OnePlus 16 brings back flagship phones after US exit

OnePlus is building a true flagship again with the OnePlus 16, due in October in China with a 6.78-inch flat display featuring ultra-narrow symmetrical bezels. The phone pairs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro processor with a massive 9,000mAh battery—a significant jump from previous generations—and a triple camera setup headlined by a 200-megapixel primary sensor alongside 50MP ultra-wide and 50MP periscope telephoto lenses (via Gizmochina). OnePlus exited the US and Europe earlier this year but shows no signs of slowing flagship development in its core Asian markets, with India still uncertain.

YouTube Premium subscribers in the US will receive Peacock Premium (ad-supported) at no additional cost starting early 2027, a partnership worth roughly $11 monthly. The deal launches a broader NBC Sports collaboration streaming live events on YouTube and sets the stage for international bundles including Universal+ and Hayu (via Engadget). The move arrives as Peacock achieved its first quarterly profit after six years and Comcast prepares to spin off NBCUniversal.

X Money officially launches. Elon Musk's X Money rolled out to Premium and Premium+ subscribers on July 27, moving beyond its invite-only beta. The service includes FDIC-insured deposit accounts, a Visa debit card that integrates with Apple Wallet, and premium features like 6% APY and 3% cash back on eligible purchases (via 9to5Mac).

Roku raised prices across its entire US hardware lineup, hitting consumers with increases as steep as 60% as memory component shortages ripple across consumer electronics. The Streaming Stick 4K leapt from $50 to $80, the Ultra from $100 to $150, and the entry-level Streaming Stick from $30 to $40, with company executives attributing the jumps to rising memory costs driven by AI data centre demand (via Engadget). Roku lists current prices as temporary on its website but gave no timeline for when the new pricing takes full effect.

Xbox Network suffered a major outage on July 27 that prevented users from signing into accounts, accessing digital games, and launching disc-based titles, a reminder of how dependent modern consoles have become on online infrastructure. The disruption started around 12:30 AM EST and persisted for over 11 hours, with Microsoft confirming issues affecting accounts, profiles, the store, and subscriptions while engineers worked on a fix (via Engadget). Reports showed 67% of affected users faced game-launch failures and license-check errors.

Nvidia is in talks to guarantee approximately $250 billion for OpenAI to lease a 10-gigawatt data centre in southern Ohio—a project SoftBank's energy subsidiary is developing near Columbus with a total cost that could exceed $500 billion. The facility would rank as the world's largest data centre by power capacity; Nvidia is separately discussing up to $350 billion in chip financing with OpenAI (via Forbes). The first phase is expected by 2028 with roughly 800 megawatts of capacity, with Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft all eyeing access.

Amazon files for 5,105 satellites. Amazon's Leo subsidiary filed an FCC application to deploy up to 5,105 low-Earth-orbit satellites for direct-to-mobile service, launching voice, messaging, data, and emergency connectivity to phones out of range of cell towers starting in 2028 (via Engadget). The move directly competes with SpaceX's existing satellite initiative.

Snapdragon prices jump 10%. Qualcomm informed customers on July 27 of a Snapdragon price increase of more than 10% effective September 1, 2026, passing rising component costs to phone makers and eventually consumers (via Sammy Fans).