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)

Artists explain how ‘The Witness’ got its special look

As you walk through The Witness, solving puzzles and taking in the island’s natural beauty, you might wonder how it all came together. Did gameplay take precedent, followed by artistic flair? Or were the two developed and balanced simultaneously? To shed a little light, artist Luis Antonio has written a series of blog posts that go into fascinating detail about the game and its development. From specific areas to teaser trailers and posters, it offers a rare look into how Antonia, alongside Eric Anderson and Orsi Spanyol, helped Jonathon Blow develop the look of the game.

A word of warning: Antonia says some of the screenshots and explanations could be considered spoilers for people that haven’t played The Witness yet. “I strongly advise you to the play the game before(hand), since these will inevitably spoil some of the experience.” If you fall into that camp, we recommend reading this particular entry — it’s only about the game’s promotional material and will give you a flavour of what Antonia has put together. Of course, then we suggest you go away, play the game and hurry back. Or just delve in further if you don’t mind a few spoilers. Your call.

Via: Kotaku

Source: The Art of The Witness

Marshmallow update for Sony Xperia Z5, Z4 Tablet, and Z3+ set for March

The official Twitter account for Sony UK has shared a date for when Marshmallow is expected to be released for the Xperia Z5, Z4 Tablet and Z3+. Should the information be accurate, owners of the aforementioned mobile devices can look to see Android 6.0 arrive on March 7.

@FalseNugget it’s set to roll out from March 7th for Xperia Z5 series, Z4 Tablet and Z3+ – we will share confirmed timings when its ready

— Sony Xperia GB (@sonyxperiagb) February 15, 2016

It’s worth noting that this comes from the official Sony UK Twitter account and the exact date, as well as international availability, may be subject to change. That said, it’s at least an indication that the company does indeed plan to release the update sooner rather than later. We’ll keep you all posted should we learn more.

Source: Twitter (Xperia UK), Via: Xperia Blog

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New Lego Star Wars sets in the flesh: Minecraft and Ninjago complete the line-up

Having shown off a range of Lego at the London and Nuremberg Toy Fairs in the last few weeks, the brick brand let us take pics and video of the last entries in the 2016 line-up at the New York Toy Fair.

The biggest question mark still left for Lego this year was its Star Wars sets. Although some had been shown previously, Lego had remained tight lipped about two mysterious sets and the character mini-figures that accompanied them.

READ: These are the Lego sets you’ll want in 2016: Nexo Knights, Angry Birds and more

Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures

In New York, Disney announced its new animated TV series, Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. This will debut in the summer on Disney XD in the US (no date currently for UK).

Unsurprisingly then, the Star Wars Lego sets accompanying the series complete Lego Star Wars line-up for the year. Set 75145 offers an Eclipse Fighter, a smaller craft and two mini-figures while the 75147 set includes the larger Star Scavenger ship and four mini-figures.

Interestingly, this means we have two Lego Star Wars projects that extend the main fiction. The Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game will include content between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, while the Freemaker Adventures joins things up between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Lego Ninjago

Beyond Star Wars, other sets were more fully shown (and filmable) in New York, including additions to the Lego Ninjago line.

Ninjago will have a strong line-up throughout the year. And while Chima takes a back seat, it goes from strength to strength with more than half an eye on the 2017 Ninjago feature film.

Lego Minecraft

Lego Minecraft returns in 2016 and still struggles to make sense in this context. The iterative nature of a brick toy inspired by a brick-inspired video game means the play value and fun gets a little lost along the way.

This lack of coherence hasn’t stopped it selling well though, and last year it was Lego’s fifth best-selling line. In 2016, we will be getting four more Minecraft sets in March and then The Fortress in September — which includes a headlining Lego Minecraft horse of all things.

Lego Nexo Knights

Nexo Knights offer a more original (and coherent) combination of bricks and screens. In addition to the sets seen previously we got a proper look at the new Ultimate characters in New York – Axl, Lance, General Magmar and Flama. These, together with the large Jestro’s Volcano Base, provide plenty of physical play value backed up by a video game payload when the included shields are scanned into the related tablet app.

Lego City

Finally, the Lego City sets were rounded off with a full 2016 line. This ranges from spring’s Fire and Vehicle sets to summer’s Volcano Explorers and Autumn Airport and Town products. Of particular interest in the Town category is the Fun in the Park set that includes a wheelchair mini-figure for the first time in Lego’s history.

Having the whole of 2016’s Lego line-up in view is a little overwhelming — there’s just so much of it. Beyond this however, it seems that this is a year of consolidation rather than innovation for Lego. Quality remains as high as ever but the lion share of shelf space is given to extending existing ideas rather than creating new ones.

‘Elite Dangerous’ offers space combat in a separate game

Elite Dangerous is a trading, fighting and exploration space game, but if you’re only interested in the “fighting” part, you can now do that for a lot less. Developer Frontier is offering a standalone module called Elite Dangerous: Arena for $7.50 on Steam ( £4.99 in the UK and €6.75 elsewhere in Europe). That’s a big savings over the $30 price of Elite Dangerous, and you’ll still get session-based player-versus-player gaming and the same physics and handling of the full title. In addition, you’ll be able to play owners of the standalone Arena module, Elite Dangerous or Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

Arena buyers will also be eligible to play in the Close Quarter Championships (CQC), with $100,000 in prizes up for grabs. Frontier CEO David Braben told Rock Paper Shotgun that the module should appeal to combat lovers in general: “If you’re thinking of having a session of Call of Duty or FIFA or an RTS or whatever, this is another alternative that you can put in the mix.”

Source: Elite Dangerous (Steam)

Art exhibit turns tweets into a colorful sphere of emotion

Even if you see thousands of tweets per day and all the emotions that go with them, that’s just a tiny fraction of Twitter’s total traffic. A new art project wants to help you grasp the joy or fury expressed by all of the users around the world at once. The Fuse Studio’s “Amygdala” installation at the CUBO Centro Unipol in Bologna, Italy crunches up to 30 tweets per second and translates each into one of six emotions: Happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, amazement or fear.

The “Sentiment Analysis” is displayed on 41 LED bars in the Media Garden via 125,952 lights, total. It’s fed by 2.75 km (2 miles) of fiber-optic cable, and represents total Twitter activity with fountain-like patterns of lights, including bright bursts during busy periods. Every 10 minutes, that data is sent to a dozen video walls inside, where the six emotions are displayed as specific color patterns. The idea is to show “the evolution of the global emotional state … which will go on to form the emotional memory of the three months in which Amygdala will be deployed,” according to Fuse.

The display is accompanies by sound textures representing the six emotions that start out distorted during the Sentiment Analysis. They gradually progress to clear tones corresponding to the strongest feelings and form a Twitterverse melody of sorts. It’s designed to let you experience the world freaking out in a surprisingly zen way, as you can see in the video below

Via: The Creators Project

Source: Fuse

Oppo F1 mini-review

Oppo brings us a solid budget offering — though one that proves that an entry-level phone still means navigating a maze of compromises.

The budget space is one of the most competitive and exciting areas of the smartphone marketplace right now. In early 2016, $200-400 — or the local equivalent — can now get you a shockingly good handset without any of the usual contract-related strings attached. Many of the most competitive brands in this space are new upstarts and Chinese phone makers who’ve yet to make it big in the West.

Among them is Oppo — a huge phone brand in China, but not a name recognized by those outside the technology bubble in Western markets. The company has always produced head-turning designs, including the ridiculously thin R5 and the camera-rotating N1. But like local rival Huawei, its highly-customized software has been a point of contention.

The latest affordable phone from Oppo is the F1, priced at just £169 on Amazon in the UK. At that price, it goes up against the likes of the 2015 Moto G and the Huawei-made Honor 5X. So how does it shape up? Read on to find out!

An entry-level phone with premium aspirations.

On the outside, the Oppo F1 looks every bit the premium smartphone. There’s a 5-inch display with gently tapered edges on the front, and attractive metal back and grippy, polished trim. Like the Honor 5X, it looks much classier than its price tag would suggest. Unlike that phone, though, the metal has a matte texture to it, so the in-hand feel mostly matches its high-end looks.

It’s a comfortable fit in hand, with gentle curves that improve the ergonomics without making the phone feel slippery.

But look closely and the high-end illusion begins to fade. Though it looks metal, the outer trim of the F1 is in fact plastic. And the screen also has an odd plasticky texture, and lacks any kind of oleophobic coating — as does the factory-fitted screen protector. The F1’s plastic parts aren’t a huge deal — after all, most phones under the £200 mark are all-plastic affairs anyway. But the smudgy, fingerprinty screen is an unfortunate compromise, and sadly one that’s shared by the Honor 5X as well.

Being the main input and output device, the display is important, and its tendency to attract fingerprints isn’t its only weakness. It sports an ample 720p resolution (giving a density of 294 pixels per inch) and looks pretty decent indoors. Take it outdoors though, and there are some visibility issues, even at the highest brightness level.

Fortunately the phone performs a little better when it comes to audio, with the rear-facing speaker producing sound that’s loud, if a little tinny, at high volume levels.

Between a lack of oleophobic coating and outdoor visibility issues, the F1’s screen is pretty weak.

On the inside there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor powering the Oppo F1 — a slightly updated version of the more common Snapdragon 615. Qualcomm’s current mid-range SoC is more than capable of handling Android on a 720p display, and as such performance is quick smooth throughout the UI. Oppo’s ColorOS — which sits atop Android 5.1 Lollipop — features plenty of swooping, iOS-style animations, and there’s no lag to be found anywhere at all. (That’s in stark contrast to other devices using this chip with a 1080p display.)

ColorOS also brings back the legacy menu key — something we haven’t seen in a high-profile Android phone in the West for literally years at this point. Oppo’s software still relies on this menu toggle in places, and that’s at odds with the way Google’s been doing things for, well, the past five years at this point. The result of this odd button choice is that you’ll need to long-press the menu key to switch apps on the fly, which is kinda tedious in comparison to basically every other Android phone.

It’s just one of a few weird design decisions in ColorOS which, we’ll explore a little later.

As for memory, you’re looking at an ample 3GB of RAM — which is a lot for an entry-level phone like this — and 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD. And that SD slot is contained in the same tray as the second SIM slot, meaning you can use either one SIM and one SD card at a time, or two SIMs, but not all three concurrently. We found that the F1’s SIM-switching capabilities worked as expected — both SIMs can be active at once, but only one can be used for 4G data at any one time. (That’s all pretty standard for a dual-SIM smartphone.)

The F1 boasts one of the best cameras in its price range.

If the Oppo F1 is a mixed bag in some other areas, imaging is a big part of what sets it apart from the budget-priced competition. The phone benefits from Oppo’s full-featured camera app, also found on more expensive phones like the R7 and R7s, bringing a wealth of shooting modes. There are smartphone staples like HDR, filters, panorama and beautification modes, as well as more unique options like a built-in GIF recorder and “Ultra HD,” which takes a series of exposures over several seconds. This is then number-crunched into an image measuring in at some 53 megapixels which sometimes (but not always) captures more fine detail than a regular 13-megapixel shot.

But you don’t really need to rely on these fancy shooting modes to get good photos out of either the 13-megapixel rear shooter or the 8-megapixel front-facer. Both are surprisingly competent for a budget phone, with a little grain up-close, but otherwise adequate fine detail and no weird color anomalies. Blacks tend to be a little crushed, but we’ve also noticed that dynamic range on the whole is better than both the Honor 5X and Moto G 2015.

Pictures soon become noisy and mushy in low light, though the front camera does a decent job of keeping things relatively crisp in challenging indoor situations.

Overall, the F1 delivers more camera than you’d expect for your money at this price point, and a challenge to others selling entry-level Android phones: If you’re selling any smartphone — even a cheap one — the camera can’t afford to be an afterthought.

We’ve touched briefly on Oppo’s ColorOS software, which runs alongside Android 5.1 Lollipop on the F1, and bringing with it some odd design regressions like the return of a physical menu key. And from a Western perspective, much of Oppo’s UI seems unfamiliar and contrary, in design terms, to the way Google does Android. It’s a point we’ve raised many times before in relation to Huawei’s EMUI — it looks and feels like it was designed for the Chinese market.

And like Huawei’s software, there’s a lot of iOS influence to be found in ColorOS, from the Springboard-style launcher to the swooping animation style and folder layout and the basic structure of the camera app. But this isn’t a straight iOS clone — Oppo has its own visual style mixed in, which comes off as a little regressive. It looks and feels more like the HTC Sense UI of years past, with bezeled buttons, big, detailed icons, overflow animations and gradients aplenty.

Of course you can change the way much of ColorOS looks though the built-in themes system, but most of the themes to be found online are just as overbearing as the default skin.

On a functional level, ColorOS works pretty well. As mentioned, performance is consistently quick, and none of the bundled apps look terrible. Nor is it loaded with bloatware — the most offensive piece of software we found was the “Security center” app, which frequently throws up notification nags about speeding up and cleaning out your phone.

So if you’re used to the way Android looks and works on a Nexus, Samsung, HTC or LG phone, ColorOS is going to take some adjustment, and might even be a reason to pass on the Oppo F1 altogether. But if you can learn to live with its quirks — or even use its many customization options to tweak it to your liking, there’s not much else to complain about.

The same is true of battery life from the fixed 2,500mAh cell. The F1 manages full, solid day of use, including moderate web browsing on LTE with two SIMs inserted (we used EE and Three UK SIMs in our review unit.) Screen-on time clocked in at around 3.5 to 4 hours over a full working day on Wi-Fi and LTE, which is a respectable number for a phone in this category.

Overall, the Oppo F1 is a solid mid-range phone, and great value for £169 unlocked in the UK. But as much as it illustrates how far budget smartphones have come, it also demonstrates the compromises that remain — a rather disappointing screen, software that’s not in tune with what you’d expect from an Android phone, and a metal body that’s still got quite a bit of plastic going on.

But should you take the plunge, you’ll find a phone with speedy performance, useful dual-SIM features and one of the best camera experiences in a cheap handset.

See at Amazon UK

AC on the Road: What’s in Richard’s gear bag in 2016?

See what’s coming with me to MWC.

Ah, February, and that means one thing. Not the Super Bowl, but the annual jaunt to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. If you’re anyone who’s anyone in mobile, you’re heading to MWC.

And that, of course, means so will we. Mobile Nations will have a select team of ninja-editors heading out to Spain to cover what will no doubt once again be a crazy show.

And since it’s been a while since we looked at the gear we’re all using, what better time than before we pack up and hit the road. I’ve slimmed down massively what I haul around to events compared to days of old. Partly because my creaky old back hates carrying stuff and partly because a lot of it never left my bag.

So, this is what I’ll be taking with me to MWC 2016.

The bag: Tylt Energi Backpack

I acquired this bag a year ago on a trip to Las Vegas for CES and since then it’s been my go-to event bag. It isn’t the biggest, most spacious backpack I could find, but it has one neat trick that is perfect for trade show use: It comes with a 10,400mAh battery pack with a dedicated pocket and channels connecting the various compartments. That means you can pass cables through the internal spaces, hook up to your battery pack and keep stuff charged on the go with ease.

The Tylt Energy Backpack also has a protected pocket where, honestly, I usually keep my sunglasses and little else, and you can slide it over the handle of your rolling luggage to make life easier at the airport.

It’s pretty comfortable to wear for a long day on the show floor, has a separate padded space for laptops and hasn’t yet left me wanting for more space. It’s a little pricey, but it’s a great bag for it.

See at Amazon

The laptop: Dell XPS 13

Just before MWC 2015 I switched back to using Windows full time, due in part to my more focused work on our sister site, Windows Central. And in part due to the Dell XPS 13. Having attended the launch at CES 2015, I knew I had to have it. A year in, I haven’t looked back.

Truth is most of what I used on Mac was cross-platform software anyway. Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Chrome, Microsoft Office, etc. I only needed to find a new video editor, which I did in Cyberlink’s Powerdirector.

The configuration I have is probably overkill. It’s a Broadwell Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and has the stunning QHD+ touch display. There’s no real need for the Core i7 in my life, but when I ordered it here in the UK there was no other option. It was high end or no end.

But it’s such an amazing laptop and it’s perfect for travel. Has all the power I’ll need, a battery that can see through 6-7 hours of real world use and it’s so small. Dell made a big thing of squeezing a 13-inch notebook into an 11-inch form factor, and aside from being a little thicker, the footprint is the same as an 11-inch MacBook Air.

See at Microsoft

The phone: OnePlus X

One of these is my current daily driver, one of these is a cellular hotspot with an enormous battery that I can also use as a phone if I need to.

I bought the OnePlus X before Christmas when I decided it was time to put my own money where my mouth was. I’ve been so impressed with the quality of cheaper phones the last 12 months I decided I was going to live with one and save a couple of hundred pounds or so over buying a high-end phone.

Apart from a couple of niggling issues which appeared in the latest software update (and one which hasn’t been fixed still), I can’t really fault it. The camera is a little weak, sure, but it can still take OK pictures of my kid when he does something cute. Which is all I really care about these days.

For all that we may not like about how OnePlus actually does its business of selling phones, it does a lot of things right with the devices. The OnePlus X is well made, has pretty good battery life, a fantastic screen and the software is, well, good. We criticise software a lot more on a lot bigger company’s phones, and OnePlus did a good job.

See at OnePlus

The other phone: Huawei Ascend Mate 7

Which brings me to the Huawei Ascend Mate 7. I usually pack this as a matter of procedure when going to any event these days because the battery life is insane. It can go a full day as a cellular hotspot without breaking a sweat. I get a good roaming deal from my domestic carrier to use my allowances while in Spain, but I can’t tether. And I wouldn’t want to, either.

So I’ll do what I always do: snag a local SIM at the airport (Vodafone Spain has some great deals on LTE) and slap it inside a phone to use mostly for tethering to all week. Beats trade show Wi-Fi by at least 100%.

There may be a couple of other devices thrown in the bag for content reasons, like the Xiaomi Mi4 (currently a Windows 10 Mobile version) when we’re going to be seeing the Mi5, but it’s these two that I’ll be using to do stuff.

The Camera: Samsung NX300

I’m clearly in the minority, given the recent news of Samsung’s camera division basically going away, but I love the NX line of cameras. The NX300 in white is my second such camera and it’s just a great shooter for both stills and video.

It’s got a 20.3MP APS-C sensor, AMOLED touch display, a whole bunch of features I rarely touch and shoots 1080p video. I’ve been using this camera since just before our Computex trip last year and I’m very happy with it. It’s small, it’s light and it makes me less bad at things I need to use it for.

I mainly use it with the lens that came with my previous NX camera, which is a 16-50mm OIS power zoom lens. The kit lens that came with this camera was actually worse, and larger, so it was replaced immediately. The lens is pretty good, I use it for most everything I do round here and it adds very little to the bulk of the overall set up.

I also have a 55-200mm lens that I take with me that only ever gets used for liveblogs. Since sitting close to the front isn’t always, possible having a long lens to take photos with is a useful thing to have.

This camera also charges via micro-USB. Which is absolutely fantastic and I wish every camera had it. It means I can use my phone charger to top it up after a day at the show. It also means I can use my battery pack to top it up if it gets low while I’m out. Weirdly this is one of the things I like the most about it.

See at Amazon

The Tablet: Amazon Fire 7-inch

I’ve generally stopped using tablets recently, but they are still handy when traveling. I’m using the £49/$49 Amazon Fire 7-inch right now for a few reasons.

First, price. It’s so cheap if it gets lost/stolen/eaten, I’m not going to be too irate. Second, you can stick a microSD card in there and offline Prime Video to the card. And finally, reading my Kindle books.

There’s not actually much time to unwind at a show like MWC, but there is the hanging around at the airport and the couple of hours on the plane both ways, at least. I’d happily recommend this tablet to anyone who just wants a cheap way to consume media. You get what you pay for, but is watching videos on a 7-inch screen really worth spending a lot on, anyway?

See at Amazon

Other assorted items

That’s mostly it for gear. There are a few other things I’ll be taking, like a couple of flat micro-USB cables, the necessary UK to EU adapters and a pair of sunglasses (Spain is much sunnier than the UK for sure.) And a watch. A regular, just tells the time watch. For whatever reason Android Wear just hasn’t ever gelled with me. But I do enjoy wearing a watch, and I’ll be taking my current daily wear by Casio Edifice.

Of note though are two items. First is my trusty Rode SmartLav mic that I’ve been using for a couple of years now. It plugs into a smartphone to record audio which at a trade show like MWC makes a huge difference to hands-on videos. I probably won’t be doing much video, we have the excellent Mark Guim to handle a lot of that. But when I do need to shoot, the audio from this little, inexpensive microphone makes a massive difference.

The other is a Field Notes and a pen. If I use my phone or laptop to make notes, I usually forget about them. If I write them down, I remember that I’ve written them down and actually do something with them. And spending so much time in front of a computer, it’s actually nice to do something else once in a while.

There’s also the fact that it’s just easier to jot things down while at meetings, doing a quick tour of the booths etc, than it is to type things into a phone. I carry a pad and pen whenever I travel, and most of the time there’ll be a Field Notes in there. Because they’re fantastic. It’ll be paired with a Cross pen that was a gift for my 30th from my sister, which is just so nice. I’ll also have a pack of our pretty awesome looking business cards. At a big show, business cards are like currency.

Oh, and there’ll be some form of earphones in there. If I’m only travelling within the UK or Europe, I use buds. If further afield, something more substantial with noise cancellation. But I need to actually buy a new pair, so I likely won’t know that I’m taking until I get to Gatwick Airport for the flight.

And that’s about it. Gone are the days where I would pack a ton of stuff just in case. Between everyone who’s hitting the show there’ll be more than enough gear to go around. I’m trying to pack smarter, my creaky bones will thank me for it. Stay tuned for more gear bag’s from the rest of the gang!

5 high-capacity power banks that are great for the traveling techie

These aren’t your pocket-friendly power banks, but they can be your lifeline when battery life runs short across multiple devices.

Given today’s power-hungry phones and tablets, any power pack under 20,000mAh shouldn’t be considered high-capacity. While the majority of these beefier backup batteries aren’t suited for storing in your pocket, they’re still compact enough to toss in a backpack, suitcase, or laptop bag for a quick charge when you need it. Check out these five power banks that provide enough battery to keep up with the most demanding tech-lover.

Note: When we state how many charges you can expect to get from each battery pack, we’re using a hypothetical 2500mAh phone as our basis.

CHOETECH 20,000mAh Power Bank

Rocking dual-USB outputs — one dedicated to Quick Charge 2.0 speeds — this power bank from CHOETECH has a 20,000mAh capacity. What’s more, it can charge off of either a Micro-USB cable or an Apple Lightning cable, giving flexibility to anyone dealing with multiple devices. Keeping you on top of how much charge is left are four LED lights on top next to the main power button.

The first USB output provides a steady 1-amp charge and even devices that don’t have Quick Charge 2.0 technology can still utilize the second blue-coated output thanks its safe auto-detection feature. When topped off, you should get 6 to 7 charges off this power bank.

See at Amazon

Anker PowerCore 20100

Okay, so maybe this power bank can fit in your pocket — it’s also one of the most compact power banks available for its hefty 20,000mAh capacity. Anker’s PowerCore 20100 delivers 2.4 amps to both of its ports for a total output of 4.8 amps. It has four blue charging LEDs on the front for easy checks on how much battery life remains in the PowerCore; and when you do need to recharge you can do it with the included Micro-USB cable. Anker also features their Power IQ and VoltageBoost technologies to provide the fastest and safest charge to each connected device. Expect approximately 6 to 7 charges when the PowerCore is at full capacity.

See at Amazon

EasyAcc Monster 26,000mAh Power Bank

If you’re after more than just a pair outputs to keep your phones and tablets charged up, the EasyAcc Monster packs a 26,000mAh capacity and provides four USB ports as well as two Micro-USB inputs on the side that can work in tandem decrease recharge time up to 50%. With a total output of 4.8 amps, the more devices connected means a slower charge, but the overall convenience, functionality, and capacity outweigh reduced charging times.

Next to the USB outputs is a built-in LED flashlight that’s handy for seeing in the dark, and on top are four tiny lights that indicate how much battery life remains in the power bank. EasyAcc has added plenty of safety features to prevent any damage to your connected devices, too. Capable of providing 9 to 10 charges, the EasyAcc Monster makes a great external battery to have on hand.

See at Amazon

Anker Astro E7

The Astro E7 features a huge 26,800mAh capacity with a maximum output of 4 amps to charge up to three devices simultaneously. A single 2-amp (max) Micro-USB input charges the premium LG battery cells inside when connected to a proper power source. A small LED flashlight is located on the front, adding easy visibility in the dark, while 4 charging LEDs can be found on top of the power bank. As with most Anker power banks, their PowerIQ technology pushes the fastest and safest possible speed to each connected device. Fully charged, you can expect approximately 10 charges off the Astro E7.

See at Amazon

Intocircuit 32,000mAh Power Monster

This beastly backup battery rocks an impressive 32,000mAh capacity that’s able to provide power to phones, tablets, and even laptops. It has two USB ports on the front — one 2.1-amp and one 1-amp — next to a DC output for connecting any one of the included laptop cables. On top of its brushed aluminum chassis is an LCD display that provides readings of its power level and charging status. With over 13 notebook connectors and AC adapters for the U.S., UK, and EU, the Intocircuit Power Monster is the ideal power bank for serious traveling techies. Expect around 12 charges when it’s topped off.

See at Amazon

From the Forums — Is a retinal scanner on the Galaxy S7 impractical?

There’s no shortage of Galaxy S7 rumors right now, and while the Internet hivemind is great at processing information and analyzing information spit out from all different directions, context isn’t always there to help determine what’s real and what isn’t. This isn’t a surprise, after all we are talking about unreleased and unannounced hardware with a group of early adopters that absorb leaks and rumors like a sponge left in the desert. What’s fun about the process, especially as we get closer to the launch of the phone, is is participating in the conversation.

One rumor in particular started a brief conversation in our forums about retinal scans as authentication on the Galaxy S7, and whether that would be a practical unlock method on any phone right now. While there’s little evidence to suggest Samsung is preparing to roll this feature out, they’re probably one of the only companies that could actually pull it off right now.

It’s nothing like the crazy lasers we see in movies and TV shows.

The next stage of authentication has been on our collective minds for quite a while now. Fingeprint sensors are all the rage right now, due largely to how fast and efficient they are. While the general consensus is that this mechanism is at the bottom of the top five ways to keep your phone secure, it’s certainly better than nothing in most cases.

Retinal scanning at this point in our usage would mostly be a more specific kind of face unlock, which as we know has its own security pitfalls as a practical and secure authentication mechanism. It’s nothing like the crazy lasers we see in movies and TV shows. Nokia has a similar mechanism introduced with the Lumia 950, with an IR sensor in the mix to help with accuracy. The demonstrations we’ve seen so far claim to be looking at the veins in your eyes for authentication, but there’s still a reasonable chance this could be defeated by a higher-resolution photo or video of your eyes. What makes using your eyes to unlock your phone different is a more specific zone on your face, which may be more difficult to spoof using consumer-grade tools. We’ve seen examples of this technology already from ZTE and Alcatel running on Android phones, but how practical is this unlock method?

The “eyeprint” unlock mechanism we saw mostly as a concept last year answered a lot of the basic questions. Both ZTE and Alcatel demonstrated that “eyeprint” unlock could be used with and without glasses, and in our more detailed tests on the Idol 3 it seemed more accurate than Google’s Face Unlock for getting past the lock screen and into your phone. It’s still less efficient and noticeably less accurate than a good fingerprint sensor, but it worked and worked well enough to be considered reliable.

We have absolutely nothing that suggests Samsung is planning to release retinal scanning with the Galaxy S7, but if any phone could pull it off it’d be this one. Samsung has demonstrated superiority in both display tech and photography, so this kind of authentication would work in places many other smartphones would struggle with, like when you’re outside in the bright sun. A decent front-facing camera and Samsung’s ultra-bright sunlight mode would make tech that we’ve already seen be functional on lesser phones be a viable authentication option just about everywhere.

Samsung Galaxy S7

The Galaxy S7 is expected to be announced at Mobile World Congress in late February 2016.

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