With SpaceX’s Starlink being made available in my area, I became curious about just how many satellites were overhead at any given time. Fortunately, the US Space Command tracks and makes available data for tracking the live positions of objects in orbit. We can download this data, and use a Raspberry Pi and some speakers to announce when a particular satellite is making an overhead pass. You can also get an SMS message sent to your phone in addition to the audio.
What You’ll Need For This Project
Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi 3 with power adapter
8 GB (or larger) microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS. See our list of best microSD cards for Raspberry Pi.
Desktop speakers with a 3.5mm audio input
How to make a Raspberry Pi Satellite Tracker
Before you get started, make sure that you have your Raspberry Pi OS set up. If you haven’t done this before, see our article on how to set up a Raspberry Pi for the first time or how to do a headless Raspberry Pi install (without the keyboard and screen).
1. Install git, which will allow us to clone the code from github.com
2. Clone the repository and descend into the directory created.
git clone https://github.com/rydercalmdown/pi_satellite_announcer.git
cd pi_satellite_announcer
3. Run the installation command. It will take care of installing a virtual environment, any necessary low level dependencies, and the python requirements.
make install
4. Visit space-track.org and create a new account. This will let us download two-line element (TLE) data tracked by the US Space Command. The code will update data from this website once per day, and store it locally to minimize stress on their servers.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
5. Once registered, return to your raspberry pi and edit your environment.sh file – replace the template values with your space-track username and password.
6. Retrieve your home latitude and longitude values from Google maps by right clicking on the map and selecting the first option.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
7. Copy your latitude and longitude values into environment.sh, and set your desired radius in kilometers. For example, a radius of 20 kilometers would only report satellites overhead if their position on the ground is less than 20 kilometers away from you – they could be at any altitude.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
8. Plug in speakers to the 3.5mm audio port on your raspberry pi, and test that you can hear them with the following command. I’m using a megaphone, but any speakers with a 3.5mm audio input will work. You may need to increase the volume with the alsamixer command. If you run into trouble, try configuring your audio in the raspi-config menu.
# Test speakers
espeak -a 200 "this is a test" --stdout | aplay
# Adjust volume
alsamixer
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
9. Set up a twilio account. We’ll use this to send a text message when a satellite appears overhead. If you don’t wish to use twilio, you can edit app.py and set the ‘use_twilio’ variable to False.
10. Follow the setup instructions for a twilio account. Detailed instructions can be found on Twilio’s site here. You will need to create a phone number, and get your account credentials to perform the send actions.
11. Once you have your credentials and phone number, Add them to the environment.sh file.
nano environment.sh
# Twilio credentials
export TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your_account_id
export TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your_account_token
# the number you purchased with twilio
export TWILIO_NUMBER_FROM=+10000000000
# your phone number
export TWILIO_NUMBER_TO=10000000000
12. Run the code with the following command. It will connect to space-track, download the latest TLE data, and immediately start reporting satellites over the latitude, longitude, and radius provided in the environment.sh file.
make run
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
13. Play around with the code. Right now it only announces satellites that are not considered debris, but this can be adjusted easily. You can also filter down by constellation, or only announce satellites with names that are interesting to you, like the international space station (ZARYA).
Unredacted documents in Arizona’s lawsuit against Google show that company executives and engineers were aware that the search giant had made it hard for smartphone users to keep location information private, Insider reported.
The documents suggest that Google collected location data even after users had turned off location sharing, and made privacy settings difficult for users to find. Insider also reports that the documents show Google pressured phone manufacturers into keeping privacy settings hidden, because the settings were popular with users.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against Google last May, alleging the company illegally tracked Android users’ location without their consent, even if users had disabled location tracking features. The lawsuit suggested Google kept location tracking running in the background for some features, and only stopped the practice when users disabled system-level tracking.
The unredacted documents show one Google employee asked if there was “no way to give a third party app your location and not Google?” adding that it didn’t sound like something the company would want revealed to the media, according to Insider.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in an email to The Verge that Brnovich “and our competitors driving this lawsuit have gone out of their way to mischaracterize our services. We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We look forward to setting the record straight.”
Update May 29th, 8:11PM ET: Added statement from Google spokesperson
Unredacted documents in Arizona’s lawsuit against Google show that company executives and engineers were aware that the search giant had made it hard for smartphone users to keep location information private, Insider reported.
The documents suggest that Google collected location data even after users had turned off location sharing, and made privacy settings difficult for users to find. Insider also reports that the documents show Google pressured phone manufacturers into keeping privacy settings hidden, because the settings were popular with users.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against Google last May, alleging the company illegally tracked Android users’ location without their consent, even if users had disabled location tracking features. The lawsuit suggested Google kept location tracking running in the background for some features, and only stopped the practice when users disabled system-level tracking.
Earlier this week, a judge ordered parts of the documents in the case to be unredacted in response to requests from trade groups Digital Content Next and News Media Alliance, Insider reported. The unredacted documents show one Google employee asked if there was “no way to give a third party app your location and not Google?” adding that it didn’t sound like something the company would want revealed to the media, according to Insider.
Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment Saturday. The company said in a statement to The Verge last year that Brnovich had “mischaracterized our services” in the lawsuit.
Fitbit may soon add snoring and noise detection to its devices, a move that will likely please the spouses and partners of the snoring population and be of interest to people for whom snoring is a sign of a possible health condition.
According to a report in 9to5 Google, which decompiled the latest version of the Fitbit app in Google’s Play Store, the feature allows a Fitbit’s microphone (in devices that have one) to listen to “ambient noise including your potential snoring,” after you’ve fallen asleep. Not only would the feature be a major drain on the device’s battery, the idea of a sleep tracker monitoring noise “throughout the night,” as the release notes state, is a little creepy.
The 9to5 Google report says the feature is called Snore & Noise Detect, and it monitors “noise including snores from you or someone next to you.” It analyzes noise level, and tries to find “snore specific” sounds. When the Fitbit detects a noise event louder than the baseline noise level, it tries to determine whether it’s picking up snoring or something else.
A preview of what Fitbit’s snore detection could look like9to5 Google/Fitbit
The snore tracker can’t distinguish who is snoring, of course; the Fitbit wearer or someone else in the bedroom. The release notes recommend users not play white noise or other ambient sounds in the bedroom which can interfere with the snore detection, and suggests users charge their Fitbit to at least 40 percent before they go to bed because “this feature requires more frequent charging.”
The notes don’t indicate what users are supposed to do with the information about snoring, but since snoring and the conditions that can lead to it can be seriously disruptive to sleeping, it may be a useful metric to be aware of.
Fitbit also will be introducing “sleep animals” as part of a separate upcoming feature, according to 9to5 Google, although it appears to be in much earlier stages of development than the snore detector. It looks like each different style of sleeping will correlate with an animal— and again, it’s not totally clear what users do with the information, or how the animal images would be displayed in the app. But according to the report, a restless sleeper would be a bear, a short sleeper would be a hummingbird, a solid sleeper would be a tortoise, and so on.
I’m more of a bear when I first wake up tbh9to5 Google/Fitbit
Snore & Noise Detect isn’t available to all users yet, and while 9to5 Google enabled the feature long enough to set it up, it wasn’t able to fully test it. Fitbit didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday.
Venmo has added new privacy controls for friend lists following a jaw-dropping incident where BuzzFeed News was able to track down President Joe Biden’s Venmo account because of the app’s leaky privacy protocols. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered earlier on Friday that Venmo was working on the new controls.
“We’re consistently evolving and strengthening the Venmo platform for all of our customers. As part of these ongoing efforts, we are enhancing our in-app controls providing customers an option to select a public, friends-only, or private setting for their friends list,” a Venmo spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge.
To find the new controls, tap the hamburger icon while on the main feed, then tap “Settings,” “Privacy,” and then “Friends List.” The Friends List menu appeared for me and another Verge staffer while I was writing this article, so if it hasn’t rolled out to you just yet, sit tight.
In the new menu, you can pick if you want your friends list to be public, visible to friends, or private. You can also toggle whether or not you want to appear in others users’ friends list.
Venmo’s new friends list privacy controls.
The new toggles fix a major privacy hole in Venmo that has been known for years: there previously was no way to keep your list of Venmo contacts private, meaning that you could see the contact list of any other user on the platform. The hole was bad enough that following a brief mention of Biden using Venmo in a recent New York Times profile, BuzzFeed News was able to track down the president’s account in less than 10 minutes. The publication also found the accounts for many in his inner circle.
While you’re in your privacy settings, I’d also recommend setting your Venmo feed to private.
Update May 28th, 7:02PM ET: Clarified that Venmo’s previous friend settings included a privacy flaw, not a security flaw.
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There are plenty of buying guides for figuring out the best phone to buy at a given time, across a wide variety of prices. We have two of them, in fact. But if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool phone enthusiast, you don’t need a guide that’s going to give you the best rational recommendation. You need something that’s going to help you scratch your new gadget itch in the most satisfying way.
I’m here for you because, well, I’m one of you. This is the internet’s premiere buying guide for phone enthusiasts. We’re not going to focus on practical, rational choices, nor are we going to concern ourselves with budgets. These are the dream phones, the ones you buy not as a utilitarian tool, but for the fun of playing with a new piece of tech that you’ll probably sell or trade in for a loss in six months. I’m not even going to single out a specific model that you should buy, because you’re likely buying a new phone every year (or maybe more!) anyway. This is all about throwing caution to the wind, diving deep into a hobby, and buying something you don’t need but absolutely want. Budgets be damned.
Grab your cargo shorts, we’re going shopping.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5GPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G
The best folding phone because you know you need one in your collection
Folding phones are the future, right? You can’t call yourself a Real Phone Enthusiast without one in your life. Hands down, the best folding phone you can buy right now is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G. It’s got everything you might want from a modern smartphone, but it also opens up into a tablet-sized screen that lets you put more than one app side-by-side or look at a giant version of Google Maps. It’s easy to justify because you can tell yourself that you will get SO MUCH WORK done on it, right after you finish watching that YouTube video. Promise.
The Fold 2 costs more than most laptops, you have to baby it, and there’s a really good chance the screen will crack or break on you even if you are careful, but that’s just the price you have to pay to be on the bleeding edge.
Apple iPhone 12 MiniPhoto by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
2. Apple iPhone 12 Mini
The best iPhone for when you’re double-fisting an Android phone
Look, I know that you know that everyone in the world has an iPhone and it’s the farthest thing from an “interesting” phone. But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore what Apple’s doing, and really, iMessage and the Apple Watch are pretty great. Lots of people carry an iPhone alongside an Android phone, and you could be one of them.
The best iPhone for doing this is the iPhone 12 Mini. It does everything its bigger siblings can do, but it can easily fit in a secondary pocket and isn’t a burden to carry around. The battery life is kinda lousy, but who cares, that’s why you have a second phone on you anyway, right?
The Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate comes with a clip-on fan and has 18GB of RAM.Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
3. Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
The best phone for seeing what this “gaming phone” trend is all about
Gaming phones are so hot right now (unless they’ve got a great cooling system) — it seems like a new model is released every three months. You can’t call yourself a true phone enthusiast without being up on this trend, and the best one to dip your toes into it with is the Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.
The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate has a ton of features that can make any mobile accomplisher swoon. A massive battery. A ridiculously high refresh screen. An OLED screen on the back you can customize to show whatever you want. A bunch of accessories to make gaming better. 18GB of RAM! How could you not buy this phone?
Asus ROG Phone 5
$1,000
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Asus ROG Phone 5 is the quintessential example of a modern gaming phone. It has over-the-top specs, lots of gaming accessories, and a head-turning design.
$1,000
at Asus
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 UltraPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
4. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
The best phone for pretending you’re going to use a stylus
Writing on a phone screen with a pen is so cool! It feels futuristic and is just so natural. At least, it is for the first week until you forget about it and it never leaves the little garage built into the side of the phone again.
If you’ve been telling yourself that little “I’m gonna be a stylus person” lie, you need a phone that supports one and it’s hard to see buying anything other than Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20. It’s got a low latency S Pen, a bunch of software features that can utilize the stylus, and all of the other bells and whistles of a modern smartphone, which means it works quite well long after you’ve forgotten about the stylus.
The Google Pixel 4A
5. Google Pixel 4A
The best phone for messing around with the Android 12 beta
Okay, I said I wasn’t going to recommend anything rational in this guide, but this is perhaps the recommendation that makes the most sense: if you want to mess around with the Android 12 beta but don’t want to install it on your main phone, you should just buy a Google Pixel 4A. It’s only $350 (that’s just $20 more than it costs to fix a broken screen on an iPhone 12 Pro Max) and can work with Google’s latest and greatest software even before it’s released to the public.
You know the Android betas are going to be messy — battery life is going to be bad, there will be lots of bugs, certain apps might not work correctly — so you don’t want to put it on a device you actually need to rely on. Once the beta period is over, the Pixel 4A is a great device for experimenting with the aftermarket ROM world. Get a Pixel 4A and flash those ROMs to your heart’s content.
The Microsoft Surface DuoPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
6. Microsoft Surface Duo
The best phone for making people go “Whoa, is that a phone?”
As a phone enthusiast, you already know this harsh truth: the Microsoft Surface Duo is not a good phone. It has an old processor. The camera is worse than any iPhone of the past five years. The battery life is decidedly Not Great. It gets hot doing simple tasks. There are SO MANY software bugs. It’s got a generation-old version of Android. It doesn’t even support wireless charging or NFC payments! Oh yeah, and there’s that questionable build quality to worry about.
But there’s something undeniably cool about the Surface Duo, like it’s a device from the future coming here to bless us in the early 21st century. It’s so thin, it has two screens, the hinge is incredibly neat. Open it up in public and you’re sure to get someone to ask “wow, is that a phone?” which we all know is the ultimate goal here. You can then show them all of its cool features, right after it’s done rebooting itself for the fifth time that day.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro MaxPhoto by Becca Farsace / The Verge
7. Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
The best phone for telling yourself that you don’t need an actual camera
For years now we’ve been told that phone cameras are so good that you don’t need an actual camera. The iPhone 12 Pro Max might be the best example of that yet. It’s got a bigger sensor! It’s got three focal lengths! It can shoot video in Dolby Vision HDR!
At the end of the day, it’s still a phone camera and can’t really hold a candle to the image quality or creative control you get with a larger mirrorless camera. But hey, it’s fun to live in that lie and you can totally see the difference between the 12 Pro Max images and other phones. When you blow them up on a big screen. And zoom in.
Oppo Find X3 ProPhoto by Sam Byford / The Verge
8. Oppo Find X3 Pro
The best phone for saying “you can’t get this in the US”
Perhaps the ultimate phone flex is pulling a phone out of your pocket that nobody else is going to have. If you’re in the US, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is that phone. It’s got features you can’t get on any American phone and a design you won’t see everywhere, like a microscope camera and softly rounded camera bump. Sure, it won’t really work great on the cellular networks here, importing it is an expensive hassle, and you won’t have any warranty whatsoever. But just think of the envy on your friends’ faces when you tell them they can’t have this phone.
Oppo Find X3 Pro
$1,178
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Oppo’s Find X3 Pro is the company’s latest flagship and it’s not sold in the US. It has a unique camera system and head-turning design that you won’t see on American phones.
$1,178
at Amazon
OnePlus 9 ProPhoto by Becca Farsace / The Verge
9. OnePlus 9 Pro
The best phone for when you realize that Pixel phones aren’t great, but you don’t want a Samsung either
Google’s Pixel phones have such great software and then… mediocre everything else. Samsung phones have incredible hardware but are laden with heavy software and actual ads inside of the stock apps. The OnePlus 9 Pro splits that difference — it has software that’s similar to Google’s on hardware that’s virtually a Samsung with a different logo on it.
The 9 Pro is just what the phone enthusiast ordered: a high-end, bells-and-whistles device with All Of The Specs but none of the cruft.
Samsung Galaxy Z FlipPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
10. Samsung Z Flip 5G
The best weekend phone for when you’re “disconnecting”
Here comes the weekend, with all of its promises of relaxation and enjoyment. You don’t need a phone that’s going to make you more productive, you need something that’s going to slip into your pocket and won’t distract you with a colorful display unless you absolutely need it to.
The Z Flip 5G is this phone. You can flip it closed to ignore it and then pop it open and have a full smartphone inside, complete with every feature you get on non-flippy phones. You’re making a compromise without really making a compromise, because we all know that you had no intention of actually disconnecting for the weekend.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a brand-new Sony product launching first on Indiegogo. Motion Sonic is, in the words of Sony’s campaign, “effects gear to control sound in sync with your motion for playing music.”
The Motion Sonic device itself is a small capsule that can slot into differently shaped rubber wristbands, sort of like a Fitbit. There’s a band that attaches to your wrist for use cases like playing guitar, and another wraps around the back of your hand and is better suited to playing keys.
What it actually does is allow you to link hand motions to specific musical effects. For example, you could set it to add a delay effect when you move fingers from left to right, or to bend pitch as you roll your wrist. These effects are all created and saved on an iOS app, then you need to connect your iPhone to your instrument with an audio interface. (It’s not compatible with Android.)
Here are some demonstrations:
Sony has actually had this project kicking around for quite a while — we tried out an early version at SXSW in 2017. Shortly after, Sony posted this interview with a designer and art director on the project, who attributed the initial idea to an engineer called Heesoon Kim. The Motion Sonic Indiegogo campaign now lists Kim as project lead, quoting him as saying “I believe we can create new entertainment never seen before with Motion Sonic and I’m so excited to create a new culture with you!”
Sony isn’t new to crowdfunding, but most of its projects to date — like the Reon Pocket wearable air conditioner — have been limited to its own First Flight site in Japan. Now that Motion Sonic is on Indiegogo, Sony will ship it to the US as well as its home market. The first 400 units will sell for 23,900 yen or $218, and the retail price is 27,200 yen or $248. The product is scheduled to ship in March next year.
The DualSense controller for PS5 has great haptic feedback for games like Returnal and Demon’s Souls. But today I found out that it’s also good at humming along to tunes on Spotify when plugged into a PC.
While browsing Reddit, I stumbled across an ancient thread from six months ago where a user explained that, by plugging in a DualSense and tweaking a few settings, the device’s built-in haptics motors will do their best to play your music from the Spotify app on Windows 10. If you press your ear to the controller, it’s like listening into the world’s smallest rave ever, perhaps with a few Astro Bots in attendance.
I assume you just ran to go get your controller to try this out — because that’s the same reaction that I had. Okay, but first lower your expectations before you get started. The haptics likely won’t blow you away, as they aren’t tuned for this particular use case — this is just for fun!
Plug your controller into your PC via a USB-C cable and wait for Windows to automatically install the driver.
Once it’s installed, tap the speaker icon near the bottom-right corner of your display where the time is shown. Set “Speakers (Wireless Controller)” as your audio output.
Open the Control Panel and click “Sound.” From there, click on your current audio output and select the “Properties” button just below that.
Click “Enhancements,” the third tab from the left on the pop-up window. Check the box next to “Speaker Fill,” then hit “Apply.”
You’ll need to restart the Spotify app for the haptic playback to begin. Once you start the app up again, you should be able to feel your music. You might even be able to hear the haptics motors doing their best at playing the music if you press the DualSense to your ear.
If you actually want to listen to your music, in addition to feeling it in haptics form, just plug a set of headphones into the DualSense’s 3.5mm jack and the audio will be passed through. Your audio setup will look a little silly this way, but who cares?
Here’s a track that I feel shows off the effect well. Click the Spotify logo in the top right of the embed to have the track open within the PC app:
(Pocket-lint) – When ZTE told us the Axon 30 Ultra 5G was en route for review, we got that fuzzy feeling inside. That’s because the older Axon 20 5G was the first device we’d ever seen with an under-display selfie camera – so surely the Axon 30 Ultra would take this technology to the next level?
Um, nope. Instead the Axon 30 Ultra instead has a more traditional punch-hole selfie camera front and centre, so that fuzzy feeling quickly dissipated. Without such a ‘magic camera’ on board what then is the appeal of this flagship?
The Axon 30 Ultra is all about power and affordability. It crams a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor into a slender body with a 6.67-inch AMOLED display that can push its refresh rate to a class-leading 144Hz. All for just £649 in the UK and $749 in the USA. So is that as exceptional value as it sounds or are there hidden compromises?
Having moved out of the gigantic Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the ZTE’s more slender frame and trim 20:9 aspect ratio felt like a revelation by comparison. It’s not that the Axon 30 Ultra is small, per se, but it’s a well balanced scale.
Pocket-lint
The model we have in review is apparently black – that’s what the box says anyway – but the phone’s rear has a much softer metallic appearance about it, with some degree of blue to its colour balance. Really we’d call it a metallic grey. It looks pleasant, while fingerprint smears aren’t a massive problem thanks to the soft-touch material.
The camera unit on the rear is a fairly chunky protrusion, but that’s because there’s a 5x zoom periscope housed within that frame. It’s a relatively elegant block of cameras, though, and even with the phone flat against a desk it doesn’t rock about unwantedly.
The screen is the big selling point though. It’s a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel, the kind we’ve seen in the Redmi Note 10 Pro, for example, except the ZTE goes all-out when it comes to refresh rate by offering up to 144Hz. You can pick from 60Hz/90Hz/120Hz too, with the option to display the refresh rate in the upper left corner.
Pocket-lint
Having a faster refresh rate means smoother visuals, especially when it comes to moving content. You’re more likely to notice it when scrolling through emails than much else, though, so we’ve found our preference for balancing rate to battery life has meant settling on 90Hz. A more dynamic software approach would be better, or the option to designate specific apps to function at specific frame rates – especially games.
Are you really going to tell the difference between 144Hz and 120Hz? No. But the simple fact the Axon 30 Ultra can do this is to show its worth; to show that it’s got more power credentials than many less adept phones at this price point.
Otherwise the screen hits all the right notes. It’s got ample resolution. Colours pop. Blacks are rich thanks to the AMOLED technology. It’s slightly curved to the edges too, but only subtly to help hide away the edge bezel from direct view – and we haven’t found this to adversely affect use due to accidental touches and such like.
Pocket-lint
There’s also an under-display fingerprint scanner tucked beneath the screen’s surface, which we’ve found to be suitably responsive for sign-ins. Or you can sign-up to face unlock instead to make things even easier.
Having that scanner in such a position, rather than over the power button, leaves the Axon 30 Ultra’s edges to be rather neat. Other than the on/off and volume up/down rocker to the one side, and USB-C port, single speaker and SIM tray to the bottom edge, there’s nothing to disrupt the phone’s form. That keeps it looking neat and tidy. It also means no 3.5mm headphone jack, but that’s hardly a surprise.
Performance & Battery
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 8GB/12GB RAM
Storage: 128GB/256GB/1TB, no microSD card slot
Battery: 4600mAh, 66W fast-charging
Software: ZTE MyOS 11 (Android 11)
Elegant looks complement an elegant operation, too, largely down to the power that’s available on tap. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor on board, couple with 8GB RAM, there’s little else more powerful that you can buy. Indeed, the Axon 30 Ultra is knocking on the door of gaming phone territory given that 144Hz refresh rate screen.
Pocket-lint
Navigating around the interface is super smooth and speedy, apps open quickly, and there’s no downturn in performance if you happen to open a whole bunch. Games are a breeze, too, as you’d expect from this kind of hardware – although we’d like a game centre to prevent over-screen notifications and such like.
But it’s not perfectly smooth sailing on account of ZTE’s own software, which here is MyOS 11 over the top of Google’s Android 11 operating system. It’s a common problem among Chinese makers, so we probably sound like a broken record, but there are definitely issues with notifications. WhatsApp might take a couple of hours to notify you of a message, for example, but there’s never a fixed period of time – and other times it’s immediate. The mail app Outlook rarely to never notified of new mails in the inbox either.
A lot of this is down to software management. Because there’s rather a lot of it in MyOS. Under battery settings is an ‘Apps AI-control’, which is said to intelligently manage apps to save power. Except, as we’ve highlighted above, this can stifle some apps inappropriately. It can be turned off for manual control, where individual apps can have their auto-start and background running characteristics specified.
All of this is an attempt to aid the overall battery life. Because, as you can imagine, cranking out gaming sessions using the 144Hz and top-end engine from Qualcomm’s SD888 definitely eats away at the supply pretty rapidly. The 4,600mAh cell on board isn’t as capacious as some competitors we’ve seen and that, as a result, can see a heavy use day only just about scrape through a 15 hours day. It’ll manage, but only just.
Pocket-lint
Another oddity we’ve experienced with the Axon 30 Ultra is Wi-Fi connectivity seems to be a little up and down. With less strong signal our Zwift Companion app was very choppy in its updating of data – something that hasn’t been an issue with other phones we’ve compared in the same environment. We suspect that’s because the ‘a/b/g/n/ac/6e’ designation is catering for higher frequencies (‘ac’ is 5GHz only, for example, whereas ‘ax’ caters for both 2.6GHz and 5GHz, while the newly adopted ‘6e’, i.e. 6GHz, isn’t widely supported yet).
On the rear the Axon 30 Ultra houses an apparent four lenses: a 64-megapixel main; a 0.5x ultra-wide (also 64MP); a 5x periscope zoom lens (just 8MP); and what we would call a ‘portrait lens’ with 2x zoom (also 64MP).
It’s a bit of a mish-mash when it comes to results though. The main camera, at its best, is really great. It snaps into focus quickly, reveals heaps of detail – as you can see from the main flower shot below – but isn’t the most subtle when you look in detail, as images are over-sharpened.
The ability to zoom in the camera app is actioned on a slider to the side, but you don’t really ever know which lens you’re using – until there’s a clear ‘jump’ between one visualisation and the next, because, for example, the 5x periscope zoom is far poorer in its delivery. It’s only 8-megapixels, for starters, so there’s not nearly the same clarity revealed in its images. Plus the colour balance looks far out of sync with the main lens. Really this periscope is overoptimistic.
The 2x portrait zoom lens we also can’t really work out. Sometimes zoom shots are great, sometimes they’re quite the opposite – all mushy and, again, over-sharpened. It seems to depend which sensor/lens the camera is using at that particular moment – because the image of a horse in a field that we captured (within gallery above) looks fine, whereas the sheep in a field (shown in our wide-to-main-to-zoom-to-periscope gallery, below) is miles off the mark.
Motorola’s new Moto G9 Plus is a stunner of a phone – find out why, right here
By Pocket-lint Promotion
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Pocket-lint
: Ultra-wide lensUltra-wide lens
There’s potential here overall. The specifications read rather well, but somehow the Axon 30 Ultra gets away from itself a little. It needs to rein in the offering really, simplify things, and deliver a more detailed app that explains specifically what kit you’re shooting with. That said, the main lens will please plenty, while close-up macro work – with the artificial intelligence ‘AI’ activated – snaps into focus really well.
Verdict
To answer our opening question: what compromises do you have to accept if looking to buy the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G? Relatively few at this price point. There are some irks, though, such as the software causing notification problems (by which we mean absences), the battery being a little stretched, and the cameras get away from their potential somewhat – despite the main lens being perfectly decent.
Otherwise ZTE has crammed one heck of a lot into the Axon 30 Ultra. Its screen is commendable and having that headline-grabbing 144Hz refresh rate is sure to bring attention. The subtlety of the design is elegant, too, delivering a well-balanced scale that’s comfortable to hold and fairly fingerprint-resistant on the rear. And there’s bundles of power from the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, ensuring apps and games run a treat.
There might be less ‘wow factor’ than if there was an under-display front-facing camera to captivate prospective customers (like there was in the Axon 20), but given the Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s price point undercuts the big-dog Samsung, that’ll be enough of a lure to many.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
The ‘Fan Edition’ Galaxy might be a year older than the ZTE, but it’s a similar price, has more stable software in our experience – and that makes all the difference to everyday use.
Binge-watching Netflix on your smartphone just got easier. The streaming service is letting some users of its Android app try ‘Play Something’, a feature that suggests content for you to watch, Engadget reports.
The feature is already live on Netflix’s TV apps but it’s only being tested on select Android users for now, ahead of a wider rollout. If you’ve been selected, you’ll see the Play Something button appear on both adult and child profiles.
Play Something uses your viewing history and algorithms to suggest movies, documentaries, and TV shows that you might like. Hit the Play Something button and you’ll jump right in, no endless scrolling required.
Don’t like what you see? With another click, Netlfix will pick something else – this will either be from your queue, something you haven’t finished watching, or something else new based on your viewing habits.
Given the rise in rival streaming services such as Disney+, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, Netflix appears to be looking for extra ways to distinguish itself from the competition. What will it think of next?
MORE:
Streamers do battle: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix – which is better?
Are you ready for a Netflix gaming service?
Check out the best Netflix Originals to watch right now
If you’ve ever had to share an Outlook calendar with colleagues, you’ll know how painful it can be when things go wrong. I spent a decade of my professional career in IT support, and shared calendar problems with Outlook for Windows were a daily problem. Microsoft is now promising that it is “dramatically” improving the reliability of shared calendars in what it’s describing as “arguably the biggest change to Outlook for Windows since its initial release in 1997.”
Microsoft first started testing a new shared calendars experience for Outlook last year, and it’s now starting to roll out more broadly. Improvements include much faster sync times for new meetings and updated meetings, meaning changes should instantly be reflected in everyone’s version of a shared calendar. In the past, Outlook for Windows has often taken too long to sync calendar changes, resulting in meetings disappearing, calendars getting out of sync, and lots of other calendar headaches.
“Since summer 2019, we polished the experience and fixed bugs, thanks to many customer reports,” says Microsoft’s Exchange team. “With tens of thousands of daily users on the preview, we feel confident now that the experience is going to delight calendar delegates.”
Microsoft has been testing these calendar changes for nearly a year.Image: Microsoft
The shared calendar changes are starting to roll out to Outlook for Windows users gradually. Microsoft says it has around 10 percent of Outlook for Windows users with the improvements enabled and that it will “keep expanding gradually throughout the spring and summer.”
Users of Outlook on the web, the new Outlook for Mac, and mobile versions of Outlook are already benefiting from these calendar sync improvements. Now a fix is finally on the way for users of the dedicated Outlook for Windows app.
OnePlus’ new Digital WellPaper app turns your app usage into one of three live wallpapers on Android. Apps are simplified into six categories — social, lifestyle and communication, entertainment, gaming, information and business, and tools — which translate to six colors within each wallpaper that become more or less prominent as you use the apps.
Both iOS and Android already have the ability to track app usage at a system level, but generally you have to go into a dedicated menu to actually see the information. The advantage with Digital WellPaper is that it puts this usage information — albeit in an abstract form — front and center, so you’re aware of it every time you look at your home or lock screen. OnePlus says it hopes this will help Android users “visualize and better understand their day-to-day digital habits.”
The live wallpapers are also available as lock screens.Image: OnePlus
Google has experimented with similar initiatives in the past. In 2019 it released a series of experimental Digital Wellbeing apps in the Play Store, including Unlock Clock, a live wallpaper that shows a tally of how many times you’ve unlocked your phone that day.
OnePlus says the new app, which was “curated” by its internal experimental software team OneLab, should work without consuming too much of your phone’s battery. It’s just generating a new image once when you unlock your phone, rather than constantly updating in the background. More details on individual app usage can be found within the Digital WellPaper app.
More detailed information is available in-app.Image: OnePlus
Digital WellPaper is now available from the Google Play Store, and works on devices running Android 7.0 and above.
The 105th Indy 500 date is set and the race underway this Sunday, live from the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The biggest oval race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series will see 135,000 fans (in face masks, of course) cheer on defending Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato and pole-sitter Scott Dixon as they compete for the Borg-Warner Trophy and a bottle of ice-cold milk.
Ready to lay down some rubber at the Brickyard? Carb day (final practice) starts at 4pm BST on Friday, followed by the epic, 200-lap Indy 500 race on Sunday for an Indy 500 start time of 5.45pm BST (12.45pm ET). Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream wherever you are in the world.
Indy 500 live stream
Start time: 5.45pm BST / 12.45am ET / 2.45am AEST
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
US streams: NBC Sports | FuboTV (free trial)
Watch anywhere: Try ExpressVPN risk-free today
UK stream: Sky Sports F1 | Now
AUS stream: KayoSports
Buy tickets: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
This year’s 500-mile extravaganza will take about 3 hours to complete, depending on pitstops, crashes and safety cars. The 33-car field will be led away by six-time IndyCar champ – the greatest driver of his generation – Scott Dixon. The Iceman secured pole last weekend by just 0.03 seconds in a thrilling Fast Nine.
“It was pretty hairy, glad it’s over. It was definitely pretty tense,” Dixon told Fox News. “I could see the mechanics working on the car as we rolled through, adjusting the wings. I asked them not to tell me. It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions for everybody and I’m actually really relieved that that’s all over.”
Colton Herta captured second place. The 21-year-old Andretti Autosport driver put in a monster lap to bump 20-year-old Dutchman Rinus VeeKay into third place. The aptly-named Will Power smacked the wall on the final lap but will still make the race. Simona de Silvestro will get her first start since 2015 (last year’s race lacked a female driver for the first time in 20 years).
Anything can happen in IndyCar, but with Dixon set for his sixth front row start in his 19th Indy 500, the No. 9 Dallara-Honda is now odds-on favourite to the take the honours once more.
The 2021 Indy 500 presented by Gainbridge starts at 5.45pm UK time on Sunday. You can even stream the action on your TV and a host of devices including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS and Android devices.
Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream from anywhere in the world.
Feast your eyes on the best TVs you can buy
Indy 500 live stream for only €9.99
(Image credit: Wikipedia / TPSDave – indianapolis-motor-speedway-1848561 archive copy)
Those in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus and Israel can watch an Indy 500 live stream using DAZN, the subscription-based sports streaming service. The price varies from region to region and there’s also a free trial which means you could watch the Indy 500 for free!
Those in the Czech Republic will be able to sign up for €9.99 per month to watch the Indy 500 live stream. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel anytime.
Going to be outside the CR this weekend? Simply use a VPN to access your chosen Indy 500 live stream without being blocked. Try ExpressVPN risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Free trial available
Indy 500 live stream on DAZN for €9.99
DAZN has the rights to the Indy 500, UFC, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, US Sports, Fightsports, and much more live and on demand in selected countries. Try for 1 month. Cancel at anytime.
The DAZN app is available on Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks, as well as selected smart TVs including Android TV, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Philips.
If you have a games console, look for the DAZN app on Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. You can also download the DAZN app for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Watch an Indy 500 live stream using a VPN
Even if you have subscribed to the relevant Indy 500 rights holders, you won’t be able to access them when outside your own country. The service will know your location based on your IP address, and will automatically block your access.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps you get around this obstacle. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, such that the servers and services you’re accessing aren’t aware of what you’re doing. All the information passing back and forth is entirely encrypted.
There are many VPN providers out there, with some more reliable and safe than others. As a rule, we’d suggest a paid-for service such as ExpressVPN which offers a 100 per cent risk-free money back guarantee. If you’re not happy with the service any time within the first 30-days, then you can cancel with no penalties at all.
Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There’s 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up. Try it – you’ll be surprised how simple it is.
How to watch the Indy 500 in the USA
(Image credit: Wikipedia / Greg Hildebrand from Plymouth, IN – 2011 Indy 500874)
The Indy 500 race will air on NBC. Pre-race coverage starts at 9am ET on NBCSN, moving to NBC at 11am and finishing at 4pm. It also will be available to stream via the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com.
Not got cable? US fans also have to option to watch the Indy 500 via FuboTV, a streaming service that carries NBC and offers a free 7-day trial.
FuboTV supports Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Android phones/tablets. You can also use FuboTV to watch the Indy 500 on your TV using Google Chromecast or Apple Airplay.
After the FuboTV trial ends, you’ll be bumped onto the $65 a month plan, which includes access to a host of premium TV channels. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel at any time – and before the free trial ends, if you so wish.
Can I watch the Indy 500 in 4K?
FuboTV is a great way to watch the the occasional sporting event in 4K Ultra HD, but, sadly, not the 2021 Indy 500.
How to watch the Indy 500 in the UK
(Image credit: Sky)
Sky has the rights to show the Indy 500 in the UK. You can watch live on Sky Sports F1, or via the SkyGo app. The build-up starts at 3.45pm with the race set to get underway at 5.45pm.
Not a Sky subscriber? Anyone can enjoy the Indy 500 using Sky’s pay-per-view platform, Now. Now is available on all good smart TVs and set-top-boxes. A one-day pass costs from £9.99 gets you live coverage of F1, football, golf and more.
Now Sports Pass Watch the Indy 500 from just £9.99 A day pass for sports on Now can cost as little as £9.99, with a monthly pass coming in at £33.99 for those wanting to see the Indy 500 plus a few F1 grand prix, as well as football, golf and tennis.
How to watch the Indy 500 in Australia
(Image credit: Kayo)
Fox Sports has the rights to screen the 2021 IndyCar Series down under. Aussies seeking an Indy 500 live stream should click onto Kayo Sports.
The streaming platform’s premium package costs AU$35 per month but you can grab a free 14-day trial here.
Indy 500 schedule
5am ET – Garage opens
6am ET – Gates open
6.30am ET – Tech inspection
8.15am ET – Cars pushed to pit lane
10.30am ET – Cars on the starting grid
11:47am ET – Driver introductions
12.38pmET– Command to start engines
12.45pm ET – Green flag for the 105th Indy 500
Why does the Indy 500 winner drink milk?
The tradition dates to 1936, when Louis Meyer won his third Indy 500. It’s said that Meyer used to drink buttermilk to refresh himself on hot days, and when a photographer snapper a picture of him guzzling from a glass bottle in victory lane, the picture appeared in several newspapers.
It wasn’t long before a canny marketing executive representing the Milk Federation realised that ‘winners drink milk’ was a great way to sell the American public yet more milk. Ever since then, aside from a short hiatus between 1946-55, the winner of the Indy 500 has been presented with a bottle of ice-cold milk (actually it was a whole churn last year).
There was uproar in 1993 when contrary Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi mugged off the milk in favour of a bottle of orange juice. Some sections of the audience booed but Fittipaldi had the last laugh when he was revealed as the owner of a 500,000-acre orange grove in Brazil. Fittipaldi was later forced to issue an apology.
You’ll be able to join Twitter’s Clubhouse-like Spaces from desktop and mobile web browsers starting Wednesday, the company announced, making the company’s social audio rooms much more widely accessible. Previously, you could only join Spaces from Twitter’s iOS and Android apps.
You can get a look at what a Spaces look like on the web in screenshots below, from Twitter. The image on the left shows what you’ll see before joining a Space. The one on the right shows a Space off to the side so you can continue scrolling through Twitter while you listen.
Spaces are making their way to Twitter for web!
Now you can join a Space to listen in, test out the new transcription design, and set reminders to join a scheduled Space. https://t.co/xFTEeAgM4x
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 26, 2021
Spaces on the web have a big caveat, though: you can join Spaces, but you can’t host them yourself just yet, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed to The Verge.
Twitter has been quickly opening up Spaces and adding features over the past several months to compete with the dedicated social audio app Clubhouse and similar features from companies like Discord and Facebook. Early in May, Twitter began rolling out the ability to host spaces on mobile to anyone with 600 or more followers.
Clubhouse has hired Justin Uberti, creator of the WebRTC standard and the Google Duo video chat app. He leaves Google after nearly 15 years at the company, where he was most recently the engineering lead for Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service and led the team that made the Stadia iOS web app.
“Justin is a phenomenal engineering leader and one of the original inventors of WebRTC, on top of which Clubhouse is built,” Clubhouse co-founder and CTO Rohan Seth said in a statement. “There’s so much that goes into crafting a fantastic audio experience — the quality, the latency, the ability to use spatial distance when multiple speakers are talking. This will be a critical area of investment for us as we open Clubhouse to the whole world, and among other things, Justin will be helping lead that effort.”
Uberti’s title will be head of streaming technology, a Clubhouse spokesperson told The Verge.
“I’m really optimistic about the potential [of Clubhouse]: everyone in the world knows how to use voice, it’s such an expressive medium (compared to text), and advancements like AirPods are making it easier to consume audio,” Uberti said at the end of a Twitter thread discussing the move.
WebRTC is an open-source project that lets developers add real-time communication (RTC) features to applications, and it works on modern browsers and is supported within many native apps. The fact that Discord can instantly drop you into a voice chat in a browser? WebRTC helps power that. And if you’ve used Clubhouse, you’ve probably experienced how easy it is to jump in and out of audio rooms on the fly — that’s also powered by WebRTC. (Uberti commended Clubhouse as a “great example” of a novel RTC use-case.)
As Clubhouse looks to compete with social audio products from bigger companies like Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and even Microsoft’s LinkedIn, hiring the creator of a key technology backing its app could give Clubhouse an advantage in an increasingly crowded field.
In addition to Stadia and Duo, Uberti also had a key role in the development of Google Hangouts Video and was the chief architect for AOL Instant Messenger, according to his LinkedIn.
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