Save $23 on this Galaxy S7 edge glass screen protector!
If you want to keep your Galaxy S7 edge screen safe, you’ll want to invest in a tempered glass protector. Ventev’s Toughglass is designed to fit the curves of the screen and provide an additional layer of protection. Right now you can pick one up for just $21.95, a savings of $23.
Soft Gold OnePlus 3 is now available in Canada, Hong Kong, and the EU
After rolling out the Soft Gold color option of the OnePlus 3 in the U.S. last week, OnePlus is making the variant available in the European Union, Hong Kong, and Canada. You can now head to the company’s website in your respective region and get your hands on the gold version of the phone.
The color option will be sold in limited quantities, so if you’re on the fence, best act fast. Read our review to know what’s on offer with the OnePlus 3.
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You can get a free Moto 360 Sport with purchase of Moto X Pure Edition
Right now B&H Photo is offering a free Moto 360 Sport smartwatch with the purchase of a 64GB Moto X Pure Edition, which is a savings of around $200. You’ll have your choice of a white or flame watch, and you can decide between black, white and bamboo for the phone itself. Touting a 5.7-inch display that is powered by a Snapdragon 808 and 3GB of RAM, the Moto X Pure Edition is an unlocked phone that works on both GSM and CDMA networks.
All you have to do is add the phone to you cart and then you will be able to make your color selection for the free watch. We don’t know how long this deal will last, so if you are interested be sure to act quickly.
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LG V20 is the first confirmed Android 7.0 Nougat phone, coming in September
LG has publicly confirmed its intention to announce its next flagship phone, the V20, in September. It will be the company’s first device running Android 7.0 “Nougat” and follows up on the V10 with a secondary display running along the top, as well as the Hi-Fi quality sound, thanks to the onboard 32-bit DAC (digital-to-analogue converter).
Like the LG G5, the V20 will have a dual camera system on the back and – according to the mobile business division’s president – will “be a new standard for premium phones with more enhanced multimedia capabilities.” If it’s anything like the V10, however, it won’t share the G5’s modular design.
Very little else is revealed in today’s press release. There are no other specifications or features teased, but the naming has been chosen to symbolically represent the strive for perfection. Make no mistake, this is the Korean manufacturer’s flagship phone of 2016.
The announcement is a curious one, still. Nexus phones are, traditionally, the first phones launched with a new operating system from Google. But with Android N having been made available to manufacturers earlier than normal, we may see more than just the pure Android devices launched with Android 7.0 Nougat before the year is up.
While we still think it’s unlikely that the V20 will be available before the rumoured HTC-built Nexus phones, it’s certainly going to be available near the same time. LG states that the V20 will be among the first phones release with the latest version of Android OS.
Pokemon Go update removes major features, adds warnings
Niantic pushed an update for Pokemon Go over the weekend that scraps a couple of fairly major features, but ones that didn’t work properly anyway. It also adds new, sinister but understandable warnings.
The footprint feature has never really worked since the launch of the game, so has been deleted entirely. It was meant to help you track nearby Pokemon through the number of paw prints on screen, but it was faulty from the off.
In addition, the iPhone version’s battery saver feature has been eliminated. It was designed to dim the screen whenever the phone was not held up in front of a player, but numerous reports of crashing means it has been removed. It seems to still be active on the Android variant of the app.
You’ll have to go back to using battery saving tips, like manually dimming the brightness and carrying a battery pack instead.
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So those are the features removed. One major addition is the appearance of new safety messages whenever you start the game.
There are several messages that appear in a pop-up box, informing you not to play Pokemon Go when driving, or not to enter dangerous areas. It doesn’t elaborate on what a “dangerous area” actually is, but at the warnings tie in with reports of car crashes and all manner of Pokemon Go-based mishaps that have happened in the last few weeks.
There are several other minor tweaks and bug fixes, including a little massaging of the stats of some of the evolved Pokemon.
The update is available for download now.
HTC Vive price soars thanks to Brexit, Oculus Rift to follow?
The fallout of the EU Referendum vote continues as HTC has dramatically raised the price of its virtual reality headset, citing Brexit as the cause.
The sharp drop in value of the British pound has seen prices rise for other tech devices, with OnePlus hiking up the charge of its latest smartphone, the OnePlus 3. Now HTC has decided it needs to follow suit.
Its new price for the HTC Vive headset is £759 plus postage and packaging. That’s £70 more expensive than it cost only a week ago.
In the US, the Vive still costs $799, which is £606 at the current exchange rate, but because of import duty and taxes, the company could no longer charge £689 as before.
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“HTC continuously monitors and adjusts pricing to ensure we are providing our customers with the best value possible. Due to recent currency valuation changes and the current value of the GBP we are adjusting the price of the HTC Vive in the UK,” it said on its blog.
We’re waiting to see if rival Oculus follows suit and raises the UK price of the Oculus Rift. It seems it might considering the purchase page for the headset no longer lists its price in pounds for us. When we used to head to the store, it would come up as an overall sum of £529, including shipping. It now only shows the $599 US price suggesting a change might be forthcoming.
HTC Vive price rises to £759 after Brexit
Ready to take the plunge with a high-end VR headset? Bad news. If you live in the UK, the price of admission is now a little more expensive. At least if you want the HTC Vive, anyway. Starting today, the hardware — which includes two wand controllers and room-scale tracking — will set you back £759, rather than £689 in Britain. HTC has blamed “recent currency valuation changes” and “the current value of the GBP” for the price hike, which is basically code for Brexit. OnePlus made a similar decision last month, upping the price of its “3” smartphone by £20 in the UK.
A PC-reliant VR rig has always been expensive. But the new cost of the HTC Vive puts it further into “early adopters only” territory. That could spell trouble for HTC, which is already struggling to sell smartphones, and the larger VR development community, which needs new users to buy their experiences. The price increase also creates an opportunity for Sony, as it prepares to launch the cheaper but less powerful PlayStation VR this autumn. With a stack of exclusive games like Resident Evil VII and Driveclub VR, the company has a better shot now at mass adoption.
Via: PCGamesN
Source: HTC
Scientists turn CO2 into fuel with solar power
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago believe that they’ve perfected the art of photosynthetic solar cells. It’s a technology that mimics a plant’s ability to inhale carbon dioxide and, with water, convert it into glucose and oxygen. This system is capable of drawing in carbon dioxide and processing it into a synthetic fuel that could be used to power vehicles. Theoretically, this device could create a virtuous cycle where climate-altering carbon could be removed from the atmosphere and pumped back into cars.
The artificial leaf contains a pair of solar cells that power an infinitely more complex version of the electrolysis you learned about in high school science. Energy from the sun is used to catalyze a reaction with various obscure compounds like nanoflake tungsten diselenide (which is a transition metal dichalcogenide). Synthetic gas comes out of the other side, which can either be used directly by vehicles that can take it, or converted further into diesel.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen artificial photosynthesis being used as a potential weapon in the war on climate change. Early last year, we saw a team from Berkeley using a similar process, albeit with genetically-modified E. coli bacteria at the heart of the system. That version didn’t output synthetic gas but acetate, a building block of several compounds like biofuel, anti-malaria drugs and biodegradable plastics.
Should UIC’s newer process prove to be cost-effective, it could spell the end of traditional gasoline production as we know it. Instead, a network of these cells would be installed at a solar farm, creating fuel and reducing the quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide at the same time. The only downside is that we’d still be re-releasing the deadly gas back into the atmosphere, but it’s a decent stop-gap while we work on reducing our carbon emissions more permanently.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: UIC, Science
From Machop to Machamp: Surviving London’s 5K Pokérun
One had escaped earlier, but not again — this time, Squirtle, you’re mine. I yanked at the peak of my cap, and began to spin the Pokéball patiently as the target area grew smaller, and smaller still. A good throw, but not a direct hit. The ball shook for what I thought was the last time, then poof… Before you could say “Mew,” it was gone. No time to dwell. “Make that Pokéball your last! It’s time to get moving,” our leader bellowed. Eyes stinging, I dragged an already soaked T-shirt sleeve across my brow. It’ll only be another 10 minutes of pounding the pavement, I thought, before respite at the next Pokébreak. I groaned quietly as my legs kicked into a light jog. This, fellow trainers, is the Pokérun.
It hasn’t taken long for a huge, devoted community to form around Pokémon Go. It’s phenomenal popularity has inspired thousands of fans to meet up and stare at their phones together all over the world; there’s even a dating app specifically targeted at companionless trainers. Not only is the game just good fun, it’s also being praised for benefitting both mental and physical health, since you actually have to get out and about to play. The latter is what gym chain Virgin Active wanted to focus on when it organised the “world’s first” Pokérun, a workout that promised to turn participants from “Machops into Machamps” while also bulking up their Pokédexes. No, seriously.
Scheduled on one of the hottest days of the year in London — because of course it was — the Pokérun sounded like it might be a fun little outing. Something different, you know? I even bought a crappy Ash hat in excitement before immediately regretting it. (Luckily, Virgin Active reps were giving out themed caps to other runners on the day, so I didn’t look like the only hyper-nerd in attendance.) The route of the 5km run covered multiple terrain types, including city streets, parks and bridges across the Thames, because how is Professor Willow expected to make Magikarp candy without food for the Pokéblender?
The run also featured six stops at Pokémon hotspots. Piece of cake… right? Closer to Pokérun day, however, it slowly dawned on me: I exercise once in a blue moon and I’ve never run 5km in my entire life. Oh, and those six breaks during the run were as much for interval training as bagging Drowzees. What on earth had I signed myself up for? As it turned out, a whole lot more running and a lot less Pokémoning than I had anticipated. But hey, I scored an Electabuzz, an Eevee and (almost) a Lickitung in one session. Totally worth four weary days of recovery.
Apple Launches iBooks Instagram Page to Share Book Quotes, Reviews, and More
Earlier this weekend, Apple began promoting book-related content with a new Instagram account centered around its iBooks digital platform. The launch of the iBooks Instagram page coincided with the release of the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which the account posted about yesterday.
Apple also wished author J.K. Rowling a happy birthday through its new verified Instagram page, but otherwise the content appears to largely be focused on introducing followers to fresh and notable stories through quotes, author spotlights, and unique, short videos.
Some of the novels referenced so far on the new page include Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, Emma Cline’s The Girls, and Wendy Walker’s All Is Not Forgotten. All of the mentioned books released between June and July, so it seems iBooks will keep its promotions aimed at recently launched novels while it gains more Instagram followers in its early stages.
Thank you for coming into this world and bringing so much magic into our lives. ✨ #HappyBirthdayJKRowling
A video posted by iBooks (@ibooks) on Jul 31, 2016 at 10:11am PDT
You can check out Apple’s new Instagram account for iBooks here.
Tags: iBooks, Instagram
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