Month: January 2023

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  A rendering of a Roku TV mounted on a wall. [credit: Roku ]

To say Roku is dominant in the TV software space would be an understatement—RokuOS is by far the most popular smart TV operating system. But for its hardware, the company has relied on partners like TCL and Hisense. As previously rumored, that's changing in 2023.

Starting this spring, Roku will begin shipping its self-branded TVs in the United States. The lineup will include 11 models, ranging from 24 to 75 inches across two product lines: Roku Select and the more expensive Roku Plus. Roku hasn't said much about what will distinguish Roku Plus, apart from including the company's Voice Remote Pro, which offers more features than the standard Roku Voice Remote.

Prices for these HD and 4K TVs will range from $119 to $999—a clear sign that, as with Amazon's competing Fire TV sets, the emphasis here is on accessible pricing, not top-notch picture quality.

Enlarge / Intel's new laptop CPU lineup is a lot like the old CPU lineup. (credit: Intel)

Intel's 13th-generation desktop CPU refresh is interesting because processors up and down the lineup are picking up extra clusters of four or eight E-cores, significantly improving how they handle heavily threaded tasks. The new laptop CPUs that Intel has also announced are much less interesting—the ones that will end up in most laptops increase clock speeds and support faster memory but are otherwise mostly identical to the 12th-generation CPUs they're replacing.

This isn't uncommon; Intel's 7th generation refresh was similarly low-key, and the 10th generation mostly was, too. The days when every year would bring either a new architecture or a new manufacturing process are long gone. Just know when you're shopping for a laptop that the jump from the 11th- to the 12th-generation represents a much larger performance leap (and, sometimes, a battery life reduction) than the jump from the 12th- to the 13th-gen.

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  Because they're desktop chips repackaged for mobile, the HX CPUs improve more than the other 13th-gen laptop CPUs. Like the desktop CPUs, they pick up extra E-cores. [credit: Intel ]

Intel spent most of its presentation talking about the high-end HX-series processors, mainly because they're the only ones that are significantly different from their 12th-gen predecessors. HX laptop processors are essentially Intel's Raptor Lake desktop CPUs, repackaged to be soldered down to a laptop motherboard. Like those desktop CPUs, they all include additional E-cores relative to 12th-gen CPUs. The Core i9 CPUs and the i7-13850HX also support faster DDR5-5600 RAM, though the others stick with DDR5-4800.

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  The OnePlus 11. It now comes in this lovely green. [credit: OnePlus ]

OnePlus is launching its new flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 11, but only in China for now. It will come to the US on February 7.

The OnePlus 11 is a flagship smartphone, but OnePlus is dropping the "Pro" moniker from the name, so while some phones like the OnePlus 9 came in a base model and an upgraded "Pro" version, the only phone here is the OnePlus 11.

The specs are what we should learn to expect from a 2023 flagship Android phone: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, 12GB or 16GB of RAM, 256GB or 512GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery. The display is a 120 Hz, 6.7-inch, 3216×1440 OLED. There's an in-screen optical fingerprint reader, a three-position volume switch, and near-field communication. Wi-Fi 7 is an option for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it's not on the OnePlus 11, which comes with Wi-Fi 6E.

Enlarge / We're not the world's biggest fans of all-touchscreen interfaces, so it's good to see Ford adding a physical control for temperature and fan speed to the Mach-E by adding new functionality to the car's volume knob. (credit: Ford)

This week, Ford pushed out a new over-the-air software update to its Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers. The new software "power-up," version 4.1.2, adds a bunch of improvements to Ford's Sync 4A system, including a new UI, more full-screen Apple CarPlay, and a couple of new games. But perhaps the most notable improvement is the addition of physical controls for the climate control and heated seats.

Well, kind of. As you might imagine, an OTA software update would probably struggle to add new physical hardware to a car, at least until someone finally develops replicator or transporter technology. Rather, Ford has leveraged the fact that the Mustang Mach-E's infotainment screen features a large, twisty knob to control the volume.

But now, the knob will do double duty. If a driver taps one of the icons to select the temperature, fan speed, or heated seats, the knob switches over from controlling volume to controlling the temperature or fan speed (depending upon which one you selected).

Enlarge / Gigi Sohn answering questions on December 1, 2021, at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission. (credit: Senate Commerce Committee)

President Joe Biden yesterday renominated Gigi Sohn to the long-empty fifth spot on the Federal Communications Commission in hopes that the Senate will finally give Democrats a 3-2 FCC majority.

The FCC has been deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republicans for Biden's entire presidency so far. He first nominated Sohn, a longtime consumer advocate and former FCC official, on October 26, 2021.

The full Senate never voted on whether to confirm Sohn as an FCC commissioner. Republicans vocally opposed her, and Democratic leaders seemingly weren't able to line up support from more conservative party members such as Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Enlarge (credit: SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket)

Online advertising on social platforms is changing. Google and Meta no longer hold majority control over advertising dollars, according to The Wall Street Journal, with Amazon and TikTok cutting in to sway advertisers to other platforms. Twitter is also hungry to redirect ad dollars to its platform, as it announced yesterday that it would be “relaxing” its political ads policy and allowing more “cause-based” ads. The company is also planning to expand to allow other forms of political advertising “in the coming weeks.”

Promising to share more details soon, the @TwitterSafety account tweeted Tuesday that from now on, Twitter’s goal is to align its advertising policy “with that of TV and other media outlets.” It’s unclear what exactly that means on a platform like Twitter, but the Federal Communications Commission specifies that it works to restrict censorship and ensure equal opportunity for political advertisers. This aligns somewhat with Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s stated "free speech absolutist" position. Twitter could also be looking to emulate the FCC to diminish the company's responsibility to review or ensure the accuracy of all political ad content.

Twitter’s recent policy change reverses a decision the platform made in 2019 to ban political ads to limit misinformation spread. That 2019 ban included exceptions for some cause-based advertising, where advertisers were permitted to conduct some microtargeting of Twitter users based on limited geographic location information, keywords, and interests. Notably, advertisers were not allowed to target audiences based on political affiliation like “conservative” or “liberal.” Under these prior rules, Twitter-certified cause-based advertisers approved to promote content created to “educate, raise awareness, and/or call for people to take action in connection with civic engagement, economic growth, environmental stewardship, or social equity.”