While other notable phone manufacturers are trimming prices amidst the pandemic, Samsung seems to be raising the bar even higher. In February alone, the Korean electronics company debuted three high-flying flagship phones each of which fell within the price range of $999 to $1,399. This is actually quite unexpected since other major competitors in the tech industry are cutting down prices on gadgets; such as Apple’s 5G iPhone 12 possibly maintaining the same price tag of $849 as its 4G predecessor – iPhone 11. 

In the same light, Google is deemed to be producing its latest version of the Pixel flagship – Pixel 5, with even cheaper processors to effect a price reduction lower than $700. Microsoft on the other hand is expected to slash a whopping 25% off of the Surface Earbuds, same as Apple’s AirPods prices and Pixel 4 getting a $50 price reduction. Evidently, these are only a handful of the ripple effects that the COVID-19 outbreak brings to the tech space, subsequently, the global economy.

In spite of the economic downturn that has forced most tech companies to rethink their launch price – and possibly postpone the launch dates, Samsung seems to be taking even bolder steps. How the Asian gadget-making company is responding to the current market slide is actually mind-boggling. Considering that the company is set to launch its Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 Plus at a very exorbitant price compared to what other competitors in the market are selling for. 

This is hardly surprising since Samsung has taken greater steps to upscale, which is evident in the new features present in the Galaxy Note 20 series – such as a backplane LTPO OLED display tech and the rumored 4300mAh battery size, while others are running short on manufacturing supplies and production deliveries. Based on historical data and given the current situation, we should expect the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series to be priced well above $1000. However, the big question here is; will consumers be willing to part ways with such amount of cash for a phone that promises an extensive battery life in juxtaposition to much cheaper rivals, with less durable battery life?

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SpaceX– Elon Musk’s aerospace company, just launched two NASA astronauts into space. SpaceX is a privately owned American aeronautic manufacturing and space exploration technologies corporation, founded sometime in 2002 with the primary intention of revolutionizing space technology and promoting the emigration to mars through reduced space transportation cost. SpaceX group, an enterprise spearheaded by one of the most innovative minds of our times, has introduced a new age of human spaceflight in the United States. The project codenamed ‘Crew Dragon Mission’ was the second attempt by the company to launch spacemen into the orbit, over the last two decades – as the first attempt from three days ago was canceled a few minutes before take-off due to stormy weather.

This most recent development is part of NASA’s Artemis program. It comes as a relish to NASA and SpaceX since the automated spacecraft manufacturer was sanctioned by NASA barely two weeks ago to develop a lunar optimized Starship that would transport its crew between the lunar orbit and the surface of the moon. The two astronauts involved in this record-breaking venture are; Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – both of whom are NASA veteran space travelers.

NASA astronauts Doug and Bob lifted off circa 15:22 UTC on Saturday, 30 May 2020, from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida – which happens to be the same launch pad used to send the Apollo astronauts to the moon fifty years ago. Notably, the launch of the SpaceX aero flights – Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew capsule, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS) marks the first time in 9 years since a spacecraft has been launched from American soil and also the first time a private company has done it.

The NASA astronauts have successfully arrived at the International Space Station. In attendance to witness the event in Florida was President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the SLOTUS – Karen Pence of the United States of America.

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In the race for new and improved virtual assistance services, Apple is once again, yet to take the lead through its acquisition of the Ontario-based machine learning startup – Inductiv. The brains behind Inductiv include professors from Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Waterloo – in the persons of Christopher Ré, Theodoros Rekatsinas, and Ihab Ilyas. This band of Engineering professors is the latest supplement to Apple’s development team in addition to the company’s myriad of Engineers from Silicon Valley, slated to work on the Siri among other things. Apparently, this team of professors would be working on the AI, Machine learning, and data science section of the company – an important aspect of Apple’s deep learning strategy. In a statement provided by Apple’s spokesperson, the deal has been sealed and stamped. The representative further confirmed the deal with a rather unapologetic tune, asserting that it;

“buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” 

The idea of virtual assistance is to make life a lot easier as these software agents make it easiest to navigate between the software and programs of an operating system. Inductiv has been focused on developing technologies that utilize machine learning to automate a hassle-free procedure of identifying and correcting erratic datasets in the past. Evidently, having authentic data is key to ensuring a seamless and robust AI functionality which is why AI and data science are essential to a machine learning ecosystem. Through deep Learning and AI, these virtual assistive technologies could be programmed to automate certain processes that would normally require human interaction. By this, you can make your assistant do your phone’s tasks for you – such as make your calls, send important emails, and even entertain you during your leisure time, while you just sit back and relax. 

Although, Apple’s senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy – John Giannandrea, has indicated the company’s interest to work on a few improvements with regards to Siri and other AI-powered products from the company. However, the iPhone maker has drastically slacked in the niche of virtual assistance in recent times. Giving way for other competitors such as Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa. According to research conducted a couple of years ago by Forbes, Siri ranked number 4 on the top 10 list of virtual assisting technologies for mobile and still is at present.

Apparently, this comes as a huge blow on the overall image of Apple’s technological growth, given that Siri was the pioneer software in the sphere of voice-controlled assistive technology. Since it provided the prototype from which other virtual assisting apps borrowed their ideas. Little wonder why Apple has been acquiring a host of AI-related startup companies in most recent times including NextVR,  Xnor.ai, Deep Fusion, Tuplejump, Laserlike, Voysis, Turi, and Perceptio.

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Just recently, the CEO of SpaceX – Elon Musk took to Twitter to reveal his current holding of Bitcoin. The conversation ensued during an effort to educate British author and film producer – J.K. Rowling on the subject of cryptocurrencies. Following a tweet originally referred to CoinDesk’s senior reporter – Leigh Cuen by the Orator of the Harry Potter fiction on Saturday, for an explanation to bitcoin’s operability.

J.K. Rowling subsequently received Musk’s reply among several others from Bitcoin’s advocates and cynics alike; such as the co-founder of Ethereum and Bitcoin Magazine– Vitalik Buterin, among many others. Notably, the author’s tweet drew some attention to the tune of 2,800 replies, as at the time of writing.

Furthermore, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., emphasized that the bulky issuance of currencies by the central banks of various economies is making the digital currency – Bitcoin, more solid in juxtaposition to fiat. Musk also went on ahead to convey his views towards digital money as being positive, even though he currently owns a quarter of a Bitcoin as stated in his tweet that reads;

“I still only own 0.25 Bitcoins btw.”

Yet, Cuen replied Rowling with a reassuring statement while providing her with guides to sample use-cases of Bitcoin. Cuen stressed this in a tweet with the message;

“Hi! My D.M.s are open if you want to chat w/out onlookers. The very short version is: Bitcoin is money fueled by a community of contributors. There is no king or central bank in charge. There are countless stories we can use to explore the ethics of a world w/global currency.”

Albeit, Rowling expressed her discontent with regards to the explanations she received, as her curiosity rapidly became debased by the myriad of responses she received. She disclosed her uneasiness towards the topic in question – with a bit of sarcasm while tweeting the following;

Another noteworthy reply is that of Vitalik Buterin, who added that;

“It is a digital currency. There’s ~ 18m units of it. It is not backed by anything, it’s just valuable because it is, like collectibles. There’s a network of computers (which anyone can join) that maintains a decentralized global excel spreadsheet of how many coins each person has.”

Although, Rowling might have admitted being woozy before publishing these tweets, however, her views on the digital currencies and Bitcoin are unlikely to change when she becomes sober or in the foreseeable future.

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During his visit to Apple’s MacBook Pro manufactory in Austin, Texas, President Donald Trump urged the tech giant to see to the provision of a 5G network in the U.S. This was revealed in the event of acknowledging Apple’s billion-dollar campus project – by the US President.

According to a tweet by Tim Cook – the CEO of Apple, this campus is said to have been in existence since 2013. However, it was officially launched on Wednesday with an expectation to accommodate over 5,000 employees, and the capacity to house 10,000 more in the near future. Also, this facility serving to be the primary production unit of Apple’s MacBook PCs demonstrates Apple’s loyalty to its home country. And Because Apple didn’t move its production of the desktop computers to China as earlier announced. Cook loftily asserts that;

“Building the Mac Pro, Apple’s most powerful device ever, in Austin is both a point of pride and a testament to the enduring power of American ingenuity.” and “With the construction of our new campus in Austin now underway, Apple is deepening our close bond with the city and the talented and diverse workforce that calls it home. Responsible for 2.4 million American jobs and counting, Apple is eager to write our next chapter here and to keep contributing to America’s innovation story.”

Evidently, Trump’s call on Apple for 5G tech comes as a bid for the US to be at the forefront of the US-China trade war. And as China continues to pioneer the 5G flag flawlessly. Subsequently places the US on detriment on the trade ban with these Chinese companies.

Although there has been recent news about other telecoms service providers as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-mobile, making the 5G LTE network available in the US. However, the trend currently cuts across only a select few cities and not yet widespread in the US.

Hence Trump leveraged on Apple’s vast resources to call upon the companies’ involvement in the fifth generation of cellular network technology. Requesting Apple to provide 5G to the masses in the US, as it is currently in China.

Even though 5G technology does not fall under Apple’s niche, Trump nonetheless beseeched Cook with the question during this event. Although the official paper by the White House about the visit does not document any statement relating to 5G technology.

This was however confirmed following a tweet by the President on Thursday;

Tweet:

The fact that Trump requests for Apple’s involvement in 5G technology either bespeaks the President’s tech ineptness, which is understandable. Or probably an indication of the close tie that exists between the President and Apple’s CEO.

A fact that does not inspire with awe, as Trump had earlier considered excluding Apple from China tariffs at the said event. But what strikes a wonder is whether Apple would answer to this call or remain adamant towards its involvement with cellular network technology.

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Contrary to the Ad-funded social media platforms propagated by tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, comes the birth of a new Social network – WT:Social. Founded by the Co-founder of Wikipedia – Jimmy Wales, this new social platform is a crowd-funded community that is maintained via the contributions of its Users.

Although the platform is free to join, yet the WT:Social ecosystem runs on a subscription basis. Such that newly registered Users are shortlisted on a ‘waiting list’. And can only be included in the platform when they make contributions through donations or help build up the community by inviting a friend. 

Therefore, in order to become a member of the social network, it requires a monthly fee of $12.99 or $100 per year in the U.S. While the said donation plan goes for €12 per month or €90 per year and £10 per month or £80 per year in Europe and UK respectively. 

Currently, WT:Social enjoys over 160,000 Users according to a tweet by Wales. However, its Proprietor envisages that the platform has the capacity to attain 500 million Users, as is the company’s target. As stated by Wales;

“Obviously the ambition is not 50,000 or 500,000 but 50m and 500m. If we grow from 400 users today (you’re in on the ground floor!) to 400 million, we will have revolutionized the Internet and shown a better and more healthy way to share information and collaborate with each other.”

Given that WT:Social started out as Wikitribune – A site dedicated to publishing only factual news, the platform’s number one goal is to combat fake news and bad actors. Also, WT:Social aims to grants Users full control and provide them with an informative social media engagement rather than a click-bait experience.

But what remains to be known is the kind of content to be distributed on the platform that could maintain its utility in the long term. Considering the fact that the site would have its Subscribers register with a fee, precludes the involvement of Users from developing countries (which is one of the secret ingredients behind the larger communities present on Facebook and Twitter).

Hence, WT:Social would have to do a lot in terms of the content it distributes. So to attract more Users and compete with the likes of Facebook that presently enjoys an audience of over 1.5 billion users worldwide.

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A record-breaker As It Nets $1 Billion In Just 68 Seconds.

Alibaba, the number one Chinese online market registered a whopping sum of $38.4 Billion during its ‘Singles’ Day’ sales today. An amount equivalent to ¥268.4 billion in the native Renminbi currency of China. And displacing its previous record of $30.7 billion haul from last year, which was the highest sales to be recorded on any e-commerce platform prior to now. Hitting a $1 billion mark a little after the first minute. It went on to report over $12 billion in sales within the hour, which surmounted to $22 billion by the next 8 hours.

Tagged ‘Double 11’ due to its November 11th (11/11) date, this event turns out to be the world’s biggest online shopping event in recent times. The ‘Singles’ Day’ kickstarted with a 24-hour shopping blitz headlined by renowned pop-star – Taylor Swift on Sunday night at Shanghai stadium. This year’s countdown also featured a Livestream on Tmall by Kim Kardashian for her fragrance line as well as local celebrities such as Jackson Yee. Aside from the obvious, the fortuity of the ceremony also indicates continuous progress for Alibaba as it marks the first Singles’ Day without its former boss and Founder – Jack Ma.

Earlier today, the online shopping retail store reported tremendous patronage like never seen before. Enjoying more than half a billion visitors from all over the world with well over 200,000 participating brands. Although introduced by Alibaba in 2009, the event also included other Chinese e-commerce companies. Alibaba, therefore, established an online trading consortium that jointly agrees to offer a tremendous discount to the Chinese crowd over the 24-hour period. Subsequently gaining more traction outside of China, including Singles Day discounts by Alibaba’s subsidiary – Lazada in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. And even in the far west, such as NIKE and Brooks Brothers in the US.

Although a similar event has been hosted in the US, such as the five-day span ‘Black Friday’, ‘Cyber Monday’ and ‘Prime Day’. The Single’s Day festival is far more lauded than its American counterparts, hence the involvement of a handful of American brands in the event. Yet, following a survey by AlixPartners, 80% of the Chinese shoppers precluded plans to boycott the 400 US retailers looking to run promotions for Singles Day. Regarded as the Chinese’s informal shopping holiday. And according to Forbes, the outcome of the one-day event last year, eclipses that of the US celebrated Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon’s Prime Day – combined.

Another data analytics platform – Adobe Analytics, forecasts a colossal increase in the US shopping events this year aggregating $143.7 billion. Further proposing that Cyber Monday might amount to $9.4 billion in total sales while Thanksgiving could generate an estimated $29 billion this year.

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According to a recent announcement by Google’s Parent Company – Alphabet. It was gathered that the world’s fifth-largest technology company has officially finalized the terms of purchase towards the biggest independent wearables company – Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Even though this development has been speculative for quite a while now, it was however confirmed today following a press release by both companies.

In a statement released on Google’s Blog by Rick Osterloh – Senior Vice President Devices & Services, who disclosed that the company is proud of the partnership agreement. Osterloh also pointed out that collaborating with Fitbit would integrate the best of Google’s smartwatch platforms and health applications together. Similarly, the CEO of Fitbit – James Park highlights the advantages to be garnered from both ends. In his words, Park asserts that;

“With Google’s resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster and make health even more accessible.”

This expansion nonetheless comes with regards to the deteriorating sales witnessed by Fitbit in late happenings. Which had created an opportunity for other competitors in the wearable technology market to take full advantages of such as Apple and Xiaomi. Hence in a bid to alleviate the completion and take back its stand Fitbit has decided to sell off its patent rights to the proprietors of Google. Therefore, the once most foremost wearable brand would be incorporated as one of Google’s hardware subsidiaries.

Evidently, this merger would leverage on Fitbit’s long term goal of providing its Consumers with a more healthier and active life. This could be further achieved through Google’s WearOS and Google Fit outlets which are already well acquainted with the fitness and health merchandise. And agreeing to a press release by Sameer Samat – Vice President, Product Management, Android, Google Play & Wear OS, this association would combine Fitbit’s established wearable hardware together with Google’s advanced software to furnish a more flexible platform.

In addition, Osterloh added that;

“By working closely with Fitbit’s team of experts, and bringing together the best AI, software and hardware, we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to benefit even more people around the world.“

Despite being a subsidiary of Alphabet,  Google divulged that it would only collect Fitbit health and wellness data for other promotional and development purposes other than ads. On the other hand, Fitbit yet reveals that it would not only work with Google’s WearOS as it would also be working extensively with iOS and Android in the future.

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Although Sony Interactive Entertainment has not officially released full details with regards to the PlayStation ‘V’ console dev kit. But, a number of prototypes have been leaked on the Internet, most of which are similar to the “Parallelogram-shaped” PlayStation 4 Pro series. Due to the artful conceptions inferred by various tech enthusiasts on the PlayStation ‘V’ actual console design. We at TechCavit have taken it upon ourselves to publish what is perceived to be the actual design of the latest version of the PlayStation lineup, after thorough research.

Apparently, all of these buzzes about what the dev kit would really look like are follow-ups of the events that occurred after Sony Interactive Entertainment filed a patent with a Brazilian patent agency in May. The patent with registration number: 302019002287, which was later published on 13th August portrayed a mind-blowing hardware ‘blueprint’. A portrait, which at the time of filing was not clarified as to whether it is a ‘Gaming Console’ or some sort of ‘Electronic Hardware device’.

Given that the purported “V-shaped” PlayStation “V” patent drawing, was first propagated sometime in the latter part of August by a German tech website (Letsgodigital) to be a gaming console. And being that the patent filed by the Japanese Multinational Conglomerate with a Brazil patent agency raised a lot of eyebrows in the gaming sphere. TechCavit has taken a bolder step to grace our audience with deeper insights as we detail not just design schematics but with rather more elaborate functionalities.

Hardware and Software Specifications

Aside from the game-changing idea of having an entirely different game-console structure, Sony also plans to embed new features into the PlayStation ‘V’ in terms of hardware as well as software specifications. According to Mark Cerny – an employee of Sony Corporation and one of the lead Architects behind the PlayStation 4 model. PlayStation ‘V’ would be built upon a 7nm Zen 2 micro-architecture that utilizes 8 Core AMD CPU (which is based upon AMD’s 3rd generation ‘Ryzen’ processors).

The Graphics card, on the other hand, would be powered by a variant of AMD Radeon’s VII Navi family GPU that actively supports ‘Ray Tracing’ along with 3D audio compatibility. The chipset on the display is incorporated with the brilliance of 8k brightness in comparison to the present 4K technology in the market today. By means of AI and machine learning, this 8K technology is capable of upscaling to unimaginable depths and resolutions via the HDR10+ feature.

Looking at the image Sony patented last month, with the vents located on the top, side and behind the assumed PlayStation “V” console. It becomes obvious that this machine for whatever use it would serve would incorporate a hyper-processor, hence the advanced ‘Cooling System’.

Another striking component is the optical drive unit on the frontal left portion that supports a double layer ultra-Hd Blu-ray disk drive. With an inclusion of a flash-based SSD hard drive that can be expandable to a 100Gib memory capacity (that cuts the gaming load time to an average of 0.8 seconds). Alongside five LED indicators each of which serves as an indicator possibly for the number of controllers connected or the ‘Eject’, ‘Rewind’, ‘Pause’, ‘Fast-Forward’ and ‘Play’ buttons.

Also, there exist a number of buttons on the frontal right of the dev kit which includes; the power button and five USB ports, as well as a strange connector, believed to be for the PSVR (PlayStation Virtual Reality) Headset. Additionally, a circular module which according to Gizmodo is a 4G camera compartment that allows for live streaming. Considering that the architecture of the PlayStation V also allows for PlayStation 4 games to be loaded onto it as they are both similar. It becomes noteworthy to state that the latest version has increased backward compatibility with its immediate predecessor – PlayStation 4.

Much has not been gathered with regards to the pricing but what we know for sure is that this piece would be priced well above $399 as with the previous model. Subsequently, as stated by Cerny in the interview, his view on the pricing would be pretty fair enough. In his words, he stated that;

“I believe that we will be able to release it at an SRP (suggested retail price) that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set.”

And to be honest, for a machine as powerful as this, an SRP of $500 is not in anyway exorbitant at all. So it’s best to start saving up for the PlayStation ‘V’ device since it’s expected to debut in 2020.

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Samsung recently announced its latest Galaxy Watch Active series codenamed the ‘Active 2’ which went on sale in the US on September 27, 2019, And as a sequel to the Samsung Galaxy Active Watch (SM-R500) published barely six months earlier, this neoteric device has a nicer feel than the previous version. This next-generation smart-watch ships in with the sporty fitness feature inherent in the Samsung Active Watch, together with an ability to actively provision the wearer with health advice on the go.

Apparently, the latest device comes in two sizes; 40mm and 44mm and can be synched to internet connection natively by means of an ‘LTE’ or ‘Bluetooth’ connection through another smartphone. While the standalone LTE version has a RAM size of 1.5 GiB, the Bluetooth model is powered on a 768MiB RAM.

Even though this piece goes for $279 which is a lot less than its predecessors as well as other competitors such as the Apple Watch series, it still doesn’t lose out on the most basic features of a smart-watch as expected. But Instead, it births a more recent technology of matching your watch faces with custom designs that fit your outfit.

With little to no effort, Samsung had debuted a smart-watch that allows you ‘stand out’ without having to ‘look the part’ as a result of its discreet and lightweight design. Additionally, this smart device incorporates a digital ‘bezel control’ functionality which is a touch-sensitive feature permitting the User the same rotating flexibility just like a conventional bezel control.

Given that this smart-watch is basically built for Samsung devices. However, it completely depicts the idea of a ‘smartwatch’ as it is non-exclusive and works perfectly with other non-Samsung devices. Coming in such colors as; Black, Silver, Gold and Lily Gold, this piece could be programmed to read heartbeat and ECG by means of the Heart-rate and accelerometer located on the base of the watch.

Although the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is believed to be all-encompassing as it has a dedicated Spotify app, unlike the Apple Watch lineup. Still, it doesn’t support the full integration of many third-party apps as is common with most smart-watches. Nonetheless, the Samsung Galaxy Active Watch 2 does not only serve on a multi-device basis but also delivers well to sports enthusiasts.

According to a public statement on Samsung’s official website, the smart-watch gives its wearer detailed health tips whether as a normal user or a fitness devotee. Adding that;

“The all-new Galaxy Watch Active2 now comes with a bigger customizable screen and fresh new look. It gives you precise health insights when you need it, while keeping you fully connected. Whether you are out for a run, or pushing through your next deadline the Galaxy Watch Active2 will keep you at your optimal performance inside and out.”

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