Month: February 2022

Enlarge / The Pixel 6 Pro. (credit: Google)

The Pixel 6 is one of the best phones Google has ever produced, and the market appears to be rewarding Google for it. Today in Alphabet's Q4 2021 earnings report, the company offered a rare comment on its hardware sales. CEO Sundar Pichai called out "a quarterly sales record for our Pixel phones." Technically, his statement includes the Pixel 6 and the cheaper Pixel 5a, but this is the Pixel 6's first quarter of availability, and the Pixel a series doesn't change much year to year.

Here's Pichai's statement from the earnings call:

In 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.

Google never offers specific numbers on Pixel sales, and the company didn't change that habit today. According to the IDC, Google's highest number of phone shipments came in 2019, the year the Pixel a series first launched. Google shipped only 7 million devices for the entire year (the company would do a lot better if it actually tried to be a worldwide manufacturer). Pixel distribution is currently the worst it has ever been, with the Pixel 6 only available in nine countries, and the Pixel 5a is only for sale in two countries. A Samsung or Apple phone sells in 100+ countries, and both sell anywhere from 200-300 million phones a year.

Enlarge / Otto Frank's copy of an anonymous note he received, allegedly identifying the person who betrayed the Frank family. The note is offered as evidence that a Jewish leader named Arnold van den Bergh was the most likely culprit in The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan. (credit: YouTube/60 Minutes/CBS)

Last month, we reported on a new hypothesis about who might have betrayed the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis in 1944, which ultimately led to the death of Anne and most of her family. The new suspect: a local Jewish leader named Arnold van den Bergh, who may have handed over lists of addresses where fellow Jews were hiding in order to protect his own family. The theory was featured in a segment on 60 Minutes and is described in detail in a new book by Rosemary Sullivan: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation.

The news caused a stir, given that the named suspect was also Jewish. It also raised the hackles of historians who expressed skepticism about the hypothesis. Now, Reuters is reporting that the book's Dutch publisher, Ambo Anthos, has suspended printing for a second run of the book after questions were raised about the shoddiness of the research, per an internal email that the news service acquired.

Anne Frank in 1940. (credit: Public domain)

The email was addressed to all of Ambo Anthos' authors. The publisher wrote it should have taken a more "critical stance" on the new book. "We await the answers from the researchers to the questions that have emerged and are delaying the decision to print another run," the email read. "We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who might feel offended by the book."

Enlarge / The Sonos One. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Sonos has acquired Bluetooth audio startup T2 Software, according to a new report from Protocol.

The acquisition signals that Sonos is preparing to introduce new technologies and new products in the wireless audio space, potentially including its first pair of wireless headphones. Prior reports in Bloomberg and elsewhere say that Sonos is working on an entirely new product category, likely to be headphones.

In a comment to Protocol, a Sonos spokesperson simply said, "Occasionally, we will acquire teams, talent, and/or technology that augment our existing and future product roadmap."