GM Buys Self-Driving Car Kit Startup; Mini Fuel Cell for Drones; & Apple’s Event
Posted: March 11, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Cruise Automation, Drones, General Motors, GM, iPad, iPhones, Lyft, Miniature Fuel Cell, Pohang University, Self Driving Cars Leave a commentGeneral Motors has announced it is acquiring San Francisco based Cruise Automation, which is making sensors to turn regular vehicles into self-driving ones. Techcrunch.com reports that the price is undisclosed, but Fortune reports its over a billion dollars. GM had already partnered with Lyft. GM President Dan Ammann says the automotive giant plans to integrate the Cruise tech into its fleet of vehicle brands as soon as possible! Since GM sells about 10 million cars a year worldwide and 3 million of those in the US, that would put a substantial number of self driving cars on the roads in just a few years!
Pohang University of Science and Technology has built a miniature fuel cell they say can keep a drone in the air for an hour, rather than the usual 15-20 minutes batteries provide. Slashdot.org says the miniature fuel cells could also find their way into smartphones and other devices in the near future. The new type of fuel cell is claimed to have increased performance and higher long term durability.
Apple sent out invites to the tech media yesterday to an event at Cupertino Monday, March 21st. In their usual cryptic style, it merely says ‘Let Us Loop You In.’ It’s widely expected that Apple will show the new 4 inch iPhone SE, a revamped 9.7 inch iPad which may get the Pro designation, and new bands for the Apple Watch. Since it’s Apple, there could always be ‘one more thing!’ Stay tuned!
Future Apple Watch Might Call 911 Over Heart Attack; Nest Update Vastly Improves Auto Away
Posted: March 10, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Apple Watch, Auto Away, Away mode, Call 911, Family account, Heart attack, iPhone, Medical Emergency, Nest, Nest Cam Leave a commentApple has applied for a patent that uses the Apple Watch and iPhone to detect and report a medical emergency like a heart attack, and call 911. 9to5mac.com reports that the patent describes sensors detecting one or more so-called ‘care events,’ and…depending on the severity of the problem…email a family member, or in the event of a heart attack, call 911. It would use the accelerometer to detect sudden movement and heart monitor to detect loss or a reading. As a safety, it might ask for a response before calling. To allow for false alarms of a fall, it would use data to ignore the fall if you were at a bungee jumping facility. No information on when they might implement this.
Being rolled out right now…and update to Nest software. Theverge.com reports that Nest will be able to use the app update to detect when you leave the house, and set the thermostat to ‘away’ mode, then turn the heat back on when you’re getting close to home. It can allow for multiple family members with a family account setting that handles up to 10 smartphones with the app. They are also updating so data can be used from NestCams and the Nest Smoke Alarm to determine auto away.
Apple Leases Former Sunnyvale Pepsi Plant- Apple Car; Paying With Your Face…or Your Car Coming
Posted: March 2, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Apple Car, MasterCard, Mobile World Congress, Pay with car, Pay with selfie, Project Titan, Visa Leave a commentApple has leased a nearly 100,000 square foot building in Sunnyvale that used to be a Pepsi bottling plant. 9to5mac.com says the facility is more like a warehouse than office building, and sits on 5 acres…and is probably for Project Titan, the Apple Car. Apple already has an 80,000 square foot building and a 140,000 square foot facility in Sunnyvale thought to be for the project…both are a 10 minute walk from the old Pepsi plant.
Last year, MasterCard announced its pay with a ‘selfie’ option. Now, they’ve showed it off at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. It uses the front camera of a smartphone and a single blink to identify a buyer. Cnet.com reports that rival Visa showed off a connected car that pays for your gas or for parking seamlessly. A chip in the car ‘talks’ to the gas pump or parking meter. It might be thrifty…pumping just enough gas to fill up, or paying for only the exact time you are parked.
Apple Event Moved Back a Week; Microsoft HoloLens Developer Kit Out March 30th-for 3 Grand!
Posted: February 29, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Build Conference, Developer, Hololens, iPhone SE, Microsoft Leave a commentApple’s spring event will be the week of March 21st, instead of earlier, as previously reported. It’s expected that they’ll show off the 4 inch iPhone SE, with the beefed up A9 processor, Live Photos, and Apple Pay. According to 9to5mac.com, the smaller phone won’t have 3D touch like the 6 and 6 Plus. It’s supposed to have 16 gig and 64 gig models, and sell for between $400 and $500. Apple will probably drop the price of the aging 5S down to $250 or less upon rollout of the new SE model.
Preorders have started for Microsoft’s developer edition today. It will start shipping March 30th, for a princely $3000! Microsoft didn’t say when the consumer version would be available. Theverge.com says the HoloLens will be bundled with 7 apps and games for developers. The 30th is also the date for Microsoft’s Build developer conference in San Francisco…tickets sold out in less than a minute!
Updated iPad Air May be Another iPad Pro; Facebook Rolls Out Live Video to Android
Posted: February 26, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Android, Apple, Apple Pencil, Facebook, Facebook Live Video, iOS, iPad Air, iPad Pro Leave a commentApple may not be launching a freshened 9.7 inch iPad Air in March…it may be an iPad Pro. Appleinsider.com picked up a rumor that the smaller sized Pro will have Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, complementing it’s larger 13 and 15 inch models. There may also be a 9.7 inch Air version, without Smart Connector and Apple Pencil support, and Apple may make the iPad Mini a version of the Air. The 9.7 inch Pro will reportedly have a rear camera flash and quad speakers…it should be rolled out March 15th.
Android phones should be seeing live video streaming via Facebook in the next week. Theverge.com says the rollout will start in the US, as it did with the iOS version, then expand to other countries within weeks. Facebook claims that people watch live video 3 times longer than video posted that was pre-recorded.
Apple Working on More Secure Future iPhones; Samsung Building 256 Gig Memory Smartphone Chips
Posted: February 25, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 256 gig, 4K movies, Apple, FBI, iPhone, Samsung, security, Troubleshooting, UFS 2.0, VR Leave a commentIn the middle of the dust up with the FBI over writing a software backdoor to hack it’s own iPhones, which Tim Cook has called ‘the software equivalent to cancer,’ Apple is working on making their phones even more impenetrable. Theverge.com reports that they are working to plug a troubleshooting feature that allows Apple to install new firmware on an iPhone to upgrade the operating system without inputting the user’s passcode. If they remove the feature, which security experts deem highly likely, they won’t be able to open up a backdoor no matter who wants one or tries to force them to.
Samsung has started mass producing 256 gig embedded chips, double what it had last year. According to engadget.com, they will run the Universal Flash Storage 2.0 standard, which will make them red twice as fast as current ones. These chips will not only give future phones the storage capacity of a lot of laptops, but will make it easy to store memory hogs like 4K movies…and transfer them faster using USB 3.0. It will also make it much more practical for phones to carry virtual reality content.
Macs Will Get Siri in Next OS X Update; Google’s Next Gen Atlas Robot
Posted: February 24, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Atlas, Google, Mac, OS X, Robot, Siri Leave a commentApple’s assistant Siri is coming to the Mac in OS X 10.12. 9to5mac.com reports that the feature will live in the Menu Bar like the Spotlight icon…click it, and a little translucent Siri window will pop up below, and voice control will switch on. A keyboard shortcut is also planned, and the ‘Hey, Siri’ feature too, if the Mac is plugged in to power.
Google’s Boston Dynamics company, has shared a peek at what it is calling the “next generation” of its Atlas robot. The new Atlas is designed to can work both indoors and outdoors, the company says, and weighs a solid 180 pounds, according to 9to5google.com. The ‘bot is 5 feet 9 inches tall and has sensors in its legs and body to help it balance, as well as LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, survey surrounding terrain, and aide in seamless navigation.
Mitsubishi: 56 Inch Projection Screen You Can Walk Through; Apple Watch Really Is Succeeding
Posted: February 19, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Apple Watch, Midair display, Mitsubishi, Projection Video, Samsung, Smartwatch, Swiss Watch, Walk Through Leave a commentMitsubishi has developed a 56 inch projection screen a person can walk through. The midair display is clean enough that you can read text from it, according to geek.com. It might be overkill for home use, but this could well be a big thing in advertising. The tech to project it can be either off to a side, or a meter back from the image. Mitsubishi expects to have it on the market within 4 years.
The supposedly failed Apple Watch sold 5.1 million during the holiday quarter, grabbing 63% of the smartwatch market. Macrumors.com says that, combined with Samsung, the two makers held down 80% of the smartwatch market. The Swiss watch market, which has been slow to react to smartwatches, dropped off 4.8%, selling 7.9 million in the holiday quarter. If the next gen Apple Watch can actually be used to call, text, and so forth even if you leave your iPhone at home, it may really blow the smartwatch market wide open.
Apple’s Trade Up Plan Moves into Conquest Sales; Amazon Expands Flex Delivery
Posted: February 18, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Android Trade Ins, Apple, Flex, iPhone, Prime Now, Private Drivers, Trade Up with Installments Leave a commentApple has introduced Trade Up with Installments, which lets you put the price of a trade-in towards payments on a new iPhone, with payments down to as low as $15 a month. This is on top of your phone plan, of course, but the interesting thing noted by techcrunch.com is that Apple will take non-Apple trade-ins. Android users can get up to $300 for their used devices…like a Samsung Galaxy S6 in good condition will net you $290 towards the purchase of a new iPhone. Apple basically gets you and writes a mini-loan through Citizens Bank. If you like to trade more than every 2 years, this might be the deal. Apple is cleverly stealing the concept of conquest sales from the auto business, which has done this as well as loyalty discounts for decades.
Amazon has had Flex, and Uber-like home delivery service for Prime Now customers. The retail giant is now working to contract with private drivers to take even standard packages to customers’ doors, cutting out UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office more than ever. According to geekwire.com, the program is in effect already in part of Texas. They are reportedly paying drivers $18 an hour, and shifts can be scheduled 8a to 4p 7 days a week. Considering that Amazon has been working on leasing over 20 planes from Boeing, and flying out of a center formerly used by DHL, it sure looks like they are moving full force into doing their own logistics.
Apple Opposes Court Order for Backdoor to iPhone; Superman Memory Crystal for Long Term Digital Storage
Posted: February 17, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Backdoor software, FBI, iPhone, Long term data storage, Secure Enclave, Superman Memory Crystal, Tim Cook Leave a commentApple CEO Tim Cook has posted a letter to customers online, stating Apple’s opposition to creating backdoor software to iPhones. The demand for the back door was issued by a federal magistrate yesterday, to get the FBI access to the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c. Cook points out that such software doesn’t exist, and were Apple to create it, it would act as a master key, making every iPhone owner’s private info available…not only to law enforcement and governments, but to hackers and thieves. It’s important to note that iPhones with Touch ID have the Secure Enclave…a separate, walled off processor, and even Apple can’t create a way around its protections at this point. We’ll be watching…as will Apple customers, other manufacturers, governments and no doubt thieves around the world…to see how this unfolds.
Scientists at the University of Southhampton have demoed new tech nicknamed the Superman memory crystal at a conference in San Francisco. Mashable.com says it uses lasers and nanostructures to record enormous amounts of data onto tiny glass discs. Back in 2013, they were able to load 300 KB of text on a disc. With advancements, they can now store 360 TB on a disc. The most amazing thing is the lifespan…they estimate data on the discs will survive 13.8 billion years at room temperature! The next step is designing a way to write the data without very expensive lasers. It does take a polarizer and optical microscope to read it, too.
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