Technology - Google News

Oppo's First Foldable Phone Looks Set to Rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 - Gizmodo
CNET names the best tech products of 2021 - CNET
NES and SNES creator Masayuki Uemura dies at 78 - Polygon

Oppo's First Foldable Phone Looks Set to Rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 - Gizmodo

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:19 AM PST

Foldable phones promise to one day supplant our standard slab-shaped devices, and now another smartphone giant is throwing its hat in the ring with a product set to rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Oppo, the overseas parent company to OnePlus, revealed today the Oppo Find N (no, not Fold N), a foldable phone set to launch on Dec. 15 during Oppo's annual Inno Day convention.

Oppo didn't reveal much about the device, but a teaser video posted to Twitter shows a phone with a similar form factor as the Galaxy Fold. That is to say, it's a phone with a standard outer screen that can fold open to reveal a larger flexible interior panel. Looking frame-by-frame, the device appears to have chrome edges, a camera bump in the top-right corner, a USB port on the bottom, and the front screen has minimal bezels.

In a blog post, Oppo chief product officer (and OnePlus CEO) Pete Lau envisions the Find N as the "future of smartphones," a step forward after the industry "hit a wall."

The Find N is apparently the result of four years of R&D and six generations of prototypes with the first generation device surfacing internally in 2018. Lau stresses the company took its time to make a viable product instead of "rushing to keep up with trends," and while he admits others were first to market, Lau says those devices remain hammered by poor "utility, durability and user experience."

Oppo claims to have fixed the pain points with those devices including the crease in the display and the questionable durability of certain models. The goal, according to Lau, was to make something beautiful that could be comfortably held in the palm of your hand and didn't require a user manual to use.

Foldables got off on the wrong foot when Samsung was forced to place its first effort, the Galaxy Fold, on hold following a flurry of durability complaints. Since then, enormous strides have made the current crop of foldables viable alternatives to the standard smartphone. Durability remains a concern but it now feels that to find a mainstream audience, foldables need to drop in price and take better advantage of their form factor to showcase new ways of using a phone.

We'll soon find out if Oppo's Find N can move the needle, but even if it doesn't, we may still have Oppo's triple-hinge slider phone or rollable phone concepts to look forward to. Or maybe we'll skip these strange bendy, foldy, flippy devices and go straight to the metaverse.

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CNET names the best tech products of 2021 - CNET

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:00 AM PST

While 2021 wasn't 2020 -- there was no global recession and there were fewer restrictions on activity -- it was still a challenging year for companies launching new tech products. The worldwide chip shortage and the supply chain crisis tied the hands of tech companies. Plus, consumers loaded up on so much tech last year that demand wasn't as brisk for some products in 2021. Nevertheless, the bullet train of innovation kept racing forward and there were billions of people buying tickets for a ride.

As we do each year, CNET evaluated the most important products in the biggest categories in consumer tech. Our goal is to find the most recommendable product in each category and subcategory and designate it as the CNET Editors' Choice. The end result is always to provide the clearest and most useful advice to our audience.

The best tech products offer a combination of performance, design and value. All of the products on our list have been rigorously tested by CNET's team of subject matter experts. Also, we don't hand out an Editors' Choice until the product has been in the hands of the general public for at least a week, to make sure there aren't any bugs, glitches or other surprises that didn't show up in our testing.

All of that is what makes the CNET Editors' Choice badge a hallmark of excellence in consumer tech. It's our signal that a product is among the best of breed in its category and is a good value for the money.

In 2021, as the world worked its way toward post-pandemic normalcy, technology continued to remain critical in connecting us virtually so that we could work, collaborate, educate, entertain, socialize and encourage each other from afar. Tech keeps reimagining life, society and the world -- and the transformation continued to accelerate this year.

So here they are, the best products of 2021.

Best phones, smartwatches, earbuds

Computers, laptops and more

Home entertainment gear

Useful tech for your smart home

Powerful services and software

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NES and SNES creator Masayuki Uemura dies at 78 - Polygon

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:55 AM PST

The lead architect of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Masayuki Uemura, has died. The Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University announced Uemura's death on Thursday, saying he died Dec. 6 at the age of 78.

Uemura first joined Nintendo in 1972, and worked with the company to build light-gun games, helping to create the predecessor to Duck Hunt. After moving to Nintendo's new R&D2 team, he headed up the squad's home console initiative — a mandate from then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Uemura began development on the Famicom (the Japanese name for the NES) in 1981 in an attempt to bring the arcade to player's living rooms. R&D2 launched the Famicom in 1983, and Uemura's team built its successor, the SNES (known as the Super Famicom in Japan), for its 1990 release.

Before retiring in 2004, Uemura also helped build games like Ice Climbers, Clu Clu Land, Soccer, Baseball, and Golf. While he remained a research and development adviser in retirement, Uemura served as a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, teaching video game development to a new generation of creatives.

Fans and developers — such as Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai — are mourning his loss on Twitter.

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