The Olympics continue – and (yes, I’m being biased) the GB team continue to pick up more and more medals which is fantastic! Also, as more and more folks are getting their vaccinations, there seems to be a sense of ‘normality’ in the air – not saying at all that the virus has gone, but more people are visiting the physical shops and more are now meeting up more frequently with family and friends. I would like to point out – we should continue to be careful.
So, my Top Two Tech Stories of the week….
- First up… the trusted old kindle might not work!
Some older Kindle e-readers will soon no longer be able to connect to the internet to download new books, Amazon has said.
First- and second-generation Kindles did not come with wi-fi functions included, using mobile internet only.
But the slower technology used at the time – 2G and 3G internet – is being discontinued in some places, particularly the United States.
Several other models will also be restricted to wi-fi only.
“Starting in 2021, some prior generation Kindle e-readers will not be able to connect to the internet using cellular connection through 2G or 3G networks,” Amazon told its US customers this week.
The switch-off is outside of Amazon’s control, as mobile networks repurpose the older parts of their radio spectrum for faster, more modern standards.
The same situation applies in other countries on varying timescales – in the UK, for example, operator BT has announced it plans to phase out 3G support by 2023.
Other British operators have yet to announce their plans.
The switch-off affects all sorts of older devices, such as 3G-only smartphones.
But such devices tend to be replaced every few years, unlike an e-reader, which may be replaced only once it is completely broken.
2. Facebook Smart glasses!
At Facebook’s recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed what we had already expected: The company’s first pair of smart glasses are the next product, coming this year.
Facebook discussed its glasses, which are made in a partnership with glasses-maker Essilor Luxottica under the Ray-Ban brand, last year during a virtual Facebook Connect conference.
Facebook’s head of AR/VR hardware, Andrew Bosworth, confirmed a few things previously: “We’re being careful not to call them augmented reality glasses. When you’re overlaying digital artifacts onto the world, that’s really augmented reality. These aren’t augmented reality glasses. However, they do a lot of the concepts we think will eventually be critical for augmented reality glasses. It’s all components that people have seen before, but never all in one place. I’m being very coy about the feature set, as you can tell — that’s intentional, I’m not going to answer specifically what features it has. But I will say, one of the things that we’re looking at for all of AR, starting with our smart glasses, is how can they help you be more present.”
He also added that “I think they’re going to help people stay connected to each other, and never feel like they’re out of touch with somebody else. And also just be useful.” Bosworth didn’t sound interested in the glasses serving up notifications, however, and didn’t confirm whether or not they’d have displays.
Facebook has said the glasses won’t have their own displays. Audio, then, would be what Facebook leans on. Much like Amazon’s Echo Frames, Bose Frames or Razer’s Anzu glasses, these will probably focus on audio as the immersive tech of the moment. Facebook recently created its own live audio rooms and spaces, matching similar efforts from Twitter and apps like Clubhouse. Facebook Reality Labs, which is pursuing a more advanced true augmented reality headset, sees spatial audio as a key piece of the puzzle in smart glasses. Audio is also a more achievable step in the short term. Facebook could experiment with assistant features and use the glasses to connect to audio spaces.
So there you go… time to upgrade that old kindle of yours and soon you’ll have glasses from RayBan that share your aunty’s Facebook notifications, most probably liking that recent photo of you on the beach.