Never one to shy away from showing off its latest developments, Oppo is now teasing more upcoming mobile camera tech. The most interesting bit is perhaps the 5-axis optical image stabilization, which uses both lens shifting and sensor shifting for maximum effect — apparently three times the angle than that of conventional optical stabilization, according to Oppo. If true, this would compensate for greater shakiness, thus allowing for faster capture and better low-light performance, even when handheld.
Oppo
This kind of implementation is nothing new in the professional camera world, but the challenge here is to miniaturize the solution and fit everything into the little remaining space on a phone. The lens, driven by ball-bearing motors, serves as the primary stabilization tool for light vibrations. For bigger movements, both the lens and sensor kick in to achieve 5-axis stabilization, with the latter’s shifting and rotation controlled by shape memory alloys.
Oppo
Oppo admits that incorporating extra moving parts means increasing the number of potential failure points, so it will continue to conduct various drop tests and reliability tests before beginning mass production. The company is targeting Q1 2022 to launch its first phone equipped with this feature.
Oppo
In addition to its 5-axis optical stabilization tech, Oppo teased its next-gen RGBW sensor, which the company claims can take in 60 percent more light and achieve a 35 percent reduction in noise. This will arrive in an unspecified Oppo phone sometime in Q4 of this year. The company is also working on an 85-200mm continuous optical zoom module to offer greater flexibility. It’s unclear when exactly that might become commercially available.
Oppo isn’t the only phone maker trying to further differentiate itself with obscure camera tech. To name a few, Vivo has been using its impressive micro gimbal camera since its X50 Pro last year, while ASUS is well into its third-gen flip camera on its aptly named Zenfone 8 Flip. Xiaomi even tried a shape-shifting “liquid lens” camera on its Mi Mix Fold, before picking up the latest-gen under-screen camera for its Mi Mix 4. And it now seems we’ll see even more attempts in this arena in the coming months.
The following contains spoilers for season two, episode two of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks.’
I’ve been a Star Trek fan for most of my life, and yet I still chuckled at this Onion video released after the first J.J. Abrams installment came out back in 2009: “Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable.’” Star Trek isn’t to a lot of people’s taste, J.J. Abrams’ among them. He’s said in interviews he never really liked Trek and was trying to make it more like Star Wars. (This was six years before The Force Awakens came out.) The reboot films were a breath of fresh air after four years of no original Trek content, and they did get some new fans into the franchise. Some of those novices would later dip their toe into the water of TV Trek and found that they did actually enjoy it a lot, despite its slower pace.
However, despite the franchise’s strong TV track record with shows like TNG and DS9, the Paramount+ era has been taking its cues from the Abrams films, which isn’t surprising with executive producer Alex Kurtzman at the helm. Alongside Roberto Orci, he’s one of the two screenwriters behind 2009 Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as a J.J. Abrams collaborator on Alias and Fringe. Given the box office numbers of the Abramsverse films it makes sense to put him in charge, but it still made a lot of long-time Trekkies groan as we had hoped for a return to the kind of shows we grew up on.
After three seasons of heavy action on Discovery and the jaded grimdark of season one of Picard, the first season of Lower Decks injected some levity back into the franchise, with parody that went up to, but not quite over the line. It couldn’t, since it was intended to be canon. It had to fit alongside TNG, DS9 and Voyager. So it packed in plenty of references to keep the wiki addicts over at the Star Trek-centric Memory Alpha busy, while indulging in old tropes like drunk Klingons, arena battles and the occasional omnipotent being. It also took some direct swipes at the live action Trek shows, like how crew members always seem to die in the most low-tech ways like being impaled by spears or how of course the holodeck is used for sex stuff.
CBS
But those references were always in a more general sense, framed in a “wouldn’t X be ridiculous” way that only long-term fans with deep knowledge of the franchise would fully understand. Until this week’s episode, that is, where crew members of the USS Titan specifically call out the Enterprise D and its galactic cruise ship mentality. Shakespearean plays and string quartets? Peace conferences? How utterly boring compared to the constant run-and-gun that the Titan seems to have been stuck in since last season. They judge the value of their work based on how exciting it is, and think that William Riker must have been bored to tears being stuck on that ship for seven years.
Of course, TNG fans know it was anything but boring for Riker. He’s been locked in a mental institution, trapped in an alternate future and even had god-like powers for an episode. And he likes performing in jazz concerts with his trombone!
CBS
None of this slander sits right with new crew member Brad Boimler, who transferred over from the USS Cerritos at the end of last season. The Titan’s pursuit of the dangerous Pakleds has the young lieutenant junior grade in a constant state of panic as he mans the flight conn position, a big change from quietly toiling away on the lower decks of his old ship. But he’s recognized that this is where the opportunities for promotion are, and soon finds himself on an undercover mission with his fellow bridge crew. At least, it’s supposed to be undercover — the other Titan members quickly get them embroiled in a shootout and facing certain death.
That’s when Boimler takes the opportunity to tell his crewmates how he really feels. “I’d love to be in a string quartet. I love that when Riker was on the Enterprise he was out there jamming on the trombone and catching love disease and acting in plays and meeting his identical transporter clone Thomas. That stuff might not seem as cool as what you guys do, but it’s Starfleet, all the way.” His confession elicits similar confessions from the other team members, before they manage to find a way out in classic technobabble fashion.
CBS
For years Star Trek has always danced around the question of whether Starfleet was a military force. It employs naval ranks and the ships are outfitted with phasers and photon torpedoes for defense. But its stated purpose was exploration and other activities that help tie the vast Federation together. The Abrams films spent all their time reacting to one crisis after another — the crew didn’t start an actual mission of exploration until the very end of Beyond, and there hasn’t been another film since to follow up on that.
Both DS9 and Discovery engaged in wars with the Klingon Empire. On Enterprise the crew ended up hunting down the Xindi with a cadre of trained soldiers on board for its third season. Even Voyager had to deal with the constant accusations that they were a conquering force as they struggled to get home. Lower Decks is our first look in a while at a Starfleet dedicated to exploration, with the crew of the Cerritos specializing in “second contact,” that is, getting communication and trade set up with the planets that flashier ships like the Enterprise meet in their adventures.
So Lower Decks has always been a sort of commentary on the greater Star Trek philosophy, but it’s never been as blatant as Brad Boimler saying, “I didn’t join Starfleet to get in phaser fights. I signed up to explore, to be out in space making new discoveries and peaceful diplomatic solutions. That’s boldly going.”
CBS
The Onion video takes old school Trek fans to task for being gatekeepers, for wallowing and fetishizing things that other folks find boring. The new era of Trek has stretched the definition of what Star Trek could be, expanding into new genres and injecting a little action to sate the appetites of modern audiences. But Lower Decks is the first time I’ve seen pushback from within the franchise itself. The show is basically saying, “Sure, Star Trek can be exciting, but there’s a reason it became popular in the first place!” Let’s hope that with future programs like Strange New Worlds, Alex Kurtzman is listening.
With the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Samsung officially joined the bandwagon circling around under-display cameras (UDC), alternatively called under-screen or under-panel cameras. It isn’t the first to jump on it, though, with ZTE stealing the thunder by launching the first UDC-equipped phone last year. OPPO, however, was also one of the first to actually get its R&D engine running to … Continue reading
Soon, you’ll no longer get hit with additional charges if you miss a PayPal installment for a previous purchase. The online payment giant has announced that it will stop charging late fees for global purchases made using Pay in 4 in the US, Pay in 3 in the UK and Pay in 4X in France starting on October 1st.
Those buy now, pay later products launched in October 2020 give you the option to buy goods from participating online stores without having to pay upfront or all at once and without incurring interest. When you choose the option at checkout in the US, PayPal will split your payments into three or four and will charge you every two weeks. Before the company scrapped late fees, it charged a minimum amount of $8 for missed payments for those three locations.
In its announcement, the company said this step builds “on the success of [its] Pay in 4 launch in Australia without late fees.” Aside from Australia, PayPal also doesn’t penalize users in Germany who fail to pay on time. Greg Lisiewski, Vice President of Global Pay Later Products at PayPal, added: “[W]e know that eliminating late fees delivers an even better buy now, pay later experience that provides incredible value to our consumers and merchant partners.”
This move could also help PayPal retain customers in the face of competition. Square recently announced its plans to acquire the buy now, pay later platform Afterpay for $29 billion. Apple is also reportedly working on a pay later feature for Apple Pay.
Social media is a powerful tool that enables ordinary people to cover news that mainstream outlets may not easily tackle. Just like any other tool, however, it can be used for both good and bad, the latter by spreading misinformation faster than actual, confirmed facts. Different platforms have different ways of dealing with this kind of behavior, whether intentional or … Continue reading
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