Following Nothing’s first major event of 2022, the tech startup announced that it would be opening itself up to a community of investors. Starting April 5, Community Investment 2 will go live, giving the public the chance to be a part of the company through investment. Preregistration has already seen the company raise over $43 million through more than 22,000 investors as of March 29, and Nothing is shooting for even more.
The company has some pretty lofty goals of waking up the “sleepy smartphone market” by dethroning Apple as the sitting king of the industry. So far, Nothing has only produced the Ear 1 wireless earbuds, however, the tech startup is taking its first major step to shake up the phone market with the introduction of its upcoming smartphone, the Phone 1.
There still aren’t any public renders of the device announced at last week’s event, but Nothing CEO Carl Pei has high hopes for the smartphone. He expects it to be competent enough to give Apple a run for its money, but only time will tell if that will happen. All the company is asking for now is patience during its continued development and investment.
Nothing says it wants its community to “take these next steps” with the company through investment. The Phone 1 is still yet to be officially revealed, but the company says that its launch will be taking place in the summer.
Despite the company’s high hopes for itself, it isn’t the first to try and make a dent in Apple’s share of the market. Essential, Nextbit, OnePlus, and many others have all tried their hands at mimicking Apple’s success, but to little avail. Pei was even involved with OnePlus’ efforts to break into Apple’s user base before starting Nothing, so fans should be wary of Nothing’s promises before investing.
Investment is always a risk so those looking to put money into the company should consider their options before diving in headfirst.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.