The Morning After: 2021's winners in tech

Happy almost new year! We’re wrapping up 2021 with some of the big winners of the last twelve months, whether that was NFTs (ugh), the metaverse (double ugh), Apple’s change of direction on device repair or the boom in home workout tech.

We also mention Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3, which makes the most compelling case for foldables so far. Samsung has noticed the same. It said the Flip 3 motivated more people to switch than its flagships, leading to four times more foldable devices sold in 2021 compared to 2020. The argument for buying your first folding smartphone strengthens year by year.

-Mat Smith

BlackBerry OS devices are pretty much dead after January 4th

Data, phone calls, and texting will no longer work.

BlackBerry has announced that from January 4th, devices running BlackBerry OS 7.1 or earlier, as well as OS 10, will lose key services. And by key, we mean it. It’ll include losing the ability to make phone calls, texting, data and even emergency 911 access. You can also expect to have issues with WiFi and apps like BlackBerry World and Desktop manager.

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Yukai Engineering’s cute stuffed animal robot will nibble on your finger

The face of robotics I want to see

Yukai Engineering

Yukai Engineering, the maker of the Qoobo robotic cat tail pillow, has revealed a soft robot that nibbles on a user’s fingertip. Amagami Ham Ham has an algorithm called a “Hamgorithm” that selects one of two dozen nibbling patterns, designed to replicate the feeling of a baby or pet nibbling on one’s finger. Pricing hasn’t been determined, but there are plans to run a crowdfunding campaign in the spring.

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Sega left one of its European servers wide open

A malicious attacker could have accessed 250,000 users’ personal data.

According to a report by security firm VPN Overview, a major breach in one of Sega’s servers appears to have been closed. The misconfigured Amazon Web Services S3 bucket contained sensitive information which allowed researchers to arbitrarily upload files to a huge swath of Sega-owned domains, as well credentials to abuse a 250,000-user email list.

The domains impacted included the official landing pages for major franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Bayonetta and Total War, as well as the Sega.com site itself.

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The best apps to download on your new smartphone

A few apps we think every iPhone or Android user should try.

Did you just pick up a new phone? Did you stick with iOS and Android or make the transition to the rival? Are you in need of some new productivity apps or time killers? We’ve got you covered.

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Samsung says the Galaxy Flip 3 motivated more people to switch than its flagships

The company sold four times more foldable devices in 2021.

Samsung says it shipped four times more foldables in 2021 than it did in 2020. Further, it took only one month after they were released for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to exceed the total accumulative sales of their predecessors last year. The company also said that it saw a “massive increase” in consumers who jumped brands specifically for its foldable phones — in fact, more people switched to Samsung for the Flip 3 than for its flagship Galaxy S devices.

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The ‘Tomb Raider’ reboot trilogy is free on the Epic Games Store

You can’t beat that price.

Free game promos are easy to find, but Epic is going one step further by offering an entire game trilogy for no charge. The Epic Games Store is offering all three Tomb Raider reboot titles (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) for free between now and January 6th at 11AM.

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