Hands-on with Mophie’s new modular smartphone battery case

There was some confusion when the Juice Pack Connect was announced last week. I admit I was a bit confused, too. It was, no doubt, the proximity to Apple’s iPhone 12 launch that lead many to (understandably) assume that the new take on Mophie’s case is based on the handset’s new MagSafe tech.

While it seems likely that some future version of the accessory will sport that functionality, truth is there are two primary technologies at the heart of the newer, more modular battery pack: wireless charging and good old-fashioned adhesive. That means, among other things, that the system effectively works with any handset that supports Qi wireless charging.

In fact, the system is actually pretty bare bones by design. There’s not even a case included in the box. You’ve got to supply your own. Instead, the system ships with the battery pack, a grip/stand and, helpfully, two adapters. That last bit is nice in case you need a do-over or plan sharing the battery with someone else.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Installation is pretty simple. There’s even a little cardboard guide to insure you center it properly, à la the sort of frame you’d get to install a screen protector. You can install it directly onto the back of the phone, as well, but I prefer to stay noncommittal with my accessories if possible. That said, you’ll need to live with the little adapter nub on the rear of your device when other accessories aren’t attached.

The accessories slide onto the anchor from the side. The battery pack is easily the nicest-looking part of the whole rig — and the one that most closely retains the design language of the original Juice Packs. The ring/stand is a bit cheaper-feeling and feels like a bit of an afterthought to occupy the system when not charging. One of the big trade-offs is that the more compact battery design means a smaller capacity; 5,000mAh isn’t bad, but you can find a higher capacity case for cheaper.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

The other trade-off you probably already know, which is that wireless charging is slower than the wired kind. For that reason, the system is better adapted to keeping your device alive for long stretches, rather than fast charging. That said, if you’re really in a pinch and have the right cables handy, you can charge your phone up faster via the USB-C port (which is also used to top off the battery).

The Connect Stand is serviceable. It serves better as a stand than a grip. It would be useful if the company offered something more like a Pop Socket for a more solid grip. That’s the nice thing about modularity, though — they can always add more accessories. At $80, it’s not cheap, but, then Mophie products never really are.

Mophie introduces a modular wireless charging module

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3mL6HF0

Aveine’s Smart Wine Aerator is a huge upgrade for wine lovers – and could create some new ones, too

You might have very good reason to be on a wine kick right now – along with plenty of the rest of the country – so it’s perhaps timely to take a look at the Aveine Smart Aerator, a gadget from a French startup that offers variable, instant aeration and a connected app platform for determining just the right amount of aeration that any particular wine you happen to be drinking requires. The Aveine Smart Wine Aerator is premium-priced, but you might be surprised at just how much of a difference it can make.

The basics

The Aveine Smart Wine Aerator began life as did many other startup devices – as a crowdfunding project. The France-based team ended their campaign in 2018, having surpassed their funding goal, and spend the next couple of years working on finalizing, producing and shipping their design. The Aveine is now available to order, in both the original, full-performance version at $449, and an ‘Essential’ edition introduced this year that offers half the maximum aeration time (12 hours vs. 24) for $299 (reviewed here).

Both work the same way: You place them on top of the bottle you want to aerate once it’s opened, and they connect via Bluetooth to your phone and the Aveine app, which is available for iOS and Android. Through the app, you can take a photo of your wine’s label and it will try to match it from its growing database to automatically set the Aveine to the optimal aeration time.

Image Credits: Aveine

In practice, I found that most of the wines I was testing with weren’t in the database – which Aveine expects, and that’s why it provides a simple survey that you can fill out to get an approximate best aeration time, by supplying information like vintage, grapes used, region and whether the wine is organic or biodynamic. You can also manually set the aeration, and taste test small amounts to find your preferred amount.

Aveine includes a soft carrying case for the Smart Aerator in the box, as well as a charging base that connects to any standard USB wall plug for via micro USB. The built-in battery is rated for around 12-hours of standby, with occasional aeration use while pouring, when it’s actively injecting air into the flow using a built-in motor.

Design and performance

The Aveine feels quite heavy, and it’s clear that a lot of care went into ensuring that all of its smart internals fit comfortably inside the relatively small device. It fits easily over the vast majority of wine bottle tops, and grips while pouring without any special attachment process required. The touchscreen activates when you swipe it, showing you the adjustable aeration screen in simple black and white.

Getting started with the Aveine is simple, and doesn’t require the app at all in fact. Just adjust the scale to your desired aeration level, and pour. The aeration automatically begins when you tip the bottle, and you can hear it working as the motor works to inject air while the wine flows through. If you do use the app, it’ll ask you to connect the Aerator (if you’ve woken up the device by activating the display, it should instantly show up in the app’s device list when it’s within Bluetooth range of your phone).

If you have a wine that’s in Aveine’s database, taking a picture of the label will return a recommended aeration time, and if you’re connected to the aerator, it’ll also automatically set the aerator’s aeration time to that level. As mentioned, you can also answer a few questions about the wine if it’s not in the database to return an estimated aeration time, which will also be automatically set if you’re connected to the device.

Image Credits: Aveine

Now let’s talk performance: Let me say that I understand sticker shock when you see the asking price of the Aveine – I had the same thing. But actually using the Smart Aerator goes a long way to proving its worth. The effect is immediate and non-ambiguous: It makes just about any bottle of wine taste a whole lot better, without you having to decant it and let it sit for hours in advance.

My testing is admittedly non-scientific, but I did poll a wide swath of friends and families who enjoyed bottles aerated via the Aveine during socially distanced visits, and to a one they all noted a vast improvement between before and after aeration tastings. At least one even went out and immediately purchased an Aveine of their own based on the experience.

Sometimes you have to do a bit of experimentation to get the aeration right, adjusting the levels and doing contrasting taste tests – but that’s actually also part of the fun.

Bottom line

Aerator gadgets are plentiful, and often cheaply acquired in the checkout line at the local wine shop for well under $100. But the Aveine is the first one I’ve tried that makes such a clear and demonstrable difference it can convince novices and pros alike about its efficacy. It’s a high price to pay, yes, but what you get in return is a device that consistently makes life better for wine lovers – and that make some new wine lovers out of skeptics, too.

from Android – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3mOCWmE
via IFTTT

Apple, Microsoft and other tech stocks roar as the Presidential election narrows to several states

On the back of sizable gains posted yesterday, tech stocks are once again rising sharply in pre-market trading today. Futures concerning the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index are indicating a 3.4% gain this morning, far above a 1.7% gain that the broader S&P 500 index is currently anticipating.

The market capitalization of some of the world’s most valuable companies have added tens of billions of dollars in value this morning, with Apple rising 3.9% in pre-market trading, and Microsoft gaining an even-richer 4.4%.

Smaller key players in the tech market are also rising, with Salesforce gaining 2.9% ahead of the bell, and Twilio adding 3.3% to its own value.

The price of heavily-traded assets have whipsawed during the last 24 hours, with yield on American government debt falling last night — indicating that investors were bullish on the economy as a whole — before rising again when it became clear that no so-called Blue Wave was forming. The prospect of a divided Congress could stifle future economic stimulus, the possibility of which has been a key narrative driver for market trading in recent months.

Shares of Uber, Lyft soar on expected passage of California gig-labor ballot measure

Precisely why tech stocks are racing higher this morning is not entirely clear. One obvious possibility is that investors are returning to their summer trade, when they bid shares of software-heavy companies higher in hopes of parking their wealth in the firms with the best chance of posting regular growth during a period of intense economic uncertainty.

If a divided Congress means a drag on more stimulus, why not return to the play that worked before?

For tech, and tech-enabled companies hoping to go public before the year ends, or in early 2021, the rally is welcome news. But, as with everything in this election, things could still change.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3mSKswY

After getting the date wrong earlier, Siri now knows today is Election Day

Listen chief, it’s Election Day in the United States. You know that, I know that. Everyone knows that — and in the off-chance anyone wasn’t clued in to the fact, the last few weeks have offered a non-stop barrage of reminders to vote. Today. Tuesday. November 3. 2020.

It seems the last one to find out, however, was Siri. If you happened to greet Apple’s smart assistant with a “Happy Election Day” earlier today, it may well have answered that the big day isn’t until November 8, as pointed out by noted Twitter enthusiast, Lucas Matney.

Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

Apple has since fixed the issue, though the problem appears to be that Siri jumped the gun here. November 8 is, in fact, election day. Just not this year. November 8, 2022 marks another major election here in the U.S. — namely the midterms, which will no doubt be all sorts of fun and nerve-racking in their own beautiful way. A never-ending source if anxiety, this beautiful thing the ancient Greeks called “democracy.”

Siri notably wasn’t the only one that mixed up their dates. An Instagram cache issue earlier today caused the social media service to suggest to users that “Tomorrow is Election Day.” Which, it’s not. While it seems likely the presidential race will still be up in the air come tomorrow, showing up at your polling place to vote will likely be frowned upon.

 

 

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2HWIH2y

Gillmor Gang: Shaken, not stirred

With one day to go to the election, our thoughts are with those who look forward to talking about something else. Difficult as it might be to imagine, there must be other things to work on. One thing that comes to mind is the impact of the virus on how we manage our days and nights in a digital environment. Mobile devices have already propelled much of the change, but the pandemic has accelerated the move to a hybrid distributed lifestyle.

The election has mandated our attention to the political situation in ways that have expanded early voting and legal efforts to slow it down. Regardless of the outcome, the pressure to adapt to this new collaborative workflow will intensify. People have already seen significant shifts from commuting to time switching in a home context. Podcasting, which had emerged from a hackerish geeky hobby in recent years, has morphed into a more commercial adjunct to mainstream media.

In the process, new formats such as newsletters and live streaming have attracted investment from companies including Spotify and Audible, related technologies like Otter (transcription), Substack, Medium, new bundles of services (Apple One) and cable network disrupters, digital-first publishers like The Recount may have started out as traditional takes on political commentary, but in the windup of the campaign they are reaching audiences via notifications rather than repetitive cable talking heads and panels.

This roll up of breaking notifications and user-controlled editorial access have major implications for the near future post-election, however long it takes to plow through legal challenges and the restaffing of whichever government is formed. Also impacted will be congressional and antitrust attempts to regulate social media, and what I suspect will be a shift to private discussions and trend analysis. The interest groups and market makers that result from this realignment will offer exit strategies for companies like Twitter and YouTube where the risk of being broken up will be mitigated by powerful new business models for content creation and distribution.

By January 20th, a new influencer architecture based on notifications and live streaming will endow the media with tools it needs to lead the transition to safe, secure, hybrid digital/live events. Streaming will give new artists and entrepreneurs a platform to separate influence and impact from lossleader gatherings online, bolstered by association with food and tools delivery winners like Apple and Amazon. A similar synergy between tech companies and media advertising will be overt (Apple + and Prime) as well as implicit (the growth in Amazon search. and Twitch watch parties).

COVID therapeutics such as Regeneron create a roadmap for these private groups to reorganize as Costco-like next-wave restaurants, entertainment events and political efforts to consolidate economic power. With a combination of transparency and what could be called reverse boycotts, customers will align with products and companies who promote values-based association with stakeholders across the spectrum.

Central to the relationship is providing ethical access to important data in return for clear guidelines for the use of that data at scale. If this election has been correctly assessed as signaling a massive change in the electorate, the period of deescalation from the pandemic can foster a sense of ownership of that success by the incoming majority. Notification-based entertainers such as Sarah Cooper and more mainstream projects like Matthew McConaughey’s new book, “Greenlights,” speak initially to the Zoom home/work crowd, and soon to the formation of new studios and networks.

Who really knows how this transformation is playing out, given the terrible consequences of Trump’s impact on our country and its standing in the world. But the generation that followed the Greatest Generation is discovering it has more to it than the free love of rock and roll and following our bliss. That same generation ushered in the technology and media revolutions.

Now we’re suffering the backlash of so-called free software where our data is the real product, where Big Brother is extending power by acqui-hires and preemptive pivots. Yet still our democracy persists. Time to count the vote.

__________________

The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, October 30, 2020.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang

For more, subscribe to the Gillmor Gang Newsletter and join the backchannel here on Telegram.

The Gillmor Gang on Facebook … and here’s our sister show G3 on Facebook.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3jTGWjM

Gaming rules the entertainment industry, so why aren’t investors showing up?

As gaming’s popularity reaches epic heights, venture investors’ activity in the industry doesn’t seem to equate with the overall size of the games market. Spurred by an unreal year where traditional entertainment has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and consumers find unity in virtual worlds like Animal Crossing and Fortnite, gaming has never been more popular.

Late-stage investors have shown that they have a tremendous appetite for businesses in the gaming industry. They’ve been pouring capital into established gaming companies like Scopely, which on Wednesday announced a $340 million investment round at a $3.3 billion valuation. But venture capital simply hasn’t given the gaming industry and the broader synthetic market the attention it deserves given its place in the entertainment and cultural firmament.

Just ask LeBron “Bronny” James Jr., the son of the NBA’s biggest star, who became a professional athlete this week — as a gamer with one of the most popular teams in online gaming, FaZe Clan. Or look at Unity, the creator of a popular game development engine, whose stock price has nearly doubled since its public offering in mid-September. Since opening trading at $56 per share, the stock has nearly doubled in value and is now trading at $100 per share.

In the first half of the year gamers spent $36.8 billion on games through both the Android and iOS app stores, according to data from SensorTower. New game installs are also up for the year. The app analytics company said that new game installs were up to 28.4 billion over the first half of the year. Annually the 15 billion new game downloads in the second quarter represented a 45.2% year-on-year growth in gaming.

Then there’s Bitkraft, one of the only venture firms to focus on the totality of the gaming industry, which announced the close of its most recent fund, a $165 million investment vehicle. The firm, which added a former Goldman Sachs managing director earlier in the year to capitalize on the opportunity in what the firm calls “synthetic reality” investments, raised $25 million more than its $140 million target. One of these things is not like the others.

Gaming-focused investment firm Bitkraft closes in on at least $140 million for its second fund

“I’ve been in the games industry for 23 years now [and] I’ve always had this huge fundamental conviction of video games not only dominating the entertainment industry but sort of taking up a big part of what society is — where video games create the digital identities that define evermore of what we understand of ourselves,” said Jens Hilgers, Bitkraft’s founding general partner. “We feel that these are times of acceleration … it’s great to see how we’re leapfrogging one or two or three years of the games industry in this crisis and it makes it more exciting to invest in these times.”

The Unity public offering, and its emphasis on markets outside of gaming, seems to prove Hilgers point and show just how much opportunity remains around the notion of synthetic reality in business and entertainment.

“Their thesis around democratizing access to gaming tools by letting hobbyists use the tools for free is smart, if you want to win the market,” said Alice Lloyd George, founder of Rogue Ventures, a new investment firm focused on frontier technologies and gaming investments.

Lloyd George compared Unity’s business to its biggest competitor, Epic Games, and noted that both have broad aspirations. “Both of them want to use their game engines beyond pure gaming,” Lloyd George said of the two big new gaming platform developers. “Unity is really well-positioned because they’re so strong on mobile. That positions them well for AR and VR. And you need onramps for the developers for AR and VR.”

Engagement and the future of entertainment

When Scopely’s co-chief executive Walter Driver talks about the attraction of gaming properties for players — and the reason investors have been willing to value his Los Angeles-based company in the billions of dollars — he talks about the connections between players. “People have found — and investors looking at the space have found also — that people value the connection they’re getting from interactive experiences. It’s not just our relationship with the players, but their relationships with each other,” Driver said. “Inside of most passively consumed media experiences, you don’t have an identity. You don’t have friends.“

from Android – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2JyN9W5
via IFTTT

Daily Crunch: Apple announces its next big event

Apple is closing out the year with another big event, Twitter details its plans to fight election-related misinformation and WeWork employees used an embarrassingly insecure printer password. This is your Daily Crunch for November 2, 2020.

The big story: Apple announces its next big event

Yes, almost everyone’s attention is locked onto tomorrow’s U.S. presidential election, but Apple is giving us an excuse to look beyond November 4 — it’s holding another big event, themed “One More Thing,” on November 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific.

What’s the one more thing? Most likely, Apple will unveil the first Macs built with the company’s ARM-based processors and also provide a release date for macOS Big Sur.

The transition to “Apple silicon” was announced earlier this year at WWDC, with Tim Cook describing it as “a historic day for the Mac.” But now we’ll actually get some product details.

The tech giants

Twitter explains how it will handle misleading tweets about the US election results — The platform says it will prioritize labeling tweets about the presidential election and any other “highly contested races” where there may be significant issues with misleading information.

Spotify will now allow artists and labels to promote tracks in your recommendations — Spotify announced today it will begin to test a new service that gives artists more of a say in how their music is discovered on the Spotify platform.

WeWork employees used an alarmingly insecure printer password — The password (“9999”, the same as the user name) was so simple that a customer guessed it.

Startups, funding and venture capital

YC-backed nonprofit VotingWorks wants to rebuild trust in election systems through open source — The startup has twin goals of improving the technology that underpins elections through more affordable and secure voting systems, as well as using modern statistical science to improve the quality and efficiency of voter audits.

Rocket Lab’s next launch will deliver 30 satellites to orbit, and a 3D-printed gnome from Gabe Newell — The gnome is a test of a new manufacturing technique, as well as a philanthropic endeavor from the gaming industry legend.

Email creation startup Stensul raises $16M — With other marketing channels paused or diminished during the pandemic, email has only become more important.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Pandemic’s impact disproportionately reduced VC funding for female founders — Bias, seed-stage bottlenecks and slow structural change continue to hold women back.

Booming edtech M&A activity brings consolidation to a fragmented sector — Edtech M&A activity is buzzier than usual.

Starling Bank founder Anne Boden says new book ‘isn’t a memoir’ — In “Banking On It,” Boden relates how she came up with the idea to found a challenger bank and the many obstacles she faced along the way.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Raspberry Pi Foundation announces the cute little Raspberry Pi 400 — The Raspberry Pi 400 is a computer integrated in a compact keyboard that costs $70.

Original Content podcast: Bill Murray’s charm can’t hide the sadness of ‘On the Rocks’ — The film reunites Murray with his “Lost in Translation” director Sofia Coppola.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/361Tdhc