The Morning After: Thursday, January 12th 2017
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It's January 12th. We tried educating one of our editors about high-end audio, Verizon tries to tackle its unlimited data plan customers (again), and we tried gadget-based emotional control during a week-long tech show.
iOS prototypes show what might have been
10 years after the iPhone debuted, we have certain expectations of Apple's mobile OS. But before it hit the MacWorld stage engineers had to make some tough choices, and a video from Sonny Dickson shows two different versions of test software. The ghost of what could have been, is a version with iPod-style clickwheel navigation. Just imagine that for a second. Or watch the video.
Verizon takes aim at its unlimited data plan customers once more
Once upon a time, (Engadget parent company) Verizon offered customers unlimited data. These days, with higher speeds and bigger downloads those plans are off the table, but some subscribers are still holding onto them. Now, the carrier is going after the heaviest users, saying those averaging more than 200GB of data per month will be asked to switch to a new plan.
Nintendo baked a secret message into its Famicom Mini
The NES Classic and its Japanese counterpart are already incredibly cool -- but you know what makes an awesome toy even better? A secret message. Apparently, developers that worked on the Famicom Mini emulator left a short, hidden message in the code: "Please," it says, "don't break everything!"
Touring the (pointlessly) connected devices of CES 2017
Connected home gadgets were everywhere at CES 2017 -- we saw WiFi cameras, smart walking canes and Echo clones aplenty. But while several of them were truly innovative, there were some that made no sense at all. This is their story.
Why care about high-end headphones?
Senior Editors Aaron Souppouris and Mat Smith explored the world of high-end audio, armed with a FLAC audio file of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas (ouch). Did the audio-uneducated Mat learn anything? Perhaps. Did Aaron learn to tolerate being around him a little more? Maybe not. This is a journey into sound.
One smartwatch doesn't fit all
Casio launched its second smartwatch and it's unapologetically not for everyone. It looks like a hardy outdoors watch, comes in bright orange, and its features revolve around hiking, fishing and other stuff that may involve rain. The Casio president (and son of founder) Kazuhiro Kashio explained that he believes aimed-at-everyone smartwatches were one of the problems with wearables.
Norway is killing FM radio and folks aren't happy
Norway started switching off FM transmitters yesterday, becoming the first nation in the world to dump the 80-year-old standard. The changeover to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) will give citizens more stations, better coverage, program time-shifting and more, the government says. However, the majority are against the changeover, according to a recent poll. One Norwegian politician added: "We are simply not ready for this yet." Only a quarter of cars on the road are equipped for the switch.
