The Morning After: Nothing’s Carl Pei wants to make smartphones fun again
Carl Pei thinks something is amiss in the smartphone industry. Like so many of us, Pei was starting to feel like the new phones weren’t as special as the ones from five or 10 years ago.
He thinks that the big guys are all around the same ideas in smartphone design. (Something true for at least a decade now.) And that’s where his new company, Nothing, comes in. Pei wants to bring originality to mobile technology design. “Perhaps we can reduce the brain a little bit and activate the intuition,” says Pei. Our test full interview with the former co-founder of OnePlus.
No
While we have not tested the device properly, Nothing Phone 1 is available for pre-order – you just need an invitation. A word of caution: There’s nothing to say that Phone 1 won’t officially arrive in North America beyond a closed beta for some private community investors. The device will work but will not have full support.
I? I live in England. Sorry for that.
– Matt Smith
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Contrary to reports, it is still in its early stages.
The company’s co-director, Ted Sarandos, confirmed at the Cannes Lions festival that Netflix is adding an ad-supported category at a lower price point. He stressed that this option won’t bring ads to Netflix “as you know it today” – as with competitors like Peacock, you can still avoid marketing altogether.
Sarandos did not share further details. However, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google and NBCUniversal are “top contenders” to help Netflix build a plan to include advertising. A Netflix spokesperson told Engadget that the company is still “in the early days” of ad-based tier development and hasn’t perfected its approach. Right now it’s all “speculation”, the representative added.
With a new chip and screen.
In his latest Power On newsletter, BloombergMark Gurman reports that Apple is preparing a new HomePod speaker that looks and sounds similar to the original 2018 model. As you may recall, the company discontinued the HomePod in 2021 without announcing a direct replacement. According to Gurman, the new phone could feature Apple’s upcoming S8 chip and an updated display atop the speaker that could include multi-touch functionality. While the original has a display of sorts, it doesn’t actually display information beyond the Siri ‘orb’.
It delayed the FDA’s ban on their vape pens and pods.
Juul successfully persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals to ask the District of Columbia to delay the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on their products. The agency recently banned Juul from selling and distributing its e-cigarette pens and pods in the US after a comprehensive two-year review.
Despite Juul’s allegation that the administration’s ban is “arbitrary and capricious,” the FDA said it is banning the company’s products because it has not provided sufficient evidence that the chemicals have potential Harm does not seep from their proprietary pods into vapors inhaled by the user.
Thiomargarita magnifying glass is as long as a human eyelash.
Jean-Marie Volland / Berkeley Lab
One of the largest bacteria ever discovered requires no special instruments to be seen with the naked eye. The exaggerated thiomargarita, as it is called, is thread-like in shape and can be as long as a human eyelash. The BBC explains that it is larger than some of the more complex creatures, such as small flies, ticks and worms.
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