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Galaxy S20, Galaxy Bloom, and more tech news you need to know today
Your tech digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Friday, January 10.
1. Secrets: Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy Bloom, and more secrets-no-more
At CES, serious work gets done alongside robot toilet roll delivery robots. Apparently, and enjoyably, the serious work includes secret meetings, which have become not-so-secret; blurry photos from secret meetings included.
- Some of these no-longer-secret meetings (per Korean media – ajunews.com), were held by Samsung Mobile.
- In these clandestine pow-wows, chief DJ Koh met with telecommunications partners, showing off four new devices ahead of their launch.
- Those devices have names: Samsung Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Bloom.
The first name isn’t totally unexpected. The Samsung Galaxy S11 has, for about a month, had an alternative name of the Galaxy S20 swirling around. It appears that’s now confirmed – RIP 11.
- To explain, Samsung is set to shift on February 11, at 11am PST, from the Galaxy S11 to the Galaxy S20 series, which will include three phones: the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra.
- (I have been chuckling at the various 11 related times given that the S20 is now the suggested name, but if, as suggested, Samsung is aligning its Galaxy S and Note lines with the year 2020 and so on, it makes sense?)
- A key S20 feature leaked, as well: 8K video shooting, and Samsung has collaborated in advance with Google/YouTube to be able to upload 8K footage to YouTube.
- Not that almost anyone will have an 8K display to watch the footage, but you can stream some 8K samples from YouTube already. If your internet and device can handle it.
- Other leaks have suggested the S20 display will feature a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling.
Galaxy Bloom:
- Then there’s the Galaxy Bloom!
- At a substantially less than 8K resolution is this blurry shot, also from ajunews.com, that tells us quite a bit about what the Bloom is:
- It shows the Samsung Galaxy Bloom will be the name given to the clamshell, horizontal foldable smartphone we’re expecting in 2020 that will not be called the Galaxy Fold 2 if this is to be believed.
- Like the Moto Razr, it’ll snap shut into a much smaller form factor.
- Reports are that the Bloom will be marketed towards “20-something women”, with DJ Koh apparently explaining that the phone is inspired by French cosmetic firm Lancôme makeup compacts.
- The Fold 2/Bloom will come in 4G, with a 5G option, and also shoot 8K video.
2. LG V60: another dual-screen LG flagship phone coming to MWC 2020? (Android Authority).
3. The best (and worst) of the weird tech we saw at CES 2020: PhoneSoap, Mutrics Gaming Glasses, and more(Android Authority).
4. Amazon warned online shoppers using Honey, the browser extension for comparison shopping and rewards (acquired by Paypal for $4B in November), that it was a “security risk” (Axios).
5. Google’s CES booth was more show than substance (Engadget).
6. “Would you put your family on a [787] Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t,” one Boeing employee said to another in February 2018. The response: “no.” (Reuters).
7. Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto for the year is out, and he’s ditched annual challenges, needs cynics to fix 2030 (TechCrunch). Another take on Zuck’s notes here (Engadget).
8. Vice has details about a surveillance vendor that works with US government agencies, selling surveillance products including a child’s carseat, Tombstone Cam, and the Shop-Vac Covert DVR Recording System, which houses a camera, DVR, and battery in a Shop Vac vacuum cleaner (Vice). Arguably, worse/weirder stuff is on Amazon.
9. All the movies you should give a damn about in 2020 (Gizmodo).
10. This blew me away: Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits (Vox).
11. “Why haven’t black boxes in airplanes been engineered to have real-time streaming to a remote location yet?” (r/askscience).
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