Articles by Derrek Lee

No more invites!

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Amazon is making its Halo health tracker available for purchase after an early-access period
Amazon Halo has been met with some controversy regarding the invasiveness of its service.
The launch also includes a few new features, including on-demand workouts.

After a few months in a limited “early access” period, the Amazon Halo band and service are now available to the general public. The band does not feature a display that is meant to keep from distracting the user and go largely unnoticed on their wrist. And while the device is meant to fade into the background, the device is much more involved in its tracking than other similar devices.

Beyond the typical step, calorie counter, and sleep tracker, Amazon Halo can also measure the intensity of your activity. For users who subscribe to the $3.99/month membership, it can take things even further by calculating your body composition, and even has a feature called Tone that actively listens…

Now begin’s LG’s slow trudge towards Android 11.

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LG has started its public beta testing Android 11 for the LG Velvet.
The beta is only available in South Korea at the moment.
LG is not known to push extensive beta programs outside of its home country.

And so it begins. LG is not known to be the quickest at updating its smartphones or the most forthcoming about its update plans. The good news is that LG has just begun public beta testing for Android 11. The bad news? It’s only available for the LG Velvet. The worst news? It’s only available for the LG Velvet in South Korea.

It’s not exactly surprising, LG is more popular in its home country than it is in the States, so beta tests usually happen their first. In fact, the U.S. is rarely included in any public beta programs from LG, at least in any significant manner. It is surprisingly late for LG to start beta testing, considering last year’s public beta for Android 10 commenced in October 2019 for the LG G8…

More ways to make your photos look more professional.

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Portrait Light is a feature that was announced alongside newer Pixel phones.
Google set up a light rig to demonstrate various lighting angles.
Machine Learning utilized information from a large data set to learn how to emulate various lighting conditions.

Google Pixel smartphones may not have the most powerful or versatile cameras in terms of hardware, but they more than make up for it in their use of software. Google uses computational AI to help boost images, making Pixels some of the best point-and-shoot smartphone cameras on the market. The Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 both upped the ante, particularly with the addition of the new Portrait Light feature.

Google details in a blog post how Portrait Light allows the user to adjust the directional lighting of an image after the photo was taken. It’s a feature that’s automatically applied to photos of people, including Night Sight shots. It’s similar to a stu…

Two big cameras and a little one.

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New live images leak of a prototype OnePlus 9 5G, at just about every angle.
Included screenshots confirm some of the internal specs, such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888.
The OnePlus 9 5G is expected to be launched in early 2021.

The OnePlus 9 5G is a few months away, but leaks seem to be in full force lately. Some leaked CAD renders of the OnePlus 9 5G showed off the expected design of the phone. There was even a live image of just the camera bump, which suggested a possible green color variant similar to what’s already available on certain OnePlus models. Now we have what seems to be our first hands-on look at the OnePlus 9 5G in all its glory.

The images show off the OnePlus 9 5G from every possible angle. The presence of a generic logo on the rear in lieu of the typical OnePlus logo makes it likely this is a prototype unit. Nonetheless, it gives us the best look to date of the upcoming smartphone, with mu…

Might not be as efficient as sticking it in your phone, but something’s better than nothing.

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Samsung will reportedly make cases for the Galaxy S21 smartphones that will hold the S-Pen.
There are at least six different memory configurations, and five colors between them.
The listed variants are specific to Germany, so configurations and colors may differ by region.

We’re nearly a month away from the expected January 14th launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series smartphones, and while there may be more leaks right now than anyone can keep track of, it seems there are more questions to be answered. At this point, it is all but confirmed that the Galaxy S21 Ultra will adopt support for the S-Pen, which until now has been exclusive to the dying Galaxy Note lineup. One questioned that remained is how Samsung plans to accommodate for this seemingly extra accessory since there will be no internal storage to hold it.

New details have emerged that Samsung will have cas…

May this be a lesson for you all: make sure your phone is protected!

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Michael Fisher, a.k.a. Mr. Mobile, accidentally dropped his Motorola Razr 5G, and the result was not a pretty one.
The outer display was completely damaged, but the inner display was not.
There are a number of options for someone in a similar situation, and Fischer tries them all.

In today’s world, where many of the best Android smartphones cost upwards of $1000, breaking or losing one is not ideal. You might fall down, hear a crack, and hope with all your might that it was your leg and not your phone. Foldable phones have an especially fragile reputation, so everyone’s favorite phone guy, Michael Fisher, must have really felt the pain when he accidentally dropped his Motorola Razr 5G, completely destroying the outer display. But it wasn’t all bad:

Call it a holiday miracle, but while the outer display was unmistakably damaged, the inner folding display was left unscathed. The only pr…

Does anyone still use Periscope?

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Twitter has just acquired the video chat service, Squad.
The move comes not long after Twitter launches Snapchat-inspired Fleets.
Squad is being shut down as early as tomorrow as part of the acquisition.

Anyone remember Squad? You won’t be blamed if you don’t. The app launched in 2019 as a social video chat service that included screen sharing, and allowed users to watch videos from popular streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. It seemed like a fairly novel approach, but many of those services eventually included similar functionality, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Well it seems Twitter wants in, as Squad was just swiped up by the company, according to Twitter’s VP of Product:

Excited to share that the @squad team is joining @Twitter to help us bring new ways for people to interact, express themselves, and join in the public conversation.— Ilya Brown (@ilyabr0wn) December 11, 2020

Squad CEO and …

Huawei is being slowly phased out in the West.

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The FCC voted to remove Huawei equipment from U.S. carriers.
The unanimous vote comes just after the UK put its plan in motion to phase out Huawei’s equipment from its telecoms.
China Telecom is also under scrutiny, as the U.S. questions its American business presence.

The FCC on Wednesday unanimously voted to remove Huawei’s equipment from U.S. networks, putting yet another nail in Huawei’s coffin. The company has been in an endless battle with the U.S., making it impossible for it to conduct business with American companies and greatly limiting Huawei’s ability to produce chips found in its best smartphones. The FCC cites security concerns as the main reason for the decision.

The record on this is clear. The Chinese government intends to surveil persons within our borders, for government security, for spying advantage, as well as for intellectual property and an industrial or business edge.

China has de…