HTC will reveal its next flagship on May 23rd

In an interesting twist on the clichéd device tease, HTC has preempted an iFixit-style teardown by showing the back and guts of the phone it’s about to release. It looks like the U12 (or U12+) smartphone will arrive on May 23rd, judging by the parts and shape. According to several leaks, it will sport dual rear 12- and 16-megapixel cameras, probably to allow for zooming with no detail loss, along with dual 8-megapixel front cameras.

Coming Soon. A phone that is more than the sum of its specs. pic.twitter.com/m2skJSK0qt

— HTC (@htc) May 3, 2018

You’re also likely to see a state-of-the-art Snapdragon 845 chip, 6-inch QHD+ screen, 6GB of RAM max, a 3,420 mAh battery, IP68 water resistance and the same squeeze options found on the U11 and U11+ models. Slow software updates might be a thing of the past, as HTC reportedly plans to offer Google’s Project Treble to fast-track them.

In a tweet, HTC called it “a phone that is more than the sum of its specs.” Okay, so it did lapse into cliché there, but either way, we’ll be on hand when it arrives on May 23rd to see if it lives up to the hyperbole.

AMD, Nvidia graphics could double in performance with new ‘stacked’ tech

A new technology introduced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) could boost the power of graphics cards by Nvidia and AMD without making them physically larger. The technology is called wafer-on-wafer, and mimics 3D NAND memory technology used in modern solid-state drives by stacking layers vertically rather than spreading the hardware horizontally across the printed circuit board, which would require additional physical space. 

So what’s a wafer? Unlike your favorite snack, it’s a thin slice of polished semiconductor material that serves as the foundation for a crisscross of layered copper wires that convey electricity, and the transistors that are the heart of the processor. The wafer and mounted components are cut by a diamond saw into single chips and placed into the physical processor package you see when you break open the desktop. 

Right now, graphics chips produced by Nvidia and AMD rely on a single wafer. But TSMC, the largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry on the planet, discovered a way to stack two wafers in a single package. The upper wafer is flipped over onto the lower wafer, and then both are bonded together. Moreover, the upper wafer contains the in/out connection piercings (aka thru-silicon vias), thus the duo is packaged using flip-chip technology. 

According to TSMC partner Cadence, the technology could see two sets of wafers connecting to each other in a cube-shaped package using what’s called an interposer, an electrical interface that routes one connection to another. More than two wafers could be stacked vertically as well, with all but one wafer sporting the in/out thru-silicon vias connections. 

While this is a lot of tech talk, it’s basically describing how graphics chips can be scaled vertically, not horizontally, using TSMC’s technique. Not only can you cram more cores into a single graphics chip, the communication between each wafer would be extremely quick.

Thus, instead of tweaking an architecture and rebranding the product as a new family, manufacturers could potentially stack two or more current GPUs on a single card as a product refresh. The operating system would detect it as a single card, and not as a multi-GPU configuration. 

With 3D NAND, memory cells are stacked vertically and connected together via makeshift data elevators. This method enables manufacturers to provide additional storage capacity while staying within the same physical constraints. This design is faster, too, given the data travels up and down the memory tower rather than hunting down its destination using horizontal “city streets.” 

The problem with stacking processor wafers may be in the overall manufacturing yields. One of two wafers could pass, but because the other wafer is bad, both would be discarded. This method could prove to be too costly on low-yield products and would need to be used on production nodes with high manufacturing yields, like TSMC’s 16nm process technology. 

TSMC introduced its wafer-on-wafer technique during its symposium in Santa Clara, California. The company also revealed a partnership with Cadence for 5nm and 7nm+ process technology for high-performance and advanced mobile computing. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best graphics cards
• How to overclock your GPU
• Look out AMD and Nvidia, Intel could get into the graphics card game by 2020
• Intel finally dishes out stick-shaped Optane storage SSDs for mainstream PCs
• Support for external graphics on MacOS finally arrives, but on select devices

Everything you need to know about the Windows 10 April 2018 Update

The latest feature update for Windows 10 is available now, bringing the platform up to version 1803. Officially labeled as Windows 10 April 2018 Update, it drops the “creators” branding and focuses on improving general productivity. Two of the biggest new features do just that, while the third main ingredient provides better means of sharing content to nearby devices.

Windows 10 April 2018 Update also delivers a huge lineup of enhancements and improvements to Cortana, Microsoft Edge, Windows Ink, Windows Mixed Reality, and more. 

So, how can you get Windows 10 April 2018 Update? You can head here to download and use Microsoft’s upgrade tool or navigate to Settings > Windows Update to see if the feature update is available for your PC. Given Microsoft’s history with update roll-outs, you could receive Windows 10 April 2018 Update right now or a month after launch. 

Focus Assist

There’s nothing more annoying than attempting to get something done, only to be bothered by notifications popping up on the screen. The “new” Focus Assist feature is essentially another name for Quiet Hours, which lets you block notifications, sounds, alerts, and other distracting elements while you’re trying to focus on work. You can either right-click on the taskbar’s Action Center icon and toggle on or off Focus Assist or open the Action Center and click the quick action button. 

Outside the name change, you can actually manually set your quiet hours with this update. Previously Microsoft set those hours between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. with no means of changing those times without modifying the registry. But now you can right-click on the display and navigate to Settings > Focus Assist to access a host of new settings to tweak Focus Assist as needed.

For example, you can choose to hide all notifications except for alarms — or see notifications only from apps and people established on your “Priority List.” For instance, if you’re not allowed to ignore notifications from your significant other during working hours, you’d be wise to add that demanding loved one under the Priority List’s “People” section. You can manually add apps too (Xbox is listed by default), and toggle on/off notifications tossed over by Cortana installed on your mobile device. 

In addition to the Priority List, the new Focus Assist feature provides an automatic rules section where you can set the times when Focus Assist automatically kicks in. Three other options target specific activities, such as when you’re playing a game, when you’re at home, and when duplicating a display. All four options have a “focus level” consisting of “alarms only” and “priority only.” 

Nearby Sharing

This is a neat way to share a file between two Windows 10 PCs with the April 2018 Update installed. To share a file, simply click on the share charm in an appropriate Windows 10 app, or right-click to access the app’s menu and select “Share.” Files can be a video, photo, document, or a webpage currently loaded in Microsoft Edge.  

Once you choose to share a file, the Nearby Sharing component will determine the best connection: Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. If using the Bluetooth method, you can actually see a list of the potential recipient devices for your shared file. The recipient can then choose to accept or reject your file. 

Timeline

To access this new feature, click on Task View on the taskbar or type Windows logo key + Tab. Timeline stores your “events” by up to 30 days using tiles and provides an option to view these tiles by the day — or by the hour. If you choose the “day” mode, simply scroll down to a specific day, and then select “see all activities” next to the date. You’ll then see tiles of every “event” that happened on that day, listed vertically by the hour. 

To search for a specific event, select the Search icon and then type a keyword that best represents that specific event, such as “resort” when you were hunting down vacation resorts using Microsoft Edge. But you can find other events too, such as a document you wrote and emailed two weeks ago, a picture you downloaded from OneDrive, and so on. 

The problem with Timeline is that if you’re sharing the PC with other people, their activities will appear in your timeline. To de-clutter your timeline, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Activity history > Show activities from accounts and toggle off all accounts to hide their activities from your timeline. Here you can also clear your activity history, but there appears to be no tool to block your activities from other timelines on the PC. 

One of the main selling points with Timeline is that it keeps track of your activities beyond the PC. For instance, if you’re browsing with Microsoft Edge on an Android phone, that activity falls on your timeline. This applies to all Microsoft-related apps for PC and phone, but you can easily toggle off this component in two ways: Disable “let Windows collect my activities from this PC,” and/or “let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud.” 

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft’s built in browser now provides an audio icon on tabs so you can mute annoying audio playing on pages you’re not even viewing. Edge also now “securely” stores your address, credit card, and other information that’s automatically filled on web payment forms provided by Amazon, Walmart, and other top retail sites you frequently shop. Meanwhile, the new clutter-free-printing option simplifies the print dialog for a cleaner experience. 

For customers who read digital books, PDFs, and take advantage of the Reading View mode, Microsoft fine-tuned the full-screen experience by removing all visual distractions. The browser now also supports custom narration and ambient sounds in EPUB books while new grammar tools for EPUB books and Reading View can highlight a noun or verb in a sentence, break words into syllables, and more. 

Cortana

Microsoft’s built-in assistant can now play your favorite music and playlists on Spotify, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio using voice commands. To enable this feature, launch Cortana and select the Notebook icon on her menu. After that, click on the “Manage Skills” tab and then the “Music” category. From here you connect Cortana to your Spotify, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio accounts. 

But that’s not all. Cortana is compatible with connected homes too, supporting smart thermostats manufactured by ecobee, Honeywell, Nest, and more. To connect Cortana to your smart thermostat, open the assistant, and click on the Notebook icon on her menu bar. After that, click on the “Manage Skills” tab, select the Connected Home panel, toggle on the feature, and sign in to your Microsoft account. 

From there you’ll see a list of manufacturers. In our case, we chose Nest and signed into our Nest account. Unfortunately, we ran into an “object doesn’t support property or method ‘includes’” error after logging into the account, so we couldn’t test Cortana with our new third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat. According to Nest technical support agents, Nest products currently don’t work with Cortana despite the feature roll-out. When will support arrive? We couldn’t get a confirmation. 

“As of right now, Nest has not announced that as of yet,” a Nest representative told us. “At this time, Nest has not announce anything of that nature.”

That said, not all advertised “smart” thermostats may be on board with Cortana at this present time. The idea is to control your thermostat using voice commands through Cortana much like you can using Google Assistant. With the latter, you can adjust the temperature, switch between cooling and heating, get the current inside temperature, turn off the thermostat, and so on using voice commands. Eventually, Cortana will enable the same control. 

Miscellaneous Updates

There are obviously a ton of minor changes to the breadth of Microsoft’s software offerings, ranging from productivity to gaming. While there are plenty of small software updates within features such as the Start Menu or the Action Center, there are also performance improvements in stylus support, dictation accuracy, and multilingual touch keyboard prediction. In fact, Microsoft says it’s improved digital pen latency by up to 50 percent.

A couple of other highlights worthy of mention include HDR support for a longer list of compatible devices, as well as a new locked, “S Mode” for enhanced security and control available in Windows 10 Home edition.

Check out Microsoft’s full page of updates to see the detailed list of all that’s been changed.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Windows 10 April 2018 Update lands next week packing Timeline, Cortana updates
• How to use Windows Timeline
• How to get Microsoft’s April 2018 Update today and experience the new Timeline
• The dull Windows 10 April 2018 Update is everything a patch should be
• The 5 best features of the Windows 10 April 2018 Update

Google’s first-ever VR Doodle pays homage to pioneer of movie special effects

Google Doodles, the one-off alterations of the logo on Google’s homepage, have been delighting users since way back in 1998. But there’s never been a Google Doodle like the current one: Google’s first-ever virtual reality, 360-degree interactive Doodle. Appropriately enough, the charming Doodle pays tribute to Georges Méliès, the pioneering filmmaker and special effects artist behind memorable early films such as 1902’s A Trip to the Moon. What better way to pay homage to one of cinema’s greatest pioneers than by using a modern technology he would have undoubtedly appreciated?

“The Doodle team aims to highlight people, places, things, and events that have shaped culture and/or have had a positive impact on the world,” Doodler and project art lead Hélène Leroux told Digital Trends. “Given that Méliès pushed the boundaries of technology in film during his time, the Doodle team felt a fitting homage to his work should use the latest technology and medium we have available today — VR! Our goal was to create an original, entertaining story which explored all the wonderful tricks and visual effects Méliès came up with, as well as showcased his own personality.”

To produce their VR story, the Doodle team collaborated with both the Google Spotlight Stories team and the London-based production studio Nexus. Working together, they created multiple Doodles to be seen and enjoyed by users, regardless of which platform they view it on. While there’s a classic linear version available, there’s also a YouTube 360-degree video, and a fully interactive VR experience for anyone with a VR headset such as Google Cardboard. This is viewable using Google’s Spotlight Stories app.

“Méliès was a magician, filmmaker, poet, and creator,” Leroux saidd. “When he discovered the invention of the camera, and the first projections of films in the late 19th century, he realized he could push the medium to create magical stories audiences could immerse themselves in. Thanks to our partnership with Google Arts & Culture, we had access to the Cinémathèque Française, which houses the world’s largest collection of assets and sketches of Méliès’ films. [We also had access to] the world’s expert on the subject, Laurent Mannoni, who offered insight about Méliès’ work and legacy to our team as we developed the project.”

As to whether there will be other virtual reality Google Doodles in the future, Leroux is keeping quiet: “The Doodle team likes to keep all future plans top secret. But folks should stay tuned to the homepage moving forward to see!”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google may be looking to snap up VR camera company Lytro
• ‘Ready Player One’ virtual reality extravaganza debuts at SXSW
• ‘Ready Player One’ review
• Google Arts & Culture explores remote world heritage sites in virtual reality
• Chrome’s desktop browser now supports web-based VR on the Oculus Rift

Steam beta adds support for Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller

Steam already works with a bunch of gamepads, including PS4’s and Xbox 360’s/One’s, thanks to the Valve controller’s software component. But if you’d rather use Nintendo Switch’s, then you’ll have to be willing to take Steam’s beta client for a spin. The platform’s beta version has added support for the Nintendo Switch Pro controller, so you can use its d-pad to your advantage in fighting games and platformers or just generally play better if your hands are more used to it.

After you update or install Steam beta, you can activate Switch Pro in the controller settings page, so the client can recognize and calibrate your device. That’ll give you access to its configuration, where you can personalize what its buttons can do, though you can also change them on the fly by summoning the controller overlay through the Home button. Hopefully, that can make things less confusing if you switch (heh) between several gamepads depending on your mood.

Source: Steam

Nest’s Temperature Sensor is now available for $39

Don’t worry if you missed out on pre-ordering Nest’s Temperature Sensor last month — it’s now available for purchase, and you can even get it straight from the company’s website or from the Google Store. The puck-shaped device works in tandem with Nest’s latest Learning Thermostat or its simpler and more affordable Thermostat E. In fact, you can get one bundled with either temperature regulator to save $20 or $10, respectively, if you don’t have the company’s thermostats yet.

The Temperature Sensor works by monitoring how cold or how hot a specific location in your house is. Its thermostat companion can then make sure that room stays at the temperature you specified — like say, if you want your bedroom colder than the baby’s room or your living room a bit warmer than everywhere else — for max comfort. It sounds especially useful if you have a big house, which is most likely why Nest is offering a 3-pack bundle price for $99. You can still get just one sensor for $39, though, if you’d still like to make sure you don’t get too hot or too cold in your apartment.

Via: Slashgear, Android Police

Source: Nest

Olloclip Filmer’s Kit review

Research Center:

Olloclip Filmer’s Kit

When it comes to convenience and affordability, the smartphone camera reigns. But these multifunctional, pocketable devices lack the flexibility of standalone cameras. Smartphone accessory lenses aim to negate some of these limitations, but can also decrease the convenience and portability factor of using your phone as a camera.

Olloclip’s iPhone lens collection aims to offer the best of both worlds, all while keeping the price hovering around $100 for each lens kit. The Olloclip Filmer’s Kit takes that even further, shaving off at least $70 from the combined individual prices by bundling everything together, along with an ergonomic grip, into one case.

No amount of specialized glass is going to turn a smartphone into a DSLR — but the Olloclip suite of lenses makes previously impossible shots not only possible, but good. It opens up a range of focal lengths, and can even create some of that highly sought-after bokeh.

The clip in Olloclip

Olloclip lenses sit inside a clip that simply slides over the top of an iPhone, with two different sizes to accommodate the iPhone 7/8 and iPhone 7 Plus/8 Plus. Olloclip says the case will support most screen protectors, but it will not accommodate cases.

The lenses screw onto a base, which sits in a gap in the clip secured by two pegs. A button retracts one of those pegs, allowing the lens to be swapped out of the clip. The design makes switching lenses easy, though not foolproof, since it’s possible to install the lens backwards where it won’t sit over the iPhone camera. Once connected, the only time you’ll need to screw a lens in and out of the base is to use the two-in-one Fisheye and Macro. This design helps minimize the chance of getting finger prints on the lens.

Olloclip’s simple clip design makes adding and removing lenses straightforward and quick.

The clip is also double-sided, which means you can have one lens over the rear-facing camera and another lens over the front-facing camera. The clip is designed to have one lens on each side — if you want to only mount a single lens, you need to add what’s called a Blanking Base on the other side to prevent the clip from moving. Without that base, the lens will wiggle, exaggerating any camera shake while shooting video.

Although it just sits over the top of the phone, we weren’t worried about the clip falling off — it holds on pretty well, even when bumped.

The plastic piece that stores the lens clip doubles as a phone stand and tripod. Olloclip also includes a wrist strap and carabiner for keeping the clip handy.

Olloclip Filmer’s Kit Compared To

Merge Blaster

TimeFlip Magnet

Insta360 One

Samsung DeX Station

Oaxis InkCase i7 Plus

Ampy Move

Neo Smartpen N2

Motrr Galileo

Typo keyboard case

Moga Mobile Gaming Controller

Hasbro My3D

Iomega SuperHero

BlackBerry Presenter

Callpod Chargepod

Griffin Elan Holster

One downside is that the clip covers a small portion of the screen at the top. When using the iPhone’s default camera app, we were unable to access the options for HDR, Live Photos, or the self timer without first removing the clip.

The Core Lens Set

Olloclip’s Core Lens Set includes three lenses. The super-wide and fisheye sit in the usual plastic base that attaches to the clip. The macro lens, however, is hiding inside the fisheye clip. Unscrewing the fisheye reveals the small macro lens in the base. The Core Lens Set is included inside the Filmmaker’s kit for $199, or can be purchased separately for $100, a fair price consider that it includes three lenses and the clip.

Macro

Macro lenses are always of our favorites out of every smartphone accessory lens system we’ve tried, and the Olloclip’s is no exception. The smaller sensor of a smartphone makes it much easier to create a close-up lens compared to a macro lens for a DSLR or mirrorless camera. In fact, a 15x lens is simply unheard of in the camera world, but the Olloclip 15x macro gets crazy close — for less than $100.

A 15x macro is a pretty extreme close-up — think photographing ants or very fine details. Getting in that close creates a narrow depth of field that’s not typically associated with a smartphone camera, an effect that is a double-edged sword.

A 15x macro is a pretty extreme close-up — think photographing ants.

To keep your subject in focus, the lens has to be held at just the right distance. There’s a very small sweet spot to hit, and getting a macro video of a moving subject is nearly impossible — every time you get the subject in focus, it’s already moved out of focus. We should note that this is simply the nature of macro photography, not anything specific to the Olloclip lens design itself.

When you nail focus, the lens is pretty sharp for a smartphone lens, allowing for capturing a good amount of detail. The edges of the image are fairly soft, but since the depth of field is so narrow, you might no even notice the softness unless you’re shooting a perfectly flat surface.

If you zoom in far enough, you can pick up a little chromatic aberration — or color fringing — but not at an amount that’s obvious or distracting from the image itself. The lens also doesn’t create any noticeable vignetting.

Fisheye

Screw the top piece of the lens back into the macro base, and you have a fisheye that captures almost a 180 degree view in a single shot. The lens is a circular fisheye, which means the resulting image is a circle on a black background. However, since the iPhone’s video mode is cropped compared to photo mode, this effect doesn’t carry over into movies, where the view isn’t quite as wide.

All fisheye lenses create distortion from that extremely wide view; that’s part of the charm. At the edges of the frame, straight lines will appear to bend in and if you try panning with it, you’ll create a psychedelic effect where different parts of the image distort differently as the camera moves. The lens is so wide that you have to be careful about where you hold the phone or your fingers will show up in the edges of the shot.

Out of all the lenses in the kit, the fisheye is the softest. The center isn’t quite as sharp as the other lenses and the edges of the image are noticeably blurred. The lens also causes some colored blue and green fringing that you might notice without zooming in, especially on a high contrast shot. Point it into the sun, and you’ll get a noticeable flare, but these usually show up as a tiny green dot that’s easy to edit out.

Super-wide

The Olloclip super-wide captures a wide view without the distortion of the Fisheye. It captures about a 120-degree angle of view, making it less wide than both the Fisheye and the ultra-wide lens that’s not part of the Core Lens Set but is included in the Filmer’s Kit..

The super-wide is also the most uniformly sharp lens out of all the Olloclip lenses we tested, with only slight curving in the edges. Unlike the fish-eye and ultra-wide, the edges of the image aren’t as noticeably blurred. The center may not be quite as sharp as the macro or telephoto, but the super-wide gets points for having greater consistency across the frame.

The lens will capture some blue color fringing, but only a minor amount that’s not noticeable without pixel peeping. Like the other lenses, it will flare when pointed directly at the sun, but as with the fisheye, this can usually be removed in post quite easily.

The Active Lens Set

The Olloclip Active Lens set includes a 2x telephoto and an ultra-wide lens that captures about a 155-degree angle of view. The set is included in the Filmer’s Kit, or retails on its own for $120 including the clip.

2x Telephoto

Olloclip’s telephoto lens was a close second favorite after the macro as it also makes it possible to blur the background beyond what’s normally seen from a smartphone camera. A 2x zoom isn’t anything crazy, but it helps you get a bit closer, while the slight decrease in depth of field helps isolate your subject.

The telephoto is decently sharp at the center, but the edges of the image are noticeably softer. Chromatic aberration is minimal, with few colored artifacts on the edges of high contrast areas.

The lens does vignette a bit, darkening the corners of the image, and like the other lenses, pointing it towards a bright light source will create a flare. Flaring is generally minimal, but the telephoto lens did occasionally produce larger flares not characteristic of the other lenses.

Ultra-wide

Ollclip calls the 155-degree view from the ultra-wide an action-camera-like lens. It is wider than the super-wide but not quite as wide as the fisheye and still creates a rectangular image.

With the 155-degree view, there’s some expected distortion that’s exaggerated in any objects that are closer to the lens. Straight lines will appear to curve but that’s expected for such a wide lens on a smartphone.

Center sharpness is about average, a good quarter of the image at the edges is blurred. Both vignetting and chromatic aberration are minor, however. Lens flares are also small and in most shots would be easy to edit out.

The Olloclip Filmer’s Kit Accessories

Along with the five lenses, the Filmer’s Kit includes an ergonomic handle called the Pivot and an Incase case to keep everything organized.

The Pivot offers a more comfortable to hold your phone for longer shoots. It comprises a handle and a spring-loaded phone cradle, with a rotating base in between allowing for 225 degrees of motion, with a button on the handle to easily adjust the angle of the smartphone.

The 2x zoom isn’t anything crazy, but it does bring you in closer and helps soften the background.

Constructed from plastic, the handle doesn’t add a lot of weight to the setup. Still, the Pivot still feels nice in the hands and doesn’t feel like it may break easily like some cheaper plastics. While the handle folds up, calling the Pivot “pocketable” is probably a stretch — unless you’re wearing cargo pants.

The top of the smartphone cradle also houses a cold shoe mount for adding an accessory. The cradle can be twisted off and replaced with a GoPro mount to convert into an action camera handle.

The Incase case has a rigid outer shell for keeping the lenses safe and a foam insert keeps everything protected and organized. The insert is cut for the iPhone Plus clip, so the standard-sized iPhone clip doesn’t fit as well into that slot. Under the lid, a mesh pocket can house small accessories. The zip case doesn’t have any sort of handle, but it’s small enough to slide into pretty much any messenger bag, backpack or even most purses.

The accessories in the Filmer’s Kit are well-built and easy to use — but that’s not the best part. With the package pricing, the case and Pivot are essentially free. Individually, the lens kits cost $99 and $120, which is already over the $200 cost of the Filmer’s kit, even before considering the $50 Pivot and the bespoke case.

Warranty

The Olloclip Filmer’s Kit carries a standard 1-year warranty.

Our Take

Smartphone lenses are tricky to get right because you’re placing a lens over an existing lens inherently makes the lenses more prone to flaws like soft edges and vignetting. While not immune to those flaws, the Olloclip lenses offer solid performance considering they cost less than $50 each. The individual lens kits make sense for users that just want a particular style of lens, like a macro or a telephoto, but the price of the Filmer’s Kit makes the set great even for still photographers that want all five lenses.

Is there a better alternative?

Accessory lenses are a category full of competition, but the Olloclip sits at a sweet spot between quality and price. Moment lenses are well known for their quality, but they can also be $90-$100 for a single lens — in addition to the required $30 case. The Bitplay is more in line with the Olloclip’s price point, and it has a better case compared to the Olloclip clip, but the lenses were more prone to large flares than were Olloclip’s. The mix of quality and price makes Olloclip a strong competitor.

How long will it last?

Olloclip’s clip design accommodates both the iPhone 7 and 8 along with both plus models. Even if Apple changes the the design of the iPhone 9, you should only need a new clip to keep using your Olloclip lenses on future phones. The priciest portion of the kit — the lenses and the Pivot — should last for years, provided you don’t lose or scratch one.

Should you buy it?

Yes. Despite the name, the Olloclip Filmer’s Kit isn’t just for making movies, and is very attractive at the $200 price. If you want more versatile shots and more bokeh without giving up the portability of a smartphone, it is an excellent option whether you prefer shooting stills or video. If you want to keep your phone in a case at all times, or need something with tack sharp edges, Olloclip’s set probably isn’t for you. But for many iPhoneographers, the set offers both versatility and value.

Samsung’s latest microSD card is beefy enough for your dash cam

Most microSD cards are perfectly fine for your smartphone. Your dash cam or home security camera, however? That’s another story — that non-stop video recording can be brutal on cards that aren’t designed for continuous writing. Enter Samsung with its Pro Endurance card. The new microSD range reportedly endures about 25 times longer than other “speed-focused” cards, handling up to 43,800 hours of 1080p video recording on a 128GB model. That’s five years of around-the-clock use, folks. There’s a chance your camera stops working before the card does.

All of the cards are water, temperature, magnet and X-ray resistant, and they come with a full-size SD card adapter for cameras and card readers that use the larger format. Samsung is unsurprisingly charging a premium for the Pro Endurance line in its 32GB ($25), 64GB ($45) and 128GB ($90) flavors, but they might save you money in the long run if you don’t have to burn through cards like they’re going out of style.

Source: Samsung

Xiaomi’s Hong Kong IPO expected to raise at least $10 billion

Xiaomi’s interest in listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hasn’t exactly been a well-kept secret, and following months of speculation, the time has finally arrived. Today, the Chinese smartphone maker filed its initial public offering documents, and according to Bloomberg’s sources, this IPO is expected to raise “at least $10 billion.” This would make it the world’s largest IPO since Alibaba listed for $25 billion in New York back in 2014. Furthermore, Bloomberg said Xiaomi may see a valuation of “as high as $100 billion,” which is about one-ninth of Apple’s.

Xiaomi’s documents also shed light on some fine details about its fast-growing business. For instance, in 2017 Xiaomi generated a revenue of 114.6 billion yuan or about $18 billion — a 67.5-percent jump — though it ended up with a loss of 43.9 billion yuan or about $6.9 billion, which looks even worse against the mere 491.6 million yuan or $77.2 million profit in the year before.

Still, CEO Lei Jun emphasized in his open letter that following the declining smartphone sales in 2016, his company went through a transition and managed to rebound in 2017 — going from 55.4 million devices back up to 91.4 million, with a stronger focus on developing markets like India and Indonesia. The documents also refer to IDC to remind us that Xiaomi nabbed top position in India for Q4 2017 smartphone shipments, as well as reaching top five across 15 markets. The CEO added that his company pledges to cap its hardware business net profit margin at 5 percent, and that any excess will somehow be returned to the users.

Of course, this also suggests that Xiaomi is making good money through its internet services — mainly ads and value-added services. In December 2017, Xiaomi counted 170.8 million active users on its custom Android platform, MIUI, with each user paying an average of 57.90 yuan or about $9.10 for the company’s internet services, totalling a $1.6 billion revenue for that month alone. In March this year, Xiaomi’s count went up to 190 million monthly active users, but the report doesn’t have a corresponding revenue figure.

While Xiaomi continued to expand its product portfolio to include more smart home devices and lifestyle products, it had also been working hard on expanding its physical presence around the world. In 2017, Xiaomi’s Mi Home stores made 240,000 yuan or about $37,700 in annual sales per square meter which, according to iResearch, is “the second highest average sales per square meter amongst retail store chains globally.” Still, the company warns that its retail store operation requires a substantial investment.

As of end of March, Xiaomi has 331 self-operated Mi Home retail stores in China alone, along with a handful of both Mi Homes and authorized stores around the world. Following the Taipei Mi Home store opening last month, Xiaomi is opening its third Hong Kong Mi Home store (pictured above) at a prime location tomorrow — very fitting given the timing of the IPO filing. Xiaomi also has plans to break into the US as early as end of this year, but given the recent mishaps with Huawei and more so with ZTE, it’ll be interesting to see how Lei Jun’s team will succeed, if at all.

Source: Bloomberg

Just who saw that post anyways? A guide to Facebook privacy settings

Unsplash / Thought Catalog

After the Cambridge Analytica scandal and new privacy laws in Europe, Facebook’s privacy settings may not look like they did when you first created an account. And on top of that, Facebook’s privacy settings are divided up into several different locations, and paired with a long legal privacy agreement. If you haven’t visited your privacy settings on Facebook, or have no idea even where to find them, it’s probably time for a privacy check-up.

Facebook Privacy 101

Everyone can see your name, your profile photo, and the names of work and school networks you’re part of. Ditto for pages you are a fan of. You can’t tell Facebook you don’t want those publicly listed — so if you are uploading a profile photo, the only privacy option is public. If you are worried about a potential employer finding out about a quirky fetish or unorthodox political leaning, avoid becoming a Facebook fan of such groups. Your gender and current city are also available if you choose to specify them. You can uncheck “Show my sex in my profile” when you edit your profile, if you don’t want it listed, and you can leave “Current City” blank.

Facebook is equipped with various privacy levels

Facebook boasts a slew of privacy levels pertaining to different content, whether it’s your friends list, status updates, or photos. Users can adjust the privacy settings and limit profile access at any time, allowing greater specificity when choosing who can view selected content.

• Everyone: Grants access to anyone on the Internet.
• Friends: Grants access to only those who are your friend on Facebook.
• Friends of Friends: Grants access to those who are your friend on Facebook, as well as their friends.
• Friends Except: Grants access to all friends except for a specific group or individual users that you choose.
• Specific Friends: Grants access to only the friends you choose, either individually or through friend lists.
• Only Me: Grants access only to you. Helpful if you want the post to show up on your Facebook Memories in a year or if you have to grant an app access to post on your behalf.