What to do about hacking and the misuse of major social media platforms by foreign actors in U.S. elections? Much of the sturm und drang over potential cyber security solutions boils down to one compound question: should the government step in with regulation, allow the internet and social media platforms to police themselves, or a combination of the two?
Read the rest of this analysis here at Digital Technology’s Digital Riff.
Replacing wired connections with wireless ones is not a new idea. It dates back to the discovery of radio waves by Heinrich Hertz in 1888, and was first made practical by Guglielmo Marconi when he enabled telegraph signals to be transmitted through the air. Just prior to World War I, Nikola Tesla built a huge tower and power station out on the edge of Long Island with the intention of broadcasting free wireless electric power for all. In the 1950s, the first TV remote controls were physically wired before infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF) technologies allowed the connecting cable to disappear. In the 1970s, landline telephones became cordless, and a decade later wireless cellular phones appeared. In the 1990s, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth appeared, untethering personal computers from the internet, headphones from music playback devices, printers from PCs, etc., etc., etc.
Each one of these wired-to-wireless advances radically altered society. And we are now on the verge of the next such “cableless” revolution: ubiquitous wireless power.
Read the rest of this report here at Digital Technology Consulting’s Digital Riff.
Modern TV viewing at home requires three components: access to broadcast programming such as that found on NBC, PBS and the like, plus cable content such as ESPN and HBO, streaming content such as Netflix — and then a DVR to record and time-shift any broadcast viewing.
Many Americans have to jury rig this triad of 21st century TV necessities, pairing a cable box with DVR capabilities — along with either a smart TV or a streaming media box such as a Roku or Amazon Fire.
Or, you can just combine access to all your TV content into a single box, the TiVo 4K-compatible Bolt Vox.
Read the rest of this review here at Gear Brain.
Open your closet door and take a quick inventory. How many dozens of shirts/blouses, slacks, skirts, dresses, business suits, sports jackets, sweaters, etc., do you own? Look down. How many pairs of heels, flats, loafers, sneakers, sandals, hiking boots, snow boots? You also likely have a raft of rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches.
Now look in the mirror. If you wear glasses, you’re likely staring at the only pair you own.
Why own just one pair of glasses when you can buy a collection of fashionable eyewear far more cheaply — for as low as $10 for a complete pair — by shopping online?
Of all the functions and devices technology promises to improve or replace, there are few more critical to you and yours than the lock on the front door to your home. Like most technology, however, so-called “smart” locks represent two steps forward and one step back for your home security.
Fortunately, there’s a plethora of smart locks offering a variety of technologies and features that address or alleviate these steps backward, and you should be able to find options that suit your specific home security situations and needs.
Few mass market tech failures have been as remarkable as at-home 3DTV. While 3D still has a life in theaters, no TV maker bothers to hawk (or, in many cases, include) the feature anymore.
Why? Dependence on glasses for home entertainment was soundly rejected. It’s basically the same story for Virtual Reality (VR) in the home, although wearing VR headgear is a lot more uncomfortable than wearing 3D TV glasses.
Could this same no-glasses-at-home aversion keep the nascent home VR market from taking off?
Continue reading the rest of this post here.
Saving some cents makes sense in most shopping cases. But protecting life and property isn’t a place to budget. Which brings us to D-Link’s DCS-8000LH Mini HD WiFi Camera, available as a single unit for just $59.99 or as a two-pack for $119.99. You can literally buy three of these small cylindrical cameras for the same price as a single Logitech Circle 2 Wi-Fi camera.
The question is: are three 8000LH’s worth a single Circle 2? It depends on how much you value your home’s security.
Like Chewbacca cosplayers drooling in anticipation over any Star Wars Episode IX detail droplet, attendees at the recent Streaming Video East confab were all atwitter over the potential of the recently minted AV1 video codec proffered by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM).
It is the very earliest days for the new codec, and streaming giants—such as AOM founding member Netflix—are hoping to add AV1 to its codec toolbox as soon as it’s feasible.
So why all the AV1 enthusiasm? In short, AV1 is designed to produce higher-quality, high-resolution video efficiently and without royalty payments to AOM. At least that’s the short answer. As usual, the devil is in the details.
Continue reading this post here.
A review roundup of the 6 best Google Assistant speakers.
We’re all familiar with format wars — VHS v. Beta, Blu-ray v. HD-DVD, even the 19th century’s AC v. DC war of the currents. What you may not be familiar with is the current 4K video compression format war between HEVC (High-Efficient Video Coding, aka H.265), Google’s VP9, and a new and potentially disruptive entrant, AV1 from the Alliance for Open Media(AOM).
The question is, is this format war too inside-baseball for most CE retailers and vendors to worry about?
Continue reading this post here.
