These amazing future transport technologies promise to supercharge your commute

You can keep your Teslas, your McLarens, and your Aston Martins (we’ll take them if you’re dead set on getting rid of them, of course!). Here in 2018, the ambition, scale, and adrenalin-pumping excitement of the most cutting-edge transport options put even the most drool-worthy vehicles to shame.

Without further ado, here are some of the amazing modes of transportation we have to look forward to. Bored of waiting for public transport? Don’t worry: your commute to the office is about to get a whole lot cooler.

Self-driving cars

It’s a testament to just how quickly things are moving in the world of transport that we had to stop and consider whether or not to even include self-driving cars on this list. Far from science fiction, these autonomous vehicles are now being developed by dozens of companies around the world, and have completed thousands of miles of test drives all over the planet.

The tech is still developing, but chances are the stats will show you’re actually safer in a car driven by a computer than one driven by a person. Our next big question: Will kids born today even bother getting their driver’s license at all?

Flying jet suit

If there’s a person out there who’s never wished to jet around like a real-life superhero in their own jet-powered Iron Man-style suit… frankly, we don’t care to meet them. Thankfully, all of us in the other pro-jet suit camp are finally getting what we dreamed of, courtesy of British inventor Richard Browning’s amazing jet-propelled suit.

The amazing flying suit recently went on sale at high-end U.K. department store Selfridges. You don’t need a license to operate it, and learning reportedly takes just a few minutes, thanks to an intuitive design that creator Browning told Digital Trends, “taps into an innate human balancing ability in a really uncanny way.”

Unfortunately for most of us, it’s pretty darn expensive — with the initial versions selling for $446,000. We guess that one person who never fancied his own Iron Man suit may get the last laugh here, after all. At least, until the price comes down!

Flying cars

What self-respecting look at the travel options of the future could ignore the humble flying car? Promised to us since the days of The Jetsons, the failure of this technology to come to pass has long been a crushing disappointment. After all, who wouldn’t trade the cesspool of social media for their very own airborne automobile?

Fortunately, flying cars finally appear to be on the way here in 2018. Case in point: Californian startup Opener’s BlackFly vehicle, hailed as the “world’s first ultralight all-electric fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.” Then there’s German aviation startup Lilium Aviation’s own two-seater VTOL vehicle, the human-sized CityAirbus quadcopter, the Kitty Hawk Cora that’s backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, and more.

With interest in flying cars at an all time high, the dark days of  riding the boring, old-fashioned bus to work may finally be coming to an end!

Elon’s city-to-city rocket system

It’s 7 o’clock in the morning, you’re still in Portland, and you need to be in Sydney, Australia in two hours’ time for a crucial work meeting. Do you throw your hands in the air in horror, and start dashing off a new CV to other potential employers? Of course not: You simply hop on your local intercity rocket, capable of getting you to any other point on the planet in less than an hour.

The scheme was first laid out by Elon Musk, whose vision of “point-to-point” Earthbound travel includes SpaceX’s reusable BFRs (Big F’ing Rockets) and launchpads in all major cities. Proposed routes for the city-to-city rocket system could include New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, Hong Kong to Singapore in 22 minutes, London to Dubai or New York in 29 minutes, and Los Angeles to Toronto in 24 minutes.

It’s not up and running just yet, however, so here in 2018 you’d still miss your Sydney, Australia meeting, unfortunately. We guess that’s what Skype is for!

Hyperloop

WARR Hyperloop

Don’t like the idea of being briefly shot into space as part of your morning commute as with the above concept? Concerned about putting your life in the hands of a rocketry system before you’ve even had your first coffee of the day. No problem: The underground Hyperloop system promises to transport commuters in a kind of a futuristic subway system by firing them at speeds of up to 760 mph.

Having been first suggested by (who else?) Elon Musk, the idea has since been picked up by other researchers from around the world. At the most recent SpaceX pod contest, Germany’s WARR Hyperloop picked up the record for fastest self-propelled pod ride with a design capable of traveling at 290 mph.

We’re still years away from this system being implemented, but the technology is advancing astonishingly quickly. Pretty soon, journeys like Los Angeles to San Francisco could be reduced to a mere half hour, as opposed to six hours by regular car. Or you could just get a job that’s a bit closer to home. But where’s the fun in that?

Telepresence robots

A telepresence robot made by the company VGo. VGO

Let’s face it: Here in 2018, who’s really “there” and “present” at all? If we’re hanging out with buddies, we’re looking on Facebook to see what are other friends are doing. If we’re in a long meeting at work, we’re trawling LinkedIn for more exciting job opportunities. If we’re standing at the alter, waiting for our spouse-to-be to arrive, we’re furtively checking the Tinder app on our wearable in case there’s a last-minute better option.

With that kind of connectivity, it’s no surprise to hear about the rise of so-called “telepresence” devices. These robots combine Skype or FaceTime-style video call capabilities with actual movement, which is carried out by a robot. Whether it’s performing a site visit or allowing a sick kid to attend school, telepresence robots have a valuable role to perform.

Even though, given the option, we’d totally prefer a flying car!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Hyperloop pod reaches fastest speed yet in Elon Musk’s latest contest
• The BlackFly by Opener is a flying car that could turn us all into pilots
• The Boring Company doesn’t sound so boring anymore
• Uber’s flying cars get a boost from government assistance
• Watch live as SpaceX attempts to launch (and land) its best Falcon 9 rocket yet

Lenovo Smart Display review: Single-handedly selling MrMobile on Google Home

I didn’t get the name “MrMobile” by covering a lot of home tech, folks – but when Lenovo revealed back at CES that it was working with Google to graft a display onto a Google Home, I decided that was something worth crossing categories for. Now, after a week of using the Lenovo Smart Display both at work and home, I’m here to tell you that my hunch was correct: this thing has almost single-handedly reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the category (Sorry, Jibo.)

Not that the Lenovo Smart Display is flawless; as an early product just hitting store shelves today, there are a few holes in its functionality. Most notably, you can’t cast to it from your phone yet; there’s no Netflix integration; and the lack of an onboard battery means that moving it from room to room requires a reboot unless you connect it to the mother of all extension cords. But two of those problems are fixable with future updates – and it’s already proven more useful to me in one week than any of my lesser Google Homes (Googles Home?) have in the past year.

Come see why! Join me for the MrMobile Lenovo Smart Display review, and then hit up the rest of the in-depth coverage right here on AC.

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Apple Shows Off Photos of New Piazza Liberty Store in Milan

Apple’s newest flagship Apple Store, Piazza Liberty, opened in Milan, Italy today and to celebrate the occasion, Apple shared some images of the new location.

Piazza Liberty is the first Italian Apple Store to feature the updated Apple Store layout with areas that include Genius Grove, The Forum, and The Avenue, aka parts of the store dedicated to activities like support, classes, and shopping.

This new flagship location features a huge fountain with water cascading over glass walls that customers walk through to enter the store.

Piazza Liberty includes a public plaza where visitors to the store gathered ahead of its unveiling, and Apple plans to host Today at Apple sessions and performances all weekend at the new location. Milanese artist L I M was on hand to perform during the store’s launch.

Customers who visited the store early received free tote bags and artist books, and Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts was on hand to greet guests. Ahead of the store’s opening, Apple worked with 21 local artists to celebrate the creative community of Milan.

What a night in Milan! Thank you to our talented team and the thousands of customers who celebrated with us at #ApplePiazzaLiberty. pic.twitter.com/sWh9Ti950e

— Angela Ahrendts (@AngelaAhrendts) July 26, 2018

The store is home to 230 new Apple retail employees, many of whom Apple says came to Milan from Apple stores around the world. Counting the new store in Milan, Apple now has 17 retail locations across Italy.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Store App for iOS Gains Voice Search

The Apple Store app for iOS devices was today updated to version 5.1, introducing improvements for the search feature.

The new version of the app features a redesigned look for the search section, with both search suggestions and support for voice-based searches. You can tap on the microphone icon located in the search bar to conduct a search using speech rather than text.

Old search interface on left, new search interface on right
Some of the new search suggestions include options like “Stores near me,” “Cases compatible with this device,” “Sessions near me,” “iPhone upgrade information,” and more. Aside from the new search interface, the app is otherwise unchanged and uses the same design.

What’s New Search has been updated with an enhanced design. And it’s now powered with speech recognition technology for better search results.

The Apple Store app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Discuss this article in our forums

How to clean a microwave

Microwaves are nearly ubiquitous in American households. That’s because they’re so convenient; you can use it for everything from steaming broccoli to reheating leftovers (which is probably what most people use it for).

But when it comes to using a microwave, there’s nothing worse than heating up a piece of pizza and tasting this morning’s oatmeal or last night’s chicken and rice. You’ve probably had that experience at some point, and it can downgrade the eating experience. If you open the door of your microwave and smell pork roast from two days ago, it’s time to give that appliance a nice and thorough clean. A paper towel with warm water isn’t going to cut it this time.

The inside of your microwave should be sparkling, and if it isn’t, don’t worry: The process is incredibly easy and will only take about five minutes. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get your appliance sparkling white in no time at all.

And while you’re on a cleaning kick, you can also check out our posts on how to clean a dishwasher and how to clean a washing machine.

Frigidaire Gallery Black Stainless Steel Microwave Jenny McGrath / Digital Trends

Step 1 – Fill a microwave-safe bowl with water and add either a drizzle of dish soap or a tablespoon of white vinegar, whichever you have handy.

Step 2 – Let it cook for about one to two minutes depending on how strong your microwave is. You want it to get nice and steamy but not boil over or spill out of the bowl. By microwaving first, you’re letting the steam do most of the heavy lifting for you.

Step 3 – Once the time is finished, keep the door closed for about three minutes, and let the steam heat up the bottom, sides, and roof of your microwave.

Step 4 – After the three minutes are up, carefully remove the bowl. You’ll probably need a pot holder or cloth to avoid burning yourself, as it’s going to be hot.

Step 5 – Wipe off all the sides with a paper towel or cloth, and clean the rotating plate just like you would a normal plate. If need be, you can run it through the dishwasher.

Step 6 – Enjoy your beautiful, clean microwave!

One thing to note: If you don’t have dish soap or vinegar, you can cut a lemon in half, put it in a bowl full of water, and cook it for five minutes. This option is the most natural, and the warm lemon makes your kitchen smell nice for a few hours.

Whenever your microwave is starting to smell a little funky, you’ll know how to give it a thorough clean in just a few minutes. And to prolong the amount of time in between deep cleans, try adjusting your microwave to a lower power setting, particularly when heating up foods that are prone to splattering.

Editors’ Recommendations

• How to clean a dishwasher in a few easy steps
• Here’s how to clean a Keurig in just a few simple steps
• Here’s how to clean an oven without harsh chemicals
• Stop rinsing your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, experts say
• The best wall ovens of 2018

Astrobiologists think the moon might have hosted simple life-forms long ago

Colonization of the moon has been a long-time dream of science-fiction writers but, if it ever actually happens, we may turn out to not be the first life-forms to live there. At least, that is the theory laid out by researchers from Washington State University and the United Kingdom’s University of London. In a recently published paper, they make the case that, at some point in history, the moon’s atmospheric conditions were such that it could have been possible for life to, well, live.

“Based on [findings concerning] water being present in lunar rocks and magma, including the likely presence of a magnetic field, we [arrived] at the picture of an early moon — 3.5 billion years ago — which was a temporarily habitable planetary body with a significant atmosphere and liquid pools of water on its surface,” Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State, told Digital Trends.

There are two periods during the moon’s formation in which these lunar conditions would have been such that life could have existed, the researchers argue. While these were many, many, many millennia apart, though, we’re still talking about a long time ago in both instances. As noted, one was 3.5 billion years ago, during the moon’s peak volcanic activity, while the other occurred even longer ago — at 4 billion years. Considering that the first sexually reproducing organisms only appeared on Earth 1.1 billion years ago, that means that — even if this is correct — there was almost certainly no crossover between Earth and moon life.

The potential lunar life-forms, provided they existed, wouldn’t have been much to write home about either. (If home at the time had been anything more than a barren hellhole in which the oceans perpetually boiled away into scorching steam atmospheres.) “Life would only be on the microbial level similar to sulfur bacteria on Earth,” Schulze-Makuch continued.

Still, as Jeff Goldblum once said in Jurassic Park, “life, uh, finds a way.” Even if that life turns out to be extinct moon sulfur rather than the promised Little Gray Men!

The research paper, titled “Was There an Early Habitability Window for Earth’s Moon?”, was recently published in the journal Astrobiology.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
• Does ‘Empire’ reign? Is ‘Jedi’ supreme? Ranking all of the Star Wars movies
• China is creating a ‘magpie bridge’ to the far side of the moon
• Record-breaking solar still purifies water with clever geometry and … paper?
• Genetically modified bacteria may be the key to plants that fertilize themselves

New crime-predicting algorithm borrows from Apollo space mission tech

From medical diagnoses to smart assistants, artificial intelligence is helping us move from being a reactive world to a proactive one. That means machines that can anticipate events before they take place and make sure that the right precautions are taken. The world of policing is no different.

In an effort to better manage police resources and gain an upper hand in the war on crime, researchers from Georgia Tech and the U.K.’s University of Surrey have developed a new predictive policing algorithm — and it owes a debt of gratitude to technology that’s been previously used in weather forecasting and even the Apollo space missions.

“In our paper, we wanted to address two issues: ‘When is such an approach able to predict crime and when it won’t?’ and ‘How do we quantify uncertainty in when a crime will occur?’” Dr. David Lloyd from the U.K. university’s Department of Mathematics told Digital Trends.

The new algorithm built on previous work carried out by researchers from the University of California and police forces in both the U.S. and U.K. Their 2015 research showed how a predictive policing algorithm could accurately predict between 1.4 and 2.2 times more urban crime than specialist crime analysts. By making recommendations about where to patrol, the algorithm led to a 7.4 percent reduction in crime. However, while effective, this approach has also been criticized due to concerns about possible racial profiling and the underreporting of crime.

“In trying to address these issues, we needed to develop a new algorithm which achieved what the first algorithm does, but also captures uncertainty in the data and model,” Lloyd said. “For data that varies continuously — such as wind speed or spaceship position — there is a well-known algorithm, the Kalman filter, that does precisely this and efficiently fits a model to the data while capturing uncertainty. This algorithm was used on the navigation of the Apollo space missions and also for weather forecasting, where you have to process data in real time to make accurate forecasts.”

The new algorithm has so far been demonstrated on a data set of more than 1,000 violent gang crimes in Los Angeles carried out between 1999 and 2002. Early conclusions suggest that the upgraded predictive tool could prove superior for coping with the constantly fluctuating world of real-time crime prediction.

“There are several predictive policing software companies, such as PredPol.com and Hunchlab,” Lloyd said. “We would hope that our algorithms could be used in similar software.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Like a vice principal in the sky, this A.I. spots fights before they happen
• Google’s A.I. tools can predict death risks more accurately than hospitals
• SpaceX says it won’t send space tourists around the moon just yet
• Like it or not, camera-equipped police drones will soon patrol the skies
• Here’s who’s going to win the World Cup, according to A.I.

Amazon’s facial ID incorrectly identifies Congress members as criminals

Amazon may want to go back to the drawing board for this one. A facial recognition tool the retail giant currently offers developers made quite the mistake in a test conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), The New York Times reports. Rather than identifying 28 members of Congress as members of the country’s legislative branch, the tool instead classified these individuals as police suspects. To make matters worse, a disproportionate number of African American and Latino Congress members were incorrectly identified, raising questions of how far racial profiling has embedded itself even in our machine learning software.

Both Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, and Representative Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, are well-known civil rights leaders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, but rather than being recognized as elected representatives, these two men (along with 26 others), were falsely flagged as criminals. These mistakes occurred when the ACLU took Amazon’s software to analyze images of all members of Congress against a database of 25,000 publicly accessible mugshots. This resulted in the 28 Congress members being incorrectly identified as lawbreakers, which represents a five percent error rate.

“This test confirms that facial recognition is flawed, biased and dangerous,” Jacob Snow, a technology and civil liberties lawyer with the ACLU of Northern California, told the New York Times.

In response to the test, Nina Lindsey, an Amazon Web Services spokeswoman, said that the ACLU used the face matching tool (called Amazon Rekognition) differently from Amazon’s recommendations. “It is worth noting that in real-world scenarios, Amazon Rekognition is almost exclusively used to help narrow the field and allow humans to expeditiously review and consider options using their judgment,” Lindsey said in a statement.

She further pointed out that the ACLU kept the tool’s “confidence threshold” at the default of 80 percent. This means that the group took into account any face matched as 80 percent similar to the police database — however, it’s worth pointing out that Amazon uses the same threshold in an example on its website, showing how employees’ faces can be matched with their ID badges. However, Lindsey said that in the case of police departments, Amazon recommends that a threshold of 95 percent similarity be implemented to avoid these sorts of mistakes.

Amazon has previously come under fire for selling Rekognition. In May, 24 civil liberties groups, led by the ACLU, penned a letter to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos requesting that the software cease being sold to law enforcement agencies. The groups expressed concerns that the software could be used to surveil protestors, immigrants, or general members of the public, rather than just police suspects. Amazon employees, investors, and academics have since made similar demands of Amazon.

For the time being, however, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the web giant. As Amazon’s spokesperson said, “We remain excited about how image and video analysis can be a driver for good in the world.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Florida police are using Amazon’s creepy real-time facial-recognition tech
• Police used facial recognition software to identify the Capital Gazette shooter
• Amazon employees call on Jeff Bezos to end controversial tech contracts
• Grab the Surface Pro with LTE Advanced for $1,300 if you’re a student or teacher
• Xbox reportedly lays off its support staff, replaces them with volunteers

Alcatel 1X review

Research Center:

Alcatel 1X

Getting a good phone for a bargain price isn’t hard anymore. In 2018, we’ve continued to see a glut of great lower-priced smartphones, with the Nokia 6.1, Honor 7X, and Moto G6 leading the charge. But while we know compromises have to be made for these devices, phones that cost $100 or less still aren’t good enough for us to confidently recommend.

That’s where Google’s Android Go initiative comes in. It’s a smaller version of the Android operating system that has been designed to run efficiently on low-power devices — specifically phones with just 1GB of RAM or less — and it doesn’t consume as much data as standard Android. These phones are meant to cost under $100, and our first look at this modified OS is through the Alcatel 1X from TCL Communication.

But after a week with the phone, it’s clear that Android Go isn’t enough to offer the “high-quality experience” Google wants to bring to budget phones. The low-end hardware in the Alcatel 1X makes it frustrating and a chore to use — despite the low price and long-lasting battery.

Average design, mediocre display

Your first impressions of the Alcatel 1X are likely to be positive. It looks like any average phone — the design doesn’t stand out too much — and while back and sides may be plastic, it doesn’t feel too cheap thanks to the soft-touch finish. It’s the Dark Gray Suede model we have, and that soft-touch back does make the phone pleasant to touch.

The single-camera lens, flash, and fingerprint scanner are arranged vertically with the Alcatel logo underneath. The 8-megapixel camera protrudes slightly from the back of the phone, but it’s almost impossible to notice. The 1X isn’t too lightweight, coming in at 151 grams, and it feels remarkably solid for a $100 phone.

There’s not much that stands out on the front. An earpiece speaker and front-facing camera sit at the top, and the 5.3-inch display is surrounded by chunky bezels.

Your first impressions of the Alcatel 1X are likely to be positive.

The volume rocker and power button are on the right edge of the phone. The buttons have a rubberized coating, and we were especially happy with the textured power button, which made finding the right button so much easier. On the bottom edge is a MicroUSB port for charging. The lack of a USB Type-C port is disappointing, but it’s not unsurprising at this price — even Motorola’s Moto E5 series use MicroUSB charging ports. Thankfully, there still is a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top.

The display is a moderately sized 5.3-inch IPS LCD running a 960 x 480 resolution in an 18:9 aspect ratio. We’d have liked to see an HD display here; the similarly-priced LG Fortune 2 and Moto E5 Play come with 720p displays.

The Alcatel 1X’s 480p screen — while colorful — isn’t anywhere near as sharp as its competitors. The max brightness is also extremely dim, as it is extremely hard to see the screen while outdoors in direct sunlight.

Alcatel 1X Compared To

Moto E5 Plus

Nokia 7 Plus

LG G7 ThinQ

Alcatel 3V

Motorola Moto G6

Nuu G3

OnePlus 5T

HTC U11 Life

LG X Power

ZTE ZMax Pro

LG G5

LG G2

Sprint Vital

HTC First

HTC One X+

Audio is similarly disappointing. The only speaker is the front-facing earpiece, and it simply isn’t loud enough to serve by itself. Calls sound tinny, and the speaker often hit its noise threshold. Oddly, we found music played through the 3.5mm headphone jack is quieter than other phones too.

The Alcatel 1X looks and feels decent for the price, but the screen and audio are mediocre.

Performance anxiety

The Alcatel 1X is powered by a quad-core Mediatek MT6739 processor with 1GB of RAM, and these meager specs really drag the phone down. Performance is poor, and the phone chugs during day-to-day tasks like checking emails, social media, and watching videos. Storage space isn’t great either, with only 16GB available — but that can be boosted up to 32GB thanks to the MicroSD card slot.

We tried to benchmark the 1X, but it was only able to handle one of our usual three benchmarking apps.

• Geekbench 4 CPU: Single-core 571; multi-core 1,389.

That’s the lowest score we’ve recorded in 2018, and only the Moto E5 Plus comes close with a single-core score of 641. Our Alcatel 1X slowed down considerably when swapping between apps, and the fingerprint scanner also saw a decrease in unlocking speed a day or two into our testing.

Mark Jansen/Digital Trends

The phone handled Plants vs. Zombies Free well, but it couldn’t handle more advanced games like PUBG: Mobile or Hearthstone, with both apps refusing to run due to the weak specs. Mobile gamers on a budget should definitely look at spending more money on a phone with better specs, like the Nokia 6.1.

Android Go slow

The Alcatel 1X runs Android Go Oreo Edition, Google’s stripped down, lightweight version of the Android made for entry-level phones in developing markets where phones are expensive and mobile data is expensive. For that reason, phones running Android Go are restricted to a maximum of 1GB of RAM, with the advantage that the software is tuned to perform better on lower specifications.

Android Go phones also come pre-loaded with a suite of “Go” apps. The usual Google apps installed on most Android phones have been swapped out for the “Go” versions of the same apps, and like Android Go, these apps have been specially tuned to use less resources and take up less storage space.

Maps Go is an utter disaster, being all but impossible to use thanks to lag and stuttering.

Unfortunately, some of the suite isn’t implemented well on the Alcatel 1X. Gmail Go, Google Go, and Assistant Go work well enough that you’d be hard-pressed to tell them from the usual versions — but Maps Go is an utter disaster, being all but impossible to use thanks to lag and stuttering. Gboard, while not “Gboard Go”, is also extremely slow, and the resulting lag makes typing or gesture typing frustrating.

Surprisingly, it’s the non-Google apps that work the best. While there are some speed issues when swapping between chat threads, Facebook Messenger Lite works well, and Facebook Lite is one of the highlights with smooth and snappy performance most of the time. Even non-lite apps like Twitter work well enough on the 1X, despite the delay in opening the app. (There is a Twitter Lite app you can download as well).

Android Go is also ruthless on background apps, and the standby intelligent power saving mode will strike down apps it thinks aren’t needed any more. That sounds good, but it’s not as clever as it thinks, as it closed apps like Pocket Casts while we were still listening. Thankfully you can turn the option off in the Battery menu, but since it’s on by default, some people may simply live with the frustration, unaware of the cause.

Other issues aren’t as easy to fix. Disconnecting from a Bluetooth device sometimes disabled the Wi-Fi connection for no reason, wasting valuable mobile data, and often refusing to work again without a full restart. God help you if you also try to use Android’s quick camera shortcut. Double-tapping the power button to open the camera is now a common option on Android phones, and the Alcatel 1X supports it — in theory. In practice, double-tapping the power button causes the phone to vibrate and then hang, displaying a black screen with the navigation bar at the bottom. It’s embarrassingly bad.

God help you if you try to use Android’s quick camera shortcut.

Notifications are also spotty. Opening an app like Facebook Lite or Messenger Lite often triggered a “catch-up” period, during which time the phone buzzes and pings as notifications come in one-by-one. If your chats have had a particularly busy day, expect this catch-up to take minutes, leaving you waiting.

Android Go is not like Android One — manufacturers do not need to issue timely updates. Our Alcatel 1X is still stuck on the May security patch, and it’s unclear if this device will ever receive the upcoming Android P update.

Ridiculous shutter lag

The weakest part of a budget phone historically is its camera. The Alcatel 1X doesn’t change this fact, and it’s all due to some serious shutter lag.

The hardware is average. There are two camera lenses on the Alcatel 1X — an 8-megapixel lens on the back, and a 5-megapixel selfie shooter around the front. It takes decent photos in good lighting, and it may surprise you from time-to-time with some shots.

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The camera does have some issues with focus, as it often refused to focus on the obvious points of interest, focusing somewhere else entirely.

As soon as light dips, photo quality goes right down the gutter.

But as soon as light dips, photo quality goes right down the gutter. The f/2.0 aperture really struggles in lower lighting, and it’s often not worth getting the camera out for anything but bright sunlight. This is exacerbated by the large delay between tapping the camera button and the shutter actually engaging. The shutter lag means you simply can’t take photos quickly — they end up as blurry messes, so there’s no point in trying to take any kind of action shot.

If you take your time and are aware of lighting, then you’ll get some decent shots, but this is hardly a phone for shutterbugs.

Good battery life

The Alcatel 1X comes with a 2,460mAh battery, and while that may not sound like a lot, you can typically get more than a day out of it, depending on usage. After coming off the charger at 7 a.m., with medium usage including music streaming, using the camera, placing calls, and browsing social media, the phone dropped to 40 percent by 7 p.m.. A day with light use saw the Alcatel 1X drop a third of a the battery in 12 hours — so two days with infrequent use is definitely possible.

There’s no wireless charging, which shouldn’t be a surprise given this phone’s price, but there’s also no fast charging either. Charging from 15 percent to full took more than two and half hours, which is painfully slow.

Price, availability, and warranty information

The Alcatel 1X costs around $100, and you can pick it up from Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon. It will work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, but not on Sprint or Verizon.

Alcatel offers a standard one-year warranty that protects the phone from manufacturing defects.

Our Take

Like its stablemate the Alcatel 3V, the Alcatel 1X is just too slow to recommend. It’s likely due to the weak processor, but this kind of performance doesn’t bode well for Android Go.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. It’s difficult to recommend phones at the extreme budget end of the market because so many of them share similar faults. The LG Fortune 2 costs around the same as the Alcatel 1X and delivers decent performance, but it only works on Cricket Wireless.

Go a little higher though and there’s plenty of better choice. For $200, you can pick up the Moto G6 Play or the extremely solid Honor 7X. For the real cream of the budget crop, the Nokia 6.1 is everything you want in a bargain phone, and comes in at $270. The Moto G6 at $250 is also a phone that should be considered. You can learn more in our best cheap phones guide.

How long will it last?

We don’t expect this phone to receive many updates — if any — and the performance and battery will likely just degrade the longer you use it. You will likely only be able to deal with this painfully slow phone for about a year.

There’s no water resistance, but the plastic build should mean it won’t break as easily as all-glass phones.

Should you buy it?

No. The Alcatel 1X may look nice for the price, but it’s just too darn slow. Save up a little extra and splash out on a Nokia 6.1 or Honor 7X.

Check out these cheesy TV ads for tech stuff from yesteryear

These days, tech firms spend millions of dollars on complex, multi-layered ad campaigns to market their latest wares. But just a few decades ago, such campaigns were as basic as the products they proffered.

We recently stumbled across an amusing 1981 TV commercial for Sony’s hugely successful Walkman cassette player. The fascinating find prompted us to dig into the video archives to track down other ads featuring a range of gadgets from yesteryear. Our research turned up some real gems, with many of the ads cheesier than a fully loaded pizza.

Sony Walkman (released 1979):

The Sony Walkman launched in 1979 and sold more than 385 million units before its demise in 2010. According to Sony, the world was a dull place before its personal music player landed on the scene. Its 1981 commercial kicks off with a somber-looking guy walking along the street in a black-and-white world.

But his life takes a turn for the better when he spots some folks having a great time — in color — across the street. He rushes over, joins in the fun, and soon realizes that the Sony Walkman is the answer to all his woes, as it helps you “see the world in a whole new light.”

Cheese Rating: 8/10

Radio Shack cell phone (released 1989):

This one’s a real shocker, and we’re not just talking about the fashions. Radio Shack’s 1989 commercial for its “transportable” phone features a device which, rather than put in your pocket, you hung over your shoulder. Because it’s massive. “Go where you wanna go,” the ad implores, though it declines to mention that you may tear a ligament in your upper body if you fail to undertake a rigorous warm-up routine before setting off.

The ad has some real fun trying to convince us about how easy it is to use the phone — check out the smiley businessman lugging it along a street as he chats to a client, and the guy in a speedboat who looks really cool with his transportable box phone thing. And the entire setup cost just $799.

Cheese Rating: 9/10

IBM Selectric typewriter (released 1961):

IBM’s Selectric typewriter commercial from the early 1960s is a truly earnest effort, the script bereft of humor, gimmicks, and silly ditties. The Selectric was a special piece of kit when it launched, as it let you “snap on and snap off” the printing ball for others containing different fonts.

The narrator helpfully points out that the ball can print as fast as your fingers hit the keys, which is kind of what you want when it comes to typing. The tagline? “A typewriter so different, only the alphabet stays the same.” Brilliant.

Cheese Rating: 4/10

Hitachi TV (released 1983):

Hitachi sells “quality” and “elegance” in this 1983 commercial featuring one of its television sets. Back then, the idea of a TV as thin as a paperback was the stuff of fantasy, so manufacturers tried to dazzle consumers with features like “cabinetry of fine wood products,” as the woman in this ad proclaims with much glee.

Sold in an era when “high definition” sounded like another picture control alongside “contrast” and “brightness,” the commercial insists the quality of Hitachi’s picture is really, really good. The commercial even tells us the sexy stuff, outlining details of its “limited warranty” that features 10 years on transistors, 2 years parts, and 1 year labor. What’s not to like?

Cheese Rating: 7/10

IBM Convertible PC (released 1986):

By 1986, IBM had apparently fired the guy it used in the Selectric ad and instead gone down the “funny” route, calling upon the services of a Charlie Chaplin lookalike to help market the IBM Convertible PC. In its day, this was a revolutionary device that was part PC, part laptop, and — tipping the scales at 12.8 pounds (5.8 kg) — part weight-training kit.

The ad shows “Chaplin” rushing from the office to his car with his Convertible PC, before driving to a business meeting where he impresses clients with his ultra-modern computer. The machine came with a monochrome display and 256KB of RAM, expandable to a whopping 640KB, and was billed as “one computer for people who really need two.” No, it didn’t sell very well.

Cheese Rating: 6/10

Atari 2600 (released 1977):

While Atari produced many ads for the Atari 2600, this particular one from 1979 features a father totally ignored by his children as they spend their whole time playing on the once-popular games console. Such a scene may well be familiar to many modern-day parents, except that these days the games are a little more advanced, and the clothes and hairstyles a little more sensible.

Atari’s ad begins with two kids playing Sky Diver, a game with all the complexity of a slip-on shoe. Dad looks on with an expression of sadness, before saying to camera: “Maybe one of these days they’ll let me play.” To prevent the 30-second ad from descending into a murky pit of misery and despair, the father turns his attention to some of the console’s amazing games, among them “basketball, football, chess, and bowling.” But just when things are looking up, his emotions take another dive when his daughter hands him her doll and offers to play.

Cheese Rating: 7/10

Nintendo Game Boy camera (released 1998):

Twenty years ago, Nintendo released the Game Boy camera, an add-on for the handheld Game Boy console. In some ways, it was a forerunner to Snapchat lenses as it let you add silly extras to your photos. Nintendo’s marketing team promised the device would turn “pho-tography” into “fun-tography,” though the camera’s 128×128 pixel sensor and black-and-white images meant that “crap-tography” may have been a more fitting description.

But credit where credit’s due, Nintendo’s high-energy commercial tries its best to generate some excitement, pointing out that you can print off your carefully composed images and stick them “wherever you want.” According to the ad, someone’s face or T-shirt are ideal places.

Cheese Rating: 8/10

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