Saturday 28 December 2019

'The Mandalorian' is coming back next fall

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It's Saturday, December 28, 2019.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

The holiday rush is finally wrapping up and a new year right is around the corner. The only thing I can’t figure out now? How, after playing Fallen Order, watching Rise of Skywalker and streaming The Mandalorian season finale, I’m at all excited for more Star Wars stuff next year.

No matter what you’ve seen, this weekend is a good time to prepare for the year ahead, which for us starts with CES 2020. Things are quiet as we consider what went right (or wrong) in 2019, but next weekend we’ll be arriving in Las Vegas for a week of screens, flashing lights and AI everywhere. Until then, enjoy the silence.

--Richard

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It’s that time.

Welcome to Engadget's 2019 year in review

What's the deal with high-profile streamers leaving Twitch? Is VR finally going to go mainstream now that a Half-Life game is on the way? What's next for the streaming wars? And when did tech CEOs lose their luster?

To commemorate the start of the twenties, next week we'll highlight the tech that has defined the past ten years, and also compare the gaming landscape of 2009 with that of 2019.

Ultraportable luxury made affordable.

HP Spectre x360 13-inch review

The latest iteration of HP’s Spectre x360 is stylish and powerful, with Intel’s 10th gen Core CPU providing enough oomph for 60fps Overwatch gaming in 720p. It’s smaller and lighter than last year’s version, and even beats out the MacBook Air on the scale while still feeling like a solid, well-built machine. With an i7 CPU, 512GB of storage and 8GB RAM the price of our review unit is $1,200, which also compares well with competition like Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1.

Congress asked the FAA to issue new regulations or guidance.

The FAA wants to track all drones flying in the US

According to a rule proposed by the FAA, UAVs would be required to broadcast their location and identification info directly from the unmanned aircraft and to transmit the same information to the FAA's location tracking system via internet connection. If it goes into effect, most larger drones would need to be compliant within three years.

Here are the top VPN deals of 2019

This is the way.

'The Mandalorian’ season two will arrive next fall

Within hours of Disney+ posting a finale episode for season one of The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau tweeted confirmation that season two is slated to arrive in fall 2020. The show has become an early flagship series for the Disney streaming service, and more episodes can’t come soon enough.

The final episode didn’t show a single line of code.

Techno-thriller 'Mr. Robot' ends on a mind-melting high

After four seasons, the finale of Sam Esmail’s groundbreaking show made clear it was about a lot more than just authentically presented hacking.

But wait, there's more...

1. Disney+ is coming to Teslas 'soon,' according to Elon Musk

2. Apple spent 2019 giving us most of what we wanted

3. The best gadgets of 2019

4. Streaming won't get easier or cheaper

5. Tesla will deliver its first Chinese-made Model 3 on December 30th

6. YouTube's burnout generation

7. Corinna Kopf is the latest top streamer to jump to Facebook Gaming

8. Believe it or not, the Wii U is getting a 'new' game

9. Pixel 4 Feature Drop adds improved Face Unlock and other surprise updates

10. Mazda3 bug activates emergency brake system for no reason

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Friday 27 December 2019

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- December 27, 2019

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

Headline Scan
Is Privacy Possible in 2020?
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy That Actually Works
Tech Firms Join Forces to Create Smart Home Connectivity Standard
Amazon Gives FedEx the Boot for Christmas
Just Wait Till Next Year

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Today's Story Highlights

Is Privacy Possible in 2020?

The California Consumer Protection Act goes into effect in 2020, and
other state and federal laws are on the horizon -- but is it possible
that these state laws will really provide us privacy? How many readers
take the time to read the privacy policy, or click agreement, when they
download a new version of an app on their smartphone or tablet? Probably
none. What are the consequences?
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86432.html

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy That Actually Works

Today's consumers live in a digital world, which means they can retrieve
all the information they desire at the touch of a button, putting them
in control. Added to this, they have become immune to traditional
outbound marketing methods -- such as billboards and television
advertisements -- and they expect brands and businesses to tailor their
messages based on customers' individual preferences.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86430.html

Tech Firms Join Forces to Create Smart Home Connectivity Standard

Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance are teaming up on a new
Internet Protocol-based standard for smart home device connectivity.
Connected Home over IP will be an open source project. A working group
will define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for
device certification. The goal is to enable communication across smart
home devices, mobile apps and cloud services.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86425.html

Amazon Gives FedEx the Boot for Christmas

Amazon third-party sellers will not be able to ship Prime customers'
orders using FedEx Ground and FedEx Home, as of Wednesday. "We have seen
a drop in the delivery performance of FedEx Ground and FedEx Home ship
methods for Seller Fulfilled Prime shipments," Amazon said. The
restriction is temporary, although no exact date has been set for
resuming FedEx Ground and FedEx Home for Prime orders.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86421.html

Just Wait Till Next Year

For the last 15 years I've written year end articles on where we've been
and where we're going in CRM and more broadly in tech. This year it
struck me that the major topics that were important in 2019 would be
equally important in 2020. In my mind there are several clusters of
things that have sticking power. For starters, platform will be a bigger
story than it already is.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86422.html

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The worst tech of 2019

Engadget Email Newsletter

Now available on your smart speaker and wherever you get your podcasts

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | iHeart Radio

It's Friday, December 27, 2019.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Was 2019 a good year for you? If you weren’t in charge of getting the Galaxy Fold out the door, then maybe it was. Samsung’s foldable phone needed a last-minute delay before it came to market, and once it went on sale, it still seemed more like an expensive gimmick than something sent from the future.

I hope more companies take big swings in 2020 -- the Motorola RAZR and Microsoft Surface Duo are on deck -- but I also hope they’ll do so in a way that’s a little more affordable than a nearly-$2,000 phablet. It’s also time that we thought about issues like privacy, security and safety at the start, instead of waiting for a years-later postmortem explaining what went wrong.

--Richard

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When you need to make a 180-degree turn in a hurry.

Rivian shows off how its new EVs can ‘tank turn’

We’re not sure how useful this feature is, but Rivian has made a preview video showing how its quad-motor equipped truck can “tank turn” in place. Maybe it could come in handy for off-roading, navigating a tightly-packed parking lot or just showing off, but for now, it just looks kind of cool and is something your gas-powered truck probably can’t manage.

We gave the new version a score of 86, what do you think?

We want your user reviews of the 2019 MacBook Pro

If you opted for a MacBook Pro over an Air, head over to our Apple MacBook Pro (2019) product page and tell us why! Did you really want or need the increase in processor power? Did the base 128GB of storage give you any pause? And how do you feel about the heavily-debated butterfly keyboard? We want to hear all the details about your favorite features of this laptop -- and your biggest annoyances.

Stadia, 5G, Galaxy Fold and a few other failures.

The worst tech of 2019

Most of the items on this year's list of bad tech are victims of too much hype, but there are also things that are objectively bad. Even entire companies could make the list with enough bad behavior -- we’re looking at you Facebook and Amazon.

Unlock a lifetime of career-boosting training for $59

And Google Assistant all over the place.

LG's 2020 soundbars add 'AI Room calibration' to optimize their audio

LG is unveiling its 2020 soundbar lineup right now, and a new headline feature for this year is "AI Room Calibration." Exactly what separates this tech from non-AI automatic calibration we've seen is unclear, but LG is openly committed to applying machine learning and related technology across its products.

Creators who want to turn their passion into a career have more options than ever.

How Twitch started to lose its grip on video game streaming

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins was the first of several big-name streamers to depart Amazon’s video service in 2019. While Twitch is still the market leader, it’s suddenly in the position of having to fight harder against Mixer, Facebook, YouTube and others.