Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/04 – The End Of Lightning

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 ride home for Tuesday, October 4th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. The EU has made USBC the charging port law of the land. Jaume's new flagship smartphone with a 200 megapixel camera, new Google Nest things, is YouTube trying new ways to get you to pay up for premium, and the big new

Starting point is 00:00:55 robotics push in the world of Checks Notes, retail pharmacy. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, I think we can call it, lightning is dead, or it will be very shortly. Apple was probably going to switch everything to USBC next year anyway, but this pretty much seals it. The European Parliament has voted 602 to 13 to enforce USBC as the common charging port for devices in the European Union by the end of 2024. Some small devices are exempt, but look, lightning is dead. all quoting Mac Rumors. The proposal, known as a directive, forces all consumer electronics manufacturers who sell their products in Europe to ensure that a wide range of devices feature a USBC port. This common port will be a world-first statute and impact Apple in particular,

Starting point is 00:01:53 since it widely uses the lightning connector instead of USBC on many of its devices. Members of Parliament claim that the move will reduce electronic waste, address product sustainability, and make use of different devices more convenient. Exemptions will apply for devices that are too small to offer a USBC port, such as smartwatches, health trackers, and some sports equipment, but the legislation is expected to be expanded to other devices over time. Companies will also have to ensure that dedicated labels clearly inform consumers about the charging characteristics of the devices they buy. In addition, the EU seeks to ensure that wireless charging solutions are interoperable, as the technology evolves over time. The directive empowers the European Commission to develop

Starting point is 00:02:38 delegated acts by the end of 2024 that force companies to make their custom wireless charging solutions more open and meet interoperability standards, helping consumers to avoid getting locked onto proprietary charging solutions while preventing fragmentation and reducing waste. It's not clear if this would include Apple's MagSafe charging system for the iPhone and AirPods since it is based on the Chi wireless charging standard. Both Apple analysts Ming Chi Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark German have said that Apple is testing a version of the iPhone that has a USBC port instead of a lightning port. Quo believes that Apple could switch the iPhone to USBC starting with 2023's iPhone 15 before transitioning AirPods and other accessories at a later date. This timing would

Starting point is 00:03:24 allow Apple to switch many of its affected devices to USBC ahead of the EU directive coming into force. end quote. Jaume has announced its flagship 12T smartphone, featuring a 108 megapixel camera, as well as its 12T Pro featuring a 200 megapixel camera, both with 6.67 inch displays, both available October 13th, for 599 euro on the low end and 759 euro on the top end, quoting the verge. The latter is notable for being the first Xiaomi 4.000. phone to make use of Samsung's 200 megapixel HP1 camera sensor, while the non-pro version only has a 108-mixel camera. Both are unlikely to be available in the U.S. given that Xiaomi doesn't typically sell its

Starting point is 00:04:18 phones in the region. Rather than actually producing 200 megapixel photos by default, the Xiaomi 12T pros camera is designed to bin up to 16 pixels at a time to create more crisp and detailed 12.5 megapixel images than what a lower resolution sensor might be capable of. Similarly, the 108 megapixel sensor in the 12T bins nine pixels at a time. The first handset announced with Samsung's 200 megapixel HP1 sensor was Motorola's X30 Pro, which launched in August compared to their main sensors. The other two cameras on the back of both phones are almost comically low resolution. Both have an 8-Magipixel ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view and a 2-Mapixel macro lens.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Both their selfie cameras offer a more respectable resolution of 20 megapixels. The other major differentiator between the 12T and the 12T Pro is their processors. The 12T Pro is powered by Qualcomm's latest flagship SnackDragon 8 plus Gen 1 processor, while the 12T has a Media Tech Demensity 8100 Ultra Chip. The 12T Pro also comes in a 12 gigabytes of RAM variant in addition to its 8 gigabyte model, while the 12T is only available with 8 gigabytes of RAM. Both come with a choice of 128 or 256 gigabytes of onboard storage, with no mention of support for microSD cards.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Otherwise, both handsets offer broadly similar specs. Both have 1220P, 120-inch OLED screens with in-dplay fingerprint sensors, though only the 12T Pro's spec sheet notes that it supports the Dolby Vision HDR standard. And both have 5,000 mill-amp hour batteries that can be charged at up to 120 watts with an included charger that can fully charge either phone in under 20 minutes. Both handsets are available in black, silver, or blue, and ship running, Jaume's MyUI 13 software atop Android 12, end quote. Google Nest has announced the $180 Nest

Starting point is 00:06:29 doorbell wired, as well as the $200 NEST Wi-Fi Pro, which sports Wi-Fi 6E support. They've also updated the home app and confirmed support for matter, quoting ZDNet. Last year, Google's Nest smart home brand revamped its entire home security camera lineup. At the time, Nest unveiled a smart doorbell that was either battery powered or hardwired. It was a solid video doorbell option, but lacked the ability to record 24-7 video, a feature that many Nest users loved. The $179.99-0.99-cent Ness Doorbell Wired, however, brings back the ability for the camera to capture all video clips. The new Ness Doorbell Wired looks like its larger battery-powered cousin. In fact, the Wired model is 30% smaller than its predecessor, likely due to the fact that it doesn't have a

Starting point is 00:07:18 battery taking up extra space. There's enough storage in the doorbell to record up to one hour of footage should your internet connection go down. Once a Wi-Fi connection is restored, it'll upload the clips. The Nest doorbell wired is available to buy today for $179.99. It comes in four colors, snow, linen, ash, and ivy. Google also announced a new Nest Wi-Fi system with support for Wi-Fi 6E, the latest wireless internet standard. Nest Wi-Fi Pro will ship in a single pack for $199, or you can opt to get a three-pack for $399.99. Each access point provides 2,200 square feet of coverage. Unlike the standard Nest Wi-Fi, there isn't a dedicated access point this time around. Each one can be used as your main router with the rest, acting like a mesh access point to

Starting point is 00:08:08 extend your system. Another change with this model is the lack of built-in speakers, foregoing any Google Assistant integration. There are four colors for the completely new design that looks like it has a glossy plastic finish to it. The colors are snow, linen, fog, and lemongrass. One downside to the new Nest system is that it's not compatible with previous generation Nest or Google Wi-Fi Systems. For some, that's sure to be a frustrating caveat, but with the additional hardware speeds and performance that Wi-Fi 6E requires and provides, it makes sense. By allowing older Wi-Fi 5 access points to commingle with Wi-Fi 6E devices, you're reducing the quality of the newer standard. You can pre-order the new Nest Wi-Fi Pro now with deliveries and retail availability starting

Starting point is 00:08:54 October 27. Matter. The new smart home standard that will allow for easier integration and management of more smart home devices will begin rolling out later this year. However, Google has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Matter across its product lineup. More specifically, Google has built Matter support directly into Android devices, enabling fast pairing to connect Matter devices to your home's wireless network, allowing devices like the Nest Hub Max, to be used to control Matter devices and turning other smart home devices, such as the new Nest Wi-Fi Pro into thread border routers

Starting point is 00:09:28 to ensure all matter-compatible devices are able to stay online and connected to each other, end quote. Some YouTube users say that the service has been asking them to purchase a premium subscription if they want to watch videos in 4K, which is a feature that is currently free for all users. Question is, maybe for how much longer? Quoting TechCrunch. YouTube's premium paid subscription includes benefits like ad-free viewing, video and song downloads for offline consumption, and background plays. Now it might also be shifting video streaming in 4K resolution, currently free for all users, to the premium tier. Over the weekend, users across Reddit and Twitter noted that YouTube had been asking them to upgrade to the premium tier to watch videos in 4K. It's not clear if the change is part of a limited test or if the company is thinking about capping free users to 1440P resolution. Google refused to comment on the story when contacted by TechCrunch. However, one of YouTube's official support handles replied to a user who posted a screenshot

Starting point is 00:10:37 of video streaming and 4K showing up as a premium feature. It said that the user might have been part of the company's, quote, experiment to know better the feature preferences, premium and non-premium users, end quote. The company has tried various methods to convert free users into paying ones, one of the most notorious ones, was showing them up to 11 unskippable ads before the start of a long video to let them have an uninterrupted experience. Last year, Google said that it crossed the 50 million subscriber mark across YouTube music and premium, while the price of those subscriptions varies across regions. In the U.S., it charges $9.99 per month for YouTube music, and $11.99 per month for YouTube premium, end quote.

Starting point is 00:11:20 Meta has announced AI template, an open-source pie-torch-based unified inference system for both AMD and Nvidia GPU hardware, helping code run, they claim, 4x to 12X faster, quoting Reuters. But just as important as the speed boost is the flexibility of the software can provide Medasid in a blog post. Software has become a key battleground for chipmakers seeking to build up an ecosystem of developers to use their chips. NVIDIA's Kuta platform has been the most popular so far for artificial intelligence work. However, once developers tailor their code for Nvidia chips, it is difficult to run it on graphics processing units or GPUs from Nvidia competitors like AMD. Meta said the software is designed to easily swap between chips without being locked in. The Unified GPU backend support gives

Starting point is 00:12:17 deep learning developers more hardware vendor choices with minimal migration costs, Meta said in its blog post. Invita and AMD did not immediately return requests for comment. Meta's software is made for AI work called inference, which is when machine learning algorithms that previously have been trained on huge amounts of data are called on to make quick judgments, such as deciding whether a photograph is of a cat or a dog. This is a software effort that is multi-platform, and it's a testament to the importance of software, particularly for deploying neural networks in machine learning for inference, said David Cantor, a founder of ML Commons, an independent group that measures AI speed, end quote. Finally today, from the robots are or are not coming for our jobs file, Walgreens is setting up a

Starting point is 00:13:12 network of automated drug-filling centers expecting robots to cut pharmacist workloads by 25% or more, and also to save the company a billion dollars or more per year, quoting the Wall Street Journal. The nation's second largest pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated centralized drug filling centers that could fill a city block. Rows of yellow robotic arms bend and rotate as they sort and bottle multicolored pills, sending them down conveyor belts. The company says the setup cuts pharmacist workloads by at least 25 percent and will save Walgreens more than a billion dollars a year. The ultimate goal, give pharmacists more time to provide medical services such as vaccinations, patient outreach, and prescribing of some medication. Those services are a relatively new and growing revenue stream for drugstores, which are increasingly able to bill insurers for some clinical services. This frees up the capacity of our most skilled

Starting point is 00:14:06 professionals, said Rina Shah, a group vice president overseeing pharmacy strategy at Walgreens. We looked at our system and said, why are we filling prescriptions the way we did in 1995, end quote. COVID-19 increased the demands on pharmacies as they expanded into testing and vaccinations, putting pressure on staff and creating a shortfall of pharmacists that many chains have struggled to fill. Walgreens has reduced pharmacy hours at a third of its nearly 9,000 U.S. stores and in some markets is offering signing bonuses of up to $75,000 to fill pharmacist jobs. The centers employ anywhere from dozens to hundreds of workers who oversee the process or handle prescriptions for medications that can't be filled by robot, such as inhalers used to treat asthma.

Starting point is 00:14:50 Prescriptions that are time-sensitive or for controlled substances are still filled by pharmacists in stores. Those filled at the automated centers are delivered to stores by Amerisource Bergen Corpse wholesale distribution unit alongside shipments of medications that are sorted and filled in store. More drug stores, including smaller chains and independent pharmacies, are looking to automate and centralized drug fulfillment, said Alicia Lashir, chief automation officer of IA, a provider of pharmacy, automation, software, and technology. Walgreens is a majority investor in Indianapolis-based IA and uses the company's technology in its fulfillment centers, end quote. So at least for this case, the verdict is robots working with us, not taking our jobs, freeing up the capacity of skilled

Starting point is 00:15:39 professionals, as they say. We'll see. We've actually got some hurricane refugees coming to our house today. My mom and dad are flying up from Florida as we speak, planning to stay up here while they wait for power and water to fully be restored back in Fort Myers. They've been staying with my brother for two weeks, riding out the storm, so he needs a break. So even though the reasons for the visit aren't great, Bob, it'll still be nice to see them. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/04 – The End Of Lightning

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