Bucket Tech: HUAWEI XMAGE Awards

The 2025 HUAWEI XMAGE Awards Ceremony and "The World, You and Me" Annual Imaging Exhibition was held this week at the Grand Palais in Paris. The event, jointly hosted with Paris Photo, one of the most world’s largest international art fairs dedicated to photography, drew attention from a host of accomplished creators, media, industry leaders, and photography enthusiasts.

Kevin Ho, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said of the event: " Through XMAGE, we can use the power of technology and images to better perceive the world, and more gently, to see one another."

Founded in 1997, the annual Paris Photo event regularly attracts over 100,000 attendees. This year's exhibition represents the third time (originally in 2018 and 2019) that Paris Photo and Huawei have collaborated to introduce mobile photography to the global art scene, and the first since the company unveiled its genre-defining XMAGE brand that signalled a meaningful shift from technical innovation to creative expression and storytelling.

This year's exhibition is based on the theme "The World, You and Me" and showcases the works of talented creators and how they are perceiving, recreating, and interpreting the world around them. It also plays host to three exhibition areas, titled "I Capture, Therefore I Am", " The Constructed, The Perceived", and "In Their Own Words." Each have been carefully curated to reflect the competition's emphasis on visual immersion.

All of the works on display delve into the idea of reimaging the relationship between individuals, their unique perspectives, and the visual worlds they inhabit. In addition to being one of the top photography exhibitions, the event is a major drawcard for leaders in global photography, providing the perfect backdrop for networking, relationship building, and idea sharing. This lends itself to the very ethos of Huawei XMAGE as it aims to serve as a global platform facilitating artistic exchange for all.

This year's competition attracted over 743,000 submissions from users in 78 countries/regions. The “XMAGE 100” showcases the competition’s most outstanding images, selected without traditional categories. From this group, three Grand Prize Winners of the Year were chosen. The works are shown below with the judging panel's comments (in no particular order).

According to Alex, CMO of Huawei Consumer Business Group: “Let’s continue to capture, share, and inspire the world through XMAGE.”

Ethereal Lines

Judges' comments: “Outstanding photographers are exploring uncharted territories of photography with high-end smartphones. The evolution of mobile technology is transforming the way we view the world. A premium smartphone has become a "spaceship" to infinite possibilities. This is a complex interplay of optics and algorithmic computation. Explorers move freely between the macro and micro worlds, transitioning from "seeing" to "insight." And thus, a fascinating unknown emerges in the most unexpected moments.”

New Life

Judges' comments: "This concise, straightforward photo shows the entire cycle of life, with the mother, the newborn calf, and the farmer who probably gave no thought to the uniqueness of this scene. It is the ordinary nature of this image that makes it so extraordinary. The photographer employs no special tricks, simply capturing an image of extraordinary depth and meaning as it occurs."

Origin of Skiing

Judges' comments:  "This picture captures the gaze present between two people who encounter each other. The child is standing on the snowy plain, but basking in the sun, dressed in traditional Altay clothing. The photographer shows remarkable restraint, not projecting their own feelings on to the image, but rather, letting the child's personality shine through."

Through these images and countless others, HUAWEI XMAGE is inspiring a paradigm shift in photography from "seeing" to "perceiving" our world, forging connection in unexpected places. Now that pictures are no longer images to be passively viewed, but rather, windows to what surrounds us, each touch of the shutter opens up a world of possibility.

Bucket Tech: HUAWEI Innovative Product Launch 2025

Last week Friday in Paris saw HUAWEI launch the latest model in their Watch GT Series as well as other products part of their Innovative Product launch. The Watch GT 6 Pro is a perfect blend of Sport, Health and lifestyle wearable that looks stylish but packs more features than most of the smart watches available on the market. HUAWEI always marketed this particular model as "Fashion Forward" highlighting that while the competition might have their own devices on the market, they don't really fit into everyday wearables whiles the HUAWEI Watch GT can look great whether you're training or at a black tie event. At the Innovative Product Launch event in Paris under the banner of "Ride the Wind," unveiling a new line up of products including its next-gen HUAWEI WATCH GT 6 Series, HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2, and HUAWEI WATCH D2, combining high-fashion aesthetics with advanced health and fitness monitoring. Other exciting announcements included the debut of the HUAWEI nova 14 Series, HUAWEI FreeBuds 7i, and HUAWEI MatePad 12 X. 

The HUAWEI WATCH GT 6 Series embodies the "Ride the Wind" philosophy, blending fashion with athletic performance. With a ground-up engineering overhaul, the smartwatch delivers an impressive 21-day battery life and pinpoint outdoor positioning, powered by the all-new HUAWEI TruSense System for all-round, fast, and accurate health tracking metrics.

Building on a library of over 100 workout modes, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 6 Series introduces substantial upgrades to four essential outdoor activities: cycling, trail running, golf, and skiing. The new Cycling mode introduces a virtual power meter, providing professional-grade performance analytics without the need for a pro-level power meter, and unlocks a more advanced cycling experience. The Trail running mode gains next-level features, such as pinpoint positioning, altitude trend charts, and real-time grade analysis. Meanwhile, the upgraded Golf mode comes with a host of high-level features, including high-definition fairway maps.

HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 and WATCH D2: Breakthroughs in Professional Fitness and Health Monitoring

The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 debuts as the industry's first smartwatch rated for 150-meter diving with audio functionality. Its groundbreaking sonar-based underwater communication enables underwater watch-to-watch messaging up to 30 metres and a one-touch SOS up to 60 metres, delivering more efficient underwater communication and greater peace of mind to deep-sea explorers.

The latest iteration of the HUAWEI WATCH D2 comes in a dazzling new Blue colour and supports more comprehensive blood pressure monitoring features, including single reminders and recurring reminders. Combined with individual measurements and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, these features create a robust and versatile system designed to meet the diverse needs of users for effective blood pressure management.

HUAWEI nova 14 Series: Reimagined Professional Portraiture with Ultra Chroma Camera

The HUAWEI nova 14 Series reimagines mobile portraiture with a pioneering Ultra Chroma Camera and a new and improved XD Portrait Engine, producing portraits of exceptional depth and texture. It excels in challenging low-light environments, such as live music venues, rendering scenes with stunning clarity and nuanced detail. The 50 MP front camera supports auto-focus Portrait Dual Camera and a special 5x portrait zoom, delivering remarkable selfie capabilities. There is also a wealth of groundbreaking AI photo editing features, including AI Best Expression and AI Remove, which place a professional editing suite at users' fingertips, ensuring that each shot shines through and is blemish-free.

HUAWEI MatePad 12 X and M-Pencil Pro: A New Era of Paperless Learning and Creativity

The newly unveiled HUAWEI MatePad 12 X PaperMatte Edition tablet comes equipped with an ultra-clear PaperMatte Display designed for visual comfort. The MatePad works seamlessly with the HUAWEI M-Pencil Pro stylus, which supports handy features like one-pinch in-app radial menu pop-ups, one-tap HUAWEI Notes access, and seamless twist-to-switch brush adjustments.

Huawei also announced the official kick-off of the GoPaint Worldwide Creating Activity 2025. GoPaint 2025 will continue with its four signature categories: Narrative Art, Digital Watercolour & Ink, Sci-Fi Art, and Cutting-edge Painting, while introducing a new category, Animation. The initiative encourages creators worldwide to embrace their imagination and express it through digital art.

Now is Yours: Huawei Deepens Dialogue with Young Consumers

Another highlight of the event was the debut of Huawei’s new vibrant brand position, "Now is Yours." Representing its commitment to engage more closely with a new generation of global consumers, “Now is Yours” is underpinned by openness and inclusivity, aiming to create cultural and emotional resonance through technology that is both innovative and human.

Looking to the future, Huawei reaffirms its commitment to championing youth culture and utilising innovation as a universal language. By designing technology with greater warmth and empathy, Huawei aims to synchronise its rhythm with the global community, embarking on a shared journey into a future of infinite possibilities.

2016 Victoria Secrets Paris Fashion Show - BTS

One of the highlights to the end of the year, besides the holidays is of course the Victoria Secrets Fashion Show. It's one of the big ones for fashion with the world's top models strutting their stuff on the catwalk in some of the most glamorous lingerie and swimwear offered by the premium woman's designer. Their star studded line up of selected international models dubbed "angels" are one of the highlights of the show, others include invited guests and singers who participate in the event which truly makes it a spectacle. The show is mostly invite only but there are premium VIP tickets that go on sale but they fetch quite a pretty penny with someone being sold for as much as $17,500 last year! There is also an official after party which you can attend, those tickets start off at about  $6,500.... yeah I'll wait for the videos in Instagram. Anyway, since none of us could afford to go to the show, most of us are eagerly waiting that video but we got some behind the scenes pictures courtesy of Vogue Magazine that we thought you may like. 

Bucket Seat: Ferrari LaFerrari Spider

Today's post was meant to be about the new Aston Martin and Red Bull collaboration, the AM-RB 001, sounds like a drawing number. The car itself is bonkers, its designed by the top dogs at Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin so you know this car means business and it will be powered by a naturally aspirated V12 engine, which could be taken from the Vulcan but couple that with F1 tech and aerodynamics, you could have a Hypercar worthy of the title. They only plan on building between 99-150 of these and thereafter 25 track only versions and already a host of people have put their names down for it, I mean it looks superb and sounds superb so I don't blame you if you have the cash!

Like I said though, this post was meant to be about the AM-RB 001 as it was unveiled yesterday but then the guys in Maranello shortly lifted the covers of this beauty...

 *cue angels singing*

The Ferrari LaFerarri Spider, well that's what most of the world are calling it but the official name will be made public at the Paris Motorshow in October, which some think may be called 'Aperta' which means 'Open' in Italian. The car, even though is just a LaFerrari with no roof looks superb, I mean picture you're favourite supermodel, and seeing her topless, that's what this car is to many motoring enthusiast. The launch colour in black with the red detailing just makes it that more insatiable. 

The car is still powered by that amazing naturally aspirated V12 engine that provides a mind blowing soundtrack and now it will be amplified with no roof, it also has the hybrid motor which bumps up the power to just under 1000 bhp. Forget wind in your hair, you might end up with a hurricane! Anyway, Ferrari totally came and stole the thunder from Aston Martin yesterday and while they have a superb car in the AM-RB 001, one can't help but turn their head towards this beaut. 

Oh and if you do qualify to buy one and were thinking of it, it's a bit late. All are sold out and all the owners have already received their keys which was delivered to them in a fancy carbon fibre box.