聖誕禮物精選：US$100 入手 Fitbit Charge 5，免運費直送到家

Amazon 上 Fitbit 其中兩款最新型號的智能穿戴裝置又推出了折扣，不同於早前的介紹 Garmin 手錶重點放在運動及鍛鍊，它們更偏向於日常生活，提供如壓力感應、心電圖等更為精密的健康偵測功能，這次 Charge 5 連運費的情況下亦正式減至 US$100，作為送給伴侶或家人的話會是不錯的選擇。…

Tecno’s Phantom X2 Pro phone has a pop-out portrait lens for ‘pure’ bokeh

Many smartphones these days offer artificial bokeh in their portrait photography modes, but with the help of a retractable camera, you can achieve true optical bokeh without missing any edges. Chinese brand Tecno is now bringing such a feature to its latest flagship device, the Phantom X2 Pro 5G, which packs a “world-first” pop-out portrait lens. This is just a little over two years after Xiaomi showed off a retractable 120mm-equivalent wide aperture lens, but it never left the prototype stage.

Tecno’s intriguing portrait camera has a 50-megapixel resolution with a relatively large 1/2.7-inch sensor and 1.28um pixel size. Optically, this 2.5x zoom lens offers an f/1.49 aperture, 65mm focal length and 18.9cm depth of field. When you switch to portrait mode in the camera app, you can see (and hear) the portrait lens physically pop out on the back of the phone. This is complemented with Tecno’s “self-developed” beautification mode with upgraded make-up settings — up to three faces are supported in each image. 

I had a chance to shoot some portraits with my Phantom X2 Pro 5G earlier today, and with the exception of the aggressive skin smoothing, my subjects were quite pleased with the natural bokeh, optimized brightness and virtually non-existent distortion.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro 5G
Richard Lai/Engadget

There’s more on this amusingly large camera island. The 50-megapixel main shooter uses Samsung’s 1/1.3-inch GNV ISOCELL 3.0 sensor, which offers 1.2um pixel size and is supported with an f/1.85 aperture. You’ll also find a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera nearby, as well as a 32-megapixel front camera on the other side of the phone — in the form of a punch-hole near the top of the curved 6.8-inch AMOLED screen (2,400 x 1,080 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate; Gorilla Glass Victus).

The Phantom X2 Pro 5G is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9000, which is a 4nm octa-core processor — similar to the faster Dimensity 9000+ found in ASUS’ ROG Phone 6D series. It also packs 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, along with a generous 5,160mAh battery with 45W fast charging support. While this phone lacks an IP rating, a company rep claimed that the retractable portrait lens is waterproof and dustproof — the interior of the lens is apparently sealed, and likewise with the connection between the lens and the body. Still, it’s probably best to avoid the water when you’re carrying this device.

Tecno’s new phone runs on a customized Android 12 system dubbed HiOS 12, which features an AI gallery with face recognition and editing functions, along with some productivity tools (built-in translator, file scanner with text and PDF conversion etc.) and a connection speed optimization engine. Tecno added that its device passed TÜV Rheinland’s fluency test over a 36-month simulation, meaning its storage memory performance shouldn’t deteriorate much (read: fragmentation) during the same period in real life; but we’ll take this claim with a pinch of salt for now.

Tecno will initially be launching the Phantom X2 Pro 5G in markets including India, Nigeria, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Turkey, and the Philippines from the end of December, and it’ll reach over 60 markets globally later (we’re waiting for specific details on Western markets). The device will be available in “Stardust Grey” and “Mars Orange,” with the latter featuring an eco-friendly back cover composed of plastics recovered from the shores around the Indian Ocean. Tecno claims that this “Eco-Friendly Edition” reduces carbon emissions by approximately 38 percent when compared to virgin plastics, “with each individual cover producing an estimated 2.4g fewer emissions on average.” 

If you manage to come across a Phantom X2 Pro, the asking price is around $930 (based on the 3,499 Riyal price tag in Saudi Arabia), which is probably difficult to justify for just some natural bokeh. There’s also the Phantom X2 which is around $215 cheaper and looks very similar, but it only has 8GB of RAM and lacks a retractable portrait camera; you’ll instead get a 64-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel depth camera, along with the same 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and 32-megapixel front camera as the Pro model. The orange option is also replaced by a “Moonlight White” design.

Uber and Motional’s robotaxis arrive in Las Vegas

Uber has launched public robotaxi rides in Las Vegas using Motional’s Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous EVs with the aim of offering a full driverless service to the public in 2023. It will eventually expand to Los Angeles, where the two companies have been testing autonomous Uber Eats deliveries since May 2022. It’s all part of a 10-year agreement between Uber and Motional to offer autonomous ride-hailing and deliveries. 

The taxi rides will be monitored by safety drivers, with the goal of launching a fully driverless service to the public in 2023. “Today, Motional becomes the first AV company to conduct all-electric autonomous rides on the Uber network for public passengers,” said Motional VP Akshay Jaising. (Uber offered “autonomous” taxi rides using its own self-driving tech back in 2016, but riders were accompanied by engineers ready to take the wheel.) 

Lyft also partners with Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv. It beat Uber to the punch by launching Motional rides in Las Vegas in August this year with safety drivers on board. Lyft has also said it will ditch those drivers and offer true autonomous service by next year. 

Don’t be surprised if that timeline changes, though. Apart from Motional, only Alphabet division Waymo and GM’s Cruise are offering true driverless services at a reasonably large scale. The Waymo One service is operating in Phoenix and San Francisco, while Cruise rides are currently limited to San Francisco. Both operate only in specific areas of cities (which can be mapped out in great detail) and some vehicles still use safety riders.

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick once said that the his company had to be “tied for first, at least” in the race to offer true driverless rides. Since both Uber and Lyft rely on Motional for self-driving tech, that’s exactly what might happen.

San Francisco reverses approval of killer robot policy

In late November, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors had approved a proposal that would allow the city’s police force to use remote-controlled robots as a deadly force option when faced with violent or armed suspects. The supervisors voted 8-to-3 in favor of making it a new policy despite opposition by civil rights groups, but now they seem to have had a change of heart. During the second of two required votes before a policy can be sent to the mayor’s office for final approval, the board voted 8-to-3 to explicitly ban the use of lethal force by police robots. As San Francisco Chronicle notes, this about-face is pretty unusual, as the board’s second votes are typically just formalities that echo the first ones’ results.

The San Francisco Police Department made the proposal after a law came into effect requiring California officials to define the authorized uses of their military-grade equipment. It would have allowed cops to equip robots with explosives “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspects.” Authorities could only use the robots for lethal force after they’ve exhausted all other possibilities, and a high-ranking official would have to approve their deployment. However, critics are concerned that the machines could be abused. 

Dean Preston, one of the supervisors who oppose the use of robots as a deadly force option, said the policy will “place Black and brown people in disproportionate danger of harm or death.” In a newer statement made after the board’s second vote, Preston said: “There have been more killings at the hands of police than any other year on record nationwide. We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people.”

While the supervisors voted to ban the use of lethal force by police robots — for now, anyway — they also sent the original policy proposing the use of killer robots back for review. The board’s Rules Committee could now amend it further to have stricter rules for use of bomb-equipped robots, or it could scrap the old proposal altogether.