A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from how Samsung plans to bounce back with its Galaxy S8 to the best movie soundtracks ever — it’s all here.
Samsung punches back
Digital Trends flew to Seoul, South Korea in early March and crisscrossed the country to learn how Samsung designed its new phone, the Galaxy S8. We learned how the mega manufacturer planned to continue pushing the envelope — and how it would ensure that nothing like the Note 7 fiasco ever happened again. Read on to see what else we picked up on our journey.
From ‘E.T.’ to ‘Interstellar,’ these are the best movie soundtracks of all time
To celebrate these cinematic musical masterpieces, we’ve put together a list of our 30 favorite film soundtracks of all time, in no particular order. Whether you’re a lover of the purpose-composed epics that propel your favorite films’ plot points, or a follower of the perfectly assembled song compilations that color their overall tone, you’ll find something to love below.
Toyota turns the HiLux pickup into a Tonka truck for the young at heart
One of the most brutally disappointing aspects of growing up is realizing the Tonka trucks you played with as a child aren’t street-legal. Members of Toyota’s Australian division must feel the same way, because they’ve worked day and night to transform the indestructible HiLux pickup truck into a real-life, full-size Tonka that starts and drives.
Elon Musk heralds ‘huge revolution in space travel’ after Thursday’s historic mission
It was one giant leap for SpaceX on Thursday evening when it successfully completed the first reflight — and landing — of an orbital class rocket. Elon Musk and his team have completed numerous rocket launches and landings over the last 16 months, but bringing a Falcon 9 rocket back home for a second time takes the development of its reusable system to the next level, as it continues in its quest to drastically reduce the cost of space travel.
More room to reply: Twitter excludes usernames from its 140-character limit
Twitter’s defining feature is the 140-character limit it imposes on tweets and retweets. It forces a level of succinctness that is sorely lacking from — ahem — unfettered social networks. But it’s also quite annoying sometimes, especially when you’re trying to reply to someone. Since Twitter’s inception, usernames have counted against the limit. But no longer. On Thursday, the company announced usernames will no longer count toward the 140-character maximum.
Our favorite fun kitchen gadgets from the Home and Housewares show
If you live in a place with limited kitchen space, you might want to stop reading. At the 2017 International Home and Housewares Show, we saw a bunch of kitchen gadgets and goodies that we wanted to take home, though not all were more functional than fun. With limited counter space, you might not have room for a device devoted to nut-milk making, but something else in our roundup might be just the thing you’ve been looking for.
Lucasfilm: How we made ‘Rogue One’ look and feel seamless within the Star Wars saga
While fans were reticent at first about a new series of films set inside the Star Wars universe but outside the main episodes, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story quickly proved that George Lucas’ epic space opera was much bigger than the story that played out across the first seven films. We spoke to Doug Chiang, a Lucasfilm vice president and executive creative director, who served as the co-production designer on Rogue One, about the process of integrating the latest entry into the Star Wars universe.
Silicon Valley Warriors: Draymond Green discusses technology’s growing influence on the NBA
Golden State Warriors superstar Draymond Green sits in the top 10 in the NBA this season in assists but now, the enigmatic forward wants to help people off the court, as well. Digital Trends recently caught up with the popular Warriors player to talk technology’s influence on the NBA, how he plans to use tech to help people, and how Golden State’s specifically used it to reach NBA supremacy.
Snake oil, or black magic? Windows’ new Game Mode is a bit of both
The Creators Update for Windows 10 has a host of new features, including the highly-anticipated “Game Mode.” Microsoft claims Game Mode will optimize your PC to deliver smoother performance while running demanding games. It’s not the first time a company has made that kind of claim, but Microsoft has a home field advantage here, so it might have a better chance at actually juicing your PC to get the most out of its hardware.
Why is the Pixel’s camera so good? Google explains it, and what’s next
Last year, DxO Mark named the camera inside the Google Pixel the best smartphone camera yet, and new insight from Alphabet is showcasing just where the tech behind that camera came from, and where it’s headed next. In an article for the Graduate Series exploring the tech that comes out of the X research division, Google says the camera tech inside Pixel was actually initially intended for Google Glass.
