Month: April 2016

Another Version of the Amazon Echo

Written by Carly Heindel

Amazon has made another speaker similar to the Echo, except, this one is only 1.5 inches tall. Although the speaker is small, so is the price you have to pay for it. The original Amazon Echo costs $179, while the Dot only costs $89.

The Dot can connect to any third-party speakers through Bluetooth or through an AUX cord.

The Amazon Echo and the Dot both contain a Siri-like personality given the name Alexa. Connecting the Dot to powerful speakers means it could be harder for Alexa to hear you while you are blaring music. Instead of saying “Alexa” in a normal speaking voice, you may need to yell “Alexa” a couple times until it can hear your voice.

The Dot and the Echo were tested side-by-side, and their performances were pretty much the same. The speakers both reacted the same when they were not plugged into an external speaker and picking up quiet “Alexa”s from a far distance.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 6 may have 8GB of RAM

Written by Joey Peters
Check out this blog post in video form on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ALitmw-hgG4

The Samsung Galaxy Note series is known for being very powerful and one of the most powerful phones on the market. Apparently that is not good enough because they want to raise the RAM storage from 4GB to 8GB.

Most modern computers now have a base of 8GB of RAM inside to keep the computer running smoothly. Phones on the other hand don’t need that much RAM. The base RAM storage for a smartphone is at about 2GB. Samsung is thinking that they need 8GB of RAM which is just so freaking fascinating seeing that smartphones are going to be just as powerful as our home computer. That could either mean a good thing or a bad thing to you. If you are on the go and need to get work done, instead of pulling out the computer you can just pull out your smartphone from your pocket and do the same exact thing. It is bad if you are selling computers because then sales will probably go down because of this trend. Why buy a computer when your phone is way more portable and can be just as powerful.

This whole thing about the 8GB of RAM is all thanks to the new Snapdragon 823 which will be super fast, faster than a Chromebook. It will be a Quad Core processor running at about 2.6 GHz. My Mac runs at 2.7 GHz so it is really close to having the same amount of power as my Mac.

Just because the Snapdragon can hold 8GB of RAM, Samsung will probably only put 6GB in which is better and doesn’t sound like total overkill. I mean even we thought the 4GB this year was total overkill on a smartphone. Just imagine 8GB.

Logitech Bought Jaybird for $50 Million | Currently Techie News Update #15

Logitech handed Jaybird $50 Million in cash and bought them out so now they can start to make money off of the great ear buds that they offer and Jaybird walks off with $50 Million in cash. That wasn’t the only Tech story today. Watch the full video to catch up on all of the Tech stories of today!

Watch the YouTube Video here: https://youtu.be/1wfqUKEYSxw

Android N Developer Preview 2 is out

Written by Lance Nickel

On Wednesday, Google pushed Developer Preview 2 for Android N, the latest Android release, expected to be announced at I/O 2016, to their developer platform.

There are a few new things that are worthwhile to talk about, amongst the inevitable bug fixes and security updates.

One of those is called Vulkan. It is a new 3D rendering API, which is aimed at providing low overhead GPU control to developers. It allows for nicer graphics, especially in games, and with the style of Material Design, will probably bring faster speeds of which you didn’t think was possible. This is kind of like Metal from Apple.

Another feature is some new launcher shortcuts. Apps can define shortcuts which the user can make available in the launcher to perform some quick launching actions quicker. These shortcuts come in the form of jump lists to thing such as recently sent messages to people, or to go to a specific section of an app, like your home feed on Instagram.

Unicode Emoji 9 support also comes to this update, with a few new emojis, and a new design for people emojis. These emojis were redesigned by Google to “look more human”. They also seem to have skin tones that were updated as well.

Other than that most of the other things were just things that were expected to come out of a developer preview update.

Header image icon by Google for Android N

Apple Watch S | Currently Techie News Update #14

Written by Joey Peters

Apple is said to release an Apple Watch S instead of the Apple Watch 2 at WWDC 2016! That wasn’t the only Tech story today. Go and watch the video to catch up on all of the Tech stories that happened today!

Watch the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/hFkXdCYiS5A

App removed by the Google Play Store

Written by Carly Heindel

The Taliban app was first found last Friday by a website specifically designed to track jihadists online. The app, used to spread propaganda and recruit fighters, was immediately removed. It let people get up to date with the Taliban news. They would publish videos and stories written in Pashto to get the news updates. Although the app was taken down, they are coming up with new ways to communicate to others.

Blackberry planning on releasing two mid-range Android devices this year

Written by Lance Nickel

Last year, Blackberry made a name for themselves in the Android world with the Blackberry Priv. The device has the same type of curved AMOLED display used in the Galaxy S6 Edge, but also has a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Last week, Blackberry released a quarterly guidance report, which showed them failing to meet sales expectations, and confirmed the suspicions that the Priv failed to make a name for itself in the market. They showed a total sale of 600,000 devices, whereas the forecasted sales at this point was to be around 850,000 units.

CEO John Chen sat down with The National on the 7th. He said some things about the plan for 2016: Two mid-range devices will come out, one with a physical keyboard and the other with a touchscreen. There were no specifics like specs or release dates.

Header image thanks to The Verge.

The Apple Watch 2! | Currently Techie News Update #12

Written by Joey Peters

Will Apple be releasing a new Apple Watch at WWDC 2016 that will be faster, thinner, and better? I defiantly hope so! That wasn’t the only Tech Story today, watch the video to find out about all of the Tech News that happened today!

Watch the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/FEawvidc0Hw

Amazon is releasing a new Kindle? | Currently Techie News Update #11

Written by Joey Peters

Amazon’s CEO said that they will be releasing a new Kindle next week but who uses a Kindle anymore! That is not the only story, watch the video to see the rest of the Tech News stories of today!

Watch the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/oqW8fu6sX94