New Google Maps update is rolling out with location-based recommendations

Google showed off a new version of Google Maps, with features like personalized restaurant recommendations, at Google I/O 2018 in early May. Now, it looks like that new version of Google Maps is finally rolling out.

The changes could help make Google Maps a whole lot more useful than it already is. The overall interface is relatively similar to the old Google Maps, but you’ll now find two new tabs at the bottom of the screen — “Explore,” and “For You.”

As the name suggests, the “Explore” tab will show you things like recommended restaurants and cafes nearby, events coming up in the area, and more. It’s also a nice way to show a list of particular types of restaurants. After launching the new version of Maps, we found an “Outdoor dining” list, “Vegan restaurants” list, and even an “Outdoor drinking” list. You can also filter results to only show restaurants, only show places you can get coffee, and so on. It also keeps track of places you’ve visited on any trending lists.

The “For you” tab is similar in that it provides recommendations for restaurants, but it also shows newly opened venues nearby, allowing you to “Follow” certain areas that you might be interested in. It’s a nice way for new businesses to get the word out while allowing users to discover something new. The tab is a little bare for now, but Google says it will be bringing more content in upcoming weeks.

Another new feature leverages your location history to tell you how likely Google thinks you are to enjoy a restaurant. The feature, called “Your Match,” essentially shows a percentage match compared to places you visited before. You can also tell Google Maps exactly what you’re interested in by heading to Settings, selecting “Exploring Places,” and then tapping on “Food & drink preferences.”

Some of the new features should be rolling out globally, but the “For you” tab is currently only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Japan. The new version of the app is available now, though Google often rolls new apps out in stages, so if you don’t have it yet you may just have to sit tight for a few days.

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Spit-checking mouthguard can tell if athletes are tired or mentally drained

NextFlex

Xerox Parc, the legendary research and development center, is probably best known to readers as the research lab that Steve Jobs visited in the late 1970s, getting his first glimpse at the graphical user interface concept he later made famous with the Mac. But Parc has been involved in plenty of other innovative research projects over the years — and its latest is no different. Working with flexible hybrid electronics group NextFlex and the University of California, San Diego, Xerox’s Parc development lab has created a smart mouthguard biosensor which can detect early signs of dehydration, exhaustion, and mental engagement levels, based on nothing more than a sample of your saliva.

The sensor is made from electronic plastic foil and is designed to fit into an ordinary mouthguard for use in everything from workouts to military missions. It does this by analyzing the lactate and glucose naturally found in saliva and is able to send this information to a connected smartphone in close to real time.

“The electrochemical sensor system is fabricated on a small, flexible plastic foil that is mounted on a mouthguard,” David Schwartz, Parc’s manager of Energy Devices and Systems, told Digital Trends. “Sensing is through chronoamperometry, an established electrochemical measurement technique, based on enzymatic oxidation of target species. Chronoamperometry is known to have high sensitivity, specificity, and capability for quantification of analyte concentrations.”

The printed sensor electrodes in the mouthguard are replaceable and interchangeable with electrodes sensitive to other analytes including glucose, uric acid, and more. The electronics are protected from the saliva by an encapsulant, and the batteries are wirelessly rechargeable, which allows the battery electrodes to be completely enclosed.

“The background on the project is that there was some proof-of-concept work already completed with rigid circuit boards, and the question to be answered was, ‘How could you create a form factor that someone would fit comfortably into a person’s mouth so that they would actually wear it?’” Jason Marsh, NextFlex’s director of technology, told us. “Parc developed the sensor and conducted small-scale integration on a prototype. NextFlex’s capability is to take the prototype and scale it to be manufacturable in higher volumes.”

With a proof of concept demonstrated, both parties are now keen to commercialize the technology. The next step of this will likely involve fabricating multiple units for in-mouth testing.

Along with the concussion-diagnosing mouthguard we wrote about earlier, it seems that this is the decade when this otherwise innocuous piece of sports equipment gets smart.

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• Need to cut back on your salt? In-mouth sensor tracks sodium intake in real time

Future pain-free microneedles could be inspired by mosquitos

If you receive a painless injection courtesy of a new microneedle in the near future, you may owe a debt of gratitude to the mosquito. The reason? Because quite possibly everyone’s least favorite insect is the inspiration behind new work being carried out by researchers at Ohio State University.

“The reason we look at nature for cues is because nature has been through so much evolution to discover the simplest and most efficient methods,” Bharat Bhushan, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Ohio State, told Digital Trends. “In this work what interested us was the way that mosquitoes bite, since they are able to do this for several minutes without us feeling a thing. We wanted to use this to see if we could develop a painless microneedle.”

So far, they haven’t actually developed a prototype of this needle. What they have done is to take a much closer look at the unique components that enable the mosquito to bite people without causing them discomfort. The mosquito uses a combination of four things. These include the use of a saliva-based numbing agent during biting, a serrated design for the “needle,” vibration during the piercing process, and a combination of soft and hard parts on the proboscis, the insect’s elongated sucking mouthpart. This combination allows the mosquito to pierce the skin with just one-third of the force required for an artificial needle, while the numbing agent takes care of the rest.

Based on the team’s research, Bhushan suggests that it would be possible to create a microneedle containing two needles. One of these would inject a numbing agent, while the second could be used for drawing blood or injecting a drug. This second needle would also bost a serrated edge like the mosquito’s fascicle, be flexible and softer on the tip and sides, and vibrate when inserted. He claims that the materials and technology to create such a needle already exists.

While this could prove to be more expensive than traditional needles, it may be useful for cases in which children or adults have a phobia around the use of needles. “It could also be in cases of drug delivery in patients, where the needle needs to be in for a long period of time,” Bhushan continued.

This isn’t the only pain-free needle project we’ve covered at Digital Trends. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are busy developing a new smart injection technology that promises a way to inject drugs without the needles by blasting them into your body at Mach 0.7. Still, we could do a lot worse than having competing projects designed to bring us pain-free injections, right?

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• Drug-infused 3D-printed dentures promise to bite back against infections

Rare physical copies of ‘Fortnite’ are selling for up to $1,000 on Amazon

Gamers are reportedly paying over-inflated prices for physical copies of Fortnite. On Amazon, third-party sellers are pricing the physical game at up to $999 for a new copy, up to $359 for a used, “like new” copy, and up to $195 for a used, “acceptable” copy. Meanwhile, over on eBay, customers are actually shelling out $450 for a physical copy.  

The reason for the price hike isn’t anything new. Once a product becomes scarce, third-party sellers inflate the price of the remaining stock to outlandish proportions knowing that someone surfing the web will shell out the big bucks. In the case of Fortnite, physical copies of the original game haven’t appeared on store shelves for months. 

Fortnite is a collaboration between People Can Fly (Painkiller) and Epic Games (Unreal, Gears of War). Epic published the game digitally as a paid-for early access title for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, MacOS, and Windows 10 while Gearbox Publishing handled the physical copies for retail stores. Launched on July 25, 2017, all versions of the co-op survival game relied on a player-versus-environment Save the World scenario that blended the fort-building mechanics of Minecraft with the survival shooter aspects of Left 4 Dead. 

Along with the Save the World mode was the Fortnite Battle Royale mode that pits 100 players against each other until there is a last player or team standing. Players parachute onto a large island, gather weapons, ammo, and resources, and build forts to protect themselves and their fellow team members against the opposing team until the very end. 

That said, Epic Games spun off Fortnite Battle Royale as a free-to-play game on all platforms — including the Nintendo Switch and iOS — powered by in-game micro-transactions. For example, on the Nintendo Switch, you can spend your hard-earned cash on outfits, harvesting tools, emotes, and the Wingman Starter Pack. You can purchase in-game content using V-Bucks you buy with real money.  

Epic Games plans to re-tool the Save the World portion to support the free-to-play platform later this year, but you can currently purchase the $40 “Standard Founder’s Pack” for Windows 10, MacOS, Xbox One and PlayStation. It includes the Save the World campaign, four exclusive in-game banner icons, six daily loot piñata packs, and an exclusive Founder’s Loot piñata pack. The $60 “deluxe” edition adds a rare starter weapon pack, an exclusive Founder’s pistol, and more. 

Those prices are seemingly small potatoes given fans are willing to shell out $400 or more for a physical copy of the game. But for those fans, physical copies are not only a rare find, but they contain the original pre-free-to-play version. They’re a collector’s item providing an untouched product that fans are eager to purchase, no matter the cost. 

Fortnite swag is just as valuable. Recent Fortnite-related goodie bags distributed by Epic Games included an exclusive in-game spray stemming from E3 2018, codes for 2,500 V-bucks ($25), the game’s currency, and more. Fans are scooping up variants of these goodie bags, paying up to $300.  

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Razer Blade 15 (2018) review

Research Center:

Razer Blade (2018)

Gamers have grown up.

Plenty of us love to play games, but also have jobs and computing needs outside the arena. We want the best of both worlds — something as sleek as a MacBook, but with the horsepower of a desktop command station. It’s a goal Razer has always shot for with the Blade, but past iterations made compromises to stay on target.

With the 2018 Blade, though, Razer may have finally done it without any downsides – aside from the price. The new Blade starts at $1,900 for an 8th-gen Core i7, Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. Our review unit, upgraded to GTX 1070 Max-Q and a 512GB SSD, was a whopping $2,600.

A masterclass in laptop design

Razer has always tried to market itself as the Apple of gaming, focusing on devices that are expensive, but also innovative and robust. Past versions of Razer laptops, however, have strayed almost too far into the Apple camp. Laptops like the Razer Blade 14 and Razer Blade Stealth looked very much like matte black MacBooks. Yes, yes, there’s only so many ways to design a metal rectangle, but the resemblance was uncanny.

The new Razer Blade 15 bucks that trend with a fresh take on the thin-and-light gaming laptop. It’s still refined, and it still has a unibody aluminum chassis, all black except the growing green snake logo on the lid. However, Razer has ditched the indented lines on the top and rounded corners in favor of a simpler, boxy look. It’s a striking aesthetic that ensures no one will mistake the Blade for a MacBook again. The new Blade is also slightly trimmed down from 0.7 to 0.66 inches yet has become only more durable in the process. Good luck finding any flex or give anywhere on this device.

Good luck finding any flex or give anywhere on this device.

The Razer Blade 15 weighs 4.5 pounds, which is half an ounce heavier than the previous version. There’s a good reason for that. The screen has bumped up to 15.6 inches, but Razer has lopped off the display bezels to just 0.19 inches, which is even thinner than the Dell XPS 15. That keeps the overall footprint within millimeters of the same size as the 2017 model, despite having a larger screen. The top and bottom bezels are still large, but that gives Razer room to leave the 720p webcam where it belongs.

Razer isn’t alone in this new category of thin-and-light gaming laptops. Hot on its heels are the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15, both of which are just as light, thin, and powerful. What sets the Razer Blade 15 apart is its uncompromising build quality and serious, subtle design. There’s no ugly hinges, seams, or air vents to be found here. It’ll cost you a couple hundred bucks, but if you want something that cuts through the gaming design clichés, the Razer Blade is the one you want.

Razer Blade (2018) Compared To

Digital Storm Equinox

Dell Inspiron 15 7577

HP Omen 15

Origin EON15-S

Asus ROG Zephyrus

MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro

Alienware 13 R3

MSI GS60 Ghost Pro

Alienware 15 (2015)

Asus ROG G501

Digital Storm Triton

Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Edition

AVADirect Clevo P157SM-A

MSI Global GT60 Dominator Pro

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500

Port selection is an area where you’d think gaming machines and thin-and-light laptops clash. Gamers typically want as many legacy ports as possible, while modern laptops like the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Pro rely more heavily on USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.

The Razer Blade offers a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, but also three full-sized USB-A, an HDMI port, and Mini DisplayPort. The two missing connections are an Ethernet port and an SD card slot. While some will miss those, we think Razer did a respectable job picking the right ports to keep. Despite the inclusion of USB-C, the Razer Blade uses a proprietary power port – likely due to its high performance and power draw at maximum load.

Great inputs, a questionable keyboard layout

Razer Blade has a history making PC peripherals, so we expect the company’s integrated keyboards and touchpads to be excellent — and for the most part, it’s a homerun. The touchpad is now considerably larger than before, stretching across the palmrests more than any laptop other than the MacBook Pro. The smooth, glass surface uses Windows Precision Touchpad drivers, meaning gestures are responsive. It’s hands-down one of our favorite touchpads on any machine.

There’s no sidestepping the fact that Razer made an unnecessary change to the keyboard layout.

The keyboard is good, but more divisive. It’s not the key travel, RGB lighting options, or even spacing that’s the issue — all of that is great. The problem is the layout. Located in the bottom right corner of the keyboard, right between the shift key and the question mark, is an up-arrow key. While this means you get a full-sized up and down arrow key, the trade-off doesn’t feel worth it. We found ourselves consistently hitting the up-arrow key instead of typing a question mark. While we familiarized ourselves with it after a time, there’s no sidestepping the fact that Razer made a completely unnecessary change to the standard layout.

Less bezel, faster refresh rate

One of the reasons Razer claims it moved to a 15.6 screen was a wider availability of high-quality panels to choose from — and that shows on the Razer Blade. There’s now three options; 60Hz 1080p, 144Hz 1080p, and a 60Hz 4K touchscreen. We think most people will want the midrange 144Hz 1080p model, which is what Razer sent us for review. The higher-end 4K model aimed at video editors, while the lower-end option is more for less intense gaming, or shoppers who find even the base Razer Blade expensive.

Though it doesn’t top our tests in any category, the Razer Blade has a fantastic IPS panel on it. The colors in games really pop, thanks to its wide color gamut and low average color error at 2.16. In no area does it compete with something like the 15-inch MacBook Pro or the Dell XPS 15 (especially in contrast or Adobe RGB color gamut), but compared to your average gaming laptop, this thing dominates. Even if you go for the 1080p model, games look fantastic, and the image quality is among the best you’ll find on a gaming laptop. But let’s be honest — it comes to games, what people interested in this laptop really care about is the smooth 144Hz screen.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

The speaker grill is located on the keyboard deck, which is great placement. Sound quality is louder and clearer than your average laptop, but not as good as the most recent MacBook Pro.

The sharpest blade in the toolkit

The Razer Blade 15 features the Intel Core i7-8750H, which is an extremely fast CPU. Its multi-core score in Geekbench destroys mainstream chips like the Core i7-8650U in the Surface Book 2, or the 7th-gen Intel Core processor in the previous Razer Blade. For a more demanding task, we encoded a 4K video in Handbrake on the Razer Blade, and it finished in just three minutes and 23 seconds. That’s impressive. It’s second only to the new Core i9-7850HK in the Alienware 17 R5, a much larger and more expensive gaming laptop.

However, the Razer Blade 15 isn’t the only laptop with this chip. The Digital Storm Equinox features the same six-core CPU, as do other thin-and-light gaming laptops like the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15. We haven’t tested those yet, but we’d expect to see similar results.

Razer has included high-speed storage in the Blade as well, specifically, a Samsung NVMe 512GB SSD. Configurations start as low as 256GB and max out at 512GB. Meanwhile, 16GB dual-channel RAM comes standard on all models. Although you can’t configure beyond that, Razer has made swapping out both storage and memory easy, something laptops like the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin or Surface Book 2 lack.

Don’t underestimate its gaming skills

None of the advances Razer made in terms of design or function would matter if cut corners in gaming. Fortunately, the opposite is true. The Razer Blade now includes the option of either the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q or 1070 Max-Q. The 1070 is new to the Blade this year, and it’s what we tested in our benchmarks and gaming tests.

The Razer Blade handles 1080p gaming no sweat, easily hovering around 80 frames per second in most games at max settings. Even in a demanding game like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the Razer Blade churned out 53 frames per second with Ultra settings. No, you can’t play at 60 FPS in every game – but you can in most. That’s impressive given the new Blade’s size. Consider, for example, HP’s Spectre x360 15-inch. It has an Intel G-Series chip with AMD Radeon Vega graphics on-board, and it’s similar in size and weight to the Blade, but its game performance is roughly half that of the new Blade with GTX 1070 Max-Q.

While our review unit had a 1080p display, we tried the Razer Blade on higher resolution monitors, too. We still saw solid performance at 1440p resolution, especially in games like Civilization VI, where we managed 62 frames per second on ultra detail. We also saw 46 frames per second in Battlefield 1 on Ultra. These results mean you can pair the Blade with a quality 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor and see enjoyable results.

The Razer Blade handles 1080p no sweat, hovering around 80 frames per second in most games at maximum settings.

If you venture up to 4K, only lighter fare like Rocket League or Fortnite will be playable with settings maxed – but no gaming laptop has conquered 4K yet.

This performance was made possible with a complete redesign of the Blade’s thermal solution. The previous Razer Blade was known for throttling the GPU, a common complaint against it. This time around, a new vapor chamber cooling system ensures that throttling is not an issue, even in the most intense gaming sessions.

With that said, the Razer Blade still runs hot when playing games. Aluminum doesn’t handle heat as well as plastic. We even noticed the heat in the palmrests, which is a bit unusual. You’re not going to want this machine in your lap while you play The Witcher 3, but that’s true of most gaming laptops.

Solid battery life completes the puzzle

All of this would be for naught if the Razer Blade lacked decent battery life, but we can report the Blade lasts long enough to at least hang with the rest of its competitors.

We saw around seven and a half hours of battery life consistently, whether it was in day-to-day productivity work, or in our video loop test. That’s not anywhere near what you’ll get with battery life champs like the Surface Book 2, but compared to your average gaming laptop, you’ll be getting well over twice the life on a charge.

The Blade did struggle in more intensive benchmarks like our demanding web browsing test, where it only lasted 4 hours and 25 minutes. Keep that in mind before buying. The Blade performs well for a gaming laptop and felt adequate in our use, but it can’t compare to smaller, less powerful laptops built with frequent travel in mind.

Our Take

The Razer Blade is a work-hard, game-hard laptop. In a work setting, it blends in with sleek laptops like MacBook Pro or Surface Book 2. In a gaming setting, it’s every bit as capable as a traditional gaming laptop. You’ll see better battery life out of the Surface Book 2, and more frames per second out of the Alienware 17, but for someone who wants the best of both worlds, this is as close as it gets.

Any alternatives?

The Razer Blade isn’t alone in its ambitions. The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15 both feature identical components, as does the Digital Storm Equinox. They’re all less expensive, but none of them can compete with the design, build quality, and battery life of the Razer Blade.

If you’re someone who plays mostly less-demanding games, the Dell XPS 15 or Surface Book 2 might be a good alternative, too.

How long will it last?

Though you can’t upgrade things like the processor or graphics card, the Razer Blade features top-of-the-line specs to ensure they won’t be outdated for many years. The expandability of RAM and storage and excellent build quality also add to the overall longevity of the device.

Razer has a standard 1-year warranty, which isn’t great, but it is in line with the offerings from nearly all major manufactures.

Should you buy it?

Yup. If you want a laptop that looks as good as it games.

Power up USB-C compatible devices with Google’s $49 Pixelbook 45W Wall Charger

Charge your USB-C devices quickly with Power Delivery.

Amazon has the Google Pixelbook USB-C Charger on sale for just $49 right now. Today’s deal marks its lowest price ever and an $11 drop from what it sells for regularly.

This compact wall adapter is not just a good fit for the Pixelbook; you can also use it with various other USB-C devices. It features USB Power Delivery 3.0 technology and a 45W output so you can quickly charge up. It comes with a six-foot-long USB-C cable and features strong reviews from a handful of customers at Amazon currently.

See at Amazon

Apple Engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober Working on Anti-Motion Sickness VR Technology for Use in Autonomous Vehicles

Engineer and popular YouTuber Mark Rober, who is known for his science-related videos that can rack up millions of views, works at Apple as an engineer in the special projects group, reports Variety.

The site says that Rober has been working on Apple’s virtual reality projects, including “using VR as on-board entertainment for self-driving cars.” On Rober’s LinkedIn page, it says he works as a product designer at an unspecified company he first joined in 2015, suggesting he’s been with Apple for some time.

To explain the kinds of things Rober may be working on, Variety points to a pair of Apple patent applications that cover an “Immersive Visual Display” and an “Augmented Virtual Display,” which were filed in 2016 and describe virtual reality systems that could be used by passengers in self-driving cars. The patents list Mark Rober as a primary inventor.

Both of the patents describe a VR headset that could help alleviate in-car motion sickness in autonomous vehicles, with one suggesting replacing the view of the real world with virtual environments that include visual cues to match physical motions the passenger is experiencing and the other describing virtual content that appears as a fixed object in the external environment.

One of the patents suggests that a virtual reality system for cutting down on motion sickness could aid in productivity because it would allow passengers (which would include all persons in an autonomous vehicle as a driver would not be required) to perform work while the vehicle is in motion without experiencing motion sickness. It also suggests VR could provide “enhanced virtual experiences” to passengers.

Many passengers in vehicles may experience motion sickness. Typically, this is not the case for the driver. However, with the arrival of autonomous vehicles, the driver becomes a passenger, and thus may want to occupy themselves while, for example, riding to work. Passengers in conventional or autonomous vehicles may, for example, want to read a book, or work on their notebook computer.

Apple is currently working on autonomous driving software that is being tested in Lexus SUVs that are out on the road near its Cupertino headquarters, and the technology is reportedly being implemented into employee shuttles.

Apple has inked a deal with Volkswagen to use Volkswagen T6 Transporter vans as self-driving shuttles to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s not clear if and when Apple plans to implement the VR technology Rober is working on into the shuttles or other future autonomous car projects, but there are many concepts that Apple patents that never make it into finished products.

Prior to joining Apple, Rober spent eight years as mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he also served as a product designer at Morph Costumes.

He also maintains a popular YouTube channel with 3.4 million subscribers, sharing science-related videos like “Lemon Powered Supercar,” “How to Survive a Grenade Blast,” “How Much Pee is in Your Pool,” and “iPhone ATM PIN Code Hack – How to Prevent.”

Related Roundups: Apple Car, Apple VR Project
Discuss this article in our forums

Amazon Alexa App for iOS Gains Voice Controls

Amazon today updated its Alexa app for iOS to add a promised voice control feature that’s designed to allow iOS users to tap the Alexa button and use voice commands to ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, check the weather, and more.

As noted by TechCrunch, Amazon introduced voice control to its Alexa app for Android back in January, and at the time, said the feature would be expanded to iOS devices “soon.”

Soon turned out to mean six months, but starting today, iOS users can speak with Alexa in the Alexa iOS app and ask standard Alexa questions. There is no native functionality, so pushing an in-app button to activate Alexa is required rather than just saying the “Alexa” trigger phrase.

The new voice control feature will be rolled out to all iOS users “in the coming days.”

The Amazon Alexa app can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tags: Amazon, Alexa
Discuss this article in our forums

Honor View 10 Review: The budget flagship king?

If you’re looking for a premium smartphone in 2018, you have two choices.  You can walk into a carrier store and throw down $800+ on a name you know like Samsung, LG, or Apple. Or, you can save a bit of dough, go with someone you may not have heard of and reap the rewards.

Today, we’re talking about one of those less known phone companies, Huawei. Huawei is a Chinese company that produces some of the best phones in the world, even if you don’t know it. Huawei has a sub-brand, named Honor, that focuses on producing value devices. If Huawei is putting out the $800 flagship, Honor is putting out the $500 premium midrange device.

That premium mid-range device is named the Honor View 10 and it can be picked up for about $499 here in the US and similar prices in the EU. It features flagship specs, performance, and features- which leaves us wondering why you’d want to grab anything else. Why donate $300 to a huge corporation?

We spent the last four weeks with the Honor View 10 and here’s what we found out.

Key Specs

• Display: 5.99-inch 1080p IPS LCD
• Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 970
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP12
• RAM: 6 GB
• Storage: 64/128 GB (expandable)
• Battery: 3,750 mAh
• Camera: Rear dual 16 MP (f/1.8) + 20 MP Monochrome, front 13 MP (f/2.0)
• Software: Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.1
• Headphone jack: Yes0

Hardware

The Honor View 10 isn’t following a trend. If every phone out there today is a glass sandwich, the Honor View 10 is an aluminum beast. The back of the device is a anodized aluminum with antenna lines tracing the top and bottom. Two big cameras stick out near the top and that’s it besides some branding. While others are focused on the premium look and feel of glass, Honor went with a much more durable material and, for my money, it feels fantastic too. You’ll never need to worry about back glass shattering or dealing with fingerprints here. That gives peace of mind that we haven’t felt for a while.

The front of the device houses a  5.99-inch 1080p IPS LCD panel. Notably, the panel that Honor used has an 18:9 aspect ratio like most phones released today. It gets incredibly bright while maintaining close to true colors. You’re not going to get the massive blown out colors like you’d see on something from Samsung. We do miss the AMOLED technology here, but if Honor is going to with an LCD display, we’re glad they went with a really good one.

While some may lament the lack of a 2K display, I think Honor made the right choice here. Not only does the display look fantastic with no obvious pixels poking out, it saves power. Sure, an AMOLED panel would save more, but by dropping down to a 1080p resolution, the phone doesn’t have to work as hard to power the display. So, not only do you get a quality display, but there are some battery benefits too. That’s a win-win in my book.

Just under the display is something we’re seeing less and less of today: a button. The fingerprint scanner resides just below the display in one of the only instances of an 18:9 display with a physical button on the front. We appreciate what Honor was trying to do here, but playing finger gymnastics to hit the scanner sometimes doesn’t feel great.

That fingerprint scanner isn’t just a scanner, though. Through the software, you can turn on gestures that will allow you to get rid of the software keys and just swipe and tap the scanner to perform your back, home, and multitasking functions. We love it when OEMs add this into a device, but the long and tall nature of the Honor 10 can make it a bit difficult to use. I eventually went back to software keys.

Here’s something that most reviews won’t point out, but the power button and volume keys are awesome. Not only are they placed in a perfect position, but they’re so clicky too. I just love pressing these things and Honor made the power button textured so it’s easy to tell what you’re pressing before you do. It’s a real turnoff when a phone comes with mushy, unsatisfying buttons. Sure, we’d never not recommend a phone for that reason, but it’s little details like this that make it easy to fall in love with this phone.

Internals

The biggest question I get when I tell people about this phone is, where did the cut corners? That’s a fair question because you can’t expect an $800 product for $500. When I tell people to take a guess, they ask if Honor used an older or underpowered processor, that it lacks the RAM and storage of a 2018 flagship, or perhaps doesn’t have great battery life.

They’re always shocked to find out that, amazingly, every word of what they just said was wrong.

The Honor View 10 has a HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC. That’s another name that won’t be familiar to the vast majority of consumers out there. The Kirin 970 is Huawei’s own SoC produced in-house and it comes with a Neural Processing Unit (more on that later). It compares favorably to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, 2017’s favorite processor.

Now, sure, the Kirin 970 isn’t the most powerful SoC out there today, but ask yourself if you heard anyone complain about last years flagship processors. I didn’t think so. The story is the exact same thing here. In my day-to-day usage of the Honor View 10, I experienced almost no stuttering at all. That can be the death knell of a great smartphone experience, but interestingly the only time I had problems was in the Google pane to the left of your home screen. Everywhere else was perfect.

We also see a healthy amount of RAM and storage here too. Our review unit has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. It also includes a hybrid SIM/microSD card tray that allows you to either use two SIM cards or one SIM and one microSD for up to an additional 256 GB of storage. In everyday usage, we saw excellent multitasking with apps that we opened days ago still being held in RAM. The storage obviously speaks for itself, but in a day and age where we’re pinning more music playlists to our phone and saving movies to local storage, it’s always excellent to have more storage than you need.

Battery life is always a concern as we’re getting more demanding applications and always-on services. Luckily, Honor was able to stuff in a 3,750 mAh battery somehow. The phone is still incredibly thin. It measures in at .28 in, leading phones like the LG V30 (.29 in) and Google Pixel 2 XL (.31 in). But, Honor somehow managed to pack in one of the largest batteries on the market today.

Not only is the battery huge, but it charges up quickly too. We depleted the battery on our review unit then charged it for 30 minutes to end up with an impressive 44% of our battery. We repeated this test three times and ended up with 44% twice and 43% once. While not the most scientifically rigorous test, it does indicate that even if you forget to charge your phone overnight, you can throw your phone on the charger while you’re getting ready for work and have enough juice to get through the workday.

We can’t rave enough about how good the battery life on the Honor View 10 is. Battery life in phones has been getting better in the last few years, but this phone takes it to a new level. Instead of the standard full day of battery life and three to four hours of screen on time you can expect out of most phones, the Honor View 10 can easily get you two days of battery.

Throughout our test period, there was only one day where I needed to charge up before the end of the day and that was because I was watching movies on it all day in the car. You should expect at least six hours of screen on time with decent usage.

Software

The Honor View 10 has a software has Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.1 atop. EMUI is one of the heaviest Android skins out there today and might make Android purists recoil a bit. While EMUI isn’t for everyone, it definitely has some strengths that I think get overlooked when people are looking for a new device.

Yes, the skin does feel like Mountain View and Cupertino got drunk one night and had a baby, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Where in past iterations EMUI might have gotten the worst traits of this bastardization, we’ve seen a subtle shift and refinement recently. We still hate some things like the share menu, but there’s more to like here than dislike.

You’ll find a please color pallet that doesn’t mirror stock Android but does incorporate some elements. We see lots of blues and whites here that look pleasing to the eye. If you don’t like what comes on the device, you can easily change it with the included theme app. It isn’t the most powerful theme engine we’ve seen on a device but it should get the job done for most.

We were also pleased by some of the small but smart software additions. Actions like swiping up from the bottom of the lock screen to reveal a toolbar with the flashlight, a calculator and more that feels natural. Additionally, we appreciate the ability to run a second instance of some apps. This comes in handy for monitoring multiple social media accounts, among other things.

Going back to the lockscreen, there’s one more thing we love, and one we miss. First off, we definitely miss the inclusion of an always-on display. The Honor View 10 has an IPS LCD display instead of an AMOLED, so we understand why Huawei might have omitted this here. But, we have seen others with LCD displays include this feature and so it might be something Huawei should consider adding later.

Instead of an always-on display, you can enable raise-to-wake the device. Removing the phone from your pocket or picking it up off a table will activate the display and give you a rundown of your notifications and the time. It’s a nice consolation prize if we’re not going to get an always-on display.

Face unlock is becoming a trendy feature with a ton of different device makers adding it into their devices. Huawei has included it with the View 10 and has done a great job with it. I generally have issues with Face Unlock with most devices but the Honor View 10 recognizes me and unlocks in less than a second.

Camera

We’ve been trained to expect poor cameras on budget devices, but that’s not the case here. We loved our time with the Honor View 10 if for no other reason than the pictures we were able to snap.

In well-lit conditions, the Honor View 10 can stand up to other cameras on much more expensive phones. While we did some blown out bright spots in extremely bright conditions like our day at the ballpark, these were few and far between. It’s always disappointing to take a bad picture, but even when the Honor View 10 fell behind other devices, it did a good job.

Where the phone struggles is in very poorly lit situations. Low-light photography is a challenge for almost every device maker, but Huawei chose to not include optical image stabilization in the View 10. This hurts low-light performance and video camera stability and it showed in our low-light shots. You can still get usable pictures, and you’ll have more success if you know what you’re doing in Photoshop, but we were disappointed.

We mentioned the Neural Processing Unit earlier, and the camera is where we see that used the most. Huawei says that the NPU helps capture pictures faster and create better pictures in the process. It also helps with real-time text translation in apps like the Microsoft Translator app. Since it’s impossible to turn the NPU off, we can’t test how it really functions, but it’s handy to have none-the-less.

A.I. is a huge buzzword right now Huawei is solidly on that bandwagon. While we can’t remember a time where we picked up our phone and were wowed by the A.I. capabilities, we do have hope for the future. Right now this feels like an answer to a problem we never had, but we can definitely see the potential of the technology. Huawei might be in the driver seat by including the NPU in their SoC.

Only time will tell.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to love about the Honor View 10. It’s incredibly well built, there are some great software features, and camera performance is pretty decent. Sure, there are things we feel that are missing or could be improved but since there are no perfect phones on the market today, you could say that about anything.

The Honor View 10 is one of the first phones that I don’t feel like I need a case for. The body is fantastic and I honestly feel like if I get some scrapes, dents, or scratches that it’ll add to the character of the phone. In an age where we try to keep something looking pristine and perfect, this is a fantastic departure from the norm.

My big question is how the software will age over time. Huawei has been in the limelight in 2018 a few times and most of them weren’t positive. A potential carrier deal with AT&T and Verizon for the Mate 10 Pro fell through because of pressure from Congress. Even now, Capitol Hill is probing the relationship between Google and Huawei.

To recommend this device is to go in knowing that Huawei may pull out of the country altogether at some point. While the US Government seems to favor protectionism in the new administration, Chinese companies could feel the heat more than ever. If you don’t think it could happen, just ask ZTE.

What does that mean for the future of Chinese phones like the Honor View 10? We could see a future where the device sees no software updates because the mess going on right now.

But for the device strictly by itself, we love it. It feels fantastic in the hand, performs like a champ, and you don’t have to pay flagship prices. If you’re comfortable with an uncertain future, we recommend it.

Read next: HUAWEI Watch 2 Classic Review

Apple iOS 12 hands-on review

Last year’s iOS 11 update focused on adding a little more customization into the iPhone and iPad, along with a redesign of some parts of the operating system and key services like the App Store. Things are a little different with this year’s iOS 12 update, though. Yes, there are many new features that improve productivity on your iPhone, but there’s also a big effort to help people manage screen time, making it easier to stay offline.

The iOS 12 public beta is now available for download, and we took it for a spin. If you want to check out every single new feature in the update, we’ve rounded them all up in a handy guide.

Under the hood improvements

With iOS 12, Apple wants to deliver an OS that’s faster and more responsive across all iOS devices, which is why the update works on more iPhone and iPad devices than ever before. This means ramping up CPU performance to its highest state for performance and ramping it down to preserve battery life. Other improvements include animations that are smoother and faster.

The premise is that you should notice hefty performance boosts on older iPhones, and we certainly did. We installed the beta on an iPhone 6S and an iPhone 7 Plus, and performance is fluid and fast.

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

Sadly, we didn’t see much of an improvement in battery life. Our iPhone 7 Plus had an 88 percent battery efficiency rating — which means we shouldn’t have to replace it just yet — but running iOS 12 killed our battery fast. On a work day, we often found ourselves at about 5 percent by 3:30 p.m. after using it only for sending text messages and some social media. Apps also tended to crash more often, but it’s a beta so we’re not too surprised. Hopefully we see some improvement here with the final version, though at that point we may have to replace the battery on the iPhone 7 Plus anyway.

We didn’t have any problems like apps crashing on the iPhone X. The app switcher was swift and fluid as usual. Battery life didn’t take a noticeable hit either, but we also didn’t use it as our primary phone for a full day. We’ll be doing more testing to see if there are any noticeable changes to performance or battery life.

Screen Time takes commitment

Over the past few years, there has been conscientious discussion about smartphone addiction. To help people manage their smartphone usage, iOS 12 adds a new section in the Settings app called Screen Time. It offers a summary of your smartphone use, and the ability to set time limits on specific apps.

Seeing how much time we spent on our device and on specific apps, and how many times we unlock our phone is interesting, but the novelty quickly wears off. We didn’t necessarily feel as though looking at these stats would change our phone habits. We are happy it’s here, though, for those that do want to keep tabs — especially parents.

The Screen Time features also aren’t as restrictive as we’d like. If you set a limit to how long you can use an app, you’re conveniently provided with the ability to override the limit, or simply add 15 more minutes when time is up via a pop-up notification. You don’t even even have to go the Settings app to turn the limit off, which makes it far too easy to simply tap to ignore the limit and keep scrolling through. If someone is taking the time to set up an App Limit, chances are they’d want stricter enforcement to make sure they are adhering to their own Screen Time rules.

Screen Time requires personal restraint, because otherwise it’s easy to continue your old habits.

We also wish App Limits weren’t separated by categories — like Social Media, Entertainment, Productivity, and more. Rather than bundling apps together, it’d be nice to choose individual apps in case we don’t want a break from one of the apps attached to that category.

The “Downtime” feature, which allows you to schedule a window of time where notifications are disabled, is a little more customizable as there’s an “Always Allowed” setting where you can choose apps. The idea here is to make sure work-related apps don’t disturb you when you’re at home, for example, and it works well enough. Like all of these Screen Time features, though, Downtime requires personal restraint, because otherwise it’s easy to continue your old habits.

Screen Time is certainly a great initiative from Apple to implement into its smartphones, and even Google is doing the same in the upcoming version of Android. We don’t these tools are going to change smartphone addiction — at least not any time soon — but at least there are now some methods people can use to curb habits.

Siri keeps you on track

Siri is finally a little more useful in iOS 12. With Siri Shortcuts, the voice assistant is capable of much more via quick actions that can all be assigned through the new Shortcuts app. Since the feature is still in beta, there isn’t much you can do at the moment other than customize voice commands to trigger a specific action. For instance, by telling Siri our home address (or whatever phrase you want), we can have the Lyft app launch immediately.

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

But one of our favorite improvements to Siri is Siri Suggestions. Since we already use the Spotlight Search tool on a daily basis to access certain apps, suggestions conveniently show up underneath and they’re genuinely helpful. If we’re having a conversation with a friend via text and either haven’t responded or tend to text them more often than others, Siri suggests to send a message. When we missed a phone call from a family member, we received a suggestion to make a call back. These buttons are one click actions, so it doesn’t require much effort to follow through on Siri’s suggestions, which is handy.

Even though Siri’s ability to transcribe hasn’t gotten any better in iOS 12, we’re happy to see it’s able to make itself useful in some way.

A few redesigned apps

In iOS 12, Apple introduced Measure — an app that utilizes ARKit to measure objects and spaces in the real world with the phone’s camera. While the app still recommends to use a tape measure or measuring stick for precise measurements, we found it to be quite accurate if you need a rough estimate. It’s one of those apps you’ll only use for specific instances, though.

We installed the beta on an iPhone 6S and an iPhone 7 Plus, and performance is fluid and fast.

The Photos app also received a few upgrades. With a new “For You” tab, photos are all organized based on highlights — whether it was a concert in Philadelphia or a trip to Spain, the tab neatly places them into albums to look through. With a much more refined search, we were able to look up specific venues or places to easily to find photos.

A few other apps got some love in this update. The Stocks app, which most people probably uninstall, now has Apple News built in, and the Voice Memo app has been revamped to look more contemporary. You can check out our full impressions on most of the apps that received a redesign here.

Less notification fatigue

One of the biggest changes in iOS 12 is in the Notification Center, specifically with notifications. Notifications are a necessity when it comes to staying on top of important alerts, but it has always been a little cluttered on iOS. It’s why Apple is stealing a feature from Android. Grouped notifications are here, and they dramatically improve the iOS experience for the better.

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

Now when you receive multiple notifications from Twitter, for example, the notifications sit bundled together in one bubble. Tap on it to expand them all, which also allows you to then interact with them individually. It may sound small, but now when you visit your Notification Center, you won’t just see an endless stream of notifications just from one app. It’s much more manageable and easier to choose which stack of notifications we want to look at first depending on importance.

If you don’t want specific apps grouped together, you can choose to turn it off in your Settings, but we love grouped notifications enough that we never want to go back.

Do Not Disturb during bedtime isn’t effective, yet

When Do Not Disturb was first introduced, there weren’t any customization options other than the ability to toggle it on and off. With iOS 12, it’s now possible to set specific time frames for it to automatically kick in and turn off without having to worry about doing it manually.

The one feature we were most excited to try was Do Not Disturb during bedtime mode, which prevents notifications from popping up on the lock screen during scheduled times. When it’s turned on, a notification sits on your lockscreen letting you know it’s on, and that all notifications and calls will be silenced.

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

We’re disappointed to learn that it’s far too easy to see notifications by simply swiping up on the lockscreen. Like Screen Time, the feature isn’t strict enough to help us kick the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and checking notifications, as we found ourselves subconsciously swiping up. Apple should have required you to input a passcode.

Again, trying to make sure you adhere to Do Not Disturb will take some personal willpower. It’s going to take a little while until we condition ourselves to not find some way to check our notifications in the middle of the night. When bedtime Do Not Disturb ends, we do like the “good morning” greeting that pops up on the lock screen along with the weather for the day.

Injecting more fun into iMessage and FaceTime

Following the abundance of iMessage features Apple released with iOS 10, we were bummed that iOS 11 failed to include any fun features. Thankfully, iOS 12 redeems itself with new a few new capabilities. Not only can you create a Memoji of yourself through a quick and simple process, but you can also use them as stickers within the camera app on iMessage. Granted, you still need an iPhone X.

One minor tweak we have yet to get used to is the Photos app, which is now located in the app drawer in iMessage. Rather than having to send photos through iMessage by tapping on the camera button and then on your photo album, iOS 12 makes it easier to access through one step.

Another feature that has taken far too long for Apple to add is group FaceTime, which lets you video chat with up to 32 people in one session. You can also make the video chats more fun by adding the same stickers, emojis and Memojis to them as well. While we have yet to try the new FaceTime feature, we’ll be sure to update this story when we do.

Conclusion

Like with almost every iOS update, iOS 12 offers a more seamless user experience on the iPhone and iPad. Whether it’s staying more organized with grouped notifications or Siri Shortcuts, the update makes it easier to get simple things done by allowing the device to adapt to your behavior overtime, thanks to machine learning.

While its biggest initiative — Screen Time — offers a variety of different ways to help decrease our smartphone dependency, it’s requires the user to participate fully. Understandable, though we think Apple could be a little stricter with restrictions.

We’re happy with iOS 12, because it made us think “finally” for a lot of features introduced, such as group Facetime and grouped notifications. These changes may seem small, but they greatly impact the everyday experience. We think it’s worth downloading the beta if you’re on an iPhone X, but suggest waiting until the final version is released in the Fall for those on an older device like the iPhone 7 Plus or older.

Editors’ Recommendations

• iOS 12’s best new features
• Live updates: How to watch Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote
• Android P vs. iOS 12: How have Google and Apple changed notifications?
• Here are five new features we want to see in Apple’s iOS 12
• Everything Apple announced at WWDC, from iOS 12 to MacOS Mojave