SAMSUNG GALAXY 10 AND GALAXY FOLD PHONES: OUT OF THIS WORLD

Samsung just unleashed arguably the most impressive array of new mobile devices and worlds-first mobile technologies in the short history of the smartphone. The latest lineup of Galaxy smartphones includes the S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G and Fold.

The Galaxy Fold is the real stand-out: it’s the world's first seamless foldable phone. This 4.6-inch phone opens like a book to present a single 7.3-inch tablet display.

The new Galaxy 10 models are innovative as well, with new display technologies that reach almost edge to edge, new cameras and built-in wireless charging. Not only do the phones charge wirelessly, but they can also charge other devices.

Look and feel
Physically, Fold is twice as thick as a standard smartphone with a hidden hinge that Samsung says has been tested to withstand thousands of folds. From normal viewing distance there doesn't seem to be a discernible seam in the middle – it looks just like an ordinary (albeit bulky) smartphone. The Fold will come in four colors: Cosmic Black, Space Silver, Martian Green and Astro Blue, with customizable hinge coloring.

The Fold has even more cameras
Fold also is equipped with six cameras. You’ll find a triple-lens array on the back, similar to the Galaxy S10 and S10+ with a single front-facing selfie camera and an additional two cameras in tablet mode.

Security
Fold’s fancy foldable screen means it skips the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor for a more conventional side fingerprint reader. It’s not as advanced as what you’ll find on most S10 models, but it’s tried and true.

Performance
Inside, Fold gets its smarts from a next-gen 7nm processor, its equipped with a massive 12GM of RAM to run the dual single-screen and tablet apps, with 512GB of onboard storage to keep your files. It's powered by twin batteries, one on each side that works in concert — but we don’t know the batteries' capacity or life. No matter what the size of the batteries, battery life will likely vary widely depending on how often you use the larger, power-sucking tablet screen.

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STEVE JOBS DEBUTS THE IPHONE JAN 9 2007

On this day in 2007, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone—a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera and Web-browsing capabilities, among other features—at the Macworld convention in San Francisco.

Jobs, dressed in his customary jeans and black mock turtleneck, called the iPhone a “revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone.”

When it went on sale in the United States six months later, on June 29, amidst huge hype, thousands of customers lined up at Apple stores across the country to be among the first to purchase an iPhone. Read More

BROWNIE WISE THE NATION'S FIRST TUPPERWARE LADY!

Earl Tupper invented the container’s seal, but it was a savvy, convention-defying entrepreneur who got the product line into the homes of housewives

Enter Brownie Wise, a rep for a range of cleaning utensils sold at home parties in the Dearborn, Michigan Area. When a friend gave her a set of Tupperware bowls, Wise immediately saw the potential for selling them at parties. Women needed to see someone demonstrate the seal lock.

Wise joined the company and by 1950 her team were selling more Tupperware than regular stores. Tupper saw her success and made her his vice president and sales manager. From then on, Tupperware was sold exclusively at parties.

  

THE FIRST SONY WALKMAN LAUNCHED JULY 1 1979!

HISTORY.COM The transistor radio was a technological marvel that put music literally into consumers’ hands in the mid-1950s. It was cheap, it was reliable and it was portable, but it could never even approximate the sound quality of a record being played on a home stereo.

It was, however, the only technology available to on-the-go music lovers until the Sony Corporation sparked a revolution in personal electronics with the introduction of the first personal stereo cassette player. A device as astonishing on first encounter as the cellular phone or digital camera would later be, the Sony Walkman went on sale for the very first time on July 1, 1979.

The Sony Walkman didn’t represent a breakthrough in technology so much as it did a breakthrough in imagination. Every element of the Walkman was already in production or testing as part of some other device when Sony’s legendary chairman, Masaru Ibuka, made a special request in early 1979.

Ibuka was a music lover who traveled frequently, and he was already in the habit of carrying one of his company’s “portable” stereo tape recorders with him on international flights. But the Sony TC-D5 was a heavy device that was in no way portable by modern standards, so Ibuka asked his then-deputy Norio Ohga if he could cobble together something better.

Sony TC-D5 

Working with the company’s existing Pressman product—a portable, monaural tape recorder that was popular with journalists—Ohga had a playback-only stereo device rigged up in time for Ibuka’s next trans-Pacific flight.

Even though this proto-Walkman required large, earmuff-like headphones and custom-made batteries (which, of course, ran out on Ibuka midway through his flight), it impressed the Sony chairman tremendously with its sound quality and portability.

Many objections were raised internally when Ibuka began his push to create a marketable version of the device, the biggest of which was conceptual: Would anyone actually buy a cassette device that was not for recording but only for playback? Ibuka’s simple response—”Don’t you think a stereo cassette player that you can listen to while walking around is a good idea?”—proved to be one of the great understatements in business history.

After a breakneck development phase of only four months, Sony engineers had a reliable product ready for market at 30,000 Yen (approximately US$150 in 1979 dollars) and available before the start of summer vacation for Japanese students—both critical targets established at the outset of development.

The initial production run of 30,000 units looked to be too ambitious after one month of lackluster sales (only 3,000 were sold in July 1979). But after an innovative consumer-marketing campaign in which Sony representatives simply approached pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo and gave them a chance to listen to the Walkman, the product took off, selling out available stocks before the end of August and signaling the beginning of one of Sony’s greatest success stories.

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY IPHONE! THE PHONE THAT ROCKED THE WORLD

10 years ago, it couldn't send photos, had no flash and couldn't record videos. And you could only get it on AT&T. The iPhone has certainly come a long way.

The history of iPhone began with a request from inventor Steve Jobs to Apple Inc.'s engineers, asking them to investigate the use of touchscreen devices and tablet computers (which later came to fruition with the iPad). ... Its form factor is credited to Apple's Chief Design Officer, Jonathan Ive.

People waiting to buy the iPhone upon release in New York City, June 29, 2007

*NEW* HTC ANNOUNCES NEW SQUEEZE PHONE TECHNOLOGY

THE VERGE: HTC is announcing its newest smartphone today, the U11 flagship. The U11 is the successor to last year’s HTC 10, and has a 5.5-inch, Quad HD display, Snapdragon 835 processor, and new glass and metal design. HTC is also introducing a new way to interact with the U11 by letting you squeeze the sides of the device to perform different functions.

This new feature is called “Edge Sense,” and it can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes. You can set a short squeeze to open the camera and then take a picture when the camera app is open. A long squeeze can be configured to launch the Google voice assistant or toggle the flashlight on and off.

Squeezing your phone to do things that you’re used to using a touchscreen for is an odd experience, and HTC is starting out slowly with this implementation. Nigel Newby-House, the vice president of product planning for HTC America, says that the company hopes to introduce people to this new experience with the U11 and it will expand the Edge Sense features in the future once we’re all used to gorilla gripping the sides of our phones to do things.

The experience of squeezing the phone is a little unsettling at first and definitely takes some getting used to. The phone doesn’t actually flex when you do this — the metal sides have pressure sensors just below the volume and power keys — but there is an on-screen cue when you’re activating the feature. It’s designed to make it easier to do basic tasks single-handedly, and given the U11’s expanded display dimensions, any assistance when using the phone with one hand is appreciated.

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Would you want to try out the Squeeze phone? I would!