Tesla Model 3 pre-orders hit 276,000 in three days

Tesla pulled the covers off the Model 3, its new electric car for the masses, on 31 March and it seems the masses have responded.

Elon Musk, CEO and co-founder of Tesla Motor has been regularly updating on the progress of Model 3 pre-orders via Twitter.

The passage of tweets makes for amusing reading, but it’s also quite a feat. Here’s how they panned out:

Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours. Selling price w avg option mix prob $42k, so ~$7.5B in a day. Future of electric cars looking bright!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016

Thought it would slow way down today, but Model 3 order count is now at 198k. Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016

Now 232k orders

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2016

253k as of 7am this morning

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2016

276k Model 3 orders by end of Sat

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2016

These are pre-orders on a scale that has surprised Tesla Motors, with Musk saying that they would have to re-think production planning, with 2017 the delivery date for the new electric model.

Tesla enjoys the sort of fan status that we don’t often see for car manufacturers, with a fan-base that’s responding more like Apple’s die hard fans.

It’s worth considering that this is 276k orders for a car that no one has yet had the chance to test drive. With the Tesla Model 3 costing from $35,000, that’s a big commitment.

It’s also a lot of cash for Tesla Motors at the beginning of the production cycle, with pre-orders pulling in $1000 (or £1000) each, that’s around $276 million. Not a bad starting point for this small electric car company, especially if they all translate into full orders.

We suspect that other established car makers are wondering whether they should be ramping up their own electric car offerings too.

Windows 10 Mobile review: A new hope?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away Microsoft made a move into smart, connected, mobile devices that were relatively unchallenged. The early versions of Windows CE drove Pocket PCs, long before the modern smartphone had taken off.

Window’s life on mobile devices progressed from this place in evolutionary steps up though Windows Mobile editions, with devices still feeling very much like a small computer, before a major shake-up with Windows Phone, shifting the focus to compete more assertively with smartphones.

For some, the game was already up, with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android setting the pace for modern smartphones, leaving Windows Phone scrabbling for traction.

Windows 10 is a single platform approach from Microsoft. It’s designed to give consistency and uniformity across Windows properties, with Xbox, desktop, Surface and Lumia all running Windows 10 and sharing universal apps. Microsoft’s grand plan is ambitious, but rarely are things so easy: on smartphones, it’s still attracting the name Windows Phone 10 or Window 10 Mobile, so that people know what you’re talking about. 

That makes things slightly messy from the start, but the idea is to bring uniformity and synchronicity, whether you’re sitting at your desk, or sitting on the deck of your yacht. Regardless of whether you use a Windows PC, just what is Windows 10 like as a smartphone platform?

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Windows 10 Mobile review: Design

We saw a lot of Windows 10 on phones before it launched thanks to the Windows Insider programme. It was immediately evident that across Windows, Microsoft’s plan was to bring more of the mobile to the desktop. That was certainly the case with Windows 8, leading to some confusion that’s mostly been eradicated with Windows 10. 

On a mobile device, then, you’ll find that lot hasn’t changed. Fire up Windows 10 on the Lumia 950 or 950 XL – the two launch devices for the new platform – and things look familiar. The homepage is still based around Live Tiles, refreshingly unique when compared to iOS’s unchanging home pages. Pinning apps, changing background pictures, colours, and light or dark themes, is still very much the order of the day on Windows 10.

The biggest design change is in organisation. The apps menu is more distinctly alphabetised, with a search bar at the top of the page for instant access. Things look clearer, so we find that scanning the list of apps is faster than before. You can still tap on a letter and access an alphabet grid to jump to where you want too.

There’s also been a lot of organisation in the main settings menu. We’ve been criticising this for several years. As Microsoft added more to Windows Phone, and Nokia added more on Lumia devices, you were left with a fragmented settings menu that was repetitive and disorganised.

Windows 10 goes some way to addressing that, with major categories for settings, like System, Devices, Personalisation, whereas previously all the sub-elements of those sections were displayed at the top level, leading to lots and lots of scrolling.

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But it’s perhaps not the masterstroke of organisation that we want: there’s still an “Extras” category, which acts like a general sewerage pipe for anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere. You have “Colour profile” that should be with the Display settings, you have “Network services” that should be in the “Network & Wireless” section. (We’re not entirely certain what the garbage code is at the top of the right screen above, but we’re sure it’s not supposed to be there.)

We suspect that this is due to a lack of platform flexibility, offering standard settings that will apply to all devices in one place, then those additional features that might only apply to a specific device or manufacturer in the “Extras”. 

One thing we’d note in the new design with Microsoft’s update to Windows 10 is the change of some of the iconography, or introduction of new icons. Generally speaking, icons seem to have shrunk, wording is smaller and lines are finer. We imagine it’s a move pursuant of increased sophistication, but in some places we see things floating in a sea of space, as though the design is unfinished. Where it works on the Xbox, or desktop, it doesn’t necessarily fit on mobile.

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Take, for example, the quick actions area, as pictured above. The icons used in Windows 10 (bottom) by default are smaller than Windows Phone 8.1 (top), they’re less impactful, and text has been knocked down from CAPS, while the boxes they sit in are larger. It feels like wasted space and it doesn’t improve visual clarity. As for the overlap of the Wi-Fi and location indicators in Windows 10, that appears to be an anomaly, it doesn’t always appear like that.

Simply put, we think Windows Phone 8 looks better in some areas. You can change the text size, however, and it is worth fiddling around with these settings, as once the text is larger, things look a bit more balanced. But the case remains: there’s a lot of space that doesn’t look used to best effect, and we suspect this has been driven by creating a new visual identity for the desktop experience.

Elsewhere there’s been a liberal dumping of one of Windows Phone’s design foundations. When Windows Phone 7 launched, lots of apps, both native and third-party, wanted to encourage you to swipe through pages horizontally. There would be a tease of something just off the page, headers that flow over the edge, so you swipe across and you’re looking at a different section of the app.

It’s still supported in some apps, but the design language is very different, cleaner and simpler, showing complete headings tabs, rather than that messy tease of information over the page. Windows 10 is more efficient in the use of space in that sense, although it jars slightly with the point we’ve just mentioned above, where things don’t quite work. It’s a jump down from Windows 7 and 8 where the message was mostly “BIG!”, and now it’s “small!” on Windows 10. 

Windows 10 on your phone is, then, something of a design mish-mash, lacking the consistency of iOS or (slightly lesser) cohesiveness of Android. We can see these elements flowing into Xbox and Windows PCs, but the scaling doesn’t quite work: one-size fits all is a nice aim, but doesn’t necessarily result in your new smartphone being the best dressed. 

Windows 10 Mobile review: Start and personalisation

One of the things we’ve always liked about the modern manifestation of Windows is Live Tiles. Doing away with the need for greedy widgets as proffered by Android, or liberally ignored by iOS, Live Tiles have always provided glanceable info, be that social, news or just a changing photo to brighten things up. 

That’s very much the new Microsoft, and very much Windows 10. Having first appeared on Windows Phone 7, Tiles are still pinned to your home page so those apps and services you regularly use are at your fingertips.

These can be resized, made more or less transparent or placed in folders to cram a little more in and we still think it’s a good system for mobile devices. 

So there’s plenty of personalisation options for your home page, or Start if we stick to Microsoft’s terminology, so you can get the arrangement that you want. You don’t have the same range of options as Android, where you can literally change every single aspect of your smartphone (either natively or through apps), but we like the Windows 10 home environment and Live Tiles remain its most distinctive feature.

There’s also a neat trick that Windows has borrowed from the iPhone 6 Plus. If you press and hold the Windows button at the bottom, it flips to one-handed mode, dropping everything down to the bottom half of the display and within easy reach of your thumb. With smartphones getting larger, it makes it easier to hit any controls that might be at the top of the screen, and remember that the Lumia line has some large devices that will benefit from this.

Windows 10 Mobile review: Windows Hello

One of the new features of Windows 10 is Hello. This is the umbrella term for biometric sign-in on Windows devices and finds itself here on smartphones. That’s not so surprising, with Apple offering TouchID and Android offering Nexus Imprint or other fingerprint-based securities on other devices. 

Obviously you’ll need the hardware to support Windows Hello, and on new devices, like the Lumia 950, this is in the form of iris scanning. This might sound like a super-futuristic feature, but we’ve found it to be a pain in the neck, or more precisely, a poke in the eye.

It works with a red illumination on the front of the new handsets, to look at your iris details and unlock the phone when it recognises you. But if you’re a regular phone checker – and the estimates are that people check their phone 100 times a day – then that’s 100 times the thing wants to peer into your eye, and we find it a bit dazzling. 

Fingerprint scanning is supported on other devices, like Windows laptops, and we’re praying it comes to Windows 10 smartphones in the future, as currently, we’d rather turn off Windows Hello than be constantly blinded by it.

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Windows 10 Mobile review: Quick settings and keyboard

One of the major additions to Windows 10 is quick settings. This is rather like the Android Quick Settings pane, expanding on the shortcuts offered in Windows Phone 8, with a larger grid of options. 

This means quick access to things like flight mode, camera, location toggle, mobile hotspot and so on. You still have the option to select those options for “quick actions” as you could before, but now with the expanding drop-down grid of 16 as well, which is much more convenient.

Another core update is the keyboard. Windows Phone has struggled with keyboards, especially compared to Android. There has been progressive improvement, but Windows 10 takes a leap forward. It sits on the foundation of Word Flow, the keyboard that offers trace entry (as you’ll find in stock Android, SwiftKey, Swype), with predictions for your next word for pretty speedy input. 

But there’s more personalisation now available that makes Windows 10’s keyboard competitive again. You can change the size – it’s often taken up too much space previously – as well as shifting the location left or right, again a nod to one-handed use. 

Finally there’s the addition of a cursor. This little digital nubbin sits in the keyboard, rather like a ThinkPad TrackPoint. Press this and you can move the cursor around the display, perhaps to select something further down a list. Overall, this is all change for the better.

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Windows 10 Mobile review: Outlook, Office, Skype

When it comes to stock apps, Windows 10 on phones is leveraging other portfolio brands more aggressively than it has done before. The calendar, for example, is now Outlook Calendar, with a liberal redesign and the introduction of an agenda view for your appointments, which is very welcome. Overall, it’s a much stronger calendar than before and much clearer to read. 

Outlook too is now handling your email, rather than the mail app before. It’s more cohesive now, offering multiple mailboxes in one place, so it’s easier to manage your mail, as you can just switch inboxes via the tray menu on the left-hand side. 

As Microsoft has ditched the horizontal scrolling (as mentioned above) this means you have swipe options for individual messages, so you can set flags or archive messages to get rid of them. You can change the view to “flagged” to view those you’ve highlighted, rather like pinning in Google Inbox. The Outlook experience is reasonable, but it lacks the charm of BlackBerry Hub or Gmail, and we feel it could be made stronger. For example, rendering emails full of formatting is poor, leaving you to spend time zooming in and out, or having to sweep across to see what’s dropped out of view.

Office was an umbrella offering previously, now replaced with familiar apps for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, to sit alongside the existing OneNote app. We’ve been impressed with Microsoft’s strategy for Office apps, and now it feels much better. That said, with those apps available on iOS and Android too, and offering very much the same experience, it’s not exclusively Windows 10, but seamlessly working from desktop to tablet to smartphone has never been easier thanks to Office 365 – and there’s a free 1 year personal subscription hiding in the Lumia Offers app on the new Lumia devices, which is well worth claiming.

Another Microsoft property is Skype. The communication platform is increasingly integrated, making a move to challenge messaging apps more directly than it has done before. There’s now a Skype video app, with Skype messages now integrated into the messages app alongside traditional SMS, a little like Apple’s iMessage or Google’s Hangouts. 

The splitting of messages to form a stronger instant messaging proposition will probably be welcomed by some, but with so many messaging options available, mobile users might not readily flock to Skype, and the move from the familiar light blue app, to a system integrated app is quite a shift. 

There are some clever features, for example moving from a voice call to Skype video call, but there’s also potential for confusion, just as there is with iMessage. Skype calls (voice or video) are logged alongside regular calls as they are with messages, so when you go to make a phone call, you’ll see your Skype activity there too in your history. If you’re placing a call, you need to make sure you select the right contact, or you might start Skyping someone by accident.

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Windows 10 Mobile review: Windows Maps

With Windows 10 there’s a new version of Windows Maps. Maps has charted an unusual path through previous Windows versions. Windows Phone 7 launched with its own app, but then Nokia pushed its own maps, slowly evolving Here Maps over the course of the next few years, often with both appearing on Windows Phones. 

Windows Maps in its latest guise is still powered by Here (we assume it uses Here mapping data), and aims to be a universal app offering the same experience across your desktop and smartphone. 

In this iteration, Windows Maps aims to integrate everything, where previous Here offerings had separate apps for different actions. One of the benefits is offline mapping, allowing you to download the region maps you need for directions without needing to use a lot of data.

With this new integrated Maps everything happens in the same place. You can search for an address or location and then plot a route, either driving, walking or on public transport. That’s the same as it was before, but now when you want to commit to driving, it happens in Windows Maps, giving you turn-by-turn directions and voice guidance. Previously, you’d then access Here Drive for the directions.

So it’s a change for the better, more comparable with the integrated offering that Google Maps presents, although we still feel that Google Maps is better visually and faster and more accurate when finding results. However, we’ve used Windows Maps for driving and found it a perfectly good system.

Windows 10 Mobile review: Apps

If you’re a fan of mapping, you’ll find that Windows (phone) 10 is still plagued by one of the problems that’s been in place since its inception: apps. 

Maps is a good example: search for map apps in the Store and you’ll get a range of results from varied sources, with many paid-for apps that appear with the same icons as free versions, or titles designed to confuse. Search for Here Maps and you’re presented with something that looks like a fake, search for Google Maps and you’ll find googMaps, GMaps, gMaps, for example. It feels like the app Store needs some housekeeping, and it still feels the way it has done for the past few years.

That’s not to say that Windows is lacking apps: the aim of having one platform is that you can have universal apps in all places and it’s more attractive to develop an app that will work on all the Xboxes and PCs, and not just the smartphones. That should provide some impetus to push apps across devices, as the user base is now much larger in theory. We’re only at the start of the journey here, but compared to Android and iOS, some way behind. 

Microsoft says that porting Android and iOS apps will be easier, but there’s a feeling that Windows 10 is behind the curve with apps. When something new and exciting launches, Windows is still on the back burner and things like the controller for your smarthome heating or the latest buzz social app won’t be there.

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Windows Phone 10 review: Cortana, Edge

Two more universal brands being leveraged on Windows on your phone are Cortana and Edge. Microsoft’s digital assistant has been well received, created for mobile and finding its way to desktop. We like Cortana, it’s well integrated, returns sensible results and can carry out a range of genuinely useful tasks for you. It’s more of a useful feature on desktop now, as on phone’s it’s fairly well established.

We like the way that Cortana swings into action in a Google Now sort of way, presenting useful information about the day when you open it up. In Windows 10 it’s cleaner and better organised than on Windows Phone 8 and the features offered keep expanding.

Looking to change the browsing experience, Windows 10 offers Edge. It’s again one browser for all platforms, pushing the ill-repute of the Internet Explorer name to one side.

The new iteration in Edge makes some additions, bringing a new reading list feature so you can come back to articles and syncing across your browsers, as we’ve seen in Chrome and more recently Safari, for some time. We don’t find it as fluid and snappy as rivals, which is something that highlights the app gap, as you need to use the browser in some places where you might be using apps on other platforms.

It’s hooked into Bing by default, using that to search from the address bar. This can be changed to whatever you want (Google for example), but you have to navigate to that address first, so that Edge can “discover” it. The setting is then a couple of clicks deep in the settings, but not too hard to find.

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Windows Phone 10 review: Continuum

If you’re looking for Windows 10’s silver bullet, then it’s Continuum. While we’ve all been chasing the mobile working dream, we’ve not really seen the platform to make it all a practical reality. Yes, cloud computing goes some way to doing this across different hardware, but with Continuum, you’re looking at a physical way to place a mobile device at the core of the experience.

Continuum lets you move your smartphone onto a larger display by connecting to the Display Dock, a £79.99 accessory. This is different from screen mirroring, as Continuum recognises the larger format display and makes use of the space, with its own desktop environment. Essentially, you can convert your phone into a desktop, giving you more space to work and play. There’s the option to correct through a wired or wireless connection, as well as additional connections on the Display Dock for other accessories.

The idea is that you can then carry your phone with you, connect to a Display Dock, and then get back to work on a large display with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for example, although the connected phone can also be used as a trackpad. It’s a great tool for productivity, opening up Word docs, for example, to keep typing, rather than struggling on the small screen.

There’s obviously still some gaps in what Continuum will do. You can’t open Netflix and play it on the big screen, for example, but we suspect that updates in the future will improve what’s available, part of the ongoing saga of apps on Windows’ mobile platform.

As clever as it is, there’s the niggling feeling that it might not be necessary. With syncing to OneDrive, be that for images or Office documents, it’s pretty easy to sit down, sign in and access your content. With the latest versions of Office you can access OneDrive docs through a browser and keep working. Continuum might seem like a hotdesking dream, but you’re still left lacking the things that desktops really offer – powerful apps you might not have on your phone, like Photoshop.

It feels more like a productivity solution than one geared to entertainment and we’d choose Google’s Chromecast solution for simplicity of getting media content on the big screen, which we think has more immediate consumer appeal.

Continuum, although clever, might be rarely used, unless someone in a corporation sits down and invests in that infrastructure. People will probably be seeking ways to use this feature, rather than it plugging an existing gap. We’re not sure you’ll get Continuum Cafés springing up and in a world where cloud access through apps rules, the instances that you’ll need to use this clever feature are perhaps rare. Maybe we’re being too blinkered: perhaps Continuum is the step that will enable many to move beyond the need for a traditional PC, using this £79.99 box to make that link to the bigger experience.

Windows 10 Mobile review: Updating Windows Phone 8.1 device

On 17 March, Microsoft confirmed the long-awaited news that the roll-out of Windows 10 to Windows Phone 8.1 devices was ready to start. 

Microsoft also confirmed that not all Windows Phones would get the update, as some aren’t powerful enough to handle it. The devices that are compatible include: Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 640XL, 730, 735, 830, 532, 535, 540, 635 1GB, 636 1GB, 638 1GB, 430, 435, BLU Win HD w510u, BLU Win HD LTE x150q, MCJ Madosma Q501.

Naturally, this isn’t a huge list considering the number of older devices out there. However, if you’re in any doubt, there’s a Windows 10 Upgrade Advisor app that you can download to see if there’s an update for your phone, as well as helping you prepare for the update.

Verdict

Windows 10 as a smartphone platform is something of a mixed result. It’s a more feature-rich platform than Windows Phone 8.1, with a lot of new options in the mix. There’s more integration, such as Skype, and better handling with Outlook and individual Office apps, for a smartphone experience that feels more mature.

At the same time, we’re not totally taken with the design. Some of this is subjective, naturally, but we don’t think that Windows 10 makes best use of smaller displays, so it’s slightly awkward at times. It also doesn’t feel as snappy as rivals, the mess of the settings still exists and we’re not entirely convinced it’s as stable as it could be, although that could very well be device dependent.

The strengths of Windows 10 remain very much as they were before: Live Tiles are a joy to use, making for a home page experience that we find refreshing and informative. 

But some of Windows Phone’s bugbears still pervade. It doesn’t feel as advanced as iOS or Android, there’s still gaps in the app offering and the Store is a mess. That can change, this can be a better platform, but as it is at the moment, Windows 10 on your phone feels like it still needs to evolve. 

‘Biopen’ lets doctors 3D print cartilage during surgery

If you need knee replacement surgery in the future, doctors may be able to create a custom-made joint from your own stem cells. A team from St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, have developed the Biopen, a type of 3D printer that uses “ink” made from hydrogel and stem cells. While 3D printing stem cells isn’t new, the exact shape of a patient’s cartilage often can’t be known until they’re cut open. Using the device, surgeons can precisely customize the joint to the patient with surgical “scaffolds,” then permanently harden the biogel using ultraviolet light.

Built from medical-grade plastic and titanium in consultation with doctors, the Biopen is supposedly up to the challenges of an operating room. “The development of this type of technology is only possible with interactions between scientists and clinicians — clinicians to identify the problem and scientists to develop a solution,” says Professor Peter Choong, Director of Orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.

The process yields a very high 97 percent survival rate for the cells. Doctors developed a Biopen prototype several years ago (see the video, above), but refined it considerably, according to a new research paper. The same device could be used in other forms of surgery where custom tissue regeneration is needed, but there’s no word yet on when it will be tested on patients or commercialized.

Via: IB Times

Source: Pubmed (subscription)

Engadget UK giveaway: Win an iPhone SE courtesy of Mobilefun.co.uk

The iPhone 5s is starting to show a few grey hairs, but Apple’s keeping the 4-inch form factor alive with the iPhone SE. Essentially an iPhone 6s massaged into a smaller, thicker frame, the iPhone SE went on sale last week — though if you haven’t taken the plunge already, maybe you won’t have to. Thanks to our friends at Mobilefun.co.uk, we’ve got an iPhone SE (Space Gray, 16GB model) to send the way of one lucky reader this week. And being something of an accessory specialist, the retailer has also thrown in no less than five covers and cases to compliment the winner’s new handset. As always, entries are handled by the Rafflecopter widget below, but please gives the rules a quick read first to ensure you’re eligible to participate.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the UK, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) iPhone SE and assorted cases.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Apple, Mobilefun.co.uk and Engadget / AOL are not held liable to honour warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until April 8th at 11:59PM BST. Good luck!

Source: Mobilefun.co.uk

Apple Updates Siri With Improved Baseball Acumen

Apple has upgraded Siri to improve answers to baseball-related questions in time for Major League Baseball’s new season (via The Verge).

Apple’s voice-activated assistant is now able to draw on an updated database that includes statistics going back to the beginning of the sport’s history. Siri users can also enjoy more detailed Major League Baseball career stats as well as additional information for 28 other leagues and minors.

Siri has provided sports results since iOS 6. However, The Verge notes that, when it comes to sports, Siri’s responses to more specific questions still feel limited. For example, asking “When was the last time the Yankees had a perfect game?” returns a generic search for the baseball team, with similar searches resulting in simple Google queries.

Apple is continually working to improve Siri’s breadth of knowledge and often quietly updates its responses to particular topics. The personal assistant also received additional improvements to its contextual awareness with the release of iOS 9. Siri is expected make its long-anticipated debut on Mac in OS X 10.12 later this year.

Just last week, Apple agreed a deal with Major League Baseball that will see the sports league’s coaching staffs use iPad Pros in dugouts to make better use of data during games.

Tags: Siri, MLB
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The Senal SMH-1200 headphones are music to my ears (Review)

We take audio pretty seriously here at AndroidGuys. Our resident expert, Josh Noriega has done a few reviews of some of the best audio products on the market today. During my search for a new pair of headphones, Josh offered up these Senal SMH-1200s for me to review, and boy am I glad that he did.

Physical Overview

The SMH-1200 Enhanced Studio Monitors are a great looking pair of headphones. As soon as you pull them out of the box you’re greeted with beautiful extra deep earcups and an adjustable, squishy headband. Our Black Onyx version of the SMH-1200’s have beautiful grey stitching that goes the entire length of the headband on the front and the back.

The stitching ends at the metal-looking hard plastic where the headphones click into place for optimal sizing. R and L icons on each side let you know just exactly where the place the cups on your head if the detachable cable didn’t give it away already.

The Senal logo medallion on the cups fits in nicely with the rest of the design since. The silvers and blues fit nicely with the black of the earcups and headband.

In The Box

Buying the Senal SMH1200‘s nets you more than just headphones. When you open up the box you’re greeted to a package of accessories befitting of the price tag.

The Senal logo insert is easily put aside to show what’s hidden underneath. First up is a nice soft carrying case. The case has drawstrings and feels great to the touch. It’ll help your headphones stay looking beautiful when you throw them in your backpack and they’re banging around against everything else in there.

Packed securely inside is a gold-plated 1/8th (3.5mm) to 1/4th adapter. This is especially important to have if you’re moving between studios and home. These things always get lost, so it’s nice to have one come in the packaging. Two cables come in the box, a straight four-foot fabric cable that has a microphone and volume controls (perfect for phones) and a 10-foot coiled rubber cable. Both have their strengths and places so it’s nice to see Senal cover all the bases here.

Sound

The Senal SMH-1200’s are Studio Monitors first and foremost. You can tell with these headphones that Senal tried to walk the line of accurate sound while giving a little extra punch in the low end.

First, let’s start with the highs. The response is best described as crisp. They’re not overly sharp to the point of pain, but certainly deliver great detail and impact. The highs come through clear and not muffled at all.

The mids are similarly a joy to listen to. If I had to pick one word to describe the mids it would be fun. The well-done mid-range pairs nicely with the prominent bass to provide a really pleasing sound in electronic and bass heavy music.

But, the lows are where the SMH-1200’s really shine. Let me say again – these are Studio Monitors, so don’t go in expecting Beats level bass (not that you should want that anyway). The goal (in my opinion) of these headphones were to provide a studio-quality sound with a slightly punched up low, and Senal nailed it.

Some headphones tend to get muddied when they elevate the low end, but luckily that isn’t the case here. The bass kicks without being too punchy. It’s warm and inviting in a way that will make you want to listen to anything from Skrillex to BB King for hours on end.

Conclusion

Confession: I’m not an audiophile. I absolutely love listening to music, but I just haven’t ascended to the next level. But, these headphones certainly make me feel like I’m close. The closed back SMH-1200s just sound great to me. I love the balance that you get with these. They make all forms of music sound good to my ear.

Senal made some smart choices like including the ability to collapse the headphones inward for easy storage and detachable cables for different environments. Being able to field phone calls while continuing to use these is very convenient, and since they’re so light you can wear them for hours without any kind of fatigue.

Product Link: B&H Photo, Amazon

Nintendo leaps into mobile apps with Miitomo [Review]

Overview –

Miitomo, Nintendo’s first attempt at a mobile app, appears to be an attempt to cross mobile gaming, social media, and a life simulator. Their goal is to create an app that brings people together by sharing information that may not seem relevant in standard social media outlets.

Developer: Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Price: Free (in-app purchases)

Highlights

• Add friends via social media
• Customize your own look
• Share thoughts and feelings with friends

Setup –

The setup is quite extensive, as with the setup of most social media apps (unless you have already created a profile) but, Nintendo has made it a painless, if not long, process. After downloading from Google Play, launch the application. You are first met with a loading screen that cycles through some basic information about what you can do in Miitomo. This process takes some time, on my Galaxy S6 it took about 5 minutes to move past this page. You are then prompted to accept the Nintendo EULA, click approve unless you enjoy reading legalese. Next, you need to decide if you would like to create, or link, a Nintendo account. Creating one is made very easy by automatically pulling your Gmail. The next step is to download the rest of the app.

CAUTION: this is a relatively large download (~300MB) be cautious if attempting to download while on mobile data or if you are letting your children set this up themselves.

Once this is complete, it’s on to customizing your Mii.

EULA agreement

Linking a Nintendo account

Character Customization

Impression –

In typical Nintendo fashion, while taking their first steps into the realm of mobile app development they decided to combine multiple app types in a single swing instead of simply choosing one style and smashing it. While I do appreciate what they are trying to do here, I think a more simplistic approach could have yielded a more cohesive result.

It’s a Game:

Despite how it may appear at first glance, Miitomo does, in fact, have game-like features. Your character can receive rewards in the form of coins, game tickets, or Nintendo points (which can only be used at MyNintendo). There is also a game called “Miitomo Drop” in which you pay either one game ticket or 500 coins to drop your Mii, much like in one of those coin drop games, and you win the prize that your Mii stops closest to. Typically this is either clothes to dress your Mii in or candy to exchange with your friends.

Miitomo Drop

Select where to drop

I got some candy!

It’s Social Media:

Nintendo was very open from the beginning that Miitomo was about connecting with friends. They wanted the Mii experience that was such a hit on their Wii consoles to extend past the gaming platform – and on this front, they have succeeded. You are able to link both your Facebook and Twitter accounts and search known contacts for friends who also have characters. You can also add friends that are near you by clicking on the same shape in the “Face-to-face” tool.

Link social media accounts

Add face-to-face

With this social media tool, you can find out interesting things about your friends that you might not know such as their favorite food, something they recently purchased, or even the most recent movie they watched. This happens by your Mii asking you questions and the answers to these questions are then shared with your friends.

To make things a little more personal they have added a speech engine to the game which you can customize to sound however you like. Whenever a Mii talks to you (the user) it speaks in a voice instead of simply outputting words on a screen. You can also customize the greetings that your Mii uses upon entering and leaving a room. Nintendo did us a solid here and gave us free rein over what we choose to be our greeting; no choosing from a list, no predetermined, boring greetings. They are really putting their text-to-speech engine to work here.

All of these nice social features do raise the bar on social interaction over the web. Even though we can’t control the emotion with which these words are spoken, there is more of an emotional feel to them because they are audible as opposed to visual.

But really, it’s a Simulator:

When you break it down to its roots, Miitomo is a simulator. You can customize things like voice, clothes, hair, temperament, attitude, and even the aforementioned greetings you make. You can make it a perfect representation of who you actually are but, is that really who you want to be? Why not change your hair a little, put on clothes that you would never dare wear in public, answer questions with things you would love to do but could not bring yourself act out in person. It would not be difficult to make your character into the Mii you want to instead of the “real” you.

Buying clothes

Miifoto’s to share

Your Mii room

Likes:

• Links to social media outlets
• Character customization to the max
• Great way to interact with distant friends

Dislikes:

• Too much in one basket

Conclusion –

For their first attempt at a mobile application, I have to give Nintendo credit, they stepped out swinging for the fences and hit a solid triple. They wanted to integrate and enhance social networking, check; they wanted to give Wii enthusiasts more of that Mii experience, check; and finally, they wanted a game-like feel to the whole thing, check ‘ish. All-in-all I give Miitomo a thumbs up; way to go Nintendo.

Everything you need to know about the new Amazon Tap smart speaker

Amazon had a big day on Thursday with the release of the portable next generation Amazon Tap. The Tap is a follow up to the wildly succesful and popular Amazon Echo smart speaker which has quietly been impressing consumers for the past year.

What makes the Echo special is its ability to answer questions and commands with the simple wake word “Alexa”. Once you say, “Alexa”, you can tell it to play music, turn your smart lights on or off, turn up/down the temperature on your Nest thermostat, give the latest news from NPR, buy more paper towels, or even tell you a joke. The commands you can give it are almost endless.

In the kitchen you can ask Alexa to help you convert grams to ounces, create a shopping list, read you a recipe, play Bluetooth music, and to set a timer. In the bedroom you can have your Echo set alarms, tell you your next appointment, and play you relaxing bedtime music.

What is great about the Echo, is Amazon is continually rolling out new features every few weeks. Amazon has put in untold dollars into making Echo great, and up until Thursday March 31st, the biggest downside was that it always needed to be plugged into a wall socket.

Tap

As an addition to the Alexa family, Amazon released the portable Amazon Tap that can perform the same functions as its big sibling.

In the box you will get a hefty little speaker that fits in the palm of your hand and stands upright. On the front is the a microphone button that replaces the power hungry always listening microphones on the Echo. In order to go portable, Amazon installed the mic button where users can press it and start giving commands or asking questions.

In order to set up the Amazon Tap, you will need to goto the Google Play Store, or Apple App Store and download the Alexa app. Once downloaded, you simply sign into your Amazon account and goto settings, and look for the Tap in the drop down menu. Simply follow the instructions by connecting to the Tap’s WiFi, and connect it to your home or other WiFi hotspot. I have read reports of the WiFi hotspot not working for some users, but for me with AT&T on my Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, it worked just fine.

Once setup you can start using it by pressing the mic button on the front of the speaker.

If you’ve tried the Echo, Amazon Fire TV, or Fire tablets before, you can have full confidence that the Tap is just as well built and lives up to the high build quality standards Amazon places on its products. The Tap is a 360 degree speaker, so no matter where you place it, you will get sound that permeates throughout the room. It is a solid polycarbonate cylinder with a mesh cover that guards it against dust and dirt.

On the top are controls protected by a soft rubberized cover – fast forward/rewind, play/pause and plus/minus controls on the top. On the back is where you will find the Bluetooth button that you will need to use to connect your Tap to your iOS or Android device. Also on the back is the power button and microUSB input for charging. The Tap also comes with a wireless charging base that is the same circumference as the speaker, and is a very nice addition for a reasonably priced $129.99 device. 

Amazon claims nine hours of use with the Tap, and so far I have pushed it to six full hours and it is still going strong with 2/5 dots remaining on the power meter.

The speaker itself does provide 360 degree sound that is loud and crisp. I wouldn’t say it is earth shattering when it comes to bass, but it does sound great. I have heard quite a few Bluetooth speakers in the same price category, $99.99-$149.99, and the Tap is comparable if not better.

The popular Bose Soundlink Color, and UE Boom 2 come to mind as popular competition, and I would pick the Amazon Tap any day of the week over those two. Not only does it offer similar if not better sound quality, but it also offers the powers of Alexa that should not be underestimated. Those speakers can only play music – they can’t create shopping lists, tell you the time, and don’t even come with wireless chargers at a very similar price point.

The Tap can stream music through WiFi from Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. If you use other music services like I do, such as Google Play Music or TIDAL, you can simply play music through Bluetooth like you would with other portable devices. In order to pair the Tap, all you need to do is press the mic on the front, and tell it to pair via Bluetooth. Goto your phone or tablet settings and simply connect to it through your Bluetooth settings. Then simply start jamming out to some tunes.

So if you want to play music, create shopping lists, ask for unit conversion help, hear the news, set alarms, or control your smart home, the Amazon Tap has you covered in a wireless package that last nine hours on battery. At $129.99, I consider this to be a great value for something that can do so much for you beyond playing great sounding music. If you already have an Echo, then you know the value of Alexa, and adding the Tap is an addition you need to do if you haven’t already.

The Echo and Tap are some of the best products you can add to your tech arsenal now.

Amazon Alexa App – Google Play Store

ALWAYS READY, CONNECTED, AND FAST. Just ask.
The free Amazon Alexa App is a companion to your Alexa device for setup, remote control, and enhanced features. Alexa is always ready to play your favorite music, provide weather and news updates, answer questions, create lists, and much more. Alexa’s brain is in the cloud, so she continually learns and adds more functionality over time. The more you use Alexa, the more she adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.

HOW IT WORKS
Interactions with Alexa are automatically mirrored visually on your Amazon Alexa App, providing more information as you want it. The Amazon Alexa App lets you easily manage your alarms, music, shopping lists, and more — wherever you are.

FAST WI-FI and EASY SET UP
Connect to your home’s Wi-Fi network using the free Amazon Alexa App, with its simple guided setup. Now you can stream all of your music, listen to radio stations, and have access to news and information, all by voice — or with the Amazon Alexa App’s intuitive interface.

Amazon Echo Overview | SpecOut

Google Keyboard: High performance direct from Google [review]

Third-party keyboards are an essential part of the Android experience. Throughout the years, our beloved operating system has given users the choice of using different keyboard apps if they didn’t like what their manufacturer provided. As is always the case, talented developers throughout the world have come up with innovative and useful ideas to change how we type in our tiny screens. Google has always had a solution, but it was either scrapped by manufacturers or only shipped with Nexus devices. The company then decided to introduce Google Keyboard to the masses, providing consumers a highly-performing, stock experience.

Developer: Google Inc.

Price: Free

Highlights:

• Setup process longer than it should be, thanks to Android’s way of doing things.
• Astounding performance.
• Choice between dark and light themes.
• Gesture typing.
• Decent amount of options.

Setup

Google Keyboard’s setup process.

I will always believe that Android’s way of activating a keyboard is unnecessarily complicated. If you’re a newcomer to Android (welcome!) or someone who’s getting started in all of the benefits of the platform, you shouldn’t need to go through multiple screens looking for what you want. Modern apps make things easier and give you instructions on what you need to do, and Google Keyboard is no different, but a keyboard should be activated at the touch of a button, no more.

Anyways, Google Keyboard takes you first to a screen where you need to enable the keyboard from a list of your installed input methods. Android will show a very threatening alert, informing you that keyboards can capture your passwords and payment information (which they can, but that’s why privacy policies exist).

Then, you have to select Google Keyboard as your default input method. Finally, the app will give you the option of configuring more languages. Dozens of languages (and configurations within the same languages) are supported, so you’ll most likely find your method of communication in that list.

Features

Being a Google app, Material Design is predominant in this rendition of Google Keyboard. There are no borders between keys, and the top row has little numbers above them, indicating that you can long-press them in order to type the number instead.

Google Keyboard’s interface follows Material Design.

At the bottom, you’ll see keys for numbers and symbols, a shortcut for inserting commas and periods, an emoji key, and the spacebar. If you have selected more than one language, Google Keyboard will show a key for changing it (shaped like a world globe), and also its name inside the space bar. There’s also a dark theme, for those of you that still mourn the killing of black interfaces when Material Design was introduced.

There’s a dark theme, too.

From the moment you start typing your first words, you will notice that Google has put a huge emphasis on performance. This is definitely one of the most fluid keyboards you’ll find in the app store. It appears on screen and dismisses swiftly, and the few animations it has are really fluid. Compare its performance with SwiftKey, for example, and you’ll see that everything is faster and with less lag than competitors.

When typing, a popup with the letter you’ve tapped will appear. Unlike other alternatives, this popup does not hinder performance at all. Pressing the symbols icon will do exactly what you expect. Instead of opting for two pages of symbols or a similar solution, you can long-press a symbol and it will show a popup with alternative special characters.

Pressing the emoji button will take you to the emoji selection screen, where the ubiquitous icons are ordered by categories. The newer emojis introduced at the end of 2015 by Apple and Google through software updates are included as well.

Gesture Typing works flawlessly.

Google Keyboard also supports swiping, which Google calls Gesture Typing. Instead of tapping the keys, Gesture Typing lets you slide your finger through the letters to form a word.

If you aren’t a fan of this alternative, nothing of what Google has done will entice you to use it. However, for those of us who rely on it, I have found that it is quite accurate, both in English and Spanish (my native language). The keyboard will show you a trail behind your swipe, and a popup will follow your finger with the word you are forming.

Google’s voice typing is also supported, and it’s as accurate as ever. I had absolutely no problems commanding my keyboard with either Spanish or English. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve always found this feature really precise for me.

There are several settings to choose from.

Pay a visit to the options screen and you’ll discover that, contrary to other apps developed by Google, there are several options to choose from. For starters, and like mentioned before, Google Keyboard lets you change its color between Light and Dark. However, apps like Swiftkey and Fleksy offer more robust theme support.

Other options include vibrate on keypress, gesture typing configuration, text correction options, and auto-capitalization.

Google also offers synchronization of your personal dictionary between devices using your Google account. Just choose and account and activate Google Keyboard Sync, and the juggernaut will do the rest.

Conclusion

Having Google decouple its keyboard from the core of Android was a great idea, since it lets the company constantly improve on it without needing a full system update. Unlike competition, Android has had support for third-party keyboards for years, so developers have built several noteworthy alternatives to the often ineffective solutions that manufacturers provide. Apps like Swiftkey, Swype, Touchpal and Fleksy offer more features and customization; on the other hand, Google has focused on providing a good experience with a high-performing keyboard, and it has succeeded.

Download from the Play Store.

App Roundup – Star Wars apps every fan should consider

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has been released digitally today. All of us here at AndroidGuys have Star Wars fever, so we’re bringing you five must have Star Wars apps to help get you ready to rule the galaxy with an iron fist as part of the empire, or fight the power with the rebel alliance. The choice is yours…

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5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

This is an oldie but goodie. Knights of the Old Republic is an in depth RPG that allows you to create your own character and participate in an epic campaign across the galaxy. One of KOTOR’s unique features is its ability to allow you to make decisions in the game that affect your character’s light and dark side. As of this writing, Knights of the Old Republic is free on the Amazon Underground App Store.

Knights of the Old Republic – Google Play Store

4. Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes is an RPG/deck building hybrid that has you collecting holo cards, building squads, and battling your way to the top of the galaxy. Combat takes place in a small arena/environment and plays out in a turn based style. Each character has a basic attack and a special ability. Combat is very simple and involves simply pressing an icon corresponding to the attack you would like to perform. Galaxy Of Heroes is a lot of fun to play and I definitely recommend it.

Star Wars: Galaxy Heroes – Google Play Store

3. Star Wars: Battlefront Companion App

If you’re playing Star Wars: Battlefront, then you definitely need the companion app to go along with it. The Battlefront Companion App lets you play as a commander from your phone or tablet, see your game stats, purchase star cards, edit your loadout and even see which of your friends are playing. This is a must have app if you’re playing Battlefront!

Star Wars: Battlefront Companion App – Google Play Store

2. Star Wars: Uprising

Star Wars: Uprising is an action RPG with a unique control scheme. Movement, combat, and environmental interactions all involve simply clicking on the screen. Uprising offers many RPG elements including character customization, character leveling, equipment unlocks and special abilities. Uprising is a lot of fun and is definitely worth you time. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and play.

Star Wars: Uprising – Google Play Store

1. Battery Lightsaber

Battery Lightsaber is a fun little widget that uses a lightsaber to indicate your device’s current battery level. By default, the app offers you a purple lightsaber, but more colors can be obtained via in-app purchases. Battery Lightsaber includes fun little quotes on the widget, and even has sound effects for when you plug and unplug your device. The widget looks great and is definitely worth a download!

Battery Lightsaber – Google Play Store

 

We hope you enjoy these apps we’ve chosen, and if you still haven’t gotten enough Star Wars, check out these 26 Star Wars wallpapers and our latest Steal This Look – Star Wars Edition!