Samsung will reportedly dispose of returned Note7 phones

What's going to happen to the 2.5 million Samsung Galaxy Note7 devices that are enroute to Samsung after a global recall resulting in the company taking them off the market? A Samsung spokesperson told Motherboard that, "the phones will not be repaired, refurbished, or resold ever again: We have a process in place to safely dispose of the phones."

Samsung hasn't specified how it is going to dispose of the 2.5 million devices, all of which contain chemicals (the offending batteries included) rare minerals and various toxic elements. There's a serious question about the impact of such massive disposal and how it could impact the environment. The implications of disposing so many smartphones shortly after they were manufactured just adds to the bad news related to the Note7 recall.

Source: Motherboard

You can donate to Red Cross for Hurricane Matthew relief support via iTunes

Visible satellite image of Hurricane Matthew approaching Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba at 15:15 UTC on October 3, 2016. [GOES East Satellite (NOAA)]

In case you didn’t know, you can send support for Red Cross’ Hurricane Matthew relief through iTunes.  Donating through iTunes is an easy affair. Head over to this link and donate as little or as much as you like. Apple guarantees the money goes directly to Red Cross for the cause.

Our thoughts are with all those affected by #HurricaneMatthew. Support relief efforts by donating to @RedCross at https://t.co/2b9MLALy4L

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) October 10, 2016

  

Twitter grounds Flight developer conference

Kurt Wagner / Recode

With Twitter facing its own set of issues, it comes as no surprise that the social network opted out of hosting its annual Flight developer conference. The event was supposed to happen again this month and they started planning it but it eventually got scrapped. According to Will Stickney, Twitter’s spokesperson, Twitter wants to focus on smaller developer events.

“We heard feedback after last year’s Flight conference that small, more intimate events are where our developer community are seeing the most value. So instead of holding a single developer conference in San Francisco, we are hosting a series of regional developer events, continuing the momentum from our global #HelloWorld. Given the diversity of things developers are building with Twitter (from MoPub, to the Ads API, to Gnip, Fabric, and more) having more local events will enable us to engage with our community in a much more personal way,” Twitter says in a statement.

Source: Recode

‘Overwatch’ now has 20 million registered players

Activision Blizzard’s team-based, multiplayer first-person shooter hits another milestone. Now, Overwatch has 20 million players around the world. The news comes just under the five months the game has been released and a bit over two months since the game reached 15 million total players. It’s important to note that this means 20 million registered accounts and not necessarily 20 million copies sold. But according to NPD Group, Overwatch was the highest selling same back in June.

Source: IGN