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By Eliot Brown WSJ Fri., Jan. 11, 2019 As the smartphone market matures, startups are racing to predict what’s next, and venture-capital firms are spraying money into fields like virtual reality, smart watches and even implants in the brain. Here are some of the startups attracting investment. Magic Leap Investors including Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Saudi Arabia’s main wealth fund have poured money into this much-hyped maker of augmented-reality glasses. The bugeye-like glasses with tinted lenses—released only to software developers thus far—overlay virtual reality-like images onto the real world, designed for use by gamers and neurosurgeons alike. Early reviews have been lukewarm. Funds raised: $2.4 billion. Latest Valuation: $6.4 billion, according to PitchBook Inc. Focals by North Priced at $999, Focals by North represents a less flashy but potentially more practical version of futuristic glasses. The glasses, released last … [Read more...] about After the Smartphone: The Race for the Next Big Thing
Smartphones
This device is an open rebellion against everything that smartphones have become
Did your 2019 New Year’s resolutions include spending less time with your smartphone? You could activate Apple’s “Screen Time” functionality on your iPhone (or Google’s Android-based equivalent), but that’s kind of like asking your heroin dealer to help you kick. Luckily, a small cottage industry has sprung up within the past several years to get you off your smartphone by actually replacing the physical device itself. Punkt, Palm, Light–these hardware startups are all relying on thoughtful-but-aggressive design to accomplish one goal: unplugging you from the Distraction-Industrial Complex without turning you into a mobile-tech Luddite in the process. It’s a tall order. Smartphones have enmeshed themselves so deeply into our day-to-day existence over the past decade that putting a physically redesigned phone into someone’s hand means asking them to redesign their lives. At least, that’s what we’ve all been led to … [Read more...] about This device is an open rebellion against everything that smartphones have become
Samsung will unveil the new Galaxy S10 and official details on its first foldable smartphone at an event on February 20th
Antonio Villas-Boas, provided by Published 11:31 am CST, Thursday, January 10, 2019 Samsung The new Galaxy S10 flagship phone will be announced on February 20, when Samsung hosts its Unpacked 2019 event in San Francisco. Samsung's own head of mobile DJ Koh told media earlier last year to expect "very significant" changes with the Galaxy S10. Samsung is also said to be ready to announce more details about its foldable smartphone at the event. Samsung sent out invitations on Thursday to its Unpacked 2019 event, which till take place on February 20. This annual event is where Samsung typically unveils its new flagship Galaxy S-series smartphones. At this year's Unpacked event, we're expecting Samsung to reveal the Galaxy S10, just a few days before the major Mobile World Congress event, which will take place in Barcelona starting on February 25. There's been considerable buzz surrounding the Galaxy S10, as leaks, rumors, and Samsung itself have hinted at a revamped … [Read more...] about Samsung will unveil the new Galaxy S10 and official details on its first foldable smartphone at an event on February 20th
Telstra to launch exclusive 5G smartphone partnerships with ‘some of the world’s biggest vendors’
Telstra has just announced exclusive 5G smartphone partnerships for the first half of this year. CEO Andrew Penn informed Australian media of the partnership in a briefing at CES on Wednesday afternoon local time. The details of the partnerships are yet to be revealed, however there will be multiple manufacturers involved and that Telstra says they will be with “some of the world’s biggest vendors”. What we do know for sure is that the smartphones in question will only be available through Telstra, at least initially. When queried about the deal, Penn stated that the exclusivity will be finite. To date, Telstra has been leading the 5G charge in Australia. Optus has completed trials of 5G services in some capital cities, but it’s only for fixed wireless services. When it comes to mobile 5G, it isn’t expected until the second half of 2019. Vodafone, in the meantime, won’t be having its rollout until 2020. So perhaps some of these Telstra-only devices … [Read more...] about Telstra to launch exclusive 5G smartphone partnerships with ‘some of the world’s biggest vendors’
Samsung had a 5G smartphone prototype on display at CES and almost nobody noticed it
Samsung had a 5G smartphone prototype on display at CES 2019. It’s the closest official look we have to future smartphones from Samsung that come with 5G compatibility. A variant of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S10 is said to come with 5G support. Strolling innocently through Samsung’s massive booth at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, I stumbled upon Samsung’s 5G prototype smartphone. There it was, a 5G smartphone prototype from the biggest mobile company in the world, with no fanfare or much interest from any other CES attendee around me. I almost started to believe that only I could see it. To be clear, the prototype I saw was, indeed, just a prototype. It was the smartphone used to show off 5G capabilities when Verizon and Samsung announced earlier in December that a 5G phone will be coming in early 2019 during a Qualcomm event in Hawaii. I’d doubt that Samsung would brazenly display this device if it had any similarities to the upcoming Galaxy S10, of which … [Read more...] about Samsung had a 5G smartphone prototype on display at CES and almost nobody noticed it