Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mat said to be in production

We’ll believe this when we see it… Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mats, according to a new report, are currently in production. That report is via ChargerLab, a Twitter account dedicated to er… chargers. Which still isn’t as weird as the folks who dissect cables for a living. Apple’s AirPower charger is supposed to wirelessly charge iPhones, AirPods and the Apple Watch, a feat of engineering that Apple was supposedly battling to pull off. The AirPower mat should have launched last year but Apple has very quietly stopped talking about it — to the point where most mentions of it on Apple’s websites have also disappeared. If those pages start showing up again, we’ll start to have faith in this latest report. We want to believe, after all, but we’re far more Scully than Mulder at this point.

Source: ChargerLab via The Verge

They are billions – open-source media player VLC marks 3 billion downloads

You know it, you probably love it… and if you don’t, you should probably give it a shot. VLC is one of the most versatile and easy-to-use open-source media players, capable of playing just about any media file in existence. If it doesn’t work here, it probably doesn’t work at all. And VLC is only getting bigger. The media player passed 3 billion downloads while at CES 2019, which is a massive milestone for the company. But wait, there’s more. Website Variety reports that VLC will be adding support for AirPlay, following the addition of Chromecast support in 2018. Long story short, it’d be far easier to stream video from an Android mobile phone to an Apple TV with the new feature. There’s no firm date for the inclusion of AirPlay but it could be some time in the next four weeks. In the meantime: 3 billion downloads!

Source: The Next Web, Variety

The Airlander 10 prototype, the world’s largest flying vehicle and airborne butt, is retiring

So it’s come to this. The world’s largest flying vehicle (and occasional airborne buttocks – depending on your view angle) is being retired. The Airlander 10 is the prototype for company Hybrid Air Vehicles’ (HAV) crack at an airship — one without the issues that plagued early development before we switched completely to planes… though not totally without issues. HAV’s CEO Steven McGlennan said “The prototype served its purpose as the world’s first full-sized hybrid aircraft, providing us with the data we needed to move forward from prototype to production-standard. As a result, we do not plan to fly the prototype aircraft again.” Next stop for the company? Hopefully mass production, which means that our skies could be about to get even more interesting.

Source: Guardian

Here’s your first official teaser for Game of Thrones Season 8

Come on, you know the whole world is gonna wind up watching this. The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones draws nigh, and the show’s creators have started putting out teaser material. In true teaser style, the short video doesn’t give much away about what’s coming (besides Winter, of course) but it does see the Starks in Winterfell again. The final season begins on 14 April so you’ve got some time to rewatch seasons One through Seven — or catch up on whichever episodes you’ve missed if you’ve been slacking. Hit the link below to catch the teaser video.