In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. Too much, in fact, 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 this week. From Google becoming Alphabet, to Samsung announcing the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus at its Unpacked event, to Tinder firing its CEO. It’s all here.
On Monday, Google announced that it is creating a new parent company called Alphabet, which will be run by its two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet, and so will other former Google companies like Calico. Google decided to split its business because its projects have become too diverse and scattered to keep under one roof. Under Alphabet, all of the companies have the opportunity to grow independently.
Earlier this week, Reza Moaiandin, a technical director at the Salt Agency, discovered a flaw that allows hackers to figure out your phone number, even if it’s set to private. Luckily, you don’t have to wait until Facebook fixes the issue. If you follow these steps, your phone number will not be visible to hackers trying to use a script, or to any person who enters it in the Facebook search field. It takes less than a minute to update your settings, so we highly recommend you take the time to do it now.
Samsung announced a pair of new phablets at its Unpacked event – the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. The S6 Edge Plus and the Note 5 both have a 5.7-inch Quad HD screen, 3000mAh battery, Exynos 7420 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 16MP camera. Of course, the Note 5 has an S Pen stylus built in, while the S6 Edge Plus sports a screen with two curved edges. In the U.S. the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Note 5 will be available with either 32GB or 64GB of storage. You can preorder both phones now, but they’ll be in stores on August 21.
Read our hands on with the Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus.
Earlier this week, Hyundai revealed the Vision G Concept Coupe at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Even though Hyundai is better known for making bargain cars, the Vision G is definitely a luxury car. The coupe features clean lines, a long hood, high hip-line, and other traits of modern luxury vehicles. Under the hood is Hyundai’s Tau 5.0 liter V8, which develops 420 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque.
At the Unpacked event, Samsung announced two amazing phablets, but it also had a big surprise in store for us: The Gear S2 smartwatch. Samsung teased its first round smartwatch with a fun montage of pictures. We’ll get to see more of the watch on September 3 at the IFA 2015 trade show in Berlin. The new watch may come with wireless charging, Samsung Pay, and Tizen OS onboard.
Tinder had a meltdown on Twitter over a recent article by Vanity Fair, which immediately backfired online. Shortly thereafter, Tinder announced that it’s reinstating co-founder Sean Rad as CEO, just five months after the company replaced him with Chris Payne. In an interview, board member Matt Cohler said that Payne didn’t turn out to be a good “long-term fit” for the company, and so it decided to move quickly and replace him. Rad said he wants to grow Tinder’s user base and turn it into “one of the great businesses of our time.”
Capcom will publish a remake of its classic horror game Resident Evil 2. Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi said its creators are trying to bring the second game in the Resident Evil series to modern consoles. While no specific release windows or platforms were announced, Hirabayashi promises to send news updates directly to fans via Facebook.
Most Chromebooks don’t have the biggest or the best screens, so Dell decided to add a 1080p Chromebook with a 13-inch screen. The Dell Chromebook 13 starts at $400, and comes in multiple configurations, including one touchscreen option. The laptop offers 12 hours of battery life, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, your choice of processor, and other customizations. You can get a 1.5GHz Intel Celeron, Intel Core i3, or Intel Core i5 chip. It’ll arrive in stores on September 17.
Earlier this week, we got our first look at Quentin Tarantino’s first trailer for his upcoming film The Hateful Eight, which brings plenty of cabin fever. The acclaimed director’s eighth film is set, “six or twelve years after the Civil War,” and follows bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as they try to find shelter during a massive storm. The Hateful Eight will open in select theaters that are able to roll 70mm on Christmas day, and open nationwide on January 8.
Have you ever wanted to see what’s going on inside a musician’s head? GE’s Neuro VR experience allows you to explore the “complex universe inside [a musician’s] head” with your Oculus headset. The video shows data from an MRI scan of a musician’s brain, that’s been translated into bursts of color. The colors represent the complicated visual, auditory, and motor functions required in the creation of music.
Motorola has built some of my favorite foldables and flagship phones. I had a great time with both the Razr Fold and last year's Signature. So when the company began teasing the Signature 27, I couldn't help be excited. The new model comes with Qualcomm's blazing-fast Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, and better still, it is finally getting a proper global release.
One of the reasons I was obsessed with the last-gen Signature was its amazing price tag. But it seems like that budget flagship dream might be officially dead. Portuguese retailer MegaPC has prematurely listed a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage Signature 27 in Pantone Coal Smoke for €1,594.90 (approx. $1,775).
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.