The Morning After: Monday January 23, 2017
Oh it's Monday morning.
It's Monday morning, and Samsung's had some explaining to do. The full investigation into its Note 7 battery woes is out. Meanwhile, we test health gadgets that push supplements, and take a look back at Obama's tech legacy.
Samsung blames two different battery flaws for the Note 7 fires
After months of speculation, Samsung has announced that those Galaxy Note 7 fires were caused by two different battery flaws, not a hardware or software issue. The first flaw had to do with how the Note 7's original batteries were manufactured: their casings were too small to safely fit the electrode assembly inside, which lead to short-circuiting. When Samsung's suppliers replaced those batteries with safer versions, a completely different production flaw was introduced. Welding defects inside the batteries made those supposedly safe replacements prone to short-circuiting and bursting into flames as well. The company is promising several changes to its internal processes to avoid making the same mistake again, including assigning teams to own the crucial final checks for each device's core components, and putting batteries through an 8-point test. This will include visual and X-ray inspection, as well as full disassembly.
This system of health gadgets exists to sell you supplements
Andrew Tarantola believes he's the kind of guy who could stand to lose a few pounds. The Styr Lab regimen seemed like a great way to do so, and he was genuinely excited to give the fitness-tracking system a try. However, while each device will recommend a specific in-house line of supplements (vitamins for the wearable, protein for the scale and electrolytes for the water bottle) that are tailored to the user, the system has no way of letting you tightly monitor whatever else you put in your body: The app will track whether you've eaten a snack, small meal or large meal, but that's it. By those metrics, a McDonald's two-cheeseburger meal with medium fries and soda carries the same nutritional value as eating 8 ounces of fish with a mixed-green salad and water. Not recommended for New Year's resolutions.
Obama's legacy: The most tech-savvy president
When Barack Obama moved into the White House in 2009, the federal government was in the digital dark ages. Even as late as 2011, he was complaining that the White House was 30 years behind. Among other things, Obama was the first president to carry a BlackBerry, and even so, it wasn't until 2016 that the leader of the free world was finally able to trade in his aging RIM device for a modern smartphone. Love him or hate him, for better or worse, when it comes to science and technology, Barack Obama has had a bigger impact than almost any president in history.
Hip-hop's most influential sampler gets a 2017 reboot
The impact of Akai's MPC series on hip-hop cannot be overstated. The first model -- the MPC60 -- hit the market in the late 80s, perfectly timed with hip-hop's culture of sampling classic beats and melodies. The MPC's iconic pad-based design and relatively accessible price opened up music production to a whole new audience.
SpaceX is launching one of its last disposable rockets
SpaceX won't have to intentionally crash some of its rockets going forward. Elon Musk has revealed that SpaceX's next flight, which has a Falcon 9 delivering an EchoStar satellite as soon as January 30th, should use the company's last expendable rocket. This rocket will burn too much fuel for its first stage to attempt a landing (the satellite is simply too heavy at 5.4 imperial tons), but future big-payload launches will use either the higher-performance Falcon 9 (Block 5) or Falcon Heavy and shouldn't have trouble coping with the weight. The new Falcon should lift off at the end of 2017.
Amazon made a Dash button just for boxes of candy
Because we need all need emergency $18 boxes of assorted chocolate and candy these days.
