T-Mobile Galaxy S7 and S7 edge updates fix power and volume button bugs

T-Mobile is rolling out updates for both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Both updates fix an issue with the phones’ power and volume buttons, along with some other “system improvements”.

The T-Mobile support pages for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge show that the download sizes for both phones will be 164.61 MB. As usual with these kinds of over-the-air updates, it may take a few days for them to reach your particular phone.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Should you upgrade to the Galaxy S7?
• Learn about the Galaxy S7’s SD card slot
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

AT&T
Sprint
T-Mobile
Verizon

Big Google Keyboard update brings one-handed mode, layout tweaks and more!

A pretty major update is now rolling out for the Google Keyboard, bringing a load of new tweaks and features, including one-handed mode. And it’s that addition of one-handed mode that is probably the biggest change, allowing you to easily adjust the keyboard for left- or right-handed use in the keyboard’s settings.

Also new in this update is the ability to customize the keyboard height. Thanks to a new option in the settings menu, you can drag a slider to adjust the height of the keyboard from short to tall, which should make compensating for different hand sizes much easier. There are also some new gestures that can be enabled from the settings menu, including the ability to move the cursor by sliding across the space bar, or deleting words by sliding left from the delete key.

A more minor change — but cool nonetheless — is that there is now a number key to the left of the spacebar on the full keyboard. Tapping it will give you quick access to a three-by-three number pad layout with a selection of relevant symbols (plus, minus, etcetera) on each side. Another interface tweak places an emoji shortcut to the right side of the spacebar as well, offering quicker access to the colorful characters.

This rather large update is currently in the process of rolling out on Google Play, so it will likely take some time to reach everyone. However, there’s plenty to like here, especially for those looking for easier one-handed typing.

Have you received the update yet? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Moto X Pure Edition is just $300 at Motorola until May 9

Motorola is selling the unlocked Moto X Pure Edition smartphone for $299.99, a $100 discount from its normal price. The sale lasts until Monday, May 9.

This latest discount is designed as a Mother’s Day promotion, which means you can use Motorola’s Moto Maker to customize the unlocked Moto X Pure Edition with different front, back and accent colors. You can then add your own custom engravings and messages to give mom a special gift made just for her.

See at Motorola

Fit more on your Galaxy S7’s screen with condensed mode

With a new software update, Samsung lets you increase your GS7’s information density dramatically — at the expense of one or two things looking a little weird.

Phones are getting bigger with each release cycle, but new devices don’t always let us see more stuff on the screen at once. This is an issue Samsung has attempted to solve with a new addition to the Galaxy S7 series: “display scaling.” Simply put, this lets you not only adjust the size of fonts — as Samsung phones have for some time — but the way the entire user interface is scaled.

But first, it’s worth noting that not all Galaxy S7 models have been updated with this feature. It popped up under “Display settings” on our European Galaxy S7 edge with the latest April update; meanwhile our U.S. devices aren’t seeing this addition. So it’s possible it’ll arrive in some countries later than others. (And thanks to the vagaries of the U.S. carrier system, some operators may even choose not to include it.)

If your GS7 has the display scaling feature, you’ll find it under Settings > Display settings, between “Font size” and “Icon backgrounds.”

Once selected, you’ll have two options to choose from. The first, standard, is the way your Galaxy S7 works out of the box, with large-ish menus, icons and text. The second, “condensed,” lets you fit more on screen by making just about everything a little smaller. As you can see in the animation below, that means an extra email shown in Gmail, a smaller status bar, and some tweaks to the way icons and widgets are spaced on the home screen.

It’s also worth noting that some widgets don’t play nice with condensed mode — Google Keep, for instance, has really tiny text when you enable the feature. So it won’t be for everyone, which surely is why it’s not enabled by default. But it’s a great option to have — especially for GS7 edge owners wanting to make better use of that 5.5-inch display.

A few extra ways to get more (or less) stuff on your GS7’s screen at a time:

• Change the font size. This has a less pronounced effect than changing the display scaling level, but it’s noticeable all the same.
• In the Galaxy S7’s home screen launcher, long-press on an empty area, then tap “Screen gif” to choose the size of your home screen grid. A 5×5 display will let you fit more stuff on there than the default 5×4 arrangement.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Should you upgrade to the Galaxy S7?
• Learn about the Galaxy S7’s SD card slot
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

AT&T
Sprint
T-Mobile
Verizon

OnePlus 3 flagship might come with ‘Dash Charge’ speedy refueling mode

OnePlus may have developed a Qualcomm Quick Charge-like technology.

The phone maker has introduced three smartphones so far, including the OnePlus One, OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X, but it is expected to introduce a fourth phone in the coming months. It’ll be the company’s latest flagship, following the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus One (the OnePlus X is a midrange handset). We’ve already seen many rumours regarding specs, but now we’ve learned it could come with a new charging technology.

OnePlus has patented a charging technology called Dash Charge. Now, the US Patent and Trademark Office filing doesn’t mention anything specific, such as “fast charging” etc, but reports have looked at the patented name and assumed it must be similar to Quick Charge 3.0, the latest version of Qualcomm’s fast-charging technology. That standard can refuel devices up to four times faster than conventional charging.

Last year’s OnePlus 2 flagship notably lacked a wireless charging option as well as a quick-charge mode. The next OnePlus flagship might come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 on board, meaning it might also support Quick Charge 3.0, but OnePlus’ new trademark filing has left us all wondering if the company might actually use its own technology for speedy charging.

We won’t know for sure until the OnePlus 3 – the presumed name of OnePlus’ next flagship – launches in the second quarter of this year. Until then, check out Pocket-lint’s round-up of all the latest OnePlus 3 rumours and leaks.

UK’s proposed nuclear plant is one of the costliest things on Earth

Nuclear power has been around for decades, but it still isn’t cheap… in fact, it may result in one of the most expensive objects on the planet. Cost estimates for the UK’s proposed Hinkley Point C reactor have crept up to £24 billion (about $35 billion), making even some of humanity’s more ambitious construction projects seem like small potatoes. The Large Hadron Collider cost “just” $5.8 billion to build, the BBC notes. About the only thing that rivals Hinkley on Earth is Chevron’s recently completed $54 billion natural gas plant in Australia. If you’re not picky, the International Space Station’s collective modules top everything at a total of $110 billion.

As for why it would be so absurdly pricey? Greenwich University professor Steve Thomas says it’s due to not just the inherent complexity of nuclear power, but the safety concerns. Tragedies like Chernobyl and Fukushima have made it clear that disasters are far more costly than getting it right the first time.

Not that this is going to assuage critics of the plant, which has spent several years on ice. Greenpeace contends that it’s not just audacious in an era of budget cuts, but that the money could be better-spent on renewable energy sources like solar and wind farms. And it’s not just because they’re safer, either. They’d likely be finished much sooner, Greenpeace claims, and falling renewable energy prices could make these options more affordable. There’s no certainty that the government will listen to calls for change, but it’s clear that Hinkley Point C is the product of an era when nuclear tech still seemed like the most cost-effective way of powering the population.

Via: Boing Boing

Source: BBC, Greenpeace

‘Dark Souls’ developer eyes possible PlayStation VR release

From Software has made it very clear that Dark Souls is over, so that means it’s time to look forward to a new franchise. This could very well include a new IP to be released on the upcoming PlayStation VR.

The studio’s lineup reel has allegedly surfaced on Reddit, featuring all of the company’s releases to date from Armored Core in 1997 to March’s Dark Souls 3. After that, however, there’s an entry for 2017 that reads “FromSoftware, Inc. Next Title on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation VR…” and the video ends there. Given Dark Souls 3 director Hidetaka Miyazaki has already confirmed the studio is working on a new IP, this could very well be that same one.

There are no further details as to what the new IP might cover, but Miyazaki’s previous comments to GameSpot indicate that it could feature “sci-fi themes.”

The video itself is unlisted and has garnered about 55,000 views following its Reddit posting. It’s possible we could hear something official about the upcoming release as E3 draws nearer, especially with the ending of Dark Souls still fresh in our minds.

Source: VG247

Kindle Oasis review: The perfect e-reader for the 1 percent

Amazon’s Kindle Oasis is like a feast with the world’s finest caviar. It’s an all-you-can eat Wagyu steak dinner. It’s an $80 cup of coffee. Simply put, the Oasis is a $290 extravagance meant only for the few who can afford it. For the rest of us, it’s just something to lust after. We called the $200 Kindle Voyage the “Rolls Royce of e-readers” two years ago, but instead of going cheaper (the standard Kindle is currently $60, and the backlit Paperwhite model is $100), Amazon pushed even further into luxury status. For $290 you get an e-reader so light, it almost feels like you’re holding nothing at all. Unfortunately, Amazon still hasn’t made a strong argument for why anyone actually needs a high-end reading device.

Hardware

I’ve held plenty of e-readers, tablets, smartphones and other gadgets over the years, and few were as remarkable as the Oasis. When you look at it head-on, it’s unmistakably a Kindle, even though its 6-inch E-Ink display is pushed to the side to make room for two physical page changing buttons (answering the prayers of Engadget’s Chris Velazco). But tilt it slightly and you’ll notice that it’s, well… sort of funky. Most of the device is insanely thin — a mere 3.4 mm — while the rest is a slightly thicker hump meant for gripping one-handed.

Its asymmetric design looks weird at first, but it only takes a few seconds to get used to it. That’s mostly because it’s light — crazy light, at just 4.6 ounces. To compare, the Voyage weighs 6.3 ounces, and the Paperwhite clocks in at 7.2 ounces. Those don’t sound like huge differences, but they’re noticeable when you’re holding something for hours on end. The Voyage and Paperwhite are close to the weight of a typical paperback. The Oasis, on the other hand, is so featherweight it almost feels alien as a reading device.

“We’re not going to be happy until we’ve got this magic sheet of paper that contains all the books in the world,” said Chris Green, VP of industrial design at Amazon’s Lab126, during our initial demo of the Oasis. “Edge-to-edge, all content, no device. And when we get there, I might be out of a job.”

Despite being so thin, Amazon’s latest Kindle is also surprisingly sturdy. Amazon says it electroplated a metal alloy over a plastic case to make that happen. You won’t feel or hear any creaking when using the Oasis, and it barely even flexes when you try to bend it. The edges and thin portion of the Oasis feel cool and smooth, while the hand grip portion has a slightly softer touch.

Once again, Amazon used micro-etched glass for the Oasis’s screen, which should make it even more resistant to glare (it’s also stronger than the Voyage’s). The Oasis’ screen still packs in a sharp 300 pixels per inch, which looks about as good as text on paper. That’s the same resolution you get with the Voyage and Paperwhite, though you do get 60 percent more LED lights here than on the Voyage. That’s nothing big, but it makes for an overall more uniform lighting presentation. I know plenty of Kindle fans who were irked by the Voyage’s slightly uneven lighting, which was particularly annoying given the price.

There’s also a leather case included with the Oasis (available in black, walnut and merlot), which doubles as an extra battery pack to make up for the Kinde’s reduced battery size. Amazon had to give up something to make the Oasis so thin, after all. The case snaps right onto the angled portion of the Oasis’s back, and adds another 3.8 ounces to the Kindle’s weight when connected. Thankfully, you can charge the Kindle and case together.

Software

Not surprisingly, the Oasis ships with Amazon’s most recent Kindle operating system, which hit its existing devices back in February. It’s mostly an organizational facelift. Now, the home screen shows the most recent books you’ve been reading on the top left; a selection of titles added to your wish list (which is a seriously great addition); and some suggested books on the bottom. You can also access settings like airplane mode (a great way to save battery life) and data syncing from the Oasis’s toolbar, which saves you from hopping into the settings page like previous versions of the Kindle OS.

In use

It’s no surprise that books and black and white comics look great on the Kindle Oasis: Amazon pretty much mastered that with the Voyage’s 300-ppi E-Ink screen. For lack of a better word, there’s an “inkiness” to the display that makes text and line art appealing to your eyes. It’s completely different from a backlit smartphone or tablet, which can be just as sharp, but can also feel like they’re attacking your eyes with light. Reading on the Kindle Oasis (along with the Voyage and Paperwhite), is more like settling in with a book right next to a gentle lamp. There’s something soothing about it.

Given that Amazon has been using the same E-Ink panel for years now, it’s hard not to think that this will be as good as it gets for black and white E-Ink displays. Sure, it could try to stuff in a larger screen (the DX was a failed attempt at that), and of course, color E-Ink could happen eventually (though the improvement of tablet screens have made that less pressing).

The most noticeable improvement with the Kindle Oasis is the way it feels while you’re reading. Its lightweight, asymmetric design makes it ideal for holding with one hand and lounging on the couch or in bed. In my first few days with the Oasis, I easily dove into several titles that were gathering digital dust in my Kindle library, including Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers and Strategies, Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk biography and Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook. It may have just been the shininess of a new gadget compelling me, but I noticed that my reading sessions with the Oasis were much longer than with the Voyage. The anal retentive side of me also appreciated its more uniform backlight; there’s none of the splotchiness from cheaper Kindles.

I was so enamored with the Oasis’s design that I only used its included leather case for traveling. It’s not exactly heavy when the case is connected — I had no problem keeping it on during crowded subway rides — but the Oasis feels so good on its own that there’s no reason to have any extra burden unless your really need it. The case itself feels like a high-quality piece of leather, and does a good job protecting the Kindle’s precious screen.

It’s also a great travel companion since it has its own battery and extends the Oasis’s runtime to around eight weeks on standby. (Amazon says the Kindle should last around two weeks by itself.) From full charge, the Oasis and its case lost around 20 percent of battery life after a week of heavy reading. Basically, it should last so long that you probably won’t have to worry about charging it for a while.

As great as the Oasis feels, be prepared to wipe off plenty of fingerprints if you want to keep it looking pristine. It attracts far more oil and smudges than any previous models — so much so that it’s even worse than the Voyage, which has a glossy rear case.

Other options

Here’s where things get muddy for the Oasis. I’ve been a dedicated Kindle fan since the Kindle 2 launched in 2009, and I’ve followed along with Amazon as it steadily improved its lineup. The Oasis, for all of its design flourishes, isn’t that much better than Amazon’s current batch of Kindles. And it’s certainly not worth a $90 premium over the Kindle Voyage, which was already overpriced since it launched at $199.

With the Kindle Paperwhite available for $100, which also packs in a sharp screen and backlight, there’s simply no reason for most people to even consider the Oasis. It would have made more sense for Amazon to nix the Voyage and price the Oasis at $200 (or even slightly more). Asking $290 ($20 more than an iPad Mini 2), is simply madness.

Wrap-up

I get it. Amazon wants to prove that its Kindle brand has a place in the premium gadget market. But that’s an idea that seems dramatically out of step with reality, as more people are getting used to reading books on their phones and tablets. The Kindle Oasis is indeed the best Kindle ever made. But instead of making the case for expensive e-readers, it makes clear that they just don’t make sense today.

I’m certainly intrigued by how Amazon plans to evolve the Kindle, but it also needs to do so in a way that’s practical. I can’t wait for the “magic sheet of paper” that the company apparently dreams of. I just want it to do much more than the existing Kindle lineup. And of course, I’d want it to be affordable, too.

Tesla puts its extreme air pollution filter to the test

When Tesla revealed that the Model X (and eventually, the Model S) would have a HEPA filter so effective that it could protect against bioweapons, people were understandably skeptical. Can it really save you from terrorists? Apparently, it just might. Tesla has revealed some of the in-house testing it conducted for the filter’s Bioweapon Defense Mode, and its ability to clean the air borders on overkill. The electric car maker put a Model X into a bubble with extremely dangerous air quality levels (83 times dirtier than the EPA’s “good” rating) and watched as the filtration system rendered the air so clean that sensors couldn’t even detect what pollution was left. You could drive through a “military grade” attack and not even notice, Tesla claims.

The company adds that its filter also reduces some of the pollution outside of the car, and that it’s constantly tweaking the filter technology. Replace your filters down the line and your EV might be even more of a clean room than it was brand new.

It’s impressive stuff, although the test is more about bragging than real-world practicality (which Tesla also checked, to be fair). You don’t need a near-sterile car even in pollution-heavy cities like Beijing, and the odds are that you aren’t going to be in your vehicle should someone ever unleash a bioweapon on your home turf. Think of this more as a proof that Tesla’s over-the-top engineering really works.

Source: Tesla Blog

Canon’s new entry-level DSLR is good enough for its target audience

As meaningful as professional cameras like the EOS-1DX Mark II are to Canon’s business, the company knows it has to dominate the beginner market as well. Now, with the new $500 EOS Rebel T6, Canon has designed a DSLR that sits alongside the T6s and T6i — two of its most popular entry-level shooters. Not counting the aging T5, the T6 is the cheapest DSLR in Canon’s lineup. And while its specs won’t blow your mind, they should be decent enough for most aspiring photographers.

Inside, there’s an 18-megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor, Digic 4+ image processor, ISO range of up to 12,800 (6,400 native) and a nine-point autofocus system. Not surprisingly, video-recording is limited to 1080p at 24 and 30 fps, or 720p at 60 fps. (It’s going to be a while before Canon puts 4K features on budget-friendly cameras.) That said, the Rebel T6 does come with a respectable, albeit expected, fixed 3-inch, 920,000-dot screen, as well as WiFi and NFC for sharing pictures remotely via Canon’s Camera Connect app (available for iOS and Android).

Given that this is geared toward beginners, I used it differently than I would a higher-end model, such as the EOS 80D DSLR or one of Sony’s mirrorless cameras. Instead of shooting with manual settings, I relied heavily on the Rebel T6’s preset modes. For example, during a food-themed photoshoot, I used the camera’s Food Mode, which locks in AF points and tries to automatically adjust exposure compensation and white balance, based on the subject and lighting around the scene.

While most of my photos looked colorful and sharp, the camera at times tried to do a little too much, resulting in soft, over-exposed shots. Still, I’d say eight out of 10 images produced by the Rebel T6 were satisfactory.S

In particular, I was impressed by how the light the camera is, which weighs less than a pound without a lens attached. It also doesn’t feel cheap: The magnesium and aluminum alloy chassis make it seem as durable as more expensive Canon shooters. For a $500 DSLR, 18-55mm EF glass included, the T6 doesn’t disappoint. Sure, it has its limitations, but it’s an excellent option for people who want to go a step above a point-and-shoot or smartphone camera.

Alternatively, you could go for Nikon’s better-specced D5500 DSLR, but be prepared to spend about $200 more on it. That said, some online retailers appear to be selling it for roughly $500, though that might be a temporary price drop. Either way, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use, high-quality DSLR today, the Rebel T6 is worthy of your attention. And it doesn’t hurt that Canon is known for making solid beginner-friendly cameras, with a strong lens ecosystem to meet most of your photography needs.

To view our sample images in full resolution, click here.