Recode Daily: Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone thinks it’s a camera

Samsung unveiled its answer to iPhone X with its new flagship Galaxy S9 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona over the weekend. The new phone looks and feels a lot like last year’s S8, so Samsung is talking about the S9 as if it were a camera, deemphasizing the “phone” while emphasizing new features such as stereo speakers and augmented-reality-based emojis. Here’s a hands-on preview from the showroom floor, and heres a roundup of the other interesting stuff from the world’s biggest mobile tech trade show.

The NRA presented FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with a “courage under fire award” — and a rifle — to honor his efforts to roll back net neutrality. At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Pai was presented with the award, which is named for Charlton Heston and has been bestowed on Vice President Mike Pence and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Facebook should have to pay a fine if it can’t get rid of bots, said Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday. The recent spate of harassment and conspiracy-mongering following the Parkland shootings raises some questions: What do these social media sites believe in? Are their community guidelines informed by these values and enforced the same way for everyone? And if they can’t answer those questions — why should we use them?

Here’s how Newsweek fell apart. Interviews with more than a dozen current and former Newsweek staffers make it clear that the magazine’s core had rotted long before a January raid by the Manhattan district attorney, the accusations of improper ties to a religious institution and the recent rounds of well-publicized firings and resignations.


With all the hype surrounding so-called smart things, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the old dumb stuff is just better. Some of the most mundane devices are designed to accomplish a simple task extremely well — and in some cases they still execute those duties better than their high-tech brethren. Consider: A wristwatch vs. Apple Watch; an alarm clock vs. Amazon Echo Spot; and a piece of paper vs. a tablet.

Future Nokia flagship could have five camera lenses

A few phones now have four camera lenses, with two on the back and two on the front, but an upcoming Nokia handset could go one better with five.

That's according to a user posting on Chinese site Baidu, who notes that the phone will have seven camera holes – five for lenses and two for an LED flash.

It's not clear how the lenses will be divided or what they'll be used for, but we'd guess there will be three on the back and two on the front.

Indeed, the upcoming Nokia 9 is already rumored to have two lenses on each side, so it might be gaining one more, or perhaps this rumor is talking about another handset, but whatever phone it is it's sure to be a flagship with that many lenses.

In fact, the same source also mentions that this phone will have a Snapdragon 845 chipset, which is a top-end chip, likely to be used in many of this year's most powerful phones.

So the use of such a chipset in the Nokia 9 or another Nokia flagship wouldn’t be surprising, and while a five-lens camera would be, it's not out of the question, especially as Nokia phones have often been known for their cameras in the past – albeit before HMD Global took over the brand – thanks to things like using Carl Zeiss lenses and in some cases having huge megapixel counts.

We'd take this rumor with a pinch of salt though, as so far this is just the claim of one person with no evidence to back it up. But we might find out if this is true soon, as there's a good chance the next Nokia phones will be announced at MWC 2018 in late February.

Citing security, Apple's board mandates CEO Tim Cook use private jet for all business & personal travel

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook earned a whopping $102 million in pay and awards in 2017, along with the perk of flying private wherever he travels. But the latter decision wasn't his —it was mandated by the company's board of directors, who are concerned about his safety.

Cook's private airfare in 2017 cost Apple some $93,000, according to Bloomberg. His personal security costs added nearly another $225,000 to the bill.

With Apple having just concluded its most profitable fiscal year in corporate history, and about to report what is likely its most profitable quarter in history, it's unlikely that the board minds those relatively small costs.

A much bigger sum, however, was paid to the company's top brass: Retail head Angela Ahrendts, CFO Luca Maestri, hardware engineering senior VP Dan Riccio, chief counsel Bruce Sewell, and hardware technologies VP Johny Srouji each received total compensation of about $24.2 million. Much of that, however, will only be paid out if the executives stay long enough for stock to vest.

Heading into the new year, shares of AAPL are trading near their all-time high, and north of $170, they are considerably above the 52-week low of $114.76.

The compensation and costs for Cook and other executives were revealed as part of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week. It's expected that Apple will report the results of the soon-to-conclude December quarter in late January or early February, followed by the company's annual shareholders meeting on Feb. 13 at the Apple Park Steve Jobs Theater.