Rotate Me For Two Grand
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Rotate Me For Two Grand | |
| Number | 3793 |
| Broadcast Date | JUNE 2, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 31:45 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
| Guests | Chris Ashley |
Google announced new features for its Pixel line of Android phones, AT&T confirmed to The Verge that its HBO Max streaming service will not count against AT&T Mobile’s traditional data caps or the soft data caps on unlimited plans, and Samsung launched the Access phone subscription program in the US.
Guest
Quick Hits
- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins announced Cisco Live, scheduled for Wednesday, will be postponed. Robbins said that "People across the U.S. and the world are dealing with so much pain, frustration and anger…We want to give you space this week to do what you need to do within your own organizations and communities."
- Sony is also postponing its PlayStation 5 event that was scheduled for Thursday, June 4th. The company's official account tweeted, “While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration…And for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.” Sony didn't give details on a new date. EA also delayed its Madden NFL 21 event scheduled for Tuesday, and Google has delayed its Android 11 beta announcement.
- New data from Gartner shows global sales of smartphones declined 20.2% in the first quarter of 2020. Samsung’s smartphone sales fell 22.7% in Q1, but the company kept the No. 1 spot with 18.5% market share. Huawei recorded a decline of 27.3% year over year to 42.5 million units, but was still in the No. 2 position with 14.2% market share. Apple’s iPhone sales declined 8.2% to 41 million units, and Oppo’s smartphone sales fell 19.1%. Strong sales of Xiaomi's Redmi devices actually led the company to a gain over Q1 of 2019, the only top 5 company to do so.
- Amazon now lets you use the Drop In feature on all your home's Amazon-capable devices at once. You could already use the Drop In feature to send your voice to say the Echo in the bathroom or the Echo Show in the Kitchen. Now you can say, "Drop in everywhere" and it will send your voice to all the devices like an intercom. Reminders can now also be set for all devices.
- HP released a new version of its Omen 15 gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch screen on a 180-degree hinge. HP hopes people will pick it up for more uses than just gaming. You can choose AMD Ryzen 7 H-series or Intel Core i7 H-series processors and up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q GPU. Specs range up to 32 GB of RAM, 1 Terrabyte P-C-I-e drive and an OLED panel up to 300 Hz full HD or 120 HZ for Ultra HD. Omen 15 is available June 2 starting at $999. HP also announced the 16-inch Pavilion Gaming 16 in June starting at $799. HP also announced its first 2.1 channel speaker system, a wireless gaming headset, new mice and a 24-inch gaming monitor.
Top Stories
- Google announced new features for its Pixel line of Android phones. Adaptive Battery predicts when your battery will run out and you can now start recordings with Google Assistant and get automatic transcripts. Personal safety check lets you set a time to check in when you're out and about. At that time a prompt asks if you're OK. You can dismiss it, start sharing location with emergency contacts or call 911. If you do nothing it will automatically share location with emergency contacts. A new bedtime mode in the clock app lets you fall asleep to calming sounds, limit interruptions and log your activity if you're on your phone after bedtime. Google rolled out bedtime tools in Android itself last month, but today’s new Bedtime tab in the Clock app is exclusive to Pixel phones now and coming to all Android devices “later this Summer.”
- Facebook launched a tool called "Manage Activity" that lets users batch-delete old posts. You can search by date, people tagged, or content type and choose to either delete entirely or archive them so only you can see them. Deleted posts will be recoverable for 30 days if you change your mind though you can choose to delete them before the 30 days. Manage Activity is available to some app users now and will roll out over the next few weeks.
- AT&T confirmed to The Verge that its HBO Max streaming service will not count against AT&T Mobile’s traditional data caps or the soft data caps on unlimited plans. Competing services like Netflix and Disney Plus will. A Verge source says HBO Max is using AT&T’s “sponsored data” system, which technically allows any company to pay to excuse its services from data caps, which would mean, internally at AT&T Warner Media records an expense and AT&T Mobility records revenue. When The Verge investigated in February 2018, only AT&T's own DirecTV, U-verse and Fullscreen used the sponsored data service. AT&T lists Aquto as a partner on its Sponsored Data page. Aquto is a marketing company that gives customers more data to use in exchange for viewing ads.
- Roku has added a program guide grid to its Roku Channel app which shows what's streaming at the moment on the 130 viewing options. The options include several live news streams. This is similar to how Xumo or Pluto TV work. The Roku Channel also offers on demand programming, some free with ads as well as premium offerings from Starz, BET+, Acorn TV and others.
- Samsung launched the Access phone subscription program in the US. The program bundles in a new Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, or Galaxy S20 Ultra device with Samsung Premium Care, 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage, and Microsoft 365 Personal services. Users can upgrade devices after nine months for free, or earlier for a one-time $100 fee, with a $100 fee for cancelling Access within the first three months. Access pricing varies by device, $37 per month for the Galaxy S20, $42 per month for the Galaxy S20+, or $48 per month for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
- Samsung’s 43" 4K QLED Sero TV-- you know the one we talked about at CES that rotates between landscape and portrait modes-- is now on sale in the US for $2000 and in the UK for £1600. The Sero was only available in Korea up until now. If you have a compatible phone such as Samsung's own Galaxy phone, you can tap it against the TV’s frame to launch screen mirroring, and the TV will automatically rotate to match the phone’s orientation. You can also use a remote, voice command, or the SmartThings app to manually rotate the TV, and AirPlay 2 is also supported.
Mailbag
- The stories told by those I have listened to for years touched me and gave insight I have never had so clearly.
I know about the inequality either due to race or economics or both, but knowing isn't feeling or understanding. I'll probably never be able to understand, but your podcast did something that most other reporting has failed to do. For me it went beyond the facts and hit me on a more personal level.
Thank you, and your correspondents(?) for this gift.
I normally write off shows/segments like what you did on Monday as pure virtue signaling ... In the case of DTNS, however, your years of apolitical reporting (which I am immensely thankful for) have given you a level of credibility that other outlets simply don’t have. As a result, I was happy to listen; really listen. I now have a better appreciation and perspective.
I imagine the decision for this episode wasn't easy, and I imagine you published this episode knowing that you'd get some blowback, probably even people exclaiming that they'd be cancelling their Patreon subscriptions. I applaud your courage.
Thank you for yielding the DTNS platform to share the voices of the black community in this moment.
- The stories told by those I have listened to for years touched me and gave insight I have never had so clearly.
- I'm sure that Amos (sp?) will let you know but the GDI team has broken into the top 500 Folding@Home teams ( out of 253708)!
- Sent by Charles
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "Step Chicken, What Are You Doing?" |
Rotate Me For Two Grand |
Followed by: "Should We Go To CES 2021?" |