The Raspberry Pi 4 gets more RAM for $35

by GadgetsHardwareRaspberry PiRaspberry Pi 4Raspberry Pi Foundation

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has updated its flagship model, the Raspberry Pi 4. It’s still the same awesome tiny single-board computer with a lot of connectors. But the entry-level device now comes with 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB of RAM for the same price of .

The foundation says that RAM prices have been dropping lately, so it has become cheaper to build Raspberry Pi devices with more RAM. If you want more RAM, you can still buy a 4GB model for $55 — the price hasn’t changed.

If you’re using a ton of 1GB models for your industrial projects, you can still buy the old 1GB model for $35. This way, it doesn’t create compatibility issues or you don’t have to split your fleet of Raspberry Pi devices between 1GB models and 2GB models. But makers and hobbyists should definitely buy the 2GB over the 1GB model from now on, as it’s the same price.

As the Raspberry Pi Foundation is approaching its eighth birthday, it is looking back at the evolution of the Raspberry Pi. The original Raspberry Pi also cost $35, but it is drastically more powerful today.

In eight years, you get a 40x CPU performance increase, 8x memory increase, 10x input/output bandwidth increase and there’s a Wi-Fi chip. This isn’t just a tiny computer to play around with. You can now do a ton of stuff with a Raspberry Pi, and even replace your desktop computer if you mainly use it for web browsing and basic tasks. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has sold 30 million devices so far.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation unveils the Raspberry Pi 4

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Forensic Architecture redeploys surveillance-state tech to combat state-sponsored violence

by Augmented RealityGadgetsGovernmentMediaPrivacySocialTCVirtual reality

The specter of constant surveillance hangs over all of us in ways we don’t even fully understand, but it is also possible to turn the tools of the watchers against them. Forensic Architecture is exhibiting several long-term projects at the Museum of Art and Design in Miami that use the omnipresence of technology as a way to expose crimes and violence by oppressive states.

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Petnet’s smart pet feeder system is back after a week-long outage, but customers are still waiting for answers

by GadgetsTC

Petnet, the smart pet feeder backed by investors including Petco, recently experienced a week-long system outage affecting its second-generation SmartFeeders. While the startup’s customer service tweeted over the weekend that its SmartFeeders and app’s functionality have been restored, Petnet’s lack of responsiveness continues to leave many customers frustrated and confused.

Petnet first announced on Feb. 14 that it was investigating a system outage affecting its second-generation SmartFeeders that made the feeders appear to be offline. The company said in a tweet that the SmartFeeders were still able to dispense on schedule, but several customers replied that their devices had also stopped dispensing food or weren’t dispensing it on schedule.

On Feb. 19, the company said that it is “working closely with our third-party service provider in regards to the outage,” before announcing on Feb. 22 that the SmartFeeders are returning online.

During that time, customers voiced frustration at the company’s lack of responses to their questions on Twitter and Facebook. Messages to the company’s support email and CEO Carlos Herrera were undeliverable.

TechCrunch tried contacting their emails and got delivery failure notices. A message sent to their Twitter account was also not replied to. We have contacted the company again for comment.

 

Petnet also experienced a similar system outage last month.

According to Crunchbase, Petnet.io hasraised .9 million since it was founded in 2012, including a Series A led by Petco.

In a statement sent to TechCrunch over the weekend before Petnet said the outage was resolved, a Petco representative said, “Petco is a minor and passive investor in Petnet, but we do not have any involvement in the company’s operations nor insight into the system outage they are currently experiencing.”

USA - Business - Apple Reports Record Earnings

Do phones need to fold?

by AndroidGadgetsHardwareiPhoneMotorolaSamsungSamsung ElectronicsSonyTC

As Samsung (re)unveiled its clamshell folding phone last week, I kept seeing the same question pop up amongst my social circles: why?

I was wondering the same thing myself, to be honest. I’m not sure even Samsung knows; they’d win me over by the end, but only somewhat. The halfway-folded, laptop-style “Flex Mode” allows you to place the phone on a table for hands-free video calling. That’s pretty neat, I guess. But… is that it?

The best answer to “why?” I’ve come up with so far isn’t a very satisfying one: Because they can (maybe). And because they sort of need to do something.

Let’s time-travel back to the early 2000s. Phones were weird, varied and no manufacturers really knew what was going to work. We had basic flip phones and Nokia’s indestructible bricks, but we also had phones that swiveled, slid and included chunky physical keyboards that seemed absolutely crucial. The Sidekick! LG Chocolate! BlackBerry Pearl! Most were pretty bad by today’s standards, but it was at least easy to tell one model from the next.

(Photo by Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images)

Then came the iPhone in 2007; a rectangular glass slab defined less by physical buttons and switches and more by the software that powered it. The device itself, a silhouette. There was hesitation to this formula, initially; the first Android phones shipped with swiveling keyboards, trackballs and various sliding pads. As iPhone sales grew, everyone else’s buttons, sliders and keyboards were boiled away as designers emulated the iPhone’s form factor. The best answer, it seemed, was a simple one.

Twelve years later, everything has become the same. Phones have become… boring. When everyone is trying to build a better rectangle, the battle becomes one of hardware specs. Which one has the fastest CPU? The best camera?

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How ‘The Mandalorian’ and ILM invisibly reinvented film and TV production

by GadgetsHardwareMediaTC

“The Mandalorian” was a pretty good show. On that most people seem to agree. But while a successful live-action Star Wars TV series is important in its own right, the way this particular show was made represents a far greater change, perhaps the most important since the green screen. The cutting edge tech (literally) behind “The Mandalorian” creates a new standard and paradigm for media — and the audience will be none the wiser.

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PC shipments expected to drop this year because of coronavirus outbreak

by AppleAsiaGadgetsHardware

The coronavirus outbreak could result in at least a 3.3% drop — and as high as a 9% dip — in the volume of PCs that will ship globally this year, research firm Canalys reported Thursday evening in its revised projections to clients.

PC shipments will be down between 10.1% to 20.6% in Q1 2020, the firm estimated. The impact will remain visible in Q2, when the shipments are expected to drop between 8.9% (best-case scenario, per Canalys) and 23.4% (worst-case scenario), it said.

In the best-case scenario, the outbreak would mean 382 million units will ship in 2020, down 3.4% from 396 million last year.

The worst case makes a deeper dent, stating that about 362 million units will ship this year, down 8.5% from last year.

“In the best-case scenario, production levels are expected to revert to full capacity by April 2020, hence the biggest hit will be to sell-in shipments in the first two quarters, with the market recovering in Q3 and Q4,” the firm said.

“Thus, worldwide PC market shipments are expected to decline 3.4% year on year in 2020, with Q1 2020 down by 10% and Q2 2020 by 9%. PC market supply will normalize by Q3 2020. On a yearly basis, Canalys expects the worldwide PC market will slowly begin its recovery starting in 2021.”

The worst-case scenario assumes that production levels will not return to their full capacity by June 2020. “Under the assumptions of this scenario, production and demand levels in China will take even longer to recover and Q2 will suffer a decline on a par with Q1 as a consequence. It will be as late as Q4 2020 until we see a market recovery.”

In either of the scenarios, China, one of the world’s largest PC markets, will be most impacted. In worst-case scenarios, “the Chinese market will suffer heavily in 2020 under this scenario, with a 12% year-on-year decline over 2019, and subsequent stabilization taking even longer, with 2021 forecast shipments lagging 6 million behind the best-case scenario. The expected CAGR between 2021 and 2024 in China is 6.3%,” Canalys stated.

China, the global hub for production and supply chain, moved to contain the impact of coronavirus by first extending the official Lunar New Year holidays, which was followed by stringent travel restrictions to keep citizens safe. “This resulted in a significant drop in offline retail traffic and a dramatic fall in consumer purchases,” Canalys analysts said.

The outbreak has also resulted in supply shortages of components, such as PCBs and memory in China and other markets. “Likewise, channel partners have received notifications from key PC vendors over the last two weeks that their PC shipments and replacement parts can be expected to arrive in up to 14 weeks – over three times the usual delivery time – depending on where partners are located,” the firm said.

“Technology vendors and channel partners in the Asia Pacific region face the unexpected challenge of coping with the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The crisis was largely unforeseen, even in mid-January. Most leaders this year were anticipating disruption from political instability and natural disasters, not an epidemic,” wrote Sharon Hiu, an analyst at Canalys in a separate report.

The outbreak has impacted several more industries, including smartphones, automobiles, television, smart speakers and video game consoles.

Foxconn, a key manufacturer for Apple, said on Thursday that its 2020 revenue will be impacted by Wuhan coronavirus. The firm said its factories in India, Vietnam and Mexico are fully loaded and it is planning to expand overseas.

Earlier this month, Apple said it does not expect to meet revenue guidance for March quarter due to constrained iPhone supply and low demand due to the store closures in China.

The U.S. giant is expected to miss its schedule for mass producing a widely rumored affordable iPhone, while inventories for existing models could remain low until April or longer, Nikkei Asian Review reported on Wednesday.

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Ring slightly overhauls security and privacy, but it’s still not enough

by GadgetsPrivacySecurityTC

Security camera maker Ring is updating its service to improve account security and give more control when it comes to privacy. Once again, this is yet another update that makes the overall experience slightly better but the Amazon-owned company is still not doing enough to protect its users.

First, Ring is reversing its stance when it comes to two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is now mandatory — you can’t even opt out. So the next time you login on your Ring account, you’ll receive a six-digit code via email or text message to confirm your login request.

This is very different from what Ring founder Jamie Siminoff told me at CES in early January:

“So now, we’re going one step further, which is for two-factor authentication. We really want to make it an opt-out, not an opt-in. You still want to let people opt out of it because there are people that just don’t want it. You don’t want to force it, but you want to make it as forceful as you can be without hurting the customer experience.”

How Ring is rethinking privacy and security

Security experts all say that sending you a code by text message isn’t perfect. It’s better than no form of two-factor authentication, but text messages are not secure. They’re also tied to your phone number. That’s why SIM-swapping attacks are on the rise.

As for sending you a code via email, it really depends on your email account. If you haven’t enabled two-factor authentication on your email account, then Ring’s implementation of two-factor authentication is basically worthless. Ring should let you use app-based two-factor with the ability to turn off other methods in your account.

And that doesn’t solve Ring’s password issues. As Motherboard originally found out, Ring doesn’t prevent you from using a weak password and reusing passwords that have been compromised in security breaches from third-party services.

A couple of weeks ago, TechCrunch’s Zack Whittaker could create a Ring account with “12345678” and “password” as the password. He created another account with “password” a few minutes ago.

When it comes to privacy, the EFF called out Ring’s app as it shares a ton of information with third-party services, such as branch.io, mixpanel.com, appsflyer.com and facebook.com. Worse, Ring doesn’t require meaningful consent from the user.

You can now opt out of third-party services that help Ring serve personalized advertising. As for analytics, Ring is temporarily removing most third-party analytics services from its apps (but not all). The company plans on adding a menu to opt out of third-party analytics services in a future update.

Enabling third-party trackers and letting you opt out later isn’t GDPR compliant. So I hope the onboarding experience is going to change as well as the company shouldn’t enable these features without proper consent at all.

Ring could have used this opportunity to adopt a far stronger stance when it comes to privacy. The company sells devices that you set up in your garden, your living room and sometimes even your bedroom. Users certainly don’t want third-party companies to learn more about your interactions with Ring’s services. But it seems like Ring’s motto is still: “If we can do it, why shouldn’t we do it.”