Samsung hasn’t yet detailed pricing or availability for the Z Fold 2, but said it will share more information on Sept. 1. The first generation of the device cost $1,980 and came with 4G in the US. The new model packs in 5G connectivity across the three major US carriers, a glass screen and a redesigned hinge, all of which could make it even more expensive.
Discover the latest news and best reviews in smartphones and carriers from CNET’s mobile experts.
Samsung’s task with its new lineup is finding buyers willing to fork over a grand or two during a pandemic and recession. The new products were designed before the novel coronavirus spread around the globe, which meant Samsung couldn’t tweak the Note 20 or its other new devices to address the pandemic.
What it could do, though, is change how it goes about selling the Note 20 and the Note 20 Ultra, Drew Blackard, vice president of product management for Samsung Electronics America, said in an interview ahead of the launch event.
“It was a bit more of how you react to the current situation as opposed to kind of retool everything that you’re doing,” Blackard said. “Despite the fact that we couldn’t change the device, we very much rethought how we go to market.”
Now playing: Watch this:
First Look: Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra
6:05
That includes those virtual consultations that’ll make the online buying interaction more like the in-store experience. Touchless digital demos will give in-store shoppers a glimpse into the Note’s features, right from their own devices. And Samsung is exploring ways to tailor its future products and services to the needs of people who are largely stuck at home, like making it easier to track fitness and stay healthy while quarantining.
Lower phone sales
Samsung’s phone sales have taken a hit during the pandemic. Its Galaxy S20 lineup became available about a week before parts of the US issued stay-at-home orders. Because consumers were worried about money — and couldn’t see the new devices in person — demand fell. Last week, Samsung said its mobile business revenue tumbled 18% from the previous year.
In the second quarter, Apple was the only smartphone vendor that saw its shipments grow, according to Canalys. Apple’s iPhone SE, its first major revamp of its popular small phone in four years, arrived in mid-April with a starting price of $399. That seemed to be the perfect phone for the times and helped buoy Apple’s results. The device costs $300 less than the iPhone 11 but contains many of the same specs, appealing to people who can’t afford a $700 phone, let alone a $1,000 iPhone 11 Pro.
Samsung, despite launching its new Galaxy S20 lineup in March and its less expensive Galaxy A phones, saw the biggest year-over-year drop of the world’s top five phone makers in the second quarter, Canalys said. Its 30% decline allowed Huawei to leapfrog Samsung to become the world’s biggest smartphone vendor for the first time, the firm noted. It was the first time in nine years that a company other than Samsung or Apple shipped the most phones.
Samsung said in a statement it’ll continue to “focus on creating innovative mobile experiences that improve our users’ lives.” Part of that includes its new devices from Unpacked, and it noted during its earnings in late July that it also will strengthen its “mass-market lineup” of less expensive phones.
At least in the US, Samsung “found that, actually, demand for premium devices is still quite high,” Blackard said. Still, Samsung sold about 44% fewer Galaxy S20 models in the US in the first four months of sales than the Galaxy S10 last year, according to M Science, a data analytics provider that tracks stats like mobile adoption.
Google, meanwhile, unveiled its new smartphone, the Pixel 4A, last Monday. Instead of introducing a high-end, flagship phone, Google opted to slightly pare back the Pixel’s specs to price it at $349. The phone doesn’t have 5G or a premium processor, but “for its price, the Pixel 4A has one of the best cameras you can get on a phone,” CNET’s Lynn La said in her review of the device.
The new Note 20 lineup is nowhere near that price level, with phones starting at $1,000. For some people at this time, that pricing could be hard to stomach. Working in Samsung’s favor is the rabid Note fanbase.
“What we’ve shown here in the past five months is we probably have the broadest portfolio of any company in the industry,” Blackard said. “We are down to $99 on the A01, up to Galaxy Fold, which is [about] $2,000. … Our portfolio is very well suited to the current situation.”
Still, the new Note lineup has a lot in common with the Galaxy S20 devices from earlier this year. In the past, the Note got the latest and greatest technology first, and it also had the biggest screen. Now the Galaxy S lineup gets a lot of features first, and the foldables are Samsung’s new ultra-premium lineup. There’ve been questions for years about where the Note fits into Samsung’s overall lineup.
“It will be interesting to see whether this will be the last evolution of the Note in its current format,” said CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood. “These days consumers tend to hold onto their smartphones for at least three years, so having two flagship launches a year may no longer be necessary.”
Encouraging online shopping
A big focus for Samsung during the pandemic is boosting online phone sales, something that hasn’t been a huge market in the US. Here, most people buy their phones from carriers like Verizon and AT&T, and they usually at least look at them in person before making the purchase. But the pandemic has forced many stores around the country to close, preventing people from holding new phones in their hands before buying them.
“People shop on their phones, but they don’t shop for phones with their phones,” Blackard said.
To make people more comfortable with buying smartphones online, Samsung started offering contactless delivery and increased the return window for its devices to 30 days from 14. It also created a first responders discount for all of its products, which is on par with Samsung’s employee discount.
Now playing: Watch this:
Samsung Unpacked showcases new devices, partnerships
2:17
Since the pandemic began, the amount of US purchases made online across the phone industry has almost doubled compared with in-store, Blackard said.
Samsung also will be offering virtual consultations starting this month, providing information that would-be buyers typically get when they go into physical stores — like detailing features of a device, explaining their phone plan and potential deals for the phone and answering questions.
“From your computer, you’ll be able to just log in, and you’ll get a Samsung representative who can walk you through that purchase process as if you were there in a retail store,” Blackard said. He added that while the consultants initially will be Samsung employees, the company hopes to partner with others, like carriers, to provide the same sort of experience.
Changing the in-store experience
For stores that are open, Samsung is rolling out a new “touchless digital retail mode” with the Note 20, Blackard said. Typically, people visiting stores pick up new devices and play with them before deciding to buy. Samsung’s technology will let people scan a QR code using their own devices and launch “a virtual experience of what it’s like to use the Note 20 on the device you have in your hand,” he said.
“People might not want to touch a phone right now as they go into a store,” Blackard said.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra come in a striking bronze shade
See all photos
Samsung also knows it has to make its devices more attractively priced for consumers. After introducing the Galaxy S20 in March, Samsung offered “work from home bundles” that gave deals on equipment. And last month, it partnered with Postmates to give anyone who bought certain Galaxy devices a free year of Postmates Unlimited, the service that gives free delivery on orders.
Though the new Note lineup doesn’t come cheap, Samsung plans to offer generous promotional deals for the phones. Note 20 buyers will get $100 Samsung.com gift cards, while Note 20 Ultra purchasers will get $150. Samsung also has trade-in offers to give up to $650 for older devices, and it’s expanded its upgrade program, which lets device owners get a new Galaxy phone every year.
“The Note occupies an evolving space in Samsung’s lineup,” Reticle Research principal analyst Ross Rubin said. “Samsung has shifted it toward productivity enthusiasts.”
Samsung isn’t ready to talk about changes to its devices, Blackard said, but it’s looking at three broad areas for innovation: fitness and health; shopping; and entertainment.
The areas “are very exploratory,” Blackard said. Samsung won’t be deploying new services or features immediately but considers them “areas of investigation and product collaboration to bring these solutions to market.”
When it comes to fitness, Samsung is exploring tools to help people “figure out ways to exercise from home,” Blackard said. For health, Samsung is looking into features to support telehealth, those digital doctor appointments more people are having during the pandemic.
“How do we dive deeper with consumers on some of the things that they’re going through and then ultimately craft solutions around that?” Blackard said.
When it comes to retail, Samsung is exploring ways to improve the online shopping experience. “Considering all the technology we have in these [new Note] devices — 5G connectivity, great augmented reality solutions, three cameras — the mobile shopping experience is still pretty basic,” Blackard said.
And with entertainment, Samsung is considering how it can help people enjoy concerts, sports, movies and other content from home instead of in person. Rather than create its own services — something Samsung has struggled with — it’s opted to partner with other companies over the past several years, like working with Microsoft to offer Xbox Cloud gaming on the Note 20. It’s looking at even more ways to work with partners in entertainment, Blackard said.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
