June, 2018

• 13 June

  British boarding is making students turn in their phones at night

  

  Many of us scroll through our phones just before falling asleep and immediately after waking up. But first-year students at Eton College, an English boarding school for boys, no longer have that luxury. The students have been ordered to turn in their phones at night because of concerns around the pressures of social media, according …

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• 13 June

  Samsung’s startup arm launches AI

  

  Samsung’s making another big bet on artificial intelligence. The company on Wednesday said its Silicon Valley-based Samsung NEXT business has launched a new fund to invest in early-stage startups “solving AI problems, as well as those using AI to solve computer science problems.”  The Q Fund doesn’t have a cap, but it falls under Samsung NEXT’s overall $150 million investment …

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• 13 June

  The Galaxy Note 9 may be getting a big battery upgrade

  

  How will the Galaxy Note 9 beat out last year’s Note 8? Perhaps by packing a larger battery. The Note 9 is rumored to have a 4,000mAh battery, according to mobile tipster Ice Universe (via SamMobile). Ice Universe has a track record of leaking unreleased phones, but this should still be treated as a rumor until the Note 9 is …

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• 13 June

  Firefox makers working on voice

  

  Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox, is exploring a very different web browser called Scout that’s operated by voice rather than keyboard, mouse or touch-screen taps. The nonprofit revealed the Scout project in an agenda item for an all-hands meeting taking place this week in San Francisco. “With the Scout app, we start to explore browsing and consuming content with voice,” …

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• 13 June

  Comcast offers $65 billion to snake Fox from Disney

  

  Could we see a bidding war for 21st Century Fox? Comcast, the nation’s largest cable television provider, on Wednesday offered $65 billion in cash to buy 21st Century Fox’s film and TV studios, a bid that comes on top of an existing $52.4 billion, all-stock offer by Disney. Fox is home to marquee franchises like X-Men, Deadpool, Kingsmen, and Planet …

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• 13 June

  Garmin’s newest Vivoactive 3 smartwatch adds music, improved sleep tracking

  

  Garmin makes a lot of fitness watches. The Vivoactive 3 is the company’s general all-around fitness smartwatch, and the newest version, the Vivoactive 3 Music, adds music storage much like Garmin’s more runner-focused (and expensive) Forerunner 645 that arrived earlier this year. The $300 watch is available now. The Vivoactive 3 Music has a pretty complete set of features: onboard …

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• 13 June

  Surface Pro 6 could be ‘heavily redesigned’ for 2019, dual

  

  Microsoft’s Surface Pro hasn’t changed a lot in recent years. After a year-and-a-half wait, the 2017 version was primarily a spec bump, with only minimal changes to the body and Microsoft’s trademark kickstand and stylus. The 2018 model merely added an optional LTE antenna for cellular connectivity. But according to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, a “heavily redesigned” Surface Pro 6 …

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• 13 June

  Microsoft Office update brings simplified design, better search

  

  Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel have a few changes in store. Microsoft on Wednesday said it’s bringing a design update to Microsoft Office. The update is for Office.com and Office 365 users, and will begin rolling out to business customers and consumers in June. The most recent version of Office is Microsoft Office 2016, which was actually released in 2015. Some changes …

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• 13 June

  Twitter’s big new update will suck you into news

  

  Twitter is still figuring out how to remove the poison from parts of its social network, but the company also wants you to focus on the good — and today, it’s announcing a whole bunch of changes that could make it easier to follow live news events on the platform, including the World Cup. In short: Breaking news and “personalized …

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• 13 June

  Kim Kardashian West thinks she’s persuaded Jack Dorsey to let you edit tweets

  

  Have you ever wished you ever hit send on a tweet and wished later you could go back and edit it? Maybe there was a typo. Maybe you realised your sarcasm didn’t translate. Maybe your husband tweeted something a bit out there that you think he should tone down a tad. I’ve been there, you’ve been there and Kim Kardashian …

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