The Morning After: Samsung's 5G corner notch
And an important Tom Cruise PSA.
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.
This morning, we have a very important message for you from Tom Cruise and news about the hardware that will be inside many of 2019's most popular phones. It's not a 5G world yet, but we're getting ready, and that might mean adjusting to some very strange notch placements.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipset will power your next flagship phone
It's been clear for a while now that 2019 will be the year of 5G, and it's little surprise that the Snapdragon 855 will support "multi-gigabit" data speeds on 5G networks as they light up around the country. SVP Alex Katouzian also pointed out that the 855 was designed to trounce last-generation chipsets when it comes to AI performance -- we can expect up to three-fold performance gains when it comes to these complex computations. He even detailed a new way to sense fingerprints from inside an all-screen phone: with Qualcomm's new ultrasonic sensor.
Sony shot an entire Hollywood movie using a full-frame mirrorless camera
Sony said that The Possession of Hannah Grace was primarily shot on its own A7S II, a consumer camera that costs a mere $2,000. "The smaller camera's ability to see beautiful under low light conditions, the LED lighting technology, and the [eco-friendly] methods we used in set construction made this whole production a case study in how to be efficient and still tell a great story with a fantastic look," said producer Glenn S. Gainor.
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Tom Cruise takes up the fight against TVs with motion smoothing left on
Proving that his heroism is not merely limited to on-screen antics, Tom Cruise has starred in a video spreading awareness of a scourge impacting all-too-many televisions: motion smoothing. It's the setting in almost all new HDTVs and 4K TVs that's usually turned on by default and can turn everything into a slightly-too-smooth soap-opera-looking mess. We've written up some instructions for the settings you should adjust on any new TV, and they will help you deal with this, as well as other on-by-default switches. Please share this information with your loved ones so we can bring the 240Hz epidemic to an end.
Music streaming is fueling vinyl's resurgence
Streaming has been blamed for killing off the CD, but industry experts agree it's helping bolster the growth and quality of another physical music format: vinyl.
Epic Games will take on Steam with its own digital store
Buoyed by Fortnite's phenomenal success over the last year or so, Epic Games is launching its own digital store to take on the likes of Steam, EA's Origin and Blizzard's Battle.net. However, Epic is giving developers a higher revenue share than most of its competitors -- 88 percent. Steam's cut typically varies between 20 and 30 percent.
But wait, there's more...
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