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Phil’s Ramblings
I mentioned Groundhog Day last month and plains the differences: https://
speculated whether Punxsutawney Phil was www.howtogeek.com/398620/whats-the-
correct about winter ending in six weeks. difference-between-5g-and-5ghz-wi-fi/.)
Since then, I’ve run across this humorous
photo of
Other new technologies and tech products con-
Phil:
tinue to appear:
· The lines between Smart Assistants
(Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc.) and
Smart Home devices and controllers is
becoming more and more blurred as the
Smart Assistants add new “skills”. Com-
panies that designed and sold dedicated
Smart Home hubs are losing ground to
the two big AI companies.
· More companies are entering the Smart
Home marketplace, with many new devic-
es shown at the Consumer Electronics
Show earlier this year. Stay tuned!
· Meanwhile, some concerns have sur-
Three more weeks, and we’ll find out the faced about possible negative side effects
truth……. (Meanwhile, bundle up!) from at least one Smart Home device –
smart thermostats. (I’ve just sent out info
to all LCACE members about this poten-
tial issue via our Google Groups email
We continue to see bits ‘n pieces about 5G link.)
wireless service and Wi-Fi 6. I’ve sent some · Microsoft will be rolling out yet another
of these articles out to LCACE members via big update for Windows 10 in April.
our Google Groups email service and will · There are more and more alternative vid-
continue to do that in the future, but anyone eo-calling apps / services besides Skype,
some offering unique features or ad-
who is interested in keeping up-to-date can vantages.
simply search the Internet for “5G wireless” · USB-C technology is moving beyond cell-
or “Wi-Fi 6” and browse through the search phones and can now be found on many
results for the latest news. These technolo- new computers.
gies will be rolled out over two years or more, · SSD (sold-state) drives are gradually dis-
placing traditional hard drives in new
so be patient. computer offerings. (Because these SSD
drives are five times faster in data trans-
fer than HDD drives, some users are re-
(One note…. 5G wireless (also known as 5G placing the hard drives in their current
cellular service) should not be confused with computer with after-market SSD drives.)
the 5GHz channel on your home Wi-Fi net- Now we are seeing a further advance-
work. Here’s a How-To Geek article that ex- (Continued on page 4)
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