Founder, Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek/DroneDJ sites.
Seth Weintraub is an award-winning journalist and blogger who won back to back Neal Awards during his three plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld from 2007–2010. Weintraub next covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine from 2010-2011 amassing a thick rolodex of Google contacts and love for Silicon Valley tech culture.
It turns out that his hobby 9to5Mac.com blog was always his favorite and in 2011 he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google.com and adding the style and commerce component 9to5Toys.com gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off the assembly line and so began his love affair with the Electric Vehicle and green energy which in 2014 turned into electrek.co.
In 2018, DroneDJ was born to cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.
Seth received a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Hobbies: Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, certified open water scuba diver and spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.
More at About.me. BI 2014 profile.
Tips: seth@9to5mac.com, or llsethj on Wickr/Skype or link at top of page.
One of the benefits of having a removable back plate and battery is that you can do crazy things like add more than 3X the 2100mAh battery size for those extended outings. It just so happens Amazon currently has this 7,000mAh add on for $34 in a variety of colors (Black, White, Blue).
This is the same amount of battery you’ll find in a Typical tablet and as you can see in the video above, pushes the S3 to 4+ days of battery life. On the downside, you now have a brick in your pocket.
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Funny bit from the makers of the Steve Jobs biopic.
YouTube version below
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From 9to5Toys.com:
We don’t normally see Google Chromebooks on sale but today at Staples, HP’s version is a whopping $75 off putting it near the price of the much smaller ARM Samsung 550s.
Not only is the HP Pavilion 14-c01us Chromebook more expensive, it’s also heavier than Samsung’s offering at 4lbs compared to 2.5lbs. Battery life is unfortunately the same story with an approximate 4.25 hours quoted compared to the 6.5 hours Samsung’s Chromebook offers. If you can get past that, the new HP device packs in a 14-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit (1,366-by-768-pixel), 1.1GHz Intel Celeron 847 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB SATA SSD, HDMI, USB 2.0, as well as an Ethernet port.
Staples is offering the HP Pavilion Intel Celeron 847 14″ Chromebook for $330. Enter the coupon code: 45582 and get an additional $75 off at checkout making the total only $255 before tax with free shipping. (Expiring Soon)
Update: Throw in another $50 via rebate to get it down to $205.
Google has been hiring a group of individuals on one year contracts to help the Glass explorers with their upcoming Glasswear we’ve learned. The employees would be based in New York or San Francisco but travel to events throughout the US and eventually overseas. These people will also be manning the retail presence that Google hopes to have in New York, San Francisco and possibly LA by the end of the year.
Glass explorer editions are to begin shipping next month after an initial run of a few thousand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mx_GzNlQOxI
This video was released as part of the Home presentation and hit YouTube over the weekend. Having had another look at it, it reenforces my believe that this overlay isn’t for me. In fact, I was in the WTF camp since the Home screenshots were leaked.
BusinessInsider notes that it isn’t garnering positive feedback even on its own site. I tend to agree with this observation:
The ad’s intent seems to be to show that having Facebook Home means that no matter where you are, you’ll get all the wonderful, unadulterated weirdness of Facebook.
But it also gives the odd impression that Facebook Home will turn your life into a visual clown car, with an endless stream of trivia spewing randomly from your phone.
The ad was created by agency Wieden + Kennedy, which also did “Chairs.” Facebook spends very little money on TV advertising — why should it, it’s owns its own audience of 1 billion people after all — and thus needs its ads to go viral in free online video media.
I like two things about Facebook Home. If I want to go into Facebook, it is a nice interface. Also, if I want to clean up Touchwiz or Sense, Home is a good way to put a mostly stock Android build on a phone.
But this commercial only reinforces exactly why I wouldn’t want Facebook owning my phone experience. The big question is: Is this anyone’s ideal phone experience?
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Update: Confirmed by KVUE
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Venturebeat got the word from some invites that went out this week.
On Tuesday, April 9, at 11 a.m., the City of Austin and Google will make a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city. We anticipate more than 100 community leaders and elected officials to be in attendance to celebrate this announcement. The event invitation is attached for your convenience. Although we cannot share the details of the announcement with you in advance, we know readers will want to learn more, so we encourage you to join us on Tuesday.
I’d move to Austin.
We got the bits before from the SXSW conference, but here’s the whole video.
Google revealed some third-party (and first-party if you include Gmail) apps for Google Glass at SXSW today. As you can see in the demos, the companies have really thought about the apps people will use on their head and Google has been thoughtful about the way they are going to interact.
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Here’s Google’s statement on the Facebook Home overlay:
“The Android platform has spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices. This latest collaboration demonstrates the openness and flexibility that has made Android so popular. And it’s a win for users who want a customized Facebook experience from Google Play — the heart of the Android ecosystem — along with their favorite Google services like Gmail, Search, and Google Maps.”
Does Google want this? No, they do not. But Mountain View lets (encourages?) their OEMs and carriers to mess with the pure Android experience, so they have to let Facebook do it too if customers so desire. And, why not? In the most recent versions of Jellybean, you can make Google Currents your lock screen. OEMs have long had access to the way your home screen looks. Why shouldn’t other vendors have access to these functions?
The real question is: what happens in the unlikely event that this takes off and people find value in Facebook’s Home? You know Facebook is going to continue to push Google out of the way and people will use Google services less and less, which is the whole point of Android.
I imagine Google will come up with some other Home-type of function with a lot more Now and + integration than currently exists…one that would delete the Facebook Home in the install process. This of course will be bundled with every Gmail, Maps, Yahoo, Plus, and Talk update so that it is almost impossible not to install.
Get the popcorn ready. (Image via Fortune.com)
Reuters has some vague new information on the Nexus 7 successor from Google today. Rather than being available at Google I/O in May (which would have been my guess), Reuters thinks it won’t hit the mass market until July. Perhaps a limited run will be available to developers in May?
As far as specs…
We’ve discussed the Ouya before. It was initially an incredibly well-funded ($8.5 million from 65,000 backers) Kickstarter Game console project based on Android that costs $99. The hardware is similar to a Nexus 7 with a NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage (expandable via USB), but that outputs to a 1080p display.
Along with games (which are all free to try), Ouya allows streaming apps such as Twitch.tv, Crunchyroll, iheartradio, TuneIn, XBMC, Plex and Flixster, so your $99 is getting some solid features right off the bat.
Reviews are in today, and it appears that it is still a little rusty but has serious potential.
Hit up reviews at Verge, Wired, CNET, AllThingsD, and others.
Here’s the invite to next week’s event. It’s likely to include the new Facebook phone with a Face-forked version of Android and hardware built by HTC.
Tim Bray turns 3 at Google this week. His post on his time is a thoughtful one.
On Google turning evil for real:
Being Evil · There’s no there there. Near as I can tell three years in, Google really wants you to be online all the time (signed in if possible) and put everything in the cloud and use our search engine and and enjoy those experiences and not get hacked, and that’s about it. The money we make falls out of those things.
The interesting question isn’t “Is Google evil?” (answer: not particularly) but “What’s the downside if Google suddenly becomes evil?” Because the chance is nonzero that when our founders die or get bored, MBAs with desiccated souls will be in command, and not really understand why it matters that people have decided, by and large, to trust us.
Fortunately, there’s a firewall: the Data Liberation Front, which strongly limits the evil that an evil Google could do. It’s simultaneously a useful utility and the canary in the coalmine. People should pay attention to it.
Bray’s one of those people I trust to fall outside of corporate-speak and tell it like it is. If I were Google, I’d open an office in Vancouver. Yesterday
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Pay what you want for the Android versions of Plants vs. Zombies, Contre Jour, Anomaly Korea, and Bladeslinger, and help charity (the Child’s Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation). Plus, if you beat the average, you’ll also get Android versions of The Room and Metal Slug 3. This promotion will only last 2 weeks, so get it now at: http://www.humblebundle.com
Very bad news for HTC on the typical bad news Friday PR release timing:
“HTC has seen unprecedented demand for and interest in the new HTC One, and the care taken to design and build it is evidenced in early reviews. The new HTC One will roll out in the UK, Germany and Taiwan next week and across Europe, North America and most of Asia-Pacific before the end of April. We appreciate our customers’ patience, and believe that once they have the phone in their hands they will agree that it has been worth the wait.”
This might be a knockout blow for HTC. They aren’t going to be at volume until when the S4 hits stores, meaning they are giving up their first mover advantage.
Any advantage HTC has over the Galaxy S4 in hardware will likely be ceded by the lower-brand recognition, HTC Sense overlay or the perceived Ultra (low) Pixel camera.
Update, March 26: After receiving the screenshots below that allegedly show Google’s rumored Babble messaging service, another anonymous tipster has emailed today sharing different screenshots. The tipster disputes the authenticity of the initial screenshots we posted below, adding that the rumored Google messaging service will not be dubbed “Babble”. The new screenshots (above) do seem to fit in with Google’s recent redesign of its mobile apps more so than the first set of images.
An anonymous tipster sent in these screenshots that appear to be the rumored Google Babble or a nice mockup:
We have no way to know if these are real, but the font looks a bit block-y and not Roboto enough and the quote “JC has started a Voting” is suspicious.
The service is rumored to combine all of Google’s messaging platforms into one and compete better with Apple’s iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger. Chatting on Google services now includes Google Voice, Google Talk, Google Hangouts, and others.
The rumors also point to a May release at Google I/O.
Me personally? I’d have given this a less than 5-10% chance of being legit.
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Google’s Sergey Brin gave a Ted Talk late last month and it was summarized thusly:
“This act of looking down at my phone is one of the reasons behind Glass. We questioned whether you should be walking around looking down. That was the vision behind Glass and that’s why we created this form factor. (…) When we made this we thought, ‘Can we make something that frees your hands and frees your eyes.’ That’s why we put the display up high and out of your line of sight so you can make eye contact with people. The sound conducts through the bones in your cranium to free up your ears. If you want to hear it better you cover up your ears, which is surprising. Our original vision at Google was eventually to get rid of the search query and you’d just get the information you need when you need it. Fifteen years later this is first form factor that delivers on that vision. The project has lasted just over 2 years. We’ve learned lot.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDCED88IZP4&feature=youtu.be
One advantage of Google’s Nexus 10 tablet over rival tablets like the iPad is that it has multi-user logins. While not perfect, it allows different people to have their own experiences on the same Nexus 10. This particular ad highlights that ability in a family of 2 3.
30-second version below:
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…and that’s the slow one.
Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench speed-ranking system, has compared the Galaxy S4 with all the flagship phones from various vendors including LG, HTC, Blackberry, and Apple. The Quad-core 1.9GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon 600 + 2GB of RAM seems to wipe the floor with the competition.
The scary news is that the non-LTE version of this phone uses an Octocore Samsung Exynos chip with Imagination GPU that is likely to be even faster, putting it further out in the field against the competitor’s devices.
As always, these speed tests are subjective and there are likely to be faster phones released every month or so.
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This is what the normals are seeing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2LHv1FPd1Ec
If you want to know all about the S4 but don’t have time to watch the 1-hour theatrical version, check the newly released video above. The full event is below.
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While some people may still be working through various stages of grief on the news of Google killing its Reader project, the folks at Digg are doing something about it.
We’ve heard people say that RSS is a thing of the past, and perhaps in its current incarnation it is, but as daily (hourly) users of Google Reader, we’re convinced that it’s a product worth saving. So we’re going to give it our best shot. We’ve been planning to build a reader in the second half of 2013, one that, like Digg, makes the Internet a more approachable and digestible place. After Google’s announcement, we’re moving the project to the top of our priority list. We’re going to build a reader, starting today.
This could get interesting.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDXILsX7_QI&feature=player_embedded
Interesting to see the two Korean giants going after each other.
