ShinyShiny snippets: Oppo latest to launch foldable phones

Chinese companies seem really keen to get their phones out before the end of the year, as hot on the heels of the Xiaomi 13 launch, there’s now the Oppo Find N2 and Oppo Find N2 Flip – two new foldable phones designed to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. These have just been unveiled on day two of Oppo’s annual Inno Day event, but as with the Xiaomi 13, this initial launch is just for China. However, Oppo has been a bit more specific about its global plans than Xiaomi; saying that the Oppo Find N2 Flip will be launching overseas – including most countries in Europe – in Q1 2023. So sometime between January and March 2023. Tech Radar 

Parents are being urged to familiarise themselves with the potential risks of virtual reality (VR), with the increasingly popular headsets having likely found their way on to plenty of Christmas wish lists. Despite the cost of living crisis, the Meta Quest 2 has been tipped to perform well when it comes to tech gifts this holiday season after recent price drops around Black Friday. It has led to concerns about youngsters being given unchecked access to environments like 3D chat rooms, where people wearing headsets are represented by avatars. Sky News 

The EU has threatened Twitter owner Elon Musk with “sanctions” after several journalists covering the firm had their accounts abruptly suspended. Reporters for The New York Times, CNN and Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts. EU commissioner Vera Jourova warned that the EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom. “Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” she tweeted. A Twitter spokeswoman earlier told tech website The Verge that the ban was related to the live sharing of location data. BBC 

This Thursday, Google officially launched support for Matter on Google Nest and Android devices. Matter is a new unified smart home platform that aids the interoperability between ecosystems and lets one platform borrow an incompatible device’s support.

Google has added support for the Matter platform on the Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max, Nest Wi-Fi Pro, Google Home, and Google Home Mini. That means if you already have any of these devices, it will act as a bridge between the internet and your home’s other Thread-compatible devices. GSM Arena 

Thatcham Research will lead a five-month investigation into EV repair and salvage processes to help insurance companies prepare for the post-ICE era. The safety specialist has received funding for the project from Innovate UK, the government-backed national innovation agency. The non-profit firm, which helps to run the Euro NCAP crash-testing program, claims that little is currently known about how the repair and insurance processes work for EVs and how they differ from those for ICE cars. The research project will initially focus on identifying differences in the workflow between EVs and ICE vehicles, as well as potential “pain points”. Autocar