HTC Announces Vive Focus Plus
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| HTC Announces Vive Focus Plus | |
| Number | 757 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 21, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 4:33 |
| Hosts | Sarah Lane |
Apple and Goldman Sachs reportedly testing joint credit card, Samsung unveils Galaxy Fold, Twitter asks for user feedback on redesign.
Headlines
- Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold, a phone that unfolds into a tablet. It has a 4.6-inch front display and a 7.3-inch infinity flex tablet display when unfolded. It contains 512 GB of storage, can show 3 apps at once tiled on screen for multitasking and can switch between screens without pause. The Galaxy Fold arrives April 26 in LTE and 5G versions, starting at $1,980.
- Samsung also announced new versions of the Galaxy S10 with an in-screen ultrasonic fingerprint reader that can work with wet fingers and three rear cameras. It also can wirelessly charge other devices. The $899 6.1-inch S10, the $1000 6.4-inch S10 Plus and the $749 5.8-inch S10 E are available for preorder, shipping March 8. A version with 5G will arrive later this year coming first to Verizon in the US.
- New wearables coming too from Samsung. The Galaxy Buds are wireless bluetooth ear buds in a charging case for $130 coming March 8. The Galaxy Watch Active measures blood pressure, heart rate and tracks sleep coming March 8 for $200. And the Galaxy Fit has a color AMOLED touchscreen coming in Q2.
- Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that Apple and Goldman Sachs are working on a joint credit card which will integrate with an updated Apple Wallet app and include features like the ability to set spending goals, track purchase rewards, and potentially offer rewards like 2% cashback. The card is said to be in testing with employees now with a public launch later this year. The card, which the Journal first reported was in the works in May of last year, will reportedly use the Mastercard network.
- Sources tell Reuters that Lyft will launch the roadshow for its initial public offering the week of March 18, which would make it the first U.S. ride-hailing company to IPO. Dow Jones also reported that Lyft could make its filing public as early as next week and plans to list on the Nasdaq. Rival Uber is said to be several weeks behind Lyft's timeframe for its own IPO. Lyft also announced its “most affordable” ride option called Shared Saver in Denver, Colorado and San Jose. Riders can lock in low prices even during peak hours, and Shared Saver isn’t affected by surge pricing.
- Back in November, Google security researcher Ivan Fratric found a whitelist within Microsoft's Edge browser that lets Facebook run Adobe Flash code without users knowing. The Flash whitelist originally had 58 entries, including domains and subdomains for Microsoft's main site, the MSN portal, music streaming service Deezer, Yahoo, and Chinese social network QQ. It appears Microsoft shortened the list to two Facebook domains earlier this month. However, Facebook spokesperson tells ZDNet they didn't ask Microsoft to be on the whitelist, and that they asked Microsoft to remove the domains. Adobe and browser makers plan to sunset Flash completely by the end of 2020, and Microsoft says it plans to switch Edge from its proprietary EdgeHTML browser engine to Google's Chromium.
- HTC announced the Vive Focus Plus that includes a pair of its updated motion controllers the company first announced as developer hardware back in October. The Vive Focus’s original single controller supported three degrees of freedom, and these new controllers support six, so they can be tracked as they move around as well as rotating on the spot. This puts HTC in competition with Oculus' Quest, a standalone headset with two controllers due this spring. The Vive Focus Plus is aimed primarily at business customers, and will be available in 25 countries including the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, and China, though no word on pricing yet.
- Twitter is asking users to apply to take part in a test of a redesign of conversations meant to "make it easier to see more of what people are saying." A rounded shape makes a thread look more like text messages, replies are indented and replies from people you follow are in blue while replies from the person who started the thread are in gray. Twitter will also test hiding likes and retweets unless you click to reveal them.
Links
| Preceded by: "Google Hid a Mic in Nest Secure" |
HTC Announces Vive Focus Plus |
Followed by: "Facebook Pulls Market Research VPN" |