The Transport Guy: Samsung will announce the new Galaxy phone on February 21

Steve Kovach January 31, 2016 at 05:01PM

Samsung will announce its next phone, the Galaxy S7, on February 21.

The company sent invitations to the press Sunday night for an event in Barcelona on February 21.

Here it is:

According to early leaks, the Galaxy S7 is expected to come in two variations, one with a standard flat screen and one with a curved screen. They'll look very similar to the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge that launched almost a year ago:

The phone is said to have a pressure-sensitive, just like the one on the iPhone 6s, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The event is at 1 p.m. Eastern time/7 p.m. local time in Barcelona. Tech Insider will have all the news about Samsung's latest phone as soon as it hits.

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Samsung will announce the new Galaxy phone on February 21 from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Samsung's next Galaxy phone just leaked

Steve Kovach January 29, 2016 at 02:16PM

The first image of Samsung's next major smartphone, the Galaxy S7, has leaked.

Evan Blass, who has a nearly perfect record leaking new smartphones before they come out, shared the following render of the Galaxy S7 on VentureBeat:

As expected, the Galaxy S7 will come in two models, one with a standard flat screen and one with a curved screen. They look nearly identical to the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge phones that launched almost a year ago:

But Blass reports that the Galaxy S7 will have some other upgrades like water resistance, an improved camera, a memory card slot, and a larger battery.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Samsung may also include a pressure-sensitive screen, just like the one on the iPhone 6s.

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S7 at an event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona the week of February 21.

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NOW WATCH: Samsung’s massive 18-inch tablet is one bold answer to Apple's iPad Pro

Samsung's next Galaxy phone just leaked from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: This startup wants to bring super-fast, wireless internet to your home

Steve Kovach January 27, 2016 at 08:14AM

A new startup is launching a product that promises to bring superfast, wireless internet to your home.

Starry, a company founded by the former CEO of Aereo, Chet Kanojia, will sell wireless equipment that delivers internet speeds up to 1 gigabit using a technology called "millimeter wave band active phased array."

Starry launched Wednesday at an event in New York. We're still gathering details on how the service will work, but you can read the company's press release below:

The team from Project Decibel, Inc., today announced the launch of Starry, Inc., a Boston- and New York-based technology company focused on revolutionizing how consumers access and connect to the internet. Starry’s mission is to connect people and things, wirelessly, seamlessly and effortlessly with beautifully designed products and platforms. The company is re-imagining broadband access by developing an eco-system of products and services designed to simplify and improve your connected life.

Starry has developed and is deploying the world’s first millimeter wave band active phased array technology for consumer internet communications, using that technology as a platform for rolling out a nationwide fixed wireless broadband network capable of delivering internet speeds of up to one gigabit, wirelessly to the home. Using a self-installation system, consumers will be able to buy Starry products directly and connect to the internet in minutes, without onerous contracts, data caps or having to wait for an installer.

Additionally, the company unveiled Starry Station, the world’s first ambient touchscreen Wi-Fi station, a beautifully designed smart home internet and Wi-Fi station that provides users with a window into their home’s internet health and device connectivity, all through an interactive 3.8” capacitive touchscreen. Starry’s launch was announced today by founder and CEO, Chaitanya “Chet” Kanojia at the Helen Mills Event Space in Manhattan.

“The future of connectivity is wireless and having simple, affordable access to an internet connection is imperative for every household and business,” said Kanojia. “But, far too many people don’t have a choice in how they access that connection. We set out to build an innovative alternative to wired broadband using millimeter waves and proprietary technology to deliver ultra high speed broadband to your home, wirelessly. With Starry’s technology, we can deploy and scale faster than traditional wired networks – at a fraction of the cost. This is how the networks of the future will be built around the globe.”

With Starry Internet, the company is pioneering the use of millimeter waves as an alternative to fixed wireline broadband. Using the world’s first millimeter wave active phased array for consumer internet communications, Starry is capable today of achieving speeds of up to a gigabit of internet service, wirelessly, with deployment costs that are a fraction of the cost of deploying traditional wired broadband.

By using OFDM modulation coupled with MIMO as a foundation, along with active phased array RF front ends, Starry’s technological architecture enables it to leverage OFDM radio technology, including MU-MIMO, in a dense architecture across multiple licensed spectrum bands, including ultra high frequency millimeter waves, to deliver high speed broadband to your home or business through a self-installed home receiver. There will be absolutely no data caps with Starry Internet.

Starry Internet will launch its first beta in the Greater Boston area in the summer of 2016. Additional cities will be announced throughout the year.

With Starry Station, the company is rewriting the book on Wi-Fi routers. With its distinct design and touchscreen display, Starry makes your router the centerpiece of your home to improve RF performance and usability by providing users a window into their internet connection.

Loaded with features including Starry’s internet Health Score, full internet health monitoring system and built-in persistent auto-speed test, Activity Map and Device Finder, ScreenTime parental controls, and customer support assistance available at a tap, Starry Station is 802.11ac, built with a dual radio that is 802.15 ready for future IoT features and has the ability to support a wide range of connected devices in your home or business. With Starry Station, users have the ability to understand, at a glance, how their internet and Wi-Fi connections are performing at all times.

Starry Station will retail at $349.99 and people will be able to reserve at Starry.com until February 5. After February 5, Starry Station will be available for sale on Starry.com and pre-order on Amazon Launchpad, Amazon’s innovative program for startups. All orders will begin shipping in March 2016.

Founded by Chet Kanojia and the elite team of engineers that helped create Aereo, Starry is backed by a group of premier investors including FirstMark Capital, Tiger Global, IAC, KKR, HLVP and Quantum Strategic Partners.

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This startup wants to bring super-fast, wireless internet to your home from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Here's why the iPhone always wins

Steve Kovach January 26, 2016 at 03:12PM

It wasn't a good day for the iPhone.

In its earnings report for last quarter, Apple said it expects iPhone sales to slow down this year. It'll be the first time in the iPhone's history Apple has reported negative sales growth.

And because Apple is the iPhone company, you're going to see a lot of tech pundits spewing doom and gloom over the next few days now that Apple's most important, profitable product is no longer growing the way it used to. 

But the iPhone is far from in trouble.

Unless smartphones are suddenly replaced overnight by some magical new technology, the iPhone has a long, successful life ahead of it. It's not because of superior hardware. (Plenty of other phone makers have devices that can match the iPhone's specs.) It's not because of superior design. (I actually think Samsung leapfrogged Apple in design with last year's Galaxy S6 Edge.)

It's because of iOS.

Smartphone innovation has stalled to the point that it's nearly impossible for one Android phone to stand out from another. They all have the same apps and basic features. There's no major benefit to owning a Samsung phone over a phone from Motorola, LG, HTC, or anyone else.

But the iPhone is the only device with iOS, which has run away with the title of the most valuable smartphone platform.

Developers make more money on iOS, which in turn encourages them to make best apps and updates for the iPhone first. And when the iPhone has the best apps, it keeps users locked into its ecosystem when they're ready to upgrade to a new device, which in turn keeps developers married to the platform. And so on.

It's not just apps either. Some Apple services, especially iMessage, keep users chained to iOS. iOS also serves as the foundation for other ancillary products like Apple TV and Apple Watch, something Apple's executives highlighted during the earnings call Tuesday. And Apple keeps its iOS devices consistently updated for years with security fixes and new features. Many Android phones stop getting new, significant updates after a year or so.

iOS is the real rock star. Not the iPhone itself. Great hardware is one thing, but without a powerful platform behind it, that hardware is meaningless. (Look at FitBit, Samsung, and GoPro's recent troubles if you don't believe me.)

Apple had a funky 2015, releasing several products and services with questionable designs and curious use cases. Apple Music was full of bugs, and it's still plagued by a confusing interface. The iPad Pro can't replace your laptop, despite Apple's claims it can. The Apple Watch isn't an essential gadget for most people. The new Apple TV remote is a pain to use.

But the iPhone was rock solid. After all these years, it's still the best smartphone you can buy. It will probably see a dip in sales this year, and things may still be relatively rocky until Apple refreshes the lineup with a new iPhone in the fall, but there's no sign of iOS losing its power to Android.

And that's all Apple needs for now to stay on top.

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Here's why the iPhone always wins from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Apple's CEO just made his first comments on the next major computing platform

Steve Kovach January 26, 2016 at 02:47PM

Apple CEO Tim Cook has given his first public comments on virtual reality.

On the company's earnings call Tuesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster asked Cook for his high-level thoughts on VR, asking if it's a niche category or something that can really take off as a platform.

"I don't think it's a niche," Cook replied. "I think it's really cool and has some interesting applications."

Cook left it at that.

Apple is the only major tech company that hasn't publicly shared how it's thinking about VR or augmented reality (AR). Google recently opened a new division dedicated to VR. Facebook is about to release the Oculus Rift VR gaming headset. And Samsung has its own headset that it made in partnership with Oculus.

But there are more signs Apple is at least investing more in VR and AR research.

Last week, Apple hired a new VR expert, Doug Bowman. Bowman specializes in 3D user interfaces, or the way users interact with virtual reality.

Apple has also made a handful of acquisitions related to VR and (AR), including the AR company Metaio and the computer imaging company FaceShift. Apple also hired Nick Thompson, one of the lead engineers of Microsoft's AR HoloLens headset.

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Apple's CEO just made his first comments on the next major computing platform from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: http://ift.tt/1PpYFyU

Steve Kovach January 23, 2016 at 01:14PM

Add another piece to the growing list of evidence that Apple is starting to explore virtual and augmented reality.

This week, The Financial Times reported that Apple hired Doug Bowman, a researcher and professor at Virginia Tech who specializes in virtual reality. No one knows exactly what Bowman will be doing at Apple, but it's not difficult to figure out what kinds of projects he'll be focusing on based on his resume.

Many see virtual reality (VR) and its close relative augmented reality (AR) as the next major computing platforms. VR means completely immersing the subject in a virtual environment, like we've seen with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Gear VR, PlayStation VR, and Google Cardboard. AR means placing digital images on top of real-world objects. Google Glass (dead, but possibly making a comeback) and Microsoft's HoloLens (cool!) are the best examples of this.

Ultimately, AR and VR have the potential to replace most of the screens in your life with just one gadget. It could be the platform that replaces the smartphone, computer, TV, and just about everything else one day. It's even been called "the last medium", meaning once the technology is perfected, VR/AR can be used as a blank canvas for anything we want to do.

Magic Leap, a secretive AR startup based in Florida, showed that possibility in one of its patent filings. If Magic Leap lives up to its promise, that could be a big problem for Apple and other major tech companies. You can doubt it all you want, but Apple has to be exploring the space.

Now back to Bowman.

One thing really stood out to me after digging through Bowman's resume. He's not just an expert in VR. He's also an expert in 3D user interfaces, meaning he's coming up with new ways to control what you see in VR when you don't have something physical in your hands to work with.

Today's VR headsets rely on physical controllers to work with what you see. The Oculus Rift will work with a standard Xbox controller and a pair of fancy motion controllers. Microsoft's HoloLens has a different approach. You control it using "air click", or pressing your index finger and thumb together while holding your hand in the air. It's an awkward, inelegant solution.

It's one of the biggest hurdles with the platform. If you've ever tried a VR headset, you've experienced that awkward feeling of wanting to look down and see your hands. But there's nothing there. You still have to control everything with accessories designed for devices from a generation ago, and no one has really cracked a natural solution for navigating through the new medium. (Oculus' motion controllers come close, but they're not perfect.)

I've heard that's been a big issue at companies like Magic Leap. They can create the headset relatively easily, but coming up with new ways to control everything with gestures and voice is a difficult problem to solve.

If Apple is going to take a crack at VR or AR, the user interface and navigation will be its biggest hurdles. That could be where someone like Bowman comes in.

And now for the caveat. As the Financial Times hinted, it's possible Bowman won't be working on VR at all for Apple. Instead, he could be working on Apple's secret car project. As we've seen with several recent high-end vehicles like BMW's 740i, a lot of infotainment systems are getting gesture controls so you can make adjustments without taking your eyes off the road. It's possible Apple could be tapping Bowman's expertise in such gestures for the Apple Car's infotainment system.

But that seems like a waste of talent for someone with Bowman's pedigree. All of Apple's competitors are openly exploring VR. Google just dedicated an entire division to the platform. It'd be bonkers for Apple to not at least start heavily researching the space just in case it truly takes off. And so far, there's a lot of evidence showing that's exactly what Apple is doing.

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NOW WATCH: This virtual reality device lets you experience what it’s like to get punched

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The Transport Guy: Man in a banana costume shoveling snow on a hoverboard

Steve Kovach January 23, 2016 at 12:35PM

That's one way to clear your porch:

#HoverShoveling - NBC10 viewer Adam Szyfman invents a new way to shovel in Avalon, NJ. https://t.co/i1DlK6dtlv https://t.co/81jc0DKFW1

— NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) January 23, 2016

SEE ALSO: This is the most heartbreaking chart you'll see all day

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NOW WATCH: Segway just built a hoverboard killer — and it looks ridiculous

Man in a banana costume shoveling snow on a hoverboard from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: In case there was any doubt Apple is working on the next major computing platform...

Steve Kovach January 23, 2016 at 08:54AM

Add another piece to the growing list of evidence that Apple is starting to explore virtual and augmented reality.

This week, The Financial Times reported that Apple hired Doug Bowman, a researcher and professor at Virginia Tech who specializes in virtual reality. No one knows exactly what Bowman will be doing at Apple, but it's not difficult to figure out what kinds of projects he'll be focusing on based on his resume.

Many see virtual reality (VR) and its close relative augmented reality (AR) as the next major computing platforms. VR means completely immersing the subject in a virtual environment, like we've seen with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Gear VR, PlayStation VR, and Google Cardboard. AR means placing digital images on top of real-world objects. Google Glass (dead, but possibly making a comeback) and Microsoft's HoloLens (cool!) are the best examples of this.

Ultimately, AR and VR have the potential to replace most of the screens in your life with just one gadget. It could be the platform that replaces the smartphone, computer, TV, and just about everything else one day. It's even been called "the last medium", meaning once the technology is perfected, VR/AR can be used as a blank canvas for anything we want to do.

Magic Leap, a secretive AR startup based in Florida, showed that possibility in one of its patent filings. If Magic Leap lives up to its promise, that could be a big problem for Apple and other major tech companies. You can doubt it all you want, but Apple has to be exploring the space.

Now back to Bowman.

One thing really stood out to me after digging through Bowman's resume. He's not just an expert in VR. He's also an expert in 3D user interfaces, meaning he's coming up with new ways to control what you see in VR when you don't have something physical in your hands to work with.

Today's VR headsets rely on physical controllers to work with what you see. The Oculus Rift will work with a standard Xbox controller and a pair of fancy motion controllers. Microsoft's HoloLens has a different approach. You control it using "air click", or pressing your index finger and thumb together while holding your hand in the air. It's an awkward, inelegant solution.

It's one of the biggest hurdles with the platform. If you've ever tried a VR headset, you've experienced that awkward feeling of wanting to look down and see your hands. But there's nothing there. You still have to control everything with accessories designed for devices from a generation ago, and no one has really cracked a natural solution for navigating through the new medium. (Oculus' motion controllers come close, but they're not perfect.)

I've heard that's been a big issue at companies like Magic Leap. They can create the headset relatively easily, but coming up with new ways to control everything with gestures and voice is a difficult problem to solve.

If Apple is going to take a crack at VR or AR, the user interface and navigation will be its biggest hurdles. That could be where someone like Bowman comes in.

And now for the caveat. As the Financial Times hinted, it's possible Bowman won't be working on VR at all for Apple. Instead, he could be working on Apple's secret car project. As we've seen with several recent high-end vehicles like BMW's 740i, a lot of infotainment systems are getting gesture controls so you can make adjustments without taking your eyes off the road. It's possible Apple could be tapping Bowman's expertise in such gestures for the Apple Car's infotainment system.

But that seems like a waste of talent for someone with Bowman's pedigree. All of Apple's competitors are openly exploring VR. Google just dedicated an entire division to the platform. It'd be bonkers for Apple to not at least start heavily researching the space just in case it truly takes off. And so far, there's a lot of evidence showing that's exactly what Apple is doing.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This virtual reality device lets you experience what it’s like to get punched

In case there was any doubt Apple is working on the next major computing platform... from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Apple's GarageBand app just got a huge update (AAPL)

Steve Kovach January 20, 2016 at 08:00AM

GarageBand, Apple's free music creation app, is getting a major update this week.

The app now includes a new feature called Live Loops that lets you create electronic music loops. It's sort of like a virtual DJ board, record-scratch effects included. Live Loops lets you take looping music samples from various instruments and tie them together in real time to make your own beats.

It's kind of fun to play around with, even if you're a non-musician like me. But keep in mind GarageBand is designed for musicians, not your Average Joe. (A lot of you probably have GarageBand on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad now and never use it.)

But Apple told me T-Pain tried Live Loops and really liked it. So I guess that's a solid endorsement.

Apple is also releasing a new app for iPhone this week called Music Memos. Think of it as a souped-up version of the regular Voice Memos app that already comes on your iPhone.

Music Memos lets musicians quickly record off-the-cuff song ideas and can automatically detect and label the time signature and chords they use. After that, you can import the audio file to GarageBand and tweak it more.

Apple said it made Music Memos because it learned that musicians would often use the standard Voice Memos app to record song ideas, and wanted to give them an app that's optimized just for music. (Voice Memos was never really intended to do anything other than record people talking.)

The new GarageBand update is free for all iOS users. It already comes preinstalled on iPhones and iPads that have at least 32 GB of storage. Music Memos will be free too. You'll see both apps in the App Store on Wednesday.

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The Transport Guy: This is the most luxurious car in the world

Steve Kovach and Melia Robinson January 19, 2016 at 11:13AM

What do you do if you have a private driver and a spare 100 grand?

Take BMW's luxurious 740i for a test drive.

The 740i is one of BMW's top-of-the-line cars, and it's designed for those who want to be chauffeured around in luxury. We took one for a spin at CES earlier this month, and we were really impressed. Check it out:

This is the BMW 740i. It starts at about $80,000, but this particular model goes for well over $100,000.

It's not the kind of car you drive. It's for people rich enough to have a personal driver. (You'll see why soon.)

The trunk can open when you wave your foot under the rear bumper.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This is the most luxurious car in the world from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: This is one of the best uses for the Apple Watch I've ever seen (AAPL)

Steve Kovach January 19, 2016 at 08:59AM

The biggest problem with the Apple Watch is the app selection. 

Thousands of developers have built apps for the Apple Watch, but most aren't very good. They run slowly and aren't as useful as their smartphone counterparts.

It's as if developers decided to cram the smartphone versions of their apps onto the tiny watch screen. (After all, do you really need to squint at slow-loading Instagram photos on your wrist?)

I almost always recommend that new Apple Watch owners ignore the apps, and just use the watch for simple tasks like checking notifications.

But this weekend I found an excellent Apple Watch app, and it's a good example of a developer thinking outside the box to use the unique features of the watch to do something that's actually useful.

It's an app called Just Press Record, a simple voice recording app for the iPhone. It's not much different than the Voice Memos app that comes with your iPhone, but it does come with the bonus of a really nice Apple Watch app. The app uses the watch's built-in microphone to make recordings and then transfers the audio file to your iPhone using Bluetooth when you're finished.

It even lets you create a shortcut on the watch's main screen. Just tap the microphone icon and you can immediately start recording. I tested it, and it works perfectly, even if you have the Apple Watch's microphone far away from the person you're recording.

I realize Just Press Record isn't the kind of app everyone will need to run out and download. It's perfect for me because I record a lot of interviews, and it used to be kind of annoying and distracting shoving my iPhone in someone's face. Using my Apple Watch to record is much more discreet and useful for what I do.

But I do think the app shows the promise of smartwatches and how developers could start thinking outside the box. They've all but mastered h0w to make a killer smartphone app, but no one has quite cracked the formula for a killer watch app. I think Quartz's Dan Frommer put it best: the Apple Watch is a "stalled platform" with very little innovation from developers.

If smartwatches are going to take off, developers need to start thinking more like the people behind Just Press Record and find ways to use the watch's hardware in clever ways that wouldn't be possible with just the phone.

SEE ALSO: Report: Apple won't release a major Apple Watch update in March

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NOW WATCH: Fitbit just released an Apple Watch killer

This is one of the best uses for the Apple Watch I've ever seen (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: These are the signs Apple is working on the next major computing platform

Steve Kovach January 17, 2016 at 10:39AM

Apple may be the iPhone company today, but it'll eventually have to move beyond the smartphone to find the next major computing platform.

It's all but a given that Apple is developing a car (even Elon Musk called the project "an open secret" in the auto industry). But when it comes to a new kind of personal computing gadget, several recent acquisitions and hires hint that Apple is at least exploring augmented reality.

Augmented reality (AR) is the concept of putting digital images on top of real-world objects. Google Glass was an early (and failed) example of this. But that isn't stopping others from trying. Magic Leap, a secretive startup with a major investment from Google, is supposedly cooking up a breakthrough augmented reality technology.

This year, virtual reality, augmented reality's close cousin, is getting a big boost with headsets from Sony, Facebook-owned Oculus, and HTC.

Many believe AR and VR are the final forms of personal computing because they have the potential to almost eliminate the need for all the screens in our lives. Instead, a wearable computer will be the one gadget to rule them all.

As always, Apple is tight lipped about what it's cooking up in its research and development labs. But a recent series of acquisitions and hires shows the company is at least experimenting with augmented reality.

Let's take a look at the evidence:

Apple bought the German AR company Metaio in May 2015

Before Apple bought it and shut it down, Metaio was a company that specialized in mobile AR apps. For example, it made an app that lets you visualize where your Ikea furniture will go in your home:

And this experience for tourists visiting the site of the Berlin Wall:

You can see the potential here, especially for industrial and enterprise applications. But you can extend that concept to a lot of things like gaming, video conferencing, and entertainment. It's the same concept Microsoft is exploring with its HoloLens headset.

And speaking of the HoloLens...

Apple recently poached HoloLens engineer Nick Thompson from Microsoft

Thompson was the audio engineering lead for Microsoft's HoloLens project, according to his LinkedIn page. Apple hired him in 2015, as Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster first noticed in August. Thompson worked on the HoloLens for over two years, so he seems like he'd be a good candidate to help out with Apple's AR efforts.

Apple bought FaceShift, a company that makes facial mapping software, late last year

FaceShift has technology that uses cameras to analyze a person's face in real time. It can also be used to create animated virtual avatars. The special effects team for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" used FaceShift's technology to make its alien masks look more realistic.

Apple bought a company that helped make the Xbox's Kinect camera

Apple bought Israeli company PrimeSense over two years ago. The company makes motion-detecting cameras, and its technology was used in the Kinect camera for the first Xbox. This kind of gesture recognition would be very important for an AR device since they don't have typical handheld controllers. For example, Microsoft's HoloLens can recognize gestures to navigate its user interface.

Apple already has ideas for VR/AR headsets

Patent filings don't always mean new products are coming, but they do give us a sense what kinds of tech Apple is experimenting with. For example, Apple was granted a patent in February 2015 for a VR/AR headset that connects to the iPhone. The description sounds very similar to the gadgets we've already seen from Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Facebook in recent years.

But don't get too excited

If Apple does enter the AR/VR space, it'll likely be another several years from now. It's still the early days, and nothing from Apple's competitors have proven to be a true smartphone or laptop replacement. For now, Apple's interest in the platform is purely experimental.

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NOW WATCH: Here’s the incredible Microsoft virtual reality set that turns your hand into a laser gun

These are the signs Apple is working on the next major computing platform from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: This all-electric golf cart can go up to 85 mph — and it’s completely street legal

Kevin Reilly, Darren Weaver and Steve Kovach January 14, 2016 at 11:39AM

Oregon-based Arcimoto has designed an all-electric tricycle. The company hopes this will replace your everyday car.

Produced by Kevin Reilly, Darren Weaver, and Melia Robinson. Reporting by Steve Kovach.

Follow TI: On Facebook

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This all-electric golf cart can go up to 85 mph — and it’s completely street legal from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: This one photo perfectly sums up how frustrating it is to wear the Apple Watch

Steve Kovach January 12, 2016 at 09:17AM

I gave up on my Apple Watch a few months ago. I was getting tired of charging it every night, and I hated how slowly the apps ran. For a device that held so much promise, the Apple Watch underwhelmed me to the point where I found it more useful collecting dust in my nightstand drawer along with a bunch of other discarded gadgets I've collected over the years.

As I wrote in my original review last May, the Apple Watch actually works best when you limit its features and only use it for basic functions like notifications and fitness tracking. It's cool, but I don't think it's worth the $350+ price for a lot of people.

But as a sort of New Year's resolution, I started wearing my Apple Watch again this week. I wanted to give it another shot, especially since I still have hope that smartwatches can improve a lot in the years to come.

Things were going well. I forgot how nice it is to get important notifications like text messages and calendar alerts, and I love using Apple Pay.

And then I got this, which brought back horrible memories of why I ditched my Apple Watch in the first place:

I was stuck on that loading screen for over a minute! In that time, I could've used the Outlook app on my phone to blast through all my new emails. In theory, the Apple Watch is supposed to decrease your reliance on your phone, delivering relevant information to your wrist. But many apps simply take too long to load data from your iPhone through Bluetooth.

Here's another example. This is Sunrise, the calendar app I use on iPhone. It's still stuck on a meeting I had about 16 hours before this photo was taken:

Apple was supposed to fix this problem in a new software update that came out last fall. The update let developers store their apps directly on the watch, which in theory helps them run faster. But that hasn't been the case in my experience. It still takes a really long time for the apps to load data.

Part of this could be because developers haven't really taken the Apple Watch as seriously as they take the iPhone. As Quartz's Dan Frommer wrote last year, the Apple Watch feels like a "stalled platform" and no one has really figured out how to make a killer app for it. 

For now, the Apple Watch is a nice thing to have, especially if you ignore a lot of the apps and just focus on the things the Apple does well, like notifications and Apple Pay. But as I recently rediscovered, the Apple Watch won't be a killer gadget until the apps catch up.

SEE ALSO: People keep emailing Apple to say the Apple Watch saved their life

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NOW WATCH: Fitbit just released an Apple Watch killer

This one photo perfectly sums up how frustrating it is to wear the Apple Watch from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: I just learned something profound about the future of transportation

Steve Kovach January 08, 2016 at 12:47PM

This is the Arcimoto SRK, a street-legal, all-electric trike that can go up to 80 miles per hour:

I took the SRK for a test drive at CES, the huge tech trade show, on Friday, and after spinning around the parking lot of the iconic Las Vegas dive the Peppermill, I chatted with the company's head of business development Jesse Fittipaldi a bit. He had some interesting insight about the future of transportation.

The SRK may look like a goofy electric scooter thing, but it could be a lot closer to what many cars on the road look like once autonomous vehicles are common. Part of the reason why your car is so big, heavy, and expensive is because car companies have to pack in a ton of safety features.

But that won't be the case once all cars on the road are autonomous, Fittipaldi told me. Since there won't be any room for human error, vehicles won't need to be built to withstand an impact from an SUV, a tree, or whatever else. That gives car makers the opportunity to mass produce light, efficient, and cheap vehicles more people can afford. (The SRK may not be autonomous yet, but it'll only cost $12,000 when it goes on sale at the end of this year.)

I never really thought about it that way, but what Fittipaldi told me is deeply profound. I already knew the potential for self-driving cars to reduce the epidemic of fatalities caused by automobiles, but I didn't think that it could spur a change in car design, too, by making transportation much more affordable. 

Safe. Affordable. Good for the environment. Reduced congestion in cities. Autonomous driving has incredible potential.

So don't be surprised if the car you buy in the future looks less like a Tesla and more like Arcimoto SRK.

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NOW WATCH: Tesla's rival just unveiled its first car — and it looks like a futuristic Batmobile

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The Transport Guy: The future is officially here

Steve Kovach January 07, 2016 at 11:51AM

You see a lot of strange stuff walking the show floor of CES.

But Samsung's demo of its virtual reality headset, Gear VR, stuck out to me the most:

Ever since trying the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset almost four years ago, I've found it nearly impossible to describe how revolutionary the medium is. Words aren't enough. You have to strap one of these things to your face and actually try it.

And now we've made it. Virtual reality is here for the masses. All you need is a smartphone and special headset and you're good to go.

Watching people try the Samsung demo shows the power of the platform. These people didn't care that thousands of people were walking by gawking at them as they sat with their mouths agape, fully immersed in whatever they were looking at. They were transported to a completely different world.

So as goofy as it looks to an outsider, VR is an incredibly powerful medium.

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The future is officially here from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: iPhone users now have a better option than the Apple Watch, and it comes from Samsung

Steve Kovach January 05, 2016 at 04:58PM

There was an audible gasp when Samsung announced Tuesday that it would make its latest smartwatch compatible with the iPhone.

But it’s happening. The Gear S2, Samsung’s well-reviewed but mostly ignored smartwatch, is coming to the iPhone soon, Samsung says. And that means the Apple Watch finally has some real competition on its home turf.

The Gear S2 launched last fall, but it didn’t exactly generate the same kind of buzz the Apple Watch did. It was Samsung’s seventh attempt at making a smartwatch in two years, after all, and it was tough to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt this time around.

But things were different with the Gear S2. Unlike the chunky and unattractive models that came before it, the Gear S2 looked good. Even better, its user interface was reimagined with a clever rotating bezel that lets you cycle through menus, making navigation fluid and natural.

The Apple Watch, on the other hand, takes at least a day of tapping and swiping and pushing to figure out. But I felt comfortable with the Gear S2 within minutes. Plus, unlike the Apple Watch, the Gear S2 isn’t bogged down with a lot of unnecessary features like sluggish apps that try too hard to recreate the smartphone experience on a tiny screen.

So why would Samsung bring the watch to its biggest rival instead of keeping a superior product tied to its own phone?

According to Alanna Cotton, Samsung’s VP of mobile marketing, Samsung is expanding the open platform of its latest line of gadgets. When the Gear S2 launched in the fall, it was compatible with most Android phones, not just Samsung phones. Samsung’s new philosophy seems to be getting its products into the hands of all users, no matter what platform they choose.

“The interesting thing about an open platform is it does invite more people in,” Cotton said in an interview with Tech Insider following Samsung’s CES keynote Tuesday. “That’s where the world is going… it opens up the possibility to create a good experience."

That’s one way to look at it.

But Samsung’s mobile business has been going through a rough time over the last few years as other smartphone manufacturers have figured out how to make great devices that cost significantly less than Samsung’s products. Samsung has been on a hunt for the next big thing, but so far it’s hit nothing but dead ends. By now, it’s pretty clear smartwatches can’t replace the smartphone.

Maybe opening up the Gear S2 to iPhone users will entice some to switch to a Galaxy phone. Maybe Samsung will sell enough Gear S2s to make up for its dwindling smartphone sales. But both of those scenarios seem incredibly farfetched.

At the very least, iPhone users have a better option than the Apple Watch.

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NOW WATCH: Unboxing: Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

iPhone users now have a better option than the Apple Watch, and it comes from Samsung from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Samsung has an answer to the iPad Pro, and it looks pretty good

Steve Kovach January 05, 2016 at 02:27PM

We haven't seen the end of all those tablets that act like laptops. 

On Tuesday, Samsung announced its take on the genre, the Galaxy Tab Pro S. 

Think of this as Samsung's answer to Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and Apple's iPad Pro.

The Galaxy Tab Pro S (what a mouthful!) runs Windows 10 and comes with a snap-on keyboard cover. It starts at $999. That's a pretty good deal. Apple and Microsoft make you spend over $130 to get their keyboard covers.

But unlike Apple and Microsoft, Samsung isn't making bold claims that its new tablet can replace your laptop for good. Instead, it's targeting "mobile work forces" that need to do everything a Windows machine can do, but also want something thin, light and portable.

At first glance, it looks a lot like Samsung's Android tablets, but when you turn it on, you can see it's running Windows 10. It's incredibly thin and light and weighs just over a pound and a half.

The keyboard snaps on the back with magnets. It also has a trackpad that seemed pretty good in my brief test. (One of my biggest beefs with the iPad Pro keyboard was that it doesn't have a trackpad, which makes navigation a pain.)

It includes a USB-C port, the new kind of connector that Apple, Google, and a handful of other companies introduced in some gadgets last year. USB-C is used for charging and connecting to accessories or displays. It'll replace the regular USB plug you're used to in a few years.

Samsung says the Galaxy Tab Pro S can get 10 hours of battery life, and it has a quick charge option that'll charge the battery up faster than normal. It starts with 128 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM, and will be available at some carriers with an LTE connection.

There's no release date yet, but Samsung says the Galaxy Tab Pro S will be available by the end of March.

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NOW WATCH: Here's what people really think of the iPad Pro

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The Transport Guy: This new Samsung laptop is shockingly thin and light

Steve Kovach January 05, 2016 at 02:11PM

When I first picked up Samsung's newest laptop, I almost sent it shooting out of my hand and into the ceiling. At first glance, it looked like a normal laptop, so I expected it to be heavy.

But it's deceptively light. And it totally tricked me into using more oomph to lift it than I actually needed.

This is Samsung's new Notebook 9:

It comes in two sizes: one with a 15-inch screen and another with a 13-inch screen. They both run Windows 10. The 13-incher weighs just 1.85 pounds. The 15-incher is a bit heavier at 2.84 pounds.

It's basically Samsung's answer to the new super-thin MacBook that launched last year.

The Notebook 9's shell is made out of magnesium, which keeps things light. It also has about 10 hours of battery life per charge, which is more than enough to get you through a day.

And that's really about it. The Notebook 9 isn't totally ready yet, but it should be out during the first half of the year. It's also impressive to see how far laptops have come in recent years.

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NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone

This new Samsung laptop is shockingly thin and light from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: The startup trying to take on Tesla just flopped its first big announcement

Steve Kovach January 05, 2016 at 06:54AM

Faraday Future, the electric car startup with big ambitions of taking on Tesla and the rest of the auto industry, had a strange Monday night.

In a press conference ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FF executives showed off a strange, futuristic concept car called the FFZERO1.

It looks like this:

Funky looks aside, keep in mind the vehicle shown Monday is just a concept. It has a lot of the same technology FF plans to use in its final production models, but that's about it. 

The real problem with Monday night's presentation was FF's loopy explanation for how it plans to use its platform to redefine the way we get around. Since they don't have much to show off now in terms of real technology, executives spent most of the keynote highlighting the pedigree of the 750 employees who are working on the project. The company is stuffed with engineers and designers that come from Tesla, BMW, Jaguar, and just about every other major car company.

Like these guys:

There were teaser videos. There were bold claims that FF could move faster than any other car company in history. There were grand comparisons to Apple, and that FF was about to do for transportation what the iPhone did for mobile computing.

But despite all those promises and all the hype, there was very little substance.

And the tech pundits on social media weren't buying it. Twitter exploded with skepticism throughout the event:

The archetype of a CES announcement: A thing nobody needs and nobody can buy that you promise will change the world https://t.co/i2ntuFmYjO

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) January 5, 2016

 

Faraday Future kind of seems like it’s doing things other carmakers have done for years but insisting it’s really new?

— nilay patel (@reckless) January 5, 2016

 This one is a parody account, but echoes the sentiment from many:

My competition apparently. http://pic.twitter.com/0Bjge8ChUE

— Bored Elon Musk (@BoredElonMusk) January 5, 2016

 This tweet is referring to Apple's top-secret car project:

Faraday Future: We want to introduce the iPhone, but for the car. (Have you heard about something called Project Titan?)

— Neil Cybart (@neilcybart) January 5, 2016

And so on.

The critics do have a point. For a company making bold claims that it will reinvent transportation, the burden is on FF to show that it has the technology to live up to the promises it's making. So far it hasn't.

Still, we're a few years away from FF's first real production model. The company hopes to start selling it by 2020, around the same time Apple reportedly wants to start selling its car.

What FF really announced Monday was the platform it's using to make its electric cars a reality. It's claiming that it has a modular design that can turn the base model into just about any vehicle it wants — from a sports car to a pickup truck. That means it can move quickly and adapt to its customers' needs.

Oh, and it's also opening a $1 billion factory in Nevada.

In an interview a few weeks ago with Tech Insider, FF's head of research and development Nick Sampson (above) gave some more solid details on the company's vision. He said he sees FF acting more like a subscription service where you never really own a car, but pick up the vehicle for what you need at any given moment.

And in an interview with Business Insider after the press conference, Sampson responded to the early criticsim, insisting what the company is making isn't vaporware, or a product that'll never be released. He also said FF has test cars already on the road, but they're disguised to look like normal cars.

It'll be several more years after the launch of its first production model before we see that vision though. In the meantime, expect to see a lot of biting skepticism thrown at Faraday until it shows us something more substantive.

SEE ALSO: Check out Faraday Future's 1,000-horsepower electric supercar

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NOW WATCH: Tesla's rival just unveiled its first car — and it looks like a futuristic Batmobile

The startup trying to take on Tesla just flopped its first big announcement from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: The 20 best smartphones in the world

Steve Kovach January 02, 2016 at 10:17AM

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The Transport Guy: The 20 best smartphones in the world

Steve Kovach January 02, 2016 at 10:04AM

New year? New phone.

If you're looking to start things off with a fresh device, here's our ranking of the best phones you can buy.

Note: All prices below indicate how much the phones typically cost without a carrier contract. Prices may vary depending on the retailer.

#20 BlackBerry Passport

The BlackBerry Passport may look strange, but a lot of BlackBerry fans seem to love it. It has a really nice physical keyboard, but the key feature is its unique square design.

Price: $549

#19 BlackBerry Classic

If you were a BlackBerry fan back in the company's heyday, you're going to love the BlackBerry Classic. It looks similar to older BlackBerry models, but features a sharp touchscreen and an excellent physical keyboard.

Price: $379

#18 Microsoft Lumia 950

If you must have a Windows phone, there's only one device to consider: Microsoft's Lumia 950. Although reviews were pretty bad, this phone does hold some promise for people who need Microsoft apps to do everything. It also has a really nice camera and can connect to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and let you run a lightweight version of Windows.

Price: $600

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 20 best smartphones in the world from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: You should actually be thankful that Uber has surge pricing

Steve Kovach January 02, 2016 at 08:44AM

It's tradition.

You spend New Year's eve chugging champagne. You dress up. You kiss your sweetheart at midnight.

And then, as you wake up blurry-eyed and hungover the next morning, you check your email to see a receipt from Uber and learn you spent an obscene amount of money to get home.

Then come the complaints and blog posts, flooding social media in chorus of indignation at Uber. How dare they! It's price gouging! Why does a company valued as much as $70 billion need to charge so much for a simple car ride? What does Uber want me to do? Drive home drunk?

And so on.

To a degree, those complaints are justified. It stinks paying $100 (or $300 or $400 in some cases) for a relatively quick trip in a car, especially on a night where all you want to do is go out, get a little tipsy, and arrive home safely.

But even though Uber has been around for over five years, it's still a very new concept that people have a hard time wrapping their hungover noggins around. Uber is not your traditional car service. And there's a reason why its rates aren't always consistent.

Yes, Uber is designed to get you from Point A to Point B, but more importantly, it's designed to get you a car just a few minutes after you hail one. In order to make sure your driver gets there on time, it has to manage the supply of its vehicles on the road by temporarily increasing the price of rides until it can ensure a timely ride for everyone willing to pay. 

It's the same way a lot of industries work. It's why airplane tickets vary in price. It's why hotel rooms vary in price. It's why apartment rents can vary month to month or year to year. These industries are designed to guarantee you get the thing you want when you want it without selling out of inventory.

That's what Uber is doing for car services, and it's something that this particular industry hasn't really seen before. It also explains why Uber just seems so cool the first time you use it. A few taps on your smartphone and — voila! — a personal driver is at your door a few minutes later.

On New Year's eve you basically have two options: Call a traditional car service that has a standard fare structure and wait an hour or two or three for your ride to show up. Or you call an Uber that's guaranteed to show up in just a few minutes and pay out the nose.

Which option sounds better when you're tired, drunk, and just want to get home?

I realize this explanation may seem basic to those who have been following the company for years, but (surprise!) there is a world that exists outside the bubble tech and media people live in. The annual uprising of Uber customers every New Year's day just highlights the fact that there are plenty of people who still don't get how this company works.

Uber does a pretty good job at warning its customers about New Year's eve surge pricing. It puts out a blog post every year that gives you a good idea when you have the best chance of avoiding surge pricing. It sends you a notification in the app, warning that prices are likely going to be high. It makes you confirm that you understand your ride is going to cost a certain multiple of the standard fare before it even lets you call the car. But people are still confused. And it'll probably stay that way for years to come.

Could Uber do better?

Of course. It could make it easier to estimate your fare before you call a car. (That option is kind of buried in the app.) It could give you a live view of your fare on your phone as you ride, just like a normal taxi does. It could use its massive war chest to expand offerings like Uber Pool, which lets you split rides with other people going in the same direction.

If you want to be cynical, you could argue that Uber's surge pricing is a hint at a future where the company dominates the logistics of transportation to the point where you basically have no choice but to pony up and pay whatever Uber demands.

That cynicism is fine, and probably healthy as Uber basically runs away with its unchecked domination of this new market it created. Things could get messy down the road.

But you shouldn't be surprised.

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NOW WATCH: Here’s how to find out your Uber rating

You should actually be thankful that Uber has surge pricing from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: The next 'Game of Thrones' book has been delayed and HBO isn't happy

Steve Kovach January 02, 2016 at 07:00AM

It's going to be even longer before the next "Game of Thrones" book arrives.

In a post on his personal blog, "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin had some disappointing news for fans: He wasn't able to finish the next book in the series, "Winds of Winter", by the end of 2015. In fact, Martin warned it could be several more months before he's able to deliver the novel.

Here's what Martin said:

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.

The hope was that Martin would be able to finish "Winds of Winter" in time for the premiere of season 6 of the HBO show, which has mostly caught up to the books. Season 6 premieres on April 6.

Martin said he simply ran out of time to finish the book. His original deadline was October 31, 2015. But when it became clear he couldn't meet it, his editors and publisher extended the deadline another two months, which would still give them time to get the book out in time.

But Martin still missed his deadline, and left things very vague as to when he thinks he'll be able to finish the book.

Luckily, Martin assured everyone that HBO and the publisher of his book had a plan in place just in case this happened. The show's producers and writers have the entire story sketched out. But it's still not an ideal situation for fans of the books who are concerned that the show is going to continue the story before the books can.

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NOW WATCH: Why Bran Stark will play a huge role next season on ‘Game of Thrones'

The next 'Game of Thrones' book has been delayed and HBO isn't happy from Business Insider: Steve Kovach