On the prospect of a ‘Chromebook Pro’ …

Or, how Google Consumer Surveys probably aren’t a product roadmap …

A story has been making the rounds this week on the idea of a “Chromebook Pro.” As we all know, anything that’s “Pro” has got to be better than what we already have. Because it’s Pro. And so the idea of a Chromebook Pro is intriguing.

Google’s second-generation Chromebook Pixel already is as Pro as it currently gets for a Chromebook. Intel Core i7 processor. 16GB of RAM. A couple of USB-C ports. Touchscreen. Glass trackpad. Backlit keyboard. That’s pretty damned Pro. And it comes with Pro price tag, at $1,299.

But the prospect of something better? Something even more Pro? That’s enough to get any nerd nodding their head.

A Google Chromebook Pro probably isn’t a thing just yet.

Here’s the thing, however. The idea of the Chromebook Pro comes from a survey that reportedly appeared in the Google Opinion Rewards app, and was passed on via Reddit. The question in question read thusly:

How would you think a Chromebook Pro is different than a Chromebook?

A fine question indeed, and the sort of thing that you might expect to see in Google Opinion Rewards. Or a fan forum. What Google Opinion Rewards is not, however, is a product roadmap.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google Opinion Rewards, it’s an app that asks you questions about products and businesses. Could be things you bought or are thinking about buying. Could be places you’ve been, or places you’re going. It even throws in a few red herrings, just to keep you honest. In exchange for your time and data (because that’s what you’re giving it), you get a little bit of credit to spend in the Google Play Store. It’s a sweet little system, and a great way to help finance your app habit.

This is a real survey. I know because I made it.

Anyone can submit a survey through Google Consumer Surveys. Click here and give it a shot. You have options to survey the “general population,” which is a mix of folks on desktop and mobile, as well as those using the Google Opinion Rewards app. Or you can opt to only survey app users. Or you can get even more specific with “audience panels,” wherein you survey specific ethnic groups, or folks on social media, or who use various services.

Unless a specific company outed itself at the start of the survey as the company asking the question (it’s doubtful it was Google, and there’s nothing in the Reddit thread to suggest that anyway), there’s no telling who asked the question. All you need is a credit card and 30 seconds and you can start soliciting responses at 10 cents a pop, too.

Now that doesn’t mean the idea of some sort of “Pro” Chromebook isn’t a good one. The Pixel, while not inexpensive, has been a fine piece of machinery. And with Android apps coming to Chrome OS later this year (we’re currently playing with them on the developer channel on a $250 Chromebook), it’s only going to get more interesting. And, yes, Google almost certainly will make another high-end Chromebook at some point.

But an actual Chromebook Pro outed on Google Opinion Rewards? That’s highly unlikely.

How to hide your porn browsing habits on Android

Nothing on the internet is really private, but you can keep your Android from saving a trail of where you’ve been.

We all use our phones differently. While some of us are Twittering and buying socks on Amazon when we’re online, other folks are looking at other stuff. And they might not want anyone else who could be using their phone to see the things they have looked at. We don’t judge (nobody should, really) but we can help.

We’ll start by saying that any type of “private browsing” really isn’t private. The way the internet works means someone, somewhere can always see the first connection from your computer (along with your IP address, which is a unique identifier). That means that even if the website you’ve landed on or the website you came from (along with any ads or other stuff they might have that can target a user or tracks them) can’t see who you are, your ISP can. So can someone who is standing behind you, or sitting beside you on the bus. (Don’t surf porn sites on the bus. That’s creepy.) Chances are nobody is looking for you or has served a warrant to your service provider or VPN company, but you need to know that nothing is private. Even tinfoil can’t make you private.

Since we mentioned VPN services, a quick word or two about them. You can use a VPN on your Android. Nerds can set it up manually, but there are plenty of VPN companies with Android apps. That’s not what this article is about, but we’re just sayin’ — you can use a VPN or even TOR on your Android. Your service provider can still see you’ve connected to a VPN or TOR though. Remember that. Now let’s talk about making sure your phone doesn’t save things so others can go snooping around for them.

This is where words like “Incognito Mode” or “Private Browsing” come into the picture. What that means is that the things you type and the websites you visit don’t get saved on your phone as any sort of internet history. Of course, some are better than others.

For starters, don’t use Chrome. Chrome is a nice browser with a lot of features, but it has one huge drawback here — it doesn’t block ads in the phone version. Blocking advertisements is important because the folks that make them are sneaky and always on the lookout for new tricks to get you to not only click on them but to see if they can’t find a way to show them to you again. And some of the folks programming ads on porn sites are total scumbags and inject malware that does shit like change your homepage to something that’s just javascript or adds a cookie to do the same, and then pops up a window that says you have a virus and need to send money to the FBI. The FBI doesn’t care if you look at porn. But the people who want to trick you into spending $50 to “unlock” your device as a “fine.” Block the ads every time you head to a porn site.

I’ve fiddled with a handful of “private” browsers from Google Play (including Samsung’s browser) and think the best thing you can do if you need to keep your internet history in check (and browse safely) is to install Firefox. Mozilla’s Firefox for Android has two things going for it that make it the best choice — it’s available on all Android brands and it gets almost immediate updates. It also allows you to install Add-ons (browser extensions) to block ads.

The quick updates tie into the malware thing. Chrome also has a pretty fast turnaround when issues are found, as does the Samsung browser, but nobody is as fast at it as Mozilla. And Firefox isn’t a horrible browser, either. It can be a little slow to render pages sometimes, but the app is done nicely and the features are great for what we want to do here. Being available for phones from LG or HTC or Motorola or whoever is self-explanatory.

Once you have it installed there are two things you need to do right away — make sure the tracking settings are set to “nope” and disable Cookies, and install the Adblock Plus add-on. You should also look through the rest of the settings and all of the Add-ons, but these are must-haves.

To turn on Private Browsing and Tracking Protection and disable Cookies:

• Open the Firefox app and tap the menu (the three dots right under your clock) then tap the entry that says “Settings.”
• Tap the “privacy” setting list item.
• The top three entries are what you want to look at. They are clearly marked as “Do not track”, “Tracking protection” and “Cookies.”
• The first two are easy — check the boxes next to Do not track and Tracking protection. For the Cookies setting, just tap the entry and pick “Disabled” from the window that pops up.

To install Adblock Plus:

• Back on the main window, tap the menu again.
• Find the “Tools” section and tap it.
• Tap the “Add-ons” section.
• When the window opens, choose “Browse all Firefox Add-ons.”
• You’ll be sent to the web where all of the Firefox Add-ons live. Scroll down a bit and tap the “Highest Rated” button.
• Adblock Plus will be somewhere close to the top of the list. Tap its listing and press the green “Add to Firefox” button.

When you want to surf the web without having anything incriminating kept on your phone, tap the menu in Firefox and choose “New Private Tab.” This blocks most of the stuff that can track you and makes sure no history is kept on your phone. Heed the warning that tells you about saving files because those will be in your file browser for anyone to see. We enabled the Do not track settings as protection in case you forget to use a new private browsing tab. Try not to forget to use a new private browsing tab, though.

Will any of this make you “invisible” on the internet? Not even close. But it will keep anyone else from seeing what you were doing (and where you were doing it) if they look through your phone.

OnePlus 3 update coming with reworked RAM management, sRGB color mode

A small tune-up is on its way to your OnePlus 3 soon.

Now a couple of weeks removed from the launch of its latest phone, OnePlus is working to push out a maintenance update with a handful of tweaks to the OnePlus 3 — and while it doesn’t bring any giant changes, there are a couple things of note. We’ve been testing the latest OTA in pre-release form for about a week, and while OnePlus won’t commit to a date for releasing the new software to all customers we can expect this patch to roll out soon.

We’d say nothing was broken … but OnePlus had to address complaints.

The headline change for this upcoming OTA is a handful of tweaks to the way the phone manages its RAM. Though the OnePlus 3 has a full 6GB of RAM on board, a vocal group of early buyers (and prospective buyers) have voiced concern that the phone isn’t properly allocating RAM and keeping apps in memory as long as they’d expect. Though we have personally seen no issues with RAM management, OnePlus has bent to some of the pressure in this update — how does that actually change the daily user experience of the OnePlus 3? Well, it doesn’t, really.

The phone does indeed seem to make use of more RAM more of the time, at least according to the “memory” settings, where we’ve seen about 500 to 700MB more in use on average, but that hasn’t really changed how we use the phone. We never noticed apps being unnecessarily killed off in the background, and if we couldn’t see the RAM usage details in the settings we wouldn’t have ever second-guessed it. But with this new change, you can know that the software is attempting to utilize more of that 6GB in the phone, while also keeping in mind that there’s more to using a phone than just holding as many apps in memory as possible.

On an equally nerdy topic, the update also contains the option to switch the display into sRGB color mode. You’ll have to turn on the Developer options to get it, but if you’re someone who wants it you’ve likely already turned those settings on. Don’t know what sRGB color mode is? Don’t worry. Most people will be happier with the standard color mode and color temperature slider found in the normal display settings — and even those who know about sRGB may find that it doesn’t pair well with the AMOLED display on the OnePlus 3 either.

OnePlus says that there are further changes in store for when the update hits consumer devices, but these two solid features of fresh RAM management and an sRGB color mode are the ones folks can look forward to. We’ll know more about the official update when it’s finalized and sent to phones.

OnePlus 3

• OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
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• OnePlus 3 vs. the flagship competition
• Latest OnePlus 3 news
• Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums

OnePlus

This push-button tracker lets you call and locate your kids in real time

When your children are young, you probably care about tracking their whereabouts and getting ahold of them, but you might not want to give them devices that let them call or access the web without supervision.

While there are a few phones and apps out there that let you monitor your child’s activity and security, you’ll be glad to learn about a compelling option that just popped up on crowdfunding website Indiegogo. It’s called Snowfox. The interesting thing about this “trackerphone” is that it combines a phone with a GPS locator – plus it’s from Haltian, a Finland company made up of former Nokia executives.

Snowfox looks like a simple, vibrant square with a speaker, lanyard, and a single button. It’s loaded with tech on the inside, however, including hardware that allows it to accept 3D voice calls as well as conduct real-time GPS tracking. It also works with a complementary smartphone app for Android and iOS. With this app, you can place calls to Snowfox and get notifications about your child’s location.

Haltian/Indiegogo

The trackerphone pairs with its app to let you setup a geo-fence, so you’ll always know when your kid enters or leaves a specific area (as long as your kid is wearing or has Snowfox on their person, of course). Although kids can’t make phone calls, they can push a button that’ll alert you to give them a call. Kids also can’t turn Snowfox off, meaning they can’t purposefully evade your watchful eye.

Snowfox has a 820mAh battery, too. It’s rechargeable through a Micro USB, and you should get up to a week of battery life with one charge. The idea behind Snowfox is that you should be able to get ahold of your children and figure out where they are at any time – all without having to give them devices that come with a full phone dialer and access to the internet but lack parental controls. 

If this interests you, Snowfox is on Indiegogo now and starts at $99.

The best cold-brew coffee maker

By Nick Guy & Kevin Purdy

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.

We looked at nine cold-brew coffee makers, analyzed dozens of at-home brewing methods, made concentrate for more than 200 cups of coffee, and served samples to a tasting panel that included expert baristas. And after all our testing, we found that the Filtron Cold Water Coffee Concentrate Brewer offers the best way to make smooth, delicious iced coffee at home. It’s easy to use and not unattractive (although tall when set up), and in our tests it made cold coffee with balanced acidity, a stronger aroma, and a cleaner finish. Another plus: The Filtron’s cost per cup was the cheapest of all the methods we tested.

How we tested

Our tasting panel served six blind samples of cold brew to six panelists of varying coffee expertise, who rated the samples for flavor, body, and acidity. Video: 19 IDEAS

Testing for ease of use, we followed the provided instructions, noting any inconsistencies or complexities as well as how painful each system was to clean. We ran these tests with Trader Joe’s Kenya AA Coffee—a well-liked, reasonably priced coffee. Brewed hot, this coffee has a sour bitterness without sweet or floral notes. As a cold brew, though, it tastes much better, with reduced acidity and a mellow but preferable mix of tannic and chocolate flavors.

Our next step was a tasting panel. For this round we switched to an upscale bean—Joe Bean Mexico Chiapas—and brewed a fresh batch with each system. We invited six people, including coffee professionals, coffee enthusiasts/nerds, and casual cold-brew drinkers. Tipico Coffee’s Jesse Crouse and Public Espresso + Coffee’s Clinton Hodnett brought their expertise, balanced out by other panelists who used fewer coffee-industry terms but knew what they liked. We followed each brew method’s included instructions, which varied in the ratio of water to bean.

We presented the panelists with six cups of cold brew (one of them made with Trader Joe’s coffee in a French press, for comparison), one after another in a blind taste test. The panelists ranked the cups on a 1-to-10 scale for taste, acidity, and body. The latter two measures were quantitative (as in, how acidic), rather than qualitative (as in, how much they liked the acidity). The tasters had water available for palate cleansing, and we left the cups so that they could compare them directly at the end with additional tastes if necessary. We didn’t serve any with ice, so as to avoid dilution. We asked the testers to note which one was their favorite, and why, after they tasted all six cups.

Our pick

Our pick, the Filtron Cold Water Coffee Concentrate Brewer, is a little cumbersome looking, but it made the best-tasting concentrate. Photo: Michael Hession

The Filtron Cold Water Coffee Concentrate Brewer consistently produced better-tasting coffee concentrate in our tests, with our tasting panel preferring its brew the most. Compared with nearly every other model we tested, it’s far less fussy to set up and empty. The resulting concentrate costs less per cup than that of any other maker we tried. It’s the choice home cold-brew maker of Blue Bottle and Stumptown, as well as many other craft-minded coffee shops. And although the Filtron doesn’t look as stylish or pack away as neatly as our other picks, its black plastic is less likely to show coffee stains over time than the white Toddy or the clear-plastic OXO.

Stronger flavors, better looks

The OXO brewer makes strong concentrate and is designed a little better than our main pick, but our tasters didn’t universally like the flavor of its coffee. Photo: Michael Hession

If you can’t get the Filtron, we recommend the OXO Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker. The OXO model loads up quickly and easily, and it looks much better sitting on your counter than any other system we tested. It’s tall when fully set up, but it’s pretty small when packed away. The coffee it produced in our tests was brighter and had a thicker body than any other cold brew we made. This model stacks up neatly for storage and doesn’t require any paper or felt filters to use. Costing just a bit more than the Filtron, the OXO brewer is worth considering if you like its look and want to optimize your kitchen storage.

What about using a French press?

You can make good iced coffee in a French press, whether concentrated or ready to drink, but you have to work to get to the right recipe for your particular press, and the resulting brew will have more sediment unless you take the extra step of filtering. Cleaning up is trickier, too, as you must disassemble the mesh filter for thorough cleaning.

We averaged recipes from The Coffee Compass, The Kitchn, America’s Test Kitchen, and a local coffee-shop owner, among others, to make concentrate in a 34-ounce Bodum French press. On our first batch, using Trader Joe’s beans, it produced the most body and the strongest flavor among the brewers we tested. On our second batch, made using the same proportions but with upscale Joe Bean coffee, the French press received the worst rating from our tasting panel, earning a mere 3.5 out of 10 in every category. Panelists said the brew tasted “bland” with “tea-like under-extraction,” and that it was like “cold diner coffee.”

If you already have a French press, there’s no reason you can’t try a few test batches: Start with a 4.5-to-1 ratio of water to coffee, by weight, and filter it if you can through paper or cheesecloth. Then dilute to taste. If you’re a regular cold-brew drinker, though, a dedicated brewer is a better option because it makes more concentrate, it offers easier cleanup, and it has a straightforward recipe specifically designed for it.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Iraqis use off-the-shelf drones to battle ISIS

Let’s say you’re leading an Iraqi militia. You want to reconnoiter ISIS fighters’ positions, but you don’t have the budget for military-grade UAVs or helicopters. What to do? For the Iraqis themselves, the answer is simple: buy everyday drones. As Wired notes, both Shia militias and Iraqi officials are using consumer drones bought in hobby and toy stores (like DJI’s Phantom line) to observe ISIS positions and help call artillery strikes. They seldom last for more than 40 minutes in the air, but that’s enough to provide a heads-up and improve accuracy.

There’s also a political motivation to use these drones. The Iraqi police, for example, don’t trust that they’ll get drones from the international coalition — off-the-shelf drones put control back in the hands of the Iraqi government. Shia militias aren’t as dependent, though. They also get military-level drones (such as clones of Boeing UAVs) from Iran, which backs at least some of these units.

No matter what, the use of drones isn’t welcome by everyone. Militias have used the drones to target civilian areas, and that same ease of access has also led to many Syrian revolutionaries (some of whom are extremists) using the remote-controlled machines in the field. Even ISIS is believed to be strapping explosives to drones in the hopes of tipping the balance. This is more an example of the proliferation of technology than anything else. Drones are becoming mainstays of modern warfare, even among ragtag groups that receive little help (or sympathy) from the rest of the world.

Source: Wired

NASA’s newest rocket booster is ready for deep space

NASA fired up a massive booster in Utah this morning. The powerful machine was put through its second and last qualification test in the desert before it’s ready to facilitate the flight of the world’s most powerful rocket to date.

The first booster test for the Space Launch System (SLS), which is NASA’s most ambitious rocket in production, was carried out in March last year. It demonstrated the capabilities of the machine at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the highest mark on the propellant temperature range. The second experiment today checked the colder limits of the temperature range at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Testing for both extremes has given the agency significant insight into the impact of temperatures on the propellant.

The SLS is being designed to carry astronauts to the far reaches of the solar system starting with a journey to Mars. When it’s ready, the two Orbital ATK-built boosters, one of which was put through the intensive two-minute long ground test, will facilitate the launch of the rocket’s first unmanned test flight with the Orion spacecraft in 2018.

In March that year, the boosters will fire up along with the main engine of the rocket for the first two minutes at take off. Together, they’ll provide about 75 percent of the thrust that’s needed to pull away from Earth’s gravitational pull.

“This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters says in a NASA report. “Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we’re making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space.”

Source: NASA