Bitcoin Tanking; 1st Million Apple HomePods Shipped; Galaxy S9 Release Date Leaked

Posted: January 17, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As correctly predicted by ‘the Oracle of Omaha,’ Warren Buffett, Bitcoin is crashing. It’s now under 10,000, half of it’s high, according to bgr.com. Investors are selling off massive amounts of the virtual currency. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Ripple are also slumping. While this sounds apocalyptic, keep in mind that even of Bitcoin traders, most is held by a group of people numbering in the low single digits. It’s not going to trash lots of 401(k) accounts or the like. Much of the drop is based on worry of stricter regulations being considered by South Korea and China.

After missing the important holiday shopping season, Apple’s home pods have started shipping from supplier Inventec. 9to5mac.com reports the first million are on the way, with an expected run of between 10 and 12 million this year. Hon Hai Precision Industry is also making the HomePods for Apple. The delay has been blamed on fine tuning software and hardware integration. No release date from Apple yet, but it should be soon for the $350 smart speaker.

Trusted leaker Evan Bless Tweeted yesterday that a C-level executive at a major case maker spilled the beans on the release of Samsung’s Galaxy S9. The handset will launch on February 26th, pre-orders will open on March 1st, and the new hero phone will ship on March 16th. Limber up those fingers for some fast ordering!

PC & Mac Sales; Smart Speaker Market Booming, Wireless Earbuds-‘Assistive Hearing’ Coming

Posted: January 15, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s easy, especially when covering tech, to be all over the latest mobile devices, and lose track of what’s happening with the venerable PC…which most of us still have and use. Bgr.com has the numbers as tracked by IDC, and here’s where computer brands stood in 2017: #1 was H-P with 22.7% of the market. Lenovo came in 2nd with 21.1%. In third place was Dell with 16.1% market share, and 4th was Apple at 7.6%. Acer was in 5th place with 6.8%, and ASUS grabbed 6th with 6.6%, hot on their trail. The other 19.1% of computer sales was ‘everybody else.’ Of all of them, Apple had the most growth in the 4th quarter covering the holidays.

While Apple fanboys and fangirls breathlessly await the Apple HomePod, the smart speaker market is absolutely booming. According to 9to5mac.com, it’s up 128% since a year ago. Research from Edison Research and NPR indicates one in 6 Americans own a smart speaker of one type or another. 65% of owners say they would never want to go back to not having one! Of the 16% of us that have smart speakers, 11% are Amazon Alexa powered, while 4% use Google Home.

Since Congress passed a law allowing some hearing aid tech without prescription, wireless earbud makers are looking to that as a new market. Engadget.com reports that wireless earbud pioneer Bragi announced at CES that they would be diving into personalized hearing enhancement for their Dash earbuds. On top of that, they are working to develop personalized fitting for hearing loss using the so-called ‘Earprint’ test….pointing out that correcting for hearing loss needs to be as personalized as fitting for glasses. Another company called Nuheara showed off their updated product called IQBuds Boost.

Galaxy S9 Gets FM Radio; Shortage of Apple Replacement Batteries; Connected Underwear

Posted: January 11, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another feature has leaked out about the Samsung Galaxy S9 that debuts next month. According to bgr.com, Samsung will unlock the FM chip on phones sold in the US and Canada. While you can get radio and internet radio over apps, this might come in very handy in emergencies like hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. The FCC recently called on Apple to do the same, and in fact to activate FM chips in existing iPhones (although the latter isn’t technically possible.)

On the topic of Apple, there’s the ongoing saga of the slowed down, older iPhones due to batteries failing. Macrumors.com says those $29 replacement batteries promised by Apple may not be here in enough volume until March or April for the iPhone 6 Plus. The delay is only a couple weeks for the iPhone 6, and Apple says batteries should be available right now for iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and SE.

In a sure sign that the Internet of Things has gone too far….smart underwear! Mashable.com reports that the skivvies come with sensors woven into the fabric of the undies, and the have a small, rechargeable module that can be removed for recharging….and of course, washing. The Skiin bras and underwear from Myant have 6 different sensors that track heart rate, temperature, pressure, motion, body fat, and hydration levels. All the data is sent to your smartphone app. Pricey? Of course! $279 for 4 pairs of undies.

Facebook Goes for Home Device Market; LG to Make Face ID Tech for Some iPhones & iPads; Galaxy S9 Bowing at Mobile World Congress

Posted: January 10, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not much the general public can use has come out of Facebook’s secretive Building 8, the hardware development projects facility. Now, according to cheddar.com, something with mass appeal may be on the way. Apparently, Facebook is looking at dropping a video chat device called Portal in May Cath their developer conference. Facebook isn’t aiming at the smart assistant market, but more of a way for families and friends to stay connected via video chat and other social features. It will sport a wide angle lens and be able to recognize faces and associate them with their facebook accounts. The device has tentively been priced $499, but may be rolled out for less, since Amazon has the Echo Show selling at $230. The Portal will be sold online and through pop up stores.

Apple has dropped some serious change in LG division Innotek. Macrumors.com reports that Cupertino expects LG Innotek to build out additional facilities to produce 3D sensing and cam modules for Face ID in the next round of iPhone X and upcoming iPads. It’s expected that Apple will roll out an updated iPhone X in September, along with a larger X Plus, and a midrange phone with LCD screen instead of OLED. All will have Face ID, as will at least one iPad this year.

You won’t have to wait much longer for the Samsung Galaxy S9. Bgr.com says Samsung will unveil their latest hero handset at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona the end of February. This date is actually a couple weeks later than some had been saying. If it’s the folding Galaxy X you’re lusting after, Samsung Mobile boss DJ Koh says that may not be out until 2019.

More Next-Gen iPhone Rumors; Amazon & Google vs HomePod; Intel Security Issue

Posted: January 3, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A number of sources point to 3 new iPhones this fall…a refreshed iPhone X, a bigger iPhone X Plus with a 6.5 inch screen…also with an OLED screen, and an in-between model with a 6.1 inch LCD screen. LG will make the 6.5 inch screens, with Samsung continuing to supply the 5.8 inch OLED screen Improvements to Face ID are also touted. Now, according to macrumors.com, there may be a 2nd generation iPhone SE out this spring. It will likely keep the same form factor with a 4 inch screen as the present SE.

Amazon and Google both had sizable discounts on their smart speakers heading into the holidays. 9to5mac.com reports that analysts think they both probably lost money on the units or just broke even, in order to grab market share before Apple releases its HomePod speaker. Not only that…and you probably figured this was coming…Alexa may be soon making suggestions when you are getting ready to shop or are shopping. Yep, product placement. You may suddenly find that Alexa is suggesting specific brands…Proctor & Gamble is one such ‘advertising partner’ being discussed. The thought is, people may just order the suggested brand instead of letting Alexa blather on.

There is apparently a serious security problem with all recent Intel chips…so big a problem, that they won’t really discuss how it works, or what it is, but patches are coming. This will affect virtually all late model Windows and Mac machines. Bgr.com says it will be a crucial patch…but there’s a hitch. The patch may slow down the computers by some 30%, but at least by 5%! Pretty much every computer made in the last 10 years is affected. (90% of servers and laptops.) The fix involves moving the chip’s kernel to a completely separate address space, so every system call will require switching between 2 address spaces to keep the kernel secure…that’s where the speed bump occurs. A later update may restore the speed, but for now…patch those things when the security update comes…otherwise, your machines can be hacked and give the hackers god like power over them…including ability to read all personal info and passwords.

Amazon Prime Shipped 5 Billion; Apple’s iPhone Battery Replacement; Germany Enforcing Social Media Hate Speech Law; Yes-Robocalls Have Gotten Worse; Wireless Android Auto Coming

Posted: January 2, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Order lots or stuff with free shipping using Amazon Prime? Yeah, you and everyone else. According to techcrunch.com Amazon shipped over 5 billion items with Prime in 2017. We don’t know how much growth this shows, as they’ve never released numbers before, but 5 billion is a staggering number! A third party estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has 63% of all Amazon customers as Prime members, though, and calculates that there are 90 million Prime members just in the US!

You probably heard the flap over the holidays about Apple using software to slow down older iPhones to conserve dying batteries…and not telling anyone, and hence, the uproar. Apple last week issued a rare apology, and dropped the price of replacement batteries from $79 to $29…available right now in limited quantities. The replacement applies to ‘anyone with an iPhone 6 or newer whose battery needs to be replaced.’ In the rush, Apple didn’t note what happened if the phone fails an official Genius Bar diagnostic test. Now, macrumors.com reports that Apple will replace the batteries at their stores even if the phone doesn’t flunk the Genius Bar test! How about phones older than iPhone 6? Basically…you’re screwed….you’ll have to pay the $79 bucks.

Germany has waded into the arena of hate speech, fake news, and illegal material on social media. BBC.com says they are now starting enforcement of a law banning such content. If the content isn’t removed within 24 hours after the social media company is notified, the fine is up to 50 million Euro…or about $60 million bucks! That MIGHT get their attention. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and Russian social network VK. Other sites such as Vimeo and Flickr could also be caught up in the dragnet.

If it seems like you’ve been getting more robocalls…you are. According to theverge.com, a recent FTC report shows they have quintupled since 2009! The agency has gotten 375,000 complaints a month in 2017, compared to 63,000 a month in 2009. One reason is cheap access to internet calling services and autodialing. Now, there is vastly more neighborhood or area number spoofing, with the calls really calling from almost anywhere in the world. The do not call registry and blocking tools from phone companies and phone makers MAY have helped, but aren’t remotely keeping up with the problem.

Lots of cool things will be rolled out at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. 9to5google.com says one will be wireless Android Auto. JVC/Kenwood will show off an Android Auto screen that doesn’t have to be plugged into your USB port, but runs over the Bluetooth. There was already such a device for Apple CarPlay rolled out by Alpine a few months ago. They use a 6.8 inch screen, and will sell under the JVC and Kenwood brands. It’s expected that they will also be bringing out an Apple CarPlay compatible version later on. Let’s hope they are easily detachable and can be hidden in trunks, for break-in prone cities like San Francisco!

Apple Wins Holiday Mobile Device Derby; Google’s AI Speech Synthesis; Sites Strike Back with Anti-Ad Blocking

Posted: December 28, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple has again won the holiday activation war, with Samsung a distant second, and after that ‘everybody else. Macrumors.com reports that Flurry, which analyzes the data, found in the week from 12/19-12/25, Apple iOS devices grabbed 44% of activations…same as last year. Samsung took 26%. The Apple number is the same as last year in that week, while Samsung rose from 21% to 26%. Samsung’s 2016 numbers were impacted by loss of sales due to the recall of Note 7 devices. Through app makers that use their analytics service, Flurry is able to pull together data from over 2.1 billion devices around the world!

Google is claiming that the latest version of its AI speech synthesis…Tacotron 2…is nearly indistinguishable from human speech. 9to5google.com says the system works directly from written text, and Google claims it can use context to pronounce correctly words that are spelled identically like ‘read’ ( meaning to read) and ‘read’ (as in have read already). So…it has read what was written by Reid, and can voice it with the appropriate read? It apparently can also learn to stress or emphasize words.

Ad blockers have been effective for people using the web…so much so, that now nearly a third of the top 10,000 sites are taking ad blocking measures. According to techcrunch.com, many of the countermeasures are silent and highly sophisticated. Researchers at UC Riverside and University of Iowa have been following this, and say some ad blockers are responding by rewriting code to fend off the countermeasures. Sites have been using ‘bait’ content that is ad-like, and also taken to not loading any divs marked ‘Banner_ad’. The battle is beginning to resemble that between police radar makers and radar detectors!

10 Most Searched for Consumer Tech Products

Posted: December 27, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Because we all love lists, and anyway….it lets me channel my inner Casey Kasem, what were the most searched for consumer tech products this past year? According to Google’s Year in Search report, here are the top 10 hottest items people were looking for:

10- The Samsung Galaxy Note 8…even with the firey demise of the popular Note 7, the Note 8 was widely anticipated by fans of the 7.

At #9, the Apple Watch 3…mainly propelled by the addition of cellular connectivity and improved health and fitness tracking.

The 8th biggest search item was Google’s own Pixel 2 smartphones. The model 1 had a shakey start, but the Pixel 2 looks like a big hit for Google.

At #7, the Super NES Classic…the $80  pint-sized version of the original Super NES that plays 21 built-in games.

The 6th most searched for consumer tech item was the iPhone 8 Plus…which has better internals than the 7 Plus and wireless charging in Apple’s biggest handset.

Holding down #5, and a bit of a surprise…the Razer phone. The maker of gaming computers and accessories touts the Razer’s incredibly smooth visual images in their first phone, priced at $700.

The fourth most searched item was Samsung’s hot selling Galaxy S8 smartphone, with its beautiful wrap around screen and wireless charging.

#3 was the Nintendo Switch, which has been a runaway smash hit for Nintendo. The Switch has sold over 10 million since March.

The #2 spot was taken by Apple’s widely anticipated all glass iPhone 10, or X as some people call it. The thousand dollar hero phone with no home button was eclipsed by Apple’s own iPhone 8…which was the #1 most searched consumer tech item of 2017.

Galaxy S9 Keeps Headphone Jack; True Depth Cam & Face ID Big iPhone X Draws; Netflix Kids See Way Less Ads; Google Poaches Apple Chip Engineers

Posted: December 26, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yes, it’s ‘old tech’, and yes it takes up space that prevents the screen from going clear to the top or bottom of a smartphone, but according to a rumor spotted by bgr.com, Samsung will keep the venerable 3.5 mm headphone jack on the upcoming Galaxy S9. The Galaxy will have the same size bezels as the S8, but upgraded internals…much like Apple’s ’S’ updates. The S9 Plus will get a dual camera, again taking a page out of Apple’s book. With Apple and most other makers opting to drop the headphone jack, though, swimming against the tide may draw in a significant number of users that refuse to go all in on Bluetooth only smartphones….particularly if they have invested hundreds of dollars in good noise cancelling wired headphones…you supposedly can’t use Bluetooth while flying, because ‘airplane mode’ turns it off.

In a report picked up by appleinsider.com, the big draws for the iPhone X are the TrueDepth camera and FaceID. Some analysts thought the FaceID concept might put buyers off, but according to the study by Strategy Analytics, buyer interest in the two features is ‘extremely positive.’ The firm surveyed 568 early adapters of the iPhone X, and also found that the so-called Super Retina HD display and improved battery life were big selling points.

It may be the death knell for sugary cereal and toy ads on TV. ‘It’ being the cord cutter household. According to bigstockphoto.com, so-called Netflix only households that use only streaming services and not over the air or cable channels have kids who see 230 hours LESS of ads per year….that’s a full 9.6 days of ads! Don’t cry your eyes out for the advertisers, though. Some will figure out ways to use ‘product placement’ in the actual kids shows to hawk their goods to the younger set…the same way products have been seen in movies for decades!

Apple has been designing chips in house for its mobile devices for several years, and is moving that way with Macs, too. Now, Google has stepped up its effort to poach Apple chip engineers, as it does the same. 9to5mac.com reports that Google has hired several key chip engineers away from its rival in Cupertino, including noted designer John Bruno. Prior to Apple, Bruno had worked at AMD.Google is not only designing chips for its Pixel line of smartphones, but also working on custom silicon for AI devices, like the wearables they, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft are viewing as the future.

Magic Leap Unveals AR Headset; Apple Allowing Universal Apps-Mac and iOS; UK Deems High Speed Internet a Legal Right

Posted: December 20, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We’ve been hearing whispers for years, and now Google-backed Magic Leap has taken the wraps off their augmented reality headset’s Creator Edition. 9to5google.com says they will be shipping in 2018, too! The setup consists of a ‘Lightwear’ headset connected to a circular ‘Lightpack’ via a couple cords…the Lightpack contains the processing and graphics, in a mid-sized disk that hangs off a belt or pocket…and a Control’ remote (smaller than most TV remotes) that provides for 6 degrees of freedom and movement. The headset has tech that detects and stores the exact location of walls, surfaces, and physical objects, and also what they are calling ‘360 degree sound field audio.’ The interface accepts inputs from voice, gestures, head poses, and eye tracking. No word on pricing for the Creator Edition yet, but their SDK should be released along with it, in addition to other tools for web and game developers.

Apple is readying to let developers release universal apps that will work across iPhones, iPads, and Macs early next year. In a Bloomberg News writeup picked up by macrumors.com, the official announcement and details could come in June at WWDC 2018. So far, it’s not known if Apple will merge the Mac App Store with the vastly more popular App Store for iOS, but that seems logical. The move would mean better apps for the Mac, since developers put a lot more time and energy into making apps for the more widely used iPhones and iPads.

In the wake of the FCC killing net neutrality here in the US, Britain has taken the opposite position. According to rawstory.com, the UK has deemed high speed internet a legal right for all citizens, and will require that never household is wired for it by 2020.. Communications company BT has pledged to drop around $788 million to connect about a million and a half rural homes to the net. Right now, about 95% of homes in the UK have broadband connections with 24 Mbps or higher speed.

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