SpaceX had a superhero costume designer make a spacesuit

SpaceX is fond of making technology that looks good, and apparently that extends as far as astronaut gear. Thanks to both a Tested video (at the 12:09 mark) and a recently highlighted Bleep interview, we now know that well-known costume designer Jose Fernandez has crafted a spacesuit for SpaceX. Yes, the same man who clothed superheroes in Batman vs. Superman and Captain America: Civil War is also contributing to the growth of modern spaceflight. You won’t get to see the suit until sometime in the next year, but the Bleep chat reveals that SpaceX’s Elon Musk wanted the design to be “stylish” and “heroic.” This probably won’t look much like NASA’s utilitarian Z-2, then.

The big question is whether or not this is a big shift in direction, whether for SpaceX or the industry at large. The firm hasn’t been shy about its plans to make a spacesuit, and it even teased one in a Crew Dragon conceptual video last year. However, there’s no guarantee that Fernandez’s suit will look anything like what you’ve seen so far. We’ve asked both Ironhead (Fernandez’s company) and SpaceX if they can shed some light on the subject.

Whatever’s happening, this won’t be an easy task for Fernandez. Spacesuits have understandably stricter demands for comfort, durability and safety — a ripped suit will do a lot more than ruin a day of filming. He’ll have to prove that his Hollywood experience can translate to attire that’s as much functional as it is camera-worthy.

Via: Reddit

Source: Tested (YouTube), Bleep

A 10-year-old Finnish kid won $10,000 for hacking Instagram

A precocious youth has won a $10,000 bug bounty from Facebook after he figured out a way to delete other users’ comments from Instagram’s servers, Mashable reports.

The youngster, a 10-year-old Finnish kid named Jani, claimed the security flaw he discovered could even allow him to delete Justin Bieber’s Instagram comments and captions, should he feel so inclined. Jani showed off his hack to the Instagram team by deleting a comment they posted on a test account. As the boy’s father told the Finnish news site Iltalehti, Jani and his twin brother are fairly prolific at poking holes in seemingly secure websites, but the Instagram hack was their biggest to date.

The $10,000 prize was part of Facebook’s Bug Bounty program, which offers rewards to White Hat hackers and other researchers who find bugs or security flaws in their code. In 2015, Facebook reportedly paid out $936,000 to 210 different researchers, out of a grand total of 13,000 submissions. 102 of those submissions were considered “high impact.”

Jony Ive Shares Thoughts on Design, Fashion and Apple Watch in Met Gala Interview

Ahead of last night’s Apple-sponsored Met Gala, Apple design chief Jony Ive spoke with fashion website Business of Fashion about the “Manus x Machina” theme of the event and accompanying Costume Institute Exhibition, giving some insight into his thoughts on design and some hints on the future of the Apple Watch.

According to Ive, who has had a hand in the creation and design of all of Apple’s modern product releases, including the company’s first wearable device, the goal of the designer is to solve problems without making the consumer aware of the problem that was solved.

In our work, we’ve always tried to design in a way where you’re not aware of the problems that we’ve had to solve. That’s the job of the designer: to solve problems and explore, but not really drag you through what all the problems were.

He went on to explain that tech products, like the Apple Watch, are becoming “more and more personal,” something that he says technology companies still have a lot to learn about.

I think we have always had a very clear and a very singular approach to how we design products that are more familiar to people, more established in terms of product categories. I think it’s very hard to have that same clarity and singularity when you’re not absolutely confident in your subject matter.”

Business of Fashion asked Ive about his future plans for the Apple Watch and while he refused to give specifics, he hinted that there could be some dramatic changes in store based on Apple’s general product release philosophy. He said the Apple Watch is a “natural” category for Apple and that the company thinks about it in a non-opportunistic, “authentic” way.

It’s quite interesting that if you look back at the first generation of the iPod or the Phone — what happens in the next two, three, four years is dramatic. You’d be very surprised about some of the things you would absolutely assume that the first Phone did and it didn’t have. […]

I personally love products when they’re at this level of maturity,” Ive said of the Apple Watch. “You know we can’t talk about future products, but if you look at what we typically do is that we don’t make something and stop.

Jony Ive served as co-chair for the 2016 Met Gala and Costume Institute Exhibition alongside pop star Taylor Swift and actor Idris Elba. Last night, Ive, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs attended the Met Gala alongside hundreds of celebrities, major fashion designers, and other well-known tech leaders like Kevin Systrom, Marissa Mayer, and Elon Musk.

(Image via Vogue)

Tag: Jony Ive
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Hires Former Nest VP and Robotics Expert Yoky Matsuoka for Health Team

Apple recently hired Nest’s former Vice President of Technology to work on health related projects at the company, reports Fortune. Yoky Matsuoka, a well-known robotics expert who co-founded the Google X experimental project lab, joined Apple after leaving Nest last year. At Nest, she led the development of machine learning algorithms for the Nest Learning Thermostat.

At Apple, Matsuoka is working under the company’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who is in charge of Apple’s health initiatives like ResearchKit, HealthKit, and CareKit.

Prior to working at Google and Nest, Matsuoka was the director and founder of the University of Washington’s Neurobotics Laboratory, focused on building a robot-human system to help individuals who experience strokes, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries with rehabilitation and regaining/enhancing motor control. She is known for her work on robotic hands.

Matsuoka has experience in robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, all areas Apple has expressed interest in through recent acquisitions like VocalIQ, Emotient, and Perceptio. According to Fortune, Matsuoka will be working on health-related projects, but the report does not include specifics on what she will be doing or how her robotics expertise might be applied to Apple products.
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘We Want to Change the World Through Our Products’

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer yesterday for a two-part interview covering a wide range of topics. In the second portion of the interview, which aired tonight, Cook talked about Apple’s recent feud with the FBI, what Apple stands for, and who he personally admires.

On a question about what Apple stands for and what he’s most proud of, Tim Cook said Apple conducts business in a way that’s “right and just.” He pointed towards the company’s environmental efforts, use of renewable energy, focus on human rights, employee shareholder plans, and privacy efforts. “All of these things help us stand for something,” he said. “And I think that’s what people want.”

He went on to say that he’s proud of the products Apple makes that give customers the ability to do things they couldn’t have done otherwise, from giving a voice to an autistic child to providing tools for artists to giving grandparents a way to talk to their grandkids with FaceTime. “All of these things excite me because they’re bringing out the best in people,” he said.

Apple has always stood for building the best products on Earth that enrich people’s lives. Whether it was Steve’s Apple or — I don’t view it as my Apple today, I’m the CEO of it — that is what we’re about. And so we want to change the world through our products. We produce products that give people the ability to do things they couldn’t do before.

The discussion on Apple’s values turned towards the company’s recent dispute with the FBI, where Apple was ordered to unlock the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, leading to a vicious and public debate between Apple and the U.S. government. Echoing past statements, Cook said the FBI’s request, which asked for a new version of iOS that bypassed passcode restrictions, went too far and had the potential to put millions of people at risk. He said Apple had to stand up for what it believed in, even though it led to a fight with the government.

Government in general has gotten quite dysfunctional in the U.S. and in some other countries as well. What that does, I believe, is put more responsibility on the everyday citizen and companies to help promote change and improve things. And I don’t mean to play a government role, but it’s not just government who can change things. All of us are responsible for changing things.

Cook reiterated his hope that the encryption debate will lead to a discussion where different groups, from law enforcement to civil liberties groups to technology companies, are represented and can weigh in on the issue.

In a final question, on who he admires, Cook named human rights leaders he’s spoken of in the past and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

I had incredible love and respect for Steve and I think there has never been anyone like him and believe his contributions and gifts to the world were unbelievable. I also deeply admire people who fought for human rights and were pushing humanity forward. People who I think of when I say that are Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King. These people ultimately risked everything, including their lives, to push people forward so that everyone could be included. They were all about inclusiveness. I’m a great believer in inclusiveness.

The first half of Cook’s interview with Cramer aired last night and covered topics including innovation, the future of the iPhone and Apple Watch, the growth of Apple services, Apple’s performance in China, and more.

Tags: Tim Cook, CNBC
Discuss this article in our forums

Throw around some steel balls with Hexasmash [Review]

Overview

Hexasmash is an Angry-Birdsesque puzzle game – if instead of birds you have steel balls and instead of a slingshot you have a pendulum-style chain.

Gameplay

The standard paradigm for puzzlers is pretty set in stone these days – lots of levels, three gold stars, and some varying objective. Hexasmash is not your typical puzzle game. While the pendulum-swinging, gem-smashing, ball-bouncing game does have the former and the latter, there is no hint of the middle.

Not the Gingerbread-like Start Button

The goal of Hexasmash is to fling a ball, by means of a chain pendulum, into a number of colored gems. Destroying all the blue gems will move you on to the next level, while destroying one green gem in each set of stages will unlock a secret level. What makes Hexasmash different, however, is that when you’re going through these levels, there’s no rating system.

Swing that ball!

In Angry Birds, you have to fling as few birds as possible to achieve a three-star rating. In Hexasmash, the only goal is to get to the next stage – by any means possible. At first, I was a little annoyed by it; I thought I’d end up listing it as one of my Things I Didn’t Like. But the more levels I played, the more I found that I enjoyed the freedom. I could fling as many balls as I wanted in as many directions I wanted, and it wouldn’t affect my score. This led me to try tactics I normally wouldn’t, and actually fostered this weird emotion I don’t normally associate with puzzle games.

I think it’s called…fun?

Unlock more levels with Green Gems or in-app purchases.

Don’t get me wrong, puzzle games can be immensely enjoyable; finishing a challenging level can be gratifying, for example – but fun? Not for me. Fun, for me, is throwing 18 steel balls across the room destroying every piece of terrain in the way before finally shattering that last gem. And Hexamsash is okay with that!

You can unlock additional levels via in-app purchase, in addition to the secret ones provided by the green gems. Hexasmash keeps track of all the gems and such that you’ve collected and are missing, so you never have to figure out where you’re missing things. In terms of gameplay variety, the changes in mechanics are sometimes so subtle that you don’t notice them – destroyable sandstone bricks, bouncy platforms, glass walls, and rotating bridges all make an appearance.

Lots of levels!

For as fun as the gameplay in Hexasmash is, the visuals are a bit lacking. The start button and the “Next Level” button have a very “Gingerbread” look to them, bringing back memories of Android versions past, and the overall graphic scheme of the game is well-designed, but not overly pretty. The sound design teeters between boring and piercing, with the sound of gems breaking being the latter and the lack of music, the former. Sound effects are very well done. Steel balls impact with a heavy-yet-hollow thump, and exploding barrels really hit you with a shockwave.

What I Like

• Focuses on fun by eschewing standard puzzle game conventions.
• Throwing steel balls around is a good time.
• Lots of levels!

What I Didn’t

• Graphics aren’t anything to write home about.
• Lack of Google Play Games support.

Summary

In all, Hexasmash is a really pleasant surprise for your average puzzle-gamer. It rings of Angry Birds and other such games, but brings its own dynamic and take on the genre to the table. I’d recommend giving it a download, if just to fling a few balls and have a good time. It may not be a good pickup for completionists or gamers that actively try to be as efficient as possible, but as a casual puzzle game that breaks modern convention, it’s a hidden gem.

Sony Xperia Z5 review: A sleek and snappy flagship

Over the past few weeks, I have been using the Sony Xperia Z5 as my daily driver. Has Sony’s latest flagship overcome the problems that many users faced with the previous Z3+? Read on to find out!

Design

When it comes to the design of the Xperia Z5, sleek and minimal are the first adjectives that come to mind. The fully metal sides sandwiched together by two pieces of glass makes the Z5 a beauty to look at and hold. Instead of keeping the glass on the back glossy, Sony went with frosted glass which not only helps reduce fingerprints but also adds to the overall luxurious look and feel of the phone. The glossy Sony logo on the back paired with the subtle Xperia logo below it should be the way that all phones are branded.

The logos on the Xperia Z5 do not stand out from the phone with garish colors or sizes but rather complement the design of the phone. This may be the first time I have ever applauded a company’s use of logos, but Sony’s ability to blend its logos into the Z5 should not go unrecognized. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the design is the Xperia logo that is embossed into the bottom right side of the phone.

On the bottom of the Z5, there is a microUSB port plus a spot to attach a wrist strap if you are worried about dropping this phone. The right side of phone includes the power button, volume rockers, and dedicated camera button. I must say, this camera button is one of the greatest joys of using this phone. Not only does it include a half press for focusing before taking the picture, but it also allows a quick launch of the camera from any screen (even when the phone is off) with a long press.

One of the main reasons I was excited to review the Z5 was that the power button doubled as a finger print scanner, and I thought that having this placed on the side was the best idea I had ever heard. However upon getting my Z5, I realized that there did not appear to be a fingerprint scanner on the power button. I then remembered an article I read that mentioned the US versions of the Z5 and the Z5 compact would be foregoing the fingerprint sensor. Why, Sony? Why would you get rid of the fingerprint sensor for the US versions?

The location of the volume rocker seemed strange to me at first since it is located on the bottom half of the phone; however, I quickly came to love the placement because it resulted in me almost never accidentally hitting the volume buttons which happens quite a bit on my other phones. On the top of the phone, there is a lone headphone jack for listening to some tunes. The left side of the Z5 contains the waterproof flap that covers the SIM card and MicroSD card tray. Yes, the Xperia Z5 has expandable storage so you don’t need to worry about running out of space any time soon.

The front of the phone shows off the 5.2” 1080p screen which is accompanied by dual front-facing speakers and a 5MP camera for all your selfie needs. The back of the Z5 is almost completely bare aside from the 23MP camera and LED flash in the top left corner.

Earlier, I mentioned the waterproof flap for the SIM card tray which means that, yes, the Xperia Z5 is waterproof and comes with an IP68 rating. But hold on just one second! Before you get all excited thinking about all the cool underwater pictures you can get with that 23MP camera, you should know that Sony says to not use the Xperia Z5 underwater even though it claims the phone is waterproof.

So if you do decide to chance it anyway and you phones ends up breaking from water damage, there is a good chance that Sony will not replace that phone under warranty. Basically, you are good for using the Z5 in the rain, accidentally dropping it into the sink or toilet, or even using it in the shower, but you should probably avoid using it underwater even though Sony is still touting that it is a waterproof phone.

I used the Z5 in the rain and also had it slide into a sink full of water, and it is still running totally strong. Sony’s waterproofing of the Z5 has done a good job and adds to the overall durability of it, but unfortunately it looks like underwater usage isn’t happening.

Speakers

Thankfully, Sony has included dual front-facing speakers on the Xperia Z5, which needs to become the standard for all phones. Of course, the placement of the speakers doesn’t matter if the sound quality is lacking. Thankfully, the speakers on the Z5 are solid in the realm of phone speakers. The mids and highs are both represented well with good separation and clarity. I do not know if you could ask for much more from phone speakers in the high end.

Unfortunately, the low end leaves much to be desired. Coming from someone who does not like overly heavy bass, you will never have to worry about the bass punching too hard. In fact, I would say that it does not hit nearly hard enough. In some songs, I feel like the low end has been almost taken out completely.

So what do you need to take away from this? If you are planning to use your speakers for watching to YouTube videos (excluding music videos) and Netflix, listening to podcasts or spoken word, and rarely using your phone as a speaker for music, you will be completely pleased with the sound quality from the Z5 speakers, and I believe that most people will fall into this category.

If you are looking to use your phone’s speakers to play music, I would recommend just buying a Bluetooth speaker because you are not going to find a phone that can match the sound quality of even a relatively inexpensive Bluetooth speaker.

Display

The display is one of the best choices Sony made with the Z5. First off, the size is only 5.2” which is an almost perfect size for many people as it is neither too small nor too large. Everyone who has used my Z5 has been able to do everything they wanted to do and I never got a comment about the phone being small or big. Second, Sony kept the resolution at 1080p instead of following the crowd and bumping it up to an unnecessary 2K resolution. At 5.2”, a full HD display provides a high enough pixel density to create a beautiful image without visible pixels and also benefits from less battery usage compared to a higher resolution display.

Sony went with an IPS LCD panel for the Z5’s display which means that, while you will not get the pure blacks of an AMOLED panel, colors are well represented and whites are vibrant. I felt like the display had a slightly cool color temperature with the whites having a slight blue tint to them, but overall, the display is beautiful and should please almost anyone viewing it.

Battery

With a 2900mAh battery and a 1080p screen, Sony is touting up to two days of battery life on the Z5. In theory, the lower resolution screen (compared to phones with 2K screens), power efficient processor, and Android Marshmallow’s improved battery performance, this claim should not be too outlandish. Unfortunately in practice, I never got anywhere close to two days with the Z5.

My normal days includes listening to about an hour of music or podcasts, watching a couple of YouTube videos, texting, checking Slack, and responding to emails. Even on the best days, I never got more than 4 hours of screen-on time out of the Z5. I normally wake up around 6:30AM on my longest days and don’t get back to sleep until close to midnight, but I found that the Z5 couldn’t last a full day with my usage. Maybe if you are a light user, you could stretch two days out of this battery, but if you are a power user, you will be searching for an outlet before the day is done.

One thing that I must commend the Z5 on is its standby power consumption. I left the Z5 on my desk and came back almost 10 hours later to find that it had not even dropped one percent. While the SIM card was out at this time, it was still connected to WiFi and continuously pulled down notifications like email. I’m sure that some of this amazing standby time is thanks to Android’s Doze feature, but there is definitely some extra witchcraft going on here. Regardless of what is causing it, Sony nailed the standby time with the Z5.

Performance

When Sony’s previous flagship, the Z3+ (or Z4, Z3v, etc.), came out earlier in 2015, it was plagued with performance bugs that were ultimately chalked up to overheating from the Snapdragon 810, which gained notoriety for its heat issues. On the Z3+, performance issues lead to stuttering, app crashes, and a negative experience all around.

Although the Z5 also comes with the Snapdragon 810, there is no reason to worry about overheating issues here. The new version of the 810 used in this phone runs much cooler than its predecessor and performance is not affected. Performance on the Xperia Z5 has been nothing but snappy and smooth. Multitasking is quick thanks to the 3GB of RAM, and I never experienced any memory management problems.

With the Xperia Z3+, 4k video could only be recorded for a short period before the phone would overheat and need to cool down. There is no such problem with the Z5 as 4k recording is much easier and smoother. I attribute some of the Xperia Z5’s quick performance to the fact that it is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a light skin on top. Marshmallow is the fastest iteration of Android yet, and pairing it with a light skin means that performance is almost Nexus-like.

Software

When I first opened the Z5 packaging, the phone was running some iteration of Android Lollipop. Thankfully, I did not have the phone on for more than five minutes before I got the notification that the Z5 was ready to update to Marshmallow. Without hesitation, I updated to it. Sony has done a great job at adding some extra features to Android Marshmallow without losing much of the feel of stock Android. Aside from some of the icons and the Settings menu, I believe anyone would be hard pressed to find much difference between the software running on the Xperia Z5 and stock Android itself.

Unfortunately, there are some apps that are created by Sony that I wish were just the Google versions of these apps instead. Things like Contacts, Calendar, Calculator, and Email are all apps made by Sony instead of the Google versions. While none of these apps are actually much different than their Google alternatives, I wonder why Sony saw the needs to implement its own applications in place of almost identical ones from Google.

Outside of those apps, there is the normal suite of PlayStation apps that allow you to interact with your PlayStation and even mirror games to your phone. The last major feature addition is the Themes section which changes the entire look of the phone with the click of a button. While I prefer to customize my phone myself, I know that others will find this feature much more useful.

Camera

Sony is known for making good cameras both inside and outside of the smartphone world. I was excited to finally get to try a Sony sensor in an actual Sony smartphone. On paper, the specs for the camera on the Z5 are fairly impressive. It comes with an f/2.0 23MP sensor that should be capable of taking some incredible photos. In practice, I was impressed with some of the shots taken outside, but once I moved into lower light situations, the camera started to fail me. Do not get me wrong, this is by no means a bad camera, but with hardware like this, I did expect much more.

First, let’s discuss the good things about this camera. At 23MP, there is a ton of detail crammed into every shot taken with the Z5. This detail lends to sharp pictures that can easily be cropped if needed without losing much detail. In outside shots, the camera on the Z5 is capable of capturing some beautiful pictures. As long as there is good lighting, the Z5 almost consistently take good photos which can be seen in the photos of the dog and Dallas.

Now, on to the not so great things about this camera. In many of the pictures I took, bright colors appeared blown out and detail in them was lost. This is visible in the photos of the red flower and the clay chicken and egg. In the red flower photo, the color of the flower is much more vibrant than it actually was, which causes the detail in the petals to become muted. As for the clay chicken, the orange clay was not nearly as neon as it appears in that picture.

This picture brings up another problem I experienced with this camera. In the clay chicken photo, the shadows are extremely dark and have almost no detail. In order to get detail from the shadows, I had to manually raise the brightness, which resulted in the background being blown out. The camera on the Z5 does not handle low light or shadows well.

One final complaint I have with the Z5’s camera is the shutter lag. Regardless of if I used the hardware shutter button on the on-screen shutter button, I found that the Z5 would not take the picture until about a second after I pressed it. This may not be a problem if you are only taking pictures of still objects, but do not expect to be able to take photos in a split second of sporting events or animals. Hopefully, this problem can be fixed with a simple software update.

Overall, I believe that the Xperia Z5 is capable of taking amazing pictures as long as the conditions are correct. However, in low light situations or when bright colors are present, the camera begins to suffer and lose detail in both places.

Conclusion

After spending a while with the Sony Xperia Z5, I am actually going to be sad to see it go when I switch back to my Nexus 6. The build quality of the Z5 is one of the best I’ve ever seen, the screen is great, the performance is smooth, and the camera button is fantastic. However, the camera leaves some to be desired, the battery life is lacking, and the removal of the fingerprint sensor is just annoying.

If you are looking for a well-designed phone that can take a beating, flies through performance, takes mostly good photos, and looks stunning doing it, there are not many other phones out there that fit this description better than the Xperia Z5. Couple all of that with a near stock experience and relatively quick updates from Sony and you have got yourself a phone that should have no trouble lasting for the next two years. Get your hands on the Sony Xperia Z5 over at its page on B&H!

Huge thanks to B&H for making this review possible!

Utilitech Pro 60W Equivalent LED review – CNET

The Good One of the cheapest dimmable 60W replacement LEDs currently on store shelves.

The Bad Not a perfect dimmer on any of our switches, and not as bright as advertised.

The Bottom Line You’ll get performance that’s slightly better out of bulbs that cost slightly more, but at less than $5, this dimmable LED isn’t a terrible pick.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

I’ll make this quick. This 8.5W LED from Utilitech Pro isn’t the best replacement for a 60W incandescent that I’ve tested, but at less than $5, it’s a respectable one.

Unlike a lot of other sub-$5 LED options (most notably, the Philips 60W Replacement and the GE Bright Stik LED), Utilitech Pro’s bulb promises to work with dimmer switches. Sure enough, it worked with our dimmer rig, albeit with a few caveats. First, it flickered very slightly on an old rotary knob dimmer designed for use with incandescents. With newer, more LED-friendly switches, it didn’t flicker at all — but it also wouldn’t shine any brighter than about 75 percent at the highest settings.

Utilitech Pro’s LED vs the competition

That problem is compounded by the fact that the bulb isn’t terribly bright to begin with. It promises 800 lumens on the box (roughly what you’d expect from a 60W incandescent), but in our spectrometer and integrating sphere setup, it clocked in at closer to 650 lumens. That’s plenty bright for an accent light, but as a sole source of illumination, you might rightly want a little more.

If I needed a dimmable LED, I’d probably spend a few dollars more on the Cree 4Flow LED, or grab a dimmable Ledare LED during my next Ikea run. Still, it’s hard to be mad at a dimmable LED that’s this inexpensive. At less than $5 at Lowe’s (it’s model 740062), Utilitech Pro’s 8.5W LED isn’t a bad pick in a pinch.

2016 Toyota Camry review – Roadshow

The Good With loads of interior space, especially in the back, the 2016 Toyota Camry proves easy and accessible for drivers of all ages, but its ride comes off as softer and less sporty than competitors.

The Bad The Camry lacks some features commonly found in the segment like Apple CarPlay and additional ports. Lane-departure warning proves quirky in everyday use, as well.

The Bottom Line If you’re part of the majority that favors comfort and practicality over sporting characteristics, the 2016 Toyota Camry is about as close to perfect as it gets.

If you tell a car enthusiast that you bought a Toyota Camry, you will hear something like “Oh, but it’s so boring. There are so many more engaging cars on the market, like the Honda Accord or the Mazda6.” This might come as a shock to enthusiasts, but not every buyer wants a lively sprite of a car.

Some — or, dare I say, most — buyers want a car that’s practical, reliable and safe. It should get decent-to-good fuel economy, have enough space for the whole family and contain enough creature comforts to not leave owners wanting. And guess what? The Toyota Camry fits that bill wholesale. It will do everything the average buyer wants without breaking the bank (or the owner’s back on a bumpy road).

Is it perfect? Oh, hell no. No car is. Does it jibe with my personal tastes? Not exactly. But, unlike some enthusiasts out there, I know it’s a damn fine car for most buyers on the market. And they seem to agree with me, as the Camry held its place as the best-selling car in the US for March 2016.

Sharp looks, without edge

Toyota refreshed the Camry’s face for 2015, giving it a slightly more aggressive countenance without making the whole thing some exercise in boy-racer aesthetics. The larger grille up front and more pronounced character lines at the rear keep the Camry looking fresh in the face of newer competitors, such as the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord. It’s not as inoffensively uninteresting as it used to be, but it’s still plenty anonymous on the road.

Toyota’s gaping maw of a grille is inescapable. Best to embrace it before it consumes you, too.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Inside the Camry, the anonymity makes way for a bit of life. The nicely designed interior features multiple materials layered atop the dashboard, providing a flow to the door panels and off to the back seat. Our Camry is the XLE model, the luxury trim, and it has a look that’s distinctly different from the sportier XSE variant or the more basic trim levels. The leather seat and steering wheel are both suitably soft, and the seats mitigate muscle fatigue on longer jaunts.

Of course, it’s still an affordable midsize sedan, so there are some cut corners. The plastic atop the dashboard vents, on the center console and the window switch panel is very hard and is likely prone to scratching in very little time. The headliner is made from the same material that holds multiple McDonald’s cups. And Toyota hasn’t yet equipped the Camry with an electronic parking brake, so you’ll still be ratcheting down a foot pedal.

But, on the whole, the interior is just about perfect for your average buyer. It’s immensely capacious, with above-average rear legroom and a roof that’s high enough for taller drivers. Between the center console, complete with Qi-style wireless charging pad, and the purse-sized storage cubby nestled betwixt the seats, storage space is ample. The cupholder fits an iPhone 6S Plus or a large fast-food cup. There are two 12-volt plugs up front, along with one USB 2.0 port, but there are no plugs whatsoever for the back seat.

2016
Toyota
Camry
XLE
V6:
The
best
at…

See full gallery

1 – 6 of 44

Next
Prev

Straightforward, accessible tech

Speaking of in-car tech, the 2016 Camry features more than enough newfangled tricks to appeal to general audiences. We’ll start with most obvious way to access these systems — the optional 7-inch screen smack dab in the center of the dashboard (the standard one’s a bit smaller).

You’ll undoubtedly be pleased to learn that Kelis’ “Milkshake” sounds great on the Camry’s optional JBL speakers.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Toyota’s Entune touchscreen infotainment system has been decried as too simple for some, but given the wide breadth of Americans who buy these cars, I think it’s laudable in its simplicity. Positively ginormous buttons and dials for various infotainment functions flank large tiles on the screen, which might be a bit too large-print-magazine for some, but I see them as easy to read and access while in a moving vehicle.

Entune is loaded and ready to go between five and 10 seconds after starting the car, which is on the quick side. I managed the Bluetooth phone pairing process, using screen and phone, in 30-45 seconds.

Navigation is part of an $805 package that includes upgraded JBL audio components, the aforementioned larger touchscreen, Siri Eyes Free and Entune Apps, the latter of which includes connected services like up-to-date weather maps, real-time traffic information and third party apps such as Yelp and Slacker Radio. The speakers sound off with solid range and ample fidelity until you really crank it, which most buyers won’t.

A second display nestled between the gauges shows pertinent information including navigation directions, audio information, fuel economy readouts and vehicle settings. Once you figure out which side of the steering wheel controls the screen (it’s the right), navigating its menus is easy peasy, even at speed.

Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Elite Pro goes on sale May 27 for $200.

Kevin Marple

Turtle Beach is calling its upcoming $200 Elite Pro the first gaming headset designed from the ground-up for eSports athletes.In case you don’t know what an eSport athlete is, it’s someone who plays video games for a living and back in 2013 the U.S. government officially recognized eSports players as professional athletes.

For the release of the Elite Pro, Turtle Beach has teamed up with OpTic Gaming, one of the more “prolific” eSports organizations. As part of the new partnership, OpTic’s championship Call of Duty, Halo and Counter Strike: Global Offensive teams will begin using the headset on the competitive gaming circuit and at this year’s eSports World Convention that takes place on May 6-8, 2016 in Paris, France.

Of course, you don’t have to be an eSport athlete to own the Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset. You just have be willing to fork out the dough for it when it goes on pre-order on May 27.

Here’s a look at its key features, according to Turtle Beach:

• ComforTec Fit System – A revolutionary adjustment system for truly personalized comfort.
• Aerofit Ear Cushions – Groundbreaking material technologies combine to deliver cooling comfort, better sound and passive noise isolation.
• ProSpecs Glasses Relief System – Patented technology alleviates ear cushion pressure for gamers who wear glasses.
• Pro Gaming Microphone with TruSpeak Technology – Professional grade microphone provides effortless communication with your squad.
• 50mm Nanoclear Speakers – Turtle Beach’s signature audio tuning delivers immersive game sound and crystal clear team chat.
• Elite Pro Customizable Speaker Plates – Add customized speaker plates that attach magnetically to the outside of the Elite Pro’s ear-cups. (sold separately)
• Circuit Pro Cable System – Quickly connect the Elite Pro headset to all Elite Pro accessories through one easy, universal connection.
• Includes Turtle Beach Elite Membership