Amazon Echo vs. Dot vs. Tap vs. Show: Which should you buy?

Control your music and way more with Amazon’s line of Echo smart speakers.

The world of the connected home is still very much a disconnected mess. As Apple and Google each compete with their own standards — and other companies doing the same with their own — Amazon has quietly snuck in the side door with its smart, attractive, and intelligent speaker. Or, rather, speakers. After more than a year with just the Amazon Echo to lead the way, Amazon’s line of smart speakers embodies that future. The Echo, Tap, Dot are very similar smart speakers, in that they perform nearly all the same functions, with some minor differences. And the new Echo Show adds a screen, and a whole new way of interactiveness.

If you’re in the market for a smart speaker but can’t decide between these three, we’ll outline the key differences and let you know which one is best for you.

• Echo
• Echo Dot
• Echo Tap
• Echo Show

Amazon Echo

The first of its kind, Amazon Echo is a 9-inch speaker that at first glance resembles a tube of Pringles. However, this unit is far more than just a speaker that can play all your favorite tunes from Pandora, Spotify, Prime Music, and more. (Tell it to “Play the Android Central Podcast,” too!) It can easily become the smart controller for your entire home, connecting to smart lights (like Philips Hue), Nest thermostats, Samsung SmartThings, and much more.

It’s basically a smartphone search appliance without the screen. It can answer questions, read audiobooks, check traffic and weather updates, and essentially act as your voice-activated butler (aside from actually bringing you a snack, though you can use it to order pizza from Domino’s…).

In a somewhat creepy display of semi-AI, the Echo is always connected to Amazon’s Alexa network, which is in the cloud and always getting smarter. The more you use it, the more it learns your preferences, speech patterns, and vocabulary, to better deliver on what you’re asking for. It’s always learning.

Check out our review for more!

Is it for me?

You’ll want the Echo if you want the total package. If you want a whole-home control center coupled with a decent speaker, then the Echo is your best choice. It’s an especially prudent choice if you already have your home rigged with smart devices. This one is designed to truly integrate with your home and therefore become a relatively permanent fixture. It comes in white and black.

See at Amazon

Echo Dot

The Dot is essentially the Echo’s “Mini-Me.” It has a smaller, quieter speaker and, in size, is more akin to a hockey puck. It does everything the Echo does, but also has a 3.5mm output jack and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to connect it to your current sound system. Truly, it’s as though someone just decapitated the Echo and then scrunched up the full-size speaker and jammed it up into the neck, and boom, the Dot.

Connect to and control all of your smart home devices, as well as your existing audio set-up, making the Dot perhaps the most desirable of the Echo family, especially since it’s only $50.

Check out our review for more!

Is it for me?

It is if you have an existing audio setup and several smart devices around your home that you’d like to control with just your voice. Don’t go looking for real sound quality from the Dot, though it will do in a pinch if nothing else is available. Like the Echo, the Dot is constantly learning and adapting to your voice and your preferences. Comes in white and black.

See at Amazon

Echo Tap

The Tap is the next in line and brings most of the same features that the Echo has, with the added benefit of portability. With up to nine hours of playback, the Tap is rechargeable and comes with a handy wireless charging cradle.

Like the Echo and Dot, the Tap can control your smart home devices, and it can also act as you futuristic assistant, adding items to your calendar and helping with searches. It connects to your phone and other smart devices, like tablets, via Bluetooth, but just for playback.

The Tap is the only somewhat customizable Echo option, with the Tap Sling cover available in six colors.

The Tap has also been updated to allow for an “always listening” mode, so it’s now basically the same as the Echo and Dot in terms of control. Its portability is really what separates it from the others.

Is it for me?

It is if you want a portable speaker that also lets you stream music from many of your favorite services. The Tap can do all of the assistant-related things that the Echo and Dot do. If you just want a Bluetooth speaker that doubles as a personal assistant (by using the Alexa app), then the Tap is your best choice. Only available in black.

See at Amazon

Echo Show

The Echo Show is the next evolution of the Amazon Echo. Whereas Alexa could only tell you about stuff before, now she can show you. Before, you could simply listen to your flash briefing, which was dynamite — a quick overview of the day’s news. Now you can watch your flash briefing, as well as YouTube videos. See where this is going?

Thanks to Alexa’s new calling skill, you can also video call — hands-free — like it’s the future. Calling isn’t all it’s for, since you can also see music lyrics, listen to music straight out of it, thanks to excellent Dolby processing, and you can even connect compatible security cameras, then ask Alexa to show you those cameras, so you can keep an eye on things from wherever you are in the house.

The Echo Show features eight microphones and noise cancellation, so it can hear you from just about any direction — even while music is playing.

Is it for me?

If you’re looking for one of the most futuristic devices available that not only lets you control your smart home hands-free but also lets you take and make hands-free video calls, watch YouTube videos on the fly, see your flash briefing, and much more, with a well-balanced speaker to boot.

Echo Show is the perfect stationary Alexa vehicle, so if you’re looking for something portable, go with one of the other options.

See at Amazon

How do you choose?

If you want the total package — decent speaker, whole-home control, and a personal assistant, all controlled by your voice — then go with the Echo.

If you want the exact same thing, but smaller, since you already have a sweet home-audio setup, then go with the Dot. It’s definitely the best value.

If you want a portable Bluetooth speaker that can also act as a personal assistant, and you don’t mind getting up to tap it when you want to control your smart home devices, then the Tap is your bag, baby.

But if you want it all — and have the money for it — grab an Echo Show right now.

Updated June 2017: Make reference to the Echo Show being available for purchase.

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

Amazon

Battery packs don’t get much better than Nomad’s Powerpack

You don’t have to spend $100 on a battery pack, but when you do, you get what you pay for.

I’m not one to spend a lot of time thinking about a battery pack, especially one that costs $100. But Nomad’s well-designed, beautifully-made, rugged Powerpack may just be worth spending that extra cash on. Here’s why.

See at Amazon

The basics

The Powerpack comes in one flavor, a 9000mAh rounded rectangle brick covered in a thick polycarbonate housing and, along the edges, a TPU rubber casing. It’s basically the same material you’d find on an Otterbox Defender case, but protecting a battery instead of, well, a more expensive battery.

It’s a chunky thing, but portable, with a solidity that I find eludes all but the most expensive power banks from companies like Anker and Zagg. On one side of the unit is a series of buttons, ports and LED indicators, and that’s where the fun begins. This is not some legacy battery pack that trickle-charges using Micro-USB. No, this is USB-C, and the future is awesome.

There are two USB-C ports and fast charging on board, so consider yourself future-proofed.

Specifically, there are three ports:

• USB-C “In” at 3.0A
• USB-C “Out” at 3.0A
• USB-A “Out” at 2.4A

Why have two separate USB-C ports for input and output? Because Nomad believes that you may want to do so-called passthrough charging overnight — recharging the Powerpack itself from a wall adapter while charging your phone with the battery. It’s all very useful in theory, but the real benefit here comes from having two high-ampere ports in both modern varieties of charger — USB-C and USB-A.

The former supports Adaptive Fast Charging, a Qualcomm technology offered by most smartphones today. When topping up using a USB-C to USB-C cable, the brick will vary between 5V / 3A, 9V / 2A, and 12V / 2A depending on the level of the phone’s battery. The USB-A port doesn’t offer fast charge, but can be used simultaneously if you have a second phone, tablet, or even a Chromebook.

At 9000mAh, the battery should be enough to get you through multiple full phone charges, or a combination of phone and tablet. Nomad claims that it uses high-quality Panasonic batteries, and while I didn’t manage to measure the exact capacity of the cell, I was able to get roughly two and a half full charges of my 3000mAh Galaxy S8 before the battery died, so the number appears to be within the specified range, taking overhead and heat loss into account.

What to look for when buying USB-C chargers and cables

As a compact charger, I really couldn’t ask for too much more. I am so happy I can finally leave my Micro-USB cables behind when traveling with a battery pack, and I feel confident knowing that, if dropped, the unit’s rugged exterior will not damage the components within.

A Tile upon your houses

One of the more interesting inclusions in Nomad’s Powerpack, and one that goes along with the company’s shrewd history of partnerships (it exclusively uses Chicago’s Horween leather tannery for its wallets and phone cases), is support for Tile.

A few years ago, Tile raised $2.6 million on Selfstarter to fund what was then a novel concept: a small, passive, Bluetooth-powered tracker that, when in range of a connected phone, would play a tune to help locate whatever its keyring hole was attached to. I backed a set of four Tiles and put them in everything from wallets to bags to overseas luggage, and while I truly enjoyed using them, when they ran out of juice a year later I decided not to spend the $40 or so to replace them.

Tile’s crowdfunding campaign kickstarted an industry of Bluetooth trackers, but it’s still the best.

Nomad’s Powerpack is the first third-party accessory with Tile support, and in rekindling my love for the brand and the idea, I discovered that the company’s incredibly ambitious plan of creating a network of Bluetooth trackers that, should a product be lost or stolen, talk to phones in the area to help locate them, is actually working.

See, Tile uses the increasingly common Bluetooth LE standard to constantly send out a low-level “ping” while the battery is intact. The idea of creating this network is to create a network of Tile users that, in theory, inform the original owner of the location of something that is out of Bluetooth range. Say my bike gets stolen with a Tile attached to its chassis. Another Tile owner walks by the warehouse in which it’s being stored and, thanks to the 40-foot range of Bluetooth LE, informs the person of its new location.

When I added the Powerbank to my existing Tile account, it told me that nearly 5,000 other Tile owners are “nearby,” though it’s unclear how the app determines proximity. Either way, it’s encouraging to know that there’s a chance, however small, that I could recover something lost because of this growing network.

Back to this device, Tile support on a large battery pack may not seem inherently intuitive, but there’s method to this madness. When traveling with the Powerpack, it’s often with very important and expensive tech, including my laptop, phone(s), headphones, camera equipment and more. If the presence of the Powerpack inside the bag makes it even remotely easier to find should it get stolen or go missing, the inclusion is worth it.

Tile support isn’t a reason to buy the Powerpack, but it justifies the higher cost.

The Tile app for Android is simple to a fault. After setting up an account, you use the Tile button on the Powerpack to initiate pairing and, once complete, the app is able to locate the battery and usher in a little tune to increase the odds.

The benefit to Tile living inside something like the Powerpack is that in trading size for convenience, you end up with a tracker that will likely never run out of batteries (since the damn thing is a battery). I may not use it all that often, but I am comforted by its presence, and impressed with its reliability.

Should you buy it?

At $99.95, the Powerpack is double the price of most 9000mAh battery packs, and I can’t say for certain whether those contain cells of any lower quality. But I continue to be thoroughly impressed by Nomad’s attention to detail, and the quality of its products. I love the size, heft and overall design of the Powerpack, and appreciate the little things, like the ambient light-sensing charging LEDs that lower in brightness with the dimness of the environment.

I like that I can stick the thing in a bag with a single USB-C to USB-C cable and feel reassured about being able to use my phone for a few days at a time. And I enjoy that every time I’ve needed to contact Nomad about a replacement product in the past I’ve received a response, and a brand new unit, within a few days.

Sometimes you end up paying not just for the product but the accompanying brand, and the promise of that brand, and the “Nomad tax” is a premium I’m happy to continue paying for.

See at Amazon

How to get MacOS High Sierra right now and get it working on your Mac

The next version of MacOS is official.

While at WWDC 2017, Apple announced and previewed MacOS High Sierra, a major update to the MacOS Sierra operating system that released last year for Macs. It includes many behind-the-scene upgrades that will make your Mac seem more powerful, more secure, and faster. For instance, it will allow for VR and AR content. Browse Pocket-lint’s roundup for more changes included in High Sierra.

But you don’t have to wait until autumn to try all these new features. Apple just opened the High Sierra public beta program, marking yet another time the company has allowed anyone to download and run a major pre-release version of its desktop OS before a formal release. It also just opened the iOS 11 public beta program for iPhone and iPad users. You can read all about that from here.

If you want to get MacOS High Sierra up and running on your Mac now, Pocket-lint has detailed everything you need to know below.

Apple

How can you get MacOS High Sierra public beta?

With the public beta program, you can download and install MacOS to your Mac. It doesn’t require a paid developer account. It’s free.

Visit the Apple Beta Program website, and hit the sign up button.
You’ll then need to sign in with your Apple ID login credentials.
From there, read and accept Apple’s agreement.
On the Mac, you’ll be taken to Apple’s Guide for Public Betas website, where you’ll click the “Enroll Your Devices” link at the top of the page.
On the Enroll Your Devices website, you’ll see instructions to back up your computer using Time Machine.
You’ll also see a section called “Install the MacOS High Sierra public beta”. Here, you’ll find a redemption code. Click the Redeem Code button.
The App Store will launch.
Enter your Apple ID password to download the installer.
You’ll also get an email inviting you to download the MacOS High Sierra beta.

Which devices support MacOS High Sierra?

Before you get excited about High Sierra, see if your Mac is compatible:

• Will my Mac run MacOS High Sierra?

Should you test the MacOS High Sierra public beta?

The High Sierra public beta is not the final, stable version intended for all consumers. The final version will release this autumn. As for the public beta version, it might include several bugs that have yet to be discovered or fixed. You should therefore only download and install the beta on a machine that’s not your primary computer. And always back up your data and files first (see Apple’s support page).

How do you provide feedback to Apple?

The OS X and iOS public betas come with a Feedback Assistant app, which can be opened from the second page of the Home screen on your iOS device or from the Dock on your Mac. You can learn more about the app here. The app is also available from the Help menu of any app.

Want to know more?

Apple also has a guide and instructions on how to get both betas.

• Apple announces major MacOS Sierra update called… High Sierra
• MacOS High Sierra: What’s in the new software for your Mac?
• Will my Mac run MacOS High Sierra?

Google Play sale offers deep discounts on apps, movies and more

A movie rental for a buck might be the only way I can justify watching the new Power Rangers reboot. Luckily, the Google Play store will let me do just that, with substantive discounts on movies, television shows, apps, games, books and music all wrapped up in a massive summer-themed sale.

You can rent any one movie from Google’s catalog for $0.99, including big new releases like Beauty and the Beast, Logan and Get Out, each typically going for $4.99. Unfortunately, that deal will only extend to the first rental; the discount does not apply to more than one flick. If serial television is more your style, though, Google Play has those for 50 percent off. There are also discounts of up to 80 percent on premium mobile games, too, like Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, Final Fantasy Tactics and Reigns. Apps with subscriptions, like the New York Times, Runtastic, Memrise, NeuroNation or TuneIn are all at 50 percent off for one year, too. Books can be had for 50 to 80 percent off, as well, with a wide variety of different genres on sale. Plus, you can keep the tunes bumping all summer with a free, 4-month Google Play Music subscription.

The sale on apps, games, books and music runs through July 6th, while the special movie rental prices will continue until July 13th. All offers must be redeemed by August 13th. You’ll get your discount when you check out, and you can watch your rentals anywhere, including offline, on your phone, laptop, tablet and any other supported Android devices.

Source: Google Play

PBS will remain on the air in rural areas thanks to T-Mobile

PBS announced today that T-Mobile has agreed to foot the bill for public broadcasting’s translators to move to new frequencies, which they’ll have to do in order to stay on the air after the FCC’s incentive auction. T-Mobile bid $8 billion and received 45 percent of the low-band spectrum auctioned off by the FCC earlier this year. The TV channels operating on the sold-off spectrum now have to move to lower channels, share with other networks or shut down. Because the FCC isn’t providing funding for translators to be repackaged, 38 million Americans, largely in rural areas, were at risk of losing access to PBS if those broadcast facilities shut down. T-Mobile’s agreement to pay for the repackaging costs will keep PBS on the air in those areas.

The FCC’s incentive auction was years in the making. It’s goal was to free up airwaves to host more wireless services. It had TV broadcasters sell some of their low-band spectrum, which was then auctioned off to companies who would use it to spread their wireless services. In April, the auction results were announced and T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast and US Cellular took home the largest chunks. The FCC made nearly $20 billion off of the auction, $10 billion of which is to go the 175 broadcasters that sold off their spectrum.

With T-Mobile helping pay for public broadcasting’s repackaging, it will make sure the entire country retains access to PBS’s programs, which include educational programming, as well as important information like emergency alerts. According to Current, the fees covered under the agreement include equipment, engineering, installation and legal fees.

In a statement, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger said, “”We are thrilled that T-Mobile sees the value that public broadcasting brings to the American people and is helping to ensure that everyone—regardless of income or zip code—continues to have access to PBS, including vital emergency alerts and programs that help prepare children for success in school.”

Source: PBS

Nickelodeon is betting on amateur, kid-focused eSports

Nickelodeon and a handful of other investors — including professional sports-team owners — have just thrown $15 million at Super League Gaming, an organization that holds amateur eSports tournaments in movie theaters across the US for kids, teens and adults. Super League is best known for its national Minecraft championship, which last year paid out $15,000 to a winning team of kids age 10 to 14, though it also regularly holds nationwide League of Legends tournaments for players of any age.

Nickelodeon and Super League are partnering in other ways, as well: The winners of the Minecraft City Champs tournament this year, the Los Angeles Shockwaves, won a trip to the Kids’ Choice Sports Awards on July 16th.

“We are excited to enter the world of eSports through our relationship with Super League, which has a loyal and growing fan base of kids,” Nickelodeon EVP of digital and new business Matthew Evans said. “Nickelodeon is interested in eSports because gaming is an important passion point for kids today, and forging this partnership with Super League puts us at the forefront of where kids will be playing next.”

ESports are no joke. The industry continues to grow worldwide, and this year it’s expected to be worth $1.13 billion, with a total prize pool of about $100 million, according to SuperData Research. Traditional sports teams have signed on to support the industry, and more people are pursing professional gaming as a career. On the Engadget stage at E3 2017, we dove into the realities of eSports with pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players Emmalee “EMUHLEET” Garrido and Catherine “Cath” Leroux of Team Dignitas.

Source: PR Newswire

Despite internal struggle, Uber is still a very popular service

It’s no secret that Uber is a bit of a mess right now and the subject of a number of different scandals. The company is recently CEO-less (and remains COO-, CFO-, and general counsel-less as well). It has lost a board member and fired 20 employees because of sexist comments and sexual harassment. And the company has been hit with a slew of lawsuits for allegedly discriminating against people with disabilities, for obtaining and sharing a rape victim’s medical records and of course for the alleged theft of Waymo’s self-driving technology. But amid all of the disasters, Uber has hit a major milestone — it reached the five billion trip mark.

The company announced today that 156 Uber rides that began simultaneously around the world pushed them over the mark in May. That they only hit one billion rides in late 2015 and two billion about a year ago shows that all of their scandals don’t appear to be holding back business.

The 156 drivers that got Uber to five billion, one of which was giving his very first Uber ride, will be given $500 by the company as a thank you. Three billion rides over the course of a year is an exceptional amount of growth for Uber. If the company can get it together a little bit, who knows how many rides they’ll give in the next year.

Source: Uber

The ‘Final Fantasy XV’ mobile game is a mess, but at least it’s free

Mobile games can make a ton of money, with titles like Clash of Clans making billions of dollars for their respective developers. Square Enix has been active in mobile gaming with titles based on its own popular role-playing games, with original free-to-play titles like Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius and premium ports of older titles like Final Fantasy IX. Now, the veteran publisher has just released another free-to-play game to Android and iOS, titled Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. Square Enix may hope to bring new fans to the series it’s based on while also encouraging fans of the console game to give it a go. It’s just too bad the game is (so far) kind of an inscrutable mess.

The original Final Fantasy XV released to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last year and has shipped over 6 million copies worldwide, according to GamesBeat. The mobile game looks and plays a lot like other, similar “build and battle” mobile games, which makes sense given it was developed by Machine Zone, the same team behind free-to-play hits Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike. Basically, players build a town to defend and then raid other players’ towns, waiting for better defenses and weapons to upgrade while spending in-game currency to do so.

The game itself is confusing and chaotic right now, with tons of flashing objects and screen-obscuring ads to buy currency with real cash. It’s possible, though, that the underlying mechanics (or subsequent updates) will prove solid enough to keep players coming back for more (and spending money). There are a ton of these types of games available for both Android and iOS; success is not guaranteed. Still, Final Fantasy is a powerful draw to gamers around the globe and could give this rather generic-looking mobile game a needed boost.

Via: GamesBeat

Source: iTunes App Store

I don’t regret being an iPhone early adopter

Do you remember where you were when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, more than 10 years ago? It’s a pretty nerdy thing to admit, but I do. I spent the day glued to my computer, at my desk — theoretically hard at work. But I was actually devouring Engadget’s liveblog, after which I watched and re-watched video of the event so I could see the mythical device in action. And then I spent the next 12 months waiting for my Verizon contract to expire, hating my Moto RAZR the entire freaking time. (No, I wasn’t a day-one adopter, but I definitely stopped in an AT&T store to play with their demo phones.)

The first iPhone wasn’t a world-beater in terms of sales, and many have pointed out that it was the classic “first-gen” Apple product. It lacked important features like 3G connectivity and any third-party apps, you had to hook it up to iTunes to activate it and it was wildly expensive — $500 for a paltry 4GB of storage (or $600 for 8GB), and that was with a two-year contract.

None of that mattered to me, and that’s in large part due to Jobs’ presentation, one that’s widely considered the best he ever gave. I’d agree with that assessment, because he so clearly outlined the benefits of the iPhone over the phones that most consumers (including me) were using. Some of my colleagues fondly remember the Windows Mobile devices they used before the iPhone and noted how they waited a few years for Apple to fix those first-gen issues, before getting on board.

But the 2007 smartphone market was wildly different, particularly in the US. BlackBerry and Palm Treo devices dominated, but were business-focused and didn’t resonate with the people buying iPods. Jobs’ presentation was the complete opposite. The first feature he announced and demoed was iPod functionality — before even bothering with the phone part. Nearly everything he showed off was focused on consumers, from photos and movies to looking up restaurants on Google Maps.

Of course, Jobs tied it all together at the end, showing a sequence where he listened to music, took a call, sent a photo over email and looked up a movie while still talking on the phone. He then hung up the call and the music automatically resumed. Right now, it seems laughably simple, but in the days of flips phones this seemed like magic.

Even the six-month gap between the iPhone’s announcement and on-sale date worked in Apple’s favor. The company didn’t typically announce products that far in advance, but in this case it gave them crucial time to polish the device and make improvements (like adding YouTube support and using glass instead of plastic for the front screen cover). It also helped build up some serious hype and anticipation amongst the Apple faithful. Jobs’ presentation paid dividends over those months; it was something fans could re-watch and use to stoke their interest in the iPhone while they waited.

Jobs made presentations like this before, and Apple has continued to do so long after Jobs died in 2011. The format has changed slightly, but Apple still focuses on selling you on the entire vision of its connected universe of products — all of its devices and services work better the more you use them together. When Apple makes a presentation like this year’s WWDC, I often come away with the notion that my digital life would work better if I went “all-in” on its software and hardware. It’s not just Apple, though — after Google I/O, I always consider if things would be easier by using Android for everything, and Microsoft has been doing a good job at selling me on the benefits of Windows everywhere lately as well.

The iPhone presentation was a bit different, because it was focused purely on one device — Apple hadn’t tied the phone so closely to the Mac just yet. But Apple did tie the iPhone to the Mac — before the cloud, it was home base for your phone and let you sync photos, movies, contacts, calendars and music, making it a mini extension of your personal computer. And even though the some aspects of the first iPhone did feel a bit beta (remember how you couldn’t send pictures via text message?), it also did exactly what Apple promised.

The relatively large screen and unique UI couldn’t have been more different than the garbage Verizon forced onto the Moto RAZR. There weren’t any third-party apps, but between Safari, YouTube, Mail and Maps I could get to the most essential info on the internet while on the go… even if it took forever. I learned to accept that and use the phone’s more data-heavy features when on WiFi, which was fairly easy to find in 2008.

I still carried my iPod around for a while, but it wasn’t long before I started working around the iPhone’s limited storage space and leaving my iPod at home. Sure, the Windows Phone and BlackBerry crowd may have been doing many of these things for years, but for me (and millions of other iPhone owners), this was a huge step forward, even if there were caveats.

Looking back, the iPhone’s influence on the consumer electronics market is obvious. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth reflecting on. It’s also worth considering Jobs’ performance to see how it influenced Apple’s competitors. Jobs made many similar presentations over the years, but after the iPhone became a success, Microsoft, Samsung and Google (among others) really started emulating Apple’s events. It’s common now to see companies sell you on their entire vision, not just a series of products or software features.

Ultimately, Jobs’ presentation is as much a part of the iPhone’s history as the product itself. The introduction was nearly a complete disaster, with shoddy prototype phones barely able to connect to the internet, running out of memory and crashing if they weren’t used very carefully. But that craziness only adds to the legend of the iPhone’s introduction.

Fortunately, the experience of actually using the iPhone was pretty seamless when it launched six months later. The first iPhone didn’t age very well (I only had mine for 18 months before grabbing a 3GS when it launched), but it made a good enough impression that I’ve been a repeat customer for nearly a decade. If Jobs’ introduction went as badly as it could have, things would have worked out very, very different for both the iPhone and Apple as a whole. Yes, the first iPhone was basically a working beta — but it worked well enough to change an entire industry.

Huawei’s MacBook clone is slightly less pricey at $1,100

We were reasonably impressed with Huawei’s first bold foray into the Windows 10 notebook market, the Matebook X. Partially because it’s a dead ringer for Apple’s 12-inch MacBook and partially because Huawei’s machine improved on it in a few key ways (like adding a second USB-C port. Whoa). A month after our first look, we’re getting price points for the 13-inch notebook. The machine will be available for pre-order June 30th. $1,100 nabs you an Intel Core i5-powered version with 256GB of space in space gray or you can shell out $200 more for a slightly faster Intel Core i7-loaded model with 512GB of storage in prestige gold.

As our hands-on noted, if you want an Apple MacBook that runs Windows, the Matebook X is a great choice. While they also imitated that machine’s minimal port design, at least Huawei had the courtesy to include a dongle with USB-A, USB-C, HDMI and VGA access. Plus, its keys have 1.2mm of travel space, unlike the nearly-flush butterfly key setup on the MacBook — if that’s an important thing to you.