Samsung Seals Out Galaxy S6 Users to Satisfy Critics

"Sticks and stones may break my phones, but words can never harm them," the (modernized) bromide goes. Unfortunately, in designing its new Galaxy S6 phone, Samsung let its critics' words influence its product decisions in ways that harm the user experience. The new phone and its curved sibling, the Galaxy S6 Edge, both look nice. But in order to achieve the unibody design journalists asked for, the company did away with its removable batteries, upgradable storage and water resistance.

Up until now, Samsung's flagship phones have been made of plastic — a design that has made it easy for the company to build in removable back panels and give users access to the battery bay and a microSD card slot. Astute consumers can buy replacement back panels with different designs or enhanced functionalities, such as wireless charging (which the new model has built-in). They can even get larger batteries with back panels that jut out to make room for them.

MORE: Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Hands-on - Pros and Cons

The new Galaxy S6, like the iPhone and HTC One lines, uses a unibody design with a sealed back. Its front and back surfaces feature an attractive layer of opaque Gorilla Glass in such colors as black, white and topaz, while a real metal band rings the sides. Perhaps it would have been possible to include a removable back without compromising the design or adding cost — we don't know for certain — but it seems unlikely. Another disadvantage of the new Galaxy S6 design is that it isn't water-resistant like the Galaxy S5, which can survive for up to 30 minutes in up to a meter of water.

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First Take: Back to the future — Nasdaq 5000 circa 2015

The once-deflated Nasdaq has fully reflated. For the past 15 years, chatter about Nasdaq 5000 was mainly in the past tense, a historical remnant of the dot-com stock bubble era. But today, for the first time since March 2000, the Nasdaq composite — powered by Apple, the world's most valuable company and maker of the iPhone, and a fresh wave of innovation in social media, digital technology and biotech — is back above 5000 and very much alive in the current events debate. Way back when, on March 9, 2000, when the Internet was in diapers and investors were betting that the World Wide Web would be a moneymaking investment of epic proportions, the Nasdaq and its army of newly minted dot-com stocks skyrocketed to its first close above 5000, up an eye-popping 111% from a year earlier. At the time, "Nasdaq 5000" elicited a 1969 "man on the moon"-type awe from investors ranging from Wall Street titans to taxi drivers and hairdressers who viewed "Net stocks...

GOP Bombs On Homeland Security

In a squishy and unsatisfying resolution that funds Homeland Security for a week, the GOP’s internal tensions bubble to the surface once again. It used to be that Congress was broken, and was forced to repeatedly kick the can down the road. Now it seems that Congress can’t even properly kick the can down the road. At a time of alarming national security threats, the House of Representatives brought the nation to the brink of a government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. On Friday evening, dozens of conservative Republicans revolted against a plan push the deadline back three weeks, joining with Democrats to vote down a simple funding bill to continue the agency’s funding. Conservative Republicans objected because they wanted Congress to rebuke President Obama over his immigration executive action, which they view as an illegal “amnesty.” Democrats protested because they wanted a “clean,” long-term spending bill that would provide certainty for the Department ...

In U.S. visit, Netanyahu warns an Iran deal could threaten Israel's existence

(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the United States on Monday that the nuclear deal it is negotiating with Iran could threaten Israel's survival and insisted he had a "moral obligation" to speak up about deep differences with President Barack Obama on the issue. Even as he set the stage for a Washington visit that has strained U.S.-Israeli relations, Netanyahu sought to lower the temperature ahead of his controversial address to Congress on Tuesday, saying he meant no disrespect for Obama and appreciated U.S. military and diplomatic support for Israel. Netanyahu left little doubt, however, about his objections to ongoing talks between Iran and world powers, which he said would allow Tehran to become a nuclear-armed state. "As prime minister of Israel, I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there’s still time to avert them," Netanyahu told a cheering audience at the annual con...

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