OnePlus 6 Red hands-on: This is the one to get

This hot new color goes on sale July 10.

The OnePlus 6 is easily the best-looking phone OnePlus has released to-date, and while Mirror Black, Midnight Black, and Silk White are all fantastic colors, there’s one that’s been noticeably absent so far — the striking Lava Red from the OnePlus 5T.

Thankfully, that’s now changing as OnePlus has officially unveiled the OnePlus 6 Red.

As soon as you take it out of its box, the OnePlus 6 Red assaults all of your senses in the best way possible with its incredibly bright and vibrant paint job. The same six-layer glass design used on other OnePlus 6 variants is present, in addition to an extra “anti-reflective layer” that OnePlus says allows for more light to reach the bottom sections of glass before any light is reflected off the phone.

To concoct the red that’s present here, OnePlus mixed a translucent orange glass panel with a red base layer. The end result is one of the deepest, brightest, and most pleasing reds I’ve ever seen on a phone (even surpassing the red iPhone 8).

Along with the back of the phone, the red also makes its way to the frame, buttons, and alert slider. To complement all of this red, OnePlus also added a sleek gold accent to the OnePlus Logo, “Design by OnePlus” branding, and around the rear camera lens and fingerprint sensor.

If you want to pick up a OnePlus 6 Red for yourself, it goes on sale at OnePlus’s website on July 10 for $579 with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Which color OnePlus 6 should you buy?

OnePlus 6

• OnePlus 6 review
• OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5T: How much changes in six months?
• OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5: Should you upgrade?
• These are the official OnePlus 6 cases
• The OnePlus 6 doesn’t work on Verizon or Sprint
• Join the discussion in the forums

New Evidence in iOS 12 of Apple’s Upcoming iPad With Face ID

Steven Troughton-Smith today shared new evidence in iOS 12 that Apple is close to launching an iPad with Face ID.

The well-known developer discovered an iPad-ready implementation of AvatarKit, the software framework that Apple’s Animoji feature relies on.

New in iOS 12: AvatarKit comes to iPad. Still requires a TrueDepth camera to do face tracking, though, i.e. an iPad with Face ID pic.twitter.com/9TvP2vsP6X

— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) July 3, 2018

Previously, only the iPhone X firmware has included the AvatarKit framework, which requires a TrueDepth camera to perform real-time face tracking, so the fact that Apple has included it in the iOS 12 beta offers another indication that an iPad with similar hardware is just around the corner.

The first hints in iOS 12 that Apple is readying a new-look tablet came in the form of tweaked iPad gestures that are similar to gestures on the iPhone X. These point to next-generation tablets with a notch-style layout with a TrueDepth Camera System and no Home button.

Indeed, rumors suggest Apple is working on a new high-end iPad Pro for release this year that will adopt many of the design elements that the company introduced with the iPhone X.

The device is said to feature slimmer edges, a faster processor, a custom Apple-built GPU, and the all-important TrueDepth camera with support for Face ID facial authentication.

iPad Pro concept by Álvaro Pabesio
Taiwanese site Economic Daily News has suggested Apple will introduce an iPad Pro with a display that measures in at approximately 11 inches, which is in line with reports suggesting the device could have slimmer bezels.

The thinking behind this is that a new iPad Pro could include the larger screen size without increasing the physical dimensions of the tablet.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is said to be aiming to introduce the new iPad “a little more than a year” after the last iPad Pro update, suggesting it will see a launch sometime around September of 2018.

TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the iPad Pro will be released sometime in the third quarter of 2018, which also indicates a September launch.

Related Roundup: iPad ProBuyer’s Guide: 10.5″ iPad Pro (Don’t Buy), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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NHS Unveils Mobile App to Let Patients Book GP Visits Online

The British government has announced plans to launch a new NHS mobile app that will let patients in England make appointments with their doctor.

The app will also allow users to order repeat prescriptions, manage their long-term healthcare, see their medical records, and quickly access 111 for urgent queries.

In addition, users will have access to patient preferences related to data sharing, organ donation, and end-of-life care.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the app as a “birthday present from the NHS to the British people”, 70 years after the service was founded.

The NHS app is a world-first which will put patients firmly in the driving seat and revolutionize the way we access health services.

I want this innovation to mark the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients.

Technology has transformed everyday life when it comes to banking, travel and shopping. Health matters much more to all of us, and the prize of that same digital revolution in healthcare isn’t just convenience but lives improved, extended and saved.

As the NHS turns 70 and we draw up a long-term plan for the NHS on the back of our £394 million a week funding boost, it’s time to catch up and unleash the power of technology to transform everyday life for patients.

“The new app will put the NHS into the pocket of everyone in England but it is just one step on the journey,” said Matthew Swindells, NHS England National Director of Operations and Information. “We are also developing an NHS Apps Library and putting free NHS Wi-Fi in GP surgeries and hospitals.”

Today we have unveiled the new NHS App where you can book a raft of routine requests, including GP appointments and repeat prescriptions pic.twitter.com/CtX0UzZSIy

— DHSC Media Centre (@DHSCmedia) July 2, 2018

Developed by NHS Digital and NHS England, the app will enter its testing phase in September and then roll out officially in December. It will be available on iOS devices through the App Store, as well as on Android phones via Google Play.

Tags: United Kingdom, health
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Facebook Shuts Down ‘Moves’ Fitness Tracker and Two Other Apps Due to Low Usage

Facebook has announced it is shutting down three apps that the company either launched itself or acquired from other companies over the last four years.

“Moves”, “tbh”, and the Android-only “Hello” all face the chop as part of the company’s latest app cull. Facebook says the apps are being shuttered because of low usage.

Activity tracking app Moves was popular at the time of its acquisition
Fitness tracking app Moves was bought in 2014 from Helsinki-based company ProtoGeo Oy for an undisclosed amount. The app records daily activity, including walking, cycling, and running. Moves will shut down on July 31.

British-based Midnight Labs sold its anonymous teen social media app tbh to the social network in 2017 for an undisclosed sum, although TechCrunch reported that the price paid was likely less than $100 million.

Facebook says all user data associated with the apps will be deleted within 90 days following shutdown.

We regularly review our apps to assess which ones people value most. Sometimes this means closing an app and its accompanying APIs. We know some people are still using these apps and will be disappointed — and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support. But we need to prioritize our work so we don’t spread ourselves too thin. And it’s only by trial and error that we’ll create great social experiences for people.

Facebook’s last app cull came in August 2017, when it removed two standalone apps from the iOS App Store: the high school chat app “Lifestage” and community-focused gathering place “Groups”.

Tag: Facebook
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Amazon has an idea to stop its delivery drones being hijacked

Part of Amazon’s work on its proposed drone delivery service includes pumping out patents that explore an array of ideas for the technology.

While it’s hard to know if any of them will ever form part of the service, the filings at least give us some insight into how Amazon wants to build out the platform as it explores the various issues it believes it needs to overcome to make such a service viable.

Its most recent patent, granted last week by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, tackles the potential problem of drone hijackings.

With package-carrying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying out of Amazon warehouses to customer homes, there could be occasional attempts by ne’er-do-wells to bring down the flying machines in order to steal the goods.

While Amazon’s patent makes no mention of thieves running around with giant butterfly nets as they try to catch the drones, it does talk of attempts to interfere with their communication systems, allowing the perpetrator to bring the machine down so they can nab whatever goodies it happens to be carrying.

Amazon says in the patent: “As the use of UAVs continues to increase, so does the likelihood of hostility towards UAVs. Such hostility may come in the form of attacks brought for any number of purposes (e.g., steal the UAVs and their payloads, crash the UAVs, and otherwise cause disruption to the operation of the UAVs).”

It continues: “Using these attacks, nefarious individuals and/or systems may be able to obtain control of the UAVs by hacking the communication signals being sent to the UAVs from a controller and/or being sent by the UAV to the controller.” Amazon says such attacks “could cause the UAVs to operate unsafely and could also result in considerable financial loss for their operators.”

The patent explores the idea of sending a “heartbeat” signal from the controller to the drone every few seconds. If the heartbeat detects interference from a third party, the drone will automatically switch from mission mode to safety mode, prompting it to make efforts to either reestablish communication with the controller, regain control over the drone in the event of a hostile takeover, or possibly land the machine at a safe location where it can be rebooted or collected.

Amazon’s drone-related patents so far include everything from beehive-like drone towers and parachute drops to church steeple charging stations and self-destructing systems for malfunctioning machines. It even has one for a “flying warehouse” that would hover above urban areas and act as a base for the delivery drones. Now that we’d like to see.

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Did a drone help this notorious French gangster escape from prison?

It was a prison escape that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Hollywood action movie.

Last Sunday, at least three armed associates of notorious French gangster Rédoine Faïd flew a hijacked helicopter into the grounds of Réau prison, south of Paris.

Witnesses watched in shock as the helicopter flew in and the operation to help 46-year-old Faïd escape got underway. Three men leapt from the helicopter before letting off gas canisters to disorientate those nearby. They then used a grinding machine to destroy a door that led to the visitor room where Faïd was located.

According to France’s justice ministry, the drama was over in just “a few minutes.”

The helicopter was flown to a spot 37 miles away, where a car was waiting for them. The pilot was unharmed.

It later emerged that the helicopter had landed in a part of the prison that did not have anti-flight netting over it as it was ordinarily used by visitors only.

Hobby drone assistance?

Nicole Belloubet, France’s justice minister, revealed on Monday that investigators suspect camera-equipped hobby drones may have been used by Faïd’s gang for reconnaissance missions in the lead up to the audacious jailbreak.

Drones have been spotted flying over the prison multiple times in recent months, leading the authorities to suggest a possible link to the jailbreak.

“Someone spotted this possible way out, and it could have been done using drones,” Belloubet said.

Faïd was serving 25 years for the murder of a cop during a robbery in 2010. Before that, he’d served jail time for armed robberies of banks and vans transporting cash. And it’s not the first time he’s launched a spectacular breakout. In 2013, he escaped from a different prison by using explosives to blast his way out. He was caught six weeks later.

A nationwide hunt for Faïd and his gang is now underway.

Drones and prisons

While we’ve heard plenty of stories about hobby drones being used to fly contraband into prisons, it’s the first time we’ve happened upon a case where they may have been used to survey a jail ahead of act like this.

Quadcopters and the like are a growing problem for prisons, with the small machines able to fly right into the grounds with little difficulty. In 2017, a drone gang was jailed in the U.K. for flying contraband — including drugs, weapons, and phones — worth a total of $1.3 million into five different prisons on nearly 50 occasions over two years. A number of high-tech solutions have been tested, but wide-scale rollout of a particular system is yet to take place.

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Prime Day 2018 kicks off July 16 with over a million deals spanning 36 hours

Things are about to get crazy.

Amazon has announced that Prime Day 2018 will be taking place on July 16 and will feature 36 hours packed with over a million deals you won’t want to miss. In 2017, the company held a 30-hour event, so this year will have an extra 6 hours of fun, and the deals are actually starting right now with $100 off the Echo Show and more.

Additionally, Amazon will be offering discounts to those using its desktop Assistant app and the camera feature in its mobile app.

The company states that there will be over a million deals that come and go through the event, and we know there is no way you’ll be able to keep up with all of that. Our friends at Thrifter will be covering every waking second of the event, so be sure to follow them on Twitter to see all the best deals as they happen.

We already have a bunch of great content available to help you ensure that you’re ready to maximize your savings on the big day, so check all of that out now. You’ll also want to make sure you’re signed up for our Prime Day newsletter to have all the latest news, leaked deals, and more delivered right to your inbox.

Looking for a little extra money to spend on Prime Day? We have giveaways running in the U.S., UK and Canada. Each region is giving away three Amazon gift cards to help you treat yourself to something nice on the big day.

Amazon begins its Prime Day celebration early with $100 off the Echo Show

The savings start today!

Prime Day may not officially start until July 16, but Amazon has started the deals early by taking $100 off its own Echo Show. The Alexa-enabled speaker-with-screen is available for just $129.99 for Prime Members — the lowest price we’ve seen for the Echo Show.

Most will already be familiar with Amazon Echo line of products, adding smart assistant functionality to rooms in your home. The hands-free, voice-controlled Show offers the ability to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, send and receive messages, answer queries, read the news, set alarms or timers, among other things. Housing a 7-inch touchscreen, the Show also allows for video flash briefings, Amazon Video content, music lyrics, security camera feeds, photos, weather forecasts, and more.

Our friends at Android Central have an in-depth review of the Echo Show, telling you everything you need to know.

If you’re not a Prime Member yet, there’s no better time than Prime Day to sign up for your 30-day free trial and make the most of all that Amazon Prime has to offer.

See at Amazon

App developers are going through your email – here is how to put a stop to it

Never trust anyone when it comes to managing your privacy.

The Wall Street Journal reports that application developers, both mobile and desktop, are busy rummaging through the email of thousands and thousands of users with free accounts from Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The Journal rightfully chastises the companies involved for allowing this to happen then proceeds to tell us why it’s happening: because we said they could.

Of course developers (and worse, think of that last crummy app you installed that just spammed trash at you until you deleted it) are going to access your account when they asked you if they could and you said yes. It’s also not something new and not something isolated to any particular service provider. But it is predatory behavior and one of those things that should cause heads to roll.

It’s easy to blame the user. It’s also lazy and lets the real culprit get away with it.

Here’s what’s going on: You see an app or browser extension or something you can install and give it access to your email account so it can do wonderful things like price match airline tickets or help you build out a marketing mail list or something else that sounds like a good idea. You understand that this service will need to see the email that comes to your inbox, because how else will it know you’re reserving two tickets to Jamacia for a nice vacation? Everything sounds nice and tidy, but most people never stop to think that giving an app’s developers access to your inbox means they can see what’s inside your inbox.

The companies called out by the Journal, like Return Path are telling you in advance what they need to do then getting explicit permission for it by adding a line into the terms and agreements we need to understand before we install the service. The companies that give you free email service are only letting companies you have authorized sift through your mail. It sounds like a blameless situation that’s entirely our fault and we should have known better. But it’s still sad that it is allowed to happen.

I can’t undo it. I can make sure you know what the WSJ is talking about and angrily type words late on a Monday night, but I can’t make it go away. But you can.

• Visit the account settings page where you can see what apps have access to your account.
  • Click here for Gmail.
  • Click here Microsoft Mail.
  • Click here for Yahoo!
• Find the section of the page labeled “Apps with access to your account” or something very similar. For Gmail, it is the very top item.
• Go through the list and revoke permissions for any app you do not want accessing your mail.
• Go through it a second time and make sure you want the apps that are left to have access to the parts of your account that are listed.

And remember, always read what the thing you are installing or signing up for can do, and never trust anyone when it comes to decisions about your privacy.

To promote ‘Border Break,’ Sega is building the world’s largest mecha

Guinness is about to get a new world record and it’s not one that you see every day. Video game company Sega has teamed up with the plastic model creators Kotobukiya in order to construct what will be the world’s largest plastic mecha model in the history of mecha models (which is to say, the world). The enormous one-to-one scale plastic model is to be inspired by the upcoming PlayStation 4 edition of Border Break, and will feature parts made of Styrol resin that are intended to dock into one another, Hypebeast reports.

The individual parts have apparently yet to be assembled but are presently sitting on runners in Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. However, over the course of the coming days and weeks, they will gradually make their way out of the station and actually be combined in order to create this life-size model.

The game that serves as the inspiration for the mecha model, Border Break, is a 10 versus 10 robot team battle that is slated to make its debut on PlayStation next month on August 2. The original version of the game first came out in 2009 as an arcade game, but it has apparently become popular enough (at least in Japan), to not only spawn another edition, but an enormous plastic model, too.

For now, if you find yourself on vacation in Tokyo, you can check out the parts of what will ultimately be the world record-setting model at the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line Shinjuku Station Metro Promenade, where they will remain until July 8. It is not entirely clear when the entire structure will be assembled, though the team will likely want to get a move on if it is aiming to be finished by early next month.

The Border Break team has revved up quite a bit of attention around this new project, and has even offered its fans some pretty neat video footage of how the mecha is being manufactured. In the approximately 90-second video, you can check out everything from the design process to sneak peeks of the game, with the promise of a finished product coming very soon.

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