Vinyl fan? Audio-Technica AT-LP60BT Bluetooth turntable offers cool without the wires

There’s no doubt that vinyl record sales are on the up. Okay, so they’re nowhere near their heyday in terms of sales volumes, but that doesn’t stop vinyl being the cool antithesis to streaming and MP3s. Only to listen to real, tangible records you’re generally stuck using a full-on hi-fi system or a pair of long-wired headphones plugged into an amplifier.

Not so with the Audio-Technica AT-LP60-BT, the Bluetooth-enabled version of the already established LP60 turntable which is available now in black or white for £369. The push of a button and you can sync wireless headphones or speaker systems to output your favourite vinyl, no tether to worry about.

Or you can still go wired thanks to a 3.5mm jack, plus built-in switchable phono amplifier and supplied RCA cable output. So the choice of wired or wireless is yours, even without the need for a separate amplifier.

As turntables go the LP60-BT isn’t the ultimate in luxury from every angle, though, but its relatively inexpensive price point is testament to that. It includes the stylus and cartridge which are the typically decent quality expected from the brand – as let’s not forget Audio-Technica established itself in cartridge production back in 1962.

Pocket-lint

The LP60-BT’s platter is a rigid die-cast aluminium structure, which is great to minimise vibrations being picked-up during playback, but its construction elsewhere is more budget-feeling. For example: the buttons to stop/start are plasticky to the touch – they’re not the kind of classic hi-fi switches that deliver a reassuring “clunk” as they click into place.

Still, that doesn’t impact on functionality. Pairing with headphones is easy, as we found when disconnecting a pair to check out the Bluetooth process during a quick play at CES earlier this year. This is mainly thanks to an illuminating switch to the top of the deck. Press-and-hold and it’ll go from blue (connected) to white (not connected), with flashing purple showing issues/attempting connectivity.

Available in the aforementioned black or white finish (Adele’s 25 on vinyl as pictured is entirely optional), the Audio-Technica AT-LP60BT is available from urbanoutfitters.com. Looks like a decent way for a vinyl wannabe on a budget to start a real record collection.

The higher-end AT-LP5 is also now available, being sold by John Lewis for £329.

The vinyl resurgence continues.

HTC 10: Qualcomm Snapdragon confirmed and first OIS selfie pictures leaked

With the official launch next Tuesday, 12 April, it comes as no surprise that official teases, leaks and rumours about the HTC 10 flagship smartphone are ramping up.

One of the latest comes from the horse’s mouth itself. Qualcomm has posted a confirmation on its own Twitter feed that the processor is from its Snapdragon family.

Rumours have consistently suggested the new phone will sport the Snapdragon 820 chipset, and with the official tweet at least confirming Qualcomm is on board, that could very well be the case.

The power of #Snapdragon meets the #powerof10. Are you ready for next week? pic.twitter.com/Gkf8jkWat1

— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) April 7, 2016

The other info about the forthcoming HTC 10 that is now doing the rounds is less official but no less significant.

READ: HTC 10/HTC Perfume: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

The Twitter account from photobooth company SmileBooth posted several selfie photos reportedly taken using the new phone (which is called the “HTC 10” on overlaid text). What’s more, the main tweet posted on its @testingsmiles account also revealed that the selfie camera with be the world’s first with optical image stabilisation.

SmileBooth (Twitter)

They look official and SmileBooth might well have been commissioned by HTC to help launch the phone – especially if the improved selfie camera is one of the device’s biggest new features. It makes sense to hire a selfie-specialist to help promote it.

What HTC wouldn’t have wanted, however, for that company to post the images ahead of the launch, as it seems to have done.

They might not be genuine of course, but it would seem strange to mock them up and further validity comes from the fact that the tweet has now been removed and the Twitter account locked to “protected”.

Thankfully, Phandroid managed to grab them and the tweet before they disappeared again, so you can click through them in the gallery above. Job’s a good’un.

In all likelihood, we’ll see them again soon. 12 April, perhaps?

READ: HTC responds to Huawei P9 best camera claims with HTC 10 teaser of its own

Samsung Galaxy Note 6 should be IP68 water resistant, iris scanner possible

The Samsung Galaxy Note 6 is set to come with the same IP68 water resistance found on the Galaxy S7, it may also feature an iris scanner.

According to sources of the often reliable Sam Mobile, the Galaxy Note 6 should be able to withstand water submersion to one and a half metres depth for up to half an hour. That would make this the first phablet from Samsung to offer true water and dust resistance.

Sources of GalaxyClub suggest the handset will also feature an iris scanning camera for an extra layer of security. The iris scanner was spotted on Indian import documents labeled “Samsung Mobile”.

Iris scanning can be great, when it uses infrared light like Fujitsu has shown off, but it can also be annoying when it uses dazzling light, like on the Lumia 950. Here’s hoping Samsung goes for the more advanced option that works without blinding the user.

Other rumoured specs for the Galaxy Note 6 include a 5.8-inch QHD display, 6GB of RAM and maybe even the latest Android N operating system. Samsung may unveil the handset around August, which is the month when the Galaxy Note 5 was shown off.

READ: Samsung Galaxy Note 6 release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Dark Souls 3 review: As gothic, unforgiving and brilliant as ever

Masochists rejoice: From Software’s legendarily uncompromising dark gothic RPG is back and its mission, as ever, is to make all other games seem laughably easy. Say hello to frequent profanity spilling from your mouth as a result of playing Dark Souls III.

Although while you wouldn’t exactly say that the third instalment of Dark Souls shows signs of mellowing – the word “mellow” is complete anathema to the franchise – it is, at least in its early stages, ever so slightly more forgiving than its predecessors. So maybe, just maybe, this is the only accessible title in the series.

As anyone who has played a Dark Souls game would expect, Dark Souls III is huge, gothic, creepy, studded with bosses which, when you first encounter them, seem impossibly daunting, yet irresistibly addictive. At times, you will curse the impulse which propels you back into its fetid world, as you struggle to advance even a couple of hundred metres. But the pay-off is that any small triumphs you manage to pull off will be so hard-won that they feel like mighty victories.

Is it worth all the pain? For fans and those who seek the most daunting of challenges, the answer is an overwhelming yes. Or fu*cking yes.

Dark Souls 3 review: Borne of blood

Initially, Dark Souls III evokes memories of From Software’s allegedly less uncompromising Bloodborne, as it shares the latter’s near-monochrome colour palette and takes place in similar-looking settings. But it preserves all of Dark Souls’ trademark attributes. So you’re undead, seeking to track down the slumbering Lords of Cinder in order to regain your humanity.

You can choose from a large number of classes, depending on whether you favour swordplay and shield-defence, archery, magic and so on. We took the Pyromancer route – a class which is pretty handy with an axe, but can also throw fireballs.

Once you’ve sorted out your character, all you have to do is make your way from campfire to campfire (each restoring your health, known as “estus”), opening up shortcuts, until you’ve traversed the underworld, taken down the Lords of Cinder and brought them back to Firelink Shrine.

Which, you will discover, is an epic task to which you will devote tens of hours (Dark Souls III’s game-world is giant, and even if you’re a total gaming ninja, you will die a lot).

Dark Souls 3 review: Gothic styles

Story-wise, From Software has again pulled off the trick of providing a gloriously rich experience yet only ever resorting to cut-scenes when you meet a boss. Instead, the story assembles itself from conversational snatches gleaned from characters you meet along the way.

Bandai Namco / From Software

Dark Souls III’s settings, while always dark, gloomy and imbued with a sense of foreboding, also manage to be diverse – there are castles galore, each creepier than the last, mediaeval-style villages, a gloriously gloopy bog that poisons you whenever you squelch through it and so on.

At first, the campfires are close and the enemies easy to dispatch, but soon you encounter all manner of outlandish freaks with distinctive powers and attacks, each demanding a different approach. As you die and make your way back through the respawned enemies, the game reveals a twisted logic and rhythm all of its own – a feeling that only the very best games generate.

A patient approach is an absolute must – indiscriminate weapon-swinging will just drain your stamina and leave you a sitting duck for retaliation. And that is particularly true when you meet bosses. There are some particularly fine ones in Dark Souls III – although, oddly, many of the best ones, like a huge tree that you can only damage by targeting its egg-like cysts, are optional (that is, you can bypass them). You could argue that the later ones become a bit samey, but they are all formidable and incredibly satisfying to take down.

Dark Souls 3 review: Ebb and flow

One aspect of Dark Souls III which feels like an improvement on its predecessors is a new-found sense of ebb and flow. Which doesn’t mean that you can relax for a second – you still need to achieve near-perfection to progress and sometimes, taking a single unnecessary hit can induce near-despair – but villages packed with streets full of enemies to dispatch make way for more open areas containing fewer (but more fearsome) enemies, with loot glinting at you from their most obscure corners.

Bandai Namco / From Software

At other times you’ll encounter hostile knights which, if you hang back and get your timing right, can be employed to take out lurking demons while you sneak past. And, in typical fashion, the game occasionally plays cruel tricks on you – such as resurrecting one boss in more powerful form when you think you’ve taken him out.

There’s a ton of loot to find, too, some of which appears mystifying at first but ends up being extremely useful. Indeed, objects you find effectively contribute to the storyline, as they detail different factions you encounter (and, for example, allow you to summon helpful allies in specific areas of the game-world).

The sound and music are impeccable, and Dark Souls III is by far the best-looking game that From Software has ever made. All of which adds up to an amazingly intense atmospheric experience – at times, it will deliver similar chills to a high-quality horror-movie.

Verdict

Dark Souls III is the finest realisation yet of From Software’s deliciously hardcore approach to games development, which dictates that in order to extract the maximum satisfaction from your gaming, you must first put in a near-superhuman amount of effort.

As with its predecessors, however, environmental objects can occasionally obscure your view, invariably at precisely the wrong moment (or maybe we’re just making excuses and swearing too much). It will also still feel inaccessibly hard to some who try it, because it is, unequivocally, bastard hard as you progress.

If all that sounds appealing then you will grow to love Dark Souls III with a passion. It’s compelling, addictive and unlike many other games these days presents a huge challenge.

This is what happens when your phone isn’t in flight mode on a plane

Doing something because you’re told to, without an explanation, can be annoying can’t it? That’s why we’ve often put our phones in flight mode on a plane with reticence. But now we know why it’s worth doing.

According to a report by the Mail Online, mobile phones can affect the plane’s comms. But don’t worry leaving your phone on isn’t going to endanger anyone as it won’t affect the plane’s flight systems themselves.

The worst thing a connected smartphone can do is create annoying feedback in the headsets of the pilots. You know that noise speakers can sometimes make when you hold a phone near to them? That’s what a pilot’s communications radio can kick out if phones are left on.

So leaving your phone on in a flight might not cause anyone harm but it certainly is annoying. That ‘dat-dat-dat-dat’ noise in your ear is distracting and the last person you want to distract, or annoy, when taking off or landing is your pilot.

One passenger, texting, did interrupt a radio call from traffic control – which could have potentially been dangerous.

That said, pilots have said that in about 50 flights they’ve only heard the interference once or twice. That could be thanks to dutiful passengers or simply that the odd phone left on doesn’t cause that much interference.

Now you’re informed you can choose to turn your phone off in-flight, knowing you’re at least trying to save someone at work a great deal of annoyance and hassle.

READ: Nintendo NX: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

Apple’s future MacBook keyboards could get rid of the keys altogether

Apple has filed a patent with the US Patent & Trademark Office that could change the way you interact with its MacBooks forever.

It is proposing taking away the physical keyboard and replacing it with a re-configurable, force-sensitive system instead.

That basically means that keys will only appear where and when you want them, using haptic feedback on a capacitive touch panel to give the impression of physical presses.

The “keys” would also only light up and appear when needed, showing through tiny perforations in the touch panels, which will be protected by another layer so moisture or dirt particles would be repelled.

While the new system would potentially make any future MacBook even thinner than it currently is, it seems the main aim of the new technology is to present customisable keyboard layouts.

Apple

READ: Apple MacBook review: Is port-free the future?

Say you only want certain buttons for a game, spaced to fit your fingers perfectly. That would be possible with this form of tech. Keys could also be resized, to aid in certain applications.

The patent also shows a conventional trackpad will still be an option.

Apple filed the patent in September last year but it has only just been published for all to see by the US Patent Office. There’s no guarantees we’ll see this technology on the next MacBook or, indeed, ever, as many technologies are registered with the office that never see the light of day, but this does stand out as really taking computer inputs to a whole new level.

DARPA christens its anti-submarine drone ship ‘Sea Hunter’

DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) has a brand new and less tongue twisty name: Sea Hunter. The agency made the announcement at the drone ship’s christening in Portland, following a series of speed tests conducted these past few days. Now that DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar is done smashing a bottle over its bow, it’s ready to begin a battery of tests to be held within the next two years. The military has to make sure the 132-foot self-driving ship can evade other marine vessels using its radar and cameras, among other things, before it can officially deploy it.

Sea Hunter has the capability to hunt stealthy foreign submarines — China’s and Russia’s navies both have big submarine fleets — and follow them for two to three months at a time. Deputy US Defense Secretary Robert Work clarified to Reuters during the event, though, that the drone doesn’t have weapons. If the military decides equip it with any, Work said the decision to use them would be made by human personnel. We’re guessing they’d be controlled remotely, since the ship wasn’t designed to house a crew on board. The ship is slated to start its open-ocean tests this summer off the California coast.

DARPA next-generation unmanned surface vessel being christened this morning in Portland. pic.twitter.com/GW8nLszPJF

— DARPA (@DARPA) April 7, 2016

Source: Reuters, DARPA

Microsoft’s iPhone keyboard app experiment is no Swiftkey

Microsoft’s Garage team makes all kinds of experiment apps and then usually puts them out onto competitors’ devices. Sometimes, they’re a different approach to connected life, other times it’s a mystery why Microsoft made them in the first place. This time, it’s brought the Hub Keyboard (previously seen on Android) to the iPhone. If you’re using Office 365 regularly, the ability to search and pull from your documents and your contacts (from just above the keyboard), is a timesaver — no more switching between your work apps and email. It’s like function keys, reinvented in a world of mobile typing. But, if you’re not an Office 365 user, like me, then there’s less here to pull you away from either the baked-in iOS keyboard or Swiftkey — now a Microsoft thing itself.

Without putting its hooks into your Office 365 login, the only feature left is a convenient shortcut bar that shows your last “copy”. It’s compatible with web addresses or simple text, (if it’s an Office 360 thing, then it’s also signposted with the right icon.) When it comes to the keyboard itself, still as barebones as its Google iteration at launch. In fact it feels like typing on a Windows Phone. Autocorrect exists, but is minimal: I had to capitalize my ‘I’s and add apostrophes when needed. Microsoft must still be working out how to harness the powers of SwiftKey. We’ll keep waiting.

Source: Hub Keyboard (iTunes)

Apple Complied With First iPhone Unlock Court Order in 2008, Says Report

A review of Apple’s track record of handling government data requests claims that the company received and complied with its first court order to unlock an iPhone in 2008.

According to a Wall Street Journal piece published yesterday, the first court order came from investigators involved in the prosecution of child sex offenders Amanda and Christopher Jansen, a married couple from Watertown, New York.

In that case, which came to light one year after the debut of the original iPhone, Apple not only complied, but also helped prosecutors draft the court order requiring it to do so. The All Writs Act was invoked, and a signature from a magistrate judge then allowed the company to take the device in question back to its Cupertino headquarters and bypass its passcode in the presence of a New York State Police investigator, according to the report.

The All Writs Act is a federal law that judges used to use to conscript telephone companies into helping federal agents install and operate call-tracking devices. At the time, said “people familiar with the matter”, it wasn’t considered a big step worth noting, because government authorities had long used the All Writs Act to get companies to help them with various devices and technical issues.

In total, Apple helped the U.S. government access over 70 devices, before changing its stance after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed details of the government’s surveillance program in 2013.

The revelations led many technology companies to begin tightening security in their products and expanding encryption efforts, and in 2014, Apple introduced iOS 8, which used a new form of encryption that prevented any government agent, or Apple itself, from accessing data stored on the smartphone.

Prior to yesterday’s report, it was thought that the government’s first cause for concern with Apple’s security measures began in 2010 when the company launched the encrypted video messaging service FaceTime, followed by iMessage in 2011.

Following the Snowden revelations, there was apparent division in the government, and the FBI became frustrated that the administration was reluctant to support a law that would help investigators gain access to iPhones and other devices.

That sequence of events and the subsequent San Bernardino shooting ultimately led the government to take the issue public and seek a court order for Apple to unlock Syed Farook’s iPhone, resulting in Apple CEO Tim Cook’s non-compliance letter which called use of the All Writs Act a “dangerous precedent”.

Apple’s dispute with the FBI ended on March 28, 2016 after the government found an alternate way to access the data on the iPhone and dropped the lawsuit. It is widely believed, though not confirmed, that the help of Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite led the FBI to withdraw the case.

On Thursday, FBI director James Comey said a “new tool” from a private party allowed it to access Farook’s iPhone, but that the method can’t be used on iPhone 5s or newer devices.

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.

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Adobe Issues ‘Emergency’ Flash Player Security Update for OS X to Address Ransomware Attacks

Adobe has issued Flash Player security updates for OS X, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS to address “critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system” by way of ransomware.

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a user’s hard drive and demands payment in order to decrypt it. These type of threats often display images or use voice-over techniques containing instructions on how to pay the ransom.

In this this particular “CERBER” attack, affecting Flash-based advertisements, attackers have reportedly demanded between around $500 and $1,000, to retrieve the files. Adobe says it is aware of Windows 10 being “actively exploited” by this attack, but it is unclear if any Macs have actually been victimized. Just last month, popular BitTorrent client Transmission was temporarily infected with the first ransomware found on the Mac platform.

Currently, all servers hosting these malvertisements are now inaccessible. Some reports mentioned that CERBER is being peddled in the Russian underground market as ransomware-as-service (RaaS). This not only proves the suggestion presented by the configuration file’s code above, but also confirms that we will be seeing more of CERBER in the near future.

Adobe recommends that Flash Player users on Mac update to version 21.0.0.213 through the update mechanism within the software when prompted, or by visiting the Adobe Flash Player Download Center. Adobe Flash Player installations within Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer for Windows 8.1 or later should be automatically updated with the latest version of each browser. This is the second critical Flash Player security update for OS X and other platforms in the span of one month.

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