LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Pro or no go?

LeEco, the Chinese company that dabbles in everything from self-driving cars to Vizio-branded televisions, seems like it’s trying to be a one-stop shop of sorts in the tech world.

So, naturally, it also does smartphones. The LeEco Le Pro 3 being its premier offering, which looks a lot like the OnePlus 3 (just check out those antenna lines and the lens at the top).

Having handled the Le Pro 3 for a number of months, how does LeEco fare in a market that’s already full of affordable Android phones?

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Design

• Aluminium, unibody with brushed-metal finish
• Rear fingerprint reader
• No headphone jack
• USB Type-C charging port
• Stereo speakers

The Le Pro 3 is a metal-bodied phone with a brushed-metal finish that has a super glossy feel to it – almost as though it has a protective covering. There’s a fingerprint reader on the back, too, but it may take a bit of time to find because of the glossy material.

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Elsewhere, there’s a power button on the right edge, with volume positioned above it; the top has an IR port and mic opening; the bottom has a secondary speaker and USB Type-C port. There’s also a nanoSIM card slot found on the left side.

The entire 5.5-inch device feels super weighty given its solid unibody construction. The angled edges, which have a different finish than the outdated brush-metal design you see all over, give a smooth finish.

You won’t find a headphone jack anywhere, because like iPhone 7, the Le Pro 3 has ditched the port, meaning you have to use an adapter if you plan to use regular ‘ole headphones with this phone.

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Display

• 5.5-inch IPS display (1920 x 1080 resolution)
• Adjustable colours, scale view, and DPI
• Thick bezels

The Le Pro 3 has a sharp display. And because it’s IPS you’ll be able to see it clearly in daylight and from all manner of angles.

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The resolution isn’t near its higher-end Quad HD (2560 x 1440 resolution) competitors, but it’s not a huge issue. Funnily enough you can adjust the scale view and DPI (dots per inch) to be lower, in order to save battery life.

However, in our opinion, the colours by default aren’t very bright or saturated. If you’d like a bit of vibrancy, there is a vivid mode you can enable within the settings.

But enough about the panel itself, let’s talk about those bezels. They’re hard to miss. We think they make this phone look more budget than it actually is. Still, at this price, you can’t complain.

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Hardware

• Snapdragon 821 (same in Google Pixel)
• 4GB RAM base model (6GB option)
• 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB storage (no microSD)

The Snapdragon 821 processor on board is plenty powerful and helps the Le Pro 3 to stand alongside other 821-packers, such as the Google Pixel and OnePlus 3T. Therefore everyday tasks like launching the camera will seem smooth and fast. There just isn’t any noticeable stuttering or lag.

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However, the 4GB RAM base Le Pro 3 model, while decent for most, might not be enough for power users. They’ll want the 6GB model instead.

In terms of other hardware, the sound from those dual speakers is great for watching YouTube videos or playing games. The audio coming out of the phone is pretty impressive, to say the least. It really helps make up for the missing headphone jack. You’ll want to use wireless headphones with the phone, unless you feel like carrying around an adapter that you’ll inevitably lose.

It’s worth noting that – for some reason – the Bluetooth connection on the Le Pro 3 seems really unstable. Our device had trouble connecting to and finding the few Bluetooth speakers we own to the point where we wanted to chuck the phone across the room. But, we didn’t. Almost, though… almost.

Another annoying point is the rear fingerprint reader. Maybe we’re spoiled, thanks to the rear readers found on the OnePlus, Pixel and newer Nexus devices, but we just couldn’t get LeEco’s reader to recognise our finger tips on several occassions. We re-added our prints and everything. It just pales in comparison to what other Android phones can offer.

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And finally, you’ll get 32GB of storage with the base model of the Le Pro 3. You’ll probably want the 64GB or 128GB options, because without expandable storage, you’ill need to ensure you have plenty of space for applications and more.

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Camera

• 16-megapixel rear sensor (with 4K video)
• 8-megapixel front sensor (with Beauty mode)

The Le Pro3 has a 16-megapixel main shooter capable of 4K video recording. It also has a few different modes to choose from, while the front-facing camera comes with a default beauty mode that smooths the wrinkles in your selfies. We think it’s a bit much.

Taking pictures in general is a little irritating. The app isn’t very fast. The saving time after you snap a photo seems to take a couple seconds too long. Flicking through the different modes and features is fine, though.

Photos themselves are fairly decent, though, with a good level of detail if you’re shooting in good lighting conditions. In dim situations, expect image noise to rear its head.

Problem is getting the camera to work proficiently: it just doesn’t autofocus well, often failing to focus. Compared to the Pixel and OnePlus 3, the Le Pro 3 is nowhere near.

Power users will want more speed in the app, as well as the ability to take better shots in a variety of conditions, but for a sub-$400 handset, you’d be hard-pressed to find a superior camera experience.

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Battery

• 4,079mAh battery (not removable)

With a capacious battery on board – more capacity than any other flagship we can think of, including the Huawei Mate 9 – the Le PRo 3 should be able to go the distance.

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It’s not removable from the body, but we think that would break up the design. It’s not necessary anyway, as this LeEco has an excellent battery life.

It lasted through a full day of Facebooking, Twittering, YouTubing, and gaming – about 16 hours (whereas our iPhone 7 doesn’t even come close to that).

LeEco Le Pro 3 review: Software

• Too many Le-branded services
• Bloatware duplicates many Google services
• Gimmicky hooks to get you into LeEco ecosystem

Before we get too deep: let’s just say right off the bat that LeEco’s user interface – named “EUI”, which is built upon Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and looks similar to other Chinese operating systems – is probably what’s at fault when it comes to any hiccups or weirdness you may experience on this phone. It’s the device’s weak link.

There’s no app drawer (for now – an update is rolling out, which will add an app drawer), but instead, you get a few different features and settings. You’ll find quick settings above the recent apps screen, and the notification shade only displays notifications along with a huge button on the bottom to manage your notifications.

You’ll also see lots of ties to LeEco’s services as well as partnerships with networks such as SeeSo and Showtime, but those require paid subscriptions to the EcoPass, which uses a digital currency called EcoPoints. You can also use EcoPoints rather than cash toward purchasing things in the LeEco’s LeMall.

The default EUI setup makes the centre on-screen button launch the Live app rather than app drawer. It takes you into a landscape orientation with a screen of video content ranging from movie channels to sports. As for the task switcher, it’s labeled Control Center, and you can customise what appears at the top under settings.

There are also several duplications with Google products, which make things on the Le Pro 3 seem like a total mess. For instance, you can sign up for the LeCloud option, which will sync your contacts, messages, call history, browser history, Wi-Fi access points, photos, videos, and more. No thanks.

Although LeEco’s utilities and services are everywhere on the Le Pro3, you can customise several aspects as well as install third-party launchers to significantly change from the default experience. We installed the Google Now launcher, so when we press the LeEco logo center button, it launches Google Now or whatever you have setup.

The average user will be overwhelmed by the Le Pro 3, especially because the internet doesn’t yet seem to have a lot of tutorials to guide you. There seems to be Le-branded products, services, and features everywhere, each of which copy Google products or attempt to get you hooked into LeEco’s ecosystem, but it’s just too much – even for us.

Basically this software experience is confusing.

Verdict

The LeEco Le Pro 3 is an affordable phone with potential. Consider its aluminium unibody design, the beefy Snapdragon 821 chip, long-lasting battery, and great-sounding stereo speakers and there’s plenty to praise.

But it’s also just plain aggravation-inducing. The software is a mess. The bezels are huge. The competition from OnePlus is strong at a similar price.

Ultimately, you’ll have to decide if it is worth it. If, however, you are part of the LeMall and the Le ecosystem then you can get the Le Pro 3 on sale (about $100 discount) which may be even more enticing.

Overall the Le Pro 3 is just too much LeEco and not enough Android. It needs a faster camera experience, lighter body, better display and a lick of extra polish.

There’s potential, but right now we’re erring towards “no go” rather than “Pro”.

The alternatives to consider…

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OnePlus 3T

The OnePlus 3T is a brilliant smartphone, regardless of the bump in price. Its build quality and design is up there with the best of them, it has a vibrant and punchy display and a battery that can last practically all day on a 30 minute charge. There’s very little to criticise.

Read the full review: OnePlus 3T review: The best mid-price phone, now with Nougat sweetness

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Google Pixel

If money is no object and all you’re interested in is the latest and absolute best Android experience around, you’ll struggle to get anything better than a Pixel or Pixel XL. They’re loaded with the brand new version of Android Nougat, have fantastic cameras and smooth snappy performance.

Read the full review: Google Pixel review: Android at its best

The new Nokia 3310 could actually be a really bad thing

With the dust settling over a busy MWC 2017, it’s time to look back and reflect a little on that move from Nokia. The company relaunched itself into smartphones, adopting the Android platform and announcing the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3. 

It’s an important move, with the Nokia phone brand under the guidance of HMD Global, a Finnish startup essentially established to do this job, and packed with plenty of staffers from Nokia days gone by.

The Nokia 3310 was the talk of Mobile World Congress. It attracted legions to the Nokia stand – no bad thing – and it took a lot of headlines. Again, when you’re fighting for coverage against companies like Samsung or LG, this is a good thing. Nokia dominated many of the stories coming out of Mobile World Congress thanks to the 3310.

For those at MWC, the new Nokia 3310 is a bit of retro fun. There was rapturous applause and plenty of cheering when the phone was revealed on stage on Sunday afternoon. It was anticipated, following a high-profile leak of the device the week before.

Chris Hall/Twitter

We certainly enjoyed covering the Nokia 3310 and you enjoyed reading about it, but there’s a more serious issue. Outside of the bubble of tech insiders – journalists, industry suppliers, buyers, analysts, phone geeks of all types – people don’t know the rest of the Nokia story.

Talking to real people outside of the industry, everyone knows there’s a new Nokia 3310, but they don’t know there are Nokia smartphones too. That’s not something that resonated with the wider public. 

As a launch day communication it worked, but the rest of the message has been lost in the noise. The new 3310, also, isn’t really a modern take on the retro classic as its been pitched. It offers many of the same features as the original, with the dual band connection being the one that perhaps raises the most questions.

• Nokia 3310 vs Nokia 3310: What’s the difference 17 years on?

As it is, the Nokia 3310 isn’t a global smartphone. It basically won’t work in North America and we can’t believe that Nokia didn’t consider this. It feels like a missed opportunity to make the feature phone a thing again.

It was described by Florian Seiche, HMD’s president, as a “detox” device when we spoke to him. But in reality, the Nokia 3310 should have been a Trojan Horse. It should have been a retro alternative that offered more: a 3G connection you could use as a hotspot for your laptop or tablet, an easy gateway to import your Google contacts, a synced camera that shared its photos to your other phone. It should have offered functions that gave it purpose as a device.

As it is, the 3310 feels like a phone that was designed for the developing world, that’s been thrown into the limelight because of its retro charms and found unexpected fame, while eclipsing the real message – that Nokia is back in the smartphone business. Ultimately, this could be a bad thing, because for many, they missed the message that Nokia is now offering some rather charming smartphones.

• Nokia 6 preview: A solid start for the new Android Nokia

Jeff Bezos is planning a delivery service for the moon

SpaceX isn’t the only private space corporation that’s capitalizing on the administration’s renewed interest on the moon. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin also has plans to develop a lunar spacecraft with a lander named “Blue Moon.” According to The Washington Post, the Amazon founder wants to use that spacecraft to launch an Amazon-like shipping service that would deliver equipment needed to establish human settlements on the lunar surface by mid-2020s. It could also deploy rovers and scientific instruments meant to study Earth’s natural satellite.

WP says the company has been circulating a seven-page white paper to NASA officials and Trump’s transition team containing the project’s details. Apparently, Blue Moon will be able to carry up to 10,000 pounds of cargo to space and can be launched on top of the Space Launch System, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V or Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket.

The company could put its experience landing its New Shepard rockets vertically to good use by using the same technology to land the spacecraft on the lunar surface. In fact, the white paper WP saw showed a vehicle that looks like a modified New Shepard. Blue Origin chose the Shackleton crater on the moon’s south pole as its landing site, since that region has continuous sunlight that its spacecraft’s solar panels can harness. Shackleton is also rich in water ice that Blue Moon can transform into rocket fuel.

Bezos believes the project’s first mission could happen as soon as July 2020, but he admits it can only be done in partnership with NASA. He told the Washington Post in an email:

“It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay. A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this…

Our liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission. I’m excited about this and am ready to invest my own money alongside NASA to make it happen.”

NASA, of course, has its own plans: just recently, it announced its intention to turn the Space Launch System’s first mission into a manned flight that would orbit the moon 10 times. That’s similar to what SpaceX plans to do, except the space corporation will take two paying private citizens instead of astronauts to cislunar space. Bigelow Aerospace has plans to make a bigger version of the ISS’ inflatable habitat that can orbit the celestial body while housing supplies and medical facilities. And then there’s United Launch Alliance, which wants to create a transportation network to service the space around the moon.

Source: The Washington Post

The Morning After: Friday, March 3rd 2017

Friday has arrived — as will your Switch preorder if you’re lucky. Read our thoughts on its most important launch title, and while you’re at it, gaze at the prettiest Windows Phone that’s now turned Android, and how Roborace is turning robots into racecar drivers.

This is the Nintendo Switch’s hit.
‘Breath of the Wild’ is the best ‘Zelda’ game in years

Nintendo has changed Zelda a lot for its Switch incarnation — arguably the most since the series debuted. With a bigger world, exploration key to your progress, and weapons that you’ll need to keep an eye as they degrade, it’s a different spin on Link’s journey through Hyrule. But despite all that, Aaron Souppouris says that it remains unmistakably a Zelda game.

It can’t do much without it.
Don’t forget your Nintendo Switch’s day-one update

The Nintendo Switch can’t do much out of the box. It can play game cards but that’s about it. So, if you’re getting a Switch tomorrow, you really should connect it to the internet and grab the day-one update, which adds support for the eShop, friends list and social-network. Fortunately, the update is a fast one.

Reboot without fear
Microsoft tries something new to stop poorly-timed Windows Updates

Security updates are very important, but an operating system that reboots itself or gets stuck in a lengthy patching process at the wrong time isn’t what anyone wants. Windows Update has caused that exact problem in the past, but Microsoft is testing out a way to avoid such problems in the future. Now, an icon in the Windows Settings page will show if your system is up to date, if it’s not, then you can schedule a time to update or snooze the update process for three days.

A new challenger enters
LG’s prototype VR headset is a bulky Vive alternative

At GDC 2017 Nicole Lee tried out LG’s SteamVR headset and came away “suitably impressed.” It may not have a sleek design (yet), but its flip up eyepiece could be convenient during long VR sessions. It also has a camera lens for pass-through viewing and nicely-designed wand controllers. It seems like a viable Vive alternative, but there’s no way to know how far away LG is from putting this into production.

Try a smartwatch with real watch hands
The MyKronos ZeTime is a different kind of hybrid timepiece.

One big problem with smartwatches is that users often have to choose between long battery life and an always-on screen to constantly display the time. The MyKronos ZeTime gets around that by slapping real watch hands on the face of a smartwatch. It uses a proprietary OS to display notifications and messages from your phone and can last three days on a charge. The device will launch on Kickstarter later this month for $199.

Trinity and NuAns will try to go global once again.
The makers of the most stylish Windows Phone embraced Android

NuAns’ classy Windows phone tied okay(ish) tech specs with Windows Phone software that no-one wanted. Fortunately, it came with customizable two-tone covers that used different materials and finishes to make one surprisingly gorgeous phone. That phone, however, never made it out of Japan. This time, the company’s back with the same design aesthetic, but with Android 7.1, a full HD display, faster processor and a more competent camera. The team is now looking to bring the Neo Reloaded to crowdfunding soon.

Want to get away?Amazon’s server outage was caused by a typo

We all make mistakes sometimes, but usually ours don’t bring down internet services around the world. Earlier this week one of the East Coast Amazon Web Services data centers suddenly had an outage, and the company explains it happened when a tech tried to take a few billing servers offline. Because of a mistyped command, “a larger set of servers was removed than intended.” Even worse, some of the systems hadn’t been rebooted in years, and took longer than expected to validate and run safety checks before they were usable again.

Roborace’s push to fill a starting grid with robotsThe journey to build driverless race cars

One of the biggest challenges for Roborace’s Chief Design Officer Daniel Simon was an emotional one. For years, automotive design has revolved around some obvious fundamentals. A car needs a cockpit, for instance, and a steering wheel and pedals. But with the Robocar, Simon had an opportunity to break almost every design rule in the book. That’s just the start of the challenges facing a road race that involves no human drivers.

But wait, there’s more…

• Chevy is the first major car company with unlimited LTE data
• Gmail’s size limit on incoming attachments grows to 50MB
• Huawei P10 MWC 2017 camera test
• LG G6 MWC 2017 camera test
• Mike Pence used AOL email for state business while governor — and yes, it got hacked

Virgin Galactic forms new company for low-cost smallsat launches

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group now has three private space companies. The newest addition is called Virgin Orbit, and it will focus on low-cost small satellite launches based on the company’s LauncherOne system. If you’ll recall, LauncherOne uses a two-stage rocket dropped from a carrier aircraft. Its earlier iterations could only carry up to 500 pounds of payload. Orbit will use a modified Boeing 747 called “Cosmic Girl” that’ll allow the system to ferry a bigger rocket with heavier cargo to Low Earth Orbit.

The new company already has a 180,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California that employs 200 employees, since LauncherOne has been operating under Virgin Galactic for quite some time now. Virgin Orbit, however, will be headed by Dan Hart, who was with Boeing for 34 years before Branson’s group recruited him. He served as Boeing’s Vice President of Government Satellite Systems, leading the development of various aerospace products.

Branson said his company has been striving to make space more accessible “by manufacturing vehicles of the future, enabling the small satellite revolution and preparing commercial space flight for many more humans to reach space and see our home planet.” Going forward, Virgin Galactic will focus on human spaceflight as Orbit takes over smallsat launches. The Spaceship Company, Virgin Group’s other space venture, will continue designing and testing aerospace vehicles. Virgin Group promises to reveal more info about its new spinoff in the coming months, complete with new websites to establish Orbit’s brand identity.

Source: Virgin Galactic (1), (2)

GM’s Maven lets you rent cars for up to 28 days

Maven is General Motors’ Zipcar-style vehicle rental service, letting you pay an hourly rate to temporarily borrow a ride. But the company is now targeting folks who want to get around for longer periods at a time with Maven Reserve. The offering enables people to reserve a car for up to 28 days at a time, including a dedicated parking space, insurance and $100 of gas in the tank. In addition, users will apparently receive a “personalized walk-through of the vehicle,” as they take delivery of their fancy-schmancy rental car.

Maven Reserve will only be available in LA and San Fransisco to begin with, although GM has plans to broaden it out later. Those two locations make sense, since both have young populations with the cash to blow on renting a brand new Chevy Volt or Tahoe for weeks at a time. The company even admits this, saying that Reserve was designed for “entertainment and entrepreneurial communities” full of bougie millennials. All they’ll need to do to book is sign into the Maven app and see what’s locally available at what price.

GM also took the time to release statistics about how Maven has been received across the US since its launch. The company has upwards of 25,000 people who have reserved vehicles more than 32,000 times, traveling more than 80 million miles. And, as mentioned above, the two most popular vehicles in the portfolio are the Volt and Tahoe.

Uber loses High Court bid to block English language driver tests

Uber’s operations in London have been dealt a fresh blow after the High Court ruled that it, and other private hire companies in the city, must force drivers to pass an English language test. The ride-hailing provider was attempting to overturn strict new rules proposed by Transport for London (TfL) last year that included reading and writing tests for drivers, better customer support and private-hire insurance for period when drivers weren’t even working.

Reuters reports that High Court Judge John Mitting quashed Uber’s appeal, noting that “TfL are entitled to require private hire drivers to demonstrate English language compliance.” However, Uber did successfully strike down the other parts of the case, meaning it won’t have to set up a dedicated call centre for passengers and require drivers to take out unnecessary insurance.

To better serve London, TfL wants private hire drivers from predominantly non-English speaking countries would to hold a B1-level qualification. The exam focuses on proficiency in speaking and listening, which Uber has said it supports, but also reading and writing. Drivers would need to write a small number of short essays (of about 150 words each). Uber believes this is overly aggressive, noting that it far exceeds the requirements for British citizenship.

When Uber was granted a review in September last year, it welcomed the opportunity to go before a judge. Tom Elvidge, general manager for Uber London argued at the time that “TfL’s plans threaten[ed] the livelihoods of thousands of drivers in London, while also stifling tech companies like Uber.” TfL, on the other hand, stressed that many of Uber’s arguments were thrown out early by the High Court, making the company’s case a lot narrower in the process.

Uber has said it will file an appeal. In a statement, Elvidge said the company was happy the court had sided with it on most of TfL’s measures but was disappointed at the outcome of the language requirement.

“While we are glad the court agreed with us on the other measures TfL tried to impose this is a deeply disappointing outcome for tens of thousands of drivers who will lose their livelihoods because they cannot pass an essay writing test. We’ve always supported spoken English skills, but writing an essay has nothing to do with communicating with passengers or getting them safely from A to B. Transport for London’s own estimates show that their plans will put more than 33,000 existing private hire drivers out of business. That’s why we intend to appeal this unfair and disproportionate new rule.”

Overall, it’s been a bad week for Uber. On Monday, Uber’s SVP of engineering Amit Singhal was asked to leave the company after it emerged that he was involved in a sexual harassment case while still at Google. A day later, Bloomberg released a video showing Uber CEO Travis Kalanick getting into an argument with long-serving Uber Black driver over dropping ridesharing fares.

Kalanick quickly issued an apology, acknowledging that he treated Fawzi Kamel “disrespectfully,” and that he needed to “fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.”

Source: Reuters, CityAM

Apple Has a Redesigned Fingerprint ID Solution For the iPhone 8

Apple is set to feature its own in-house developed integrated fingerprint ID technology in OLED versions of its next iPhone, according to a new report out on Friday.

Apple’s upcoming “iPhone 8” is expected to feature a virtual home button embedded in the display, but questions persist over the role of Touch ID in such a radical redesign as conflicting reports from analysts, rumors of biometric alternatives, and Apple patents abound.

Today, DigiTimes cited industry sources claiming that an Apple-designed “built-in fingerprint sensor device” is indeed on the way, and will replace the traditional capacitive touch technology known as Touch ID.

Apple has selected neither Synaptics’ Natural ID touch fingerprint sensor nor Qualcomm’s Sense ID fingerprint technology for its new OLED iPhones, and decided to use its own Authentec algorithm combined with Privaris glass identification technology to redesign a new fingerprint ID solution, according to industry sources.

Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor technology originally came from AuthenTec, which Cupertino acquired in 2012, while the Privaris reference harks back to a patent portfolio Apple bought from the closed biometric security firm in June 2015 that included dozens of patents relating to fingerprint and touchscreen technology, including – in at least one example – the ability to use a touchscreen and fingerprint reader at the same time.

DigiTimes has sources within Apple’s supply chain, but it has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple’s unannounced product plans, so this latest report should be treated with caution. That said, additional claims made in the article potentially clarify mixed messages regarding production timelines for this year’s iPhone line-up:

Apple’s in-house developed fingerprint ID solution will be fabricated at TSMC’s 12-inch line using 65nm process technology, said the sources, adding that production for the new OLED iPhone is unlikely to start until September due to the redesigned fingerprint ID solution.

Information gathered previously by other sources from the supply chain suggested that Apple plans to ramp up iPhone 8 production in June, because that would allow Apple to work out any manufacturing issues in the design and lead to better supply in preparation for a September launch.

However, according to DigiTimes’ sources, Apple will enter volume production in July only for “two other new iPhones, which will retain LCD for their displays” – suggesting reports of an early summer ramp-up relate exclusively to the two “S” cycle iPhones that Apple is also rumored to be launching this year. What that could mean for the launch date of the “iPhone 8” though remains unclear.

Finally, the report goes on to claim that the tenth-anniversary edition iPhone will use “biometric authentication systems such as ultrasound”, adding to the possible mix of facial recognition and iris scanning technologies also rumored to be in the works. Apart from the edge-to-edge display supplied by Samsung, other features more widely expected for the “iPhone 8” include some form of wireless charging and a glass body.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tag: Touch ID
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Apple Losing Out to Microsoft and Google in U.S. Classrooms

Use of iPads and MacBooks in U.S. schools hit a new low last year, with Apple struggling to make further inroads into the education sector, according to new figures (via The New York Times).

According to research company Futuresource Consulting, in 2016 the number of devices in American classrooms that run iOS and macOS fell to third place behind both Google-powered laptops and Windows devices.

Out of 12.6 million mobile devices shipped to primary and secondary schools in the U.S., Chromebooks accounted for 58 percent of the market, up from 50 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, school shipments of iPads and Mac laptops fell to 19 percent, from about 25 percent, over the same period, while Microsoft Windows laptops and tablets stayed relatively stable at about 22 percent.

At an operating system level, Chromebooks continue to gain market share, reaching 58% in 2016, up from 50% in 2015. The strong combination of affordable devices, productivity tools via G-Suite, easy integration with third party platforms/tools, task management/distribution via Google Classroom and easy device management remains extremely popular with US teachers and IT buyers alike. The rise of Chromebooks has also set new industry benchmarks with regards to average device pricing, with prices reaching as low as $120 on certain projects.

Apple attempted to outmaneuver its education rivals in 2016, announcing its Classroom app, Swift Playgrounds, and a number of other major education-focused feature updates in iOS 9.3, including the ability to share iPads. Microsoft also made significant developments in 2016, including the launch of Microsoft Classroom, ‘School Data sSync’, and several integrations with popular third party solutions.

This surge in competition has dented Apple’s education revenue stream, according to research firm IDC. Of the $7.35 billion that schools, colleges and universities spent on mobile and desktop computers in 2016, sales of Apple devices fell to $2.8 billion, down from $3.2 billion in 2015.

Apple’s iPad first lost its lead over Google’s line of Chromebook laptops in 2014. Analysts at the time said the swing in fortunes for Google’s Chromebooks could be attributed to their low cost, which starts at $199 for some models.

“At the end of the day, I can get three Chromebooks for each of the Mac devices I would have purchased,” said Steve Splichal, the superintendent of Eudora Public Schools, speaking to The New York Times. He added that Eudora students continued to use MacBooks for certain creative courses and that first graders and younger students still used iPads.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously made light of Chromebooks’ increased popularity in the classroom by calling them “test machines”, referring to schools’ need for cheap devices for mass computerized testing purposes.

However, Cupertino is not interested in advancing testing. Cook said in 2015 that Apple is interested in “helping students learn and teachers teach, but tests, no.”

Tag: education
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It was an Amazon employee’s typo that mangled the internet on Tuesday

Why it matters to you

When one company powers so many of the world’s internet services, a single error can cause serious disruption for millions of users.

Earlier this week a good chunk of the internet started playing up for millions of users.

Tuesday’s disruption, caused by an issue at website-hosting operation Amazon Web Services (AWS), lasted for about five hours, which was about five hours too long for most of those affected.

Amazon ‘fessed up on Thursday and admitted it was human error that had caused the problem. Specifically, a typo — yes, a careless typo — led to the cloud-based chaos, the result of some erroneous input procedure by an Amazon employee.

In an explanatory message posted online, the company said its Simple Storage Service (S3, part of AWS) team in northern Virginia had been sorting out an issue that was causing the S3 billing system to progress slower than it should.

During the work, a team member “executed a command which was intended to remove a small number of servers” used by the S3 billing process.

But “one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended.”

When that happened, lots of web users around the world presumably started frowning at their displays, possibly uttering an expletive or two while at the same wondering, “Is it my end or their end?”

While Amazon Web Services hosts plenty of big-name operations such as Netflix, Spotify, Instagram, Airbnb, and Expedia, these sites apparently escaped any disruption during the incident. Instead, those that temporarily hit the buffers included collaboration tool Trello, sites built with website-building tool Wix, and others such as Lonely Planet, Medium, IFTTT, and Quora.

More: The new information super-highway — Amazon hauls 100 petabytes of data on a truck

Amazon’s cloud computing service has grown massively since it launched in 2006 and is now a fast-growing part of its business as more and more companies turn to it for hosting responsibilities.

That’s why mishaps with the service can quickly cause serious trouble for millions of web users. On Thursday, Amazon apologized for the incident and promised to “do everything we can to learn from this event.”