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Huawei’s zealousness about keeping journalists’ hands off its new Mate X foldable phone slipped a little today, and I got to hold and fold it for myself. The hands-on experience with this device confirmed and deepened all the feelings I had about it already: it’s a polished, refined physical design that gets us closest to the ideal of a foldable with minimal compromises. There are still huge questions about what the software UX will be like, how durable and scratch-resistant that wraparound display will be over the long term, and how long the battery will last if you use this 5G tablet to its fullest. I can’t answer those today, but I can tell you what I know about the Huawei Mate X so far.

How does the screen feel?

The…

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The Mate X already looks like a polished and mature design

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The Mate X already looks like a polished and mature design

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If you want a signal for how far out the dreamy foldable phone that we can actually afford is, look no further than the prototype that TCL just unveiled at Mobile World Congress today. With a 7.2-inch flexible screen, it’s in the same size class as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, and just like the Fold, the TCL prototype is not to be touched or even breathed upon by mere mortals. I’m a little surprised the company let me lift the glass surround to take a closer look at the thing. And, take note, I never saw this foldable device actually folding or unfolding: the thing on show at MWC can be more rightly classified as a folded phone prototype.

TCL is a bit of a complex company, given that it has one business that builds display panels — which does…

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#HTE

If you want a signal for how far out the dreamy foldable phone that we can actually afford is, look no further than the prototype that TCL just unveiled at Mobile World Congress today. With a 7.2-inch flexible screen, it’s in the same size class as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, and just like the Fold, the TCL prototype is not to be touched or even breathed upon by mere mortals. I’m a little surprised the company let me lift the glass surround to take a closer look at the thing. And, take note, I never saw this foldable device actually folding or unfolding: the thing on show at MWC can be more rightly classified as a folded phone prototype.

TCL is a bit of a complex company, given that it has one business that builds display panels — which does…

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#HTE

There exist a lot of meme generators on the internet, but few are better organized or authentically made than the Death Generator. Created by programmer Foone Turing, the open-source tool first began as a generator for death screens from Sierra games, starting with Police Quest 2 in 2017. Turing gets most of his screenshots by actually playing through the games, and he’s now up to dozens of classic titles and newer games alike, from SimCity 2000 to Animal Crossing: Wild World.

“The inspiration was just seeing a bunch of screenshots going around, of games like PQ2 and vague memories of a Something Awful Photoshop post where they made fake SimCity 2000 advisor messages,” Turing told The Verge. “These games have very distinctive dialog…

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There exist a lot of meme generators on the internet, but few are better organized or authentically made than the Death Generator. Created by programmer Foone Turing, the open-source tool first began as a generator for death screens from Sierra games, starting with Police Quest 2 in 2017. Turing gets most of his screenshots by actually playing through the games, and he’s now up to dozens of classic titles and newer games alike, from SimCity 2000 to Animal Crossing: Wild World.

“The inspiration was just seeing a bunch of screenshots going around, of games like PQ2 and vague memories of a Something Awful Photoshop post where they made fake SimCity 2000 advisor messages,” Turing told The Verge. “These games have very distinctive dialog…

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#HTE

We’re living in a funny sort of ultra-connected time where no consumer tech company can keep its secrets secret. And so when I gaze out toward the approaching Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I can already tell you that it will bring perhaps the most diverse selection of smartphone forms, sizes, designs, and specifications we’ve yet seen. MWC 2019 will be defined by this diversity, with companies straining at the edges of conventional design to try and come up with an original idea, an attention-grabbing concept, or just a good old gimmick that will differentiate their product from all the rest. In simple terms, things are going to get weird.

Over the many years that I’ve been attending MWC, I’ve also noticed two primary routes of…

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Photoshopping a meme is easy. But hunting through thrift stores, finding the perfect action figure to Frankenstein with another toy, designing and packaging it into a slightly off but believable product, and sneaking it onto a store shelf takes a little bit more work. Both have the potential to go viral, but memes are lost to the unforgiving sands of internet time, while the bizarre, bespoke toys can live on as a story for the next person who stumbles upon them.

Since 2015, Jeff Wysaski has been making fake signs and toys and leaving them out in the real world for people to find. Going by the name Obvious Plant, some of his recent creations range from believable bootleg dollar store finds, like Mobile Suit Garfield, to the more…

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#HTE

We’re living in a funny sort of ultra-connected time where no consumer tech company can keep its secrets secret. And so when I gaze out toward the approaching Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I can already tell you that it will bring perhaps the most diverse selection of smartphone forms, sizes, designs, and specifications we’ve yet seen. MWC 2019 will be defined by this diversity, with companies straining at the edges of conventional design to try and come up with an original idea, an attention-grabbing concept, or just a good old gimmick that will differentiate their product from all the rest. In simple terms, things are going to get weird.

Over the many years that I’ve been attending MWC, I’ve also noticed two primary routes of…

Continue reading…