Here are our top five news stories of the week.
One more week in the tech world has come to an end, leaving behind some interesting, some shocking, and some exciting news at our steps. From Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s alleged comment on India being a poor country, to the India launch of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, this week had it all.
The week kicked off with the huge controversy surrounding Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, after a former Snapchat employee alleged that Spiegel was not interested in expanding the business to ‘poor countries’ like India and Spain, and that the app was meant for only “rich people.” Naturally, this gave rise to a huge outrage by the platform’s Indian users, with many uninstalling the platform and giving it poor app reviews. This was followed by the launch of Amazon Fire TV Stick, which is believed to be the new Google Chromecast competitor.
Facebook was also in news this week for its two-day F8 Conference. The company’s annual developer conference saw some very interesting announcements being made. From CEO Mark Zuckerberg talking in detail about Facebook’s focus on augmented reality, the launch of Facebook Spaces, the new social VR platform, the brain-to-text technology, to AI for 360-degree videos.
The third day of the week came in with some big news too, with the India launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, and the China launch of the Xiaomi flagship, Mi 6. To catch you up with any big story that you missed, below is a crisp round up of the top tech news of the week.
Snapchat Controversy
- Snapchat denies calling India a ‘poor country’; BoycottSnapchat trends on Twitter
- Snapchat ratings drop to one star on Apple App Store
- Indian hacker group leaks data of 1.7 million Snapchat users after CEO’s ‘poor country’ comments: Report
- Snapdeal app uninstalled, downgraded instead of Snapchat
- Snapchat: Here’s the full unedited transcript of Anthony Pompliano lawsuit
- Snapchat to Amazon India: A timeline of companies landing in a soup for being ‘anti-India’
- As BoycottSnapchat trends in India, here’s why app-based companies care so much about ratings, install base
Amazon Fire TV Stick
- Amazon Fire TV Stick launched in India at Rs 3,999; takes on Google Chromecast
- Amazon Fire TV stick first impressions: What’s in the box, how to set up, is it better than Chromecast, and more
Facebook F8 Conference
- F8 2017: Facebook launches augmented reality Camera Effects developer platform
- F8 2017: Facebook Spaces is a new social VR platform for Oculus users
- F8 2017: Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook has ‘a lot of work to do’ after murder video went public
- F8 2017: From camera effects platform to social VR; here’s everything that was announced on Day 1
- Facebook F8 conference 2017: Instagram for Android gets offline mode; iOS update coming soon
- Facebook is working on new tools that allow people to type with brain, hear with skin
- Brain-to-text technology to AI for 360-degree videos: Top announcements from Facebook F8 2017 Day 2
Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ launch in India
- Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ launched in India, prices start from Rs 57,900
- Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ hands-on, first impressions: It’s premium
- Why the Samsung Galaxy S8 at Rs 57,900 is not really expensive
- Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Apple iPhone 7 vs LG G6 vs Google Pixel: Price, specifications and features compared
- Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+: From infinity display to iris scanner, here are top 8 features
- Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ has a battery identical to Galaxy Note 7: iFixit
- Watch Samsung Galaxy S8 go through scratch, burn and bend tests: Infinity Display is tougher than it looks
- Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ buyers get Reliance Jio double 4G data benefits for 8 months
Xiaomi Mi 6 launch
- Xiaomi Mi 6 with Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB RAM launched in China: Price, specifications, features
- Xiaomi Mi 6: Top 6 features
- Xiaomi Mi 6 Ceramic edition with 18-karat gold camera rims launched
- Xiaomi Mi 6 vs Xiaomi Mi 5: What’s different?
- Xiaomi Mi 6 vs OnePlus 3T vs Honor 8: Price, specifications and features compared