Quick Shots-10

OnePlus 9T might be gone in favor of a cheap phone, in weird twist

The site has some specs for the phone too; apparently it’ll have a Snapdragon 870 chipset, a 120Hz screen, a 4,500mAh battery, 65W charging and a 50MP camera. It sounds like a competitive mid-range phone, making it a shame if it doesn’t come to a global market.

Finally, apparently the phone will debut OxygenOS 12, OnePlus’ take on Android 12, which would make it one of the first handsets to run Google’s newest operating system straight out the box. OxygenOS 12 is available in beta form for a few devices, but it seems the OnePlus 9 RT could be among the first devices with it installed.

Read More at Techradar

Intel shares details of its Alder Lake chips coming this Fall

Intel hosted its Architecture Day event today, and with it, the company gave us a look at many of its upcoming plans. That includes the new Alder Lake products that are set to debut on the market this Fall. Alder Lake refers to the 12th-generation of Intel Core processors, but Intel didn’t announce any specific products during this event. Instead, it focused on the architecture, or rather, the architectures at play.

Yes, Intel’s next processors aren’t only going to have one architecture as we’ve seen in the past. Instead, each processor is going to make use of efficient cores and performance cores, an approach that’s similar to how smartphone processors work. However, these are still x86 architectures, not ARM-based ones. Intel took a shot at this kind of design with its Lakefield processors last year, but those only had one performance core, and performance wasn’t very good.

Read More at XDA

Netflix Brings Spatial Audio Support to iPhone and iPad

Netflix is adding Spatial Audio support to iPhone and iPad iOS14 apps, the streaming platform confirmed to 9to5Mac on Wednesday, and most users can expect to see the feature on their devices as early as this week.

Apple first introduced the Dolby Atmos-supported Spatial Audio back in June 2021, heralding the feature as “immersive audio experiences for fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity.” By using directional audio filters, spatial audio enables users to “play sounds virtually anywhere in space, creating an immersive sound experience” that exists no matter which direction you turn your head.

Read More at Gizmodo

OPPO’s new camera sensors promise better colors, continuous zoom, and more stability

Earlier today, at its Future Imaging Event, OPPO revealed three new camera technologies that could make their way into future smartphones. While they’re all pretty interesting, they’re also each at least a little derivative — improvements that build on prior feature implementations, including some of OPPO’s. In fact, if you’ve followed smartphone camera news for the last half-decade or so, some of it will sound familiar. And, if you’re in the US, you probably won’t benefit from it.

First, OPPO is touting its new RGBW camera sensor, developed in partnership with Sony. “W” in this instance stands for white, which should mean better light-gathering ability, especially in low-light circumstances. If you remember when some companies used to augment a color sensor with a separate black and white sensor, combining the results for better low-light performance, this is sort of a similar idea, except all together on a single sensor. And, in fact, it’s not a new idea.

Read More at Android Police

In growing battle with TikTok, Facebook to test ‘Facebook Reels’ in the US

Reels are coming to Facebook in the U.S. The company this morning announced it will begin testing a new feature, Facebook Reels, which will give Facebook users the ability to create and share short-form video content directly within the News Feed or within Facebook Groups. The addition is an expansion of tests launched earlier this year in India, Mexico and Canada, which had focused on bringing short-form videos to Facebook users, including by sharing existing Instagram Reels to Facebook, as had been reported.

In addition, Facebook today says it will also test a new feature that will give Instagram creators in the U.S. the option to have their Instagram Reels shown as recommended content on Facebook. If the creators opt in, their videos will appear in the “Reels” section in users’ News Feed, alongside other Reels created on Facebook.

Read More at Tech Crunch

Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches with  Snapdragon Wear 4100+ leak, will start at €300

Fossil’s Gen 6 smartwatches with Wear OS are “coming soon”, but that’s as far as the official page goes. But we can look to unofficial sources to see what’s in store – all models will use the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ chipset.

This is a relatively recent 12 nm chipset that is 85% faster than the Wear 3100, according to official numbers. It also supports 4G LTE (Cat. 4) and GPS, plus it has an improved AON co-processor for extended battery life. It can handle continuous heart rate measurements and an Always On display (with 64K colors, up from just 16 in earlier iterations of AON).

Read More at Gsmarena

Nvidia expects GPU supply constraints for the ‘vast majority’ of 2022

Nvidia warned earlier this year that the great GPU shortage would last throughout 2021, and now the company expects supply issues to continue well into 2022. Speaking on Nvidia’s Q2 fiscal 2022 earnings call this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects supply constraints for the majority of next year.

“I would expect that we will see a supply-constrained environment for the vast majority of next year is my guess at the moment,” said Huang according to a transcript of the call, spotted by Videocardz. Nvidia has committed to securing long-term supply commitments, but demand is still higher than supply right now during a global chip shortage.

Nvidia’s warnings of a GPU shortage well into 2022 might not seem as bad as they sound, though. Anecdotally, we’ve noticed Nvidia managing to resupply a range of its GPUs across both Europe and the US more frequently in recent weeks than we’ve seen since the RTX 30-series debuted last year.

Read More at The Verge

The Galaxy M52 and F42 5G might be just a few weeks away from India

Samsung is preparing to launch two new 5G-enabled mid-range smartphones in India — the Galaxy M52 5G and the Galaxy F42 5G — and prospective buyers might even be able to buy these upcoming phones in a matter of weeks. That is, assuming everything goes according to a recent tweet by @Gadgetsdata, who claims that the September launch window for the Galaxy M52 5G and F42 5G is “totally confirmed.”

The source claims to have it on good authority that the Galaxy M52 5G will launch in India near the end of September, while the Galaxy F42 5G will be hitting the shelves sometime next month. Pricing details remain unknown as of this writing, but you can expect mid-range prices similar to the Galaxy A52 5G and A42 5G.

Read more at Sammobile

Pixel 6 and 6 Pro rumored to support much faster charging

Google’s Pixel phones have been stuck charging at 18W for several years now, and while that’s not too slow, it’s lagging far behind other handsets on the market right now. If this latest rumor is to be believed, Google could be about to up its game with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

According to 91Mobiles, whose source is Indian leaker Yogesh Brar, the upcoming flagship Pixels will be upgraded to support 33W charging, which would be a considerable improvement compared to Google’s current 18W charging speeds. Apparently, 33W charging adapters have been used in testing at the company’s Mountain View HQ. As you may already know, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are going to follow in the footsteps of recent Samsung and Apple devices by shipping without chargers in the box. So looks like you’ll have to buy a new one separately to get the best possible charging speeds.

Read More at Android Police

Steve Jobs email confirms Apple considered launching an ‘iPhone nano’ in 2011

Over a decade ago, a handful of rumors indicated that Apple was developing a more affordable alternative to the iPhone 4, dubbed the iPhone nano. Emails unearthed as part of Apple’s legal battle with Epic Games confirm that this is something Apple and Steve Jobs were mulling sometime around October 2010.

As noted by the Verge, an email included in the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit consists of an agenda for an executive team meeting. The meeting was to focus on Apple’s strategy for 2011 and to recap the company’s performance in 2010. This includes Apple’s “Holy War with Google,” 2011 being the “Year of the Cloud,” the evolving “Post PC era,” and more.

For 2011, Jobs references the iPhone 4s with improvements to things like the camera, antenna design, and processor. Jobs also suggested that Apple should “create low-cost iPhone model based on iPod touch to replace 3GS.”

Read More at 9to5Mac