AT&T is making it easier to use your phone in Mexico and Canada

AT&T will begin offering new roaming deals for customers who use their phones in Mexico and Canada. Starting May 20, AT&T Unlimited Plan members will not incur any roaming charges in those two countries.

AT&T says:

AT&T Unlimited Plan customers will need to separately add the AT&T Roam North America feature to each smartphone and the Roam North America Data feature to each tablet, both at no additional charge, to activate the roaming benefits. The features can be added through myAT&T, online at http://www.att.com, or by calling AT&T.

In addition, customers on the carrier’s Mobile Share Value plans for 15GB of monthly data and higher will also get free roaming in Mexico for no additional charge,

Grab Mpow’s latest waterproof speaker for just $15 at Amazon with coupon code

Right now you can pick up the Mpow Buckler, the company’s latest waterproof Bluetooth speaker, for just $15 at Amazon with coupon code NJB5QCK7. It has an IPX4 rating, so it will work great by the pool, out camping and even in the shower with its suction cup. Each charge will score you around 8 hours of playback time, and it takes around 3 hours to charge it back up.

The speaker has a built-in mic to use it as a hands-free speakerphone as well. Remember, you will need to use coupon code NJB5QCK7 at checkout for the savings.

See at Amazon

Should you buy a Chromebook?

While not for everyone, a Chromebook can be the best choice for a lot of things.

Whenever we talk about Chromebooks, this is one of the questions that always pops up. It’s understandable — you’ve got about half the internet telling you that Chromebooks are great and most folks can do everything they want to do on a laptop with Chrome, and most of the other half claiming that they are useless and you shouldn’t spend your money of “just a browser.”

As usual, I think the real wisdom comes from the people in the middle. Folks who will come forward and say a Chromebook is their only computer or the one they use all or most of the time, and why it works for them. I may be biased because I’m one of those people, but I really do think that for a good many of us, a Chromebook is the best computer you can buy.

What you can’t do with a Chromebook

I think the easy way to answer this question is by saying that there are people who shouldn’t buy a Chromebook and expect it to be able to do the things they want it to do. Chromebooks weren’t designed to do everything — they were designed to do the basics that most people need very well.

For most folks working with code a Chromebook isn’t the best choice

I know plenty of people who are programmers and developers. Some of them do web development using languages that don’t need compiled into a container and instead are interpreted by the browser, and a Chromebook is a great way to do that. You can build out a web app or website, then get everything running well either online or locally. Once it works as intended, you clean things up and upload to a development server where folks using other browsers — you can’t install Microsoft Internet Explorer or Edge on a Chromebook, nor can you install Firefox. These two browsers tend to require small tweaks when compared to Chrome or Safari. Using a Chromebook is a great way to do webdev, but will require testing with other machines.

Other types of development just isn’t practical. Sure, you can install plugins and extensions that allow for a Ruby or Python interpreter, but usually they aren’t able to do everything you’ll need to do. Compiling software — turning source code into a stand-alone application — whether it be apps for a phone or for any other computer certainly isn’t practical unless you put your Chromebook into developer mode and install another flavor of Linux. Of course, you can develop Chrome apps and extensions, but for most folks working with code a Chromebook isn’t the best “main” machine. It wasn’t designed to be.

Another area where Chromebooks aren’t going to be your best bet is media creation. You can find all sorts of Chrome apps for audio and video production or image editing, but for people doing anything like this full-time the apps and their features just aren’t powerful enough. Here at Android Central, we have a crew who handles video production and audio production, but we still need to do some of the “smaller” things ourselves, and I’ll be honest — doing some of it on a Chromebook just isn’t practical. Even something as simple as cleaning up a photo using RAW imaging editing software can be a bit difficult, unless you go the extra mile and install another Linux environment onto your Chromebook, and for many a full-fledged Linux desktop has it’s own big learning curve. For serious editing, most Chromebooks also don’t have the hardware under the hood to make it practical, either. Again, nobody selling Chromebooks is implying they were designed for this sort of work, and that’s because they just aren’t.

AAA games just aren’t going to run on a Chromebook

The biggest problem for many is gaming. Most of us aren’t programmers or media professionals, but plenty of us like to fire up a computer and play some games. None of those AAA titles you’re interested are going to run on a Chromebook for two reasons — none of them are built to run in a Chrome OS environment (even if there’s a Linux version available) and Chromebooks don’t have the disk space, the video card or the memory to run them anyway. There are some really good browser based games out there, and most of them run really well on Chrome OS and the limited hardware Chromebooks usually ship with, but you’ll never be able to play the Fallout series or Skyrim or CoD on your Chromebook. Don’t expect this to change anytime soon, either. A quick look at SteamOS and the giant list of games not available (or even the Mac App Store) means developers are focused on building games for Windows using things like Direct X and special support for AMD or NVIDIA GPUS running on Windows drivers, or for the PlayStation and Xbox. We don’t blame them — that’s where the money is.

For everyone else

We’ve looked at things a Chromebook doesn’t do well, and if any of these things are important to you, I think you’ll be better served with a laptop running another operating system. But the good news is that Chromebooks do the things they were designed to do very well, and might be the best choice for you.

Chromebooks are built to run anything and everything on the web. You can visit your bank, or spend time at Facebook, or watch YouTube and Netflix and anything else you type into a browser bar. If you use a recent model, like the ACER Chromebook 14, you’ll have a much better experience than you would with a similarly priced laptop running Windows. In fact, a high-end Pixel even does the web better than a MacBook or MacBook Air with the same price tag.

Chromebooks are built to run anything and everything on the web

This is because Chrome OS was designed to be light and manage resources far better than their Windows and Apple counterparts. On OS X or Windows, Chrome uses a bunch of memory to sandbox processes outside of the operating system as a security precaution, but on a Chromebook they don’t have to do that — the operating system manages the processes at the platform level with isolation in mind from the minute you turn your Chromebook on. Chrome the operating system is efficient very smart at multitasking between tabs or running applications.

You also have everything Google does available, with full access to your Google account if you like. The same way Android connects to Google and synchronizes your mail, your contacts, your online credentials and all your other Google data is how things work with a Chromebook. With apps, web interfaces and extensions from folks like Microsoft, or the native Google Docs and Google Drive combination, even office work is a breeze. Once you sign in, and only when you sign in, you have access to all your Google “stuff”. If you want to be Google free, you can also log in as a guest and share none of this with Google. And just like Chrome the browser on any other computer, you can mix up both ways using incognito tabs and windows.

Security is also well-managed on a Chromebook. You still need to check into what data you’re sharing with Google or any other service and look after your privacy, but only you’ll not have to worry about the actual security aspect of it all — Chrome OS does it for you.

We already talked a little bit about sandboxing, but the way Chrome works means that no matter what you’re doing in one tab or application window, none of it can affect any of the others. Any potential threat is contained, and disappears once you close it.

Automatic updates and Verified Boot make Chromebooks the safe way to get online

Automatic updates and Verified Boot also play a big part here. Chrome OS is updated monthly without any user intervention, and the update process is seamless and you won’t notice it. Every time you start your Chromebook is checks for a new version, and if one is available it’s downloaded and the next time you start up you’re running it. And every time you start your Chromebook Verified Boot checks to make sure nothing has changed in the operating system, and if it thinks anything has been tampered with, it starts from the last verified copy you downloaded from Google instead. You won’t have to worry about malware, spyware or viruses on Chrome OS. If something does go wrong (people who want to break into your laptop are smart) you would be dumped into a recovery screen that tells you which keys to press to wipe the copy of the OS and download it fresh. As long as you haven’t turned off security features by flipping the developer mode switch (think of it as unlocking the bootloader), you’ll not have to worry about anything you didn’t say was OK to do on a Chromebook.

These features are what makes me (and plenty of other folks) think that a Chromebook really is the best laptop for a lot of people. I moved my mom from a Dell laptop that was about $600 more expensive yet didn’t do the things she wanted to do as well as her new Chromebook does, and she couldn’t be happier. If you don’t need to do the things a Chromebook wasn’t designed to do, I think you’ll like it just as much.

3D-printed hair leads to fuzzy machines and sticky blocks

A while back, MIT researchers found a way to easily create 3D-printed hair: smart software can create thousands of tiny polymer strands (smaller than 100 microns, if you want) that give objects a fuzzy texture. Now, however, they’re finding practical uses for those natural-feeling surfaces. If you specify the right angles, density, height and thickness, you can make the hair do surprising things. On a basic level, you can create blocks that only stick to each other under certain conditions, or paint brushes that produce very specific effects. However, it really gets interesting when you vibrate the hairs — you can create motors and sensors that are as baffling as they are clever.

You can have objects slide along a fixed path, like the metal disc you see above. It’s also possible to produce hairy motors, such as a ‘windmill’ that kicks in when your phone rings. And the hair is surprisingly useful for sensors. Attach a microphone and you can detect a finger brushing along the hair’s surface, including its swiping speed.

These are still experiments, and it could take a long time before you see products in stores. However, MIT’s explorations show that this isn’t just a novelty. There’s a real chance that some of your future gadgets will use this. You could have toy pets that react when you pet them, or wall hooks that don’t rely quite so much on adhesives to stay put.

Via: 3Ders.org

Source: MIT Tangible Media Group

Doctors perform first penis transplant in the US

Thomas Manning from Halifax, Massachusetts lost most of his penis to a rare form of cancer in 2012. He likely never imagined he’d gain the organ back, but the 64-year-old bank courier has become America’s first penis transplant recipient. A surgical team from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) performed the 15-hour operation on May 8th and 9th after perfecting their technique for three full years. Manning “continues to recover well, with blood flow established to the donor organ and no signs of bleeding, rejection or infection,” the hospital said in a statement.

The procedure, called a genitourinary reconstructive (penile) transplant, involved “grafting the complex microscopic vascular and neural structures of a donor organ onto the comparable structures of the recipient,” according to MGH. After an early hemorrhaging scare, blood is now flowing to the donor organ with no further bleeding, rejection or infection. The procedure was performed by a team of doctors led by plastic surgeon Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, and urologist and transplant surgeon Dicken S.C. Ko, MD.

In sharing this success with all of you, it’s my hope we can usher in a bright future for this type of transplantation, says recipient Thomas Manning.

Down the road, laboratory-grown penises might become possible, negating the need for rejection drugs. Meanwhile, transplants are likely to become much more commonplace, as John Hopkins University School of Medicine also expects to perform one very soon. The procedure is expected to be particularly beneficial for veterans, but Cetrulo says his team will perfect the transplant on civilian patients first. The US government “does not like to have wounded warriors undergo unproven techniques,” he tells the New York Times.

Manning lost his penis in 2012 to a tumor, which was discovered by chance during an unrelated hospital visit over a work accident. Had it not been spotted, Manning figures that the rare form of cancer would have killed him several years ago. His penis was partially amputated, leaving the then-single man with no sexual function. “I couldn’t have a relationship with anybody. You can’t tell a woman, ‘I had a penis amputation,’ ” he tells the NYT.

Manning is now recovering and doesn’t mind talking about the procedure. “In sharing this success with all of you, it’s my hope we can usher in a bright future for this type of transplantation,” he says. He also extended his sympathies to the donor family, who wish to remain anonymous. However, they did give a statement through the New England Organ Bank. “They wish the recipient to know that they feel blessed and are delighted to hear his recovery is going well,” says the organization.

Source: The New York Times, Massachusetts General Hospital

The Nura headphones craft the perfect audio for your ear

Any time you buy a new pair of headphones you probably spend a bit of time tweaking their fit and feel for the best listening experience. That can mean adjusting the headband or swapping out the earbud tips to ensure the best fit. But the sound quality itself is still mostly a “one size fits all” experience. Sure, you can fiddle with the settings on your audio device, and some headphones have built-in equalizers or “bass boost” buttons. But there’s still a lot of guesswork involved, and most of us aren’t going to invest that much effort in getting it right. The Nura headphones seek to eliminate all the uncertainty and compromise by packing in hardware that can calculate your perfect sound profile based on the shape of your inner ear, no equalizer required.

At first glance you can see something’s up with the Nura. Sure, from one angle they look like a standard pair of over-ear headphones. Peek underneath, however, and you’ll see a pair of in-ear buds jutting out from the inside of each cup. This might seem odd and even a bit redundant, but it’s essential to building out the Nura’s sound profile. Because inside each bud is a small microphone that the device uses to listen to the inside of your ear. What is it listening for? Well, according to Nura CTO Dr. Luke Campbell, sounds going into your ear generate an aural response from your cochlea. Not an echo — an entirely new sound that contains a wealth of information about the shape and condition of your inner ear. The Nura can then figure out what kind of audio will sound best to you and adjust the sound coming from the headphones accordingly.

It isn’t automatic, though. There’s a bit of setup involved, but the companion app keeps things simple. Once you select “new user” on the main screen it’ll walk you through the process, even reminding you to make sure the headphones are seated correctly on your head. You’ll hear a series of tones — akin to the dial tone on a phone rather the beeps during your average hearing test — and then the app will take the data it just gathered and create a profile for you. That profile will be stored in the headphones themselves, meaning you can use any media player with the Nura; the only reason you’d need to reopen the app is if you need to set up another profile or want to compare multiple users. But even on that last point, a button on the headphones themselves will let you bounce between your profile and a friend’s profile, as well as the “Kick It” feature, which is sort of like a bass boost.

Most of the audio is projected through the earbuds, but the outer ear cup serves a purpose as well: That’s where the bass makes its appearance. Instead of simply making those frequencies louder and more prominent in the audio profile the headphones vibrate on your outer ear, enhancing your perception of the low-end and making it seem more intense without actually pumping up the volume.

I was the kid who always failed hearing tests in elementary school, so my first experience with the Nura brought back a lot of uncomfortable memories. The app was quick to remind me that I needed to push in the ear buds more to get an accurate reading: If you don’t like in-ear phones that fit inside your ear canal you’re probably not going to enjoy the setup process. Nor will you get the best sound from the Nura if you’re not willing to push them in every single time. Within a minute or two my sound profile was created, and I hopped into some of the included tracks on the app, starting with Bjork’s “Venus as a Boy.”

It sounded hollow and metallic to me, which didn’t bode well. Then I saw it was set on the generic profile. With my personalized settings enabled, the difference was astounding. Sure, it sounded louder, but the audio was also clearer and more level. The lows, mids and highs were all audible and didn’t feel like they were competing with each other for my attention.

The next step was to try it with a song I was more familiar with. I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time listening to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, so “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede seemed like a good choice. It has varied vocals and instrumentation, and being an older song means it’s not as heavily processed as modern tracks. It shone on the Nura, with the voices sounding full and resonant while the horns were bright and clear. I was hearing more of the music than I normally would, which meant I was finding unfamiliar nuances. But it was also a bit disconcerting, because these are things I wouldn’t normally hear and maybe don’t need to hear. It’s similar to the visual spectrum: Sure, maybe it would be cool if I could see infrared or ultraviolet, but I don’t really need to. There there are also situations where I wouldn’t even want to, like hotel rooms. I worry about the potential for “hotel room” situations in songs.

However, Nura isn’t really about helping you uncover the hidden secrets in songs. It’s about crafting the perfect profile for you, and to see that difference you need a point of comparison. So I brought along our social media editor and music theorist Mallory Johns. Mallory is a self-confessed audiophile, the kind of person who brings earplugs to concerts to protect her hearing. So presumably her profile would be very, very different from mine.

Mallory went through the setup as I did, and started on J. Cole’s “G.O.M.D.” That’s a very bass-heavy track that really highlights the Nura’s over-ear capabilities. “Whoa,” she said. A lot. I watched her switch between profiles and tracks, also taking Radiohead’s “Burn the Witch” for a spin. Overall, she thought it sounded “super clear and pronounced,” but perhaps the biggest impact was the difference between the two of us. She said my profile sounded “really loud,” which made more sense after I later listened to her profile.

You see, between my history of hearing issues, my lack of care to protect the hearing I do have and our age difference (I’m seven years older), I have worse hearing than her, which the Nura compensated for. Her profile sounded clear to me, but also very low and maybe even a little muffled. Nura COO Dragan Petrovic told us that sometimes other users’ profiles can sound muddy The Nura was even tested on two brothers with very different profiles who got into a fight about how “crap” the other’s profile sounded. Of course, it’s a silly fight to have because it isn’t a matter of personal taste with the Nura: The headphones are doing all the decision making about audio quality for you.

There’s something incredibly refreshing about that: In college I used to spend hours fiddling with audio settings, only to change them a few days later because something just wasn’t right. As I’ve gotten older not only has my hearing changed, but I also have less time to worry about what things sound like: I just want to pop a pair of headphones on my head to listen to my music as I commute to the office. So in a way the Nura is basically giving me a piece of my youth back, not just by showing me what music could sound like, but what it used to sound like when I had better ears and time to take advantage of them.

The Nura hits Kickstarter today with an early bird price of $179. Once that batch runs out backers can snag a pair for $249, which is still a significant discount from the eventual retail price of $399. With many audiophile headphones going for thousands of dollars that’s a pretty good deal for a set that promises great sound and will do all the legwork to deliver it to you.

Tim Cook to Visit India This Week Following Beijing

Following his trip to Beijing, China on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook will travel to India tomorrow to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this week, according to Reuters.

Cook will be making his first-ever trip to India as CEO, as Apple seeks to increase its presence in the world’s most populous country after China. He is also expected to hold meetings with employees and partners in the country.

It is unclear what Cook and Modi plan to discuss, but the conversation could revolve around the Indian government’s recent decisions to approve single-branded Apple retail stores but deny the sale of refurbished iPhones in the country.

As growth in the Greater China region begins to slow, India is becoming an increasingly important market for Apple. Last month, the iPhone maker reported that revenue has grown 56 percent in the first three months of the year, while smartphone sales are projected to grow by 25 percent in the country this year.

Cook and Modi first met in the U.S. last year (Image: The Financial Express)
Apple’s growth in India has been dominated by lower-priced devices like the iPhone 5s, which has since been succeeded by the iPhone SE, but India’s stance against Apple selling refurbished smartphones could make it more challenging for the company to grow its estimated 2 percent market share in the country.

Apple recently confirmed plans to set up a $25 million technology development center in Hyderabad, which will be focused on Apple Maps development and house over 150 employees. Apple partner Foxconn is also reportedly close to reaching a deal to open an iPhone manufacturing facility in Maharashtra.

Tags: Tim Cook, India
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