Bloomberg: Apple Considered ‘iPhone Xs’ Names for 2018 OLED iPhones, Weighed Dropping ‘Plus’ Branding

A new report out today by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Debby Wu further confirms a bevy of rumors centering upon Apple’s three 2018 iPhones. Expected to be revealed at an event in just a few weeks, the iPhones will all look visually similar to last year’s iPhone X, but “boast a wider range of prices, features, and sizes to increase their appeal.”

According to people familiar with Apple’s launch plans, some inside of the company have referred to this year’s launch as an “S year,” designated for years when its smartphones keep the same design of a previous generation but bump up internals and add new features. “The company is planning more significant changes for next year,” the people said.

One of the tidbits from today’s report focuses on the naming scheme for this year’s iPhone models, which appears to have caused somewhat of a “naming conundrum” within Apple. The company reportedly considered going with “iPhone Xs” for the OLED models, akin to the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6s, etc., but has “altered the name multiple times,” so it’s unclear what Apple finally landed on. We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to know the official names of the 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.5-inch iPhones.

The new iPhone lineup has presented Apple with a naming conundrum, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. The company will be selling three phones that look similar and all have Face ID. But the cheapest model will be larger than the mid-range version, potentially confusing consumers.

While planning the new devices, Apple has altered the names multiple times. It has at least considered branding the new premium phones the “iPhone Xs,” indicating that they’re an upgrade to last year’s iPhone X, the person said. The company has also weighed eschewing the “Plus” label for the larger model, which it has used since the iPhone 6 Plus launched with a larger screen in 2014. The final names could be different, the person noted.

Reiterating on previous rumors, Bloomberg mentions that Apple will launch a 6.5-inch “high-end” iPhone this year with a glass back, stainless steel edges, dual cameras, and an iPad-like landscape view. This would introduce a feature similar to iPad and previous “Plus” iPhones, although Apple has been thinking about ditching the “Plus” label this year.

There’ll be a new high-end iPhone, internally dubbed D33, with a display that measures about 6.5-inch diagonally, according to the people familiar with the matter. That would make it the largest iPhone by far and one of the biggest mainstream phones on the market. It will continue to have a glass back with stainless steel edges and dual cameras on the back.

The big difference on the software side will be the ability to view content side-by-side in apps like Mail and Calendar. It will be Apple’s second phone with a crisper organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, screen.

For the upgrade to the 5.8-inch iPhone X, the “main changes” will be iterative updates to processing speed and the camera. Lastly, the low-cost 6.1-inch iPhone will also look visually similar to the iPhone X, but include multiple color options, include aluminum edges instead of stainless steel, and have a cheaper LCD screen. According to the sources, “the cheaper version’s aluminum edges won’t necessarily be the same color as the colored glass back,” similar to the way the White/Space Gray of the iPhone X’s back did not affect the color of the silver stainless steel edges last year.

Further confirming previous rumors, all three models will have Face ID, and the two larger iPhones will have dual-SIM card slots “in at least some regions.” Previously, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the 6.1-inch iPhone would come in two models, one that includes a single SIM and a second that offers dual-SIM card slots. Today Bloomberg suggests the 6.5-inch model will get this feature as well.

Today’s report also briefly mentions a “nearly edge-to-edge” Apple Watch, while confirming compatibility with existing Apple Watch bands. The next iPad Pros will measure around 11-inches and 12.9-inches with slimmer bezels and Face ID, although anyone awaiting an update to the iPad mini will again be disappointed this year as this model “won’t be upgraded.”

We’re getting very close to the launch of the 2018 iPhones, with German carriers suggesting that pre-orders for the iPhone will take place on Friday, September 14. That puts an announcement earlier in the week, perhaps on September 12, which would be in line with historic iPhone event dates. Following September 14 pre-orders, new 2018 iPhones are likely to see a launch on Friday, September 21.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: Bloomberg
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Say what!? A wind turbine in Japan got blown over by the wind

If you thought blustery conditions would be perfect for a wind turbine, then think again.

Strong gusts brought by Typhoon Cimaron on Friday caused a massive wind turbine in western Japan to topple over.

The 60-meter-tall turbine was located in a park on Awaji Island, 275 miles west of Tokyo, but was wrenched from its base in the early hours of Friday morning as the typhoon pummeled a large part of the Japanese archipelago.

Fortunately no one was under the wind turbine when it came down, or indeed on it.

Built in 2002, the turbine had been out of commission since May last year after being struck by lightning, according to the Japan Times. News footage showed how the turbine had been torn from its base by the strong winds, with its 20-meter-long blades badly damaged by the impact with the ground. It’s not yet clear if the base had been weakened in some way prior to the typhoon.

Typhoon Cimaron’s strong winds and torrential rain caused power outages and flooding in the region, and also disrupted train services for a number of hours. Three students were reported missing, having apparently been swept out to sea from a beach about 100 miles west of the capital. A further 30 people were injured as the typhoon passed over the country in the early hours of Friday.

Wind turbine failure

It’s extremely rare for wind turbine structures to fail, and even rarer for them to break at the base like the one in Japan.

You might imagine that wind turbines would be able to comfortably handle extreme conditions, but when winds reach a certain speed, turbines are shut down to prevent the blades suffering any damage. When wind speeds reach a critical level for a turbine, its blades can be twisted, or “feathered,” to reduce the chances of them being caught by the wind.

With so many typhoons battering Japan — Friday’s was the 20th this year — wind turbines are usually stopped until the weather system passes. The constant disruption prompted Japanese engineering firm Challenergy to create the world’s first typhoon-powered wind turbine.

Several years in development, Challenergy engineer Atsushi Shimizu has said he hopes the turbine, which features cylinders rather than blades and a more compact design to minimize the chances of structural failure, will one day have the chance to help the country power itself in a more efficient manner.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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

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The store’s first arrivals. Trevor Mogg / DT

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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.

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Honor Play review

Research Center:

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.