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Whoops! OnePlus might have leaked the exact OnePlus 12 global launch date
We already know that OnePlus is going to announce the OnePlus 12 flagship phone on December 5 which means that we don't have to wait all that long before it is shown off officially. But the unveiling of the phone for a global launch is likely to be a while away. Now, we might know exactly when that will be thanks to a leak by OnePlus itself.
This is all based on some sleuthing done by X user 1NormalUsername who spotted that a competition running on the OnePlus website appears to suggest that a OnePlus 12 launch event is set for January 26. Android Authority picked up what 1NormalUsername put down, noting that the terms and conditions for the competition in the United States say that the end date is January 23, 2024. However, the same page on the Indian website says that the end date of the competition is the day before the OnePlus 12 launch event.
With that in mind, it doesn't take too much guesswork to make the assumption that January 24, 2024 will be the date that the OnePlis 12 will be unveiled to its international audience, meaning that's when those in Europe and the United States can expect to learn more.
You can now play games on YouTube, if you really must.
When you think of all the different places and ways that you can play games it's probably a safe bet that you initially think of the various Xbox or PlayStation consoles and maybe the PC. Then there's your phone or tablet, and from there, you're probably left thinking about streaming services like Luna. But we can feel pretty sure that you didn't think of YouTube. Well, now you can.
That's because YouTube has launched what it calls Playables, a collection of small games that can be played via their own corner of the YouTube website. They can also be found in the sidebar on the YouTube website or in your YouTube app of choice, but you'll need to be a YouTube Premium subscriber and have chosen to participate in the test.
YouTube has been giving Premium subscribers the option to do that for a few days now and once you're in on the act you can choose from a handful of games that include Angry Birds Showdown, Brain Out, Daily Solitaire, The Daily Crossword, and 8 Ball Billiards Classic. They're all free, apart from the subscription of course, and YouTube says that you'll be able to play them until March 28, 2024. It's all part of a test to give YouTube the time to figure out whether anyone really wants to play games on its website or in its apps.
Continue reading: You can now play games on YouTube, if you really must. (full post)
Evernote's getting tough as it tests limiting non-paying users to just 50 notes
Evernote has long been a popular note-taking app among those who like to keep everything on their computer, but its free tier appears to be in danger. Parent company Bending Spoons has been trying to find ways to generate more income for a while now, and it's been on something of a cost-cutting exercise of late. Now, in an attempt to move people from its free tier towards a paid-for one, Evernote is starting to get serious.
Currently, Evernote allows people to have a free account with limitations that include notes being a maximum of 25MB and a monthly cap on uploads. Those who want more flexibility can of course pay to save bigger notes and upload more data. And now Evernote is testing a new limitation that could force people to start paying.
TechCrunch reports that some people have started to see in-app language that says they are now limited to just a single notebook and a total of 50 notes until they pay for more. Evernote says that it's still finalizing things and is currently rolling the limit out to less than 1% of its users, but it seems like only a matter of time before this change is rolled out to all free-tier users.
Amazon's new PC is disguised as a Fire TV Cube
When you think of a computer you think of something like an all-in-one, like an iMac, or a laptop like the countless models that are on the market today. But there is a third type of computer that technically isn't a computer at all. That's a thin client, and it's a device that acts as a go-between between the user and a remote computer somewhere in the cloud. Now Amazon has a new one on offer, and it looks very familiar indeed.
That's because it looks like an Amazon Fire TV Cube, a little box that was designed to be like a Fire TV Stick but offers more capabilities. Now, TechCrunch reports that Amazon has leveraged what it did with the Fire TV Cube to create new $195 devices that can connect to virtual desktop environments over the internet - like AMazon's own Amazon WorkSpaces.
The new thin client has USB and HDMI ports for connecting to monitors and input accessories like keyboards and pointing devices. You can even plug a headset and other things into it, too. The whole thing is designed to be installed and managed by an IT department in a business of course, something that makes the similarities to the Fire TV Cube all the more fun. Because this looks nothing like the IBM computers you're used to seeing litter offices around the globe.
Continue reading: Amazon's new PC is disguised as a Fire TV Cube (full post)
Your iPhone's next software update is almost ready, but it isn't the one you're expecting
Apple has been testing the next big version of its iPhone software, iOS 17.2, for weeks now. Both developers and those who are on the public beta program have been able to put it through its paces and it's sure to be released to the public before Christmas. But you won't have to wait that long to get a new software update for your phone. In fact, you will only have to wait a matter of days according to a new report. However, it won't be iOS 17.2 that you receive.
That's according to MacRumors which says that there is mounting evidence that iOS 17.1.2 will be released to the public before the end of this week. The news outlet says that the software version has started to appear in its website analytics more and more over the last few days. That means that more people inside Apple are testing it which suggests that Apple is ramping up plans to roll it out to everyone.
The new update, which is unlikely to bring with it any new features unlike iOS 17.2, is set to focus on bug fixes. That wouldn't normally be all that exciting but there are a couple of bugs that have been particularly problematic to those who have suffered with them. For those people, fixing those bugs could be a game changer.
Intel Arc A770 flagship GPU hits all-time low of $210 in Cyber Monday deal (with a free game)
Want a flagship graphics card? Intel's Arc A770 may not nearly be up there with the top NVIDIA or AMD offerings, but it's a speedy enough mid-range performer for its price tag - and that cost just dropped through the floor with a Cyber Monday deal we just spotted.
Over at Newegg in the US, the ASRock Phantom Gaming Arc A770 (8GB) is a steal at $210 at the time of writing, plus you get a free AAA game with that to boot.
Namely Assassin's Creed Mirage, a fresh instalment for the veteran franchise from Ubisoft, released last month. So if you were planning to bag that game, this really is an incredible deal (or alternatively you could always flog the Assassin's Creed code on your favored auction site).
OnePlus 12 now confirmed for December 5 launch as company president turns hype man
If you're waiting for more news on what is likely to be the last big flagship phone of 2023, you won't have to wait all that much longer. OnePlus is set to round the year out with its 10th-year anniversary and that's going to include the unveiling of a brand-new flagship device. After months of rumors and guesswork, the OnePlus 12 will be announced on December 5, 2023.
We finally know that for certain thanks to OnePlus president Li Jie who took to the Weibo Chinese social network to confirm the news in a longer post that details what we can expect and how impressive this new handset is going to be. He does seem very excited about the unveiling of this particular phone.
Writing on Weibo the executive says that the original plan for the OnePlus 12 was to be able to make it superior to all other flagship phones powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip from Qualcomm. At the time that chip hadn't been announced, but its existence was a given and OnePlus no doubt knew just what was coming down from Qualcomm's research and development labs. And given the other phones with that chip, OnePlus will have its work cut out. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will use a modified version of the same silicon if the rumors are true, as will some models of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+.
WhatApp's desktop apps are getting support view-once photos and videos soon
One of the best privacy-focused features of the WhatsApp instant messaging platform is the ability to send photos and videos but only allow them to be viewed once before they are removed and recipients are unable to see them again. It's a feature that is available on WhatsApp's mobile apps for the iPhone and Android, and the desktop apps did have the same feature previously before it was removed. Now, it seems it's making a triumphant return.
While you might not see the ability to send ephemeral photos and videos yourself, the beta watchers at WABetaInfo do now report that some users can. It would appear that, in typical WhatsApp fashion, this change is starting to roll out to some people now before being made available to more people in a wider audience over the coming weeks. If you don't see the option to send view-once photos or videos just yet, don't worry. The feature should be with you soon enough.
The feature speaks for itself and the use cases are obvious. Being able to send a photo or video that can only be viewed a single time can help protect privacy and sensitive information, and it's something that should always have been available in the desktop apps. The lack of such a feature was baffling, but it's now clear that WhatsApp has come to its senses.
Popular LumaFusion video editing app adds iPhone 15 Pro USB-C SSD Support
When Apple announced the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max in September it also announced that the new phones would get support for USB 3 data transfer speeds via their USB-C ports which makes for much faster file transfers. As part of that, it was also confirmed that the new iPhones would allow creatives to record their videos directly to an external SSD to save space on the iPhone's internal storage. The catch was that individual apps would need to be updated to add support for such a feature but now one of the most popular has done exactly that, allowing content on an external SSD to be edited with ease.
That app is of course LumaFusion from LumaTouch with an updated app now available for download from the App Store. It's version 4.1.1 and it's a free download for those who already have the app installed. In fact, those of you with automatic updates enabled might already have it without realizing it.
The new app update means that those who want to create longer videos are no longer limited by the amount of free storage space that they have on their iPhones. Simply connect a USB-C SSD to the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max's USB-C port and new content will be available for editing there once the updated LumaFusion has been configured just so.
Photomator now supports HDR and Smart HDR photo editing on the iPhone and Mac
Editing photos on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac just changed completely after the popular Photomator app from Pixelmator got a new update that adds support for new HDR features. The new update is now available in the App Store on all platforms and those who have the automatic update function enabled likely already have it installed without even knowing it.
The update, which Pixelmator announced via a press release, adds full HDR support for the first time. From now on, the release notes, users can choose to always work with HDR photos in Photomator or continue to work with SDR photos instead. All the usual editing tools will continue to work, and they've all been upgraded to add HDR support. However, users will need to have iOS 17 or later installed on the iPhone, iPadOS 17 or later on the iPad, or macOS Sonoma or later on the Mac for any of the new HDR editing to work.
Pixelmator also announced Smart HDR, a new feature that allows people to convert standard SDR photos to HDR. The press release says that users can now click a single button and then instantly convert an SDR photo into an HDR one. Those photos can then be edited just like any other HDR photo, we're told.
WhatsApp is testing a new way to access AI-powered chats
It sometimes feels like you can't take two steps in any direction without falling over a new AI feature right now and WhatsApp is no different. The popular Meta-owned instant messaging platform is reportedly testing a new feature that will make it easier for people to quickly access an AI-powered chat, although it's in very limited testing right now.
The new feature is only available to those who have the latest beta versions of the WhatsApp app installed on an iPhone or Android phone and even then, we're told your account needs to be enabled for you to see it. The number of people who fall into that category is a small one, so don't worry if you haven't seen this tweak yet.
The change was first reported by the WhatsApp beta watchers at WABetaInfo and apparently adds a new button to make it quicker to access a new AI-powered chat. The button is in the Chats tab which means that people can create a new chat with the help of AI without having to go through their chat list to find a previous AI chat.
Continue reading: WhatsApp is testing a new way to access AI-powered chats (full post)
Don't worry, Apple's Tim Cook says plans for his replacement are already underway
Apparently keen to ensure that Apple doesn't turn into some sort of Succession spin-off, current CEO Tim Cook says that the company is already hard at work figuring out who will take his place when he calls time on his own career.
In a turn of events that we still can't quite get our heads around, Cook, CEO of one of the biggest companies on the planet, was being interviewed by singer Dua Lipa as part of a 45-minute chat for BBC Sounds. As you can imagine that chat covered a variety of things with Cook reflecting on his 25 years at the company. He then mentioned that Apple is a company that believes in working its succession plans to make sure that things are all set for when the time comes.
Predictably, Cook wouldn't say who was next in line for his job when he calls time on his career but he did say that Apple has plenty of options with several for the board to choose from. Cook also said that he really wanted the new CEO to come from within Apple, so that might give is an idea of who he might be thinking of. There are multiple options available, as Cook says, but we have to imagine that there are some that are higher up the pecking order than others.
Apple's brain drain problem is to Google's advantage, report shows
A new report based on the LinkedIn profiles of people working in the technology industry claims that the most likely place that former Apple employees will turn up is Google. That's news that will no doubt be music to the ears of those working in Mountain View, but those who ply their trade over in Cupertino will no doubt find the report less promising.
The numbers were put together by Switch on Business and then picked up by 9to5Mac, with the research team searching how many employees currently worked at companies like Google, Amazon, Apple Meta, Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, Oracle, Netflix, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Adobe, Intel, and Uber. The work then saw them look at those companies as well as which companies they worked for previously. From there they calculated the count and percentage of current employees at each company that previously worked at the others.
The results show that Apple most likely gets its new hires from Intel, which would make sense given the company's buyout of its modem business in 2019 and a focus on producing its own chips. Microsoft and Amazon were the second and third most-sourced for Apple.
Continue reading: Apple's brain drain problem is to Google's advantage, report shows (full post)
AMD slash prices on Ryzen CPUs for Amazon Cyber Monday, deals up to 61% off
If you were considering picking up a new CPU, now is the time as Cyber Monday has hit Amazon, and AMD Ryzen CPUs are ridiculously cheap.
Cyber Monday has arrived, and if you don't know what that means, it means discounts across almost every online store that wants to participate in the madness. Cyber Monday follows the crazy week of Black Friday sales and is the other half of the end-of-November sales leading into the holiday season. Cyber Monday is a day dedicated to online stores slashing prices, and Amazon, unsurprisingly, is leading the charge by slashing up to 61% off select AMD CPUs.
Gamers are able to pick up an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread CPU for just $174 when its original listing price was $449. If you don't want to shell out that much for a new CPU, you can save some cash by picking up the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core, 12-Thread for $134.89, which has a discount of 56%.
Amazon drop prices on Sony headphones for Cyber Monday with discounts of up to 34%
If your wallet isn't already hurting from the crazy Black Friday sales, prepare it for round two as Cyber Monday is here!
Amazon has kicked off Cyber Monday madness with some extremely hard to miss on deals across its entire online store, and if you are looking to get rid of those old headphones and move onto something a little newer and nicer - it may be time to pick up that pair of Sony headphones you have always been wanting. For Cyber Monday Amazon has slashed prices across Sony headphones, speakers and home theater equipment, and below you will find some of the best deals for Sony headphones.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday provide opportunities to lock down early Christmas presents for lucky people in your life, while also picking up some personal items at a really low price. Below you will find some of our favorite Sony deals for 2023's Cyber Monday.
Students are using AI to make 'terrifyingly' realistic nude images of other students
Experts on child abuse have warned of the increasing number of instances where children in schools have used AI-powered image generators to create indecent images of fellow students.
The warning has come from UK Safer Internet Center (UKSIC) director Emma Hardy, who said that there is a number of schools reporting students being caught using various AI-powered tools to create images of children that would fall under child sexual abuse material. What was most disturbing is how realistic these images were. According to Hardy, the images students were generating of other students were "terrifying" realistic, and the quality of these images was "comparable to professional photos taken annually of children up[ and down the country".
The body of experts calls on schools to enforce better blocking technology to prevent students from accessing these AI-powered tools on school premises. Additionally, UKSIC director David Wright said these reports are hardly a surprise as when new technologies such as AI generators become accessible to the public, you should anticipate people using them for bad behavior.
Scientists discover element in Apollo lunar sample that may revolutionize living on the moon
A team of researchers analyzing lunar samples acquired during the Apollo missions has discovered a key ingredient that may lead to an altering of the general understanding of the Moon's composition.
The research comes from the US Naval Research Laboratory, which NASA gave lunar samples to for an updated analysis of their composition. According to the study that was published in the scientific journal Nature, the team discovered traces of hydrogen within lunar soil sample 79221. Why is this important? Firstly, researchers know the Moon has a large presence of ice at its poles, and this ice can be broken down into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen.
These two molecules can be used by astronauts living on the lunar surface for oxygen, and also for rocket fuel to conduct trips back to Earth, or beyond the Moon. Essentially, discovering water ice on the surface of the Moon is discovering resources that, if utilized correctly and efficiently, will enable astronauts to have a sustained flow of transportation and oxygen while exploring the surface of the Moon.
Starfield players now don't have to stare into NPC eyeballs when talking to them
Starfield players have been enduring the snap-zoom-in camera movement when speaking to NPCs since the game was released, but thanks to a new mod, they no longer have to experience it.
Starfield would have reminded you a lot of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a 2006 game that made the iconic snap-zoom-in camera movement a thing some gamers just can't forget. This camera movement occurs when a player engages in dialogue with an NPC, and in the case of Oblivion, most of the time, it was a city guard sprinting toward your character, asking you to "stop right there!".
Bethesda's newest release, Starfield, has adopted this same camera movement, and while it is certainly nostalgic, it can get a little annoying as players are forced to stare into the lifeless eyes of every NPC they have dialogue options with. Thanks to Antonix35, players can now download "Disable Dialogue Camera", which enables conversations in the third and first-person while also removing the abrupt zoom-in effect.
Gamer commits genocide on Skyrim, saying they've 'killed everything that was killable'
After releasing more than a decade ago, gamers are still experiencing Bethesda's legendary title Skyrim in different ways, and one player has decided to do something only a few have attempted - slaughter every single NPC within the game.
While it's certainly a peculiar quest one would give themselves, it provides some very satisfying stats if completed. Amelix34 took to the Skyrim subreddit to share his accomplishments, where there were screenshots of their character's general stats. These stats revealed that Amelix34 had killed 3,310 people, 693 animals, 401 creatures, 947 undead enemies, 55 deadra, and 98 Automatons. The total slaughter count added up to more than 5,400 bodies and a whopping lifetime bounty of 267,000 gold.
The Reddit post attracted quite a bit of attention, with some Redditors praising the efforts made by Amelix34, calling them a "true world-eater". Other commentor joked at what the achievement means for the playthrough, "All that's left now is your character". Notably, one commentor noticed that the player's most-used weapon is Dawnbreaker, a weapon that is given to your character to vanquish evil - oh, the irony.
NASA telescope captures the violent past of an object millions of light years away
NASA has honed the instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescope at a distant cosmic object that had an extremely violent past.
Using data acquired by its Advanced Camera for Survey's, NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Telescope produced the above image of the spiral galaxy known as NGC 941. While the spiral galaxy is certainly gorgeous to view, astronomers are more interested in an event that occurred years earlier - the supernova called SN 2005ad.
This supernova was discovered by amateur astronomer Kōichi Itagaki, and after follow-up observations by professional astronomers, it was verified as a hydrogen-rich supernova called a type II supernovae. So, what makes this supernova so special? SN 2005ad represents the importance of amateur astronomers and the role they play in discovering astronomical events. Online systems have been set up for amateur astronomers to report identifying events, which are then followed up on by professional astronomers and cataloged.






















