Samsung opened its big Galaxy S10 event this week with its headline news: the flexible Galaxy Fold smartphone is not only real, it's really launching - not to mention it's also really expensive. It was a bold move by the phone-maker, one that ran the potential risk of overshadowing the more mainstream (and thankfully more affordable) Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e.
Another year, another new Samsung flagship, another series of questions on whether fans should make the upgrade or not. Gone are the days when consumers would grab the next shiny phone that comes out, partly thanks to the rising prices. Buyers now need a whole lot more reason to say goodbye to their old faithful companion beyond just better specs and new features. With a price tag nearly reaching $1,000, the Galaxy S10 definitely needs to make its case, especially with a distracting whole on its face.
Razer has pulled the plug on the Razer Game Store, just ten months after its launch. The online store offered thousands of digital games in the form of product codes redeemable via Uplay and Steam, with the inclusion of special bundles and discounts. The gaming hardware brand stated it was for “realignment purposes,” but it’s hard to imagine the Game Store’s closure not being a big stab in the back for CEO Min-Liang Tan and company. They may have kept reasons brief, but perhaps Razer’s game plan was telling enough of why their stint in the gaming distribution scene were crushed this quickly.
Tetris, like Mario or Pac-Man, is one of those classic game franchises that everyone knows. People who don’t play video games have played Tetris before, and the series has been around long enough to have seen the rebirth of the games industry along with multiple console generations and the winners and losers that come along with them. Tetris is one of those essential video games that everyone should play before they die, just so they can say they experienced one of the greats.
Samsung recently announced the Galaxy Tab S5e without much fanfare and it was received with equal amounts of interest. Granted, the tablet sounded more like an "economy" (Samsung will probably call it "essentials") edition of a proper Galaxy Tab S5, but the silent treatment closely echoes the reception of Android tablets of late, even from brands like Lenovo and Huawei.
Android tablets are, for all intents and purposes, dead and there is little to no hope of a revival. Chromebooks, or Chrome OS tablets, do seem to be the way forward but Google and its partners need to be careful lest they repeat the same mistakes all over again.
Google just reinvented how we navigate our way around unfamiliar places. It’s called Google Maps AR and it’s solves all sorts of problems we currently experience when travelling with a GPS.
Facebook might be setting a new world record soon but not in a very good way. Reports indicate that it is negotiating with the US Federal Trade Commission over what could be the largest fine ever levied on a technology company, breaking Google's $22.5 million in 2012. But while the still non-final multi-billion dollar penalty is seen as a "day of reckoning" for the social network giant, it will take more than just monetary fines to make Facebook change its ways.
Some are just counting down the days to the next flood of mobile announcements that will make headlines. In seven days, Samsung will make a bit splash with both the Galaxy S10 and its foldable phone. The others will follow a few days later, each with their own gimmick or shiny new feature. The LG G8 ThinQ that we've been hearing and seeing for the past few days, in contrast, seems to lack most if not all of those bells and whistles. In fact, some might even call it boring. And yet the LG G8 ThinQ might very well be the most sensible premium smartphone of 2019.
LG's mobile division reported a loss of over $700 million USD in the whole of the year 2018 - but that might not be a bad thing. LG is set up in a way in which they can lose money in one division and still make enough money in another to make up the difference. And that's just what they've done, with record revenue numbers overall - a whopping $54.4 billion for the year 2018. Here's why that's good for you, the smartphone user.
The tech market is no stranger to controversy, scandal, and criticism. From the IBM days to the recent US elections, the industry has been rocked by one scandal or another. Recently, however, there has been non-stop news on this or that problem with a company, this or that terrible bug, or this or that lawsuit.
Over the years, these have all been chipping away at the trust and confidence that tech companies have built. With all that’s happening around us, it’s only natural to wonder who we can trust and, more importantly, what has to be done to keep our technology-centric world from collapsing under the weight of all these problems.
Huawei's in a little bit of trouble right now with the United States justice department - today we're looking at how this affects the everyday consumer. The devices that've been on the market over the past few years and those on sale right now aren't likely a threat to you, the SlashGear reader, the smartphone user. If you're the sort of person who watches the news and gets concerned about businesses disobeying international trade laws - OR if you're using your Huawei phone with a T-Mobile USA sim card, you might need to take additional action.
Meizu and Vivo are trying to usher in a new breed of smartphones, a kind of smartphone that even Apple is believed to be considering. The kind of smartphone that's glass on all sides and edges, unbroken by any seam or hole, aside perhaps for the cameras on the back. The Meizu Zero and Vivo APEX 2019 Concept Phone are truly sights to behold. They still leave a few questions open, probably to be answered at MWC 2019 next week. But whether they get answered or not, there are a few things that make this kind of unibody phone far too ahead of their time.