How 4k tv may change devices which connect to it.

Until 4k TV came, just about every High definition TV received content from a Bluray player, computer, cable box, Satellite box, media player or a game box using HDMI cable. The first generation 4k TVs had HDMI 1.4 but only did 24frames per second at 4K resolution. That allowed only 4k content without too much motion. Most store displays showed a snake crawling or may be a really slow fish in a fish tank or just still photos panned slowly. Then came HDMI 2.0 also known as HDMI UHD  which can do 60 frames per second and these TVs had a codec known as High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) as well as another codec known as VP9. So do you have to dump your existing 4K TV that you bought 1 yr ago and waiting for content? I would not worry. Most of the new content is coming on youtube or netflix or some other service over the internet.

I boldly predict that sooner than later, HDMI will be replaced by a new cable or none at all. Every high definition TV has wireless or wired connection to internet. It can easily support the bit rate required for 4k 60 frames per second. Just for Legacy, may be there will be a single HDMI input. If you really want many HDMI inputs you are better off with a low cost AV receiver anyway. Similarly MHL in smart phones to connect to TV may be replaced by wireless or a faster USB known as USB-C which when connected to your TV with USB-C may charge your phone really fast.

All the content is created in compressed form anyway. There is really no need for so many devices to uncompress it and send uncompressed signal to the TV because the TV can uncompress it directly.

As the chips get smaller and pack in more, HEVC compression and uncompression in real time with low latency will come to smartphones supporting 4K. So, the compressed content can be sent over wireless to the TV.

Also, the HEVC codec can be used in the phones to lower the bandwidth and data use by the phones to display even non HD content.

TV vendors and phone vendors want to get rid of connectors and consumers like the simple TV with very few things to connect.

Once there is no need to uncompress and send to the TV, it is then possible to route the content over wire or wireless network. This is the holy grail of very few set top boxes which cable or sat TV vendor would love to get rid of and move to what is know as over the top.

 

New fraud probably from India or Pakistan. They clam they are calling from US Treasury regarding legal case.

I got a call today from 347-571-9286

They asked for my wife and then me and they know my address. They claim that there is a legal case because I did not pay my taxes. They claim that they sent me a registered letter which was returned to them. They claim that I owe them close to $5k and right after the phone call an arrest warrant will be issued. I told them that I will only respond to a letter and not a call. I said that in the past if there is audit, it is a standard letter. They probably were expecting me to offer to pay.

I am pretty sure that this is a scam. Be aware. The accent is a very good imitation of American accent.

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-347-571-9286
http://www.thedailyscam.com/enforcement-action-from-u-s-treasury-agent/

T Mobile CEO does mean business when he wants to remove pain points.

A while back in Aug 2014, my wife's phone got a software update and we got a huge bill. I wrote to John Legere, the CEO of T Mobile an email
"My first shock came when I saw my phone bill was 30% more and there was no change in my calling pattern.
My second shock came when I discovered that 2 calls of 50 min to India cost $100. I swapped my phone and I made the mistake of making those calls without setting Google Voice to make International calls which would have cost me 2 cents a minute.

Really! 100 times more? Obviously you are entitled to charge what ever but this is beyond ridiculous."

I got a phone call from the Executive Response team about 4hrs later. Problem solved. See the blog.

Last month I saw that I did not get the promised 15% corporate discount we get because my son, an authorized on the family account works for an eligible company. He called and we got credit. This month there was no discount. Apparently for new subscribers they stopped offering corporate discounts but existing customers are grandfathered in. My son was required to re-verify his employment to continue the corporate discount by a deadline and was sent an email and text reminder which he believes he did not get. He called customer service and asked for a supervisor and he was told that he did not re-verify in time and so he cannot get the corporate discount.

I decided to got to the top again with an email on Sunday afternoon.
"You were responsive in the past and not the customer support. We had 5 lines on xxx-xxx-xxxx since June 2013 and paid over $6k in monthly fee already. My son  yyy-yyy-yyyy who is on the same plan was given 15% corporate discount and we were grand-fathered in. Yet we were denied the corporate discount for frivolous reason that we did not re-verify the corporate discount. My son spoke to a so called supervisor who claimed that an email and a text message were sent asking us to re-verify. My son never got any reminder and neither did I. Now you are asking us to pay 15% more very unfairly.

Hope some one has the authority to re-consider and honor the discount."

On Twitter someone responded and said that they would try to restore the corporate discount by Wed and thanked us.

In less than 24hrs, I got a call from the executive office and they not only restored the corporate discount but decided to totally waive the monthly bill due this month as a gesture of customer relations. I told that they did not have to do that but they insisted on doing it. We will be with T Mobile for sure. Hope the same customer service continues. I do hope that they make it simpler to continue the corporate discount to avoid this next year.

Why I believe that most users will replace smart phones only if the phones die.

June 2007 - iPhone was a total revolution. If you could afford it you had to have it. There was nothing quite like it till then. The only other game in town was Nokia with Symbian. Not even close. Windows CE and windows  mobile was really PC interface on a phone. Apps were very few.

Nov 2008 - First commercial Android phone was released by HTC. HTC dream. Very poor man's iPhone with hardly any apps.

Oct 2009 - Android released SDK.

Jul 2010 - "On July 12, 2010, Google announced the availability of App Inventor for Android"

This started the really App development for Android. HTC Hero was the poor man's iPhone and allowed lot of tinkering by enthusiasts.

2015 - App war is over. Android actually overtook IOS apps just by sheer numbers in Google play store vs Apple App store. It is a mute point. Quantity is irrelevant. Quality, user experience, monetization by App developers are the key.

Market share of IOS is asymptotically approaching the market share of MacOS. Android has become the windows computer of the masses and those who want to tinker.

iPhone 6 came and size is no more an issue with IOS devices. People who like IOS interface will stay with it. Those who like Android interface will stay with it. If it works don't fix it.

Now that is the problem for Smart phone vendors. The phone they bought in 2012 is doing just fine for what people are using it for. What is magical about 3yrs? People used to replace laptops in about once in 3yrs because they are too slow to run the new bloated software or they died due to cost cutting lowering the durability. That has happened to smart phones.

My own anecdotal data point of 4. 2012 vintage Samsung Note 2 being used in my family by mom, wife, mother-in-law and when I briefly lost my Samsung Note 3 and used my old Note 2 for 2 days, it did not miss anything really.

So, folks like all things in consumer electronics, every gadget becomes a commodity with time. Time has come for smart phones to be commodities. Average user does not care about GHz, GBytes, ppi and I 3D touch is probably going to be a fad.

Gone are the days that bigger is better whether it is size, or performance.

What may sell is intelligent hardware and software combination which makes it much easier for smart phones to be used and very long battery life for sure. Solar anyone? Would you not like to charge your phone once a week or may be never?

What about reading out what is important to you when you wake up? Select email, status of stuff you ordered, traffic where you need to go, weather where you need to go, is any of your friends available when you mark as time available for an activity like coffee, lunch, walk, golf....