Do You Really Need a Smart Phone?

Martin J | Tech TrendsMarch 3, 2017157

There’s a new fork in the cell phone road: go cutting edge, or choose to keep it simple.

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At the annual smartphone jamboree that is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, many manufacturers are showing off their most exotic new hardware in the hope of luring in customers with features that they never knew they wanted. But there’s also a discernible trend for embracing the simplistic and rebirthing the retro.

Perhaps the biggest technology being touted at MWC is the AI assistant. Apple and Microsoft have offered their versions, Siri and Cortana, for a few years. But Google’s Assistant has only so far appeared on the company’s own Pixel smartphone, and Amazon’s Alexa has largely found success in the home. Now, though, Google has announced that it will make Assistant available on many new devices, and Alexa will come loaded on Motorola’s new handsets. Telefonica is also planning to build its own AI assistant.

Elsewhere, as the cellular industry begins to gear up to push our data connections from quick 4G to blisteringly fast 5G, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE will show off a prototype device that demonstrates the capabilities of a gigabit network connection. In theory, it could allow you to stream 4K video on your smartphone but, as the Financial Times reports (paywall), delivering the networks for real-world use will take some time.

To read more of this article, check out MIT Technology Review

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