IoT

I have seen a bunch of articles from pundits and reviewers espousing the virtues of one smart speaker over another. The consensus seems to be that the Apple HomePod is the "best sounding" smart speaker. Other honorable mentions go to Sonos, followed by Amazon's Echo Plus (which has the added virtue of smart home control). Let me be as polite as possible: bulls#&t! Continue Reading →

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), about 75 percent of the recorded music industry’s revenue comes from streaming. Bandwidth keeps getting cheaper and faster. Hardware and software continue to improve at an exponential pace. Surely there is pent-up demand for high resolution audio (hi-res audio). After all, doesn’t everyone want the “best sounding” audio? Continue Reading →

Amazon, Google, Apple, and the Zigbee Alliance announced a new partnership called Project Connected Home over IP. It will create a new smart home standard so their products can work together. Sadly, we won’t see a draft specification until late next year. But the good news is that the partnership is announced and there will be a spec and open source materials, too. Continue Reading →

A few weeks ago, Amazon announced new developer tools to enable Alexa to speak with emotion, either excited or disappointed across a range of intensities. Amazon said, "Use new Alexa Emotions and speaking styles to create a more natural and intuitive voice experience." Continue Reading →

Fans of Star Trek (The Original Series) will fondly remember the "Universal Translator." While Gene Roddenberry's epic saga was both inspirational and aspirational for some, it set goals for others. How much wireless bandwidth would you need on the Starship Enterprise? How would a medical tricorder work? What kind of storage would you need on Memory Alpha? How did the noise-cancelling for communicators work? Every engineer I know can tell you a story about how he or she was inspired by this amazing 1960s television show. Continue Reading →

LinkedIn published its "Top 10 Emerging Jobs" list on Tuesday and -- no surprise -- most of them are tech jobs. Coming in at number one is Artificial Intelligence Specialist. Continue Reading →

In engineering parlance, getting closer to the "edge" means bringing computational resources closer to the user. To do that, you need a bunch of stuff to line up. In an ideal world, you'd combine powerful cloud resources and a low-latency high bandwidth network. That's exactly what Amazon and Verizon plan to do. Continue Reading →

Does 5G cause cancer? No. No one knows what causes cancer. There are scientific theories, some with extraordinary supporting evidence, that clearly identify carcinogens. But when I asked Dr. Michael La Quaglia, my granddaughter’s cancer surgeon, how a 2½-year-old gets pancreatoblastoma, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “If we knew, we could prevent it. All I can do is try to remove it. And, with God’s help, I will be successful.” Those words ring in my ears to this day. So, it is with a great deal of humility, personal experience and a strong belief in the scientific method that I submit to you a reasoned rebuttal to the meme that “5G causes cancer.” Continue Reading →

You want to cut the cord. You want to take advantage of this brave new video world. You are excited about all the new shows. Just how many video streaming services do you need to pay for? What is on each? Which is best for you? How do you make sense of the streaming universe? Once you get over Streaming Sticker Shock, you’ll want to develop your streaming service strategy, and here’s how to think about it. Continue Reading →

Blaming "the highly competitive Pay TV industry," Sony will shut down PlayStation Vue (its video streaming service) on January 30, 2020. Ironically, this announcement comes as Disney, Apple and WarnerMedia are all entering the business. Continue Reading →