Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/18 - Does Anyone Know What "Unlimited" Means?

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 right home for Wednesday, September 18th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. Facebook debuts Portal TV and wants to make AR smart glasses to replace your smartphone.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Google Fi has an unlimited plan that is every bit as unlimited as any other. The Apple Watch Series 5 reviews and autonomous vehicles come to the farm. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Facebook has been quiet on the news front lately. I feel like last year we were talking about Facebook basically all the time, almost every single day, for positive and negative reasons. But this summer, things have been a little quiet with them. Well, not today because Facebook has a whole bunch of news. First up, Facebook has announced Portal TV, a TV accessory for video calling, streaming, AR gaming, and basically watching along with others while you watch TV.

Starting point is 00:01:34 The new device is $149 and ships November 5th. And basically, if you want to imagine it, imagine a camera that you just clip onto your TV. Quote, it has an integrated stand for placing the gadget on your TV console, but that stand also squeezes onto a front wing to let it clip onto both wide and extremely thin new flat screen televisions. With just an HDMI connection, it brings a 12.5 megapixel 120 degree camera. camera and eight mic array to any tube. It also ships with a stubby remote control for basic browsing without having to shout across the room. Portal TV includes an integrated smart speaker that can be used even when the TV is off or on a different input and offers HDMI CEC for control through other remotes. The built-in camera cover gives users peace of mind and a switch

Starting point is 00:02:28 conjures a red light to signal that all sensors are disabled. Overall, control responsiveness felt a tad sluggish, but passable, end quote. Facebook also updated the portal line itself. There's a new portal mini, which has a smaller footprint than the original portal, and the really good price of $129. Also, there's a second-gen, 10-inch portal, which still clocks in at $179, quoting the verge. Both devices can be oriented in standard picture frame-style portrait mode or horizontally

Starting point is 00:03:02 in landscape mode, but neither swiveles like. the portal plus, the largest device in the lineup released last year for $349. You'll have to manually rotate these new smart displays, as was the case with last year's standard portal. The new portal screens will begin shipping October 15th, end quote. All of the new portals have picture and pictures so you can watch Facebook watch videos together. The devices are getting WhatsApp support for calls and video chat, encrypted calls and video chat, of course. And by the by, there is as mentioned on the Portal TV on these new portals, a physical switch that will shut off access to the camera and the microphones so you can ensure privacy at the hardware level. That, of course, did nothing to stem the deluge of hell no, not in my home, snark on Twitter. As I think I said last year, though, when Portal itself first debuted, this actually is the ideal Facebook hardware product. To quote Facebook's Andrew Bosworth, who demoed the device for reporters. This product is the core essence of what Facebook does, end

Starting point is 00:04:11 quote. And quoting one of those reporters who was at the launch event, Josh Constine, quote, the true potential of Portal's portal TV, just hanging out. Like Fortnite, video co-watching on the couch gives us an excuse to be together apart. The clip on camera might be unique enough to offset the creepiness, end quote. Yes, connecting people is what Facebook does best. It's a shame about all that lack of trust people have in Facebook. And sources to various outlets are reporting that Facebook is moving ahead with plans to roll out their own line of AR smart glasses and have even partnered with Luxottica to launch these devices sometime in the 2023-2020-time frame. According CNBC, Facebook has been working

Starting point is 00:05:04 to develop augmented reality glasses out of its Facebook reality labs in Redmond, Washington for the past couple of years, but struggles with the development of the project have led the company to seek help. Now Facebook is hoping a partnership with Rayban parent company, Luxottica, will get them completed and ready for consumers between 2023 and 2025, according to people familiar. The glasses are internally codenamed Orion, and they are designed to replace smartphones, the people said. The glasses would allow users to take calls, show information to users in a small display, and live stream their vantage point to. their social media, friends, and followers.

Starting point is 00:05:40 Facebook is also developing an artificial intelligence voice assistant that would serve as a user input for the glasses CNBC previously reported. In addition, the company has experimented with a ring device that would allow users to input information via motion sensor. That device is codenamed Agios, end quote. So the snarky take here would be to say, well, of course, Facebook copies everything Snapchat does, right? So why not copy Snapchat Spectacles too?

Starting point is 00:06:10 Except that's too cute by a little bit because everyone is rumored to be working on some form of AR headgear. There's the rumored Apple AR work. And of course, how many years ago did Google first take a stab at Google Glass? Silicon Valley thinks some form of AR as a platform is inevitable, even to the point of maybe being the air to the smartphone. So watch this space. And back to the TV for a second. Maybe you're afraid to put that portal TV in your living room because Facebook, right? Well, guess what?

Starting point is 00:06:51 Facebook is probably already in your living room. According to researchers, many streaming TV dongles and smart TVs themselves, including those made by Amazon, Roku, Samsung, and LG are sending user data to firms such as Netflix. And yes, Facebook. quoting the Financial Times. Amazon is contacted by almost half the devices in our tests, which stands out because this means Amazon can infer a lot of information about what you're doing with different devices in your home, including those they don't manufacture, said David Chofnees, computer scientists at Northeastern University and one of the paper's authors. They can also have a lot of visibility into what their competitors are doing, end quote. By analyzing network traffic, the Northeastern team concluded that third parties receive, at the very least, information about the device people are using, their locations, and possibly even when they are interacting with it.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Quote, so they might know when you're home and when you're not, said Professor Chofnees. Because much of the data being sent out by device manufacturers was encrypted, the academics were not aware of exactly what additional data were being transmitted. Quote, they can definitely see some viewing is taking place, but what they can exactly see depends on what the manufacturer is sending, which we have not made an attempt to re-engineer, said Hamadhi, computer scientist at Imperial College, and another paper author, end quote. Google Phi, Alphabet's MVNO, cell service, has a new service tier, an unlimited plan for $70 a month for a single line or $60 a piece for two lines or $50 a piece a month for three lines or even six lines for $45 each month, you get unlimited voice and data. But of course, when it comes

Starting point is 00:08:46 to cell plans unlimited, never means unlimited. Google, quote, may optimize video at 480P and will throttle data for any user that uses more than 22 gigabytes a month in data. Of course, You do have the option of paying an extra $10 per gigabyte over 22 gigabytes a month for unthrottled data. But remember that data in theory was unlimited, as it says in the name of the data plan. Anyway, quoting the verge, though that sounds complicated, it's conceptually easier, at least in the U.S., than Google FI's previous plan, which is still sticking around but is now called Flex. Under that plan, it is $20 for the phone line, $15 for each additional line, and $10 per gigabyte for any and all data used.

Starting point is 00:09:34 For a lot of customers, it could end up being much cheaper than other plans, though heavy data users could sometimes run into higher costs. Still, Google capped data costs at $60 per month. The Flex plan is actually a really great deal for certain customers, but it means that their bill could have wild swings from month to month depending on data usage. Google wanted something conceptually easier for U.S. customers, the ones who have been seeing every other carrier offer unlimited plans. Both the unlimited and flex plans will allow customers to order free data-only SIM cards

Starting point is 00:10:06 that draw from the same data buckets with no additional monthly charge. Most other U.S. carriers charge a monthly fee for adding such devices, which makes Google Fi one of the best choices for people who love using LTE-enabled versions of gadgets, end quote. Dieter Bone says that all of this adds up to make Google Fi one of the better deals. in wireless, at least for U.S. consumers, as long as you can make your piece with what unlimited really means. Don't often get to do laptop reviews because there are so many laptops, but I still have an ideal laptop in my mind, as thin and light as possible, but also super powerful and packed to the gills with everything. The new 13-inch elite book dress,

Starting point is 00:10:59 Dragonfly from HP might be getting close to that personal ideal of mine. The Elite Book Dragonfly has got an Intel CoreV Pro processor, 2 terabytes of storage, and 16 gigabytes of RAM, all in a 2.2 pound package. Available October 25, starting at $1,549, quoting Sherilyn Lowe in Engadgett. It's all the more impressive that the Dragonfly is so light, given all of the features. it offers. HP promises up to 16 and a half hours of battery life, although the company is also offering a longer-lasting model up to 24 and a half hours, that's slightly heavier. Your runtime will likely vary depending on the type of display you opt for. There's a full HD low-powered panel that runs at 400 nits, a U-HD screen with HDR 400 that gets as bright as 550 nits, and a version of

Starting point is 00:11:53 the full HD display with HP's Sureview Privacy Shield built in. That one goes up to one. thousand nits. Whichever these you pick, it'll be flanked by bezels as thin as 4.75 millimeters on the sides, while the top bezel is 10.25 millimeters. That gives it a screen-to-body ratio of 86% if you care about those numbers. Hidden in the top bezel is a Windows Hello-capable webcam, which is something even the Dell XPS15 doesn't offer. Most other PCs do too, though they don't have similar thin bezels. I like that the Dragonfly has. I like that the Dragonfly as a mechanical shutter built in so you can slide it over the webcam for privacy. It's also nice to see a generous array of ports in a device this thin.

Starting point is 00:12:38 The Dragonfly manages to squeeze in two USBC with Thunderbolt 3, a full-sized HDMI, one USBA, and a headphone jack while maintaining a 0.63-inch profile, end quote. Oh, and did I mention that this bad boy is also a convertible, so you can flip it over and use it as a tablet. It's also damn sexy looking, too, if you click through for the pictures. Yeah, if I were in the Windows world, this would be a really, really tempting laptop. The Apple Watch Series 5 reviews came out this morning, but I'm not going to do a full review roundup of that, because, well, we know the news is just the always on screen, right?

Starting point is 00:13:28 otherwise it's the Apple Watch with the same quality and qualities that we've come to expect. But one thing I was curious about was why the always-on screen tech wasn't possible via a software update. Why do you need to buy the Series 5 to have the always-on screen? Well, here's Deer Bone to explain. Specifically, Apple says it can dynamically change the screen's refresh rate from as fast as 60 hertz to as slow as one hertz, updating just once per second. Doing that allows the screen to draw radically less power when it's in ambient mode. The technology that makes that possible is a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide LTPO, for short, display that Apple developed. The tech behind an L-TPO version

Starting point is 00:14:16 of an OLED screen is interesting, especially since it was first introduced in the series four, but it's not something you really need to understand. The screen looks identical to the series four. It's just as big and bright. last year's watch lacks are the chips to control the refresh rate on that LTP screen, so it won't be able to do Always On. Specifically, the Series 5 has an ultra-low-powered display driver, efficient power management integrated circuit, and new ambient light sensor, according to Apple, end quote. And I'll let John Gruber sum up the praise for the Always On screen on the watch. quote, series five's always on display solves my biggest complaint about Apple Watch since day one.

Starting point is 00:15:00 It's not perfect, but it's more than good enough. No other feature or improvement to Apple Watch to date has ever made me this happy. The watch face doesn't really stay on all the time. Instead, when on previous Apple Watch generations, the display would turn off completely, the watch face goes into a low power mode. The display dims, but remains bright enough to be legible in most conditions. Second hands go away and you pretty much just see the hour and minutes. Raise your wrist and it fades into full brightness.

Starting point is 00:15:30 Notifications do not appear on screen while the watch is in the low power state. To me, the always on display is the Apple Watch's retina display moment. Once you see it, you can't go back, end quote. Let's end today with an interesting raise. FarmWise is a startup that develops autonomous farming robots for removing weeds in farm fields. It has raised a $15.5 million series A, which follows a $5.7 million seed round in 2017. Quote, currently in the prototype stage, these vehicles look like giant lumbering personnel carriers or the like, but are in fact precision instruments which scan the ground

Starting point is 00:16:15 for invasive weeds among the crop and carefully pluck them out. Each day, one farm-wise robot can weed crops to feed a medium-sized city of approximately 400,000. thousand inhabitants, said FarmWise CEO Sebastian Boyer in a press release announcing the latest funding round. We are now enhancing the scale and depth of our proprietary plant detection technology to help growers with more of their processes and on more of their crops. Looking ahead, our robots will increasingly act as specialized doctors for crops, monitoring individual health and adjusting targeted interventions according to a crop's individual needs, said Boyer. So not only will these lumbering platforms delicately remove,

Starting point is 00:16:55 move weeds, but they'll inspect for aphids and fungus and apply the necessary remedies, end quote. One question would be how many of these big machines can farm-wise build with that amount of money? If you click through to the picture, these are big boys. Maybe more prototypes or crop-specific vehicles, maybe more testing. But anyway, cool. This was the sort of sci-fi future we were promised, big lumbering autonomous machines

Starting point is 00:17:24 doing all of the farming for us. Of course, that sort of thing was also supposed to be happening on Mars or something, but, you know, baby steps. That's all for today. Nothing extra exciting to share. I am a little bit bummed because I've caught a case of jury duty. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/18 - Does Anyone Know What "Unlimited" Means?

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