Technologies

OnePlus 15 Goes on Sale in China, and Its Global Launch Appears Imminent

The Chinese model is touting a 165Hz refresh rate and a big 7,300mAh battery.

The OnePlus 15 is now available to purchase in China, and it’s likely that a global model that would arrive in the US and the UK will be announced soon.

The Chinese edition of the phone comes in three colors: the previously announced Sand Storm model along with black and purple. Its 6.78-inch display supports a 165Hz refresh rate — which should be particularly smooth for gaming — along with a very large 7,300mAh battery. As expected among most new flagship Android phones, it will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The phone also touts a 120-watt wired charging speed, although it’s worth noting that historically those charging speeds do not typically carry over to the US model. It also supports 50W wireless charging.

The phone’s cameras include a 50-megapixel wide, 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 50-megapixel telephoto with a 3.5x optical zoom. On the front is a 32-megapixel selfie camera.

The store lists a presale price of 4,899 Chinese Yuan, which roughly translates to $689, £515 and AU$1,050. The OnePlus 15 starts with 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage and goes up to 16GB of memory coupled with 1TB of storage.

While not all of these specs are guaranteed to show up with an eventual global release of the OnePlus 15, it doesn’t appear we’ll be waiting too much longer to find out. The UK edition of the OnePlus website is teasing the forthcoming global model, showing a photo of it on its homepage. This marks an earlier unveiling than typical for OnePlus, as the OnePlus 13 released back in January of this year (we’ve asked OnePlus why 14 is being skipped, although OnePlus did skip the number 4 when moving from OnePlus 3 in 2016 to OnePlus 5 in 2017).

There’s also a few additional clarifications regarding the OnePlus 15 that weren’t readily apparent on the Chinese website. For instance, OnePlus previously announced that the Sand Storm model will be made from a material that’s 1.3 times as tough as titanium, but the current website does not make clear if there will be a price difference for that model versus black and purple.

It also does not appear that magnetic wireless charging will be available on this phone, but it’s possible that OnePlus will ship a case that features magnets like it did with the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13 also went on sale alongside a lower-cost OnePlus 13R model globally, but in China it appears it’s going on sale with the OnePlus Ace 6, the latter featuring an even larger 7,800mAh battery.

Until we get that official global announcement, for now we can use this Chinese announcement to continue to glean more clues about what the OnePlus 15 will look like.

Technologies

Apple Launches Creator Studio Package as $13 a Month Subscription

Mac users can still buy the apps individually, but subscribers get access to Final Cut Pro and other Studio tools.

Apple is bundling its pro filmmaking and audio tools including Final Cut Pro with its productivity apps Keynote, Pages and Numbers into a subscription software suite called Apple Creator Studio.

The package, which includes apps for Mac, iPad and iPhone, includes Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage and the whiteboard app Freeform. Creator Studio will be available starting Jan. 28 at a cost of $13 per month or $129 per year, or $3 per month or $30 per year for students and educators. Mac users will still have the option to purchase software like Final Cut Pro for a one-time free. The current price for Final Cut Pro in the Mac App Store is $300.

While apps such as Keynote and Pages are already free on Apple platforms, it appears that new versions of those apps will receive access to beta features that will roll out first to Creator Studio subscribers. The announcement by Apple alludes to «new AI features and premium content» in some of the apps it otherwise makes available to use for free.

What the Creator Studio bundle comes with

The star of the show in Creator Studio is Final Cut Pro, the video editing software that will now include Transcript Search on both Mac and iPad. There is also a new Beat Detection feature Apple says uses an AI model to analyze a music track and display a beat grid, making it easier to cut video to music rhythms. The software also will include a new Montage Maker on iPad for quick social video creation.

Motion, the 2D and 3D graphics tool, and Compressor also integrate with Final Cut Pro. Apple touted Motion’s Magnetic Mask feature for isolating objects or people without the need for a green screen.

Logic Pro has new features for musicians, including a Synth Player addition to AI Session Players. Chord ID, a new AI feature, can create chord progressions from audio or MIDI recordings. A new Sound Library will have hundreds of royalty-free clips, samples and loops.

A revamped MainStage app gives subscribers access to instrument, voice-professing and guitar rig tools. Pixelmator Pro arrives with new tools and filters, and there will be an iPad version in addition to the Mac tool.

Freeform in the Creator Studio package will add premium content, including curated photos, graphics and illustrations. It will also get new AI features that include image creation.

Technologies

Reddit Outage Resolved: Here’s What Happened

Did you have trouble reading your favorite subreddits today? You weren’t alone.

If you had trouble accessing the news and discussion forum Reddit on Tuesday, you weren’t the only one. However, as of 10:15 a.m. PT, the site appears to be back up and running normally. Reddit’s status monitoring page, RedditStatus.com, notes that «all systems (are) operational» after the brief outage.

But earlier, at 9:30 a.m. PT, RedditStatus.com said the company was «investigating elevated errors across reddit.com and native apps.» RedditStatus.com reported degraded site performance for both desktop web use and native mobile apps.

Earlier on Tuesday, the site-monitoring service DownDetector also reported issues at Reddit, providing additional details. At one point on Tuesday, DownDetector received over 100,000 reports that the site was having problems. At 10:25 am PT, the report numbers fell to under 600. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

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«Reddit is currently experiencing a significant internal outage causing widespread service disruptions,» the site said earlier Tuesday. «The impact is categorized as Very High, primarily affecting mobile app access (55%) and website connectivity (39%). While reports are heavily concentrated in major hubs like New York City and Chicago, the lack of ISP correlation suggests a broad, nationwide issue stemming from Reddit’s internal servers rather than external network providers.»

A representative for Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Another social media site, X, formerly Twitter, also showed problems on Tuesday, according to DownDetector. Those problems seemed to spike around 6:30 a.m. PT and improve after.

Technologies

This 3-in-1 Charger Is a Must-Have for Travelers, and It Just Hit a Record-Low of $95

Snag it for $45 off and charge your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch at the same time.

If you’re a frequent traveler, then you know that outlets are a precious commodity in places like airports and coffee shops. So why waste one on a single device when you can charge up to three at once? Right now, you can grab this seriously sleek Ugreen Magflow three-in-one foldable charger for just $95 at Amazon. That’s a $45 discount and the all-time lowest price we’ve seen. Just don’t wait too long, as this deal could expire at any time.

At just 7.4 ounces, this compact charging station is designed to be taken on the go. But despite its size, it still supports 25-watt MagSafe charging for iPhones, as well as 5-watt wireless charging for AirPods and Apple Watches. The charging stand also tilts up to double as a stand, and it’s equipped with 16 magnets to keep your phone aligned and securely in place. Plus, it’s got built-in protections against overheating, overcharging, short-circuiting and more to prevent damage to your devices.

Why this deal matters

This folding Ugreen charger is great for juicing up your devices on the go, and it’s never been more affordable. Plus, Ugreen makes some of the best MagSafe chargers on the market right now, so don’t miss your chance to grab one at a record-low price.