Author Archives: Osmond Chia

Google Assistant turns three this year. Whether you love it or not, it’s the AI for everyone. Google’s intelligent little helper has been powering almost every other smartphone for the past few years, getting better and smarter each day. Despite its dominance on mobile devices, Google shows no signs of slowing down. Aggressive marketing, widespread device integration and new innovations show where Google is placing its eggs.

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One year has passed since the release of the OnePlus 6, one of the best smartphones released in 2018. Loyal to the Chinese manufacturer’s “flagship killer” philosophy, the phone packed best-in-class specs at a price much lower than its flagship counterparts – a compelling reason not to fork out a thousand dollars just for a new phone.

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A common misconception: "Internet security isn’t important, I’ve got nothing to hide anyway." Your conversations may be trivial for now, but you never know when you and your friends or colleagues discuss matters that could be of value to someone else who shouldn’t be eavesdropping.

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Instead of television channels, many kids today stream their video content on YouTube or Netflix. Being able to select the specific episode and show you want gives parents and children more flexibility. But there’s a dark side to this convenience – the proximity of explicit content.

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There are several luxuries that we expect of phones today. We expect them to have multiple cameras and a full, bezel-less screen. We also usually expect our phones to be waterproof, indicated by an IP rating. The IP rating, which stands for Ingress Protection, is an international standard for how well-sealed a device’s electrical parts are from the elements like dirt, dust and moisture. It even includes intrusion of our hands and fingers.

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Humanity’s obsession over edge-to-edge bezels, triple cameras and future-proofed specs has brought about the inevitable, to quote Thanos. But instead of an evil purple sociopath, this inevitable response to our pursuit of smartphone excellence comes in the form of the $399 Google Pixel 3a.

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As exciting as phones have been this year, people don’t seem to be buying new phones as much as they used to. The Big Two have all reported a dip in profits from their flagship phones. On Tuesday, Ruth Porat, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, also said sales of the Google Pixel 3 were not going well compared the Pixel 2.

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Samsung is no stranger to crisis. When complaints about faulty Galaxy Fold screens started popping up on the internet, it’s hard not to make comparisons to the Note 7 disaster in 2016. Second to the safety hazard posed by exploding phones was the PR crisis Samsung experienced that certainly didn’t help turn things around.

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Books aren’t dead. Just ask Amazon, which has seen their collection of e-books grow consistently over the past two years. The e-book market today is pretty well-associated with Amazon’s Kindle e-readers. It’s one of the best ways to read these digital books and probably the option with the fewest distractions.

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A couple of years ago, the cyber-sphere seemed to be split into two sides: one for internet regulation, and one for absolute freedom of its users. But in recent times, the threat of terrorism, abuse, exploitation and treason have made internet regulation a lot more appealing for nations that once stood by the values of freedom of expression.

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Samsung has had better days. After exploding phones, faulty foldable screens were the last thing it could want. From its PR to R&D departments, things must be pretty intense now at Samsung. It genuinely seems like they have a manufacturing crisis on their hands, with multiple tech reviewers reporting similar cases of damaged screens just within this week. The trend of faulty screens seems to centre on users removing the plastic film over the screen, mistaking it as a pre-installed screen protector.

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During April 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope project turned eight satellites towards a point in space. Scientists were trying to take a photo that would confirm years of speculation and theorizing. They were taking a picture of the now famous black hole at the centre of the Virgo A galaxy Messier 87.

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