Tom Warren, for The Verge:

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Samsung is delaying the release of its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung won’t release the Galaxy Fold until “at least next month” due to issues with review units that technology reporters have revealed.

A string of reviewers found problems with the display, with it failing for a number of reasons. 

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The Verge’s own review unit failed due to what appeared to be debris caught between the hinge and the display. Samsung previously said it intends to “thoroughly inspect [the review] units in person,” and was originally planning to continue to release the Galaxy Fold on Friday. Over the weekend, the company postponed launch events in China, and it looked increasingly likely that the device would not go on sale on Friday.

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Given the multiple reports of screen failure, some due to reviewers attempting to peel off a protective plastic layer, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold launch delay feels like the best option for the company. While Samsung is aiming to be first to the market with its $1,980 foldable phone, these are critical hardware problems that the company will need to investigate fully.

Matthew Panzarino reporting that Apple has confirmed that AirPower, the wireless charger with support for multiple devices first announced in September 2017, has been cancelled (to the surprise of nobody at this point).

“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward,” said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in an emailed statement today.

The AirPower was originally teased back in September 12, 2017, when Apple unveiled the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, Apple TV 4K, and related OS updates.

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, presented a sneak peek of a new wireless charging mat Apple was developing, named AirPower, which could charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously. At the time, Apple said the AirPower charger would be available in 2018

And today, after numerous delays, it’s official that it will never go beyond that tease.

John Gruber:

APPLE CARD: Sounds good, but “low interest rate” is just words. I’d like to see the actual numbers. Kind of interesting that you get 2% cash back on Apple Pay purchases and only 1% when you use the actual card. 

[…]

APPLE NEWS PLUS: Are magazines still a thing? Didn’t Apple go down this same path with Newsstand back when the iPad first launched?

[…]

APPLE ARCADE: This was the most cohesive announcement of the day. Easy to understand what it is, why you’d want it, and what the value proposition is. It looks like Apple is spending a fortune funding these exclusive games. I think this is going to be a big hit, and it makes Google’s “we’ve got games running on our servers” thing from last week look a bit silly. Most interesting to me is how much Apple emphasized the Mac and Apple TV. But why not tell us the price?

John has a few good points, I don’t necessarily agree with what he thinks of Google’s Stadia Service compared to Apple Arcade, but time will tell which comes out on top.

While similar, both services have their good features so it’ll be a toss up here.

APPLE TV CHANNELS AND TV PLUS: This whole thing was… weird. I get what Channels is — the infamous “skinny bundle” that Eddy Cue has been trying to put together for years. Paying only for the channels you want is the right way to do this, but obviously a nightmare to negotiate with the actual networks and channels. It’s also coming to Roku and Amazon FireTV, which I understand but feels so strange.

This one, I have to agree with John on entirely. This has been something Apple has wanted to do for a while now and launching on other platforms makes sense while seeming like a strange move for Apple. Google and Amazon launch their apps on Apple but when has Apple launched an app on another service before?

Roku and FireTV are also interesting choices, I can’t help but notice they’ve left out an Android app for android devices such as the nvidia shield, if they specifically wanted it TV only, it wouldn’t be hard to make it compatible only for Android TV devices rather than all devices, but this is definitely a stab at Android, and given their market share for TV streaming is hard to miss.

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge:

Google is launching its Stadia cloud gaming service at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who says he plays FIFA 19 “quite a bit,” introduced the Stadia service during a special keynote at GDC this morning. Describing it as a platform for everyone, Pichai talked up Google’s ambitions to stream games to all types of devices.

Phil Harrison, a former Sony and Microsoft executive, joined Pichai onstage to fully unveil Stadia in his role at Google. Harrison says Google will amplify this game streaming service by using YouTube and the many creators that already create game clips on the service. Google previously tested this service as Project Stream in recent months, allowing Chrome users to stream games in their browser. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was the first and only game to be tested publicly using Google’s service, and the public tests finished in January.

Of course, Google won’t limit Stadia to just one game. Google demonstrated a new feature in YouTube that lets you view a game clip from a creator and then hit “play now” to instantly stream the title. “Stadia offers instant access to play,” says Harrison, without the need to download or install any games. At launch, games will be streamable across laptops, desktops, TVs, tablets, and phones.

Google demonstrated moving gameplay seamlessly from a phone to a tablet and then to a TV, all using Google-powered devices. While existing USB controllers will work on a laptop or PC, Google is also launching a new Stadia Controller that will power the game streaming service. It looks like a cross between an Xbox and PS4 controller, and it will work with the Stadia service by connecting directly through Wi-Fi to link it to a game session in the cloud. This will presumably help with latency and moving a game from one device to another. You can also use a button to capture and share clips straight to YouTube, or use another button to access the Google Assistant.

To power all of this cloud streaming, Google is leveraging its global infrastructure of data centers to ensure servers are as close to players around the world as possible. That’s a key part of Stadia, as lower latency is a necessity to stream games effectively across the internet. Google will support up to 4K at 60 fps at launch, and it’s planning to support up to 8K resolutions and 120 fps in the future.

The nvidia shield does a similar service with Steam and it works pretty decently. It should be interesting to see Google’s take on this.

Apple press release:

Apple today introduced the all-new iPad Air in an ultra-thin 10.5-inch design, offering the latest innovations including Apple Pencil support and high-end performance at a breakthrough price. With the A12 Bionic chip with Apple’s Neural Engine, the new iPad Air delivers a 70 percent boost in performance and twice the graphics capability, and the advanced Retina display with True Tone technology is nearly 20 percent larger with over half a million more pixels.

Apple today also introduced the new 7.9-inch iPad mini, a major upgrade for iPad mini fans who love a compact, ultra-portable design packed with the latest technology. With the A12 Bionic chip, the new iPad mini is a powerful multi-tasking machine, delivering three times the performance and nine times faster graphics. The advanced Retina display with True Tone technology and wide color support is 25 percent brighter and has the highest pixel density of any iPad, delivering an immersive visual experience in any setting. And with Apple Pencil support, the new iPad mini is the perfect take-anywhere notepad for sketching and jotting down thoughts on the go.

The Verge:

Tim Cook is a pretty well-known figure in the business world. I know a lot of people don’t care about computers and that’s fine, but if you’re in the industry or having some sort of professional interaction with him, I have to think people usually know his name going in.

And yet, at an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting today, the president pretty unmistakably called Tim Cook “Tim Apple.”

[…]

I went through the trouble of transcribing what the president said, just to be sure this is all really happening:

We’re going to be opening up the labor forces because we have to. We have so many companies coming in,” Trump says. “People like Tim — you’re expanding all over and doing things that I really wanted you to do right from the beginning. I used to say, ‘Tim, you gotta start doing it here,’ and you really have you’ve really put a big investment in our country. We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple.

Trump just called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” pic.twitter.com/gTHHtjWvc9

— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) March 6, 2019

Tim took it in stride and in response has updated his twitter handle to Tim Apple

Andrew Webster for The Verge:

Nintendo’s getting into virtual reality, but not in the way you might expect. Today, the gaming giant announced the latest in its Labo line of DIY cardboard accessories, which turns the Nintendo Switch into a makeshift VR kit.

As with previous Labo sets, there are a few options to choose from. The main VR kit costs $79.99 and includes six different cardboard kits to build, including VR goggles, a blaster, a camera, and an… elephant, as well as a screen holder and “safety cap.” For those looking to spend a bit less, there’s also a basic starter kit that includes just the goggles and blaster for $39.99.

Additional accessories like the elephant can be purchased late in $20 sets. The kits will include Labo software, which features games, step-by-step instructions, and the “garage” mode for building your own Labo creations.

The Verge:

The PlayStation Vita is officially done. Sony signaled that it has ended production on the handheld gaming console’s last two models on the Vita’s product page (via Polygon).

Launched in 2011, the Vita never quite caught on around the world, a victim of increased competition from smartphone apps, selling only 16.1 million units, a far cry from the PlayStation Portable that preceded it, and from Nintendo’s Switch that followed it.

The writing has been on the wall for the Vita for a while — while a fun and quirky platform for indie games, audiences and major publishers simply haven’t kept up with the device. Sony said that it would end production of the device in 2019, and that it had no plans to release a successor handheld device when it goes, and that it would end production of the physical game cards for the device at the end of the 2018 fiscal year — March 31st, 2019.

Sony has been killing the Vita off for a while, but they have finally officially ended production of this device now.

I still own a PSP, I have it set up to run a bunch of emulators and let me play hundreds of retro games on it, I’ve even set the same thing up for my daughter.

I never really got into the Vita, which is the case for a lot of people obviously.