Samsung’s Frame is a work of art for your wall
The Frame TV is a QLED 4K UHD TV from Samsung that looks exactly like a picture frame, available in 43″, 55″, 65″. Optional magnetic wood-looking frames can be added to match your decor. By opening an account on the Samsung Art Store, you can choose different styles of art, or display colletions by your favorite curators. Of course you can display your own photos and, if you get bored, you can watch TV. CEPro
dis-rup-shun: This product is brilliant, gorgeous, exciting, and a bit frightening. First of all, every home should have one and I am fighting the urge to just buy one right now. Samsung has followed well the new immutable law of consumer electronics which says every connected device must feature exclusive content that merits a monthly fee. Most significant, however, is what this may do for art. The Art Store is the iTunes for art, making understanding and “collecting” digital art a new fad, potentially driving demand for the real thing and spurring Rent the Runway, or Spotify types of subsciption businesses for famous as well as not-yet-discovered artists. Art world, prepare to be rocked.
Amazon goes to outer space
Amazon’s project Kuiper proposes to launch 3000 satellites to provide Internet service to rural areas (and everywhere else). The network of low orbit satellites would increase the capacity of international data connections. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: A 2009 academic journal stated that $.09 of every retail U.S. dollar was spent at Walmart. Fast forward to 2029, when at least $.20 of every dollar will be spent with Amazon on groceries, food delivery, drone delivery, video content, consumer electronics, streaming music services, and Internet service from outer space and, could it be, Amazon health care? If the Network Effect continues to hold, satellite broadband service will be good for the global economy.
Speaking of satellites, Elon Musk launched another one
SpaceX Falcon Heavy hurtled a satellite into space on Thursday, commissioned to launch an Arabsat satellite. The Falcon Heavy’s twin boosters again made a synchronized landing at Cape Canaveral while the rocket’s core landed on a drone ship at sea. CBSNews
dis-rup-shun: In Elon Musk fashion, rockets now don’t just work (mostly), they land, like synchronized swimmers, on small targets, and some of those targets are floating drones bobbing on the sea. Is this stuff really happening in our lifetime? In the clash of titan egos, will Musk help Bezos launch 3000 satellites (see above)?
Israel in space
Israel was also in space this week. Its Beresheet (Genesis) lunar lander, also launched by SpaceX (see above), had to be rebooted, then took a selfie moments before landing but was, moments later, lost. TechCrunch
dis-rup-shun: Space: everybody’s doing it. Clearly winning a place in space is critical to big companies and ambitious countries that see space as the superhighway to connect travelers, via commercial craft, and to position electronic devices to spread Amazon Prime content, or packages, or to spy, or, unfortunately, point weapons from their floating outposts. It looks like the new measure of power is one’s place in space. Mr. Trump, where is your satellite?