Wait…a notch-less iPhone after 5 years?

Issue #11 | 9th Jan 22

Hey there—

After 3 weeks of the holiday season, the world has finally gotten back in the “Get Shit Done” mood. This edition is going to be long, so buckle in and turn your phone’s brightness down cause I have a lot to talk about and I don’t want you to strain your eyes :)

The biggest and most exciting news in the tech realm this week— the iPhone 14 will not have a notch. Yes, after 5 years, Apple will finally get rid of the notch. If we’re being honest, I loved the notch! I have always loved the fat notch on the iPhone X. It was a beautiful piece of design, perfect to separate the non-functional part of the screen from the functional one. And it provided and acted home to secure technology, Face ID. I don’t think any phone provider will come close to what Apple did with Face ID. It is magical ✨ Yeah, so heading back to the iPhone notch. Have a look at the first image. That’s how your iPhone might look in approximately 9 months. So cool! The Face ID technology will be under the display now and the cutout will only be a single camera! Man, I am so excited about this.

This week was also big for the Chinese phone manufacturer, OnePlus. OnePlus dropped the specs on their latest flagship device, the OnePlus 10 Pro. If you ask me, OnePlus is digging its own grave. The transition to ColorOS was probably the biggest mistake. However, if I speak negatively, OnePlus might never sponsor me. So shhh ;) The overall package of the OnePlus 10 Pro looks solid with an all-new camera design but the specs of the phone are not surprising, not even one bit. The phone will feature a three-camera setup with the following specs; 48MP + 50 MP + 8MP, Dual OIS. And a single 32-megapixel front-facing camera. The same 120Hz display as its predecessor. With an ever so slightly smaller battery of 5000 mAh. Not to forget, OnePlus’ unique selling point, its charging. The phone will support 80W of wired charging and 50W of wireless charging. That’s fast, that’s *bleeping* fast. For reference, the charger you received with the iPhone 11 was 5W. Get it now? That’s how crazy it will be. Oops, I haven’t mentioned the processor yet. The phone will feature Qualcomm’s best processor to date. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. What I am most excited about when it comes to OnePlus is the camera. OnePlus devices have always had a decent camera but never have they reached the level of flagships. Not even after their partnership with Hasselblad. Yes, their cameras are significantly better than their previous phones. I am guessing they have tirelessly worked with Hasselblad on the colour science of the new camera system. That would be amazing to see. This year’s camera system will also be able to capture better ultrawide photos because of the larger field of view and the phone will be able to capture better RAW photos. So all the photography maniacs out there can use the advanced power of RAW image capture and computational photography to make their photos and videos look unmatched.

Now that I have mentioned Qualcomm, let’s talk about the recent partnership Qualcomm is making with Microsoft. The CEO of Qualcomm at CES 2022 announced this partnership. It’s not any random partnership but something related to augmented reality glasses. This means Microsoft's next AR headset would feature custom made chips from Qualcomm which would significantly elevate the augmented reality experience. Wow! This is exciting.

Now heading over to Google. Whoops. They got sued and they lost :( Google has been found guilty of violating patents that belonged to Sonos. So now what? Do Google’s smart home products- like the Nest and Nest Mini- go off the shelves? Oh, nope. The patents that were violated are eh. I mean, yeah, they do make a difference to some extent but it’s okay. It isn’t that bad. The changes that would not be rolled out would mean you can no longer control the volume of your smart speaker using your phone’s volume rockers and neither can you change the volume of several speakers in one command. For example, if you have multiple speakers in your living room and you ask Google Assistant to turn the volume down to 40% for all speakers, it won’t be able to do it. You will have to adjust each speaker’s volume individually. So that’s sad on Google’s end :( Well, but there is some good news from Google too. At CES 2022, Google announced something staggering. Google will be spending this year to catch up with Apple’s ecosystem. This is something users have wanted since eternity! Well done, Google, it is a step in the right direction. So this means Android and select Windows users will be able to use the same type of fast pairing that works with AirPods. So the system will automatically switch your earphones output based on what device you are using. Another change is that Spatial audio and head tracking will be coming to Android! That is cool. Plus, Google has plans to get Google Play Games to Windows. That is interesting, innit? Now, I want to mention so much more about Google and their partnership but I have gotta make sure this newsletter is short and crisp. Want to explore more about Google and their announcements at CES? Have a look at this article by The Verge.

Another small update, before I sign off and catch you next week. Instagram has started rolling out the chronological feed update it promised last month. This means that you will now be able to view posts on Instagram without its trashy algorithm getting in your way. Well, that’s all that I have in store for you today, so I guess I’ll see you next time? Until then, make sure you update your devices and I will catch you next week!

Probably fixing typos in the main article after sending this email,
Tejas
5,970 days old