The CultCast
This week: we reveal our current favorite gadgets!  Plus: is MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar a gimmick?  Then: Apple set to unveil three new iPads; rumors point to an Apple augmented reality headset later this year; and don’t miss our exhaustive AirPods review—we tell you what we love and we what we don’t!
 
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We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a  thanks for the great music you hear on today's show.
 
On the show this week
 
This week’s intro
 
Apple to deliver 3 new iPads this spring, but no new mini
  • iPads are getting stale… The only model introduced in 2016 was the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the iPad mini haven’t seen a refresh since 2015. The iPad Air 2 has been the same since October 2014.
  • According to one Ming Chi Quo, Apple is focusing its efforts on updating the 9.7-inch iPad and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and on introducing a new model with a 10- to 10.5-inch display.
  • It’s unclear whether the cheaper device will support Apple Pencil or the Smart Connector, but Kuo says it won’t have the new A10X chip, which will be exclusive to the larger models. Instead, it will be powered by the same A9 chip found in the iPhone 6s series
  • Ming-Chi Kuo, widely regarded as one of the world’s best Apple analysts, doesn’t expect Cupertino to launch an AR product until at least 2018
 
Why the rumor that Apple will launch AR glasses in 2017 is ridiculous
  • Apple is teaming up with Zeiss to create augmented-reality glasses that will be unveiled later this year, according to long-time tech blogger Robert Scoble.
  • “A Zeiss employee confirmed the rumors that Apple and Carl Zeiss AG are working on a light pair of augmented reality/mixed reality glasses that may be announced this year,” Scoble wrote in a Facebook post. “I thought it was next year but now that I saw this I believe it will happe this year.”
Direct download: CultCast_266_-_Apple_s_augmented_reality_glasses.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:35am PDT

This week: the worst gadgets of CES 2017!  Yup, we run through the gizmos no one on the earth actually needs.  Then we spice things up with our most hotly anticipated tech of 2017.  And finally, we’re gonna be real with you guys… Apple had a rough 2016.  But that’s all behind us now.  It’s a new year. It’s a fresh start.  We discuss what Apple needs to get right in 2017.

On the show this week

@erfon / @bst3r 

This episode supported by

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We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a  thanks for the great music you hear on today's show.
 
This week’s intro
 
Flow is a wearable that helps you avoid nasty air pollution
  • It can measure dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as the household chemicals you might encounter indoors.
 
Smart hairbrush tells your iPhone if you’re not brushing properly
  • Every year at CES, there’s one gadget that epitomizes the crazier side of Silicon Valley’s “connected tech” smart devices mania.
  • To do this, the smart hairbrush relies on motion sensors for monitoring your brushing patterns, conductivity sensors for spotting whether your hair is wet or dry, and a microphone for identifying “manageability, frizziness, dryness, split ends and breakage.” The brush also vibrates if you use it too vigorously.
  • All this data gets sent to your iPhone, where an app gives you a hair quality score, tells you which parts of your brushing need work, and offers hairstyling products to buy.
 
OWC’s gigantic dock adds more ports to the new MacBook Pro
  • OWC teased a new accessory called the DEC dock for MacBook Pro at CES
  • it's a slab that sticks to the bottom of the laptop to add up to 4TB of additional flash or SSD storage, an SD card slot, full-sized USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet jack for wired internet.
  • The downside is that it makes your new laptop as chunky as the 2012 model. From a depth of around 0.6 inches, you'll now have a machine that's almost an inch thick. OWC chief Larry O'Connor said they've been developing the concept for over three years and feel like the time is right to release it.
  • The company doesn't have a release date and pricing info for the DEC yet
 
Griffin connects your toast to your phone
 
Direct download: CultCast_265_-_Worst_gadgets_of_CES_2017.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:24pm PDT