OnePlus says OnePlus Two NOT Arriving Tomorrow (June 1st)
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After the runaway success of the OnePlus One, anticipation is understandably high for its follow-up, and company co-founder Carl Pei has revealed a few more details about when we can expect to see the next OnePlus flagship phone.
Speaking to AusDroid at Google I/O, Pei confirmed that the device is called the OnePlus 2 and not the OnePlus Two. Adjust your web searches and/or birthday wish lists accordingly.
He also said the device would launch during Q3 2015 - which means July, August or September. OnePlus has a special event tomorrow but that's "not a new device" in the words of Pei.
Apologies if you'd got yourself worked up in anticipation of tomorrow's event, but it sounds like you'll have to wait a little bit longer. As for exactly what we'll hear about tomorrow, Pei didn't elaborate.
Pei did confirm that the OnePlus 2 will use the same invite system as the OnePlus One, but that there'll be a lot more invites to go around. The Chinese firm is "a lot more confident" this time, he said.
The OnePlus boss also revealed that the new phone would carry OxygenOS in western markets and a new HydrogenOS variant in Asia. An Australian launch isn't planned in the near future, but he didn't rule it out completely.
Qualcomm has announced it's helping Google stuff its Project Tango tech into a smaller form factor - specifically a smartphone set to be released in the third quarter of 2015.
Project Tango is focused on augmented reality (digital graphics placed on top of the real world) and virtual reality (entirely digital worlds). Up until now, it's only been available through an Nvidia tablet.
Like the tablet, the smartphone will be aimed at developers rather than the general public - this isn't really ready for consumer use yet, though anyone in the US can buy a dev kit if they want to.
A Project Tango device needs to know exactly where it is and where it's pointing in 3D space, much more so than a regular mobile, so getting this kind of technology into a smartphone is no mean feat.
Qualcomm says the upcoming smartphone is going to be powered by the Snapdragon 810 and the Adreno 430 GPU, the same kind of setup found in many of this year's flagships.
"We're excited to work together with Google and Android developers to help deliver new, innovative visual experiences using depth-sensing technology on mobile devices," said Qualcomm's Raj Talluri as the device was announced at Google IO.
This week everything's gone Googly: we've seen a host of announcements from Google on Android M, Android Pay, virtual reality and Google Maps too. There's even a search algorithm that can detect accents and change search results accordingly. But while Google hogged most of the headlines this week, we also saw some interesting moves at Apple, and tech provided FIFA with its only good press this week.
Google IO is the search and software giant's annual event for developers, and it's where Google sets out its stall for the year ahead. This year that stall includes a new version of Android, Android M, which is going to fix all the bugs and power issues that affect existing versions of Google's mobile OS.
Apps will no longer demand all the possible permissions when you install them, Android devices will support USB-C for super-speedy charging, and the new Now On Tap feature will bring relevant information up whenever you need it. The developer preview of Android M is out now but it won't make its way to Nexus devices until later this year. The rollout for other firms' kit is likely to be even later.
Google IO wasn't all about dull but useful OS updates, though. There were vastly improved Google Maps with proper offline operation, Google Cardboard for iOS, and a new project to make VR videos. And there was money news too. Remember Google Wallet, the easy electronic payment system that didn't really change the world? You can forget about it, because it's dead and Android Pay is taking its place. Android Pay will work at 700,000 stores from day one (in the US), and you'll be able to use your fingerprint to approve purchases.
One of the most useful things we saw at Google I/O was the new Google Photos service, which offers free, unlimited photo storage that makes Apple's iCloud pricing look ridiculous. Google Photos was already in Google+, which means only three people knew about it. By spinning it out as a separate product Google hopes to win over people who wanted to upload photos but didn't fancy storing them in a social network. From Google's point of view it gets stacks of photos to train its image recognition bots.
It looks like Google doesn't just name its products after confectionery brands: it's moving into kitchen products too. The finest minds on the planet have decided that the best name for their internet of things operating system is, er, Brillo. In the UK, that's a soap-filled steel wool pad that you use to clean pots. We can't wait to see what Google Cif, Google Cillit Bang and Google Mr Muscle turn out to be.
It's summertime and that can only mean one thing: it's time to think about Black Friday. The US's annual Thanksgiving shopping frenzy is becoming a big deal in the UK too, and we've discovered what went wrong with so many retailers last year and what gadget goodies you can expect this year.
When Apple goes shopping the tech world pays attention, because it often gives a clue to Apple's future direction. So what should we make of its apparent purchase of Metaio, the VW spin-off that specialises in augmented reality and computer vision? When you consider that Apple has also purchased Kinect inventor PrimeSense, it looks like Apple is thinking of a keyboard-free future – something that's also evident in its plans for the Apple Watch, which will include proper third-party apps this year.
Is Apple also considering a Jonathan Ive-free future? The design chief has been given a new title, God of All Things. Sorry, we mean Chief Design Officer. That frees him up to "travel more" and to focus less on the day to day management of design things. Pundits are divided: some think the promotion essentially makes him the new Steve Jobs, the ultimate decision maker on everything Apple makes, but others think that the promotion is the beginning of the end of Ive's time at Apple. Expect the Apple Kremlinologists to be watching every beat of the WWDC keynote in just over a week's time.
There's been a lot of FIFA news this week, leading to the inevitable 'shopped images of FIFA 16 boxes depicting Sepp Blatter behind bars. But there was a brief bit of FIFA sunshine amid the gloom this week when we discovered that FIFA 16 will include the top twelve women's teams: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. We say "brief" bit of sunshine because inevitably, some mouth-breathers turned to the internet to show that they have serious issues with women in their games. We could have stopped that sentence before "in their games". Or before "with".
Google's got a new idea: voice searches that return different results according to your accent. There's a serious plan behind the daft-sounding idea: if people with particular accents prefer particular search results, then other people with the same accent might have similar preferences. So for example a search for "dinner" with a French accent might prioritise French restaurants, while the same search by a Glaswegian would presumably return Irn-Bru and deep-fried Mars Bars.
You know we love to bring you tips and tricks on Keitai – and this week we found that there's a new question playing on the lips of many smartphones users: how do you make calls using WhatsApp?
We also found that people wanted to know "how do I clean ears?" and "how do I cheese Crota?" All valid we're sure, but let's focus on WhatsApp today.
Own an iPhone or an Android? Then good news because you, yes YOU, can make phone calls via the popular messaging application. (Sorry Windows Phone owners, there's no calling capabilities on your app.)
Want more good news? Well strap yourself in, because any calls made through WhatsApp won't eat into your voice minutes. As long as you have data left in your allowance, or are connected to a Wi-Fi network, calls are free of charge.
Once the app is open there are a few ways to initiate a call, depending on the system you're using.
Android users: You'll see a "calls" tab at the top of the app alongside side "chats" and "contacts." Head to "calls" and hit the phone icon in the top right to select a contact to call.
Received, made and missed calls are displayed here, allowing you to quickly call someone back. You'll also find a phone icon within one-on-one chats.
iOS users: For iPhone users the main tabs you require at the bottom of your screen are "Recent" and "Contacts." Your call list resides under "Recent," although there's no option here to call a contact that doesn't appear on the list.
For that you'll need to head to the contact list within the app and select the person you want to talk to. Then hit the phone icon on their contact card to start ringing. You can also call a buddy from a chat window.
Not seeing the call options on the app? Then you, my friend, need to update…
Head over to the App Store (for iPhone users) or Google Play (if you're on Android) and then navigate to the app update section.
On the App Store there's a handy tab at the bottom of the screen marked "Updates," while on Google Play you'll need to hit the menu icon in the top left and select "My Apps."
Any applications with pending updates will be displayed, so if WhatsApp is one of them, tap it and get your update on.
Who could it be? Winston stared longingly at the Nokia 3310's 84 x 48 display. All the message said was, "Hello Winston. It's been a while. TB."
He struggled to remember anything before his accident. Did he have family, friends... maybe enemies... he wasn't sure what he'd left behind when he was crushed by the mountain of BlackBerry Storms.
He picked himself up off the cold, hard stone floor, took the Nokia 3310 in one hoof and continued down the corridor at a gentle canter.
Creatures started to fill the shadows watching Winston's journey through the corridors, not that he noticed – he was too distracted racking his brain for who contacted him. How did the phone end up here, in this dark, horrifying place? It must have been a set up… but by who?!
He needed to message back – the sender had put "TB" at the end. Obviously he legally had to reply as soon as possible, but his nerves overtook him. As he reached the large gate leading him back into the real world he squinted as the bright daylight shone through.
He slumped to the floor to the side of the gate in the blazing sunshine, readying himself to reply.
He hit the button. He typed the first few characters. Bt then he heard it again, that immortal sound…the single guitar composition from Grans Vals written in 1902 by Francisco Tarrega.
That's it… it's the Nokia ringtone.
Imagine for a moment that you went out for the day, but you forgot to take your phone with you. It's a scary proposition, and something we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy.
This harrowing video highlights the danger we face every day. It can happen to anyone.
So please, please, please whatever you do, don't leave home without your smartphone. The consequences aren't worth thinking about.
We all know that early mobile phones were big, but perhaps you've forgotten just how big they were. This shot from 2007 shows off the "dramatic beauty" of the Panasonic P904i.
Its main selling point was the fact it could fold in half – making it just half the height of the average human, standing a proud 3 foot 2 inches in what at the time was known as "crouch mode."
It was the start of the truly mobile era.
"The affordable, transportable cellular phone is here!" exclaims this General Electric ad from 1989.
Among its headlining features is 30 number speed dialling, last number redial, electronic lock, light up keypad and... wait for it... adjustable volume control. Plus, there's an optional battery for true portable use (otherwise you'll be porting it from car to car).
Yours for just $397 (approximately £4 million in today's money).
The much-publicised bug that is causing iPhones to crash with just a text message has just got a lot worse, as it appears to also break Twitter and Snapchat.
The bug causes iPhones to crash when they receive text messages that contain certain Arabic, Marathi and Chinese characters, but as the Guardian has learned, the problem isn't confined to SMS messages.
Messages sent over Twitter that are booby trapped with the characters will cause an iPhone to crash if it has notifications turned on.
Snapchat is also at risk, as a text chat that contains the characters will again crash the iPhone, and means the users cannot open the chat history with the person who sent the message without the iPhone crashing.
Apple has promised to fix the bug, but at the moment it has only provided a temporary fix, so be extra vigilant about unsolicited text messages, Snapchats and tweets that come your way.
It's also likely that other iOS apps (especially messaging ones) could be affected by the bug. Some people have already reported that WhatsApp is behaving in much the same way for them.