It’s Thursday, September 8 and we’re going to pretend like Apple isn’t the center of the tech universe for a few minutes, even though everyone is still buzzing over the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that were announced yesterday. The new phones, and especially their cameras, look pretty amazing, but at this point, seeing is believing. So, what else is going on in the techverse today? Well, it would have been easy to miss, but Sony dished details on a new PlayStation.
It’s called the PlayStation 4 Pro, and it is all about 4K and HDR. And while you might think that this is a simple answer to the Xbox One S that was recently released, it’s not. Unlike the Xbox One S, the PlayStation 4 enables 4K gameplay with HDR — it’s not true 4K, but with HDR, there will be a visible improvement. However, and this is kind of puzzling, while the Xbox One S also has an Ultra HD Blu-ray player for 4K Blu-rays, the PS4 Pro doesn’t.
Sony helped pioneer the Blu-ray back in the day when it was going toe to toe with HD-DVD. It seems odd that Sony hasn’t issued a standalone Ultra HD Blu-ray player already, but it is super weird they didn’t put one in a 4K-enabled PlayStation. At any rate, the new console is due to land November 10 and will cost $400
Alexa on Fire
Alexa has finally come to mobile, but it’s arriving with more of a wimper than a roar. Amazon’s digital assistant platform is on fire now … literally. Everyone is jumping on board the Alexa train with devices that can be controlled with Amazon’s echo speakers and Fire TV products. But, until now, you couldn’t use Alexa on a phone or tablet. Today, Amazon surprised us with the announcement of the Fire HD 8 tablet, which replaces the … Fire HD 8 tablet.
The primary difference between the two is Alexa, naturally. It also has double the RAM and jumped from 16 Gigs of storage to 32 GB, which still seems inadequate. There’s also a larger battery that Amazon says should last for up to 12 hours of use. That’s all fine and good, but … I don’t think adding Alexa is going to get Fire HD 8 tablets to fly off the shelf. Now, put Alexa in an Android phone or tablet and see what happens.
Pockemon goes on your wrist
Finally, we’ve learned that the Pokemon Go Plus bracelet will be released in just 8 days on September 16. This wearable connects to your phone and lets you keep your phone in your pocket instead of in your face, while allowing you to play the insanely popular game. Rather than having to eyeball your screen and potentially run into other people, the bracelet will buzz you and light up when you are near a Pokestop or pass a Pokemon you’ll want to catch
Some say the game’s popularity is waning, but I was just at Disneyland and based on what I saw there, Pokemon Go is doing just fine. And after Apple’s announcement that you’ll be able to play on the Apple Watch? Well that might just give it another boost. Something tells me we’ll be catching ‘em all until at least the holidays. That’s it for DT Daily today, we’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
