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Nearly ten years ago, Google shipped an unassuming, totally unbranded laptop to a large group of journalists and tech enthusiasts as part of a 60,000 unit pilot program. That laptop was the CR-48, and it was designed to showcase a project Google had been working on internally for well over a year. It was called Chrome OS.
As 2019 ends and we enter a new decade, I felt the story of OnePlus deserved a bit more examination. In an email interview with CMO Kyle Kiang, I probed the history of a company that is often as shocking in its successes as it is in its marketing misfires. As it crests its sixth year as a smartphone vendor, it's more competitive than ever, coming a long way from the days when it could barely manage to build enough $349 OnePlus Ones using a tightly controlled and very annoying invitation system.
The polls have closed, and after nearly 7,500 of you voted, there was a clear winner that emerged from our 2019 Readers' Choice Smartphone of the Year ballot: the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL, beating out the OnePlus 7 Pro family.
Today, Vice published a story detailing the abysmal security practices of Amazon's Ring brand of smart home security and surveillance products after a spate of compromised passwords (which have been inaccurately described as "hacked," even by The New York Times, who should know much better) led to terrifying privacy breaches for consumers across the US.Compromised passwords are an extremely common source of account breaches, whether as part of account dumps on the dark web or through simple social engineering. Passwords are, for all of their virtues, very bad as security measures. In a world full of bad actors looking to compromise your personal privacy for the sake of spying on you or taking advantage of you financially, your password should be one of several lines of defense protecting you. But for the vast majority of consumers, it's the only one. And that's a huge problem.There is a simple, established solution that could mitigate the overwhelming share of compromised login credentials, and if you read a website like Android Police, you're probably well aware of that solution. Two-factor authentication has been around for years, but is only just now starting to enter the mainstream establishment of secure online login systems, despite being supported as an option on a huge number of services.It's time for two-factor authentication to stop being optional. Two-factor authentication should be mandatory for any online credentials processed through a secure (HTTPS/SSL) protocol, full stop.Do we need a law stating as much? It kind of looks like, based on the pathetic response of Amazon to these Ring breaches, that we might. These corporations are so desperate for market share, and so afraid of upsetting consumers during the product setup process (which could lead to, gasp, a return!), that none of them have the courage to say "this is for your own good." It's time for that attitude to end, whether by force of an industry standard, or by codification in legislation.Two-factor authentication is not perfect, and 2FA of the SMS variety has been particularly maligned. But you should still use it if it's your only option, because it's still orders of magnitude more secure than a password alone. The argument around SMS 2FA has been one of the key stumbling points, in my view, in preventing a unified front around pushing 2FA as a need-to-have feature for any login flow. The fact is, for all the flaws SMS 2FA has (and there are some serious ones), the overwhelming majority of people don't even know two-factor authentication exists, let alone use it.If I were to drawn an analogy, SMS two-factor authentication is like putting your wallet in your front pocket when you're visiting a city known for pickpocketing. Is it a fool-proof strategy? No (and trust me, I've heard of people still getting pickpocketed from a front pocket). Should you use a jacket pocket or, better yet, an under-shirt money belt? Probably, but they're a bit more of a hassle to get in the first place, and the front pocket method is good enough for most people because it still greatly reduces your vulnerability compared to the back pocket.If almost everyone on earth used two-factor authentication, SMS 2FA would probably be something you genuinely shouldn't use. I understand the argument is being had in good faith, in the interest of safety and security, but right now, so many of us are so desperately vulnerable to being compromised online that the argument is basically moot. Any two-factor authentication system would be a massive improvement for a huge swath of people, and greatly reduce the chance they'd be an attractive target to these bad actors.For the security-minded among us, we already know that app-based 2FA is more secure, and physical security keys yet more secure than that. And that's fine: we can use those things. But the bar for the average person needs to be set a bit lower, at least for now, because right now there isn't a bar at all. You know exactly who I'm talking about: your parents, your grandparents, your coworkers, and maybe even your spouse; the people in your lives who use blatantly insecure login credentials because they can't be bothered to use a password manager, let alone come up with a password that isn't easily guessed. These are the people we need to be looking out for, not the privacy-aware like us. And these people need more protection from those who would seek to do them and their families harm.Two-factor authentication shouldn't be an option. It should be the bare minimum. It's time for companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook to step up: having single-step login as an option should be just as embarrassing as that big, red strikethrough you get in Chrome when a site doesn't use HTTPS.
In what should come as a surprise to no one, it turns out just making your smartphone's screen kind of yellow may not stop it from keeping you awake. In fact, according to a study out of the University of Manchester, that yellow-shifted "night light" is even worse for helping you get to sleep than just leaving your phone in the standard untinted mode.
Speaking to The Verge about the Pixel's first Feature Drop update, VP of Product for Pixel Sabrina Ellis claims that one of the features of that update—improved memory management—will eventually come to other Android smartphones. This implicitly confirms that the feature is not a Pixel-specific optimization, but rather a change in the Android platform itself.
Eyeroll: Fortnite publisher Epic throws tantrum, calls Google's 30% cut on Play Store IAPs "illegal"
In what should come as a surprise to no one, Fortnite publisher and developer Epic Games has been denied a request for an exception to Google's 70/30% revenue share on in-app purchases on the Google Play Store. In response, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has thrown what can only be described as a full-on, public meltdown of a temper tantrum, claiming without evidence that Google's IAP revenue sharing is "illegal."
2019 hasn't been what you'd call a huge year for smartphones. In many ways, our phones are more alike than they ever have been, and the things that set them apart are, similarly, less consequential than ever. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a phone that stood out in a really noticeable, important way to the Android Police editorial staff.
My time with the OnePlus 7T Pro (deep breath) McLaren 5G has been relatively short, but also pretty dang informative. And my opinion on it has, as a result, formed about as rapidly as the supercars which share its namesake get to triple-digit speeds. It's no secret that the OnePlus 7 Pro is a favorite among the staff here at Android Police, and the 7T Pro is really just a tweaked and tuned variant of that phone. The McLaren edition simply maxes out the RAM and storage configuration and adds 5G.
The OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren 5G (yes, this is a really long name) is the first 5G phone on T-Mobile anyone should care about. And, I would argue, it's the first 5G phone in America anyone should consider buying, because it's actually just a really great phone you otherwise can't get here. It's also the very first phone in the US that can use a 5G network that will actually be available to most Americans: T-Mobile's 600MHz 5G covers over 200 million people, meaning you're more likely than not inside that coverage map.
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Updating the graphics drivers on your smartphone isn't something you think about, because it isn't something you have much of any control over. That's because, for now, those driver updates generally only come alongside larger OS updates that your phone receives once a year (if you're lucky). With the Snapdragon 865, that's about to change, likely thanks to the changes Google has made to Android with Project Mainline, announced at Google I/O earlier this year.
One of my consistent complaints with most smartphone cameras is performance. While I'd personally single out Google's Pixels as among the worst, I think it's fair to say that most phones experience significant speed degradation in the camera as they age. I'm not going to claim I understand why this happens—a multitude of factors could be at play—but I do think on some level you have to look at hardware. And with Qualcomm's new Spectra 480 ISP in the Snapdragon 865, it sure looks like we're about to take a generational leap when it comes to imaging performance.
The Snapdragon 865 is the most important smartphone chip in years—and it packs some serious upgrades
I don't want to bury the lede on this one, so, here goes: I really do believe, genuinely, the Snapdragon 865 is the most important smartphone chip in a good, long while. No, it doesn't have an insane new CPU or GPU design, and no, it doesn't have an "integrated" 5G radio (more on that later). But if you're looking for the "5G is here" moment—a moment Qualcomm has been building up to for years—this is it.
The Moto One Hyper is the newest phone in Moto's rapidly growing lineup of "motorolaone" series smartphones, and unlike the other phones in the family, this one is a little more about specifications than edge case photography (though it does have a 64MP rear camera). The most striking thing about the Hyper is the notch: specifically, that there isn't one. This is Moto's first pop-up front-facing camera, and like the OnePlus 7 Pro, it gives the phone a clean, full-screen look.
Qualcomm announced its new "3D Sonic Max" fingerprint scanner at the company's annual tech summit this morning, and the biggest improvement is, well, that it's big. The new version of the ultrasonic sensor is allegedly a full 17 times larger than the previous generation, measuring 30.6x19.2mm. In standard measurement, that's around .91 square inches, about equal to the surface area of the coin face of two pennies.
Smart speakers have been heavily discounted for the last couple of Black Fridays, and 2019 continues the trend, but also adds smart displays into the mix, as well. We've got a few hot deals you should probably hop on if you're in the market, like a 40% discount on the new Nest Mini at multiple retailers. JBL is also running a doorbuster on its powerful Link 500 smart speaker, which normally goes for close to $400. There are plenty of Alexa-powered options in our list, too.
Black Friday is upon us, and with it, a sea of deals on smartphones. We'll cut right to the best ones you can grab, with a full list of all the deals we've found so far below.
If you want great deals on tech, our truly gargantuan Black Friday 2019 roundup is where you should start. It's just massive. But Black Friday has rarely been about gadgets for me, and I imagine that's true of a lot of us. It's about lame stuff, too, like socks and underwear! But for me, the most exciting part of Black Friday tends to be the stuff that ends up in my kitchen, and this year is no different: there are a lot of great deals on cooking gear, and even if you're a novice home chef, I have some picks I think you'll appreciate. Also, just some random stuff I like!
Smartphones have become boring. And I don't mean that in some kind of ultra-enthusiast, super geeky, and technical way. I mean that, for most people, smartphones are not an interesting, let alone exciting, thing. Most people look at buying a new smartphone like buying a new pair of running shoes: you read some reviews on a few blogs, you browse Zappos, maybe you even go down to a local athletic store and try some on. In the end, you buy some shoes, you keep them for a couple years (or longer, I'm not judging!), and you replace them when they seem worn out.
Smartwatches as a concept are not something I've ever really been able to get into. It turns out that's mostly because they're all pretty terrible — once you've tried an Apple Watch.