This week we got some information about Apple event that is rumored for March. During this event we should see new iPads mini, which I've already covered two weeks ago, long awaited AirPower and AirPods 2 with new color options. Unfortunately, we don't know when we will be able to buy new AirPods, one rumor says it will be available this spring, and another says that we have to wait till fall. I cannot wait for new AirPods, especially black matte ones, and I hope we will get them in the first half of this year.

On the other side of the barricade, Samsung released a new tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e. Starting at $399 device has following specification:

• 10.5inch Super AMOLED (2560x1600) display,
• Qualcomm SDM 670 (Dual 2.0GHz + Hexa 1.7GHz) processor,
• 4GB or 6GB of RAM,
• 64GB or 128GB of internal storage,
• SD card slot supporting cards up to 512GB
• Front (8-megapixel) and back (13-megapixel) cameras,
• Up to 14.5h of battery life.

Right now, the market of the tablets is dominated by iPads. The root cause of that situation was lack of decent Android devices. With this new Galaxy Tab, Samsung finally has something that might be recommended as an alternative to the iPad.

From the other news, JPMorgan is launching its own cryptocurrency. Yeah, another cryptocurency to the collection. This time, one JPM Coin will be equivalent of one dollar, and will be used to perform real-time transfers of substantial amount of money, which right now might take even days. I'm not a big fan of another cryptocurency, but I'm glad to see that big and respected bank is going to use blockchain to transfer money.

That's it for this week, if you want more, here is the list of interesting things.

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It's a tradition that during second week of January, most of business related to the consumer technologies gather in Las Vegas for the CES. Here is the list of more interesting news.

1. Lets start with surprising announcement from Samsung and Sony that their new Smart TVs will support AirPlay. To clarify the confusion Apple announced that leading TV manufacturers will be integrating AirPlay 2 into their TVs.
2. Chinese EV startup - Byton - has shown their 49-inch screen. It doesn't sound special, except this screen is inside the car. I must admit, it looks gorgeous; however, I'm wondering how useful it is as well as how much it distracts a driver.
3. Speaking of screens, LG has presented first rollable OLED TV. You may ask why one would need to roll their TV screen. Beside the ability to hide the screen when requested, I don't have any other answer. This is not important when we look at this from technology point of view. If we can roll an OLED screen, that means we are really close from getting foldable OLED phones and tables.
4. HTC announced Vive Pro Eye. This is virtual reality headset with eye tracking built-in. Eye tracking allows developers to increase the quality of the games/applications. This can be achieved by using high quality assets for objects that are in front of player's eyes and lower quality assets for elements that are outside eye's focus area. Beside the visual aspect, eye tracking will add some new capabilities to the headset e.g. hands-free interactions. The price is still unknown, but the headset should be available in the second quarter of 2019.
5. Google assistance is getting momentum. It will be integrated with many new products including TVs, phones, speakers and even shower. I wish Siri had those capabilities.
6. Yubico presented the first Lightning security key for iPhones. Securing keys are now a standard for computers, but I have never heard of such solution for a phone. So now, if one needs to protect their phone even more, they have a solution that is even approved by Apple.
7. AMD announced the Radeon VII. This is first 7nm GPU and promises significant performance improvements over current AMD's flagship card - Radeon RX Vega 64. Also, with this card, AMD wants to compete with Nvidia's RTX 2080.
8. A lot of cars have been announced, including flying car, walking car as well as smart vehicles. I like to see cool technologies, but I hope that CES don't become an auto show.

Now, let's move on to other news. There was a lot of rumors regarding Apple. First we got a first "alleged" mocks of the new iPhone. We cannot see the from of the phone, but it's remored that Apple wants to move all the sensors behind OLED screen and remove the notch. I really like this idea, I got used to the notch, but still it is hideous. If those rumors are true, new iPhone might looks like Samsung Galaxy S10.
As we are on the topic of leaked photos, new iPad mini has emerged basically from grave. I thought the mini series is dead, but it looks like Apple still is considering small form factor. The future will tell who was right.

Also this week, we got a first real result of buying GitHub by Microsoft. Users can create unlimited private repositories for free. This is the feature I have been waiting for a long time. I know I can create private repositories for free on Bitbucket or GitLab, but anyone is on GitHub and if I want to start something privately and later on share this with others now, I can do this without switching between different repositories.

This week there is no list of interesting things. I suggest to browse the YouTube or your tech site of choice and check what else has been announced during CES.

This week Tim Cook sent a letter to Apple investors regarding new strategies after much lower than expected earnings in FYQ1 2019.
Apple was expecting lower ravenue, but it looks like actual numbers caught Apple off guard. Regarding to Apple, the main cause of this situation is weak demand in China. People there doesn't buy new iPhones. New iPhones are ludicrous expensive, and in China there are plenty of cheaper devices that have the same features. People there doesn't care whether they use iOS or Android because Chinese apps look and work the same way on both platforms, so it is really easy for them to switch platforms.
Also, if we add to this tense relations, because of "Trade War", between China and USA it's not a surprise that sells have been lower than expected.
China is one of the biggest markets in the world, high demand from there is really important, but Apple also reported weakened demand in some "developed markets", which indicates that either iPhones are too expensive or new features introduced in new models does not appeal to the customers.
Probably it is the combination of both. For a while Apple has been increasing the price of the devices without any breakthrough features. I used to wait entire year for iPhone's keynote and I knew I would see something revolutionary. Now, I simply don't care because Apple will again show the same "recycled" phone with higher price tag.
On the positive note, Apple has increased demand for services, macs, wearables and iPads. Also in other markets, including Poland, Apple reported record sells. Maybe higher that usual demand in Poland is the first step to opening the first official Apple Store here.

Now, moving on to other news. Image of the Samsung Galaxy S10 has leaked, revealing bezelless screen without a notch, but with camera cutout withing the screen. This is an interesting design, and if you only need front facing camera it makes a lot of sense.

Google has got U.S. regulatory approval to proceed with a radar-based motion sensor known as the Soli Project. This technology can make UI from Minority Report a reality.

Thats all from this week, now it's time for list of interesting things.

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This week was one of the most uneventful weeks of this year. There is no a single story that might deserve more detailed coverage. In this situation, I decided just to listed news that might be somewhat interesting.

Samsung teases foldable phone. This phone is suppose to have foldable/blendable screen and will be released later this year under Galaxy brand.

Amazon passed a market value of $1 trillion. Amazon was competing with Apple to be the first IT company to pass $1T mark. Apple won this battle couple weeks ago. Nevertheless it's still impressive how company that couldn't afford a proper desk is now one of the most valued companies in the world.

Looks like Evernote is in trouble. First Evernote raised prices. Now is slashing prices for premium annual plans. In a meanwhile many executives left company. It does not look good. Especially when there are cheaper alternatives that offers the same or even better functionality.

Fortnite for Android has been downloaded 15 million times. The Android version was released just couple weeks ago and now it reached 15M downloads. Not to mention, it was achieved without Google Play. Impressive, most impressive.

Logitech will release alternative for Apple Pencil. Stylus will be available on September 12 for $69. I'm wondering whether this is confirmation of the rumors that new iPhones will support styluses. To be honest, it does not matter that much, because it's good to see more affordable alternative for quite expensive Apple Pencil.

Finally, here is list of interesting things.

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This week was really uneventful. The only interesting thing was the Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 event, where new Note 9 has been announced, as well as new smart speaker - Galaxy Home. Also, Samsung has rebranded the Gear watches into Galaxy Watches so now we have entire Galaxy family of devices.
Samsung has also announced the partnership with Spotify. Now Samsung users can make Spotify the default music player across its devices.

Speaking of Samsung. One of the most popular games of last couple of months - Fortnite - was launched on Android... exclusively on recent Samsung Galaxy devices.
Last week we got news that Fortnite is not going to be available through Google Play Store. This week Epic Games dropped the bomb that it will be Samsung's exclusive at launch.
The rumors say that the exclusivity will last less than a month, but it still feels wrong.

That's it. As I said this was uneventful week. Now, the only thing left is to share the list of interesting articles.

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