Last week, I wrote here about the press conference being held in Beijing with Stream TV Networks, the company I've been writing about for seven years with the Ultra-D technology for glassless 3D television.  As I noted, their technology works wonderfully (I've seen working TV sets for several years now), but there have been hurdles getting the product out and deals set up.  Also, at one point, they pulled back from their 4K sets because they wanted to get ahead of the market and began working on 8K sets, which would be backwards compatible.

Last week's press conference was the first time they've been able to announce a major deal, which suggests that production is -- or should be -- around the corner.  I've spoken with Mathu Rajan, the president of Stream TV, and he's given me a date which is encouraging, but with the industry being what it is, I'm looking forward to it being definitive.  But this new announcement is a major step -- forming a partnership with BOE, the top supplier of panels in the world, including supplying LEDdisplays for Apple (iPads, as well as Macbooks) and Huawei, a major worldwide company in mobile phones and televisions.

Here's how they announced it in the first two paragraphs of their longer press release --

"Stream TV Networks, Inc. and BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. are pleased to announce the finalization of their long-form strategic agreement to combine the high-resolution panels of BOE, the number one panel supplier globally, with Stream TV's award-winning Glasses-Free 3D technology, Ultra-D. With the new agreement, BOE is entering into the 3D market hand in hand with Stream TV.

"Stream TV Networks and BOE have just concluded a joint press conference in Beijing, attended by Senior Executive Staff from both companies, to showcase the latest versions of Stream TV's Glasses-Free 3D technology. At the press conference, BOE expressed its intention to include Stream TV's technology on their entire series of product lines going forward." 

So, at least this step of the journey is official.  Updates as they occur...

If you want to see the full press release, click here. 

Over the past few years, I've written several times with updates about a company called Stream TV Networks, which has developed a terrific glassless 3D-TV technology called Ultra-D.  You can get the whole story here, but the short version is that the technology is tremendous, it works exceedingly well and resolved the huge problem of needing to wear those 3D glasses, since it doesn't require any.  And it's resolved, too, the issue of there being almost no 3D content for TV by being able to convert 2D material to 3D in real-time.

That's the good.  (And it's very good.)  The bad is all those updates.  The technology has been ready for primetime for at least five years, and I've seen working models.  In fact, the Ultra-D technology is being actively used in a related business, that of signage.  But for a variety of reasons, the TV division hasn't kicked in yet, despite having deals with major TV set companies and several "it's coming in a few months" false starts.  It hasn't been because of no market -- among other things, they not only do have those deals in place, but also TVs that use Ultra-D can watch normal programming in 2D, unlike the older 3D-TVs requiring glasses which could only watch in 3D, so at its core, TV sets using Ultra-D have the same basic market as any television -- but the continued delays are the results of other hurdles which its president Mathu Rajan has discussed with me along the way.  One of them, for example, has been the desire to stay ahead of technology, and these new sets aren't just 4K models which are now prevalent in the marketplace, but rather 8K and 8K-compatible.  (Again, as before, there's no issue with there being no 8K content, since the Ultra-D technology can convert standard content to 8K compatible in real time.)

I now come to the part where I once again say about the delays, "That may be about to change..." and we'll find out if it is, indeed, about to change this time, or if another hurdle gets in the way.  A wait-and-see attitude is always a good starting point here.  But this one seems to have a couple of things going for it that make it appear that serious progress has been made.

The first is that I was recently in the market for a new Smart TV (long story...), and I like the Ultra-D technology enough to be willing to wait a bit if the sets had a specific date when they'd be coming to the market.  So, I brought it up to Mathu.  He gave me a target date they now have -- and it's reasonably close, but not imminent and given the uncertainty of market dates being "flexible" in the past, I didn't want to put things off.  

And the second is that just yesterday I received an email from Stream TV Networks announcing a big press conference.  This is something that Mathu has spoken about having "soon" -- and that was initially a couple years ago, but they each ended up having to get cancelled and no invitations were ever sent out.  So, to actually get an invitation is a huge leap forward in this all becoming a reality.  Furthermore, the date of the press conference is close enough that there's no wiggle room to cancel it.  I don't mean "little wiggle room," I mean none.  The press conference is set for...tomorrow.

(I did find one thing amusing about the invitation.  Over the past years when they've been planning for the press conference, Mathu has always said how he'd like me there, since I've been writing about Ultra-D so much.  And though I'd love to go to press conference -- not only is heading off out-of-town with two days notice a bit of a burden, especially now (long story, see above...), this would be an even significantly bigger burden, since the press conference is being held at 10 AM at the Westin Hotel in...Beijing, China.  It was great to see that they're finally having the press conference, but I do have my limits.)

Anyway, for these two reasons together, I do sense that their hurdles may actually have been overcome, and the glassless 3D TV sets may actually be coming to market reasonably soon.  (I don't want to jump the gun of the press conference, since the date Mathu told me was off-the-record.)  Also the press conference will not only be introducing their 65" model, but also a 10.1" glassless 3D display -- which seems to be the tablet screen the company has been developing alongside the TVs.

So, we'll see what gets announced at the press conference, and how it overlaps with the latest news I'd been told about the upcoming entry to the market.  And again, if you're coming to this after the initial articles I've written on the subject, and are interested (which if you've gotten this far, you probably are...), check out the link above.

Watch this space.  Still.  Updates as they occur.  We'll see.  Hopefully, literally.

It's been a while since I've posted one of my "The Writers Workbench" tech review columns, so tonight we'll jump right back in.  This month it's pretty low-tech at the core -- light bulbs -- though in different incarnations that you might be used to.  The first device is quite low-tech but very versatile and clever, the Luminoodle -- basically a cord with lights embedded in it, though there's more to it than that.  The second is a Smart bulb for those who might be interested in controlling your light bulbs but don't yet want to wire your residence as a Smart Home.

As always, since the column is written for the Writers Guild of America, and they've gone to the effort of formatting it all for their site, I'll provide the link to it there, rather than go through the headache of reformatting it all over again on these pages.

Earlier this week, Facebook made news by tracking down and removing over 30 pages of fake propaganda from accounts on its pages, and a few days earlier removed pages from InfoWars while temporarily suspending the account of its founder Alex Jones due to material of its conspiracy theories that went too far even by their standards.

So, I thought this would be a good time to bring in the fine folks of Bad Lip Reading for them to do what they do so well, this time when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress.
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My friend Ed Bott has his annual review of Windows 10, as the operating system hits its third anniversary, and as always it's pure Bott:  detailed, thoughtful and surprisingly readable for something that should be filled with techno-geek. But then, that's why he may be the only bott to trust online these days...

My favorite part is probably his discussion about Security, but that's for purely personal reasons.  He writes, in part, about the very positive improvements by concluding, "The net effect is to make it less necessary for consumers and small businesses to spend money on third-party security software. Deciding to ditch those programs gets a little easier when they end up causing more problems than they solve..."  Why this leaps out to me is because last year I have having some glitches with my computer, and after getting nowhere I checked in with Ed.  His second recommendation was -- and I paraphrase -- "Get rid of your third party anti-virus software already and use the built-in Windows Defender!  I keep telling you that those third party software products only risk causing problems because of incompatibility issues.  Just get rid of them.  Now.  Even if that's not the issue here, it will be an issue with something else later.  Uninstall them from your system."  And as I've noted in the past, when Ed Bott gives you a direction of What To Do -- you do it.  So, it was nice, too, seeing him tell that to the world.  Though more softly, describing the benefits, rather than as a "Do it now already, for God's sake!" order.

You can read the full article here.

At the moment, I'm in the middle of reading Al Franken's book, Giant of the Senate.  I put off reading it until I was past the angst and felt up to making it through.  The book is absolutely wonderful.  Serious, hilarious, open, honest and thought.  It's also heart-breaking, knowing that he's no longer in the Senate for what was most-definitely a transgression, but what I don't think should have been a career-ending one.  Especially since it occurred in another part of his lifetime before the Senate as a comic satirist, and was not intended to hurt, but be a joke that went wrong.  And it was wrong.  But there are levels of "wrong," which life should be able to differentiate.  (For instance, the Senate could have voted to censure a member.  Or a party could have stripped a member of valuable committee seats.  Or taken away critical funding for a re-election campaign.  Or...well, you get idea -- depending on one's transgression, there are a lot of options between "Having a Job" and "No Job.")  And it most especially should not have been career-ending most especially when we see who became President of the United States and who almost became a U.S. Senator from Alabama, for starters.  

But that alas is the past, and the book as I said is terrific.  And it's also good timing, because only yesterday, Al Franken posted on Twitter a link to his first public speech since leaving the Senate.  It was given at the Privacy Xchange forum in Lisbon, Portugal, and his talk is on "Privacy, Competition and Russian Election Meddling."  Much of it deals with privacy issues that were exploited on Facebook by Cambridge Analytica.  Don't expect jokes.  It's a serious, thoughtful talk.  And with questions at the end, it lasts almost 50 minutes. 

He starts at around the 18:30 mark.  Even if you don't watch the whole thing, it's worth watching at least some.  And to just see him again dealing so thoughtfully and meaningfully on such an important public issue.

Samsung released a new ad mocking the iPhone for its throttling issue. It's a very valid point - but a very risky one for Samsung, of all companies, to make. That's because it leaves them open for Apple releasing an ad, "At least our phones haven't burst into flame. Or gotten banned on planes"
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How bad is the "fake account" problem on Facebook?  In only the first 3 months of this year, they have already removed 583 million fake accounts!  That's a quarter of all Facebook active monthly users.

If only the company had been this concerned about such things two years ago.  Or...well, even longer than two years ago.  Like, all the time, from the beginning.

You can read the full C/NET article here.

Earlier today, May 11, the following tweet was posted with a brief footnote to history and its connection with subsequent advances in technology.
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That brought about the following reply from Garry Kasparov, the outspoken Russian exile and political activist who is chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.  I burst out laughing the moment I saw it.

You see, among his many accomplishments...he was the World Chess Champion in 1997.
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​I came across a couple of easy-to-follow and very valuable articles with tips on safe browsing from traversing the Internet.  Many are pretty basic, but I find it's often good to just feel comforted that you're doing things properly in a convoluted world.  But there are also good suggestions on things you probably aren't doing and might be wise to consider.  Both articles are from last year -- I'm only getting around to writing about them now -- but though some information in them might be out-of-date, most isn't, and the tips are basically evergreen which are good to be aware of all the time.

The first is "17 Safe Internet Browsing Tips" which covers topics like security settings, password managers (offering suggestions on which are the best), how to come up to secure passwords that are easy to remember, how to avoid phishing emails (the kind that try to trick you into thinking they're from a real business), setting up a VPN for anonymous browsing and more.  You can find it here.

The other is a "Guide to Using Public WiFi Safely and Securely" from the Comparitech site.  It's so standard today to sit down at a coffeehouse, connect to their WiFi without a second thought.  But there are a great many issue to be aware of.  For instance, how to distinguish between secured and unsecured networks, rather than just connecting on the fly.  Also, ways to keep sensitive information protected, setting up VPNs (a popular topic, as you can see...), and importantly a discussion on different ways you can be hacked when using public WiFi (for instance, the restaurant where your sitting can have their name spoofed, and so by mistake you've connected to the wrong one).  You can read the guide here.

Some of the suggestions here, while very smart and valid, might not be things you want to do -- like turning off your mobile phone's WiFi until you're ready to use it.  Smart as that is, it's also more inconvenient than most people tend to want.  But it's still good to at least be aware of the reason for the suggestion so that you are kept apprised of Internet safety and generally on the alert.

It's also a good idea to keep links to articles like these so that you can give yourself refreshers every once in a while.