MWC2019: Tech News Tapas
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| MWC2019: Tech News Tapas | |
| Number | 3475 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 25, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 30:51 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
| Guests | Charlotte Henry |
We digest the torrent of announcements from this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Guest
Quick Hits
- Google announced that it'll roll out an English version of Google Assistant integration into Android Messages "in the coming months," with a new button appearing in the app's smart replies area. Google says it won't be reading users' texts, though, and only Google Assistant's own text is shared with the company. Google's spinning down its consumer texting app, Allo, due for sunset at the end of March. Android Messages will be the primary texting app afterward and will support SMS, MMS, and RCS.
- Intel CEO Bob Swan said Monday that the company's future in 5G networks go beyond selling modems to phone makers. Intel plans to sell modems to automakers as well for use in connected vehicles, and to manufacturers for use in connecting industrial equipment. Intel processors and its programmable chips it gained by acquiring Altera Inc in 2016 - are also slated to be added into a variety of networking gear, according to Swan, who spoke at a press conference in Palo Alto, CA, last week.
- Lots of 5G phones have been announced at MWC! We'll touch on a few of these later in the show but if you're just keeping track of all the 5G phones announced, here's what we know so far: The Huawei Mate X, which is also foldable, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G (with "hand ID"), The Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10 5G, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, and the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G. HTC also announced a 5-inch 5G Smart Hub with an Android touchscreen and OnePlus has a 5G prototype. Oh and Oppo has a foldable phone prototype and TLC, which makes phones for Alcatel and BlackBerry will launch a foldable next year.
- A paper called "Privacy Attacks to the 4G and 5G Cellular Paging Protocols Using Side Channel Information" will be presented by researchers from the University of Iowa at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego on Tuesday. It details two attacks. One called Torpedo lets attackers subvert the paging protocol that lets a device know a call or text is coming. Torpedo can reveal location information without the user's awareness. Another attack called Piercer relies on Torpedo and can be used to determine a device's international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) which can allow for stingray-like tracking in real time. All four major US operators are affected by Torpedo and one carrier is vulnerable to Piercer. The flaws have been reported to the GSMA cell phone industry group, and proof-of-concept code will not be released at this time.
- Qualcomm announced it will launch a chipset with integrated 5G modem capability in 2020. It could be the followup chip to the Snapdragon 855 though Qualcomm did not say. Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon described it as a fully integrated mobile station modem designed to make it easier for phone makers at multiple price ranges to adopt 5G.
- HMD Global introduced a phone that IS NOT 5G, the Nokia 9 PureView. What it does have is a six-module camera with three 12-megapixel monochrome cameras, two 12-megapixel RGB cameras and a time-of-flight sensor for depth sensing. The camera array was developed by the company called Light which also did a 16-lens standalone camera called the L16. The PureView will be produced in a limited run and sell for €599.
Top Stories
SD Cards
- The SD association announced microSD express using NVMe 1.3 and PCIe 3.1 interfaces for better power efficiency and transfer speeds of up to 985 Mb/s, while maintaining full backwards compatibility. It can also do bus mastering to connect with components without going through the CPU for faster multitasking. Devices need to support the 2011 microSD UHS II standard. In other SD card news, Micron and SanDisk have both launched UHS-1 1 TB microSDXC cards. Western Digital's SanDisk card claims 160MB/s read speed while Micron claims 100 MB/s. But Micron has a faster 95 MB/s write speed. SanDisk's card will be on sale in April for $449.99. Micron's comes Q2 but no price yet.
FIDO
- Google Play Services has added support for the open FIDO2 standard. Users with Android 7.0 and later devices will be able to log into apps and websites using biometric data like fingerprints, or PIN numbers or swipe patterns on devices without biometric support. All authentication is handled locally on device, meaning apps and services will not have access to biometric information. Developers will have to integrate the FIDO API to support the feature. Bart Buschotts did a great explanation of FIDO on Allison Sheridan's Security Bits podcast.
SONY
- Sony unveiled the Xperia 1 smartphone, with a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED display, featuring a tall 21:9 aspect ratio. The phone also comes with three 12 megapixel cameras on the back, side-mounted finger print reader, Snapdragon 855, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and water resistance. The cheaper Xperia 10 and 10 Plus also feature the 21:9 aspect ratio. No pricing was announced. The Xperia 10 and 10 Plus come out March 18 and the Xperia X12 is expected to be out in late spring.
MICROSOFT
- Microsoft announced the HoloLens 2 with a 53-degree field of view and eye tracking. It also adds 3D mapping of the hands so you can grab objects to adjust them rather than tapping on a virtual control. Microsoft also moved the integrated computer to the back of the headset to make it less front-heavy. The price is now $3500 down from $5,000 for the first generation and it can be bundled with Dynamics 365 Remote Assist. Mircosoft will also work with third parties for specialized hardware for certain industries, an example being a hard hat made with Trimble.
- Microsoft also announced the Azure Kinect Developer kit. Designed for enterprises, Azure Kinect offers a 1-megapixel depth camera, 360-degree 7-microphone circular array, 12MP RGB camera, and orientation sensor, and integrates into Microsoft's cloud services like Azure AI for organizations to build their own apps. Azure Kinect is available for preorder for $399.
- But it's not ALL work work work. In regards to the Hololens 2 app platform, Microsoft technical fellow and HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman made three key commitments. 1. Developers will have freedom to create their own stores. 2. An open web browsing model, including Mozilla making Firefox Reality available for Hololens. 3. An open API surface and driver model. Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, who has been highly critical of the Microsoft Windows app store, appeared on stage at MWC to pledge Epic Games' support for the new headset.
LG
- LG announced two things that are either crazy or genius. One is Hand ID. Yep. "Your hand is the password" as the LG tagline reads. The forthcoming LG G8 phone uses its 3D sensor not only for face unlock, but also to read your palm's shape thickness and vein pattern. This lets you unlock the phone by holding your hand over it. It can also recognize a few hand gestures to control apps. The G8 has a speaker in the screen and a headphone jack too.
- The second crazy or genius idea comes as an accessory for LG's first 5G phone, the V50 ThinQ. The V50 is an update to the existing V40 platform, and aside from 5G adds a larger 4,000 mAh battery, a Snapdragon 855 processor, and a better cooling system. The accessory is called Dual Screen, which attaches like a phone case and adds a second 6.2-inch OLED display that runs off the V50's battery. The Dual Screen allows for two app multitasking, or can be used as a separate keyboard or game controller. The V50 will come initially to Sprint in the coming months, and eventually come to Verizon over the summer. The Dual Screen accessory will only be sold internationally, with no planned US release. Exact pricing and release dates were not announced.
HUAWEI
- Huawei announced a foldable phone called the Mate X. It has an 8-inch wraparound OLED display that is 11mm thick when folded. It is capable of 5G, has a 4,500mAh battery split into two parts and runs on Huawei's Kirin 980 processor. When folded it works as a dual screen smart phone with a 6.6-inch main display and 6.4-inch rear display. It does not have a rear camera when unfolded. The Mate X with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage will sell for €2,299 starting in the middle of this year.
- Huawei also announced an updated MateBook X Pro with a new processor and graphics cards, and the option for up to 1TB of storage. There's also the MateBook 14 which has a lower-resolution screen than the Matebook X Pro.
Mailbag
- Really disappointed in Friday's coverage of https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/ No one pointed out that cat might be able to easily detect the fake humans, and not the fake cats!
Other than that, keep up the great work! - Sent by MP
- Really disappointed in Friday's coverage of https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/ No one pointed out that cat might be able to easily detect the fake humans, and not the fake cats!
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| Preceded by: "What You Don’t Know About China Tech" |
MWC2019: Tech News Tapas |
Followed by: "Microsoft Switching It Up" |