While most modern flip phone makers have been focusing on maximizing their cover screen sizes, a new contender decided to branch away with a circular one instead. Following its flagship foldable from earlier this year, China's Tecno has also unveiled its first flip phone, the Phantom V Flip 5G, which attempts to stand out from the crowd by offering a round external AMOLED display. Even though the Huawei P50 Pocket was the first clamshell to carry a similar feature, Tecno's counterpart comes in at a more practical 1.32 inches and a slightly sharper 352ppi, which should translate to easier selfies, richer notifications and handier widgets — namely weather, vitality rings, audio recording, timer and more.

The Phantom V Flip is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 8050 5G chip, so it's going head to head with the Moto Razr in the mid-range segment. As is the case with Tecno's recent devices, this one is competitively priced — at around $600, though it's only available in India initially (49,999 rupees, to be precise), with more markets to follow later. At least you get Google services pre-installed on this one, unlike most of its hometown buddies. As a bonus, Tecno's HiOS 13.5 (based on Android 13) comes with its own voice assistant, "Ella," which has ChatGPT built in.

Despite the price point, the spec sheet doesn't disappoint here. The Phantom V Flip is 14.95mm thick when folded and 6.95mm thick when opened. At 195g, this turns out to be the heaviest device in the flip phone category to date. This is somewhat justified by the reasonable 4,000mAh battery (Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 5 only has 3,700mAh), which supports 45W fast charging — 15 minutes will refill a depleted battery to 50 percent, or wait for 45 minutes for a full charge. Sadly, there's no wireless charging here, for those who care.

Tecno

The Phantom V Flip packs a 6.9-inch FHD+ (2,640 x 1,080) flexible screen on the inside, with a 10-120Hz LTPO refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling. The hinge can hover at any angle between 30 degrees and 150 degrees, which is handy for selfies via the rear-facing cameras — you can even use gesture or voice to trigger your shots.

Photography-wise, you get a 64-megapixel f/1.7 main camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a small LED ring flash, with all three features positioned along the circumference of the circular cover screen. When unfolded, there's a 32-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera at the top, complemented with an LED flash in the top screen bezel to make you look prettier in video calls.

Tecno didn't cheap out on accessories, either. The Phantom V Flip is shipped with a protective case that shields all four sides of the phone, except the opening for the fingerprint reader and volume rocker. The case also has a ring attached above the hinge, allowing you to wear the phone as a pendant or hold it more securely.

While it's unclear whether the $600 Phantom V Flip will make it to western markets, Tecno does appear to have an opportunity to spook its more established competitors in this ever-growing flip phone segment — especially before the new Moto Razr enters the US, if ever (in China, it starts from around $550). That said, it's just a matter of time before the likes of Honor and Xiaomi offer similarly competitive clamshells.

Fighting fires was always dangerous. But with climate change, there have been more wildfires, which means even more risky rescue missions for local firefighting squads. That’s why multiple different companies and teams of scientists are working to develop robots that can scope out burning buildings before human firefighters have to enter. The latest entrant is FireBot, a remote-controlled robot that can withstand temperatures as high as 650 degrees Celsius. At that scalding temperature, a firefighter wearing a protective suit can only withstand about 15 minutes of exposure.

FireBot, which can be operated for four hours at a time, looks like an object straight out of a sci-fi film. With its saw-like “arms” that help the metallic boxy device move, the bot can climb obstacles in its path using tracks that allow it to climb stairs and debris – a requirement for navigating raging fires. According to TechCrunch, which hosted FireBot’s parent company at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week, the bot uses MIMO wireless technology that can transfer data to a receiver as far as 0.9 miles away. That way, a crew can safely examine the inside of a burning building while using a joystick and display to maneuver the bot.

The device has built-in sensors that include HD optical and thermal imagers, as well as various mechanisms to detect dangerous gasses. In addition, it can check for the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which are the two deadliest fumes that can injure or kill humans in a fire. Also importantly, the device is seemingly fast despite its boxy appearance. The FireBot can move twice as fast as a firefighter wearing full personal protective equipment that can, on average, be as heavy as 45 pounds.

Paradigm Robotics

The robot is expected to cost at least $90,000 when it goes on sale in the third quarter of 2024. Alternatively, fire departments could lease it. Although this device isn’t exactly cheap, it can help alleviate the annual fees associated with firefighter injuries, which is estimated to cost fire departments up to $197,860 a year, according to a paper the National Fire Protection Association published in late 2019.

The FireBot is not the first device that uses robotics to make firefighting safer. Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are developing what’s known as SAFFiR, or the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. The bi-pedal humanoid robot is being engineered to navigate ships, interact with people, and use thermal imaging to identify and handle a hose to put out small fires.

When Engadget covered the Navy’s robot back in 2019, SAFFiR was still not water- and fire-proof, which may be why the Navy said its more advanced prototypes are still in the experimental stages of R&D. Similarly, there’s DARPA's Atlas, a disaster-response robot that hosts an infrared and a rotating light detection and ranging (LIDAR) laser that allows it to navigate dense smoke. Still, nothing is as seemingly advanced as Paradigm’s FireBot in terms of being able to withstand and navigate heat at fire scenes.

In a similar vein, the Los Angeles Fire Department even experimented with specialized drones that can aid in scope and rescue missions as well as a ridiculously large 3,500-pound “Thermite RS3” robot. That robot costs $272,000, making the FireBot seem almost reasonable by comparison.

Apple’s watchOS 10 officially became available on September 18, and it brings a new feature in the Mindfulness app that gives you the option of logging your feelings and moods directly on your watch face. These updates will be available if you have an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer model. Here’s how to navigate that new feature.

Malak Saleh

How to log your mood

When you open the Mindfulness app, tap “State of Mind” and then “Get Started” to begin the logging process. From there, you can either log a “momentary emotion” to input how you feel at that instant, or a “daily mood” to report how you felt overall that day.

Malak Saleh

Using the watch’s Digital Crown, you can scroll through seven abstract images with corresponding emotional valences ranging from "very pleasant" to "very unpleasant." Once you select an emotion, you can opt for more logging and go into greater detail about the feelings you’re experiencing (including what's having the biggest effect on you) by selecting options from a drop-down menu.

Malak Saleh

How to view your mood logs

Over time you can keep tabs on your daily logging activity in the Health app under the “Mental Wellbeing” tab. Using a paired iPhone, click “State of Mind” and then open “Show in Charts.” From this page, you can view the type of entries for daily moods or momentary emotions. You also have the option to view lifestyle factors associated with these entries to learn how your moods may correlate with variables like time spent in the sun, sleep trends, and exercise habits.

Malak Saleh

Additionally, specific assessments for depression and anxiety are now accessible in the Health app. You can also export PDFs of personal health reports if you ever need to share logs with a medical professional. You’ll need to open the Health app and click the “Sharing tab” at the bottom of the screen. From there you can choose to “Share with someone,” such as a contact, or “Share with your doctor.” 

If you want to share with your doctor, you can search for specific hospital systems to connect your health data and keep tabs on clinical records. For example, if you were a client at “Green Primary Care” in Huntsville, Alabama, you could directly connect to the patient portal, get secure access to health records, and also share your personal health data with a care team – this is where building a habit of logging daily moods may be helpful for a provider to get a fuller picture on the state of your mental health.

It's not only Microsoft that had a notable hardware event on Thursday. Razercon took place on the same day. As ever, Razer took the opportunity to reveal its latest gaming gear, accessories and software updates. Among the announcements was a new line of smart light bulbs, lamps and light strips called Aether to help you kit out your home in delicious RGB.

The range includes the $80 Aether Lamp, $130 Lamp Pro (which offers multi-zone lighting), $50 Light Bulb, $130 Light Strip and $30 Light Strip Extender. The devices will be available by the end of the year. They support Razer's Chroma tech along with Alexa, Google Assistant and Matter.

Razer is expanding its range of gaming chairs as well with a new line called Fujin. These chairs have a breathable mesh back and lumbar support. The Pro model has a 3D contoured headrest (which you can buy separately for the base model for $129) and an aluminum alloy frame. The Fujin chairs start at $649 in the US and $599 in the rest of the world. The Pro model will run you $1,049 Stateside and $999 elsewhere. The base model is available now, while the Fujin Pro and headrest will ship in November.

Razer

Keyboard enthusiasts might be tempted by the Huntsman V3 Pro. The performance-focused keyboard for competitive gamers features what Razer is calling its most advanced switches yet. They have an adjustable actuation range of between 0.1mm and 4mm, along with a 100-million keystroke lifespan. Other features include a multifunction digital dial, dedicated control buttons, textured keycaps and a leatherette wrist rest.

There are three Huntsman V3 Pro variants, all of which will arrive in October. The standard model is $250. You can save a few bucks by ditching the number pad with the $220 tenkeyless version. The Huntsman V3 Pro Mini, meanwhile, is $180.

Razer

On the software side, you'll now be able to use generative AI to create PC desktop wallpapers that hook into Razer Chroma. The company's tech will detect the dominant colors in the wallpapers and reflect those in RGB lighting. There's also a new dedicated Chroma app for managing lighting on Razer devices.

Meanwhile, the Razer Synapse app is getting an update. The aim is to reduce the system resource requirements and make it easier and faster to update Razer devices. You'll still be able to manage RGB lighting in this app too.

Google has been trying to publicly pressure Apple into adopting the GSMA’s RCS (Rich Communications Service) messaging protocol for a long time now, with nothing to show for it. As a matter of fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed to completely dismiss the idea when he answered a question on the subject by saying that consumers should buy their moms an iPhone. Google and its Android platform aren’t giving up that easily and they’ve just released a snarky ad to continue criticizing Apple's preferred messaging platform. 

The ad’s called “iPager” and mimics Apple’s marketing language to reveal a retro-styled beeper, indicating that Apple’s behind the curve with its chosen messaging platform. The spot states that the iPager uses “outdated messaging tech” to “text with Android,” citing many of the perceived disadvantages of sticking with SMS technology when communicating with Android phones. Google didn’t invent this comparison whole-cloth, as the 30-year-old SMS tech actually dates back to old-school pagers.

Apple’s continued use of SMS messaging does hobble Android integration in a few ways, but the reverse is also true. Most famously, there’s the dreaded green bubble when texting an Android user from an iPhone. There are some feature-breaking bugs inherent to group chats between iOS and Android users and images sent from Android phones to iPhones tend to be rather pixelated. This is yet another side effect of those interoperability issues.

One-on-one RCS messages have been end-to-end encrypted since 2021, with group chats following suit just last month. iMessage texts have long been encrypted too, but only from iPhone to iPhone. Google’s latest ad shines an (admittedly slanted) light on the vulnerability consumers face when texting across operating systems, as those SMS texts aren't encrypted. Additionally, RCS text messages lose encryption when making the leap to iOS devices. It's anyone's guess why Apple should make this change and not Google, despite RCS being a more globally adopted standard.

This ad's unlikely to convince Apple to change anything, as it's only the latest salvo in Google’s snark campaign. Back in 2022, the company spoofed Drake to pile on Apple and there have been plenty of other minor jabs at Cupertino’s expense at events like I/O 2022 and on social media. We all know Apple is notoriously stubborn when it comes to adopting non-proprietary technology, especially if it views the change as unnecessary. No matter who's to blame, these interoperability issues are annoying for consumers and bad for data privacy. Maybe an antitrust case will get this sorted one day.

This year’s Razercon event held a couple of surprises for those who love the computer accessory company and luxury lifestyle brands. Razer has partnered up with Lamborghini to create a beefed up Blade 16 laptop that draws plenty of aesthetic inspiration from the sports car maker. It boasts a customized chassis with orange highlights that’s “infused with the spirit of Lamborghini.” The price tag is also infused with the spirit of Lamborghini, as this thing costs $5,000.

It looks pretty cool, but the actual components also got some Lambo love. The CNC-milled chassis is made from a single block of aluminum, adding durability, with a finish inspired by Lamborghini’s signature orange and matte black. The design on the lid echoes the headlights of the recently-announced Lamborghini Revuelto hybrid vehicle. So now you can race down the information superhighway in your Lambo computer as you race down the actual highway in your Lambo car. It’s an ouroboros of unnecessary speed.

The specs here are on-point, as there are some significant improvements over the base-level Blade 16 laptop. This is a highly-souped up edition, with a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 HX processor that boasts 24 cores and 32 threads. It also features a GeForce 4090 GPU, a 4TB SSD, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a dual-mode mini-LED 4K 16” display. This thing is a beast, but remember that $5K price tag. Despite the cost, the Razer Blade 16 x Automobili Lamborghini Edition could become a collector’s item some day, as the company is only making 150 units.

Razer

Razer has also teamed up with fashion icons Dolce & Gabbana to create a gold-emblazoned edition of its popular Barracuda wireless headphones. The fashion brand’s signature design has even been applied to a Razer Enki gaming chair and a bunch of clothing items to celebrate the partnership, like hoodies and t-shirts. Let’s hear it for corporate synergy!

Microsoft continues to build inclusive accessories and features for its mainstream products and the company showed off more at its New York event on Thursday. It unveiled an Adaptive Touch feature that works on the “precision haptic trackpad” of the Surface Laptop Studio 2. During its keynote, the company called this the “most inclusive touchpad on any laptop,” and based on my early impressions, that claim might just be true.

Not a lot is currently known about how the feature will work, but I was able to spend some time with Microsoft’s accessibility program manager Solomon Romney to get a deeper understanding. Romney was born without fingers on his left hand and struggles to use standard touchpads on most laptops. Adaptive Touch allows him to drag his left hand on the glass-covered surface and not have the cursor jump around the screen.

The first thing to point out is that the adaptive touch feature currently requires a haptic trackpad to work, meaning at the moment it’s only available on the Surface Laptop Studio 2. You’ll have to go into the computer’s touchpad settings and enable Adaptive Touch, which throws up an alert that you won’t be able to use multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom.

That’s because the system is looking for multiple points of contact with the trackpad and noticing if they’re moving in the same general direction, to determine where to move the mouse. It’s in part based on the technology that Microsoft uses for palm rejection, but reconfigured for Adaptive Touch.

Microsoft barely mentions this feature in its materials announcing the Surface Laptop Studio 2, and Google searches for terms like “Microsoft inclusive trackpad” or “Surface Laptop Studio 2 accessibility touchpad” yield unrelated results. It’s clear there’s still a lot to understand about how Adaptive Touch works and what its limits are. For now, though, I’m encouraged to see Microsoft continue to design for inclusivity, and I’m excited for what might be to come.

Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.

The Surface Laptop Studio is sort of a unique PC thanks to its innovative hinged display, stylus support and well-rounded specs. In some ways it's the ultimate jack-of-all-trades but master of none system. And now a sequel has arrived sporting a much-needed spec bump and the addition of some long-requested features including a microSD card slot. 

Now, some folks may be dismayed to see that the exterior of the just-announced Surface Laptop Studio 2 is largely unchanged. But as someone who's been using the previous model as my main travel notebook for the last couple of years, I'm not that bothered. You still get clean, minimalist lines along with a 14.4-inch 2,400 x 1,600 120Hz PixelSense display that can tilt like an easel. I'm even happy to see little quirks like its two-tiered base return, which keeps the system's vents cleverly hidden and away from the edges of the system while also offering a shelf for Surface Slim Pen 2 to latch onto. 

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

However, along the sides are some very important updates: a new USB-A port and a microSD card slot. This is the first time either of these has been available on this line, and while it might not sound like a big deal, for a system that's geared toward artists and content creators, this change represents a major quality-of-life upgrade. Just being able to quickly transfer photos from a camera to your laptop without needing a cable or an adapter is extremely useful. And with the addition of a USB-A port along with the two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C jacks, there's a good chance you'll be able to leave all your dongles at home without sacrificing connectivity. 

There are also some subtle design changes including a new aluminum chassis instead of magnesium like you got on the original. This results in a very slightly thicker body (just 1 or 2mm), a more silvery hue and a smoother finish. 

As for performance, I really like the Surface Laptop Studio 2's updated components. Even at launch, the original felt somewhat underpowered due to a middling quad-core chip despite being billed as Microsoft's most powerful laptop. But now, with support for up to an Intel Core i7-13800H chip, 64GB of RAM, 2TB of storage and an RTX 4060 GPU (or an RTX 2000 card on commercial models), this successor feels like a more well-rounded machine. Sure, it's not as fast as a similarly-priced gaming laptop and it's not quite as thin as a typical 14-inch ultraportable. However, the combination of a high-res touchscreen with pen integration and a spec refresh delivers way more versatility than almost all of its rivals. 

One last big change is the addition of Microsoft's Adaptive Touch feature, which brings increased accessibility. The tech uses a new touch algorithm that makes it easier for differently-abled people to mouse around and use the touchpad. And while I might not get a ton of use out of it, I appreciate how simple it is use. All you have to do is open the Surface app and you are immediately presented with options for enabling Adaptive Touch and adjusting things like click sensitivity and double-click speed. 

Granted, there aren't a ton of major changes on Surface Laptop Studio 2 aside from refreshed specs and some new ports. But I think that's OK, as this feels like a case of not messing with an already tested and still very innovative design. The main drawback is that with a starting price of $1,999, Microsoft's latest flagship laptop costs a lot more than a typical 14-inch rival. But that may just be the cost for a system that can do a lot of everything. 

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 goes on sale on October 3. 

Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.

It was Microsoft's turn to step up to the plate and hold a fall hardware event on Thursday. Although Surface devices were the name of the game, there was a heavy — and I mean heavy — focus on AI. In the company's first event since longtime Chief Product Officer Panos Panay departed this week (reportedly for Amazon), Microsoft revealed a pair of new consumer laptops and a whole lot of Copilot AI news.

Copilot and other AI updates

Microsoft spent most of the event talking about AI and Copilot. In fact, the hardware almost seemed like an afterthought. The company is unifying the Copilot AI assistant across its suite of products. Copilot will be available more broadly as part of a Windows 11 update that will arrive on September 26.

Copilot is built into Windows and it will appear in apps such as Edge. You'll be activate Copilot with your voice or a right click. You might use Copilot to organize windows on your desktop, delete the backgrounds from photos or even generate a Spotify playlist.

The assistant will be able to pull context from your phone. For example, by reading information you receive from your airline via text message, Copilot can pull up your flight information. A shopping-focused version of Copilot is on the way too.

Copilot works with a new feature called Windows Ink Anywhere. You'll be able to use a pen to, for instance, snip a screenshot of a math problem. Copilot can then solve the problem and explain how it reached that solution.

Enterprise users will need to wait a little longer to make use of Copilot in the Microsoft 365 suite. It will be generally available starting on November 1 for $30 per user per month. Microsoft says Copilot can summarize meetings and prioritize tasks based on what's in your inbox. In Outlook, it will be able to draft emails in a way that mimics your writing style and voice, according to the company.

Elsewhere, Bing Image Creator will soon employ the DALL-E 3 model to generate more realistic-looking images. It will include an attribution to note that an image was AI generated.

Bing will also be able to prioritize search results based on your chat history. If you often ask the Bing chatbot about a certain sports team, the search engine may prioritize results accordingly. You can switch this function off, if you prefer (or you can simply avoid using the chatbot).

Surface Laptop Go 3 

Microsoft

Oh yes, there was some pesky new hardware to discuss too. Microsoft showed off the Surface Laptop Go 3, a 12.4-inch touchscreen notebook designed for portability. It weighs just 2.49 pounds and it has a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU. Microsoft says it's 88 percent faster than the original Surface Laptop Go from three years ago.

The Surface Laptop Go 3 will be available in four colors — Platinum, Sage, Sandstone and Ice Blue — and it starts at $799. You can get your hands on the system on October 3. We've already had the chance to try it, so be sure to check out our first impressions.

Surface Laptop Studio 2

Microsoft

On the higher end is the Surface Laptop Studio 2. Microsoft says this is the most powerful Surface it has built to date. It has an Intel 13th-gen i7 H class processor and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. You can have up to 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM as well. 

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 has a 14.4-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen can tilt forward this time around. Elsewhere, there's a trackpad that seemingly rolls in some features from Microsoft's accessibility-focused Adaptive Mouse as well as a slot for a microSD card. 

Notably, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 has a neural processing unit that can power AI effects. Microsoft says this is the first Intel NPU in a Windows laptop. Meanwhile, the company is bundling in the Surface Slim Pen 2.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 will be available on October 3. It starts at $1,999. 

Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.

Microsoft is releasing a big Windows 11 update next week, on September 26. The catchily-named 23H2 is packed with some real game changing features, along with a whole bunch of quality of life improvements. The update arrives just in time for the launch of the just-announced Surface Laptop Go 3 and the Surface Laptop Studio 2.

The big news here is the inclusion of the new AI-powered Windows Copilot feature. This toolset already exists as part of the Edge browser, but now it’ll be natively implemented in Windows, which allows for some nifty use cases. This native implementation means that Copilot is available in nearly every aspect of the operating system, from Powerpoint to Teams and beyond.

You’ll be able to use Copilot, for instance, to craft text messages using calendar data, explore navigation options in Outlook, generate Spotify playlists and more. This is generative AI so Copilot will also shop for items based solely on a photo, remove photo backgrounds and access the Bing Image Creator, which will soon be based on the vastly-improved Dall-E 3. Bing Chat is also now a native feature that exists in the sidebar.

AI isn’t the only game in town, as this is also a traditional OS update with the usual quality of life improvements. There’s finally native support for RAR and 7-zip file formats, so you can get rid of those third-party archiving apps. The File Explorer has been completely redesigned to increase efficiency, with large file thumbnails and a carousel interface, and the Paint app underwent a similar transformation, with a new dark mode and forthcoming transparency layers. There’s a redesigned volume mixer and updated RGB lighting controls called Dynamic Lighting. The latter toolset uses the open HID LampArray standard and many of the big names in gaming PCs and accessories have vowed to support this effort, such as Acer, Asus, HP, Razer and Logitech, among others.

Microsoft

Some current Windows 11 features have received minor updates here. The passkey experience has been optimized and moving your data to a new PC has been streamlined, thanks to an official Windows Backup software suite. Additionally, voice controls have been expanded and the photos app boasts some new editing options.

Finally, there’s the just-announced Ink Anywhere feature. This intriguing toolset is exclusively for stylus users interacting with a touchscreen PC or hybrid device. Ink Anywhere lets you draw on the screen in any text box anywhere within the operating system. The OS converts the handwriting to text and uses it in a number of innovative ways. This is useful for instantaneously uploading notes, but the system also uses AI to automatically answer queries, with Microsoft showing off the tool being used to complete a handwritten math problem.