T-Mobile is giving you a tax break.
As part of its Un-carrier Next press conference at CES, the nation’s third-largest carrier said on Thursday that it would simplify the pricing of its T-Mobile One plan. The $70 plan for an individual, for instance, will cost exactly $70 after taxes and fees. Typically, consumers pay more than the advertised rate on their wireless plan because of local and federal taxes and other fees.
T-Mobile is following the example of prepaid carriers MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless, which adopted this approach years ago (T-Mobile now owns MetroPCS, while AT&T owns Cricket). This is the first time a major carrier is handling pricing this way.
T-Mobile also confirmed that on January 22, it will kill off all other plans and just go with the T-Mobile One unlimited plan.
T-Mobile’s move to clarify the pricing of its T-Mobile One unlimited data plan further fuels its narrative that the company is upending the industry status quo with a consumer-friendly strategy. But the move also serves to address the backlash the T-Mobile One plan faced because it meant the carrier would eliminate more-affordable options. T-Mobile initially said it would phase out all other plans (hence the „One“ part), but it delayed doing so after the negative feedback.
T-Mobile isn’t magically making the taxes and fees disappear. The company is actually lowering the rate so those extra charges are absorbed into the total. If the taxes change or go up, the carrier will lower the rate to ensure you keep your advertised price.
The plans range from $70 for a single line to $140 for four lines and $20 for additional lines.

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-uncarrier-next-will-kill-taxes-fees-for-simpler-pricing-phone-bill-ces-2017/
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In 2020, 4K will be passe. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be broadcast in the 8K resolution, which is four times deeper than 4K.
The 8K resolution — 7680 x 4320 pixels — will make movies will look stunning, and gaming will be even better than on today’s PlayStation Pro or Xbox One S.
There’s a good chance you aren’t thinking of 8K yet because you haven’t even moved to 4K. The early 8K adopters will be gamers looking to buy the latest and greatest hardware, and creative professionals making 8K content.
Content creation is as important as the hardware itself, and efforts to broadcast at 8K are underway. PCs are getting ready: Microsoft has said Windows 10 will support 8K.
8K is also important for virtual reality, where the visual experience matters. Better screens will improve VR graphics, though it takes a lot of processing power to render graphics at 8K. Chipmakers are preparing processors to take on 8K graphics.
At CES this week, there were signs that 8K is slowly crawling into PCs, though mass adoption is years away.
We’ve seen 8K TVs before, but the first 32-inch 8K monitor was shown at CES. Dell’s UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD showed stunning images like I’ve never seen on a screen before. It’ll ship in March starting at $4,999.
The Dell monitor has two DisplayPort 1.4 ports and four USB 3.0 ports. It has a video refresh rate of 60Hz, features 33.2 million pixels and shows more than a billion colors.
But the demonstration was a bit awkward, partly because the PC or GPU wasn’t optimized for 8K. Images were taking a long time to draw up on the screen, partly because a graphics driver wasn’t available. That pointed to a larger problem — that PCs and GPUs aren’t ready for 8K yet.
“When the next round of graphics cards refresh, they’ll get to the point where 8K is mass-consumable,” said Michael Turner, product launch manager for displays at Dell.
Nvidia and AMD are currently advertising their GPUs as 4K capable. But 8K could be on the roadmap starting with Nvidia’s Volta and AMD’s Vega, which are next-generation GPU architectures due for release this year.
8K is also expected to be hot in drones, which roam around the sky shooting video footage. Chipmaker Ambarella announced the low-power H3 chip for cameras that can shoot 8K H.264/AVC video at 30 frames per second. It is designed for 360-degree cameras used in drones and VR cameras.
The chip has 10-bit HEVC High Dynamic Range (HDR) video processing capabilities and image stabilization features. The chip is based on an ARM 64-bit low-processor processor, allowing cameras to preserve battery life.
The most popular ports to connect monitors in PCs are HDMI — popular in consumer PCs — and DisplayPort, which is used by professionals. Both of the standards are also moving to 8K.
HDMI Forum announced the version 2.1 specification, which supports 8K at 60Hz. It’ll release the standard to adopters like display and PC makers in the second half of 2017. It’s cool for gaming: It has a feature called Game Mode VRR that reduces lag and stutter, much like Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync. But it’s not clear when it’ll start appearing in displays, TVs, and PCs.
VESA is ahead of HDMI with DisplayPort 1.4 and HBR3, which are already getting support in displays like Dell’s UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD. It supports 8K at 60Hz and can also support HDR (high-dynamic range). It’s the only port available at this time for 8K.
Another standard called SuperMHL emerged at last year’s CES, with goals to provide 8K connector ports at 120 frames per second. Last year, it was demonstrated on a TV from LG, and it also works with the versatile USB-C port. However, SuperMHL has since gone silent, but the MHL Consortium, which developed the standard, hopes to put the standard into TVs.

© Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3155125/windows-pcs/8k-matures-at-ces-but-your-pc-may-not-be-ready.html
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Xiaomi ’s first ever press conference at the annual Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas could have been the company’s entrance into the huge US market.
Instead, many were left disappointed as the Chinese tech company chose to debut two new exciting products exclusive to its home market of China.
Unlike its rivals, such as LeEco, which caused a big splash with its US entry , Xiaomi has been studiously keeping low-key and laying ground work.
„This strategy of coming in with big money, a massive event, lots of suits — that’s not us,“ said Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s global VP in an previous interview with CNET. „And I don’t think this will work with any brand coming into the US.
Showing off a new, super-slim modular 4K TV, a router and a new white version of its Mi Mix concept phone, Xiaomi’s CES debut was aimed at showing its home market that it has made the big stage in the US — but still has China in mind.
„CES is a great chance for us to let people get to know us better,“ said Xiaomi’s Wang Xiang, senior VP in a statement to CNET. „And keep in mind that CES is no longer purely a US-orientated show, it’s a global exposition to the point where it makes sense for us to launch products for China and other countries right here. “
Even its Mi Router HD, a 4×4 MU-MIMO networking device with speeds of up to 2,600Mbps, sporting a $200 (roughly AU$270, £160) price tag for the 1Tb version, would make a lot of sense for the US.
„It was likely for bragging rights back home that a Chinese company has hit the big global stage at a key show like CES,“ said IDC research analyst Bryan Ma. „It was a similar line of thought with their press event at Mobile World Congress last year. “
Ma also added that Xiaomi’s CES launch likely had another purpose in mind: To cozy up to US media for when it finally launches there.
Xiaomi is already in 20 countries in the world, but the US, Australia and many European markets remain. Getting there, however, looks like it’ll take some time.

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/xiaomi-does-ces-for-the-first-time-but-only-announces-products-for-china/
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Nvidia has subjected its Shield Android TV game console to a metamorphosis. Where before company emphasized the box’s potence as a stand-alone game machine, at its pre-CES keynote last night, Nvidia re-introduced the Shield as “ the world’s most advanced streamer. “ To that end, Nvidia announced that an updated version of the little Android box can handle streaming 4K HDR video. The updated Shield is once again available in regular and Pro flavors.
Even if you don’t have your own collection of 4K HDR content, don’t fret—the Shield Android TV can stream 4K media from Netflix, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, and Amazon Video. Nvidia also underscored the device’s suitability for game streaming , with support for its own services GeForce Now and Nvidia GameStream, along with the ability to serve as a Steam Link. The Shield Pro, with its 500GB internal hard drive, can also serve as a Plex Media server.
Along with its streaming capabilities, Nvidia also highlighted the Shield TV’s utility as the centerpoint of a smart home. Shield can accept voice commands to control Nest home automation devices, as well as its own functions, like media playback. Nvidia integrated Google Assistant functionality into the device, too, allowing for voice-controlled searching and browsing.
To pick up voice commands, the Shield includes an updated controller with a built-in microphone. Nvidia had a further surprise on display: a device known as Spot , which appears to be a wireless microphone that can be placed in the home, not unlike Amazon’s Echo Dot.
At first sight, the hardware inside the updated Shield Android TV appears to be essentially unchanged, with the Tegra X1 SoC mated to 3GB of memory. However, the new package comes with the aforementioned updated controller, as well as the media remote that used to be a $50 extra. The price is unchanged, too: $199 for the standard Shield TV package with 16GB of local storage, or $299 for the Shield Pro with 500GB and integrated Plex Media Server.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31231/nvidia-shield-android-tv-gets-refreshments-at-ces
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10:57AM EST – It looks like it’ll just be one person live blogging this event so we’ll have to see how things go here
10:57AM EST – I’m not expecting a lot from LG in terms of mobile announcements here, generally speaking they wait until MWC to really announce the big things
10:58AM EST – WiFi appears to be working much better than previous years but we’ll have to see how it holds up
10:59AM EST – These venues are always the real stress tests for RF designs on both receive and transmit for both AP and client. Lots of APs and clients all working on roughly the same frequency spectrum
10:59AM EST – Even minor side channel noise on transmit can seriously impact the throughput of all other clients/APs.
11:00AM EST – Dr Skott Ahn takes the stage
11:02AM EST – Looks like we’ll be seeing more appliances and TVs today
11:04AM EST – Robots, new appliances, webOS 3.5 for TV
11:04AM EST – New LG Signature OLED TV
11:05AM EST – To avoid an excess of snarky comments I’m going to focus on mostly taking photos here
11:08AM EST – More WiFi in your appliances so 4chan can hijack it to deliver more pizza to your door
11:09AM EST – „DeepThinQ AI“ for object sensing robot vacuums
11:10AM EST – The AC unit will be more efficient using human sensing and power saving modes
11:11AM EST – WebOS now for your fridge
11:11AM EST – FHD 29 inch display so you can see every pixel
11:12AM EST – You can now look inside your fridge by using the display which is amazing
11:12AM EST – There’s really no other way to look inside a fridge
11:13AM EST – You can now put a smiley face on your fridge door display
11:14AM EST – You can now look inside your fridge from your phone with an ultra-wide camera
11:15AM EST – You can now look at recipes on your fridge which is the only way you can really get recipes at all
11:15AM EST – Alexa will also be on the new fridge along with Dash button replenishment
11:17AM EST – Smart Instaview refrigerator will make your life better, easier, and more fun especially with Amazon Alexa(tm)
11:18AM EST – You can check the calorie count of chicken wings and play music from your fridge which is what you need in a fridge
11:21AM EST – A new IoT hub which has never been done before
11:23AM EST – Apparently there’s an airport guide robot which is being deployed at Incheon Airport to help people get to various areas in the airport and clean up within the airport
11:27AM EST – New 4K LCD TVs using 1 nm „nanocell“ quantum dots
11:28AM EST – Over 90% DCI coverage, better off-axis viewing and higher contrast
11:28AM EST – I wonder if OLED is even possible for 4K with acceptable yield and cost
11:32AM EST – A Technicolor expert mode to enhance color reproduction?
11:34AM EST – HLG and advanced HDR by technicolor for OLED TVs by LG
11:34AM EST – Apparently technicolor is using LG OLED displays for reference displays
11:35AM EST – 25% brightness improvement, HDR effect for normal video/images
11:37AM EST – Somehow iOS devices can Live Blog properly now which is neat but probably unrelated to this press conference
11:45AM EST – Looks like we’re wrapping up
11:45AM EST – Thanks for following, stay tuned for more information from CES 2017

© Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10987/lg-ces-2017-press-conference-live-blog
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