BlackBerry DTEK50 priced at $429, launching in Canada with five carriers

While BlackBerry’s latest Android phone, the DTEK50, has something of an impenetrable and vexing name, it will be widely available in Canada when it arrives in early August.

There are two main ways to purchase the phone, and while we don’t have carrier pricing right now, ultimately the best place to buy it will be ShopBlackBerry, the company’s e-commerce store.

Direct from BlackBerry

Shipping August 8th for $429, which includes a 12,600mAh battery pack, the DTEK50 will come unlocked through the BlackBerry Store, compatible with all then major Canadian carriers.

See at ShopBlackBerry

From the carriers

While we don’t have carrier pricing just yet, we know which carriers the DTEK50 will be sold at in Canada:

• Rogers
• Bell
• Telus
• Wind Mobile
• SaskTel

If history is anything to go by, the phone will be roughly the same price as its unlocked counterpart — $430 or so — when purchased outright, and $0 on a 2-year contract.

It’s possible more carriers will be added to the list in the coming weeks, and we’ll update this page when links to the existing ones go live.

Do you listen to podcasts?

Podcasts are awesome, but not everyone listens to them.

It used to be that the only thing you really listened to on your phone or in the car was music. We’ve moved past that, though, and now you can listen to podcasts wherever you are. The good news is that there is a podcast, or multiple podcasts, for everyone, with topics ranging from comedy to history to, of course, technology! We host two fantastic ones right here: Android Central Podcast to Go Time —a Pokemon Go Podcast.

That’s why in this week’s poll we want to know whether you listen to podcasts. There are ones out there for everyone, no matter what you want to listen to people talk about.

Do you listen to podcasts?

Your turn!

Now it’s your turn! Do you have a favorite podcast? Do you think listening to podcasts is just a waste of time? Hop into the comments below and let us know about it!

Verizon rolls out small updates to the LG G5 and V10

Verizon has started rolling out a fresh set of updates to both the LG G5 and LG V10, bringing along some slight tweaks to both. For the G5, Verizon says that this update, which brings the software up to version VS98713A, adds the option to use an app drawer on the home screen.

As for the V10, the changes are much more on the minor side of things. The software version for the V10 after this update will tick up to VS99023A, and Verizon says you can expect some general Wi-Fi calling improvements. The update also includes “a clarification to the USB connection pop-up when the device is charging.”

Since the updates only just started rolling out, they may take some time to land for everyone. However, if you haven’t yet received a prompt, you can manually check from your phone’s Settings menu.

Have you seen an update yet? Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments and on the forums!

LG G5

• LG G5 review
• LG 360 CAM review
• LG G5 complete specs
• LG’s G5 Friends modules are a neat idea, but they won’t matter
• LG G5 Hi-Fi Plus w/ B&O
• Join the LG G5 discussion

AT&T
Unlocked
Sprint
T-Mobile

China’s LeEco buys Vizio in a $2 billion deal

Today at an event in Los Angeles, Vizio announced that it will sell to China’s LeEco (formerly LeTV) for $2 billion. Don’t expect to see much change on store shelves, as the company plans to continue operating under the Vizio name as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The exception to this is its viewer data business Inscape — we learned about it last year when Vizio filed plans for a now-unnecessary IPO — which will spin off and operate as a separate privately-owned company controlled by Vizio founder William Wang. Wang will own 51 percent of Inscape, with the rest going to LeEco attached to a 10 year license for the technology, which monitors what people are actually watching on their TV to help with things like targeted advertising.

Wang started Vizio fourteen years ago and rapidly built it into one of the largest TV companies by selling flat panel displays at a lower price than the competition. Now LeEco’s acquisition should help it gain a foothold in the US market, as it also develops products in other areas like electric vehicles and smartphones.

LeEco announced plans to invest heavily in R&D for the division, while Vizio CTO Matt McRae promised to continue the company’s strategy of delivering connected, multiscreen technology at affordable prices. The combination brings together the largest TV brand in China with the second largest one in the US, and it should be interesting to see what that combined might can do. The two expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

Vizio + LeEco: A shared vision to shape the future. #LeEcoVIZIO pic.twitter.com/G7rgpEW0Bb

— LeEco Global (@LeEcoGlobal) July 26, 2016

Source: LeEco (PRNewswire)

The best portable induction cooktop

By Michael Sullivan

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.

After putting in more than 40 hours on research and testing, we’re confident that the Duxtop 8100MC Induction Cooktop is the best for most people. This reasonably priced induction burner boils water quickly and cooks rice faster than the competition. Its easy-to-use interface allows you to choose between a power mode (for general cooking) and a temperature mode (for specific tasks like frying).

How we tested

We seared pieces of eye round beef to evaluate how evenly they would brown using induction burners. Photo: Michael Hession

Though full-size multiburner ranges are a great permanent option for many homes, for this guide, we focused on single burners between $60 and $140, as well as dual burners between $250 and $320. Dual burners are convenient for allowing you to cook two items at once: You can boil a large pot of water for pasta on one burner, while your tomato sauce simmers on the other.

However, after testing both models, we found that dual induction burners are less powerful overall and ultimately aren’t worth their steep price tag.

We tested induction burners by timing how long it took 2 quarts of water to come to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan. To test how hot the burners could get, we seared pieces of eye round beef to evaluate how evenly they would brown. We cooked batches of white rice to see if the burners could maintain a low simmer or would cause scorching. To see how evenly each burner distributed heat, we browned 2 tablespoons of flour in a 12-inch All-Clad skillet. We also tested models with automatic shutoff features and took note of any excessive buzzing or annoying beeps. Finally, we cooked many meals using the burners to get a feel for their overall practicality and ease of use.

The best induction burner

Our pick for the best induction burner is the Duxtop 8100MC Induction Cooktop. Photo: Michael Hession

If you need an extra burner for your kitchen, the reasonably priced Duxtop 8100MC Induction Cooktop is the best that we tested. Though it was not a leader in all of our tests, it ranked high in all of them and lacks any glaring drawbacks. It has a straightforward control panel that allows you to easily adjust the power mode, temperature, and timer. The Duxtop boils water quickly and cooks foods faster than other models we tested. It also comes with a number of user-friendly safety features to prevent overheating or to alert you if you accidentally use the wrong pan. Also, the single ceramic-glass top on this model makes cleanup a cinch.

The Duxtop makes an audible buzz caused by the electromagnetic field, which is an annoyance we encountered with every model we tested. However, it was one of the quietest, especially alongside the Max Burton 6400.

Speedy, but noisy and more expensive

The Max Burton 6400 Digital Choice Induction Cooktop boiled water slightly faster than the Duxtop, but it’s noisier and more expensive. Photo: Michael Hession

The Max Burton 6400 Digital Choice Induction Cooktop boiled water slightly faster than the Duxtop, but it’s noisier and more expensive. Photo: Michael Hession

Though we liked the Duxtop burner the best, the Max Burton 6400 Digital Choice Induction Cooktop performed well in nearly all of our tests. It’s a solid upgrade from our main pick, with a simple control panel, a bright digital display, and a sturdy base. The Max Burton 6400 boiled water the fastest and seared meat more evenly compared with the Duxtop. However, it has a noisier buzz than the Duxtop, it beeps loudly, and it’s more expensive.

Induction burners versus conventional gas or electric burners

Below the surface of the glass-ceramic top, an electric current passes through the magnetic wire coil to create a high-frequency electromagnetic field. Photo: Michael Hession

Unlike gas or electric stovetops, which heat using thermal conduction, induction burners heat using electromagnetic induction. Below the surface of the glass-ceramic top in an induction burner is a magnetic wire coil. Electricity running through this coil makes a magnetic field that points directly up at the ceiling. Put an iron pot on top and the magnetic field makes the electrons in the pot’s metal get up and dance. But iron (and iron-based metals like stainless steel) is a really poor electrical conductor, meaning that it’s bad at letting electrical currents run freely through it, unlike metals such as gold and copper. This pent-up energy has nowhere to go, so instead it’s released as heat. And—bangazoom!—the pot heats up to use as you please. What’s unique about induction cooking is that heat is created directly in the pan instead of on the cooktop’s surface, which allows for more immediate control of the heat source.

Induction burners are also more energy-efficient than conventional gas or smooth-electric burners. The US Department of Energy compared the efficiency of energy transfer in residential cooking products and found that induction burners were 84 percent efficient, versus about 74 percent for smooth-electric cooktops and 40 percent for conventional gas burners. Because less energy is lost in the surrounding air when you cook with induction, your kitchen will remain cooler than it would if you were using gas.

In our tests, induction cooktops brought water to a boil in almost half the time that conventional gas or electric burners did. The fastest induction burner brought 2 quarts of water to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan in about 7 minutes, versus about 13½ minutes using a conventional gas burner, and almost 16 minutes using a smooth-electric cooktop.

The speed, efficiency, and complexity of induction burners are what make them drastically more expensive than their portable electric or gas counterparts. Currently, the average single-burner induction cooktop goes for around $60, and electric models can cost as little as $10. Portable gas burners are usually around $30, but require butane tanks that are sold separately.

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

Owlet’s wearable SIDS alarm isn’t ready for the real world

The first thing every new parent does is worry: If you make a mistake, the consequences can be fatal. Biology has made our children resilient creatures, sure, but as a parent you never lose that constant, low-level panic. It’s one of the reasons there’s a cottage industry of baby gadgets designed to offload the burden of worrying onto an appliance. Owlet’s smart sock is one such device, a wireless pulse oximeter that you strap onto your rug rat before she goes to bed. Should her heart rate and oxygen level suddenly decrease in the night — a possible precursor to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) — the nearby base station will wake you up. It’s designed to help you sleep a little sounder, at least in theory.

The actual hardware is a curved piece of plastic with a pair of optical sensors installed on either side of the bend. Hanging on one end is a small, thick disk that holds a battery and wireless transmitter, which remain in contact with the base plate. The Owlet is inserted into a cloth sock, which is then strapped onto your baby’s left foot and held in place with two velcro straps: one across the plantar fascia and another around the heel. You’re meant to strap it on to your little one in the moments before you put her to bed, letting the device monitor her breathing while you sleep.

The base station, meanwhile, can operate independently of a WiFi network, as long as it’s close enough to the Owlet sock. It pulls the data from the wearable; should it notice a dip in oxygen and pulse levels, it will begin to flash red and squawk loudly. That information will also be pushed to the internet, with the data becoming available for use on your smartphone via a companion app. If the connection is lost, most commonly because your kid has decided to repel the foreign invader on her foot, you’ll be informed of that too.

As soon as you take the sock out of the box, it seems clear that at some point, the sock is going to come off. Following a cursory Google search, I’ve already disabled the disconnection alerts, given that being rudely awoken at 3 AM is the last thing I need. Once everything was set up, we embarked upon our first night with Owlet, taking slightly longer than expected to get it seated neatly on my four-month-old daughter’s foot. Those worrying about their kids outgrowing the device should note that there are four different socks in the box, with the largest measuring roughly 12cm (4.7 inches) from the big toe to the heel.

While the base station looks like it’s also a wireless-charging plate, the sock itself actually recharges over micro-USB. Each morning, you attach it to the base station using a short cable and then pull it out in the evening. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this state of affairs, although it’s hard to see why the base station needs to take up so much space on your nightstand given its limited purpose. But more on that later.

Getting the sock onto your child’s foot is only as difficult as your kid is wriggly, but ensuring it’s in the right place for a good connection is a different matter. The company seems to be aware of the obvious limitations of the hardware and includes a detailed leaflet in the box as well as a video tutorial in the app. Despite this, I wasn’t able to get it working each evening, and when I did, it didn’t always continue to work through the night. Babies have a habit of kicking off anything they consider to be an uncomfortable invader, and I’d frequently wake up to find the sock discarded at the foot of the cot.

The company sends several emails to its customers, and while I can’t fault its commitment to customer service, this too began to grate. Mostly because after our first night, the missive said that we would be feeling quite smug after getting a great night’s sleep. Except neither my wife or I did, thanks to the base station’s hideously bright night-light. The green induces such eye-watering that we struggled to sleep at all, eventually resolving to drop a thick towel over the base station. Scrolling down that “first night” email, there’s a prominent note revealing that you can dim the base station’s light. But even then, it’s still so bright that you’ll prefer to throw a towel over it rather than feel like you’re living in an alien’s bedroom.

As much as I like Owlet’s product and appreciate its founder’s goal of combating SIDS, there are problems. The base station doesn’t seem to have been built with any concessions to how sleep-deprived parents behave in the real world. If I’m throwing a towel over its status light, even when dimmed, then I’m probably taking the shortcut that most tired parents would take. If the sock gets kicked off, I’m not going to risk waking a sleeping baby — especially at night — to get it back on.

I’ve written before that a lot of parenting is about developing acceptable tolerances of risk, and Owlet simply doesn’t provide enough reward. It’s too fiddly to use on a regular basis, it fails too easily and it works better on paper than on your baby’s foot. Not to mention, of course, that using a gadget might make you less responsive to your child’s actual distress in the middle of the night. Then there’s the price, because $250 is a lot to spend on a product that requires so much attention for very little return. I’ll just have to keep sleeping lightly with one ear open and hope for the best.