Vivo's new X500 flagship phones have arrived in China, and as usual the company's focus is firmly on photography. The X500 Pro Max - a new tier in its lineup - is the first phone to use new sensors and silicon from Sony and MediaTek that enable impressive dynamic range and slow-motion video recording.

The X500 Pro Max uses Sony's new Lytia L910 image sensor, its first to use LOFIC, a sensor technology that enables expanded dynamic range. The 50-megapixel, 1/1.28-inch-type sensor delivers what Vivo calls "true 17 EV ultra-high dynamic range," more than the 16.5 stops claimed by the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. The excellent 200-megapixel, 3.7x telephoto …

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Google and partners are finally announcing the first laptops under the new Googlebook banner. There are five models from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to kick things off. They're available for preorder starting today and arrive in stores on October 4th.

Starting prices range from $899 to $1,299, putting the Googlebooks in the same territory as the MacBook Air and a plethora of Windows laptops. Each Googlebook also comes with 12 months of Google AI Pro with 5TB of cloud storage, along with three-month trials of YouTube Premium, Adobe Photoshop, and CapCut. Google's also promising up to 10 years of updates.

Here's a look at the hardwar …

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In late 2010, an up-and-coming Google executive named Sundar Pichai took the stage in front of a bunch of reporters and explained that Google had a big new idea about laptops. In the future, he said, the only thing you'd need on your computer was a web browser - that was where all your apps, data, and connections would live going forward. Your computer didn't need much storage, Pichai explained, or any fancy hardware, because the cloud would do the work. The software designed for these new laptops, Chrome OS, was an enormous bet that the web would eventually overtake everything.

Chrome OS (which eventually became ChromeOS) has been, in many …

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There are a few things about using a Googlebook that immediately feel just right. The hardware is polished (since it's based on current laptops). The OS is familiar (if you've ever used a Chromebook). But most impressive, it integrates your Android phone with your PC so they feel more like one device. It's the culmination of a series of new ideas that blur the two devices together. After my first look, I went from doubtful to excited by the prospect of Google pulling it all off.

After an initial barebones announcement in May, Google is finally launching Googlebooks - its new line of Android-based laptops. The initial five Googlebook models …

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There's a good chance that my next laptop will be a Googlebook. If you're an Android user like me, then yours might be too, because Google is making a compelling pitch: The Googlebook does for the Android phone what the MacBook does for the iPhone (and then some).

John Maletis, Google's head of laptops and tablets, said at my press briefing that the Googlebooks were designed to "work seamlessly with your Android phone." You can start using an app on your phone then pick it up on the laptop, navigate your phone's files from the laptop, run any phone app from the computer, and manage all your notifications in one place.

It's a good pitch. A …

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