A Huawei Oppo-tunity
towards a future of superintelligence, but also on solving some of the most complex neurological disorders.
Investors are also starting to throw their weight behind the vision. Neuralink, whose technology has barely been tested, has raised US$150m ($222m) since its founding in 2016, including US$100m from Musk.
It has also attracted some of the brightest minds in science as researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus Harvard and Stanford universities have jumped
The 60x zoom, by the way, is a bit of a car crash. I haven’t managed to snap anything in focus with it yet.
The camera’s next major selling point is its low-light photography night mode. This works well too, marking a definite improvement in last year’s crop of smartphones. But once again, it’s beaten by the Huawei P30 Pro’s stunning lowlight performance. working on a ‘‘brain stimulation technique’’ to treat depression with his medical device start-up, Flow, and has seen how long the regulatory process can take for something that is non-invasive. Neuralink’s technology, on the other hand, is more complex and intrusive. The start-up has devised a 4x4mm chip that connects to a thousand microscopic threads entering the brain through four holes drilled in the skull.
The threads, tagged with electrodes, could theoretically detect electrical impulses in the brain to track activity in the body’s into the phone’s screen, meaning you only have to place your thumb (or finger) in the vicinity of where fingerprint sensors used to be. The phone’s screen will do the rest. And it’s a quick affair too; the Reno 10x Zoom will unlock almost instantly.
The bezel-less screen has also pushed the selfie camera off the front of the phone. The front-facing camera now sits within the very top of the phone and is summoned into action when you press the selfie button from the phone’s camera app.
Cue a curious whirring and a pizza-slice shape emerging from the top of your phone. Inside the wedge is a 16 MP, f/2.0 HDR camera and LED flash. Press the camera flip button again, and the pizza slice disappears inside a second.
Other key features
The phone runs a home-brand ColorOS 6 operating system. It’s a stylish, quick and easy-to-use interface that Oppo has overlaid on top of Android 9.
There’s not a huge amount to note about this user interface (UI) – which is a good thing as phone manufacturers often ruin Android phones with their ‘‘improvements’’. The main differences ColorOS 6 offers is some unique background options, oversized app icons and a few vanilla native apps. All of which can be tweaked to your taste.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip powers the phone. It’s the same chipset that drives the Samsung Galaxy S1, Sony Xperia 1 and OnePlus 7. In short, it’s the best processor you can ask for in a 2019 Android smartphone.
Verdict
The timing of the Reno 10x Zoom couldn’t be better. The storm that Huawei finds itself in leaves, for some people, a P30-sized gap in the market. This handset fills it neatly. And with a NZ$200 discount.
Netflix announced that it experienced a drop in United States subscribers for the time since 2011. The market reacted immediately, causing Netflix’s share price to drop by 11 per cent, on the same day of the announcement.
Global subscriptions were up 150 million, but this missed internal forecasts.
The timing of the news, that came via a letter to shareholders, will add fuel to the ‘‘streaming wars’’ narrative, landing just a week after WarnerMedia announced its plans to launch a new streaming service, HBO Max.
Netflix remains confident about its future, despite the news.
‘‘We don’t believe competition was a factor, since there wasn’t a material change in the competitive landscape during [the second quarter] and competitive intensity and our penetration is varied across regions,’’ the company says.
‘‘While our US paid membership
illusion’’ about achieving its goal alone and would need to bring on help from others. It is unclear, too, how Musk plans on using the chips to enhance human intelligence and solve brain disorders, with no real data presented as yet.
‘‘I think the possibilities for application of the Neuralink technology are pretty limited. It’s not going to make us smarter,’’ says Professor David Curtis, a specialist in genetics and psychiatry at University College London.
What is more plausible, Curtis says, is an application in which the brain implants allow patients with things such as locked-in syndrome to ‘‘communicate with the outside world’’, and possibly for people with motor neuron disease to gain better control of artificial body parts.
More fundamental questions linger over the place AI will have in society and whether or not anxieties over AI are overblown. Musk has not been alone in voicing concerns about AI, and has found common ground with worldbeating scientists, such as the late Stephen Hawking, who has also warned that further development of AI could ‘‘spell the end of the human race’’.
A primary driver for Musk has been the ‘‘democratisation of intelligence’’ to ensure humanity is on equal pegging with AI, but not everyone is convinced of a doomsday case – or even the idea that humans and AI will be in direct opposition.
‘‘Fears about an AI take-over are not justified by any research or