Apple Planning Face ID Doorbell; Google Objects to DOJ’ s Interventionist Antitrust Remedies; X Jacks Up Premium Subscriptions; Honda & Nissan Look to Merge in 2026
Posted: December 23, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, business, News, technology Leave a commentMany times over the years, Apple has been late to the party, but has gone on to dominate categories of tech gadgets. The iPhone, of course, is the classic example. Now, 9to5mac.com reports that Cupertino is working on a Face ID compatible smart home doorbell cam, shades of the Ring. The device would offer “advanced facial recognition”, and integrate wirelessly with smart home locks. As a user of both Apple HomeKit and Ring, I have to say it would be cool to have my door cam integrated into HomeKit, but right now, it’s hard to imagine how an Apple device would really do a better job than the Ring does. The door lock thing is cool…unlock your door by scanning your face…but I don’t have an electronic door lock. I have a neighbor who does, but that is one area I just haven’t ‘technified.’ A lock can be picked, but the thief has to be right there…not a ways away like with a hack. Apple may have the thing on the market by the end of next year.
Google has come out blazing as they have floated their own proposal in the antitrust case from the US Department of Justice that argues that Google must sell off its Chrome Browser. According to techcrunch.com, Google says the DOJ proposal reflects an ‘interventionist agenda’ that “goes far beyond what the Court’s decision is actually about.” As an alternative, Google proposes that it still be allowed to make search deals with companies like Apple and Mozilla, but they should have the option to set different defaults on different platforms (for example, iPhone vs. iPad) and in different browsing modes.
In a move that is certain to vastly increase his user base, Elon Musk is raising prices for ad-free Premium Plus on X from $16 to $22 a month. If this was a Tom Swiftie, that would have ‘he said sarcastically’ after it! At any rate, engadget.com reports that the 37.5% price hike will kick in by January 20th, and will be for the US, Europe, the UK, Canada, and Australia. X has lost an estimated 2.7 million active users in the past 2 months, while new rival Bluesky has doubled in size in that same time period. This does not seem to be the move of a business genius…but I could be wrong.
In a move that would create the world’s third largest car maker, Honda and Nissan plan to merge in 2026. Arstechnica.com reports that Honda would take the lead in the deal. The two firms already had a strategic partnership for software and electrification. Nissan has been in an alliance with France’s Renault and Japan’s Mitsubishi. Both are taking a wait and see attitude on the Honda-Nissan deal. If approved, the deal should be finalized by this coming June, with the new company formed by August 2026.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Bows Amazing Quantum Chip; Apple-Playstation Support for Vision Pro & Cellular for Macs; Diamond Battery Could Run Low Power Items for Eons; TikTok Asks Appeals Court for Temp Block of Sale-or-Ban Law
Posted: December 9, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Quantum computing, Tech, technology Leave a commentGoogle has just revealed its latest quantum computing chip…Willow. Gizmodo.com reports that Google claims the new chip can perform calculations in five minutes that would take the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. For reference, the universe isn’t even 14 billion years old—a fraction of a fraction of that timescale. Quantum computers operate and calculate in a manner that is fundamentally different from regular or so-called classical supercomputers. They won’t be a desktop or portable item any time soon or ever though….quantum computing requires a lab environment with temperatures near absolute zero to work! Google sees some commercial applications for their quantum computing as being within the next 3 to 5 years now instead of decades away.
Apple has some interesting things in the works, according to 9to5mac.com, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. One is that they are planning to support VR game controllers, and have approached Sony about supporting PlayStation games on the headset. You would still need third party controllers, although th field of view in the Vision Pro would be amazing. Apple is also looking at bring cellular to the Mac for the first time. As they move to their now modems and away from Qualcomm, the Mac might join iPhones and iPads, as well as Watches with their own cellular connection. This could reportedly happen by 2026.
British scientists have successfully created the world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery…which could run low energy devices like satellite communication equipment for over 5,000 years. Thenextweb.com notes that the battery is made of the radioactive isotope carbon-14, encased in a thin layer of synthetic diamond. As the carbon-14 decays it emits electrons. The diamond acts like a semiconductor, converting these electrons into electricity. Since carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years, scientists expect the battery to last for millennia. Besides satellites, the diamond batteries could power pacemakers, hearing aids, watches, computer chips — any low-power device in environments where frequent battery replacement isn’t feasible. Shortwave radiation from the decaying carbon-14 doesn’t pose a risk — it is fully absorbed by the diamond casing, the researchers said. The battery can also be recycled at the end of its life — if anyone is still around by then!
TikTok and parent company ByteDance have filed an emergency motion with a federal appeals court asking it to temporarily block the law that would ban the app in the US unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. The companies are asking for the hold in order to give the Supreme Court a chance to assess the case. Techcrunch.com reports that more than 170 million people in the US are on the app monthly or more. As a back up, TikTok is also appealing to president-elect Trump, who had promised voters he would save the app if elected.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung’s Upcoming Smart Glasses; Apple HomePod with Smart Display Late ’25; 12 Days of ‘Shipmas’ from OpenAI; Amazon Unveils New Nova AI Models
Posted: December 4, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Smart home, Tech, technology Leave a commentAlong with their latest, greatest Galaxy smartphones to be shown in January, reports have Samsung at least teasing their first smart glasses. Zdnet.com reports that they will look a lot like Meta’s Ray-Bans, but a bit thicker and heavier. They will come with the expected voice assistant and audio playback, but also are expected to have additional features like gesture recognition and the ability to make payments. They won’t have a built in augmented reality display, though…and it’s unclear if they will feature cameras. an official launch is expected in July.
There has been plenty of buzz about Apple bringing out a smart home display. Right now, it looks like this will happen in the third quarter of 2025, with a reveal at WWDC in June. According to macrumors.com, there have been several versions tested by Apple…one we reported on was a 6-7 inch display on a robot arm, and another was a wall mountable iPad-like display. It is entirely possible that both these form factors could come out. A new HomePod smart speaker will have Apple’s A18 processor and will support Apple intelligence. My gen two HomePods use an Apple Watch processor like the first generation had, so no chance of those running Apple Intelligence…which I could care less about, since I only use them to play music and control home automation like lights, cameras, and outlets. Apple is going conservative on these HomePod units….only about 500,000 units are planned.
In one of the dorkiest marketing moves in a long time, OpenAI has announced the 12 Days of ’Shipmas.’ I have a former colleague who worked with Sam Altman years ago, and this now confirms what he said about Sam being a dork. Theverge.com notes that the announcements will include OpenAI’s long-awaited text-to-video AI tool Sora and a new reasoning model. The days start tomorrow, December 5th. One holiday related announcement may be a new Santa-inspired voice for ChatGPT. Ho, ho, ho! Merry Shipmas, boys and girls.
More from the hype-o-sphere surrounding all things AI…Amazon CEO Andy Jassy took the stage yesterday at the AWS re:Invent get together, and announced a new set of AI foundation models called Nova. The Nova models represent one of the biggest attempts yet by the tech giant to make its mark in AI. The company is seeking to overcome the perception that it was slow out of the gate in the early days of the generative AI revolution. Geekwire.com reports that the Nova family includes:
* Amazon Nova Micro, a text-only model that delivers low-latency responses at low cost.
* Amazon Nova Lite, a low-cost multimodal model for processing image, video, and text.
* Amazon Nova Pro, a multimodal model that combines accuracy, speed, and cost for a wide range of tasks.
* Amazon Nova Premier, which Amazon describes as “the most capable of Amazon’s multimodal models for complex reasoning tasks and for use as the best teacher for distilling custom models.” Premier will be available in the first quarter of next year, according to Amazon.
* Amazon Nova Canva for image generation
* Amazon Nova Reel for video generation.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
SpyLoan Malware-Infected 8 Million Androids; GoBlue’s New App-Track Your Bluesky Stats; Apple Touts Privacy But Allegedly Spies on Own Staff; Intel CEO is Out After 3 Years and No Turnaround
Posted: December 2, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, apple-intelligence, iPhone, technology Leave a commentIt’s rare, but sometimes a bad app will get into the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Androidpolice.com reports that McAfee has spotted issues with SpyLoan apps. These shady loan apps use social engineering tricks to target Android users worldwide. So far, 15 of these apps have been found, going after people in South America, Southern Asia, and Africa. They all share similar code and systems, stealing data and sending it to command-and-control (C2) servers. Most of these apps hide behind fake names and logos that look like real financial institutions. Some of the apps have been promoted on social media platforms. Google has removed most for the moment, and thankfully, none are big US financial institutions. Generally, they steal as much personal info as possible, they try to extort or blackmail users. Stick with your mainstream bank or credit union, and don’t fall for any come ons from emails or ads on social media!
Bluesky is ramping up remarkably fast considering the flood of users that have signed up. They have expanded staff, and are rolling out features, but don’t have quite the tools you might want to track your following. A new app called GoBlue is stepping in to fill the gap. According to techrunch.com, the app has a simple interface for tracing your own Bluesky analytics in an iOS dashboard. Right now, GoBlue just offers some basic tools to track metrics like new followers, comments, likes, and reposts. They show up as bar charts on the app’s home screen, and you can track by day, week, month, or year. If you want full access using the app, it’s a one time fee of $19.99 or a monthly fee of $3.99 a month or annual for $14.99 a year.
Apple is famously secretive about upcoming products and services, and has always bragged about the level of privacy they offer users. That privacy level is not extended to employees, however. Appleinsider.com says an Apple employee is suing the company, claiming that it forces staff to give up personal privacy, and demands that it be allowed to use surveillance even when they are at home. The employee, Amar Bhakta, works in ad tech at Apple, and has been with them about 4 years. Once they use a personal device and personal iCloud account as part of their work, Apple allegedly requires employees to agree to the company monitoring everything.”If you use your personal account on an Apple-managed or Apple-owned iPhone, iPad or computer, any data stored on the device (including emails, photos, video, notes and more), are subject to search by Apple,” the lawsuit claims Apple’s policies state. While there may be elements in the full suit that have yet to be made public, everything listed so far is common practice — even if it sounds draconian. Every place I’ve worked in the last 25 years has been able to track your info on company-issued devices or look at anything you stored on a company server. I think Mr. Bhakta is going to have an uphill battle trying to win this against Apple.
Intel’s board has apparently showed its CEO of less than 4 years the door, after he failed to turn the company around. Arstechnica.com reports that Pat Gelsinger is stepping down. Intel CFO David Zinsner and Client Computing Group Head Michelle Johnson Holthaus will share the title of interim CEO while the board does a search for new CEO. Gelsinger has also left his board seat. Gelsinger had worked at Intel since he joined the company at age 18.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Rumored iPhone ‘Air’ May Be Slimmest iPhone; DOJ Will Try to Break Up Google; Microsoft Makes $349 Hardware Device for Secure Cloud Connection; Door Dash App-Can Import Grocery Lists Now
Posted: November 19, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Google, News, technology Leave a commentJony Ive may be long gone, but apparently Apple’s fetish for thinness isn’t. Macrumors.com reports that Apple Analyst Jeff Pu agrees with a recent rumor saying the upcoming ‘iPhone 17 Air’ will be around 6 mm thick. If that turns out to be accurate, it will be the thinnest iPhone ever. Note that no one knows what the handset will be called, but most are dubbing it the iPhone Air. Up to now, the thinnest iPhone has been the iPhone 6 at 6.9 mm. The iPhone Air would be about 3/4 as thick as any of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models. It is expected to have a 6.6 inch display, A19 chip, and the dynamic island, but only one rear camera.
We’ve been waiting to see what the Department of Justice had in mind as far as its antitrust action against Google. now we have a better idea. According to theverge.com, the DOJ wants Google to sell off its Chrome browser. This after the judge ruled Google had maintained an illegal search monopoly. Chrome is the world’s most widely used browser. Other DOJ requirements include Google separating Android from Search and Google Play…but they don’t intend to make them sell off Android. It remains to be seen what the incoming DOJ will do with regards to keeping or changing these demands after January 20th.
Microsoft has announced the Windows 365 Link. The gadget “enables desk-based users to work securely on a familiar Windows desktop in the Microsoft Cloud with responsive, high-fidelity experiences.” Engadget.com notes that the 365 Link is a small, lightweight device that Microsoft claims can immediately wake from sleep, boot up in seconds and locally process video conferencing solutions like Microsoft Teams. It doesn’t store local data or apps, has security baseline policies enabled and doesn’t allow for individuals to disable security features. Plus, logging in requires Microsoft Entra ID along with the Microsoft Authenticator app or USB security keys. The box should be available in what they are calling ‘select areas’ in April 2025 for $349. Kind of sounds like a larger, more expensive but more secure dongle to me!
Door Dash’s app is now able to import your grocery list for faster shopping. Techcrunch.com reports that you just choose a store where you want to shop and select the button Create a list or Import a list. With the create, you can copy and paste from anywhere on your phone. Import only works with Reminders on iOS at the moment, but Android support is coming. You can also now search for an item across different merchants, displaying prices and estimated delivery times all in one place.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Pre-Black Friday Deals; Apple Vision Pro Fall 2025; TSMC Cuts Advanced Chip Shipments to China; Researchers-Harvest Electricity from Styrofoam
Posted: November 11, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, News, Tech, technology, vision-pro Leave a commentThe Google store has dropped some nice pre-Black Friday deals. 9to5google.com reports that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is now $1499, a $300 discount. You can pick one up at that price for now at Amazon and Best Buy. The base Pixel 9 has been cut $150 to $649, from those same sources. You can pick up a Bluetooth Pixel Watch 3 for $70. Hurry…the bargains are only in effect until midnight tomorrow night, November 12th.
Although we reported last week that Apple has all but flushed the cheaper headset…at least for now, the Vision Pro 2, successor to Apple’s pricy mixed reality headset, is still in the works for release either by next fall, or by spring of 2026. This according to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg. The Vision Pro 2 is expected to get the M5 chips…at virtually the same time the Macs get that next system. Expect the 2.0 version to look virtually identical to the original, with all the updates coming to internals. Don’t expect a cheaper price…it’s Apple, are you kidding?
At the request of the US Department of Commerce, Taiwan Semiconductor has halted advanced chip shipments to Chinese customers. TechCrunch.com says this will particularly hurt Huawei, which already faced significant trade restrictions from the US. The feds are now checking to see if other companies are diverting chips to Huawei. The advanced chips are most often used on artificial intelligence systems. Nvidia had already been under chip export restrictions to China.
Researchers at RMIT University have found a way to generate electricity from Styrofoam. Bgr.com reports that they capture the static electricity generated by the stuff when it is exposed to flowing air…thereby converting an environmental headache into useable power. The scientists put the Styrofoam near places air was flowing…like HVAC systems, and a continuous stream of small current was generated…helping offset the energy draw of the HVAC units themselves. If it scales up well, this could be yet another way to ween ourselves off fossil fuel power.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
FTC-Click to Cancel Rule; Google ‘Cancels’ Popular Ad Blocker on Chrome; Boston Dynamics & Toyota Research Institute Partner on Atlas Humanoid Robot; UCSD Surgeons Assisted by Apple Vision Pro Headsets
Posted: October 17, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, technology Leave a commentWe have all been through it…a big hassle, sometimes taking hours, to cancel a subscription after a free trial. As a friend of mine always says, ‘That’s how they getcha!’ Now, the Federal Trade Commission has finalized a rule aimed at stopping businesses from making you jump through endless hoops to cancel a subscription after the free trial. Under the rule, any subscription that can be signed up for online must be able to be canceled online. And cancellation paths for in-person sign-ups must be just as easy, offered either by phone or online. The new rule tells businesses to keep ‘three guardrails in mind.’ First, customers cannot be required to talk to a live agent or chatbot to cancel if that wasn’t required for sign-up. Next, any phone cancellation methods cannot include charges and must be offered during normal business hours. And finally, canceling services in person must always be optional. Now, let’s hope they actually enforce this rule!
Google has been on a tear, trying to get people to see their ads…whether on search results or YouTube…across all their platforms. Now, it’s Chrome’s turn. According to mashable.com, Google has turned off popular ad blocker extensions uBlock Origin, MDN Search, and Neat URL. This all comes as Chrome moves from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. There are options for Manifest V3 if you use AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, AdGuard, and uBlock Origin. If you would rather not hassle with trying to configure to keep the ads blocked or at least volume down, switch to Firefox, and select Duck Duck Go as your search engine. You can also try Microsoft Edge….but the former is really cleaner if you want to go the most ad free possible.
While Elon Musk was trotting out robots that are nearly fully human operated and not autonomous at all, Boston Dynamics…which makes real robots…has teamed up with Toyota Research Institute to bring AI-based robotic intelligence to the electric Atlas humanoid robot. Techcrunch.com notes that the partnership will leverage work that TRI has done around large behavior models…which are not terribly unlike Large Language Models like that of ChatGPT. The lab has been able to get robots to 90% accuracy when performing household tasks like flipping pancakes through overnight training. Hell, I could try all night, and mess up flipping a pancake! TRI says that while machine learning takes millions of training cases, they have been able to reduce physical training of a robot down to only dozens of training cases…sometimes even less than that. Boston Dynamics just unveiled its design for the electric Atlas in April. The electric designation differentiates the robot from its larger, hydraulic namesake, Trust me, you wouldn’t want one of those robots possibly leaking caustic hydraulic fluid in your house! Toyota Research and Boston Dynamics have a goal of making a true general purpose machine. Rosie from The Jetsons…you’re up!
Regular followers of this report are well aware of my opinion of the preposterously priced but great Apple Vision Pro headsets. Now, Surgeons at UC San Diego have found them very helpful for minimally invasive surgery. Macrumors.com reports that while the headsets are pricy for you and I, they are pretty cheap compared to most gear hospitals buy in trying to keep or make us healthy. Surgeons have now done over 20 minimally invasive operations wearing the headsets. They are saying the headsets are ‘more transformative’ than robotic devices used to assist. Think about it… laparoscopic surgeries, where the docs send a camera through a small incision, and have to guide it and do the procedure while craining their necks to watch on a video screen. That can’t be helpful. Unlike previous headsets, the Apple ones have such accurate displays, that the surgeons can do the procedure while keeping their heads in a more normal position. That has to help with accuracy! They normally also have to look away to refer to CT scans, and to monitor vitals. Now, all of those things can appear on the panoramic display of the Vision Pro. This application is really a game changer…and one that will make a difference in the outcomes for patients…to say nothing of saving doctors from a literal pain in the neck that could cause mistakes!
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
New Macs & iPad Mini November 1st; Android Rolling Out New Anti-Theft Features; Supremes Turn Away Suit Over Special Counsel Demanding Trump X Info; GM Working on Hands AND Eyes-Off Driving System
Posted: October 7, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iPhone, News, security, technology Leave a commentLast month, we got the new iPhones, Watches, and Apple ear buds upgrades. Now, macrumors.com reports that Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is saying we will probably see updated bigger Apple Hardware as early as November 1st. This will include new M4 low-end 14 inch MacBook Pros, and the higher end 14 and 16 inch models…and also a refreshed Mac Mini with M4 and M4 Pro chips. The iMac will get the upgrade as well. One iPad seems to be in the mix for sure…the Mini. It is due for it, as the Mini hasn’t seen an upgrade in 3 years. Don’t expect Mac Studio or Mac Pro models with more powerful M4 chips quite yet. Those won’t be out until mid 2025 for the Studio and the Pro at the tail end of that year.
Google is now releasing anti-theft protection features in the US. They had previously only been available in Brazil. According to androidpolice.com, not all US users are seeing all of them even after the rollout. The 3 features are Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and Remote Lock. So far, some Pixel users are getting Remote Lock, but not the other two. Other Pixel users are seeing all three protective features. You can check your phone to see what you have…go to the Settings app, and search for ‘theft protection’ to see if the 3 features are available for your phone. Theft Detection Lock determines if the phone is forcefully taken from your hand, and automatically locks it. Offline Device lock automatically locks your phone’s screen when “a thief tries to disconnect your phone for prolonged periods of time.” Remote Lock is for when you know when you phone is gone for good…you can remotely lock the screen with just your phone number and a security challenge. You use the website android.com/lock.
The Supreme Court is back in session, and promptly refused to take a case disputing special counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to get the records of former President Trump from Twitter (which, of course, is now X) and keep that platform from letting him know about the demand for production. In refusing to take the case, the lower court ruling stands that upheld a nondisclosure order, which Elon Musk claimed violated his platform’s First Amendment right to communicate with Trump. Bloomberg says a judge decided the order was valid, and fined X $350,000 for civil contempt. Twitter eventually turned over 32 direct messages, which the special counsel’s office said was a ‘minuscule proportion’ of the information they requested.
It won’t be a first, but it will certainly be the most widely used when it hits the road. General Motors is working on a hands AND eyes-off driving system. Techcrunch.com reports that this will be a step up from their 7 year old Super Cruise hands-off system that is currently available. This would be what is known as a Level 3 or L3 system…not quite self-driving cars like Waymo is running in several cities or even like GM’s Cruise division has…which are just getting back on the streets of San Francisco after an accident earlier this year where a woman was dragged. Right now, the only L3 system is Mercedes-Benz’ Drive Pilot. Even Tesla’s Autopilot and so-called ‘Full Self-Driving’ system are only Level 2. No word on how soon the Level 3 setup would be available from GM, but since they are teasing it, it should be sooner, not later. GM says Super Cruise will have about 750,000 miles of roads it can use by the end of 2025.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Ca Governor Newsom Vetoes AI Safety Bill; Arm Predicts AI Will Turn Smartphones into ‘Proactive’ Assistants’; Apple’s ‘Home Accessory’ May have Square Display; Huge Verizon Outage Monday Morning
Posted: September 30, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iPhone, News, Smartphone, technology Leave a commentIn a disappointment to many, but a victory for Big Tech, California Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday vetoed the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act. No, he actually didn’t veto it for being a mouthful of word salad! Theverge.com reports that the governor felt the bill was well-intentioned, but would have possibly wiped out the lead California companies have in AI. He also said in a statement that the bill was just too broad. One safeguard that it required which still sounds like a good one was a so-called ‘kill switch,’ which would have required protocols for testing to reduce the chance for a cyberattack or a pandemic. It also had protections for whistleblowers. Expect changes and a fresh bill next term. The feds are also looking into ways to regulate AI.
Arm, the chip designer who’s chips run most of our mobile devices, is looking to upgrading the brains of smartphones and other gadgets to harness the power of AI…perhaps bringing a new series of breakthroughs to our mobile devices. According to thenextweb.com, with more compact, text-based large language models like Meta’s latest Llama iterations, which are optimized for Arm mobile chips, you can get faster user experiences. Arm also says the compact models can run more AI directly on smartphones. Arm sees new helpful mobile apps as a result. LLMs will perform tasks on your behalf by understanding your location, schedule, and preferences. Routine tasks will be automated and recommendations personalised on-device.Your phone will evolve from a command and control tool to a “proactive assistant.” Arm is shooting for 2025 to have over 100 billion Arm based devices to be ‘AI ready.’
Apple is still working on a new home accessory that rolls up the capabilities of an iPad, AppleTV, and a HomePod. People sifting through Apple’s back end code have seen a ‘HomeAccessory’ in that code the last couple months. 9to5mac.com says it appears that it will be powered by an A18 chip, which would support Apple Intelligence, and that it has more of a square display than the rectangular one on iPads. It also apparently sports a camera that will work with FaceTime and other video conferencing apps. The cam can also identify hand gestures from a distance, which would be handy (ok, sorry about that!) for controlling it in the kitchen where you might have wet or food covered hands and not want to touch the screen. It isn’t clear if this device would be something to replace the HomePod, or something different. If that is the case, it seems that a display on top might make it less stellar at reproducing great spacial audio.
By the time you watch or read this, it likely will be resolved, but Verizon has had a huge, nationwide outage Monday morning. Mashable.com reports that over 100,000 have reported outages for their mobile phones, 36 percent of those had no signal, and 14% a total blackout….this all noted by DownDetector. the worst outages were coming in from New York, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, and North Carolina. Reports started coming in at about 9am Eastern time…leaving a lot of people with just SOS mode on their phones.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
clarkreid 
Recent Comments