OpenAI-Nonprofit Retains Control of Co; Microsoft-New Surface Tablets; Kindle iOS App-1 Button Book Buying; Tesla Sales Drop by Half in Germany

Posted: May 6, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

After considerable outside pressure from political types and former employees, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced in a blog post that the non-profit will retain control of the company…even as it restructures into a public benefit corporation. CNBC.com reports that the Microsoft-backed company was recently valued at some $300 billion. The decision to keep the control with the non-profit came after meetings with the Attorneys General of California and Delaware. Altman said in a video call  “We will be converting the limited liability company, that is a subsidiary of that nonprofit, to a public benefit corporation. By doing so, it will change the equity structure of that company so that employees, investors and the not-for-profit can own equity in that PBC.” 

Microsoft has bowed a new Surface Pro tablet today..it has a 12 inch screen, and a few design changes from the bigger 13 inch Surface Pro 11. According to theverge.com, the Surface Pro 12 inch runs on an Arm processor. It is fanless, and doesn’t have a Surface Connect charging port. The keyboard is different as well. Besides the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, it comes with 16 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of storage, and starts at $799. A keyboard will run you another $149.99. Expect to tack on $100 more to the tablet price if you wan t 512 gigs of storage. You can order directly from Microsoft or at Best Buy. It ships May 20th to consumers, and July 22nd to businesses. 

Acting after a court order (which Apple has appealed), Amazon has made it much easier to buy books on an iPhone. Previously, Apple rules made it hard for users to leave the app to buy a book, then come back. 9to5mac.com notes that basically you had to browse and buy titles separately in your web browser, before returning to your Kindle app to read the downloaded books. Now, there’s a nice big ‘get book’ button with each listed title in the Kindle app. Hitting that takes you right to the book’s Amazon listing in your browser…you can buy with ‘1-Click,’ then jump right back into the Kindle app and start reading the downloaded book. It’s still not as elegant as just buying the thing directly in the Kindle app, but a lot quicker and cleaner. Whether this can continue depends on who wins in court, but it’s a nice feature for readers. Maybe Apple has given up enough on its failed Books app to let things go…but probably not. I have read books on my phone, but prefer to throw my Kindle in my bag when traveling…it’s small and light and the battery lasts forever. Of course it’s great for home…only really missing that book ‘smell and feel.’

Tesla sales in Germany went off a cliff in April. Mashable.com reports that the Musk-helmed EV firm sold less than 900 vehicles there in April. That’s a drop of 45.9% from last April. Since April is in 2nd quarter, these numbers won’t show up in Tesla’s earnings until the end of the quarter, that wraps the last of June. Meanwhile, total German EV sales were up 53.5%, with the bulk of those sales going to Chinese EV maker BYD. BYD sold 1566 EVs in Germany in April. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

New Amazon Kindles-Including Color; YouTube Rolling Out New Miniplayer & Updates; Threads Option-Shows When You Are Online; Taiwan Semiconductor to Build More Chip Plants in Europe

Posted: October 16, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon has announced new Kindles, including a first…a new color model. Theverge.com reports that the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition…which is a lot like the updated Paperwhite with a color screen…is priced at $279.99 and you can preorder now. It ships on October 30th. It is still based on E Ink’s Kaleidoscope tech, but uses an entirely new display stack as compared to other Kindles. The new tech also allows for faster page turns. Kevin Keith, who runs Kindle products for Amazon said “All the things you think about with Kindle — high resolution, long battery life, fast page turns, good fluidity — we weren’t willing to sacrifice those.”  The goal was to offer a color screen that still looked just as good as the Paperwhite in black and white, and he’s convinced Amazon got there. Amazon also freshened the Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite. The Paperwhite gets a bigger screen that is totally flush with the bezels, and the entry level model gets a pop of color and speed improvements. The standard Paperwhite is increased in price by 10 bucks and is now $159.99. the Signature Edition is $199.99, and is identical to the entry level model, but has 32 gigs of storage, optional wireless charging, and an auto-adjusting front light. The entry level Kindle has a new dark mode and is 25% brighter with improved contrast. It starts at $109.99, up $10 from the previous model.

The YouTube app on both Android and iOS is getting a new MiniPlayer. According to 9to5google.com, instead of a second bar above the bottom bar with a tight rectangular crop, play/pause, and an x, the new player looks like a picture-in-picture window. The video appears above with a close button in the corner, and a strip at the bottom with controls. You can resize the window if you like. YouTube also rolled out some playlist updates, and the ability to create custom thumbnails using your own images or with AI. 

Threads has added an ‘activity status’ now, to let you choose to let people know when you are online…as well as see when accounts you follow are online if they choose to disclose that. Theverge.com says the feature is being pitched as a  “way to help you find others to engage with in real-time.” At least that is what Threads head Adam Mosseri is pitching. The activity status will show up next to your profile picture in the feed and on your profile. It is off by default, by the way.

We have followed the progress of new chip plants from TSMC…Taiwan Semiconductor….here in the US. Now, thenextweb.com notes that they are planning to expand further in to Europe, too. TSMC broke ground in August on a plant in Dresden, Germany. The German government will kick in half the funding with 5 billion Euros in aid. Right now, Europe makes about 10% of the world’s supply of semiconductors, but most are older school…not the advanced ones made in Taiwan or even here in the US. Most of what will be made in the German plant will be for automotive and industrial use. TSMC didn’t comment on where other facilities may go, saying they wanted to get the ones being built up and running first. This one should be producing by 2029.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Apple Music Getting Much-Needed Makeover; Flexible Brighter e-Paper May Be Coming

Posted: May 4, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Apple will show a revamp of it’s Apple Music streaming service at WWDC in June, according to a Bloomberg report picked up by macrumors.com. The interface will allegedly be more intuitive and easier to use. The service has grown to more than 13 million subscribers in the past year, but has also taken considerable criticism on it’s clunkiness and artists have griped that the social aspect….Connect….has failed miserably.

A Chinese company has figured out a way to use graphene to make e-paper that’s brighter and more flexible that the present screen material. Geek.com reports that the company- Guangzhou OED Technologies- already markets e-paper displays under the O-paper brand. They are promising that production will start yet this year, so the next generation Kindles from Amazon in 2017 may be not only much more readable, but ‘bendy,’ or there could even possibly be a roll up e-paper device.

Facebook’s Crazy 360 Degree Camera; New Kindle Out; Apple Owns Teens

Posted: April 13, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At F8, Facebook revealed the “Surround 360”, a 17-lens 3D VR camera yesterday that looks like a UFO on a stick and requires almost no post-production work. They won’t make or be selling the Surround 360. Techcrunch.com says that later this summer Facebook will put the hardware designs and video stitching algorithms on Github. All the parts can by bought online for $30,000.

As expected, Amazon has launched a brighter, smaller, thinner Kindle Oasis for $290, with a leather case increasing battery life to 20 months standby time, It has a funky bump on one side Amazon says helps make it easier to hold with one hand like a book. Theverge.com says it’s available for pre-order today, and ships April 27th.

For decades, it’s been a marketing truism that if you get buyers when they’re teens, you can often keep them for life. Apple seems to be doing this…they did it with the original Macs in schools, and now with iOS and wearables. According to a Piper Jaffray survey picked up by appleinsider.com, only 12% of teens had a smartwatch. Of those, 71% were Apple’s. 69% of teens owned an iPhone, and 64% an iPad. The iPad percentage is up slightly…analyst Gene Munster says probably with the introduction of the 9.7 inch iPad Pro that can use a Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil. Parents…keep your wallet handy!

Rent a Charger at Your Coffee Spot; Roku Shows New Quad Core Streaming Stick; New Kindle Rolls Out Next Week

Posted: April 5, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A division of Battery charger maker Anker is preparing to roll out Ankerboxes that rent out portable battery packs to charge your mobile devices in a couple hundred bars, restaurants, cafes, and gyms in Seattle, with 500 planned by May. As with bike sharing services, you download an app, go to an Ankerbox in the establishment or an a portable kiosk, charge up, then return the drained battery pack to any location. It’s 30 minutes of free charging when you rent a charger— a buck 99 a day if you keep it over a day. Even if you don’t return the charger or lose it, you never pay over 30 dollars. The little chargers can give 3 full charges, with two 3350 mAh power cells in each one. Look for them April 15th in Seattle, and in other cities later this year.

Roku has dropped a new quad core streaming stick, and at just $49.99. TechCrunch.com reports that the processor bump should make the software feel much speedier than before, and it also allows for private listening through headphones plugged into your smartphone…or via wireless Bluetooth cans. Roku says the entry level sticks are the fastest growing segment of the streaming market. They also have a ‘hotel and dorm room connect’ feature, that makes it easier to connect to WiFi with an authentication page.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Tweeted yesterday that a new top line Kindle will be shown next week. No date or details, but we’ll have those when they’re available. The verge.com notes that Amazon usually doesn’t announce products until they’re ready to go.

Amazon Rolls Out Answer to Apple iBooks Author

Posted: January 22, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thenextweb.com says Amazon has released it’s Kindle Textbook Creator. A beta that will help educators get their materials onto Kindles is out today. Unlike Apple’s iBooks Author, the Amazon tool can create publications for Android, iPads, Macs, and PCs.

Apple has patented a smarter smart cover. Apple insider.com reports that users could access information by partially opening the smart cover, or use gestures on it to control iPads inside. It could mean less physical buttons on future iPads.

It sounds si-fi, but researchers at UC Riverside, Georgia Institute of Technology, and in China have developed a keyboard that converts strokes into energy, protects your computer from hackers, and is self-cleaning. Cnet.com says no word on when it might be on the market.

More Picture Space For Your Smartphone

Posted: November 14, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you take a lot of selfies, and are always running out of space, there’s a new app called PhotoShrinker. Techcrunch.com says it’s out for iOS and Android, and will compress your photos to a tenth their original size, making room for more. The shrunken pix look fine online, etc. but save a normal copy for any you intend to make large, actual prints from.

Appleinsider.com reports that the iPhone 6 is outselling the larger 6 Plus by a 3 to one margin in the US. The study comes from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The average storage size is now 48 gigs, which shows that more people are buying the 64 gig and 128 gig models…which means more profit for Apple.

A nice feature in the latest Kindle software just being pushed out…gigaom.com says Family Library lets people with Amazon accounts linked to family members share ebooks others have downloaded.

Another Player Joining the ‘Internet of Things’ Party

Posted: July 16, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung is about to join the ‘internet of things’ party, in talks to buy SmartThings for $200 million. Bgr.com reports this would put them in the game with Google’s Nest and Apple’s HomeKit. Another option for those who need to control their appliances, light bulbs, security system, & garage door with their smartphones!

Gigaom.com reports that Amazon is testing a Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription service for $9.99 a month. It gives unlimited access to 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks.

Metromile is expanding to California. Techcrunch.com says you plug the gadget into your car, and you can save money on pay-per-mile insurance if you’re one of the 70% of people that drives less than 10,000 miles a year. Keep in mind that 70% of Bay Area drivers DON’T drive less than 10,000 miles a year, though.

Ringly Keeps Your Finger On Incoming Calls & Texts

Posted: June 13, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can’t hear the phone when it’s in your purse? Ringly may be for you. It looks like a fashion ring, but 9to5mac.com says light and vibration patterns can be set to alert you via Bluetooth to calls, texts, and more. It works with iOS and Android, and presale price is $149. That’s a bit pricey, but if you can’t miss a crucial call or text, check it out.

Google Now continues to get smarter. Thenextweb.com says Google is testing a feature that suggests calendar entries from your Gmail inbox. It’s already live with a select pool of users, and you can switch it off if you find it creepy.

According to tech crunch.com, Amazon has added audio integration to its iOS and Kindle apps. It’s an extra $.99 to $3.99 per title, but you can switch from reading to being read to on the fly. You could listen to a book while commuting, then pick up reading later right where you left off with Amazon’s Whisper Sync.

Apple insider.com says the Apple has patented a smarter smart cover for iPads with illumination that lights up to alert users to incoming messages, low battery warnings and other notifications.