Best AT&T phones
What are the best phones you can buy at AT&T right now?
Whether you’re a loyal AT&T subscriber, or you’re looking to jump ship to its giant cellular network, take a peek at our list of the best smartphones the carrier has to offer.
We’ll be updating this guide throughout the year to keep you informed of the latest devices worth wielding as your daily driver. Be sure to read through our reviews for the full rundown on each smartphone.
- Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Active
- LG G5
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- LG G3
Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge
The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are Samsung’s flagship devices for the year and the two best Android devices on the market. Both smartphones feature cameras with advanced features we all want, a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button, and a Power Saving mode that actually works.
The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge run on the same hardware, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM. The 5.1-inch Galaxy S7 comes equipped with a 3000 mAh battery and is available in black and gold, while the 5.7-inch Galaxy S7 edge comes with a 3600 mAh battery and is available in black, gold, and silver.
Want to get more in-depth?
Read: Samsung Galaxy S7 review
Read: Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review
Ready to make your purchase?
See the Galaxy S7 at AT&T
See the Galaxy S7 edge at AT&T
Samsung Galaxy S7 Active
If you’re the Bear Grylls type, you might also want to check out the Galaxy S7 Active, which is an AT&T exclusive. It’s the ruggedized, nearly life-proof version of the Galaxy S7, and it has all the same features in addition to a significantly larger 4000 mAh battery, better water resistance, and shock resistance.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S7 review
See at AT&T
LG G5
The LG G5’s modular smartphone offerings might not be your thing, but that doesn’t discount the fact that the G5 is still a solid smartphone. LG’s flagship features a Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, removable storage, and a removable battery. Its rear-facing 16-megapixel and secondary wide-angle camera are a delight, too. As written in the original G5 review, “The cameras are where LG really shines with its phones.”
The G5 also comes with a whole host of “friends” — that is, swappable modules that you can pop on and off the G5’s chassis, though there are still only two to choose from, including a helpful camera module that adds on physical camera controls.
The LG G5 is available in four colors, including pink, gold, titan, and silver.
Read: LG G5 review
Ready to buy?
See at AT&T
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
AT&T’s got Samsung’s latest phablet, too. The Galaxy Note 7 is the sixth-generation successor to last year’s Galaxy Note 5 and it’s a major improvement. The 5.7-inch smartphone features the same Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, and stellar 12-megapixel rear-facing camera as its flagship predecessors listed above. It’s also equipped with a pressure-sensitive stylus and it’s water resistant, so you can take it with you into the pool to take some notes — though don’t dunk it for too long! The device can only withstand five feet of water for up to half an hour.
Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
Note: Samsung has issued a broad recall for the Galaxy Note 7 due to battery issues. We still recommend the Note 7, but we advise checking with AT&T to ensure that it has received new stock of the phone that was made after the recall. Follow the link below for more information.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall FAQ
AT&T has also suspended sales of the phablet until the recall has been “called off.”
See the notice at AT&T
LG G3
Sometimes, the best budget phone is merely an older flagship. If you’re looking to save some cash but still want a smartphone that’s worth wielding, AT&T is offering the certified pre-owned LG G3 for a mere $160 upfront. That’s quite affordable for an older smartphone that’s still pretty capable.
Most budget smartphones will skimp out on the processor and camera performance, but you don’t have to compromise with an older high-end smartphone. The G3, which launched in 2014, features a 5.5-inch Quad HD display, a Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 3000 mAh battery. It also comes with a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera that was actually quite capable for its time, though its low-light performance isn’t as good as what you’d get with today’s flagships. No matter: for the price, it takes better photos than anything the pricier Samsung Galaxy J3 offers — that shoots at a measly 5 megapixels!
You don’t have to worry about the G3 being pre-owned, either. AT&T offers a two-week trial period after you purchase the device, so you can take it for a test run before you fully commit. The only bummer is that you’ll miss out on an official update to Android 7.0 Nougat, though you will be able to update to Marshmallow.
Read: LG G3 review
Think you wanna bring one home?
See at AT&T
Best Smartwatch For Kids
Your kids want a smartwatch? Android Wear isn’t where you start.
Russell has been covering Android since the G1, and has had his head in VR headsets since the first Oculus Rift dev kit. Managing editor at VRHeads, video and podcast host, you can follow him on Twitter @russellholly. For suggestions and updates, you can reach him at russell@androidcentral.com
Best overall
VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX
Find on Amazon
Instead of a tool for connecting to a smartphone, VTech created an experience that is mostly toy but partially useful. Amid all the games and onboard camera tricks you’ll find a functional calendar for appointments, a voice memo app, and several other tools that work well with the smartwatch aesthetic. This is a great way to get kids thinking about using technology for more than entertainment, without completely pulling them away from the shiny world of fun things.
Bottom line: If you have a youngster who wants a smartwatch just like you, this is a fantastic place to start.
One more thing: This watch comes in Blue and Purple, depending on what color you think your child will prefer.
Why VTech Kidizoom is the best
Smartwatches are already luxury accessories, and for kids they become little more than toys. VTech’s smartwatch for kids has a few games, but also lets them take photos from their wrist and have some fun with the photos. It’s a fun way for a kid to emulate their smartwatch-wearing parent without needing to be tethered to a smartphone, and it actually includes some tools that could be useful. Calendar access, for example, gives you an teaching opportunity. Calculator apps let children explore math on their own. There’s plenty of fun to be had here, but the need to charge the watch regularly in order to use it and the availability of actually useful apps could become tools for teaching children how to care for their hardware and use it properly.
Best value
Supvin U80 Smartwatch
Find on Amazon
U80 is a barebones traditional smartwatch. It pairs to a phone via Bluetooth 4.0 and acts as notification sync. It’s a limited experience, but one that covers the basics of smartwatch use and fitness or sleep tracking. It’s simple, and the biggest feature here is the price. If you’re looking for a very basic smartwatch, this is where you start.
Bottom line: This is the beginner smartwatch you buy for a kid on their first smartphone, who really wants something inexpensive.
Only on AT&T
FiLIP 2
Find on AT&T
FiLIP 2 is less about giving your child a cool watch full of features and more about giving your child a one-way phone they can strap to their wrist so you can reach them and track them as you desire. The FiLIP app allows you to send one-way text messages and track the GPS in the watch, and because the watch has a phone number you can call to check in whenever necessary. For the child, it’s a fairly simple watch with an emergency button that calls each of the contacts built in to the watch while recording the background audio just in case.
Bottom line: This is more or less a tracking bracelet for a child you don’t trust with a phone.
Only on Verizon
GizmoPal 2
Find on Verizon Wireless
LG’s GizmoPal 2 is a wrist-mounted phone with some simple features for both parents and children. For kids, pre-programmed messages and emoji can be sent to a list of approved contacts. Two-way calling ensures your child can reach and be reached when necessary, and there’s a fitness function onboard for jump rope or step counting. The big feature for parents is real-time tracking through the Android app, which gives you GPS coordinates and offers notifications if your child strays from GPS boundaries you have set up.
Bottom line: This is a simple, friendly watch for kids who aren’t ready for their first phone yet.
Conclusion
While there are certainly some great Android Wear watches out there, these are the best options for most kids. VTech offers a great fun accessory that doesn’t require a phone. U80 is an inexpensive way to offer base smartwatch features. If you’d prefer the smartwatch be more for your peace of mind than your child’s entertainment, AT&T and Verizon have you covered with the FiLIP 2 and GizmoPal 2 exclusives.
Best overall
VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX
Find on Amazon
Instead of a tool for connecting to a smartphone, VTech created an experience that is mostly toy but partially useful. Amid all the games and onboard camera tricks you’ll find a functional calendar for appointments, a voice memo app, and several other tools that work well with the smartwatch aesthetic. This is a great way to get kids thinking about using technology for more than entertainment, without completely pulling them away from the shiny world of fun things.
Bottom line: If you have a youngster who wants a smartwatch just like you, this is a fantastic place to start.
One more thing: This watch comes in Blue and Purple, depending on what color you think your child will prefer.
Ex-HTC CEO hints at the future of VR headsets
For a man who spent 18 years at HTC turning smartphones from mere business tools into ubiquitous consumer gadgets, Peter Chou knows a thing or two about nurturing new product categories. In fact, he had already started his second chapter at the company by bringing us the Vive virtual reality headset before his quiet departure last August. Today, Chou’s mission is extended by way of two chairman roles: One at visual effects studio Digital Domain where he can “fully and deeply understand” VR content creation, and another at VR game studio Futuretown where he is also an investor. This may seem like a weird match given Chou’s prior focus on hardware, but to him it felt like a logical next step. After all, it’s now content, not hardware, pushing VR forward.
Chou crossed paths with Futuretown while he was still developing the Vive. At the time, Chou wanted to extend HTC’s resources to support small VR companies with great potential, so he tasked his team with a scouting mission. That led them to Futuretown, which happened to be located nearby. One day its CEO Johan Yang simply walked over to meet Chou for some guidance.
“They were worried at the time because they didn’t really know where the market was, but I told them, every industry is like that,” Chou told Engadget ahead of Futuretown’s Tokyo Game Show press event. “At the beginning you can’t really see the market and how great the market is, but if you have a vision, if you believe that is the future, then you should work on that and build capabilities in that area, and try to be the best.”
Chou would later invest in Futuretown personally and then serve as a mentor under the “Honorary Chairman” title. This proved to be a smart move. The startup has already three VR games that quickly rose to popularity. In particular, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf now owns 30 percent of the Vive market share, which translates to about 30,000 units out of the estimated total of 100,000. The game was also recently updated with a level editor along with over 200 user-created levels from the earlier beta program. Furthermore, Futuretown will add Oculus Rift support to at least two of those games, and they are ready to launch as soon as the Oculus Touch controller arrives — likely by end of year, as speculated by Yang.
Back in July, Chou returned to his hardware roots and announced Digital Domain’s professional 4K 360-degree camera, the Zeus. Then, this week he unveiled Futuretown’s first hardware product, the 5D Totalmotion modular simulator ride, in the hopes of making VR more immersive and user friendly. It will have four games at launch: Whiteout: Ski VR, Infinity Rider: Motorcycle VR, Wave Breaker: Surf VR and Stallion Adventures: Horse Riding VR.
Neither Yang nor Chou would say how much the machine might cost, but it’s clear that it won’t come cheap and is geared towards the business market (think: malls, arcades and internet cafes). Yang explained that these are the sorts of places where VR is already gaining momentum in parts of Asia, HTC and Futuretown’s home region.
Peter Chou showing off Digital Domain’s professional 360-degree 4K camera, the Zeus, at a press conference in July. (Image credit: Digital Domain)
While Futuretown isn’t the first company to release such hardware for enhanced VR experience, Chou is confident that his motion feedback machine is already better and easier to use than what the competition is offering. What he doesn’t have total control over right now, however, is the headset. It’s certainly come a long way from the days when you could easily get motion sickness after just one or two minutes, whereas now you might be able to last 30 to 40 minutes straight. Even so, Chou reckons the industry is still a ways off from realizing his vision. He described VR’s current state as feeling like somewhere between 480p and 720p (even though it’s a 2K display inside most high-end headsets), which is still usable but leaves room for improvement. Obviously, it would also be more convenient to go wireless as well.
Obviously, it would also be more convenient to go wireless as well.
“I would say the 1080p kind of experience plus wireless are two to three years away,” Chou said “There’s some solution coming out of maybe second half of next year, but I think it will probably go to the next step in 2018.” Similarly, Chou and Yang expect some strong smartphone VR solutions to arrive in the same time frame, especially given how tech giants like Google, Qualcomm, Intel and NVIDIA are more actively looking at VR and inside-out tracking technologies. Just look at Google’s Tango for a sense of where these companies are headed.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey trying Futuretown’s 5D Totalmotion platform at the Tokyo Game Show. (Image credit: Futuretown)
For those who think two to three years seems like a long time, Chou would like to remind you that it took even longer for smartphones to catch on — five or six years, he says. “In 2005, if you said everyone would have a smartphone, nobody would believe that. But today, the smartphone is an essential part of our lives.” Perhaps, he says, VR will follow a similar path to eventual success — a future where our smartphones alone can somehow deliver compelling VR experience without breaking our wallets or draining our handset batteries. Or maybe he is wrong. Maybe by that point the smartphone will have a different form factor altogether. Time will tell.
Apple’s Sunnyvale Car Team Includes a Dozen Magna Engineers
In a piece on car company Magna International, Bloomberg has shared a tidbit about Apple’s car development plans, suggesting there are approximately a dozen engineers from Magna working with Apple’s car team in Sunnyvale.
Magna employees are said to be helping develop Apple’s electric vehicle, reigniting rumors that Apple is working with a third-party to manufacture its vehicle rather than taking on vehicle development costs itself.
A completely new vehicle can cost several billion dollars, so leaning on the expertise of an industry veteran is a way of minimizing those costs. Apple has been quick to understand that: about a dozen Magna engineers have been working with the iPhone-maker’s team in Sunnyvale to develop a vehicle, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors of some kind of partnership between Apple and Magna. In April, a German news site suggested Apple had a secret car lab in Germany and was planning to have subsidiary Magna Steyr manufacture its cars, and Apple executives also visited Magna Steyr in Austria in February of 2015. Apple also reportedly held talks with Daimler and BMW, but no deal was able to be established due to questions over who would lead the project and who would have ownership over data.
Magna executives and Apple both declined to comment on rumors of a partnership, but in a separate interview on plans to build a new car plant, Magna CEO Donald Walker spoke on partnerships like the one the company has established with BMW. Magna will be producing BMW’s 5-Series and is said to be “positioning itself for the prospect that technology companies will eventually join its roster of customers.”
“You could easily have enough business outsourced from the existing carmakers to fill up other contract assembly plants, or you could have new entrants that come in and say ‘I really want to have something but do I really want to manufacture vehicles?,”‘ Magna Chief Executive Officer Donald Walker said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Aurora, Ontario.
While Apple has hundreds of employees working on its car project, the company’s plans seem to be in flux. Following Bob Mansfield’s takeover of the car initiative earlier this year, Apple is said to have laid off dozens of employees as part of a “reboot” that will see focus shifting towards the development of an autonomous vehicle system. Based on these recent rumors, it is no longer clear if a physical Apple-branded car will actually materialize or if the project will result in something more software oriented.
Related Roundup: Apple Car
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iMessage apps: Which should you download first and how to install them?
Apple made a number of changes in iOS 10, with one of the main overhauls appearing in its Messages app.
The app now offers multiple methods of inputting iMessages from handwritten notes to the Apple Watch’s Digital Touch feature. Users are also able to react to individual messages and customise how the receiver sees the messages you send. You can read all about the new Messages features and how to use them in our separate feature.
One of the most exciting new features in Messages is the App Store integration though. This feature means you can download third-party apps and share information from them without having to leave the Messages app at all, whether that’s scanning a document or sharing your location.
Here is how to access, download and install the iMessage apps, along with the best ones to download first.
Pocket-lint
How to download, install and manage iMessage apps
You’ll see the App Store icon to the left of the input field when you start a new iMessage. If you can’t see it, tap the grey arrow on the left and the icon will appear, along with the Digital Touch option and a camera icon.
After a tap on the App Store, click on the four dots in the bottom left hand corner and then hit the “+” icon that is labelled “Store”. This will take you to the App Store designed specifically for Messages.
The left tab is called Featured and this is where you’ll find new apps to download and install. The right tab is called Manage. This is where apps you have already downloaded on your device that are compatible with iMessage will appear.
You can choose to toggle them on or off from here, as well as choose whether or not to automatically add compatible apps to your iMessage drawer when you download them on your device.
To download an iMessage app, tap on the one you want and hit “Get” to install it, as you would in the normal App Store. After it’s downloaded, you’ll see it appear in the iMessage drawer where you found the “+” Store icon earlier. You’ll also be able to swipe between the various apps in the drawer below the input box.
Pocket-lint
Which iMessage apps should you download first?
There are a number of iMessage apps available already, but we have picked our favourite for you to try first.
OpenTable
The OpenTable iMessages app allows you to suggest restaurants, vote on favourites and book a table all from the Messages app.
iTranslate
The iTranslate iMessage app allows you to write something in your language and send it with the translation to the recipient’s language appearing underneath. No more lost in translation.
Airbnb
Planning a trip away? The Airbnb iMessage app allows you to share homes with friends and vote for a group favourite.
ScanBot
The ScanBot iMessage app enables you to scan a document directly in the Messages app and send it. No need more coming out of the app, opening another app and having to go back in to attach.
CityMapper
The CityMapper iMessage app lets you send your location to your friends, appearing as a little map that the recipient will then be able to click on for directions to you. Handy, very handy.
Words with Friends
Words with Friends for iMessage allows you to invite friends from your contact list and play your amazing, winning-words directly from Messages.
IMDb
The IMDb iMessage app allows you to search the database in Messages and send links to showtimes, as well as film, TV and celebrity pages.
Pennies Mini
Got a hen or stag to plan and need to stay within a certain budget? The Pennies Mini iMessage app lets you share and collaborate on spending budgets with friends and family directly from the Messages app.
ESPN
Sports fan? The ESPN iMessage app allow you to share scores with your friends and watch game highlights directly from Messages.
The Weather Channel
Going on holiday or just meeting up, the Weather Channel iMessage app allows you to share mini forecasts directly from Messages so you can see what you’re in for.
Poll
Poll for iMessage is great for group decisions. Can’t decide where to go for dinner, or what time to meet? This app will come in very handy.
Super Mario Run Stickers
Everything is great when Mario is involved. The Super Mario Run stickers app lets you add a moustache and Mario hat to anyone. You can just send Mario himself too though and there are plenty to choose from.
Star Wars Stickers
Like Mario, Star Wars makes everything more fun. The Star Wars sticker pack lets you add a Stormtrooper to your morning message. Whose day wouldn’t be made after that?
‘Gravity Rush 2’ expands a portable adventure to PS4 scale
The original Gravity Rush was a key launch title for the PlayStation Vita — a (rare) original adventure that wasn’t a portable iteration of something that already existed. But when it came to the sequel, Sony’s Japan Studios wanted to bring it to home consoles and Gravity Rush 2 was announced alongside a PS4 remaster of the first game. I got to play the latest demo of the sequel here at the Tokyo Game Show, and it looks and feels like a bigger game in nearly every way — exactly what GR2 needs if it wants to stand out on Sony’s main console against stiff competition.
In Gravity Rush 2, you still play as Kat, wielding gravity-warping powers that let her tumble up, sideways and (boringly, realistically…) down. Combined with a surprisingly intuitive control scheme, you’re soon soaring around towns and locales, while the relatively simple fight system lets you fight back against invading inter-dimensional blobs of black stuff.
Said blobby aliens (with handy glowing red weak spots) are still around, with some sort of dimensional disaster occurring between the end of GR and the start of GR2. For not-fully-explained reasons, there are now a few powerful upstarts with powers of their own (self-healing brawlers, crystal-winged angels), as well as military forces with both giant mechs and high-tech battle suits built to go toe-to-toe with anyone with gravity powers. This already sounds like it will help alleviate some of the battle tedium that I felt when playing the original game — everyone likes a good boss battle.
It was even cooler when Raven — the gravity-powered antagonist from the first game — started fighting alongside me. She would often team up alongside Kat as I charged up my most powerful attack, ensuring I did more damage to the giant mech robot attacking us. Both fighting and exploration is made even more interesting by the introduction of two new gravity power styles: Jupiter (slow, hard-hitting) and Luna (light as a feather, but weedier in a fight).
Luna style was the most fun for me, at least during my short play-through. Kat skates along the ground as if it’s ice; she even can stand on water or thin branches. She can also leap pretty damn high without even needing to tap into her gravity mojo. Both styles add a change of pace mid-battle, and you can interchange between the new styles and your normal power-set by swiping up and down on the DualShock touchpad. By the way, slamming into the ground with the Jupiter style is so, very, very satisfying:
You can further augment abilities through a new talisman system (you’ll find them in side-quests as well as during the main campaign), which will let you boost and fine-tune your skills. You will be able to swap between talismans in-game, meaning you can equip yourself better for whatever particular task you’re trying to complete. Harder kicks, longer lasting powers, more things to magically throw with your gravity powers were all outlined during my briefing, but this is just scratching the surface. Combine this with the three power styles mentioned above, and Gravity Rush 2 looks like a deeper game — the kind that PS4 owners would expect.
As the sequel was built for the home console, it all looks predictably far gorgeous and grander than handheld-bound Gravity Rush. There’s a heavy stylistic tone to the series, but Sony’s console has the power to deliver the vision on a bigger scale; to add fluffy cloud surroundings to the skies, to fill street markets with a bunch of people without choking on the graphical fumes. Stand somewhere high, and you can see for (possibly) miles.
There’s a learning curve to both navigating the skies and nailing the black blobs with your kicks and gravity skills. New players will be introduced to Kat’s existing skill set gradually throughout the start of the game, but if you’ve played the first title on Vita, if not the PS4, you’ll be soaring and falling in no time. And to those that didn’t get what they wanted from the original story-wise, Director Toyama ensured the audience during a Q&A session that many of the game’s mysteries, including the origin of Kat, will be answered in the game.
The in-game world will be at least twice, if not three times, as big as the original, with each region having a particular flavor, delivered through building and character design and through the soundtrack. The music is rich, big-budget orchestral pieces, while in-game characters are still talking in something nonsensical that sounds like a language from both North Europe and South America all at once. The attention paid to both audio and design was what helped make the original stand out, so while it’s nice to see the game take a slightly more exotic twist on design, it looks like Japan Studios have also given the sequel just as much attention, perhaps more. The demo I played showed a world that was busier than the original, and as I said before, just grander.
While more places to explore is great, there will still be extra missions and challenges to help you power up your character, with a new mining side-quest letting you challenge other players online. This challenge system existed in the first game, but the introduction of customizable talismans suggests canny item management could trump raw gaming skills. Inside the mining areas, you’ll also be able to find gems and upgrades, as well trinkets from players who died in that area. Which is a bit morbid. And if mining sounds a bit like glorified grinding for new powers and cash, Toyama insisted that it will not be necessary for finishing the game, but more like an extension for those who want to play more.
Gravity Rush 2 launches in the US and UK on December 2nd, and November 30th in the rest of Europe.
Elwing adds electric power to a standard-size skateboard
One of the biggest factors holding electric skateboard fans back from picking up a new ride is price, with most decent boards selling for north of $1,000. The high cost of electric motors is still a hurdle, especially for skaters who don’t want to compromise on quality, but Elwing’s new board is more affordable than most. It’s slated to hit the market at $750, but with the help of its newly launched Indiegogo campaign, you could pick one up for $500 or less, if you strike during the early-bird window. There are a few tradeoffs for this price, but some of them may even be to your liking. I recently had a chance to test out Elwing’s prototype for a few days and, setting aside issues the company plans to address before final production, the money saved could be worth it — depending on your needs, of course.
If you ride longboards you’ve been lucky, as most electric models usually run around 38 inches long, which definitely helps with stability and comfortable cruising. However, if you’re more familiar with a standard street or ramp deck, Elwing’s option might sway you simply because of its 31-inch length, concave design and kicked-up nose and tail. Not only does this make the board lighter and more portable — it’s a tolerable 9.9 pounds — but it also gives you more leeway for tight turns and you can pop it up off the ground as you’re riding. (Or in technical terms: You can ollie.)
To power this board, the company chose a lithium-ion battery and 500W hub-based design, which puts the brushless motor inside one of the rear wheels. This helps cut down on costs a bit and, depending on how you ride, you might not need much more. While I’ve often found hub motors to be slower out of the gate (and braking) than a drivetrain design, for some the slower acceleration can help avoid over-throttling mishaps, letting you ease into the desired speed without falling off. (Pro tip: Always lean in when throttling.)
The controller is a 2.4GHz RF hand-held unit rather than Bluetooth. Like the skateboard itself, the version I tested was a prototype. The new design should include battery indicators for the board and controller, plus a wider throttle slider for easier acceleration and braking control. The company did choose to go with dual AAA batteries instead of a USB chargeable unit, but they last longer and you won’t have to recharge every day. If you simply pick up a few swappable rechargeable batteries, this could be a nonissue.
Once you get the Elwing going, it moves pretty quickly and its rated max speed of 18 miles per hour seems accurate. I managed to get up to 27.3 MPH on a downhill (according to Strava, at least), but my average cruising speed was generally about 11 MPH around the city. The single motor was definitely up to the challenge of handling speed and range. It also matches specs from competing boards, like the upcoming Unlimited EON Solo (although that’s priced around $930 for a complete setup).
There’s regenerative braking here too, which is helpful when you’re riding a device that can move at these speeds. While the version I tested didn’t have reverse, I’m told that’s also in the works for either the first production model or a subsequent update.
Elwing’s lithium-ion battery is supposed to provide a range of up to seven miles. After 40 minutes of riding, I managed 6.8. That’s with fast mode selected on the controller, plenty of top-speed throttling and several hills that went beyond the listed 10-degree rating. The battery doesn’t include any built-in LED headlights running off it, but there’s a USB port, so you could potentially rig something yourself.
Overall, the Elwing board was fun to ride, though the acceleration and braking could use some work. Indeed the company is aiming to improve both before the final release. If you’re looking for a top-of-the-line electric cruiser and have the budget, the $1,500 (and up) Boosted Dual+ may still be the way to go. However, if money’s an issue and you’re looking for a normal-sized deck rather than a longboard, the Elwing is more than capable. The drivetrain design for the Boosted Boards provides far more torque, getting you up to speed quicker, but there’s a downside to that too: They’re a bit sluggish to push like a normal skateboard if you run out of juice. Elwing’s hub motor offers less friction, and the board is much easier to push around when the battery runs out of power.
On that note, you’ll get a fast charger with Indiegogo orders, and it should also be available as an optional accessory for around $100. These chargers will expedite power-ups during a coffee-shop stop, going from zero to full in about 45 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half.
I had my doubts about whether this board would be powerful enough to validate the savings versus more expensive models, but I was pleasantly surprised. As long as the company makes good on the promise of a few software tweaks to smooth out acceleration and braking, this is a great, standard-size board to ride for the money — especially if you can get in on one of the early-bird deals.
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SwiftKey for Android is now powered by a neural network
From today, the popular keyboard app SwiftKey will be powered by a neural network. The latest version of the app combines the features of its Neural Alpha, released last October, and its regular app in order to serve better predictions. It’s the first major change to the main Swiftkey app since Microsoft acquired the London-based company earlier this year.
Understanding why the new SwiftKey is going to be better than what came before it requires a little effort, but the real-world benefits are definitely tangible. See, the regular SwiftKey app has, since its inception, used a probability-based language algorithm based on the “n-gram” model for predictions. At its core, the system read the last two words you’ve written, checked them against a large database, and picked three words it thought might come next, in order of probability.
That two-word constraint is a serious problem for predicting what a user is trying to say. If I were to ask you to guess the word that comes after the fragment “It might take a,” the first suggestion you come up with is unlikely to be “look.” But with a two-word prediction engine, it’s only looking at “take a,” and “look” is the first suggestion. There had to be a better solution. Simply upping the number of words it looks at is impractical — the database grows exponentially with every word you add — so SwiftKey’s initial solution was to boost its n-gram engine with less fallible, personalized data. If you regularly use phrases, SwiftKey uses that data to improve predictions. And you could also link social media and gmail accounts for better predictions.
The Neural Alpha launched last year did away with all those additional layers, and instead relied solely on a neural network for predictions. A neural network is a loose term that defines an algorithmic system, modelled on the way the brain processes information, that can learn from datasets. To train its network, SwiftKey used millions of complete sentences and applied “tags” to each word. These tagged terms helped the network to understand what the sentences “meant,” or more accurately, how they were structured. This tagged database essentially a broad pool of interconnected synonyms, but rather than linking words by meaning, like a thesaurus, SwiftKey’s database links them by their linguistic use.
The SwiftKey that users will be updating to today is fully trained. It’s trained to use its database of tags to examine entire sentences, stringing together words as though they were code to find more accurate suggestions. The sequence of tags that makes up “It might take a” will throw up more suggestions than can possibly be displayed on-screen, but the neural network puts a probability on each, and displays the three most likely.
Neural Alpha’s prediction system was obviously, at its core, far superior to the n-gram method. So why has it taken 11 months for SwiftKey’s users to feel the benefit? Aside from the usual stability and quality assurance side of things, there were some major hurdles to overcome. First, last year’s release was powered by a phone’s GPU, which drastically limited the number of devices that can run it. Second, while Neural Alpha outperforms n-gram, it didn’t always outperform SwiftKey’s personalized predictions engine.
Over the past year, engineers have been working on both those issues. It very quickly became apparent that using GPUs to power the network was not a viable long-term option. Yes, GPUs are better suited to running the math, but there are literally thousands of different Android phones out there, all with slightly different configurations. Executing code on the many different Android GPUs around just isn’t practical, and there was no way to use cloud computing for something that needs to always be working.
What nearly every Android phone does have is an ARM or ARM-compatible processor inside. With that base level of compatibility to work from, SwiftKey reworked its engine to run entirely off the CPU. Naturally, that brings up a worry of speed being affected — the last thing you want is a laggy keyboard. But speaking with Engadget, SwiftKey project manager Ben Leavett said “across all the devices we currently support, people will be able to use this tech, and there will not be a discernible difference in speed.”
As for personalized predictions, the solution they went with seems so obvious: run both the customizable n-gram engine and the neural network simultaneously, and have them compete against each other for your keyboard’s affection. Leavett compared the competition as the two engines trying to see “which can shout the loudest.” The more technical explanation is that both models attach a probability of their predictions being correct, and the app displays the top three.
Part of the challenge of combining these engines was that SwiftKey had to balance the “volume” of these “shouted” predictions. The n-gram system’s opinion of its guessing abilities was far higher than it should’ve been when compared to the neural network’s. In the final app, for the majority of predictions at least, the neural network will now win out. But when you’re typing a phrase you use often, the n-gram system will jump in and “shout louder,” and its suggestion will be the first you see.
Running local neural networks is only just becoming viable on smartphones. Apps like Google Translate can process translations using machine learning, and in recent months Prisma has added offline processing to its iOS app. But neither of these apps are used with the same frequency as you use your keyboard. And SwiftKey’s Android install base is in the “hundreds of millions” range. Overnight, the app’s neural network will become one of the most utilized in the world, and almost certainly the most used on mobile. And very few people will know.
SwiftKey decided not to make a big deal about the switch from n-gram to neural network. The team had considered some sort of notification on installing the update, but quickly realised the tough truth: the majority of users couldn’t care less what’s happening behind the pixels on their phone display. Informing users of the change in an disruptive way was more likely to draw ire and confusion than a celebratory applause for the engineering team. “If it makes the experience better, they’re fine with it,” Leavett explained. Hopefully, it will.
Pandora relaunches its mid-level $5 monthly subscription tier
After nabbing the remnants of Rdio out of bankruptcy last year, rumors have swirled for months about Pandora Radio’s upcoming streaming subscription services. Last month, it seemed that all standing in the way was getting the appropriate licensing — which they got on Tuesday from over 30 major and independent labels . Today, they’re relaunching their mid-level $5-per-month subscription radio service as Pandora Plus with a few new features. Unfortunately, this won’t be their much-anticipated $10 monthly on-demand music streaming service, which will supposedly come later this year.
Instead, Pandora Plus aims to ride a middleground, streaming automated radio playlists at a discount but offering a few new features than its previous version to make that less of a compromise. First, a predictive offline mode will automatically switch over to a user’s top station when their device loses signal, keeping the music flowing. The second lets users to replenish their limited supply of replays and skips by voluntarily watching video ads.
Pandora Plus goes live today on desktop and will roll out to iOS and Android in the coming months, while it won’t expand to Australia and New Zealand until 2017. It’s still unclear when they’ll launch their full on-demand streaming option to compete with Spotify and the other music services.
Source: Pandora
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