Author Archives: Ewdison Then

Netbooks are coming back in style. That is if you believe the likes of Chuwi, GPD, and One Netbook. These Chinese brands have been pushing small, large pocket-sized palmtop computers for quite a while now and they're taking the next big step in that direction. Literally, too. They have announced their 8-inch racehorses in an attempt to offer a more comfortable typing experience that you can still put in your extremely large pocket or petite bag.

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In the midst of the storm that blasted Facebook over the past two years, Instagram remained mostly unshaken and a shining beacon in the company's portfolio. Yes, it had its fair share of lapses, but those seemed to pale in comparison to Facebook's faults. Now, however, it seems that Instagram's past may be coming back to haunt it, as a still unresolved mystery may cause its most popular and most profitable users to lose trust in the social network.

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Some Microsoft faithful might feel that Microsoft lost an edge when it gave up on its homegrown web rendering engine but the benefits of basing Microsoft Edge on Chromium could make up for what little was lost. In addition to less development effort on the engine itself and support for a larger number of Chrome extensions, Microsoft Edge also gets support for platforms outside of Windows 10. One of those is macOS and now, Mac owners and developers can get a taste of what this new Edge has to offer, if they're willing to put up with a work in progress.

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Most of us take time for granted and presume that seconds are just, well, seconds. For some applications in science and technology, however, being precise down to the millisecond can make a world of difference. For that kind of precision, atomic clocks are the name of the game and the NIST's in-development clock has a beating hart so small that a coffee bean would stand tall beside it.

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If you imagined Samsung having a PR panic attack over the Galaxy Fold fiasco last month, you can probably imagine how Huawei is taking all the recent news that has been gnawing at its image in the past days. The US is finally ready to show it has more than just bark and has started to push Huawei into a corner. Google will reportedly stop licensing new Huawei phones but now it is officially reassuring existing owners they have nothing to worry about.

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As one series ends, another one is set to begin. Just before HBO aired the finale of Game of Thrones, it showed a glimpse of what's coming for its other popular TV series. Compared to GoT, Westworld is both an old name and a new franchise and, thanks to that, its creators are able to take the world in a different direction. And what should be next after the wild, wild west but none other than Futureworld.

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Pokemon is one of those almost never-ending franchises that keeps on adding new monsters. That's great news for Niantic Labs because it won't be running out of new content any time soon. They just Gen 4 critters from the Sinnoh region just a while back but now they're adding a few more. But perhaps a bit more interesting for some collectors is the arrival of two new Eeveelutions, including a one-time trick to get them.

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It may be bleeding from quarter after quarter of losses but don't count LG out of the smartphone game just yet. It hasn't thrown in the towel and is, in fact, bullish on pushing its mobile phones forward despite all odds. Its latest strategy is to put its eggs in the AI basket by making its own, still unnamed dedicated artificial intelligence chip in the hopes of differentiating its phones from its competitors.

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You don't often hear of smartphone display makers unless they're Samsung, Sharp, Sony, LG, or JDI. Some panel makers, however, do want their customers to know that they were there first in whatever innovation those smartphone makers may be bragging about. AU Optronics (AUO) definitely wants to give off that vibe in it latest showcase at the SID Display Week 2019, which includes two smartphone LCD screens addressing two of the biggest trends in smartphones these days.

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At I/O 2019 last week, Google announced that Nest would be its single brand not just for existing Nest products but also for its other smart home devices, like the Home smart speakers. It was meant to consolidate the branding strategy and lessen confusion but, as with any reorganization, it produces more confusion at the start. Now Google is providing details on how that transition will proceed, especially with the Works with Nest platform.

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ASUS slogan for its ZenFones for the past years has been "In Search of Incredible". This year, it seems to have adopted a new one in light of the recent trends in the smartphone market. For the recently announced ZenFone 6, that slogan is "Defy Ordinary" and ASUS is claiming to by defying conventions by designing a smartphone camera that doesn't leave a notch, doesn't slide, and doesn't rise. Instead, it just flips.

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All the fuss around foldable phones and tablets and even self-driving cars may have taken the attention away from the other holy grail of transportation. Lilium, however, is trying to get the spotlight back on that stage, specifically the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) stage. Building on the prototype it successfully flew two years ago, the German startup is proudly proclaiming that is has delivered what it promised back then: a five-seater version of its unique air taxi jet.

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