Fairphone 4 Sets a New Standard for Repairability in iFixit Teardown
Here’s the short of it—the Fairphone 4 is extremely easy to take apart and repair. The display is held together with screws, the battery connects with contact points instead of wonky cables, and the camera array sits on a large board that’s impossible to install crooked. All of the phone’s small parts are modular, and ignoring a few torque screws, you can take this bad boy apart with a single Philips head screwdriver. iFixit gave the Fairphone 4 an impressive repairability score of 10/10.
From Reviewgeek
Qualcomm’s betting on AI to take on Apple and Google’s chips
Apple has been in a league of its own when it comes to developing processors for phones and embedding its own AI-powered experience.
But this year, Google has thrown its hat in the ring by debuting its indigenous Tensor Chip to give the Pixel 6 a platform to showcase the company’s vision for smartphones.
This massive push by tech giants into the chip game means that Qualcomm, once a leading player in the smartphone industry, will face more competition than ever. So, this year, the chipmaker is relying heavily on AI to give its new processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a bit more personality.
The company is introducing the 7th Gen Qualcomm AI compute engine, which is four times faster than its predecessor.
From The next web
Elon Musk touts Tesla’s new Cyberwhistle with dig at Apple
Tesla’s latest product isn’t a new electric car but instead a $50 stainless steel whistle with a design inspired by the company’s yet-to-launch Cybertruck.
The limited-edition “Cyberwhistle” (below) landed in Tesla’s online store on Tuesday.
The blurb accompanying the new device reads: “Inspired by Cybertruck, the limited-edition Cyberwhistle is a premium collectible made from medical-grade stainless steel with a polished finish.” adding, “The whistle includes an integrated attachment feature for added versatility.” That’ll be a lanyard then.
Within hours of the Cyberwhistle going on sale, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted a link to its store page, along with the message: “Blow the whistle on Tesla!” Whether any disgruntled Tesla workers respond to his invitation remains to be seen.
In a subsequent tweet to his 65 million followers, Musk wrote: “Don’t waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!” Musk was referencing the $19 Polishing Cloth released by the tech giant in October.
From Digital Trends
Which upcoming phones will use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1?
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is official, and it’s set to power some of the very best smartphones of 2022.
Below we’ll reveal all the handsets that have been confirmed so far-
- Xiaomi 12
- Oppo Find X4
- Realme GT 2 Pro
- A new Motorola Edge
From Techradar
iPhone SE 3 rumored to launch before the end of March 2022
When is the iPhone SE 3 going to see the light of day? A new industry analyst report suggests it will be sometime during Q1 2022 – so January, February or March, and it’s likely to be more towards the end of that time frame than the start.
The prediction is from Taiwanese research firm TrendForce (via MacRumors), and fits in broadly with what we’ve heard before. The second-generation iPhone SE made its debut in April 2020, so we’re looking at a gap of around two years.
As has also been mentioned by other sources, the TrendForce report says that 5G is going to be added to the mix this time around. Although there will be very few design changes, the phone should get the latest A15 processor already found in the iPhone 13.
From Techradar
Nothing Ear 1 earbuds now come in matte black
Earlier this year, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei launched his new company’s first official product: a set of true wireless earbuds. Notably, the design of the ‘buds incorporates a transparent casing, which allows you to see the inner workings of the device.
Now, the company is relaunching that same product in a new color: matte black. The Nothing Ear 1 in black are the same as the original model, but now they aren’t so white.
Of course, the earbud stems and charging case still incorporate the transparent design. According to Pei, this is going to be a trademark element of his company’s products.
The new version of the earbuds will enter general sales on December 13, 2021, at 6:00 AM ET. They’ll cost the same as the white model, which is $99 here in the US, €99 in Europe, £99 in the UK, and Rs. 5,999 in India.
From Android Authority
Chrome OS 96 rolling out: Camera tweaks, Nearby Share in Android apps, more
Chrome OS 96 is rolling out today with a number of enhancements focused on the camera and other general app upgrades. Version 95 was skipped as part of the transition to updates every four weeks, while an LTS version for Chromebooks is now offered.
From 9to5Google
Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain
Now, researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington have overcome these obstacles with an ultracompact camera the size of a coarse grain of salt. The new system can produce crisp, full-color images on par with a conventional compound camera lens 500,000 times larger in volume, the researchers reported in a paper published Nov. 29 in Nature Communications.
Enabled by a joint design of the camera’s hardware and computational processing, the system could enable minimally invasive endoscopy with medical robots to diagnose and treat diseases, and improve imaging for other robots with size and weight constraints. Arrays of thousands of such cameras could be used for full-scene sensing, turning surfaces into cameras.
From Princeton University
Twitter Bans Sharing Photos of Private Individuals Without Their Consent
As part of Twitter’s never-ending attempt to thwart the doxxers and trolls that seem to lurk in every corner of its platform, the company overhauled its private information policies on Monday to explicitly ban sharing pictures or videos of private individuals without their consent.
Even before this update, Twitter’s existing policies on the types of personal information that can and can’t be shared were already pretty robust. Until now, Twitter barred users from sharing information like a person’s home address, private phone numbers or emails, credit card numbers, or medical information. (Whether Twitter is good at enforcing its own policies is a different issue.) And the company’s had similar rules in place for banning revenge porn since early 2015. Now, the company’s extending user protections to all forms of filmed and photographed media—even if they’re not porn-related in the least.
From Gizmodo
Tiny ‘Living’ Robots Figured Out How to Reproduce
Researchers who developed what they say are the world’s first living robots now report they can reproduce in an unprecedented way, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
The robots in question aren’t little constructions of silicon and metal—instead, they’re biological machines called xenobots that University of Vermont and Tufts University researchers first described last year. The xenobots are genetically unmodified, cultivated stem cell bundles of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Joshua Bongard, a University of Vermont computer scientist and robotics expert, referred to them in a press release last January as “novel living machines” that are a “new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.”
From Gizmodo
