AI, self-driving cars and cyberwar – the tech trends to watch for in 2017

 AI, self-driving cars and cyberwar – the tech trends to watch for in 2017

In some ways, tech in 2017 will be a steady progression from what came before it. Time marches on, and so too does the advance of technology. In other ways, though, it will be just as upended as the rest of the world by the unprecedented disruption that 2016 has left in its wake.
ere are the trends to watch out for in the coming year:

More AI, less data

The artificial intelligence revolution is well and truly upon us, but so far, the biggest players are venerable Silicon Valley titans such as Google, Amazon and Apple. That’s partially because they have the money to hire teams full of PhDs at seven-figure salaries, but it’s also because they have the data.
That could change. One of the key areas of research for 2017 is data efficiency: the problem of trying to teach machine-learning systems how
to do more, with less. Think about how many times your average three-year-old needs to see a particular animal before they can correctly identify it, compared with the thousands of images a neural network needs to ingest to perform the same basic task.
Solving the problem of data efficiency could dramatically open up the industry, letting new startups compete on a level playing field with those who have access to petabytes of customer data. And it could also change what an AI can do for you, letting an assistant become far more sensitive to your personal quirks and foibles, or a photo-tagging service recognise specific locations, objects, or situations.

Mostly-self-driving cars

Self-driving cars exist on a scale. At one end, you’ll find technologies that are barely more than fancy cruise control: lane-assist features ensure your car doesn’t drift out of lane, while adaptive cruise control will maintain a steady distance from the car in front. At the other end is full automation: a car that can drive from a parking space outside your house to a parking space outside your office with no-one touching the steering wheel, or even sitting in the car at all.
The story of 2017 will be car companies racing almost all the way to that final hurdle, but just stopping short. Not only the tech companies, either (although expect Tesla’s own models to lead the way, closely followed by Google’s sister company Waymo’s alliance with Fiat Chrysler). Conventional manufacturers the likes of Nissan and BMW are jumping into the field with both feet, and their systems will only get smarter. And who knows what Apple’s plans are?
But don’t expect anyone to make the difficult jump to full self-driving capability any time soon. Not only are the regulatory and liability hurdles immense, but the tech just isn’t there for the vast majority of journeys. There’s a reason Google tested its first ever fully automatic trip in Texas, land of wide lanes, huge highways, and car-centric development. Drop that car in the middle of a busy London backstreet and it won’t do so well.
The big question is whether all this automation will actually make things safer. On the one hand, cars don’t get distracted, drunk, or tired, all of which lie at the root of most fatalities on the road. On the other hand, if people are told to supervise a car which mostly drives itself, they tend not to be prepared to take over if it actually does need assistance – a problem that lay behind the first self-driving fatality in May.

Cyberwar

Let’s not mince words: cyberwar has already begun. If it didn’t start in 2008, when (probably) the Israeli and US intelligence services used the Stuxnet virus to destroy Iranian nuclear centrifuges, and it didn’t start in 2015, when the US Office of Personnel Management was hacked by (probably) China, stealing the personal details of millions of government employees, then it certainly started in 2016, when (probably) Russia hacked in to the Democratic National Congress, exflitrating emails which were released with the intention of altering the outcome of an election.
Those “probably”s expose part of the appeal of cyberwar for nation states: attribution is hard, and rock-solid attribution to not just a nation but a chain of command is almost impossible. The incoming US administration is already making aggressive overtures about its desire to get on the attack, which will inevitably also make it a bigger target, according to security expert Hitesh Sheth, head of cybersecurity firm Vectra.
“US businesses and the US government should expect an increase in the number and severity of cyber-attacks, led by select nation states and organised political and criminal entities,” he says.

The ghost of Christmas data breaches past

It feels like data breaches are everywhere. But that’s often not the case; while companies are indeed compromised on a regular basis, modern security practices usually ensure that not much is stolen, and what does get taken isn’t easy to exploit.
Instead, the more dangerous trend is old breaches surfacing, like an unexploded second-world-war bomb, to wreak havoc on the present. That’s what happened to Yahoo, twice in one year, when data breaches from 2013 and 2014 resurfaced. The breaches were huge, containing a billion and half a billion accounts respectively, and the information within them was barely secured. Passwords were obfuscated with a standard which has been known to be insecure since 2005, while other info, including security questions, was in plain text.
Because data breaches can happen undetected, fixing your cybersecurity in 2016 isn’t just locking the stable door after the horse has bolted; it’s locking the stable door without even realising the horse made its escape years ago.
The information in historical breaches has often been traded on the darknet for some time before their existence surfaces, meaning the damage comes in two waves: first, slowly, and then all at once.

Meet eSports, the new sports

Competitive video gaming is a huge business. In 2016, investment bank GP Bullhound estimated it hit a global audience of over 250 million people, and amassed a total annual revenue of $493m – and in 2017, that’s predicted to more than double, making eSports a billion-dollar sector.
The scale of the eSports industry is down to a number of factors, from increased broadband penetration making online multiplayer gaming accessible to most of the world to online streaming allowing budding eSports stars to skip conventional media and go straight to their fans.
But it’s now big enough to warp the very industry that spawned it, with major games publishers courting the eSports community from the inception of their latest releases. Blizzard, a Californian company best-known for its online game World of Warcraft, has been one of the leaders in the field, with games including Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Hearthstone all having online viewerships in the millions, but the standout success is Riot Games, whose sole title League of Legends had more viewers in its 2015 world championship than the final game of 2016’s NBA Finals.
GP Bullhound says the next big wave is going to come from mobile, with games like Clash Royale and Vainglory representing the fastest growing segment of the global $37bn games market. Of course, this might all pass you by: over half of eSports fans are millennials, by far the youngest skew of any group of sports supporters.

The great privacy divide

The world’s most advanced surveillance operation will shortly be under the direct control of a far-right demagogue who routinely attacks critics on social media and uses the office of US president-elect to bolster his commercial interests. That has left some people worried.
As a result, many are re-examining their online privacy, switching to encrypted messaging services, locking down social media accounts, and limiting the amount of information they put online. Signal, an encrypted messaging app recommended by Edward Snowden, saw a huge spike in downloads following Donald Trump’s election, while hundreds of tech workers signed a pledge to never implement the president-elect’s proposed registry of Muslims.
At the same time, though, trends in AI and online monetisation have pushed other tech firms to slowly chip away at the amount of privacy their users have, data-mining ever more aspects of their online lives in an effort to offer better services and create smarter software. Google, for instance, will now train a machine-learning system on your photos, read your emails to find useful information to add to your calendar, and save everything you say to it to improve its voice recognition.
Over 2017, this divide will only increase: companies like Apple and Signal on the one side, and Facebook and Google on the other. In the end, the market will decide. Are people willing to give up the latest and greatest fruits of machine-learning to limit their exposure to surveillance, or do they not really care about online privacy and want everything as soon as it’s technologically possible?

Chinese tech goes west

The likes of Foxconn may build the world’s most premium tech, but in the west, Chinese brands are still largely associated with cheap electronics: no-name flat panels and cheap smartphones that spy on you. As for software, the entire country can feel as if it’s seen through analogues to Silicon Valley, from “China’s Google” (Baidu) to “China’s Twitter” (Sina Weibo).
But an increasing number of Chinese companies have their eyes set on the richer markets of Europe and America, without giving up on the customer base in their own country. Shenzhen-based OnePlus, for instance, has slowly carved out a niche for itself with its high-quality, low-price range of smartphones, which aim to match the flagships from Apple and Samsung while offering price-sensitive users savings of hundreds of pounds. Huawei, already a fairly well-known brand in the west, is pushing its Honor brand as a way to drop the budget image for a new demographic.
And software firms are getting in the game too. Tencent, makers of WeChat (that’s “China’s WhatsApp”, for those playing along at home), is pushing hard into the west, taking on Facebook at its own game. The service is currently most popular with Chinese expats, but it’s clear that Facebook is watching closely: a number of features in Messenger are ripped wholesale from the hugely influential service.

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Apple Lucky Bag Promotion Returns

Apple Lucky Bag Promotion Returns

Apple’s “Lucky Bag” deal will return in Japan shortly after the country rings in the New Year. The promotion, which is set to start Jan. 2, was spotted on Apple Japan’s website following an update on Friday.
The lucky bag tradition, or fukubukuro in Japanese, is a yearly custom in the country, in which retailers offer blind grab bags, which are filled with a random selection of items. While purchasers of the bags can’t see their contents prior to purchase, they often are valued more than their original purchase price.

Apple offered a similar deal last January, with grab bags priced at 36,000 yen ($345). Some of their contents included MacBook Airs, iPods, T-shirts and iPads, while others contained a variety of third-party accessories, according to MacRumors. The company has yet to disclose pricing for the 2015 Lucky Bag event.
Purchases of the Lucky Bag are only available in-person at physical Apple Stores in Japan. In addition to not being able to see the bags’ contents before purchase, customers are limited to one purchase per day and contents of the bag will not be accepted for return or exchange, except for manufacturer defects. But non-Apple products will be only sold “as-is,” according to the promotional terms and conditions.

Large lines have often formed out of Apple Stores in Japan prior to the launch of the promotion and this year is likely to attract similar crowds.
Analysts tracking Apple’s sales in its first fiscal quarter for 2015 expect the company to post record earnings due to surging iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales around the globe, according to Apple Insider.
Despite previous troubles with keeping its latest smartphones in stock, the company saw drastically improved shipping times in the lead-up to Christmas, with many of its stores offering them for in-store pickup.

Luke Villapaz

International Business Times 

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Software upgrades re-create old-school toys as smart playthings

 Software upgrades re-create old-school toys as smart playthings

LOS ANGELES — Balls. Dolls. Race cars. So dull.
How can good old-fashioned toys like these compete for children's attention when kids seem umbilically connected to their iPads?
 How about software-upgradable balls, dolls and race cars?

Established toy makers and entrepreneurs from outside the toy industry are creating a new generation of connected toys. Just as software updates pulse new life into years-old smartphones and tablets, so too for kids' playthings. Equipped with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the toys can be customized, personalized and improved through the Internet to make them just as dynamic as tablets.
"The world of imagination coupled with your phone is the new reality for toys," said Adam Wilson, chief software architect at connected-toy maker Sphero. "Playing with plastic is just not enough today."

Sphero's pitch to parents is simple. No kid will be chasing after his or her iPad or tossing it like a Frisbee (well, hopefully). To get children to move more than their fingers and to hang out with friends, Sphero is offering toys juiced with software.
Sphero sells cylindrical and spherical polycarbonate toys controlled by smartphone and tablet apps that kids can race, light up, toss as a fetch toy or roll down the living room like a bowling ball. They start at $99.

If imagination alone doesn't lead to a cool use, Sphero provides more than 30 apps that interact with its products. One app turns Sphero into a measuring tape. Another, a digital hot potato. In games, the gadgets become controllers to be tilted and turned similar to waving a Nintendo Wii remote. Players also have the option of writing their own code and apps.

"We're at stage 1 of 150 stages to make a whole new experience for people," Wilson said.
Four years ago, he and fellow Sphero co-founder Ian Bernstein came together to develop software for robots. But the robots were too clunky to do anything fun with. Wilson and Bernstein branched into hardware development and produced a robot that was no more than a ball.

"It's a minimally viable robot, but it's a dot that can become anything," Wilson said.
In line with most of today's connected toys, new apps and software updates for Sphero are free. Consumers pay a higher price for the toy itself. But toy makers say the premium pays off since children so far have held on to them longer than traditional products.

Toys have been going high-tech in spurts for two decades as the cost of the latest consumer technology drops to a point where it can be included in typically inexpensive children's toys. But the latest wave is notable for two reasons: It's aimed at parents who fret about the downsides of iPad fixation, while leveraging some of the same technology inside smartphones and tablets to encourage more active play.

"The toy industry always reflects the culture at large," said industry analyst Chris Byrne. "We turn to technology a great deal for entertainment as adults, so it would make sense children would too."
Pramod Sharma, who as an engineer at Google developed a machine to scan copies of books, watched his preschool-age daughter Saanvi spend hours at a time on an iPad unless he stepped in.
Growing up, Sharma, 34, joined friends in building sandcastles and toy-block structures along the rivers of northern India. To give his daughter an opportunity to find similar camaraderie, he returned to his expertise in helping computers "see."

Sharma and a fellow former Google engineer developed an $80 play set called Osmo. Children place the iPad on a stand and affix a small mirror to the iPad so the camera can pick up on what's lying in front of the stand. One of three initial games revolves around tiny squares stamped with letters. Children must arrange letters to form the word for an on-screen image, and the screen lights up when the arrangement is correct.
Osmo's "computer vision" technology also has the smarts to recognize hand drawings and block shapes, with more to come, Sharma said. Since the software comes from the Web, it can be updated continually.

"I'm being careful not to discard anything that's been around," Sharma said of his Palo Alto startup's strategy. "We want to extend the iPad to make it more tactile and social."
In October, Sharma's company, Tangible Play, announced it had raised $12 million in venture capital. Two days earlier, Culver City toy maker Cartwheel Kids acquired Colorado startup Smart Toy.
"We really felt this groundswell of change happening in the toy industry," said Carly Gloge, who had been a Web designer before founding Smart Toy with her husband. "And we wanted to bring together a little tech company all built on software and one big company built on traditional toys with licensing."

Gloge and her husband, Isaac Squires, didn't have children of their own, but they still gravitated to the toy aisle at Target during every grocery trip. The couple, who built a video game on their first date, thought they could deliver more interactive toys.
They began with a stuffed animal, called an Ubooly, that parents could stuff a smartphone or tablet into. Powered by an app, the Ubooly becomes an imaginary friend that kids can touch and hold a conversation with. More than 20,000 people play with an Ubooly at least once a month, according to the company.

The next version, arriving in fall 2015, has computer technology built in because the cost of the parts fell 50 percent during the last year, Gloge said. The toy can speak to children and even help them learn new languages without a Wi-Fi connection, but the Internet connection allows the toy's vocabulary to be updated every so often. The goal is to personalize the toys to match a kid's obsession.

"If a girl really loves unicorns, you can incorporate that by helping her save unicorns through learning math," Gloge said.
Wonder Workshop's Dash & Dot robots, Anki Drive race cars, Lego Fusion, Tiggly Counts and Crayola's Virtual Design Pro sets are among other hot connected toys, according to industry experts.
The potential for the market to take off is there. Activision Blizzard's Skylanders franchise exceeded $1 billion in sales in 2013. Skylanders action figures act as wireless hard drives for data about characters in a video game when attached to a special base station. On their own, the action figures are whatever a kid imagines.

Skylanders is a favorite of mostly boys, though. Next summer, Flairgameworld plans to release the first 16 inexpensive, small felt creatures that it thinks should appeal to the caring side of girls. When synced to a mobile app, the toys will let girls experience cultures across the world.

"It's a discovery product beyond just launching Google Maps," said Flairgameworld principal Christina Sfakianos. "Kids want to relate to something, and you can't create that emotional attachment with just an app."

Paresh Dave

 Los Angeles Times

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BlackBerry And Boeing Build A Self-Destructing Spy Phone

BlackBerry And Boeing Build A Self-Destructing Spy Phone

Canadian mobile company BlackBerry Ltd. is working with Boeing Co. on a smartphone made for privacy-minded government agents, it announced Friday. The Boeing Black, as its called, is capable of self-destructing if it is tampered with.

“We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilizing our BES 12 platform," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said on a conference call held to discuss its mixed third quarter results. "That, by the way, is all they allow me to say.”

BlackBerry and Boeing’s smartphone encrypts communications as well as its stored data, such as sensitive photos or emails. The Boeing Black has space for two SIM cards, used to connect to multiple wireless networks, such as one for government calls and another for civilian communications.

Boeing, the the aerospace and defense contractor best known for its airplanes, markets the smartphone to government agencies and others who need to keep snooping to a minimum. BlackBerry’s Boeing Black is assembled in the U.S., from parts manufactured around the world.
The spy-phone boasts a chunky 13.25mm-thick body, almost double the depth found in Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone. The large frame allows it to be custom configured to include biometric sensors -- including fingerprint scanners -- and communication with satellites.

The Boeing Black operates on BlackBerry’s Enterprise Service, or BES 12, which allows companies and government agencies to secure and manage Android, iPhone and BlackBerry devices securely on their internal networks.

It’s not the phone of choice for James Bond, however. Sony Pictures has had a long-standing deal with its parent company to feature the Xperia line of smartphones in Bond films.

Thomas Halleck

International Business Times

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BlackBerry's surviving, but not as a smartphone company

BlackBerry's surviving, but not as a smartphone company

It's been almost a year since John Chen was appointed to save Blackberry and it's clear that his grand plan has, at least, stopped the company losing money hand over fist. In the Canadian outfit's latest three month report, it reveals that losses have been trimmed from $4.4 billion last year to a much more manageable $148 million. Of course, it's clear that as the business reinvents itself as a software-and-services company, manufacturing smartphones has increasingly become a side project.
At this point last year, the company had shipped 4.3 million smartphones, although the bulk of those were older BlackBerry 7 devices. This time around, less than half that figure -- 1.9 million devices -- found their way into the hands of consumers, with sales dwindling even in former strongholds like the Middle East and Asia Pacific. We're still waiting to see what impact, if any, new and "unconventional" devices like the Passport and Classic will have on fortunes, so there could be good news coming in the future on that front.

The company is still seeing its revenues split roughly down the middle, with 46 percent of cash coming from devices and the rest coming from software and services. It's the latter portion where John Chen sees the most potential, which is probably what prompted the company to buy mobile encryption company Secusmart. The company also saw big gains in its BlackBerry Enterprise Security platform, which grew over 100 percent in the last three months.
So, losses have been trimmed, software sales are growing and there's some cash in the bank. Someone should get a bottle of champagne and stick in the fridge, you know, just in case Chen's "eight quarter" plan pulls out something truly spectacular.
BlackBerry

Daniel Cooper

Engadget 

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Samsung will shut down its ChatOn messaging service next year

Samsung will shut down its ChatOn messaging service next year

After denying reports that its ChatOn service was close to being disbanded on a region-by-region basis, Samsung has announced in Korea that it's going away. According to Yonhap News, Samsung's statement said it will close up shop on February 1st. It's not immediately clear whether or not that will hold across all regions, but Samsung went on to state that users would be able to back up their data before the shutdown. The company blamed "changing market conditions" for the change, but seems that despite a claimed 100 million strong user base, people weren't really using the software preloaded on so many smartphones.
Yonhap News

Richard Lawler

Engadget 

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Scientists develop lens-free microscope that borrows tech from cellphones

Scientists develop lens-free microscope that borrows tech from cellphones

LOS ANGELES — Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created a lens-free microscope that relies on a silicon chip found in smartphones and digital cameras. You can't use it to snap a selfie, but it could help scientists detect cancer.
In a paper published this week in Science Translational Medicine, the research team shows that images taken with the lens-free microscope were just as capable of revealing cellular abnormalities in tissue samples as more traditional, and more expensive light microscopes.
"Our microscope provides the same level of quality as a state-of-the-art optical light microscope, and it has a significantly larger field of view, a simpler design, and it is more cost-effective," said Aydogan Ozcan, a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA and the senior author on the paper, published Wednesday.

Ozcan's lab specializes in creating computer codes that simplify the design of microscopes, nanoscopes and other instruments, and improve their performance.
His team recently created a device that turns a smartphone into a high-powered microscope capable of imaging individual DNA molecules. Another project turned Google Glass into a tool that can perform diagnostic tests on blood and tissue samples.
Like much of Ozcan's work, the design of the lens-free microscope borrows from existing technology.

"The bread and butter of this project is a CCD or CMOS imager, which is the same thin chip you find in every digital camera, whether it's a high-end SLR or a cellphone camera," he said.
The setup also requires a light source and a sample holder that keeps the slide hovering just a little above the chip. When the light shines down on the sample slide, the slide casts a shadow of the sample tissue onto the imaging chip.

You can get an idea of how this works by holding your hand above your desk and under a light source. The closer to the desk you put your hand, the more defined the shadow becomes. The shadow of your hand is solid, but because cells are translucent, their shadows are more detailed.

The shadow image the chip collects is a murky-looking holograph that bears little resemblance to what you would see if you looked at the same slide through a light microscope. After the image is captured, it is reconstructed with software developed by Ozcan's team that converts the messy patterns into an image that is at least as clear as what you would see through a traditional microscope.
"The hardest part was creating the computational transformation that takes those nasty-looking shadowy patterns and give you the truth of what is happening," Ozcan said. "That was the computational puzzle."

Ozcan and his team tested the accuracy of their microscope by showing a board-certified pathologist 150 images of breast cancer tissue — some taken with a light microscope, others taken with the lens-free microscope. The pathologist was asked to analyze the images and note if the samples showed benign cells, atypical cells or invasive carcinoma.

The pathologist had 99 percent accuracy using images acquired by the lens-free microscope, and 100 percent accuracy with images from the light microscope.

Still, the lens-free microscope is not ready for prime time, Ozcan said. Most importantly, the computer software that lets a user look at the digitally constructed image on a computer screen needs to be more user-friendly.
"You can think of our interface as a very early version of the personal computer, where you have to write code to do anything," said Ozcan. "For other people to use it, it needs to be like Windows."
Eventually, however, the team would like to see the microscope used in parts of the world where access to medical infrastructure is limited.

"A small nurse's office that doesn't have a pathologist on staff could transmit digital images created by our microscope to an expert in another city, or another country," he said. "Mobile health and global health is where I would like to channel the things we create."

Deborah Netburn
Los Angeles Times 

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The Lumia 535: Microsoft’s first phone reviewed

The Lumia 535: Microsoft’s first phone reviewed

The brand on the back is now Microsoft, not Nokia.

It's no secret that Windows Phone and the Lumia smartphone range have had the most success at the low end. The Lumia 520 sold like hot cakes thanks to aggressive pricing, and it's still on the market today, with the Microsoft Store currently running a special offer where an AT&T-locked, off-contract phone can be picked up for less than $30.

The successor to the 520 was the Lumia 530, and it had big, if cheap, shoes to fill. Unfortunately, we don't think it really pulled this off , with less storage, no auto-brightness sensor, and a markedly worse screen. The Lumia 630 and 635 were more compelling , with decent screens and more capable cameras. However, they still had only 512MB RAM and lacked the ambient light sensor, which felt a little substandard for their price point.

The Lumia 535 gives the low-end Lumias a much-needed kick in the pants. This is the first Lumia phone to ship with Microsoft—not Nokia—branding , and it's a big step up from the 520 and 530.
The major upgrades are alluded to in Microsoft's "5x5x5" branding for the handset: 5-inch screen, 5 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera.

Compared to the 530, the screen is an inch bigger and slightly higher resolution (at 960×540 vs. 854×480), though this gives it a lower dot resolution of 220 PPI instead of 244 PPI. The rear camera resolution is the same, but this time it's an autofocus camera with an LED flash instead of fixed focus and no flash. And perhaps recognizing the cultural importance of selfies, the Lumia 535 includes a front-facing camera with a 5MP resolution—presumably the same unit as the front-facing camera found in the Lumia 735 .

Placed alongside its peers, it's fairly clear that the 535 is in most regards better than both the Lumia 530 and the Lumia 630/635. The Lumia 630/635's Snapdragon 400 processor is on paper a little faster, and it provides access to the SensorCore motion-tracking coprocessor. The 635 does have LTE, but the 535's screen size and resolution, cameras, and RAM are all better than those of the 630.
The styling of the 535 is extremely similar to that of the 635: a wraparound gloss plastic cover that can be peeled off to reveal a battery, twin SIM slots in the dual SIM review unit we had, and the microSD slot. The high-gloss finish and round sides feel good in the hand, and for my tastes, this 5-inch form factor is the upper limit of reasonable in a smartphone, as it's a size that still offers some degree of single-handed usage.

As is now universal on low-end Windows Phones, the 535 depends on on-screen buttons and lacks a dedicated camera button. I still regard this as unfortunate. With the emphasis that Nokia and now Microsoft places on the cameras, the instant access and convenient focusing that the camera button affords is a perfect fit.

A screen you can look at

The most obvious issue with the Lumia 530 was its screen. It had very poor viewing angles, with pronounced color shift when viewed at anything other than head on. It also had a peculiar, almost grainy quality when viewed closely.

The 535's screen is a substantial improvement. It's an IPS LCD, so as expected, the viewing angles are much better. It doesn't have the 530's graininess, either. Outdoor visibility on the 535 is also superior to that of the 530, attributable to the 535's much greater brightness.

Unlike the 630 and better, this isn't a "ClearBlack" screen. The ClearBlack screens are notable for their dark blacks and contrast. Side-by-side, the 535's screen certainly isn't as pretty; black parts have that slightly gray glow that is typical of LCDs. Animation and video still look good. It's plainly not a high-end screen, but it's not a bad screen.

The one sticking point I had was not with the image, but rather with touch. While it was generally fine, on a few occasions the screen was slow and imprecise when responding to touch inputs, requiring multiple stabs at the screen to make something happen. This wasn't a consistent issue by any means, but I've seen similar reports from others testing the phone, so I don't think it's an issue unique to my test handset.

Competent cameras

Lumia 535.

The cameras perform much as we've come to expect from the Lumia 535's siblings. The images from the front-facing camera seem essentially identical to those from the 735. I'm still not convinced of the value of such a high resolution on the front-facing camera, but I suppose it can't really hurt.
The performance of the rear cameras on the 530, 535, and 630/635 seems very similar. The big difference is in the color; photos taken in the same conditions and with the same settings seem to have a different opinion on how saturated colors should be and where the white point is. I'm a little surprised at the variation, given the apparent similarity between the devices. In the close-up outdoor photo, it is the 530 that fared the best and the 630/635 the worst. For the more distant subject of the tree, however, the 535 and 635 both bested the 530.

Lumia 535, indoors, no flash.

Indoor performance is creditable (the pictures make the window look very bright; really, it's just pretty overexposed, to bring out the detail in the subject). While on-phone flashes are always limited in their ability to actually brighten scenes, the 535's flash was certainly helpful in my test scene.
Overall, for the price class, I think the 535's cameras are strong performers.
If there is any weakness, it's battery life. On the one hand, the performance was about the same as the Lumia 530 in spite of having a bigger, better, brighter screen. Due to lack of configurability on these handsets, we tested at the medium brightness setting, and that setting appears brighter on the 535 than the 530. So the battery life wasn't atrocious.

On the other hand, the battery capacity is much larger than that of the 530, and it's a little larger than that of the 630/635. Getting just under six and a half hours, compared to just under 12, is disappointing.

On the processor front, the Snapdragon 200 puts in a surprisingly respectable performance. This is presumably due to the extra RAM compared to the 530 and 630; it lets the phone finish the Octane test (it fails on the 512MB units) and more or less match the Snapdragon 400s

in SunSpider and Kraken. It's not blistering fast, by any means, but navigating the operating system is generally snappy.

The big mystery

As a low-end phone, I think the Lumia 535 is a fantastic package. It eclipses the 530 and 520, and in some very important ways, it beats the 630/635, too. The 535 is the successor to the 520 that people were hoping for, and it comes highly recommended...
... if the price is right.



As is so often the case, the big question about the Lumia 535 is its price. As yet no official US pricing or carrier availability has been announced. Expansys is selling the unlocked dual SIM version of the phone for $169. Given the lack of an official US launch, we expect this to represent the very upper end of pricing. Should a true US version or versions hit the market, they will surely be cheaper.

The dual SIM feature is of negligible value in the US, but it's important in many emerging markets, typically due either to regular border crossings or the desire to use a different provider for voice and data. Dual SIM handsets such as the LG L Bello Dual D335, the Sony Xperia M2 Dual D2302, and the HTC Desire 616 Dual SIM (which do not have identical specs to the Lumia 535 but are in the same kind of bracket) all come out at about $20-50 more expensive (based on Expansys' pricing).
As such, I think we can expect the Lumia 535 to be priced pretty competitively. Unsubsidized carrier-locked prices seem to be low— $137 in Thailand , for example.
Should this kind of pricing come to the US, the Lumia 535 will be truly the king of the entry-level smartphones: a well-built handset with all the features you need, a nice big screen, and for the price, some great cameras.

The Good

1GB RAM
The cameras
Solid build
With luck, the price

The Bad

The camera button will be forever mourned
Occasional issues with registering taps on the screen

The Ugly

We still don't know if it will come to the US or how much it will cost when it does.

By Peter Bright

Ars Technicia 

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These Are The Best Cheap Smartphones You Can Buy

These Are The Best Cheap Smartphones You Can Buy

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a decent phone. There are plenty of options out there for people who want to save a little cash but still need a phone that's fast, can connect to the internet, and looks nice, too.
Here's a look at some of the cheapest phones worth buying.

Motorola's Moto G is one of the best budget phones you can buy.

It's hard to find a phone cheaper than the Moto G. Motorola's second-generation model starts at $179, comes with a clean version of Android, and runs pretty smoothly, even though it's powered by components that are older than those in today's more expensive phones, according to reviews from CNET and Engadget.
In short, it's a nice, compact phone with easy-to-use software that won't cost you more than $200. You can also get the 4G model for $219.

If you want something that costs even less, try the Moto E.

The Moto E is even cheaper than the Moto G at $129 without any carrier subsidies. If you can get by with a basic phone and mostly care about using Android apps, the Moto E is a good choice.
In my review, I found its camera and lack of 4G to be the biggest weak points, but it's exactly what you would expect for a phone so cheap. 

Google's Nexus 5 is a sharp, thin, and fast Android phone that's affordable.

The Nexus 5 starts at $349, which is still much cheaper than most popular phones like the Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6, which cost anywhere between $500 and $800 without a carrier contract.
The best benefit from owning a Nexus phone is that you'll always get the most important Android updates before anyone else does. The Nexus 5 is a slim, attractive phone with a soft-touch back, a thin design, and a 1080p screen.
You can only use it on T-Mobile's network, but it's a great choice if you're on a tight budget. 

Amazon's Fire Phone comes with some fun apps and is insanely cheap.

You can now buy Amazon's Fire Phone for just $199.99 without a two-year contract, which is ridiculously cheap for a new phone. If you opt for a two-year contract with AT&T, you'll get the phone for just 99 cents — which is basically a giveaway.
The Fire Phone comes with a sharp screen, a 13-megapixel camera, a fast processor, and Amazon's own apps and services. Firefly, for example, gives you information about object around you by scanning it with the phone's camera. There are tons of cameras on the front of the phone which creates a 3D effect for some images. The phone hasn't been selling well, which is a large part of the reason it's so cheap, but it's an excellent value for the price. 

The OnePlus One is among the best Android phones you can buy, and it's really cheap.

The OnePlus One comes with many of the same components you'd find in most high-end Android phones, but it costs about half the price. The OnePlus One, which features a roomy 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a fast processor, and a comfortable yet attractive build only costs $300 off contract. It's pretty tough to find, but if you can snag an invite from someone you know who has the phone, it's totally worth your time. 

HTC's Desire 816 is a nice-looking phone with a great screen and plenty of power.

The HTC Desire 816 is an attractive phone with a large, crisp screen. It also has boisterous front-facing speakers just like HTC's flagship One phone. You can grab a prepaid version of the phone for as low as $200 on Amazon.

Apple's iPhone 5C is basically free if you sign up for a two-year contract.

If you're OK with keeping Apple's previous generation iPhone for two years, you can get it for free through AT&T and Verizon. Off contract, it still costs about $450, which is about $100 cheaper than newer flagship phones. The iPhone 5C comes in multiple colors and features a 4-inch Retina Display. It's not the greatest phone you can buy, but if you're tight on cash and love Apple's iOS ecosystem, it's a worthwhile choice. 

The iPhone 5S is relatively cheap on a two-year contract, too.

You can get the iPhone 5S for $99.99 on a two-year contract. It's not Apple's newest phone, but it still comes with a gorgeous design, fast processor, excellent camera, and Touch ID fingerprint sensor. If you don't care about having the newest Apple product but want an iPhone, you should consider the iPhone 5S. 

The Lumia 830 is a cheap Windows phone with an impressive camera.

As is the case with most Lumia phones, one of the 830's selling points is its camera. It comes with a 10-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, and only costs $99 on a two-year contract. AT&T also bundles a free Fitbit with the phone, which is a great value. Off-contract, the phone costs about $400.

 Business Insider
LISA EADICICCO

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BlackBerry courts iPhone users with cash

BlackBerry courts iPhone users with cash

Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry is wooing Apple customers with a cash offer for trade-ins of iPhones for its new square-screened, keyboard-equipped Passport.
The promotion was announced late Monday and will be available starting next month until February 13, in Canada and the United States.
Customers who trade in their iPhones could receive up to $400 cash back depending on the model and condition of their trade-in, plus a $150 gift card.

This marks the first time that BlackBerry has gone head-to-head with Apple since the Canadian firm launched a turnaround plan last year aimed at stemming massive losses.
The Passport was launched in September.
Named for its approximate size to the travel document, the phone was designed to win back key corporate users after BlackBerry was effectively knocked out of the highly competitive consumer smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung.
Investors seemed pleased, pushing up the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's share price slightly in morning trading.

But analysts were more skeptical. Carl Simard of Medici called it a very "desperate move."
In September, BlackBerry reported it narrowed its loss in the latest quarter, and expressed optimism that its major restructuring and new business-friendly devices would help fuel a turnaround.
For the three months ended August 30, BlackBerry posted a loss of $207 million on $916 billion in revenues largely split between sales of services and software and more than two million smartphones.
The Canadian manufacturer pioneered the smartphone market but has struggled to keep up with competitors in recent years.

Last year, the company introduced the BlackBerry 10 operating system and new smartphones in an effort to regain ground lost to rivals such as Apple and others using the Google Android operating system.

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3D Robotics' new drone can follow you around, carry a mirrorless camera

3D Robotics' new drone can follow you around, carry a mirrorless camera

3D Robotics is not about to let DJI hog all the press with its wild Inspire 1 Drone, so it just revealed its own semi-pro model: the X8+. The 8-prop UAV is designed to carry GoPro or lightweight mirrorless cameras, while offering a fully automated flight control system starting at $1,350 (without a gimbal or camera).
That price may tempt pro or semi-pro users away from DJI's (admittedly cool), retractable gear model, which runs $2,900 with a built-in gimbal and 4K camera. But unlike DJI's turnkey drone, 3DR is positioning the X8+ as a customizable ship aimed not only at cinematographers, but surveyors or miners too.

The X8+ is an upgrade on the X8 model in nearly every way. It'll carry 800 grams (1.76 pounds) and fly up to 18 minutes, but if you're willing to sacrifice endurance, you can carry up to 2.2 pounds with, say, a mirrorless camera. 3D Robotics says it'll fly Blackmagic Design's Pocket Cinema Camera, for instance, which is rather heavy for its size at 350 grams (0.78 pounds).
That means it'll easily work with Sony's mirrorless NEX cameras or compact models like Panasonic's LX100. For an extra $350, you can also kit it with an FPV GoPro liveview kit for easier scouting and aerial photography.

3D Robotics also has some interesting automation options for its latest drone. The X8+ can track you around while keeping you centered in your videos using the 3PV follow me mode, handy for filming your own sporty exploits. It also includes open source mission planning software compatible with most PCs and smartphones.

Using the DroidPlanner 2 software, you can simply draw lines on a map with an Android device to fly it around, hands-free. You can even map a region-of-interest (ROI) waypoint, to keep the camera locked on a target throughout the flight.

While the X8+ starts at $1,350, it'll run a lot more to kit it up properly. With a carrying case, gimbal, 3DR FPV liveview for GoPro and a GoPro Hero 3+ camera, you'll be looking at nearly $2,600 -- or around $2,700 for 4K with the Hero 4. That's Inspire 1 territory, so choosing between the two may come down to a simple choice: do you need the DJI's unfettered 360 degree view, or the ability to use better cameras? Decisions, decisions.

3D Robotics

By Steve Dent
Engadget 

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