According to Intel, “the i9-10850K is based on immediate feedback we’ve received from customers, including to further expand options and different price points.” Critics, however, have said that it’s possible that Intel is having trouble with chips that can’t quite reach the 10900K’s clock speeds, and is thus selling them in this slower, cheaper model.
The company has had troubles elsewhere too. Recently, it announced that its plans for 7nm chips have fallen behind by another six months, and there’s even a possibility that production could be delayed until 2022 due to a “defect mode” in the process. Until then, it will have to rely on 10nm processes for now, which has its own issues with delays and production.
Garmin is finally giving its users more information about the system outage the company has been dealing with since the morning of July 23rd. The company has just confirmed earlier reports that it was the victim of an external cyber attack that encrypted some of the company’s systems. This attack led to disruption to a host of Garmin’s systems, including “website functions, customer support, customer facing applications and company communications.” Crucially, Garmin says it has “no evidence” that any customer data, including payment information stored in Garmin Pay, was accessed by the perpetrators.
While things have slowly been coming back online, Garmin confirmed it’ll still be a few days before everything is back to normal. The company also stressed that it’ll likely take a bit of time for everything to sync back up fully once those online services are working again. Finally, Garmin said the functionality of its products were not affected aside from these online components — but given how crucial such connectivity is for wearable devices, that’s likely little comfort to users who’ve been running into problems for days now.
Spotify’s ever-growing podcast empire got another boost today: The company announced that Mark and Jay Duplass have signed on with the company to create exclusive podcasts. If you don’t know them, the Duplass brothers are actors, writers and producers who’ve had their hands in many high-profile projects over the last few years, though summing up their influence isn’t easy. Most recently, Mark has appeared in The Morning Show on Apple TV; he also wrote and starred in the Netflix film Paddleton last year. Jay, meanwhile, was a regular on Transparent on Amazon for its entire run and has also been writer and executive producer on multiple recent TV series and films.
As for what content the brothers will be producing under their Duplass Brothers Productions banner, it’s unclear outside of both scripted and unscripted podcasts. If you’re a fan of their work and aren’t using Spotify to listen to podcasts, though, you’ll need to switch over as these will be exclusive to the platform. Fortunately, you can get Spotify and listen to podcasts for free, but it’s just another example of how the medium has been fragmenting lately.
There have been a few changes to the Pocket since its original launch. Externally, the start, select and home buttons have been moved from the edge of the console to the low-center. Internally, the main new feature is “Original Display Modes.” This takes the Pocket’s high-quality LCD display, and has it mimic “quirks and all,” the screens of various handhelds. Analogue has announced three of these display profiles so far: Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance.
As a reminder, the Pocket’s display is a 3.5-inch, 615-PPI LTPS panel with a variable refresh rate, and software rotation will be available to support “tate mode” (vertical) games — tate mode games are rare, but this is a vital inclusion that will allow Lynx games like Klax and Raiden to run. It’ll also mean Game Boy Advance titles that had tate mode as an option, such as Panel de Pon, finally make sense (holding the original Nintendo hardware vertically is truly bizarre).
Raiden running on the Atari Lynx II! Groundbreaking to see a TATE mode shmup running on 1991 portable hardware (and original Lynx was released in 1989) pic.twitter.com/YBaidEpIiB
We also have confirmation of a few details left unclear after the original announcement: The Pocket has a 4,300 mAh battery, which is good for “6-10 hours” of play time. The screen is covered with Gorilla Glass at “three times the typical thickness” found in smartphones. Finally, the optional TV dock, which now has a $99 price tag, has a recessed USB-C port for greater stability, and supports up to four controllers over its integrated Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless hardware, or via USB.
Out of the box, the Pocket will support cartridges for the three Nintendo consoles (Game Boy, GB Color and GB Advance). Adapters will be sold for Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx, with pricing to be announced at a later date. For context, Analogue sold a pack of three adapters for its Mega SG console at $50. While up to four Pockets can be linked for multiplayer, this will require additional, yet-to-be-priced, cables. The console will come with a free copy of Nanoloop, though, which is an electronic music program popular among chiptune creators.
Analogue
The last major update from Analogue is a partnership with GB Studio. GB Studio is a “drag-and-drop” game creation tool for Windows, Mac and Linux. The main outcome of the partnership is that you’ll be able to export GB Studio creations as “.pocket” files, which will then run natively from a microSD card on the Pocket.
The Analogue Pocket and Dock will be available to pre-order on August 3rd at 8AM PT/11AM ET from Analogue’s store, priced at $199 and $99, respectively.
The entire purchase process took around 10 minutes. I clicked “Get Started” in the Carvana app, which kicked off a 45 minute timer reservation of the vehicle. I configured a loan with a manageable monthly payment and the largest deposit I could put together, picked a delivery date and time and entered my payment information.
The only hiccup? I had to rush to get a Georgia license to finalize the purchase, but that was relatively simple since I live near a fairly low-traffic DMV office. I sent along my temporary license photos and insurance information, had a slightly awkward and abrupt call with a Carvana rep and waited for them to approve the deal.
Once I got the green light, I just sat back and let Carvana do the work. In the meantime, I spent a lot of time staring at photos of the RAV4, my most expensive gadget purchase ever (while also devouring YouTube car reviews). It brought me back to the days before next-day package deliveries, when you actually had to sit in anticipation of a new toy coming your way.
A Carvana rep called me the day before my delivery to spell out the whole process and answer any questions. As an obsessive researcher who had spent a ton of time looking into other Carvana customer experiences, I had none. After that, I just kept an eye on the Carvana app for the actual delivery details as if I was waiting for the world’s most expensive Uber.
On the big day, the delivery driver called with some good news: She could actually drop off the car several hours early. So I packed up my daughter from the playground, rushed her back home, and waited while tracking the delivery’s tiny icon on the app. I sent along a selfie to confirm my identity and 20 minutes later the truck driver appeared in a small Carvana-branded truck. It felt like the most exciting thing to happen in my quiet suburb that entire week.
My new (used) RAV4 Hybrid looked immaculate, and I couldn’t find any visible issues while it was sitting on the truck. After dealing with a bit of paperwork and communicating with her corporate office, the driver had me sign some documents, handed me some welcome documents from Carvana (along with a nifty travel mug) and parked the car in my driveway. I successfully bought a car without ever setting foot in a dreary office, or haggling with a car dealer.
I was practically in love with the RAV4 Hybrid the instant I set foot in it. I sold my last car (a well-maintained ’91 Accord Wagon) 10 years ago, so I’ve mainly experienced newer car tech by riding around with friends and family. Having a modern car, with the latest safety sensors, tons of cameras and radar-assisted cruise control seemed like a huge leap forward from my last ride. The RAV4 drove like a dream, and my local mechanic gave me a huge thumbs up when I brought it in for a used car inspection.
Once my 7-day trial period was up, Carvana sent me an email saying that my registration and plates were in the works. I ended up receiving them in the mail two weeks later. Now that my family and I are genuinely settling into our new home and our new routines with the RAV4 Hybrid, I’m struck by how easy the whole Carvana process was. It was certainly the simplest part of our cross-country move (which involved researching and buying a house remotely, stress-packing our entire apartment, and missing our first flight to Atlanta). Calling it car-buying heaven may be a bit much, but Carvana was certainly the break I needed from the hell of everything going on in the world today.
“Every day we hear from customers about how they enjoy editing images with Photoshop on iPad to get ‘closer to the pixels.’ Because precise pixel selection is fundamental to achieving realistic results, we’ve placed extra attention on bringing this feature to life on the iPad to make it sing with pencil and touch.”
The Head of iPad Engineering for Adobe told Clark that “[t]ons of real-time calculations occur behind the scenes to isolate and select the right pixels” and that the team worked hard to make it as “performant as possible.” They’re already working on improving Refine Edge further, though, and will roll out enhancements with the next release.
The company first announced that it was bringing Refine Edge to the iPad late last year when it revealed how it plans to improve Photoshop for the platform. Users haven’t been happy with the iPad version’s limited features and have been asking for the tools they’re used to on desktop. Since then, Adobe has brought Select Subject, Object Selection, type settings and other desktop-quality tools to the iPad.
In addition to Refine Edge, Adobe has also introduced a two-finger rotation gesture that lets you rotate the canvas and zoom in at the same time. The rotation can snap at 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees, but you can switch off both snapping and rotation itself in settings.
There’s something alluring about a phone you can’t have. Whether it’s the high-spec gaming phones from ASUS and the like, or Huawei and its technically impressive devices, not everything makes it to the US.
OnePlus has put a lot of effort into promoting its new Nord phone, launching in the UK, Europe and India on August 4th. It’s pitched as a combination of keen pricing and flagship specs in most of the places that matter — and it fell to me to review it, here in London.
The Nord is the latest in a wave of midrange phones that make convincing arguments for forgoing flagship devices that cost double. You can read my full review here, but the only thing that could worry OnePlus is Google’s incoming Pixel 4a. If it ever actually breaks cover…
— Mat
Doritos may have spoiled the next ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ game
Get ready for a return to the Cold War.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Activision
Those heavily seasoned triangles are spoiling things for Activision. On Twitter, TheGamingRevolution has shared pictures of what appears to be a Doritos promo for the as-yet-unannounced Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. A return to the original Black Ops era was rumored for a while. Other leaks suggested it may take Modern Warfare’s grittiness one step further. The title will supposedly explore the Vietnam War from the perspectives of the US, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong, with excursions to other parts of the world. Continue reading.
OnePlus Nord review: Almost invisible compromises
Faking a flagship.
Mat Smith, Engadget
OnePlus’ return to midrange smartphones presents some strong competition to both older flagships and the current crop of budget devices. It has a big 6.4-inch screen that can run at 90Hz for a smoother software experience. OnePlus has also packed in enough camera tech to ensure the Nord takes decent photos, with all the flexibility of a four-sensor setup. With 5G and a just-about-good-enough processor, the price is right, even if this phone is unlikely to make it to the US. Continue reading.
Sponsored by StackCommerce
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 will let you answer calls by clenching your fist
It’ll also add Apple Watch-style fall detection.
Arthur, PBS
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 3 could offer a cute new way of answering any calls routed to your wrist. XDA Developers reports that Samsung’s newly released Galaxy Watch 3 Plugin app (so much for a surprise at Unpacked) references support for hand gestures, most notably for answering calls. If your watch starts ringing, you just have to clench and unclench your fist to pick up. You can shake your hand to ignore a call, too.
Samsung is expected to unveil the new watch when Unpacked takes place online August 5th. Continue reading.
Apple has started selling a high-end certified 40 Gbps Thunderbolt cable that’s either a real bargain or ridiculously expensive, depending on your point of view (via The Verge). The braided $129 Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable supports the full Thunderbolt 3 spec, including DisplayPort video and 100 watt charging, while allowing for USB 3.1 Gen 2 data transfers up to 10 Gbps.
That sum would get you a Kindle Paperwhite, so how could anyone think it’s cheap? At 2m long and with 40 Gbps speeds, Apple’s Thunderbolt 3 cable is active (with chips on each end), rather than passive. On top of that, it’s one of the few certified cables that supports the full Thunderbolt spec, including DisplayPort and 10 Gbps USB-C 3.1 Gen 2. As such, Apple’s Thunderbolt cable might actually be the cheapest that has all of the above.
Let’s set aside the fact that the OnePlus Nord isn’t launching in the US. Even if it’s not, mid-range phones are having a moment on both sides of the Atlantic. From the iPhone SE to Samsung’s Galaxy A series and Google’s Pixel 3a — and soon the Pixel 4a — everyone is trying to sell non-flagships to the not-early adopters.
Out of that group, I think the OnePlus Nord is the best approximation of a flagship smartphone. Maybe it’s the large size, equivalent to other OnePlus flagships and my trusty iPhone 11 Pro Max. Or maybe I’m easily impressed by a litany of camera sensors. Whatever it is, the Nord gives off that expensive phone vibe.
I also appreciate it when phones land in interesting colors. I really like this blue hue on the Nord. There’s a more subdued gray onyx version too, if you don’t like fun.
Vivid colors aside, OnePlus always offers a decent selection of cases with its phones. In addition to some artsy options, my review unit came with a grippy plain black case; a cyan case; and clear case for people who don’t want a case, but need a case. (It’s the middle-seat of phone cover choices: No one should be happy with a clear case.)
Now, this phone is not quite the same as the OnePlus 8 or 8 Pro. There’s no curved display on the Nord, ensuring it was cheaper to make. It also has a nasty, cheap-feeling screen protector glued onto the front of the phone, with a rather rough edge that catches on your fingertips. It’s probably the one major tell that this isn’t a top-of-the-line phone, going on first impressions. That said, this protector already ‘saved’ my screen from some scratches but they’re already very noticeable. I promise you I haven’t already dropped the thing.
A week later, and there are some deep scratches already.
Mat Smith, Engadget
There are other obvious cost savings. The frame itself is plastic, not metal, though it has a metallic finish to trick you. If you’re a OnePlus die-hard, rest assured the alert slider is still present and hewn from metal. I don’t understand the relevance of the alert slider in 2020. I get that some people love it, but it feels like a dedicated camera button. Its time has passed. OnePlus could have saved some money here by dropping it — but maybe then the Nord wouldn’t have been “OnePlus” enough?
Like Samsung’s Galaxy A51, there’s no water resistance IP certification — another cost-saving measure. I’ve taken it for a sweaty run and it survived that encounter. But there are no guarantees it won’t possibly be damaged from rain or your own workouts.
The Nord can hold dual SIMs and, because it has a 5G modem, this makes it pretty interesting. Or, it will. Te phone takes dual 4G SIMs or a single 5G SIM. Mixed 5G+4G support, is apparently coming in a future software update, ETA unknown. With 5G not quite there, the ability to switch carriers around would have been pretty useful. Maybe in the future it will be.
The phone also supports OnePlus’ Warp Charge 30 feature, though oddly it has the older USB 2.0 port on it. Not a major issue, but a little dated. OnePlus estimates you can take the phone from 0 to 70 percent charged in just a half-hour, and they are not wrong. Your next compromise at this price is a lack of wireless charging — a feature that OnePlus had only just introduced to its phone lineup earlier this year.
You’re either into wireless charging (because you own a charger) or you have little to no interest in it. I work at Engadget so I have, I think, four wireless chargers in my house alone. I may have absent-mindedly tried to charge the phone on charging pads. I missed this feature here.
The Nord has a 4115 mAh battery which is a decent size for a middleweight phone. During my time with it, the phone seemed to perform admirably, keeping the 90Hz display setting on throughout my time. Burning the battery down through video, I got roughly 13 hours of playback. With more typical use, I’d usually end the day around the 50 percent mark. It always lasted through a day of pretty intensive usage, including some gaming, video watching and intermittent camera use.
Let’s circle back to the screen, because a 90Hz display on a smartphone is remarkable at this price. What does it do? It makes your phone life smoother — if the apps support it. I’ve spent time with 90Hz and 120Hz screens, and it’s always jarring to ‘settle’ for the 60Hz status-quo when I shift back to my iPhone. Yes, you could get a 120Hz screen on the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Pixel 4, but you’ll have to pay flagship prices for anything beyond 60Hz.
With 1080p resolution, however, it’s not the crispest screen in the world. And with this large a screen size, you might be able to notice it. It’s also a compromise: higher refresh speeds do have an impact on battery life. Dropping the screen resolution is a way to cover those power commitments. And, If you want, you can hard-set the phone to run at 60Hz, and pocket the battery-life boost.
The AMOLED screen itself is bright and punchy. Like most Android phones, you can choose the degree of punch you want from the screen in settings, but I’ve usually ramped it up to max, if only to make my photos pop.
There are no pop-out selfie cameras this time around, and OnePlus decided to go with a dual-camera array, so it’s less of a holepunch and more like a pill punch. That’s not a word, I know. You’ve seen a similar setup on Samsung phones in recent years, and indeed, this is another design note that suggests a high-end device.
Faking it
Mat Smith, Engadget
When it comes to buying a mid-range phone, it used to be that the experience was rougher around the edges. More app churn, more sudden crashes. Thankfully, I rarely saw that during my week with the OnePlus Nord. Like the LG Velvet, another recent mid-range phone, it’s one of the first devices we’ve tested with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G processor, the chip maker’s first silicon to integrate a 5G modem. (Phones with the Snapdragon 865 processor still require a separate 5G modem.)
It might be due to the 90Hz screen, but most of the time everything ran well. More graphically dense games like Fortnite caused frame-rates to take a bit of a hit, however. The processor did sometimes choke with websites in Chrome, struggling to stream embedded videos. Most of the time, though, I didn’t feel the Nord was lacking in power. If you want a powerful gaming phone, you’ll have to look elsewhere — and pay more. That said, I did manage to play plenty of Stadia titles on this phone without issue. You don’t need a lot of processing power to stream Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat from a phone.
OnePlus says it’s made hundreds of tiny optimizations on the Nord, and it does indeed deliver an experience you don’t often see at this price.
It helps that OnePlus also makes good Android software. Sure, it feels a little branded, with red highlights here and there, a few OnePlus specific apps you’d probably never touch. But I’m oddly cool with it; I don’t mind being identified as a OnePlus user. When you boot up the Nord, all that OnePlus bloat is neatly contained in a little folder. It’s already out of the way and out of your face.
When our own Chris Velazco reviewed the OnePlus 8 Pro earlier this year, he concluded the fingerprint reader was rubbish, but with the Nord I had no issues. The in-screen reader was quick to unlock, and there’s the option of face unlock too, if you’re comfortable with those kinds of biometrics.
Cameras for most things
Mat Smith, Engadget
More cameras are usually better, though there are obvious exceptions to the rule. With the Nord, the main camera captures 48-megapixel images, with an f/ 1.75 lens augmented by optical image stabilization — still rare in mid-range phone cameras. The camera defaults to 12MP stills, shedding those pixels for crisper shots. The high-resolution sensor means you get a 2x zoom function and you can still go for full-fat 48MP shots if you want. I preferred the standard setting, personally.
There’s also an ultra-wide-angle 8-megapixel camera and a mostly pointless 2-megapixel macro lens. The final sensor is a depth camera for portrait modes. All told, it’s an unusual mixture of OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro camera specs.
Surprisingly, most of my images came out well. OnePlus often has a reputation for underdelivering on smartphone cameras, but that wasn’t the case with the Nord.
The level of detail, even at 12-megapixels is impressive, as is the dynamic range. There’s some blowout on the wooden structure on the right, but plenty of detail in the shadows.
Mat Smith, Engadget
Even when I shoot in darker settings, image noise wasn’t particularly aggressive and the camera was still able to capture plenty of detail — likely thanks to the optical image stabilization. I wondered whether the Snapdragon 765G would be able to handle the image processing for capturing multiple nighttime images, but the phone’s Nightscape mode took as long to process as other smartphones, and my photos came showed a nice balance of contrast and detail. The results across all the different camera modes were usually a little cool, color-wise. The Nord seems to aggressively squash yellow tones compared to competing devices, which makes things look whiter and washed out than they do in reality.
Video, too, was good with enough light. The Nord’s main cameras can record up to 4K resolution at 30 fps, and includes the usual time-lapse feature and super slow-motion mode, which captures 240 frames per second.
That all said, the Nord is not going to supplant the iPhone 11 Pro or Huawei’s P40 Pro, but it delivers crisp, detailed images most of the time. The major thing I missed compared to more expensive phones was some more zooming capability. 2x zoom wasn’t quite enough.
The competition
Mat Smith, Engadget
I like the Nord. It’s punching above its weight, to the extent that the OnePlus 8 has just been eaten by its own cheaper successor. For the company, that should probably be a concern, but the bigger problem is how tough competition is when it comes to cheaper, but well-specced smartphones. I’ll stop mentioning Google’s cheaper Pixel phones, and instead move on to the iPhone SE. Yes, it’s not an Android phone, but for a similar price (well, less in Europe), you’re getting an incredibly powerful phone, with a processor that matches flagship iPhones. It’s also more petite than this 6.5-inch beast. And on the horizon, Google’s Pixel 4a looms.
Wrap-up
Mat Smith, Engadget
Is the OnePlus Nord worth all of the hype? For you? Maybe not. For the company? Almost definitely yes. It’s a phone that should sell well — where it’s being sold, including the UK, India and Europe.
If you’ve been using flagship phones for the last few years, but are looking to downscale to something new, powerful and competent, are you willing to live with the compromises?
Good-enough cameras, no wireless charging, no water protection IP certification, and not the best smartphone processor. It’s an incredibly subjective thing, yes, but that’s great news for us. There’s never been so much choice, so many capable phones offering tempting cost-performance ratios. Add the Nord to the top of that list.
If you’ve got a phone, you can activate the 160Hz option by using the Android Debut Bridge (ADB) PC app. Then, you run the following command from a prompt or terminal window: “adb shell setprop debug.vendor.asus.fps.eng 1” (XDA has more on how to do that in its post). After you reboot your phone, you’ll see the 160Hz option in Settings >Display>Refresh rate.
XDA tested the new mode with Pac-Man, confirmed that it ran at 160 fps and believes that other games will too. However, performance could be wonky and you’d be changing the setting at your own risk. In any case, it’ll be hard to get an ASUS Rog Phone 3 anytime soon, as it’s not coming to the US until Q3 at the earliest and it won’t ship in Europe (starting at €999) for a few more days.
