Former President Donald Trump has revealed that Truth Social, the new social network created by the Trump Media & Technology Group, has arrived on iOS to download .
The app recently opened to around 500 beta testers , most of whom exist in the MAGA sphere already. A spokesperson told Reuters that Truth Social is planning to launch today, Monday 21, which also happens to be Presidents' Day.
"What makes Truth Social different!?" the app description asks. "We are a social media platform that is free from political discrimination. Join us and share, communicate, and have fun!"
The app looks much like other social networks, with profiles, a main feed, likes and reposts, and so on. You could even say it looks almost identical to Twitter. The main difference is that posts are called Truths. An executive told users that verified profiles and direct messages are coming later.
The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth
Setting aside the irony of Donald Trump, a man famously at odds with the truth , launching a social network called Truth Social, the journey to getting here has been interesting.
The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is listed as the developer of the app, is led by former GOP Representative Devin Nunes, famous for suing a cow on Twitter and losing .
"This week we will begin to roll out on the Apple App Store. That's going to be awesome, because we're going to get so many more people that are going to be on the platform," said Nunes on Fox News recently. "Our goal is, I think we're going to hit it, I think by the by the end of March we're going to be fully operational at least within the United States."
One of the interesting quandaries facing Truth Social will be content moderation. Trump was famously banned for inciting a riot at the Capitol as Biden was confirmed as president.
Parler, a similar right-wing social network, has had difficulties with Apple and Google. Apple removed the app for several months due to weak policies over removing offensive and illegal content. It seems reasonable to assume that Truth Social will run into the same issues without a robust mechanism for removing content.
Samsung suggests the Galaxy Note is dead, but it's not really - the S Ultra is
We must have written some version of this story a dozen times by now, but if you were still holding out hope for a Samsung Galaxy Note 22 or any future Note models, you’re almost certainly going to be out of luck, with two Samsung execs virtually confirming that we won’t get them.
First up, TM Roh (Samsung’s mobile chief) said in an interview with Bloomberg that “In the near term, our operation will focus on a two-track strategy: flagship S series in the first half of the year and innovative foldable lineup in the second half. We will keep this strategy until there’s another major breakthrough and we are working hard to make it happen.”
While Samsung will release phones beyond those (such as in the mid-range Galaxy A series), the Note range is significant enough that we’d expect it to be mentioned in that statement if any new handsets were planned.
Then, according to Phandroid , Drew Blackard (Vice President of Mobile Product Management for Samsung America) said “We see the Note as an experience these days. We’ve put the Note experience in our PCs, our tablets, our foldables … From a device perspective, we see the S22 Ultra as the natural next step for a Note owner.”
So this again doesn’t outright state that the Note series is dead, but it heavily implies it. Given the lack of a Samsung Galaxy Note 21 and all the other evidence of the series’ demise we’ve seen this last year, we really think it’s time to give up hope of ever seeing a new one.
Analysis: except the Note series isn’t actually dead, the Galaxy S Ultra is
All that said, all that’s really died is the Samsung Galaxy Note name, as evidenced by the fact that the new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is, for all intents and purposes, a Samsung Galaxy Note.
It looks like a Note, has all the power of a Note, and comes with an S Pen stylus and a slot to house it. It’s a Galaxy Note.
So what’s actually happened is that there’s no true Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – no phone that looks like the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S22 range but with truly top-tier specs.
If this is the future of the range then the Galaxy S Ultra as we know it is gone, while the Note is alive and well – albeit with only one model launching each year, and the timing of that launch having changed.
Invisible headphones are as weird and awesome as they sound
CES is the best place to uncover unusual tech innovations, and this year's show is no different, with one company launching what it calls a pair of "invisible" headphones.
Looking a little like a mini soundbar , the Noveto N1 is a rather novel audio device that uses beamforming technology to create a binaural audio experience without the need for a pair of headphones – but unlike a soundbar, this audio can only be heard by the user's own ears.
It works by transmitting ultrasound silently through the air, which converges into audible pockets just outside of your ears - creating an experience similar to wearing a pair of headphones.
According to Noveto, anyone else in the room will only be able to hear "a whisper of sound", while the user is immersed in three-dimensional spatial audio . In other words, Noveto recorded up to 90% (20dB) audio reduction when 1 meter away from the listener.
Should you move or turn your head, motion sensors allow for facial recognition, helping the N1 to track your ears and ensure the sound hits the right spot.
Sci-fi specs for the modern office
How accurately the device will be able to track your ears while ensuring that you aren't disturbing others around you remains to be seen, as does its audio performance. As we aren't attending CES 2022 in person this year, we haven't been able to test the N1 for ourselves (but you can bet we can't wait to get our hands on it).
If it does work as well as Noveto claims, the N1 could be a compelling alternative to wearing headphones in the office, without the listening fatigue and pressure headaches that come with wearing tightly-clamped cans for long periods of time.
Indeed, the Noveto N1 has been targeted at those working in shared spaces, with the company suggesting that it could be a good way to reduce noise pollution in offices without mandating that workers wear headphones all day.
To up the smart-factor, Noveto has also decked out the N1 with Alexa voice recognition, which works in tandem with the device's face recognition technology.
Noveto says that when you look at the N1, the device will recognize your face and engage with you, offering suggestions based on personal profiles and prompts - for instance, telling you how many unread emails you have in your inbox (eek!).
The N1 looks pretty sleek, too. A fabric grille sits on a black matte aluminum frame, with buttons along the top of the device for Bluetooth pairing, volume control, and microphone muting. There's also a USB-C port and a 3.5mm AUX port to connect a secondary audio device if you wish.
That's all brought together by a slick ring light on the front of the N1 that lights up as you interact with Alexa. And just to make things feel even more sci-fi, that light is known as HAL (Heuristic Activity LED). Here's hoping the N1 doesn't go rogue and kill us all, eh?
Right now, there's no word on how much the N1 will cost, but Noveto says it will begin shipping in mid-2022.