Microsoft’s Next Xbox; Mac Pro Out in September; Amazon Stops Selling Blink XT2 Cam; Salesforce Buying Visualization Co. Tableau

Microsoft has revealed more about ‘Project Scarlett,’ the next gen Xbox. According to businessinsider.com, the console will launch ‘holiday 2020.’ It will rock 8K video, have SSD storage, and Microsoft says it will be 4 times more powerful than the Xbox One X. Look for frame rates of up to 120 fps. Microsoft will use the SSD not only as storage, but also as virtual RAM, boosting performance by 40x over the current Xbox…games should load much, much faster. Halo Infinite will also launch alongside the new console when it drops.

The über powerful Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR Apple showed off at WWDC a few days ago will be available for order this fall. Macrumors.com reports that the Apple website now indicates that it is coming in September, and there’s a ‘notify me’ button on the site. The outrage over the preposterous $999 stand has softened if only a little after some techies noted that most buyers of the $4999 monitor will probably just mount the things on their existing stands or arms and wouldn’t buy a stand anyway. The Mac Pro starts at $5999, and estimates of it plus the monitor fully tricked out could touch $50 grand!

Amazon has stopped sales of the new Blink XT2 smart camera it launched last month amid a slew of mixed reviews. Theverge.com says the cam is now listed as ‘currently unavailable,’ and Best Buy, which was also selling it shows it as ‘coming soon.’ The $89.99 XT2 had been panned for puny maximum WiFi range in trying to hit users’ routers, in addition to buggy software, and inconsistent motion detection. Some users have gotten email from the founder of Blink, saying they are working to correct the ‘unforeseen’ problems.

Last week, Google bought analytic startup Looker. Now, according to techcrunch.com, Salesforce has snapped up data visualization firm Tableau for $15.7 billion with an all-stock deal. Salesforce is angling to increase engagement with its present customers via the visualization tools. They believe they will be able to deliver ‘a truly unified and powerful view across all of a customer’s data’ after Tableau is fully integrated.

Apple May Be Buying Drive.ai; Uber Ready to Launch Heli-Taxis; Amazon Reveals Delivery Drone

There’s an unconfirmed report out today that Apple may be buying Drive.ai. According to 9to5mac.com, they are mainly interested in acquiring the engineers from the self-driving startup. In fact, the deal has been dubbed an ‘acqui-hire!’ For some time, it’s been fuzzy whether Apple is just developing a self-driving system they can pitch to car makers, or if they are building an actual Apple branded car under Project Titan.

Uber may not quite be ready to launch its autonomous flying taxis, but they are preparing to start offering air transit in New York City beginning July 9th. Engadget.com reports that Uber Copter will be available to Uber Rewards members who have hit Platinum and diamond status. The average ride will run you between $200 and $225. For reference on the price…I knew an auto dealer in Houston who commuted by chopper and it ran about $200 a day back in 1980…he said the 15 minute commute instead of 90 minutes in traffic was worth it to him and his dealership. Worth noting—they will fly a predetermined route, not drop passengers just anywhere. They will fly between a location near the Staten Island Ferry and Kennedy Airport…flight time will be around 8 minutes. Each chopper will hold up to 5 passengers and two pilots, but very little baggage. The choppers will be operated by the Heliflite charter service.

On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled its new drone at the Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas. Businessinsider.com says the delivery drone will have a range of 15 miles and can deliver a package of up to 5 lbs. Amazon claims the drone will allow deliveries within 30 minutes. The tiny drone aircraft takes off and lands as a helicopter, then switches to straight winged flight like a VTOL fighter plane such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The drone is capable of sensing hazards like wires, chimneys, and paraglider in real time, and can avoid them. Amazon didn’t announce when they might begin actual deliveries to customers for money in the US, but it is certainly getting much closer to that.

Microsoft & Oracle Partner on Cloud Service; Amazon Shows New Warehouse Robots; GM & Michelin- Airless Tires by 2024; Peloton Stock Going Public

Microsoft is partnering with Oracle in and effort to make their two cloud computing services work together with high-speed links between their data centers. According to reuters.com, the pairing up will start in the US, then move to other countries. Oracle and Microsoft are courting large businesses and governments, and are particularly taking aim at the biggest cloud provider, AWS…Amazon Web Services. Microsoft already has deals with German software maker SAP SE and Adobe. Oracle is all about protecting its dominance in the database market, which Amazon has been moving in on.

Amazon has showed off new warehouse robots. Techcrunch.com reports that the new gen robots, which will update robots the warehouses have used since 2012, were revealed at their re:MARS conference. They also brought Robert Downey, Jr to the stage! The new system is more modular, and can be configured for moving stock around the warehouse, as well as sorting. All use the same base, but they will be demonstrating two later this week….the Xanthus Sort Bot and Xanthus Tote Mover. Amazon says they now have 200,000 robotic drive devices world wide. They feel the new machines will help reduce sort errors, minimize damage, and speed delivery times.

It’s been in the works for a while, but now GM and Michelin have revealed a prototype of Uptis (Unique Puncture-Proof Tire System). Engadget.com says the Michelin made airless tire may be out for passenger cars by 2024. Unlike prior attempts at airless tires, The Uptis mix of composite rubber and resin embedded fiberglass lets it operate at highway speeds — earlier options tend to work only when you’re slowly putting around. Although the look takes a bit of getting used to, Michelin claims the ride is just as good as an air-inflated tire. Although it can still be damaged, at least blowouts, flat tires, and irregular wear should become history with this tire.

Peloton, the maker of connected, on-demand fitness equipment…notably their indoor cycles, has filed to go public. According to theverge.com, they have made a confidential filing, as was done previously by Lyft, Uber, and Slack. The number of shares and price range weren’t revealed, but in their last round of funding (August 2018), the company was valued at $4.15 billion. CEO John Foley said last year that they had a ‘beautiful business model,’ and that it was ‘weirdly profitable.’ Since Peloton came on the scene (in a very visible way, with their mall kiosks), Flywheel, SoulCycle, and NordicTrack now offering their own versions of either a connected bike or on-demand class content.

Google Reveals Sunday Outage Cause; Samsung Delays Galaxy Home Speaker; Bird Electric Moped; Apple-Privacy As a Service

A lot of people experienced outages for several hours Sunday on various Google services….YouTube, Gmail, Drive, and other products were impacted, along with third-party services like Apple’s iCloud and Snapchat reliant on Google Cloud. According to 9to5google.com, a configuration change intended for a small number of servers in one region was applied to many servers across a number of neighboring regions. Google also shared the impact…YouTube had a 10% drop in global viewings, Google Cloud Storage had a 30% reduction in traffic, and about 1% of users had problems with their Gmail accounts. It’s kind of like the old saying that when the US economy sneezes, the world catches a cold. Google has an outsized impact on our digital lives!

Samsung has delayed the release of its Galaxy Home smart speaker. Engadget.com reports that it may now reach store shelves between July and September. The company is positioning it as the center of its home appliances…their smart hub, if you will. It already starts off with a substantial disadvantage in that it runs on the Samsung assistant Bixby, which isn’t remotely as widely used as Alexa or Google’s assistant…or, for that matter, Siri. Now, the also delayed Galaxy F folding phone may actually beat the Galaxy Home speaker to the market. After the aborted rollout of the Galaxy F, Samsung might be wise to hold off and get the home speaker pretty bulletproof before releasing it.

When I was probably 12, I had a bike…as did most kids. The paperboy (whom I’ll call Jim…since that was his name) had a MoPed, sold at the time by Sears, which I lusted. Now, scooter-sharing company Bird will be launching an electric MoPed this summer. Theverge.com says it’s called the ‘Cruiser,’ and it will have a 52 volt battery. The Cruiser will have a nice, large padded seat, disc brakes, and an LCD screen (presumably to show how much charge you have left.) No word on what it will charge to rent the bike or its range or speed, or if it will also sell them. Most e-bikes seem to sell in the $1200-$3000 range. Bird HAS announced that they will sell their new custom scooter outright to buyers for $1299.

As noted here yesterday, Apple previewed their Sign in With Apple feature at WWDC. According to techcrunch.com, the feature is part of Apple’s privacy as a service push. Apple has touted for years the fact that they protect your data more than most other tech companies…and don’t sell or share it. In fact, a lot of your info stays on the secure chip in the device and doesn’t live in Apple’s cloud servers. An interesting wrinkle…in addition to the Single Sign On feature that lets you mask your actual email address, is the ability for the user to obtain actual on-device analysis of footage captured by third-party partners to deliver things that security device makers have typically offered as a value-add service themselves. That includes apparent identification of visitors to your home, for instance, and sending alerts when it detects people, as well as being able to differentiate that from other kinds of motion. One possible fly in the ointment…developers have counted on Hoovering up your information to help their own bottom lines. Some may balk at developing on Apple’s platforms without that cash stream from selling or trading your data.

Our Apple WWDC Quick Take; Amazon Prime Free 1 Day Ship- 10Million Items; FTC & DOJ Divvying Up Investigating Amazon, Google, Apple, etc.

A big headline from Apple’s marathon WWDC keynote today: A new Mac Pro! This thing is a beast, definitely aimed at pro users, and configurable and flexible enough to do massive video, audio, and programming projects (all for a princely price, of course.) The new Pro starts at $5999, and runs on an Intel Xeon processor with 28 cores. The Pro has 6 memory channels in 12 slots, for up to 1.5 TB of memory! It has 8 PCI-e slots…4 double wide, 3 single wide. Two Thunderbolt 3 ports and two USB-A ports take up the 8th. The standard video is a Radeon Pro Vega II. It can actually run 4 of these! the beast has a 1.4Kw power supply. You can get a 6K display for it that will set you back another $4999. The computer can run up to 6 of these displays at once! The entire cover comes off the Mac Pro for access on all sides, and there are optional wheels so the workstation can be rolled around.

A new OS? Yep, they rolled one out….a separate iPad OS. It adds a number of features to iOS, including the ability to slide over your widgets to the home screen, easier switching of the slide out window for 2nd apps, and better Split view multi-window capability. Appleinsider.com notes that it will bring full desktop type browsing to the iPad, and will support plugging in thumb drives with full access in the Files app. There is also a download manager, and Apple is offering support for enterprise users to have a work Apple Cloud account and a Home one, so you don’t have to bring your work home….or vice versa.

The new Mac OS is Catalina (10.15). A headline item is the widely rumored split of iTunes. Apple Music, Podcasts, and TV will now be spun off into their own dedicated apps. Sidecar allows using an iPad as a 2nd screen, something that has been available in outside developer apps, but now is native to Apple’s OS. They have also merged Find My iPhone with Find my Friends. Dark mode was touted in a big way. One caveat….the new Mac OS will be the first to not support 32 bit apps.

The Apple Watch gets some new faces, new complications, and more health trackers. It picks up a new Noise app that warns you about loud sound that can damage your hearing, an app can track a woman’s menstrual cycle and ‘peak fertility.’ WatchOS gets its own App Store, which means you won’t have to use your iPhone to download Watch apps. 3 cheers for the calculator app…it’s a small thing, but it finally makes it to the Watch. This will be very handy! (OK, terrible pun…I know.)

Apple also introduced at WWDC a feature called ‘Sign in With Apple.’ Its being touted as a log in system that will minimize the tracking everyone on the web does. This iOS 13 feature allows you to create a fresh, new account on pages or apps that ask for an account, but just shares the info you tell it to. If the page or app asks for an email, Apple will create a custom dummy address for it that auto-forwards to your email without the page or app actually HAVING your real email! Each one will have a custom, dummy email account…and you can shut them down if you close that account at the page or App, so you don’t get massive amounts of spam forwarded to your real email forever!

In a rather large non-apple story today, businessinsider.com reports that Amazon has announced one day free shipping for Prime members on 10 million items. this is a shot across Walmart’s bow. The latter had announced next-day shipping, but on an initial220,000 items! Walmart’s are also regionalized, so may be different in different parts of the country.

Some not-so-exciting news to big tech companies. The Feds have announced they are splitting up duties to investigate the big tech companies. The FTC will be taking Amazon, and the Department of Justice will investigate Google, according to the Washington Post. Apple will also be under the eye for antitrust by the DOJ. **Facebook will also fall to the FTC along with Amazon.