Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom review

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Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom

Asus has dropped the bulky camera bump and the price of the latest entry in its Zenfone Zoom smartphone series. Unlike its predecessor, the Zenfone 3 Zoom doesn’t look like a point-and-shoot camera, but it still retains a 2.3x optical zoom. The question is, has the camera, the spotlight of the Zoom lineup, improved? The answer is yes, but our Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom review finds the camera capabilities are hindered by the phone’s other shortcomings.

Uninspired design, solid display

The Zenfone 3 Zoom isn’t a bad-looking device, but it’s hardly unique. It has a sleek metal unibody with a minimalistic rear, which houses the camera, fingerprint sensor, and the Asus logo at the bottom of the device. The all-metal unibody design looks good, and the added durability is a plus. Glass-backed phones look great – but they have a far higher risk of being easily damaged and cracked.

On the front of the phone, Asus has gone for capacitive navigation buttons on the bottom rather than on-screen icons. The front does look a little outdated – capacitive buttons seem to be on their way out and displays are starting to get larger, with smaller edges around like the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, or even the recently-announced mid-range LG Q6.

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

On the right edge you’ll find a volume rocker and power button, while the left edge is where the SIM card slot is located. On the bottom there’s a USB Type-C charging port, which is the growing standard for most smartphones these days. Flanking the charging port are a headphone jack and speaker grill.

Overall, the design is uninspiring, and we also have a few qualms. For example, the fingerprint sensor is a little high up on the back of the phone, making it a little hard to reach. That’s also true of the volume rocker.

The display is more promising, though nothing to get excited about. The 5.5-inch AMOLED screen has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution that does the job — it’s sharp, with vibrant colors, and deep blacks.

Mid-range phone, mid-range performance

Under the hood, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 coupled with 3GB of RAM keeping things running (there’s 4GB in the international version). For storage, there’s a choice of 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB, and there’s even a MicroSD card slot in case you wanted to add more space.

The Zenfone 3 Zoom isn’t a bad-looking device, but it’s hardly unique.

The specifications are quite similar to the $280 Moto G5 Plus, which comes with 4GB of RAM in the U.S.  We found the performance to be more than enough for day-to-day use, unless you’re a heavy mobile gamer. Multi-tasking performed well with apps like Gmail and Facebook, and the user interface was generally quite smooth.

Don’t expect top-tier performance with the Snapdragon 625. If you’re a heavy gamer, you need the best multi-tasking abilities out there, or you simply want to future-proof your device a little more — you may want to go for a phone with a slightly more powerful chip (check out the OnePlus 5). If you only use your phone for web browsing, email, social media, and some light gaming, you’ll find more than enough power in the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

Here are a few benchmark scores we received for reference:

• AnTuTu: 63,423
• 3DMark Slingshot Extreme: 467

The results are pretty much on par with the likes of the recently reviewed Lenovo Moto Z2 Play, which has a slightly more powerful Snapdragon 626 processor, and the Moto G5 Plus, which has the same Snapdragon 625 processor as the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

It’s a solid mid-range phone, and its performance should be good for most people.

Okay camera, excellent battery

What makes this device unique is the camera, or so Asus says. It was easy to point out with last year’s Zenfone Zoom, thanks to the large camera lens on the rear. But with the Zenfone 3 Zoom, things are a little more subtle — even with the dual-camera setup.

There are two 12-megapixel camera on the rear with f/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilization, laser and phase detection autofocus, and 2.3x optical zoom – though you can go all the way to 12x with digital zoom. The results are hit or miss, but let’s start with the good.

One of the great things about this camera is that it offers an excellent manual mode, with a ton of different preset modes for those who don’t want to delve too deep into the settings. The 2.3x optical zoom is helpful and offers solid detail, but you really shouldn’t go up to the max 12x digital zoom, as you’re simply just cropping the image.

The camera is equipped with 4-axis optical image stabilization, which helps eliminate blur from shaky hands or sudden movement.

Now, this is a midrange device – so don’t expect top-tier performance, because you won’t get it.

Now for the bad — the camera is only just usable in low-light. It’s not all that surprising – few phones have come close to offering great low-light capabilities, but with such a camera-centric device, you might expect better. In broad daylight, photos are more saturated than we’d like, and details aren’t as sharp. Not only that, but colors just seem a little off. Photos look somewhat like an oil painting rather than a photograph – something we found in the original Asus Zenfone Zoom too.

A recent update added a Portrait Mode, similar to the one found on the iPhone 7 Plus. Sadly, it doesn’t work that well. It’s supposed to blur out the background of a subject, for a nice “bokeh” effect, but Asus’ version blurs the photo in weird places, and often only spots behind the subject of the photo. It certainly needs work.

The camera is good for a mid-range phone, but it’s far from the huge selling point it should be.

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom Compared To

Moto Z2 Play

OnePlus 5

Huawei Nova 2 Plus

ZTE Blade V8 Pro

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X

LeEco Le S3

LeEco Le Pro3

HTC Bolt

Lenovo Moto Z

Alcatel Idol 4S

Meizu M3 Note

Oppo F1 Plus

Lenovo ZUK Z1

OnePlus 2

LG G4

Things are a little better in the battery department – it has a hefty 5,000mAh capacity, which translated to easily two days of use without any issues. It last for days when left on standby, which is always a plus. If you’re looking for a device with a long battery life, this is an great choice.

ZenUI doesn’t feel very zen

A key part of the user experience is software, and traditionally Asus hasn’t done too well in the category. During the course of this review, the phone was finally updated to Android 7.1.1 Nougat, but the update didn’t really change all that much apart from making the phone a little more secure.

To be fair, ZenUI is much better than it ever has been, and since the phone is carrier unlocked, it means there’s less bloatware on it. There are some handy features, such as how you can create app folders in the app tray as well as on the home screen. The pre-installed apps present can be helpful, like the FM radio, and the built-in file manager. Thankfully, you can disable or even uninstall some of these pre-installed apps if you don’t want to use them.

But the user interface just feels clunky. There are oversized icons, overly bright colors, and far too much content crammed into small spaces. It often feels as though there’s just too much going on — quite the opposite of what you’d expect for a user interface called “ZenUI.”

Warranty, availability, and price

Asus offers a standard one-year limited warranty on the phone, and it covers the basics – manufacturing defects that cause problems to the phone’s performance.

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom costs $350, which is affordable, but it’s not an absolute bargain either. You can get it now from a range of different websites, including Best Buy, B&H, or the Asus website itself. While Asus lists Amazon as a place to buy the phone, when we clicked on the link the page didn’t seem to be active yet.

Our Take

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is a mixed bag. It has great battery life, and solid performance for its price, but while the camera has improved it still doesn’t live up to expectations, and ZenUI is far from our favorite user interface.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom offers a solid camera and great battery life, but there are better phones for the money. Read the Best camera phones and Best smartphones lists for our top picks. For only $50 more, for example, you could get the new Lenovo Moto Z2 Play on Verizon, which places an equally heavy emphasis on the camera, is a better performer, and offers a less cluttered user interface. The only downside is that it costs $500 unlocked. If you’re not willing to spend the extra money on the Moto Z2 Play, you could also go for the Moto G5 Plus, which will offer equivalent performance thanks to the Snapdragon 625, and a similar camera and Android experience.

Then there’s the more powerful variant of the Zenfone 3 Zoom, which comes in at $459 – over $100 more expensive than the base model. But if you’re thinking of dropping the extra cash, then we recommend going all-in for the OnePlus 5, which comes in at $480 and is better in every way except for battery life – including camera quality.

How long will it last?

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom should get you through a standard smartphone upgrade cycle, which is two years. If you take excellent care of the device, you may get a little more use out of it, and if you tend to use high-performing apps and multi-task a lot, you’ll find it will slow a little sooner.

Should you buy it?

No. There are simply better phones for the money out there, like the Moto G5 Plus, the Moto Z2 Play, or the OnePlus 5.

Despite recent struggles, SoundCloud says it’s ‘here to stay’

After last week’s reports that SoundCloud would layoff 40 percent of its staff and consolidate its offices, the company is spreading the word that it’s here to stay. SoundCloud tweeted earlier this week that it wouldn’t be going anywhere, a message it reiterated in a blog post, and Chance the Rapper tweeted a similar sentiment following a cryptic tweet about “working on the SoundCloud thing.” According to a company spokesperson, Chance, as a member of the SoundCloud community, called the CEO to inquire about the situation and his takeaway from that conversation was reflected in his tweet. However, the company recently held an all-hands meeting and reports from employees in attendance as well as information about how SoundCloud has handled these layoffs tell a different story.

*airhorn* Spread the word: your music isn’t going anywhere. Neither are we.

— SoundCloud (@SoundCloud) July 14, 2017

I’m working on the SoundCloud thing

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 13, 2017

Just had a very fruitful call with Alex Ljung. @SoundCloud is here to stay.

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 14, 2017

After the meeting, one SoundCloud employee told TechCrunch that morale was “pretty shitty,” and said, “I know people who didn’t get the axe are actually quitting. The people saved from this are jumping ship.” Another referred to the meeting as a “shitshow” and said, “I don’t believe that people will stay. The good people at SoundCloud will leave. Eric [Wahlforss] said something about the SoundCloud ‘family,’ and there were laughs. You just fired 173 people of the family, how the fuck are you going to talk about family?”

Other reports from inside SoundCloud depict a messy and irresponsible approach to the situation. The company reportedly continued to hire new employees up to two weeks before the layoff announcement even though during the all-hands it was clear that execs had been preparing for staff cuts for months. And the lack of communication about its financial troubles led some areas of the company to continue unnecessary spending practices like catered lunches and lavish swag for new team members.

In March, the company was forced to borrow $70 million in order to keep running and when the layoffs were announced, co-founder Alex Ljung said in a blog post, “By reducing our costs and continuing our revenue growth, we’re on our path to profitability and in control of SoundCloud’s independent future.” But what wasn’t mentioned was that the company’s independent future was only funded through the end of the year. SoundCloud says it’s negotiating with potential investors and maybe Chance the Rapper’s tweet means he’s one of them. However, if employees continue to jump ship as some staff members seem to think they will, maybe SoundCloud will be able to stretch its dwindling funding a little further.

Source: TechCrunch

Kaspersky in the crosshairs

Kaspersky is in what you might call “a bit of a pickle.”

The Russian cybersecurity firm, famous for its antivirus products and research reports on active threat groups is facing mounting accusations of working with, or for, the Russian government.

These accusations have been made in press and infosec gossip for years. In the past month there’s been more scuttlebutt in the press, an NSA probe surfaced, and the Senate got involved by pushing for a product ban. This week things reached a peak with fresh accusations from Bloomberg and a surprising attack from the Trump administration. Which is odd, considering how eager the current regime is to please and grease the wheels of its Russian counterparts.

Either way, Kaspersky is really in a tight spot this time. The hammer dropped Tuesday when Bloomberg published Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence. It comes from the same reporters who started 2015’s “banyagate,” in which Kaspersky Lab Has Close Ties to Russian Spies alleged CEO Eugene Kaspersky colluded with Russian intel in secret sauna meetings.

In each instance Kaspersky — the company, and its CEO of the same name — issued statements refuting the articles point by point and denying the accusations.

This week’s piece claims to be operating on information from 2009 internal company emails obtained from anonymous sources. In them, the company allegedly discusses working on a DDoS product for a Russian government entity.

Without technical descriptions, what Bloomberg wrote about the deployment and maintenance of the DDoS product is quite hazy. On the one hand, it comes across as maybe nefarious; on the other, it’s maybe just enterprise-level threat services. The article did state that Kaspersky participates in “hacking back” on the Russian government’s behalf and that the company’s employees also go on raids with the FSB — both of which are incredibly serious charges which aren’t fully substantiated.

In its statement, Kaspersky said that it does not hack back, but it does assist Russian law enforcement, saying:

“Regardless of how the facts are misconstrued to fit in with a hypothetical, false theory, Kaspersky Lab, and its executives, do not have inappropriate ties with any government. The company does regularly work with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world with the sole purpose of fighting cybercrime.”

Here I’ll say a couple of things “everyone knows” but few want to admit (or will like to hear). Cybersecurity firms have gone from being infosec startups to becoming intelligence brokers, no matter how anyone tries to package it. This is a permanent feature in the infosec landscape.

What upsets people even more, is that pretty much everyone has worked for, or with, a government or law enforcement at some point. Infosec isn’t black and white: Good luck finding someone in infosec that hasn’t worked for the government — any government — or knows exactly who they’ve worked for at any given time, for that matter.

Which brings us back to Kaspersky.

So far there’s been no public evidence to substantiate accusations that Kaspersky is under Kremlin influence. Yet Bloomberg’s article moved the needle in Washington.

It got a reaction from Senate Democrats, who are rightfully freaked out about Russian government meddling, and also got action from the Trump camp, which is … worth a closer look. For the past few months, DC’s scrutiny of Kaspersky and any alleged ties to the Kremlin (which Kaspersky denies) has only increased as suspicion about the Trump regime has exploded. This paranoia makes sense, even if the lack of concrete public evidence (so far as we know) makes it illogical.

Around July 4, the Senate Armed Services Committee recommended banning the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) from using Kaspersky’s products in 2018. As in, they’re using them now, but they’ll be dropped in the future.

Just before that, on June 25th a “counter-intelligence inquiry” saw the FBI going to the homes of around a dozen Kaspersky employees in the US. Agents questioned employees about their company’s operations, but we didn’t hear anything further.

To avoid being banned from the Pentagon’s defense contracts, in response Eugene Kaspersky offered the US government access to his company’s source code. This is ostensibly to show that there are no Russian government backdoors in his products (like antivirus software), which is one of the suspicions. Infosec chatter noted that this wouldn’t make much of a difference either way, considering that antivirus products basically act like rootkits anyway; an antivirus program has access to the advanced privileges in your computer and “calls home” for its updates.

Keep in mind that a lot of us are wondering about evidence as to whether or not Kaspersky and company are tools for the Russian government.

Which brings us to Trump. The Trump administration, being a fiefdom operating under its own mysterious reasons, jumped on the anti-Kaspersky bandwagon this week. Appearing to take its cue from Bloomberg’s article, Trump’s regime moved quickly to stop a few government agencies from using Kaspersky products. Tuesday ABC News reported that Trump was considering a government-wide ban.

Shortly after that the General Services Administration (GSA) took Kaspersky off the list of approved vendors for two government contracts. This makes it prohibitive for agencies to purchase or use the company’s products.

“After review and careful consideration, the General Services Administration made the decision to remove Kaspersky Lab-manufactured products from GSA IT Schedule 70 and GSA Schedule 67 – Photographic Equipment and Related Supplies and Services,” a GSA spokesman said.

That’s the weird part. For an administration that says its eager to please the Russian government, it’s a contradiction to have the GSA harm the business of a Russian company. Unlike the speculation about Kaspersky, the GSA is absolutely a proven tool of the Trump administration. It is not on the side of those who want to see Robert Mueller succeed with the Trump-Russia investigation.

The GSA’s new chief was handpicked by Trump and is currently in deep trouble for letting Trump violate the Constitution in regard to his Washington DC Hotel. When senators ask for answers from the GSA about its lenient dealings with Trump, they get obfuscation and silence.

Meanwhile, Kaspersky is under fire from its own community. Infosec is becoming more divided about Kaspersky by the day. Some infosec thought leaders are saying “it’s about time” people stopped trusting and using Kaspersky products. This is another huge contradiction on its own: The industry relies — and in some cases depends — on Kaspersky’s admittedly top-notch, publicly available research on a wide variety of global threat groups (yes, including Russian ones).

That research has gotten everyone out of tight spots. When the Shadow Brokers dumped exploits into the wild and advantageous threat actors started weaponizing them, Kaspersky’s research was where the most reputable cybersecurity companies referred people to for systems patches and protection. There’s no doubt that the Shadow Brokers (widely believed to be a Russian state entity) would’ve had much more of a field day if Kaspersky hadn’t actively worked to undermine the effects of the dump.

I’m not here to bury Kaspersky or to praise it. With few exceptions, I can assure you that pretty much every company that comes near infosec is shady. We don’t know hard facts behind the accusations against Kaspersky, which is frustrating, but we do know that their research contributions have been invaluable.

Typically, research like that sits behind a company’s six-figure enterprise-level paywalls. I just hope that research, and its spirit, doesn’t go away. The future doesn’t look great for the company right now in the US. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense-spending policy bill barring Kaspersky’s antivirus software seems to have legs, and that would definitely be a punitive measure against the company. It will need to get approval from the Senate and House before being signed by Trump, but that’s now surprisingly possible.

Maybe Kaspersky’s dogged researchers found the pee tapes? We can only hope.

Images: Getty Images/iStockphoto (Pentagon); Yegor AleyevTASS via Getty Images (Eugene Kaspersky)

YouTube experimenting with GIF-like video previews

According to a post on its help forum, YouTube began to experiment with video previews on the desktop a couple of weeks ago, albeit in limited fashion. But now the company seems to be ready for a wider rollout, as some users have started seeing the feature on YouTube’s latest dot-com interface. As pictured above, soon you might notice a 3-second teaser when your computer’s pointer hovers over a thumbnail, though it only works for videos that are longer than 30 seconds.

YouTube does warn creators not to worry if their video doesn’t have a live preview, since not every one of them will — that criteria is going to depend on “topic and content,” the company explained. Either way, this seems like a good idea to keep viewers more engaged as they’re browsing the site.

Source: YouTube

Seminal sci-fi magazine ‘Galaxy’ is now free online

The next time you watch a big blockbuster sci-fi film like Alien: Covenant, you can thank the original pulp magazines. The written form of the popular genre got its start in comic book-sized magazines like Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. These publications, under the direction of influential editors like John W. Campbell, Jr., helped improve the genre from basic adventure stories to more thoughtful, well-written speculative fiction by authors like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. It’s not an overstatement to say that these magazines created the current science fiction craze. Now, Galaxy Science Fiction, a magazine that published Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and Alfred Bester’s “The Demolished Man,” is available for free online.

From 1950 to 1980, the digest-sized Galaxy Science Fiction magazine became well-known for its focus on social issues rather than technology, which became its own sub-genre (New Wave) within the larger speculative fiction scene. Author Frederik Pohl helped the original editor, H.L. Gold, craft the production from the late 1950’s, eventually taking over officially in 1961. There were a string of editors after the magazine was sold in 1969, and the quality never quite recovered barring a couple of solid stints by talented editors like James Baen, who went on to found sf imprint, Baen Books. The final issue came out in 1980; a semi-professional publication came out in 1994 under the same name but only lasted eight bimonthly issues.

You can read 355 separate issues spanning the years 1950 – 1976 of Galaxy Science Fiction over at Archive.org right now. Each one is available for download in a variety of formats, too, including accessible ones like Abby and Daisy, along with the more typical Epub, Kindle, and PDF versions. Having such a wealth of seminal, modern science fiction at your fingertips is yet another example of how great the internet can be.

Via: The Verge

Source: Archive.org

Apple Cracking Down on VPN-Based Ad Blockers That Work in Third-Party Apps

It appears Apple may be cracking down on some VPN-based ad blockers that are designed to block ads in third-party apps, based on a recent interaction iOS developer Tomasz Koperski had with Apple’s App Store review team.

Koperski is the CTO of Future Mind, a software company that produces AdBlock, Weblock, and Admosphere, three ad blocking apps. When submitting an update for AdBlock for iOS, a VPN-based ad blocking app, it was rejected.

Upon appeal to the App Review Board, Koperski was told Apple is no longer allowing VPN/root certificate-based ad blockers on the App Store and will not be accepting updates of existing ad blockers that use those techniques going forward. According to Apple, Future Mind’s AdBlock app violates section 4.2 of the App Store Review Guidelines, which dictates that apps must be useful, unique, and “app-like.”

Specifically, the app violated section 4.2.1, which says “Apps should use APIs and frameworks for their intended purposes and should indicate that integration in their app description,” and to get even more specific, Future Mind was told the update was rejected because “Your app uses a VPN profile or root certificate to block ads or other content in a third-party app, which is not allowed on the App Store.”

Koperski was told that Safari content blockers, introduced in iOS 9, will be the only Apple-supported ad blockers going forward, and those ad blockers are limited to use in the Safari web browser.

After submitting an appeal to the App Review Board, a member of the Review Team contacted me directly via phone and informed that Apple has officially changed their policy regarding VPN/root certificate based ad blockers on the App Store and is no longer accepting updates of apps, which directly block content in third party apps. The only officially allowed ad blocking method is now Safari Content Blockers.

Koperski says that the change marks a major shift in Apple’s ad blocking policy, as Future Mind has had its ad blocking products in the App Store for the past five years. AdBlock, the app that Apple rejected, has been available for purchase since 2014, and it was one of the first VPN-based ad blockers able to block ads in all apps locally on both Wi-Fi and Cellular.

There are dozens of similar ad blocking apps available in the App Store at the current time, some that were updated as recently as June. It’s not clear why Apple has changed its policy after so many years, but many apps, including native apps like Apple News, feature ads as a way to monetize.

Apple has recently undertaken a major overhaul of the App Store, eliminating clone apps, outdated apps, and more, so it’s possible this new crackdown is a part of that effort. Since late 2015, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller has been overseeing the App Store and has enacted some significant changes.

Future Mind was told the AdBlock app could be updated if it switches from ad blocking via VPN to the Safari Content Blocker, but the company is worried about upsetting customers who paid for the ability to block adds in both Safari and in apps. The company has not yet decided what to do and is mulling several possible choices, including leaving the app as is, expanding existing functionality into a VPN service, or transitioning to a Safari-only blocker.
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Life with Bixby is equal parts futuristic and frustrating

In the future, the voice of Bixby — Samsung’s virtual assistant — will ring forth from refrigerators and smart speakers and who knows what else. No wonder the company is taking its time with it. For those who really can’t wait, Bixby’s voice interface is available as a preview you can access now.

I spent the last few days chatting with Bixby as often as possible. Our time together has been… eye-opening, to say the least. It’s definitely not ready for the wild, but despite the bad news surrounding it, Samsung’s virtual assistant is starting to feel pretty capable. Emphasis on “starting to.”

Getting started

Once all the necessary app updates are in place, you’ll run through a lengthy setup process, all narrated by a chirpy, enthusiastic young woman. That’s Bixby, and for now, she can only be a she. (This still feels a little weird; “Bixby” sounds like the name of an ancient British man to me.) Part of this onboarding involves deciding whether or not to turn on more experimental Bixby integrations that haven’t received their final layer of polish. If you want Bixby to interact with apps Samsung didn’t build itself, you’ll definitely want to enable this.

Actually using Bixby is easy enough: Just hold down the Bixby key and start talking. Get used to saying “open [app] and [perform this action]” — this is the syntax Bixby expects and works best with. If holding down buttons isn’t your thing, you can also activate Bixby with a wake-up phrase — “Hi, Bixby,” though other variants seem to work — and do all the same things. The difference is, the setup process is a little more involved. Since Bixby was designed to handle more complex, multi-part commands, training it requires you to spit out test sentences like “health is always important” and “Bixby was named after a bridge in California.”

Chris Velazco/Engadget

The good

Samsung’s goal is to create a way to speak to a phone that was as effective at getting things done as using a touchscreen. That’s ambitious, but Samsung mostly managed to deliver. Sticking to the “open this and do that” format certainly helps, but Bixby is surprisingly good at figuring out what you’re saying and piecing together the steps needed to take the correct action.

Let’s say I’m bored and want to check out stuff on YouTube — saying “open YouTube and show me subscriptions” worked like a charm every time. Casually phrased requests can work pretty well, too, though there’s a greater chance of Bixby slipping up. Even so, you can do a lot — asking it to show you photos you took in New York works, as does cropping one of them with your voice. Even asking Bixby to download apps like Audible and Pocket Casts worked perfectly. Bixby’s preferred syntax might be stricter, but Siri and Google Assistant can’t do that. And beyond that, I really dig the idea of hearing about a cool app and just telling my phone to install it, rather than pecking at a keyboard and tapping on a screen to do the same thing. It’s a very real taste of a voice-controlled future we’ve been promised for so long.

Using a physical button to invoke Bixby is also an excellent idea. It’s strangely satisfying, for one — it felt like I was using a walkie-talkie to chat with my enthusiastic assistant. More importantly, it gives Bixby a clear understanding of when your request starts and stops, a feat that can be tricky if you’re launching any assistant with just your voice.

The bad

Getting Bixby’s attention with the button is great, but I’ve had some trouble invoking it with the wake-up phrase. In fact, while writing that last sentence, I had to say “Hi, Bixby” six time before it responded. Depending on your environment, all virtual assistants can be bad at recognizing their names, but Bixby seemed more prone to missing its wake-up call than Siri or Google’s Assistant.

You’re supposed to be able to use Bixby to send messages and post photos with captions on Instagram, which technically works. Because of Bixby’s incompleteness, though, I just can’t trust it to accurately transcribe what I’m saying. After all, the language we use to communicate with other people is beautiful and complex and steeped in context — context that Bixby just doesn’t have a grasp on yet. Given the limited amount of time the assistant has been exposed to native English speakers, this isn’t a surprise.

Bixby will get better in time, but these are potential deal breakers. As much as I enjoy pulling off complex functions with a single sentence, that sort of system-level control won’t be used by everyone. Some people just want to know when Abraham Lincoln was born or when the first US satellite was launched into orbit, and Google’s Knowledge Graph is much, much better at figuring out answers to those general questions.

Considering how vast Android’s app ecosystem is, Samsung also needs to get more developers baking Bixby support into their software. I can tell it to send a message to my girlfriend, but it only routes those messages through Samsung’s first-party Messages app. Whatsapp is working on including Bixby support — it’s available as one of those experimental integrations — but you’re out of luck for now if you spend most of your time talking to people in Slack, Allo, Hangouts or Telegram.

The strange

Whenever you interact with Bixby, you’re asked for feedback — either a “great job” or “let’s improve.” If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself split between those two choices most of the time. What’s sort of odd is the mechanism Samsung uses to aggregate that feedback: Bixby gains experience points whenever it gets something right, as though it were a character in an RPG. You can unlock new looks for Bixby as it levels up which is arguably neat but also very manufactured — if Samsung really wanted us to keep using Bixby, why not just let us customize it all willy-nilly from the get-go?

Samsung should also just let people re-map the Bixby key if they want to. The company isn’t going to get usage data from power users who have already decided that Bixby isn’t for them, so why not let them do as they please?

Make no mistake: Bixby is still far from complete. When it works the way it’s supposed to, though, it starts to feel like a more capable, thoughtful kind of assistant. Based on this preliminary testing, I’m going to keep using Bixby in hopes that it finally becomes the virtual assistant I want, not just the one I’m stuck with. If the right changes are made, and soon, Google and Apple will have a serious new AI rival to contend with. Recent rumors suggest we might see Bixby’s official launch as early as next week. Stay tuned to see if — and how — Bixby improves between now and then.

Tune into the EVO 2017 fighting game championships right here!

If you don’t have any plans to go outside this weekend, here’s something you can do. The EVO 2017 fighting game championships, which feature titles including Street Fighter V and Super Smash Bros., are kicking off today, with the finals set to take place on Sunday, July 16th. You can stream most of the action via Evo’s Twitch channels (the main one is embedded below), as well as others like CapcomFighters, Tekken and NetherRealm. And, similar to last year, you’ll be able to watch the Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. finals on TV thanks to ESPN2 and Disney XD, respectively.

Sure, you’d probably rather be in Las Vegas watching the competition live, but at least you’ll be more comfortable this way.

EVO begins today at 10 AM PT https://t.co/lwdgNrP32W pic.twitter.com/GLW0gZeHH1

— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 14, 2017

Source: Evo

TouchArcade iOS Gaming Roundup: 868-HACK, A Planet of Mine, Street Fighter IV Champion Edition, and More

Things are never boring in the world of iOS gaming, and that’s true once again this week. The majority of my time over at TouchArcade this week has been negotiating and scheduling all sorts of upcoming news under embargo that I wish I could talk about as I hate sitting on really awesome stories. But, in the interest of keeping everyone happy, I’d just keep your eyes glued to these roundups over the next couple of weeks for some pleasant surprises in the world of mobile gaming.

Picking up where we left off last week, there have been further developments in the mystery of what in the world is actually happening with the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. The game series has merchandise in both Walmart and Target stores, as well as a movie on the way, but the fate of the sixth installment is still up in the air. This week FNAF creator Scott Cawthon reiterated on Reddit that he’s stepping away from the series partly due to the community negativity and how discouraging it is. It’s ultra plausible, and makes a ton of sense, particularly as FNAF has grown beyond Cawthon’s wildest dreams, but… I’m not quite ready to believe that there won’t be a Five Nights at Freddy’s 6.

As far as roguelites (A “roguelite” is not quite a “roguelike,” although the internet loves arguing about the definition of both. Typically they’re games with random elements and permadeath.) are concerned, 868-Hack is one of the very best on the App Store. We absolutely loved it when it hit the App Store back in 2013 as it’s unbelievably clever how developer Michael Brough combined classic roguelike dungeon crawling elements with faux-hacking. The game has lingered on the App Store for years now, but this week was updated with loads of new content titled “868-HACK: Plan B” which is unlocked via a $2.99 IAP. Whether or not you spring for the IAP, at least check out our review and consider giving the base game a shot. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

My personal favorite hidden gem that hit the App Store this week is a lightweight 4X game titled A Planet of Mine. I get more in depth on how the game works over on TouchArcade, but the basic gist is the developers did an unbelievably fantastic job taking all of the various elements that go into a 4X game like Civilization, but streamlined into a format that can work on a touchscreen. This recommendation comes with the caveat that the game has a bit of a learning curve and not much of a tutorial, so definitely stick with it long enough to learn it. The good news is it’s totally free to try, with the “full” game available as a one-time IAP unlock for $4.99.

Better late than never, Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition hit the App Store this week. We have an in-depth review, but it’s basically a 2017 refresh of Street Fighter IV Volt which brought a shockingly competent port of Street Fighter IV to mobile. It has surprisingly workable virtual controls, MFi support, online multiplayer, and at a single premium purchase of $4.99 is free of gotchas and other freemium shenanigans that seem to permeate every other popular mobile fighting game.

In Hearthstone news, a patch hit this week that nerfed the Rogue quest card The Caverns Below. Completing the quest and unlocking the powerful reward of The Crystal Core now requires five of the same minion being summoned, up from four. This should slow down the deck significantly, which is a very good thing. Also, you can pre-order 50 packs from the upcoming expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, for $49.99. Aside from just getting them free by spending in-game gold, these pre-order offers are the cheapest way to get a bunch of new Hearthstone cards.

Battleheart and Battleheart Legacy are easily among my all-time top iOS games, as both of them provide some unbelievably great RPG gameplay in a format that works incredibly well on the touchscreen. (I seriously can’t recommend them enough.) The games’ developer, Mika Mobile, teased some information on the upcoming sequel, and I can’t wait. Battleheart 2 goes back to the core concepts originally explored in Battleheart, which is a departure from the full-featured RPG that Battleheart Legacy was. The sequel is deep in development, and Mika Mobile is famous for taking their time and not releasing something until it’s 101% completed, so it might be a while until we see the game, or get another update on its progress.

Phoenix II is a favorite over on the TouchArcade Forums, and from the looks of it, it’s going to be among the first games that take advantage of the new 120Hz display of the iPad Pro. Additionally, it’ll support the wide color gamut of recent iOS devices, which isn’t something we see often in games. We liked Phoenix II quite a bit in our review, and if you’re looking for a great, totally free, entry in the bullet hell genre you really can’t do much better than Phoenix II (particularly if you’ve got a new iPad Pro). This update will hit on July 27th.

Last, but not least, we’re working on growing our presence over on Twitch, and as part of that we’re on the hunt for iOS developers and publishers who also stream iOS gaming-related things on Twitch. If that describes you, please reach out to us or tweet @hodapp and we’ll add your channel to our auto-host list. The dream is to turn the TouchArcade Twitch channel into somewhere you can go to always see someone playing iOS games, even when we’re not actively streaming.

That’s it for me this week! If you like these roundups be sure to check out TouchArcade for all this news, and way more. Alternatively, you can always swing into our Discord chat server to find people talking about iOS gaming 24/7.

Tag: TouchArcade gaming roundup
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Sprint’s new plans encourage leasing, rather than buying, of smartphones

Why it matters to you

Sprint’s new leasing program could be the best option to get your hands on the latest smartphone without breaking the bank.

Sprint’s new leasing program aims to keep customers from struggling with whether they should purchase a particular smartphone or not. Similar to the existing plans the company has for the Samsung Galaxy and iPhones, Sprint Flex and Sprint Deals let customers lease any phone — based on its “value menu” of smartphone options — and upgrade to a new device after one year.

Sprint is currently the only carrier that allows customers to lease phones and return them in exchange for another device. The plan is its latest effort to give customers the opportunity to own the latest smartphones without having to shell out a large sum of money on the spot.

After choosing a phone under the Flex plan, you can lease it for 18 months and swap it out for a new phone or keep the one you already have and pay it off completely in one installment. If you want to keep the device but don’t have the money to pay it off right away, you can opt for six more monthly payments, with past lease payments counting toward the purchase price. Another option is to pay $5 a month extra and upgrade the device after one year instead.

With Sprint Deals, customers who let Sprint check their credit can qualify for a Sprint Flex postpaid plan that will ultimately make the smartphone more affordable. For entry-level models like the Alcatel Go Flip, LG Tribute HD and the ZTE Max XL, customers put $25 down and pay $5 per month. Higher-end devices like the iPhone 6s, LG X power, and Samsung Galaxy S6, are $30 down and $10 per month.

If you choose to avoid the credit check, you’ll receive an additional discount instantly — 50 percent off entry-level smartphones and 25 percent off high-end devices — but only if you’re on the Sprint Forward prepaid plan. With both of the Sprint Deals offers, customers still have the option of upgrading to a new device after 12 consecutive and on-time monthly payments.

Sprint is clearly making it known that it wants you to drop your current network. The announcement comes a month after it offered customers one year of free unlimited data for switching carriers — that’s on top of currently offering four lines of unlimited data, talk, and text for $90 with the fifth line free.