Facebook delays its smart speaker plus text and to win a Samsung Galaxy S nine smartphone.
Amrich damiro. This is Rich on Tech Daily.
Well, they say that timing is everything, and with that in mind, Facebook is reportedly shelving plans to unveil a smart speaker. Folks are loving their smart speakers, lots of people bought them over the holidays. You've got Amazon's Echo with Alexa built in, you have Google Home with Google Assistant built in, and of course you have Apple's entry to the race, the Home Pod with Siri. Now, Facebook has been working on a speaker with a video chat capability,
so this is really interesting. They were planning on showing it off at their F eight Developers conference in May, but now those plans have been put on hold until the.
Later part of this year.
According to various reports, one unique aspect of Facebook Speaker is that it uses facial recognition to know when your friends are near their speaker, so it can then suggest video calls to people who are actually around to receive them. So let me explain that Facebook already knows what you look like. They know what your friends look like because they've been using facial recognition for years. So imagine you give permission to say, hey, look, when I'm near my speaker,
let my friends know that I'm nearby. Some people might find this kind of creepy, but it is actually not a bad idea. For example, my kids love calling their grandparents on FaceTime, but half the time my dad or my mom don't answer because they're just not around. Maybe they don't want to pick up their phone, maybe they're
at work. So I like the idea of this speaker that sits in a common room in your house, and when you're in that room, say your dining room or your living room, it can show that you're around and able to take a call. So that's kind of cool. Apparently, according to various reports, this was going to be unveiled at F eight, but that's not going to happen. Expect to see something from Facebook maybe later in the year.
All right, moving on.
Now, Forward's latest suv let's you use your smartphone as a key. The company unveiled a pretty reduction preview of the Lincoln Aviator, a three row plug in hybrid that's a bit smaller than their flagship Navigator suv. Now, other cars already let you lock onlock and start them from a smartphone mine included.
But the Aviator takes it a step further.
You can drive with no keyfob as long as you have your smartphone with you. Now, if your phone is lost or the battery is dead, there's a backup keypad on the door to unlock your car. We've seen those before, but the new thing is when you get into your car, the center console lights up, you put a passcode in there, and then you can actually drive the car. The Lincoln Aviator Suv goes on sale next year. The only thing similar to this is when I rented a Maven car.
I tested out the Maven car rental service. This is from GM, and they've specially outfitted their cars to work with your smartphone. So you literally unlock the car, you start it with your phone, and your phone has to be with you for this thing to work. And I was concerned the whole time, what if I lose my phone, What if my my phone goes dead?
How would I get this car started?
But everything worked out and it was just a little paradigm shift in my mind. So a lot of people are going to have that feeling with the Ford Suv. But the reality is with that passcode in the center console, you'll be okay.
All right.
Finally, now for your chance to text in to win a smartphone that's just as elegant as that car. It's the brand new Samsung Galaxy S nine. You've heard me talk about this phone. It's one of the hottest devices of the year. It has a camera that takes great pictures even in low light. It's got the personalized ar emojis that look just like you, super slow motion for some really fun video, and an amazing design. The winner is also going to get three months free of direct
TV Now. This is a one thousand dollars value courtesy of AT and T. To enter, text the word Galaxy to five one five one, five to one before eleven fifty nine pm March twenty ninth, twenty eighteen.
The computer is going to pick one winner at random from all entries received. Good luck on this and thanks again to AT and T and if you want.
The official rules, just go to my website richontech dot tv. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. Please do me a favor and share the podcast with your friends, spread.
The word, and rate and review us if you can.
In iTunes or the Apple Podcasts app I'm rich tomorrow.
That's gonna do it for now. Good luck on the phone entry, I'll talk to you real soon