3 New Macs Coming; Google Home Catching Up With Amazon Echo; Nationalized 5G Network; Nissan Self-Parking Slippers
Posted: January 29, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G wireless, Alexa, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Custom co-processors, Echo, Google Home, Government, HomePod, Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, Macs, Nissan, Self-parking slippers, Verizon Leave a commentApple is reportedly working on 3 new Models (maybe more). They will be integrated with custom co-processors, and Cupertino has both new laptops and desktops in the works, according to macrumors.com. Some could be out yet this year. Apple had already confirmed it was working on an new, modular Mac Pro, but what other models could be refreshed are only an educated guess at this point. The MacBooks and MacBook Pros could use it for sure, as well as the Air, and Mac Mini.
Amazon has held the lion’s share of home speakers with it’s Echo line, powered by Alexa, sitting at 69%. 9to5google.com points out that Google Home has grown from almost nowhere to 31% already, though, and now with the Apple HomePod just out, expect more erosion in that number. Google Home barely registered in June of 2017, but during the holidays grabbed 40% of sales…mainly due to success of the Home Mini! Microsoft’s Cortana speakers haven’t really moved the needle, but Apple could…recall how they jumped into the already going portable music market years ago with the iPod, and virtually took that segment over.
You have to go a ways to freak out and infuriate both the far left and the far right, but it looks like an idea from the Trump Administration has done just that. According to businessinsider.com, they are exploring a form of nationalized 5G wireless network. The government apparently fears a huge cybersecurity threat…mainly from China…if they don’t. Folks on the left and the right are more freaked out by the prospect of the government controlling the wireless network. The administration is looking at a totally government one, or a national network in partnership with the wireless companies. Both AT&T and Verizon have responded, noting that they are ‘already well down the road’ to 5G wireless networks nationwide. In other words…’bug off!’
Self-driving cars? Pfft! Get me some of these self-driving, self-parking slippers. Bgr.com says Nissan has made some for a Japanese hotel, the ProPILOT Ryokan. Little wheels drop out of the bottom, and a small electric motor run by a processor magically returns the slippers to their proper place! Apparently the TV remote will do the same in rooms, and the bedding is wired with tricks of their own. Personally, I bow down to our robot overlords…and request that my slippers head over here to my feet!
More Galaxy S9 Rumors; Huawei Mate 10 Coming to US New Facebook Tools & Facial Recognition; Worst Passwords
Posted: December 19, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, AT&T, Bad passwords, Battery life, Blocking, Facebook, Facial recognition, Fast charging, Galaxy S9, Huawei, iPhone X, Mate 10, Samsung, Verizon Leave a commentIt appears that Samsung will be again aping Apple, and the Galaxy S9 will be something of an ’S’ model…virtually identical on the outside to the present model. According to bgr.com, though, there will be some desirable upgrades inside. First off, it looks like a beefy 3200 mAh battery, up 7% from the S8. Also, the S9 reportedly will support Quick Charge 3.0 tech and 12W fast wireless charging. For comparison, Apple’s iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus just have 7W fast charging. We should see the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in late February, and they should be in hand by March.
Huawei has be rumored to be working on coming to the US via at least one of the mobile carriers. Now, 9to5google.com reports that we will probably find out who at CES next month, and that the Mate 10 will go on sale in the US in 2018. The rumor is, the Huawei hero handset will be offered through AT&T and Verizon.
Facebook has announced some new features, including one that keeps people you’ve blocked from making up a new profile and trying to contact you. Techcrunch.com says the tool kit detects the IP address and other signals to make sure the person stays blocked. They also have added one to ignore conversations, and move those to your filtered messages folder. A really slick addition now uses facial recognition to notify you if someone uploads a photo with you in it…even if you’re not tagged. You can choose to stay untagged, tag yourself, or report the photo if you think it’s inappropriate.
What are the worst passwords of the year? Splash data has put out the list, taken from over 5 million passwords that were leaked across 2017 by hackers. Macrumors.com reports that the top one is an old favorite from way back. Here are the top 5…PLEASE tell me none of you reading this has ever used these!!
1. 123456
2.password
3. 12345678
4. querty
5. 12345
If you ‘have a friend’ who’s using any of these, ask them to change to something stronger, and don’t admit it!
Waymo Self-Drivers More Independent Last Year; Apple Watch Owns Wearable Market; AT&T Starting 5G Rollout
Posted: February 2, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G, Alphabet, Apple, Apple Watch, AT&T, Fiber, Gigabit, Safety, Samsung, Self Driving Cars, Waymo, Wearables Leave a commentAlphabet’s Waymo division continues to march relentlessly towards fully autonomous self-driving cars. 9to5google.com says California DMV figures showed far fewer safety related disengages in 2016 and considerably more miles driven. In 2015, there were .8 disengages per 1000 miles, and in 2016 that dropped to .2 per thousand. Both numbers are exceptionally low, and now word is, Waymo has started using an updated sensor suite just last month…which presumably will drive the figures lower.
Apple said they had record sales 4th Quarter for the Apple Watch, but still doesn’t release details. According to data from Strategy Analytics, though, they pumped out 5.2 million of them for the holidays, grabbing 63.4% of the market. Samsung was next at 9.8%. Overall, smartwatches were up a tiny 1% in 2016 from 2015.
Later this year, Austin, Texas and Indianapolis, Indiana will be first to get blazingly fast 5G service from AT&T. Theverge.com reports that speeds will hit 400 Mbps. That’s not true 5G, which is 1Gigabit, but AT&T claims some top speeds will hit that by year’s end. At any rate, it’s 40 times faster than 4G, and unquestionably in the ballpark with fiber speeds.
Samsung May Release Limited Galaxy S8’s Early; Apple Partnering with Zeiss on AR Glasses; Verizon & AT&T Trip Hammer on Legacy Data; TwitchCon Switches to Long Beach
Posted: January 10, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, AR, AT&T, Carl Zeiss, Galaxy S8, Grandfather plans, Legacy plans, Long Beach, Samsung, Twitch, TwitchCon, Unlimited data, Verizon Leave a commentAccording to thenextweb.com, Samsung may drop a limited supply of Galaxy S8 smartphones a month of so before the official launch…shipping perhaps as early as February or March. Sammy is reportedly gearing up for a sizable production bump for the S8, partly to make up for lost units and the debacle with the Note 7.
Apple is said to be partnering with Carl Zeiss on AR glasses. Cnet.com says they are lightweight AR/mixed reality glasses. Visualize Pokemon Go through glasses, only with all sorts of interesting things overlayed on top of your field of view. Tim Cook had said in an interview last year he felt AR was the larger of the two, when compared to virtual reality. If Apple can build a cool looking pair of glasses or slightly more that aren’t dorky and work well, they could blow the AR market up like they did with the iPhone 10 years ago.
Speaking of smartphones, the Big Two carriers are taking slightly different tacks…but both aiming squarely at making users with legacy unlimited data plans miserable. Zdnet.com reports that Verizon users who use over 200 Gigs of data over several months will have to move to a new plan by February 16th or be cut off! Nothing like the subtile approach! AT&T, on the other hand, will start dinging people with grandfathered legacy data plans….like moi….an extra 5 bucks a month starting in March if they don’t move to a so-called tiered data plan. They just jacked up the grandfathered plans last February. So with both Verizon and AT&T you can either pay more, pay more, or be cut off. The ‘free market’ at work…
After a successful convention in San Diego, Twitch is moving TwitchCon 2017 to Long Beach. Engadget.com reports that the show will be at Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Southern California October 20th through the 22nd. Last year, the attendance jumped to 35,000 from 20,000 the previous year. They plan to incorporate even more non-gaming events this time, to attract a broader scope of attendees.
Galaxy Note Nightmare Continues; Two Tesla Launch Events This Month; German Bundesrat Votes to Ban Internal Combustion Engine
Posted: October 10, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AT&T, Bundesrat, Cars, Elon Musk, Engines, Fires, Galaxy Note 7, Germany, Internal combustion, Powerwall, Samsung, Solar City, T-Mobile, Tesla, Verizon Leave a commentAfter a 4th of the new, supposedly safe replacement Galaxy Note 7’s caught fire, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have stopped selling the phablet, and now Samsung is ‘temporarily’ suspending production of the device. 9to5google.com says Samsung has yet to comment on the suspension of production, which includes a plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments of the Note, aside from saying they are ‘adjusting’ production.
Doing his best Apple impression, Elon Musk has tweeted that the company is planning two product launches in October. According to thenextweb.com, the first will be October 17th, and Musk claims it will be unexpected by most. The second is a joint Tesla/Solar City event scheduled 10 days later for October 28th. There’s some speculation that the first one will be for the Model 3. Musk has already indicated that there would be a joint unveiling of an integrated Powerwall 2.0 and Tesla charging unit. Tesla has recently added land that would allow them to double the size of the Fremont, CA factory.
In something of a shockwave, the German Bundesrat has voted to ban internal combustion engines by 2030. Arstechnica.com reports that it’s a non-binding resolution, but still a hell of a shot over the bow coming from the country where the internal combustion engine was invented, and where Karl Benz built the first ‘patent motorcar.’ Germany produces more cars than any country in Europe and the third most in the world. The Bundesrat is the federal council of all 16 German states.
White House Kicks in $400 Million for Fast 5G Testing; Google Search for Voter Registration
Posted: July 15, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 100 times faster, 5G, Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, AT&T, Google, Register to vote, Search, Verizon, White House Leave a commentOn the heels of yesterday’s FCC vote to adopt new rules to guide the development of 5G technology, the White House has announced a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative. Engadget.com says the project aims to build four “city-scale testing platforms” over the next 10 years. Part of the plan is to free up spectrum above 24 GHz for the high-speed networks that are said to be 100 times faster than the 4G we use today. Both AT&T and Verizon have already announce testing plans, and there’s sure to be others to follow soon.
According to thenextweb.com, Google has a announced a new Search feature to make it easier for people in the US to register to vote and find out more about their local requirements. Just type in ‘register to vote’, and the Search will show guidelines for registering online, by mail, or in person. You can also see the requirements (such as being 18 years old and not being in jail for a felony), as well as registration deadlines depending on how you choose to register.
Netflix Offers Selectable Stream Quality on Cells; Periscope Tests Save Feature
Posted: May 5, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: #save, AT&T, Cellular, Facebook Live Video, Live Stream, Netflix, Periscope, Quality, streaming, Verizon, Vimeo, YouTube Leave a commentLast month, it was revealed that Netflix was quietly throttling video quality over Verizon and AT&T cellular systems. Since the word got out, theverge.com says Netflix has responded by offering users the choice of upping the quality and gobbling up more data…and the inevitable hit to your cell bill…or staying with a lower quality and saving a few bucks on your cell bill. You have to dig through the settings to find it, and the default is set to automatic. The app jumps back to higher quality automatically whenever you’re on Wi-Fi. It’s activated as of now.
Periscope is beta testing a feature to save your live streams. Up to now, they only save for 24 hours, but in the beta, you can save them indefinitely by putting hashtag save (#save) in the title. Up to now, you had to save the video to your camera roll, then upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. Thenextweb.com reports that the feature is partly because Facebook live saves closed streams on your timeline unless you delete them.
The Two Biggest Carriers Now Testing Blazing Fast 5G; Facebook Testing SMS Integration With Messenger on Android
Posted: February 12, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G, Android, AT&T, Facebook, LTE, Messenger, Multiple Accounts, SMS, Verizon Leave a commentLast year, Verizon began testing its 5G network, and now AT&T has said they have as well. According to 9to5mac.com, AT&T expects speeds of 10-100 times faster than today’s LTE. Verizon has estimated their 5G system will be 30-50 times faster. AT&T says at 1 gigabit per second, you will be able to download a TV show in less than 3 seconds! Because standards have to be agreed upon, full 5G won’t hit until 2020, but some carriers are planning to offer at least some service by next year.
Facebook is testing out bringing back SMS message support to Messenger for Android. They had dropped such support in 2013 due to lack of use, but now think it will take off. Venturebeat.com says they are also adding multiple account support. Facebook says this will allow family members and friends to access their individual accounts from a shared phone, or a person to use their personal and business page accounts from the same device. For now, both SMS and multiple account access are only out on Android in the US.
Not Quite a Facebook ‘Dislike’ Button
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AT&T, Dislike, Facebook, FCC, Like, Throttling, Unlimited, Zuckerberg Leave a commentMarketingland.com says that while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has said the social network is working on something like a ‘Dislike’ button, it’s not exactly that. They are very close to shipping a test of the new feature, but Zuckerberg has reiterated his opinion that Facebook doesn’t want to create a situation where people are downvoting other people’s posts. He gave no specifics about what the button or buttons would be called but said the idea is to give people a way to express empathy. He says the real trick is to make something that fits this criteria, but still keep it simple enough for a button.
AT&T has kicked up it’s so-called ‘unlimited’ plan to a ceiling of 22 gigs of downloads a month before getting throttled. The old policy was 5 gigabytes. The move wasn’t due to their great altruism…it was the threat of a 100 million dollar FCC fine that did the trick. Throttling is actually prohibited under the new net neutrality rules, according to theverge.com, but the federal agency does allow for ‘reasonable network management.’
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