The MacBook’s keyboard sucks, so use this mechanical keyboard instead

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Mechanical keyboards are for gamers, right? These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find one without flashing lights, massive palm rests, and programmable buttons. But what if you just want the best possible typing experience with all the glitz and glam of a gaming keyboard?

With many laptop keyboards going the way of low-travel, MacBook-like keystrokes, typing purists have found themselves left out in the cold — especially if you happened to be on a Mac. Leave it to a small, startup company to warm us up.

A mechanical keyboard that looks as good as it feels

The Taptek Keyboard is a mechanical keyboard from a company called Vinpok, known for its Apple companion products. The company’s heritage is clear, because it feels ready-made for use with an Apple product. But we aren’t calling it a lookalike. This keyboard has its own unique style, befitting of the niche nature of who this is for. Instead, imagine the Apple keyboard with the keys pulled out from the deck a few millimeters. 

The base panel is made out of a solid chunk of aluminum alloy, topped with chiclet, mechanical keys. It’s a compact design, wasting not a single millimeter of space, whether in the layout itself or in the deck. Vinpok calls it the “thinnest wireless mechanical keyboard,” sitting just high enough to allow the three millimeters of travel. That’s not as much as a gaming keyboard like the Razer BlackWidow Chroma, but it’s twice the amount of a standard laptop keyboard. 

If you’ve never used a mechanical keyboard before, the depth of the travel is guaranteed to throw you off at first. It feels (and sounds) fundamentally unlike a conventional keyboard. But after a day of using a keyboard like this, you’ll be typing faster and cleaner than ever. Vinpok developed its own switches in-house, though the company says the typing experience is similar to standard Cherry MX switches.

For Mac, the layout is nearly perfect. The Function, Control, Option, and Command keys are all in the right places.

The black keys are individually backlit, and even have a number of different preset effects. It’s an interesting choice for a product made explicitly as a non-gaming peripheral — but hey, why not? The twenty lighting patterns are fun to try out, but you can always default to a nice, simple blue, or roll with no backlighting at all. The keyboard even comes with an impressive five levels of keyboard brightness.

Everything including the sound, color, and tactile feedback make typing downright enjoyable, even if you’re just writing up an email or business report. 

Built with MacOS in mind

The Taptek keyboard works with iOS, MacOS, Windows, and even Android devices. For Mac, the layout is nearly perfect. The Function, Control, Option, and Command keys are all in the right places, and the key commands work flawlessly. If you happen to have a Touch Bar on your MacBook Pro that you don’t like, you’ll be happy to return to the physical row of function keys, as well.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

It’s less intuitive on Windows, however. The flipped locations of the function and control keys makes reflexive key commands a hassle to re-learn. Switching these would’ve been an easy fix (and wouldn’t have affected Mac users much), but Vinpok chose to stay true to the Apple layout. It’s obvious what platform the keyboard was made for.

There’s also one problem with the layout, regardless of what platform you use. The placement of the up arrow key. Instead of shrinking it down (like on many laptop keyboards), Vinpok inserted it between the Shift key and the question mark. We found ourselves constantly hitting the up arrow instead of shift, causing more than a few typos in Slack messages.

The Taptek can be connected via Bluetooth or wired micro-USB, and both work great.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen this mistake, in fact, Razer made the same decision on its newest Blade gaming laptop — but that doesn’t make it any more forgivable. It doesn’t outright ruin the typing experience, but it’s certainly a blemish on the otherwise heavenly MacOS typing experience.

The keyboard can be connected with either Bluetooth or with a wired, micro-USB connection, and both work great regardless of the platform or device. Typing even worked well on an Android smartphone.

A perfectly niche keyboard

There are plenty of Apple fans who dislike the MacBook Pro’s keyboard, but we doubt many of them have spent time with a mechanical keyboard. According to Vinpok, 99 percent of mechanical keyboards are designed for PCs and aimed towards gamers. For that reason, the Taptek Keyboard will always be a niche product — but if you’re part of that niche, well, you’re going to love it.

The Taptek keyboard is currently available for pre-order, and will be officially released in mid-September. It’s price at $90, and will also come in a variant with white keycaps.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best wireless keyboards
• The best gaming keyboards of 2018
• Apple patents a trio of ideas to fix its MacBook keyboard
• Apple fixes MacBook Pro keyboard issue — sorta
• Brace yourself! The age of keyboard-less laptops is upon us

College students, Instagram is testing a new feature that’s just for you

Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS via Getty Images

Instagram is testing a new feature that helps to connect students who are studying at the same college.

The feature is reminiscent of how Facebook — Instagram’s parent company — started life as an online service for doing the very same thing. The creation of such virtual communities could help to draw in more users, while at the same time helping to build loyalty among those already using the photo- and video-sharing platform.

Instagram confirmed to CNBC that it’s in the early stages of testing the service with a select group of users, though there’s no mention of a target date for a possible launch.

The trial involves sending out messages to a number of college-based ‘grammers inviting them to join a community that would make it easier for them to connect with other students in their year.

According to CNBC, Instagram works out what college a student is attending by analyzing information in their app activity, such as public posts and followed accounts.

If a student chooses to join the group, they first need to confirm their university and upcoming graduation year, which will be added to their profile. After that, they’ll be given access to their particular community, allowing them to send direct messages to community members and view Stories straight from the group list.

If Instagram deems the trial a success, it’ll likely be rolled out on a wider scale to appear alongside other features that have proved popular with many of the app’s billion-plus users. These include its video-focused Stories feature, which it lifted from rival social media app Snapchat and launched in 2016.

Instagram Stories enables users to share photos and short videos of up to 15 seconds uploaded to the service within a 24-hour period. It already has more than 400 million daily users, twice as many as the Snapchat feature that inspired its creation.

Instagram owner Facebook will certainly be keen for the proposed college community feature to be a hit after research published in June suggested teens are abandoning the social network in increasing numbers. The study, carried out by the Pew Research Center, found that only 51 percent of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 use Facebook, marking a significant drop from the 71 percent who told Pew they used the platform three years ago.

Many youngsters have become more interested in the likes of Snapchat and Instagram, with the latter now keen to see if a college-focused feature could persuade current users to stick with the platform and boost further growth.

Instagram said last week that it’s also testing a recommended posts feature that surfaces posts based on who you follow and which photos and videos you favorite.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Instagram now lets you video chat with up to three buddies

Can the OnePlus 6’s camera hold up against the top flagship cameras?

The OnePlus 6 is fast performing, has a massive screen with a compact body, and is affordable, but how does its camera perform compared to flagship phones? We decided to put its camera to the test against the Pixel 2 XL, iPhone X, and Galaxy S9+. All the photos were taken on auto and were as close to the same photo as we could get.

The first photo is of a metal sculpture and all of the pictures look fairly similar. When we zoomed in, the OnePlus 6 is just a hair worse in its dynamic range, which is simply how bright the brightest parts of the photo are and how dark the darkest parts are, but it’s barely noticeable. It’s important to note that the OnePlus 6 is the cheaper of the phones by far.

Next, we took a photo of a woman painting her school bus. The photos are very similar, but when we zoomed in you can tell that the Pixel 2 XL and the iPhone X have the better dynamic range. The Galaxy S9+ and the OnePlus 6 are almost too similar to tell a difference.

Our next photo is in a dark, poorly lit bar. On first glance, the iPhone X and S9+ went cooler for the color temperature, meaning they lean more toward the blues then the reds on the spectrum of colors. Meanwhile the Pixel 2 XL and the OnePlus 6 both went warmer. When we zoomed in on the cheese, we could see the OnePlus 6 faltered a bit, not being as clear as the others. The Galaxy S9+ seems to have the clearest close-up.

This next photo was taken at night. The iPhone X stuck to its cool colors, while the S9+ went the opposite route. Zooming in, each photo did a good job of keeping the feathers sharp, though the OnePlus6 may have surprisingly taken the best photo.

The last photo was also taken at night. The Pixel 2 XL’s HDR created the best photo by far, lighting up the building and trees in the back. Other than that, the OnePlus 6 kept up with the others.

Overall the OnePlus 6 is almost at par with a lot of these flagship phones, especially in daylight.  The Pixel 2 XL and the iPhone X were probably the best in the low light photos, but the Galaxy S9+ still did a very good job. The best of the best would have to be the Pixel 2 XL because of its HDR power. If you are still searching for the phone with the best camera, check out the list we put together.

David Cogen — a regular contributor here at Digital Trends — runs TheUnlockr, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him on Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best camera phones of 2018
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• Huawei P20 Pro camera guide
• LG G6 camera guide: How to take killer photos
• Can the OnePlus 6’s Camera Hold Up Against The Top Flagship Cameras?

The best place to buy a laptop

When you’re ready to buy a new laptop, you have to choose between hundreds of online stores and up to dozens of physical locations. All of them may sell a variety of models at many price points, but you have to find the right place to shop, and you probably don’t want to make any mistakes.

So, we’re making things easier by listing out our choices for the best places to shop for (and purchase) a laptop.

Our pick

Amazon

Amazon wins the prize of first stop thanks to its vast variety of laptops from manufacturers around the world, and its excellent laptop-buying guide that helps you search for laptops based on your lifestyle (student, travel, etc.) or the specs you are interested in (SSD, battery life, display size, so on.). If you want to find all laptops available with a particular set of features, this is one of the best tools online.

Add in the fast, reliable shipping and easy payment options, and Amazon becomes the number one recommendation for finding the exact laptop you need. While Amazon ratings aren’t always the most trustworthy, comparing rating and reviews between your top laptop picks is also a simple, effective way to make up your mind between contenders. On top of all that, it’s pretty common to find sales on laptops on Amazon that may have costed more buying directly from a retailer.

The one thing to be a little wary of on Amazon are the specific build options. Because many different sellers may be selling various builds or generations of the same laptop, shopping can occasionally get confusing. Keep an eye on the specs, the year the laptop was produced, and even the exact model number to make sure you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more at:

Amazon

For those who love to customize

Direct from retailer

Apple

If you purchase directly from a company like Dell, Microsoft, or Apple, you avoid the confusion of digging through listings on Amazon or Best Buy. This option is best for those who’ve done the research and know exactly what they want.

Also, purchasing through a retailer gives you the most amount of options for customization. Want a laptop with extra RAM or a memory but don’t care about the 4K display? Well, chances are, you’ll be able to configure it that way. If you love tweaking features to get exactly the computer you want, consider buying from a retailer worth the extra cost or shipping fees.

The best for voracious review readers

Newegg

Newegg may not have as many reviews as Amazon, but its reviews tend to be well informed and worth poring through, instead of meaningless comments. If you love doing a lot of research and reading up on a lot of different opinions before making a choice, Newegg is a great place to visit. The site also offers its own laptop buying guide that breaks down your options by interesting categories such as screen size and CPU class.

Newegg also impresses with its sales, discounts, and features like activating a product for price alert so you can watch for future deals. If you don’t get what you wanted, there’s a 14-day return policy and well-respected customer support to help out.

Learn more at:

Newegg

The best for hands-on testing

Best Buy

When it comes to buying a laptop in a brick and mortar store, only a few options remain. Best Buy is obviously the first one people think of — and for good reason. Walking into a Best Buy to discover and purchase a laptop isn’t what we’d recommend as the most strategic option, but for those who want to take the anxiety out of researching and scouring the web, it might be the preferred method. Furthermore, there’s nothing quite like getting hands-on time with the device you’re about to drop loads of cash on.

Beyond the physical store, Best Buy also has a comprehensive laptop site that offers its own take on a shopping guide. You have options to show for laptop packages, specific brands, operating system, and even laptops compatible with specific technologies Windows Ink.

Learn more at:

Best Buy

The best for deal hunters

Overstock.com

From new models to refurbished products, Overstock.com specializes in discounts and low prices. The interface isn’t anything special, but there are plenty of filtering options reminiscent of Amazon, and it’s easy to spot items that have particularly low prices or that are well reviewed. Overstock is a good stop if you love hunting for good deals from reputable sources, and don’t mind checking in every day to see if that one low price you want is finally there.

Learn more at:

Overstock

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best laptops under $300
• 10 common laptop-buying mistakes you can easily avoid
• Save $670 on the HP 15t Touch laptop while you still can
• Here are the best laptop deals for Amazon Prime Day 2018
• The best laptop brands

What the Heacket? This heated jacket is the latest crowdfunding cautionary tale

Heacket/Indiegogo

Crowdfunding has become a practical and acceptable way for small companies and startups to raise the capital they need to get their business off the ground. But a successful crowdfunding campaign doesn’t necessarily translate to a successful business, as there is still a myriad of challenges that must be overcome when bringing a new product to market. Just ask the team behind the “Heacket”, a product we first covered when it launched on Indiegogo back in December of 2016.

The high-tech jacket promised to keep wearers warm in cold temperatures by using a small USB battery pack to power heating elements woven into its textile. The idea was that skiers, snowboarders, mountaineers, and other outdoor enthusiasts could stay outside longer –– and remain more comfortable –– thanks to the extra warmth generated by the jacket itself.

After the Heacket’s campaign wrapped up in February of 2017, the team behind the project went radio silent until early April.

The pitch was obviously an effective one and the Heacket went on to become a major success story, raising more than $289,000 over the course of just a few weeks. With the necessary funding secured, the team behind the crowdfunding campaign promised to begin production as soon as possible with the intention of shipping the jacket by April of 2017.

But when that month came and went without a single garment delivered, red flags started to go up with backers. Before long, it became clear that there was something amiss with the project, which eventually devolved into yet another cautionary tale for those considering backing any crowdfunding effort.

Delays, delays, delays

After the Indiegogo campaign wrapped up in February of 2017, the Chinese team that launched the project went radio silent until early April. At that point, they reemerged to post an update indicating that they had faced some unforeseen manufacturing delays, but that they had managed to overcome those hurdles and the first shipment of jackets were being prepped for delivery. An accompanying photo showed what appeared to be stacks of Heackets that were ready to be shipped out to eager backers.

A photo posted by the production team showing what appeared to be stacks of Heackets ready to ship.

The next update came just a few weeks later in late April and brought bad news. A fire had reportedly broken out at a DHL shipping center in Hong Kong, causing a delay in sending out the jackets.

Once again, the post was accompanied by a photo, this time showing a small fire inside a nondescript warehouse environment that may or may not have belonged to DHL.

The good news was that all the Heackets had escaped damage from the blaze and the team was in the process of hiring a new shipping agency with the promise that all of the jackets would be shipped out in May.

After issues getting Heacket certified to ship via air, they decided to send the jackets by sea.

A month later, things seemed to be improving when the team posted its next status report. Once again, they had faced some unexpected challenges with the shipping process, this time due to the large number of battery packs the company was sending out to customers.

That situation seemed to be resolved however and backers were told that the new shipping agency was preparing to send all of the jackets. At that point, delivery had only been delayed by about a month and customers were told:, “This time there will not be further delays.” That ended up being far from the truth, however.

Another photo posted by Heacket accompanying an update on how a fire had reportedly broken out at a DHL shipping center in Hong Kong, causing a delay in sending out the jackets.

Three months passed before the next update, and in August of 2017, the Heacket team revealed that they were having difficulty getting the certifications they needed to ship battery packs via air.

In order to get around this challenge, they made the decision to send the jackets by sea instead. This would reportedly make the process much easier, although it would once again bring additional delays.

Restless supporters

By this time, supporters of the project had started to become nervous about whether or not they would ever get the perks they were promised for backing the crowdfunding campaign. Hundreds of emails were pouring into Heacket customer support requesting updates, while others began posting comments on the Indiegogo page sharing their frustrations and growing concerns. Some called the project a scam, while others continued to hold out hope that they would be rewarded for their patience eventually.

Heacket/Indiegogo

In October of 2017, the Heacket team announced that the jackets had begun shipping at long last. The first batch had been loaded onto ships and they were now en route to the customers. The company posted several messages to its Indiegogo page apologizing to its backers and reassuring them that their new heated jackets would arrive before winter.

Over the subsequent two months, regular updates followed, indicating more shipments had been sent out. It seemed that despite the long delays –– something that isn’t all that uncommon amongst crowdfunding projects –– customers were finally going to get their hands on the Heacket.

But once again, supporters were met with disappointment. A few customers took shipment of the Heacket only to find that it was considerably smaller in size than what had been advertised. The jackets were often too tight in the shoulders, too short in the sleeves, or were simply too small to be worn at all.

Later, it was revealed that when the jacket went into production, the sizes ended up being based on those that are common within China, which aren’t nearly as large as garments that are made to be sold in the U.S. or Europe.

By now, things had turned into a complete disaster for the Heacket team. They had missed their promised shipping date by six months and customers were growing angrier by the day.

Just a few of the 1,600+ comments on Heacket’s official Indiegogo campaign page.

Dozens of comments were being added to the Indiegogo page with numerous backers indicating that they had yet to receive their jackets, while others demanded refunds or exchanges. Some indicated that they were disappointed in the build quality and hinted that inferior materials were used to make the jacket. There were even those who said the heating elements stopped working after wearing the coat a time or two.

Double down? Really?

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Heacket team made the inexplicable decision to conduct a second Indiegogo campaign to collect funding for yet another heated jacket. This time they called their product the Outwarmer, and promised that it would be a significant upgrade over the Heacket in every way.

Efforts to reach anyone on the Heacket team for comment on this story proved fruitless.

Naturally, supporters of the original campaign were none too happy with the news, pointing out that many of them still hadn’t received their original orders. To appease those customers, the team offered supporters of the original model a $99 upgrade to the Outwarmer. Some took the deal, while others continued to remain patient.

Many continued to reiterate their dissatisfaction with the entire process, regularly posting comments to the Heacket Indiegogo page.

The Outwarmer crowdfunding campaign managed to reach its modest goal but pulled in just a tenth of the cash that Heacket had a year earlier. Worse yet, it seems to have been plagued with similar issues, shipping delays, customers not receiving their jackets, and the coats ending up being completely undersized. To be fair, more customers seem to have received their Outwarmer jackets, but the campaign was far from a rousing success story.

Efforts to reach anyone on the Heacket team for comment on this story proved fruitless, but when the jacket was first announced the company was working with a Chinese marketing firm called Meltpartners Outdoors. We were able to connect with someone from that organization who confirmed that Heacket was a former client of theirs, but that the contract between the two companies ended earlier this year.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Meltpartners rep told us that the first 200 jackets were manufactured at the proper size, but everything after that was made to Chinese sizing specifications instead. This is why so many customers received coats that were way too small, with most now left high and dry without an opportunity to exchange them or collect a refund.

Lots of money was raised and many disgruntled customers have been left with very little to show for their investment.

We were also told that the founder of Heacket was forced to sell his house in order to launch the Outwarmer Indiegogo campaign, a move that ultimately proved futile. The company reportedly has now closed up shop and is attempting to sue the factory that manufactured the jackets in an effort to recoup some of the money.

That legal process could take a long time to play out however and time is a commodity the team doesn’t seem to have. Apparently, Heacket is headed toward bankruptcy, closing the book on what was once a very promising startup.

No recourse

Digital Trends also reached out to Indiegogo to see if the crowdfunding platform could offer any insights into what exactly happened with the Heacket campaign. A spokesperson for the company told us that it was investigating the situation, but as of this writing, there was no further information to share. In other words, they know about as much as we do –– lots of money was raised and many disgruntled customers have been left with very little to show for their investment.

Heacket/Indiegogo

When asked if customers had any recourse against the organizers of the crowdfunding campaign, we were told that Indiegogo can issue refunds to supporters provided that they are requested prior to the end of the campaign deadline. After that, the funds are released to the organizer and Indiegogo essentially has no more control over the money. Such was the case with the Heacket, which ended up being highly successful in terms of the amount of cash raised. It wasn’t until the company actually tried to manufacture and ship the jacket that things started to go off the rails.

It’s unlikely that Heacket customers will ever receive the jackets or get even a partial refund.

Indiegogo’s terms of service prominently point out that supporters accept the risks that come along with backing a crowdfunding campaign when they contribute money to the cause. There is no guarantee that any product or service will be delivered on time or at all for that matter.

All agreements made are between the backer and the creator of the campaign, with the website merely serving as a platform for connecting the two parties. Once the campaign has come to a close, Indiegogo may assist in helping a project reach the marketplace, but it has no direct control or influence over the campaign creator. In other words, contributors are left to the mercy of the campaign owner, who may or may not deliver.

For the most part, the crowdfunding process is a good one, allowing startups to get some much-needed funding while providing backers with enticing perks. But occasionally there are campaigns that end up like the Heacket, with a trail of broken promises left in its wake. Unfortunately, if the campaign owner doesn’t have the wherewithal –– or the desire –– to refund backers, there is very little that can be done and contributors can find themselves out a lot of cash. That certainly seems to be the case with the Heacket, as it seems very unlikely that they’ll ever receive the jackets they pledged their hard earned money towards or get even a partial refund.

The moral of the story is to be careful which crowdfunding campaigns you ultimately back, as even the highly successful ones can end in disaster.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Verizon pledges to no longer throttle first responders’ data speeds

The LA Times has reported that Verizon has announced that it will no longer impose data restrictions on first responders on the West Coast and in Hawaii. The news comes in the wake of a massive backlash generated by the announcement that Verizon had been throttling the data of firefighters from the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

In addition to this announcement, the mobile carrier has also said that it will be rolling out a new plan for first responders which aims to address these issues. The plan cost $38 a month and will offer first responders unlimited data and priority access on congested networks. A company representative also said that the company will disable throttling for all future responders during emergencies.

Verizon’s vice-president of business and government sales, Dave Hickey, made the announcement on Friday, August 24, while attending a meeting with California lawmakers. During the meeting, lawmakers expressed surprise that Verizon would throttle the speed of first responders, but were relieved to hear that the company was changing its policies.

Verizon said that the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s plan featured unlimited data, but that they were subject to slowdowns due to reaching their monthly cap. Officials who were trying to coordinate relief efforts said that Verizon’s throttling caused their operations to nearly grind to a halt. One person said that the speeds were akin to using a dial-up modem from 1995.

Verizon’s senior VP of the public sector, Mike Maiorana, has issued an apology for the issue and has called it a customer service error.

“In supporting first responders in the Mendocino fire, we didn’t live up to our own promise of service and performance excellence when our process failed some first responders on the line, battling a massive California wildfire,” said Maiorana. “For that, we are truly sorry. And we’re making every effort to ensure that it never happens again.”

Despite this apology, Verizon has rebuffed claims that this is a net neutrality issue and maintains it was a customer service error. However, representatives from the Santa Clara Fire Department have disagreed with this statement. Anthony Bowden, chief of the Santa Clara Fire Department, has gone so far as to join in a lawsuit filed by 21 states seeking to overturn the FCC’s decision regarding net neutrality.

Editors’ Recommendations

• California’s pro-net neutrality bill passes the Senate
• Congress has until Monday to save net neutrality and keep the internet open
• Switching to the ‘Un-carrier?’ Here’s a breakdown of T-Mobile’s plans
• We tried Visible’s $40 unlimited data plan for two weeks to see how it fares
• AT&T WatchTV is free streaming TV for wireless customers, fueled by Time Warner purchase

Apple Store Kyoto: Step inside the new store in Japan’s ancient capital

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It’s taken a while but Apple’s modern tech has finally found a permanent marketplace in Japan’s ancient capital.

Saturday was another brutally hot August day in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto. But despite the stifling heat and humidity, several thousand people could still be found lining up along the city’s main shopping street, waiting patiently — if not a little sweatily — for the opening of Apple’s newest store.

The iPhone maker has eight other locations in Japan, but this is its first in Kyoto, a city the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs visited many times and was known to be fond of.

Apple Store openings are renowned for the employees’ excited efforts to whip up the crowds into a frenzy, though the somewhat reserved nature of Japanese folks meant it was always going to be a tall order for this particular store debut.

Still, the blue-shirted workers gave it their all, running a lap of honor around the outside of the store just a few minutes before the official opening. No one seemed too sure why they did it, but a few high fives as they jogged by suggested it was simply a warm-up exercise for the grand opening that was about to come.

Right on cue, at 10 a.m., the doors to the new Apple Store swung open, the staff cheering with such gusto that their faces were in danger of turning the same color as their shirts.

First inside were five young friends (pictured in the slideshow) who first met waiting in line for the Shinjuku Apple Store opening earlier this year. They were fourth in line then. For Kyoto’s Apple Store they arrived at 5 p.m. on Friday, sleeping by the door in a wait lasting 17 hours.

Layout

The new Kyoto Apple Store is located just across from Louis Vuitton on the city’s main shopping street. The first of its two floors features ceiling-to-floor glass panels — familiar to many Apple Stores around the world — and a large video display at the back for Today at Apple sessions on photography, music, coding, and more. These are free and will be held on a daily basis.

Some smaller features worth noting. The design of the handrail (see slideshow) on the staircase to the upper floor is identical to the one found in the Steve Jobs Theater, built as part of the recently opened Apple Park, the company’s new headquarters in Cupertino, California. The staircase even uses the same marble as the one at the theater, all of it sourced from the same location in Italy, an employee told Digital Trends.

The overall architecture for Apple’s new Kyoto store took inspiration from local design and materials, with an upper level featuring a translucent envelope inspired by Japanese lanterns. “The use of lightweight timber frame and special paper on the upper facade also draw reference to the country’s traditional houses,” the company said.

The indefatigable staff continued to high-five visitors beyond mid-day, showing true dedication to the cause, while inside visitors played with the Apple tech laid out on the tables. Some visitors were keen to get their free Apple-branded T-shirt, but by lunchtime supplies had run dry.

Apple opened its first store in 2001 and now has more than 500 outlets in 24 countries.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Honor Play review

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Honor Play

Honor claims the Honor Play, its new gaming-centric phone is, “Crazy fast, crazy smart,” proving once again the company never undersells its hardware. The tagline implies the Honor Play is not just speedy, and not just clever — it’s crazy, OK? Bluster aside, all we really care about is if Honor’s claims are true. Just how fast and smart is the new phone? Can it elevate to crazy status? We’ve been using it for a week to find out.

It’s worth mentioning that Honor has not shared any plans for U.S. availability of this smartphone just yet — currently it’s available in China and India, and it has just been announced for the U.K. and parts of Europe.

Derivative design

Honor doesn’t say the Honor Play has a crazy design, and rightly so, because although smooth and minimalist, it’s not as heartbreakingly good-looking as the Honor 10. Its major design elements recall the Apple iPhone X. The screen has a notch at the top, and the dual-lens camera is vertically-stacked on the left-hand side of the back panel. This in turn makes it look like a host of other phones, which isn’t good.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

It’s comfortable to hold, lightweight, and most who’ve seen it said it looks more expensive than its actual price tag. Mission accomplished there, we’d say. The 6.3-inch screen is expansive, yet still has noticeable bezels around the sides, a chin, and a further bezel above the notch. The 2,340 x 1,080 pixel resolution is the minimum we want to see on a decent phone today, and Honor has done a great job selecting its panel, because games and video look fantastic. The screen has beautifully-defined colors and decent contrast levels for a shiny, high-quality viewing experience. It’s essential on a phone aimed at gamers.

The Honor Play is the first Honor phone built with GPU Turbo enhancements, giving games a graphics and efficiency boost.

The back of the phone has a matte finish, which Honor says makes the device easier to hold when furiously gaming, but it still still feels slippery. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside a nicely chamfered cutout and it’s very fast, however it looks and feels a little high on the device. It’s also backed up by face unlock, which tends to work even faster than the fingerprint sensor, but it’s not a secure device unlocking feature. At the bottom of the phone is a headphone jack, and a small speaker grill.

If you’re buying the Honor Play in the U.K. you get the choice of blue or black colors. It’s a shame you’ll miss out on the cool ultra-violet, which has a pinkish-purple hue. Buy your Honor Play directly from Honor and you can choose the Player Edition, which has some flashy graphics and color schemes apparently influenced by Audi Sport. The Audi Sport partnership does not extend to actual co-branding, and there are no special wallpapers or anything installed on the phone.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

If you liked the look of the Honor 7X and the Honor View 10, the Honor Play continues that relatively simple theme, avoiding the more upmarket look of the Honor 10. For a gaming phone, it’s perhaps a little too understated, and because it looks like so many other phones, derivative too.

Great performance for gaming

This is what matters. After all, if the Honor Play wheezes its way through the day, it’s not going to encourage anyone to play games on it. The Honor Play is the first Honor phone to be built with GPU Turbo enhancements from the factory, meaning when you play certain games, the graphics, efficiency, frame rate, and other aspects all get a boost. To give it a fair trial, we played Asphalt 9 Legends for a while, which is one of the games that takes advantage of GPU Turbo.

Benchmark results for the Honor Play

AnTuTu 3DBench
205,678

Geekbench 4 CPU
1,872 single-core

6,474 multi-core

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme
 3,206 (Vulkan)

Asphalt 9 on the Honor Play borders on mobile gaming perfection. It’s incredibly fast, silky smooth, and really exciting. There is no lag, pauses, or visual glitches. If you haven’t played an Asphalt game in a while, the Honor Play makes this latest title look like gold. Even with the “performance” graphics setting on, there’s no change. It’s really superb.

Playing Reckless Racing 3, which isn’t on the list of games that are made to work with the GPU Turbo, the experience is the same as we’re used to on other Android phones. There are some instances of slowdown, but nothing serious, and the game is fun to play.

We also didn’t especially notice more grip from the Honor Play’s supposedly more grippy matte rear panel, and the phone gets warm but never hot.

The Honor Play has the Kirin 970 processor and 4GB RAM, which means it has the same processor as the Honor 10, the Huawei P20 Pro, and several others. None of the games played noticeably differently to other Android phones with similar amounts of power, but all will cost more than the Honor Play — a crucial difference.

Go on, Honor, we’ll give you “crazy smart” for the Play’s camera.

This is almost identical to the Honor 10, which costs more than the Honor Play, and perhaps even more surprisingly, it’s close to the Huawei P20 Pro. The AnTuTu score outpaces the Honor View 10 too. It can’t match the Galaxy S9 or the OnePlus 6, which you’d expect. We think the benchmark results illustrate how capable the Honor Play is at playing games.

Crazy smart camera

Anyone familiar with Honor phones will recognize the setup and the user interface, too. The dual-lens camera on the back has a single 16-megapixel, f/2.0 aperture lens with a secondary, f/2.4 aperture depth-sensing 2-megapixel sensor. This is the same megapixel count as the Honor 7X, with improved aperture for better low-light performance. The camera also gets Huawei’s AIS, which uses artificial intelligence to stabilize the image.

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Sample shots from the Honor Play Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Artificial intelligence enhances the camera for scene and object recognition, just like we’ve seen on most Honor and Huawei phones over the past year. The AI is now clever enough to recognize up to 22 objects and 500 different scenarios. It adjusts the settings accordingly, but there is a button in plain view to turn off the AI if you prefer your photos untouched.

It’s also possible to switch between a standard photo and the A.I. image in the Gallery too, which makes comparing the differences easier. The Honor Play surprises with the quality of its photos, and the A.I. plays a big part in making them look good. Go on, Honor, we’ll give you “crazy smart” for the Play’s camera.

If you want a camera that produces pictures suited to sharing online, the Honor Play won’t disappoint.

We took it for a day out in London, on a generally sunny but also overcast day, and the photos we took were immediately shareable — which is exactly what they should be on a phone like the Honor Play. Look closely, and you’ll notice these aren’t perfect shots, but we’re not expecting it to rival the P20 Pro or the Galaxy S9 Plus. It often washed out the sky and had difficulty balancing light in challenging environments.

We did find the screen sometimes showed an image that wasn’t representative of the final photo, with the picture in the gallery surpassing expectations after seeing the preview. Video performance is solid too, and it can shoot up to UHD quality. Our video of the Honor Play was shot on an Honor Play, to give you an idea of how well it does.

To get Honor Play photos ready for sharing, we often edited them to bring out the colors and brighten up the image. We like the Gallery app and its editing suite overall. There are plenty of modes to play with, especially for photos shot with the Aperture mode to product a bokeh effect. There’s also a powerful suite of editing tools, so you don’t have to open a separate app to tune images. Once done, they looked great.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

If you want a camera that produces pictures suited to sharing online, the phone won’t disappoint.

Software and battery

The Honor Play is instantly recognizable as an Honor phone, both in design and software, It uses Android 8.1 with Huawei’s EMUI version 8.2 installed over the top. The experience is identical to the Honor 10, and close to slightly older Honor phones using earlier versions of EMUI. High points? The camera app is great; it’s very simple to use. To further emphasize its gaming expertise, there’s Game Suite, which promises game acceleration and minimizing notifications while playing, provided you choose that option.

Other beneficial features include an eye comfort mode that reduces blue light from the screen, a way to hide the notch, an optional app drawer, and a quick way to record the screen. The only problems we encountered were those with notifications, which definitely cannot match Android 9.0 Pie’s new system, and connectivity. The Honor Play would often take a while to find signal, especially when using Google Maps, an app which also crashed during searches. This is not something we have encountered on any other phone.

The 3,750mAh battery on the Honor Play is quite strong, returning about two normal days of use, but only just, and that doesn’t include extensive use in the evening. Hardcore gamers, and anyone pushing the phone hard, will still get a full day.

Price, availability, and warranty.

The Honor Play has been announced for the U.K. and parts of Europe, and is already on sale in China and India. No U.S. launch details have been shared yet. The price and final release date will be announced during the August 30 Honor press event at the IFA technology show, but we can estimate it will cost between 200 euros and 300 euros ($230 to $350) based on international pricing.

Honor Play Compared To

Pocophone F1 by Xiaomi

Vivo Nex S

Moto Z3 Play

LG G7 ThinQ

Cat S61

Moto E5 Plus

OnePlus 6

Samsung Galaxy S9

Nokia 7 Plus

Motorola Moto G6

Nuu G3

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

LG G Flex2

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3

In the U.K., Honor provides a year’s warranty on the phone and six months on the battery and charger. If no U.S. release date comes and you decide to import the device, warranty duties will come down to the importer.

Our Take

The Honor Play is a terrific gaming phone made even better by a creatively enjoyable camera and a delightful screen.

What are the alternatives?

Until we know the exact price, we can’t nail down the Honor Play’s opposition completely, but we do know it’s going to challenge the Motorola G6 and G6 Plus, the Nokia 6.1, the HTC U11 Life, and the Sony Xperia XA2. Oddly, other competition comes from Honor and Huawei. Everything from the Honor 7X to the Honor 9 Lite are similarly priced, and often have the same software, processor, along with a similar camera.

Dedicated gaming phones such as the Razer Phone cost considerably more, as do high performance Android phones, with the OnePlus 6 the only one coming close in terms of price. The Pocophone F1, if you live when it can be purchased, is a strong challenger, as is Xiaomi’s Mi A2 with Android One installed. We’ll have a better idea of its competition when the price is finalized.

How long will it last?

If you treat it normally, then we’d expect the Honor Play to last for two to three years before you feel the need to upgrade, that is provided you aren’t buying it solely for gaming. Mobile games are getting ever-more complex and graphically-intensive, and if you’re really into this aspect, the phone may not be quite so willing to run the latest and greatest titles in a year’s time. If you don’t have to turn all the settings up to maximum, you should be fine.

It’s not water-resistant, and the body isn’t rugged, so drops (especially into water) are likely to do serious damage. There isn’t a screen protector fitted out of the box either, because Honor wants to sell you a special gaming protector, which supposedly uses a nano-coating to offer less resistance when sliding a finger across the screen.

Should you buy one?

Yes, you’d be crazy not to if you’re into mobile games, provided the price comes in on the right side of $250 or so.

The Honor Play is the phone for gamers that don’t have deep pockets

If you’ve looked enviously at gaming-specific smartphones like the Razer Phone and the Asus ROG Phone, but are put off by the high prices, the Honor Play may be the alternative you’ve been waiting for. This is the first phone from Honor with the GPU Turbo enhancements built-in at the factory, rather than being added on as an update, creating a reasonably priced gaming smartphone.

What’s GPU Turbo? It’s a software enhancement that works together with the phone’s hardware to provide an improved gaming experience. Honor says graphics processing efficiency is improved by 60 percent, battery consumption is reduced by 30 percent, and you can also expect better response times, lower jitter rates, and more stable frame rates. If you’re a PUBG Mobile player, Honor has data that shows a frame rate of 39fps with GPU Turbo, or 36 without, for example.

The Honor Play has Huawei’s Kirin 970 processor and 4GB of RAM inside, with a 6.3-inch LCD touchscreen, which is not as high spec as the competing high-end gaming phones. That’s because it won’t cost anywhere near as much. Honor is keeping the final price quiet until the launch event at the IFA tech show, but we can make an educated guess, due to the phone already being available in China and India. Based on those prices, and those of the Honor 10, we imagine the Honor Play will cost between 200 and 300 euros, which is between $230 and $350.

What else do you get for that? There is more for gamers. A feature called 4D Smart Shocks works like a PlayStation DualShock controller, with phone vibrations matching the onscreen action, plus 3D audio using the Histen feature. A Game Suite is part of the software package which mutes incoming calls and notifications, and locks navigation keys while playing, plus a recording feature to save your best performances. Honor will even sell you a special gaming screen protector with a smooth surface for fast touchscreen gaming.

It’s not gaming utopia though, because the GPU Turbo, 3D audio, and 4D Smart Shocks won’t enhance every game in the same way. If you’re a PUBG Mobile player, an Asphalt 9 fan, or a Mobile Legends addict, you’re fine; but outside of these and a few others, the GPU Turbo may not have such a dramatic effect. This isn’t unique to the Honor Play, as most games need to be specially designed or upgraded to take advantage of special phone features.

The camera will be familiar to Honor fans. The main lens has 16 megapixels and is joined by a second 2-megapixel camera. It uses artificial intelligence for scene recognition — it recognizes 22 different objects, and 500 different scenarios — and has an f/2.2 aperture. The selfie camera has 16 megapixels and an f/2.0 aperture that also uses A.I. to make you more beautiful. Other features include a 3,750mAh battery, Android 8.1 with the EMUI 8.2 user interface from Huawei, a MicroSD card slot, a headphone jack, a fingerprint sensor, and face unlock.

Like the sound of the Honor Play? You’ve got a choice of versions, all with 64GB of internal memory. In the U.K. a blue and black version of the Play will be sold, but the pinky-purple colored Play, called ultra-violet, will be restricted to other markets. Visit the HiHonor.com online store and you’ll be able to buy a special Player Edition of the Honor Play, which features a different graphic design on the back of the device, and color schemes inspired by Honor’s partnership with Audi Sport.

Like the price, the release date and final availability of the Honor Play will be revealed at the IFA show on August 30. Interestingly, Honor told us this is likely to be the first in a range of Play phones, so we should look out for more gaming devices under the name in the future.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Honor Play review
• Huawei’s got a free way of turning your phone into a monster gaming machine
• Huawei might be making a powerful phone for mobile gamers
• Asus ROG Phone: Everything you need to know
• Honor Note 10: Everything you need to know

Google Fit hands-on: Bare-bones, but effective

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

You could have earned a Bachelor’s degree in the time it took Google to deliver a significant update to its Fit app. Well, it’s finally here, and the update doesn’t just bring a slick redesign, but it makes fitness tracking far less overwhelming.

We’ve been testing the new Google Fit out. Here are our recommendations on how to get the most out of the app, and our general impressions.

Simple, clean interface

The new Google Fit app has received the all-white Material treatment like many other Google services. Gone are the bright colors and cartoon graphics — instead, there’s a clean, white background with blue and green accents to highlight items of importance; it’s all business, and no fun. The most important section of the app is the two grouped rings on the homepage; Google’s taking a page out of Apple Health with these activity rings — the blue, inner ring tracks Move Minutes, and the green, outer ring measures Heart Points (we’ll get to them soon).

You still have quick access to step count, calories burned, and distance walked right below. Further down, there’s a chart that shows step count data over the last seven days. It defaults to a goal of 10,000 steps a day, but you can edit it to include more or less. Scroll towards the bottom and you’ll see heart rate data — though a Wear OS smartwatch is needed, or you will need to port your heart rate from a device that is capable of syncing with Google Fit. Below, you can also track your weight, but it needs to be manually inputted by tapping the floating “+” icon. Tap on Weight  yo see how your weight data fluctuates over the course of a year, if you’re proactive about logging it.

One noticeable omission over the previous version of Google Fit is the widget.

There are two other tabs accessible on the bottom. The Journal tab shows a history of your past activity, whether it’s a morning walk or an evening run. The Profile tab is where you can edit your personal information like gender, weight, birthday and height. It also allows you to increase or decrease your activity goals. On any tab, the “+” sign in the bottom right-hand corner lets you input activity data as well as weight, activity, and blood pressure. It’s here that you can also trigger tracking a workout, and there’s quite a number of exercises to choose from.

Unlike the Samsung Health app, there’s no option to measure heart rate simply by placing a finger on the rear sensor of the phone. You’ll have to wear a Wear OS smartwatch with a heart rate sensor or a device that can sync with Google Fit to track it on the app.

One noticeable omission over the previous version of Google Fit is the widget. There’s no option to add a widget on your home screen anymore to quickly see activity rings in the new Google Fit, which is disappointing. We’ve asked Google if a widget for the new version is in the works, and have yet to hear back. There are two shortcuts you can add to your home screen, however. Long press the Fit app icon and press and hold Track workout or Add weight to create shortcuts for these on the home screen.

Breaking down Move minutes and Heart points

Rather than only tracking activity based on steps, Google has used data from the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization to separate activity tracking into two categories: Move Minutes and Heart Points. Tap the information icon in the upper right-hand corner of the app to see an explanation of how it works, and we’re breaking it down a little further here.

Fit counts each minute with 30 or more steps as a Move Minute, and one Heart Point is earned for every minute of a moderately-intense activity — like speed walking — or more than 100 steps per minute.

Score at least 150 Heart Points per week and you’ll meet the American Heart Association recommendation of 150 active minutes per week to improve cardiovascular health, which in turn will lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. Divide 150 by seven, and the daily Heart Points goal comes out to be 35 rather than the lower default.

You may be hitting your daily step goal, but that doesn’t mean you’re performing enough physical activity.

Google Fit doesn’t provide recommendations for Move Minutes, but this is likely because Heart Points are the more important metric to focus on. You may be hitting your daily step goal, but that doesn’t mean you’re performing enough physical activity that gets hearts pumping. Heart Points are a good way to gauge how active you really are in a given day, and the app is designed in such a way that we feel as though we have to hit the goal by the end of the day. Extra points are also awarded when you participate in a high-intensity activity, which definitely motivated us to run for longer periods of time.

Move Minutes are there to track day-to-day movement that’s not as intense. Even when we walked a far distance, Google Fit didn’t capture any Heart Points because we didn’t move quickly enough, but it did track Move Minutes. We recommend setting a high goal — around 330 Move Minutes — instead of the low default, to correlate your 10,000 step goal.

All this being said, we do wish that Google Fit also included the ability to track calorie or distance goals.

You’ll also receive notifications to keep going if the app finds you’ve been inactive for some time. The alert will let you know how many more Heart Points you have to go to reach your weekly goal, and you can then tap on the notification to see a more in-depth view of your activity. You’ll also receive an alert letting you know you’ve reach your goal for the day. We’d argue these notifications could be a little more encouraging or fun, as they’re currently a bit bland, and we also felt as though the app didn’t serve us enough notifications. We don’t want to be inundated, but we’d like a few more reminders to keep us moving. Perhaps a setting to tweak the amount of notifications we want is in order.

Working out using Google Fit

When you’re ready to workout with Google Fit, tap on the plus sign to begin tracking and then choose the activity you’re doing. The app offers a wide range of activities — from running to hiking and also more specific ones like gardening or meditation. We went for a run with the app, and were able to track time, miles, distance, and calories. It also showed how many Heart Points we were earning in real time. Once done, the workout is added in the Journal section.

When you’re not manually tracking your workout, the app can automatically detect whether you’re running, walking, and biking, using the sensors in your phone, which we found to be mostly accurate. There is a chance it might accidentally register car or train rides as a workout, but you can thankfully edit or delete these logs.

Working out with Google Fit and tracking activity on a daily basis is easy, fluid, and simple, and it’s a much improved experience over the old app. The new layout does away with confusing navigation and unnecessary information, making it less overwhelming and enjoyable to use. It could do with a few more goal-tracking options, as well as an option to receive more notifications. We have yet to use it with a Wear OS smartwatch, but we’ll update this article when we do.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Redesigned Google Fit uses Heart Points and Move Minutes to keep you active
• Motiv smart ring tracks ‘active minutes,’ because step counters are so 2015
• The best fitness trackers of 2018
• Fitbit Charge 3: Everything you need to know
• Polar M430 review