Android phones aren’t getting any cheaper. In fact, they’re getting even more expensive with every release cycle. The mobile marketplace isn’t alone in this trend, but the right phone could last long enough to justify the ever-increasing cost. What’s the right one? Well, we can point you in the right direction. Here are the five best Android phones available right now. OnePlus Nord N200 Starting in the budget category, the offers a 1080p screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a capable Snapdragon 480 chip, and impressive build quality. OnePlus is in the midst of developing a new Android platform shared with its parent company Oppo, but the Oxygen OS build that ships on the N200 is a known quantity, and it’s great.
One of Microsoft’s currently available Surface models. (Photo: Zarif Ali/Unsplash)Microsoft may soon take on the classroom. In an effort to compete with Google’s Chromebooks, the company is working on building a low-cost Surface laptop and a scaled-back version of Windows 11, to Windows Central. The more affordable Surface will likely have a 11.6-inch screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution. Sources for Windows Central claim the device—codenamed Tenjin during development—will possess a fully plastic exterior, ideal for exchanging hands every day in a classroom. It will also contain an Intel Celeron N4120 (commonly used in budget- and classroom-friendly laptops) and offer up to 8GB of RAM.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is the most advanced machine ever sent to the red planet with a boatload of cameras and a refined design that should stand the test of time. Still, it’s just a robot, and sometimes human intuition can help a robot smarten up. If you’re interested in helping out, NASA is calling on any interested humans to contribute to the machine learning algorithms that help Perseverance get around. . That’s something most of us can do intuitively, but it’s hard for a machine. The project is known as , and it’s a continuation of a project started last year using images from Curiosity.
Facebook’s current headsets clock in at much lower prices than the headsets of yesteryear, and yet they’re still impressive pieces of hardware. However, the social media giant is working on a headset that isn’t going to compete on price. The company at the Connect conference, saying it will be a high-end experience rather than a replacement for the Quest. It won’t launch until 2022, though. It’s hard to judge from the teaser, but the new headset does look more svelte than the current Quest 2. A big part of that is apparently thanks to the “pancake” optics. These new lenses work by bouncing light back and forth several times to allow for a more compact form factor.
In 2019, the government signed a declaration mandating that we develop an itty bitty nuclear reactor by 2027. In compliance with that order, the US Air Force is launching a “microreactor” pilot project at Eielson AFB, in Alaska. Per usual, the Air Force is playing its cards pretty close to the chest. As of October 27, the Office of Energy Assurance (OEA) hasn’t even announced that they’ve chosen a specific reactor technology. But all evidence suggests that this new installation is part of an energy-resilience effort known as Project Pele. The goal of Project Pele, according to the Dept. of Defense’s Research and Engineering office, is to “design, build, and demonstrate a prototype mobile nuclear reactor within five years.
(Photo: Apple)Some despise it, some don’t mind it. Apple’s latest 14” and 16” come with a notch at the top of the screen where the device’s camera lies, similar to that of the iPhone. But users report that since getting their hands on the new MacBooks, certain applications with the notched display; rather than considering the notch in their formatting, the applications act as though it isn’t there, thus losing a small chunk of their screen real estate. The issue has prompted Apple to push out a temporary workaround, according to a new support . In an effort to avoid the notched area entirely, the company has provided 2021 MacBook Pro users with a way to display an app entirely below the camera area in lieu of a slim band of screen space.
For the last decade the action camera market has been dominated by a traditional “point-and-shoot” form factor, with only slight variations. DJI’s new 4K Action 2 ($399-$515) presents us with a radical new approach. Its system is composed of a number of modules and uses strong magnets as its primary means of attachment. Each module is about the size of an ice cube. DJI Action 2 By the Numbers The main camera module is a 4K shooter capable of 120 fps. It uses a 1/1.7-inch sensor with a lens providing it with a 155-degree Field of View. Along with the main sensor there is also a Color Temperature Sensor for calculating white balance.
Verizon has been pushing its mobile network as a home broadband option ever since it backed away from new fiber deployments. However, it’s been slow-going to actually deploy wireless broadband in places were people are likely to want it. Now, Verizon has a partner in this endeavor. , boosting coverage in rural areas where bandwidth is in short supply. Verizon started its 5G deployment with millimeter wave (mmWave), which is very fast but has a short range. It in these frequency ranges, and the carrier has since added mid-band frequencies, which it calls “Nationwide 5G.” Yes, branding in the era of 5G is confusing.
Intel’s Alder Lake line of CPUs will hit store shelves on November 4, and the chip giant is sharing some additional data about specs and pricing ahead of its debut next week. We’ve written several deep dives on Alder Lake already this year, but to recap: Alder Lake is Intel’s next-generation desktop chip. It’s built on a refined version of Intel’s 10nm node (now rebranded as Intel 7), and it’s the first hybrid x86 architecture. It’s called a ‘hybrid’ architecture because it includes a mixture of larger and smaller cores. Anecdotally these are typically known as “big” and “little” cores, though Intel’s claimed performance targets for the Efficiency cores implies that “big” and “bigger” might be a better way to describe the relationship between the two core clusters.
