April, 2016

• 27 April

  Samsung sees emotional robots, voice

  

  A light switch that you can talk to and that responds to your questions. A robot that shows emotions. A home security system that tells the difference between people and animals. Sounds pretty cool, right? Too bad those smart devices aren’t hitting store shelves anytime soon. The three products are so-called reference designs that Samsung …

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• 27 April

  Windows 10 upgrade reminder blows in on weather report

  

  Over 110 million people use Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system. Unfortunately, the fine folks of Des Moines, Iowa’s KCCI 8 news and weather station aren’t among them — and on Wednesday they paid for it. Metinka Slater, the station’s resident meteorologist, was giving her standard weather update when the PC that was projecting the weather map prompted her to upgrade …

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• 27 April

  Samsung remains smartphone leader as Apple struggles

  

  Samsung saw a slight dip in smartphone shipments last quarter but was still top dog thanks to demand for its Galaxy S7 lineup. For the first quarter of 2016, Samsung shipped 81.9 million phones, down slightly from 82.4 million in the same quarter last year, research firm IDC said on Wednesday. The decline would’ve been larger if not for the …

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• 27 April

  Has the Galaxy S7 helped Samsung rediscover its mobile mojo?

  

  For Samsung, the phone market has been feast or famine. The launch of the Galaxy S3 in 2012 crowned Samsung the world’s smartphone king and helped fuel five consecutive quarters of record profits. But the company’s phone fortunes faded as subsequent flagship handsets failed to excite consumers, leading to seven straight quarters of declining profits. Now it appears that Samsung’s …

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• 27 April

  Apple Music notches 13 million paid subscribers

  

  Apple Music continues to catch on with more people. The company’s first attempt at a music streaming service now has 13 million paid subscribers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company’s fiscal second-quarter results. Citing the new number of subscribers, Cook said the service continues to grow in popularity. “We feel really …

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• 27 April

  Samsung’s VR future includes Star Trek holodecks and no wires

  

  When Samsung thinks about the future of virtual reality, what it sees is a star — a Star Trek, to be precise. Injong Rhee, executive vice president and head of R&D for software and services in Samsung’s mobile business, on Wednesday gave some hints about what VR could look like in two to three years. Think holodecks a la Star …

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• 27 April

  Xiaomi wants to redefine ‘made in China’

  

  If the label “made in China” conjures images of exploding “hoverboards” more often than quality craftsmanship, you’re in good company. China’s reputation for inexpensive prices rather than quality manufacturing hurts brands that want to compete in the high end on a global scale, said Xiaomi’s senior VP of mobile, Xiang Wang, when we met here in Beijing at the company’s …

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• 26 April

  LG Stylus DAB+ smartphone makes digital radio the star

  

  Audiophiles now have an alternative to streaming music and chewing into their data allowance with the launch of the LG Stylus DAB+, the first smartphone with a built-in digital radio tuner. DAB+ offers all the standard radio stations you’re used to listening to, plus a range of digital-only channels that cater to niche interests (country music or Christmas carols anyone?) …

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• 26 April

  Filmstruck seeks to rival Netflix among film buffs

  

  Just as Netflix turns more and more to TV and original content, Time Warner is stepping in with a new streaming competitor aimed specifically at film buffs. Called Filmstruck, the US-only service will launch this fall and feature classics such as “Seven Samurai,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “A Room with a View,” “Mad Max” and “Blood Simple.” A collaboration between …

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• 26 April

  Facebook seems to have burned Bernie, but that’s not really what happened

  

  What do you do when you come across the Facebook page for a presidential candidate you don’t like? In the case of a person calling himself Casey Champagne, the answer was to find a way to shut it down. That’s what seems to have happened Monday, when Champagne published screenshots that allegedly show he got Facebook to take down pages …

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