Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 55 With Bug Fixes and Feature Improvements

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced over two years ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 55 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for CSS, Web API, Rendering, Accessibility, JavaScript, Web Driver, Web Inspector, Media, WebRTC, and Security.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Tag: Safari Technology Preview
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LG G7 ThinQ hands-on: Amplified

The latest in the G series tries to bring the relationship between LG and Google even closer, while once again upgrading its main feature, the camera experience. The LG G7 ThinQ brings an AI-enabled camera, a Google Assistant button, and more, but is that enough to bring LG back to the forefront of the flagship game? Let’s find out in our LG G7 hands-on.

First things first — the ThinQ name on the end of the official title for this phone is a connection to LG’s IoT platform. However, we were told during our time with the phone in Korea we can just call it simply the LG G7.

The LG G7 looks a lot like a mix between the V30 and the G6.

Though LG has moved to a slower release cycle for its mobile devices, the influence of the past is still very strong in this handset. The design of the device is much like the LG V30, which had the shape of the LG G6. The design’s tall screen now sports a notch, with a glossy back that comes in four different colors. It might not be the most unique-looking device, but it is still a looker. What is interesting in the G7 is how LG is ever so slightly moving away from certain aspects that helped differentiate their devices from the rest of the field.

A big example of this is the fingerprint reader, which is still in the same place as before, but no longer doubles as the power button. Instead, the power button is located more conventionally on the side, which might feel a little odd to LG veterans. Apparently, this was changed to make waking the device easier. Some users found the back power button a little annoying to reach, especially in situations like driving (or when your phone is lying face up on a table). The power button on the side also affords the phone a new way of quickly launching the camera with just a double tap.

A new AI button is now found on the other side of the phone. LG has partnered up with Google very closely again to provide G7-specific functionality. Google Assistant is the G7’s AI assistant of choice, and this button allows for full control over its triggering. Press the button and it will launch Google Assistant in the same way that holding the home button does. Double press the button and it will launch Google Lens. Press and hold the button and Google Assistant will listen for as long as the button is pressed down for the voice search string, making the start and end of your query easier to identify.

The AI key is a unique and potentially invaluable way of interacting with Google Assistant

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That last function might seem simple — like talking to Google through a walkie-talkie — but it might be the most significant change to the way Assistant works. Only Google Pixel Buds support that kind of long-press interaction, where the touch-sensitive earbuds can be held down to take a search string for the duration of the hold. Think of all the times you failed to get a proper search done with Google Assistant because it failed to recognize when you’d stopped speaking. For that reason alone, this implementation will make Google Assistant a bit easier to manage and use. It is certainly a different take on what we have seen in the form of squeezing on other devices.

The notch is becoming a very common addition in new phones this year, and every manufacturer is trying to bring their own spin on it, LG included. First off, the phone speaker and the better front-facing camera are centered at the top, where the notch just covers up that portion of the screen.

LG tries to make the notch easier on the eyes through customization. It can be “turned off” by making the entire notification area black. Those same areas can also be made different colors and gradients. Admittedly we are a little miffed that what is called the “New Second Screen” doesn’t really add any new functionality, like the old second screens of the LG V10 and V20 once did.

The screen is still a powerful Quad HD+ IPS LCD panel. An OLED screen might have appealed to more people, but LG chose to stick with LCD for one particular reason: brightness. When set to Super Bright Display mode, the screen can get to 1000 nits if the user so chooses and can stay that bright for a maximum of three minutes.

The screen has also been tuned to retain the fidelity of colors and sharpness of text. This is more than just changing the screen settings in broad daylight situations. When directly underneath the sun, the screen will brighten automatically, but prioritize textual elements in places like the phone or messaging apps. It is only when the user triggers the Boosted Mode that the screen will be a very bright, but still effective, display experience.

Everything looks crisp and proportionate on this display. LG’s software has been accused in the past of feeling bloated, without a fully coherent design language. Yearly updates have been good to this now Oreo-enabled version of its interface.

There isn’t much wasted space in the new menus. The home screens can be changed to include not only an app drawer button, but also a swiping motion similar to the Pixel Launcher or Samsung UI, and LG’s own companion home screen experience seems simple enough.

LG’s ploy for AI capabilities shows in not only the included SmartThinQ application, but also its Smart Bulletin, which tries to give users contextual information based on location and time. The page will display all of that in cards. It isn’t too hard on the eyes yet, though we will need to spend more time with it to see if LG’s algorithms are up to par with the likes of Google Feed and Bixby.

The specs you’d expect from a 2018 high-end device power this phone. It’s got a Snapdragon 845 with either 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The larger version will be available later, though we are not sure which markets will get it (we were told the U.S. will only get the 4GB/64GB version). A 3,000mAh battery might not sound huge, but we will reserve judgment until our real-world usage and tests. All the other bits and pieces you would want in the phone are here, including the headphone jack.

LG continues to be one of the few companies that pays this much attention to the audio experience.

A single bottom-firing speaker might sound like a pretty conventional setup, but LG has taken it a step further by creating Boombox Sound. This is a unique take on the speaker experience, as it makes the entire back portion of the phone into a sound chamber.

Don’t miss: LG G7 ThinQ specs: Fantastic audio and a super bright screen

In simple terms, the space between the back cover and everything it protects is now a place for sound to literally emanate from. When playing audio at loud volumes, the entire back of the phone will vibrate — just enough so you can feel it, but not so much that it becomes annoying. This vibration makes the sound resonate through anything the phone might lay on. Any box or hollow container will thus create great sound.

The vibrations make materials like thin wood and cardboard boxes literally amplify the sound, making for a richer experience far better than any other device — even if you do that trick of putting phones in glass cups. There’s a striking difference between the LG G7 and any other phone we’ve tested; practical or not, this is an interesting way of thinking — or listening — outside the box by LG.

The headphone jack returns, bringing with it the Quad DAC once again, this time with tuning made for the DTS-X 3D standard. That standard is basically an add-on for changing the soundstage of whatever you are listening to and can either narrow or widen the audio experience.

The Quad DAC is still one of the big trump cards for LG’s phones. Anyone disillusioned by the USB Type-C adapters of the world can rest assured everything out of this phone sounds really great, no matter what headphones you use. Also, the Quad DAC plus active noise cancelling is one hell of a combination.

The camera has been LG’s most unique and most polarizing phone feature the last few years. Let’s start off with some great news: the front-facing camera is finally good — and not just because of the bump up to 8MP from 5MP. Just from a cursory glance, the sharpness has been greatly improved and details are no longer smudged by shoddy processing and over-softening of features.

The front-facing camera also now has a portrait mode, which is software based but still welcome for the artistic bokeh background effects it brings. The improvements to the front-facing camera alone make the G7 a viable upgrade for anyone unhappy with selfies on their previous LG phones.

Finally — an LG flagship with a good front facing camera!

Portrait mode tends to take advantage of a dual lens setup, most commonly through a regular and telephoto lens. LG did not want to mess with a good thing, however, and kept the wide angle lens. It now has a 107-degree field-of-view, which helps correct the distortion on the sides of the frame without sacrificing too much of the wide angle. That wide angle lens is still one of the best parts of this phone — the style and drama it affords still makes for one of the most unique photo-taking experiences around.

Because the rear camera lacks a telephoto lens with tighter zoom capabilities, LG’s portrait mode keeps the field-of-view the same as the main lens to remain effective. This means users don’t have to step back because the camera is trying to reach farther into the frame. Some might prefer the look of the tighter frame, but others may like not having to move in order to make the portrait work. Though our devices were very pre-production, the portrait mode shots needed a little bit more work. It messed up the cutouts around elements like hair or my glasses in certain shots.

LG decided on a pixel binning solution for low light photography. Essentially the 16MP of either rear camera shifts into larger pixel groups of four so each group can more effectively flood in light in a darker scene (the same thing Huawei has done with the P20 and HTC did with UltraPixels). The result is a 4MP image that hopefully exposes better than the alternative. We didn’t get to test this much but we’re looking forward to trying it further when we get our review unit.

Video is still a big deal with the LG G7. It retains the manual movie mode and the high-quality audio capture capabilities of the LG V30. The wide-angle lens is still very viable, too, though I noticed I could not change between the two lenses while recording.

The camera AI is mostly consistent at identifying the subject, but the tag cloud might make some users think otherwise.

LG already introduced AI in its updated LG V30S ThinQ. The tag cloud from that release has made its way to the G7. This cloud is a flurry of words that shows the camera is trying to recognize what object or subject it is pointed at when AI is on. Once it decides what is in the frame, settings change to enhance the photo. Take a second on a plate of Korean BBQ and the camera will change to the food settings, which mainly bumps up the saturation. Take a picture of a tree and the AI mode will make the green colors pop.

AI modes in cameras are a little bit new and their effectiveness is down to the optimization of the software. I found some odd words in the cloud during a selfie session, but it never ended up deciding I was a cauliflower. The camera seems to find its subject well enough by the end of its search. Thousands of objects have been inserted into the AI memory of the camera and it is always searching. We will see how the AI Cam fares when we test it further in our final production review unit.

There you have it: the LG G7 ThinQ. LG proves each year it really prioritizes key aspects others might take for granted (like a high-quality headphone jack, for instance). While some of its decisions this year seem more trend-following (like the notch), the features where LG tries to be different are what people will really appreciate. The wide-angle camera is great but we will have to wait and see if Boombox Sound ends up on the list, as well.

We are excited to get our hands on an LG G7 review unit to see how the handset fares under more rigorous testing. Until then, let us know how you feel about the LG G7 below!

Apple reveals healthy iPhone sales as Cook hints at more handset variations

Apple reported its “best March quarter ever” on Tuesday, with CEO Tim Cook declaring that customers chose the iPhone X “more than any other iPhone each week” across the three months.

The iPhone X launched in November 2017 and — starting at $1,000 and topping out at $1,150 — it’s Apple’s most expensive handset ever. Recent news reports suggested there had been weak demand for the pricey handset, but the company said this was the first cycle that its top-of-the-line had also been its most popular, outselling the iPhone 8, 7, 6S, and SE.

In a conference call with investors, Cook made no direct comment about recent rumors regarding variations on the iPhone X, but did say that Apple is “going to continue to provide different iPhones for folks to meet their needs,” which some may take as a hint that new designs are on the way.

Announcing sales figures for the three-month period ending March 31, Apple said it sold 52.2 million handsets, up from 50.7 million a year ago, though down from 77.3 million during the previous quarter, which includes the busy holiday period. It also sold more iPads year on year — 9.1 million compared to 8.9 million during the same period in 2017. But again, this was down from 13.1 million on the previous quarter.

At 4.1 million units, sales of its Mac computers were down slightly, from 4.2 million units on a year ago, and down from 5.1 million units compared to the last quarter.

The company’s Other Products category saw notable year-on-year growth, with revenue reaching $3.9 billion, up from $2.9 billion for the same period last year. This segment includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple TV, as well as the recently released HomePod smart speaker. However, compared to the last quarter, revenue for the category fell more than $1 billion, from $5.5 billion.

Apple doesn’t break down its Other Products category, so it’s hard to know how its new smart speaker is doing. Recent reports suggested sales have been slow, with the $349 price tag prohibitive for many. However, Cook was happy to point out that sales of wearable devices jumped nearly 50 percent on a year earlier, attributable at least in part to the launch of the first cellular Apple Watch toward the end of 2017.

The hardware sales, together with almost $10 billion worth of services, translated into revenue of $61.1 billion, and $13.8 billion profit, in line with Apple’s own revenue guidance. That’s up from $52.9 billion a year ago, though down from $88.3 billion on the last quarter. The latest figures were boosted by growth in all of its geographical segments, most notably in China and Japan, which saw growth of 20 percent.

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Urban dwellers will like the sound of these noise-canceling windows

One of the joys of living in the countryside must surely be pushing open the windows each morning to allow the soothing sounds of birdsong to float in and fill your home.

Living slap in the middle of a city, however, is an altogether different matter. There’s traffic noise, honking horns, roadworks, trains, aircraft, as well as people shouting at the top of their voices across the street, into their phones, or simply to themselves.

If only there was a way to rid your urban home of this head-splitting cacophony, giving you a chance to actually relax and enjoy your living space without having to slam the windows shut.

Well, there soon might be.

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed a window-based device that uses technology similar to that found in noise-canceling headphones.

The initial design, which fits on a window grille, cuts noise levels by as much as 50 percent. This should encourage the occupant to keep the windows open on a hot day, allowing the flow of air and thereby reducing the chances of the occupant turning to power sources such as an air conditioner or electric fan. Indeed, the research is part of efforts by the university to develop solutions for sustainable living.

Nanyang Technological University

The technology behind the device detects incoming noise using small microphones. Once it processes the specific characteristics of that noise, it immediately emits an inverted sound — or “anti-noise” — that has the same waveform characteristics as the external noise.

“When both outside noise and anti-noise converge, they cancel each other out, resulting in a softer ambient sound entering living spaces,” the researchers said in a release.

“Our innovation not only computes the right amount and type of ‘anti-noise’ to emit, but also does it faster than the detected noise can reach inside the building,” said Professor Gan Woon Seng, who led the research.

Gan added that compared to noise-canceling headphones, his team has achieved something more technically challenging “as we needed to control the noise in a large open area, instead of just around the ear.”

The current setup comprises several of the noise-canceling units placed together to form a grid-like array on a window grille.

The team is continuing to work on improving the efficiency of the system, while at the same time reducing its size and cost. It hopes to commercialize the technology within three years.

Of course, keeping the windows open in an urban location is going to let in air pollution from outside, so our lungs rather than our ears may end up suffering. With that in mind, perhaps the researchers might like to look into adding some filters to its noise-canceling design to improve the quality of incoming air, too.

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Strava versus MapMyRun

Strava

When running apps were first introduced, the fact there existed only a few made the decision process of who to use much easier. Today, the entire fitness app industry has proliferated and there are now dozens of options, many of which have similar features — this makes picking one especially difficult. With so many to select from, how do you know which might provide the specific functionality you’re looking for?

Two of the biggest contenders are Strava and MapMyRun. Although each share many of the same capabilities, they also differ in a number of ways. To get a true sense of how they stack up against each other, we pitted the features and benefits (and drawbacks) of Strava versus MayMyRun.

Live recording

Both apps feature fairly straightforward and intuitive interfaces to begin tracking a workout. In Strava, simply hitting record, tapping the shoe icon at the bottom of the screen, and hitting the red Start button generates a session. In MapMyRun, you select your activity and hit the green Start Workout banner.

Though it seems simple enough for either app, MapMyRun does boast a rather big distinction over Strava: Quantity of trackable activities. While Strava is limited to just running or biking, MapMyRun offers the ability to track activities like road running, trail running, walking, cycling, mountain biking, interval training, and a slew of others. Some people might find this limiting although the tradeoff is that it makes the app easier to use.

Winner: MapMyRun

Route building

If you want to follow a pre-loaded map, each offers plenty to choose from while also supplying tools which let you create your own. MapMyRun offers a blank starter map, allowing you to leapfrog from location to location to design a fully customized route. You can also surf through other user-generated maps or even redo previous runs you’ve recorded live.

Note: You can only create a custom route in MapMyRun via a laptop before then sending it to a smartphone.

For Strava, it offers a similar experience through what it calls the Route Builder. Not unlike MapMyRun’s route creation tool, it also uses a waypoint system to allow you to hop from one location to the next, linking each one along the way to create your path. The key difference is that Strava features a toggle called “Use Popularity” which integrates routes others have created, allowing you to source ideas from other athletes and see which areas in your neighborhood are most popular — this alone gives it a slight edge in this category.

Winner: Strava

Audio feedback

For audio feedback, Strava has two options: Audio Announcements and Live Segment Performance. The former is free and essentially announces your time and pace every mile or half mile — depending on which you prefer. Though you can listen to the updates while you run, it does let you to turn the feature off entirely via the settings menu. Live Segment Performance allows you to select certain segments along your route to receive voice alerts — or on-screen motivation — and metrics including current time, personal records, course records, and others. This feature is available in both the free and paid versions, though Premium members get access to additional screens with comparison metrics.

MapMyRun offers similar audio features but both require a paid subscription (called MVP). The first is Voice Feedback which delivers audio statistics like time, distance and pace during a run. The other is Audio Coaching which enables you to set custom workout goals and receive coaching alerts as you get close to your targets. In both cases, the premium service offers coaching and motivation. Considering the similarities, MayMyRun wins here largely due to price.

Winner: MapMyRun

Visual data

Once your workout is complete, MapMyRun generates a chart which tracks your pace and speed changes throughout the run, broken down into custom splits, and highlights where the hills and inclines were located. You can also view detailed graphs of your heart rate and see how much time you spent across the various cardio zones.

Strava also allows you to view run data in charts with similar metrics. One unique feature, however, is something Strava calls its Suffer Score. This is essentially a calculation the app makes about how tough your workout was based on amassed data like time, distance and effort exerted. Being able to monitor your Suffer Score helps paint a picture of your overall effort and progress, which should be one of the pillars of any fitness app.

Winner: Strava

Social features

When it comes to social features, this is where Strava truly shines. On top of basic features like snapping a photo after a run and sharing it on Facebook, the app has a built-in community that encourages friendly competition with both friends and strangers alike.

For instance, every time you complete a run, Strava crunches your numbers and compares them with a database of other people’s stats, giving you a ranking based on your performance. It then generates KOMs and QOMs — aka Kings and Queens of the Mountain. You can compare your times to the KOMs and QOMs, look at the population as a whole, or filter the leaderboards to only show you people of your same gender or age demographics.

MapMyRun also offers social features, though they aren’t nearly as focused on community competition. Like Strava, you can sync it with Facebook and Twitter to share workout stats and it also has something called Challenges which lets you compete against friends. However, it doesn’t have the broad community Strava offers with comparison leaderboards and segments. Some people may see this as a weakness of MapMyRun although it does mean your privacy is more secure. In fact, Strava’s even had issues in the past with privacy breaches.

Winner: Strava

Overall winner: Strava

To be fair, we wanted to end this versus in a tie. Each app does a fantastic job of tracking metrics and offering data visualization, and do so in a way by emphasizing different aspects of the overall experience — thus giving both apps their own unique strengths. However, Strava’s strong social community and focus on competition narrowly allows it to edge MapMyRun, whose own concentration on personal records and motivation is still very valuable.

If you’re someone who wants a space to connect with other runners, share your metrics, and compare your scores, Strava’s the better fit. If you prefer a more individualized system with better privacy and comprehensive, time-tested routes, MapMyRun is the way to go. Either way, you’re going to get a solid app experience with detailed maps and routes, intricate performance metrics, and effective goal-setting strategies.

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Under new leader, Nintendo sets mobile-game revenue target near $1 billion

Nintendo entered the mobile gaming space a few years ago with the social app Miitomo, followed by more traditional gaming experiences like Super Mario Run and the smash hit Fire Emblem Heroes. The company is counting on continued success with mobile exclusives, and under new president Shuntaro Furukawa, it plans to turn them into a nearly $1 billion business.

Speaking to Nikkei, Furukawa — who will replace retiring president Tatsumi Kimishima — said that he expects mobile games to “expand the most” when compared to the company’s other divisions, and that Nintendo believes it can bring in around $910 million. It’s an enormous figure, but it isn’t unreasonable when looking at the data. Fire Emblem Heroes, which is free to play but features fairly extensive microtransaction options, made nearly $300 million in its first year. This is compared to the roughly $60 million of profit Nintendo saw with Super Mario Run, which used a one-time fee model to give players the full list of stages.

“The idea that something will emerge that transforms into something big, in the same manner as game consoles, is the defining motive of the Nintendo business,” Furukawa said in the interview, though he stressed that the company didn’t expect any of its games to become a hit on the scale of Pokémon Go.

Nintendo fans shouldn’t worry about this move signifying a shift away from traditional console games, however. The Switch managed to pass lifetime sales of the Wii U in less than a year on the market, and the October release Super Mario Odyssey has already managed to sell more than 10 million copies — substantially more than Mario Kart 8, the best-selling game on the Wii U.

Thus far, the year has been a little bit quiet for Nintendo, which has yet to release a Switch game on the same scale as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey. The old-school role-playing game Octopath Traveler releases in July and looks quite impressive, but eyes are set to later in 2018, when Nintendo plans to release the next Super Smash Bros. game. More information will be given at the company’s E3 presentation in June.

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A Steph Curry 3-pointer unlocks Under Armour’s new trivia game app

Under Armour

Steph Curry’s debut in the 2018 NBA Playoffs following a medial collateral ligament injury may be a nightmare for NBA teams, but it could be a dream for a select few NBA fans. The Golden State Warriors star has launched Steph IQ, a real-time mobile trivia game, in collaboration with Under Armour, that is triggered by his 3-point prowess in the playoffs.

Steph IQ will activate a trivia game within three minutes of Curry making his first 3-pointer in each playoff game he plays. Once the 3-point king splashes his first triple, the app will begin presenting users with a series of eight multiple choice questions. Each Warriors game will have one trivia game activation, and users have 10 seconds to answer each question, with one wrong answer eliminating each person from contention for prizes. Make sure your thinking cap is on, and Wikipedia is open, because the questions get harder as the games progress. You may have to figure out how many points Curry scored as a rookie in one question, and then dig a bit deeper into NBA history and figure out who invented the jump shot.

Steph IQ will give each player one Free Pass, which allows users to skip one question that isn’t the final question. Free Passes can be acquired when people sign up to Steph IQ via a user’s referral. At the end of each round of questions, everyone who has answered all the questions correctly will be entered into a sweepstakes drawing for some coveted Curry prizes. Among those prizes are the latest colorways for Under Armour’s Curry 5 sneakers, as well as $10,000 in Under Armour store credit in the form of an e-gift card, to be shared among winners.

The first chance at some Curry goods will be on May 4 at 5 PM PT, during game 3 of the Warriors series against the New Orleans Pelicans. Under Armour will be giving away 10 pairs of Curry’s recently released Curry 5 “Pi Day” sneakers.

Curry has been adding range to his digital game as well as his jump shot. In addition to the new mobile trivia game, the three-point master recently relaunched his YouTube channel, Officialstephcurry30, after not releasing any content on the channel in more than four years. The first series to be released under the relaunch will be 5 Minutes From Home, where the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player will ride with guests to grab a quick bite to eat at a food truck near his home after a home game with the Warriors. Rapper Nipsey Hussle, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, social media stars Rudy Mancuso and Jesse Wellens, along with three players from Oakland’s McClymonds High School, will be guests on the five-episode series.

Sometime in the summer, presumably after the Warriors finish their playoff run, Curry is slated to film another series focused on giving his opinion on many facets of Silicon Valley. YouTubers are clamoring for more Curry. The Officialstephcurry30 channel has already gained more than 13,000 new subscribers since the news of its relaunch was announced on April 25.

The StephIQ app is available now to download in the U.S. for iOS and Android devices. The app will only be available until June 30, 2018, and the number of trivia games offered depends on how many games Curry and the Warriors play in the playoffs. So, you’ll need to keep your eyes glued to the 2018 NBA Playoffs if you want to chance at some fresh Curry kicks.

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LG G7 ThinQ hands-on review

Research Center:

LG G7 ThinQ

LG hasn’t had much luck with its smartphones recently, especially its G series. The modular G5 flopped because it was clunky and hardly had any modules; and the promising G6 just didn’t generate a level of interest the company wanted. The latest in the lineup is the LG G7 ThinQ (pronounced “Thin-Que”), and there’s a lot to like. It packs all the high-end specifications you’d expect in a flagship phone, and it’s wrapped in an all-glass, modern design.

Will it be the hit LG wants? We’re not so sure. The special features that make the G7 ThinQ unique may not be interesting enough to draw iPhone, Samsung, and Google loyalists. But there’s no denying the G7 is a good phone. Let’s take a closer look.

A notch, chin, and glass

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Yes, the G7 ThinQ has a notch. It’s the little cutout at the top of the screen, housing the front-facing camera and earpiece. Having used several phones with notches, including the Essential Phone, iPhone X, and Huawei P20 Pro, we don’t have many qualms about it here on the G7. Would we prefer a notch-less look? Absolutely, but we haven’t found its presence distracting.

There’s also a small chin on the bottom of the phone. Considering there’s a notch, we would have liked to see no bezel here — like the iPhone X — but it’s no dealbreaker. This front design does make the G7 ThinQ stand out a little less from the sea of notch-filled phones, but it didn’t put us off.

Yes, the G7 ThinQ has a notch.

If you really hate the notch, but like everything else about the G7 ThinQ, there are many ways to customize how the notch looks in the phone’s settings. You can add black bars, or even a rainbow-like effect, and you can also remove the rounded corners on the screen if you’re not a fan.

Speaking of ThinQ — what does it mean? It’s LG’s artificially-intelligent platform that connects a host of its products together. If you see LG appliances with the ThinQ branding — like a washing machine — it means you can easily connect them to the G7 ThinQ or V30S ThinQ and control them right from the phone’s notification drawer.

The G7 has a power button on the right side of the phone. It’s the first time in a while that LG has added a standalone power button to its phones; it was previously embedded in the fingerprint sensor on the back. We liked the rear power button, but we like the new separate one more because itimeans you can double press it to quickly open the camera.

On the left side is a volume rocker, and below it sits a new button — the AI Key. Like Samsung’s Bixby button, the AI Key lets you interact with Google Assistant. It’s one of our favorite features of the G7, as it makes it far easier to access the Assistant when you don’t want to say “Hey Google,” or when your phone screen is off. Press it once to activate voice recognition, or press and hold it to use it like a walkie-talkie and continuously talk to the Assistant. If you double tap the button, you’ll jump right into Google Lens for object identification with the phone’s camera. The AI Key works well, and it’s fast. We’ll have to use it more to see if it makes us ask Assistant more questions. If you don’t want to use it, you can disable it. At the moment, there’s no way to remap the key to do something else, but LG said if customers ask for this, it may consider adding a remapping option.

Overall, the G7 doesn’t do enough to differentiate its design from the competition

On the bottom is a USB Type-C charging port, a headphone jack, as well as a single, mono speaker — we’ll get to this soon. Flip the phone over and you’ll see LG has followed Samsung’s S9 Plus design to prop the cameras vertically instead of horizontally. The dual-camera setup is centered at the top vertically, with an easy-to-access fingerprint sensor below it. The back of the phone is covered in Gorilla Glass 5, allowing the G7 to wirelessly charge with the Qi standard; it’s par for the course on LG phones.

The G7 is surprisingly comfortable in the hand, considering it has a 6.1-inch display, and that’s largely because it’s incredibly light at 162 grams. That lightweight nature does mean it doesn’t feel as substantial as some other flagship phones.

Overall, the G7 doesn’t do enough to differentiate its design from the competition, but that isn’t just a problem with LG — a lot of smartphones look alike these days. That being said, we still think the phone looks good, and it doesn’t feel unwieldy in the hand.

Boombox speaker

LG places a lot of emphasis on its audio prowess with phones like the V30 — which sports a Quad DAC, and of course retains the headphone jack. The same Quad DAC and headphone jack is present on the G7 ThinQ, with support for DTS.X 3D sound, a surround sound technology similar to Dolby Atmos.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

But the spotlight feature for the G7 ThinQ is its “Boombox” speaker. How can a single, bottom-firing mono speaker produce boombox-like sound? LG removed the module that traditionally covers the speaker, and then tweaked the layout of the phone’s internals to make the whole phone a resonance chamber. That means the audio feels like it’s coming from the whole body of the phone, and it sounds fantastic.

The audio feels like it’s coming from the whole body of the phone, and it sounds fantastic.

We played a variety of tunes and compared the G7’s Boombox speaker with stereo speakers from the iPhone X and the Huawei P20 Pro, and the G7 easily got louder, and sounded richer. It didn’t sound like you were playing music from a phone, but from an inexpensive Bluetooth speaker. Since the whole phone becomes a resonance chamber, music can sound even better depending on the surface you place the phone on — hollow wood, for example, further enhanced the audio.

The resonance chamber is 17 times larger than any of LG’s previous products, and the company said the speaker is 39 percent bigger than the G6, essentially doubling the volume.

LG G7 ThinQ Compared To

Huawei P20 Pro

Nuu G3

Nokia 7 Plus

Vivo Apex

Asus Zenfone 5

LG V30S ThinQ

Alcatel 5 Series

Cat S61

Google Pixel 2

LG V30

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active

HTC U11

Nokia 8

LG Optimus G Pro

T-Mobile myTouch 3G

While we’re impressed with how the G7 ThinQ sounds, we still prefer Bluetooth speakers or headphones. That being said, plenty of people make frequent use of their phone speakers, and they will undoubtedly be happy with the audio quality coming out of the G7 ThinQ. We’ll have to do more testing to see how the speaker fares when watching movies and YouTube videos.

Oddly, the phone’s IP68 waterproof seal is tied to the Boombox functionality, so if the seal breaks in some way, then the audio quality may be hampered. LG also said it’s recommending case makers opt for harder cases than soft ones, as the latter could also absorb some of the resonating sound.

Speedy performance, great display

The LG G7 ThinQ is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, and comes with either 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. We’re happy to see that LG didn’t opt for last year’s processor, like it did with the LG G6.

In our brief time using the phone, we never once ran into any lag or slowdown. We didn’t get a chance to set up the phone to our liking, though, so we’ll have to test this further. Judging by the Snapdragon 845’s performance on phones like the Galaxy S9, however, we think the G7 will be able to handle just about anything. It runs Android 8.0 Oreo, and there’s not much bloatware loaded on top.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The 6.1-inch IPS LCD screen is great — it’s bright, and sharp with a 3,120 x 1,440 pixel resolution (564 pixels-per-inch). It supports HDR10, and the colors look thoroughly rich. The phone does have a unique 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which means you’re getting a slightly taller screen.

Going back to the notch, LG is calling the area around it the “new second screen,” which basically means it’s the place that shows your notification icons, and system icons like the clock and cellular connectivity. If you do add black bars to get rid of the notch, it’s surprisingly difficult to tell the phone has a notch — that’s how deep the blacks look. You have to look closer to be able to tell.

Super Bright Display allows you to boost the screen’s brightness up to 1,000 nits, but only for up to three minutes.

What’s unique about the screen is a new mode called Super Bright Display. It allows you to boost the screen’s brightness up to 1,000 nits, but only for up to three minutes — that’s to prevent overheating. It’s a little button you can tap next to the brightness slider in the notification drawer. It’s useful for when you’re outside and having trouble seeing the screen, and we found it gets bright enough to make a difference.

LG claims it has reduced the screen’s power consumption over the LG G6 by 30 percent at the same luminance (500 nits), which means the screen won’t take up much battery life. Speaking of which, the G7’s 3,000mAh is smaller than we’d like, but we’ll have to use the phone for a longer period of time to see how long it can last.

Wide-angle camera, and artificial intelligence

The G7 ThinQ uses the same dual-cam setup LG has relied on in previous devices — a standard 16-megapixel camera, with a f/1.6 aperture and optical image stabilization, is paired with a 16-megapixel f/1.9 wide-angle camera. A lot of the camera software we played around with was still in development, so we can’t quite pass official judgment yet.

Panorama

Still, the wide-angle mode makes the camera incredibly versatile, allowing you to take 107-degree photos. LG is one of the only manufacturers offering a super wide-angle camera on a smartphone, and it helps make the phone stand out. You can take unique photographs on the G7 that would require a lens mount to snap on other smartphones.

Wide-Angle mode

That being said, the company has also added a Portrait mode. It adds a blur effect around a subject, and in our brief tests, it looks pretty good. What’s unique here is the camera doesn’t crop into the subject — it stays at the same distance as the auto mode so you don’t need to suddenly adjust your framing. We have noticed some errors with the blur lines around a subject, and it can be frustrating to use sometimes as the camera doesn’t always register your distance from the subject. We’ll have to do a little more testing to see how well this stacks up against Portrait mode on other phones. It does work surprisingly well with the 8-megapixel selfie camera.

Portrait mode

You’ll find the same Super Bright Camera mode that’s available on the LG V30S. It enlarges the pixels so they absorb more light, but it lowers the overall pixel count. The end result is a 4-megapixel photo that might not have a ton of detail, but it will be clearer and more usable. This mode turns on automatically when the camera detects it’s in a low-light environment, but you can turn it off if you prefer. In theory, the G7 can take a photo twice as bright as the V30S given the same lighting conditions. We’re surprised at how well this mode works, and it’s able to challenge good low-light cameras like the P20 Pro and the Galaxy S9.

Super Bright

Then there’s AI Cam. It’s a separate mode in the camera that automatically identifies the scene you’re pointing the phone towards. If you point the phone at a sunset, the camera will know it’s a sunset, and it will compare your scene to images of sunsets to try and offer up the best-looking photo. With the G7, AI Cam can now identify 10 more scenes including baby faces, animals, drinks, fruits, and more — bringing the total amount of categories to 19. Once it identifies a scene, it alters the photo to change things like saturation, exposure, and more. It can even recommend a wider-angle view, or suggest using the Super Bright Camera mode when it’s too dark.

AI Cam

We think the AI Cam is better than Huawei’s AI image recognition software, which often simply cranks the saturation up. The AI Cam certainly does boost saturation, but it’s not as intense as Huawei’s technology. It still needs more work, and we almost always end up preferring standard photos not tweaked by AI. We’re also not fans of how it’s a separate mode we have to open up in the camera app, and we much prefer Huawei’s implementation.

You’ll be satisfied with the G7 ThinQ’s camera, but we don’t think it measures up to the competition like the P20 Pro and the Google Pixel 2. We’ll be conducting more tests to be sure.

Price and availability

LG hasn’t mentioned price yet, but it’s the key to making the G7 ThinQ a success. We’re hoping the company keeps it around $650. It’s also tough to recommend buying the phone at launch, because LG often significantly drops the price not long later. The LG G6, for example, dropped to $450 within a few months. The LG G7 ThinQ is available for pre-order now, and it will begin shipping in the U.S. in the first week of June.

We like what the G7 offers so far, but we’re not sure it has the features it needs to be a hit. We’ll continue testing the phone, and stay tuned for our full review soon.

The 6-quart Instant Pot has dropped to a new all-time low price at $110

Act quick, it may sell out.

The Instant Pot Ultra 6-quart 10-in-1 Multi-Use Cooker is down to $109.99 right now at Amazon. This price drop marks a new low for this popular multi-use cooker, making it even more affordable than it was during Black Friday. It normally sells for $150 and has never dropped below $120.

We recently saw a deal on the smaller 3-quart Instant Pot Duo Mini, but today’s deal is on a much larger version. The 6-quart option is better suited for cooking meals for families and larger quantities.

Instant Pots haven’t decreased in popularity since they first popped on our radar. You can use this as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice/porridge cooker, yogurt maker, cake maker, egg cooker, saute/searing, steamer, warmer, and sterilizer. It’s super easy to use and has stellar customer reviews.

You’ll get a few different accessories, including a steam rack (with handles), recipe booklet, two different spoons, a measuring cup, and a user manual. For recipe ideas, check out this bestselling Instant Pot cookbook or this great ebook for just $1.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 second opinion review: A battery short of perfection

Samsung once again nails the one-size-fits-all flagship, but mediocre battery life holds it back from an A+.

There’s rarely a more consumer-facing phone than the latest Samsung flagship. Say what you will about the Pixel 2 having cleaner software or the LG V30 being better for filmmaking, but the fact is that the Galaxy S9 is the phone plastered on every billboard, every web ad, and every subway station. For the vast majority of consumers, it’s the Android phone to consider right now.

When Andrew Martonik reviewed the Galaxy S9 last month, he called it “the new standard Android phone by which all others are measured as a baseline.” Unexciting, but uncompromising. But he spent most of his time with the larger Galaxy S9+ which, while mostly the same, benefits from an additional camera and a larger battery. So what’s the deal with the smaller S9?

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beautiful curves

Galaxy S9 Hardware

There’s no way around it; the Galaxy S9 is one of the finest displays of craftsmanship money can buy. The curved glass and aluminum frame scream high end, and make the phone feel almost more like fine jewelry than just a gadget. If you’ve used a Galaxy S8, you should already have an idea of what I’m talking about. The Galaxy S9 is largely unchanged when it comes to the design and in-hand feel.

That doesn’t mean it’s identical to last year’s model, though. After endless complaints about the S8’s hard to reach fingerprint sensor next to the camera, Samsung has moved the Galaxy S9’s sensor to a much more sensible place beneath the camera. It’s remarkably easier to reach than before, though it’s still a bit closer to the camera than I’d like; too often, I find myself accidentally smudging the camera, and the software even warns you against it when you’re registering your fingerprints.

Dongles be damned.

Oh, and it wouldn’t be a Samsung flagship without a long list of hardware benefits. Like last year, the Galaxy S9 is IP68 water resistant, and supports great features like wireless charging and NFC. It also still contains the MST component necessary for Samsung Pay, which allows you to use the S9 to pay at any terminal — even those that don’t typically accept mobile payments. There’s also a microSD card slot, as well as a good old 3.5mm headphone jack, a constant and hopefully long-lasting staple of Samsung’s lineup.

Interestingly, there’s also a heart rate monitor next to the camera, as well as a blood pressure monitor. While not everyone will make use of these features (I know I haven’t), they can be a huge benefit for people who need to closely monitor their health status and don’t have the necessary equipment at their disposal.

This may be one of the only major flagships of 2018 without a notch.

Despite its relatively pocketable size, the Galaxy S9 carries an impressively large display. It’s a 5.8-inch display with an elongated 18.5:9 aspect ratio that occupies most of the face of the device, with reduced vertical bezels compared to last year’s Galaxy S8. The curved glass wraps the display around the sides of the phone, an effect Samsung calls the Infinity Display.

It’s a bright and vibrant Super AMOLED panel, and a reminder that Samsung does displays better than anyone else. It’s still more saturated than I care for out of the box — I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve set my phone to the basic screen mode — but it’s 15% brighter than before, and just as sharp as ever with its QHD+ resolution. That’s a whopping 2960×1440, though by default the UI is scaled to FHD+ (2220×1080).

Even better, Samsung still managed to fit stereo speakers into the Galaxy S9 despite having limited space to work with up front. No, it doesn’t have dual front-facing speakers, but like the iPhone X and HTC U11, it combines the earpiece speaker with a bottom-firing speaker grill to create a stereo experience. It’s not quite as loud or detailed as the other phones mentioned, but it’s a huge improvement over last generation’s tinny mono speaker.

same but different

Galaxy S9 Software

Last year was the first time I could say that I was finally happy with Samsung’s software experience out of the box, without having to spend hours setting up third-party launchers and alternative apps to replace Samsung’s default services. This year, things get even better — though that’s partially thanks to my unlocked model shipping without carrier bloatware.

With version 9.0, Samsung Experience feels to me like the closest the company has gotten to a stock Android feel, without giving up what makes a Galaxy phone unique. That is to say, features like Edge Panel (not my favorite feature, but it’s more useful than most give it credit for), Knox, and Samsung Pay. And yes, even Bixby, which, while still inferior to Google Assistant in many ways, can pull off some more complex system-level commands.

There’s still Samsung’s usual collection of redundant apps that effectively mirror the functionality of Google’s existing offerings — apps like Email, Galaxy Apps, and Internet — but there are less of them here than in previous generations, and they’re finally good. I actually prefer Samsung’s Internet browser to Google Chrome, though I still use the latter since it syncs my browsing history with Chrome on my computers.

Samsung can finally offer the fast, responsive UI its beautiful hardware deserves.

In daily operation, the Snapdragon 845 inside truly shines with unyieldingly fast performance. Whether I’m playing graphics-intensive games or making simultaneous use of Multi Window and Android Oreo’s floating window for YouTube playback, the Galaxy S9 never fails to keep up — the 4GB of RAM play a role in this too. Simply put, Samsung has never made a faster phone.

I still absolutely love the pressure-sensitive virtual home button, which works even with the screen off or with the navigation buttons hidden. Especially if you’re coming from an older phone with physical controls, it makes the transition to on-screen keys feel much more natural, something Galaxy S7 holdouts might appreciate.

One major annoyance I had in my first few days of using the Galaxy S9 is the app power monitor, which I eventually disabled in the advanced menu of the battery settings. Don’t get me wrong, it’s useful to have insight on which apps are causing significant battery drain, but the power monitor doesn’t do much about those apps, save for putting them to sleep after three days without use. I found the constant notifications to be more trouble than they were worth.

While we’re on the topic of annoyances, let’s talk about Bixby. One of the most common complaints with recent Samsung phones is that the Bixby key under the volume rocker is far too easy to accidentally press, flinging you out of whatever app you were in to open Bixby Voice. Whether this is by design to encourage more use of the service is debatable, but you can actually turn this into a convenience.

Disabling the Bixby key in the settings will stop Bixby Voice from opening when you accidentally tap the button, but it doesn’t disable the feature following a long press. This means that even fans of Bixby may want to disable the button, and using it this way I found myself actually using Bixby Voice more often for quick commands like disabling Bluetooth. I’d still rather remap the button to launch Google Assistant instead, but this felt like a fine compromise.

dual apertures

Galaxy S9 Cameras

Unlike its larger counterpart, the Galaxy S9 only has one rear camera — a rarity in today’s flagship space. It’s a 12MP sensor that introduces a new trick to the smartphone camera game: dual apertures. The Galaxy S9 can switch between f/2.4 and f/1.5, and you can even watch it happen on the lens. On such a small sensor, the difference in aperture doesn’t make as big of a difference as you might expect, but it still helps the S9 take on different lighting situations a little more effectively.

Samsung’s camera software has always felt a bit messy to me, and to my delight, it’s been dramatically simplified this time around. Instead of a looming grid of shooting modes like on previous devices, you can just swipe between each shooting mode for quicker access. It’s a bit slower if the mode you’re after is at the end of the list, but you can rearrange the order of the shooting modes in the settings.

For the most part, though, you’ll be just fine in auto shooting mode. The Galaxy S9 has no trouble figuring out most of the right settings on its own, and particularly in low light, the results can be stunning. I took a quick photo of my drink at a dimly lit bar and was stunned not only at the level of detail on the glass, but at the natural depth of the shot and the absence of noise in the background. Simply put, the Galaxy S9 is the most impressive phone for low light photography I’ve ever used.

Its daylight shots are nothing to scoff at either, though. Where I’ve always found Samsung’s color science to err a bit too far on the cool side, the Galaxy S9 produces delightfully natural-looking images, with sharp details and plenty of dynamic range. With other amazing shooters like the Pixel 2 and the P20 Pro, I don’t know that I’d call the Galaxy S9 the absolute best smartphone camera around, but it’s certainly in the running.

Of course, you can have fun with the camera too. This is one of the few phones capable of delivering 960fps slow motion video. You need a ton of light to make it work well, and you’re limited to 720p, but even with its limitations, it’s one of the Galaxy S9’s coolest new features if you ask me. There’s also AR Emoji, if you’re into that sort of thing, but … well, I’m not.

Something to keep in mind if you plan on shooting a lot of video on the Galaxy S9 is that it’s set to 1080p by default. You still have the option for 4K at up to 60fps if you need the extra resolution, but unfortunately, you’ll lose out on tracking autofocus in the process. If you have a compatible video editor like Final Cut Pro, you can also choose to shoot in the HEVC codec for smaller file sizes.

the Achilles’ heel

Galaxy S9 Battery life

Lastly, there’s the matter of battery life. It’s not great. There’s no way around it. The Galaxy S9 houses a 3000mAh battery inside — the same capacity as last year’s Galaxy S8 — and as usually the case, I would’ve happily traded some of the phone’s thinness away for a larger battery.

With a typical load of social media apps, work apps like Slack and Trello, and some Spotify streaming to Bluetooth devices, I can get by on a casual day with light use — say, 2.5 to 3 hours of screen-on time — but much more than that will have my phone in the red by the evening. Depending on your usage, you could see better results than I did, but if you’re rarely in close proximity to a charger, this might not be the right phone for you.

Thankfully, the Galaxy S9 is still quick to charge through either a cable or a fast wireless charger. Strangely, it only supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 standard, rather than the newer Quick Charge 4 like the Razer Phone, but it at least has USB-C Power Delivery in its place. From a fully depleted battery, you can expect the Galaxy S9 to take just over 1.5 hours to reach a full charge through a cable, and about 2.5 hours using a wireless charger like Samsung’s own convertible fast charger.

the bottom line

Should you buy the Galaxy S9? Yes

Despite its less-than-stellar endurance, the Galaxy S9 reminds us why Samsung remains a staple in the Android lineup every year. It refines all of the Galaxy S8’s accomplishments and improves on its flaws, fitting almost every headline feature imaginable into a phone that’s readily available across all carriers without costing an arm and a leg compared to similar alternatives. With the Galaxy S9, you don’t have to choose between a great camera and a headphone jack, or between small bezels and stereo speakers. It’s a jack of all trades that just does everything right, so long as you don’t need two-day battery life.

If you prefer a larger phone, the Galaxy S9+ is still the better option for you; you’ll enjoy (slightly) better battery life, a bigger screen, a dedicated zoom lens on the back, and an otherwise identical experience. For everyone else, it’s hard to think of many reasons not to recommend the Galaxy S9. It may not be the most exciting phone around anymore, but it offers something for everybody, and leaves little to be desired.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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