Why you should enable Data Saver in Chrome for Android right now – CNET
If any one company knows how people consume video online, it’s Google, which claims people watch over 1 billion hours of video in Chrome every week, much of which is done via mobile.
Video is easily one of the biggest reasons you blow past your monthly data allotment each month and, likewise, the cause of those awful overage charges on your bill. Google is aware and aims to help with Chrome 52 for Android.
The Chrome 52 update boasts massive video improvements, such as how quickly video playback starts. Prior to 52, tapping a play button on a video resulting in a 1- to 2-second lag between hitting play and the video actually starting. You can see this demonstrated in the video below. The video playback should also be smoother and have less impact on your battery.
Aside from that, video now works with Data Saver to cut back on your data consumption.
How Data Saver works
Data Saver is a feature that has existed in Chrome for Android for a while now. Instead of loading a full web page on your phone, the site is first compressed on a server before downloaded to Chrome on your device, reducing the data consumption on your end.
When Data Saver is enabled, it can reduce your consumption in Chrome by a surprising amount. In just 15 minutes of loading web pages, it managed to save about 21 percent of the data I would have used — 20.79MB instead of 26.43MB. Over time, even if the percentage isn’t as high, the savings would be much more drastic.
For video, Google says Data Saver will save you as much as 50 percent on data by viewing a “lightweight version” of the videos you watch.
How to enable Data Saver
Data Saver is a feature you will only find inbuilt in Chrome on Android. To use Data Saver on Chrome OS or in a Chrome desktop browser, you will need to install the official Data Saver extension.
Taylor Martin/CNET
To enable Data Saver on Android:
- Open Chrome and press the action overflow button (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner.
- Tap Settings and select Data Saver under Advanced.
- Hit the toggle switch to move it to the On position.
From that point until you disable the feature, video and web pages will be compressed on servers before downloading to your phone, hopefully helping you avoid future data overages.
Get Chrome 52 for Android now
Unfortunately, Chrome 52 hasn’t rolled out for everyone yet.
Chrome in the Google Play store is showing version 51 is as the current version. If you enable Data Saver in the settings now, video compression will happen automatically when Chrome updates to version 52 in the near future.
That said, if you don’t want to wait, you can download the Chrome Beta app from Google Play. This was last updated on July 26 with version 52.0.2743.91 and includes the new version of Data Saver and the video playback improvements. The difference is very noticeable.
Just note, using the Chrome Beta application ensures that you get the latest features coming to Chrome for Android before they’re officially available. That said, it’s also a beta and while it’s typically very stable, it’s more prone to bugs than the standard Chrome app.
How to get PokeCoins for free in Pokemon Go – CNET
A Defender Bonus gets you PokeCoins and stardust.
Alina Bradford/CNET
If grinding for the items you need in Pokemon Go is getting old, you can buy them in the Shop. Poke balls, incense, lucky eggs, incubators, lures, storage and bag upgrades need to be purchased with PokeCoin, though. You have the choice of spending real money to purchase PokeCoins, but if you’re low on cash you can earn PokeCoin just by playing the game.
As of right now, there is only one way to earn PokeCoin; that may change as updates are added.
Assign a Pokemon
To get paid, you must head on over to your local gym that is run by your team. An easy way you can tell if it is run by your team is by looking at your avatar in the lower left-hand side of the screen. If the circle color around your avatar matches the color of the gym you’re good to go.
Once there, click on the gym to enter it. Then, look at the lower left-hand side of the screen and click on the icon found there. The game will ask you to choose a Pokemon from your bag to guard the gym. Choose a high-level Pokemon by tapping on it and it will be assigned to the gym. Don’t worry, you won’t lose your Pokemon, you just won’t be able to use it in battles until the gym is defeated.
Now, this will only work if your gym needs another protector. If it doesn’t, you will need to train at the gym to raise its prestige. Once the gym’s prestige reaches another level a new protector can be added.
Only 10 Pokemon can be assigned to a gym, according to Niantic, so you may not be able to assign a Pokemon to a gym, no matter how much you battle. The other option is to head to a rival gym and take it over. Once the gym has been beaten, you can assign a Pokemon to guard it.
Be quick, though. Once a gym goes neutral, other’s will try to assign their Pokemon to the gym. If they assign Pokemon from an opposing team you will need to battle again before you can take over the gym and assign your Pokemon.
Collect your PokeCoins
Once you get your Pokemon out in the world protecting gyms, it’s time to collect some coin! Go to the Shop. In the upper right side of the screen you will see an icon that looks like a shield. Tap on it and the game will ask you if you’re sure you want to use your Defender Bonus. Confirm and you will be given 10 PokeCoins and 500 stardust for each Pokemon you have assigned to a gym.
The Defender Bonus icon looks like a shield and is found at the top of the screen.
Alina Bradford/CNET
It would be nice if you could just run around assigning Pokemon to gyms while collecting loot after each assignment, but alas, it doesn’t work that way. The Defender Bonus has a cool-down time of 21 hours, so you can only collect your coins once in that time period.
Since you can only assign one Pokemon per gym, you need to go to various gyms, place your Pokemon and quickly collect your PokeCoin before your Pokemon are defeated. To win battles so you can take over gyms, read how gym battles work in Pokemon Go, and about how Pokemon Go changed battles for the better, and then check out our Pokemon Go pro-tips by people who play too damn much.
If this seems like too much work, you can assign one Pokemon to a gym per day and still collect the bonus. The coins will add up. Plus, the extra stardust will help you level your Pokemon so that they can better defend your gym.
How to make cold-brew coffee at home – CNET
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Make your own delicious cold-brew coffee at home
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Once you taste really good cold brew, it’s very hard settling for ordinary iced coffee. Coffee shops and gourmet grocers are aware of cold brew’s charms, and they now charge a premium for it. My local Starbucks charges $3.87 for cold brew (at current rates that converts to £2.95, AU$5), an extra 68 cents on top of their already pricey $3.19 large iced coffee ( £2.43, AU$4.18). Adding “house-made vanilla sweet cream” brings the cost up to $4.19 ( £3.19, AU$5.49, 16 oz.).
Now consider that a 3-pound bag of Kirkland Costa Rica coffee ($15 at my neighborhood Costco) can make five 24-ounce batches of concentrated cold brew. With each batch enough for 12 separate drinks, that’s 60 drinks for $15 ( £11.43, $19.66 AU$) compared with three to four bought at the cafe. That’s why you should definitely brew your own, and better tasting, cold-brew java at home. You’ll not only avoid the high retail mark-up, but you’ll always have delicious chilled coffee on hand, too.
Why do the cold brew?
Unlike regular iced coffee, made from hot-brewed drip that’s then cooled and poured over ice, cold brew is made with room temperature or colder water from the start. You pour that water over a greater-than-normal quantity of coffee grounds, let it steep for 12 hours or more, and the result is a coffee drink that’s sweet, rich and velvety smooth, with no bitterness or acidity.
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Cold-brew coffee and ice is a winning combination.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
Cold brew should also be quite strong. Ideally, each batch uses double the coffee grounds called for to make a stiff pot of French press. But despite its potency, cold brew is remarkably easy to drink especially when cut with ice, water, milk or even a little simple syrup.
Frankly, it’s the perfect coffee companion during steamy summer months. The flavor of cold brew concentrate won’t degrade after sitting in melting ice either, a failing of conventional iced coffee.
The process
There are many different ways to make cold-brewed coffee, but at its core the procedure is the same. You first start with coffee beans ground as coarse as your burr grinder will process them. Shoot for the texture of sand or breadcrumbs, not a fine powder.
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Grind coffee for your cold brew coarsely.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Next, you’ll want to make sure your coffee to water ratio is high enough to yield a strong liquid concentrate. I tend to shoot for one part coffee to four parts water (1:4), double the amount of coffee grounds called for by a typical pot of French press (1:8) and four times what’s necessary for a drip machine (1:16). If you begin with 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water, then expect to combine this with 10 ounces (284 grams) of ground coffee.
Choose your container
You can steep coffee for cold brew in just about any watertight vessel, from mason jars or glass pitchers to even plastic buckets. What’s most important is to select a brewing chamber large enough to contain both your volume of water and the sizeable portion of coffee grounds. The container also must be compact enough to store practically while its contents are brewing.
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Brew in a small pitcher that fits in the fridge.
Chris Monroe/CNET
For instance if you plan to brew within the chilled environs of your kitchen fridge, then a small mason jar, French press or pitcher will work best. Those who’d like to create massive quantities of cold brew should consider brewing at room temperature unless you have adequate refrigerator space.
Related links
- Oxo Cold Brew Coffee Maker review
- Drip coffee 101: Secrets to brewing the perfect cup
- How you make your coffee matters
- Best coffee makers of 2016
It’s a waiting game
The big trade-off you make for brewing coffee at low temperatures is increased brewing time. A batch of cold brew requires between 12 and 24 hours to steep properly, no matter if it’s sitting in the fridge or on your kitchen counter.
One approach is to prepare your cold brew during daytime hours or right before bedtime, then let it steep overnight. Another tactic is to make a large amount that’s enough to last for a week or two. Hopefully this will give you time to brew more coffee before you run out completely.
Strain the grounds
Perhaps the most difficult step in the cold-brew process is separating the coffee grounds from your liquid. A few popular ways include brewing using a French press and using its plunger to filter out coffee solids. A standard paper coffee filter works, too, along with metal mesh sieves, cheesecloth or even a combination of all three.
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You can strain grounds with metal filters, paper, or both.
In my experience, these DIY methods don’t work as well as a dedicated cold brew appliance. I’ve found that paper and metal filters tend to strain slowly and create more mess than devices like the $49 Oxo Cold Brew Coffee Maker (£37, AU$64) and the $25 Takeya Cold Brew pitcher (£19, AU$32).
Pour, enjoy, repeat
Because you use a lot more beans making this kind of coffee drink compared with ordinary drip, cold brew is incredibly potent. Don’t be afraid to dilute the liquid with chilled water, lots of ice, or milk to stretch out your supply.
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A glass of sweet, delicious cold brew over ice.
Chris Monroe/CNET
I also recommend making some simple syrup to use as a handy sweetener. Even a touch of it will enhance the fruit-forward flavors of medium- and light-roasted coffee grounds, or the earthier, chocolate notes typical of a dark roast. Syrup will also dissolve into cold drinks much faster than solid sugar crystals.
Now that you have the overall picture of how to cold brew coffee at home, you’ll be making batches yourself in no time. I’ll bet you’ll have fun, and even save a little money in the long run, too.
2016 Honda CR-V review – Roadshow
The Good The 2016 Honda CR-V delivers and engaged driving feel, with good power and steering response. The small SUV form factor serves a variety of uses, from commuting and shopping to weekend recreation.
The Bad The available navigation system makes address entry tedious due to slow responses and piece-by-piece inputs. The collision warning creates false alerts and doesn’t sync up with adaptive cruise control. Ride quality suffers from a tightly-tuned suspension.
The Bottom Line The 2016 Honda CR-V sacrifices comfort for an engaged driving experience, not necessarily the right trade-off in a small SUV, while features such as navigation work poorly or in an unnecessarily quirky fashion.
Driving over mildly rough pavement, the 2016 Honda CR-V’s ride felt like the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. It subjected me to every nuance of the road when, in a small SUV like this, I would prefer some serious cushioning.
Heading down the freeway, I tried unsuccessfully to turn on the adaptive cruise control. It wasn’t until I pulled over on a surface street and could safely poke around that I figured out the button on the steering wheel labeled “Main” enabled cruise control.
The CR-V wasn’t making a good first impression.
I would like to say that the Honda CR-V finally won me over through sheer precociousness, but there was no Hollywood ending here. While I eventually gave the CR-V respect for its on-road handling, I wouldn’t buy a small SUV for fast cornering. That’s why the gods made sports cars.
Honda gave its CR-V small SUV an update for the 2015 model year, unfortunately too early for its latest navigation head unit, which supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow
As a small SUV, the CR-V has always been a practical alternative to a midsize sedan for families, offering seating for five and a good amount of cargo space, coupled with decent fuel economy. The upright seating position and ride height make for a nice view of the road, putting drivers on par with the rash of full-size SUVs hogging the lanes. Honda gave the CR-V a few upgrades for the previous model year, including a powerful yet economical engine.
However, unlike Honda’s most recently upgraded models, such as the Civic, the CR-V suffers from an older dashboard infotainment system that doesn’t include Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
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A litany of quirks
I mentioned the “Main” button above, which most automakers would simply label “Cruise.” Pushing that button, then setting my speed, the CR-V used its radar sensor to automatically match speed with slower traffic ahead, a reasonable adaptive cruise-control system. But the CR-V also has collision warning, and these two systems don’t talk to each other.
For example, the cruise control sensed slow traffic ahead, so it began braking from 65 mph down to about 30 mph. At the same time, the collision-warning system sounded an alert and flashed me a “Brake” warning. Um, the cruise control had me covered here, although maybe the collision system was prepping me for the fact that the cruise control cuts out under 20 mph.
The collision system also proved error-prone, flashing its warning and even hitting the brakes as I approached one of San Francisco’s steep hills.
Figuring out how to turn on lane-keeping assist and adaptive cruise control will be a challenge if you don’t…RTFM.
Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow
Rather than a typical blind-spot monitor system, with a warning light to right or left when there are cars to the corresponding side, Honda insists on using its LaneWatch system, showing a right-side camera view on the center display when I hit the right turn signal. The left side merely uses a larger side mirror.
And don’t expect a volume dial for the stereo — I had to contend with plus and minus buttons on the head unit bezel and steering wheel.
As another quirk, putting down the rear seat backs to maximize the rear cargo area first requires lifting the seat bottoms. That may lead to a flatter load floor, but the overall cargo space of 70.9 cubic feet is only average in the segment. And most owners will likely prefer the simplicity of just pushing the seat backs down, as in the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4.
Olympic Committee bans press from releasing GIFs
The Olympics is a GIF gold mine, thanks to athletes’ superhuman feats of strength, agility and speed, all the crazy fans and the hilarious moments in between. This year, though, the International Olympic Committee will make it harder to find them: it has prohibited the press from releasing animated GIFs and even short videos like Vines.
The rules the committee sent out include this section:
“…Olympic Material must not be broadcast on interactive services such as “news active” or “”ports active” or any other related Video on Demand services, which would allow the viewer to make a viewing choice within a channel and to thereby view Olympic Material at times and programs other than when broadcast as part of a News Program as set out in Clause 1 above. Additionally, the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.”
The IOC has always been quite strict. It has a set of guidelines on where you can use the Olympics logo and the terms that could be associated with the event. Based on this section, it sounds like the IOC conjured up the rule because it’s worried people would get their Olympics fix from short animated images and forego watching the NBC broadcast altogether. So, if you want to post a GIF of Gabby Douglas doing back handsprings on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll just have to dig deeper or even make your own.
Excited for Olympic GIFs? Don’t get your hopes up. Note to press: Use of Olympic material transformed into GIFs “is expressly prohibited.”
— Natalie DiBlasio (@ndiblasio) August 4, 2016
Via: Mashable
Source: International Olympic Committee
X-ray technique unveils mystery second figure in Degas painting
Painted around 1876, Edgar Degas’ Portrait of a Woman seemed just that — an otherwise ordinary female depiction in the artist’s moody style. But as it aged in the 1920s, people started noticing a mysterious second figure emerging from beneath the first. Curious but wishing to avoid damaging the painting, conservators used a new X-ray technique to peer beyond the top layer of paint, detailed in a new paper in Scientific Reports. This unveiled a never-before-seen portrait of a woman they believe to be frequent Degas model Emma Dobigny.
Traditional X-ray scans require a heavy element like lead to absorb the radiation and provide image contrast, and provide “minimal quantitative or specific elemental identification information” the paper’s co-author Daryl Howard of Australian Syncotrain told Gizmodo. So imprecise are the results that the interpretation of X-radiography images is a highly subjective process, according to the team’s paper.
Instead, they used X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) in a non-invasive method they call the Maia technique to scan Portrait of a Woman with the sensitivity to enable reconstruction of concealed paint layers. Advancements have shaved pigment analysis time down to milliseconds while dramatically improving data collection rates, meaning XRF can measure swaths of a painting at spatial resolutions the size of a single paintbrush bristle.
Such sensitivity doesn’t just unearth the hidden second figure — it unveiled the painting at various stages. For instance, Degas had originally given the Dobigny figure pointed elfin ears before replacing them with ones more like the model’s own. While we don’t know why the artist had painted over one woman in favor of the other, these non-invasive techniques allow art historians to pry the creative stages apart and forensically peer below the finished work on the hunt for answers.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Scientific Reports
Valve is open-sourcing HTC Vive’s room-scale tracking tech
Much like Valve open-sourced its Steam controller gamepad, it’s doing the same for the Vive VR headset’s stand-out feature. The company has recently opened up SteamVR’s room-scale 3D tracking system to anyone, as spotted by The Verge. Development kits include a pair of HTC Vive base stations; a “full complement of EVM circuit boards to enable rapid prototyping of your own tracked object” and 40 sensors for your tracked object that could be applied to a VR golf club or indoor drone, among other options.
On the FAQ page, Valve writes that there isn’t a catch for the company not charging licensing fees. And while that’s technically true, you do need to attend a $3,000 in-person training session in Seattle as part of the process. Valve hopes to allay that in the future, but for now, classes start in September, with Gabe Newell and Co. recommending that groups of industrial designers, and mechanical-and-electrical engineers attend rather than individuals. Those sessions start in September.
Honestly, they sound a bit like a college class and will have lecture and lab sessions covering SteamVR integration, troubleshooting and designing your own trackable objects. Are you ready to go back to school? Then maybe use Intel’s recent advancement in VR tracking for inspiration.
Via: The Verge
Source: Valve (1), (2)
Apple announces $200,000 bug bounty program
Unlike many of the other major tech companies, Apple has never had a formal bug bounty program or corporate policy for welcoming outsiders who poke holes in their security features. However, as TechCrunch reports today, Apple’s head of Security Engineering and Architecture Ivan Krstic announced at Black Hat that his company will now offer cash bounties of up to $200,000 for hackers and researchers who find and report security flaws in Apple products.
The announcement came during Krstic’s larger talk about the security features built into some of Apple’s newest services. The company usually sits out the popular security conference in favor of keeping big announcements limited to WWDC. The company now says they’ve reached the point where its own internal testers and even contract security firms are having difficulty finding more bugs.
According to Securosis CEO and iOS security analyst Rich Mogull, the bounty is “the largest potential payout I’m aware of,” but also fairly limited in scope: the guidelines focus on a very specific set of vulnerabilities and Apple is currently working with a select list of researchers. (Although, the company says if someone outside the initial group finds a bug, they can easily be included in the program.) The highest level bounty covers bugs found in secure boot firmware components, but there are also smaller bounties for gaining unauthorized access to things like iCloud account data — a major talking point after the infamous celebrity photo hack.
While $200,000 might be high for an official corporate bounty program, it’s still only a fraction of a payout like the $1 million the FBI reportedly paid hackers to break into an iPhone owned by one of the shooters involved in the San Bernardino incident last year. And such high bounties can also be detrimental to security research in general. On the other hand, Twitter is a more secure place thanks to some $322,420 in bounties it has handed out over the past two years, and a bug bounty from Instagram made one 10-year-old Finnish kid $10,000 richer.
Apple Working on Wireless Earbuds With Custom Bluetooth Chip for Longer Battery Life
Apple is working on wire-free earbuds built around a custom Bluetooth radio chip that will result in a longer battery life than is possible with traditional Bluetooth chips, reports Forbes.
Citing a source with knowledge of Apple’s plans, Forbes says Apple has spent the last several years working on a custom Bluetooth chip that’s designed to solve the battery life problems that plague existing wireless earbuds.
The low-power Bluetooth chip comes from technology developed by Passif Semiconductor, a startup Apple purchased in 2013. But the project has hit performance snags. Apple originally planned to launch the Bluetooth gadget in 2015, but Bluetooth performance issues stalled the release, the source told FORBES. “The way it works at Apple is if it doesn’t work 100%, it gets cut,” the source said. Whether Apple’s wireless earbuds arrive with a custom Bluetooth chip by Apple, or instead use a third-party supplier is still unknown.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Apple’s work on wire-free earbuds. Back in January, a rumor unveiled Apple’s earbud plans, pointing towards Bragi Dash-style wireless Bluetooth earbuds with a battery life of approximately four hours. According to that rumor, the earbuds will also charge through an included carrying case that serves as a rechargeable battery, further extending battery life.
In recent years, Apple has delved into developing its own chips to reduce its reliance on third-party vendors, cut down on supply chain issues, and drive technology improvements. Apple has been developing its own ARM-based CPUs for mobile devices since 2010, so a move into other chip categories is unsurprising.
Rumors indicate Apple will remove the headphone jack in the iPhone 7, pushing consumers towards wireless headphones and Lightning-based headphones, so the timing is right for the release of new wireless earbuds. According to Forbes, the earbuds could potentially launch in September alongside the new iPhone 7, but the site’s source was not able to confirm a launch date.
Based on trademark filings discovered by MacRumors, Apple may be planning to name its rumored wireless earbuds “AirPods.”
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: forbes.com
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Apple Music Launches in Korea
Two days after Apple Music launched in Israel, the service has launched in Korea, the Cupertino company announced today. The launch comes over a year after the service simultaneously launched in 110 countries.
Apple Music’s standard 3-month free trial is also available to Korean users. After the trial, users can sign up for either $7.99 a month individual plans or $11.99 a month family plans. The pricing puts it in line with popular Korean music streaming service MelOn.
In June, it was reported that Apple was preparing to launch Apple Music in Korea, with an official from the music copyright association confirming that contract negotiations with Apple had been completed. Previously, Apple had a difficult time navigating the strict copyright laws in the country and agreeing to deals with various rights groups during past attempts to introduce its streaming service within Korea.
Apple Music is currently available in over 100 countries from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, North and South America and more.
Tags: Apple Music, Korea
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