Samsung’s new phone shows how hardware innovation has slowed

NEW YORK — Samsung’s new smartphone illustrates the limits of innovation at time when hardware advances have slowed.

The new phone, the Galaxy Note 9, will be faster and will last longer without a recharge. But while earth-shattering new features are in short supply, it will carry an earth-shattering price tag: $1,000.

The minor improvements reflect a smartphone industry that has largely pushed the limits on hardware. Major changes tend to come every few years rather than annually, and this isn’t the year for anything revolutionary in the Note.


The new phone will get some automatic photo editing and a stylus that can serve as a remote control. But the highlights will be a bigger battery, a faster processor and improved cellular speeds.

“You don’t see massive breakthroughs anymore from a hardware perspective,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies. “Everything is a little bit better, but nothing’s revolutionary.”

A 21 percent boost in battery capacity from last year’s Note 8 should translate to more than a day of normal use without a recharge. Samsung has been conservative on battery improvements ever since its Note 7 phone in 2016 developed a tendency to burst into flame, prompting an expensive recall and delivering a hit to the company’s reputation.

Since then, Samsung has subjected its phones to multiple inspections, including X-rays and stress tests at extreme temperatures. The company is also sending phones to outside labs, including UL, for independent safety tests.

“We’re three generations removed now,” Samsung’s director of US product marketing, Suzanne De Silva, said of the company’s renewed confidence in the battery. “This is the right innovation at the right time.”

Although Samsung’s Note phones are large, niche products intended for power users, they offer a preview of what’s to come in the mass-market Galaxy S line. A dual-lens camera, with better zooming, came to the Note 8 months before the S9 Plus got it, for instance. The Note also got curved edges before that became standard on Samsung’s flagship phones.

The new phones will come out Aug. 24 in the U.S. Borrowing from the iPhone’s playbook, the Note 9 will have the same price regardless of carrier. The starting price is $1,000, an increase from the Note 8, but on par with Apple’s top-of-the-line iPhone X. The Note 9 will get double the storage, at 128 gigabytes, compared with typical high-end phones, including the iPhone X. Samsung will also sell a 512-gigabyte version for power users for $1,250.

Even though the improvements from last year aren’t huge, Technalysis Research analyst Bob O’Donnell said they will come across as major for those who haven’t upgraded for a few years.


Thursday’s announcement in New York comes about a month before Apple is expected to unveil new iPhones. There’s been speculation — unconfirmed by Apple — that all new iPhones will ditch the home button and fingerprint sensor and rely entirely on facial-recognition technology found in the iPhone X. The Note 9 will still have a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. In a jab at Apple, Samsung executives also frequently emphasize that their phones have standard headphone jacks, which newer iPhones no longer do.

The camera in the Note 9 will use artificial intelligence to detect what’s in a scene — whether that’s food, flowers or a sunset — to automatically tweak images to make them pop. It’s much like applying filters with an app, except that the phone will do this itself, much the way Google’s Pixel phones already do.

As with the Pixel, the Note won’t be saving a version without the tweaks. Purists can turn the feature off to get images that reflect what the eye sees — an option unavailable with Pixel. The camera will also offer a warning if someone blinked in a shot, or if the image is blurry.

The Note’s stylus will now have Bluetooth, allowing people to control phones and apps from up to 30 feet away. This will let people control music or snap selfies just by clicking the stylus.

Samsung also said the popular shooter game “Fortnite” is coming to Android and will be exclusive to Samsung phones until Sunday.

source: technology.inquirer.net

NY Times teams with Google parent to tame comments

NEW YORK, United States — The New York Times said Tuesday it was teaming with Google parent Alphabet in an effort to help filter its online reader comments to maintain a “civil and thoughtful” atmosphere.

The newspaper said it would work with Jigsaw, a technology incubator at Alphabet, to improve and expand its comments section.

The move comes amid frustration at many media organizations which have been seeking to boost reader engagement without allowing abusive and offensive comments.

“Maintaining a civil and thoughtful comments section is no easy undertaking, as evidenced by the number of publishers who have shut down their comment capabilities in recent years,” said Kinsey Wilson, the editor for innovation and strategy at the Times.

“But the Times has been and will continue to be dedicated to providing our readers with a safe online community to discuss the most important issues.”

Currently, the prestigious daily employees a team of 14 moderators who manually review some 11,000 comments each day. Only about 10 percent of Times articles are open to comments because of the time required for review.

Jigsaw uses algorithms to help this process, based on the moderated comments in the newspaper’s archives. The open-source system will also be made available to other online publishers, according to the statement.

“We believe open sourcing nearly a decade of Times comment archives will benefit the entire journalism industry and potentially make it easier for other publishers to manage comments on their sites,” Wilson said.

The Times “hopes that the project will expand viewpoints, provide a safe platform for diverse communities to have diverse discussions and allow readers’ voices to be an integral part of nearly every piece of reporting,” according to a Times statement.

In 2014, The Washington Post and The New York Times agreed to work together on a project funded by the Knight Foundation to create open-source software that can be adapted for news websites to get a better handle on online discussions.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Nike unveils its first self-lacing sneaker

NEW YORK — Forget about slipping out of your shoes because of loose laces or feeling pressure from too-tight tying when doing those sprints.

Nike Inc. has unveiled its first power-lacing sneaker — it allows users to make the fit looser or snugger on the fly by pressing buttons on the side of the shoe.

The world’s largest sportswear brand, based in Beaverton, Oregon, unveiled the sneaker along with a host of other innovations Wednesday at a media event in New York.

The innovations come as Nike is digging deeper into personalized products and services, while focusing on reaching a goal of posting $50 billion in annual revenue by the end of its fiscal 2020 year. It reported $30.6 billion in revenue for its latest fiscal year that ended in May.

Other innovations Nike highlighted include “anti-clog traction,” which uses technology that prevents mud from sticking to the soles of soccer cleats.

Nike also unveiled a new Nike Plus app, an all-access pass for athletes. The app, available in June, connects to its suite of apps that include running and training aids and provides access to Nike experts.

“We’ve entered a new era of personalized performance,” said Mark Parker, Nike’s president and CEO. “Today, athletes want more than just a dash board. They want a relationship.”

Nike says that the potential for shoes with adaptive lacing is huge because it provides tailored-to-the-moment custom fit.

When users step into the shoe, their heel will hit a sensor. The athlete then can press two buttons on the side that adjust the grip. But Nike says that in the future, it won’t be manual. The sensor could sense when the user needs to have the shoe tighter or looser.

The self-lacing sneaker, which is called “Nike HyperAdapt 1.0,” will be out starting the holiday season and will only be available for members of its loyalty Nike+ app. It will be available in three colors. The price was not revealed.

“The adaptive lacing system is an excellent first step towards truly adaptive personalized footwear,” said Matt Powell, sports industry analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research firm.

source: business.inquirer.net

An end to dishwashing chores? Researchers develop self-cleaning plate

Good news for housewives and housebands: washing the dishes after a meal may soon be passe, after researchers developed self-cleaning plates with a liquid-resistant coating.

Swedish scientists Hanna Billqvist and Anna Glansén developed a prototype plate and bowl set coated with a “self-cleaning” coating that makes it resistant to dirt and liquids, Smithsonian.com reported.

"The innovative tableware is comprised of a special variation, known as nanocellulose, that’s not only lightweight and malleable, but also durable enough to withstand accidental drops. In fact, the wonder material's strength is on par with Kevlar, a synthetic fiber that’s used in manufacturing bulletproof vests and other impact-resistant products," it said.


It added the material can be shaped into dining sets via a flexible sheet that can be heat-pressed into a mold.

Designers can even decorate the bowl using a marbling technique, to give it a blended blue-and-white glazed appearance.

Glansén added the self-cleaning plate and bowl are not only safe, but work on water and oil-based foods.

She said cleaning just involves turning it sideways or upside down over a sink.

"There are products on the market that are superhydrophobic coatings, but they cannot be used in connection to food, and they are made from other chemicals. This new technique is based on natural substances," she said.

The researchers developed the prototypes in collaboration with Stockholm-based natural materials research firm Innventia and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

For now, Innventia holds the rights to the project and is exploring if it is practical to bring it to consumers.

On the other hand, the Swedish Forest Industries Federation commissioned the project.

Hydrophobic coating

A super-hydrophobic coating that Glansén describes as all-natural is engineered to mimic the the water-shedding ability of the lotus leaf.

Glansén did not specify how the water-resistant coating works, but Billqvist told design blog Dezeen KTH used a process called Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions (RESS) to make the surface superhydrophobic.

Smithsonian.com quoted Billqvist as saying a wax is dissolved in carbon dioxide at high pressure and temperature, then sprayed onto the surface.

Edible concerns

But Smithsonian.com noted the use of hydrophobic technology around edible goods has been a sticky issue, with some voicing concerns about public safety.

It cited the case of Teflon, which the Food and Drug Administration approved for use in cooking food but was processed with perfluorooctanoic acid, which some have linked to an increased risk of cancer and birth defects in animal studies.

Similar containers coming this year?

Meanwhile, Smithsonian.com said similar food-safe hydrophobic containers could be introduced later this year.

It noted researchers at MIT in 2012 invented LiquiGlide, a spray-on, non-toxic, hydrophobic coating that can let sauce containers empty entirely.

Glansén pointed out their technology is meant to be a long-term solution, for products with a "long life-span." — VC, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com