The Morning After: What to expect from Apple's Peek Performance event
New iPhone SE and a new iPad Air?
Apple is holding its first virtual event of the year on March 8th, and to be honest, I’ve heard rumors about this date for weeks. And don’t get me started on the leaky product selection expected to debut tomorrow at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6 PM GMT.
The first major announcement is likely to be a new iPhone SE, Apple’s cheapest iPhone, packing 5G. Will it catch up, design-wise, with the rest of the iPhone family? We’re not sure, but it could still have a home button, if that’s what you’re hoping for. That might be the only throwback — we expect it to have the same A15 Bionic chip as the iPhone 13 lineup.
It’s also time for a new iPad Air, currently the oldest iPad in Apple’s lineup. Although, it’s not that old, really; it was completely redesigned back in 2020.
That’s not all we’re likely to see, however. A report yesterday suggested we could also get a new external display from Apple. Check out our full preview right here.
— Mat Smith
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Netflix stops streaming in Russia
The company had previously halted production on several projects in the country.
Netflix has suspended its streaming service in Russia: “Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” a spokesperson for Netflix told CNBC. Over the weekend, even more companies have pulled services or product sales from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Activision Blizzard and Epic have both halted game sales, TikTok has suspended parts of its service in the country and PayPal has frozen payments and services, too. But it’s gone both ways: Before the weekend, Russia cut access to Facebook and Twitter for its citizens.
Brandon Sanderson's secret novels break Pebble's Kickstarter crowdfunding record
The campaign has already made over $20.4 million.
After half a decade, a new Kickstarter campaign has finally eclipsed Pebble's crowdfunding record. Fantasy auth…well-established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson set up a campaign to raise $1 million in 30 days to fund four secret books he intends to release next year. It didn't take 30 days to blow past that goal, though — it took only 35 minutes. The author told The New York Times that one of his objectives for launching this project is to see what it would be like to challenge Amazon. It dominates the printed book and ebook market and apparently accounts for 80 percent of Sanderson's sales.
Nintendo's Switch is about to hit its prime
Just maybe not its 'Metroid Prime.'
As the Switch reaches five years old, are its best times behind it? No, quite the opposite. This year is shaping up to be the biggest for Nintendo’s hybrid hit console. The company has new Pokémon, new Zelda and new Bayonetta games inbound, not to mention Switch Sports, a new Xenoblade title and a whole lot more planned for 2022.
Hackers may have obtained 190GB of sensitive data from Samsung
The company says it's assessing the situation.
Some of Samsung’s confidential data has reportedly leaked due to a suspected cyberattack. On Friday, South American hacking group Lapsus$ uploaded a trove of data it claims came from the smartphone manufacturer. The collective says it obtained code related to highly sensitive features, like biometric authentication and on-device encryption, as well confidential data from Qualcomm. If the contents of the leak are accurate, they could cause significant damage to Samsung.
