Behind the Bytes

This is it, all the hype has lead to this...the Huawei Mate 10 (and its Pro big brother) is finally announced. The lads give their immediate impressions of the phone after spending a little time with it at the official launch in Munich, Germany.

It turns out that GITEX Technology Week is far more interesting than GITEX Shopper. The lads chat about all the things poised to make Dubai the super city of the future - flying taxis, flying motorbikes, wireless power, airport face-scanning aquariums...the lot!

Other talking points:

There's a new Blackberry phone... but who is it for?

Reports of the iPhone 8 exploding may be greatly exaggerated

MATE 10 HYPE REACHES MAXIMUM LEVELS

Oh, and Abbas went and preordered something special, but we won't spoil the surprise here...

This week we're coming at you just moments after Google's Pixel 2 reveal event - expect hot takes on all the new hardware, sadness at the fact that none of it is coming to the Middle East officially, and Mike getting a couple words in about the new Sonos kit.

Daanesh returns this week with tales of empty GITEX halls. The UAE iPhone 8 launch fails to impress. What will result of Google buying a big chunk of HTC? Dubai gets smart about electric car subsidies. And Mike gets giddy over new Sonos product leaks.

Oh, and we're all really excited about the Huawei Mate 10...have we mentioned that before?

Abbas and Mike hash out the spate of Apple announcements that were unveiled this week, including the much-hyped iPhone X.

We welcome Daanesh (hi!) from Gulf News/GNTech to the Behind the Bytes fold as we tackle the big 8s for 2017 - Nokia 8, Samsung Galaxy Note8 and the incoming iPhone 8.

Plus, Mike gives his impressions from his time at IFA in Berlin and Abbas recounts his struggles setting up an account with the recently launched Virgin Mobile.

We shake things up a little this week with our first ever guest, Omar Kassim, formerly of Middle East e-commerce giant JadoPado.

Omar chats with Abbas and Bhavishya about e-commerce in the region and his latest venture Esanjo, a cryptocurrency real estate startup.

Then on the bottom half of the show, Mike shows up and we chat all things MS Paint, Smartphones and AR...y'know, the usual.

In this episode we also bid a fond farewell to Bhavishya who is leaving Dubai for more temperate climes. Take care bud, we'll miss you!

Topics discussed:

Rampant OnePlus 5 speculation

Mike goes hands-on with the Sony Xperia Touch

Mike goes eye-on with the Sony Bravia A1 OLED TV

Nokia launches in the UAE but is it enough to make a comeback?

Dubai is getting flying taxis by the end of the year but would you actually sit in one?

Etisalat and Du are fighting to give you free Eid Wifi

Abbas demos why you shouldn’t register with Virgin Mobile - LIVE!

The Xbox One X is actually cheaper than the new iPad Pro - think about it

WWDC 2017 blowout!

tvOS gets Amazon Video and nothing else!

watchOS gets some new faces and surfing tracking skills

macOS High Sierra: dumb name, cool operating system

New MacBooks! New iMacs!

THE iMAC PRO IS A BEAST and Abbas wants one

VR is coming to Mac, with 100% more Star Wars, get excited!

iOS 11: Bahvishya is less excited

New iPads!

Mike implores you to stop taking photos with your iPad

AR on the iPad looks super dope

HomePod: dumb name, cool product

Topics include:

How essential is the Essential phone?

WWDC 2017 predictions and the Apple Pizza Box

Is anyone actually going to buy the new Nokia 3310?

Bhavishya pitches a WhatsApp phone

Blackberry KEYone vs. Sony Xperia XZ Premium

Qualcomm’s crazy new 18-core processor

Computex 2017 news