Best Android Tablet Under $100

• Best Overall
• Best for kids
• Great alternative

Best Overall

Amazon Fire HD 8

See at Amazon

Amazon has pretty much nailed what it takes to make a good, low-cost tablet. It’s been doing it for a while and what you get in the latest Fire HD 8 is pound-for-pound the best tablet around for less than $100.

It’s got a decent screen, all the content you could wish for, Alexa, and enough power even to push some of the latest games. You don’t have Google Play, but Amazon’s Appstore is much better than in years past.

Bottom line: You can’t do better below $100.

One more thing: You can only get the 16GB version for under $100, but it has microSD expansion.

Why the Amazon Fire HD 8 is the best

Not having the Google Play Store is no longer a reason not to recommend Amazon’s tablets. The truth is that while some apps, namely Google’s, will be missing, for most buying a cheap tablet it’s not the end of the world.

Amazon is the best reason not to avoid cheap tablets anymore.

Amazon has cornered the market for affordable tablets with a focus on consumption. Its own services are front and center, of course, but you’ll also find the other big services there to add to your tablet.

You’re also getting pretty good hardware given the price. The 1280×800 display looks pretty good, 16GB of internal storage is OK but you can also slap in a massive microSD card and expand that by a lot. You’re also looking at around 12-hours ‘mixed use’ battery life and a tablet that’s strong enough to take a tumble or two.

It used to be the case that we’d warn you to stay well clear of cheap Android tablets. Amazon is the best reason that no longer applies.

Best for kids

Amazon Fire 7 Kids Edition

See at Amazon

Beneath the giant, tough as boots case, this is basically a regular 7-inch Amazon Fire tablet. So why is it twice the price? You’re getting double the base model’s internal storage, that special kid-friendly case, and one heck of a warranty.

With the Kids Edition comes a two-year warranty where you can literally just cash in for a new one if your kid breaks it. No questions asked. That alone is worth the extra cost. That and the year of Freetime included to give the little ones some great, targeted content.

Bottom line: Everything that’s good about the regular Fire tablet but with added kid-friendly bonuses

One more thing: The latest model supports expanded storage up to 256GB and dual-band WiFi.

A dual-booting alternative

Chuwi Hi8 Pro

See at Amazon

This brand you may never have heard of has produced an excellent, low-cost Android tablet that’s also a Windows 10 tablet. It also has a 1920×1200 resolution 8-inch display, USB-C charging and a pretty capable Intel Atom x5 processor.

The Android part of this tablet may well fare worse when it comes to updates than the Windows portion, but there’s a lot in this package for less than $100. The hardware is basically unrivaled at this price point, and it can be a little PC, too.

Bottom line: Half Windows, half Android, all great, budget tablet.

One more thing: The official keyboard case is also very affordable and can give you a mini laptop on the go.

Conclusion

It used to be the case that buying a cheap Android tablet was a bad thing to do. Thanks to Amazon, that’s no longer the case. The best offering is the 8-inch, but you’ve also got smaller and larger versions, as well as those targeted at providing a great experience for your kids. It’s hard to go wrong.

Best Overall

Amazon Fire HD 8

See at Amazon

Amazon has pretty much nailed what it takes to make a good, low-cost tablet. It’s been doing it for a while and what you get in the latest Fire HD 8 is pound-for-pound the best tablet around for less than $100.

It’s got a decent screen, all the content you could wish for, Alexa, and enough power even to push some of the latest games. You don’t have Google Play, but Amazon’s Appstore is much better than in years past.

Bottom line: You can’t do better below $100.

One more thing: You can only get the 16GB version for under $100, but it has microSD expansion.

YouTube TV vs. Sling TV: Which one is worth the monthly subscription fee?

Should you pick Google’s live TV service that’s limited by area, or does Sling TV’s tiered pricing seem more up your alley?

The greatest gift given to me by Google and Sling is the promise of live TV wherever I am on whatever device I have in my hand — as long as I’m paying the monthly subscription fee, of course. I’ve missed cable so very much; the on demand way of life is certainly appealing when your world is upside down and your schedule is constantly in flux, but as I’ve been adjusting my life to be more serene and scheduled, it means I’ve also found time to sit down and watch my favorite shows in real time.

At present, YouTube TV and Sling TV are the two over-the-internet television services worth choosing between if you want cross-platform watchability. (Hulu’s Live TV is currently available in beta, but we’ll revisit it once it’s fully launched. Plex also offers a live option, but it’s limited to Android TV.) They both offer ways to watch live television while you’re on the go or at home, as well as a vast on-demand library and cloud DVR capabilities.

Their pricing structure isn’t the same, however, and I found that overall, YouTube TV is the better deal for those who want a fluid television experience with recording capabilities. If only it weren’t so limited by region.

The all-inclusive nature of YouTube TV

There is a definite difference between marketing strategies for YouTube TV and Sling TV. The former seems more positioned as an add-on to your already involved YouTube experience — the fourth thing you see when you scroll through the app on an Android device is original YouTube Red content. But for the most part, the subscription content you view on YouTube and the television you watch with YouTube TV remains mostly segregated.

For $35 a month, YouTube TV offers 46 different channels, including the major network television stations, a bevy of live sports channels, and bilingual content from Telemundo. You won’t get all the local channels like you would with regular cable, however, which means you’ll miss out on PBS and public access television in the crawl. (Thankfully, PBS is already available to stream for free online.)

If you’re aching for more than what YouTube TV currently offers, add-ons are pretty limited.

If you’re aching for more than what YouTube TV currently offers, add-ons are pretty limited. You can add on a Showtime package for $11 extra a month, or Fox Soccer Plus, which offers access to all the big matches for $15 a month. If you desire more, you’ll have to satiate your desire for more content by subscribing to a third-party video streaming service, like Netflix.

YouTube TV is only available in New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area (I’ve tested it as far out as San Jose and as far north as Petaluma), Chicago, and Philadelphia. If you’re not in either of these areas, you won’t have access to the service, nor can you watch any recorded content you may have set up beforehand. I had to pay Google Play on top of my monthly subscription to YouTube TV while I was in Iceland, for instance, to stay caught up on my shows regardless of the fact that I had programmed YouTube to record them. This isn’t live TV on the go.

If you’re a television buff, however, and you’re wholly devoted to staying on top of your favorite shows as they debut on television, YouTube TV’s built-in nearly-unlimited DVR feature is incredible. You can set it up to record any show or movie as it plays on live television, or follow your favorite sports teams for that matter. You can then access those recordings from your TV Library and they’ll stay in your crawl for up to nine months or until you’ve finished watching them.

Perhaps my favorite feature of YouTube TV is the ability to enable family sharing with up to five additional people. My gal pals and I are all enraptured fans of the Real Housewives series, and I shared my account with them so that we can all stay up to date on the various shenanigans without each of us having to pay individually for the varying sessions through an on-demand video service. And if we feel like binge watching, the subscription to YouTube TV also provides access to all of Bravo’s on-demand content right from within the app.

The a la carte offerings of Sling TV

Sling TV is a much better alternative to cable for the sheer fact that it offers more choice. In fact, it seems to have built a subscription model based entirely on the fact that it is a viable option to cable. What you pay monthly for Sling TV varies on which package you choose, as there are a multitude of tiers and add-ons to choose from. Here’s a sampling of some of what’s available.

Sling Orange

At the basic $20-per-month plan, you get ESPN, TNT, TBS, HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Travel Channel, CNN, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Comedy Central, AMC, IFC, A&E, History Channel, Lifetime, Bloomberg, Newsy, Flama, Viceland, AXS TV, and Cheddar.

Note that some of these channels, including Newsy and Cheddar, are already streaming for free on rival apps like Pluto TV.

Sling Blue

For $25 a month, Sling Blue offers access to the same content as Sling Orange — except for ESPN, strangely — as well as access to content from Fox, NBC, and Viacom’s respective channels. Some of those channels include Bravo, NBC Sports, Syfy, and Univision. You’ll also need to pay for this tier if you want to share your account, and even then you can only enjoy up to three streams at a time.

Sling Blue+Orange

Getting overwhelmed by choice? That’s okay — that’s often a byproduct when the service is a la carte. If you want to add a fourth person to stream, you can pay $40 a month for the Sling Blue+Orange tier, which also unlocks access to ESPN, the Disney Channel, and Freeform. (And if you’ve got a teenager in the house, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to Freeform.)

The add-ons

But wait, there is quite literally more! If you’d like to watch any of the premium television channels in real time, you can subscribe to them for an additional fee. HBO is $15, for instance, while Cinemax is $10. STARZ is also offering a premium pay package for $9, and that includes STARZ Encore. Lastly, SHOWTIME and its affiliated channels can all be added on for an extra $10 a month.

And then, there are more

If you want even more content, here are a sample of some of the packages you can purchase for an additional $5 a month:

• Heartland Extra, which adds PixL, Family Net, Sportsman Channel, Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network, and RFD-TV.

• Kids Extra, which includes Disney Jr., Disney XD, Boomerang, NickToons, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Sling Kids, Duck TV, and Baby TV.

• Sports Extra, which adds the SEC Network, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, NHL Network, Universal Sports, Univision Deportes, beIN Sports, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded, ESPN Goal Line, Campus Insiders, and Outside Television.

• Comedy Extra, which bundles MTV, TruTV, Spike, MTV2, CMT, Logo, TV Land, GSN, and El Rey.

• Lifestyle Extra, which comes with the Cooking Channel, DIY, truTV, WE tv, FYI, LMN, VH1, BET, Vibrant, Oxygen, and E!.

• Hollywood Extra, which includes both live and on-demand content from EPIX, EPIX2, EPIX3, EPIX Drive-In, Sundance TV, Fandor, Turner Classic Movies (also known as TCM), and HDNet Movies.

• News Extra, which includes channels from Fusion, HLN, News 18 India, Euronews, NDTV 24×7, France24, RT, BBC World News, MSNBC, CNBC , and TheBlaze.

• And lastly, you can choose from Broadcast Extra, which only available in select cities. This package includes ABC, Univision, and UniMas.

There are also extra tiers if you speak Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, French, German, and Brazilian Portuguese. You can view the entirety of the constantly changing lineup here.

After reading all this, you might feeling a little overwhelmed. I don’t blame you: signing up for Sling TV is a bit of an experience, as it’s not merely a “tap to subscribe with your Google account” kind of service the way that YouTube TV is. Sling TV does do all of the calculations for you as you add on packages, however, so you can see in real time how much a monthly subscription will cost you. At the very least, the lowest Sling Orange tier seems to offer all the basic channel necessities, including ESPN for the sports buffs.

With so many options, just signing up for Sling TV is a bit of an experience.

Sling TV also has the advantage of working across a variety of devices. Whether you’ve got several set-top boxes, game consoles, or smartphones laying around, they’re all capable of working with Sling TV’s apps. However, as Android users you might find that Sling TV works better on a wired, connected device rather than through Google casting. I can report that I had several issues with regards to streaming Sling TV from my smartphone to the Chromecast, to the effect that the app would randomly freeze up during an advertisement or start over the video feed.

Perhaps the biggest caveat, however, is that Sling TV doesn’t bundle in Cloud DVR like YouTube TV. It’s a $5 add-on, though it’s limited to the Sling Blue and Blue+Orange tiers. It also only offers a 50 hour recording limit, though the videos will stick around as long as it takes you to watch them — there is no nine-month limit like there is on YouTube TV.

Sling TV’s DVR services are also only available on Roku devices, Roku TVs, the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Amazon Fire TV, and Android devices. It’s a bit more robust than YouTube TV’s offerings, however, since you can choose how to record, like whether it’s limited to one time or all showings of a specific program. You don’t get that kind of control over recordings with YouTube TV.

The apps

From left to right: YouTube TV’s front page; your personal library in YouTube TV; the Live TV crawl.

As far as Android app capabilities go, YouTube TV has a number of user interface features working against it. The minute I log into my account, I’m bombarded with all the available content, which can be overwhelming when all I wanted to do was catch one particular show. The Android app also has a propensity to auto start whatever I was watching last, so if the media volume is loud for whatever reason, it can be pretty startling.

I was not a fan of Sling TV’s Android app, but that’s because of its constant crashing and casting issues, which I mentioned above. I have a Roku box as a backup for when things just don’t Chromecast, but I much prefer to be able to grab my phone and send the stream to the television than have to navigate through another system just to watch TV.

Both interfaces have their quirks, but Sling TV’s app wasn’t as stable as YouTube TV.

Sling TV’s user interface is a tad better than YouTube TV’s in the sense of how it organizes the content, though I’m not a fan of its droll color scheme. When you start up the app, it takes you directly to your own customizable landing page, the idea being that you’re immediately led only to the content you’d view. If it were me, for example, I’d set it up with Bravo and E! as my bookmarks, and HGTV as backup. This way, I’m always privy to what trash television is on when I launch the app. If you need to jump into the main channel guide, it’s easily accessible in the overflow menu.

Conversely, YouTube TV requires you scroll over twice to the left. This is fine, and I appreciate the ability to quickly swipe over without even thinking about it to get to what’s on TV, but with the aforementioned auto play issue it can be a little slow to load the latest even on my Pixel XL.

I’d wager the reason that Sling TV’s app interface is so much more navigable is because the company behind it knows television. There’s a bit of a standard to navigating TV; you know how to jump into it wherever there’s a Guide button on the remote, for example, and Sling TV sticks to those typical conventions. YouTube TV, on the other hand, seems more designed for smartphone users, which results in one long, giant page that requires you scroll through a massive number of thumbnails to find what you want. The thumbnails are fine because I can more quickly scan what’s on TV with them there, but man, they are not pretty to look at.

Which one to choose?

Choosing between YouTube TV and Sling TV can seem like a whopper of a choice to make, but the good news is that both services offer trial periods. YouTube TV is currently offering a promotion that gets you a month free of the service, plus a free Chromecast after you subscribe. Sling TV is running a similar promotion with a week free of service, plus a free Roku Stick when you subscribe.

There’s another way to look at the two services if you’re choosing between the two: YouTube TV is made for smartphone users and those who are deeply entrenched in Google’s ecosystem. I like that the app is immediately visible from the Google Home app, for instance, and that all I have to do to log in to the service is link up my Google account. YouTube TV is meant for the Google user, which is also why it works nearly impeccably on both the first- and second-generation Chromecast streaming sticks.

Make your decision based on price and where you expect to use the service most.

Sling TV is made for people who want to ditch their cable companies. It offers the most variety and the most choice, but it’s modeled after the way we wish cable companies would operate. Its services really are a viable option to a Comcast or Time Warner account, and the barrier to entry is relatively low. All you need is a little device that supports the service, which you can buy almost anywhere those things are sold.

In the end, your choice will rely mostly on price. I’d suggest tallying out what it is you pay for separate streaming services and attempting to whittle it down to which would be the most cost efficient and which works best in your region and with the devices you have in your home. Note that both services also offer a giant heaping of movies and on-demand video, which could help as you’re deciding which streaming services to stick with.

Regardless of whether you choose YouTube TV or Sling TV, It’ll be interesting to see how other rival services, like Plex and Hulu, will manage throw a wrench into the live television experience. It’s also possible that this particular idea of live television anywhere will become merely another essential add-on to our already constantly-connected lives.

Apple Glasses AR headset: What’s the story so far?

Apple could be gearing up to enter the augmented reality headset market with the launch of Apple Glasses and they could be announced at WWDC 2017. We’re going with the name Apple Glasses for now, but the codename is thought to be Project Mirrorshade – Apple Iris.

• Apple WWDC 2017: What time does it start, where to watch, and what to expect?

It wouldn’t necessarily be a huge surprise to see Apple enter the fray, although augmented reality has so far been shunned to the side to make way for virtual reality. Google, Oculus VR, Samsung, HTC, Microsoft, and others all either have VR headsets, or are developing new ones. In terms of AR, we’ve seen Google Glass and the Microsoft HoloLens.

Apple Glasses AR headset: Release date

Pinning down a release date for the Apple Glasses is still incredibly difficult right now. It’s only been just recently that we’ve heard more concrete evidence to suggest the Glasses are an actual product Apple is working on. 

• Apple’s rumoured AR smart glasses might finally debut this summer

Over the past year or so, Apple has filed patents, acquired-VR related companies, and hired VR experts. But still, there’s no way to accurately peg a release date based on that.

However, during Apple’s financial Q1 2016 earnings call, Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, was asked a question about virtual reality. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray asked Cook if he had “any high-level thoughts” on VR.

“I know you can’t talk about new products,” Munster said to Apple’s CEO, “Do you think this is more of a geeky niche, or something that could go mainstream?” It’s a fair-enough question, to which Cook casually and quite simply responded: “In terms of virtual reality… uh, no. I don’t think it’s a niche. I think it can be… it’s really cool, and has some interesting applications.”

That’s it. Short and sweet. But several reports are emphasising that Cook didn’t dismiss the idea or discount any recent rumours, so now he has everyone thinking about whether Apple is investing in virtual reality hardware and applications. Piper Jaffray of course expects Apple to release a VR headset as early as 2017.

A Reddit Q&A thread posted by “Foxconninsider” lists more details about the Glasses, but says they’re delayed until 2018/2019, and the project may be scrapped entirely.

Apple Glasses AR headset: Design

We unfortunately don’t have any images or mock-ups of the alleged Apple Glasses to go on, but we do have some information from the Foxconninsider Reddit thread. This thread was set up by a worker at Foxconn, the manufacturer of the majority of Apple’s products. 

• Microsoft HoloLens preview: An augmented vision that’s still very much in the future 

The information says the Glasses will have a Kopin NED acetate frame, available in crystal, champagne and black colour finishes. Where the Apple Glasses could find success where Google’s Glass project didn’t, is in the fact Apple could offer polarised and prescription lenses. This would mean regular glasses wearers could swap out their current glasses and wear Apple’s instead, with augmented reality data layered over the top. 

Regardless of the lenses fitted, the Apple Glasses will use Zeiss smart optics and there will be different sizes for men and women. 

Apple Glasses AR headset: Features

Audio will be transmitted to your ears via bone induction, so that will likely mean you won’t have to put anything headphones into your ears. Instead, from the bone induction technology we’ve previously seen, there will be a small module that will rest around your temple area and transmit audio via sound waves. It frees up your ears to be able to still hear the world around you.

Foxconninsider also says the Apple Glasses will have a built-in light sensor, an accelerometer for tracking your daily steps and head movements, whether it be to access different apps through the lenses or to change displayed information depending on what you’re looking at. There will also be a magnetometer for navigational purposes, such as on-screen directions, a capacitive pavel ceramic battery and Apple’s own chipset. There’s currently no word on which Apple chip the Glasses will use. 

Apple Glasses AR headset: Price

There might not be any real release date to go on, but Foxconninsider has been able to predict a price for the Apple Glasses. The worker responsible for the leaks says the Glasses could start at around $600, based on the price being 4x the bill of materials (BOM) cost.

However, the same worker points out that that means the BOM is $150, which isn’t the case, as that doesn’t include assembly, import duties, shipping, yield, returns and insurance. So the final figure could well be an awful lot more, especially is prescription lenses are thrown in. 

There would likely be further revenue for Apple from the App Store, which will more than likely have dedicated apps to use with the Glasses.

The Morning After: Monday, June 5th 2017

Welcome to the new week. Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off later today. While we will be reporting live from it, we’ve also got thoughts on what you might see, right here.

We also try overclocking processors with liquid nitrogen (and some skill), and explain that the end of SIM cards as we know them is coming. Oh, and Google Photos is now smart enough to delete your useless photos all by itself.

Warning! May contain liquid nitrogen
A total newbie tries overclocking to 7GHz

Asia’s big PC show, Computex, has two competitive arenas: eSports and extreme-PC-overclocking. Even if you don’t have the Counter-Strike skills to cut it it, there’s always the opportunity to pour liquid nitrogen onto a PC motherboard. Total overclocking newbie Richard Lai took up the challenge.

The Assistant will ID pictures that might not require top billing.
Google Photos archiving rolls out with AI-powered suggestions

The new Archive feature recently spotted in Google Photos is now rolling out to all users, but it has an extra trick. While the Archive button lets you push more mundane photos (scans of receipts, screenshots of a random tweet, or maybe particularly personal photograph) out of the main Photos display without deleting it, there’s also a new suggestion in the Assistant tab that will use its machine learning skills to find likely candidates for you. Of course, you can manually archive photos any time you like (they’ll still show up in search or inside albums), but if you already have a significant Photos catalog this should make things easier.

Plastic cards may linger, but expect the big changeover soon.
Computex was a reminder that the age of the eSIM is upon us

Nestled inside your cellphone is a sliver of plastic you almost certainly never think about. Your SIM card basically stores your phone’s identity and passes it along to whatever wireless carrier network you pay for. It’s absolutely crucial to the way your phone operates, but wireless carriers and network companies have been plotting its demise for years. Yes, the future belongs to what’s called an eSIM — short for “embedded SIM” — woven directly into the silicon fabric of a device’s modem. eSIMs may already be in our wearables, but thanks to Intel and Microsoft, they’ll wind up in our phones and PCs before long.

But wait, there’s more…

• Microsoft’s vision for connected PCs gives me hope for Windows
• Sony is building a full-frame digital camera for pro filmmakers
• Recommended Reading: ‘Wonder Woman’ is a timely superhero movie
• After Math: We’re on our own

Palmer Luckey wants to develop a ‘virtual’ border wall

Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus, has revealed that he is working on a new startup that will develop virtual border wall technology. Luckey confirmed as much to The New York Times, which reported that he is in the early stages of building a platform that would automatically watch borders. The system would use a combination of infra-red sensors and LIDAR, the same light-detection gear found in most autonomous cars. The idea would be to use the technology to secure military installations, buildings and in place of a physical border wall.

In a statement given to the Times, Luckey lamented the slow pace of innovation in the defense industry, despite the sums of money spent on it. The multi-millionaire is currently bankrolling the business himself, but the paper believes that Palantir’s Peter Thiel is interested in investing. It’s an increasingly political move by Luckey, who had to distance himself from Oculus after his financial support of Nimble America was made public. Subsequently, Luckey donated $100,000 to support Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Luckey believes that mounting LIDAR sensors on telephone poles would be far more cost-effective as a monitoring system. Currently, such a system would still be pretty pricey, and there is plenty of room for innovation in the space. A long-range LIDAR sensor from a company like Velodyne can cost up to $85,000 per unit, while smaller, cheaper models are priced around $8,000, but have shorter ranges. Luckey’s mission will be to build an affordable system that can cover areas around 500 meters that is smart enough to error-correct for passing animals and birds.

Source: New York Times

Amazon’s Alexa will keep you up to date with the UK election

It’s general election week, and politicians have only four days left to curry favour before we fill those ballot boxes on June 8th. Between work and everything else, staying on top of the week’s developments can be a tall order, so Amazon’s tasked Alexa with keeping you informed while you’re busy cooking dinner and cleaning up after the kids. You can now bark various commands at your Echo devices (or any other Alexa prison) to catch up on latest news, including “what’s the latest with the election/the Conservatives/Theresa May?”

You can also surface other info with phrases such as “what is the polling like?” and “who is the leader of X party?” Alexa will tell you about upcoming debates and where to watch them, and keep you up to date as the results are announced in response to questions such as “how many seats do the Liberal Democrats have?” To be clear, this isn’t a skill you need to add, so striking up a conversation with Alexa is all you need to do.

There are plenty of other ways to listen and join in with the discussion, too — some of which you may have come across already. Facebook has a dedicated general election section you’ll find in your explore tab, containing links to party pages and a policy comparison tool. Twitter power user software Tweetdeck has added a special general election column type for keeping up with relevant news and/or chatter about specific parties and politicians. And if you take a look at your Google Calendar, it’ll prompt you to set a reminder to vote on June 8th, just in case you get too caught up in those TPS reports and almost forget to hit the nearest polling station.

Feedback App Lists iPad ‘Drag and Drop’ Feature Ahead of WWDC iOS 11 Preview

A Drag and Drop capability looks set to be coming to iPads in iOS 11, after a reference to the feature was spotted on Monday in Apple’s own Feedback app for iOS beta testers.

An entry alluding to “Split View/Drag and Drop” now appears in the app’s list of preset options that beta testers use to report issues. Since no such feature currently exists in iOS, it’s highly likely we can expect one to be unveiled in iOS 11, which Apple is set to preview in its keynote later today at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Just in case you wanted another iOS 11 spoiler (this is an option in the Feedback app when filing a bug) /via @charavel pic.twitter.com/mQVlJjZbb4

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) June 5, 2017

A Drag and Drop feature in Split View on iPads would presumably allow users to easily move content between apps, in a more seamless way than the current method of copying/pasting, which is cumbersome in comparison. Coming on the back of the appearance of an iOS Files app reference earlier today, it looks as if iOS 11 could be about to introduce workflow features many users would benefit from.

Several MacRumors readers have mentioned a desire for a better file management system to make it easier to transfer content between apps. MacStories’ Federico Vittici recently made a mockup featuring a drag and drop interface and a file storage shelf on the iPad. Today’s leak appears to indicate a similar feature is indeed on the way.

During Monday’s WWDC keynote, MacRumors will provide a live blog both here on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account, with continuing detailed coverage of everything Apple announces during the week.

Related Roundups: iOS 11, WWDC 2017
Discuss this article in our forums

The best smartphone camera: Getting the most from Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras

The best camera is the one you always carry with you. The better camera is the one that has both colour and monochrome sensors – and fits neatly in your phone. Which is exactly what you’ll find in the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus smartphones’ Leica Dual Camera 2.0 arrangement.

A clue to the quality is there in the name: Leica, the world-renowned German camera maker, has teamed up with Huawei so the company’s flagship phones embody stringent lens quality checks and software smarts that no rivals can offer.

That’s the brilliance of Leica Dual Camera: the ability to shoot in colour, black and white, or use both lenses to intelligently depth-map for pro-looking shots with perfectly blurred backgrounds. Here are some top tips to pull the best out of the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus cameras.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Quick launch

It was Henri Cartier-Bresson who coined the “decisive moment” phrase, that perfect intersection of getting the subject exactly where you want when the shutter fires. So waiting around for a phone camera to launch can be a painstaking situation.

Fortunately the P10 and P10 Plus offer quick launch features – without the need to even unlock the phone. A simple swipe-up from the corner of the lock screen (where there’s a symbol of a camera image) and the camera will launch. Hit the virtual shutter and, snap, you’ve got the perfect shot without delay.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Point-and-shoot, focus and exposure

For some the idea of a big camera with loads of knobs and dials is somewhat daunting. That’s one of the great things about the P10 and P10 Plus cameras: you can simply open the Camera and shoot, without having to worry about additional controls.

However, if you want to perfect your shooting then there are some simple focus and exposure adjustments. First: tapping on the screen will position a circle to focus on a subject, whether close-up or far away. Second: a little sun icon will appear next to this circle; press, hold and drag this symbol on a slider up or down to brighten or darken the exposure to perfection. All quick and easy adjustments.

Pocket-lint

In the example shot above, at sunrise in Utah, we were able to position the focus to the rocks and adjust the exposure so that the sky wasn’t completely bleached out. The shot is exactly how the camera took it, with no adjustments, no accessories or other trickery. Then we could enjoy watching the sun continue to rise with that nugget of a memory safely stored in the P10.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Black & white or colour

Leica is the only camera company in the world that releases some cameras with true monochrome sensors. It’s not only a nod to classic black & white film photography, it means three times as much light can reach the sensor as there’s no division between red, green and blue required to make digital colour. More light means better, clearer, cleaner pictures.

The P10 and P10 Plus both feature a monochrome sensor in addition to the colour sensor sat side-by-side to one another. It’s the perfect way to take that arty shot; to give a scene distinction and extra clarity straight from the camera.

To activate monochrome, simple swipe from the left of the screen in the Camera app to open the Modes menu. Next to Photo is Monochrome, one tap of that and you’re good to go.

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We had a pint of the good ol’ black stuff and couldn’t help but take a snap in black and white, as shown above.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Wide Aperture

You’ll often hear people talking about apertures and, if you don’t know much about photography, wondering what on earth it all means. In short, the smaller the number the wider the aperture opening – meaning more light can enter and reach the sensor. That’s ideal for low-light shooting without as much loss in quality, but also for blurring backgrounds behind the in-focus subject for greater distinction. In the P10 the lenses are both f/2.2, while the P10 Plus is slightly better at f/1.8.

The real magic, however, comes from a special feature called Wide Aperture mode. This mode – selected by hitting the circular aperture symbol to the top of the Camera app – uses both sensors to depth-map the scene and can offset that data to create a more blurred background, or a more in-focus one. It offers a software-created aperture from f/0.95 (a Leica classic in the Noctilux lenses) down to f/16.

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Just as you would in normal shooting, press on the subject to focus, then hit the on-screen aperture symbol and drag the slider to your desired setting. Choose f/0.95 for maximum bokeh (i.e. greatest background blur), or f/16 if you want everything in focus from front to back. It’s so simple to use and you can immediately see the results on screen without needing to wait for any long-winded processing. The phones are so proficient that Wide Aperture can even be used in real-time for video capture!

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Adjust focus after shooting

Another benefit of dual cameras: if you’ve used Wide Aperture mode to make a shot, but the focus is marginally off then you can make adjustments to the focus point and aperture selected. Within the Camera app simply open the Gallery (the small square preview of shots to the bottom left) and swipe through to the image you want (you’ll know if you can make adjustments as a white aperture symbol will show to the top right next to the info symbol).

Then it’s super simple to make adjustments: hit that aperture symbol towards the top right to open the editor, then simply tap the image where you wish the focus point to be. You can even adjust the slider between f/0.95 to f/16 or anything in-between for precision to make the shot look exactly as focused as you please. The difference in the dim sum plate above between f/0.95 and f/16 is immediately obvious – the blurred effect draws your eye to the foreground and looks much more professional.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Take the best portraits

Combining all those Wide Aperture features with some other intelligent features is Portrait mode. Activated by selecting the portrait symbol to the top of the screen in the Camera app, Portrait will tell the camera to look for faces within its sights, using a 3D mapping system that’s far more advanced than just eye- and mouth-based detection software that many rivals depend on.

Portrait mode auto-applies the software-based wide aperture as it deems fit based on the shot, but crucially it colour and exposure adjusts for the detected face (or faces) – signified by a surrounding blue square in real-time within the app – for the most natural-looking colour. It might sound like a small deal, but this precision of colour makes shots that much more life-like and appealing.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Stepping up your selfie game

The P10 and P10 Plus are the first Huawei cameras to also introduce a Leica camera on the front – perfect for the best-looking selfies ever (or, in our case, some of the more amusing – cue camel).

By default the Portrait mode (as above) will be activated, along with a 1-10 sliding scale to soften out blemishes, while an Artistic mode toggle on/off button will allow for blurring and exposure adjustment effects to be activated. It’s an elegant and easy-to-use solution to up your selfie game.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Go Pro!

When you do want all the extra control, it’s all available. A swipe right loads the detailed settings, while a swipe up from the bottom of the screen opens Pro mode, with control for metering type, ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, exposure compensation, autofocus type and auto white balance. We explain each of those below.

Metering: Average measures the full scene to judge exposure, which is best for landscapes; Centre-weighted measures using the focus area and its surroundings, which is best for portraits; Spot measures using the finer centre point of the focus area, which is useful for very bright or dark objects.

ISO sensitivity: As light dims the camera has to work harder to make an exposure. In daylight ISO 100 will be fine. Under moonlight you’ll need something like ISO 1600 to make an exposure. However, as higher ISO values mean the camera has to process the signal harder it diminishes quality and introduces image noise.

Shutter speed (30-seconds to 1/4000th sec): Slower shutter speeds are great for adding blur to moving subjects, faster shutter speeds are great for stopping subjects in their tracks however fast they’re moving. However, if you’re shooting hand-held then anything under 1/30th sec will be difficult to hold steady, so if you’re shooting 30-second exposures to get movement of lights or to blur running water then you’ll need the phone to be fixed in a set position, such as on an accessory tripod.

Exposure compensation: The same as the sun icon next to the focus area, this plus/minus adjustment will brighten or darken the exposure.

Autofocus type (AF-S/AF-C/MF): Single autofocus (AF-S) will acquire focus and fix it, useful for still lives or portraits; Continuous autofocus (AF-C) will continually adjust autofocus, useful for moving subjects; Manual focus (MF) gives you full precision control over focus, best for close-up/macro shots.

AWB (auto white balance): Everything has a colour temperature, from cool blue through to warm yellow. AWB will automatically assess a scene, but if that doesn’t suit you can fix it to Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Sun, or manual (from 2800K – 7000K).

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Light painting long-exposures

Also withing the left-swipe Modes menu is a special feature called Light Painting. This opens options for Car Light Trails, Light Graffiti, Silky Water and Star Track, witch each adjusting the frequency and exposure level to best suit those scenarios.

Crucially for these to function correctly you’ll need the camera to be as steady as possible, so you’ll want some kind of accessory camera support. With the phone secure you’ll be able to see the accumulating long-exposure in real-time on screen, taking out any guesswork that even expensive dedicated cameras can’t overcome.

Huawei P10 and P10 Plus dual cameras: Highlight videos

Once you’ve got all your shots in the Gallery the P10 and P10 Plus will automatically curate your shots under the Discover tab.

Here you’ll see location-based galleries which, once clicked into, present automated video highlight reels, as auto-produced by the integrated Quik app. You can watch, edit, share or delete these highlight videos as you please.

SoftBank joins forces with startup to launch an Echo-like smart speaker

Why it matters to you

Wait just a little longer and you’ll have some serious choice when it comes to selecting a smart speaker.

Japanese telecom giant SoftBank is gearing up to launch a smart speaker by the end of this year.

The news comes at the start of a week when Apple is anticipated to unveil a similar device. Such a move would also follow in the footsteps of Amazon with its range of voice-controlled Echo speakers, and Google with its Home device that went on sale toward the end of last year.

SoftBank isn’t creating its speaker from scratch, according to mainstream media outlet Nikkei, which broke the news on Sunday. Instead, it’s partnering with Osaka-based startup Plengoer Robotics, which recently secured $81,000 of Kickstarter backing for its Plen Cube smart speaker, described by its creator as a “portable personal assistant robot.”

SoftBank will provide the Plen Cube with enhanced “natural language processing and voice synthesis technologies,” according to Nikkei.

The internet-connected Plen Cube landed on Kickstarter in February, 2017 and took just a couple of days to reach its $50,000 funding goal. The diminutive device wants to be your digital hub in the home, so you could use it to control things such as room lights, thermostat, TV, and music selection.

But, like Amazon and Google’s offerings, that’s not all it does. If you need some information, call it out and it’ll search the web and shoot right back with an answer. A display on the top shows the time, your calendar, the status of any connected devices, the weather, music cover art, and more.

While many of the features may be similar to rival devices, the Plen Cube has two advantages over many of its competitors. One is its portability, with the cube just three inches long on each side. The other is its built-in HD camera, which features face and motion tracking, video stabilization, and 360-degree rotation. You can use if for live-streams and take panoramic images with it, too, and of course you can operate it via your voice or gestures. The promo video shows it attached to the front of a skateboard, so it works as an action camera, too, though we’re not sure how robust it is compared to, say, a GoPro.

A neat design touch is how the top half of the Plen Cube elevates slightly and moves around when it’s busy, giving the user a more personal experience when interacting with the device. The motorized mechanism also allows it to track the subject in a video.

With such a small device, we’re particularly curious about the speaker’s sound quality, something Apple has reportedly focused heavily on with its rumored Siri-enabled smart device.

Plengoer’s offering will be able to respond to commands in not only English, but also Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, with initial launch locations expected to include North America, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. The tiny robot is expected to start shipping by the end of this year, and according to its Kickstarter page will retail for $450.

Huawei MateBook X review: Huawei goes after the MacBook

Huawei is an ambitious company. It’s been tearing its way through smartphones, looking to move itself from budget brand to a mainstream premium player with its P-series devices. And it’s been doing a pretty good job, too.

While Android phones are why Huawei is best known in the consumer sector, the company is a telecommunications powerhouse, underpinning the infrastructure of many 4G networks, as well as being a white label manufacturer for a lot of set-top boxes and connected dongles.

With such expertise it’s little surprise that the Huawei brand is expanding into laptops. While the company’s first tablet, the MateBook, wasn’t the best attempt, it’s first Ultrabook, the MateBook X, is much better. Be warned Dell and Apple – because Huawei is coming for your customers with a MacBook beater of its own.

Huawei Mate X review: Design

• 286 x 211 x 12.5mm; 1.05kg
• Premium metal designs in gold, rose gold, grey

The MateBook X is all about portable, lightweight design. As Huawei boasts, the X is slimmer than the 12-inch MacBook and it adopts premium techniques that you’ll find on Huawei’s phones, like the diamond cut precise chamfer to the very edge of the display. It’s not a total Apple-a-like, though, as this finish has a hint of Asus ZenBook 3 about it.

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The MateBook X is a 13-inch device – although it doesn’t look like it. With bezels around the display measuring a mere 4.2mm, there’s only a hint at a black border, with the metal of the lid framing the edges neatly. What this means is a lot of display in not a lot of space: the MateBook X is light enough to tote around, without leaving you with a display that isn’t really big enough to work on all day.

The other big point of note is the MateBook X’s fanless design – and we’re talking fanless Intel Core i processor, not less-powerful Core m. Huawei announced this with some fanfare at the launch of this device, but as there’s now a new fanless Surface Pro that offers similar hardware, it’s not the unique proposition it once was and likely to be commonplace in the future. 

This processor choice no doubt aids the skinny build, but also means the MateBook X is a quiet runner. However, as the design has cooling section in the chassis, used to trap heat and draw it away from hardware, the downside is that the base heats up when under load. When working in 26 degree ambient temperatures on a balmy day, you’ll start to feel that heat in your lap.

The MateBook X’s parallels with the MacBook can’t be ignored, from the styling of the rubber feet on the bottom to the look of the keyboard and the trackpad. Not that it’s a negative, because the design is rather good. We’ve been carrying one around for a couple of weeks, and have found the size, lightness and the compact power pack all appeal. The footprint itself is smaller than a piece of A4 paper, so slipping it into any bag is a breeze.

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For the most part the MateBook X feels solid too. We like the cool touch of the metal and the matching keyboard colour is nicely done, but there’s a surprisingly spongey section of the speaker grille above the keyboard. The keyboard action doesn’t seem to be affected, however, and we were happy to clatter out words, with good travel from those chiclet keys. This is a fast keyboard and despite some flex in the deck to the top, that doesn’t affect the real-world usage.

The keyboard is backlit and the illumination can be adjusted, but we’ve found it’s not the best backlighting in a laptop: from a lap position we’ve found the illumination almost totally vanishes when looking from a given angle. This all depends on viewpoint, but we did find ourselves leaning in a little in darker conditions on occasion to ensure we were about to hit the right key.

The touchpad is large and clicky and feels natural to use, but this is one area where the MacBook perhaps does a little better, as the Huawei isn’t as smooth and precise as you’ll get from Apple. It’s still very usable and we like that it’s free from the clutter of a fingerprint sensors (which is cleverly placed within the power button).

When it comes to connectivity, the MateBook X also adopts some of Apple’s approach, although there’s two USB Type-C connections rather than just one, plus a 3.5mm headphone socket. The left-hand socket is for power and you’re prompted to switch devices around if you plug them into the wrong place.

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Such connectivity is a fusion of conventionality with the adoption of new standards, but there’s also a dock/dongle that comes in the box. This will expand connections to USB, HDMI and VGA, so it’s more of a desk dock than on-the-go connector for your other devices. The only thing we’re left smarting about is the lack of an SD card slot. In regard to connections, therefore, the skinny MateBook X loses out to the Dell XPS 13 which is all the more conventional.

Huawei MateBook X review: Hardware and display

• 13-inch IPS, 2160 x 1440 pixels, 200ppi, 350 nits
• Intel Core i5-7200U or Core i7-7500U; 4/8GB DDR3 RAM
• 256/512GB SSD
• Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 2×2 MiMo

To the meat of the MateBook sandwich: its display is a 13-inch fully laminated touchless panel with a resolution of 2160 x 1440 pixels over its 3:2 aspect ratio. That results in a little more height than some rivals, meaning a little more working space on that document you might be tapping away on, but obviously it’s less well suited to wider content like video.

We’ve already mentioned that we love the narrow bezels, with Huawei taking a similar approach to the Dell XPS 13’s infinity display. There’s no touch, however, which is where Dell might be seen to offer a little more on its top-end models. Whether this is a problem or not depends on what you’re using at the moment. If you’ve become a touch and type person, it’s a bane, if you’re moving from a MacBook, it’s no problem at all.

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There’s ample brightness from the MateBook X’s display, although the auto-brightness is a little odd, sometimes limiting the range it will offer based on the ambient conditions (a trait exhibited by Huawei’s phones). To get access to the absolute brightest conditions you’ll need to switch this off, rather than just using the keys to turn it all the way up. However, using the MateBook X out in sunny conditions and we’ve had no problems: it’s bright enough to cut through the glare when working next to the window on the train and so on. On top of that, it’s rich with colour and detail, so content looks good.

Like many skinny ultra-portables there’s the choice of i7-7500U or i5-7200U processors, with integrated Intel HD Graphics 620. We’ve been using the i7 version and have found it to be plenty powerful, but the load-out you choose will make quite a difference to the price.

Our review unit is loaded with the high-end processor, 8GB RAM and 512GB storage – so it’s very much the top of the range and rather pricey as a result. It matches the top tier Dell XPS 13 in this regard. At the moment Huawei hasn’t confirmed what other/regional configurations will be available or how much more they will cost. For those watching the specs there’s been no mention of 16GB RAM that the new Surface Pro will offer at the top end.

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The MateBook X also houses a fingerprint scanner, placed within the power button, meaning you can trigger Windows Hello pretty much instantly. It’s as good an implementation as we’ve seen from Huawei on its smartphones, meaning fast unlocking that feels natural to use. It’s a really great fingerprint scanner that’s been put in absolutely the right place.

Huawei MateBook X review: Battery life

• 41.4Wh battery
• 8.5 hours of real world usage

For portability purposes, battery life is key. It’s also the downfall of some slimmer machines as the physical battery size is limited. Huawei claims 10 hours of video playback from the MateBook X, which we think is ambitious. 

In real-world use, we’ve found the MateBook X averages around eight and a half hours of use, for average browser-based working on office tasks. We’ve seen it drop a little lower to under seven hours when this was slightly more intense – and that’s a pretty good, showing that it’s a laptop that can suit most use cases, rather than dying in minutes when the processor is called upon for beefier tasks.

The upside is USB C charging, which takes about three hours to pump the MateBook X back up to full power. So while the MateBook X might not be the best battery performer – and, again, the MacBook or Dell XPS will deliver a more reliable 10 hours – we’ve seen worse and the MateBook X doesn’t ring huge alarm bells.

Huawei MateBook X review: Unique audio power

• Dolby Atmos Sound System

One of the aces in Huawei’s desk is its collaboration with Dolby. The MateBook X is the first laptop to come with a Dolby Atmos Sound System. In the increasingly muddied waters of what Dolby Atmos means (it’s now in cinemas, home movie setups, smartphones, tablets and laptops), here it means that you’re getting a greater separation and a degree of object placement compared to normal stereo, as long as you have the content to support it.

We’ve experienced some demo clips and the effect is surprisingly good, so while the definition of what Dolby Atmos means might be changing, it’s certainly a boost to the normal flat acoustics you might expect from a skinny laptop. Dolby says this is a result of working with Huawei from early on in the design process: Dolby wasn’t handed a laptop carcass and told it make it sound good, the company was able to have an input on hardware and software design to make sure it could get the desired result.

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However, the Atmos effect that the MateBook X speakers can create isn’t universal and doesn’t apply to all content, so you’re not always getting the best in that regard, but there’s still some impressive performance on offer.

The system also offers a software controller with a number of different modes, so you can easily switch from music to movie, for example, and generally these do lead to optimised performance for different content types. For straight music, which is what we’ve used the audio for the most, the important thing is that you can get distortion-free music at high volumes from the MateBook X. It struggles with some heavier basslines, of course, but on the whole it’s an audio big hitter.

Verdict

The real winner in the MateBook X is its design. This laptop fires itself right into the centre of the Ultrabook pack, likely to cause the go-to MacBook and Dell XPS some disruption thanks to its slim and light design, very usable keyboard and trackpad, plenty of power from Intel Core i processors and silent operation.

There’s also a great display as standard with minimal bezel that looks great. While Dell offers much the same – and arguably better battery life and a touchscreen in the XPS 13 – the MateBook X does have the X factor: it’s a laptop we want to use. 

The only hurdles are few and far between: photographers will be annoyed by the lack of SD card slot, and then there’s the price, which is likely to be higher than its rivals. We’re still waiting for confirmation of exactly how much this will cost in pounds and pence, though.

Overall, the MateBook X is a compelling option and a wonderful debut from a company that you won’t associate with laptops just yet – but will in the future, if this is anything to go by.

Bravo Huawei, the MateBook X is great.

Alternatives to consider

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Apple MacBook

• from £1,049

The original ultra-slim and almost port-free laptop, if you’re a Mac OS fan then it’s the only option. But the MateBook X offers a compelling Windows rival with more power and features.

Read the full article: Apple MacBook 2016 review

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Dell XPS 13

• from £1,049

If battery life and standard connectivity (like an SD slot) is a real clincher for you then the equally powerful Dell XPS 13 is the way to go. It might not be as good-looking as the MateBook X, but it’ll last longer.

Read the full article: Dell XPS 13 (2015) review