The Moto RAZR 5G, OnePlus 8 and more devices are on sale today
The official news today, as always begin with deals, and this time for products you might still want to get, and some I also do debate. One list of ones I debate there’s the new Moto RAZR 5G. I don’t see a lot of people going crazy over it, and it might be the reason why you can currently get it for $999 on Amazon and B&H. Now those of you wanting an even better deal, Best Buy has it for $949, but that’s actually after activation. Now we know that many of you are concerned about the curse of the early adopter with Apple’s new M1 Macs, for you, the previous generation MacBook Air is currently $149 off, leaving the entry level variant for $850 on Amazon. Those of you interested in iPad Pros, Amazon also has the 2020 11-inch entry-level variant for $749, or even $849 for more storage, making it an equal $50 off. Finally we have the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 with a $61 discount, leaving the 45mm variant for $369 or $339 for the 41mm variant that’s Bluetooth only. We have more deals, including Hisense TVs in the links in the description.
Now as for other official news today, let’s talk about Apple and it’s current roll of announcements. If you remember, MacOS Big Sur was going live today, and yes, it’s now official. That said, those of you who rely on services like Final Cut Pro and other Apple Pro services, my advice is that you proceed with caution as some of these are still not upgraded for compatibility. Sure they’ll most likely work, but also crash in the process. That said, if you ordered any of the M1 Macs, some of us have already received notifications of shipment. Delivery times still appear November 17th to 18th, but if you do the math, they might arrive earlier than expected. For those early adopters, it’s great to see that there are major apps already upgraded for compatibility, like the case of Microsoft Office. The news went official today, though universal compatibility for this new version still seems in beta. Anyways, let me know who ordered any of the new Macs, cause after seeing videos from TLD and Snazzy, I’m excited for what’s coming, but more on that in the hottest news segment.
The next iPad mini could pack A14 Bionic chip and an 8.5″ display
And how about if we continue talking Apple, but this time for the iPad that I’ve been wanting to get in like for ever, but that I’m also waiting for it to get a refresh. I’d wait for the next one if I were you as we’re talking about some major upgrades according to a tipster, starting with the new A14 Bionic chip that powers the new iPhones and iPad Air. It seems we’re getting a more modern smaller bezel design like in the pro with an 8.5-inch Liquid Retina display, most likely on the same chassis. Finally a jump to USB-C, though the same speaker array we currently have with the mini, that’s not necessarily amazing. Same cameras as iPad Air 4, Apple Pencil 2 support, same 2 batteries that aren’t doing so well lately, and 4 Gigs of RAM. At this point I can only assume that the same Touch ID on the power button will also make the cut. Sadly we don’t have any timing on this new iPad Mini, but I’m gonna be the first to be excited about this smaller form factor.
Unlimited Google Photo backups will be unavailable with future Pixel phones
Now let’s do a little continuation to the controversial news from yesterday. Yes, Google Photos won’t be free unlimited storage any more as of June 1st, unless you have a Pixel. That said, it seems it only applies to current Pixels. On a new report from Android Central, it seems that every other Pixel in the future will be treated as a regular phone. This means that unless you own a Pixel 2 and up to the Pixel 5, anything that happens further will take up from your 15 Gigs of base storage, which according to Google, is enough to last you for 3 years of memories. The main problem being, we still have uncertainty over what’s going to happen in June. We don’t know if the existing photos currently uploaded will be dumped into the 15 gigs, and leave you without space, pretty much like iCloud does. Regardless of the case, we read your comments and yes, this is a major problem, which is sad as this was one of the few reasons I was still sort of locked into the Google ecosystem.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra might offer S Pen support, but no docking slot
How about if we switch gears for a bit and talk about Samsung, this time to discuss something we’ve been waiting for the company to do for years. No, it’s not for the company to say goodbye to its Exynos chips. Yeah, it’s the other thing… Think about it, how long has it been rumored for Samsung to say goodbye to the Galaxy Note and merge it with the Galaxy S? Well it seems that 2021 might finally be the year cause we’ve got Tipster Extraordinaire Ice Universe hints that the S Pen will be supported, but there’s a catch. The tweet is clear that it’s only the s21 Ultra, and a separate tweet from Max Jambor claims that there won’t even be a silo for the S Pen to fit. That might actually not be a bad idea as this will allow you to get a larger power pack within, which makes sense at a time when this phone is rumored to ship without a charger, and also that it’ll support a more power-hungry 2K display that supports 120hz. Whatever the case may be, this doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the death of the Galaxy Note, but if you remember there are also patents for a Galaxy Z Fold 2 supporting an S pen, so it could just be that Samsung might blend the products into one. We’ll see.
Story of the day:
MacBook Air with M1 Chip is more powerful than 16-inch MacBook Pro
And finally, the hottest news today have to do with Apple, and its new M1 chip Macs, as people have complained that there’s really nothing new when it comes to design, but I think we’re not looking at the bigger picture. See, Apple is notorious for is not providing information on things like the clock speed of their new M1 chips, or the kind of RAM they include. Those of you wondering just how powerful these new Macs are, let me just say I’m already regretting buying a 16-inch Pro. The new fan-less MacBook Air just went through Geekbench, and it seems to blow even the that 16-inch Pro. It brought single core scores of 1687 and a multi-core score of 7433. To provide some context, this means the M1 blows past all mobile Macs, Pro or non Pro, all current Mac mini configurations and a good deal of the iMacs. That includes the late-2019 MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9-9980HK processor clocked at 2.4 GHz. Funniest part is that the test was conducted with the entry-level MacBook Air with just 8 gigs of RAM running MacOS 11.0.1. If these results hold true to real world use, we’re not just talking about a faster computer. Think about it, this is a fan-less MacBook Air that costs a thousand bucks. I think it’ll be a true paradigm shift in pro computing, cause can you imagine that MacBook Pro?
Today we have tons deals from Apple, Samsung for you to choose from
Deals. For those of you looking for laptops, Amazon currently has the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro with a $300 discount, leaving the Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage variant for $2099 shipped. B&H is also matching this deal. Amazon also has the latest MacBook Air for $100 off, leaving it at $899 shipped for the 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD variant. The Bose 700 Wireless headphone are also $100 off, leaving them at $299 shipped for the white color variant. We have more deals on Mac Minis, SD cards and more in the links in the description.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 game reveal event is happening on June 11
Sony recently decided to postpone their PS5 Game Event for good cause given all the unrest and the protests happening in the US right now. Well, if you were waiting for it, the company just announced a new date for the event. It’ll be happening on June 11 at 1:00 PM PDT. You’ll be able to tune in to it on PlayStation’s YouTube and Twitch channels. As a little surprise, Sony says that the online pre-taped program will be broadcasted at 1080p resolution at 30fps, it’ll run for a little more than an hour and it will be available to everybody. Be sure to prepare popcorn cause we doubt it’ll be short.
Samsung and Corning are working together to develop UTG glass for foldable phones
Samsung introduced their Ultra Thin Glass for foldables this year with the Galaxy Z Flip and we’re expecting to see it on the upcoming Fold. The current material is produced by a Korean manufacturer called Dowoo Insys but Samsung apparently wants to step it up. The company is now partnering with Corning to bring costs down and to have better materials. Corning has apparently been working on foldable glass since 2019 and we could see Samsung phones with this new UTG as soon as 2021.
Apple could let you take long distance group selfies in the future
It looks like Apple is looking to take social distancing to a whole new level. A new patent shows that the company is working on a way to take a group selfie, without all of the people in the picture being present. It would send an invitation to you, and all of the participants would take a separate picture, and software would create a synthetic group picture. The funny part is that Apple filed this patent back in 2018 and it was just granted back to them, probably due to the pandemic. This feature would not only work with still selfies, it would also allow live streaming images and stored video images.
OnePlus Z key specs leaked, could be priced at Rs 24,990 ($330)
We’ve been talking about the OnePlus Z for a while now and that alleged July launch date is getting closer. Now, some users on a forum claim that they were asked to take a survey, asking them if they would be willing to buy a OnePlus smartphone with certain specifications. According to the survey, this phone would bring a 6.55in Super AMOLED display at 90Hz, an on-display fingerprint sensor, a Snapdragon 765, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It would also bring a 4300 mAh battery with 30W fast charging and a triple camera that consists of a 64MP + 16MP + 2MP array. All of that for a $330 price tag for India. There’s no launch date yet but, the company is having a OnePlus TV event in July 2 for India, and we could get a launch there.
Story of the day:
The Samsung Galaxy Watch3 gets NBTC certification
Samsung planning August 5 online launch for Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy Fold 2: Reports
As we’re getting close to August, we get more and more leaks for Samsung’s Event. The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch which will apparently be called Galaxy Watch 3 just got a new certification on Thailand’s NTBC. The listing reveals that it’ll be available in 41mm and 45mm variants, both of them supporting LTE connectivity. Samsung also briefly opened up some support pages on their Korean website which were quickly taken down, hinting to the launch. Some of the other listings also show that the device will bring Gorilla Glass XD, 5ATM water resistance and an extra certification for durability. On another note, according to a new report, talks are underway to finalize an online event on August 5th for the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20+. On a previous report, Ice Universe mentioned the same date on a Weibo post after he revealed the list of devices we’re expecting for this event. The devices include the Note Line-up, the Galaxy Fold 2, and the 5G variant of the Galaxy Z Flip. We should also expect the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ and the Galaxy Watch 2 which might actually be called Galaxy Watch 3 according to the certifications.
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