The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The computer to understand video and voice
In Geneva at the European Broadcasting Union EBU meeting addressed was the last week of TV and radio in the field of metadata issues. One of the main themes consisted of meta-data automation possibilities.
Several European TV companies and research institutes in 3DTVs research project has developed a wide range of tools for automated video analysis. They are able to identify the video image and the people to follow them through the video. In addition, the video to be identified, what a person does (eg, jumping, running, walking), what kind of feelings a person has (eg, happy, sad), picture formats (such as an overview, close-up), scene of the start and end points, etc. The challenge, however, is that the identification accuracy is not always very good. A true test of accuracy of material may have been only 30%.
The BBC’s Research Department, James Harrison introduced a cloud-based video and audio analysis framework COMMA: a, that allows the BBC to take advantage of a special price to the sale of unused capacity in the cloud archives automatic analysis. For example, the $ 25 processing capacity may be sufficient to month-long audio data analysis
Jana Eggink from the BBC, in turn, introduced the “video fingerprinting” technology by which it is possible to download video files from other video files. This is needed, for example, if you want to find all the places a particular sample is used, if you want to set a certain clip from the presentation prohibition (eg, a news operation of the same material may be used in a number of different stories illustration image) or if you want to keep a record of how often a specific clip has been moved out in broadcast.
Source: http://blogit.yle.fi/kehitys-kehittyy/tietokone-ymmartaa-videokuvaa-ja-puhetta
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco: You think the internet is clogged with video now? Just wait until 2018
‘We are firmly in the Zettabyte Era,’ says networking megafirm exec in new report
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/13/cisco_you_think_the_internet_is_clogged_with_video_now_just_wait_until_2018/
Networking megafirm Cisco has released a numbingly comprehensive report forecasting IP traffic up to and including 2018, which comes to the unsurprising conclusion that the market from which Cisco earns its bread and butter will continue to balloon for the foreseeable future.
“Today, we are firmly in the ‘Zettabyte Era’ and witnessing incredible innovations and shifts in the industry,” said Cisco VP of products and solutions marketing Doug Webster when announcing the VNI, citing what he called the “Internet of Everything”, network mobility, and the onslaught of 4K video as primary drivers of the projected increase in IP traffic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s new Multiroom system promises to makes it possible for every music lover dream: playing music all over the house. You can listen to the same song everywhere or different songs in different rooms at the same time a new Multiroom system. Speakers can be positioned vertically and horizontally on the wall or, alternatively, a separate wall mount.
Place your speakers in the rooms of your choice and play music directly from your smartphone or tablet through WiFi connection. Wireless Audio Multiroom application is available for Android and iOS. It works also with Samsung smart TV and also as Bluetooth wireless speaker.
It supports Spotify, Deezer, and TuneIn.
Sources:
http://www.samsung.com/fi/consumer/tv-home-theatre/multiroom/
http://www.hifimaailma.fi/advertoriaali/samsung-multiroom-tayttaa-kotisi-musiikilla/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al-3vWIoNzA#t=29
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Apple TV Might Disrupt Microsoft and Sony
http://stratechery.com/2014/apple-tv-might-disrupt-microsoft-sony/
Beyond the fact most of us had nothing better to do in the 1980s, a big reason to own a gaming console was that they were a phenomenally good deal.
Over the last two generations of consoles, however, prices have actually risen, and today a Playstation 4 or Xbox One is nearly the same price as an average PC.
In some respects, this makes no sense: why hasn’t Moore’s law had the same impact on consoles as it has had on PCs? Moreover, when you consider that consoles now compete with a whole host of new time-wasters like phones, tablets, social networks, dramatically expanded TV offerings, the Internet, etc., it’s downright bizarre.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 5 Best Media Streamers
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421457,00.asp?obref=obnetwork
We pit the highest-rated media hubs against one another to find out which one is your best bet for streaming TV, movies, music, and more, to your HDTV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Prime Music streaming service launches in the US with 1m songs
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/12/amazon-prime-music-streaming-spotify
Digital service is free for Prime subscribers, but its catalogue size pales next to rivals like Spotify and Deezer
Amazon is the latest internet company to enter the streaming music market, debuting its Prime Music service in the US today.
It is being bundled into the existing Amazon Prime subscription service rather than launched as a standalone product.
That means customers paying $99 a year for free shipping, streaming TV and films and Amazon’s “lending library” of e-books will now also be able to access Prime Music’s catalogue of streaming songs.
The service is advertising-free, with no restrictions on how often individual songs can be played. Prime Music will work on iOS, Android, PC and Mac devices, as well as Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets. Customers will be able to download songs for offline listening too.
In Amazon’s case, the small size of its catalogue may be partly a bet that a more mainstream audience of fans don’t mind a smaller pool of music to choose from.
Prime Music is launching with hundreds of “Prime Playlists” created by Amazon’s editorial team, grouped by genre (Pop, Alternative & Indie Rock) as well as context (Happy & Upbeat, Party Time & Entertaining, Work, Study & Reading etc.)
Amazon’s streaming launch comes at a time when the company is embroiled in controversy over its distribution relationships with other entertainment rightsholders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Delivering Breaking Bad on Netflix in Ultra HD 4K
http://techblog.netflix.com/2014/06/delivering-netflix-in-ultra-hd-4k.html
This week Netflix is pleased to begin streaming all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad in UltraHD 4K. Breaking Bad in 4K comes from Sony Pictures Entertainment’s beautiful remastering of Breaking Bad from the original film negatives. This 4K experience is available on select 4K Smart TVs.
collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Netflix to modernize the digital supply chain that transports digital media from content studios, like Sony Pictures, to streaming retailers, like Netflix.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube will nuke indie music videos in DAYS, says Google exec
There’s poison in the air. But we don’t care
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/17/google_to_nuke_indie_music_videos_ft/
Google will nuke its bridges with independent record labels and pull their music videos from YouTube, the advertising giant has told its favourite newspaper – the Financial Times.
The dispute is over royalty terms for Google’s forthcoming and as-yet unannounced music-streaming service, believed to be a Spotify clone.
Two weeks ago independent music companies asked European competition authorities to take emergency action to investigate the contracts offered by Google for the new service.
The labels allege that the data-swallowing giant offered indie labels and publishers much less favourable terms than those offered to the three major record labels
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: Indie Musicians Must Join Streaming Service Or Be Removed
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/06/17/1641242/google-indie-musicians-must-join-streaming-service-or-be-removed
In a statement to the Financial Times and reported by the BBC, Google has confirmed that it will remove the music videos of independent artists unless they sign up to its upcoming subscription music service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K Monitors: Not Now, But Soon
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/06/17/224208/4k-monitors-not-now-but-soon
4K monitor prices have fallen into the range where mainstream consumers are starting to consider them for work and for play.
“The current version of the HDMI specification (1.4a) can only output a 4096×2160 resolution at a refresh rate of 24 Hz or 3840×2160 at 30 Hz—the latter, half that of what we’re used to on TVs and monitors. Connect up a 4K monitor at 30 Hz via HDMI and you’ll see choppier animations and transitions in your OS.”
The Best 4K Monitor (doesn’t exist yet)
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-4k-monitor-doesnt-exist/
Like 1080p before it, 4K is the new, ultra-high-resolution format that promises better detail and greater image clarity due to the huge number of pixels packed into your screen. “Buttery-smooth text rendering and wonderfully detailed photos,” promises MakeUseOf. Just consider the quality differences between Apple’s Retina Display MacBooks and its standard MacBooks: it’s the same pixel-increasing principle.
That said, we don’t think it’s the right time to buy one.
While most 4K monitors are still very expensive, we’re starting to see a growing number priced under $1,000: Samsung’s $700 U28D590D, Dell’s $700 P2815Q, and Asus’ $650 PB287Q are already available.
Even expensive 4K monitors struggle with the same major weaknesses right now: outdated display connections, beefy hardware requirements, and lack of OS/application support. Cheap 4K monitors can have all those problems and more, sacrificing image quality in order to cut costs.
The advantage of a 4K display is pretty clear: it has four times number of pixels as 1080p—8.29 million versus 2.07 million. This increased level of detail is theoretically indistinguishable to the human eye once you pass a certain distance from a screen (say, more than three feet away from a 50-inch 4K HDTV). However, a desktop monitor is close enough for you to notice the difference.
While 4K content is still in its infancy, there’s no doubt that the media will eventually move that way. In fact, there’s 4K-sized content you can view right now on your desktop PC. More should hopefully be on the way soon, especially if you’re a big Netflix or Amazon Instant Video fan.
Minus some glitching here and there, you can play plenty of today’s best games in full 4K resolution so long as you have a beefy system that can output a high-resolution picture at reasonable frame rates. In other words, the content is already there
“Words don’t do this 4K photo editing setup justice—you have to see it in-person to appreciate it,” describes Microsoft’s Gavin Gear.
One of the major differences between a $3,000 4K monitor and a $700 4K monitor is the quality of panels that can make up the displays. Pricier monitors tend to use higher-quality panels that are better for color reproduction, picture quality, and viewing angles; more inexpensive monitors use cheaper panels that can be better for gaming but also produce a less accurate picture (and horrible viewing angles).
The current version of the HDMI specification (1.4a) can only output a 4096×2160 resolution at a refresh rate of 24 Hz or 3840×2160 at 30 Hz—the latter, half that of what we’re used to on TVs and monitors. Connect up a 4K monitor at 30 Hz via HDMI and you’ll see choppier animations and transitions in your OS. You might also encounter some visible motion stuttering during normal use, and you’ll be locked to a maximum of 30 frames per second for your games—it’s playable, but not that smooth.
An HDMI upgrade to fix these issues isn’t widespread yet, but it’s on the horizon. HDMI 2.0 supports a full 60 Hz refresh rate at 3840×2160.
DisplayPort has enough bandwidth to deliver 4K at 60 Hz, but most 4K monitors can’t accept it natively. Instead, they employ a clever workaround: they pretend that their giant 4K picture is actually two tiled displays—each 1920×2160, and each running at 60 Hz. DisplayPort transmits both “displays” simultaneously from your computer to your monitor, which the latter seamlessly combines into one giant 3840×2160 picture Some monitors can pull the same trick with two HDMI cables.
Most people don’t own a system that’s good enough for gaming on a 4K display—at least, not at highest-quality settings.
If you’re looking to buy a 4K monitor, our recommendation is to wait. We just don’t think the tradeoffs are worth it: the quality and price of panels in 4K monitors; the operating systems and apps that struggle in such a high-resolution playground; and the not-so-great workarounds you’ll have to employ for smooth, lovely pictures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sharp’s new ‘free-form’ display could bring non-rectangular screens to consumer tech devices
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/06/18/sharps-new-free-form-display-bring-non-rectangular-screens-consumer-tech-devices/
Sharp is showing off a ‘free-form’ display technology that it believes could break consumer tech devices out of the rigid convention of using rectangular and square shaped screens.
The Japanese company’s new display type, which is based on its IGZO technology and “proprietary circuit design methods”, takes a different approach to organizing the power amplifiers. That system has necessitated rectangular displays until now — Sharp believes its technology enables a wide range of new design types.
The company believes that the benefits of free-form displays will be of particular significance to the automotive industry, as well as wearable technology and digital signage. We’ve already seen LG and Samsung manufacture curved smartphones, while curved TVs have been mainstream for some time, but Sharp may just have open the door to more innovation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SnappyTV is joining the flock
https://blog.twitter.com/2014/snappytv-is-joining-the-flock
One of the best ways to follow events as they unfold is through real-time videos on Twitter. As we continue to invest in video, it’s important for us to provide tools that make it easy for TV broadcasters, businesses, and event producers to share high-quality videos. To that end, we’ve agreed to acquire SnappyTV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Firefox OS-powered streaming stick is Mozilla’s answer to Chromecast (exclusive video)
http://gigaom.com/2014/06/20/this-firefox-os-powered-streaming-stick-is-mozillas-answer-to-chromecast-exclusive-video/
A secretive new project aims to bring Chromecast-like media streaming to a Firefox-OS powered TV dongle. Check out an exclusive first look at a prototype of the device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube is coming to cable TV set-top boxes, with a little help from the cloud
http://gigaom.com/2014/06/18/youtube-is-coming-to-cable-tv-set-top-boxes-with-a-little-help-from-the-cloud/
Cable subscribers are starting to get access to YouTube and other online video services, thanks to cloud-based technology that brings modern apps to legacy set-top boxes.
YouTube isn’t the only online video service flirting with cable these days. Netflix has struck agreements with a number of cable companies to add its service to their devices. However, these agreements have so far been limited in scope due to hardware constraints. UPC Hungary on the other hand is bringing YouTube to every single customer, thanks to clever use of the cloud that could soon bring online video services to many millions of additional eyeballs.
At the center of UPC Hungary’s YouTube roll-out is a technology called CloudTV that’s been developed by the San Jose-based cloud video technology specialist ActiveVideo. CloudTV is essentially an OnLive-like service for TV apps and content. This means that the YouTube app isn’t actually installed on the set-top boxes that UPC’s Hungarian customers have in their living rooms.
Instead, it is rendered in the cloud and delivered as a personalized video stream to each and every box. And whenever a viewer presses a button on their cable box remote control to jump from one YouTube clip to the next, the cable box sends a control command to the cloud, where the stream is changed on the fly, with a latency of 500 milliseconds or less.
Swapping out set-top boxes could take 5 years
“It typically takes a 5-year upgrade cycle” for a pay TV provider to transition an entire customer base to a new generation of devices, explained ActiveVideo CMO Murali Nemani. And once that’s done, that hardware may already be obsolete again, or incompatible with the latest generation of online video services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rejoice, Australia! SBS trials SOCCER AND SEX on ONE SCREEN tech
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV beta kicks off during World Cup
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/broadcaster_nearly_nobody_watches_launches_service_nearly_nobody_can_use/
Australian broadcaster SBS, which during the 2014 FIFA World Cup ran a movie promo called “Sex Before Soccer”*, has quietly launched an HbbTV beta to the tiny handful of viewers that have suitable TVs.
HbbTV – Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV – lets people with suitably-equipped Internet-connected TVs or set-top-boxes navigate catch-up programming at the same time as watching broadcast programs, meaning you don’t have to fire up your computer, laptop, tablet or phone to watch the catch-up channel. With SBS’s schedule currently dominated by the football World Cup, and often peppered with risque European movies, the trial means it could be possible to take in streamed cinematic delights while watching football.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shift over, TV firms: LTE Broadcast will nuke current mobile telly tech
Operators love the idea – the reality’s a whole new ballgame
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/lte_broadcast_mobile_operators_may_yet_get_it_wrong/
Telephone companies could supplant television companies as the source of goggle-box fodder, says mobile gear-maker Ericsson as it promotes the new mobile LTE Broadcast specification.
Unlike traditional mobile phone communication, which is one-to-one, LTE Broadcast sends the same data to many people.
LTE Broadcast has the full bandwidth of a 4G connection – which is easily good enough for HD video streams.
All people in a cell can watch the same video at the same time.
There is certainly a need for it when massive traffic volumes are generated by large sporting events such as the World Cup.
With LTE Broadcast, viewers can be flipped between broadcast and unicast so advertisements can be targeted to individual viewers, and while it’s essentially live TV there is a caching mechanism which allows an element of catch up if a phone drops out of coverage.
The technology has three components: eMBMS, HEVC and Mpeg-DASH.
eMBMS, stands for Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service and is the over-the-air bit which sends the signal to lots of users at once
HEVC stands for High Efficiency Video Coding, which is a new video compression standard
MPEG-DASH, or Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP. HEVC supports the use of a common player on a device and a live head-end encoder system for both unicast and broadcast
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Nest div flings HALF an INSTAGRAM at Dropcam buyout
Dropcam? They’re the boys who build Wi-Fi webcams
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/googles_nest_buys_dropcams_eyes/
Google’s home automation push has a new view of the world after its Nest subsidiary wrote a half-Instagram ($555m) cheque for camera-maker Dropcam.
Dropcam’s cameras use Wi-Fi to beam video out of your home or office and into the cloud, from where it can either be beamed back to a variety of devices for you to watch it in real time or recorded for posterity.
The cameras can also be programmed, using an app, so that if certain events take place you’ll receive an alert.
The reality of the situation, however, is that Google now has a way to look inside your home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-speed Imaging: GPU processor extends dynamic range of high-speed images
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue-6/departments/technology-trends/high-speed-imaging-gpu-processor-extends-dynamic-range-of-high-speed-images.html
In many vision applications such as industrial robotics and life sciences, it is important for cameras to image a scene that may range from very light to very dark. To do so, CCD and CMOS devices used in these cameras require a high-dynamic range. To accomplish this, a number of different techniques and imager architectures including dynamic well capacity adjustment, multiple image capture, temporally varying exposure times, time-to-saturation architectures, logarithmic transfer functions, and local intensity adaptation can be used
Typical hardware implementations, such as those found in the latest generation sCMOS 2.0 imagers from Fairchild Imaging use dual amplifiers and analog to digital converters with independent gain settings to increase dynamic range. These imagers have found favor with numerous camera companies that offer products for the scientific markets
“At data rates as fast as 284fps and images as large as 1920 x 1080 x 8-bits,” says Jeremy Greene, Software Engineer with BitFlow, “accomplishing this in real-time on a host PC would be an impossible task.” Instead, Greene leveraged the power of a PCI Express-based NVIDIA Quadro K5000 GPU board to perform this task.
To remove any fixed pattern noise, a continuous sequence of images are first captured from the camera with the lens cap affixed, and combined to a single frame in the GPU by a real-time running average algorithm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube in shock indie music nuke: We all feel a little less worthy today
Depressing message for small producers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/youtube_indie_record_companies_brouhaha/
Yet another argument has brewed up between independent record companies and a wholesale customer, in this case YouTube. The accusation, that YouTube had given the major labels better terms then they were offering indies, was wearyingly familiar; as was YouTube’s reported response.
That response was an offer of “take it or leave it” terms for a settlement, and to try to pick off labels that were willing, for whatever reason, to leave the collective arguing with YouTube.
Both sides have plenty to justify their position. On YouTube’s side, independently produced music brings vast catalogues, a disordered supply chain, and a lower average value per track. Collectivisation solves some problems – but not all – and relatively few recordings are so compelling that consumers would leave YouTube if they were not available.
The indies can counter that they produce more high quality new recordings than major labels, with much more diversity, that the administration can and will be made much smoother if the incentive is there, and that who is YouTube to say that any individual recording is worth more or less according to the size of the corporate entity that is selling it?
Tomi Engdahl says:
For one night only – Ibsen classic gets the Dolby Atmos treatment
Immersive surround sound tech has its theatrical debut
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/almeida_theatre_ghosts_cinema_presentation_with_dolby_atmos/
Dolby’s private Atmos theatre in London
From 26 June, Ghosts is playing for one night only in 250 cinemas around the UK and Ireland with or without Dolby Atmos.
Since its launch in 2009, Digital Theatre has been busy creating cinematic productions of acclaimed stage shows
The marriage of a Dolby Atmos soundtrack with the screening of Ghosts seems more experimental than a must-have enhancement, but the idea is to deliver an immersive experience.
Mixing on Dolby Atmos treats the sounds sources as objects that are then positioned in a 3D soundspace which can be rendered back onto any Atmos cinema regardless of its size or whether it has an array of 30, 60 or 120 loudspeakers or more.
Besides a huge step up in clarity – Atmos doesn’t bear the compromises in frequency response found in earlier surround formats – what you also get is the ability to accurately position sound sources.
The video recording included three 4K cameras although Ghosts is only a full HD release.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Black Box, Sony join HDBaseT Alliance
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/blackbox-sony-hdbaset.html
At InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas, Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ: BBOX) announced that it has joined the HDBaseT Alliance at the consortium’s Adopter level.
Black Box will be exhibiting several HDBaseT products at InfoComm in Las Vegas, June 18–20, 2014
Also at this year’s InfoComm, the HDBaseT Alliance welcomed Sony Corporation as a Contributor member to the consortium, as the company introduced new high-definition, energy-efficient projectors with HDBaseT functionality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Valens debuts HDBaseT 2.0 chipsets
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/valens-hdbaset-chipset.html
At InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas, Valens (Israel), a developer of HDBaseT technology and founding member of the HDBaseT Alliance, announced the general availability of its newest family of chipsets, dubbed “Colligo”, designed to support the standard’s newest specifications.
The HDBaseT Alliance released Spec 2.0 in August 2013, enabling point-to-multipoint connectivity, multistreaming, and switching. Spec 2.0 also adds inherent support for USB 2.0 and other native interfaces. As the first Spec 2.0-compliant chipsets, Valens says its Colligo family supports USB 2.0, enhanced audio capabilities (SPDIF, I2S), multistreaming, HDMI 2.0, and transmission of 4K video over longer distances.
Valens says the Colligo family caters to electronics manufacturers addressing several sectors, such as pro-AV, consumer electronics, digital signage, broadcasting, healthcare and industrial PCs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HDMI-over-IP controller enables matrix switching, video wall control
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/blackbox-hdmi-ip-controller.html
Black Box (NASDAQ: BBOX) has introduced its MediaCento IPX Controller, an appliance that enables IP-based video matrix switching and video wall control for HDMI-over-IP solutions. The new network appliance enables browser-based control for managing network connections between content sources and endpoints. The MediaCento IPX system enables extension of HDMI video and USB over an IP network to a virtually unlimited number of screens and video walls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud-based digital signage platform eases solution deployment, management
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/cloud-based-digital-signage.html
“The digital signage industry has been highly fragmented. Customers have had to purchase hardware from one vendor, software from another vendor and still be left without professional content creation or installation,” contends Craig Scott, director of business development at digbil. “The result is confused, unsatisfied customers who end up paying a premium for a sub-optimal solution.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
60GHz wireless USB link unveiled at InfoComm
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/infocomm-gigabit-wireless-usb.html
Icron Technologies, a specialist in USB and video extension technology, and Quantum Electro Opto Systems Sdn. Bhd. (QEOS), a provider of high-speed, low-power connectivity, intelligent video security solutions and CMOS millimeter-wave solutions, have introduced what they say is the industry’s first successful implementation of an indoor-optimized 60 GHz wireless USB 2.0 link, with QEOS’ new 60 GHz single-chip transceiver delivering wireless multi-gigabit throughput and optimized for indoor usage.
“USB over wireless offers customers an elegant and flexible extension solution for installations where eliminating cables proves beneficial,”
“We are excited to work with Icron to combine our industry’s first 60 GHz single-chip CMOS solution with their impressive USB extension technology to demonstrate the first indoor use, consumer-friendly 60 GHz USB link,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Whisper Lands Broadcast Partnership With Fusion (Exclusive)
8:00 AM PDT 6/23/2014 by Natalie Jarvey
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/whisper-lands-broadcast-partnership-fusion-714015
Fusion will integrate Whisper posts into its TV broadcasts.
Anonymous secret-sharing app Whisper is making its television debut.
The Venice-based startup has inked a content partnership with Fusion to integrate Whisper posts into the cable network’s digital and television platforms. It’s the first broadcast partnership for Whisper.
Fusion will now work with Whisper to develop stories and investigate trends based on posts made on the app. The startup network from Univision and ABC News will also integrate Whisper’s into its broadcasts and news coverage to provide additional context to its reporting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cell phone camera lies in the risk of memory
Are you getting this holiday trips all possible? Do you give a mobile phone and shoot every day? Not be feasible, because the experiences are when settling down.
Precious moments may be lost if the lives of viewing through the camera.
Cell Phone Cameras now receive high-quality photos. Cell phone is always included, so the different situations Recording is easy. Photographs will be taken tremendously.
It is estimated that the world will be this year, 800 billion photos. Facebook uploaded every minute more than 200 000 pictures, and most of them are selfie pictures.
Cell Phone Cameras now receive high-quality photos. Cell phone is always included, so the different situations Recording is easy. Photographs will be taken tremendously.
It is estimated that the world will be this year, 800 billion photos. Facebook uploaded every minute more than 200 000 pictures, and most of them are selfie pictures.
The truth is, however, different. Psychologist Linda Henkel in the American Fairfeldin the University’s research shows that if you are viewing in their lives all the time taking photographs, it might be as a result of the loss of important moments. When a person looks at the world all the time just through the camera lens and the focus to be present and pay attention to what is happening around them, the moments do not press any long-term memory.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/elintavat/2014062318432144_el.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
LEAKED EU copyright doc reveals ‘unfair contracts’ crackdown
Euro copyright chief: ‘No great upheavals’ just yet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/eu_copyright_consultation_leaks_no_great_changes/
Europe’s competition authority could open up an examination of unfair copyright contracts, according to the region’s copyright chief.
She told us that the infinite assignment of rights that authors must agree to in most EU countries to get their work published was what she had in mind.
In the digital era, freelance authors and photographers in many members states have been asked to assign their rights to an intermediary in “infinite” deals. By contrast, copyright can’t be assigned at all in Germany.
Infinite contracts were disturbing and the Commission could explore fair contracts, she told El Reg
Tomi Engdahl says:
HD-SDI Transmitter and Receiver
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/intersil/hd-sdi-transmitter-and-receiver/
Intersil Corporation introduced two new devices, the TW6872 HD-SDI video transmitter and TW6874 quad HD-SDI receiver with Dirac VC-2 mezzanine compression. These devices are an end-to-end solution enabling picture perfect, latency free video over extended cable distances. They are intended to conform to the SMPTE standards for SD, HD and 3G serial digital transmission
HD-SDI usage in the security and industrial markets has been limited by cable reach and the high cost of cabling infrastructure.
Dirac decoding of transmitted streams up to 300m on RG-59 and 180m on 3C2V
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flickr becomes a free use haven (again) with Creative Commons search filters
http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/16/flickr-becomes-a-free-use-haven-again-with-creative-commons-search-filters/
Flickr is quietly rolling out new image license filters in search — returning the capability to easily search for photographs which are labeled for free use under Creative Commons licenses.
The change, spotted by Search Engine Land, is reportedly rolling out to users now
This isn’t the first time Flickr has buried, and then unburied license filters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
REVEALED: Google’s proposed indie music-killing contract terms
Suicide or death-by-DMCA? Not a great choice…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/notice_and_shakedown_google_mafiastyle_contract_for_indie_music_revealed/
A leaked version of one of YouTube’s controversial secret contracts with independent record labels has been published for the first time – and it appears to be stuffed with clauses that could land Google in trouble.
Google wants to launch a new Spotify-style streaming service under its YouTube brand, and so requires music labels to sign new contracts with it. A leaked copy of one such contract reveals that Mountain View proposes to block indies who refuse to sign the new contracts from YouTube’s video service – which is the de facto global digital jukebox
In short, the move will preserve Google’s illegal supply chain by cracking down on its legal supply chain.
Added together, independents claim they would be the second largest music label in the market,
Under the terms of the published version of the contract, indies must promise not only to never sue Google – under a “Covenant Not To Sue” – but give immunity to punters who continue to upload the label’s own material to YouTube’s massively popular video service.
Why does this matter? Getting your stuff taken down from YouTube is hugely costly and in practice, almost impossible, thanks to “safe harbour” provisions
Tomi Engdahl says:
F*&K It: Here’s the Entire YouTube Contract for Indies…
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/06/23/fk-heres-entire-youtube-contract-indies
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T plays Game of Thrones: Every bit as ruthless as HBO version
In the GoT, you either win or you get taken over by AT&T
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/att_plays_game_of_thrones_every_bit_as_ruthless_as_hbo_version/
The drift is towards the converged operator – a large national player that has a wireless network, a fixed network, a national footprint for both large and small video services (4K and portable) and which has a secondary wireless network in Wi-Fi, as well as one that has sufficient scale to acquire both original TV content and sports rights. The race is on to become the first to achieve all of this.
By looking at what each of the surviving operators have to do to achieve this, we can perhaps glimpse the future shape of the US digital communications map.
Without control over sports rights, broadcast TV channels will lose their edge in content negotiations with pay TV operators, and an inevitable slide could ensue, resulting over time in national broadcasters becoming part of the consolidation picture in the US. Comcast has already acquired NBC, so why would Time Warner, CBS, Disney and Viacom or part of either of them, come into the consolidation picture? Disney owns ESPN and ABC, CBS is a loner cast adrift by Viacom, while Paramount is one of the key assets inside Viacom. There are multiple regional broadcast players too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drone-assisted Swiss construct virtual 3D castle
Impressive image-crunching exercise on the Château de Chillon
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/25/virtual_chillon_castle/
Those readers with a penchant for castles but a disinclination to visit Switzerland can enjoy a virtual shufti Château de Chillon, thanks to UAV image processing software outfit Pix4D.
In half a day, the company snapped “6,200 aerial and terrestrial images using DJI Phantom 2 Vision, GoPro Hero 3+, Canon 6D and Sony alpha 7r”, then processed them into “a very dense 3D point cloud of over 95 million points integrating the indoor and outdoor structures of Switzerland’s most visited historic monument”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aereo loses to broadcasters in Supreme Court fight for its life
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/25/5801052/aereo-supreme-court-ruling
The Supreme Court struck a dramatic blow against Aereo today in a ruling that puts the TV streaming service as it currently exists on its deathbed. In a 6–3 ruling, the court found that Aereo’s service violates the Copyright Act by playing back recordings of broadcasters’ TV shows — even though it legally captures those shows over the air and obtains individual copies for each viewer. Aereo had argued that it was merely providing technology that its subscribers were renting in order to watch TV, positing that the viewers were responsible for playing back those recordings.
“Insofar as there are differences, those differences concern not the nature of the service that Aereo provides so much as the technological manner in which it provides the service,” the ruling reads. “We conclude that those differences are not adequate to place Aereo’s activities outside the scope of the [Copyright] Act.”
The ruling is one of the most important seen by the television industry since the 1984 Betamax case but in many ways will have an opposite effect, stifling one area of innovation that was beginning to force the industry out of its comfort zone. Some broadcasters had even said that they would open their own Aereo competitors if the service were found to be legal. Instead, this ruling fully removes Aereo and copycat services as a threat.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Statement from Aereo CEO and Founder Chet Kanojia on United States Supreme Court Decision
http://blog.aereo.com/2014/06/statement-aereo-ceo-founder-chet-kanojia-united-states-supreme-court-decision/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Introduces Android TV, Its New Platform For Smart TV Apps And Navigation
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/google-introduces-android-tv-its-new-platform-for-smart-tv-apps-and-navigation/
Google has spent many years trying to find its way onto the biggest screen in the house. Today at its I/O developer conference, the the company introduced yet another product that it hopes will accomplish that goal — a new Android TV operating system.
Contrary to reports, Android TV isn’t a set-top box like Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, but a software system that will be embedded into the smart TVs and other devices from third-party OEMs.
Unlike its first effort in smart TV software, Google TV, Android TV will work with a number of different chipsets. And it’s designed to enable Android developers to create apps using the same Android toolset that they use for mobile phones and tablets.
Android TV hands-on: Google makes a new play for the living room
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/25/5839556/google-reboots-its-living-room-efforts-with-Android-TV
Google hasn’t exactly been successful at taking over the living room — Chromecast aside, its previous efforts have failed to capture much consumer interest. However, during the I/O 2014 keynote today, the company showed that it is ready to start fresh with Android TV. It’s a new platform that combines live TV via your cable box or even an over-the-air antenna along with Android apps and services like Google Play to offer up a more simplified way to get content to your TV than the older Google TV model.
Razer’s making a gaming ‘micro-console’ with Android TV, available this fall
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/25/razer-micro-console/
The company behind crazy devices like the Razer Edge and Project Christine is getting into game console creation as well. Razer’s employing Google’s Android TV initiative to create a game-focused “micro-console” and it’s arriving this fall. So, what does it do? Razer’s only offering a teensy bit of details, but what we know thus far sounds impressive. The micro-console can “stream movies, music and other apps for large-screen entertainment,” says Razer, “with an emphasis on gaming.” Sounds a lot like Amazon’s Fire TV, no? The difference here is that Razer’s also promising “hardcore” gaming, though we’re not hearing exactly how it will pull that off just yet (we asked!).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Chromecast to get Android mirroring, ‘Backdrop’ slideshows and casting from nearby devices
http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/06/25/googles-chromecast-get-android-mirroring-backdrop-slideshows-casting-nearby-devices/
Later this year, Google will update Chromecast so that anyone can choose and control the content being streamed through the device – even if they’re not on the same Wi-Fi network as the tiny dongle.
In short, Chromecast owners will have the option to authenticate nearby users. This means that if a person is on a cellular network – either because they can’t be bothered to type in a Wi-Fi password, or because you just don’t trust them with it – they can still control the Chromecast connected to your TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Retrotechtacular: Kodak Built World’s First DSLR… Using a Canon Camera Body
http://hackaday.com/2014/06/25/retrotechtacular-kodak-built-worlds-first-dslr-using-a-nikon-camera-body/
How about the tale of the world’s first Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera? [Jame McGarvey] shared the story of how he developed the device in 1987.
The Electro-Optic Camera
The World’s First DSLR
http://eocamera.jemcgarvey.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube’s New Creator Tools Include Donations, Fan-Submitted Subtitles, And A Mobile Creator Studio App
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/youtube-new-creator-tools/
YouTube is by far the largest platform for online video viewership in the world. But frankly, it wouldn’t be anything without its creators. That’s why in a keynote today at Vidcon, the company announced a wide range of new tools for the people that upload videos to the platform, all in the hopes that it will allow them to be more… creative?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Shames Apple’s iOS For Adding What Android Did Years Ago
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/android-vs-ios/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity
Apple’s Tim Cook insulted Google at WWDC earlier this month saying “Android dominates the market in malware”, and quoted an article calling the fragmented open operating system a “toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities.” Well Google punched back this morning at its I/O conference when Sundar Pichai put up a slide showing Android’s progess over the years, noting “If you look at what other platforms are getting now, widgets, custom keyboards, many of these things came to Android four, maybe five years ago.”
And the Google fanboys and fangirls went wild.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chromecast will use ultrasonic sounds to pair your TV with your friend’s phones
http://gigaom.com/2014/06/26/chromecast-will-use-ultrasonic-sounds-to-pair-your-tv-with-your-friends-phones/
Bad news for bats, good news for Chromecast fans: Google is using ultrasonic sounds to pair its streaming stick with nearby devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Chromecast will talk to smartphones without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
A bat signal from the streaming stick will let you pass videos to the TV.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/chromecast-will-talk-to-smartphones-using-ultrasonic-tones/
Google revealed yesterday that it will allow its Chromecast streaming stick to cast content without being on the same Wi-Fi network as the device sending it. According to a session Thursday, the Chromecast will be able to pair without Wi-Fi, or even Bluetooth, via an unusual method: ultrasonic tones.
In the new system, Chromecast owners first allow support for nearby devices. A nearby device then requests access to the Chromecast, and the Chromecast plays an ultrasonic sound through the connected TV’s speakers. The sound is then picked up by the microphone in the device, which allows it to pair with the TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US Supremes just blew Aereo out of the water
‘This sends a chilling message to the technology industry’ Yes, that you have to pay for stuff
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/25/us_supremes_to_aereo_yes_you_have_to_pay_like_everyone_else/
The US Supreme Court has ruled against TV-streaming biz Aereo in its copyright case with US broadcasters.
Aereo essentially has data centers in ten US cities, each fitted with miniature antennas and hardware that pick up broadcast TV signals. Programs and movies are stored in a cloud-based digital video recorder (DVR), which streams material over the internet to subscribers.
The television networks argued, successfully, that Aereo was taking broadcasts without paying and retransmitting to users for a charge.
“Aereo sells a service that allows subscribers to watch television programs, many of which are copyrighted, virtually as they are being broadcast.”
“We’ve said all along that we worked diligently to create a technology that complies with the law, but today’s decision clearly states that how the technology works does not matter,” Kanojia said.
“This sends a chilling message to the technology industry.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Strap-on cam pro GoPro in IPO share grow show
Firm valued at $3.9bn on first day of trading
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/27/gopro_market_debut_soar/
GoPro’s shares soared on its stock-market debut, gaining 30.5 per cent to give the wearable camera-maker a market value of $3.9bn.
The firm’s clip-on high-def video cameras, beloved of extreme sports enthusiasts and amateur rocket-builders, have become the top-selling camcorders in the world, according to beancounters at IDC. That makes the company one of the few hardware firms to be making any waves on the market.
GoPro is also one of what’s becoming a bit of a rare breed – a tech firm that actually makes profit. The company earned $60.6m in 2013, after it almost doubled its revenue to $985.7m.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Introduces 60fps Video Support
YouTube adding support for 60 fps videos, tip jar for fan funding
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5847822/youtube-support-60-fps-video-tip-jar-fan-funding
YouTube announced today it’s adding two new features that will benefit people who enjoy watching video games online and those who stream games online: 60 frames per second video playback and the option for fans to pay video creators directly through YouTube.
In a post on its Creators blog, YouTube said it plans to “launch support for 48 and even 60 frames per second in the coming months.”
YouTube is also offering direct funding support for content creators — name-checking sites like KickStarter and Patreon — and is allowing fans to “contribute money to support your channel at any time, for any reason.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Facebook Moved 20 Billion Instagram Photos Without You Noticing
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/facebook-instagram/
Your Instagram photos aren’t where they used to be.
This spring, even as some 200 million people were using Instagram on their smartphones, a small team of engineers moved the photo sharing service from Amazon’s cloud computing service—where it was built in 2010—into a data center operated by Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012. “The users are still in the same car they were in at the beginning of the journey,” says Instagram founder Mike Krieger, “but we’ve swapped out every single part without them noticing.”
Now, Instagram runs on its own dedicated machines inside the Facebook facility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Beat: GoPro continues to soar after IPO as Nasdaq surges
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2426560/wall-street-beat-gopro-continues-to-soar-after-ipo-as-nasdaq-surges.html
Shares of action-camera maker GoPro shot up again Friday, a day after its IPO, riding on the rise of tech stocks and continuing confidence in IT.
GoPro shares jumped 30 percent from its opening price Thursday on the Nasdaq, and ascended by another 14 percent (US$4.56) to close at $35.90 Friday. The share price rose so quickly that it left some market watchers criticizing GoPro’s executives as leaving money on the table—meaning, they should have raised the IPO price to take in as much cash as possible.
But GoPro played it smart, said John Fitzgibbon, who runs the IPOScoop.com website. “If a company sets the price too high they run the risk of litigation when they get hit with a class-action suit when the share price goes down,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
MPAA Issues Overly Broad Takedown Of Little Used Reddit Film Community; Creates Much Bigger Reddit Film Community
from the do-they-have-any-streisand-movies-available? dept
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140627/06225127697/mpaa-issues-overly-broad-takedown-little-used-reddit-film-community-creates-much-bigger-reddit-film-community.shtml
Oh that wacky MPAA. Earlier this week, TorrentFreak noted that the MPAA issued a massively overbroad DMCA takedown to Google, asking it to remove an entire subreddit from its search results.
Google didn’t take it out of its search results, but the resulting publicity from the bogus takedown attempt… suddenly made r/FullLengthFilms a hell of a lot more popular.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s How Apple Can Take Its Iconic Headphones To The Next Level
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-headphones-need-a-healthy-solution-2014-6
Apple is one of the biggest headphones makers in the world thanks to those signature white earbuds that have shipped with every iPod, iPhone, and iPad since 2001 — and that was before the company bought Beats.
Apple said it’s sold north of 600 million earbuds in a 12-year span — that’s 1.2 billion tiny speakers — but despite a few design modifications made two years ago in the conversion of earbuds to EarPods, the design of Apple’s headphones has gone largely untouched.
That needs to change
the average lifespan of Apple’s headphones can be rather short.
It’s possible Apple actually wants customers to purchase new EarPods every six months or so
Competitors are aware of Apple’s imperfect EarPods.