OnePlus started using camera tech from Hasselblad in its latest flagship smartphones, the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. It'll be some time before we see the full impact of that partnership in the form custom camera hardware. In the meantime, OnePlus is looking to bring more of a Hasselblad feel to its current phones. The latest software update for the 9-series handsets, which OnePlus has started rolling out, includes a setting that aims to replicate the look of Hasselblad's XPan film cameras.
The Xpan Mode includes an aspect ratio of 65:21 and a very wide mode with two focal lengths (30mm and 45mm). The image preview has the frame lines that you'd see through the lens of an XPan camera, OnePlus says, and after you take a shot, you can see an animation of negative film developing. There are two film simulation effects too — color and black and white — with Hasselblad working with OnePlus to create the latter.
The update looks to improve the phones' camera systems in other ways. OnePlus says it has updated the memory optimization solution and shortened the time it takes to launch the camera app by up to half. The company says it has reduced lag in previews and fixed over-sharpening in various auto mode situations. It also claims to have improved dynamic range in low-light conditions and bolstered the success rate when it comes to shooting moving objects, while reducing noise and optimizing HDR frame retrieving algorithms for some scenes.
OnePlus says the update includes some other improvements for OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, including wireless charging optimization and the latest Android security patch. The latest firmware also addresses some known issues and improves stability.
It's that time of year again when the latest iPhones hit shelves, prompting many to wonder if they should take the plunge into iOS for the first time, or upgrade to a new handset. Apple announced four new iPhones this week at its hardware event, mirroring the last year's offerings. The new iPhone 13 and 13 mini feature smaller notches at the top of their touchscreens, the new A15 Bionic processor and longer battery lives. The higher-end iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max smartphones have fancy finishes, 120Hz Super Retina XDR displays, and improved cameras along with the A15 Bionic chipset and better battery lives. Here's how to order the iPhone 13 series and the iPhone 13 Pro series.
iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini
Apple
The iPhone 13 and 13 mini will be available for pre-order starting at 5am PT (8am ET) on September 17 and will be widely available on September 24. The iPhone 13 starts at $799 while the iPhone 13 mini starts at $699.
Apple focused on refining the iPhone 13 series this year, trickling down some advanced features from last year's Pro line to the standard models. Both the iPhone 13 and 13 mini have a nearly identical design to last year's iPhone 12s, but they have a 20-percent small notch at the top and screens that are 28-percent brighter. Screen sizes have remained the same, too, measuring 6.1-inches on the iPhone 13 and 5.4-inches on the 13 mini. Apple managed to pack larger batteries in both handsets, so iPhone 13 users will get about 2.5 hours of extra use when compared to the iPhone 12, while iPhone 13 mini users will get about 1.5 extra hours.
Inside both smartphones is the new A15 Bionic chipset and neural engine and Apple promises 50-percent better performance than the competition. The cameras have been upgraded as well: the dual system has a new wide camera sensor and lens along with the sensor-shift optical image stabilization system that we saw on the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year. Both the iPhone 13 and the 13 mini support expanded 5G as well, which will be available on 200 carriers in 60 countries by the end of this year.
As far as configurations go, the iPhone 13 and 13 mini are both available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage capacities. Apple has a new lineup of colors as well: pink, blue, midnight, starlight and Product Red.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
Apple
The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max will be available for pre-order starting at 5am PT (8am ET) on September 17 and will be widely available on September 24. The iPhone 13 Pro starts at $999 and the iPhone 13 Pro Max will start at $1,099.
It's all about the screens and the cameras for these smartphones. While screen sizes haven't changed, both the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have new Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion, 1,000 nits of brightness and refresh rates up to 120Hz. We first saw this technology on the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and now it's been brought down to the higher-end iPhones.
The triple-rear camera system also got a big boost this year. It now features a new 77mm telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, along with a new ultra wide camera that has a f/1.8 aperture and autofocus. The primary "wide" camera is the largest Apple has even put in an iPhone and it features a f/1.5 aperture and 1.9-micron pixels. Apple also made it possible to shoot at up to 6x optical zoom, enabling macro photography, and it added new features like Cinematic Mode for videos, which uses machine learning to get things like better focus, better low-light performance, Time-lapse and Slo-mo video and more.
Inside the Pros is the A15 Bionic chipset with a 16-core neural engine, which Apple says will help the iPhones run 50 percent faster than the competition. The company also touts the handsets' enhanced durability and battery life. The iPhone 13 Pro series includes a surgical-grade stainless steel band and finishes that are resistant to abrasions and corrosions, and the lineup is IP68 water-resistant. As far as battery life goes, the iPhone 13 Pro should last 1.5 hours more than the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max will last up to 2.5 hours longer than its predecessor.
As for configurations, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max come in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage capacities and both are available in four colors: sierra blue, silver, gold and graphite.
It’s been a decade, more or less, since GoPro crested into the mainstream as the name in small, portable, rugged action cameras. Since then, the company has continued to refine its flagship product, all while defending itself from cheaper fly-by-night competitors. Our James Trew has reviewed the new GoPro Hero 10 Black, which can shoot footage in 5.3K and take 23-megapixel stills from inside that notoriously sturdy housing.
We won’t spoil the bones of his review, but suffice to say the improvements in hardware and shooting technology are certainly welcome. Sadly, you might see a hit in battery life, but GoPro says customers aren’t trying to shoot theatrical movies on a single charge. If there’s one thing James really wasn’t a fan of, though, it was the price, which is $50 more than the last model, even if you subscribe to GoPro’s unlimited cloud backup service.
IKEA and ASUS’ Republic of Gamers division teamed up last year to build more gamer-friendly furniture and gear. Now, the product of that union is coming to the US and Europe after making its debut in Asia. The range includes a sculpted wooden hand to hold your headphones (or, at a push, VR headset) gaming chairs, storage and even a powered sit–stand desk. Bear in mind, however, some of the products are just regular IKEA doodads painted black, with $3 added to the price.
The company is leaning hard into its ‘meme stock’ status.
AMC CEO Adam Aron has announced the theatre chain will soon accept more than just Bitcoin at its cash registers. In a tweet, Aron said, by the end of the year, AMC would also accept Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash for ticket purchases and at concession stands. The move is likely to boost the company’s relationship with the army of meme-stock traders who provided succor to the beleaguered company in the worst of the pandemic.
500 stores will offer repairs to Protection subscribers.
T-Mobile has announced it’ll start offering in-store repairs at 500 of its locations on November 1st. Customers who pay for the monthly Protection package can get their broken smartphone repaired on the same day. The company says that “highly credentialed” Assurant technicians will do the work using parts approved by the manufacturer. It’s a good start, especially since getting your phone repaired can be an unbearable chore. Hopefully initiatives like this, coupled with some decent right-to-repair legislation, will make it less of a headache in future.
Ford will invest a further $250 million to increase production capacity for its F150 Lightning electric truck. The vehicle, which seems staggeringly popular, currently has around 150,000 reservations waiting to be fulfilled. That cash will go on recruiting more workers both to produce the car and the components needed to make it work, like drivetrains and batteries. Sadly, it won’t be until 2022 that Ford will see the benefit of that investment, but it needs to do something to ensure it doesn’t lose sales to its EV pickup-truck rivals.
Don’t shoot the messenger, EV fans, but Lucid says its Air EV has an EPA range of 520 miles on a charge. That’s 100 miles or so more than you could expect out of a fully specced Tesla Model S LRP with the 100kWh battery pack. CEO Peter Rawlinson was bullish, saying its battery management and drivetrain technology is tremendously efficient. Then again, it’s easy to make promises: The real proof will be when we can try this car out for ourselves.
Wikipedia suffered an "infiltration" by a Chinese group that "threatened the very foundations" of the site, the BBC reported. As a result, the Wikimedia Foundation has banned seven editors from mainland China and removed administrator privileges from another 12, Wikimedia VP of Community Maggie Dennis wrote in a blog post.
The foundation said it was fighting a situation called "capture," in which a group gains control of Wikipedia edits to favor a viewpoint. It has been investigating the infiltration for nearly a year, and acted following "credible threats" to volunteer safety that "led us to prioritize rapid response," Dennis wrote.
Wikimedia was reportedly concerned that elections for powerful administrator roles were being manipulated. The infiltrators were reportedly editing articles to promote the "aims of China," Dennis told the BBC. She added that "I am not in position to point fingers at the Chinese state nor in possession of information that would lead me to do so."
While some time ago we limited the exposure of personal information to users in mainland China, we know that there has been the kind of infiltration... and we know that some users have been physically harmed as a result.
Earlier in July, the Hong Kong Free Press reported on the situation with an article titled "Wikipedia wars: How Hongkongers and mainland Chinese are battling to set the narrative." It cites several disputed Wikipedia articles, both revolving around protests in Hong Kong, saying that mainland editors were "pushing for the use of Chinese state media as reliable news sources."
The group in question, Wikimedians of Mainland China, reportedly has over 300 members. In a separate article, they said the foundation had not listened to the "feelings and opinions of the community."
However, Dennis said that the personal safety of members in Mainland China was at risk. "While some time ago we limited the exposure of personal information to users in mainland China, we know that there has been the kind of infiltration we describe above in the project," she wrote. "And we know that some users have been physically harmed as a result. With this confirmed, we have no choice but to act swiftly and appropriately in response."
"To the 4,000 active Chinese language Wikimedians distributed across the world... we are committed to supporting you in doing this work into the future, with the tools you need to succeed in a safe, secure, and productive environment."
Reverb, the Etsy-owned online used musical instrument site, has added a feature called Collections that lets you track the value of your musical gear. It can show you at a glance exactly what you own and how much it's worth for "fun, insurance or tax purposes," the company said. It also makes it faster to list an item you want to sell by simply pulling it from your collection.
To use Collections, you go to your Reverb profile picture and hit "My Collection," which will show everything you own and prompt you to add another item, either something you've purchased from the site or a new item. Doing so brings up a search menu, which draws from a comprehensive database of musical gear to narrow it down to your exact item.
Once you add an item, Reverb will show an estimate of its value, and if that's off (due to condition or whatever) you can enter your own estimate. Values are constantly updated with dynamic pricing, so you can follow how it's changed over time.
It's a particularly useful feature for the many musicians who own a lot of gear and often shuffle their collections. It looks like the company has built up a very comprehensive database of guitars, synths, pedals and other gear, which could be a big help if you're trying to value your collection.
Cybercriminals have been using Telegram for years, because it's encrypted and easy to access. According to a recent investigation conducted by The Financial Times and cyber intelligence group Cyberint, though, there's been "a 100 percent-plus rise in Telegram usage by cybercriminals" recently. And FT says the rise in criminal activity on the app came after users flocked to it following a change in WhatsApp's privacy policy.
If you'll recall, WhatsApp asked its users to accept a revised policy allowing it to share data with its parent company Facebook earlier this year. Users were outraged, and WhatsApp had to clarify that it still won't be able to read their private communications. Even so, people migrated to rivals offering secure similar messaging capabilities — for Telegram, that has apparently led to a rise in criminal activity conducted through the app.
According to the investigators, there's a ballooning network of hackers sharing and selling data leaks in channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. The number of times "Email:pass" and "Combo" were mentioned in the app over the past year reportedly rose fourfold. Some data dumps circulating on the app contain 300,000 to 600,000 email and password combinations for gaming and email services. Cybercriminals are also selling financial information, such as credit card numbers, passport copies and hacking tools through the app.
Tal Samra, cyber threat analyst at Cyberint, explained: "Its encrypted messaging service is increasingly popular among threat actors conducting fraudulent activity and selling stolen data ... as it is more convenient to use than the dark web." In addition to being more convenient than the dark web, Telegram is also less likely to be monitored by authorities, Samra said.
Telegram has removed the channel where the massive datasets with email and password combos are being sold after FT notified the company. In a statement, Telegram also said that it “has a policy for removing personal data shared without consent" and that it has an "ever growing force of professional moderators" removing 10,000 public communities every day for violating its TOS. Earlier this year, those moderators had to monitor hundreds of channels to keep an eye out for calls of violence following the attack on the US Capitol.
Ken Block's Hoonigan Industries has built a fully functional Warthog vehicle, and the team is showing us the process it went through in a new series on YouTube. While it's far from the first life—size version ever made of Halo's famous armored vehicle, this one actually works — it even debuted at the world premiere of the movie Free Guy, which stars Ryan Reynolds, a bank teller who discovers he's but an NPC in an open-world game.
The Hoonigan team created its real life Warthog using a custom rock crawler chassis. As Autoblog notes, it doesn't have a mounted gun, but it undeniably looks like the Warthog with its chunky body, futuristic shape, curved windshield and enormous tires. Even its interior is a replica of its virtual counterpart, and the team also made sure it has a four-wheel steering system. To power the beast, the team took a Ford V8 engine and added two turbos to it, giving it a 1,060 horsepower capacity.
The Warthog appears across games in the Halo franchise as a driveable military vehicle, and the Hoonigan team built a replica of it to promote the upcoming Halo Infinite game that's launching in December. Hoonigan, the brainchild of rally driver Ken Block who was also behind The Gymkhana Files, will upload new episodes showing how the Warthog was built every week until October 14th. You can watch the first one below:
If you're a fan of Korg's Volca lineup, then there's a decent chance you've heard the name Retrokits before. The company builds a bunch of useful tools for making the most of your electronic music setup, but its specially designed MIDI cable that adds features like velocity control to the Volca FM have proven quite popular. The latest member of its lineup though, is quite a bit more ambitious.
The RK-008 is a full fledged MIDI control center. It's an eight track MIDI sequencer and recorder, which allows it to be the glue that keeps your rig together. It also has a built-in metronome to help you stay in time with your instruments, which is important since all MIDI data is recorded unquantized. (Though you can quantize it after the fact, and then undo if you prefer to go back to your original sloppy playing.)
Each track can record on multiple channels, so you can actually control multiple devices from a single track, leaving the other seven open for... even more devices? You can even record eight parts across the eight tracks, then consolidate them down to one, freeing up more room for sequencing. And of course you can overdub or overwrite any performances.
Each of the tracks can be manipulated independently too. Allowing you to quantize them, add swing or transpose them. And it's all non-destructive, so you can easily undo your changes.
There's also a simple step sequencer built-in to the RK-008. It's probably not gonna work for complex chords, but does the job just fine it seems for four on the floor drums.
There's two MIDI inputs and two MIDI outputs on the back, plus a separate dedicated sync port. Tracks can be assigned to one or both outputs, which is handy if you've got that one drum machine that insists on having each instrument on a separate channel. The two in ports means you can merge MIDI from different sources, but also use different controllers for different instruments.
It's quite a feature list as is, and Retrokits says there's still more to be revealed, which is incredibly impressive for something that looks like pocket calculator from the 1980s — and I mean that as a good thing. The RK-008 looks part MPC, part HP calculator, could probably fit in a pocket and yet seems capable of controlling an entire live music rig.
There are still some outstanding questions though, most importantly when it will come out and how much it will cost. But hopefully we'll find out sooner than later.
With R1T trucks rolling off the assembly line at its factory in Normal, Illinois, Rivian continues to prepare for the official debut of its first EVs later this month. On Thursday, the automaker introduced a membership program that will grant Rivian owners access to complimentary charging at its soon-to-be-built Adventure Network and Waypoints chargers. It also pledged to match every mile Rivian Membership customers drive with energy from renewable resources such as wind and solar, as well as offer unlimited access to 4G LTE connectivity.
We’re introducing Rivian Membership as a way to build our community and encourage a deeper appreciation for the natural world around us. pic.twitter.com/2e0yJjjQ7L
Additionally, the service includes Rivian off-Roadside Assistance, additional coverage that will see the company send a recovery vehicle to you if you get stuck out on the trail or need an emergency battery recharge. The company also promised to add additional perks in the future, including new drive modes, community meetups and in-cabin content. Each new Rivian vehicle will come with 12 months of free access to the service. After that, you’ll need to pay to continue enjoying the perks of the membership. The company hasn’t said how much it plans to charge for the service, so we’ve reached out to it for more information.
The tech industry just lost one of its best-known inventors. The Guardianreports Sir Clive Sinclair died early on September 16th at 81 following a long illness. He's best known for his namesake company's ZX computers, which thrived in the UK during the early 1980s — he succeeded in making home PCs accessible at a time when most models were still major expenses. A ZX Spectrum 16K, for instance, cost £125 where Apple launched the Apple II for $1,298 just a few years earlier.
Sinclair is also widely credited with having invented the first pocket calculator, the Sinclair Executive, in 1972. Texas Instruments' first programmable calculator (the HP-65) didn't arrive until 1974. He was an early pioneer of electric transportation, too, having developed the C5 electric tricycle in 1985.
Like many inventors, his projects didn't always succeed. Sinclair's computer business ran into trouble in 1984 with the ill-fated QL, and he sold the company to Amstrad in 1985. And while the C5 may have been decades ahead of its time, that didn't translate to sales. Sinclairs' vehicle business ran aground less than a year after the C5's debut.
Sinclair's legacy is clear, however. For many gamers and game developers, Sinclair's computers represented a watershed moment. McGill University noted that many famous creators and studios, including Peter Molyneux, David Perry and Rare, cut their teeth on ZX Spectrums. Pocket calculators are still useful even in the smartphone era. And it's safe to say EVs are here to stay, including open-air rides. There's a real chance Sinclar's work has affected the technology in your life, even if you've never touched one of his products.
