Friday, November 30, 2018

Best Selling iPhone

Apple Inc’s iPhone XR has been the company’s best-
selling iPhone model every day since it went on sale
in mid-October, a company executive told Reuters on
Wednesday.

The iPhone XR, which costs $749, was announced
alongside two other models, the iPhone XS and XS Max,
which start at $999. The XR brings many key features of
those phones to a lower price point, and analysts widely
viewed it as Apple’s effort to bring facial recognition
unlocking and its newest processing chip to a wider set
of buyers.

But a string of negative forecasts from smartphone
suppliers in recent weeks has sparked concerns that the
model might not be performing as Apple had hoped.

Those reports, alongside investor anxiety over Apple’s
Nov. 1 disclosure it will no longer provide investors with
iPhone unit sales data, have contributed to a more than

20 percent drop from Apple’s peak share price in October.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

LG Phone with Too Many Cameras

If the five cameras on LG's V40 ThinQ seemed like a
lot to you, how about 16? The Korean company may
be working on a smartphone camera with that many
lenses, according to a recently filed patent seen by
LetsGoDigital. Arranged in a 4x4 matrix, it's designed
to capture a scene from multiple perspectives in a single
shot. That will allow you to shoot 3D movies and manipulate
shots by, say, moving someone's head around or replacing
it completely.

In one example, LG shows how you'd be able to select the
best photo in a series, or create a single shot from multiple
angles. You could also rotate the head of your subject (or a
teddy bear, as shown below) with whatever angle makes
them look best.

In another example, you'd be able to draw around a
person's head with your finger. The system would use AI
to recognize them and search for any other photos. It could
then replace the head in the photo you just took with, for
instance, a more flattering shot.

According to the patent, the smartphone would let you use
the main camera to take selfies by equipping it with ... a mirror.
Yes, the same kind of "technology" used on much older flip
phones and compact cameras.

There's no indication yet that LG will ever release such a phone,
but it's obviously trying to stay on top of the technology. Much
like the megapixel race several years ago, smartphone makers
are trying to grab the interest of increasingly bored consumers
by adding more cameras, it appears. Samsung's Galaxy A9
has four at the back, and Nokia will soon release a model with
five. The way it's going, the entire back of your phone will soon
be riddled with lenses.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Lowe's To Dump Smart Home

Giant home improvement retailer Lowe's is giving up
on the smart home market. The company, which has
more than 2,000 locations, recently announced plans
to exit the home automation market and is seeking a
buyer for its Iris Smart Home business as part of a
“strategic reassessment.”

The announcement is part of multiple other maneuvers
by Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) that include closing its Orchard
Supply Hardware business, selling its Alacrity Renovation
Service and all its locations in Mexico, and shutting more
than 50 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Speaking to investors, president and CEO Marvin Ellison,
noted, “Our top priority this quarter was taking the necessary
steps to build a sustainable foundation to position Lowe’s
long-term success, by exiting underperforming stores of
non-core businesses. This will allow us to intensify our

focus on our core retail business.”

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

InBev Marketing

Most of us know O’Doul’s as that weird beer in the corner
of the bodega cooler. Released in 1990 as a nonalcoholic
alternative for people who wanted beer without the booze,
it’s since become something of a cultural punching bag.
But many of us would like to have the social experience of
drinking without actually drinking–suggesting that part of
O’Doul’s bad rap might be its green-and-gold branding,
which portrays it as a faux-Irish lager rather than embracing
its role as a beer alternative.

In anticipation of “Blackout Wednesday,” as the Wednesday
before Thanksgiving when many college students come home
and party is known, the Anheuser-Busch corporate social
responsibility department has developed a potentially brilliant
marketing play. In select bars across Manhattan, they’ll be
experimenting with a new, limited-edition O’Doul’s can design
by the celebrated graphic designer Mr. Kiji.

Instead of green and gold, Kiji reimagined the can with quirky
geometric patterns and retro pastels. The typography looks
more like something out of a zine than a label for a beer can;
the whole design is pure Instagram bait.

“I came into this role a few months ago when we were looking
across our portfolio. We have over 100 brands . . . and you can
imagine we don’t give the same priority to all those brands,
when we have Budweiser, Bud Light, and Goose Island,” says
Adam Warrington, vice president of corporate social responsibility
at Anheuser-Busch. “But then we have O’Doul’s. At 28 years old,
there’s a a level of equity in the brand, but it’s not a new brand.
It’s been there for a while and it’s been untouched for a couple

decades.”

Monday, November 26, 2018

Happy Cyber-Monday

Happy Cyber-Monday!

In other news:

Apple has reportedly acquired Silk Labs, a little-known
startup which focused on building on-device machine
learning software.


The purchase, which took place earlier this year according to
The Information, would be a natural fit for Apple’s privacy-
centric approach to AI. After an unsuccessful foray into the
smart home, Silk Labs developed on-device machine learning
services. This means processing data without sending it to the
cloud — a method that Apple has also preferred.


Silk Labs itself is not a familiar name in tech. The company
was cofounded by former Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal and
launched only one product: an “intelligent camera and hub
for your smart home” name Sense. The hub was stylish
and well-designed, and intended to connect together smart

home products including thermostats, speakers, and cameras.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving

Our offices will be closed until Cyber Monday. 

Have a great Thanksgiving and a profitable Black Friday!!

Skype on Alexa

Microsoft announced in September that Skype calling
would come to devices with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant
by the end of this year, and it’s finally made good on that
Promise.

Amazon today confirmed to The Verge that starting this
week, Alexa users will be able to make outgoing Skype
voice and video calls, accept incoming calls, and make
calls to domestic and international numbers via Skype’s
eponymous SkypeOut service. Saying something like
“Alexa, call John on Skype” or “Alexa, call 217-804-7734
on Skype” will place a call, while answering an incoming

call is as easy as responding “Alexa, answer.”

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Smart Speaker Shipments

Analyst firm Canalys says that global smart speaker
shipments grew 137 percent year over year in the third
quarter, reaching 19.7 million units. That was up from
less than half that figure (8.3 million) a year ago.

Roughly 75 million devices by year-end. The firm has
projected 75 million devices “for the whole of 2018.” It’s
not entirely clear whether this is shipments or an estimate
of the installed base of smart speaker owners. Previously,
Canalys projected global smart speaker ownership would
reach 100 million by the end of the year — so it’s likely a
downward revision of that earlier estimate.

Canalys also said that Amazon had reclaimed the top
position after Google had overtaken it for the previous
two quarters.

“Riding on the success of its Prime Day,” the report said,
“Amazon shipped 6.3 million Echo smart speakers in Q3,
reclaiming the top spot after two quarters of playing second
fiddle to Google. This quarter, Google shipped 5.9 million
units, putting it just behind Amazon.”

Amazon has 75 percent of the market. According to Canalys,
Amazon now has a nearly 75 percent market share to
Google’s almost 25, with Chinese companies filling the
remaining less than 1 percent. The world’s three largest
markets for smart speakers are the U.S., China and the UK,
in that order.

It should be noted that there have been meaningful differences
in some of the analyst firms’ estimates of market size and market
share in the past. One recent illustration of that is Consumer
Intelligence Research Partners’ (CIRP) assertion that U.S. smart
speaker growth has started to level off. Some of these differences
may be due to methodology; Canalys tracks global device

shipments, CIRP is using U.S. consumer sampling.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Google Night Sight

Two years ago, Google’s release of the first Pixel
smartphone radically raised the bar for the image
quality we could expect from mobile cameras. Today,
even as everyone else struggles to catch up, Google
is extending its lead with the introduction of an equally
revolutionary new camera. It’s called Night Sight, and
it effectively lets your phone camera see in the dark.
Only it doesn’t require any additional hardware or cost:
Night Sight is a new camera mode for Pixel phones.

By now, you may have seen my testing with a pre-
release version of Night Sight that was uncovered by
the Android enthusiast community. The things that beta
software could do were truly unprecedented and awe-
inspiring, and the proper Night Sight release that Google
is serving up to all Pixel models today keeps that high
quality while providing an easier way to access the mode.
This week, I spoke with Google’s Yael Pritch, lead
researcher on Night Sight, about how the company built
its new night mode and the constant improvements it is
Implementing.

Night Sight is momentous because it’s a software change
that delivers a leap in performance that previously only new

hardware could bring.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Xbox One - Almost a PC

After years of unfulfilled promises and a few weeks of
build-up, the Xbox One family finally supports keyboards
and mice. Alright, so it's still a feature reserved for
members of the beta-esque Xbox Insider Program and
few games actually work with the different control scheme,
but it's here nevertheless. Keyboards, mice and consoles
aren't an abnormal pairing. I remember playing Unreal
Tournament on the Dreamcast with keys and clicks, and the
PS4 has supported the alternative peripherals for years, even
if developers have largely ignored them. It's a slightly bigger
deal on Xbox One, though. After all, it technically runs Windows
10, the OS of choice for PC gamers, albeit with the clunky Xbox
UI on top. The line between console and computer, then,
becomes ever blurrier.

In the immediate future, the impact of keyboard and mouse
support on Xbox One is negligible. Games that work with the
control option on day one or within the next few weeks include
Bomber Crew, Children of Morta, Deep Rock Galactic, Minion
Master, Moonlighter, Strange Brigade, Vigor, War Thunder,
Warface, Warframe, Wargroove, Warhammer: Vermintide 2and
X-Morph Defense. I know little to nothing about any of these titles.
DayZ on the other hand, I am familiar with, but that's been a
dead game for a while now.

Adapters that trick the Xbox One into accepting keyboard and
mouse inputs have existed since the console launched, but
official support is something different. There's going to be a
special Designed for Xbox program for approved peripherals
that include an Xbox home button, for instance -- the first product
of which is likely to come from well-known gamer brand Razer
early next year. More importantly, developers will have to actually
consider the control scheme when creating or updating games,

rather than simply translating inputs into pad-speak as adapters do.