Yahoo Finance MashTalk: Are BlackBerry and Nokia really back from the dead?
Welcome back to another week of MashTalk. On this week's podcast, the Mashable tech team recaps the best gadgets from Mobile World Congress 2017, discuss Snap Inc's IPO, and debate whether Apple would actually replace the iPhone's Lightning port with USB-C.
SEE ALSO: 9 things from Mobile World Congress you should be excited about
As always, MashTalk is hosted by our Tech Editor Pete Pachal with commentary from Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff and Senior Tech Correspondent Raymond Wong.
We also have special guests, Business Reporter Kerry Flynn and Real Time News Writer Nicole Gallucci to lend us their expertise.
Old phones are the new hotness
First up on the podcast is Mobile World Congress (2:03). The annual mobile-centric show was once again held in Barcelona and I was there (along with Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder) to see all of the best and worst new phones coming out this year.
With no Galaxy S8 announcement from Samsung, the unlikeliest of phone makers got a chance shine. The BlackBerry KEYone, a new Android-powered phone with a customizable QWERTY keyboard was one of the big hits of the show (2:54).
Nokia also grabbed attention with its 3310 dumbphone remake (4:45). The phone's pure throwback, but that's what makes it so great — it's cheap ($50) and it's perfect for anyone who's sick of all the noise on the internet. Plus, it plays Snake (5:38).
Old phones might have stole the show, but there was at least one new flagship phone that turned heads, and that was the LG G6 (7:17) and its 18:9 "FullVision" display, which is essentially a 5.7-inch display that fits in a 5.2-inch phone's body. It's hot AF and we'll have a full review on it soon.
Snap, Inc. goes public
Snap, Inc. the parent company of Snapchat and Spectacles finally, finally went public on Wednesday with its IPO (12:23).
Kerry was on location at the New York Stock Exchange to take in all of the money-making goodness and witness Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel become one rich dude.
She breaks down what it was like to attend this big moment in tech, the opening share price (14:38), and whether the IPO was a success or not (hint: it was).
The big question now is what will Snap spend all of its new money on (16:45)? Spectacles 2.0? Drones? Cameras? I mean, it has to be cameras, right? Especially since Snap technically considers itself a camera company.
The obvious answer is to keep building on Snapchat's features (20:26), but it also needs to expand beyond teens if it ever wants to become as big as Facebook. Or does it?
Goodbye Lightning port?
Closing out this week's MashTalk, we have Nicole to tell us what a terrible idea it would be for Apple to replace the iPhone's Lightning port with a USB-C port (22:44).
The freakout is largely in part due to a report from the Wall Street Journal (23:22) that claimed Apple would switch to USB-C. Naturally, everyone started to panic since it's only been five years since we all switched from 30-pin to Lightning.
Of course, the report was later refuted (24:27) by noted KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo, who says the Lightning port isn't going away, but will instead be based off USB-C's Power Delivery to provide faster charging. It's also likely the full-sized USB-A half of the iPhone's existing Lightning cable will be replaced with a USB-C half so that it'll work with the new MacBook Pros.
Bottom line: You probably have nothing to worry about because the Lightning port isn't gonna be going away (yet). One day, maybe, but most likely not for this year's new iPhone. If anything, Apple will just kill the Lightning port (28:00) altogether for wireless charging.
And, as always, don't forget to leave your questions and comments by tweeting @Mash_Talk with the #MashTalk hashtag. We welcome all feedback.
