HTC’s high-end Bolt is a fast, fascinating Sprint exclusive
No one would fault you if you thought HTC was done making high-end smartphones for the year. It wasn’t perfect, but the HTC 10 was a highly respectable piece of kit. And HTC’s design and production fingerprints can be found all over both of Google’s new Pixel phones. That’s a decent string of smartphones for 2016, but HTC had to go and partner up with Sprint on the curious new Bolt, a device meant to highlight the carrier’s high-speed 3x20MHz carrier aggregation. Fair enough, but what makes the $599 Bolt so interesting is how it takes the 10’s formula and improves on it.
As you might’ve already been able to tell by the photos, the Bolt shares a lot of design language with the HTC 10. In fact, the easiest way to tell them apart is to turn them over: the Bolt lacks the telltale hump that helped the 10 settle so nicely into my hands. It’s definitely a slab of a phone, but that’s not to say it’s completely charmless. HTC’s first-rate build quality is on full display here, with a fully metal frame wrapped around a big, 5.5-inch, 2K LCD screen. That brings us to the Bolt’s first improvement: that body is rated IP57 water and dust resistant, a first for HTC’s unibody metal smartphones. There’s little point in griping about how long it took HTC to get here — I’m just glad they did.
There’s a powerful Snapdragon chipset inside, too, though not the one you’d probably expect. The Bolt rolls with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 plus 3GB of RAM, which makes for some very slick performance. Device makers seemed to shy away from the 810 for a while because of repeated concerns about overheating, but I haven’t noticed anything abnormal during the few days I’ve been playing with the Bolt. Long story short: there’s plenty of power in here for anyone who needs it, and the inclusion of Android 7.0 Nougat only helps. Speaking of software, don’t expect too many changes on that front — the lightly tweaked Sense interface works exactly how it did on the 10, from the inclusion of BlinkFeed (meh) to those curious Freestyle layouts to the deeper integration of Google apps. Stock is still the way to go as far as I’m concerned, but HTC’s approach is ultimately still one of the more palatable out there.
Another improvement for the list: HTC also worked with Sprint and Qualcomm to get everything in good shape for Sprint’s LTE Plus network. I just wish I could’ve tasted some of those speeds. Early tests point to potential data speeds up to 300Mb/s, but for now, you’ll have to live in (or move to) cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis or Denver to take the network for a ride. I saw middling speeds when I ran tests in our NoHo office — on the order of 10Mb/s down, which paled in comparison to AT&T. Your mileage may vary, obviously.
Then there’s the camera. HTC has been pushing its UltraPixel cameras for years now, and they’re conspicuously absent in the Bolt. Instead, we got a more traditional 16-megapixel affair complete with optical image stabilization. I frankly haven’t spent a ton of time using the camera in the field, but the shots I did take came out rather well: they were chock-full of detail and accurately covered, even when the sun dipped behind some clouds. On the Bolt’s face is an 8-megapixel selfie camera, which indeed works well at feeding into your vanity.
The Bolt has the 10’s high-resolution audio chops too, if you’re a media buff. Perhaps more importantly, the earbuds that come in the box are surprisingly smart. Remember how the HTC 10 let you set up a personal audio profile based on how well you could hear certain tones? Well, these earbuds completely automate that process. The first time you plug them in, you’re prompted to create a profile — from there, you’ll hear a tone ringing through your ears, and that’s it. The Bolt interprets that sound resounds through your ear and create the profile automatically. It would’ve been nice if we could further tune that profile after it’s been made; alas, HTC doesn’t plan to make that happen.
So yeah, it’s not hard to think of the Bolt as a sort of HTC 10 Plus. On the one hand, Sprint has a pretty fascinating exclusive on their hands — shades of the EVO 4G, anyone? Still, I can’t help but wish HTC pushed some of these improvements into devices it already launched this year. An HTC 10 with a bigger screen and a water-resistant body might have helped the company pick up more ground early on. At the very least, you can bet some of these steps forward will wind up in the company’s 2017 flagship, and we’ll be better off for it. Until then, Sprint customers itching for some new premium hardware should get their wallets ready: the Bolt goes on sale right… now.
The OnePlus 3 gets its first taste of Android Nougat this month
Watching Android Nougat make its way to phones Google didn’t have a hand in making has been, well, a little excruciating. Some major players are getting the update out first, but now it looks like the upstarts at OnePlus are next in line. Brian Yoon, the startup’s head of software, confirmed to Engadget that a Nougat beta “community” build would be ready for the OnePlus 3 this month. Even better: once all the kinks have been ironed out, Nougat will be pushed out over-the-air to all OnePlus 3s by the end of the year. Not a bad way to ring in the holidays, right?
Yoon also confirmed that older devices like the OnePlus 2 will be updated to Nougat as well, though there isn’t a firm timeframe set for that yet.
The company’s push to bring Nougat to its phones comes after a pretty dramatic internal restructuring. Earlier this year, OnePlus leadership merged the teams working on HydrogenOS (their software for OnePlus devices in China) and OxygenOS (their software for everywhere else). It was a smart, and ultimately necessary move — OnePlus hasn’t had the best reputation where speedy software updates are concerned, and their users were vocal in their frustration. By combining software teams, the company hoped to marshall its resources more effectively and ultimately just get stuff done faster.
So far, it seems to be working — word of OnePlus’ Nougat update plans come just days after much bigger companies announced their own. LG was first off the line with a Nougat-powered phone, and followed up just a few days ago to push the update to its flagship G5. Then came Samsung, which made the update available to S7/Edge owners through its Galaxy Beta program very shortly after LG made its move. While it’s heartening to see Nougat finally making the rounds, here’s hoping the pace picks up: it’s almost time for the Android 7.1 update to take its turn in the spotlight.
Garmin fitness trackers now have Strava’s safety system
A slew of Garmin fitness trackers today have access to Beacon, Strava’s safety feature that allows users to send their location to friends in real-time while they’re out on a run, hike or bike. Strava is a social networking app built for athletes, and it launched the Beacon service for premium members in August. With today’s news, Strava premium members can share data between Beacon and Garmin LiveTrack on the following devices: Fenix 3, Edge Explore 820, Edge 520, 820 and 1000, and Forerunner 230, 235, 630 and 735XT.
Beacon allows users to send their real-time, on-map location to a handful of friends via text message, even if those friends don’t have Strava or a premium membership. Strava already tracks users and sells the anonymized data to planning groups and governments interested in improving biking, walking and running in cities and towns. Users can opt-out of the tracking, of course.
One of the Garmin devices that now has direct access to Beacon is the Forerunner 235, which just so happens to be on Engadget’s holiday gift guide this year.
Source: TechCrunch
Google’s defense against anti-trust claims: ‘we’re open’
Google has a response for the European Commission’s anti-trust allegations. In a lengthy blog post, the tech juggernaut addressed the EC’s concerns point by point. That starts with the EC’s stance that Android isn’t in competition with Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, and Google citing the Commission’s own research that 89 percent of survey respondents feel that the two are competitors. That last bit is a recurring theme, with Google pointing toward the survey responses for the EC’s stance on Android’s “stable and consistent framework” across devices as well.
In perhaps the most poignant response, Google made a GIF that illustrates how many apps are typically pre-installed/bundled on Android devices versus the competition — something the EC directly called out. By Mountain View’s count, of the Samsung Galaxy S7 with Android 6.0.1’s 38 pre-installed apps, only 11 were from Google. Contrast that with 39 out of 47 on the Lumia 550 from Microsoft and 39 out of 39 from Apple on the iPhone 7 running iOS 10.0.2.
“Android hasn’t hurt competition, it’s expanded it,” Google’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker said in a statement. “Android is the most flexibe mobile platform out there, balancing the needs of thousands of manufacturers and operators, millions of app developers and more than a billion consumers.
“Upsetting this balance would raise prices and hamper innovation, choice and competition. That wouldn’t just be a bad outcome for us. It would be a bad outcome for the entire ecosystem, and — most critically — for consumers.”
And with that, the battle moves onward. Maybe the EC’s stance won’t leak ahead of the next round. Maybe.
Source: Google
Nintendo’s big Miitomo update adds chat and room customization
Nintendo is trying to get back all the Miitomo players it lost by releasing features a quasi-social network should have had from the start. The biggest addition that comes with its huge November update? Chat. Players can now send messages to each other in app by sending Mii characters as cute, little avatar messengers. They can now customize their rooms, as well, using wallpapers and flooring from the Miitomo Drop game and posters created from their own photos.
The third big feature that comes with the November upgrade is the ability to display outfits that other players can vote on. Those in the mood to connect with other players can head over to Answer Central, which is sort of a forum where they can reply to people’s questions. Finally, they can create Mii sidekicks that look like anyone they want to become the Robin to their Batman. While those make up the biggest new features, players will also get Mario and Luigi items, among other freebies. We guess we can only wait and see if all these are enough to lure players back into the game.
Source: Nintendo (1), (2)
‘RunGunJumpGun’ is a damn near-perfect mobile game
Fast-paced, reaction-based, “twitch” games have always been my thing, but rarely have they ever been this simple. RunGunJumpGun blends the brutal level design of a twitch game, the accessibility of an automatic runner and one of the most intuitive control schemes ever conceived. I first played it in early September, just after it launched on Steam. Despite having just two inputs — shoot and jump — there’s an awful lot more to the game.
Ostensibly, it’s an automatic runner — think Canabalt or the upcoming Mario iOS game — but with a wealth of gameplay mechanics and ideas added on top. You’re always just running, gunning or jumping, of course, but through intelligent level design and a masterful difficulty curve, it stays fresh and taxing throughout its 120 levels.
Today, RunGunJumpGun is out for iOS and Android, and it’s perhaps the most challenging, rewarding and downright fun mobile game of the year. Before its release, I spoke with the team behind the title, ThirtyThree Games, to find out how they managed to get so much game out of just two buttons.
“We weren’t out to just make an infinite runner mobile game that’s run-of-the-mill,” said programmer Logan Gilmour. “We were hoping it would stand more among PC games than mobile games, but then play equally well on mobile.” ThirtyThree Games set out to emulate the rush of games like Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV and Hotline Miami, and they nailed it. The game has the same fast pace and “live, die, repeat” mentality, for sure. But its control scheme and structure make it a very different experience overall, and one that stands alone without the need for comparisons.
At its core, RunGunJumpGun is about balancing the two inputs. “Jumping,” in this game, is actually more like flying — your character aims their gun downwards and will ride upwards while you hold down the button. You also need to shoot enemies and obstacles in front of you, but as soon as you do, you start to lose altitude. Several times per second, you’ll be deciding which button to press, but you never move your fingers apart from to push down. One button, one finger.
Removing all the other controls completely strips away everything between you and the game. “It lets you fall into a trance, and that’s kind of a big thing for the game, getting people lost in it,” said music and story designer Jordan Bloemen. “[Players] aren’t focusing on what they’re trying to do with a controller, they’re just trying to manage two buttons … Beyond that everything can just kind of wash over them.”
“It lets you fall into a trance, and that’s kind of a big thing for the game, getting people lost in it.”
Stripping away controls has its issues, though. You’re removing a lot of the tools that gamers are typically given to overcome to the challenges placed in front of them. It’s easy for that to become annoying, but although you will certainly be frustrated by RunGunJumpGun at points — some levels had me dying maybe 30 times in a row — you’ll be frustrated at your lack of skill, not at the game itself.
That sense of fairness is key to twitch games. When one hit can kill, developers getting something wrong is difficult to stomach. Take Furi, a boss rush game released earlier this year. It’s generally superb, but there are several moments where it seems the game is unfair — maybe a parry timing is off, a hit box not quite right. As a result, I constantly put it down for weeks at a time in frustration. As mentioned, I struggled massively with some levels in RunGunJumpGun but I never once felt the urge to stop. I always knew it was my fault I was dying.
I struggled massively with some levels, but I never once felt the urge to stop. I always knew it was my fault I was dying.
A lot of work went into making RunGunJumpGun, its levels and each second of gameplay, feel fair yet challenging. There are small things, like making levels “concave,” so your character can’t get caught in a cove and die, or ensuring that the automated movement “is always the speed you want to go at,” but the truly interesting tweaks are invisible.
ThirtyThree Games used analytics and testers to analyze every second of gameplay. “We let a lot of people play the game, and we could see these big spikes where everyone was dying,” explained Bloemen. The team then acted on that data in different ways. Some levels were simply reordered for a smoother difficulty curve, but others were changed on a second-by-second level. “We collected the actual position where every person died,” said Gilmour. “So we could see where everyone was being killed by one hazard, and then just take the hazard out.”
The team would iteratively re-order and smooth out the levels, then bring in a new group of testers that hadn’t played before and see what the new data looked like. Their own little live, die, repeat loop, as it were. The importance of curving difficulty, according to the team, is paramount. “Especially the first world, that’s kind of make-or-break, said Bloemen. “That’s where you’re going to piss someone off and they’re not going to play anymore.”
It’s tough to find a better example of a difficulty curve done right.
While the first world (there are three, each containing 40 levels) hooked me; the second made me fall in love. It’s there that the developers start throwing a bunch of new elements at you, and it’s tough to find a better example of a difficulty curve done right.
Take the first ten minutes or so of world two: It starts by introducing a new mechanic — screen warping, which allows you to fly out the top of the screen and appear at the bottom, or vice versa. Then, it asks you to use screen warping to navigate a complex level. Then, it makes you do that with pin-point accuracy — one false move and you’re dead. Finally, you’ve nailed it. Of course, before you have time to relax, turrets are added. Then force fields. Then spaceships that shoot at you. Finally, fire turrets — the barrage of new elements feels like it never ends.
Removing the deaths, the section amounts to maybe three minutes of gameplay. In that time, you’ll have learned and mastered multiple new mechanics and hazards. Although the deaths will come thick and thin, no single level transition is too challenging, But if you skipped any given minute, the leap in difficulty would be near insurmountable.
Later in the game, some of these new mechanics take a little longer to get used to. The addition of water in particular threw me off for a while, because the movement physics are completely different. The final few levels are also an exception, as the difficulty is pretty much just ratcheted up to 11. But the general curve, and the way new ideas are introduced, is nothing short of perfect.
While data obviously had huge impact on defining the game’s structure, it wasn’t always enough. The team had their own thoughts on how enjoyable or challenging each level was, and there’s not a linear line of difficulty from beginning to end. “It’s important to have a little bumpiness in that curve,” said Gilmour. “Sometimes when we bring in a new mechanic, we make the first version of that a little harder. But you overcome it, and then the next time it’s easier, and you get a nice win, it feels like you’re getting some mastery.”
It also helps that playing the game feels great. The pixel art is bright and easy to follow, while the EDM soundtrack mixes menacing bass with light melodies that reminded me of another twitch favorite of mine, Electronic Super Joy. Like ESJ, rather than taking itself seriously, RunGunJumpGun is filled with humor. Some of this comes through dialog — there’s a story told through one-liners before each level — but a lot is down to the game itself. I lost track of the number of times I fell into an obvious trap, or a spinning disc bounced up at just the right moment to kill me — there’s a deviousness to the level design that, when coupled with the quick and colorful restart animation, actually makes dying as funny as it is frustrating.
There’s a final piece to RunGunJumpGun I’ve neglected to mention, and it’s perhaps the thing that’ll keep you coming back: Atomiks, the game’s name for the 10 tokens scattered throughout each level. Taking the “Atomik path” will bring you closer to death than any other path through a level, essentially making it “the nastiest way to play,” according to Gilmour. A tone chimes when you collect an Atomik, increasing in pitch each time to form a satisfying musical scale.
They’re almost like false waypoints, tempting you off the safer path at every opportunity. But collecting Atomiks is also the way you unlock more worlds, and “completing” the game is collecting them all. The path to victory is littered with near-endless death.
I played RunGunJumpGun a lot on PC, and grew deeply attached to it. As such, I was a little worried about how the game would handle on mobile. There’s a tactile immediacy about hammering away on a keyboard that’s just missing from a phone or a tablet. But my concerns were unfounded. The simplicity of the layout — tap the left side of the screen for jump, the right side for gun — means that you don’t miss the tactile feedback too much. I do think the game controls a little better with a keyboard, but being able to play it anywhere more than makes up for that.
“Personally, my favorite way to play it is on iPad,” said Gilmour. “It’s killer, the screen is really responsive, and you’re holding this thing, it reminds me of playing a Game Boy when I was a kid.” I have to agree. It’s great to jump into for a couple of minutes at a time, or to completely zone out with for an hour. I’ve handed the game to a few friends, and even those that don’t typically enjoy twitch games had a good time.
RunGunJumpGun is out now for iOS and will be released imminently for Android, priced at $2.99. There’s been some talk of a PlayStation Vita port in the future, but that’s very much in the “research to see if it makes sense” phase, according to Bloemen. Oh, and if playing on a PC or Mac is more your speed, the price of the Steam version of the game is going to drop down to $2.99 temporarily as well. In case it wasn’t clear, whatever your platform of choice, I can’t recommend this game enough.
Samsung files patent for a bizarre folding smartphone
Samsung has filed a patent with the Korean Intellectural Property Office for a smartphone with a that could be folded in half like a flip phone. The device would also have a secondary screen, presumable on the outside, that’s activated when it’s folded shut, according to the claims. The screen even has a complex “semiautomatic” powered folding action as one of the options. Of course, patents don’t usually lead directly to products, but this one stands out because Samsung is reportedly working on smartphones with bendable OLED screens.
Even if the patent leads nowhere, it’s fun to see what a company’s engineers are dreaming about. For instance, bendable screens once seemed like a silly idea, but Samsung eventually deployed them in its popular curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge and S7 Edge products. Lenovo is also playing with the idea, and developed a smartphone you can bend around your wrist.
Unlike a split-screen phone or tablet à la Sony’s crazy Tablet P, the device would work with a flexible OLED screen that also folds, either midway or further down. It looks an awful lot like the mockup phone Samsung showed off for its flexible Youm display back in 2013 (see the tacky video, below). A device like that would certainly be fun, but at this point Samsung’s probably just making sure it doesn’t mess up its next Galaxy S8 smartphone release.
Via: The Verge
Source: Korean Patent Office
The first VR-ready Windows 10 phone is incredibly basic
Google is leading the mobile VR race with its Daydream platform and headset, but Microsoft is getting ready to join in too. Alcatel has made a $470 Windows 10-powered version of its Idol 4S phone, and it’s the first mobile device running this OS to have virtual reality capabilities. Like its Android brother, the new Idol also comes with its own headset. I played around with it to see if this first stab at VR on Windows 10 Mobile is any good. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
First off, the Idol 4S Windows 10 doesn’t simply have a different operating system than its Android sibling, which I reviewed earlier this year. It also packs a more powerful Snapdragon processor, sharper camera, more RAM and storage, but uses weaker speakers and a lower-res full HD display.
That lower resolution was evident when I hunted down the walking dead in Zombie VR, where things like poles and seats in an abandoned subway car were clearly pixelated. The Android Idol didn’t have super smooth graphics either, but artifacts are more obvious on the Windows version.
The virtual reality experience was developed in-house by Alcatel, but Microsoft collaborated with the Chinese firm on testing for quality and compatibility. Microsoft didn’t seem to really play a part in implementing the VR, here. When asked what the company’s plans were for supporting such mobile virtual reality platforms, a Microsoft spokesperson said it looks forward to sharing more in the future. Meanwhile, what you have is a VR content store that Alcatel created, as well as an app called Tube 360, for discovering media.
The VR app store here is incredibly basic. It has two categories – Games and 360-degree Media. The former contains just seven titles right now, while the latter offers two immersive pictures and one video. That’s it. These are pulled from the Windows app store, and Alcatel said that it will add more content as it is created for the OS. Tube 360 is a preloaded third-party app that aggregates 360-degree content from YouTube and offers dozens more clips than the store does.
You can launch all these games and files directly from the Windows 10 All Apps menu, or start your VR adventure with the included launcher. It’s nearly identical to the one Alcatel made for the Android version, with the same seven icons floating in a horizontal row over a starry backdrop. The only difference I spotted was in the games: instead of using the on-goggles buttons to trigger actions, you’ll have to hold your cursor (by tilting your head) over special items or symbols until a ring fills up. It’s very Kinect-like, which will be intuitive for those who use that system, but is slower than tapping the physical keys on the headset.
In the game, I could only move my head around to aim my crosshair at attacking zombies. My in-game gun fired automatically whenever I lined up my target, and I had no say over when to shoot. If I could at least use the two buttons available on Alcatel’s goggles, I could actually pull the trigger myself, and use the other key to reload or navigate.
Another problem: sounds and music in the VR apps, including the games, will only play through the phone’s speakers. I tried plugging in three different types of headphones, and the audio still streamed out of the phone. This only affected VR content, media from other sources, such as YouTube or Spotify, flowed through the headphones. Alcatel said it’s aware of this issue, and that it’s working on an over-the-air app update as soon as possible. My Idol 4S Windows 10 was a pre-production unit, too, so here’s hoping that consumer-ready versions will ship with the fix in place.
Ultimately, it feels like Microsoft could have worked better with Alcatel on this attempt to make Windows 10 Mobile VR-ready. Even though the Android version was not crafted in partnership with Google, and Alcatel will likely need to adopt Daydream’s launcher at some point, it’s still a better-implemented experience. For a phone that targets “professionals, gamers and general tech enthusiasts alike,” according to the Windows blog announcing this device, the Idol 4S with Windows needs a more cohesive virtual reality launcher and content library. It will likely get better over time with more software updates, but as it stands, the VR part of this phone is not going to win over users.
You can now tell Siri to send money via PayPal
Siri is still very much a walled garden, but Apple has slowly begun opening its voice assistant to third parties. At its WWDC keynote back in June, the company confirmed app makers could let iPhone and iPad users send and receive money via Siri, with Square Cash and Monzo becoming the first to tap into that functionality. Now, bigger players are tapping into hands-free money transfers, after PayPal announced it too now lets users in over 30 countries send and request money via using only their voice.
Sending and receiving is very easy, but you’ll first need to link Siri with your PayPal account. This involves granting PayPal access to your Contacts and confirming via two-factor authentication (a code sent via text message) that you are who you say you are. Once that’s done, you can simply say “Send Alice $20 using PayPal” and Siri will display a card summarizing the details of your request before asking you to confirm or cancel the transfer.
The feature is now live in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, United Arab Emirates and the United States. It supports a variety of languages and recognizes your friends’ accounts by either their email address or phone number.
Source: PayPal Blog
Samsung launches Android 7.0 beta program for S7 and S7 edge
If you have a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, you might be able to give your device an Android Nougat refresh before everyone else. Samsung’s Galaxy Beta Program is now available for S7 users, but only in the US, the UK and the company’s home country of Korea, though it will soon launch in China, as well.
You’ll have to apply for the privilege to be one of the first — and fast, since it’s first-come, first-served — by making a Samsung account and then downloading the Galaxy Beta Program or the Samsung Members app. Since the Korean conglomerate introduced the program for Android Marshmallow last year, you might already have either app. In case you do get early access to Nougat, you’ll obviously be able to preview Samsung’s updated user interface and provide feedback on anything you think needs fixing.
Take note that that if you somehow managed to snag a limited edition S7 edge Olympic Games or an S7 edge Injustice Edition, you won’t be able to participate in the beta. Further, you’re only eligible in the UK if you have an unlocked device. In the US, on the other hand, you’ll have to be a Sprint, T-Mobile or a Verizon subscriber. If you can’t participate in the beta or end up not getting a slot, Sammobile has some screenshots of Nougat on a Galaxy S7 so you can get an idea of what it would look like on your device.
Source: Samsung
AIVAnet 