Z Flip 5-Bigger Outside Screen; Jack Dorsey on Elon Musk; Gurman Predictions for Apple WWDC; Mario Movie Does a Billion

In a new report about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, a new feature has been spied that may really jumpstart sales…a bigger outer screen. 9to5google.com notes that although the inner screen when unfolded has been fine, the puny sized outside screen has been less useful. New renders show the screen covering nearly the whole outside, extending down and alongside the camera bumps. It’s kind of a funky shape, but is estimated to be 3.4 inches, enough to actually be useful without opening the device to access the normal sized screen. No word yet on whether or not Samsung will allow full apps to use the outside display. 

Saying what a lot of us are thinking, Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey, writing on his latest project Bluesky…which is possibly the best Twitter clone out there right now…Elon Musk should have paid a billion or more and walked away from the Twitter deal. According to techcrunch.com, the remark came in a question form Bluesky user Jason Goldman. Dorsey did reiterate that he didn’t see how Twitter would have survived as a public company, though. Bluesky Social is still in beta…I am still on the waiting list for an invite…but all that have used it like it better than any other platform so far. It is somewhat decentralized…not quite like Mastodon…but better, according to a lot of folks. It is designed not to have to function as a public, profit making company…at least not now. 

It’s just a bit over a month before Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is expecting plenty of hardware reveals. One of the widely anticipated devices will be a 15 inch MacBook Air. Of course, it will have to share a great deal of on-stage time with the long-expected AR/VR headset. The latest operating systems will be showed off, from iOS 17, to MacOS 14, the latest TV OS, and WatchOS 10. A brand new rumor has the Watch getting widgets again, although apparently in a much nicer, slicker interface than a few years ago. As for the MacBook Air, Gurman says the form factor shouldn’t change, except for the size…and it will run on an M2 chip…the M3’s won’t be out until later this year. 

In just under a month, the Super Mario Brothers Movie corset the billion dollar mark, becoming just the 5th pandemic-era film to clear that giant goalpost. Theverge.com reports that it took in $490 billion domestically and $532 billion internationally. Since it just opened in Japan and South Korea a few days ago, the Mario movie is expected to haul in quite a bit of additional cash. It’s a big vindication since the original Nintendo Super Mario Bros. film from 1993…which was a colossal flop at the box office. You can bet they are roughing out a story line already for a sequel.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.