This week in The Wrap, find out how HTC returns to phones, plus there are more news on mobile. We’ll also hear from the latest from Australian headset maker Nura and let Canon pick the best photos with a review of the PowerShot Pick, all in five minutes.
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Transcript
It’s July 2022, officially the middle of the year, and you’re in tune with The Wrap, Australia’s fastest tech summary, and with six months down, there are only six good months left to finish.
Five months for Christmas to reach shopping season and six months until we start thinking about all the exciting technology it can bring next year.
Before that, let’s talk about a new phone from a company that hasn’t made phones in what seems like an eternity. If you remember HTC phones, you might have them as old as me, or maybe even older. Before the iPhone appeared and before Oppo started knocking hard on the doors of Apple, Samsung and Google to dominate the phone, HTC created a few smartphones.
In Australia, it had its first 4G phone, and has even ventured into some interesting models over the years. It had a full aluminum phone before it became the norm, and it even had a couple of phones focused on Facebook, Salsa, and ChaCha.
HTC was not up to date with phones, and experiments with cameras and VR, the latter of which went quite well thanks to the Vive headphones, stopped making phones a few years ago.
But it’s back, though not with what you might expect.
HTC has announced this week a new mid-range Desire phone and one that focused on its VR-driven efforts, which will allow you to jump into the world of virtual reality that is the metavers and explore from your phone, a bit. We’re not sure about this, and we suspect HTC will skip it for Australia, but it could be a sign that at least one more phone maker is re-entering the ring, so to speak. There’s also a new Asus phone on the way to the ROG Phone 6, another gaming-focused phone, while Xiaomi is offering a Leica collaboration on the 12S, and like HTC, we’re not sure it will appear locally, although You want to see them all.
And this is so in computers, where so many things are happening.
Dell seems ready to add some more options soon, with an upgrade to its XPS 13 with new chips, plus a much larger 16-inch Inspiron type focused on the mid-range looking for a great laptop without the big price . And then there’s the great price of the Dell XPS, which includes a new variant of the XPS 13 2 in 1.
Dell’s latest interpretation of the 2 in 1 is to borrow a Surface page with something similar, resulting in a 13-inch tablet that includes the latest Intel chips and a high-resolution screen, but omits the cover of the keyboard and pen. All are optional, and cost you more if you want more than one screen.
It looks like Dell’s take on not only the Surface, but also the iPad Pro, which if we’re being honest, will probably also need to be updated sometime in the coming months.
While we’re talking about upgrades, let’s talk about headphones. Specifically Australian headphones, because there is a new pair of headphones on the way.
If you’ve browsed Facebook and seen a pair of advertised headphones, there’s a good chance they’re the Nuraphones, a unique pair that analyzes your hearing to provide a personalized listening profile based on how you feel. Interestingly, it’s actually one of three Australian companies that do, but Nura at least has a new model on the way, and we’ve been hearing about it for the past few weeks.
The latest is the Nura True Pro, and it’s a new pair of wireless headphones with a faster hearing test, more warmth and support for space audio, and a fantastic sound from what we’ve heard in the test units. They won’t officially appear until later in the year after a Kickstarter phase, but from what we’ve heard, they aim to face people like Sony and Sennheiser, and even Apple’s AirPods Pro.
And while we’re talking about you, we’re talking about a camera that thinks of you more than anything else, something we’ve been reviewing at Canon PowerShot Pick, a camera that seems to be named because it comes with artificial intelligence and can choose the shots you want to make.
Yes, this is Canon’s first artificial intelligence camera, which makes a facial tracking selfie camera that can do a little more than selfies, and can offer some fun for kids, as long as you can swallow the price of $ 600.
The Canon Pick looks a lot like a webcam with a built-in battery and doesn’t come with a bunch of buttons like any other camera. Rather, turn it on and take your photos, though you can also control it with your phone or voice.
Choose your phone and it can act as a remote control, while your voice is more of a fun trick. You’ll shoot shots saying “Hello, pick, take a picture,” but you can’t deviate from that. It has to be very specific, and that’s not all.
The setup is complicated and the image quality is not spectacular. You have an 11 megapixel sensor, but up close, the images aren’t much better than your phone. For its price, the Pick is not our choice, but the bones of an idea are definitely here. We just need it to be better in version two, if any.
And you can expect more from the world of technology next week. We’re not saying what, but there are important things. Sorry for the week off, but we look forward to returning to our usual weekly schedule from this episode.
For now, you’ve been listening to The Wrap, Australia’s fastest tech summary. A new episode can be found every week on Listener, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For now, have a great week and see you next time at The Wrap. Stay safe, stay healthy and take care of yourself.