Apple AR Headset-Production This Year; ‘Cheap’ iPad Keeps Phone Jack & Touch ID; Google Smart Game Controller; Tesla-Raising Prices & Keeping Stores Open; Facial Recognition at Airports

Apple AR may be nearly upon us. 9to5mac.com reports that the company may be putting their AR headset into production later this year. Ming-Chi Kuo, the noted analyst, says it will be in mass production by 4th quarter this year or 2nd quarter of 2020 at the latest. It’s expected to be much lighter and more comfortable than most of those out, but would be dependent on an iPhone much the way the Apple Watch is.

Also, a report has the $329 iPad keeping Touch ID and the venerable headphone jack. The screen size will increase to 10 inches from 9.7 by reducing the bezel size. The internals will be beefed up with the newer processor.

A recent filing has revealed a smart controller that Google patented for gaming in 2014. According to 9to5google.com, the device would allow seamless activation of games on a host device by the controller. The controller could even let users select using a tablet, PC, or smart TV. It could connect over USB, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, and would have a small screen. The handheld gadget would have onboard memory for the user’s account info, brightness and volume preferences, and other settings…and it would use a specific key combination to act as the password. In the past months, Google demoed Stream on a Mac, Windows, and Linux over a chrome browser. The controller might be used for gaming on a smart TV.

Tesla has done a quick about-face, and will keep more of its stores open. In order to do this, theverge.com says they will raise prices on all vehicles except the $35,000 model 3 on March 18th. The increase will be 3%. Tesla will still not reopen about 10% of the stores, as they had planned to close those anyway. Ordering will still take place 100% online, with salespeople at the stores showing customers how to order the cars on their phones. They will also have a small pool of cars available for customers who want to buy one immediately.

Buzzfeednews.com has seen documents that indicate that the government plans to use Facial Recognition on ALL international passengers at the top 20 US airports by 2021! The biometric scanning system would be applied to passengers on some 16,300 flights per week. This is in spite of the fact that the ACLU reported last summer that Amazon’s facial recognition tech falsely matched 28 members of Congress with arrest mug shots. The false matches were disproportionately people of color. Buckle up!