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Last week, under the shadow of a dozen new Echo devices, Amazon continued their pursuit to redefine TV. The latest product launch expanded the Echo device ecosystem deeper into the home with new speakers, a plug, clock, microwave, and other voice-enabled gadgets. Further, the all new Fire TV Recast device is aimed at routing a larger portion of consumers TV viewing time through Amazon’s ecosystem of hardware and services.
The technology ecosystem is evolving and the smartphone may no longer be the dominant consumer product. Welcome to the Age of Voice and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
With the launch of the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple has further separated itself from the smartwatch pack with larger edgeless screens, better resolution, and a sleeker design. However, the biggest shift heralded in by the Series 4 is a clear pivot by Apple towards the wellness and healthcare market and away from focusing primarily on fitness.
The refrigerator demo was going well. The combination of cameras inside the fridge and artificial intelligence (AI) metaphorically wrapped around each item meant the external screen we were looking at not only showed what was inside, but also tagged each item with its appropriate food category. The demonstrator looked relieved and, in a moment of candid honesty, said, “Phew. Earlier the fridge labeled that broccoli as a peach and the bread as a watermelon.”
The smartwatch has undergone an evolution over the last several years, and with increased support and features, it’s becoming more desirable to a broader range of consumers. Here we take a look at who’s buying, use cases, and what’s next.
It’s been a long time since I felt a true affinity to any of my phones. Yes, each phone comes with a slightly sharper screen and more intelligence (that I’m not sure I understand how to use), but when all is said and done, they are monolithic slabs of dullness. Until yesterday, that is, when I felt the romantic tug of a phone.
While wandering the streets of Tokyo this past weekend, I came up with a theory that a city - and the people within it - is made up of alternating layers of the strange and the expected. At the most obvious level, any foreign city is filled with strange sights, smells, language and, of course, people; all of which feels increasingly alien as you move farther from wherever you consider home to be. Sometimes, the Android OS feels exactly the same to me.
Mobile payment solutions are struggling to take off in the US market. There are lessons to be learned from China… and from Starbucks in the local market.
It’s been a long dance between Sprint and T-Mobile, but it looks like fate has finally had her way. The two companies announced on Sunday that they will, after all, merge into one venture, with T-Mobile looking like it is firmly in control. That’s significant for a number of reasons, with the most important being that T-Mobile has re-imagined the mobile market, driving service innovation and growth, while Sprint has a terrible reputation for managing mergers (Nextel anyone?). Of course, this deal still needs to get the blessing of both the FCC and the DoJ; and consumer advocacy groups will likely be screaming from the rooftops about how this merger could drive consumer prices upwards due to less competition, leading to potential challenges.
Last week, SpaceX received permission from the FCC to use spectrum to create a satellite-based broadband service known as Starlink. I can’t help but think that the timing of the deal was quite perfect – as SpaceX talked about superfast broadband from space, China’s old space station, the Tiangong-1, was hurtling out of control towards Earth, reminding us that this space stuff is not that easy, and doesn’t stay up there forever.