My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 7/25/14 Talking Tech and BB&T Atlanta Open

Current tech topics  -  

Rick is working the BB&T Atlanta Open tennis tourney at Atlantic Station this week.. featuring some of the best men's tennis players in the world.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show July 25, 2014’ on Audioboo

Apple iPad Sales are a little Shaky

Apple sold only 13.2 million new tablets, down from 14.6 million a year earlier. This comes on the heels of a disappointing quarter this spring. “IPad sales met our expectations, but we realize they didn’t meet many of yours,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told investors, blaming inventory issues and softness in the U.S. and European markets. He said that the most important thing to Apple was that iPad users were enjoying them and using them a lot.

In the call with investors, Cook focused on the enterprise market. Apple has a big proportion of that market, but Apple isn’t satisfied with how many businesses are adopting tablets. He says that a recent deal with IBM to create better enterprise apps will help speed that process up. “I just think we have to do some more things to get the business side of it moving in a faster trajectory,” he said. “I think we’re now onto something that can really do that.”

The overall tablet market has been shaky, and many people think it’s because smartphones with more powerful processors and bigger, better screens make them seem less necessary. Whenever Apple does release its new iPhones, they will likely be both bigger and more powerful than the iPhone 5S. That’s likely to be good news for Apple as it tries to claw market share back from Samsung. It could also be bad news for the iPad, as it tries to sell iPads to people with big phones in their pockets. But Apple has never been shy of cannibalizing its own products, so the iPad’s loss could be the company’s gain.

With a Apple smartwatch potentially coming, what does that mean for Apple and Apple fanboys?

Dealing With 'Advertising Pollution'

How do you like going to a website and then you have to watch a 25 second video before you can read the article?

Everyone gets that advertising is what powers the internet, and that our favorite sites wouldn't exist without it," writes longtime ad guy Ken Segall in The Relentless (and annoying) Pursuit of Eyeballs.

"Unfortunately, for some this is simply license to abuse. Let's call it what it is: advertising pollution."

CNN's in-your-face, your-video-will-play-in-00:25-seconds approach, once unthinkable, has become the norm. "Google," Segall adds, "is a leader in advertising pollution, with YouTube being a showcase for intrusive advertising. Many YouTube videos start with a mandatory ad, others start with an ad that can be dismissed only after the first 10 seconds. Even more annoying are the ad overlays that actually appear on top of the video you're trying to watch. It won't go away until you click the X. If you want to see the entire video unobstructed, you must drag the playhead back to start over. Annoying. And disrespectful, but they find it effective.

Japan To Offer $20,000 Subsidy For Fuel-Cell Cars

One of the barriers to entry for those looking to get a more eco-friendly car is price.

Would you be more willing to get a eco-friendly car if you were able to take advantage of a subsidy.
Toyota is on track to launch the first consumer fuel-cell car in Japan next year, and the country's Prime Minister says the government wants to assist the new alternative to gas-driven vehicles. Shinzo Abe announced that Japan will offer subsidies of almost $20,000 for fuel cell cars, which will decrease the Toyota model's cost by about 28%. He said, "This is the car of a new era because it doesn't emit any carbon dioxide and it's environmentally friendly. The government needs to support this. Honda is also planning to release a fuel-cell car next year.

Australian Website Waits Three Years To Inform Customers of Data Breach

Companies should be forced to tell consumers when their is a data breach.

Australian daily deals website "Catch of the Day" waited three years to tell its customers their email addresses, delivery addresses, hashed passwords, and some credit card details had been stolen. Its systems were breached in April 2011 and the company told police, banks and credit cards issuers, but didn't tell the Privacy Commissioner or customers until July 18th.

Pricetag on the new 105-inch Samsung TV - $120,000

An Ultra-HD TV

If you do buy this set, you'll get the white-glove treatment from a Samsung field engineer, who'll come to your home, explain the TV's features, help you optimize it for your viewing environment, and, presumably, whip up the first batch of popcorn.

Other than its ginormous size, the TV has a few unique features, including a curved screen with a 21x9 aspect ratio and 5120x2160 resolution to accommodate the extra screen width. These 21:9 TVs are likely to appeal to movie buffs, as they let you watch the many Blu-ray movies that are shot in the wider 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratios without "letterboxing"—having black bars appear above and below the image.

That also means that regular 16:9 high-def programs, such as those from cable or satellite TV service providers, appear as "pillar boxed" images, with black bars appearing on either side. But thanks to Samsung’s Quad Screen Multi-Link feature, you can divide the screen into four quadrants so you can watch live TV, stream video and access the Web, all at once.
 

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 7/10/14 Talking Tech

Current tech topics

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show July 11, 2014’ on Audioboo

TSA Prohibits Taking Discharged Electronic Devices Onto Planes

(Right now international flights to U.S.)

The US Transport Security Administration revealed on Sunday that enhanced security procedures on flights coming to the US now include not allowing uncharged cell phones and other devices onto planes.

“During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted on board the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening,” TSA said in a statement.

Don't bring dead phones or laptops to those overseas airports for flights heading to the USA.
Department of Homeland Security officials warned last week that security would tighten at airports where flights head directly to the USA but without providing much detail about how the scrutiny would change.

But security officials said Sunday that the attention is focused on explosives that could be disguised as electronic devices.

4 in 10 US homes are cellphone only, skip landline

More American households are ditching their old telephones: 4 out of 10 only use cellphones, a government survey shows.

That's twice the rate from just five years ago, although the pace of dumping landlines seems to have slowed down in recent years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking phone use for a decade, and the number of households only using cellphones had been rising by about 5 percentage points each year. Lately, the increases have been smaller and last year it only went up 3 percentage points to 41 percent of U.S. homes.

Why the slight leveling off? Experts could only speculate. The lead researcher on the CDC report,

Stephen Blumberg, said it could be people are holding onto their landlines because it is part of their Internet and cable TV package.
— Not all homes have phones: About 3 percent have no landline or cellphone.

— About 9 percent have only landlines, and about 48 percent have both. Five years ago, 17 percent had only landlines, and about 60 percent had landlines and cellphones.

— Younger people rely more on cellphones: Nearly two-thirds of people in their late 20s live in households with only cellphones. Only 14 percent of people 65 and older use only cellphones.

— Men are a bit more likely to shun landlines than women.

Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View

Imagine showing up at the airport to catch your flight, looking at your plane, and noticing that instead of windows, the cockpit is now a smooth cone of aluminum. It may seem like the worst case of quality control in history, but Airbus argues that this could be the airliner of the future. In a new US patent application, the EU aircraft consortium outlines a new cockpit design that replaces the traditional cockpit with one that uses 3D view screens instead of conventional windows.

There’s a reason why cockpits are traditionally in the nose of a plane – not the least of which is the pilot being able to see where they're going. In addition to flying, being up front provides a clear view forward and downward for landing and taxiing. That’s all very useful, but it does tend to ruin the aerodynamics of the aircraft’s nose, which would ideally be lancet shaped. As aircraft have grown larger and more complicated, the nose has come to also include the radome, crew rest area and the front landing gear, and the current cockpit design reflects this.

Another problem is that aerospace engineers hate windows. They may be popular with passengers who like to see outside, and pilots, who like to not bang into things, but engineers see them as nothing but points of weakness in what should, ideally, be a solid cylinder. If nothing else, they’ll point to the alarming Comet airliner crashes of the 1950s, which were traced back to poor window design fatally weakening the fuselage. Windows mean heavy reinforcements and multiple layers of glass and plastic to strengthen hull integrity. In addition, placing the cockpit in the nose reduces the cabin size, where every inch is measured in thousands of dollars lost per flight.
 

Tesla Aims For $30,000 Price, 2017 Launch For Model E

The biggest complaint about Tesla Motors' electric vehicles is that they're far too expensive for the average motorist. The Roadster sold for $109,000, and the Model S for $70,000. Chris Porritt, the company's VP of engineering, says their next model will aim for much broader availability. The compact Model E aims to be competitive with the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series, which both start in the low $30,000 range. To reduce cost, the Model E won't be built mostly with aluminum, like the Model S, and it will be roughly 20% smaller as well. The construction of the "Gigafactory" for battery production will also go a long way toward reducing the price. Their goal for launch is sometime around late 2016 or early 2017.

Radar Changing the Face of Cycling and how drivers see bicyclists and how bikers see cars

MAKE Magazine has a great review of a bicycle radar product — showing off some of the early prototype innards: "The latest version features a 24 GHz radar antenna — high enough to resolve more targets and small enough to fit on a bike — an ARM processor, and Bluetooth LE to communicate with the front unit. The radar creates a doppler map, and recognizes not only the vehicle, but how far away it is and how quickly it’s approaching. It communicates this to the cyclist by a system of LEDs, and to the car by increasing the rate at which the tail light blinks as the car gets closer.

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 6/27/14 Talking Tech

Rick and Sully talk the tech topics of the week - and now it looks like the government will need a warrant to search your mobile phone.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show June 27, 2014’ on Audioboo

Current tech topics

Google i/o conference going on this week in San Francisco

An Android update, "the ultimate smart TV," wearable gadgets and so-called smart home devices are just some of the innovations Google showed off today as its two-day developers conference, known as Google I/O (for Input/Output), got underway in San Francisco.

In recent years, the conference has focused on smartphones and tablets, but this year Google's Android operating system is expected to stretch into cars, homes and smartwatches.
The head of Google's Android division, Sundar Pichai, took the stage first to talk about the growing reach of Android phones and tablets. He said Android now has one billion users, who take 93 million selfies, walk 1.5 trillion steps, and check their phones 100 billion times each day. Android app installations rose 236 percent over last year, he said.

Dave Burke, director of engineering for Android, described highlights of Google's latest Android operating system update, referred to as "L."

One new security feature called personal unlocking will allow a device to automatically unlock when its owner picks it up, by recognizing a familiar Bluetooth signal and other clues. If a stranger picks it up, it will stay locked.

It will have a battery saving feature that Burke says can extend battery life by 90 minutes, and 3D graphics capability for an immersive gaming experience.

Then came the much-anticipated announcement of Android's expansion into wearables. Google engineering director David Singleton introduced Android Wear, the software that will run smartwatches like the LG G and the Samsung Gear, which go on sale starting today on the Google Play store. Another model, the Moto 360, will be coming from Motorola later this summer.

Android Wear will enable developers to offer health tracking, navigation apps, voice-activated ride sharing requests, step-by-step cooking instructions and other functions in an even more portable format.

The company also announced Android Auto, which will bring many popular features of smartphones to new car models from more than 40 automakers


Report: Apple having pro athletes like Kobe Bryant test iWatch

-Does Sully want an iWatch?

Following recent news that Apple is prepping an iWatch for release this fall, a new report claims that the company has enlisted several professional athletes to test the still-unannounced device.
Top players from U.S. professional sports leagues, including Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), are testing the device's "fitness capabilities in intense training environments," according to 9to5Mac.

Among the athletes testing the iWatch are Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Kings player Dustin Brown. In addition to citing sources with knowledge of the collaboration, the report said Bryant was seen on Apple's Cupertino, Calif. campus last month to meet with the company's design chief Jony Ive.
While Apple appears to be covering all of its bases by involving nearly every professional U.S. sports league to test its new device, it's easy to see why the company is singling out Bryant in particular.

Facebook speeds up app after a trip to Africa

Facebook this week rolled out an update to its Android app that adds some new options for liking and tagging posts, but the social network also provided a sneak peek into how a team trip to Africa helped boost apps speeds for users around the globe.

Within the new update, Facebook added the ability to "Like" posts, photos, and Pages when you'reoffline; remove tags you've created; remove tags of yourself that your friends have created; and turn post notifications on and off, in addition to improvements for speed and reliability.

Facebook sent a team of product managers and engineers to Africa, where mobile performance doesn't quite match up with service in the U.S. - from network connections to actual devices.

The result of Facebook's trip? Its engineers and product managers came up with four key areas where they could tweak its mobile app a bit: Performace, data efficiency, networking, and the size of the application.

Facebook's modifications to the application's loading process involved tweaking how features get loaded within the app — on single-core mobile devices, this presented a bit of a bottleneck as the smartphones struggled to churn up a bunch of processes simultaneously. Facebook also tweaked the loading process for News Feed stories to more quickly deliver cached content (for those on crappy networks). Together, these two modifications "reduced start times by more than 50 percent in the six months following the trip to Africa," Sourov wrote.

China Builds Artificial Islands In South China Sea

Sand, cement, wood, and steel are China's weapons of choice as it asserts its claim over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Brunei have sparred for decades over ownership of the 100 islands and reefs, which measure less than 1,300 acres in total but stretch across an area about the size of Iraq. In recent months, vessels belonging to the People's Republic have been spotted ferrying construction materials to build new islands in the sea. Pasi Abdulpata, a Filipino fishing contractor who in October was plying the waters near Parola Island in the northern Spratlys, says he came across "this huge Chinese ship sucking sand and rocks from one end of the ocean and blasting it to the other using a tube."

Artificial islands could help China anchor its claim to waters that host some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The South China Sea may hold as much as 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China has considered the Spratlys—which it calls Nansha—part of its territory since the 1940s and on occasion has used its military might to enforce its claim. In 1988 a Chinese naval attack at Johnson South Reef, in the northern portion of the archipelago, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards.

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 5/30/14 Talking Tech Topics and More

Current tech topics

Rick with all of the tech news of the week...   including Blackberry since Sully wants that

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show May 30, 2014’ on Audioboo

Change your eBay Password

If you have an eBay account and haven't changed your password since May 21, you should do so today.
There was a big security and data breech at eBay and they have been advising everyone to change their password.

It's official - Apple buys Beats

It's not really about the headphones, it's about streaming music and what a big industry that is becoming.

Google Working on Tablets With Enhanced Vision Capabilities

Could be used for 2 purposes - will capture and allow you see 3D and complex images on a tablet as well as helping visually impaired.

Google is working to create some 4,000 prototypes of advanced mobile tablet devices equipped with features that will allow users to view complex 3D objects on their screens.

The development of the futuristic tablets, which are allegedly slated to begin production sometime in June, was reported May 22 by The Wall Street Journal, based on information from sources who had been briefed on Google's activities. The tablets will be equipped with 7-inch screens and include two rear cameras, infrared depth sensors and software that will render the three-dimensional images, the story reported,

Such a phone could be used, according to Project Tango, with apps that could use the camera to offer guidance to the visually impaired or even apps that use the camera to show shoppers how the furniture in a catalog would literally fit in their living rooms. Other potential apps could even scan a room in a home to create a virtual game world within it, or offer directions that don't stop at the front door of an office.

LG to announce New Ultra Widescreen Display

"Forget about 4K displays, are Ultra Widescreen 'cinematic' displays the real deal? Earlier this year LG announced its new 34UM95 – a 34-inch Ultra Widescreen monitor with a cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio and a generous 3440 x1440 resolution — a recent hands-on review suggests that this monitor might be the new productivity king, for those who simply can't stand that annoying bezel between their multiple monitors."

The  LG 34UM95 – a 34 inch Ultra Widescreen monitor with a “cinematic” 21:9 aspect ratio and a generous 3440 x1440 resolution is perfect for editing pictures and those long videos.
 

Redbox to get rid of 500 rental kiosks

Do you rent from Redbox. Redbox has more that 40,000 kiosks around the country.
To say there are a lot of Redbox kiosks is an understatement. Almost 70 million Americans currently live within a five mile drive of a Redbox kiosk. You probably walk by a Redbox kiosk more than once a day.

They are located inside or outside grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, and even restaurants.

A Redbox kiosk only takes up about 12-square feet of retail space and they hold about 630 movie and game discs.

By the end of 2014, the company will uninstall more than 500 of it's DVD/Blu-ray machines.

Will you notice a difference?

Probably not.
There will still be well over 40,000 Redbox kiosks to serve your needs.

Redbox is running out of locations to put new machines and with any business, current spots that are underperforming are the ones that are up for elimination.

Redbox is also looking to renegotiate their deals with movie studios by the end of the year. Redbox has been hurt by some of their current deals which don't give them access to movies until they have been on retailer's shelves for a couple weeks.

Redbox is also fighting the tough batter against streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. While many are used to Redbox's $1-per day rental service, the times are a changing.

While Redbox Instant, Redbox's attempt at a streaming service hasn't really taken hold, there is some room for growth. To attract customers and subscribers to "Instant," Redbox is offering bonuses like rental credits.