Month: September 2024
We may have just got a sneak peek at the OnePlus 13 from… OnePlus
Expect a significant boost in screen quality – though it may stick with the same size.
The successor to the OnePlus 12 is expected to break cover at some point in October, and we’ve quite possibly just been given a glimpse of what’s to come – courtesy of OnePlus itself, in an early promotional image.
This picture was posted by OnePlus China president Li Jie Louis (via Android Authority), and if we can trust Google Translate, it shows the next-generation screen coming to future flagship smartphones under the OnePlus brand.
That’s not exactly confirmation that this is indeed the OnePlus 13 – but it does seem that it’s at least the display set for the upcoming handset. Aside from the screen, all we can really see is a small selfie camera hole, and some thin bezels around the edge.
Well-known tipster Digital Chat Station dropped a hint suggesting this is indeed the OnePlus 13, and mentioned a screen size of 6.82 inches. That would match the OnePlus 12, though presumably the screen would be upgraded in other aspects.
The rumors so far
The OnePlus 12 could be replaced very soon (Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)
We’ve haven’t heard a huge amount about the OnePlus 13 up to this point: there’s been talk of an upgrade to a 6,000mAh battery (up from 5,400mAh on the current model), which we’re hoping would mean even better battery life.
According to the same source, the OnePlus 13 will stick with the same charging speeds – 100W wired and 50W wireless – but as they still beat most models on the market right now, we’re not too disappointed about that.
An upgrade in the camera department has also been mooted. The OnePlus 12 brings with it a triple-lens 50MP wide + 64MP periscope telephoto (with 3x optical zoom) + 48MP ultrawide rear camera setup, so look out for improvements to that.
Li Jie Louis has gone on record as saying there will be a flagship OnePlus launch in October, and it’s almost certainly going to be the OnePlus 13. We will of course bring you all the news and details as the announcements are made.
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Meta hit with major fine over password storage
Meta didn’t encrypt social media passwords, and has been hit by a major fine as a result.
Meta has been fined €91 million for incorrectly storing social media account passwords in unencrypted databases.
Meta notified the Irish Data Protection Commission it had unintentionally stored the passwords in plain text within its internal systems.
Following an inquiry in April 2019, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found that Meta had violated General Data Protection Regulation four times, and has issued the fine along with a warning for the company to improve its security structures.
Not the first time
Storing passwords in plain text is frowned upon for obvious reasons, especially as it makes them vulnerable to attackers if a data breach occurs.
This isn’t the first time the company has been fined for violating GDPR. In January 2023, Meta was hit by a €390 million fine by the DPC for serving personalized ads without the option to opt-out and its data handling practices.
Then in May 2023, Meta was fined the highest possible GDPR fine of €1.2 billion for transferring data from the EU to the US outside of GDPR guidelines. EU data remains protected by GDPR even when moved outside of the EU.
Meta was also fined €265 million by the DPC in 2022 after data that had been scraped from Facebook was leaked on a hacking forum. The leak contained the data of 533 million people across 106 countries.
Speaking on Meta’s most recent fine, DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said, “It is widely accepted that user passwords should not be stored in ‘plaintext’ considering the risks of abuse that arise from persons accessing such data.”
“It must be borne in mind, that the passwords the subject of consideration in this case are particularly sensitive, as they would enable access to users’ social media accounts,” Doyle concluded.
Via BBC
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The Samsung Galaxy S25 and other upcoming Androids look likely to cost even more than their predecessors
There’s yet another leak suggesting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be a very expensive chipset.
For a while now, we’ve been hearing that the chip set to power most of 2025’s best Android phones could be seriously expensive, and now there’s yet more evidence of this – suggesting that in turn the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 line might cost more than their predecessors.
According to leaker Digital Chat Station posting on Weibo (via Android Authority), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will cost about 20% more than its predecessor.
Now, we’d take this with a pinch of salt, but this is a leaker with a good track record, and we’ve heard a similar claim about the price of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 elsewhere. On top of which, Qualcomm itself has previously said the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is likely to cost more than the 8 Gen 3.
How much of a dollar increase 20% would be though is less clear. Today’s leak suggests that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will cost around $190, but a previous leak – which also pointed to a 20% increase on last year – said the price would be roughly $240.
(Image credit: Qualcomm)
Price bumps for many of the best Android phones
Still, an increase of some amount is looking likely, and there’s every chance that price bump would be passed on to consumers, meaning the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, the OnePlus 13, the Sony Xperia 1 VII, and other Android flagships could all cost more than their predecessors.
Interestingly, today’s leak mentions that the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 will also cost about 20% more than the previous flagship MediaTek chipset. Now, that still means a lower total price than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. But it also means that even if companies considered switched to MediaTek to reduce costs, they might not be able to keep the costs down by as much as a MediaTek chipset usually would.
Still, the good news about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 at least is that it might be a tremendously powerful chipset, with an early Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra benchmark suggesting it might even have the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro beat.
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Ten months after its release, the Tesla Cybertruck is finally getting Full Self Driving capabilities
Tesla has finally rolled out its Full Self-Driving functionality to Cybertruck owners, but they are still waiting for wheel covers.
A select few Tesla Cybertruck owners have taken to the forums to boast about their vehicles finally gaining Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities – a technology that was promised alongside the massively delayed truck at launch, but has since taken ten months to arrive.
Posting on cybertruckownersclub.com, one user uploaded a short video of a Cybertruck seemingly driving itself around the city at night, with the user’s hands off the wheel for well over a minute.
The owner then posted: “Boys and girls, the wait is finally over! It is real! It is here now! And it is spectacular!” alongside the clip.
However, a number of customers have been disgruntled at the length of time they have been forced to wait for technology that was sold as a feature rolled into the limited edition Foundation Series of vehicles.
Earlier this month, Tesla said that Cybertruck would also gain Auto Park functionality, but many models are still lacking the most basic Auto Pilot assisted cruise control, as well as the flashier Actually Smart Summon (ASS) features that some influential Model 3 owners gained access to earlier this month.
(Image credit: Wiki)
However, the company has been biding its time when rolling out the very latest version of the FSD software to ensure it works seamlessly with Cybertruck – generally a much larger and more complex vehicle than anything else in the Tesla stable.
After all, Tesla’s Autopilot features and various levels of ‘supervised’ autonomous driving modes have come under fire in recent years, with US auto-safety regulators claiming it had identified at least 13 fatal crashes in which the Autopilot feature had been involved since investigations were launched in 2021, according to The Guardian.
Despite running on the very latest FSD 12.5.5 (most Teslas are running FSD 12.5.4), there is a caveat that states this remains an “early access” version of the software, meaning not all owners will get it and that there may be some bugs that still require ironing out. As a result, it is largely going out to Tesla employees and Early Access Testers, according to notable Tesla software-tracking website NotaTeslaApp.
There is no word on a wider roll-out of the update, only that it is expected to arrive in the coming weeks for those remaining Foundation Series Cybertruck owners that received Full Self-Driving as part of the limited-edition package.
Going forward, the technology will likely become an optional extra as it is now when building and specifying other models in the Tesla line-up.
Patience is a virtue… when you are a Tesla owner
(Image credit: Tesla)
Tesla is unique in so much as many of its customers are happy to wait for features that were promised at time of launch to arrive. To compound matters, the company seemingly employs a hierarchy of importance, often rolling out these software updates to VIPs and other influential owners first.
But it is not just software that requires a serious amount of patience and self-restraint from owners, as Cybertruck has also been shipping without wheel covers, with many customers still waiting to receive them.
It is a similar story with the range extender battery, which many customers have paid a non-refundable deposit and joined a waiting list for, but production has been pushed into early 2025, so the wait could well be over a year.
Again, an off-road Lightbar accessory, which mounts to the top of the windshield and has to be fitted by a Tesla service center, has been promised several times but still not delivered to many customers.
While many early adopters are often happy to wait, feeling part of an exclusive Tesla club, the same rarely applies to the wider buying public. Over-promising and under-delivering has rarely been considered a strong sales tactic.
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Watch out, Microsoft Outlook could soon give away when you’re sneakily working from home
See who is in the office based on working hours and location via Outlook.
Sneaking in a work from home day could soon be a bit trickier thanks to a new update coming to Microsoft Outlook.
The email provider is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to spot which of their co-workers or colleagues is currently in the office, and therefore possibly free for a quick meeting or able to reply to a message.
The update will use the Work Hours and Location information stored within Outlook to offer up this information, meaning there may be some awkward conversations if your colleagues believe you to be in the office.
Always on
In its entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company notes that the feature will be “always on”, meaning there may be no getting around what it represents as your office presence.
It’s not really mentioned exactly how malleable or “smart” the feature is – as employee schedules will undoubtedly change depending on work load or calendars – for example, heading to a conference may mean you are out of the office, or a last-minute customer visit may require a dash away from your desk.
The information will be pinned on the top-right corner of the Calendar surface in Outlook, initially on Windows and web, but undoubtedly rolling out to more platforms soon.
The ability to specify your working location via Outlook was first introduced in December 2021 at the height of the hybrid working boom, as companies and employees alike switched to a new way of working that allowed more flexibility and efficiency when working away from the office.
Google Calendar launched a similar feature in August 2021, allowing users to highlight exactly where they would be working, with the options of home, office, or a specific other location.
Several large companies have recently launched a fightback against hybrid working, claiming having employees back in the office is somehow better for productivity.
Most recently, Dell ordered its global sales teams to work onsite five days per week unless otherwise engaged with customers or partners as part of its plan to “continually evolve our business”.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently also ordered all employees to return to full-time in-person working – a move that was met with extreme reluctance, with a survey following the announcement revealing 91% were unhappy with the decision, and 73% were considering moving jobs because of it.
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The results are in: the iPhone 16 Pro Max is Apple’s battery champ
The iPhone 16 range has shown remarkable battery life improvements, according to new benchmarks.
If you want the best iPhone with the best battery life, the iPhone Pro Max models are usually your best bet. Apple stuffs its most capacious batteries into these devices, and this year is no different – and a recent test has shown exactly the kind of longevity you can expect.
The benchmarking was done by Tom’s Guide, which put the entire iPhone 16 range through its paces. The process involved surfing the web using 5G connectivity and with the display brightness set to 150 nits, and by the end the iPhone 16 Pro Max was the clear winner.
It managed 18 hours and six minutes of browsing, compared to 14 hours and seven minutes for the iPhone 16 Pro, 16 hours and 29 minutes for the iPhone 16 Plus, and 12 hours and 43 minutes for the iPhone 16.
That put the iPhone 16 Pro Max comfortably ahead of Apple’s other iPhone 16 products. In fact, it’s the highest score of any iPhone that Tom’s Guide has ever tested.
(Image credit: Shutterstock / boyhey)
It also romped ahead of almost all the non-Apple competition. Tom’s Guide says that if you’re of the Android persuasion, only the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, the OnePlus 12R or the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate offer longer battery life. In Tom’s Guide’s testing, these phones hit 18 hours and 48 minutes, 18 hours and 42 minutes, and 18 hours and 32 minutes, respectively.
As for Apple’s main high-end phone competition, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra fell well short of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, clocking 16 hours and 45 minutes of battery life, despite having a larger 5,000mAh cell (compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 4,685mAh).
Compared to the iPhone 15 range, this year’s iPhones have increased their battery life considerably. For instance, in Tom’s Guide’s testing, the iPhone 15 Pro Max managed 14 hours and two minutes, falling over four hours short of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
While Tom’s Guide used real-world benchmarking, there’s no guarantee that you’ll see similar numbers from your own iPhone, as these things can vary from user to user and device to device. But it’s certainly encouraging to see how much juice Apple has managed to cram into the iPhone 16 range. If battery life matters to you, you’ll likely be very happy with Apple’s latest efforts.
New Tech Makes Roborock’s Qrevo Curv an Elegant, Unstoppable Cleaning Machine
With a Dual Anti-Tangle System to combat hair tangling and the AdaptaLift chassis to smoothly sail over obstacles, Roborock’s Qrevo Curv finally makes vacuuming so hassle-free you can actually forget it’s happening.
With a Dual Anti-Tangle System to combat hair tangling and the AdaptaLift chassis to smoothly sail over obstacles, Roborock’s Qrevo Curv finally makes vacuuming so hassle-free you can actually forget it’s happening.
Apple May Launch First iPad-Like Smart Home Accessory Next Year
Apple could release an iPad-like smart home accessory based on its homeOS platform as early as next year, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that the display will run Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and Home, and will feature an interface “optimized for controlling home appliances and quickly seeing information.”
Apple’s existing Apple TV and HomePod lineup already offer home hub functionality, but crucially lack the hardware to run AI models. In contrast, Apple Intelligence will be central to the new home accessory, which is actually a “lower-end companion” to a $1,000+ robotic device for the home, writes Gurman.
Similar devices have been rumored for some time. Prototype designs are said to have resembled a HomePod with a screen (magnetically attaching to walls or sitting atop a desk), and an iPad-like display mounted on a robotic arm. Both accessories are said to be collaborations between Apple’s AI and home device hardware engineering groups.
Backend code discovered by MacRumors in January suggested that Apple was continuing work on a homeOS platform, as a variant of tvOS. Another code reference finding in June subsequently confirmed the existence of at least one unreleased home accessory.
More recently, 9to5Mac has claimed that the lower-end smart home device features a “squarish display”, an A18 chip, and a built-in camera for FaceTime. The device apparently supports AirPlay, is able to identify hand gestures from afar, and can tell one person apart from another for personalized requests. 9to5Mac says Apple could release the home product as early as next spring.Tags: Apple Smart Home Display, Mark GurmanThis article, “Apple May Launch First iPad-Like Smart Home Accessory Next Year” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Apple could release an iPad-like smart home accessory based on its homeOS platform as early as next year, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that the display will run Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and Home, and will feature an interface “optimized for controlling home appliances and quickly seeing information.”
Apple’s existing Apple TV and HomePod lineup already offer home hub functionality, but crucially lack the hardware to run AI models. In contrast, Apple Intelligence will be central to the new home accessory, which is actually a “lower-end companion” to a $1,000+ robotic device for the home, writes Gurman.
Similar devices have been rumored for some time. Prototype designs are said to have resembled a HomePod with a screen (magnetically attaching to walls or sitting atop a desk), and an iPad-like display mounted on a robotic arm. Both accessories are said to be collaborations between Apple’s AI and home device hardware engineering groups.
Backend code discovered by MacRumors in January suggested that Apple was continuing work on a homeOS platform, as a variant of tvOS. Another code reference finding in June subsequently confirmed the existence of at least one unreleased home accessory.
More recently, 9to5Mac has claimed that the lower-end smart home device features a “squarish display”, an A18 chip, and a built-in camera for FaceTime. The device apparently supports AirPlay, is able to identify hand gestures from afar, and can tell one person apart from another for personalized requests. 9to5Mac says Apple could release the home product as early as next spring.
This article, “Apple May Launch First iPad-Like Smart Home Accessory Next Year” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums