OnePlus gets into the schwag game, starts selling bags and t-shirts Nov 3

Never Settle for a backpack that doesn’t match your phone.

OnePlus is known for its phones and accessories, but now the company is expanding its offering of lifestyle products outside of China with the launch of “OnePlus Gear.” Though it isn’t yet bringing a full suite of gear to the rest of the world, the new portion of its online store will launch November 3 with bags and t-shirts previously only available at its pop-up shops.

The product offering on Day 1 is pretty simple: two t-shirts, a travel backpack, a travel messenger bag in two colors and a premium leather messenger bag. If you’re a OnePlus fan this is obviously a neat way to support the company — though the branding is quite subtle — while also getting a slick, stylish and functional piece of gear in return. I can’t speak for the other products, but having used the OnePlus travel backpack for a while I can say it’s quite nice.

Never Settle for a bag that doesn’t match your OnePlus 3.

OnePlus is wading into its Gear offerings slowly, kicking things off with a 24-hour sale at its online store starting at 6:00 a.m. ET on November 3. The store won’t be up for those in India (OnePlus says it’s coming soon), but elsewhere around the world you can shop while supplies last.

The products haven’t been listed on the OnePlus store just yet, so we don’t know what official U.S. and European pricing will be set at, but you can get a good feel for the product features from the Chinese OnePlus website — here’s the shoulder bag and the backpack. As far as pricing goes, a direct currency conversion from the Chinese store sets the bags at about $30 and $45, respectively — we’ll see how they’re priced for sure when the store goes live in the morning.

OnePlus 3

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OnePlus

Hands-on: Wileyfox’s Swift 2 adds metal chassis, fingerprint and upgraded CPU for £159

British startup ships its most premium phone yet, as it looks towards a future of subsidies, revenue sharing and life beyond CyanogenOS.

Wileyfox is keen to paint itself as the quintessential startup: a disruptor in a world of crusty, outdated brands. For a company that didn’t even exist two years ago, its goals are lofty. It wants to challenge Samsung, and the perception that you need to spent hundreds to get a great smartphone, while beating established mid-level players like OnePlus and Honor. Its arsenal consists of its brand, affordable yet capable hardware, and finely tuned software.

The reality isn’t so rosy. Last year’s entry-level Wileyfox Swift was pretty good, but the mid-level Storm was underwhelming. And the Spark, released over the summer, was hot garbage. Add to that the recent news that software partner Cyanogen is moving on from being an OS provider, and you’ve got a fair number of challenges.

In future, Wileyfox wants its customers to be able to upgrade for free.

Nevertheless, the company is bullish. Today at a launch event in London for its new Swift 2 handset, Wileyfox laid out a vision of where it’s headed in 2017. Not only does it want to sell good phones for less than the competition, it also wants to let customers upgrade at no cost. Wiley was light on exact details of how this will work, but plans apparently involve sharing revenue from preloaded services with consumers, while working with partners like Amazon and Google to reward consumers who use their services. At the same time, it’ll continue to hone its brand, working with charities like Center Point to give away phones to people in need.

But that’s the future. The present is the Wileyfox Swift 2, announced and made available for sale today, starting at £159 (or €189). It’s a significant step up from the original Swift, a plastic-clad beast which broke cover just over a year ago. And upgrades can be found both inside and out — there’s now an attractive metal unibody, complete with polished chamfers and an ample serving of foxy branding. The camera has undergone a significant upgrade, jumping to 16 megapixels on the higher-specced Swift 2 Plus.

The “Plus” model isn’t physically bigger — both variants pack 5-inch displays — but it does boast more storage and a better camera. The Swift 2 has a 13-megapixel rear camera, while the Plus bumps you up to 16. Meanwhile the storage and RAM configuration goes from 16GB/2GB in the Swift 2, up to 32GB/3GB in the Plus. The cost of those upgrades is a bump up to a £189 price tag (or €219).

A quicker performer than the Moto G4, and with better build quality to boot.

Besides those few differences, both models share a common hardware setup — that 5-inch display, at 720p resolution, which actually looks pretty decent despite its relatively low density. And a Snapdragon 430 CPU, the latest entry-level part from Qualcomm that brings QuickCharge 3.0 support and eight cores at 1.4GHz. There’s also a hefty 2,700mAh battery, which should be ample for the hardware inside. And it’s also nice to see a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner brought along for the ride — a relative rarity for phones at this price level — and NFC support, important for Android Pay.

The new Swift 2 models clearly share some design DNA with their predecessors, while upping the game in terms of material and build. The company boasts aircraft-grade aluminum, and talked up the additional manufacturing steps it takes to get the feel of this just right. The result is a pair of phones living around the price point of Motorola’s Moto G4 price, but with a much more premium in-hand feel.

As for imaging, we were given a Swift 2 Plus to review, which has the fancier 16-megapixel Samsung camera sensor with PDAF (phase-detection autofocus) and ISOCELL technology for clearer daylight pics. We haven’t had the chance to test the lower-end 13-megapixel shooter in the real world, but the “Plus” model’s upgraded camera seems relatively impressive given the price tag, even though you’ll need to deal with CyanogenOS’s relatively clunky camera app. The software experience is basically identical to that of the Spark — though much, much faster thanks to having three times the available RAM. CyangeonOS comes with more features than you’ll ever need, and a somewhat OTT orange fox-themed skin as standard — although this is easily changed.

Which brings us to the broader software picture. The Swift 2 runs CyanogenOS 13, complete with “MOD” plugin support, based upon Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. That’s unsurprising given that all Wileyfox’s previous phones have run Cyanogen’s stuff, but it does raise questions about future upgradability because CyanogenOS will soon be going away — questions we put to the company at today’s launch event. Wileyfox told us that it’s committed to future upgrades for all its phones, including an over-the-air Nougat upgrade “in some way, shape or form” for the Swift 2 series.

With or without CyanogenOS, Wileyfox’s ‘no bullshit’ software experience will live on.

Given the precarious future of CyanogenOS, it’s unlikely it will be part of the Swift 2’s upgrade path — however representatives stopped short of explicitly throwing Cyanogen under the bus. Instead, we were promised that Wileyfox’s “no bullshit” approach to software would continue, whatever happened. “We’re keeping our cards close to our chest.”

However things play out in the long run, Wileyfox has made a good start with the Spark 2 — a product which should banish memories of the disappointing Spark, a phone which was slow to the point of being unusable. By contrast, the Spark 2 — and in particular the speccier Spark 2 Plus — look like being cheap phones worth checking out.

That’s what Wileyfox needs as it doubles down on the European market in 2016 — specifically countries like the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands, where it’s already gotten a reasonable amount of traction with its online-only, direct-to-consumer strategy. The next step, the company says, involves working with carriers and MVNOs to offer phones on contract, broadening the means in which it’s able to offer its phones to customers And there was even a nod towards working with retailers on subsidized devices, perhaps a nod to a Moto G4-style team-up with someone like Amazon, to show ads somewhere on the device.

Wileyfox’s business — and its products — are far from conventional. Nevertheless, despite a few hiccups over the past year, it remains an interesting company to watch.

The Wileyfox Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus are available to order starting today in the UK and Europe.

See at Amazon

Hide away atop these mountainous wallpapers

It feels like you’re on top of the world…

When we look at all the diverse environments this little blue marble of ours has to offer, it’s easy to see why mountains are so special to our lands, our cultures, and our history. Mountains are powerful symbols: to survive one is to prove yourself mightier than its thin air and rough terrain. To conquer one is to tame it and claim its power for your own. Mountains offer protection to those who choose to build on them, but if you make even the slightest mistake, they can kill you. Their imposing stature puts awe and adventure in the hearts of all who behold them, and they remind us all how small we are.

Isn’t that the kind of power you want on your home screen?

Canada is home to many great mountains, but Moraine Lake, nestled in the Valley of Ten Peaks, is one of its most picturesque. It’s little wonder that it’s been used as a stock wallpaper on devices like the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Pearl. We could climb those majestic peaks, or go for a leisurely canoe ride across that magnificent lake…. Or we can make it a wallpaper and dream about going there.

Moraine Lake

Now this is a bright blue glacier-fed lake…. And that is a magnificent mountain that feeds it. The Altai Mountains in East Asia are quite breathtaking, and while most of us will never see these ‘golden’ mountains, we can all appreciate the sunset and the brilliant glow that gives the mountain range its name.

Sunset at Kucherla Lake by Dmitry A. Mottl

Mt Fuji may be one of the most picturesque peaks in the world, and if I ever get a two month sabbatical to the cultural smorgasbord that is Japan, I would love to pay it a visit. In the meantime, there are almost as many photos of the massive structure as there are sakura blossoms at a festival, but this thread of Mt. Fuji photos will give you a wallpaper that feels like you’re living just within reach.

Mt Fuji

While living in the shadow of Fuji must be beautiful, the idyllic countryside cottage nestled here in the French Alps looks positively breathtaking. I don’t even wanna know how hard it’d be to get Wi-Fi set up out there, but as a wallpaper, we don’t have to worry about any of that. We just have to bask in its beauty and wonder how long it’d take us to make French Onion soup…

French Alps

Not all mountains have to be imposing, in fact this one is almost too welcoming. I’m almost convinced it isn’t even a photo, but rather a mirage, beckoning me towards the light and warmth of this fertile valley… While most mountain wallpapers are looking up at the peak, this one is looking back down from the heights, from that peak of power, giving us a unique perspective and a sense of accomplishment.

Mountain Valley

Apple Selecting Developers to Appear on ‘Planet of the Apps’ Next Year

Earlier this year, Apple posted an open casting call for its upcoming original TV show Planet of the Apps, an unscripted series about apps and the talented developers who make them. The show will serve as a “launch pad” and “accelerator” for up to 100 developers, who will receive mentorship from influencers and entrepreneurs such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, and will.i.am.

Details surrounding the show are still vague, including when it will air in 2017 and how it will be distributed, but the basic premise draws similarities to Shark Tank. Developers will pitch their apps, and those who make it to the final round will meet with top-tier venture capitalists investing up to $10 million over the course of the season, and receive featured placement in the App Store at the end of the show.

Apple accepted applications to be on the show until late September, and we have since learned some of the details about the step-by-step process from a developer selected to be on the show.

The person, who wishes to remain anonymous due to their involvement, said the application process involved four stages:

• First Round: The developer submitted a standard online application on the Planet of the Apps website, including a one-minute video, basic information about the app, and screenshots. Shortly afterwards, he received a phone call from a casting director in Los Angeles, who notified him that he was selected to move on to the next round. The casting director asked him several questions about how he thought of the idea, and why he wanted to be on the show.

• Second Round: The developer was instructed to pitch his app by creating a longer 5-10 minute unedited video that would be professionally edited by the show’s staff and then shown to the producers directly. His team was given two weeks to finish this video. The producers provided a checklist of topics to focus on in the video, including how the app works, what makes it unique, how much money desired, and how the money would be used.

In addition, the developers were required to mail in a lengthy application package about the app and an Audition Release granting Apple permission to edit or use the video in any way.

• Third Round: The developer was given one week to sign a lengthy contract covering all of the legal issues behind being on the show, such as accepting equity from investors or Apple. The contract package consisted of forms such as a Participant Agreement, Emergency Medical Release, and App Idea Information Form. The contract was accompanied by another short questionnaire about the app, including how many times it has been downloaded.

In addition, the developer was asked to inform the casting coordinators about his team’s availability over the next few months. He said developers will be flown out to Los Angeles on three separate occasions, filming for three days upon each visit for a total of nine days of filming.

• Fourth Round: The developer was subjected to a background check. He said the show’s coordinators made it clear that, even at this stage, some of the developers would be selected as standby and would not be guaranteed an appearance on the show. Nevertheless, the show’s travel team reached out to the developer to begin the process of booking flights for his team in anticipation of them being accepted on the show.

Principal filming of Planet of the Apps will begin in Los Angeles later this year and may continue until early 2017. The developer who spoke to us believes the first episodes could air around March or April of next year.

Tag: Planet of the Apps
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What is PayPal and how does it work?

Earlier this year PayPal celebrated its 10th year in the mobile payments business. It’s been around longer as an online financial service, but its mobile talents have come on leaps and bounds in the last decade.

Some people think paying for things by phone is a new thing, considering Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay are only now established, but PayPal has offered those kinds of services for years. And through its Android and iOS apps, consumers have been purchasing items worry free using mobile devices even before they became the smartphones we know and love today.

That’s why we thought it’s about time we had a look at what mobile services PayPal offers to give you an indication of what you can do with the PayPal apps and features should you choose to sign up for an account.

What is PayPal?

PayPal is an online financial service that allows you to pay for items using a secure internet account. You simply add your bank account, credit card or debit card details and whenever you pay using PayPal, you can can choose which of your cards or accounts it pays with. You can also set one to be the default payment method and that will be used unless you choose otherwise.

You can pay for items from a vast number of online and high street stores, including restaurants, petrol stations and market traders.

In addition to paying for items using PayPal, you can also receive money through the service. Any money received sits in your PayPal account and can be used when paying for something, with the balance topped up by your assigned cards or bank account.

Alternatively, you can transfer the money to one of your assigned bank accounts or cards.

There can be fee applied when you receive money to your PayPal account. For example, if you sell an item on eBay. However, the vast majority of uses are completely free to you on a personal basis. It is free to transfer money to friends or family through PayPal accounts, as long as there is no currency conversion required.

There are business PayPal accounts available too, which you can find out more about here.

PayPal

What is PayPal Credit?

This year PayPal also started its own credit service, where you can pay for items using PayPal but pay from them later. It’s a lot like a credit card although you don’t require an actual card. It currently charges a (variable) purchase interest rate of 17.9 per cent per annum but as an incentive, you get 0 per cent interest on purchases of over £150 for four months. So if you pay it back within that time, it won’t cost you more than the original purchase price.

Some stores offer special deals when paying for products using PayPal Credit, with reduced interest rates depending on the retailer.

• PayPal takes on Visa and Mastercard with PayPal Credit, and interest starts at 0 per cent

Why use PayPal?

While there are plenty of online payment systems these days, and several manufacturer or network digital wallets, PayPal offers a few additional benefits that others might not.

To begin with, its age means it is well established and widely accepted. You will find a “pay by PayPal” option on thousands of websites that do not offer the same for Apple Pay or other digital financial services.

Its buyer protection safeguards will also ensure you get a refund if an item you buy online doesn’t arrive or doesn’t match a sellers’ description. This is especially useful when purchasing items on eBay, where you do not usually have shop guarantees.

Those selling items on a personal or business level and are paid through PayPal are also protected. For example, if you can provide proof that you sent an item by post yet the buyer claims not to have received it, you get to keep the full payment.

Another reason to use PayPal is that it offers an additional layer of security to payments. As you do not have to enter your card details or CCV number each time you purchase something, just your PayPal log in and password or mobile number and PIN, the online store does not have your details in its database.

In some occasions you can also use OneTouch payments, where PayPal keeps you logged in if you activate the service and you do not have to enter your details each time you purchase something, no matter which store. That’s because it is specific to a device and browser. For example, if you enable OneTouch on your PC, it will only work when you use that specific computer and the same browser.

• PayPal and Vodafone team to offer contactless payments from a PayPal account
• PayPal app adds two new payment methods: We test them in three top London restaurants
• PayPal fuels Shell’s new Fill Up & Go service, allowing app payments at the pump

Does PayPal cost me anything?

As we’ve said above, it is mostly free to use PayPal. It is certainly free to sign up for an account, even if you do not use it often. You are never charged for a purchase in the same currency – only occasionally when there is an exchange rate to be considered. This is essentially the same as with your bank.

You will occasionally incur fees if you sell items and receive payment through PayPal. And business accounts can have different fees levied depending on the circumstances – such as accepting credit card payments through a PayPal Here Chip and PIN/contactless payment reader.

How do I get a PayPal account?

It’s easy to sign up for a PayPal account. You head to PayPal.co.uk and click the “Sign Up” button. It’ll ask if you want to sign up for a personal or business account and away you go. Don’t forget to have your bank, credit or debit card details to hand though.

PayPal

How to pay with PayPal?

PayPal works online and in stores through a browser or mobile application. There are dedicated apps for Android and iOS.

When paying online, you just need to look for the PayPal symbol and check out by following the simple instructions on screen. The apps do more though.

Thanks to many partnerships with stores and restaurants in your area, you get different options of how to pay for products, food or petrol, even order ahead to beat the queues in some food establishments and coffee shops. The app shows you a list of all the vendors nearby that accept each of the different PayPal options.

You can also add loyalty cards to your PayPal account, in order to gain loyalty points whenever you pay for something using the app.

Where can I use PayPal?

As there are thousands of PayPal-enabled vendors, here are just some of the places it is accepted in the UK, both online or in store:

• Argos
• Asos
• Barbour
• Ben Sherman
• Boots
• British Airways
• Disney Store
• Domino’s
• eBay
• ebuyer.com
• Gourmet Burger Kitchen
• Groupon
• Halfords
• HungryHouse
• John Lewis
• Maplin
• New Look
• Nike
• Oasis
• Pizza Express
• Pizza Hut
• PlayStation Store
• Poundland
• Royal Mail
• Samsung eStore
• Shell
• Sports Direct
• Spotify
• Steam
• Superdrug
• TopShop
• Toys R’ Us
• Wagamama
• Xbox
• Zara

Is PayPal available for my phone?

As we explained above, there are dedicated PayPal apps for iPhone and Android devices.

The iPhone app requires iOS 8.1 or greater. It will also work with iPod touch and iPad devices.

The Android app varies by device, so it is best to download and try to install it before you sign up for an account to ensure it works with your phone.

You can download the iOS app here and the Android version here.

Computer users can sign into PayPal through any regular browser. Online stores will direct you to a sign-in page whenever you want to pay using your account.

If you have OneTouch enabled, on something like Steam, for example, you need only click on the pay by PayPal option and the rest is done for you.

Anyone can buy anything using your Amazon Echo, here’s how to stop it

Alexa is gifted with a full range of talents, but a recent update for those in the UK could leave you with a nasty surprise.

On 20 October, Amazon turned on the shopping option for Amazon Echo. Voice purchasing means that you can ask Alexa to buy you things. Alexa will search Amazon, return some results and give you the option to buy. 

It does this using the 1-click option from your Amazon account, you simply have to use your voice to search for things and confirm you want to buy it, it’s then charged to your account and delivered to your default address.

It sounds great: “Alexa, buy some toilet paper”, “Alexa, I want to buy The Force Awakens on Blu-ray”.

You can see where this is going: “Alexa, buy a case of wine”, “Alexa, buy a 12-inch kitchen knife”, “Alexa, buy a 50-inch TV”, “Alexa, buy a Lego Death Star”, “Alexa, buy five PlayStation 4s”. 

In each case you’re presented with whatever Alexa finds on Amazon, before being offered the choice to buy it. By default, all you’d have to say is “yes”. 

 

Too easy to buy stuff with Alexa.. just saying “yes” would place the order. #tech #amazonecho

A video posted by Cam Bunton (@cambunton) on Nov 2, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Anyone who owns an Echo or Dot will know that Alexa will understand what your children say too, meaning that you could find yourself with a whole range of things on your doorstep that they manage to order, quickly, easily and just using voice.

It’s not just kids, it’s anyone who comes into your house or anything that says “Alexa, buy….” For those who have seen the TV advert that is currently running, you’ll know that the Amazon Echo responds to the voice in the advert, adding tennis balls and dog biscuits to your own shopping list. 

Of course, once an order is successfully placed, you’ll be sent an email, and the Alexa app keeps a record of everything it hears and those shopping requests, but there’s still huge potential for kids to go and buy whatever they want, just to see what happens.

How to secure your Amazon Echo voice purchasing 

To make sure that your Amazon Echo won’t just errantly order anything it can find on Amazon from a voice prompt, just follow these simple steps:

Open the Alexa app
Hit the left-hand menu button to open up the menu choices
Head into Settings, scroll down the list to voice purchasing
Set a voice PIN

This will mean that when you go to buy something, you’ll then have to vocally provide that PIN as an added security measure. This might stop strangers being able to buy things, but you’ll have to make sure your kids are out of earshot too, or you’ll still be getting that Lego Death Star.

You also have the option to turn off the voice purchasing feature entirely in the same section of the app, which for families might just be the easiest option.

Alexa will add things to your shopping list

There’s also another neat trick that Alexa offers: if it can’t find what you’re looking for, it will automatically add that item to your shopping list. 

Unfortunately you can fall foul of pranksters here too, because it’s very easy to add, let’s say, “intimate items” to your shopping list. When you ask Alexa what’s on your list, you’ll get dog biscuits and tennis balls (of course) and a whole list of items that your immature friends have decided you might also need.

• Buy the Amazon Echo from Amazon for £149.99
• Buy the Amazon Echo Dot from Amazon for £49.99

Netflix ponders offline playback

Remember when Netflix said it wouldn’t deliver an offline playback option because its users are never far away from a reliable internet connection? Turns out that might not be true anymore. In an interview with CNBC, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos conceded that as the streaming giant continues its expansion into new (developing) markets, it needs to adapt its service to better serve customers who don’t always have the appropriate internet access to enjoy its content.

Speaking about the possible new feature ahead of the premiere of Netflix’s new royal-themed show, The Crown, Sarandos said the company is “looking at it now, so we’ll see when.” Back in April, Netflix chief Reed Hastings had suggested the company was warming to the idea of a download option but Sarandos’ comments suggest offline playback has now become a bigger part of its expansion strategy.

“Now as we’ve launched in more territories … They all have different levels of broadband speeds and Wi-Fi access. So in those countries they have adapted their behaviors to be much more of a downloading culture. So in those emerging territories it starts to become a little more interesting. We still think for the developed world our thesis has been true but I think as we get into more and more (of the) undeveloped world and developing countries that we want to find alternatives for people to use Netflix easily.”

Netflix now operates in almost 200 countries, which includes markets where users are attuned to syncing content to their device whenever they are near a reliable internet connection. YouTube, for example, now lets Indian users download videos to their phone. Subscribers in countries like the US typically don’t have that problem — thanks to fast cable, WiFi and mobile networks — which suggests that if the feature is finally realized, users in the US and other developed markets could be the last to get it.

Source: CNBC

V-Moda’s line of ‘Forza’ earbuds is meant for workouts

If you’re familiar with V-Moda, you know that the brand is mostly known for making premium over-the-ear headphones. While it does have earbuds in its portfolio, that’s never been the company’s main focus. Today, however, V-Moda is introducing the Forza Series, a trio of in-ear headphones designed for people who love to work out on a regular basis. It’s an interesting move for the company, which seems to be taking on Beats’ fitness-oriented products, like the PowerBeats and upcoming BeatsX.

For starters, there’s the entry-level Forza Sport Hybrid, which features Hi-Res Audio and 5.8mm drivers enclosed in a plastic housing. According to V-Moda, it’s the first sport set to support high-resolution audio files, yet it’s only going to cost $100. Meanwhile, the Forza Metallo comes with the same size drivers as the Sport Hybrid but in a metal housing, as well as Hi-Res Audio. That’s the model pictured above, which also has a tangle-free, Kevlar-reinforced cable. The Metallo is slightly more expensive, at $130.

It’s worth noting that both of those two models have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you’ll need a dongle if you own an iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus or another “courageous” smartphone. If you don’t want to deal with any of that, V-Moda has a higher-end wireless option. Aptly named Forza Metallo Wireless, these $170 earphones also sport 5.8mm drivers, though they lack the Hi-Res Audio feature from the wired models. The neckband, for its part, is made out of titanium and designed to lock comfortably around your neck for better stability. Battery life is rated at up to 10 hours — two more than what you’d get with the BeatsX, for reference. And, thanks to fast-charging tech, a 30-minute charge gives you two hours of use.

As you might expect, since V-Moda’s Forza line is intended for an active crowd, all three options are sweat and water resistant. Unfortunately, I couldn’t test the audio quality when V-Moda showed me the Forza Metallo V-Moda in a recent demo, as the unit I saw was merely a prototype. Still, the company claims the they are tuned with “the V-Moda standard,” which means you should expect your tracks to sound clean, crisp and not so bass-heavy most of the time.