HTC showed off a new eye-tracking tech in its Vive VR headset line. Vive is aimed at the VR world, rather than the AR world being targeted by Apple, but AR and VR are kissing cousins, and this is interesting. The idea is simply that the headset can track your eye movements, which can then be used to activate menu and navigation controls. I think Apple is right to focus on AR, but there is obviously a big future in AR, too, and if HTC can bring this to market, it will make them a real player in that space. TheNextWeb has a good writeup from CES on this:
The biggest splashes came in the form of the new Cosmos hardware (an Oculus Go/Quest competitor) and a new eye-tracking system to be debuted in an update to the Vive Pro called “Vive Pro Eye.” Eye-tracking is a big deal for VR. The Vive Pro Eye, according to HTC, will accurately monitor users’ eye movements inside the headset.
LAS VEGAS – GE introduced a new member of the C by GE line of products at this week’s CES show, the latest offering being a voice-compatible smart switch.
LAS VEGAS – Some TV’s are just too big. They get in the way. Or the space for them is too small. So why not have a TV that rolls up and gets out of the way? Chris Welch at The Verge has the full story and thinks this is the hit product of CES 2019.
Author Welch writes: “This is a TV that’s there when you want it and disappears when you don’t. Not everyone loves having a big, black rectangle as the focal point of their living room, and plenty of people don’t own a TV at all. TV makers are starting to realize that, for some, it comes down to aesthetics, so they’re designing products that blend better into the home.” And best of all? It’s OLED!
LAS VEGAS – We had a chance to check out Unravel, a Qi charger that may be two or three chargers in one, at this week’s Pepcom Digital Experience! event.
Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro hear Apple CEO Tim Cook talk up services and they explain why it makes them nervous. They also talk about the future of 8K TVs and how they will inevitably take over the industry.
We have a deal on the Mac Power User Bundle, four apps designed to help manage your Mac’s data and downloads. You can get all four apps for $14.99 through our deal.
Adware disguised as games, TV apps, and remote control simulator apps infected millions of devices with adware. Security firm TrendMicro revealed in a blog that 85 apps containing the adware made it on to the Google Play store. The apps were subsequently downloaded 9 million times. The adware could display full-screen ads, hide itself, monitor a device’s screen unlocking functionality, and run in the background on the device. TrendMicro said Google removed the apps from the Play Store quickly after verifying its report.
The app informs the user that it is loading or buffering. However, after a few seconds, the app disappears from the user’s screen and hides its icon on the device. The fake app still runs in a device’s background after hiding itself. Though hidden, the adware is configured to show a full-screen ad every 15 or 30 minutes on the user’s device.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way for websites and podcasts to offer a feed of updated content for people. It’s a fairly standard technology but many people don’t use it.
The story of how this happened is really two stories. The first is a story about a broad vision for the web’s future that never quite came to fruition. The second is a story about how a collaborative effort to improve a popular standard devolved into one of the most contentious forks in the history of open-source software development.
Long story short (Although you should still read the long story): RSS was too complicated for non-tech users, and the internet slowly became centralized into data silos like Google and Facebook.
Tech press and the narratives they craft typically follow Silicon Valley Time, or a special “clock” otherwise known as the hero’s journey.
A company’s narrative moves like a clock: it starts at midnight, ticking off the hours. The tone and sentiment about how a business is doing move from positive (sunrise, midday) to negative (dusk, darkness). And often the story returns to midnight, rebirth and a new day.
This is an interesting story on how the tech press covers news, and what lessons companies can learn.
I’ve covered iOS 12 tips and tricks that you might have forgotten. Now I’d like to resurface a tip from 2017 about shortcuts for iOS Safari.
You might not know it, but Safari has some hidden shortcuts tucked behind some of the icons. This will let you perform certain actions a little faster, like quickly access the desktop version of a website, add a bookmark, and even close multiple tabs at once.
5G is the talk of Las Vegas at CES this week. However, there is mounting controversy about what cellular network providers are actually declaring as 5G. The superfast network will not actually be launched until 2020 or even 2021, but the cellular providers are still keen to brand things as 5G now. A piece on the Associated Press noted that “AT&T has drawn ridicule by relabeling the network used by some of its phones as ‘5G E’,” for example. This main seem a relatively superficial issue but in terms of been clear with customers, it matters.
There’s a history of carriers being murky about network claims. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint started calling an enhanced 3G network 4G in the early 2010s. There’s more pushback this time because people are now more aware of what a next-generation network can do.
Mr. Parakilas worked at Facebook for 18 months before leaving in 2012. His job was to monitor Facebook developers and their compliance to the privacy policy.
It is my pleasure to welcome and thank Bombich Software and Carbon Copy Cloner for coming on board to help sponsor our CES 2019 content here at TMO this week. As most of you know, Carbon Copy Cloner’s main task is backing up your data in a way that’s easy to restore, recover, and even boot from. But CCC does so much more than that. Read on and learn.
Hero Group, a New York based advertising and new media agency that specializes in Millennials, led by Joseph Anthony, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Gen Y and Gen Z, today announces the launch of Hero Traveler, the first travel-focused social media platform and app dedicated to informing and empowering the next generation of Millennial Traveler. The first of its kind platform allows travelers to easily create, publish, share, authenticate and ultimately book travel experiences curated by their peers. Hero Traveler leverages the power of user generated travel stories combined with content curated by a global network of pre-vetted travel influencers and creators. Share your best travel adventures, tips and memories with the world, in the form of beautifully composed travel stories and guides, comprised of your best writing, photography and videos. Help fellow travelers by providing them with ideas and insights into how to make their travel experiences unforgettable. App Store: Free
