My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 6/5/14 Talking Tech Topics and More

Current tech topics

Apple's "World Wide Developer Conference" took place this week

What happened?
- OSX 10:10  Yosemite
Cosmetic enhancements to your Mac's operating system
• iCloud Drive is new and will allow for synchronizing all your content across your Macs. It’s all accessible via iOS devices as well. (Plus, it will also sync over Windows devices.) Neat! Documents sync across multiple devices in iCloud. Apple, however, is not typically great at services, so Dropbox may only be OK.
• Mail has some tweaks and a nifty new feature called “Markup” where you can draw on your emails and PDFs using the trackpad to take notes (or draw dirty pictures lol).
- IOS 8  
• iOS 8 has a new feature that will allow you quick access to your favorite contacts. It looks a little like Facebook’s Chat Heads.
• QuickType is a new feature that will help you type faster. As you type you’ll get suggestions for the next words in the sentence. It’ll be personalized and based off context. Welcome to the birth of a whole new set of autocorrect fails!
• Apple announced HealthKit: a single place where your apps can interact to give you a real-time picture of your current vitals.

Faster Wi-Fi coming.... in 2018

Chinese ICT developer Huawei has confirmed that it was able to achieve a record transmission data rate of 10.53Gbps on 5GHz frequency bands in laboratory trials of their new 802.11ax WiFi (WLAN) wireless networking standard. The testing, which was conducted at Huawei's campus in Shenzhen, used a mix of MIMO-OFDA, intelligence spectrum allocation, interference coordination and hybrid access to achieve the result and the new technology could hit the market during 2018.  Wah Way


SnapChat CEO Evan Spiegel's explicit college emails leak

Snapchat chief executive Evan Spiegel apologized for e-mails he sent during his fraternity days that celebrated getting drunk and covorting with sorority women.

The profanity-laced e-mails were published yesterday by Gawker Media’s Valleywag blog and mostly related to Spiegel organizing Stanford University fraternity parties for Kappa Sigma in 2009 and 2010.

“I’m obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic e-mails during my fraternity days were made public,” Spiegel said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

“I have no excuse. I’m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them. They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women.”

The disclosure of the e-mails is the latest growing pain faced by Spiegel, 23, whose Los Angeles-based company, SnapChat makes a mobile application for disappearing photo messages.

Looks like Spiegel coud've used SnapChat back in the day....

Solar Roadways Project Beats $1M Goal, Should Enter Production

It appears an Idaho-based company that created prototype panels for constructing roads that (among other features) gather solar power, will be going into production after it exceeded its crowdfunding goal of $1M. ... Solar Roadways' Indiegogo project has already exceeded $1.6 million. The hexagonal-shaped solar panels consist of four layers, including photovoltaic cells, LED lights, an electronic support structure (circuit board) and a base layer made of recyclable materials. The panels plug together to form circuits that can then use LED lights to create any number of traffic patterns, as well as issue lighted warnings for drivers. The panels also have the ability to melt snow and ice. Along with the crowdfunding money, Solar Roadways has received federal grant money for development.
 

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.