Wear Tag Heuer’s $3,650 Android Wear smartwatch, and look like a Kingsman agent

Why it matters to you

If you’ve admired the style of the agents in the Kingsman movie, then you’ll want one of these special edition Tag Heuer smartwatches, made to celebrate the sequel.

While top Mi6 secret agent James Bond wears an Omega Seamaster watch, Kingsman agents are going to sport Tag Heuer timepieces in the Kingsman: The Golden Circle movie, with one of them will being the Connected Modular 45 Android Wear watch. Fans wanting to mimic the suave style of stars Colin Firth and Taron Egerton have the chance to buy their own Kingsman special edition of the Connected Modular 45, if they have $3,650 spare to spend.

What’s special about the Kingsman edition of the watch? It’s more than just a flashy Android Wear watch face, thankfully. It’ll be instantly recognizable to those in-the-know due to the rose gold lugs either side of the  matte black body, which attach to one of two unique strap designs: A bright orange alcantara leather version with a rubber back, and a brown leather sports strap. Flip the body over and a Kingsman logo is stamped on it, and it all comes in a large and impressive presentation box.

Don’t worry, Tag Heuer hasn’t forgotten to customize the watch face. The Kingsman face has the upturned K logo, while a blue, grey, and rose gold color scheme makes it really stand out. There are some cool touches too, like the fun animation that happens every day at 10:10. We’re hoping this will be customizable, because what’s fun the first time, may not be fun every day for the rest of your life.

Apparently, the Connected 45 Modular, which will be worn by Kingsman agents in the film, will, “play a decisive role,” due to its water resistance and toughness. The new movie introduces agents from the Statesman branch, who will wear Tag Heuer’s Monaco Calibre 11 mechanical watches instead of the Android Wear watch.

Tag Heuer introduced the Connected 45 Modular earlier this year as a sequel to the Carrera Connected, the first Swiss-made Android Wear smartwatch. We found out just how accurate the statement about the Connected Modular 45 being a Swiss-made smartwatch is, when we spoke to Intel about collaborating with Tag Heuer, during the Baselworld watch show in March.

Where can you get the Kingsman version of the Connected Modular 45? It’s exclusive to online fashion retailer Mr. Porter at the moment, and will be sold from July 6 at the high price of $3.650, or 3,100 British pounds, twice that of a normal Connected Modular 45. Don’t forget, the modular nature of this watch means you can swap parts around, and even change the body out for a mechanical version, giving it a considerably longer life than a standard Android Wear watch. Kingsman: The Golden Circle will be released in September.

Robots may soon be helping travelers lost inside Japan’s biggest rail stations

Why it matters to you

The robots will be a welcome sight for anyone lost inside one of Japan’s larger, labyrinthine train stations.

Anyone arriving for the first time in one of Japan’s larger train stations — think Shinjuku or Tokyo — probably wonder if they’ll ever see daylight again, the seemingly endless, maze-like passageways serving to baffle and beleaguer with every corner turned.

That’s part of the reason why Japan Railways, the nation’s largest rail company, is tapping local tech talent, so it can build an army of robots to staff the stations and help confused travelers find their way.

JR East, which operates a good many train services in the east of the country, has just set up a new company to develop robot technology for a range of activities, RocketNews24 reported this week.

JRA Robotics Station, as it’s called, will work on building a guidance robot to help travelers navigate busy train stations, leading them to their train or the appropriate exit.  The wheel-based bots will have multi-language capabilities to assist the increasing number of tourists coming from overseas. Even better, the robots are set to include spaces for luggage, enabling you to proceed through the station in a more comfortable fashion while reducing the likelihood of a hurrying office-bound salaryman tripping over your suitcase.

JR East

The new company’s plans also include developing robots that can clean the stations, and also perform security functions using on-board cameras to spot suspicious behavior, with automatic alerts sent to nearby human officers.

As RocketNews24 points out, JR East also operates other facilities such as shopping malls and hotels, so its robots could also be deployed in those locations, too.

It’s not clear how long it’ll be before these multi-talented robots go into service, but with the Olympics coming to Tokyo in 2o2o, many Japanese companies — with JR East likely among them — are keen to showcase their offerings to the millions of overseas travelers expected to visit the country during the grand sporting extravaganza.

There’s already been much talk of introducing self-driving taxis in Tokyo by 2020, with several local firms making progress toward making them a reality. Meanwhile, Pepper the “emotional” robot was launched by Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank several years ago to perform a variety of tasks for humans, and has already been deployed at a number of facilities both inside and outside of the country.

Another factor motivating Japan’s interest in robot technology is the nation’s rapidly aging economy and shrinking population, with labor shortages a growing problem for many  firms in a country traditionally resistant to large-scale immigration.

Honor 9 review: The best phone for less than £400

The Honor 9 isn’t perfect, but it is a great all-rounder that makes high-end performance and design more affordable than ever before.

The quick take

The Honor 9 is a fantastic affordable flagship with a beautiful design, fast performance and dependable all-day battery life. At this price point, the biggest thing you’ll miss from more expensive handsets is a reliable low-light camera.

The Good

• Beautiful design
• Fast, reliable performance
• Dependable all-day battery life
• Good camera performance even in high-contrast shots

The Bad

• Glass back causes it to slide off flat surfaces
• Unimpressive low-light camera performance
• EMUI software will be a turn-off for some

Honor 9 Full Review

Huawei’s Honor brand has defined itself by its presence in the “affordable flagship” space — that £400 sweet spot where you can pick up a pretty good phone that also won’t break the bank.

As a sub-brand of Huawei, Honor’s fortunes have mirrored in parallel with those of its parent company. The first round of Honor phones released in Europe was hamstrung by weird, broken software. Then in 2016, the Honor 8 gave us a glimpse of just how good an Honor phone with a bold new design and decent, stable software could be.

This year’s follow-up, the Honor 9, doesn’t change all that much. That’s not a bad thing at all — between some welcome refinements to the design, some subtle performance improvements and ramped up storage, the Honor 9 changes just enough to stay relevant. And with a price tag of £379.99 in the UK, it continues to lead the pack in terms of value.

Sure, there are some compromises, as we’ll detail in our full review below. But in the context of rising prices throughout the smartphone market, the fact that you can get this much phone for under £400 is truly impressive.

About this review

We’re publishing this review after a week using a sapphire blue, European-spec Honor 9 (STF-L09) with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on the EE network in Manchester, UK, and while roaming on Telekom.de in Berlin, Germany. The phone was running firmware build STF-L09C432B100.

Our review unit is a little different to the model that’ll be sold in the UK, which comes with 4GB of RAM instead. Based on our experiences with similar Huawei phones, we don’t expect the difference in RAM to have a significant impact on performance.

Oh so shiny

Honor 9 Hardware

It’s tough for even the most expensive of flagship phones to stand out right now. Which is why it’s so impressive that a more affordable handset like the Honor 9 manages to sport such an eye-catching design. The phone takes the design of its predecessor, the Honor 8, and adds subtle refinements like a curved glass back panel, and cleaner joins between the metal and glass — no more plastic rim around the metal side walls.

It also fits more comfortably in the hand than last year’s model, and despite its curved frame, it’s not especially slippery in the hand. In fact, I’ve found it sits more securely in my hand than the Honor 8, while also being more ergonomic.

The brushed aluminum trim complements the color of the curved glass, with chamfered edges that help with grip. And the outer frame also houses all your ports and buttons — headphone jack and USB-C down below, power and volume on the right edge, and SIM tray up top; the Honor 9 has a primary SIM slot, plus a hybrid slot that can be used for either a second SIM or a microSD card.

Forget the price for a moment — the Honor 9 is one of the best-looking Android phones, period.

Both sides of the phone are glad in Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and the back is adorned with a beautiful reflective pattern (created out of 15 layers of glass, Honor says), that alternates between white, deep blue and purple depending on the angle at which it’s held. The only downside? One of my least favorite features of the Honor 8, its ability to hockey-puck its way across flat surfaces, is also back. So you’ll want to be careful to prop it up when it’s lying flat, or use the bundled clear case.

With a 5.15-inch screen diagonal, the Honor 9 actually slightly smaller than last year’s model, and definitely one of the more compact flagship phones available right now. Elsewhere in the Android world, 5.5 inches is increasingly seen as the standard screen size, so if you’re after something more friendly to one-handed use, the Honor 9 has you covered.

The panel itself is a 1080p IPS LCD, which holds its own against rivals at this price point. It’s not as bright as the HTC U11’s SuperLCD5, but it does compare favorably with the OnePlus 5’s Optic AMOLED. Colors are consistently vibrant, if a little on the cool side — fortunately, color temperature can be adjusted through the Display Settings menu.

The main functional change from earlier Honor phones is the removal of software keys — these are gone from the software, instead replaced by OnePlus-style swappable capacitive keys for “back” and “recent apps,” either side of the fingerprint scanner, which is also your home key. I’m not particularly missing the soft keys of old, though the decision to not include them as an option is a little bizarre. What’s more, the home key seems to suffer from the same sensitivity issues as the Mate 9 Porsche Design (aka Mate 9 Pro) on earlier firmware — the sensitivity is just a bit low for my liking.

P10-class internals provide ample horsepower.

The new button layout means the programmable convenience key and notification shade shortcuts from the Honor 8 are also gone. (RIP.) That’s not a huge deal for me personally, for others it may be a deal-breaker.

On the inside, the internals of the Honor 9 closely match the hardware of the Huawei P10, which we reviewed back in March. Huawei’s own Kirin 960 CPU provides more than enough power for a smooth Android experience, backed up by 4GB of RAM in the UK and 6GB in select European countries. (I’ve been using the 6GB model, as noted in the intro.) There’s also an ample 64GB of storage onboard — enough breathing space for most people to not worry about offloading photos and music to an SD card.

And rounding off the spec sheet, a relatively large 3,200mAh battery with 9V/2A quick charging.

Operating System	EMUI 5.1 / Android 7.0
Processor	Kirin 960 octa-core, 4x 2.4GHz + 4x 1.8GHz
RAM	4GB (6GB in some mainland European countries)
Storage	64GB
Display	2.5D glass front 5.15-inch 1920×1080 – 428 ppi
Main Cameras	12MP RGB + 20MP monochrome, f/2.2
Front Camera	8MP
Connectivity	Wifi a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4/5GHz Bluetooth 4.2 Fingerprint USB Type-C supporting USB-OTG
SIM Card	Dual nano SIM or nano SIM + microSD
Frequency bands	4G LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B203G UMTS: B1/B2/B5/B8GSM/EDGE: B2/B3/B5/B8
Battery	3,200mAh, 9V/2A quick charging
Dimensions	147.3 x 70.9 x 7.45 mm
Weight	155 grams
Colors	Glacier Grey / Sapphire Blue / Midnight Black

The Kirin 960 — however much RAM is backing it up — is a proven chip, having powered speedy handsets like the Huawei Mate 9, P10 and Honor 8 Pro. It’s an octa-core chip with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores for high-performance duties, paired with four efficient Cortex-A53 cores for lighter tasks. And for demanding graphical apps and games, ARM’s Mali-G71 GPU, with support for the Vulkan graphics API, ensures there’s plenty of power to go around. Benchmark performance will undoubtedly vary, but games like Asphalt 8 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted performed just as well on the Honor 9 as on pricier flagships like the Galaxy S8.

The Honor 9’s dual camera setup is another point of interest. You’re basically looking at the Huawei P10’s dual-camera array, only without the Leica image tuning (and branding), and without OIS (optical image stabilization.) As we’ll discover later in this review, that translates into the camera performing about as well as the P10 in daylight, but with performance quickly degrading in low light.

EMUI 5.1

Honor 9 Software

Both Huawei and its Honor sub-brand share a common software platform, EMUI. In years past, EMUI’s various quirks have been a point of contention for many users in the West. Sometimes apps wouldn’t quite work right, or notifications would be broken, or the software would be way too aggressive about killing background tasks, often with annoying consequences.

But Huawei’s software suite has been improving significantly over the past year. And although the latest EMUI 5.1, based on Android 7.0 Nougat, is still highly differentiated compared to what Samsung, HTC and Google offer, it’s better looking and more usable than ever right now.

Little has changed since we last experienced EMUI on the Honor 8 Pro — the software is basically identical, only scaled down onto a smaller display. The core of Huawei’s software had a minimalist aesthetic, with a clean blue and white color scheme. Other areas, such as the launcher and app icons, are infinitely customizable thanks to the many skins in Huawei’s Themes app.

While many iOS influences remain in parts of EMUI, particularly in the home screen launcher, the latest version feels much more like Android than previous versions. Notifications — aside from their rounded corners and some color changes — work more or less the same way they do in stock Android. And the recent apps are shown in the standard “Rolodex” layout.

EMUI 5.1 is better than you (probably) think it is.

More importantly, EMUI is fast — almost as speedy as the Google Pixel and OnePlus 5 in day-to-day tasks, and on par with the Samsung Galaxy S8 in most apps. (Again, benchmark scores will likely differ.)

Huawei has also brought AI to bear on its software, with intelligent features designed to learn your usage patterns and cache apps in the background accordingly. For example, if you always load Instagram after taking a photo in the camera app, EMUI should pick up on this behavior and start pre-caching Instagram before you need it. Less-used apps can also be compressed in memory, saving space for more frequently accessed apps.

That’s the theory, anyway. There’s no way to really see this stuff at work, and I couldn’t really judge how much these features are contributing to the overall performance of the phone. Nevertheless, as I said, it’s fast.

EMUI’s expansive feature set has also made it across to the Honor 9, with a useful one-handed mode, deep notification management, and a handy Twin App function that lets you use multiple WhatsApp, WeChat or Facebook accounts on a single device. And a partnership with GoPro has yielded automatic album sorting and video highlights — a neat feature, but hardly something unique in the world of smartphone photography.

Honor doubles down on sound quality and audio tuning, with partnerships aplenty.

Finally, audio is another major focus for the Honor 9 — it’s the first phone to feature Huawei’s HiSten 3D audio system, and its internal speaker is tuned by Grammy-winning engineer Rainer Maillard. The built-in bottom-firing speaker sounds decent, if a little tinny at higher volume levels. I guess what I’m saying is it sounds like a smartphone speaker — I wouldn’t have necessarily known there was any special tuning going on there, but it’s a respectable speaker for a mobile device. I was more impressed with music playback through the headphone jack, where the software tuning — this time done in partnership with Monster — managed to recreate bassy, voluminous sound while retaining plenty of clarity.

Overall, it still feels like EMUI 5.1 has some growing to do, and it’ll be interesting to see what EMUI 6 (and presumably Android 8.0) bring to future Huawei and Honor devices. For what it’s worth, Honor has promised an upgrade to the new version of Android, but there’s no timetable for that at present.

Dual lenses

Honor 9 Camera

I’ll say this upfront: The Honor 9’s camera situation is a bit of a mixed bag. The software and image processing is pretty good, and dynamic range is typically great, as I’ve come to expect from Huawei’s cameras. But to perform well in low light, a phone camera needs large pixels, a bright aperture or OIS, and the Honor 9 has none of these things.

In hardware terms, you’re dealing with two sensors — a 12-megapixel RGB sensor with 1.25-micron pixels behind an f/2.2 aperture, and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor, used for capturing fine detail, with 1.1-micron pixels, also behind a f/2.2 lens. As we’ve already noted, there’s no OIS to be found in either camera.

As a result, predictably, low-light performance suffers compared to the handful of discounted 2016 flagships you might find around the same price point as the Honor 9. Once you start shooting in auto mode in dim indoor conditions, or outside by streetlight, chroma noise quickly decimates your images.
There is a dedicated low-light shooting mode, however this is largely useless without a smartphone tripod. (That said, if you do have a tripod to hand, you’ll get some pretty great long exposures.)

Curiously, the front-facing camera — an 8-megapixel unit behind a brighter f/2.0 lens — seemed to outperform the main pair of cameras, with quick captures and a decent amount of detail, even in precarious indoor lighting.

The Honor 9 brings some fun camera features to the table, but low-light results are mixed at best.

Bottom line: If you pick up an Honor 9, be prepared for mixed results in low-light.

Outside of unfortunately rough night photography, the Honor 9 performed admirably in daytime conditions, producing sharp images with ample color detail and excellent dynamic range even in very challenging backlit conditions. Photos appeared somewhat desaturated compared to the likes of the Galaxy S8 and OnePlus 5, but still sharp and pleasing to the eyes.

Although the Honor 9’s camera isn’t Leica-branded, many of the shooting modes from Huawei’s premium-tier phones have made it across. The always impressive low-depth-of-field mode allows you to artistically blur the background of shots for an impressive bokeh effect — and unlike the equivalent mode on many rival phones, it actually works. And there’s a new portrait feature, basically copied over from the P10, it seems, which zooms in slightly and introduces similar bokeh effects in an attempt to recreate the iPhone’s portrait mode.

As is often the case when manufacturers try to straight up copy Apple’s features, results are mixed — it’s possible to get some really great-looking portrait, but you’ll also capture some duds while you’re at it.

Speaking of zoom, the combination of 12+20MP sensors allows the Honor 9 to have a decent go at lossless zoom — at least up to 2X. This feature is no substitute for true optical zoom like the iPhone’s, or even OnePlus’s telephoto offering, but it is noticeably superior to most phones digital zoom capabilities.

So the Honor 9 isn’t a flawless smartphone camera, its main area of weakness being low light. But if you can get past that, you’ll find some fun features to play around with.

Power pack

Honor 9 Battery life

With a 3,200mAh cell powering efficient internals and a relatively small display, it was no surprise to see the Honor 9 comfortably getting through a full day on a single charge. On lighter days, the phone routinely got me through a full day of use with more than 50 percent charge remaining.

A relatively small display plus a relatively large battery team up for enviable longevity.

When I was able to deplete the Honor 9’s battery before bedtime, it was only with much heavier use. Over the course of a full, busy day with 14 hours off the charger and plenty of media streaming over Wi-Fi and LTE, I was able to eke out between 4.5 and 5 hours of screen-on time.

Finally, while it’s disappointing to see the Honor 9 missing out on Huawei’s SuperCharge tech — which rivals OnePlus’s Dash Charge in terms of speed — I really didn’t find myself missing the extra charging speed on a regular basis. For a phone of this class and battery capacity, the bundled 9V/2A quick charger — basically equivalent to Qualcomm Quick Charge 2 — was more than sufficient for speedy refills to the 50 percent mark, and slightly less speedy top-ups to full.

The Bottom Line

Should you buy the Honor 9? Yes!

Priced comfortably below £400, the Honor 9 is almost a no-brainer.

After just over a week with the phone, there are only a couple of things about the Honor 9 that give me pause: Firstly, the camera just isn’t that great, particularly in darker conditions — that’s just weird given how prominently low-light photography features in the marketing for this phone.

The Honor 9 is a hell of a phone for the money.

Second, although EMUI 5.1 is an oasis of usability compared to the mess of earlier versions, many buyers — myself included — will prefer something closer to vanilla Android. (Or at the very least, something less aggressively customized.) I can live with EMUI, and it doesn’t bug me as much as it did a year ago. But I’m a long way off being in love with Huawei’s software.

As for the rest of the experience, Honor has done a fantastic job bringing premium build quality and performance into a highly affordable compact handset. The Honor 9 is speedy, beautiful and long-lasting, and worthy of your consideration if you want a capable smartphone that won’t break the bank.

Samsung forecasts record-breaking profits for the second quarter in a row

Samsung is set for its best-ever quarter.

Samsung’s stellar performance in 2017 is set to continue into the second quarter. After recording the best-ever first quarter earnings earlier this year, the company is now forecasting that Qits Q2 profits will be the highest recorded in its history. Samsung posted profits of $8.8 billion on revenues of $44.7 billion in Q1 2017, and the manufacturer is now estimating it’ll make a profit of $12.2 billion on sales of $52 billion in Q2.

Samsung’s most profitable quarter to date is Q3 2013, where the South Korean company managed $9.6 billion in operating profits. Back then, a bulk of the profits were from the mobile unit, but this time around, Samsung’s chip division is likely contributing to a majority of the profits. In fact, Samsung is set to surpass Intel as the world’s largest semiconductor in terms of quarterly sales. The company is set to invest $18.6 billion into expanding its memory and display manufacturing facilities.

Alongside a strong showing in the semiconductor space, Samsung has recorded healthy global sales of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ series. The company will release the full earnings results later this month.

Sony’s next Xperia flagships could ship with Android O

Latest leaks suggest Android 8.0 may run on a pair of Snapdragon 835-powered Sony flagships.

Sony may be among the first manufacturers to ship a new phone with Android O, if new details leaked through benchmarking app AnTuTu are to be believed. The unconfirmed info paints a picture of an unconventional Sony handset with the model number G8441.

Could an Xperia XZ Compact be on the cards?

In addition to running Android 8.0, the phone apparently packs a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 720p display. The smaller display resolution hints that this could be a next-gen Sony “Compact,” however details spotted for this model in a UAProf file — used to detail how mobile devices should display web pages — suggests the true display resolution may be 1080p.

An 835-powered Compact would break the pattern established by last year’s smaller Sony handset, the X Compact, which used a mid-tier Snapdragon 650 chip. Or alternatively, it could just be a successor to the regular, non-“Premium” Xperia XZ, which is about due for a refresh. Either way, the possibility of it being one of the first Android 8.0 handsets is sure to win it some attention from enthusiasts.

This model is one of two new Xperias which have been cropping up online in recent days. XperiaBlog spotted models G8441 and G8341 in a storefront listing, suggesting they’d sell for €650 and €750 respectively.

No word on specs for the more expensive model, however storage, RAM and display resolution bumps compared to the cheaper Xperia are likely.

So we’re still dealing with a very incomplete picture of Sony’s next round of high-end smartphones, but we should learn more in the run up to their official announcement ahead of the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany in late August.

Xiaomi ships 23.16 million smartphones in Q2 2017, an uptick of 70% from Q1

Xiaomi sees record shipments in Q2 2017 as YoY revenues from India climb 328%.

Xiaomi announced that it shipped 23.16 million smartphones in Q2 2017, making it the best quarter ever for the Chinese company. The company faced a slowdown in sales last year over supply constraints, with CEO Lei Jun announcing a series of broad changes at the end of last year. It looks like the “recalibration” has worked, as Xiaomi noted a 70% uptick in sales from Q1 2017.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun noted that the increase in sales was down to a new retail model that sees the brand focusing more on offline retail. The company now has 123 Mi Home stores in China, and is set to open 14 additional stores tomorrow. The company is also partnering with online platforms to boost its visibility, noting that it recorded the most number of smartphone sales on JD.com, Tmall, and Suning during the mid-year “618” shopping festival.

Xiaomi’s global business has also contributed significantly to its fortunes, with revenue from its Indian unit increasing 328% year-on-year. The Redmi Note 4 was the highest-shipped smartphone in the country, and the manufacturer opened the first Mi Home outlet in India earlier this year. The retail push is set to continue over the next two years, with Xiaomi planning to launch 100 stores across the country.

Alongside a more aggressive retail strategy, Lei Jun noted that the company’s focus on R&D gives it an edge in this space. Xiaomi introduced its first -in-house chipset, the Surge S1, earlier this year, and Jun also highlighted advancements it made with camera and battery technologies with the Mi 6 and Mi Max 2.

Looking forward, Lei Jun is setting a revenue target of $14.7 billion (100 billion Yuan) for 2017, along with a shipments target of 100 million for 2018:

Today’s accomplishment is not an easy feat. We offer our sincere gratitude to all of our Mi Fans for the trust they have placed in us over the years. We are grateful to our partners for their support, and especially to Xiaomi’s 13,000 employees and families for your dedication.

The smartphone market is brutally competitive, and we are only taking the first steps in our journey. In order to continue growing, we must keep true to our core values, and innovate relentlessly. We have to give our engineers the freedom to think outside of the box, and explore fearlessly without boundaries.

We set no limit when it comes to innovation and investment. In the next 12 months, we will need to hire thousands of R&D talent for our smartphone business and further bolster our innovation capabilities.

I told everyone at the start of the year that the most difficult times are behind us. I also set a humble revenue goal of RMB 100 billion for the year. I am now confident we can achieve this goal. A new chapter for Xiaomi has just begun, and so many possibilities lie ahead of us. Our future is as vast as the constellations and beyond.

Finally, let’s just add another humble goal: to ship 100 million smartphones in 2018!

How to install the Android SDK on Windows, Mac and Linux

Everything you need to get started with the Android SDK, and everything you need to know about installing it.

Most of us will never need to install the Android SDK. The reason why is right in the name — Software Development Kit. It’s built for people writing Android apps who need tools to work with Android from a computer.

But those tools can also be handy for folks wanting to do some more advanced stuff. Stuff like manually updating software or rooting their phone. Fastboot and ADB are vital if you’re into “hacking” at the Android software. And Google provides it free for everyone.

What to choose?

There are two ways to get a working set of Android tools on your computer. The easy way is to just install Android Studio. Everything needed to run and use the Android command line tools is part of Android Studio, as well as a way to keep the tools updated. While it’s designed for folks who want a complete development environment and includes a code editor, Android emulator, and compiler, you can use just the command line tools and never open the rest.

If you’re not afraid to get your feet wet, you can install just the SDK components outside of Android Studio. Installing them is easy (they’re inside a zip file) but setting up your computer to use them isn’t a straightforward process.

Manually installing the Android SDK

Download the SDK direct from Google by clicking here. Scroll down a bit and find the section marked “Get just the command line tools” and save it somewhere easy to get to, like your desktop. We’ll be extracting it to a better location in the next step.

The file you downloaded is compressed. You’ll need to be familiar with compressed files — and how to extract them — to go any further. If you’re not, stop here and spend the time to learn about them.

Extract your compressed file into the following location:

• Windows: The root of your C: drive
• OS X: Your home folder
• Linux: Your home folder

Rename the extracted folder to “Android”. This will make the rest of this guide, and your time with the SDK, much easier.

Prerequisites

You’ll need a working version of Java to run the SDK components. For most things you’ll be doing with the SDK both Open Java and Sun Java from Oracle (yes, that Oracle) will work.

• On a Mac, it’s pretty easy because you’ll already have it installed unless you uninstalled it. If you did, install it again — you should know how.
• On Windows, head to the Oracle website and download the correct version (32- or 64-bit) for your computer. Again, if this gives you any trouble stop what you’re doing and learn a bit more about your computer. If you can’t install Java, maybe you’re not yet ready to use the Android SDK.
• On a Linux computer, you’ll also need to install Java. You can find x86 and x64 binaries for Sun Java from Oracle at their website. OpenJDK also works for most things you’ll need to do with the SDK.(OpenJDK is now bundled with Android Studio which includes the SDK as well as a development environment) and you’ll find complete instructions to get it installed at the OpenJDK website. If you need more assistance or want to use a package manager to install Sun Java, you’ll need to refer to the documentation for your particular distro.

Linux users will also have to make sure they have some 32-bit libraries installed if they are running a 64-bit version of the operating system. If you’re using Ubuntu or another Debian variant, install ncurses5 and stdc++6 through your terminal:

sudo apt-get install lib32ncurses5 lib32stdc++6

If you’re using a different flavor of Linux, find the correct packages for ncurses5 and stdc++6 and install them.

Setting your PATH

The PATH variable in your computer’s operating system tells it where to look when you want to run a command from a terminal or the command line. For example, to run the adb command you either need to type and provide the complete path — ie the folder adb is actually in, inside the SDK folder — or have the location set in the PATH variable itself. It’s a bit confusing, but the good news is that doing it is easier than explaining it.

For these directions to work as written, you will have to have extracted and renamed the SDK download folder as mentioned above, and to the correct location for this tutorial.

On Windows

Unless you’re still using an older version of Windows, you no longer can set the PATH in the autoexec.bat file or autoexec.nt file. You’ll need to update the system Environment Variable settings instead. Here’s how it’s done on a Windows 10 machine:

• Hit the Start key on your Keyboard.
• Start typing the words Environment Variables.
• As you type, you’ll see the choice to Edit the system environment variables. Choose it.
• In the Environment Variables window, select the PATH line item in the User variables for (your user name) section, then click the Edit button.

Add the full path to the Android SDK tools and Android SDK platform-tools folders in the edit box, separated by a semi-colon. It should look something like this:

C:Androidtools;C:Androidplatform-tools

For older versions of Windows, refer to the documentation that came with your computer for assistance on setting the PATH. And, again: If you’ve installed your SDK somewhere other than Android, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.

On a Mac

You can set your PATH variable on a machine running OS X in your bash profile. Doing so is easy, and is all done in one file.

In your Home folder is a file named .bash_profile. Open it with any text editor. Never touch the .bashrc or .bash_profile files you might find in the /etc directory!

You may see a blank file, or it may be full of other information. All we need to do is add a couple lines to the top of the file:

export PATH=”$HOME/Android/tools:$PATH”

export PATH=”$HOME/Android/platform-tools:$PATH”

(Did we mention that if your SDK is in another location, you’ll need to adjust things accordingly? Good.)

Save the file, and reboot your computer so the new PATH is sourced properly.

On Linux

Setting the PATH on a Linux computer is almost the same as on a Mac, you just edit a different file.

Using your favorite text editor, open the ~/.bashrc file. It will probably exist and have multiple entries. If you get an error that the file does not exist, simply create a new file and save it as ~/.bashrc when finished.

You’ll want to add the following two lines to the END of the .bashrc file:

export PATH=”$HOME/Android/tools:$PATH”

export PATH=”$HOME/Android/platform-tools:$PATH”

Save the file, and close the terminal window. Open a new instance of the terminal and type this command:

source ~/.bashrc

Your session will reference the changes you made and the SDK will be in your PATH.

Wrapping it up

You should now have a working set of Android command line tools and be able to do things like flash the latest factory images or manually update your phone with a zip file. And because you did it yourself, you have what you need to fix it when things go wrong.

Good luck and have fun!

Updated July 2017: with the current methods and instructions, and new download locations.

OnePlus 5 camera tips and tricks

The best camera is the one you have with you — but the photographer is important, too.

The OnePlus 5 has a capable camera, but as is the case with any other camera it can get better when you learn its quirks and features. Those possibilities are increased by its dual cameras that give you different resolutions, lens apertures and focal lengths — plus the software-enhanced Portrait Mode.

To get the most out of your OnePlus 5’s camera, follow these tips and tricks.

Turn on the camera quick launch

This is the simplest tip and one that every can benefit from: turning on the camera quick launch shortcut. Under Settings then Buttons you’ll see an option to press the power button twice to launch the camera. With that enabled, you’ll always have the camera to hand without having to unlock the phone and launch the app manually.

It’s hardly a new thing, but we’re happy to see it here. You should use it to make sure the camera is available at a moment’s notice.

Mix it up with both lenses

The simplest benefit of the OnePlus 5’s dual cameras is that you have two different focal lengths to choose from with the tap of a button. But you shouldn’t just think “am I shooting something near or far?” when choosing — both cameras have their benefits, and not just in terms of distance.

The main lens still takes the best overall photos, but the second lens gives a unique look.

Use the main lens when you want the highest-quality photo in general. The 16MP sensor has larger pixels and the lens has a faster aperture, letting in more light and giving you a crisper overall shot. This is particularly true for indoor or low-light shots, where the secondary camera just doesn’t get the job done.

Use the long lens for a tighter field of view and unique perspective. The lens is about a 40mm equivalent, which is great for all sorts of shots because it’s close to the human eye in terms of its field of view, without being so long that it feels like a telephoto lens. It’s great for street scenes or shots where you want the focus more on an individual part of a photo rather than the whole view.

Portrait Mode isn’t for every type of scene

With Portrait Mode just a swipe away in the camera app, it may be enticing to start using it for every photo you take. For as fun as it is to play with, Portrait Mode just doesn’t work for every type of scene — it’s best used in specific scenarios to get the strongest effect. Here are some tips:

• Pick scenes with a clear, defined foreground object: Portrait Mode works best when there’s a single object to focus on and blur the rest — like a person, or a flower, or a cup sitting on a table. It doesn’t work well with a mixed scene with several potential primary focal points.
• Get close to your subject: Portrait Mode just looks weird when you take a shot of an open, expansive area. Step closer to your subject, preferably 2 to 4 feet away from the camera. This way the subject fills a large portion of the scene, leaving less to be blurred in the background.
• Try a few different shots: Portrait Mode is good, but it’s not perfect. Try a few different shots with different focal points, and be sure to let the camera indicate “depth effect” in green in the viewfinder before shooting.

By choosing wisely when you use Portrait Mode, it’ll give you the best effect and it won’t feel forced or overused. Your Instagram followers will thank you.

The main lens is still good for macro

With both the long lens and Portrait Mode available, it may be enticing to use both of them to take those sharp, close macro-style shots. But oftentimes you’ll find the primary camera is actually best for close-ups of delicate objects.

Don’t just assume that Portrait Mode’s faux bokeh is the best way to go.

With an f/1.7 aperture, the 16MP main camera can often provide the blurred background “bokeh” look common in macro shots better than Portrait Mode can do synthetically. And even though it has a 24mm equivalent focal length, its auto focus system is actually really good and capable of focusing even when you get in tight to an object — you can get within 4 or 5 inches.

The primary camera is also just downright sharper than the secondary lens, and that characteristic is even more on display when you’re taking a macro photo that shows off the details of your subject. So next time you go to shoot a macro, consider trying the main camera first.

Resist the urge to digitally zoom

Having a roughly 40mm focal length on the secondary lens is nice because it gets you that much closer to a far-away subject than the main lens. But if you see something far away you need to reach out even further for, you may be enticed into thinking you should just digitally zoom. Even though the second camera has an ample 20 megapixels of resolution to work with, that’s not that much runway for digitally zooming before things start to look bad.

The same scene at 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x zoom.

Things start to get pretty grainy and unsightly at about the 4x zoom level, even though the camera will technically let you slide all the way to 8x. So yes, the long lens and 20MP resolution give you some wiggle room — but this is still a small sensor with limited capabilities, and you should respect that. You’ll always get better results by zooming with your feet; just walk toward your subject whenever possible!

Dabble in Pro Mode

Most of us will just shoot in auto mode and be happy with the results, but it’s worth noting that the “Pro Mode” is just two taps away in the camera app. With Pro Mode turned on, you’ll be able to tweak everything imaginable, not unlike the DSLR or mirrorless camera you may be familiar with. Even the interface changes, giving you more advanced options like a horizon line and histogram.

In Pro Mode you can manually set your exposure, focal point, shutter speed, white balance and ISO — and if you know how these work, you can get some great results. Once you lock in some settings that you expect to use often, you can save them as a preset to jump back to later. The camera app also saves RAW files if you choose, which can take things to another level when it comes to editing after the fact. Pair Pro Mode with a tripod, and you could get next-level photos out of this thing.

OnePlus 5

• Complete OnePlus 5 review
• OnePlus 5 specs
• Which OnePlus 5 model should you buy?
• Camera comparison: OnePlus 5 vs. Galaxy S8
• The latest OnePlus 5 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

OnePlus

The Morning After: Friday, July 7th 2017

Hey, good morning!

It’s 7/7 and we’re finishing off this blissfully short week with all kinds of wearables: AR biking specs, an exoskeleton that looks like it was made for sci-fi and a fitness tracker that measures your calories, through science or something.

‘The Raptor specs were outstanding.’
AR glasses will quench your ride-stat thirst

The bike Roberto Baldwin was riding to test the new Everysight Raptor AR glasses was probably a bit too small for him. Also, it was a typical San Francisco summer day, so it was cold and windy, and he’d left his jacket upstairs. But none of that mattered, because he was peering into the future of biking. The best part was that the Everysight Raptors didn’t feel bulky or make him strain his eye sockets to look into a tiny screen — all the information was projected right in front of him.

Can you tweet while wearing it?
Russian exoskeleton suit turns soldiers into stormtroopers

Developed by the state-owned Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building, this very Star Wars-esque combat-armor concept features a powered exoskeleton, ballistic protection from bullets and shrapnel and a heads-up display.

Music lessons that focus on songs and fun, instead of shredding and theory.
Fender Play doesn’t judge — it just teaches you guitar

Fender Play is a digital lesson platform designed to keep young would-be guitarists coming back day after day, year after year. The company’s research suggests it’s not hard to attract new players, but it’s extremely difficult to keep them tied to the instrument for the rest of their lives. Most players don’t even make it past the first three months. Play has been designed not only to be simple but to cater to an increasingly diverse player base, delivering relatively quick gratification.

We heard you like expensive tech.
Camera maker RED is building a phone with a ‘holographic’ screen

RED — makers of those pricey digital cinema cameras — is trying something a little different. The company just revealed its plans to release the Hydrogen One, a high-powered, unlocked Android smartphone with prices starting at an eye-watering $1,195. That gets you an aluminum phone with some crazy-looking grips; the titanium finish will set you back an extra $400. But what about that screen?

Haters will say it’s Photoshop.
Mike Pence visits NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

In a speech during his visit, the vice president said: “And with the National Space Council, we will grab that destiny with both hands and go to work with each and every one of you.”

Microsoft to lay off 3,000 people as it tries to boost Azure.
Cuts focus on the Microsoft sales team

As expected, Microsoft has announced a radical reorganization of its sales business, with thousands of people expected to lose their jobs. The process will cut up to 3,000 jobs, mainly in the sales department — that’s less than 10 percent of Microsoft’s total sales force — and roughly 75 percent of the cuts will be outside of the United States, CNBC reports. The reorganization effort is meant to help Microsoft focus on building up Azure, its cloud platform.

At last.‘Overwatch’ debuts its fourth new hero: Doomfist

Fans of Blizzard’s squad shooter have been waiting for Doomfist since they saw the game’s first cinematic trailer, and now he’s here. Well, he’s here if you play in test realms on the PC. Before he brings his metallic arm to the main game, we’re expecting a few weeks of play testing, but all players can get familiar with the new character’s lore and capabilities right away.

But wait, there’s more…

• Jay-Z’s 4:44 album is available for streaming everywhere — except Spotify
• What is going on with Samsung’s delayed Bixby AI?
• ‘Destiny 2’ beta begins July 18th on consoles, hits PC in August
• Samsung’s Smart TVs can stream your Steam games
• Healbe’s GoBe 2 tracker does so much more than just step or heart-rate tracking

Russian hackers target the US nuclear industry

The New York Times and Bloomberg both claim that Russian hackers have been attempting to infiltrate America’s nuclear power industry. The infiltrations themselves have been public knowledge since last week, but now fingers are being pointed towards the usual suspects. Unlike Stuxnet, a worm that specifically targeted nuclear facilities, this program was not intended to take down the plants themselves. Instead, malware was used in an attempt to infiltrate the corporate networks of the companies that run the power plants.

Or said more simply: phishing emails are lightyears removed from “what about Stuxnet” arguments. It’s simply otherworldly in comparison.

— Robert M. Lee (@RobertMLee) July 7, 2017

On one hand, that’s good, because it means that there’s no obvious, immediate threat to life and limb or the risk of every nuclear reactor suddenly switching itself off. On the other, the hackers reportedly sent malware-laden CVs to key employees who have access to critical nuclear systems. The intention is either to watch those systems for intelligence gathering, or to obtain credentials that could be used in a later breach. It’s a method that certain, anonymous, experts have told the Times matches the MO of the Russian hacking group Energetic Bear.

Very important correx: Hit with malware that appears to serve as surveillance to set up potential further attacks.

This matters for norms. https://t.co/1R2lSfvIND

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) July 7, 2017

2017 is shaping up to be a very big year in the not-so cold war between nation state-level hackers and the countries that they target. We’ve already seen the NotPetya worm take down systems in the US, Russia, Europe and Ukraine, as well as malware attacks like WannaCry. Private sector attacks are also on the increase, with big names like Chipotle, OneLogin and the companies that make voting machines. Let’s hope that the White House’s initiative to harden the US against cyber intrusion is successful, or else this will keep being a threat.

Source: NYT, Bloomberg