Your Robot Overlord – Fast Company (Apple News+ link)

“This entire enterprise has been a response to the question, ‘What if?’ ” Abrams says. “The great stories, the ones I love, all seem to come from a ‘what if?’ ”

This sums up my favorite media as well, but in a weird way, it also kind of sums up how I feel about phones like the Samsung Galaxy Fold. I think the only people who should buy this phone are people who would be totally okay with $2,000 vanishing from their bank account on a lark. Frankly, the phone should be bundled with a Galaxy S10e to use when the Fold inevitable breaks or drives you crazy, whichever comes first.

But…

There’s something about the Galaxy Fold that I find supremely compelling. Foldable tech is something that feels very natural an evolution for tech to move into. We will certainly look back on the fragile glass slabs we all use today as archaic someday, and foldable, flexible, and durable devices will one day be commonplace. The Galaxy Fold proves that this is still a future dream and the tech in 2019 is simply not ready, but much like Apple positioned the iPhone X as an early preview of what the future of phones looks like, this phone makes me feel the same way, just in a phone that is far, far further from being ready for the mass market than the iPhone X was in 2017.

Apple Watch Series 4 vs. Galaxy Watch Active: What’s the best smartwatch? – CNET

For the price, it’s hard to go past the Galaxy Watch Active, especially considering compatibility across Android and iOS. It offers a great range of fitness features, a comfortable fit for smaller wrists especially and a strong showing in battery life.

This article baffles me. I own both of these smart watches and I find the Galaxy Watch Active to be quite a poor product for someone who enjoys using their smart watch for smart watch-y things. And if you’re thinking this article focused more on the fitness aspect, no it did not.

Winner: Tie. Galaxy Watch Active has the best cross-platform support, but the Apple Watch has the flexibility of an LTE-option and a built-in speaker for making calls.

Listen, there are some people who will enjoy the Galaxy Watch Active, but every piece of the user experience as a smart watch is miles behind what watchOS has going on. I bought the Active with hopes it would show me some things Apple could steal for updates to watchOS. Instead, all I discovered was that Apple is further ahead of everyone else than I realized.

And finally, who the heck cares about a smart watch working with multiple platforms? Very few people change platforms so the fact that the Galaxy Watch Active works with iOS (poorly) and Android (slightly less poorly) is not a point in its favor to anyone besides a tech reviewer. Same with the Apple Watch; why is this even in the conversation if someone has an Android phone?

This article completely befuddles me.