Wednesday 30 January 2019

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Wednesday -- January 30, 2019

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
https://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Crypto Support in Samsung Galaxy S10 Could Fall Flat
Driving Smart Home Product Value Through AI Applications
Marketing Mindfulness: A New Age of Digital Consciousness
CRM's Shift Toward Oligopoly

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Today's Story Highlights

Crypto Support in Samsung Galaxy S10 Could Fall Flat

The Samsung Galaxy S10, scheduled for launch on Feb. 20, likely will
incorporate a cryptocurrency wallet. "Samsung has a long history of
throwing everything it can think of, technology-wise, into its flagship
Galaxy S series smartphones," remarked Ken Hyers, research director at
Strategy Analytics. Most users aren't fully aware of their Galaxy S
phone capabilities, he noted.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85820.html

Driving Smart Home Product Value Through AI Applications

Annual sales of all connected home devices are expected to exceed 520
million units by 2022, based on Parks Associates forecasts. Specific use
cases for artificial intelligence in the smart home will help drive
adoption of new devices and services as intelligent outcomes increase
product value. Security use cases are the leading drivers of adoption.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85816.html

Marketing Mindfulness: A New Age of Digital Consciousness

In this era of stress and anxiety, being able to slow down, breathe, and
focus on the moment at hand are key skills for surviving and being
successful. Mindfulness has become a vital commodity, and those who can
coach others to live more mindfully are in particularly high demand. An
industry has grown up that offers everything from streaming yoga classes
to meditation apps.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85814.html

CRM's Shift Toward Oligopoly

As markets mature, they trend toward oligopoly or even outright
monopoly. There isn't much difference, because an oligopoly has several
members instead of just one. Examples include electric power generation,
an oligopoly made up of vertically integrated monopolies in most areas,
and the airline industry -- an oligopoly made up of many airlines that
may have monopolies in regional hubs.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85811.html

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The Morning After: An end to vape clouds

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Wednesday, January 30, 2019.

Hey, good morning!

Apple’s iPhone sales have struggled in China, and while it’s affected the company’s bottom line, it’s not all doom and gloom. Elsewhere, one company’s made a filter to destroy those innocuous vape clouds, and we review Huawei’s MateBook 13 -- which looks mighty familiar.

And its new streaming service should help even more.

Apple's services help anchor a company rocked by slow iPhone sales

Apple seemed intent on preparing Wall Street for the worst, but its recent financials painted a picture that wasn't as bad as some had expected. The company raked in $84.3 billion in overall revenue in Q1 -- that's down about five percent from Q1 2018. Apple was eager to note that this was still the second-most lucrative quarter in the company's history. As expected, though, phones sales did dip dramatically: Revenue was down 15 percent compared to last year. (That said, the company says it has an installed base of 900 million iPhones now.)

Fortunately for Apple, its services business -- which accounts for Apple Music, iCloud, app purchases, Apple Care and more -- continues to be one of its star performers. Total services revenue was up around 19 percent from Q1 last year. Considering the notable decrease in appeal iPhones now have in one of Apple's most important markets, squeezing more revenue out of its existing customers will only become more important over time -- why else would Apple allow Samsung TV owners to dip into its services?

Philter's Pocket lets you chug away without fogging up the room.

Now there's a handheld filter to kill your massive vape clouds

Despite growing evidence that vape clouds are less toxic than tobacco smoke, they still have an antisocial effect and can reduce air quality. Also: No one wants to be blinded walking through someone else's exhale and not everyone's into your blueberry-cheesecake vibes. Enter Philter and its Pocket device -- a $15 widget you breathe into to eliminate cigarette or vape clouds. James Trew tests it out.

The teen and his mom attempted to get Apple's attention for more than a week.

A 14-year-old tried to warn Apple about the group FaceTime bug

A 14-year-old Arizona high schooler tried to warn Apple about its FaceTime bug, but didn’t make much progress. According to the Wall Street Journal, Grant discovered the issue on January 20th while setting up a group FaceTime conversation with his friends for a session of Fortnite. After discovering the issue, Grant and his mom took to Twitter and Facebook in attempts to get Apple's attention. They even tried old-school phone calls and faxes, but with no success.

Why your business should be using HelloSign for e-signatures

They're also fast enough to take 8K into the mainstream.

Samsung says its new 8K TV chips will eliminate bezels

Samsung has unveiled a single display driver IC chip with enough bandwidth to allow true 8K images to be transmitted to 8K display panels without the need for other components. That will eliminate the need for a bezel (where electronics are normally hidden), allowing for true all-display TV sets -- and prettier hardware designs, too.

An uninspiring MacBook Air clone.

Huawei MateBook 13 review

Huawei's MateBook laptop series impressed last year. The MateBook X and X Pro offered powerful performance, gorgeous displays and comfortable keyboards, all with heavy MacBook vibes. The company is looking to follow that success with the new MateBook 13, by offering similar quality at a slightly cheaper price. It’s a strong, well-rounded laptop, but that lower cost comes with some tradeoffs.

The four-minute short was made by a student in New York.

‘Wired’ is a multi-scene movie painted and animated in VR

Movies painted and animated with a VR headset are nothing new. Most are looping diorama-esque creations, however. The camera might move around, highlighting small details, but there isn't much of a story. Wired, meanwhile, is different. It's one of the first pieces of VR animation (that is, created inside VR) with multiple scenes and a discernible narrative. Zeyu Ren, a design student and motion graphics artist in New York, made this short all by himself.

But wait, there's more...

1. Amazon's Scout is cute but it won't bring humans and robots closer

2. Casper has a smart sleep lamp to go with your mail-order mattress

3. 'Fortnite' now lets you use a Bluetooth controller to play on your phone

4. Google cleans up Gmail app with an all-white redesign

5. Audi bets you'll pay extra for the A7's design and tech upgrades

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Tuesday 29 January 2019

The Morning After: FaceTime's eavesdropping issue

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Tuesday, January 29, 2019.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Hi, there! If you were planning to use Group FaceTime on an Apple device, you’ll need to wait a bit because the feature was letting contacts eavesdrop. And while we’re talking about Apple, it might be prepping its own gaming service. Yep, it’s that rumor again. Meanwhile, there’s a videogame made to train AI players, and the US charges Huawei with stealing trade secrets and other bad things.

(View in browser.)

Here’s why Apple turned off Group FaceTime.

FaceTime bug let callers eavesdrop before you even picked up

Remember Group FaceTime, a new feature that launched in iOS 12? Well, word is that by calling someone on FaceTime and immediately inviting yourself as a group participant, it would immediately turn their mic on -- even if they hadn’t picked up the call. Worse yet, if they hit the power button on their iPhone, it could let them see you via the camera, too. Apple said it’s going to deliver a fix later this week, but until then, it has turned off Group FaceTime entirely.

Power you can carry.

ASUS ZenBook S13 review: A gamer’s ultraportable

The ZenBook S13 does what other 2.5-pound ultraportables can’t: Actually play some games. Our review unit featured an Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD to go with its NVIDIA MX150 GPU. While it struggled with a game like Forza Horizon 4, it was perfectly playable with Overwatch and Destiny 2. The only issues of note were the placement of its fingerprint scanner and an underwhelming webcam, but there’s a lot to like for its $1,400 (as configured) price.

Who needs a hybrid?

Infiniti's new QX50 blends exciting engine tech with a big redesign

Starting at $36,550, the QX50's impressive engine adjusts its cylinder compression ratios from 8:1 and 14:1, on the fly. It can reduce fuel consumption and then deliver the power people expect from a luxury SUV all within 1.5 seconds. The redesigned SUV also looks great inside and out; however, a dated infotainment system that lacks CarPlay or Android Auto is disappointing.

This is 2019.

‘Detective Pikachu’ is already getting a sequel

Detective Pikachu won't even be in theaters until May, but we’re already getting a sequel. Who can we blame? Answers to my personal email address, please.

Things are getting crowded.

Apple may be working on a game subscription service

Add one more name to the list of potential Netflix-for-gaming competitors: Apple. The project is in the early stages of development, Cheddar says, and Apple could ultimately decide to scrap the plans. The report also claims Apple has spoken with developers about acting as a publisher for their games, taking charge of distribution and marketing for certain titles.

It already factored in a glut of unsold cards due to the cooling cryptocurrency market.

NVIDIA is the latest tech giant blaming China's economy for poor sales

The graphics chip maker has warned that its fourth-quarter results will fall short of expectations due partly to "deteriorating macroeconomic conditions," especially in China. People were more hesitant to buy graphics cards, NVIDIA said. It added that sales of "certain" high-end Turing-based GPUs (read: the RTX series) fell short of expectations because people were both waiting for price drops and games that made better use of RTX features like raytracing.

More bad news for one of China’s biggest tech companies.

US charges Huawei with stealing trade secrets and violating sanctions

While Huawei attempted to make a fresh effort in 2019, it’s already come up against some more bad (very bad) news. The US has filed against the Chinese telecoms company 10 trade-secret-related charges and 13 linked to sanction violations. Prosecutors in Washington state say Huawei stole trade secrets from US carrier T-Mobile and that it offered bonuses to employees who were successful in obtaining technology from rivals.