Year 26 for DeVore Fidelity and John DeVore wasn’t chasing spectacle at AXPONA 2026. He was doing something far more dangerous. In a show packed with $100,000 loudspeakers, including his own Orangutan O/Reference, most systems impressed for five minutes and then slowly gave the game away. This one didn’t follow that script. It didn’t try to overwhelm you. It didn’t ask for attention. It just sat there and delivered tone, weight, and emotional clarity in a way that made a lot of other rooms feel like expensive distractions.
That should make people uncomfortable. It should. Because once you hear it, the usual suspects asking for down payment money and ballroom sized rooms to prove their point start to feel a little less convincing.
This is a four piece system with real bandwidth and real room flexibility, but that’s not the point. It sounds like music with consequences. And at six figures, it has to do more than impress. It has to mean something.
We all claim we’re chasing the same thing, but it’s more complicated. This has always been a solitary pursuit. After decades and more than 80 shows, it’s clear the draw isn’t the gear. It’s the search. The hope that a system can deliver both emotional and intellectual connection. Not just analysis, but something that lingers after the last note fades, when the glow of the tubes slips into darkness and you’re left alone with it, letting whatever it stirred settle in. And it has to cut through whatever you brought with you into the room, including the cheap Scotch.
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That’s where the divide really lives. Technical precision is easy to admire. Resolution, speed, imaging. We can all point to those things and agree they exist. But connection is harder. It asks more from the listener and more from the system. It demands that the music move beyond being a collection of sounds and become something personal. Something that reaches past the brain and settles somewhere deeper. That’s the part no spec sheet can quantify, and the part most systems never quite deliver.
The problem is that a lot of high-end audio, especially at the six figure level, mistakes luxury for meaning. It reminds me of riding in a Mercedes Maybach S-Class. Immaculate finishes. Impressive engineering. A price tag that clears the room. And total isolation from the experience. You’re removed from the road. Removed from the moment. Audio can fall into the same trap.
At some point, you have to feel something or the whole thing starts to ring hollow.
If you’ve never had that moment, where a system pushes you past analysis and into something uncomfortable and real, then none of this matters. The gear. The price. The endless debates online with nasty idiots. It’s just expensive insulation from the thing you said you wanted in the first place.
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DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/Reference: Engineering That Serves the Music
The Orangutan O/Reference is a four piece system split into the A and B modules, each with a clear role. The A handles the main range with a 10-inch paper cone woofer built around an AlNiCo motor, copper Faraday rings, and a bronze phase plug to keep distortion low and behavior consistent across the band. Above that, a 1-inch silk dome tweeter and 0.75-inch super tweeter are both horn loaded in machined bronze, which helps with sensitivity and control without pushing the top end into something aggressive. The cabinet details are not cosmetic. Bronze ports and a decoupled brass input plate are there to reduce vibration and keep things clean.
The B module takes care of the bottom end with an 11-inch aluminum woofer and a matching passive radiator tuned below 20 Hz, powered by a dedicated 700 watt Class D amplifier with an all analog control section. You get adjustable crossover, phase, and low frequency EQ, but the key is how it connects to the rest of the system. The bass section takes its signal from the same amplifier driving the A module, so the tonal balance and texture remain consistent from top to bottom. It is not doing its own thing off to the side. It follows the same chain, which makes integration far less of a guessing game.
At $99,000, none of this should surprise anyone. What does stand out is that DeVore Fidelity actually gives you a meaningful range of finish options that let the speakers work in real living spaces. That should be standard at this level, but too many brands still treat it like an afterthought. John DeVore has never had that problem. His speakers don’t dominate a room visually, even when they are capable of filling it sonically.
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They scale in a way that feels almost deceptive. Bigger than they look. More powerful than they have any right to be. And maybe most important, they invite experimentation.
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I’ve heard DeVore systems driven by everything from low powered tubes to blowtorch solid state, across a wide range of sources, and there isn’t a single “correct” answer. That’s rare. Most speakers at this level demand a specific chain and punish you if you get it wrong. These don’t. They let you find your own way.
Where Tone Stops Being a Preference and Starts Being the Point
One of the constants in any DeVore room is that you’re not subjected to the same audiophile greatest hits you’ve heard 500 times. No safe demo tracks polished to death. If you’ve spent any time watching John DeVore speak on YouTube, you already know where that comes from. He’s direct. Intelligent. Thoughtful. He understands the subject and doesn’t hide behind it. And in the room, that translates to a kind of quiet confidence. He’s not hovering. Not steering reactions. He built it. He knows what it does.
There’s a reason his speakers divide people. Some listeners want scale, impact, and the visual statement of something that looks engineered to within an inch of its life. Polished metal. Exotic materials. A kind of precision that feels clinical. DeVore goes in a different direction. Across his lineup, including the Orangutan series, the emphasis is on how instruments and voices actually sound. Not as data points, but as living things.
Tone is the anchor. The weight of a piano. The texture of a saxophone. The human edge in a voice when it starts to crack. These speakers are not microscopes. They behave more like instruments themselves, moving air, resonating, and shaping energy in a way that feels closer to the real thing.
By his standards, the system looked almost restrained. A rack of Nagra electronics, not the top tier, feeding a Yuki AP-01EM with Glanz tonearms into a Phasemation phono stage and cartridges, all tied together with AudioQuest. Nothing about it leaned on excess. The sound told a different story. It was clear, grounded, and saturated with tone, with bass that filled the room without taking control of it.
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Before I left, the gentleman running the room put on Nick Cave. Just a quiet nod and the needle dropped. That voice carries history. The piano behind it has mass and decay that can collapse into something flat if the system misses the mark. I’ve heard far more expensive setups get it wrong. This one didn’t. It held together. It felt intact.
I moved into the second row and leaned forward, resting my chin on my hands against the back of the chair in front of me. Closed my eyes and remembered her. Her soft blonde hair in my hands. Those eyes. The smile that made me feel like I could take on the entire Empire by myself. It wasn’t nostalgia. It wasn’t distant. It was right there. Immediate. And a little dangerous in how quickly it pulled me in.
When a system can pull something like that out of you without asking permission, it’s doing something very few ever manage. If you’re looking for a reason to care, that’s it. And if you’re wondering what it might take to get there, start saving.
And before anyone starts wondering if I stumbled into a pot of gold after AXPONA, between the ATC EL50 Anniversary, Quad 2912X, and these from DeVore Fidelity, let’s be clear. I’ll be reviewing a pair of Orangutan O/baby this summer. Those I can afford. The emotional aftermath is another story.
Google made an unexpected cameo on Macs with the launch of a native Gemini app. What’s even more interesting (and a bit funny) is that the app arrived at Apple’s long-promised Siri upgrade (and a rumored standalone app for the voice assistant).
The free app is available on macOS 15 and above. Though the app isn’t available on the App Store (yet), you can download it from Google’s official landing page.
Google
What can the Gemini Mac app actually do?
Quite a bit, actually. Once you install the app, you can summon Gemini by pressing Option + Space keys. Doesn’t matter where you are and what you’re doing; using the shortcut opens a quick-access mini chat overlay. Don’t press the wrong key (Command), or you’ll end up invoking the Spotlight search bar.
You can open the full Gemini interface by pressing Option + Shift + Space. Further, the app includes built-in tools for generating images and videos, analyzing content on your screen (including documents, spreadsheets, and images), and understanding files. Of course, you can talk to the Gemini AI assistant.
The list of available tools includes Canvas, Deep Research, NotebookLM integration, and Personal Intelligence, which taps into your connected Google apps, including Gmail, Photos, Calendar, etc., to fetch relevant information for you.
If you don’t know this already, Gemini is among the last AI services to have launched a dedicated Mac app. Other giants — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity — have had Mac apps for quite some time.
For Mac users who’ve been using Gemini in Chrome or Safari, the native app is a welcome upgrade. The powerful, context-aware AI is now one keyboard shortcut away on your Mac.
By establishing Gemini on macOS now, Google secures mindshare and daily habit formation before Apple can actually flip the switch with the dedicated Siri app later this year.
A popular brand of WordPress plugins was recently weaponized to download and spread malicious code. The new, potentially massive supply chain attack was unveiled by Austin Ginder, a WordPress developer and founder of the WP hosting service Anchor. The entrepreneur found that the threat was already affecting some Anchor customers,… Read Entire Article Source link
Fake iCloud deletion emails are pressuring Apple users into dangerous clicks
Poor grammar in iCloud alerts remains a clear sign of fraud
Clicking fake iCloud upgrade links can expose banking and personal data
A wave of deceptive emails is attempting to pressure Apple users into believing their iCloud data is at immediate risk of deletion, using increasingly aggressive language to force quick reactions.
The messages often claim a user’s storage limits have been exceeded or that an account has been blocked, followed by threats that photos and videos will be permanently erased on a specified date.
In some cases, recipients receive repeated follow-ups, including what appears to be a final warning stating, “We have tried to contact you several times before… all your data will be completely deleted.”
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What the scam email looks like
Warning of the scam, UK consumer body Which? said, “Every Apple user needs to know about this nasty scam doing the rounds.”
“These sneaky fake emails that look like they’re from iCloud and threaten you with claims that ‘all your photos will be deleted.’”
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One of the scam emails seen by The Guardian says, “We’ve blocked your account! Your photos and videos will be deleted on [date].” It is headlined “iCloud Storage Alert” and goes on to say: “Storage limit reached… your iCloud account has reached its maximum storage capacity.”
Others read, “Your payment method has expired!… Your cloud service has been disabled,” or “Payment failed for your Cloud storage renewal.”
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The timing of these emails can make them appear plausible, especially when they arrive alongside legitimate storage notifications.
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However, the email structure typically follows a predictable pattern — an alarming claim, a deadline, and a call to action — all designed to bypass scrutiny.
It usually includes a button or link claiming to offer an easy “update” to tackle the situation but redirects users to fraudulent pages.
These pages are designed to extract sensitive data, and users can unknowingly hand over personal and banking information, which may then be used for unauthorized transactions or identity theft and distributed through illicit channels.
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The initial interaction may appear harmless, but it opens pathways for additional security risks, particularly if users reuse passwords across multiple accounts.
Despite the convincing tone in the message, these phishing emails frequently contain inconsistencies that reveal their origin – for example, the sender address often includes unusual domains that do not align with Apple’s infrastructure, with some referencing unrelated regions or obscure domain extensions.
Grammar issues remain another persistent flaw, with phrases such as “Your account may expires today” indicating a lack of authenticity.
The presence of familiar branding and interface design on phishing pages can delay suspicion, making it more difficult for users to recognize the deception until after information has already been submitted.
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While a good antivirus program could help in this situation, avoiding interaction with suspicious emails remains the most effective response — a single click can escalate risk levels.
Users are also advised to verify storage status directly through device settings rather than relying on email prompts.
Reporting such emails helps limit their spread, while maintaining updated security practices, including a properly configured firewall, reduces the likelihood of broader system compromise.
While the Trump administration’s extremely aggressive, thoroughly bigoted attempts to eliminate as many non-white people from this country as possible have resulted in some periodic push back from law enforcement officials, we can never forget that federal law enforcement officers are still just law enforcement officers. And, more often than not, they’ll always have the support of their brothers in blue, even though most federal officers prefer camo and face masks these days.
Law enforcement is self-selecting. The people who feel drawn to law enforcement are generally the last people you would want to become law enforcement officers. It’s rarely about being given the chance to serve, protect, and be an active part of your community. It’s almost always about having a badge, a gun, and accountability that’s inversely proportional to the amount of power you immediately obtain.
So, it comes as no surprise that cops who shouldn’t have any skin in the anti-ICE game are stepping up to punish people for daring to criticize the actions of those federal officers. And there’s probably a bit of backlash involved here as well, as this following report details the actions of California law enforcement officers who (one assumes) aren’t thrilled the state’s residents have managed to reclaim much of the power that has always been owed to the people.
Despite the administration’s on/off surges in “blue” states, the furor over ICE and its actions hasn’t died down, not even in California, where the administration rolled out its martial law beta test. At first, it was easy to pretend people protesting ICE were “woke radicals” or “antifa” or “paid organizers” or “lazy trans everywhere college students” or whatever. But it just kept going and expanding, clearly demonstrating a significant portion of the population wasn’t on board with roving kidnapping squads and murders of activists by jumpy recruits recently introduced to the wholly domestic War on Migrants.
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Now that it’s everyone rather than just the usual left-wing agitprop cliches federal and local officers expected to confront during protests, cops in California are deciding it’s time to start arresting everyone.
The Clovis Police Department on Tuesday referred Alfred Aldrete, 41, for one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for his role in a February high school student walkout.
“During the investigation, Aldrete was identified as being present during the walkout and allegedly involved in directing student activity and entering the roadway, which impacted traffic flow,” Clovis police said in a press release. “Investigators also identified Aldrete as being present during a separate student gathering in Clovis on Feb. 5 that occurred outside of school hours.”
Yep, that’s what the Clovis PD actually did: it equated an adult ensuring students made it to their planned protest safely with the sort of horrors — harboring runaways, providing drugs and alcohol to minors, etc. — people usually associate with the crime of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” Those would be the sorts of crimes actually prosecuted by county prosecutors under this statute.
This stat may explain why the Clovis PD thought it should explore the fringes of this statute for the sole purpose of punishing someone for speech they (and they people they serve, apparently) don’t care for:
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[C]lovis, population 128,000, where Donald Trump won every precinct in the 2024 presidential election — some with more than 70% of the vote.
That tracks. Fortunately, it doesn’t track as far as the District Attorney’s office:
A representative for Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp in a written statement said prosecutors would not file charges against Aldrete.
Hooray for prosecutorial discretion, but in the non-pejorative sense! It’s an unexpected twist that only makes this further twist even more inexplicable:
Within a day of the walkout, Clovis police said they were considering charges against up to six adults under Section 272 of the California Penal Code, which is most often used to prevent chronic truancy. The Los Angeles Police Department has also said it’s considering charges against people who joined immigration-related protests under the same penal code section.
At the beginning of Trump’s first martial law-esque surge, the LAPD (and the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department) were opposed to the insertion of National Guard units and other federal officers into the mix. Stating that they were capable of handling whatever minimal “violent protests” they had actually encountered, law enforcement officials made it clear that this federal interloping would only make a manageable problem unmanageable.
More than a year later, the LAPD has flipped the script from blue to red, declaring it’s willing to charge students for truancy (along with the adults who assist them) for participating in walkout that, at best, lasts a few hours. It’s not like these kids are quitting school to pursue a career in protesting. And it’s not like these adults are harming kids by helping them engage fully with their First Amendment rights.
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It’s one thing to be the main characters in a pro-Trump town. It’s quite another to be part of the second-largest police force in the United States and decide it’s worth your time, money, and attention to punish people for peacefully protesting. Fuck right off, LAPD. And take the Clovis PD with you.
AI advancements allow workers to reduce repetitive work and ‘increase velocity’, Spiegel said.
Snap is laying off 16pc of its workforce to cut costs and veer towards long-term profitability. The Snapchat parent company is cutting around 1,000 employees, including 300 open roles.
In a memo sent to employees today (15 April), company CEO Evan Spiegel said that Snap is prioritising investments with the potential for long-term growth. He said that AI advancements allow workers to reduce repetitive work and “increase velocity”.
The layoffs are expected to reduce the company’s annual costs by more than $500m by the second half of the year, according to Spiegel. Snap shares rose more than 7.75pc in pre-market trading, but have overall been down nearly 30pc since last year.
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Snapchat, alongside other major social media platforms, has been under regulatory scrutiny over the past few years over issues surrounding child safety and access to content. The platform has been banned for those under 16 in Australia.
Snap last laid off 500 jobs in 2024. At the time, the company said that the layoffs would “reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration”. Two years prior, it cut around 20pc of the company to improve business performance.
Spiegel is the latest in a growing list of company leaders linking layoffs to AI advancements. In his memo, he said small teams leveraging AI tools have already had a positive impact on Snap’s ad platform performance.
Dorsey, at the time, said that a “majority of companies” will reach similar conclusions around smaller teams, and make similar structural changes “within the next year”.
Announced last November, the deal would have seen Perplexity deploy its conversational search tool into Snapchat. The one-year partnership was expected to rebrand Snapchat into a platform where AI companies could connect with the platform’s community.
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Windows Recall, originally available to all users of Copilot+ PCs in April 2025, stores screen caps of user activity. (Microsoft Photo)
Microsoft says its Recall app — which captures and stores screen shots every few seconds — is safe. Security researchers keep saying otherwise.
Recall was originally billed as a “photographic memory” to store everything Windows users do on their computers. People could then see some of those screen shots at a later time by searching AI with plain-text queries such as red barn. (See illustration above.)
Select members of Microsoft’s exclusive Windows Insider program have had access to Recall for more than a year. Users of AI-enabled Copilot+ PCs started receiving Recall as an opt-in feature in April 2025, one year ago this month.
But since its debut, experts have repeatedly demonstrated that hackers can access the data Recall stores. This raises questions about whether a tool that records your entire digital life can ever be adequately secured. The situation is creating uncertainty about Microsoft’s plans to make Recall more widely available on all PCs.
Alexander Hagenah, executive director of SIX — a Zürich-based technology company that operates infrastructure for stock exchanges in Switzerland and Spain — described Recall’s security weaknesses in a LinkedIn post in April 2025. He also released an app he called TotalRecall that could “extract all captured windows and images taken by Recall … nothing encrypted, no rocket science needed.”
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Joining other researchers, the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of Information Security released a warning on Apr. 14, 2025, about the version of Recall that was then available. The university’s announcement stated that Recall “introduces substantial and unacceptable security, legality, and privacy challenges” [emphasis in the original]. The statement added that administrators of “Windows environments at Penn are strongly urged” to disable Recall.
In response to criticisms such as these, Microsoft — to its credit — pulled back on its plans to roll out Recall to all Windows 11 PCs that met fairly high system requirements (including a neural processing unit and eight logical processors, according to an MS Learn document). Instead, the company announced in a blog update on June 13, 2024, that Recall would become available only to participants in the company’s much smaller Windows Insider program.
In the time since that decision, the fate of Recall has become even murkier. Journalist Zac Bowden wrote in a Windows Central blog post on Jan. 30, 2026, that Microsoft is “pulling back its Windows 11 AI push with a major Copilot and Recall rethink.”
The problem is that it’s tough for software engineers to make data ultra-convenient for end users to access while simultaneously securing it so it’s impervious to hackers.
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It’s hard to remember that the company’s original goal was ease of use, now that Microsoft’s focus has changed to making the security of its screen-cap app impenetrable.
Microsoft says Recall blurs images of credit-card numbers, bank passwords, and other personal data — or doesn’t store them at all. But security experts are still not convinced.
After testing the latest version of Recall, Swiss technologist Hagenah recently issued a new proof-of-concept called “Total Recall Reloaded” on a GitHub page. In his comments, Hagenah said any malware running on a user’s PC can copy every Recall screen shot as it passes through in-process memory: “No admin required. Standard user. No kernel exploit.”
Hagenah has not publicly disclosed some security holes, saying he’s reported them to Microsoft and won’t release the technical details until the Redmond company has fixed the problems.
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Already, malicious hackers have written code to take advantage of Recall’s screen shots. The malware can access Recall’s own memory to copy screen caps and send them to a faraway server. Hackers no longer need to write such code from scratch. (The procedure is described in a technical overview by cybersecurity writer Kevin Beaumont.)
At this writing, fewer than 10% of Windows 11 PCs can enable and run the current version of Recall. Microsoft representatives responded to my inquiries about plans for the app’s future availability by pointing to a Sept. 27, 2024, security update and an Apr. 25, 2025, blog post.
The Asus VivoBook and ZenBook laptops are quite the hotcakes in the Indian market, simply because they strike the right balance between portability and performance. Keeping up that momentum, the Taiwanese laptop maker has opened pre-orders for its latest premium Zenbook lineup in India, introducing a range of new laptops focused on design, portability, and AI-powered performance. The lineup includes the Zenbook S14, Zenbook DUO, Zenbook A14, and the upcoming Zenbook A16, alongside refreshed Vivobook models. Prices for the ZenBook series start at ₹1,79,990, while the Vivobook lineup begins at ₹98,990. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
What’s New with the ZenBooks & VivoBooks?
ASUS is doubling down on its “Design You Can Feel” philosophy with this launch. One of the key highlights is Ceraluminum, a proprietary material that aims to combine durability with a lightweight, premium finish. The flagship Zenbook S14, for instance, features an ultra-slim profile of around 1.1cm and weighs roughly 1.2kg, making it highly portable. It also gets a 14-inch 3K OLED display and a claimed battery life of up to 27 hours. Under the hood, the ZenBook S14 series packs Ultra Series 3 processors, with the highest tier going to the Ultra 9.
Meanwhile, the newest version of my favorite ZenBook Duo takes things to another level by packing dual 14-inch 3K 144Hz ASUS Lumina Pro OLED touch displays. It’s powered by Intel’s latest Core Ultra 7-series processors and offers 32 hours of claimed battery life. Lastly, there’s the Zenbook A Series (A14 & A16), which targets more casual, yet premium users. It’s made from the same Ceraluminum material and focuses primarily on portability, weighing under 1 kg. On the power side, the ZenBook A series uses the Snapdragon X2 series processors. While this should pay pretty big dividends in the battery life department, we have yet to test the laptops, so stay tuned for a full review.
The next-gen VivoBook classic series will be powered by the updated Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 3 processors, delivering 47 TOPS of NPU performance for all your AI tasks. On the other hand, the Vivobook S14 and S16 will feature sleeker metallic designs and Ultra 7 Series processors with up to 49 TOPS of NPU performance. Battery life for these is rated for 29 hours.
OPPO has finally taken the covers off its popular F-series, bringing a strong focus on selfie photography, durability, and long battery life. The lineup includes the OPPO F33 5G and F33 Pro 5G, both of which feature a 50MP ultra-wide front camera, AI-powered editing tools, and a massive 7,000mAh battery, as well as high durability ratings. Here’s what you need to know about them.
Big Focus on Selfies and AI Photography
The highlight of the OPPO F33 series is its 50MP ultra-wide front camera with a 100° field of view, which aims to capture more people in a single frame without distortion. The Pro variant also introduces auto-switching to 0.6x zoom when multiple faces are detected, making group selfies more seamless. OPPO has also added a multicolored front fill light for better low-light selfies, along with features such as autofocus and electronic image stabilization.
On the rear, the phones feature a 50MP main camera paired with a depth sensor for portrait shots. The camera system is backed by a wide range of AI tools, including object removal, scene enhancement, portrait lighting, and more. We are currently putting all these claims to the test, so keep an eye on our review dropping pretty soon.
New Design and Performance
The OPPO F33 Pro 5G introduces a redesigned camera module called the Starry Sea Lens, giving the phone a more premium look. The devices also feature a one-piece unibody design with a mix of glossy and matte finishes. On the front, both models come with a 6.57-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and high brightness levels.
Under the hood, both devices are powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6360 MAX processor, paired with up to 12GB RAM. As always, durability is another highlight. The OPPO F33 series comes with IP69K, IP68, and IP66 ratings, offering protection against dust, water immersion, and even high-pressure water jets. The phones also feature a 360-degree armor body with aerospace-grade materials and shock-absorbing internals, along with military-grade certifications for harsh conditions
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The F33 series runs on ColorOS 16, bringing AI features like document scanning, writing assistance, and system-wide optimizations. It also integrates Google Gemini for smart assistance across apps. Connectivity is another area OPPO is focusing on, with the F33 series being positioned as India’s first Jio-certified 5G++ smartphone. Battery life is handled by a 7,000mAh unit with 80W fast charging, which OPPO claims can fully charge the phone in around 69 minutes.
Price and Availability
The OPPO F33 series will be available via Flipkart, Amazon, OPPO’s online store, and offline retail outlets.
OPPO F33 Pro 5G
8GB + 128GB: ₹37,999
8GB + 256GB: ₹40,999
OPPO F33 5G
6GB + 128GB: ₹31,999
8GB + 128GB: ₹34,999
8GB + 256GB: ₹37,999
The F33 Pro goes on sale from April 23, while the standard F33 will be available starting April 26.
Dark solar panels turn desert heat into rain clouds, not just electricity
A 20 square kilometer solar farm produces more rain than a year of cloud seeding
The Persian Gulf’s moist winds are what the desert solar needs to make rain
In the United Arab Emirates, where water is more valuable than oil, new research suggests large solar farms could trigger their own rainstorms.
A modelling study led by climate scientist Oliver Branch at the University of Hohenheim found dark solar panels absorb more heat than the surrounding reflective desert sand.
This temperature difference drives updrafts that can lead to rain, potentially providing water for tens of thousands of people.
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How dark solar panels create their own weather
The researchers modeled solar panels as nearly black surfaces that absorb 95% of incoming sunlight.
When solar farms exceeded 15 square kilometers, the increased heat contrasted sharply with the reflective sand around them, increasing the updrafts that drive cloud formation, but it needs a source of atmospheric moisture.
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However, the model showed that moist, high-altitude winds from the Persian Gulf would suffice.
A 20 square kilometer solar field would increase rainfall by nearly 600,000 cubic meters under the right conditions, equivalent to 1cm of rain falling across an area the size of Manhattan.
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If such rainstorms occurred ten times in one summer, they would provide enough water for more than 30,000 people for a year.
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“Some solar farms are getting up to the right size right now… Maybe it’s not science fiction that we can produce this effect,” said Branch.
One limitation is that the simulated solar panels were darker than most manufacturers currently make, as some modern solar panels are designed to be reflective to cool their surroundings, which would reduce the rainmaking effect.
Zhengyao Lu, a climate scientist at Lund University, called the new work “very stimulating” but noted this concern.
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Branch is hopeful that the idea could be tested in the real world, noting that solar farms coming online in China are nearly large enough.
He suggests planting dark, drought-tolerant crops such as jojoba shrubs between panel rows to enhance the effect.
The UAE funded Branch’s modeling research, but the country remains committed to its cloud seeding program, carrying out approximately 300 missions each year.
This implies that local authorities are not yet convinced that solar-induced rainfall is a practical alternative.
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According to Branch and his team, this model could work in other arid regions, including Namibia and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
If future research validates these findings, the rainmaking potential of solar farms could provide an unexpected incentive for expanding renewable energy in the world’s driest regions.
iPhone users around the world are encountering an Apple Pay scam that could lose you thousands of dollars if you fall victim. According to Consumer Affairs, there is currently a widespread scam going around that looks like a text from Apple regarding Apple Pay fraud. The text is actually not from Apple at all, but from a scammer wanting to get a hold of your bank account or credit card information.
The scam is simple and relies on victims feeling a sense of urgency and panic, making these fraudulent text message schemes quite common. The text will read that a purchase was attempted with your Apple Pay, resulting in your account being locked. It will then say that immediate action is required to get the account back or reverse the charges. If you end up calling the provided number, you will be speaking to a scammer who wants access to your money. They may also send a link to a website that will prompt you to enter sensitive information that hackers can later use.
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How to protect yourself against scammers on your iPhone
Themotioncloud/Getty Images
If you have received a message like this from someone claiming to represent Apple, it’s more than likely a scammer. Apple does not reach out for private information or request that customers call, text, or email them. Don’t click on any links or call any provided numbers. Apple provides this advice to its customers: “If you get an unsolicited or suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from Apple or Apple Support, just hang up.” You can check Apple Pay right on your iPhone, and you’ll be able to tell if it’s frozen or if a suspicious transaction was made. You can also call your bank to see if anyone’s made any purchases.
If you believe that you may have already been in contact with a scammer, don’t panic just yet. Notify your bank or credit card issuer to let them know that the recent transaction was the result of a scam. You should then report the incident to Apple by taking a screenshot of the text and sending it to reportphishing@apple.com) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Remember, since you authorized the transaction, it may be difficult to get the money back. Many victims have reported that they haven’t been able to. It’s best to recognize the red flags to avoid being in contact with the scammers at all. These scams are quite common since they are easy to pull off, so you’ll also see them pretending to be from Amazon or other popular companies. Apple customers have been targeted by these types of scams multiple times.
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