Exoskeleton for skiers gives your knees robotic boost

Skiing and snowboarding aren’t gentle on your body, especially if you’re taking on a challenging run or plan on a long day. Now, however, technology might ease your burden. Roam Robotics has unveiled an exoskeleton built expressly to reduce the burden on your knees. Sensors in the exoskeleton gauge your intent and use a mix of air bladders and fabric actuators to automatically tweak the torque in your knees. There’s a manual option, too, if you know what motion to expect.

Roam primarily pitches the exoskeleton as an assist for older skiiers, particularly those who might have muscle fatigue or knee problems. However, it also sees this as a bionic helper for downhill enthusiasts in their prime. It could help you carve turns that would normally be difficult, let you stay on the slopes for longer, or just reduce the soreness when you’re done.

This should be more affordable than the sort of exoskeletons used in medical care or at work, but it’ll still represent a significant investment. It’ll take $99 to reserve the exoskeleton ahead of its expected January 2019 release, and the yet-to-be-determined price is expected to sit between $2,000 and $2,500. Roam’s gear is for enthusiasts who want to make the most of every skiing season.

Source: Roam Robotics

How to Hide and Remove System Preference Panes in macOS

In macOS, the System Preferences app located in the Applications folder is where you can adjust various settings to customize your Mac. Most system preference panes are native to macOS and cannot be removed – although they can be hidden. In this article, we’ll show you how it’s done.

Occasionally, third-party apps installed on your Mac will insert their own preference panes in the bottom row of the System Preferences panel. Sometimes these panes will pointlessly stick around even after you’ve uninstalled the associated app. Thankfully though, they can be removed separately. To jump to our instructions on how to do that, click here.

How to Hide a Native System Preferences Pane

Launch System Preferences from your Mac’s Dock, from the Applications folder, or from the Apple menu bar ( -> System Preferences…).

From the System Preferences menu bar, select View -> Customize…. Alternatively, click and hold the Show All button located to the right of the forward and back arrow buttons at the top of the System Preferences window.

A blue checkbox will appear next to each pane in the System Preferences window. Uncheck the panes that you wish to hide.
Press Done.Tip: The View menu includes an option to change the preference pane arrangement from the default Organize by Categories to Organize Alphabetically, and vice versa.

How to Remove Third-Party Preference Panes

Launch System Preferences from your Mac’s Dock, from the Applications folder, or from the Apple menu bar ( -> System Preferences…).

Locate the third-party pane in the bottom row of System Preferences that you wish to remove.
Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the third-party pane and select the pop-up option Remove “[name of pane]” Preference Pane.

Enter your admin password if requested to do so.The above steps should work for most third-party preference panes, but if you want to manually delete a preference pane file from your Mac, here’s how.

How to Remove Preference Pane Files Manually

Open a Finder window.
From the Finder menu bar, click the Go menu, hold down the Option (⌥) key, and then select Library in the dropdown menu.
In the Library folder, open the PreferencePanes subfolder.

Identify the .prefPane file for the specific preference pane that you want to remove. (If you can’t see it, you may need to look in the global system library folder. To open the folder from the Finder menu bar, select Go -> Go to Folder…, type /Library/PreferencePanes and click the Go button.)
Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file and select Move to Trash.
Restart your Mac.
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Best Buy’s one-day Apple flash sale includes up to $400 off the MacBook Pro

If you have been hunting around for bargains on Apple hardware, then you’re likely well aware that serious discounts can be hard to find. That is true whether you’re in the market for a MacBook, an iMac, or an iPad. Right now, Best Buy is bucking that trend with a flash sale that ends today at 9:59 p.m. PT and includes a number of popular Apple hardware products.

There are a host of Apple products to choose from, and the discounts are incredibly deep on a few of them. Before you start shopping, make sure to check which MacBooks are the best.

MacBook Air – $300 off

Apple’s entry-level laptop normally starts at $1,000 but it’s now $300 off. That nets you a 128GB MacBook Air for $700, a 256GB version for $900, and the 512GB model for $1,250.

MacBook Pro 13-inch (non-Touch Bar) — $300-350 off

Next up is lowest-priced MacBook Pro, the 13-inch version without touch bar. This is the latest MacBook Pro, released in 2017 with 7th-gen Intel processors, which just happens to be the MacBook Pro we recommend given its lower price and larger battery capacity.

• Apple MacBook Pro 13 Space Gray, 8GB/128GB: $1,000 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 Silver, 8GB/128GB: $1,000 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 Space Gray, 8GB/256GB: $1,200 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 Silver, 8GB/256GB: $1,200 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 Space Gray, 8GB/512GB: $1,850 ($350 off)

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar — $300-400 off

If you’re looking for Apple’s premier notebook, the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, then you’re in luck there as well. It’s extremely rare to see a high-end MacBook with this large of a discount. Here are the configurations and color variants available:

• Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar Space Gray, 8GB/256GB: $1,500 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar Silver, 8GB/256GB: $1,500 ($300 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar Space Gray, 8GB/512GB: $1,650 ($350 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar Silver, 8GB/512GB: $1,650 ($350 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar Space Gray, 16GB/256GB: $2,050 ($350 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar Silver, 16GB/512GB: $2,000 ($400 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar Space Gray, 16GB/512GB: $2,400 ($400 off)
• Apple MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar Silver, 16GB/512GB: $2,400 ($400 off)

Apple iPad (fifth generation) — $80 off

Apple’s iPad has become a productivity workhorse for many people who just don’t need the power of a MacOS notebook, and Best Buy has you covered with the entry-level iPad models.

• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Space Gray, 32GB: $250 ($80 off)
• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Silver, 32GB: $250 ($80 off)
• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Gold, 32GB: $250 ($80 off)
• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Space Gray, 128GB: $350 ($80 off)
• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Silver, 128GB: $350 ($80 off)
• Apple iPad (fifth generation) Gold, 128GB: $350 ($80 off)

Apple iMac 21.5-inch — $225 off

Finally, if you’re looking for a desktop MacOS machine and don’t want to spend a ton of money, then you can save a cool $225 off a Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive configuration for $1,275.

There are likely a few reasons for these particular Apple products to be getting the unusual discount treatment. First, Apple just announced a new low-priced iPad aimed at education. Next, rumors abound of a new budget MacBook Air aimed at making Apple hardware more competitive against the plethora of low-priced Windows notebook. And finally, new MacBook Pros are likely right around the corner, relatively speaking.

Keep these future developments in mind before pulling out your credit card. If you’re okay with the current generation of MacBooks, iPads, and the entry-level iMac, then this Best Buy flash sale is something you’ll definitely want to check out.

We strive to help our readers find the best deals on quality products and services, and choose what we cover carefully and independently. If you find a better price for a product listed here, or want to suggest one of your own, email us at dealsteam@digitaltrends.com.Digital Trends may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

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Microsoft’s Windows 7 Meltdown update granted access to all data in memory

Security researcher Ulf Frisk reports that patches to address the Meltdown processor flaw on Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines created a far greater vulnerability. He claims the new flaw allows any process to read everything stored in memory “at gigabytes per second.” It also allows processes to write to arbitrary memory without “fancy exploits.” 

“Windows 7 already did the hard work of mapping in the required memory into every running process,” Frisk states. “Exploitation was just a matter of read and write to already mapped in-process virtual memory. No fancy APIs or system calls required — just standard read and write!” 

Because of the amount of data stored in memory is rather large and complex, Windows PCs track data using addresses listed on virtual and physical “maps” or “pages.”  The reported problem resides with a four-level in-memory page table hierarchy the processor’s Memory Management Unit uses to translate the virtual addresses of data into physical addresses stored in the system memory. 

According to Frisk, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have a self-referencing entry on Page Map Level 4 (PML4) in virtual memory with a fixed address. This address is only made available to the operating system’s lowest, most secure level: The kernel. Only processes with a “supervisor” permission have access to this address and the data on this table. 

But Microsoft’s Meltdown patches released at the beginning of 2018 set the permission to “user.” That means all processes and applications can access all data stored in memory, even data only meant to be used by the operating system. 

“Once read/write access has been gained to the page tables it will be trivially easy to gain access to the complete physical memory, unless it is additionally protected by Extended Page Tables (EPTs) used for Virtualization,” Frisk writes. “All one has to do is to write their own Page Table Entries (PTEs) into the page tables to access arbitrary physical memory.” 

To prove this discovery, Frisk added a technique to exploit the vulnerability — a memory acquisition device — in the PCLeech direct memory access toolkit. But if you’re trying to test the vulnerability on a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 machine updated on March Patch Tuesday, you’re out of luck. Microsoft switched the PML4 permission back to “supervisor” as part of the company’s blanket of security fixes for the month. 

The memory problem surfaced after Microsoft distributed its Meltdown and Spectre security fixes in the January Patch Tuesday update. Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines with the February Patch Tuesday updates are also vulnerable. Devices with Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 are not vulnerable. 

That said, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 devices owners are encouraged to update their machines with the most recent patches distributed in March. But Frisk notes that he discovered the vulnerability after Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday update, and has not been able to “correlate the vulnerability to known CVEs or other known issues.” 

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Best Lenovo laptops

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Picking the best Lenovo laptop is difficult because whichever one you choose, it won’t be perfect for everyone. With brands as unique and beloved as ThinkPad and Yoga, you’ve got a lot of choices on your hands. Do you go with the one that has the best internal hardware, the nicest display, the greatest portability? What about the best bang for your buck?

These might not make our list for the best laptops you can buy in general, but these are the best ones that Lenovo has for sale.

The best

Yoga 720 ($980)

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Modern laptops come in all sorts of guises, but one of the most popular and versatile is the 2-in-1. Being able to convert your powerful, portable computer into an even more portable tablet is a great feature and the Lenovo Yoga 720 is a perfect example of that. With a starting price of $990 (on sale at the time of writing at $750) it offers credible competition to some of the best laptops out there, while giving you that additional functionality.

Under the hood it sports seventh and eighth-generation Intel hardware, with a Core i5-8250U, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD at the entry level, up to a Core i7-8550U, 16GB of RAM and a terabyte of PCIexpress SSD storage. You are limited to Intel HD graphics, so although there is an option for a 4K display, we probably wouldn’t recommend it — even if we weren’t huge fans of the 1080p option either.

Battery life is the biggest let-down of this 2-in-1, but overall it’s still a solid system and thanks to aggressively competitive pricing, it offers a lot of bang for your buck at that near-premium mid-range of the market.

Buy one from:

Lenovo Amazon

The rest

Yoga 920 ($1,180+)

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The Yoga 920 is an upgrade over our previously beloved Yoga 910 and it’s everything we could have hoped for. It packs the latest generation of Intel hardware with up to 16GB of memory, the option of a 1080p or 4K display, and still features that versatile and iconic watchband hinge.

Its design is also lighter than its predecessor — and battery life is excellent, especially for lighter tasks. That makes this a highly portable 2-in-1. It’s a little expensive compared to some of the alternatives from other companies, but the quality you get for your money makes it well worth it.

Just don’t expect to do much gaming on it. The Yoga 920 has great hardware, but the Intel HD 620 graphics — especially on a 4K display — won’t get you far unless you only play low-level indie games.

Buy one from:

Lenovo Amazon

Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2018 ($1,520+)

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The ThinkPad range is aimed at a different type of user than some of Lenovo’s other laptops, in that it doesn’t look or feel like a completely modern device — and that’s a good thing. With refined, classic styling, plenty of ports and a focus on function over form, the latest generation of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon delivers stellar performance in a robust and professional package.

It is a little on the expensive side when compared to other brands, but Lenovo hasn’t scrimped on its design. Sporting Intel’s latest generation Core CPUs up to an i7-8650U, up to 16GB of memory, and a TB of high-speed PCIe storage, you aren’t going to want for power if you’re willing to pay for it. The laptop itself is also exceedingly well built meaning it will handle the odd bump and bang when taken on long trips.

The on-board graphics certainly won’t offer much for those wanting to game at the end of the day and battery life is a little lacking for more intensive tasks, but if you want a snappy laptop that doesn’t cry out for attention, this ThinkPad is hard to beat.

Buy one now from:

Lenovo Amazon

Thinkpad T480 ($1,050+)

The ThinkPad T-series is not likely to ever usurp the gorgeous laptops of the world as a mainstream favorite, that doesn’t mean it’s not a fantastic line. It has always been a firm favorite of ours and the latest T480 is no exception. With a clean, understated exterior and great hardware and battery life under the hood, what’s not to like?

The new T480 ups the ante of its predecessors with the option of a discrete Nvidia MX 150 graphics chip, which can handle entry level gaming better than integrated Intel graphics. With a Core i7 CPU from Intel’s eighth-generation and up to 24GB of memory, there aren’t many tasks you’ll throw at this laptop that it can’t handle.

Like the rest of the ThinkPad range, the T480 is also a tough and durable laptop, so if you plan on lugging it around with you on lengthy trips, it can handle the odd knock and wear.

It’s not going to win any style awards, but when it comes to functional, powerful notebooks, the $1,050 ThinkPad T480 is one of Lenovo’s best.

Buy one from:

Lenovo Amazon

Ideapad Flex 5 ($690)

We’ve enjoyed previous generations of Lenovo’s Flex range of laptops, so it’s been a pleasure to see the new Flex 5 continue that trend of a premium feel in a high-entry level package. Starting just under $700, you get a surprising amount for your money. All options include an eighth-generation CPU and you can add as much as 16GB of memory alongside a 4K display if that’s what you’re after.

All models feature the functional, 360-degree hinge for tent and tablet modes and Lenovo has gone out of its way to enhance the audio so the Flex 5 is great for media viewing.

Battery life isn’t endless, especially with a 4K panel, so this isn’t a device you’ll want to use away from a power socket for too long. Meanwhile, cheaper models with Intel HD graphics aren’t going to offer much gaming chops — though the optional GeForce 940MX is a little more capable if you need it.

The Flex isn’t as powerful or as impressive as other entries on this list, but at the price you pay, you get a lot of laptop for it.

Buy one now from:

Lenovo Amazon

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The first Wear OS Android P developer preview is finally here

Google is bringing Android P to the wearable market. The company has announced the first developer preview of Android P for Wear OS, which adds a number of new features — including a dark theme, limited background activity, and even the deactivation of radios when the watch detects that it’s not being worn.

The developer preview was first announced in a blog post, which highlighted the biggest visual change to come to the wearable operating system — dark mode. Dark mode has been available in Wear OS since the beginning of the year, and basically brings a black background to the notification stream and launcher. Now, the dark mode will be the default theme for Wear OS, and Google says that will help improve glanceability for the operating system.

A number of Android P features are also coming to Wear OS. For example, as mentioned, the operating system will limit background activity, something that should help improve a device’s battery life. Improved battery seems to be a theme for the Wear OS developer preview — Wear OS will also now turn off the bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular radios when the watch isn’t being worn. Wear OS will change another way that a device handles radios too — a device will no longer automatically connect to Wi-Fi when they disconnect from Bluetooth unless an app specifically needs a high-bandwidth network.

According to Google’s blog post, the features will roll out to users gradually. You can download the Developer Preview manually for the Huawei Watch 2 Sport and Huawei Watch 2 Classic now, and you will want to make sure that you download the right file for your region. Of course, you also want to make sure you know what you’re doing here — Android developer previews are meant for developers, not for consumers who simply want the latest version of Android. If you are a consumer, we recommend waiting until Android P rolls out officially, which we expect to happen later this year.

The full Android P developer preview for phones has also been available for a few weeks now. The new version of the Android operating system brings things like improved notifications and support for display cutouts.

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Playing ‘Fortnite’ on a phone makes me feel old

Playing Fortnite on a phone makes me feel old.

As you may or may not have heard, Fortnite, Epic Games’ free-to-play Battle Royale shooter, has become the most talked-about game in and, more importantly, outside of enthusiast gaming circles. Drake plays it. A college basketball player compared it to upsetting a top-ranked team in the NCAA tournament. It’s … getting around. Now that Fortnite is coming to iOS and Android, one can (and probably should) assume the mobile version will become the definitive Fortnite experience.

Having spent a little time with the iOS beta, I have zero interest in playing Fortnite on a phone.

Having spent a little time with the iOS beta, I have zero interest in playing Fortnite on a phone. It looks great and runs well, but it relies on a familiar control scheme that’s kept shooters and other action-heavy games from making waves on phones. The controls, which include digital joysticks and buttons, make you sift through menus on the fly using the same vague tap-and-drags that controls your aiming and shooting. I think it’s imprecise and frustrating, and while I admire the effort Epic put into making the game run on mobile, I’ll always consider the PC and console versions the “real” game.

Here’s the thing: I know I’m wrong. I know that many, many players do not have my hang-ups. I’ve been playing with people who work Fortnite on a phone with skill and accuracy that far exceed what I can do with a controller. (Fun fact: I’m not great at Fortnite). The difference far exceeds the skill gap between us. They show a technical fluency that I would argue the game’s control scheme prevents. It’s not just that they are better at Fortnite on iOS, or even that they’re better at playing games on a phone than I am. They can act on instinct, and I cannot.

I’m 31. I wasn’t born with a phone in my hand, and it is not an extension of being the way it is for those who grew up swiping and tapping. That’s the real problem.

I know this because I’ve seen this divide before. My parents tried to play video games with me as a kid, but they never felt comfortable with an NES or SNES gamepad. Even if they studied the manual and learned every special move in my Street Fighter II strategy guide, I was faster and understood the game better. They’d always lose.

Now I am fumbling my way through Fortnite against phone-native kids, teens, and neurologically flexible adults. I grew up with a controller in my hands, but didn’t have a smartphone until I was, biologically speaking, an adult. I didn’t have to learn a controller, because it just made sense. When I bought my first iPhone in 2008, I had to look up guides on how to change settings. I had to learn, slowly and deliberately, how to use it.

Playing Fortnite on a phone has forced me to accept I am going to die someday.

Everyone reaches a point in life where new technology feels more difficult to learn. For me, Snapchat was the first, startling example. I saw people using it. I was interested, but I hated the UI and didn’t see the value in integrating it into my life. “If I make the time to take a picture, I want to keep it,” I once declared out loud, though to who, if anyone, I can’t remember. Snapchat didn’t enhance my life, but for a younger generation of people raised on the social web, where all content is disposable, Snapchat (and Instagram Stories) made immediate sense.

The distinction between phone-native Fortnite players and my own fumbling skill is smaller, I’d like to think. I know how to play the game on a basic level. There’s no element of it that completely eludes me. It just doesn’t feel natural. That may be, in part, because Fortnite was made for PC and consoles first. I played it there first, using controls that I already knew and loved.

Despite that, I still enjoyed the iOS version of Fortnite. While it may not show the same shimmer and detail as you’d see on a PS4 Pro, the iOS edition doesn’t cut any corners. It looks like Fortnite and, for the players who can use the controls, plays just as well. The mobile game even supports cross-play with PC, PS4, and Xbox One. I would never be able to keep up players on those devices, but some of the people I played with seemed like they could. (Fortunately for me, Epic said Bluetooth gamepad support should be added to the mobile game later this year).

Playing Fortnite on a phone forced me to accept I am going to die someday. More importantly, it brought into stark relief a concept that critics often wrestle with but must often leave out of our analyses of games, phones, and other technology. Our understanding of each device we touch is informed by the devices that touched us. Fortnite is not formative for me, but it will be for millions of people, and that’s going to change the way we play.

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ASRock’s four add-in graphics cards are based on AMD’s Radeon RX 500 Series

ASRock is officially joining the graphics card market with the introduction of its Phantom Gaming series. They are based on AMD’s previous-generation Radeon RX 500 Series “Polaris” cards, and not the more recent Radeon RX Vega models based on AMD’s latest “Vega” GPU design. Overall, there are currently four models in the entire Phantom Gaming family ranging from the RX 550 to the RX 580. 

Have a look: 

 

RX580 8G OC 

RX570 8G OC 

RX560 2G 

RX550 2G 

Cores: 

2,304 

2,048 

896 

512 

Base speed: 

1,380MHz 

1,280MHz 

1,149MHz 

1,100MHz 

Overclocked: 

1,435MHz 

1,331MHz 

1,194MHz 

1,144MHz 

Silent mode: 

1,324MHz 

1,228MHz 

1,103MHz 

1.056MHz 

Memory: 

8GB GDDR5 

8GB GDDR5 

2GB GDDR5 

2GB GDDR5 

Memory speed: 

8,320MHz (OC)
8,000MHz (Normal)
7,680MHz (Silent) 

7,280MHz (OC)
7,000MHz (Normal)
6,720MHz (Silent) 

6,240MHz (OC)
6,000MHZ (Normal)
5,760MHz (Silent) 

6,240MHz (OC)
6,000MHz (Normal)
5,760MHz (Silent) 

Memory bus: 

256-bit 

256-bit 

128-bit 

128-bit 

Ports: 

3x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DVI-D 

3x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DVI-D 

1x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DVI-D 

1x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DVI-D 

Power connector: 

1x 8-pin 

1x 8-pin 

n/a 

n/a 

Size (inches): 

10.97 x 4.99 x 1.65 

8.47 x 5.07 x 1.71 

6.67 x 5.15 x 1.65 

6.67 x 5.15 x 1.65 

 The RX 580 and RX 570 models rely on two cooling fans whereas the RX 560 and RX 550 models only have one. Regardless of the model, ASRock says the fans feature a double ball bearing design for a smoother spin and a lifespan between 50,000 and 100,000 hours. ASRock claims this design increases the fan lifespan by up to 40 percent compared to your typical blower design. 

Other ingredients thrown into the new cards include a “premium” copper base, nano thermal paste, and an anodized aluminum heatsink. The heat pipes feature a composite design combining powder sintered and grooved interfaces together to increase cooling capacity by up to 30 percent. 

Included with all four cards is the company’s Phantom Gaming Tweak utility. With this tool, gamers can tweak the fan speeds, the core clocks, memory frequency, and more. This is also where gamers switch between the three pre-set modes listed in the chart. According to the company, the utility provides enough voltage configure options to push the cards to their limits. But gamers can also tweak the cards using AMD’s Radeon Wattman tool baked into the Radeon Settings software. 

“ASRock finally expand into the graphics card field,” ASRock CEO LL Shiu said in a statement. “We are happy and proud to team up with AMD, our strong and reliable partner, and of course we look forward to bringing out more interesting and competitive products in future.” 

ASRock began teasing its eventual entry into the graphics card market last week with a video uploaded to YouTube hinting to its Phantom Gaming brand. Rumors began circulating in early March stating that ASRock would enter the GPU market and mainly focus on AMD-based products. But the company’s motives may not be entirely gaming focused given the momentum of cryptocurrency mining and the fast sales of supporting graphics cards. 

The Phantom Gaming series is expected to hit shelves in April for unknown prices. 

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A rebooted Palm smartphone could launch on Verizon later this year

We live in the era of the reboot. Forget movie reboots — we’re talking about phone reboots. BlackBerry’s still launching phones with hardware keyboards, Nokia is back from the dead, and now we may be treated to a reboot of the Palm.

The report comes from Android Police, which notes that a new Palm device may launch on Verizon in the second half of this year. The rumor, which cites an anonymous source, echoes rumors that were sparked last year when a TCL executive confirmed that the company wanted to launch a Palm device in 2018.

Apart from the fact that a Palm device may launch on Verizon later this year, we don’t really know all that much about the project. The report notes that the phone will likely run Android, and we know it will be launched by Chinese brand TCL, which bought the Palm brand in 2015. It will be interesting, though not surprising, to see an Android-powered TCL phone. Not surprising because recent BlackBerry phones have also featured the Android operating system, but interesting because Palm may want to load on some of its own software tweaks.

TCL seems to be building a reputation as the company that revives old smartphone brands, despite otherwise being known for its TVs. TCL is also the company behind the recent BlackBerry revival. While it is popular, the Palm brand doesn’t necessarily hold as much weight as BlackBerry or Nokia, so it will be interesting to see how the company can effectively market a new Palm device. Of course, Nokia does seem to have done pretty well for itself so far — the flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco is well-designed and features some pretty nice flagship specs, like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of RAM.

It does make sense that Verizon would be the company to carry the newly revived Palm. Verizon intended to carry the Palm Pre 3, a phone that was canceled by HP, Palm’s then-buyer, before the phone could be launched in the U.S.

While we don’t know all that much about the new Palm just yet, we’ll update this article when we find out more.

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Best Xiaomi Phones in 2018

The manufacturer you may have rarely heard of makes some of the best devices available today.

Xiaomi is a smartphone manufacturer that is growing in stature day-by-day, despite having limited presence outside of Asia. The company is now the fifth-largest smartphone vendor globally, a considerable achievement seeing as how the brand started selling phones outside China just three years ago.

Impressive, certainly, and it seems Xiaomi is set to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the higher reaches of the smartphone market. The company overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone brand in India late last year, and is slowly making its way to European markets.

While so many may have heard the name, the phones are still relatively alien to many in the West. Xiaomi has a reputation for building devices that are an extremely good value without cutting corners. If you’re interested in picking up a Xiaomi phone or just interested in the brand, these are the phones you’ll need to know about.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

Released March 2018: The Mi Mix 2S is Xiaomi’s first flagship of 2018. The phone shares the same design aesthetic as last year’s Mi Mix 2, but has key upgrades both on the hardware and software fronts. The Mi Mix 2S is powered by Qualcomm’s latest 10nm Snapdragon 845 chipset, and comes with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, and global LTE bands.

There’s also a variant with 6GB of RAM and storage options of 64GB and 128GB, but these models don’t offer global LTE connectivity. The highlight of the Mi Mix 2S is the dual camera arrangement at the back, with the phone featuring two 12MP imaging sensors. The primary 12MP camera is a Sony IMX 363 sensor and offers 1.4-micron pixels, whereas the secondary sensor is made by Samsung and is used as a telephoto lens.

The primary camera may just be the best Xiaomi has offered in a phone to date, and DxOMark give it a score of 97, just a few points shy of the Pixel 2 XL. The phone holds its own in daylight conditions, but it’s in low-light shooting modes where the camera truly shines. A lot of that has to do with the new AI-assisted features baked into the camera, giving it the ability to pick out the best shooting mode based on the lighting conditions.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S preview: Great hardware and vastly improved software

The AI features also extend to portrait mode, giving you the ability to set the intensity of the background blur and even animate the background bokeh. On the software side of things, the Mi Mix 2S is the first Xiaomi phone to come with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. It offers the latest iteration of MIUI — MIUI 9.5 — and the interface as a whole feels much more polished.

With MIUI 9.5, you can also finally restore settings and apps from a previous Android phone or using your Google account. Previously, you were limited to choosing restore options from Xiaomi’s own Mi Cloud account — and the latest move makes MIUI a more enticing option to customers in Western markets.

The phone will go on sale in China from the first week of April, with the base model retailing for the equivalent of $540. The variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will end up costing $640, and as of now, there’s no mention of availability outside Xiaomi’s home market. But with the brand looking to aggressively expand in global markets, the Mi Mix 2S should be making its way outside of China in the coming months.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

Released February 2018: Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi Note 5 Pro in India back in February, and it’s safe to say that the device is the best budget phone in the country by some margin. A lot of what makes the Redmi Note 5 Pro so great comes down to the hardware: it is the first phone in the world to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636, and the performance is staggering.

The Snapdragon 636 itself is an underclocked version of the Snapdragon 660, which is seen on devices that cost three times as much as the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Other specs include up to 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, along with a dual camera setup at the back. That camera is also interesting, as it is one of the best available in the budget segment right now.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro review: King of the hill

For the equivalent of $220, there really isn’t a device that offers quite as much as the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The phone is available via weekly flash sales in India, with the base variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage available for ₹13,999 ($214). The variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage retails for ₹16,999 ($260).

Considering what’s on offer with the device, the Redmi Note 5 Pro is an absolute steal. Xiaomi is the king of the budget segment, and strong sales of the Redmi Note 4 last year allowed the brand to overtake Samsung. With the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer is set to solidify its position in India.

See at Flipkart

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

Released October 2017: Xiaomi made the smartphone segment stand up and take notice with the Mi Mix in 2016. The device’s ultra-thin bezels combined with the ceramic construction made it an enticing option for enthusiasts, but with availability limited primarily to Asian markets, it wasn’t the easiest phone to get a hold of. All that’s changed with the Mi Mix 2: the phone has the same basic design as the Mi Mix, but with a smaller 5.99-inch screen and a more rounded design that makes it much more accessible.

And with Xiaomi offering the device in over 30 markets, it is widely available for purchase. One of the highlights of the Mi Mix 2 is global LTE connectivity, with the phone featuring 42 bands in total — the most of any phone sold today, according to Xiaomi. Then there’s that evocative bezel-less design, which sees three edges of the screen sporting razor-thin margins.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 review: Astounding, audacious, accessible

Like the first-gen Mi Mix, the front camera has been moved to the bottom bar, which has also shrunk. The camera module itself is smaller, and has been blacked out to make it blend into the frame, creating a seamless look at the front. Xiaomi has retained the ceramic back, but switched to an aluminum mid-frame. There is a version with an all-ceramic chassis, but that particular model is exclusive to China and sold in limited numbers.

The Mi Mix 2 is no slouch either, sporting a Snapdragon 835, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 64GB/128GB/256GB of internal storage, 12MP camera, 5MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, and a 3400mAh battery. One of the main drawbacks of last year’s Mi Mix was the primary camera, but this time around Xiaomi addressed the issue by using the same 12MP imaging sensor as the one on the Mi 6. As a result, images taken with the Mi Mix 2 look incredible.

With the Mi Mix 2, Xiaomi has made its bezel-less design accessible to a more mainstream audience. The device is now on sale in a handful of Asian markets, including India, where the model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage is available for ₹32,999 ($5.50). Xiaomi also kicked off sales in Europe, starting with the Spanish market.

If you’re looking to pick up the phone from a country where it isn’t officially available, then you’ll have to go through a reseller like GearBest.

See at GearBest

Xiaomi Mi 6

Released April 2017: The Mi 6 became the first sub-$500 phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 835. It also has the distinction of being the first Xiaomi device to ditch the 3.5mm jack. The highlight of the phone is the dual-camera setup at the back, which includes a standard 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, along with a 12MP telephoto lens that delivers 2x lossless zoom.

The design has picked up a considerable upgrade from last year’s Mi 5, with Xiaomi offering a chassis with rounded corners and two panes of glass sandwiched by a stainless steel frame. As you’d imagine from a Xiaomi flagship, the Mi 6 has beefy specs in the form of a 2.45GHz Snapdragon 835, 5.15-inch Full HD display, 6GB of RAM, 64GB/128GB internal memory, 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and USB-C.

Xiaomi Mi 6 review: A new beginning

The removal of the 3.5mm jack allowed Xiaomi to fit in a larger 3,350mAh battery — 15% larger than the battery in the Mi 5 — while also making the device splash-resistant. The Mi 6 is also offered in a variety of color options, as well as a limited edition ceramic version and a silver variant with a mirror finish.

The phone retails for the equivalent of $420 in China, and with availability limited to a few Asian markets, you’ll have to go through a Chinese site to get your hands on a device if you’re looking to use it in other markets. Just be aware that it doesn’t have global LTE bands, unlike the Mi Mix 2. You get bands 1/3/5/7/838/39/40/41, but if you’re in a market where there’s LTE connectivity on those bands, the Mi 6 is a great option for under $500.

See at GearBest

Xiaomi Mi A1

Released October 2017: If the Mi Mix 2 is innovative for its hardware, the Mi A1 is groundbreaking for its software. The phone is the first from Xiaomi to not run MIUI, with the Chinese manufacturer collaborating with Google on the Android One platform. As a result, you get a device with Xiaomi’s design language and Google’s software vision. The fact that the device costs under $250 is the icing on the cake.

The Mi A1 has a premium design with antenna bands running along the top and bottom of the phone at the back, and the aluminum body gives it an upmarket look. The phone also has dual 12MP rear cameras, with the same configuration as the Mi 6: a wide-angle lens augmented by a telephoto lens for 2x optical zoom.

The rest of the specs include a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 625, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, microSD slot, 5MP front shooter, 3.5mm jack, and a 3080mAh battery that charges over USB-C.

Xiaomi Mi A1 review: Best of both worlds

In the two months the Mi A1 has been on sale, Xiaomi has rolled out two updates, delivering the latest security patch. The phone is set to receive the Android 8.0 Oreo update before the end of the year, and is slated to be in the first wave of devices to pick up the Android P update once it becomes available next year.

The Mi A1 is widely available, with Xiaomi kicking off sales in all markets it currently has a presence. In India, the device is sold on Flipkart for ₹14,999 ($235).

See at Flipkart

Xiaomi Redmi 5A

Released November 2017: The Redmi 5A has the distinction of being the most affordable Xiaomi handset to date, with the phone making its debut in India for under $100. Xiaomi saw a lot of success with the Redmi 4A, and it didn’t alter the formula too much with the Redmi 5A: you get the same basic hardware, but the lower price means the phone will be accessible to a wider audience.

The Redmi 5A is aimed at the Indian market, where the base variant with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage is on sale for just ₹4,999 ($77). That’s ₹1,000 ($15) less than the Redmi 4A, and while that price is limited to the first five million units, Xiaomi’s decision to sell the device for under ₹5,000 should give the brand an added boost when it comes to sales figures.

Specs of the Redmi 5A include a 5.0-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 425, 2GB/3GB of RAM, 16GB/32GB of internal storage, dedicated microSD slot along with two SIM card slots, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front shooter, and a 3000mAh battery. On the software front, the phone runs MIUI 9 out of the box.

The Redmi 5A is all about delivering incredible value in the entry-level segment, and it manages to do that with aplomb.

See at Flipkart

Xiaomi Mi Max 2

Released May 2017: The Mi Max turned out to be a surprise hit for Xiaomi last year, so the company rolled out an updated variant with a better design and upgraded internals. The large 6.44-inch screen combined with a massive battery makes the Mi Max 2 a multimedia powerhouse.

With the latest iteration, Xiaomi switched to a unibody design with antenna lines at the back, and made the edges rounded to make it easier to hold the device. The phone isn’t made for one-handed usage, but it is a far sight better to look at and use when seen next to the Mi Max.

Xiaomi Mi Max 2 review: Bigger is better

The Mi Max 2 features a 6.44-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 625, 4GB of RAM, 64GB/128GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 12MP camera, 5MP front camera, and a huge 5300mAh battery that is designed to provide at least two days’ worth of usage from a full charge.

The sheer size of the Mi Max 2 makes it a niche device, but if you’re in the market for a phone with a large screen and class-leading battery life, there isn’t a better device available today.

See at Flipkart

Updated March 2018: Added the Mi Mix 2S and the Redmi Note 5 Pro.