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Daily Authority: šŸ“ˆ Starlink, Pixel sales

Record Pixel sales, new Starlink Premium, and more tech news you need to know today!
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Published onFebruary 2, 2022

ā˜• Good morning! Itā€™s Groundhog Day, stay safe out there!

SpaceX adds a Premium tier

starlink premium
Tristan Rayner / Android Authority

Ok, what you might want to know this morning is that Elon Musk tweeted a link to news that SpaceX has a new deal:

  • The new Starlink Premium now promises up to 500Mbps for $500 a month.
  • To get it, youā€™ll also need a new premium antenna with ā€œdouble the antenna capabilitiesā€ and an upfront cost of $2,500.
  • The new site dedicated to the option says: ā€œStarlink Premium users can expect download speeds of 150-500Mbps and latency of 20-40ms, enabling high throughput connectivity for small offices, storefronts, and super users across the globe.ā€
  • And itā€™s still pretty flexible: ā€œWith Starlink, there are no long-term contracts, no data caps, and no exclusivity requirements.ā€
  • In addition, the new ā€œextra-ruggedā€ dish may work better in very hot or cold environments, and thereā€™s 24/7 prioritized support, too.
  • It looks like a pitch towards businesses to buy: the answer to the perhaps shouted demand from an office or someone in the field, something like ā€œJust get me internet that works!ā€
  • By the way, SpaceX has now launched 1,993 Starlink satellites to date, with one tracker saying that 1,468 of them are providing Starlink services, so coverage should be getting better, though the end goal is 42,000 sats.

Pixel 6 sales record

Google Pixel 6 wireless charging Pixel Stand
Robert Triggs / Android Authority

The other thing you should know this morning is that last night, Google confirmed a good quarter for the Pixel.

  • Now, unfortunately, we donā€™t have a lot of detail: no sales figures or dollars, exactly.
  • But what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai did say was: ā€œIn Q4 we set an all-time quarterly sales record for Pixel. This came in spite of an extremely challenging supply chain environment. The response to Pixel 6 from our customers and carrier partners was incredibly positive.ā€
  • So, no numbers. Google mightā€™ve sold one more phone than the last quarter, which would give it every right to say we set a new record. Thatā€™s how records work.
  • But really, it seems bigger than that, and ā€¦thatā€™s pretty much expected given Google actually tried.
  • The Pixel 6 series is acclaimed, the Pixel 6 alone is a great deal and you donā€™t need a Pro, and thereā€™s more marketing for it than ever before ā€” and Iā€™ve seen that in my city and heard it from a bunch of people in different parts of the world.
  • Google also signed 45 carrier and retailer partnership deals, which is a key vector to getting phones into hands.

Roundup

Weirdness Wednesday

You have to hand it to the kid. Jack Sweeney, 19, has been running a Twitter bot (@ElonJet) that tracks Elon Muskā€™s private jet since 2020.

elonjet twitter

For some reason, in the past month or so, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to take down the bot via Twitter DM. And thatā€™s where it gets interesting: now Elon has shut down Twitter negotiations with the teen creator.

  • Mashable has been keeping admirable tabs on the whole thing, with Protocol doing the early yards in talking with Sweeney.
  • Anyway, first came the Twitter DM offering $5k, with a conversation unfolding about flight tracking via ADS-B Exchange data, and even pointing Musk towards using a free information-blocking program set up by the FAA, called Privacy ICAO aircraft address program, or PIA.
  • But Sweeney, whose dad works in the airline industry, has been able to keep tracking olā€™ Musky.
  • Sweeney countered Muskā€™s offer by asking for $50k, or a Tesla Model 3, or an internship at SpaceX or Tesla, and was then blocked by Musk.
  • Anyway, the Twitter bot is still working, even with the PIA blocking program, even with some kind of weird military-level blocking going on.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor

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