It looks like the tech world has decided to hold off on their party planning for the first month of 2019 and instead scheduled everything over the coming month.
There’s going to be a lot to cover but to give you all an idea of what to expect and whether or not you should be waking up at god knows what hour to watch said event here’s a brief breakdown of what’s coming.
Samsung UNPACKED
Wed, 20th Feb (Thu 21st Feb @ 6AM AEDT)
This one’s tomorrow (At the time of writing) and everything about this event has been leaked a million times over. Samsung aren’t even bothering to try and keep anything a secret here running a commercial for the about to be announced Galaxy S10 on national TV in Norway overnight.
The Galaxy S10 will have a holepunch display, three lenses on the rear and an ultrasonic fingerprint reader.
It’s likely the new “Galaxy Fold” will also be announced at the event with serial smartphone leaker Evan Blass revealing the name on Twitter. Perhaps we’ll get a date and some more details so if a foldable Samsung is your thing, perhaps this will be worth rising early.
Mobile World Congress
Mon, 25th Feb – Thu, 28th Feb (Tue, 26th – Fri, 29th AEST)
Everyone else that isn’t Samsung will be announcing something of some significance at MWC. Expect Sony, Lenovo/Motorola, Huawei, Oppo, LG and virtually everyone else to show off some model of some phone at some point. Vague I know.
Sony have their press conference scheduled for Mon Feb 25th @ 11:30pm PT (6:30pm AEDT) and are expected to announce the Sony Xperia XZ4.
LG will show off the G8 and are said to be announcing a 5G handset over the event at some point. There’s also rumours that OnePlu, HTC, Xiaomi & Oppo will also join the 5G ranks, which already appear to be the theme for 2019.
A lot will come out over the four days so pick your horse here and back it in if you’re keen on one vendor over another.
GDC
Sun, 17th Mar – Fri, 22nd Mar 2019 (Mon, Mar 18th – Sat, 23rd AEST)
The Game Developers Conference isn’t necessarily the prime space to announce new games or tech but that hasn’t stopped it in the past. For instance, we’ve seen Microsoft and Oculus delve into the world of AR/VR tech at the event in the past but it’s always served primarily as a resource for developers.
Other than the just announced Google inclusion, which I’ll get to next, there’s no big showing at this stage that we know of. Keep an eye out though, more will come to light and if you’re a gaming guy like me this always a great event for groundswell information
Google Gaming Keynote @ GDC
Tue, Mar 19th @ 10am PT (Wed, Mar 20th @ 5am AEST)
Google have taken the opening slot at GDC to reveal their gaming project. Recently Google finished up their beta of Project Stream, their game streaming service however its believed their plans go well beyond simple streaming.
Some are of the opinion that Google will also be announcing hardware to support and extend their streaming offering and will be using the event as a whole as a large pitch and recruiting ground for talent to what they plan to unveil.
This one holds the most interest for me and it’s not at a completely ridiculous time to wake up for!
Apple March Special Event
Mar 25th (Thur 26th Mar AEST)
Apple’s event is largely expected to be around their foray into becoming a service provider instead of just a phone maker (because let’s face it they barely make computers anymore).
First up is Apple News Premium, which will allow users to pay a single subscription fee to Apple’s news offering that will supposedly include a bunch of publishers they’re parenting with. Scary thing about it is the 50/50 rev share they’re apparently asking for, which takes Apple gouging to new depths/heights ?
Second we’re likely to see Apple’s video offering that will replace whatever those horrid productions are they’ve mashed into the iTunes store up until this point. There’s a lot of speculation about how this will work and who will do what and for how much but likely Australia will be boned and I’m not getting out of bed at 4am to be told that.
Some expect a new AppleTV more like Google’s Chromecast to make a debut alongside the new media offerings also but I wouldn’t hold out for more on the hardware front either.