HomeKit-Enabled Elgato Eve Energy Now Available in the United States

Elgato was one of the first companies to release Bluetooth-enabled HomeKit accessories back in June of 2015, but one of its products, the Eve Energy smart plug, was only made available in Europe. That’s set to change today, with the launch of the U.S. version of the Eve Energy.

Available from Amazon and the Elgato website, Eve Energy plugs into any standard wall socket and allows users to control whatever’s plugged in using the companion Elgato Eve app and Siri voice commands. It connects to other HomeKit-enabled products and can be used in HomeKit Scenes for automatic control over connected devices.

Eve Energy turns any appliance into a smart appliance, but it also has a useful power monitoring feature that will let you keep an eye on how much power a device is using. Eve connects to an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, so there’s no hub or bridge required for communication.

We previously reviewed the European version of the Eve Energy and found it to be one of the most useful HomeKit-connected products Elgato makes. In the early days of HomeKit, Bluetooth accessories had some trouble staying connected, especially when used remotely, but many of those early issues have been resolved through software and firmware updates. Elgato’s line of Eve products, which includes the Eve Energy, the Eve Room, the Eve Weather, and the Eve Door & Window, is more reliable and suffers from connectivity issues.

The Eve Energy is available from the Elgato website and from Amazon for $49.95.

Tags: Elgato, Eve
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Apple to Raise Up to $12 Billion in Debt to Fund Capital Return Program

Apple has filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a $10-$12 billion bond sale, reports CNBC. The debt raised will fund Apple’s capital return program, including continued stock buybacks and dividend payments to shareholders, and general corporate purposes such as the repayment of debt and acquisitions.

Apple will be offering floating rates that mature in 2018 and 2019, in addition to fixed rates that mature between 2018 and 2046. Apple’s proposed 30-year bond due in 2046 may yield 2.15 percentage points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to Bloomberg. Apple is also planning to issue seven-year green bonds, typically used for clean energy and other sustainable initiatives, the report claims.

Apple’s capital return program currently runs through March 2017, as announced last year. The company has returned $153 billion in capital to investors of its $200 billion currently authorized, so the iPhone maker will almost certainly need to raise debt through this bond sale in order to continue stock buybacks and dividend payments before setting a new authorized amount as soon as April.

Apple held $215.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $53.2 billion in long-term debt, as of the first fiscal quarter of 2016, but a significant portion of that money is held overseas and would be subject to high U.S. taxes upon repatriation. By raising debt through bonds, Apple can pay for its U.S. operations at a much lower rate, especially given its Aa1/AA+ bond credit rating.

Tags: bonds, SEC
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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: The dawn of Windows 10 Mobile

Windows Phone 7 launched with a flourish. A range of devices, all singing from the same song sheet, from many of the big manufacturers, like LG, HTC, Samsung. It was a uniform alliance of handsets marking the start of something new. Until it all fell by the wayside.

Along came Nokia and Windows Phone 8 wiped out WP7. A declining trickle of devices saw Windows Phone become a single manufacturer proposition, but one with heritage. The Nokia name then also fell by the wayside, assimilated into Microsoft Devices.

From the many to the one, we arrive at the Lumia 950 and its sibling, the Lumia 950 XL. Two new devices ushering in a new era of Windows computing.

In Microsoft’s brave new world, there is one platform spanning differing devices. Windows 10, with universal apps, spans Microsoft’s ecosystem, from the console in your home, to the tablet in your bag, the PC on your desk and the phone in your pocket. That’s the idea, anyway.

Make no mistake, this isn’t just the launch of a new phone, Microsoft sees this as the launch of a component piece in its omni-platform puzzle. To say there’s a lot resting on the shoulders of these two devices would be an understatement.

But is the Lumia 950 the new flagship phone that Windows 10 Mobile needed, or is this just another step in the decline of this once great mobile platform?

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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Design

With Nokia a distant memory, we’re looking at a new breed of Microsoft device. The Lumia 950 is the smaller of the new pair, but it’s also the more conventional in terms of size, with a 5.2-inch display, sitting in a body that measures 145 x 73.2 x 8.2mm, at 150g. The XL expands to 5.7-inches for a bigger screen experience, and we’ve written about that device separately.

The Lumia 950 sticks to the sort of plastic body design we’ve seen on previous Lumia devices, but it’s not exactly what you might expect. The message here isn’t about premium metal finishes, instead the 950 feels like it’s been pulled up from Lumia’s mid-range devices of the past.

The elegance of the 930 (or Icon for US readers) has been lost. There’s no 2.5D display, no fun vibrantly-coloured polycarbonate rear, leaving the Lumia 950 feeling a little dour, perhaps the least distinctive Lumia 900-series device we’ve seen so far. The Lumia 900 had a great polycarbonate design, the 920 an excellent camera, the 925 a beautiful mix of metal and plastic, on which the 930 refined further. The Lumia 950 comes in black or white and there’s little that’s exciting about the design.

When faced with devices like the Nexus 6P (coincidentally the same sort of price) or the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (a lot more expensive) the Lumia 950, as a new Windows phone flagship, lacks design appeal. But there are some advantages: this is a Lumia that’s practical, choosing to offer a removable back cover for access to the battery, and a microSD card slot for expansion – both features those aforementioned phones lack.

In a sense it’s safely nondescript and that carries with it the feeling that this Lumia has been developed for business customers first, where a safe and practical design might take precedence over consumer flourish. The more we’ve used the Lumia 950, the less this matters: there’s nothing inherently wrong, but it’s not a showcase for a new breed of Windows 10 devices, sitting in contrast to the wonderful looks of the Surface devices.

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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Hardware & display

Moving on from design, it’s the hardware where the Lumia 950 is likely to be judged. At the core is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset – the same as the LG G4, Nexus 5X and others – so it’s familiar territory to Android watchers. That’s paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, expandable by microSD, making for a better story than the design.

There’s USB Type-C on the base, for that super-convenient any-way-up charging, as well as Qi wireless charging and yes, the replaceable battery. That battery is good for just about a day of life. We’ve found ourselves having to charge towards the end of a day; power users will probably find they need to charge middle-of-day when extensively using the handset, especially if you’re making a lot of calls, using navigation and so on. Simply put, battery life isn’t anything to get excited about, so you might want that spare.

Windows 10 on this Lumia runs really fast. It’s slicker and smoother than Windows 8 was, but this is also a more powerful handset than those devices that came before. That’s not to say it always flies: we’ve found it to be a little unstable at times, although we suspect that’s down to software rather than anything that the hardware is doing.

The display is a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, meaning it’s packing in 2560 x 1440 pixels, for a cracking 564ppi. It’s an AMOLED panel, something that appeared on a number of previous Lumia devices, but more commonly associated with companies like Samsung. The result is a display that’s full of colour and nice deep blacks, meaning slick-looking visuals: your photos and videos will look great.

We’ve found the display to be bright enough in all conditions, with a benefit of Glance Screen to feed you information without powering it on. At times it’s a little unresponsive though. You can access notifications and quick actions with a swipe down, but we found it often didn’t respond, until you’d swiped it several times.

On paper the hardware specs are those of a sub-premium 2015 handset, so it’s fairly current. The display visual quality is good and there’s plenty of power, although this isn’t the slickest performer at this level of spec, we suspect because Windows 10 needs refinement.

Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Windows Hello

One of Windows’ hot new features is Windows Hello. This is a general term for biometric identification, designed to make your Windows device secure, but give you quick access. On the Lumia 950, this is via iris scanning.

Iris scanning is fairly rare on smartphones, although it sounds like an exciting futuristic feature, thanks to Hollywood’s obsession with it – films like Goldeneye and Mission: Impossible push eye scanning as a security device, but the reality is slightly less glamorous.

Like face unlock on Android, or using a fingerprint scanner, Window Hello has to learn your eye. Once you’ve spent some time looking at it, it will know you, unlocking when it recognises you. It’s slick, fast and reliable enough: we found it unlocked in a variety of conditions, although it’s often faster to type in a PIN instead.

However, when using the iris scanner, it shines a red light into your eye. After we’d used this for a bit, we found it got too dazzling. It might be a fancy way to unlock your phone, but you’ll be forever blinking away the bright spots in your eyes.

We’re frequent phone users, accessing a phone many times a day, and this simply isn’t compatible with something that’s going to dazzle you with each unlock. If you barely use your phone you might get on with it, but we would much prefer a fingerprint scanner.

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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Windows 10 software

As one of the debut devices for Windows 10 Mobile, the Lumia 950 has got off to something of a rocky start. Windows 10 on a PC, and on the Surface and other tablets, is a great step forward that we really like. The software goes some way to fuse desktop and mobile worlds together in a way that Windows 8 tried and failed.

Microsoft is gunning for a single platform across all its hardware portfolio – desktop, tablet, Xbox and smartphone – so there’s a lot of design consistency across these platforms. For Windows (phone) that means plenty of change, visually speaking. This addresses some pain points from WP8.1, such as putting the settings into better defined headings, where previously it was a long-running list of some 60+ items. But at the same time, it feels as though the job is only half complete.

Take, for example, the settings here on the Lumia 950. You have sensibly top-line headings, like System, but when you get to the bottom of the list, there’s still an Extras section. This is like a general waste bin of the forgotten, a collection of odds and ends that just dangle out of the bottom of the list.

We can see how this situation arose: when Nokia marched into Windows Phone, it brought with it options that were new and unique, and these had their own place at the end of the list. Now this is a Microsoft home-grown device, brand new, with brand new software, but it’s still messy like it was before. Then you have things like the change of icons in the quick actions area. The icons are now so minimal they’re almost meaningless. On a mobile device they seem to be unnecessarily small.

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But Windows 10 Mobile isn’t without charm. Live Tiles and the customisation options are still the star of the show, presenting a dynamic homepage experience that you don’t get elsewhere. We really like it.

Cortana is smarter too, delivering a great experience, one to rival what Google Now and Siri offer on Android and iOS respectively. We like that Cortana will cut in when your phone is connected to a Bluetooth device – that means that when driving it will give you smart options, like offering to read your messages that arrive.

We don’t think that Window 10 on a smartphone makes the best use of space though. The icon set that makes sense on desktop doesn’t look good on mobile where everything is smaller, so in some ways, it feels like Microsoft shoehorning Windows 10’s design ethics into the mobile space, which is a shame, as it’s a lesser experience for it.

We’ve also found some instability as we’ve mentioned. There’s been the occasional reboot, especially at times when you’re chopping and changing between tasks, and we’ve also found ourselves having to pull the battery occasionally. Hopefully, these things can be addressed with updates, as we don’t think Windows 10 is as good as it can be on the phone. Microsoft’s keyboard is more flexible on Windows 10, but it’s not as adept as Android rivals: the acquisition of SwiftKey could bring about a rapid change however.

Finally we have to address the “app gap” as it’s often called. Windows 10 Mobile’s best apps are often those from Microsoft: we love the Office experience and the shift over to Outlook is mostly for the better; the calendar is much stronger than it was; and email is now more convenient with one inbox for many accounts, even if it could handle email rendering better.

But there’s definitely a gap in experience between Windows 10 and Android or iOS. Microsoft has spent a lot of time talking about universal apps for Windows 10, but we really don’t see that having an impact yet. Where the app experience is likely to be measured is in the high volume apps, like social media ones. Just looking across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it’s clear that Windows is a long way behind. It feels as though the developers have walked away: Facebook is slow, Twitter is pre-historic and Instagram has been in beta for an eternity. That’s not to say there aren’t good apps, but there’s a huge disparity at present.

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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Continuum

One of the headline features for Windows 10 is Continuum. It’s an addition that realises the old mobile working dream, letting you connect your smartphone to a monitor and have a system that’s very much like a desktop. With Windows 10 offering universal apps, the idea is to give you everything in your pocket, no matter where you are.

Continuum is very clever. You need to hook-up your Lumia 950 to Microsoft’s Display Dock (a £79 accessory) to get it to work, but then you have a desktop rendering of your smartphone on the big screen. It means that in many cases you can leave a laptop at home and basically dock your smartphone.

When you do so, you not only get a desktop that looks like Windows 10, but you still have access to most of your phone’s features. The phone converts into a trackpad for navigation, and there’s the option of using a keyboard or mouse too. For those who want to get productive, it means your phone is the one device you need. Oh, and the dock and a display to connect it to, perhaps a keyboard as well.

Microsoft has spent a long time demonstrating Continuum and it stole headlines at the launch of these devices. But it might be a feature that doesn’t really see much consumer use. Firstly, you need a setup with a Display Dock waiting for you, or an empty display to connect your dock to, but it won’t fully replace your desktop, because power applications won’t be available – like Photoshop, for example.

But secondly, Continuum sort of runs opposed to Microsoft’s other big software theme, and that’s cloud synchronisation. With Office apps across all major platforms offering an excellent experience, you don’t need your phone to be the one device at the centre of things. You can hop from platform to platform, accessing your content on OneDrive without a problem.

Continuum might be very smart, but it lacks the immediate simplistic appeal of something like Google Cast for getting content to the big screen. It also attempts to turn your smartphone back into a PC, and we’re not sure that was the aim of the post-PC era, for the consumer at least. In a big business deployment, we can see how Continuum could let people switch from a mobile to a desk role without duplicating hardware.

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Microsoft Lumia 950 review: Cracking cameras

One of the areas where Nokia did remarkably well in its Lumia line was in cameras. Much of that seems to have flowed into Microsoft Devices, but things have been stripped down from WP8, with support for many of those Lenses (additional camera apps) being ditched. The same principle exists, however, with home-grown Lenses like Lumia Cinemagraph still existing, alongside third-party ones like Vine, all of which virtually plug into the camera app.

Microsoft is one of the few companies hanging on to a physical camera button (Sony is the other on the Xperia handsets) and that makes accessing the camera easy, as it will launch with a long press.

The standard camera app is what was once the “pro” app, so there are plenty of options for control. You get manual controls for focus, ISO, and shutter speed if you really want to work that exposure.

There’s a 20-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilisation sitting under the six-element Zeiss lens on the rear of the Lumia 950. It’s a 1/2.4in sensor, offering f/1.9 aperture, and comes with a triple LED flash in support.

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The performance of this camera is good, offering some excellent results in good conditions. It’s pretty fast to focus and delivers images with natural colour balance. It offers reasonable dynamic range, avoiding those blown-out highlights and mushy shadows, with Rich Capture aiming to make the most of scenes, and often letting you tweak the exposure afterwards.

Performance drops off as the light does, but the manual controls give you some potential to take control, keeping the ISO sensitivity low, for example. You can then see the impact on the shutter speed so you can decide whether you’ll have to support the phone to eliminate handshake. If you do, you’ll get some good low-light results.

There’s a 5-megapixel f/2.4 camera on the front of the 950 for all those selfies. This is pretty good in bright conditions, but results get grainy pretty quickly as the light drops and the ISO rises. You can also apply those manual settings to the front camera too, so if you want to take a lower-light selfie but keep the ISO down for a better result you can. You might also want to try some of the fun options in the Lumia Selfie app.

There are also plenty of video capture options. Resolutions run up to Ultra HD levels, with 2160p at 30fps the top setting – but there’s also a 1080p at 60fps for those wanting to capture faster motion smoothly. There’s also a slow-motion option for the rear camera. The front camera also doesn’t miss out on these options and here the Lumia 950 steps above some rivals: there’s a 2208 x 1242/30p option for the front camera, if you want to squeeze out a little more resolution.

Overall, the Lumia 950 runs a well considered compliment of cameras, with lots of functionality offered by the app, and good results offered across a range of conditions. This continues Lumia’s heritage of offering a good camera experience and it’s certainly one of the highlights of this handset.

Verdict

The Microsoft Lumia 950 perhaps isn’t the flagship handset that many were expecting. Sitting in that convenient size at 5.2-inches, it may be a more natural choice over the 950 XL’s 5.7-inch size. There’s a good display on this phone, paired with hardware that offers plenty of power and a camera experience that’s competitive.

But the design doesn’t shout flagship, it shouts perfunctory. There’s little of interest, there’s no colour choices, there’s little to turn heads. In a line-up of current flagships, the Lumia 950 succeeds in being the least noteworthy when it comes to design. For someone given this as a work phone that might not matter, as it sits in the hand well enough, and maintains the advantage of offering a removable battery.

At the same time, Windows 10 Mobile doesn’t really feel like a reinvention and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to propel Windows Phone back into a premium position. The Lumia 950 offers the same software charms as its predecessors in Live Tiles, Glance Screen and a few others, but the software is littered with inconsistencies and odd design choices. The vaulted Continuum might be a clever addition, but we can’t really see how it fits in the real consumer world in contrast with Microsoft’s connected OneDrive strategy, and the iris scanner employed by Windows Hello is dazzling to the point of being uncomfortable.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 doesn’t feel like a glittering showcase of the future of Microsoft mobile devices. It’s a poor cousin to the Surface, something that seems adequately conceived rather than brilliantly executed. Its strengths are that camera and the £419 asking price, but Windows needs to go Surface-style pro in the phone market to take on the burgeoning competition.

Netgear Arlo Q is a 1080p smart security camera for your home

Netgear is expanding its Arlo range of home monitoring cameras with the Arlo Q.

The Arlo Q is a powered camera, meaning it needs to be hooked up to the mains, as opposed to the Wire-Free cameras that Netgear originally launched with the Arlo system, that require batteries.

The advantage, says Netgear, is that the Arlo Q can do more because it has a better power supply. That means it can give you better quality video footage – this model is 1080p – and it also integrates a two-way audio system. 

This is a camera for internal use only, unlike Arlo’s other cameras that are rated for outdoor use, so you can see how the Arlo Q might be better suited to those wanting to keep an eye on the nursery, or on that pesky pooch you’ve left at home. 

The two-way audio system means you’ll be able to listen as well as give commands.

As with the other Arlo cameras, the Q is equipped with night vision so you’ll be able to see day or night and you can also set-up a range of motion alerts so you’ll know when someone is walking around your house. The Arlo Q also adds sound alerts, so if someone off-camera drives a car through your front wall, the camera will alert you.

Unlike the Arlo Wire-Free cameras, there’s no need for a bulky base station, so this is a good standalone solution. However, if you have a Wire-Free Arlo already, you can access the Arlo Q though the app you already have.

This camera offers any-time cloud access, as well as giving you recording, with 7-days of cloud recording for free. This can be upgraded to 24/7 cloud recording for a fee.

The Netgear Arlo Q is available on pre-order in the UK now for £169.99 and Netgear say that the units should start shipping by the end of February. 

There are also additions coming to the Arlo platform that will apply both to the Arlo Q and the Arlo Wire-Free system, and that’s geo-fencing. Through an app update Netgear is going to make it easier to arm and disarm cameras, as well as letting you set location conditions, for example to turn off the cameras when you’re at home. 

These updates should roll out in April 2016, Netgear told us today.

Apple iPhone 6S 3D Touch tips and tricks

Apple’s pressure sensitive display technology was announced in September 2015 on the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, going by the name 3D Touch.

Thanks to the technology, the displays on board the latest iPhones don’t just recognise gestures like tap, swiping and pinching, but force too, allowing for clever shortcuts into and within various apps.

Pressing and holding icons will launch menus and the pressure at which you press also affects what you see and the selections you are offered. Here are just a few things 3D Touch allows you to do and some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your iPhone 6S or iPhone 6S Plus everyday.

Don’t miss the slo-mo moment

A deep press of the Camera app, followed by a slide of your finger down to the Record Slo-mo option will make sure you don’t miss any crucial cat moments.

Go back in time

No, sadly Apple has not invented a time machine but you can reminisce about what you were doing a year ago. A deep press on the Photos app will allow you to select One Year Ago, taking you to all the images you took 12 months previous.

Sketch away

The Notes app doesn’t just have to be for writing shopping lists, it can also be for sketching them. Deep press on the Notes app, hit the New Sketch option in the menu and draw away.

Start Timer

Whether you want make sure you get a perfectly boiled egg, or ensure you hold a plank for 30 seconds, there’s a deep press for that too. Unsurprisingly, it’s the Clock app you need to deep press this time, no pun intended, followed by Start Stopwatch in the menu.

Take a selfie

Just as you can start recording Slo-mo video with a deep press of the Camera app, you can also take a selfie. Gives you a couple of extra seconds to get the perfect one at least.

Mark your location

Ever lost your car in a carpark? If yes, this is the shortcut for you. A deep press on the Maps app will allow you to mark your location down to the inch so you’ll never forget where you parked again.

VIP access

If your inbox is inundated with emails, put the ones that matter to you into the VIP list. Following this, a deep press of the Mail app will show you the VIP section and how many unread messages you have in it without opening the app.

Call a favourite

Need to call one of your top three favourite contacts quickly? A deep press of the Phone app will allow you to call them with another tap, as well as create a new contact.

Record meetings or classes

Perfect for the times when your attention span may not be working at full capacity. A deep press of the Voice Memos app will allow you to select New Recording, meaning that Monday morning meeting or lecture will be recorded for you to play back later. Warning, it is not likely to be any more interesting the second time round.

Private browsing

Search history is great, sometimes. For the times you’d rather not have everything recorded, a deep press of the Safari app will bring up the option of New Private Tab. Your browsing history won’t be saved and the website you visit is asked not to track you.

Redeem an iTunes gift card

If you’ve been lucky enough to receive an iTunes gift card, deep pressing the iTunes Store or Apple Store app will bring up a menu, one of the options of which is Redeem enabling you to spend away.

Access your recent books

Want to carry on reading your book on your commute? A deep press of the iBooks app will bring up a menu giving you access to your recent books, as well as the search feature.

LG set to debut a handful of devices at MWC

As we prep for LG’s inevitable G5 reveal at Mobile World Congress next week, we’ve been watching for any other potential devices launching in Barcelona along with the newest flagship. A pair of press releases on LG’s newsroom website have confirmed that we’ll be seeing several new handsets announced with the G5 at MWC. First, the South Korean company plans to release a new series of smartphones under an “X Series” line next week. The X Series will feature two Android 6.0 devices at launch, though we expect additions to be announced down the road.

Beginning with the X Cam, LG looks to incorporate the dual camera system that has been rumored to launch with the G5. The X Cam, as the name indicates, will sport both 13MP and 5MP rear cameras, along with an 8MP front-facing shooter. Ideally, the dual camera system will produce more precise images than a single lens could on its own.

The X Cam will ship with a 5.2-inch FHD display, an unnamed 1.14GHz Octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Powering the device will be a 2,520 mAh battery. The X Cam will be available in Titan Silver, White, Gold, and Pink Gold.

The X Screen, as expected, will make use of the second screen made popular by LG’s V10 smartphone launched in 2015. The main display on the X Screen will be 4.93 inches, and the secondary screen will sport a resolution of 520 x 80, at 1.76 inches. For reference, the V10’s secondary display sits at 2.1 inches with a 160 x 1040 resolution.

Under the hood of the X Screen, LG has packed a 1.2GHz quad-core chip paired with a 2,300 mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. The device will also feature a 13MP rear camera and 8MP front camera. The color options are slightly different for the X Screen, which will be available in Black, White, or Pink Gold.

A few things are worth noting with these devices. Based on the specs given in the press release, it is not known if a MicroSD card slot will be included in either X Series device. With only 16GB of storage, the lack of a slot may prove problematic. In addition, the X Series devices will only be available in key Asian, European, and Latin American markets starting next month. LG has given no indication of the probability that these devices will hit the U.S.

The X Series devices won’t be alone at MWC, as LG has plans to introduce a successor to the G4 Stylus that launched in early 2015. The LG Stylus 2 sheds the “G” series from its name and brings a few new software features to the table as well. The hardware for the Stylus 2 is actually nearly identical to the G4 Stylus. The successor will feature the same 5.7-inch 1280 x 720 display, 13MP rear and 8MP front cameras, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of internal storage, MicroSD card slot, and 3,000 mAh battery.

The real difference between the two comes in a slightly higher amount of RAM for the Stylus 2 (1.5GB, a bump from the 1GB found in the European and Asian G4 Stylus variants), as well as software: the Stylus 2 will launch with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. LG’s press release also touts some impressive new software features coupled with the stylus that gives this device its name.

When the stylus is removed, the device will trigger a popup menu that displays shortcuts to Pop Memo and Pop Scanner. Another new feature is Pen Keeper, which detects when the Stylus 2 is moving out of range of the stylus itself. This of course is meant to prevent users from forgetfully walking away from their stylus. Finally, the Calligraphy Pen font will reportedly enable users to write with the stylus as precisely as they would with a fountain pen.

The LG Stylus 2 will be available in Titan, White, and Brown colors. No release date or pricing information has been released yet, but LG may be holding that information until MWC next week.

Source LG 1, LG2

VarageSale is a an online community looking for its citizens (review)

Overview

If you’re reading this review, you’ve probably been there: you’ve posted something for sale on Craigslist. After a bit of time, you get a hit; someone has messaged you and want to meet to deal. So after some back-and-forth, you agree on a place and time. You show up, wait 45 minutes, and the other party is a no-show. For a few of us, the other party does show and the ensuing exchange is anything from uncomfortable to seemingly dangerous. Public sites like Craigslist have been great for personal re-sale, but they leave their users vulnerable to misleading or downright nefarious humans looking to take advantage of a situation.
The app VarageSale looks to solve this vulnerability. They do this by creating a more closed community of members in a small geographical area, using their Facebook accounts to verify identity as well as giving other members a preview of who they’re dealing with.

Setup

To gain access to the community, there a few steps involved:

Download the app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
Choose your community(ies) by local area (using your zip code). Generally each community gives themselves a cute/clever name.
Setup your account, including name and email.
Link your Facebook account.  As stated, this allows other members to confirm you are who you say your are, and gives others a profile pic to see who they’re dealing with. Per the app, they do not post anything to your Facebook account.

Daily Use

Using the app works a lot like most other resale websites, in that various items are listed by individual community members, with usually a photo, title, and price listed. The app uses flat design, with the listings that look and scroll down a lot like Google Now cards. That is to say the design is clean, with enough color and shape to give a great and welcoming aesthetic. For each listing you can share with others (via Facebook, email, or other), comment on the item, or click the “Interested” button, which contacts the seller and saves it for your later viewing.  Once you contact the seller and negotiate the price and meeting time/place, off you go to complete the transaction.

In my short truncated experienced with the app, the biggest hurdle to user happiness is currently the dearth of users in a given community, and therefore the variety of items to find.

For every item of a given category in my chosen community in VarageSale, you can find 10-20 of a similar item on the big boys like Craigslist or eBay. Also, the range of items seems to be very limited, mostly to second-hand clothing and crafty, Etsy-type stuff. Given my particular area of residence, downright rural compared to those living in a bigger cities like Chicago, but still the lack of people and stuff was off-putting for me.
It’s analogous to patronizing a local store instead of going across the street to Target. Yes, it feels good to be doing business with someone you know who is local, but did you find what you really wanted? And how did you do on price?

Conclusion

The vitality of any community, virtual or otherwise, is defined by the engagement of its citizens. While VarageSale is really a great idea to solve the potential problems of the public re-sale sites, the greatest hurdle for this and other such apps is traction amongst their potential user base. Right now the question is, “why use VarageSale when Craigslist has so much more to look at?”. The tipping point will be when that question gets reversed.

Verizon revives 2GB free data promo for heavier users

Verizon on Monday confirmed it has brought back its 2GB bonus data promotion for users on the XL and XXL plans. Available immediately, both new and existing customers on the 12GB and 18GB data plans will receive extra data each month.

The way it works is pretty simple: all phone lines on either of the two plans receive 2GB of data per month. Sharing across 5 lines? That’s 10GB of extra data on top of the bucket you’re already getting. Verizon will allow up to ten lines on these plans.

According to Verizon, the data can be shared across existing tablets and hotspots but cannot be used for new ones. The bonus data will stay on a user’s account as long as they remain on the XL or XXL plan.

In addition to the extra data, Verizon is offering up to $650 in credits to attract prospective customers. Should you port your number from another carrier, Big Red will pay off your early termination fees and any remaining balances on equipment.

It is not clear how long Verizon will be offering the limited-time 2GB data promotion.

Verizon

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Xiaomi “Mi Week” discounts on the Redmi Note Prime, Mi 4 and Mi 4i

Xiaomi handsets are already a pretty good bargain but the company has just announced additional discounts for its Indian customers on some of its most popular smartphones.

From today, the Redmi Note Prime will be available for Rs. 7,999, down from its original retail price of Rs. 8,499 when the phone launched back in December. The discount will be applied to both the Amazon India and Mi.com retail outlets. The Redmi Note Prime offers up some decent mid-range specifications for its price, including a 5.5-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 410 processor and a 13 megapixel rear camera.

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Furthermore, Xiaomi is holding a “Mi Week” promotional offer on Amazon India, which will run from today until Friday 19th February. As part of the promotion, the company’s flagship Mi 4 and Mi 4i smartphones are both discounted, with prices falling to Rs. 12,999 and Rs. 9,999 respectively. That’s a 13 percent saving on the Mi 4 and a notable 23 percent discount on the Mi 4i.

You can find all of the Mi Week offers by clicking the button below.

Mi Week over at Amazon India

Silk Labs Sense: Not your typical home monitoring camera

As useful as Nest’s Dropcam is, it isn’t the best looking home monitoring camera. Still, there aren’t many of them that do a better job design-wise. Silk Labs, a startup founded by Mozilla’s former CTO, Andreas Gal, sees this as an opportunity to offer something different. Enter Sense, which is similar to Dropcam in functionality but also comes with a few notable differences. For example, it’s said to be smart enough to recognize multiple faces; that can be used to let you know if it thinks a stranger is in your home, or play music based on a particular individual’s taste.

Sense (pictured above) also pairs with third-party hardware, such as Sonos speakers and smart light bulbs, among others. Not surprisingly, you’ll find a built-in microphone and speaker on the back of it, used for voice recognition and more features that may be added in the future. Meanwhile, the Sense’s industrial design is intended to blend with people’s lifestyle, according to Gal. It’s supposed to be “something you’re happy to put in your living room,” he says.

Gal, who left the Firefox team in 2015, told me that Silk Labs’ goal with Sense is to create a whole new Internet of Things platform: “We are not a hardware company,” he says. Instead, Gal hopes the device will drive interest from both developers and manufacturers, especially since Sense and the software powering it are going to be open source. The Kickstarter is launching today, with the product priced at $225.

And Gal doesn’t want you to worry about it being a crowdfunded project, because Silk Labs isn’t financed that way. “Kickstarter is just a way to bring this to people,” he added.

Source: Kickstarter (Silk Labs)