Technology

There’s been a lot of talk about how OnePlus seems to be going back to its roots with its latest phone, the OnePlus Nord. This is a brand that first made a name for itself by offering similar specs to competing flagships at a much lower price. But over the years, its prices have crept up and up, and its current £599 / $699 OnePlus 8 and £799 / $899 8 Pro aren’t far off its more established competitors. So it’s easy for the OnePlus Nord, with its starting price of £379 (around $484), to make it seem like OnePlus is going back to its roots. But since its flagship phones aren’t going anywhere, the midrange Nord is instead the next step in OnePlus expanding its lineup. OnePlus is stepping into a new era, not returning to an old one. That means OnePlus has had to make some tough decisions about...

Many election officials across the US are using email systems that could make them more susceptible to phishing attempts, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. Area 1 Security found less than 20 percent of 10,000 state and local election administrations had advanced anti-phishing controls in place, and about 666 of the election officials were relying on personal email addresses for election-related matters. Jurisdictions in several states were using a version of free Exim software that Russia’s GRU intelligence service had targeted for online attacks starting in 2019, according to the Journal. Security experts told the Journal it was unlikely that weak email security would lead to vote hacking, however, since the email systems aren’t connected to systems that count votes. B...

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, fashion designer Chelsea Klukas of Lumen Couture was planning to make some standard cloth face masks for friends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing homemade face coverings to prevent the spread of the virus. Lumen Couture has an entire line of tech-enabled fashion, including dresses, hoodies, and costumes, and Klukas shifted to masks when in-person events were being canceled and sales for other products were slumping. She decided to add the tech to make the face masks a little more fun. “I had the components around, so I put together a quick DIY YouTube tutorial for how to make them,” Klukas said in an interview with The Verge. “That really blew up, to the point where people were asking me for a ready-to-wear mask.” ...

As part of an attempt to make Major League Baseball games in this weird, coronavirus-shortened season seem as close to normal as possible, Fox Sports decided to create virtual fans, digital versions of cheering people who would react to the games broadcast on Fox the way real fans do. Let’s just say they didn’t quite knock it out of the park. As Nick Schwartz noted in USA Today, the virtual fans popped in and out of view during the broadcasts, appearing when cameras pointed toward the outfield, but then weren’t visible behind home plate, making for an unsettling experience. Ryan Parker of The Hollywood Reporter agreed: To be sure, this is a new thing, and Brad Zager of Fox Sports told The Verge the network was still figuring it out, with plans to evolve the process from game to game and we...

Staples is running an incredible sale on Apple’s AirPods Pro earbuds, bringing the retail price down to $200, or $50 off its usual $250 price tag. This the best deal we have seen yet for Apple’s flagship true wireless earbuds. Unlike its sibling, the AirPods, which has a hard plastic “one size fits most” design, the AirPods Pro design is an in-ear construction and with silicone tips, which included three different sizes to provide a customizable fit for your ears. The AirPods Pro also include active noise cancellation, better sound quality, and a wireless charging case. If you are an Apple user, my colleague Chris Welch thinks the AirPods Pro are the best wireless earbuds worth your money. The deal is available until August 1st, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if Staples’ stock runs out b...

Apple manufacturer Foxconn has started building iPhone 11 units in a facility near Chennai in India, TechCrunch reported, the first time Apple has made one of its top-tier phones in that country. Apple has manufactured lower-priced iPhone models in India since 2017, and reportedly has been considering moving production of its more premium models there for some time. India was the second-biggest smartphone market in the world in 2019, ahead of the US and second only to China. According to TechCrunch, Apple plans to scale up production in India, which would in turn reduce how much it depends on China, where most of its iPhones are currently made. And while Apple tops the premium smartphone market in India, it has only about a 1 percent share of the total smartphone market there. The iPhone’s...

TikTok has blocked several hashtags related to the QAnon conspiracy theory, but won’t be removing the videos using the hashtags from its platform, the BBC reported. The video sharing app has blocked the terms “QAnon,” “QAnonTruth” and the related phrase “Out of Shadows,” which are used by QAnon believers. But as the BBC reports, the QAnon videos themselves could still appear among TikTok’s For You suggestions or in users’ feeds, even if the hashtags are no longer visible. TikTok did not immediately reply to a request for comment Saturday. Other platforms have taken a harder stance against QAnon material; earlier this week Twitter announced it was banning 7,000 accounts, blocking QAnon-related links, and put restrictions on 150,000 more accounts. Twitter will no longer promote the accounts ...

Baseball is back. But the MLB will look a little different in the COVID-19 world, with empty stadiums full of silent cardboard cutouts instead of thousands of screaming fans in an effort to avoid spreading the virus. That is unless you’re watching on Fox Sports. Starting this weekend, the network will not only be piping in fake fan audio, but it’ll also be filling the stands with digitally rendered fans for its MLB broadcasts, starting with this Saturday’s Yankees-Nationals game. “We believe the crowd and seeing people in seats is part of a broadcast.” All 30 MLB teams will be relying on fake fan noise in the actual stadiums (sourced from Sony’s MLB: The Show games), along with the usual in-stadium announcers, walk-up music, and other aspects of pomp and circumstance that accompany a Major...

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 app has arrived in the Play Store, and a look at its features shows new gestures to silence alarms, take a picture, or answer an incoming call, 9to5Google reported (via XDA Developers) Rotating your wrist while wearing the watch will allow you to mute alarms as well as incoming calls, and clenching and unclenching your fist will answer a call. To take a photo or video with the Camera Controller app, make a fist, then open your hand. Gesturing will allow users of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 to answer calls and mute alarmsXDA Developers And exploration of the app confirms new watch faces will be coming to the Galaxy Watch 3. According to 9to5Google, users will be able to shuffle through the different watch faces automatically. Details about the Galaxy Watch 3 — incl...

With Major League Baseball’s season shortened to just 60 games this year, Amazon won’t be broadcasting any New York Yankees games this season, Bloomberg reported. Amazon was slated to stream 21 Yankees games beginning April 17th with several high-profile games —including three against the Boston Red Sox— on the list. Amazon Prime members in New York state, northeast Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and central New Jersey would have been able to stream all 21 games. But the Yankees’ YES Network has opted to keep those games for its channel, and MLB rules limit streaming games that are shown on regional sports networks like YES. “Given the unique circumstances surrounding this season, YES Network will televise all New York Yankees games not airing on the national networks,” Amazon said in a statem...

In a free-wheeling interview with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his Twitter direct messages are mostly made up of memes, and he isn’t overly worried about them being hacked. Musk’s was one of more than 100 high-profile Twitter accounts compromised as part of a July 15th Bitcoin scam. The company has said the attackers may have downloaded the private direct messages and personal information of some people in the process, although Twitter said none of those were “verified” accounts, as Musk’s is. “I’m not that concerned about my DMs being made public,” Musk told Dowd. “I mean, we can probably cherry pick some section of my DMs that sound bad out of context but overall my DMs mostly consist of swapping memes.” During the conversation with Dowd, Musk said he h...

Nintendo’s Switch Pro controller is fantastic, but it’s also kind of big. If you struggle to get a good grip on it or if you simply want a smaller controller to tuck into your bag, PowerA’s new Nano Enhanced wireless controller for the Switch (also compatible with Windows 10) is a good solution. It’s a more compact version that shaves about a third off the size of Nintendo’s official controller. Most of its design and features are faithful, including USB-C charging, motion controls, and LED lights on its bottom to indicate connectivity status. On the downside, it lacks rumble support and NFC for Amiibo. The Nano is $49.99, which is significantly less than the $69 Switch Pro, and it comes in two colorways: black with gray details around the sticks and triggers or gray with neon blue and red...