His tech news roundup, via the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Friday, July 24.
1. Gorilla Glass fills with Silverback
Gorilla Glass Victus is the latest in glass innovation from the people at Corning, who have been working to offer better glass for smartphones from the original iPhone.
While Gorilla Glass is at number 6 in its line, Corning has announced new glasses and new brands, calling it Victus. Of course, well.
But the interesting thing here is that Corning says the new Gorilla Glass Victus now provides protection against drops of two meters (over six feet) and on hard / rough surfaces, while doubling scratch resistance on Gorilla Glass 6.
- That’s quite a bit, because Corning has only announced better scratch resistance or drop protection, the twin pillars of moving glass, but never the two together.
- The strength of glass is a battle. Just like diamonds are very hard but brittle, and sapphire crystal is too, Corning tries to increase scratch hardness while crystal is less brittle.
- So this is an event. And the clues are that the Galaxy Note 20 will be the first to have it equipped when Samsung announces that phone in just under two weeks.
- You can see Corning test the new glass here. There’s some cheer to this, though most people will be looking for certain regular YouTuber durability tests that generally track “scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7.” Will that change with Victus?
Glass Nerd Time:
My enthusiastic aluminosilicate colleagues had a chat time with Corning, and experienced at least a slight disappointment that the next step towards unbreakable glass did not come from some groundbreaking nanomaterial or from the wisdom found in ancient texts.
- Instead, Corning just tested more than 1,000 ideas from his sand / silica alchemists to make improvements.
- Technical Details: “Most aluminosilicate glass solutions and previous generations of Gorilla Glass scratch between 2-4 Newtons on the Knoop hardness test. Gorilla Glass Victus scratches between 7-10 Newtons. Combine that with a 25% improvement in impact resistance and you can see why Corning is so eager to have Victus in his hands. “
- It also comes at no additional cost, since Corning’s manufacturing process didn’t have to change significantly.
- But be careful. Phone manufacturers rarely look to the end user in terms of creating waterproof devices. No one wants to carry a brick anymore, so commitments to thin and light designs are everything.
- The problem, therefore, is that just because a phone uses Victus doesn’t necessarily mean exponentially better performance.
- Quote: “Manufacturers can slim Victus to provide just 6 levels of Gorilla Glass resistance using a thinner layer or glass.
- “It is all a matter of rigidity, thinness and potential space saving, but it is something to keep in mind when you see” Victus “in the marketing materials.”
- That means it is now in the smartphone industry, and we as reviewers are challenging manufacturers to provide details on exactly what Gorilla Glass Victus specs and thickness are on board. It has to be a certain thickness to do the job.
- Every 100 nm (or 0.1 mm) of glass is important for structural strength.
- We’ll see if we can get the markers to reveal the details to help people who find phones a little bit more slippery.
- In the meantime, watch for a possible announcement with Samsung on August 5.
2. Best of Android: Mid 2020 reader’s pick – it’s the end! Two finalists fight, vote for your favorite now! (Android Authority)
3. Samsung starts Galaxy Note 20 reservations with an instant credit of $ 50 (Android Authority)
4. The OnePlus Nord is here, but should I wait for the Pixel 4a? (Android Authority).
5. Oh boy: Intel says it has delayed the implementation of its 7nm CPUs by six months, making it 12 months behind the company’s internal goals. Apple’s move to its own processors is making more and more sense, and Intel’s aura in manufacturing takes another hit. Once legendary, now far behind TSMC (Android Authority).
6. A good behind-the-scenes look at Facebook, as employees warn that the company is “hurting people at scale.” Accordingly, Facebook employees receive a small gift of $ 250 in advertising credits. But employee credits cannot be used for ads “related to politics or issues of national importance”, so topics related to “civil and social rights”, “environmental policy”, “health” are prohibited (BuzzFeed News).
7. This would be incredibly daunting: Amazon reportedly invested in startups and obtained proprietary information. Then it would launch competitors or offer better deals to startup customers, often crushing startups (Business Insider).
8. Here are all the new Xbox games Microsoft has just revealed, including 8 minutes of Halo Infinite (Wired).
9. Disney’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy is delayed, debuting in 2023, and upcoming Avatar movies will also be delayed, and yes, you probably know why (Engadget).
10. Meet the four favorites in the COVID-19 vaccine race (Ars Technica).
11. Nuclear Power: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover gets its power source for the July 30 launch (Space).
12. SpaceX satellites spoil a perfectly good view of Comet NEOWISE (Gizmodo).
13. “What can’t you believe STILL exists?” (r / askreddit). Like, the original Space Jam website.
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