Best iPad Pro 9.7 cases: Protect your new Apple tablet

Apple has announced a new addition to its iPad line-up in the form of the iPad Pro 9.7. The smaller iPad Pro was revealed in place of a next-generation Air model and it brings with it a host of features, including Apple Pencil compatibility and improved cameras on the front and rear.

Despite offering exactly the same measurements as the iPad Air 2, the baby iPad Pro takes its design cues from its larger brother, with the inclusion of the Smart Connector and four-speaker setup.

It has a lovely slim aluminium build just like the other tablets in Apple’s portfolio, but that also means you’ll probably want to pick up a case for it, even if you prefer its design without one. Don’t worry though, there are a few cases out there already, some of which are minimal to keep the design traits visible, while others are more rugged to offer better protection.

We have rounded up some of the best cases for the Apple iPad Pro 9.7 that we have found so far but we will be updating this feature as more become available. If you have found any yourself that you think are particularly nice, feel free to let us know in the comments.

For now, click here to see the best iPad Pro 9.7 cases we have come across

The best handheld vacuum

By Liam McCabe

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.

We spent a total of 65 hours researching and 22 hours testing hand vacuums over the past few years, and we think the Black+Decker MAX Lithium Flex Vacuum BDH2020FLFH does the best job at quickly picking up small spills, hitting hard-to-reach spots, and keeping your car tidy. It’s the most versatile hand vac out there thanks to its flexible 4-foot hose and a set of clip-on attachments that help it reach areas and clean surfaces others can’t. It’s one of the most powerful, too, with a 20-volt battery pulling plenty of suction for about 16 minutes of no-fade use per charge—longer than most of the competition.

How we picked and tested

Our three picks: Black+Decker CHV1410L, our budget pick (left); Black+Decker MAX Flex Vac BDH2020FLFH, our main pick (center); Eureka EasyClean 71B, a low-budget, plug-in pick for pet hair (right). Photo: Liam McCabe

In roughly 87 collective hours of research and testing, we’ve learned what makes owners of battery-powered vacuums happiest. The best models tend to have: no-fade batteries so that suction doesn’t drop off partway through a cleaning cycle, strong suction (determined largely by battery voltage), and as a bonus, the ability to clean both hard-to-reach areas and upholstery.

We used our top contenders around the house over the course of several months for tasks like picking up random tufts of cat hair (sometimes off of upholstery), cleaning bits of food and coffee grounds off of countertops or the kitchen floor, and tidying up the car after moving sports equipment and camping gear. As for our budget pick, we relied mostly on user reviews for real-world testimonials, but we also tested each contender for a couple of hours.

We also had a group of Sweethome staffers check out all of our finalists, including the budget picks, so we could get some varied opinions on how they handle and how valuable certain features and designs seem for people in different living situations.

Our pick

The MAX Flex Vac is meant to be used with two hands: one holding the main assembly, the other guiding the hose. Photo: Liam McCabe

The Black+Decker MAX Lithium Flex is the best handheld vacuum because its flexible hose and attachments help it get at more hard-to-reach spots and clean more kinds of surfaces than the competition, without sacrificing raw power. If you need a handheld to reach where your main machine can’t, or you live in a very, very small apartment and only need a small vac anyway, the MAX Flex Vac is the most capable model out there.

The flexible hose is unique among handhelds and makes it easy to clean in tight, awkward-angle areas. Thanks to a 20-volt lithium-ion battery, it has strong, consistent suction throughout its 16-minute runtime—all improvements on the lower-voltage NiCd batteries used in most cheaper competitors. And its attachments, including a crevice tool, a combo brush, and a pet hair brush, give it an extra little performance edge over other handhelds, which rarely come with any tools at all. It costs more than most handheld vacs, but given its versatility, we think it’s the handheld to get if you’ll use it in your car and around your house regularly.

Budget pick

The Black+Decker CHV1410L is a typical DustBuster-style handheld, with a better battery than most others at this price. Photo: Liam McCabe

If you think you’ll only use a handheld for very occasional tidy-ups, the Black+Decker CHV1410L is a simpler, more affordable alternative. Unlike our main pick, it has no hose so its reach is limited, it can’t really clean pet hair off your couch, and its suction is a smidge weaker than the top handhelds. But its lithium battery gives it an advantage over other hand vacs at this price, because it can sit for months on the shelf without losing its charge and its power won’t fade partway through a cleanup. It’s also the best-selling handheld vacuum at Amazon most days, where it has an excellent average rating based on thousands of user reviews.

A plug-in model for lots of pet hair

The Eureka EasyClean 71B excels at cleaning pet hair off of upholstery and carpeted stairs, but it’s not as portable as other handhelds. Photo: Liam McCabe

This isn’t quite like the other handhelds we’ve covered here, but so many people love it that we felt like we had to mention it: If you want a hand vacuum specifically for cleaning pet hair off of carpeted stairs, cloth upholstery, or even small area rugs, the Eureka EasyClean 71B might make sense. It’s a plug-in model, so it’s not as portable as our other picks, which are both battery-powered. It’s also bigger and heavier than almost any other handheld. The upside? It has a motor-driven brush roll, which is the feature that lets it pull hair off of fibers super effectively. A battery-powered model would have trouble driving a brush roll for more than a couple of minutes.

Wrapping it up

After 65 hours of research and 22 hours of testing over the past few years, we found the Black+Decker MAX Lithium Flex is the best handheld vacuum. It’s the most versatile vacuum we tested and, thanks to its flexible 4-foot hose and clip-on attachments, it can reach and clean surfaces others can’t. And at 16 minutes per charge, its battery lasts longer than most of the competition.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Google warns of Android flaw that lets attackers hijack phones

Rooting (that is, using a security flaw to gain control over an operating system) is a staple of the Android enthusiast world, but it’s also used by would-be attackers… and Google just offered a textbook example of this problem. It’s warning of a vulnerability in Android’s Linux-based kernel that lets apps get root access, giving intruders free rein over your device. And this isn’t just a theoretical exercise — Zimperium (which discovered the Stagefright bug) says it has spotted publicly available apps that make use of the hole.

The good news? Fixes are coming quickly, at least for some users. If you’re using the AOSP version of Android, you can install a patch right now. You’ll have to wait if you’re using other releases, but a fix is coming in Google’s next monthly security update, which hits April 2nd. The main concerns are that numerous Android manufacturers don’t offer those updates in a timely fashion, or stop updating devices well before their useful lifespans are over. Even if you’re running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you might be exposed for months if your hardware maker isn’t on the ball.

Via: PCWorld

Source: Android

Sony kicks off ‘Makers & Gamers’ docu-series with ‘Journey’

Journey was not a financial success, but the PS3 game — which takes players on a spiritual trip through a quixotic landscape — is undeniably a masterpiece. Considering the deep impression it made on players, it’s fitting that Sony is premiering its Makers & Gamers series with a documentary on the title. The short film details how Journey helped Sophia Ouellette deal with her father’s death from cancer when she was 15. “I needed to tell the people who made it how their game has had such a big impact on me,” she says.

Creator Jenova Chen of Thegamingcompany was touched by the letter and invited Sophia to visit the team’s LA studio. “You’re working on this art for such a long time, you put it out there and you don’t hear anything back … [with Sophia] I felt that all the hard work in the game was heard by someone,” he says. According to Sony VP John Koller, that kind of contact is the essence of the new series. “What if those incredibly talented game creators got the chance to meet their most dedicated fans to keep the conversation going?”

Games like That Dragon, Cancer show the medium’s healing power and Chen wanted Journey to be an emotional, not physical experience. “Once I started to use emotion as a lens to look at games, that’s when I started to realize that I really wanted to … create that bonding experience,” he says. According to Sophia, he and his team succeeded. “This journey within the game reflected the journey I was going through with my Dad. It’s this beautiful example of the end and how it doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” she says. Makers & Gamers: Journey (above) was directed by Jesse Moss, who received wide acclaim for his 2014 documentary The Overnighters.

Source: Sony

HTC’s M10 will have an online launch event on April 12th

April is turning to be a super busy month for HTC. In addition to shipping out the first lot of Vive to consumers, the company will also be launching its next flagship smartphone, the M10 or simply the 10, on April 12th. More interestingly, HTC’s email tells us that this will be yet another online event, just like the one it did with the One A9 (but hopefully with more camera angles and close-ups on the device this time). To watch the stream, tune in at 8am New York time or 1pm London time or 8pm Taipei time that Tuesday.

NASA catches the flash of a supernova for the first time

Spotting supernovae is relatively easy, but witnessing the immediate aftermath of those exploding stars? That’s hard — however, NASA has managed just that. By using the Kepler space telescope to capture the light of 500 galaxy every 30 minutes for 3 years, the agency caught the flash of a supernova’s initial shockwave as a red supergiant (KSN 2011d) met its grisly end. That’s no mean feat when this early burst only lasted roughly 20 minutes, and the target star was a whopping 1.2 billion light years away.

The data helps confirm scientists’ models for how Type II supernovae (where the star is between 8 and 50 times the size of the Sun) behave, but it also uncovered a surprise or two. The team didn’t spot a shockwave in the supernova of a smaller red supergiant, KSN 2011a, suggesting that there’s significant variety in how these explosions take place — the theory is that a gas cloud obscured the blast. Whatever the cause, the findings should help us understand more about the life cycles of stars.

Source: NASA, ArXiv.org

US to give ZTE a break on tech exports

ZTE might not be cut off at the knees by US export restrictions… at least, not yet. An unnamed Commerce Department official tells Reuters that the American government will temporarily lift those restrictions in return for ZTE’s willingness to come to terms, including an agreement to abide by unknown “binding commitments.” It’s reasonable to presume that ZTE won’t be selling US equipment to Iran, which is what got it into hot water in the first place.

Even a momentary break could be crucial for ZTE. While it’s based in China, it still depends heavily on parts from American firms like Intel and Qualcomm — losing those would force it to make costly design switches and possibly miss out on technology that it needs to stay competitive. We doubt that China will be happy until (and unless) the export limits are removed once and for all, but this at least gives it a chance to breathe.

Source: Reuters

Chevy is getting the Bolt EV ready for production

The all-electric Chevy Bolt is on schedule to start being built by the end of the year. The automaker announced today that pre-production of the vehicle has begun. The company is currently finishing up its testing of auto-plant tools and process needed to actually build the car.

Bolt EV Chief Engineer Josh Tavel said, “we’re at another critical and important point in the development of the Bolt EV. We’ve moved from working in math and building cars by hand to building Bolt EV’s on the line.”

With the Tesla Model 3 being introduced next week, 2017 looks to be a busy year for electric vehicles that can drive further than your average commute.

Chevy introduced the Bolt to much fanfare at CES 2016. The four-door vehicle will cost about $30,000 after federal tax credits. No word though on when the car will actually be ready for purchase.

US carriers cover the costs for calls and texts to Belgium

If you’re determined to get in touch with friends and relatives who were in Belgium during the March 22nd terrorist attacks in Brussels, you’re about to get a helping hand. Major US carriers (so far including AT&T, Sprint and Verizon; we’ve reached out to T-Mobile) are all waiving the costs of calls and text messages to Belgium to help you confirm that everyone is safe and sound. The extent of the offer varies — Verizon’s waiver runs through March 23rd, while Sprint will take care of you until March 31st. It’s an all too familiar gesture (carriers did the same following the Paris attacks), but it’s an important one if you need to reassure yourself with a familiar voice.

Source: AT&T, Sprint

YouTube for iOS Updated With Split Screen Support on iPad

Google’s YouTube app for iOS devices was today updated to version 11.10, adding support for Slide Over and Split View on compatible iPads. With Slide Over and Split View, the app can run alongside another app or with the Slide Over panel open, allowing people to multitask while watching YouTube videos.

The third split screen feature available on Apple’s iPads, Picture in Picture, has not been added to the YouTube app despite being a feature that many YouTube users have been hoping for.

Split View is compatible with the iPad Air 2, both iPad Pros, and the iPad mini 4. Slide Over is compatible with the iPad Air and up, the iPad mini 2 and up, and both iPad Pros.

Other new features in the update include relocated home tabs when in landscape mode on an iPad and a fix for a bug that prevented URLs in video descriptions from opening.

YouTube can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
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