iPhone Claws Back Market Share from Android; Tesla’s Gigafactory Will Be Solar Powered; Amazon Prime Bows Cashback Rewards Visa Card

Posted: January 11, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

According to the latest data, Apple’s iPhone picked up 6.4% in market share in the US for the 3 months ending last November. 9to5mac.com also says that Apple did the same in 7 of 9 other key markets. The iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 6s were the 3 most popular phones in the US for the period, combining for 31.3%. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge where next, grabbing 28.9% share. Apple snagged a whopping 9.1% in the UK…mainly crushing the hopes of Windows phones.They did drop 5.4% in China to local brands and lost out 3.2% in Germany, where Android picked up share.

Theverge.com reports that Tesla plans to power its Gigafactory with a 70 megawatt solar installation on the roof! That would make it 7 times larger than the present largest rooftop solar array. Excess power picked up would be stored by Powerpack storage units for use after dark, etc. The solar panels will all come from Solar City of course. Tesla acquired them last year.

If you need a reason to spend even more money with Amazon, have they got a deal for you. TechCrunch.com says Amazon is partnering with Chase to offer Prime members an Amazon Prime Visa card with 5% cash back on Amazon purchases. The card would give 2% back for restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores, and 1% elsewhere. There’s no annual fee on the card. Amazon is believed to have between 58 and 69 million members, or roughly half of US households. The card is available today.

Samsung May Release Limited Galaxy S8’s Early; Apple Partnering with Zeiss on AR Glasses; Verizon & AT&T Trip Hammer on Legacy Data; TwitchCon Switches to Long Beach

Posted: January 10, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

According to thenextweb.com, Samsung may drop a limited supply of Galaxy S8 smartphones a month of so before the official launch…shipping perhaps as early as February or March. Sammy is reportedly gearing up for a sizable production bump for the S8, partly to make up for lost units and the debacle with the Note 7.

Apple is said to be partnering with Carl Zeiss on AR glasses. Cnet.com says they are lightweight AR/mixed reality glasses. Visualize Pokemon Go through glasses, only with all sorts of interesting things overlayed on top of your field of view. Tim Cook had said in an interview last year he felt AR was the larger of the two, when compared to virtual reality. If Apple can build a cool looking pair of glasses or slightly more that aren’t dorky and work well, they could blow the AR market up like they did with the iPhone 10 years ago.

Speaking of smartphones, the Big Two carriers are taking slightly different tacks…but both aiming squarely at making users with legacy unlimited data plans miserable. Zdnet.com reports that Verizon users who use over 200 Gigs of data over several months will have to move to a new plan by February 16th or be cut off! Nothing like the subtile approach! AT&T, on the other hand, will start dinging people with grandfathered legacy data plans….like moi….an extra 5 bucks a month starting in March if they don’t move to a so-called tiered data plan. They just jacked up the grandfathered plans last February. So with both Verizon and AT&T you can either pay more, pay more, or be cut off. The ‘free market’ at work…

After a successful convention in San Diego, Twitch is moving TwitchCon 2017 to Long Beach. Engadget.com reports that the show will be at Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Southern California October 20th through the 22nd. Last year, the attendance jumped to 35,000 from 20,000 the previous year. They plan to incorporate even more non-gaming events this time, to attract a broader scope of attendees.

iPhone is 10; Freshened iPads Coming, Waymo Says It’s Cut Self-Driving Equipment Cost in Half; Mercedes Autopilot Will Give Tesla a Run

Posted: January 9, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ten years ago today Steve Jobs…remember him?…stood in front of the crowd at Macworld, and introduced the iPhone. Of course, we didn’t get it until almost July, but smartphones were absolutely revolutionized. Now, we wait until September to see if the iPhone 8 will be anywhere near as revolutionary with a wraparound screen that covers the front and wireless charging.

Meanwhile, 9to5mac.com reports that KGI Securities is expecting 3 updated iPads, and they believe a sales slump will be blunted. Apple appears to be preparing a 12.9” model, 10-10.5” size, and a 9.7” version. The first two will get a higher end A10X chip, with the smaller one keeping the A9. More business and enterprise users will gravitate to the larger models, but KGI thinks the cheaper model will grab 50-60% of total iPads sold. They may drop this spring.

The Waymo self driving car division of Google…or if you insist, Alphabet….has cut the cost of LIdar sensors for the rigs by 90%. They’re still pricey, but in 2009 ran $75,000! They have done it by building the sensors in house, according to recode.net. At $7500, and likely to fall more, self driving tech is becoming something that can roll out in vehicles to the mass market soon!

Mercedes showed off its Drive Pilot in conjunction with CES in Las Vegas. Theverge.com says it actually works better than Tesla’s system…in fact, so well, that Mercedes has ‘detuned’ it a bit to make it move around in the lane so drivers won’t be lulled into dialing out completely. It does the emergency stop routine like the Tesla, but in the case of the Mercedes, automatically calls the Mercedes SOS service to connect a live person…a nice touch since both are in the luxury car strata. Drive Pilot will bow this summer in the S class Mercedes cars.

Samsung & Google Partner on New Chromebooks; Batteries Now Rolling off Lines at Tesla Gigafactory; Energous Wireless Charging Debuts This Year; Nvidia Co-Pilot Driving Computer

Posted: January 5, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro have finally bowed from Samsung, in collaboration with Google. Theverge.com says they will be worthy competition for Apple’s iPad Pro and Microsoft’s Surface Pro. The Plus is out in February for $449, and sports baked in Android app support, a self-contained stylus, and on-screen inking. It has a 360 degree hinge to allow for both tablet and laptop modes. The Pro will be out later this year, and is basically the same except for a more powerful processor.

It took almost 3 years from the groundbreaking, but batteries are now rolling off the lines at Tesla’s Gigafactory. The first of the custom cells will go into Tesla’s storage products…the Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2, but are designed to fit into all Tesla cars according to theverge.com. They will start installing them in the new Model 3s when they start production this year. Tesla says the Gigafactory will eventually crank out enough batteries for 1.5 million cars.

Energous will begin shipping its truly wireless systems by later this year, but is holding off due to a partner. Macrumors.com notes that most believe that partner to be Apple, and that the Watts Up system will debut in the iPhone 8 in September. The difference between Energous and other wireless systems is that theirs is truly over the air, and can charge a device from up to 15 feet away…no need to lay the phone on a charging pad. Energous did show off several devices that use contact charging at CES this week.

Nvidia had teased a powerful AI system earlier, and now has announced Co-Pilot. They are baking the tech into their Xavier drive computers they are making to assist drivers when they are doing the driving. Techcrunch.com reports that the system will utilize data from sensors inside and outside a car, and alert a driver when they need to take action. The system can either operate in self-driving mode, or as the Co-Pilot, continuing to monitor and warn drivers to react…say, should you not spot a pedestrian. They are already partnering with ZF in Europe, and may with Bosch as well.

Ford Will Build Electric SUV; Amazon’s Fire TV Baked in to Some 4K TVs; Intel Inside-Your Car

Posted: January 4, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ford will produce and all electric SUV in 2020. Theverge.com reports it will be built in Flat Rock, Michigan, and will sport a range of 300 miles on a charge. They are also cooking up hybrid versions of the Mustang and F-150 pickup. Present electric vehicles are mostly stuck in the low 200’s for range, with the Chevy Bolt claiming 238 miles and the upcoming Tesla Model 3 at 215. Ford is also testing wireless charging for their models.

Amazon’s Fire TV will now come in several lower cost 4K TV models. According to Variety.com, Seiki, Westinghouse and Element Electronics will all roll out Fire powered TVs this year ranging from 43 to 65 inch screen models. An integrated mic will double as a direct line to Amazon’s Alexa assistant.

Intel has announced the ‘Go’ brand, and will build chips aimed at the self-driving car market. Cnet.com says Intel’s driving group has a $250 million R&D budget, and they will go head to head with Nvidia and Qualcomm in trying to get car makers to integrate their processors in upcoming self-drivers.

Samsung Will Make a Note 8; New Lenovo Gaming Notebooks; Synaptics Fingerprint & Facial Recognition ID System; 27 Inch Dell Ultrathin Monitor

Posted: January 3, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

For the many fans who very reluctantly gave up their Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phablets, happy news…there will be a Note 8! According to 9to5google.com, it will roll with a 4K display, and be Gear VR wearable. Presumably, it will have a less ‘explody’ battery, too!

Lenovo is dropping a new line of gaming laptops for CES. They are called Legion, and will optionally have a 4K anti-glare screen, Dolby Atmos sound, and have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU that will drive your VR headset. Arstechnica.com says they will rock Kaby Lake processors and up to a 2 TB hard drive.

Synaptics has announced a multi-factor biometric engine for smartphones, tablets, & PCs. Macrumors.com reports that they partnered with facial recognition firm KeyLemon, and the new engine will use both fingerprint and facial recognition. Apparently, the user can select either facial or fingerprint, or for the most secure two-factor apps like banking, require both. It has AI anti-spoof technology that can allegedly distinguish between fake and real fingers. The facial recognition engine detects blinking and head movement to weed out fakes, too.

Dell has unveiled a new 27 inch ultra thin monitor. 9to5mac.com says it has USB-C support and will hit the streets in March for $700. It isn’t 4 or 5K, but they claim it’s the world’s thinnest monitor, and it’s a lot less pricey than the LG UltraFine 5K Apple is using since it exited the monitor business.

Google & Chrysler Pairing for Android Powered Infotainment System; Theatre Mode for iOS; Tesla Autopilot Update

Posted: January 2, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google and Chrysler are partnering on more than just self-driving tech. 9to5google.com says they are also working on an Android powered infotainment system. This is not Android Auto…it’s built on the Android Open Source Platform, and should provide full access to Google Assistant, Maps, and other resources like Pandora, Spotify, NPR One, and Pocket Casts. It will probably live within the Uconnect system on rollout.

Bgr.com reports that Apple’s iOS 10.3 is getting something called ‘Theatre mode.’ It’s not clear what it is….a popcorn icon denotes it on the screen….but it’s thought to be a Dark Mode something like ‘Do Not Disturb’ where all sounds are muted, and many apps display white text on a black screen. Twitter already has a dark mode for its iOS app, and it works well…easy on the eyes and discreet.

Tesla has started rolling out what they call HW2 Autopilot updates to cars made since October. By next week, according to techcrunch.com, the rest of the Tesla fleet will start seeing the updates. The rewrite of the Autopilot software will eventually enable full self driving mode in Tesla cars. Tesla wants to test complete autonomy by the end of 2017!

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