Charlotte Henry's photo

Charlotte Henry

Charlotte is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm for TMO. She is based in London, and writes and broadcasts for various outlets.

Get In Touch:

Articles by Charlotte Henry

Link

iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 Could be Modified After Qualcomm Patent Win

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple has looked into the possibility of modifying the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 after losing a patent trial to Qualcomm in Germany. AppleInsider picked up on German media reports that indicated that the components deemed to have violated Qualcomm’s “envelope tracking” patent could be removed and replace.

German-language publication WinFuture, in a report spotted by Foss Patents, that Apple is examining the possibility of creating a slightly modified version of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. Aside from software changes, the models will apparently have an infringing component pulled from the design and replaced with another. The offending components which was the cause of the injunction were produced by Apple supplier Qorvo, and are said to have violated an “envelope tracking” patent held by Qualcomm. This refers to a method of conserving battery power while the modem is active.

Sonos Architectural by Sonance Outdoor Speakers with AirPlay 2 Support
Cool Stuff Found

Sonos Architectural by Sonance Outdoor Speakers with AirPlay 2 Support

Charlotte Henry ·

Sonos revealed a new range of indoor and outdoor speakers today, called the Sonos Architectural. There is a set designed for the ceiling, but the ones that really caught my eye are the Outdoor Speaker Pair. They look slick and should provide good sound quality outside of them, which is still not something to be taken for granted. All the news speakers work with the Sonos Amp, which means they support AirPlay 2. The Outdoor Speaker Pair costs $799 and is listed as “Coming Soon” for the time being.

Link

Blockchain and AI Might Be a Perfect Match

Charlotte Henry ·

Blockchain technology is sometimes presented as a cure-all – a technology that can improve everything from finance to health, and anything in between. While it may not be able to solve all the world’s ills, there is no doubt that it is a hugely powerful technology that can be used for a large amount of good. One field where the blockchain could have a profound effect is in artificial intelligence, as Yessi Bello Perez outlined on The Next Web.

Unlike cloud-based solutions, the data on a blockchain is broken up into small sections and distributed across the entire computer network. There’s no central authority or control point, and each computer, or node, holds a complete copy of the ledger – meaning that if one or two nodes are compromised, data will not be lost. All that takes place on the blockchain is encrypted and the data cannot be tampered with. Essentially, this means blockchains are the perfect storage facility for sensitive or personal data which, if processed with care with the use of AI, can help unlock valuable bespoke experiences for consumers.

Link

AirPods Have Become One of Apple's Most Important Products

Charlotte Henry ·

AirPods were somewhat derided when Apple first released them towards the end of 2016.  They looked silly, and surely they were going to fall out of your ear? As it happens, they have been a huge success, selling millions of units. Lance Ulanoff posted his take on the accessory’s success over on Medium, and it is well worth a read. He highlights how central AirPods could be to Apple’s strategy going forward.

Then, somewhere along the way, I started noticing other people wearing AirPods. At first it was just the occasional sighting, like spotting a green parrot in Brooklyn. However, I remember the moment when I stood in a New York City subway car and noticed more than a half dozen people wearing AirPods. Apple’s oddball product had broken through.

Link

Kraken buys UK Crypto Platform in Mega Deal

Charlotte Henry ·

LONDON – Kraken, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency trading platform, has acquired UK crypto platform Crypto Facilities.  The specific value of the deal is not known, but Yahoo Finance reported it is at least $100 million. This makes it one of the largest ever seen in the crypto industry, despite its current slowdown.

London-headquartered Crypto Facilities offers futures contracts for leading cryptos such as bitcoin and ethereum. Its data is also used to help calculate CME Group’s bitcoin reference rate. The company is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said in a release: “We are excited to introduce eligible clients to these industry leading futures and index products.

 

Link

How Populism is Taking on Tech

Charlotte Henry ·

Populism has dramatically shifted global politics in recent years. Tech companies, particularly Amazon, have not been immune. Populism led to political pressure on the online retail giant, both in the U.S. and in India, as looked it searched for a second HQ and expanded into a new market. Bloomberg News looked at what happened.

Amazon thought it had secured a warm welcome in New York and forged strong political ties in India. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged during the HQ2 bakeoff to change his first name to “Amazon” and threw all of his political weight behind the deal. In India, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos met repeatedly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in both Delhi and Washington and bragged on Twitter that he was “excited to keep investing and growing” in the country. In both cases, populism is now trumping politics. The political forces that are tilting elections and anointing new heroes on the left and right are now ensnaring one of the world’s largest companies.

Link

The Original Storyboard for Apple's 1984 Super Bowl Commercial

Charlotte Henry ·

As ever the morning after the Super Bowl, there is as much chatter about the adverts as there is about the football. Aside from the Game of Thrones/Bud Light tie-up, the ad spots during Super Bowl LIII were as uninspiring as large parts of the low-scoring match. Time to reflect then on the most iconic Super Bowl commercial of all time then – Apple’s 1984 clip. Business Insider posted the original storyboard and ideas behind the commercial.

Before the ad was even filmed, Apple’s ad agency needed buy-in from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and then-CEO John Sculley. The tech executives were shown a storyboard, or a series of pictures that describe what the ad would look like when it was actually filmed. The ad men were nervous – especially when Jay Chiat, an executive at Apple’s ad agency, was tearing up every idea before they were finished. But it turns out that Jobs loved the idea when they showed it to him.”

Link

Amazon's Super Bowl LIII Ad Won't Trigger Alexa

Charlotte Henry ·

The adverts are likely to be as big a talking point from this weekend’s Super Bowl as the football. Techcrunch reported on  how  Amazon stops those ads waking millions of Alexa’s across the country. The procedure is relatively simple if Amazon is producing the advert itself. If it isn’t, but “the audio of a request matches that of requests from at least two other customers, we identify it as a media event,” the company explained.  So, come Super Bowl Sunday there should be no incidents like that South Park one.

With its own ads, the company adds a fingerprint of the audio, which is stored on-device. Given the Echo’s storage limitations, additional fingerprints are stored in the cloud, where the assistant can cross-check things before waking. The system generally works pretty well, though complications can occur in, say, a noisy environment (what Super Bowl party has ever been noisy, though?) in which case a longer clip is required to do its job.