3D print your own ‘Skylanders’ hero with the Creator app
With Disney Infinity on its way out, it’s down to Skylanders and Lego Dimensions to maintain the toys-to-life dream. Skylanders is the oldest of the two and this year, its new gimmick is the ability to create custom “Imaginator” heroes. Which sounds great, except there’s an obvious problem — the point of the franchise is to collect physical figurines too. How is that possible with player-created characters? Well, today Activision Blizzard has the answer: Creators, a mobile app which lets you order 3D-printed versions. They’ll be available in “limited quantities,” however, so you’ll need act fast if you want to immortalise your handiwork.
Each figure will cost $49.99 and come with both a base and a clear, protective dome. It’s fully compatible with the Imaginators game, meaning you can place it on the podium to summon your character digitally. If 50 bucks sounds like a bit much, you can always order a “high-quality, custom made” trading card instead. These will cost $14.99 and, like the figures, can be placed on a “Portal of Power” to unlock the character mid-game. Lastly, there’s the option of having your Imaginator on a t-shirt for $24.99.
Skylanders Imaginators is set to come out on October 16th. The new Creators app is out now, however, and includes the same customisation tools found in the console game. So if you want a head start prepping your own zany hero, you can grab your smartphone or tablet and get cracking right away. Over time, you’ll also gain access to “Sensei Chests” and “Timed Imaginite Chests,” which give you new limbs, heads and pieces of clothing to tinker with. Personally, I would rather play as cameo characters Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex — but maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
Source: Skylanders Creator
Matterport makes over 250,000 of its digital tours VR ready
Thanks to companies like Oculus, HTC and Google, 360-degree experiences are becoming a lot more mainstream. Having been on the 3D bandwagon for a number of years, Matterport is now taking the time to open up its vast collection of tours to all. To coincide with the launch of CoreVR, a platform that makes it easy to turn its Street View-like shots into virtual reality experiences, Matterport has made its new technology available in 250,000 Spaces, potentially letting you tour a Star Trek movie set, traditional Maori village or the first ever Boeing 737 with only your smartphone and a VR headset.
Matterport says that at launch, its VR app will come with gallery of “150 real world places” and will be supported by Google Cardboard and Samsung’s Gear VR. The remaining 250,000 spaces can be accessed via its 3D Showcase app, with more being converted to VR over time as publishers enable the option on their existing tours.
In a bid to further expand its digital catalog, the company is letting companies add their own VR experiences for free for the rest of the year, letting you take tours of places that haven’t yet or won’t make it into Google’s Street View collection.
Source: Gear VR, Play Store
Facebook opens Marketplace to take on eBay and Craigslist
If you visit Facebook today, the chances are that you’ll come across someone trying to sell something. It could be a friend looking to make some money from an old smartphone or a thousand-strong parenting group looking to trade items for their little ones. Facebook has slowly introduced features to make it easier for people to list their items, but today the company has launched Marketplace, a new way for users to “discover, buy and sell items” with other people in their area.
In the coming days, users in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand who are over 18-years-old will see a new shop icon in the bottom menu of the Facebook app. This will load a selection of photos of items that people in your general location are looking to sell. It also includes a search function, if you’re looking for something, specific and results can be filtered by location, category or price. If something catches your eye, Facebook will list the name and details of that product, a profile photo of the person selling it and a loose overview of where they live.
Although Facebook already lets Messenger users send payments, the company categorically states that it is not performing the role of a retailer or auction site: “You and the seller can work out the details in any way you choose. Facebook does not facilitate the payment or delivery of items in Marketplace.” That also means it won’t charge users for listings, giving it a distinct advantage over eBay and other app-based buy and sell apps.
With Facebook now counting over 1.5 billion users, sites like eBay and Craigslist will be watching Marketplace with keen interest. Sure, it’s currently only available in four countries, but with little to no oversight over sales and payments, the company is free to take it to new markets at will. Facebook says it will “continue expanding [Marketplace] to additional countries” via its iOS and Android apps, and will make the service available on the desktop “in the coming months.”
Source: Facebook Newsroom
Toyota’s Prius Prime plug-in hybrid starts at $27,100
Toyota’s latest take on a plug-in hybrid, the 2017 Prius Prime, may be more of a bargain than its name would suggest. The automaker has revealed that US pricing for the Prime will start at $27,100. That’s more than the regular Prius (which begins at $24,685), but it also qualifies for up to $4,500 in federal tax credit — play your cards right and you could pay less for a vehicle that could also cost you less to run. And did we mention that Toyota has boosted the mileage estimates? You now get 25 miles of pure electric driving instead of the originally promised 22, and the equivalent fuel economy has gone up from 120MPGe to 124.
Of course, there are incentives to splurge on higher-end models. The $28,800 Premium trim comes with the Prime’s signature 11.6-inch touchscreen (you get “just” a 7-inch screen on the base Plus), Qi-based wireless charging for compatible phones, remote illuminated entry and upgraded seats. Go all-out with the $33,100 Advanced and you get perks like a heads-up display, remote control mobile apps, a heated steering wheel, blind spot warnings and rear cross traffic alerts. All Prius Prime models come with a handful of smart safety features like pre-collision, lane departure and fatigue warnings.
Our Autoblog colleagues have already driven the Prius Prime, and they generally like what they see. The Prime is much improved over the earlier Prius plug-in hybrid, with more range (both electric and on gas), safety upgrades and all that added in-cabin tech. With that said, it’s not perfect: the gas motor is “whiny” when it kicks in, and the touchscreen isn’t as responsive as on the far more expensive Tesla Model S. And while it’s likely the best-looking Prius to date, that’s not saying a whole lot — “dowdy” is an apt description. Still, this might be your ideal commuter car if the Chevy Volt’s longer all-electric range isn’t worth the price premium to you.
Source: Autoblog (1), (2)
Which? Magazine Claims iPhone 7 Has ‘Poor Battery Life’ Compared to Rival Smartphones
U.K. Consumers’ Association magazine Which? has concluded that the iPhone 7 offers the worst battery life when compared against the current crop of rival flagship smartphones.
Using a series of tests designed to account for everyday usage variables, the subscriber-only magazine compared Apple’s 4.7-inch phone against the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10, and LG 5, and called the results “staggering”.
Whilst the iPhone 7’s 712 minutes of call time (nearly 12 hours) may sound acceptable, the rival Samsung Galaxy S7 lasted twice as long – and it doesn’t even have the longest lasting battery. The HTC 10 lasted an incredible 1,859 minutes (that’s almost 31 hours).
Internet browsing time measurements were less contrasting, nevertheless the iPhone 7 still came last.
The 615 minutes of battery life offered by the iPhone 7 is 25 minutes less than its nearest rival, the LG G5, and 175 minutes less than the top performing HTC 10. In fact, the HTC 10’s 3G internet browsing time was even longer than the iPhone 7’s 3G call time. It doesn’t make for pretty reading for Apple.
The new iPhone’s poor results in the battery test shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the physical limitations of a 4.7-inch handset’s battery cell compared to its physically larger rivals (5.1-5.3 inches). Measured in milliampere hours, the iPhone 7 has a 1,960mAh battery, compared to the HTC 10’s 3,000mAh cell, for instance, yet Which? describes this as a ‘fault’ of the phone.
The larger iPhone 7 Plus, on the other hand, features a 2,900 mAh battery, but wasn’t mentioned in the test, perhaps because it was perceived as belonging in the 5.5-inch handset bracket populated by devices like the Galaxy S7 Edge (3600mAh) and the HTC 10 Desire (2700 mAh).
The test doesn’t mention that Apple’s own product specifications show that the iPhone 7 has a higher-capacity battery than the iPhone 6s (1,810mAh), and seems to continue a recent negative trend where media reports have criticized Apple’s new flagship phone on the basis of its battery life. For example, last month, The Guardian ran an iPhone 7 story titled “How good can a phone be if the battery doesn’t last even a day?” and claimed that its holding charge was worse than the iPhone 6s.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Facebook Replacing Messenger Tab With E-Commerce ‘Marketplace’ in iOS App
Facebook is launching a new user-to-user e-commerce service called “Marketplace” this week in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand (via The Verge). The new buying and selling service will replace the Messenger tab in the main Facebook mobile app for iOS and Android.
According to Facebook Marketplace project manager Bowen Pan, almost 450 million people use the social network’s various other services, like group messaging, to buy and sell items already, so “with Marketplace, Facebook is now giving users a more formal process to conduct these exchanges.”
When users tap on the new Marketplace icon, Facebook will use an algorithm to present each user with items it believes they will be interested in. This data is accumulated based on previously liked pages, and will even factor in a user’s viewing, purchasing, and selling history on Marketplace after they’ve used the service for a while.
When an item is discovered, users can send the seller a message, or place an offer on it to see if the seller accepts. When users want to unload something of their own, the process will include taking a photo of the item, naming and describing it, setting a sell price, and confirming a current location. The company said search queries can be set to nearby (for person-to-person exchanges), or wider to other cities with the option to ship the item.
“We saw a lot of people were really just looking at coming to Marketplace without necessarily anything in particular they were looking for,” Pan says. “They were just on Marketplace to casually browse through. This really mirrors an offline experience where you can go to a Sunday market or maybe the mall. You don’t know exactly what you want but you want to browse.” In that sense, Marketplace feels like a hybrid between eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon.
The company said it “does not plan” to charge users fees for using Marketplace when selling items, and Pan said that a desktop version is coming but the company’s focus is getting the service right on mobile as of now. On the safety and privacy side of things, Marketplace will continue Facebook’s rules against selling drugs, explosives, animals, firearms, and alcohol, but in terms of specific financial security, “Facebook does not have the same kinds of protections or guarantees as, say, eBay,” according to The Verge.
“We have built the tools to allow our community to report on any items that may violate our policies,” Pan says. “It has well as a whole host of flags that people that can put out for people that may not be acting in the best faith. Once we see a flag, we have a team that will promptly review these and take action.” Still, Facebook won’t take responsibility if you get ripped off, and it certainly will not get involved if someone decides to assault you and steal your item at the designated meeting place.
The company thinks that because users will be conducting these transactions under their real identities, it will prevent potential scams that other services might face because of their anonymity. “People on Facebook represent their real selves,” Pan said. “We think knowing who you’re transacting with is very important.” Facebook said the Marketplace tab will start showing up on the mobile app “over the next few days.”
Tag: Facebook
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Apple to Launch Trio of iPad Pros in Spring 2017, Including 7.9-Inch Mini Model
Apple will ship three new iPad Pro models around Spring 2017, including 7.9-inch, 9.7-inch, and 10.1-inch models, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara.
The report, citing “reliable sources,” said the 12.9-inch model will feature a True Tone display like its current 9.7-inch counterpart, using advanced four-channel ambient light sensors to automatically adapt the color and intensity of the display to match the light in the surrounding environment.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is also said to gain the 9.7-inch model’s same 12-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera and True Tone flash.
The smaller 7.9-inch model, which will succeed the iPad mini 4, will likewise include a Smart Connector, True Tone display, four speakers, and a 12-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera with True Tone flash, as Apple works to standardize features across its tablet lineup, according to the report.
All three new iPad Pro models will reportedly gain quad microphones, compared to the current dual setup, and retain 3.5mm headphone jacks.
Today’s report mostly corroborates KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who in August said Apple is planning to release three new iPads in 2017. However, his research note claimed the trio of models would include a 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2, 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and a low-cost 9.7-inch iPad.
Kuo made no mention of a refreshed 7.9-inch model. It has been speculated the iPad mini could be nearing the end of its line due to Apple’s focus on its larger tablet lineup, and the belief that recent 5.5-inch iPhone “Plus” models have helped lessen demand for Apple’s smallest tablet, but today’s report suggests otherwise.
Mac Otakara does not have a perfect track record with Apple rumors, but its sources have proven accurate on multiple occasions in the past. The blog was the first to report about Apple’s controversial plans to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack and add new Black and Jet Black colors on iPhone 7 models.
The website also accurately leaked the iPhone 7’s naming scheme, pressure-sensitive Home button, and larger earpiece cutout. It also said the new models would ship with a Lightning-to-3.5mm audio adapter, although 3.5mm EarPods proved wrong, and quashed rumors about the inclusion of a Smart Connector.
On the flip side, the timing proved to be wrong on its report claiming new MacBook Air models with USB-C ports would be unveiled by the end of June. The latest word is a MacBook Air refresh will occur “as early as October.”
Related Roundups: iPad mini 4 (2015), iPad Pro
Tag: macotakara.jp
Buyer’s Guide: iPad Mini (Caution), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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ZENS Launches Power Bank for Simultaneous Apple Watch and iPhone Charging
Third-party accessory manufacturer ZENS today launched the two-in-one iPhone/Apple Watch Power Bank, letting users recharge their Apple devices while on the go. The rectangular case has an integrated induction charger for the Apple Watch — which is Apple MFi Certified — and a USB-A port on one side for charging any other device connected to the bank.
The Power Bank has an included battery rated at 4,000 mAh and a 2A output, which ZENS said “guarantees fast charging of the Apple Watch and iPhone or iPad.” Its battery falls in line with another portable Apple Watch/iPhone charging pack made by Kanex, which can recharge an Apple Watch six times over on one life.
The two-in-one ZENS Power Bank is developed especially for Apple Watch and iPhone/iPad. As is the case with other ZENS products, the innovative new power bank stands out for its sleek, ultra-slim design. It offers a space-saving way to charge your Apple iPhone and/or Apple Watch at home, in the office or on the go, without the need to bring along a cumbersome charging dock while you’re underway.
The Apple MFi Certified module that is incorporated in the ZENS Power Bank eliminates the need to add your own Apple Watch Charger. While you are wirelessly charging your Apple Watch, you can use the reversible micro USB cable, that is impossible to plug in wrong, to charge your iPhone or iPad.
ZENS says the Power Bank is ideal for travel as well as home and office use, because “the all-in-one charging and battery solution requires little space on your desk or in your bag” thanks to its ultra-slim design, which is about 5 inches long and just 1.5 inches wide.
The company has released an integrated charging puck accessory before for the Apple Watch, with the small Apple Watch Power Bank that focused on portability and had a 1,300 mAh battery. That cheaper option, which runs for $56, didn’t offer simultaneous iPhone or iPad charging with an additional USB-A port, however.
Those interested can purchase the ZENS iPhone/Apple Watch Power Bank from the company’s website for €69.99 or about $78.00, and it will ship to the United States and several other countries from the Netherlands.
Tag: ZENS
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Facebook rolls out Messenger Lite for emerging markets
Facebook introduced a lightweight version of its Android app earlier this year, and the social network is now doing the same for its messaging platform. Messenger Lite is designed to work on basic Android phones with limited memory and processing power, and in areas with slow internet connectivity.
Much like Facebook Lite, the goal with the barebones Messenger Lite is to get people in developing countries communicate with ease. The app comes in at 10MB, and lets people text and share photos and links over 2G connections. Users can view stickers, but there’s no option to send or download stickers. Messenger’s more advanced features, like chatbots, are missing from this version.
The app will debut in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, and will make its way to other countries at a later date. The app isn’t live yet on the Play Store, but it should be available for download in the afrementioned markets later today.
How to factory reset an Android phone
How do I factory reset my Android phone?
There are a number of reasons why you might need to factory reset your Android phone. Maybe your phone is overloaded with apps and running slow, or you’ve downloaded a recent update and it’s causing problems with your phone’s functionality. Or maybe you want to reset to the factory settings because you’re selling your phone (you should always do this when selling an old device, by the way).
Whatever the reason, here’s how to factory reset your Android phone through the phone settings or from the bootloader if your phone is not properly booting up at all. Given how many different makes and models of Android devices there are, we’ll be using the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P as our examples, though the process should be fairly similar across the board.
WARNING: Performing a factory reset will completely erase all your data off the phone. If you haven’t backed up your contacts, pictures, videos, documents and anything else (preferably in the cloud, but absolutely somewhere else), you will be sorry you didn’t do so. Consider yourself warned.
- How to factory reset your phone from the settings menu
- How to factory reset your phone with hardware buttons
How to factory reset your phone from the settings menu
The easiest way to factory reset your phone is through the settings menu. The location of the factory reset option might vary slightly based on the exact phone you’re using, but once you’ve found the “back up and reset” menu, you should be in the clear.
On a Nexus 6P
Tap the Settings icon from your home screen or app drawer.
Swipe up to scroll down to the bottom of the settings menu.
Tap Backup & reset.
Tap Factory data reset.
Tap Reset phone.
Tap Erase everything.
Your phone will reboot and you’ll have to go through the initial start up again before you’re able to restore your data from wherever you backed it up.
On a Samsung Galaxy S7
Tap the Settings icon from your home screen or app drawer
Swipe up to scroll down to the bottom of the settings menu.
Tap Backup and reset.
Swipe up to scroll down
Tap Factory data reset.
Tap Reset phone.
Tap Erase everything.
Your phone will reboot and you’ll have to go through the initial start up again before you’re able to restore your data.
How to factory reset your phone with hardware buttons
If your phone is running into some issues and you’re unable to boot it up properly, you’re going to need to go into Android recovery mode. To do so, you’ll typically need to start up your phone while holding down a Volume button and the Power button. The exact button combination will depend on the brand of phone you’re using. From there, it’s simply a matter of using the Volume buttons to scroll through the menu to find the factory reset option, then press the Power button to select.
On a Nexus 6P
If your phone is on, power it off.
Hold down the Power button and Volume down button. Instead of booting up normally, you’ll see “Start” in an arrow pointed at the power button. Here you use the Volume buttons to scroll and the Power button to select an option
Press the Volume down button until you’ve highlighted Recovery mode.
Press the Power Button to start recovery mode.
When your phone reloads, you should see a screen that says “No command” with an android robot in distress. Press and hold the power button, then press the volume up button once to load up the reboot menu.
Using the Volume buttons to scroll through the menu, highlight Wipe data/factory reset.
Press the Power button to select.
Highlight and select Yes to confirm the reset.
Once the reset is complete, you will be bounced back to the same recovery mode menu. Press the Power button to select Reboot system now.
Your phone will power on and be reset to its factory settings. The next time you turn the phone on, you will go through the initial setup process as if it were a brand new phone. Once set up, you can go about restoring your data from wherever you had it backed up.
On a Samsung Galaxy S7
If your phone is on, power it off.
Hold down the Power button, Volume up button, and Home button simultaneously. The phone will boot into recovery mode.
Use the Volume buttons to scroll through the menu.
Highlight Wipe data/factory reset.
Press the Power button to select.
Highlight and select Yes to confirm the reset.
Once the reset is complete, you will be bounced back to the same recovery mode menu. Press the Power button to select Reboot system now.
Your phone will power on and be reset to its factory settings. The next time you turn the phone on, you will go through the initial setup process as if it were a brand new phone. Once set up, you can go about restoring your data from wherever you had it backed up.
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