Today’s best deals you won’t want to miss

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

Today you can get huge discounts on Logitech PC peripherals like mice and keyboards, 20% off Amazon’s Alexa-enabled hardware, and more! Don’t pass these up.

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Amazon’s 4K Fire TV is down to $55 today only

Cut. That. Cord.

Amazon has dropped the price of its 4K Fire TV streaming device down to $54.99. This is about $15 off the normal price and one of the better deals we’ve seen. While this price isn’t quite as low as a deal we saw in early March, that sale was exclusive to Prime members and this one is not.

The 4K Fire TV deal is part of a huge one-day only sale from Amazon taking 20% off select Alexa-enabled devices.

If you’ve been considering cutting the cord, or want to add some streaming options to a new TV in your home, this is one of the best ways to do it. You can also get the 4K Fire TV for $35 when you prepay for one month worth of DIRECTV NOW service.

There are plenty of other devices on sale, too, like the Echo Spot and Fire TV tablets

See on Amazon

OnePlus 5: Details, specs, problems, and price!

It’s hard to ignore the importance of this phone in the Android world.

The OnePlus 5 was (at the time) the most expensive phone the company has ever made, and subsequently had the highest expectations. The base plan to meet those expectations was to double down on the formula that has at least got OnePlus this far: high-end specs, solid hardware and super-fast software. Then there’s the extra bit of marketing thrown behind its camera setup, which is the first substantial change to the formula of previous OnePlus phones.

The best place to get up to speed with the OnePlus 5 is right here — here are the top things you need to know about this phone.

The OnePlus 5T is here

Around the middle of October, OnePlus stopped selling the OnePlus 5. A few weeks later, the OnePlus 5T was announced with a new design and some new features. Since the OnePlus 5 is no longer available for purchase, you’ll want to check out the 5T if you’re interested in OnePlus’s phones.

More: OnePlus 5T: Details, Specs, Problems, and Price!

A whole heap of top-notch specs

For another generation, OnePlus is giving us just about all of the top-end specs we want to see in a high-end phone today. It starts with the latest Snapdragon 835 processor, and continues on with a standard 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There was also an optional 8GB RAM and 128GB storage model for just $60 extra.

You’ll also see an above-average 3300mAh battery inside despite the phone’s 7.25 mm thickness, and it offers quick charging that can match or exceed how quickly other phones charge up with their Quick Charge 3.0 tech. You get USB-C connectivity, of course, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack — unfortunately, an increasingly rare item these days.

More: Spec comparison: OnePlus 5 vs. OnePlus 3

We’re missing waterproofing, though

But of course, a phone that sold for $479 can’t do it all. There are still a few specs and features “missing” here that you could find on other phones … but the biggest one is waterproofing.

Yup, you won’t find an IP rating at all on the OnePlus 5, and that’s something you find in just about all of the flagship competition. No matter that those phones are $150-250 more than the OnePlus 5, because OnePlus is definitely framing its latest phone as a competitor to those flagships.

Some things remain unchanged from the OnePlus 3 and 3T

For all of the advancements in the OnePlus 5, some parts of its experience remainedunchanged — or imperceptibly changed — from its predecessor, the OnePlus 3.

Much of what you find on the OnePlus 5 was introduced in 2016’s OnePlus 3.

Some key parts of the hardware experience are the same now as they were before, including the 5.5-inch 1080p display, the one-touch fingerprint sensor below the screen, the great “Alert Slider” on the left edge, and the Dash Charge fast charging system. The phone’s dimensions are also near-identical, with the OnePlus 5 being marginally thinner and narrower, and just shy of 2 mm taller.

The Android 8.0 Oreo software on the OnePlus 5 is also very similar in features to the OnePlus 3, particularly if you’ve dabbled in any of the beta builds for the older phone where the new software has been in testing. The experience of using the phones side-by-side today is hardly different, and the small differences can (and should) be brought to the OnePlus 3 in due time.

In many cases the stagnation isn’t a bad thing, but it is worth noting that the OnePlus 5 has strong continuity with the phone that came before it and those that have come after.

OxygenOS is one of the best software experiences today

After a few early stumbles with its execution, OnePlus has created one of the best software experiences available on an Android phone today. OxygenOS, as OnePlus calls it, is based on the latest Android Oreo build from Google but also integrates several super-useful features that so many people desire in their phone.

You can tweak all sorts of little things like the status bar, launcher, theme, icon packs and the notification LED. But you can also change larger areas like choosing between on-screen or capacitive navigation keys, and adding screen-off gestures to launch specific functions and apps.

More: The OnePlus 5 is filled with great little software customizations

The best part about all of these changes is that they don’t get in your way if you don’t want them, and don’t detract from the overall clean experience offered by Android the way it comes from Google. Performance on the OnePlus 5 doesn’t suffer, either, which we can all be happy about.

You now have two rear cameras

A substantial area of change when compared to the OnePlus 3 is the OnePlus 5’s camera setup. The new phone has a new 16MP camera, a faster f/1.7 lens and new image processing techniques, but has lost OIS (optical image stabilization) in the process. The main camera feels like an overall upgrade from the OnePlus 3, and it’s capable of taking some great photos. But its lack of physical stabilization hamstrings it in scenes with mixed or little light, and the results end up being a bit grainy or blurry if you’re not careful with stabilizing your hands.

Dual cameras give you new options — and one important omission.

Sitting right next to the “main” camera is another camera as well: a 20MP sensor with an f/2.6 lens that has a longer focal length — around 40 mm equivalent to the main’s 24 mm. You can tap the “2x” button in the camera app to quickly switch to this lens and take photos with a unique perspective — and because it has 20MP of resolution you can even digitally zoom in a tad without losing much fidelity.

More: The OnePlus 5 has a DxOMark Mobile score of 87

The big reason for including the second camera is “Portrait Mode,” which is a way to use both lenses at once to create a faux background blurring effect to try and mimic what you’d see in a DSLR. It can be hit or miss (this software is really hard to do right), but when it works you get a cool-looking photo that’s different from what you’d see from either camera on its own.

It works just about anywhere in the world … but not Verizon

OnePlus surpassed a pretty big technological hurdle to be able to ship one model of the phone with radio support for 30+ countries — particularly in facing the Chinese market that uses many bands you don’t find anywhere else. That means you can take your phone to most places in the world and have it work on the local carrier, which is great for international travelers. There are also two SIM slots, giving you even more possibilities.

More: There’s one OnePlus 5 version for the whole world

The one shortcoming, speaking purely from a U.S. perspective, is its lack of support for Verizon and Sprint. Even though the OnePlus 5 technically supports some of the necessary LTE bands for the carriers, OnePlus is making no claim of testing or certification for those networks. It’s annoying and frustrating, but you shouldn’t buy the OnePlus 5 expecting to use it on Verizon or Sprint.

If you bring the OnePlus 5 to T-Mobile you’ll find it works great, including support for both VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling. Unfortunately those advanced calling features aren’t available on AT&T — you’ll get the basic voice and data services there.

Dash Charge is awesome, but has some requirements

The in-house developed Dash Charge charging system helps your OnePlus 5’s battery charge up incredibly fast. But because of the way the charger has to interact with the phone to perform the fast charging without generating much heat, it requires a special charger and cable. You must use a OnePlus-made Dash Charge charger and cable, or it just won’t work. OnePlus includes the correct charger and cable in the OnePlus 5’s box, and also offers extra wall chargers and car chargers on its website.

The only frustrating part about Dash Charge is that it isn’t cross-compatible with other fast charging systems, like the widely used Qualcomm Quick Charge or the more generic USB-C Power Delivery spec. That means if you plug into another charger (or use another cable) it will likely top out at about 5V/2.4A — which is pretty fast, but not nearly as fast as Dash Charge is.

You can’t buy one anymore

OnePlus has settled into a twice-yearly release cycle for its phones, and doesn’t have any overlap between models. That means shortly before a new phone is released, the current model will stop being available to purchase. The OnePlus 5 met this same fate, with sales (at least, official sales from OnePlus’s site) ending in mid-October 2017. A few weeks later, the OnePlus 5T was announced and became available.

You can still find the OnePlus 5 on Amazon — without official warranty, mind you — or used models on resale sites. The OnePlus 5 is still supported with the same software that the 5T has, and it’s still a great phone. If you want to save some dough, looking into a used OnePlus 5 isn’t the worst way to do it.

More: OnePlus 5 mysterious unavailable to purchase

Oreo is here

OnePlus has a very light take on Android, but doesn’t update its phones super quickly. Oreo was first released by Google in August 2017, but OnePlus didn’t deliver a stable version of Oreo to the OnePlus 5 until January 2018. It’s here now, though, and it’s as great at OnePlus’s software has been for years. There are the standard Oreo features such as notification channels, better autofill support and themed media notifications, but also new launcher and gallery features.

More: Android 8.0 Oreo is once again rolling out to the OnePlus 5

Read our review and other coverage

Get to know the OnePlus 5 in detail by reading our comprehensive review, as well as our second take review. You can see how the OnePlus 5 compares to the Galaxy S8 and then how their cameras compare, too.

Updated March 2018: Made sure everything is up to date and fresh! Plus, we now have reviews and more!

OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

• OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement
• OnePlus 5T specs
• Should you upgrade from the OnePlus 3T?
• OnePlus 5T vs. Galaxy S8: Beast mode
• All of the latest OnePlus 5T news
• Join the discussion in the forums

OnePlus
Amazon

Huawei loses another U.S. partner as Best Buy plans to stop selling its products (Update)

Huawei can’t catch a break in a political environment that’s set against it.

Update, March 22: According to a Bloomberg report, Best Buy won’t just stop selling Huawei phones but its laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and all Honor products, too.

According to CNET, Huawei is set to lose another U.S. sales outlet as Best Buy plans to stop selling unlocked Huawei phones. While neither the retailer nor the manufacturer is commenting at this time, Best Buy has reportedly failed to renew its inventory for devices like the Mate 10 Pro, which went on sale in February. Along with Best Buy, the phone is sold at Amazon, Microsoft Stores, Newegg, and B&H Photo Video.

The move comes after both AT&T and Verizon were convinced by the Trump administration, and by public pleas from leaders of the U.S. intelligence agencies, not to sell the phone. Huawei is the number three smartphone vendor in the world, but it has close ties to China’s Communist Party, and there is persistent fear among U.S. law enforcement that there may be unforseen backdoors to allow access to U.S. data. Carriers have been implicitly forbidden from using Huawei network equipment since 2012.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Autonomous cars may soon navigate better in fog

One major issue for autonomous vehicles is driving in fog. Many types of self-driving technology use visible light to determine how to navigate. This becomes a real problem when driving conditions are poor, and especially when there’s fog. But now, researchers at MIT have developed a method of producing images of objects within extremely thick fog and judging their distance.

The system uses a time-of-flight camera, which measures distance based on the speed of light. On a clear day, the process is pretty simple. But on a foggy day, the light scatters and is often reflected by water particles within the air, rather than objects a vehicle needs to avoid.

This made any time-of-flight system for autonomous vehicles somewhat less useful in foggy conditions. But the team at MIT realized that statistics could compensate for the reduction in accuracy. Regardless of fog thickness, the light reflections corresponded with a pattern called the gamma distribution. The system they developed can use this information to remove the fog reflections from the equation entirely. What’s left is actual objects that need to be avoided.

You can read about the technology more in depth at MIT News, but the bottom line is that this could help self-driving vehicles better master poor weather conditions. Right now, self-driving pilots usually occur in areas with generally good, clear weather. But eventually, these companies will have to start testing their tech in foggy and rainy areas; this may help them to do that.

Source: MIT News

Instagram lets users decide when to refresh their feed

Instagram announced some changes to user feeds today, but before you get too excited, no it’s not a return to the chronological feed. However, Instagram will start surfacing newer posts at the top of the feed so that “your feed will feel more fresh and you won’t mess the moments you care about,” as it said in its announcement. Additionally, your feed will no longer automatically refresh and jump back to the top. Instead, users will be able to tap a “New Posts” button that will take them to the top of their feed when they want to see new posts.

Instagram recently introduced the ability to link profiles and hashtags in bios and expanded its shoppable posts to more countries. The company says more changes are on the way and it will be sharing them over the coming months.

Source: Instagram

‘Harold Halibut’ is a delightfully quirky narrative adventure.

I’ve never been one much for slow-paced puzzle-solving games. If it doesn’t involve hacking, slashing, blasting or breaking my way through obstacles, then I’m generally not interested. But there’s just something about Harold.

At GDC 2018’s Day of the Dev exhibit, I had the chance to play an early pre-alpha build of Harold Halibut: A Handcrafted Game by Slow Bros. It follows the quirky adventures of a janitor aboard a scientific spaceship that has crash landed on an alien world, covered in oceans. Not only must he help the crew devise a means of escape but also must unravel the mysteries of the planet’s deep seas.

The artwork for this game is like nothing I’ve played before. The characters and sets were first physically constructed from clay, cloth, wood and other materials, then digitally scanned. The result: a uniquely realistic world that looks as though it is driven by stop-motion marionette strings rather than the Unity engine. It’s all very Wes Anderson-esque.

The gameplay mechanics themselves are fairly straightforward. In the demo that I played, it generally consisted of moving through the various rooms of the spaceship, speaking to other characters and running errands. But for as simplistic and methodically-paced as it was, I found myself increasingly drawn into the story, wanting to know what mishaps would befall Harold next (whether he caused them himself or not).

There’s no word yet on when the game will be available, what it will retail for or even what platforms it will be made available one.

Raytheon’s laser and microwave buggy test brought down 45 drones

This week, Raytheon announced it successfully tested its anti-drone technology. The advanced high-power microwave and laser dune buggy brought down 45 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones at a U.S. Army exercise that was held in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

The microwave system was able to bring down multiple UAVs at once when the devices swarmed, while the high energy laser (HEL) was able to identify and shoot down 12 Class I and II UAVs, as well as six different stationary devices that propelled mortar rounds. The equipment is intended to protect US troops against drones; it’s self-contained and easy to deploy in a tense situation. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory worked with Raytheon to develop this counter-drone and UAV tech.

Source: Raytheon

The video game industry is finally asking where the women are

Ubisoft is participating in the Women in Gaming Rally at GDC this week.

It’s one of the first things the 20 or so journalists pooled between the open bar and the canapes on the second floor of Hotel Zetta were told — mentioned right after the evening’s embargo information and just before spokespeople split the reporters into three groups and shepherded them to their appropriate meetings. There were three sessions, each 20 minutes long and covering distinct topics: Online ecosystems, artificial intelligence, and new studio openings. After each session, the groups would rotate to see the next presentation, for an hour total of on-the-record, Ubisoft-centric back-patting and glad-handing.

But before any of that, Ubisoft representatives wanted reporters to know the studio would participate in the Women in Gaming Rally at GDC. This was the one hosted by Microsoft and held at the Jewish Contemporary Museum on Tuesday, not to be confused with the Women in Games International networking event sponsored by PlayStation and held at the headquarters of a local non-profit, also on Tuesday. That first one — Ubisoft would be there.

The journalists broke into their groups. In the rear conference room, Jean-Philippe Pieuchot, the managing director of Ubisoft’s studio in Pune, India, began his presentation with exciting news of the company’s new outpost in Mumbai. The plan is to open in June and employ as many as 100 people within two years, with an emphasis on bringing aboard programmers and artists to bolster the company’s portfolio of AAA games. Ubisoft Mumbai will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai and France’s Intuit Lab, two highly regarded schools awash with fresh talent.

In the middle of the presentation, Pieuchot flipped the slide to show off a photo of the Mumbai leadership team, seven people covering roles from Art Director to Technical Lead. Seven people who all happened to be men.

It wasn’t surprising. It’s not an anomaly in the video game industry to see a leadership lineup without any women, but the Ubisoft Mumbai image was striking. It felt tailor-made for the meme factory, begging someone to scrawl, “Game development in 2018” in big block letters across the bottom. It was notably out-of-touch and tired. In my notes, I wrote, “Sigh.”

And something strange happened. After the customary beat of silence, one reporter asked, “In the leadership slide you showed for Mumbai, how come there are no women? It was all men.”

I feel the need to clarify here. Of the 20-odd journalists at the Ubisoft briefing, just two were women, including myself. Again, this gender disparity wasn’t out of the ordinary — but the question itself was.

I’ve been to seven GDCs and countless E3s, PAXes and CESes; I’ve been covering the video game industry for major outlets since my senior year of college in 2011. I’ve been hit on after interviews; I’ve been asked if I “actually play video games”; I’ve been greeted before meetings with, “Look, they sent the hot one.”

I have never heard a reporter ask this question. I have never heard it asked so directly of a developer, especially not by a man, especially not in a room full of men, and especially not when prompted by a single slide, a side note to the larger story. Ubisoft is expanding to Mumbai. Isn’t that exciting?

“How come there are no women?”

I wasn’t going to ask it myself. Nearly a decade of trade shows and PowerPoint presentations from major video game publishers had rendered me nearly numb to the realities of gender roles in the industry. This was just another slide in another show at another conference where the lack of women in leadership roles was considered normal. Business as usual. Click, next slide.

“How come there are no women?”

Pieuchot and Burk responded with the appropriate statistics and promises — 27 percent of Ubisoft’s overall leadership roles are held by women; they want to do better and new recruitment efforts in these regions will absolutely help — but what they said matters less than the fact that they were forced to say it.

“How come there are no women?”

It’s easy to see why this question would appear here, now. Ubisoft primed the pool with the mention of the Women in Gaming Rally (and this is the company whose technical director once famously said creating playable female characters would have “doubled the work” for animators), right before showing off an all-male management slide. Through movements like #MeToo, society is awake to the lack of female leadership at most major companies and is finally taking seriously reports of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Today, seeing a lineup of male leaders at a video game studio — especially after extolling the company’s involvement in a female-empowerment workshop — looks as tone-deaf as sacrificing a goat for the launch of a game, asking fans to “take out a hit” on their friends over the color of their hair or size of their genitals, or saying a game offers an expansive connected universe when it really doesn’t. It’s another reason to call out Ubisoft, as if they just announced a new, shady Season Pass scheme.

“How come there are no women?”

This isn’t only Ubisoft’s burden to bear. Images of all-male leadership teams are all-too common in the video game industry. Questions about them, however, are not.

“How come there are no women?”

This question, asked just once across all three sessions, doesn’t mean the video game industry is cured of gender-based discrimination or unconscious bias. It doesn’t mean sexism has been defeated and the industry now exists in a beautiful, post-gender utopia. It doesn’t mean any of these things. But it did happen. And that’s something.

Mozilla pulled its Facebook ads and others may follow

Facebook is obviously in some very hot water as details regarding Cambridge Analytica’s use of its users’ data continue to unfold. And along with heated consumer backlash and questions from lawmakers, Facebook may now start to lose advertising money. Yesterday, Mozilla pulled its ads from Facebook, saying in a blog post about the decision that the Cambridge Analytica news “caused us to take a closer look at Facebook’s current default privacy settings given that we support the platform with our advertising dollars. While we believe there is still more to learn, we found that its current default settings leave access open to a lot of data — particularly with respect to settings for third party apps.” And because of that, it has chosen to halt advertising on the platform for the time being.

While Mozilla appears to be the first major company to make such a move, many others are currently considering doing the same thing. As The Times reports, the UK’s Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) has asked Facebook for more answers and will meet with company executives this week. “When we meet with Facebook tomorrow we want to understand the scope of the inquiry Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday,” Phil Smith, director general of ISBA, told the Independent. “We want reassurances for our members that it will get to the bottom of the issues and any implications for the public and for advertisers.” The trade body represents over 3,000 brands, including Unilever and P&G, which may consider pulling their hundreds of millions of dollars of ad money from Facebook depending on Facebook executives’ responses.

In a statement, ISBA said, “The claims that other apps using the Facebook platform, and predating mid-2015, have collected similar bodies of personal data and that controls for distribution have been inadequate, raise questions about the possibility that Facebook data has been, or is being used improperly elsewhere. ISBA is asking Facebook for a full account of further potential issues so that advertisers can take appropriate measures.” The Times reports that sources close to the ISBA have said if Facebook’s answers aren’t satisfactory, trade body members may choose to pull their ad money. A top UK ad agency also told the Independent that advertisers will start threatening to pull their ads from Facebook if the company can’t generate trust in its data security.

Additionally, Nordea, the Nordic region’s largest bank, said this week that for now, it won’t be purchasing any more Facebook shares. “Given the high-level revelations and the turmoil surrounding the company with a strong public backlash, coupled with the overhanging threat of increasing regulation of the platforms and the EU GDPR on the horizon, we choose to quarantine Facebook,” Sasja Beslik, Nordea’s head of group sustainable finance, told Reuters.

“We are encouraged that Mark Zuckerberg has promised to improve the privacy settings and make them more protective,” Mozilla said yesterday. “When Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, specifically strengthening its default privacy settings for third party apps, we’ll consider returning.”

Source: Mozilla, ISBA