You can soon lip sync to popular tunes on Facebook

Facebook hopes to lure teens back to its service with one of the new features it’s testing. Called Lip Sync Live, it works within Facebook Live and will let you lip sync along to popular songs from both independent and major labels like Universal, Warner, and Sony. There are already hundreds of songs available including songs like Havana by Camila Cabello, God’s Plan by Drake, and even Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses. The song’s title and the artist will be highlighted in the clip but you can also write your own description. Lip Sync Live also works with Facebook’s camera effects so you can add the filters, backgrounds, or masks you want to. This feature is currently being tested in select markets but Facebook is working on releasing this worldwide.

One other new music-related feature Facebook will be introducing is the ability to upload videos with music playing in the background or as background music to a video. The caveat is that these should be music from the labels Facebook has partnered with. Facebook will soon let you add music to Facebook Stories, too.

Sony updates RX100 compact camera line with long zoom lens-equipped RX100 VI

Sony’s RX100 series is known for being an extra capable line of point-and-shoot cameras. The latest model will appeal for users who want amazing shots of really far away objects. The Sony RX100 VI comes with a longer optically stabilized ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T 24-200 f/2.8-4.5 8.3x zoom lens. While it’s slower than the f/1.8-2.8 T lens of the previous generation, Sony thinks the extra range, four additional stops of speed, and better specs will make up for it.

A lot of the other specs remain the same, you still get a 1-inch sensor with 20-megapixel resolution, 315 phase-detect autofocus points, up to 24fps shooting speed, high-speed filming of up to 960fps, and 4K video recording with full pixel readout a.k.a. no cropping. This time, though, the camera gets HDR video support using Sony’s Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG picture profile). Eye-tracking is better with up to double the performance. The RX100 VI still has a flippable 2.35 million dot OLED viewfinder but this time it’s a touchscreen display. Unfortunately, there’s still no mic port to be seen. But if you’re just looking for a point-and-shoot with great zoom capability (and you have the budget for it), the Sony RX100 VI retails for $1,600 and will start shipping next month.

Overview: Huawei P20 creates its own smartphone category

Text and photos by Emily Chung

The new Huawei P20 and P20Pro have come out as  solutions for consumers who want the high quality photos of a digital camera within their smartphone. This is one of the first AI powered camera available in a smartphone, and Huawei makes it very clear that it’s not trying to compete in the traditional smartphone category. They’ve gone beyond that, offering Leica’s triple camera system on the P20 Pro.

This system also achieved the highest overall DxOMark Score of 109. Huawei is making the distinction between their ‘professional photography’ versus ‘smartphone photography’ that's available with other brands.

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Apple CarPlay will soon allow third-party navigation apps

One of the best bits of news from WWDC 2018 was that Apple CarPlay, which is the car infotainment fork of iOS 12 will soon be able to use other navigation solutions aside from Apple Maps. This is tremendous news for fans of Google Maps, Waze or any wacky third-party navigation app.

This is a good move by Apple, it reflects a respect for the end user's choice and is similar to their acceptance of alternate music services on CarPlay (i.e. Google Play, Spotify). CarPlay is the stock infotainment app on many new vehicles and is considered one of the more seamless and safe tools to interact with the apps on one's iPhone safely while riding a vehicle.