Xiaomi rolls out the Mi Pad 3 with upgraded hardware, unchanged exterior

The Mi Pad 3 delivers much-needed upgrades while retaining its affordability.

Xiaomi has rolled out an update to the 2015 Mi Pad 2, switching out the Intel SoC — which offered the ability to run both Android and Windows 10 — for a MediaTek MT8176 with two 2.1GHz Cortex A72 cores and four 1.7GHz Cortex A53 cores. The external design hasn’t changed with the Mi Pad 3, and the tablet features the same 7.9-inch 2048 x 1536 screen as its predecessor.

The RAM has been doubled to 4GB, and storage is now at 64GB. The battery segment also sees an upgrade with the tablet now powered by a 6600mAh cell, which according to Xiaomi provides up to 12 hours of multimedia consumption and a standby time of 867 hours. The rear camera has also picked up an update, and now features a 13MP f/2.2 sensor.

Overall, the beefier hardware should make the tablet much more capable, and while MIUI 8 offers a ton of customizability, it is running atop Marshmallow. That said, the Mi Pad 3 will retail for the equivalent of $218 (¥1,499), making it an enticing proposition. No word as of now regarding availability outside of China, and if Xiaomi’s track record is any indication, your best bet of getting your hands on one outside the country is to import it via third-party sellers.

Honor wants a few brave Americans to beta test its buggiest software

Honor is launching a beta program for its current hardware and upcoming software. You can sign up now!

Honor, the youth-oriented arm of Huawei, is launching a new beta program that will allow a select few Americans the ability to test current pieces of hardware and upcoming beta software from the company.

Facilitated through the company’s Facebook page, the Honor Beta program will ask fastidious early adopters to give feedback on current hardware, along with software launches up to two years in advance of them being released to the greater public. The company claims that because it has no carrier footing, its customers are generally discerning and well-versed in the tech sphere, and are therefore primed to offer constructive feedback that could be worked into future product releases.

As a provider of unlocked devices, that allow for direct to consumer relationships, in addition to significant R&D resources, Honor can quickly evolve its products and strategy on a regional level.

Honor will explore what U.S. consumers want and adapt products and strategy each step of the way. Honor Beta is one big step in preparing to lead the unlocked smartphone market of tomorrow.

This is not the first time we’re seeing a program like this from a Chinese manufacturer with nascent presence in the U.S. ZTE has been giving a small number of customers access to early builds of its software, and even Honor itself has offered a few software betas of its own for products like the Honor 5X, Honor 6X and Honor 8. Applicants to this program must live in the U.S. and be native English speakers.

Interested? Head to Honor’s Facebook page to sign up

Honor 8

• Honor 8 review
• Honor 8 specs
• 5 things to know about the Honor 8 in Europe
• All the Honor 8 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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Galaxy S8 camera is amazing: Here are the first photos and video samples

What kind of photos and video does the Galaxy S8 capture?

The Galaxy S8 is arguably the most important Android phone of the year. Samsung’s most popular brand is the world’s most popular Android phone, and it goes without saying that what Samsung does, others follow.

That’s why we were surprised to learn that Samsung didn’t make a big deal of its flagship’s camera this time around, opting to maintain the status quo. It doesn’t hurt that the status quo is a 12MP rear sensor and f/1.7 lens combination with optical image stabilization that, even a year later, still beats the proverbial pants off most of its recent competition.

We also now know that Samsung is indeed using a couple of newer 12MP sensors in its Galaxy S8 series: Sony’s IMX333, which we don’t know much about other than it is a successor to last year’s IMX260; and Samsung’s own S5K2L2 ISOCELL, a previous version of which was found in some Exynos variants of the Galaxy S7. The front-facing camera is also a new sensor, the 8MP Sony IMX320.

We spent a couple of days taking photos with the Galaxy S8 to see how the camera fares in real-world scenarios. None of these photos have been retouched or edited in any way. The Galaxy S8 that we briefly used to test the camera was a Snapdragon 835 model with the Sony IMX333 sensor.

We’ll be doing comparisons, including to the Galaxy S7, in a separate post. But now, the photos.

Outdoor

On first glance, Samsung’s done a great job maintaining detail throughout all the photos captured on the Galaxy S8, and appears to excel in balancing exposure between light and dark scenes, even when HDR isn’t explicitly turned on. The phone seems to be incorporating HDR seamlessly in every photo unless it is otherwise turned off.

Movement

The Galaxy S8 deals with movement quite well, but like all phone cameras doesn’t appear to automatically prioritize shutter speed in fast-moving scenes, leading to blur in exchange for a lighter photo. Less aggressive movement is captured with aplomb, and looks great.

Low light

One area we really hope the Galaxy S8 does better than its predecessor is in low light. From our initial tests, it does maintain detail slightly better than the Galaxy S7, but it’s not an out-and-out upgrade. Still pretty great, though.

Macro

I’ll let these speak for themselves. The Galaxy S8’s default focal length is slightly longer than the S7’s, which leads to closer in-focus macro shots. I’m drooling over some of these.

Indoors

As with all phones, the Galaxy S8 tries its best in artificial light, and it seems to do a fine job exposing properly given the challenging environment.

Portrait

I’m not going to say I’m good looking or anything, but the Galaxy S8 makes me look good — in daylight or dark. It also makes Zadie look super cute.

Front facing camera

The big upgrade to the Galaxy S8’s optics this year is in the 8MP autofocus front-facing camera, and it does a fantastic job in daylight. Low light captures, though — no better than last year.

Slow motion

120fps of slo-mo perfection.

More to come

We’ve got lots more photos and video examples to show off very soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments below, and jump into our forums to keep the discussion going!

Honor 8 Pro brings flagship features to Huawei offshoot in a 5.7-inch package

First there was the Honor 8, an ultra-shiny 5.2-inch smartphone. Now there’s the Honor 8 Pro, a 5.7-inch flagship which packs oodles of power into a lesser shiny body.

The 8 Pro – which is the V9 in other markets, such as India – has a number of firsts for Honor. It’s the first time the company has squeezed a Quad HD resolution into any of its phones, with those 1440 x 2560 pixels making for ultra-crisp viewing. It’s also the first time Honor has released a phone so big – the Pro is almost like-for-like in size against the iPhone 7 Plus, but a touch slimmer in its sub-7mm form. And within that shell there’s a huge 4,000mAh battery capacity – matching that of the Mate 9.

At launch a key element of the Honor 8 was its ultra-glossy rear, which caught the light in a dazzling display of reflections… and fingerprints. The 8 Pro has changed things up: this time its soft matte rear comes in blue, black or gold options, which we feel look more refined overall.

• Honor 8 Pro full review: Flagship that’s no money pit

Under the hood the Honor 8 Pro comes with the latest and greatest Huawei flagship power. That means an octa-core Kirin 960 processor with 6GB RAM, just as powerful as you’ll find in the Huawei P10 Plus. The only difference compared to its Huawei cousin is that the Honor has 64GB on board storage rather than 128GB – but there’s a microSD slot, so that’s no bother.

Like the original Honor 8, the Pro also comes with dual cameras. Both are 12-megapixel sensors, with 28mm f/2.2 equivalent lenses delivering images to colour and monochrome sensors. There’s none of the Leica-endorsed snazziness of the Huawei flagship range here, but the Honor does offer the Wide Aperture mode in its software, for a software-produced f/0.95 equivalent, to deliver those soft, melty backgrounds.

Perhaps best of all is the price: at £475, the Honor 8 Pro undercuts the current flagships on the market by a couple of hundred pounds, while remaining within reach of the £399 OnePlus 3T.

Honor 8 Pro review: Flagship that’s no money pit

Big phones are a big deal. And the Honor 8 Pro is the company’s largest phone to date, with a whopping 5.7-inch screen wrapped into similar-to-iPhone-7-Plus proportions. If you want screen real estate and resolution then this is the Honor for you.

However, the Pro is a rather different proposition to the mid-level, smaller-scale Honor 8. The Pro is obviously larger, but it also does away with the hallmark ultra-gloss rear in favour of a softer blue matte option (black and gold are also available). It still looks great, but lacks that core point of distinction of the original. Unlike the smaller handset the Pro also offers flagship power – with a specification roughly matching its Huawei P10 Plus flagship cousin.

But the real carrot dangle is the price. At £475 the Honor 8 Pro undercuts the current flagship competition – Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, iPhone 7 Plus (ok, that last one is from 2016) – by over £200 a piece, while remaining within touching distance of the OnePlus 3T. There are some marginal compromises, as we’ve found from our 72-hours of use, but nothing that doesn’t befit the asking price or undermine that “Pro” name.

Honor 8 Pro review: Design

• Sub-7mm thickness
• Navy blue, platinum gold or midnight black
• Dual SIM (second slot as microSD)
• Rear-positioned fingerprint scanner

With the Honor 8 Pro was placed into hand the first thing we could feel is just how wide it is. For us it’s a smidgen too wide – but then we’d say exactly the same thing about the iPhone 7 Plus and, having put these two phones literally face-to-face, they are practically identical in size. How you feel about that width will be entirely down to preference, but in the world of taller phones with more cinematic screen ratios – the Galaxy S8 and has a larger diagonal screen measure, for example, but is far less wide a device – this Honor feels less future-thinking in that regard.

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What it does have on its side is a slender build. At just under 7mm, it’s actually thinner than the iPhone 7 Plus, yet crams a much more capacious battery (at 4,000mAh) under its metal skin. The joins between said metal and the screen edge don’t show-off chamfered edging, like in the Huawei P10, a feature that’s reserved only for the Pro’s diamond cut edging of the rear-positioned fingerprint scanner. This scanner’s circular form cuts into the back elegantly, although we feel it’s placed a little too high up the design for always natural use.

The 8 Pro doesn’t hide the antenna lines from sight like in the P10 either – instead they intersect through the top and bottom of the rear, although the top one has been thoughtfully integrated into the design by cutting through the centre of the dual camera module and centre-aligned flash. It looks pretty good.

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Above all else, though, the standout feature of the Honor 8 Pro is its blue colour (well, if you pick the navy blue finish). It has a soft sheen to its appearance and, unlike the smaller Honor 8 with its high-gloss rear, doesn’t attract fingerprints too heavily. We prefer it over the textured Huawei P10 backs, too, especially as these can get marked easily.

In the same breath we’re perplexed at the decision to entirely remove the high-gloss as an option from the Pro, given how defining it is in the original Honor 8. That’s a decision made all the more apparent given how glossy the Pro’s front screen and its surrounding bezels are – something that can be distracting with overhead lighting.

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In addition to USB-C charging, there’s a bottom-positioned 3.5mm headphone jack, while a dual SIM tray – slot two doubles-up as a microSD slot for storage expansion beyond the 64GB standard – lives to the side edge.

Honor 8 Pro review: Screen

• 5.7-inch, 2560 x 1440 resolution IPS LCD panel

The colour’s grabbed your attention, but so will the Honor 8’s screen. This is the largest panel in the company’s handsets, at 5.7-inches diagonally, but also shows off a super-high quad HD resolution. That’s a first for Honor.

And it really shows in use. Yes, the screen is a bit too wide and its colour balance by default isn’t as popping as some – it’s not as warm or as bright as the Huawei P10 Plus which we’ve looked at side-by-side, but the difference is so slight that you won’t notice in isolation – but it’s got all the brightness, acute viewing angle ability and crisp resolution you could want.

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The screen can get a bit smeary during use, but it doesn’t present rainbow-coloured streaks when there’s too much fingertip secretion – unlike the Huawei P10 which has an issue with this once the screen protector is removed. The Pro has no factory-fitted screen protector, but it is coated in Gorilla Glass 3.

Honor 8 Pro review: Power, software and battery

• Kirin 960 chipset, octa-core (4x 2.4GHz, 4×1.8GHz)
• 6GB RAM, 64GB on-board storage (plus microSD)
• EMUI 5.1 (built over Android 7.0 Nougat)
• 4,000mAh battery capacity, QuickCharge

Why hello there flagship innards. Whereas Honor handsets typically aim at the mid-level, the Pro – as its name might suggest – is cutting in higher up the ranks. Its Kirin 960 chipset is every bit as proficient as you’ll find in the P10 Plus, including 6GB RAM to go along with it (the only difference is 64GB on-board storage rather than 128GB of the Plus).

The experience we’ve found to be every bit that of the P10 Plus, too. Now, in that higher-positioned model we had some criticism of apps not seeming to always run at full proficiency. At the price of the Honor 8 Pro, however, this doesn’t feel like an issue to the same degree. Because, overall, the experience is top notch: whether a Candy Crush addict or more into Real Racing, none of that will be a problem here.

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There’s an added gaming quirk, too: the 8 Pro’s box doubles-up as a cardboard VR viewer. And with Jaunt VR installed from the off, if you want to dabble in the entry-level of VR then this phone has all the power and resolution that you’ll need. A great fun idea.

Software-wise, the Pro also runs EMUI 5.1, the latest iteration of Huawei’s operating re-skin (which sits over Android 7.0). The software experience isn’t always the best-looking – some of the Themes really aren’t pretty – but it can be tweaked to suit. What the software does bring, however, are some great features like WhatsApp and Facebook apps per SIM (App Twin), which isn’t possible on many other phones; there are also knuckle-based commands (for when fingertips just aren’t enough!), and machine learning for an optimum long-term user experience.

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That’s one thing Huawei (and, in this instance Honor) is really hot on: longevity. We’ve only had this phone for three days, so can’t comment on how it’ll feel three months down the line, but on each of those days we’ve been getting from a full battery down to around 35 per cent after 16-hours of considerable use with a mixture of day-to-day tasks and casual gaming. Go lighter and we’d expect approaching two days from the Pro, especially if limiting the CPU with the battery optimiser mode. There’s also QuickCharge for speedy top-ups when you do need to reach for the plug.

Part of this longevity per charge is down to the considerable 4,000mAh battery on board (the benefit of a large device size), but it’s also to do with the software. EMUI 5.1 is fairly heavy in its alerts and prompts, by default it closes apps, too, such as Slack not pushing messages without opening the app itself, for example. This all aids lower consumption, but it does affect the user experience too. Some intervention deep in the menu system can force apps to remain open and you can cease prompts to close apps (per app) too, to make for a more streamlined, personal user experience.

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Ultimately the Honor 8 Pro has battery life on its side. And not because its scrimping on the spec front. This is one powerful, long-lasting and affordable phone that’s every bit as good as – if not better – than the Huawei P10 Plus, all things considered.

Honor 8 Pro review: Cameras

• Dual camera technology, 28mm f/2.2 lenses
• One colour, one monochrome sensor; each 12MP

If you’ve been following Huawei’s camera journey of late then you’ll have noticed the Leica-approved lenses and software in its phones. Honor skips this top-end part of the camera package, however, but it has a similar overall experience, with dual lenses – one colour, one monochrome sensor, both of which are 12-megapixel – able to capture and depth-map images for pseudo bokeh effect (that melty soft background effect).

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The lenses are each 28mm equivalents with f/2.2 apertures, meaning plenty of light can get in to capture a shot. The Wide Aperture mode can be set from f/0.95 through to f/16 if you want software-applied adjustments – which vary in their success, just as we’ve said of the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus, along with other manufacturers operating this kind of software solution.

In the right situations, however, the melty background effect can look decent, so long as you’re not viewing the image outside of the phone where edge-softening imperfections can often be seen. Still, it’s a fun effect that people will enjoy and can even be applied in real-time to video capture (up to 4K).

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In addition to standard capture, a swipe from left to right of screen will open the menu, where Pro Photo – for full manual control – and Monochrome modes exist, alongside a handful of other options. It’s easy to access and you can switch off the current mode from the main screen whenever you want, reverting back to standard shooting.

For us it’s the standard shooting that’s best of all. It’s not got the world’s fastest autofocus. It’s not got best-in-class sensors or resolution. And by default the colours are oversaturated. But for a sub-£475 device the cameras are decent in a variety of conditions, they focus just fine – even up-close – and offer all the modes that you’re likely to need. Take a lot at the shot of a paint pot, below, complete with lots of detail in the surface.

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And because EMUI 5.1 is running in the background, the device also brings the benefit of Highlights. With GPS activated, location tagging is possible and the 8 Pro will arrange your shots into named galleries in the Discover section of the app. These even come with (GoPro Quik) video reels, which you can save, delete or edit to your heart’s content – or tell the phone to stop creating them, if you don’t want them.

Verdict

The Honor 8 Pro might not be quite as future-facing as 2017’s latest flagships, but it’s still a decent affordable phone. At this price point, given all the power and capability on board, it’s a real alternative to consider over the OnePlus 3T should you not want to go and spend mega bucks on the priciest of handsets.

However, we feel the Pro is too wide in the new world of taller phones (look at the LG G6 or Samsung Galaxy S8), its fingerprint scanner is positioned too high, and it’s a shame the defining ultra-gloss finish isn’t available as an option (that said the navy blue does look great). The software can be a bit heavy handed on the prompts and isn’t the prettiest either, but it’s the most mature EMUI outing to date. And in the order of things those are all minor qualms.

If you’re looking for a big-screen phone that’s long-lasting and powerful, but which won’t destroy your bank account, the Honor 8 Pro is well worth considering. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you about the width.

The alternatives to consider…

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OnePlus 3T

The so-called “flagship killer” has always had price on its side. It might not have as capacious a battery or as high a screen resolution as the Honor 8 Pro, but that sub-£400 price point is what makes it really appeal. And it’s not quite as wide which, for us, makes it the preferable device.

Read the full review: OnePlus 3T review

Pocket-lint

Huawei P10 Plus

If you’re feeling a little more flush and don’t want a phone quite as wide then, well, Honor’s cousin Huawei has a great offering in the P10 Plus. It’s a little slimmer, but just as powerful and has better dual cameras too.

Read the full review: Huawei P10 Plus review

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iPhone 7 Plus

Whether you’re interested in iOS or Android will depend on whether the iPhone 7 Plus is a device for you or not. The reason its in this comparison is simple: it’s so similar is size and stature to the Honor 8 Pro that it’s impossible not to compare them. Honor has been clever here by delivering almost as much flagship for a lot less money in an Android package.

Read the full review: iPhone 7 Plus review

How to scale apps to fill LG G6’s screen

With the LG G6, the Korean tech giant opted for a somewhat unique approach to building a bezel-free display. Instead of sticking with the usual TV-style 16:9 ratio screen, the company went with a long 18:9 panel instead. 

• LG G6 tips and tricks: Get to grips with the long-screened flagship

This means the phone is almost all screen, with minimal framing around the sides, or top and bottom. It also means a phone that’s narrow and easy to hold. But as with any new technology, it takes time to adapt, especially for developers. 

Scaling LG G6 apps: Why do it? 

The answer to that question is pretty simple: because no one likes black bars or letterboxing on their videos and games. Without scaling adjusted, a lot of apps and games will either be letterboxed or have the virtual buttons permanently on the bottom of the screen. 

With the scaling adjusted to fill the screen, the virtual buttons are pushed away, leaving you with nothing but the app you’re trying to use on screen. 

Scaling LG G6 apps: How to do it

There are a couple of methods to adjust scaling of apps on the LG G6. The most direct way is to head to Settings > Display and then scrolling down to select “App scaling”. 

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Once selected, you’ll see a long list of all the apps installed on your phone. Select which ever app(s) you want to fill the entire screen and a pop-up window appears with three options.

• Compatibility (16:9)
• Standard (16.7:9)
• Full screen (18:9)

You want to choose the bottom option from the list, at which point another popup warning appears to tell you that some apps might be missing content on the edges. 

If – after launching an adjusted app – you decide you don’t want it to fill the screen anymore, you can go straight back to the app scaling settings by swiping the virtual buttons on to the screen from the bottom, then selecting the blue floating action button. This takes you directly to the app scaling menu. It’s worth noting, this only appears when you’re using an app that you’ve told to run in 18:9. 

Scaling LG G6 apps: The end result

For regular apps and games, the end result is usual your graphics filling the entire screen with some of the content at the edges missing. However, for apps like Netflix which show content scaled to 18:9, it’s ideal. 

• LG G6 review: The first truly great flagship phone for 2017

Many of Netflix’s original series are shot and produced in 18:9. Titles like Stranger Things, The Crown, Iron Fist and so forth all fill the entire screen without any black framing or letterboxing. And – even better – once the update is pushed, the mobile app will be able to push HDR content to your mobile too, making the videos look even more vibrant. 

Pocket-lint nominated for a Webby award, vote for your favourite website now

Pocket-lint has been nominated for a prestigious Webby award and we need your votes to help us rise to the top.

The Webby Awards are hosted annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and and are now in their 21st year.

They are the internet’s highest honour for websites across multiple genres and Pocket-lint is in the running in the Consumer Electronics category, so we really need your help. After all, you read our website because you enjoy what we do, so all we ask in return is to quickly vote for us on the dedicated Webby Awards page to show your appreciation.

Just head to here: vote.webbyawards.com and click on the big vote button under “Pocket-lint”. And if you’re really kind, we’d also love you to tweet or Facebook share your vote to spread the word too.

Voting is open until Thursday 20 April, so you’ll have to get a wriggle on. And thanks for all your support and loyalty in advance.

The Webby Awards has many other categories you can vote in too, including Games, Cars and even Media Streaming. The nominees are generally enormous, corporate concerns so it’s great for us to be included against such heavyweights.

Your vote for the “little guy” will therefore be much appreciated.

Driverless pods begin ferrying the public around Greenwich

It’s been almost a year since the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) opened sign-ups for a driverless pod trial in Greenwich. The original plan was to start before Christmas, but given today’s date that obviously didn’t happen. Still, better late than never, eh? Over the next three weeks, roughly 100 people will clamber aboard “Harry,” a self-driving shuttle named after clockmaker John Harrison. It will take them around a two-mile course in London’s North Greenwich, near The O2, to demonstrate how the technology could be used for “last mile” trips in urban areas.

The shuttle is a repurposed Ultra Pod, which is already in operation at London’s Heathrow Airport. With a maximum speed of 10MPH (16KPH), it’s not the fastest electric vehicle — you could beat it on a Boosted Board — however it’s hoped the leisurely pace will reassure pedestrians and minimise dangerous incidents. Each pod carries up to four people, including a safety operator who can pepper the breaks in an emergency. It’s able to ‘see’ it’s surroundings using a mixture of cameras and lasers, and use that information to track obstacles and create a collision-free route. Notably, it doesn’t need to rely on GPS for any of these calculations.

The purpose of the trials is to see how the public reacts to self-driving vehicles, and to examine how the technology can best be applied in built-up areas. Each trip will give the research team a wealth of valuable information — four terabytes of data every eight hours, to be precise. It’ll be supplemented with passenger interviews, taken before and after each trip, and written feedback that anyone can submit online through an interactive map. “It is critical that the public is fully involved as these technologies become a reality,” Professor Nick Reed, academy director at TRL said.

The “GATEway Project” at Greenwich is one of many research initiatives being funded by the UK government. We’ve already seen the “Lutz Pathfinder” pod, which is being tested in Milton Keynes, and a modified Land Rover that’s serving as a research testbed in Bristol. Plans are also underway for a 41-mile “connected corridor,” which will be used to test LTE, local WiFi hotspots and other forms of connectivity in self-driving vehicles. In the private sector, Nissan is testing its electric Leaf cars in the capital, and Roborace is developing a driverless motorsport. It’s an impressive hub of activity, even without Google and Uber’s involvement.

Via: BBC

The Morning After: Wednesday, April 5th 2017

Welcome to the middle. Apple is sorry about its Mac Pro, and promises something big next year, while in other mea culpa news, the makers of Mass Effect: Andromeda will release a bunch of fixes both this week and in the coming months. Rounding it off, we took a closer look at Sonos’ new Playbase speaker — possibly the only speaker you’ll need in your living room.

The only speaker your living room needs
Sonos Playbase review

As with most everything Sonos does, the Playbase is both excellent and expensive, according to Nathan Ingraham. It might not be for everyone, but the combination of top-notch sound quality, versatility and simple setup makes it an extremely compelling speaker for the living room.

The next one will be a ‘complete rethink.’
Apple is sorry about the Mac Pro

The last new Mac Pro was announced back in 2013, and not much has changed much since. The iconic shiny object proved a difficult fit for its pro users, and as a consequence, Apple is apparently fundamentally rethinking its top-end computer series and everything that comes with it. You won’t see any of these products for a while, however. That’s because Apple’s engineering team is apparently still working to design a system that can easily and efficiently be upgraded — the biggest issue many had with the current Mac Pro.

In other Mac news…Apple is making an iMac with pros in mind

When you think “pro desktop,” you probably don’t think of the iMac. You can get one with a pro-quality display and a high-end (consumer) processor that will do the job for many tasks, but you probably wouldn’t buy one for massive 3D modeling or video projects. Apple would like to change your mind soon.The company’s Phil Schiller has promised that there will be iMac configurations made “specifically with the pro customer in mind” later in 2017. And, before you ask: no, this doesn’t mean a touchscreen.

It starts on Thursday, but it’s going to take months to complete.
How BioWare will fix ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’

The internet’s reaction to Mass Effect: Andromeda has been pretty negative. Whether the game’s pitiful user ratings on review sites are actually representative of what most players think is a question for another day, but it’s fair to say that the game had more than a few technical issues at launch. Animation glitches, framerate drops and other bugs have marred the launch, as have general complaints about gameplay oddities. Things got so bad that BioWare promised an update last week and a patch arrives this Thursday that “addresses technical fixes” like crashes and improves performance, and also adds further tweaks to gameplay and in-game systems.

We’ll finally know what Project Scorpio has under the hood.Microsoft will unveil the next Xbox’s specs on Thursday

Microsoft’s mid-generation successor to the Xbox One, known as Project Scorpio, was in no shape to try beating Sony’s PS4 Pro to market, but it’s rumored to be a far more powerful system. Just how much beefier has been confined to rumor and isolated reports, but soon we’ll have the official word on Scorpio’s technical guts ahead of its planned full reveal at E3 2017. Microsoft plans to announce the full specs this coming Thursday.

Keep your helipad clear.DARPA tests out an electric X-Plane

In the future, DARPA figures planes with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability will fly further and faster than current hover-capable aircraft. The agency just announced some progress on that front, with the completion of tests on a sub-scale version of its XV-24A. While the plan is to put a hybrid turboshaft engine and generators in the full-size 12,000-pound plane, this unmanned 322-pound demonstrator tested out its design with 24 electric motors aboard.

TNF just doesn’t have the same ring to it
Amazon picks up streaming for Thursday night NFL games

While the NFL will continue to broadcast Thursday night football games on its NFL Network, CBS and NBC, its partner for streaming will change this fall. The league has sold internet rights to Amazon for a reported $50 million, well above the $10 million Twitter paid last year after a bidding war including that also included YouTube and Facebook. While Twitter streamed the games for free via its apps and website, Amazon plans to make them available on the internet just for Prime subscribers.

But wait, there’s more…

• Zoe Quinn’s ‘Crash Override’ book about fighting online hate arrives September 6th
• Invasive, self-destructing iOS hack is even worse on Android
• Netflix reveals ‘The Defenders’ arrival in security footage
• Graphene sieves are a cheaper way of making saltwater drinkable
• Samsung’s in-house OS is a security nightmare

The Honor 8 Pro is Huawei’s best flagship yet

There’s Huawei, and then there’s Honor. While both are technically the same company, the Honor brand takes some of the best bits of Huawei’s smartphones and packages them up in new devices that don’t take as much of a bite out of your bank account. That’s been the general distinction between the two, anyway, but the line has become blurrier as Honor has begun breaching the mid-range with smartphones like the Honor 8. And now, it’s been all but scrubbed out with the announcement of the £475 (nearly $593) Honor 8 Pro today, which is every bit a new Huawei flagship.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Tucked away inside the Honor 8 Pro is Huawei’s best homegrown chip: the Kirin 960 with four 2.4GHz cores and four 1.8GHz cores. With 6GB of RAM and 64 gigs of expandable storage backing that up, it’s a beast by any account. It’s also running the latest version of Huawei’s EMUI (5.1), which is built on top of Android 7.0 Nougat. Among the improvements are a better blue light filter and new camera feature co-developed with GoPro called Highlights, which automatically creates video stories from what’s available in the gallery (much like HTC’s old Zoe highlights feature, then).

Like some other Huawei devices, the Honor 8 Pro uses machine learning to optimize performance, predicting your daily Facebook check so the app loads faster than it would do otherwise. Algorithms also promise to delay the inevitable slowdown of the device as file fragmentation and other forms of wear and tear take their toll. Apparently, you can expect the device to still function at 80 percent efficiency after 500 days of use.

This won’t become apparent for some time, of course, but what’s immediately obvious is just how gorgeous the Honor 8 Pro is. Whereas the Honor 8 was clad almost entirely in glass, the Pro is mostly metal (barring the Gorilla Glass 3 covering the display) The navy blue model I’ve been playing around with catches the light in all kinds of visually appealing ways — this will be the only color available at launch, but black, gold and potentially more hues are in the pipeline. It looks and feels like a seriously premium device, and there are soft curves in all right places. With antenna bands running horizontally close to the top and bottom ends of the handset, there’s no denying the Honor 8 Pro gives off strong iPhone vibes.

The only downside to this beautiful body is that it’s a bit on the big side, though it’s still nice and thin at 6.97mm deep. This does mean, however, there’s enough space for a 4,000mAh battery with fast-charging support that’ll apparently keep the thing going for two days of regular use. More importantly, though, there’s room for a vibrant, stunning 5.7-inch Quad HD (2,560 x 1,400) display. To showcase this striking screen, the Honor 8 Pro comes with the Jaunt VR app preinstalled, and the device’s box actually converts into a cardboard VR viewer. It’s not particularly comfortable, but it’s a nice touch to include this accessory as standard, and in a clever way.

I kinda feel like Huawei’s shot itself in the foot with the Honor 8 Pro. All things considered, I don’t know why you’d buy the new Huawei P10 flagship over the Honor 8 Pro, especially as the former has a few inferior specs and is significantly more expensive at £549. The P10 does have the Honor 8 Pro beat in the camera department, though, at least on paper. Still, you’re getting an excellent dual 12-megapixel camera setup (f/2.2 on both) on the new Honor device that takes some delightful shots, as well as an 8MP shooter up front for selfies. In wide aperture mode, you can play around with focal point and background blur, which is always fun, and as one of the two sensors is monochrome, you can snap native black-and-white pictures. Low-light performance is also very impressive as far as my brief experience with Honor 8 Pro has shown.

The Honor 8 Pro is available to pre-order in the UK today from Huawei’s vmall store for the introductory price, including various accessories, of £474. The official launch is set for April 20th, at which point it’ll also hit Amazon. There’s no word on US pricing or availability yet, but I’m fairly sure we’ll hear more about that in due course as Honor continues to push its brand in the region. And what better phone to do that with than the gorgeous Honor 8 Pro?