Google was reportedly developing a standalone VR headset
Google’s virtual reality ambitions have slowly but steadily progressed over the last few years. It started with the cheap, humble cardboard headset, but Google formally announced Daydream, a new Android-based VR platform at I/O this year. However, it sounds as if the company originally had more ambitious hardware in mind. According to Recode, Google had a full-fledged VR headset in the works that would compete with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive — but the company shut it down in an effort to streamline its VR plans.
The shuttered project was part of Google parent company Alphabet’s experimental X lab; it’s not uncommon for initiatives in X to be shut down before making it into the real world. Instead of developing this separate headset, which would have run a new operating system, Google and Alphabet are instead focusing on the Android-based Daydream.
This report comes some months after The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was working on a standalone VR headset that didn’t need to be connected to a phone or PC to function. It’s entirely possible that earlier report is referring to this discontinued project. Obviously, the upcoming launch of Daydream indicates that Google is far from done with VR; it just seems the company is focused on using mobile devices to power the experience for the time being.
Source: Recode
Amazon Video for Android adds support for SD cards
Amazon just pushed a small, but important update to its Android video app: starting today, users can choose where downloaded files are stored. It sounds insignificant, but for heavy users, this is a really big deal — until now, Amazon Video would only store content on a device’s internal storage, severely limiting how much content one could keep on the device. Not anymore. Now, if you have an SD card, you have room for more movies. The feature is rolling out to customers in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan. It’s about time.
Source: Amazon
Apple’s New Music Royalty Proposal Would Make Streaming Costlier for Free Services Like Spotify
Apple has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board calling for a simplified way to pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming music, according to Billboard. While the change would benefit labels, artists and publishers, it would make it more difficult for streaming services like Spotify to continue offering free tiers.
Apple, which has always had a gift for creative simplicity, wants to make this process easier and more transparent, according to a copy of the filing obtained by Billboard. The company’s proposal to the Copyright Royalty Board suggests a simple, “all-in” statutory rate that would be “fair, simple and transparent, unlike the incredibly complicated structure that currently exists.”
Apple’s suggested rate is 9.1 cents per 100 plays, which would make the songwriting royalties for 100 streams equal to the royalties for a single song download. However, the change would make it more expensive for companies like Spotify and YouTube to offer free music tiers.
The current system sees streaming companies paying songwriters and publishers between 10.5 and 12 percent of their revenue using what Billboard terms a “complicated formula.” The money is then divided into public performance and mechanical royalties, which is then paid to publishers and “collected societies.” Currently, Apple and other streaming music providers don’t have to pay publishers the statutory rate set by the Royalty Board because they can negotiate their own deals. However, negotiations between publishers and streaming services would start at a different place should Apple’s proposal become rule.
The Copyright Royalty Board, which is made up of a panel of three judges, is still in the early stages of determining potential statuary rates for 2018 to 2022 so it’s unclear whether Apple’s proposal would take hold or ever come to be.
While Apple Music has garnered about 15 million paying subscribers in the year since its launch, rival Spotify has twice as many, with the company citing Apple’s entrance into paid music streaming as a boon to its business. Despite user and revenue growth, Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music labels, with recent losses growing 10 percent to $195.7 million.
Tags: Spotify, Apple Music
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LG LFXS30786S French Door Refrigerator with Bluetooth Speaker review – CNET
The Good Performance was very strong, even in the Door-in-Door compartment, where temperatures typically run a bit high. The built-in Bluetooth speaker is convenient and easy to pair with, and offers decent sound quality for kitchen listening.
The Bad The build looks a little basic, and doesn’t come in black stainless steel unless you downgrade to the model without the Bluetooth speaker. Also, the different settings in the Glide N’ Serve drawer didn’t actually do anything useful.
The Bottom Line This is a sensible high-end upgrade with no major weak spots of note. If you’re a fan of Door-in-Door fridges and you like listening to music or podcasts while in the kitchen, then it belongs on your wish list.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
Why doesn’t every fridge have built-in Bluetooth speakers? After all, plenty of us like to turn on NPR or a podcast as we’re cooking breakfast or washing dishes — packing speakers into an always-powered appliance seems like an obvious way to clear up precious counterspace.
All of which is to say that I like the LG LFXS30786S, a high-end French door model that does exactly that. It’s another one of LG’s Door-in-Door refrigerators, with a button on the right door handle that lets you open the door’s front panel to access the in-door shelves without actually opening the refrigerator. And, like most of the rest of LG’s Door-in-Door fridges, it’s expensive, retailing at a cool $4,000.
It’s a very good refrigerator, though. You can’t get it in black stainless steel unless you downgrade to a similar-looking, equally expensive model that doesn’t have a built-in speaker, but it still looks decent and feels sturdy to the touch. Speaking of that speaker, it’s convenient and easy to use, and its sound quality passes the ear test, at least for kitchen listening. Cooling performance was impressive, too, with fantastic accuracy and consistency in the body of the fridge, and better-than-average temperatures in that Door-in-Door compartment. Simply put, there’s a lot to like about the LFXS30786S, and not a lot of notable weaknesses. If a speaker fridge sounds like a smart upgrade to you, it deserves a look.
This LG fridge packs a set of speakers
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Design and features
The LG LFXS30786S looks like the rest of LG’s fleet of French door fridges. That’s not a bad thing per se, but given that LG hasn’t made any major design tweaks to its French door lineup since the debut of Door-in-Door a few years ago, it’s a look that feels slightly stale. Certain high-end LG models have started offering black stainless-steel finishes, which helps — but not the LFXS30786S.
Still it’s a decent design that feels well-built inside and out. The touch controls look classy and understated, with white LEDs that shouldn’t clash with your kitchen decor. The 19.5-cubic-foot fridge interior is spacious and well-designed, with drawers that glide smoothly in and out and spillproof shelves that were easy enough to rearrange for me to do it one-handed. Even the entire bottom shelf slides out to help you reach items stashed in the back — an especially nice feature for a fridge that’s as deep as this one.
With the Slim Spaceplus ice maker, there isn’t anything blocking off the door shelves.
Chris Monroe/CNET
I’m a fan of LG’s “Slim Spaceplus” ice maker, too. It’s packed entirely inside of the door — a nice differentiator from competing French door models like the Samsung Food Showcase refrigerator, which stick it up on the top shelf. That approach costs you storage space, and also typically means you’ll have an unsightly bulge in the door to catch the ice that falls from above. In a lot of cases, those bulges block off the door shelves below them. No such problem with the LFXS30786S.
As for the Bluetooth speaker, you’ll find it on the front of the refrigerator’s top rim. There’s a single button on it — give it a press, and the speaker will go into pairing mode, allowing you to discover it on your phone and sync things up.
The speaker runs the near-width of the fridge, but the doors close over top of it. I was worried the sound quality would be a bit muffled as a result, but that wasn’t the case. Voices came through crisp and clear as I listened to a podcast in our fridge testing lab, and music sounded good to me, too (and to my co-workers when I sought out second and third opinions). You won’t quite get the rich fidelity and depth of sound that you’d expect from a larger, fancier speaker, but it sounds a lot better than you’d probably expect from a refrigerator, and certainly good enough for casual kitchen listening.
Cooling performance was steady at the default, 37-degree setting. The body of the fridge (blue lines) stayed right on target.
Ry Crist/CNET
Chris Monroe/CNET
Performance and usability
LG fridges have fared particularly well in our performance tests, and the LFXS30786S was no exception. At the default, 37-degree setting, the main shelves were dead-on, holding to an average temperature of 37.4 degrees F. That’s about as good a result as we’ve seen, and one that’s well below the FDA’s food safety benchmark of 40 degrees F. The drawers and the left door shelves performed well, too, averaging out to 36.6 and 37.5, respectively.
Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K review – CNET
The Good The Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K is a clear improvement over the original’s video quality. Single-camera 360-degree video and photos don’t require stitching. A Dual Pro Pack of cameras makes it possible to create spherical video with its bundled basic stitching software. Videos can be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook. Mobile app makes it easier to change settings and gives you a preview of your shot.
The Bad The Dual Pro Pack is priced for serious hobbyists and pros and will require better software than Kodak’s included solutions for the best results. Included stitching software is for video only. The bundled dual-camera mount is a pain to use and no simple tripod mount is included.
The Bottom Line The versatile Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K is a 360-degree camera and 4K-resolution action cam rolled into one. You’ll need better software than what’s provided to get the most from it, though.
Several of the companies rolling out consumer 360-degree cameras this year are new to the category, but not JK Imaging. The global licensee of the Kodak brand released the Pixpro SP360 in 2014, a tiny camera with a single big fisheye lens that can capture a 360-degree view on the horizontal axis and 214-degree angle of view to cover the vertical axis.
For 2016, the Pixpro SP360 4K widens the field of view to 235 degrees and ups the resolution for better detail than its predecessor. Plus, with just one lens, you get immersive content without needing to stitch together two or more images. And if you want full spherical imaging, Kodak makes that possible, too — for a price.
At $900 (£750 and about AU$1,200 converted) for the SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack, it’s not for someone who wants to casually shoot a few seconds of 360-degree video to post to Facebook or YouTube. Not that you couldn’t do that, just that there are less expensive and easier-to-use options like the Ricoh Theta S. What the SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack buys you is shooting flexibility in one box.
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The SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack.
Sarah Tew/CNET
With two cameras, you can mount them back to back and then stitch the video together with software to create 3,840×1,920-pixel resolution spherical video. Or you can use them separately to capture two different 360×235-degree videos. Or, because each camera can shoot flat 16:9-aspect video at resolutions up to 4K UHD (2160p), you can use them like you would regular cameras and mount them at different angles to create more compelling videos.
This flexibility is what you don’t get with single-body cameras such as the point-and-shoot Ricoh Theta S or mountable models like Samsung’s Gear 360. The other nice part of the SP360, you can always start with the $500 single-camera Premier Pack, which comes with a bunch of mounting accessories, and then add another SP360 4K for $450 if you decide you want to make spherical videos. Again, if you want a simpler — and possibly cheaper — camera for spherical video you’ll want to look elsewhere, but if you want the potential to do more, consider the SP360 4K.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
The Premier Pack’s accessories are geared more for action cam-type uses including suction cup, handle bar/pole and helmet mounts. The Dual Pro Pack, on the other hand, will set you up for more stationary use with its selfie stick that can be mounted on a tripod as well as the suction cup mount and a mount to hold the kit’s two cameras back to back.
This dual-camera mount is, unfortunately, a pain to use. It firmly holds the cameras, but to attach or remove them from the mount you’ll need a screwdriver or a coin because I guess thumbscrews would’ve been too easy. The main issue is you need to remove the cameras to charge them or swap their batteries, connect them to a computer, or access their microSD card slots.
You can modify the included mount or pick up this 3D printed one to make the ports and card slots accessible. Also, since the cameras have standard 1/4-20 tripod mounts, you can create your own for your particular application. The cameras can actually be spaced pretty far apart because of how wide its lens is. So wide, in fact, Kodak was able to create a mount for 3DR’s Solo drone that puts a camera on the top and bottom. (You can check out a video playlist using the mount on YouTube.)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet review – CNET
The Good Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Tablet offers modular add-on options, and has a sharp display and a great keyboard.
The Bad The Intel Core m3 base model is not the fastest machine around, and adding faster parts and optional modules can get expensive. There’s no slot or magnetic anchor for the optional stylus.
The Bottom Line The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 tablet isn’t as slick as some other Windows tablets, but its modular add-ons give it a cool built-to-order feel.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad brand is best known for professional-grade laptops, but it also includes hybrids and even tablets. The latest is the high-end ThinkPad X1 Tablet, which stands out by offering not only a standard keyboard cover, but also a series of modular add-ons (some available now, some coming later), making this potentially a very flexible system.
The X1 Tablet starts at $1,029 in the US, which gets you an Intel Core m3 processor and the keyboard cover. Similar configurations start at £1,049 in the UK and AU$1,899 in Australia. Upgrades are available for the processor, storage and other components, and you can also swap Windows 10 for Windows 10 Pro. We tested a version with a Core m5 CPU, which costs $1,300.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
There’s no shortage of Windows tablets these days. The Huawei MateBook comes to mind, as do the Surface Pro 4 and even Lenovo’s hybrid Yoga line. And while ThinkPads have always been geared toward enterprise or business users, many recent ThinkPads are sharp-looking enough to appeal to consumers as well.
The Core M processor means the device can go fanless, and while the Core m3 is not as powerful as the Core i3/5/7 CPUs in mainstream laptops and tablets, it still performs well enough for most mainstream tasks. For storage, the base model has only a 128GB SSD, although a microSD card slot is there for expansion.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet
| 12-inch, 2,160×1,440 touchscreen display |
| 1.1GHz Intel Core m5-6Y57 |
| 8GB DDR3 SDRAM |
| 128MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 515 |
| 256GB SSD |
| 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
If you want a device that will have people stopping and staring when you take it out in public, this is not that device. It’s built more for productivity and completing tasks than looking good and garnering attention. The design is almost industrial, in matte black with sharp angles rather than smooth curves.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Like the Surface series from Microsoft, the X1 Tablet has a kickstand. However, the Lenovo version is hinged on the bottom, and opens into an L-shape, where most other tablet kickstands are hinged midbody. This makes the X1 Tablet feel more like a traditional laptop, plus it makes it easier to use on your lap.
Those who don’t like having only USB-C ports and who don’t want to carry around dongles will be happy with the port setup. The X1 does charge through its USB-C port, but it also has a regular USB port, DisplayPort, headphone jack and microSD card slot. It is pretty nice to have a regular USB port in a sea of devices that are opting for just USB-C. The bottom of the device has a proprietary port for the keyboard attachment or for the different modules.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of past life
After building out its next Mars rover in mixed-reality simulations, NASA is ready to announce the near-final design that will depart for the red planet in the summer of 2020. Unlike Curiosity, which is still on its extended tour, the Mars 2020 rover will investigate an area of the planet searching for evidence of past life, with a long-term goal to carefully collect samples of Martian rocks and return them to Earth for further analysis.
The next-generation rover (which doesn’t have an inspiring name yet), borrows a lot of its basic design from its older sibling, but with a completely new payload of instruments it will use to study the planet. One of the key directives is to determine whether future, human missions will be able to take advantage of Martian resources like water and oxygen. “These experiments,” a statement from NASA explained, “will help engineers learn how to use Martian resources to produce oxygen for human respiration and potentially for use as an oxidizer for rocket fuel.”
“Mars has resources needed to help sustain life, which can reduce the amount of supplies that human missions will need to carry,” NASA’s associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate William Gerstenmaier said. “Better understanding the Martian dust and weather will be valuable data for planning human Mars missions. Testing ways to extract these resources and understand the environment will help make the pioneering of Mars feasible.”
The rover’s rock collection subsystem has also been redesigned and now includes a coring drill and a rack of sample tubes that will be filled, sealed and left in strategic locations for future missions to collect and return to Earth. Finally, when the rover is preparing to land on the surface sometime in February 2021, an upgraded skycrane landing system will actually allow the lander to scan the surface for an ideal landing site and divert its course if necessary using a “range trigger.” Once the rover is on the ground, it will be able to build a map of potential areas to study, using the photos and data it collected on its descent.
‘Pokémon Go’ gets in your face with an unofficial HoloLens demo
With Pokémon Go fever gripping the nation, it was only a matter of time before someone took the game’s augmented reality features and evolved them, as it were, with VR and mixed reality. And CapitolaVR has done just that, creating a Pokémon Go-esque demo with a Microsoft HoloLens.
The HoloLens Pokémon game is just a concept at this point, but it does make for a fun YouTube video showing us what future versions of the game could look like when users stop staring at their phones and start wearing high-tech goggles as they chase down Pikachu and Charmander. Behold, the gesture-based, Poké ball-throwing future:
As Polygon points out, development of Pokémon Go HoloLens edition won’t go much further than this demo, since recreating the interface has apparently proved challenging. Also, a spokesman from CapitolaVR told UploadVR that the company doesn’t currently have any plants to work with Niantic Labs on a HoloLens version at this point.
21 shortcuts for Microsoft Edge you need to know – CNET
Microsoft
By employing only a fraction of these shortcuts, you can become a better Edge browser.
Tab and window management
1. Jump to next or previous tab
Use Ctrl-Tab to jump one tab to the right and use Control-Shift-Tab to jump one tab to the left.
2. Jump to specific tab
To jump to a specific tab of the many you have open, press Ctrl and a number key between 1 and 9. Ctrl-1 jumps you to your first (left-most) tab. Ctrl-5, for example, jumps you to the fifth tab from the left. Ctrl-9 jumps you to the right-most tab, so this keyboard shortcut is really only useful if your open tabs number in the single digits.
3. Open link in new tab
Some links are coded to open in the current tab while others open in a new tab. To take control of this behavior, press Ctrl when you click a link to stay on your current page while opening the link in a new tab in the background. Likewise, use Ctrl-Shift-click to open link in new tab and switch to it. Also, Shift-click to open a link in a new window.
If you use a mouse, click the mouse wheel or middle mouse button to open a link in a new tab. And Shift-middle click opens a link in a new window.
4. Close current tab
Instead of clicking the little X to close a tab, just hit Ctrl-W. If you did that by accident, hit Ctrl-Shift-T to open a previously closed tab.
5. Move tab to new window
Hit Ctrl-Shift-N to open your current tab in a new window.
6. A tab so nice you need it twice
To open a replica of your current tab, hit Ctrl-K to duplicate it in a new tab.
7. Drag tabs
Like most modern browsers, Edge is quite flexible when it comes to moving your tabs around. You can click and drag a tab to move it to another spot among your row open tabs in the current window. You can also drag a tab out of the current window and start a new window or drag it from one window to another window.
8. See the sidebar
Edge has a handy sidebar (Microsoft calls it the Hub) hiding along its right edge that contains your Favorites, Reading List, History and Downloads. There is a keyboard shortcut to call up each view of the sidebar and they are:
- Ctrl-I — Favorites
- Ctrl-M — Reading List
- Ctrl-H — History
- Ctrl-J — Downloads
Hit Esc to close the sidebar.
Lastly, to save your current page to your Favorites or Reading List, hit Ctrl-D.
9. Private window
Hit Ctrl-Shift-P to open a Browsing InPrivate window.
10. Minimize window
Hit Alt-spacebar-N to minimize Edge.
11. Move or resize
You can move or resize your Edge window without needing to click-and-drag from its edges. Hit Alt-spacebar-M and then you can move your Edge window with the arrow keys or using your mouse or touchpad. Likewise, hit Alt-spacebar-S to resize your window with your arrow keys.
Page navigation
12. Move back or forward a page
Hit Alt-left arrow to move back a page on your current tab and Alt-right arrow to move forward.
13. Gain control of the URL bar
Instead of clicking into the URL bar, you can hit Ctrl-E to move your cursor to URL bar and highlight all text in it.
14. Search with copied text
Hit Ctrl-Shift-L to start a Bing search of any text you have copied to the clipboard. The results will open in the current tab.
15. Find bar
Hit Crtl-F to open the Find on page panel to search for a keyword or phrase on the page. Hit Enter to move to the next instance of your search term and Shift-Enter to move to the previous instance.
16. Move to top or bottom
To jump to the bottom of a page, hit the End key. You can then return to the top of the page by hitting the Home key.
17. Page up and down
When you are viewing a page (and not filling out a form, using Google Docs or otherwise engaging your cursor in Edge), hit the spacebar to page down on a page and Shift-spacebar to page up.
18. Zoom controls
If you have trouble reading a small font on a page, hit Ctrl-[equals sign] to zoom in. To zoom out, use Ctrl-[minus sign] to zoom out. To return to the default zoom level, hit Ctrl-0 (zero).
19. Reading mode
Hit Ctrl-Shift-R to enter reading mode for a clean, clutter-free version of the page you are viewing.
20. Stop or reload a page
Hit Esc to stop a page from loading and Ctrl-R or F5 to reload the page.
21. Go home
No matter where your internet wanderings take you, you can always click your heels and return home. But instead of clicking your heels, just hit Alt-Home to return to your home page.
If Edge isn’t your jam, I’ve got shortcuts for Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
Kyocera’s Hydro Shore is a waterproof phone for the budget crowd
Kyocera has announced the Hydro Shore, a budget-friendly waterproof phone available for AT&T’s GoPhone pre-paid service. With IPX5 and IPX7 certifications, Kyocera says that the Hydro Shore can survive contact with water, as well as immersion in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The screen is also designed to allow you to operate the touchscreen while wet.
Aside from its waterproofing features, the Hydro Shore comes running Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, and packs a 5-inch 960 x 540 display. There’s also a 5MP rear camera on board, along with a 2MP front-facing shooter, 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot. The whole thing is powered by a 1.1GHz Snapdragon 210 processor and a 2160mAh battery.
The Kyocera Hydro Shore is set to go on sale starting tomorrow, July 16, for $80 exclusively at Walmart.
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