Engadget giveaway: Win a stereo tube amp system courtesy of Monoprice!

Tube amplifiers have long been a passion for audio purists and musicians who have cash to support the pricey habit. There’s also the bonus of steampunk-esque styling that these exposed-component devices exude. This week, three lucky readers will get to warm up the sound of their digital tunes courtesy of Monoprice, an online bastion for affordable alternatives to costly electronics and cabling. This stereo tube amp system is a hybrid including vacuum tubes and solid state in one package. It offers an RCA line-in along with a toggle switch for playing tunes over Bluetooth 4.0. On top of the classic tube amp style and 25 watts-per-channel peak output, you get a pair of 5-inch 2-way bookshelf speakers and braided banana clip cables to complete the setup. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning one of these complete audio packages courtesy of Monoprice.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. Three (3) winners will each receive one (1) Monoprice Stereo Tube Amp system with Bluetooth and 5-inch speakers (each system: $240 value).
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. GameStop, Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until Feb. 10th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Android creator Andy Rubin is making a free dashcam

There’s been a lot of speculation about what Android inventor and ex-Googler Andy Rubin has been up to with his startup, Playground Global. Is he making a phone? Well, no… but what he is doing could still grab your attention. Rubin tells Wired that his company is making a dashcam with a unique business model: you’ll get the hardware for free, but you have to hand over the camera’s data in return. It’s not clear why Playground wants to make that bargain, although one possibility is that it’ll create a visual map of streets around the world.

Not that Playground will necessarily be a one-trick pony. Rubin says he’s working on other ideas that he’s “not willing to talk about” at the moment. Even if those don’t materialize any time soon, though, the dashcam project might shake up the tech industry. Right now, dashcams are mostly popular in Russia and other countries where on-the-road insurance fraud (typically, pedestrians pretending to be struck by cars) is a significant problem. This could democratize dashcams by making them available to anyone who’s willing to give up a bit of privacy in return for proof of innocence.

Via: The Verge

Source: Wired

Uber waives fees to get London taxi drivers using its app

Many London cabbies think of Uber as a threat to their livelihood and professional reputation, nimbly side-stepping legislation and driver qualifications like the “Knowledge.” Uber wants the pair to coexist, going so far as to launch an UberTAXI option in its app to help cabbies find new passengers. Today, it’s going a step further by waiving the fee it would normally take for each Uber-sourced passenger. Well, at least for the first 12 months anyway. The company normally takes a 5 percent cut, which is already half of what its cab-friendly rival Hailo demands in the city.

“For Londoners it means they can order a traditional black cab at the push of a button and pay electronically through their phone, rather than worrying about cash,” Jo Bertram, Uber’s regional general manager for the UK said. “For taxi drivers it’s a chance to get a fare when there are no passengers on the street or they’re waiting in a long queue at a rank.”

Some taxi drivers aren’t impressed, however. Steve McNamara, general secretary for the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) said:

“With over 15,000 cabbies registered with specific taxi-hailing apps like Gett and Hailo, we would be amazed if any drivers decide to take up Uber’s offer. Licensed taxis in London offer the best service in the world and as a membership group the LTDA doesn’t like the way Uber treats its drivers and customers or its dodgy tax arrangements.”

Of course, there could be taxi drivers that think differently. If they’re keeping every penny from a passenger’s fare — for the next 12 months, anyway — Uber’s app could be a useful backup for when business is a little slow. Instead, the decision to use the app will probably be a matter of principle. Uber represents the competition and supporting the company in any way will ultimately support their strategy. If drivers embrace UberTAXI, it’ll encourage people to use the app to call their next ride, rather than dialling a phone number or hailing a cab on the street. That could force drivers into using the app — if that’s where the passengers are, that’s where you’ve got to be — and paying Uber’s regular fees in the future.

Furthermore, if the Uber app is their go-to, Londoners will be more likely to consider the service’s other transport options — especially those that are cheaper. So while this deal might benefit cabbies in the short-term, its long-term ramifications are still unclear. In short, taxi drivers will have to think carefully about whether Uber is their friend or enemy here.

Source: Uber (Blog Post), LTDA

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 gets examined in new benchmark tests

Qualcomm’s most high-end chipset for the year is the Snapdragon 820. Qualcomm wants to make up for the downfall the Snapdragon 810 had last year with its new blazing fast and supposedly cool Snapdragon 820 chipset.

If you’re planning to buy a high-end Android smartphone/tablet this year, there’s a good chance that the Snapdragon 820 chipset will be inside. Just yesterday, the chipset underwent a benchmark on GFXBench, posting some impressive numbers.

The device used for the benchmark was most likely a unit designed just for testing. Here is the rundown of specs. Other than the Snapdragon 820, the device contained a 6.2-inch display with a QHD resolution and 4GB of RAM. The Adreno 530 graphics chip paired up with two 2.1GHz Kryo cores and two 1.6GHz Kryo cores. Onboard was 10GB of memory and Google’s latest Android 6.0 (excluding the minor 6.0.1 update).

Testing in the GFX 3.0 Manhattan test indicated that the Snapdragon 820 device outperformed many older Android devices, which comes at no surprise. It also managed to beat out the iPhone 6s Plus and tie the Google Pixel C, which has the NVIDIA Maxwell Tegra X1 graphics chip inside.

As for the GFX 3.1 Manhattan test, the Snapdragon 820 couldn’t surpass that of the Google Pixel C, but remained higher than a slew of other Android devices including the Nexus 6P, Galaxy Note 5 and Huawei Mate 8. Unfortunately, the benchmark failed to include the thermal test for overheating, thus leaving many users concerned. Let’s hope we get more details soon.

Source: GFXBench
Via: Gizmochina

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