Technology - Google News |
- Samsung is working on a phone design that would finally be more exciting than any iPhone
- Google I/O 2018 preview: Five talks to plan for at this year's developer's conference
- Free to play, expensive to love: 'Fortnite' changes video game business
| Samsung is working on a phone design that would finally be more exciting than any iPhone Posted: 04 May 2018 07:31 AM PDT A report from a solid source that just hit the wire on Friday morning suggests that Samsung may finally have a launch schedule in place for its mysterious new Galaxy X. The company first confirmed that it was working on a smartphone with a foldable display back in 2017. At the time, a Samsung executive said that the company was targeting 2018 for the phone's release, but numerous reports have since stated that the phone's debut has bene pushed back to 2019. Honestly, that's a very good thing, and it's uncharacteristic for Samsung. The company has been known to rush out new products long before they're ready for primetime, so it's refreshing to see Samsung take a step back and make sure it gets things right before releasing the Galaxy X. According to this new report, the phone will have a 3.5-inch screen on the outside and the approximate equivalent of two 3.5-inch displays on the inside. When it folds open, its total screen area will be in the high 6-inch range. It's a nifty idea and the Galaxy X could be truly impressive if Samsung manages to use a folding OLED panel so there's no seam where the hinge is placed. But to be frank, it's really not all that appealing to me. The device is bound to be awkwardly thick, and I'm not sure gaining a diagonal inch is worth dealing with the large size, the inevitable hit to battery life, or the weird aspect ratio. As it turns out, Samsung is in the early stages of working on a radical new smartphone design that would be completely unlike anything we've seen before. Before we get into Samsung's exciting new design, check out this video from all the way back in 2016: Did you catch that part that began at the 57 second mark? Panasonic demoed a television with a display that is completely transparent when it's turned off. It's absolutely incredible, and I need 10 of them right now. If you go back a bit to the 37 second mark, you can see another awesome design that puts a transparent display on the front of a wine cooler, but this time Panasonic only lights up part of the screen at a time. This way, the panel can display information but you can still see the wine inside the cooler. By now you probably see where we're going with this. What would happen if Samsung took these technologies and shrunk them down so they could fit in your pocket? Well, you would end up with one of the most exciting and novel new smartphone designs the world has ever seen.
The regulatory filing hawks over at Patently Mobile just dug up a pair of patents that were awarded to Samsung this week by the Unites States Patent and Trademark Office. As illustrated in the technical drawing above, the patents cover a smartphone with a transparent design. That would be… awesome. As you might have surmised after watching the video above, a Samsung phone with a transparent display could light up the entire screen and be used just like a regular smartphone. But portions of the display could show graphics while other portions remain transparent, resulting in an augmented reality experience the likes of which the world has never seen on a smartphone. Samsung first showed off fully functional transparent displays all the way back in 2015, so the company has been working on this technology for quite a while now. Of course, that doesn't mean a smartphone with a transparent display will launch anytime soon. In fact, even with these new patents brought to light, Samsung may never launch a phone with a transparent display. Companies constantly work on new technologies that never see the light of day — bet let's hope that's not the case here, because this device could be the most exciting smartphone the world has ever seen. |
| Google I/O 2018 preview: Five talks to plan for at this year's developer's conference Posted: 04 May 2018 05:01 AM PDT Google's spring schedule is always an exciting dichotomy between the predictable and the unexpected. We never know what services might get axed during the company's regular spring cleaning, but we can always depend on the I/O developer conference—and with it, a good chunk of Google's non-Pixel announcements for the year. From our vantage, we think we've got a good idea on what to look forward to at this year's event. So if you're planning your own schedule for which talks to listen in on, we've got the details here. The three big events from every I/O are on this list—because they're always relevant. But there are a few more to keep an eye out for in light of Google's recent announcements and our own expectations. Keep in mind, though, that Google could sneak some new talks into the schedule after Keynote announcements. The Google Keynote
If you're familiar with the Google news cycle, then the I/O Google Keynote is something you know to tune in on. It's one of Google's two most significant announcements for the year, and it's always packed with information and new products or services, hosted by CEO Sundar Pichai. It's the one to watch if you're just gonna watch one. The Keynote distills down all the news for the next three days into an hour-and-a-half, making it easy for you to stay in the loop. At the Keynote, you can expect that Google will reveal every new app, product, or service it has planned to show off during the event, with live demonstrations when possible. The Keynote starts at 10AM sharp, so don't sleep in too much come Tuesday, May 8th, or you'll miss the most important event of the series. Android Fireside Chat
While the Keynote is the formal reveal for Google's hot new stuff, the Android fireside chat is an intentional informal event. It's just a bunch of Google's developers, including a ton of people from the Android team, hanging out answering questions posed by the audience and livestream chat. It's sometimes funny, sometimes technical, but there are always a couple questions that reveal something interesting or new about Android as a platform that wouldn't otherwise come to light. Don't expect to hear Dave Burke wax poetic with a pre-written speech as he ambles across a stage hyping messaging apps (à la Sundar Pichai). Burke's much more likely to crack a few jokes about the Android group's immediate plans, revealing some of the more specific or technical details behind earlier announcements. For example, here's what last year's fireside chat looked like: The Keynote starts things off on Tuesday, but the Fireside Chat (literally) finishes the event off on Thursday, May 10, at 3:30PM. The Developer KeynoteRounding out the top 3 is the Developer Keynote. It's a more overtly technical discussion which follows the general Keynote. This year it's staggered a bit behind it at 12:45 PM (after a series of Office Hour discussions and a lunch break, most likely).
In general, it will probably cover a lot of the same details that are revealed at the more consumer-focused Keynote but directed towards those with a slightly more technical understanding of the subjects being discussed. If you're a developer, aspiring developer, or just really into Android (as we are), then it's worth watching, especially if you have a mind to updating your apps for the latest version of Android, or if you're interested in Google's ongoing Kotlin efforts. Measuring Material DesignWith all the changes to Android's design in the latest Android P developer previews, We're curious to hear Google talk more directly about it's Material Design 2. Since it's revealed a Measuring Material Design session on Thursday, May 10th at 12:30PM, we expect that we'll probably hear more about those details then.
Android P DP1's Settings menu We've seen its effects in action on Android, Gmail, and even Chrome now, but we've yet to hear the unifying vision or principles behind this updated, rounded, super-white schema. With all the products that have seen the updated design language land, Google is sure to chat up the details behind it at some point during I/O, and this talk sounds like the most likely bet. What's new with Android TV
Lastly, it's been a while since Google revealed anything big about Android TV. But with the addition of its first-party Android TV apps to the Play Store earlier this year, and the sketchy-looking Google-Branded Android TV dongle that showed up in FCC docs last month, it seems possible that the company may still have plans for the otherwise abandoned platform. The what's new with Android TV session is set for Tuesday, May 8th at 3PM. While some of it might verge on the technical, as the "what's new" talks sometimes do, it should still provide some insight into changes in the platform, if Google has any planned. Bonus talks to watchThere are other talks we're personally excited for, like "what's new in Android," "the future of the Android app model and distribution on Google Play" series, and "AI Adventures: art, science, and tools of machine learning." (That last one I'm particularly excited to see.) There's even an after-hours concert on May 9th that could be fun, and a couple other keynotes on subjects like "the future of computing" and "design, machine learning, and creativity." It's impossible for anyone to watch every single talk during the three-day period live. Thanks to Google, most of the events should be recorded, though. So if you miss anything or can't find the time, you can always go back and watch it on YouTube. |
| Free to play, expensive to love: 'Fortnite' changes video game business Posted: 04 May 2018 06:10 AM PDT (Reuters) - To see the storm that online video game "Fortnite" has unleashed on the world, just visit Jett Sacher in Brooklyn. The 13-year-old spends an hour or two every day on the game with his friends and is not afraid to spend his pocket money on it - bit by bit. "So I bought one dance, two skins and the battle pass," Sacher told Reuters TV about recent gaming sessions. "So that's, I spent $20 on both skins so $40 ... and the dance was another $10 so $50, 60 bucks, something like that." Sacher's pay-as-you-go expenditure on dressing up his online avatar in the 'free-to-play' game helped "Fortnite" take in an estimated $223 million from in-game purchases in March, according to Joost Van Dreunen at research firm SuperData. "Fortnite," a sort of hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft," drops 100 people onto an island to fight each other for survival. It is a game-changer in the industry, analysts have said, because of the huge revenue it is making from "tween" and teenage boys purchasing outfits and other add-ons. Its publisher, Epic Games, is now worth $4.5 billion, according to Jefferies analyst Tim O'Shea. Rival video game makers Activision Blizzard, creator of "Call of Duty," and "Grand Theft Auto" owner Take-Two Interactive lost billions of dollars in market value in March as investors took notice of Fortnite's ability to wring cash from players. One big winner is Chinese internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd, which bought 48 percent of Epic in 2012. Fortnite's storm is also giving a big boost to Amazon.com Inc's online video service Twitch, where gamers broadcast their efforts to larger and larger captive audiences, and Discord, a chat app for gamers, which have both boasted new records. Analysts say Microsoft Corp's Xbox and Sony's PS4 are also doing well, thanks to getting a slice of the in-game purchases and a boost in hardware for gaming. One of the top Fortnite streamers is a 20-year-old Swedish gamer who goes by the name BogdanAkh. He said he makes about $1,000 a month from his bedroom in Stockholm, where he streams his plays on Twitch, talking to other players through Discord wearing a mohawk with blond tips and big black headphones. "If you really think you want to make a lot of money, you have to put a lot of work into it," he told Reuters TV. Fortnite is forcing change in the gaming world. The concept of arena-style survival, called "battle royale" in gaming lingo, is now likely to show up in other titles as well. And the success of the 'free-to-play' model could put pressure on big gaming companies' sales of games that cost anywhere from $40 to $60 or even more, said O'Shea. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the company is nimble and the creative team is keeping interest in "Fortnite" high by constantly adding new items to sell and only selling them for a limited time. "The idea that they can charge 15 or 20 bucks for something that other games charge a dollar by making it scarce is brilliant," Pachter said. Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Bill Rigby |
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