Galaxy Note Replacement Date Leaks; Netflix May Make iOS Games Available on App Store; Musk Twitter Poll on Selling Stock; Group Buys McAfee

The Galaxy Note was dropped this year, as Samsung focused on folding phones. Note users are pretty rabid fans, though, and Samsung has a replacement for them. It’s the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Bgr.com reports that YouTube leaker Jon Prosser is touting an unveiling of the Galaxy S21 FE on January 4th, with it available on the 11th. This handset is late, as it was expected last summer. The more interesting leak is for the Galaxy S22 Ultra…that date is February 18th, according to Prosser. The Ultra will have an S Pen that lives on the left side of the Ultra. There are apparently 5 camera openings on the back of the phone. So the net is, Samsung has dropped the Note name, but the device lives on, so Note fans…you only have to wait until just after Valentine’s Day to score the latest version.

Netflix has mobile games available on Android, and there has been a good deal of questioning about when they will follow on Apple’s App Store. It’s a sticky situation since Apple policies ban all-in-one gaming services. According to engadget.com, Netflix is going to release games ‘individually’ on the App Store. The main Netflix app will have access to the game catalog, but you will be launching a separate app with you tap the game. Unless a government or successful lawsuit forces Apple to open things up more, this will remain how Netflix will need to operate when it comes to games on iOS.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk queried his Twitter followers as to whether he should sell off 10% of his stock. “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” he tweeted. The followers said ‘sell’ to the tune of 58%. CNBC.com says Musk was going to sell anyway, regardless of the outcome…he will over over $15 billion in taxes in the coming months, so has to sell to pay off his tax bill. Tesla was down 9% earlier today, but now is just off about 3% as this is being written. A question I have is whether the SEC will consider the Twitter poll stunt as stock manipulation. It won’t be the first time Musk has gotten into hot water with the Feds over his off the cuff Tweets. The poll is to say nothing of his snarky Tweet about Senator Ron Wyden’s anatomy!

An investor group has picked up McAfee, the web security company for more than $14 billion. According to zdnet.com, the investors will be able to take the company private. McAfee had been turning to cloud services, but now it appears that they will direct energies and cash towards the consumer side of their business. The deal should close the first half of 2022. 

Facebook Deleting Facial Recognition; Zillow Closing Home Buying Biz; Waymo Comes to NYC; Walmart Snapping up No-Code Voice App Startup

Facebook has been messing around with facial recognition for 11 years now, first dabbling in it in 2010, when they first allowed users to automatically tag people in pictures. Now, according to arstechnica.com, they will be shutting down the facial recognition system, and deleting the facial recognition templates for over a billion people. Besides regulatory scrutiny from various countries, there have been lawsuits that cost Facebook (with their newly branded parent company Meta) hundreds of millions. Don’t think they are giving up entirely of facial recognition, though. They will continue to use it to notify a user if someone uploads a photo of them, and say they will employ it to help with privacy and transparency. 

After deciding they had overbought real estate, Zillow has started shutting down its home buying business. Geekwire.com reports that Zillow Offers, the company’s iBuying program will not only be shuttered, but about 2,000 people will get pink slips. The company will apparently take a $500 million write down in the process. A statement released from the office of Zillow CEO Rich Barton said, “We’ve determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated and continuing to scale Zillow Offers would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility.” Even with algorithms, Zillow couldn’t do what hasn’t been done by anyone else either lately…they couldn’t predict real estate prices closely 3-6 months into the future.

After mapping the San Francisco area to a cat’s whisker, Waymo is sending vehicles to New York City to learn the streets of Manhattan. 9to5google.com says the plan is to have the cars drive from Wall Street and the Financial District all the way up to Carnegie Hall and Central Park. Included will be Chelsea and Union Square. Some of the autonomous vehicles will even take the Lincoln Tunnel over to New Jersey. (Note that the cars will have drivers during this learning stage around NYC.) At first, you will just see the hybrid Chrysler Pacifica vans, but Waymo does plan to add in its Jaguar I-PACE EVs shortly after the Chryslers hit the streets. 

Walmart is picking up Botmock, a startup that makes software which makes it easy to build and deploy conversational apps using a NO-CODE development platform. Venturebeat.com reports that Walmart expects its business divisions to be able to build and launch their own voice and bot apps to give customers a seamless mobile or online grocery shopping experience. While Walmart’s existing conversational platform enables voice shopping via Google and Siri, this will allow them to keep customers in house with their own apps.

Zoom Adds Ads; Sega & Microsoft Partner Up; Tesla Piloting Supercharger Access to Non-Teslas; Generac Buying Ecobee

Zoom Basic free account users will begin to see ads, starting this week in ‘certain countries. Zdne.com reports the ads will be shown on the browser page, and users will see them run after a meeting ends. Zoom says it is adding the advertising program in an effort to cover the cost of free Basic accounts. The company noted that as of ‘right now,’ they don’t plan to “use meeting, webinar, or messaging content (specifically, audio, video, files, and messages) for any marketing, promotions, or third-party advertising purposes.” I have already been getting an ad of sorts at the end of Zoom calls that invites me to use the non-free version or explore their other products, so this is really an extension of that, only with paid ads that can bring in further cash to the meeting platform.

Sega and Microsoft have announced a strategic alliance to develop what they are calling a ‘Super Game’ initiative on Azure. According to geekwire.com, Sega will build new games and overhaul its development process via Microsoft’s Azure platform. Sega will be able to customize to account for different styles of work and infrastructural changes by using Redmond’s Azure cloud services. Both companies see 5G as a supercharging force for cloud gaming in many parts of the world. Sega did not offer a statement as to whether its new Azure-powered titles would involve exclusivity to the Xbox platform or how much money, if any, changed hands as a result of the deal.

Tesla is piloting letting non-Teslas use its Supercharger network, starting out in the Netherlands. Engadget.com says 10 locations are involved in the test. To use them, you will have to have the Tesla app on your phone (v. 4.2.3 or newer). The pilot is only open to non-Tesla cars who’s owners live in the Netherlands, but any Tesla owner from any country can still use the stations when they are passing through. Asked about the future, Tesla said in a statement “Future sites will only be opened to Non-Tesla vehicles if there is available capacity.” 

Generac….the generator maker you have probably seen plenty of ads for…has announced it will buy Ecobee, the smart thermostat maker. Techcrunch.com reports that Generac will drop some $200 million in cash and $450 million in stock. If certain targets are made before the deal closes, they will toss in another $120 million in stock. Wisconsin based Generac has been around some 60 years, while Ecobee came on the scene in Toronto in 2007. Ecobee has expanded beyond thermostats in the smart home arena. Previously, it had been thought Amazon would snap up Ecobee, but Amazon developed their own smart thermostat with help from Honeywell. 

Amazon Kicks Off Early Black Friday on Its Devices; App Tracking Transparency Hits Social Media in Wallet; Chromebook Falloff-Ed Market Saturation; iPhones & Apple Watches May Get Crash Detection

Amazon has dived into Black Friday discounts weeks early, with deep discounts on some of its own devices. Engadget.com reports that you can now pick up a Kindle for $50…a $40 savings! Kindle Kids also gets a nice price slash from $110 down to $60. The Fire HD 8 is half off at $45. You can score a Fire TV stick 4K for $25, and the Echo Glow (Amazon night light) is $10 bucks off at $20. It doesn’t have a mic or speaker, but you can use another Alexa gadget to chose brightness and color. 

Apple’s privacy initiative is costing social media real money. According to appleinsider.com, the bite into revenues for Facebook, Twitter, Snap, and YouTube is off nearly $10 billion in the 2nd half of 2021. No wonder they are all railing against Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature. Apple has made a big deal for years about protecting the privacy of its users, but lest you think the are bing totally altruistic in this, Apple’s ad business helped Apple Services revenue grow to $18.3 billion last quarter. BlueConic COO Cory Munchbach notes ‘Apple has done a great job in turning privacy into a PR ploy, but they wouldn’t be doing this if there weren’t money in it.’

Chromebook shipments took a nose dive in Q3, which is mainly being blamed on a saturated education market. Zdnet.com says IDC is noting Chromebook sales are down 29.8%. Tablet shipments are off 9.4%. Last year was a banner year, with all the remote learning and work from home going on, but IDC notes that schools that schools and governments that ‘blew out their budgets to provide devices for remote learning’ are pulling in their horns now. 

Apple is apparently planning a new feature for iPhones and Apple Watches that could detect a car crash and auto dial 911. This would be similar to the fall detection feature on the Apple Watch. According to macrumors.com, Apple will launch the feature in 2022. The sensors in the devices (like the accelerometer) would measure a sudden spike in gravitational force, or g-force, on impact. As with the Watch’s fall feature, the user would have a bit of time to tap the Watch or Phone to cancel the 911 call, and say they are fine. Personal note: you will have to act fast! I think Apple only gives you 30 seconds or a minute to tap “OK,” or the thing will call 911 and text any emergency contacts you have programmed in. I have never had a hard fall, but a few times when cleaning out the cat boxes, have given one a hard slap on the bottom to dislodge a ‘clump’ of kitty litter, and the Watch goes nuts and thinks I fell!

So It’s the ‘Metaverse’…We Just Live In It

Facebook Refocusing on ‘Serving Young Adults’; Verizon Teams with Amazon For Rural Satellite Broadband; Microsoft tries (Yet Again) for K-12 Kids; Plastic Pollution Will Overtake Coal by 2030

In an investor call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is re-aiming the company to “make serving young adults their north star.” He said they know usage among older users will grow more slowly that it otherwise would, but believes the new direction is ‘the right approach.’ Instagram will be the first to see changes, as they lean further into video and make Reels the centerpiece of the IG experience. This is an obvious attempt to try to stem the bleeding of young users to TikTok. Zuck called that platform “one of the most effective competitors we’ve ever faced.” With all the bad press from document leaks and testimony, Facebook fears regulation more than ever. Recent articles have noted that they can’t even buy a flack with connections to the Democrats in power to try to lobby for them. 

Amazon and Verizon are teaming up to bring better fixed wireless internet access in the rural US. CNBC says the partnership will initially aim at expanding Verizon’s LTE and 5G service, using Amazon’s Project Kuiper for ‘backhaul,’ boosting coverage in areas with little or no high-speed data. After that, Amazon and Verizon hope to offer unified internet accessor industries worldwide…including smart farms and transportation. The companies expect to have the full constellation of satellites in low earth orbit no later than July, 2029.

First Apple had a lock on K-12 school kid computing, then along came Google’s Chromebook. Now, Microsoft is taking another bite at the Apple…or Chrome (ouch…) with a new, low-cost 11.6 inch Surface laptop. According to zdnet.com, it will be powered by an Intel Celeron N4120 processor and have a plastic exterior. Redmond expects it to go head-to-head with Chromebooks. Up to now, Microsoft and its partners have put out devices that are just way more money, and schools have taken a pass. Most have run $400 to $550 a unit. Microsoft does say that they have a new edition of Windows 11 that will be aimed at schools. Besides getting right on price (they say…), the new edition will give schools a better way to manage the devices…something that has been lacking compared to what Chromebooks could do when it comes to simple provisioning, wiping, and re-provisioning.

As coal continues to lose market share, at least in the US, to the benefit of the environment, plastic is emerging to take its place…as soon as 2030. Arstechnica.com notes this doesn’t mean plastic grocery bags and the rings that hold a 6-pack of beer cans together. Plastic production is a large source of carbon pollution. Plastic production in the US generates at least 232 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses…this according to a report by Bennington College and the nonprofit Beyond Plastics. If nothing changes, that will increase by another 55 million tons. For comparison, coal belched out 786 million metric tons of CO2 last year….but coal dropped by 166 million metric tons between 2019 and 2020, so by 2030 plastic will be generating more to contribute to global warming. 

Facebook’s Declining Youth Numbers; Hertz Orders 100,000 Teslas; Pre-Release Intel Chip Edges Past Mac M-1 Max; Cardboard Shortage-Really?

Facebook is getting slammed by numerous line employees for the ongoing scandal around the platform’s inability to block (or refusal by top execs to stop) the organizing and ginning up of the January 6th insurrection. Many are outraged that the company has put their rather huge profits ahead of safety. Another leak points to why Zuck and co. may have done so. Theverge.com reports that teen use of Facebook in the US is down 13% since 2019, and is projected to drop another 45% the next 2 years! Young adults 20 to 30 are expected to drop by 4% over that time frame. According to internal documents, the social network is concerned about losing an entire generation. The part the top execs don’t seem to grasp is that the young people highly value truth and honesty….they are very idealistic, and plugged in…and many are probably leaving DUE to the platform’s refusing to block Stop the Steal and other inflammatory posts. The kids increasingly see Facebook as something for people in their 40’s, 50’s and up…not for them. All the misinformation and posts that keep older people angry and engaged are actually driving away the younger generation. It is unlikely that the planned name change will do anything to stop that. They really need to change their ways…and fast.

Good news and bad news at Tesla. First the good…or really great news. Hertz has ordered 100,000 Teslas, the biggest EV purchase ever. According to Bloomberg, that rings up the cash register to the tune of about $4.2 billion for the EV maker. The cost of the order indicates that Hertz is paying sticker price, and not getting a discount…rental car firms usually get a nice discount for fleet orders from car makers. Model 3’s will be available to rent in major USSS markets and parts of Europe by early November. 

On the down side, ‘issues’ have forced Tesla to pull its latest full self-driving beta. One of those is a ‘regression’ with left turns. Testers have posted about phantom forward collision warnings, too. Elon Musk says they are rolling back from version 10.3 to 10.2 temporarily. He Tweeted ‘Please note, this is to be expected with beta software. It is impossible to test all hardware configs in all conditions with internal QA, hence public beta.’

The past year, Apple’s M1 chip has embarrassed Intel’s chips with their speed and power. That era may over for a bit. Zdnet.com says that a pre-release version of Intel’s Alder Lake chip beats Apple’s latest M1 Max chip by a slim margin. The Intel chip bested the Apple one in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks. The Intel single-core score was 1851, while Apple’s was 1785. Multi-core it was 13256 to 12753. Both Intel and Apple blew past AMD’s top chip by a big margin, though. The Alder Lake CPU chips should be available by the end of the year in Windows machines.

After the Great Toilet Paper shortage, then computer chips and other shortages of numerous items, here’s one we didn’t see coming….a cardboard shortage! Relax…the biggest buyer of cardboard, Amazon, is first in line, and you will get your packages! Arstechnica.com reports that many of the mills that produce cardboard around the world were down due to the pandemic for periods of time. Now, they are scrambling to make up orders. Adding to the issue…the power outage in Texas last winter closed plants that produce plastic from oil, and some shippers had to switch to cardboard instead. What you can expect is smaller shippers that don’t have Amazon’s clout may have delays in getting your stuff, or may have to use some interesting alternative packaging!

Facebook Name Game; Netflix Beats the Street; Apple Delays AR Headset; Backblaze IPO With Little Venture Cash

Years ago, a number of the tobacco companies diversified into food and changed the corporate name when the bad publicity started stacking up. Facebook has been getting plenty of heat lately, and appears to be taking a page out of Big Tobacco’s book…a rebranding is looming…maybe by the end of this week. Theverge.com reports that Facebook will position the renaming as a change of focus…with the company claiming to be building ‘the metaverse.’ The name change is expected to be covered in detail by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the annual Connect conference coming up on October 28th. At this point, the name is a closely held secret…known only to a few top folks besides Zuck. It’s worth noting that the social networking giant does have some 10,000 people building hardware like AR glasses…which both Facebook and Apple see eventually replacing smartphones. Of course, in 2015, Google rebranded to Alphabet, but does anyone really ever call them that? Nope. They’re still Google! 

Netflix beat expected earnings yesterday. According to cnbc.com, they brought home $3.19 in earnings per share instead of the $2.56 expectation. Revenues hit expectations, at $7.48 billion. Even with more people going back to work, Netflix paid subscribers world wide grew to 4.4 million, while the forecasts are for 3.84 million. The latest greatest show, ’Squid Game,’ grabbed 142 million households watching in its first 4 weeks streaming! 

Apple has delayed its AR headset…now, to the end of 2022. This according to appleinsider.com, citing the often reliable Ming-Chi Kuo. Apparently, Cupertino is still working on design details, and wants to have the device ecosystem built up before rolling them out. Kuo noted that “The AR/MR HMD requires much more industrial design requirements than smartphones because the comfort of wearing them involves so many design details,” Kuo writes. “Therefore, we believe Apple continues to test the best industrial design solutions so far.” Apple intends to have a more multi-purpose headset, not one tied to gaming and entertainment exclusively. The initial headset is still expected to rely heavily on the iPhone for processing functions.

Backblaze has taken very little venture money over the years…in fact, less than $3 million since they started in 2007. Techcrunch.com reports they have done an IPO now, issuing $10 million in convertible notes. What the devil is Backblaze? Glad you asked. They are most simply a cloud backup and storage company. For companies and developers, it’s useful to be able to store your info, but for most reading this, its the computer backup product that makes them. For around $70 a year, you can back up your stuff effortlessly in the background…and should things go south, you can restore from the cloud, or get your data on a USB drive, a hard drive, or burned to a DVD. NOTE: I have used this service and actually knew the spouse of one of the renegades from Apple who started it. I’ve only desperately needed a file I accidentally deleted a couple times, but the service made it about as easy as Apple’s Time Machine to go back and grab them. A pretty remarkable company to have made it so far, and grown to a $60 million business after only borrowing $3 million in venture money, and NEVER losing money. 

New Google Pixels Bow; Foxconn Unveils 3 EVs; Amazon Will Add 150K Seasonal Workers

A great deal leaked out in advance about the latest Google Pixels, but today we have confirmation…as well as pricing and other info. Google showed off its Pixel 6 and 6 Pro today. According to theverge.com, both are available for preorder now, and will ship October 28th. Probably the biggest reveal is the pricing. The Pixel is $599 and the Pro $899…undercutting the prices of market leading Apple and Samsung phones. Not only that, but the price point gets you 128 gigs of storage in both…upgradable to 256 gigs in the Pixel and 512 in the pro (for extra $, of course!)

One of the big things leaked about the new Pixels is that they feature a system on a chip like Apple’s latest iPhones.The custom-designed ARM is called Tensor, and Google says it is competitive with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. 

Also leaked and confirmed is the 50MP back camera main sensor. It is ‘hard coded’ to output 12.5 MP images. It is larger than the iPhone 13 sensor, and Google says it will take in 150% more light than the previous Pixel cam. There is also a 12MP ultra wide cam, and if you go for the Pro, you also get a 4x telephoto shooter. This beats out the iPhone 13 in physical telephoto, but still isn’t close to the 10x lens on the Samsung top line phones. 

The cheaper Pixel has an 8MP selfie cam, and the Pro and 11.1MP one. The back cams don’t live in a bump, but a bar or ‘shelf’, that goes all the way across the back of the phone. A new processor lets you edit out items in your pix…Google’s ‘magic eraser.’ You can edit out elements like poles, or even people that barge into your shots. 

The screens are 6.4 inch for the Pixel and 6.7 inches for the Pro, and both are OLED displays. Both phones ship with Android 12 installed. Will all this and the lower price be enough to put a dent in Samsung and Apple’s grip on the market? Time will tell, but it would be nice to have another major brand to give them a run for the money.

Foxconn, mainly known as a supplier (particularly of Apple products like the iPhone line) has unveiled 3 new EV’s! The top sedan is designed by famous Italian design house Pininfarina…which has styled Ferraris and other high end sports cars for decades. Cnet.com reports that Foxconn will be marketing the cars through partnerships. In addition to the EV sedan, there is an electric SUV and and electric bus. Foxconn says the SUV will have the space of a large luxury car, but with a smaller footprint for city driving. They are claiming a range of 434 miles on a charge, and a 0-62 time of 3.8 seconds! The vehicles sport names much like Tesla’s…with the SUV called the Model C, and the sedan the Model E. The sedan is claimed to have a range of 466 miles and do 0-62 in 2.8 seconds. The bus is called the Model T…which obviously won’t be available as a brand in the US, since the Model T was a rather famous and widely sold model of Ford cars. Foxconn did pick up Lordstown Motors’ car factory in Ohio, and has bought a chip making plant. They will be marketed in a joint venture with Yulon Motors…which already has the Foxtron name. 

Amazon is ramping up for the holidays, looking to hire on some 150,000 seasonal workers. Geekwire.com says Amazon already employs more than 1.3 million people worldwide, counting both full and part time. Average starting pay will be $18 an hour for these roles, and Amazon is offering a $3000 signing bonus, plus a $3 per hour shift differential for a number of locations. 

Apple’s MacBook Pro Event 

As expected, Apple rolled out new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro models today. Also expected…a newer, faster version of the M1 Apple-designed chip…but Apple provided something of a Steve Jobs style ‘one more thing’ that was a surprise. There are actually TWO new chips…the M1 Pro and the M1 Max. Both are many times faster and more efficient that the M1 chip…which will stay in the Mac line. Also predicted…more ports, and Apple didn’t disappoint on that account. The base model with the M1 Pro chip has 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, PLUS an HDMI port and SDXC port AND…a new version of the beloved MagSafe called MagSafe3. You can still charge over the Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, too. 

The new MacBook Pros come with mini-LED displays, and Apple has a notch…like on the iPhone…at the top for the new, 1080p camera, light, and sensors.  The notch actually lives inside the top bar, so really doesn’t eat up any useable screen space. There is a 6 speaker sound system with ‘spatial audio’ included. Apple is also claiming 2-4 times better battery life, and crows about 17 hours battery for video playback. 

The 14 inch model starts at $1999 and the 16 inch one at $2499. You can order today, and they will start deliveries or pickup next week! 

In addition to the MacBook Pro models, Apple revealed the 3rd generation AirPods. The new models start at $179, and can be ordered now, and will be available on October 26th. Like the Macs, they feature ‘spatial audio,’ which Apple claims is as immersive as the theater experience, and a step beyond stereo. out of the charging case, they immediately pair with all your Apple devices…a very nice, slick feature lacking on other ear buds.