Samsung Looking at Single Chip for Galaxy S23; Twitter Lawyers Up Re Musk Bailing; Amazon & Our Future Robot Overlords; Apple Pro Watch-$900 to $1000

For several years, Samsung has been shipping Galaxy phones with a couple different chip sets. Some get the Exynos chips (made by Samsung), and others have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. Basically, North America and China have gotten the Snapdragon phones, and Europe the Exynos chips…considered by most to be not as good. Now, androidpolice.com reports that Samsung may go 100% Snapdragon for the S23 phones. This has been rumored by famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. While the Exynos chips may be going away, Samsung is reportedly working on their own system on a chip (like what Apple phones and computers have)…but it isn’t expected until 2025…in the Galaxy S25.

Twitter didn’t mess around when Elon Musk filed with the SEC that he was backing out on his deal to buy the social firehose. According to theverge.com, Twitter has retained Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz…a firm known for creating the so-called ‘poison pill’, or shareholder rights plan. Two of the attorneys who will be representing Twitter are serious heavyweights in breakup and investor relations suits. Meanwhile, Musk is said to have hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. They are the firm that defended Samsung against Apple’s patent lawsuit over their claim that the Galaxy was a ripoff of the iPhone. Musk has used them in the past. The battle lines are drawn!

Although Amazon’s pricey Astro home robot hasn’t set the world on fire since being rolled out in September, Amazon says they will push forward with robotics, and that they are in the field for the long haul. Geekwire.com says that so far, it’s not just the price ($1000) or limited availability of Astro that has blunted the project. Not everyone is convinced that they need a little rolling security officer…which is the main thing it does. (Some even feel it’s pretty creepy.) A real limitation so far is that Astro can’t climb stairs…much like the evil Daleks in the Doctor Who sci-fi series…although recently, those murderous pepper pots have developed the tech to fly up a staircase! When Astro goes into general release, the price is reportedly going to jump to $1500! Amazon says that Astro is far from the last home robot they will make, and has just scratched the surface. In other words, the housekeeper to Astro and the rest of the Jetsons, Rosie the robot, is a ways off in the future!

The next gen iPhones and Apple Watches are only a couple months away. A new rumor has Apple dumping the top line ‘Edition’ Watch, and branding the top model Pro. According to appleinsider.com, the Pro model will have premium materials like Edition…but will also have a ruggedized case, bigger battery, and a bigger screen. It will also have a bigger price of course….$900 to $1000! (Gee, a whole iPhone can be had for less than that!) The only wow feature (sort of) we know about so far is a reported temperature sensor to let you know if you are overheated. It doesn’t sound like it will have the accuracy of a thermometer. The Watch series should drop mid-September along with the next crop of iPhones.