Photo of Brana Dane holding a Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra Review as a Photographer

Since the Xiaomi 17 Ultra was released, I’ve been looking for reviews that really talk about the photography capabilities and especially the RAW output capabilities. 50% of photography takes place in post-production, so you don’t want to just let the camera apply whatever post processing values and filters it has right there as you take the picture.  You want to have control over the post processing like an artist and to get the most flexibility …

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Photo of a smartphone running the Signal app.

Reasons Not To Use Signal Anymore

Signal should probably no longer be included as a top choice for activist messaging, secure messaging, business and personal messaging for the following trust-worthiness red-flag reasons. Signal’s server is no longer open source. In 2021, they announced a closed-source component for scanning and blocking certain users. You can see for yourself as the source code for the “spam-filter @ e73138e” folder in https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server is private. As you know, if any part becomes closed source, that compromises …

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5 smartphones with different camera array hump layouts.

Why Circular Camera Hump Arrays Are The Best

Most smartphones these days have an array of camera lenses and sensors on the back of the phone. It’s rare to see just one camera since we love having the flexibility of multiple focal lengths.  However, there’s a lot of diversity in the layout of those camera lenses and sensors.  Some companies put them all in a raised rectangular hump like the iPhones do.  Some have each lens raised up individually like the Samsung Galaxy …

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ThinkPad Rollable XD Concept

CES: Lenovo’s New ThinkPad Rollable XD Concept Extends the Screen in a New Way

Lenovo’s got a new rollable display concept to show off at CES 2026 and this one is a bit different from the previous one. The previous concept had the screen rolling out from the base of the laptop where the keyboard and motherboard are. This one has the extra display real-estate actually rolled into the back of the display and when extending, the external part has a clear panel that lets you see a very …

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Motorola RAZR Fold

CES: Motorola finally makes a vertically folding RAZR Fold

While Motorola has been making folding screen smartphones for a while now, all of the previous RAZRs have been of the “flip” folding style where it’s very compact when folded and unfolds to be a taller more-conventionally-sized smartphone touch screen.  Today, Motorola also has the new RAZR Fold which is already a tall smartphone sized touch screen layout but unfolds to the side like a book or like the Samsung Galaxy Fold series to reveal …

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Lenovo Legion Go Powered by SteamOS

CES: The 2026 Lenovo Legion Go Powered by SteamOS

In 2026, Lenovo is releasing another Legion Go portable gaming console that runs SteamOS instead of Windows 11 and that could be a really good thing. As you know, when announcing the original Legion Go with Windows 11, one of my first questions for Lenovo at the press briefing was, “Did you try SteamOS on it?”  At the time, they hadn’t, but in 2026, this will be their second Legion Go running SteamOS which is …

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