Samsung’s new A Series devices, including the A72, are geared at more price-conscious consumers.
Samsung
Samsung’s new mainstream phone lineup has arrived, with three models: the A52, A52 5G and A72. The new devices boast some higher-end specs but cost less than their Galaxy S siblings, something that will likely make them attractive to a wide range of buyers.
Compared with the Galaxy S21 lineup, the new Galaxy A series phones all come with features dropped from the company’s high-end devices that many consumers love: headphone jacks, MicroSD card slots to expand the memory up to 1TB and chargers in the box. They also tout two-day battery life, four camera lenses on the back and Super AMOLED screens.
But the biggest selling point for the phones is the price. Internationally, the Galaxy A52 costs 349 euros (approximately $415, AU$540), the A52 5G retails for 429 euros ($510, AU$660) and the A72 is 449 euros ($534, AU$690). The devices are available in some markets Wednesday, though Samsung didn’t detail which ones and it hasn’t yet provided US pricing. (In the UK, the Galaxy A52 5G is available now for £399 and the A72 for £419. The regular A52 isn’t on sale there.)
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Big features arrive on the budget Samsung A series
“This is a competitive price point considering the amount of tech they have,” Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said. And for the cost, consumers are getting the bells and whistles they really need. This “is not a compromised experience,” she said.
Samsung showed off the new A family on Wednesday during a virtual Unpacked launch, an event previously reserved for its highest-end and most important devices. In mid-January, Samsung introduced its new flagship phone lineup — Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra — during its first virtual Unpacked of the year. This time around, Samsung dubbed its event the Galaxy Awesome Unpacked to explain how it’s “bringing Awesome to everyone” with its new Galaxy A devices.
Samsung’s bigger push with the A series this year reflects the reality we’re all living in. Phone designs aren’t changing much from year to year, and consumers are holding onto devices for longer, about three years in the US versus two in the past. At the same time, the pandemic has hurt millions of people financially. While high-end specs and cutting-edge features are nice for attention and buzz, people still care about what they’re spending on phones — especially right now.
Galaxy A devices have been sold internationally for years but didn’t come to the US as a full lineup until 2020. They turned out to be the right phones for the times. Three out of every four Samsung phones shipped around the world last year were Galaxy A devices, according to Strategy Analytics. In the US, where there’s often a bigger market for pricey phones than in many other regions, the A family’s shipments surpassed those of the S lineup, 26% to 19%, Strategy Analytics said.
“The Galaxy A series is designed to make Samsung’s latest cutting-edge product more accessible to a wider audience than ever before,” TM Roh, the head of Samsung’s mobile business, said in an FAQ provided to reporters ahead of the event. “Price point shouldn’t be a limiting factor when choosing technology.”
Get a look at Samsung’s new Galaxy A52, A52 5G, A72 phones
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All of A’s specs
Last year’s Galaxy A lineup included four 4G LTE phones and two 5G models. They ranged from $110 for the Galaxy A10 to $650 for the Galaxy A71 5G on Verizon’s network (it’s $600 at other carriers without super-fast 5G millimeter-wave connectivity). All came with some high-end features, though they weren’t nearly as premium as the specs found in the Galaxy S, Note and foldables. And none came close to the price tag for Samsung’s premium phones, which started at $1,000 for the Galaxy S20.
This year, Samsung introduced three new models, the 6.5-inch Galaxy A52 and A52 5G and the 6.7-inch Galaxy A72. Right now, only one model, the A52 5G, can connect to 5G networks, and at least initially, the device only works on the slower but more reliable sub-6GHz. Samsung has two other A family 5G models that it previously announced, the A32 5G and the A42 5G.
Samsung’s Galaxy A52 comes in four color options.
Samsung
“While each market is in a different stage of its 5G journey, we are committed to rolling out 5G-ready devices so users can have tomorrow’s technology today and reap the benefits of 5G as soon as it rolls out in their region, be that next week, next month or next year,” KJ Kim, head of Samsung’s mobile R&D office, said in an FAQ ahead of the event.
He added that providing software updates for longer periods will allow consumers to hold onto their devices longer than before. The new A family will receive three generations of Android OS updates and at least four years of security updates.
All three new phones have big batteries, with the A52 models sporting 4,500-mAh batteries and the A72 packing in a 5,000-mAh battery. By comparison, the Galaxy S21 includes a 4,000-mAh battery, while the S21 Ultra has a 5,000-mAh battery. The A52, A52 5G and A72 come with 25-watt fast charging and come with an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance.
All three have a 32-megapixel front-facing camera and four rear-facing cameras, including 64-megapixel main lenses, 12-megapixel ultrawide lenses and 5-megapixel macro lenses. The A52 models also have 5-megapixel depth cameras and have digital zoom up to 10x, while the A72 has an 8-megapixel telephoto lens capable of digital zoom up to 30x and optical zoom at 3x.
Samsung’s Galaxy A52 comes with a 4G version or a 5G model.
Samsung
4K Video Snap lets users capture an 8-megapixel image from 4K video, while Scene Optimizer recognizes 30 different scenes — such as outdoor landscapes, pets and food — and automatically adjusts the camera settings for the best shots. The phones come with Night Mode to capture better photos in low-light situations, and they feature some pro video features. Users can set up their own photo filters with My Filter, customize their own AR Emoji and apply AR lenses from Snapchat with Fund Mode right from the native camera app.
The A52 and A52 5G have 6.5-inch FHD Plus Super AMOLED Infinity-O displays, and the 5G version has a 120Hz refresh rate. The regular A52 and A72 screens have 90Hz refresh rates, and all three have Samsung’s Eye Comfort Shield that automatically adjusts the blue light emitted by the phones based on the time of day.
The three devices have new stereo speakers that can increase volume up to 43% from older models. They’re available in Awesome Violet, Awesome Blue, Awesome Black and Awesome White. And they all come with the charging brick in the box, something Samsung has moved away from in its flagship phones.
“For many users, the Galaxy A series is their first Galaxy smartphone, and may not have the full ecosystem of Galaxy accessories at their fingertips,” Woncheol Chai, senior vice president and head of the experience planning team in Samsung’s mobile communications business, said in an FAQ provided to reporters ahead of the event. Samsung isn’t including headphones in the box with its new A series phones, and Chai hinted that future phones in the A Series may not come with chargers.
“Samsung is working on the global transition of the removal of the charger plug and earphones from Galaxy smartphones,” he said.
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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.
