OnePlus One is now permanently available to buy without an invite

Last Friday, OnePlus issued an open invitation for anyone who cared to be on the lookout for a big announcement today. OnePlus 2? Hopeful, but those hopes were dashed if the contents of this blog post is all we’re to expect today: the OnePlus One is now available for anyone to buy without an invite.

It’s been possible to buy the OnePlus One without an invite for quite a bit of time now, except you had to wait until Open Sale Tuesdays to partake. Even still, finding a OnePlus One invite has always been as easy as finding leaves on the ground in autumn.

Anyone who really wanted a OnePlus One by now likely already has one, and anyone who wants one in the future can be happy that they won’t have to play the waiting game or jump through hoops to get it. With that, the company also announced a decent sale that will take 75% off the cost of their Flip Covers and premium screen protectors. Bamboo SwapStyle covers are also now available without a purchase (but only until their current stock runs dry).

Folks in North America, the European Union, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will be able to get in on these deals, though everyone else is sadly left out.

[via OnePlus]

OnePlus confirms that you’ll initially need an invite to buy the OnePlus 2

We’d hoped OnePlus would have grown enough to do away with the invite system for the OnePlus 2, but it looks like we’re in for more of the same old song and dance. The company has confirmed that the OnePlus 2 will require an invitation to buy at launch.

Before you throw your arms up in a fit, it’s important to remember why OnePlus has to utilize these peculiar sales strategies in the first place. The biggest reason is that they don’t make a ton of profit on every device sold, so over-estimating their manufacturing needs by even the tiniest amounts could potentially be fatal in the long run. They also still don’t have the capacity to churn devices out at ridiculous rates like the big guys.

That doesn’t mean the OnePlus 2 purchasing experience will be exactly the same as the original device’s. We could see the invitation system evaporate much more quickly than it did for the OnePlus One (which only fully occurred just this morning) as the company has likely perfected and streamlined their manufacturing process to more efficiently meet demand.

Those are all the details OnePlus is willing to share with us about the forthcoming smartphone today, though rumors put its launch within a Q3 2015 window. We’ve also heard it will launch with a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 display, Snapdragon 810 chipset, 4GB of RAM and a 3,300mAh battery. It’s sure to be a smartphone worthy of attention by the time it arrives, though it’ll be up to you to determine whether you want to continue putting up with the sales and marketing hijinks OnePlus has become known for.

[via OnePlus]

You can now buy the Amazon Echo without an invite

Amazon today announced that you no longer need an invitation to buy the Amazon Echo. In case you don’t remember what this thing is, it’s a 0 personal assistant speaker that’ll feed you the information you crave by simply speaking. It’s a ubiquitous model, meaning it’s always listening and waiting for your commands.

Derek has been using his for quite some time, and he’s been pretty pleased with it. Alexa — the name of the artificial intelligence being running the show behind the scenes — can deliver news, read your messages out loud, tell you the weather, play music read your books and more. It does so with an extra sensitive microphone and loud speakers, too, so you can issue commands from across the room and hear the result with ease.

The one feature Amazon’s keen on is its everlasting connection to the cloud, which is how it’s always up to date about news and weather, as well as why it’s always gaining new features and functionality without you having to do much. Just hook it up to the internet and you’ll probably never have to touch the thing again.

Unfortunately the units won’t ship until July 14th, but at least we’re finally assured that a retail release is happening. Be sure to place an order right here if this sounds like something you could use.

[via Amazon]