OnePlus is having quite an eventful Mobile World Congress. In addition to revealing its latest experimental phone that it envisions to have liquid cooling capabilities, the company has also announced that it will be launching its first foldable smartphone in the second half of 2023. With this revelation, OnePlus has confirmed previous rumors that it's working on a foldable device similar to Samsung's offerings. The company teased a mysterious Q3 2023 launch with what seemed to be silhouettes of devices that fold in the background at the OnePlus 11 event earlier this month, but it fell short of saying what exactly it would be releasing.
Despite its confirmation, OnePlus remains tight-lipped on what a foldable device from the company would entail. XDA Developersreported in January that it found two trademark listings with the China National Intellectual Property Administration for a OnePlus V Fold and a OnePlus V Flip. In today's announcement, OnePlus only talks about one smartphone, so it's unclear if it's actually developing two at the moment. All Kinder Liu, President and COO of OnePlus, had to say at the event was:
"Our first foldable phone will have the signature OnePlus fast and smooth experience. It must be a flagship phone that doesn't settle because of its folding form, in terms of industrial design, mechanical technology, and other aspects. We want to launch a device that aims to be at the pinnacle experience of today’s foldable market."
The company promised to release more details about its foldable device in the coming months. Aside from that, it also shared its plans to build a more cohesive ecosystem within the next three to five years. It said the ecosystem will enable OnePlus to provide seamless connection across its phones, tablets, wearables and internet-of-things devices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oneplus-will-launch-its-first-foldable-smartphone-later-this-year-110040331.html?src=rss
LastPass has posted an update on its investigation regarding a couple of security incidents that took place last year, and they're sounding graver than previously thought. Apparently, the bad actors involved in those incidents also infiltrated a company DevOps engineer's home computer by exploiting a third-party media software package. They implanted a keylogger into the software, which they then used to capture the engineer's master password for an account with access to the LastPass corporate vault. After they got in, they exported the vault's entries and shared folders that contained decryption keys needed to unlock cloud-based Amazon S3 buckets with customer vault backups.
This latest update in LastPass' investigation gives us a clearer picture of how the two security breach incidents it went through last year were connected. If you'll recall, LastPass revealed in August 2022 that an "unauthorized party" gained entry into its system. While the first incident ended on August 12th, the company said in its new announcement that the threat actors were "actively engaged in a new series of reconnaissance, enumeration, and exfiltration activities aligned to the cloud storage environment spanning from August 12th, 2022 to October 26th, 2022."
When the company announced the second security breach in December, it said the bad actors used information obtained from the first incident to get into its cloud service. It also admitted that the hackers made off with a bunch of sensitive information, including its Amazon S3 buckets. To be able to access the data saved in those buckets, the hackers needed decryption keys saved in "highly restricted set of shared folders in a LastPass password manager vault." That's why the bad actors targeted one of the four DevOps engineers who had access to the keys needed to unlock the company's cloud storage.
In a support document (PDF) the company released (via BleepingComputer), it detailed the data accessed by the threat actors during the two incidents. Apparently, the cloud-based backups accessed during the second breach included "API secrets, third-party integration secrets, customer metadata and backups of all customer vault data." The company insisted that all sensitive customer vault data aside from some exceptions "can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user's master password." The company added that it doesn't store users' master passwords. LastPass also detailed the steps it has taken to strengthen its defenses going forward, including revising its threat detection and making "a multi-million-dollar allocation to enhance [its] investment in security across people, processes, and technology."
Back in late October, we saw Xiaomi releasing its 210W mobile charging tech by way of its Redmi sub-brand, and this was eventually beaten by a 240W version from Realme — part of the Oppo and OnePlus family — in early February. Given that it's MWC week, today Xiaomi swiftly responded with a whopping 300W demo, which brought the charging time down to a little under five minutes — almost half that of the two aforementioned achievements. Xiaomi added that this new 300W charger comes in the same size as its earlier 210W counterpart, thanks to a better modular design plus heat dissipation on the inside.
The 300W demo featured a Redmi Note 12 Pro+ modified with a 4,100mAh battery, which is a little smaller than the 4,300mAh in the 210W Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition (and the Realme has a far more generous 4,600mAh). As you can see in the video, the phone reached 20 percent in just a little over one minute, followed by the 50 percent mark in 2 minutes 12 seconds, and then 100 percent in just a little under 5 minutes. The power meter indicated a peak input of a little over 290W for the charger, and it also managed to sustain 280W and above for around two minutes at one point.
The company said the battery here pack more powerful 15C cells (as opposed to the 10C cells in the Discovery Edition), which consist of new carbon materials in place of some of the conventional graphite parts, thus reducing the electrodes' thickness by 35 percent. Together with an improved electrolyte formula, this lithium ion battery can pack a higher power density with a faster charge and discharge rate, while apparently reducing the amount of heat produced in the process. These ultra-thin cells are then stacked with thermal materials in between as part of a new "sandwich" design, in order to optimize heat dissipation while making better use of internal space. As far as safety is concerned, Xiaomi claimed that there are over 50 features built into the system to keep tabs on the current, voltage and temperature on each charging chip.
Xiaomi's announcement today has definitely set another milestone for the mobile industry, though the company didn't mention whether this 300W charging tech will be mass produced. Nor did Xiaomi share figures on charging cycles, which makes for a sober reminder of how battery lifespan can be affected by higher charging power.
Amazon is adding new features to the Kindle Scribe. A new update gives the e-reader / digital notebook new brush types, including a fountain pen, marker and pencil — each with five thickness settings. The new tools respond to various pressures and angles, and you can use them anywhere you can write on the device. The update is scheduled to roll out today.
The Scribe update also enhances notebook organization, now letting you create subfolders you can move in and out of standard folders. After receiving the update, you’ll see a new “+” option when viewing a folder; press that to add a subfolder. To move one, tap on the three-dot contextual menu when viewing a folder or subfolder, select “move,” and drop it someplace new.
Amazon
Finally, the update adds the ability to navigate to specific pages. You can do that by clicking on the three-dot menu, selecting “Go to page,” and typing the page you want.
The Kindle Scribe arrived last November. In Engadget’s review, Cherlynn Low found the large-screened device to have a premium design while providing a natural writing experience better than paper. However, we found the Remarkable 2 to offer slightly better syncing and writing software (although Remarkable is far inferior as an e-reader). The Kindle Scribe starts at $370 for 16GB of storage.
Reddit announced today that it added the ability to search for comments within a single post. The new feature is now available on desktop, iOS and Android.
As Reddit mod u/anon-axolotl explained in the pinned announcement post in r/reddit, “So what does this mean? You don’t have to ‘cmd-f’ on the post page anymore and you can search comment threads without expanding them. No more long scrolling sessions — quickly get to the parts of the conversation you’re looking for and jump in where you want.” Previously, searching in a browser with Ctrl-F (Windows) or Cmd-F (macOS) required you first to expand any collapsed comments before it would yield the full results. Reddit’s enhanced built-in search will bring up all results without extra taps or clicks.
The new feature builds on the ability to search comments sitewide, which Reddit only added last year. Before that, Reddit’s search would only yield results from the original posts and topics within a community.
Reddit has been busy beefing up its search capabilities in recent months. It introduced the ability to search for text within images in October, which is handy for memes or other text-filled pictures. The company also improved the algorithm for its subreddit search, delivering “a larger number of and more relevant subreddits for most searches” along with better autocomplete results. Finally, it incorporated better navigation for video search results in Reddit mobile apps, letting you swipe up and down to browse between the results of a video search easily.
According to a note sent to Global Affairs Canada employees that was obtained by the National Post, TikTok "will be automatically removed and blocked from use on all government-issued mobile devices." The report suggests that the government will announce the policy, which is expected to be effective March 1st, on Tuesday. Engadget has contacted TikTok and the Canadian government for comment.
"A review of the mobile application’s behavior in relation to the Policy on Service and Digital found that TikTok’s data collection methods may leave users vulnerable to cyber attacks," the note purportedly reads. It may be the case that, similar to their counterparts in the US and EU, officials are concerned about the Chinese government gaining access to the data TikTok holds on Canadian citizens and residents. TikTok parent ByteDance is located in China, which has laws that force companies to share data with authorities when requested.
ByteDance has refuted suggestions that the Chinese government can access such data. It has claimed that Canadian user data is stored in the US and Singapore. However, it said that former employees in China and the US accessed data on American journalists, seemingly in an attempt to detect the sources of leaks from the company.
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment warned earlier this month that “adversary states can influence their domestic vendors to compromise products to advance their national interest, counter to Canadian clients’ interests and the interests of Canada,” but the report didn't explicitly mention TikTok or China. The Canadian government, meanwhile, is facing scrutiny over possible Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, as the National Post notes.
Apart from making a few of our favorite chargers and power banks, Anker also sells some of the better values among wireless headphones through its Soundcore brand. If you've been looking to pick up a competent set of noise-canceling headphones for less than $100, a couple of those standouts are currently on sale, with the Soundcore Life Q30 discounted to $60 and the Soundcore Space Q45 down to $100. For the Life Q30, that's not quite an all-time low, but it's still $20 off the pair's typical going rate. The Space Q45 usually retails for $150; this deal matches the lowest price we've seen.
To be clear, neither pair here can match the active noise cancellation (ANC), build quality, call quality, sound and/or overall feature set of the top picks in our best wireless headphones guide, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. But if you can't drop $350 or so on a new set of headphones, they can get you much of the way there at a far lower cost.
Both pairs offer a comfortable fit that doesn't clamp too tight on the head and offers ample padding. Both have superb battery life, lasting between 40 and 50 hours at moderate volumes. Both come with a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, though only the Space Q45 can still use ANC while wired. And while the ANC on each pair isn't top-of-the-line, it's still good, particularly when it comes to muting bass-range noises like a plane or bus engine. Both pairs also include a serviceable transparency mode, which is serviceable, though not as clean as what you can get on pricier alternatives.
Sound quality is where the Life Q30 and Space Q45 might require some tweaking. Both headphones offer a strongly v-shaped profile out of the box, so their default sound is particularly boosted in the bass and highest parts of the treble. The Life Q30's low-end is especially boomy. Some may like this more excited sound, but it's not exactly natural. With either headphone, you may want to adjust the sound through Anker's companion app, which offers a graphic EQ tool and a few alternative sound profile presets. Just note that, like many cheaper ANC headphones, the signature will sound slightly different depending on what ambient sound mode you use.
If you can afford the Space Q45, it's the better headphone of the two. Its design feels a bit less flimsy (though both pairs are mostly plastic), and it has an adaptive ANC mode that can automatically adjust the headphone's ANC strength based on your surroundings. The Life Q30, on the other hand, just offers three preset ANC levels. For Android users, the Space Q45 also supports the higher-quality LDAC audio codec. That said, finding any good ANC headphones for less than $100 is difficult; at these deal prices, both the Life Q30 and Space Q45 perform well enough to offer good value.
After a wave of teasers, OnePlus has revealed its latest experimental phone — and this time the features are more practical than in the past. The OnePlus 11 Concept centers on "Active CryoFlux" liquid cooling that mimics what you see in some gaming PCs. The system uses a piezoelectric ceramic micropump to send cooling fluid throughout pipelines in the phone (visible on the outside) without "significantly" increasing the phone's bulk.
The result is a slight but tangible performance improvement, OnePlus claims. The company says the temperature drop boosts games by up to three to four frames per second, and reduces charging times by 30 to 45 seconds. Those figures won't have you rushing to replace your existing phone, but may help wring the full potential out of an upgrade.
After that, the differences versus the standard OnePlus 11 are mostly cosmetic. The conspicuous pipelines and blue LED lighting are the most obvious changes, but you'll also find a camera hump with intricate guilloché engraving similar to what you'd find on the dial of a luxury watch.
The OnePlus 11 Concept won't enter production. However, it won't be surprising if the liquid cooling and design techniques find their way to future phones. No, this won't match the raw cooling power found in high-end gaming phones, but it might make OnePlus more enticing if you want above-average speed without carrying a brick in your pocket.
Back in December, I got to play with Honor’s second foldable, the Magic VS, but the first one it will sell in the West. It was a Chinese-market prototype with several rough edges, but even so, it made a fairly compelling case for its own existence. Now, three months later, the company has rocked up to MWC with the finished version that’s intended to be sold on this side of the equator. The big news is the price, which is pegged at €1,599 (around $1,690) for the one model, with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage, the same as Samsung’s Z Flip 4. The only difference is that, with Samsung’s handset, you’ll get 12GB RAM but only 256GB storage.
When I spent a few days with the handset, I found plenty of features that merited praise, like the fact it folds flat. Certainly, Honor feels that its second-generation hinge, which keeps the handset tidy in your pocket, is worthy of shouting about. And it has promised that the hinge will withstand 400,000 folds before conking out, and you’ll find yourself gravitating towards that internal screen more than you might expect. While not as well-equipped as the 6.45-inch exterior screen, the 7.9-inch foldable OLED is good enough to sit back and enjoy a movie, or your emails, with. And it’s fast enough to run pretty much anything you’d want to throw at it without breaking much of a sweat.
If there’s one wrinkle, it’s that these devices may not be the future of foldables as much as the narrower, more fashionable clamshells. Devices like Oppo’s Find N2 and Samsung’s latest Z Flip are both more pocket-and-wallet-friendly than their swole counterparts. And that counts for a lot for folks who don’t feel the need to whip out a small tablet when they’re scrolling Instagram. But for the sort of people who, like me, are nerdy enough to want a machine they could theoretically do some work from while on the go, the meatier versions are still king.
After breaking from Huawei, Honor has made the case that, in Europe at least, it is Samsung’s true rival in the Android space. In the last three years, it has offered flagship phones that are spec-for-spec the equal of whatever that year’s S-series is packing. Sadly, it’s also doing this at a time when the spec arms race is all but done, and it’s harder than ever to actually stand out amongst the crowd. The Magic 5 Pro doesn’t deviate from the template laid down by its two predecessors, so Honor can’t play on your neophilia as a reason to buy it. But there might be something in the sheer muscularity of its offering that could tempt you into making the switch.
The Magic 5 Pro is making its debut at MWC in Barcelona, and will be sold in both Europe and China. Design-wise, it’s close to its predecessor, but Honor says the new handset apes the sweeping, organic curves favored by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. Where the Magic 4 Pro had a fairly hard line around its camera hump – sorry, Eye of Muse – here the back cover pours itself into the bump quite seamlessly. It’s comfortable enough in your hand and light enough to hold, but you’ll need the case to keep things pristine. It’s available in fingerprint-magnet piano Black and Meadow Green, which looks nicer in person than it does in photos.
Honor
A sense of evolution, rather than revolution, continues along the rest of the spec list, with little major difference between the Magic 4 and its replacement. The “Quad Curved Floating Screen” is, like the Magic 4, a 6.81-inch, 120Hz, LTPO OLED display with a 2,848 x 1,312 resolution that curves into the frame. Honor says that the enhancements are mostly behind the scenes, with a new discrete display chipset for better video quality and better brightness. Whereas the Magic 4 could muster up 1,000 nits, its successor can crank out 1,300 nits, or 1,800 nits at peak.
Nestled inside is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, up from the Gen 1 found on the Magic 4, matching the silicon inside the S23, which is paired with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. Although Honor can’t call upon the same overclocking magic found in Samsung’s handset, it does say its AI-infused performance software will do a similar job. Sadly, I had all of ten minutes to spend with the handset and so there wasn’t the chance to do any serious stress testing. But history tells us that a handset this chock-full of gear is hardly going to be a slouch.
A 5,100mAh battery is powering the show here, a significantly bigger battery than the 4,500 found on the 4. This, I suspect, is the reason this handset is four grams heavier than the last one, but what’s a couple of grams between friends, eh? That cell will accept 66W wired or 50W wireless charging, if you have the necessary Honor SuperCharge stand in your home. As I said above, this is more or less what you’d expect with any Android flagship these days.
The major selling point for a handset like this is the camera, and Honor is doing its usual job here. Magic 5 Pro comes with a “Star Wheel” version of its “Eye of Muse” camera ring, packed with three beefy lenses jutting out from the back. First is a 50-megapixel, f/1.6 lens with a custom 1/1.12-inch sensor, the manufacturer of which I don’t yet know. That’s paired with a 50-megapixel, f/2.0 ultra-wide camera with a 122-degree field of view and a 50-megapixel, f/3.0 periscope telephoto with a 3.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom connected to Sony’s IMX858 image sensor. Less attention is given to the forward facing camera, which is probably the same 12-megapixel, f/2.4 unit paired with a 3D depth camera as found in the Magic 4 Pro.
(Those with long memories, or access to Google, will recall that the Magic 4 Pro’s telephoto lens had a quoted resolution of 64-megapixels. An Honor spokesperson said that the switch is down to an improvement in sensor size, and the new image engine will offer “far better light sensing.”)
Daniel Cooper
Supporting the headline trio is, again, an 8x8 Direct Time of Flight Sensor for laser focusing, a multi-spectrum color temperature and flicker sensor. Those will all add muscle to the handset’s upgraded image engine, promising faster capture, better HDR and higher quality computational photography. The company hinted about further improvements to the stills shooting, and while the video-shooting abilities garnered nary a mention, it’ll still output (compressed) “Log” footage using Honor’s proprietary Magic-Log format.
As for what you can do with those lenses, Honor is making the same noises it’s always made about its class-leading imaging. As well as a Dxomark score of 152, the company — before the handset was even announced – bragged that the Magic 5 Pro’s camera was good enough to capture a Guinness World Record in the making. And that its AI smarts were capable of plucking a single, perfect frame of a basketballer mid-dunk that was worthy of sharing.
One thing that’s clear about so many handsets these days is that companies are looking for marginal gains all over the package. For instance, Honor says the Magic 5 Pro has discrete Bluetooth and WiFi antennas which should boost download speeds and improve the reliability of your Bluetooth connection. It’s hard to see if those are current gripes with a wide number of users, but it’s good to see some thought put to improving matters.
And Honor has also revived a much-ballyhooed, rarely-loved gimmick feature in the form of air gestures. Now, you can control elements of your phone’s UI from a foot over the top of the front facing camera, when you’re trying to browse recipes with messy hands. Honor says that their return is thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s additional power, which is capable of watching your hand movements without putting too much pressure on the system-on-chip.
Now, I only had about ten minutes of time with the handset, and there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff I could do to put it through its paces. I will say that I’m expecting the imaging performance to be a lot snappier than what was available on the demo unit, which felt a little sluggish. And that while nobody’s expecting any smartphone maker to reinvent the wheel, there’s fewer marks on offer for polish. As I said at the top, my initial impression of Honor’s Magic 5 Pro is of a handset that doesn’t deviate from the template laid down by its two immediate predecessors, but one that’s been polished to a very high shine.
Sadly, Honor was keeping details of the Magic 5 Pro’s price a secret until the conclusion of its press conference. And so, this section will be fleshed out as soon as we have the information about how much this thing will cost, and when you get it. But I suspect that Honor will need to trim its asking price if it wants to tempt away folks who, right now, have sworn their brand allegiance to Samsung.
