What you need to know about using two SIM cards on the OnePlus 3 – CNET
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Jason Cipriani/CNET
After unboxing the OnePlus 3 and sliding the SIM card tray out, you may have been met with a surprise: As with the OnePlus 2, the company’s latest phone supports dual SIMs, which means you can put two active SIM cards in the phone and use either one at will.
Why would you want to do that? There’s a couple of reasons. When traveling, for example, where prepaid plans and data services are the easiest way to remain connected, you may want to add your prepaid SIM to the phone, letting it handle the data connection.
Another reason you might find yourself taking advantage of the OnePlus 3’s dual-SIM capabilities comes down to being tired of carrying a work and personal phone; insert the SIM card from your work phone, then send and receive incoming calls and text messages from either number.
Should you find yourself using two SIM cards in the OnePlus 3, there’s a few things you’ll need to set up and know:
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
- With both SIM cards inserted into the phone, open Settings > SIM Cards. Here you can set which card you want the phone to default to for Data, SMS and phone calls.
- It’s a good idea to set a name and custom color for each SIM. Anytime you receive a text message or phone call, this name (and color) will be used to help you quickly identify which number is being used. Otherwise you’ll need to remember what number is associated with the default names of CARD 1 and CARD 2.
- You can go into SIM settings and turn off either SIM card at any time.
The importance of a OnePlus phone you can actually buy
What happens when OnePlus competes on something other than making noise.
Like its two predecessors, the OnePlus 3 offers a lot of phone for not a lot of money. But there’s a crucial distinction this year, as arguably the biggest barrier to entry no longer applies — you can purchase a OnePlus 3, from launch day, without an invite. And that’s huge for a bunch of reasons, some of them more obvious than others.
Firstly, let’s look the positives of the invite system from OnePlus’s perspective. As a smaller manufacturer, limiting sales through invites lets it trickle out phones over weeks and months, and avoid immediately selling out or (worse) being left with a bunch of unsold inventory. Supplies can then be adjusted accordingly. Those who persevere and end up with a phone likely are enthusiasts who’ll continue to spread the message through word of mouth. And ensuring everyone who wants one can’t get one right away helps maintain consumer and press interest over a longer period of time, as outlets and fans spread word of the latest ways to get hold of an invite.
The invite system has done its job. Now it’s time to just let people buy the damn phone.
Though undeniably annoying at times, the invite system has done its job. Going into the OnePlus 3 launch, consumers and media know and care about the phone even in the absence of any obnoxious marketing tricks. What’s more, the benefit of three release cycles under the invite system has surely allowed OnePlus to more accurately judge demand for its latest phone. And we also shouldn’t underestimate the goodwill generated by day-one, invite-free sales among core fans who’ve dealt with this frustration over the past couple of years.
It’s all part of the narrative of OnePlus growing up as a brand. No more apologies for an invite system creaking under the pressure of millions of requests.
No more cringey marketing blnders. No more disingenuous claims that this year’s phone will somehow kill next year’s flagships. No more delaying your phone because you couldn’t print the CE logo correctly.
Just a really good phone at a really competitive price, with no hoops to jump through.
Stupider times: The OnePlus of 2014.
It also means no more asterisks next to any recommendations to buy the OnePlus 3. In years past we’ve hesitated to include phones like the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 in our list of “best” unlocked Android phones, simply because the average phone buyer shouldn’t be expected to deal with these kinds of hurdles. There was also the implication that any direct price comparison was unfair on the competition, because you couldn’t just go and buy the phone. Now you can.
The new center of gravity for mainstream high-end Android phones.
That’s got to be cause for concern for some competitors. OnePlus isn’t playing the carrier game, but consider a company like HTC or LG, selling its flagships unlocked for $150-250 more than OnePlus. You could argue that the HTC 10 or LG G5 are better in a some areas than the OnePlus 3, but are they several hundred dollars better? Suddenly, paying full retail for anything but the very best — say, a Galaxy S7 or iPhone — becomes a really hard to justify. There’s a strong case for saying he OnePlus 3 is the kind of phone that’ll represent the center of gravity, price-wise, for mainstream high-end Android phones going forwards, leaving the Samsung and Apple at the top and budget contenders like the Moto G and Huawei’s Honor phones further down the scale.
Also consider the Sony Xperia X Performance, a $700 phone with basically nothing going for it over the $400 OnePlus 3. Sony Mobile US’s unlocked, online, direct-to-consumer price structure is so utterly undermined by phones like the OnePlus 3 that it’s almost comical.
With its immediate availability and $400 price point, OnePlus also puts the squeeze on unlocked phones around the $300 level — older flagships like the LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition look much less attractive when for $50-$100 more you can get current specs and superior build quality. Even the affordable Nextbit Robin, with its standard price of $399, looks a little inflated by comparison.
As the U.S. market trends away from carrier subsidies, eventually the established players will have to sit up and take notice of these kinds of handsets. OnePlus might lack the scale of an HTC or a Motorola, but it also doesn’t have an enormous global corporate structure to support. Thus the savings, as they say, are passed onto you.
None of these arguments would be as compelling were OnePlus not letting consumers simply hand over their cash and get their phone. Phone nerds have short attention spans, and if we had to wait a few months to buy the OnePlus 3 unlocked, many of us might have by then moved onto newer and shiner things.
Instead, OnePlus’s latest could turn out to be a pivotal device for this fledgeling manufacturer — and a milestone for affordability in a high-end phone.
OnePlus 3
- OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
- OnePlus 3 specs
- OnePlus 3 vs. the flagship competition
- Latest OnePlus 3 news
- Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums
OnePlus
How to try ChromeOS on a virtual machine before you buy a Chromebook
Seeing what Chrome is like without spending a penny is easy on Windows, Mac or Linux with a virtual machine.
I like to tell people that they should try a Chromebook. I think it’s simply the best platform for a laptop for most home-users, and the price-point is perfect. But saying something is easy — it’s the believing part that is a little harder. Taking a gamble by spending $200 or more based on what other people think can be difficult. I feel you because I’m a bit of a tightwad myself and while I’m not from Missouri I usually need to see something for myself before I make a decision.
If that sounds like you, too, this is something you’ll need to try.
The picture above is Chrome OS (technically Chromium) running on top of Windows 10, and it was as easy as downloading two free files and opening them. Using VirtualBox — software that creates a virtual machine on Windows, Mac or Linux — and a build of Chromium from the folks at NeverWare you really can see what using a Chromebook is like. You’ll need a computer with an x86 processor (if you don’t know what this is, then you have one) and enough RAM to run your normal operating system while reserving 2GB for the Chromium virtual machine. You’ll also need an internet connection to download the files and to connect your virtual Chromebook with your Google Account.
- NeverWare is part of CloudReady. They are a cloud software company who happens to provide builds of Chromium — the open source software that is used to build Chrome OS. Think of Chromium as AOSP for Android. The code is what Google maintains and uses to build their software. NeverWare also builds the software and includes hardware support that your virtual machine will need. All you need to do is download the pre-built file right here. Find the file labeled for VirtualBox and save it to your desktop.
Download: Chromium VM from CloudReady
- NeverWare provides the operating system for our virtual machine, but we need the software to create them. That’s where VirtualBox comes in. The software is free, and the installation is simple. Download the correct version for your system and install it like you would any other program. Linux users — they have packages for Debian, SUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu prebuilt to save you some trouble. If you use Gentoo or Slackware, you should compile from source anyway because you are one with your machine.
Download: VirtualBox from Oracle
- Once you have VirtualBox installed, run it once. read and agree to the terms and let the VM manager open. Then close the program completely. Next, go back to your desktop and double-click on the file you downloaded from NeverWare (it has a .ova file extension). Give it a few seconds, and you’ll see the screen above. All you need to do is click the button that says “Import” at the bottom. It will install itself into VirtualBox — this takes about a minute and you’ll see the progress bar. When that’s done, highlight the new machine you just imported in your list and click the green arrow at the top that says “Start.”
Things will take a bit to load the first time, but when it’s done you’ll see exactly what you would see if you powered up a Chromebook for the first time. It runs the same apps from the Chrome Store and syncs with your Google account. You’ll get the full Chrome experience so you can decide if you want to buy a Chromebook.
The best Chromebooks
Chromebooks
- The best Chromebooks
- Should you buy a Chromebook?
- Google Play is coming to Chromebooks
- Acer Chromebook 14 review
- Join our Chromebook forums
You won’t want to miss this Nexus 5X deal
If you happened to miss the last deal on the 32GB Nexus 5X, you won’t want to miss out on this one. This time around, DailySteals is offering an additional $10 off the price with coupon code NexusEmail10, dropping the price all the way down to just $259. The deal is only available for the black variant of the phone, but it is still a great deal.
All you have to do is enter coupon code NexusEmail10 at checkout to get the additional savings. If you are in the market for a Nexus 5X, this deal is one you won’t want to pass up.
See at DailySteals
Adele’s 25 lands on Spotify and Google Play Music
Seven months after its initial release, Adele has brought her latest album, 25, to major streaming service. The album is now available in its entirety on Spotify, Google Play Music, and more for subscribers.
Released in November 2015, 25 is Adele’s third studio album. Along with albums 19 and 21, the album forms a sort of trilogy about the singers young adulthood. Adele has previously stated that 25 would be her last album titled after her age.
If purchasing music is more your speed, you can of course still buy 25 from the Google Play Store.
Check out 25 on Google Play Music
Check out 25 on Spotify
These are the Daydream-ready phones (so far)
Is your phone Daydream-ready? Probably not.
Google’s big push into smartphone-based virtual reality has only begun to take form. Whereas Cardboard is an amazing way to make it so anyone and everyone can enjoy short VR experiences, Daydream is aiming much higher. You’ll be able to kick back and enjoy an episode of Game of Thrones, stand up and draw some amazing pieces of art with a big bubble around you as the canvas, and of course play an enormous number of immersive games. Daydream is going to be a big deal to anyone who can enjoy it, and in order to be on that list your phone must have Google’s “Daydream-ready” stamp of approval.
Which phones have earned Google’s blessing? Glad you asked! Here’s a very short list of what’s available now, which we will be updating as frequently as possible.
- ZTE Axon 7 — The first Android manufacturer to step up and claim Daydream preparedness did so before Google even has Daydream ready to use, much less the version of Android Daydream is going to run on. With its 5.5-inch WQHD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820 processor, and 6GB of RAM onboard this phone is a powerhouse, and when Daydream is actually ready it should be a lot of fun on this phone.
What about the Nexus 6P?
While Google is using the Nexus 6P to build and test Daydream, and you can currently install the Daydream Developer Kit on a Nexus 6P running the Android N Developer Preview, this phone is not Daydream-ready. To quote Google:
The 6P’s thermal performance is not representative of the consumer Daydream-ready devices that will be launching later this year.
This doesn’t mean someone won’t figure out how to shoehorn Daydream onto the Nexus 6P for you to try out once the apps are available to the public, but officially this phone does not live up to the spec Google has in mind for the ideal Daydream experience.
MIT: More collaboration is needed to fight disease
As anyone who follows science knows, a lot of the fields have blended together. Medical research is dependent on robotics and other technology, while computer engineers are building neural networks that mimic our brains. To get everyone working together, leading MIT scientists, including President Emerita Susan Hockfield and Nobel Prize winning geneticist Philip Sharphave, have drafted a paper called “Convergence: The Future of Health.” They believe the federal government, academia and industry must grasp the importance of overlapping research and fund it appropriately.
The reports focuses on three areas in need of convergence between disciplines: Brain disorders, infectious diseases and cancer research. Researchers in those fields need to collaborate with scientists and engineers who work on imaging, nanotechnology, regenerative engineering (prosthetics and organ transplants), and information technology. For instance, building artificial organs for transplants requires 3D printing expertise (below) that medical researchers don’t have. Similarly, optogenetics allows neurologists to change an animal’s behavior merely with light, but leans heavily on genetics and other fields.
Such collaboration, which the authors refer to as the “third revolution” in science, is already commonplace, of course. Doctors are working with geneticists to stamp out viruses and immune disorders via “synthetic biology,” and cancer researchers are using AI to improve patient diagnoses. However, coordinating such research is a big problem, especially for small, underfunded projects that could result in breakthroughs.
To help with that, the report makes several recommendations. Those include changing the way that grants are doled out to favor convergence, hiring researchers with expertise or knowledge of other disciples and creating PhD programs that allow students to design their own degrees across disciplines.
However, the main takeaway is that the US government must wade in. According to the authors, it must help create a working group that across disciplines with participation from the NIH, National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the FDA. That means that not only more participation from the feds, but more cash. “Convergence science has advanced across many fronts, from nanotechnology to regenerative tissue,” Sharp tells the MIT Review. “The funding allocated for convergence research in biomedical science is small and needs to be expanded.” For more, delve into the report.
Source: MIT
Sweden debuts the world’s first ‘electric highway’
Fossil fuels are bad for the planet, and freight haulage is one of the more carbon-intensive activities that operate today. That’s why Siemens and Scania have teamed up to trial what’s being called the world’s first “electric highway.” Much like an electrified railroad, the 1.2 mile stretch has a series of wires hanging overhead that a pantograph-equipped truck can connect to. Then, the vehicle can deactivate its fuel-burning engine and coast along on that delicious, dirt-cheap electricity, switching back when the wires stop.
Scania official Claes Erixon has said that the project is “one important milestone on the journey towards fossil-free transport.” Cleantech Canada quotes an unnamed Siemens representative, who says the move could cut energy consumption in half. As it stands, this is the culmination of a two-year project to develop this test track, with more work to be done to determine if it could be rolled out across the country. That is, unless, an alternative freight-transport network that’s even more energy-efficient and speedy, can make its case to governments across the world.
Via: Cleantech Canada
Source: Scania
RZA teams up with Atari on a new video game-inspired album
RZA already made one big announcement this summer, and the member of the Wu-Tang Clan doesn’t appear to be done yet. The rapper/producer announced this week that he’s teaming up with Atari on a new album that takes inspiration from the audio in the company’s video games. “I’m so excited to work on these iconic games to deliver what I believe will be one of my best albums,” RZA told Billboard.
The album will feature original music “based on Atari’s iconic video game sounds and music,” according to company’s CEO Fred Chesnais. This isn’t the first time the two have collaborated either, as RZA supplied a voice over for Atari’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure: a game about a graffiti artist. For the new project, RZA will lead production while Chesnais and Stephen Belafonte will be in the mix as executive producers. Details are scarce for now, but at least you have another album from the artist to ease the wait. RZA is set to release his album with Interpol’s Paul Banks in August under the moniker Banks & Steelz.
Via: Pitchfork
Source: Billboard
New Gordon Ramsay mobile game brings the heat and profanity
Ever dream of working in a kitchen with Gordon Ramsay breathing down your neck? With the new Gordon Ramsay Dash game, which lands on iOS and Android next week, you can get a taste of cooking in a stressful environment under the chef’s watchful eye. I had a chance to speak about the game with Ramsay himself — who, by the way, is unnervingly calm in person.
“The game is about how I started,” he said. You begin with a small neighborhood restaurant, simple ingredients and basic decor. Under game-Ramsay’s tutelage, you’ll grow your business into a global empire by serving dishes to customers in a limited time.
Gordon Ramsay Dash was made in partnership with Glu Mobile, the same company behind Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Indeed, based on screenshots, Dash’s main gameplay looks remarkably similar to Glu’s other restaurant game, Cooking Dash 2016, which I’ve been addicted to for a year. Even Ramsay’s description of his app sounds familiar. “This is a very competitive, highly energized scenario and it will give you an essence of what it’s really like in the restaurant world,” he said. You’ll likely have to prepare and serve food to a number of guests in timed rounds, and it can get stressful.
But there are unique aspects to Gordon Ramsay Dash chef duels: You challenge friends and other players to a cook-off; there’s a “Farm Market” feature for bartering ingredients with other chefs; and a “Wichelin” star system that Ramsay came up with mirrors his experience with earning Michelin stars.
Those stars are important, too. “Whilst you sleep, I’ll be monitoring your progress and the standard of the restaurant,” Ramsay said. And if your restaurant loses stars or falls in quality, you can expect an earful.
Indeed, that may be the game’s biggest draw. Ramsay spent weeks in a voiceover booth recording hundreds of pages of scripts to make the app feel more personal. You’ll hear him say (or shout), “Overcooked!” or “Overseasoned!” And if you’ve (gasp!) done well, you’ll also be praised in true Ramsay fashion: A game trailer shows him saying “Fucking brilliant” and “That’s how it’s done.”
Ramsay fans will probably enjoy Dash — but it’s a different story for his 16-year-old daughter, Holly. Ramsay said she told him, ” ‘Dad, love the game, just not too sure if I want you shouting at me in the morning when I turn my phone on saying that your restaurant’s gone under.’ “
As for those who have lofty dreams of starting their own restaurants, try the app first. “I’m going to send them an app with a phone free of charge, because that would be a lot cheaper than it would be to put hundreds of thousands of pounds into a restaurant that would last for six months,” said Ramsay.
It might not be all that cheap to play, though. While the app is free, its in-app purchases (at least in this beta) range from $1.49 for a handful of gold or coins to $14.99 for a bucket of currency. “I didn’t realize how much [Holly’s] spent on it already,” Ramsay said. “Thankfully, she’s using her mother’s credit card.”
That said, the cash-strapped could still enjoy the experience without any investment. In all my time playing Cooking Dash, I’ve not spent a single cent on in-app purchases, so it should be relatively easy to avoid spending money to enjoy Ramsay’s game.
The game will be available next week, on June 30th. You can pre-register on the Google Play Store, and those who do so by June 27th will receive an exclusive in-game chef’s coat to dress up their avatar.
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