There was a ton of news over the last several days, not even counting the Apple event earlier today. I’ve covered that in a separate post here. Here are some of the other news stories I’ve found interesting over the past several days.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for May 18, 2021
Google’s I/O developer conference is back this year after being outright cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were a few significant stories out of the I/O keynote, some of which I’m highlighting in the tech news of the past few days.
Read MoreTech News Roundup For December 9, 2020
We really are hitting the time of year when there isn’t a ton of news happing. After US Thanksgiving the tech sector really starts to slow down until January. I’ll post updates when I think there’s enough that’s worthy to post. Here are a few things I’ve found interesting.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for October 19, 2020
Here are a few things I found interesting over what was a very quiet weekend in the technology news space.
Read MoreTech NEws Roundup for September 28, 2020
Here are a few of the tech stories that caught my eye over the weekend.
Roku Announces a Slew of New Hardware and Software
On Monday Morning Roku announced a bunch of new stuff, getting ready for the 2020 holiday season. The company updated it’s Roku Ultra set top box that features Dolby Vision Support and improved Wifi Performance.
Next up is the Roku Streambar. This one is interesting because it is a $190 soundbar with Roku’s streaming platform built in. This will allow someone with an older TV an inexpensive option to get both improved sound as well as a streaming media platform. I have a Roku TV and its interface is not my favorite, but nevertheless this is a good option.
Lastly, Roku announced that it is bringing support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit services to “many” of its streaming devices and Roku TV’s later this year.
Dell Updates XPS 13 Laptops
Dell has announced updates for the XPS 13 laptop line to include Intel’s new 11th generation “Tiger Lake” processor. For the standard XPS 13, this is a fairly minor upgrade with no physical changes, but for the XPS 13 2 in 1, the design is finally being update to match the updated XPS aesthetics introduced earlier this year. The XPS 13 is Dell’s most premium laptop, so these will be expensive. The cheapest configuration will likely start around $1300, with prices going up quickly from there. These are universally regarded among the best Windows laptops out there, but you have to be willing to pay the premium
Google Says Using Third Party App Stores Will Be Easier on Android 12
In a move that I’m sure has nothing at all to do with the Epic Games Lawsuit against Google, the company now says that as of Android 12, installing and using third party app stores will be easier. The company says it will make this easier “without compromising the security” of Android. Details are light, and Android 12 isn’t due to be released for almost a year, so it will likely be quite some time until we see exactly what Google means here. I’m sure this is all just a coincidence.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/28/21472139/google-android-12-app-store-installation-payment-fees
US Judge Issues Temporary Injunction on Tik Tok Ban
Just a few hours before the Trump Administration’s ban on Tik Tok downloads in the US was due to take effect, a US Federal Judge issues a temporary injunction blocking the ban. The order is under seal so we do not know the exact reasoning behind the ruling. But the judge did say during the hearing that it was “likely” that the Trump Administration was overstepping its legal authority.
As you can imagine, Tik Tok is happy, and the Trump Administration is not.
Tech News Roundup for September 9, 2020
Nothing of note happened over the long weekend, which is why there was no update on holiday Monday, but holy smokes was there a big news drop over the last couple days. Let’s dive in.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for June 12, 2020
A busy couple days as we have pictures of new consoles, a new 5G network, telecoms suing each other, and more!
Sony Shows off Playstation 5 Hardware and Games
Sony held a video stream that was to show off games and game play for the PlayStation 5 for the first time. Many new games were announced, but the surprise star of the show was that Sony finally revealed the design of the actual console itself, as well as an unexpected model without a disc drive.
The. Console features a very unique design that reminds me a lot of some specialized boutique gaming PC’s, with a two tone look and wavy lines. I think I like it. As stated there are two models, one with a 4K Blu-ray drive, and one that omits it entirely. The model with the disc drive is slightly larger than the model without, the disc drive flares out of one side of the console without looking like it doesn’t belong.
Sony did not reveal pricing for the PS5, continuing the game of chicken that is being played with Microsoft, as neither company has revealed the price of their next gen consoles. That remains the biggest, and arguably the most important detail we have yet to see.
Bell Launches 5G Network in 5 Metro Areas.
Bell this week officially turned on their first 5G network, lighting up service in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. The initial service roll out is fairly impressive, as previous network roll outs and expansions have usually been limited to Toronto and maybe Vancouver.
Bell does not make it clear in their release details, but this appears to be an initial roll out of what is called “sub-6” 5G technology. Sub-6 is the slower version of 5G, however it is also the version with range comparable to existing 4G LTE networks. It is likely that the initial 5G roll out will feature speeds only slightly faster than 4G LTE, with speeds improving over time.
Aside from needing one of the three current compatible devices, one very unfortunate part of this rollout is that Bell has announced plans to charge customers an additional $10 per month on top of their existing plans to access the 5G network. As an enticement to get people in the door, the company is waiving that fee until March 31, 2021. To my knowledge, this is the first time that the telecoms have charged a specific fee to access a new network technology. During the transition form 3G to LTE telecoms usually had specific plans that included LTE access, but didn’t charge for access specifically. This appears to continue the trend of Canadian telecoms trying to squeeze every last penny out of their customers, and remains a very bad look for the companies.
Telus Sues Shaw Over “Fibre+” Branding
Less than a month after Shaw launched their Fibire+ Gig plan featuring 1 Gigabit per second download speeds, Telus has filed a lawsuit claiming that Shaw is falsely advertising this as a fibre optic network, when it is in fact just the same type of network, delivered through cable lines as Shaw has traditionally done.
There’s not a ton to talk about here, these companies sue each other over advertising claims in a semi-regular basis, to the point where I find it amusing. Rogers at one point claimed their cellular network was “Canada’s most reliable network” and after a lawsuit from Bell, had to rebrand it to “Canada’s reliable network.” We will see if Shaw is forced to rebrand this product, and how much money will be spent on legal fees between both companies.
Android 4.4 compared to Android 10
Interesting, if long, piece comparing the Android 4.4 release from 2013 to the Android 10 release in 2019. Not a lot to add, just really interesting to see in pictures how different it looks today compared to then. And as an added bonus look at the size difference of those phones! The physical devices themselves sure have changed a lot as well.
Intel Details “Lakefield” Processor Design
This one is admittedly super nerdy, but Intel has revealed some details on a new processor design, codename lakefield. These processors are designed similarly to how smartphone processors, in that it has one “big” processor designed to to the heavy lifting, and 4 “small” processors that are less powerful but more power efficient. Intel has never made a product like this before. This type of processor is designed for thin and light laptops meant for basic productivity, and the low power cores in it should hopefully translate to battery life improvements on laptops that do not need to be super powerful.