This won’t make someone’s day very great
Apple is looking to ramp up their manufacturing efforts… in India. Despite all the news lately about Apple perhaps moving some iPhone creation operations to the U.S. – per President Trump’s efforts to bring more manufacturing stateside – it looks more likely that Cupertino will indeed ramp up operations in India, where the iPhone is a relative outlier in a market dominated by Chinese and Korean phone makers.
Of course, the reason companies like Xiaomi, Oppo and Samsung are big in India is because their phones are relatively inexpensive, so if Apple does indeed spool up manufacturing there, does that mean perhaps a new tier of more inexpensive iPhones could be in the works? Time will tell, but it’s a huge market that Tim Cook and company are certainly eager to expand into, so stay tuned.
No, “H-P” does not stand for “hot potato”
Samsung isn’t the only company struggling with pesky batteries: H-P has just expanded a recall for laptop batteries that the CPSC says pose “fire and burn hazards” if they overheat. The laptops – there’s a full list here – were sold between March 2013 and 2016, and include several popular models. All told, the latest recall adds over 100,000 computers and batteries to the overall recall, which initially started with about 40,000 units last June.
H-P says the recall affects less than 1 percent of the total number of laptops they sold in that 3-year timeframe, but as we’ve seen from the disasters a defective phone battery can cause, it’s better to not take chances. H-P says that if you do have a laptop with a defective battery to NOT USE IT on battery power and instead use the AC adapter at all times. H-P says they will replace any battery in the recall free of charge, so check here to see if your computer is on the list.
Samsung, reloaded
We talked yesterday about how, for better or worse, Samsung has confirmed they will be making a Galaxy Note 8, but the news today is about a phone that’s gonna be here sooner than later: the new Galaxy S8 flagship. According to Android Headlines, the phone will come in two sizes; a 5.7 “regular” model and a 6.3-inch “Plus” version with an AMOLED screen that should be awesome in a Gear VR headset.
Photos on their site suggest an edge-to-edge display with slim bezels top and bottom, and a massive 4200 milliamp-hour battery with special “heat pipe” cooling. But perhaps the biggest news is that the phone will pack a Siri-like assistant called Bixby. Bixby is a result of Samsung’s 2016 purchase of A-I builder Viv, the company that is also responsible for Siri. We’ve got more details here so if you’re a Galaxy fan, check it out.
