The Late Summer Mailbag - Luci, Kingston, iPhone, BOE, Litra & More

Of course, the latest headlines is all about the new iPhone 11.

I am sure it won’t be long before someone in this household acquires one and of course, the snag is which one. Starting to see lots of Google news and comments about them and like the political scene, someone will love it and someone will hate it and there will be a vast middle ground of confusion.

Apple already has some terrific information available here Only problem for me is that to keep the same size I like, I would have to go with the 11 Pro Max.

Besides the new round of iPhones available soon, there are some other interesting technologies that will probably work their way into our gadgets and lives in the near future and one is the updated USB 4.0 standard.

We will still have to wait a while for it to be installed widespread. For a good read on this go to tom’s Hardware. The good news is that it will stick with the newer Type-C ports.

Luci by MPowerd is one of those wonderful technology stories that make a difference to millions of people in the world without sufficient power for lights. They have introduced the Luci Core. “Lightweight, weatherproof, durable, and super bright, Luci Core is everything you’d expect from a Luci light - and more.

With its flexible silicone arm, Luci Core is ideal for a range of uses, from outdoor adventures, entertaining, studying, and cooking to task/utility purposes and emergency prep. At only an inch thick, Luci Core is a versatile and resourceful solar-powered light. “

If you are wondering where the vast improvements in the smartphone screens are coming from, a Chinese company has won a Product technical Innovation award at the annual IFA Show in Berlin this month. IFA is a technology show in Berlin that has been held since 1924. Next year is September 4 – 9. BOE BD Cell is what they showed off:

“BOE pushed out the series of “BD Cell” products which is the brand new breakthrough of LCD’s technology. This product can achieve pixel-level blocks and brilliant HDR performance. Meanwhile, this technology can keep the features of LCD such as slim and low power consumption. By using millions of blocks of BLU, the display can realize million-level contrast ratio, 12 bits color depth and more outstanding performance of details. Furthermore, this technology can also show the light of black field lower than 0.003 nit and restore every color and detail of the image. The ultra-high display effect which we called “Not only black” shows the stunning visual experience for customers.”

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., has always been one of my favorite suppliers of memory and USB memory drives and I often see the rankings of DRAM chip makers but not seen before the rankings of DRAM module suppliers and come to find out, they are the number one supplier in the world, according to the latest rankings by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. Kingston retains its number 1 position with an estimated 72.17 percent market share, according to TrendForce. Their findings reinforce Kingston’s position in the marketplace as the leading third-party supplier of DRAM modules. The rankings for 2018 mark the 16th consecutive year that TrendForce has placed Kingston in the top spot.

From Kingston; “While Kingston considers TrendForce’s estimates overly generous, it nonetheless follows the trajectory of the company’s growth in all of its business segments,” said Mike Mohney, DRAM business manager, Kingston. “In 2018, we were able to produce over 14 trillion MBs of memory across all product lines including DRAM, SSDs and embedded solutions. This massive amount, tremendous good fortune, and the findings from TrendForce reinforces our company’s strength, position and importance as a whole in the industry.”

I have written about the Litra flash units and studio lights before, and in fact, travel with the Litra Torch, but they have come out with something new that sounds pretty cool. The LitraStudio is a RGBWW Light for photos and videos. In case you are wondering; RGBWW is Red Green Blue Warm-White.

They say it is for infinite colors anywhere. With a flash capability of 6,000 lumens, it is bright. It has a built in OLED display and you can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth or a traditional camera via flash sync cable. It also has a built-in lithium-ion 9,000 mAh capacity battery for a long run time. Pricing will be under $650.

Check out the cool color renditions below.

A very cool product I ran into several years ago promised to remove smudges and fingerprints from my camera lenses and wow, it was great. Lenspen has really expanded with just about anything having a camera on it, the need for these really useful tools just exploded.

I mean, the DSLR Pro kit of three different Lenspens is only $34.95. probably the best value I have seen in camera gear and they are for everything, smartphones, drones, laptops, and what ever that has a lens. An absolutely must have accessory.

We will see more from the mailbag next time and a couple of long term projects.

Robert Sanborn
September 2019