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The Morning After: Friday, February 24 2017

Fancy a cup?

Prey

Good morning. We spent two days with the Nintendo Switch and we have feelings. Amazon is citing the First Amendment in defense of its robot Alexa, and we look forward to transforming into cups and bananas in Bethesda's forthcoming Prey.


Nintendo still has to prove itself.
48 hours with the Nintendo Switch

Even without a Virtual Console, is the Switch more like the Wii, Nintendo's ambitious and wildly successful console which unearthed a whole new audience of casual gamers, or the Wii U, the half-baked followup that even the company's hardcore fans never truly adopted? That was the main question we had as we started testing the new console this week. Here are our thoughts.


This will be a very different show from years past.
All the smartphones we expect to see at MWC 2017

It's that time of year again. Barcelona, with its stunning architecture and succulent jamón, will soon be packed with new smartphones, tablets, wearables, networking gear, app developers and, well, tech journalists like us. But things are going to be a little different this year. You can expect phones from LG, Sony, but we're unlikely to see them from HTC and Samsung -- not that they'll have nothing to show...


OnFlubGoogle glitch freezes OnHub, WiFi routers

The networking devices Google rolled out are supposed to make your WiFi situation easier to manage, but that wasn't true yesterday. The company says an issue with its Accounts Engine caused problems for many owners of the routers, who needed a hard reset to get going again. That's a minor inconvenience for some, and more of an issue for others who may have used the devices at remote locations, or with custom settings that the software doesn't allow users to backup.


Former Google employees may have stolen thousands of secret documents.
Alphabet sues Uber over Waymo's self-driving car tech

Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous car business, has sued Uber for allegedly stealing crucial technical information about its self-driving technology. Waymo's lawsuit targets Otto, a promising self-driving truck startup that Uber acquired in mid-2016. As we noted in August, Otto was founded and staffed by former Google employees, including Anthony Levandowski.


Making your gaming laptop portable again.Razer's USB-C Power Bank will keep your laptop running

Gaming laptops are great -- unless you're on the go. All of that power usually means a compromise on battery life, which means there's probably a solid market for Razer's new battery pack. The 12,800mAh Power Bank isn't especially large, but it is ready to keep your USB-C laptop (whether it's a Blade Stealth, XPS 13 or Macbook) powered for a few extra hours. In the case of the Blade Stealth, using it should keep you going for up to 15 hours.


You can be anything! (Well, some things.)

Behold, the insane shape-shifting potential of 'Prey'

I'm a little teapot, short and stout.


It's Google's newest old messaging appGoogle Messenger turns into Android Messages

Google wants texting to work more like iMessage or Whatsapp. As part of a push to expand Rich Communications Services (RCS) support, the company is renaming its main Android SMS app. Now dubbed Android Messages, it is... almost exactly the same as it was before. Hopefully, the new name will get this app on more Android devices, and push carriers to adopt RCS standard features that will tighten up group texts, photo sharing and read receipts.

But wait, there's more...