Netflix’s throne could be shaken up in months to come. The OG streaming site’s dominance is challenged by big changes in the industry. Rising competition, supply issues and an erratic streaming landscape are all giving the multi-billion company a big headache. These changes are forcing Netflix to respond early to keep its lead.
Apple is dominating the smartwatch business and Google is finally feeling the FOMO. With Apple Watch devices capturing almost 46% of the market in Q2, Google with its WearOS smartwatch software, knew it had to respond. On November 1, Google paid $2.1 billion to acquire fitness-tracker brand Fitbit. They current sit second in the wearable band market, at 24%.
"Stock Android" is a term often lauded in the tech world. Android the way Google intended it to be, without bloatware and other confusing modifications, seems to be a standard many users want. Diverging from that standard tends to draw some lukewarm reviews.
Facebook's plans to launch its very own cryptocurrency was met with heavy opposition last week, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Libra proposal to Congress was hijacked into a hearing of the company's past mishandling. To put it briefly, the social media company's involvement in the Cambridge Analytica and election controversies had broken its trust with authorities. Without a clear structure for regulation, there are concerns that Zuckerberg's new Libra project could undermine the national dollar, as well as contain loopholes for criminals to exploit.
A future of surveillance and cameras draws even closer to our reality. This month, the world’s second-largest country, India, joined the list of governments that have announced plans to build a country-wide facial recognition system. This follows China’s commitment to similarly build a facial recognition database that can identify any citizen within seconds.
Here are two great handheld gaming consoles. One is currently taking the gaming world by storm; The other has faded out of production with a whimper. They are the Nintendo Switch and the retired PlayStation Vita, consoles so alike but with sales figures that couldn’t be more different.
This is the way to do it. Microsoft has been hard at work this year, unveiling a long list of new products, including a pair of folding devices: the Surface Neo and Surface Duo. Both these devices have two screens connected with a hinge that can fold a full 360 degrees. The Surface Neo is a folding tablet that Microsoft envisions as its evolution of a laptop. It has two screens and runs Windows 10X, a new version optimised for folding screens. And the smaller one, the Surface Duo, has two 5.6-inch screens bolted together and runs on Android.
It seems like every other tech brand is developing its own “true” wireless earbuds. Since the success of Apple AirPods, companies have quickly jumped on board the bandwagon, offering their renditions of these tiny audio devices, housed in a small charging case.
Smart glasses have been on adverts, movies and the news for decades now. From Google Glass way back in 2012, to Peter Parker’s EDITH spectacles, we’ve seen why there’s certainly a place for tech like this in our world. These technologically enhanced spectacles come with all sorts of tricks up its sleeve, from inbuilt sensors and cameras. Most also have Augmented Reality or Heads-Up Displays (HUD), like what you’ll find in Iron Man’s helmet - Despite this awareness, smart glasses have never really kicked off, even after being in mass production for many years now.
Rising tech companies like Uber and WeWork have been on the news lately, but not for reasons they would have anticipated at the start of the year. What was meant to be a record-setting year for tech companies listed on the stock market has led to major disappointment, with many of these big names losing up to half of their stock value in a matter of months.
Our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man has swung back to Marvel, keeping Tom Holland’s incarnation of the hero alive. A new deal between movie studios Sony and Disney agreed to keep Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and even confirming the release date of a third Spidey film on July 16, 2021.
Not one, but two mobile gaming subscription packages have launched this month. Google Play Pass for Android and Apple Arcade for iOS have joined the subscription model, in the same vein of Netflix and PlayStation Plus. Each of these services grant you access to hundreds of titles and perks for a monthly fee – both at $4.99.