Alcatel hints at a modular future for its midrange phones

Alcatel is being particularly mysterious at this year’s MWC, showing off a midrange phone with a removable back — the A5 — but not saying outright that it’s making a modular device in the vein of the Moto Z. We had some hands-on time with the A5, and tried out not only a rear case covered with LEDs that respond to music (as seen above), but also a speaker case and a battery extender. Alcatel, though, won’t confirm whether these add-ons will ever go on sale, saying only that this is a “sneak peek” of the future.

If it’s just a sneak peek, of course, then why make the A5’s back removable? We’re assuming there’s something more to come, but for whatever reason the company isn’t saying. As it is, the A5 is being marketed, simply, as the “the world’s first interactive LED-covered smartphone.” The LEDs on the back light up in time with music you’re playing, alert you about notifications, or just glow with a number of pre-set themes you can change whenever you like. The device also has an unspecified octa-core processor, a 5.2-inch display, and 4G LTE connectivity.

 

 

Along with the A5, Alcatel is announcing two other handsets: the low-end U5, and the slightly-less-low-end A3. Details are, again, thin on the ground, but we know both phones have 5-inch displays with 4G connectivity, while the A3 also has a quad-core CPU, metallic frame, fingerprint sensor, and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. Hopefully we’ll be able to find out more about these devices — including a full spec sheet, prices, and availability — sometime in the near future.

 

Photography by Sam Byford / The Verge

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These shiny concept earphones are the latest vessel for Sony’s digital assistant

Sony has a compelling vision for the future of computing, but it doesn’t always manage to follow through. Case in point, the company has announced at MWC today a new concept version of its Xperia Ear — a headphone with a built-in digital assistant (the Sony Agent).

Sony says the technology is “hands-free, eyes-free, and ears-free.” And why ears-free? Because these headphones use something called “open-ear” technology that transmits sound “directly to the ear canal.” This has the same effect as the audio passthrough tech we’ve seen in other wireless earphones — allowing users to listen to music and interact with an assistant while still hearing noise from the world around them.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen some similar promises from Sony before, with the company not quite hitting the mark. The first-generation Xperia Ear was also announced as a concept before it went on sale last year. But it was a dud, with reviewers citing limited functionality and poor battery life as reasons to give it a wide berth. 

Perhaps the new and improved Ear will solve some of these issues. Sony says it’s still improving on its digital assistant, and has announced a new “Anytime Talk” feature that makes it easy to start a group call “without searching through contacts or needing to dial.” (This functionality will be coming to first-generation Xperia Ears sometime in the next couple of months.) 

We’ll hopefully be able to try out the new Xperia Ear ourselves at MWC, and see if it’s worth keeping an eye on. Stay tuned. 

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Windows 10 will soon let you block desktop apps from installing

Microsoft is adding a last-minute feature to its Windows 10 Creators Update that is designed to block desktop apps from installing. MSPoweruser reports that the latest Windows Insider preview build of Windows 10 includes options to only allow apps from the Windows Store, but the feature appears to be set as allowing apps from anywhere to install by default. It could be a useful feature to enable on a family PC to prevent rogue desktop apps from being installed.

It’s a similar security feature to what Apple introduced with macOS to prevent unsigned and non-store apps from being installed. Microsoft’s approach appears to be opt-in during the test phases of this particular Windows 10 update, but it’s already drawn criticism from Tim Sweeney, Epic Games co-founder. Sweeney has attacked Microsoft on several occasions for its Windows Store approach to gaming, and described the latest changes as “anti-competitive” and “anti-user” in a Twitter rant.

Microsoft is also currently testing a new “Windows 10 Cloud” version of its operating system that will block classic desktop apps from being installed. The software maker hasn’t officially unveiled Windows 10 Cloud yet, but screenshots recently leaked showing that it looks identical to the regular version of Windows 10. 

 

 

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Oppo could kill phone camera bumps with this new zoom lens design

Oppo has announced a new camera technique designed to enable 5x zoom even in thin smartphones. The company’s “5x Dual Camera Zoom” technology gets around vertical height constraints — the biggest design challenge in smartphone cameras — with a periscope-style lens array that runs horizontally along the top of the device. The system appears to be based around a secondary longer prime lens like you get with the iPhone 7 Plus — the innovation here is in shrinking the module size while increasing the degree of image magnification.

The optically stabilized telephoto lens is offset by 90 degrees, focusing light onto an image sensor after it travels through a prism. While the lens has a focal length 3 times longer than the primary wide-angle camera, Oppo claims “lossless” 5x zoom through a “proprietary image fusion technology for digital zoom,” which we’ll believe when we see. The module is only 5.7mm thick, meaning it should be possible to include on smartphones without requiring a large camera bump.

The catch is that Oppo hasn’t actually announced a device that will use this type of camera system, so it’s hard to know how it will affect the design of a real shipping phone and just how good the results will be. (Oppo released a 4.85mm-thick phone in 2014, so don’t pour one out for the camera bump just yet.) The company also isn’t providing details like specific focal lengths. But it’s a unique, outside-the-box approach to solving a legitimate phone camera problem, and we look forward to testing it out if an actual device ever emerges.

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YouTube will be available on Comcast’s X1 box later this year

Comcast and Google have struck a deal to bring YouTube to the cable company’s X1 set-top box. The deal will give Comcast users full access to the YouTube app, and content from the video platform will be integrated alongside other on-demand content. 

Voice commands will also work for YouTube, allowing users to launch the app and search for specific shows, artists, and personalities. Comcast already has Netflix integrated into its X1 box, and YouTube likely won’t be the last major app to hit the platform. If it wants to keep people from cutting the cord or switching to another set-top box, Comcast will need to speed up its adoption of high-quality third-party apps. 

Comcast says YouTube will be available on its X1 box later this year. 

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Anker’s next batteries will have a faster charging chip

Anker is upgrading the PowerIQ fast charging technology used in its chargers and battery packs to a new, faster version, known as PowerIQ 2.0. The new charging chip allows Anker’s chargers to output up to 18W of power off a single chip. While previous Anker products could charge at that rate, they required two charging chips to do so. 

Anker notes that using a single PowerIQ 2.0 instead of multiple chips will also result in “smaller, thinner, and lighter” products that should cost less than their predecessors.

Alongside the new PowerIQ 2.0 chips, Anker also announced its first battery pack to use it, the PowerCore II 10000, a 10,000mAh battery pack that will cost $29.99 when it goes on sale in May later this year.

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SanDisk ups its iOS flash drive capacity to 256GB

SanDisk announced at Mobile World Congress today that it’s beefing up its iOS flash drive line. Both the iXpand Flash Drive and Connect Wireless Stick are now capable of holding 256GB-worth of data. The iXpand includes a Lightning and USB 3.0 connector, so users can transfer data between their iOS device and Mac or PC. It’s already available in 16GB, 32GB, 64GGB, and 128GB. The 256GB version costs $197.50.

The Connect Wireless Stick accompanies SanDisk’s companion iOS app, which users can access to stream music or movies from the stick. The app also streams content via AirPlay to the Apple TV. The new 256GB version costs $279.99. Both devices are available through the usual retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H.

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Facebook launches its new video app on Samsung smart TVs

Facebook’s new dedicated video app for TVs — which the company announced a few weeks ago — has officially launched on Samsung smart TVs today, as noted by VentureBeat. The app is available on any Samsung smart TV from 2015, 2016, or 2017, and can be accessed by downloading it through the Samsung Smart Hub. 

The new app speaks to Facebook’s larger ambitions when it comes to video, with users able to view content shared by friends, posted by pages they follow, the top-streamed videos from Facebook Live. To that end, you’ll need a Facebook account to actually view content through the app.

Along with the Samsung Smart TV launch today, Facebook previously announced that the app would be coming to Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, although there’s still no timetable for when that will happen. 

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Welcome to the first annual wireless carrier Hunger Games

T-Mobile just announced what I’d argue is the best thing the company has done since it put on a magenta jacket in 2013 and launched its “Uncarrier” brand: a mobile plan that offers unlimited high-speed access to the internet at a very good price. The promotion gives new and existing customers three unlimited data lines for $100 a month, which works out to roughly $33 per line. For all of the company’s gimmicks over the past four years, this move really stands out because it’s exactly what the goal of competition in internet service should be: giving people the highest quality access to the network at fair and accessible rates. That’s the only thing that matters, and suddenly wireless carriers are competing to provide it.

Given the trend in recent years toward eliminating unlimited data plans and inventing things like “HD” data, I never thought I would see what happened this month — at least not anytime soon, since we’re staring down the barrel of a hostile FCC. But in the span of a few days in mid-February, the major US wireless carriers made a series of truly competitive moves: Verizon announced it would offer unlimited data again, then T-Mobile made a competitive change, and then Sprint and AT&T followed with changes in prices and services. (Just today, AT&T further improved its unlimited deal.) My colleague Chaim Gartenberg wrote a good rundown of the changes, explaining why all of the US carriers have a new unlimited plan. 

Are the plans perfect? No — far from it. Verizon and AT&T are still too expensive, and Sprint has lots of dumb restrictions that discriminate between things like data used for gaming and listening to music. But with the top four carriers now behaving like they’re ready to really compete on speed and price, there’s some hope that the dark path toward cableization of the internet will be diminished or deferred. 

There’s still a risk that the internet will be carved up or deemphasized as ISPs gobble up television companies and start to act like them. I scratched my head last night as I watched an internet stream for the Oscars that was almost two minutes behind the live broadcast. There’s still a bizarre lack of respect for the power of the internet — the one truly universal network we have — and its importance. That’s one of the reasons it’s so frustrating to have an incoming administration that wants to kill common sense rules like net neutrality. 

(Surprise! All of this month’s competitive actions in the wireless space took place under net neutrality rules. Turns out “government regulation of the internet” isn’t so bad.) 

Hopefully this trend will continue, and companies like T-Mobile should keep leading the way. The most “uncarrier” thing T-Mobile could ever do is compete fiercely on price and speed. Carriers should quickly forget about “BingeOn,” “HD data,” zero rating, and all of the other bullshit that obfuscates the real product people want and deserve: cheap, reliable, high-quality access to the internet. We should expect no less of our public utilities.

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Playing Snake on the Nokia 3310

A funny thing is happening at this year’s Mobile World Congress: a show defined by its future-facing announcements and innovations essentially ground to a halt to gawk at Nokia rewinding the clock a decade and a half with its launch of the Nokia 3310. The 2017 edition of that true classic of a mobile phone stays faithful in almost all respects to the original. It’s devastatingly simple, adding only a handful of useful functions — like a calculator, flashlight, media player, and camera — to the basic capabilities of texting and making calls. Oh, and it plays Snake.

Snaaaaaaaake!

Okay, that’s the wrong Snake. But seriously, this Nokia nostalgia trip is one of the highlights of this year’s MWC, so being the responsible journalist that I am, I joined the throngs trying to get their hands on the new-old phone and try its new-old game.

First thing to be said is that this is only a distant cousin of the original Snake. This version, made by Gameloft, sees a fatter, more colorful snake that’s no longer familiar with 90-degree turns and takes big, long arcs instead. The graphics are deliberately blocky and look very good for it. But this is still a modern reinterpretation of a classic rather than the classic itself. While that runs counter to the concept of the 3310 — which is a reversal to simpler times and a rejection of modern life’s excess complexity — it still makes for an enjoyable game.

There are a number of segmented, timed levels of increasing difficulty, which I didn’t enjoy much on my first time playing through. But the survival mode is the one closest to the old test of endurance and patience that we all know and love. I liked it. It was still different from the original, but also plenty of fun.

There are bombs, moving walls, and other obstacles to avoid, plus there’s a scissors "power-down," which cuts you (in a good way!) and slows down the pace. The gradually increasing speed and length of the snake are the biggest challenges to negotiate, though I’m not sure that "cut yourself to survive" is really the message we want to be sending to impressionable young minds.

All kidding aside, I was half-anticipating this whole thing, the Nokia 3310 and its particular flavor of Snake, to be a cynical exploitation ploy to cash in on people’s fond memories of youth. But I’m glad to say that is not the case. Both the phone and the game are quirkily charming — easily the most adorable new tech we’ve seen at MWC.

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Amazon reportedly working to get Alexa to distinguish between different voices

Amazon is reportedly working on a new feature for its Alexa voice assistant that would allow for individual voice recognition, according to a report from Time. In other words, your Echo would theoretically be able to tell voices apart and figure out who is actually talking to it.

According to Time, the feature is internally known as “Voice ID” and has been in development since summer 2015. The report claims that Voice ID would allow certain commands to be locked to a specific voice — for example, only allowing the account holder to purchase things off Amazon (something that’s certainly been an issue in the past). Alexa actually already supports multiple user profiles and PIN verification for purchases, but automating the process through voice recognition would certainly make it easier to take advantage of those features. (The current system requires users to manually change accounts and input passwords.)

Obviously, the voice recognition feature would bring a whole new slew of privacy concerns to Alexa, which is already embroiled in legal controversy regarding user data. One of Time’s sources claims that the feature is actually already finished from a technical perspective and that Amazon is simply trying to figure out a way to roll it out to Alexa users without compromising privacy. 

Whether or not that’s actually the case, Voice ID is certainly an interesting idea that would neatly solve one of the main issues with owning an Echo — assuming it exists and reliably works, that is. We’ll have more on Amazon’s expansion of Alexa’s voice recognition abilities if and when we hear more. 

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Google Fiber-owned Webpass is bringing its wireless gigabit internet to Denver

Webpass, a San Francisco-based internet provider now owned by Google Fiber, announced today it would expand to the Denver, Colorado market. This marks Webpass’ first new market since Google Fiber, itself owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Access division, acquired the company back in June of 2016. 

What makes Webpass important for Google Fiber’s future plans is how it delivers internet at speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Instead of laying fiber optic cable, a costly and time-consuming process that can involve tireless negotiations with local municipalities, Webpass delivers gigabit speeds using a mixture of existing wireless and Ethernet technologies. 

Broadly speaking, Webpass beams its internet through a central antenna typically located on the top of an apartment building, which is why it only makes its services available to buildings with 10 or more units or, in some cases, 30 or more units. By tackling apartment buildings instead of entire neighborhoods of homes, Webpass is also able to wrestle away deals from large telecoms that usually try to lock in apartment complexes with multi-year contracts.

So it’s more clear now why Google Fiber bought Webpass in the first place, and why the latter company is the one doing the expanding. Fiber, as part of Alphabet’s Access, has suffered from a slow rollout across the country and rising costs. As part of a cost-cutting process initiated by Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat, divisions like Fiber, smart appliance maker Nest, and the moonshot-oriented X have been hit with executive reshuffles, budget cuts, layoffs, and even shut downs. 

Access lost around 9 percent of its workforce back in October, including its CEO Craig Barratt, who was only just replaced last week. Alongside the layoffs, Access also announced it would “pause” plans to launch fiber internet in nine new markets. It looks like Webpass now holds more promise for Google Fiber’s ambitions than the division’s original premise of laying its own cable. 

Webpass now has job listings in the Seattle area, first noticed by GeekWire yesterday, and announced last month that it’s working with the Google Fiber team to expand its services in existing markets to more apartment buildings.

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Windows 10's mail app gets Focused Inbox and calendar improvements today

Microsoft is updating its Mail and Calendar apps for Windows 10 today with some features that the company has been using in its mobile apps. The biggest addition is Focused Inbox, a feature that was first available on Outlook for iOS and Android. 

In Windows 10, Focused Inbox lets you separate out an inbox into two sections that will filter important emails into the Focused section, and less important emails like newsletters into the Other section. It has worked well on the mobile version of the app, learning email habits as you keep using the feature. Microsoft has decided to limit Focused Inbox in the Windows 10 Mail app to just Outlook.com and Office 365 accounts, despite the feature being available for Gmail and Google Apps accounts on the mobile versions of the apps.

 

Microsoft is also bringing mentions to the Mail app for Windows 10. You can simply @ and tag a name into an email message, and if that person isn’t already on the email thread they’ll be added automatically. 

On the calendar side, Microsoft is adding colored categories, interesting calendars, and travel reservation and package delivery support. Colored categories lets you categorize calendar events with colors, so it’s a lot easier to scan your schedule and find out what events matter just from a color scheme. The interesting calendars feature lets you find calendars for sports teams, TV shows, and more, and add them to your calendar to track when events are beginning. 

The most useful new addition to the calendar app is the ability to display travel reservations and package delivery details. If such an event is in your calendar then Mail for Windows 10 will now surface a useful summary card with all the details of your package or your flight. Improvements also include some tweaking of the locations feature for calendar entries and an option to add Skype for online meetings. All of these changes are rolling out immediately through an app update to Mail and Calendar in the Windows Store.

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T-Mobile customers can now buy the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge for up to $419 off

T-Mobile is having a major phone sale today that includes the LG V20, the LG Aristo, and Samsung’s flagship S7 devices. Both the S7 and S7 Edge now cost $360, from an initial price of $673 and $779, respectively. I’ll go ahead and state the obvious here: that’s a huge savings. The LG V20 is also majorly marked down with a sale price of $360; it usually costs $769.

I’m trying to figure out the specifics of the sale, which was first spotted by Droid-Life, but it seems the only requisite is being a T-Mobile subscriber. Some plans might not be accepted, so just try to add the devices to your cart to see if you qualify.

Maybe this sale is in anticipation of Mobile World Congress next week? Samsung is going to reveal the S8 on March 29th, so I’m guessing T-Mobile wants to dwindle its old stock a bit, which is great for all of us who need a new phone. 

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Sony just announced the world’s fastest SD card

Sony’s latest SD cards are the fastest ever created, according to the company. The SF-G UHS-II SD card features read / write speeds of 300MB/s and 299 MB/s, respectively, making it the fastest SD card announced to date. 

The SF-G cards are shock proof, waterproof, temperature resistant, and X-ray proof, according to Sony, and will be available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB variations. Sony hasn’t released any pricing information on the SD cards, but says the SF-G cards will be available sometime in March from the usual lineup of retailers. 

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Fitbit bought Pebble for much less than originally reported

Fitbit paid $23 million for smartwatch maker Pebble, according to Fitbit’s fourth quarter earnings report, released earlier today. This buyout price is less than what was reported earlier, with some publications having reported that Fitbit paid somewhere between $34 and $40 million for the smartwatch startup. 

It’s highly unlikely the buyout price exceeded the debt that Pebble racked up over the past five years; and the newly-revealed detail is a sad and final conclusion for a startup that managed to launch its hardware after a record-breaking crowdfunded campaign, captivating a niche crowd of early adopters and app developers with its unique smartwatches. 

Fitbit also said that it paid $15 million dollars for Vector, a little-known smartwatch product. All of this is part of Fitbit’s larger efforts to launch its own smartwatch and smartwatch app store this year, despite the struggles that Fitbit has recently faced. 

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Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ will reportedly have a monstrous 6.2-inch display

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is slated to arrive in late March, but details continue to leak in a steady stream in the lead up to the event. The latest dump of new info comes courtesy of VentureBeat’s Evan Blass, who posted the S8+ spec sheet on Twitter this afternoon. The thing that should pop out is the monstrous 6.2-inch display size. 

Due to the S8’s rumored design, which drops physical buttons in favor of drastically reduced bezels, the phone may not be much larger than the Galaxy Note 7, which packed a 5.7-inch display into a 6.04-inch-tall device. Prior leaks containing photos of the device back up the idea that the S8 will pack an edge-to-edge display that allows for a drastic increase in screen real estate while retaining a relatively compact form. 

It’s unclear exactly how the S8+ will differ from the standard S8. Earlier leaks suggest the standard model may come with just a 5.7-inch display, while both could carry a Snapdragon 835 processor, a 12-megapixel rear camera, and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The spec sheet does indicate that the S8+ will have rounded corners on the display, an iris scanner for biometric authentication, 64GB of storage, 4GB of memory, and Samsung’s now-standard dust and water-resistant features. 

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Samsung will soon let you unlock any Windows 10 PC using a Galaxy fingerprint reader

Samsung is planning to expand its Flow Android app to support any Windows 10. Samsung first introduced the ability to unlock its Windows 10-powered Galaxy TabPro S with a Samsung Flow app for Android last year. You simply use the fingerprint reader on a compatible Galaxy smartphone to unlock the Windows 10 tablet.

Sammobile reports that Samsung has responded to requests to make this feature available across any Windows 10 PCs, and the company is now planning to enable this with the Windows 10 Creators Update. While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced a release date for the Creators Update, it’s expected to arrive in April. Samsung was already using Microsoft's Windows Hello Companion Device Framework to enable its fingerprint unlock, and it appears the company is simply expanding on that with the latest update to Windows 10. 

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Leaked Sonos PlayBase is a soundbar that your TV sits on

A new Sonos speaker could be hitting the market next month, according to a leaked product listing on B&H. As spotted by Zatz Not Funny, the listing is for one “Sonos PlayBase,” which is selling for $699 and available in black or white. It’s not clear exactly what the PlayBase is, but the name and design suggest it could be a plate-shaped soundbar you sit your TV directly on top of, improving its audio quality while offering Sonos’ usual range of connected music streaming options. (As Engadget points out, it looks similar in form to LG’s SoundPlate speakers.) 

Leaked images of the PlayBase don’t give much away, but show an optical and Ethernet port on the rear (no HDMI), a speaker grille at the front, and a single button on the side. Like Sonos’ recent Play:5 speakers, we can probably expect the PlayBase to have touch controls and an integrated mic, but the now-pulled listing offers no hint about possible Alexa or Google Assistant integration — something that Sonos is definitely interested in. If the B&H listing is to be believed, we’ll see more of the PlayBase this March.

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Amazon brings Alexa to UK TVs with updated Fire TV Stick

The latest version of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, which comes with Alexa built in, is heading to UK shores. The device launched in the US last October, but is going on sale April 6th in Britain for £40 (available in various high street stores, or you can preorder it from Amazon right now). It has a quad-core processor that’s 30 percent faster than its predecessor; a new, streamlined user interface; and an Alexa-powered remote. However, it still doesn’t have 4K support — for that you’ll need the pricier Amazon Fire TV. 

With Alexa, you can use voice commands to control all your usual streaming TV options, asking the device to open apps like Netflix, and search for specific shows and movies. You can also use it to access Alexa’s other features, like checking on the weather and controlling Wi-Fi-connected smart home items. The Fire TV stick will also support third-party Alexa Skills, meaning you can use it to order takeout or an Uber or access a bunch of other fairly useless features.

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The new LCD Etch A Sketch Freestyle can’t shake off the lies

Remember Etch A Sketch? Remember spending hours honing your fine motor skills in turning the knobs and dials, trying to perfect tracing over the lines? Remember never letting anyone into your room again after your neighbor’s kid accidentally kicked your Etch A Sketch across the floor and destroyed your masterpiece? 

The Etch A Sketch was an exercise in patience, character-building, and hand-eye coordination. Today’s kids won’t get to experience any of that with the latest collaboration from Spin Master (the company that acquired Etch A Sketch in 2016) and BoogieBoard, the Etch A Sketch Freestyle. It’s half the fun of the classic Etch A Sketch, with none of the effort. 

Etch A Sketch Freestyle takes the aluminum powder out entirely and replaces it with a black LCD screen, which kids can then use a stylus to draw rainbow lines on. So what are the white knobs in the corners for? They’re stamps that make shapes on the LCD screen. The only feature that remains the same as the classic toy is the shake-to-erase functionality. What is the point of anything?

Etch A Sketch Freestyle will be available for $20 in Fall 2017. In the meanwhile, why not try recreate this at home, analog style? You can make your own DIY Marvin’s Magic Drawing Board by layering oil pastels and scratching off the top black layer. Learn how to make your own scratchboard here!

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SodaStream bottles recalled for potentially exploding under pressure

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has just issued a recall for select SodaStream bottles that may burst under pressure. Take a moment to make your “it me,” “Note 7,” “haha this bottle is basically Donald Trump” jokes, have a nice giggle, and let’s move forward.

An estimated 51,000 units are part of the US recall, though an additional 7,600 bottles were also sold in Canada. The bottles hold one liter of liquid, are blue-tinted, and labeled dishwasher-safe with an expiration date of April 2020. Under pressure — either from the carbonation process or shaking then opening while it’s full of fizzy water — the bottles could potentially explode and injure users with broken plastic.

The CPSC said these bottles were sold at Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, and other major retailers between February 2016 and January 2017. As of February, there were no reports of related injuries in either the US or Canada. Affected customers can request a full refund or replacement bottles directly from SodaStream.

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These may be the first photos of a working Samsung Galaxy S8

We’re not expecting to see Samsung officially unveil its Galaxy S8 until late March, but as the big reveal gets closer, more leaks and details about the company’s next flagship smartphone continue to emerge. Today, a series of questionably-sourced images lend a bit more credence to Samsung getting rid of the S7’s physical home button and moving entirely to on-screen virtual buttons.

Ditching the actual button gave Samsung the freedom to design the S8 with an extremely minimal surrounding bezel at the top and bottom of the phone. (The side bezels had already reached “barely there” status on the S7 Edge.) The images appear to show the screen turned on, but I’m not entirely sold on that. The shots with Samsung’s always-on display (the big clock) seem realistic enough, but the main photo of the screen feels a little fake to me — more static demo unit than actual OLED display. Still, these shots align with a previous leak from VentureBeat. Those photos showed the S8 in silver, while these appear to be the black model (with a glossy black aluminum frame).

 

Look at all those sensors at the top of the phone! It’s a bit unsightly but makes sense since the S8 is likely to feature an iris scanner, something we first saw in the recalled Note 7.

Separately, a tipster has provided Android Police with a purported “system dump” of files from the upcoming Galaxy Tab S3 tablet, rumored to debut at Mobile World Congress. Among those files are some images that depict the Galaxy S8, confirming the relocation of the phone’s fingerprint sensor to the left side of the camera lens.

 

The images also confirm on-screen navigation keys and that tiny bottom bezel. And finally, we get a very basic look at Samsung’s dock for the S8, which will give it a desktop-like experience similar to Windows Continuum. Samsung reportedly plans to call this feature “DeX.” According to VentureBeat, Samsung plans to unveil the Galaxy S8 at a March 29th event in New York City, launching the device in two sizes a month later on April 21st. 

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Your Apple Pencil needs — nay, deserves — a bespoke leather grip

The Apple Pencil is a wonderful piece of technology. But for all its technical smarts, the design leaves something to be desired. The white plastic is cold and harsh, and the cap for the Lightning port is easy to lose. 

Fortunately, the excellent Apple accessory company Pad & Quill is here to save the day with its handcrafted leather goods. Specifically, the $49 Leather Apple Pencil Grip, which — in the company’s own words — “turns the Pencil from useful tool into a work of art.” 

The Leather Apple Pencil Grip is crafted by hand out of full-grain American leather, with baseball stitches and a stainless steel pen clip. It comes in two parts — a grip for the lower portion of the Pencil, and a clip portion that also has a helpful holder for the Lighting port cap. And it comes in three colors that bring to mind the rugged and wild days where the spirit of the Leather Apple Pencil Grip was forged: Galloper Black, Chestnut, and Whiskey.

Sure, the entire presentation here is slightly over the top. But from an objective perspective, Pad & Quills’ grip actually solves a lot of problems with the Pencil. The grip does look like it’d be more comfortable to hold than the naked Pencil, the clip design should stop if from rolling off your desk constantly, and the cap holder just looks genuinely useful. And while it’s not strictly necessary for it to be made from hand-sewn leather, Pad & Quill has a reputation for shipping incredibly well-made products. 

Look, your $99 stylus probably doesn’t need a $49.95 leather koozie, but at least its heart is in the right place. The Leather Apple Pencil Grip is available for preorder now from Pad & Quills’ website, and should be shipping in early April. 

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