I got a day off from my 9 to 5 so I’ve been taking it easy all morning. But during my first cup of coffee, I did manage to pull together a few stories for today’s newsletter. It’s a bit of a later issue, but the stories are still worth talking about.
NBC will launch Peacock streaming service on July 15th
This news broke on Thursday afternoon and didn’t make a newsletter yet, so I thought I’d toss it into this one.
At an investors meeting, NBC officially confirmed when its streaming service, Peacock, would launch. July 15th is the day in question, with Xfinity and Cox cable subscribers getting access to the service three months early on April 15th. The service will serve as a home for NBC and Universal properties across TV and film. Notably, it’ll be the exclusive home of The Office, so if you’re depressed the show’s leaving Netflix, you’ll wanna sign up for Peacock as soon as possible.
Also notable is the price. Peacock will be free for all users with more than 7,500 hours of programming across NBCUniversal’s library. You can pay $4.99/month for even more content such as early airings of late-night talk shows. Both of these tiers give you ads which can be removed by paying $9.99/month.
I plan to subscribe to some sort of membership so I’ll let you know how it is after I’ve used it for a while this summer.
OnePlus 8 Pro allegedly leaks, shows off 120Hz screen
OnePlus’ next flagship phones, the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, are expected to debut soon, and today, a new leak claims to show off the latter with its 120Hz screen.
New photos courtesy of True-Tech.net show the unreleased OnePlus 8 Pro with its hole-punch display. On the screen is a settings menu for the display which give syou the option to choose from 60Hz, 90hz, and 120Hz refresh rates. OnePlus has already confirmed its next phone will ship with a 120Hz refresh rate, so this leak is pretty reputable. Keep in mind, though, that it isn’t confirmed the photo shows off the OnePlus 8 Pro itself.
Still, when phones leak, it tends to pour, so expect more on the next OnePlus phones soon.
Instagram is removing the IGTV shortcut in its app
Instagram says (via TechCrunch) it’s removing a shortcut that takes users to its IGTV app from its main application on mobile devices. According to the company, the shortcut that was added to the top of the Instagram app back when IGTV launched isn’t used very much at all, and users find IGTV content through areas such as Explore and the Feed much more often. Therefore, in a future update, the shortcut will be removed.
One less button in the Instagram app is always a good idea.
Lenovo is building a mysterious VR headset
Finally, a new FCC filing has revealed that Lenovo is working on a new VR headset. This headset will be a standalone unit and not require your phone to operate. The last time the company did this, they released the ill-fated Mirage Solo which was powered by Google’s Daydream OS.
It isn’t clear what this new headset will run, what capabilities it’ll have, or what use case it’ll try to serve. All we know is a headset is coming and that you should stay tuned – there’s no way I won’t have more info on this in a few months.
[From the January 20th, 2020 Wiretapped newsletter.]
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