Spotify has finally acted on its promise to add a COVID-19 content advisory label. As CNBCreports (and Engadget can confirm), you’ll now see a tab for a COVID-19 Guide when you visit podcasts and other content discussing the new coronavirus. Tap it and you’ll visit a section that points you to authoritative sources (such as the UK’s National Health Service and the World Health Organization) as well as trustworthy content, including podcast episodes from BBC News and The Guardian.
Engadget
We’ve asked Spotify for comment. The advisory doesn’t appear to be available everywhere — we couldn’t see it in Canada as of this writing, for instance.
The section represents part of Spotify’s response to criticism of Joe Rogan’s podcast. The host has been accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation through the Joe Rogan Experience, including a December 2021 episode where Dr. Robert Malone falsely claimed a “psychosis” fooled people into believing vaccines were effective against the virus. Spotify answered the backlash with both a promise of the content advisory as well as public content guidelines, but the label was expected to arrive within days, not months.
The content warning might not do much to improve Spotify’s image. Numerous high-profile artists pulled or paused their work in protest over the misinformation existing in the first place, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and author Brené Brown — a label isn’t likely to satisfy them and other critics who want Spotify to remove misinformation. While Spotify’s efforts have addressed the concerns of some creators, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, there still appears to be some lasting damage.
Amazon improved its Echo Buds in nearly every way when it came out with the second generation last year, and at $120, they’re a solid option for those who don’t want to spend a ton on ANC earbuds. Now, Amazon’s knocked 58 percent off the second-gen Echo Buds, bringing the models with the standard charging case down to only $50. That’s $20 cheaper than they were during the holiday shopping season last year.
The online retailer learned from the shortcomings of its original Echo Buds and rectified many of them when redesigning the latest models. The buds are 20 percent smaller than the previous models, a bit lighter too, and the entire design is IPX4 rated against water splashes. Sound quality has been massively improved: audio sounds less compressed and you’ll be able to hear the differences at low, medium and high volumes. In the Alexa companion app, you can mess around the the EQ if you wish while also customizing the settings for ANC mode, hands-free Alexa and Power Save mode.
Amazon switched from active noise reduction to true active noise cancelling on these buds and it made a world of difference. The buds block out surrounding noises and the Passthrough feature, which allows some environmental noise in, sounds more natural than that of other earbuds. Naturally, you’re also getting Alexa voice commands on these buds, and the assistant can do more than it could before, controlling music and podcast playback, finding specific shows on Amazon Music and making recommendations for other content you may want to listen to.
Battery life is pretty decent as well — you’ll get about five hours of listening time before the Echo Buds need more juice, and their case can give you two hours of listening time after only 15 minutes of charging. While call performance could be better, the second-gen Echo Buds are still a good option if you rely on Alexa for a lot of things or if you want a pair of ANC earbuds that won’t break the bank.
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Plantronics’ (now Poly’s) long independent streak is coming to an end. Reutersreports HP is acquiring Poly in an all-cash deal worth $3.3 billion including debt. HP said the purchase would bolster its “hybrid work” offerings, such as headsets and videoconferencing hardware. The computing giant didn’t say if Poly would still operate as a distinct brand or retain its CEO (we’ve asked HP for comment), but the deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.
Don’t expect this to lead to HP-branded consumer headphones or earbuds. When Plantronics rebranded as Poly, the company was already transitioning from personal audio to work-oriented products like meeting room speakers and videoconferencing cameras. Only a handful of items (such as the Voyager headphone range) are designed with home use at least partly in mind. As it stands, HP already targets everyday users with its gaming-focused HyperX brand.
Whatever HP’s intentions, the buyout closes an important chapter in audio history. Plantronics was one of the first companies to produce Bluetooth headsets, and developed an early reputation as a go-to brand for hands-free calling. However, its attempts at competing with consumer heavyweights like Apple, Bose and Sony never really panned out. While Plantronics created well-made headphones and earbuds that sometimes undercut the competition on price, it never reached the level of hype that helped its rivals succeed. The 2018 acquisition of Polycom and the subsequent Poly rebrand was, in a sense, an acknowledgment that Plantronics’ strength was in the office rather than at home.
It’s also no secret that Poly had entertained buyers. In 2018, Plantronics had been in talks with Logitech about a possible deal. That fell through, but it was already clear the firm was open to a merger. The HP move might represent a happy ending in that light, even if Poly is losing its independence in the process.
OnePlus began life as a startup making smartphones with high-end specs aimed at enthusiasts. Its first phones were barebones devices that maximized value for money, while still retaining a sense of identity (remember those sandstone backs?). That’s something that’s not easy for any device, regardless of price. But now after 10 generations, it feels like the OnePlus we knew is gone, and it’s probably not coming back.
Now, I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. It’s only natural that companies evolve over time. Just look at Nintendo, which started out making Hanafuda cards more than 130 years ago, or Nokia, which can trace its roots back to a single pulp mill built way back in 1865. So while OnePlus hasn’t been around nearly that long and its pivot isn’t nearly as drastic, ahead of the company’s next flagship phone’s arrival in the US, now feels like a good time to examine how a once sorta plucky smartphone upstart turned into mainstream OEM.
Last year, OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau was promoted to chief product officer for both Oppo and OnePlus.
Carlo Allegri / reuters
Founded in 2013 by Carl Pei and Pete Lau, OnePlus started off as a subsidiary of BBK electronics alongside other well-known Chinese smartphone brands including Oppo, Vivo and, more recently, Realme. So right away there was a lot of shared DNA. But critically, even though OnePlus phones often had similar designs and specs compared to contemporary Oppo devices, the teams behind those phones were separate. (The old joke for years was that the latest Vivo phone would eventually become the next OnePlus device after a few months, but I digress.) This gave OnePlus the freedom to tweak things to suit its core audience: hardcore phone nerds, mostly in the US and western Europe before later expanding to India. Meanwhile, Oppo and Vivo focused more on the Chinese market and other regions in Asia.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, when a new OnePlus phone came out, it often launched first in the US. OnePlus phones also had features like its Alert Slider and OxygenOS that weren’t available on phones from its sister companies. And as early as 2015, 60 to 70 percent of the company’s sales came from overseas as growth in the west quickly outpaced gains in its home country. More recently in 2020, OnePlus sales in the US grew by 143 percent while practically every other phone maker saw shipments decline due to the pandemic and the silicon shortage that followed soon after. In contrast to Oppo and Vivo, OnePlus carved out its niche overseas, and in some ways, you could even think of OnePlus as a western company that just happened to be based in the east.
Here’s a slide from OnePlus’ recent roundtable during MWC 2022. For a company that started out making barebones phones for enthusiasts, this sort of product focus feels like it’s coming from a completely different company.
OnePlus
But everything changed last year when OnePlus announced that it was officially merging with Oppo. So now, instead of being an independent company (albeit with the same parent in BBK), OnePlus is being positioned as a sub-brand for its sister company run by Lau, who will jointly oversee both companies while serving as chief product officer.
From a business standpoint, the merger makes a lot of sense. Rather than having redundant teams working on similar projects at different companies, combining OnePlus and Oppo helps streamline research and development while also boosting the scale at which the company can produce (and sell) devices. And it’s a similar story for the OS powering these devices, because after years of independent development, OnePlus announced that OxygenOS and Oppo’s ColorOS would transition to a shared codebase.
That means while OxygenOS will still be around, it’s closer to being a tweaked and stripped-down skin of ColorOS designed to look OnePlus’ old platform. But under the hood, they’re the same. And if it wasn’t for backlash from fans, Oppo probably would have shelved OnePlus’ take on Android entirely in favor of Vivo’s platform.
While OxygenOS and ColorOS will continue to exist, OnePlus’ shift to a shared codebase means they are essentially the same platform with some differences and tweaks depending on your region.
OnePlus
Unfortunately, this change to the new codebase hasn’t been smooth. During a recent roundtable that took place during MWC late last month, OnePlus’ head of OS product Gary Chen admitted that the latest iteration of OxygenOS (version 12) “did not meet expectations.” On top of that, when asked why the OnePlus 10 Pro launched first in China months before becoming available in other regions, Lau said the OP10 Pro’s delayed availability wasn’t caused by the ongoing global chip crunch, but instead because “software development takes longer for non-China countries.” This is a very different approach to OnePlus’ global sales strategy compared to the past. And lest we forget, there still aren’t even any plans to make a non-pro OnePlus 10, which just seems odd after years of new phones landing in pairs.
Another important factor to consider is all the former employees who have left the company recently, most notably Carl Pei. Not long before the OnePlus/Oppo merger went down, Pei left the company he helped create to launch Nothing. According to Lau, “Pei’s departure did not have an impact on the development of OnePlus.” And while I understand the desire for a company to put on a stoic face during a major transition, allow me to reserve a bit of skepticism on that one.
Prior to his departure from the company last spring, Pei was often the most visible OnePlus employee, particularly for customers in the west.
Steve Jennings via Getty Images
Over the course of multiple generations, Pei was often the face of OnePlus, especially for customers in the west. He presented new flagship devices at launch events and regularly popped in to chat with customers or provide updates in the company’s forums. And after launching its first product last year (the Ear1 earbuds), Nothing is about to become one of OnePlus’ direct competitors now that the company is prepping to launch the Phone 1 sometime this summer. Without getting too deep into any interpersonal drama, I think it’s pretty clear that Pei is still very much interested in making gadgets, just not at OnePlus.
The brain drain hasn’t happened solely at the very top of the ladder either, with other longtime OnePlus execs like chief marketing officer Kyle Kiang having left the company last year in April. And then there are the countless numbers of OnePlus public relations, communication and support staff that have departed as well. Prior to 2020, I basically had the same two or three OnePlus contacts for five years running. And while my more recent contacts have been nothing short of professional, the amount of internal turnover I’ve seen feels very much like a changing of the guard.
Oppo
And then there are smaller moves like pushing Warp Charging to the back burner in favor of 150W SuperVooc charging, which is slated to arrive on an upcoming OnePlus phone sometime in 2022. Now, it’s hard to get too upset about getting even faster charging tech, but this is yet another example of how the Oppo side of the company is seeping into OnePlus.
But perhaps most importantly is how OnePlus views itself. After shipping more than 11 million phones last year, OnePlus set new sales records in 2021. And while the company says it will continue to support its core markets in the US, India, Europe and China, the company also has aggressive plans to expand its markets later this year to Canada, Mexico and South America (a first for OnePlus). And in the future, OnePlus is eyeing North Africa and the Middle East as well. In short, while longtime enthusiasts probably won’t be completely forgotten, 2022 feels like a massive push from OnePlus to become a truly mainstream name.
OnePlus has very agressive plans for expansion as the company looks to become a truly global name in 2022.
OnePlus
In some ways, OnePlus has kinda become the new LG, filling the void in the smartphone landscape left after Samsung’s cross-country rival shuttered its mobile business. And while this might seem like selling out (which, remember, is exactly what companies are made to do), there are a number of positive things that have come about as part of the company’s maturation. We’re talking about stuff like wider retail availability and improved carrier support throughout the US, not to mention a growing ecosystem of gadgets that includes wireless earbuds, smartwatches and more.
There’s also the company’s partnership with Hasselblad to improve its mobile photography, which for OnePlus has consistently lagged behind what you get on phones from Apple, Samsung and Google. OnePlus has even improved the everyday durability of its handsets in recent years thanks to support for IP68 dust and water resistance — even if the company’s unlocked models don’t explicitly mention this in their specs. And thanks to the Nord series, OnePlus has a larger lineup of affordable devices than ever before.
OnePlus
So has OnePlus finally turned its back on its longtime customers? Maybe, maybe not. That really depends on what you’re looking for in a phone. There’s no question that the company’s latest flagship devices are very different from what it used to make back in 2014. Heck for the first few year But at the same time, people’s preferences and expectations about what makes a good handset have changed a lot during the last eight years too. In its quest for a worldwide presence, OnePlus left a lot of its past behind. And in its place, we’re left with a global brand that ranks as the fourth-largest smartphone maker on the planet (and that’s not even counting Vivo) that’s very hungry to climb even higher. So say goodbye to the old OnePlus and say hello to the rapidly expanding behemoth that’s taken its place.
Amazon Game Studio head and longtime employee Mike Frazzini is stepping down, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Frazzini cited the desire to spend more time with family and the fact that the studio is finally having some success. “While there’s never really a perfect time to step away from a great role, now is a good time,” he wrote. “We’ve launched two top 10 games in the past six months, and have a growing portfolio of promising new games in the pipeline.”
Amazon Games has struggled over the past few years, notably with the cancellation of its Lord of the Rings MMO and fiasco with its first AAA game, Crucible. The company was also criticized for its policy of claiming ownership of employees’ personal games that one engineer called “draconian.” One former Game Studios manager said some of Amazon’s issues may have come about because Frazzini had no previous experience in gaming, according to the same Bloomberg report.
However, the company has had hits of late with New World, one of 2021’s biggest money makers on Steam. It has also had ongoing success as the publisher of Lost Ark, made by South Korean developer Smilegate RPG. Frazzini didn’t say what he planned to do next.
Almost precisely three years after it launched, Apple TV+ has claimed the Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA. In another historic moment, Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. Apple paid $25 million for the distribution rights to the film, which had a limited theatrical run and is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Reuters
It beat Netflix’s favorite in the category, The Power of the Dog, which picked up Best Director for Jane Campion. And while Netflix registered a record 27 nominations for this year’s Oscars, losing out to Apple for arguably the biggest prize probably smarts after years of campaigning for its movies and shows.
Many, many years in the making, the interesting elements of Halo are somewhat outweighed by the show’s simplistic writing, stiff acting and sometimes dodgy special effects. If it came out in 2015, when we first expected it to arrive, it would have been more impressive. But with The Mandalorian and other shows like Foundation on Apple TV+, there’s a lot of premium sci-fi TV to get into — and that’s before we even touch all the myriad Star Trek shows filling up Paramount+, the home of Halo.
The tablet will reportedly feature a new chip and MagSafe charging.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman expects Apple will release its next-generation iPad Pro sometime this fall. Gurman anticipates the new tablet will feature MagSafe charging and Apple’s long-rumored but as yet unannounced M2 chip.
Apple only just updated the iPad Pro last year, adding 5G, Thunderbolt connectivity and its first-generation Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip. Details on the M2 remain sparse, but it has reportedly gone into production.
The extension ends a long-running spat with city regulators.
Following a years-long dispute with the city’s transit regulator, Uber has earned a 30-month license to continue operating in London. Transport for London (TfL) said the ride hailing service had been granted a London private hire vehicle operator’s license” for a period of two and a half years.”
Uber’s dispute with TfL dates back to 2017 when the agency said the company wasn’t “fit and proper” to operate in the city and revoked its taxi license. Among other issues, TfL said Uber had failed to properly conduct driver background checks and report serious criminal offenses.
The former employee estimates “a minimum of $200 million each year.”
In an essay published on the whistleblower platform Lioness, former Microsoft manager Yasser Elabd alleged Microsoft fired him after he alerted leadership to a workplace where many regularly engaged in bribery. He further alleges that attempts to escalate his concerns resulted in retaliation within Microsoft and eventual termination from his role.
Elabd claims in his essay that he worked for Microsoft between 1998 and 2018 and had oversight into a “business investment fund ” — essentially a slush fund to “cement longer-term deals” in the Middle East and Africa. But he grew suspicious of unusual payments to seemingly unqualified partners.
The collection is meant to document the history of the war.
Ukraine’s Ministry for Digital Transformation has launched an NFT collection to help fund its military. The project was first announced in early March, but the NFT collection of illustrations by Ukrainian and international artists, called “Meta History Museum of War,” is now live. The collection is meant to be an “NFT museum” documenting the history of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The collection currently comprises 54 NFTs documenting the events of the first three days of the war.
Samsung’s latest Smart Monitor, which we first got a look at during CES, is now available to pre-order. The Smart Monitor M8 has support for streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. You won’t necessarily need to connect to external speakers, since two built-in 5W speakers and a tweeter will deliver 2.2-channel audio.
The display comes with a magnetic, detachable SlimFit Cam that you can use for video calls. The full-HD webcam has face tracking and auto zoom functions, so it can follow you as you move around and automatically focus on your face. There’s a far-field microphone as well, which will come in handy if you want to bark instructions at Alexa or Bixby from across the room.
What’s more, the M8 has an integrated SmartThings hub, which will allow you to control compatible smart home devices. You can connect wirelessly to a Windows PC or Mac and mirror your smartphone screen to the display as well. There’s also the option to browse the web, edit documents and work on projects without connecting to a computer, in part thanks to built-in Microsoft 365 support.
Samsung
The M8 is 11.4mm thick, which Samsung says is around a quarter of the depth of previous displays. The 32-inch display has a UHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 and HDR 10+ compatibility. It has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. There’s support for 1.07 billion colors, which covers 99 percent of the sRGB spectrum.
The refresh rate tops out at 60 Hz, which may not cut it for some folks, while the response time is 4ms. On the connectivity front, the display has a one micro HDMI port and two USB-C ports, along with WiFi 5, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 support. It comes with a height-adjustable stand for which you won’t have to pay an extra $400.
The Smart Monitor M8 starts at $700 for the white model. The spring green, sunset pink and daylight blue models will cost you a little extra at $730.
