DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE - 10/20/2016

Hey all, thanks for reading. This is the weekly newsletter companion to Daily Tech News Show at http://dailytechnewsshow.com/
You can get this newsletter by backing DTNS for $5 a month or more at http://patreon.com/dtns

This week's Biggest Stories

Nintendo announces the Nintendo Switch
Apple event announced for October 27th
China's LeEco announces phones, VR helmet, TVs and more.
Apple downshifts on car development
Plans firm up for 5G wireless service
OpenCAPI promises to speed up big data

Nintendo revealed its new game console, previously referred to as the NX will officially be called the Nintendo Switch and arrive in March 2017. The console consists of a tablet that sits in a dock that connects to a TV for home playing. The sides can slide off the controller, Nintendo calls these "joy-cons" and connect to the tablet which when removed from the dock can be taken away for mobile game play. The joy-cons can also be used with the tablet when unattached. A standalone controller will also be made available. Multiplayer is supported in all scenarios. Games will be distributed on small SD-card like cartridges called GameCards. An Nvidia Tegra processors powers the graphics. Nintendo also announced a list of 48 3rd-party game devs and publishers developing titles for the Switch.     

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/10/nintendos-next-console-switch-is-a-consoletablet-hybrid/

Apple has sent out media invites to an event at its Cupertino campus on Thursday October 27 at 10 AM Pacific. The invite says “hello again” and features the top half of the Apple logo filled with reddish smoke.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/19/apple-announces-october-27th-mac-centric-event/

China's LeEco held a press conference in San Francisco Wednesday to announce everything they could possibly think of.
- $399 5.5-inch Le Pro3 Android phone (Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. 16 MP camera) grey or gold metal
- $249 5.5-inch Le S3 phone with a Snapdragon 652 and 32GB of storage. It'll be available in grey, rose gold, gold and black.
- Four 4K TVs, 85-inch uMax 85 with Dolby Vision and HDR 10 and 64 GB of storage for $5K. Also X43 Pro, a X55, X65 have 4K. All have Harmon Kardon audio.
- Explore VR headset, works with Le Eco phone, USB C connector, gyrometer, accelerometer and magnetometer and a proximity sensor.
- Android-powered concept ""super bike"" hydraulic brakes, side laser system, alarm, fingerprint scanner, battery charged by bike's hub, 30 mph.
- Le See Pro concept autonomous car to be unveiled at CES in January. (The LeSee was in an accident on its way from LA and the LeSee Pro was delayed on its way back from London where it was being used by Michael Bay (Yeah, that Michael Bay) as part of the new Transformers movie.)
- EUI ecosystem for video including Sling, Lionsgate, MGM, Showtime, A&E and more.
- All of it launches on lemall.com November 2nd.

https://www.cnet.com/news/leeco-unleashes-more-products-than-youve-ever-seen/

Bloomberg reports that Apple shifted its automotive "Project Titan" research from building a car to building an autonomous system for cars. The project supposedly has a deadline of late next year to prove feasibility. The shift happened after iPod designer and former Ford engineer Steve Zadesky handed over the project to Dan Riccio. In April, long-time Apple engineer Bob Mansfield took over as team leader. Dan Dodge, creator of the QNX embedded OS now owned by BlackBerry has taken over a larger role on the team as well.     

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-17/how-apple-scaled-back-its-titanic-plan-to-take-on-detroit

At the 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday Australian carrier Telstra will launch its commercial 1Gbps-capable LTE network in partnership with Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Netgear over the next few months. The gigabit service will be available in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, with 1 gigabit down and 150 megabits up. The first device to take advantage will be Netgear's Mobile Router MR1100m. At the same summit, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X50 5G modem capable of 5Gbps. Qualcomm expects to launch the hardware for 5G manufacturing trials in 2018.     

http://www.zdnet.com/article/telstra-ericsson-qualcomm-unveil-1gbps-4g-network-mobile-router-5g-modem/

IBM, Google, Nvidia, AMD and five other companies have partnered on an open specification to improve data center server performance. Open Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (OpenCAPI) promises to speed up big data, machine learning, analytics and more by up to 10 times. The spec will be available publicly by the end of the year with servers and related products expected in the second half of 2017. Intel is not part of the consortium.    

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-technology-consortium-idUSKCN12E0C5


CLOSER LOOK - GOING CASHLESS

A lot of you responded to our conversation Monday about cashless systems. Here's a more complete look at the arguments for going all digital or not for payments.

Over the weekend, Tim Cook told Nikkei: “We would like to be a catalyst for taking cash out of the system. We don’t think the consumer particularly likes cash.”

Let's set aside for a moment whether Apple Pay is actually the tech that can do this. There are plenty of competitors on more ubiquitous platforms that can. And if financial companies and consumer will played along it could be done today. It's not an issue of technical capability.

And honestly we won't decide to do this based on reason or a vote. It will happen or not based on many factors both sociological and psychological. So to evaluate that likelihood let's look at some facts. Then I'll lay out the pros and cons for cash and I'd love to hear what you think in the comments on Patreon.com where this is also posted.


NEUTRAL FACTS

- 8% of the world's currency exists as physical cash. So the large minority of value is tied up digitally already.
- Scandinavian consumers use cash for less than 10% of their payments.
- UK transactions in cash are expected to drop below 50% this year for the first time.
- And it's not just developed countires. More than 2/3 of Kenyan adults use M-Pesa a way to manage money using a cell phone.
- However, globally, around 85% of consumer payments are made in cash
- In the US, the value of cash in circulation grew 42% between 2007 and 2012.
- Cash in circulation is projected to grow 7% globally each year
- Finally there are some plans to make cash work digitally as well. Plans are being developed to add RFID to cash, though it's still too costly to implement.

So the upshot of all that is lots of people use cash though not all and digital certainly is dominant in many arenas.

Let's look at the positives of using cash:

FOR CASH

- It has almost guaranteed acceptance and compatibility. You don't have to deal with having the wrong phone or bank card.
- Cash is easy to carry and store. It doesn't run out of power. It works even if the Internet is down.
- It's not traceable. That's not just a plus for criminals. A lot of people prefer that companies don't track all their purchases.
- You don't need a bank account. If you're fine with keeping it in your mattress, you can. In fact you don't need any private company involved at all.
- Cash gives a sense of control. Because you can look at it and hold it it gives people more psychological satisfaction too.

Now let's look at the disadvantages of cash.

AGAINST CASH

- It can be costly for the poor to use cash if they don't have bank account. Low-income individuals are four times more likely to pay fees to access their money at places like check-cashing outfits.
- Paper money costs more to store and transport than digital money. Not to mention the physical security needed to guard it from being stolen.
- It's debatable but it's probably still easier to steal cash. Retail outlets in the US lose $40 billion a year in cash theft.
- Cash hurts governments. Because it can be untraceable, people underreport transactions and underpay taxes.
- You need to manage cash. Your register has to have the write denominations to make change. Never a problem with credit cards or mobile payments.

And there are other pros and cons as well. Share your favorites that we didn't list.

But the big question's are: Would you prefer to go cashless? Are you going to dump digital and only carry bills and change? You're probably imagining some combination of the two. What's your balance?

Read more:
http://fortune.com/2016/10/17/apple-tim-cook-cash/
http://money.howstuffworks.com/currency6.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/12/09/the-end-of-cash/cash-is-a-wasteful-system-but-hard-to-replace
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150724-the-truth-about-the-death-of-cash
http://www.beuc.eu/blog/why-digital-cant-replace-cash/