The Death of Note 7:|
This Week’s Tech News Roundup
By Baxter Jacinto
Fancy your own personal travel concierge? You can now. Are we able to legally prosecute internet trolls? You can now. Can you now use Facebook at work? You can now. Can you still buy the Note 7? You can’t now.
Here’s the latest and most exciting tech news this week.
8. Journy:The travel concierge
We don’t really need apps to help us book flights and accommodations because we prefer to do it directly without any middleman. But what we do need is an app that actually helps us figure what we can do once we get to our destination—enter Journy, a start-up app that acts as your personal travel concierge for $15 a day. First, it lets you take a travel survey to tailor to your needs and wants in your journey. Second, it really is a concierge. Sadly, not the android type, but an actual human person who will help do research and map out the logistics for you. Adding to that is Journy’s network of local experts making sure that every journey you make is the best.
7. Duolingo’s chatbots are legit
They say the best way to learn a language is to actually practice it every day with a native speaker. But flying out to another country to learn a language is overkill. Duolingo gives us the solution: chatbots. These Duolingo bots (although only available for French, Spanish and German languages at the moment) act like a native speaker. They’ve also added personalities to the bots. Check out Chef Robert, Renee the Driver and Officer Ada. The bots will react and answer differently depending on your response. It’s a fun and useful addition to Duolingo, and it makes it the best app to learn a new language.
6. Social media trolls could go to jail in the UK
The social media can enlighten, but it can also destroy via vicious internet trolls who humiliate, harass, bully and intimidate people online. And the Crown Prosecution Service in the United Kingdom will not tolerate this any further with its new legal guidelines that could send an internet troll behind bars. We can only hope that the Philippines would soon implement stricter policies in the internet as well, because, hello.
5. Final Fantasy XV: A 45 minute gameplay
It was teased in 2006 and we all thought it will come out for the PS3. Then came the PS4 and still no FF XV. Now, after 10 years, the FF XV will finally arrive on November 29, 2016 in the PS4. See this 45 minute gameplay that showcases the beautiful landscapes, battle system and its open world setup.
4. Adonit Snap: The stylus to rule them all
Adonit’s 4.3mm thick stylus named ‘Snap’ is finally out in the market. But why the heck would you make one in the first place? Well, it’s basically made for people who are serious about their Snapchat doodles, or those who want to send better doodle’s in their Messenger. And since it’s magnetic, it will snap back to the metal casing of your phone. More importantly, it also has a button that triggers your smartphone camera to snap a photo of you.
3. HTC jumps into the smartwatch arena
We’re not really sure what makes a good smartwatch since all of them out there have practically the same features. Adding soon to the confusion is HTC’s smartwatch under the codename ‘Halfbreak’ in collaboration with Under Armour. Yes, that’s an odd collaboration, but we’ll just have to wait for more news from HTC.
2. Facebook opens its virtual office space
Just last week, Facebook rolled out Secret Conversations and Marketplace (you can check the details of those here), and now they’re introducing the Workplace, a communication platform designed for companies to interact with one another. Whether it’s hosting a virtual brainstorm or following a presentation of your boss, the Workplace can practically make office communication easier.
On top off that is Facebook’s introduction of the Multi-Company Groups, a shared space that allows employees across different organizations to work together. It’s sort of a colab space, but virtual. Now it can’t be denied that Facebook is changing and dominating the virtual landscape one feature at a time.
1. Galaxy Note 7’s tragic conclusion
Apple’s boring iPhone 7 is here. Google’s Pixel finally makes its debut. And Samsung’s Note 7 bids goodbye. The tragic story of Samsung’s Note 7 had some glimmer of hope by performing a worldwide recall but it seems like all effort was in vain. Samsung has finally asked all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7. What’s next? Well, we’ll probably assume that Samsung will launch the Galaxy 8 sooner than planned to appease their patrons—and obviously to lift their sales back with all the money they lost in this mess.
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