AKG N60 NC review – CNET

The Good The AKG N60 NC is a compact, comfortable, well-designed on-ear headphone that sounds really good for a model with active noise cancellation. The rechargeable battery offers 30 hours of listening time.

The Bad Charging cable isn’t the standard Micro-USB variety; single-button remote lacks volume controls.

The Bottom Line Despite a few small downsides, AKG’s $250 on-ear active noise-canceling headphone sounds great and is a worthy alternative to Bose’s top-selling QuietComfort 25.

If you’re in the market for a premium noise-canceling headphone, chances are you’re looking at one of the Bose models, the QuietComfort 25 (around-ear) or QuietComfort 20. We gave high ratings to those products and — in terms of noise-canceling headphones — they’re leaders in the category.

So why get the AKG N60 NC over the Bose QC25? Well, for starters it takes up a little less room in your bag. This is a smaller, on-ear headphone (it’s better suited to smaller heads) and folds up and flat to fit in an included neoprene carrying case, weighing 6.3 ounces or 179 grams without the cord connected. Also, at $250 (£220, AU$350), it’s a little less expensive.

The compact headphones fold flat to fit in an included carrying neoprene pouch.

Sarah Tew/CNET

While it may not be quite as comfortable as the Bose, it’s very comfortable for an on-ear headphone, with soft leather-covered earcups, and well built-in, too. It even has a bit of aluminum accenting its design.

But really the main reason is that it sounds better than the Bose. It’s a cleaner-sounding headphone with more detail and tighter bass and decent openness for an on-ear headphone.

Small downsides

The Bose QC25 is powered by a single AAA battery. This AKG has an integrated rechargeable battery that offers a solid 30 hours of active noise canceling and — if the battery runs out — you can listen in passive mode without the headphone being powered.

To be sure, the noise canceling isn’t quite as effective as Bose’s and there’s a very faint hiss when it’s engaged. That said, I thought it was quite good overall (relatively speaking) and worked well muffling sound in CNET’s New York office, on a plane, the subway, and walking the streets of New York. And remember: this, like those Bose models, is a wired headphone. There is no Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, the charging cable is not a standard Micro-USB charging cable.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The cons are small, but they are cons. Instead of the standard micro USB charger you’d use to charge your phone, you have to charge the battery via the headphone jack with a 2.5mm sub-mini plug to USB cable. Lose that charging cord and you can’t charge the headphone anymore and will have to seek a replacement. I’d be less concerned about that if there was an interior storage poach inside the carrying case to stow the cord, but the carrying case is very basic; you basically have to shove everything inside, headphones plus the two cables.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) review

Samsung refreshed the Galaxy A series of smartphones late last year, and as was the case with the original line, the lineup covers a variety of smartphones across the size, specifications, and price spectrum. Starting with the Galaxy S6, Samsung certainly seems to have found its path with regards to design and build quality, wand these carriers over to the the mid-range Galaxy A line, which all feature premium metal and glass unibody constructions. We’ve already given the full review treatment to the two more high-end smartphones of the series, and we now take a closer look at the most entry-level of the trio in this in-depth Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) review!

See also:

• Samsung Galaxy A9 review
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) review

Buy the Galaxy A5 (2016) now

Design

While the design language of all the Galaxy A smartphones is borrowed heavily from the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy A5 (2016) is also the closest in terms of size, with it featuring a 5.2-inch display. The premium metal and glass unibody construction returns, and the device looks and feels very familiar, if only a touch more angular in its design when compared to its flagship counterpart.

The Galaxy A5 is thicker than the Galaxy S6, but not significantly so, and the extra thickness actually helps in making the camera protrusion on the back be a lot more flush with the body of the phone. With a hefty weight to it, the smartphone feels substantial in the hand, and the use of glass feels great, even though it does prove to be a fingerprint magnet. All the ports, buttons, and speaker are in their typical positions as well, as seen with the current crop of Samsung devices. As you might expect thanks to its relatively compact size, the Galaxy A5 also offers a great handling experience, with its thin bezels along the sides of the display allowing for comfortable one-handed use.

The idea behind the current Galaxy A series is to provide users with a premium design and build quality but at a lower cost when compared to their flagship counterparts, and that is exactly what you get here. If you loved the look of the Galaxy S6, you won’t find anything to complain about with the Galaxy A5 (2016).

Display

The Galaxy A5 comes with a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 424 ppi. This display may not feature the Quad HD resolution seen with Samsung’s high-end smartphones, but the bump down is understandable given the more budget-friendly nature of the Galaxy A5. However, Samsung’s display prowess shines through once again regardless of the lower resolution, with the vibrant, saturated colors, deep, inky blacks, and great viewing angles and brightness all available here. Full HD proves to be more than enough in this case, and you can certainly look forward to a fantastic display experience when you pick up this phone.

Performance

Under the hood, the Galaxy A5 (2016) comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, clocked at 1.5 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB of RAM, but depending on the market, there is also an iteration that is powered by the octa-core Exynos 7580 processor, and backed by the Mali-T720MP2 GPU. This particular review unit features the Qualcomm processing package, and given that this was the 2015 mid-range standard, the performance available is as expected.

Everyday tasks like opening, closing, and switching between apps remain smooth and fast enough to not disrupt the workflow. The performance is reliable throughout, with the only instances of stutter noticeable when moving to the TouchWiz Briefing screen, which is more of an issue with the software optimization rather than the fault of the processor. The device handles gaming very well also, and while some dropped frames may be seen on occasion, the overall experience remains pretty good. The benchmark scores of the Galaxy A5 aren’t going to amaze, but as far as real world performance is concerned, it is certainly reliable.

Hardware

16 GB of on-board storage is the only option available here, which is why users will definitely appreciate the vaunted return of expandable storage with the Galaxy A series, via microSD card, for up to an additional 128 GB. With the single SIM versions of the device, the second slot on the SIM tray serves as the microSD card slot, but there are some iterations of the phone, once again depending on the market, which come with dual-SIM capabilities, leaving it up to the users to make the choice between dual-SIM features or expandable storage.

The single speaker unit is located on the right side at the bottom, and, as is the case with most bottom-mounted speakers, the placement isn’t great, with the sound directed away from you, and makes for a speaker that is also very easy to cover up when holding the phone in the landscape orientation. The audio quality on offer is quite decent however, but there are a slew of other mid-range smartphones out there that offer a better audio experience.

Also returning is a fingerprint scanner embedded into the tactile home button up front. The implementation is the same as seen with the Samsung flagships, and this scanner proves to be as reliable and accurate. It may not be as fast as the scanner found with devices like the Galaxy Note 5, but the difference isn’t significant enough to be an issue.

The Galaxy A5 comes with a large 2,900 mAh battery, and combined with the more energy efficient Full HD display, the device offers really good battery life. The screen on-time reaches the 4.5 hour mark on most days, and should provide most users with a full day of use comfortably. Even if you do run out of battery, the device comes with fast charging capabilities, to help you get up and running in a short amount of time.

Camera

The Galaxy A5 comes with a 13 MP rear camera with a f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilization, but the camera quality doesn’t live up to the standards set by its flagship counterparts, which isn’t really that surprising. Images don’t look bad, with some extra sharpening happening in post processing that makes for better looking shots.

The big problem with this camera is its tendency to overexpose a lot, and HDR doesn’t do a lot with addressing this issue, only creating a brighter image instead. When this issue doesn’t show up however, the pictures do look good, with vibrant colors and a decent amount of detail. Another point of note is the fact that 4:3 is the aspect ratio you will be shooting in if you’re looking to take advantage of the full 13 MP. Image quality worsens significantly in low-light conditions, with pictures appearing dull, and with a lot of noise.

The front-facing 5 MP camera creates some very soft looking images, with not much sharpness to them. However, if you are as bright as the background, you will end up with a decent enough shot. That said, this is something that is difficult to do, and magnifies the overexposure issue seen with the rear camera. The cameras of the Galaxy A5 aren’t bad, and you can work to get a good shot, but there are better smartphone cameras out there that fall in this price range.

Software

On the software side of things, the Galaxy A5 (2016) is running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, which is very disappointing to see, given how long ago Android 6.0 Marshmallow was released. An official update to the latest version of Android is in the works, but even that might be out-dated soon enough, with the launch of Android N just around the corner.

With the older version of Android and TouchWiz on-board, the software experience remains identical to what was seen with Samsung smartphones in 2015. While things remain largely familiar aesthetically, Samsung has toned things down in terms of extra, often unnecessary, software features. Returning features include multi-window, which is nice to have, but might not be particularly useful on this relatively smaller display, and the Briefing screen, which does display all the articles and information in a nice way, but the lag is significant, making this difficult to use. The best part about this software package is the robust Theme engine, which allows you to cater the look and feel of the user interface to exactly how you may like it.

Specifications

Gallery

Pricing and final thoughts

The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) isn’t officially offered in the US but the international model can be found for around $350, with the available color options being black and rose gold.

So there you have it for this closer look at the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)! The Galaxy A5 is essentially the Galaxy S6 with mid-range specifications, and poorer camera, but does actually offer more than its flagship counterpart in other areas, such as improved battery life, and the return of expandable storage. The disappointing camera may be a let down for some, but if you loved the Galaxy S6 but wished that it was cheaper, significantly so in this case, the Galaxy A5 (2016) is the device for you.

Buy the Galaxy A5 (2016) now

A day with the HTC Vive

Virtual reality in your home is finally … well, real. And I’m not just referring to VR-lite experiences like Google Cardboard or Samsung’s Gear VR. I’m talking about graphically rich, forget where you are, so genuine you can almost touch it, virtual reality. After dreaming about the possibilities of VR for decades and following its most recent wave closely, it’s hard to believe it’s finally here. That sentiment hit me with the force of a virtual tidal wave when the HTC Vive Pre arrived at my apartment yesterday.

While I was certainly excited to have some alone time with the HTC Vive — it’s consistently wowed us with demos over the past year — I wasn’t expecting such an emotional response. I’ve had the Oculus DK2 for a year now, so diving into VR at home isn’t very novel for me. I’ve also tested out plenty of Google Cardboard and Gear VR demos at home, and I’ve gone through more Oculus and Vive demos at press events than I can count.

But I quickly realized why the Vive Pre evoked such a different response: It’s not just a dev kit — it’s the closest we’ve got to a polished VR experience that anyone will be able to buy. HTC just opened up preorders for the consumer version of the Vive this week, which will run you $799 and ship in April. That’s pretty much the same hardware as the Vive Pre dev kit, save for a slightly more ergonomic head strap.

I won’t be reviewing the Vive Pre, since it’s not consumer-ready hardware. And, frankly, there isn’t much finished VR software out there yet. Instead, I’ll offer up a series of dispatches around living with the HTC Vive.

Once the exaltation of the Vive’s arrival wore off, I took stock of all the hardware. Spread across three boxes were the Vive Pre headset, a link box (which plugs into your computer), two base stations, two motion controllers and all of their accompanying cables and power adapters. There weren’t really any surprises, but this being my first chance to fondle the Vive’s hardware for longer than a few minutes, I was able to appreciate its build quality a bit more.

The motion controllers look large, but they’re relatively light and fit into your hands well. They sport touchpads on top, along with menu and system buttons; a trigger button that sits right below your index finger; and two “grip” buttons around the sides. The controllers charge via micro-USB slots, and, naturally, they also have wrist straps to keep them from flying out of your hands. The large round portion of the controller up top is mainly used to communicate motion data the Vive base stations — it’s not something you ever have to touch. The base stations are simple cubes, but HTC wisely included threaded mounting slots on the bottom so that they can be attached to a wide variety of stands.

The big takeaway from all of the hardware: Everything simply feels good. HTC has had a rough going for the past few years, but the Vive is a reminder that it can still build some solid gadgetry. Of course, it also had some assistance from Valve for this endeavor (which makes me think Valve would also be the perfect suitor if HTC’s business continues to tank).

Valve’s setup instructions for Steam VR devices (the Vive is just the first of potentially many) are fairly straightforward. First, install the base stations on two high points on opposite corners of your room (I also received wall and ceiling mounts to make that process easier). Next, synchronize the base stations (I won’t go too deeply into that process, since Valve says it’s revamping it entirely for the consumer Vive setup). Then plug the link box into USB, HDMI ports on your computer, as well as a power outlet, and plug the Vive headset into the other side of the link box. Finally, install the SteamVR tool on Steam (Valve’s gaming store) and turn on the motion controllers (they were instantly recognized by my computer).

With everything up and running, I went through the SteamVR setup for room-scale VR. That simply involved taking one of the motion controllers and tracing the border of open space in my home office. I received a few warnings saying my space wasn’t big enough with my first few tries, but eventually SteamVR registered enough open space. You can also run the Vive in sitting or standing modes, if you don’t have much space (but then you won’t be able to take advantage of some of the more immersive VR experiences).

Next up, I installed a collection of sample VR software Valve is giving away to developers. That includes some demos Valve and HTC have been showing off for some time, like the underwater set piece “theBlue: Encounter,” as well as the 3D drawing app Tilt Brush (which legendary Disney animator Glen Keane recently used to recreate some of his iconic characters in VR).

So how does the Vive actually work at home? In a word: Magnificently. Once I adjusted the headset so it fit comfortably over my glasses, I was presented with the smoothest VR experience I’ve had at home. Sure, it’s still a large, HR Giger-esque headset attached to lengthy cables, but it’s far more comfortable to wear than the Oculus DK2. I also had the advantage of some powerful hardware powering the Vive experience: My desktop is running a 4 GHz Intel Core i7-4790K CPU, 16GB of DDR3 RAM, a 512GB Crucial MX100 SSD and an AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphic card.

While I’m still waiting for that breakthrough, truly killer VR experience, the demos Valve bundled offer a glimpse into where we’re headed. Ninja Trainer lets you reenact Fruit Ninja in the best way possible, with the Vive motion controller accurately recreating hacking and slashing with a katana. Space Pirate Trainer VR lets you relive your Han Solo fantasies by having you shoot down aliens. Jeeboman has a similar gameplay element, but it gives you a larger selection of weapons (and a nifty teleporting mechanic) to keep an alien invasion at bay.

Strange to say, the most enveloping VR experience I’ve had with the Vive so far came from a golf game. Cloudlands: VR Minigolf presents you with a selection of fantastical courses, but what really sells it is the surprisingly accurate motion tracking with the Vive’s controller. It was easy to shift between soft and harder swings, more so than any motion-tracked golf game I’ve seen yet. The environments were also rich with detail — I had a lot of fun simply looking around them.

After awhile, I started to forget I was actually just standing in my office with a weird looking contraption strapped to my head. That’s the sort of presence every VR experience strives for, and I’m looking forward to unearthing similar gems as I continue to test out the Vive.

‘Star Fox Guard’ is bundled with ‘Zero’ April 22nd

Slippy Toad has a chance to shine come on April 22nd this year. But more than just playing a support role the game you already knew about, Star Fox Zero, there’s more action in the form of Star Fox Guard. It’s a game that sounds an awful lot like a tower defense title. It stars Slippy and his uncle Grippy and you’re managing cameras to battle foes, and, well, it sounds like there’s a quasi-Super Mario Maker element of sharing your creations online, too. This might look familiar if you paid attention to Nintendo’s E3 presentation a few years back as Project Guard.

It’ll come bundled with the physical version of Star Fox Zero, which is sporting a co-op mode wherein one player pilots the Arwing and another controls its guns. If you’re buying digitally you can opt to not grab Guard, or you can grab a bundle. It’s up to you!

Introducing Star Fox Guard, a new game in the Star Fox universe. #NintendoDirectNA pic.twitter.com/MFEQuaM0km

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 3, 2016

Twitter, eBay, Airbnb, Reddit and More Officially Supporting Apple in FBI Fight

Sixteen technology companies today teamed up to officially support Apple in its ongoing encryption dispute with the FBI, a copy of which has been shared by Apple. Twitter, Airbnb, eBay, LinkedIn, Square, Atlassian, Auttomatic, Cloudflare, GitHub, Kickstarter, Mapbox, Meetup, Reddit, Squarespace, Twilio, and Wickr filed an amicus brief [PDF] backing Apple’s assertion that the FBI’s use of the All Writs Act to force Apple to help the government unlock the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook is both unprecedented and dangerous.

The government’s demand here, at its core, is unbound by any legal limits. It would set a dangerous precedent, in which the government could sidestep established legal procedures authorized by thorough, nuanced statutes to obtain users’ data in ways not contemplated by lawmakers.”

The filing, which urges the court to vacate the government’s motion to compel Apple to unlock the phone, argues that handling user data in a “safe, secure, and transparent manner” that protects privacy is of the “utmost importance” to protect consumers from hackers and other wrongdoers,” while also recognizing the government’s “important work” in law enforcement and national security. It says the companies oppose forced backdoors, but will continue to comply with “proper and reasonable” requests for data.

Dozens of technology companies, industry trade groups, and encryption experts have been submitting documents to support Apple, all catalogued on Apple’s website. AT&T, Intel, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed separate amicus briefs this morning, as did the Consumer Technology Association in partnership with the Business Software Alliance [PDF], a group that includes Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, IBM, and Autodesk.

Other amicus briefs have come from Access Now and the Wickr Foundation, ACT/The App Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a group of cryptography experts including Jonathan Zdziarski.

More amicus briefs are expected to be filed throughout the day, including one from a consortium that includes Google, Nest Labs, Facebook, WhatsApp, Evernote, Snapchat, and Mozilla.

All “Friend of the court” or amicus briefs supporting Apple are due by Thursday evening to give Sheri Pym, the judge presiding over the case, time to read through them before a court hearing. Apple is set to face off against the FBI in court on Tuesday, March 22.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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This free iPhone app will surely lead to funny conversations – CNET

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Jason Cipriani/CNET

Let’s face it, most of the time our conversations with friends and loved ones are repetitive. They all follow the same pattern — more or less — from beginning to end.

Rando is a free iPhone app that wants to help you change that.

As the name implies, the idea behind Rando is to be completely random. The app is basic and easy to use.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Open Rando, select from Photo, GIF or Quote, and pick a category if necessary. Rando will then select a completely random item, and ask if you want to send it to someone.

Now this is where the app gets interesting-you’re asked if you want to send it blindly. Meaning, other than a blurred-out preview, you have no idea what the app is about to send. As you can imagine, the amount of anxiety before sending a random GIF to your significant other or posting to Twitter can be high, and that’s what makes the app so fun. Of course, if you’re not the type to take risks, you can tap on the blurred-out preview for a big reveal.

There are three default sharing services supported in Rando: Text, Twitter and Facebook. You can also select the Other category to share through additional services.

While I haven’t sent a lot of photos using the app, I have used it to randomly surface pictures in my Camera Roll I’d all but forgotten about.

Download Rando from the App Store.

Faster editing and easier cropping with Google Photos – CNET

With its unlimited free storage option, Google Photos is a great place to store your photo library in the cloud. Despite offering some basic editing tools, it has been less attractive as a photo-editing studio. With a recent update, however, Google Photos is better suited to perform quick edits to your photos.

There are two new additions to Google Photos. The first is the ability to keep the edit-tools menu open while browsing through your photos. The second is a new aspect-ratio picker.

Before this update, Google Photos forced you to save your edits and close out of the edit menu before going to the next photo and reopening the edit menu to perform edits on that photo. Now, you can click the pencil button in the top-right to open the edit panel to the right of a photo. You can make your edits and move to the previous or next photo by using the left or right arrow key or by hovering your cursor over the photo and clicking the left or right arrow button that appears. Any edits you made to the current photo will be saved before you move to another photo.

You can always return to a previously edited photo and undo your edits. Just click Revert to Original at the top of the window.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

The other added feature to Google Photos is the aspect-ratio selector. It can be found on the Crop-and-rotate tab, which is the right-most of the three tabs in the edit panel (the others being Basic adjustments and Color filters). Click on the Crop-and-rotate button in the edit panel and then click the Aspect ratio button to the left of the rotate button. You can choose Free, Original, Square, 16:9 and 4:3. Sadly for owners of 4-by-6-inch frames, 3:2 is not offered.

For more, learn how to get started with Google Photos and auto-upload photos from your computer to Google Photos.

(Source: Google+)

How to order an Amazon Echo Dot without an Amazon Echo – CNET

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Amazon says otherwise, but you don’t need an Echo to order an Echo Dot.

James Martin/CNET

Earlier today, Amazon took the wraps off the Echo Dot, an adorable little sibling to the company’s popular Echo smart speaker. You can pair it with a Bluetooth speaker or just use it as a standalone virtual assistant.

The problem is, you can’t preorder one — not unless you already own a full-size Echo. For the moment, the only official way to put Alexa Jr. in your shopping cart is to say to her big sis: “Alexa, order an Echo Dot.”

Thankfully, there’s a workaround. All you need is the Amazon Shopping app for Android or iOS. Here’s how to score your Dot, with the caveat that Amazon may pull the plug on one or both of these options at any time. As of this writing, both worked.

Android

Step 1: If you haven’t already, install the Amazon Shopping App and sign into your account.

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Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 2: Tap the microphone icon to start a voice search, then say, “Add Echo Dot to shopping cart.” That should take you to a search result with the Add to Cart button enabled.

Step 3: Tap that button, then check out.

iOS

Step 1: If you haven’t already, install the Amazon Shopping App and sign into your account.

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Swipe right to add the Dot to your cart.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 2: Tap the search field, type “Echo Dot,” then run the search.

Step 3: In the search-results page that appears, you should see the Dot at the top. Don’t tap it; instead, swipe right to immediately add it to your cart. Then check out.

And that’s it! Let us know if you had success (or failure) using either of these methods.

You can now share your Spotify songs and playlists via Facebook Messenger

Spotify users can now share their favorite songs and playlists through Facebook Messenger. The feature was integrated into the official Messenger app with zero fanfare.

According to TechCrunch:

Inside the Messenger “More” section in chat threads, all iOS and Android users will now find a Spotify option. Tap it, and they’ll be shuttled into Spotify’s app where they can “Search for something to share”. Once the select a song, artist, or playlist, they’lll be popped back to Messenger with the option to share the photo of the cover artwork. When a friend taps it that photo, they’ll be bounced over to Spotify to listen.

This new feature is already available with no update needed on the Facebook Messenger app.

Subscribe to Spotify Premium

Source: TechCrunch

Samsung indirectly sides with Apple in FBI battle

Samsung seems to be taking Apple’s side when it comes to the encryption of smartphones and who can have access to them. Apple is currently in a legal fight with the FBI over access to an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects.

Apple believes the FBI’s request to create a tool to unlock the iPhone could lead to a massive issue in smartphone security. According to Bloomberg, Samsung send out a statement which said, in part:

“Ensuring trust in our products and services is our top priority. Our phones are embedded with encryption that protects privacy and content, and they do not have backdoors. When required to do so, and within the law, we work with law enforcement agencies. However, any requirement to create a backdoor could undermine consumers’ trust.”

Samsung didn’t mention Apple by name, and also added that the company has “not decided whether to file an amicus brief” in support of Apple’s argument behalf.

Source: Bloomberg