The Tablet Decline

The tablet market has now been in decline for 10 quarters in a row. Q1 2017 saw an 8.5 percent year-over-year decline: 36.2 million units shipped worldwide, compared to 39.6 million units in the same quarter last year. The very thin silver lining is that the decline was slightly less than in the previous five quarters, which all saw double-digit drops.

The estimates come from IDC, which counts both slate (declining since 2014) and detachable (slightly up) form factors, meaning tablets with keyboards are included. The top two tablet makers maintained their positions: Apple was first and Samsung second. The top five vendors accounted for 60.2 percent of the market, up from 57.3 percent last year, and nobody managed to ship more than 10 million units:

Apple saw its shipment numbers fall once again and lost 1.3 percentage points in market share as a result. After 13 consecutive quarters of year-over-year shipment declines, the company is back to the numbers it saw in its first year of iPad sales.

Samsung shipped the same number of tablets as a year ago, which meant it ended up gaining 1.3 percentage points. In this quarter, the South Korean gained on its American competitor, which was the case for most of 2016.

Huawei shipped 700,000 more units this quarter, catapulting it into third place, thanks to a 2.3 percentage point jump, ahead of Amazon and Lenovo. It was the only company among the top five to experience growth this past quarter.

Amazon and Lenovo were both flat in shipments, which meant they increased their market share slightly. Nevertheless, all three of these companies are still a far cry from the market leaders.

“As far as most are aware, the tablet market was created in 2010 with the launch of the original iPad, despite unsuccessful product attempts by other OEMs in the years leading up to this,” IDC program president Ryan Reith said in a statement. “The rate at which the tablet market grew from 2010 to 2013 was unlike many other consumer-oriented device markets we’ve seen before. However, it appears for many reasons consumers became less eager to refresh these devices, or in some instances purchase them at all. We continue to believe the leading driver for this was the increased dependency on smartphones, along with rather minimal technology and form factor progression.”

Thinkware Dashcam Review

By George Harding

This small device gives you a recording of your view out the front window of you r car. It attaches to the windshield with a sticky patch and connects with the power socket in your car with an included cable.

The list of features is impressive! In addition to recording in normal mode, additional modes are incident recording, parking surveillance and manual modes.

Normal recording mode keeps a record for pre-set interval lengths, from 1 minute to about 2 hours. Incident recording means that when an impact occurs, the period 10 seconds before and 10 after are automatically saved for evidentiary purposes. Manual recording lets you record when you want. Recording for all modes is 1080p and 30 fps.

The cable used to attach the dashcam to power only allows connection to a power outlet like that previously used for a cigarette lighter. Having no way to connect to any other power source prevents one from learning the features of the product anywhere but inside a car with the motor running.

Many of the controls for the dashcam are available through a downloadable app for your iOS or Android phone. This tool only works when it connected to the dashcam by Wifi.

To connect to WiFi, you must press the WiFi button on the dashcam, look in Settings/WiFi for Thinkware and connect to start the network. A password only needs to be entered once. Then go back to the app and connect to WiFi. Normal and other modes of recording are suspended while in WiFi mode.

A microSDHC card is included, which provides 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of recording space, depending on the model. There are several sections in the card in which data are stored.

GPS is built in and speed and location are stored as data is recorded.

Two additional features are LDWS (lane departure warning system) and FCWS (Front collision warning system) which give you safety warnings to help you drive safely.

The included Quick Start Guide (English and French) is a very helpful source of info for both setting up and operating the dashcam.

The Thinkware Dashcam is a compact, useful device to keep a record of your driving and provides data when an incident occurs.

www.thinkware.com
Price $225 (Amazon)

Google Docs Phishing Attack

The sophisticated attack appeared to come from a trusted source asking you to open a Google Document. If you clicked, it took you to a page to open the "Google Docs" app with your Google account. This granted access to your email account and contacts.

Google said it stopped the attacks in one hour.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says anyone who clicked on the link should check their Google App permissions and remove the one called "Google Docs." You can do that by clicking this link.

It's unclear how widespread the attack was, but reporters at publications including BuzzFeed, CNN and Motherboard tweeted that they'd receiving the phishing email, as had many of their sources.

According to threat intelligence firm Cisco (CSCO, Tech30) Talos, at the peak of the attack its customer base saw around 150 messages sent per minute. The firm said the impact to the general population was likely much larger. (Talos declined to share its customer base figures.)

On Wednesday afternoon, "Google Docs" was a global trending topic on Twitter, meaning a lot of people were talking about the attacks.

In a statement to CNNTech, a Google spokesperson said the attack affected fewer than 0.1% of Gmail users. (Gmail has over one billion monthly active users, and 0.1% of that total would be at least one million accounts.)

Google said contact information was accessed and used in the attack, but no other information was exposed.

"We protected users from this attack through a combination of automatic and manual actions, including removing the fake pages and applications, and pushing updates through Safe Browsing, Gmail, and other anti-abuse systems," the company said in a statement.

It's not clear who was behind the phishing attempts. This attack spread quickly -- the fake Google Docs app read users' contacts and sent more phishing attempts to their contacts.

PowerBee

By George Harding

This drone can do remarkable things. It does not fly alone, but rather flies with a group of similar drones and can form patterns in the sky.

Each drone carries 9 RGB color-changing LED lights which can be used to create patterns, logos and animations. It is limited only by your imagination!

What is most interesting is that a fleet of PowerBees can be directed to  perform in formation.

This attribute can be used to portray a vivid design in ghe sky. The array can be controlled by as few as one person.

PowerBee includes intelligent collision avoidance and safety zone control to protect operational safety.

When flight is combined with a source of music, positioning and movement of the drone array can be coordinated to produce an impressive performance.

www.powervision.me

Price unknown at this time

MSFT Win 10 S

Microsoft hopes a new Windows 10 operating system called Windows 10 S will usurp Chromebook's domination in education and provide a better way for students to learn.

The new version of Windows, announced at an event in New York Tuesday, is targeted at teachers, students, artists and creators. It's got features very similar to that of Chrome OS in Chromebooks, which dominates the education market.

It has a traditional Windows 10 desktop look, and will only run applications downloaded from the Windows App store. That means all applications will be verified and secure.

Windows 10 acts like a "container" that will run secure apps. A version of Microsoft's Office Suite will also come to Windows 10 S.

The container model is similar to that of Chrome OS, which can use only apps available in the Chrome Web Store. Chromebooks populate classrooms in the U.S. and Sweden, and their adoption is growing in other parts of the world.

Acer, Dell, Asus, HP and other PC makers will offer education PCs with the new OS starting at $189. The PCs will be available this summer. The OS is free for all schools, and Office 365 is also free for teachers and education providers.

Until now, education providers like the University of Phoenix -- which is a big user of Surface tablets -- were mainly using the regular OS. But with Chromebook adoption growing, it remains to be seen if Windows 10 S could be a challenger.

Windows 10 S is "inspired by students and teachers," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group, during the event.

The OS will be easy to use, it'll be easy to log into, and apps will be tuned to students to promote learning. There is new content for STEM education for the OS. Microsoft also showed off a Arduino-based robot, created as part of a STEM lesson plan. The OS will also support Minecraft Education Edition, which is popular with students.

Magellan RoadMate 6630T-LM

By George Harding

You can’t tell from this product name, but  I was interested in testing  the dash cam that is a part of the product.

Magellan has made navigation devices for many years, but only recently have they included a dash cam. A navigation device shows you a map with you in the center. It uses GPS info to allow your location to change on the map as you drive around. One of the most useful aspects of the device is the ability to direct you to an input  destination by map and by voice.

Recent improvements also allow you to find and select as a destination stores, restaurants, gas stations and more. Traffic info can also be helpful to you as you choose the fastest route.

The 6630T-LM includes a video camera that shows a picture on its screen of what you see outside of your windshield. The view can be recorded and played back later. In the event of an accident or you can take a picture.

A unique feature is the ability to record shortly prior to an accident and shortly after, giving you pictorial evidence you may need.

Recordings  can be viewed either with the dash cam unit or with a separate app downloadable toon your laptop.

The product comes with the RoadMate, windshield mount, power adapter, User Handbook and an 8 GB SDHC card.

One of the first things you are to do is download the latest software and maps. You need a WiFi connection to do this and the device needs to be connected to power. Unfortunately, the only power connector is one that hooks up to the power plug in your car. It would help to have a connector for a wall socket of USB connector cord, since the downloads are lengthy.

I had difficulty attaching  RoadMate to my windshield. The pictorial instructions in the Handbook weren’t helpful, but finally I figured it out.

New Bluetooth Speaker Protocol

Meet Tempow, a French startup that can make your Bluetooth speakers more versatile. The company has been working on a new implementation of the Bluetooth protocol in order to let you play music from your phone on multiple speakers and headphones at once.

Bluetooth speakers have become a common gift and a hit item in consumer electronics stores. Most people now have multiple Bluetooth speakers and headphones at home. While it’s nice that you don’t have to use cables anymore, it can be quite frustrating that you can only play music on one device at a time.

Many manufacturers avoid this issue by relying on Wi-Fi and different protocols, such as Spotify Connect. This is also Sonos’ main selling point. But most speakers are still Bluetooth only.

Tempow is replacing the Bluetooth driver on your phone so that you can send music to multiple Bluetooth devices at once. It works with standard Bluetooth chipsets and all Bluetooth audio devices out there.

It only works on Android as it requires some low-level modifications. As a side note, Apple has developed its own Bluetooth chipset for the AirPods, and the company is probably going to reuse this proprietary chip in all its devices.

After pairing the Bluetooth devices with your phone, you can activate them one by one, enable stereo by differentiating left and right speakers and adjust the volume individually. In other words, it works pretty much like a Sonos system.

Tempow thinks its technology could be valuable for smartphone manufacturers. That’s why the company has been negotiating with them to license its technology.