still, along the way, he seemingly changed his views on technology and greenlit two projects that FIFA hopes will usher soccer into a new era: GLT and VAR, short for goal-line technology and video-assistant referee. Welcome to the modern age. | | Catch of the day. Biotech startup Finless Foods is pinning all of its hopes on consumers choosing lab-made meat over the potentially overfished or antibiotic-laden morsels they might be purchasing now. Host Kerry Davis takes Engadget’s The Future IRL inside its operation to find out where our next meal might come from. | | But wait, there's more... | |
