Google Prepares to Enter the Internet of Things OS Sweepstakes
Posted: May 22, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Clipboard, Google, I/O, Internet of things, Microsoft, OneClip, Pushbullet Leave a commentGoogle reportedly may unveil an internet of things OS at their I/O conference next week. According to a report in The Information picked up by theverge.com, it runs on low power devices, and gives them the ability to communicate with other connected devices in proximity. The OS has had the code name ‘Brillo,’ but will likely carry an Android name when it’s rolled out. It’s expected to work on everything from refrigerators to small monitoring gadgets. The biggest issue with the internet of things may well end up being which OS to go with, since Google, Apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Samsung, and others are all angling to be in this market!
Microsoft is quietly working on an app that will at as a clipboard across your devices, whether iOS, Android, Windows Phone, or Windows PC. Thenextweb.com points out that this would compete with the Pushbullet app in many ways. Microsoft’s OneClip auto detects if the item on the clipboard is a URL, physical address, phone number, text snippet, or image, and categorizes it for you.
Tiny LiteOS Prepares for the Internet of Things
Posted: May 20, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Android, AWS, Cloud, DOS, Google, Huawei, Internet of things, iOS, LiteOS, Microsoft Leave a commentHuawei is readying their minuscule operating system, LiteOS, to power everything from wearables to cars to the electronics around your home. The system is 10 KILObytes! For a little perspective, Apple’s iOS 8 takes a gigabyte of space, and ancient DOS 2.11 was 28 kilobytes! The mini-system is designed for zero configuration, auto-discovery, and auto-networking. The verge.com says it isn’t intended to compete with iOS or Android, but to power small internet connected gadgets from light bulbs to toothbrushes.
From the very small to the biggest on the block…or in this case, the planet. Despite growing competition from Microsoft and Google, Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla of the cloud world. According to geekwire.com, Amazon Web Services not only increased market share in 2014, but operates more cloud capacity than the next 14 providers combined! Google cut cloud prices by 30% just yesterday, to try to grab more share, but it’s a long climb. Microsoft’s strategy is to provide more complete services for a price, where Amazon sticks to a la carte pricing. Microsoft’s revenues from cloud were up 96%, making them the leader by that metric.
Updated Automatic Smart Driving Monitor
Posted: May 19, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Android Auto, Apple Pay, Apple Watch, Automatic, Banks, Car data, Credit Unions, Driving expenses, Home Depot, ODB2, Pebble, Trader Joe's Leave a commentAutomatic has rolled out its second generation smart driving monitor. The gadget plugs into the ODB2 port on your car….and by ‘your car,’ that’s all cars built since 1996. Cnet.com says the new gadget not only gives you driving data and tracks mileage and fault codes, but works as an app store for cars, with 20 apps available right now. A couple apps pull data so you can easily generate mileage reports for expense reporting, and another to split the cost of carpooling. It now works with Apple Watch and Pebble, with Android Auto integration in the works. Best of all, the second generation model is priced like the 1st at $99.95.
Apple Pay…after an initial splash last fall, has been pretty well operating under…or maybe even off the radar. 9to5mac.com reports that Apple just signed 34 new banks and credit unions, and now there are nearly 300 institutions using it. Trader Joe’s just announced in the last few days that they are starting to activate it in some stores, and Home Depot is moving towards most stores accepting it by the end of the year…although Home Depot says they play to accept as wide a variety of payment systems as possible. If you have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus and haven’t used it, here’s a tip: when you hold the phone near the terminal, don’t touch the fingerprint image on the screen, touch the home button…and touch, don’t PRESS the home button…pressing will activate Siri instead of authorizing the payment!
New Force Touch Macbook Pro and iMac Out This Week
Posted: May 18, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Android Auto, Apple, Car Play, DEC, Force Touch, Google, IBM, iMac, Mac, Macbook Pro, Self Driving Cars, Windows Leave a commentWednesday looks to be the day that Apple drops new 15 inch Macbook Pros and 27 inch iMacs with Force Touch baked in to the track pads. 9to5mac.com says that otherwise, the update will be a minor one, with upgrades to the CPU and graphics processors.
In a story from tech crunch.com penned by the CEO of Zuora, the present car industry is compared to the early PC industry of the mid 80’s. The auto makers are cast as being as clueless as giant IBM was at that time, and Digital Equipment…remember them…even more out of touch. IBM went on to be clobbered as the platform…like Windows or Mac…became much more important to consumers than the brand itself. With Gartner predicting that there will be 250 million connected cars on the road by 2020, the platform makers, like Google with Android Auto and Apple with Car Play, may become far more important that the actual brand of cars…causing a gigantic shakeup in the auto industry.
‘Googlemobiles’ Will Be On The Loose This Summer
Posted: May 15, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Free Shipping, Google, Mountain View, Prime, Self Driving, Third party merchants, Walmart 1 CommentDon’t look now…but look later! ‘Googlemobiles’ will be hitting the public pavement in Mountain View this summer. Yes, according to the official google blog, self-driving Google cars will be tooling around…albeit with a safety driver aboard, and limited to 25 miles per hour. Google notes that 94% of crashes are caused by human error. The second generation Google cars still look like a VW Beetle that’s been hit with an ugly stick, but there’s plenty of time to get the styling right later after self driving is perfected.
Amazon may be working on making its Prime membership more valuable to members. Cnet.com reports that they have been reaching out to third party merchants, looking into letting them shop goods directly to customers, instead of drop shipping the goods to Amazon first. This would make a lot more goods in on the free two day shipping, and also expand the selection of goods available to you that way. It’s likely that the reports that Walmart is going to test free 3 day shipping this summer for a $50 annual fee is pushing Amazon to sweeten their Prime membership, which is $100.
Getting Rid of Those Pesky ‘Selfie’ Reflections in Photos Shot Through Glass
Posted: May 14, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Camera, Glass, Peephole, Peeple, Reflections, Selfie, Smartphone Leave a commentJust about everyone has grabbed a shot from their smartphone through a window, or with a window behind your subject, and there’s that unwanted reflection of you holding your phone reflected in the background, or even partly obscuring the subject of your picture. According to geek.com, a team at MIT has come up with an algorithm that removes those reflections from your shots! It’s in the initial stages, but should be a boon once it’s perfected.
There have already been a couple of cameras that replace your peep hole in your front door, but now there’s a Kickstarter called Peeple…with two ‘e’s,’ that goes beyond that. Techcrunch.com says it activates when someone knocks, and shoots a video, then sends you a mobile notification. The gadget easily attaches to the inside of your peep hole, and is removable, so even renters can use it. Since it sleeps until there’s a knock, the battery should be good for 6 months.
New Samsung Chips for the Internet of Things
Posted: May 13, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Artik, Border exception rule, Intel, Internet of things, laptop, Samsung, Search, Smartphones, Supreme Court Leave a commentSamsung has unveiled a new family of chips designed for the internet of things. Cnet.com says The Artik line has 3 versions, ranging from 10 bucks to 100 dollars, and can be expected to power trackers, drones, smart hubs, and more. Intel has new tiny processors coming by the end of the year, so Samsung is getting a head start by rolling out their line now. The chip family uses the same tech as Samsung uses in their smartphone processors.
Basing a decision on a Supreme Court ruling that smartphones taken by police from an arrested individual can’t be searched without a warrant, a federal district court judge has ruled that this extends to laptops going through customs, putting a crimp on the ‘border exception rule’ that has allowed authorities to seize and search items at the border or at airports. According to Arstechnica.com, the decision points out that a laptop contains much more private information than a mere container or even a briefcase.
What to Expect in the Next iPhone
Posted: May 12, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AOL, Apple, Dial up, Engadget, Huffington Post, iPhone, iPhone 6S, Techcrunch, Verizon Leave a commentUpdated 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch iPhones will start production in August, according to macrumors.com, citing generally reliable KGI Securities. Expect the A9 processor powered phone to sport a 12 megapixel camera, 2 gigs of RAM, Force Touch like the Apple Watch, and an additional Rose Gold color choice. KGI says not to expect a smaller 4 inch iPhone this year.
Verizon has bought AOL for 4.4 billion in cold, hard cash. Thenextweb.com reports that the present CEO will run AOL as a wholly owned subsidiary of the carrier. Only time will tell what changes might come to sites like The Huffington Post, Engadget, and Techcrunch. AOL still has over 2 million paying, DIAL UP customers, too…bet you never guessed there could still be that many people not using broadband!
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