Recently Mozilla has updated Firefox with features that block companies from tracking you across different websites, and now Microsoft is testing similar tech in its Chromium-based Edge browser. Insider beta testers with the latest Canary release on Windows can try it by enabling a browser flag (enter - "edge://flags#edge-tracking-prevention" in the address bar) then restarting.
Once it's on, there are three different levels of blocking, with intentions to filter out only known malicious trackers, some third-party trackers that are used for ad targeting or all third-party tracking entirely. Microsoft demonstrated the feature at its Build 2019 event earlier this year, so even if you're not in that test group you can get a peek at it right here.
The Galaxy Fold still hasn’t gone on sale, and yet, it seems Samsung has caught a full-on case of foldable fever because based on a number of reports and rumors, Samsung might already have as many as three more foldable phones in the works.
Now I know product development at big companies—particularly ones the size of Samsung—typically require a company to have multiple projects in various stages of production going at any one time. But damn Samsung, what are you doing? Can we at least get an updated release date for the Galaxy Fold before we start hearing about future stuff?
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Ostensibly, by green-lighting a variety of new foldables, Samsung is hoping to cement its leadership in an emerging device category while simultaneously taking advantage of Huawei’s recent placement on the United States’ “Entity List” to widen the gap between itself and its biggest competitor. But as we’ve seen with delayed launches for both the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, making a foldable phone is really hard, even for the two biggest handset makers on the planet.
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That said, if Samsung is content with burning a mountain of cash to speed up the technology’s development and iron out the potential issues before devices hit store shelves, I’m all for it. Though, based on the reaction some fellow Gizmodo staffers had to the Galaxy Fold’s $2,000 list price, it might be in Samsung’s best interest to figure out a way to make its future foldables a bit less expensive.
Regardless, with so many devices in some state of production, it’s probably time to break down everything we know about Samsung’s current and future crop of foldables.
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1. The Galaxy Fold
Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
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While we continue to wait for a revised launch for the Galaxy Fold, Korean site the Investor has reported that Samsung Display vice president Kim Seong-cheol told attendees at a recent industry event that “Most of the display problems have been ironed out, and the Galaxy Fold is ready to hit the market.”
Previous reports indicate that as part of its efforts to address the Fold’s durability concerns, Samsung has increased the size of the protective film that covers its foldable display so that the edges of the film lie underneath the Fold’s bezel, which should make it much harder to accidentally peel off that film and damage the device. Another report from Yonhap News also claims Samsung has decreased the size of the gaps between the Fold’s screen and its hinge, in order to prevent any foreign materials from getting inside the device and damaging its display.
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Hopefully, these two fixes should go a long way towards making the Fold consumer-ready, but based on the Fold’s early troubles, Samsung is still facing a serious uphill battle when it comes to convincing people to buy its first-gen $2,000 foldable phone.
2. A Razr-like clamshell foldable
Image: Motorola (via SlashLeaks
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Motorola has long been rumored to be working on a reboot of its iconic Razr phone that replaces the tiny 2.2-inch screen and T9 keypad on the original model with a new foldable screen around 6.2-inches in size. Now, just this week, a new report out of South Korea claims that Samsung is working on its own foldable clamshell device with a slightly larger 6,7-inch screen that could enter mass production as early as this November.
While a design like this isn’t quite as ambitious as what you get on Galaxy Fold, the creation of a modern smartphone that’s smaller and more pocketable, but also features a familiar design could go a long way towards making the entire foldable category more approachable to the average user. And with this rumored model sporting a 6.7-inch screen compared to the 7.3-inch screen on the Galaxy Fold, it might be cheaper too.
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3. A Huawei Mate X Clone
Even though it took Samsung eight years of R&D to create the Galaxy Fold, its still way too early to say if the Fold’s inward-folding screen is superior to the Mate X’s outward-folding design. So in order to explore a different way of designing a foldable phone, the Korea Herald reports that Samsung is already working on creating its own outward-folding bendable handset. What’s more is that according to the Korea Herald, Samsung may even try to push its outward-folding phone to market before Huawei releases the Mate X, which according to Huawei’s president for Western Europe, could happen as soon as this September.
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If true, this would allow Samsung to offer two different types of foldable phones, and in the west where Samsung will have a much easier time getting past tariffs and various governmental policies, this move could really limit the global appeal of the Huawei Mate X, along with any subsequent Huawei foldables.
4. The Galaxy Fold 2?
As much as I like the Galaxy Fold, there was clearly some room for improvement. The 4.6-inch cover screen on the outside of the Fold is simply too small, and unlike Samsung’s Galaxy Note line, the Fold doesn’t offer any kind of stylus support. So to address those issues while also increasing the size of its main flexible display, it seems Samsung is already working on a successor to the Galaxy Fold featuring a larger 8-inch screen and S-Pen integration.
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While this report does not explicitly mention that Samsung is planning to increase the size of the Galaxy Fold 2's cover screen, by making the interior screen bigger, Samsung would also have more room to increase the size of its the Fold 2's exterior screen, and in my opinion, not using the additional space on the outside of the device to the fullest would be a big mistake.
And with the report saying that this rumored Galaxy Fold 2 could be available sometime early next year, Samsung could have a truly compelling foldable on the market before too long.
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5. Dreams of a rollable phone
Illustration: Samsung (via WIPO
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While this last entry only exists in the form of a patent application, it’s clear Samsung is planning to do more with its flexible screen tech than just make phones that fold in half. By making a phone with a screen that can be extended simply by grabbing opposite sides of the phone and pulling, Samsung would be venturing into sci-fi territory. It won’t be easy, but what if Samsung could actually pull it off?
So what else is left?
And all this doesn’t even factor in the use of foldable display tech in other devices categories, such as TVs like the one LG showed off at CES 2019 or laptops such as Lenovo’s foldable notebook concept. So even though you might not care about foldables now, it’s going to be quite some time before Samsung even thinks about giving up on the tech.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC has since indicated that Apple has received 26 reports of batteries overheating in affected notebooks, including five reports of minor burns and one report of smoke inhalation, as well as 17 reports of minor damage to nearby personal property.
Apple has asked customers to stop using affected MacBook Pro models and to contact the company to initiate a replacement. Apple's recall program page provides further details and instructions.
Note that only the "Mid 2015" MacBook Pro is part of this recall program. To identify your Mac, click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen and click on About This Mac. Look for "Mid 2015" in the window that opens. Other models like the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Air are not part of the program.
The Overwatch buzz shows no sign of slowing down, and Blizzard is keen to cash in on the enthusiasm with a range of merchandise including action figures, monopoly, nerf guns and apparel. Now, even more Lego sets are being released so you can build tiny brick recreations of your favorite game moments.
There will be two sets available: a smaller Wrecking Ball, the rotund robot piloted by Hammond the hamster, and a larger Junkrat & Roadhog set with a bike and signage inspired by the Junkertown map.
The sets will be shown off at the Blizzard booth at SDCC next month, and they'll be available to buy in October this year for $19.99 for the Wrecking Ball set and $49.99 for the Junkrat & Roadhog set.
These are the latest addition to the collection of Overwatch Lego sets that were unveiled at the start of the year. Previous sets included tiny Lego figures of Tracer and Widowmaker, Hanzo and Genji, and Soldier: 76, Reaper and McCree. There was also a mech set with D.Va and Reinhardt and a huge Watchpoint: Gibraltar set with Mercy, Reaper, Winston and Pharah.
But when are we getting a Lego Mei figure? That's the real question.
Good morning, there! The latest company to hitch a ride on Amazon Prime is eBay, promising its own deals if Amazon's site goes down. Elsewhere, Oppo is trying to make pinhole and notch phones' displays a relic of 2018, and some Google employees want to ban the company from SF Pride.
Probably the best way to remove the notch or pinhole from our smartphones is to make the camera invisible. And that's what under-screen cameras promise. Several Chinese phone makers are hustling to make this a reality, and Oppo was the first to put one in front of journalists, at MWC Shanghai.
For now, the solution needs a slightly transparent display and a camera that's customized to make the most of less light. It's not the finished product, but it's proof that these under-screen cameras can work -- they just need to work better.
CNN reports government pilots found an issue with a microprocessor that may lead to the plane pointing downwards if the chip fails. The agency simply stated "The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate."
While we still don't know a launch date, the sequel to the gorgeous Hollow Knight looks almost ready. Mat Smith got to test out two demos of the action-platformer, and he can't wait to play more.
Some Google employees want the San Francisco Pride board of directors to revoke Google's sponsorship of Pride 2019 and to exclude Google from the Pride Parade on June 30th. Employees say they have spent countless hours advocating for Google to improve its policies regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Gayglers (a group for Google's LGBT employees) that the company will conduct more internal discussions aimed at addressing its harassment policies. But those who signed the petition say they are "no longer content to wait."
With the Pride Parade a few days away, a sudden revocation was unlikely, and SF Pride said in a statement that Google would remain a partner in the 2019 parade, adding that Google "has been a considerate partner of SF Pride for a number of years."
SMM2 on Nintendo's Switch is more of what made the first Mario level-making title so attractive to stage builders and gamers looking for high-level challenges. There's now a single-player mode, and even the ability to craft challenges from Super Mario 3D World, but it's a little different to the usual 2D-level building.
Boeing's Starliner capsule has successfully touched down even after disabling two of its parachutes. It was part of the final and most difficult qualification test it needed to pass to fly astronauts to the ISS. This success could mean Starliner's first flight could well happen sometime this summer. And, if all goes well, astronauts might go to space in the Starliner by the end of the year.
