New for November: iPad Pro, Amazon DVR, Pixel Slate & more
Jefferson GrahamThis is not a typo: Thanksgiving is less than 20 days away.
For the tech enthusiast, that means it's time to get out your wallets—or these days, perhaps, take out a loan. Amazon this week already started with "Black Friday deals," that weren't, but you know the drill. The closer we get to Nov. 22, the louder the drumbeat will be. And in the case of Amazon, the bargains will most certainly be focused on Amazon made products like the Echo speakers and Fire TV streaming players.
Many of the products that are expected to be big sellers, like the Google Home Hub video speaker and Amazon's similar, revamped Echo Show speaker, along with new streaming players from Roku and a new lower priced DVR from TiVo are already in stores.
But there are still many new gadget superstars that have yet to be released and will get to stores this month., They include:
—A really pricey new iPad Pro, announced Tuesday, the first tablet to break the $1,000 barrier, with a starting price of $999. But if you want to add a keyboard, case, pencil, extra storage and more—you're looking at just over $2,700. Or $100 more than a loaded up MacBook Air, also announced this week with a new, more expensive ($1,199 versus $999) model. Both will be in stores on Nov. 7th.
—Amazon's Fire TV Recast DVR, the first we know of that doesn't require paying a monthly fee, goes on sale Nov. 14th, with a starting price of $229 for the 500 gigabyte hard drive. The unit is aimed at cord cutters to record shows directly off the antenna. Those with cable TV boxes need not apply.
—Facebook's new talking speaker for video calls, Portal, with a camera that follows you around the room and a system that can monitor who you've called, where they live and how long you speak. Facebook, which naturally will follow up with targeted ads based on the information elsewhere in the Facebook universe, is putting the unit on sale Nov. 15th, starting at $199.
—Google's new Pixel Slate tablet, selling for $599 with a detachable keyboard, has no official release date but is expected to be available by Black Friday.
Tech gifts for the holidays are expected to be dominated by five product categories, according to the Consumer Technology Association: smart speakers, namely Alexa and the Google Assistant, which was the top category last year, home automation products like smart lightbulbs and doorbells, smartwatches, wireless earbuds to work on all those phones that no longer have headphone jacks and drones, which the CTA expects to be up 8% in sales this year.
The CTA's wish list, however, has different, more expensive tech toys.
Consumers told the CTA it wanted a new TV, followed by a laptop, smartphone/tablet (tied) smartwatch and another tie with a desktop computer or camera.
What's on your wish list? For me, it would be hard to top that new DJI Mavic 2 drone with the Hasselblad lens. I already splurged on the Sony A7III camera this summer, so I'm good there, I'm not sold on that pricey new iPad, but a faster, higher resolution MacBook Air would be a big hit at home.
Let the debate begin on Twitter—the phone lines are open! (@jeffersongraham)
In other tech news this week:
Google walkout: Hundreds of Google employees staged a walk-out to protest the company's response to allegations of sexual misconduct. The controversy began in earnest after a recent New York Times report about former Android chief Andy Rubin, who left the company with a $90-million exit package, despite having an employee accuse him of sexual misconduct.
iOS12 update: Besides pricier new hardware, Apple also unveiled a free update to the iOS12 mobile operating system this week that saw the ability to make group calls to as many as 32 people and the introduction of 70 new emoji characters.
Flickr giveth and taketh away: If you remember the Flickr photo sharing website fondly, and have hundreds of photos stored there—you might want to go in and take a look, soon. In January, the new owner of Flickr, SmugMug, will institute a new policy of only allowing 1,000 uploaded photos for free. If you want more, you'll need to pay $50 yearly. And if you have more than 1,000 posted, you better start deleting, or moving the photos soon. Flickr says you won't be able to upload any new ones if you're over the 1,000 limit.
Numbers: If you're keeping score, Spotify said it now has 87 million paying subscribers. Apple said it sold 46.8 million iPhones in the most recent quarter—and that it will stop reporting iPhone (and iPad and Mac computer) unit numbers in the future, because they're not relevant anymore. Oh contraire! We loved hearing them.
This week's Talking Tech podcasts.
Use an app to buy stuff @Walmart for the holidays
Really, would you spend nearly $3K for a souped up iPad Pro?
Flickr now to charge for keeping more than 1,000 photos on service
And that's this week's Talking Tech weekly wrap. Readers—we're taking nominations for Tech Turkey of 2018 on our Twitter (@jeffersongraham) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/jefferson.graham) feeds. Don't forget to subscribe to the Talking Tech newsletter: http://technewsletter.usatoday.com and listen to the daily #TalkingTech podcast on Stitcher and Apple Podcasts.