Samsung Galaxy A9-1st Phone With 4 Rear Cams; Apple Buys into Dialog Semiconductor; PayPal Partners With Walmart; Apple Watch Could Solve Journo Mystery

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The Pixel 3 just bowed, with a single rear cam that does amazing things. Now, Samsung fires back, introducing the Galaxy A9, a so-called ‘midrange’ phone with FOUR rear shooters! engadget.com reports that each has a different function. There’s a 24 MP ‘main cam,’ another lens with a 5MP sensor that just grabs depth info for bokeh mode, a 10MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom, and an 8MP extra-wide angle lens, with 120 degree field of vision…nearly fisheye. For a mid-range phone, it’s not cheap…the A9 will launch in Britain next month for $724.

Apple is dropping $300 million of it’s giant wad of cash to buy part of Dialog Semiconductor. Cupertino is also spending another $300 million committing to further purchases from what remains of Dialog’s business. Dialog has been making parts for Apple since the 1st iPhone. Apple picks up about 300 employees, chipmaking capacity in Europe, and licensing of some of Dialog’s technology.

PayPal has partnered with Walmart to offer some financial services in-store, a first in brick and mortar for PayPal. Zdnet.com says people will be able to deposit and withdraw cash from their PayPal accounts inside Walmart stores. It will be a flat $3 service fee for cash in or cash out. In addition, PayPal Cash Mastercard customers can access their cash balance using Walmart Service Desks, ATMs, and cash registers. In the US, about 7% of households are unbanked, and some 24.5 million households are considering ‘underbanked’ by the FDIC. This move will be squarely aimed at that market.

There have been lots of rumors swirling since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi vanished from the Kingdom’s consulate in Turkey. Now, according to appleinsider.com, there might be a way to learn if he was actually killed inside, or spirited away back to Saudi Arabia or otherwise. The contributor to the Washington Post had worn his Apple Watch into the consulate, but handed his iPhone to his fiancee outside before going in. It’s possible that the Watch could have transmitted info showing his location and pulse to the phone’s health app. Turkish authorities say they don’t have the Watch or know which model it was, but are following this lead in an effort to determine what happened. The Turks claim he was murdered by a Saudi team who flew in for the purpose. The Saudis say he just walked right back out (but doesn’t seem to have been seen by anyone.) If alive, he may have been captured and taken back to Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the Watch health and location data will be able to crack the case.