Nearly two weeks after Samsung recalled the Galaxy Note 7 due to the risk of explosion, the device is still being used just as frequently by its owners. This is according to data from Apteligent, a mobile analytics company that claims "usage rate of the phone among existing users has been almost the exact same since the day of the recall." It seems not even exploding batteries can tear users away from their smartphones, but the apparent reticence of users to get rid of their faulty devices is not being helped by Samsung's mismanagement of the recall process. Swapping 2.5 million smartphones is certainly no easy task, but the South Korean firm has not helped the situation by issuing confusing information to consumers. The longer the situation goes on, the more damage it does to the company's brand. A few notes about the Note 7 problems. First, this is no laughing matter. There's a reason not even Apple made fun of Samsung's problems during the iPhone event (something Apple normally revels in), because they, too, know that such manufacturing defects in which real people can get hurt can actually happen to anyone. Battery technology effectively comes down to stuffing highly flammable and dangerous liquids and chemicals in pressurised containers in your pockets, and lithium-ion batteries have a long history of catching fire and exploding. Second, unlike the doom and gloom you read everywhere, this whole story will be out of the media and out of the public's eye (if it's even been in the latter's eye to begin with) a few months from now, and nobody will care. This will do far, far less to damage Samsung's brand than people think (or hope). Third, that being said, Samsung is indeed not handling the recall very well. There should've been a quicker response, a clearer response, a more pervasive response. These things pose a real danger to people, and should've been taken off the street much, much quicker than this. I hope we won't have to read about people dying because of this.

A városi dugók megszüntetését célzó, közlekedésoptimalizáló startupot vásárolt a Google. Az Urban Engines csapat hamarosan a keresőóriás térképének fejlesztőihez csatlakozik.

A néhol kifejezetten nehéz gazdasági körülmények és az intenzív verseny ellenére továbbra is fontos szerepet töltenek be a Liberty Global számára a kelet-európai piacok, derült ki a kábelcég első emberének részvételével zajlott sajtóbeszélgetésen Amszterdamban. Mike Fries vezérigazgató a magyarországi adókról is említést tett.

I just spent like an hour searching for an OSNews story about this, because I was sure we posted about this, only to realise I was confused with this year-old story. Anyhow, this story is kind of similar in that John Brooks has released ProDOS 2.4 for the Apple II, fixing bugs, and adding features. I like Jason Scott's take: Next is that this is an operating system upgrade free of commercial and marketing constraints and drives. Compared with, say, an iOS upgrade that trumpets the addition of a search function or blares out a proud announcement that they broke maps because Google kissed another boy at recess. Or Windows 10, the 1968 Democratic Convention Riot of Operating Systems, which was designed from the ground up to be compatible with a variety of mobile/tablet products that are on the way out, and which were shoved down the throats of current users with a cajoling, insulting methodology with misleading opt-out routes and freakier and freakier fake-countdowns. The current mainstream OS environment is, frankly, horrifying, and to see a pure note, a trumpet of clear-minded attention to efficiency, functionality and improvement, stands in testament to the fact that it is still possible to achieve this, albeit a smaller, slower-moving target. Either way, it’s an inspiration. Mr. Scott...

The g2k16 hackathon must have been a really great one, because here is yet another report, this time from Patrick Wildt, who writes:

I knew that if I had any plans for the hackathon, they would have been thrown out of the window as soon as I arrived there. That was a good plan actually, since exactly that happened. Read more...

Nem dob piacra az év hátralévő részében új okosórát az LG, a Huawei és a Lenovo - nem csak a felhasználók, a gyártók is kivárnak a gyengén teljesítő piacon.