Today's phone market is run by Samsung and Apple but before their time other phones were popular. Just a decade ago flip phones were everywhere, we had to use mechanical keyboards to write texts, and battery life was longer. For companies like HTC, Xiaomi and Huawei almost nobody heard of and Samsung phones weren't as nearly as popular as they are today.

Today we use our phones to pay the bills, read the news, listen to music, play games, etc. They have become much more than just a communication device. Still, some phones from the pre-smartphone era have earned the cult status.

The Nokia 3310 is still one of the best-selling phones of all time. It will be remembered as an indestructible phone and many users have spent countless hours playing popular game Snake (myself included).

While 'Suicide Squad' was mauled by critics (including us), it certainly exceeded the studio's financial expectations, pulling in a $740 million dollar haul off a $175 million dollar budget. Following in the footsteps of the better received extended cut of 'Batman v Superman', it's also about to get a little longer when it comes to home video.

The extended cut is set to add around 13 minutes of additional footage, bumping up the duration to 136 minutes. According to rumours, entire subplots where jettisoned for the final cut which hit cinemas in August, with some suggestions that actor Jared Leto who played Joker was none too impressed at his apparent shafting. While I don't think the extended cut will make it a better film, I'm moderately interested to see how this version looks.

The 'Suicide Squad: Extended Cut' hits Blu-ray in the U.S. on December 13 and December 7 in Australia.

The era of self-driving cars is right around the corner. Google is testing their autonomous vehicles for a while now, and Tesla Motors cars can drive around on their own, of course, under the surveillance of a driver. Other players like Uber have already launched their own self-driving car sharing service and GM is working with Lyft to enable the same.

The self-driving cars should bring better safety to our streets and many believe this is something that will happen within our lifetime. Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of Rimac Automobili, said our children won't have to learn to drive, meaning he believes the self-driving cars will be standard within next few decades.

However, before that happens and the self-driving cars become common, the experts have to solve some problems that are self -imposed.

A memo sent to Verizon employees in Pensnsylvania, USA late last month makes a new directive clear: barring extenuating circumstances, you must replace a customer's broken copper phone line with its VoiceLink wireless home phone service. Failure to do so "may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal", it reads.

The downsides of VoiceLink are that customers aren't able to add DSL internet afterward or use certain devices such as security alarms, pacemakers, and fax machines, among others (in the latter case, the company says this falls under extenuating circumstances, however).

Verizon claims it's pushing VoiceLink because it allows them to restore service quicker to customers.

Many thought that the death of Steve Jobs five years ago would mark the end of Apple as we knew it. The man who has defined Apple has left an indelible mark on the company and the technology world.

Today Apple has great financial results, their products are still in high demand, but there is also a sense that something is missing...

Under Jobs' leadership, Apple was a revolutionary company that changed the world. Macintosh was the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface and mouse, and Apple II was also a great success.

Google announced its new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones with a rebranding of their handsets from Nexus to Pixel, and with it the older Nexus Protect insurance program has been updated to Device Protection.

The new Device Protection initiative is available to Pixel smartphones for a small $99 flat fee, which you can tack onto your purchase at the checkout with your Pixel or Pixel XL smartphone. Device Protection covers your Pixel for accidental damage from a drop or spill, and it also covers you for general malfunctions over two years.

A one-year warranty covers pixel for defects, so the second year on top of the accidental damage cover are a big win for Pixel owners at $99. If you drop or break your Pixel, Google has your back with next-day shipping or your replacement smartphone, but you have to pay a fee for that. The smaller Pixel will cost $79, while the 5.5-inch Pixel XL costs $99. Still, you're getting a brand new phone with next-day delivery for a small cost. Not too bad at all, and you don't even have to leave the house.

We are seeing more and more substantial investment into eSports, with 2016 bringing in some big money and even bigger deals for professional gaming, and now DJ Steve Aoki has invested in Overwatch and CS:GO pro team Rogue.

ESPN first reported on electronic dance music star Steve Aoki announcing at TwitchCon over the weekend that he invested into Rogue, with Aoki explaining: "As many of my fans know, I've been a gamer all my life and have been getting more and more involved in eSports. I can finally take my love for gaming to the next level as an owner of Rogue, the professional esports team. As an avid player of Overwatch, their dominance caught my eye, and after getting to know them, I realized that we shared the same goals and interests in team building and competition".

Aoki will be hands-on with the managerial and brand development of Rogue, with the eSports team only forming in May, getting investment this early and guidance for brand development could be something to keep an eye on.

It has been five years since the world lost one of the most recognizable faces in the world of technology - Steve Jobs. Known as the founder of Apple, Jobs was one of the most influential people in the world of computer and mobile technology. The iPhone isn't just one of the most popular mobile phones, it's also one of the most popular devices of all time.

Together with Steve Wozniak, Jobs made the first home computer - Apple, the same name the duo called its company that became one of the most recognizable brands worldwide. Jobs' charisma and persistence had a lot to do with it.

Jobs began his career as a teenager. He worked at HP and designed video games for Atari. Then he met Wozniak, with whom he made the Apple I. A year later the duo made the Apple II computer that started the revolution in the personal computer industry.

For those who were brave enough to play the original Outlast game, you might be happy to know that the demo for Outlast 2 is here, available on the PC through Steam, and also on the Xbox One and PS4.

Outlast 2 will be arriving in Q1 2017, but the developer is providing a nice surprise for Halloween, with the Outlast 2 demo available through to November 1. Outlast 2 is described as:

Samsung just can't catch a break. After the whole exploding batteries on Galaxy Note7 fiasco and the global recall of the devices, we witnessed many, and I mean many, memes and GIFs making fun of the poor Note7. Clearly, that wasn't enough.

While Samsung is trying to soften the blow, a GTA 5 player HitmanNiko created a mod that replaces the sticky bomb with a Galaxy Note7. As you can see in the video below, the virtual Note7 can cause a lot of damage.

Samsung continued the sale of the Galaxy Note7 in South Korea after a successful exchange program, and other countries will see a relaunch in the upcoming weeks. But now they have a new competitor to worry about - Google's Pixel.

Facebook has introduced Marketplace, an online destination where you can buy and sell items with people in your community, on Monday. However, it didn't take long for the users to start exploiting this tool.

Drugs, animals, sexual favors, weapons and a whole range of forbidden items were listed on Facebook's Marketplace. Those items clearly violate the terms of service.

Fans of TV's 'Archer' got a boost earlier this year after the FX Network greenlit the show for a further three series, but according to creator Adam Reed that's the end of the road.

Speaking on the Murmur podcast, Reed confirmed that "the plan is to end Archer after season 10. I don't know that anybody has talked about that, but that is definitely my plan - to do 8, 9, and 10 and they're gonna be each shorter seasons of just eight episodes - and then wind it up." Still, it's better than the previous plan was going to end much sooner. "I was gonna end it after 8, but then I had sort of a brain explosion of a way that I could do three more seasons and really keep my interest up. So the three seasons that are coming up are gonna be pretty different from what has come before, and they're gonna be different from each other."

'Archer' season eight is set to air early in 2017.

Everyone knows that Disney loves the green back, but news that the studio is moving to remake yet another one of its animated classics is just getting a little too much. Even for me.

According to an announcement by the studio, Disney is set to bring the 1998 animated hit 'Mulan' to the big screen in 2018, with Disney "launching a worldwide casting search for a Chinese actress to play Mulan" (hint: look in China). Disney have madly been rushing to convert its back catalogue to the screen, with a number of films in active development, such as 'The Lion King, 'The Little Mermaid', 'Dumbo', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Aladdin' and 'Cruella'.

That's all well and good, but can we please get a third Tron... I'm begging.

A new patch is out now for Forza Horizon 3 on both Xbox One and PC, though it mainly focuses on the highly publicized PC issues, particularly performance.

Apart from fixing the stuttering and stability, it disables mouse move detection while driving, and adds a variety of control options, including steering wheel sensitivity, center spring scale, and damping scale. Additionally, it includes a ton of fixes for wheel controls, so if you had any issues with yours before, they should be fixed.

Playground and Team 10 are said to be working on force feedback issues and yet more wheel support, as well as further stability and performance improvements, so if you're still not satisfied after this update, hold tight.

Following its second attempt at a fitness tracker, the Microsoft Band appears to be dead. Both iterations of the product have been removed entirely from the official store, and Best Buy is no longer selling them, although Amazon still has some remaining stock up for grabs. As well, the software development kit has been removed.

Sources indicate the software team intended to bring Windows 10 to Band has been, well, disbanded, and that hardware team members have been moved elsewhere. Additionally, Microsoft is said to be phasing out the devices, with no plans for a Band 3.

The company offered a somewhat vague statement on the matter.

Google has made its new Pixel smartphone official, teasing it will rock a 12.3MP camera that Google calls the "best smartphone camera ever made" - a huge claim, for a company pushing into a hardware in a new way.

The new Pixel smartphone features the 12.3MP sensor with f/2.0 and HDR+ technology, with some beautiful images taken on Pixel shown during the unveiling. Google said that the speed of the camera app is 'really important', with a smaller capture time than any other smartphone Google has tested.

Pixel has some incredible video stabilization technology, with some amazing results shown by Google. It was actually pretty incredible to see, almost like a 3-axis stabilization system.

Media streaming on Xbox One might get a whole lot better thanks to Microsoft's new universal platform.

VLC has been submitted to the Xbox One's UWP app storefront, and if approved, users will be able to reap all the benefits including expansive playback support. Right now the Plex app is currently meeting the needs of media streamers, but VLC supports UPnP network share browsing, HTTPS streaming, and a galaxy of codecs for all kinds of different media files.

I don't see Microsoft standing in the way of VLC showing up on the Xbox One app store, and I hope to see tons of other useful desktop apps arrive on the console to add even more functionality to the system. UWP, after all, is one of the Xbox brand's major benefits and Microsoft would be wise to take full advantage of all the apps they can muster.

Google has finally made its new Pixel smartphones official, with their new Google Assistant at the heart of the new Pixel smartphone, the first smartphone on the market with Assistant built in. Pixel will be completely unlocked on the Google Play Store.

Google is putting a big push behind Pixel, with the industrial design to the user experience has been designed by Google. The rear glass provides 'personality and character' to Pixel, with a subtle edge from t op to bottom keeping the smartphone thin where your hand grips it - oh and no camera bump, with Google making a dig at the iPhone.

And yes, Pixel rocks a headphone jack.

Google boss Sundar Pichai is on the stage right now talking about Google, its past and its future - teasing that the company is 'very excited' about moving towards an AI first world.

Where are we now? We're in a mobile-first world, but Google is wanting to change that up with artificial intelligence. Google has just unveiled the Google Assistant, which you can ask questions - it seems like a more powerful Google Now, and that's not a bad thing at all. Google Now is one of Google's best secret weapons.

On stage, Google Assistant was used with near instant replies and information - providing details on some plays at a local theater, taking in contextual information from the screen through an SMS message. The voice that Google Assistant uses is much more organic, feeling like an actual person replying versus a robotic human voice.

Facebook is shifting in a new direction with its introduction of Marketplace, a new place where Facebook users can buy and sell goods in their local communities. The social network says that 450 million people usually utilize buying or selling groups in order to buy stuff.

Marketplace is an easy-to-use extension of Facebook through a simple shop icon in the bottom of the tab of Facebook, this tab will display the items that people are selling, near to where you live. You can also run a search for a specific item that you're after, with the items sorted in various categories like Household, Electronics, and more.

Tapping a listing of a product will display more details on it, with photos and a description from the seller. If you want to keep an eye on a product, you can save it for later, but you'll need to personally contact the seller for payment details. You'll also need to work out the delivery of the item yourself, too.