HTC Vive can do wireless VR with this $220 add-on
HTC is opening up pre-orders for a $220 add-on that cuts the Vive’s wires and transforms it into a wireless VR headset. The peripheral that clips onto the device was made by a company called TPCAST and was designed under the Vive X program. If you’ll recall, HTC launched the program to invest $100 million into startups looking to build accessories for the Vive. According to the company’s interview with UploadVR, there’ll be no “noticeable difference” when you use the device, implying that it won’t turn VR experiences into laggy nightmares. HTC even promises that it will “greatly improve” the overall Vive experience.
In the interview, China Regional President of Vive at HTC, Alvin W. Graylin, told the publication that the company will sell a bigger battery for the add-on in the future. At the moment, it will only come with a standard battery that lasts for an hour-and-a-half. The bigger power source will last longer, but you’ll have to carry it around in your pocket or in a bag.
HTC’s Chinese website will start accepting pre-orders on Friday, November 11th, 7AM Pacific/10AM Eastern — there are no plans to release the peripheral locally in the US and other countries yet. Graylin told UploadVR that anybody can buy one, though, so you can place an order if you’re willing to pay for shipping from Asia. That said, HTC is only selling a limited number of units, and you’ll have a bigger chance of securing one if you can provide a valid Vive serial number.
Via: UploadVR
Source: HTC
HTC’s high-end Bolt is a fast, fascinating Sprint exclusive
No one would fault you if you thought HTC was done making high-end smartphones for the year. It wasn’t perfect, but the HTC 10 was a highly respectable piece of kit. And HTC’s design and production fingerprints can be found all over both of Google’s new Pixel phones. That’s a decent string of smartphones for 2016, but HTC had to go and partner up with Sprint on the curious new Bolt, a device meant to highlight the carrier’s high-speed 3x20MHz carrier aggregation. Fair enough, but what makes the $599 Bolt so interesting is how it takes the 10’s formula and improves on it.
As you might’ve already been able to tell by the photos, the Bolt shares a lot of design language with the HTC 10. In fact, the easiest way to tell them apart is to turn them over: the Bolt lacks the telltale hump that helped the 10 settle so nicely into my hands. It’s definitely a slab of a phone, but that’s not to say it’s completely charmless. HTC’s first-rate build quality is on full display here, with a fully metal frame wrapped around a big, 5.5-inch, 2K LCD screen. That brings us to the Bolt’s first improvement: that body is rated IP57 water and dust resistant, a first for HTC’s unibody metal smartphones. There’s little point in griping about how long it took HTC to get here — I’m just glad they did.
There’s a powerful Snapdragon chipset inside, too, though not the one you’d probably expect. The Bolt rolls with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 plus 3GB of RAM, which makes for some very slick performance. Device makers seemed to shy away from the 810 for a while because of repeated concerns about overheating, but I haven’t noticed anything abnormal during the few days I’ve been playing with the Bolt. Long story short: there’s plenty of power in here for anyone who needs it, and the inclusion of Android 7.0 Nougat only helps. Speaking of software, don’t expect too many changes on that front — the lightly tweaked Sense interface works exactly how it did on the 10, from the inclusion of BlinkFeed (meh) to those curious Freestyle layouts to the deeper integration of Google apps. Stock is still the way to go as far as I’m concerned, but HTC’s approach is ultimately still one of the more palatable out there.
Another improvement for the list: HTC also worked with Sprint and Qualcomm to get everything in good shape for Sprint’s LTE Plus network. I just wish I could’ve tasted some of those speeds. Early tests point to potential data speeds up to 300Mb/s, but for now, you’ll have to live in (or move to) cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis or Denver to take the network for a ride. I saw middling speeds when I ran tests in our NoHo office — on the order of 10Mb/s down, which paled in comparison to AT&T. Your mileage may vary, obviously.
Then there’s the camera. HTC has been pushing its UltraPixel cameras for years now, and they’re conspicuously absent in the Bolt. Instead, we got a more traditional 16-megapixel affair complete with optical image stabilization. I frankly haven’t spent a ton of time using the camera in the field, but the shots I did take came out rather well: they were chock-full of detail and accurately covered, even when the sun dipped behind some clouds. On the Bolt’s face is an 8-megapixel selfie camera, which indeed works well at feeding into your vanity.
The Bolt has the 10’s high-resolution audio chops too, if you’re a media buff. Perhaps more importantly, the earbuds that come in the box are surprisingly smart. Remember how the HTC 10 let you set up a personal audio profile based on how well you could hear certain tones? Well, these earbuds completely automate that process. The first time you plug them in, you’re prompted to create a profile — from there, you’ll hear a tone ringing through your ears, and that’s it. The Bolt interprets that sound resounds through your ear and create the profile automatically. It would’ve been nice if we could further tune that profile after it’s been made; alas, HTC doesn’t plan to make that happen.
So yeah, it’s not hard to think of the Bolt as a sort of HTC 10 Plus. On the one hand, Sprint has a pretty fascinating exclusive on their hands — shades of the EVO 4G, anyone? Still, I can’t help but wish HTC pushed some of these improvements into devices it already launched this year. An HTC 10 with a bigger screen and a water-resistant body might have helped the company pick up more ground early on. At the very least, you can bet some of these steps forward will wind up in the company’s 2017 flagship, and we’ll be better off for it. Until then, Sprint customers itching for some new premium hardware should get their wallets ready: the Bolt goes on sale right… now.
Russia is blocking LinkedIn
While LinkedIn is still waiting for the ink to dry on Microsoft’s $26.2 billion deal, the Russian government is gearing up to ban the professional networking site altogether. As the New York Times reports, a local court in Moscow has ruled that LinkedIn is not in compliance with with the country’s data protection rules. The company will be blocked from operating in Russia starting Thursday, but the company can still appeal the court’s decision.
The ban stems from a new set of rules passed by Russian legislators last year that requires any personal data collected on Russian citizens to be stored on servers inside the country itself. While the Russian government claimed the rules would protect the data in case of a hack like the LinkedIn breach in 2012, others have pointed out that it could give the government the ability to demand user data from international companies. As the Times also notes, Facebook and Twitter are currently in violation of those same data storage rules. While it is currently unclear why LinkedIn was called out over those larger social networks, the Russian government has also been trying to replace government software and demonize Microsoft for allegedly colluding with the US government.
Less than five million of LinkedIn’s 467 million users are in Russia and in a statement, LinkedIn said “the Russian court’s decision has the potential to deny access to LinkedIn for the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses.” The company said it was interested in meeting with Roskomnadzor, the country’s telecom watchdog group, to discuss their request.
Source: New York Times
Citibank’s digital wallet works in apps, online and through NFC
Citibank is partnering with MasterCard and its digital payment service, Masterpass, to add online and in-app transactions to its customers’ accounts. Citi Pay users will be able to use their existing Citibank login details across online and app payments. Android users will be able to make NFC payments at wireless-enabled registers. There’s no mention of Apple Pay — and that’s because Apple doesn’t let its payment chip parlez with other platforms.
“We want Citi customers to have seamless, convenient and fast payment options wherever they go,” said Barry Rodrigues, Head of Global Digital Payments. Citi Pay will initially launch across Singapore, Australia and Mexico with tap-and-pay, while it’ll reach the US in early 2017.
Alexa isn’t talking to Citibank yet, however.
These crazy videos show recalled GoPro Karma drones crashing hard
GoPro won’t like these videos.
The camera maker recently recalled all 2,500 Karma drones it has sold since launching the device just two weeks ago. It’s investigating reports that a small number of them lost power during operation. If your Karma lost power mid-flight and fell out of the sky, what would you do?
You’d upload the footage online.
So, PetaPixel discovered that a YouTube search (of the keywords GoPro, Karma, and crash) reveals a bunch of videos where a Karma drone takes off, records for like a minute or two minutes, and then falls like a rock.
- GoPro recalls Karma drone due to loss of power
GoPro said it is coordinating with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate the matter, but the CPSC has already confirmed it doesn’t regulate drones – the FAA does – and so it won’t be involved.
Still, if you own a Karma, you should return it. Check out GoPro’s website to handle refunds and learn about where you can return it. If you bought a Karma with a camera, GoPro said you must return the whole setup.
The company has not said when it will issue replacement units.
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Trump’s newly-emboldened troll army poses problems for Twitter
Yesterday, the US woke up to discover it had elected Donald Trump as leader of the free world. As we’ve pointed out, the decision threatens net neutrality and probably the planet, though we perversely got a Wu-Tang album from it. In addition to 48% of the country’s voting electorate, those celebrating also included a loose army of trolls who rampaged across the internet harassing journalists and Clinton supporters for over a year. But far from being content with their US victory, many pro-Trump marauders have been emboldened and seem to be re-mobilizing to support far-right candidates in European elections. In short: The online abuse will almost certainly continue.
This spells ill for Twitter in particular. The social network has historically been spotty in evaluating harassment claims and blocking offenders. But in the yearlong run-up to the election, the alt-right trolls came out, directing their abuse toward Trump critics and journalists alike. After conservative writer David French criticized Ann Coulter for pandering to white supremacists, alt-right trolls hounded him, sending photoshopped images of his daughter in a gas chamber and in cotton fields. The New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman temporarily quit the social network back in June, blaming Twitter for its extreme failure to abide by its policies and impede or prevent the daily abuse slung at him.
On top of general harassment, anti-Semitic tweets spiked from January to July of this year as the election heated up, the Anti-Defamation League stated in a report released three weeks ago. Of the 2.6 million anti-Semitic tweets they tracked over the last year, the ADL identified 19,253 directed toward journalists. Two-thirds of those were sent by 1,600 power users, which the self-identified as either Trump supporters, conservatives or alt-right. According to the report, Twitter has only deactivated 21 percent of those accounts. Incredibly, 83 percent of those near-20,000 abusive tweets were directed at only 10 journalists — including Weisman.
Some alt-right trolling on Twitter has been individual effort, but others are coordinated campaigns. After the anti-media Nazi slogan “Lügenpresse” surfaced at a Trump rally two weeks ago, alt-right trolls coordinated on 8chan’s /pol/ imageboard to assemble journalist names for an intimidation campaign called #TheList, tweeting offenders their own headshots that had been ominously X’d out. It didn’t exactly terrify the populace, but any organized harassment crusade with Nazi undertones suggests just what kind of internet justice they’re trying to achieve — like, say, an anti-Semitic death threat against a Politico reporter.
And then, of course, there’s the deliberate spreading of misinformation to trick Hillary supporters into throwing away their votes. The perpetrator, a prominent Trump-supporting user, played it off as a prank, though Twitter soon banned the account after the deception got more coverage.
Internet media aren’t the only ones aware of alt-right trolls’ willingness to harass their enemies. Trump campaign lawyers demanded from a judge the names of poll workers who’d kept a location legally open later than stated hours. But when the judge noticed someone was livestreaming the request, she refused, according to Wired: “Do you watch Twitter?” Judge Sturman pointedly asked the lawyer. “There are trolls who could get this information and harass people.”
Since the world woke to a Trump-won America yesterday there’s been another spike in abuse — in the real world, across America. If certain Trump supporters have been emboldened enough to return to post-9/11 bigoted attacks on ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, what more will they do under the shroud of internet anonymity? Hopefully, Twitter figures out how to fix its policies and responses before the alt-right trolls batter, misdirect and make death threats to folks involved in another upcoming election.
Source: Gizmodo
Apple Starts Approving First Touch Bar App Updates on Mac App Store
Apple over the past two days has started approving Mac App Store apps that have been updated with Touch Bar support on the new MacBook Pro.
One of the first Touch Bar apps is OmniGraffle 7, a popular vector drawing tool for designing graphics and diagrams. After updating to version 7.2, users will have access to text controls when editing labels, for example, or manipulation controls when working with shapes. Without anything selected on the canvas on the main screen, the Touch Bar can be used to add shape, a stencil, or an image.
OmniGraffle 7.2 for Mac’s new Touch Bar controls
Speed-Up, a utility for speeding up or slowing down audio playback directly in iTunes, also saw its Touch Bar update approved earlier today. Other apps that now support the Touch Bar include Gestimer, Opus One, Disk Aid, and Memory Clean 2, and several more popular apps will be updated over the coming days and weeks. Those interested can track Mac app updates on our sister site AppShopper.
The Touch Bar is a narrow strip of glass above the keyboard that provides both system and app-specific controls based on what you are doing. The touchscreen sits in place of the standard row of function keys on the new MacBook Pro and includes Touch ID for faster logins and Apple Pay. Learn more by reading our Touch Bar hands-on roundup and Apple executive Craig Federighi’s interview about the Touch Bar.
Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tags: Mac App Store, Touch Bar
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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PlayStation VR toubleshooting guide
Everything you need to know, just in case something goes wrong.
PlayStation VR is a great system that’s introduced many people to VR, but even the best systems experience problems from time to time. From tracking issues to display issues to audio issues, here’s how to fix pretty much any problem you experience with your PlayStation VR.
See more at VR Heads!
Vampire giraffe pie? Even more emoji possibilities to come in Unicode 10
We’re almost at a loss for words at this point.
Emoji use is on the rise, and the Unicode Consortium is spending an increasing amount of time designing new emoji to reflect an even more diverse set of pictographs for all kinds of situations. 51 new emoji are up for consideration for inclusion in Unicode 10, with some of the headliners being “bearded man,” “milkshake,” “breastfeeding,” “zebra,” “vampire” and “pie.”
Beyond entirely new emoji, the Unicode Consortium also plans to add non-gendered versions of various age-related emoji, such as “child,” “adult” and “older adult.” Some work is still being done to narrow down proposals for more more additions, with a couple different dinosaurs and various clothing items being worked on. Various ideas were left behind for this release, including “almond,” “leafy greens” and “face with lightbulb.”
You can see a full list of emoji slated for the Unicode 10 release at Emojipedia.
So how long will you have to wait for these new emoji? Well, there’s a bit of a process. The new emoji are only provisionally accepted right now, so they aren’t yet part of the Unicode spec. Once final edits are made and they’re locked in, we’ll have to wait for the release of Unicode 10 in mid-2017 — then, smartphone manufacturers can include the latest Unicode in their software and you’ll have access to them.
AIVAnet 