Which is the biggest mobile tech news of 2016?

Which is the biggest mobile tech news of 2016?

by | Nov 24, 2016 | Branded Content, Tech

Vote for the biggest mobile tech news of 2016

2016 has been an explosive year for mobile enthusiasts, and here, we list the most prominent pieces of news from the world of mobile technology.

(Note that these are numbered in no particular order)

From exploding phones to disappearing airpods, 2016 has been an interesting year for those who pay attention to the mobile industry.

They didn’t let me on the plane

Arguably the piece of smartphone news this year that has been the most prominent was the recall of 2.5million Galaxy Note 7’s, Samsung’s flagship device, a mere two weeks after its launch due to exploding batteries. Samsung initially offered replacements, but decided to refund and discontinue the phones altogether after the replacements themselves began to go up in flames.

Picture from Daily Star UK

Vote for the explosive note 7 as the most prominent piece of news 2016

Hey Apple, Where are my earphones?

Apple set social media abuzz with memes and giggles when the newly announced Iphone 7 was revealed to have no aux cable. Worse yet, the internet was flooded with jokes about losing the new cordless air pods within seconds of buying them, becoming a running quip among apple and android fans alike.

Picture from MashableAsia

Vote for the disappearing air pods as the most prominent piece of news 2016

The Bezel-less Mi Mix

Xiao Mi’s announcement of the Bezel-less phone, the Mi Mix, got netizens excited for the next step in smartphone design. People are evidently bored of prevailing smartphone models, but there are only a limited number of ways one can design a rectangular slab of metal and glass.

At the same event, Xiaomi also unveiled the Mi Note 2, which looks similar to Samsung’s Note 7, but without the caveat of setting the house on fire.

Picture from The Verge

Vote for the bezel less Mi Mix as the most prominent piece of news 2016

The Google Pixel

The Google Pixel is Googles newest attempt at breaking into the high-end mobile phone market. The Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL sport a 5.0- and 5.5-inch build respectively, both run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, the Adreno 530 and 4GB of RAM. Both of them pack 32 GB to 128 GB internal memory. The Google Pixel runs on 2,770 mAH, while the Google Pixel XL runs on 3,450 mAH. Pegged at $699 for the lowest-end configuration.

Picture from Made by Google

Vote for the Google Pixel release as the most prominent piece of news 2016

Google's Pixel Phone Hacked In Under a Minute

Speaking of the pixel, a group of white hat hackers from Qihoo, a Chinese security firm, exploited the phones security flaw in under a minute, bagging a $120,000 bounty from google. The hack left the Pixel vulnerable to outside control, giving hackers’ access to eavesdrop, pick pocket, and utilize the device in botnet attacks.

Oops.

Picture from Cyber Threat Defense Blog

Vote for the Google Pixel hack as the most prominent piece of news 2016

Huawei’s Leica-P9 Combo

Huawei and Leica’s joint announcement on their collaboration on the new 2016 huawei P9 was a big deal this year. The P9 was the smartphone industry’s first serious investment in a dual camera system, one that has since been adopted by apple. The P9 has a traditional 12-megapixel camera, but right next to it is another, monochrome 12-megapixel one. Working together they improve contrast and triple the amount of light information received by the device.

Vote for the Leica P9 Combo as the most prominent piece of news of 2016

LG-G5 Modular Flop

LG’s announcement that it will be releasing a modular phone in the form of the LG-G5 got nerds and geeks excited for its release. Unfortunately, at the commencement of sale, LG only had two modules available, largely relying on third parties to create more. Later, the LG-G5 was apparently a flop with LG admitting its disappointment with “somewhat slow” sales.

Picture from Androidcentral

Vote for the LG Modular flop as the most prominent piece of news 2016

Timeline

  • Googles Pixel Hacked

  • Google Pixel launch

  • Mi Mix Launch

  • Samsung Note 7 explodes

  • iPhone 7 launch

  • Huawei’s Leica-P9 Combo

  • LG-G5 Modular Flop

John Hanke: Creator of Pokémon GO

John Hanke: Creator of Pokémon GO

by | Jul 18, 2016 | Gaming, Lifestyle

John Hanke: Creator of Pokémon GO

18

JULY, 2016

By JiaHer Teoh

For now, Pokémon GO is still a no go in Malaysia. An official statement from fortyseven.com – a Niantic representative – stated that “The team is currently heads down working on the game. We do not have any announced plans for countries beyond New Zealand, Australia, US and Germany at the moment.”

Fret not, for there is still hope that you’ll be able to catch ‘em all soon. Word on the street suggests that Pokémon Go aims to be released worldwide by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, here’s a little background on John Hanke – the creator of Pokémon Go, the first MMO (Meridian 59) and Google Maps.

Cover of the PC game – Meridian 59

© Meridian 59™

Back in 1996, John Hanke worked on what is often credited as the first graphical MMORPG – Meridian 59. Like augmented reality, massive multiplayer online games hadn’t really taken off and developers were still trying to understand what worked and what didn’t. Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs), an early foray into massive multiplayer gaming often constrained itself to being text-based. This breakthrough was built upon by many others, with World Of Warcraft (WOW) dominating today’s market.

Despite the exponential adoption of Pokémon GO, this might only be a spark in the explosion of augmented reality games in the near future.

In fact, Pokémon Go is only the second game to have been released by Niantic Labs. Their first, Ingress, was released in 2013 and garnered over 7 million players.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/endgame-proving-grounds-beta,news-20650.html

The functionalities of Ingress and Pokémon GO are similar, but Pokémon GO has a nostalgic allure for the 20 – 30 year olds who are thrown back to their Gameboy and Nintendo DS days.

Another similarity you might take for granted is that between the map on these two games and Google Maps. One might imagine that the similarity ends with the fact that an augmented reality game of this scale would of course have some working relationship with Google but the truth is much more.

Promotional graphic on the Ingress official website

© Niantic Inc.

© Niantic Inc.

Niantic Labs is formerly owned by Google and is still invested in by them. And it doesn’t end there. Founder and CEO of Niantic Labs, John Hanke, was also the founder and CEO of Keyhole, which was acquired by Google and had its flagship product renamed and developed into what we know as Google Earth. Google Maps, and Google Street View.