Facebook expands customer service tools in Messenger

Google isn’t the only one looking to improve messaging software to help businesses connect meaningfully (and profitably) with customers. Facebook just announced a new update to its own Messenger platform, which improves quick replies, expands on customer chat plugins and better customization tools.

Quick replies have been available on Messenger since 2016, but the new update adds the ability for businesses to get contact info via one of these easy response buttons. When a company asks for contact info, a quick reply button will appear with the email or phone number associated with your Facebook account. If you have more than one address or number, you’ll get to choose which one to send along.

Businesses can already customize their greeting text and color on Messenger via the customer chat plugin, but now have even more options. There’s a new setup tool to help businesses get up and running quicker than before, a new notifications system for customers to see when there’s a message from a business waiting and a persistent menu that can show up directly in Messenger. Facebook even added support for Internet Explorer so that customers who use that browser can have all of these features, too.

In addition, companies can now see how many new or open conversations there are between their Page and people using Messenger. There are also new message tags to help companies know how to respond to customers.

Encrypted SIKURPhone protects data and cryptocurrency

The security-focused Granite Phone captured the interest of even non-corporate customers when it came out in 2015. Now the folks at Sikur are back with a next-generation SIKURPhone, promising the first fully encrypted, hack-proof smartphone that can safely store cryptocurrencies. Only 20,000 units will be available for presale beginning February 27th at a promotional price of $799. The company expects to deliver them in August of this year.

The phone itself has a 5.5-inch “full HD” Gorilla Glass display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a 13MP rear and 5MP front camera and sports a 2800 mAh battery. SIKURPhone also sports fingerprint authentication, which the company claims can help recover personal data if the device gets lost or you forget your password. It runs a fork of Android, and any third-party apps must be vetted and confirmed by the company before they’re available in an upcoming app store.

When the original Granite Phone came out, it was essentially for security-conscious governmental and corporate users, but the device found a pretty strong foothold with everyday consumers. SIKURPhone adds a secure cryptocurrency wallet along with its secure OS, communication systems and third-party apps. “Securely storing information on our devices is one of our strong points,” said CEO Cristiano Iop. “We succeeded with browser and messaging security. Then we asked, why not do it with cryptocurrency? Cryptos are stored seamlessly and securely on our cloud, without compromising safety.”

In November and December, Sikur hired security researchers HackerOne to try and break into the device. “SIKURPhone was subjected to rigorous hacking tests for two months,” said COO Alexandre Vasconcelos in a statement. “We were delighted with the outcome. Hackers failed to gain access to any information.”

Catch up on the latest news from MWC 2018 right here.

Comcast tops Fox’s bid for UK pay-TV giant Sky

An interesting wrinkle in Disney’s deal to acquire most of Fox is that Fox is also in the middle of a deal to buy Sky — a major telecom company and pay-TV service in the UK. Now Comcast (which includes NBCUniversal) has jumped in the middle of that deal with an offer that values Sky at $31 billion — that’s more than Fox’s offer to buy out the 61 percent it doesn’t already own, which values the company at about $23.2 billion (£18.5 billion). Fox already has an agreement in place, but that’s under review from regulators.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said his company’s offer of £12.50 in cash for each share it buys in Sky is “a significant premium to the 21CF price currently recommended,” and that “We would like to own the whole of Sky and we will be looking to acquire over 50% of the Sky shares.”

Previously rumored to have an interest in acquiring Fox, Comcast is now in a position to complicate Disney’s pending arrangement, which would see Disney take ownership of Sky — assuming everything goes through as planned. If Comcast successfully bids for Sky, then it could give NBCUniversal a better position in the UK.

Source: Comcast (PDF) (1), (2)

Bloomberg: AT&T and Verizon plan to launch 5G hotspots

In late January, AT&T chief Randall Stephenson revealed that the carrier wants to offer customers puck-shaped 5G hotspots before phones that can handle the new speeds become available. Turns out other carriers might do the same thing. According to Bloomberg, Verizon also plans to release a portable 5G hotspot this year for those who can’t wait before the first 5G phones come out. Verizon wireless chief Ronan Dunne said in an interview at Mobile World Congress:

“I would expect that there are a range of handsets available in 2019 and some of those will be in the first half of 2019. If there’s anything available in 2018, it’s more likely to be a hotspot.”

Bloomberg didn’t have more details about the 5G pucks, but it’s not exactly surprising if all the major carriers end up releasing one. Both AT&T and Verizon are making 5G internet available this year — in AT&T’s case, it’s bringing the speedy connection to 12 cities — but there are still no phones that can take advantage of its speeds. While Huawei is working on a 5G phone with the intention of launching it before anyone else, both carriers recently dropped the brand due to concerns over Chinese government spying. ZTE is also working on its own 5G phone, but it won’t be available until at least the end 2018.

We’ve reached out to Verizon for confirmation and more info, and we’ll update this post when we hear back.

Catch up on the latest news from MWC 2018 right here.

Source: Bloomberg

Top 10 Apple TV Remote Tips and Tricks

When Apple released the fourth-generation Apple TV in 2015, it also included a new Siri Remote with the set-top box (although in some regions Apple kept the original name “Apple TV Remote” due to Siri not working in those territories).

The redesigned remote features dual microphones for Siri support as well as a glass touch surface for navigating the tvOS interface by swiping, tapping, and scrubbing to fast forward/rewind content. The remote also has a Menu button, a Home button (with a TV icon on it), a Siri button, a Play/Pause button, and a Volume Up/Down button.

With the release of the Apple TV 4K in 2017, Apple tweaked the remote design to add a raised white ring around the Menu button, making it easier to identify the correct orientation of the remote by both touch and feel. The buttons and operation of the remote, however, remained unchanged, and the revised remote is also included with new units of the fourth-generation Apple TV.

In this guide, we’ve collected 10 of our favorite tips for controlling features of tvOS using the Apple TV Remote included with the fourth generation Apple TV and the latest fifth-generation Apple TV 4K. Keep reading and you might well discover a new trick or two.

1. Quickly Switch Between Open Apps

If you have an iOS device then you’ll be familiar with this feature. To quickly switch between open Apple TV apps, click the Home button twice. This will bring up the App Switcher screen, which you can navigate by swiping sideways on the Apple TV Remote’s touch surface. Tap the surface to open the selected app, or swipe up to force quit it.

2. Quickly Restart Your Apple TV

If you’re troubleshooting your Apple TV and need to restart it several times, going through the settings screens to select Restart is quickly going to grate. Fortunately, you can perform the same action simply by holding down the Home and Menu buttons simultaneously for six seconds.

3. Sleep Your Apple TV

Similarly, if you’re regularly digging into setting screens to select the sleep option when you’re done using Apple TV, then this tip’s for you. Simply hold the Home button for two seconds and the Sleep option will appear at the center of the screen where you can promptly select it.

4. Quick Switch to the Home Screen

Apple likes new Apple TV owners to associate the Apple TV Remote’s Home button with the company’s native TV app, but that shortcut can start to get annoying, especially if the things you tend to watch don’t even show up there (Netflix content being just one example.) Thankfully, you can reinstate the Home button’s original functionality by going into Settings and selecting Remotes and Devices -> Home Button.

5. Activate the Screen Saver

You can set your Apple TV’s screen saver to come on after so many minutes have passed (Settings -> General -> Screen Saver -> Start After) but you can also activate it straight away by double-clicking the Menu button on the Apple TV Remote at any time.

6. Rearrange Your Apple TV Apps

Whenever you download an Apple TV app from the tvOS App Store it automatically appears at the bottom of the Home screen’s grid. If you’ve installed quite a few apps, you might like to rearrange them. Select the app to move and then click and hold down on the Apple TV Remote’s touch surface for a couple of seconds. The app icon will start jiggling, at which point you can swipe to place it where you want. Simply click the touch surface again once you have the app in your preferred location.

7. View Video Settings

When watching video on Apple TV, you can access a number of media playback settings with a quick swipe down on the Apple TV Remote’s touch surface. The info overlay that slides into view from the top contains options to enable/disable subtitles, as well as audio settings for language, sound processing, and speaker. Simply navigate the menus using the touch surface and click down to select. A swipe up hides the overlay and returns you back to the video with your changes applied.

8. Quick-Switch Between Lowercase/Uppercase Keyboard

When using Apple TV’s onscreen keyboard, you can avoid the hassle of navigating the cursor between the lowercase and uppercase layout, simply by pressing the Play/Pause button on your Apple TV Remote. This instantly switches the letters from lowercase to uppercase and vice versa, which makes entering passwords in particular less of a chore.

9. Quick Backspace and Access to Alternate Characters

This is another handy tip for using Apple TV’s onscreen keyboard that makes navigating it a lot less frustrating.

Next time you need to correct a mistake, don’t bother swiping all the way to the far right of the screen to select the backspace key. Instead, click down on the Apple TV Remote’s touch surface and hold until the character overlay appears. A quick swipe left will now automatically delete the last letter you entered in the input field.

10. Change Audio Output Device on the Fly

There’s a quick way to switch your Apple TV’s audio output device right from the home screen. Hold down the Play/Pause button on the Apple TV Remote, and in the menu that comes up on the screen, simply select the device you want to link to by clicking the Remote’s touch surface.

Got an Apple TV Remote tip we haven’t covered here? Be sure to share it in the comments.

Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: tvOSBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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A word to the wise: Turn a deaf ear to all extraterrestrial data transmissions

Here’s a no-brainer: If extraterrestrial beings have the technology to cross the vastness of space without suffering the physical, mental, and time-related effects, then they would undoubtedly have no problem hacking our computers once they arrived. But even if this alien race never departed from their homeworld and merely sent us a message instead, “decontaminating” the transmission and understanding its contents would be nearly impossible and even highly dangerous, indicates a recent report.

The underlying problem is the infinite unknown. While SETI searches the skies for extraterrestrial intelligence, the sender won’t always be the peaceful, happy-hearted beings from Steven Spielberg movies. Instead, we could be the recipient of a transmission from a Predator-like civilization that pinpoints our location and leads to an Independence Day-type visit. We just don’t know who or what is out there and listening. 

“There are several possible threats from an ETI message. On the most basic level, a message might represent a statement like, ‘We will make your sun go supernova tomorrow,’” the report states. “True or not, it could cause widespread panic. More realistically, a longer text could have a demoralizing cultural influence.” 

But what if the message was bigger and contained data? If a single isolated PC contained the message, then whatever possible malicious intent is contained. Even more, scientists could print the data for further investigation, and destroy said data as a precaution. But even if that PC continued to receive the same message, the data would still remain isolated. The scary aspect is when multiple PCs receive the extraterrestrial transmission, such those residing in every household. 

Although messages could in theory be printed on paper, a computer is likely required to figure out its contents. That is because these messages could contain equations, algorithms, and so on that humans can’t examine manually. The message could also be compressed to increase interstellar data transmission speeds, thus a computer is a must to decompress the data like a ZIP file. Because of the possible contents, the PC opening the letter must not have network and/or internet access. 

In one scenario, extraterrestrials could send a message with a hidden “zipped” artificial intelligence. Humans may place this received message on a PC surrounded by nukes on the surface of the moon. Even in this isolated environment, the A.I. — released remotely from Earth — could take control of the PC, disable all safety precautions, and make its way down to our planet to spread across the global network. 

In another scenario, the “caged” A.I. could make a deal with scientists to acquire freedom, such as offering a digital blueprint for cancer-eating nanobots. Taking the bait, the A.I. would be freed and humans would build these nanobots, releasing them into the world not knowing how they work, or their malicious Earth-conquering intent. 

The bottom line is, humans shouldn’t translate any code received from space, nor should we transmit code. Music and images are enough to serve as a galactic Boov-style party invitation … or a challenge, depending on the recipient. 

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Is the MateBook X Pro’s hidden webcam innovative or just unnecessary?

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

As we pointed out in our hands-on with the new Huawei MateBook X Pro, the upcoming laptop has a bizarre feature: Its webcam is concealed beneath one of the keys on the keyboard. While it’s nice to have a hardware solution to privacy concerns — the camera can’t very well spy on you when it’s tucked away beneath the keyboard — but its bizarre placement makes us wonder if the laptop webcam might have outlived its usefulness.

The webcam is one of those features that we tend to take for granted, every laptop has one, so it stands to reason that every laptop should have one, right? Well, what if Huawei’s solution, hiding the webcam beneath the keyboard, means an end to mandatory webcams on laptops?

According to our poll so far, people are more skeptical of their webcams than find them useful anyways.

The #MateBookXPro has a hidden webcam. Yay or nay?

— Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) February 26, 2018

That’s not to say that people don’t use them, but as we’ve seen from Dell’s XPS 13 lineup, webcams placed beneath the display tend to offer a less-than-flattering angle for videoconferencing. At what point are laptop manufacturers like Huawei and Dell going to just concede the fight? Is it better to have an awkward webcam than to not have one at all? After all, chances are you’re carrying a webcam in your pocket right now — and the amount of people who cover their cameras with tape is increasing all the time.

Webcams are ubiquitous and an expected feature to find in a laptop, but more and more often they’re kind of in the way. As manufacturers are looking to shave millimeter after millimeter off of those display bezels, the placement of the trusty old webcam becomes something of an obstacle. That’s why the Dell XPS 13, and Huawei MateBook X Pro opt for nonstandard webcam placement. It means they can shave those bezels down to the bare minimum. Unfortunately, that means the webcams aren’t as useful as they are when they’re located at the top of the display. Which begs the question, is Huawei’s solution innovative or style over substance?

So that’s the question this week. Is the Huawei MateBook X Pro hidden webcam an innovative way to deal with a pesky problem, or is it just a solution in search of a problem? If nothing else, it’s definitely eye-catching.

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Microsoft Teams will likely eventually offer a subscription-free version

The latest developer preview of Microsoft Teams reveals that the company’s Skype for Business replacement will likely eventually offer a free version for customers who don’t have an Office 365 subscription. References to the free version reside at several places within the client-side code, but so far there is no indication of all the limits Microsoft plans to implement for non-subscribers.

The endgame is fairly obvious: Get everyone off competing service Slack and onto Microsoft Teams. The idea is to reel in potential customers with a free service and hook them to the point of unlocking the full platform using an Office 365 subscription. Slack does something similar although customers aren’t buying into a full suite of Office applications.

For instance, Microsoft Teams may restrict file sizes with its free tier, requiring an Office 365 subscription if users want to send files over a specific size to fellow team members. Microsoft may also limit team sizes, the number of supported teams, and how long messages remain in the chat history. Connections to bots and third-party services may also be disabled.

According to reports, lines of code in the latest developer preview point to a storage limitation in the unannounced free tier. Examples include “freemium_storage_exceeded_dialog_upgrade” and “Admin action to upgrade to paid version.” In other words, once your saved files hit a specific storage limit, the client will throw up a warning to upgrade if you require additional space.

By comparison, the free version of Slack provides a single 5GB capacity shared by all team members. To get additional space, companies can pay $6.67 per user to assign 10GB of personal space for that specific team member. For $12.50 per month per user, that team member gets 20GB of personal storage. Slack’s freemium tier is essentially an unlimited trial, and Microsoft Teams is apparently taking the same route.

Microsoft’s team-based collaboration client first appeared as Office Communicator in 2007 followed by the next-generation Lync 2010 client in 2011. By 2015, Microsoft decided to cram together its Lync and Skype products to release Skype for Business. Microsoft replaced this service with Microsoft Teams in September.

Basic features provided with Microsoft Teams include obvious team support, voice-over IP calling, instant messaging, video conferencing, and the integration of other software developed by Microsoft. For businesses that rely on Office-branded products, that’s a big selling point.

Microsoft considered purchasing Slack in 2016 for around $8 billion after Slack introduced new video and voice services. But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and co-founder Bill Gates weren’t really keen on the idea, leaning more on beefing up Skype for Business rather than shelling out billions for a third-party service. Enter Microsoft Teams and a roadmap that promises to bring more Skype for Business capabilities to the newer platform.

The big problem Microsoft Teams faces right now is its inability to support Microsoft Account owners that do not subscribe to Office 365. They are likely using Slack’s free service, but that could change in the near future given the information pulled from the latest developer preview is in the platform’s future.

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IRS forces Coinbase to cough up tax data of 13,000 digital coin traders

Even though cryptocurrency is decentralized, that doesn’t mean investors are immune from the clutches of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), especially if they’re making a profit. More specifically, Uncle Sam expects his share of the cash sales made from digital currency within the calendar year. Cryptocurrency brokers can’t protect you from the IRS either, as seen with a recent batch of notices Coinbase sent to 13,000 customers. 

According to Coinbase, the company received a summons in December 2016 to produce records relating to 500,000 customers. Coinbase fought the IRS in court and reached a compromise: Specific, limited categories of information that only legally tie up 13,000 customers. The company is now required to produce this information and submit notices to all that are currently under investigation. 

The company says it must provide the IRS with taxpayer IDs, names, birth dates, and addresses. The information also includes historical transaction records for certain higher-transacting customers from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2015. Unfortunately, the company cannot provide legal or tax advice to all customers involved in the IRS’ request. 

“Because Coinbase received a summons on December 8, 2016, and more than six months passed before our challenges to the summons were resolved by the court, the period of limitations under sections 6501 and 6531 of the Internal Revenue Code (title 26 of the U.S. Code) were suspended beginning as of June 8, 2017 and continuing through the final resolution of Coinbase’s response to the summons,” the company says. “This may be relevant to the tax returns that you have filed for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 calendar years.” 

The IRS initially wanted nine classes of information: 

• Complete user profiles 
• Know-your-customer due diligence 
• Documents regarding third-party access 
• Transaction logs 
• Records of payments processed 
• Correspondence between Coinbase and Coinbase users 
• Account or invoice statements 
• Records of payments 
• Exception records produced by Coinbase’s AML system 

But as stated, Coinbase refused. Eight months later, the “narrowed summons” include the following: 

• Account/wallet/vault registration records 
• Records of Know-Your-Customer diligence 
• Agreements or instructions granting a third-party access, control, or transaction approval authority 
• All records of account/wallet/vault activity 

Capital gain or loss stemming from property transactions, including virtual currency, must be reported with IRS Form 8949 that’s attached to Schedule D on Form 1040. Form 8949 contains a space to describe the type of property sold, which was only used by 800 to 900 Americans when they electronically filed taxes in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Given the financial state of cryptocurrency, the IRS believes there should be additional reported gains, hence the tax request to Coinbase. 

According to Coinbase, it serves more than 10 million customers spanning across 32 supported countries, generating more than $50 billion in exchanged currency. The San Francisco-based company brokers exchanges of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin for a per-transaction fee. In North America, Coinbase charges a 1.49 percent fee for converting digital currency into cash. 

The IRS filed its case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No. 17-cv-01431-JSC. Coinbase will respond with the required information within 21 days. For more information about receiving a 1099 form from Coinbase, head here.

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Here’s how Dirac is enabling Xiaomi to create better audio products

Dirac is a Swedish company that specializes in digital audio tuning solutions.

The first time I heard of Dirac was at Xiaomi’s Mi 3 launch event in India all the way back in 2014. Back then, Xiaomi was an unknown Chinese manufacturer that was taking the first step into a foreign market.

Hugo Barra was on hand to showcase the device, as were executives from Flipkart, which nabbed exclusive rights to sell the phone in the subcontinent. The Dirac came up during the Q&A when Barra was asked about the audio prowess of the Mi 3.

That was an interesting question as the Mi 3 was the first device borne out of Xiaomi’s collaboration with Dirac. Over the years, the two brands have worked closely together in fine-tuning the audio on Xiaomi’s phones. Here’s what you need to know about Dirac, and its impact on smartphone audio.

What is Dirac, and why should you care?

Dirac is named in honor of Nobel-winning British physicist Paul Dirac, whose delta function set the stage for signal processing. The company itself is based out of Sweden, and specializes in digital audio optimization.

Over the years, Dirac has worked with a range of automobile manufacturers to tailor cabin acoustics in the luxury car segment, with the company’s solutions ending up in models from Bentley, Volvo, BMW, and Rolls Royce. The company also works with the likes of Harman, Pioneer, Datasat, and DTS to optimize professional loudspeakers and fine-tune room acoustics for recording studios.

In recent years, Dirac has turned to mobile audio, teaming up with a slew of manufacturers that include OPPO, Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus, and others to deliver the best possible sound from a phone’s speaker. Dirac focuses on two distinct areas when it comes to optimizing phones: tuning the headphone jack, and tweaking the performance of the loudspeaker.

Focusing on mobile audio tech seems like a strange move for a company like Dirac, which had primarily focused on customizing audio for home theater systems and high-end cars until five years ago. But with smartphones becoming the defacto way of listening to music on the go, the brand recognized the segment as a new avenue of growth. The foray into smartphone audio worked out for Dirac, with a majority of the company’s revenues now coming from mobile audio solutions.

Tailoring audio solutions for Chinese brands

Dirac’s first collaboration in the mobile space occurred over five years ago, when it partnered with OPPO to optimize the audio quality of its phones. Since then, Dirac’s audio optimization technologies have been a mainstay on OPPO phones.

A year later, Dirac signed its first agreement with Xiaomi, and over the years the Swedish brand has been heavily involved in tuning the audio on Xiaomi’s phones. As mentioned earlier, the first Xiaomi product Dirac worked on was the Mi 3, and the phone featured the company’s headphone optimization technology.

Dubbed Dirac HD Sound, the technology relies on impulse and magnitude frequency response correction to deliver a more dynamic soundstage, even when connected to budget headphones. The goal is to improve overall sound clarity and bass fidelity while correcting the frequency response so as to deliver a flat curve.

Dirac is the reason why budget headphones sound great on a Xiaomi or OPPO phone.

If you’ve ever hooked up a pair of budget headphones to a Xiaomi or OPPO phone and came away impressed with the sound quality, now you know why.

I talked to Erik Rudolphi, Dirac’s General Manager of Mobile, about the company’s collaboration with Xiaomi and how it enabled both brands to innovate in this segment. Rudolphi said that Xiaomi “pushed” Dirac to launch new technologies into the smartphone market at the time.

The partnership led to Dirac creating an externalization technology that allows traditional headphones to reproduce a soundstage that’s akin to a listening room. Called Sensaround, the tech relies on Dirac’s soundfield optimization algorithms to deliver virtual surround sound. The goal with Sensaround is to move the sound “out of your head, like you were listening to speakers,” says Rudolphi.

Dirac also created a set of EQ filters tailored to specific Xiaomi products, with the soundstage changing based on the headset connected. You can even select the particular Xiaomi headphones from a list of available options in MIUI settings and tailor your listening experience to that model.

Loudspeakers need optimization too

In addition to tuning the headphone jack, Dirac works on optimizing audio coming out of a phone’s loudspeaker. As the speaker module in a mobile phone is tiny, it becomes a challenge to deliver loud and clear audio from it. According to Rudolphi, this particular issue is the main driver behind the development of its algorithms:

It’s a big challenge to get audio out of such a tiny speaker, and this has been a driver for the development of audio post-processing algorithms at Dirac.

Dirac’s solution for loudspeakers is called Power Sound, which sees the company tweaking the acoustics of the loudspeaker to deliver a more balanced and louder sound (as well as more bass), and a digital controller that optimizes audio output. The bass enhancements, in particular, are noteworthy. From Rudolphi:

By adding overtones to the spectrum that would have been caused by a bass tone, we can make it sound like there’s more bass than there is.

Also when you play at lower levels, there’s room to boost bass. Then we have advanced multiband dynamic range compressors, through which we can boost the sound to the maximum on the speaker.

Unlike generic frequency correction algorithms, Dirac tunes the audio for each speaker, and as such the audio coming out of a budget Redmi Note 5 Pro is different to that of the Mi Mix 2.

Rudolphi also mentioned that Dirac has ten engineers on-site at Xiaomi that are working full-time to tune the audio acoustics for the various models in the Chinese manufacturer’s portfolio. With phone manufacturers using two or three different speaker supplier for each device, Rudolphi said that there’s a lot of tuning work involved in making sure that every individual speaker performs efficiently:

Behind every phone, there’s probably weeks of work in just tuning the audio for the speaker.

Dirac’s partnership with Xiaomi isn’t limited to phones, as the manufacturer worked with the Swedish firm over its AI-enabled speaker in increasing sound clarity and enhancing the bass from the two on-board audio drivers. The AI speaker is hugely popular in China, seeing wait times of up to eight months. Interestingly, Xiaomi has announced that it is teaming up with Microsoft to bring Cortana to the device, signaling a launch in global markets.

With more and more brands getting rid of the 3.5mm jack, we’re quickly moving to a world where USB-C audio is the way forward for wired audio. Dirac sees a lot of new opportunities in this field, with Rudolphi stating that the company was working on solutions tailored for USB-C and Bluetooth audio.