While we’re struggling to get out of bed, deciding which pair of socks to wear to work, there is a group of people working hard to track asteroids that could literally end all life on Earth. No, it’s not the Avengers - they’re called the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), but they may just be Earth’s mightiest heroes.
Huawei users have had a nerve-racking couple of months since being blacklisted by the Trump administration. Part of the escalating trade war with China, the ban would mean U.S. companies would no longer be able to trade with Huawei. Google, Intel and Microsoft would all have to stop selling software and parts to them, which would be highly detrimental to any technological giant.
There's probably little debate that AI-powered smart assistants have become very useful. They started out as good fun but without much utility and have sometimes even become the butt of jokes thanks to misheard commands. These days however, the likes of Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri have become a normal part of modern tech life, with or without smart speakers involved. But for all their usefulness and help, these services may have made people less vigilant about what they say and do and, it turns out, those secret utterances might not be so secret at all.
Live and breathe Apple? Here’s the latest piece of Apple tech available this month for you to flex. It’s the Apple Card – except it doesn’t flex. It’s a solid sheet of sturdy titanium that sits in your wallet with the rest of your cards. Launching Apple’s venture into the banking and finance industry, Apple Card works like Apple Pay in the form of a card. The card comes in handy at cashiers and checkouts that don’t accept mobile payment. Created with the help of Goldman Sachs and powered by Mastercard, Apple’s new venture has plenty of pedigree and should be accepted at just about any cashier.
The Galaxy Note 10 has just broken cover and, just like its predecessors, it has something new for Samsung DeX users. To be fair, the convenience of being able to not just control your phone but access the "DeXtop" from any Windows or Mac computer is a major step forward, but it may have fallen short of what fans of the platform have been expecting or even requesting for a few months now. Samsung DeX definitely has a lot of potential but Samsung may have missed the boat on that one this year.
Unlike the Galaxy S10 launch more than half a year ago, Samsung's Unpacked 2019 almost felt muted and surrounded with mixed reactions. It may have been Samsung's most controversial Galaxy Note announcement in quite a while. Some love the new features but others deplore what Samsung removed in turn. Naturally, that raises questions among buyers whether they should go for the Galaxy Note 10 or the Galaxy Note 10+ or if they should opt for something else to spend their hard-earned money on.
Tablets are dead. That has been the mantra that many in the tech world have been chanting for the past years, along with "PCs are dead". Looking at the general statistics for the entire tablet market, that does seem to be the case. But IDC tablet shipment numbers for the second quarter of the year reveals a peculiarity of the market. Despite the slow and steady decline, Apple's iPads remain strong and have, in fact, grown year over year. There is still a tablet market that's just waiting for a renaissance and Google, Samsung, and friends are in a position to take advantage of the path that Apple forged in advance.
The Pixel 4 may give Google's Soli gesture recognition its first commercial outing, but it's the car dashboard where I suspect the radar technology could make its biggest splash. Handiwork of Google's ATAP advanced projects team, Soli uses short-range radar to track movements and allow users to interact with virtual controls, something the Pixel 4 will dip an early toe into.
Verizon has decided to update its lineup of unlimited plans, and it's making things more complicated in the process. Whereas before Verizon had three different unlimited plans to choose from, there are now four (along with a "Just Kids" plan you can tack on to any unlimited plan). What you get ultimately varies from plan to plan, and Verzion says that you can mix and match these on a line-by-line basis so that everyone has a plan that fits their usage habits.
Today we're taking a quick look at all the major smartphone brands to divine their future health. If you're the sort of person that keeps a smartphone longer than a year, you'll do well to have a basic knowledge of the current state of the device's software updates. If your phone brand falls behind on software updates, chances increase that your phone will be targeted by malicious entities. Like, hackers and stuff.
Ever since my first actual Android smartphone (no, the first Galaxy Tab doesn't count), my main driver has always been a Galaxy Note, only skipping the Galaxy Note 4 (not much of a differentiator) and the Galaxy Note 7 (fire hazard). Far from being a Samsung fanboy, I have and continue to swear by the S Pen, unrivaled in any smartphone, Android or otherwise. But despite that loyalty to the mighty stick, there is one Galaxy Note hallmark I wish never came to be. In fact, I wish the entire curved edge screen design never caught on.
I confess, I was skeptical about the IKEA SYMFONISK speakers, the Swedish retail behemoth's first collaboration with multi-room audio specialists Sonos. IKEA has always been about affordability, building products to a strict price tag. In contrast, Sonos represented a more polished - and more expensive - experience.