Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: The mini Mate 9 with a big €1395 price tag

You had a double take, didn’t you? No, this isn’t a limited edition Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, it’s the limited edition Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design.

The Chinese telecoms company and German design company have forged a new partnership to show off what they can do. The result is a savvy, sophisticated looking smartphone. Which happens to cost an eye-watering €1395.

Here’s what we have to make of the Porsche Design from our time with the device at the Huawei Mate 9 launch in Munich. It won’t be coming to the UK, so this is as good a glimpse as it’ll get for many.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: More than a mini Mate 9

• Porsche Design 152 x 75 x 7.5mm body is smaller than Mate 9
• Porsche Design plumps for 5.5-inch Quad HD screen, not 5.9-inch Full HD

What’s perhaps most unusual about this Porsche Design phone is that it’s nothing like the Mate 9 from which it takes its name. For starters the Porsche Design version has a 5.5-inch, 2160 x 1440 pixel resolution screen – not the larger 5.9-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution screen of the Mate 9.

• Huawei Mate 9 preview: The big-screen boss

From a size point of view, these devices only share their name. The Porsche Design measures 7.5mm thick, meaning it’s slightly thinner than the 7.9mm Mate 9 – but it still manages to cram in a massive 4,000mAh battery capacity, which is great news.

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The Porsche Design version of the Mate 9 is also subtly curved to its edges, including the glass screen and metal front and rear. It’s a symmetrical curve front to back – which is where our Samsung S7 edge comparison comes into play. The two phones do look frightfully similar.

The Porsche Design is as well made as we’ve seen from a phone. Its metal has a brushed finish, which glints in the light. It’s also an ultimate fingerprint magnet, which detracts from the look, despite its screen appearing less glossy than the S7 edge we mention.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: Fingerprint magnet

Speaking of fingerprints, to access the scanner you won’t wangle your finger around the back (where the circular scanner is present on the Mate 9), as the Porsche Design model has its scanner on the front home key. That leaves just enough room for a shiny Porsche Design logo on the rear, which is like a lower-case P and D combined into one emblem – and far nicer than the massive “Porsche Design” all-caps statement on the front of the phone.

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This looks a lot like Samsung again. The surrounding capacative touch buttons, however, are much more like the OnePlus 3 in terms of their response – from their placement outside of the screen, through to their single dot emblems on both sides.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: Ultimate power

• Porsche Design pushes 6GB RAM, 256GB storage
• Kirin 960 octa-core processor and Mali G71 GPU

The Mate 9 Porsche Design also benefits from a bump in spec elsewhere. While it embodies the same Kirin 960 octa-core chipset as the larger Mate 9, it pairs that with 6GB RAM rather than just 4GB.

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It also benefits from the latest Mali G71 MP8 GPU, which moves on from OpenGL to the Vulkan platform – which is even more responsive than you’ll find in many other phones. It’s a phone perfectly suited to devouring high-end mobile games.

Porsche Design has also chosen to go rather iPhone 7 in its unibody design thinking, which means no microSD card slot is available. Instead the only model comes loaded with a whopping 256GB storage for you to load it up with content. That might go some way to explain its huge price tag.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: Dual Leica cameras

• Dual cameras: 12MP colour, 20MP B&W
• Optical image stabilisation for both 27mm f/2.2 lenses

As if one German company wasn’t enough, Huawei has snagged two. Yep, Leica returns in the Mate 9, including the Porsche Design version, with its dual camera arrangement.

It’s much like that found in the earlier Huawei P9 model – meaning one 12-megapixel colour sensor and one black & white one – but now the B&W sensor is higher-resolution, at 20-megapixel. The added resolution is there to help with a “hybrid zoom”, which uses the mono information from the higher-resolution B&W image to enhance the detail in the colour image when digitally zooming.

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Both cameras feature 27mm f/2.2 equivalent lenses and now have optical image stabilisation, hence the small bump to the rear – although it protrodes slightly less in the Porsche Design model than it does in the standard Mate 9.

And let’s not forget 4K video capture (H.265 compression) too. Jolly good stuff all round.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design preview: New software

Otherwise the bulk of the Porsche Design model is just like that of the Mate 9. We’re particularly impressed that there’s a 4,000mAh battery on board here – including SuperCharge technology for fast-charging – just as there is in the larger Mate 9.

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This also means Huawei’s latest EMUI software reskin – now in version 5.0, sat over the top of Android 7.0 Nougat – comes present and correct. That means a simpler interface, with a cleaner design, plus some interesting options like dual Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp use via the Dual SIM. Clever stuff.

Other details resemble the standard Mate 9. So why not take a read of our full preview, below, to get the low-down on what to expect.

• Huawei Mate 9 preview: The big-screen boss

First Impressions

What can we say? Despite the bonkers price, the Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design is a lovely looking phone. Well made and all powerful, it overshadows the standard Mate 9 to such an extent that now all we want is this limited edition version.

Saying that, the Mate 9 name is kind of misleading. The Porsche Design’s different screen size, body size, curved design front to back, plus repositioning of the fingerprint scanner make it a wholly different and wholly exciting phone.

Indeed, we think this is Huawei laying the groundwork for its next generation of phones (while looking a lot like a certain successful Samsung in the process). But from what we’ve seen, it’s hard to be critical of that position.

The Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design will be available in limited quantities in December.

What PS4 Pro games are 4K HDR ready? The complete list of optimised games

The PlayStation 4 Pro will be available from 10 November and while it isn’t quite a next generation console, it’s such an upgrade on the standard edition that it feels fresh and new. Especially if you own a 4K HDR TV.

That’s because it has been designed to run the same PlayStation 4 games as the other consoles in the stable, but with big enhancements. That includes high resolutions and high dynamic range for 2D games, better draw distances and detail for PSVR titles.

All new PS4 games will be available for the original PS4 and PS4 Slim, but will be beefed up for PS4 Pro. That includes a whole stack of existing titles too.

So hereare a few details on the sort of improvements you can expect for PS4 Pro versions of games, and a growing list of the games that feature 4K resolutions, HDR tech or both.

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What is 4K?

The term 4K, or Ultra high definition (Ultra HD), refers to the resolution of a screen and/or the content. At 3840 x 2160 it offers four times the amount of pixels as Full HD (1080p) TVs and video. That equates to much more detail and far sharper images. It also takes a hell of a lot more processing power to shift that much data.

What is HDR?

High dynamic range (HDR) is video parlance for greater brightness, better contrast (between black and white areas of an image) and a wider colour gamut.

HDR televisions are capable of much higher brightness levels, deeper blacks or a combination of both. The amount of colours they are able to present on screen is far greater than before, with the end result being more natural looking pictures with very bright areas and great lighting effects. The darker areas remain deep but without loss of detail.

• What is HDR, what TVs support HDR, and what HDR content can I watch?
• You can’t have HDR on your PS4 and PSVR plugged in at the same time

What is the PS4 Pro capable of?

Because of some clever processing power, including improved graphics architecture, the PS4 Pro is capable of rendering games at 4K resolutions, with HDR tech processing and at up to 60 frames per second. You won’t get that in all games – more likely 4K at 30fps for the vast majority – but there are some, such as Gran Turismo Sport – that claim to run in Ultra HD and 60p.

Some PS4 Pro games will give you the option to either have super smooth 60fps gameplay at 1080p or run at a higher resolution but cap the frame rate to 30fps. We won’t know for sure until each and every compatible game has been tested.

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• Sony PS4 Pro preview: Stunning 4K HDR gaming monster you can own this year
• Sony PS4 Pro: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
• PS4 Pro vs Project Scorpio: What’s the difference?
• Xbox One S vs PS4 Pro: What’s the difference?

What PS4 games are optimised for PS4 Pro?

We have a list of all the games so far announced to be enhanced for PS4 Pro.

Remember, all PS4 games will work on the PS4 Pro. These are just the ones that have confirmed that they support HDR, higher resolutions or, in the case of PSVR titles, utilise the greater graphical processing power to present a better experience.

We will update this list as more appear, but these are current as of 4 November 2016:

• Bound
• Battlefield 1
• Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• DriveClub VR
• FIFA 17
• Helldivers
• Hitman
• Hustle Kings
• inFamous First Light
• inFamous Second Son
• Knack
• Mafia III
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• NBA 2K17
• Paragon
• Ratchet & Clank
• RIGS Mechanized Combat League
• Rise Of The Tomb Raider
• Robinson: The Journey
• Smite
• Super Stardust Ultra
• The Elders Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
• The Last Of Us Remastered
• The Last Of Us: Left Behind
• The Playroom VR
• Titanfall 2
• Tumble
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
• Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
• VR Worlds
• World Of Tanks
• XCOM 2

Ford’s next-gen driver assist will swerve before you do

The trickle-down benefits of Ford’s autonomous driving technology are making their way into more and more consumer vehicles. While Tesla might get all the headlines with Autopilot, Ford has been quietly rolling out smart, driver-assist features across more of its vehicles than any other manufacturer. Today, the automaker announced a new generation of technologies like evasive steering assist, cross-traffic alerts, pedestrian detection and enhanced self-parking that should make driving a little less stressful and a lot safer for everyone.

Currently in development, cross-traffic alerts will detect objects that are about to pass behind the vehicle while reversing and alert the driver with a warning sound and a wide-angle view on the backup camera. If the driver still doesn’t respond, the car will automatically brake to avoid a fender bender. For even more stress-free parking moments, the company says they’ll be rolling out an enhanced pushbutton parking system that can parallel park or even back into a perpendicular space with no driver input.

The evasive steering technology is a little more aggressive and uses a combination of radar and camera systems to detect stopped or slowed traffic in front of your own vehicle. If you suddenly pull up on a stopped car, your next-gen Ford will swerve to avoid it, even at highway speeds. To solve a burning question about autonomous vehicles, Ford says the system will only kick in when it knows there won’t be enough room to avoid the collision by braking.

The company also says their driver-assist system can use a combination of GPS data and visual information to alert drivers if they’ve accidentally started driving the wrong way down a one-way street. And an infrared camera system can spot pedestrians, cyclists and animals to notify drivers to even more unseen roadside hazards. Ford expects these features to show up in new vehicles sometime in the next two years, so there’s a chance you’ll never have to parallel park a 2019 Ford Fusion on your own.

Source: Automotive World

Hackers hijack a Philips Hue lights with a drone

Surprise! The Internet of Things is a security nightmare. Anyone who was online a few weeks ago can attest to that. The massive internet blackout was caused by connected devices, and new research from white-hat hackers expounds upon those types of vulnerabilities. The target? Philips Hue smart lightbulbs. While they’ve been hacked in the past, Philips was quick to point out that it happening in a real-world situation would be pretty difficult. Digital intruders would need to already be on your home network with a computer of their own — the company claimed that directly attacking the lightbulbs wasn’t exactly feasible. But this new attack doesn’t require that sort of access.

In fact, all it takes is tricking the bulbs into accepting a nefarious firmware update. By exploiting a weakness in the Touchlink aspect of the ZigBee Light Link system (again!), the hackers were able to bypass the built-in safeguards against remote access. From there, they “extracted the global AES-CCM key” that the manufacturer uses to encrypt and authenticate new firmware, the researchers write (PDF).

“The malicious firmware can disable additional downloads, and thus any effect caused by the worm, blackout, constant flickering, etc.) will be permanent.” What’s more, the attack is a worm, and can jump from connected device to connected device through the air. It could potentially knock out an entire city with just one infected bulb at the root “within minutes.”

“There is no other method of reprogramming these devices without full disassemble (which is not feasible). Any old stock would also need to be recalled, as any devices with vulnerable firmware can be infected as soon as the power is applied.”

The result is that the hackers were able to turn lights on and off both from a van driving by a house and a drone flying outside an office building. For the home, the team was 70 meters (229.7 feet) away and caused lights to go on and off individually. The office building houses a few security companies including Oracle, and was hacked from 350 meters (1,148 feet; about a quarter of a mile), and once under control, the lights started signaling “S.O.S.” in Morse code.

“We used only readily available equipment costing a few hundred dollars, and managed to find this key without seeing any actual updates.” Not terrifying at all, right? The researchers say that they’ve contacted Philips and included all the details needed for a fix. Philips has confirmed the weaknesses and issued firmware updates to hopefully guard against this ever happening.

Via: New York Times

Source: Eyalro (1), (2) (PDF)

Apple Pay Holdout Walmart to Launch QR Code-Based ‘Chase Pay’ Next Year

Chase has announced its payments service Chase Pay will launch at Walmart stores in the United States in 2017. The digital wallet will be integrated into the Walmart app for in-store purchases, allowing Chase Visa credit and debit cardholders to pay at the checkout by showing a QR code to the cashier.

Chase Pay will also be added to Walmart’s website next year, allowing customers to make online purchases while earning rewards and receiving offers. The service secures transactions with token technology, which utilizes one-time complex codes to process transactions and keep card information secure.

Chase Pay differs from Apple Pay, which uses contactless NFC technology and is secured with Touch ID in addition to tokenization. Walmart has so far refused to adopt Apple Pay, opting for QR code payments services like Walmart Pay and Chase Pay instead. The retailer has said it is open to supporting other digital wallets in the future.

Chase Pay was created in partnership with MCX, the consortium behind the indefinitely postponed payments service CurrentC. Walmart was a leading member of MCX between 2012 and 2015, when the consortium’s three-year exclusivity window expired. In 2014, Walmart explicitly said it would not accept Apple Pay.

Walmart’s app is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Chase Pay, Walmart Pay, Walmart
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Huawei Mate 9 specs

What’s inside the new Huawei Mate 9? A lot.

Huawei’s Mate 9 is official — it’s the company’s sleekest, most powerful phone to date, and the first to run the brand new Kirin 960 processor, which features a boatload of powerful cores and ARM’s new Mali-G71 GPU, alongside Huawei’s own i6 co-processor.

More than anything, though, the Mate 9 is impressive for its refined software: EMUI 5.0. Based on Android 7.0 Nougat, the Mate 9 features a simplified notification shade, a better home screen launcher experience, with an optional app drawer, and far fewer extraneous features.

Then there is the camera setup, which features two sensors on the back — one 20MP monochrome, the other 12MP RGB — for better detail and additional color. Rounding it out is a 4,000mAh battery that should last two days given the 5.9-inch LCD panel’s rather homely 1080p resolution.

But wait, there’s more! Huawei is also showing off a special Porsche Design version of the Mate 9, which features additional storage, a curved 2K display, and a hefty price tag!

The Mate 9 will sell for €699 later this year and the Porsche Design Mate 9 goes for €1395 when it debuts in December.

Huawei Mate 9

• Huawei P9 preview
• Huawei P9 specs
• The Porsche Design Mate 9 is a $1500 special edition you’ll want
• All Huawei Mate 9 news
• Join the discussion in the forums