Linked List: March 29, 2015

Sunday, 29 March 2015

Why the Galaxy S6 Doesn’t Have a User Replaceable Battery ★

Charles Arthur:

Ever since it was announced that the Galaxy S6 wouldn’t offer either a removable battery or a microSD slot, there was all sorts of kerfuffle on tech blogs, and the comments therein: people said that they bought Samsung stuff specifically for those elements, and that those were key things which set them apart from the (reviled, in their eyes) iPhone range, which has never offered a removable battery or slot-in storage.

However, I’m pretty sure that Samsung’s move is not only idealistic — not having to make the back removable avoids all sorts of design compromises — but also driven by clear data.

If swappable batteries were a meaningful mass market selling point, Samsung wouldn’t have changed sides on this. Years behind.

Apple Watch Apps Begin Showing Up in the App Store Ahead of Apple Watch Launch ★

Apple is getting their ducks in a row before we get to see Apple Watches in stores April 10.