Acer Chromebook 14 review: Big screen, big value

Acer Chromebook 14 Full review

Since Google started pushing its Chromebook platform as a consumer-focused product, Acer has been there leading the charge with some of the best models. Perhaps the most popular Chromebook of all time, the C720, came from Acer, and the company commands a substantial portion of the Chrome OS market at this point.

But all of that success came on the back of low-end, affordable Chromebooks that leaned more toward the side of “cheap throw-away” than “solid laptop to be proud of using.” To be fair to Acer that’s where the entire Chromebook market was at — that is, until 2015 when a few different manufacturers hit the scene with new mid-range models that upped the performance and hardware quality over the bargain basement norm.

Acer’s response to the likes of Dell, HP and Toshiba is this, the new Chromebook 14. Built out of aluminum and packing really solid specs even in its base model, the Chromebook 14 ticks a lot of boxes for those who want the simplicity of a Chromebook but are willing to pay just a little bit more for something that’s actually enjoyable to touch and look at.

At $299, the Chromebook 14 is fitting the mold nicely — this is our full review.

About this review

I (Andrew Martonik) am writing this review after over a week using the $299 retail model of the Acer Chromebook 14, which ships with a 1920×1080 resolution display, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The entirety of the review was conducted on the stable channel of Chrome OS.

Acer Chromebook 14 Hardware and display

Though we’ve come a long way from the time when you just couldn’t get a Chromebook that actually looked and felt nice, we aren’t out of the woods quite yet. Your average $200-300 Chromebook today — including many from Acer — is still built quite cheaply and doesn’t exhibit much in the way of inspired design, but thankfully the Chromebook 14 is not one of those laptops.

Much was made about this being an all-aluminum laptop, but the important thing here is that the Chromebook 14 is actually made well, no matter the material choices. The entire bottom of the laptop is a big slab of well-machined aluminum, as is a majority of its lid — though the outer coating is a somewhat down-market texture with a cheaper finish. All of the seams line up nicely, the edges are rounded well, and you don’t feel it flexing in your hands when you pick it up. The other side of the equation here is weight: the 14-inch laptop is 3.42 pounds — not exactly light and portable. I like to draw that line closer to three pounds.

Much was made about the use of aluminum, but what’s important is how it’s all put together.

You’ll find a pair of speaker grilles on the bottom of the laptop, which, due to the curve of the bottom, are slightly raised off of the surface on which you’re laying the laptop. The speakers sound a bit hollow, lacking much bass output, but get pretty darn loud. They’re easily good enough for any media you’ll be consuming, but you’ll probably look for headphones if you’re watching a full-length movie. Another interesting note is that the display hinge lets the lid go all the way back to a completely flat configuration, meaning you’ll never be limited in positioning it for proper viewing.

There isn’t anything particularly striking about the design — that is, unless you’re really fond of what a MacBook Air looks like — but that’s not an issue at all for me so long as it’s well-made and feels solid, which it is and does. You won’t be embarrassed to open this up at a coffee shop, or leave it out on a table at home — it’s a respectably handsome laptop.

The port offering on the Chromebook 14 is great in many ways, but comes up short in one. On the good side, you have two USB 3.0 ports, which is fantastic, and they both occupy the same side of the laptop, which I like. They’re set right next to a full-sized HDMI port and a laptop locking slot, if you need that sort of thing. On the opposite side you get a standard headphone/microphone jack, and a ho-hum barrel-style power connector. The big missing feature here for me is an SD card slot, which I like to have for the potential of augmenting the 32GB of internal storage down the road — most other Chromebooks offer an SD card slot, and it’s a bit odd to see it missing on a larger machine like this.

The panel isn’t the brightest, but exhibits every other feature you want from a $299 Chromebook.

On the display front, Acer has loaded up a 1080p IPS LCD panel, with a semi-reflective covering that works to split the difference between visibility and image quality. Viewing angles are just about as good as you’d ever need, and because the screen isn’t covered in a big sheet of glare-inducing glass you can actually use it when there’s some sun coming through the window or you’re outside in less-than-harsh sun.

Everything looks rather nice on the display in terms of colors and crispness of text, which you can’t always say for displays on cheap Chromebooks, but the one shortcoming here is the screen’s overall brightness. In the entire review period for this laptop I never found myself using it at less than 50% brightness, and was usually close to 100% to get the best viewing experience — even indoors. While I’m completely willing to take a little drop in brightness to get a panel that’s much clearer and better looking than most of the competition, it’s still something to keep in mind here. You aren’t getting a completely bright and vibrant display like you may on a laptop that cost a couple hundred dollars more.

Acer Chromebook 14 Specs

Acer manages to check a lot of boxes in terms of specs on the Chromebook 14, and thankfully for us is also putting more weight behind the higher of the two models. The laptop is advertised primarily at $299, which is the model with a 1080p display — a lower model starts at $279 with a 720p display.

Display	14-inch Active Matrix TFT LCD, 1920×1080 resolution
Processor	Intel Celeron N3160 quad-core 1.6 GHzBurst up to 2.24 GHzIntel HD Graphics 400
Memory	4GB LPDDR3
Storage	32GBNon-expandable
Connectivity	802.11ac Wi-FiBluetooth 4.2
Ports	2x USB 3.0, HDMI (HDCP), headphone/microphone
Battery	3-cell Li-Po 3920 mAh12 hour battery life
Charger	Barrel-style proprietary connector
Dimensions	13.43 x 9.31 x .67 inches
Weight	3.42 pounds

These are all pretty standard numbers, but you do notice a few standouts: both USB ports are USB 3.0, and you get the latest wireless radios with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2.

Acer Chromebook 14 Keyboard and trackpad

Keyboards and trackpads in particular have been cost-cutting areas for Chromebook manufacturers, and Acer walks that line between cost and quality well in all of its Chromebook models.

The Chromebook 14’s keyboard is full sized with a standard Chrome OS layout, including typical shortcut keys in place of function keys, with no extra buttons from Acer. The key caps themselves are lightly textured and generally feel pretty cheap, though they don’t wobble much or have excess lateral movement when you rest your fingers on them. Travel on the keys is pretty good, about on par with other thin laptops, but the switches are a tad on the mushy side and don’t rebound back up to your finger quite as nicely as a higher-end machine. I had no problem writing the entirety of this 2000-plus word review on the Chromebook 14, as well as use it on a daily basis, but the keyboard does leave just a little to be desired when I compare it to a nicer laptop.

The keyboard almost offers everything you need. The trackpad comes up short in more areas.

The one missing feature here isn’t super high on everyone’s list, but is important to note — there’s no option for a backlit keyboard on the Chromebook 14. While backlit keyboards are hardly the norm for Chromebooks (they’re quite a rarity, in fact), a machine such as this that looks like a high-end offering almost feels like it needs a backlit keyboard. Many people, myself included, would surely pay a premium for a higher model that included it.

The trackpad beneath the keyboard is rather large, as you’d expect for a 14-inch laptop, settling in just slightly shorter than the height of the palm rest and just a tad narrower than the space bar and “alt” key put together. Whereas the keyboard comes up just shy of matching a high-end laptop, I have to say the trackpad comes up a few steps shorter of being comparable. Though it’s plenty large, supports multi-finger gestures and is fully clickable, the trackpad has a bit too much drag to it that can make finely mousing around tougher than it needs to be.

The surface of the trackpad isn’t as smooth as the glass offerings from higher-end laptops out there, and doesn’t come close to what the Dell Chromebook 13 offers. It’s just barely smoother than the aluminum casing surrounding it, and that’s not a good thing. Even though it’s completely serviceable, the trackpad is one of the disappointing portions of the experience that reminds you you’re using a $300 machine.

Acer Chromebook 14 Daily use and battery life

Considering that all Chromebooks are running the same operating system with little room for customization from manufacturers, you can expect a base line of functionality between models. But the internal specs vary widely between Chromebooks, leading to dramatic differences in the overall experience.

Performance

One thing that really blew me away about Dell’s mid-range Chromebook 13 was just how much more powerful it was than the competition. Sure, the model I used retailed close to $500, but having an Intel Core i3 processor inside made a considerable difference in power over the last-gen Intel Celeron N-series chipsets. The Acer Chromebook 14 has the newer Celeron N3150 inside, which gets a tad closer to the experience of the Dell’s Core i3 (both laptops have the same 4GB of RAM and 1080p resolution) but still comes up a touch short.

This is enough power for 95% of Chromebook users.

The quad-core processor in the Chromebook 14 has definitely bumped performance up into the range where from that standpoint I could recommend it to just about anyone, which is something I couldn’t say about the last-gen N-series chips, such as the Celeron N28XX range. That being said, it wasn’t too hard to push the Chromebook 14 to a point where I could tell it was getting overwhelmed with tasks. Having several different apps and tabs open, streaming some music, quickly cycling through apps and loading up some heavy webpages caused background processes to slow down, but, in an improvement from previous-gen chips, the foreground tasks didn’t skip a beat. Part of that is due to the 4GB of RAM inside, which I always recommend, but now the processor is up to speed, too.

The Chromebook 14 never slowed down enough to actually impact scrolling speed, tab switching or keyboard/mouse input, which is of the utmost importance. Pushing the Chromebook 14 just as hard as I use my MacBook Air every day (minus the handful of apps that don’t have Chrome OS equivalents), the Chromebook performed admirably — that’s something I haven’t said about any Chromebook other than the Dell Chromebook 13. People who want to max out their tasks and never skip a beat will still be better served by a machine that can offer a Core i3 or higher and potentially 6GB or 8GB of RAM, but for the vast majority of people this combination of a Celeron N3150 and 4GB of RAM will be plenty.

Chrome OS experience

Despite its seemingly constant updates and dramatic increase in quality over the past couple of years, Chrome OS still has a few bugbears that just haven’t been resolved and pull back the curtain a little to show that it isn’t fully baked right now. The biggest of them all is the amazingly poor handling of higher resolution screens, in which the operating system still fails to properly scale the interface to a proper size on pixel-dense displays.

Poor display scaling is one of the biggest shortcomings of the Chrome OS experience.

Aside from Google’s first-party Pixel devices, Chromebooks that ship with display resolutions of 1920×1080 — like this Chromebook 14 — or higher have interface elements that are ludicrously small. Google’s response to this issue is to tell you to lower the resolution setting (in this case to 1536×864) in the Chromebook’s settings, which indeed makes interface elements larger but also introduces blurry images and jagged lines on windows and apps. The other way to tackle this is to set your default page zoom to something like 110 or 125%, which has the opposite issue — webpages and apps are now scaled properly, but the rest of the interface is still tiny. (I ended up landing on the latter system, which has the lowest compromise.)

These sorts of issues have a huge impact on the experience of using a Chromebook, and both of the above methods for scaling the interface really are unacceptable. Any other major operating system can offer you complete and proper interface scaling, and with more and more Chromebooks pushing into this mid-range with 1080p displays, Google has to get this right.

Battery life and charging

Big laptops by design have room for large batteries, but in most cases that usually coincides with a larger display and more power to suck down that extra capacity. That isn’t always true with Chromebooks, though, and Acer quotes 12 hours of usage out of the higher-end Chromebook 14 with its 1080p display (and 14 hours with a 720p display). That’s a ton of battery life to claim, and essentially means you’d never have to carry the charger with you for any sort of normal day of work.

Of course typical usage of a laptop can range wildly across users — even in the case of a Chromebook — and in my time using it I wasn’t pushing up to the 12 hours of usage, but didn’t exactly expect to. My typical use case with any Chromebook is having upwards of 10 tabs open in the main Chrome window, as well as Hangouts, Slack and Tweetdeck windows, which of course are always active and using up more battery than your average stagnant browser tab. In this use, I’m looking at more like 10 hours of battery life out of the Chromebook 14, which is still very good but isn’t quite pushing to Acer’s claims.

Surely if you were taking it easier on the laptop, using fewer tabs or focusing on just a couple of tasks, and don’t max out the screen brightness on a regular basis, I have no doubt you could push up toward 12 hours of battery life.

Acer Chromebook 14 Bottom line

Though Acer built its market share on the back of many affordable but solid Chromebooks, like the C720, there’s no doubt that the Chromebook 14 is its best model to date overall. At $299 it comes in near the top of the current range of Chromebooks out there, and in many cases may be more than what some people want to pay, but you really get something nice for the little bit of extra money. An aluminum frame that looks and feels great, a nice 1080p display, a solid offering of ports, and solid speakers to boot.

The processor inside is a clear step up from the last generation and makes the Chromebook 14 powerful enough for most people out there, even if the most demanding users will be better off with something faster. No matter your use case you can appreciate the strong battery life as well, which can get into the double digit range with typical use or still push near a full day even when you hit it harder.

Really, the only downsides here are size and weight, where the 14-inch screen and near-3.5 pound weight can start to be too big for some who want a more portable machine. In that case, one of the smaller Chromebooks out there will fit the bill.

Should you buy it? Yes

If you’re looking for a great Chromebook that isn’t going to break the bank, and don’t have super lofty performance needs, the Acer Chromebook 14 is likely to be at the top of your list. Its price is completely reasonable, and the complete package offers you a great experience. So long as you don’t need something more portable, you must give this a look if you’re in the market.

See at Amazon
See at Acer

Instagram tips and tricks: How to master the app and post amazing pics

Instagram has been around for years and it’s hugely popular, but not everyone is completely familiar with the free photo app and how it can quickly transform your mediocre selfies into stunning glamour shots.

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but most Instagram users will admit that Instagram’s filters changed their lives. You’re guaranteed to find at least one that can make your mobile phone snap look like a work of art.

Before you dive in and fiddle with all the options, you’ll need to know how the app works. With that in mind, we’ve laid out everything you need to know about Instagram, including tips and tricks and even descriptions for each filter.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a video and photo-sharing social network. It launched in 2010 as a mobile device app and was acquired by Facebook two years later.

It primarily stood out because it confined photos to a square shape and features filters. It has developed since it originally launched though. Users are not only no longer restricted to square images but video clips, which have been available since 2013, have had the cap lifted from 15-seconds to 60-seconds.

How does it work?

Sign up

Instagram is almost exclusively meant for mobile devices. You must therefore download the iPhone or Android app in order to register an Instagram account. Once you download the app, you can easily login through Facebook.

After signing up, you can change your profile picture and edit your information, which includes a brief 150-character summary and the ability to link a website. All Instagram accounts are public by default but can be made private.

Navigation

Every time you open and load Instagram, you will automatically be brought to your news feed, which is filled with photos and videos from people you chose to follow on Instagram. Along the bottom of all the app is a menu bar, while the top right (on iOS) has your inbox which is where direct messages can be found.

Above your uploaded images and below your profile is a another row of options. The first icon display images in a grid format, the second icon displays them in in a list format, the third icon shows where in the world you have posted images and the fourth icon displays the images you have been tagged in by other users.

The menu bar at the bottom has five tabs: Home, Search, Camera, Activity, and Profile. The Home tab takes you to the news feed, while Search is for finding people and discovering trending photos or other accounts you might be interested in.

Camera is where you’ll go to post photos and videos (as well as edit them), and Activity is like a notification centre, as well as a place you can go to see photos your followers might’ve liked on Instagram by alternating between the two tabs at the top.

Finally, Profile is where you go to see your profile, edit your profile, and play with settings (found in upper right-hand corner). Settings has options for following Facebook friends, privatising your account, seeing posts you’ve liked and more.

Engagement

There are three main ways of engaging with other users on Instagram: you can double tap on their photos or videos to like them; you can press the chat-bubble symbol below their photos to leave a comment, and you can direct message them. To direct message someone, tap the arrow symbol next to the chat bubble symbol.

Keep mind you can also tag people in photos and reply to comments with tags. You can also add and use hashtags across Instagram (much like you can on Facebook and Twitter).

Posting

To post a photo or video, go to the Camera tab and choose between Library, Photo or Video at the bottom. Selecting Library will allow you to upload from your camera roll, while Photo and Video will let you take a shot or record directly from the Instagram app.

When snapping a photo, you will see two icons above the main circular capture button. The icon on the left switches between the front and rear camera, while the icon on the right turns on flash. You can also tap on the image being captured to focus on a particular point.

Once you proceed with a photo or video, you’ll see a filter tray pop up, in which you can apply an effect. Double tap the effect to access a slider that’ll let you increase or decrease the intensity of the filter. There is a small square icon next to the slider too which will add a white border around your image. Each filter is different.

Below the filter tray are two options: Filter and Edit. Flicking to Edit will allow you to fine-tune your image, from adjusting brightness and contrast to changing the structure, saturation, colour and fade, among other options. You’ll also be able to adjust a special effect called Lux by tapping the centralised icon above the image your editing.

After you’re done editing, tap the next button on the top-right of the Filters screen.

Sharing

Upon hitting next on the top-right of the Filters screen, you will get to a screen that’ll let you share your photo or video to either all followers or a direct follower by toggling between the two options at the top of your screen.

This screen is where you can add captions, tag people and tag your location, as well as choose if you want to share your post to any other social media outlets.

Instagram integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr, meaning you’ll be able to share across most of the popular social networks by just toggling each of them on or off.

Account switching

It’s also possible to switch between multiple accounts on Instagram. This is especially handy for those of you who run a personal account, along with a business account. Instead of having to log out and login to each account every time you want to browse or post new content, which you used to have to do, you can now switch between five accounts with a few simple taps.

To add another Instagram account, go to your Profile > Settings > scroll down to Add Account. Enter the username and password of the account trying to add and that’s it. To then switch between accounts, tap your username at the top of your profile and choose the account you want to switch to.

Filters

Before we move on to the next section, we thought we should go over each filter (including the separate Lux effect) and what they actually do to your photos and videos:

Normal – No filter applied

Clarendon – Makes shadows deeper and highlights brighter

Gingham – Gives images a vintage look, adding a yellowish tone

Moon – Another vintage look adder but in black and white

Lark – Desaturates reds and increases blues and greens

Reyes – Adds a dusty, vintage look

Juno – Tints cool tones green, amps up warm tones, makes whites glow

Slumber – Desaturates the image, adds a haze, emphasis on blacks and blues

Crema – Adds a creamy look that both warms and cools the image

Ludwig – Slight desaturation that also enhances light

Aden – Adds a blue/green natural look

Perpetua – Adds a pastel look

Amaro – Adds light to an image, with the focus on the centre

Mayfair – Adds a warm pink tone, subtle vignetting, brightens at the center

Rise – Adds a glow to the image

Hudson – Adds an “icy” illusion, heightened shadows, cool tint, dodged center

Valencia – Fades the image, increases exposure, warms the colors

X-Pro II – Increases colour with a golden tint, high contrast, slight vignette

Sierra – Adds a faded, softer look

Willow – Adds a monochromatic look, subtle purple tones, translucent white border

Lo-Fi – Enriches color, adds strong shadows, warms the the temperature

Earlybird – Gives an older look with a sepia tint and warm temperature

Brannan – Increases contrast and exposure and adds a metallic tint

Inkwell – Goes straight to black and white

Hefe – High contrast and saturation, similar to Lo-Fi

Nashville – Warms temp, lowers contrast, increases exposure, adds pink

Sutro – Burns edges, increases highlights/shadows, focus on purple and brown

Toaster – Ages the image by “burning” the centre and adds a dramatic vignette

Walden – Increases exposure and adds a yellow tint

1977 – Increases exposure, adds a red tint and faded look

Kelvin – Increases saturation and temperature to give it a radiant glow

Stinson – Lightens image and washes out colour a little

Vesper – Adds a yellowy tint for a vintage feel, while also smoothing out skin tones

Maven – Adds a yellow tint, darkens image and deepens shadows

Ginza – Brightens images and adds a warm glow

Skyline – Adds punch to colours and brightens

Dogpatch – Deepens contrast and washes out light colours

Brooklyn – Brightens images and washes out light colours

Helena – Adds an orange and teal tone to images

Ashby – Adds golden glow and subtle vintage look without deepening shadows

Charmes – Adds a red tint to warm up colours while also increasing contrast 

Lux – Transforms photos that are underexposed or lack contrast

Are there any tips and tricks?

Now that we’ve covered the basics of how Instagram works, we’ll get into some tips and tricks:

Go directly to camera roll

If you want to save time and get straight to uploading a photo whenever you launch Instagram, just hold down the Camera tab on the menu bar. From there, the camera roll should immediately open and let you select a photo.

Edit captions

Gone are the days of typos and feeling embarrassed when you accidentally post a photo with “your” in the caption when you really meant to write “you’re”. Instagram launched an update that enabled editing captions.

Go to the post, then tap the three-dot symbol in the top right corner, and select Edit. You’ll then be able to edit the caption. As far as we can tell, people won’t see how (or even how many times) you’ve edited the caption.

Reply to comments

You can reply to a comment without having to enter the person’s handle or tagging the person. Instead, select the comment, then swipe left, and click the grey arrow. The person’s handle will then appear in the comment box.

Delete your comments

While replying to a comment, you might’ve also seen the trash symbol. It allows you to delete a comment. Go to the photo, click the comment symbol, and swipe left on the comment to see and tap the trash can.

Remove a tagged photo

If want to remove a photo under your tagged folder (furthest right option just below your profile description), you can either hide the photo from your profile or remove the tagged photo altogether.

Go to your Instagram profile, then tap the tagged folder, and select a photo you’d like to remove. From there, tap the button in the top right with the three dots, select Photo Options, followed by Hide from My Profile.

That’ll hide the photo. To completely remove yourself from being tagged in the photo on Instagram, tap More Options, and then select Remove Me from Photo. Simples.

Manage filters

If you ever want to hide some filters to make it easier for you to decide between a specific few rather than the whole lot, you can slide to the end of the filter tray, and then tap manage filters in order to hide or show certain ones.

Adjust cellular data settings

Instagram videos are designed to play automatically on your feed, which can be taxing on your data when not near a hotspot, but you can change your cellular data settings so videos load slower and thus less data is consumed.

Just go to your profile, tap the Settings icon, scroll down to Mobile Data Use and toggle on Use Less Data.

Save originals

Instagram uploads photos to its network at 612 x 612 pixels in size. If you want to access a higher resolution version (like for uploading to your website), you can save the original photos to your device.

Go to your profile, then tap the Settings icon, and scroll down to Save Original Photos. From there, toggle on the option.

Embed your photos on the web

In order to get the embed code to share an Instagram photo on the web, you first have to find the post via Instagram on the web, then click the three dots symbol in the bottom corner, and choose Embed. You can then copy the code.

Hide Instagram adverts

Instagram adverts are defined by the “Sponsored” label in the top corner, but you don’t have to scroll by annoying ones in your news feed. Click on the three-dot symbol at the bottom of the advert to either hide it or provide feedback.

Change the layout of photos

Many people like to give their photos white borders or compile them into collages before posting to Instagram. Although there are several third-party apps that let you do this prior to posting, Instagram has its own app called Layout.

Layout not only lets you easily combine multiple photos into a single image, but also create one-of-a-kind layouts by remixing your photos. When uploading from your Library, you’ll see the Layout app symbol in the far right of the bottom of the image. Tap it and you can continue selecting images, followed by the layout you want. You can read more about it here. 

Create hyperlapses

First of all: Time lapse or time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that used to view the sequence.

Hyperlapse is an iOS-only app from Instagram that lets you create time lapses from your phone. It also has built-in tools for smoothing out shaking video, meaning you could use it to Instagram footage taken with a Go Pro.

You can learn more about Hyperlapse here.

Create a Boomerang

Instagram also has another app called Boomerang that allows you to create and share mini videos. “It’s not a photo. It’s not a gif. It’s a Boomerang.”

It allows you to capture moments and replay them, such as a friend blowing out birthday candles. Like the Layout app, you’ll find quick access to Boomerang at the bottom of the image you are planning to upload.

You can learn more about Boomerang here.

Want to know more?

Pocket-lint has an Instagram hub with all the latest news about the app.

E-book sales in the UK decline for the first time

There’s something to be said about a printed book. It’s easy to read outdoors, you can lend it to a friend and, unlike a top-end Kindle, it doesn’t spell disaster if you lose it. E-readers have their place, but today The Publishers Association (PA) has confirmed that Brits still love holding paper between their fingers. In the UK, printed book sales rose from £2.75 trillion in 2014 to £2.76 trillion in 2015 — the first increase in four years. Digital book sales, meanwhile, dropped from £563 million to £554 million over the same period. It’s the first drop in e-book sales the PA has ever recorded.

Was it a one-year blip? Maybe, maybe not. Clearly, printed books have a huge lead over e-books — but up until 2014, that gap was slowly shrinking in the UK. It’s not surprising given the popularity of e-readers and the convenience of downloading a novel over the internet. Still, these new numbers show that many Brits still prefer a book made from paper and ink. I guess I’m one of them — reading is one of the few hobbies I have that doesn’t involve a screen, and for the time being I’d like to keep it that way.

Source: The Publishers Association

iCloud Mail and Notes Down for Less Than 1% of Users

Apple has updated its System Status page to reflect that iCloud Mail and Notes may currently be unavailable for approximately 0.86% of users.

Apple says “users may be unable to send or receive mail and may also be unable to use Notes” until the services are restored.

The outage began shortly after 5:00 a.m. Pacific. This article will be updated when new information becomes available.

Tags: Mail, Notes
Discuss this article in our forums

Doom weapons, demons and environments explored: Everything you need to know

Doom is out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC today, Friday 13 May. And while we don’t have a review ready yet, thanks to servers only just going live, we do have a tonne of info that should help you when you spark up the game for the first time.

Firmly based on the game that started the whole ball rolling back in 1993, the latest Doom brings the demonic first-person shooter bang up to date. It does feature many of the same denizens and weaponry though.

That’s why we’ve put together a guide on the weapons, demons and locations you’ll encounter in this very modern retelling of the classic Doom story and how they were created. Bethesda has kindly provided us with each designer’s brief explanation of their inspirations and the thinking behind them.

READ: Doom is back: How has it changed over 23 years?

So have a flick through our gallery above and check out everything you need to know about the latest Doom.

It’s available now in game stores, online and as digital downloads.

Enjoy.

READ: Doom Collector’s Edition in pictures: See what you get for £100

NASA spacecraft record magnetic explosions above Earth

Space might look like a sprawling, inky abyss, but invisible to the human eye is a wealth of magnetic activity. Earth has a magnetic field called the magnetosphere, which is frequently buffeted by solar winds exuded by the Sun. These winds carry their own magnetic field and produce what scientists call a “magnetic reconnection” high above the Earth’s surface. In March 2015, NASA launched four spacecraft, known as MMS, so they could travel through the magnetosphere and record these reactions. Now, scientists have published their initial observations in the journal Science.

Recordings from a flyby in October 2015 show that when two magnetic fields collide, electrons shoot out from the point of impact in straight lines, speeding through the magnetic boundaries that would normally contain them. Once free, they slowly begin to curve and ultimately perform a U-turn in response to the new magnetic fields they encounter.

The quality of the data collected by MMS is unprecedented. Scientists have used satellites before to observe this phenomena, but as NASA explains, it was “like seeing debris flung out from a tornado, but never seeing the storm itself.” With MMS, researchers can sail into the heart of the storm.

“The decades-old mystery is what do the electrons do, and how do the two magnetic fields interconnect,” Jim Burch, lead author of the Science paper and principal investigator for MMS at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said. “Satellite measurements of electrons have been too slow by a factor of 100 to sample the magnetic reconnection region. The precision and speed of the MMS measurements, however, opened up a new window on the universe, a new ‘microscope’ to see reconnection.”

Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into kinetic or thermal energy. It’s important to understand this phenomenon because it influences the “space weather” found in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Here, humanity operates a range of satellites which are occasionally disrupted by these intense reactions. MMS observations will allow NASA to improve its predictions for magnetic reconnection and, as a result, better control its equipment in space. Magnetic fields are present in other parts of the universe too, so dissecting these reactions — a prime driver of space radiation — could also protect our astronauts on risky missions.

Via: The Verge

Source: NASA

Chemicals in our breath can reveal how we feel about movies

The air inside movie theaters apparently reek of popcorn and suspense, though our noses can’t exactly smell the latter. According to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, audiences exhale chemicals that can indicate whether movies are funny or exciting. The team attached a mass spectrometer to a movie theater’s air duct, which measured chemicals in the air every 30 seconds. Think of it as a big breathalyzer. Thanks to that instrument, they were able to collect data from 108 screenings (and 95,000 people) of 16 movies, including The Hunger Games 2, Carrie, The Hobbit and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

The team matched spikes in carbon dioxide and isoprene — a chemical we also exhale — levels with the most exciting parts of the movies. Further, they were able to determine the difference in the concentration of chemicals between funny and suspenseful scenes. They still haven’t figured out why our bodies produce those two chemicals in bigger amounts during the most thrilling parts of a film. But a possible explanation is that we tend to breathe more quickly and become restless when we’re tense or excited.

Filmmakers could use the same technique to monitor test audiences’ breaths and gauge whether their movies would do well, or if they’re boring enough to warrant going back to editing. The team also believes that their study could provide data for future research on the human respiration and metabolism. For now, they’re still busy assessing even more data collected from viewers during Star Wars screenings.

Source: Nature, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry