Samsung wanted to launch the fantastically expensive Galaxy Fold back in April, but the first batch of review units failed left and right. Samsung recalled the units to rework the foldable display, and now it says . The Galaxy Fold will ship in September for the same $1,980, but not all US carriers are interested in selling the device anymore. The Galaxy Fold was the first “real” foldable Android phone we saw announced. There had been plenty of foldable OLED demos and “developer” devices like the FlexPai, but the Galaxy Fold had Google’s blessing and Samsung’s industry-leading hardware. It turns out even Samsung wasn’t ready to build a foldable phone.
If you are a gamer and have been looking for a new smartphone, then Razer’s blandly named Phone 2 may be perfect for you. It’s loaded with high-end hardware and a fast high-res display. There is also an exceptional deal on IPVanish VPN’s service, which is 20 percent off its regular sale price. Razer’s second smartphone is well equipped to run the latest Android-based video games. It features a remarkably fast 120Hz QHD display and a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. To increase gaming performance, Razer also equipped this phone with a special passive cooling solution with vapor chambers that helps to keep the CPU and GPU running at peak performance.
Consumer home security cameras continue to proliferate, and Amazon-owned Ring has been under fire for the way it cooperates with police to share video footage. A newly leaked document indicates the company’s “Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal” . Ring reportedly required at least one police department to promote Ring cameras in exchange for portal access. Ring’s police portal allows authorized law enforcement officials to request video footage directly from consumers. Legal experts and privacy advocates have expressed concerns over Ring’s police portal even without this newly revealed quid pro quo. Police typically need to go through legal channels to get warrants for videos, but Ring makes it easy for them to collect footage from wide swaths of a community.
Apple debuted its custom butterfly keyboard mechanism in the 2015 MacBook before expanding it to the MacBook Pro in 2016. At the time, the company claimed the butterfly switches were a revolution because they made keyboards so much thinner. However, with these computers, and analysts now predict Apple will begin phasing out the butterfly switch at the end of this year. The butterfly mechanism is indeed much thinner than traditional scissor switches, but they’re also more prone to failure in the real world. No one uses their laptop exclusively in a sealed clean room, so dust and debris are sure to fall on the keyboard from time to time.
Looking for an affordable VPN solution that doesn’t skip on features? Right now, IPVanish is offering up a 20 percent discount when you invest in a one-year subscription. This sale ends soon though, so act fast! (List price: $77.99) IPVanish VPN’s service gives you access to over 1,300 servers located in 75 different locations around the world. The company also takes a strong stance on anonymity and will steadfastly work to protect your privacy. No logs are kept of any data sent through the servers, which makes it impossible for the company to disclose your browsing history even if they wanted to.
Microsoft’s model for how it updates Windows 10 has steadily evolved since launch — and been criticized for how major bugs continue to slip through the cracks. The company’s messaging on these topics has not been particularly good; its blog posts have tended towards self-praising, feel-good discussions of its own improvements. Today, however, the company unveiled some changes to how it’s Windows updates. While Microsoft hasn’t specifically said this, general expectations are that the changes are permanent, not a one-off adjustment. Up until recently, Windows updates were delivered to Fast Ring Windows Insider testers first, for early evaluation. After several rounds of improvements, those builds were then sent over to the Slow Ring for secondary testing.
It has become increasingly difficult for climate change deniers to rationalize their position. They’ve gone from claiming that the globe isn’t warming to saying this is just part of a normal cycle. That position is just as wrong, according to climate scientists. A trio of new studies , showing that the current rate of warming is “unparalleled” in the last 2,000 years. Modern climate change opponents often point to anomalies — like the Roman Warm Period that ran from 250 to 400 CE and the Little Ice Age that occurred in the 17th through 19th centuries — as evidence than our current situation is normal.
One of the dubious gifts of modernity has been the rise of so-called “blackouts,” or periods when content isn’t available on the pay-TV service you, erm, pay for, due to payment disagreements between the companies that make TV content and the companies that broadcast TV content. to the American Television Alliance, there have been 230 blackouts so far this year, a new record over the 213 blackouts that occurred in 2017. The retransmission fees that cable companies collect have exploded in the past 12 years, from $200M in 2006 to $10.1B in 2018. The American Television Alliance is an industry lobby group representing TV providers (cable and satellite companies, as well as telecoms that carry TV).
The Nintendo Switch has been a massive hit for Nintendo, and the company is launching a cheaper “Lite” version of the console in just a few weeks. No game console is without its issues, though. Switch owners have increasingly reported “Joy-Con Drift” problems that cause unintended movements. It’s no “red ring of death,” but gamers are still annoyed. Now, Nintendo is reportedly taking it seriously, . Switch owners started whispering about Joy-Con Drift shortly after the console’s launch. Because of some internal hardware fault, the thumbsticks on some Joy-Con controllers begin registering movement even when you’re not touching them.
