The Nothing Phone’s version of Android is surprisingly good

If you’re excited for the Nothing Phone (1) , we’ve got big news: as promised in the phone’s teaser announcement, you can now download an early version of the device’s software to test and play about with.

Well, when we say ‘you’ we mean specifically people with a Samsung Galaxy S21 or Samsung Galaxy S22 series phone, or the Google Pixel 5 or Pixel 6 - this is just an early beta of the user interface, with only a few features and tools.

We’re expecting the Nothing Phone (1) to land sometime between June and September, but at an event with the silly name of The Truth , Nothing teased the device, and also promised that it’d launch the software soon - well, ‘soon’ is ‘now’ apparently.

What's the Nothing Launcher like?

There are three key features that the Nothing Launcher brings onto your phone, but we’re going to presume this doesn’t represent the full feature set, because it’s a little limited. They’re built over what looks like stock Android.

Firstly, there are three Nothing-themed widgets: weather and two clocks (digital and analog). The digital clock and weather widget have a spotty retro look, while the analog clock is a little more typical.

Second, there's a new Nothing wallpaper, and it’s… certainly something? We thought our phone had broken when we first saw it, but no, that’s how it’s meant to look. You can change the color of it if you want, but this only changes the text color.

Admittedly those are two rather small features, and the third one is too, but it’s one we actually like. You can choose to enlarge app and folder icons, so instead of taking one space in the home menu grid it’ll take four.

This is quite useful for ease of access - you can easily slam your thumb on one part of the screen and be sure to hit the app. We also see this being really useful for accessibility, for seniors or people with physical disabilities who might struggle to tap really small icons.

We’re fond of this feature, and can already see our everyday phone feeling a little restrictive since it doesn’t have resizable icons.

Given that the app is called the Nothing Launcher (beta), we’re assuming this is the first version of the operating system, and hopefully we’ll see new versions before the Nothing Phone (1) launches with bigger updates. But for a first impression, we’re pleasantly surprised.

This company is giving away a free VPN to businesses and there's no catches

The cloud VPN provider GoodAccess has announced the launch of its new Starter plan that allows even smaller companies to get access to a capable business VPN service for free.

With the company's new Starter plan, SMBs and even startups can create a cloud-based business VPN for up to 100 users for free without the need to build their own hardware infrastructure.

Despite being free, GoodAccess' new plan ensures the security of remote work, encrypts user connections with business systems, protects sensitive data and even blocks online threats. Compared to other free VPN offerings, the GoodAccess Starter plan doesn't feature any advertising nor is an organization's browsing data sold to third parties.

Co-founder and CEO of GoodAccess, Michal Cizek explained why the company decided to release its new free Starter plan in a blog post , saying:

“At GoodAccess, we believe that everyone who has the need should be able to secure anytime-anywhere access for their business without having to spend hours fussing over infrastructure. Releasing the free Starter plan is a logical step along our mission.”

GoodAccess Starter package

With GoodAccess' new Starter plan, every time a business user connects to the cloud VPN, the service will automatically seek out the nearest gateway location with the lowest latency to ensure the smoothest possible experience. While the company's free plan dynamically assigns IP addresses to users, organizations that need a static IP address will need to upgrade to one of its paid plans.

In terms of clients, GoodAccess Starter offers them for Android, Windows, iOS and macOS so that even free users can connect to a VPN on desktop as well as on mobile. In order to protect the sensitive business data sent over its VPN, GoodAccess uses encryption on the network layer to provide more in-depth encryption of the communication as a whole as well as the payload.

DNS filtering is often the first line of defense against a variety of online threats including phishing and network-borne attacks like botnets, port scanning, etc. GoodAccess' Threat Blocker is its implementation of DNS filtering and it operates on the VPN gateway to protect users and alert administrators regarding any malicious presences on their network. The new Starter plan also includes the full protective capability of the company's Threat Blocker though paid users get access to more granular reporting.

Businesses interested in testing out GoodAccess' new Starter plan can sign up for a 14-day free trial and afterwards they can decide if they want to stick with the company's free plan or upgrade to one of its paid plans instead.

Meta follows in Apple's footsteps with first ever retail store

In an effort to make it easier for potential customers to test out the Quest 2 and its other products, Meta is launching its first ever retail store on its campus in Burlingame, California.

The company’s new Meta Store will give users a chance to test out its products in person and go hands-on with them through interactive demos. At the same time though, Meta is making it easier to shop for Portal, Ray-Ban Stories and Quest all in one place online through a new Shop tab on its website.

Head of Meta Store, Martin Gilliard explained in a press release how Meta’s new store will also help familiarize users with the concept of the metaverse in addition to being able to interact with its products in person, saying:

“The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future. We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it.”

Meta Store

At roughly 1,550 square feet, the Meta Store has a relatively small footprint especially when compared to Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York which is a whopping 77k square feet.

However, one of the reasons the company decided to go with a smaller space for its first store is due to the fact that it is near Reality Labs HQ where the metaverse is currently being built.

Once inside the Meta Store, customers will be able to test out Ray-Ban Stories for themselves and even make a video call to one of Meta’s retail associates using Portal so that they can see Smart Camera in action and play around with features like Story Time.

One of the key attractions of Meta’s new store is an interactive Quest 2 display wall that will allow customers to explore the company’s standalone VR headset, its accessories and the wide variety of games and other content available. They’ll be able to try out Quest games including Beat Saber, GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural on a large, wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays exactly what they’re seeing in Quest 2. However, customers will also get a 30-second mixed reality clip of their demo experience that they’ll be able to share on social media .

The Meta Store on 322 Airport Blvd in Burlingame, California will be open from Monday through Friday from 11am to 6pm PT beginning on Monday, May 9. If Meta’s first retail store is a success, we could see the company set up other locations ahead of Black Friday and this year’s holiday shopping season.

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