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This week’s top stories: New OnePlus logo, Google Camera review bomb, Pixel 4 marked down to ‘free’

Kyle Bradshaw | Mar 21 2020 - 10:08 am PT

In this week’s top stories: OnePlus gets a new yet familiar looking logo, Google Camera gets review bombed by frustrated Pixel 2 owners, the Google Store accidentally marks the Pixel 4 down to “free,” and more.

By way of a new patent filing in China, it was discovered that OnePlus is preparing to launch a new logo for their company, one that will most likely be seen on their line of 2020 smartphones. Admittedly, though, the logo does not look much different, with the biggest change being to the font used for the numeral one.

Shortly after it was discovered through Chinese patent offices, the new OnePlus logo has appeared from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We spotted trademarks for both the OnePlus icon and logo, as well as an application for the term “OnePlus” itself.

For the last two months or so, the Google Camera app has been more or less broken for many owners of the Pixel 2. In the time since the issue appeared, the Google Camera app has been inundated with hundreds of 1-star reviews on the Play Store, dragging the app’s average rating down to a 3.7.

We’re not sure what’s causing the problems with the Pixel 2 camera and why some people are not even able to load it. Many of the 1-star reviews on the Play Store are suggesting that a recent firmware update could be the cause of the issues. However, it’s not clear if an update to the Google Camera app will be able to fix the problems, or if a system update is needed.

On the humorous side of news, an error on the Google Store inadvertently marked the flagship Pixel 4 as being “free.” As you would expect though, the pricing mistake did not carry through to the check out process.

This free Pixel 4 error is a more notable gaffe than incorrect specs in listings, but does not even come close to last year’s accidental reveal of the Pixel 3a and rebrand of the Google Home Hub to the Nest Hub weeks before I/O 2019. The Nest Hub Max saw a similar incident with key specifications making an appearance in a graphic, while there were several “Nest Home” references.

On the Android side of things, we all know that the once-great brand Essential is no longer in business. This week, we got a peek behind the curtain to see what Essential had in progress before going under, courtesy of one of the company’s lead designers. Some of the products revealed include the PH-2, PH-3 and even the Essential GEM.

Moving on to the Essential PH-3, this is a device that the company had in the works as recently as early this year. This device was designed to have a low “BOM” (bill-of-material) cost, hinting that Essential might have been targeting a lower price bracket. It would have used an existing OLED display with defined dimensions and would have used 2.5D front glass and bead-blasted machined aluminum for the entire body of the device.

Google Camera isn’t the only app being review bombed this week, as the video meeting app Zoom is being given similar treatment on the Play Store. However, in Zoom’s case, the culprit seems to be students who are frustrated with needing to use Zoom to replace schooling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the outbreak, Zoom enjoyed a 4.4-star rating on the Play Store with millions of happy customers. Personally, I use Zoom a couple of times a week for fairly large video calls, and for the most part, I have very few complaints! With all of these new users, though, 1-star reviews have been flooding the app as a result of disgruntled users who aren’t happy with the interface, or perhaps are experiencing connectivity issues.

Meanwhile, Zoom’s app on iOS is still at 4.6 stars, with Apple potentially having frozen the app’s rating.