Samsung to launch its digital assistant with the Galaxy S8

Following its tumultuous run with the Galaxy Note7, Samsung is looking to revive itself with the Galaxy S8. One of the ways, it plans to do this is with the introduction of its own digital assistant. Samsung recently acquired Viv Labs, a startup owned by creators of Siri, and its digital assistant Viv. We are expected to see this service show up in Samsung’s upcoming flagship as well as the company’s home appliances and wearables.

Samsung hasn’t specified what features Viv will cover but a spokesperson has said it could work with third-party services. According to Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee Injong. "Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease."

Source: The Verge

Report claims Apple won’t be refreshing the iPhone SE early next year

If you’ve gotten your hands on an Apple iPhone SE and are looking to get an upgrade of the device next year, that might not happen. At least according to a new research report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The reason is Apple might want to keep its margins high by subtly encouraging users to upgrade to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which are considered more margin-friendly devices.

Kuo predicts that total shipment volume of iPhones will decline in the first half of 2017 due to “tepid demand in China, slow shipment volume of 4.7-inch iPhones, and lack of an iPhone SE refresh in the second quarter of the year.” This year’s first half shipment is higher because of an “upbeat demand for the iPhone SE.”  According to Kuo, Apple might exert pressure on its component makers to drop prices to help maintain its margins and price reductions on the components could happen November or December of this year.

Source: BGR

Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup 10/30-11/05

Google wants you to save Magic Cat Academy with Halloween Doodle

Rear-view cameras to be required on all cars made after May 2018

Toyota turns your smartphone into a car key with Smart Key Box

Microsoft set to release VR headset details at December events

Google opens the door to J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

Google set to open first pop-up stores inside Best Buy locations in Canada

Seagate outs external SSD for the Xbox

Review: ASUS ZenBook 3

OWC's ThunderBolt 3 Dock brings much needed expansion to new MacBook Pros

Netflix might be considering offline playback

Google's Pixel XL adoption is faster than Nexus 6P

Bell Fibe TV service now available on Apple TV

Watch: The latest Wonder Woman trailer shows why it might be the best DC movie yet

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ rumoured to be ditching the iconic title crawl

Analyst: Apple's iPhone captures 103.6 % of smartphone profits in wake of Samsung Note fiasco

Apple reduces pricing of USB C dongles

Blizzard celebrates ‘Diablo’ anniversary by remaking the game in ‘Diablo 3’

Record Bird adds Apple Music integration, keeps you posted on new releases by your favorite artists

WhatsApp tests its own Snapchat Stories clone

If this ever make its way out of testing, another Facebook-owned app will be getting the Snapchat Stories treatment. WhatsApp is testing what it calls Status, a new feature that will let you share photos and videos you can overlay with emojis and text and it stays up for 24 hours. According to BGR India, the feature is currently available to registered public beta testers of the app using rooted Android or iOS devices.

The app on Android gets a new Status tab between the Chats and Calls tabs. It doesn’t take over your ability to share a status message on the service. What it does is create a new channel for users to share visual content with their contacts. At the moment it doesn’t allow users to manually delete Status updates after they’ve been shared. And they can’t be set to have longer or shorter lifespan online. You can specify which contacts can get the updates. This feature seems to be in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s push to prioritize video content as they try to drive video ad revenue. It’s something that WhatsApp can now take advantage of as it changed its privacy policy to basically allow business to show ads to users. Now, we have to see if this makes it out of beta.

Source: TechCrunch