Samsung 43 Inch Studio Monitor; Ford F-150 Lightening Pro; Beats Studio Buds Get FCC Go-Ahead; Pro-Palestine Activists Ding Facebook Ranking

So…a 27 or 32-inch monitor isn’t enough screen for you? You’re in luck…Samsung is rolling out a 43-inch Smart Monitor. Engadget.com notes that that is a size lending itself to both productivity and entertainment. It has built in speakers, and the smart TV functionality runs on the Tizen OS, letting you stream Netflix or Amazon Prime without powering on your computer. While this seems like overkill for productivity, it will be nice for entertainment. I have a Samsung smart TV of about that size, and can easily mirror my laptop screen on it, so Samsung will do well to keep the price down. None has been released yet, but the 27-incher is $230 and the 32-inch one runs $400. 

Ford has released more info about its upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup. According to arstechnica.com, the previous info wass that the base priced model starts at $39,974 before incentives or tax credits, and has a 230 mile range. Today, Ford announced that the pro model, with 300 mile range, will tart at $49,974…also before incentives and credits. They are putting together an online tool for fleet managers and commercial customers for them to calculate the cost of going electric. At rollout, Ford expects to have 644 EV certified Ford Commercial vehicle centers around the country, on top of Ford’s 2,300 EV certified dealerships. The pro version will lack some of the whistles and bells of the pimped out top line trucks, but will have some cool features. It will have the 2.4kW onboard AC power outlets..with option to upgrade to 9.6kW. They will also offer their Co-Pilot 360 2.0 driver assistance system…but NOT the Blue Cruise hands-free system. 

In the latest release of iOS that went to developers, new Beats Studio Buds showed up. Now, 9to5mac.com says those buds have gotten the official FCC sign-off, so they could be unveiled at any time. As with most higher end buds, there will be a true wireless design and a smart charging case, in addition to Noise Cancellation. They will have the easy pairing chip and Siri support built in. No hint of cost, but the present Powerbeats Pro model sells for $199. 

In a twist to the old boycott technique for protesting about the behavior of companies, pro-Palestine activists have flooded Apple and Google’s app stores with 1-star ratings for Facebook. According to theverge.com, this is in protest of what they see ass Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian accounts on the platform. Apparently, Facebook is treating this with a pretty high level of priority. As of yesterday, the Facebook app on iOS at the Apple App Store was 2.3 out of 5! It was at 2.4 out of 5 on Google’s! Neither Apple nor Google had a comment, and Facebook didn’t respond for requests to comment, either.