Hitachi’s answer to Pepper the robot is swifter and sturdier

Look out, Pepper: you have some fresh competition. Hitachi has unveiled EMIEW3, its first humanoid assistant robot built for full-fledged commercial service. Like its SoftBank-made counterpart, it’s designed to help you find your way around stores and public facilities. It’s particularly focused on tourists, as it can switch languages on the fly. However, its edge may simply be its ability to cope with real-world situations. It’s much faster than Pepper (3.7MPH versus 1.2MPH), so it’s more likely to keep up with humans; it can also get back up if it falls down, and listen to you in noisy street environments.

The machine also reflects a lot of lessons learned from its predecessor and beyond. For instance, it knows to slow down near corners so that it won’t smack into someone. It identifies people asking for help, too, and will approach on its own. Its biggest drawback is simply that it’s not as personable as Pepper (you’re just looking at a pair of expressionless eyes), and doesn’t have a built-in display to show information.

It’s going to be a while before you see EMIEW3 in service, as Hitachi doesn’t expect it to be ready until 2018. However, Hitachi has grand ambitions for its third-generation hardware. It’s hoping to offer the new robot beyond Japan, so you might just witness this little helper guiding you through offices and stores in your corner of the world.

Via: Nikkei, I4U

Source: Hitachi

‘Attack on Titan’ gets same-day release for English speakers

English-speaking fans of Attack on Titan no longer have to badger their favorite scanlation group to speed it up. The hit manga’s publisher, Kodansha, has teamed up with comiXology and Amazon to make each chapter available in English on the same day it’s released in Japan. That means you can download the latest chapter every week as soon it’s out for either the comiXology or the Kindle app. You can even buy all the previous releases if you want the full collection.

A lot of manga fans who don’t understand Japanese rely on fellow fans who scan and translate (hence, the term “scanlation”) chapters and volumes of the titles they want to read. If a title becomes popular enough, it will eventually be localized for the West, but that typically takes quite some time to happen.

It’s not just the post-apocalyptic action manga that’s getting what Kodansha calls the “simulpub” treatment, though. Other titles, which we’ve listed below, include Fairy Tail and Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P4. The only bad news is that if you live in Japan and can’t speak the language, you won’t have access to the translated chapters. Otherwise, you’re golden.

Weekly

• As the Gods Will: The Second Series
• Fairy Tail
• Fuuka
• GTO Paradise Lost
• The Seven Deadly Sins
• UQ Holder
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

Bi-Weekly

• Inuyashiki
• Space Brothers

Monthly

• Ajin: Demi-Human
• Attack on Titan
• Kiss Him, Not Me
• The Heroic Legend of Arslan
• Magatsuki
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P4
• Sweetness and Lightning

Semi-regularly

• Princess Jellyfish

Source: Nerdist, Amazon, Kodansha Comics, comiXology

The best unlocked phones

Unlocked phones — outside the shackles of the carriers and able to work on any GSM operator worldwide — are finally starting to have their moment in the sun.

And we’re not just talking more expensive versions of top-shelf phones. There are a number of mid-range unlocked phones that will serve you very well — and not burn a hole in your wallet. Let’s take a look.

Nexus 6P

Nexus and unlocked go together like PB&J

Pros

• Great build quality
• Excellent camera
• Pure Google software

Cons

• It’s pretty big
• Lacks wireless charging
• A little bit slippery to hold

In the Android world, one brand should always come to mind when thinking unlocked: Nexus. For the Nexus phones aren’t just a way to get the latest and greatest software from Google. They’re also a way to get a good phone at a good price and stay away from a new contract. Of the two current Nexus phones, the 6P is the one to get.

We’ve usually had to recommend a Nexus phone with a rather large caveat — and that’s usually had to do with the camera. Not so with the Nexus 6P, manufactured by Huawei.

It’s got a camera that doesn’t make us want to carry around a second shooter, just in case. It’s got the design and build quality that stands up against any other phone. And perhaps most important is that it’s going to always be updated to the latest version of Android, and that goes for the monthly security updates, too.

Read our Nexus 6P review

See at Amazon See at Google

Motorola Moto G (2015)

Still one of the best value phones around

Pros

• Solid build quality
• No manufacturer bloatware
• MicroSD card slot

Cons

• No NFC
• Only a single speaker compared to previous model
• No quickcharge or wireless charging

Motorola is arguably responsible for reinventing the budget phone space when it tore up the rule book with the original Moto G. Now three generations in and it’s no more difficult to recommend to anyone looking for the best on a budget. And without a contract.

The hardware is more than ample for the price and Motorola’s signature software experience of value added to stock Android remains. The camera is improved on its predecessor, Moto Maker allows for some customization on the color schemes and all-in-all the essence of what made this phone great hasn’t gone away. And we’d definitely recommend the 16GB/2GB RAM model. It’s worth the extra.

The Moto G isn’t just a good phone for its price, it’s a good phone, period.

Read our Moto G review

See at Amazon See at Motorola

OnePlus 2

Not quite a flagship killer, but very good nonetheless

Pros

• Excellent hardware and design
• Good quality fingerprint scanner
• 64GB internal storage

Cons

• No NFC
• Middle of the road camera
• No wireless charging

As sophomore efforts go, OnePlus has done well to create a device that improves upon its predecessor in nearly every way. The aluminum band around the outside of the phone gives the OnePlus 2 a sturdy heft, and the ability to swap backplates means you can have grip, style, or durability with ease.

OxygenOS is a newer custom version of Android, but like Cyanogen OS before it the focus is a clean, fast experience with a UI that closely resembles the Nexus experience. What few changes you find are subtle, visually pleasing, and often easy to disable if you decide it’s not for you.

At $389, OnePlus has struck an interesting balance between performance and price. While it doesn’t have every bell and whistle you’d see in a high-end smartphone, the OnePlus 2 is more than capable when it comes down to performance and battery life. You also don’t need to go through the ridiculous invite process to get one anymore.

Read our OnePlus 2 review

See at OnePlus

Moto X Style (Pure Edition)

A custom treat

Pros

• Great starting price
• Front facing speaker
• Custom design options

Cons

• Quite large
• No wireless charging
• Camera still weaker than competition

Motorola’s made one of the more beloved (if imperfect phones) of the past few couple years. The 2015 edition — the Moto X Style, or the “Pure Edition” if you’re in the U.S., also looks to be a good one. But the body of the phone has gotten even bigger, approaching Nexus 6 size. That’s going to be a deal-breaker for some folks. But Motorola has slipped an SD card slot into this phone, which opens it back up to many other folks.

We’ve also got dual front-facing speakers this time around, and Motorola promises we’ll be impressed with the camera this year, after two years of disappointments (and more promises). We’ll just have to wait and see.

So far the Moto X Style (when it’s released sometime in September) will only be available in the U.S. through Motorola, Amazon and Best Buy. (Outside the U.S. is another story, but usually a better one, too.) Price starts at $399.

Read our Moto X Style review

See at Amazon See at Motorola

Asus Zenfone 2 Laser

Frickin’ lasers

Pros

• Great price
• Long battery life
• Decent camera

Cons

• Awkward button placement
• Cheap feeling materials
• Software won’t be to everyone’s taste

The Zenfone 2 Laser is one of many different phones in the same lineup, and for the most part is on par with the original bearing the name. The big change with the Zenfone 2 Laser was the addition of a super-fast laser autofocus on the rear camera.

What Asus offers though is a solid mix of hardware, features and affordable price which makes this phone a good choice for anyone looking to avoid buying from a carrier. You should be good with this on AT&T and T-Mobile.

It’s not perfect by any means, with software that’s best described as an acquired taste, and some cost cutting in the materials used to build it. But make no mistake, you’re getting a solid phone with long battery life, a decent camera and more besides for not a whole lot of your hard earned.

Read our Zenfone 2 Laser review

See at Amazon

Huawei Honor 5X

Honor lands Stateside

Pros

• Premium design and construction
• Fingerprint scanner
• Good quality display

Cons

• EMUI still broken in places
• Sluggish at times
• Launched on Android 5.1

The Honor 5X is a perfect example of where the $200 price point smartphone market is headed. For a remarkably good $199, the first Honor phone to officially launch in the U.S. packs a metal body, decent screen and fingerprint sensor. The hardware certainly feels worthy of a higher price point.

The only drawbacks to the Honor 5X come in the software. Huawei’s EMUI is still an acquired taste with some questionable features and things that still don’t work quite as we might hope. But, there’s a lot of good stuff, too, and some really useful features baked in.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is on the horizon, but overall the Honor 5X proves you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a good looking, well built, carrier free phone.

Read our Honor 5X review

See at Amazon See at Newegg

AC editors’ apps of the week: Kingdom Hearts, Agenda Widget, Stash Invest and more

Our weekly app picks

It’s Appday Sunday and that means we’re back with more of our favorites to share. Every week we bring a handful of great apps to the table and share them with everyone. Sometimes they are new apps, sometimes old standards, but every time they are apps we love to use.

Give these a look and then take a minute to tell us all about the apps you are using and love so we can give them a try. We all find some of our favorites right in the comments on these posts!

Russell Holly — Kingdom Hearts Unchained X

With all the attention Square Enix has gotten over the last couple of years in bringing Final Fantasy games to mobile, you had to know it wouldn’t be long before we saw some of the lesser Kingdom Hearts titles make their way as well. Instead of the Nintendo titles that fill in some story between the proper KH titles, Square Enix beings us a remade browser-based Kingdom Hearts χ[chi].

The focus in this game is less constant action, and not a single card in sight. Instead you’re one of many working to eliminate the Heartless with your Keyblade. Solo gameplay includes some turn-based RPG-ish combat, with a group event system where those who chose the same alignment as you can join in to eliminate raid bosses.

You are dropping down on a squad of Heartless and Nobodies with Sora and his dual-wielding badassery, but it’s a fun game all the same. Who knows, it might even keep you busy until the next real Kingdom Hearts game drops.

Download: Kingdom Hearts Unchained X (Free)

Simon Sage — Hammer Bomb

Hammer Bomb is a fun cross between endless runner and rogue-like games with a Crossy Road art style. Hack and slash your way through a variety of dungeons, gather loot, and collect keys to move on to the next stage. Your hero strides heroically forward regardless of what’s in front of him, so use swipes, taps, and the minimap to get around. Boss battles test your reflexes, and if you manage to survive, you can spend your hard-earned gold coins on upgrades. Every stage has a goofy quest, like finding a can of pop, which can yield additional phat lootz. Once you succumb to flying eyeballs, deadly traps, or any of the other dangers lurking below, you’ve got to start over from scratch. Hammer Bomb is free to play, but has the occasional ad and supports in-app purchases.

Download: Hammer Bomb (Free, IAPs)

Daniel Bader – NBA App

With the playoffs beginning in a couple of weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the dramatic improvements brought to the official NBA app this year. Not only has it received a full Material Design overhaul, but the NBA app now offers high-quality game recaps and condensed versions of full games every night, not to mention live streaming of regular season and playoff matches with a League Pass. As with other sports apps, the NBA App offers detailed scores, videos and news posts along with stats of every player in the league.

League Pass, which provides streams of all playoff matches, has been discounted to $31 for the rest of the season, or just $8 if you want to follow the inevitable champions, the Toronto Raptors!

Download: NBA App (Free)

Alex Dobie — Agenda Widget

I’m using Samsung’s calendar app on my Galaxy S7, which — due to the lack of any built-in alternative — means I’ve been hunting for a decent widget for showing upcoming events. The one I’ve landed on is Agenda Widget by Milan Sillik. It’s a simple, highly customizable widget that lets you see an overview of upcoming appointments, along with the ability to add reminders. By far the best thing about this widget its simplicity, combined with the fine control you get over the look and feel of things — from colors, fonts and transparency — to the information shown — week numbers, daily highlights and details like location and remaining time.

You’ll need to pay to unlock all features, but if you’re looking for a tweakable, productivity-centric agenda widget for your home screen, this one’s definitely worth a look.

Download: Agenda Widget (Free, £1.49 unlock)

Andrew Martonik — Stash Invest

We should all be investing for the future. But sadly, very few of us are actually doing it. With the ubiquity of smartphones and mobile apps the idea of saving and investing your money is just a bit more accessible now. Stash Invest is just one of many apps that aim to bring proper market investing to your phone, and it does a pretty good job of it.

You can load as little as $10 into Stash Invest, and start buying into the market at varying risk levels, as determined by your preferences. You invest into groups of stocks, bonds and other instruments that Stash has rolled up into groups, which helps you stay diversified. Invest by industry, or just based on the recent returns.

Stash doesn’t charge any deposit, withdrawal or trade fees, but the one downside here is how long it takes to make those transactions. You’re dealing with EFT bank transfers, which take a couple days on each end, and sales can take a few days to settle. But if you’re someone who has a little extra cash and wants to get in on some lightweight investing, mostly for fun, Stash is a cool way to do it.

Download: Stash Invest (Free)

Ara Wagoner – Disneyland

I spent my birthday at Disneyland, and there were two apps I relied on for wait times, layout, and other park info. Of the two, Disneyland’s official app was the more reliable and more beautiful of the two.

This app gives you the park’s layout, current wait times for rides, and information on where to find bathrooms, food (including menus for each location), character meet and greets, and park entertainment like the Disneyland Forever fireworks and the Paint the Night parade. You can even use your GPS to navigate the park with the interactive map showing where you are along whichever winding path you’re taking. While Mouse Wait may list single rider times and how crowded the parks are, the app was glitchy and slow to respond. The Disneyland app is not without faults, but at least it’s stable and feature-rich.

Download: Disneyland(Free)

Scientists find rare 3-star system with a hot Jupiter-like planet

Any notion that star systems are boring just got tossed out the window. Thanks to sharp images from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope, researchers have discovered not just a rare three-star system, but one with a “hot Jupiter” — a gas giant orbiting close to one of its stars. The oddball planet (KELT-4Ab, shown below) revolves around a central star every three days, while the two remaining stars orbit each other every 30 years and the main star every 4,000 years.

Hot Jupiters are nothing new by themselves (scientists spotted their first in 1995), but this data is still important. It promises to shed light on not only planet formation, but their movement and evolution. It’s possible that those outlying stars helped push KELT-4Ab closer than it would have been otherwise, for instance. Whatever the reason, the findings should help astronomers identify star system patterns that previously proved elusive.

Via: ScienceDaily

Source: Notre Dame News, Astronomical Journal

Japan wants tourists to pay using only their fingerprints

The next time you travel to Japan, you might not have to stock up on yen (or bring your credit card) to go shopping. As of the summer, the country’s government is testing a system that will let you use two fingerprints to make purchases at key tourist locations, such as hotels and restaurants. You’d only have to register your fingerprints at the airport to start shopping, and you wouldn’t even have to worry about showing your passport when checking into your lodgings, like you do today. Only 300 locations in a handful of areas (Atami, Hakone, Kamakura and Yugawara) will participate at first, but it should keep expanding to the point where it’s available nationwide in 2020 — conveniently, right when Tokyo is hosting the Summer Olympics.

Officials are promising to anonymize the data they collect, but it’s hard not to be a bit nervous. While Japan already asks that you offer your fingerprint when entering the country, this would take things to another level by connecting that print to your travel and shopping habits. The government will have to guarantee that any directly identifying data can’t be abused, whether it’s by overreaching politicians or hackers.

Source: Japan News

Tappitt: A frenetic and thrilling opening act [review]

Sometimes games are really complex, with enormous worlds and massive storylines. Other times, a simple, yet fun mechanic can be enough to create an addictive game that can provide a lot of fun. Tappitt, just released at the beginning of April, falls into the second category, combining a fast-paced, challenging gameplay with several additions, such as multipliers and boosts, into a game that’s a worthwhile addition to your library.

Developer: Ludo Gear Ltd

Price: Free, with in-app purchases.

Features

The tutorial will teach you the basics.

The first time you play, the game will show you instructions on how to play. The premise is really simple: there are several circles, which contain red, yellow and purple circles. These colored orbs are constantly growing, and you must tap them before they reach the outer line. If they happen to outgrow your efforts, you’ll lose a life.

However, the lives system is rather peculiar. At the bottom, you’ll have a stack of red, yellow and purple bars. If you lose a life, a bar will be knocked out of the corresponding color’s pile. Running out of lives in any of the piles will end the game.

This is where things start to get interesting. There’s also a black circle that grows amazingly fast, and failing to banish it from your board will take a life of each color, which can be deadly if you are short on lives.

The game gets harder as more circles are presented on screen.

For each circle you burst, you get a point. The game lets you have a multiplier by touching four circles of the same color consecutively. This multiplier, fortunately, has no limit; so, if you play your cards correctly you can rack up an impressive amount of points.

After tapping circles for a while, you can get a boost. If you want to get a high score, boosts are absolutely essential because they increase your multiplier with each tap, regardless of the color. It also clears nearby circles, so not only it can help you increase your score, but also help you survive a difficult situation. You can speed up the time it gets to get a boost by bursting seven circles of the same color in a row. It’s not impossible to do it but it’s hard, particularly on smaller boards.

Also, the board itself changes its form after a while, keeping things interesting. These variations not only include the number of available circles but also from different shapes and even rotate to make things harder.

As you can see, there’s a lot of variations and different elements to keep you entertained. These situations can make for frantic, fast-paced games which can get very dramatic when you’re really short on lives and boosts.

Graphics and Sound

Thanks to multipliers and boosts, you can rack up points quickly.

Graphics are really simple and straightforward. Fortunately, the colored circles spice things up, because the rest of the elements maintain a mix of black, white, and different shades of gray. This absence of flashy graphics at least makes the game run smoothly- essential for a game that relies on quick actions.

Tappitt avoids the mistake made by several developers that include only one song for their main gameplay. The game chooses between several tunes so you won’t get bored of hearing the same song over and over again. These melodies grab their inspiration from 8-bit songs from games of yesteryear. It’s a curious choice since the game doesn’t seem to be themed around 8-bit, but the songs are catchy and upbeat.

The most noticeable sound effect comes from tapping each circle. When you start chaining your movements and trying to increase your multiplier, the sound will get more sharp, indicating that you’re getting closer to your goal. Since the game is really fast-paced and there’s no time to look the visual indicator, these sounds are really helpful for knowing if you’re close to raising that multiplier, or even better, if you’re close to chaining seven colors in a row.

Options

The game is lacking options and Google Play Games integration for now.

Unfortunately, considering this is an initial release, some aspects have been left out in order to refine the core experience. There’s no Google Play Games integration, so there are none of the benefits that this service brings, such as leaderboards and achievements. We hope they’re added in the future since leaderboards would be ideal to increase the game’s replay value.

Also, the options screen is pretty barebones, with options to turn off sound effects, in-game music or to watch the tutorial again. I would like to see a way to lower the volume of sound effects instead of turning them off altogether because I think that they’re a bit loud, and lowering my phone’s volume will leave me almost unable to listen to the game’s excellent soundtrack. There’s also instructions on how to play the game, in case you access this screen before entering the tutorial.

A thing to note is that after each game, you’ll be shown a full-screen ad. Fortunately, there’s an in-app purchase to remove them, since it becomes really annoying after a while. Also, you have the option of buying boosts at a cheap price. Also, for some reason, the game is not available in Ecuador (my home country), so maybe the developer blocked access to the game in some regions. All of my tests were done on a preview release, which was virtually the same as the Play Store release.

Conclusion

For a game in its infancy, Tappitt manages to get a lot of things right. This game provides frantic, swift, and addictive gameplay, with several variations and alternatives to keep things interesting at all times. A seemingly forgiving lives system is balanced with black circles that are a latent peril at all times. The multiplier and boost process gives great rewards, but can be deadly if executed incorrectly. Smooth performance and great soundtrack round up a great game, which can only get better with future updates.

Download from the Play Store.

It’s time to reveal the winner of our #WhatIsAndroidN contest!

In March we ran a contest to see what everyone’s naming predictions are for the upcoming Android N operating system update. We decided we wanted to give one of you a Pixel C tablet, because Android N is going to bring a super important function to this tablet and we thought it would be rad to give one out to someone. In typical Android Central fashion, we wanted to have a little fun while we were at it, so we asked you all to send us a picture of your prediction on social media.

There were so many great entries, that we decided we couldn’t choose just one. So we went ahead and added 3 runners up, who are each going to be taking home a Chromecast!

Grand Prize – Pixel C tablet

I ran out of bread. My phone needed the Nutella treatment anyways. #WhatIsAndroidN #AndroidNutella pic.twitter.com/bBhHLdB1fe

— Suhant Mehta (@LifeofSM) March 15, 2016

Runners up – Chromecast

According to my calculations, Android N will be called Android Nerds! #WhatIsAndroidN pic.twitter.com/8Fq6Sawrl9

— Fabian G. Cisneros (@CisnerosFabian) March 16, 2016

@androidcentral I’m ready to taste something sweet #WhatIsAndroidN pic.twitter.com/xHjhCLrXSa

— Matteo (@MattServa) March 18, 2016

What’s next for Android? Nutella!! #WhatIsAndroidN

A photo posted by Mikko Biboso (@miko.b) on Mar 30, 2016 at 8:18am PDT

Congratulations winners! I’ll be in touch with you in the coming week to get your prizes sorted. Thanks to everyone that entered. It was a lot of fun seeing all of your creativity! While we still don’t know what the nickname for Android N will be, it seems that the overwhelming majority of you think it will be Nutella. Now we just wait and see.

Mobile Nations Weekly: HoloMazing

Double the cameras, double the tours, double the holograms.

This week in tech: Huawei goes double with the P9 phone with dual Leica cameras and BlackBerry starts up their Priv Marshmallow beta.

Things were relatively quiet in the Apple space, sans more rumors about the iPhone 7 and fancy new Apple Watch Hermes bands.

But the really cool stuff is happening in, of all places, Windows land. Yes, we have a HoloLens and even though we’re still getting to know it… HoloLens is pretty awesome. Which is good, because those that are waiting for a flagship Surface phone will be waiting until Spring 2017.

Android Central — Huawei steps up

This was a big week for Huawei, which unveiled its new P9 and P9 Plus flagships to the world with an event in London. We know the specs and even got our hands on it at the event, and it’s a nice piece of kit.

As Google Play pushes out its latest round of updates, you may notice a new look for Google’s family of Play apps. The new app icons follow a more cohesive design, and look pretty snazzy if we do say so ourselves. In other media news, T-Mobile has expanded its BingeON and Music Freedom streaming deals.

If you’re still rockin’ a BlackBerry Priv, and are adventurous, you may want to check out BlackBerry’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow beta program. Even if you’re not on Marshmallow, you may want to check out the April 2 Google security patch, which is hitting some phones already.

But sadly, less than 5% of active Android devices are running Marshmallow.

• 8 things to know about the Galaxy S7’s SD card slot
• Here’s how the Galaxy S7 handles heat
• Galaxy S7 edge: A second opinion
• Nexus 5X vs. iPhone SE: Battle of the upper middle class
• T-Mobile Galaxy S7 edge review: The best you can get right now
• Amazon Echo Dot review: Maybe the right amount of Alexa for you

CrackBerry — Not done yet

This week, BlackBerry lowered the price of the Priv by $50 permanently, John Chen discussed BlackBerry security and E-mail and let it be known once again, BlackBerry is not done with building Android devices yet as there’s currently two mid-range devices in the works.

• Unlocked BlackBerry Priv gets a permanent $50 price cut to $649 in U.S.
• John Chen discussed BlackBerry security and E-mail
• BlackBerry CEO John Chen reiterates plans to launch two mid-range Android phones

iMore — Analyze This

While we’re all still battling it out over iPhone SE vs. iPhone 6s, and big vs. baby iPad Pro, we’re also adding to the team! Michael Gartenberg, former senior director of worldwide marketing at Apple, is joining iMore as our new Analyst in Residence. When you see him, make sure you say hi!

Meanwhile we’ve got guides up for Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Alta. And yes, we do indeed, even Bitmoji!

• iPhone 7 rumor roundup
• New Apple Watch Hermes bands: What you need to know!
• Battery life problems with your new iPhone? Here’s the fix!
• Why Apple lives in the real world, not a virtual one

Windows Central — It’s HoloTime

Microsoft HoloLens! We finally got our very own 3D wearable holographic computer from Microsoft. We unboxed it with a brief tour along with some excellent photos. The next day we shared our experiences with the device after 24 hours including what you can do with it including games and apps.

Microsoft continued to push Windows 10 this week with a new Fast Ring edition for the PC. Build 14316 brings a massive amount of new features and smaller tweaks to the OS. We documented all the changes and you can read about them right here. This latest Fast Ring release is a sneak peek of the big Windows 10 Anniversary Edition update coming later this summer, and we have full details on that one as well.

In an exclusive article, I revealed that any Surface phone from Microsoft likely won’t come until the spring of 2017 when the company refreshes their Windows 10 Surface line. The good news is there look to be at least three different categories for the last-chance device.

• Here is why Satya Nadella thinks Continuum is the defining feature of Windows 10 Mobile
• Microsoft Build 2016 post-analysis (and why developers are happy again)
• Enter now to win a Lumia 650 from Windows Central!
• We go hands-on with HP Spectre — the ‘thinnest laptop in the world’

The After Math: Siri take the wheel

Wow, this week just sped by like a couple of LA heisters. We saw news of super computer-controlled Roboracecars, autonomous big rig convoys, “guardian angel” emergency override systems and the Google Car’s toughest test to date. Come, take a look at the future of driving, where every seat is shotgun.