Latest news with #AnthonySpadafora
Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Backbone just launched its epic 'Pro' controller in the UK — what you need to know
Backbone has long made some of the best mobile game controllers you can buy, and the company's latest creation has just become available in the U.K. The Backbone Pro controller has been available in the United States for some time and is a major upgrade over the existing Backbone One. Let's get this out of the way first, though. It doesn't come cheap. The Backbone Pro will set you back £169 from Backbone's official store. And while we'll keep our eye out for discounts from the likes of Amazon and Currys, it's a big chunk of change when you could be eyeing up a Nintendo Switch 2 for your handheld gaming requirements. My colleague Anthony Spadafora over in the U.S. has already given us a pretty thorough breakdown of why the Backbone Pro is such an appealing gaming proposition and you can read his thoughts here. For something suitably "Pro", Backbone has added remappable back buttons, made the controller more comfortable to hold and boosted the thumbsticks to full-sized. This larger, more comfortable mobile game controller from Backbone allows you to play directly on your phone or wirelessly on you PC, tablet and other devices. It also features full-size thumbsticks and two remappable back buttons. But the real killer feature is making this a fully wireless controller alongside the standard USB-C connection that lets you plug it directly into your phone. That means you can switch from using this with one of the best Android phones seamlessly to using it with a PC, tablet or smart TV. Backbone states you'll get 40 hours of battery life and on the bottom of the Pro's handles you'll find a USB-C port for passthrough charging on the right and a 3.5mm headphone jack for plugging in a pair of wired headphones on the left. Backbone has come out all guns blazing with the Pro and having a controller that can seamlessly switch between your iPhone and your PC or console is a pretty tempting proposition. The question remains whether gamers will be willing to part with £169 for the privilege. Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Tom's Guide
18-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
Forget Apple Intelligence — Nothing Phone's killer AI feature just got better
London-based phone maker Nothing has taken a gamble with its latest device, the Nothing Phone 3. By pricing it at $799 and proclaiming it a true flagship, it's going toe-to-toe with established players like the Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 — also both $799. Aside from the divisively eye-catching design (I like it, but others may disagree) the standout feature of Nothing's handset is the "Essential Space". You can tell the company thinks the feature is important, because it gets its own hardware button. In theory, Essential Space is a centralised repository of information that can then be indexed and analysed by AI. What's the Essential Space? Well, it's yet another implementation of AI. Before you groan and stop reading; hear me out. In theory, Essential Space is a centralised repository of information that can then be indexed and analysed by AI. At the moment, it's bare-bones — screenshots and recordings — but there's a lot of potential there to make it a killer feature. As long as Nothing doesn't start charging for it. For instance, with the Nothing Phone 3, Nothing added a new Flip to Record feature which lets you start a voice note from anywhere (using that hardware button called the "Essential Key") and store it in the Essential Space, where it's transcribed and summarized. Now, Nothing has just announced a major upgrade that includes three new functionalities: Google Calendar integration, Editable Memory, and Essential Recorder. Essential Space is growing up! 3 Updates 🚀1/ 📆Google Calendar <> Essential SpaceCapture once, automagically sync to your Calendar. Couldn't be more convenient. 17, 2025 Let's pick through them one at a time. Google Calendar integration is pretty self-explanatory; any task or event created in the Essential space can be automatically synced over to your Google Calendar without you needing to manually do anything. If the AI gets it wrong (if it mis-hears for example) you can still go in and edit the event yourself. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. That's the "Editable Memory" part — and while I've not seen these features in action myself, I'd hope the AI learns from your edits to make less mistakes in future. Finally, the "Essential Recorder" option takes that Flip to Record feature and takes it to the next level. The AI will turn any recording into an image, PDF or Markdown, that can then be shared anywhere, like a group message or email chain. If you're one of the people that uses a Nothing phone — like my colleague Anthony Spadafora — and you've got auto-update enabled, you won't need to do anything. The Essential Space will update automatically via the Google Play Store. According to Nothing, these updates are live now on Nothing Phone (3), and will come to Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro "soon". AI on phones is something of a tricky sell right now. How much value consumers are actually getting for it isn't fully realised yet. But for my money, Nothing is taking a different approach than just shoe-horning in a bunch of AI overviews around the OS. It's giving users a centralised point of focus for their AI experience with hardware to back it up. It's far from fully realised yet and might not be enough of a reason to tempt people away from a Pixel 9 or Galaxy S25, but I still value the concept. Speaking of the S25, Samsung recently confirmed it would be making its "default" Galaxy AI features free to all users indefinitely while Google's Gemini just got a feature even ChatGPT can't match. The AI arms race on phone features is certainly getting interesting right now. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
