Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Thursday, March 8th, 2018.

Galaxy S-9 reviews, Travis Kalinick's new fund, Google wants to amp the web, most Netflix is actually

watched on TV, a new Star Wars TV show show and yesterday's Alexa laughter sure did lead to a lot of Twitter jokes.

Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Samsung's new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are here. and the reviews came out this morning. Here's a brief sampling of what the critics were saying.

Over at the verge, Dan Seifert headlined that the devices were predictably great but predictably flawed.

He predicted that the S-9 and S-9-plus would be the most popular Android smartphones release this year without a doubt and said that

Samsung nailed the basics but that there were zero surprises. He noted that the phones

still maintain a standard headphone jack, which he was pleased to see included,

so if lack of a headphone jack is a non-starter for you, there's still hope.

He also noted that the fingerprint scanner was in an easier

spot to reach and that there is a new combo face scanning slash iris scanning feature to unlock the phone.

Seifert said that the phones were quote snappy and responsive,

but he called the battery life merely average.

He ended up giving it an overall score of 8.5 and concluded by saying

owners of the S8 probably don't need to upgrade this go-around.

Over at Android Police, David Ruddock said that the S9 and S9 plus don't represent a C change, but rather an affirmation of success.

Everything that made the S8 and S8 plus great can be found in these new phones.

Ruddock reported.

He raved about the new cameras calling them undoubtedly the biggest upgrade

Samsung has bestowed on the S9 line. He also said that

low-light performance got a massive boost and he praised the pro-mode that

...