Take a peek at what’s inside the HTC Vive

The Vive is HTC’s advanced virtual reality headset, but we’re certain you’re as intrigued as we are as to what the insides look like. Luckily, we don’t have to open one up and risk damaging components as the skilled folk over at iFixit have given the Vive a full tear down.

Here’s what iFixit took away from the HTC Vive:

The head tracking system in the Vive is the exact opposite of the system we found in the Oculus Rift. The Rift uses a desk-mounted camera to track the IR emitters in the headset, whereas the Vive headset sees light from the mounted IR emitters without actually “tracking” its location.

Unlike the hybrid lenses we encountered in the Oculus Rift, the Vive’s lenses appear to have a uniform contour. It seems that HTC opted to control focus through adjustment of the eye relief (lens-to-eye distance).

Although the headset itself is an advanced piece of kit, it’s possible to carefully pull the Vive apart without damaging the insides to carry out any required repairs.

T-Mobile added 2.2 million new customers in Q1 2016, revenue up 10%

T-Mobile has published company financial results for Q1 2016, showcasing an increase in revenue of 10.6% as well as adding 2.2 million new customers. This quarter marks the 12th consecutive quarter the Un-Carrier has experienced total net growth of more than 2 million.

The numbers were made up of more than 1 million branded postpaid net adds, alongside record branded prepaid net adds of 807,000. Revenue for Q1 2016 was $8.6 billion, up 10.6% year-on-year with net income of $479 million. the company will host a conference earnings call later today.

Microsoft Surface Phone: What’s the story so far?

Microsoft has had a tough time finding the perfect smartphone to push its Windows operating system, even after buying Lumia. Now the company is reportedly working on a fresh start to help push Windows 10 onto its ideal smartphone, which is being called the Surface Phone.

The Microsoft Lumia smartphones haven’t seen huge sales and some have reportedly been pulled from production after the failure of the Lumia 950 to reach popularity. The company, according to inside sources, is therefore taking some time to let its OEM manufacturers sell their handsets while it works on the Surface Phone.

The Microsoft Surface Phone has allegedly been “green lit” and is being worked on by Panos Panay and his Surface team, the people who brought us the Surface Tablet. Three versions are expected: Consumer, business and prosumer/enthusiast.

Here’s everything we know so far about Microsoft’s first Surface Phone. We will be updating this feature as more rumours appear so keep checking back.

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Microsoft Surface Phone: Release date and price

Initially Microsoft was reportedly aiming for a May 2016 release for its Surface Phone. This has allegedly since been scrapped, following the Lumia 950 failure, and a new date of early 2017 is being targeted.

Expect the Surface Phone to be high-end and super premium with a quality build, top specs and a price tag to reflect that, following in the footsteps of the Surface tablet line.

Microsoft Surface Phone: Design and build

Microsoft was initially rumoured to be working on an all metal Surface Phone, which was the device set for release in May. This date may have been pushed back, as we mentioned previously, but we suspect the metal build idea won’t be going anywhere if the Surface Phone ever does appear.

The Surface Tablet offers a strong, solid build and its performed well for Microsoft. Given the same team has apparently been employed to work on the Surface Phone, it’s likely they will stick to what they know has worked in the past, which includes a premium, metal build.

There have been rumours of a kickstand to allow the phone to stand on its own, just like its full-sized older sibling, the Surface Tablet, offers. If so we’d expect a stylus to make an appearance too, on the business model at least.

PhoneDesigner

Microsoft Surface Phone: Display

As three Surface Phone variants have been touted, a selection of sizes is likely.

For the consumer, the handset should be between five and six inches, rumoured to be a 5.7-inch, while the business and prosumer models will likely have larger screens. This could allow for easier access to multitasking and seeing data over a larger display.

Microsoft Surface Phone: Processor and power specs

Microsoft is reportedly working with Intel on its Surface Phone. This will likely feature the best Intel has to offer in mobile chipsets at the time of its release.

It is unclear if Intel will be creating a new chip specifically to run the Surface Phone. But since the phone should double as a PC, thanks to Continuum, expect there for be plenty of power. Here’s hoping it will be battery efficient too.

Microsoft Surface Phone: Camera

Microsoft may leverage its Lumia purchase heritage to create a new camera that rocks the smartphone world. It would make sense to bring in the strengths Lumia has in this area.

It will at least be Skype friendly, so an impressive front-facing camera would be an obvious addition.

Microsoft Surface Phone: Software

Microsoft will almost certainly use the Surface Phone as a vehicle to help push the huge investment it’s made into Windows 10 OS.

Microsoft will want the Surface Phone to launch with a perfect OS that unites its hardware platforms. Expect the Surface tablet and phone experience to be similar and for them to offer most things you can do on PC. Whether that will require a connection to a monitor or not is unclear.

Tesco Mobile scraps European roaming charges, more countries than Three

Tesco Mobile has ditched roaming charges for its network customers who travel around Europe this summer. What’s more, its new Home From Home scheme covers more countries than Three’s equivalent service.

Pay monthly or pay as you go customers will be able to use their existing UK mobile tariffs to call, text and use data in Europe from 23 May until midnight 3 September, at no extra cost.

Any additional calls and texts to EU members over an allowance will be charged at 4p a minute and 1p a text.

The Home From Home service covers 31 countries in total, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

EU regulations will soon be enforced (from 30 April) demanding networks lower their roaming charges. From June 2017, all EU roaming charges across the networks will be scrapped.

Tesco, though, has decided to act early.

“We want our customers to enjoy their holiday without having to worry about the cost of using their phones. So we decided, why wait until 2017 to banish roaming? Let’s help our customers and give them a taste of what’s to come,” said Simon Groves, chief marketing officer at Tesco Mobile.

It is unknown at present what effect the UK potentially leaving the EU would have on roaming charges going forward. Some analysts suggest that European roaming charges could rise again should that be the result of the forthcoming referendum.

Avoid Game of Thrones spoilers with brilliant new Chrome extension

Spoilers are the worst. Game of Thrones spoilers are even more agonising. One developer is clearly aware of this as he’s released a Chrome extension to fight Game of Thrones spoilers specifically.

GameofSpoils will keep you safe from early reveals when browsing the web from within Chrome. This extension will block out any mention of Game of Thrones itself as well as related terms when in Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Google News. So it’s not all encompassing but it’s better than nothing, right?

The extension isn’t a simple tool though, it makes blocking funny too. One example is the use of the word “Asoiaf” which was blocked with the line: “A potential spoiler here did not live through the Long Night, because it dared mention the phrase ‘Asoaif’”.

Should you wish to brave on through a blocked post you can do so by simply clicking on the notification. Even this won’t reveal straight away, only clearing the selection three seconds after it was clicked – to avoid any accidental clicks.

The project, from designer Stu Blair, is open source so hopefully it will expand to cover the far reaches of the internet soon. For now you can add it to your Chrome browser for free here. Then wait to watch the next episode at your leisure, without too much fear of it being ruined by spoilers.

READ: Amazon Kindle Oasis review: First class reader, first class price

Dropbox will soon show all your cloud-based files right in the desktop

If you’re one of the 500 million people who’ve used Dropbox at some point over the last few years, you know what you’re getting in to. It’s a reliable way to back up all the files on your computer, sync them across multiple devices and share them with friends, family or coworkers. It’s fast, it works and Dropbox has added a decent set of collaboration features over the years (like its strong Microsoft Office integration) — but by and large, its core “sync and share” features have remained largely the same. But today at the Dropbox Open event in London, the company is previewing an intriguing new feature called Project Infinite. In a nutshell, it looks to close the divide between our ever-increasing cloud storage vaults like Dropbox and the corresponding decrease in hard drive sizes.

Back when Dropbox first launched, plenty of computers came with 500GB (or larger) hard drives, while paid Dropbox accounts only offered 50GB of space. However, since then, things have flip-flopped a bit — $10 a month gets you 1TB of Dropbox space, while the rise of SSD means that most computers have much smaller hard drives than that. And Dropbox for Business offers essentially limitless storage space, which means you’ll have to jump back and forth between files stored on your computer and Dropbox’s web interface to see everything you might want to access.

Put simply, Project Infinite lets you see everything you have access to in Dropbox via your computer’s native interface (the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer). As before, files locally stored on your computer that are synced to Dropbox will have a green checkmark next to them, but everything else you might have access to will be visible as well. Those cloud-stored files will have a cloud icon next to them, but they’ll otherwise appear in your filesystem as if they’re stored on your hard drive. And if you want to open up those cloud files, you can just double-click. Dropbox will then download and open the file as if it was on your local storage, and any changes will be synced back to the cloud.

It certainly sounds like it’ll be useful, as users will be able to store most of their digital materials in Dropbox and see it all on their computer without having to jump into Dropbox’s web interface. But there are some questions we have that are yet to be answered. It’s not clear if Project Infinite will be available to those paying $10 a month for Dropbox Pro or if it’ll only be available for business users. The Dropbox press release made it sound fairly focused on businesses, but hopefully consumers will also have access to the feature when it’s ready.

There’s also no word on when the feature will be available. Dropbox says it’s testing Project Infinite with “a select number of sponsor customers” and says it’ll have more updates throughout the year, but there’s no word yet on when it’ll be widely available.

Tesco Mobile scraps European roaming charges, for the summer

Next year, the European Commission will finally put an end to mobile roaming charges on the continent. Before that happens, the majority of carriers are following protocol and lowering fees for calls, texts and data, while others are scrapping them altogether. Following in the footsteps of Three, Tesco Mobile announced today that it will allow customers to use their existing plans when visiting 31 European countries.

Sound great, but there is a catch. Unlike its rival’s “Feel at Home” initiative, which is available for as long as you have an eligible tariff, Tesco Mobile’s “Home from Home” service is only eligible for a limited time. Pay monthly and pay-as-you-go customers can use their UK allowances between May 23rd and September 3rd. However, it is a period when many people will embark on their summer holidays.

Tesco’s offering shouldn’t be sniffed at, though, as when it launches, Home from Home will offer more destinations than any other network (we’ve listed the eligible countries below). It’s quite a turnaround considering that less than a year ago, Tesco was looking to offload its successful mobile business in a bid to overturn a £6 billion loss.

Supported Home from Home countries include: Austria, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Ireland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Spain inc. Canary Islands, Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden, Estonia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Finland, Malta, Liechtenstein, France, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

Source: Home from Home

Apple’s iPhone upgrade program now available online

Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program is now available online, meaning you won’t have to trek to a store if you want the latest device every year. As a reminder, the company launched the program when it released the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, letting you buy those phones starting at $32 a month on 24-month subscription. After a year, you can trade in your old iPhone for a new one, as long as you’re willing to renew the subscription for another 24 months.

When the program started, Apple wouldn’t accept any iPhones on trade if they had a broken screen. However, Apple started accepting models with “reasonable damage” earlier this year, making a physical visit to a Store perhaps less important. The program starts at around $32 for a 16GB iPhone 6s and runs up to $45 for a 128GB 6s Plus, and all subscribers be enrolled in AppleCare+ (which covers your broken screen, by the way). It’s only available online in the US for now, but we’ve reached out to see if it’s coming to the UK and elsewhere later.

Via: MacRumors

Source: Apple

HTC Vive App Lets iPhone Users Get Notifications in Virtual Reality

HTC has released its VR headset iPhone companion app on the App Store, enabling HTC Vive owners to receive real-world notifications from their phone while immersed in virtual reality.

The HTC Vive app brings some of the headset’s unique features to iPhone owners for the first time, such as the ability to receive calls, text messages, and calendar reminders within the relative isolation of immersive VR.

Notifications forwarded by the app appear momentarily in the headset’s HUD, and remain available in the HTC Vive dashboard for later perusal. Third-party app notifications are not currently supported.

In addition to downloading the free app, headset owners must install the HTC Vive client on their PC. At present, the Android app’s facility to send preset responses to calls or texts from within the virtual world is not supported in the iOS version.

HTC Vive owners can download the app for iPhone from the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Logi Base Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The iPad Pro’s little Smart Connector can do more than work with keyboards.

You know those three little dots on the sides of iPad Pro models? Right now, they’ve been exclusively used for keyboard accessories like Apple’s Smart Keyboard. But this magnetic side connector could be used for more. The new Logi Base is a Smart Connector charging dock and stand, and it’s actually a cute little way to turn those new iPads into standing monitors…for a really high price.

An iPad Pro resting in the Logi Base, minus charge cable.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Yes, this is expensive: at $99.99 (equivalent to £69 UK or $AU130), the little sleek aluminum base doesn’t even come with a packed-in Lightning charge cable. Take your own and plug it in the back, then pop in either 12.9-inch or 9.7-inch iPad Pro (they use the same size smart connector, you know) and it’ll charge up. Why not just plug your Lightning cable into the side of your iPad instead? Going around the back frees up the iPad from unsightly wires jutting out the sides — so you can use that side Lightning port on your iPad Pro to jam your Pencil in, instead.

BYO Lightning.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Logi Base isn’t completely logical: Its sticky base makes it hard to turn, and it doesn’t adjust to different angles. Plus the base really only works for landscape-mode work (you could prop it up vertically, but you’d lose the charging capability). And also can’t plug a Smart Connector keyboard in at the same time, meaning you’ll need to find a Bluetooth keyboard lying around. But this shows that the Smart Connector should be used for more than just keyboards. Maybe other accessories will come soon, too. If you’ve been craving an upright charge dock for your iPad, Logi Base could be it. But it certainly isn’t cheap.