Dan Jones

OnePlus has had a pretty successful run, with the company’s tagline, “Never Settle”, driving it to launch handsets that boast top-tier features without breaking the bank. And now OnePlus has its sights set on another market.

The company has recently confirmed that its next major step forward is going to be the domination of the living room. That’s right, OnePlus TV is a thing that’s happening. OnePlus’s announcement says that it has learned a lot about design, hardware, software, and more in its years creating smartphones, and as a result, sees the OnePlus TV as a natural next step.

Unfortunately, OnePlus’s announcement is pretty light. After the OnePlus TV name unveiling, the post then talks about how many fans of OnePlus devices there are out there in the world. The company does say the jump to OnePlus TV was made with “intense consideration and deliberation”, so it sounds like this wasn’t a rash decision.

In an interview over on PCMag, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau opens up a bit more, talking about why the company has decided it’s the right time to launch a TV. To be specific, OnePlus is aiming for a 2019 launch for its TV, which will be a 4K LED model with built-in connectivity.

According to Lau, OnePlus wants to jump into the smart home market that’s currently being dominated by smart speakers. Going with a TV first is certainly a unique decision. Lau’s company may be starting with a TV, but there’s room to grow, and Lau is aware of that, saying, “It’s not only to make a TV; we want to explore what OnePlus can do in the smart home industry.”

The OnePlus TV will be a hub for that vision, where talking to the TV will become natural (in OnePlus’s vision). The TV would feature far-field microphones, just like smart speakers, and would be a focal point for the household. Here is Lau on how that would look when you get up in the morning:

“In my mobile phone, I have my calendar agenda. When I get up in the morning, the agenda will pop up in the TV with the local time, weather, temperature, my hotel information, and recommendations for how to dress.“

So why isn’t OnePlus just launching a set-top box like so many other companies? Well, the company is trying to fix the idea that households need more than just one device to get something done. So instead of having to plug another device into a smart TV, just make the TV smarter.

OnePlus says this will be a “premium” TV, but is willing to cut back on pricing just a bit so the company can focus on building a user base, similar to its smartphone strategy. And as far as the operating system on board this new TV, Lau isn’t saying anything specific just yet. But the safe bet does seem to be Android.

So, OnePlus TV is coming next year. If you’re already a OnePlus fan, are you already gearing up to pick one up next year?

Sources: PCMag, OnePlus forums

Texts From Superheroes

It’s that time again: FREE DRM-free games! 

For a limited time, everyone (yes, even you) can download NINE games from the Humble Trove, including Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and LIMBO! 

Uurnog, Fortune 499, Tiny Echo, Cat Girl Without Salad, Drawkanoid, Thorn, and Crescent Bay are also free during this all-access period. Want more? Active Humble Monthly subscribers get ongoing access to the full Humble Trove of over 60 DRM-free titles.

Inbox, Google’s innovative app for email, has received its death sentence. Today, Google announced that it plans to discontinue Inbox, with the app scheduled to disappear by the end of March 2019.

Though not entirely unexpected, the announcement is disappointing, particularly to those who have been heavy Inbox users since its inception. Inbox marked a clear departure from the aging design of Gmail, and focused on a mobile-first experience. Featuring tight integration with other Google services, Inbox quickly garnered a group of passionate followers.

But in an overhaul to Gmail this year, Google implemented many of the innovative features that were introduced in Inbox. This merging of features led to uncertainty about the future of Inbox, and ultimately, to its demise.

Though Inbox featured some redundancy with Gmail, it’s a shame to see it go. Inbox was Google’s effort at email innovation in a mobile-centric era, and with its departure, we could see another prolonged period of Gmail stagnation.

What are your thoughts on the sunset of Inbox?

Max Roser has constructed a cartogram of the world where the size of the countries are determined by their populations (big version of the image here). He refers to it as “the map we need if we want to think about how global living conditions are changing”.

The cartogram is made up of squares, each of which represents half a million people of a country’s population. The 11.5 million Belgians are represented by 23 squares; the 49.5 million Colombians are represented by 99 squares; the 1.415 billion people in China are represented by 2830 squares; and this year’s entire world population of 7.633 billion people is represented by the total sum of 15,266 squares.

As the size of the population rather than the size of the territory is shown in this map you can see some big differences when you compare it to the standard geographical map we’re most familiar with. Small countries with a high population density increase in size in this cartogram relative to the world maps we are used to — look at Bangladesh, Taiwan, or the Netherlands. Large countries with a small population shrink in size — talking about you Canada, Mongolia, Australia, and Russia.

Some observations (Roser has many more if you click through):

1. Look at how teeny Russia is. (So is Canada.)

2. Seriously, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil all have larger populations than Russia. Japan, Ethiopia, and Mexico are very close.

3. 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia.

4. 5 times as many people live in Madagascar as do Ireland. The populations of Ireland + the Scandinavian countries = the population of Peru.

5. Europe is tiny. Guns, Germs, and Steel, yo.

6. India and China. Damn.

I would love to see an animated version of this cartogram from like 1950 to 2100 (like this one of the US).

Rich Communication Services, or RCS, are designed to make texting more robust, with plenty of features compete with messaging apps out there like WhatsApp and Telegram.

But it isn’t as widespread as some companies like Google would like, and even the technologies beneath RCS can be different, making it so that some apps can’t get the same experience as another. That’s very apparent when a Samsung device owner is trying to talk to an Android Messages user, for instance, because Android Messages and Samsung Messages don’t support the same RCS technologies.

But that is going to change beginning now. Google has announced that it is working with Samsung directly to make sure both apps “will work seamlessly together and with RCS messaging”. This means that even if you’re using Android Messages to talk with someone on Samsung Messages, you should still be able to text over a Wi-Fi connection, see read receipts and typing indicators, and share more robust conversations with high-resolution videos and photos.

Google says that the two companies have worked together on some Samsung devices already, but that it will be expanding that support to a broader range of handsets from now on, starting with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Beyond that, all new Samsung phones will natively support RCS messaging, beginning with “those on a set of carriers that have or will soon launch RCS”.

This is good news for folks who prefer to have richer text conversations, especially for the Android platform in general. Samsung is still one of the leading Android device manufacturers out there, so getting RCS support on those handsets is good news for all those involved.

Ah, these kids today and their addiction to wireless telegraphy!

Yeah, I’m not sure what else needs to be explained here, it’s what it says on the tin, etc. Owen Wilson likes saying “wow” in movies, people like pointing out that Owen Wilson likes saying “wow” in movies, and this is a collection of those moments. Purple monkey dishwasher.

Since 2011, brothers Morgan and Mason McGrew have been working on a shot-by-shot recreation of Toy Story 3. They’ve built sets, borrowed garbage trucks for scenes, and spent hundreds and hundreds of hours shooting stop motion animation of their army of Toy Story dolls & action figures. They’ve made enough progress on the film to release a trailer and it looks great!

For way too many years now, my brother and I (with the support of our awesome family and friends) have been working on a shot-for-shot recreation of Toy Story 3. This project has been an incredible undertaking, and we’ve made the decision to have this complete by 2019. At this time, I’m not quite sure what a release will look like, but I do know that this has to be done by next year. We’re both pursuing college and full-time careers right now, and it’s time to wrap this side-project up.

It looks like the brothers were around 11 and 14 when they began filming. You can check out the project’s Facebook page for information and updates.

See also Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.

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Save your progress bookmark – Bring some old school video game cool to your modern day book reading!

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I always have those urges to run out there when it’s raining heavy. But if there’s lightning, then you can definitely forget it.

Pokemon Bulbasaur Planter – Add your very own succulent plant to your Bulbasaur planter

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It's a holiday in the US, so we're turning back the clock a bit.
How do you make sure nobody issues an unauthorized request for a domain transfer? This registrar has serious security to prevent just that kind of event. You know this must be a classic, because it involves fax machines. Original -- Remy

Security through obscurity is something we've all probably complained about. We've covered security by insanity and security by oblivity. And today, joining their ranks, we have security by letterhead.

John O'Rourke wrote in to tell us that as a part of his job, he often has to help clients transfer domain names. He's had to jump through all kinds of crazy hoops to transfer domain names in the past; including just about everything except literally jumping through hoops. After faxing in a transfer request and receiving a rejection fax an hour later, he knew he was in for a fight.

John called the number on the rejection letter to sort things out.

John: Yes, I'm calling to find out why request number 48931258 to transfer somedomain.com was rejected.
ISP: Oh, it was rejected because the request wasn't submitted on company letterhead.
John: Oh... sure... but... uh, just so we're on the same page, can you define exactly what you mean by 'company letterhead?'
ISP: Well, you know, it has the company's logo, maybe a phone number and web site address... that sort of thing. I mean, your fax looks like it could've been typed by anyone!
John: So you know what my company letterhead looks like?
ISP: Ye... no. Not specifically. But, like, we'd know it if we saw it.
John: And what if we don't have letterhead? What if we're a startup? What if we're redesigning our logo?
ISP: Well, you'd have to speak to customer-
John (clicking and typing): I could probably just pick out a semi-professional-looking MS Word template and paste my request in that and resubmit it, right?
ISP: Look, our policy-
John: Oh, it's ok, I just sent the request back in on letterhead.

The transfer was approved. John smiled, having successfully circumvented the ISP's security armed with sophisticated hacking tools like MS Word templates and a crappy LaserJet printer.

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