The OnePlus Nord is the new affordable smartphone from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, as it looks to reach more fans by offering a more price-conscious option alongside its flagship tier.
OnePlus Nord is both the name of the firm’s new product line and the first device in the range – the OnePlus Nord smartphone.
A number of details have been confirmed about the Nord handset recently, some of them exclusively by TechRadar, and we’ve put all the key information below.
The new OnePlus Nord phone has a lower price tag than the OnePlus 8, addressing the concern some fans had about the firm’s big price hikes in recent years as it moved away from its mid-range pricing.
While there was much speculation over the name – with OnePlus Z, OnePlus 8 Lite and OnePlus Nord all being rumored, the latter has now been officially confirmed as the name for the affordable smartphone.
Cut to the chase
What is it? An affordable (not cheap) OnePlus smartphone
When is it out? Possibly July 10
How much will it cost? Under $500 (around £410, AU$730)
OnePlus Nord release date
OnePlus Nord pre-orders: limited pre-orders from July 1
OnePlus Nord release date: rumored for July 7 or 10
The OnePlus Nord release date is yet to be confirmed, but it’s close. The firm has already held an initial round OnePlus Nord pre-orders – limited to just 100 units – on July 1 which sold out in just a second.
It’s planning two further OnePlus Nord pre-order sessions as well, on July 8 and July 15 via its website – and if the first round is anything to go by, they’ll likely sell out immediately too.
As for when the OnePlus Nord release date will be for general sale, a recent rumor points to July 10. However, with the OnePlus site confirming the third round of pre-orders won’t be until July 15, a July 10 release looks highly unlikely.
The OnePlus Nord will be available in Europe and India first, while “a select number of users in North America will also get a chance to experience the new device through a highly limited beta program after launch”.
We don’t have any more detail on the North America beta program at the moment, but we’ll update this page as soon as we hear.
OnePlus Nord price
OnePlus Nord price: confirmed to be “below $500”
What we do know is the OnePlus Nord price. OnePlus has confirmed it will be “below $500” (around £410 / AU$730), while CEO and Founder, Pete Lau has confirmed to TechRadar that it will cost €500 in Europe.
That makes the OnePlus Nord comfortably cheaper than the OnePlus 8, which starts at $699 / £599 (about AU$1,100) – which is good, as OnePlus has been teasing the ‘affordable’ handset for a while now.
We wouldn’t be surprised if “below $500” translates to $499, rather than an even lower price tag – but you could always keep your fingers crossed for something cheaper.
OnePlus Nord name
No longer the OnePlus Z or OnePlus 8 Lite
It is official, the affordable OnePlus smartphone is called the OnePlus Nord.
After several months of rumors surrounding a trio of names – OnePlus 8 Lite, OnePlus Z and, most recently, OnePlus Nord – it was the more bizarre of the three which ended up being the real deal.
It’s not clear why OnePlus chose the Nord name, or how well it will translate across different countries and languages around the world, but we now have a name to put to the gaping void where the face of the phone should be, only OnePlus hasn’t actually shown us it yet.
OnePlus Nord power and interface
Exclusive: Nord will feature Snapdragon 765G chipset
That’s the same chip which we saw perform well in the LG Velvet, and its inclusion means the OnePlus Nord is also 5G enabled.
While not confirmed, we expect the OnePlus Nord to run Android with the firm’s Oxygen OS interface over the top, which brings with it features and customization options on top of Google’s core operating system.
OnePlus Nord cameras
Exclusive: OnePlus Nord will have flagship level cameras
Rumors say three rear facing cameras
A recent leak suggests two front facing cameras
According to a leak from an ‘OnePlus insider’, the OnePlus Nord will feature two front facing cameras, a 32MP sensor alongside an 8MP offering.
This conflicts with earlier rumors which suggested the handset would only have a single selfie camera – so we’ll have to wait for official confirmation from OnePlus to see which way it goes here.
As for the rear cameras, rumors suggest the OnePlus Nord could have three lenses on the back and a surprise tease of the phone on a talk show suggested it will have three rear cameras, though, so it seems this part of the leaks could be correct.
Meanwhile, another trusted leaker has suggested we may see the OnePlus Nord have four rear cameras.
While we don’t how many cameras the Nord will have, Carl Pei, Assistant Head of OnePlus Nord, exclusively told TechRadar that the handset will have “a flagship-level camera”.
OnePlus Nord leaks and rumors
A OnePlus Nord render (below) gave us an idea of the phone, and it actually showed a phone that doesn’t look all that different from the main OnePlus 8 series.
There’s with a ‘punch-hole’ cut-out central to the top of the display, rear cameras in a bump to the left of the device, and seemingly no 3.5mm headphone jack.
The leaked OnePlus Nord render (Image credit: @OnLeaks / 91mobiles)
We’ve also seen live hands-on pictures of the phone, that generally seem to back that render. The screen is flat, which is a change from the other OnePlus 8 devices, but the picture didn’t show the back of the phone.
Just before the OnePlus 8 announcement a huge leak laid bare all three phones, including a ‘Lite’ device. This leak said the ‘Lite’ handset – which is now called the OnePlus Nord – would have a 6.4-inch screen, 48MP + 16MP + 12MP rear camera combination, 16MP front camera and 4,000mAh battery.
We’re not convinced by any of this, as the same report also said it would have a Mediatek 1000 chipset – which we know for a fact is not true.
One of the latest OnePlus Nord spec leaks points to the now-confirmed Snapdragon 765 chipset, along with 6GB of RAM, a triple-lens rear camera with 64MP, 16MP, and 2MP sensors, a 16MP front-facing camera in a punch-hole, a 6.55-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, 128GB of storage, an in-screen fingerprint scanner and a 4,300mAh battery with 30W fast charging.
Having said that, another leaker has said these specs are wrong, so we’d take them with a serious side of salt. Indeed, an even more recent leak said the OnePlus Nord will have a dual-lens front-facing camera with a 32MP main sensor and an 8MP wide-angle one, both in a cut-out in the top left corner of the screen.
Finally, a benchmark test listing for what seems to be the OnePlus Nord suggests it could have as much as 12GB RAM, which is a surprising amount for what we imagined to be an affordable phone.
The same listing suggests the phone will have 5G connectivity and a Snapdragon 765G chipset – two aspects which have already been confirmed for the handset.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
