Apple might share iPhone X face data with developers

Despite Apple claiming it securely stores your encrypted face info on the iPhone X, Reuters is reporting that the company permits developers to access “certain facial data” with user permission. This includes a visual representation of your face, and over 50 facial expressions.

Face ID was always going to be the iPhone X’s most talked about feature. With it, the days of fingerprint authentication could be numbered, replaced by face biometrics. But, there’s something about your mugshot being stored with Apple that’s (understandably) got people shook up. Senator Al Franken already pressed the firm on the security concerns the tech raises — prompting a response. Now, it’s the turn of privacy advocates. In the report, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology warn that the info could fall into the hands of marketers.

We know Apple’s Face ID tech works by using a mixture of camera sensors and neural networks to grab a mathematical model of your face. And, like Touch ID before it, Apple is granting developers access to its Face ID API, enabling them to use the unlock mechanism on all your fave apps — including secure banking and payment apps. But, the latest revelations suggest Apple is allowing devs to make off with more data than it is letting on. The same data reportedly cannot unlock the phone, because that functionality is limited to the overarching mathematical model. Reuters adds that Apple’s developer agreement forbids app makers from sharing the info with marketers. And, that those who break the rules risk getting kicked from the App Store.

But, privacy groups fear the company won’t be able to adequately police how devs use the info, which could lead to it finding its way to marketers. That, in turn, would result in more targeted ads, but these would use the tech to track your facial reactions (like a smile, or a raise of an eyebrow). Naturally, that kind of tracking data would be a goldmine for advertisers. But, it’s also important to note that Apple’s app review policy makes it extremely difficult for bad actors to get away with violations. Yet, with more than 2 million apps in the App Store, privacy experts warn that some may slip through the cracks. We reached out to Apple for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Source: Reuters

Privacy Experts Raise Concerns Over iOS Developer Access to Certain Pieces of Facial Data

The iPhone X’s facial recognition abilities continue to be found at the center of privacy concerns, with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology today raising questions over how “effectively” Apple can enforce certain privacy rules surrounding face scanning (via Reuters). Specifically, the privacy defending groups are worried about how certain pieces of facial data can be taken off the iPhone X by developers who seek to create entertainment features with the new smartphone’s facial software.

Facial data that is used to unlock the iPhone X — or data related to “Face ID” — is securely stored on the device itself and not in iCloud. However, Apple will let developers take certain pieces of this facial data off the user’s iPhone “as long as they seek customer permission and not sell the data to third parties,” according to terms seen in a contract by Reuters. This means that developers who want to use the iPhone X’s front-facing camera can get a “rough map” of the user’s face, as well as a “stream of more than 50 kinds of facial expressions.”

The data that developers can gather — which can then be stored on the developer’s own servers — is said to help monitor how often users blink, smile, or even raise an eyebrow. Although this data can’t unlock the iPhone X, according to documents about Face ID sent to security researchers, the “relative ease” with which developers can gain access to parts of a user’s facial data and add it to their own servers has led to the new concerns raised by the ACLU and CDT today.

That remote storage raises questions about how effectively Apple can enforce its privacy rules, according to privacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Apple maintains that its enforcement tools – which include pre-publication reviews, audits of apps and the threat of kicking developers off its lucrative App Store – are effective.

[…]But the relative ease with which developers can whisk away face data to remote servers leaves Apple sending conflicting messages: Face data is highly private when used for authentication, but it is sharable – with the user’s permission – when used to build app features.

According to Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, the privacy issues surrounding facial recognition in the context of unlocking a smartphone “have been overblown.” Stanley explained, “The real privacy issues have to do with access by third-party developers.” The experts concerned about Face ID in this context are also not worried about “government snooping,” but more about marketers and advertisers tracking how a user’s expression reacts to their ads.

Apple has strict policies against developers using face data for advertising and marketing, but those concerned groups cited worry about the company’s “inability to control what app developers do with face data once it leaves the iPhone X.” Stanley said that “the hard part” for Apple will come from having to find and catch the apps that might be violating these policies, meaning that the big household names probably won’t be of concern to Apple, “but there’s still a lot of room for bottom feeders.”

Now that the iPhone X is in the hands of reviewers, many have said that Face ID works quite well in many different conditions. Some outlets have taken to try and fool Face ID with large pieces of clothing, sunglasses, and “twin tests,” the last of which have come back with mixed results. In its ongoing efforts to reassure customers of Face ID’s security and privacy, Apple released an in-depth security white paper in September to highlight and explain some of these features of Face ID.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: Face IDBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Apple Expected to Report Strong Summer Earnings of $50B+ as Focus Shifts to iPhone X Launch Quarter

Apple is set to report its earnings results for the fourth quarter of its 2017 fiscal year at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time today.

The fiscal quarter reflects Apple’s sales between July 2 and September 30 of 2017.

Apple provided the following guidance for its fourth quarter back on August 1:

• revenue between $49 billion and $52 billion
• gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent
• operating expenses between $6.7 billion and $6.8 billion
• other income/expense of $500 million
• tax rate of 25.5 percent

Apple’s guidance suggests the company will report at least its second best fourth quarter earnings results in its history.

Wall Street analysts forecast that Apple will report $50.7 billion revenue and earnings per share of $1.87, according to 29 estimates averaged by Thomson Reuters.

A quarter-by-quarter look at Apple’s revenue since the 2009 fiscal year:Fourth Quarter Revenue
• 2013: $37.5B
• 2014: $42.1B
• 2015: $51.5B
• 2016: $46.9B
• 2017: $49B+

MacRumors.com compiled fourth quarter estimates from several financial institutions and analysts tracking Apple and the company’s stock. The figures are listed below, ranked from highest to lowest in quarterly revenue.

Apple’s fourth quarter earnings results will provide the first official indication of how well the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 are selling. The devices became available to pre-order on September 15, just over two weeks before the quarter ended, and launched in stores one week later on September 22.

Multiple reports have suggested that demand for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus has been tepid, but that could be a side effect of pent up demand for the iPhone X. Apple staggered the release of its high-end smartphone, for which pre-orders began October 27, nearly six weeks after the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

The most interesting takeaway will be Apple’s guidance for the quarter we’re in right now, which encompasses the launch of the iPhone X and the busy holiday shopping season. Over the past year, analysts have repeatedly predicted the highly-anticipated device will drive a significant “supercycle” of upgrades.

A high guidance range would suggest that Apple expects the iPhone X to sell very well, while a lower one would suggest that either demand is lower than thought or that Apple continues to face issues with ramping up supply of the device.

In addition to iPhone sales, investors will be looking for continued growth of Apple’s services category, which includes the likes of the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, and licensing fees. Apple’s services revenue grew 22 percent to an all-time record of $7.3 billion last quarter.

Apple’s services category has become the size of a Fortune 100 company, according to chief executive Tim Cook.

Cook and Apple’s financial chief Luca Maestri will discuss the company’s earnings results on a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. MacRumors.com will transcribe the call as it unfolds for those unable to listen.

Tags: earnings, AAPL
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1Password 7 Launching With Support for iPhone X, Face ID, Drag and Drop on iPad, Quick Copy, and More

AgileBits today is releasing 1Password 7 for iOS with several new features, just one day before the iPhone X launches around the world.

1Password has been redesigned with the iPhone X’s new screen size and dimensions in mind. The app now supports Face ID for unlocking with the iPhone X’s facial recognition system, in addition to the existing options of using Touch ID on older iPhone models or manually typing in a master password.

An all-new feature called Quick Copy makes it quicker to copy and paste usernames, passwords, and one-time passwords into apps that don’t support the 1Password extension. Simply open 1Password, copy the username for an app, switch to that app, paste your username, and then switch back to 1Password.

Without needing to do anything else, 1Password will put the password on the clipboard, meaning you can switch immediately back to the other app and paste it. If you’re logging into a site or service that supports one-time passwords, you can repeat the same app switching process to quickly get the one-time password.

1Password 7 also has a redesigned Favorites tab with drag and drop support on iPads running iOS 11 or later, support for Handoff across iOS devices, keyboard shortcuts for external keyboards, and a slightly refreshed app icon.

1Password is a popular password manager for securing usernames, passwords, credit cards, addresses, notes, bank accounts, driver’s licenses, passports, and more behind one master password, with end-to-end encryption. A built-in password generator lets you create strong, unique passwords and memorizable pass-phrases.

1Password 7 will be available today as a free update on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. An individual subscription costs $2.99 per month, which includes hosted service across Mac, iOS, Android, Windows, and 1Password.com.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: 1Password, Face IDBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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HTC U11 Life review

Research Center:
HTC U11 Life

The HTC U11 has it all: A gorgeous design, a great camera, smooth performance, and good battery life. But like most other Android flagship smartphones, it’s expensive at $650. To reach a wider audience, HTC’s bringing similar features and the U11’s design to the new U11 Life, all for just $350. In our review, we like what we see with the HTC U11 Life, and what you get for the low price tag makes it absolutely worth it.

A similar gleam of sapphire

The HTC U11 Life is a smaller, lighter U11 twin — put the two together and it’s hard to note many differences other than size. The U11 Life sports a 5.2-inch screen, as opposed to the the 5.5-inch U11. It makes the phone feel far more compact, though, making it easy to access the other side of the screen in one-handed use.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Weight is also an easy tell, as the U11 Life is 27g lighter than the U11. That’s largely due to the choice of build materials. The more expensive U11 is wrapped in glass, and it features the “liquid-glass” material that helps it give off a reflective shine. The Life feels more plasticky, but HTC mimics the shiny sapphire gleam with acrylic, a type of polymer.

The sapphire blue U11 Life is a little more muted in color; it’s not as shiny, and it doesn’t change colors in different lighting. It’s still unique, attractive, and you only have to worry about shattering the display’s glass if you drop it. The rear is fairly minimal, as you’ll only find a circular camera at the top, a flash next to it, and the HTC logo below.

On the right edge of the phone is a textured power button below the volume rocker. These buttons are a little too low for our liking, as we found we often have to shift the U11 Life up a little to tap the power button. One handy workaround, though, is to double tap the lock screen to wake or turn off the screen.

The HTC U11 Life’s sapphire gleam is still unique, and it looks attractive.

The low buttons also make it harder to use Edge Sense. This is a feature first introduced in the HTC U11, which lets you squeeze the bottom part of the phone to trigger an action, from opening Google Assistant to flicking on the flashlight — whatever you fancy. Google liked this feature enough to license it from HTC for use in its new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones to activate Assistant. It’s now in the $350 U11 Life, and it works as advertised, though you have to make sure you don’t hit the power button. We should note, I have large hands, so this may not be a problem for other people.

Like most phones in its price range, the U11 Life doesn’t have skimpy edges around the screen, or what’s known as a “bezel-less” design. You’re out of luck if you want an HTC phone with this look in the U.S., because the just-announced U11 Plus, which has ultra-thin bezels, and a 6-inch 18:9 screen, isn’t coming to the U.S.

At least it’s not empty space — the fingerprint sensor, which doubles as a home button, sits on the bottom chin, and it’s flanked by two capacitive Android navigation buttons that light up when in use (or when the screen is on). The front-facing camera rests at the top, to the right of the earpiece.

HTC opts for a USB Type-C charging port like most flagship Android phones, but it’s situated oddly on the bottom right edge. The company told us the fingerprint sensor prevented placing it in the usual center spot, but we didn’t have any issues with the odd location. USB-C is both faster charging and more versatile than MicroUSB, which made it nice to see in this price range. Most budget Motorola phones, like the Moto G5S Plus, still use MicroUSB.

There’s no headphone jack, but that’s hardly a surprise considering HTC hasn’t used included one on most of its phones this year. Instead, you’ll get the company’s USB-C USonic headphones in the box. They’re decent — maybe a little too bass-heavy — but they adapt to the shape of your ear (after a quick setup process) and they offer Active Noise Cancellation. The noise cancellation is marginal, and there’s a strong hissing noise that’s distracting. Still, it’s nice USB-C earbuds are included in the box.

The only speaker, on the bottom edge at the center, can get fairly loud, but don’t expect much. It seems to artificially boost bass a little, but the highs sound pretty good.

Thankfully, HTC uses Bluetooth 5, which is a newer version of the technology that offers faster data transfer and improved range. It’s a welcome feature, especially considering the flagship Huawei Mate 10 Pro removes the headphone jack but only uses the dated Bluetooth 4.1.

The U11 Life is IP67-rated, making it one of the most affordable water-resistant phones on the market. It’s tough to find a good phone with water-resistance, and the only comparable product in this price range is the Moto X4.

An average display, but surprisingly good performance

The 5.2-inch LCD screen offers a standard 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and it’s nothing to write home about. It doesn’t get as bright as we’d like and it’s not as colorful as an OLED panel, but it’s still barely visible in direct sunlight. Still, everything looks sharp and we didn’t have any major qualms with it.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Performance, on the other hand, surprised us. The HTC U11 Life is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 processor, with 3GB of RAM. Not many phones have this new chipset, but we saw it recently in Motorola’s Moto X4. We think the U11 Life performs better than the Moto X4, but the benchmark results are comparable.

• AnTuTu: 71,397
• Geekbench 4 CPU: 855 single-core, 4,078 multi-core
• 3DMark Sling Shot: 817

These scores are marginally better, if not the same, as what the Moto X4 received. For example, the Moto X4 scored 70,217 on AnTuTu, and 840 on 3DMark. The U11 Life did beat out the X4 on single-core in Geekbench 4, but it’s down in multi-core. Benchmarks aren’t the be-all end-all of performance, but we’ve generally noticed everything on the U11 Life is a little smoother, with fewer snags, than the X4. It’s a good middle-ground between what you’ll find on slightly cheaper phones like the Moto G5S Plus and the Moto G5 Plus, and flagship-priced phones with the Snapdragon 835, like the Google Pixel 2 XL.

Performance, on the other hand, surprised us.

Scrolling through apps like Twitter was speedy, and the phone opens apps swiftly — though still a tad slower than a flagship phone with the Snapdragon 835, like the U11. We did run into a occasional stutter, but overall we’re satisfied with performance on this phone. Games like Transformers: Forged to Fight and Loner ran well without any glaring problems.

The HTC U11 Life comes with 32GB of storage, but there’s a MicroSD card slot that lets you increase it up to 2TB if you need more space.

Android 7.1.1 and three assistants

The U.S. model of the HTC U11 Life runs Android 7.1.1, overlaid with HTC’s Sense user interface. This means you’ll find quite a few HTC apps — some bloatware — and Blinkfeed, which shows you news articles you may like and even ads (you can turn ads and even Blinkfeed off). It’s not great that the U11 Life isn’t shipping with the most recent version of Android, Android 8.0 Oreo, which has been out since August. But before you protest, HTC said the Oreo update will arrive by the end of November, perhaps even for the HTC U11. That’s impressive, as there still aren’t a lot of phones that have received 8.0 Oreo.

HTC’s user interface feels a little cluttered and clunky, but it’s all easily manageable and there’s a lot of theming you can do to personalize the phone’s look. Most of the software looks like pure Android, and it’s easy to follow and use.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There are three artificial assistants on board, which can make things confusing, but it also provides you with more options. There’s Google Assistant, which you can activate via Edge Sense, by pressing and holding the home button, or by saying “OK Google.”

Then there’s Amazon’s Alexa, but unlike the HTC U11, you can’t use a voice trigger to activate it. This is because the Snapdragon 835 in the U11 allows for two wake words, but the Snapdragon 630 does not. So you can either map Alexa to Edge Sense, or just open the app and start talking. There are no visual cues with Alexa, so you’ll strictly have to rely on its voice when using it. We prefer using Google Assistant particularly for this reason, but Alexa support is a welcome backup if you have Echo devices in your home.

The global model of the U11 Life will not run Sense UI, rather Android One instead.

The third assistant is one we’ve seen in prior HTC phones — Sense Companion. It’s not a voice assistant, but it will float on your home screen when it wants to offer up some relevant information based on the time of day and where you are, such as weather alerts, nearby food recommendations if you’re in a new city, and more. It gets better the more you use your phone, but we haven’t had much use for it in the week we’ve used the U11 Life.

Overall, the software is customizable to your liking, and while there’s some clunky UI elements and bloatware, it’s still better than other devices that tack on heavy Android “skins” or “themes” that bog down the system.

You should know the global model of the U11 Life will not run Sense UI, but Android One. It’s a pure Android version of the operating system, with just pre-installed Google apps, Edge Sense, and a promise to receive fast version and security updates as soon as Google releases them.

Say cheese! But stay very still

The U11 Life’s camera is markedly better than any other phone in its price range and below, but it’s still the weakest part of the phone.

It utilizes a 16-megapixel rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture, and the photographs it takes can be good, but most of the time they’re ruined due to the lack of optical image stabilization. You need to be very still to prevent any blurriness, as most of our photos ended up with a slight blur. Details aren’t that sharp, and there’s a lot of grain unless you’re taking a photo in broad daylight. Low-light isn’t great either, as images offer poor detail and they look a little blotchy.

What’s worse is the slight shutter lag, which is the amount of time from when you tap the shutter icon, to when the camera captures a photo. It’s virtually non-existent on higher-end phones like the iPhone X or Pixel 2, but there’s a noticeable delay on the U11 Life.

Still, color accuracy is pretty good, and were genuinely surprised at some photos taken with HDR. It’s unfortunate you have to put so much time and energy on staying absolutely still to try and get a good photo in focus.

Shutter lag and a lack of optical image stabilization hobble just about every budget phone. We’ve had the same issues with the comparably-priced Moto X4, for example, though the shutter lag was much worse.

Despite the unusual 16-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, there’s not much interesting here. Slight movements, again, can produce blurry photos, and selfies can be quite grainy in anything other than direct sunlight.

Average battery life

The HTC U11 Life has a 2,600mAh battery capacity, and it may not last you a full day with heavy use. After taking it off the charger at 8 a.m., we used it to browse the web, play some music and games, download dozens of apps, watch a YouTube video or two, run benchmarking apps, and take photos. The end result was 17 percent charge by 5:30 p.m.

HTC U11 Life Compared To

Moto X4 Android One

Sony Xperia XZ1

LG X Venture

Moto X4

Alcatel Idol 5S

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

ZTE Axon 7 mini

Meizu Pro 6

Huawei Honor 8

Nextbit Robin

Huawei Honor 7

Huawei P8

Motorola Droid Turbo

Sony Xperia Z3

LG G2

That’s not bad, considering the workload we pushed on the U11 Life. You’ll be able to use the phone for just about full day, though with heavy use you may want to bring a portable battery pack or charging cable. If you’re a light user, this phone will easily get you through a day.

There’s nothing remarkable about the U11 Life’s charging speed. We saw it go from 15 percent to 50 percent within 35 minutes.

Price, availability, and warranty

The HTC U11 Life is available unlocked from HTC’s website for $350. The only carrier that’s selling the phone is T-Mobile, and it will be available on November 3 at a lower price. We’ll have to wait to see T-Mobile’s deal.

HTC offers a standard limited warranty that protects your device of manufacturing defects for one year since the date of purchase.

Our Take

HTC’s U11 Life will catch your eyes with its sapphire gleam, and your wallet will thank you. It offers great performance and water resistance, though the battery is average and the camera is hindered by shutter lag.

Is there a better alternative?

It’s a tough call in this price range. The Moto X4 is $50 more and shares many of the same specifications and features as the U11 Life, but we’re not fans of the camera at all.

The Moto G5S Plus has a mediocre camera, but only slightly diminished performance, and it’ll set you back $280. It has a metal build, but it’s not water-resistant and it doesn’t look good.

For better performance and camera, you’ll have to look to the $480 OnePlus 5. It has the Snapdragon 835 processor, and a good dual camera that lets you use fun features like Portrait Mode. You may want to wait, as there are rumblings of a OnePlus 5T in the works.

How long will it last?

HTC has been improving its speed in providing software updates for its phones. Case in point: The HTC U11, which arrived this summer, is going to get Android 8.0 Oreo later this month. That’s far better than most manufacturers. Still, we expect this phone to last no more than two years. Since it’s low on the totem pole, we can’t even guarantee a version update after the second year.

It’s IP67 rated, so it can handle a dip in the pool. There’s no glass on the back, so you only need to make sure you protect that screen.

Should you buy it?

Yes. At this price range, the HTC U11 Life is the best phone you can buy. We think it’s better than its closest competitor, the Moto X4, and it certainly beats the Moto G line.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Everything you need to know about the HTC U11 Life and HTC U11 Plus
• HTC U11 review
• Squeeze for actions in your apps with HTC’s Edge Sense update
• HTC’s Green is Good sale slashes prices on the HTC U11, HTC U Ultra, and more
• How to use Amazon’s Alexa app on your smartphone

The 10 best note-taking apps compared: OneNote, Zoho, Quip, and more

Evernote is dialing back the free version of its service and pushing key features to its premium tiers, so as a result, we declared OneNote the best choice in our comparison review. The company’s decision to abruptly impose restrictions on nonpaying accounts has left many longtime users feeling, well, miffed. Luckily, there are many great alternatives. We’ve rounded up a few of the best note-taking apps for your convenience.

If you want to have a more comprehensive read when it comes to getting things done, check out our top 10 email apps for iOS or Android, top 10 calendar apps, and top 10 productivity apps.

Bear

Bear is a very easy-to-use yet powerful app that allows you to combine text, photos, to-do lists, and even code snippets if that’s what you do. Yes, you can code using Bear because it has a markup editor that supports over 20 programming languages. The app also makes it easy for you to search through all your notes and focus on specific things using triggers such as @task, @tagged, and @files.

The app is compatible with iMessage and the Apple Watch. You can expand the power of this app by subscribing to Bear Pro. The subscription costs a little over $1 monthly, or you can pay $15 per year. The Pro version gives you the ability to convert your writing into PDF, Word documents, HTML, and more. It also gives you the option to sync all your notes across all your devices.

Are you an iPad Pro user? You’ll be happy to know that Bear supports the Apple Pencil and hand sketching, too.

Available on:

iOS  Mac

Simplenote

As the name suggests, Simplenote is as simple as they come. If you want the ability to sync your notes across all of your devices without paying a subscription, then Simplenote has you covered. You can also share notes with other users and collaborate. Once you create your free account, you can start creating notes, tagging them, pinning them, and sharing them. The interface is very straightforward and easy to get to grips with.

Simplenote is compatible with iOS devices, Android, MacOS, Windows, and even Linux. Your notes will automatically backup online and sync across all your devices.

Don’t worry about having too many notes. Simplenote lets you tag, pin, and organize your notes, and it also boasts a good search feature.

Available on:

iOS Android Windows Linux Mac

Quip

If you’re looking for more serious note-taking and collaboration apps that work well with large teams or corporations, then you should look at Quip — Docs, Chat, Sheets. The idea behind this app is to provide a place for a team to create a live document that can be accessed and edited by many people. You can look at it as a combination of chat, documents, task lists, and spreadsheets all rolled into one app. Create, share, and collaborate on notes, task lists, or edit documents with any group. You can also chat in real time with your team so that you can eliminate the need to send multiple emails back and forth. Whether you are working on your iPhone, iPad or a desktop computer, you will be able to access and edit spreadsheets with support for over 400 functions. Your work syncs across all your devices, so you can pick up where you left off anytime.

You can import documents from Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Google Docs and export documents as PDFs or Microsoft Office files. Quip also allows you to import your address book from Yahoo, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, Google, or iCloud.

You can sign up for a free trial so that you can decide if Quip is right for you. The pricing is $30 per month for a team of five, and $12 per additional person if you subscribe monthly, or $10 per additional person with an annual commitment. If you have a very large business, you can pay for Quip Enterprise which is $25 per month per person.

Available on:

iOS Android Windows Mac

Zoho Notebook

Productivity software company Zoho typically gears its development efforts toward enterprise, but its newest app, Notebook, is strictly consumer-oriented. It’s a note-taking app for iOS and Android that organizes your to-do lists and tasks visually, in a card-like interface, with notes appearing as colored stickies stacked on top of one another. And, like real-life sticky notes, they’re manipulable – you can group individual notes together by “pinching” them into a stack or swipe across them to see additional information.

Notebook packs a few novel features. You can attach files to notes — i.e., audio, photos, and miscellaneous web clippings — plus reminders and due dates. Content syncs across all of your signed-in devices, and notes are searchable within the notebook interface — a downward flick surfaces the search bar.

In terms of platform-specific functionality, on iOS, you can create and view recent notes from the notification panel, as well as record voice memos with an Apple Watch. And on Android, you can create shortcuts to notes on your home screen.

Notebook’s not without its shortcomings, to be fair. You can’t label or tag notes, and it lacks a web-based interface. But it’s free, and Zoho said the app will “never include ads.”

Available on:

iOS Android

Any.do

Any.do positions itself less as a to-do manager and more a productivity “accelerator.” Its headlining feature is undoubtedly “Moments,” a daily planner that helps you to prioritize the upcoming day’s tasks. It takes the form of a unified timeline that shows the notes, reminders, and appointments you have scheduled in the next few hours. The best part? Once you finish checking items off your Moments list, you get a random motivational message and pleasant chime.

Beyond Moments, Any.do sports a few other handy features that its note-taking competitors lack. When you miss a phone call on Android, a helpful pop-up at the bottom of your screen provides shortcuts to set a callback reminder. If on the other hand, you’re on the line with someone and receive a message, Any.do offers the option to send canned responses like “I’ll call you right back” and “Can’t talk now.” Also worth mentioning is Any.do’s “zooming” feature, which lets you “zoom into” tasks to reveal sub-tasks and other details and “zoom out” to a big-picture overview of ongoing projects.

Any.do’s premium $3 a month service is all about flexibility. You can share an unlimited number of tasks with collaborators (free accounts are limited to just one) and upload files to a larger (100 MB versus 1.5 MB) digital locker, so to speak. Moments, which appears only five times a month for free users, recurs daily with Any.do Premium. And finally, Premium lets you customize Any.do’s theme, set recurring tasks, and set up location-based reminders — features more or less on par with paid offerings from rival its note-taking rivals.

Available on:

iOS Android Mac Chrome Web

Wunderlist

Wunderlist may have been acquired by software behemoth Microsoft in 2015, the architect of note-taking competitor OneNote, but the to-do platform is still alive and kicking. One of its cooler tools is natural language interpretation. Much like Google Calendar on Android, Wunderlist automatically recognizes words that might as due dates — e.g., “tomorrow,” or “Friday” — and schedules reminders accordingly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t recognize locations, and Wunderlist doesn’t support location-based reminders like Any.do does.

Wunderlist sports a few features that are exclusive to its platform. On Android, you can quickly add to-dos straight from the notification bar. Wunderlist integrates with Google Now on Tap, Google’s intelligent assistant, so if you compile a list of movies in Wunderlist, Now on Tap will provide the synopses and showtimes of each. The note-taking app provides templates for the most common sorts of tasks — i.e., those involving work, personal, bills, vacations, family, and purchases — and much like the email inbox which undoubtedly served as its inspiration, it allows you to group tasks into folders and sort them chronologically, by a particular day, or alphabetically.

Wunderlist has a premium tier that grants you more. The $5-per-month Wunderlist Pro nets you the freedom to upload files of any size (the free service caps out at 5MB), you can share an unlimited number of tasks with collaborators (free users are limited to 25), and create as many subtasks as your heart desires. As an added bonus, you get 10 background images to swap between at your leisure.

Available on:

iOS Android Mac Chrome Web

Todoist

Rather than treat lists as the pillar of its productivity hierarchy, Todoist encourages you to organize tasks around projects. Individual to-do items live within those projects and can be customized to an exhaustive degree. You can add due dates, recurring reminders, flags, subtasks, and more. Todoist, like Wunderlist, optionally parses your notes for dates using natural language, so a task with the phrase “every three weeks” will be scheduled to recur, as you might expect, every three weeks. The service also features organizational filters by priority and due date.

Todoist, much like Any.do, is far more capable than your average to-do app. A few of its major differentiators is offline support and automatic backups. If you find yourself without Wi-Fi, the service’s apps will show you the last couple of tasks you added, replete with due dates and timestamps. When an internet connection is readily available, Todoist will save every major change you make to the cloud as a revision. Mistakenly delete a bunch of tasks? Not to worry — you can restore the dashboard’s last known good configuration.

Todoist, unfortunately, places serious limitations on free accounts. You can’t add labels, notes, or files to tasks without a $29-per-year Premium subscription, and you can’t perform searches within your dashboard’s projects. Email, text, and location-based reminders require a paid account, as does the ability to add new tasks via email and sync tasks to a calendar. But Todoist’s premium offering is generous in other respects. You get 200 tasks per project (versus 150 with a free account) and up to 200 projects. You can also access Karma, an analysis tool that gamifies your goals so that when you accomplish a certain number of tasks in a day or week, you earn points toward digital productivity badges like “Professional,” “Expert,” and “Master.”

Available on:

iOS Android Mac Chrome Web

Remember the Milk

If bare-bones task management is what you’re after, Remember the Milk may fit the bill. You can create to-dos, of course, and attach things like due dates, tags, notes, and the estimated time a task might take to complete. As with Wunderlist, you can organize tasks by categories. Like Todoist and Wunderlist, Remember the Milk features natural language recognition. Simply type a due date as part of the task — e.g., “tomorrow” — and it will schedule an appropriate reminder. There’s basic support for reminders, including location-based ones, and there are nifty sharing features that let you share entire individual tasks or entire categories. Furthermore, Remember the Milk allows you to set permissions restrictions on task editing and writing if, say, you want Aunt Bertha to be able to read the week’s grocery list but not amend it.

That’s not to say Remember the Milk isn’t versatile. A major update in February introduced a bevy of new features like subtasks and advanced sorting. And in addition, Remember the Milk’s mobile and web interfaces received a much-needed revamp that introduced slick, sliding panels and simpler ways of sharing and assigning tasks.

Remember the Milk’s premium tier adds a few more features to the mix, but not many. In addition to unlimited task storage, users who decide to shell out $40 for Remember the Milk Pro will see devices associated with their account back up tasks automatically and receive push notifications, plus sync offline and integrate with Microsoft’s Outlook Tasks software.

Available on:

iOS Android BlackBerry Mac Chrome Web

Google Keep

Google Keep, Google’s take on task management, admittedly isn’t quite as holistic as other productivity managers. But it’s entirely free and packs more than enough useful features to warrant mention.

Predictably, Keep plays nicely with Google’s other services, so every note you add to Keep is searchable and accessible from within Google Drive, Google’s cloud storage locker, and reminders appear within Google’s virtual assistant Now on your smartphone. Keep inherits a few of Google’s machine learning smarts, too. It can transcribe text from images using optical character recognition, and, by parsing the content of your notes for keywords, it automatically filters your notes by topic, location, and activity. As you’d expect, Keep’s search features are fully featured. You can perform queries like “Blue notes with voice memos,” and “Yellow notes with checkboxes,” for example, to quickly surface tasks you’ve created.

Keep is not without its shortcomings, though. There’s no way to group notes and tasks by folder, and Keep lacks support for subtasks. Its collaboration tools are also a tad disappointing. You can’t delegate tasks to other people, fine-tune permissions, add comments, or see edits by others reflected in real time. But for free note-keeping synced across a broad range of devices, Keep can’t be beaten.

Available on:

iOS Android Chrome Web

OneNote

Microsoft’s OneNote is the granddaddy of all note-taking apps. It debuted way back in 2003, but in 2014 received a fresh coat of paint and bunch of new features.

OneNote supports to-do lists with subtasks, starred tasks, highlights, labels, tags, and, on the desktop and the web, a virtually endless array of formatting options. You can attach images, videos, links, screenshots, files, Excel spreadsheets, geometric shapes, too, and pretty much every other type of file imaginable. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. OneNote has a file revision history browser so you can see what changes authors have made to a document over time. It’s got optical character recognition, too — OneNote automatically transcribes the text of any PDF or paper documents you upload. And, much like like with Keep, your notes are stored in a cloud storage locker, Microsoft’s OneDrive, accessible from any device with an internet connection. You get up to 15GB for free, shared among any other Microsoft Office apps you use.

OneNote has a few platform-specific features worth mentioning. On all iOS devices, it supports document search through Spotlight and multitasking by way of Split View. And on the iPad Pro, it supports note-taking with Apple’s Pencil stylus. Android users, meanwhile, get the OneNote badge: a floating widget that allows you to create a note no matter what app you’re using at the moment.

Available on:

iOS Android Mac Windows Chrome Web

Given the disparate nature of note-taking apps, it’s exceedingly difficult to crown a winner. But in terms of sheer volume of features on offer, OneNote takes the cake. Not only does it support to-do app staple features like task lists, subtasks, formatting, and project assignment, but it sports a myriad of embedding options. You can attach videos, pictures, slideshows, Office documents, and practically any other file type you please to individual notes and tasks. Its formatting options, meanwhile, are robust as any of its note-taking competition and then some, and its got additional little benefits, like optical character recognition, 15GB of cloud storage, file revision history, and real-time collaboration, abound. And it’s all free.

Google Keep comes in close second. It may lack the formatting and embedding options offered by competition like Dropbox Paper, but it more than makes up for it in organizational tools. Keep’s support for labels and colors, plus its machine learning-powered keyword sorting, are a godsend for anyone with more notes than they can keep straight. Free Google Drive storage, optical character recognition, and recurring reminders are pure icing on the cake.

Update: We took a second look at this list and added Quip, Bear, and Simplenote.

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7 Unique Amazon Echo Dot Cases and Stands to Amp up Your Home Decor

Personalize your Echo Dot with these unique cases and stands!

For all its great features and portability, the Amazon Echo Dot is rather uninspired when it comes to looks. The $50 smart speaker comes in two colors: black and white. It’s a short, relatively small puck with four buttons, a tiny speaker system, microphones, and an LED light ring. Depending on your decor (and where you choose to place it), the Echo Dot may blend in… or it may stick out like a sore thumb (I’m still not entirely certain sore thumbs stick out, but please pardon the digression). Whether you want to turn your Echo Dot into more of a statement piece or have it blend in seamlessly with your particular style, you’re going to need a case or stand to provide the proper camouflage. Without further ado, here are 7 unique Echo Dot cases and stands that’ll help you achieve your interior design goals!

• Amazon Echo Dot Cases
• Bamboo Echo Dot Case
• Bamboo Echo Dot Stand
• Dot Genie Flush Mount
• Fintie Echo Dot Sleeves
• NewRice Echo Dot Statues
• This Dottie Echo Dot Mount

Amazon Echo Dot Cases

Amazon’s Echo Dot cases don’t necessarily fit the “unique” criteria because there’s a chance many, many other people have picked up a few of these. That said, the $10 to $20 sleeve comes in six varieties — odds are you’re going to find something that matches your style.

Designed and sold by Amazon, the case is a perfect fit for your Dot. You simply slide your Dot down into the sleeve, plug it in, and you’re ready to go. The sleeve comes in three fabric styles ($10 apiece) — sandstone (a grayish white), charcoal (a dark gray), and indigo (a denim blue) — and three leather styles ($20 apiece) — merlot (a deep red), midnight (a deep black), and saddle tan (a medium brown).

With so many options to choose from, you could have a perfectly matching Echo Dot for every room of your house!

See at Amazon

Bamboo Echo Dot Case

This bamboo Echo Dot case is not only a nice, natural look for your home, but it also serves as a light feature of sorts. Thanks to the fact that the Echo Dot sits down inside of the case, the Dot’s light ring beautifully lights up the edges of the bamboo.

You can get this bamboo Echo Dot case for the same price as Amazon’s fabric cases: $10. It’s lightweight, it’s simple, and it’s shaped perfectly to hold your Echo in place — it’s even got a hole in the back for plugging everything in.

If you want a splash of light brown, textured bamboo to accompany your Echo Dot, this case is the perfect choice!

See at Amazon

Bamboo Echo Dot Stand

You can step things up a notch from a simple bamboo case to this cleverly crafted, bamboo Echo Dot stand!

The unique design lets you nestle your Dot in the top of the stand, leaving loads of space inside for the Dot’s small speaker system to resonate and grow louder. You can even position the hole on the front of the stand to direct the sound depending on where you are in your home. It’s designed to precisely hold your Dot in the top portion of the stand — you can route your cables through a hole in the back.

If you’re looking to pump up the power of your Echo Dot’s small speaker system while adding the natural, beautiful look of bamboo to your home, this $16 stand is for you!

See at Amazon

Dot Genie Flush Mount

I must confess: I am absolutely in love with this contraption. The $20 Dot Genie Flush Mount won’t add to your home decor, instead it serves to hide your Amazon Echo away while still giving you easy access to Alexa’s voice commands.

So how does it work? Well, it’s a rounded puck that’s meant to sit flush against a wall or ceiling. You cut out a hole in your drywall, stick the mount into the hole, feed in the Amazon Echo Dot, and wire everything up (it comes with wiring, too). After it’s installed, you can use your Dot the same way you normally would. This is a great way to get your Dot up off the counter or table and into a place that’s free from furniture and other objects that might obstruct your voice. Plus, if you’re a little self conscious about having a bunch of fu7ur3 73ch in your home, this’ll hide it away!

If your idea of a smart speaker and in-home assistant is a disembodied voice that seems to communicate from the heavens (mine sure is), then you’ve got to pick up this flush mount. Oh, I should also mention it won’t muffle your Dot’s built in speakers — the mount features a unique design that channels the audio out into the room.

See at Amazon

Fintie Echo Dot Sleeves

If you struggled with the numerous case options from Amazon, you’re going to be stuck clicking between these sleeves from Fintie for the next couple hours. For about $12, Fintie offers a protective case that’s made with a synthetic leather exterior and microfiber interior.

To put on the sleeve, you slide your Echo Dot into the pocket of the sleeve and fasten it with a small metal snap on the side. The case has cutouts for the ports on the back of your Echo, cutouts for the four buttons atop the device, and space for your speakers and mics to output sound and listen for your commands. The best part (or worst part if you have trouble making decisions) is the wide variety of colors and patterns available. From simple colors like black and blue to complex patterns like illustrated trees and stained glass, you’re likely to find something that works for your home decor.

Whether you’d like to really make your Echo Dot stand out or just need something to add a bit of you to your Dot, Fintie’s sleeves are a great choice!

See at Amazon

NewRice Echo Dot Statues

Talk. About. Adorable! These Echo Dot statues from NewRice would look right at home in just about any home. Instead of buying a glass vase and filling it with those little wicker and twine balls or fake cherries, buy one of these statues! You’ll be getting an interesting bit of home decor and a place to tuck away your Dot.

NewRice is offering both an owl and an elephant statue that retail for about $20 and $24, respectively. Much like the bamboo stand we mentioned before, these statues let you nestle your Dot into the top of the vessel. There’s a hole on the back for routing your cables. It even features a non-slip coating on the bottom of the statue to keep you from knocking over your new decoration.

If you’d like to add a little statement piece to your home and hide away your Echo Dot, you’ve got to take a look at these NewRice statues. If you look closely, you can see the owl staring longingly at you, asking you to let it come hang out.

See at Amazon

This Dottie Echo Dot Mount

Like the flush mount, the “This Dottie” mount is for those who feel the Dot is incompatible with their home decor. For about $20, you can get this mount in either white or black — whichever works better for your home and the color of your Dot.

The all-in-one design of the “This Dottie” mount makes it simple to keep your Echo Dot — and its cord — up and out of the way of your counters and tables. You connect your Dot, slide it into the mount, and plug it in! The mount works in two configurations: up and down, meaning you’ll be able to choose the best option based on where your wall outlets are positioned.

If you want to get your Echo Dot out of the way and more out of sight, the “This Dottie” will help with that. I love the all-in-one design that eliminates the need for an unsightly wire hanging down and snaking across your countertops.

See at Amazon

Thoughts? Ideas?

What do you think, are any of our choices calling out to you? Do you have a different case or stand that you absolutely adore? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments and over on Twitter!

Amazon Echo

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See at Amazon

Does your Galaxy Note 8 show signs of lag?

Let’s see how Samsung’s latest holds up after a few weeks of use.

If you’re in the market for a big phone, one of your best bets is Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8. The Note 8 is a behemoth, and along with its huge footprint, it offers one of the best AMOLED displays around, a dual-camera system, the iconic S Pen, and so much more.

The Note 8 is also packed to the gills with some of the fastest silicon currently available, but even with its Snapdragon 835 (or Exynos 8895) processor and 6GB of RAM, the Note 8 isn’t impervious to Samsung’s heavy software customizations that tend to slow its devices down after just a few months or weeks of use.

Some of our forum users have already started to experience varying degrees of degradation, saying:

PainFX
10-31-2017 05:59 PM

“

During the phone call switching back to the homepage it almost froze. Had to end the call and restart the phone and everything went back to normal.

It’s only been 1 month.

You guys have any problems yet?

Reply

sdsubball23
10-31-2017 07:17 PM

“

I’m having a gallery lag where it will stutter opening and closing pics. Anyone have a solution to this?

Reply

With that said, most users seem to be quite happy with the Note 8’s performance.

srvctec
10-31-2017 07:23 PM

“

Nope, totally fine and smooth here, always. AND that’s with being on the middle power save mode since day 1, which should cause more freeze ups because of the throttling of the CPU, but it’s been perfect.

Reply

Gray Area
10-31-2017 08:59 PM

“

No lag issues, going on 2 months. I have however had a couple of instances where it seem like it wouldn’t fast wired charge and I had to unplug it a couple times and plug it back in before it did it.

Reply

creekwater1482
11-01-2017 06:31 PM

“

No lag issues here at all. I do utilize device maintenance and close apps frequently. I’ll reboot phone as well, once a week probably. Same thing with my gear s3, tablet, surface, etc.

Reply

If you own Samsung’s latest and greatest, we’d like to know – Have you experienced any lag with the Galaxy Note 8?

Join the conversation in the forums!

MIUI 9 global is now rolling out: Here’s the list of eligible devices

The global version of MIUI 9 is now starting to roll out to Xiaomi’s devices.

MIUI 9 was unveiled earlier this year in China, and now the global version of the ROM is starting to roll out to Xiaomi’s entire portfolio of devices. The manufacturer is making the update widely available, with the five-year-old Mi 2 set to receive the latest version. To put things into context, the Mi 2 launched with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

There’s a lot of exciting new feature additions in the global version of MIUI 9, including a retooled notification pane, new themes, animations, a native split screen mode, and much more.

Xiaomi shared statistics on MIUI usage around the world during the Redmi Y1 launch event in India. Globally, MIUI is available in 56 languages, and has 280 million active users in 220 countries. There’s clearly a lot of interest in Xiaomi’s custom ROM, and we’ll delve into the new features in detail in the coming days.

Here’s the full list of eligible devices for MIUI 9 global:

• Mi Mix 2
• Mi Mix
• Mi Note 3
• Mi Note 2
• Mi Note
• Mi 6
• Mi 5
• Mi 5s
• Mi 5s Plus
• Mi 4i
• Mi 4
• Mi 3
• Mi 2
• Mi Max 2
• Mi Max
• Mi Max Prime
• Redmi Note 4
• Redmi Note 4X
• Redmi Note 5A
• Redmi Note 3
• Redmi Note 4G Prime
• Redmi Note 2
• Redmi Note 4G
• Redmi 4
• Redmi 4X
• Redmi 3
• Redmi 3S
• Redmi 3S Prime
• Redmi 2
• Redmi 2 Prime
• Redmi Y1
• Redmi Y1s

The stable version of the ROM will be rolled out to the Redmi Note 4, Mi Mix 2, and the Mi Max 2 in the next two to three weeks, with a beta build available for all three devices right away. There’s no mention regarding when the other devices will receive the update, but we’ll share more details as we get them.

Can Mophie make an argument for the $150 battery pack?

The Mophie Powerstation USB-C XXL is a big, reliable battery that gets the job done.

Search “battery pack” on Amazon and there’s no shortage of high-quality options at reasonable prices. Once-unknown brands like Aukey, Anker, and RAVPower seem to have maneuvered their way to the tops of the search results, and hundreds of thousands of happy customers regale the user reviews sections with tales of successful deals on top-notch componentry.

When a battery pack that can charge a phone, a tablet, and a laptop at the same time costs a hair under $40, can Mophie convince people that it’s worth spending nearly four times that amount on a portable charger that has less capacity and fewer ports? That’s what we’re aiming to answer here.

See at Mophie

This is definitely the nicest-looking battery pack I’ve used, but that doesn’t mean much in the long run.

The Mophie Powerstation USB-C XXL is a two-port charger with a USB-C port and a USB-A port splitting the responsibilities. Its 19500mAh capacity is, while capacious — especially for its relatively small size — not the biggest we’ve seen, but the Mophie is programmed to release that capacity as quickly as possible right now.

That’s because, in addition to the USB-A port that supports standard 2.4 amp output, the USB-C port uses the Power Delivery standard, allowing for up to 30W of output with a compatible device and proper cable. As we learned from the Pixel 2, most phones don’t support such wattage — it technically supports a 27W charger, but will only accept 18 watts, likely due to heat concerns. Still, the Mophie can charge a phone and tablet at the same time, or a phone and USB C-capable laptop (say, a Pixelbook), which is pretty great.

For most products on the market today, the USB-C port will output 3A, which is roughly equivalent to Quick Charge 3.0 speeds.

The battery itself is hefty and solid, wrapped in a fabric outer layer that, after a few weeks tossed into the bottom of my bag, has worn incredibly well. The single button uses four white LED buttons to indicate battery levels, and unlike many other chargers, the Powerstation is intelligent enough not to need an “on” button to start charging something that’s plugged in.

So why spend $150 on a battery when larger capacities are available at a third of the cost? Well, USB-PD is a burgeoning standard not supported by most battery chargers yet, and its licensing fees are reportedly higher than Quick Charge and other fast charging standards. Mophie is also well known for its high-quality components, and the Powerstation’s two-year warranty should be reassuring for those willing to take the plunge.

I can say that the Powerstation USB-C XXL is not three times better than the average battery pack from RAVPower, Anker, Aukey, and others, but in my time with it, it’s been incredibly reliable, useful, and hardy.

See at Mophie