Last week in tech: Happy 2018! Here’s your new iPhone battery
The new year will almost certainly have some new tech.
“OK, 34% battery! I’m going to take a picture!”
January second is like a mega-Monday. Most of us are coming off a longer weekend than usual and it’s tricky to get back into the swing of things. If you want to procrastinate at work, be sure to check out our wrap-up of last year in tech, then scroll down for all the tech stories you probably missed last week while you were out spreading cheer.
Assault on batteries
After years of speculation, Apple finally confirmed that it slows down the performance of iPhones in an effort to prevent older batteries from causing unexpected shutdowns. As penance, the company is now offering $29 battery replacements for iPhone 6 and later when the battery needs replacing. In response, LG and Samsung both assured users that those companies don’t slow down phones for battery life—or any other—reasons.
Not OK, Cupid
Popular dating site OKCupid decided users would have to provide real names on their profiles, which did not go over well with would-be daters thanks to the new opportunities it provides for snooping and even stalking.
Last game standing
PUBG
Dig you get any fun new video games over the holidays? Apparently quite a few people received Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds because the game saw 3,106,358 simultaneous players last week. Now that school and work holiday breaks are over, expect to see that number shrink, but now is still a fun time to jump into the game if you haven’t tried it.
Get in Shapa
Shapa scale
It’s January, which means throngs of people will embark on a fitness journey—to varying results. Part of that journey is stepping on the scale, but the $129 scale and companion app (pronounced “shape-ah”) is different from a typical device used to measure mass. Rather than a display showing pounds or kilograms, the Shapa shows you colors to indicate whether you’re overweight or underweight. It records the data to your smartphone, but keeps things vague so you don’t get discouraged if your weight goes up on a day when you’ve eaten healthy. It also tries to build good habits by assigning habit-forming tasks like getting up from your computer every once in a while—which reminds me….
Big screen
LG’s 88-inch OLED TV is very big
It’s almost time for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which means you should prepare for a whole slew of news about really big TVs. LG kickstarted the race for the craziest TV with an 88-inch OLED display with an 8K resolution, which is the equivalent of four 4K TVs. If you’re a fan of big, entertaining rectangles, then next week is going to be a lot of fun for you.
Don’t do this
“Swatting” is one of the stupidest and most irresponsible things to ever exist. The term refers to the act of calling the police and filing a false report that results in a SWAT team showing up at someone’s house. There are multiple reported examples—some have even happened on livestream—but this past weekend, it resulted in an innocent person losing their life. It’s truly sad and completely preventable if people would stop acting like garbage.
Trivia droid
Did you try to play HQ trivia on New Year’s Eve? The service had a couple hiccups thanks to the enormous crowds signing on to play. Now, the crowds are about to grow even larger as the Android version of the app hits Beta, inviting all those potential Android players into the fray.
