Oppo Introduces MeshTalk – An Ad Hoc LAN With 3km Communication Range
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo has had an eventful time at the Mobile World Congress, Shanghai. The company became the world's first to introduce a new camera technology that will become mainstream in due course of time. Additionally, it also surprised everyone by launching an inter-device communication framework dubbed 'Meshtalk'.
[...] Oppo's MeshTalk is a first of its kind technology that's introduced by a smartphone manufacturer. Prior to MeshTalk, apps like FireChat allowed users to send each other messages and photos in the absence of traditional mediums of data exchange such as Cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth networks. MeshTalk, according to Oppo, will also allow users to make calls and send voice messages within a 3km radius in open fields. This radius can also be achieved in urban environments through a phone's relay claims the company.
Our early look at the technology suggests that it's nothing more than an application of the principles of wireless mesh modes to Oppo's smartphones. A Mesh network works by configuring a device to send and receive data packets from another device. For a smartphone, this means that a gadget's WiFi and Bluetooth radios can be configured to send and receive information from other similarly configured smartphones. The aforementioned FireChat app, for example, works according to these principles. However, Oppo claims that a 'custom chip' is behind MeshTalk, so maybe we're looking at a novel approach with the new technology.
Also at The Verge, BGR, and Android Authority.
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OPPO Find X to get 10GB RAM version, spotted at TENAA
There have been rumors of a 10GB RAM smartphone in development for a while now. Vivo's yet unreleased Xplay7 was rumored to come with 10GB RAM and the ASUS ROG Phone was also supposed to come with 10GB of RAM. It appears OPPO will be the first to launch a 10GB RAM phone judging by an updated TENAA listing of the Find X.
The Find X originally comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage but Chinese leaker @UniverseIce shared a photo of an updated listing that shows the Find X will get a new 10GB RAM + 256GB ROM model.
We were able to confirm that the leak is genuine as the full TENAA specs listing for the Find X (PAFM00 model) now has a 10GB RAM variant. The update to the listing was made yesterday. The rest of the specs will remain the same as the other variant.
TENAA is China's phone regulatory body.
Also at The Verge, Engadget, Fossbytes, and BGR.
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Oppo confirms 10x zoom camera for smartphones
Oppo has confirmed that it's developing a smartphone camera system with a 10x zoom lens, as rumored. The tech is similar to the 5x zoom prototype the company showed off a couple of years ago, making use of the phone's lateral width to enable the necessary physical depth through the use of a periscope-style prism.
This time around the camera is 15.9-159mm-equivalent, meaning it'll start with an ultrawide perspective and zoom into medium telephoto. It's essentially three prime lenses in one, so Oppo's claim of "lossless" zoom might not quite be accurate throughout the entire zoom range, but it should be considerably [more] flexible nonetheless.
The system has optical image stabilization, but so far Oppo isn't saying anything about aperture, which has been the drawback of previous experiments with zoom lenses on phones. The Asus Zenfone Zoom, for example, had a 3x f/2.7-4.8 lens, and the results weren't great. Even the 2x f/2.4 "telephoto" lens on the iPhone XS turns in worse results than simply cropping the wider, faster primary camera except in the very best of lighting conditions.
The camera will be shown off at Mobile World Congress 2019 in February.
Also at Engadget.
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Oppo's 10x optical zoom system really works
Oppo has come to Mobile World Congress this year not with a phone, but with a promise. That promise is a lossless 10x optical zoom that you'll be able to obtain from a new triple-lens cameraphone system the company just unveiled. I tried it out from myself, and while I wouldn't say that the results are quite as pristine as having a dedicated camera with a true optical zooming system, this is definitely the closest we've yet come to conquering the seemingly insurmountable challenge of injecting real zoom into the tight confines of a smartphone.
The key component to Oppo's system is a periscope setup inside the phone: light comes in through one lens, gets reflected by a mirror into an array of additional lenses, and then arrives at the image sensor, which sits perpendicular to the body of the phone. That's responsible for the telephoto lens in Oppo's array, which has a 35mm equivalence of 160mm. Between that lens, a regular wide-angle lens, and a superwide-angle that's 16mm-equivalent, you get the full 10x range that Oppo promises.
Also at TechCrunch and Android Police.
See also: Galaxy S10 shows us that triple-rear camera phones are taking over
Previously: Oppo Smartphone Camera System Includes 10x "Hybrid Zoom"
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday July 01 2019, @11:09PM (1 child)
Ok, the first smartphone to work network free.
But we had Nextel phones that do the same.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday July 02 2019, @12:19AM
dit-dit-dit
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @01:00AM
Just hope that your phone isn't the one that all that wifi or cellular traffic is funneling through.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:24AM (4 children)
Will China (or the USA for that matter) allow the people to own phones like this, with capability to work without centralized control?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:47AM (2 children)
Don't worry, it said 'custom chip'.
There is no, nil, ZERO technological reasons for adopting custom circuitry to do mesh networking, all you need is standard equipment with maybe increased space for routing tables (but aren't those in RAM and aren't modems already able to mess directly with RAM?).
So, custom chip = spy chip.
No subversion here, just some git.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:52AM (1 child)
To expand on this, imagine a revolution and the revolutionaries attempting to use mesh network. Quite easy for the police to jam the frequencies, or pick out the transmitters and dispatch nice drones to the source.
Free hardware SBCs and sneakernet maybe.
I guess the mafia and their internet over pizzini are still the best choice.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:56AM
To further expand on this, the revolution ain't gonna happen anymore because discontent individuals are strongly invited to take part in the global movement called migration. Lefties should be frothing at the mouth when they hear the term (very few true antiglobalist are, tbh).
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 03 2019, @07:39PM
what about "proprietary" don't you understand? if it's proprietary it's not Free, which means it can be used against you more than just in the ways the proprietor meant to use it against you.