Dell XPS 27 (2017) review – CNET
The Good The XPS 27 (2017) has a terrific audio system, especially for an all-in-one, and a display with excellent color reproduction.
The Bad The webcam is poorly placed and it’s not the most graceful-looking all-in-one.
The Bottom Line For discriminating ears and eyes, the XPS 27 (2017) all-in-one offers the best combination of features for the money.
Ear candy wrapped in a sturdy chassis with an excellent display and reasonably good performance for the money, the update to the computer we praised in 2014 as “almost everything you could want in an all-in-one” gets an overhaul for 2017. Most notably, this year’s XPS 27 (model 7760) Windows 10
PC boasts the most sophisticated audio system built into a PC and a UHD 4K display with a broad color gamut, making it a great home entertainment system — as long as you’re not a hard-core gamer — or compact-footprint choice for audio editing.
Prices start at $1,499, with initial choices of 6th-generation Core i5 and i7 processors (Skylake). You can choose integrated graphics or switchable discrete AMD R9 M470X and M485X GPUs. You can also choose between a UHD 4K (3,840×2,160-pixel-resolution) touchscreen display or a nontouch panel of the same resolution but 50 nits brighter and using Dell’s thin-bezel Infinity Edge. It doesn’t seem to be available in the UK or Australia yet, but the previous model is listed as discontinued for both regions; directly converted the prices start at about £1,220 and AU$1,995.
Dell XPS 27 AIO (2017)
| $2,799 |
| 27-inch 3,840×2,160 touch display |
| 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-6700K |
| 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz |
| 4GB AMD Radeon R9 M470X |
| 512GB SSD |
| 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
None of its components scream “future-proof,” even the top-end configuration with 32GB RAM, a 1TB solid-state drive and a Radeon R9 M485X GPU, which will run you $3,400. Whether or not there’s ultimately a speed increase with Intel’s 7th-generation processors, it starts out with last-gen CPU options, at least at the time of our review. And the graphics processor options it offers are the mobile versions, which are decent but really aren’t up to serious VR (virtual reality) or high-frame-rate gaming standards. So there’s little reason to opt for the maxed-out configuration unless you’re doing hard-disk-intensive operations (such as photo or video editing) or using tons of applications simultaneously. I think the $2,000 alternative will suit most people who don’t really care about the touchscreen, or the $2,500 model if they do.
Hear ye, hear ye
If you’ve got discriminating ears — or just like your music really loud — this is the system for you. It has 10 speakers; you can only see six of them — two tweeters and four full-range drivers — lined up prominently under the screen, but there are also two down-firing and two passive radiators (the latter for better bass).
The goal of the audio design seems to be bleeding-ear, furniture-vibrating loudness with minimal distortion, a broad frequency-response range and good surround-sound directionality — each of which is difficult to achieve in an all-in-one by itself, much less simultaneously.
And Dell achieves those goals. When cranked up all the way, it’s loud enough that I couldn’t hear myself singing at the top of my lungs. (Thankfully, the office was deserted.) Music ranging from soft to loud, high frequencies to low and instruments and voices with complex overtones all sounded great cranked to the max.
I could feel “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” even in the middle of the volume range, and it produced rich sound at the lower volumes. The surround-sound rendition in movies and music seemed quite accurate and encompassing. I did find the highs a little too bright for my taste, but that’s personal preference, and the rest of the frequency range sounded a bit warmer. The system incorporates the Waves software audio control panel as well, bearing the imprimatur of producer Jack Joseph Puig who also helped design the hardware.
To incorporate PC-shaking audio, Dell had to create a rigid cabinet for the system. It remains to be seen whether the bass vibrations will affect the workings over time.
The closest competitors for high-quality audio are the recent HP Envy All-in-One models that incorporate four front-firing Bang & Olufsen speakers; while the HP line sounds good, it’s not nearly as full-toned. Then again, with Dell you’re paying a premium for the higher-quality sound and display.
Meizu M3 Max review
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu may not have the same level of global brand recognition as Huawei or Xiaomi, but that hasn’t stopped them from releasing great affordable smartphones like the M3 Note. While most new smartphones tend to have screen sizes around 5.5″, Meizu’s recently released M3 Max takes it up a notch to 6.0″ for a theoretically better media consumption experience.
Recent Meizu coverage
- Meizu Band hands on
- Meizu M5 Note announcement
- Meizu M5 announcement
So, is the M3 Max the new king of the large-smartphone market? Or does it fall short in key areas? Let’s take a deep dive with our comprehensive Meizu M3 Max review!
Design
The M3 Max’s design doesn’t pack any big surprises, but that shouldn’t be taken as a negative. Just as is the case with most Meizu device we’ve used, build quality is excellent. The phone’s body is constructed entirely of a metal unibody, which offers a solid and tank-like feel.
The cold feel of aluminum and well polished looks of the M3 Max are also difficult to ignore. The chamfered edges and subtle antenna lines are nice touches, and although the overall design can seem generic and iPhone-like, there’s no doubt that it showcases a level of “premium-ness” that has been steadily creeping into this price category.
There are a few drawbacks to this design, however. The side-to-back chamfers are simply not enough to disguise the M3 Max’s boxy uncurved body, and the side buttons are not tactilely differentiated, making it somewhat difficult to find the correct button.
The phone’s larger size is also an important factor to consider, as it can make one-handed use quite challenging. With that said, this could also be considered a positive, as the M3 Max’s 6.0″ display is very nice for watching videos or playing games. It’s an inevitable trade-off, but one that will surely please some while disappointing others.
Instead of utilizing the three-key layout found on many other Android smartphones, the M3 Max incorporates a single physical home button that functions as both home and back. Meizu calls it mTouch, and, although it does take a day or two to get used to, it’s an ingenious way of handling navigation: press down for home, tap for back.
mTouch is an ingenious way of handling navigation
The physical home button also functions as a fast and accurate fingerprint reader. This is an increasingly indispensable feature, and Meizu’s implementation is excellent.
You may be wondering, “but what do I do for multitasking?” Well, for multitasking, you simply swipe up from the bezel on either side of the home button. The menu scales into place as you swipe up, revealing the open apps. It feels like a much more intuitive way of interacting with the phone compared to a traditional layout.
Display
The M3 Max redeems its name with its very large 6.0″ 1080P IPS display. This display isn’t overly impressive, but certainly does the job. It’s reasonably bright for indoor use, offers fairly accurate color reproduction, and is great for what the phone is designed for: media.
It’s important to keep in mind the phone’s price
It could be better in some areas such as sunlight readability or viewing angles, but it’s important to keep in mind the phone’s price. This is clearly placed in low-to-midrange territory, so it would be a bit unreasonable to expect something like a Quad HD AMOLED panel.
On a somewhat different note, the phone’s front glass seemed to collect fingerprints more readily than other phones that I’ve recently tested. This is very much a minor issue, but it may be something you want to keep in mind.
Performance
Unfortunately, the M3 Max’s Mediatek Helio P10 delivers disappointing performance. Although the processor is octa-core, it’s one of Mediatek’s lowest-end chips, offering performance similar to what was available in 2012.
This is not only reflected in benchmark scores, but also in real world performance; the phone lags and is general sluggish quite frequently. For example, in our testing, the phone would sometimes refuse to wake from sleep for anywhere from ten to thirty seconds; this happened about once per day. While we can forgive just a bit of slow performance at this price point, the M3 Max exceeds what we would consider acceptable.
Also, while 3 GB of RAM is nice to see, FlyMe’s memory management can feel a bit aggressive at times. This is quite minor though in comparison.
For the GPU, we’re looking at a Mali-T860, which offers mediocre gaming performance. It won’t outdo phones like the Xiaomi Mi Max, but it does perform well enough for most high-end games. Just don’t be surprised to find slightly slower load times and a few more general hiccups than some comparably priced offerings.
Hardware
Similar to most Chinese smartphones, the M3 Max offers dual SIM support for up to two individual cell phone lines. Although the phone supports up to 4G LTE in official markets, it may not work properly in others. In the United States, for example, the M3 Max is only partially compatible with 3G on both AT&T and T-Mobile. This may be a major drawback if you plan on importing the device or traveling internationally.
For storage, the M3 Max provides 64 GB on board, which we were very happy to see. If that isn’t enough, you can also substitute one SIM card for a microSD card, up to 128 GB. This is always a great option to have, especially in a phone designed for media consumption.
For wireless connectivity, the M3 Max supports Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi range is weaker than comparable devices, which may be because of the phone’s lack of 802.11ac support. This may be an issue if you already have Wi-Fi range issues in your household.
The Wi-Fi range is weaker than comparable devices
The phone’s external speaker can be found on the bottom of the phone, to the right of the charging port. The overall quality is about what we expected; although it gets loud enough for most environments, it sounds a bit distorted, especially at higher volumes. You’ll want to consider this especially if you plan on watching videos without headphones or some other external sound setup.
Battery life
With a 4,100 mAh battery, it’s no surprise that the M3 Max offers great battery life. Although it may not be the best available for this size, it’s still considerably above average, meaning that you should have no trouble getting the phone to last a full day.
Please do keep in mind that our tests were conducted while the phone was connected to 3G, since the phone is not compatible with LTE in the United States. Still, these results indicate that you should expect at least 4.5 hours of screen on time with a full day of use, even with moderate to heavy usage.
The M3 Max supports Meizu’s proprietary mCharge technology, for a 45% charge in 30 minutes. This is quite fast considering the battery size, but we wish extra and car chargers were more accessible and ubiquitous.
The microUSB charging port is also outdated at this point, and we wish Meizu would have adopted the new reversible USB Type-C standard. To be fair, however, this may have been done intentionally so buyers wouldn’t have to replace their existing charging cables.
Camera
For the rear camera, the Meizu M3 Max is equipped with a 13 MP Sony IMX258 sensor. Picture quality is about average for this price category: it’s decent, but far from great.
M3 Max camera samples:
In scenes with bright lighting, images are produced with generally good color reproduction and decent dynamic range. Images are punchy enough without feeling oversaturated, too. However, many images appear grainy, despite good lighting. The post processing also seemed to struggle with bright colors, most notably pink and red.
Images are also generally soft, and autofocus can be surprisingly hit or miss. Even when tapping the screen to focus, the camera sometimes refused to focus correctly. It’s unlikely that this negatively affected photo sharpness in all images, however, as every shot appeared at least a bit soft.
We also noticed that the camera was relatively slow to capture images. This might not be an issue for many scenarios, but if you want to capture a very specific moment, this can become a very annoying limitation.
M3 Max low-light camera samples:
As expected, the camera struggles even more in lower lighting. Many images are distractingly grainy and colors often appear more muted than in better lit conditions. Autofocus also seems to struggle even more in these conditions, resulting in some awfully soft photos.
Sadly, the M3 Max is limited to 1080p video capture, so you won’t be able to record sharper 4K footage like you can with some other competing options. This probably won’t be a deal breaker, but it is definitely something to keep in mind if you’d like to capture high quality video.
On a positive note, Meizu’s camera app is an absolute pleasure to use. It offers a good amount of control without feeling overly complicated, and we didn’t have any issues with the shooting experience.
Software
The M3 Max is shipping with Meizu’s FlyMe OS on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It is important to understand that Meizu follows a somewhat different update model than some other manufacturers. Instead of relying on third parties for support for newer versions of Android, Meizu frequently updates its FlyMe skin with new features and refinements, oftentimes for up to two years after a phone release.
This might sound frustrating to a Western user, but we have to give Meizu credit for adding new features often and sometimes even before Google. With the M3 Max, for example, you’ll still be getting split screen multitasking as well as a myriad of other cool features.
We have to give Meizu credit for adding new features often and sometimes even before Google
The actual software experience may also seem jarring to an outsider. The iOS-inspired UI and lack of an app drawer are admittedly uncommon in Western skins. With that said, FlyMe is one of the best Android skins we’ve used. It’s certainly a different take on Android, but that doesn’t make it a bad experience.
The amount of polish that can be found in FlyMe is truly remarkable. Meizu has worked hard on this skin for the past several years, and it really shows in the day-to-day experience. If you’re looking to try something different, you should really consider this experience.
A word of warning though: it can be a bit quirky for Western users. Meizu has made it easier with a “Hot Apps” screen featuring a single button to install Google services, but some issues persist. In our experience, Hangouts would occasionally refuse to open. Clearing app data didn’t help, and the quickest solution we found was to completely re-install the app.
There’s also issues where the battery optimization just isn’t tailored to Western apps. For example, out of the box, the phone will kill Spotify after the phone is locked for thirty seconds, stopping any music playback. To fix this, you have to go into the app settings and disable optimizations. This is minor, but you should be aware that there will be bumps in the road if you choose to use this phone outside of China.
Gallery
Price
The Meizu M3 Max is available in China in black, silver, and gold for 1699 yuan or about $245. Pricing varies in other official markets. If you’re looking to import, you should expect the device to cost around $270.
Conclusion
Although the M3 Max is shipping with polished software, great battery life, and excellent build quality, we cannot recommend it over similarly sized alternative options like the Xiaomi Mi Max and ZTE Grand X Max 2. The M3 Max may do well in some categories, but offers nothing exciting in performance, camera quality, or availability.
If you can officially acquire the Xiaomi Mi Max, we recommend that for its better performance, superior camera, and similar software. If not, you’ll want to consider the ZTE Grand X Max 2 for its also better performance, greater availability, and nicer display.
As of the time of writing, the Mi Max can be purchased for around $30 less than the M3 Max at around $220 and the Grand X Max 2 can be found for as low as $150 less at $100. Do keep in mind, however, that these phones also have drawbacks of their own. For example, the Mi Max’s build quality is quite poor, and the Grand X Max 2’s camera is very bad.
- Meizu Band hands on
- Meizu M5 Note announcement
- Meizu M5 announcement
Hopefully you found this Meizu M3 Max review informative and we have made your decision at least a little bit easier. We’d like to hear from you: are you planning to purchase the M3 Max? What are your thoughts on Chinese Android skins like Flyme? Let us know in the comment section below!
2016 was the hottest year on record (again)
According to a joint report from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016 was officially the hottest year on record. If that statistic sounds familiar, it’s because 2015 was also the hottest year on record. As was 2014 before that. And those three years of rising temperatures mean the planet is about two degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer than it was in the late 19th century.
The conclusions reached in NOAA and NASA’s joint report were further confirmed by the UK’s Met office, and the ongoing trend is one that should be hard to ignore at this point. “We don’t expect record years every year,” NASA Goddard Director Gavin Schmidt said in his agency’s report, “but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear.” Since 2001, the planet has seen 16 of its 17 hottest years on record.
Although El Niño contributed to some of the warming effect in late 2015 and early 2016, researchers reiterated that the long-term effects of human-made CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest factor behind rising temperatures. Not every single region on Earth set a record in 2016 — the lower 48 US states had their second hottest year ever, for example. But temperatures in the Arctic were especially bad, hitting 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above average and leading to the lowest levels of sea ice ever recorded.
With the effects of El Niño coming to a close at the end of last year, scientists expect 2017 to cool off a bit. But, according to the New York Times, the record-setting scale has researchers worried that the effects will only speed up in the coming years. As both the Times and the Washington Post noted, the report also comes just two days before the inauguration of President-elect and climate change denier Donald Trump, and on the same day that Trump’s pick to lead the EPA Scott Pruitt will appear before his Senate confirmation hearing.
Via: Washington Post, New York Times
Source: NASA, Met Office
NVIDIA Shield vs. Shield Pro: Which should I buy?
We know NVIDIA Shield rocks a solid Android TV experience, but the Shield Pro might just be the better buy for some.
The NVIDIA Shield TV does just about everything from streaming 4K movies and TV shows to playing high-end Android games with the included Shield Controller. But when NVIDIA refreshed the line at the start of the year, it kept around the Shield “Pro” model as well — and in this case, it hasn’t been physically redesigned like the standard version, though it retains its $299 price tag.
That leaves an interesting question about whether you should consider the standard Shield Android TV model or the Pro — let us help you decide.
It’s all about the storage
On the face of it, there’s one big choice: can you get by with 16GB of internal storage, or do you need the breathing room of a 500GB hard drive? The Shield Pro’s 500GB storage will give you tons of room to install as many games and store as much media as just about anyone would want.
WIth NVIDIA’s streaming game solutions GeForce Now and GameStream there are fewer games to be properly “installed” than before, and all of the popular media services are streaming-only, but if you plan to load local media or use the Shield Android TV as a Kodi or Plex device you’ll probably want that extra storage.
You get a different remote
All new Shield Android TVs come with the great redesigned Shield Controller, but NVIDIA has decided to ship different versions of the TV-style remote depending on which version of the box you buy. The standard box comes with the new design, which drops the headphone jack and rechargeable battery in exchange for year-long battery life from a pair of coin cell batteries.
The new Shield Pro still comes with the original TV remote — offering rechargeable batteries (via included Micro-USB cable) and a headphone jack for private listening. The decision between the two is personal choice, really, but it’s important to know they don’t offer the same experience.
The most important thing to know is that both Shield Android TV models give you a remote in the box — that’s a good improvement over the original models that only came with a controller.
A few extra features
Because the Shield Pro is still based on the original hardware design, it retains a few of the features that were lost when the standard model moved to a smaller body. That means the pro retains the microSD card slot for expanding its storage and Micro-USB port a direct connection to your computer.
Both features are nice to have, but not really essential. You already have 500GB inside the box and can extend it further with any USB storage device, and NVIDIA has enabled PC connections via one of the USB-A ports as well.
One slightly bigger deal is the inclusion of an IR receiver on the Shield Pro, meaning it can be easily controlled by popular universal remotes that use IR for multi-device management. If you already use something like a Logitech Harmony for your entertainment center, this may be a make-or-break situation. Don’t count out the chance that universal remote makers like Logitech could update with Bluetooth versions that could connect to the Shield Android TV directly in the future, though.
The Pro is a bit bigger, too
This is a relatively minor consideration after you think about all of the functional differences between the models, but the new Shield Android TV design is dramatically smaller than the Pro. The new box is roughly 40% smaller and 60% lighter than the Pro since it doesn’t have the extra ports and storage inside, and that could make a difference if you have a tricky home entertainment setup.
Chances are if you need any of the Pro’s extra features you’ll be able to make it work, but if you have a very specific place or mounting requirements for hiding the box, keep the size difference in mind.
Which should you buy?
If you’re going to be doing a lot of local gaming and/or storing a bunch of movies and TV shows on your Shield Android TV, you should snag the upgraded Shield Pro with 500GB of storage. Chances are the features like an SD card slot, IR receiver and rechargeable remote won’t in themselves be enough to spend $100 more on the Pro, though — like I said, it really is all about that storage.
If the addition of those features don’t feel like they’re worth $100, the 16GB base model should be sufficient for you. Use the money you saved on a USB 3.0 flash drive for some extra storage, and maybe invest the rest in some games to play!
See at Amazon
NVIDIA Shield Android TV
- Read our Shield Android TV review
- The latest Shield Android TV news
- Join the forum discussion
- Complete Shield Android TV specs
Amazon
Google buys mobile app toolkit Fabric from Twitter
Twitter has announced that Google has purchased Fabric for an undisclosed sum.
Fabric is Twitter’s set of tools that helps mobile app developers to build, distribute and monetize apps. These tools are designed to give developers easy access to Gnip, Fabric’s data platform, and the MoPub ad revenue platform. This gives a wide range of analytics and tools for development and a complete set of enterprise APIs driven by real-time and historical social data and hosted methods to make money using it. A stream of data that’s the size generated by Twitter is extremely difficult to manage. Tools that do the filtering for you and building a monetization platform around the data makes development much easier.
Twitter says this deal will allow them to focus on “core products and business to best position Twitter for long-term growth” and that they are confident that Fabric will be a great addition to Google’s efforts to provide tools and a platform for mobile developers. Existing services that were available through Fabric — Gnip, MoPub (a set of monetization tools) and Twitter’s Ad API will still exist and be available.
For Google, the acquisition means a little more.
Expect Google to build upon what Fabric has to offer with Firebase as a preferred data and analytics platform.
While Gnip isn’t part of the deal, it is a competitor to Firebase — Google’s own data platform. Expect Google to build upon what Fabric has to offer with Firebase as a preferred data and analytics platform. They also will acquire the Twitter employees working on Fabric, and they’re always on the lookout for talent when it comes to mobile app development and building the tools to make it easier. Perhaps the most important part of the purchase is Crashalytics — Twitter’s easy to use and very popular tool for detecting and analyzing application crashes and failures. Crashalytics will help Google manage application behavior metrics across their entire ecosystem.
It’s unclear what this means for developers who are invested in the Fabric platform. There will certainly be changes once things are merged into Google’s operations, and those may affect how the services work as well as access to them. This play is not about Twitter from Google’s perspective, so developers will likely have to transition their products to use these changes or find an alternative.
Is this big piece of glass part of the Galaxy S8?
The Galaxy S8 is coming, and this might be the front end of it.
We have no way of knowing what this big piece of glass is. @DforDesign tells us it’s part of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and mentions that it’s rounded at the top and bottom as well as the sides.
W tym lepiej widać zagięcie. Lekkie zaokrąglenie jest też na gorze i u dolu #GalaxyS8 pic.twitter.com/KXKfn6t9GO
— DforDesign (@dfordesign) January 18, 2017
Other than a big piece of glass with little to no bezel on the side, there’s not much here. But if you’re waiting patiently for more on the Galaxy S8, it’s enough!
More: Galaxy S8 rumor roundup
The BlackBerry Priv Review Re-Do: before Mercury rises
It’s been 14 months since the BlackBerry Priv launched, and it still does some things amazingly well — but amazingly slow. The Priv is still a security powerhouse, and has some great features, but why does it take so long to launch everything?
MrMobile takes us way way back to November of 2015 (were we ever so young?) and talks what’s good, what’s ugly, and what to look forward to when we finally get our hands on Mercury. Michael Fisher knows his phones, and wants to impart his knowledge about what’s good onto you. Watch this video and look back and forward at the same time. Once you get un-cross-eyed from that, leave us a note in the comments letting us know what you think!
Stay social, my friends
- YouTube
- The Web
- Snapchat
Yep, the worst passwords of 2016 were still led by ‘123456’
It seems no one got the memo from last year: “123456” doesn’t make a good password.
Despite pleading from security experts, many of us still use go-to, easy-to-recall passwords for most of our online accounts. Gemalto recently surveyed 9,000 consumers from around the globe, including in the UK and the US, and found that 70 per cent of respondents believe the responsibility for protecting and securing customer data lies with companies (where as only 30 percent thought it was up to themselves).
So, it’s no surprise that Keeper Security’s annual list of commonly used passwords still contains strings of characters and letters that even the most basic hackers could figure out and use against you. It combed through 10 million passwords that entered the public domain in 2016, thanks to data breaches, and found that almost 17 percent of users still use “123456” to protect their accounts — the same password that topped 2015’s list.
- READ: These are the 25 internet passwords you must not use
Passwords like “123456789”, “qwerty”, and “password” also made an appearance in the top 25 worst passwords found:
123456
123456789
qwerty
12345678
111111
1234567890
1234567
password
123123
987654321
qwertyuiop
mynoob
123321
666666
18atcskd2w
7777777
1q2w3e4r
654321
555555
3rjs1la7qe
google
1q2w3e4r5t
123qwe
zxcvbnm
1q2w3e
Amazingly, four of the top 10 most common passwords were six characters or shorter.
Microsoft offers several tips on how to choose safe passwords. It said that a good password should be eight or more characters long, not be your user name, real name, or company name, and, in fact, not contain a complete word at all. It should also be different to passwords used elsewhere and contain at least one each of the following: an upper-case letter, a lower-case letter, a number and a symbol (such as £ or $).
Leica’s new M10 rangefinder brings the M series into the digital age
Leica has announced a new M series rangefinder camera.
Called the M10, it is Leica’s first interchangeable lens digital rangefinder and the successor to the M240. It features a new 24-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, Leica’s Maestro II image processor (shoots ISO from 100 to 50,000), the ability to capture five frames per second up to 30 DNG RAW files or 100 JPEG images at full resolution, built-in wireless connectivity, and support for Leica’s iOS app.
Thanks to the added Wi-Fi as well as Leica’s app, the M10 can be remotely controlled by a mobile device (all images can be transferred wirelessly, too). Leica also said that the image quality from the M10’s sensor is comparable to the Leica Q’s sensor from last year, while the new camera’s viewfinder has a 30 percent larger field of view. As for the battery, it’s smaller than the M240’s but will last few hundred frames per charge.
Looks-wise, it has compact dimensions (in size, it is similar to the M7 film camera), a brass and magnesium construction, and a matte finish with the classic red Leica dot on the front, three buttons on the left of the non-touch display, and a controller to the right.Other physical features include a dedicated ISO dial on the left side. You won’t find a record button at the top, because the M10 does not support video.
Leica is selling a thumb grip for the first time, in addition to other accessories like cases, holsters, and hand grips. If any of this interests you, the M10 will be available in limited quantities starting 19 January for $6,495/£5,600 (about the same as the M240 at launch).
Slack adds long-awaited threaded messaging feature
Slack, the ever-popular communication tool and current darling of enterprise software, is getting a long-awaited update: threaded messaging. As the company writes in a blog post today, threaded messaging is a way to reduce clutter in ever-crowded Slack rooms. If someone in a room starts a conversation that only involves a select group of participants, you can hover your mouse over the message and click the new “start a thread” option. That’ll open this separate conversation in the Slack app’s right sidebar and let you add specific participants.
Unlike standard private group messaging, messages that you add to a thread can be seen by anyone in the chat room — they’re just collapsed by default. The main room view shows the avatars of those participating so you can see who’s jumped in the in-depth discussion. Slack also added the option to take any message in a thread and make it visible in the main room for all participants to see.
Since heavy Slack users will likely end up participating in quite a few threads, there’s a new “all threads” option in the left sidebar. If someone in one of those threads adds a message, it’ll light up to notify you of the ongoing conversation. But that’s the only notification that Slack is adding for threads by default. Just like chatting in a normal room, you’ll only be pinged directly if someone @-mentions you in a thread.
Slack says that this is one of the most requested features its users have (though I’m skeptical that this ranks ahead of an improved status indicator, but that’s just me). And this update is timely, as the company faces new pressure from both Microsoft and Facebook in the enterprise messaging space. So if you’re one of those who has been looking for threaded messaging, keep your eyes peeled. The Slack apps for desktop and mobile should update this week with the new feature.
Via: Quartz
Source: Slack
AIVAnet 