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Amazon Will Sell Your Face for as Low as 40 Cents for Facial Recognition

Andrew Orr ·

Reporters at The California Sunday Magazine recently published an overview of facial recognition technology. It’s a long read and it provides a lot of information on this technology and how it works. Among the tidbits that caught my eye I wanted to share this one:

Why has the use of facial recognition become such a hot-button issue now? The most obvious answer is that the technology has been improved, streamlined, and commercialized to the point that it has become widely accessible, available for purchase for as low as 40 cents an image if you opt for Amazon’s facial-recognition software plan.

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This Tech Gear Bag Has Multiple Compartments, Durable Construction, Cable Port, More: $59.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Incase ICON Backpack, a bag designed for all your tech gear. The main compartment provides space for larger items and organization for flat documents and small accessories, the secondary compartment offers a series of organizer pockets to hold tech accessories, the dedicated side-access pocket is for your iPad, and the hip-side power pocket with integrated cable port to allow access to portable power or audio. This backpack is $59.99 through our deal.

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Microsoft Cancels Launch of Surface Hub 2X

Charlotte Henry ·

Microsoft has cancelled the launch of the Surface Hub 2X, The Verge reported. However, it has insisted it will rollout many of the previously announced features.

In a leaked webinar to Surface Hub 2 sellers, Microsoft says it’s still committed to developing tiling and rotation but it’s not clear when these features will arrive. “They might not require an upgrade for Surface Hub 2S customers, or they might not require a paid compute cartridge swap,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in the webinar. “We don’t have plans to release a compute cartridge in 2020, because the best way to release those capabilities — tiling and rotation — may not require us to take that path.”

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Wistron to Assemble iPhone Parts in India

Charlotte Henry ·

Wistron, a key Apple supplier, is set to assemble iPhone components in India, Reuters reported. It is part of a bid from Apple to expand its manufacturing in the country.

The local assembly of PCBs by Wistron’s India unit will be a first for the contract manufacturer, which began making Apple’s low-priced SE model in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru in 2017. It currently assembles the 6S and 7 iPhone models there as well. A PCB is a bed for key components such as processors, memory and wireless chip sets that are the heart of an electronic device. Once assembled, or populated with components, PCBs account for about half the cost of a smartphone. Wistron’s second iPhone plant, some 65 km (40 miles) from Bengaluru, is expected to become operational by April, the sources said, adding that it will make iPhone 7 and 8 models, some of which will be exported.

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HomePod And Other Products That Need Attention

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple regularly rolls out product updates, but that doesn’t mean some products couldn’t benefit from a little TLC. Dan Moren at MacWorld suggested which products he’d like to receive some attention, including the HomePod.

What is the HomePod to Apple? In the almost two years since its release, the company still hasn’t quite landed upon an answer. It’s a wireless smart speaker, to be sure, but when it comes to what differentiates it from its competitors from Amazon, Google, and Sonos, there hasn’t been a particularly compelling argument—beyond the fact that as an Apple product, it’s simply better. (An assertion that even numerous HomePod owners, including myself, would challenge.) If Apple does want to continue down the HomePod road, then the company needs to make some decisions. Is the HomePod simply a premium product? While it started out at a pricey $350, it’s become more and more common to see it floating around the $200-$250 range. Frankly I can’t remember the last time I saw an Apple product with that kind of deep discount.