Don't be dismayed that Samsung passed on the Galaxy Note in 2021... you might get your stylus-equipped phone before too long. Frequent tipster OnLeaks has shared renders with Zouton, 91Mobiles and Digit that reportedly show the designs of next year's Galaxy S22 phones, including an Ultra model aimed squarely at Note fans. It would effectively be a sequel to the Galaxy Note 20, complete with an S-Pen slot and less rounded corners. There would also be a fourth camera you didn't even see on the S21 Ultra, although it's not clear what functionality you'd get.

The other models wouldn't be quite so thrilling, however. If accurate, the renders suggest the S22 and S22+ (possibly badged as the S22 Pro) wouldn't be radically different from the S21 on the outside. They'd sport flatter backs and a slightly refined camera bump, but not much more. Most of the changes would sit underneath. Rumors have the regular S22 models jumping to a 50MP main camera (up from 12MP) and using Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon chip or Samsung's equivalent Exynos.

OnLeaks/91Mobiles

It's not certain when Samsung will launch the S22 family, although it notably bumped up the S21 launch to January this year. If the company repeats that pattern, Note enthusiasts might only have to wait a few months more than usual to get their fix. That is, if they haven't already bought an S21 Ultra or Z Fold 3 and the pen to match — the lack of clear messaging on the Note's future may have cost Samsung some sales.

Binance is apparently facing more pressure from regulators over possible abuses at its cryptocurrency exchange. Bloombergsources said US officials have expanded their probe of Binance to include possible insider trading and market manipulation. The company hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, but Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigators have reportedly inquired with potential witnesses about issues like the location of Binance servers (and thus whether the US can pursue any cases).

The commission had previously launched an investigation into the sales of derivatives tied to cryptocurrencies. It's reportedly looking for internal Binance data that might show sales of those derivatives to American customers, breaking regulations that forbid those sales without registrations. The Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are also probing possible money laundering on the exchange.

There are no guarantees of action. The CFTC and Justice Department have supposedly been investigating Binance for months, and any decisions might take a while longer.

Not surprisingly, Binance said it was above-board. A spokesperson told Bloomberg the exchange had a "zero-tolerance" approach to insider trades as well as ethical codes and security guidelines to prevent those actions. The company added that it fires offenders at a bare minimum. The CFTC has declined to comment.

The heightened scrutiny of Binance, if accurate, would come as part of a larger US crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Officials are concerned the lack of consumer protections (including regulation) might hurt customers who sign up for services expecting the same safeguards they have with conventional money. In this case, the focus is on accountability — insider trading could wreck valuable investments and erode trust in Binance and other crypto exchanges.

The iPhone mini is staying in Apple's lineup for at least another year. At its California Streaming event, the company announced its base model iPhone will once again come in two sizes. And like its bigger sibling, the iPhone 13 mini features the company's latest system-on-a-chip, the A15 Bionic. According to Apple, the 5nm chip includes nearly 15 billion transistors. 

Critically, Apple claims battery life is noticeably improved on its latest iPhones, particularly on the new mini model. Compared to its predecessor, the company says most users should get an hour and a half of additional battery from the iPhone 13 mini. That increase in uptime comes courtesy of the phone's A15 Bionic chip, more efficient internal components and software optimizations the company has made under the hood.    

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Follow all of the news from Apple’s iPhone event right here.

Samsung may not have added to the Galaxy Note lineup this year, but you can still get last year's excellent Note 20 series if you prefer big, slab-like phones to foldables. Amazon's running a sale right now on the entire series, knocking the Galaxy Note 20 5G down to $750 and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G to $900. That's an all-time-low price on the Note 20 and only $25 more than the record-low on the Note 20 Ultra. The online retailer also has a daily deal today on Samsung SmartTags, so you could pick up one of the company's tiny Bluetooth trackers for only $20 to go with your new smartphone.

These are some of the biggest and boldest smartphones Samsung has made in recent years, with the Note 20 including a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED touchscreen and the Note 20 Ultra sporting a 6.9-inch Quad HD+ AMOLED screen. Both run on the same octa-core processor and support 5G connectivity, but the Note 20 Ultra has 12GB of RAM while the standard Note 20 has 8GB. Both also come with the Note series' signature S Pen for drawing, doodling and note-taking and that's one of the biggest selling point for these devices. The S Pen, while it hasn't changed much over the past few years, continues to be a solid stylus for Note handsets, with little lag time when writing on the smartphone's screen and gesture controls with features like Anywhere Actions.

While the Note series isn't for everyone, the Note 20 Ultra earned a score of 86 from us and we considered it to be Samsung's best big phone when it came out last year. It has excellent performance, a fantastic screen, a battery that lasted at least 12 hours on a single charge and a more thoughtful S Pen experience than previous generations. It's over the top in many ways, but a device like that is easier to justify when you can get it for much less than usual.

As for Samsung's SmartTags, they're the company's version of Tiles trackers and Apple's AirTags. You can attach one to things like your keys or slip one into your wallet to keep track of things via your smartphone. The companion app will show the tracker's last location and you can also use to to force the SmartTag to ring so you can follow the sound to your lost item. SmartTags are water-resistant and, unlike AirTags, they have a keyring hole so you can easily attach them to your things without buying additional accessories.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Add Facebook to the list of companies that could be trying to reduce its dependence on Intel and Qualcomm. According to The Information, the social media giant is developing a suite of custom chips for its data centers. One of the processors is reportedly designed to power machine learning tasks, including the algorithm that handles Facebook’s content recommendations, while another would assist in transcoding videos to improve the quality of livestreamed videos.

In addition to helping reduce its dependence on outside chipmakers, the move to custom silicon could help Facebook lower the carbon footprint of its data centers. The new chips would work alongside the third-party processors the company currently uses in its servers, and reportedly aren’t meant to completely replace what it already has.

“Facebook is always exploring ways to drive greater levels of compute performance and power efficiency with our silicon partners and through our own internal efforts,” a spokesperson for the company told Engadget when we reached out to the company about the report. “We have nothing new to share on our future plans at this time."

It wouldn’t be a stretch for Facebook to dip its toes in custom silicon. The company has already dabbled in semi-custom chips. In 2019, for instance, it announced it was working on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for video transcoding and inference work. It also wouldn't be the first company to look at designing its own chips to improve efficiency and save on costs. Google has had its Tensor chips since 2016, and, as of last year, Microsoft was reportedly exploring custom chips for its own servers as well.    

It took Facebook several hours to pull down a livestream from a man suspected of making a bomb threat at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. According to Politico, the unidentified man, who approached the Library of Congress in a pickup truck and told police he had a bomb in the car, streamed live on Facebook for multiple hours as police negotiated with him. The video "circulated widely" before Facebook finally took it down.

On Twitter, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company had taken down the stream and the man's profile and is "continuing to investigate" the matter. 

It's not the first time Facebook has had to scramble to prevent a disturbing live stream from spreading. In 2019, the company raced to pull down more than a million copies of a live stream recorded by a mass shooter in New Zealand, in an effort that took multiple days. 

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Samsung has just announced what feels like itszilliontheventthisyear. But at least this one's something we were expecting. The company just sent out invites to Galaxy Unpacked for August 11th at 10am ET, and the event will be held online only. 

In years past, Samsung's hosted August launches for its Note series of high-powered phones. This time, though, multiple reports have indicated that there won't be a new Note. That's become a more likely possibility now, after the company brought Pen support to its Galaxy S21 flagships this year. The stylus has been a hallmark of the Note line since its conception and has distinguished the series from its S-branded siblings. 

Samsung

Instead of a new Note, it's more likely we'll see new foldable phones like follow-ups to the Z Flip and Z Fold 2 based on the invite. Samsung showed off more flexible screen concepts in May, and though it might be awhile till we see those designs in a real product, the company is clearly continuing to work on the technology. Samsung also confirmed that it will be launching a new Galaxy Watch at this Unpacked, and the device will run a version of Wear OS that it co-engineered with Google. There's also a good chance Samsung will debut new earbuds since the "Galaxy Buds 2" has leakedtwice this month.

We'll be streaming Samsung's event live on our YouTube channel, where we'll host a pre-show and a Q&A after the company is done. Come join us to watch the launch together live and get your questions answered as quickly as possible. 

It's not just eSports players' promotional deals coming under scrutiny. Dot Esports has learned that the Department of Justice has launched an antitrust inquiry into Overwatch League soft salary caps meant to prevent teams from buying their way to victory. The investigation isn't criminal, according to DE's sources, but DOJ trial attorney Kathleen Simpson Kiernan is reportedly wondering about the lack of a players' union that would let the league claim the same labor exemptions you find in conventional unionized sports leagues.

The cap, which has never been publicly revealed, reportedly centers on a "competitive balance tax" that effectively forces teams to pay twice if they pass the salary cap — once for the players, and again for the league to redistribute funds among other teams. That cap was rumored to be $1.6 million in 2020, but DE understood that no teams had "naturally" broken that cap based on typical pro player rates.

Activision Blizzard didn't elaborate on the investigation, but confirmed the basic inquiry and said it was "cooperating accordingly."

This investigation won't necessarily lead to a major shakeup of the Overwatch competitive scene. It does, however, indicate the growing stature of eSports in the US. Competitive gaming is now important enough that player pay is a significant issue for officials, even there aren't any major signs of trouble.