Who says no to $100/month for the SpaceX Starlink beta, and more tech news today
Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Wednesday, October 28, 2020
1. $ 100 a month for SpaceX Starlink seems really good and more
SpaceX has announced that the public beta version of Starlink (US only) will be launched under the name “Better Than Nothing”. In an email to some newsletter subscribers, the company disclosed some information, including top speeds, data cap, and prices.
- “Expect data speeds to be between 50 and 150 Mbps and latency between 20 and 40 ms for the next several months as we improve the Starlink system. There will also be short periods of no connectivity.
- “As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations, and improve our network software, data speed, latency, and uptime will all improve dramatically. For latency, we expect 16 to 19 ms by summer 2021.
- “The Starlink Phased Array User Terminal, which is more advanced than what’s included in fighter jets, including mounting a tripod and wireless router, is $ 499 and the monthly subscription is $ 99.”
So $ 100 per month plus $ 500 upfront with no data limit, decent speeds and latency low enough for most normal purposes. That’s very good! The occasional outage, as more satellites are waiting to go into orbit to create more bandwidth overlap, makes sense, though it can be annoying depending on the speed at which outages come and go.
- This pricing for cable or DSL options sounds expensive, but for the rural internet, where service is typically unreliable and expensive, it may be a cornerstone.
- The upfront antenna fee is also lower than expected. SpaceX reportedly tried to break the $ 1,000 per antenna mark. So this could be an early bird discount.
- Roof fittings may also be required, depending on the house level.
The discussion on Reddit seems to suggest that Starlink will be made available to people in a latitude area above 44 ° N, which isn’t much of the population of the United States. (Chicago is at 41.9 ° N)
- It’s almost all of Montana and all of Washington, parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, but not much of any major metropolitan area for now, as this map shows:
2. “The OnePlus 8T has a north problem” (Android Authority).
3. What is glass ceramic? Apple’s Ceramic Shield declared (Android Authority).
4. TCL 10 5G UW test: Verizon (Android Authority) customers get affordable 5G.
5. Apple is developing an alternative to Google search, the FT writes: “In the latest version of iOS 14, Apple started displaying its own search results and linking them directly to websites when users enter queries on the home screen.” Interesting! ($, FT.com). The report does not include any cited sources but endorses the points: We know that John Giannandrea and the Siri team worked on searching outside the current Apple search engines in Apple Photos, the App Store, Apple Maps, etc., and Siri apparently made it more useful and absolutely necessary and useful to Apple users, and the increase in web crawler traffic adds more data against the noise. But a general search engine for Google would be another big step, even for Apple.
Also another interesting Apple report on The Information: “Profit margin tensions affecting the relationship between Apple and Foxconn” (MacRumors).
6. The iPhone 12 could support reverse charging in the future, FCC storage instructions (Engadget).
7. Microsoft is getting a pandemic surge thanks to Surface, Xbox and cloud services (The Verge).
8. PS5 vs. Xbox Series X: The Next Generation Consoles in Photos (The Verge).
9. Logitech improved the nearly flawless trackball with the new $ 50 Logitech Ergo M575 for the thumb-oriented (Gizmodo).
10. Daimler (also known as Mercedes-Benz) signed an agreement with Waymo (Alphabet / Google) to manufacture an L4 autonomous truck. Daimler Trucks developed a tailor-made Freightliner Cascadia truck chassis. No timeline or price (The Verge)
11. Harley-Davidson unveils a beautiful new electric bike called Serial 1. Wow – on sale in March 2021 (The Verge).
12. Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed until December 10th. Quite a few people are crazy, but doing things right is okay (Twitter).
13. What comes after the International Space Station? (Wired).
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