Sweeps Weeks start and it’s school week three…I’m out of Uncle Nearest. We’ve resorted to putting up portable partitions behind the kids for their Zoom conferences, and have moved them into the kitchen. I still don’t know how the 9 year old’s school day ends at 1, but here we are. It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, Apple held their fall hardware and software event, an AI will captain a boat recreating the Mayflower’s voyage, and the PS5 is phat! You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
APPLE CONDUCTS VIRTUAL FALL EVENT: THE FAITHFUL YAWNS
Apple held their Fall event earlier this week, and most of the world caught up the following day. Apple has gone gangbusters this year, and was the world’s most valuable company over the summer. The pandemic driving most tech announcements to virtual has tempered the timbre, and Apple is no exception. Apple announced Apple Watch 6 with a new O2 sensor that can be used to help track breathing rate in addition to heart rate, and an always on altimeter. The big boosts for Apple Watch 6 are increased battery life and a brighter display that is 2.5 times brighter than the W5. Apple also announced a new iPad Air which will have an edge-to-edge display that’s only available on the Pro, the regular iPad gets a performance increase of 40%. The biggest announcement in services with the announcement of Apple One. Apple One bundles iCloud, Apple Music, Arcade, News, and Fitness in various subscription services for $15, $20 for families, and a premier plan at $30 that bundles everything. Other digital services are already crying foul, and saying that Apple will hurt competition. I don’t think they’re wrong. New versions of iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS are available for download now.
The honest answer is that hardware is due for a new upgrade and paradigm shift. Our phones and computers have reached a level of maturity and saturation where upgrades are evolutionary. Consumers like to get their consumer electronics fix, they just aren’t as excited anymore.
THE PS5 IS THE BIGGEST GAME CONSOLE EVER MADE
The technology industry is always focused on making things more efficient and powerful. With increased power usually comes making things smaller and thinner. Except in the case of game consoles. The PS5 won’t be out until November, but SONY is already bragging about how bulky the PlayStation 5 would be. The system has been dubbed the biggest game console on market. Outsizing all of the Xboxes and even the PS4 which was dubbed the Phat. The PlayStation 5’s stats are pretty amazing and would make a great high performance computer.
AI WILL MAKE HISTORIC MAYFLOWER VOYAGE IN SIGN OF WHAT MAY COME
A crew-less robotic ship will recreate the historic voyage from Plymouth Harbor to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship will traverse the sea piloted by an IBM trained AI. The ship will perform six months of sea trials before making the trip. The original Mayflower was 100ft in length and cruised at 3 knots taking two months to make the Atlantic voyage. The MAS is made of aluminum composite materials and cruises at a top speed of 10 knots and should make the trip in 2 weeks. Instead of wind, the MAS is propelled using solar-powered batteries and is manufactured by a non-profit corporation, ProMare. The MAS will take samples of aquatic life and plastics during its voyage. Instead of a 30 man crew, the MAS is packed with lidar, radar, cameras, GPS, and a million nautical images of training data.
