iPhone 7 Possibly Waterproof; Two More Players Join Self-Driving Car Rally

Posted: December 11, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple has a number of patents that never get used, but this is intriguing…Electronic Device with Hidden Connector. Bgr.com reports that the tech allows an opening like a USB port or headphone jack to automatically seal. It uses an elastomer, that expands and seals the moment a connector is removed. Not a sure thing, but rumors that the iPhone 7 might sport this technology, combined with others to prevent water damage, and make a waterproof iPhone.

Two more companies have joined to race to get self-driving cars on the road. Samsung and Baidu are dipping their toes into the water, according to theverge.com. Unlike what Apple is reportedly doing, Samsung is focusing on components for a driverless car. Baidu, however, is working on actual self-driving vehicles that could serve as public shuttles. The Chinese state news agency says they have already built a fully self-driving car based on a BMW 3 series that can hit 62 mph in a test. A former Googler is now assisting with the project.

Wal~Mart Launches Wal~Mart Pay; Adidas Looks to Robots to Make Shoes

Posted: December 10, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wal~Mart has rolled out its own mobile wallet called Walmart Pay. It will be available on iOS and Android devices, and allows payment with any major credit, debit, pre-paid, or gift card. According to reuters.com, it should be in stores nationwide by the first half of 2016. The giant retailer says it’s not bailing on the merchant consortium that developed CurrentC, and will consider it as an additional mobile wallet option. CurrentC was beta launched in August.

No longer content to export jobs to people making slave wages in developing countries, Adidas is finishing up a factory in Germany that will be staffed with robots. Right now, there are 10 people helping make it work, but the company is shooting for 100% automated production. Geek.com says they are more concerned with shipping costs than rising wages in Asia, and building so-called ‘Speedfactories’ all around the globe where their customers live will help them move from selling 600 million shoes to a billion in the next 5 years.

Cortana Lands on Android and iOS; A Number of Us Are Rarely Offline

Posted: December 9, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In what seems like quite a clever move (and a bit of bet-hedging), Microsoft gone live with Cortana for Android and iOS. 9to5google.com notes it’s been a small beta since last month, but now you can check out it’s functionality for real. Since it’s an app, and not baked in, don’t expect it to have the power of Google Now or Siri yet. With Windows Phone still in the basement, Microsoft is smart to be porting over to the two much more widely used mobile systems.

TV and Comedy have had a lot of fun with people being inseparable from their smartphones and computers…everything from chipped people to the Simpsons’ Eye Phone, where the thing replaced an eyeball…so now comes data from Pew research that 21% of Americans go online almost constantly. Drilling down, 73% are online daily, 42% several times a day, 13% several times a week or less. The Luddite contingent of people who never use the internet stands at 13%. They probably still have buggy whips…and I don’t mind insulting them, since they’ll never read this or hear it anyway!

New Apple iPhone Battery Case; Google Makes Mobile Chrome Safe by Default

Posted: December 8, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Several Apple news items: Today, Cupertino rolled out a Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6S and 6, their first since 2007. According to appleinsider.com, Apple claims 25 hours of extended use. It’s soft silicone with a strange hump for the battery on the back, and runs $99. The silicone gives a sure grip, but does collect dirt.

Many people will be surprised to find that Apple Maps is now used 3 times as often as Google Maps on iPhone. Macrumors.com says this figure was given to the AP by Apple. Google does dominate over all smartphones, of course, with more Android phones in service than iPhones. I tried Apple Maps last spring traveling from Northern California to the Magic Kingdom, and it routed me off the 5 through city streets and back. I thought it was nuts, until I discovered it routed me around a terrible crash in LA with a monster backup.

Apple is dropping 13 million on their Sacramento area campus. Reportedly, this is to change a large warehouse into a logistics center, and they will add an additional 1450 parking spaces and jobs, of course. It’s possible more than logistics is going on…this facility was Apple’s last manufacturing center in the US until 2004.

In a nice move by Google, they have turned on Safe Browsing by default on Chrome for Android. Theverge.com reports that it has always been in the settings, but this will give an extra layer of protection to mobile browsing on Android for Chrome users. Google is releasing the feature as part of Play Services, which means it will appear in other in-house apps moving forward.

Medical Pot App, DNA Data Storage, & Apple Music Quadruples Library Size

Posted: December 7, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

So you really need medical weed, but just can’t get yourself to a doctor? There’s an app for that, dude! Gizmodo.com reports that EazeMD, which works only in California so far, will hook you up with a board certified physician that will look at your medical history and do the evaluation. Once a recommendation is issued, you can order weed right on the spot from Eaze, and you will also get a recommendation in the mail you can take to a physical dispensary. The fee for the recommendation is billed directly by the doctor, and runs about $30.

We just reported on a 10 TB hard drive you can buy…if 6 or 8 isn’t enough, but storage limits may become a punchline if research on DNA pans out. Teams from Microsoft and the University of Washington, and a separate group at University of Illinois have published results that indicate all human knowledge could be stored in about 9 liters of solution. A speck of DNA the size of a grain of sand could store a million terabytes. According to geek.com, DNA storage stability is measured in centuries, so no worries about losing your data. It could be happening in just the next few years!

On the topic of enormous storage, great news for people with insanely large music collections. Appleinsider.com says Apple has finally increased the iTunes Match/Apple Music upload limits from 25,000 to 100,000 songs. Thank goodness, huh? Who has the time to upload, then listen to, 100,000 songs? I’ve been in broadcasting for a long time and only have 6369 as of today. A colleague has close to 15,000, and basically uploaded every track he’s ever come across. On behalf of the minuscule number of crazy people with this size library….thanks, Apple! Maybe in a few years we can store it in our DNA and won’t need a cloud.

Google’s Chromebook Has Taken Over Education; New 10 Terabyte Hard Drive

Posted: December 4, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Even as they seemed to be slipping away as a company back in the bad old days, Apple was a powerhouse in schools. Not anymore. According to 9to5google.com, Google’s Chromebooks have emerged as the clear leader in classrooms, leaving Apple in the dust. Chromebook’s now account for over half of all devices in US classrooms, up from 1 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, Apple has dropped from 52% to 24, and Microsoft from 43 to 24%.

If you really, really need an insane amount of storage, and want to trust it to a single drive, Western Digital has what you need. They just rolled out a helium-filled 10 terabyte hard drive that uses 44% less power than their 6TB model. Geek.com reports it will set you back around $460. That’s light years away from my original 10 MEGAbyte hard card back in the 80’s!

Samsung Shows Galaxy ‘A’ Series; 4 Inch iPhone May Drop in Early 2016

Posted: December 3, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The updated Samsung Galaxy S smartphones will probably bow in 90 days or so, but they have just previewed the ‘A’ series. The next gen Galaxy A3, A5, and A7 feature faster charging, support for Samsung Pay, and upgraded cameras. 9to5google.com says the screen sizes remain at 4.7, 5.2, and 5.5 inches. The low end A3 doesn’t get fast charging, HD screen, and the upgraded cam. The A series will launch in China in a couple weeks, with a global launch a bit later.

Meanwhile, in Cupertino, word is that Apple may drop a new 4 inch iPhone with Apple Pay early next year. Theverge.com reports that the smartphone will have the same processor as the 6S, but keep the camera of the iPhone 5S. This word is from usually reliable KGI Securities. It reportedly will have a front glass that slightly curves at the edges like the 6S and 6S Plus, but WON’T support 3D touch. It may be between $4-500 without contract.

Online v. Store Sales; Amazon’s ‘No Blue Light Special’ For Tablets

Posted: December 2, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cyber Monday, which now lasts about a week, showed an interesting trend this year. In a Reuters.com report, they found online sales were up 16% to $3.07 billion, with 26% of online shopping on mobile devices, according to the Adobe Digital Index. Amazon was up 21.1%. As for brick and mortar stores, they were down 10.4% from last year to $20.43 billion, as reported by ShopperTrak.

Amazon is introducing a new feature on its Fire tablets for night owl readers. According to thenextweb.com, Blue Shade filters out blue light to help you get to sleep better. You can find it in the quick settings menu. In addition, there are warm light filters. The online giant also added a tool called Activity Center, which allows parents to check on how long the kids are playing games, watching movies, or reading on their tablets…AND you can check their browser history. They have also introduced a kid friendly browser with a curated set of over 40,000 YouTube videos and websites. The updates are rolling out to Fire HD 10, HD 8, and other Fire models.

Facebook’s WhatsApp Leans on Telegram; Apple May Drop Headphone Jack on iPhone 7.

Posted: December 1, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook is using its muscle to make it tougher to use a competitor for one of their apps. WhatsApp has started blocking outbound links to Telegram, the secure messaging service. Businessinsider.com reports that any such links are dead, and can’t be copied an pasted out of WhatsApp. The blocking came with a silent update yesterday. In an unintended but ironic side consequence, the app also now blocks links to telegram.com, a domain for a newspaper in Worcester, Mass that has nothing to do with the Telegram messaging app!

A rumor that has popped up everywhere the last 24 hours, including gizmodo.com, is that Apple may drop the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, opting for earbuds that plug into the Lightening port. Besides meaning you couldn’t charge the phone and listen at the same time, or use your old…and perhaps expensive headphones…this means if you listen on a computer, iPad, or any other device that uses the standard 3.5mm headphone plug, you either will have to carry a dongle adapter around with you, or two sets of headphones or earbuds. You also won’t be able to plug directly into another system and feed your music from your phone to it…like at a party where they’re playing terrible music, and need a musical rescue! While Apple has done this sort of thing before…think the floppy disk and DVD/CD slot…it’s likely that dropping the headphone jack will REALLY make people mad, and could hurt sales. Let’s hope common sense prevails at Apple in this case!

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