Google Pixel 4a, iPads and more devices are on sale today

The official news today begin with deals as per usual, cause even installment plans actually make sense right now. For example the Google Pixel 4a is currently available for a $5 a month on Verizon. Of course there’s specific restrictions but, you’ll be getting an Unlimited Plan and you’ll end up paying $128 for the 128GB variant. I know international kids, don’t laugh about how expensive plans are in the US. Moving on to B&H, the LG G8 ThinQ is currently $450 off, leaving it at $500 from it’s original price tag. Moving on to Amazon, we have your daily dose of Apple deals, for example the latest 11in iPad Pro is $50 off, leaving the 128GB of storage variant for $750. The Apple Watch Series 5 is also $79 off, leaving the 44mm variant for $350. We have more deals on Apple products, Razer peripherals. Jabra earbuds and more in the links in the description.

Insta360 ONE X2 launches as the ultimate personal 360-degree camera

Now let’s move on to official news, and particularly for one of the companies that continues to have my favorite approach to action cams and that keeps 360 degree video alive. Insta360 just launched their new One X2. This is a pocket camera designed to replace a multi-cam setup to give you ultra wide video, panoramas, and of course, 360 degree video. It brings several changes from the original model, like a new 1630 mAh battery which let’s you shoot for up to 80 minutes, a new HD touch screen to preview your shot and that also includes 360 degree video, It’s also water resistant up to 33 feet with no case and it brings four microphones. The camera also brings improved performance, and their new AI tech let’s you change focus and other things while editing it, which you couldn’t do before. It’s currently available for $430 in Adorama and B&H. Really the only thing I’m curious about is if you still need to use their software to be able to edit their videos, cause that’s the only thing I still struggle with.

AMD unleashes Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs based on RDNA 2 architecture

And would you look at that, the cool part about TechTober is that official news actually superseed the typical rumor mill. AMD just unveiled three new GPUs for their RX 6000 series. Basically these 3 graphic cards bring RDNA 2 architecture and they undercut Nvidia’s RTX 30 series in price tag and manage to still bring somewhat of a comparable performance as well as lower power consumption. For context, this is the same architecture powering the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. This new lineup starts at $579 with the RX 68000 which competes with the $1199 RTX 2080 Ti which is from last generation. Next up, you get the Rx 6800 XT which directly competes with the Nvidia RTX 3080, offering you 4K and 1440p gaming with 16GB of GDDR6 memory for $649. Finally, you get the RX 6900 XT flagship which is aimed at 8K gamers, and it’ll set you back at $999. We got more technical details in the description but with these prices, why would the average consumer go for the Nvidia cards? Of course, they’re still crazy powerful but, AMD’s prices just make more sense.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 2 could still arrive in the first half of 2021

Now let’s move the spotlight over to Samsung, for those of you that thought we weren’t gonna cover leaks today. Ross Young is already talking about the Galaxy Z Flip 2. According to his latest tweet, he claims that the Z Flip 2 won’t be launched with the Galaxy S21 but it will be launched in the Spring and he is impressed with the upgrades we’re getting. If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense because all of the rumors hint to the Galaxy S launching way earlier, either late January or February, so a later Spring launch for the Z Flip would help Samsung stay in the spotlight. We’re expecting this Z Flip 2, to bring both 4G and 5G connectivity but other than that, we don’t have a lot of information on this Z Flip 2, other than these upgrades Ross Young is talking about, which he doesn’t really mention. I know I want a larger outer display but let us know what you guys would like to see to care about this phone.

Apple could be working on its own search engine to replace Google

Now let’s flip on over to the boring politics section, and what companies are doing about it. If you remember, about a week ago we covered how Google was being sued and one of the reasons was, the deal they have with Apple to be their exclusive search engine. Well, as of now, Google reportedly pays $10-12B to be Apple’s main search provider but, thanks to this lawsuit, it may end. And now a new report claims that Cupertino is silently working on a new Search Engine to replace Google in case their deal is blocked. It’s still unclear whether this engine will be a full-blown website like Google, or just an enhanced Spotlight Search, which is already linking websites directly, bypassing Google. These payments from Google reportedly make around 20% of Apple’s revenue which is, a huge deal. Apple will most likely try to build this new solution around privacy so, let’s see what we end up getting cause if Siri is going to be the backbone of this service, who knows if it’ll actually work out.

Story of the day:

iPhone 12 Pro’s Ceramic Shield doesn’t help against scratches

Apple iPhone 12 series supports reverse wireless charging, but it’s hidden: FCC filing

And finally the hottest news today have to do with Apple, and the things they don’t tell you until they’re discovered in teardowns. And yes, it happened, the iPhone 12 Pro just went through Zack’s JerryRigEverything’s Durability test, revealing some stuff that we were waiting to confirm. If you follow me on Twitter, and you definitely should, you probably saw that I scratched my 12 Pro within the first 5 minutes after unboxing it because I stacked the phones together and it obviously made me question the Ceramic Shield. Well, on Zack’s teardown he confirmed that even with the new technology it still scratches at a level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7, however he did say that the level 6 scratches aren’t as noticeable when compared to other glass panels. And he also said that thanks to the build and the ceramic shield this phone should be more drop resistant, which other channels have confirmed. His video will be linked in the description but, let’s move on to other things we didn’t know about the iPhone 12. According to a new FCC filing, the iPhone 12 has a “dormant” reverse wireless charging feature through MagSafe at 360kHz, “perhaps for an external Apple accessory in the future”. A couple of days ago we covered how we should be getting new AirPods soon so, maybe Apple is waiting until they release those for them to enable the feature and advertise it, and since the iPhone has magnets, it might actually make sense