Samsung officially rolled out the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in New York today. Bgr.com says the beautiful new phones will be on preorder tomorrow, the 30th, and on sale Friday, April 21st. As predicted, it has the assistant Bixby with a dedicated virtual button that responds instantly, and DeX, a desktop interface…you plug the phone into it and can connect peripherals and a display via the USB and HDMI ports. The edge to edge screen is stunning. Your bank account may be stunned too, as the pricing has crept past the one grand barrier, as is also rumored to be the case for Apple’s iPhone 8 this Fall.
The House voted to eliminate ISP privacy rules yesterday, allowing them to sell your browsing and app usage history to advertisers and other companies. According to arstechinca.com, it was pretty much a party line vote, with the Republicans supporting sale and sharing of your info. It had already cleared the Senate 50-48, also on straight party lines. Look for the use of private VPNs and other measures to increase, as users move to protect their own privacy however they can.
Facebook is now putting a full-on Snapchat clone front and center inside the main Facebook app. Mashable.com says The update not only pushes you to use Facebook’s new camera feature but puts friends’ stories — yes, it’s called Facebook Stories — at the top of your News Feed. The update, which is rolling out now, consists of three features: Facebook Camera, Facebook Stories, and Direct, a dedicated space for messages exchanged via the new in-app camera that lets you can decorate your photos and videos with filters, “masks” (Facebook’s version of lenses), and other animated effects. If you use the Direct feature, the story is sent via direct message, and disappears after it’s seen.
Samsung will show off its Tab 3 mini tablet at Mobile World Congress. Bgr.com says originally, the Galaxy S8 was supposed to be the big star there for them, but they had to push back the rollout of it after the Note 7 disaster. Of note with the Tab 3 is that it will dock and is rumored to be connectable to an external monitor…so you could use it as both a desktop and portable device! The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are also being rumored to have the desktop mode, but you’ll need a special accessory called the DeX station to connect to a bigger display.
Apple will officially open its Campus 2 in April, and begin moving employees in….more than 12,000 of them. According to macrumors.com the move will take 6 months. Officially, it will be known as Apple Park, and the thousand seat theatre there has been christened Steve Jobs Theatre. Maybe most of important of all, there’s a visitors’ center with an Apple Store and cafe which will be open to the public.
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