In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from the third week of February. Everything from the best of Mobile World Congress to more Kanye meltdowns — it’s all here.
If you just want the good stuff of Mobile World Congress 2016, this is where to find it. We’ve worn our feet out scouring the show floor and press events for the past four days to bring you our seven favorite products at MWC. These are the most useful, innovative, fun, and downright insane products at Mobile World Congress. Enjoy!
Tim Cook has been nothing but adamant regarding the potential problems that might stem from the FBI’s request. In a recent interview on Feb. 24 with ABC’s David Muir, he attempted to drive home what’s at risk. “The only way to get information — at least currently, the only way we know — would be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer,” Cook told Muir as the two sat in Cook’s Cupertino office. “We think it’s bad news to write. We would never write it. We have never written it — and that is what is at stake here.”
Hollywood’s lack of diversity has been in the spotlight lately, especially in light of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Although studies confirming that women and minorities are underrepresented in the industry are nothing new, we keep getting a clearer picture of the issue. Most recently, a recent study from the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found that “the film industry still functions as a straight, white, boy’s club.”
We spend a lot of time hunched over our digital devices without much thought as to how it affects our health. Even so, anyone with an office job probably leaves their desk rubbing a very sore and stiff neck at the end of the day. Alex is a wearable that aims to help you stop craning your neck over your digital screens and improve your posture. You can even track your progress in an app.
For all their impressive attributes, flight-time has never been a strong suit for quadcopters. But now, one British pilot has upended the drone world, guiding a custom quadcopter across the English Channel in a stunning 72-minute flight. It’s a first for these unmanned flying devices, and U.K. commercial drone operator Ocuair can now claim the honor of a drone’s maiden voyage across the historic waterway.
A record number of Americans applied to become NASA astronauts
More Americans than ever want to be astronauts. A total of 18,300 people applied for the position during NASA’s most recent hiring round, smashing the previous record of 8,000 set back in 1978, and almost three times the number of applications received in 2012 when the space agency last put out the call. It’s likely NASA’s increasing use of online tools in recent years has helped boost interest in its work, while a run of space-based Hollywood blockbusters won’t have done its profile any harm, either.
In the near future, you could be riding a smart bike that shoots lasers out of each side. Except the beams aren’t there to carve through pedestrians like lightsabers as you zoom past, or vaporize cars, but for safety. In fact, they may end up keeping you from reaching your own gory end under the wheels of a massive truck. It’s just one of the cool features on the Le Super Bike, a carbon fibre or titanium framed bike that essentially has a smartphone built into the handle bars, giving it the same kind of connected capabilities we usually associate with a car.
The allure of the billion-dollar Internet of Things industry continues to prove irresistible to firms big and small, and Visa’s no exception. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the credit company announced a plan to supply manufacturers of “wearables, automobiles, appliances, public transportation services, clothing, and almost any other connected device” — every IoT category under the sun, practically — with an integrated, secure payments solution.
Battery life remains the number one annoyance for smartphone owners, but it feels like manufacturers have hit a wall figuring out ways to improve it. But hey, if we can’t have more power in something the same size, then maybe being able to charge it up faster is the next best thing? That’s what StoreDot is betting on with its proprietary battery technology and chargers, which can completely refuel your phone from empty to 100 percent in around five minutes.
As some debate continues about whether or not Kanye West’s current album is even officially done yet (it probably is), the rapper is already announcing another album due to be released this summer. The announcement came, as do most of the public personality’s musings these days, via Twitter, where it was sandwiched inside a rant about The Grammys, his personal debt, and other oddities.
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, and you can get around geo-blocks, censorship, and ISP throttling. The best VPN services are paid, but there are still a handful of free options that do the job well.
Most free VPNs come with a hidden cost, because running servers isn’t cheap and a company that doesn’t charge you has to make its money somewhere else. Many do so by logging your browsing activity and selling it to advertisers, while others flood you with ads and track you across apps.
There's nothing quite like curling up with a good book on a cold evening. As much as I love the feel of a physical book, books take up a lot of space, and carrying more than one on a trip quickly becomes a chore. That's where e-readers come in, and the Amazon Kindle remains one of the best options.
Amazon just refreshed its Kindle lineup with thinner, lighter designs, a new flush-front display, and colors that wrap from front to back. Add the Kindle Scribe and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft to the mix, and you have more choices than ever before.
A good Android app should earn its place on your phone. It might make an everyday task easier, handle something the built-in software can't, or let you change an experience that never quite worked for you.
These 20 apps cover everything from quick notes and password management to automation and local file sharing. Some are free, others charge for advanced features, and a few take some effort to figure out. The point isn't to install them all. It's to find the ones that make your phone work better for you.