Hasta La Gadget!

Despite the various examples and warnings we’ve seen about how we should be more careful about the things we share on social media, there are some who just ignore it and go ahead and do it anyway, which unfortunately for a certain engineer working at Apple, resulted in him being fired from the company.

Now as you might have heard by now, the iPhone X is up for pre-order and is officially available on the 3rd of November. However it seems that the engineer’s daughter Brooke Peterson, who accompanied her father one day at his work, posted a hands-on video of the iPhone X while sitting in Apple’s cafeteria, which safe to say did not go down well with the execs at Apple after the video had gone viral for obvious reasons.

Apple is notorious for being secretive (as much as leaks would allow) and given that the iPhone X she reviewed contained sensitive information like codenames for unreleased products and staff-specific QR codes, this was more than just about letting the cat out of the bag early. That and the fact that Apple generally prohibits video recording on campus for obvious reasons.

Some have argued that Brooke did it for the “likes” and the “views”, while others defended her saying that it was filmed in a similar style to her previous vlogs and that she probably did not think it would go viral. According to Brooke, her father is expected to be fine (she says “we’re good”), but like we said, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen people suffer serious consequences based on their social media activity, so do take that into mind the next time.

Apple Engineer Fired After Daughter Uploads iPhone X Hands-On Video , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Earlier this year the BlackBerry KEYone was released. While BlackBerry releases new phones every now and then, what made the KEYone different is the fact that it is made by TCL, the first phone made by the company ever since BlackBerry decided to call it quits on the hardware business.

Now according to reports, it seems that a successor to the KEYone is already in the works. The handset in question seems to be sporting the model number BBF100-1, and given how close it is to the KEYone’s model number BBB100-1, it has led to speculation that this could be the KEYone’s successor.

However we have to admit that some of its specs are a bit confusing. Assuming this is the successor, the reports have suggested that the phone could be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, whereas the KEYone featured the Snapdragon 825 which was last year’s flagship. We would have assumed that future models could turn to a more powerful chipset.

Other alleged specs include a 1620×1080 display resolution, but what display size we are looking at is unclear, although some have speculated it could retain the same 4.5-inch display. The KEYone is a BlackBerry phone that still uses the traditional BlackBerry keyboard, although TCL is venturing into full touchscreen BlackBerry phones like with the recently announced BlackBerry Motion.

BlackBerry KEYone Successor Reportedly In The Works , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

So it has recently been more or less confirmed that Microsoft has given up on Windows 10 Mobile, with company exec Joe Belfiore saying that building new hardware is no longer a focus at the company. Based on that it is safe to say that the much-rumored Surface Phone may never see the light of day.

However it seems that there could be an alternative. In a report from Windows Central, they have heard from their sources that Microsoft is working on a prototype device codenamed “Andromeda” (not to be confused with Google’s Andromeda project). According to the report, it has suggested that Andromeda will be a revisiting of Microsoft’s Courier digital journal concept from many years ago, which is basically a foldable digital notebook.

At this point in time not much is known about the device, such as whether it could sport a single foldable display, or if it would use two separate devices and a hinge. However one of the focuses of the device is on the use of a pen and digital ink.

Windows Central’s Zac Bowden writes, “I’m told the device puts pen and inking at the very forefront of its experience, with some prototypes opening up into a notebook app that’s tied to OneNote with support for your usual inking options via Windows Ink. The notebook app itself is designed in a way that mimics writing in a real notebook, with virtual pages that spread across the foldable device.”

Unfortunately for those wondering when we might see this device, their sources have told them that it is unclear if Andromeda will ever see the light of day, and if it does, 2018 will be the earliest that it will be announced, so until then we guess you should take it with a grain of salt for now.

Microsoft’s ‘Andromeda’ Is Reportedly A Foldable Digital Notebook , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Google’s new Pixel phones are supposed to be their latest and greatest, but unfortunately for some reason the phones weren’t exactly launched to a great start due to varying complaints about quality. One of the issues raised has to do with the Pixel 2 XL’s display burn-in, but the good news is that Google will be addressing them.

Google first addressed issue in a statement that says, “Extensive testing of the Pixel 2 XL display show that its decay characteristics are comparable to OLED panels used in other premium smartphones. The differential aging should not affect the user experience of the phone, as it’s not visible under normal use of your Pixel 2 XL.”

However despite their defense, Google also added that they will be looking into trying to resolve this on a software side through updates that will help fade out the navigation bar after a period of inactivity, reduce max brightness by 50 nits, and also working with app developers to encourage them to use white navigation bars instead of black ones to help reduce burn-in problems further.

To top it off, Google has also announced that the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL handsets will now be covered by a two-year warranty, which includes the units that have already been sold. Whether or not users will need it remains to be seen, but we suppose having that peace of mind isn’t a bad thing.

Google Responds to Pixel 2 XL Display Burn In Issues , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Don’t you hate it when you go to a supermarket only to find that when you reach the section you want, the item that you intended to purchase is out of stock? Most supermarket already have systems in place to keep track of inventory, but since restocking is usually left to humans, sometimes it might take a while for them to restock the shelves.

However this is something that Walmart wants to address with the use of shelf-scanning robots. Such robots aren’t exactly new, but Walmart seems to be making a big push for them becoming more ubiquitous and mainstream during their operations by testing out these robots in over 50 of their stores around the country.

“That’s exactly the idea behind something new we’re testing in a small number of our stores: using automation to handle tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual, like scanning shelves for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels.” Walmart also stresses how these robots aren’t meant to replace their human workers, but rather they’re designed to complement each other, with the robots performing more menial/repetitive tasks, while human workers focus more on serving their customers.

It does seem like a rather stark comparison to what Amazon is doing, which is almost eliminating the need for people, where its Amazon Go grocery stores will not require cashiers as sensors and scanners placed around the store will know what customers have purchased instantly.

Walmart Testing Shelf-Scanning Robots At Some Of Its Stores , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.