Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Wednesday, April 22.
1. Motorola Edge: launch today, leaked yesterday
Motorola's Edge event is today, at 12pm ET, which is pretty right around the corner. Presumably, it'll be streamed live on the company's YouTube channel or Twitter account.
It matters because the new Moto Edge is the company's first flagship phone in forever, if you exclude the folding Moto RAZR, which I do.
- The once-Google-owned now Lenovo-owned company based out of Chicago has put out affordable and budget devices for years.
- The best of those included 2016's higher-spec Moto Z for its attempt to create a modular world, and the more recent Moto G7 for being the best price/value around in the US.
- 2019's Moto G8 wasn't a winner, though.
Leaks and oopsies:
- Ahead of the launch, Motorola has sent out devices to media. We know that because one tech publication accidentally published early thoughts on the device.
- We've now seen almost complete specs and leaked images.
- It'll be another big flagship at 6.7-inch curved display with 90Hz refresh rate, with a Snapdragon 865 chipset meaning it'll support 5G, either 8GB or 12GB RAM, plus a 5,000-mAh battery, and 108-megapixel rear sensor, plus a headphone jack.
- There's also a non-plus or vanilla Moto Edge, but few details have emerged about it thus far.
- The image above comes via a leaked marketing video, found by Evan Blass.
- Lots of good specs, but we'll need to see how it all comes together.
$1000:
- Pricing and availability looks …challenging.
- What we've seen published is that it'll be $1000, or $41.67/mo over 24 months, and available on Verizon only, in the US at least.
- That availability isn't necessarily a surprise, given Motorola and Verizon have a long-running partnership.
- But it's not exactly a much-loved partnership given how strictly limiting it makes Motorola devices like the flagship Motorola Edge.
- Those companies will argue it's to deliver mmWave 5G, but super-limited availability means that's a tough justification for now.
- Assuming the leaks are accurate given what's been published-then-quickly-removed, I just don't know if there's much to like given what you can get from Samsung, LG, and OnePlus, without needing to be locked into Verizon.
- All are hamstrung by the costs involved flagship 5G SoCs from Qualcomm, which is why we're at the $999 mark or more for so many 2020 flagships.
- We'll see how it shakes out later on today, but you've been warned…
2. Epic has changed its mind and officially placed Fortnite on the Google Play Store. It's not really by choice, as Epic explains it was basically forced to join rather than get users to sideload its APK. The world's biggest game couldn't even try to beat Apple's 30% cut of revenue, and its attempt to beat Google failed. It's quite the position for that duopoly on our phones. Also, Epic is reportedly raising cash, like many other companies during this downturn. Fortnite hasn't hit the top of the charts in gaming that I'm seeing on the Play Store yet, but it's still early (Android Authority). (Android Authority).
3. "Umm, is the $499 OnePlus 7T a better choice than the OnePlus 8 series?" (Android Authority).
4. Galaxy S20 Ultra gets a new DxOMark ranking, but doesn't top the listings: you be the judge (Android Authority).
5. Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active2 can monitor your blood pressure, but you'll need to calibrate it monthly. I wonder how accurate it is (Ars Technica).
6. Rumors are that Apple has delayed an iPhone SE Plus model until late 2021, while the iPhone 12 series will feature four new models (9to5Mac).
7. Razer's updated Blade Stealth gets a faster display and GPU (Engadget).
8. Facebook spent $5.7b to buy 9.9% of a giant Indian telco, Jio, its single biggest investment ever (The Verge).
9. The next SpaceX Starlink launch is set for 3:37pm ET later today, 60 more sats going up (YouTube).
10. Calm yourself with endless Super Mario clouds (Gizmodo).
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