The Fold 2 is winning early approval, and more tech news you need to know today

Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Wednesday, 2 September 2020.

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G is here

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 stepped out of cover yesterday, marking the second-generation of Samsung’s big-time foldable screen phone. As did the price of $2,000. But the $20 in extra costs over the last release looks well worth it, even as you could hope the technology and device itself will drop in cost over the next few years.

• You can catch Samsung’s launch event replay here (YouTube) — a nice compact 22 minutes.

Early impressions:

• Samsung managed to get the device to a bunch of the tech world on day one, and while day one impressions never tell the full story, universal murmurs of approval for the better device could be heard.
• My colleague David Imel at Android Authority is the lucky one with the Fold 2 and found it much less plastic-y, with much more metal and glass and for a better look and feel.
• It starts with the screen on the front now looking much more like a 2020 device than something a bit outdated.
• And unfolding it reveals a big screen, no notch, more glass, more metal, and a better design. It’s a 120Hz screen that adapts to what you’re doing to save on battery life.
• There are some concerns around battery life: it only packs the same size battery as the Note 20 Ultra, despite the extra power demands from the screens, plural.

• The camera system looks capable too.
• It does still have a camera bump at the back despite all the real estate to fit sensors and lenses, and while there’s a selfie cut-out on the front screen, Samsung encourages you to take selfies using the rear cameras, opened up and pointing at you.
• There’s a much-improved hinge mechanism, which is good both for mechanical reassurance, but also it acts to now let you open the fold to any position between 0 and 180 degrees, and it’ll stay in place.
• Oddly, Samsung did drop one spec: Dropping from 512GB internal storage to 256GB, for some reason.
• Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out, especially after last year’s early review problems for the original Fold.

Oh, and really got cash to burn? There’s a Thom Browne edition of the Fold 2 for a healthy $3,299. But at least themed Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Buds Live, and other customized accessories are included?!

2. NVIDIA’s time to shine: Ampere for gaming, new RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs, starting at $699 and launching September 17th. Cheaper RTX 3070 from next month. (AnandTech). It’s clear this is now, finally, the ray tracing we’ve been waiting for. Check the new marbles video demonstration that looks great (Gizmodo). And, Fortnite is getting NVIDIA RTX ray tracing support on PC, as will Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War when it arrives (The Verge).

3. Google’s Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G appear to have passed through the FCC, and both support 5G 6GHz and mmWave for all major US networks (Android Authority).

4. LG confirms its twisty smartphone is coming on September 14 (Android Authority).

5. Not just the POCO X3 next week — another POCO phone is launching next week too, a non-Pro POCO M2 (Android Authority).

6. Samsung announces The Premiere, a luxury ultra-short throw 4K laser projector (The Verge).

7. Google and Apple change tactics on contact tracing tech: now, they’ll also provide the technology for sending and receiving alerts, no outside app required (Wired).

8. Microsoft will identify manipulated media with a confidence score, launches SpotDeepfakes.org (Engadget).

9. Amazon’s contract delivery drivers are being forced to game Amazon’s system, by hanging phones in trees outside Whole Foods and Amazon delivery stations (Bloomberg).

10. Dating app Bumble preparing for an IPO above $6 billion (Reuters).

11. Two airline pilots landing at LAX in Los Angles reported “A guy in a jetpack” flying alongside them (The Drive). Incredible really, no further info yet: “American Flight 1997: ‘Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jetpack.’”

12. ELI5: “Why is it when you touch the metal part of a plugged-in phone charger you don’t get shocked?” (r/ELI5).

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