Turning the lights back on while I try to make sense of everything

Things you learn in a blackout

Hurricane Isaias tore through my area, upending trees and throwing many of them onto thin powerlines that collapsed under the trees’ decades-earned weight. The power flickered, and then it went out.

We’d had a brief power outage some weeks back that, while the power came back almost instantly, tanked our cable and Internet for hours. That night, we watched a movie through our rarely-used Blu-Ray player.

This time was different. Our entire neighborhood (and dozens of other New York towns) was thrown back into the pre-digital ages. Along with our silent air conditioners, refrigerators, and blank microwave screens, we lost access to our computers and were all suddenly acutely aware of how much power each of us had left on our smartphones.

However, even though my iPhone (we’re an iOS family), probably had enough juice for a day and we’d collected a half dozen power bricks, we also noticed how our LTE network was barely—if at all—working.

I don’t know if this was Verizon’s fault for having poor coverage in my area, lost power to cell towers, or that, with everyone’s home broadband and Wi-Fi networks DOA, we were ALL suddenly crushing the mobile network.

We’d known the storm was coming and had prepared—sort of—by securing outdoor furniture and gathering flashlight and batteries. Though, I admit we did all of if half-heartedly because none of us believed Isaias would cause significant trouble.

When the power went out and we found ourselves unable to check news reports, we collected a previously unused Eton emergency radio. It comes with a rechargeable battery. Unfortunately, we’d never charged it up and to play the AM news radio report or try to charge our phones through the USB port, we had to crank and crank and crank the Eton’s tiny generator . It also has tiny solar array along the top edge but charging through that was also taking forever.

That night, with no phones or Netflix to distract us, the family gathered to play board games around our gas-powered firepit and eat some melting ice cream. It was a warm and enjoyably digital-free night.

That night, we slept fitfully under thin blankets and with the windows open, strategizing how not to loose all our perishable foods (we lost almost all of them).

By the next day, our digital-free resolve and ability to withstand the heat and humidity began to waver and, at one point, all of us were in our respective cars, running air conditioning and charging our phones.

It was just a glimpse of life without our ever-present screens, but also a reminder that we can, obviously, survive a digital break and that, maybe, we should spend a little more time without them.

Samsung Event on the Go

It was during this blackout that I found myself desperately trying to figure out how to track the Samsung Unpacked event. I decided to drive around until I could find a strong LTE signal and, with my phone plugged in to the car’s USB port, I followed and tweeted through the whole thing.

In the broadest sense, Samsung produced another solid lineup, full of mostly, but not all, incremental product updates. The Samsung Galaxy Note20 and Note 20 Ultra 5G phones, are not full-scale redesigns and mostly represent an embiggening. The Ultra is 6.9-inches and looked huge in the hands of whoever was holding it on-screen.

I’m glad we now have 120hz screens across the line. That’ll help on games (Xbox games!) and if you like to watch sporting events on your phone.

The camera array looks good, if not much bigger. On the Ultra, it really appears to stick out of the phone.

I like the idea of a thinner, lighter Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, especially one that leans so hard into classic watch-making style. Blood pressure measurement is exciting, even with the caveats of needing to stand super-still and that it’s no substitute for a doctor visit.

Samsung’s wholly redesigned Samsung Buds Live, which look like kidney beans and cost $169, are more impressive. They have noise cancellation and 6 hours of battery life in what has to be the smallest in-ear form factor on the market.

We also got a new folding phone in the updated Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 (I hate these long names), with a folding glass display, a sleeker design and a full-sized screen on the outside. We won’t learn about pricing and availability until September. Samsung even got the mega-Korean boy band BTS to unbox the new foldy phone. I tweeted about it and the BTS Army has been freaking out ever since.

Speaking of gaming, that Samsung launch featured some new details about Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (launching Sept. 15) on Android and, more specifically on Android devices like the new Galaxy Note20. What I’m more interested in, though, is that Microsoft appears to be giving up on trying to offer an iOS version of the same $14.99-a-month subscription service. Apparently, Apple does not allow anyone to offer a digital store within their store, at least for things like games and apps (books and movies are different: see Amazon and Netflix).

FWIW: The full-sized controller/smartphone combos look no more cumbersome than, say, a drone controller and your average smartphone. I think it’ll be fun to try.

To beyond

There were some cool space updates over the last two weeks, including the successful launch of Perseverance (it’s another Mars rover) and another successful hop test of SpaceX’s Starship, or at least part of it.

I watched for hours as SpaceX tried to get the SN5 hopper into the air only to realize after I missed the test (thanks blackout) that I’d been watching the wrong hardware all along. It was not the smaller rocket-ship looking vehicle, but basically the much larger tube to the right that looked like a giant silo, but with a Raptor rocket inside it. Not even sure how such a thing can fly, but it did (about 500 ft. in the air) and quite nicely, too. It also stuck the landing.

Apple’s big shift

Saw the news that Apple’s Phil Schiller is stepping aside from his longtime role as Head of Global Marketing and that Greg Joswiak is taking the reigns. This is a major shift. Schiller has been the face and voice of Apple for years, second only to Apple CEO Tim Cook and before him, the late Steve Jobs.

I met Schiller 35 years ago when he was part of Macromedia and have had many meetings and interactions with him as Apple’s head of marketing. I have tremendous respect for the somewhat inscrutable Schiller. He’s smart, passionate about Apple and technology (especially photography) and is incredibly effective at staying on message.

Joswiak is not Schiller. He has a more open and gregarious personality and blends that with sharp wit and keen market and technology intelligence. I’ve known him for years and “Joz,” as his friends call him, happens to be one of my favorite Apple-ites. I’m sure he’ll do an excellent job.

Ticking tok

The TikTok drama is far from over as Microsoft and ByteDance have a little more than a month to come to terms before President Trump’s new Executive Order banning it (and Tencent’s WeChat!) takes effect.

Trump’s contention that the U.S. government should get a cut of the sale is ridiculous and dripping with irony, but I’ll leave at that for now and wait to see if and how Microsoft (or someone else) can consume TikTok without ruining it.

If any of this results in TikTok losing momentum, Instagram’s new Reels (an easy-to-use but pale imitation) is ready and waiting to swallow up those users, and SnapChat’s alternative isn’t far behind.

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