Apple Watch-More Health, but Not BP Or Sugar Yet; Meta Blocking Private Home Info Sharing; Toyota’s 1st ‘Real’ EV; Honda Bets Big on EVs

Apple Watch will apparently get both temperature monitoring, and some other health features, but still won’t have blood pressure or blood glucose monitoring this Fall, according to macrumors.com. Apparently, they have been testing the BP monitor on employees, but it isn’t accurate enough. All it does is report hypertension anyway…NOT the systolic and diastolic readings. The non-invasive glucose monitoring, which would be snapped up by millions of diabetics, is still several years off it appears. Apple Watch will get new sleep, fitness, and medication management features in the next edition.

It won’t keep you from being doxxed, but at least if someone does that, they won’t be able to put it on blast on Facebook or Instagram. Mashable.com reports that Meta will block posting of ‘publicly available addresses’ by the end of this year. The policy will not only apply to home addresses, but also photos of the exteriors of private homes. An exception will remain if the property is the ‘focus of a news story,’ or for those belonging to ‘high ranking officials’ (which usually aren’t privately owned by them anyway.)

Toyota’s first battery EV will be hitting dealerships later this spring, with a just revealed price point of $42,000. Engadget.com says the upcoming bZ4X SUV will have 252 miles of range on a charge. A limited trim model will run you $46,700. The vehicle is 3.7 inches longer than a RAV4, but is a couple inches shorter, for a sleeker, more aerodynamic look. It will come with a 6.6kW adapter which will take to full charge on a level 2 charger in 9 hours. Toyota will give buyers a year of free charges at all EVgo stations in the US, too.

After steering clear of EVs for a time and just building hybrids…with really only one EV model and one hydrogen one, Honda is finally going all in on EVs. We reported earlier on their deal with GM to produce EVs on a shared platform, in addition to Honda’s own platform. Now, thenextweb.com reports that Honda will plow $40 billion into EVs, battery production, and software development. They are planning on 30 new EV models by 2030! Before that, we should see two mid-to-large SUVs, the Prologue and Acura, both hitting US roads in 2024. At first, Honda will rely on both lithium ion and solid state batteries, but will move to solid state totally before the decade ends. They are planning a solid state battery plant to be up and running by spring of 2024. 

Microsoft Targeted Messages; Apple WWDC & Mixed Reality Headset; Nissan Joins Solid State Battery Sweepstakes; Meta Turns to Qualcomm for Smart Glasses Chips

Here’s something no one asked for, that is apparently coming from Microsoft. Zdnet.com reports that they are planning to let IT administrators send targeted messages to Windows 11 desktops, right above the the taskbar! Yes, your boss and IT department can already feel your unbridled joy about this! No need to open the company email app or chat app now…you can be reached right from your desktop before you even so much as start opening apps or the browser to start your day. So…don’t forget to take that online corporate training that’s due in 2 weeks, ok? 

**A friend who is a retired engineer from IBM points out that they were doing this with messages on mainframes over 30 years ago.

===============

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will be virtual for the third year in a row starting on June 6th. Expect major iOS and watchOS upgrades, and perhaps some new Macs. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes that Apple originally had big plans to use WWDC 2022 as the launch event for its long-in-the-works mixed-reality headset. Apple will likely  announce that product at the end of this year or next year. Apparently, the beta versions of iOS 16 are jammed with references to the mixed reality headset. Apple will allow a limited number of people on campus for parts of the presentation, but the keynote and all the important presentations will again be prerecorded. 

============

Nissan has unveiled a prototype production facility for solid-state batteries, a critical step in the automaker’s bid to develop and deliver an EV powered by the next-generation battery technology by 2028. According to techcrunch.com,  Nissan is aiming to incorporate all-solid-state batteries in pickup trucks and other vehicles by 2030. Solid state battery tech look to make EVs as affordable as gasoline-powered vehicles by the end of the decade. General Motors, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, VW, and Toyota are all working on solid state batteries. 

==============

Meta’s plan to make its own chips for its Ray Ban smart glasses has been put on ice. The Information says that the company had decided to go with an alternative chip from Qualcomm, according to two people familiar with the matter. The custom chip would power a variety of functions, such as taking high-quality photos and videos, on the glasses. Meta’s augmented reality chief, Alex Himel, decided using it could delay the glasses’ launch, originally expected for next year.

GM & Honda Partner on EVs; WWDC Announced by Apple; Comcast Rolling out 6E WiFi Routers; Germany Busts Biggest Dark Web Marketplace

General Motors and Honda have announced a partnership to co-develop affordable electric vehicles. According to techcrunch.com these vehicles should hit North America in 2027. The partnership centers around using the General Motors Ultium EV platform and both automakers’ heavy duty manufacturing capabilities. The exact terms of this partnership are not available at this time, and Honda is not specifying which vehicles will use GM’s Ultium EV platform or Honda’s own e:Architecture platform. This partnership is about scale. Together, Honda and GM have among the most robust manufacturing and distribution processes available and, depending on the exact terms, should be able to leverage these strengths to quickly and efficiently flood the market with EVs. Of great interest is their intent to get EVs out into people’s hands for $30,000 or less!

Comcast has announced that it’s starting to send out the xFi Advanced Gateway, a Wi-Fi 6E router the company announced at CES 2022, to customers that subscribe to Xfinity Internet Gigabit and Ultrafast plans. Until this point, many routers that support the new, higher bandwidth Wi-Fi standard have been far too expensive for most budgets (think $500 to $1,500, though there are now some in the $300 price range) — but Comcast’s is $14 per month, the company’s standard fee for equipment rental. Theverge.com says the new gateway includes built-in support for Zigbee, and Comcast has also said it will support Matter, a smart home standard slated to come out later this year. Comcast’s biggest pitch for the xFi Advanced Gateway is that it can handle traffic at faster-than-gigabit speeds. 

 WWDC 2022, the developer show from Apple, will start on June 6, and will again be almost entirely online. Appleinsider.com notes that the Monday keynote, when Apple usually discusses its biggest changes, will be a pre-recorded video stream, similar to the last two presentations. Though not a fully on-stage affair, expect Apple CEO Tim Cook introducing other executives to speak about Apple’s operating systems in an information-dense and slickly-produced video.After the keynote, Apple will be sharing updates via online sessions, with video presentations from key  Apple employees. In addition to the online conference, Apple will be hosting a special day for developers and students at Apple Park on June 6, to watch the keynote and the State of the Union videos. Apple will be supplying details about applying for attendance via its Apple Developer site soon.

 German federal police, working with US law enforcement have seized Hydra Market, billed as the world’s largest and longest-serving dark web marketplace. Engadget.com reports that it allegedly accounted for about 80 percent of all dark web-linked cryptocurrency transactions and had taken about $5.2 billion in crypto since 2015. It had roughly 17 million user accounts and 19,000 sellers. The seizure included both the servers and crypto wallets holding about $25 million in Bitcoin. This won’t stop dark web criminal operations, but it could disrupt them for a while, and might serve as a reminder that even the larger digital black markets can fold with little warning.

MS Integrates 365 Cloud PCs into Win 11; Starbucks Goes ‘NFT’; Amazon’s Employee Chat App Bans Words; Fox Viewers Paid to Watch CNN Revised Political Views

Microsoft introduced cloud PCs last year, which let businesses access cloud PCs from anywhere via Windows 365 to stream a version of Win 10 or 11 inside a browser. Now, theverge.com reports that Microsoft will let Windows 11 PCs boot directly to Windows 365 Cloud PCs or easily switch between them using Windows 11’s virtual desktops feature. It’s part of a hybrid work push for Windows, allowing businesses to support a mix of working remotely on traditional devices or through virtual cloud-powered ones. Microsoft is working on three new Windows 365 features that will be deeply integrated into Windows 11. Microsoft is also working on a Windows 365 offline feature, which will allow you to work locally when you don’t have connectivity to access a Cloud PC.

Now, you will not only be able to get your fancy coffee fix and your bagel, but Starbucks will also offer NFTs. According to geekwire.com, the company will be into the NFT business by the end of the year. Taco Bell and Papa Johns have also announced intentions to get into non-fungible tokens that allow people to secure unique ownership of artwork, videos, photos, and other digital content on the blockchain. If you have always wanted to own an original digital copy of something that can be copied like mad (although not your precious ‘original’ copy), and have money to burn…hey, go for it. I’m sticking with the hot beverages and a bagel!

An Orwellian twist has been spotted in Amazon’s planned worker chat app. Engadget.com says the app applies the company’s anti-union stance to language that can be used in the app. Besides blocking profanity, which is understandable, the app bars a number of ‘pro-union key words.’ Included in the ban list are “union,” it would also block terms like “compensation,” “pay raise,” “ethics” and even “robots.” The program associated with the app will reportedly launch this month. 

Researchers at University of California Berkeley and Yale paid a sample of Fox viewers to watch CNN for just 7 hours a week in September 2020. It was part of a 5 year study on the effect of partisan media on people’s political views. Yahoo.com notes that they got an interesting result…a percentage of the group that watched CNN changed their views on long COVID (5% more likely to believe), President Biden (opinion of him 10% better), and mail ballots (24% more supported.)  The control group that continued to watch Fox didn’t change opinions. The researchers wrapped up the study with this statement: “Partisan media does not only present its side an electoral advantage—it may present a challenge for democratic accountability.”

Hertz Will Buy 65,000 EVs; Musk Takes Almost 10% Piece of Twitter; Alphabet’s Wing Launching Drone Deliveries in DFW; Apple’s Phone $ubscriptions

Hertz has committed to buying 65,000 EVs from Polestar, the sub-brand from Volvo and its corporate parent Geely of China. Theverge.com reports that Hertz had earlier announced a purchase of 100,000 Teslas. The Polestar buy will run over 5 years. Hertz fields about 500,000 vehicles in its world wide fleet, so this will make about 20% of them EVs. The company has plans to electrify nearly all of its fleet. 

According to an SEC filing, Elon Musk has snapped up 9.2% of Twitter. According to electric.co, the electric vehicle and space billionaire dropped nearly $3 billion in the buy…practically pocket change for him. Most other mega billionaires have a few billion in companies besides the one they founded and became wealthy from, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook (Meta.) Up to now, Musk has claimed he didn’t own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla. Since Musk recently complained about Twitter throttling free speech and threatened to launch his own social media platform, maybe this was an alternative way to push Twitter into more of his vision of free speech. With almost 10%, he could jockey for a board seat. 

Wing, a division of Alphabet, will be starting drone deliveries in Dallas Fort Worth in a matter of days (April 7th.) Engadget.com notes that Wing’s primary customer at launch is Walgreens. They will deliver health and wellness products directly to people’s homes. In addition to Walgreens, Wing will deliver Blue Bell Ice Cream, Easyvet pet prescriptions, and first aid kits from Texas Health. The Wing drones can carry a payload of around 3.3 lbs and make a round trip for deliveries of about 6 miles…so really will only be able to reach a customer under 3 miles away from the launch site. They will initially be launched from a company parking lot.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman did some calculations after word of Apple’s planned iPhone subscription service came out. The service will not only be a way for Apple to get more people to trade up to new phones a year, but will make them more money (surprise!) Right now, most people trade about every 3 years, unless they have damage. The average iPhone price is about $825 according to Counterpoint Research…which means Apple picks up about $800 per customer every 3 years. With a subscription, they might be able to pump that up to $1000 and take the old phones back to sell on the secondary market. Gurman speculates that Apple could lease you an iPhone 13 for $35 a month, garnering Cupertino $1260 over 3 years instead of $799. With a 13 Pro, that might be more like $45 a month, which means $1620 instead of $999. For the Pro Max, a $50 per month subscription would bring in $1800 to Apple instead of $1099. AND, they take back the old phone and resell that! Keep in mind that this is like a lease instead of making car payments on a loan. Leases ALWAYS cost you more. Companies that lease don’t care, because they can write off the expense….but for the average buyer, you can’t do this. Weigh the option carefully if and when (and it looks like when) subscription iPhones become available. 

DOJ Looking at Google Maps; Smartphone Demand Softening-TSMC; Apple May Enter 1st Party Financial Services; Dyson’s Wild Headphones With Air Purifier

The EU has been on Google’s case about stifling competition. Now, the US Department of Justice is getting in on the act. Arstechnica.com reports that the DOJ is looking at Google’s bundling of Android Automotive….the product that runs in cars, as opposed to the Android Auto app that runs on phones. The DOJ, like the EU, is looking at the crushing of competition from Google’s bundling of maps…which also requires the manufacturers to take the Play Store, Google Assistant, and YouTube Music. It is a bit puzzling that the DOJ hasn’t gone after the app for phones, as there are  more of those in use than the software in cars (like 2.5 billion), but hey…it’s the government, LOL! Android Automotive is only baked into about 10 vehicles so far, but will be in all 2023 Fords. The DOJ is also taking issue with how Google limits the use of Maps data for app and website developers, and how Google blocks use of Maps data use with any other mapping service. No suit has been filed by the DOJ as yet.

We reported earlier this week about Apple cutting iPhone SE production 20% just weeks after rolling out the new model. Now comes word from TSMC that demand is softening for smartphones. 9to5mac.com says that actually, Apple’s sales are doing better than any other maker, but the slowdown is primarily in China, and is being attributed to increasing chip prices and the Russian war in Ukraine. In addition to phones, PCs an TVs are seeing reduced demand, too. China is the biggest market for cell phones. Analysts at Bank of America say demand in the US for Apple’s phones is still strong. Apple has already had ‘buy now, pay later’ payment plans with no interest charged on iPhones, Watches, and computers. They are reportedly working on a hardware subscription program, where you would basically lease an iPhone for a period of time, then it would go back to Apple and you would lease a newer model. 

Apple has been working under the radar to provide first party financial services without the need for outside partners. According to appleinsider.com, the project is codenamed ‘Breakout.’ Apple wants to do their own payment processing, risk assessment, fraud analysis, credit checks, and other customer service functions. Up to now, Apple has been using Goldman Sachs for the Apple Card and its own financing programs, as well as CoreCard Corp. and Green Dot Corp. Apple would like to offer the Apple Card outside the US. 

Dyson is getting into headphones in the most Dyson way possible: the Zone, a pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones with air purification technology built in, thanks to a bizarre-looking magnetic face visor. It’s both the strangest and most ambitious product that the company has ever made. According to theverge.com, the visor, which looks like a modern, cleaner Bane mask from the Batman universe, doesn’t touch your face, but furnishes a layer of clean, pure air. The rather heavy headset won’t be out until fall, and no battery life figure or price yet (although considering it’s Dyson, it will be a bundle!) Tech reviewers who have had a listen say it sounds very good, but not great or better than other high end headphones. It does have noise reduction…which you need, since the purifier visor has little fans in it.

Google Building Bluetooth Tracker into Android; Messenger Gets New Shortcuts; Waymo Bringing Driverless Rides to SF; Hamburger Vending Machine in New Jersey Mall

Apple waited a while to jump into the tracker business (which Tile had championed for several years), and quickly sucked plenty of air out of that room. Now, Google is getting into Bluetooth tracking…but with a twist…building it directly into Android. 9to5google.com reports that code has been spotted that would allow for tracking. After initially only being an Apple to Apple feature, Apple pushed out ‘Tracker Direct’ last year to let Android users track AirTags, and Tile launched such a feature this month. Google is apparently baking in the feature in a yet to be released version of Android. In mid-March, a pre-release version of Android showed up with ‘unfamiliar device alerts’ and ‘Unfamiliar Tag Detected Notification.’ What Google appears to be making won’t have to be activated by the user to scan for nearby trackers…it will be on in the background. As is always true with this kind of in the weeds find in a software build, no clue as to when or if it might be released into the wild, or what other features Google might add.

Facebook’s (Meta) Messenger is picking up some new shortcuts that will let you send silent replies, or ping everybody in a group chat, like Slack allows for. According to theverge.com, those two shortcuts are available now, and there will be more unveiled in the next few weeks. For example, /pay will let you send or request money right from the Messenger chatbox on both iOS and Android. You will also be able to key in /gif and a topic and get a selection of graphics to drop into your chat. (As with everything computers, this is all relative…when I typed ‘chatbox’ above as well as just now, auto-correct helpfully changed it to ‘hatbox.’ Who the hell these days uses or needs to type hatbox?

Waymo is getting set to offer totally driverless rides in San Francisco…with NO safety driver aboard! Theverge.com says the Google (Alphabet) subsidiary is going to test the program on employees first, but will then expand to members of its ‘Trusted Tester’ program. I have always joked about being into work in San Francisco unless I get hit by a bus…now, it looks like I will have to update to being hit by a driverless car! Waymo has been running driverless rides outside Phoenix for over a year now, and is also going to add downtown Phoenix in addition to SF. Eventually, the service is expected to expand to regular humans. General Motors’ Cruise division has been running driverless car tests in San Francisco for quite a while, now. The last several years, you would have been hard-pressed to walk a block or two in SF without seeing a Waymo car, one from Cruise, or a Zoosk vehicle tooling down the street. 

It won’t do any good to yell at it if it messes up your burger order. A startup has put a hamburger vending machine in Jersey City’s Newport Centre Mall. RoboBurger says its robot burger vending machine will be the ‘biggest innovation in hot food vending since the invention of the microwave. Engadget.com reports that the contraption takes about 6 minutes to make you your burger…using a process that’s pretty much the same as a fast food restaurant’s. Automated grill fries the burger while the bun is toasted elsewhere in the 12×12 box. It supposedly will ad ketchup, cheese, etc based on what you key in when you order the sandwich. The startup says it has a built in cleaning system that meets the National Sanitary Foundation’s standards. RoboBurger says they do use grass-fed Angus beef. They plan to expand to a number of other malls and airports this year. Yum?

Apple Paring Back iPhone SE Production; Sony Reviser Game Subs Service; TikTok Offers TikTok Library in-App Creation Tool; Get a Text From Yourself-Yep, Spam

After only rolling out the new iPhone SE weeks ago, Apple is already scaling back production. Macrumors.com reports that Apple is doing this due to uncertainty caused by the current global conflict, but also because of low demand for the low line iPhone. Apple has also cut iPhone 13 production, but most Apple watchers say that is due to regular seasonal demand change. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says he looks for 15-20 million SE phones to be shipped in 2022 instead of 25 million.

In a move to better compete with Xbox’s Game Pass, Sony has officially rolled out its revised game subscription service. According to engadget.com, Sony will stick with PlayStation Plus branding, but now it will be a 3 tier service. They pour PS Plus and PlayStation Now into the 3 tier service. The new middle tier is PlayStation Plus Extra. The base service is $10 a month, with the Extra tier running $15 a month. The top tier, now called PlayStation PlusDeluxe, is $18 a month, but each has a slew of payment options…the better to confuse gamers and suck more money out of them….just like all subscription services that are the darling of the tech industry right now.

TikTok has announced a new in-app creation tool called TikTok Library. It is intended to make it easier for creators to access entertainment content and participate in trends. Techcrunch.com says it will initially be populated with content from GIPHY, but TikTok says more content sources will be added. The videos and clips can be shared anywhere across the web with a link. 

PSA- If you get a text from your own number, it’s spam. This trick has been tried before, but it’s baaaak, so beware. 9to5mac.com notes that most say something to the effect that your cell phone bill is paid, and here’s ‘a little gift for you.’ Clicking the link is really a gift for the scammers, as they will need your info to send you the ‘gift.’ DON’T tap that link!

New AMD Release Date; Amazon Gets EU Approval to Buy MGM; Now There’s A Robot Goat; Tesla- 2nd Price Raise in a Month

AMD’s latest desktop processor, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, has finally gotten a release date and price after being announced earlier this year at CES 2022. It’ll hit stores next month on April 20th for $449, ushering in what AMD proudly declares to be the “world’s fastest gaming processor. The new Ryzen 7 5800X3D is extremely similar to the original Ryzen 7 5800X model, with eight cores, 16 threads, and compatibility with AMD’s AM4 socket. But there’s one major difference: the Ryzen 7 5800X3D marks the debut of AMD’s 3D-stacking V-Cache technology, allowing AMD to up the L3 cache from 32MB to 96MB. The company says that the additional cache should translate to about a 15 percent boost in overall performance compared to the Ryzen 5900X .

European Union officials have unconditionally rubber stamped Amazon’s $845 million bid to buy famed movie and TV studio MGM. Engadget.com purports that the European Commission’s antitrust regulators determined there was limited overlap between the companies and said the merger wouldn’t severely reduce competition in the theatrical film and audio-visual content markets. Amazon still needs to get the sign off from the US Federal Trade Commission….that doesn’t look like a slam dunk, as a recent report had the FTC looking at an anti-trust lawsuit.

 Spot the Boston Dynamics robot dog regularly makes headlines —  but robot dogs and even humanoid ones are old news now that Kawasaki has created a robotic, rideable goat. According to CNET.com, the goat has been dubbed Bex, because it’s really supposed to be an ibex, which refers to certain species of wild goat. It has horns that light up, and delicate legs that can be lowered and then sprout wheels. And it’s strong enough that a full-sized human can mount it like a horse and ride it around. Bex can carry light cargo or crops, and it contains cameras that can help with industrial plant inspections. Its upper body can be adapted for different needs, depending on how it’s going to be used. It can carry up to 220 pounds.

Tesla has raised the prices of its electric vehicles for the second time within the month. After adding $1,000 to some long-range models last week, the automaker has now implemented a much larger price increase across its lineup. As Electrek  notes, its prices now start at $46,990 for the base Model 3. Meanwhile, Model Y’s prices now start at $62,990. For both Model S options, Tesla has added $5,000 on top of their previous prices, so you’ll have to spend at least $99,990 for one. One of the materials affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is nickel, with its prices soaring and more than doubling since the war started. Russia is a key supplier of the metal, which is a critical component of lithium-ion batteries used by Tesla and other EV manufacturers.

iPhone Factory on Hold-COVID Lockdown; Website Breaks Through Russian Iron Curtain; Subaru Sunsets Gas WRX STI-Future EV? Smartwatch Market Grows 24%

Well, we may be done with COVID-19, but it isn’t done with us yet. Foxconn has had to shut down iPhone factory operations in Shenzhen due to the local Chinese government locking things down due to a new COVID-19 outbreak there. 9to5mac.com reports that Foxconn operates two campuses there dedicated to building the popular Apple phones. Foxconn, fortunately, has built out other plants over the last few years, and is shifting a lot of production to them. They have facilities in India, Mexico, South America, and elsewhere. The lockdown is in effect until March 20th. Huawei, DJI, and Tencent have also had to temporarily suspend operations there due to the lockdown.

Russia has been systematically chasing out foreign journalists and shutting down social media in an effort to feed propaganda about the Ukraine war to its citizens without any of that….you know…pesky actual accurate news. According to engadget.com, a group of Polish programmers have built a website called Squad303 that randomly generates a phone number or email address for you to contact. It draws from a database that has some 20 million cell numbers and around 140 million email addresses. People have been using it to send some nearly 7 million texts and 2 million emails in Russian to the phones of Russians…including images and videos from the Ukraine war. Some of the pro-Putin Russian TV presenters have complained about getting massive amounts of these texts showing the reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is bad enough for the Russians, that you may have heard of police there stopping people on the street and demanding to see their text messages…or they will confiscate your phone and arrest you! 

Subaru is sunsetting its halo WRX STI. The WRX series has been something of the Corvette of Subaru…I’ve known a couple guys who had them and raced the quick rascals on weekends. Now, theverge.com says that the company has no plans to build a newer gas version…BUT….they are looking at an EV version in the next generation of WRX STI. The first Subaru electric…the Solterra, will go on sale this year, and sports a 71.4kWh battery pack. A good-sized battery pack with a couple electric motors in an updated WRX would be a real screamer!

It was a market that was slower than expected to get traction, but smartwatches are showing up more and more now. In fact, counterpointresearch.com reports that global smartwatch shipments grew 24% year over year in 2021, after a lackluster 2020 due to COVID-19. The 4th quarter was the highest ever, with 40 million reported shipped. Health and fitness continue to be the main drivers, and more of the devices are supporting cellular. Apple slipped a couple of points, but continues to dominate with 30.1% of the market. Samsung is a distant 2nd with 10.2%. Huawei takes 3rd with 7.7%, with a couple unfamiliar (in the US) brands at 4th and 5th. Garmin has just 4.6%, with Fitbit surprisingly at only 3.8%.