Amazon Expands Palm Payment Tech; SpaceX- Starlink for Vehicles; Dropbox Picks up DocSend; Apple iPad & AirTag Event March 23rd?

Amazon is adding more stores to its Amazon One palm scanning payment tech. Theverge.com reports that the 4-star store in Lynnwood has gotten it, and Amazon Books in Bellevue will get it in the next few weeks, as will the 4-star and Pop Up locations in Lake Union. There should be 12 physical Amazon stores with the palm payment tech before the start of summer. It works by marking the surface area details and vein patterns. It’s expected that as the Amazon locations are added, the company will be rolled out to other retail outlets. It could also be used in office buildings that still use NFC ID tags. 

SpaceX has officially asked the FCC for approval to start deploying Starlink satellite broadband to passenger cars and other moving vehicles. According to arstechnica.com, it could not only be used for cars and trucks, but also ships and aircraft. In their statement to the FCC, SpaceX said “Granting this application would serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of ground-based components for SpaceX’s satellite system that will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to moving vehicles throughout the United States and to moving vessels and aircraft worldwide.” They note that internet users are not willing at this point to do without internet connections while moving.

Dropbox is snapping up document sharing startup DocSend for $165 million. Techcrunch.com says DocSend helps customers share and track documents by sending a secure link instead of an attachment. Combined with the electronic signature capability of HelloSign, which Dropbox acquired in 2019, the acquisition gives the company an end-to-end document sharing workflow it had been missing. DocSend’s some 50 employees will be joining Dropbox when the deal closes.

Several leakers have touted March 23rd as the date of the next Apple event. According to 9to5mac.com, the major suspects for new rollout are updated iPad Pro and AirPods, and the long delayed AirTags. There could also be a refresh of Apple TV. Although the iMac Pro was just discontinued, it seems unlikely to be replaced at this point. Apple will probably do that in the fall when it expands the range of computers using their new, in-house chip..the M1 family. 

Coronavirus Drug Might Cure COVID-19; Apple-AR/VR Headset in 2022, AR Glasses by 2025; Galaxy Watch 4 in Q2; Saudis Pump Billions into Hydrogen Fuel Production

It’s all about the vaccines right now, but a team at Georgia State had announced in December a promising study of a drug called molnupiravir, an oral antiviral which totally blocked virus transmission within 24 hours in ferrets. Bgr.com reports that now, the drug…developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics…has been studied in humans and preliminary conclusions in a Phase 2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial are out. The drug cured infections from the novel coronavirus in only five days. Full conclusions haven’t been released, but this could be a pretty promising development. We’ll stay tuned!

Well-reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says a lot is in the pipeline revolving around AR and VR from Apple. According to macrumors.com, he looks for a mixed reality headset in mid 2022, and augmented reality glasses by 2025. The AR/VR goggles are expected to be 100-200 grams…notably less than most of the headsets out right now. Expect the price to be around that of a high end iPhone…around $1000. Kuo says they will be ‘portable,’ but not truly mobile. That seems to mean they will have their own processors and memory, but may depend on an external battery pack, etc. The glasses are expected to tightly integrate with the Apple Car. Looking way of in the future, Apple is apparently experimenting with AR contact lenses sometime after 2030! Kuo says this will take us from ‘visible computing’ to ‘invisible computing!’

Although Apple has a giant share of the smart watch market, never write off muscular player Samsung, which also has a huge footprint in smartphones. 9to5google.com says a Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch Active 4 should be out in the next few months…likely by June of this year. One major feature Samsung is working on…as is Apple….blood glucose monitoring! Also rumored…Samsung may drop Tizen and switch to Android or even Wear OS. 

Saudi Arabia can see the writing on the wall, with most auto manufacturers in high gear now as far as switching to electric vehicles. Bloomberg.com reports that the kingdom is investing a $5 billion plant powered entirely by sun and wind that will be among the world’s biggest green hydrogen makers. It is located in the planned megacity of Neom, and projected to open in 2025. Hydrogen is expected to be a big piece of the move away from fossil fuels, and it appears the Saudis are determined to have a large piece of this market as the oil market shrinks. 

Fitbit Charge 4 Update- SpO2 Right on Device; Google Promises Not to Keep Tracking You After Dropping Cookies; Amazon GameOn Screen Recording App to iOS; Tesla Gives Up LA Restaurant Scheme-Will Become Biggest Supercharger Site

Fitbit has started rolling out a firmware update for the Charge 4 that will allow it to estimate your blood oxygen saturation level (Sp02) while you sleep. Up to now, you had to use the mobile app to check and estimate of this, but now it will be available right on your wrist. After a night’s sleep, swipe up from the clock face until you see an SpO2 tile displayed alongside other stats. Note that Version 1.100.34 is a phased rollout, and may not be available for you yet. When it is available for your Charge 4, a banner will appear at the top of the iOS or Android app.

Google is slowly phasing out third party cookies, and they now say they promise not to replace them with something equally invasive…in spite of the financial impact the move will make on their highly profitable ad business. According to theverge.com, the online giant put out a blog post where Google explicitly states that it “will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web” after the third-party cookies are gone. “Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving APIs which prevent individual tracking while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers,” writes Google. “Advances in aggregation, anonymization, on-device processing and other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers.” Time will tell if they live up to ‘don’t be evil’ on this one!

Last November, Amazon released GameOn on Android. It’s an app for recording short, sharable clips from your favorite mobile games. Now, engadget.com says you can download the app for your iOS device as well. The app presently works for over 1,000 mobile games, and the clips can run from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in length. You can even edit the clips or add in live commentary. The clips are potable to Facebook, Twitter, et al.

Tesla had been considering a drive-in restaurant in LA, but that idea is dead. Now, they plan to use the location for the biggest Supercharge V3 station in the world. Electrek.co notes that Elon Musk wanted to build an “old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles.” They plan to open the charging station in the third quarter. It will have 62 charging stations (and rest rooms…like most gas stations.) 

Spotify Poised To Pass Up Apple Podcasts; Twitter Unveils 5-Strike System Banning Users Who Lie About Covid-19; Microsoft Adding Encryption to One-to-One Teams Calls; Hyzon Motors- Hydrogen Fuel Cells from US Plants

Apple has been a big place to be for Podcasts, but it’ looking like Spotify is gaining on them. According to 9to5mac.com, the audio platform may be close to passing up Apple in monthly US podcast listenership. Spotify blew past Apple in 2019 in Europe, India, and South America, but Apple has continued to be king of the hill in the US. eMarketer forecasts that Spotify monthly podcast listenership in the US will hit 28.2 million, beating Apple’s 28 million. That’s not all…they predict that in the next 2 years, Spotify will grow to 37.5 million, while Apple stalls out at 28.8 million.

It may be late to the party, but still a welcome move. Twitter is starting up a 5-strike system today, that will ultimately result in banning users that spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and the pandemic. Gizmodo.com reports that Twitter will ban all medical info that’s “demonstrably false or misleading and may lead to significant risk of harm.”  This new policy comes after a Twitter announcement the end of the year that it would take action to ‘protect the public conversation around Covid-19. 

Twitter’s five-strike policy will be enforced starting today, as the company explains:

• One strike: no account-level action
• Two strikes: 12-hour account lock
• Three strikes: 12-hour account lock
• Four strikes: 7-day account lock
• Five or more strikes: permanent suspension

In an announcement on the 1st day of Microsoft’s virtual Ignite Spring 2 event, they revealed a new-channel sharing feature coming to Teams later this year. It’s called Teams Connect, and allows users to hare channels with anyone…internal or external…to one’s organization. Zdnet.com notes that Teams will also now support end-to-end encryption for one-to-one Teams calls. Also, more came out on ‘Teams Pro.’ Users can organize webinars for those inside and outside an organization of up to 1,000 attendees. 

All the buzz is on EVs…electric vehicles (or BEVs…battery electric, if you insist), but the push for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has not slowed. According to TechCrunch.com, Hyzon Motors will produce fuel cells at two US factories, in a move to jumpstart domestic production at a commercial scale. Hyzon is a new name, but has spun off from Singapore’s Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies…which has been developing fuel cell tech since 2003. They are already in Asia and Europe. Although focused on heavy vehicles like trucks for now, Hyzon thinks we will see more and more hydrogen vehicles in the car sector. There are already a handful on the road. 

Some 2022 iPhones Lose ‘Notch;’ Frontline Worker Tier for Google Workspace; Biden Weighs in On Amazon v. Union; Gab- Big Hack

It has been hated and criticized by reviewers since full screen iPhones came into being, and lost the ‘chin’ and ‘forehead’ spaces….I’m talking about the dreaded (by many) ‘notch’…the black stripe taking up about 3/4 of the top eighth inch of an iPhone screen. Now, according to macrumors.com, it may go away for some iPhones in 2022. A leak from highly reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the Apple handsets will get a ‘punch-hole’ type design instead. Samsung’s recent top line Galaxy smartphones hardy have such a setup. Right now, it looks like only the top iPhones will get the hole punch screen…although Kuo noted that if production yields are good enough, the format may be extended to the entire 2022 iPhone line. 

A new frontline worker tier is coming to Google Workspace…formerly G Suite. 9to5google.com reports that it is called simply ‘Workspace Frontline,’ and its aimed at nurses, grocery store associates, and warehouse worker. It should be out in the comping weeks. Also coming in the next few weeks- Chat, Jamboard, and Calendar will be hitting the entry-level Workspace Essentials Offering.

President Biden issued a statement in the run up to the vote by workers at the Amazon warehouse in Besemer, Ala. Geekwire.com says that, in light of the continuing, relentless campaign by Amazon to keep workers from unionizing, the president put out this statement: “It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union,” Biden said. “But let me be even more clear. It’s not up to an employer to decide that, either. The choice to join a union is up to the workers — full stop. Full stop.”

Without mentioning Amazon by name, he added, “Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace.”

He called it a “vitally important choice” amid the pandemic, economic crisis, and a racial reckoning highlighting the county’s deep disparities. “And there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no anti-union propaganda. No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences,” he said.

Gab, the far right platform a lot of former Twitter users went to after Trump was banned…and then former Parler users jumped to after THAT platform was hacked, has been….you guessed it…hacked. Badly. According to wired.com, transparency group DDoSecrets says it will make the 70 GB of passwords, private posts, and more available to researchers, journalists, and social scientists. Seventy gigs! Included are some 40 million private posts. The hack apparently includes everything on Gab. DDoSecrets has refused to release all the info publicly due to the sensitivity of the info and vast amount of private info.