New Xiaomi Smartphone

Xiaomi Corp. took the wraps off its strongest contender yet to the iPhone, a 2,599 yuan ($390) plus-sized device with dual cameras and a pressure-sensitive screen that’s less than half the price of Apple Inc.’s top-of-the-line model.

With the 5.7-inch Mi 5S Plus, Xiaomi, once known as a purveyor of inexpensive but innovative phones, is taking aim at fans of premium devices. It’s the Chinese startup’s most powerful device, sporting one of Qualcomm Inc.’s speediest processors as well as 6 gigabytes of memory. With a screen that detects varying degrees of pressure -- much like Apple’s 3D Touch -- and 13-megapixel cameras, it stacks up well against the iPhone in the specifications department.

Xiaomi needs a hit. It’s slipped behind Huawei Technologies Co. and Oppo in a home market it once dominated, while efforts to make headway in Latin America and India have stalled. Samsung Electronics Co.’s global recall of the Note 7 opens a window of opportunity not just for Apple, but also for Xiaomi to try and wrest market share away from the global leader.

“We were aiming to challenge Samsung and Apple in camera capability. With the Mi 5S, I believe we beat both of them," co-founder and chief executive Lei Jun said at a launch event in Beijing at which it also introduced a 65-inch, 4K smart television.

Mozilla Stops Firefox OS Development

Mozilla ended development of Firefox OS phones in 2015, but there was still hope for the operating system. Mozilla wanted Firefox OS to power smart TVs, tablets, routers, all-in-one PCs, and all kinds of other devices. But that’s no longer in the cards. Mozilla just announced it’s now ending all commercial development of Firefox OS.

Firefox OS powered smart TVs, and had bigger plans

If all you saw was the big news about Mozilla giving up on Firefox OS for phones, you might be surprised to hear that the commercial project was still active. But it was. In fact, Panasonic released a line of smart TVs that ran Mozilla’s operating system.

Little was heard about Mozilla’s ongoing efforts with Firefox OS, but this week’s announcement sheds some light on what’s been going on.

At the end of 2015, Mozilla decided to cease work on Firefox OS for smartphones and “pivot to connected devices.” On January 31, 2016, Mozilla transitioned the Firefox OS project to a lower-priority “Tier 3” project. For a time, only Mozilla’s Connected Devices team worked on it.

Mozilla still had plans for Firefox OS. “We had ideas for other opportunities for Firefox OS, perhaps as a platform for explorations in the world of connected devices, and perhaps for continued evolution of Firefox OS TV,” reads Mozilla’s announcement. That’s why Mozilla continued developing Firefox OS 2.6. A “transition project” was even created to clean up the open source code and hand it over to the community, allowing other people to continue working on the phone operating system if they so liked. But Mozilla wasn’t going to do the work itself.

Android and Chrome

Andromeda may be the future, but Android and Chrome OS are already merging. Google just made Android apps available on the stable version of Chrome OS for the first time, and organizations can now centrally manage Android apps on their Chromebooks.

Stable Chromebooks get Android apps

Yes, certain Chromebooks got Android apps and the Google Play Store a little while back. But that was only in the unstable developer versions of Chrome OS. As of Chrome OS version 53.0.2785.129, the Google Play Store and Android apps are now available on the stable version of Chrome OS.

However, they’re only available on the Acer Chromebook R11 and Asus Chromebook Flip. They should hopefully be available on the stable version of the Chromebook Pixel (2015) soon, too, but aren’t yet. Google hasn’t given a reason for the delay, so hopefully support isn’t too far off.

On these devices, you’ll now find an Enable Google Play Store option in the Settings application without switching over to developer builds. The Google Play Store itself is still considered beta, but it works on a stable version of Chrome OS.

This is just a first step to rolling out Android apps, which will arrive on many other Chromebooks later in 2016 and 2017. With Google’s developers stabilizing the feature, they can begin bringing it to new hardware.

4K Ultra HD

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is bullish about 4K Ultra HD and emerging new video technologies.  

Communications director Jeff Joseph dropped some statistics on a small gathering of press members at this month’s CEDIA 2016 in Dallas, and the signs of a full-blown 4K era have finally arrived.

New display technologies provide a more immersive and realistic experience, Joseph said.

“I believe that 4K is our destiny – standing as the exciting next development in the consumer home entertainment experience. Seeing is believing – 8 million-plus pixels – four times the resolution of FullHD, powerful up-scaling, lifelike colors, more detail and more. The time is right.”

Wireless Charging

Energous Corp. has seen its share price more than double this year, largely on the promise of a smartphone future without electrical outlets or charging mats.

San Jose, California-based Energous is one of a handful of companies racing to introduce technologies that may allow our phones, tablets and smartwatches to be powered from across a room -- all at the same time and completely wirelessly. And 2017 may be the year they finally find their way into consumers’ homes.

In the second half of next year, Energous’s technology will be used in a transmitter that can charge devices from three to five feet away using radio waves, according to Chief Executive Officer Steve Rizzone. In 2018, the company hopes to introduce a similar transmitter that can be integrated into devices like flat-screen TVs to juice up gadgets from 15 feet away, Rizzone said in an interview. The company declined to provide details on how much power an Energous device will be able to beam at what distance, or share efficiency data.

Though early wireless charging technologies have been slow to catch on, successful application of so-called Wireless Charging 2.0 would help tech giants and entrepreneurs alike solve the problem of mobility -- devices need long battery life to be useful. It would also disrupt a market dominated by Qi technology, which is built into devices including Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and requires placement of a device on a physical charging pad. According to Grand View Research, the wireless-charging market is expected to grow to $22.5 billion by 2022, up from $1.87 billion in 2014.

Google Assistant

Google unleashed its digital assistant for the first time, arriving late to the intensifying race among the largest technology companies to create a more personal and lucrative way for computers to interact with humans.

The Google Assistant uses artificial intelligence tools, such as voice recognition and natural-language processing, to answer questions and satisfy other requests delivered verbally and in formats such as text messages. The first incarnation is as a digital buddy inside Google’s new Allo messaging app, which the Alphabet Inc. unit unveiled Wednesday. The assistant will also appear inside Google’s Home internet-connected speaker -- expected next month -- in new Android smartphones and in devices such as cars and watches made by other companies, Google executive Nick Fox said.

"It is a significant effort across Google and it brings together many teams," Fox said in an interview in San Francisco. "It’s a layer across Google -- the glue that links our existing services and technology together."

Samsung Replacing Galaxy Note 7s

The burning Galaxy Note 7 is singeing Samsung with consumers. Badly.

The Korean electronics giant said late Tuesday that 500,000 replacements for the phablet-sized phones,recalled last week because of problems with igniting batteries, had arrived in the U.S. and would be available for exchange Wednesday. So far it's exchanged 25% of Note 7 devices owned by U.S. consumers. A Samsung spokeswoman said a "vast majority" have opted for another Galaxy smartphone.

But a recent survey suggests many of the original buyers, the fans who rushed to get the critically acclaimed phone in the first weeks, may avoid the Note 7 on the second go-around.