MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Rolltop Backpack, TechFolio and iPad Pro Case From Pad & Quill

We’re teaming up with Pad & Quill for a series of special WWDC giveaways this week in celebration of the developer-focused event.

For those unfamiliar with Pad & Quill, it’s a company that makes high-quality hand-crafted leather accessories for iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, and more.

For our second giveaway this week, we’re offering MacRumors readers a chance to win a Heritage Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack, a TechFolio Cord Organizer, and a Contega Linen case for the iPad Pro.

Pad & Quill’s Heritage Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack, priced at $339, is a weatherproof backpack that’s made from full-grain American bridle leather. It features a dedicated laptop pocket that can hold up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, a water resistant leather cover flap, and tons of pockets.

There’s a main compartment inside to hold all of your accessories, a zippered pocket for small items, an exterior pocket for things you need to get to quickly, and another quick access side zipper pocket. It uses UV-resistant stitching, brass hardware, and copper rivets, plus it comes with a 25-year warranty.

Pad & Quill’s Contega Linen iPad Case is a folio-style book-like case that’s available for both the 10.5-inch iPad Pro ($120) and the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro ($130). The Contega case features a baltic birch wood frame with a linen cover in charcoal, gray, or cranberry, and there’s even an Apple Pencil holder.

The birch frame keeps the iPad safe from bumps and drops, while the linen cover can be folded to serve as a multi-angle stand for the iPad when watching videos or folded all the way back when playing games. When closed, the Contega case offers all-around protection, with an elastic strap to keep things closed.

The TechFolio, priced at $90, keeps all of your cords neatly organized in one easy-to-access place. Like all Pad & Quill products, the TechFolio is handmade from leather and able to hold a ton.

The TechFolio has three cord organizer pockets, an Apple Pencil slot, a larger zipper pocket for a MacBook charger, two smaller pockets for accessories, and slots for keys or SD cards. All of this folds down into a small package that secures with a rivet closure and fits neatly inside another bag.

We have one prize pack featuring a Contega iPad Case, a TechFolio, and a Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (June 6) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 13. The winner will be chosen randomly on June 13 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

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MacRumors Exclusive: Upgrade Your Desk Setup With Discounts on Twelve South’s Mac and iPhone Accessories

Following our Spring Break partnership with Twelve South a few months back, MacRumors is again collaborating with the well-known accessory maker, this time in celebration of developers and Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The exclusive sale includes 20 percent discounts on Twelve South accessories like the BackPack and Curve, which can be helpful additions to the workflow of developers, and anyone who works on a Mac all day.

The promo code MacRumorsSetups is live beginning today, June 6, and will be available to use on TwelveSouth.com through Friday, June 15, offering 20 percent discounts on five items during this week-and-a-half timeframe. MacRumors readers around the globe will be able to enter the code and take advantage of the discounts, but shipping costs will vary by regions. For United States residents, Twelve South offers free FedEx Smart Post on all orders (5-10 days estimate), and if your order exceeds $95 you’ll gain free 2-day shipping.

The products below can be purchased individually or in groups, and the 20 percent discount will be taken off from the total of the order, excluding shipping and taxes. Of course, while this sale is themed around developers and WWDC, any of our readers interested can take advantage of the exclusive promo code, so be sure to check out the full list of Twelve South products on sale below:

BookArc

Promo Price: $39.99, down from $49.99
Colors: Silver and Space Grey
Compatible Products: MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook Pro with Retina Display (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook (12-inch), MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch)
Description: BookArc cradles compatible MacBooks (using swappable silicone inserts) so you can clear up desk space and display your MacBook, while still running a connection from the computer to an external display if desired.

BackPack

Promo Price: $27.99, down from $34.99
Colors: Silver and Black
Compatible Products: 21.5-inch iMac (Late 2009 – Current), 27-inch iMac (Late 2009 – Current), 27-inch Thunderbolt Display/LED Cinema Display, Legacy iMac/Displays may be available through Twelve South support.
Description: Another solution for desk clutter, BackPack hangs on your iMac using two adjustable, non-scratching clips to hide hard drives and USB peripherals, or display memorabilia, action figures, flowers, and more. Up to three BackPacks can be attached to one iMac.

Curve

Promo Price: $39.99, down from $49.99
Colors: Black
Compatible Products: MacBook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook (12-inch), MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch)
Description: Curve is an aluminum stand that elevates your MacBook 6.5 inches into the air and reduces neck strain when working for extended periods of time, particularly when paired when a Bluetooth keyboard.

HiRise 2

Promo Price: Non-Deluxe for $31.99, down from $39.99; Deluxe for $47.99, down from $59.99
Colors: Silver, Black, White
Compatible Products: Lightning-enabled iPhones, iPads, and accessories like Siri Remote
Description: HiRise 2 allows you to charge and display your iPhone or iPad, with a perfect angle for FaceTime calls or browsing apps like Apple Music. The HiRise 2 Deluxe includes both a Lightning cable and a Micro-USB cable so you can charge even more devices.

BookBook Vol. 2

Promo Price: $63.99, down from $79.99
Colors: Brown leather
Compatible Products: 12-inch MacBook (2015-Current), 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2016-Current)
Description: For working on the go, BookBook Vol. 2 was created exclusively with Apple’s USB-C enabled MacBooks in mind. The combination case and sleeve protects the MacBook with genuine leather in a vintage book design, and also sports an interior hidden pocket for storing documents.

Head over to our Deals Roundup for even more of the latest offers happening this week, and remember to use the exclusive Twelve South promo code before it expires on June 15.

Related Roundup: Apple DealsTag: Twelve South
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One fish, two fish: A.I. labels wildlife photos to boost conservation

The wilderness is vast and varied, home to millions of animal species. For ecologists, identifying and describing those animals is key to successful research. That can prove to be a tall order — but artificial intelligence may be able help.

In a new report out this week, researchers show how they trained a deep learning algorithm to automatically identify, count, and characterize animals by reviewing images. The system used photographs captured from motion sensor camera traps, which unobtrusively snap pictures of the animals in their natural habitat

“We have shown that we can use computers to automatically extract information from wildlife photos, such as species, number of animals, and what the animals are doing.” Margaret Kosmala, a research associate at Harvard University, told Digital Trends. “What’s novel is that this is the first time it’s been shown that it’s possible to do this as accurately as humans. Artificial intelligence has been getting good at recognizing things in the human domain — human faces, interior spaces, specific objects if well-positioned, streets, and so forth. But nature is messy and in this set of photos, the animals are often only partially in the photo or very close or far away or overlapping. As an ecologist, I find this very exciting because it gives us a new way to use technology to study wildlife over broad areas and long time spans.”

The researchers used images captured and collected by Snapshot Serengeti, a citizen science project with stealth wildlife cameras spread throughout Tanzania. From elephant to cheetahs, Snapshot Serengeti has gathered millions of wildlife photographs. But the images themselves aren’t as valuable as the data contained within the frame, including details like number and type of animals.

Automated identification and descriptions has a lot of benefits for ecologists. For years, Snapshot Serengeti used to crowdsource the task of describing wildlife images. With the help of some 50,000 volunteers, the group labeled over three million images. It was this treasure trove of labeled imagery that the researchers used to train their algorithm.

Now, rather than turn to citizen scientists, researchers may be able to assign the laborious task to an algorithm, which can quickly process the photographs and label their key details.

“Any scientific research group or conservation group that is trying to understand and protect a species or ecosystem can deploy motion-sensor cameras in that ecosystem,” Jeff Clune, a professor of computer science at the University of Wyoming, said. “For example, if you are studying jaguars in a forest, you can put out a network of motion-sensor cameras along trails. The system will then automatically take pictures of the animals when they move in front of the cameras, and then the A.I. technology will count the number of animals that have been seen, and automatically delete all the images that were taken that do not have animals in them, which turns out to be a lot because motion-sensor cameras are triggered by wind, leaves falling, etcetera.”

A paper detailing the research was published this week in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Sleep with the fishes in the world’s first underwater villa
• Hackers broke into a casino’s high-roller database through a fish tank
• MIT’s ocean-exploring robotic fish takes a test swim through a Fiji reef
• Social media is flooded with illegal wildlife trade but A.I. can help
• Facebook utilizes Instagram photos and hashtags to create a smarter A.I.

Intel hopes to kick-start dual-screen Windows 10 market with its own designs

Dual-screen laptops may become a reality sooner than you think. Intel has been working on a few reference designs for dual-screen laptops for about two years, and it recently showed off a prototype code-named Tiger Rapids. According to Intel, Tiger Rapids was provided to select PC manufacturers, and Lenovo and Asus will show their own spin of Tiger Rapids at the Computex trade show this week.

“Conceptually, it’s not a one-size-fits-all world,” Intel Senior Vice President of the Client Computing Group Gregory Bryant told PC World. “You’re going to see secondary products of different shapes and sizes, people are going to do secondary displays, obviously we’re going to work on longer-term things like bendables and foldables.”

Intel’s goal in creating new and sometimes experimental form factors is to create a PC to suit the needs of individual users. In the past, Intel’s Compute Card packed desktop computing powers into a form factor that is as small as a credit card. For its part, Tiger Rapids maintains a profile that is thinner than an iPhone 8 at just 4.85mm thick.

Designed for digital artists and notetakers, Tiger Rapids took inspiration from paper Moleskin notebooks. Unlike traditional laptops, Intel’s concept is outfitted with a smaller main display 7.9-inch display, while a secondary display on the right side utilizes electronic paper display technology with a textured coating to make it feel similar to regular paper. Going with an E Ink display means that the secondary screen will consume minimal power, and Intel is touting up to 15 hours of battery life. When it is adopted by Asus, Tiger Rapids will be transformed into an artificial intelligence-based PC, Intel said, with a Movidius processor for deep learning.

Intel’s second prototype uses the secondary display like a regular screen, rather than the digital inking focus of Tiger Rapids. This second vision for dual-screen computing involves two screens that can be used to simultaneously display content. The downside is that as a laptop replacement, you’ll have to resort to typing on glass, rather than on a physical keyboard. “That’s the idea behind the second dual-screen device, which Intel didn’t identify by code name,” PC World reported. “This second device might be called the future of dual-screen displays, but Intel executives didn’t indicate that any hardware makers planned to bring it to market at the present time.”

Tiger Rapids’ debut comes at a time when chip designs from ARM Holdings are encroaching on Intel’s silicon business. Qualcomm, which uses ARM’s reference silicon design on its mobile-optimized processors, debuted the Snapdragon 850 processor that is designed for dual-screen devices using Microsoft’s Always-Connected PC platform. Always- Connected PCs essentially allows Microsoft’s Windows operating system to work with ARM processors, and it’s been rumored that Dell is working on a dual-screen device with a Snapdragon 850 chipset.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dell is reportedly working on its dual-screen version of the Surface Phone
• The Project Precog concept from Asus looks like the future of laptops
• Sony’s smaller version of its E Ink tablet available for pre-order in the U.S.
• Lenovo wants to give the convertible PC a flexible, wraparound display
• Dell’s new patent application shows how a two-screen laptop deals with DRM

Parrot’s new HDR camera drone is a shot across DJI’s bow

It’s been a while since Parrot released a new consumer-level drone, but today, June 6, at a press conference in New York City, the company pulled the curtain back on a new addition to its fleet: a high-end, folding quadcopter named Anafi.

Whereas Parrot’s earlier drones were more on the toyish side of the spectrum, and were arguably more focused on fun flying than capturing video, Anafi is purpose-built for aerial photography and videography. As such, it’s outfitted with all the requisite bells and whistles we’ve come to expect from UAVs in this category — including a camera that shoots 4K video and 21-megapixel stills, range of over two miles, a 25-minute max flight time, auto-follow functionality, and a folding form factor that makes it easy to transport.

If that sounds somewhat milquetoast and standard-issue, it’s because it is. You can already buy drones with the aforementioned capabilities, but Parrot is well aware of this fact — so it equipped Anafi with a handful of innovative features and functions that help it stand out from the rest of the pack. Here’s a quick rundown.

Raising the bar with HDR

The first and most notable of these is Anafi’s ability to shoot high dynamic range (HDR) video. We’ll spare you the gory technical details of how it works and why it’s a big deal, but in a nutshell, this means that this drone can capture video at multiple different exposure levels simultaneously, and blend all those exposures together to create a single shot that has outrageously good contrast.

As far as we can tell, Anafi is the first consumer-level drone on the market with HDR video capabilities, which is a pretty big deal. Even some of the best drones you can buy right now tend to have trouble with high-contrast scenes, and HDR could help mitigate that issue — which gives Parrot a leg up on competitors like DJI and Yuneec.

Tilt and whirl

Second, Anafi is eqiupped with a 3-axis gimbal stabilizer that has 180 degrees of tilt freedom. In other words, not only can this drone look straight down, it can also look straight up. This feature presumably gives you a broader range of creative freedom while you shoot, and allows you to capture footage from above or below your subject. Shooting like this simply isn’t possible on the vast majority of today’s camera drones, as they almost always carry their cameras below the hull, or inside nose-mounted stabilizers with limited upward motion.

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Another uncommon feature that Anafi boasts is lossless digital zoom — something that’s notably absent from just about every other drone in the sub-$1,000 category. Parrot’s shooter can zoom up to 1.4x in 4K and 2.8x in 1080p without distorting image quality in any way. Functionally, this allows you to get closer to your subject without actually flying closer — which could come in handy for, say, wildlife shots where you risk scaring away the animals if you buzz your drone too close (although it’s worth mentioning that Anafi also happens to be relatively quiet for a quadcopter).

Aside from that, Anafi’s lossless zoom also enables an awesome shooting trick that, until now, was rather difficult to achieve with a flying camera: the dolly zoom (also known as the vertigo zoom or Hitchcock zoom). You’ve probably seen this before in movies. It’s the shot where the central subject remains the same size while the background zooms in and out, creating a vertigo-inducing visual effect. Parrot’s setup automates the process so you can take dolly zoom shots at the press of a button.

Sprinkles on top, and a competitive price

There’s also a handful of small, thoughtful design elements that help round out the package — things like a launch-from-hand function, 3D mapping software, a USB-C battery that can also be used as a smartphone charger, and the ability to fly Anafi with or without a controller.

The best feature, however, is the price. You can pre-order Anafi today for the comparatively-low-but-admittedly-still-kinda-high price of $700 — which puts it squarely in competition with DJI’s infamous Mavic drones. Whether or not Anafi can stand toe to toe with the Mavic Air has yet to be seen, but if you’re curious, be sure to circle back later this month to check out our in-depth review.

Editors’ Recommendations

• DJI’s plush new headquarters will feature a skybridge for drone tests
• DJI Mavic Air review
• Sony crams 8x zoom in the RX100 VI, but it’s still pocketable
• Drones are no longer crash-test dummies thanks to MIT’s new VR training platform
• Sony’s new PXW-Z280 uses three sensors for 4K at 60 frames per second

Huawei jumps on AMD’s Ryzen bandwagon via an upcoming 14-inch MateBook D laptop

During the laptop portion of AMD’s Computex press conference early Wednesday morning, Huawei’s Michael Young came on stage to present a 14-inch version of the company’s MateBook D laptop sporting AMD-based hardware. He didn’t say when the device would ship, but instead said the company set out to design a stylish, powerful, and efficient notebook packing AMD’s hardware to deliver an “unparalleled” experience. 

We don’t know all the hardware specifics for the moment, but a slide provided by Huawei, shown above, shows it will be powered by AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U all-in-one chip packing four “Zen” cores with a base speed of 2.0GHz and a maximum speed of 3.6GHz. It will also include eight “Vega” graphics cores clocked at 1,100MHz, and sip a mere 15 watts of power. 

Outside the AMD processor, the upcoming Huawei MateBook D will sport a 14-inch IPS display with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution promising wide viewing angles and rich colors. Other details disclosed on the slide include four speakers powered by Dolby Atmos with a split frequency arrangement, and a USB-C port used for charging the device. It will measure just 0.622 inches thick and weigh 3.19 pounds. 

The current version of the MateBook D you can purchase right now is a bit larger with a 15.6-inch IPS display backed by a seventh-generation Core i5-7200U processor and discrete GeForce 940MX graphics (2GB). It’s also slightly thicker and heavier too measuring 0.66 inches thin and weighing 4.19 pounds. Completing this package is 8GB of system memory clocked at 2,133MHz and a 1TB hard drive.

Outside Huawei’s partnership, other laptop makers supporting AMD’s Ryzen-branded hardware include Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Models that specifically use AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U all-in-one chip include the HP Envy x360 (15M-BQ121DX) starting at $749, two Lenovo Ideapad 720s 13 Platinum editions starting at $699, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 starting at $859, and many more. The MateBook D 14-inch laptop is the first device from Huawei to sport AMD-based hardware. 

In North America, Huawei is typically known for its family of smartphones. But the company entered the notebook market in early 2016 with the launch of its first MateBook followed by the MateBook X and MateBook D laptops, and the MateBook E 2-in-1 PC  in 2017. The MateBook X Pro made its debut this year during the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. 

AMD said during its Computex presentation that its Ryzen all-in-one chips are the world’s fastest processors for ultra-thin notebooks. According to one of the slides, the Ryzen 7 2700U chip delivers 28 percent better performance in Cinebench R15 than Intel’s Core i7-8550U chip. In 3DMark 11, AMD’s chip shows 103 percent more graphics performance than Intel’s integrated graphics in the Core i7 chip.  

Part of AMD’s Computex notebook presentation also showcased HP’s just-launched Envy x360 13-inch notebook. According to AMD’s Kevin Lensing, it “has enough graphics performance to out-perform some notebooks with discrete graphics.” Other manufacturers that took the stage to reveal AMD-backed laptops included Dell, Asus, and Lenovo. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• HP just unveiled your next laptop – all 11 of them to be exact
• HP’s mainstream Pavilion PCs refreshed with latest AMD Ryzen, Intel Core CPUs
• Acer crams a Ryzen 7 CPU, discrete RX Vega 56 graphics into a 17-inch laptop
• Huawei MateBook X Pro review
• Huawei MateBook X Pro vs. Dell XPS 13

Huawei jumps on AMD ‘s Ryzen bandwagon via an upcoming 14-inch MateBook D laptop

During the laptop portion of AMD’s Computex press conference early Wednesday morning, Huawei’s Michael Young came on stage to present a 14-inch version of the company’s MateBook D laptop sporting AMD-based hardware. He didn’t say when the device would ship, but instead said the company set out to design a stylish, powerful, and efficient notebook packing AMD’s hardware to deliver an “unparalleled” experience. 

We don’t know all the hardware specifics for the moment, but a slide provided by Huawei, shown above, shows it will be powered by AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U all-in-one chip packing four “Zen” cores with a base speed of 2.0GHz and a maximum speed of 3.6GHz. It will also include eight “Vega” graphics cores clocked at 1,100MHz, and sip a mere 15 watts of power. 

Outside the AMD processor, the upcoming Huawei MateBook D will sport a 14-inch IPS display with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution promising wide viewing angles and rich colors. Other details disclosed on the slide include four speakers powered by Dolby Atmos with a split frequency arrangement, and a USB-C port used for charging the device. It will measure just 0.622 inches thick and weigh 3.19 pounds. 

The current version of the MateBook D you can purchase right now is a bit larger with a 15.6-inch IPS display backed by a seventh-generation Core i5-7200U processor and discrete GeForce 940MX graphics (2GB). It’s also slightly thicker and heavier too measuring 0.66 inches thin and weighing 4.19 pounds. Completing this package is 8GB of system memory clocked at 2,133MHz and a 1TB hard drive.

Outside Huawei’s partnership, other laptop makers supporting AMD’s Ryzen-branded hardware include Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Models that specifically use AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U all-in-one chip include the HP Envy x360 (15M-BQ121DX) starting at $749, two Lenovo Ideapad 720s 13 Platinum editions starting at $699, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 starting at $859, and many more. The MateBook D 14-inch laptop is the first device from Huawei to sport AMD-based hardware. 

In North America, Huawei is typically known for its family of smartphones. But the company entered the notebook market in early 2016 with the launch of its first MateBook followed by the MateBook X and MateBook D laptops, and the MateBook E 2-in-1 PC  in 2017. The MateBook X Pro made its debut this year during the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. 

AMD said during its Computex presentation that its Ryzen all-in-one chips are the world’s fastest processors for ultra-thin notebooks. According to one of the slides, the Ryzen 7 2700U chip delivers 28 percent better performance in Cinebench R15 than Intel’s Core i7-8550U chip. In 3DMark 11, AMD’s chip shows 103 percent more graphics performance than Intel’s integrated graphics in the Core i7 chip.  

Part of AMD’s Computex notebook presentation also showcased HP’s just-launched Envy x360 13-inch notebook. According to AMD’s Kevin Lensing, it “has enough graphics performance to out-perform some notebooks with discrete graphics.” Other manufacturers that took the stage to reveal AMD-backed laptops included Dell, Asus, and Lenovo. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• HP just unveiled your next laptop – all 11 of them to be exact
• HP’s mainstream Pavilion PCs refreshed with latest AMD Ryzen, Intel Core CPUs
• Acer crams a Ryzen 7 CPU, discrete RX Vega 56 graphics into a 17-inch laptop
• Huawei MateBook X Pro review
• Huawei MateBook X Pro vs. Dell XPS 13

Best Sony Xperia XZ2 Cases

Keep that shiny glass back looking fresh and new for months to come.

Sony’s Xperia XZ2 is a pretty-looking phone, but it’s also big and has a curved piece of glass on the back that you’d hate to scratch or break. If you’re tough on your phones, you’ll want to consider a case for your Xperia XZ2 — if not for every day, then at least for those times when you expect the phone will get roughed up.

Here are the best cases we’ve found for the Sony Xperia XZ2. We’ll be updating this article as more awesome options become available.

• Spigen Rugged Armor
• Avidet Crystal Clear
• Nillkin Ultra Slim
• Sony Style Cover Stand

Spigen Rugged Armor

Spigen’s Rugged Armor series is available for just about every phone and is a known quantity at this point.

The faux carbon fiber style may be a little polarizing, but you can’t argue with the quality of the build of these cases or the thickness that will save your phone from unfortunate bumps and drops. There’s a good amount of shock absorption around the sides, and plenty of thickness to keep that back glass safe.

You’ll pay just $11 for the case, which is a great value for a big name brand.

See at Amazon

Avidet Crystal Clear

Sony makes some beautiful phones and offers the Xperia XZ2 in standout colors, so why cover it up with a big solid case? If you want to continue to show off the style of your phone while you protect it, check out this inexpensive clear case from Avidet.

This is a typical clear TPU case that’s flexible but rigid enough to stay put on the frame. There’s a subtle texture to the back to hold onto your phone and also give your hand grip on the back. This isn’t going to give you great drop protection, but it’ll keep the phone from getting scratched and offers a good balance between protection and preservation of the design.

For less than $8, it’s tough to go wrong here. Even if you may get a nicer case down the road, this is a good one to pick up for cheap and use in the meantime.

See at Amazon

Nillkin Ultra Slim

For a nice middle-ground, check out the Nillkin Ultra Slim case. It’s a typical hard-shelled case, meaning it holds onto the phone better than the more flexible TPU-style cases because it can snap around the sides and corners. Because of that rigidity, it can be very thin — this case won’t add much bulk to the already hefty Xperia XZ2.

For an added bonus, there are well-sized cutouts for all of the buttons, and both the top and bottom are left exposed so there won’t be any blockages for microphones or ports. There’s a nice texture on the back for added grip, and you can get it in black, tan or red.

Prices for the three colors top out at just $9. What a deal.

See at Amazon

Sony Style Cover Stand

Sony’s own Style Cover Stand offers both great protection and extra functionality if you want to sit down and watch long videos on your phone. The flip-cover style case wraps around and covers the entire front of the phone, with a cutout for the earpiece for phone calls, so whether you toss it on a table or stuff it in a bag the screen will stay scratch-free.

But when you fold it back, it makes a sturdy triangle stand so you can prop up your Xperia XZ2 and watch a TV show or some YouTube videos when you have downtime. A lightly textured exterior means the case is easy to grip in your hand and also won’t slide off a table.

Considering this is an official Sony product it’ll set you back far more than the rest of this list — it retails for $40.

See at Amazon

These are all the Moto phones Motorola is releasing in 2018

2018 is shaping up to be a big year for Motorola.

Ever since its acquisition by Lenovo, Motorola’s turned into a company that’s not shy about releasing a lot of different phones each year. This allows for a lot of choices, but it can also make trying to pick the perfect phone a bit headache-inducing. No matter your opinion on Motorola’s release cycle, however, there’s no denying that 2018 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for the company.

We’ve seen a ton of leaks, rumors, renders and more for Motorola’s lineup of phones for 2018 ever since the beginning of the year, and this is everything we know so far.

The phones that are still on their way

Motorola One Power

The wildcard on this list easily goes to the Motorola One Power. We didn’t have any idea such a phone existed until late May, and based on what we know so far, it looks quite a bit different from the rest of Motorola’s 2018 handsets.

First off, the overall design language isn’t anything like the rest of this year’s Moto phones. There’s a giant notch at the top of the screen, vertical dual cameras on the back, and what appears to be a metal unibody.

Android One branding suggests that this phone will be among the first Motorola phones to get software updates and new security patches, and the full-on “Motorola” branding is unique from the short-hand “Moto” tag on the rest of the company’s products.

Shortly after the phone broke cover for the first time, even more press renders and a hands-on photo surfaced along with alleged specs. According to Andri Yatim on Twitter, the One Power will come equipped with the Snapdragon 636 processor, 6GB RAM, 64GB of storage, a large 3,780 mAh battery, and NFC for Google Pay support.

As for the camera situation, the two sensors on the back include a primary 16MP shooter with f/1.5 aperture and a seondary 5MP f/1.9 one. As for the front-facing camera, its 16MP with f/1.9.

Moto Z3

Next, let’s talk about Motorola’s highest-end and most premium phone for 2018 – the Moto Z3.

Just like last year, we’re expecting Motorola to release two entries in its Z-series in 2018. The regular Moto Z3 will be the most powerful of the two, and it’s expected to come with a 6-inch FHD+ display. Like we saw through a lot of 2017, bezels surrounding the screen should be cut down considerably. The Z3 is said to have the slimmest bezels of the two, but the Z3 Play still looks a lot more modern when compared to the Z2 Play.

Along with showing off the phone itself, the image of the Z3 also reveals a new Moto Mod. It may not look like anything at first glance, but the “5G” branding near the bottom suggests that this Mod will allow the Z3 to get 5G data speeds. Furthermore, the monthly data allotment page is taken right from the Project Fi app and could be a hint that more Moto phones will find their way to Google’s MVNO.

Moto X5

If you’re not about the Moto Mod life but still want a quality phone from Motorola, the X series has proven to be the way to go. Our first look at the Moto X5 shows a very similar design compared to the X4, but there are a couple key differences.

Just like the Z3/Z3 Play, we’re looking at a tall display with slim bezels on all sides. However, unlike those two phones, the X5 appears to have a notch near the top just like another phone with an X in its name. This is one trend I was really hoping wouldn’t catch on, but if it has to make its way into one Moto phone, so be it.

The screen on the X5 is said to measure in at 5.9-inches with a FHD+ resolution, there are dual cameras on the front and back, and there’s also mention of “Moto’s Smart AI.”

Unfortunately, it’s possible none of this will mean anything. A report surfaced in early March suggesting that Motorola had canceled the Moto X5, meaning it won’t be released at all. As a big fan of the X4, this would be incredibly disappointing if it turns out to be true.

The phones that have been released

Moto Z3 Play

Following up last year’s Moto Z2 Play, Motorola’s released the Moto Z3 Play. The overall design is mostly the same due to the phone supporting all existing Moto Mods, but the bezels surrounding the 6.01-inch 2160 x 1080 AMOLED screen are considerably smaller.

Inside the Z3 Play is the Snapdragon 636 processor, 4GB RAM, 32 or 64GB of storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

Motorola’s introducing dual cameras to the Z Play line this year, with the Z3 Play featuring a 12MP + 5MP sensors. The front-facing camera captures pictures at 8MP, a fingerprint sensor can be found on the right below the volume buttons, and Motorola’s has a new on-screen gesture system not unlike what Google’s messing with in Android P.

Despite all these improvements, the Moto Z3 Play will be faced with a lot of stiff competition — especially with a starting price of $499 in the U.S.

Moto Z3 Play hands-on preview: Three’s company

Moto G6/G6 Plus/G6 Play

Motorola’s Moto G series has been its most popular (and profitable) since the very first Moto G that came out in 2013, and this year’s entries have proven to be some of the best so far.

For 2018, Motorola released three G phones — the Moto G6, G6 Play, and G6 Plus. The Play is the most affordable of the bunch, with the G6 Plus being the flagship entry and the regular G6 finding home in between the two.

While the G6 Play is made out of a shiny plastic, the G6 and G6 Plus both have glass bodies that look and feel much nicer than their asking prices. Add that together with dual cameras, 18:9 screens, and Snapdragon processors, and there’s a lot to like here.

Moto G6, G6 Play, and G6 Plus: Everything you need to know!

Moto E5/E5 Plus/E5 Play

Similar to the G series, Motorola released three entries in its E5 series this year in the forms of the Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus, and Moto E5 Play.

The E5 Play is the cheapest phone in Motorola’s 2018 portfolio, touting a plastic body, 16:9 display, removable battery, and pretty low specs.

The E5 and E5 Plus still won’t blow your socks off, but they’re a bit more modern with glass designs, big, 18:9 screens, and respectable specs across the board. Oh, and did we mention the E5 Plus has a gigantic 5,000 mAh battery? 😳

If this year’s G6 phones are too rich for your blood, the E5 models are absolutely worth a look.

Moto E5, E5 Plus and E5 Play: Everything you need to know!

Updated June 6, 2018: Added new details about the Moto Z3 Play now that it’s been announced.

6 reasons I’m excited for the BlackBerry KEY2

The BlackBerry KEY2 should give me everything I love about the KEYone and more; and it’ll be here before you know it!

I’ve always had an on-again off-again relationship with BlackBerry phones. When I heard the company was going to partner with Google and use Android as the basis for its new phone operating system I was pretty excited and I think i was one of the few people out there who really liked the Priv, despite all its shortcomings. As things often do, it got a little weird when BlackBerry decided to stop making hardware and instead focus on the software side, but the KEYone came and erased any doubts I may have had there.

A handful of reviewers got a KEYone early, and I’ve been using it ever since. I like Google’s Pixel and sometimes get phone envy (I have no idea why, but I want that Republic of Gamers phone from ASUS) but the KEYone really jibes with me and I really have no desire to stop using it. Or didn’t, until I heard about the KEY2 anyways.

Having seen all the leaks and heard all the rumors, there are a couple things that I’m really looking forward to about the KEY2 and am ready for one to find its way into my hands.

More: Why I’m still using a BlackBerry KEYone in Spring 2018

It’s still wide and notchless

Phone makers have turned to tall and skinny phones to both have a bigger number on the screen size section of a specs list and to save money, and phones with longer and more narrow aspect ratios have become the norm. I see the benefit for users here — a narrow phone is easier to reach across with your thumb. But that benefit is also a detriment if you didn’t need things to be more narrow to reach across and hit that “M” key on the keyboard. It means more of my hand is in constant contact with the edges of the phone’s display and even with really good palm rejection, I face false touches when trying to use a phone like the Galaxy S9.

Companies that make phones should build them to favor the majority of users. I get that. But it’s also really nice to know that there will be at least one phone in 2018 that won’t be narrow and more difficult for me to use.

It’s also nice that there won’t be a notch in the display just to have a notch because oftentimes app developers can’t be counted on to do the right thing. Google is almost certainly building a notch into at least one of its next Pixel phones and we already know that Android P has new tools that help manage a notched display. I expect that we’ll see broad software support for them in full screen apps somewhere around 2024 (the Motorola XOOM was going to get every developer to build app layouts for tablets, remember?) at the earliest. I’m good until then.

All day+ battery

One of the greatest things about the KEYone is its battery life. It’s possible to stretch most modern phones to multi-day battery life if you pay attention to how you use them or enable any smart battery tools, but for the KEYone it just works. And works.

I probably don’t use my phone the same way a lot of folks do, but it is always on, always syncing, and always gets charged every two days. I can stretch it to every third day if I try, but I’ll admit it’s a stretch. And while charging your phone every night isn’t a big deal, it’s nice to have that extra battery power when you need something like turn-by-turn directions in the middle of the day and can’t be near an outlet until late in the day.

I expect the KEY2 to have newer silicon inside which should mean even better power management. I don’t need better battery life than the KEYone gives me, but it’s great knowing I probably won’t have to go back to carrying around a battery pack.

Shortcuts

Not just that extra convenience key on the side we see in the latest leak, either. BlackBerry’s software and physical keys mean I can have 52 different different shortcuts to apps, contacts, directions, web pages and more at the ready at all times.

There are a few things I do a lot with my phone. Things like pop open my family’s shared grocery list, or send a message to my wife advising her about something that may have happened, wasn’t really my fault, and to not be mad at me OK? Love you so much honey. You get used to this sort of thing and anytime I am using a different phone I instinctively reach into my pocket ready to long press T as I pull out my phone to send a message.

I don’t want to stop getting used to it because this is the sort of feature I find useful and the kind that makes a phone worth buying. These keyboard shortcuts are as important to me (and others) as a good camera might be to someone else and I’m positive that they won;t be going away with the KEY2.

More: How to set up keyboard shortcuts on the BlackBerry KEYone

Better specs

I don’t chase specs on a phone. Because I do like to chase specs on a desktop PC (and watch money disappear like magic), I understand those who do and why, but I never got bitten by the bug when it comes to mobile. But I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t excited about the KEY2 having better specs.

The KEYone can get laggy. No more than most any other phone and not very often, but if you have it doing many things at once — especially if you’re using the BlackBerry Hub software — you’ll see it stutter from time to time. I’m hoping that further refinement to the software paired with a stronger CPU and 3 (or 4?) GB of RAM standard will mean those times are fewer and further between.

I have no idea what better specs on the KEY2 really mean when it comes to usability because numbers never tell the story. But I’m looking forward to finding out.

A secure work and play phone

First things first — I really prefer the open source way Google does security on the Pixel phones. I like peer review and wide-open bug bounty programs, and think that open-source software is always the best way to go when a security flaw is found. But a Pixel isn’t going to give me any of these other features listed here and BlackBerry takes mobile and IoT security just as seriously as Google does.

On an unlocked model, you can expect to see a security patch every month that one is needed on a BlackBerry. It’s important to realize that it’s not always needed because BlackBerry also adds in their own low-level security features that have mitigated an exploit before it happens to “standard” Android. Samsung can do something similar with Knox, and has done so in the past. I can still wish the code was available for others to review, but I’ll also know that BlackBerry can’t afford not to be on top of any security issue because that’s the company’s entire mobile draw.

I do need to say that as someone who is security-conscious it does bother me that BlackBerry has handed encryption keys to governments when ordered by a court to do so. Then again I never really expected the BlackBerry board to give a stiff middle finger to a court order so I’m not surprised.

The KEYboard

Finally, the biggest thing I’m excited about is another year with an awesome keyboard to use. When it comes right down to it, the keyboard is why i was interested in the KEYone to begin with.

A mobile with a keyboard means cramped typing on tiny keys. I won’t try to claim anything different or say that it’s as good as something like a Chromebook. But physical keys give real feedback and that means you can train yourself to use them just like you can any other keyboard.

I can literally type a message without ever once looking at the phone, and nine times out of ten any typos are corrected on the fly. I type better (when it comes to spelling) on my KEYone than I do on my desktop, thanks to autocorrect. You can’t do this nearly as well with a touchscreen keyboard. At least I can’t.

I’m also a fan of the capacitive strip between the keys and the screen, because it’s a great place for text correction or special characters to live. I know that’s not a very popular opinion, but I tend to favor function over form that way.

I know I’m not the only person looking forward to the KEY2 (sorry, Russell, it’s KEY2 — silly capitalization and all) when it launches. And that should be very soon, which is awesome for all of us.

Take a minute in the comments and let me know why you’re looking forward to it, and what you hope to see.

BlackBerry KEYone

• BlackBerry KEYone review
• KEYone vs. Priv: Battle of the BlackBerry keyboards
• BlackBerry KEYone specs
• The latest KEYone news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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