Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 01/04 – Apple Becomes The First $3 Trillion Dollar Company

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

Apple becomes the world’s first $3 Trillion dollar company. Samsung unveils its latest budget flagship smartphone. AT&T and Verizon delay their controversial 5G rollout while Verizon and T-Mobile end their controversial Apple rebate program. And a trip down the aisles at CES, including a smart collar for your dog and a gadget to bring home hair coloring into the 21st century. Sponsors: Do.co/trh Wix.com Links: Apple becomes first U.S. company to reach $3 trillion market cap (CNBC) The Galaxy S21 FE officially joins Samsung’s crowded midrange lineup (The Verge) Verizon, AT&T agree to FAA's request for a two-week delay on 5G expansion plans (CNET) Verizon and T-Mobile Discontinue iPad Rebate Program Following Widespread Customer Complaints [Updated] (MacRumors) Version two of TCL’s wearable display glasses are lighter and less dorky-looking (The Verge) Are we ready for the smart front door? Masonite thinks so (The Verge) This smart collar wants to be an Apple Watch for your dog (The Verge) L’Oreal's precision hair coloring device is the end of home dye job disasters (Input) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Tuesday, January 4th, 22. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple becomes the world's first $3 trillion company. Samsung unveils its latest budget flagship smartphone. AT&T and Verizon delay their controversial 5G rollout while Verizon and T-Mobile and their controversial Apple rebate program and a trip down the aisles at CES, including a smart collar for your dog and a gadget to bring home hair coloring into the 21st century. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. For a brief time yesterday, Apple became the first company to reach a $3 trillion market cap when its stock hit $182.86, tripling its valuation in under four years. Quoting CNBC, Apple rose 2.5% on Monday to close at 182 and 1 penny,

just missing, closing the trading day at the $3 trillion mark. The milestone is mostly symbolic, but it shows investors remain bullish on Apple stock and its ability to be. grow. At a market value of $3 trillion, Apple tripled its valuation in under four years, and analysts see plenty of room to run. Apple showed annual growth across all of its product categories in its fourth quarter earnings, with revenue up 29 percent year-over-year. While the iPhone is still the biggest sales driver, Apple's services business grew 25.6 percent year-over-year and delivered more than $18 billion in revenue during the quarter. Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to hit a $1 trillion market cap during intraday trading on August 2nd, 2018.

It hit a $2 trillion valuation just over two years later on August 19th, 2020, end quote. Again, Samsung is ringing in CES week with announcements, unveiling the Galaxy S-21FFE, with a 6.4-inch display, Snapdragon 888, 120 hertz refresh rate, triple lens, rear camera, and a 32 megapixel selfie camera, all starting at $699. That's right. Cheaper price point, sort of last year's specs. The Galaxy FE is the sort of mid-range Samsung flagship, which means it's either right up your alley or isn't at all, quoting the verge.

With the regular S-21's nearly mid-range price tag and a compelling upper-mid-range option in the Galaxy A-52-5G, the FE is yet another addition. to an already crowded spot in Samsung's lineup. The Galaxy S-21FE offers a 6.4-inch display slightly larger than the S-21 6.2-inch panel, but outside of that size difference, the S-21 FE has a whole lot in common with the S-21. Its screen is a 1080P OLED panel with 120 hertz like the S-21s. Even the design language is consistent with the camera bump blending into the phone's side rails. The FE includes a flagship-worthy 5-nometer chip set,

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the U.S. Samsung's own ex-Neos elsewhere, and a 12-mixel camera with optical stabilization, same as the S-21. It even does one better on battery capacity with a 4,500-m-a-amp hour cell compared to the S-21's 4,000-mmph hour, though it's slightly bigger screen, likely evens out battery performance. There's fast 25-watt wired charging, 15-watt wireless charging, an IP68 weather resistance rating, and both flavor. of 5G, sub-6 gigahertz and speedy MMWave, are all carried over from the S-21. I've had the S-21 FE in my hands for a few days, and it feels to me like a device that rides the ever-muddled line between a flagship and a mid-range phone. The back is composite plastic with a matte finish, which feels mid-ranging to me, but the screen is big and bright with all of the buttery smoothness of its 120-hertz refresh rate. Flagship territory for sure.

Overall performance feels flagship-worthy, too, with the... the exception of a little lag in the camera portrait mode live preview. Oh, and there's no charger in the box, which is a flagship thing now, too. It's more than a little confusing, but it's not a new strategy for Samsung. As Dieter noted in his overview of the S-20 lineup, Samsung takes this a phone at every price point approach because it can. It also happens to be really good at mixing and matching features for different price points, and a solid support policy backing most devices makes its budget and mid-range phones tough to beat. With the S-21FE, Samsung is taking yet another cut into a market that it's happily slicing thinner and thinner, end quote. Sorry to have to walk this one back so quickly,

but it turns out that AT&T and Verizon did agree to delay the launch of their upgraded 5G networks for two weeks over the aviation safety concerns from the FAA and the airline industry that we talked about yesterday, quoting CNET. The news of the delay came as the airspace. airline industry's trade group, Airlines for America, or A4A, was preparing a lawsuit in federal court to stop AT&T and Verizon from deploying their 5G service using the C-Band Spectrum. The group had filed a petition with the FCC on January 30th, asking the agency to delay the carrier's use of the C-band spectrum. The group argued in its filing that the FCC did not provide, quote, reasoned analysis of why it has rejected the evidence submitted by the aviation interests, end quote. A4A had been working with technical experts in the wireless and aviation industry to come up with a solution, according to a joint statement dated December 22nd from CTIA, the Wireless Industry Trade Group.

A4A had been working with technical experts in the wireless and aviation industry to come up with a solution, according to a joint statement dated December 22nd from CTIA, the Wireless Industry Trade Group, A4A, and the Aerospace Industries Association. But A4A said on Thursday that issues remained unresolved. In its petition, just days before the expected January 5th carrier rollout, the group identified more than 135 airports where it wanted to delay 5G deployment, including major cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, end quote. And another carrier story that's also a follow-up to something that we talked about, I think it was

last month, Verizon and T-Mobile are discontinuing their iPad rebate programs offered in partnership with Apple following widespread customer complaints, quoting Mac rumors. In recent weeks, complaints from customers have emerged across social media regarding Verizon and T-Mobile's rebate programs. If it worked according to plan, the program would give customers up to a $200 rebate when purchasing a cellular iPad and activating through Verizon and T-Mobile. Unfortunately, customers have faced a subpar experience with the program, often reporting being denied for the rebate for unclear reasons. The complaints have been amplified by Bloomberg's Mark German, who has in the past criticized the carriers for the ineffectiveness of similar programs for the Ivy iPhone 13. There have been several complaints regarding the iPad program. Nevertheless, at the start of December, a Verizon spokesperson told Bloomberg that the iPad rebate program was running, quote,

as it should for eligible Verizon customers, end quote. Things have now clearly changed, as Apple has scrapped all references of the program with Verizon and T-Mobile from its website, including the purchase pages for its range of iPads, end quote. Let's head back to CES, shall we, at least virtually. One of the many reasons that we, I wish I was there right now is I feel like this year and next year are when we might see the Cambrian explosion of gadgets taking a stab at creating the first mass market successful AR devices. To that end, except not exactly at all, TCL has unveiled its second-gen next-ware air wearable secondary display, by which I mean glasses with two 1080 P-OLED screens, no ARVR features,

at all, and a lighter design coming in Q1 with pricing to be determined. So it's not an air device, why is this gadget on your face, quoting the verge? TCL is preparing to launch a second iteration of the wearable personal display it released in limited supply last year. Version 2, called NextWare Air, offers the same secondary display in a pair of glasses function as the original, but has been made 30% lighter, down to 75 grams compared to 130 grams. TCL has made some adjustments for the style-conscious 2, tweaking the design to look more like a normal pair of sunglasses and less like something you'd be embarrassed to wear in public. NextWare Air, like its NextWareG predecessor, offers 21080P micro-o-led embedded in a pair of glasses frames that should give the wearer the effect of viewing a 140-inch screen from about 13 feet away. Its lenses are opaque, and the glasses don't offer AR or VR functionality. Instead, it acts as a secondary display that you wear on your face, using USBC to connect to a DisplayPort compatible phone, tablet, or laptop. Stereo speakers are built in, but if you don't want to annoy everyone in earshot, you should connect Bluetooth or wired headphones instead. This year's model also comes with two magnetic interchangeable plates that attach to the front of the frames to change up the style of the glasses.

TCL says NextWare Air will launch in Q1 of 2022. There's no word on which regions it'll be available in, and TCL hasn't revealed a price for them yet. NextWareG went on sale for a limited run in Australia last year, priced at $899, which is about $680.US. So expect to spend a little money for the most private monitor you can use on a plane, end quote. Actually, if the image you're seeing in these things is comparable or maybe better than an HDTV, someday, I could see myself coveting one of these with the right headphones. Imagine a truly immersive viewing experience, the likes of which you can only get right now in an actual physical, dark movie theater, IRL. The fun part about CES is the acres and acres of tech, often accessories

that isn't, you know, a flagship smartphone, but is somehow maybe interesting enough that you just get to walk up and try it out and dream of how it might break it. through to the mainstream someday. There has been so much tech over the years that eventually became mainstream that I first got to try out at a CES. For example, lockmaker Schleg has announced its first Apple Home Key compatible smart lock, something that I would try out because I might be in the market for something like that. But how about a full-on smart front door? Quoting the verge, Door manufacturer Masonite is showcasing the first residential smart door at CES 2022, highlighting the home building industry's shift toward embracing connected technology.

The concept was announced earlier in 2021, but CES is the first chance most will have to see the door in action. A collaboration between Masonite, Ring, and Yale. The M-Power Smart Door is the first residential exterior door to integrate power, lights, sensors, a video doorbell, and a smart lock into the door system. The Door, a premium fiberglass model available in a variety of styles, colors, and finishes, needs to be professionally installed and connected to a home's electrical system and Wi-Fi network. The integrated power solution does away with a big issue that homeowners deal with when trying to use this type of technology, which is recharging batteries. The tech packed into this wooden frame includes a ring video doorbell, the company's peephole

camera, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Yale Assure Smart Lock, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. powered peer motion sensor, a door state sensor that uses the sensor array from the doorbell to determine if the door is open or closed, and motion-activated LED lighting embedded in the door's threshold. The door also has its own smart hub inside to facilitate connections and a built-in backup battery to keep everything running for up to 24 hours in the event of a power outage. Currently, you do need three apps to use this door, rings for the doorbell, Yales for the door lock and Masonite's own smartphone app for programming and controlling the motion-activated LED lighting and checking the door state. This is the most disappointing aspect of the door

from a user perspective and misses the mark on a fully integrated experience. The included Yale door lock doesn't even work with ring, even though Yale makes a Z-wave lock that does. But from a customer choice standpoint, it makes some sense as you aren't locked into a smart home ecosystem and can swap out components if you want. Currently, Masonite M-Power smart doors are only available for new home construction, with the first models being deployed by Beringer Homes in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. Company reps say additional builder partner announcements should be coming this year for new home builds. Pricing will be determined by the builder, end quote.

Maybe smart doors will become a thing, although my wife, who's an architect, is skeptical, but that's CES in a nutshell. Sometimes the excitement of CES is the gadgetry that seems really, really cool, or the gadgetry that seems really weird? Often it's an overlapping Venn diagram of both. For example, how about a smart collar that wants to be the Apple Watch for your dog? The Verge once again, quote, pet trackers have been around for ages, but in Voxia is looking to shake things up at CES 2022 with a new smart collar that can also monitor your dog's vital signs. And of course, the smart collar also doubles as a GPS and activity tracker for your pooch. Canine fitness trackers generally rely on a combination of accelerometers and GPS sensors.

Invoxia's approach is a bit different. To monitor vitals like resting respiratory and heart rate, Invoxia says it worked with board-certified veterinary cardiologists to develop deep learning AI that utilizes miniaturized radar sensors, the same type as the Sully radar, Google used in its Pixel 4 phones. According to Invoxia's CEO Amelie Kodron, the radars are ideal as they're capable of taking readings, regardless of how furry your dog is. There's a radar that faces the neck and sends a radio signal, and that signal will not be reflected by the hair, cauldron told the verge.

So it doesn't matter how much fur or hair there is. It'll be reflected by the first layer of skin. So the radar will actually be able to know the speed and movement of the skin right under the collar. Those movements are then fed into an algorithm that determines heart and respiratory rate. Another plus, Calderon says, is that the collar can sit more loosely and comfortably around the dog's neck.

That's not the case with the smartwatches and fitness trackers humans use, which require a tighter fit and good skin contact to get accurate heart rate readings, end quote. Or finally today, how about a device that helps you do a home dye job on your hair? Again, the fun of CES is seeing prototypes that will either transform or create an entirely new product category or else they're vaporware and will never hear from them again. Quoting Input magazine. Ahead of CES 2022, L'Oreal has announced tech that improves hair color application at the salon, the bathroom sink, and beyond. Home box dye kits can make an amateur colorist feel like a mad scientist, with a mess of potions arranged on a bathroom counter, a massive set of instructions, and a tinfoil hat on your head, your home hair dye experience may feel more like a chemistry lab gone wrong than Salon Bliss. L'Oreal wants to change that.

Over a century after the company released the first synthetic. hair dye in 1907. It's announced a device for easy at-home hair coloring that aims to hit shelves in early 2023. About the size of a flattening iron, Color Sonic is meant to make home coloring almost as simple as brushing your hair. You can choose your shade on the spot. Color Sonic allows users to select one of 40 colors, and it'll mix the corresponding developer and formula on demand. Then as you brush your hair from root to end, the device will dispense the mixture via a nozzle that oscillates over 300 times per minute to consistently apply your color of choice. Color Sonic cartridges store the unused pigment and developers separately, so you can stash your

leftovers and touch up later with perfect portions of freshly mixed dye. Not only does the devices on-demand dye mixing cut down on wasted hair dye, but it also can cut down on single-use materials. Color Sonic's recyclable cartridges use less plastic per application than home box hair color, the company says, in a press release. The color sonic has been in development for five years, but it's still not quite ready to hit shelves. L'Oreal plans to release test batches at the end of this year with a large-scale launch in early 2023. The company has not disclosed how much it will cost, end quote. Should I mention my wife is skeptical of this one as well? As well? Maybe we'll have to get her on a bonus episode to discuss. Since we are kicking off a new year and we might have some new listeners,

I figure I haven't given the basic lay of the podcast land in a while. So first up, if you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at Brian MCC. I wrote a book a few years ago called How the Internet happened. If you want some tech history, look that up on Amazon. As far as the podcast, generally, there is an ad-free version of the show that you can sign up for. if you go to tech.com. Dot, supercast. Dot tech. But really, if you want to support this show in the most meaningful way, just make sure

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