Microsoft

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review: The foldable we all want but don’t need… yet

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 $1,999.99 View Product The Good Robust cover display functionality • Sleek and durable design • Very capable cameras • Improved display with 120Hz refresh rate The Bad Way too expensive • Thick and heavy build The Bottom Line The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is proof that Samsung is capable of…

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
$1,999.99

View Product

The Good

Robust cover display functionality • Sleek and durable design • Very capable cameras • Improved display with 120Hz refresh rate

The Bad

Way too expensive • Thick and heavy build

The Bottom Line

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is proof that Samsung is capable of successfully manufacturing a foldable phone that’s both sleek and powerful. But at $2,000, it’s more elite toy than must-buy.

⚡ Mashable Score 4.5

😎 Cool Factor 5.0

📘Learning Curve 5.0

💪Performance 4.5

💵Bang for the Buck 4.0

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 2 represents one very crucial thing for the company: redemption. With an upgraded, durable screen that’s been kept at somewhat of a similar price point (at $200 more than the original Fold), it appears as if the South Korean tech giant is trying to make up for its prior foldable missteps and lost time.

Rather than completely overhauling the original Fold’s design, Samsung instead fixed what was broken by incorporating elements it already knew would work: an Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) display and a free-standing hinge. 

But in addition to providing a solid build, the company’s now also pivoted its messaging: The Fold 2 is more than just a smartphone. It’s fully optimized as an on-the-go productivity workhorse with a variety of multitasking features.

Now that Samsung’s increased the size of the cover display, you can use the Fold 2 much like you would any other “normal” smartphone. That means you can quickly answer texts, make calls, scroll through social media, or even answer emails comfortably without unfolding it. And for those moments when you need a bigger display or to pull up a few apps to multitask, simply fold back that front cover, and you have a tablet at your disposable.

This concept isn’t at all different from the original Fold, and it’s no longer even novel to consumers. It’s now been a year since Samsung’s first foldable was introduced to general buzz and then immediate disappointment. And, as a result, the Fold 2 doesn’t feel ahead of its time or futuristic. 

The good news is that, unlike Microsoft’s distantly related Surface Duo foldable, there’s no steep learning curve to be found here. By offering the familiarity of a standard smartphone coupled with the option to switch to tablet mode when necessary, Samsung has made the the Z Fold 2 more approachable, allowing users to adapt to it in baby steps. 

While I could go on about why I believe the Z Fold 2 is truly an excellent piece of hardware, it’s important to not stray far from reality here. This device is nothing more than proof that Samsung can make a Fold that works. More importantly, the Z Fold 2 also allows the company to maintain its position as the go-to brand for smartphone innovation. 

At $2,000, the Fold 2 certainly isn’t a device Samsung is relying on to boost its sales; it’s for those with disposable income to drop (during a pandemic marked by massive unemployment, nonetheless). Case in point: With the purchase of a Fold 2, Samsung promises its users access to “VIP benefits and experiences” through its Galaxy Z Premier program, in addition to an optional membership for something called a “Founders Card.” 

You know, very elite stuff.

Finally, a design that’s anxiety-free

If the first-generation Z Fold hadn’t been such a spectacular hardware fail, with its frail and fragile display, I wouldn’t be focusing on the Z Fold 2’s design all that much. Thankfully, durability isn’t a cause for concern this time around. 

At 2.7-inches thick when folded, the Z Fold 2 is a chunky device. And while I can’t comfortably slip it into my pockets, its thickness does make it more comfortable to hold with one-hand. I found I could firmly grasp onto it without worrying about accidental drops. It felt vaguely similar to holding a candy bar phone, which is actually a feeling I didn’t know I missed. 

Told ya it was chunky.

Told ya it was chunky.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

This balanced design means that navigating the 6.2-inch HD+ Super AMOLED cover display was a lot easier, too. That’s particularly important seeing as how Samsung increased the size from 4.6-inches on the last Fold, making it more functional. But more on that, later.

The Fold 2 opens up to reveal a 7.6-inch AMOLED display that’s made of Ultra Thin Glass, which in layman’s terms basically translates to flexible glass with a layer of plastic over it. It also comes with a screen protector pre-installed for that extra peace of mind. Much like my experience with the Galaxy Z Flip, I encountered no issues with the screen during my time with the Fold 2.

Samsung recommends leaving the screen protector on and any removal should be done by its own repair service or third-party technicians. This is likely due to last year’s debacle when some tech reviewers peeled what they thought was the screen protector on the Fold, but turned out to be the display — which ultimately destroyed the phones.

The 6.2-inch cover display gives you access to all your apps.

The 6.2-inch cover display gives you access to all your apps.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

It opens up to a 7.6-inch main display on the inside.

It opens up to a 7.6-inch main display on the inside.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

With a 1080 x 2636 pixel resolution, colors on the Fold 2 appear bright and vibrant even when in direct sunlight. And with a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s also super responsive when tapping, scrolling, or typing. It also helps that Samsung’s incorporated its signature Infinity-O technology into the Fold 2’s design, giving it a nearly bezel-free viewing experience. 

It’s also worth mentioning that there is a crease visible in the middle of the screen, which is inevitable for foldable displays in the present day. And while I would typically complain about something like this, it’s really not that noticeable. It’s also a fair compromise given that the Fold 2’s display is actually, ya know, functional.

When you flip the Fold 2 over to its back, you might notice that it looks super similar to the Note 20 Ultra with its brushed aluminum frame and rectangular triple-camera module. The camera bump isn’t nearly as thick here, though. So you don’t have worry about the device rocking back and forth while using it when placed on a flat surface.

In terms of buttons and ports, the Z Fold 2 features the standards: a USB-C port, power button (which doubles as a fingerprint sensor), volume rocker, and SIM card tray, as well as two speakers (one at the top and one at the bottom). 

The free-standing hinge allows you to position it at multiple angles.

The free-standing hinge allows you to position it at multiple angles.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

Holding this entire phone together is the free-standing hinge which gives you the option to position it at different angles, as opposed to just fully open or fully closed. When taking selfies or watching YouTube videos at my desk, I’d often prop the Fold 2 up halfway. This position also proves useful for hands-free video calls, as well. 

In addition to providing versatility, the free-standing hinge also makes the device feel more durable when folding and unfolding it multiple times throughout the day. While I can’t say for sure whether that impression will wear off over time, it does feel promising at this very moment.

To really drive home its emphasis on the new hinge, Samsung is offering users the option to choose from an array of hinge colors (i.e., gold, red, metallic silver, and blue) to complement the Z Fold 2 in either Mystic Bronze (the color of my review unit) or Mystic Black.

Performance that offers the best of both worlds 

Before we dive into what it’s like to use the Fold 2 on a daily basis, let’s gets some specs out of the way first. 

As far as its chipset goes, the device features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865+ processor with support for both flavors of 5G. That means you’ll be able to use either sub-6 5G or mmWave (for faster speeds), depending on what’s available in your area.

That screen protector is a fingerprint magnet, though.

That screen protector is a fingerprint magnet, though.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

Then, there’s the 4,500mAh dual battery which is bigger than the 4,380mAh battery found in the original Fold. 

With standard usage (i.e., scrolling through social media, taking some photos, answering emails and Slack messages), I was easily able to get through a full day with some power left over for the morning. If you plan on using it for some heavy all-day multitasking, then I’d say you’ll be able to push it until the evening.

As for storage configurations, the Fold 2 is only offered with 12GB of RAM and 256GB internal storage. 

Now, let’s move on to my experience using this device as a daily driver. For starters, it’s worth noting the Fold 2 is a lot more versatile than the first-generation version, thanks to that enhanced (and fully functional) cover display. As I mentioned  earlier, you can now comforta

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Microsoft

Market Veteran Raoul Pal Predicts Ethereum Comeback Against Bitcoin with Donald Trump’s Victory

Crypto market expert Raoul Pal believes Trump could create a more favorable regulatory environment, which might help Ethereum outperform Bitcoin. Pal compares Ethereum to Microsoft in its early days, saying its reliability and widespread adoption make it a top choice for traditional finance institutions. Pal acknowledges that while Ethereum has strengths…

Crypto market expert Raoul Pal believes Trump could create a more favorable regulatory environment, which might help Ethereum outperform Bitcoin.
Pal compares Ethereum to Microsoft in its early days, saying its reliability and widespread adoption make it a top choice for traditional finance institutions.
Pal acknowledges that while Ethereum has strengths…
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Microsoft

Microsoft’s decision on Bitcoin could trigger shareholder lawsuit

Key Takeaways Microsoft shareholders will vote in December on a proposal driven by the NCPPR regarding Bitcoin investment. NCPPR warns that Microsoft’s decision not to invest in Bitcoin could lead to shareholder litigation if Bitcoin’s value rises. Share this article Microsoft shareholders will vote in December on whether the company should assess investing in Bitcoin

Key Takeaways

  • Microsoft shareholders will vote in December on a proposal driven by the NCPPR regarding Bitcoin investment.
  • NCPPR warns that Microsoft’s decision not to invest in Bitcoin could lead to shareholder litigation if Bitcoin’s value rises.

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Microsoft shareholders will vote in December on whether the company should assess investing in Bitcoin, a proposal driven by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).

According to a report by Cointelegraph, the NCPPR warns that Microsoft could face shareholder litigation if it decides against Bitcoin investment and the digital asset’s value subsequently rises.

“If Microsoft publicly decides it’s not in shareholders’ best interest to buy Bitcoin, and then Bitcoin’s value rises, shareholders may have grounds to sue,” Ethan Peck, deputy director of NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Project, told Cointelegraph.

Microsoft’s board has recommended shareholders vote against the proposal, stating they already evaluate a “wide range of investable assets,” including Bitcoin.

In its proposal to Microsoft, the NCPPR highlighted MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment strategy, noting that it has outperformed Microsoft by over 300% this year despite conducting a fraction of Microsoft’s business volume.

The research center also highlighted increasing institutional adoption through spot Bitcoin ETFs.

In October alone, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF reportedly acquired $4.6 billion in Bitcoin, bringing the ETF’s total valuation to $31 billion, according to data from Farside Investors and Arkham.

Collectively, Bitcoin ETFs now hold over $72 billion in market cap, underscoring the growing interest from institutions.

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With Decentralized AI and Tokenized Ownership, We Can Fight ‘The Six’

Opinion Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email With Decentralized AI and Tokenized Ownership, We Can Fight ‘The Six’ Orthodox venture capital will never provide the resources for decentralized AI to take on Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, et al. The only way is to supplant equity financing with user-owned, token-based

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With Decentralized AI and Tokenized Ownership, We Can Fight ‘The Six’

Orthodox venture capital will never provide the resources for decentralized AI to take on Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, et al. The only way is to supplant equity financing with user-owned, token-based systems, says Michael J. Casey, Chairman of The Decentralized AI Society.

By Michael J. Casey|Edited by Benjamin Schiller
Updated Nov 1, 2024, 7:20 p.m. Published Nov 1, 2024, 7:16 p.m.
(Pixabay)

The past two days’ share price moves for the six most heavily capitalized companies in the U.S. tell you all you need to know about why we must urgently decentralize the artificial intelligence economy.

The first headlines were that the third-quarter profits and revenue from Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon all beat or met expectations. Yet, with the exception of Amazon’s on Friday, Big Tech’s shares all sold off in response to their earnings announcements, dragging down with them chip-maker Nvidia, the sixth member of the group, whose quarterly reporting is scheduled a month later.

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What spooked investors were some daunting capital expenditure numbers on AI computing power and model development. Alphabet, for one, said it did $13 billion in capex last quarter and expects to do the same in this one while Meta upped its full-year projected spending to $38-40 billion. The giants are in a spending war as each tries to outrace the others toward AI supremacy. Each one of them stands to lose profit margins if it gets out of control.

Let’s be clear: between them, The Six are booking $1.8 trillion in annual revenues, a number that would put their combined inflows in 10th place of global country rankings if we viewed them as a proxy for national GDP – just behind the gross output of Brazil’s 220 million people. Meanwhile, The Six have a combined market capitalization of $15 trillion, capturing an astounding one third of the entire S&P 500 index. Despite – or perhaps because of – this unprecedented scorecard, these companies are relentlessly competing for world domination. Doing what great American companies have always done, they’re unleashing a competitive instinct that, in a normal capitalist economy of diversified goods and services, is the core driver of technological progress.

So, don’t worry about The Six. Worry about us. Because our problem amid the dizzying advance of AI is definitely not one of a shortfall in technological progress. It’s that this particular form of technological progress comes with risks to human autonomy and safety. And to mitigate them, the question of who controls AI’s development and whether their incentives are aligned with the broadest base of humanity is fundamental.

Just as was the case for Alphabet’s Google, Meta’s Facebook and Amazon’s marketplace, the development of these six companies’ large language models (LLMs) and other AI machinery is occurring within closed, black-box systems.They’ve ingested the troves of data we all unwittingly poured into internet sites, and have built highly complex codebases into which no one has visibility. Between them, they dominate all layers of the AI stack: the storage (Amazon Web Services), the chips for computation (Nvidia), the AI models (Microsoft, with its investment in Open AI), the data (Alphabet and Meta) and the devices we use to interact with AI services (Apple). They might be competing with each other, but they form a vertically diversified oligopoly. Or rather, given the undeniable power that their technology can wield over people’s lives, they’re an oligarchy. Indeed, the secrecy around the means by which they exercise that power is characteristic of most oligarchical dictatorships.

Toward the latter phase of the Web2 era, people eventually came to understand Bruce Schneier’s memorable observation that we are not the internet platforms’ customers; we are their products. With that awareness, we’re now also finally opening our eyes to how these companies have long been incentivized to modify people’s behavior in unhealthy ways to maximize shareholder returns. It is no longer controversial to talk of the psychological harm done by the algorithms of Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok and their ilk, which were blatantly designed to exploit dopamine releases to encourage continued, addictive engagement.

When Frank McCourt and I published Our Biggest Fight in March 2024, we were overwhelmed by parents’ horror stories of the harm social media had done to their kids. And then a Harris Poll coordinated by NYU Professor Johathan Haidt found that young people are just as concerned: nearly half of Gen Z wishes that TikTok and X (Twitter) never existed, even as 83% of the same cohort said they spend four hours a day or more on social media.

So, if we now know of the harms, why on earth would we extend the same oligopolistic control structure into the AI era? AI will put the Web2 oligopoly on steroids.

This is why I believe the creation of distributed, collectively owned open-source AI is a vitally important use case for Web3 and blockchain technology. It’s the only way to avoid the problem of misaligned incentives.

Sure, there are technical challenges, such as the latency that, for now, makes distributed machine learning inefficient, the capacity limits of on-chain data, or the privacy risks inherent to public blockchains. But innovators are already hard at work on outside-the-box solutions to these problems, motivated by the huge economic and reputational payoff promised by overcoming them. And when they do, the inherent information advantages enjoyed by open systems over closed systems will give decentralized AI a fighting chance. Achieve that, and “DeAI” will represent not only the right moral path but also the economic winner.

Here’s the rub: time is not on our side. And the fight is heavily lopsided. As cited above, The Six have an unprecedented $15 trillion war chest. In the 2000s, Facebook and Google learned that their high-value share prices gave them a currency with which to relentlessly acquire startups that could either enhance or threaten their dominance. Now, The Six have even greater capacity to buy up and integrate whatever breakthroughs in AI are coming, be it in independent AI agents or more efficient systems of compute. Their financial clout means that the most important innovations, those that offer the best hope for a more decentralized AI economy, are at risk of being subsumed into their centralized system. Remember, they’re competing with each other and are incentivized to do whatever it takes to win.

To fight their centralized approach, we must flip the paradigm. Orthodox venture capital will never provide anywhere near enough resources for decentralized competitors to take on the big guys. The only way is to supplant equity financing models with full user-owned, token-based systems. In the future, when your home devices provide the compute and deliver your privacy-preserved data into open-source models that are proven to act in your interests, you will earn tokens for that work. And, with that currency, you will pay for all the cool services delivered by your personal AI agent. It’s a new, distributed financing and payments system for a new, decentralized AI economy. It is the only way.

Yet, to succeed, the crypto and blockchain industry has to reimagine itself. If startup founders see DeAI merely as a new source of get-rich-quick token-pump opportunities, or if the leaders of the Layer 1 platforms now turning to the field are fixated more on applications that temporarily drive up the dollar value of their tribe’s cryptocurrency rather than on those that address real, economy-wide problems, this movement will fail. To win this fight, this industry must become more interoperable. It must become more collaborative.

This is not to say we should squash the competitive instincts that are vital to innovation. But it is to acknowledge a need for better cross-industry organization. Through collaborative bodies such as the new Decentralized AI Society, different stakeholders can work with each other to advance common interests around standards, reference architectures, taxonomies, policy objectives and open-source, cross-chain protocols that everyone can use regardless of the token they hold. We’re not building to pump our bags or take our token “to the moon.” We’re building to create a new decentralized AI economy for the benefit of all humanity.

Come join the fight.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

Opinion
Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Casey is Chairman of The Decentralized AI Society, former Chief Content Officer at CoinDesk and co-author of Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age. Previously, Casey was the CEO of Streambed Media, a company he cofounded to develop provenance data for digital content. He was also a senior advisor at MIT Media Labs’s Digital Currency Initiative and a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to joining MIT, Casey spent 18 years at The Wall Street Journal, where his last position was as a senior columnist covering global economic affairs.

Casey has authored five books, including “The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order” and “The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything,” both co-authored with Paul Vigna.

Upon joining CoinDesk full time, Casey resigned from a variety of paid advisory positions. He maintains unpaid posts as an advisor to not-for-profit organizations, including MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative and The Deep Trust Alliance. He is a shareholder and non-executive chairman of Streambed Media.

Casey owns bitcoin.

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Michael J. Casey

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Metaplanet Exceeds 1,000 Bitcoin Holdings After Latest Purchase

TLDR Metaplanet purchased 156 additional BTC, bringing total holdings above 1,000 BTC Company stock rose 6.06% following the announcement Metaplanet achieved 116% Bitcoin yield in October 2023 Company raised 10 billion Yen through Stock Acquisition Rights Microsoft considering Bitcoin investment, subject to shareholder approval Metaplanet, Asia’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder…

TLDR Metaplanet purchased 156 additional BTC, bringing total holdings above 1,000 BTC Company stock rose 6.06% following the announcement Metaplanet achieved 116% Bitcoin yield in October 2023 Company raised 10 billion Yen through Stock Acquisition Rights Microsoft considering Bitcoin investment, subject to shareholder approval Metaplanet, Asia’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder…
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