Smartphone Launch Events Are Silly

Smartphone Launch Events Are Silly

On Tuesday of this week Samsung held its annual Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco. It did what most tech companies set out to do when they host a big event: Announce shiny new products (Galaxy S20! Another folding phone! Some earbuds!) and get customers stoked for features like "sub-6 5G compatibility" and "Space Zoom." It was the kind of product launch that has become standard over the years for big tech companies.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior associate editor Julian Chokkattu and WIRED contributor Boone Ashworth join co-host Lauren Goode to chat about all things Samsung and more. We dish all about the new products the company announced, but then we dig deeper to talk about how those products fit into the broader smartphone market. Does anyone really need to spend $1000 on a phone, in the era of the Pretty Darn Good Mid-Range Phone? And are these kinds of events even necessary when so much info about the products is leaked in advance?

Show Notes:

Read all about Samsung's big launch event here. Read Lauren’s hands-on impressions of the Galaxy Z Flip here. Check out Julian’s first look at the Galaxy S20 line here, and read his review of the Motorola Razr here. Read Shira Ovide’s story in Bloomberg about tech events here. And please watch this delightful clip of Michael Bay speaking at a Samsung event.

Recommendations:

Lauren recommends this episode of The Daily podcast, about Clearview AI. Julian recommends the Pixelbook Go as a lightweight replacement for the 16-inch MacBook Pro he’s been carrying around. Boone recommends The Circle, a reality series on Netflix.

Julian Chokkattu can be found on Twitter @JulianChokkattu. Lauren is @LaurenGoode. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our consulting executive producer is Alex Kapelman (@alexkapelman). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

How to Listen

You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how:

If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Play Music app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here's the RSS feed.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Episoder(425)

Preserving Your Right to Repair Your Gadgets

Preserving Your Right to Repair Your Gadgets

What happens when your drop your phone and shatter the screen? Or when its battery starts to grow noticeably weaker? These common technological woes are things that you should be able to remedy yourse...

19 Apr 20191h 8min

What Happens to Uber After Its IPO?

What Happens to Uber After Its IPO?

Uber filed to go public this week. No big surprise there; everyone in the industry has been waiting months for the ride-hailing giant to hit the accelerator on its IPO. What did raise an eyebrow were ...

12 Apr 201945min

Introducing Citadel Dropouts: A Game of Thrones Podcast

Introducing Citadel Dropouts: A Game of Thrones Podcast

We’re confused about what exactly this hoped-for Targaryen Restoration is about, politically. And is Game of Thrones, like, good anymore? Laura Hudson and Spencer Ackerman preview the political and so...

12 Apr 201946min

Reporting From Syria

Reporting From Syria

This week, we’re joined by a special guest: freelance war correspondent Kenneth R. Rosen. Ken is working on a series of stories for WIRED about the reconstruction efforts in Syria. The first of Ken’s ...

5 Apr 201921min

The Case for Male Birth Control

The Case for Male Birth Control

Hormonal male contraception is not a new idea––in fact, researchers have been working on solutions for men the pill was invented for women. But early tests around male contraceptives were inconclusive...

29 Mar 201947min

Game On at Google

Game On at Google

Google’s Project Stream, first unveiled last October, gave gamers a taste of what it would be like to stream heavy games directly from the cloud – from a Chrome browser, even. That effort has now evol...

22 Mar 201948min

Flickr Cofounder Questions Big Tech

Flickr Cofounder Questions Big Tech

“Should this exist?” is not typically a question that technologists ask themselves, Caterina Fake says. The Flickr cofounder-turned-investor says that most entrepreneurs and engineers will ask themsel...

15 Mar 20191h 7min

How to Quit Your Tech Job

How to Quit Your Tech Job

Jessica Powell was the top communications executive at Google when she found herself Googling, in no uncertain search terms, how to quit her job at Google. She tried approximately 837 different tactic...

8 Mar 201953min

Populært innen Teknologi

lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
romkapsel
teknisk-sett
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
energi-og-klima
shifter
nasjonal-sikkerhetsmyndighet-nsm
smart-forklart
rss-ki-praten
rss-impressions-2
pedagogisk-intelligens
hans-petter-og-co
rss-ai-forklart
elektropodden
rss-alt-som-gar-pa-strom
rss-bits-and-bytes-for-advokater
rss-polypod
rss-for-alarmen-gar
kunstig-intelligens-med-morten-goodwin
rss-garasjen