Halloween and the Midterm elections are over and it’s starting to feel a lot like Thanksgiving! But with snow projected to land in Boston and the BIGteam’s holiday gift guide work, it might as well be Christmas. Take a break from leaf peeping and check out the top tech stories from the past few weeks (politics free!)

Samsung
Remember how satisfying it was to end a phone call by dramatically flipping your LG flip phone shut? These iconic 2000’s staple phones may be a thing of the past, but Samsung and Royale recently made it known that “foldable” phones are the newest trend. At Samsung’s developer conference on Wednesday, it introduced its new Infinity Flex Display, a display technology that will enable tablet screen to fold into a smartphone size and shaped device. The mendable device is rumored to ship as soon as 2019.

Vine, Meet Byte
Get ready, Gen Z, Vine is making a comeback! This time, however, it will be known as Byte. Dom Hofmann, co-founder of Vine, announced on Twitter that the new video app, Byte, will be launching in Spring 2019. Videos in Byte will range from 2 to 6.5 seconds and loop on repeat. You can upload the videos from your camera roll or capture them directly on your smartphone. Since you’ll be able to upload them from your history, the new app permits edited clips in other apps or software.

Disney
Disney’s new streaming service now has a name, Disney+. The long awaited streaming service will be available late 2019 and is positioned as a serious competitor to other streaming services (like Netflix, which Disney is cutting its ties with). While Disney hasn’t announced how much the subscription will cost, there will be one. Disney+’s streaming content is still quite under wraps, but we do know that it will have Star Wars, Marvel movies, the High School Musical series and most importantly (to me), a Lady and the Tramp remake.

Aliens…?
Last year, astronomers discovered a cigar shaped outer-space object, believed to be a comet, which arrived from interstellar space. However, this week, researchers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said that Oumuamua (the object’s name) might actually be a “fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.” WHAT!?
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb broke his paper down into simpler terms in Digital Trends. Essentially, the object doesn’t perform the same types of characteristics that other comets and asteroids do. It is also the “first-ever interstellar asteroid or comet detected by astronomers while passing through the solar system, its shape is strange, its acceleration is unexpected, and a cometary tail — the signature trail of particles seen behind shooting stars — is conspicuous in its absence.” Although Loeb welcomes other explanations, he declares that this is not all that far fetched.

What were your favorite tech stories from the past couple of weeks? Let us know in the comments and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all things tech!