Let's Talk Tech
You can always count on Gates to take it up a notch!
Bill Gates accepts Mark Zuckerberg’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and nominates Elon Musk, Ryan Seacrest and Chris Anderson from TED to participate and raise awareness for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Everything’s coming up Lenovo!
The company announced their first quarter results for 2014, and the numbers are looking pretty rosy. Tablet sales are up 67% over last year, smartphones were up 39%, and Lenovo became the number one smartphone manufacturer in China.
PC shipments were up 15%, though it’s unclear what Lenovo is classifying as a PC and what they’re badging a tablet these days, as the company has led the charge on blurring the line between Windows 8 laptops and tablets. This is the fifth consecutive quarter Lenovo has led the market in PC sales, but for the first time in company history, they sold more phones than computers.
At a time where other established companies are struggling, Lenovo also saw a 13% gross profit increase over this time last year. Moving into next quarter, Lenovo believes they’ll continue to improve those numbers with their acquisitions of Motorola and IBM x86.
Full financial statement below.
David J Slater, a British photographer set up a camera in Indonesia to capture monkeys at play. One monkey managed to snap an extraordinary “selfie”.
Wikipedia claims that because the monkey hit the shutter button, the image belongs in the Public Domain. I disagree…
T-Mobile has been finding a lot of success at being a market disruptor, recently unseating Sprint and moving into third place among the largest USA carriers.
Their new tactic courts entry-level and pre-pay customers with a new Pay as You Go Plan. The plan starts off with a monthly minimum charge of $3, and it’s entirely usage based. Calls are $0.10 per minute, as are texts, which means you’d receive 30 minutes a month if you didn’t want to pay any more than the minimum. Data is purchased in daily or weekly passes. $5 for one day and 500MB of LTE, $10 for 7 days and 1GB.
It’s an interesting solution which looks to be targeting the business models offered up by companies like Ting and FreedomPop, low cost MVNO’s basing pricing on usage.
T-Mo’s full PR is below with more details. Continue reading “T-Mobile Offers up $3 a Month “Pay As You Go” Phone Plan”
Strap a camera to your head, and your neck can be a pretty decent stabilizer, but engaging in sporty activities can give even the most rugged neck a challenge in producing smooth video. Speeding up a timelapse series can look extremely jittery.
Microsoft posted a video preview of their new Hyperlapse process, which scans through video for details, stabilizes the image, and creates a subtle 3D effect to help image to image transitions.
We just sort of take it for granted that footage from a GoPro, or other head mounted camera, is going to be shaky. Hyperlapse looks like it can provide some stunning effects. Fingers crossed we see this type of image processing at the consumer level soon. Continue reading “Microsoft Details “Hyperlapse” Process for Smoothing Out First-Person Perspective Video”
Ahead of Samsung’s Note 4 release, LG is keeping the pressure on by announcing another large screened device.
The G Vista looks like it might be aiming for more of a mid-range market. A 5.7″ 720p screen will be paired with a Qualcomm quad-core (specific model not announced) and 1.5GB of RAM. The G3’s excellent Laser Focus returns, but only with an 8MP sensor, and there’s no word on whether it will have optical image stabilization. A 3,200 mAh battery should provide excellent battery life with these modest specs, and we’ll see the whole LG suite of Dual-Window, Mini-Apps, and KnockOn codes. There’s also a new Mini-View, which can shrink the on-screen view for easier one-hand navigation.
The G Vista will be available from Big Blue starting August 22nd for $49.99 on two year contract or for $354.99 if you want to buy it outright. Full PR below.
It’s been an ongoing debate, now focused on State vs Federal rights. Should the FCC have the right to circumvent state law, to help smaller communities provide broadband data to their residents.
Chattanooga TN has become a poster child for how to rollout gigabit fiber paid with public funds, beating Google Fiber to gigabit speeds in 2010, but state law prevents the project from expanding into other communities. Four years after Chattanooga reached gigabit, most large cable broadband markets still struggle to reach one tenth the network speed of “Gig City”, and most consumers pay significantly more for slower broadband.
The city could also become the first piece of a new smart energy grid for the country.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Harold DePriest, CEO of EPB (Chattanooga’s electric company which manages the broadband project) took to Reddit to answer questions about how the project has impacted their residents. It’s an interesting discussion, delving into the politics of dealing with the FCC and State governments, but if your data is slow in your area, seeing speedtests like the one linked from the AMA might break your heart a little bit.
You can see a video detailing Chatanooga’s efforts to build a smarter energy grid below.
EPB SmarterGrid HD from EPB Fiber Optics on Vimeo.
Timex took the wraps off of their new fitness focused smartwatch.
Built on a partnership with AT&T and Qualcomm, the ONE GPS+ uses the incredible screen from the Toq for low battery usage and direct sunlight view-ability.
In addition to the Mirasol display, the watch also comes with 4GB of storage and Bluetooth for music playback, GPS for location and fitness tracking, and a 3G phone connection for messaging and a pretty neat SOS feature.
For many people, exercising with a phone is becoming a necessity as that’s where all your entertainment and communications capabilities are stored. The idea that you could leave with just a watch, not worry about sweat-soaking your phone, and still have the basics covered is pretty exciting.
The ONE GPS+ is currently in pre-sale on the Timex site for $400 or $450 with a built in heart rate monitor.