Gadgetory

this episode of the pocket now weekly is brought to you by ops genie things can good things can go wrong with your business and they will so it matters how quickly you can get things fixed up thanks to ops genie you can get your operations and developer teams on the problem fast with the right scheduling tools and escalation paths with ops genie your next incident doesn't stand a chance visit ops Genie comm to sign up for a free company account for up to five team members no credit card required that's o-p-s GE n IE comm never miss a memoir it again with ops genie from Atlassian and hello and welcome to episode three three one of the weekly brought to you by pocket now oh and xD developers recorded on Friday the 9th of November 2018 beating peak Apple to the departure of the neck sigh you've got plenty to unfold this week so let's get right to it joshan the crew are on assignment this week so i'm here i'm jules wong i'm glad to have an old friend back on its TK Bay Good Friday to you Good Friday to you to my friend nice to see you again and yeah you know I love hanging out with you you know nice Friday afternoon sunny windy where I am but you know it's nice it's nice to see your face again trying to avoid the fires up in Ventura County so no luckily no we're about 30 minutes or so away from them but we can definitely see the plume of smoke and the air the quality of the air it does get affected so they pretty much recommend us staying home today yeah we're doing well doing fine at least keep a thought out for those people up there and joining us for the first time to spin her gears is geek spin zone Elena stone it's been this has been overdue Elena come on welcome it I mean it's what took so long come on I don't know I don't know what happens I'm glad that we were able to have you on this week and for further weeks as we go on I hope to have you on a our big CES show because we're all going to be there we're just gonna have like a room full of people and then just one camera and we're just gonna pack you in and it's just gonna be great it's actually not going to be great because we know what happens that's a yes we're gonna get sick just like a couple of us are right now and then we're going to have to like work through it and try and get as many 60-second hands-on videos done with our voices all kind of and you're trying your best and you have to keep recording three times over because you flubbed this line or that line it's great nothing like the nerves Lou theraflu robitussin mind drinks of choice over there yeah in any case we have lots to get through we do want to get your feedback on it you at listener or you viewer in any case so be sure to tweet at us hashtag P and weekly so that we are able to track down what you're saying in real-time as I try and reach for my phone that could be on this side or could be on my right side it could be here yes that's right all right I'll keep track of that as we go along and talk about our first story here so what is the measure of success for Apple at this point because we are going into a holiday season where Apple has decided that it will no longer give out unit sales numbers in its quarterly earnings and this is on top of a kind of mediocre forecast for revenues where the street has been expecting what 93 billions and some numbers that we can't even comprehend because we're just mere mortals and then apples like well we're aiming for like 91 billion dish so what does the picture look like going forward what does does it mean more sales in a market where iPhones have saturated the US and maybe have reached as far as they're going to go in most of the developed markets or is the price game going to be next is the what's next Helena well I think in general this strategy was really smart on our part know that there's it's most likely impossible for them to beat their previous numbers right and if they don't show gross right they'll grow some numbers that looks bad when all these other Chinese players are beating them um but ultimately I don't think that it's a bad sign for the company because they are still making lots of money right and there's they seem to be compensating by making their handsets more expensive they're compensating in so many different ways but I get why they don't want to really move on to release those numbers and makes absolute sense yeah I mean well it's I don't really I mean everything market is kind of started to react a little bit to this whole alright we're seeing four digits now and I'm a little bit scared I'm not looking forward to paying $40 a month on my cellular bill in addition to the cellular service that I'm going to have I think we're getting there I want to be surprised if they end up being that those numbers at the end of placing their numbers so I feel oh this is like a safe way for them to play it hey we're not gonna release the numbers and if somehow they feed the numbers they I bet they'll sure that perhaps perhaps maybe beat last year's number they just don't have to be specific yeah exactly yeah yeah and well it was considering that Samsung and Huawei which are still kind of building their reputations on those numbers world's most most popular smartphone brand by shipments like about that kind of thing I'm wondering what the picture is for you at DK um for me you know Apple has been I mean we they're in them they're in the media for other things as well I mean we'll get a chance to talk a little bit more about them in that aspect but as far as the numbers like Elena said I think realistically not having to share the numbers just gives them the ability to just not have to worry about have any answer those questions every time the you know quarterly reports come out but the short answer is they're going to still be measured by how many shipments how many how many stores are sold out how much the wait times and people will still talk about them and I think that will help their stock kind of survive that in the long run in the near term this is just a like a minimal dip most people are reacting to the white you don't you want to share and then something will take over but the reality at the end of the day when you look at the actual product sales and the innovative well not innovation you know numbers new laptops do you know the mini the new air the new iPhones all of those things taking the price out of it I think makes them just trying to you know feed into that high life you know ticket people are buying into the brand no longer worrying about the number that I think that's really what it is and hopefully that could translate into more sales for them and just not having to worry about competing with themselves now since they're so far had some other people they don't have to actually compete so we're going to the world of theory here what if they decide to reinstate those reports perhaps just because of a turning point like maybe it's oh this iPhone 10s s ra p GES is I'm very sorry what if that has like though for some reason done 20% better than ever or something like that like do you think it's a move that Apple will kind of do or what oh I'm I'm pretty sure it will be like the first slide they put up when they on the next keynote for the next iPhone though they'll boost the numbers they'll refer to percentages I think it's just not having to give up specifics I think that's really what they're shooting for they just want to be able to just say look we we are doing good we're still producing the same amount of you know new devices were selling them I think they just you don't want to take out the the question of numbers just from the reporting it doesn't mean that you know you still can't see how they're performing and it just it's in the long run better for them not to have to say you know this is how much we made on the iPhone 10 and this is how much we made on the iPhone 10s it's just a number anything right because at the end of the day people are still buying the iPhone tennis XR / - all that good stuff yeah yeah and Hellena what do you think about u-turn if there is any down the road what was that I didn't hear that so what do you think about u-turn if there are any u-turns to be had down the road in terms of reporting at these numbers oh yeah I mean I I said it before I wouldn't be surprised that if they do be there the numbers that they'll go ahead and and and share those numbers I feel like that's very Apple like as I'm in general just like a little line quote in the press release or something like that exactly yeah yeah well we'll see about that it's gonna be interesting to see how Apple judges itself and in reflection how we investors and customers judge Apple as we move forward here but in the meantime we have plenty to talk about related to Apple sort of relate to Apple and this is talking about Qualcomm to which it continues on the legal sparring continues on it all starting with Qualcomm being accused of a very anti-competitive hate behavior in terms of working its own clients to not use any other chipsets from their competitors and it's blown up to this massive war between Apple and Qualcomm and for the longest time we've heard Qualcomm sand give all these platitudes and saying that Apple is still a valued customer is still a valued partner and we look forward to continuing this relationship with them and between all the sales injunction requests for iPhones and other things that perhaps we haven't seen yet Apple a source to Reuters from the Apple side has said that they are not negotiating with Qualcomm at any level quote there is absolutely no meaningful discussion between us and Qualcomm and there is no settlement insane and when you think about how much of an impact how much presence Qualcomm has in our industry and what you know to titans Apple being one of the most profitable companies in the world and being able to perhaps ask for damages that might be worth more than Qualcomm is as a company what do you think abouts this hold this stalemate at this point TK what do you think about what happens here does Apple have more of a chance of winning than Qualcomm or what I think this the seriousness of the way Apple is playing it right now is it's very big like I'm the Big Kahuna in the room right now and you need to pay attention to me and they do obviously command a very large presence in the market Qualcomm can't really just shun them and say well you know we're not gonna talk to you guys but again if we keep in mind historically performances as far as radio performance on you know on iPhones and stuff and such devices have never been at the same level as some of the other devices that we've seen on the market I think this is pretty much just for the better for worse I think this is just a negotiation ploy they need to basically try to make their presents town and Qualcomm come to the table as the understanding of you understood the big guys and you really need to give us what we need because at the end of the day of course apple also has historically done this where they've gone with their own chipset I mean they have their own main chip sat in the SOC so reliant on Qualcomm could potentially not be an issue for them if they decide to venture into you know dumping into that if they do want to do that I think it's really something that Qualcomm needs to pay attention for it and should not you know they shouldn't basically go in there thinking well you know they need to answer to us I think it's the other way around Apple has has a really good presence here well in terms of making their own components I think it's kind of interesting to think about how what Qualcomm is accusations against apples that it helped Intel one of the competing and chip the modem makers with copying consumer Qualcomm proprietary code and helping them out in that aspect so that's interesting Hellena what's your take on this whole conflict well I definitely can't follow who's wrong or who's right in all this it's super confusing but I get why apples kind of being very steadfast they don't need to follow them right now they're making great chips so they certainly don't need them and I certainly have the the lawyer power to keep fighting Qualcomm hoff so the I fired them I just keep doing what doing when saying no settlement and none of that yeah it is kind of we're left in a position here because a lot of us in the PocketNow community are more inclined towards and you know Qualcomm has a great relationship with those Android OEM so whatever happens here might have ripple effects down the road and mmm whether or not it will have a net benefit or net drag on whatever progress gets done over on that side so I know this is kind of a tough tackling issue that we want to get into but at least in terms of that it's worth it to be aware of things as we go along here I mean they when we look at Android and iOS we have to keep in mind obviously you know Qualcomm is a big player I mean Huawei and the care and chipset we haven't really seen that much presence on there and so pretty much you know if Qualcomm gets a big hit Android as an ecosystem gets a hit so it's a big issue but I don't think it's beneficial to either one of the companies to basically destroy the other I think realistically this is a negotiation point of reference I think Qualcomm realistically either a fesses up to it but I mean we've seen them have long battles like Yelena said they have that lower power to stretch things for years and we'll remember Samsung and Apple and that took forever I can't remember no no I think it did end like it was tossed back down as like the article of something about an article of manufacture what could be considered that and whether or not the Samsung would owe this much a little bit or this much Allah so exactly just how badly that was like seven years so [Laughter] mentoring the other there's mobile wearables you know always connected PCs so we're starting to see the Qualcomm chipset in more markets than just mobile mobile smartphones it needs to stay relevant needs to stay relevant in the 5g era that many have argued it has pioneered and you know a lot of catch up especially you know with the new standard Intel and mediatek are kind of one of the backups that Apple is considering for in that 2020 I phone so I'm will have to see where that goes and how the rest of my kid plays itself out let's go to the rest of the market for a little bit shall we let's talk about LG I know this was announced that alpha why does it exist so we have the LG G seven fits which I have a called 2018 Snapdragon 820 one phone and it was just announced for wide availability in most of the world I'm not sure about North America but the rest of the world will get it and I'm wondering what is what's going on here because back in 2017 the LD g6 launched with a Snapdragon 820 one and that was already kind of six months out of it and I don't know like what the deal was between Cal common LG how many cuz like they were I think there were several more models that had the 821 in it from LG like how many how many parts did Qualcomm give to LG in order for this did they have happened cuz this is kind of weird this is kind of insane so it has a lot of the healthy g7 think you specs you're talking about the 6.1 inch display that's super bright and whatnot 3000 milliamp hour battery is kind of okay single cameras on the back of language alright it's fine but remind me of the year that the LG G 7 one edition so yeah yeah didn't that go with this one of the six hundreds yeah no so that was a little bit less powered but with the what they did is a similar a similar form factor where they took some stuff from the g7 and they kind of write it down a little bit and I think it's mostly maybe just a pricing kind of an approach to how to sell this phone uh what do you think about this this whole thing Halina at the moment well I have two separate thoughts once the name is horrible because here I think it's gonna be like a wearable that matches up with the LGD seven um so there's just like confusion right away there for me this is LG's foldable phone and you can wrap it around your wrist and it becomes your would be a great name for it but the other part like to me it seems like they're trying to come out with another one answer to the oneplus and they don't really have it yet but this is like that kind of there either but it's similar to the other one to the LG G 7 1 edition it's just like hey we have another more affordable handset or maybe this is their answer to the iPhone XR because the v40 think you just on a peer price competition point yeah yeah that's what it seems like especially if it doesn't come out in North America and those other markets where there's high demand for more affordable devices it makes sense for them will it be successful I yeah well you know exactly it's where those go ahead TJ I was gonna to echo Elena's point of reference if you yeah when you start looking at the specifications what they have they've given it enough kind of unique features but not enough for it to compete with the US market so it doesn't really make sense for us to get it as competition to the g7 thank you but you know other markets that would have wanted an IP 68 phone this is not a bad deal I mean it's water resistant it does come out with Oreo which is a little bit interesting but again they probably will at some point next year push it up and it still has a pretty good display it's not that bad actually it's a good contender ad 821 is a still a powerful you know SOC it's just it's a few years behind quite a few years I would be kind of concerned about it going into the end and its support life from Qualcomm I'm not sure how long these chips are patched for on there and in the dish sure if it matters that much anyways since LG when being climbed as much to patch up their older phones or is whether minor phones you could say for that I I'm not sure where the guarantee kicks in because Android recently introduced a requirement I think it was with PI though it was with time and this is with Oreo that you had that all Android phones must be a two-year for soccer updates but yeah you have any more thoughts Halina I was just saying maybe they had like a whole load of 820 ones lying around that they had like all of the 820 ones it was like late in what what was it 2016 and by that time everyone a lot of om had passed them over and it was like well what are we going to do with all these 820 ones ship and there have been and toss it over to LG and that's in and like I hate I would hate to think that those chipsets have been lying around for like a year and a half in some dusty bin before it was like okay let's bring them out for it still could do pretty well depends on the market that it's gonna go into like I said it's it's still a powerful CPU we're looking at I mean the reality is if we're looking at LG's performance the update cycle of the procedure that they go through with their updates we're probably not gonna get that many updates on this phone anyways so for the most part it really will will serve the life cycle of what their general you know update cycle that we get for their phone so depends on the market and if the price is right it's still better than having a 600 you know 600 leveled septet you know the 820 one is pretty powerful and I'm just kind of that does that value proposition does it work in my head I'm sorry it just don't know where the run demographic to keep that in mind right now just it's like come on come on you could even like take the 630 you take the 6 6 36 or whatever come on just trade them in recycle the the materials please alright since my blood pressures already at a little bit higher than it should be let's some talk about the Asus zenfone 6 which I will put on screen right now so listeners I'm sorry you can go to pocketnow.com slash podcast and click on the latest episode for the rundown and you'll be able to see the pleasure that is this this is apparently a leak from HD blog Italy or ITB that's the two-letter code for the country in any case this is supposedly the Asus zenfone 6 it's got a little tiny speaker it's got minimal bezels that's that's alright and then um and there's nothing else wrong here right does anyone want to just spell the guts spill the beans on this I kind of like it it doesn't bother me I actually think this is where all these not just started with pushing it to the right side the top right of the display um I think it's fine I think it's kind of like efficient it kinda reminds you like like when you the X part of your your window on a desktop you know like it's kind of there in the corner you don't really think about it till you need it I like it I don't know I would feel more yeah how Android works yeah so yes I'm with you I think it's very minimal I think the teardrop effect the thing is gonna be we're gonna see a lot of that I mean we already see it with a lot of the new devices even with Huawei with their 20x teardrop is the next thing you know oneplus did that as well offsetting it though I I I feel less okay with it because it's next to you the like for the most stupid reason it's next to the bat it's like cramping the battery information where I guess I would have actually felt more okay with it if it were next to the time is where it separated the time because most of the time when you're looking up and your smartphone for a second it was like oh you checked the time and perhaps if this were like an AMOLED display like that that would be great because it's you're laying up so few pixels and be right there in a delineating kind of way and I would have liked that but instead it's on the right side next to the battery information and then sorry cuz I was just saying it for me it's more of a symmetry thing it's just purely that's what it is I'm not I don't have a problem with the fact that it's a teardrop effect it's just the symmetry of where it's positioned for me I I think the center portion would make sense as most notifications kind of pop up from the right and from the left on the device and having an offset either to the right it just kind of throws off for me to look and it looks like they're not allowing it to I mean we have to still see how they treat the UI with it androids more configured to run with the knobs in the center with all of their configuration so did they change that or how are they routing all the notifications in the notification panel on this yeah Hellena yeah no I I agree what TK said I think it comes down to the UI and this probably isn't the final look right so they can just tweak it to make it look more finessed I don't think it'll bother us as much so I've had literally 0.4 femtoseconds to think about the other side of this and if you're in a language with left to rights you could actually pull off a notification decently just by having in the standard length instead of having to adjust for the notch because that's mostly where your text is going to be on the top level and then the bottom level you would have a full line of text that you could insert if you needed it so I don't know I mean there there is some thought to it maybe if you know if we went to Arab speaking countries our right to right-to-left languages then perhaps this would feel much more wrong but who knows and so I'm all for smaller bezels and trying to figure out creative ways to put the camera module in there we mean the reality is we're starting to see full display phones right we're starting to see these things with mechanism I don't know the best way to describe it would be basically hiding it behind the entire display oh you're showing off that what was it mean magic to not to me make the magic - okay the other guy that came out of the market at the same time I think that solutions more digging let's just saying I know I know but so the kid part of me loves playing with this homepage I know I'm gonna break it but the reality is I think it all comes down to the UI and the experience placing the placing in the middle or on the right or the left as long as you make the rest of the UI cohesive and it looks right and when you're playing movies and stuff it doesn't just sit there and kind of looks odd for you I think realistically they don't nobody you should worry about it but what they're doing right now is they're the first people to do it if this is true and I think it'll catch a lot of press by that that's I think that's movements what they're trying to go for it's it's a mighty Kay do me a favor and just click that few times right next to your microphone no no phone the phone oh yeah do it so will good will be going into pocket now ASMR in the near future and that was just a preview of what you can look forward to so in the meantime we'll be moving on and say goodbye to lots of hands-on coverage that we've been being able to pull off with a TK joining or a video crew every once in awhile so much appreciate and not for it in the meantime we shall say goodbye to a couple of old friends here the nexuses have received their last updates their last guaranteed a taste at the very least they've reached the point st. where it's been 18 months since they've left the Google store and now the Nexus 5x made by LG and the Nexus 6p from Huawei are now officially out of service it's a sad day for a lot of people who kind of cherished the last bastions of what it meant for Google to have its name behind a phone well it may be targeted towards developers or was it just maybe turning the corner around towards that consumer appeal because obviously the next year after we had the pixel phones that's all made by Google and was like all these consumer friendly features any you know eulogies that's the word I'm trying to think of eulogies for me I'll start with Hellena on this one oh they were great phones right now I'm imagining them on an island Clippy yeah yeah no I mean they really were iconic Android handsets and I think that a lot of people hung onto them for a long time but it's what kind of sad is that they're not that old but yet they feel sold cuz so much has changed in a few years it's it's kind of crazy to think how far we've come and just since what 2015 I think we've grown older than the phones have to be honest it's been crazy TK from you so I will basically spill the proverbial drink for our fallen heroes and but I will always be so as you know obviously with XDA everything never really dies dies really it's a more of a reincarnation so wasn't one of the benefits of having Nexus devices and one of the main reasons why a lot of developers fell in love with them and even enthusiasts was the fact that they were easily unlockable easily test beds for many many different versions of software and I think if there's anything to learn from this is that you know yes official support has gone down obviously as we're reaching that timeline but your devices would hopefully live on and XDA definitely has a big community that love their Nexus the next side devices myself included I don't have the 6p I have the 6 and the 5x so for me the definitely they will live on and I love the designs I always really wish that the Nexus line carried but I do appreciate what the pixel line is bringing into the table that was a beautiful eulogy very well done very well done and I guess my foray into this was with the Nexus 5 I got on with the last little bit of it the last little tail end of that train Nexus 5x which introduced me to product I actually so and I've been enjoying it ever since so thank you google for that I guess and also just thank you for having the developer in mind in terms of both software and hardware for the time that has been and right now I don't know what's that's happening I think I've heard about a pixel 3 that's not being fixed so too bad for that I think it was the one that was um that got shipped to the customer all smashed up and they say I don't believe there it's that's yeah something for the red it's the that you can look at unfortunately in the meantime we'll be transitioning over to Samsung in just a couple of minutes but not before we take our first break we'll be right back the PocketNow weekly is brought to you by the National Security Agency almost every day we hear something on the news about a cyber attack sometimes it's just a bunch of pranksters but more often it's a foreign country with vast cyber resources trying to hack our power grid our baking systems or our military's information networks the National Security Agency plays a big part in protecting our country from cyberattacks and you can help the NSA is hiring technical professionals to serve on the front lines of information security if you work in consider if you work in computer science networking programming or electrical engineering you can help keep our country safe design new hardware systems and networks right faster smarter programs protect America's critical infrastructure or help uncover what our adversaries are planning to do next learn more about careers at the National Security Agency today visit intelligence careers gov slash NSA that's intelligence careers gov slash NSA Lopakhin al weekly is also supported by one plus if you want one of the fastest phones this year look no further than the one plus 60 with a huge eight gigabytes of RAM it keeps more of the apps you use in cash so they open almost instantly you can buy sixteen now for just half the price of the other flagship phones from this year check out pocketnow.com / 1 + 60 for more information whoo all right let me recover a little bit with a little trinket I'll get back to you all right and we are back and here to just unwind a little bit because I do want to continue one of Joshua's favorites habits and check in with both of you and how your weeks been doing I'll say that my week has been going just swimmingly I've been exploring in New England who I've been working online so it's life aound one of my favorite sandwich places now it's it's right down near the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island called the beef barn it's very cute and I love the roast beef sandwiches it's great TK what do you think what's been your week my week is it's been an interesting week up and down I've been you know a lot of good news coming out as far as mobile tech and just overall I would have to say knee-deep in Huawei and honor land for the most part this week for me a lot of new tech a lot of new phones new you know form factor so keeping myself busy and probably be doing another live stream coming after this for an unboxing of the new palm Hey look at the opposite of what I did $350 add-on from Verizon that you have to have a line for and it's cute I want to check it out I want to see how it works does it really makes sense to have a secondary phone as a I don't know the concept is a little bit confusing for me you know I have a watch but apparently I need a phone you should perhaps TK what's your a YouTube channel by the way just so we youtube.com for /tka t ka ba y great Gradius a XD err TK XD a that comes up yeah yeah so you can keep track of left and make sure that you tune in for that unboxing of the palm phone Halina I want to ask you how your week has been it has been pretty good what's been nice about this week is that there hasn't been any really big like constant launches every day or five a day but I've actually started so I'm gonna be able to play with this product which finally got to unbox even though it's that's the new a Lenovo yoga 9-3 oh yes I can't get behind the whole letters and numbers thing it's just like it's the yoga book to it it it's much much improved over the first generation they're using an ink display I'm instead of that like your keyboard it's much much better for typing there's a better better processor now a much better display overall much much nicer it still needs a few just little room for improvement but it's it's it's actually quite an enjoyable none of that paper on pet and thing going on anymore that's a it's a welcome sight to see so I look forward to reading more about that on geek spin dot Co Co that's a little plug for you right there looking forward to that one too I I was excited when I got a chance to see that with Jaime Eddie fun yeah that is a just yeah well the reviews live on the site since you plugged it just say there we go there you go well if they're mean if I'm gonna be beautiful in my whole plugging attitude than beef barn calm I think I'm not sure if that's the right address I might have to look it up later and not a sponsor hashtag no sponsor alright shall we take another crack at this and talk about things that should be unfolding in front of us mmm but that's a question that you should say yes or no to I I want I want an unfolding story yeah okay I'm trying to fill up time between coming up tabs a little story a little little little thing going on I guess is this week we saw the first prototype of or at least the first public prototype of the galaxy what we've been thinking of as the Galaxy F F stand for foldable and this is it this is a thing that we see here it's very blocky but that's because and not not just the picture quality but just the actual phone but that's because it is obscured for trade-secret purposes I guess but what I really wanted to catch and I being the very weird person I am I want to like get the screen capture tool up for the video the live stream because that's where they were showing it off and I've tried so hard like to get this exact frame like down because like I was seeing it is like well you can show the phone that either in its flat mode or it has that exterior screen if I wanted to make sure I wanted to get the the folding like the creasing going on in there because that's the important thing that's being shown off here is that creasing screen with the Infinity flex display and they have a new UI to go with it one year why they're talking about which is uh introduces a new paradigm and that's the action area there's like an action area at the bottom of the screen because of course you can't really you deal with all the controls you can't just be pressing buttons all over the screen because that's really not that convenient at all as screens go taller and then you have them I forget what the top half is called I think it's like an action and not bad action area but like a viewing area for some of the items that you want to see on top you know you don't have to interact with them you just see it and that's great so I look forward to that paradigm we're talking about the display it's a Super AMOLED display I think it's like 1600 PE and a 3x2 aspect I believe on that unit it looks like oh yeah more of a boxy yeah yeah yeah and there were also kind of suggestions of notches potential notches and holes in the display so that you can fit in cameras because that's something that you might want to consider Samsung um so hey that's something if you want to think about and then Android decided hey we have a Developers Conference too let's announce port officially for foldable displays so there you go I want to get your first impressions on what you were able to look at Hellena in terms of like did this meet your expectations of what you want to see from a foldable Samsung phone so no it didn't I'm granted that what they showed off was you know dark and in they said it's a prototype but I have lots of problems with us okay number one the bezels on that thing look gigantic that freaks me out number two it looks so thick like it looks thick and heavy and I don't want that as of everyday phone the yoga book I just showed off was thinner than that um that's not futuristic to me and again this was a prototype so who knows what the final device will look like but it makes me think of the ZTE axon M which was you know it's great concept but at the end of the day it wasn't something that you'd want to carry around every day but Haas it was too thick and heavy and it's almost like we're going backwards in time to fold of all PDAs and pop it just to me it doesn't work what I really want and what I thought we'd be seeing by now is a flexible roll mobile display that's what um where are those like I felt like there was talked about it a couple years ago and now it's just are we 10 years out from that like that disappoints me so much um I won't jump into the other you I thought that you you you touched on just yet because I feel like you probably want to fit to keep I was telling to say about the foldable oh yeah and I also have some follow-on thoughts from your observations too because I feel like there's a lot that might be going on and said with this picture here but TK what are your first impressions I I could not have I cannot agree more well so I'm with you on as far as the design ah now as far as the fold there was I know a lot of people focused on when he was holding the phone and when he was folding it and the whole mechanism obviously there is a case around that but actually in some of the materials when they were during the the keynote they show you basically that it actually never folds all the way they showed you almost kind of like a teardrop with look on it where it kind of opened and there was an opening in the center and that just tells me that Doria like the surface book right yeah it has that a little bit a little bit of an opening at the bottom which tells me that this is not a hundred percent foldable very early like they are not sure how to actually because it doesn't really fold right if it doesn't actually close it's not really folding and if yeah the way I saw it it looks like basically a device that will have a little bit of a thicker gap at the bottom and where the display kind of gets at the when it's curving and like you said Leena is probably gonna have you know bezels all over the place I think it's a more Bulow fact I would prefer kind of like what we saw it Etha with the Nubia SmartWatch if you I don't know if you had a chance to check that out but that we can display that works on as a you know a SmartWatch more form factors like that wearables I think that works better for us as opposed to having a phone you know it's just it's just yeah we're going backwards we're making thicker wider phones - hey that's kind of that's kind of interesting that you point that out I didn't actually notice that the first go-around in which case it would have like I guess discounting that in terms of my original follow-on thoughts from Hellena is that well I like there's there's there's that case we aren't sure what's going on here but I would love to see the hinge on this and just think about well how much of a exposure does that leave the screen in terms of any potential impacts or there's just a lot of things and all right so there's a very frustrated about this because it's like so why if that if we're at this state and we're at this kind of crosshair crossroads was it really it was this really the time do you win like could this have waited another six months another year or is this coming to a point where it's do-or-die and we are going to have to see this technology sink or float be written off as one of those fads you know perhaps changes the way or the way that we use mobile phones like I'm not sure about the timing of this 3d televisions remember when it was like so hot and everybody was doing it even though it was complete listen it wasn't well implemented this is like the same thing all over those and we we have to keep in mind that in reality they never actually said that this is the phone that's coming out this could be just a a very high really good prototype that they're able to show off the technology as far as the folding technology and they may implement this as more of a wearable or maybe flexible display not necessarily something because if you see that that gap in the image and the fact that there is that big of a gap nobody will ever put that phone in their pocket I mean can you imagine sitting on the pocket when you fall in line sitting like there I'm like you can't it's just it's really I really it's a proof of concept I hope and I really hope that they use this technology to bring more better to better displays flexible showing us that they can do the flexible OLED with the with their new mechanism and the kalua the adhesive they talked about as far as you know how this is so new so good but again what happened to that flexible display we saw a few years back like Elena was talking about we've seen this before this is not brand new it just now looks like a phone and yeah yeah I don't know better we do want better and we want it sooner honestly but I'm just kind of concerned about this because you know it consumer reactions will lay out how much more investment gets put into what whatever this vertical might become or if it doesn't become anything at all so and I do want to see it come I do want to see it arrive but you know in terms of like the little things that we can't think of I like how you know durable is like for hundreds of thousands of folds which many people think of as maybe lasting several years at the very least two years and Brad even like creasing like what does that do to the subpixels like what what happens there so because technically we're not at the point of foldables as much as bendables and if you were to fold it well like how well what's the efficacy of it unfolding it and you know reason like you said this is more of a full well foldable bendable not foldable it's the opposite I feel like it was more of a bending display not necessarily don't call it foldable as soon as we're able to like show like a little art piece I'm like an origami display with a swan and you know like it'd be like the first major art piece that could rival things like like the Metropolitan Museum or something like I don't know let's quickly head on one UI for a little bit and talk about is this a much-needed change in terms of what we've dealt with beforehand in terms of mobile you eyes because again those displays are getting taller and taller so TK what's your thought I think it's a it's a good movement in a sense of how the touch UI or TouchWiz UI or even Samsung's UI is gonna have you know going through its evolutions it looks nicer it's capitalizing on darker UI saving battery it's definitely I want to say it's the move in the right direction for them I'm hoping the adoption that they're trying to bring in will carry over multiple generations of phones because at least from the announcement that we saw at least it looks great it works great with long form factor devices which they have for the last couple years and I think the reality the matter is it's probably gonna be something we need to get used to it's different and it's no longer them trying to be like others they're trying to come up with their own design which I really think it's a good idea I think it looks good and I just hope that you know at least the last few generations of devices will get this UI is their historic implementation of their new UI so you really don't carry back that far so I'm hoping at least for this year and last year yeah this year's phones are going to have this updated I think in January it's remained to be seen for the s8 and no eight or wasn't it no way then that's a generation yeah the sa generation there was a question on that and then there's also the betas as you probably may have heard it as well they're pushing out some betas for some of their devices for this year's carrier the s9 and the s9 + so it's a wait-and-see kind of thing going on hi I'm Elena your first impressions on what UI and it looks really swanky I'll tell you that it looks clean and an intuitive I make sense why they're doing it I mean Huawei with a May 20 Pro and Mui a 9 they made an emphasis about they put an emphasis on the fact that it's new designed for one-handed use so that seems to be the direction that all these companies need to go in because phones are getting bigger and longer right so you got a adapt to that I feel like always not making it any easier than point two inch display is massive that is scary that is weird and yeah so I guess there's that and finally is it time for a pink and a green phone I think that's well hey Mari hasn't haven't phone's been going out in like green and pink and blue for for a while now remember there was a green phone and there are so there Galaxy s8 or the s7 that there was a green version but it didn't come to the Emerald yeah there was like an emerald green yeah yeah you're right uh and then there's there's a there was the what pink is kind of like more often these days because there's it's always been masked and like orchid or violet or whatever but like the thing we're talking about is that there was like the one color oh yeah oh yeah go ahead a later yeah no the going back to the wall we made 20 Pro I mean they have a green and they're calling it Emeril maybe but it's beautiful like they've done a really good job with their green and I think it's the most attractive choice from the different of mate 20 Pro options so I in green might be the new rose gold next year I don't know well so because obviously it's just one slide of this Samsung developer conference a presentation but it suggested that well one UI does actually take a color scheming off of the devices physical color and it was showing off with a green and pink and whatnot so I mean that's always interesting to think about it but I've always yeah ya know I've always mourned moto maker because like we lost moto maker and it's just like I still want that freaking orange phone the orange silica on you know red backing and like maybe like a few other citrus colors and like that would have been my jam I would have been happy with that said why is it no I forgot all about moto maker and now that you mention it like that's actually really missed that those customization options they were amazing so maybe from now on on every every podcast we should have like a something that died that we we need to pay our respects to that should just be a little bit of a like something that you for Ontario just get out the Nexus the Moto maker do you have anything that we want to pad out with we got a couple more minutes TK what's one thing that has recently died that you want to say goodbye to you you know actually I want to say probably the the small form-factor phone not not the palm-sized phone I'm talking like the small 5-inch 4-inch phone the fact that I matter is even with a smaller smaller pixel we're still getting above 5 inches in there is still and not to try to give it to Apple that you know that the last Apple you know the SE is basically the end of a line of devices that we no longer have a the ability of looking for what's right mean what we have now is the XR and that's the smallest that they'll carry and so if if there's any if there's ever been a demand for a form factor that is still small that answers the same powerhouse requirements of the new phones I feel like we're losing that war a lot of our phones are opposite just so big now that the small phone looks weird so I wish that would come back we'll see we'll see pompona Bachchan youtube.com slash TK Bay Elena as I hardly tried to think of something that might I might want a more do you have any ideas okay so I definitely would need more time to think this one through especially since the other ones we brought up we're so strong but I am gonna mention something that I was recently thinking about not exactly mobility related but the connected the connected a skill like when you went for weighing yourself I feel like that was really hot a couple of years ago and now I don't know if anyone's doing it um and it's kind of and it's kind of something that I would like to have again Radim er yeah yeah it's cuz I know here just did away with its a health division and I'm not sure it cuz Withings the original company it did go back to its original ownership and I'm not sure if they're still really as focused on that digital scale as much as anything else so well about that I I don't know for me perhaps it's Windows 10 mobile like I've always wanted to try out a third OS that and I've never really gotten to you I did own what was it it was one of the later phones that had two snapdragon 212 on it and i didn't really use it much and i ended up selling it off and like a couple of months but how ever really looking into it so yeah that's like good but like the tiles the metro was a pretty appealing to be Metro UI it's just there weren't really any apps sorry to say I'm pretty sure we'll see some new things and bring some nostalgia back you foldable tiny computers Microsoft maybe you could do that surface surface uh phone sure let's bring that back let's talk about that again because that hasn't fruited anything in this uh in this world in this time line in any case I do want to thank you Hellena for joining us this week first time on great not blast definitely so we'll see you in Las Vegas TK thank you for being with us this week - it's been my pleasure hosting you thank you very much sir thank you and nice to see you again Hayley and it's been some time we'll talk have a great weekend see you later and on that note that is it for now the weekly is just as much conversation as it is a show so make sure you make your voices heard either in the comment sections or by emailing us at pocket now podcast at pocketnow.com on twitter TK is that TK DSL eight six five five Hellena is that Hellena stone and I could be found at point jewels pocket now is that plucking down on twitter facebook Instagram and YouTube in English and espanol or you can find more news on the pocket now daily and pocket now are the area every weekday we certainly appreciate your feedback from Google Apple stitcher pocket cast or wherever you happen to be streaming us because without you we wouldn't have been able to make this show for your eyes and ears for 331 weeks straight thanks for your company it has been a pleasure let's meet again soon