SpaceX on Tuesday launched its Super Heavy-Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, for a test flight after three other flights failed earlier this year. NASA hired SpaceX to build a lunar lander version of Starship to carry astronauts to the moon. Despite the successful launch, there is rising concern that China’s space program will get there first.
We often focus on flashy new features while overlooking smaller, more practical innovations that can genuinely improve our daily phone experience. Apple’s new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, for instance, feels like a visually impressive update that doesn’t fundamentally change how we use our phones. It’s a prime example of style over substance.
I was reminded of this in my recent experience switching to Honor’s Magic 7 Pro, where I found the opposite approach. The UI focuses on functional improvements rather than on flashy new effects.
Honor’s journey to a software innovator
Quick reminder: Honor was created by Huawei in 2013 as a sub-brand focused on online-first sales. It catered to young buyers and value seekers, sharing the same software as Huawei, but differentiating on the hardware.
When the US placed Huawei on its Entity List in May 2019, it lost access to Google Mobile Services (GMS). This affected sub-brands like Honor. Without the Google Play Store or Google apps, Honor phones were far less appealing.Just a year later, in November 2020, Huawei sold Honor to a consortium led by Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd., backed by the Shenzhen government and private entities. This was the moment Honor became officially independent and free from the US sanctions.
And in 2021, Honor phones were back on sale with the Google Play Store and full access to GMS. Since then, the concept of the company also changed. It’s now releasing premium phones and while its software still looks very Huawei-like, it has some unique features.
The Genius of Super Folders
What really caught my attention was how folders work on Honor phones.
Rather than having one small icon that you tap to open, you have a box you can freely expand with smaller icons inside.
This is a game-changer.
The size of each icon is a bit smaller, so it’s much easier to fit lots of icons in a small space, and still be able to easily tap them open, without having to first tap to expand the folder.
What I’ve done with this is placing all of my Google apps in one folder, so I have like a dozen of Google services within easy reach. I previously had to search in the app drawer to find each one, and I just love this. It’s a very elegant way to skip the extra step of opening a folder to find an app.
A disappointing lack of customization
It’s disappointing to see the big names like Samsung and Apple work on some elaborate designs for their user interface without providing true customization options that could elevate your experience.
These “super folders” are just one example, but far from the only one.
Another very useful feature on Honor phones is a quick drag-and-drop tool for photos. When you long press an image, a sidebar of relevant apps appears, allowing you to easily drop the photo to Instagram and share it as an IG story.
These types of quality-of-life upgrades seem to be a common focus on phones from Chinese brands, which often appear laser-focused on functional experience, not just visual appeal.
I am not saying that the software of Honor phones is perfect (it’s not), but there are so many great ideas across various UIs that just never make it to Samsung phones or iPhones. There is simply not enough pressure for these big companies to innovate faster, and that results in more or less the same software every year.
No wonder people are starting to get bored after a while.
Modern AI models have done away with complex lines of code, and instead respond to user commands made in natural language. However, this means that it has become a lot easier to trick an AI model into executing malicious inputs, including controlling someone’s smart home.
Researchers brought Google’s attention to this matter back in February. The team was able to embed prompts in a Google Calendar invite, which led to Gemini carrying out actions that the original user had not asked for.
Gemini began to turn off the lights and fire up a boiler, just because the user had said thanks. Of course, a lot more dangerous actions could have been taken in a smart home had the hackers not been using this flaw to demonstrate vulnerabilities.
It’s a lot easier to “hack” generative AI models. You don’t need to use any advanced code, you just need to say please and thank you. Even ChatGPT’s base instructions from OpenAI are in simple English, not code.
The team of researchers made use of exactly this, telling Gemini that it must execute a certain task whenever the user said a specific phrase. Gemini, as expected, took the instructions to heart. It’s highly reminiscent of the earlier “jailbreaks” of ChatGPT, where someone would pretend to be from OpenAI, leading to GPT completely abandoning the restrictions placed on it.
Be careful who you trust with your smart appliances. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Google has since patched these vulnerabilities, and claims that this scenario required some preparation that wouldn’t be possible in real-world situations.
The entire ordeal serves as a cautionary tale for the future that we are all headed into. Generative AI models have already made their way into our homes, our devices, our cars, various customer service roles, and even into our healthcare systems.
This is an entirely new sort of beast, which comes with its own challenges. Companies providing these AI models need to be extra careful with the security, lest a car be hijacked by someone who was polite to the AI piloting it.
For now, I think that current AI models are still a bit too rudimentary for me to trust them with my house. I’ll stick to switching off the lights myself, thanks.
