Galaxy S10 Unique Feature; Facebook Earnings Crash; Facebook Grabs Redkix; Apple May Drop Qualcomm Modems
Posted: July 26, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Facebook, Galaxy S10, Intel, Modems, Qualcomm, Redkix, Samsung, Ultrasonic fingerprint reader, Workplace Leave a commentThe Galaxy Note 9 bows in just a couple weeks, but meanwhile, we have more word on a possible killer feature for next year’s Galaxy S10. No, it’s not the foldable phone! Bgr.com says the fingerprint reader we’ve heard that would be under the screen on the Galaxy S10 will be something no one has had before. For the 10th anniversary of the iPhone competing smartphone, Samsung will use an under screen, ULTRASONIC fingerprint reader! The ultrasound fingerprint reader is supposed to have better performance than an optical sensor, and should give Samsung to tout against Apple’s Face ID. It sounds like both the two Galaxy S10’s will have this feature, as will next year’s high end Galaxy A and the 2019 Galaxy Note.
After disappointing 2nd quarter earnings were reported yesterday, Facebook stock went off a cliff. Businessinsider.com reports that the stock dropped enough to be on pace to lose $115 billion in market value…which would be the biggest collapse in market history. Facebook reported earnings after hours Wednesday, and dropped 24% in an hour. Investors didn’t like sales and subscriber numbers that were lower than expected, but really hated the warning of a growth slowdown. Investors also pounded other monster cap companies in tech…Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet all lost more than 1.5% overnight.
A positive note for Facebook…at least theoretically…lies in the acquisition of Redkix, and email startup that combines email, messaging, and calendar features into one app. According to recode.net, Facebook intends to roll the app into Workplace, their enterprise social network platform. Facebook and about 30,000 other companies have their employees using Workplace internally for messaging and groups. Facebook hasn’t shared how many of these are paying customers, nor has it broken out Workplace revenue on earnings reports, so it’s hard to tell if the subscription model is working for them.
After a brutal legal battle, it looks like Apple will be going with all Intel Modems, and dropping Qualcomm. Appleinsider says the Qualcomm CFO noted in a conference call that Apple will be using only Intel modems in the upcoming iPhones. Intel has only been supplying Apple modems since 2016. Besides the legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm, the Intel modem chip runs on both GSM and CDMA networks, so has that big advantage. Losing Apple…even if only for a year…would be a big hit to Qualcomm’s earnings.
Alphabet Crushes Estimates; Foxconn Staffs Up For New iPhone; Microsoft Building 2 New Xbox Consoles; YouTube Tests Explore Feature
Posted: July 24, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alphabet, Explore, Foxconn, Google, iPhone X, Microsoft, Steaming console, Xbox, YouTube Leave a commentGoogle parent Alphabet reported financials yesterday, with a nice beat of Wall Street expectations. According to reuters.com, expenses from Google search didn’t grow as much as expected, which pushed profits up. Their operating margin ticked up from 22 to 24%, excluding the $5 antitrust fine from the EU…which appears like a rounding error. Alphabet hauled in $32.66 billion second quarter, 86% of which came from Google advertising, and beating the estimate of $32.17 billion. Alphabet still trails, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter in valuation, but is in the hunt. Apple still leads in the quest to be the first billion dollar company.
Foxconn is getting ready for the next generation iPhone by offering bonuses to workers who renew their contracts. The $295 bonus and hiring campaign will extend through this November. Macrumors.com reports that Foxconn is expected to assemble the majority of all 3 new iPhone models…the 2nd generation iPhone X, 90% of the iPhone Plus (or whatever Apple ends up calling it), and about 75% of the lower priced 6.1 inch iPhone with the LED screen. All 3 phones are expected to bow in September.
Microsoft is already hard at work on the next iteration of the Xbox console. in addition to the traditional version, Redmond is apparently working on a cheaper ‘streaming box’ designed to work with its previously reported streaming service. The streamer is code named ‘Scarlett Cloud’, and would run games both locally and in the cloud…which has been dubbed slice or splice. The idea is to help reduce latency. Geekwire.com reports that Sony, EA, and Nvidia are also working on cloud based game streaming services.
In the ongoing quest to grab and hold more eyeballs, YouTube is testing out a new feature on around 1% of iOS YouTube app users the next several weeks. Thenextweb.com says it’s an explore feature, similar to the Instagram Explore tab…and the idea is to help users discover more videos and content creators that may be lost in the thousands of others. Personalized recommendations will be based on the user’s previous viewing history.
New Google Pixelbook Coming; HomePod Siri Features; Qualcomm Shows 5G Module; Tesla Supplier Cash Ask
Posted: July 23, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G, Apple, Chrome, Google, HomePod, Model 3, OS12, Phone calls, PixelBook, Qualcomm, Suppliers, Tesla, Timers Leave a commentThe Pixel 2 was a big improvement on the original Google Pixel phone, and the 3 is eagerly anticipated this Fall. Now, 9to5google.com says leaker Evan Blass, who has a pretty decent track record, is touting the release of and updated Pixelbook alongside the Pixel 3 and 3XL handsets. Bless claims the updated Chrome OS Pixelbook will be shipping by the holidays. The fall event is expected to also show off A Pixel Watch and new generation of Pixel Buds.
Apple is testing a private beta version of OS12 for HomePod that includes multiple Siri timers and allows people to make and answer phone calls…in an effort to keep up with Alexa and Google Home. 9to5mac.com reports that corporate and some retail employees are test driving the beta. The multiple timers feature is one Alexa has that allows, for example, someone to put a couple timers on different things they are cooking at the same time. Right now, it’s unclear which, if any, of these features will make it to the final release of OS12 for HomePod this fall.
Qualcomm has showed off the first completely integrated 5G module for smartphones…including 5G mmWave antenna, wave radio, power amp, and antenna array. According to macrumors.com, the whole system has been crammed into a package small enough to sit on your fingertip. It is thin enough to fit the bezel of a phone, and Qualcomm sees up to 4 being put into a handset so if one antenna is covered by a hand or otherwise blocked, the unit will still transmit and receive. The tiny 5G modules are being shipped to phone makers this week.
Tesla has reportedly ask for cash back from suppliers, in order to cut their costs and become profitable in Q4. While it’s not unusual for a company to ask for or demand price cuts from suppliers….Walmart is a past master at this…it IS unusual to ask for money back from previously furnished and paid for items. That’s what electrek.co says Tesla has done. Some of the clawbacks would date back to 2016. It remains to be seen if any suppliers will cooperate, now that Tesla is producing the promised 5,000 Model 3s per week.
Corning Gorilla Glass 6; Prime Day Lost Hour; Netflix Improves TV Interface
Posted: July 19, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Corning, Gorilla Glass 6, iPhone, Netflix, Prime Day, streaming Leave a commentAnother year, another Gorilla Glass. Corning has announced Gorilla Glass 6, and according to macrumors.com, Corning claims it’s engineered to sustain multiple drops. They say the average person drops their smartphone 7 times a year (who ARE these clumsy people….7….really???) Gorilla Glass 6 will allegedly sustain 15 drops from one meter without breakage, which is twice as good as Gorilla Glass 5. The product has already been in testing by phone producers, so it’s possible it will be on the new iPhones coming out in September.
Here are some big numbers to wrap your head around: $72 to $99 million dollars. (Digital Commerce 360 Says $72, Love the Sales says $99.) That’s the range they are estimating of the loss Amazon incurred with the hour of downtime they experienced on Prime Day. Businessinsider.com reports that the fallout may be even more, as some people have threatened to cancel their Prime subscriptions over the mess. Amazon is laughing all the way to the bank….it appears they hauled in about $3.4 billion in the 36-ish hours of Prime Day…a record!
Next time you chill with Netflix, you may find a more pleasing, easy to use interface on TV. Mashable.com says Netflix has revised its interface as of today…but it will take some time to get pushed out to smart TVs, streaming boxes, cable boxes, gaming consoles, etc. The new look is designed to make content easier to find and help you to get binging….er…watching faster. A prime feature is a new sidebar on the left side that accesses Search, Home, Series, Movies, My List, and New. The streaming service says there will be more improvements rolled out over coming months, too.
Google Fined $5 Billion by EU; Prime Day Breaks Record; Instagram Testing Creep Removal Feature
Posted: July 18, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Android, Creepy, EU, Followers, Google, Instagram, Prime Day, Stalkers Leave a commentThe EU has fined Google a record $5 billion for breaking antitrust laws. The European Commission says Google abused its market dominance with Android in 3 key areas. Theverge.com says Google has bundled it’s search engine and Chrome apps into the OS, allegedly blocked phone makers from running forked versions of Android, and “made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators” to exclusively bundle the Google search app on handsets. The Commission demands that Google cease this conduct within 90 days. Google says it will appeal the decision and fine.
After the crashing problems of the first hour, never mind some striking workers in Germany, Amazon’s Prime Day once again was it’s biggest sales day in history by a wide margin. Yesterday’s Prime day exceeded Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and last year’s Prime Day, techcrunch.com reports. It is worth noting that this year, Prime Day ran 36 hours, and it was only 30 hours last year. Amazon hasn’t released precise numbers, but did say they sold over 100 million products and well exceeded $1 billion in sales.
Instagram is trialing a new feature with some public Android users that lets them manually remove followers without the followers getting notice. According to thenextweb.com, the only way you have been able to remove followers so far has been to block then unblock them, block them completely, or set the account to private. You can check to see if you are one of the users that is getting to test drive the feature by checking your followers list, and look for an icon with 3 vertical dots to the right of a user’s name. If it’s there, tap it, and a prompt pops up to remove them without letting them know.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Rumors; Netflix Misses Growth; Boeing Drone Traffic System; Skype Updates Desktop App; Apple Store Crushes Google Play
Posted: July 17, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Air traffic management, App Store, Apple, Blockchain, Boeing, Drones, FOD, Galaxy S10 Fingerprint on display, Google, HD, Netflix, Play Store, Samsung, Skype Leave a commentThe fabled in-screen fingerprint scanner may come to the Samsung Galaxy S10 in 2019. Businessinsider.com reports that the FOD, or fingerprint on display will let users get their finger scanned by putting int on the screen. The two larger, more high-end Galaxy S10 handsets will have an ultrasonic version of this…but the smaller Galaxy S10 will keep the fingerprint scanner on the side. The S9 phones have a reader on the back. Apple ditched fingerprint scanning last Fall for its Face ID. Samsung may ship 40 million Galaxy S10 phones in 2019 according to well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Netflix stubbed its toe in added subscribers for the first time in 5 quarters, and the stock took a plunge of over 13 percent. According to CNBC.com, they only added 5.15 million subscribers, down about a million from what was projected. Revenue also missed a bit…it was $3.91 billion instead of the predicted $3.94 billion. Analysts have worried that Netflix couldn’t sustain their growth, which has been over 100% year to date. They are also eyeing competition in streaming by Disney and AT&T. For next quarter, Netflix has just projected 5 million new subscribers, about what they did this quarter.
Some people need to be thinking ahead in order to plan for problems that most of us haven’t thought of yet. One of those is drone traffic. Right now, the only time there is an issue is with fires, when numerous media outlets and others try to fly drones over the scene to capture video, but the problem will only grow in the future. Boeing is starting to develop a drone traffic management system now to be ready. Geekwire.com says the system will use artificial intelligence and blockchain tech. A Texas AI company called SparkCognition is partnering with Boeing on the AI portion, as the aircraft company has formed a new business group called Boeing NeXt. Other companies are also looking into drone traffic management, including AT&T, Amazon, and Alphabet’s Wing.
Skype has rolled out a new desktop version, 8.0. TechCrunch.com reports that version 7 will be killed by September 1st. New features include HD video and screen sharing in calls, support for @mentions in chats, a chat media gallery, and file and media sharing up to 300 MB. Encrypted audio calls and texts are coming later, as is built in call recording.
Apple continues to find ways to coin money in addition to selling hardware. Appleinsider.com reports that an analytics firm called Sensor Tower just did a study, and Apple’s App Store doubles the revenue of Google’s Play with just half the number of downloads. From January to June of 2018, the App store raked in $22.6 billion while Google Play took in $11.8 billion. Both stores are showing big time growth….year over year, first half of this year compared to last, the two app stores grew combined by 27.8%!
Prime Day is Here; The UK Spaceport Will Be in Scotland; Samsung Health Measurements
Posted: July 16, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Orbex, Prime Day, Samsung, Scotland, Spaceport, Speckle, UK Leave a commentChristmas in July is here…or as Amazon calls it, Prime Day. The ‘day’ lasts 36 hours, not even counting the pre-sale deals or ‘last chance’ ones. Techcrunch.com notes that, as is often the case, a couple of the hotter deals are on Amazon’s own products. The Amazon Cloud Cam is $60, or half price. The Kindle Paper White has been dropped to $80, which is $40 off regular price. If you’re looking for something more pricey and outdoorsy, check the DJI Mavic Pro foldable drone at $999, which is $300 off the usual price. Prime Day officially starts at noon Pacific time July 16th.
The first spaceport built for the UK Space Agency will be on Scotland’s north coast, and Lockheed Martin is a major winner, with a $31 million grant to develop it and a new made-in-Britain system for deploying satellites into orbit. Geekwire.com says London-based Orbex will get $7 million towards design of the Prime rocket, which uses bio-propane and will deliver payloads of up to 330 lbs into low earth orbit. Orbex has also raised $40 million in public and private funds towards the rocket project.
Samsung has applied for a trademark ‘Samsung Speckle’ in Europe. Rumors are flying regarding what it is…and most point-to a device using lasers to measure heart rate or blood pressure. Businessinsider.com says the recent filing referring to the mark mentions a “laser speckle interferometric system” described in a previous patent application from 2016. Apple’s Watch uses LED lights to measure heart rates and to authenticate the wearer. A laser based system could be more accurate.
HTC’s Blockchain Phone; Magic Leap Signs With AT&T; Britain Fines Facebook over Cambridge Data
Posted: July 11, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AR glasses, AT&T, Blockchain, Britain, Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, HTC, Magic Leap, United Kingdom Leave a commentHTC may have a reduced presence, but they are still kicking, and plan to release the fabled first major blockchain phone in third quarter. Techcrunch.com says HTC has partnered with CryptoKitties, and the popular blockchain game will be available on a few of the company’s handsets, leading off with the U12+. HTC says that ‘the partnership with Cryptokitties is the beginning of a non fungible, collectible marketplace and crypto gaming app store.” Although a blockchain phone may not be mainstream, it may be enough of a hook for HTC to revive its flagging smartphone line.
Magic Leap, the company with the unusual and secretive AR glasses, has signed a deal for mobile data service with AT&T. Theverge.com reports that, in addition to selling the device, AT&T will let customers demo the glasses at stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco. Magic Leap is supposed to be putting out a ‘Creator Edition’ later this year. In this deal, AT&T will only start distributing the glasses once the consumer version becomes available. So far, Magic Leap hasn’t released a timeline for that. AT&T seems to feel that the Magic Leap AR glasses will be a game changer. They previously had cut an exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone…and we know how that turned out!
Britain’s data watchdog has fined Facebook $664,000 over the Cambridge Analytica mess. It will take the social media giant a screaming 18 minutes to pay the fine! According to businessinsider.com, if they had been fined under the new EU law that went into effect in May, the maximum penalty would have been $1.6 billion. Facebook made $4.8 billion in profit just in the first 3 months this year. The EU fine can be up to 4% of a company’s global turnover. Zuckerberg can eat a sandwich at his desk, and the British fine will be paid.
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