Apple Car Delayed at Least A Year; Dyson Tests Robot Vac With 360 Degree Vision

Posted: July 22, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This was probably telegraphed by the fact that Steve Zadesky, who’d led Project Titan for Apple, left after 16 years with the company, but now it looks like we won’t be seeing an Apple car before 2021. 9to5mac.com says Cupertino had been shooting for 2020. One tidbit…Apple is apparently looking into its own charging systems that would replace gas stations for EV drivers. Earlier this week, Elon Musk over at Tesla claimed that 2020 would be too late for Apple to enter the market…but anyone who remembers what happened when Apple entered the mp3 player market late with the iPod isn’t going to believe that! Right now, about 600 people are still working on Project Titan, the alleged Apple car.

Dyson has been hard at work on their ‘360 Eye,’ a robotic vacuum with 360 degree vision and connectivity. It’s bigger than a Roomba, and Dyson claims it will be far better, as the software and cameras plus sensors will let it get around rooms better and easier, even if you move the couch. According to techcrunch.com, Dyson has been refining the 360 Eye concept for 18 years, and is now working on version 3. After a lot of testing in Japan and then release, the 360 Eye launches in Canada today, and will roll out in the US soon. Dyson claims they can update the software over the air, and that they plan to do so frequently. They also hint that the tech in the vacuums is more widely applicable…will we see a Dyson household robot some day like Rosie from the Jetsons?

Elon Musk’s Vision 2.0; Corning Rolls Out Gorilla Glass 5

Posted: July 21, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last night, Elon Musk revealed his Master Plan part 2.0…it’s been 10 years since his first one. Some of the hi lights as noted by recode.net: Teslas will use solar panels on the roofs that will integrate with batteries (which is the reason behind the Solar City deal), and the company is planning to add a smaller SUV, big rig trucks, and busses. The whole fleet will be self-driving, and Musk sees owners renting out their cars for money when they aren’t needing them, competing with Uber and Lyft…but of course, without needing drivers. One has to think a new level of protection against hacking and car theft would be needed!

Corning has dropped Gorilla Glass 5…so to speak. Actually, according to theverge.com, Corning claims to have improved resistance to breakage when dropped onto a rough surface from between waist and shoulder height. They claim it survives 80% of the time when dropped from 1.6 meters. Corning says 85 percent of smartphone owners have dropped their phones at least once in the past year, and that two-thirds of those drops are from waist height to shoulder height. Note that the test glass was .6 mm thick, and many phones now use .4 mm screens…and also the test drops were face first, and it’s a hit to the corner that usually breaks screens. Corning claims these breaks are more a function of the phone’s construction though, and out of their control.

Apple Watch 2 May Have Own Cellular Connection; Tesla’s Distant Cheaper 4th Model

Posted: April 27, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Apple Watch version 2.0 may have its own cell connection, which would allow it to operate without constant tethering to an iPhone. Macrumors.com also picked up from the Wall St Journal that the updated Watch may sport a faster processor as well and will drop in the fall. It would require its own cellular number and data plan, but that’s something a lot of users would be happy to pay for to be able to use it while leaving the phone in a bag, car, or even at home.

There’s been a lot of buzz in the last month about Tesla’s Model 3, which they began taking pre-orders for and which will have a base price of 35 grand. Now, according to bgr.com, Elon Musk says he’s already thinking about a 4th model…and he says it will be even more affordable than the model 3. At a meeting in Norway, Musk said ‘…with something like the Model 3, it’s designed such that roughly half the people will be able to afford the car. Then, with fourth generation and smaller cars, we’ll ultimately be in the position where everyone will be able to afford the car.”

Smarter, Thinner, Always-On Smartwatches; Apple Dumps Samsung for Next Gen iPhone Chips; Tesla Model 3 Deposit News

Posted: February 11, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qualcomm has developed a new processor it has dubbed the Snapdragon Wear 2100 that it says will enable ‘always on’ smartwatches that are smarter and thinner than the current ones…and don’t need to be tethered to phones. 9to5google.com reports that there are actually 2 versions…one for tethered and one free range, so to speak. The chips are much more efficient and 30% smaller. Look for them in the next generation of Android Wear smartwatches.

Speaking of chips, Apple has finally jilted frenemy Samsung. TSMC of Taiwan will build all the A10 chips for the upcoming iPhone 7. 9to5mac.com says TSMC made all the chips for the iPhone 6 series, but Samsung was brought back in to produce part of the chips for the 6S and 6S Plus. Benchmarks have showed that the TSMC chip ran cooler and had better batter life than the Samsung version of the A9.

Elon Musk tweeted last night that the Tesla Model 3 won’t have a Signature Edition, and that you can preorder (with $1000 deposit) at Tesla stores starting March 31st and online starting April 1st.

March 15th Rollout for iPhone 5se, iPad Air 3, & Apple Watch Update; 2nd Tesla Powerwall Coming This Year

Posted: February 2, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple plans to unveil the new 4 inch iPhone 5se, as well as the iPad Air 3, and new band options for the Apple Watch at an event currently scheduled for March 15th. The small iPhone will be powered by the current 6S A9 chip, have better cameras, and run Live Photos and Apple Pay. The iPad Air 3 will feature better speakers and a Smart Connector, and likely a better than Retina screen. New bands will be showed off for the Apple Watch, including an entirely new one fashioned from a new material.

At a speech in Paris last week, Elon Musk said V 2.0 of the Tesla Powerwall home battery will likely be out in July. According to Gizmodo.com, it will get at least a bump in capabilities, but mainly that they will build enough that you might actually have a chance to buy one. No price point has been given yet for V 2.0, but the original ran $3500, and was about 7 grand installed with power inverter to hook it up to your home power system. A video of the Musk speech is up on YouTube.

Periscope Live Video Tweets in Twitter Stream; Lenovo’s Moto Plans’ Musk on Apple Car

Posted: January 12, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twitter bought Periscope a year ago, and now the live video is available in your feed…in fact, you can broadcast live video directly into your feed without leaving the Twitter app. Businessinsider.com reports that Periscope…which only launched in March 2015…is consistently one of the top 20 social networking apps on iPhone. Twitter hopes this will help engagement, like Facebook has done with Facebook Live Video.

Lenovo is killing the Motorola name for Moto, and now, we hear that all Moto phones in 2016 will have at least 5 inch screens and fingerprint sensors. That’s according to Chen Xudong of Lenovo, in a story from 9to5google.com. For now, at least, Lenovo will use its Vibe brand for smaller and low end phones, and keep Moto as the flagship oriented line. The only down side is they plan to stop using the pure version of Android for a custom version…like almost everyone else.

Elon Musk is on a roll…in an interview yesterday covered by appleinsider.com, he says the Apple electric car is an open secret in Silicon Valley. Musk points out that they’ve hired a thousand engineers, including a number they have poached from Tesla. Musk claims that whatever Apple does automotive-wise won’t hurt Tesla. Apple now holds the domains apple.car, apple.auto, and apple.cars.

Musk: Coast to Coast Driverless in 2 Years; State of Union Streams on Amazon

Posted: January 11, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On the heels of showing the ability to summon your car from its parking spot and dispatch it to park, the other shoe dropped yesterday. Engadget.com reports that Elon Musk predicts that the Summon feature on Teslas will work anywhere by 2018. Musk says you could summon your car from New York City to pick you up in Los Angeles…provided you have a couple days to wait around. Tesla’s snake-like automatic chargers would keep the car juiced up for the trip. It remains to be seen if states coast to coast will allow self-driving cars…right now, only a handful do. Musk did concede the cars will need a lot of redundancy to be able to do this.

From the tech right now department, Tuesday’s State of the Union speech will be streamed by Amazon. With more and more cord-cutters, the White House wants to reach people where they are, according to gizmodo.com. The stream should work with any Amazon product like the Fire TV stick. It probably won’t pick up millions of views, but it’s nice to see the White House embracing the tech.

Skype Getting Real Time Language Translation on PCs

Posted: October 1, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Microsoft has announced that Skype Translator, which has been freestanding and Spanish to English only, will be coming to Windows PCs in the next few weeks. Geekwire.com reports that it will be a baked in feature to PC based Skype, and will also add French, German, Italian, and Mandarin for voice, plus 50 written languages. They won’t have it out for smartphones, at least for a while. Microsoft admits it’s not perfect, but early tests indicated people can carry on a conversation with it.

Battery life just sucks, and virtually every gadget we use runs by battery power. Something better may be on the way, at least for the smaller devices. According to engadget.com, scientists in Canada and France have come up with a micro-supercapacitor with the same energy density of most lithium ion batteries. Even Elon Musk has lusted for capacitors as a replacement for batteries, since you can recharge them infinitely without loss of capacity. The rub with the micro-supercapacitor is it’s built from exotic materials like gold and ruthenium oxide, so crazy expensive when you scale up in size. The scientists say for replacing micro batteries, though, the capacitors can store 1000 times the energy of those tiny batteries. They may be showing up in wearables before long, but we’ll have to wait a while for instant charging cell phones and electric cars.

Tesla’s Home Batteries Could Be Leased

Posted: April 27, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The poorly kept secret Tesla home batteries may be leased instead of sold. Engadget.com picked up a report from the Guardian that says some have already been leased to a few SolarCity customers. SolarCity is, of course, run by Tesla boss Elon Musk. The 10 year deal has been test run at $1500 down and $15 a month, or $27.50 a month, making the decade lease cost $3300. Subsidies from energy companies could drop the price even lower. Whatever the deal will be should be revealed in a few days.

A new app is out for renters, that works like Venmo for shared meal tabs. Splittable lets housemates divvy up rent and expenses evenly…a big help in places like the Bay Area and New York City, where house and apartment sharing are common. It was already given a trial run in London for 1000 renters, and is available on Android, iOS, and the web. TEchcrunch.com says you can invite housemates over email, Facebook message, or WhatsApp.

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