Samsung Rolls Out Latest Phones at Unpacked; Health & Tech Firms Partner on Digital Vaccination Records; NHTSA Calls for Recall on Tesla Touchscreens; Parler CEO Says App May Not Return

As expected, Samsung showed off it’s latest and greatest phones at Unpacked today. Theverge.com reports that the Galaxy S21 will sell for $799 and the S21 Plus for $999. The S21 Ultra will be a wallet-melting $1199! The displays are virtually identical to last year’s phones, but the rounded edges have been eliminated. RAM in the two less expensive phones has been cut from 12 gigs to 8 gigs. The back panel of the lower end S21 is polycarbonate plastic, not glass, and it doesn’t have the ultrawideband radio the Plus and Ultra have that help integrate better with Samsung’s new Galaxy SmartTag. Aping Apple, Samsung will no longer ship with a charging brick and headphones (also citing environmental reasons…neither they nor Apple will admit to the nice cost savings they reap.) All 3 phones are available for preorder now, and launch on January 29th.

There is a new cross-industry initiative to set up digital vaccination records to enable employers to verify that people have and COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to the workplace. According to techcrunch.com, The so-called ‘Vaccination Credential Initiative’ includes a range of big-name companies from both the healthcare and the tech industry, including Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and Epic, as well as the Mayo Clinic, Safe Health, Change Healthcare and the CARIN Alliance. Paper vaccination credentials have actually been around since the 1700’s. I can recall having a little card from my doctor’s office showing all the vaccinations I had had for school. The system could be used for travel as well as workplace returns. 

The Feds are calling for an analysis that could lead to a recall of Teslas over touchscreens. The NHTSA says there is an apparent defect in Model S and Model X touchscreens that could end up bricking some 158,000 cars. Arstechnica.com says the issue is in the Media Control Unit. Buried within the MCU is an 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory chip, which can only be written to a finite number of times. Once this number of read/write cycles is reached—something that takes between three and four years depending on how much the car is driven—the touchscreen dies. The Feds say Tesla has attempted to patch the systems, but that isn’t working, and they have asked for a recall. 

In an interview with Reuters, John Matze, CEO of Parler, said the platform may not ever get back online. After being dropped from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, then getting the boot from Amazon Web Services last Sunday, other vendors have also cut ties with the platform. Prior to going down, Parler had claimed to have over 12 million users. The platform was looking for another hosting service, and according to Matze, there had been no changes to investors in Parler as of yesterday. Hedge fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer and conservative commentator Dan Bongino are investors of the service.

Ring Bows End-to-End Video Encryption; Samsung Unveils New Exynos Processor; Apple Announces Projects Re Its Racial Equality & Justice Pledge; Weber Picks Up Smart Oven June

On the heels of a class action suit, Ring has introduced end-to-end video encryption. According to venturebeat.com, in 2019, a data leak exposed the personal information of over 3,000 Ring users, including log-in emails, passwords, time zones, and the names people give to specific Ring cameras. Following the breach, Ring began requiring two-step verification for user sign-ins and launched a compromised password check feature that cross-references login credentials against a list of known compromised passwords. Ring notes that end-to-end encryption disables certain features, including AI-dependent features that decrypt videos for processing work like motion verification and people-only mode.

Samsung Unpacked is tomorrow, but today they rolled out a new processor, the Exynos 2100 processor. Cnet.com reports that the company says The new 5-nanometer chip features an eight-core CPU including an Arm Cortex X1 core, clocked at up to 2.9GHz, to go with three Cortex A78 cores and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores. Samsung says the new CPU should deliver a “more than 30% enhancement in multicore performance” than its predecessor. There is also an Arm Mali-G78 GPU to improve graphics by “more than 40%” as well as improved performance when handling intensive tasks like artificial intelligence. It is widely believed that the new processor will power the new Galaxy S21 in international versions. Again, the S21 should bow tomorrow.

Last summer, Apple committed $100 million to a Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI). Techcrunch.com now says the company has announced some of the contributions…including $25 million to the Propel Center, an innovation hub for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. They are also investing $10 million in Harlem Capital, and $25 million in Siebert Williams Shank’s Clear Vision Impact Fund. Finally, Apple is making a contribution to The King Center.

Weber, which had partnered with the makers of the June smart oven, has now acquired June. According to engadget.com, the Weber Connect grill and June ovens and future devices will run on the JuneOS. Weber said the acquisition will help expedite its ‘connected innovation programs.’ June will now gain access to Weber’s infrastructure, resources, and expertise…scaling the tech to a whole new level. 

Amazon Removing QAnon Items from Storefront; Twitter Removing 70,000 QAnon Accounts; Free Decrypter Defangs Darkside; Intel 12th Gen Chips Aim to Challenge ARM & Apple M1 Chips

Amazon is pulling products related to QAnon from their storefront, including self-published books that support conspiracy theories, clothes, posters, stickers, and more. According to engadget.com, products that “promote, incite, or glorify hate or violence toward any person or group” are not permitted on the platform, the company said in a statement. If a merchant tries to get around the ban, they will be removed from the Amazon storefront platform. 

Twitter has deleted over 70,000 accounts since last Friday that had been sharing QAnon conspiracy theories and other fake information. Cnet.com reports that the crackdown is part of a push to remove content that promotes violence in the aftermath of last week’s attack on the Capitol building. On Tuesday, Twitter said it has also taken other actions in the wake of the violence on Capitol Hill, including escalating enforcement against tweets that share election misinformation and blocking some phrases from surfacing in trends and searchers.

A free tool is out from security firm Bitdefender to help victims of Darkside ransomware recover their encrypted files for free, without paying the ransom demand. Zdnet.com says the tool is a free download from Bitdefender’s site, along with instructions for use. It is thought the Darkside group will reprogram their malware, but at least this will slow them down and make it more expensive for them to try to hack into systems and lock them down.

Intel has teased its upcoming chips, the hybrid Alder Lake chipsets will mirror what Arm does, with a mix of high efficiency and high performance cores, according to theverge.com. Intel says the chips will be for desktop and mobile, much like Apple is doing with the underlying tech for its M1 chips. The Alder Lake family should bow in the second part of 2021.

Twitter Down After Trump Dump; Apple-Hyundai Deal-March?; Lenovo Smart Glasses; Ford & Nissan Cut Production-Chip Shortage

Twitter stock dropped over 10% as of this morning after the permanent ban of Donald Trump from the platform last week. According to yahoo.com, the stock initially dropped 12.3% at the market open. The tech company suspended Trump’s account on Friday in a move to prevent him from using the platform to incite further unrest among his supporters following the violent protests at the U.S. Capitol last week, according to Twitter. At the time of this writing, San Francisco police have a substantial presence at Twitter headquarters, and barricades up. Twitter says most staff is still working from home anyway. 

More on the Apple-Hyundai possible deal. 9to5mac.com reports that Korea IT News is claiming that Apple and Hyundai are shooting for making a deal to build autonomous cars by this March. Production could apparently begin as soon as 2024 in the US. The cars would likely be built at the Kia plant in Georgia, or the companies may “jointly invest in a new factory in the United States.”

Lenovo has unveiled ThinkReality A3 smart glasses for CES 2021. Engadget.com says the the specs are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR XR! SoC systems. They can show up to 5 virtual reality 1080p displays and rock an 8MP camera that can provide 1080p video. The headset still needs to be connected to either a PC or a Motorola smartphone running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series processor or better. No pricing as yet, but Lenovo says it will be available in select markets worldwide starting mid-2021.

For years, cars have been loaded with computer chips. Now, a shortage is actually affecting auto production. According to engadget.com, both Ford and Nissan are cutting production due to semiconductor shortages. Ford is hitting pause at an SUV factory in Louisville, KY this week. Nissan is cutting production at its Oppama factory in Japan. Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota are also talking about production issues. So far, General Motors hasn’t had to cut production, but they say they are keeping an eye on chip-related issues. 

Facebook Freshens Pages; Google Plans New Line of Nest Cams; EV Maker Rivian Snags More Cash; Amazon Buys Jets

Facebook has freshened Pages, which is used by celebrities, businesses, politicians and other public figures to interact with their fans and customers. The cleaner design will lose the total number of likes, and make the profile picture more prominent. It also will be easier for the owners to switch from their public page and personal page. A new feature will allow people to host a Q&A on their page. 

Nest Cam models are showing up out of stock, and we previously reported that the FCC has a filing for a new device, thought to be a new Nest Hub. Now, Google has revealed it is planning a “new lineup of security cameras for 2021.” With the partnership they made last Summer with ADT, expect them to offer a new security solution where professional techs will “sell and install devices like Nest Cameras and Nest Hub Max.” We could see the new Google Smart Display and the new cams in the next couple months. 

Electric pickup startup Rivian is about to nail down new financing that will bring its valuation up to $25 billion. Bloomberg notes that Ford (which is an earlier investor in Rivian) is only valued at $33 billion! It seems like a crazy valuation for a company that has yet to release a product, but bear in mind that Amazon has an order of 100,000 electric vans from the company. 

Amazon has been bulking up on logistics for years, even leasing a fleet of jets in 2016 and a hub for them. Now, according to theverge.com, they have bought 11 used Boeing 767-300 jets from Delta and WestJet. This will bring their air fleet up to 85 planes by 2022. Amazon already delivers over half the packages in the US, and is seeking to free themselves of the need to use FedEx and UPS…doing it all themselves. Amazon does say it will continue to rely on third-party carriers to operate the new aircraft. 

Microsoft Looks to Unify Mail Apps with ‘One Outlook’; Dell Laptops Auto Webcam Shutter; Apple to ‘Phase 2’ of AR Glasses Prototype; FCC-New Google Device…Nest Hub?

Microsoft appears poised to replace its numerous versions of mail with ‘One Outlook.’ Zdnet.com reports that the new single version of Outlook will replace Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps, as well as its legacy Win 32 Outlook client with a single Outlook client for both Windows and Mac. Right now, it’s a project code named ‘Project Monarch.’ It is apparently designed to be better for larger screen experiences. According to Windows Central, we could see a preview of ‘One Outlook’ by late 2021, but it won’t replace the built-in Mail and calendar apps in Windows 10 until some time in 2022.

In a better answer for laptop cams with all the web meetings going on during the pandemic, Dell’s latest Latitude business laptops are featuring a webcam shutter to physically block your cam when it’s not in use. According to theverge.com, this will be fully automated…a nice upgrade from the shutters you have to slide manually, or the infamous post it notes that everyone from you and I to Zuckerberg have been using to cover the damned things when not in use! There are also ‘mute’ keys to manually mute the mic or cam as needed. The 14 inch 9420 will be $1949. No pricing for the 15.6 inch 95s0 yet. Release is ‘this Spring.

 Dell is also rolling out new monitors this month, including 3 that will be the first ones certified for Microsoft Teams. They feature a Teams button that will quickly launch the app to make and receive video calls. Hands free commands are also supported via Cortana and the built-in microphone. Prices range from $519.99 for a 24 inch model up to $1149 for a curved 34 inch model. Those drop on February 16th. 

Apple is readying to hit the ‘2nd phase of development’ for their augmented reality glasses prototype. Macrumors.com says this comes from a paywalled preview in a DigiTimes story. It is thought that Apple may release an AR headset this year…in fact, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo mentioned this in a piece a few days ago, saying Apple suppliers are gearing up for an unspecified Apple AR device this year. The latest thinking is that we could see an AR headset this year, and possibly the finished version of Apple AR glasses in 2022.

A new Filing with the FCC points to a new device, called an ‘Interactive Device’, as meaning a new Nest Hub Smart Display is on the way. According to 9to5google.com, Google has used ‘Interactive’ in describing smart displays and speakers up to now. The device has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee. Zigbee is a big tell, as that is used by a number of smart home devices. The Nest Hub Max is over a year old, and the Home/Nest Hub is more than 2 years old, so it’s a good bet that this is a replacement with display to one of those. 

Alphabet-Google Workers Look to Unionizing; Samsung Unpacked Date Announced; Backdoor in Zyxel Firewalls & VPNs; Freshened Tesla Model X Spotted

Over 200 Google and Alphabet employees have announced plans to form a union. Techcrunch.com reports that the union is the CWA, Communication Workers of America, and it’s part of the union’s campaign to organize digital employees. The Alphabet Workers Union seeks to be open to both employees and contractors. The bulk of the employees are based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kickstarter and Glitch unionized last year. We are also hearing of moves to unionize at Apple. 

The next Samsung event will be January 14th at 7am Pacific, and the company will be showing off the latest and greatest Galaxy flagship phones….likely to be the S21. S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra. Theverge.com notes there have already been massive leaks about the phones, but there are always a few things that haven’t been leaked out. Samsung teased with ‘Welcome to the Everyday Epic.’ We’ll have details here after the presentation on the 14th.

In a troubling discovery, a backdoor account has been found in more than 100,000 Zyxel firewalls and VPN gateways. Zdnet.com says there’s a hard-coded, admin-level backdoor account that grants attackers root access using either the SSH interface or the web admin panel. The backdoor was found by a team of Dutch security researchers from Eye Control. It doesn’t get much worse than this! If you use anything from Zyxel, update your system asap! Patches are already available for a number of their devices. 

A Tesla Model S with some styling changes was spotted in Palo Alto over the weekend. Mashable.com reports that EV YouTube channel  https://www.youtube.com/c/TheKilowatts/featured posted video and have a running description of the vehicle. It has more aggressive headlights and rear styling, among other things. This comes on the heels of Tesla announcing that they delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, just barely under the 500,000 they had been shooting for. Final numbers may be as much as .5% more, which would put them over the top. 2020 was an exceptional year for the EV maker….shares were up 743%!

Facebook Closing Irish Subsidiary; Samsung Pre-Pre Galaxy Orders Open; FAA Drone Rules; COVID Vaccine Proof-Apple Wallet & Google Pay

Facebook is winding down its Irish holding company in light of wider disputes over the way it pays taxes in the the European Union.Businessinsider.com notes that in 2018, the social networking giant’s Irish subsidiary paid just $101 million in tax, while recording profits of more than $15 billion. The subsidiary, Facebook International Holdings I Unlimited Company, also brought in around $30 billion of revenue, accounting for more than half of the firm’s total annual turnover of $56 billion. 

This fall, Apple let users kind of pre-preorder iPhones. Now, Mashable.com reports that Samsung is doing the same for the upcoming Galaxy S21 smartphones—which don’t even have a fixed launch date yet! Samsung started offering pre-order reservations in the U.S. through its Samsung Shop app. The app lets customers reserve their phone now, and get a $60 credit they can spend toward accessories for the upcoming phone. We don’t officially know when the new Galaxy S21 phone will be launched, but rumors say it’ll happen at a virtual Samsung Unpacked event on January 14. 

New rules from the Federal Aviation Administration have moved us closer to drone deliveries. Both Amazon and UPS have been testing such deliveries. According to mashable.com, drones will need to broadcast their identification through a new system called Remote ID, which will help the government track both the drones and their base “control” stations, have nighttime lights, and no “exposed rotating parts”. People who manage the drones will need a drone pilot’s license with them whenever operating the aircraft.

As the COVID-19 vaccine has begun to be distributed in the United States, Los Angeles County has developed a new way to let its residents prove that they have taken the vaccine. Citizens can now add the COVID-19 vaccination proof in the Apple Wallet app and in Google Pay for Passes. Bloomberg.com says this integration was made possible thanks to a partnership between Los Angeles County and the startup Healthvana, which specializes in delivering test results to patients for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and now, the company does the same for COVID-19 test results. Healthvana says that the company stores everything as securely as possible on Amazon Web Services servers that are in accordance with HIPAA.

China Heading for Top Economy Sooner; Tesla Still Battery King of EVs; Japan-Dropping Gas Cars in 15 Years; CO2 for Net Zero Emission Jets

China will overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries. The prediction comes from the Centre for Economics and Business Research in an annual report published on Saturday. According to Reuters, “The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding economic fallout have certainly tipped this rivalry in China’s favour.” Japan would remain the world’s third-biggest economy, in dollar terms, until the early 2030s when it would be overtaken by India.

Analysts at UBS had 7 competing car batteries torn down and compared. Businessinsider.com reports that Tesla appears poised to keep its lead at least for now. They looked at batteries from Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, BMW, and more, and found that Tesla came out on top by most measures. The cost and efficiency of battery packs is the most key issue for electric vehicles. Elon Musk should be looking over his shoulder though…they found that Volkswagen is the fastest follower on a global scale. Its €33 billion Euros committed EV investments of over a 5-year period is unmatched.” 

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in the next 15 years, the government said on Friday in a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions and generate nearly $2 trillion a year in green growth by 2050. Reuters says Japan has made green investment a top priority to help revive the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and to bring the nation into line with the European Union, China and other economies setting ambitious emissions targets. The plan seeks to replace the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles, including hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, by the mid-2030s. 

Researchers may have found a way to reduce the environmental impact of air travel in situations when electric aircraft and alternative fuels aren’t practical. Wired reports that Oxford University scientists have successfully turned CO2 into jet fuel, raising the possibility of conventionally-powered aircraft with net zero emissions. The technique effectively reverses the process of burning fuel by relying on the organic combustion method. The process would let airlines keep their existing aircraft and go carbon neutral until they’re truly ready for eco-friendly propulsion. 

Apple Ups iPhone Orders 30%; FTC Demands Amazon, Facebook and Others Explain Collection & Use of Personal Data; Signal Adds Encrypted Group Video Call Support; Snap Launches Bitmoji Paint

We just reported that noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a good sized jump in iPhone sales in 2021. Now, according to macrumors.com, picking up a story from Nikkei Asia, we hear that Apple has boosted iPhone orders with its suppliers by 30%, which would amount to 96 million iPhones! There is an additional rumor indicating that at least one of the 2021 iPhones (iPhone 13) will be completely portless…there will be no Lightning port…all charging will be wireless, and everything will come over the air. It will also have a ’shallower notch,’ but it won’t be less wide…just less long, giving slightly more useable screen below it.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that they are requiring nine tech companies to produce info about how they collect and use data from their users. CNBC.com reports that Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were each sent orders to hand over information about their data practices. The companies have 45 days to respond from the date they received the orders. The FTC also wants to know how they determine how they serve ads to users. The FTC had already field charges last week against Facebook over alleged monopolistic practices. 

Signal is joining the party, adding support for group video calls for up to 5 people. Theverge.com notes, that’s not really enough for larger scale business meetings as take place on Zoom, Bluejeans, MS Teams, and the like, but they are end-to-end encrypted, like all other Signal calls. You can expect Signal to increase the number of call users, though, and they have said they will be doing so soon. The new feature is available on both iOS and Android. 

Snap has launched a new game inside Snapchat called Bitmoji Paint. According to venturebeat.com, it lets hundreds of players simultaneously contribute to a massive collage. Players make their Bitmoji, which then acts in the Paint game. There are 3 modes in the game: move, paint, and map. In the game, players can’t view other players’ Snap IDs. In the Android version, there are also Snap Tokens which allow buying of digital goods in the game app. Snap now claims over 249 million daily active users. 75% of the US 13-35 year old population uses Snap’s platform.