YotaPhone 2

The YotaPhone 2 proves that dual-display technology is much more than a gimmick

It takes something special to stand out from the factory line of Android devices constantly hitting the market, but it’s a task that Yota has willingly undertaken with the launch of its latest dual-display device. From the front, the YotaPhone 2 looks like your familiar black slab smartphone, but turning it over reveals a smart e-ink display. The original YotaPhone also had two screens but flew way under the radar. While it had some moderate success, this revamped model looks better, performs better and generally works better Roth displays are no bigger than 5 inches, with quite a hefty bezel at both the top and bottom of the device. There’s the familiar 8-megapixel camera sensor above the e-ink display, while a small 2-megapixel sensor sits above the smartphone screen. Due to the lack of a backplate, there’s no removable battery here and another annoyance is the lack of a microSD slot. Users will have to make do with the 32GB of internal storage, as well as various cloud options on offer.

Build perfect website

Mark Llobrera on how content, communication and collaboration will help you make your next site the best one yet

This article’s title aside, there is no perfect site, workflow or tool. But you can probably relate to the feeling that I have at the start of every new project: no matter how well the last one went, I want this one to be even better. To put together this piece I interviewed a group of writers, editors, designers and developers to get an idea of how they go about planning sites. Their answers surprised me.

Instead of a list of favourite techniques and tools (don’t worry, there’s plenty of those in the resources section!), a few common themes emerged: the importance of content, internal and external communication, prototyping, and breaking down the divide between design and development. Their responses indicated that teams and clients are struggling with bigger, more fundamental issues than which CSS preprocessor to use.

So this is a snapshot of contemporary web workflow, touching on familiar phases and disciplines – content strategy, information architecture, design and development – but placing those in the context of the broader themes just mentioned. There’s so much that goes into planning and building a site that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I hope this article will provide some new approaches to those broader issues, while also giving you new tools to test out and explore.

Why Native Apps Hinder Innovation

Former Mozilla evangelist Christian Heilmann argues that creating iOS and Android apps slows the development of new experiences – and we should stand up for an open alternative

Apps are consumed by us, the users, across many of our devices. They do a good job of directing us to focused content; a single source of the information we need on a single topic. With the rise of smart devices, arguments that apps are a ‘web killer’ have increased. Developers have also flocked to native app  development as they see the monetary rewards that creating a successful app can bring.

However, are native apps really the best platform for developer innovation or user experience? In this article, I will argue that the web remains the best platform for app development: not only for users but also for developers who want to push technical boundaries.

How virtual reality will change the world

After 25 years of a failed dream, 2015 looks to be the year we all put on headsets to explore strange new worlds. Richard Cobbett investigates why we should hope it works out this time.

Virtual reality isn’t simply a new way to look at screens. Your first experience is, admittedly, a slightly drunken out-of-body one; of reaching for things that aren’t really there – of knowing that you’re sitting with a fancy headset and tangle of wires on your head, yet your brain is convinced it’s in deep space. Or a movie. Or a cyberpunk cafe. It’s an experience that can’t quite be described, and which has little do with the very primitive first attempts that took arcades by storm and then flamed out at the start of the ’90s. This time, some of the smartest minds in the tech industry have devoted themselves to taking us to incredible new places.

Field Review: Samsung NX1

Samsung’s tech-laden flagship model might be thecamera to get DSLR users to switch to mirrorless. by JACK NEUBART

I’ve worked with mirrorless cameras in the past, but never found them quite up to the task. After unpacking the new Samsung NX1 ($1,499, body only) and 16-50mm f/2-2.8 S ED OIS lens ($1,299) and taking a closer look at the two, I thought, this could be the deal changer. I might finally be ready to trade in my digital SLRs for a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera.

On the face of it, the NX1 can go head-to-head with my Nikon and Canon gear, beginning with a 28.2MP backsideilluminated (BSI) CMOS APS-C (cropped) sensor—without a low-pass filter (for added sharpness). Add to that a crystal-clear electronic viewfinder (EVF), touch-panel display, maximum 15 fps still capture at full resolution, 4K video capture, and fast AF.

This camera is certainly loaded with enough features to attract even the most hardened among us. But performance is what counts. Is the NX1 a solid-enough performer to sway the pro or serious amateur away from DSLR-dom for good? We shall see.