Month: November 2021

Pixel 6a renders show Google carrying the Pixel 6 design forward

Google’s mid-range phone for 2022 is a smaller version of the Pixel 6.

Is that the Pixel 6? Nope! It's the mid-range Pixel 6a.

Enlarge / Is that the Pixel 6? Nope! It's the mid-range Pixel 6a. (credit: OnLeaks x 91Mobiles)

The Pixel 6 only recently hit the market, but given that we're regularly getting a six-month lead time on smartphone leaks nowadays, it's time to talk about its mid-range cousin, the Pixel 6a. This weekend, OnLeaks and 91Mobiles graced the Internet with a render of what the phone is expected to look like, based on CAD files that need to be distributed to accessory makers.

Our closing thoughts in the Pixel 6 review expressed a hope that Google would carry forward its Pixel 6 work and build something that finally felt like a cohesive product line, rather than the yearly reboot crapshoot that the Pixel line has been since its inception. For the Pixel 6a, at least, it looks like Google is following that path. The 6a looks just like the Pixel 6, with a big rear camera bar, a two-tone design, a flat front screen with a centered hole-punch camera, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. This Pixel 6a render is barely distinguishable from the Pixel 6.

One major difference will be the size. While the Pixel 6 Pro is 6.7 inches, and the Pixel 6 is 6.4 inches, the 6a will slot in at 6.2 inches. CAD files should have pretty exacting dimensions for accessory makers, and OnLeaks says the phone is 152.2×71.8×8.7 mm. Again, that's a big step down in size from the 75.9-mm-wide Pixel 6 Pro and the 74.8-mm-wide Pixel 6. People clamoring for a smaller Google phone will have something closer to what they want in the Pixel 6a, and a smaller size is a good way to cut costs on this mid-range device.

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ONEXPLAYER Mini handheld gaming PC with 7 inch display coming soon

Handheld computer company One Netbook is developing a smaller version of the ONEXPLAYER handheld gaming PC that launched earlier this year. Instead of an 8.4 inch screen, the upcoming ONEXPLAYER Mini is expected to have a 7 inch display, which makes it a bit closer in size to Valve’s Steam Deck, the AYA Neo, or other modern […]

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Handheld computer company One Netbook is developing a smaller version of the ONEXPLAYER handheld gaming PC that launched earlier this year. Instead of an 8.4 inch screen, the upcoming ONEXPLAYER Mini is expected to have a 7 inch display, which makes it a bit closer in size to Valve’s Steam Deck, the AYA Neo, or other modern handhelds.

One Netbook hasn’t announced international availability for the ONEXPLAYER Mini yet, but details shared on Chinese social media seem to indicate that it could be available in China as soon as December.

Like the larger ONEXPLAYER 1S, the new model is expected to have an Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor with Iris Xe graphics. There do not currently seem to be any plans to offer models with other chips, so if you want an AMD Ryzen processor, you may want to stick with the 8.4 inch ONEXPLAYER AMD Edition or look to Valve, AYA, or another companies.

The new model also appears to have a similar design with a touchscreen display surrounded by game controllers, stereo front-facing speakers, and keys to trigger the on-screen keyboard and turbo mode feature.

And specs are largely expected to be the same as for the 8.4 inch model, including 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory, a 1TB PCIE NVMe M.2 2280 SSD, two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, and a USB 3.0 Type-A port.

But the ONEXPLAYER Mini is smaller and lighter than its big sibling, and has a 1920 x 1200 pixel display rather than a 2560 x 1600 screen.

Here’s how it stacks up in terms of size and weight:

Device Dimensions Screen Size Weight
ONEXPLAYER Mini 7 inches 262 x 108 x 23mm 589 grams
ONEXPLAYER 8.4 inches 280 x 128 x 25mm 825 grams
Valve Steam Deck 7 inches 298 x 117 x 49mm 669 grams
AYA Neo 7 inches 255 x 106 x 20mm 650 grams
GPD Win 3  5.5 inches 198 x 92 x 27mm 560 grams
Nintendo Switch (with Joy-cons) Screen Size 238 x 102 x 14mm 399 grams

Again, there’s no word on if or when the ONEXPLAYER Mini will be available outside of China, or how much it will cost if it does ship globally.

via One-netbook official Discord, /r/ONEXPLAYER, @oreore_games, and NotebookCheck

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Astra’s quick-and-dirty development plan pays off as its rocket goes orbital

“I think that this flight really does prove out the approach we’ve taken.”

LV0007 leaves the ground on Nov. 20, 2021.

Enlarge / LV0007 leaves the ground on Nov. 20, 2021. (credit: Astra)

Astra never sought to build the best rocket, the biggest rocket, or the safest rocket. The California-based space company simply wanted to build a rocket that was just good enough, and to do it fast.

Early on Saturday morning, Astra proved the value of this philosophy by successfully launching a stripped-down rocket for the first time. The mission hefted a small test payload for the US Space Force into an orbit 500 km above the planet.

The launch came five years and one month after Astra was founded by Chris Kemp and Adam London in October 2016. With this weekend's success, Astra became the fastest company to reach orbit with a privately developed liquid-fueled rocket. With its Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX required six years and four months. Firefly, Virgin Orbit, and Rocket Lab all needed seven or more years to successfully reach orbit.

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"Meinen ganzen Roman baue ich auf dem Green Deal der EU auf"

Der Klimwandel ist real. Doch wie bekämpft man ihn ohne soziale Verwerfungen – und will das die politische Klasse überhaupt? Ein Gespräch mit Uwe Laub über seinen Roman “Dürre”

Der Klimwandel ist real. Doch wie bekämpft man ihn ohne soziale Verwerfungen - und will das die politische Klasse überhaupt? Ein Gespräch mit Uwe Laub über seinen Roman "Dürre"

Analogue Pocket handheld game system begins shipping December 13

The Analogue Pocket is a $200 handheld game system designed for playing classic games… cartridges and all. First announced more than two years ago, the Pocket was originally supposed to begin shipping to customers earlier this year… but due to global supply chain issues the ship date was pushed back several times. Now the wait […]

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The Analogue Pocket is a $200 handheld game system designed for playing classic games… cartridges and all. First announced more than two years ago, the Pocket was originally supposed to begin shipping to customers earlier this year… but due to global supply chain issues the ship date was pushed back several times.

Now the wait is almost over – Analogue says the Pocket will begin shipping to customers on December 13, 2021 with most packages going out by the end of the year.

Analogue says it’s notified customers who placed pre-orders, and the company is also offering an option to hold deliveries for a few weeks for anyone who is traveling for the holidays or may be otherwise unavailable to receive a package in the second half of December.

Folks who haven’t already pre-ordered may have to wait a little while to get another chance – the Analogue Pocket is currently out of stock at the Analogue store.

While there are any number of ways to play classic games on modern devices like smartphones and tablets, the Analogue Pocket stands out by including two FPGAs that can be programmed to work like the actual processors that powered the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or Game Boy Advance handheld game consoles.

There are also a series of adapters that can be used to add support for other game systems – a Game Gear adapter is out of stock, while Neo geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, and TurboGrafx-16 adapters are “coming soon.” Each adapter is priced at $300.

Thanks to the programmable FPGAs, there’s not need for software emulation. You can insert a classic game cartridge and the system will run it as if you were using the original hardware. Analogue says more than 2,780 games are supported out of the box.

Analogue’s device isn’t all old-school though. It has modern features like a high-resolution 3.5 inch, 1600 x 1440 pixel LCD display with 615 pixels per inch. There’ s a 4,300 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery for 6-10 hours of battery life. And the Pocket has a USB-C port for charging and a microSD card slot for storage.

While the system has a D-Pad, four action buttons, and three additional buttons that should allow you to interact with most classic games, all of the buttons can be remapped.

The system has stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack. And it works with an optional docking station with an HDMI port for 1080p video output, Bluetooth 2.4 support for wireless controllers, and two USB ports for wired controllers.

The Pocket also supports a Link cable that lets you connect up to four Analogue Pocket devices to each other for multi-player gaming.

And you can also use the Analogue Pocket as a portable music making machine thanks to an integrated digital audio workstation called Nanoloop with synthesizer and sequencer functions. Optional cables to MIDI hardware including keyboards or synthesizers or to a computer to sync Nanoloop with a MIDI-enabled digital audio workstation on a Mac or PC.

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