LG UP970 4K BD player a tortoise to Samsung's hare at CES?

While several companies jostled to be the first to release a 4K Blu-ray player last year LG uncharacteristically waited a full 12 months to announce its own: the UP970. There are advantages to this approach: Firstly, there are about 100 4K discs available for purchase right now as opposed to a handful back then. Secondly, the standards involved are starting to sift themselves out so that potential buyers now know what they'll need their player to support. Namely things like HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

Ford gets another inexpensive GPS option at CES 2017 with Sygic

The Sygic Car Navigation app for Android and iOS will become the first GPS app to gain touchscreen compatibility with Ford's Sync 3 AppLink when it launches for 2018 Ford vehicles.

I'm sure that a number of drivers stopped paying attention to Ford's AppLink the moment that Sync 3 started supporting Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Fortunately for those who aren't the biggest fans of Google Maps or Apple Maps, Ford hasn't given up on its own app connectivity technology and has continued to form new partnerships, such as this one with Sygic.

 

Cambridge Sound Management Nightingale

Most people can relate to the frustration of a bad night's sleep -- waking up groggy, wishing you could stay in bed for another hour... or three. Sadly, busy schedules often keep us from hitting the snooze button for too long.

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Samsung introduces SleepSense, a tracker for better, smarter sleep

Massachusetts-based company Cambridge Sound Management (CSM) wants to end this cycle with Nightingale.

 

Google buys Limes Audio for better sound in Hangouts

Google has bought Limes Audio, a company with technology to improve sound quality in video calls, to improve its conferencing products like Hangouts, according to a blog post Thursday.

The tech giant said audio quality -- "so that you can hear the person you're talking to, and they can hear you" -- is critical as more businesses adopt its videoconferencing services like Chromebox for Meetings and Hangouts.

T-Mobile will credit low-data users $10 a month

T-Mobile is making the case that you should be on its unlimited data plan -- even if all you do is view photos of your grandchildren.

At the CES 2017 show, the nation's third-largest carrier on Thursday introduced its "Kickback" program, designed to give customers who don't use a lot of data a credit of $10 a month. It only applies to T-Mobile One unlimited data customers who use less than 2 gigabytes of data a month, or roughly 8 hours of streaming video.