I've said for years that EarPods suck. Sure, they’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but not enough to make me change my tune. I can’t believe that I’m about to share this, but some TechRadar editors actually choose to use them as their daily headphones.

Frankly, people who buy expensive smartphones deserve something better. For far too long, Apple has been hanging onto its all-white earbuds included with each iPhone as a bold symbol of excellence when they’re actually just a tired relic in dire need of improvement.

I’ve felt this way for a long time, as I’m sure many others have, too, but it wasn’t until I tried on the earbuds that come included with the Samsung Galaxy S8 that I knew something needed to be said. 

So, I'll say it

Step it up, Apple. But, wait, I have more to say.

AKG, now owned by Samsung along with the rest of the Harman group of brands, makes quite the impressive debut alongside of the latest and greatest (for now) smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus.

These wired earbuds are strung by a long, partially-braided cable which gives it a high-end look and feel. Complete with a grippy 3.5mm plug and inline remote and microphone, these are fully functional with, likely, the full range of Android devices. I’m currently using them on a Google Pixel XL with no issues to speak of. 

You can’t say the same about the EarPods in terms of compatibility with previous iPhone models, given the iPhone 7’s lack of a headphone jack.

To combat the fraying of wires as these earbuds age, AKG has made the stems leading up to its speaker units thicker and longer than Apple’s. Another side benefit of this design move is that it’s super simple to tug them out of your ears with the extra girth around the wire. I don’t see cable rot ever being an issue here.

Moving up to its speaker units, the glossy plastic that provides the visual statement makes way for the grippy stuff that will help them actually stay in your ear. Samsung includes a few additional sets of ear tips to ensure a snug fit, which is standard practice for companies that take audio seriously.

They actually sound good

Sure, you can do better than these AKG earbuds. But, after spending a year of dispensable income on the Samsung Galaxy S8, they still feel like a treat. As mentioned above, these do just about everything one could desire from a modern set of headphones, like plug into a phone through a conventional port that allows simultaneous charging.

The sound quality is surprisingly good in these freebies. Bass response in a variety of music genres was as accurately punchy or subdued as the source material calls for, much closer to how it sounds through a set of high-quality over-ear headphones. Generally, the sound stage is about on-par with, if not a bit better than, the Xiaomi Mi in-ear headphones, which I think are some of the finest in-ear headphones you can buy right now. (That’s without mentioning that they only cost $25.)

Our Global Mobile Editor, Gareth Beavis, also highly rates the bundled HTC 10 buds - another company that's doing in-box headphones right.

The best perks found about these AKG earbuds are the comfort and sound isolation. I actually feel like I’m wearing headphones that were made for me. Whether used during a quick vacuum of the apartment or for a full day at work, they do good to keep the music in and the world out. 

Will this influence Apple?

It should. However, it’s more likely that, if Apple changes protocol at all, it will include AirPods in with the Phone 8. Not to drop my point that Apple needs to step up the audio quality of its EarPods, but if it can add its wireless headphones inside the box this year, that’d be a great value for people in Apple’s ecosystem.

Though, it seems like days where Apple made its own high-fidelity earbuds are long gone. Here’s our review of them from way back in 2009. Since then, it has stuck with EarPods and most folks seem to be alright with it.

The fact that Apple has tried its hand at premium earbuds shows that quality audio isn’t outside of Apple’s purview. The W1 chip built inside of the Apple AirPods and Beats PowerBeats 3 proves that it has its focus set on improving the listening experience, as it has made waves with how easy it makes connecting its own products to one another. 

Regardless, Apple needs to solve for the so-so audio (and fit) quality of its offering now more than ever, because its competition has caught up and then some.

Samsung includes a few of its own apps on the Galaxy S8 that offer a duplication of services found on Android. It turns out, these apps are more functional and better than the default Google apps.

The HTC U’s existence has been confirmed, and while we’ll have to wait until May 16 to see HTC’s new flagship in its full, official form, the phone’s biggest new feature has already been heavily leaked and teased.

We’re talking, of course, about the pressure-sensitive frame, which is set to give you a brand new way to interact with your phone.

But how exactly will it work? And how much will it actually be able to do? Using the information available to us, we aim to answer those questions.

What is Edge Sense?

Edge Sense, or Sense Touch as it’s been called in some leaks, is a feature which enables you to squeeze the sides of the HTC U to interact with it.

Interactions could take various forms, which we’ll cover below, but think mainly launching apps or changing settings.

Essentially then, Edge Sense is likely to be a bit like having a customizable button – albeit one which you’ll want to show off to people – and based on leaked set-up screen images it seems you’ll be able to toggle it to do two different things – one with a long press, and another with a short one.

In fact, it might do even more, as although the leaked setup screen images only show short and long presses, other leaks suggest you might be able to swipe the edge too, and that it might be context-sensitive.

Some leaks even suggest that Edge Sense will exist in place of certain physical buttons – so there might not be volume buttons on the side of your phone for example, with you instead just swiping the edge to change the volume, though we’re skeptical that HTC would ditch such key buttons for an unproven feature.

And whether or not buttons are still present it’s likely that only part of the frame will be pressure-sensitive, as most leaks so far only show people interacting with the top third on either side.

The leaked setup screen lets you choose between three different sensitivity levels, presumably to prevent it accidentally firing when the phone’s in a tight pocket or just being held.

It also notes that Edge Sense may not work properly in some protective cases, which makes sense, but could limit its usefulness.

What can Edge Sense do?

We don’t have a definitive answer to this yet, but we do have a good idea of some of the things it may be able to do.

Based on HTC’s official teaser for the HTC U, which has the tagline "squeeze for the brilliant", we’re confident that you’ll be able to squeeze the sides, so the long and short presses mentioned above will likely feature.

At a minimum, these will probably allow you to launch apps and features of the HTC U. The leaked set-up screen explains that a short squeeze when the screen is on would launch the camera for example – though it’s not clear whether the screen needs to be on for all interactions, or whether different things will happen when the screen is off.

It’s likely that Edge Sense will be customizable to some extent, so you’ll probably be able to choose which apps and features launch when you squeeze the sides, though exactly how customizable is again unknown. It might be that HTC gives you a selection of functions to choose from, or it might be that you can tailor Edge Sense to do almost anything you want.

Either way, we wouldn’t be surprised if you can go beyond just launching apps, and also get quick access to favorite contacts and other things that could reasonably be handled with a single squeeze.

It's also very possible that Edge Sense will go beyond on/off interactions and let you alter the volume, scroll down web pages and interact with apps, by letting you swipe as well as squeeze and by offering context-sensitive interactions.

Examples of these are shown in the video above, which was leaked a while ago and originally believed to be a concept phone. While that concept now seems to be a reality, its final form may well be different – not to mention less ambitious – so we’d take it with a grain of salt.

The video specifically highlights quick access to music and Google Assistant, with a contextual UI and the vague ability to “launch anything”, “access anything” and “do everything”.

Another concept video shows an interface that’s reminiscent of the Edge screen found on phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S8, with a list of apps that pop up at the edge of the display, but rather than swiping in from the edge of the screen to access these, here you squeeze the phone, then slide your finger up or down the frame to scroll through the apps, and seemingly tap the frame to launch one.

It also appears that you can bring up that menu on either side of the screen, by pressing/squeezing one side or the other, and it’s likely that you’d get a different selection of apps and features on each side.

How much of this will have made it past the concept stage and into the HTC U is unclear. At worst, if all you can do is set it to launch a specific app, we’ll likely be left with a kind of cool but ultimately slightly gimmicky customizable button.

But if you can swipe as well as squeeze and access context-sensitive actions, or even just an extra menu like Samsung’s Edge screen, it could be a genuinely useful feature, and exactly the thing HTC needs to stand out from the crowd.

• Hopefully the HTC U will be better than the HTC U Ultra

Apple has announced a new, impressive goal of one day only using recycled materials in its devices.

Apple's 2017 Environment Responsibility Report sets the company the goal of only using recycled materials in its devices, but it's not something the company can do quickly or easily.

Currently only a small percentage of the tech used in an iPhone comes from recycled materials, but the firm one day hopes to use materials such as aluminum, tin, copper and other elements that come from previously used sources.

"We’re actually doing something we rarely do, which is announce a goal before we’ve completely figured out how to do it."

Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, told Vice News, “We’re actually doing something we rarely do, which is announce a goal before we’ve completely figured out how to do it.”

It wouldn't just be for iPhones either - Apple's goal is to only use recycled materials for all products -  so that would include MacBooks, iPods, iPads, AirPods and everything else.

The Apple website says, "It’s an ambitious goal that will require many years of collaboration across multiple Apple teams, our suppliers, and specialty retailers—but our work is already under way.”

The report shows the company hopes to do this with a closed supply chain, which would likely use recycling schemes and robots - such as Apple's Liam project - to identify the reusable materials.

The company has identified aluminium can be recycled from past Apple products such as the iPhone 6, as the durable material can be melted down and used in Mac computer cases.

Other materials such as tin are more complicated to recycle though and the firm is trying to find a way to reuse it more efficiently.

A big ambition

Apple also hopes to use only renewable energy in all its facilities, including stores and factories - it's currently at 96% renewable usage - as well as encouraging its supply chain to only use renewable energy and ensure all its products are supplied in 100% recycled paper packaging.

Limiting the materials the company uses will have less of a negative environmental impact as well as helping the company to combat human rights abuses associated with its supply chain.

Previously Apple stopped buying cobalt and reassessed its supply chain when the process was identified with having connections to child labor in the Congo.

Greenpeace congratulated Apple on making the promise of only using recycled materials, but identified a number of other issues the company should be working on too. 

“They also have control over how the products are designed and should be made with an eye toward making products easier to repair so they have a longer lifespan” Greenpeace Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook told Vice News.

Apple devices are notoriously difficult to fix and can date quite quickly. Whether Apple will make an effort to make devices that last longer is yet to be seen, but devices such as the Fairphone 2 are using modular designs to do that.

Apple won’t be the first company to create ethically sourced phones. Fairphone has been creating devices since 2013 and only sources conflict-free minerals and Fairtrade gold to create its products.

• How our smartphone addiction is costing the earth

Via TechCrunch 

An incredibly sneaky third-party flashlight app for Android has been revealed to contain a Trojan virus that has the ability to steal and use your banking details, as well as intercept text messages and take photos with your device’s selfie camera.

The Trojan (Trojan.Android/Charger.B) was embedded in an app called “Flashlight LED Widget” and was discovered by Eset security researcher Lukas Stefanko on 10 April — almost two weeks after having been released on the Play Store and after it had already been downloaded by over 5,000 users. The finding was recently made public in this blog post.

Once installed, the virus can overlay fake login screens in order to trick users into entering credit card details, logins and other sensitive information, and the app has fake interfaces that mimic Facebook, Google Play, and even major Australian banking apps such as CommBank, NAB, and Westpac. Once it has your private information, the Trojan will lock your device and display a bogus error message while it withdraws funds or sends your details to the attackers’ servers.

If that wasn’t nefarious enough, the virus also hijacks the selfie camera in order to take a photo of the user and upload it to the server along with their banking details. The virus apparently also has the ability to intercept SMS messages. The malware’s code is designed to ignore users if it determines them to be located in Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, which Stefanko suspects is “to avoid persecution of the attackers in their home countries”.

While the app was taken down from Google Play as soon as it was discovered, there’s a chance some users may still be infected. Finding out if you have the malicious app installed is easy: just navigate to Settings > Application Manager (or ‘Apps’), and see if you have an entry for ‘Flashlight Widget’. You can visit Stefanko’s blog post for further details on determining if you are infected and for a video on how to remove the malware if you are, along with helpful tips on staying safe in the future.

• Trojans are nasty things.

HTC has confirmed the unveiling of its new flagship phone to the world - the HTC U - on May 16.

The new flagship phone has also been shown off briefly in a five second teaser on Twitter, showing off some innovative features.

The main image clearly confirms that the new handset will be controlled by squeezing in the side, a feature that's been heavily rumored for months now.

The design is also on show, with the HTC U looking like a sleek and slim device, and one would expect that it will feature the same pearlescent rear as the HTC U Ultra that's recently been launched by the brand.

'U' is HTC's new branding for its top-range phone, meaning confusingly there are already two U phones on the market - the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play - before the launch of this new phone.

The HTC U launch time is very much geared for the location of the Taiwanese brand's home locale, coming out at 2PM in Taipei, but 7AM in London and 2AM in New York - while the phone will certainly make it to Europe and North America, there's clearly not going to be a launch event in these territories unlike years gone by.

Will the HTC U be a success? While most eyes will be on the squeezable sides and the question of whether this will be a gimmick or genuine innovation, the HTC 10 was one of the most underrated phones of 2017, offering a good camera, audio experience and build quality.

If the HTC U doesn't dazzle, it's hard to see a way back for the brand in the high-end handset space... so let's see what happens come May 16.