A relatively calm week in tech was disrupted on Thursday by one of the biggest cell service outages I’ve ever witnessed. It wasn't a global issue, but is illustrative of how when one service catches a cold, others can get the sniffles. We had 911 service outages, small carriers that relied on AT&T going offline, and other services that had nothing to do with the outage being accused of suffering tech issues as well.
When things go wrong with tech, you might not always know what to do. Do you throw it into rice? Apparently not. Better to let your smartphone air dry after the latest dunk and while you wait you can start perusing Apple’s new Sports app, which is basically wall-to-wall scores and stats.
The other trend I'm noticing in tech is how every category slides to the middle. Look at Samsung’s new Galaxy Fit 3. It’s now almost a twin for an Apple Watch. Is that intentional? For my money, the best tech design trend is the nostalgia one. I did a fun TechRadar TikTok on a “new” Malibu Barbie Instant Camera that looks and works like a Polaroid 600. Tim Coleman has been playing with the retro-looking Fujifilm X110VI, which resembles a 1960s point-and-shoot and I am more than a bit jealous.
Finally, I noticed that there’s yet another live-action Airbender, this time on Netflix. Sounds like it bends toward “blah”. Too bad. Maybe it's time to reboot the cartoon.
If you’re in the mood for a little more smartphone excitement, sit tight, Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday.
Okay, I assume all my friends on AT&T are back online, so let’s get into all the biggest stories of the week, shall we?
Lance Ulanoff, US Editor-in-Chief
The week in phones
How AT&T customers may have felt on Thursday (Shutterstock)
If you're an AT&T customer in the US, you may well have spent large parts of Thursday without any cell signal – the problem was worryingly widespread, and AT&T took a worryingly long time to respond to it, which leaves us looking for answers.
It's not every day that Apple launches a new app, so the Sports app that it just released is quite a big deal – it offers live scores, results, tables and more across a host of sports in the US, UK, Europe, and Canada, and Apple has been telling us all about it.
It's been extensively rumored, and now the Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker from Samsung is official. It brings with it a 1.6-inch screen that's much larger than the one on its predecessor, while also promising up to 13 days of battery life between charges.
Our early verdict on the brand new Fujifilm X100VI is that it might be worth all the hype surrounding its launch. This could well be the best premium compact camera for most people in 2024, bringing with it a host of useful upgrades over its predecessor.
Wondering what to watch this weekend? Netflix's latest big-budget fantasy adaptation, Avatar: The Last Airbender, headlines our latest streaming roundup, which also includes Constellation on Apple TV Plus and a new The Walking Dead spin-off on AMC Plus.
