Xiaomi F1- Cheap Flagship Power; Huawei Caught Cheating on Cam Photos-Again; VW-Huge Electric Truck Order; Verizon Throttled Firefighter Data

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced a new sub brand called Pocophone, and released a new model F1 smartphone in India. The interesting thing about it is that the phone sells for $300, but has the power of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845…the present top line processor used in flagship Android phones. Not only that, the phone has 6 gigs of RAM, 64 GB of storage, and a 6.18 inch LCD screen at HD+. What about the battery? 4,000mAh. Right now, there are no plans to bring it to the US, unfortunately. A lot of people would love flagship phone power for $300 instead of $800-$1000!

In a repeat of earlier cheating for ad photos, Huawei has been caught using a pro DSLR camera’s pics and passing them off as being from their Nova 3 smartphone. Arstechnica.com reports that one of the actors in the shots posted some behind the scenes photos from a shoot to Instagram, and you can see the DSLR on a tripod shooting the actual shots.

VW has gotten an order for 1600 electric trucks from Ambev’s Brazilian brewery division. According to electrek.co, the beer maker will convert a third of their fleet to electric by 2023. The vehicles will start being delivered in 2020.

Verizon throttled firefighters, and has been sued. Santa Clara County fire says the throttling had a significant impact on their ability to provide crisis response and essential emergency services during recent fires. Arstechnica.com says the fire department’s declaration was added to a brief filed by 22 state attorneys general in the ongoing lawsuit over the FCC net neutrality rules overturn. Stay tuned.