LG G Pad X 8.0 review – CNET
The Good The LG G Pad X 8.0 only costs $50 with a two-year AT&T service contract. It has a lightweight and portable design, sharp screen and full-size USB port. The built-in IR blaster lets you use it as a remote control.
The Bad The $50 price tag is half the story. You still have to pay extra for monthly cellular service.
The Bottom Line Skip the LG G Pad X 8.0 if the thought of a tablet two-year contract seems ludicrous, but if you’re cool with a commitment, a $50 initial buy-in can’t really be beat.
Guess what! You can actually buy a decent tablet for only $50. Aside from the $50 Amazon Fire, there’s the LG G Pad X 8.0. The catch with the LG? It’s only offered for $50 with a two-year AT&T contract. Otherwise, it costs $250 retail, which, in my expert tablet-reviewer opinion, is way too much for such a simple tablet. But at $50? It’s a great deal. AT&T also offers monthly installment payments that end up costing you about $12.50 a month for 20 months.
LG’s G Pad X 8.0 is a steal for $50, but…
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Why buy the LG G Pad X 8.0 instead of the Amazon Fire? Because it has a full USB port to connect a flash drive, an IR blaster to use it as remote control, access to all of the apps in the Google Play store (Fire tablets have Amazon’s curated app store) and, in my opinion, it looks a lot better than the Amazon Fire. Unlike the Fire, it doesn’t feel like it’ll break in half if I sit on it, even though its design is attractively slimmer, and it has a sharper, brighter screen.
Perfectly portable for reading on a break.
Josh Miller/CNET
Most importantly, the LG G Pad X 8.0 has cellular service. This means you can access the internet on the go, just like your phone. With AT&T, adding a tablet to your plan costs you an extra $10 a month and it shares data with your phone. It’s important to note that although you’re only paying $50 for the tablet, a service contract means that you’re signing up to pay at least an extra $240 for the cellular service over the next two years. All tablets with cell service require you to, you know, pay for the cell service. So if you think you can get away with only paying $50 for the LG tablet, you’re wrong. If that’s what you want, the Wi-Fi-only Amazon Fire is your best alternative.
For $250, the LG G Pad X 8.0 is disappointing, but for $50, it’s impressive. It performs fine for casual use, like reading, rewatching “Stranger Things” and playing games. After two battery tests, the LG averaged 8 hours of battery life. Check back soon for the final result. It’s not as fast as the Asus ZenPad Z8, another great affordable tablet with 4G LTE, but that’s a more expensive model, starting at $149.
You can only buy the LG G Pad X 8.0 through AT&T with service, so if you’re not a customer, or unwilling to become one, you’re better off with the Fire. Otherwise, the G Pad X 8.0 is a hard deal to beat. Sure, it’s a rather vanilla tablet, but for $50, that’s the best you can hope for.
Specs:
- 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution 8-inch IPS screen
- Android 6.0.1
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
- 2GB of RAM
- Up to 32GB of internal storage
- MicroSD card slot expandable up to 128GB
- Micro-USB and full USB ports
Benchmarks compared
LG G Pad X 8.0
9,495
3,192
705
Amazon Fire
4,646
1,184
361
Asus ZenPad Z8
17,856
3,638
1,536
Apple iPad Mini 2
15,015
2,465
1,374
Legend:
3DMark Score (Ice Storm Unlimited)
Geekbench 3 Score (Multi-Core)
Geekbench 3 Score (Single-Core)
Note:
Longer bars indicate faster performance
Researchers are building a robotic Lionfish exterminator
We joke around a lot about bringing about a horrific robot apocalypse, but let’s get real: sometimes, building a killer robot is just the right thing to do. Well, at least when those robots are being used to cull invasive species. Researchers at Robots In Service of the Environment (RISE) are developing a robot to fight an invasive population of Lionfish that’s threatening ecosystems off the coast of Florida as well as in the Caribbean and Bermuda.
Creating a robot to exterminate a specific species sounds a bit harsh, but it’s an environmental issue: the Lionfish population in question isn’t native to Caribbean waters, and are don’t register as predators to the local wildlife. By decimating the area’s food supply, the voracious carnivores are killing coral reef systems and starving other species. Culling the Lionfish population is essential to protecting the local ecosystem. Unfortunately there are millions of Lionfish and only so many hunters. The solution? Build robot hunters.
This idea came to RISE founder and iRobot CEO Colin Angle after witnessing the issue first-hand in Bermuda. His group has since designed a concept robot capable of electrocuting Lionfish between a pair of telescoping electrodes. The concept is still in its early stages, but the team has been testing a prototype arm in reef waters to make sure the robot doesn’t scare the fish off before it has a chance to zap them. So far, so good: Lionfish don’t have many predators, and don’t seem scared of the deadly fish-zapper.
RISE says it’s testing out the actual shocking mechanic on Lionfish in aquariums before taking it out to sea, and is also developing a spear-based Lionfish hunter. It’ll be awhile before either unit is ready for action, too. Hopefully, the completed robots will be able to keep the population under control and help the natural ecosystem thrive. Still, it’s a little weird to think that under the right circumstances, killer robots can be a good thing.
Source: PBS, Nekton
Ubisoft delays ‘The Division’ DLC to fix the base game
Ubisoft’s survival shooter multiplayer title The Division had a successful launch back in March, but unpolished design choices erupted into outright game-breaking bugs in the free content additions released in the months thereafter. While the game’s DLC roadmap pegged its second paid expansion Survival to be the next out the door, the studio will push that back until later in 2017 and dedicate the upcoming October update to fixing the core game. That leaves the third planned release, Last Fall, delayed until sometime in 2018.
In a blog post, Ubisoft presented a laundry list of things the so-called Update 1.4 will address: fixing a ton of bugs in its Known Issues backlog, making loot drops more relevant, tweaking enemy difficulty, balancing gear and introductory adjustments to PvP and the Dark Zone. While admitting that there are too many issues to fix before you can release your shiny new expansion must be humbling, they’re going so far as offering weekly State of the Game updates for their fans. Hopefully this offers a better foundation before the Survival DLC is released so the company can avoid banning players for exploiting bugs, as happened after the first bonus content pack dropped in April.
Via: Destructoid
Source: Ubisoft blog
The Department of Defense needs help designing a biohazard suit
The Department of Defense is looking for a few good creators to help create a brand new biohazard suit to life.
The Chembio Suit Challenge is being held by the Chemical and Biological Defense division within the US military, and there’s a $250,000 prize hanging in the balance for ideas on how to create a better chembio suit.
The current suit, according to the contest, has hindrances in the form of weight and bulkiness that greatly restrict soldiers’ range of motion, agility and maneuverability. Those judging the contest will look for specifics like improvements in expedience, mobility and other areas. Basically, making the suit a more svelte and less totally cumbersome piece of equipment is key here.
In addition to figuring out the problem with bulkiness and frustration soldiers face in putting the current suits on, the Department of Defense is also looking for designs to help keep anyone wearing the suits cool. If you submit an idea for this you could win awards ranging from $5,000 to $150,000.
“The ultimate goal is to relieve any burdens and hazards to the warfighter and improve operational capabilities in combating chemical and biological wartime threats,” reads the official Chembio Challenge site.
Interested in taking on the challenge? Go give it a shot.
Via: Fast Co. Design
Apple Working on Special Version of iPhone for Japan, Will Include FeliCa Tap-to-Pay Chip
Apple is developing a version of the iPhone for Japan that includes one of Sony’s FeliCa chips to enable contactless transit payments, reports Bloomberg.
FeliCa is a tap-to-pay format developed by Sony and built into cards that are used to access Japan’s railway and bus system. FeliCa is faster than Apple Pay, allowing transactions to occur in a fraction of a second, which makes it suitable for use in a fast-paced transit environment. It’s also able to store e-money that can be used at vending machines and cafes across the country.
Apple plans to work with several transit card providers to create virtual versions of FeliCa transit cards that can be stored in the Wallet app on the iPhone and used in place of a physical card.
The FeliCa chip will let customers in Japan store their public bus and train passes on their iPhones. Users would then be able to tap their phones against the entrance scanners instead of using physical cards. While the FeliCa chip is the standard technology underlying the service, there are several different providers of transit payment cards based on the type of transit and areas within Japan.
The addition of a FeliCa chip to the iPhone will help Apple make inroads into the mobile payment market in Japan, which is dominated by the standard. 1.9 million payment terminals in the country have already adopted FeliCa and FeliCa terminals saw 4.6 trillion yen ($46 billion) in transactions in 2015.
The FeliCa payment feature could be available as soon as next month, built into the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus that Apple plans to unveil in early September. Bloomberg warns, though, that Apple could potentially delay the feature’s launch until next year should discussions with Japanese payment networks fall through.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: Japan, FeliCa
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Apple to Eliminate Home Button in 2017 iPhone
The radically redesigned iPhone coming in 2017 will not feature a Home button, Bloomberg today confirmed in a wider report focusing on new mobile payment features coming to Japan.
Apple is already at work on a major redesign of the iPhone for 2017 that focuses more heavily on the display by removing the Home button, according to a person familiar with the matter.
According to past rumors, the 2017 iPhone, which may be called the iPhone 8, will feature a complete design overhaul with an edge-to-edge flexible OLED display that does away with the top and bottom bezels where features like the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and front-facing camera are housed.
Instead, the functionality of the Home button, including Touch ID, may be built directly into the display. Apple design chief Jony Ive is said to have wanted to build an iPhone that looks like a single sheet of glass for several years, and 2017, the year that marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, is when it will happen.
The iPhone display may also feature edges that are curved on both sides, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, and it is rumored to have a glass body, moving away from the aluminum that’s been used for iPhones since the iPhone 5. Other features that may be built into the 2017 iPhone include wireless charging, an enhanced Taptic engine, and new biometric capabilities like iris scanning or facial recognition.
Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Discuss this article in our forums
Malibu bottles get connected with NFC, because summer
Malibu is embracing NFC to make a limited number of its rum bottles connected, meaning you’ll be able to tap to interact, rather than just swigging the whole thing down.
The idea is to provide connectivity with your smartphone, so you can tap on the NFC tag and your phone will then open up a range of content for you to interact with, including the chance to win 7 nights in Barbados.
Malibu says that this will be the largest test of NFC-equipped bottles, with 40,000 connected rum bottles hitting the shelves of 1600 Tesco stores over the next few months.
While this is in many ways an experiment to see whether NFC bottles will work, it also presents the opportunity for customers to have plenty of fun.
Malibu
There will be a range of experiences offered via the NFC tag, including the chance to instantly win UE Boom speakers. Tying into Malibu’s “because summer” marketing campaign, you’ll also be encouraged to upload summer pictures to enter that Barbados prize draw, you’ll be able to access recipes for your Malibu, locate Malibu bars with a leaning toward alfresco drinking and get access to summer tunes too.
NFC offers an advantage over other connected offerings, because the tag tells your phone exactly what to do. Getting the NFC tags onto the bottle was also something of a technical feat, passing the bottles through a heat tunnel to apply the tags.
If nothing else, it’s a chance to drink rum and play with your phone and what’s not to like about that?
EE’s free 6-month Apple Music subscription will save you Bacon, give you access to Britney, bitch
EE will be offering a 6-month free subscription to Apple Music to all new and upgrading monthly customers, from 1 September.
The pairing with the Apple music service is the first of its kind for a UK network, and the latest in a number of incentives offered by EE to convince you that it is the network of choice.
EE has 16 million 4G customers on its books and a large proportion of network data is used for video and music streaming, with the company reporting a 41 per cent increase in streaming over the past 3 years.
- Apple Music vs Spotify: What’s the difference?
Importantly, this announcement makes Apple Music available to both Apple and Android users through the app, as well as on other devices, such as your laptop. You’ll be able to access Beats 1 and Apple’s DJs as well as the rest of the service’s features.
The subscription is managed by EE, and at the end of the 6-month free period, you’ll have the £9.99 monthly subscription added to your phone bill.
The new deal is being backed with a major advertising campaign, starring Kevin Bacon and Britney Spears – whose album Glory launches exclusively on Apple Music. Check out the comedy advert below.
Judge orders the release of additional Clinton emails
The FBI recently discovered an additional 15,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. Though a vast majority of those communications appear to be innocuous, a federal judge has ordered their release beginning on September 13th.
These emails are separate from the 55,000-plus pages of documentation Clinton campaign previously, and voluntarily, turned over to investigators earlier this year. The FBI and Department of Justice discovered this new batch while scouring Mrs. Clinton’s personal email server and turned them over to the State department which, by order of Judge James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court, is required to set a timetable for their release. These were originally not expected to be published until at least mid-October.
“We are not sure what additional materials the Justice Department may have located,” Clinton campaign spokesman, Brian Fallon, told the New York Times earlier this week. “But if the State Department determines any of them to be work-related, then obviously we support those documents being released publicly as well.”
This story is developing, check back regularly for updates
Source: Reuters Politics (Twitter)
The co-creator of ‘Rick and Morty’ just founded a VR studio
Most folks know Justin Roiland as the co-creator and lead voice actor behind Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, but it’s less widely known that he’s obsessed with virtual reality. The entertainer was one of the first backers of Oculus’ original Kickstarter, and has reportedly filled notebooks with game ideas and concepts. Now, he’s is going all in on his obsession: today, in partnership with former Epic Games executive producer Tanya Watson, Roiland announced Squanchtendo Games. It’s a VR game studio with, in Roiland’s words, one simple goal: “We just want to make super duper games dooood.”
Roiland is new to the world of gaming, but he’s not exactly a novice. He’s already helped Adult Swim make one Rick and Morty game, and has been working on another with Owlchemy Labs — a VR Rick and Morty simulator called Virtual Rick-ality. His role seems to be more focused on design than programming and production, but that’s where Watson comes in. At Epic Games, she helped make three Gears of War titles, Fortnite and Bulletstorm. Not bad at all.
The new company hasn’t yet announced any games in production, but Roiland certainly has ideas. In 2005, the creator told PCGamer that he’d filled three notebooks with VR game idea, said he’s trying to figure out how to allow players to talk to virtual reality NPCs in a way that feels natural and unrestrictive. For now, though, Squanchtendo Games is mostly just looking for staff to help them build their first title. The company’s website (and hilarious hand-drawn press release) focuses almost exclusively on finding artists, designers, producers and programmers to help them build great VR experiences.
Not a game designer? Check it out anyway — the entire website is saturated in Roiland’s brand of oddball humor, and likely serves as a good preview for the kind of games we can expect from Squanchtendo in the future.
Source: Squanchtendo Games
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