As Samsung prepares to launch its Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 series, which will likely carry cameras under the display, everyone else is showing off their camera technology under the display in hopes of all the lovely halo effects of the Technology.
- The short summary is that ZTE was the first to release an Axon 20 under the display, which was bad and more of a technical demonstration for the market.
- ZTE is now on second-generation technology with the Axon 30, which launched on July 27, although we haven’t seen any reviews yet.
Now Oppo and Xiaomi are trying to interfere, with the game played by me:
- We have seen this game plan before. Before the first fold release, Oppo and Xiaomi showed off their own folding technology and then did nothing for years until Xiaomi launched something. (Oppo chose rollable over foldable).
- We’re at a similar stage: Oppo and Xiaomi are trying to get in first, ahead of the biggest Android company making noise in a week.
- First, Xiaomi, which will launch the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 on August 10th. Details discovered in the MIUI 13 code suggest that a flagship is coming soon with a camera under the display. A “leaked” Mi Mix 4 video shows a pretty insane, super flexible screen, even with a camera under the display – and it probably won’t be the end product.
- And from Oppo, there’s a more official reveal of its “Next Generation Sub-Screen Camera Technology,” including a helpful sample photo and a number of tech insights.
- These include: Shrinking the pixel size on the display without reducing the number of actual pixels, which means there is enough space for enough light to hit the camera while maintaining a 400 PPI display.
- There is also an exchange of the conventional screen cabling for a thinner, transparent cabling, for a “much finer display quality” and further optimizations for the area directly above the camera.
- So that’s a lot of promises. The sample image looks like this:
📎 WhatsApp News: WhatsApps View Once Messages Feature Is Finally Live: How To Use It (Android authority). In less good news, a report from The information says Facebook wants to analyze encrypted WhatsApp messages for ads and introduces us all to the idea of homomorphic encryption, which analyzes encrypted data without decrypting it (Android authority).
🥇 We asked, you told us – from our deep dive camera comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra will take the best shots so far in 2021 (Android authority).
🍎 Apple begins selling Magic Keyboard with Touch ID ($ 149), new Mac Pro GPUs for professionals who need an upgrade, starting at $ 2,400 for a Radeon Pro W6800X with 32GB GDDR6, but sooner than standalone device. Incredible, these prices seem … ok (Ars-Technica).
🎨 MS Paint is good now and is getting a new look in Windows 11 (Gizmodo). There’s also a major redesign of the Apple online store on apple.com.
🤖 An Australian federal court ruled that AI can be named as the inventor of a patent, which seems to be unique in the world (InnovationOff).
🤔 Facebook is hosting a paid movie premiere this month (Engage).
😬 The reckoning at Blizzard has come: Blizzard President J. Allen Brack and SVP of Global HR Jesse Meschuk have both resigned as cultural issues, ignored complaints and the unsettling response to ignored complaints are being dealt with very publicly (The edge).
🛰️ Russia’s recent space station incident points to bigger problems (Wired).
🚀 The Boeing / NASA missile did not fly yesterday because of “unexpected valve position readings” that could not be corrected. It was postponed until today, but this is now scrubbed and the whole thing is being rolled back for review. May take a while before everything is cleared up.
🔋 Nikola shows his truck uphill for a change (The edge).
🧯 “ELI5: Why do” flammable “and” flammable “mean the same thing or is there a difference?” (R / explainlikeimfive).
An Airbnb for swimming pools is here, and it’s called Swimply.
- It’s pretty simple: make money from swimming pools and give people access to more pools – and there are around 13,000 pools in the app across North America and Australia. Maybe elsewhere, but not yet in Germany.
- CNET took it all for one ride and said it was less weird than you think and a little more economical: “At $ 20 an hour, it was cheaper than full size pools in the area, which can be over $ 100 an hour to rent. The average rental cost for a swim pool in the US is around $ 40 to $ 45 an hour. “
- That said, pools feel like a thing on their own that requires a few extras. People need bathrooms, easy access, chairs, pool toys, water, etc, and that seems to be an issue for some pools at times – the owners may be at home and may not want to have drenched people around the house, what’s more Airbnb style . And let’s not talk about insurance …
- I don’t know, it makes sense to some people, and people with backyard pools and such, I guess? It feels a bit like everything needs to be monetized, but that’s late-stage capitalism …
Applause,
Tristan Rayner, Managing Editor