Future iPhones may be forced to have removable batteries

Long gone are the days of hard-resetting your phone by prying out the removable battery. There were few things so satisfying… But now users very rarely have easy access to their phones’ insides. It looks like new leaked EU proposals may make it compulsory for phone-makers to design upcoming devices with removable batteries. Yeah, we’re looking at you, Apple. Since the iPhone 4 — arguably the smartphone that started smartphones, Apple hasn’t made it easy to remove device batteries. The leaked documents were found by a Dutch publication, and according to the source, the regulation is needed to give consumers the ability to change one of the quickest-wearing components in their phones. The plan is to minimise the disposal of electronics, by making them last longer. “This appears from a draft plan for the circular economy in the hands of the FD. Frans Timmermans, Vice President ‘Green Deal’ at the European Commission, will present this plan in mid-March. The day-to-day management of the EU is now putting the finishing touches to the proposals, which should provide an incentive for wider product recycling plus re-use of raw materials, as well as more sustainable production,” the report in Het Financieele Dagblad states. Honestly, we’re all for this proposal — make everything replaceable — batteries, camera moduled, CPUs, RAM. Bring back the concept of modular phones that are actually upgradable. This will make for far longer-lasting devices, less electronic waste and cheaper upgrades to devices.

Sauce: Het Financieele Dagblad

Apparently we have two moons now…

According to astronomers from the Catalina Sky Survey, Earth’s gravitational field has possibly captured a small hostage in the shape of a tiny new moon. Okay, not necessarily a moon per se, but it’s a small natural satellite that is now orbiting the Earth, which is pretty awesome. “Scientists discovered the new moon last week but wanted to confirm that it wasn’t an artificial satellite or random space junk. It may still turn out that the satellite is artificial but all indications so far indicate it’s the real deal,” TNW reports. Kacper Wierzchos tweeted out the news after his team at Catalina Sky Survey made the discovery, saying “BIG NEWS (thread 1/3). Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3. On the night of Feb. 15, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne and I found a 20th magnitude object. Here are the discovery images.” What does this mean for us? Nothing much. We now have some more solar system rep for having more than just one moon, and now we can stand up against bigger bois. The ‘new moon’ is probably just an unfortunate asteroid that was travelling past the Earth and just happened to get stuck in some gravity, and is now orbiting our blue planet. We’ll have to see if it actually sticks around to contribute as a moon, though.

Sauce: The Next Web

LinkedIn is now testing Snapchat-like Stories

…because recruiters love to see boomerangs of your dogs? We always thought that LinkedIn was the dude in the corner in a suit. Now it’ll be the guy in the corner wearing a suit with some Pepe the Frog socks. But the temptation took over, and now the social network is testing adding Snapchat-like Stories to its interface. After Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube it was only a matter of time before Stories take over the whole darned internet. The social network announced that it is currently testing the Stories format internally and will test it with members in the coming months too. “We’ve also found there’s an entire generation growing up with Stories as a way of speaking; they’re more comfortable starting conversations with a full-screen ephemeral format than posting updates and prefer sharing content that lives as a moment in time rather than as an item in a feed,” the official post reads. Which is a weird way of saying they want to appeal to younger audiences? We’re not convinced that this is the way to target that particular audience, and we can’t imagine sharing Stories of office shenanigans (especially those in the Stuff office) in Story format. But le’ts see what LinkedIn does with this feature.

Sauce: LinkedIn blog

PlayStation Plus prices for South Africa has changed

On the first of May 2020, you’ll pay less (or more) for your PlayStation Plus subscription in South Africa. The official statement emailed to subscribers states that this is due to something about ‘market conditions’. Whatever this means, you need to know how your subscription is going to change in a few months. The 12-month recurring subscription will decrease to R750 from R900, while the 3-month subscription decrease to R320 from R350. The only subscription that’ll increase, is the monthly one. This will go up from R110 per month to R120 per month. What does this mean for you? Well, subscribers will get far more value from the extended subscription plans. So, if you’re one that plans ahead and budgets very well, the year-sub looks like a pretty good deal. “We will alter the price of a PlayStation Plus subscription at 10:59 am BST on 1st May 2020. As you are an existing member, all recurring subscription fees payable by you on or after 1st May 2020 will be charged at the new price,” the email reads. This is very good news for South African gamers who are in the midst of a struggling economy where pricing on other needs is continuously going up. At least we can game online while the power is on, right?