Technical Doctorz

Facebook is preparing to announce later today that it’s identified a new political influence campaign that has been operating on its platform with the intention of influencing the US midterm elections scheduled for November, according to a report from The New York Times . It is unclear which organization or country is behind the campaign, although The Times reports that Facebook officials who briefed lawmakers this week said Russia may potentially be involved. Facebook is expected to discuss the matter with reporters in a press briefing later today. Facebook is said to have discovered activity designed to inflame tensions around divisive topics like the rise of white supremacy in America and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. In particular, Facebook found suspicious accounts engaging in coordinated activity around the #AbolishICE movement and a second “Unite the Right” meet-up of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, an organized protest that devolve

Applying for an apartment rental is about to look a lot like submitting a job application online. As anyone who’s been through the hell of apartment hunting can attest, finding a home can be a grueling experience, and Zillow is looking to simplify it by centralizing the entire process. Starting today, Zillow is offering renters and landlords property management tools for apartment applications and rental payments online, as reported by MarketWatch. Renters can pay $29 to submit an application to as many apartments as they want within a month, which includes an Experian credit report and an eviction history and background check from Checkr. This is a lot less time-consuming than submitting individual applications, and it’s cheaper than credit checks that can range anywhere from $50 to $100. After renters move in, they’ll be able to pay rent online through Zillow, with a small processing fee if they pay by credit card. Landlords will be able to use the service for free through the ex

Sony is taking the unusual step of launching new TV models in the middle of summer. The company announced updated OLED and LCD 4K HDR TVs back at CES, but it’s not quite done for this year. At an event today in New York City that had the tagline “a masterpiece unveiled,” Sony Electronics president and COO Mike Fasulo said the company’s new flagship sets — called the Master Series — are designed to preserve and showcase a creator’s intent “from lens to living room.” “The Master Series provides image quality approaching that of a professional monitor in a production studio,” said Kazuo Kii, who oversees Sony’s TV business, adding that it’s “the best of the best.” There are two models of the Master Series, the A9F (OLED) and Z9F (LED). It includes the new X1 Ultimate picture processor — the most powerful chip Sony has put in a TV yet — which the company first showed in prototype form at CES. Pricing and availability details are to come. Fasulo said that Sony has worked with Portrait D

Rumors of a dual-SIM iPhone first emerged earlier this year , and now Apple’s own iOS 12 is backing up the reports. A new “iPhone X Plus” is rumored to include a 6.5-inch OLED display and dual-SIM support in certain regions. 9to5Mac reports that iOS 12 developer beta 5, released yesterday, includes references to dual-SIM support. The operating system even mentions a second physical SIM tray, meaning an iPhone with dual-SIM support might not be restricted to a single SIM tray and eSIM support. If the iOS 12 beta software is accurate, it wouldn’t be the first time Apple has revealed future hardware or software support in a beta operating system. Apple’s HomePod firmware revealed the iPhone X screen design , and beta builds of iOS 11 included Face ID, Animoji, and updated AirPods before Apple even announced them. The latest iOS 12 beta has also revealed the new AirPods wireless charging case might be ready to be released. Apple is expected to hold its annual iPhone event in Septemb

It may be time to start prewriting our Sony Mobile obituaries, as the latest earnings report from Sony indicates the company’s already tiny smartphone business has shrunk by almost half. In the quarter ending in July 2018, Sony managed to sell only 2 million mobile devices, down 1.4 million from the same period in the preceding year. Two million phones. I’m pretty sure Apple will have sold more in the time it takes me to write this note of Sony sorrow. In its 2017 accounting year, Sony sold 13.5 million phones, and back in April its modest estimate for 2018 was 10 million, but now that’s been revised down to 9 million. Anticipating it will make only ¥610 billion ($5.49 billion) of mobile sales for the entire fiscal 2018, Sony is now in a close contest with HTC for the title of being the least relevant global Android device vendor. At least BlackBerry has its promise of uniquely secure phones and keyboards with actual, physical buttons on them. Sony’s signature mobile feature in rec

Samsung Electronics’ quarterly earnings are in , and as ever they’re right in line with guidance , meaning that the company’s run of record profits is at an end. Samsung made an operating profit of 14.87 trillion won on sales of 58.4 trillion won; revenue was down 4 percent year on year. According to Samsung, the drop in revenue can be put down to “softer sales of smartphones and display panels.” The company’s most important phone of the year, the Galaxy S9 , went on sale at the end of the previous quarter, but Samsung describes its performance as “slow.” Earlier this month analysts predicted that it would be the worst-selling Galaxy S flagship phone since 2012’s Galaxy S3. Samsung’s display business also had a rough quarter, with “weak demand” for flexible OLED panels as seen in products like the iPhone X, and LCD shipments falling in both price and quantity. The company does expect OLED demand to pick up in the second half of the year, and Apple’s reported plan to launch two new O

Logitech is making a big purchase to secure a foothold in high-end audio recording. Tonight, the company announced that it’s acquiring Blue Microphones for $117 million. The all-cash transaction will result in Blue, known for USB condenser microphones including the Snowball and Yeti, joining Logitech’s existing portfolio of brands. Aside from Logitech and Logitech G, the company also owns Astro Gaming, Jaybird, and Ultimate Ears. Yeah, it’s putting together quite the roster. “For Logitech, this is a new space,” the company wrote in its blog post announcing the deal . “But, at the same time, it’s not at all. Gamers are already using our Logitech G webcams to stream. People are video calling with friends and family thanks to Logitech every day. And in business, our audio and video know-how is apparent every time a video meeting takes place at the office. Joining up with Blue and their microphone lines is a logical adjacent opportunity with great synergies.” Blue’s mics range in price

LG is continuing its quest to corner the market on ultra high-end handsets with a new entry its Signature Edition series, via 9to5Google . Started last year with a modified version of the V30 , Signature Edition phones are LG’s pricey ceramic devices that run in the ballpark of $1,800. The second version, unveiled today , is basically an LG V35 in a ceramic body. (The V35, announced back in May for $900, is pretty much a G7 ThinQ in the body of a V30.) The back of the phone is made out of zirconium ceramic, a material LG says makes it nearly scratch-proof. Like the first model, this one will run you KRW 1,999,800 (about $1,790 USD at current exchange rates). There will only be 300 units made, and it goes on sale on August 13th. This time around, you get a choice of black or white. You’ll also get a free pair of B&O’s Beoplay H9i over-the-ear headphones (retailing for around $500), which certainly softens the blow of a $1,800 smartphone. You can also have it engraved. As for th

Ecobee is launching a “Peak Relief” pilot program for its smart thermostats that will automatically cut down on heating and air conditioning during the day’s peak hours to help curb the cost of temperature control. The company says that this program will be customized specifically for each individual’s home by taking electricity rates, comfort preferences, the local weather forecast, and the home’s energy efficiency into account. Peak Relief bundles this data and ramps up either heat or AC just before those peak times to regulate temperature inside your home. Ecobee says the goal is to help find ways to keep users comfortable while reducing their community’s energy usage and electricity bills. The company claims the feature can save customers an additional 10 percent on their heating or cooling bills. The Peak Relief pilot rolled out today in select markets in California, Ontario, and Arizona. However, it looks to be a pretty limited rollout overall since the program is only availa

Dropbox just doubled the amount of storage it provides to customers of its Professional tier, from 1TB to 2TB. The company notes in a blog post that the rise in collaboration around “ultra hi-def” files, like 4K video and interactive presentations, means the general conception of how much cloud storage is acceptable for pro work is changing. So Dropbox is deciding to gift its users a bit extra at no cost. The current Professional plan, which is a beefed up version of Dropbox’s standard consumer Plus plan, costs around $200 per year . If you’re a Dropbox Business user, meaning your company pays for your account, you’ll also be getting an extra 1TB of storage added to your plan. Only teams who pay for Business Standard, which is $12.50 per user per month for a shared pool of data, are getting the free storage increase from 2TB to 3TB. (If your company pays for Dropbox Business Advanced, you get unlimited storage.) Dropbox says the storage upgrades are now in effect for new customers w

DJI has a new version of the Mavic Pro on the way, and thanks to a mistakenly published advertisement, the company has now confirmed to CNET a few of the drone’s specs and features ahead of its official reveal. The big change with the new Mavic 2 Pro is that users will be able to swap lenses on the drone for a 2x optical zoom version (a configuration DJI is calling Mavic 2 Zoom) that can shoot as wide as 28mm and as tight as 48mm. Switching lenses is a feature that the company has typically reserved for its more expensive professional drones, though it’s been rumored to be coming to its smaller drones (like the Mavic) for a while. The camera system on the whole is getting an upgrade, too, with a big one-inch CMOS sensor — which is a huge bump over the 1/2.3-inch sensor in the original Mavic Pro. The advertisement also mentions that this is a “Hasselblad camera,” meaning the iconic Swedish photography company likely had some involvement in the development of the camera architecture.

Google is officially adding the Chrome browser to its Daydream virtual reality platform. As of today, people using the phone-based Daydream View headset or the standalone Lenovo Mirage Solo can access Chrome from their home screens. The VR version of Chrome mostly has the same feature set as its desktop counterpart, but there’s an added “cinema mode” that optimizes web video for VR viewing. Just as importantly, Chrome supports the WebVR standard, so users can access web-based VR experiences on their Daydream headsets. Daydream users (and users of other headsets ) have had access to VR Chrome and its WebVR components for a while, through test versions of the browser or through Chrome’s mobile Android app. But this announcement positions this version of Chrome as a stable, full-fledged browsing app, not an experiment or a conduit for WebVR. Daydream’s integration with existing Google products has been a selling point for the company, although Google VR apps have spread to lots of he

The Asus Zenfone 5Z phone is now available for preorder and will be available at retailers on August 6th. Asus’ latest flagship-level Android 8.0 Oreo smartphone sits at a competitive price point of $499, but it touts a high-end Snapdragon 845 chip, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a large 6.2-inch screen. A launch was originally pegged for June , so Asus has been tardy with releasing the 5Z. The Taiwanese tech company is employing two Sony IMX363 camera sensors for the Zeonfone 5Z’s imaging system. One of the sensors has a 120-degree wide-angle lens, while the primary camera sensor contains 12 megapixels, f/1.8 aperture, and an 83 degree field of view. There’s also support for 4K video recording at 60 fps or 1080p HD recording at 30 / 60 fps. Asus is taking a page out of the current smartphone market trend — fullscreen displays — and adapting it for the Zenfone 5Z. A 6.2-inch full HD+ IPS screen means you’re a getting a 19:9 screen ratio, which is a purported 90 percent screen-to-b

Eison Triple Thread thinks men will be drawn to their favorite artists’ styles https://www.racked.com/2018/7/30/17617664/eison-triple-threads-spotify-data from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2LxMdkS

In May, Xiaomi wowed the internet with its upcoming “transparent” Mi 8 Explorer Edition smartphone that the company claimed showed off the internal components of the phone in a stylish manner, unlike any transparent or translucent gadget before. There was just one problem: there were reports that the exposed circuitboard wasn’t actually real . Turns out, those reports may have been spot on. Chengming Alpert — the Twitter user who first cast doubt on Xiaomi’s claims — posted leaked pictures of the alleged internal parts , which appear to be little more than a cosmetic plate to cover the actual (and likely less-photogenic) internal components. #XiaomiMi8Explore so-called "actual motherboard"...(source: https://t.co/Sd8i5FWUEm ) @richardlai @verge @AndroidPolice pic.twitter.com/CNOL41NwRF — Chengming Alpert (@ChengmingAlpert) July 30, 2018 Assuming the leaked parts are real, it would seem that Xiaomi is definitely working hard to create the optical illusion with ac

In March, YouTube revealed that it was releasing a dark mode for its mobile apps, starting with its iOS version. Now, Android users are beginning to get the feature on their apps. YouTube added a dark mode to its desktop site last year , and the company says that it became one of the most requested features for its apps. 9to5Google reports that the feature began rolling out yesterday, notifying users with a prompt. It also says that it can be turned on and off in the app’s settings. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2M3ajju

Amazon servers make up so much of the internet that it can be hard to separate the two. As of last year, Amazon Web Services controlled roughly 40 percent of the cloud market, running the backend for Netflix, Pinterest, Slack and dozens of other services with no visible connection to the company. Because the Amazon partnership is rarely explicit, AWS becomes a kind of invisible infrastructure, like water mains, submarine cables, or any of the other hidden pipes we rely on without seeing. When AWS starts to fail — like it did in March and again earlier this month — it can seem like the entire internet is collapsing. Unless you know which services in particular are running on AWS servers, you won’t know difference between an cloud failure and a submarine cable break. But that system doesn’t have to be invisible. Developer Dhruv Mehrotra has made a plug-in that will disconnect you from AWS entirely , using the system’s public IP list to block every connection to an Amazon server. Tec

Verizon introduced its own mobile VPN today called Safe Wi-Fi, which will hide your IP address when you use public networks. Safe Wi-Fi only works for Verizon customers on iOS and Android and it costs $3.99 monthly per account to cover up to 10 devices. Currently, Verizon is offering the first 30 days as a free trial. To get the VPN, just log into your My Verizon app and head to “Products and Devices.” Then scroll down to Safe Wi-Fi. As of this writing, the feature has not appeared yet on my iOS app that’s been updated to the latest version, so it’s not clear if it’s just hard to find or if the feature is still rolling out. Interestingly, the VPN also blocks targeted ads, so it’s worth asking whether the company’s many websites like Yahoo, AOL, and more might see ads blocked on their sites. We’ve reached out to Verizon to find out more. The deal for $3.99 per month seems pretty decent compared to what other VPNs charge, low enough that it might tempt whole families traveling to a d

Discovery is considering launching its own direct-to-consumer streaming service, according to statements made by the company’s CEO, David Zaslav, at an industry event yesterday. The bundle, which would charge customers between $5 to $8 dollars per month, would encompass all of Discovery’s networks — including the Food Network, HGTV, TLC, and more. It’s an idea that’s still in the earliest of stages, according to a report in Adweek . Whether the service will be based solely in the US, or would expand elsewhere still hasn’t been announced — and Zaslav didn’t hint at when the launch would happen. However, he did say that he was “encouraged” by other newcomers to the world of streaming, like AT&T’s WatchTV service . Today, WatchTV holds 30 different networks, and Discovery is one of them. Discovery may be a hard sell as a standalone service, especially when consumers have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon already at their disposal. But for those who love home-makeover and cooking shows, th

New York is officially kicking internet and cable provider Spectrum, aka Charter, out of the state after the company failed to deliver on its fast internet promises. The state required Spectrum to roll out high-speed internet across underserved rural areas when it merged with Time Warner Cable in 2016. The company failed to do so after two years, and now the state is not only forcing the company to cease operations by revoking its approval of the 2016 merger (the approval was contingent on Charter expanding the Spectrum network), but is also seeking $3 million in penalties. Spectrum has to keep operating, uninterrupted, for 60 days while the state finds a new internet provider to service customers. It’s unclear what Spectrum is planning to do now, but the state is asking it to come up with a transition plan. The company issued a statement to ABC7 New York and said it has “extended the reach of our advanced broadband network to more than 86,000 New York homes and businesses” since

Apple will repair for free any iPhones, Macs, iPads and iPods damaged as a result of the devastating floods and mudflows that occurred in southwestern Japan earlier this month, the company announced in a support article , as spotted by 9to5Mac . Any resident who has a device that needs repair is instructed to call Apple Support directly at 0120-27753-5, and not to submit a request online. Proof of ownership may be required and Apple is offering the free repairs through the end of September 2018. The complimentary repairs are not being extended to accessories and Beats items. Apple cautions that some areas affected by the floods might have temporarily suspended courier pickup and delivery, leading to longer wait times for those who need repairs. You can read the entire statement on Apple’s Japanese blog . from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2v9mlko

After years of customers pleading for the feature, Amazon has started to roll out the ability to build lists with your friends and family, as spotted by Android Police . But don’t get too excited just yet — Amazon confirmed in an email to The Verge that the option hasn’t been rolled out to all users, and it doesn’t specified how quickly this will arrive to everyone. Previously, Amazon has had an option for users to share their lists with people, but has never allowed users to add items to a collaborative one unless they were using the Wedding Registry. The feature is sure to be useful for party planning, roommates, holidays, birthdays — basically any event where multiple people need to buy stuff together. To check and see if you can invite your friends and family to collab on gift lists, navigate to any list that you already have set up. If you see a bubble underneath the list’s title that says “Invite,” you’re free to start sending links to friends that allow them to edit it. Ama

A consequence of covering the intersection of social media and democracy is that sometimes you wind up having to discuss things that are very dumb. The somewhat infuriating controversy over Twitter’s “shadow banning” of prominent conservatives — something that it is in no way doing — is one of them. And yet how Twitter reacts to the attendant criticism could determine whether the company ever gets a handle on the abuse its platform is so well known for. Yesterday I mentioned a misleading story in Vice whose headline then stated, falsely, that “ Twitter is ‘shadow banning’ prominent Republicans like the RNC chair and Trump Jr.’s spokesman .” (It has since been changed.) That story drew from a Sunday piece by Gizmodo that described how some “controversial” accounts were being “demoted in search results.” The first thing to note about this story is that it begins and ends with which accounts are suggested when one begins typing in a name in the Twitter search box. That’s it. The very

Samsung might be taking its marketing of the Galaxy Note 9 in a different direction than previous Notes: the company is said to be planning a huge, exclusive Fortnite push through a partnership with Epic Games. Both 9to5Google and XDA Developers are reporting that Fortnite’s Android port will launch alongside the Note 9 — perhaps even as a pre-bundled application. Samsung might have a 30-day exclusive on the hugely popular battle royale game, according to 9to5Google . Epic Games did not respond to a request for comment. Both sites say that Note 9 buyers will be rewarded with some Fortnite bonus freebies in exchange for preordering the phone, including complimentary V-Bucks, player skins, and more. And yes, apparently somehow Samsung has found a way to add S Pen functionality to the game. (The new S Pen is expected to include Bluetooth and should offer more advanced software features on the Note it’s paired to.) XDA Developers claims that Fortnite will play a key role in S

Slack made a surprise announcement today that it’s acquired Hipchat, once a primary competitor to its workplace chat service, from enterprise software giant Atlassian. As part of the partnership between Slack and Atlassian, Hipchat will be shutting down and the two companies will work together to migrate all of its users over to Slack. The same goes for Stride, the chat and collaboration successor to Hipchat that Atlassian launched last year. In exchange, Atlassian gets a small stake in the startup , while Slack pays an undisclosed amount over the next three years to fully acquire the HipChat and Stride software stacks and user bases. The partnership comes at a pivotal time for corporate chat software, with Microsoft ramping up competition with a rival product called Teams that’s immediately available for 135 million Office cloud subscribers. There’s even a free version of Teams available made to lure new users in, a strategy similar to Slack’s. Facebook too has its own take on the

IBM’s Watson supercomputer gave unsafe recommendations for treating cancer patients, according to documents reviewed by Stat . The report is the latest sign that Watson, once hyped as the future of cancer research, has fallen far short of expectations. In 2012, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center partnered with IBM to train Watson to diagnose and treat patients . But according to IBM documents dated from last summer, the supercomputer has frequently given bad advice, like when it suggested a cancer patient with severe bleeding be given a drug that could cause the bleeding to worsen. (A spokesperson for Memorial Sloan Kettering said this suggestion was hypothetical and not inflicted on a real patient.) “This product is a piece of s—,” one doctor at Jupiter Hospital in Florida told IBM executives, according to the documents . “We bought it for marketing and with hopes that you would achieve the vision. We can’t use it for most cases.” The documents come from a presentat

If you’re a car enthusiast then the words “Pirelli” and “Bluetooth speaker” will definitely perk up your ears. The Italian tire manufacturer is licensing and debuting the Pirelli P Zero Sound, a Bluetooth speaker modeled after a Formula 1 racing wheel and tire, at one half the scale. Unfortunately, the one feature that would make this specialty speaker complete, is if it were an actual rubber racing tire. But alas, the P Zero Sound is a replica mold (that comes in nine colors) of the smaller tire F1 teams use for their aerodynamic wind tunnel testing. The speaker’s manufacturer, iXoost (pronounced like “exhaust”) is based in Modena, Italy, and has a reputation for producing motorsports-themed speaker systems. Specs-wise, the P Zero Sound measures 12.9-inches in diameter, weighs 21 pounds, has a 100-watt amplifier, Bluetooth 4.0 with AptX for wireless connectivity, a 100mm midwoofer and a 25mm tweeter. The P Zero Sound definitely has enough power to keep you entertained in the gara

Apple shipped 3.5 million smartwatches in the second quarter this year, an uptick of 30 percent year over year, according to a Canalys report today . Last year the second quarter was Apple’s worst of the year, so the numbers this year suggest the Apple Watch Series 3 is considerably more popular than its predecessor. Still, rivals like Fitbit and Garmin also made a strong showing in Q2 and they actually widened their share of the market. Features like advanced heart rate metrics and smart coaching helped those rivals set their devices apart from the Apple Watch. So although Apple shipped out more watches, its overall market share dipped to 34 percent compared to 43 in Q1. In Asia, the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE was the most popular model, accounting for 60 percent of a total of 250,000 units. Canalys senior analyst Jason Low said in a statement to The Verge that Apple’s progress mainly came from its decision to partner with telecom and mobile network operators in Asia and Austra

Noodlecake Studios has just published the Android version of Alto’s Odyssey on the Google Play Store. Unlike the original $4.99 iOS release, the Android port is free to play with optional in-app purchases. Alto’s Odyssey is the sequel to Alto’s Adventure , a hit mobile game that reached 36 million downloads on Android and helped expand the reach of the indie studio beyond its success within Apple’s ecosystem. Alto’s Odyssey is a beautifully designed, simple-yet-challenging snowboarding (sandboarding?) game that takes the player on a serene through gorgeous desert scenery. There’s also a “zen” mode, which strips the game’s user interface and notifications away so you can simply enjoy the soundtrack and art style. It’s a terrific sequel to what was already a game easily worth the download. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2mMa2GV

Samsung’s new memory chips that just went into mass production for “next-gen flagship” smartphones are designed to address battery drain through improved efficiency. Thin phones are nice and all, but longer battery life in high-end smartphones is even better. Specifically, the second-generation 10nm (1y-nm) class 16Gb LPDDR4X (Low Power, Double Data Rate, 4X) Mobile DRAM chip achieves the current 4,266 Mbps data rate seen in flagship smartphones, but does so with a power decrease that’s up to 10 percent. Things get even more interesting when Samsung combines the chips, creating an 8GB LPDDR4X mobile DRAM package by using four of the 10nm-class 16Gb LPDDR4X DRAM chips (16Gb=2GB). That might look like a lot of inscrutable text, but the result is a package that’s more energy efficient overall and 20 percent slimmer than the current design. The new energy-efficient chip “should first hit the market late this year or the first part of 2019,” said Sewon Chun, senior vice president of Me

One of the many issues with with the “gig economy” is that these temporary workers don’t receive the benefits of real employees, depressing their earnings and putting them in a difficult position when it comes to things to health insurance. Today, the food delivery service Caviar is addressing at least one of those fronts, by offering accident insurance to all drivers, so long as they’re actively picking up or delivering an order. All drivers are covered, and there’s no cost to be included. Uber, Lyft, and other part-time driving platforms offer a degree of insurance, but their insurance is generally meant to protect the driver’s car, or some other party in an accident — not the working driver. Caviar’s insurance stands out by offering a degree of protection to drivers should they be injured. That includes medical expenses, as well as disability pay of 50 percent of a driver’s average weekly earnings. The insurance also offers $100,000 to a driver’s family should they die in an acci

Samsung’s expected to announce its Galaxy Note 9 in a couple weeks , and it seems the company is fully ready to get back into the big battery business. A teaser for the phone (embedded above) flaunts a new, larger battery. Some rumors suggest it could have a capacity of 4,000mAh, making it the largest battery ever built into a Note device. That’s a significant upgrade over last year’s phone and even the doomed Note 7 from 2016. The Note 7 included a 3,500mAh battery, and that device ended up being recalled after many devices spontaneously exploded or caught fire. US airlines also began banning the device from all flights citing safety issues. After spending the rest of 2016 apologizing, Samsung then retreated in its quest for a larger battery the following year with the Note 8 , which featured a smaller 3,300mAh capacity. It looks as if this time, the company is seemingly confident enough to not only include a large battery in its new phone, but also sell it as a key feature. Gi

A Nikkei report out of China this week has revealed Huawei’s efforts to build and release a foldable smartphone ahead of Android archrival Samsung. Samsung has long held the display innovation lead thanks to its subsidiary Samsung Display, which just announced that its upcoming “unbreakable” flexible phone screen has been certified for being extra tough and durable. But Huawei, making use of flexible OLED panels from Chinese supplier BOE, is apparently planning to do a very limited run of foldable handsets, with analysts estimating they could come as soon as early next year. BOE, which was dubbed Beijing Oriental Electronics at its outset back in 1993, won’t be a familiar name to most tech observers. Its display business has been rapidly improving in recent times, however, and the company has already secured some of Apple’s iPhone LCD business . BOE’s next foray is to push further into OLED production and innovation, which is where the flexible OLED panels that Huawei is mooted to

Google has been working on a Material Design refresh for Chrome across desktop and mobile in recent months, and elements of the redesign are starting to make their way to the stable version of the browser. Chrome 68, released earlier this week , now includes parts of the Material Design refresh hidden behind settings flags in both the iOS and desktop versions. While the desktop version includes a more rounded and whiter appearance, the mobile version of Chrome has a far more drastic redesign on iOS. Google is moving the navigation controls to the bottom of the screen, and overhauling the new tab page to be more useful. The navigation changes mean forward and backward buttons are now at the bottom, alongside access to tabs, settings, and a new search button. The new search button is a quick way to get to the address bar for now, which is ideal if you’re using a phone with an extra-tall display. The new Material Design refresh in Chrome for iOS looks interesting pic.twitter.com/Jakp

One of the more frustrating aspects of Windows 10 is the operating system’s ability to start installing updates when you’re in the middle of using it. While Microsoft has tried to address this aggressive approach to updates with features to snooze updates , Windows 10 users continue to complain that updates install when devices are in use. Reacting to this feedback, Microsoft says it’s aware of the issues. “We heard you, and to alleviate this pain, if you have an update pending we’ve updated our reboot logic to use a new system that is more adaptive and proactive,” explains Microsoft’s Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar . Microsoft says it has trained a “predictive model” that will accurately predict when the best time to restart the device is thanks to machine learning. “We will not only check if you are currently using your device before we restart, but we will also try to predict if you had just left the device to grab a cup of coffee and return shortly after,” says Sarkar. Micros

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has returned to teach a class at Stanford University, according to a listing spotted by Stanford graduate Andrew Granato on Twitter . Thiel is currently listed as a co-instructor for “German 270: Sovereignty and the Limits of Globalization and Technology.” Thiel attended Stanford for both undergraduate and law school, and he previously taught a law course at the undergrad level in 2011. That law course covered similar topics, titled “Sovereignty, Globalization, and Technological Change.” The seminar is taught out of the German department, a language Thiel speaks fluently. According to the course description, the class “explores the tensions between state and market,” with readings from Marx and Nietzsche, among other scholars. Notably, the syllabus includes the French philosopher René Girard, who Thiel has credited with shaping his worldview . Thiel will be co-teaching the class with Russell Berman, a German professor known for his classes on conservati

Qualcomm has finally given up on buying NXP Semiconductors, a Dutch company known for automotive and IoT chips, which it’s been trying to acquire for nearly two years . The deal has long been held up by the Chinese government, and now, Qualcomm has said it will scrap the agreement altogether rather than continue the uncertain fight toward a completed acquisition. In doing so, it’ll have to pay a breakup fee of $2 billion. The two companies initially entered into a deal in October 2016, with Qualcomm agreeing to pay $47 billion for NXP. The deadline to close the deal has been extended many times since then, as the companies wait for China to approve or deny the merger; every other country reviewing the acquisition granted its approval. With no answer from China, the deal will once again hit its deadline tonight, but this time Qualcomm doesn’t plan to extend it. The agreement is still valid until midnight ET, so it’s possible the acquisition will still go through; but China would have

If you ask your Amazon Echo for information about the closest drugstore, you can now not only get the hours, but other information about those that are closest to you, thanks to the recent update that’s adding that information to the more than 1 million businesses in Amazon’s Alexa platform. This latest update comes courtesy of Amazon’s new partnership with Yext , a company that’s supplying the tech giant with business data aggregated from Google and Facebook, as well as Apple’s Siri assistant, according to Bloomberg . Since 2015, Amazon has offered similar information through Yelp, and the information pulled from the review site is what allowed people use their Alexas to, for example, find the most popular Italian or Greek restaurants in their area. The data from Yext, meanwhile, isn’t aggregated through third-party customer reviews — it’s pulled directly from businesses that partner with the platform, like McDonalds, T-Mobile, and Rite Aid, who work with Yext to keep their data up