Switching mobile operators could soon begin with a text

Ofcom has introduced new rules that should make it easier to switch mobile networks in the UK. At the moment, cancelling a contract and setting up a new one is complicated and time consuming, especially if you want to keep your old number. You have to ring both providers, settle any outstanding debts and then try to wrangle a single switchover date — otherwise you’re double-paying for a while, or going without a phone for a few days. To fix the problem, Ofcom is introducing an “auto-switch” system that forces providers to sort out the finer details on their own.

Here’s how it works: You request a code online, by text, or by calling your provider. You’re then free to shop around and when you’re ready to make the switch, you quote the code. Everything is transferred within one working day (including your number, should you wish to keep it.) There’s no overlap — the system ensures your old and new contracts link up perfectly. Ofcom is abolishing “notice period” charges too, so it doesn’t matter when you want to cancel (if you have outstanding fees, though, like a part-paid handset, they’ll be quoted when you request the code.)

There are numerous benefits. For one, it’s possible to cancel your current contract without calling anyone. That means you don’t have to wrestle with a salesperson as they try to persuade you to stay. For another, you don’t have to worry about PAC codes or a temporary number while you transfer your old digits. Finally, the system should ensure a clean break from your old contract — no more wondering if everything, finally, has been paid off with your previous provider. Such a system will take a while to set up, however, so Ofcom has set a compliance deadline of July 2019.

Source: Ofcom

France gives WhatsApp a month to stop sharing data with Facebook

After the EU slapped it with a €110 million fine over unlawful WhatsApp data sharing, you’d think Facebook would be eager to comply with local privacy laws. But France says it has not cooperated with data protection authority CNIL, and could face another sanction if it doesn’t get its act together within 30 days. The social network is still transferring Whatsapp data for “business intelligence,” it claims, and the only way that users can opt out is by uninstalling the app.

The French regulator noticed that WhatsApp was sharing user data like phone numbers to Facebook for “business intelligence” reasons. When it repeatedly asked to see the data, Facebook said that it is stored in the US, and “it considers that it is only subject to the legislation of the country,” according to the CNIL. The regulator countered that any time data is gathered in France, it becomes the authority in charge.

France said that while the notice was issued to Facebook, it’s also meant to advise users that this “massive data transfer from WhatsApp to Facebook” was taking place. “The only way to refuse the data transfer for ‘business intelligence’ purposes is to uninstall the application,” it adds.

WhatsApp cannot claim a legitimate interest to massively transfer data to the company Facebook Inc. insofar as this transfer does not provide adequate guarantees allowing to preserve the interest or the fundamental freedoms of users since there is no mechanism whereby they can refuse it while continuing to use the application.

“We will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure users understand what information we collect, as well as how it’s used,” Facebook told Engadget. “And we’re committed to resolving the different, and at times conflicting, concerns we’ve heard from European Data Protection Authorities with a common EU approach before the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018.”

Facebook is also in trouble in Germany, where the competition authority accused it of transferring user data in an “abusive” way to third party sites. The cartel office (FCO) said Facebook was exerting its “market dominant” position to gather excessive amounts of data, the Financial Times reports. “From the current state of affairs we are not convinced that users have given their effective consent to Facebook’s data tracking and the merging of data into their Facebook account,” said FCO head Andreas Mundt.

As Facebook noted in its comment, new EU data protection rules will kick in next year, and they will have a lot more bite. Privacy violations can be fined up to four percent of a company’s global turnover, which is in the case of Facebook, is a hell of a lot. In the meantime, France’s CNIL commission said that Facebook has 30 days to comply with the ruling or it will face an investigation and possible sanction.

Update: Facebook’s full statement to Engadget about the WhatsApp data privacy issue is below.

Privacy is incredibly important to WhatsApp. It’s why we collect very little data, and encrypt every message. We will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure users understand what information we collect, as well as how it’s used. And we’re committed to resolving the different, and at times conflicting concerns, we’ve heard from European Data Protection Authorities with a common EU approach before the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018.

Via: Reuters

Source: CNIL

Google Home Max review: An assistant for music lovers

Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home have proved useful — but they tend not to sound very good. Sure, they’re serviceable in a pinch, and are better than most cheap Bluetooth speakers, but they don’t compare to options like the entire Sonos lineup, let alone a nice set of bookshelf speakers like the Audioengine A5+. That’s slowly changing, though: The Alexa-powered Sonos One speaker performs well and is affordable, while Apple’s forthcoming HomePod sounded excellent in a brief demo we saw earlier this year.

Google’s Home Max is the company’s first attempt to join the HiFi audio space — it does everything that the smaller Home speakers do, but with significantly larger and higher-caliber components. Of course, that higher quality comes at a significantly higher price. At $399, the Home Max is more comparable with dedicated, higher-quality speakers. But the Home Max offers a unique combination of simplicity, high-quality audio and voice-activated features courtesy of the Google Assistant.

Hardware

The Google Home Max is a large, heavy speaker; it’s definitely more conspicuous than the standard Home or Amazon’s Echo lineup. Still, it’s a charming, attractive device. The gently rounded corners and fabric-covered front both bring to mind Google’s tiny Home Mini and make it just a bit more “friendly” than your average speaker. It’s similar in size to the Sonos Play:5 and just as well-built.

Google says it designed the fabric on the front to be acoustically transparent and that it tried several dozen options before settling on the weave pattern. I’ve never listened to the speaker without the cloth in the way, so I don’t have anything to benchmark against, but it doesn’t appear to impede audio in any way.

There’s not much else about the Home Max that’s visually remarkable. Around the back, you’ll find the mic-mute switch, power jack, a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio input. It’s not clear what the USB-C port is meant for aside from charging your smartphone. But the 3.5mm jack is useful for plugging in a variety of audio devices, from directly hooking up a tablet or smartphone (not the Pixel 2 or newer iPhones, though!) to adding a turntable to your setup. I gave a few records a spin and it worked easily, although I had to use an RCA-to-3.5mm converter I had around. It would be nice if the Home Max had RCA ports, because so many traditional home-audio products use them, but most users will probably be opting for Spotify.

The top of the speaker also includes a thin strip of touch-sensitive controls; there’s a line to help orient you. Tapping the center of that line pauses or resumes music, while sliding your finger right or left turns volume up or down. I wish these controls included a way to skip forward a track, but the good news is that Google could theoretically add feature this with a software update.

What’s inside is a lot more interesting. Google packed in two 18mm tweeters and two 4.5-inch woofers, good for driving a lot of volume and bass. There are also six far-field microphones that did an excellent job of recognizing my voice when I was talking to the Home Max, even while the music was cranked up loud.

The last detail of note is hidden under the front cloth. There you’ll find four LED lights, just like the ones on the Home Mini. They light up in response to an “OK Google” command and turn orange and stay on while the mic is muted. Finally, they provide a visual indicator of the volume level when you’re adjusting it on the top touch strip. You won’t see the lights very often, but they do a good job providing visual cues when you need them.

Setup / Google Assistant

Setup for the Home Max is the same as Google’s other smart speakers. Once plugged in, just open up the Home app on your iOS or Android device and follow a few prompts to connect the speaker to your WiFi network. If it’s the first time you’ve set up a Home device, you’ll be asked to sign in to your Google account and train the speaker to recognize your voice. You can also add more users later by having them train the speaker; that way, it can distinguish between you and your significant other when you’re asking for calendar details or to play your playlists.

Once set up, the Home Max does everything its smaller stablemates can. The Google Assistant’s capabilities are well-established at this point. Check out our original Google Home review and our Home Mini review for more details, but suffice to say it can answer queries and searches, make voice calls, pull info like reminders and calendar items from your Google account, control smart-home devices and, of course, play music.

Audio quality

Excellent music performance is the entire reason for the Home Max’s existence, and it largely delivers. Once you’ve linked supported music services (including Spotify, Pandora and Google Play Music), you can just ask the Google Assistant to play any song or album that pops into your head. The Assistant is also smart enough to search your library for playlists or stations you’ve saved. I was able to tell it to stream Discover Weekly from Spotify or a number of different stations on Google Music.

The Google Assistant doesn’t support nearly as many music services as Sonos, but the good news is that any app that works with Google Cast can be used as a remote to send music straight to the speaker. It also supports Bluetooth, which isn’t nearly as elegant, but it’s a good workaround if you just can’t give up Apple Music.

Enough about music services, though. The big question is: How’s the audio quality? In a word, excellent. It’s the best-sounding smart speaker on the market by a wide margin. Its size and overall performance reminds me of the Sonos Play:5 — the Max isn’t quite as good, but it’s also $100 cheaper and includes built-in voice-assistant features. The bass response is excellent, highs are clear without being shrill and it’s very, very loud. Pushing the volume above 60 percent really shows off the speaker’s chops. Where a smaller smart speaker like the Sonos One can start to struggle, the Max never distorts or loses any bass.

This is doubly true when pairing two Home Max speakers in stereo. On its own, the speaker outputs in stereo when horizontal or mono when standing up, but two speakers greatly extend the soundstage. It also makes things even louder, which is entirely unnecessary (at least for my needs). Turning the speakers up also highlighted how good the Home Max’s microphones are. It picked up my “OK Google” command phrase no matter how loud things were, something that the Alexa-enabled Sonos One had a lot more trouble with.

The Home Max may get seriously loud, but it’s impressive even at lower volumes. It’s not that often that I listen to music on speakers of this caliber, positioned in a way that I can really experience stereo effects. It even works with my turntable, despite the fact that the speakers had to take the input from one speaker and then split and stream the channels wirelessly. There was a tiny bit of latency between when I dropped the needle and started the music, but that didn’t really matter because the speakers stayed in sync without issue.

Google has supported multiroom audio for a few years now, and it works smoothly on the Home Max without. You can connect multiple Google Home devices together; Chromecast hardware works with multiroom audio as well. Finally, if you have multiple Google Home speakers, you can talk to one to control others in the network. For example, you can say “turn down the living room speaker volume” to any Home device, and it’ll know what you’re talking about. The Home Max provides a stellar music experience, particularly when in a stereo pair. Of course, at $800, there’s no excuse for anything less.

One last note on audio: Google doesn’t let users tune their speakers to the room, like Sonos does with its Trueplay technology. But the company does have built-in, machine-learning-assisted algorithms that automatically modify output to best fit where you place the Home Max. Google calls it Smart Sound, and the first feature that falls under that category is Room EQ. This specifically adjusts for bass output — lots of people put their speakers in corners or against walls, which typically amplifies bass. Room EQ adjusts this to even things out. It’s all done automatically, and the speaker readjusts every time it is moved. There’s no way to turn it on or off, so I can’t really tell how much it affects the sound, unfortunately. But the bottom line is that the speaker sounds great.

The competition

Google’s Home Max is a bit of an outlier right now. The Sonos One is an excellent, music-focused smart speaker, but it’s much smaller. Its performance is impressive given its size (and $200 price), and at lower volume levels it holds up well. But once you push things past 50 percent, the Home Max asserts its superiority.

Still, for $400 you could get a stereo pair of Sonos One speakers, or just take two and distribute them at different points in your house for multiroom audio. Another option would be buying two of the Sonos Play:1 speakers, which now cost $150 each but don’t have voice control. From there, you can add an Amazon Echo Dot so you can control the speakers with your voice. That’ll give you a voice-controlled music setup with solid performance for less money. Of course, it’s a bit more complex.

If you’re really focused on quality, the Sonos Play:5 is another excellent option. It’s more expensive and it doesn’t have voice control built-in, but it sounds magnificent. And if you prefer the Google Assistant to Alexa, Sonos says it’s adding support soon. If you’re an Apple fan, AirPlay 2 is coming as well. Again, it’s a bit more complicated a solution than just buying a Home Max and calling it a day, but it’s worth considering.

Apple’s HomePod isn’t out yet, and it’s primarily designed for Apple Music, but it sounded great in a brief demo earlier this year. That said, Apple still hasn’t said when it’s coming out, and besides, we’ll need to test it for a longer period of time before we weigh in on how much we like it. If you’re an Apple fan, you might want to wait for the first wave of reviews.

Finally, there are many pairs of incredible bookshelf speakers on the market that you can get for around the price of a single Home Max speaker. Add a Chromecast Audio and a Home Mini and you’ll have basically the same features as the Home Max, with better stereo performance to boot.

Wrapup

At $399, the Google Home Max will not sell as well as the standard Home or Home Mini. But many people listen to music on those devices, and a subset of them certainly would like to combine the smarts of the Google Assistant while also upgrading their home audio setup. The Home Max fits that bill. It’s incredibly easy to set up, it can do everything that the other Google Home devices can do and, most important, it sounds excellent.

There are other speakers in this price range that perform better, but the Google Home Max doesn’t have any competitors that can match all of its features. It’s simply the best-sounding smart speaker available right now. Though the Home Max’s price will be a dealbreaker for some, music fans should definitely take note.

‘Dragon Quest Builders’ arrives on Switch in February

Square Enix’s Minecraft­-style construction game Dragon Quest Builders is coming to Nintendo Switch on February 9 next year. The game — which was released last year on PS4, PS3 and Vita — sees players gather materials, reconstruct towns and fight monsters through a sprawling RPG. It’s all very Minecraft-esque, but offers a more structured gameplay with a proper storyline — in this instance, restoring the world of Alefgard.

The main draw of its arrival to Switch is, of course, being able to play on the go, but the console’s version also offers some exclusive experiences and items, including the ability to gather rare crafting materials for a wider range of customization options. A sequel, Dragon Quest Builders 2, will add co-op play, but there’s no word on a release date for that yet.

Source: Nintendo

LEDVANCE Introduces New HomeKit-Enabled Sylvania Smart+ Filament Light Bulb

LEDVANCE today announced the launch of a new HomeKit-enabled Sylvania Smart+ Soft White A19 Filament Bulb, the first filament bulb to come equipped with HomeKit.

Filament bulbs are often preferred to standard bulbs in lights where the design of the bulb itself is featured. The new Sylvania bulb allows customers who are looking for a retro filament bulb to get that look without sacrificing smart functionality.

The Sylvania Smart+ Soft White A19 Filament Bulb provides up to 650 lumens of 2700K light, equivalent to a 40W bulb, and it can be dimmed.

Sylvania’s HomeKit-enabled light bulbs work with the Home app and can integrate with other HomeKit-enabled products. They also respond to Siri commands and can be added to scenes and other automations.

The new Sylvania Smart+ Soft White A19 Filament Bulb can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com for $31.99 starting today, with orders set to ship out in the spring of 2018.

LEDVANCE’s Sylvania Smart+ Indoor Flex Strip Full Color ($59.99) and the Soft White A19 Bulb ($25.99), both of which feature HomeKit support, are also now available for purchase on Amazon.

Tag: HomeKit
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Plex Launches Miniaturized Music App for Mac and Windows Called ‘Plexamp’

This week Plex announced Plex Labs, a new internal section of the company that focuses on sharing in-depth Medium posts, community ideas, and passion projects created by Plex engineers. The first such project is called “Plexamp,” a macOS and Windows app that pulls from your existing Plex music library and accumulates it all into one miniaturized interface (via The Next Web).

The Winamp-inspired app works similar to a native Mac app (so media keys and notifications are supported), plays “just about any music format,” can remote control other Plex players and vice-versa, and supports offline playback. More in-depth features include Spotlight-like search for your entire Plex music library, gapless playback, soft transitions when pausing, resuming and changing tracks, and loudness leveling to normalize playback volume across different albums.

In terms of the interface, the app’s default setting appears to be around the size of a miniaturized iTunes player, and it features four different sizes in total “including one that hides the app entirely.” Plexamp’s minimalism extends into its buttons, which appear when needed and otherwise stay hidden. Plex co-founder Elan Feingold mentioned that the Plexamp team forced itself to think small in terms of the app’s footprint, so it could act as a miniature companion to Plex’s larger apps.

It all started over a beer — as most great things do — re-envisioning what a tiny and powerful music player might look like in 2017. The most classic and beloved small audio player, Winamp, was first released almost exactly TWENTY years ago. Written in a low-level language, it ran on Windows, and was limited to playing files on the local (or networked) filesystem.

Plex, on the other hand, provides a best-in-class client/server model, an extremely metadata rich library, is highly portable, and gives you access to your entire music collection from anywhere in the world; we wanted to pair this with a similarly excellent music player. Literally the only requirement we had was “small”; Plex has plenty of bigger apps already, but nothing that sits unobtrusively on a desktop, beguiling and delighting. We even forced ourselves to limit the design to a single simple window.

The app also turns albums into art with SoundPrints and visualizers, which change with each album played. The main focus of the app is said to be the discovery of songs within your existing music library, with library stations that track popularity, rating, and listening history to curate music.

These stations include “Library Radio” that picks songs across your entire song catalog, and “Time Travel Radio” that begins with the earliest released music in your library and works its way forward. “Artist Radio” starts with a specific artist and then “explores more corners of your library” within similar genres as the original musician.

Those interested can download Plexamp for free on the Plex Labs webpage, but to use the app you’ll need to sign up for a Plex account. Feingold noted that the app might have a few “rough edges” due to its creation by just a handful of Plex employees in their spare time.

Tag: Plex
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Ming-Chi Kuo Expects Upgraded AirPods to Launch in Mid to Late 2018

Apple will release an upgraded version of AirPods in the second half of 2018, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

An excerpt from Kuo’s latest research note, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors:

Media reports over the past few days on brisk AirPods demand and Apple struggling to keep up with holiday season demand align with our findings and positive predictions on AirPods in several previous reports. […]

In 2018, we predict AirPods shipments will grow 100% YoY to 26-28mn units. We forecast the ASP of RFPCB for upgraded AirPods in 2H18 may increase, further benefiting business momentum of Unitech and Compeq.

Kuo said one internal change on the second-generation AirPods will include a “smaller quartz component,” but he didn’t provide any further details about new outward-facing features or improvements to expect.

Kuo said the new AirPods will continue to be assembled by Taiwanese manufacturer Inventec, with individual components supplied by fellow Taiwanese companies such as Unitech, Compeq, TXC, and HLJ.

Apple will also be releasing a new inductive AirPods charging case that will enable the wireless earphones to be charged with its new AirPower charging mat, which it said launches at some point in 2018.

Apple teased the AirPower mat at its iPhone X event back in September. It will be able to charge the Apple Watch Series 3, an iPhone X or iPhone 8 model, and AirPods inside the new charging case simultaneously.

As for the current AirPods, Kuo said Apple’s suppliers are unable to make them quick enough to fully satisfy what he believes is robust holiday season demand, which likely explains why AirPods are sold out until January.

Kuo, who keeps a close eye on Apple’s supply chain in Asia, said Apple has recruited Luxshare to help make AirPods, but RF printed-circuit boards for AirPods batteries are proving to be a key production bottleneck.

Kuo also reiterated his estimate that AirPods shipments will double in 2018 to 26-28 million units on a year-over-year basis, suggesting Apple will have sold around 13-14 million AirPods worldwide by the end of this year.

Tags: KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, AirPods
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Samsung’s awesome 2018 Galaxy A8 even has a dual-lens camera on the front

Samsung has launched 2018 versions of the Galaxy A8, a name it has used at least once before, this time bringing some of the best Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 features together in a single device, but in an unexpected fashion. The 2018 Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8 Plus are two of the most intriguing phones we’ve seen from Samsung in a while.

The new Galaxy A8 has a 5.6-inch Super AMOLED screen on the front, with the same 18.5:9 aspect ration as its larger brethren, and a 1,080 x 2,220 pixel resolution. The Galaxy A8 Plus has a 6-inch screen. Look closely at the images of the phone and you can see small bezels above and below it, along wth very minimal bezels at the side. It may not be quite so large or bezel-free as the S8 or Note 8, but it’s close enough that Samsung still uses the “Infinity Display” name to describe it.

Above the screen are two camera lenses for the ultimate selfie experience. The dual-lens camera has two sensors — 16 megapixels and 8 megapixels, both with an f/1.9 aperture — and Samsung’s Live Focus feature, a favorite from the Galaxy Note 8, where it’s part of the rear camera. This feature adds the blurred background effect to your selfies, while the two lenses can take close-ups or wider portrait shots. The selfie cam also has a beauty mode, filters, and stickers. The rear camera has a single 16-megapixel lens, and a low f/1.7 aperture for great lowlight shots.

If the Galaxy A8 already sounds good, then you’re going to like it even more as we continue. The body has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, for peace of mind, and it’s the first A-Series Samsung phone that’s compatible with the Gear VR virtual reality headset. Previously, you had to splash out on an S-Series or Note phone to enjoy Samsung’s VR experience. An octa-core processor with 4GB of RAM powers the A8, plus there is 32GB of memory, a fingerprint sensor, a MicroSD card slot, and NFC for Samsung Pay.

The Galaxy A8 Plus has a 3,500mAh battery compared to the 3,000mAh cell inside the A8, and both come with fast charging. Despite being phones launched next year, both have Android 7.1 Nougat installed, and not Android 8.0 Oreo.

Samsung has announced the Galaxy A8 models for release in January 2018, with countries still to be confirmed, in  a choice of gold, blue, black, or grey colors. It appears only the Galaxy A8 will go on sale in the U.K., but that won’t be until April 2018, and it hasn’t given a price either. We don’t expect it to be cheap, but it will be less than the S8, and with a specification and feature list like this, it’s shaping up to be a very desirable phone.

The Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus will likely be shown off at the CES 2018 technology show in January, when we may also get news about a U.S. release. We’ll keep you updated.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung Galaxy S8 Active review
• Here is everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy S9
• iPhone 8 Plus vs. Galaxy S8 Plus: Which massive smartphone reigns supreme?
• Razer Phone vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8: A new challenger approaches
• Apple iPhone 8 vs. Samsung Galaxy S8: A classic tale of Android vs. iOS

Honor 7X and EMUI 5.1: Tips and tricks for getting the most out of your new phone

With flagship-level build quality and an 18:9 display for just $200, the Honor 7X is bound to be a popular choice in the budget space. Many buyers will already be familiar with the included EMUI 5.1 software interface, but for first-time Honor users, it can feel like a completely new experience. Luckily, while EMUI is full of long lists of options and settings, it’s easy to master the important parts.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite ways to get the most out of your new Honor 7X.

Customize the home screen

The home screen is one of the most personal parts of a phone, and one of the first things you’ll want to familiarize yourself with. There are plenty of ways to customize the EMUI home screen, but before you start rearranging apps and adding widgets, you should decide whether or not you want an app drawer by going to Settings > Home screen style. Not only will this affect the way you use your home screen, but the software remembers different layouts with and without the app drawer, so if you change your mind later you’ll have to reorganize everything.

Once you’ve made your decision, jump back to the home screen and long press on an empty area (or pinch in with two fingers) to access some other quick home screen options. You can set a new wallpaper (for both the home and lock screens), add widgets, change the transition animation when scrolling through pages, or open the rest of the home screen settings.

From the Settings option, you can adjust the home layout grid (options include 4×5, 4×6, 5×5, and 5×6), toggle quick alignment options, set up notification badges, enable app suggestions, and toggle home screen looping and rotation.

Make use of Smart Assistance

Smart Assistance offers a number of useful options to get even more functionality out of the Honor 7X. From Settings > Smart Assistance, the floating dock option makes one-handed operation much easier by adding a transparent circle to the side of the screen that, when tapped, fans out into five shortcuts: the back/home/recents navigation buttons, a button to lock the screen, and the cleanup option from the Phone Manager app.

You’re also able to enable motion controls, including flipping the phone to mute alarms and phone calls, and double-tap to wake the display. One-handed UI allows you to swipe over on the navigation bar to shrink the display, and offers a similar feature for the keyboard. There are also options for voice control, headset controls, and even scheduling the phone to turn itself on and off at set times.

About that dual SIM tray

Dual SIM phones are great for international travelers and employees who don’t want to carry a personal phone and work phone. The Honor 7X is equipped with a dual SIM tray, and supports bands for most GSM carriers, but that’s not all it can do. The second SIM slot on the tray doubles as a microSD slot, meaning that you can expand the 32 or 64GB of onboard storage if you only need one SIM card.

Try out the pre-installed apps

For a lot of us, it’s easy to ignore the OEM-made apps that come pre-installed on new phones, but EMUI actually has a decent selection of useful apps. SwiftKey, the default keyboard, is one of the most popular keyboards on the Play Store. HiCare is also a great way to find manuals and additional support for the Honor 7X, and the Recorder app is a simple and convenient way to log audio memos.

In addition, Phone Manager is a centralized hub for quick optimizations, allowing you to free up RAM, turn on data saver mode, check battery performance, and even view phone calls and text messages from blocked numbers. You can also perform virus scans, and set up PIN security for certain apps.

The Optimize button performs multiple tasks at once to best improve your phone’s performance, while the percentage above it shows how well-optimized your Honor 7X is.

Adjust the display

With a great LCD panel and a new 18:9 aspect ratio, there’s a lot to customize with the Honor 7X’s display. Visit Settings > Display to begin tweaking the different options. Of course, the standard settings (wallpaper, view mode, text size, auto-rotate, etc.) all act as they would on any other phone, but EMUI 5.1 has some unique options that allow for a more personalized experience. Full screen display lets you choose which apps scale to fill the entire display, which is particularly useful with apps that haven’t yet been updated to support taller aspect ratios, though stretching can occur in certain apps — I’ve left Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp at 16:9 to avoid the elongated look.

Eye comfort is yet another implementation of the popular blue light filter that shifts the display to show warmer tones to help prevent irregular sleep cycles and other negative effects of prolonged viewing of blue light. You can switch it on or off at any time, schedule it to come on automatically, or adjust the intensity of the effect.

Most phones these days let you choose from a few different color profiles (standard, DCI-P3, RGB, etc.), but few give you the level of control that the Honor 7X offers with EMUI 5.1. By tapping color temperature in the display settings, you’re able to choose from default, warm, or cold presets, or fine-tune with an entire color wheel to get exactly the look you want.

Any others?

Got any other tips or tricks for fellow Honor 7X owners? Sound off in the comments below.

The Morning After: Tuesday, December 19th 2017

Good morning! This morning we wait with bated breath for a phone screen that will heal itself, test out Amazon’s adorable Echo Spot and kick off our year in review coverage.

Good riddance!
2017 year in review

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be looking back on the year that was, and sharing our hopes and predictions for 2018. Join us as we place our bets on AI, algorithms, social-media regulations, green tech, streaming services, robotics, self-driving cars and even space taxis. And, of course, since we’re Engadget, you can expect to hear about the upcoming products and games we’re most excited about.

Accidental.A new polymer could make phone-screen repairs a thing of the past

Researchers in Tokyo have discovered a new polymer that may actually heal itself, potentially leading the way to a future of self-healing phone screens. The research promises a unique hard glass-like polymer called polyether-thioureas, which can heal itself with only hand pressure. This makes it different to other materials that typically need high heat to repair cracks and breaks. The funny part? The special polymer was discovered by mistake by a graduate student, Yu Yanagisawa, who thought the material would become a type of glue.

This alarm clock’s tiny screen belies a big feature set.
Amazon Echo Spot review: as smart as it is cute

If you want Alexa in a device that looks like a cool alarm clock then the Echo Spot is it. Its touchscreen display is also pretty useful, as its adds additional context and visual information, and it’s great for video calls, too. It’s not perfect, especially when $20 more can get you the bigger Echo Show, which also has better audio skills. The Echo Spot is great, but we’d hold off a little for a price drop.

Our team’s choice cuts of long-form from the last 12 months.
The best Engadget stories of 2017

It’s been a long year, but beside all the phone reviews, social-media messes and the rest, Engadget has continued to tackle some of the more unusual parts of this tech world. Or just simply calling out political figures’ lack of science comprehension.

Nope, this wasn’t an official port.
There was a fake version of ‘Cuphead’ on the App Store

Early Monday, a fake version of Xbox indie hit Cuphead appeared on Apple’s iOS App Store, with a $4.99 price tag and, well, nothing to do with the actual game itself. Apple moved to take down the game before midday ET, but it demonstrates the struggle for both games developers and the iPhone maker when it comes to tackling fakes.

But wait, there’s more…

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