OnePlus Nord looks official for July, and more tech news you need to know

Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Wednesday, June 24.

1. OnePlus Nord: the affordable OnePlus gets a name (seemingly…)

OnePlus has been having fun teasing its new OnePlus phones, expected to be affordable devices that drop back from high-end specs and contenders for best possible devices.

OnePlus seems to be wink-winking as it works its way to launch.

• The ‘lite’ model phone is coming, but the name has been elusive: OnePlus 8 Lite, OnePlus Z, and OnePlus Nord were all circulating as suggested names or brands
• Yesterday, OnePlus launched a new and private Instagram account, playfully called @onepluslitezthing, with photos posted to the account including a codebreaker question, with morse code for ‘July’.

Buuuut the secret looks like it’s now out: OnePlus Nord seems real.

• Which, to be fair, seems like it was supposed to happen
• This does seem pretty real, via Twitter:

• This post, now removed, theoretically confirms OnePlus will launch OnePlus Nord in July, with blue branding; a departure from the red branding we normally see from the company.

Another Nord leak was spotted in this half-cut off image (h/t WinFuture.de), too:

• So, Nord it is. Or seems to be.
• The question is now around what Nord means. Not the word exactly, where nord means ‘north’ in a bunch of languages. More if Nord is the name of a new OnePlus device, or the name of a new series from OnePlus.
• We could be seeing something like the OnePlus Nord 1 in July, followed by the Nord 2 in 2021, and so on and so forth.
• Names aside, what we do know is that OnePlus isn’t immediately launching the first Nord device in the US, sticking with Europe and India as the targets initially.
• Leaks suggest a Snapdragon 765 series chipset, 90Hz screen, and quad rear cameras.
• But what will really matter is the price, especially in India’s value-packed marketplace.

2. LG Velvet review: Nothing too fancy, underwhelming for the price, but loads of style points (Android Authority).

3. Acer’s new flagship Chromebook is the all-aluminum Spin 713, with 10th gen Intel processor (Android Authority).

4. Olympus is getting out of the camera business, sellings its brands to JIP (which also bought Sony’s VAIO laptop brand a while back) (The Verge).

5. Lucas Rizzotto: “Apple’s design overhaul is all about preparing for Augmented Reality,” and that makes so much sense. The return of skeuomorphic design aids recognition in AR, rounded edges… we’ll see! (Twitter). Also, how fast are Apple’s new ARM Mac chips? It’s hard to tell (The Verge).

6. 1,000+ technologists urge Springer to not publish a paper that describes a system to predict crime based on faces. Springer appeared to pull the upcoming paper, described as morally corrupt and baseless (Vice).

7. Facebook will stop selling its budget VR headset Oculus Go, says it won’t make any headset with less than 6DOF to push the tech further. The Go was an important stepping stone, but is relegated to ye olde status now (UploadVR).

8. Mixer failed, here’s why (The Verge).

9. George R. R. Martin offers a new Winds of Winter estimate: 2021 (Ars Technica).

10. Segway will stop making its iconic self-balancing scooter (Engadget).

11. A Black Hole collided with something that shouldn’t exist, and while that’s an exciting headline, it’s not clickbait (Gizmodo)! More here on CNET too.

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