Say goodbye to Withings. It’s been less than a year since Nokia completed its acquisition of the French smart devices maker and now it the Withings brand is about to be sunset. Withings’ devices and software will be rebranded under the Nokia banner later this summer. Withings’ existing line of smart watches, blood pressure monitors, thermometers and cameras will all come… Read More
The enterprise category is a no-brainer for the world’s largest drone manufacturer. Sure, it’s not as sexy as the consumer and cinematography categories with which the company is most closely associated, but it’s a growing industry, and will likely to continue to be as \as corporations discover more uses for units like the Matrice 200. DJI’s newest drone, unveiled… Read More
HMD is holding a press conference at MWC in Barcelona to showcase some of its first Nokia-branded phones. The conference starts at 4:30 PM CET (3:30 PM GMT, 10:30 AM EST). Get ready for the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, two new smartphones under the Nokia brand. But, let’s be honest, I’m more excited about the Nokia 3310. Rumor has it that HMD is going to reboot the legendary device and sell… Read More
If you’re bored of the same old monotone/metallic smartphone color choices, Chinese mobile maker Huawei has been thinking a little differently for its just announced P10 and P10 Plus flagship handsets — and is offering a spectrum of shades, including a striking deep blue option and a pale green. Read More
Oh boy, I miss Frontback. The mobile app created an interesting photo format with two square-ish pictures to share what you have in front of you and a selfie. While you can still download the app, it’s been stagnant for a few years. But LG implemented a Frontback feature into the new G6 called “Match Shot.”
The big new feature of LG’s phone is the taller display. The… Read More
When people ask me what this column’s theme is, my usual response is, tongue-in-cheek, “Whatever has annoyed me about the tech industry during the last week.” This is not always true. Often I celebrate things! But this week, my friends, this week is different; this week so much has annoyed me about the industry that I scarcely know where to begin. Read More
Smartwatches are hard. Recent numbers certainly reflect that fact. Motorola bowed out and Pebble simply evaporated. This week at Mobile World Congress, Huawei continues the good fight with the simply titled Watch 2. So, at least you know what you’re getting. On a whole, it’s a pretty straight forward proposition. The new wearable looks a lot like its predecessor, which Huawei… Read More
Huawei’s press conference at MWC in Barcelona is about to begin. The conference starts at 2 PM CET (1 PM GMT, 8 AM EST). The company has already said that it’ll unveil the P10, its new flagship phone. You can expect a double camera system and a big update across the board. Huawei has become a leading brand, especially in China. So it’s going to be interesting to see how… Read More
Bigger screens don’t cut it anymore. Now, we need taller screens. I’ve been playing with the LG G6 for the past 24 hours. In many ways, it is just another phone. But the company is trying something new with a 2:1 aspect ratio display — essentially a normal 16:9 display that can fit a few extra lines of text at the top and bottom. And it makes a big difference. I’ve… Read More
LG just announced a new phone. It’s like the last one but slightly better looking, a bit faster, and it will be available sometime and cost money to buy it.
The company took the wraps off the phone during a press conference at a trade show. There was pop music, teleprompters and a long PowerPoint presentation.
At one point during the presentation, a company executive described the screen. Read More
The modular G5 was a novel device, but novelty alone doesn’t sell phones. So LG went back to the drawing board for its followup, and the result is, on a whole, a fairly straightforward flagship smartphone. The LG G6 is a good looking handset, but not an especially remarkable one, with design language that brings to mind fellow flagships like the Galaxy S7. The company’s big… Read More
Google continues its march to expand its place in the mobile ecosystem, anchored by the fact that its Android OS is by far the most ubiquitous smartphone platform in the world. Today, the company announced that it would be rolling out Google Assistant, its conversational search and AI-based personal helper (and answer to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa), to smartphones… Read More
The big news about the LG G6 is its screen. Not big in the phablet sense (which isn’t to say, of course, that 5.7 inches isn’t substantial), but big as in wide, with an unusually large 18:9 aspect (read: 2:1). But aspect ratios are a tough sell, particularly when your company is reeling from the failure of last year’s modular handset, the G5. Still, the company actually made… Read More
LG’s press conference at MWC in Barcelona is today. The conference starts at 12 PM CET (11 AM GMT, 6 AM EST). Rumor has it that LG is about to announce a new flagship phone, the LG G6. This time, it won’t be a modular phone. It’s going to be a regular phone, but with a giant display that nearly fills the entire body of the phone. You can check it out live via LG’s… Read More
Remember when Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones set the bar? My first smartphone was a BlackBerry 7130e. I loved the phone. And then my son gave it a bath in a ginger ale. The 7130e had it all: A scroll wheel, Java apps, a keyboard and a swappable battery that would last for days. That phone came out in 2005 and I had mine until 2009. Ironically, Research in Motion started… Read More
A couple of days ago, the New York Times wrote a story that aims to explain why Snap founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have retained such a hold on voting power in the company — power that its shareholders will not enjoy. It’s a great account and wonderfully written by a reporter I respect greatly. But I don’t quite buy it. According to four sources who spoke to… Read More
Boston-based Drizly used to be known as the on-demand delivery app for alcohol. More recently, the company evolved into a marketplace that helps brick-and-mortar liquor stores to connect with and sell to customers nearby through web and mobile commerce. The Drizly app shows shoppers different prices on the beer, wine and liquor that they’re looking for at local shops, along with… Read More
In recent years, we’ve seen an increasing number of so-called “intelligent” digital assistants being introduced on various devices. Although the technology behind these applications keeps getting better, there’s still a tendency for people to be disappointed by their capabilities — the expectation of “intelligence” is not being met. Read More
Uber employees have flocked to an anonymous workplace app called Blind as a sort of catharsis since ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler Rigetti posted about being propositioned and discriminated against while working for the company, according to Blind’s founder Alex Shin.
Rigetti’s explosive post went viral late Sunday night, leading to more than double an increase of Uber employees… Read More
If you thought the BlackBerry Mercury had a bit of a codename vibe to it, you weren’t wrong. Today at Mobile World Congress, TCL officially took the wraps of its first true BlackBerry handset, now going by the admittedly less sleek KeyOne (pronounced “key one,”) name. Though I suppose when your company is attempting to plant its flag firmly in the world of enterprise, sexy… Read More
