Ray Super Remote review – CNET

The Good The Ray Super Remote has a phone-like touchscreen that puts other dedicated remotes to shame. It offers simple setup without having to use a separate app or device. You can use it to find shows to watch.

The Bad The Ray is expensive and not as capable as some cheaper Logitech Harmony remotes. It depends on line-of-sight, making it less reliable than hub-based remotes. Its lack of buttons makes it more difficult to use by feel.

The Bottom Line A phone-like screen, simple interface and TV show suggestions aren’t enough to overcome the competition for Ray’s expensive remote.

If the 800-pound gorilla of universal remotes is the Logitech Harmony, the Ray Super Remote is a monkey dressed in an astronaut’s suit. It looks way cooler, and seems smarter, but in a head-to-head contest the monkey gets crushed.

At $250 US, the Ray is twice the price of my favorite Harmony remote, the Home Control. The Ray’s main draw is a big touchscreen, which does provide some advantages over a button-based clicker. But the screenless Home Control’s buttons are easier to use, especially by feel, and its two-piece design — it includes a hub base station that deftly handles all of the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and infrared (IR) control duties and translations — trounces the Ray’s traditional point-and-pray IR emitters.

And if you really want a touchscreen, you can control the Harmony using an app on your phone, shell out $300-plus for the top-end Harmony Elite, or just use your phone as a remote. The latter option may seem a-Peel-ing, especially since some Android phones can act as remotes using free apps, and iPhones can work with relatively cheap devices like $50 Pronto, but the convenience of a dedicated clicker is worth the investment in my book.

Ray Super Remote
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What advantages giveth the Ray, you ask? In addition to behaving like a friendlier Harmony — easing the process of turning on your devices, switching inputs, and obviating your other remote controls — it also helps you find something to watch on TV. You can browse what’s on by genre, check the Ray’s suggestions, or keyword search for shows right from the remote. Setup is also simplified, and it’s accomplished entirely on the remote’s screen. There’s no separate phone app or PC required.

Those are all good things, but still not worth the high price. Harmony’s remotes are simple enough for my four-year-old to use, they almost never fail because of the hub-based control, and the TV browsing features won’t be of much use to people satisfied with their cable service’s program guides. And I really don’t trust my munchkins not to break the heavy, chunky Ray eventually, despite it being clad front and back in Gorilla Glass (that’s your cue, OtterBox).

The Ray remote offers simplicity and smartphone-like modernity in its attempt to challenge the Harmonys, but in most important ways it’s second banana, at best.

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Sleek hardware, friendly menus

There’s no escaping it: the Ray remote looks like your old phone. It’s thicker and has a smaller screen than most current phones, and it feels heavier in the hand. Compared to button-based remotes like the Harmony, however, it seems much more futuristic, mainly because of its superior screen.

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The Ray (left) next to an iPhone 6S (right)

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High-end Harmony remotes like the aforementioned $350 Harmony Elite have screens but, let’s face it, they suck compared to the Ray. Smaller, lower resolution and saddled with chunky graphics, they seem like throwbacks to a bygone day when text had rough edges and logos all the sharpness of stuffed animals. The graphics and icons delivered on the Ray’s screen are sharp, bright and modern, worthy of any phone operating system.

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The Ray’s home screen is pure simplicity: a vertical column of icons for power, DVR and other devices you want to add, sprinkled among selections for Search, Settings, Best of TV, Sports and other categories. You can power up (or down) devices right from the home screen, as well as see the time and weather.

Access to individual devices is just a tap away, most major buttons are replicated as you’d expect, and you can add custom buttons for commands that aren’t included by default. I found I had to add the all-important “skip” command from my TiVo, for example, to augment rewind and fast-forward. I do wish the thing had haptic feedback, and that it “woke up” when you picked it up (both features of the Elite), but those are quibbles.

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Cradle return discipline

More than a quibble is the fact that, like any screen-based device, the Ray needs to be recharged frequently. The company recommends you park it in the included cradle when not in use. The cradle takes up more room than I’d like but looks very slick, and you’ll definitely need to learn to replace the clicker there, and train your family to do so, when it’s not in use.

If not, you could find yourself without the ability to control your stuff. In my testing, the battery lasted about three days before needing a recharge.

By comparison, the battery in the screenless Logitech Home Control remote can last more than a year (!) without needing to be replaced.

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Buttons beat screens for easy control

The only physical buttons on the Ray are along the side: power (to turn on the remote itself), mute and volume. If you hold it in your right hand, they’re an easy thumb stretch away.

For every other kind of control you’ll be looking down at the remote, then back up at the TV, then down at the remote, quite a bit. Depending on how many commands you normally issue, this can be more or less tedious, but the simple fact is that with a well-designed button-centric clicker like Harmony’s, you can keep your eyes on the screen while you drive around your device’s on-screen menus mainly by feel.

Ray, to its credit, tries to replicate the by-feel process with its “Navigate” tab, which calls up a mostly blank swath of screen that you can swipe around and tap to select. Unfortunately the process isn’t nearly as responsive as using the buttons on a standard four-way keypad control; swipes take longer than clicking a button, and the screen is “stickier” than something like the wonderfully responsive touchpad on the Apple TV remote.

Even the volume buttons on the Ray weren’t as responsive as on the Harmony. In the end, using it to get to what I wanted felt a step or two slower.

Garageio review – CNET

The Good Garageio works well and is more customizable than competitors, integrating with IFTTT and Amazon Echo.

The Bad Integration with Amazon Echo isn’t intuitive enough, the app is simplistic, and the price feels just a little steep.

The Bottom Line If you want integration, Garageio is one of the best retrofit controllers on the market. It’s just a little pricey at this point, and the Echo integration needs sharpening.

When you hear the phrase “garage door opener,” you probably think of the little black-and-gray remote clipped to the sun visor in your car — that thing that controls your garage door opener. But over the last few years, major developers like Chamberlain, and smaller ones like Garageio in Columbus, Ohio, have begun to market app-connected garage door openers.

Garageio’s self-named device is a relatively simple black box that hardwires into your current garage door opener. From there it integrates with platforms like Amazon Echo and IFTTT — the app that builds triggers between normally unconnected apps and devices. Despite its clever integrations, Garageio still doesn’t feel quite slick enough to pull off its $199 base price (not to mention an extra $10 for each additional garage door, up to three).

For anyone ready to get their garage into the smart-home mix, Garageio is a pretty solid buy. But until its app gets a little deeper and its integration smooths out, this product isn’t ready for everyone.

Garageio teaches your old garage new tricks…
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How smart can a garage door be?

Installing Garageio is a little more involved than I’d prefer (more on that later), but once the system is up and running, app connection is simple. In fact, it’s a little too simple. When you open the app, the interface is an orange garage door that you swipe up to open or swipe down to close. It works, but for $200 I’d like to see an app with more to offer. Luckily Garageio introduces new features elsewhere.

Integrations with Amazon Echo and IFTTT are a breeze to set up, and they’re the main distinction Garageio can claim from competitors like the Chamberlain MyQ. With Garageio, you can control your garage doors with a voice command, or trigger them to open via geolocation through the IFTTT app.

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With Amazon Echo, you can send commands and ask questions of Garageio.

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Disappointingly, these two integrations aren’t equally slick. IFTTT integration is mostly open to your imagination, but Amazon Echo’s commands are basic and sometimes frustrating to use. Since Echo’s Garageio skill isn’t native, you can’t just ask Alexa to open your garage. You have to say things like, “Alexa, tell Garageio to open my small garage door,” or “Alexa, ask Garageio if my garage doors are open.” After a while, it felt like I was having a middle school feud with Garageio, and Echo was just caught in the crossfire.

IFTTT, on the other hand, works wonders. In fact, without IFTTT, I would like Garageio much less than I do. But automating your garage door with geofencing or other triggers might create some safety questions. Chamberlain, Garageio’s biggest competitor, actually refuses to work with triggering platforms like IFTTT so users don’t accidentally open their garage doors while they’re away.

LG DLEX 5000 Dryer review – CNET

The Good The stylishly designed LG DLEX 5000 efficiently dries and steams clothes with speed. The dryer also has a built-in Wi-Fi radio to link to phones and tablets through a companion mobile app.

The Bad The LG DLEX 5000’s mobile application is buggy and has a confusing and cluttered layout. It’s hard to close the dryer door with force.

The Bottom Line Though it has a few shortcomings namely a confusing app and tricky door, the LG DLEX dryer’s beautiful design, fast performance and loads of features make this appliance easy to recommend.

I never thought I’d be drawn to a clothes dryer the same way I’m pulled toward a hot new smartphone. That was before I laid hands on the $1,500 LG DLEX 5000. An elegant machine that’s both a swift performer and easy to operate, the all-electrical DLEX 5000 is stuffed with handy extras. These include a litany of special drying cycles, steam modes, plus a Wi-Fi radio and companion mobile app so you can command the appliance via phone or tablet.

Of course the dryer isn’t perfect. For instance compared with other smart home appliance contenders, LG’s Smart Laundry app is a confusing maze of functions, options, and services, many of which are vaguely labeled and sometimes redundant. Likewise, the dryer’s 7.4-cubic-foot capacity is less than you’d expect from an appliance this pricey. That said, if you can live with LG’s messy mobile controls, the DLEX 5000 boasts better performance, style, and abilities than GE’s competing smart dryer, the $1,200 GTD86ESPJMC.

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Design

Constructed from painted steel, chrome and plastic, the DLEX 5000 hides its stainless-steel drum behind a darkly tinted glass door. This curved door sits almost completely flush against the dryer’s front face and lacks an obvious handle, enhancing its sleek appearance. Don’t try to slam the door shut though. Oddly, the more force behind your arm swing the more likely the door will bounce back at you.

The LG DLEX 5000 has high-tech good looks.

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Perhaps that’s why the dryer’s physical footprint (38.8 by 27 by 32.8 inches) feels much less imposing than the GE GTD86ESPJMC (44.5 by 28 by 31.9 inches) even though it’s roughly the same size. Another difference between the two units is the LG’s control panel which is placed front and center, not mounted along the back edge where it’s harder to reach.

The panel occupies a 4-inch tall strip running along the top of the dryer door. Here you’ll find large circular keys for power and start/pause, both capacitive buttons which engage with a mere feather-light touch. Set in between this is the biggest physical control, a large knob for selecting your prefered dryer cycle. The knob rotates clockwise and counterclockwise, softly settling in place with a gentle bump at each cycle position. White LED lights highlight the current cycle you’ve chosen.

Turn a large knob to choose your cycle.

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To the right of the knob is a rectangular bank housing additional buttons to operate secondary settings. These touch-sensitive controls, and small LED display they surround, are all bright and easy to read whether viewing directly in front or from the side. I also appreciate that, like its LG Twin Wash laundry sibling, you can set the DLEX 5000 on a pedestal though in this case it’s a Pedestal Storage Drawer accessory ($280) not a specialized washing chamber.

You have the option of placing the dryer on a pedestal.

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Features

The LG DLEX 5000 dryer is replete with special cycles, modes, and settings. Specifically there are 14 dryer programs designed to handle a wide range of fabric and garment types. LG also lists 13 separate options too including “Damp Dry Signal,” “Wrinkle Care,” and “Energy Saver” just to name a few. Keep in mind these choices don’t factor into settings for both temperature and target dryness levels, both of which you can tweak manually.

I suspect that most people (like myself) will most often stick to the “Normal” cycle which is designed for a mix of clothes styles. It relies on the LG DLEX 5000’s moisture sensors to automatically shut the machine down at the appropriate time.

Like GE’s GTD86ESPJMC the DLEX 5000 has the ability to hit items with steam in the hope either removing wrinkles or germs. These modes are called “Steam Fresh” and “Steam Sanitary” respectively. While I can’t speak to how sanitized my test clothing became, I did notice that compared with the GE dryer’s equivalent function, LG Steam Fresh seemed more aggressive. It audibly piped multiple bursts of steam into the drum as opposed to the single spray I observed using the GTD86ESPJMC dryer. And regardless of whether I ran one or multiple items through “Steam Fresh” the LG machine always took less time (10 minutes to the GE’s 16 to 17 minutes).

Loads and loads of smart functions

No flagship laundry product would be complete without a way to connect to a dedicated mobile app, and the LG DLEX 5000 is no exception. Similar to the GE Laundry application, the DLEX 5000 has a Wi-Fi radio tucked away inside its chassis. With it the machine can link to the LG Smart Laundry app (iOS and Android) where you’ll be able to check dryer status and see how much time remains in a running cycle.

How to blur objects in YouTube videos – CNET

YouTube has offered the ability to blur faces of people in your uploaded videos since 2012. While the face blur tool worked relatively well, it couldn’t be applied to any other objects. Now there’s a secondary blur tool you can apply to any object, even moving ones.

Google’s announcement of the blur tool mentioned that it will be a “… simple way to blur things like people, contact information, or financial data without having to remove and re-upload your content.” Of course, it’s not limited to these uses. Want to try it out? Here’s how:

Note: The new blur tool is only available on the desktop version of YouTube at this time.

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Step 1.

Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 1: Open the Video manager on YouTube and click the Edit button under the video you’re going to use the blur tool on.

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Steps 2 and 3.

Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 2: Head to the Enhancements tab along the top, then click the Blurring effects tab on the right-hand side of the page.

Step 3: Click the Edit button next to Custom blurring. Your video will load in a new pop-up window.

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Step 4.

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Step 4: To create a blurred area, click and drag to create a blurred box. You can create multiple blurred boxes, drag them around, and resize them.

Step 5: Once you’re finished, click Done. You’ll be offered three saving options on the right-hand side: Revert to original, Save as new video, or Save (overwrite).

Tip: Google noted on its blog that saving your content as a new video will allow you to delete the original content from YouTube, leaving only the blurred version.

Now you blur sensitive information, embarrassing objects, or strangers that walk in front of your camera with just a few clicks.

Tap to preview links in Safari for Mac OS X – CNET

When browsing about the Web, I often open links I come across in new tabs in the background, which can leave me with too many open tabs to keep track of after an embarrassingly short time. I am easily distracted but also gamely attempt to finish what I’m reading before jumping to the next thing. With Safari and a trackpad setting enabled on my Mac, I can quickly preview links without leaving the page I’m currently on or opening yet another tab.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

To enable this preview ability, go to System Preferences > Trackpad. Click on the Point & Click tab at the top if you aren’t there already, and then check the box for Look up & data detectors.

With this setting checked, a three-finger tap on a link will open a small window to let you preview the webpage behind the link. On this preview window, you can scroll to read the entire page, if you want to do more than just a quick preview. You can click in the preview window to open the page in a new Safari tab, or you can click outside of the window to close the preview window.

You will need a multitouch trackpad to perform this maneuver, but you do not need a newer Force Click trackpad.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

This trackpad setting also lets you three-finger tap on a plain-text words to look up their dictionary definition. In Chrome, a triple-tap looks up the definition of words for both plain text and hyperlinked text — it does not preview links. As for Firefox, its does not support this trackpad setting. I tested all Chrome, Firefox and Safari on an older MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

(Via OS X Daily)

Google Inbox — one year later

Google’s new way to think about email took a while to fully hook me, but now there’s no other way to email for me.

When Inbox was first announced, I quickly jumped to grab an invite to the service. Gmail had been my default email client for years now, and I didn’t have any problems with how it worked, but I loved the ideas behind Inbox. The notion that my email account could be more than just a communication and advertising dumpster, but also a task list and a functional goal system, was more than a little appealing.

In the early days I switched back and forth between Gmail and Inbox, not quite ready to fully hand my email over to this new system, but just about a year ago I finally made the switch to full time Inbox use and haven’t looked back.

Every once in a while you’ll see someone publish a screed about how emails are basically the worst thing they have to do every day. It’s the lowest form of communication for those of us connected to everything all the time, and largely that’s because it’s a time suck. You have to triage your email box every day, sifting through promotional emails and reminder emails and shipment tracking emails. You know, the things you’d love to mark as spam but can’t because it’s either vaguely work related or you might need to track it down later. We don’t so much mind sending email when we have to, but the idea of dealing with the inbox is a mostly pointless chore. You’ve either trained yourself to triage it quickly, or your inbox is a dumpster and you only bother with new message and the search function.

On average I snooze 2-3 emails a week, and the number of emails I interact with has increased dramatically as a result.

I was happily in the latter group before Inbox. As email came in, I’d check the notification and move on. No folders, no tags, just a dumping ground for everything I thought I might one day maybe care about. Google’s threaded conversations meant I could quickly find a conversation when I needed it, and that was all that really mattered to me. Friends who relied on email as this tidy thing they kept organized would look in horror as I thumbed through in search of something. It was a mess, but it was a necessary evil and I gave it as little thought as I could afford.

Inbox introduced a new way to use email for me, and the first step was making it incredibly easy to sort through all the crap. For starters, search results for a ton of things often ends in better card-styled results. There’s a bundle of 30 promotion emails organized in this bundle, and while one of them might have a coupon for Papa John’s pizza you might want to use this weekend I know I can search for it later if I want. Tap a button, sweep all of those messages into Archive, and be done with it. If I see something that I know will be important later, but want it to pop up as a reminder, I snooze the message. On average I snooze 2-3 emails a week, and the number of emails I interact with has increased dramatically as a result. I’m way less likely to forget about those messages, and while I rarely use anything other than the snooze to a certain date feature, the snooze by location feature is amazing when travelling for work.

The real MVP for me in Inbox is pinning. I pin everything I think might be important that day, and snooze or sweep everything else. The last thing I do on my phone each night is either deal with the remaining pins or snooze those messages if I know I’m going to deal with them tomorrow. At the end of every work week, I clear out the remaining pins in the same way I deal with a ToDo list. I don’t actively hunt for Inbox Zero, but it is often the result of my current workflow as I head into the weekend.

Nothing Inbox does is particularly special or new, but because I was able to make it a part of my workflow I now have a much better relationship with my personal email. I’ve considered trying to migrate other accounts, particularly my work account, to Inbox as well. It’s a system that I don’t really have to think about in order to enjoy it, and that to me is the biggest part of the experience. I don’t have to stop and think about how to address these emails, but I’m still able to actively manage my inbox. I’m not receiving more or less email, but I think about it less and am somehow accomplishing more through it.

There aren’t many software changes in my day to day that have had such a meaningful impact, and in many ways I am reminded of when I first moved to Gmail in the first place. It feels like the software handling my email is doing a lot of the work for me, and that is incredibly valuable to someone like me.

Sprint does a 180, brings back two-year contract options for smartphones

Sprint is bringing back two-year contract pricing options for its smartphones. The company previously announced it would ditch those contracts in August 2015, and it finally did so in early January 2016, but now the wireless carrier is offering those pricing plans again.

What happened? According to what a Sprint spokesperson told FierceWireless, it was based on customer demand:

“We listened to our customers and are giving them more choices to get their new device,” Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein told FierceWireless. “Sprint is the only carrier to offer the most choices to obtain a new device — lease, installment bill, two-year contract or pay full retail price.”

The trend has been to offer customers either full price for purchasing smartphones or offer them under extended leases. T-Mobile has ditched two-year contracts, and AT&T has also gotten rid of those plans as well.

Source: Sprint

The Guess VIP Notifier adds mild smarts to analog style

In 2015, fashion brand, Guess, partnered with the folks at Martian to create its first smartwatch. The Guess Connect eventually went on sale in the latter part of the year, and as Mobile World Congress rolled around there’s a new addition to the smart lineup of Guess watches.

The VIP Notifier is set to go on sale towards the holiday season of 2016, and limits the smart features a little over the existing line while adding some basic fitness tracking features, too.

Where the Guess Connect has the digital display at the bottom of the watch to show some of the content of your notifications, the VIP Notifier has only an LED indicator. It’s placed below the bezel, just above where the band connects to the watch, and can be programmed to show different colors depending on the notification. Essentially it just tells you something’s going on, with the color showing what type of notification you’re getting, leaving you to grab your phone to action it if you so wish.

In return for the more limited features you get both an uninterrupted watch face and a lower asking price. So to the average eye, it’s just a regular Guess watch. It’s a similar idea to the one that Fossil has recently applied to its Q54.

In addition, Guess was also showing off additional styles for its existing Guess Connect range, without adding any additional features. We’ll have a full Guess Connect review coming soon, so stay tuned for that.

Here are all four Galaxy S7 and S7 edge colors

Even if you’ve decided to pick up a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, it’s always going to have to be followed by a choice on colors. After you buy the phone there’s no going back to get a new color, and while a case can add a bit of flair later on you can’t get around your initial decision.

Let’s take a look at all four glorious colors of these phones together, then quickly break down the characteristics and availability of each.

Black

Black is easily the sleekest color of the bunch. Not only is it dramatically less reflective than the other colors, Samsung has also dropped some of the shiny trim around the home button and camera pod to accompany it. If you were a fan of the deep blue of last year’s Galaxy phones, you’ll love this one. You can get both the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge in black.

Gold

Gold is just the new thing to do — you can find it as a color option from most manufacturers nowadays. But nobody’s gold stands out like Samsung’s gold. It’s even flashier and more reflective than previous gold phones from Samsung, and if that speaks to you then go for it — just don’t say we didn’t warn you. You can get both the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge in the gold color.

Silver

The silver color is a bit more reflective than last year’s, but still isn’t quite as ostentatious as the gold variant. That being said, in the right light the gold and silver can almost look identical. It’s flashy, it’s bright and it almost acts like a mirror when it’s cleaned up. Silver is exclusively available for the Galaxy S7 edge.

White

Ah yes, it’s fitting that the white version of the phone is a bit of a unicorn. When the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge launch in the U.S., white won’t be a color option. We know that it will only be available internationally (at launch, anyway — who knows if that could change), but even then we don’t know details on just which countries and which of the two models will offer the color. But if it is available where you’re looking to buy, you’ll find it to be nearly identical to the white of last year.

Samsung Galaxy S7

• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge hands-on
• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge specs
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Details on the Galaxy S7’s camera
• The SD card is back on the GS7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

AT&T Sprint T-Mobile Verizon

Marshmallow update heading to ASUS ZenFone 2, Zoom and more in Q2 2016

ASUS has now posted an update on its Android 6.0 Marshmallow rollout plans, detailing a list of eight phones it says will receive an update sometime in Q2 2016. All told, the list encompasses seven ZenFone models and one PadFone. Here’s the breakdown:

• PadFone S (PF500KL)
• ZenFone 2 (ZE550ML, ZE551ML)
• ZenFone 2 Deluxe (ZE551ML)
• ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition (ZE551ML)
• ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KG, ZE500KL, ZE550KL, ZE551KL, ZE600KL, ZE601KL)
• ZenFone Selfie (ZD551KL)
• ZenFone Max (ZC550KL)
• ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML)

ASUS hasn’t given any specific dates to look forward to other than the generic Q2 2016 timeframe. Once the update does arrive, ASUS says that Google’s Messenger, Gmail and Calendar apps will replace ASUS’ own as the default if users perform a factory reset.

Source: ASUS