The Wirecutter’s best deals: $30 off the Amazon Tap
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot—some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Athlon Optics Midas ED Binoculars
Street price: $290; MSRP: $290; deal price: $250
The first time we’ve seen a drop on these binoculars since we started tracking them, and it’s a worthwhile one. At $250, they’re a full $40 below the street price.
The Athlon Optics Midas ED are our pick for the best binoculars. Daniel S. Cooper said, “Amazingly affordable with great optics, these binoculars have comparable performance to many models that cost thousands more.”
He went on to say, “The Athlon Midas ED pair’s optics aren’t its only strong suit: These are exceptionally durable binoculars that easily withstood the humid, dusty, and hostile environment of the Mexican rain forest and harsh sun of the Californian desert. And their focus dial adjusts reliably and smoothly across a wide range of depths, making it easy to focus on what you’re trying to see, no matter where it is.”
Anker PowerLine 3-ft Lightning Cable (3-Pack)
Street price: $25; MSRP: $40; deal price: $20
If you like having spare Lightning cables on hand, Anker’s currently offering a deal on a 3-pack of their PowerLine 3-ft Lightning cables. It’s $5 below their street price and only slightly over the usual cost of buying two Lightning cables individually.
The Anker PowerLine Lightning cable is our pick for the best Lightning cable. Nick Guy wrote, “Anker’s PowerLine cables charge iPads, iPhones, iPods—and the plethora of Lightning-based accessories Apple introduced over the past year—at their maximum speed (though the 12.9-inch iPad Pro can charge even faster with a special cable and charger). They also fulfill our readers’ number-one request: sturdiness. Anker builds its PowerLine cables with Kevlar fiber and PVC strain-relief collars that should prevent fraying during normal use. Plus they’re affordable: The 3-foot cable is half the price of Apple’s 1-meter (3.5-foot) Lightning to USB Cable. Add to this Anker’s reputation for stellar hardware, its fantastic customer service, and an awesome 18-month warranty, and it’s clear why this cable is our pick.”
Amazon Tap
Street price: $130; MSRP: $130; deal price: $100
This is the second time we’ve seen the Tap down to $100, matching a previous sale from the start of August. A couple days after that last sale started, Bed Bath and Beyond beat it with an $80 sale for a few days, but since that’s the only time we’ve seen a great BB&B sale on any our picks, we don’t think we’ll see that price again soon.
The Amazon Tap is a more portable pick in our Alexa guide. Grant Clauser wrote, “The Tap’s built-in battery lets you take Alexa voice control to the backyard or other places outside the home, though worse audio performance and the lack of an always-on microphone is limiting.”
For more about the always-on microphone, “The Tap doesn’t sport the always-on microphone for receiving voice commands that the Echo and Dot have. Instead, there’s a microphone button you need to press, similar to pressing the home button on an iPhone to call Siri to attention (if you don’t have “Hey Siri” enabled on your iPhone). This little inconvenience is meant to make the Tap’s battery last longer. It also makes it unsuitable as your main Alexa interface. You can’t shout commands across the yard, because the Tap isn’t listening.”
Refurbished Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 Lens
Street price: $350 (new); MSRP: $400 (new); deal price: $220
We’ve featured a deal on this refurbished lens before, but this comes in at $20 below the previous sale. At this new low, it’s even more affordable and even more of a reason to pick it up if you’re looking for a more capable prime lens. As always, Canon’s refurbished lenses come with a 1-year manufacturer warranty.
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 STM is the higher quality version of our prime lens pick in our Canon lenses guide. Tim Barribeau wrote, “If you’re willing to spend a bit more, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 is higher quality—and capable of gathering even more light—but nearly three times the price. Of the company’s two 50 mm offerings, the f/1.4 version is undoubtedly a better lens, but if you’re just starting out and you aren’t sure what you want out of a lens, the f/1.8 version is supremely affordable and worth getting as you feel your way around.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.
FCC boss shares a fresh compromise on set-top box rules
The FCC and cable companies have been butting heads for nearly a year over how to regulate set-top boxes, and today FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler outlined his latest plan in an LA Times op-ed. The new plan to “Unlock the Box” is a compromise that embraces some earlier suggestions from the cable industry. Notably, Wheeler’s proposal calls for pay-TV providers to create free apps that consumers can download on the device of their choice, such as Roku, Apple TV, Xbox One, PS4, smart TVs, or Windows, iOS and Android devices. Or, consumers can keep their set-top boxes.
The cable industry floated this idea in June. However, that was months after Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai recommended that the FCC try to eliminate set-top boxes altogether, in favor of apps.
Wheeler’s latest proposal includes another feature that the cable companies agreed to in June — universal search. When customers search for programming on any device with a cable app, pay-TV options have to appear alongside other sources, such as Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime. This not only gives consumers more options, but it could support programming diversity, Wheeler argues.
“Integrated search also means expanded access to programming created by independent and diverse voices on the same platform as your pay-TV providers,” he writes. “Consumers will more easily find content even if it’s not on the pay-TV service to which they subscribe.”
Pay-TV providers like Comcast, Time Warner and DirecTV will still control their own programming and advertising, and they’ll be responsible for the quality of the apps themselves.
The FCC will vote on this proposal on September 29th. If adopted, large cable companies (which serve 95 percent of pay-TV customers), will have two years to comply. Medium-size providers will have an additional two years to get up to snuff.
Source: LA Times
Two years later, Apple has figured out what the Watch is good for
It’s been exactly two years since Apple took the wraps off the Apple Watch, the first entirely new product for the company under the direction of CEO Tim Cook. But unlike Steve Jobs’ legendary introduction of the first iPhone, which focused on three main feature categories, the Watch was all over the place. It’s a precise timepiece, with high-end fashion bonafides! It can track your activity and workouts! It has apps, notifications and glances! You can send your friends your heartbeat or ridiculous emoji or inappropriate sketches! But you need your iPhone to do basically all of this!
It was a dizzying introduction. When the Watch launched in April of 2015, most reviewers agreed that there were a lot of interesting features, but it didn’t all come together in a coherent fashion. And the slapdash combo of features didn’t quite justify the product’s relatively high price. But now, with the introduction of the Watch Series 2, Apple has made it clear: if you’re not interested in health tracking, don’t buy an Apple Watch.
Essentially all of the features that separate the Series 2 Watch from the original model are focused on making it a better health- and fitness-tracking device. Onboard GPS makes it far more useful for running or hiking, especially without your phone. True water resistance means swimmers can use the Watch to track their performance, and it can even differentiate between activities in a pool or out in open water. A significantly brighter display means it’s easier to read when working out under the sun. A host of software updates will make it a better tracker than it was before — and there’s a Nike-branded model for those who want to access the shoe-maker’s custom workout software and “run club.”
The only new feature that isn’t specifically geared towards improved fitness tracking is the faster processor, but that’s a no-brainer after 18 months on the market and something all buyers will benefit from. The brighter display is great for all buyers as well, but the original Watch screen wasn’t exactly lacking. It was sometimes tough to read outside in direct sunlight, but the display is pretty far down my list of complaints with the first-generation Watch.
Apple’s website and branding reflects this shift in focus: the Series 2 page has four sections detailing the new Watch’s features, and three of them are entirely focused on health and fitness. The Watch’s many other features like notifications, apps and watch faces are all grouped together. And Apple barely even mentions the fairly ridiculous specialized communication options it touted so heavily when the device was announced. Apple hasn’t removed any features, but it has totally changed the marketing and conversation around what the Watch does.
It says a lot that that there’s no more “Apple Watch Sport” collection — it’s just Apple Watch, Series 1 or 2. The more expensive stainless steel cases still exist, but they live alongside the cheaper aluminum models that have sold much better. And Apple all but exited the luxury market it aspired to when the Watch was introduced. The insanely expensive solid-gold “Edition” models have disappeared without a trace. You can still easily price a watch up to over $1,000, Apple’s partnership with French fashion designer Hermes is ongoing, and there’s that fancy new ceramic model that’ll set you back a cool $1,250. But that’s still a far cry from the $10,000 starting point for a solid gold Watch.
Instead, Apple is making the Watch more affordable than ever. The Series 1 is cheaper than before ($269 and $299 for the 38mm and 42mm models, respectively), and Apple upgraded its processor to match that in the Series 2. If you’re not a swimmer and don’t need rigorous, GPS-assisted fitness tracking, the earlier model is a perfectly viable option for many potential buyers — that upgraded processor means it should last as long as the brand new model.
The question now is whether targeting fitness and health will be enough for the Apple Watch to be a significant part of the company’s business. A lot of fitness tracker companies have struggled to find a foothold in the market, and there’s a common perception that they end up in a drawer, forgotten after a few months.
We still haven’t heard concrete Apple Watch sales numbers — but the company says it is already the number two watch retailer in the world (by revenue). The Watch may not become Apple’s next world-beating product, but this more focused strategy will likely help it expand the market of potential buyers. And Apple’s recent keynotes have made it clear that health is a company-wide priority for the company, which makes the Watch a key part of the company’s strategy going forward. At the very least, Apple has firmly decided why the Watch exists. It just took a couple of years to get there.
Microsoft could be unveiling its Surface All-in-One in October
Microsoft may very well be introducing its Surface All-in-One device this October during a special fall hardware launch, according to ZDNet.
The device, reportedly codenamed “Cardinal,” is supposedly a product that can “turn your desk into a studio,” reports ZDNet, which is very likely the previously-rumored All-in-One system, which could be coming in various screen sizes vaand offering the Perceptive Pixel screen tech utilized by Surface Hub.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has kept mum on the specifics, despite the fact that reporters have reached out to inquire about the possibility that the upcoming Surface Cardinal exists or that there’s going to be an event this October.
ZDNet’s report notes that existing Surface models may well feature faster processors and other minor updates as well, but larger product reveals probably won’t make an appearance until spring 2017.
If Microsoft is looking to make a hardware push during the fall, it could also coincide with updates about the gaming side of its regime, but right now details are up in the air. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see what’s going to happen as far as this supposed Cardinal product is concerned.
Via: ZDNet
A $40 dongle lets you use wired headphones and charge your iPhone 7
After Apple got rid of the headphone jack on its new iPhones yesterday you were probably thinking: How am I supposed to charge my phone and use wired headphones? Fear not dear reader, accessory maker Belkin has a solution. With its $40 Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar adapter (actual product name), the company provides a way for you to replenish that iPhone 7 or 7 Plus battery while still keeping the music going.
What’s more, Belkin’s new dongle supports 48 kHz 24-bit audio output and if you’re still planning to use 3.5mm headphones, it works with the Lightning adapter that comes with the new iPhones. Remote control and voice cues from Apple’s headphones are also still in play. If you need to pick one up so that you can listen while you recharge, you’ll be able to do so October 10th. Now when you head out of the house you’ll need to remember this dongle, the adapter, your headphones and a charging cable. Or you could just go with one of many wireless options if you desire less clutter.
Via: The Verge
Source: Belkin
Facebook’s ‘Star Trek’ reactions show it doesn’t know jack about Spock
Today is Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, marking half a century since the show first aired on September 8th 1966. Here at Engadget, we’re celebrating with an ancient Trekkie tradition: Nitpicking. Today, Facebook announced that it’s temporarily replacing its “Like” buttons with a set of Trek-inspired reactions — a laughing Captain Kirk, a sad, crying Geordi Laforge and an adorably angry Klingon. They’re all perfect …except for Spock. Facebook chose Star Trek’s most emotionless character to represent its most emotive reaction: “Wow.”
To be fair, it’s hard to imagine a Facebook reaction that appropriately fits our favorite Vulcan. Mr. Spock’s trademark placidity would have been equally ill-suited to anger, joy or sadness — and it’s pretty hard to celebrate Star Trek without Spock. With that requisite nerdery out of the way, however, there’s lots to love about Facebook’s Star Trek tribute. In addition to the new reaction buttons, Facebook users will be able to set a temporary profile image with a number of Trek-themed frames.
Even that’s not the best part of the company’s tribute, however — that distinction goes to gorgeous papercraft Enterprise the social network constructed to use in the profile frame invitation. Facebook’s Lindsey Shepard documented the process on Medium, explaining that an internal design team built the iconic starship by hand. It looks great. Now if only there was an characteristically appropriate Spock emoji we could use to express how impressive it is. Maybe something with a cautiously raised eyebrow? No? Oh well.
Via: Verge
Source: Medium
Playboy’s legal victory could change your freedom to link
A European legal battle may have just set precedent for when you can and cannot link to material without permission. Playboy’s Dutch publisher Sanoma sued commercial media site GeenStijl to take down links to their photos of a TV celebrity, claiming it earned them unfair profits. Back in April, the EU court of justice’s Advocate General opined that the decision would likely favor the defendant’s press freedom. He was wrong. The top EU court just decided in favor of Playboy, stating that posting hyperlinks to unowned content provides tangible profits, which is grounds enough for copyright infringement.
Previous EU court decisions have acquitted news outlets for directing readers to material so long as they don’t profit from it and the material is publicly available. But the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) found GeenStijl at fault for posting hyperlinks to material posted without permission from the content creator. While the site pulled down its first links to a file-sharing URL where users could download the photos, they later posted directions to the same content on other public sources. No matter, the court said in a statement: Once they decided Geenstijl would profit from it, any published links to material still constitutes a “communication to the public” that requires clearance from a copyright holder.
As Fortune points out, this is a victory for content copyright holders wishing to annihilate links to pirated versions of their material. But for newsgatherers, this is a worrisome precedent. Linking to material for context is part of journalistic practice, and putting the onus on publications to ensure referenced items have been uploaded legally opens them up to semantic interpretations of permission and profit. Plus, it could inhibit reporting on sensitive goods leaked in the public interest. The court case argued over copyrighted vanity photos of a celebrity, not government-shaming documents, but the legal basis for taking down links to material now stands.
Source: Reuters
Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro reveal was a confident step forward
It’s been a good year so far for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Yesterday’s PlayStation Meeting continued the momentum from E3 and showed us the next step in its plan for home console domination: the PlayStation 4 Pro. The company’s strategy was simple: show, rather than tell. The big news, if you own a fancy UHD display, is that Pro will play nicely with all those extra pixels and show off your screen’s HDR capabilities.
Unlike with the Xbox One S, Sony also spelled out the benefits of buying a Pro, even if you don’t own a 4K TV. The new, beefier machine will make existing games look and perform better on the 1080p TV that’s sitting in your living room right now, and it can also give PlayStation VR games a facelift, too. All for $399 this November 10th. Sony’s always had the edge on Microsoft with this generation, but a strong finish to 2016 feels like the gap could be widening.
Over at Microsoft HQ, the company is banking on you either buying an Xbox One S right now or waiting for its high-powered console, code-named Project Scorpio, next fall based on little more than blind faith. Faith that its scant offering of (sight unseen) HDR games will drive you to buy a One S. Faith that Microsoft still knows enough about high-spec hardware, faith that it can get developers to support the Project Scorpio and faith that your investment in its experiment won’t go to waste. That was the pitch during its E3 keynote earlier this summer, at least — all without a price, release date or Scorpio hardware to actually show off.
Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man looks particularly awesome on the PS4 Pro hardware.
In terms of HDR gaming on Xbox, Forza Horizon 3 will launch September 27th and there hasn’t been a single demonstration of what impact the increased color gamut will have. Gears of War 4 comes out in October and barring a handful of theater presentations on the industry-only E3 show floor, it’s been kept away from the public gaze. You can’t even download HDR-enabled trailers for either from the Xbox Marketplace to get an idea of what the console’s biggest game-related feature will look like. Microsoft will have the bragging rights of being first with HDR, sure, but at some point you need to reveal your longer-term hand.
And that’s precisely what the competition did. Sony delighted in showing off exactly what benefits HDR has for its gaming system. Even watching the event stream at home, the benefits were pretty obvious: games that are typically very dark (like Infamous: First Light) showed extremely bright pops of color and much more detail. In person, it’ll look dramatically better.
Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us look stellar in HDR. Higher-res is cool too, but man… those sunsets in HDR… 😎 #PS4Pro
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) September 7, 2016
Demos for Days Gone, Infamous: First Light and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided all graced the stage of the PlayStation Theater. There were also announcements that this year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered will support HDR as well, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and The Last of Us: Remastered will be upgraded to HDR via a patch. An internal source at Epic Games told Engadget that Paragon will also receive a patch that adds the feature, too. All this to say, there’s going to be something running in HDR for pretty much any gaming taste. And Sony’s not been shy about showing it off.
Microsoft’s other promise is that Project Scorpio’s raw horsepower is going to be enough to win you over next year, with no evidence of what it can do or how much it will cost. “We know it’s important to deliver an experience that demonstrates the power gap between [the PS4 Pro and Scorpio] at a price that makes sense to console gamers,” Microsoft’s Albert Pennello told Polygon. “The performance delta will be obvious.” Of course, that’s pretty easy to boast about when so little is known about Scorpio and specs are likely to change from one day to the next.
Again, Sony’s tactic was to let the games speak for themselves, rather than show off a motherboard and blather on about specs and buzzwords. Next year’s Horizon: Zero Dawn looked incredible, as did Rise of the Tomb Raider, Uncharted 4, Spider-Man, Watch Dogs 2 and pretty much everything else from the sizzle reels and live demos shown onstage. Sony was keen to explain the benefits of the Pro for folks without 4K TVs as well: more detailed imagery and overall better performance for the games you already own (or will own). People’s memories aren’t reliable, and things like the Scorpio’s 6.2 teraflops of power mean close to nothing next to the sight of a tough ginger lady riding a pin-sharp robotic brachiosaur.
Sony also extended its lead on virtual reality. On certain PS VR titles, the Pro’s hardware can double the pixel count resulting in better looks all around. Sony used clear examples to illustrate the Pro’s value proposition rather than pie in the sky platitudes. That hardware is basically ready, and the PS4 Pro will put headsets on, well, heads by the holidays. This clarity is the same basic strategy that’s put 40 million-plus PlayStation 4s in homes since 2013. Exactly what Microsoft’s VR plans are for Project Scorpio, however are still largely a mystery.
If Microsoft has one joker to play it’s the fact that Sony’s consoles don’t have a UHD Blu-ray player stuffed inside them.
There is, however, a common problem that affects both Microsoft and Sony: Each company is making a bet that, for the first time ever, we don’t need exclusive software to persuade us to buy a console. Sony has been adamant that the Pro is not replacing the standard PS4 (that’s the PS4 Slim’s job). Instead, the Pro exists for folks who want a little extra power from a machine or have a new display to connect it to. Microsoft’s company line isn’t much different. Aside from VR titles (which we still know nothing about), all Xbox One games will supposedly play on any version of the hardware, be it Scorpio, the One S or the Xbox platform on PC, yet despite similar approaches, Microsoft can’t seem to keep up with Sony’s onward march.
If Microsoft has one joker to play it’s the fact that Sony’s consoles don’t have a UHD Blu-ray player stuffed inside them. The Xbox One S does, and Project Scorpio seems certain to. The $399 1TB One S includes the next-gen physical media format because internally, the console is barely different from its predecessor in terms of power. Sony doesn’t have that advantage with the Pro. The UHD Blu-ray drive was likely a sacrifice Sony made to hit $399 while still dramatically bumping specs everywhere else.
That makes the question of which console to buy this fall a little tougher: Do you want to play games, and watch higher-resolution Blu-rays? Sony’s console offers gamers a distinct choice. Whether you’re going to upgrade your TV or not, the Pro has clear advantages over the PS4 of today. That’s something I couldn’t say when I reviewed the Xbox One S. Your move, Microsoft.
Reuters: White House to appoint first federal cyber security chief today
According to Reuters, the White House will appoint Retired Air Force Brigadier General Gregory Touhill as the nation’s first federal cyber security chief, a position tasked with dictating cybersecurity policy for the entire federal government. It’s an announcement that’s been a long time coming. After watching US networks suffer a series of embarrassing attacks last year, President Obama pledged to shore up federal cybersecruity efforts, creating a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity and announcing a Cybersecurity National Action Plan. The latter promised to create a Federal Chief Information Security Officer to help protect US systems from future threats. General Touhill, it seems, is our man.
Turns out, the retired airman is a pretty solid choice: Touhill’s resume is a laundry list of information technology and cybersecurity management positions. Not only does Touhill have a history of holding high-profile IT roles in the Air Force, but as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security, he had a hand in steering the presidential Action Plan that created his new position. He also led the response to the OPM data breach last year that leaked personal information on over 20 million federal employees.
The White House hasn’t made the official announcement just yet, but Reuter’s sources say that Touhill is scheduled to take on the new role later this month. If he does his job well, we’ll hopefully have less to report about our major political parties being compromised in the future.
Source: Reuters
A10 Fusion Chip in iPhone 7 Plus Outperforms iPad Pro’s A9X in Benchmark Tests
What appears to be a legitimate benchmark of an iPhone 7 Plus with an A10 Fusion processor has been spotted on Geekbench, and its performance scores are impressive. The A10 Fusion in the iPhone 7 Plus outperforms all existing iOS devices equipped with A9 and A9X processors, including the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE, and the 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models.
The iPhone 7 Plus received a single-core score of 3233 and a multi-core score of 5363. Comparatively, the iPhone 6s Plus averages a single-core score of 2407 and a multi-core score of 4046, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which has the highest-clocked A9X chip, has an average single-core score of 3009 and an average multi-core score of 4881.
The iPhone 7 Plus is approximately 33 percent faster than the iPhone 6s when it comes to both single and multi-core scores, and approximately 7 percent faster than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro on single-core tests and nearly 10 percent faster on multi-core tests.
Apple’s A10 chip is running at 2.23 GHz, which is potentially under-clocked because rumors suggested it would be capable of running at 2.4 to 2.45GHz. The A9X in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro runs at 2.2GHz, while the A9 in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus runs at 1.8GHz.
In marketing materials, Apple says the A10 Fusion chip is the most powerful chip ever in a smartphone, running two times faster than the iPhone 6 with graphics performance that’s up to three times faster. In Geekbench tests, the iPhone 7 Plus did indeed double the performance of the iPhone 6 Plus on both multi and single-core tests.
The A10 Fusion built into the iPhone 7 is a four-core processor with two high-power cores for handling system intensive tasks and two high-efficiency cores that kick in for less intensive processes to save battery life. Apple says that the iPhone 7 should offer approximately two hours more battery life than the iPhone 6s on average and the iPhone 7 Plus should offer approximately one hour of additional battery life compared to the iPhone 6s Plus.
Related Roundups: iPad Pro, iPhone 7
Tags: Geekbench, benchmarks, A10 Fusion
Buyer’s Guide: 12.9″ iPad Pro (Neutral)
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