OPPO F7 is the latest Android phone to sport the notch

OPPO shows off the F7 ahead of its official launch in India on March 26.

ASUS demoed the ZenFone 5 late last month, and the main thing that stood out about the phone is the iPhone X-like notch. It was only a matter of time before other manufacturers offered their own take on the notch, and today OPPO is doing just that with the F7. The successor to the F5 is set to launch in India later this month, and as you can see from the teaser image, the phone will sport a cutout where the front camera is housed.

The OPPO F7 features a 6.2-inch display with a resolution of 2280×1080. We’ve seen 18:9 panels go mainstream over the course of the last year, and it looks like that’ll be the case with 19:9 panels this year, with the added pixels to accommodate the notch. The phone comes with an 89.09% screen-to-body ratio, and you also get gestures that allow you to navigate between apps.

Like previous devices, a key area of focus with the OPPO F7 is the selfie camera, with the phone featuring a 25MP camera at the front. OPPO introduced an AI-based Beauty Recognition feature late last year in the F5, and the F7 introduces AI Beauty 2.0 with “differentiated beautification touches for different people, e.g. male or female, in a group photo.”

The AI learns your preferences over time — based on edits you make to your photos — and automatically applies those effects for subsequent shots. The company is also touting additional improvements to the front shooter, including HDR and AR stickers.

The OPPO F7 is slated to make its debut in India on March 26, which is when we’ll know more about the specs and pricing. What do you guys make of the design of OPPO’s upcoming phone?

Should you get the Huawei Mate 10 Pro instead of the Galaxy Note 8?

Big phone showdown.

No matter how involved you are in the smartphone world, chances are you’ve heard of the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung’s Note line has become iconic for its large, beautiful displays, bleeding-edge technology, and the wondrous S Pen, and the Note 8 keeps this tradition alive and well.

We came away quite pleased with the Note 8 during our initial review, but since then, another big smartphone has entered the ring with the hopes of knocking the Note slightly off its pedestal. That phone is the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.

Huawei’s had a difficult time making a big impression on the U.S. market, but even so, there are still some consumers that are interested in ditching the Note 8 for the Mate 10 Pro.

When one Note 8 owner asked if they should make the jump, this is how some of our forum users responded.

Tsepz_GP
03-11-2018 12:30 PM

“

Definitely give it a go. 🙂

I had one for 2months for review and it was a lovely device. I had it along side my daily phone which is a Galaxy Note8 to.

The Mate10 Pro is a lot more compact and much more ergonomic than the Note8.

What was better in the Mate10 Pro:
– Fingerprint Scanner, it was faster and more accurate
– UI transitions, faster
– Battery Life, the Mate10 Pro runs…

Reply

Lepa79
03-11-2018 03:53 PM

“

Nothing out there and I mean NOTHING that can replace spen. I have no interest in any other phone except Note 9. It’s that simple.

Reply

Morty2264
03-11-2018 05:52 PM

“

I couldn’t agree more with you, OP: it’s always good to find out what else is out there! That’s why I like to try a different manufacturer each time I upgrade to a new phone!

I’ve heard good things about the Mate 10 Pro. I say go for it! You can always switch back to the Note 8 if you decide that it suits your needs better!

Reply

Gdwheel
03-11-2018 09:56 PM

“

The Mate 10 has very good hardware, but the software is a mess. I tried it twice and spent days trying to get things to work right (and I previously had the Mate 9 and other Honor devices) and many things just do not work right. The software is just bad.

Reply

With all that said, we’d now like to hear from you – Would you consider buying the Huawei Mate 10 Pro over the Galaxy Note 8?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Fitbit’s new development simulator makes it easier than ever to create apps for FitbitOS

With the Versa and an all-new development tool, Fibit’s finally getting serious about its smartwatch game.

While the Versa was the highlight of Fitbit’s recent press event in New York City, the company had another big announcement that should make FitbitOS’s future a lot brighter — a brand-new development simulator.

Fitbit’s been marketing FitbitOS (the operating system that powers the Versa and Ionic) as an easy-to-use platform for creating apps/watch faces, and to its credit, it’s already one of the simplest systems out there. Software for FitbitOS is built using JavaScript, CSS, and SVG, and according to Fitbit Developer Advocates, Jon Barlow and Frédéric Harper, the barrier of entry for developers to start creating apps is far lower compared to Android Wear, Apple’s watchOS, and even Tizen for Samsung’s Gear wearables.

There are currently 13,368 developers working on FitbitOS, and at the time of publication, more than 500 apps/clock faces have been created for it. That number’s smaller than what competing wearable platforms offer, but considering that the FitbitOS SDK just launched this past September, that’s considerable growth over less than six months.

13,368 developers have created 500+ apps/watch faces.

Here’s the thing though, as open as Fitbit’s wanted its SDK to be, there’s been one caveat holding some devs at bay. Up until now, it’s been required that you own a device powered by FitbitOS to run your apps to see what your hard work looks like as a finished product. Thanks to the new simulator, however, developers will be able to compile and run their apps and clock faces on a virtual Ionic or Versa.

In other words, it’s now possible to build and adequately test any apps you’re creating without the need for any hardware.

I had a chance to go hands-on with Fitbit’s simulator, and even for someone like myself with insufficient background in coding, using it with the Fitbit SDK was incredibly simple.

The process starts by going to studio.fitbit.com. After logging in with your Fitbit credentials, you’re able to begin a new project. Fitbit has some different templates to play around with, and after selecting the one you’d like (I went with the Digital Clock), you’re all set to get coding.

All of your main components are organized on the left-hand side by category, making it easy to see your primary JavaScript code, CSS workspace for changing up the look of your app, two tabs for the UI, and a Package tab that lets you request various permissions and choose which languages you want to be supported. You can delete and edit these workspaces as you’d like, and all of this is done right through your web browser.

Once you’ve got your app built and want to see how it looks like on the Ionic or Versa, this is where the simulator comes into play.

Fitbit’s offering the simulator as a free download for Windows and macOS, and once it’s downloaded and installed onto your machine, opening it will show a virtual Ionic. Once this is open, go back to Fitbit Studio, click “Select Device,” and the Ionic simulator should automatically pop up. Select it, click the Run button, and you’ll instantly see your creation pop up on the simulator.

You can control your app by interacting with the virtual Ionic’s touchscreen with your mouse, and you can even bring up a virtual representation of the Versa to see how your creation will look on it, too. If you make a few edits to your app after seeing it on the simulator, updating it with your current code is as easy as clicking the run button again.

Once you’re happy with the result, you can share your app with anyone via a private link or submit it to the Fitbit Gallery so it’ll be available for public download. Fitbit says all submitted apps are reviewed within 48 hours and are tested to ensure everything works the way it’s supposed to.

Jon Barlow was creating apps for Pebble before the Fitbit acquisition, and while the transition process was smooth on a technical level, something he said has also remained intact is the strong community support that made so many people fall in love with Pebble in the first place. Barlow says community members often help one another out with any problems or questions that arise through the forums and social media, and this human touch is something Fitbit’s quite proud of.

While none of this is directly impacting consumers, it’s a big step in the right direction to open up FitbitOS development for anyone that wants to test the SDK’s waters. It’s still awfully early days for the operating system, but with the simulator in place and the Versa being a more appealing option to general consumers, Fitbit’s in the best position possible to have a serious impact on the wearable market.

The Fitbit Ace is Fitbit’s first fitness tracker for kids and costs $99

Available in Q2 of this year.

The Fitbit Versa is Fitbit’s most prominent product in its spring lineup, but it’ll also be joined by the company’s first fitness tracker made specifically for kids — the Fitbit Ace.

The Fitbit Ace adopts the same general design found with the Fitbit Alta, meaning it’s got a small digital screen on the front that’s surrounded by a comfortable silicone band. The body is smaller compared to the Alta and is intended to grow with kids as they get bigger, and its waterproof design means you won’t have to worry about the Ace being worn in the shower.

You’ll find 5+ days of battery life on the Ace, and it accurately tracks steps, active minutes, and sleep. Kids will get reminders to get at least 250 steps each hour, and per the recommendation of the World Health Organization for kids between 7 and 17, the Ace will encourage users to get 60 active minutes each day.

Kids will get rewards and collectible badges for completing specific challenges, there are 10 different clock faces available to change up the look of the Ace, and it’s available in two fun colors: Electric Blue and Power Purple.

Young ones will be able to sync and view all of their data through the Fitbit app like adult users, but they’ll be grouped under new family accounts that Fitbit’s also launching alongside the Ace. Stats that kids view are altered (for example, they won’t see how many calories they’ve burned), parents can choose who their children can accept friend requests from, and you can enable a kid view on your main Fitbit app to see how much activity and sleep the little rascals are actually getting.

Why is Fitbit releasing the Ace in the first place? 1 out of 5 kids in the United States are obese and 2 out of 3 kids are inactive every single day. With the Ace, Fitbit wants to cut those numbers down.

Per Fitbit Co-Founder and CEO, James Park:

As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, it’s more important than ever to empower the entire family to embrace a healthy and more active lifestyle. It can be hard to start and stick to good habits, and we know from our community that network effects are key to getting and keeping people motivated. By bringing that experience to families, it can make healthier habits feel more achievable by making it fun and engaging. We are excited by the opportunity to enable parents to help set their kids on a path to building lifelong, healthy habits all while having fun together.

Pre-orders for the Fitbit Ace are live right now, and it’ll be made available at Amazon, Best Buy, Kohl’s, and Target in North America. Pricing is set at just $99.95.

See at Fitbit

Fitbit is adding menstrual cycle tracking for its female users

This could have a huge, positive impact on women’s health.

During Fitbit’s recent press event in New York City, the company talked extensively about the new products that it’ll be highlighting this coming spring. A lot of the focus was on its new Versa smartwatch and Ace fitness tracker, but Fitbit also took a good chunk of time to talk about new female health features it’s working on.

This spring, Fitbit will introduce menstrual cycle tracking for all Fitbit users that identify as female on their profile. Tracking will be available on-device for the Versa and Ionic, and right within the Fitbit app for everyone.

Female users will have the option of adding a new female health tile to their Dashboard in the Fitbit app, and this will enable them to track their cycles, see predictions of upcoming cycles, indicate any symptoms they’re experiencing, and see cycle-by-cycle metrics once enough data is recorded.

Tracking is available on the Versa, Ionic, and Fitbit app.

There are already a lot of free apps that help women track their feminine health, but Fitbit believes its offer will stand tall among the rest of the competition. By tapping into all of the other data you log with Fitbit (such as steps, calories burned, heart-rate, etc.), women will be able to see any links between biometrics and their menstruation. Add that together with the fact that Fitbit already has 25.4 million active users, and there’s great potential for this to have a huge impact on feminine medical research.

A Fitbit study recently revealed that 70% of women don’t know the average length of their cycle, and 80% of them aren’t aware of how many phases are in a cycle. By enabling its millions of female users to log all of this data, Fitbit says it’ll allow for research to be done in this field that hasn’t been obtainable until now.

As for the end user, Fitbit also notes that “having this knowledge helps women have better conversations with their doctor.” When asked about their cycle during a doctor visit, women can pull out their phone, show their physician all of their data, and more accurately address concerns and pick up on red flags.

None of this directly impacts me as a 20-year-old guy, but I honestly found this to be the most interesting of all Fitbit’s announcements. Having a better understanding of our body is critical to leading a healthy life, and that’s exactly what Fitbit’s hoping to achieve here.

If you’re a female, what do you think about this? Sound off in the comments below!

Fitbit Versa hands-on: Fitbit’s finally getting serious about smartwatches

The Versa ditches GPS and NFC for a $199 price tag.

I’ve been wearing a Fitbit Ionic since January, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite smartwatches. I like the way it looks, it keeps me motivated to stay active, and its feature-set works great for what I want in a wearable. Unfortunately, most everyone else doesn’t feel the same way.

Fitbit reported less-than-favorable sales for the Ionic during its latest earnings call, and along with this, promised investors it was working on a new “mass appeal” smartwatch that would draw in more customers. A couple leaks gave us a good idea as to what this gadget would bring to the table, but now we officially know what’s going on.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Fitbit Versa.

The Fitbit Versa is a very different-looking watch compared to the Ionic, and I think most people will agree that all of the changes here have been made for the better. Fitbit says the Versa is the “lightest metal smartwatch you can buy in the U.S.”, and while I never had a problem with the weight of my Ionic, the Versa is noticeably lighter.

You’ll find three buttons on the Versa (one on the left and two on the right), and the screen is taller and less wide compared to the Ionic. Fitbit’s going for a “squircle” design and one that’s not so masculine, and it hopes this will help put an impact on the smartwatch market that males currently dominate by 60%.

However, don’t let the Versa’s smaller size fool you. The watch still tracks your steps, calories burned, your quality of sleep, distance walked, heart-rate, has 50M of water-proofing, can store 300 songs for offline listening, offers 4+ days of battery life, and plenty more.

The Versa looks and feels great in person, and it’ll be available in three main colors — black, silver, and rose gold.

The Versa is lighter and more attractive compared to the Ionic.

Just like the Ionic, FitbitOS is what powers the Versa. However, you’ll find a lot more features and polish thanks to the 2.0 update that’s live on the Versa out of the box. The Ionic will receive a free update that brings all of the new software features found on the Versa, and there’s a lot of great stuff to be found.

First and foremost, Fitbit’s finally letting you reply to texts. You’ll be able to choose from five pre-made responses, and you can customize these to say whatever you’d like (up to 60 characters per response). The inability to interact with text messages is one of my biggest annoyances on the Ionic, so it’s great to see Fitbit adding it. This feature is currently limited to just Android users, but Fitbit notes it’s working on a way to bring it over to iOS, too.

FitbitOS 2.0 also ushers in a refined user interface. As it stands with FitbitOS 1.2, gestures work as follows:

• Swipe up to see notifications
• Swipe down to see music controls
• Hold left button to open Fitbit Pay

With FitbitOS 2.0, things now work like this:

• Swipe up to see health stats (steps, heart-rate, past workouts, personalized health tips, etc.)
• Swipe down to see notifications
• Hold left button to open quick settings, music controls, and Fitbit Pay

Fitbit Ionic (left) and Fitbit Versa (right)

Also new is the ability to save songs for offline listening on the Versa and Ionic using Deezer. Fitbit announced Deezer support back in December, and just like the Pandora app, you’ll need to pay for Deezer Premium+ in order to take advantage of this feature. If you’re not currently a Deezer subscriber and want to check it out, the streaming service is offering a free 3-month trial just for Fitbit users.

FitbitOS 2.0 address all of my complaints with the Ionic’s software.

Fitbit Coach is gaining the ability to rate your workouts and edit which ones are on your Versa/Ionic, the Today app will offer health insights and reminders to drink more water, take more steps to complete a challenge, etc., and the whole user experience of FitbitOS 2.0 feels smoother, more polished, and is what should have been on the Ionic from day one.

Pre-orders for the Fitbit Versa begin today for just $199.95. That’s an entire $100 less than the Ionic, and it should make it a much easier sell. Fitbit’s also selling a special edition Versa for $229.95 that comes with your choice of two fabric bands, and in the U.S., this is the only model that has NFC for Fitbit Pay. The base version of the Versa will come equipped with NFC in Asia and Europe, and Fitbit says this is due to greater adoption of the tech in those markets.

The Ionic will live on as Fitbit’s flagship smartwatch, but it really is commendable just how much the Versa brings to the table. Whether you’re already invested in Fitbit’s ecosystem or are simply looking to finally replace your Pebble Time, the Versa offers tremendous value at either of its two price tags.

See at Fitbit

London’s best orchestra is putting on a PlayStation concert

PlayStation, Classic FM and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are teaming up to bring new meaning to the term “gaming culture”. This May, PlayStation in Concert comes to London’s Royal Albert Hall, bringing to life music used in games from Original PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PS4, performed by the 80-strong Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir. Expect the sweeping soundscapes of The Last of Us, The Last Guardian, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and LittleBigPlanet, among others. And there will be a “spectacular” light show, too.

The show will be presented by Jessica Curry, one of the leading authorities in computer game music and presenter of High Score, the first series on British radio focused squarely on video game music. And to make the merging of old and new even sweeter, the show will see the Royal Albert Hall use EnCue for the first time – a real time programme note app that pushes content to the audience’s smartphones alongside the musical happenings on stage. The concert takes place on May 30th, with tickets starting at £20.

Source: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Apple approved a Mac app with a misbehaving crypto-mining feature

You’d think apps with crypto-miners could only be found in various shady venues on the internet. But that’s apparently not the case: a popular alternative for the Mac calendar called Calendar 2 recently gave people a way to unlock its Premium features by bundling in a Monero miner with a recent update. And, yes, it was available for download straight from iTunes — it’s just not clear whether it slipped past Apple’s watchful eye or if the tech titan really approved it. While you’re supposed to agree to switch the miner on in a dialog box (pictured below), at least one person is saying that it launched without his permission:

@SGgrc @QbixApps Calendar 2 for Mac (from the App Store) launched a cryptocurrency miner without my permission. Then it ate 200% CPU until I found it and killed it. I didn’t expect a miner infection from an App Store vendor. Wow. It runs the xmr-stak Monero miner.

— Fred Laxton (@fredonline) March 12, 2018

[Image credit: Ars Technica]

Gregory Magarshak, founder of Calendar 2’s developer Qbix, told Ars Technica that the miner’s rollout was affected by a couple of bugs. One caused it to run indefinitely, even if you didn’t agree to switch it on or even if you changed your settings. The other caused it to consume more resources than the 10 to 20 percent of computer power Qbix thought it would use. That increase on consumption means the miner could push host computers beyond their limits and use a lot more electricity than usual.

Qbix has decided to completely remove the miner from future versions of the app, telling Ars:

“We have decided to REMOVE the miner in the app. The next version will remove the option to get free features via mining. This is for three reasons:

1) The company which provided us the miner library did not disclose its source code, and it would take too long for them to fix the root cause of the CPU issue.

2) The rollout had a perfect storm of bugs which made it seem like our company *wanted* to mine crypto-currency without people’s permission, and that goes against our whole ethos and vision for Qbix.

3) My own personal feeling that Proof of Work has a dangerous set of incentives which can lead to electricity waste on a global scale we’ve never seen before. We don’t want to get sucked into this set of incentives, and hopefully our decision to ultimately remove the miner will set some sort of precedent for other apps as well.

Ultimately, even though we technically could have remedied the situation and continued on benefiting from the pretty large income such a miner generates, we took the above as a sign that we should get out of the “mining business” before we get sucked into the Proof of Work morass of incentives.”

Apple didn’t respond to Ars’ and our emails asking whether an app with a crypto miner is in violation of its guidelines. The version of Calendar 2 with a miner remained live in the App Store 24 hours after Ars reported it to the company. It’s been removed from iTunes shortly after the publication’s story went up either by Apple or the developer itself. Since Cupertino didn’t say whether Qbix violated its guidelines, though, there’s still a lot in the air. It’s unclear whether the tech giant would relist future versions of the app without a miner and whether iTunes truly welcomes applications that come with crypto miners with open arms.

Source: Ars Technica

Movies Anywhere includes your FandangoNOW flicks

Movies Anywhere has strengthened its position as the go-to movie library platform by welcoming FandangoNOW into the fold. This means that Movies Anywhere users can now access the films they’ve purchased via iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play and of course FandangoNOW, from one central location. It doesn’t matter where or how you bought the movie, just link the account to Movies Now and you’ll have access to it.

Movies Anywhere — formely Disney’s Movies Anywhere — provides access to nearly 7,500 digital movies, including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is available today (to celebrate the release the platform has added new Star Wars-themed profile-picture options). Last year Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros added their libraries to the platform, joining founding studios Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. Paramount and Lionsgate remain notably absent, but with FandangoNOW’s addition strengthening the platform’s digital movie ecosystem, it might not be too long before they jump on board, too.

Neato’s voice-activated Botvac arrives in the US for $800

Neato first unveiled the Botvac D7 Connected vacuum over six months ago and it has finally arrived in the US and Europe. The company’s flagship robotic vacuum packs a lot of tech, including Amazon Alexa and Google Home voice control, a floor planner that lets you set no-go zones (pet and children’s areas, for instance), and the LaserSmart system that can guide it in the dark. It supports IFTTT, Android Wear and Apple Watch, and using the iOS and Android Neato app, you can check coverage maps to see where it has cleaned.

Speaking of, Neato promises the “deepest clean you can get” with the Botvac D7 Connected, thanks to the “robust suction,” a turbo mode and new brush system. It also looks the part of a flagship robot vac with a new metallic finish that’s resistant to dings and scratches. The Botvac D7 Connected is now available in the US for $800, or £799 and €899 in the UK and Europe, respectively. That’s $100 less than iRobot’s flagship Roomba 980, which has similar features, by the way.