Galaxy F Folder May Launch With S10; iPhone to Stick With Lightening Port; Tesla ‘Sentry Mode’ This Week; Aussies-$10 Million-Online Kids Security; Walgreens Creepy Tracking Displays

In what appears to be a pretty big hint that the Galaxy F folding phone will bow with the new Samsung Galaxy S10 at Samsung’s event on February 20th, the company released the above graphic. There was also a Tweet saying ‘The future of mobile will unfold on February 20, 2019. Not exactly subtile. Will it be amazing, or meh? We’ll know in a matter of days!

In what appears to be purely a cost-saving move, Apple won’t be switching to USB-C ports on the next batch of iPhones. Theverge.com says they will stay with the venerable Lightening port. Earlier, it was thought the USB-C ports would show up, since they are on the new iPad Pro, but nope. Not only that, they will still be shipped with Apple’s miserly 5W USB-A charger…so you will have to buy a separate USB-C to Lightening cable and a power brick that supports USB-C power delivery if you want to fast charge your pricey iPhone! More profitable accessory sales for Apple. Formerly, you got a Mag Safe cable, charging brick, AND extension cord for laptops for $80. With the new USB-C MacBook Pro, if you want an extra, you’ll drop $120 for the USB-C cable and separate charging brick…and even more if you want the extension cord that used to be included!

The break-in rate on Tesla cars has been in the top tier of autos affected, and Elon Musk is determined to do something to lessen the problem. Electric.co reports that Tesla is planning to release ‘Sentry Mode’ this week. Tesla has offered access to its dash cam over the air since last year, using the Autopilot cam, but it’s front facing only. Sentry Mode would enable more Autopilot cams and a parking mode. The Sentry Mode would enable the car to detect a robbery, record it, and then…blast Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d-minor loudly! (That’s the scary organ music often used is scary movies.) At the same time, Musk says they will release Tesla ‘Dog Mode,’ which is designed to keep your pups safe and cool inside Tesla vehicles. Dog Mode ads to the Cabin Safety mode (which is intended to keep kids safe) with the car able to tell passers by who show concern that the dog is cool and ok.

The Australian government is making grants of AU$10 million to non-government organizations to deliver online safety education and training programs aimed at children. According to zdnet.com, PM Scott Morrison says the intent is to help kids ‘stay safe’ online. The Aussie government is also reviewing ‘digital licences’ and other tools designed to build and test children’s online safety skills.

Most of us have walked by a row of beverage coolers…maybe stopped to peruse one or two…then moved on. Now, Walgreens is testing cooler doors with displays of the drinks instead of glass. Curbed.com says that’s not all…the doors track customers with cams, eye-tracking and motion sensors, then serve them ads in real time! The tech is from the appropriately named Cooler Screens, which claims the data is ‘anonymized’. Even at that, it allows ads to hit you based on gender, age, emotional response (!), and how long you linger in front of a product. Cooler Screens is also working with Coca-Cola and Nestle, and most of the 20 largest consumer product companies. Welcome to your creepy future!

Facebook Slammed in Germany over Data Share; Facebook Will Show Who Uploaded Your Info for Ads; Apple Killing Safari ‘Do Not Track’ as AI Supersedes; Some iPhone Apps Record Your Screen; Google Partners with GS Warriors on Public Cloud

The US government has balked at regulating social media providers, even though some folks think they and ISPs should be treated as utilities and regulated as such. Now comes the European Union…specifically Germany in this case…clamping down on Facebook’s data collection. A ruling by the German Federal Cartel Office essentially tells Facebook to stop hoarding people’s data. Businessinsider.com reports that this follows a 3 year investigation. The ruling requires Facebook to change its terms and conditions so people can explicitly stop the social network from hoarding data from different sources…including Facebook-owned apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as third-party websites with embedded tools such as the ‘like’ or ‘share’ button. Facebook now has 4 months to draw up proposals to present to the Federal Cartel Office.

Facebook says they have taken steps to keep companies from recklessly using your data from targeted ads. According to engadget.com, Facebook has only been showing which company was using your contact info. After February 28th, you will now also get to see who (if anyone) uploaded your contact info that let to your seeing the sales pitch in the first place. It will let you know if the retailer had your info, or bought it from an outside partner. It’s a baby step, but a start.

Apple is killing Safari’s ‘Do Not Track’ in version 12.1. 9to5mac.com reports that this was published in a blog post from DuckDuckGo. Apple claims that the function has been superseded by their Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature, which relies on AI. The Do Not Track had been largely a failure anyway, as it used a voluntary signal, and numerous websites just chose to ignore it. The Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature has been more successful in iOS 12 and MacOS Mojave, so you should be better off in the long run.

Some iOS apps you use may be recording your screen for analytics purposes. According to macrumors.com, trend capture taps, swipes, and even full screen recording. Some of the apps are: Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com, Air Canada, Hollister, Expedia, and Singapore Airlines. All are using Glassbox, a customer experience analytics firm that lets developers use “session replay” screen recording technology within their apps. Right now, there’ s no way to avoid this intrusion, save for deleting the apps.

Google Cloud is partnering with the Golden State Warriors as the team’s official public cloud provider, in addition to sponsoring the new arena in San Francisco. 9to5google.com says the cloud platform will be used at the new Chase Center to host Warrior and Chase Center mobile apps. Fans will be able to get personalized Maps, and see entertainment options coming to Chase Center. At the team level, the GSW analytics team will get more data analysis. Up to now, they say they have spent 70% of their time collecting and shaping data and only 30% analyzing it.

Tesla Model 3 Price Drop; Gmail Blocking 100 Million Spams Daily; Angela Ahrendts Leaving Apple; E-Ticketing Exposed Some Airline’s Passenger Info; Microsoft Build 2019 Date & Location

You can now be driving a Tesla Model 3 for a base price of $35 grand…after government incentives. Engadget.com reports that Tesla found that by dropping the referral spiff that got owners free use of Superchargers for referring friends who bought, they have been able to chop $1100 across versions. the mid-range battery option Model 3 is now $42,900 before incentives, the long-range version is $49,900, and the performance option version Model 3 is still an eye-watering $60,900. Elon Musk says they are doing everything they can to cut the base price BEFORE incentives down to $35,000…but says in a Tweet “It’s a super hard grind.”

In a big plus for Gmail users, Google has applied its in-house machine learning framework…TensorFlow…to your mail, and it is now blocking an extra 100 million spam emails per day. Theverge.com says that Google had already been blocking 99.99 percent of spam, but the AI framework will give them a better crack at screening out that last stubborn .1 of a percent. Google says TensorFlow also helps users to better personalize their spam filtering.

Another one bites the dust. Yes, another head of retail is leaving Apple…this time, Angela Ahrendts, whom Apple recruited from Burberry. According to arstechinca.com, Ahrendts, who joined Apple in2014, will leave in April “for new personal and professional pursuits.” Apple also announced that Vice President of People Deidre O’Brien will take over Ahrendts’ responsibilities running retail and adopt the title Senior Vice President of Retail + People.

E-Ticketing is great…it makes it so much easier to get through the hassle of making it from the curb at the airport to your plane. Now, a downside…at least for some. Cyberscoop.com reports that some personally identifiable information from fliers may have been hacked when email was sent to the customers. It includes names, boarding passes, passport number and flight numbers. The weak spot is a check-in link, and if affects Southwest, Air France, KLM, Vueling, Jetstar, Thomas Cook, Transavia and Air Europa. Wandera notified all of those lines several weeks ago, and none seem to have acted, so heads-up!

Microsoft segues back to their home area for Build 2019. Zdnet.com says they will be holding the event in Seattle on May 6th through the 8th. It will be at the Washington State Convention Center. The event again overlaps with Google I/O (which runs May 7-9.) Microsoft’s premiere developer event session list probably won’t be revealed until near the date, but the agenda should be posted later this month.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro-Big Competition for iPhone & Samsung; Xbox Live on Android, iOS, & Switch; Unsend (Finally) for Facebook Messenger; Alphabet Q4 Earnings

All the top line smartphones have pretty great cameras. Lately, Samsung and Google have had models that many think can outshoot Apple’s iPhones. Now, there’s a new gunslinger in town that may be able to blow past all of them. Huawei has…for the last couple generations, had great cameras. Now, bgr.com says the Mate 20 Pro has gone up against a dozen smartphones in a blind camera test put up on YouTube. With a million votes, the easy winner was the Mate 20 Pro. The phone has been banned in the US by wireless carriers since the government has blacklisted the company, but you can still pick one up on Amazon for less than the competing iPhone and Galaxy models. You might want to wait, though…pics have leaked about an upcoming P30 Pro model with even better cameras. Huawei has partnered in the past with legendary German camera maker Leica, so stay tuned! The new phone could roll out at Mobile World Congress in the next few weeks.

In a session description for next month’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft is getting ready to extend Xbox Live compatibility to Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch. Geekwire.com reports that Windows Central spotted the blurb, which Microsoft has since deleted. Theoretically, the cross platform availability would extend Xbox Live’s reach from 400 million on the Xbox and Win 10 devices to a couple BILLION devices worldwide!

Finally…finally…Facebook is rolling out undsend for Messenger. You need to be quick on the trigger finger, though. According to mashable.com, jus tap on the message and select remove. The app will ask if you want to delete it for just you or for everyone. The rub is…you only have 10 minutes to kill the regrettable message you posted. Facebook has been working on the feature since last April…hey, Zuck and other FB execs have had it for a long time! Finally, the unwashed masses get the chance to retract something they said in haste…or wasted, LOL! Remember—10 minutes, and it’s committed.

Google parent Alphabet reported 4th Quarter earnings yesterday…48.94 billion in income, and revenue of a whopping $39.27 billion! That’s up 22% year over year! Still….it’s never enough for Wall Street…9to5google.com says the stock was down 3.69% in after hours trading. The market is apparently worried they over-rely on advertising income. Gee, TV, Radio, Newspapers, and Magazines have relied almost entirely on advertising and some of them are still going after over 100 years! I don’t think Alphabet is going to collapse in the next quarter or year, Wall Street.

Galaxy S10s Will Support Next Gen WiFi; iOS 12.2 Beta Update; Tesla Buys Maxwell; Hydrogen Trains May Come to Britain

The imminent Samsung Galaxy S10 phones will support next-generation WiFi. This, according to engadget.com, picked up from FCC filings. The rub? You will have to have WiFi 6 (802.11ax) routers at home or in the office to use the feature. The phones will also support not only wireless charging, but the ability to wirelessly charge accessories. The new Galaxy phones roll out this month.

On the topic of next generation, the hot one will be 5G for cellular systems….which when in place, and the devices that can use it also are out in the world, will give blazingly fast net connections. We’ve covered how AT&T is rebranding their ‘upgraded’ 4G LTE, and now it’s showed up in the iOS 12.2 Beta….the phones display ‘5G E’ when talking to the AT&T network! The fake 5G has already hit Android phones. In something actually useful…ok, fun at least…Apple has rolled out new Animoji in the same Beta. Now, you can rock a giraffe, shark, owl, or boar if you’re into that. If you’re a giant bore in real life, your face can be an animated boar on your phone! There are now 24 Animoji characters available that mimic you’re facial expressions.

Tesla has picked up an ultra capacitor and battery manufacturer, dropping $200 million in the deal. Electrek.co reports that the electric car maker has snapped up Maxwell. Besides its ultra capacitors, Maxwell also has been working with a dry electrode tech for batteries. The dry electrode manufacturing process could result in a 10 to 20% reduction in cost compared to making wet electrodes…and Maxwell claims extending battery life ‘up to a factor of 2.’

In Britain, they had been electrifying trains to cut down on carbon emissions, but ran into a snag…in some places, it was just too expensive to run the third rails and electric service. Now, thenextweb.com says they are turning to hydrogen to extend the routes. Hydrogen train cars with power packs will produce the electricity in locations where they haven’t run electric third rails or overhead wires. Germany has already been replacing diesel train engines with hydrogen electric ones. The hydrogen trains could be on the tracks in Britain by 2022. Hydrogen can carry more energy that the same weight of batteries, and they also take less time to refuel than electric battery packs.

More on Next iPhones & iPads; EVs Will Match Gas & Diesel Cars in Ownership Costs by 2022; Uber Adds Public Transit to App; 25% of Our Lives Online

Bloomberg.com is confirming some details we already had, plus revealing some new ones regarding the upcoming iPhones and iPads and iOS 13. As others have reported, they see the hero iPhones getting 3 rear cams, but a new rub…by 2020, it will include a 3D laser cam system that will ‘scan the environment to create three-dimensional reconstructions of the real world. It will work up to about 15 feet from the device.’ This system is different from the Face ID one, which doesn’t use lasers to scan your face. The rear system will enhance augmented reality on the phone, and capture depth better. In addition, the upcoming iPhones should have better zoom and a larger field of view, plus higher resolution.

The iPad Pro will get the same 3D cam system by 2020, too. Refreshed iPads are expected this Spring, and those will include a 10 inch screen replacing the 9.7 inch original size screen. Aside from confirming that Apple is updating the iPad Mini (finally), no additional details on that model.

iOS 13 will get an expanded Dark Mode and the first real revamp to the home screen since the iPhone came out in 2007. One change will be “the ability to tab through multiple versions of a single app like pages in a Web browser” and file-management improvements.

A new report indicates a ‘tipping point’ by 2022, where the cost of owning an EV should equal that of owning a gas or diesel vehicle. Electrek.co says the report is focused on Britain, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t translate over to the US as well. The Deloitte analysis also sees EVs grabbing 10% of the total market by 2024. The voluminous report points out that 20 major cities have already announced plans to ban gas and or diesel cars by 2030.

Uber has just added public transit to its app. According to theverge.com, it’s only in Denver initially, but people there loading the app today will see a tiny train car with the word ‘transit’ next to it. Tapping it opens a list of bus or train routes as well as expected fare prices and end-to-end directions. Much of the transit data comes from the data firm Moovit. Uber says in a few weeks, users will also be able to buy train tickets within the Uber app, via a partnership with mobile ticketing company Masabi. In addition to adding more cities if this goes well, Uber wants to offer ‘multimodal’ options…where you could hail an Uber to take you to a train station, then board the train with the ticket you bought via the app.

We are spending more and more time online…in fact, up to 6 hours and 42 minutes a day now, according to the Digital 2019 report. The report, covered by 9to5mac.com, indicates that the US number is slightly under that worldwide one, at 6 hours and 31 minutes. It’s such a relief to know we’re disconnecting for that big 11 minutes a day! The biggest net addicts, according to the report? That would be the folks in the Philippines, where people spend an average of 10 hours and 2 minutes a day! The least sucked in by the net? Japan…at 3 hours and 45 minutes. All the numbers are down slightly from a year ago, so maybe there’s hope for humanity keeping a foot ‘in real life!’

Apple’s Down Quarter, Facebook Paying Teens for Info; Samsung Bows 1 TB Storage Chip for Phones

Apple announced earnings yesterday. According to cnet.com, they were down less than 1% at $19.9 billion for the quarter…$418 per share, beating the Street by a penny. The interesting item is that iPhone sales by revenue were down 15%. The iPhone still accounts for 60% of Apple sales. Some have attributed this to the higher pricing. Interestingly, sales were off in Europe, greater China, and Japan, but ‘the rest of Asia Pacific (like Australia) and the Americas had increased sales. Apple warned that the next quarter will be soft. As we noted earlier, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the 2nd half of the year will be at least flat…which compared to other smartphone sellers’ dropping sales and revenue will look good.

Just when you think all the creepy, intrusive stuff about the net is out there, something else bubbles up. Engadget.com reports that Facebook has been secretly paying teenagers about $20 a month to use a VPN app called ‘Facebook Research’, that lets the company have full access to all of their phone and web activity! This app appears to have the same features as Onavo Protect, an app that Facebook had which was pulled from Apple’s App Store last year for violation of privacy policies. This App is downloaded from a separate Facebook URL in order to skirt Apple’s iron hand….although it is running as something under Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program, which is really for internal developer use. Apple has now killed Facebook’s ability to distribute internal iOS apps…so Cupertino ‘is not amused.’ They say Facebook is in clear breach of their agreement. Stay tuned for more fur to fly!

In the ongoing race to get more storage, Samsung has bowed a 1 TB storage chip for smartphones. 9to5google.com says it’s a good bet the roomy chip will be introduced in the Galaxy S10. It is the same size as Samsung’s other storage chips, too! It’s likely that the phone with this monster chip will have a crazy high price, but Samsung notes that for those shooting a lot of video and other RAM-hungry applications, it will be a great addition. The Galaxy S10 will debut February 20th.

Apple Claims Huge FaceTime Security Bug Fixed; Echodyne Wants To Test Drone Detecting Radar at Super Bowl; Electrify America Chargers Back Online; Huawei Offered Bonuses for Industrial Espionage; ED Company Hims Soon to Hit Billion Valuation

There was a report that spread like wildfire yesterday that Apple’s FaceTime had a bug which allowed anyone to call your phone or Mac and listen in before you picked up. Theverge.com reports that Apple has temporarily disabled its Group FaceTime feature and they say the bug is squashed. It worked by a person adding themselves to a FaceTime call, and the program thought it was an additional caller joining in on an active Group FaceTime conversation. The group service was disabled at the server side, and Apple says they will fix it on the client side (i.e. your phone and Mac) with a patch later this week. Meanwhile, you may want to disable FaceTime in your iOS settings…or on a Mac by opening FaceTime, going to Preferences, and unchecking ‘Enable this account.’

There have been some scary moments with drones around airports lately. Other venues such as the Super Bowl and major crowd events have been designated ‘no drone zones.’ Now, Echodyne, a startup backed by Bill Gates, has asked for expedited FCC approval to test their drone radar. According to geekwire.com, the inexpensive little radar detectors are the size of a paperback book, but can track a drone at a distance 10 times the length of a football field. The have already tested it in Alaska, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. The tests would be run under the guidance and direction of the FBI. Here in the US, as other countries, drones are banned near airports. Air traffic had to be held lately twice near British airports, and also over the weekend a Russian tourist was arrested for flying one near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.

Late last week, VW backed Electrify America shut down all its car chargers nationwide. Now, cnet.com says they are back online. A cable supplier had reported a possible defect in the liquid-cooled charging cables. After extensive testing, they got the go-ahead, and the chargers are back online.

In an indictment dropped Monday, Chinese electronics giant Huawei was accused of offering bonuses to employees for stealing…in other words, industrial espionage, against US companies. Businessinsider.com reports that the document specifically noted robotic technologies used for testing smartphones by T-Mobile. The theft described in the indictment goes back to 2012.

Hims is barely over a year old, and will soon be worth a billion bucks, according to recode.net. Hims sells millennials hair loss products and erectile disfunction medication. Having had a roommate in college who was needing a hairpiece by 25, I get the former but ED meds for millennials? Wait, what? For use as party drugs? Hims sells through the internet, and claims to remove the stigma of men’s health issues by eliminating ‘middlemen’ like pharmacists and doctors. Hims just got another round of $100 million, as they jockey for position with Roman, another consumer men’s health brand…to say nothing of traditional legacy sellers of Viagra and Rogaine.

iPhone Sales Flat 2nd Half of year; Apple’s Car Project-Huge; Facebook Plan to Meld Messenger, WhatsApp, & Instagram; Dropbox Buying HelloSign; Amazon Prime-5X Movies As Netflix

Well-known and generally accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says don’t write off iPhones yet. 9to5ma.com says Kuo sees sales growth to be mostly flat in the back half of 2019, instead of tanking as some in the market have worried. Kuo correctly predicted the weakness in the holiday quarter, but now says the ‘worst is soon over.’ The analyst predicts that iPhone shipments after March will be higher than the market expects, maybe reaching 180 million units by the end of the year.

It’s been thought that Apple had around 1,000 engineers working at their Project Titan…variously talked about as working on software and hardware for self-driving cars or even about building the mythic Apple self-driving car. According to businessinsider.com, Apple laid off or reassigned 200 employees from the division this past week. Now, thanks to a legal case, we know that this is a tiny number, and that Project Titan is…well, more titanic…than generally thought. In the case of an employee arrested by the FBI, it turns out that 2,700 people had access to Project Titan databases, and that 5,000 were ‘disclosed’ on the project…meaning they had official Apple permission to know about it. Most of the workers, btw, were reassigned and not laid off…which sounds like they had just completed the part of the task they were needed for with the self-driving project.

Facebook is apparently planning to meld the back ends of Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram…allowing users of the 3 services to message each other. Theverge.com reports that Facebook is already at work tying the back ends of the services together…and adding end-to-end encryption to all. The rub is, for Facebook, you are required to give actual contact info when you join. WhatsApp, for example, has just required a phone number or email. It may be a boon for Facebook and advertisers, and make things easy to message across platform, but you can expect anonymous users of WhatsApp to bail for other platforms.

Dropbox is picking up HelloSign for $230 million, getting set to take on the likes of DocuSign and Adobe. According to geekwire.com, Dropbox says since the workforce is becoming more decentralized, the ability to collaborate and share documents over distance will make the service a plus for the primarily file storage and sharing company. HelloSign claims over 80,000 customers. It is expected that HelloSign will cut it’s partnerships with DocuSign and Adobe when the deal is closed.

If it’s quantity you prefer over quality…don’t ignore Amazon Prime Video. Bgr.com says Prime has a library of 17,461 movies. Netflix, on the other hand has a movie library of 3839, with Hulu featuring only 2336. If it’s new or well-reviewed movies though, Netflix buries the competition. Netflix has 592 Certified Fresh movies (according to Rotten Tomatoes), while Prime Video has just 232…9 more than Hulu. This could all change in a couple years, with so many studios getting ready to launch their own streaming services, but for now…if its quantity…hit Amazon. For quality, stick with Netflix.

Waymo to Build Self-Driving Cars in Michigan; Apple Will Ditch LCD Screens by 2020; Hulu Drops Lower Tier Price; Boeing Tests Autonomous Passenger Aircraft

Waymo has received approval for a factory in Michigan to build driverless cars. Engadget.com says the Alphabet-owned company will produce nothing but level 4 autonomous vehicles in the factory. The location hasn’t been announced any further than ’Southeastern Michigan.’ Waymo may start off by building autonomous packages for other manufacturers’ vehicles…as they have furnished to Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar. They haven’t given any timeline yet for when the first fully autonomous car will roll off the line.

Apple will drop LCD displays all together in 2020. Businessinsider.com reports that the displays, which are used on lower priced iPhones at this point, will all be replaced by OLED screens like the iPhone XS and XS Max. It’s not clear what this will mean for the pricing on the less expensive XR, which has had an LCD screen, but that phone would have probably gotten a price bump anyway next fall…it’s due to get a second rear cam. Apple has been a major customer of Japan Display for the LCD screens. Now, that company is considering selling itself to Chinese and Taiwanese investors. Japan Display has been partly owned and mostly funded by the Japanese government.

In the wake of Netflix raising prices, Hulu has dropped its base, ad-supported subscription plan to $5.99 a month. According to theverge.com, the drop form $7.99 will be effective February 26th. Hulu has done $5.99 before, but only as a temporary promotion. They say there will be no increase in ad volume. The $11.99 a month commercial free plan will stay as-is, and the $12.99 Hulu/Spotify combo will as well…that one is billed by Spotify. Hulu IS raising prices for its LIVE TV service…that will go groom $39.99 to $44.99. As for what happens when Disney takes majority ownership of Hulu…anyone’s guess, but Disney isn’t exactly famous for lowering prices!

Boeing has successfully test flown the prototype for their autonomous passenger aircraft. Geekwire.com says they could start carrying riders as soon as next year. It’s an electric powered, vertical take off and landing vehicle. The initial flight was just a take off, hover, and landing. Next, they will test winged, forward flight. Switching from VTOL to forward flight mode is considered the most tricky part for high speed VTOL aircraft. The initial craft is 30 feet long and 28 feet wide, and has 8 rotors for vertical lift and a tail rotor to help with forward flight. It is designed to fly fully automatically with a maximum range of 50 miles right now. Boeing says they are testing both two and four passenger models.