Ces 2021

Today, at its virtual Unbox & Discover 2021 event, Samsung formally announced its entire line of 2021 TVs and soundbars , and shared news that it will be bringing a 76-inch version of its MicroLED TV to the U.S. market “in the future.” The company reiterated many of its previously announced models and specs, including 8K and 4K Neo QLED TVs featuring Mini-LED backlights and a new, full-sun version of its Terrace outdoor TV. Samsung also said it plans to roll out support for TikTok on all of its 2021 smart TVs later this year. Here’s everything Samsung announced. MicroLED TV gets smaller One of the biggest pieces of news coming out of CES 2021 was Samsung’s announcement that its MicroLED technology had moved from being a display that could only be installed by professionals — and at very large sizes — to a fully self-contained TV that anyone (with enough money) could buy and set up themselves. Samsung repeated that it will start selling these MicroLED TVs “for the … [Read more...] about Samsung reveals 76-inch MicroLED, adds TikTok to all of its 2021 TVs

Technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives. Once a week in The Future of series, we examine innovations in important fields, from farming to transportation, and what they will mean in the years and decades to come. A decade ago, Google’s ambitions seemed unchecked: The company would design self-piloting cars through Waymo, sponsor moonbases , and even conquer death . One of the company’s plans: Smart contact lenses to measure the glucose level of your tears — and perhaps help reduce the damage caused by diabetes. “It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies, which are helping to refine our prototype,” wrote Google’s Brian Otis and Babak Parviz back in 2014. Seven years later, the company’s ego remains just as inflated, but Verily’s smart contact lenses are nowhere to be seen; the side project of Google parent Alphabet was officially abandoned in 2018. Yet smart lenses are finally becoming a reality, thanks to … [Read more...] about The Future of Vision: Augmented reality contact lenses will make you bionic

The automated contact-tracing system deployed by Google and Apple that was aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 has been, in no uncertain terms, a complete failure. The basic system’s effectiveness has been called into question continuously. The apps built on the system have been, frankly, useless — that is, in regions where apps were built at all. And now 10 months after the announcement that was supposed to be pivotal in our fight to stop the spread, we have exactly zero evidence that shows it was helpful in the slightest. Trending in Mobile: What is 5G? 5G Network Coverage Map A flawed system The system itself, on a technical level, is the root of the problem. In an effort to provide something that could be used universally, while also protecting users’ privacy, Google and Apple came up with a system that was doomed to be useless. It didn’t use GPS or cell tower triangulation, which I appreciate from a privacy standpoint, but that means it relied on Bluetooth … [Read more...] about Contact-tracing apps were the biggest tech failure of the COVID-19 pandemic