Weekly Digest - 2021.02

Weekly Digest - 2021.02

CES 2021

Due to pandemic, the CES 2021 was different. First of all it was virtual. Second, it was smaller, much smaller. Not many products ware introduced, but couple of them were interesting:

Samsung Galaxy S21 family

Samsung announced the next version of the flagship phone. Here is the spec of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra:

  • 6.8-inch AMOLED 120Hz display (1440 x 3200 px),
  • Snapdragon 888,
  • 12 or 16GB of RAM,
  • 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of Storage,
  • Triple back camera system: 108 MP (wide), 10 MP (telephoto), 12 MP (ultrawide),
  • 40 MP selfie camera,
  • 5000 mAh Battery,
  • Support for S pen,
  • Starting at $1199.

Return of the King?

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, next MacBook Pro might return to its glorious days. If rumors are true, the new MacBook Pro will get not only the ARM processor, but also new form factor, and new display. The TouchBar will be gone, and the MagSafe will return with additional ports. This is too good to be true.

Lucasfilm Games

Lucasfilm announced that all future Star Wars games will be released under the Lucasfilm Games brand. It looks like, EA lost their exclusivity right to Star Wars games. Bethesda is working on Indiana Jones game, and Ubisoft is making an open world Star Wars game. Despite the fact EA lost exclusivity rights, it's still working on the new Star Wars games, including sequel to the Jedi Fallen Order.

Wikipedia anniversary

Wikipedia turned 20. Yeah, It's hard to believe, but Wikipedia is helping us for two decades now. It definitely helped me when I was a student, so I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this awesome project.

Weekly Digest - 2020.32

Weekly Digest - 2020.32

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.