John Deere Self-Driving Tractor; Apple’s AR/VR Headset; Ford to Build 150,000 F-150 Lightenings; Google Plays Catch-Up With Apple on Ecosystem
Posted: January 5, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentSo much attention has been on self-driving cars, delivery vans, and even semi-trucks the last few years…and not much to the AG community. Now, according to techcrunch.com, John Deere has announced at CES that they will be making their 8R self-driving tractor available for purchase by this Fall. Some farmers have been testing the rig out since 2019, and Deere apparently thinks its ready for prime time. The system sports six pairs of stereo cameras, powered by a pair of Nvidia Jetson modules, offering a full view of its surrounding. Its GPS guidance system, coupled with geofencing, keep the system on track for initial tasks, such as tilling. That’s controlled remotely by the John Deere Operations Center Mobile, which offers access to images, live video and data from the job. One presumes it will have a fairly eye-watering price, but think about it…your Deere could be tilling a field while you are elsewhere on your spread tending to livestock…or maybe going into town for supplies!
An interesting wrinkle has emerged in the upcoming Apple AR/VR headset. Macrumors.com cites a report form display analyst Ross Young that says the new Apple headset will feature 3 displays. Two will be Micro OLED displays from Sony…which will be the main displays, and there will also be a third display….an AMOLED panel. The analyst hasn’t cracked the code on what the third display will do, but speculation is that it will apply to peripheral vision. This is because AMOLED displays have too low a pixel density for headsets…but would be fine for reduced resolution peripheral vision. Based on a Sony panel showed recently, Apple (if they use those ones) will have a 4000×4000 pixel display for each eye…and those little screens will be 1.4 inches diagonally. All this tech plus the computing power, battery tech, and the rest…you can assume the Apple headset will come in at about $3000 when it rolls out later this year.
After announcing before Christmas that they were going to build far more Mustang Mach-e EVs to keep up with demand, now Ford has said they will build 150,000 F-150 Lightening EV pickups a year…also due to demand. Arstechnica.com says Ford already has 200,000 reservations in their order books for the new EV pickup. The entry level F-150 Lightening…which is aimed at the commercial market, will start at $39,974. A better equipped model will sticker for $52,974. Ford says that 3/4 of the orders come from conquest customers…people buying a Ford truck for the first time.
Google has announced some 13 new software features at CES, mainly aimed at bulking up their ecosystem to try to retain users like Apple does. According to theverge.com, one includes a quick switching ability like Apple’s AirPods have, and another will allow mirroring of your texts from your Android device to your ChromeBook. Google will also allow Wear OS3 watches to unlock your paired Android phone or ChromeBook…again, like Apple Watch can do with iPhones and MacBooks. HP, Acer, and Intel are partnering with Google to support some of its Better Together features on their laptops. Users will be able to use Fast Pair, sync text messages, and use Android’s Nearby Share feature to share files to their upcoming Windows PCs. The updates will roll out anywhere from ‘within weeks’ to ‘later this year.’
Verizon & AT&T Temporarily Flip-Flop on 5G; Facebook Surge of Post Election Misinformation; Startup Sells Your Clutter Online; Moen’s Touchless Tap
Posted: January 4, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentVerizon and AT&T have agreed to put off launching their 5G expansions by a couple weeks at the request of the FAA. Cnet.com notes that the FAA, Department of Transportation, and aviation industry believe that there could be interference from 5G to some flight navigation equipment. The FCC and the carriers have concluded there is no safety issue. Having been through something similar between the FAA and FCC myself, I put my trust in the engineers at the FCC. The carriers proposed extra safety measures in November to ensure cell towers don’t interfere with aircraft signals, including lowering tower power levels nationwide with even stricter limits around airports and helipads. Prior to agreeing to the delay, the carriers offered to create special exclusion zones around airports where it wouldn’t deploy C-Band 5G for six months.
An investigation by Pro Public and the Washington Post has determined that there were at least 650,000 posts on Facebook in various groups attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election day victory last year. Rawstory.com reports that it was at the rate of some 10,000 posts a day! This is probably way less than the actual number, as the investigation only looked at posts in public groups…not private groups or on individual Facebook accounts. They not only pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud, but also called for the use of force to block the peaceful transfer of power in an effort to keep loser Donald Trump in office. Besides Biden, posts also attacked Vice President Pence and Attorney General Bill Barr as traitors. Facebook’s Meta…through a spokesman name dDrew Pusateri, said the company was not responsible for the violence on January 6th of last year.
We have all seen (plenty of) ads for 800-got-junk. Now, there’s a startup doing something of an online version. Sella, which for now primarily operates in the Portland area, will unload your crap…excuse me…sell your unwanted items, for you online for a $5.99 flat rate per item plus 20 cents a day. Geekwire.com says this applies to most smaller items. Large items and those they have to sell on eBay will cost you more. The startup claims there are untapped billions in garages, closets, attics, and basements all over the country. (And if you have a few storage units full of stuff…good grief, you need these guys!) If they are able to scale up this new business, they will lend creedence to the old saw about one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
Moen has introduced something every home should have at the CES show….a smart faucet. Ok, maybe not everyone needs this, but it has a certain WOW factor to it. Theverge.com reports that the Moen Smart Faucet with Motion Control can be controlled with hand gestures as far as amount of water and temperature. You can even set default temperatures. It also allows for voice activation with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It runs $675, and will be out in April. I’m intrigued, but concerned my tux cat might learn to turn it on to get a drink by himself. You know cats…he won’t turn it off when he’s done, either!
AT&T & Verizon 5G a Go-Despite FAA; Samsung Rolling Cloud Gaming into TVs; Microsoft Emergency Exchange Fix; iPhone 14 Will Have Hole Punch Cam
Posted: January 3, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentIf you got a new phone in the last couple of years, it probably has 5G capability. Good luck finding 5G service…so far, it has been pretty limited. The past week, a delay in rolling it out further came from FAA chief Steve Dickson and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Now, ZDNet reports that both AT&T and Verizon intend to continue with their January 5th deployment of their C-Band 5G systems. The FCC has reaffirmed that it gave its blessing, and that 5G should be perfectly safe, and cause no interference with aircraft systems.
Samsung will bake things into its TVs to allow you to play console games directly through your TV screen via Gaming Hub. According to Engadget.com, you will be able to access other streaming services than Samsung’s through the Hub, including NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, Stadia, and PC gaming platform Utomik. To keep up with fast graphics, the newest Sammy TVs in 4K and 8K will rock a 144 KHz refresh rate, too.
Microsoft has released an emergency patch for Exchange to squash a 2022 bug. bleepingcomputer.com says the fix takes care of a problem where Exchange wouldn’t delver mail after 2022 struck on company servers…although it still worked from Microsoft’s cloud. The fix comes in the form of a PowerShell script named ‘Reset-ScanEngineVersion.ps1.’ When executed, the script will stop the Microsoft Filtering Management and Microsoft Exchange Transport services, delete older AV engine files, download the new AV engine, and start the services again. Redmond is working on an automated fix that will be pushed out soon.
This isn’t the first rumor about the iPhone 14 losing the dreaded ‘notch,’ but now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says some iPhone models coming out in September will have a hole punch cam in the screen, replacing the notch. It is presumed it will be the high end phones that will get the feature first. According to Gurman, the Face ID system, which lives in the notch with the camera, would work from under the screen, effectively being invisible to your eyes, and not eating up screen space for your videos, apps, etc. Another big rumor from Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo has Apple transitioning 100% to their own silicon and away from Intel by this summer’s World Wide Developer Conference.
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