Turn your iPhone into an iPod Classic with these brilliant lock screen wallpapers

Software designers Oliur and Shane Levine have released a series of wallpapers that convert the lock screen on your iPhone into an iPod Classic.

It’s a real blast from the past. The collection is known as the iPod Wallpaper Pack, consisting of “12 high-definition wallpapers” sporting a multitude of colors. Just to name a few of the shades, you'll get the classic silver look, black, turquoise, hot pink, and lime green. But one of our favorite aspects of these covers is the attention to detail the designers gave each of them.  

Color iPods on iPhone display

(Image credit: Oliur)

One wallpaper is completely covered by heart and flower stickers, and it looks exactly like something your little sister would do to your iPod. Another has carefully placed stickers around the click wheel: AC/DC in one corner with Rockstar Games in the other. Plus, we like how a few of the selections have scratches and chipped-off paint because who among us did not drop their iPod multiple times? 

iPod on iPhone display with scratches and stickers

(Image credit: Oliur)

Availability

The date and time will hover around the same location – somewhere near the top of the screen with battery life over in the top right corner. There’s even a little bit of room for widgets in the iPod display.

Oliur’s iPod Wallpaper Pack is currently available for $ 14 on its official website. Upon purchase, the images will be placed into a 58 MB ZIP file that needs to be extracted to be used. According to tech news site T3, you can save the wallpapers by uploading them to your iCloud account if you’re buying them on your iPhone. 

If you’re curious about what happened to iPods, Apple officially retired the series back in May 2022 with the final model being the 7th generation iPod Touch. The company continued to sell the device for a little while on its online store, however, if you go on there today, it’s completely gone. It’s sold out. Nowadays if you want an iPod, you’ll have to try your luck on a third-party retailer like Amazon or Walmart.

Or better yet: get yourself something more modern. If you want recommendations, check out TechRadar’s roundup of the best MP3 player for 2023.  

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ChatGPT is now a brilliant tool for winding up telemarketers and scammers

If there’s one thing most people on the internet can agree on is we all hate those annoying telemarketing scams calling us at all hours of the day. Software developer Roger Anderson decided to fight fire with fire as he recently equipped his robotic voice service with OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model to fool them into wasting time.

And the best part is you can get in on it. 

Anderson’s service is called Jolly Roger Telephone which sells AI personalities to engage in ridiculous conversations with scammers. A recent Wall Street Journal report details one of these engagements where a telemarketer claiming to be from Bank of America called a potential mark only to be answered by Whitey Whitebeard, one of the AIs. Whitey, as a character, has a habit of speaking circles. The AI was so effective at its job the scammer eventually hung up out of sheer exhaustion about six minutes into the call. 

How it all works

The Wall Street Journal states Jolly Roger Telephone has been around for almost a decade. However when ChatGPT launched late 2022, Anderson saw an opportunity to upgrade his service. He claims GPT-4 “does a pretty good job of saying dumb things that are somewhat funny” to keep caller engaged.

The way the service works, according to the report, is, when a scammer calls, the AI proceeds to “[stall] for time at the start” by saying a bunch of absurdities. It does this to give GPT-4 some time to process what it hears before generating responses. Once done, the text is then “fed into a voice cloner” where the digital personality proceeds to have a ridiculous conversation.

Customers can connect either a landline or mobile phone number to one of the AIs. Personalities include Whitey Whitebeard as mentioned earlier; Salty Sally, a distracted, scatterbrained mother; and Whiskey Jack who often goes into non-sequiturs. Demos are available on Jolly Roger’s website. Be warned: some of the samples have scammers get so angry they begin throwing out expletives so listen with some headphones on. Users will also be given a choice of two numbers – one will record the call while the other won’t. 

Availability

Jolly Roger Telephone is available in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and NewZealand. People in the United States get access to 10 robot voices while everyone else gets six. A subscription costs only $ 1.99 a month. Once you’re in, Jolly Roger Telephone will take you through a multi-step process involving convincing your phone company to allow the service onto your connection as well as whitelisting the numbers of those in your contacts list. 

We reached out to Jolly Roger for information on what kind of voice cloner the company uses plus prices in other countries. This story will be updated at a later time.

Truth be told, these personalities are shockingly lifelike. They’re not perfectly human, but the combination of GPT-4 alongside the voice cloner gets pretty close to a real voice. Listen to Jolly Roger’s demos and you can easily see how these scammers got fooled. 

As funny as the AI personalities may be, we recommend getting more robust protection for your personal information. Be sure to check out TechRadar’s guide of the best identity theft protection software for 2023

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OPPO F15: A brilliant choice for tech-savvy millennials

In this era of convergence of technology, the smartphone industry has been witnessing a boom, as we are rarely out of something new in terms of hardware and software. There are numerous players in the market, but only a few have managed to maintain a perfect balance between top-end hardware tuned to support a smooth software experience, and OPPO is one of the major manufacturers that have been reasonably consistent with the design, experience, and pricing of their product.

OPPO recently launched F15 in India, which is also the first phone from the company in 2020. The OPPO F15 makes up for a tempting option for its price, more so, because it ticks all the checkboxes that a youngster looks for in a phone. 

The first thing that makes it an alluring device for the youth is its beautiful 7.9mm sleek and lightweight. While it’s slim, it weighs just 172 grams making it very comfortable to grab in your palm. Even if you’re wearing a fitted trouser, this won’t add much bulge to your pockets. Not just that, it looks stunning and feels very comfortable to use with one hand. Its back panel has a gradient finish and the color shift looks very elegant. 

OPPO F15 has a 6.4-inch full FHD + AMOLED screen with 2340 x 1080p resolution. The display comes with an aspect ratio of 20:9 that has 90.7% screen to body ratio. It is Widevine certified as well, which means users can watch HD content on OTT apps like Netflix on that immersive front. 

OPPO F15 also takes care of your eyes. It has the technology of DC screen dimming 2.0 certified by TÜV Rheinland which protects your eyes even in low light.

If you’re concerned about photography, OPPO F15's 48 MP AI quad-camera setup won’t disappoint you. Its 48MP camera with an ultra-wide-angle macro lens is fully capable of getting closer to the subject without losing details. The 48MP rear sensor is designed in such a way that it can capture sharp and high-quality images with clarity and ample detail.

OPPO F15 also makes the experience of taking large area or group photos great. Its 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens allows you to capture images at 119 degrees and take good portrait shots with bokeh effect to capture breath-taking images. Moreover, you can adjust the bokeh effect after a picture is clicked.

The cameras aren’t just impressive, OPPO F15 clicks very good low-light pictures, making it a perfect companion to those who like to go out and explore the bright side of the night.

OPPO F15 comes with AI (Artificial Intelligence) based smart beautification that helps in identifying the gender and age and enhances the photos accordingly.

Apart from still photography, OPPO has also improved video capabilities on this one as it comes with a special anti-shake video feature that allows smartphone users to get professional-grade video results. 

OPPO F15 also packs 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage and is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P70 processor, which is known for fast operations and multitasking.

Another impressive feature of this phone is its in-display fingerprint 3.0 sensor which unlocks the phone in just 0.32 seconds.

OPPO F15 has a 4,000mAh battery that can sail you throughout the day on a single charge. For super fast charging, it has the support of VOOC Flash Charge 3.0 which charges your phone in a jiffy with proper safety. A feature custom made for the faster generation that likes to do everything on the go.

OPPO F15 runs Android 9 Pie-based ColorOS 6.1.2. The operating system has been upgraded to several smart features. These features will improve the overall user experience of the phone. The company has done some major tweaking to make it feel smoother and convenient for all kinds of users.

Those were some of the reasons why OPPO F15 is a real problem solver for not just Gen Z or Millennials, but for everyone who looks to invest in a value-for-money product. OPPO F15 is already available on Amazon & Flipkart for just Rs. 19,990 and it has also brought huge offers to make this deal even more valuable. These offers include 10% cashback from HDFC and 5% from ICICI and Yes Bank credit card/debit card. You can also avail zero down payment option from Bajaj Finserv along with interesting EMI options from IDFC First Bank, HDB Financial Services and Home Credit plus additional100% data on Reliance Jio till 31st January.

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