Siempo’s distraction-free smartphone lets you put the internet on pause

Why it matters to you

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of notifications you get each day, the Siempo smartphone’s here to help.

There’s no question about it: Smartphones are a massive time sink. According to a study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University, young adults use their phone roughly five hours every day, and it isn’t just young people. Researchers at Deloitte found that Americans of all ages check social media apps, email, and texts a collective 8 billion times each afternoon.

The reasons why each of us reach again and again for the buzzing handsets in our pockets differ, of course, but some psychologists believe it’s an urge rooted in instinctual curiosity. Others argue it’s a form of addiction, and that our phones scratch a habitual itch to know what our friends, family, and acquaintances are up to at any given moment. No matter the cause of our smartphone attachment syndrome, though, most agree it’s a problem — and one that Jorge Selva set out to solve with Siempo, a “new class” of phone that limits distractions.

A distraction-free smartphone

Inspiration struck Selva on a phone-free trip to Peru. “I remember I was sitting out one morning with coffee, reading my Kindle, and thinking to myself, ‘Why do I need my phone?’” he said. “It buzzes for my attention and sucks me into a rabbit hole. I thought I’d have this anxiety or stress, but I didn’t really miss anything,” he said. “I felt productive, present.”

The Siempo is a smartphone at its core. It has a 1GHz quad-core processor, a camera, 8GB of internal storage, a fast-charging 1,600mAh battery, a 4-inch high-resolution screen, and an Android-based operating system. However, it’s unmistakably nontraditional. Unlike flagship phones from the likes of Samsung, LG, Apple, and others, the Siempo doesn’t do a whole lot, and that’s sort of the point.

The design process was evolutionary, Selva said. “We started as a minimalist phone — a dumbphone,” he said. “Then we realized that by migrating to a smartphone design, it gave people more of the ‘nice to haves’ — email, for example. When you’re going after young people, that gives them what they need for a primary phone.”

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

The Siempo is organized around the idea of “intentions,” or the digital tasks and goals you want to accomplish you unlock your phone. It lacks a home screen and instead serves up what Selva called the Intention Field: A blank search box that uses intelligence to guess at what you want.

It’s as impressive — and clever — as it sounds. Enter a name in the Intention Field, and it’ll pull up the person’s details if they’re in your contact list (or let you add them if they aren’t). It recognizes notes, too, so typing “Buy the milk” will prompt you to save a reminder to Siempo’s memento app. You can even send texts directly from the Intention Field to the recipient number of your choice.

The Intention Field’s just the beginning of Siempo’s minimalist suite. The phone packs a simple email client, calendar app, web browser, and mapping service powered by Google Maps.

Just press pause

However, the undoubted highlight is the Siempo’s “Pause” button, a physical key on its side that temporarily disables incoming notifications.

More: Are smartphones killing the art of face-to-face conversation? We ask the experts

Pause is a little like Android’s Priority mode. For a block of time, which you specify beforehand, the Siempo blocks text messages and other alerts that aren’t from contacts you’ve chosen to let through.

“It kind of prevents our lizard brain from taking over,” Selva said. “If you see a notification, you’re going to check it.”

“We’ve always had trouble living intentionally and exercising control,  it’s human nature”

Mindful Morning, another of the Siempo’s “focus features,” works in much the same way. When enabled, you won’t see any of the notifications you received overnight. Instead, you’ll get the alarms you set the night before and a list of preparatory, meditative, or wellness tasks to complete.

“We realized that our phones weren’t serving us — that they didn’t benefit us,” said Selva. “It’s the ‘Pomodoro Technique’ — taking chunks of time to accomplish specific activities.”

It isn’t a new problem, Selva said. “We’ve always had trouble living intentionally and exercising control,” he said. “It’s human nature.”

Selva said the decision to design a smartphone rather than release an app for devices on the market was motivated by logistics, in part. “We couldn’t quite deliver on [notifications],” he said. “we tried to hide things and bring them back up, but it didn’t work properly.”

The inefficacy of app-based solutions was the another sticking point — the team wanted to make sure Siempo delivered on its distraction-free promise. “We did extensive research into people who’ve set up phones and found that overwhelmingly, people start strong but fall back,” he said. “Most apps are too easy to circumvent.”

Are people rejecting smartphones?

Siempo seems to have tapped a nerve. One of the most buzzed-about phones this year is the Nokia 3310, a 2G dumbphone. So-called digital-detox camps like Camp Grounded, which charge as much as $600 for phone-free excursions in the Northern California wilderness, have exploded in popularity, too, and it’s no wonder. Studies show that putting down your smartphone for a few extra hours can reduce anxiety and depression.

The Siempo may fall short of a true cure to the problem — it’s a smartphone, after all — but Selva sees it as a half-step toward more mindful living. “People yearn for a better way to be,” he said. “We want to offload that mental stress however we can.

Siempo launches on Kickstarter for $350 this month, and you can sign up for updates here. The first prototypes will become available in May, and the launch target’s Christmas.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money, and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

Wireless Drive

Why carry a physical USB drive around wherever you go, cluttering up your key ring? Instead, this simple, convenient app converts your iOS device into a wireless hard drive that works over Wi-Fi.

Available on:

iOS

Best Greeting Cards

Create unlimited eCards for any occasion with just one single app. Download it now for free with all its functions and features.

Available on:

iOS

My Score Plus

Carrying a pen and paper with you all day is not the most practical way to keep a food diary, but with My Score Plus you’ll always be just one touch away from your food diary.

Available on:

iOS

Blink

Capture beautiful pics with Blink. These powerful and beautifully designed tools will help you add beautiful frames, filters, text, and so much more to your photos.

Available on:

iOS

Delete Contacts

Here is the easiest and quickest way to cleanup your address book. This app allows you to quickly delete multiple contacts of your address book and merge all the duplicate contacts automatically!

Available on:

iOS

Typography

Typography Insight is a toolkit for learning & teaching typography. Now you can access thousands of fonts from Adobe Typekit with Adobe ID.

Available on:

iOS

Snag this Lenovo 14-Inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook for only $148

Chromebooks are the perfect solution for consumers looking for a lightweight, portable machine that won’t slow them down. With minimal internal memory, Chromebooks prevent you from overloading your machine with files and programs by using Google docs, apps, and more instead, which ensures you to consistently have a machine that is fast, easy to use, and easy to carry. Best of all, Chromebooks don’t cost an arm and a leg, with most running hundreds less than your standard PC, such as this Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook which is currently discounted to less than $150 on Amazon.

More: The Best Chromebook You Can Buy

The Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron N3060 dual-core processor and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and is equipped with 16GB of eMMC flash storage, although you can connect additional storage using the two USB ports. The machine has a 14-inch display with 1,366 x 768 resolution, driven by integrated Intel HD graphics, delivering high-quality HD content on an HD Anti-Glare LED-backlit screen. Easily connect the device using 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and pair compatible wireless peripherals using Bluetooth 4.1 technology. Complete with all the basics you need in a laptop, the Chromebook has a webcam, SD card reader, and an audio in/out jack.

The Lenovo Chromebook is portable yet rugged, and easy to use right out of the box. It weighs in at only 3.3 pounds and is extremely easy to carry, yet it’s durable thanks to reinforced ports and hinges, anti-peel keys, and a water-resistant keyboard that increases resistance to damage from accidents and frequent use. A fanless design and a sealed touchpad make the Chromebook even more reliable.

Featuring Chrome OS, you can simply sign in with your Google account and get started in seconds. The operating system works exclusively with web applications and is designed for users who are always connected to the Internet. The user interface takes a minimalist approach, and greatly resembles the Google Chrome web browser.

A Chrome web browser is the only application installed, while all other applications are accessed by adding apps from the Google Chrome Web Store. By solely using Chrome OS, all your files are stored online, ensuring the computer runs fast and you can worry less about viruses from downloads and other harmful files.

The Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook normally retails for $219 but is currently discounted to $148 on Amazon, saving you $71 or 32 percent for a limited time.

Drones 59, naysayers 0: DJI tallies up lives saved from drone rescues

Why it matters to you

DJI’s latest study balances questions about drone risks with data on the number of lives that have been saved by drone technology.

Organizations around the world have conducted studies on the potential dangers of flying unpiloted aircraft — but what about their life-saving capabilities? On March 14, DJI released a study based on news reports indicating that drones have saved at least 59 lives. With 38 of those rescues occurring between May 2016 and February 2017, that number averages almost one life per week. And drone use for life-saving purposes is only increasing.

Search and rescue teams are quickly adopting imaging drones to act as eyes in the sky — and the Red Cross will even soon have it’s own drone-launching Land Rover. Meanwhile, DJI’s report has an unexpected statistic. One third of those rescues were not from rescue teams, but from volunteers operating their own consumer drones, suggesting that even hobbyist drones are making a positive impact.

More: More drone crashes caused by technical glitches, not human error, study shows

DJI’s study is based on global news reports going all the way back to 2013, but it shows that all but 21 of those rescues occurred in 2016 and 2017. The numbers are based only on published reports, and DJI suggests the actual number is much higher. The research group did not include incidents where drones helped narrow the search grid for the rescue teams, for example. And in one case in India late in 2015, up to 200 people were rescued from severe flooding as a result of drone use; but since DJI couldn’t find a definitive number, those estimates were also excluded.

DJI says 31 of the 59 were rescued from a flood and while in most instances the drone camera was used to find survivors, some of the aircraft also tossed down life jackets and rescue ropes. Another 19 people were spotted on land, including one case where a thermal camera identified a missing man in a snowstorm. Nine were rescued from water environments not caused by flooding.

“The clear conclusion is that drones are regularly saving lives around the world. This is occurring even though professional rescue crews are just beginning to adopt UAS technology, and in many cases are relying on bystanders or volunteers to provide lifesaving assistance,” the report from DJI’s Policy & Legal Affairs Department concludes. “DJI is at the forefront in efforts to develop best practices and optimal standards for firefighters, rescue services, and other first responders to integrate drones into their command protocols. As these efforts continue, we expect the number of lives saved by drones to continue to grow.”

The report comes just after a study from the same company suggesting that drone weight limits requiring registration (and a pilot’s license for commercial use) above 2.5 kilograms could be four times higher and still meet the same safety standards.

Google Maps adds Marum crater on the Vanuatuan island of Ambyrm

Why it matters to you

The latest Google Maps update adds the volcanic Marum crater to the service’s ever-expanding collection of tours.

Google Maps is like a digital window into new and exotic places. In February, Google teamed up with Game of Thrones star an U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau to capture 360-degree views of southern Greeland and the village of Igaliku, and more recently, it sent intrepid Australian photographers to document the depths of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. On Wednesday, though, Google captured some of its most death-defying panoramas yet from the side of the volcanic Marum crater on the Vanuatuan island of Ambrym.

Vanuatu, an archipelago of 80 islands that lies more than a thousand miles off the coast of Australia, features two active volcano cones: Marum and Benbow. To capture the interior of the former, Google enlisted the services of explorers Geoff Mackley and Chris Horsley, who repelled more into the volcano while wearing Google’s proprietary 360-degree Trekker camera.

More: A future vision of Google Maps may feature location sharing, more goodies

It wasn’t easy. The Trekker, a spherical camera controlled via an Android phone, consists of 15 lenses and weighs 40 pounds — weight Mackley and Hosley had to lug down Marum’s precipe, which stretched more than 1,300 vertical feet.

The molten lava lake in Marum’s crater is roughly the size of two football fields, Mackley said in a press release. “It’s like looking at the surface of the sun.”

The digital tour’s about more than Vanuatu’s natural beauty, though — it’s intended to shed light on the island’s ongoing recovery from Cyclone Pam in 2015, one of the worst natural disasters in the archipelago’s history. The residents of Ambyrm live mostly in the rainforest down the mountain, and Endu, one of the largest villages, was nearly destroyed in the storm.

More: Watch this astounding trip around the world made entirely from Google Maps

The island nation is considered one of the country’s most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“[By] putting this place on the map, people will realize what a beautiful world we live in,” Horsly said.

It’s been an active couple of years for Google Maps documentarians. Camera-equipped hikers trekked the more than 75 miles of the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail and South Kaibab Trail, adding more than 9,5000 panoramic views. And in 2014, they toured the interiors of 1,000-year-old temples in Cambodia.

More: Google Maps update for iOS brings some neat features for drivers

You don’t have to be the adventurous type to start contributing your own 360-degree panoramas. A German company called Streetview Technology is selling a DIY Street Trekker kit, which consists of a Street View camera; an image processing server, which stitches your photos together and adds location metadata; the Google custom Street View player, so you can enable the shots to work interactively online; and a backpack.

Sign of the times — drone pilots now in high demand in the U.S. Air Force

Why it matters to you

While you previously had to be able to fly a plane to be a pilot in the Air Force, the service now may be more focused on your ability to operate a drone.

Need proof of the changing needs of the job market? Look no further than the U.S. Air Force, where for the first time, there are more jobs open for MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drone pilots than for any other kind of pilot position. As the head of Air Education and Training Command, Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, told reporters during a media roundtable at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, “I never thought I’d say that when I joined the Air Force.”

As drones take on an increasingly important role in the armed forces, demand for RPA (remote piloted aircraft) operators has also grown. As Military.com points out, the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper family of remotely piloted aircraft are expected to require more than 1,000 pilot operators, as per fiscal 2017 statistics. But only 889 airmen are needed to pilot the C-17 Globemaster III, and that’s the highest number of any other aircraft.

More: Own a Karma Grip? Then you might want to check out GoPro’s new drone kit

The Air Force has been preparing for this shift in focus for quite some time now, first announcing that it would begin training enlisted pilots to work with reconnaissance drones like the RQ-4 Global Hawk in 2015. But as plans move forward, the military branch is hoping to also train more armed drone operators, and plans to set up new operational centers for these sorts of drones in the coming months and years.

“Expanding opportunities in the RPA program is one of many ways the Air Force is tapping into the talent of our skilled, diverse, and innovative enlisted force,” Chief Master Sgt. Eric Rigby, enlisted aircrew assignments chief said in a press release last month.

So if you’re looking for a career in the United States Air Force, it may not be bad idea to start looking into drone operation as your ticket in the door.

Huawei P10 + P10 Plus review: Great phones, with one fatal flaw

Huawei puts in a strong showing in two different form factors — but the P10 and P10 Plus are diminished by a couple of baffling design decisions.

The quick take

Huawei’s mainstream flagships for 2017 don’t necessarily look flashy — unless you opt for the exclusive “dazzling” color options — but they do deliver just about everything you could ask for in a modern Android phone. There’s one big catch, though. The lack of oleophobic coating on the display may be a reason for discerning buyers to skip this round of Huawei phones.

The Good

• Solid construction and attractive design.
• Great camera performance in P10 Plus.
• All-day battery life from the P10, even more from the Plus.
• EMUI no longer a total eyesore.

The Bad

• No oleophobic coating below factory fitted screen protector.
• f/1.8 Summilux lens exclusive to P10 Plus
• No oleophobic coating below factory fitted screen protector.
• Did I mention there’s no oleophobic coating below the factory fitted screen protector?

Huawei P10 series Video review

About this review

We’re publishing this review after a couple of weeks of on-and-off use of the Huawei P10 (VTR-L29, dual-SIM, 4GB/64GB) in “dazzling blue” and P10 Plus (VKY-L09 single SIM, 6GB/128GB) in black on the EE and Vodafone networks in the UK, and roaming on Orange in Barcelona, Spain. Our P10 was running software build 108 until about a week into testing, when it was updated to build 112. Our P10 Plus was running build 110.

Both phones were given to us shortly after the P10 launch event in Barcelona; Huawei reps tell us both units are representative of retail P10 devices.

Huawei P10 series Full review

2016 was a transformative year for Huawei. The Chinese firm with a reputation for sullying its great hardware with gross software really got its act together. Throughout the year, Huawei gradually chipped away at annoyances in its EMUI interface, before overhauling everything in the much improved EMUI 5.0 release on the Mate 9. And even with slightly weird software, the P9 series sold well globally, surpassing 10 million shipped by the end of 2016. In the UK, it established a presence on all four major networks (plus Carphone Warehouse.)

This year, the challenge for Huawei is to build on all those positive developments without losing momentum — starting with two new high-end phones, the P10 and P10 Plus. Like its immediate predecessor, the P10 series offers a similar hardware package across two screen sizes, contained in a classy, understated metal shell.

The external hardware is as good as ever, and EMUI is light years ahead of where it was a year ago. So what could possibly go wrong?

Hyper Diamond Cut

Huawei P10 series Hardware

Depending on which color and finish you pick up, the Huawei P10 lands somewhere on the spectrum between pedestrian and eye-catching. In its standard brushed, anodized aluminum finishes — which includes staple colors like silver, black and gold — the P10 has a remarkably iPhone-like appearance. (Look no further than the curved antenna lines, apparently lifted straight from Apple’s phone.) As such, it inherits many of the pros and cons of that particular design. It’s well-built and comfortable in the hand, but a little slippery, particularly in the 5.5-inch Plus model.

In its more extravagant “dazzling” color options, which includes the “dazzling blue” P10 I’ve been using for the past couple of weeks, the back plate has a truly unique look, feel and sound. Huawei calls this “hyper diamond cut” — I’d describe it as an extremely finely-cut texture etched into the aluminum — and it makes the back of the device feel unlike anything else out there. It shimmers as the phone rotates through light, and if you scratch the tip of your finger against it it sounds a little bit like a nail file. And there’s a pleasing contrast between the glossy, curved side walls and the more industrial finish of the back.

The texture is supposed to be more scratch-resistant than a traditional brushed, sandblasted finish — and while that’s mostly true, it certainly will chip given enough encouragement, leaving you with speckled silvery areas if it scrapes concrete or metal surfaces.

Elsewhere, there are plenty of design holdovers from last year’s P-series phones, including the glass camera window up top, which sits flush with the surface of the metal. The neat red accent around the power key also adds some visual flair.

Huawei’s ‘hyper diamond cut’ finish has its own unique look, feel and sound.

But the design as a whole is entirely more rounded than last year, in contrast to the angular P9 and Mate 9.

Like those previous models, Huawei’s latest creations include a pretty decent speaker setup, combining a bottom-firing main speaker with an additional tweeter behind the earpiece, as part of a pseudo-stereo setup. The Mate 9’s output sounds a touch bassier to my ears, and less tinny at high volume levels. Still, the P10 puts in a respectable performance, going louder than rivals like the Google Pixel and LG G6 with less distortion.

The P10’s front face is as minimalist as any Huawei design to date, with the prominent Huawei branding of most of its other handsets having been replaced by the new front-mounted fingerprint scanner. It’s a very deliberate change — one Huawei representative told me that the cleaner design might stop consumers pre-judging the phone based on its bearing an unfamiliar brand name. Another possibility is that the “hyper diamond cut” finish may have been difficult to include alongside a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

The sensor itself, built into the glass this time, for what that’s worth, feels and functions about the same as previous Huawei fingerprint scanners — which is to say it’s lightning-fast and a joy to use.

Then there’s the screen. Which, on the face of it, is great. The standard P10 packs a 1080p LCD over 5.1 inches, with the Plus stepping up to Quad HD over 5.5 inches. Both offer excellent viewing angles, high brightness levels, even outdoors, and vibrant colors, with the slight blueish hue seen in earlier Huawei phones. (White balance is adjustable in the display settings menu, for what it’s worth.)

But….

Why, Huawei, why?

Huawei includes a factory-fitted screen protector in the P10 as standard, just like most of its other phones. However unlike the P9 and Mate 9 — and even cheaper models like the Nova — neither P10 has an oleophobic coating on the screen. (That’s the smudge-resistant layer included as standard in the vast majority of phones, without which the display quickly becomes smudgy and greasy.

We’ve got a whole other article on why this is an insane decision about which someone should feel bad. But briefly: For me, it’s almost a deal-breaker. And for your own sanity, please keep the factory-fitted screen protector attached if you plan on picking up a P10.

Huawei P10 and oleophobic coatings

In a bizarre move, the Huawei P10 doesn’t include an oleophobic coating behind its factory-fitted screen protector.

An oleophobic coating may sound obscure and technical, but it’s a staple feature of all but the cheapest smartphone screens. This nanocoating, usually applied to the glass during manufacturing, repels oils — like the kind on your face and fingers — and stops the display getting gunked up with use.

PSA: Don’t remove the Huawei P10’s factory-fitted screen protector

At least there are no weird compromises on the inside of this thing. Both P10s are based on the same Kirin 960 platform as the Mate 9, meaning there’s plenty of performance to go around, whether it’s paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in the smaller P10, or 6GB/128GB in the Plus.

And Huawei has specifically targeted touch latency in its performance tweaks in EMUI 5.1 — a big part of what makes a phone feel fast. So between the proven horsepower of Huawei’s homegrown chip and further software optimization, both phones are absolutely blazing fast. That high performance extends to gaming too, thanks to the new ARM Mali-G71 GPU.

Display	5.1″ FHD, 2.5D glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 5	5.5″ WQHD, 2.5D glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
CPU	Huawei Kirin 960 (64-bit), Octa-core (4 x 2.5 GHz A72+ 4 x 1.8 GHz A53)	Huawei Kirin 960 (64-bit), Octa-core (4 x 2.5 GHz A72+ 4 x 1.8 GHz A53)
RAM	4GB	4GB, 6GB
Storage	64GB	64GB, 128GB
GPU	Mali G71 Octa-Core	Mali G71 Octa-Core
OS	Android 7.0, EMUI 5.1	Android 7.0, EMUI 5.1
Camera	Front: 8MP, F/1.9Rear: Leica Dual-Camera 2.0, 20MP Monochrome & 12MP RGB, SUMMARIT-H F/2.2, OIS	Front: 8MP AF, F/1.9Rear: Leica Dual-Camera 2.0 Pro Edition, 20MP Monochrome & 12MP RGB, SUMMILUX-H F/1.8, OIS
Battery	3,200mAh, Huawei SuperCharge	3,750mAh, Huawei SuperCharge
Size	Height: 145.3 mm; Width: 69.3 mm; Depth: 6.98 mm	Height: 153.5 mm; Width: 74.2 mm; Depth: 6.98 mm
Colors	Ceramic White, Dazzling Blue, Dazzling Gold, Prestige Gold, Graphite Black, Mystic Silver, Rose Gold, Greenery (Color availability varies by region)	Ceramic White, Dazzling Blue, Dazzling Gold, Prestige Gold, Graphite Black, Mystic Silver, Rose Gold, Greenery (Color availability varies by region)
Finishes	High Gloss, Hyper Diamond-Cut, Sandblast	High Gloss, Hyper Diamond-Cut, Sandblast

EMUI 5.1

Huawei P10 series Software

After the rebirth of EMUI on the Mate 9, Huawei didn’t need to do a whole lot to translate that experience onto a smaller screen, and so the new EMIU 5.1 — still based on Android 7.0 — looks and functions much the same as before. (Albeit a little quicker thanks to the special attention given to touch responsiveness in this update.)

This is still a very customized version of Android, though the core of EMUI is cleaner and less cluttered than previous iterations. Android’s notification center is mostly unmolested, save for Huawei’s customized quick settings implementation and a separate permissions system for lock screen notifications, which can be a bit confusing. Most of Huawei’s preloaded apps use the same cool blue and white hues that you’ll find throughout the menus — which is smart and inoffensive, though not entirely in keeping with Android’s design direction as a whole.

Chances are EMUI looks and works differently to what you’re used to in an Android phone.

EMUI 5 is as customizable as ever, with Huawei’s Themes app allowing you to kit the P10 out with a range of themes, some genuinely nice-looking, others decidedly vomit-inducing. Each color of P10 is preloaded with its own color theme, which is a nice touch, but there’s still a weird dissonance between the embossed, over-the-top-colorful icons and backgrounds in these themes and the rest of EMUI.

While much of the focus of EMUI 5.1 has been under-the-hood tweaks, there are a couple of user-facing additions. Huawei has partnered with GoPro to include the camera maker’s Quik application on the P10, giving you an easy way to conjure up highlight reels with transitions and music matched to your photos. The feature set offered here isn’t all that new — HTC experimented with this type of functionality in its Zoe app years ago, and Google Photos has a similar feature, though with much less manual input. Nevertheless, it’s a nice touch.

You’ve also got some intriguing options for changing up Android’s soft keys (back, home and recent apps.) Like the Mate 9 Pro, the P10 lets you use gestures on the front-mounted fingerprint scanner to replace the standard on-screen buttons. A single tap sends you back, a long press takes you home, and a swipe gesture takes you to your recent apps. It’s a decent idea in theory, but I never fully wrapped my head around this new button dynamic, and retreated to the safety on-screen keys pretty quickly. It didn’t help that the swipe gesture for recent apps failed to trigger reliably every time.

So there are no massive changes from EMUI 5 to speak of, and the overall experience, in terms of both visuals and performance, boils down to that of using the Mate 9’s software on a smaller display. Android purists may still be unimpressed with Huawei’s customization and the many iOS influences throughout the software, but EMUI 5.1 fast, responsive and easy to tune to your own preferences.

A couple of other software nuggets from EMUI 5.1:

• While the P10 Plus comes with display (DPI) scaling options, letting you see more on screen at once, this isn’t enabled on the regular P10.
• The P10 and P10 Plus both support VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling on EE in the UK, a first for Huawei, and a good indicator that future software updates may bring this to phones like the Mate 9.

Summarit / Summilux

Huawei P10 series Cameras

We’re a year into Huawei and Leica’s strategic partnership, which has yielded some dramatically improved camera performance, and there are some big changes in the P10’s imaging setup, in both the hardware and software.

First, both P10 models have grown a new portrait mode, which is similar in a lot of ways to the feature of the same name from the iPhone 7 Plus. The optics of Huawei’s cameras are different — there’s no zoom lens, for instance — so there’s more heavy lifting being done in the post-processing. Huawei’s camera app and Kirin ISP pair up to re-light your subject’s face on the fly, smooth out blemishes and artistically defocus the background. Portrait mode also makes colors pop a little bit more, which leads to shots taking on a slightly surreal quality compared to iPhone portraits.

Many of the same features also work with the P10’s 8-megapixel selfie camera — the front facer is now Leica-certified as well, and situated behind a bright f/1.9 lens. Huawei’s selfie software can detect how many people are in a shot, and defocus the background accordingly, bringing out the appropriate details in the faces of both you, your friends, and any photobombers.

The P10 Plus comes really close to the Pixel and G6 in most lighting situations.

On paper, the optics of the second-gen Leica camera setup in the smaller P10 haven’t changed at all since the Mate 9. You’ve still got two f/2.2 Leica Summarit lenses, one housing a 12-megapixel color sensor (with optical image stabilization and 1.25-micron pixels), another packing a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor without OIS. (Alongside laser autofocus for faster focusing in the dark.)

As such, the results from the regular P10’s photographic capabilities closely match the Mate 9’s — taking into account the past few months’ worth of software tuning, of course. You’ll get legendary dynamic range thanks to the dual-sensor setup, and generally solid performance, though with some fine detail loss in challenging lighting compared to cameras like the LG G6 and Google Pixel.

The big camera hardware upgrade has been reserved for the P10 Plus, which introduces dual f/1.8 Leica Summilux lenses — significantly brighter than the smaller model’s lenses, for improved low-light captures. And while I think the Pixel and G6 still pull ahead in night-time shots, the P10 Plus is really, really close, to the point where most people won’t be able to tell the difference.

The P10 Plus takes a great camera experience and gives it an even better lens.

There are only a couple of very specific areas where I’ve noticed weaker performance from the P10 Plus. Firstly, in high-contrast scenes with lots of brighter and shaded areas, Huawei’s camera struggles to retain color detail, with some areas of certain shots being rendered in black and white, even in full color mode.

And Huawei still isn’t quite up there with the best in terms of video recording. Despite the inclusion of OIS, and a software stabilization mode, there’s a decent amount of ghosting in moving shots, and fine detail is lost in shots with uneven lighting — more so than most other high-end phones.

So if photography is a priority, definitely go for the P10 Plus — it’s got a dependable Auto mode for most kinds of shots, some intriguing artistic modes to play around with, and that all-important manual mode for great long exposures at night.

Super Charged

Huawei P10 series Battery life

Between relatively large battery capacities, homegrown processors and tight software controls for background apps, Huawei phones have always punched above their weight in terms of battery life. And I’m happy to report that the P10 and P10 Plus are no exception.

With the P10, you’re getting an ample 3,200mAh cell, which is a little above average for a phone of this size, with some extra power savings coming from the use of a 1080p display. The P10 Plus steps up to a more capacious 3,750mAh cell, which is more than sufficient to offset the step up to both a 5.5-inch panel and a resolution of 2560×1440.

Even the smaller P10 delivers outstanding battery life for this type of phone.

In day-to-day use, the smaller P10 actually reminded me of the performance I got out of the Huawei-made Honor 8, in that it’d just keep going, even with relatively intensive use on LTE, often in not-so-great signal areas. Essentially, I never had to worry about not getting a full day out of the P10, though the kind of multi-day longevity I’ve had from the Mate 9 was outside of the phone’s reach.

The P10 Plus followed a similar pattern, holding up well against heavy use, and sometimes leaving me with 50 percent in the tank after a day out and about. With those kind of usage patterns, I was looking at around five hours of screen-on time per charge. Again, that’s a step below the Mate 9, but in a phone with a smaller battery and a higher screen resolution.

Both phones benefit from Huawei’s extra-quick Super Charge technology as well, which requires a special cable as well as a plus-sized Huawei Super Charge plug. First seen on the Mate 9, Super Charge is the only charging tech I’ve used that rivals OnePlus’s Dash Charge, powering up the P10 at up to 5A and 4.5V (or 4.5A at 5V). That means faster recharges with less heat generated compared to other quick charging methods, which use higher voltages. On both models, up to around 80 percent, you can practically watch the percentage numbers tick up.

Combining the ability to complete a meaningful recharge in around 30 minutes with great battery life in general, the Huawei P10 emerges as an excellent performer.

The bottom line

Should you buy the Huawei P10? Yes, but…

Personally, the whole oleophobic kerfuffle with the Huawei P10 has considerably dampened my enthusiasm for these phones. This is a core hardware feature which has been the norm in just about every flagship smartphone for the past decade. The P10 forces me to choose between two bad options: leave the screen protector on and deal with a display that feels like crappy plastic, or take it off and live in a frustrating hellscape of screen smudges.

When you’re paying north of £550 for a flagship phone (either upfront or over the course of a contract), that’s a choice you shouldn’t have to make.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the display is the primary input and output device on a phone. It’s the one thing you’re constantly looking at and touching. For a company as established as Huawei to compromise it in this way defies reason.

The P10 earns itself a grudging recommendation, with a major asterisk attached.

It’s pretty clear this phone is supposed to be used with its pre-fitted screen protector attached. (Which is fine, I guess… although the entire glass front isn’t covered by the film.) If that’s OK with you — and for many people it’ll be perfectly acceptable — then great. Buy a P10 and enjoy it. You’ll get a good-looking device with great performance and a fantastic camera. For others it’ll be a deal-breaker. I’m somewhere in the middle, hence the grudging recommendation.

That’s a shame, because the rest of the Huawei P10 is great. Really great. Were it not for my reservations over the screen, the P10 would certainly qualify as one of the best Android phones out there. And the P10 Plus comes with that extra bit of icing on the cake — a brighter lens for some amazing low-light captures, and the option to spec it out with oodles of RAM and storage.

Above all, these phones show that for all the progress Huawei has made, its products can still be derailed by one or two bad decisions.

Want to ride a roller coaster in VR? Here’s where to do it!

If you’re lucky, a VR coaster might be local.

Last year VR came into an entirely new environment, as an addition to real life rollercoasters. Yeap, that means riding a roller coaster while wearing a VR headset. While there are only a smattering of these roller coasters that you can ride, they’re worth checking out. For now it seems like the biggest adopter in Six Flags in America which has introduced a number of roller coaster at their parks across the country. So we’ve put together an awesome list of all the coasters tyou can ride, and where to find them.

Read more at VRHeads.com

These VR games do teleportation the right way

What games do teleportation the best?

Moving around in VR requires, for many people, a different method than just pushing a joystick forward and having your character move. Why? Even with the smoothest movement, not having a reference point, like a car’s dash or a spaceship’s control panel, can cause serious motion sickness or instability.

To remedy this VR problem, many games use teleportation — you point where you want to go and, boom, you’re there. Not all games do this properly, however, so we’ve rounded up the best titles for people who need teleportation in their games.

Read more at VR Heads!

Best External Hard Drives for PlayStation 4

The days of cracking open a PS4 for expansion are over!

At long last, PlayStation 4 owners can update their consoles with increased storage without needing to void the warranty to install a bigger drive themselves. The 4.5 update from Sony made it possible to connect any USB 3.0 hard drive to the console and make that storage part of the experience. No more storage concerns, and no more wondering if you will be able put this thing back together after installing a bigger drive.

All you need now is to pick the right drive for your needs. Here are some solid options available to you today.

Toshiba Canvio Connect II

If you need a storage bump but don’t want to take up another power outlet on your entertainment center or would prefer the hard drive be easy to hide away, Toshiba has what you need. The Canvio Connect II is a 1TB hard drive that is powered by the USB port and is small enough to tuck away behind the console.

This will effectively double the storage of the more spacious PS4s you can buy today, and will be more than enough for those upgrading a 500GB console.

See at Amazon

Western Digital WD Elements

People who want to massively upgrade the storage on their PS4 but don’t want the hard drive to take up a lot of space aren’t left with a ton of options, but one of the better choices comes from Western Digital. The WD Elements series isn’t small enough to be pocketable, but can be concealed on most entertainment centers. Most important of all, it’s a 2TB drive, so you’re unlikely to fill it with your PlayStation 4 games anytime soon.

WD Elements do also come in 1TB and 3TB variants, but the 2TB model is the most competitively priced and will be more than enough for most PS4 owners.

See at Amazon

Seagate Expansion

If all you really care about is storage, and you want to make sure you never have to worry about running out of storage on your PlayStation 4 ever again, the Seagate Expansion series has you covered. These external hard drives will go up to 5TB in capacity, but is one of the few 3TB options for under $100 if you’re also concerned with your budget.

These drives are big, so don’t grab one thinking you’re going to be able to easily hide it next to your PlayStation 4. As long as that isn’t a problem for you, these drives will get the job done.

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BYOD (Bring Your Own Drive)

Not everyone needs to buy a whole new external drive to expand a PlayStation 4, you just need a solid enclosure to put an existing drive in. If that’s you, the Inateck enclosure is everything you need. It’s USB 3.0 enabled, offers an aluminum body to better handle heat dissipation when under stress, and doesn’t require any additional software to set up.

Drop your drive in, connect to your PlayStation 4, and you’re done.

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PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

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