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Yusaku Maezawa will fly on the first civilian mission to the Moon -- and maybe you will too.
Apple sends out invitations for its September 7th iPhone event
The rumor was right on the money -- Apple has sent out invitations for a media event on September 7th. The teaser is characteristically cryptic between its out-of-focus lights (which, naturally, form an Apple logo) and "see you on the 7th" slogan. However, you don't have to read the tea leaves to have an idea of what to expect when Tim Cook and company take the stage. It's very likely that you'll see the next iPhone, which may ditch the conventional headphone jack, tout improved cameras and carry extra storage. There's also a chance that you'll see a new Apple Watch with GPS, a bigger battery and better water resistance. One thing's for sure: we'll be there to give you the full scoop.
The OnePlus iPhone case comes with a OnePlus X invite
OnePlus has launched the "Sandstone" case for Apple's iPhone 6 and 6s, and guess what's inside? An invitation to purchase the OnePlus X. You have to admire the sheer chutzpah of that, though it's hard to imagine many folks turfing their $649-plus iPhone 6s for a $249 OnePlus X. Random buyers of the case will get an invite for the rare ceramic version of the OnePlus X, while a select few will actually get the new model for free. The One X has often been compared to older iPhones, so the case does make a strange kind of sense -- and it also makes the iPhone much less slippery. Making Apple owners aware of the product might pose more of a challenge, but the company is nothing if not savvy at marketing.
Microsoft is planning a Surface event for May 20th
It didn't seem that long ago that Microsoft held its last Surface tablet launch in New York City, but it's time again for yet another one. Yep, Microsoft has just sent us an invitation for a Surface-related event slated for May 20th in the Big Apple, imploring us to join them "for a small gathering." We really don't know much else aside from that, but we're guessing a new tablet -- possibly a mini Surface? -- could be unveiled. All we do know is that we'll be there live and in person to tell you all about it.
Samsung's 'Unpacked 5' event promises a new flagship device
Samsung sure knows how to whet the appetite of its fans. The Korean tech giant has announced that it's holding an "Unpacked 5" event at Mobile World Congress on February 24th -- a potentially not-so-subtle reference to the upcoming Galaxy S 5. There's no guarantees that the new high-end smartphone will appear in Barcelona, especially when Samsung has only unveiled one Galaxy S device (the Galaxy S II) at the trade gathering. However, our invitation mentions a "flagship product," and it comes nearly a year after the company invited us to get "ready 4 the show" -- we all know what that digit was referencing. Whether or not the fifth-generation flagship makes an appearance at the event, you can be sure that we'll be there.
Titanfall alpha invites going out to Battlefield 4 players
Electronic Arts is now sending out alpha trial invitations for the Xbox One version of Respawn Entertainment's upcoming mech-combat FPS Titanfall. Competitive console shooter resource Beyond Entertainment reports that Battlefield 4 players who are registered with EA's Origin service are being randomly selected for the alpha. EA's invitation encourages players to "take part in an exclusive trial for an upcoming title on Microsoft's Xbox One." The e-mail then leads Origin members to submit an alpha application here, warning that "availability to this trial is extremely limited." Speaking to Joystiq, an alpha participant notes that players do not receive immediate access to the Titanfall test version upon registering with EA. Instead, accepted players are told to wait for further details after filling out a brief application.
Google invites Glass Explorer Edition owners to upgrade their eyewear
Google promised early Glass wearers that they could eventually upgrade to next-generation Explorer hardware, and that moment is finally at hand. The company is now inviting owners to swap devices through a free mail exchange before February 5th. While the upgrade isn't mandatory, Google warns that it's only developing with the newer Explorer Edition in mind -- there's no guarantee that new accessories or software will work on old models. The invitation is more of a push than a gentle nudge, then, but we doubt that many Glass users will complain about a free update. Check out an excerpt from the invitation after the break.
Surprise! ASUS to launch 'the new PadFone Infinity' next Tuesday (updated with video)
Given the recent leaks, it's no surprise that ASUS is now readying the launch of its aptly named "the new PadFone Infinity." According to an invitation we just received, CEO Jerry Shen will be hosting an event for said device in Taipei next Tuesday, so we'll be there to get our hands dirty. For now, all we know is that this phone + tablet combo will look pretty much identical to the current model, except it'll likely get a more powerful Snapdragon 800 SoC inside, as well as a microSD slot and an all-white color option. Stay tuned for our coverage! Update: ASUS has just added a short, cheeky video (after the break) showing the smartphone leaving the orbit of its tablet companion. A countdown page has also appeared showing the six or so days left until the new new PadFone's "launch" on September 17th -- you can find it at the source.
Google tells some Glass Explorers to invite a friend
Mountain View's kept itself as the gatekeeper for Google Glass with dev signups at I/O and a social media contest, but now it's letting some users spread the wearable computing love. Google+ is lighting up with reports that Glass Explorers are receiving emails from Page and Co. allowing them to invite a friend to snag a device by joining the program. In order to be eligible, invitees must be a US resident, at least 18 years of age, and willing to pick up the hardware in San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles. Google's told us that a "small subset of Explorers" have received the message in its continuing effort to expand the affair. Earlier today, the search giant announced that it cast a wider net for Explorers by enlisting five film schools to suss out how the contraption can be used for everything from character development to production. Head past the break for the full list of institutions.
LG invitation and video tease G2 debut at August 7th event (video)
While there wasn't much doubt as to what LG would unveil at its August 7th event, the company has made it official: a new invitation and teaser video (both after the break) expressly state that we'll see the G2 at the New York City gathering. The invitation tells the media that it will be the "first in the world" to see the smartphone, and shows the device's signature (if frequently leaked) back-mounted volume buttons. At this rate, there won't be any real mystery left to the G2 by the time LG executives take to the stage -- still, we'll try to feign surprise at the launch.
Samsung confirms October 24th event is for the US Galaxy Note II, removes what doubt was left
Ever since Samsung issued invitations for its October 24th event, it's become increasingly clearer that the New York City gathering would center on the Galaxy Note II. After all, we've tried almost every US version so far, and nothing else has loomed on the horizon. Just in case there was any lingering uncertainty, though, Samsung sent us that promised formal invitation with exact details of what's going on: it's the US stop for the Galaxy Note II World Tour, with a press event that night followed by a "consumer celebration" later on that might bring a public side to the affair. Most American editions of the phablet have been announced or re-announced, which suggests to us that we'll primarily get firmer release dates and prices while we're busy hobnobbing.
Exchange/iOS "meeting hijack" history goes back well before iOS 6
Yesterday, in discussing the new reports of meeting invitation issues between Microsoft Exchange and iOS 6 devices using ActiveSync, I mentioned that I recall having seen these sorts of problems in prior versions of iOS and OS X, albeit infrequently. The issue manifests as one recipient declining an invitation which mistakenly cancels the meeting for everyone, "hijacking" the meeting out from under the original organizer. My recollection was probably accurate, given the report below from a TUAW reader who prefers not to identify his former employer. The full rundown is worth reading, but here's the summary: iOS's implementation of ActiveSync, in iOS 6 and well before, may be doing some things (asserting ownership of meetings that in fact do not "belong" to the Exchange account on the iPhone) that theoretically should not be allowed under the protocol specification. Exchange, in turn, is not enforcing the spec and refusing these inappropriate requests as it ought; it's taking them at face value. The end result: meetings get dropped but neither vendor is apparently willing to take point on the issue. Our reader's story: The problem with iOS and Exchange is something that we discovered at my previous place of employment. It's a nasty bug and I'm sad to see that it persists. Before I sat down to write you, [I checked with] those folks to see if iOS 6.0 had made it better at all. They reported it was worse. With that in mind... We had a term for the problem. It was "meeting hijacking." It describes a scenario in which an iOS device could "hijack" a Microsoft Exchange meeting. The hijacking would make an attendee the organizer of the meeting and if they declined or deleted the meeting, Exchange would then send a decline to [all the other invitees] and cause fairly major issues. We first witnessed this problem around iOS 4.3, if I remember correctly. We were running Exchange 2007 for tens of thousands of users. We had the latest service packs and cumulative updates installed. (The problem also occurred in iOS 5.0 and higher, and apparently it's not fixed in iOS 6.0 either. It has also been verified against Exchange 2010, but more on that in a minute). To reproduce the issue, here's what we did: Using Outlook for Windows, create a meeting and add attendees. Make one of the attendees an email list that is EXTERNAL to the Exchange organization. That means it cannot be a distribution group in Active Directory. It needs to be a Mailman or majordomo list that is outside the Exchange org. The members of the external email list receive the invitation and accept it. The acceptance is written back to Exchange and put on the calendar. The iOS device owned by a member of the email list picks up the meeting and places it on the calendar. All is happy. At some point, the iOS device syncs the calendar via ActiveSync and suddenly becomes confused about who the owner of the meeting should be (the organizer, in Exchange-speak). The iPhone decides that its owner should become the organizer, since it has no idea who the real owner is, and syncs this property change back to the Exchange server. Exchange 2007 now has a disconnected copy of the meeting with a different owner. Exchange is agnostic about this. Now the iPhone owner declines the meeting for whatever reason. Exchange automatically generates a cancellation or decline notice and sends it out to everyone since the disconnected copy of the meeting has a different owner. This results in mass confusion and sometimes will delete the meeting from the other calendars. We verified this problem against iOS 4, 5 and 6 with Exchange 2007 and 2010. In Exchange 2010, Microsoft introduced a "calendar repair agent" that is supposed to detect this problem and resolve it. This calendar repair agent is a daily timer job. Microsoft did release patches on Exchange 2007 SP2 and up to correct some of the issues that are similar to this, but this particular problem was never resolved. Now for the dirty laundry. We worked for about two years with Microsoft and Apple on this issue. It may have been longer, I don't recall. We had a major support contract with Microsoft and reported this issue to them. I'll spare you the gory details. But the end result was this: The root cause is that iOS is able to convince ActiveSync to manipulate properties on meetings that it should not be able to manipulate (namely, the organizer of the meeting). Sometimes, it will make these decisions because for whatever reason it believes [these changes are] in the best interest of the user. Microsoft has an ActiveSync specification that calls out what properties should and should not be used during EAS communication. In our troubleshooting it was determined that Apple's manipulation of the organizer field is against the ActiveSync specification. However, ActiveSync will not stop iOS from doing this regardless of the fact that it is "against the specification." ActiveSync will happily accept the change and write the properties from the mobile device even if the ActiveSync spec says that Exchange explicitly should not do this. The end result: Apple claims that it's Microsoft's bug because ActiveSync lets it happen. Microsoft claims it's Apple's bug because they wrote code that makes it happen. Microsoft says they "told Apple not to do this but they did it anyway." Ultimately, we were of the opinion that it was Microsoft's bug to fix since the specification laid down rules of this nature yet is unwilling to enforce them. We pointed out to them that this seemed to be a security issue. They disagreed. Like I said, I spoke to my old colleagues and they confirmed that the problem still exists and with iOS 6, the meeting hijacks appear to have worsened. They are still in the planning stages of Exchange 2010 so I cannot comment on whether or not the calendar repair agent helps this issue in that particular environment. Thanks to our reader for contributing his experience. If you've got specific details on troubleshooting this issue or have run into it yourself, please let us know.
Exchange calendar oddity in iOS 6 may trigger meeting cancellations [Updated]
The iPhone's support for Microsoft's dominant email and calendaring Exchange platform is an essential part of iOS's appeal to business users. Integrating MS's ActiveSync mobile device connectivity into Apple's gear, which started back with iPhone OS 2.0 in 2008, helped make the upstart smartphone into a viable alternative to the dominant BlackBerry ecosystem (and look how that worked out). Update: See Thursday's post for more firsthand information on how Exchange and iOS have a history of not playing nicely. Unfortunately, ActiveSync has always been a mite quirky on iOS. While the core email sending and receiving functionality usually does as it should (with sustained support for push email a sometime exception), calendaring doesn't always fare as well. Delegation of calendar rights, access to third-party calendars and meeting invitation handling are among the sore spots that may cause issues for power users. It now looks like iOS 6 may be exacerbating some of these challenges. MacRumors highlights an internal memo from a "very large company" asking employees specifically not to upgrade their devices, as there may be some situations where declining a meeting invitation inadvertently sends a full cancellation notice to all the other attendees. In fact, I've seen this behavior before, only very rarely -- it came up once or twice on both iOS 5.1 and from iCal under OS X Lion over the course of a few months, while working with Exchange 2007 meeting invites -- but the current instantiation seems to be easier to trigger. Meetings with large numbers of attendees may be more problematic, and/or meetings where the organizer and the recipient are not part of the same Exchange organization. What can make this sort of issue more frustrating for both IT and device users is that these issues are usually intermittent, hard to reproduce and may hinge on very particular combinations of circumstances and Exchange microversions. There's a reason Microsoft sells expensive service and support contracts with its infrastructure products, and also plenty of reasons why hosted Exchange and alternatives like Google Apps are gaining ground on traditional in-house installations. You may be eager to try out the latest and greatest version of iOS, but if you're depending on your company's IT department to support your connectivity to the enterprise calendar system (to say nothing of VPN, file services, email and all the rest) then please do yourself a solid and check with your local gaggle of geeks before you upgrade -- not afterward.
Samsung asks us to witness 'The Next Big Thing' at an October 24th event in New York City
We're starting to suspect that Samsung has a thing for special events. The company just asked us to clear our calendars for an evening presentation in New York City on October 24th, teasing that the "Next Big Thing" has arrived. It's easy to make the connection to the Galaxy Note line with a stylus front and center in the teaser, although just what's entailed is left to the imagination: is it a more formal launch for American Galaxy Note II variants? A new tablet beyond the Galaxy Note 10.1? All we know is that we plan to be there to find out.
Google wants you to join the party, announces Google+ Events (video)
At the tail end of today's Google I/O keynote, the company demoed Google+ Events, which, as you might imagine, let's you invite your virtual buds to an in-person hangout. You've probably already guessed that there's some pretty tight integration with Mountain View's other virtual properties, including Calendar, which means that sending your friends or coworkers a "save the date" to brunch or brainstorming no longer requires clunky email, or a phone call. That's not to say that your contacts need to opt-in to the search giant's social networking site to join the fun -- email invites are still available by typing your friend's address alongside your circles, or individual friends should you wish to plan an awkward inter-group soiree. You can choose from a variety of themes for your e-vite, which integrate motion or static banners. Once the fun begins, you can hop into Party Mode from your mobile, and photos you shoot during the event will appear beside the invite -- friends can add pics to the page as well, which you can later download. For now, please accept our invitation to jump past the break, where a Google demo video awaits. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub! %Gallery-159279%
Gigabyte to unveil X11 on May 31st as lightest laptop ever, spooks us with talk of 'sixth element'
Gigabyte is clearly hoping to carve out a name for itself in a very crowded ultraportable space; it sent us word of a media event for a new X11 laptop in its native Taipei on May 31st, just a few days ahead of Computex. The PC designer claims that the X11 will be the "lightest notebook on Earth," a pretty audacious claim considering the featherweight competition. Most of the braggadocio, we suspect, is rooted in the choice of material: Gigabyte is promising rather ominously to "conquer the 6th element," and unless it's financing the sequel to a Luc Besson movie, we're reasonably sure the firm means extra-light carbon fiber. Other details are scarce, including whether there's any relation to the U2442 Ultrabook due this summer. We'll know in just over a week.
Samsung's new Galaxy Phone gets official teaser (video)
The countdown is over and Samsung's not offering much to whet our appetite. A medley of opaque angles of galactic travel are meant to represent next week's big news story, alongside some brief claims of technology that fits easily in your hand. It finishes all too soon on those glossy enamel puddles shown above. The second trailer reveals more of the same, with Samsung promising the device will become "a natural side of life", throwing in a quick jibe at those rival smartphone-carrying "sheep". While we reckon we broadly know what to expect when it comes to internal hardware, we're still itching see how Samsung's looking to reinvigorate its phone design following HTC's stylish smartphone salvo. Well, at least it's just over a week left to wait.
Samsung countdown teases next Galaxy phone with anagram
Sammy's latest marketing ploy kicked off with a string of nonsense that could just as easily have come from the Sunday morning jumble: "Destination: tgeltaayehxnx," declared the Samsung Mobile Twitter account. Anagram wizards will read that as, "the next Galaxy," and wouldn't you know it, it's also the URL for an auspicious countdown clock. Sammy promises to let visitors take "the next step" in about 17 hours and counting. Bonafide internet sleuths can find an extra carrot strung up in the site's source, reading, "discover how Samsung is about to challenge the way you view the Galaxy once more." Is Samsung about to break its own May 3rd unveiling? We'll let you know in 16 hours and change. Update: It seems like that ticker just might be counting down to some sort of anagram guessing game, according to an Engadget tipster who partook in some directory diving. Among a series of assets of different colored lettered tiles he found images with instructions warnings, reading "Click on the letters in the correct order to reveal your real destination," and "Following technology blindly often gets you nowhere." Ominous. Update 2: And there it is. Samsung's revealed two (well, one and a half) teaser videos -- but they don't reveal much. [Thanks, Naor]
Samsung will unveil the next Galaxy phone May 3rd in London
After months of rumors Samsung has officially announced the world will meet the next Galaxy phone in London on May 3rd with this invite, first received by Dutch site Tweakers.net. While most speculation will immediately focus around something we're expecting to arrive as the Galaxy S III, the BlackBerry World-spoiling invite we received is conspicuously devoid of details like name or specifications. While we'll keep the address of the Samsung Unpacked event to ourselves, the only other information included is the date / time (2PM ET) and the address for a live stream on Facebook. The original Galaxy S and GS2 are already million unit sellers many times over since first launching two years ago and have led the Android pack for most of this time, so what will Samsung do to top itself this time? (Answer: not 3D, and it's probably a little too late for another Continuum-like gimmicky split display.) There are just 17 days left until we find out for sure.
LG and Prada invites us to see its 2012 collection in London, we dust off the tux
No sooner had the LG and Prada partnership reappeared in benchmark tests did this glossy JPEG arrive at our inbox. Vowing to show us "the new Prada Phone by LG 3.0," we're undergoing a rigorous fashion transformation in preparation, and will be there next Wednesday night to clue you in on what the collaboration's got up its perfectly-ironed sleeves.
