🎨 Good morning, Daily Authority readers. Tomorrow is one of the biggest festivals we celebrate here in India — the festival of colors, aka Holi. So before I head out for my well-deserved one-day break, I thought I’ll take over today’s newsletter from Paula, who’ll be back very soon from her own well-deserved break. So without further ado, here are the top tech stories of the day.

Nothing’s big oopsie

In case you didn’t know, Nothing is on track to launch the Nothing Phone 2 this year. It’ll be a flagship-level device aimed at US and European buyers. As usual, we’re in for months of teasers from the brand as it fires up the usual hype train. But it looks like one secret Nothing wasn’t quite ready to pull out of the bag has been accidentally revealed by a top boss at Qualcomm.

• Nothing announced during MWC 2023 that it’s partnered with Qualcomm to bring an 8-series Snapdragon processor to the Nothing Phone 2.
• This automatically meant Nothing is finally ready to launch a true flagship phone, one that promises premium specs and high-octane performance, and goes up against the likes of the Galaxy S23, OnePlus 11, and more.
• What Nothing didn’t reveal during its MWC announcement is the name of the Snapdragon 8 series chipset, leading to speculation that it could be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the current leader in the flagship phone market.
• However, while congratulating Nothing for its partnership with Qualcomm, the chipmaker’s mobile division chief wrote on Linkedin that the Nothing Phone 2 will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1.
• The post was quickly amended to remove the name of the chipset. However, folks caught on to it and managed to grab a screenshot of the original post.
• Looks like the cat is out of the bag and the Nothing Phone 2 will feature last year’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon SoC.

Is it a bad thing?

• Certainly not. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is still a fairly new chip.
• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was built on Samsung’s 4nm node, but its Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 refresh is manufactured on TSMC’s 4nm rival.
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 handsets have struggled with excess heat and sustained performance issues under more rigorous testing.
• All this was fixed with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. Phones equipped with the chip easily outperformed Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 handsets in benchmark testing.
• The 8 Plus Gen 1 version is also able to sustain peak performance.
• Moreover, by choosing a slightly older chip, Nothing could price the Phone 2 very competitively.
• The company’s already got a lot going for it with the attractive Glyph interface and the Nothing OS.
• So ultimately, the Nothing Phone 2 could be at par with the best phones of 2023 when it comes to features. And it shouldn’t be far behind Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones in terms of sheer performance.

Roundup

👮 Huawei allegedly caught tracking MWC 2023 visitors at its exhibit (Android Authority).

💵 On the subject of shady practices: Scammers are using AI voices to steal millions by impersonating loved ones (Android Authority).

📱 In mobile news — Samsung was said to be working on a custom CPU for its phones, but the company has clarified what’s really happening (Android Authority).

🎶 Meanwhile, Nothing is getting ready for a new launch later this month (Android Authority).

⛳ Motorola also seems to be prepping a new flagship launch and renders of the rebranded phone just leaked (XDA Developers).

💧 Switching gears to Pixel: It looks like the changelog for the March 2023 feature drop just leaked (Android Authority).

🚫 Over to social media news, it looks like TikTok could be banned in the US (Reuters).

💼 Meta is planning thousands of layoffs as soon as this week (Bloomberg).

💣 Oops: US Fed Reserve Zoom Conference Canceled After ‘Porn-Bombing’ (Reuters).

🌐 US Air Force awards $75.5 million contract for the world’s largest wireless ad-hoc network (Interesting Engineering).

Tuesday Thing

Toblerone is dropping its iconic Matterhorn peak, according to a BBC report. Don’t worry, the chocolate will still have the same shape. However, the packaging is changing because apparently, the product is no longer Swiss enough to use the Alpine peak.

• Toblerone is to remove the Matterhorn mountain peak from its packaging when some of the chocolate’s production is moved from Switzerland to Slovakia.
• The pyramid-shaped bar will undergo a labeling revamp and include its founder’s signature.
• US firm Mondelez said the image of the 4,478m (14,692 ft) mountain will be replaced by a more generic summit.
• Strict rules have been applied about “Swissness” since 2017.
• They state that national symbols are not allowed to be used to promote milk-based products that are not made exclusively in Switzerland.
• For other raw foodstuffs, the threshold is at least 80%.
• So the new packaging would include a “distinctive new Toblerone typeface and logo that draw further inspiration from the Toblerone archives and the inclusion of our founder, Tobler’s, signature.”

On that note, I’m off to pick up some chocolates.

Have a nice day,

Adamya Sharma, Editor.