It’s about being everywhere
It was Google versus Alexa at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, reports Wired. “Right now, by all accounts, Amazon’s Alexa is winning the virtual assistant battle,” its editors report. “It was in hundreds of third-party devices at last year’s CES, and though Amazon doesn’t release specific sales figures beyond the ‘tens of millions’ statement from CEO Jeff Bezos, Echo devices appear to outsell Google Homes by a wide margin. Not only that, Amazon’s working with a growing list of partners to embed Alexa in other devices as well. Google needs to catch up fast if it wants to compete. Its Google Home products – the Home, Mini and Max – are solid enough, but they’re just the beginning of the ecosystem. The winning virtual assistant will be the one that first achieves ubiquity. It’s about doing everything, and being everywhere. Once people pick an assistant and start using it in their lives, they’re not likely to switch. The stakes are high, and immediate.”
TV lexicon
New TVs are coming, with an alphabet soup of features designed to get you to spend more money, reports the Associated Press. Some terms to keep in mind:
- HD, 4K, 8K: Lots and lots of pixels, for some sharp viewing.
- OLED: Stands for Organic, light-emitting diodes. Self-illuminating pixels, so that images can have truly black areas, not just really dark ones (which, we guess, is a good thing?).
- MicroLED: Micro light-emitting diodes, said to offer the same benefits of OLED without the potential “burn-in.”
- HDR and HDR10: High dynamic range using 10 “bits” to represent color gradations. Said to include the brightest bright parts and the darkest dark parts without either dominating the image.
- Dolby Vision and HDR10+: Sixty-nine billion color variations.
- Quantum dots, QLED, QDEF: Quantum dots are tiny particles that emit sharp colors based on their particular size, leading to very accurate colors.
Toilet talk
Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke says he doesn’t want to have anything to do with talking toilets, such as the Kohler Numi toilet, displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Conversations could lead to hard feelings. Example:
- Toilet: “Hello Rex, welcome to the bathroom. What can I do for you?”
- Huppke: “Raise the seat, please.”
- Toilet: “Sure! How is your day go … HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? OH GOD, THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!”
Love at first algorithm
Science can’t beat the human heart when it comes to love, according to the Advertising Standards Authority in London. A billboard ad on a London Underground platform for the online dating service, eHarmony, seen on July 4, 2017, featured the headline claim “Step aside, fate. It’s time science had a go at love,” according to the ASA. Further text stated “Imagine being able to stack the odds of finding lasting love entirely in your favour. eHarmony’s scientifically proven matching system decodes the mystery of compatibility and chemistry so you don’t have to. Why leave the most important search of your life to chance? Try something different today. Join eharmony.co.uk”. A complaint was lodged, claiming that it is not possible to hold scientific proof about a dating system.
In its assessment, the ASA wrote, “The ASA considered that consumers were likely to appreciate that the advertised dating website would not be able to guarantee that they would be able to find lasting love. However, we considered that consumers would interpret the claim ‘scientifically proven matching system’ to mean that scientific studies had demonstrated that the website offered users a significantly greater chance of finding lasting love than what could be achieved if they didn’t use the service.”
The ruling? The ad must not appear again in its current form. “We told eHarmony to remove the claim ‘scientifically proven matching system’ and not to use similar claims with the same meaning, unless they had adequate evidence that their website offered users a significantly greater chance of finding lasting love than what could be achieved if they didn’t use the service.”
Poolside Wi-Fi
Extend your Wi-Fi coverage outdoors up to an additional 2,500 square feet with the Orbi™ Outdoor Satellite from NETGEAR. Users connect the Orbi router to an Internet modem or service provider gateway, and place the Orbi satellite somewhere central to the area of intended Wi-Fi coverage. Depending upon the Orbi System installed, the Wi-Fi coverage area can range from 3,500 square feet up to 5,000 feet around your property. By adding an Orbi Outdoor Satellite to an existing Orbi WiFi System, the range of the WiFi mesh coverage zone can be expanded to another 2,500 square feet extending to the farthest perimeter of your property for Wi-Fi at the pool, guest house, garage and the grill. Designed to withstand rough outdoor weather conditions including sub-zero temperatures, Orbi Outdoor Satellite has an international standard IP56 rating for dust and water-resistance, according to the manufacturer. Cost: $330.
Whip it good.
With its 700-watt motor, Braun’s latest immersion blender “blows through foodstuffs that lesser sticks can’t crack – ice cubes, raw potatoes, or even a peeled avocado with pit (if you crave those bitter tannins),” reports Wired. The device sells for $150. “Below the soft grip is a compression zone – push down and the spinning slicer moves closer to the bottom of your vessel, ensuring every last bit of basil and garlic becomes pesto,” reports the magazine. “Squeezing the trigger speeds up the blades and takes your mix from chunky to smooth. No apron? No problem. Those funkily shaped feet are designed to keep splatter to a minimum.”