Opening thoughts. I thought Carl Pei had his finger on the pulse. He does this most of the time, but maybe not always. Speaking at this year’s SXSW, Pei insisted that smartphone apps will be replaced by AI agents. “In terms of AI in software, I think people should understand that apps are going to disappear. So, if you’re a founder or a startup and your app is where the core value lies, that’s going to be disrupted whether you like it or not.”
Pei previously talked about an AI device, which was basically a focused smartphone, just before a $200 million Series C funding round in September last year. He also believes that the current AI agents, which tend to show a certain degree of dominance in booking flight tickets and hotel reservations, are “super boring”.
His vision of an AI-first smartphone is a device that will work without any commands. Glad we’ve cleared that up.
Editor’s Corner – The Forever Galaxy
Samsung has done some interesting work in India. There is a new ‘Galaxy Forever’ ownership model subscription plan (it costs ₹749.92 per month for one year) and starts with the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Plus for now. Subscribe to this scheme, buy a new Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Plus at up to 50% off on a 12-month no-cost EMI plan, says Samsung. There are two forks here after 12 months.
If a buyer uses a credit card for the EMI scheme, they will be able to collect 50% assured buyback directly if they do not want to keep the phone further, or retain the device and pay the remaining 50% through additional 12 no-cost EMIs.
Those who have opted for Samsung Finance+ can do a quick swap and upgrade to the next Galaxy flagship smartphone (expected to be released by then, of course), or retain the device by paying the remaining 50% in the 13th month.
Samsung says the Galaxy Forever plan also includes Samsung Care+ (it covers accident and liquid damage protection with zero deductible) ₹Rs 13,999 for 13 months.
Samsung’s partners for this are DMI Finance and Servify for the full range of financing, service, processing returns as well as upgrades.
Here’s an illustrative cost of purchasing a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with the Galaxy Forever plan. real price starts ₹1,39,999 but you have to pay ₹The price of this phone for the first 12 months is Rs 69,999. he works ₹5,833.29 per month plus Galaxy Forever fee ₹749.92 also.
The Galaxy Forever plan is quite interesting for two main reasons.
- First, it significantly reduces the upfront cost of purchasing a Samsung flagship smartphone, and therefore negates the very real financial hurdle for many potential buyers.
- Secondly, this will help retain users, and build significant loyalty until the next flagship arrives.
Tech Spotlight – Qubo Dashcam
With the way our roads are and the behavior of road users increasingly deteriorating, a dashcam is a must. I say this as someone who has been using dashcams for years as a layer of visual evidence for security.
In my book, Qubo, a Hero Group venture, has really improved the overall dashcam quality and experience. A lot of that has to do with smartphone app upgrades, but the new Qubo Dashcam 4G Live and Qubo Dashcam Trio point to a hardware leap forward, too.
Dashcam 4G Live ( ₹6,990) has a similar design to some of its predecessors – the impressive Dashcam Pro 2K and Dashcam Pro
The most significant upgrade should be the SIM card slot, which connects to the 4G mobile network (it can be a 5G SIM, but will connect to 4G). This gives the dash cam its own layer of connectivity, even when it’s not connected to your smartphone via Wi-Fi. This means remote access to footage on the dashcam’s memory card, live streaming of the car’s driving footage as well as cloud backup.
For now, Qubo bundles a one-year premium subscription for cloud storage for important events or remote-viewing functionality, and that’s a real value add—and it’ll be worth it. ₹Rs 1,499 annually from the second year onwards. Secondly, depending on driving and remote access, expect the Dashcam 4G Live to use 300MB to 1GB of data every month (choose a prepaid or postpaid plan accordingly).
Premium Qubo Dashcam Trio ( ₹10,990) can be a real option for vehicles that are frequently operated by drivers, fleet vehicles or for anyone who wants a comprehensive security blanket of visible evidence. The trio in this case, as the name suggests, has a front camera with a 4-MP sensor for 2K video recording resolution, a rear camera that does Full HD 1080p resolution and a cabin camera that is also Full HD. Like the Dashcam 4G Live, it also supports memory cards with up to 1 TB storage.
Unlike the 4G variant, the Qubo Dashcam Trio has a simple, on-device usability base, where the phone and camera need to communicate directly to extract footage from a memory card, for example. The recording capabilities of the front camera are impressive, and the separate design means it also integrates a useful 3.16-inch LCD display for quick navigation and viewing recorded examples. This is a feature that most dashcams no longer have, and I often refer to my very old Transcend dashcam experience for it.
The rear camera, a value-added feature, gives complete visual evidence of any unfortunate incident on the road. It can often falter if the car behind you has bright lights in cool white temperature (often aftermarket accessories; extremely annoying) and the number plate becomes unreadable at such moments.
Second thought – a metaverse like this never existed?
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced to the world that a tech company also known as Facebook will be rebranding to Meta Platform Inc. Why? Because they believed that virtual reality was the next big thing, they changed the logo to the new meta, and started investing money in solicitation.
In 2022, Meta spent about $15 billion on Reality Labs to create avatars for the Metaverse (largely without legs) and Metaverse meeting rooms (often empty, but we’re told it’s early days). Exciting headlines pushed Zuckerberg’s claim that there will soon be a billion people in the metaverse.
In 2023, they spent another $16 billion, but the avatars still didn’t have legs. Meta’s stock crashed. In 2024 the world started talking about AI. Meta also started talking about AI, hoping that the world would forget about the Metaverse.
After spending nearly $80 billion between 2020 and 2025, Meta has announced that the Horizons World app – a 3D VR social-media platform and a key part of Meta Dreams – will no longer be available on Quest headsets starting in June this year. It will remain a “mobile-only” experience on smartphones for now.
And then there’s also the ghost of what Samantha Ryan (VP – Content at Reality Labs) called a “renewed vision” last month. The company will still focus on VR, but in a different way and with a different platform, which will be better for app developers.
“We heard your feedback loud and clear, and after a year of collecting data and running experiments, we agree. We’re removing individual worlds from our Store shelves in VR, and we’re removing individual worlds from the Store in our mobile apps. This change should result in more impressions for apps on the Store,” Ryan said at the time. “We want to make Quest a better home for all developers. We’ll double our focus on software quality and make it easier to build with us. We’re committed to improving the quality and stability of the platform.”
Wired Wisdom strips away the glamor to take a closer look at technology and AI, with the hope of critically analyzing how it affects you – the human. Want this newsletter sent to your inbox? Subscribe here.