Microsoft rolls out new Surface Pro Type Covers for NFL fans
Now that the NFL preseason is underway, Microsoft is taking advantage of the moment with a product designed specifically for football fans. If you own a Surface Pro 3 or Surface Pro 4, the company’s rolling out new Type Covers featuring logos from all 32 NFL teams, in case you’re interested in showing everyone your true colors. The themed peripherals, dubbed Surface Special Edition NFL Type Covers (say that ten times fast), are made from “premium quality” materials according to Microsoft. That said, they don’t feature the same high-end, suede-like Alcantara fabric as the Signature Type Covers introduced a few months ago. Doesn’t matter? Then you can get one today from Microsoft’s site or one its retail stores for $160.
Spotify revamps its kids category to help with early learning
Spotify already had a variety of content for young listeners, but with the help of educational initiatives Too Small to Fail and Vroom, the streaming service has revised that lineup. The newly revamped “Kids and Family” category features playlists that focus on daytime routines, activities and more. There are options for playtime, bedtime and traveling, just to name a few. Between songs, a collection of celebrities provide tips for other activities to further help build vocabulary. Voice prompts will feature Fantasia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Wiz Khalifa, Tyler Perry, Juanes, Diego Torres, Busy Philipps and more.
Those tips may suggest parents make up their own silly lyrics to a song or create a unique dance to the rhythm. What’s more, the new playlists and these ideas that pop up between songs are available in both English and Spanish. Spotify plans to continue building its content library for parents, caregivers and younger listeners by working with the likes of Univision, the GRAMMY Museum, Save the Music, Fatherly, The Bump, Carnegie Hall, Gerber and other organizations on themed playlists and more. To give you an idea of what you can expect from the revised lineup, check out the embedded playlist down below.
Source: Spotify
Jabra’s latest sport headphones track more of your fitness regime
Jabra’s Sport Pulse and Sport Coach wireless headphones have been available for some time now, but the company has new versions of both models with some added features. Let’s start with the Sport Pulse Special Edition, shall we? The heart-rate tracking in-ear headphones debuted in 2014, but now they gain automatic and continuous VO2 Max level monitoring thanks to a hand from the Jabra Sport Life app. If that term is unfamiliar, VO2 Max levels are a measure of aerobic fitness, or to put it another way, how hard you’re working out. The new version of the Sport Pulse also offers coaching based on your heart rate and fitness level during exercise sessions.
Speaking of coaching, the Sports Coach Special Edition wireless headphones (below) also offer a key addition from the original model. This time around, the earbuds not only provide guidance, but thanks to a new TrackFit motion sensor, the headphones can count your reps during a workout. Right now the feature only keeps tabs of 10 common exercises, but Jabra says that number will increase with future updates. For the time being, expect the headphone and app duo to tally movements like push-ups, lunges and burpees.
There a a number of features that both Special Editions offer. They’re both IP55-rated for dust and water resistance alongside a 3-year extended warranty that protects against damage from sweat. Jabra says that you’ll be able to use both models for up to 5 hours before needing to recharge and they both last for up to 10 days in standby mode. The company also notes improvements to sound quality with enhanced bass and overall call quality. Finally, for more fit options, Comply foam tips are included in the box. Both the Sport Pulse and the Sport Coach Special Editions are set to ship in Q3, with the former priced at $160 while the latter costs $120.
Low-Cost Devices Fuel China’s Smartphone Market as iPhone Sales Dip
In China, low-cost smartphones have brought an overall uptick in sales in the second quarter of 2016, while high-end devices — from companies like Apple and Samsung — continue to face declining sales numbers in the country (via DigiTimes). Local vendors in China are said to be “focused on promoting entry-level and mid-range 4G models,” instead of trying to convince the Chinese public that Apple or Samsung’s smartphones are worth the higher price points.
Specifically, smartphone shipments totaled 149 million units in Q2 2016, increasing 2.7 percent from Q1 2016 and 14.3 percent from the year-ago quarter. This surge comes from China’s top-selling smartphone companies (in order of smartphone market share in China): Huawei (14 percent), Oppo (12.7 percent), Vivo (11.2 percent), and Xiaomi (10.4 percent). Apple comes in fifth place, “with its market share falling into a single-digit range,” although the specific number wasn’t disclosed.
Sales of high-end models from Apple and Samsung Electronics continued to suffer declines in the second quarter as local smartphone vendors focused on promoting entry-level and mid-range 4G models capitalizing on subsidies offered by the top-three telecom operators, Digitimes Research noted.
The double-digit shipment growth rates enjoyed by China-based smartphone vendors in the first two quarters of 2016 were higher than the growth rates of smartphones shipped to consumers from retail channel operators, resulting in an increasing pile-up of inventories at channels.
As it was reported earlier in the summer, low-cost devices that are available to a wide range of users who have yet to purchase a smartphone are helping to contribute to an overall growth in the worldwide market. Apple still faces some issues in the Greater China market, reporting an 11 percent revenue drop in mainland China in April, in the same earnings call that confirmed the company’s first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003.
In the same call, CEO Tim Cook remained “optimistic” about Apple’s presence in China, saying that “China is not as weak as has been talked about. We may not have the wind at our backs that we once did, but it’s more stable than the common view of it.” Despite some hindrances placed on Apple services like iTunes and iBooks in the country, not to mention Apple’s occasional scuffle with Chinese regulators, China remains Apple’s third-most profitable market behind the United States and Europe.
Related Roundup: iPhone 6s
Tag: China
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Caution)
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Best cases for BlackBerry DTEK50
What are the best cases for the BlackBerry DTEK50?
BlackBerry devotees are a mighty happy bunch right now, nabbing a DTEK50 for themselves and diving into all the Android goodness. The phone features a textured backing that offers more grip and much less slip, and a different overall look for a BlackBerry device. It still needs a case for extra protection and for keeping up appearances, though, and we’ve got your case hunt covered with some top-notch selections.
- DTEK50 Smart Pocket
- DTEK50 Smart Flip Case
- DTEK50 Hard Shell
- DTEK50 Swivel Holster
- AFLY BlackBerry DTEK50 wallet case
- BELK crocodile leather flip wallet
- IWIO holster flip case
DTEK50 Smart Pocket
The Smart Pocket is a unique cover that looks more like a custom-made accessory than a BlackBerry purchase. If you prefer a case that functions more like a sleeve, the Smart Pocket is for you.
The top opening of the pocket allows you to easily slide the DTEK50 into place but keeps it securely inside when you’re on the go. It’s excellent protection for the times when you’re not using your phone, and allows you to show off the new hardware featured on the DTEK50 when you’re using it, like the textured back. If you’re in a hurry to take a call, you can do so without removing the pocket — a very convenient feature right there. And it’s also convenient: you can access the USB port without removing the pocket.
The Smart Pocket is available in two color combinations: gray and tan (pictured here) or gray and black, each for about $25.
See at BlackBerry
DTEK50 Smart Flip Case
Designed just for the DTEK50, the Smart Flip Case attaches securely to the back of the phone. The back surface is smooth and hard, protecting against bumps or accidental drops.
The textured front cover features a cut-out that shows all of your necessary notifications; you won’t miss important messages and you’ll always be able to see at a glance what your text, email, and call priorities are. The exterior is textured and the interior surface that rests on the screen is soft and aids in scratch prevention — perfect for the times you need to tuck the DTEK50 into a full backpack, briefcase, or purse.
You can take a call with the Smart Flip Case closed, or flip the cover all the way back and have full access to the whole screen. It’s available in classic black for around $35.
See at BlackBerry
DTEK50 Hard Shell
If all you want is simple, straightforward protection, the DTEK50 Hard Shell is right up your alley. It’s slim, sleek, and comes in basic black; no tough choices to make, no bells and whistles to take away from the look of the DTEK50.
It provides some extra corner protection (and you know it’s usually the corners that suffer the most if you drop a phone) without looking bulky. You’ll also gain some grip to help prevent those drops in the first place. More shell-style cases are bound to appear for the DTEK50 in the near future, but it’ll be hard to beat the minimalist style already aced by BlackBerry.
For $25, the DTEK50 Hard Shell is a no-brainer purchase.
See at BlackBerry
DTEK50 Swivel Holster
BlackBerry has always made great holster cases, and their version for the DTEK50 is no different. This is the definitive BlackBerry case at its best.
The swivel clip allows you to adjust the holster to the position that’s most convenient and comfortable for you. The magnetic clasp keeps your DTEK50 snuggly in place, whether you’re rushing around from meeting to meeting or coaching the kids’ soccer game. Available in black, the Swivel Holster has a classic look that never clashes with any color.
Keep your notifications private and your DTEK50 protected even while it charges, since you don’t have to remove it from the holster to plug it in. It’s a lot of convenience for only $35.
See at BlackBerry Online Store
AFLY BlackBerry DTEK50 wallet case
An inexpensive and very handy wallet case may be exactly what your new DTEK50 needs. You don’t generally leave the house with either your phone or your wallet, so why not get a case that can do double duty?
AFLY’s wallet case will hold your new DTEK50 in place and protect it against your daily grind. The front cover includes three spaces for cards, one of which is clear and perfect for your ID, as well as a separate pocket for a few bills. The genuine leather has a nice pebbled finish, and the case features cut-outs for the camera, speaker, and USB port. No need to remove the phone at all.
The AFLY wallet case folds nicely into a kickstand for hands-free talk or viewing, and comes in red, white, black, or blue for about $13.
See at Amazon
BELK crocodile leather flip wallet
For a slightly flashier look to accompany your DTEK50, try crocodile leather. The BELK crocodile leather flip wallet has that little extra bit of flair for an extremely reasonable price.
You can stick to basic black or white, but why not shake your style up a little more with purple, or the vibrant blue that’s pictured here? Your DTEK50 will snap snuggly into place and the front cover features two credit card slots and a dedicated cash pocket. The magnetic closure adds an extra touch of safety and helps to turn the wallet into a kickstand when your hands aren’t free.
For just over $10, this is a look you can’t afford to pass up.
See at Amazon
IWIO holster flip case
It’s tough to beat the convenience of a holster for your DTEK50; it’s always right at your side so you never have to dig through bags or fuss with a pocket to take a call or check messages.
The IWIO holster flip case isn’t just convenient, it’s the most inexpensive case we’ve found so far that doesn’t compromise on quality and color selection. Choose from black, blue, red, brown, carbon fibre black, gray, white, or the green that’s pictured here. The top flap secures with a magnetic closure and the back of the holster features a vertical clip that will hold fabric of just about any thickness. Clip it to your bag if you don’t feel like wearing it, or toss it in your bag and your DTEK50 will stay free of bumps, dirt, and other nasties.
For about $7 per case, grab a few colors and play the matching game with your bags and accessories.
See at Amazon
More to come?
The BlackBerry DTEK50 is still a new phone on the market, so more cases are bound to pop up in the coming weeks and months, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated as we check them out. What’s your case of choice for the DTEK50? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Don’t miss out on this Chromebook deal for just £99
Amazon is currently offering a pretty sweet deal on the Lenovo N22 Chromebook, dropping the price to just £99. Normally priced at £160, this £60 price drop brings it to the lowest we’ve seen on it to date. Featuring an 11.6-inch display, the Lenovo N22 comes equipped with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage internally. Battery life should be no issue for you, as Lenovo states you should get around 14 hours of usage per charge.
Keeping in mind that this is one of the Chromebooks that will be able to run Android apps from Google Play, this savings makes it quite a steal. This likely won’t last long at this price, so be sure to grab one quickly if you are interested in checking it out. If you grab one, be sure to let us know in the comments!
See at Amazon
Pocket-lint Adventures: Running the Gung-Ho Obstacle race with the TomTom Bandit
Obstacle Course Races are all the rage with many event organisers opting to see how muddy and gruesome they can go. Gung-Ho takes a different approach. Instead of mud filled sheep dips and obstacles involving you carrying logs up a hill until you are a bedraggled mess, it is a more family friendly approach.
The race, around Willen Lake in Milton Keynes in the UK, consists of a 5km run with a number of inflatable obstacles to clamber or bounce your way through. There’s no timer, so you there’s no feeling that you are being pushed by an ominous sweeper bus that might come and suck you up and spit you out the other end in shame.
Pocket-lint
With the fun run approach well and truly at the heart of the experience, we took the TomTom Bandit along for the ride.
The tough exterior housing meant it was more than ample to take any knocks and bashes, while the wide angle lens meant it was no problem getting everyone in our group in on the action. Although there wasn’t any water elements on the event loop it would have mattered anyway. The TomTom Bandit action cam lives up to its name there too capable of being submerged up to 40m.
We used the TomTom Bandit with the optional Pole Mount accessory (£54.99). The TomTom Bandit is a welcome companion, capturing the fun along the way. It’s light enough to carry, but small enough to slip into a pocket.
With instant sharing from your phone, and the ability to edit in an instance, the Bandit was perfect for quickly sharing our antics with the rest of the team.
For this Pocket-lint Adventure we opted to use the desktop software that comes free with the TomTom Bandit. It allows you to quickly see the highlights automatically added by the cameras internal sensors while you were filming, or the ones you’ve either manually added at the time or after the fact in the editing process.
Once we’d found the best clips, we were then able to arrange them before adding a soundtrack. We then saved the finished short movie and uploaded it to YouTube for everyone to see. Quick, simple, easy.
Check out more of the Pocket-lint Adventures below:
Tim Cook: ‘Apple could unlock iPhones, but won’t’
To celebrate both Tim Cook’s fifth year at the helm of Apple and the production of the billionth iPhone, the chief has sat down with the Washington Post. It’s very much a goodwill piece, although there are a few insights into both Cook and Apple that the CEO lets slip along the way. For instance, on the subject of the San Bernardino iPhone, the company did spend a long time working out if they could unlock it. After deciding that it was possible, but that it’d be extremely difficult to stop the exploit being shared, Cook refused to do it. As he explains, “the risk of what happens if it got out, we felt, could be incredibly terrible for public safety.”
Cook also reiterated that the $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics was really to get at the company’s streaming platform. In his eyes, Apple doesn’t “acquire for revenue,” but for “talent and/or intellectual property,” although the profit that Beats generates is a handy bonus. Buying Beats enabled Apple to get its own music service “out probably a little sooner than we would have otherwise.” Cook also claimed that Apple may make more original video and audio shows like Planet of the Apps and Beats 1, but only if it will act as a “catalyst” for pushing apps as the future of TV.
Tim Cook does seem determined to gloss over Apple’s tax status in Europe, claiming that the company didn’t get special treatment in Ireland. The European Union feels differently and has opened a lengthy investigation to examine the terms of a so-called sweetheart deal when Apple Ireland was established in 1991. The fact that, in 2014, Apple booked two-thirds of its global profits to an Irish-registered tax haven implies something may not be right. Cook also believes that where you “create value is the place where you are taxed,” his justification for saying that only US tax is worth paying.
As for the future, Cook refutes the suggestion that Apple is lagging behind companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon on Artificial Intelligence. Reiterating the fact that Siri is “with you all the time,” and that Siri’s next word prediction has gotten “a lot smarter.” Another big growth area is augmented reality, and Cook concedes that Apple is “doing a lot of things” behind the scenes on developing the technology. Not to mention all of those secret purchases of firms — 63 since late 2013 — including a few AI firms like Turi and an AR company called Metaio.
Source: Washington Post
UK’s first cloud DVR lets you watch recordings anywhere
To be blunt, Bush isn’t a brand known for particularly innovative products. But, come the end of the month, it’s the name you’ll see on the first cloud DVR to launch in the UK. Bush’s Digital TV Recorder is an affordable set-top box — arriving exclusively at Argos on August 30th for £100 — that lets you watch and record Freeview channels. What’s special about it, though, is the integration of ShowDrive, a service that takes those recordings and uploads them to the cloud so you can watch them wherever you want, and on basically any device.
The set-top box itself has two tuners (so you can watch one channel and record another simultaneously) and 16GB of internal storage. Add in an active ShowDrive subscription, however, and those 16 gigs become more of a local cache, with recordings subsequently uploaded to the cloud as fast as your internet connection can manage. Pay £2 per month, and you’ll get enough space for 35 hours of content, while £6 per month increases that to 350 hours. Discounts are also available if you spring for a year’s subscription upfront.
Once recordings have been uploaded to the ether, you can access them anywhere through the ShowDrive web app, which is compatible with computers and mobile devices. More than just a folder, the app presents your recordings in a visually rich UI with cover art, episode descriptions and the like. It’s searchable, offers recommendations, supports pause and resume across devices and will also point you towards on-demand platforms that feature more episodes of your favourite shows. If you’re on a shoddy hotel WiFi or slow 3G connection, then the quality of the stream will automatically scale to avoid any buffering downtime. Incidentally, the Bush box itself is said to upscale SD content to “near HD” when you’re watching TV at home.
We’re told other ShowDrive-ready set-top boxes, as well as TVs, will start popping up next year. For a while, though, Bush’s Digital TV Recorder will be the only DVR device of its kind available in the UK. That’s quite the claim considering the numerous pay-TV players we have over here, all with their own hardware. Many of them offer apps that let you stream TV and catch-up services on the move. Some also let you watch recordings on mobile devices over your home WiFi network, or download them to watch when you’re not. None of them, however, have yet to use cloud storage to allow you to access recordings from anywhere.
Source: ShowDrive
Sea anemones could be the key to treating hearing loss
Sea anemones could soon do a lot to help those of us living above the water. Researchers have discovered that proteins used by starlet sea anemones to repair their cells also repair the sound-sensing cells in mice and other mammals. If you bathe cells in those proteins for long enough (the team tried for an hour), they rapidly restore molecular links that bundle hearing-related hair cells together. In theory, you could reverse hearing damage among cells that haven’t been permanently lost — that exceptionally loud concert might not permanently limit your listening enjoyment.
There’s a lot of work to be done before there’s an actual treatment. However, scientists don’t think you’d always need anemone cells to make this work. At least in mice, there are repair proteins that parallel those from the underwater creatures. If researchers can find a way to improve their effectiveness (mammal proteins are much less useful right now), you wouldn’t need to harvest them from sealife to deliver effective treatments.
Via: ScienceNews
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology
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