Technology news

GUEST: In the early 1980s, Irving Grousbeck and his colleagues at Stanford Business School launched a revolution in the way that entrepreneurs and investors fund, manage, and grow mature businesses. Their creation — the search fund — changed the way many investors thought about equity investments, turning fund managers into quasi private equity shops and posting impressive returns as a result.
One way to think about the search fund model is by comparing it to the three factors that g

After taking a year off from announcing its latest smartphone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung has returned this year to show off the new Galaxy S9. While the phone looks mostly the same, its interior has been upgraded with all the latest specs to bring users new camera modes, updated Bixby features, and a fingerprint scanner that’s placed... well, where it should have been in the first place. There’s also a new AR Emoji feature that’s supposed to take on Apple&r

In a new report, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities says that Apple is updating its wireless AirPods and is working on its own brand of high-quality over-ears headphones, which could arrive later this year, according to Apple Insider.The report says that Apple plans for the headphones to “be as convenient as AirPods with better sound quality,” and that they could arrive by fourth quarter this year. It also notes that the headphones are expected to “be priced hi

We’ve spent the last couple months hearing a lot about the kinds of speeds that 5G will theoretically be able to offer at its peak, but what about how the next-generation networks will work in actual, less than ideal real world conditions? That’s what Qualcomm is looking to answer with the 5G simulation tests it’s releasing at Mobile World Congress, and if the real world holds up anything close to the company’s simulations, then the future of mobile internet is going to

Zero has been occasionally described as the “Tesla of motorcycles,” and last year’s model DS ZF6.5 as the “Model 3 of motorcycles.” When you’re one of the only electric motorcycle manufacturers in the game, it’s frankly hard to avoid these comparisons. But after climbing aboard a DS ZF6.5 late last year, I got the sense that it wasn’t all just hot air.
It was a short ride, so the scope of these impressions is limited. Additionally, the proverbial

Samsung just announced the Galaxy S9, and now we’re getting details on how much retailers and wireless carriers are going to charge for it. The cheapest way to get the phone (without a trade-in) is through Samsung itself. But pricing gets surprisingly more complicated when you bring in wireless carriers: AT&T and Verizon are charging extra, but they’re also offering trade-in discounts that can more than offset the price increase.
Here are the details we have so far — we&rs

As you may have heard, it has been two years since the Snapchat-turned-Twitter video “Damn, Daniel” changed the way we think about viral content, white sneakers, and Weezer.If you haven’t heard, all you need to know is that two years ago, two boys became very famous for a short period of time — a period of time with ups and downs and baffling surprise twists — after one of them filmed the other one wearing a pair of white sneakers. Observing the white sneakers, he

 While Nokia’s former handset business forges ahead with its new device strategy under licensee HMD, Nokia itself has taken one more step to build out its business with carriers in a new wave of services. To coincide with MWC in Barcelona and a bigger step into the WiFi business, the company today announced that it has acquired Unium, a startup out of Seattle that builds technology for… Read More

Star Wars: The Last Jedi scored a handful of Academy Award nominations this year, including one for best Visual Effects. As it did last year with Rogue One, Industrial Light and Magic has released a pair of behind-the-scenes clips that showcase how the film’s special effects came together.The first clip shows off the film’s opening space battle, where Resistance starfighters go up against a First Order fleet. Director Rian Johnson used some practical hanger sets and an A-Wing fighte

When people talk about escapism in video games, they usually mean huge, sprawling worlds you can get lost in. There are vast fantasy realms like in The Witcher, a post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Fallout series. The kinds of games you can play for dozens or hundreds of hours, losing an entire evening while the real world around you slips away. But who has time for that? Lately I’ve found myself searching for a different kind of escapism. Smaller spaces that don’t offer an entire wo

Russian hackers were responsible for a cyberattack against the 2018 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony, and tried to make it appear as though North Korea was responsible, reports The Washington Post.Citing officials from the US intelligence community, the Post says that Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) gained access to around 300 computers, hacked routers, and distributed malware in the lead-up to and during the event’s opening ceremonies. The contests themselves were

Lately, my phone really wants me to turn on Bluetooth. I only own one Bluetooth gadget (a UE Boom 2 I keep around my apartment) and I typically turn the antenna off when I’m not actively using it, but lately it’s been popping back on when I’m not looking. It’s a deliberate move by Apple: under iOS 11, turning Bluetooth off from the control center simply puts Bluetooth on time out until the next morning instead of disabling it permanently. Even when it’s off, the an

While internet video continues to grow its coverage, television advertising is losing ground. Young people no longer watch TV as they turn to YouTube, Netflix, and other sources. As such, advertisers are actively transferring budgets from TV to digital sectors. We are going to look into the questions: “Why is native video advertising likely to replace TV?” and “who is driving the change?”. More importantly, how can companies adapt to the changing face of advertisement in

 We’ve known for a while that Samsung’s been planning an Animoji competitor for its latest handset. Now that we’ve actually seen (the admittedly clunkily named) AR Emoji in action, we can testify to the fact that it’s some combination of compelling and creepy. That last part first. Like the iPhone X, the Galaxy S9 takes advantage of its on-board face scanning technology… Read More

Samsung just announced the Galaxy S9, and now we’re getting details on how much retailers and wireless carriers are going to charge for it. The cheapest way to get the phone (without a trade-in) is through Samsung itself. But pricing gets surprisingly more complicated when you bring in wireless carriers: AT&T and Verizon are charging extra, but they’re also offering trade-in discounts that can more than offset the price increase.
Here are the details we have so far — we&rs

There’s nothing that we as a society get more excited about and panicked by than technological progress. On one hand, we understand that innovations like artificial intelligence and Bitcoin are autonomous, powerful entities that many of us will never truly know — and what we don’t know, we don’t always trust. On the other hand, we recognize that these technological advancements were created to make our lives easier. You might ask yourself how it’s possible to be gr

Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S9 today, and yes, as indicated by previously leaked images, there is a headphone jack. While many companies have opted out of including a headphone jack — the iPhone X, Pixel 2, and Huawei Mate 10 Pro — some, like Samsung, have continued to include the headphone jack and be... just fine.
Sure, Samsung could have readily ditched the 3.5mm connector, but why? As said before, wireless audio is fine, not great. No one is asking for headphone jack

 If you were having any doubts about Samsung’s commitment to its DeX, consider them assuaged. The company introduced its smartphone docking hardware with the Galaxy S8 and has talked up a new version for every big phone release since then — and today’s big Galaxy S9 reveal is no different. We were pretty lukewarm on the idea — or at least skeptical of how big a niche such… Read More

Samsung had the best smartphone cameras on the market a few years ago, but I’ve felt it’s lagged behind Google, Apple, and Huawei the last generation or two. DxOMark and other reviewers seemed to agree. With the Galaxy S9, Samsung wants the crown back. I had the chance to play around with the S9 and S9+ before their official announcement at MWC and there’s a lot to like. The smaller device will cost $720 ($30/month), while the Plus will go for $840 ($35/month). Pre-orders

Huawei announced its first 5G chip this morning at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which will allow the company’s mobile devices to access the next generation of cellular networks, 5G.The company claims that its Huawei Balong 5G01 chip is the first to support the new 3GPP standard for 5G networks, and that it should be able to download data at 2.3Gbps. Given the apparent size of the chip, it’s likely that this will show up in mobile hotspots and not phones. Hua

HMD Global, the Finnish company that licensed the rights to produce Nokia phones, first revealed a Nokia-branded Android flagship back in August. At Mobile World Congress today, HMD is launching the Nokia 8 Sirocco, an upgraded variant that comes with some surprising design changes. HMD has opted for glass on 95 percent of the Nokia 8 Sirocco, with a tiny stainless-steel chassis than runs along the sides.
The result looks rather impressive, and the fingerprint reader has been moved to the rear

Google has been trying to re-engineer Android so it works better on lower-end devices. While Google has been attempting this for nearly four years with its Android One effort, the search giant rebranded with an Android Oreo “Go edition” for low-end phones back in December. Android Go is designed to run better on phones with 512MB or 1GB of RAM, thanks to OS tweaks and “Go” versions of popular Google apps.
This week at Mobile World Congress, we’re starting to see th

Back in 1999, Keanu Reeves was famous for playing Neo in The Matrix, and not for looking sad on a bench. Nokia was also the “world’s leading mobile phone supplier” back then, and it used this popularity to feature its Nokia 8110 “banana phone” in The Matrix film. At the time everyone who considered themselves cool (definitely me) wanted a Nokia phone just like Neo’s, but most of us had to settle for the Nokia 7110 with its spring-loaded slider.
Now HMD, maker

 Alongside HMD’s big bet on reviving the legendary Nokia brand and business through a licensing deal and a new wave of handsets that it is unveiling today at MWC in Barcelona, the company also announced another interesting piece of news: it has entered a new partnership with Google, where HMD/Nokia is now a leading participant in Google’s Android One — a program where Google… Read More

In December, we learned that the OnePlus’s 5 and 5T phones couldn’t stream video in high-definition. The company has now fixed the problem, but there’s a catch if you want to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime: you must mail your phone back to the company to get the update installed.The phone’s inability to stream HD footage from services like Netflix and Amazon Prime stems from the device’s lack of support for Google’s Widevine Level 1 DRM, which a number of serv

 Nokia’s 8110 — the distinctive ‘candy bar’ feature phone with a slider opening — was once the phone that everyone wanted but no one could afford, made popular through the Matrix film franchise. Now HMD, the company that has the license to make Nokia phones, is hoping for a hit by bringing it back. Today, at MWC in Barcelona, Nokia officially took the wraps off the… Read More

The first Android Go phones are coming to market, and today, ZTE announced its first device for the project. The Tempo Go runs Google’s new Android Go OS and has 1GB of RAM coupled with 8GB of storage. The company hasn’t said how much the new phone will cost, but the idea behind the program is affordability along with a reliable Android experience.Other specs include:Qualcomm MSM8909 processor
2,200mAh battery
5-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera
Charge

ZTE is announcing two new additions to its mid-range Blade phone lineup today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Both the Blade V9 and its cheaper Blade V9 Vita counterpart feature stock Android Oreo 8.1, dual cameras, rear fingerprint sensors, and displays with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Both phones also feature upgraded camera software that should be better at handling low-lighting conditions.I didn’t get a chance to compare the V9 photos to the V8 lineup, but I did notice a significant

 Things have been mostly quiet on the Android Go front since Google announced the low-power mobile operating system back in May — aside, of course, from an unexpected name chance to the decidedly less catchy. Android Oreo (Go Edition). One of the things that’s made the offering unique from the start, however, is that unlike most of these sorts of lite offerings targeted at the… Read More

The Huawei MateBook X Pro that was just introduced here at Mobile World Congress 2018 is one of the most impressive laptops I’ve seen in a long while. The 91 percent screen-to-body ratio is class-leading, giving us a laptop with vanishingly thin bezels to match the latest flagship phones. The X Pro is also powerful, has a quad-speaker Dolby Atmos audio system, and is exceedingly thin and light. And it has a webcam hidden away in its keyboard!
Because of its extremely thin bezels, this lap