Tech

The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing Under Section 702

Published

3 weeks ago

13 March 2026

from the it’s-blaring dept

Senator Ron Wyden says that when a secret interpretation of Section 702 is eventually declassified, the American public “will be stunned” to learn what the NSA has been doing. If you’ve followed Wyden’s career, you know this is not a man prone to hyperbole — and you know his track record on these warnings is perfect.

Just last month, we wrote about the Wyden Siren — the pattern where Senator Ron Wyden sends a cryptic public signal that something terrible is happening behind the classification curtain, can’t say what it is, and then is eventually proven right. Every single time. The catalyst then was a two-sentence letter to CIA Director Ratcliffe expressing “deep concerns about CIA activities.”

Well, the siren is going off once again. This time, Wyden took to the Senate floor to deliver a lengthy speech, ostensibly about the since approved (with support of many Democrats) nomination of Joshua Rudd to lead the NSA. Wyden was protesting that nomination, but in the context of Rudd being unwilling to agree to basic constitutional limitations on NSA surveillance. But that’s just a jumping off point ahead of Section 702’s upcoming reauthorization deadline. Buried in the speech is a passage that should set off every alarm bell:

There’s another example of secret law related to Section 702, one that directly affects the privacy rights of Americans. For years, I have asked various administrations to declassify this matter. Thus far they have all refused, although I am still waiting for a response from DNI Gabbard. I strongly believe that this matter can and should be declassified and that Congress needs to debate it openly before Section 702 is reauthorized. In fact, when it is eventually declassified, the American people will be stunned that it took so long and that Congress has been debating this authority with insufficient information.

You can see the full video here if you want.

Here’s a sitting member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — someone with access to the classified details — is telling his colleagues and the public that there is a secret interpretation of Section 702 that “directly affects the privacy rights of Americans,” that he’s been asking multiple administrations to declassify it, that they’ve all refused, and that when it finally comes out, people will be stunned.

If you’ve followed Wyden for any amount of time, this all sounds very familiar. In 2011, Wyden warned that the government had secretly reinterpreted the PATRIOT Act to mean something entirely different from what Congress and the public understood. He couldn’t say what. Nobody believed it could be that bad. Then the Snowden revelations showed the NSA was engaged in bulk collection of essentially every American’s phone metadata. In 2017, he caught the Director of National Intelligence answering a different question than the one Wyden asked about Section 702 surveillance. The pattern repeats. The siren sounds. Years pass. And then, eventually, we find out it was worse than we imagined.

Now here he is, doing the exact same thing with Section 702 yet again, now that it’s up for renewal. Congress is weeks away from a reauthorization vote, and Wyden is explicitly telling his colleagues (not for the first time) they are preparing to vote on a law whose actual meaning is being kept secret from them as well as from the American public:

The past fifteen years have shown that, unless the Congress can have an open debate about surveillance authorities, the laws that are passed cannot be assumed to have the support of the American people. And that is fundamentally undemocratic. And, right now, the government is relying on secret law with regard to Section 702 of FISA. I’ve already mentioned the provision that was stuck into the last reauthorization bill, that could allow the government to force all sorts of people to spy on their fellow citizens. I have explained the details of how the Biden Administration chose to interpret it, and how the Trump Administration will interpret it, are a big secret. Americans have the right to be confused and angry that this is how the government and Congress choose to do business.

That’s a United States senator who has a long history of calling out secret interpretations that lead to surveillance of Americans — standing on the Senate floor and warning, once again, that there’s a secret interpretation of Section 702 authorities. One that almost certainly means mass surveillance.

And Wyden knows exactly how this plays out. He’s been through the reauthorization cycle enough times to know the playbook the intelligence community runs every time 702 is up for renewal:

I’ve been doing this a long time, so I know how this always goes. Opponents of reforming Section 702 don’t want a real debate where Members can decide for themselves which reform amendments to support. So what always happens is that a lousy reauthorization bill magically shows up a few days before the authorization expires and Members are told that there’s no time to do anything other than pass that bill and that if they vote for any amendments, the program will die and terrible things will happen and it will be all their fault.
Don’t buy into that.

He’s right. Every time reauthorization is on the table, no real debate happens, and then just before the authorization is about to run out, some loyal soldier of the surveillance brigade in Congress will scream “national security” at the top of their lungs, insist there’s no time to debate this or people will die, and then promises that we need to just re-authorize for a few more years, at which point we’ll be able to hold a debate on the surveillance.

A debate that never arrives.

But even setting aside the secret interpretation Wyden can’t discuss, his speech highlights something almost as damning: just how spectacularly the supposed “reforms” from the last reauthorization have failed. Remember, one of the big “concessions” to get the last reauthorization across the finish line was a requirement that “sensitive searches” — targeting elected officials, political candidates, journalists, and the like — would need the approval of the FBI’s Deputy Director.

This was in response to some GOP elected officials being on the receiving end of investigations during the Biden era, freaking out that the NSA appeared to be doing the very things plenty of civil society and privacy advocates had been telling them about for over a decade while they just yelled “national security” back at us.

So how are those small “reforms” working out? Here’s Wyden:

The so-called big reform was to require the approval of the Deputy FBI Director for these sensitive searches.
Until two months ago, the Deputy FBI Director was Dan Bongino. As most of my colleagues know, Mr. Bongino is a longtime conspiracy theorist who has frequently called for specious investigations of his political opponents. This is the man whom the President and the U.S. Senate put in charge of these incredibly sensitive searches. And Bongino’s replacement as Deputy Director, Andrew Bailey, is a highly partisan election denier who recently directed a raid on a Georgia election office in an effort to justify Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories. I don’t know about my colleagues, but this so-called reform makes me feel worse, not better.

So the grand reform that was supposed to provide meaningful oversight of the FBI’s most sensitive surveillance activities ended up placing that authority in the hands of a conspiracy theorist, followed by a partisan election denier. And just to make the whole thing even more farcical, Wyden notes that the FBI has refused to even keep a basic record of these searches:

But it’s even worse than it looks. The FBI has refused to even keep track of all of the sensitive searches the Deputy Director has considered. The Inspector General urged the FBI to just put this information into a simple spreadsheet and they refused to do it. That is how much the FBI does not want oversight.

They won’t maintain a spreadsheet. The Inspector General asked them to track their use of a sensitive surveillance power using what amounts to a basic Excel file, and the FBI said no. That’s the state of “reform” for Section 702 after the last re-auth.

Wyden has also been sounding the alarm about the expansion of who can be forced to spy on behalf of the government, thanks to a provision jammed into the last reauthorization that expanded the definition of “electronic communications service provider” to cover essentially anyone with access to communications equipment. As Wyden explained:

Two years ago, during the last reauthorization debacle, something really bad happened. Over in the House, existing surveillance law was changed so that the government could force anyone with “access” to communications to secretly collect those communications for the government. As I pointed out at the time, that could mean anyone installing or repairing a cable box, or anyone responsible for a wifi router. It was a jaw-dropping expansion of authorities that could end up forcing countless ordinary Americans to secretly help the government spy on their fellow citizens.

The Biden administration apparently promised to use this authority narrowly. But, of course, the Trump administration has made no such promise. As we say with every expansion of executive authority, just imagine how the worst possible president from the opposing party would use it. And now we don’t have to wonder any more.

Wyden correctly points out that secret promises from a prior administration are worth exactly nothing:

But here’s the other thing – whatever secret promise the Biden Administration made about using these vast, unchecked authorities with restraint, the current administration clearly isn’t going to feel bound by that promise. So whatever the previous administration intended to accomplish with that provision, there is absolutely nothing preventing the current administration from conscripting those cable repair and tech support men and women to secretly spy on Americans.

So to tally this up: Congress is about to vote on reauthorizing Section 702 with a secret legal interpretation that Wyden says will stun the public when it’s eventually revealed, with “reforms” that placed surveillance approval authority in the hands of conspiracy theorists who won’t even keep a spreadsheet, with a massively expanded definition of who can be forced to help the government spy, with secret promises about restraint that the current administration has no intention of honoring, and with a nominee to lead the NSA who won’t commit to following the Constitution.

The Wyden Siren is blaring. And if history is any guide — and it has been, without exception — whatever is behind the classification curtain is worse than what we can see from the outside.

Filed Under: joshua rudd, mass surveillance, nsa, ron wyden, section 702, surveillance, wyden siren

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Tech

30% Off Samsung Promo Code | April 2026

Published

8 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Samsung makes everything from smartphones and gaming monitors, to smart TVs and dishwashers. I’m always looking for a sale (I’m assuming you are, too), and I’ve found the best Samsung promo codes and special offers to help you save big on your most important tech purchases. At WIRED, we often review the South Korean company’s products, especially Samsung’s vast lineup of Galaxy smartphones, and I’ve rounded up a bunch of Samsung coupons for (virtually) every type of shopper.

Get $100 Off With Samsung Promo Codes and $1,000 Off Galaxy Phones

Right now, Samsung has some of the best deals I’ve ever seen on their best-selling tech with more exclusive discounts to ring in the new year. On top of today’s sale deals, there are also limited-time promo codes, flash discounts, and trade-in offers. Beyond the coupons above, you can get up to $100 in Samsung credit when you sign up for The First Look now. You’ll not only be able to see the newest cutting-edge tech, but you’ll get savings towards the latest Samsung innovations like select 2026 TVs, monitors, and home appliances.

And when you buy products together that you already need, you can save a ton. This includes 30% off Galaxy Buds, watches and tablets when you order the Galaxy S25 Ultra. If you’re in the market for a new Samsung phone, you can get a new Galaxy Z Fold7 for $1,000 less with a trade-in. Feeling nostalgic? The new spin on an old classic, the Galaxy Z Flip7 is up to $600 off. Or maybe you want one of the Galaxy S25 Ultra models. Get $350 off a Galaxy S25 Ultra, you’ll get up to $700 off with instant trade-in credits, and a storage upgrade for a limited time.

Unlock a 30% Off Samsung Coupon Code With These 2026 Offer Programs

One of the hottest Samsung coupons is a whopping 30% discount for government employees, first responders, military personnel, and educators. Customers enrolled in the Offer Program can stack promo code discounts with most other promotions, and even get access to exclusive coupons. Some of the best deals we’ve seen in the Offer Program right now include an extra 15% off Galaxy Watch8 (read our review here), plus up to $200 off with trade-in, and an extra 10% off the Frame Pro Neo QLED 4K TV, Galaxy XR (read our review here), and Galaxy Tab S11 series tablets (read our full review here).

Get up to $250 Off Your First Order With Samsung Referral Code

Get a pal involved for more savings—when a friend uses your referral code to make a purchase at Samsung.com, they’ll get 5% off their purchase (up to $250 off) and you’ll get up to $100 off per order (with the potential to save $1,000 per calendar year). My insider tip is to sign up for a Samsung Rewards account and download the mobile app for even more perks, including app-only coupons, and updates on the newest products, like the QLED 8K, select refrigerators, and other home appliances.

Score a $1,000 Samsung Mastercard on 2 or More TVs, Monitors & More Tech

Along with other great tech, Samsung has some seriously nice TVs. The Samsung Frame TV has been trending this year for its stylish ability to blend into your home’s decor. Plus it just feels more elevated than a regular ol’ TV and mount. Some other trending TVs have been the Q60D, S90C, and the S95D models–not only do they have instant discounts of over up to 35% ($2,100 off).

Samsung is starting out the new year with a new season of sales with the Samsung Buy More Save More savings event. When you purchase two or more Samsung products, you’ll receive a $100 Samsung Prepaid Mastercard, continuing like that with three, four, etc. to up to eight or more products for a $1,000 Prepaid Mastercard. This is a great way to make the most (and save big) on products you already purchase, including a myriad of Samsung’s bestselling gadgets like TVs, soundbars, monitors, refrigerators, dishwashers, vacuums, and so, so much more. This deal ends March 31, so make sure you buy and register your product on Samsung’s site to qualify for the Mastercard deal.

Plus, there are tons of TV and home theater deals at Samsung, including a bundle offer for $7500 off when you buy a Neo QLED 4K TV with a Dolby ATMOS soundbar.

Take advantage of their Trade-In Recycling Program for up to $200 off when you trade in your old TV—any brand, any size. When your new one is delivered, Samsung will handle recycling the old one, so you can enjoy your upgrade.

Get a Free Cookware Set with Samsung Promo Code

Although here at WIRED we mostly cover Samsung’s traditional AV tech, they also make top-of-the-line kitchen and home appliances. Although here at WIRED we mostly cover Samsung’s traditional AV tech, they also make top-of-the-line kitchen and home appliances. Right now, you can even get a free induction cookware set of a five-piece Circulon Premier Professional with any Samsung induction cooktop or range. Better yet, this offer is valid even if you didn’t purchase it directly from Samsung! To redeem, visit Samsung’s promotions tab, and select “Website” to access the online offer claim form. Then you’ll receive an email from Samsung with the unique promo code, and you’ll need to enter it on Circulon’s website to redeem the offer.

Save $480 on New S26+

We on the WIRED Reviews team love the newly released Samsung Galaxy S26 series, especially the Samsung Galaxy S26+ because of its new built-in privacy display. Plus, it has excellent performance and great battery life. And right now, when you buy a Samsung Galaxy S26+, you’ll get up to $480 in instant trade-in credit or $150 off for add-ons without a trade-in.

15% Off Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro

The rewards just don’t stop! We especially loved the newly released Galaxy S26 Ultra. We rated it a high 8/10 because of its built-in privacy display. We also loved the horizon lock to capture super steady video footage. Plus, it has excellent performance, great battery life, and a reliable quad-camera system. And right now, when you buy one of these excellent phones you can get 15% off Buds4 Pro when you purchase a Galaxy S26 Ultra. We rated the Buds4 Pro a 8/10 for their bold and detailed sound across frequencies, excellent call quality, and polished design. Plus, we loved the loads of extra features, especially for Galaxy phones and ability to auto-switch between Samsung devices.

Stay up to Date on all Things Samsung at WIRED

Us nerds here at WIRED have a lot of opinions about Samsung’s foldable Galaxy Z Flip6 and Z Fold6 phones But we also have guides to help determine which Galaxy S24 phone is best for you and how to set up your Samsung Galaxy S25 to ensure you’re getting the most out of its features, as well as advice on which Galaxy S24 series accessories are worth the money.

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Tech

Oscal Pilot 5 rugged phone review

Published

22 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

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Oscal Pilot 5: 30-second review

The Pilot 5 sits in the lower-mid tier of the Oscal rugged lineup, slotting beneath the Pilot 6 and the more premium Marine 3. Its headline features are a 15,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging, a 6.67-inch 120Hz IPS display, and the UNISOC T8100 chipset built on a 6nm process. Importantly, it ships with Android 16 via Oscal’s DokeOS 5.0 skin, which is ahead of most of the competition at this low price point.

At 570g and 25.3mm thick, this is unquestionably a chunky handset. It is heavier than many flagship consumer phones and will not easily fit into pockets. The trade-off is a device that carries IP68 and IP69K waterproofing alongside MIL-STD-810H durability. It can survive immersion to a depth of two metres and withstand high-pressure water jets, which should cover most outdoor working environments. It certainly feels built to withstand significant abuse.

Performance from the UNISOC T8100 is modest by flagship standards, being roughly in line with what you would expect from a mid-range chip at this price bracket. Day-to-day tasks, navigation, and messaging are handled without fuss, though the processor is not intended for demanding 3D gaming. The 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM is extendable to 24GB via virtual memory, though by current standards, the memory type and capacity aren’t the best.

Even greater cost-cutting was evident in the camera choices, with a 16MP rear sensor and a 13MP front camera, making this less than ideal for photography.

The genuine strength of this device is its battery and power efficiency. At 15,000 mAh with 33W fast charging, endurance over several days of moderate use is realistic.

Connectivity is broad, covering 5G across a solid band selection that includes the key UK and European frequencies. Wi-Fi reaches 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) but stops short of Wi-Fi 6, which may disappoint those who want the fastest possible local network speeds. Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC are both present.

The built-in 5W speaker is rated at 140dB if you want to damage your hearing, and the 410-lumen camping torch is a practical inclusion for outdoor users. Oscal’s Doke AI 2.0 platform integrates DeepSeek-R1, ChatGPT-4o mini, and Gemini 2.0, giving the device a broad AI toolkit that goes well beyond what most competitors at this price offer.

best rugged smartphone collection.

Oscal Pilot 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

the makers, Blackview, where the price is £232 in the UK and €266.95 across Europe. Oddly, and this might be tariff-related issues, the US price is $389.99 direct from Blackview, but it can be found on AliExpress for only $269.98, a much better deal.

However, I can’t confirm if there might be extra duty to pay using that source. For Europeans, the best place to buy this phone is directly from the brand, since prices are better than on popular Chinese importers like AliExpress.

There are only two SKUs of the Oscal Pilot 5, and those are the two colours on offer: Yellow and Black. All have 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

What’s slightly curious is that one of the strongest competitors, the Pilot 5, also comes from the same stable, the Blackview Rock 2 Pro. It offers the same 15,000mAh battery with a dual 400-lumen camping light, 32GB RAM (8GB physical plus 24GB virtual), 256GB storage and a similar camera arrangement. And at $363.99, it is cheaper than the Pilot 5.

A better choice than either of those is the Oukitel WP56, since it has a 108MP camera sensor, 16000mAh battery and 45W charging, all for around $260.

If I wanted a cheap, rugged phone, I’d also look at the Doogee S200 and Ulefone Armour 29 Ultra, both of which have better specs and lower prices.

Overall, the Pilot 5 is an inexpensive phone, but that doesn’t make it a great value for money.

Oscal Pilot 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Item	Spec
CPU: Advertisement	UNISOC T8100 (UMS9620), Octa-core, 6nm, 4 x A76 @ 2.2GHz + 4 x A55 @ 2.0GHz
GPU:	ARM Mali-G57
NPU: Advertisement	Unknown
RAM:	8GB LPDDR4X
Storage: Advertisement	256GB UFS2.2 (expandable via MicroSD)
Screen:	6.78-inch IPS Screen protected with Panda Glass
Resolution: Advertisement	720 x 1604
SIM:	2x Nano SIM + TF (one shared position)
Connectivity Advertisement	Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS
5G Bands	N1/2/3/5/7/8/20/26/28/38/40/41/66/77/78
4G Bands Advertisement	FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20/26/28A/28B/66; TDD: B38/40/41
3G Bands	WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8
2G Bands Advertisement	GSM B2/B3/B5/B8
Weight:	570 grams
Dimensions: Advertisement	188.6 x 89.7 x 25.3mm
Rear cameras:	16MP Camera + 2MP Macro
Front camera: Advertisement	13MP
Audio:	5W Smart-K BOX Speaker
Camping Light: Advertisement	410-lumen
OS:	Doke 5.0 (based on Android 16)
Battery: Advertisement	15000 mAh (33W wired, 5W reverse charge)
Colours:	Black. Yellow

Oscal Pilot 5: design

Not excessively heavy
720p display
No wireless charging
Doke 5.0

The physical form of the Pilot 5 will be familiar to anyone who has handled a Blackview design in the past five or so years. It sports the solid feeling metal-sided that gives way to reinforced plastic corners, and a bevelled edge makes it easier to hold.

At 570g, this isn’t the heaviest rugged phone by any degree, but it’s not lightweight either, and fitting it in a pocket might prove a challenge.

The Pilot 5 is available in Black and Yellow, with the latter being a popular choice in outdoor and worksite environments where high visibility matters. The yellow model that I received for review has a highlight line on the front, and that’s almost all the yellow on it.

That border also serves to highlight how much smaller the display is than the front of the phone. According to Blackview, this phone measures 188.6 x 89.7 x 25.3mm, but I measured the display width at around 70mm and the length at 155mm, resulting in substantial borders on all sides.

The panel is an odd 720 x 1604 resolution, which doesn’t achieve the level of FHD, never mind FHD+.

Oscal Pilot 5 — (Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The buttons are less of a diversion, with the classic placement of power and volume on the right, with a custom button and SIM tray to the left. The USB-C port is on the bottom edge, and there is no 3.5mm audio jack for those who prefer that headphone option.

On the back, the camera cluster is forced onto the left to make room for a 5W speaker, and below that is a curious isometric camping LED that the makers helpfully obscured a portion of with the critical manufacturing label. Not sure why phone makers do this rubbish with the label, but it’s certainly annoying. The placement and angle of the camping LED guarantee that there is no room for wireless charging coils, sadly.

The Pilot 5 ships with DokeOS 5.0 built on Android 16, making it one of the first rugged phones at this price point to launch with the latest Android release. Oscal’s skin adds a range of customisation options, including wallpaper hubs, colour schemes, and theme styles, alongside a deep-cleaning memory management tool.

Doke AI 2.0 is the platform’s AI layer, integrating three third-party models: DeepSeek-R1, ChatGPT-4o mini, and Gemini 2.0. The Hi Doki assistant handles document parsing, online search, and creative generation. The AI Global Smart Control feature is described as allowing voice or text commands to operate across the entire phone, including switching between apps.

None of these things is free, and a subscription is required for those who wish to chat on their phone on a regular basis. Since nobody has made a compelling argument for paying for AI right now, I suspect these tools will have quietly disappeared by the time the 2027 models come along.

Doke 5.0 is heavily encrusted with bloatware, so be prepared for that.

Design score: 3.5/5

Oscal Pilot 5: hardware

UNISOC T8100 (UMS9620)
15000 mAh battery

This is the third phone I’ve covered that uses the MediaTek Dimensity 7025, and I haven’t changed my opinion of it.

The UNISOC T8100 is a 6nm octa-core chip comprising four Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.2GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0GHz. This is a step up from the older T7300 found in many budget rugged phones. However, even mid-priced phones are using 4nm SoC these days, although at least the accompanying GPU is an ARM Mali-G57.

A wide selection of benchmarks places the Pilot 5 in the mid-range bracket, comfortably ahead of budget MediaTek Helio G-series chips but well below the Dimensity 8300 used in Blackview’s more expensive Xplore 2. For the intended workload of rugged mobile users, this is generally adequate.

The 8GB of physical LPDDR4X RAM can be supplemented by up to 16GB of virtual memory drawn from the UFS2.2 storage, bringing the addressable total to 24GB. This virtual expansion is useful for keeping more apps resident in memory, but does not replicate the sustained throughput of physical RAM.

The 15,000mAh battery is the Pilot 5’s most prominent specification. Oscal claims the device can cope with heavy use across multiple days, and with the phone in standby, the capacity should sustain the handset for weeks. For users whose daily routine involves long periods in the field with limited access to charging infrastructure, this is a meaningful advantage over a standard consumer smartphone.

My only reservation is that the 33W ‘fast charge’ that is highlighted in the phones promotional material isn’t all that special these days. Some phones charge at 45W and others at 66W, so 33W isn’t the fastest to refill the 15000mAh capacity.

While it can recover 20% from exhaustion in 30 minutes, the slower rate at which batteries charge as they reach full capacity would suggest that a complete recharge takes over three hours, and maybe closer to four.

I’m unsure if the 5W OTG support is useful, but it means the Pilot 5 can also act as a power bank to charge other devices. However, it’s worth noting that each power transfer costs capacity to achieve.

With the exception of the battery capacity, there isn’t much to write home about under the hood of the Pilot 5.

16MP, 2MP on the rear
13MP on the front
Three cameras in total

The Oscal Pilot 5 has three cameras:

Rear camera: 16MP + 2MP Macro
Front camera: 13MP

Normally, it’s not hard to work out what the camera sensors on phones are, mostly because the makers document that in the specifications.

In the Oscal Pilot 5 specifications, the selfie camera is listed first as a SC820CS by SmarSens Technology. I don’t believe this for good reasons, one of which is that the SC820CS sensor is only 8MP. It’s more likely that it’s a SC1320CS, but that’s a wild guess.

Another issue is the primary sensor, which is listed as an Omnivision OV13B10, a 13MP sensor, but it doesn’t meet the 16MP spec. Let’s assume that’s also wrong.

And, the 2MP macro sensor isn’t mentioned by Oscal, though a hardware analysis of the phone sees it. It could be an Omnivision or a GalaxyCore sensor, but I’m not sure which one.

Part of the issue here is that, normally, you can make educated guesses about the sensors used because those binaries were added to the platform when the OS was compiled. But in this case, no less than 82 camera sensors were compiled with Doke 5.0, including ones for 108MP Samsung sensors. Depending on how generous you feel, that’s either overkill, untidy or intended to obscure what is actually used.

But irrespective of the specific details of these sensors, the primary rear sensor is a 16MP unit with autofocus and a rear LED flash. The front-facing selfie camera is 13MP. There is no telephoto or ultra-wide lens and no dedicated night-vision sensor, which sets the Pilot 5 apart from the alternative Pilot 3 and Pilot 6 designs.

I’m not sure when the last time was I covered a phone that had a 16MP sensor as the best it could offer, but this one barely captures still images that are higher resolution than 4K video.

They are a suitable resolution for social media posts, but you wouldn’t want to try to print them.

Unsurprisingly, the top video resolution is 1080p, but you also get the same video resolution on the front. I could go into painful detail about how these sensors disappoint, but it would be easier if we just accepted that this isn’t the phone for photographers and moved swiftly on.

Image 1 of 9

Oscal Pilot 5 Example Photos — (Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Older 6nm SoC
Great battery life

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Phone		Oscal Pilot 5	Blackview Oscal Tank 1 Advertisement
SoC		UNISOC T8100	MediaTek Dimensity 7050
GPU Advertisement		ARM Mali-G57	Mali‑G68 MC4
NPU		Unknown (3.2 TOPS) Advertisement	MediaTek NPU 550
Memory		8GB/256GB	12GB/256GB Advertisement
Weight		570g	640g
Battery Advertisement		15000	20000
Geekbench	Single Advertisement	755	920
	Multi	2399 Advertisement	2466
	OpenCL	2041	2471 Advertisement
	Vulkan	2101	3036
PCMark Advertisement	3.0 Score	11235	11684
	Battery Advertisement	33h 49m	33h 57m
Charge 30	% Advertisement	20	13
3DMark	Slingshot OGL Advertisement	4282	5293
	Slingshot Ex. OGL	3208 Advertisement	4150
	Slingshot Ex. Vulkan	3220	3940 Advertisement
	Wildlife	1684	2232
Row 17 – Cell 0	Nomad Lite Advertisement	191	266

Since both the Oscal Pilot 5 and Oscal Tank 1 both come from the same source, it just seemed right to see what each offered.

The first obvious thing to say is that the Dimensity 7025 in the Tank 1, which is a rebranded SoC from the 1000 series, has more punch than the UNISOC T8100 in the Pilot 5. And, the Mali G68 MC4 is an improvement, if modest, over the ARM Mali-G57.

So, where does the Pilot 5 win? Well, offering less performance, it manages to last almost as long with 75% of the battery capacity in the Tank 1. And, it also recharges more rapidly.

It should also be noted that when the Pilot 5 shut down, the PCMark battery test still had 24% capacity left, suggesting that 40 hours isn’t unrealistic.

I’m glad the Pilot 5 has this one thing that’s good about it, because almost everything else isn’t remarkable or special.

Oscal Pilot 5: Final verdict

My experience with the Pilot 5 wasn’t the best; it started badly because, for some inexplicable reason, Blackview sent me a phone intended for the Russian market.

I eventually worked out how to get English as the language, but the phone ignored that change and salted the Doke 5.0 with Russian applications. Presumably, everything about my testing was relayed to Comrade Putin before breakfast the next day.

To start on a positive note, this phone has a decent amount of battery capacity, and because the SoC isn’t a massive power drain, it can run for at least four working days, or even longer with some curation.

However, this is far from a gaming platform, and its curious resolution screen isn’t ideal for watching streamed content. But where it truly falls down is the cameras, which reminds me that the first smartphone with a 16MP sensor was the Nokia Lumia 1020 in 2013, if I’m not mistaken. That said, Apple only introduced better than 12MP in 2022, so it’s possible to take good pictures with relatively few pixels. But in this case, the pictures aren’t wonderful.

That aspect, coupled with a 5W speaker that the maker claims can output 140dB, enough to permanently damage hearing if true, makes the Pilot 5 something of an acquired taste.

What I think undermines this design somewhat is that it’s not especially cheap, and it’s relatively easy to find a 2024 phone design with more of everything for less money.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Oukitel WP61 Plus Score Card
Attributes Advertisement	Notes	Rating
Value	Not expensive, but hardly cheap. Advertisement	3.5/5
Design	Standard Blackview design playbook	3.5/5 Advertisement
Hardware	6nm SoC and only 8GB of RAM, but 15000mAh of battery	3.5/5
Camera Advertisement	16MP sensor that underachieves, only 1080p video	2/5
Performance	Great battery life, but little else that’s impressive Advertisement	3.5/5
Overall	Excellent battery life, but poor camera	3.5/5 Advertisement

best rugged tablets, the best rugged laptops, and the best rugged hard drives

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OpenAI acquires TBPN, the buzzy founder-led business talk show

Published

36 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN — Technology Business Programming Network — making this the AI giant’s first acquisition of a media company. The show will report to OpenAI’s chief political operative, Chris Lehane.

TBPN, hosted by former tech founders John Coogan and Jordi Hays, is a daily live show that airs on YouTube and X for three hours, focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense.

The show has gained a cult following in Silicon Valley, a safe space where industry power players can speak candidly and be questioned by fellow insiders. The show has a reputation for being something of a Sports Center for the tech industry — a place where top tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff, and, yes, Sam Altman, come to chop it up, react to the news of the day, and occasionally make some of their own.

TBPN will continue to live on as its own brand, which OpenAI will help scale. Not that it necessarily needed help on that front; TBPN has grown into an empire that’s on track to pull in more than $30 million this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI already has its own podcast for long-form conversations with the people building tech at the company.

OpenAI will also tap the founders’ “amazing comms and marketing instincts” outside the show, according to OpenAI’s head of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, who said TBPN will “bring AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives.”

Simo went even further, noting that TBPN’s prowess is necessary for an atypical company like OpenAI where “the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply.”

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She said TBPN will have editorial independence and continue to “run their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions.”

Still, the acquisition might give some pause. After all, OpenAI is a valuable AI lab on the brink of an IPO buying a buzzy talk show that often discusses the company and its competitors. And once the deal closes, TBPN will operate under OpenAI’s strategy team and report to Chris Lehane, the man who invented the phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” as a tool to deflect press scrutiny of the Clinton White House.

Lehane, who has been described as a master of the “political dark arts,” is also behind the crypto industry super PAC Fairshake, which spent hundreds of millions to kneecap anti-crypto candidates in the 2024 election. He joined OpenAI that same year and has been in President Trump’s ear ever since, whispering recommendations for sweeping and controversial policies like preventing states from regulating AI and easing environmental restrictions that might slow data center construction.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who said in a social media post that TBPN is his favorite tech show, seems to believe the acquisition won’t change TBPN’s commentary and even criticism of the company.

“I don’t expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I’ll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions,” he wrote.

TBPN, meanwhile, sees the acquisition as a means to do more than just commentary.

“While we’ve been critical of the industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right,” Hays said in a statement. “Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.”

Got a tip or documents about the AI industry? From a non-work device, contact Rebecca Bellan confidentially at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com or Signal: rebeccabellan.491.

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Amazon is in talks to buy Globalstar for $9 billion

Published

48 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

A deal would give Amazon’s Leo satellite programme access to Globalstar’s L-band spectrum and operational infrastructure, a shortcut in its race to rival SpaceX’s Starlink. Apple’s stake, which powers Emergency SOS on iPhones, has made negotiations significantly more complex.

Amazon is in advanced talks to acquire satellite telecommunications group Globalstar in a deal that would value the company at approximately $9 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters confirmed the report.

Both Amazon and Globalstar declined to comment, and the two sides are still negotiating the complexities of a potential deal after what the FT describes as lengthy talks. Nothing has been signed.

The strategic rationale is straightforward. Amazon is building Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, a planned constellation of more than 3,200 low-earth-orbit satellites designed to rival SpaceX’s Starlink, the dominant player in satellite internet.

As of the time of the report, Amazon has launched more than 180 Leo satellites. Globalstar would accelerate that ambition considerably, bringing with it L-band and S-band spectrum licences, finite, strategically valuable radio frequencies that cannot simply be replicated by launching more satellites, along with decades of operational expertise and existing ground infrastructure serving enterprise, government, and consumer markets globally.

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Globalstar turned profitable in 2025 and recorded $273 million in revenue.

The complication is Apple. In 2024, Apple invested $1.5 billion in Globalstar, acquiring a 20% stake in the company, in a deal that enabled Globalstar to order additional satellites and underpin Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature on iPhone 14 and later models and Apple Watch Ultra.

That stake has made Amazon’s negotiations considerably more complex, requiring Amazon to engage with Apple directly over the terms of any acquisition.

Apple’s reliance on Globalstar’s network for a core iPhone safety feature is not merely a financial stakeholder situation: it creates a genuine operational dependency that any acquirer would need to resolve.

Globalstar’s shares surged following the FT’s report, reaching an 18-year high in after-hours trading, driven in large part by investor recognition of the value of its spectrum holdings.

For Amazon, a successful acquisition would compress years of infrastructure development into a single transaction, providing a more immediate platform from which to challenge Starlink across individual consumers, businesses, and government customers, the same segments Starlink already serves, including US national security agencies through its Starshield variant.

Whether a deal can be structured that satisfies Apple’s operational requirements while serving Amazon’s competitive ambitions remains the central question.

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EPA Flags Microplastics, Pharmaceuticals As Contaminants In Drinking Water

Published

59 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Responding to public health concerns about microplastics and pharmaceuticals in the nation’s drinking water, the Trump administration for the first time has placed them on a draft list of contaminants maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA announced the move Thursday, touting it as a “historic step” for the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement, which often raises concerns about toxic chemicals and plastic pollution in our food and environment. Also Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $144 million initiative, called STOMP, to develop tools to measure and monitor microplastics in drinking water and in a later stage, to remove them.

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the EPA to publish an updated version of its Contaminant Candidate List every five years. This is the sixth iteration of the list. Microplastics and pharmaceuticals appear in the draft of the upcoming list, alongside per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and dozens of other chemicals and microbes. Their inclusion on the list gives local regulators a tool to evaluate risks in their water supply, the EPA says, and it can set the stage for more research and regulatory action — but doesn’t actually guarantee that will happen.

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Dell's new XPS 14 dominates MacBook Air with 43 hours of battery life in web browsing test

Published

1 hour ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Tests conducted by Hardware Canucks show that the XPS 14 delivers exceptional battery life, lasting more than 43 hours on a single charge while browsing the web with variable refresh rate enabled. During the test, the screen refresh rate was reduced to 1Hz. The laptop tested features an Intel Core…
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OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s Voice mode to CarPlay

Published

1 hour ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

In a surprise release, OpenAI has made ChatGPT’s Voice mode available through Apple CarPlay. If you’re running the latest version of both iOS and the ChatGPT app, and own a CarPlay-compatible vehicle, you can check out the experience. To get started, download all the necessary software, connect your iPhone to CarPlay and select “New voice chat” from ChatGPT. When the in-app text indicates ChatGPT is “listening,” you can start a conversation.

There are some notable limitations to using ChatGPT Voice with CarPlay. For one, OpenAI’s chatbot can’t control car functions. If you want to adjust the cabin temperature or skip tracks, you’ll still need Siri for those tasks. Due to Apple’s restrictions, you also can’t start using ChatGPT through a wake word like you can Siri. For example, to resume a previous conversation, you need to open the ChatGPT app from CarPlay and tap a recent or pinned chat.

With those limitations in mind, OpenAI suggests you can use Voice mode to get how-to advice, brainstorm ideas and practice languages. Personally, I like to listen to podcasts and music when I’m driving, but if talking with ChatGPT is your thing, you do you.

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Nintendo Nostalgia Meets Serious Performance in AceMagic’s Retro X5 Mini PC

Published

2 hours ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Nintendo NES ACEMAGIC Retro X5 Mini PC
The ACEMAGIC Retro X5’s mere presence on a desk is enough to stop most people in their tracks and have them take a closer look. It’s a simple gray and black box that pays homage to the original NES console but is far smaller in size. It measures 5.5 inches wide, 5 inches deep, and is less than 2 inches tall, making it easy to fit into small areas or pack in a suitcase for travel.

Up front, there are a handful of USB connections, a USB C slot, and a normal audio jack next to the red power button. To be honest, it has an old-school feel. When you press that button, the machine boots up quickly thanks to the solid state drive inside. Ventilation slots on either side keep it looking sleek, and the back panel provides a variety of connection options.

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Nintendo NES ACEMAGIC Retro X5 Mini PC
Inside, you’ll discover a powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, while for graphics, it includes an integrated Radeon 890M unit with 16 compute units. It starts with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a one-terabyte solid-state drive, which you can quickly update in one of two available slots by unscrewing the chassis and swapping in extra memory or storage as needed.

Nintendo NES ACEMAGIC Retro X5 Mini PC
As soon as you turn it on, the Retro X5 demonstrates its true potential. Everyday chores like online browsing with dozens of tabs open go smoothly, and editing photographs or documents is simple. When it comes to gaming, the system provides seamless gameplay in a variety of current titles. With medium details and scaling turned on, Cyberpunk 2077 maintains a frame rate of roughly 70 frames per second. Racing games, such as Forza Horizon 5, provide frame rates in the 60-80 range at 1440p resolution, depending on how you configure the settings. If you enjoy retro gaming, you’ll be ecstatic because this device can run classic systems at full speed, including full-speed runs of PS3 and GameCube titles upscaled to 4K.

Nintendo NES ACEMAGIC Retro X5 Mini PC
Connectivity covers almost every situation you can possibly encounter. Two 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports provide speedy wired networking for downloading and playing online. Wireless access is provided via the most recent WiFi standard, with Bluetooth connectivity for controllers and headphones. Display outputs include HDMI and DisplayPort connections, allowing you to connect up to four high-resolution screens. To top it all off, you get one high-speed USB4 port that allows you to connect an external graphics card for more power as needed.
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The Threadless Ball Screw Never Took Off, But Don’t Write It Off

Published

2 hours ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

If you’ve never heard of the threadless ball screw, which was invented over sixty years ago, [Angus] of Maker’s Muse has a video demonstrating the whole thing, covering its history and showcasing both its strengths and weaknesses. If you like seeing mechanical assemblies in action, give it a watch.

The device — consisting of little more than a smooth rod and three angled ball bearings — is a way to turn rotational motion into linear motion. Not a single belt, thread, or complex mechanical assembly in sight. While a simple nut on a threaded rod can turn rotation into linear motion, those come with their own issues. The threadless ball screw was one effort at finding a better way.

While it lacks precision, the threadless ball screw nevertheless offers quiet and smooth motion with adjustable tension in a very DIY-friendly design.

Threadless ball screws never really took off, although they were given some consideration for use in 3D printers back in the RepRap days. Today one can purchase quality CNC components without leaving one’s web browser, but back in the early 2000s things like lead screws and ball screws were rather more specialized, less accessible, and more expensive than they are today. RepRap folks had to make their own solutions. But while the threadless ball screw is a very DIY-friendly design, it was ultimately lacking in performance.

The main problem is they’re just not precise enough for anything like CNC work. [Angus] does some back-and-forth tests with a 3D printed unit that shows serious drift after only a few minutes. Now, he knows perfectly well that his 3D-printed test unit is far from ideal, but the rapidity at which it drifted was still a surprise. Making a carriage with two threadless ball screws — one at each end — performed a lot better, but was ultimately still flawed.

It’s not all bad. There’s zero backlash. They are mechanically simple, remarkably smooth, and utterly quiet. Also, [Angus] discovered that the maximum force this setup can be made to apply is surprisingly significant, and is directly related to the tension on the bearings. That means one can trivially adjust how easily the carriage slips (or doesn’t) just by tightening or loosening the screw holding each bearing.

Sure, they’re not precise. But maybe you don’t need precision. Maybe you just need to move something back and forth in a strong & silent sort of way that can still slip gracefully (and quietly) if something goes awry, like bottoming out an axis. 3D printing makes it pretty easy to whip one up, so maybe there’s still a place for the threadless ball screw.

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How 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks Enable Ubiquitous Global Connectivity

Published

2 hours ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

5G covers under 40% of landmass. This Whitepaper details how 3GPP Release 17 addresses six satellite challenges: delay, Doppler, path loss, polarization, spectrum, and architecture.

What Attendees will Learn

Why non-terrestrial networks are now integral to the 5G roadmap — Understand how the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 17 incorporates satellite-based connectivity into the 5G system, targeting ubiquitous coverage across maritime, remote, and polar regions where terrestrial networks reach less than 40% of the world’s landmass. Learn the distinction between New Radio non-terrestrial networks for mobile broadband and Internet of Things non-terrestrial networks for low-power machine-type communications.
How satellite constellation design shapes coverage, capacity, and latency — Examine how orbit altitude (low earth orbit, medium earth orbit, geostationary earth orbit), beam footprint geometry, elevation angle, and inclination determine coverage area, round-trip time, and differential delay across user equipment within a single beam. Explore the trade-offs between transparent bent-pipe and regenerative onboard-processing payload architectures.
What radio frequency challenges distinguish satellite links from terrestrial propagation — Explore the six major technical challenges: high free-space path loss, time-variant Doppler, differential delay across large beam footprints, Faraday rotation of polarization through the ionosphere, and spectrum coexistence between terrestrial and non-terrestrial bands in the S-band and L-band.
How 5G protocols must adapt to support non-terrestrial connectivity — Learn the specific amendments to hybrid automatic repeat request operation, timing advance control (split into common and user-equipment-specific components), random access procedure timing extensions, discontinuous reception power saving adaptations, earth-fixed tracking area management, conditional handover mechanisms, and feeder link switching for service continuity in a unique propagation environment.

Download this free whitepaper now!

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