Christopher Evans

Poundland is really getting into the Christmas spirit, if its Twitter feed is anything to go by. It must be, like, two bottles in by now at least.

It was the teabagging one that really got people’s attention.

People were divided about it online but one lot who weren’t happy with it were Twinings (whose teabags were featured in the picture).

We are aware of an image that is circulating that misuses our product. This is to confirm that we had no involvement in this and that it is obviously not reflective of our brand values.

— Twinings Tea (@TwiningsTeaUK) December 21, 2017

So the tweet was deleted by Poundland and then magically reappeared again, with one important difference.

Spot the difference… pic.twitter.com/hWV83m4EYE

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 21, 2017

Twinings weren’t the only ones who weren’t impressed.

has @Poundland been hacked….. their recent adverts on here have been in rather poor taste……

— mark howsham (@MarkHowsham) December 21, 2017

Hi Mark. The Poundland account has not been hacked. I am sorry that you feel this way and will share your feedback. Thanks, Zoe

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 21, 2017

Who on earth signed that off?! Nothing says ‘seasons greetings’ like a teabagging elf

— Matt Hall (@hall_mj) December 21, 2017

@msemma_louise and @hall_mj You haven’t seen the ones we couldn’t post…

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 21, 2017

Is this….a bit much??

Are the ‘lumps’ referring to his balls? How many balls does dolly want in her face? These are children’s toys.

I really enjoy your store and that you’ve thought outside the box but this is not festive or tasteful.

— Louise (@LouisePentland) December 21, 2017

Then someone asked these guys to get involved.

@GreggsOfficial please show @Poundland how this stuff is done.

— Mam Tor #FBPE (@Mamtor13) December 21, 2017

pic.twitter.com/57Gt8eNmg8

— Greggs (@GreggsOfficial) December 21, 2017

It’s not the first of its type to appear on the company’s Twitter feed in the last few days. Just the first to feature a teabag.

1.

First come, first served pic.twitter.com/JstSqtWOTh

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 19, 2017

2.

Buzz off Darth, my lightsaber is bigger than yours pic.twitter.com/ygxZgSo3MJ

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 15, 2017

3.

That's one very prickly Christmas tree pic.twitter.com/5FyYrlAzss

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 18, 2017

4.

That’s one way to scratch that itch. That’s not Santa’s toothbrush is it?! pic.twitter.com/bzgX3LFEDA

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 13, 2017

5.

Don't tell Rudolph I've found a new piece of ass pic.twitter.com/UA4Ye2jh3R

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 16, 2017

6.

Joker, joker, I really want to poker pic.twitter.com/wNIZcrBWZF

— Poundland (@Poundland) December 20, 2017

This one could run and run.

Are you doing any scat related ads for Chocolate Buttons?

— Stultifyingly Mediocre Output (@MrKenShabby) December 21, 2017

It’s a whole campaign, seen some others… pic.twitter.com/zhYEovG8RV

— Emma-Louise Trotter (@msemma_louise) December 21, 2017

When you’re having your review of whether this was a good idea or not in January, please show them this Tweet. I’ve never even been in a Poundland before, but now I’m going to go and spend money at one.

— Ross Gilman (@rossRgilman) December 21, 2017

Superb ads. More please.

— Commissar Skip (@SkipsterX) December 21, 2017

Idiots

— Callum Underwood (@DevRelCallum) December 21, 2017

I just came here to read the comments. pic.twitter.com/NJLT29QlRd

— Milly March (@millymarch) December 21, 2017

You pays your pound, you takes your chances. Your thoughts please!

Possibly Poundland won’t be too upset by the fuss. Probably shouldn’t have put that Twinings box in the picture though.

Create offensive viral Twitter campaign > Defend it as a sense of humour thing > Wait for articles covering TWITTER OUTRGE AT OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN > Watch as this story reaches the top of the most read charts > Enjoy several £100k of free media coverage for your brand!

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) December 21, 2017

Genuinely annoyed that a brand has deliberately set out to create viral outrage using homophobia and misogyny over the last few weeks and finally one has paid off for them

— Martin Belam (@MartinBelam) December 21, 2017

Source

The post Someone at Poundland appears to have started the eggnog a bit early this year appeared first on The Poke.

So Apple got caught slowing down the performance of older iPhones, including the iPhone 7. They admitted to doing so today, but in the most Apple of ways, called it a “feature.” There are already plenty of scorching hot takes defending Apple and those people should be mocked. This isn’t a feature when you aren’t telling your customers that you are doing it until you get called out for it.

What’s the story? Last week, a reddit post from iPhone owners (particularly those on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s) sparked a conversation about performance decrease as their phones aged and the batteries inside followed along. The original poster pointed out that swapping out the old battery in his 6s for a fresh one sure seemed to increase his phone’s performance which had become “slow these past few weeks.”

That story inspired Geekbench developer John Poole to look through benchmark data from the iPhone 6, 6s, and iPhone 7 to see if he could confirm this battery theory or find any trends. Of course, he did just that. For all three iPhone models, depending on their version of iOS, it appears that Apple had implemented some sort of performance limit when the batteries of these phones had begun to decrease in capacity as they age.

When asked by media, Apple had the following response:

Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

Here’s my issue with all of this. While Apple taking some sort of proactive measure to stabilize the performance of an older phone is fine, the problem here is the fact that they haven’t told anyone that they are doing this. You see, by not telling anyone that Apple is purposely slowing their phone, one might consider the fact that maybe their phone is just old and it’s time to replace it. This info shows that that’s not necessarily the case and instead, a battery swap might save someone from thinking an upgrade will solve their problems. Of course, Apple would rather you upgrade, even though they would never admit that their performance throttle is aimed at nudging you towards doing that.

Maybe if Apple wants to slide in a “feature” that decreases the performance of a phone without permission, they should include a notification that also informs the user that their battery capacity has declined and they can either live with the new slowness or fix it with a battery swap. A battery swap from Apple costs $79. I don’t think I need to tell you how much it costs to upgrade your phone to a new one.

And now we wait and see if there are similar findings for Android phones. Any bets on if there are?

// TechCrunch | Geekbench

Apple Caught Throttling Old iPhone Performance, Calls It a “Feature” is a post from: Droid Life

Now that it has been almost three weeks since we shared our final thoughts on the OnePlus 5T in our review, we thought this would be a good time to loop back and finish out our content series for it. We’ll do that by offering up the 5 reasons we think this is a worthy phone buy.

Long-time readers of the site know that our 5 Reasons series is a simplified review of sorts, where we give you the basics on why a phone checks off some of the important boxes and is worth considering. We don’t do this for all phones because not all phones have enough reasons for you to buy, but the OnePlus 5T certainly does.

For the OnePlus 5T, there are a number of highlights even over its slightly younger brother, the OnePlus 5. You’ve got an upgraded display and upgraded dual camera for one, but you get equally impressive battery life, software and performance that are tough for anyone to beat, and a price that is no joke, even if OnePlus does seem to keep raising them.

Here are 5 reasons the OnePlus 5T is worth buying.

1. Modern display arrives.

With the OnePlus 5, there was no denying the fact that OnePlus missed a big opportunity to get in early on the all-display, little bezel trend. Instead, the OnePlus 5 lagged behind its rivals and pushed out a design that looked straight out of 2016, even if it still had some redeeming qualities. With the OnePlus 5T, OnePlus gets it right and gives us a 6-inch FHD AMOLED display that takes up almost all of the front while moving the fingerprint reader to the back.

This phone feels like it belongs in 2017. Not only does it provide an all-display front, it does so with the trendy 2:1 aspect ratio and tons of extra bells and whistles, like night and reading modes, color profiles, and on-screen buttons. I think the brightness levels are good on both ends and the 1080p resolution probably helps with phone’s stellar battery life. Let’s also not forget that it does all of this without increasing the phone’s overall size by much when compared to the regular OnePlus 5. I’m not sure OnePlus did anything wrong with this upgrade.

2. I love this software experience.

OnePlus continues to nail the software experience on its phones. For one, they keep giving us a stock or pure Android experience, but then they add on their own upgrades. So you get Google’s version of Android along with subtle tweaks that introduce value, fun, and improvements.

I always like to point out the various gestures that OnePlus includes, like those that allow you to turn on the camera or open an app from the lock screen. I also like the included 3-finger swipe for taking screenshots, double tap to wake, and the new long-press on the fingerprint reader that lets you take a quick selfie.

But outside of gestures, OnePlus lets you use custom icon packs, change up the theme of the phone, customize the on-screen software buttons to do all sorts of stuff (like sleep the phone, open notifications, etc.), schedule times for your phone to turn off and on, and even hide icons from the status bar. So OnePlus doesn’t overwhelm you with customizations, but they are giving you just the right amount to make the phone a really powerful tool.

I should mention software updates, though. For now, it’s looking like OnePlus is getting better or quicker with updates for its current phone of the year. That means phones like the 5 and 3/3T already have Oreo updates on some level and the 5T should get it before long. Just keep in mind that OnePlus isn’t great about updating phones over the long haul.

3. Welcome to the party, camera!

The dual camera setup in the OnePlus 5 was a pretty average one. In fact, it was the reason I told you to pass on the phone. We’re living in a time where your camera needs to be really good because everyone else’s cameras are already really good. This is a dealbreaker area that, as a phone maker, you have to get right. OnePlus didn’t with the 5. With the OnePlus 5T I think they did.

They still went dual camera (16MP + 20MP, both f/1.7), but instead of a secondary shooter that zoomed, they added a special low-light camera (the 20MP shooter) that attempts to combine pixels in order to capture more light and enhance them properly when in dark situations. I think both shooters capture solid photos that you’ll be proud to share or look back on years from now. The Pixel 2 cameras still reign supreme, but OnePlus is starting to show that it can get better in this area.

4. Battery life + Dash Charge = 🔥

During my first few days of testing the OnePlus 5T, I wasn’t overly impressed with its battery life (3300mAh). And then during the final few days of testing, something seemed to change and it became a battery god. We’re talking 4-5 hours of screen on time before going to bed, only to wake up with 25% battery left. Initially, I felt like I needed to look for a charger before bed, but then that all changed and I was not having to until the next day after heavy usage.

On top of the stellar battery life, don’t forget that the phone sports OnePlus’ Dash Charge, which I still think is the best battery charging tech in the game. You get ultra fast charges whether you are using your phone or it’s sitting idle, plus it never heats up, because OnePlus pulls the heat from the phone as it’s juicing up. It’s a phenomenal charging experience that you almost wish you could use more often even if you won’t need to.

5. Yep, the price is still killer.

I know that I’ve railed against the OnePlus price creep that we’ve witnessed with each new model, but I can still admit that the OnePlus 5T is a heck of a value. Even as we were once buying OnePlus phones at $299 and now only a handful of years later paying close to double, they still undercut rivals by hundreds of dollars in some situations while offering an equally good experience.

At $499 (6GB/64GB) and $559 (8GB/128GB), we’ve got a set of specs and software experience that I’d take over some of the phones from LG and HTC. And if my budget topped out at around $500, then I wouldn’t even hesitate to pull the trigger.

Buy OnePlus 5T:

• OnePlus Store

5 Reasons the OnePlus 5T is Worth Buying is a post from: Droid Life

A simple way to put money aside within your main Monzo account, Pots are designed to help you save for things you need to buy in the next couple of weeks, as well as much further in the future.

Whether you’re building a nest egg, or just need to set money aside for some last minute present-buying this Christmas, Pots can help you save in service of a specific goal.

We launched Pots on iOS a couple of weeks ago, and we’re really pleased to be bringing them to Android now too! Update your app from the Play Store to get them.

Pots are only available once you upgrade, so the good news is all Monzo users are now able to do so! If you haven’t already, just tap the invitation in your app to get started 🆙

Once you’ve upgraded, you can find Pots in the Account tab in your app: simply tap the Create Pot button under your card.

You can find the full details and read about our exciting plans for pots in our original blog post.

We launched Pots on iOS on the 20th of November, and had planned to bring them to Android the following week. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a delay in getting pots onto Android and we broke down why on the forum. If you’re interested we’ll be sharing more about how we manage the development of the Monzo app on the blog very soon!

Feedback on Pots has been great so far, so we hope you think they’re worth the wait! 🍯

Let us know what you think on Twitter and share your ideas about what we can do to make Pots even more amazing on the forum.

The post 17 supermarket signs made by secret comedy geniuses appeared first on The Poke.

Netflix used their internal spot market to save 92% on video encoding costs. The story of how is told by Dave Hahn in his now annual A Day in the Life of a Netflix Engineer. Netflix first talked about their spot market in a pair of articles published in 2015: Creating Your Own EC2 Spot Market Part 1 and Part 2.

The idea is simple:

• Netflix runs out of three AWS regions and uses hundreds of thousands of EC2 instances; many are underutilized at various parts in the day.

• Video encoding is 70% of Netflix’s computing needs, running on 300,000 CPUs in over 1000 different autoscaling groups.

• So why not create a spot market out of their own underutilized reserved instances to process video encoding?

Before proceeding let's define what a spot market is:

Spot Instances enable you to request unused EC2 instances, which can lower your Amazon EC2 costs significantly. The hourly price for a Spot Instance (of each instance type in each Availability Zone) is set by Amazon EC2, and adjusted gradually based on the long-term supply of and demand for Spot Instances. Your Spot Instance runs whenever capacity is available and the maximum price per hour for your request exceeds the Spot price.

At any point in time AWS has a lot of underutilized instances. It turns out so does Netflix. To understand why creating an internal spot market helped Netflix so much, we'll first need to understand how they encode video.

How Netflix Encodes Video

Developer Preview 2 has been launched for those running Android Wear 2.0, but take notice that Google and the Android team still label this build as “not intended for daily use.”

Catered to developers who want to get their apps prepared for the public launch of Android Wear 2.0, the latest developer preview features a bump to the Android Platform API 24 (now matching Nougat), Wearable Drawers enhancements, and opened Wrist Gesture commands for 3rd-party applications. 

While the big block of text looks like there are a lot of changes, essentially none of it is geared towards end users. Don’t let that surprise you, though, as these are “developer” previews. For us folk who are patiently awaiting the launch of Android Wear 2.0, we are getting close — only a couple more months until its fall.

If you are a developer, go grab it!

What’s New

• Platform API 24 – We have incremented the Android Platform API version number to 24 to match Nougat. You can now update your Android Wear 2.0 Preview project’s compileSdkVersion to API 24, and we recommend that you also update targetSdkVersion to API 24.
• Wearable Drawers Enhancements – We launched the wearable drawers as part of the Android Wear 2.0 Preview 1, along with UX guidelines on how to best integrate the navigation drawer and action drawer in your Android Wear app. In Preview 2, we have added additional support for wearable drawer peeking, to make it easier for users to access these drawers as they scroll. Other UI improvements include automatic peek view and navigation drawer closure and showing the first action in WearableActionDrawer’s peek view. For developers that want to make custom wearable drawers, we’ve added peek_view and drawer_content attributes to WearableDrawerView. And finally, navigation drawer contents can now be updated by callingnotifyDataSetChanged.
• Wrist Gestures: Since last year, users have been able to scroll through the notification stream via wrist gestures. We have now opened this system to developers to use within their applications. This helps improve single hand usage, for when your users need their other hand to hold onto their shopping or their kids. See the code sample below to get started with gestures in your app:

Via: Android

Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 2 Released, Wrist Gestures for 3rd-Party Apps and More is a post from: Droid Life

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Two people film themselves vaping and faceswapping at the same time, and the end result is both surprising and slightly surreal.

The post This faceswap of two vapers has a weird and surreal ending appeared first on The Poke.

Over on Reddit people are using a subreddit called mildlypenis to share images of things that “mildly resemble a penis”.

So here’s the best 21 they’ve ever spotted:

1. This bottle of Dove anti-perspirant

2. This rock held by Captain Kirk

3. The inflatable bit for your mouth on this Spiderman

4. This woman’s tongue

5. This hat

6. This bit of mould

7. This finger

8. Also this finger

9. This chair

10. This explosion

11. These two iPhone cracks

12. This orange segment

13. This foot poking behind Emma Watson

14. This pothole

15. This guy’s chin

16. This rock

17. This woman’s knee

18. This newsreader’s jacket

19. The way Kristen Stewart’s tied her jumper

20. This “alpha” symbol on a Casio calculator

21. This coat rack

And finally… This soap dispenser gif

Want more? Head over to mildlypenis now.

The post People are sharing things that look like penises and it’s mildly chucklesome appeared first on The Poke.

Read this whole thread, it’s the most British, middle-class protest you’ve ever heard of

And on it goes…

One thing is clear: if there’s ever a revolution in Britain, it’ll involve tea

Source: https://twitter.com/olenskae/status/620210484478918656

The post People boycotting M&S over giving an elderly couple “very weak tea” is the most British protest ever appeared first on The Poke.

Twitter caretakers for “Scotland’s favourite pint” respond to an inquiry for a low-calorie option in the most Scottish fashion imaginable.

You may also like…

• 25 reasons why we love Scotland

The post Scottish brewery delivers the perfect response to a request for low calorie lager appeared first on The Poke.

via

The post Black Olives Matter? appeared first on The Poke.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74gTaRy5GWY

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Finally there’s something useful produced by an artificial neural network – once it has processed every script for every episode of Friends it can generate new scenes that are uncannily like the originals.

(via @_Pandy)

(via @_Pandy)

(via @_Pandy)

(via @_Pandy)

The post Feed a neural network scripts for every episode of Friends and it can generate amazing new scenes appeared first on The Poke.

Behold the holy hashtag – if key moments from the story of the Nativity were told through the medium of Twitter.

The post If the Nativity was live-tweeted appeared first on The Poke.

Or is it all secret rebellion to crush the machine from within like some Fight Club thingie?

1. What arsehole thought up this design?

2. Election campaign bus fail

Alberta’s Wildrose Party have confirmed that the questionable placement of party Leader Danielle Smith’s photo on the campaign bus will be now be changed.

3. Starbucks might need to re-think the design on their van doors

4. Sack the logo designer!

5. Tesco really made a cock and balls of this carton design

6. The designer of the Toronto bus map deserves some sort of award

7. Probably should have put the author’s name somewhere else

8. Take a left and then bunnyhop to your destination

9. Big Ben’s Big Dong

10. Not an ideal breakfast

11. It’s a ROMAN salute ok?

12. Commas are important

13. We’d wind the windows up and down all day with glee

The post 13 regrettable design decisions that were unlucky for the presumably sacked designer appeared first on The Poke.

Back in April, Google started indexing apps in Google Search to show relevant information from them in your results, even if you didn’t have the apps installed. Today, they are taking that experience a step further with the introduction of a couple of new ideas, one of which may blow your mind a bit.

First, in building off of the indexing of apps, Google has taken results a step further, by not only showing results that have matching web content (which was the case before), but by also showing information from apps that don’t have a matching web presence. This is a pretty big move if you think about it, because not all apps have web portals where they include the information that is found inside their apps. This move allows Google to show information from apps that are stand-alone properties. 

Second, Google is beginning to test the idea of being able to “stream” an app through Google Search without actually installing it. You’ll see this in the GIF below, but basically, Google is using a new “cloud-based” technology that allows them to open an app as a search result, creating an experience similar to what you would see if you had the app installed on your device.

If you search for something and the results turn up an app option with “Stream” next to it, that means you can stream the app, as long as you are on WiFi.

Check it out.

How cool is that?

Google makes it sound like we are in the early, experimental stages of this new feature in Google Search, so you won’t find a whole bunch of apps doing this just yet. For now, they are working with HoteTonight, Chimani, Daily Horoscope, and New York Subway.

Via:  Inside Search

Google is Now Letting You “Stream” Apps Without Ever Installing Them is a post from: Droid Life

If physical keyboards can make a comeback, why not flip phones? According to leaked images, that is exactly what Samsung is thinking. Last week a Samsung flip phone was certified by TENAA (Chinese regulatory authority). Today, images of the device have been unearthed, and it looks very much like a Samsung device.

The phone has a very Samsung Galaxy S6-like vibe. The back of the phone looks almost identical to the Galaxy S6 or Samsung Galaxy Note 5. The sides are curved, and the camera and flash look identical. The rest of the phone is where things get different. The flip mechanism is something straight out of the early 2000’s, but the specs are actually pretty good.

There are two 3.9-inch 1280×768 displays (one on both sides of the flip). It features a 16MP camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. Powering the device is an Exynos 7420 processor and 3GB of RAM. The phone will come with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop on board. The specs are right up there with other high-end devices, but this form factor is drastically different. Would you want to go back to a flip phone?

[via SamMobile]

Through an update rolling out to Google’s Inbox later this week, Google is introducing a new feature called Smart Reply. As the name sort of suggests, Google thinks that it has cracked some form of machine learning voodoo, which has enabled it to offer you short, quick responses to emails that could potentially save you a lot of time and typing. Think of how keyboards, like Google’s or Swiftkey, predict the next word you are typing or are about to type. Google now wants to do that on a grander scale, that scale being email. 

You can see two examples (in GIF form!) below, where Inbox has essentially scanned the email you are are reading and is then offering you three responses that may fit the conversation. These responses aren’t just canned quick phrases, like you would see in a text messaging app or if you want to auto-respond after hanging up on someone. These seem to be related to the actual email, so that you can either respond and move on or at least get the response started before typing out a longer email. Of course, they should get smarter with time depending on the phrases you do or do not choose.

I would attempt to explain to you how all these machine learning, behind-the-scenes magic works, but I would likely fail. If you want to read more, Google published a research post on pair of recurrent neural networks powering this whole Smart Reply System that can be read right here.

Again, the update is arriving “later this week.” We’ll let you know as soon as it shows up.

Play Link

Via:  Gmail Blog

Inbox’s New “Smart Reply” Feature Helps You Respond to Emails Faster is a post from: Droid Life

With all of yesterday’s news about various new Android Wear watches, you might have forgotten ASUS had a watch of their own to bring out. The company’s ZenWatch 2 has been official for quite some time, but they didn’t have much to share in terms of availability.

Well, not anymore — ASUS says the ZenWatch 2 will be here in October, with Europe being the first to get the goods. The smart watch will cost about €149, which is sure to earn them a few eyes of business compared to Motorola and Huawei’s options, some variants of which may cost as much as double.

The ZenWatch 2 started the trend of manufacturers providing multiple size options. There’s a small and large option depending on what you prefer, with each coming in three different colors. They also offer a bevy watch strap options, with 18 different color and strap material combinations available to you.

ASUS says the battery lasts as long as two days and charges 36% faster than the previous model. You can get up to 50% of battery life — about a full day’s worth — with just 36 minutes of charging. Not bad.

ASUS is banking on their smart assistant suite of micro-sized apps to help get you onboard. What’s Next and Do It Later are two apps that are automatically installed if you have an ASUS watch, and they allow you to see your upcoming agenda or defer tasks until you have time to do them later. FoneHelper will give you access to quick settings and tools to help you find your phone.

Remote camera can act as a secondary camera monitor in case you need to take photos from tough angles. And ASUS even has their own little emote-sharing suite, though the fact that it only works with other ZenWatch users is sure to be a bit of a turnoff (Android Wear’s built-in personal feature should help to alleviate that pain, though).

The price tag alone might be enough to sway some people toward the ZenWatch 2 over other models, but we’ll have to wait until we can get our hands on it to see if it’s worth skimping on a more premium experience to have an affordable (yet still capable) Android Wear watch. Thinking about getting one? Let us know down below!

[via ASUS]

Huawei had more to show off at IFA this week than the Huawei Watch we told you all about yesterday. This is their Mate S, a 5.5-inch phablet set to go toe-to-toe with the Apple iPhone and, well, any other phablet that exists.

The first thing you might notice is the device’s metal build, which isn’t special by today’s standards but still makes us happy that they haven’t skimped or cut any corners in terms of build.

Huawei has adopted that all-too-familiar dual stripe design on the rear, which we’ve seen in the HTC One lineup for a few years, and more recently on the rear of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. You’ll be happy to know that it’s not just for show, though: this is necessary to ensure proper attenuation in a sea of metal.

That said, Huawei’s model does change things up a bit by sticking a fingerprint scanner on the rear instead of the front (though this design decision is hardly unique as the HTC One Max sported a similar configuration).

Said fingerprint scanner has 100% more read speed than the previous model, says Huawei, and it can also be used to navigate system elements, such as upward or downward swipes for scrolling through photos and notifications. We’re not sure why you’d forego doing that business on the display, but it’s there anyway.

The Huawei Mate S boasts some pretty neat specs:

• 5.5-inch AMOLED 1080p display
• Hisilicon Kirin 935 64-bit Octa-Core chipset
• 3GB of RAM and 32G, 64GB and 128GB of storage
• Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi N 2.4g, GPS/aGPS w/ Glonass and USB 2.0
• 13MP rear camera with dual-tone flash and OIS, 8MP front camera with dedicated flash
• 2,700mAh battery
• 149.8mm x 75.3mm x 7.2mm,156g
• Android 5.1 + Huawei’s Emotion UI

That should be plenty of power for most users’ needs, though such a low resolution on the display means virtual reality applications will suffer, and lack of dual-band WiFi AC might be a dealbreaker for those who prefer that networking setup.

The display does have some interesting technology, at least. The most interesting is Force Touch, which makes it a pressure sensitive display that can detect how hard you’re pressing it. You can zoom in and out of pictures as close as you want by adjusting the amount of force you use to press the display. You can also weigh an apple if you wanted.

Cool? Yes. Necessary? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cool. There’s also Knuckle 2.0, which lets you do things that you can do with your fingertips, only with your knuckle. Someone out there will appreciate that.

Want one? The Huawei Mate S will arrive later this month, and you can pre-order one September 15th at Huawei’s website. It’ll start at 649euro for a version that has 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage while a 699euro version brings storage up to 64GB. The 128GB model — which seems to be the only one with the new Force Touch display — has yet to be priced, though we’re assured that information will be along shortly.

[via Huawei]

If you forget the name for something, what’s the best way to describe it?

(via Tumblr)

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I had the opportunity to play with the Samsung GearS2 and wanted to quickly share my favorite feature.

3 Reasons to Love the Bezel

I was reluctant to think Samsung’s rotating bezel on the Gear S2 would be anything more than a gimmick. Before trying it, I thought it’d meet an early demise and join the HTC Dream keyboard and Nexus One trackball in the mobile graveyard. But when I gave it a try for myself, something unexpected happened… I loved it.

I loved it so much that when I tried the Moto 360 (2015) only a few hours later, I found myself accidentally trying to navigate the phone by rotating the bezel. To me… that was a sign that Samsung had caught onto a really good idea.

My top 3 reasons for loving the bezel:

1. You can see the screen while navigating
2. Less finger smudging on the screen
3. Better precision with fewer mistakes and mis-taps

The execution of the rotating bezel is wonderful. It’s smooth as butter while still offering a satisfying “click” as you coast through screens. It responds quickly even when fast scrolling or changing directions. And Samsung managed to still make that bezel look cool: if you didn’t know any better, you might not even know it rotates.

I’ll have a more in depth first impressions article soon, but if you were eager to try the bezel and wondering if it’d work well… it flat-out impressed.