Alibaba Singles’ Day-Biggest Online Shopping Day; French Will Look at Facebook Moderation Processes, Samsung Folder Could Cost…Gulp… $1790; CLEAR Tech Moves From Airports to Stadiums

Posted: November 12, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This year on Singles’ Day, a huge day in China, Alibaba absolutely blew up online shopping. They took in $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hours Sunday, according to businessinsider.com. As a point of reference, total online sales last year on Black Friday were $5 billion, and Cyber Monday hit $6.6 billion! Alibaba sold as much in 5 minutes Sunday as Amazon does on an entire Prime Day (which was 36 hours long last year, and it’s estimated to have taken in $4.2 billion.) Singles’ Day sales for Alibaba were across its main Alibaba site as well as Taobao.com and Tmall.com, two other sites it owns and operates.

Facebook continues to get heat for doing too little with regards to protecting user rights and policing fake news and other political manipulation. Now, techcrunch.com reports that the company will cooperate with the French government as they look into FB’s moderation…including Facebook giving ‘unprecedented access’ to their internal processes. France is looking for a third way to regulate tech…not the hands off of the US nor the locked down, repressed system China has in place.

We’ve now seen a glimpse of the Samsung folding phone at their developers’ conference, and now hear it should be hitting the streets by next March. 9to5google also notes that the phone/phablet with the Infinity Flex display will retail for $1790!! It will be known as the Samsung Galaxy F, as predicted. Folded, you have a 4.6 inch outside display, but unfolded, you get a nice, phablet-sized 7.4 inches. A cool tech that has taken a long time to come into being, but at nearly $1800, it may remain a boutique gadget, and not a top seller.

CLEAR…the folks that charge $179 a year to get you more quickly through airport lines using biometrics…is now up and running in stadiums. Geekwire.com says the service is free for sports events…besides handing over your fingerprints and taking about 5 minutes to make an account. Both CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field have implemented the service, which gets you in via a shorter line AND it enables you to both age verify and pay with your prints when buying a beer at concession stands! There are currently 4 stands at Seahawks games with the CLEAR scanners, so you can grab that brewski a little faster and get back to the game!

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New Nest Leaves the Nest; Alexa & Cortana Buddying Up; 2018 iPhone ‘Phablet’

Posted: August 31, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nest has dropped a new baby bird into the air to let it fly. The Nest E is the first really new Nest since 2011. Theverge.com reports a main feature is its plainness…it’s a white ring with a frosted screen. The really big selling point is the price…it’s way down from earlier nests, starting at $169. The traditional nest will still be sold at $249. The rub is, the new E model is compatible with less systems…about 85%, while the old school one will work in 95% of homes. It also lacks ‘farsight,’ which senses if you’re across the room and turns the screen on. Since mine is in a hall, like most people’s, I am never more than 2 feet away from it when I walk past, so this won’t be a feature you will miss. It works with the Nest app like the older Nests, and they claim it will save 12-15% on your heating and cooling bills.

Amazon and Microsoft have made a remarkable announcement: they are working on getting Alexa and Cortana to work together. According to businessinsider.com, the two AI voice assistants will be able to hand off to each other. There are no plans for them to completely merge, as both companies want to hold on to your data. Switching from Alexa to Cortana will help you use voice assist for Office 365, as well as connect with more IoT stuff in your home. Switching back to Alexa will be great for listening to streaming music and of course, buying stuff from Amazon.

There was a hint earlier this year, but now 9to5mac.com says the Korea Herald has added to it….the ‘it’ is a 6.46 inch iPhone for 2018. The new iPhone 8 is due to bow on the 12th of September, and will sport a 5.85 inch screen, but apparently there will be the new bigger Plus model a year from now. Samsung is reputedly building the world’s largest OLED factory in prep for these phones and their own. The bigger 2018 iPhone would have its own production line.

Samsung May Be Going Extra Thin in Addition to Extra Large

Posted: June 17, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We had just reported on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, an upcoming smartphone/phablet with a whopping 5.7 inch screen, and now it appears that the phone giant is prepping a model that’s much thinner than an iPhone 6. According to bgr.com, the Galaxy A8 is a full millimeter thinner than the iPhone 6 at just 5.9 millimeters. This svelte thinness is in spite of the phone having a 5.7 inch display like the anticipated S6 Edge Plus! No release schedule for this skinny whopper, and sources say it might even be exclusively for the Asian market.

Amazon is looking at crowd sourcing for deliveries. Forbes.com reports that their On My Way program may use individuals to deliver packages, something like an Uber or Lyft for package delivery. Amazon’s shipping costs grew 31% last year, and this would be a way for them to keep a lid on delivery costs. If they do roll the service out, it may be limited to smaller, more inexpensive items…and not larger or more expensive ones that require insuring. Smart & Final has partnered with Instacart to make local deliveries for a while, and last month Costco and Kroger joined them in doing so.

White Label Products From Amazon For Prime Customers

Posted: December 4, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon has rolled out Elements-private label household products for Prime members today. Geekwire.com says the first two products are diapers and wipes. The company is promising a very granular level of ingredient information.

9to5mac.com has picked up a report from Kantar data that shows the iPhone 6 Plus captured 41% of all US phablet sales third quarter. The iPhone 6 was the best selling iOS device.

Thenextweb.com reports that Wickr, the ultra secure, self-destructing messaging app, is now available on OS X, Windows, and Linux. Like on mobile, there’s multi-layer encryption, and no storage on servers.