HTC U11 review: Back in the running

HTC needs something to get it back in the conversation with today’s flagships.

The launch of HTC’s new “U” series of phones came with a flagship-sized hole in the middle of the lineup. The U Ultra was too big and too expensive, while the U Play was underpowered and short on value for the money.

With the launch of the U11, HTC is not only filling that flagship spot in the 2017 U series but also trying to create a proper successor to the HTC 10 to be the leading device of the year. Just a couple months after the U Ultra launched, the U11 arrives with a faster processor, improved battery life, a more compact body, better camera and perhaps most importantly a proper price.

With the big improvements, not only does the U11 make you wonder why the U Ultra exists — but it also makes you start considering it right alongside the flagship competition of 2017. That’s something that happened only briefly with last year’s HTC 10, and we’re going to see if the HTC U11 has what it takes in our full review.

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About this review

I, Andrew Martonik, have been reviewing a Taiwanese SKU of the HTC U11, running on T-Mobile in both Mountain View, CA and Seattle, WA for 9 days. Due to radio band limitations, I did not have complete network coverage that would normally be provided by a proper U.S. phone. The software is version 1.03.709.4 with the April 1, 2017 security patch, and was not updated during the review period. The phone was provided to Android Central for review by HTC.

A recap

HTC U11 Video review

For a concise recap of everything you need to know about the U11, be sure to watch our video review above. When you’re done, you can see my complete thoughts on the phone in the written review below!

Historic beauty

HTC U11 Hardware

Time after time, HTC shows how to execute its hardware designs perfectly. The “liquid surface” glass on the back stands out like no other glass-backed phone, coming down to the way it curves off of the edges and how the color is embedded in the glass rather than coated on the inside. No matter which of the five colors you pick up (the “amazing silver” is shown here), the colors shift and change as you move it around — it’s a striking and unique design that stands out.

More: HTC U11 specs

The entire phone is beautifully crafted and assembled, with a satisfying heft you get from few phones — but expect from one with “HTC” on the back. That continues into the perfect curve of the glass on both sides of the phone, the way the buttons click and how solidly the haptics vibrate. These are things that are so often overlooked in order to achieve mind-bending designs, but HTC sticks with as important parts of the experience. HTC has also arrived fashionably late to the party with IP67 water resistance, which is a welcomed addition nonetheless.

From the front, the U11 feels like a phone from last year … or even 2015.

For as beautiful as the U11 is, you don’t look at the back of your phone all that often — you interact with the front every single day. Up front, the U11 feels like a phone of yesteryear. The display is surrounded by above-average bezels, punctuated by capacitive navigation keys on the bottom (whyyyyyyyy). Front-on the U11 looks the same as any generic phone released last year — if not in 2015. There are real usability concerns around a phone that’s wider and taller than it “needs” to be, but importantly to snagging sales it also gives a weaker first impression than the Galaxy S8 or LG G6.

The 5.5-inch display itself is definitely up to modern standards, though. The latest Super LCD 5 panel at QHD resolution is at the top of what you can get from an LCD today, even though it comes up a bit short of Samsung’s AMOLED panel (which I regard as the top of the industry). Everything is amazingly crisp and colors are great, and surprisingly for an LCD it’s even manageable in bright direct sunlight. The screen doesn’t quite get as dim as I’d like at night, but that’s a small complaint about an otherwise great screen.

How the HTC U11 was made

There’s an amazing amount of work that goes into making a phone like the U11. From the research and design up to final assembly, we were able to see inside the buildings where the U11 was built — be sure to read our first-hand account of the process.

Made in Taiwan: How HTC designs, manufactures and tests its new U11 flagship

You shouldn’t look at an HTC phone today expecting it to have a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. What you will get in return is an audio experience that’s a step above the competition. That starts with the in-box USonic headphones, which sound better than your typical bundled earbuds and now include active noise cancellation powered by the phone. It’s a nice treat to actually get good, feature-filled headphones in the box (along with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter), but it’s still baffling to me that they aren’t actually standard USB-C headphones that work on any other phone, tablet or computer I’ve plugged them into. These are headphones for the U11 only (well, or the U Ultra / U Play) … and for some people that’s just an added frustration on top of not having the 3.5 mm jack.

HTC’s new BoomSound speaker setup is also here, which combines both the front-firing earpiece speaker and down-firing loudspeaker for a better sound stage. Despite the complaints from longtime HTC fans that prefer the full-on dual speaker approach, the U11 sounds better than your typical phone — not only does it get louder than anything else on my desk, it sounds better through the full range. I don’t see this as a big drop-off from the “proper” stereo speakers of older HTC phones.

Maintenance mode

HTC U11 Software and experience

HTC Sense feels like it’s in maintenance mode at this point. For better or worse, the interface on the U11 isn’t far removed from what you see on a One M9. At its core that’s not really a bad thing, because HTC has long had a relatively clean interface that has removed a whole lot of cruft, duplicate apps and bloatware.

Much of what remains is a lightly tweaked version of Android 7.1.1, with some default apps replaced by HTC’s consistently (albeit a bit tired looking) designed offerings. This is very much a “light touch” approach to shipping Android, with large swaths of the interface unchanged from what you’d see on a Pixel today.

Some people, particularly those coming from a Samsung or LG phone, will say “where’s the rest of it?” — because HTC chooses not to pile a ton of features on its phones. You’ll simply find some subtle, helpful tweaks — like its audio tuning, the new “edge sense” squeeze feature and its camera app.

For me, the lack of extra features is actually a good thing. Loving the software experience on my Pixel XL, I want software as close to that as possible — and the U11 isn’t far off. I don’t have to go through the interface and turn off all of the things I don’t want or wade through features I’ll never touch. I installed a different keyboard on the U11, and that was it — I could just use it as is and be happy. Every basic feature I want is here, and it’s executed properly; anything more I want I can get from Google Play.

Edge sense: Just squeeze your phone

The one big feature (or gimmick, perhaps) of the U11 is its “edge sense” technology, which has been at the core of HTC’s marketing for the phone — that’s why you’re seeing the word “squeeze” so damn often. Yes, when you squeeze the U11 things happen, and HTC’s positioning it as a new way to interact with your phone that’s better than just an extra hardware button or two.

The feature works simply enough: just tell the phone what you want to happen when you squeeze it, and then what happens when you squeeze it a bit longer (not to be confused with squeezing harder). You can configure and test until you hit a squeeze level that works for your hands, and adjust it at any time.

Squeezing your phone is not unlike Moto’s gestures or BlackBerry’s convenience key.

I left the short squeeze on its default setting of launching the camera, and changed the long squeeze to a screenshot. You can make either one launch Google Assistant, take a screenshot, toggle the flashlight, turn on the voice recorder, launch the Sense Companion or toggle the Wi-Fi hotspot — if you don’t like any of those options, you can have it just launch an app of your choice.

Being able to squeeze your phone to launch an app or toggle a system function isn’t much different than Motorola’s set of hand gestures or BlackBerry’s convenience key. It’s a neat thing that works well but isn’t going to completely change the way you use a phone — and if you don’t like it, you can even turn it off entirely.

Performance

HTC continues to offer the smoothest, most consistent software performance outside of a Pixel or Nexus. Through what is surely a combination of obsessive software engineers and plenty of licensed technology, the U11’s interface performance is immaculate. It’s a sort of subconscious fluidity that’s tough to describe. Touch response is perfect, scrolling feels just right and apps are blisteringly fast. No stutters, no hiccups, no issues at any point — no matter how smooth my other phones are sometimes, they’re never this consistently perfect.

This is Pixel-like performance and fluidity.

So long as a phone performs like that I’m not particularly bothered by what’s inside, but HTC knows people care about specs and delivered accordingly. The latest Snapdragon 835 is inside running the show, supported by 4GB of RAM and an ample 64GB of storage plus an SD card slot. Those specs are right in line with the competition, and should serve the U11 well for a good 18 months — let’s hope HTC keeps its software updates rolling accordingly.

Battery life

A 3000mAh battery wasn’t exactly acceptable on the massive U Ultra, but is a more appropriate cell size in the 5.5-inch U11. When paired with the power savings of the Snapdragon 835 processor, battery life on the U11 is solid. The phone could easily handle my typical day that involves lots of Wi-Fi time, keeping up with email and social networks and roughly 3 hours of screen-on time — all with about 20% battery to spare.

I only once had to dip into the “power saver” mode before bedtime, and it was on a travel day where the phone eventually lasted just over 12 hours after over 5 hours of screen-on time and just as many hours playing podcasts over Bluetooth. That’s really good, and it’s tough to expect much more from a flagship today — I’ve had plenty of phones die well before that point when I travel.

Speaking somewhat selfishly as someone who was really getting used to wirelessly charging their Galaxy S8 every night, I do wish that the glass-backed U11 integrated at least Qi charging. I know it’s a rather niche feature, but for a high-end phone with a glass back you sort of expect the feature. Luckily Quick Charge 3.0 is here for when you plug in over USB-C, and that 3000mAh battery charges fast.

A nice rebound

HTC U11 Camera

As a side effect of the HTC 10’s overall lack of traction in the market, we generally forgot that it had a pretty good camera. Thankfully the U11 not only one-ups the U Ultra’s camera, but steps beyond the HTC 10 at the same time. A new “UltraPixel 3” camera offers 12MP of resolution, 1.4-micron pixels, an f/1.7 lens and switches from laser to phase detection “UltraSpeed” auto focus.

HTC is very proud of this camera, and is happy to tell you it has the “highest ever” DxOMark Mobile score of 90, but more important than any number is how it actually holds up in real use. When I spoke with HTC’s camera engineers ahead of the launch, they said they like to aim for “true to life” photo reproduction, then kick up the punch just a little bit — and I found that to hold true.

The U11 takes really good photos, and they indeed lean toward real-life reproduction with just a little extra pop and contrast to make them pleasing to the eye. Leaving the phone in HDR Auto, as I typically do, I didn’t run into the same sort of low dynamic range issues that I typically have on HTC’s phones. It was good enough that I didn’t even turn on the tap-to-expose option in the settings, though in a few situations I felt HDR didn’t do enough to brighten up dark portions of scenes — but of course that would’ve been unnatural looking, which isn’t what HTC wants its cameras to do.

HTC is back in the discussion with the top smartphone cameras out there.

In daylight, photos were just about pristine and right on par with the Galaxy S8, Pixel XL and LG G6. Colors were just right, edges were sharp and there was plenty of contrast available. When the lights got dimmer, things weren’t as perfect, but no phone is in these situations. The dynamic range was again good enough to handle most scenes with mixed lighting, and I think HTC makes good decisions in leaving some grain in dark areas and not over-sharpening lines to the point of making them soft. In low light, where shutter speeds were sometimes a little on the dangerously low side, optical image stabilization (OIS) compensated just fine.

This camera is miles ahead of the U Ultra’s, thankfully, and I have no issue setting it right alongside the top-tier competition in 2017. Having so many flagships just in the first half of the year offer great cameras is wonderful.

On the right track

HTC U11 Bottom line

When I reviewed the U Ultra, I could see the potential in the design and hardware execution — that phone was just unfortunately saddled with multiple issues including its size, a couple bad internal spec choices, a subpar camera and a far-too-high price. HTC has remedied nearly all of those issues just a couple months later with the U11. It has a more manageable size, ditched the second screen, improved battery life, overhauled the camera and lowered the price to $649.

If the U11 doesn’t sell well, it will have nothing to do with the outright quality of the phone itself.

With those issues out of the way you can appreciate what a beautiful phone the U11 is, with a design that’s truly unique to look at and solid to hold. You can also appreciate the ridiculous speed, fluidity and consistency of the software that beats everything but Google’s own phone. And if you’re a fan of the spartan approach to features and apps as I am, you’ll like what HTC is doing here. Even if the interface isn’t demonstrably changed from two years ago, at least the design is solid and you’re not saddled with tons of cruft that’s constantly in your way.

I don’t think anyone was expecting HTC to come out swinging with a flagship smartphone that can steal a large number of sales from the big names out there, particularly in North America and Western Europe. But if the U11 doesn’t sell well in 2017, it will have nothing to do with the outright quality of the phone itself. It’s a really great phone that does so much right with so few missteps along the way. HTC has just lost so much ground in market share and brand awareness that it’s fighting an uphill battle no matter what it puts out.

The U11 has everything it needs to be a challenger to the top crop of phones in the market today — now HTC just needs people to get to the point of giving its phones a chance again.

HTC U11

• HTC U11 review
• HTC U11 specs
• Manufacturing the U11: Behind the scenes
• Join our U11 forums
• HTC U11 vs Galaxy S8
• HTC U11 vs LG G6

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Best Accessories for Samsung DeX

Equip your desktop-wannabe with the right peripherals for taking it on the road with the Galaxy S8.

The Samsung DeX helps unlock the desktop experience that’s hidden deep within the code in your Galaxy S8 or S8+. If you’ve purchased one with the intention of getting work done on the road, however, you’ll want to equip it with the right stuff. Here are some suggestions on what to grab if you’re grabbing the Samsung DeX.

• Logitech MX Anywhere 2
• Arteck HB030B wireless bluetooth keyboard
• Anker SoundBuds slim wireless headphones
• Tera Grand retractable HDMI cable
• Bagsmart Electronics Travel Organizer

Logitech MX Anywhere 2

The Logitech MX Anywhere 2 wireless mouse has been my favorite since its first-generation iteration many years ago. This portable mouse works anywhere – on a desk, on glass, on high-gloss finishes, and even on your naked knee. It also offer dual wireless connectivity, so you can connect it to the DeX with the tiny Pico Unifying receiver or simply pair it via Bluetooth.

This mouse also features switches on the bottom, so you can pair up to three devices at a time, making it easy to switch between the DeX and your actual desktop computer. Best of all, it doesn’t require batteries, and you can easily charge it from any powered USB port with merely a Micro-USB cable.

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Arteck HB030B wireless bluetooth keyboard

In need of something slim and chic that won’t break the bank? This Bluetooth-connected keyboard from Arteck features thin chiclet keys and barely weighs 6 ounces. It’s compatible with both Mac and PCs, too, and it features seven different backlight colors that you can sort through depending on your mood. When the keyboard is losing steam, you can quickly charge it via the DeX with the included USB charging cable. Arteck even offers a 24-month warranty with purchase.

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Anker SoundBuds slim wireless headphones

Unfortunately, the Samsung DeX dock doesn’t come with its own headphone jack, so you’ll be stuck listening to music or conducting conference calls through the Galaxy S8’s built-in microphone and speakers. But you don’t have to get stuck making everyone listen to your life! Get a pair of affordable Bluetooth-connected headphones like the SoundBuds from Anker. They support Bluetooth 4.1 and they’re lightweight and thin enough to cart around in your pocket. They’re also water-resistant, if that’s your sort of thing, and they feature an in-line microphone and remote.

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Tera Grand retractable HDMI cable

Be ready to connect the Samsung DeX to any TV set or monitor you lay your eyes on. This retractable HDMI cable ensures you’ve always got 4 feet of cord on you when you need it without requiring too much room in your bag. This HDMI cable also supports resolutions up to 4K, if you’re into that sort of thing, as well as dual direction 1080p. Best of all, it’s cheap enough if you want to get a couple of them to toss into the emergency cords box somewhere in your house. (I know you’ve got one. We’ve all got one.)

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Bagsmart Electronics Travel Organizer

You don’t need to bring a bag like this on the road with you to hold your stuff, but it is a good idea if you plan to travel with the Samsung DeX. This organizer case from Bagsmart is made of durable and water-repellant nylon and features well-passed covers. There’s also two longer and one shorter velcro divider packed on the inside so that you can customize your own compartments, as well as a zipper section with a small SD card pouch.

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Got a suggestion of your own?

Leave it in the comments and we might include it the next time we update this page!

Apple staff Black Out Days reveal iPhone 8 launch date

An internal memo at Apple, specifically aimed at the AppleCare team, has told staff they can’t take any holiday between 17 September and 4 November, which could suggest when we’ll see the new iPhones go on sale.

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?

The memo was leaked by Benjamin Geskin, who has been responsible for coming up with some renders of the iPhone 8 based on other rumours and leaks. It has the lines “As you know, there are new product announcements and launches in September. In anticipation of the upcoming events and the corresponding heightened call volume expected, we will be increasing our staff across all of our programs over the summer”.”We will be imposing Black Out Days in all AppleCare programs for Advisors and Leaders. The upcoming Black Out Days will be September 17 through November 4″. It ends “absences are unacceptable”.

AppleCare Advisors & Leaders received an email.So the September the 17th seems very very likely to be keynote day. pic.twitter.com/O6zlyB4fKx

— Benjamin Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1) 25 May 2017

We already expected Apple would unveil the new iPhone 7s and 7s Plus in September, as it would follow its yearly release schedule. We’re also expecting the iPhone 8 to be held aloft on stage as well. What we don’t know is when the phones will actually be available, until now.The iPhone 7s and 7s Plus should be available to buy a couple of weeks after the official announcement. 17 September is a Sunday, so either the keynote announcement will be before this date, and the phones will begin shipping from 18 September, or the event will be around the same time and the phones will be shipped out faster than usual. But there are reports to suggest the iPhone 8 will be delayed a bit due to supply issues with the OLED panels. We’ve previously heard that the iPhone 8 would be launched nearer to November, and that tallies up with this internal memo. 4 November is a Saturday, so the iPhone 8 may be available in the week preceding. The OLED-touting iPhone may only be available in limited supply when it does launch too, so you could have a serious wait on your hands if you want to snap one up. The Touch ID sensor could be one reason for the delay, if there is one at all, as it’s just been reported that it will in fact be embedded into the display. This is thanks to a new optical fingerprint sensor technology that will display the sensor as a virtual button in the bottom section of the screen.

• Apple’s OLED iPhone 8 might not be ready until November or later
• The iPhone 8 is back to having an embedded Touch ID sensor according to report

The leak of the internal memo has given us our best evidence yet when it comes to working out the iPhone’s launch date, and given the iPhone 8 is expected to cost around $1,000, we suggest you start saving now.

Bargain! Amazon Echo drops to £124, buy yours now save £25

Amazon has sneakily dropped the price of its Amazon Echo speaker by £25, meaning you can snap one up for £124.99 for a limited time.

The Amazon Echo is evolving into the centre of the smarthome, not only letting you ask questions of the Alexa personal assistant that lurks within, but play music, quiz your calendar, turn on your lights, check the fuel in your BMW and a whole lot more. 

• Click here to buy the discounted the Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo has forged a new category of device, beating the likes of Google, Microsoft and Apple into this connected space, and offering a device that’s not only convenient, but a lot of fun too, because it’s so simple to use.

• Amazon Echo review: Ace assistant, average speaker
• Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?
• Amazon Echo tips and tricks: Getting a grip on Alexa
• Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Echo Dot: What’s the difference?

If you’ve been considering Amazon Prime membership, then now is a great time to sign-up too. Not only do you get free next day delivery on lots of items, you get Prime Music and Prime Movies too, with plenty of exclusive TV shows to watch.

Amazon Prime costs £7.99 a month and you can cancel any time. There’s also a free 30-day trial if you want to give it a whirl.

Everything you need to know about mobile Amber Alerts

At 2:38 PM on May 19th, 2017, my phone buzzed, emitting a high-pitched tone. So did the phone of my colleague Roberto Baldwin, who was standing with me in a Starbucks near our office. Actually, all of the phones in that Starbucks buzzed at the same time, setting off a cacophony of synchronized alarms. An Amber Alert had just gone out for a missing 1-year-old child, last seen in a 2000 tan Toyota Corolla. And everyone in that Starbucks, and possibly the whole of San Francisco Bay Area, saw the same message at the same time.

Up until about five years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible. That’s because it was only in December 2012 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) started to implement the Wireless Emergency Alert program, which is the one responsible for that aforementioned high-pitched tone.

The Wireless Emergency Alert program (also known as the Commercial Mobile Alert system) is used not just for Amber Alerts, but also to warn the public about natural disasters and imminent threats. Alerts can be issued by the National Weather Service, the office of the president of the United States and emergency operation centers. Think of it as the Emergency Broadcast System, but instead of appearing on radio and TV, it’s on your phone.

Still, when most people think of these emergency notifications, they think of Amber Alerts, simply because they occur more often. The US Department of Justice started the Amber Alert program in 1996 in honor of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas. The word “Amber” also stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response Plan.” According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Amber Alert program is “a voluntary partnership between law enforcement, broadcasters and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.”

Before this, if you wanted to receive Amber Alerts on your phone, you had to opt-in with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The program was simply called the Wireless Amber Alert program, and you’d have to not only sign up online but also specify which locations you wanted to get alerts from. Only around 700,000 or so people did this, so its reach was limited. Now, anyone with a cellphone receives the alerts by default.

While the previous Wireless Amber Alert program was SMS text-based, the current Emergency Alert program uses a technology called Cell Broadcast, which delivers messages to all phones within range of designated cell towers. It doesn’t send the message to individual recipients, so it doesn’t need to know your phone number and it doesn’t need to know who you are. This way, the alert also won’t be affected by voice and SMS text channels, which are typically more congested. Wireless Emergency Alert notifications are always free.

Each alert will contain up to 90 characters and is designed to be loud and unusual enough to capture your attention. The alert also typically only goes out to a certain geographic area where it would be of most use. So if a child was last seen in San Francisco, the Amber Alert would be sent to everyone in San Francisco, or at least in California. Sometimes the Alert is expanded to several states simultaneously, as was the case with missing 16-year-old Hannah Anderson from San Diego in 2013; authorities followed her abductor through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state and Idaho, sending out Amber Alerts in each state.

It’s worth noting that not every missing-child report results in an Amber Alert. Not only is it reserved for “serious child-abduction cases,” it’s also provided only when authorities have enough information to put in the alert, such as the description of the child, the abductor or at least the type of vehicle they were last seen in. The goal of an Amber Alert is to “instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child.”

And, apparently, it works. Hannah, for example, was found in Idaho thanks to an Amber Alert warning on television. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 857 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the Amber Alert program. However, only 38 were thanks to wireless emergency alerts, which is less than 5 percent of all recoveries (the rest were found through Amber Alerts on TV or the radio).

Still, that’s 38 kids who otherwise would not have been found. Of those children, one is an 8-month-old boy in Minnesota, who was found because a neighbor saw the alert on his phone and recognized a Kia that matched the description. Another was a 7-month-old in New York City, who was recovered after the alert led to a tip sent to the police hot line.

You can disable these notifications if you wish. In Android, the settings will be under Cell Broadcast, while on iOS, you’ll find the Government Alerts toggle under Notifications. But, seeing as these alerts could save lives, we suggest leaving them on.

Oh, and about that Amber Alert that I received last Friday? The child’s name is Makai Bangoura, and he was found safe in Culver City, which is 400 miles from San Francisco. Alex Bastian of the San Francisco district attorney’s office tells ABC 7 News that “the Amber Alert played a pivotal role” in his recovery.

‘Far Cry 5’ brings cult mayhem to Hope County February 27th

Far Cry 5 is going to be a little different than you might expect. The new announcement trailer paints a picture of pastoral life that lends itself surprisingly well to the franchise’s familiar trappings: hunting, off-road vehicles, airplanes and guns. And it seemingly wraps it all together in a way that seems like a more grounded version of Grand Theft Auto V’s depiction of a rural life of crime.

As hinted at by the cover art reveal, religion plays a big role here as well. The Eden’s Gate cult is terrorizing the local community under the guise of saving the residents’ souls. Naturally that involves forced baptisms/drownings while also holding what looks like a bible and keeping someone on their knees by waving a rifle in their face. You know, light narrative fare.

The development team spent a few weeks in Montana doing on-site research and also studied religious cults in an attempt to depict them correctly, the PlayStation Blog notes. Rather than focus on one central villain as in games past, the idea here was to build a realistic framework around Joseph Seed, the leader of Eden’s Gate.

“We look back at some of the characters that we’ve created before, and we’ve had those key moments where you sit down with them, and you look at them eye to eye,” creative director Dan Hay says. “But we kind of did it with one character at a time, and each game was a face-off. This time, we thought it’d be really interesting if we created a cast of characters like that.”

So, there’s Jacob the head of security; John, a lawyer who advances the cult’s public presence and Faith who “keeps the cult’s members pacified.”

Ubisoft promises that there will be more revealed during its E3 media briefing on June 12th, but if you’re curious for more before then, there’s plenty of info tucked away on the game’s official website.

The trailer says that this was captured from in-engine footage, but maybe don’t expect actual gameplay visuals to look exactly like this next February 27th on your PC, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

Source: Ubisoft (YouTube), PlayStation Blog

Truly intelligent enemies could change the face of gaming

Live, die, repeat — the tagline for the 2014 science-fiction film Edge of Tomorrow — describes its protagonist, who “respawned” every time he died in the real world. Critics noted that the conceit resembled the cyclical experience of playing a video game, in which dying resets a staged arrangement of obstacles. Often these are enemies, and the most common way they’re surpassed is by the player violently dispatching them. Some games have kept this as cartoonish as Mario jumping on a Goomba’s head, but others strive for vivid action and more-lifelike foes to pit the player against. But we know what enemies look like today — how will we treat them in the games to come?

Put another way: How will violence in gaming change in the future?

The question is broad, and a little loaded. Gaming’s evolution was stricken by moral panic about the effect of violent video games on kids. In those days, Mortal Kombat and Doom convinced the fearful that engaging in bloody digital combat — as real as it looked in glorious 16-bit — would warp players’ minds. This cultural anxiety still spikes from time to time, but as those youths grew into adults no more prone to carnage than anyone else, the argument’s long lost its teeth.

Freed from cultural pillories, gaming started looking inward. As the industry yearns for artistic respect, critics are asking more of violent games. In the mainstream big-studio titles, we still shoot, stab and detonate digital enemies, but some see the relationship between players and foes as ripe for exploring. One of the most popular games that ventured into this territory was Shadow of Mordor.

Released by studio Monolith Productions in September 2014, Mordor placed the player in the boots of Talion, a Ranger of Gondor who is unjustly killed. His body possessed by a wraith, Talion becomes a revenant obsessed with avenging the murder of his family, while the elven ghost inside him remembers a forgotten past. His wraithlike powers enable him to mentally dominate Orcs and set them on their former comrades. The murky moralism — you essentially enslave Orcs but use them for “good” — and brutal violence disturbed some reviewers, but it didn’t stunt the game’s success.

Monolith is gearing up to release a sequel, Shadow of War, this August. This time around, Orcs follow Talion willingly as he challenges Sauron for rule of Middle-Earth, fighting his enemies (Orcs still faithful to Mordor) and even forming a bodyguard cadre to protect their leader. Ditching mind control in favor of a strongman cult creates a more fertile arena for dynamic relationships to develop between players and their erstwhile allies and enemies, according to Michael de Plater, creative director for Shadow of War at Monolith.

“Unlike in Shadow of Mordor, where basically their whole minds got wiped by that experience, we wanted [the Orcs] to keep their personalities, and also still have some possibilities where they can still break free and even betray you or go back to Sauron. So it is more of an allegiance of a relationship rather than just straight enslaving them,” de Plater told Engadget.

“There’s a definite tension between those two things — are you enslaving them, or are you recruiting them?”

“But at the same time, it is still definitely under the influence of the Ring of Power. There’s a definite tension between those two things — are you enslaving them, or are you recruiting them? And how free are they, and what sort of stories can get created with that? … We certainly explore through the course of the story … some of the Orcs react to, and explore, and talk about, and create different events as well,” de Plater said.

Like the first game, Shadow of War will use the “Nemesis” system to generate unique Orc captains and pit them against each other in a bloody hierarchy. The system ended up creating memorable enemies that players would recall years later on Reddit forums, de Plater said: They’d kill named Orc lieutenants the system assigned a random personality and set of attributes, who would return with a grudge and sometimes kill the player, creating a brutal cycle with both parties knowing the score.

Most but not all of these named Orcs will be randomly created. Some will still be scripted by Monolith to fulfill a specific purpose in the game’s story. In future games in the series — and across the industry, in general — de Plater hopes that procedurally-generated enemies will have such advanced AI and reaction protocols that players will develop relationships with them without realizing the NPC’s lines and behaviors weren’t written out beforehand.

“The ultimate goal would be that you have something that looks and feels at the level of detail of something that was entirely scripted, but it is taking place entirely procedurally,” de Plater said. “I think everyone’s still a fair way away from that.”

The Monolith Productions team isn’t alone in believing that one of gaming’s frontiers lies with the unpredictability of AI-controlled enemies and allies. Mitu Khandaker teaches on the topic as assistant arts professor at NYU Game Center — but as chief creative officer at artificial-intelligence company Spirit AI, she’s also working with a team to develop technology for companies to use in their own games.

“What we do is build tools to help developers creatively author story scenarios and author personalities for characters and the kinds of things that characters might say, but then those characters might improvise based on the space that you’ve authored for them,” Khandaker told Engadget. “There’s a lot of potential there for players to really have deeper, more meaningful conversations with characters.”

“There’s a lot of potential there for players to really have deeper, more meaningful conversations with characters.”

Spirit AI’s efforts could be summarized as “building technology which will let us make the walking simulator a conversation,” according to Khandaker. Think of the squad’s idle chatter in Mass Effect, or the casual smalltalk during long car rides in Final Fantasy XV: Pre-written, nonessential dialogue tumbling out of an algorithmic generator that organically delivers exposition and character detail. But what if those AI characters talking to the player and making up responses on the fly — even if they’re enemy grunts with their guns drawn?

Khandaker can imagine creating games where the enemies aren’t just tokens or pawns but more fully formed virtual characters. “Instead of just committing violence upon some kind of enemy, maybe [players will be] trying to understand their motives, she said. “Now, in this cultural context, more than ever, a human understanding of the reasons why people make decisions they do is super-important. Even if, on some level, we think decisions people make might be evil, we still need to have the level of understanding because that’s how we learn and grow and how we combat evil.”

What Shadow of War won’t have are human enemies that players can mind control or kill in gruesome ways: Your foes will be Mordor-born Orcs who span the gray-brown gamut and exhibit the violent, traitorous ways of their race. This is intentional.

“One of the challenging things is striking the balance of having a game that’s fundamentally pretty gritty and violent, but also making sure that we have this humor in there and this levity to it,” de Plater said. “Ultimately, even though it is dealing with some dark themes, there is a cartoony level of violence as well. Orcs represent these caricatures. Everything’s turned up to 11 in terms of their personality and their characters and their faults, and the violence of their society and how power-crazed they all are; how backstabbing and cutthroat they are against anyone.”

In short, you’ll be dispatching and commanding a class of enemy designed to be dynamically interesting yet disposable in a way that shouldn’t trigger a player’s ethical qualms. Game critic Austin Walker believed that the first game, Shadow of Mordor, failed to justify Talion’s anti-Orc kill-and-enslave crusade: “But we’re told again and again that these Orcs want to destroy beautiful things. It just doesn’t hold up, and this tension extends to every element of their narrative and systemic characterizations. These Orcs have fears, interests, values, rivalry and friendships. Some Orcs are lovingly protective of their bosses or underlings. But they are ‘savage creatures’ that ‘hate beauty,’ so go ahead and enslave them,” Walker wrote.

At least Shadow of War will strive to explore new and uncomfortable relationships between player and enemy. Even if it never lets players forget Orcs are villains at their core, some will attempt to liberate themselves from any overlord, dark or bright, de Plater said. He didn’t specify whether these autonomy-seeking enemies will be a scripted faction in the game. But imagine wandering down the sludgy Mordor foothills only to find a procedurally-generated band of Orcs that avoid conflict and try to run away from you, the bogeyman who’s murdered (or recruited) all their friends, as they search for a better life.

Imbuing enemies with relatable traits — human traits — is as fascinating as it is discomforting. Since their inception, single-player games have driven a hard wedge between players and enemies by making the latter alien and threatening. Space Invaders and Galaga literally used aliens, while Missile Defense tossed unthinking explosives at the vulnerable people populating the player’s cities. The dawn of the first-person-shooter genre featured demonic monsters in Doom and Nazis in Wolfenstein 3D, enemies so unrelatable that players don’t think when gunning them down.

Spirit AI’s clients are using its AI-conversation tech to augment NPC allies, though Khandaker’s team is starting to graft it onto enemies. But it’s really up to whoever uses Spirit’s tools, and whichever studio decides to challenge players with ordinary foes that do more than shoot in their direction.

“I would love to see that as a moral choice that you make. It should be sometimes deeply troubling, depending on your particular game, that somebody is so human and so full of their own motive, doing the things that they’re doing, that it’s not so easy to dehumanize them,” Khandaker said.

“I think that through good, well-considered design, we’ll get to a point where actually these interactions with characters help us to better understand the motivations that real people have.”

“This is why I think it comes down to designing photo-realistic, naturalistic AI really well. If [designers] let you push them around, you’re going to maybe transfer that to real people. If, however, they don’t — if they push back and they try and do the emotional labor of helping you to understand what it is to interact with someone in a nice, well-considered way — then you can maybe transfer that to your interactions with people,” Khandaker said. “I think that through good, well-considered design, we’ll get to a point where actually these interactions with characters help us to better understand the motivations that real people have.”

Whether AI tech will develop substantially in the next few years and, ultimately, whether improving enemy and ally AI will positively affect the player’s experience, is another question. As Compulsion Games’ Creative Director Guillaume Provost points out, making smarter enemies doesn’t matter much if the player doesn’t know what’s going on.

“Making AIs that are believable often involve stuff that’s not that technical and has a lot more to do with the acting parts that are involved in the AI,” Provost said. “So it’s not so much the sophistication of the technology behind it as it is the sophistication of expressing what’s going on in their heads to the player.”

“It’s not so much the sophistication of the technology behind it as it is the sophistication of expressing what’s going on in their heads to the player.”

For Provost, that meant tweaking some gameplay in Compulsion Games’ latest title, We Happy Few, which was released in Early Access last year. In it, players try to escape an English city whose denizens imbibe drugs en masse to forget their communal crimes — and punish those who won’t do the same. In playtesting, this meant making the hostile NPCs warn the player several times before violently reacting. They couldn’t assume players would pick up on cues because in gaming, players’ attention is focused on what they’re interacting with at the time.

“The truth is, it’s not a movie where you sit down and watch people the whole time. You’re actively doing stuff. You’re running around, you’re stealing stuff. The player has a smaller portion of their brain left to understand what the people around them are doing,” Provost said.

Which is why developers have to treat player attention as a resource and be smart about what they make intelligent. Provost recalled a story about the grunts in the first Halo who were programmed to yell out “I surrender” and wave their arms around — but players would gun them down before the little enemies could bark out their lines. Similarly, Provost doesn’t see nearly as much use for plugging more AI into enemies to make them smarter in future games.

“The biggest advances that I found in my actual experience don’t have that much to do with technology. They have to do with the sophistication that we can actually window-dress AIs as human characters. And there’s nowhere we’ve moved for faster in that area, I think, than in companion AIs that are going to accompany you, and for the simple reason that you have much more opportunities to actually build an emotional response to those people,” Provost said. “If you walk down the street and shoot a guy, you’ve literally spent 10 seconds with him.”

Which explains the success of companions like Elizabeth in BioShock Infinite or Ellie in The Last of Us. Specifically, their AI was deliberately programmed to recognize downtime and start chit-chatting — the smalltalk between action set pieces that draws the player closer to companions. But players don’t spend nearly as much time around enemies, so there’s much less opportunity for their programming to shine. And if you plug AI into their performance, well, it’s really easy to make an AI that never misses — that’s why cheaters in shooter games use aimbots.

“The biggest fun there is in AI is being able to predict successfully what they’re doing, which is completely counterintuitive to the idea of having this really deep AI. If you’re playing a game and the AI’s always completely unpredictable, it just turns into a frustrating experience for the player because they can’t learn a good strategy to actually succeed at the game,” Provost said. “[The key is] having a good balance where, over time, the player gets to master a game by understanding, whether at a conscious or subconscious level, what is likely going to result from their action and being able to strategize which actions to take. It’s a cornerstone of making AI interesting when you’re playing them as foes.”

“If you’re playing a game and the AI’s always completely unpredictable, it just turns into a frustrating experience for the player because they can’t learn a good strategy to actually succeed at the game.”

There’s an obvious question here: Why make enemies more complex if you’re just going to shoot them? Players have been dispatching foes since video games moved past Pong 45 years ago. They are obstacles. But big-budget studios are spending lots of money making them look like really pretty obstacles to shoot at. A time might come where the disparity between human-looking-but-robotic-acting enemies becomes too jarring.

“It’s a problem when you’re making games increasingly photo-realistic and though the enemies are representative of real people, they don’t really act like real people. If enemies are just cartoonish representations, then perhaps it’s not a problem if they’re not fully-formed individuals,” Khandaker said. When enemies are photo-realistic and representative of gender or race or a demographic, it’s more problematic to blur identities. “You see this a lot with games representing terrorists. It’s often this idea of ‘generic brown person.’ I think that is a problem. We need to start understanding that people who look like humans should also behave like humans.”

In 2017, imposing greater sensitivity in games to stay away from stereotypes seems like a no-brainer. Not that games aren’t still committing the sins of racial omission, but the cure is obvious: diversity and research. Striving toward accurate representation.

Whether to make enemies smarter is another question. Especially when big-budget games are crafted to be enjoyable experiences that don’t tax your brain. They spur a pleasurable feedback loop, said Miguel Sicart, associate professor at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen.

“By the end of the day, what players want is to have enemies that have patterns that are ultimately recognizable so we can beat them. That’s the goal of every player: to get so good at something that they can beat the enemy,” Sicart told Engadget. At their core, a lot of big-budget games aren’t really designed to think deeper than providing satisfying player-vs.-computer combat. “We are never going to see Call of Duty be morally nuanced, the same as we are never going to see The Fast And Furious be morally nuanced; but they also don’t need to be. They’re just empty popcorn that feels really good.”

The violence in many games — especially ones putting the character in military boots gunning for enemies of freedom — doesn’t bother Sicart. It’s the lack of context that worries him. Why are players where they are, mowing down digital interchangeable mooks? Are there consequences to going to war?

“There’s currently a rhetoric [in gaming] about war that’s not glorifying it, but not necessarily not glorifying it,” Sicart said. “You can see this in the US media when Trump ordered strikes on Syria and the media went crazy about the beauty of these missiles. We’ve lost a little bit in the media landscape — this capacity of saying, ‘Holy shit, we are throwing missiles at people.’”

That disconnect troubles Sicart. People uploading videos to YouTube of gruesome kills and testicle-shattering sniper montages is a glorification of sorts, which is “one step toward this trivialization of war and conflict and death and violence,” he said. We’ve always had violence, stretching back to the Iliad and Odyssey graphically describing dismemberment-by-cyclops, Sicart points out, and violence is a part of how we express ourselves as humans. But a lot of war games make violence the unique selling point: They are about the carnage. They are about the death.

“… Some of these games are propaganda. To me, they are the worst type of propaganda because it’s propaganda that you not only consume by reading and listening, but you have to participate.”

“We have to be careful with how we sell what, by the end of the day, is just coppers and robbers on a computer. Careful how we sell these things and careful with how we try to tie it to real military discourse. Careful how we try to tie it to conflicts in the real world. We have to be careful with these things, because we are feeding a general media discourse that maybe we don’t want to feed,” Sicart said. “I mean, to be perfectly honest, some of these games are propaganda. To me, they are the worst type of propaganda because it’s propaganda that you not only consume by reading and listening, but you have to participate.”

The point isn’t just to be careful about what studios are making for their audiences, but how aware they are of their medium’s failings. The 2012 cult classic Spec Ops: The Line has been duly lauded for its self-awareness amid a sea of identical military shooters (what Sicart calls “these brown-looking video games where you are a disembodied gun shooting other people”) for pushing players to seriously evaluate why they thoughtlessly careen through other titles gunning down whomever is tossed in their way. But that was five years ago. Since then, which games have come along to seriously challenge the player’s relationship with violence?

“It may take five years, or maybe 10, but I think we are slowly getting to the position when video games are wanting to actively participate in the cultural debate, and therefore we will have a much more nuanced take on violence,” Sicart said. “We will be able to call bullshit on violence for violence’s sake. We will be able to call bullshit on video games that just want to glorify discourses that we don’t want in culture.”

That’s the same argument we’ve been hearing for years. But video games are slowly opening up to the increasingly widespread format of virtual reality. With top-line headsets getting bundles and smartphone-powering headsets like Google Daydream and Samsung VR getting more support, the medium is growing day by day. Its tech immerses players deeper into the worlds and experiences developers create for them.

Khandaker’s doctoral research involved putting test subjects through the paces of a game she made. Players went on a climb with a friend, simulating the tactile hand-over-hand action of ascending a rock face grip by grip. You reach the top ahead of your partner, when she suddenly drops, dangling far below on a rope rapidly fraying under the weight of both of you.

“This NPC starts screaming at you to just cut the rope and just let her die, and all of these things. As the player, you have to make the decision about whether you do that, and it’s very time-sensitive, so you have to make the decision about whether you’re going to cut this friend of yours loose and ultimately murder her, or are you going to not make a decision and let the rope break and kill the both of you,” Khandaker said. “It was really fascinating because the decisions that people made were very different in VR versus as a classic interface. People took longer to make the decision about what to do, people felt worse about it, in VR. People felt closer to the character in VR.”

“It was really fascinating because the decisions that people made were very different in VR versus as a classic interface. People took longer to make the decision about what to do, people felt worse about it, in VR. People felt closer to the character in VR.”

But after a follow-up questionnaire, Khandaker sat down to interview every player, and most of them — even the ones who were visibly upset — settled down and told her it was fun, that it was just a game. Even in the immersion of VR, players retain the double consciousness of emotional involvement in the experience with awareness that it’s still a simulation.

“That’s always been there, even if you are doing the worst kind of dehumanizing– sort of mowing through enemies in a photo-realistic game. You can slightly feel bad about it, but you also know it’s a game,” Khandaker said. “In VR, that effect is even more pronounced. We feel worse about the things we do but we also know what we’re doing is just a game. There’s a lot of potential to play with those feelings. Especially … if characters seem even more like real characters, if they’re able to respond to you.”

In other words, VR immersion augments gaming, but it’s the connections that dramatically affect the player experience. Part of that means simulating human conventions — move this way, react that way, emote like we would — softening their perfect reflexes and senses to let players compete on more even ground.

“Making an AI really good or really skilled, that’s a problem we solved day one. We spend an inordinate amount of time making them suck. Making an AI look really smart, because they’re either flanking you or they’re appearing to work as a group together, that is immersion,” Provost said. “It’s not intelligence, and the immersion is done by us collectively understanding what are the best ways to communicate to the player, ‘Hey, I’m doing something intelligent,’ whether they’re really doing something intelligent or not.”

“Making an AI really good or really skilled, that’s a problem we solved day one. We spend an inordinate amount of time making them suck.”

For Eric Zimmerman of the NYU Game Center, however, humans are still the apex of depth and complexity. We’ll probably get complex character moments from AI partners in the future, but the best examples are in human-to-human interaction, Zimmerman maintained. Skirmishes, deceptions, alliances built up over time only to get dashed by a mole intent on starting a war — you can find that, and more, in EVE Online thanks to its dedicated player community.

“The stories coming out of EVE Online are the stories people want to come out of other games,” Zimmerman said. Most recently, the space-age MMO saw the leader of one of its most elite pirate gangs get conned out of a one-of-a-kind ship worth 300 billion in-game Isk (or about $2,600 in real currency, according to this exchange). But the game is infamous for its betrayals, faction infiltration, frontier piracy and colossal space battles, all happening at a scale that would seem impossible for a single game filled with AI NPCs to mimic.

Human interaction or intention in design will bring depth, Zimmerman concludes — not purely new technology. He recalls a moment during a presentation at a Game Developers Conference in the early 2000s when a Sony executive was crowing about the latest cutting-edge development in the then-latest PlayStation console. “‘Finally, we’ll have high-resolution tears running down high-resolution cheeks as they’re crying, and we’ll finally have deep emotions in characters,’” Zimmerman recalls him saying.

“The idea that technology guarantees a meaningful experience is false. All of this tech is still just an expressive tool for people to use to express themselves, to score ideas, to make statements about the world,” Zimmerman said. “The human decisions that go into a game are far, far more important than the technology that’s driving the experience.”

But it’s the awkward attempts, the false starts and grand aspirations dashed by bizarre results that mark the progress of video games. Ambitious games that failed to live up to their hyped AI complexity, like Peter Molyneux’s Black and White or Stephen Spielberg and EA’s scrapped LMNO project, nonetheless leave conceptual scraps for later titles to pick up.

Among the disappointments are successes like Left For Dead, which debuted in 2008 with its “AI Director” that shuffled enemies and items around for dynamic and dramatically different playthroughs. Half-Life 2 debuted in 2004 with its AI companion Alex, and almost a decade later in 2013, gaming got her successors Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite and Ellie in The Last Of Us. Imagine what kind of AI-filled worlds we’ll get to play in a decade from this August’s Shadow of War.

Image credits: Matthew Lyons (lead illustration); Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment (‘Shadow of War’); 2K Games (‘Bioshock’); 2K Games/NeoGAF (‘Spec-Ops: The Line’ screenshot).

Welcome to Tomorrow, Engadget’s new home for stuff that hasn’t happened yet. You can read more about the future of, well, everything, at Tomorrow’s permanent home and check out all of our launch week stories here.

This Week’s Cover of ‘The New Yorker’ Was Sketched on an iPad

This week’s cover of The New Yorker has been sketched using an iPad and Apple Pencil, created by illustrator Jorge Colombo. The image depicts Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn Heights that Colombo frequents, with the artwork capturing a couple of basketball games and spectators at the park.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared The New Yorker cover on Twitter this morning, with a quote from Colombo who mentioned his fear that one of the basketballs would fly near him and hit his iPad.

It’s one of my favorite places to hang out,” Jorge Colombo says, about the park he sketched, on an iPad, for the cover of this week’s issue. “I live down the street, in Brooklyn Heights, so I go there all the time, either to take the East River Ferry or just to relax by the water.

It is a magnet—people come from all of Brooklyn’s many neighborhoods just to take a selfie by the waterfront or picnic by the water. This was a risky drawing to make, though: I kept worrying that the ball would hit me or the iPad.”

The New Yorker also shared a video of Colombo’s illustration process on its website this week. Apple’s iPad and Apple Pencil have been celebrated as tools for artists in the past, with Apple recently highlighting Rob Zilla’s NBA illustrations. Apple’s tablet was even used to create the poster for Stranger Things on Netflix.

Related Roundups: iPad Pro, iPad mini 4 (2015)
Tag: Apple Pencil
Buyer’s Guide: 9.7″ iPad Pro (Don’t Buy), iPad Mini (Caution), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Don’t Buy)
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Best Buy Memorial Day Sale Savings on Apple Watch, Mac Notebooks, 9.7-Inch iPad Pro, and More

Best Buy today launched a four-day-long Memorial Day sale that has markdowns on quite a few Apple products, including Apple Watch, iPhone 7, iPhone SE, iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac. The four day sale begins today and ends on Memorial Day, this Monday, May 29.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy and may earn commissions on purchases made through these links.

The first item up for sale is Apple Watch Series 2, which Best Buy has marked down $70 for nearly all models of Apple’s wearable device. Each purchase of an Apple Watch during the event will net customers free in-store setup and advice by Geek Squad.

Aluminum case models including Nike are priced at $299 for 38mm or $329 for 42mm, while stainless steel models range from $479 to $679 depending on casing color and band combinations.

Best Buy’s iPhone 7 sale lets customers save up to $300 when they buy and activate an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus on a monthly installment plan, with carrier plan options varying by store. Similarly, Best Buy is offering up to $200 off the iPhone SE 16GB and 64GB models with the purchase of a monthly installment plan.

For Mac notebooks, Best Buy is providing discounts of between $200 and $250 on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar isn’t included in the site’s Memorial Day sale. Customers who buy one of the MacBooks will also get six months of Trend Micro Internet Security for free, which will cover up to three iOS, Mac, Android, or Windows devices for the time frame.

Best Buy has marked down numerous versions of Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro, with savings between $100 and $125 off of the devices in Wi-Fi only configurations. Discounts of $100 are also available on iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi models. With the purchase of an iPad customers will receive a free six months of Kaspersky Internet Security that covers a range of three devices across iOS, Mac, Android, and Windows.

Best Buy has a few deals on iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros this weekend, with savings going up to $200 on iMac and $100 on Mac mini, with the same free warranty offer as it’s offering for customers purchasing a MacBook. Best Buy is also knocking $600 off of the original price of the quad-core Mac Pro that has discontinued been by Apple.

Finally, the Memorial Day sale also includes a few smart home items, like connected light bulbs and the Nanoleaf Aurora lighting system. Beats by Dre Powerbeats3 Wireless headphones are on sale for $129.99 ($70 in savings), as well as the DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter drone at $999.99 ($200 in savings). Customers can choose between free in-store pick up on all items, or get free two-day shipping for any orders over $35.

Visit Best Buy’s Hot Deals page here to see the full list of products available before the Memorial Day sale ends on Monday.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
Tag: Best Buy
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The iPhone 8 is back to having an embedded Touch ID sensor according to report

The Economic Daily News, via Digitimes, has reported that Apple will in fact use a new optical fingerprint sensor technology to embed a Touch ID sensor in the front of the OLED panel. The EDN cites Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as the source of the information.

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?

TSMC is responsible for developing the new A11 processing chip that will no doubt feature in the iPhone, so the source is a good one, but it does of course contradicts several other reports that suggest the iPhone 8 will have a rear-mounted Touch ID scanner. It was thought up until now that the technology to embed a sensor in the screen wouldn’t be able to be produced on such a large scale. It seems that truth be told, nobody knows for sure what will happen until the new iPhone is held aloft on stage.The sensor will show up on the screen as a virtual home button, where you will just need to place your finger, or thumb, whichever you have assigned, to unlock the phone and authorise payments.The report also mentions an infrared sensor on the front of the phone, which will be used for facial recognition functions. This is something we’ve heard before, so it’s good to have another source add some weight to the rumour.The iPhone 8 is expected to have an edge-to-edge display, similar to the Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8 phones. It will even allegedly sport the same aspect ratio as its Samsung rival, changing from 16:9 on the iPhone 7, to an 18.5:9 ratio instead.

• This latest iPhone 8 schematic shows rear-mounted Touch ID sensor
• iPhone 8 to come with “revolutionary” facial recognition front-camera system
• Apple iPhone 8 in pictures: Renders and leaked photos
• This video render shows just how gorgeous the iPhone 8 could be

We initially expected the iPhone 8 to launch alongside the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus at Apple’s usual September keynote address, but reported issues with the production of OLED panels may push it back to November.