Vivo and Oppo’s telephoto extender comes to iPhone
PGYTech, the accessory manufacturer behind the official telephoto extender lenses for recent Vivo and Oppo flagships, has launched a Kickstarter for a new version developed for iPhones.
The RetroVa Vintage Imaging Kit looks an awful lot like the camera kits for those phones, complete with a custom case, slide-on camera grip with built-in battery and manual controls, and of course a 2.35x telephoto lens extender. This is the first to include a microSD slot though. There are versions for iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Since it's unofficial, the telephoto will only work in PGYTech's camera app, not Apple's.
Other co …
The tragedy of Supernatural
When you picture a virtual reality headset user, you're probably not picturing someone like Sherry Dickson. At 69, the snowy-haired, retired elementary school teacher hops into her Meta Quest headset five days a week, for roughly 60 to 90 minutes at a time. She's not attending live concerts or watching immersive films. Dickson, a fitness buff since Jane Fonda workout videos in the '80s, largely uses her headset for one reason - to play Supernatural, a VR fitness game with a huge, loyal fan base and a tight-knit community.
Supernatural isn't dead, but it might as well be. A few weeks ago, Meta shut down three VR studios as part of broader l …
Bill Gates says accusations contained in Epstein files are ‘absolutely absurd’
Reports of Bill Gates' connections with Jeffrey Epstein grow more lurid with each dump of documents from the Department of Justice. The latest includes somewhat confusing emails that Epstein may have been drafting on behalf of someone named Boris, who worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The messages claim that Bill contracted an STD and wanted to "surreptitiously" give Melinda antibiotics. It also claims that Bill had "trysts" with married women and "Russian girls."
In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Bill Gates said:
"These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents dem …
Shedding light on Iran’s longest internet blackout
After protests broke out in early January, the Iranian regime shut down the internet, starting the longest blackout in Iranian history. Despite this attempt to stop the protests from spreading, they did not stop. Still, the internet shutdown slowed down the spread of information both inside and outside Iran.
Behind the heavily policed borders and the jammed signals, an unprecedented wave of state violence continues to add to a death toll somewhere between 3,000 and 30,000. Even at the lowest count, which has been acknowledged by the Iranian state and is likely a wild underestimate, these last few weeks have been one of the bloodiest uprisi …
You need to listen to M83’s icy post-rock record Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
New York City got hit with a hell of a snowstorm last week. And, inevitably, when I'm watching the snow fall, wandering the oddly quiet streets after dark, people hiding inside and staying warm, I put on M83's sophomore record, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.
Before Nicolas Fromageau left the band and Anthony Gonzalez embraced traditional pop song structures, saxophone solos, and teen angst, M83 released two albums of mostly instrumental music. The self-titled debut album is kind of forgettable, but the second one finds the French duo taking inspiration from the repetitive bombast of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Dead Cities …
This tiny pocket-friendly e-reader is packed with frustration and potential
I've used and reviewed dozens of e-readers over the years, but the 5-inch Kobo Mini remains my favorite for one simple reason: It was small. While it lacked useful features like screen lighting and page turn buttons, its size made it an e-reader I actually wanted to carry every day. The $69 Xteink X4 e-reader is even smaller than the Kobo Mini and E Ink smartphones like Boox Palma. It's satisfyingly pocketable but also frustratingly unintuitive and functionally limited out of the box. That could be a deal-breaker were it not for a growing community of users working to improve it.
Like the Kodak Charmera, I was pleasantly surprised at how sm …
I don’t hate the robot barista like I thought I would
In Seattle, the only thing we love more than coffee is our coffee shops.
On a six-block walk I pass at least a half dozen, each with their own vibe: one focused on chai, another inside a yoga studio, a Starbucks that's surprisingly busy for late afternoon downtown. I passed them all up to get to one shop in particular, where a barista named Jarvis would address me by name and make me a thoroughly decent latte with rose-flavored syrup - nothing out of the ordinary in Seattle. But Jarvis, unlike the other baristas keeping the city's many shops humming, is a robot.
Hill7 is a luxury apartment building located between the courthouse, the conv …
Antigravity’s 360-degree A1 drone is nearly $250 off right now
Antigravity’s ambitious A1 360-degree drone is 15 percent off through February 9th. The first-ever discount on this model is available across all bundles, with the most affordable option dropping from $1,599 to $1,359 at Amazon and Best Buy. Pricier bundles are also discounted and include accessories such as a carrying case, additional replaceable drone wings, and extra batteries.
Antigravity A1 drone
Where to Buy:
The Antigravity A1, Insta360’s first drone, really impressed us during our hands-on with a prototype in December 2025. It can shoot in 8K at 30 frames per second or in 5.7K at 60 frames per second. It comes with a remote control, and you can get a cockpit view with the included Vision Goggles. They provide a 360-degree first-person view even as the drone flies straight, letting you see things you might have otherwise missed. There’s a screen on the outside of the goggles that lets people see what you’re seeing through the A1’s eyes.
This sale coincides with the launch of a new Flight Simulator feature that Antigravity launched on January 29th. It lets you practice flights via the Vision Goggles without actually having to fly the A1 drone. The company says that the feature creates a virtual flying environment that replicates how the A1 handles, helping those concerned about crashing become more comfortable with the controls.
If you’re looking for more information about the A1, check out Sean Hollister’s in-depth hands-on, and get a quick lowdown on what it’s all about with his TikTok video:
The telephoto is the only phone camera that really matters
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on Android phones, follow Dominic Preston. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Samsung's Galaxy S20 Ultra wasn't the first phone to feature a periscopic telephoto lens - both Huawei and Oppo beat the Korean company to it - but it was the first in the US to make such a big deal about it. Almost all of Samsung's marketing for the S20 Ultra centered on its so-called Space Zoom, its 5x optical folded periscope lens, capable of digitally zooming much further. Samsung even …
Nvidia CEO denies he’s ‘unhappy’ with OpenAI
Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang denied reports that he was unhappy with OpenAI and said his company still planned to make a "huge" investment in the ChatGPT firm. Nvidia announced in September that it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, but recently, there have been suggestions that the deal might not happen. While Huang told reporters in Taipei that it was "nonsense" to say he was unhappy with OpenAI, when asked if Nvidia would be investing over $100 billion, he replied, "No, nothing like that."
Reuters reported Huang said:
"We are going to make a huge investment in OpenAI. I believe in OpenAI, the work that they do is incredible, they …