News written by Matti Robinson (September, 2017)

Earlier this week Amazon revealed a bunch of new Alexa powered smart speakers. A day before that it was also revealed that Amazon's high-end smart speaker (smart screen?) Echo Show no longer supported one of its most important features.

On Tuesday Google had blocked YouTube access from Echo Show (pictured). While Amazon claimed that Google had not issued any explanation why this had happened, Google told reporters that Amazon's experience was against the YouTube policies.

Already at that point it seemed a little fishy. After all Amazon had a product that clearly took advantage of YouTube, although one could still see why it would be in Google's interest to let it show YouTube videos.

Well, now new report from TechCrunch claims that Google is developing a Echo Show competitor that is called codename Manhattan. It's said to have a display in the same size range as Echo Show (7 inches) and feature of course YouTube viewing among other Google Home features.

Space geeks garthered this week in Adelaide, Australia as the International Astronautical Congress 2017 had its liftoff on Monday. On Thursday Elon Musk spoke in front of the media and a crowd of space travel enthusiasts.

The SpaceX frontman's speech included revisions of plans to colonize Mars and to setting up a Moon base but perhaps the most intriguing idea came in the form of intrastellar travel. This was the concept of a new rocket, named BFR – of course.

The Big Fucking Rocket is Elon Musk's newest vision of space travel but even though it could travel back and forth to the Moon, delivering ISS some mac n' cheese while at it, according to Musk it would revolutionize traveling within our planet.

Tesla and SpaceX billionaire suggested that it could be as inexpensive as a plane ticket and would travel from New York to Shanghai in 30 minutes. Or anywhere else on the same planet within an hour.

How is this all possible, you say? Well, if one chooses to believe Musk, the BFR is as reliable as an airplane and can function normally even if one of its six Raptor engines shuts off. It is also fully reusable so most of the costs would come from fuel.

Of course BFR is a far-off idea still. SpaceX has yet to launch even the Falcon Heavy, which is minuscule compared to the aptly named rocket. If, however, Musk is more correct about this than, say, about Hyperloop, then we indeed might have something that would change traveling forever.

Amazon's launch event yesterday gave us plenty of new options when it comes to Echo smart speakers but Amazon didn't forget the TV crowd. Amazon's new Fire TV 4K is a direct answer to Apple TV 4K, and Google's Chromecast Ultra before that.

Fire TV 4K is exactly what you'd expect. It turns your TV into a streaming TV with exclusive support for Amazon's own services as well as the other popular streaming video and music services. As name suggests, it now supports 4K UHD resolution (3840 by 2160) just like its competitors.

While still technically still a dongle, the new Fire TV 4K isn't exactly a stick anymore. The square box is connected to a TV with a short cable like Chromecast, albeit the box itself is a little larger than Google's streaming device.

As its competitors, Fire TV 4K also supports HDR content, and you can also watch video content that's been recorded at 60 FPS. However, unlike Apple TV 4K and Chromecast Ultra, Fire TV 4K doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR experience and relies solely on HDR10 support. On the other hand there's support for Dolby Atmos surround sound that is not available on Apple TV 4K, yet.

Amazon Fire TV 4K costs $69 (like Chromecast Ultra), while Apple TV 4K is a whopping $179.

Amazon had a launch event yesterday where they updated their smart device lineups. While Alexa and Echo are still a marginal business inside the behemoth that is Amazon, they might be the future.

Amazon updated their flagship smart speaker, the Echo. Now the Alexa-wielding speaker comes in a smaller package, and cheaper than ever before. Echo (picture above) is now under six inches tall and starts at $99.99. The new Echo also comes with three different covers: Charcoal Fabric, Heather Gray Fabric, Oak Finish, Sandstone Fabric, Silver Finish, and Walnut Finish.

The traditional-looking Echo is now renamed Echo Plus, includes smart home hub functionality plus one Philips Hue Bulb (limited time offer), and retails at $149.99. Echo Plus comes in Black, White, and Silver. Both of the aforementioned Echos have dual Dolby speakers with 2.5" woofer and a tweeter.



Amazon also introduced a completely new Echo product, the Echo Spot. Spot is essentially a smaller version of Echo Show, which couple days ago lost YouTube functionality. Spot has a 2.5 inch round display that allows you to watch the same content as on Echo Show, so basically Prime Video.

Amazon was the first company to hit the smart speaker out of the park. With their newest addition, Echo Show, it tries to elevate the smart speaker with visual "answers." However, it has faced a major setback.

The main selling point of the new Echo Show is of course its beautiful screen. It displays all kinds of information but extends Alexa's skills to showing video content that is not possible to simply narrate on a traditional smart speaker.

Unfortunately it is no longer able to use the largest database of video content in the world.

Since yesterday afternoon Amazon's Echo Show has not been able to receive videos from YouTube. Amazon has told The Verge that Google removed the support for Echo Show without informing them or the customers about the reason.

Up until yesterday at around 3pm you could have searched for your favorite Chicken Alfredo video recipe on YouTube by asking Alexa but now Echo Show simply says "Currently, Google is not supporting Youtube on Echo Show." According to Google this is due to Amazon violating "terms of service, creating a broken user experience" but it's hard to say who to believe.

Earlier this year Apple decided to start developing graphics processors in-house. This meant that their longtime partner, Imagination Technologies, was going to get bad news.

Indeed Imagination Technologies was scrapped as the GPU developer for iPhones and iPads. During the summer, while the British company was struggling, it was revealed that Apple has opened a R&D unit near Imagination Technologies' headquarters, perhaps hoping to attract talent that was laid off from the former partner.

A strange move from Apple that was among the largest shareholders of the company. However, Apple did consider acquiring the company before deciding to abandon their chips.

Now that Apple has already unveiled their this year's iPhones, they've seemed to have moved on completely. The iPhone 8 as well as the upcoming iPhone X both have a new GPU developed by Apple. All the older Apple devices that they sell (including the iPhone 7) have PowerVR chips from Imagination Technologies.

All this time Imagination Technologies has been trying to figure out how to continue after losing most of its revenue. Over half of the company's revenue came from licensing deal with Apple that included iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, iPods, and Apple Watch.

It has been revealed that the messaging platform WeChat, owned by the Chinese technology giant Tencent, shares all its data with the government, Moneycontrol.com reports.

Chinese government is known for limiting access to online content and surveilling its citizens closely so it shouldn't come as a surprise but nonetheless seems egregious even from them.

Even though the messaging service is not among the most used in the U.S., or Europe for that matter, it has over 650 million users. It's the third largest messaging platform after WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. As one might imagine most of its users are in China or surrounding countries but plenty of westeners use the service as well.

The sharing of data with the Chinese government was revealed from the company's new privacy policy. Updating the software requires accepting the new policy so this means that every single message can be accessed by the government from now on.

The Chinese government has made it clear that it will hold individuals responsible for example group chats that spread information that is deemed questionable.

The Chinese equivalent of Google, Baidu, has announced that it has launched a new $1.5 billion fund to speed up advancement in autonomous driving. Baidu's plan is to fund around hundred self-driving car projects over the next three years.

Clearly Baidu is serious about competing more fiercely with U.S. based technology companies for the future in autonomous vehicles.

The fund, called Apollo Fund, is named after the company's open-source autonomous vehicle software, Apollo. The Apollo Fund was announced alongside news that the self-driving software had advanced to second generation and version 1.5, Reuters reports.

The Apollo software is turn is named after NASA's space program.

From the public's perspective it seems that Baidu's target is mainly competing with Tesla. The American car maker has been able to bring forth most impressive autonomous driving features so far.

Tesla has previously been working on autonomous driving features, software application, and chip manufacturing with Nvidia as well as Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel in March. Tesla is now developing AI chips for autonomous driving in-house and rumored to be partnering with AMD.

The electric car company Tesla has worked with Nvidia for a long time. Nvidia has delivered chips to current Tesla models with autopilot features, but Elon Musk has wanted to get more rule over the development of the chips.

According to new information acquired by CNBC, Tesla is trying to become more independent when it comes to autopilot enabling AI processing. Tesla is looking to develop their own chips that are custom made to their AI needs, and provide energy efficiency while tackling specifically the problems of self-driving.

However, while this might mean that Nvidia will be tossed aside altogether, Tesla will still need some help manufacturing the chips.

Now the kicker is that Tesla has made a deal with AMD, the main rival of Nvidia, who is perhaps less known for their AI prowess than Nvidia. However, AMD is now offering their architecture and other technologies to be used in Teslas in-house chips and self-driving concepts.

Leading the Tesla AI chip development is a former Apple and AMD chip architect Jim Keller.

According to CNBC, the first implementation of Tesla's in-house AI processor to be used in self-driving has already made with the help of AMD's manufacturing and intellectual property.

As expected, Google and HTC have signed a deal marking a new era in cooperation between the companies. However, HTC was not acquired but instead they signed a billion dollar partnership.

This will allow Google to use HTC's patented technologies and transfers some HTC's employees to Google. Of course the team responsible for Pixel is part of that, and they have already been working with Google now for many years, but this deal will solidify that partnership.

They will be from now on working for Google, literally, and get paid by the search giant. That also means that Google can reallocate any number of engineers to other products, be it Chromecast, Google Home or any number of new and unannounced ones.

This might mean bad news for LG, who is rumored to be again the second manufacturer of the Pixel phones. LG has made the Pixel XL and rumors, detailing the phones, have it that this years Pixel 2 XL will be theirs as well. As Google now has essentially manufacturing to themselves, that might change.

The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC has been looking for a buyer for years. Year after year their business has declined, and the past few months have been the worst in over a decade.

There have been some good news, though, for them. About two weeks ago rumors had it that HTC is close to signing a deal that could possibly mean an acquisition. The other participant in the negotiations was rumored to be no other than Google itself.

As the negotiations were said to be close to being finished, one would expect some additional information around this time, right? Well, it seems that the Chinese sources might have indeed been right.

HTC has now informed, according to the Twitter account of Bloomberg columnist Tim Culpan, that it'll be halting trading shares starting tomorrow pending a major announcement.

The rumors previously didn't detail if Google would indeed be taking over the entire company, excluding VR business which isn't for sale, or if they would become a strategic partner. Either way, it would probably be considered a "major announcement."

HTC is the manufacturer of Google Pixel and the recently leaked Pixel 2 that will debut on October 4th. HTC was also the first smartphone manufacturer to build an Android phone, HTC Dream (or T-Mobile G1).

Now that Apple has unveiled their new, albeit mostly leaked, smartphones it is perhaps time to move on to other major players in the field. Google remains to be the only one that hasn't yet announced this years flagships.

In Google's case the upcoming phones will be the only phones of the year. And they aren't even manufactured by the company themselves. Nevertheless, if you want a Google phone, one would think you'd want it designed by Google. And that is exactly what you are getting with the Pixels.

However, considering the design of last years Pixel, it doesn't seem like you are getting a radical, or even that attractive, piece of equipment with Pixel. And unfortunately it seems to be the case this time around too.

A leak has revealed exactly what the upcoming Pixel 2 (below) and Pixel 2 XL (above) will look like, and they haven't changed much in a year. With the new colors it does spice up the design a little bit but it's still essentially the same dual design in the back.

The leak, detailed by Droid-Life, also reveal the prices. For the smaller Pixel 2 they are $649 (64GB) and $749 (128GB), and larger Pixel XL is $849 for the standard 64GB version and $949 for the 128GB model.

After the success of Amazon's assistant-in-a-can, better known as Echo, several competitors have joined the home assistant domain with their own smart assistant powered speakers.

One of the more high-profile ones is of course Google whose Google Home is effectively, in terms of functionality, a duplicate of Amazon's Echo. It's a smart speaker that has all the functionality of Google Assistant, found on the Android mobile platform.

Now, it has been revealed, that Google is even going to expand the home assistant selection with a new Google Home Mini, just like Amazon, mind you, with Amazon Tap and Amazon Dot.

Droid-Life has released pictures of this smaller Home that is expected to be released on October 4 alongside the new Pixel 2 smartphones.

According to their information the new Mini version costs $49 and comes in three colors, Chalk (grey), Charcoal (black), and Coral (red). Google sells the original Google Home for $129.

Amazon has unveiled a refreshed version of its Fire HD 10 tablet. The online retailers improved 10-inch tablet has got more storage and performance but a reduced price tag.

The new Fire HD 10 retails starting at $149.99 and includes doubled storage capacity. Not only is the storage increased to 32 gigabytes but there's a new MediaTek octa-core processor that is said to improve performance up to 30 percent.

Just the price drop of 35 percent is a significant improvement on value. Add in the improved performance and storage and you've got a pretty good deal. Fire HD 10 features a 10.1 inch Full HD display, 2 gigabytes of RAM, two cameras (VGA front-facing, 2MP rear-facing), 3.5 mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, and a microSD slot for expandable memory up to 256 gigabytes.

However, one has to remember that Fire HD 10 is not a full-fledged Android tablet but for Amazon customers, and especially Prime members, it is certainly worth a look.

The new versio can already be preordered on Amazon but it'll be released on October 11. There's also a 64GB model for $189.99. Both are available in black, blue, and red.

Tesla has been one of the fastest growing (large) companies in the past couple years. In just few years the market cap has increased ten fold and it has become one of the largest car manufacturers on the planet.

It has surpassed Ford and GM to become the largest US car manufacturer in valuation. And Model 3, the inexpensive electric sedan, hasn't really been launched to the public yet.

However, Tesla and Elon Musk are not ready to rest on their laurels. The next step will be to revolutionize other aspects of motor traffic.

The next press conference will be focusing on semi-trucks. Tesla's next big product is a semi-truck, and although details are still scarce, it is fairly safe to say that it'll be an all electric vehicle with autonomous driving properties. It is also fairly safe to say that if this launch is successful it would revolutionize all cargo traffic in the United States.

Earlier this week Elon Musk tweeted saying that the unveiling of this semi-truck will happen tentatively on October 26th. Musk calls the vehicle a "beast" and says it is "unreal."

Some analysts have suggested that the product would ship in 2020 and would cost $100,000 with likely extra charges for replacement batteries.

Last week it was revealed that Netflix had released an update bringing HDR video to Galaxy Note8 smartphone. Expanding the HDR support to new Android devices is not a trick that only Netflix possesses though.

Now YouTube has decided to up the ante and add HDR support to its mobile app. Unfortunately for iPhone users, for now, it is only available on Android phones. This is because only a handful of Android phones support HDR video on their screens. This might, of course, change this week as the iPhone X is unveiled.

At this moment YouTube's HDR content can be watched on four Android devices, which are Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and LG V30. Netflix on the other hand supports LG G6 but not yet Galaxy S8.

HDR videos have a maximum resolution of 1440p which all of the aforementioned smartphones support as well. The framerate is capped at 60 fps.

YouTube has supported HDR videos already for nine months but it has been limited to HDR supported smart TVs.

China has expressed that it will disallow the use of virtual currency, or cryptocurrency, in the country, Wall Street Journal reports. Previously the world's most populous country had banned ICOs (initial coin offerings) which allows citizens to acquire funds via virtual currencies.

China, who love to control their market, have been struggling with the concept of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. They are almost impossible to control and monitor, and can be used very easily to move funds out of the country. The authorities are also afraid that Bitcoin and others increase money laundering within its borders, and even affect the value or Chinese juan.

Bitcoin has been gaining strength recently, and in the past few months it has doubled its value. This probably is one of the reasons governments, at least the authoritarian ones more prone to control monetary markets, are interested in fighting cryptocurrencies.

According to country's largest Bitcoin exchanges, BTCC and Huobi, they hadn't yet received requests to shut down their services. Even if China follows through with what WSJ claims, it won't affect for example over-the-counter (OTC) Bitcoin transactions, sources say to Bloomberg.

Yesterday it was revealed that Apple is going to not only revolutionize their smartphone lineup but also the naming scheme. No iPhone 7s at all, but instead a slightly upgraded iPhone 8, and completely upgraded iPhone X.

The latter comes with many new features that were also detailed yesterday. Among these are camera features such as Portrait Lighting but also for a long it has been rumored that Apple will introduce a face recognition system because it'll be removing the home button and thus the traditional fingerprint reader in Touch ID.

Well, we've now got some footage that will show pretty much exactly how that is going to work. Twitter user and iOS developer Guilherme Rambo has shared a video which combines the selfie shot and an animation found from leaked iOS 11 files.

It's not the actual authentication but instead just the animations that are used in it. It would seem awfully long if all the animations run as in the video every time you unlock your iPhone. There's also video of the Face Enrollment, which is the setup for your Face ID.

In addition a UI designer Maxim Petriv has compiled pictures what the settings and the UI of iPhone X's Face ID looks like according to the leaks.

Spotify and Apple became direct competitors in June 2015 when the world's largest company decided to up their game in terms of music services. Spotify was, and is still, the leader in streaming music, and Apple was the king of the previous music revolution.

Now it seems that Spotify has been struck with a slight nuisance as Apple has removed the support for Spotify in their web browser. Spotify's web player no longer works on Safari, MacRumors has noted. However, even though it sounds like an extension of the scuffle they are currently having in the music space, it is likely not related to the competition in the least.

See, Apple's browser doesn't support a plugin called Widevine, which is required by Spotify. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge on the other hand do support the plugin.

So if you love using the web player and are a Safari users, you unfortunately have no other choice than to switch browsers, at least to use Spotify. In addition to Chrome versions from 45 on, Firefox v47 onwards, and Edge version 14 and later, Spotify web player can be used on Opera (v32+).

Spotify has not been able to answer whether it'll bring the web player to Safari in the future. That probably depends more on Apple.

The world is holding their breath as it awaits for the upcoming iPhones. Well, maybe not quite, but one or two people might be looking forward to what is, perhaps, the most substantial upgrade to iPhone thus far.

Even though Apple will likely unveil three new iPhones, the only one that includes significant, or, as Apple might call it, revolutionary, upgrades to the iconic smartphone is the one everyone has their eyes on. Many things have leaked about that one model in particular but it has still been unclear what they will call the new phone.

For months it has seemed liked the consensus is that it'll be iPhone 8 as the smaller upgrades will be aptly getting the moniker 7s and 7s Plus respectively. However, even names such as iPhone 10 or iPhone X have been floating around.

Now a self-proclaimed hacker has revealed some new information about the names that appear in a recently leaked iOS 11 firmware. The Twitter user Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) has posted a picture revealing that the device known as the codename D20 is called in the documents iPhone 8. However, this is not the dro... phone you're looking for.

Apple's upcoming and close to final version of iOS 11 has leaked revealing some new information about the highly anticipated iPhone due next week. The GM, or Grand Master, release of iOS 11 details new camera features about the iPhone 8 that will be released alongside iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus on Tuesday.

Previously details have been unveiled by the leaked HomePod firmware but this time around iOS has prematurely offered us official information about the upcoming smartphone. According to 9to5Mac, who've been scavenging through the software update, there's a new camera mode called Portrait Lighting.

This mode allows users to take Portrait pictures as introduced last year with the iPhone 7 Plus but with new lighting effects. Among those are Contour Light, Natural Light, Stage Light, Stage Light Mono, and Studio Light.

In addition to Portrait Lighting the new iPhone 8, or perhaps even 7s and 7s Plus, will be able to take Full HD video in amazing 240 frames per second, and even doubles the 4K video framerate to 60 fps.

When it comes to display, the leak reveals that iPhone will also get the True Tone Display that was introduced to iPads last year. This makes the display adapt to its surrounding lights and change its color temperature according to the environment.

One of the more storied smartphone manufacturers, HTC, has been in dire straits for a long time. A company which was one of the first smartphone manufacturers for both Windows and Android platforms reported the worst financial results in 13 years this August.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has been struggling for years, and even though occasionally it has produced some spectacular smartphones the competition has just been too fierce.

For a long time HTC has been seeking for a buyer without much success. Now it seems, though, that the tides have turned.

According to a Chinese source, Commercial Times, negotiations between HTC and search giant Google have advanced to a place where HTC might soon be a Google company.

The sources claim that the negotiations are in final stages, and the companies are trying to figure out if Google will acquire the company or become a strategic partner of a kind. In either case the deal will include smartphone business but not the VR side of things that includes HTC Vive.

This wouldn't of course be the first time Google buys a smartphone manufacturer. In 2012 Google acquired Motorola Mobility but didn't find much success with it and sold it to Lenovo in late 2014. Whether there was a lesson to learn about buying a manufacturer remains to be seen.

Online video and internet TV is here to stay. Moreover it is here to challenge broadcast TV and it seems clear that it is the future.

Netflix, of course, has proven that the concept of internet TV can be successful around the globe. Not only has it been a business success it has managed to produce some of the world's best TV content, movies, as well as documentaries.

After such success others are quick to pile in on broadcast TV and secure their share of the future TV pie. Among technology companies Apple and Amazon have been challenging Netflix with their own shows.

According to Hollywood Reporter those two are planning on raising the stakes further by possibly acquiring the distribution right to one of the most important movie franchises of our time.

After the 2015 film Spectre, the future distribution rights for James Bond franchise have been up in the air. MGM and Eon Production have been looking for a buyer for two years now.

The insider sources claim that not only Warner, who is closest to land a deal, and other Hollywood giants but also aforementioned technology companies are more than interested in competing for the rights for future Bond movies. And they might be willing to spend even more to get what they want.

Samsung has launched a new rewards program which is aimed at mobile users, and especially hackers among them. The new Mobile Security Rewards Program offers rewards in cash and can amount to up to $200,000.

The program includes 38 different mobile devices, from 2015 up until today, and their respective software solutions. This includes such smartphone and tablet lineups as the Galaxy S series, Galaxy Note series, Galaxy A series, and Galaxy Tab series.

The software in the program includes the likes of Samsung Pay and Bixby, but is not limited to separate Samsung apps. However, Samsung's rules require that the security hole must only be found in Samsung devices, not Android in general. In addition it must be accessed without physical connection.

To get a reward you need to be hacking the latest software version of the device or the app. Naturally Samsung also requires that the hacker will not publish any information about the issue until Samsung has had time to address and possibly fix the issue.

Unfortunately not every security problem unveiled is going to net you the top dollar. Depending on the severity level of the vulnerability Samsung rewards $200 to $200,000 to the first person responsible for finding the security threat.

It is safe to say that the future of television is probably not in cable, right? There's one company that has been shouting that from the mountaintops, obviously, but it's not so clear that near trillion dollar technology behemoths are just going to watch you take it.

The likes of Google and Apple are certainly going to fight for a piece in that pie, as are many others. Apple has been investing in TV which is evident from their exclusive show Planet of the Apps, but behind the scenes a lot is happening.

Apple has been recruiting talent from one of the more influential TV teams in Sony. Adding to two high-tier TV execs recruited in July, Apple has now found three new Sony bosses to their new video programming division.

Former Sony TV leads Max Aronson, Ali Woodruff, and Kim Rozenfeld now join Apple, Deadline reports. In addition Apple found PR talent in WGN America's former head of PR Rita Cooper Lee.

All of them obviously have bonafide background in TV programming and business in general, and it'll be interesting to see what they'll manage at Apple. They've previously been part of such hit shows as Breaking Bad and Two Guys and a Girl.