Weekly Digest - 2020.33

17 August 2020

Epic goes to war with Apple

Hours after removing Fortnite from AppStore, Epic filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The legal complaint, seeks to establish Apple’s App Store as a monopoly, and the civil suit is seeking injunctive relief to “allow fair competition” in mobile app distribution.

Fortnite has been also removed from Play Store and Epic filled another lawsuit agains Google as well.

Epic has a really small chances to win this lawsuit, but this time the company with millions of users is rebelling against Apple, so they will get attention of general public. Definitely the antitrust commissions in US and EU will notice this.

Xbox Series X will launch in November

Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox Series X will launch in November, before the holiday season. According to some rumors, the premiere is set to November 6th.

Now, that we have more or less accurate release date, all we need is the price.

Microsoft Surface Duo release date

Microsoft's first foldable mobile device will arrive on September 10th. The preorders are already available for $1,399. Surface Duo is Microsoft's first phone since Lumia. It not only has interesting design, that includes two separate screens, but also it runs Android.

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Image credits: Microsoft

Weekly Digest - 2020.32

10 August 2020

Samsung Unpacked

This week Samsung held the Unpacked event and unveiled couple of new devices.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 & Note 20 Ultra

New flagships have been announced and this is how they look like:

6,7” (2400 x 1080 px) Super AMOLED in Note 20
6,9” (3200 x 1440 px) Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120 Hz in Note 20 Ultra
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus CPU
8GB or 12GB of RAM,
256 or 512 GB of storage
Hole-punch 10 Mpix selfie camera,
Tripple rear camera
12 Mpix + 64 Mpix (telefoto) + 12 Mpix (ultrawide) in Note 20
108 Mpix + 12 Mpix (telefoto) + 12 Mpix (ultrawide) in Note 20 Ultra
Fingerprint sensor built into the screen,
Dual SIM: SIM + eSIM
5G capabilities
4300 mAh battery in Note 20 & 4500 mAh battery in Note 20 Ultra,
Phones will be available in August starting at $999.99.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

Samsung still pursues the fold concept and announced the successor to famous Galaxy Fold phone. The biggest change a full-size 6.2-inch screen that covers the entire front of the phone. This is really huge improvement from is tiny external display that Galaxy Fold had. The main display is also bigger, at 7.6 inches and runs up to 120Hz. Also, the screen doesn't have huge notch for camera, instead there is a small hole-punch camera that takes up far less space. Internals of the device also have been upgraded and Z Fold 2 is powered by Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. Unfortunately we still don't know pricing or a release date.

Galaxy Watch 3

Samsungs also announced a new Watch, that has a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG), which has been cleared by the FDA similar to Apple Watch. It will be available for purchase starting on August 6th from $399.99.

Big companies fight Apple's AppStore policies

It looks like, Apple is under heavy fire not only from indie developers, but big tech giants as well. All rally agains Apple's AppStore policies.

Microsoft, after announcement that xCloud wouldn't be coming to iOS, fired back at Apple accusing them of treating gaming apps unfairly compared to other apps.

Facebook launched gaming app on iOS, but it doesn't have any games. All thanks to an App Store policy which bans streaming gaming services.

It doesn't look very good for Apple, especially when AppStore Policies are under investigation regarding antitrust concerns and anti-competitive behavior.

Apple updated iMacs

Apple updated the iMac lineup. The biggest change is Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake processors. The most awaited change is 1080p HD webcam, hopefully this upgrade will be introduced in other macs. Also, SSDs are now standard across the line.

Also, iMac Pro has been refreshed. Now, the base model has the 10-core 3.0 GHz Xeon W chip that was previously an upgrade option.

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Weekly Digest - 2020.31

3 August 2020

Nasa launched Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Mars 2020 rover launched from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, and if everything goes as planned, the rove will land on Red Planed on 18 February 2021.

It's mission includes studying Mars' habitability, seeking signs of past microbial life, collecting and caching samples, and preparing for future human missions.

The rover itself is the most sophisticated ever created. It's tightly packed with latest technologies, including a freaking helicopter 🚀.

Crew Dragon returned home

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission has successfully ended after 63 days. Capsule Endeavour, with Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken onboard, undocked from International Space Station on August 1st. After 19 hours of deorbiting, capsule splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mission that started on May 30th is a huge success for the SpaceX and Nasa. SpaceX proved that a private company can launch man into space and safely bring them home. Not only that, they can do this much more cheaper, thanks to the reusable rockets.

Hopefully, launching men into space, not only by private companies, will become more frequent. At the moment, the next crew mission is planned for the end of September.

Apple Testifies in U.S. Antitrust Hearing

In last couple of month there was a lot of going on regarding Apple's 30% cut in the AppStore. Already EU commission is investigating the issue, now also US government started. You can read the coverage of the testimony here, but long story short, Apple is convinced they are right, despite some contradicting evidence.

iPhone 12 delayed!

Apple's CFO Luca Maestri confirmed rumors about iPhone 12 delay. During earnings call, Maestri shared that new device won't be available late September, but a few weeks later. Although the launch of the headset is delayed, Apple is still expected to unveil the device during an event in September.