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The Morning After: 30 percent brighter OLED TVs are coming

Of course, I just bought a new TV.

LG Display

While I didn’t get it in time for our best buys of 2021, I am now the proud owner of an LG C1 OLED TV. It is beautiful, does 4K, HDR, variable refresh rates and more. Everything looks amazing on it.

As I bought it, I thought about how I’ve never been at the vanguard of TV tech, and how it would only last a couple of weeks until LG ruins it all with even newer TV models.

And like clockwork, here it comes. LG Display’s next generation of OLED tech, called "OLED EX," that's supposed to "enhance brightness up to 30 percent compared to conventional OLED displays," The company also upgraded the TV’s designs too, reducing bezel thickness by up to 30 percent on its 65-inch OLED displays.

In defense of my new 55-inch OLED, this is LG Display, not LG, the part of the multinational company that brings this new TV tech to stores, so that doesn’t mean it’s landing in a new TV immediately. It’s just, sigh, already on the horizon.

-Mat Smith

‘Fortnite’ went briefly offline yesterday

It’s back now.

If you had tried to play Fortnite yesterday, you may have had issues. Many players were unable to log in to their accounts and play games. At 1:13PM ET, Epic Games said it was investigating "an issue," and roughly six hours later, the battle royale hit was back online.

Epic Games said that it would have “more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time."

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China says its space station dodged Starlink satellites twice this year

SpaceX's constellation might pose a safety risk.

The Morning After
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China has filed a complaint with the United Nations over two reported near-collisions between the in-progress Tiangong space station and Starlink vehicles. According to Chinese officials, the station had to perform evasive maneuvers on July 1st and October 21st this year to minimize the chance of a collision. In its complaint, the country asked the UN Secretary-General to remind countries (read: the US) that parties in the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for incidents beyond Earth, even if they involve private companies.

The accusations line up with astronomer Jonathan McDowell's conjunction observations for both days. China further argued that SpaceX's satellites weren't always predictable. During the October incident, the Starlink craft was "continuously" maneuvering in a way that made it difficult to predict the orbital path.

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Rivian’s R1T electric truck brings adventure to the EV crowd

Not just an impressive EV, but an impressive truck.

Announcing a vehicle is one thing, actually following through and building that vehicle at a factory and then selling it, that’s an almost impossible feat for a new company. But like Tesla before it, Rivian has pulled it off and in doing so has built one of the best trucks on the road today, EV or otherwise. Roberto Baldwin gives it a test drive.

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Jabra's Elite 4 Active earbuds add ANC and better sweat resistance

They're only available in some countries right now.

Jabra only just launched its Elite 3 wireless earbuds, but here’s their sequel. The Elite 4 Active is a step-up model that adds active noise cancellation and improved IP57 water resistance (up from IP55).

Expect to get a claimed seven hours of battery life from the buds themselves and 28 hours when you include the charging case. The Elite 4 Active is available now in the UK for £120 (about $161), but they haven't been announced for the US just yet.

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Roku expands its TV Ready program

More audio devices will be able to automatically pair with Roku TVs.

Roku TVs will be able to pair quickly with even more audio products in the future. The company has expanded its TV Ready Certification Program, adding Element, JVC, Pheanoo and Philips this year, with Polk Audio and Westinghouse joining the list in 2022. Roku also opened the program internationally, and partners like Bose are expected to launch TV Ready devices in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico soon.

The TV Ready initiative makes it easy to connect soundbars and speakers to Roku TVs — so long as the audio device supports the feature, it will automatically be detected as soon as you plug it in.

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