Technology

OnePlus has announced a new product line of cheaper phones called OnePlus Nord, with the goal of making the “premium OnePlus experience accessible to more users.” “We are immensely proud of our flagship products and will continue to create more tech-leading flagships for our users. Now we are excited to share the OnePlus experience with even more users around the world through this new product line,” commented OnePlus CEO Pete Lau in the announcement. OnePlus originally began by selling cheaper devices (the original OnePlus One started at just $299), but it’s become best known for its premium smartphones over the past few years (like the current OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro). Those models have attempted to challenge phones from more entrenched brands like Samsung or LG by offering comparable high-e...

The European Union has confirmed that American citizens will not be allowed to enter its borders as the bloc begins to ease travel restrictions imposed earlier this year in response to the pandemic. Travelers from America, as well as Brazil and Russia, have been barred from entry because of their countries’ inability to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The EU is easing restrictions to rejuvenate tourism Citizens from 14 nations, including Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and China — subject to a pending reciprocal agreement — will all be allowed entry for the first time since March as the EU attempts to rejuvenate the continent’s vital tourism industry. Despite the pressing economic need, though, the EU has judged that allowing US travelers back in is too risky. America’s rate ...

Samsung has introduced the next generation of its QVO lineup of high-capacity consumer solid-state drives: the 870 QVO. It will be available starting on June 30th from Samsung and other retailers, and you’ll be able to choose from a few different storage configurations. The 870 QVO starts with 1TB at $129.99, moving up to 2TB of storage for $249.99 and $499.99 for the 4TB model. If you churn through a lot of data, you might be interested in the 8TB option that will be available in August, which is the first of this capacity Samsung has created. The price for the 8TB option isn’t public yet, though a leak on Amazon picked up earlier this month by Tom’s Hardware indicates it might cost $900 and release on August 24th. Lots of storage but not the best option for raw speed The 870 QVO is the s...

Google is hosting a virtual smart home developer event on July 8th in lieu of its cancelled Google I/O conference, the company has announced, promising to cover “new and upcoming features for smart home developers and users.” The online Works with “Hey Google” Smart Home Summit, as the event is catchily titled, includes a 45 minute keynote, a series of developer sessions and a panel featuring Google and other companies in the smart home industry. The keynote, which will be presented by Google’s Product Management director of the Smart Home Ecosystem Michele Turner, will go over Google’s new smart home API features along with their benefits for developers and users. Although it’s developer-focused, previous Google I/O keynotes have introduced new smart home products and services. Google say...

It was a big news day for bans: Twitch temporarily banned Donald Trump, Reddit banned The_Donald, YouTube banned a group of far-right creators, and India banned TikTok. But I still haven’t written about the Facebook ad boycott, which accelerated since last I wrote — so let’s talk about that today, and we’ll get to the rest later this week. I. A social media advertising boycott that began with some outerwear brands picked up steam over the weekend, and has been joined by some of the giants of consumer brand advertising. Unilever, Verizon, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Clorox are among those who have pulled their ads. (Microsoft did so quietly in May.) Some pulled their ads for a month; some put their ads on an indefinite “pause.” Some pulled their ads from Facebook only; others pulled them from...

If you’re a weather geek, you probably already know that Dark Sky, one of the most popular weather apps around, has been acquired by Apple and is probably being integrated into iOS 14. As a result, anyone who uses an Android device and has the Dark Sky app is going to lose access on July 1st. In addition, a variety of other apps (some not even weather-related) will lose access to the Dark Sky API. If you’re an Android user with Dark Sky and you’re wondering where to go now for your weather report, there are a few alternatives to choose from. But first, here are a couple of things to consider. Several Android weather apps have been found to ask for more permissions than they need and to have shared location data with advertisers and other third parties. These privacy issues are detailed in ...

Uber has made an offer to buy food delivery company Postmates, according to a report in The New York Times and later corroborated by The Wall Street Journal. The deal could be for about $2.6 billion, according to the WSJ, and it could be finalized as soon as this week; discussions are said to be ongoing. Demand for Uber’s ride-hailing business has plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic as people stay at home, but the same circumstances have driven a huge increase in food delivery orders. Uber has been looking for ways to boost its food service, Uber Eats, after laying off more than a quarter of the company’s overall workforce. Uber attempted to buy GrubHub earlier this year, but the deal fell apart amid reported antitrust scrutiny and GrubHub ended up going to European service Just Eat ...

Amazon is giving its Prime members the ability to watch TV shows and movies on Prime Video with friends using its new Watch Party feature. The feature is slowly rolling out, according to the company, and is only available in the US right now. Watch Parties will accommodate up to 100 viewers in one group, but each person must have a US-based Prime subscription. Once inside the Watch Party, people can choose from thousands of titles, according to Amazon, including originals and licensed shows and movies. Anything from the service’s US streaming video on demand catalog is featured. This includes originals like Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jack Ryan, The Big Sick, The Boys, Homecoming, and My Spy, as well as licensed titles available with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Movies and T...

Google Photos will no longer backup images and videos saved from folders created and managed by social media apps by default (via Android Police). Previously, Google’s photo backup platform would automatically upload all images saved to your Android or iOS device, including those files stored in folders created by apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Now, Google says that feature is turned off, and you’ll have to toggle it on for specific apps or run manual backups on specific folders. Google is citing the surge in image sharing happening since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “People are sharing more photos and videos due to COVID-19. To save internet resources, backup & sync has been turned off for device folders created by messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messages, and Kik. ...

Watching 4K Netflix video on a Mac seems like it’s about to get much easier, as the forthcoming macOS Big Sur includes a Safari update that reportedly lets you watch Netflix in 4K, along with Dolby Vision HDR, according to a tweet from Ishan Agarwal (via 9to5Mac). This may mark the first time that macOS users will be able to stream Netflix in 4K. Previously, streaming 4K Netflix on a computer at all required you to be on Windows and using Microsoft’s Edge browser or the Netflix Windows 10 app. That means, in theory, you could watch Netflix in 4K on a Mac via Windows in a Boot Camp partition — but just loading up Safari, which is installed with macOS Big Sur, could be a far easier option once Big Sur is released (it’s scheduled to come out this fall). OMG! Netflix on macOS Big Sur’s S...

AT&T’s low-band 5G network is expanding to 28 new regions today, including Austin, Miami, Dallas, and Salt Lake City. If you’ve been waiting for a slight speed boost over your current LTE connection and have a 5G-compatible phone, you might want to check if your neighborhood is part of this latest expansion. Technically, we’re talking about AT&T’s low-band 5G network, which has slightly better speeds and latency compared to 4G LTE. When OpenSignal tested 5G speeds from major phone carriers in downtown cities over the winter, it found AT&T’s low-band download speeds averaged 59.3Mbps. The low-band network is not to be confused with AT&T’s 5G Plus, a high-band network with mmWave frequencies, which offer far faster internet speeds than low-band offerings — sometimes over 1Gbp...

A leaked Microsoft document recently hinted at the company’s second next-gen Xbox, and now rumors suggest it will be fully revealed in August. Eurogamer reports that Microsoft had originally planned to unveil the console, codenamed “Lockhart,” in June. Microsoft has now reportedly moved these plans to August, and Eurogamer claims the console will be named the Xbox Series S. Microsoft has been working on this second cheaper next-gen Xbox console for months. A Microsoft document, leaked last week, shed some further light on the company’s plans. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X devkit, codenamed “Dante,” allows game developers to enable a special Lockhart mode that has a profile of the performance that Microsoft wants to hit with this second console. While we’ve been reporting this performance inclu...