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Sprint and T-Mobile have announced that they will merge* *IT HASN'T BEEN APPROVED YET The new company will be called T-Mobile https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/29/17298904/sprint-and-t-mobile-merger I think that this is exciting, scary, and just plain weird. In the video both of the companies discuss that the merger will generate competition and will accelerate the 5G race. I am excited if this means that 5G can be a reality sooner. But if this means a worse option for consumers then Im am genuinely worried as two what will happen. What do you guys think of this? How do you fell this will impact the market? And do you think it will be approved?

Directly from The Verge article —> But, like SMS, Chat won’t be end-to-end encrypted, and it will follow the same legal intercept standards. In other words: it won’t be as secure as iMessage or Signal. The worse news is that carriers aren’t fond of strong encryption and don’t have a great history of pushing back against government demands for information. ”RCS continues to be a carrier-owned service, so legal intercept and other laws that exist that allow carriers to have access to the data continues to be the case,” Sabharwal admits. And though Google isn’t shutting down Allo, it’s also not working to create a chat service that is as secure as iMessage, Signal, or even Telegram. “At this point, the answer is no. We will not have that option,” This is what I was referring to and you have a valid point.

Remember guys that this isn't actually another app that Google is making, this is a new "feature" to the standard messaging app on Android. Also in the topic of encryption, Google's decision to use RCS in a non-encrypted way is quite scary and not exactly a positive for Google. Especially when Apple's iMessage does have a form of end to end encryption.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/19/17252486/google-android-messages-chat-rcs-anil-sabharwal-imessage-texting Chat is Google's next attempt at messaging on Android First of let me just say that I am really excited at the possibility that this could actually work. Getting messaging right on Android has been HARD for Google but if what there talking about can happen it would be awesome. The ability to use the multiple devices for the same messages as well as being able to see read receipts and more in the built in app is huge. But were going to have to wait and see if Google can actually deliver this time. As you may know Googles messaging history is pretty shaky. I like the idea of an industry standard protocol that can replace SMS and offer features that just aren’t possible with the current SMS system. Remember guys that this isn't actually another app that Google is making, this is a new "feature" to the standard messaging app on Android. Also in the topic of encryption, Google's decision to use RCS in a non-encrypted way is quite scary (not sure if RCS can even be encrypted since its pretty similar to SMS) and not exactly a positive for Google. Especially when Apple's iMessage does have a form of end to end encryption. What do you guys think?

Is it better now? @GoodBytes Also can this be moved back to news?

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/5/16428570/google-pixel-2-no-headphone-jack-apple-wireless-future "We might not like it, but Apple’s prediction that we could live without headphone jacks is proving correct" I am going ahead and saying it right now, I love my headphone jack but I think that this article brings up a few good points, and the future will probably be wireless. Having a headphone is a great feature but companies are providing really good wireless headphones and dongles as well. The simple fact is that technology advances, and during stages of transition there may be minor inconveniences. It happened with floppy disks, and parallel printer ports, and optical drives… but when people decide to stop being upset about it, they actually realize that things are better because we went through the transition, and they are happy again. It’s a cycle that has repeated over and over, which is why it amazes me that people get so outraged over it. That doesn't meant there aren't problems with removing the jack completely, bluetooth can not at this time provide as superior audio quality. Dongles are ofter of crappy quality and can be lost easily. But these companies believe that this is the future. What is the future? What do you guys think? "At first blush, this seems like a flimsy excuse when you look at the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG V30, both gorgeous, almost bezel-less phones with headphone jacks present. But extend the timeline beyond this year or the next, think about it in the context of a world where even more internal phone components are integrated or obviated. As phones have been shrinking, the proportion of internal space that the headphone jack commands inside them (and not just the jack itself, there’s also the audio amplifier and digital-to-analog converter circuitry to consider) has been growing. If we’re just talking about the near term, I’m unconvinced by Apple and Google’s arguments that the jack had to go to make room for better, more integrated design. However, over the long run, these companies are probably right."

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/6/6/15747512/microsoft-surface-pen-preorder-pricing-release-date Cough Cough Apple pen also costs $99.99, was it just me or wasn't there a lot of coverage about Apple making a crazy expensive "pencil". Well I wonder what Microsoft was thinking. Thats definitely too expensive for a glorified stylus wether it be Apple or Microsoft.

I absolutely agree, and Apple's device ecosystem and features like handoff could give HomePod a huge upper hand.

When I said that I think there is a chance that Apple could single handedly destroy Sonos and Alexa I was referring to the people who are super loyal to Apple. Not necessarily people like us "tech enthusiasts" who actually know about better products I made by other people. I was referring to the hype train and status of owning an Apple Product, wether it be the HomePod, iPhones, or Mac, people love Apple regardless of if they even like the product. Most consumers don't like the fact that Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. So did consumer stop buying iPhones or MacBooks which removed usb ports, NO. People continued to buy their products. Thats why their one of the richest and most successful companies in the world. There products may be absolute trash it doesn't matter, because ordinary people who are in the "tech world" could care less. Also I know the stuff that I'm saying above doesn't apply to everyone in the world, I'm just making a statement based on my experiences. Also we don't really know much about the HomePods audio quality yet, but based on the articles talking about its audio demos at WWDC it shouldn't be absolute trash. HiFi audio though, I wouldn't really be sure about that. : https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/5/15743886/homepod-audio-quality-demo-echo-sonos-bass

Apple - "Immersive hi-fi audio. All the music you love. And the intelligence of Siri. Welcome HomePod — Available in December." https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/5/15722994/apple-wwdc-2017-news-highlights-recap https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/5/15743886/homepod-audio-quality-demo-echo-sonos-bass This should be an interesting product. And knowing how loyal Apple costumers are, they might have single handedly destroyed Sonos and maybe even Alexa. It is also quite strange how Apple is showing this of as a Music device first and an assistant second. That may actually play in their favor since Apple Music is becoming widely popular and a device that is centralized on playing music from the service customized to that person could be very popular.

Well this is not a highly aggressive forum at all. Everybody chill.............., Or not.

(Hard to capture photo in a moving car^) Iconic New York Statue

Yeah, these are the first actual images of the phone.

From: https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/30/15717066/essential-phone-hands-on-photos-android-hardware I think this may be one of the most exciting phones of 2017. There is no doubt that it has a unique design and a modular capabilities sound awesome. But the real question is will it be able to stand up against giants like Samsung?

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/22/15674036/microsoft-surface-pro-type-covers-alcantara-teaser Well the new Surface Pro is either going to be some form of a spec update with a bit of a design refresh, or its going to be something completely different than in the leaks. And honestly whats Microsoft's problem with USB-C?

Woman was reportedly burned by Beats headphones, Apple blames 'third-party' AAA batteries The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/19/15666082/apple-headphones-fire-flight-explosion-beats-battery Well this is horrible and yet another case of battery explosions. The technology industry better take a better stance on batteries. Battery manufacturer have got to make sure that this kind of stuff never happens. The cause for this incident by the looks of it was an old pair of Beats that used AAA batteries and the batteries that this user used malfunctioned an exploded. However this is all based of Apple's own investigation.

Taken on iPhone 6s on a boat near Tampa Bay. (I wasn't gone risk bringing my un-waterproof DSLR on this tiny shaky boat )

Yeah I agree, and I think one of the most Siri used commands is turn on low power mode. And Assistant will never be able to do that on iPhone.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/19/15666284/amd-radeon-vega-frontier-edition-gpu-availability Well this is great now we just have to wait for the RX Card! Radeon™ Vega Frontier Edition SPECS Compute units 64 Single precision compute performance (FP32) ~13 TFLOPS Half precision compute performance (FP16) ~25 TFLOPS Pixel Fillrate ~90 Gpixels/sec Memory capacity 16 GBs of High Bandwidth Cache Memory bandwidth ~480 GBs/sec

One the biggest stories to come out of Google I/O this week it that Google Assistant is now on iOS. Google is attempting to widen their ecosystem and devices that can use its Assistant. Google putting their Assistant on the iPhone is their direct attempt to compete with Siri and Apple's ecosystem. Siri vs Google Assistant Access One of the main advantages of Siri is its ability to launch anywhere in iOS with a hold of the home button. However Google has done their best to combat this. They've made it possible to access through a widget on the home and lock screen. And through 3D Touch. Integration Because of Apple's highly controlled iOS there is only so much that Apple allows the Assistant to do. Simple tasks like volume up, down, and playing music work well with both Siri and Assistant. However some basic and highly used Siri features can't be accomplish in Assistant. Things like turning on low power mode, setting the system alarm clock, and controlling home kit devices.However Assistants use and access of smart home products like Phillips hue and Logitech Harmony give it an upper hand in the smart home department. One of the big features of Google Assistant on iPhone is not even available yet on Android which is an interesting move. The feature is the ability to just talk to assistant though text instead of voice. After looking though the similarities and differences in my opinion Siri is currently better that Google Assistant on iPhone, but not by much. If there weren't hardware limitations than Assistant would be my go to voice AI. However its is clear that google is putting a lot of effort into AI and that work is showing in Assistant. If Google is able to put in new features that overcome the ability to not control the iPhones hardware than it would be a much better option than Siri. If all of this is uncertain, than one thing that is clear is Google is continuing its attempt at world domination by releasing another app made by them with there logos that you put on your iPhone's screen. Interesting Side Note: If you search for Google Assistant on the iOS App Store for what ever reason it shows up really low in the search results. Its first result it Google Allo and then other not very common Google Apps. The Verge: How does Google Assistant stack up against Siri on an iPhone?: https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/19/15655558/google-assistant-vs-siri-iphone-ios-apple-locked-down-sandbox

Well in truth you can't compare this to Hulu or Netflix because with a Youtube TV Subscription your getting access to LIVE tv which in hand brings with it ads.