Daily Roundup: Samsung's S6 and S6 Edge, Megaboom impressions and more!
In today's Daily Roundup, you can find out what we think about the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, get our impressions of the new UE Megaboom Bluetooth speaker and find out about a new art exhibit in London that features a laptop destroyed over Edward Snowden's revelations. Get all the details on these stories and much more past the break.
Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge review: Samsung's best phones in years
Samsung found itself in sort of a bind last year: Its flagship Galaxy S5 wasn't the blockbuster the company hoped it would be. That, coupled with the news that Samsung was going to focus on a smaller number of devices in 2015, signaled a pretty dramatic change for a brand that seemed like it was unstoppable. As if to silence the doubters, Samsung has not one, but two flagships on offer - the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
Does bigger mean better for UE's popular 'Boom' speakers?
The UE Boom quickly won me over with its design, sound quality and 360-degree speaker setup. I stowed it in my backpack's side pouch for long bike rides and could easily hear it over the wind. The speaker never sounded "boxy" either, with its omnidirectional output. This year, Ultimate Ears decided to pump up the specs, size and, inevitably, the price for its newest model, the aptly named Megaboom.
Laptop destroyed over Snowden leaks is now an art exhibit
Remember how, after the initial Snowden revelations, the Guardian newspaper was forced to destroy all of its computers that held the whistleblower's leaked documents? It was a strange moment; a small group of editors, under the watchful eye of two GCHQ officials, laying waste to hard drives and other internal components with industrial angle grinders and drills. Now, some of the remains - a busted MacBook Air and a Western Digital hard drive, to be precise - are on display at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London.
Nikon's dive into 4K starts with the 1 J5 mirrorless camera
Nikon's bread-and-butter business may be its entry-level and high-end DSLRs, but the point-and-shoot and mirrorless models are equally as important to the company. This is particularly true now more than ever, as these cheaper cameras begin to lose ground to smartphones with great photography features - like the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6. Still, Nikon isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. Today, it is introducing the J5, a compact, yet powerful camera that's part of its 1 series of mirrorless hardware.
Comcast's new broadband service is twice as fast as Google Fiber
Comcast has drawn a new battle line against Google Fiber by launching a 2Gbps fiber broadband service called Gigabit Pro. It arrives next month in Atlanta and will be available in 18 million homes across the US by the end of the year. The package will deliver symmetric uploads and downloads like Fiber does, but at twice its 1Gbps speed. Mountain View had already announced that it would bring Fiber to Atlanta, but Comcast will now beat it to the punch both in timing and data rates.
Duck-like US Navy drone can fly or swim to hunt submarines
There are plenty of flying and swimming drones, but you'd ideally have both at once for sub-hunting - you want something that can poke its head underwater, but move quickly through the air when needed. The US Navy certainly knows this. It's developing a duck-like drone, the Flimmer, that can both fly and swim.
UK politician cured his smartphone addiction by buying a BlackBerry
The UK is gearing up for an election, and one of the two most likely candidates for the top job has thrown some unintentional shade towards BlackBerry. In an interview with Absolute Radio, Ed Miliband has revealed that he ditched his iPhone for a BlackBerry because its harder to be addicted to a device with "limited functionality." Ouch.
