ITy Bytes 14 January – Hisense/Tubi, BT LE Audio, Belkin Qi speaker, Samsung Galaxy S20 on 11 February, Kid alarm for forgetful drivers and new Surfshark VPN fools GPS location

ITy Bytes 14 January

ITy Bytes 14 January is curated short byte-sized pieces of lifestyle tech news. In this edition

  • Hisense gets Tubi and its free!
  • The next standard in BT – LE Audio
  • Belkin hi-fi smart speaker with wireless charging
  • Samsung to unpack new Galaxy S20 on 11 February
  • Don’t forget the kid in the back seat
  • Surfshark becomes the first VPN to offer an in-built GPS spoofing feature

ITY Bytes 14 January

Hisense gets Tubi and its free!

Hisense will incorporate Tubi TV, an ad-supported catalogue of over 20,000 free movies and TV shows from more than 200 content partners into its Vidaa powered TVs from Autumn 2020.

Tubi is also available on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Comcast Xfinity X1, Cox Contour, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the web at www.tubi.tv.

Tubi

Hisense claims it is now the world’s third-largest TV global maker and GadgetGuy has covered its new innovative OLED challenger Dual Cell TV and 150” Tri-chroma Laser TV here.

Hisense

The next standard in BT – LE Audio

Billed as the most important new BT standard ever, BT LE Audio is coming to new devices (it is not a software update).

It features

  • New LC3 codec (Low Complexity Communications Codec) for transmission between 160 and 345kbp
  • Multiple, independent, synchronised audio streams between an audio source device, such as a smartphone, and one or more audio devices.
  • Multi-Stream Audio to the left and right earpieces
  • Hearing aid support
  • Better battery life
ITy Bytes 14 January BT LE Audio

Belkin hi-fi smart speaker with wireless charging

Belkin showed off its Soundform Elite Hi-Fi Smart Speaker + Wireless Charger at CES 2020. While we may all groan at yet another voice assistant speaker, this caught our attention. It is developed in a partnership between Belkin and high-end audio brand Devialet, has a 90dB SL max volume, full Google Assistant support and a 10W Qi charge station in the top. Belkin says it is just the start of a more extensive audio portfolio.

ITy Bytes 14 January Belkin

Samsung to unpack new Galaxy S20 on 11 February

What was to be the next Galaxy S11 is now the Galaxy S20 series. We reported on the Galaxy S11 rumours in December. It is tipped to be the killer handset in 2020 until the Note20.

Samsung Galaxy S20

Don’t forget the kid in the back seat

Every year in Australia, over 5,000 children are rescued after being left unattended in a car. We are all horrified by the stories of deaths because of that.

In Australia’s extreme heat, it only takes 7 minutes for a child to become dehydrated and in 10 minutes, they are under threat of being brain-damaged. Children are 3 to 5 times faster to heat up than adults. 

An Australian developed app Back seat Safety reminds drivers to look for forgotten kids. It is for iOS and Android at A$1.59.

ITy Bytes 14 January

Surfshark becomes the first VPN to offer an in-built GPS spoofing feature

Note: GadgetGuy has not reviewed Surfshark so cannot make any comments about its efficacy. But the idea has merit.

Apps use a mixture of IP address, GPs and mobile tower correlation to locate a user. GPS spoofing is activated when any app accesses location, and the user’s physical coordinates will be overridden by the coordinates of the selected VPN server.

“The primary purpose of the GPS spoofing functionality is to provide its user with an ability to control its digital presence and prevent unsolicited exploitation of their location data for marketing and other purposes,” adds Naomi Hodges. 

GPS spoofing feature is the newest addition to Surfshark’s privacy protection toolkit, which includes malware, ad and tracker blocker CleanWeb, a data breach alert system HackLock, a private and ad-free search tool BlindSearch, and a free DNS resolver TrustDNS.

ITy Bytes 14 January

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