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Weekly Rewind: A weight loss vest, manmade meteors, and a physical Amazon store

In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from this week. Everything from what happened at Google I/O to a lung cancer detecting breathalyzer, it’s all here.

Stories: 1-5

Google I/O 2016 recap: Android Wear 2.0, Allo and Duo, Google Home, Daydream, and more

 

Google’s I/O developer conference keynote has come and gone, revealing the internet titan has more than just a few slick tricks up its sleeve. Highlights from the massively well-attended event include the announcement of a VR program Google has developed called Daydream.

Read the full story here.

A closer look at Thin Ice: the magical weight loss vest that siphons heat off your body to burn calories

Thin-Ice-vest-plate-1
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It seems like something out of science fiction or a bad infomercial. A wearable that lowers the temperature when pressed on the skin to help the body burn more calories and, in the process, cut more fat out of those problem areas? That explains Thin Ice in a nutshell, a vest that uses patent-pending cooling technology to help trigger weight loss.

Read the full story here.

Bye-bye Marvel? Hulu’s new live TV service has Disney CEO rethinking Netflix deals

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Earlier this month, both Hulu and YouTube announced plans within days of each other to launch live-streaming internet TV services in 2017. While this might have seemed an odd move for YouTube, it almost seemed a given for Hulu, given that three of the companies expected to be licensing content to the new service are also co-owners of the streamer.

Read the full story here.

The Zuck met with conservatives over news bias claims, and here’s what happened

Facebook-Mark-Zuckerberg
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Working tirelessly to limit the damage caused by recent accusations that Facebook has been suppressing stories from conservative news outlets for its Trending Topics feature, Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday met with more than a dozen leading conservatives to discuss how to ensure the social networking service can “continue to be a platform for all ideas across the political spectrum.”

Read the full story here.

Knocki surpasses its Kickstarter goal in a little more than an hour

Knocki-in-Hand
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Secret knocks have long been used to gain entrance to treehouses, clubs, and forts, and now you can actually use one to unlock your front door. Swan Solutions decided to take the idea of specialized knocks and apply it to everything in your house. The Knocki is a silver-and-white hockey puck-shaped device that lets you turn on your lights, change the song you’re listening to, or switch off the TV.

Read the full story here.

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Stories: 6-10

We break down Google’s 6 different personal chatting apps

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Google announced two new messaging platforms at Google I/O: Allo, an upcoming application heavily integrated with Google Assistant, and Duo, a video app that showcases live footage from incoming calls before users even pick up. These apps also come a mere two days after Google announced Spaces, a group chat application and social network that’s heavily integrated with Google’s own search engine.

Read the full story here.

Want an impressive opening ceremony? 2020 Olympics may include a man-made meteor shower

SkyCanvas Promotion Movie (Dubai, Singapore, Japan)

Call it the world’s best idea or worst idea, but it’s sure to be something special. The Olympics may be all about athletic prowess, but its opening ceremonies have always been about showmanship. And what could be more spectacular than a man-made meteor shower? Star-ALE is bidding for the right to create a meteor shower over Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics.

Read the full story here.

A group of Harvard and MIT students have created a lung cancer breathalyzer system

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A team of entrepreneurs from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a breathalyzer capable of detecting early stages of lung cancer. At MIT’s 27th annual Entrepreneurship Competition, Astraeus Technologies won a $100,000 grand prize for its L CARD (Chemically Actuated Resonate Device).

Read the full story here.

FindFace is a new facial recognition app that could end public privacy

FindFace: an app that allows you to find any person in your Network for photography

Facial recognition can be a wonderful feature to have implemented into platforms and devices. You can unlock your computer with it, automatically have your photos sorted by who’s in them, and even swap your face with your dog in Snapchat. But what happens when facial recognition is so good that it almost completely eliminates the potential of anonymity in public?

Read the full story here.

A brick-and-mortar Amazon store may be coming to a city near you

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Don’t be fooled by the brick-and-mortar stores it’s got, this is still Amazon from the block. Or rather, the web. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has promised to bring more of Amazon offline and into the physical sphere, though it’s unclear yet as to how many “more” really is. But don’t worry — Amazon isn’t leaving the internet behind.

Read the full story here.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
OnePlus 13T launches with flagship-grade firepower in a compact form
OnePlus 13T in hand.

After weeks of teasing, OnePlus has revealed its compact phone -- the OnePlus 13T -- in China. The 13T is OnePlus' response to the emerging focus brands have on thin and light phones, including the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge and the iPhone 17 Air. Despite its teensy build, the OnePlus 13T packs in plenty of power, including an unrelenting Snapdragon 8 Elite, an immersive high-resolution display, and a large battery unlike other phones of its size.

The biggest highlight is the compact design, opposing the general trend among phones stretching out of hands. Accounting for its compactness, the OnePlus 13T features a 6.32-inch AMOLED display -- compared to the 6.9-inch one used on the OnePlus 13. Even with the smaller size, the display maintains its crispness, with a 1.5K resolution and adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz. The display supports Dolby Vision and achieves a peak brightness of 2,400 nits.

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Galaxy S25 Edge launch date leaks again, and it’s good news
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge next to the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 molds

After the last possible announcement date for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge passed us by without the phone making an appearance, we’ve got a new date to look forward to. Samsung will apparently hold an Unpacked launch event on May 13, and the phone will be available to pre-order from May 24. 

However, the initial launch will take place in South Korea and China, according to The Financial News, a South Korean news source, quoting an anonymous industry source. The good news is, the source then revealed the Galaxy S25 Edge will be released in the U.S. and other global markets from May 20. 

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4 big battery phones the OnePlus 13T will need to compete with
OnePlus 13T

People always say that big things come in small packages. That may just be the case for the OnePlus 13T, the first T model in the OnePlus phone line in three years. It's a little smaller than the flagship OnePlus 13 model thanks to its 6.32-inch OLED display and a weight of 185 grams, but OnePlus recently revealed on Chinese social media platform Weibo that it will house (translated) "the world’s first 6,260mAh glacier battery." That breaks the record held by the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro, which had a 6,100mAh battery.

A 6,260mAh battery guarantees a longer lifespan -- and, in turn, more screen time -- for people looking to get their hands on the OnePlus 13T. However, it's not going to be the only phone on the market with a larger-than-life battery. Other phones that have come before it come pretty close in battery size and energy -- the latter of which OnePlus has not given much information of in terms of charging power and speed. Here are four big battery phones that the OnePlus 13T will have to keep up with once it releases.

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