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Hashtag Trending – Samsung’s next phones will double as radios, Dropbox files IPO

Eric Emin Wood

Samsung is turning its next phones into radios. Dropbox has quietly filed for an IPO. And today’s CES highlights include a bricklaying machine and a device that helps alleviate women’s period pain.

From Google Trends: Samsung has announced that it will collaborate with broadcasting app NextRadio to unlock the FM chips in future smartphone releases in Canada and the U.S. Most smartphones already contain FM receivers, but the majority are deactivated. Samsung is bucking the trend for the sake of public safety: now if an emergency shuts down the internet, Samsung’s customers will still be able to pick up emergency radio signals on their Galaxy 9.

Meanwhile on Facebook, Dropbox has quietly filed for an IPO. According to Bloomberg, which first broke the story, the cloud storage giant made the filing with support from American banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg’s sources were anonymous, and all three companies declined to comment. According to those sources Dropbox, which is currently valued at $10 billion USD and generates more than $1 billion USD in sales per year, intends to make its listing public during the first half of this year.

Finally, today’s CES reports all come from Twitter, where users are chattering about SAM (Semi-Automated Mason), a human-assisted construction robot that can lay between 800 to 1200 bricks per day. For comparison, humans can typically lay between 300 and 500.

Also trending is MyLivia, a device that treats menstrual cramps by emitting tiny electric pulses which alleviate its wearer’s pain…

…And the blackout that shut down CES for two hours on Wednesday – an event our own Brian Jackson was on site to record.

That’s what’s trending today. Hashtag Trending is produced by IT World Canada. Today’s episode is brought to you by SAS, the world leader in advanced analytics and Official Analytics Partner of the Canadian Olympic Team.

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