USB-C Mandatory for EU Phones; Google Asst Driving Mode; Polestar EV-SUV Coming; Waymo Partners with Uber-Autonomous Trucks
Posted: June 7, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentWe’ve been covering this for a while, with ‘it’s probably coming’ stories. Now, it’s happened. The European Union will require USB-C to be mandatory on all phones sold in the EU by the fall of 2024. Theverge.com reports that this legislation has been in the works for 10 years, but now, even Apple will have to use USB-C on their phones. Apple had already switched over iPads and Macs to USB-C, so they obviously saw this coming. It will be a huge plus to be able to just grab a USB-C cable to charge your phone instead of having to look for (or buy and expensive) proprietary cable for your iPhone. The EU is now looking on trying to enforce standards for wireless charging and fast charging….all welcome rules that will help consumers.
Google had announced back in 2919 that it would be killing off Android Auto in favor of Google Assistant Driving Mode. Well, that time is coming up imminently. According to 9to5google.com, even older versions of Android Auto for Phone Screens will lose access soon. A couple of irritating down sides to the newer app…first, Android Auto showed up as an app on your home screen. For Assistant Driving Mode, the easiest way to get to it is a verbal command: “Hay Google, launch Driving Mode.” After that, you can tap the icon and add it to your home screen. You can then set it to connect to your car’s Bluetooth and it should detect it and run when you are driving. Down side number two? It had been promised months ago that the app would switch to landscape mode when you run it, but right now, that doesn’t work yet…so you have an irritating portrait mode to work with in your car (or on your phone). Perhaps Google should have had this entirely baked before killing off Android Auto!
Polestar will roll out its electric SUV in October. Engadget.com says the Polestar 3 will be partially assembled in the US (although mostly in China.) They are claiming it will have a 372 mile range. The Model has dual motors, and will offer 4WD. The company hasn’t released pricing yet. Polestar is a Swedish brand started back in the mid 90’s by Volvo and Flash/Polestar Racing. The company was bought by Chinese maker Geely in 2010.
They fought bitterly in the past, but now Waymo is partnering with Uber Freight, the ride hail’s truck brokerage on tech to power autonomous big rigs. Theverge.com reports that the “long-term strategic partnership” will enable fleet owners to more quickly deploy trucks equipped with Waymo’s autonomous “driver” for on-demand delivery routes offered by Uber Freight. The goods delivery division of Waymo— Waymo Via, which is focused on goods delivery in both trucking and local delivery formats will collaborate with Uber Freight, which launched in 2017. That service connects truck drivers with shippers, much in the same way the company’s ride-hailing app pairs drivers with those looking for a ride. The two say it will be a ‘deep integration.’ In a statement, the companies predict their integration will lead to “unlocking much-needed capacity for shippers, increasing fuel efficiency, providing carriers with the opportunity to scale their businesses, and ultimately streamlining global supply chains to the benefit of everyone.”
WWDC ’22 Recap
Posted: June 6, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentFor iOS on iPhone—New lock screen features. Font and background selectable, and widgets can be added. Also, notices come up from the bottom, and you can select for live following notices…like ball game scores.
Messages….Recall, and edit after send now available…about time! You can tag Messages as unread to go back and check later. Lots of sharing features you may or may not use.
Dictation— Now will allow you to ‘fluidly move’ from keyboard to voice and vice versa. Dictation will automatically ad punctuation and emoji if desired. If it will just automatically be truly accurate…oh, that’s probably too much to ask!
Touch and hold on item in a pic, and you can copy and paste that item elsewhere. They copied a doggie and pasted him into a document. This is really cool, and I bet lots of people use this.
Wallet— A couple states, Maryland and AZ already accept DL from the app, and another of others are working on it.
A number of companies let you park your keys (like room key to hotel). You can share keys with others now, and they are working on that for Android, too, so you can share with a family member or other who doesn’t have an iPhone.
Apple is enhancing Apple Pay with Apple Pay Later. 4 payments over 6 weeks with no fee and no interest. Kind of an extension of what they have now for buying Apple devices, only available for lots of products and services (non-Apple.) You can track upcoming payments in the Wallet app.
Order tracking can now be sent directly to Wallet, via Shopify and other platforms, so you don’t have to hunt for an email and click through to a website.
Maps— Cycling, Look Around, and increased detail in 3D. Adding Multistop mapping…can add up to 15 stops to your route. You can use Siri to do it verbally while driving too. You will see your transit cards and balances right in Map, and can reload a low transit card without leaving the app. Look Around will let apps like Zillow put in hi-res pics so you can look at homes.
Sports-As noted, added live streaming of scores on you Lock Screen. Apple News is adding My Sports to let you follow your favorite teams in your news feed.
Family Sharing….share favorite subscriptions in Apple to up to 5 people in household. You can build in parental controls for kids. If you limit time on apps or devices, and the kid asks for more, you can ok it or not via Messages.
iCloud Shared Photo Library….a separate library can be shared with up to 5 people. You can share everything or select just specific ones. There will even be a shared library setting in the camera app.
Privacy—Adding new tool that can quickly change settings. Safety Check. If you have shared passwords and locations with a partner, and someone gets violent, you can reset access with an emergency reset so a person feeling threatened can lock that threatening person out.
Watch OS— 4 new faces. Also, more faces will get more rich complications. Improvements in Workout tracking, and in Health, a medication tracker with reminders.
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Yes, they are introducing new hardware:
New MacBook Air will be 1st to get the new M2 Apple chip….faster CPU and Graphics and uses less power than the M1 series. It is still thin, but the wedge shape is gone. It’s under a half inch and 2.7 lbs. Silver, Space Grey, Champagne Gold, and Black. It gets MagSafe, like the Pros. Also has the notch, but a 13.6 inch display. As the Pros, it gets the 1080p camera. 3 mics, and 4 speakers. Like the latest Pros, it has function buttons instead of the Touch Bar. It’s fanless! 18 hours video playback. Will support fast charge…up to 50% in a half hour. $1199 and avail next month. $100 less for education.
The 13” MacBook Pro will also get toe M2 chip. It will be 40% faster than the M1 MacBook Pro. Up to 24Gb unified memory. 20 hours video playback on a battery charge. $1299. Avail. next month, and again $100 less for education.
MacOS — Will be called Ventura. The have added Stage Manager, to track your open windows, etc and keep you organized. It puts the open windows you have open over to the side, but the window you are working in will move to the middle and take up most of the screen. Just click on the window on the side, and that one will take the center stage. For desktop files, you can click the desktop, and it will minimize all the open windows. You can drag a file to the one you want, and it will pop it right in. iPadOS also gets Stage Manager!
Spotlight is enriched and improved. You can take actions right from Spotlight. They are adding the features to iOS, too.
Mail—Undo send lets you do that if you act quickly after hitting send. Schedule to send an email at a set time (great-marketers will dig this). Reminders let you remind yourself to come back to an email later. Search will show recently shared documents and files.
Safari- They have added shared tab groups, so friends or family can share back and forth.
Privacy…New Passkeys will let FaceID or TouchID to create. They stay on the device, aren’t in the cloud…but will sync across your Apple devices. Google and Microsoft will also use Fido along with Apple to protect your privacy (as has been reported here recently.) This is intended as an eventual replacement for passwords, as it really minimizes phishing issues.
You can now use your iPhone as a web cam for your Mac. It has added features like studio lighting to make a really cool web cam video. It even uses the ultra wide cam to show you and a view of your desk side by side if you want to share some work you have on your physical desk. Of course, they are selling an attachable stand, LOL! They will have a stand from Belkin later this year, too…which will cost less, of course.
PadOS 16— You can make a Messages group, and then collaborate. If you want to send a document, you can, and anyone can edit the document dynamically. You can also collaborate in FaceTime. It will drop the doc into Safari or another app. They have also added a free form screen, where anyone can write on like a white board, or draw on it. Photos, audio, and etc can be dropped into it, too.
Stage Manager is available now on PadOS, and overlapping windows is a new feature. You can resize windows, too. You can have up to 8 apps and windows at the same time.
All the new OS updates available in public beta next month, and will be released this fall.
Instagram to Push Amber Alerts; Tweetdeck Shutdown-Something New; Salesforce Revenue Up; Two Leading Browsers-2nd May Surprise You
Posted: June 1, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentInstagram is going to start pushing out Amber Alerts to user feeds, to alert them to missing children reports in their area. Engadget.com reports that the feature begins rollout tomorrow, and should be live in 25 countries in the next couple weeks. Parent company Meta warns that you won’t see them often, and that they will not only be rare, but specific to the search area. They will use IP addresses and location data if you have enabled that to ascertain who will get particular alerts. Unlike text notifications, these will show up in user feeds, and will include a photo and description of the child, as well as where they were last seen…and a number to call with tips for law enforcement.
Twitter is shutting down its Mac app for TweetDeck in July. The web based version will live on. According to macrumors.com, Twitter Tweeted that it is “saying goodbye to TweetDeck for the Mac app to focus on making TweetDeck even better and testing our new Preview.” That refers to a redesigned version of TweetDeck which is being tested on an invite-only basis. Twitter picked up TweetDeck back in 2011. A lot of people like the multi-column view of Tweets.
Salesforce revenue was up 24% to $7.4 billion in the last quarter, a great number considering rumblings about inflation. “So far, we’re just not seeing any material impact from the broader economic world that all of you are in,” said Marc Benioff, the Salesforce founder and co-CEO, on a conference call discussing the company’s fiscal first quarter, ended April 30. “Our demand environment remains very strong.” Geekwire.com says that data visualization company Tableau Software, which has been part of Salesforce since 2019, was up 18% in the past quarter. Salesforce did reduce its revenue guidance for the full year slightly…from $32 to $32.1 billion down to between $31.7-$31.8.
The top browser probably won’t surprise anyone, but the #2 one might. Arstechnica.com notes that according to Atlas VPN, the big dog of all browsers is Google Chrome. Chrome has an estimated 3.4 billion users! What’s #2? Nope, not Firefox or Microsoft….it’s Apple’s Safari, with over a billion users. If that makes you scratch your head, this might clear things up…the totals include mobile users, not just desktop ones. With Apple’s massive installed base of iPhones and iPads, that’s where their numbers really add up. It’s still a pretty amazing number, considering that Safari is the only browser not available on Android, OR on Windows! Edge has now passed up Firefox, but only has about 213,000 users. Firefox has a bit over 179,000.
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