Logitech Pop is a smarthome switch that can quite literally get the party started
Logitech has announced the Pop, a smart home switch that looks to cross the smarthome divide and control multiple devices with the press of a button.
The switch links into your Wi-Fi, scanning for compatible smarthome devices – such as Sonos, Philips Hue, Insteon, Lutron, SmartThings, WeMo and Harmony remotes – and letting you create recipes of commands.
That will, for example, let you programme the Pop, so that it will set the scene for watching movies, starting up your home entertainment system, closing the blinds, dimming the lights and so on.
The idea is to make smarthome control simpler, by giving you a physical button, rather than having to rely on using multiple apps on your smartphone. That also means that anyone can walk into a room, hit the button and get a result.
Logitech
The Logitech Pop is a wireless button, so it can be mounted wherever you might need it, and it is controlled via an iOS or Android app. It comes in a range of colours, costing $39.99 for an individual switch, or $99.99 for a starter pack which includes two switches and the plug-in bridge you’ll need to get it connected.
To expand the range of functions, there are three different button pressing actions: single, double and long presses. This will mean that one switch could offer a range of different actions, for example a long press could turn everything off for the night.
Inclusion of Sonos in the list in interesting, because although Sonos offers a range of connected speakers, it often sits outside of wider smarthome integration. With the Logitech Pop, you could quite literally press the button to get the party started.
The Logitech Pop will be available in the US from August, no word on wider release.
Three’s Feel at Home roaming will soon cover most of Europe
Three’s Feel at Home perk lets subscribers use their regular minute, text and data allowances abroad at no extra cost. The inclusive roaming feature even covers several far-flung destinations including the USA, Australia and Hong Kong, but after adding Spain and New Zealand to the roster early last year, the list of 18 regions hasn’t grown any longer. From this September, however, Three is expanding Feel at Home to an additional 24 countries across Europe (for a new total of 42).
Feel at Home was already available in France, Spain, Italy and throughout Scandinavia, but from next month, pretty much the entirety of Europe will be covered. Roaming charges are due to be abolished across the EU next summer, you may recall, so Three is just kinda jumping the gun in that respect. Though whether Brits will still be able to take advantage of that when the UK eventually leaves the EU remains to be seen.
For now, though, any Three subscriber planning a late summer getaway in Europe should be chuffed with the expansion. Unless they didn’t consult their crystal ball and opted to save a few quid by taking out one of Three’s new, perkless Essential plans, that is.
New Feel at Home destinations: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Channel Islands, Guernsey and Jersey.
Logitech’s Pop button controls your entire smart home
As slick as smart home technology may be, you lose some ease of use. With certain exceptions, you can’t just flick a switch to set everything in motion. Logitech thinks it can change that. It’s introducing the Pop Home Switch, a button (yes, the name is a bit misleading) that can control multiple devices at once. It not only talks to typical smart home tech like lighting (including Philips Hue bulbs) and door locks, but also Logitech’s own Harmony hubs. If your remote can control it, the switch can too. It’ll even access Sonos playlists (in case you need some relaxing music to go with your mood lighting), and you can assign up to three actions per switch thanks to single, double and long button presses.
The Pop Home Switch arrives in the US later in August, with prices varying depending on how much you like the idea of hardware control. A Starter Pack bundle with everything you need to get going will cost $100, while an add-on switch will set you back $40. That’s not trivial when some smart home devices can cost about as much, but the cost may be easy to justify if you’re tired of wading through smartphone apps to perform simple tasks.
Source: Logitech (1), (2)
LG’s V20 will sound great… with wired headphones
Some portions of the technology industry would like you to think that smartphones without headphone jacks are the future. LG feels differently, and has teamed up with high-end audio firm ESS to bake in a 32-bit HiFi Quad Digital-To-Analog converter into the forthcoming V20. Unlike standard DACs, this model is promised to cut ambient noise in half and make your tunes sound as if you’re listening on some high-end separates. The bit that’s worth noting, however, is that this new-fangled audio prowess will only work if you’re rocking a set of cabled headphones.
If you’re unfamiliar, a DAC takes the music that’s been stored digitally and (wait for it) converts it into analog audio for piping into your ears. That’s reasonably easy for a smartphone because there’s some space and power to install a hardware DAC in the body for use with headphones. But Bluetooth audio gear has to process the digital signal locally, which means it has to carry its own DAC. That means that it’s got to be smaller, cheaper and less power-hungry than its smartphone counterpart. By making a big deal out of the V20’s wired audio capabilities, LG’s drawing a very public line in the sand against firms like Motorola and what Apple is presumed to be doing next month.
Logitech’s ‘Pop Home Switch’ Aims to Simplify Smart Device Control
Logitech today announced a new single-button device called the Pop Home Switch, designed to simplify the control of multiple smart home products.
The interactive accessory company says the idea behind the Pop is to free up control of smart devices so that anyone in the home can operate them regardless of whether they have a smartphone and the associated app for each device.
The palm-sized, wall-mounted switch connects wirelessly to a Bluetooth hub that plugs into a power outlet, and enables users to activate up to three pre-programmed moods with a single, double, or triple press.
A companion mobile app scans local Wi-Fi networks for compatible devices and allows users to create a recipe for each. For example, a recipe called “morning” could be programmed to open the drapes and begin a particular music playlist with a single click of the button.
The Pop supports a range of smart home devices, like Phillips Hue lights, Sonos speakers, LIFX connected bulbs, August locks, and Lutron smart drapes.
Logitech’s Starter Pack comes with two wall-mounted buttons and a single hub, and additional Pops can be bought to increase the flexibility of the system.
The Pop Home Switch Starter Pack costs $99.99 and additional switches cost $39.99. The device works with both iOS and Android; pre-orders begin today and the product will start shipping later this month.
Tag: Logitech
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Judge tosses lawsuit filed against Twitter over ISIS activity
A district judge has tossed out a lawsuit accusing Twitter of playing a role in the terrorist-related deaths of two Americans by allowing ISIS activity on the website. The class-action lawsuit names the widows of Lloyd “Cark” Fields Jr. and James Damon Creach as plaintiffs. Fields Jr. and Creach were both American contractors who were shot to death in a shooting spree in Jordan last year. According to AP and The Wall Street Journal, the plaintiffs failed to convince Judge William H. Orrick from San Francisco that Twitter “knowingly provide[d] material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.”
“As horrific as these deaths were,” he wrote, “Twitter cannot be treated as a publisher or speaker of Isis’ hateful rhetoric and is not liable under the facts alleged.” He explained that under the Communications Decency Act, online content providers like social networks cannot be held liable for tweets, status updates or anything else published by a third party.
While there’s undoubtedly quite a lot of Twitter accounts disseminating pro-ISIS propaganda, the company has been trying to fight them off. An intelligence report said it routinely deletes accounts related to the terrorist organization faster than ISIS can make them. The White House is also a fan, announcing that the group’s Twitter activity dropped 45 percent in the past two years.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, AP
Tor promises not to build backdoors into its services
Tor has published what it calls a “Social Contract” comprised of promises to users and the principles the team believes in. It has been around for over a decade, so publishing a set of goals and behaviors at this point in time is rather curious. Maybe its developers wanted to show the world that they didn’t lose their focus after Jacob Appelbaum, one of Tor’s most prominent devs, stepped down in the midst of sexual harassment allegations. Maybe it’s because of something else. Whatever the reason is, its social contract contains one interesting pledge: “We will never implement front doors or back doors into our projects,” the team wrote.
Tor’s ability to keep users anonymous made it the go-to browser of people looking for drugs, illegal firearms, hitmen, child porn and other things you won’t find on eBay or YouTube. If there’s a browser law enforcement agencies would want to backdoor to, it’s Tor, especially since its main source of funding is the US government. That’s right — the famous anonymizing network gets most of its money from a government known for conducting mass surveillance on a global scale.
Loudly proclaiming that it will never build a backdoor into its services might not even matter, though. The government already proved once that it’s capable of infiltrating the dark web. If you’ll recall, the FBI identified 1,500 users of a child porn website called “Playpen” by deploying a Tor hacking tool. It led to numerous court battles that opened up the discussion on the validity of evidence obtained without warrant through malware.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Tor Project
Google Docs finally adds multitasking tools for iPads
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides’ most recent iOS updates make them play a whole lot nicer with multitasking on iPads. The patch feels a little overdue at this point, but hey, we’ll take support for iOS 9’s tablet features like Split View and Slide Over whenever we can get ’em. Supported models include the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4 and both sizes of iPad Pro, and if the update hasn’t hit your device yet, that’s what the source links below are for.
Via: Apple Insider, The Verge
Source: iTunes (1), (2), (3)
Regional Rare Pokemon: What they are and how to get them – CNET
Tauros, a Regional Rare Pokemon found in North America.
Alina Bradford/CNET
On your quest to catch them all, some Pokemon are impossible to find, unless you travel. This is because it seems some Pokemon only spawn in certain continents in Pokemon Go.
These Pokemon are called Regional Rare Pokemon. Even though they may not be found where you live, you still need them to fill your Pokedex. Luckily, there is one way to still get these elusive Pokemon.
The Regional Rare Pokemon
The Regional Rare Pokemon are believed to be:
- Mr. Mime, a psychic and fairy type, found in Europe.
- Tauros is a normal-type Pokemon found in North America. I’ve found that it appears in rural areas as well as cities.
- Kangaskhan, a normal type that looks like a kangaroo, can be found in Australia and New Zealand.
- Farfetch’d is a flying and normal-type Pokemon that is found in Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea.
Why do people think these are Regional Rare Pokemon? So far, each Pokemon has only been caught in these specific regions.
How to get Regional Rare Pokemon
If you can’t afford to travel around the world in search of these rares, there is one way you can catch them from your own hometown: Hatch eggs. Players around the world have reported being able to get these rare Pokemon from eggs, even if they haven’t traveled.
Need some hatching tips? Read the best hatching tips for Pokemon Go.
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Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker review – CNET
The Good The Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker is affordable, easy to use and a snap to clean, and uses fewer beans to create tasty iced coffee. It’s also small enough to conveniently fit inside refrigerator doors.
The Bad Though it uses less coffee grounds per batch, the Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker brews a weaker drink than other home cold-brew gadgets.
The Bottom Line While the Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker won’t satisfy drinkers of strong coffee, its low price and solid brewing chops will make budget shoppers happy.
The $25 Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker is both easy to use and affordable. Priced at half as much as competing products such as the $50 Oxo Cold Brew, and $15 less than similar devices from Toddy and Filtron, Takeya’s cold-brew gadget is extremely budget-friendly. Despite its low cost, the Takeya Cold Brew has the chops to make quality coffee with little mess or hassle.
Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker is simple and…
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Essentially a plastic pitcher, the Takeya Cold Brew consists of just four parts: the pitcher, a handle and spout section that screws down around its lip, a mesh filter and an airtight lid.
The Takeya Cold Brew consists of a pitcher, mesh filter, lid and handle.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
To kickstart the brewing process first pour 32 ounces (1 quart, 0.95 L) of water inside the pitcher. Next add 14 to 16 tablespoons (8 ounces, 227 grams) of coarsely ground coffee to the filter (what Takeya calls the “infuser”) and attach it to the lid. Finally screw the lid (and linked filter) securely into place, give the whole apparatus a couple good shakes, then slip it into the refrigerator. After 12 to 24 hours, roughly overnight, remove the brewer from the fridge, pour and serve.
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