If day one at IFA 2016 was all about smartwatches, then day two has been dominated by smartphones and tablets. Huawei started Thursday off with the introduction of the Nova and Nova Plus, two midrange smartphones that have a sleek design and great specifications, but unfortunately high price tags. The company didn’t stop at the Nova phones, however. It also launched the MediaPad M3 tablet, which ironically is very reasonably priced, considering its design and specifications, when compared to the Nova phones. It also added two new colors to the Huawei P9 range, a gorgeous metallic red and a cool metallic blue. We love the former.
Sony quickly followed Huawei’s lead with the Xperia XZ and X Compact, two smartphones that shun the modern obsession with big screens in favor of 5.2-inch and 4.6-inch displays, respectively. The Xperia XZ is the more powerful of the two, with a Snapdragon 820 chip inside, but it’s the X Compact that impresses more in the real world. Both have the same 23-megapixel camera, but neither have an active fingerprint sensor, a feature irritatingly omitted on U.S.-bound Xperia phones.
Finally, ZTE showed off the Axon 7 Mini, a slightly smaller version of the excellent Axon 7 that has the same superb audio prowess and impressive camera. The tech inside isn’t as powerful, and the screen is smaller at 5.2-inches, but the resulting price drop means the Axon 7 Mini is a great value, and crucially undercuts the new Huawei Nova phones.
The IFA show officially opens its doors Friday, and while the big-name press conferences are all over, there will be plenty more to come over the next few days as we explore the show floor. We’ll be back again tomorrow.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.