Microsoft hints at what you’ll need to run Windows 10 VR headsets
There’s still much we don’t know about Microsoft’s plan to deliver virtual reality in Windows 10. At this point, we’ve heard it’ll start with $299 headsets from a variety of PC manufacturers, and support for the Windows Holographic VR platform will arrive in in the Windows 10 Creators Update next year. There’s plenty left up in the air beyond that (we’ll likely hear more during an event next month). For now, we’ve got a sense of minimum PC requirements to run VR experiences, The Verge reports.
According to the “Windows Holographic First Run” application, which is available in the most recent Windows Insider test builds, the VR platform will need at the minimum 4GB of RAM, a DirectX 12 graphics card, USB 3.0 support and four CPU cores. If you’ve got a dual-core CPU with hyper threading (which appears as four different cores in Windows), you’ll probably be safe as well.
Of course, Microsoft’s final specs will likely include more detail about the actual CPU speed and GPU hardware you’ll need, but for now these requirements make it clear Windows Holographic should run on mid-range computers. It’s also unclear what sort of VR experiences these specs will get you — they likely won’t be enough to run Eve Valkyrie well.
In comparison, both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require a quad-core Intel Core i5 4590 or faster processor, 4GB of RAM, USB 3.0 and either an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 video card. Oculus also just rolled out a new feature that’ll let its VR headset run well on even slower hardware. Based on what we’ve heard from Microsoft, it seems like the company is trying to make VR more accessible than the Oculus Rift and Vive. That starts with cheaper headsets, but hopefully its final PC specs will come in much cheaper than the competition as well.
Source: The Verge
Clickbait, fake news and the power of feeling
Fake news has dominated post-election headlines, and important questions have been asked: Would Hillary have won had almost a million people not read that Pope Francis had endorsed Trump? (Probably not). Did Facebook take enough action to prevent fake news proliferating on its network? (Definitely not). But few have asked why these articles were so popular in the first place. Why were so many people duped into clicking these stories?
Earlier this month, BuzzFeed News‘ Craig Silverman analyzed engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.) across Facebook and identified the most popular real and fake articles across three distinct periods: February to April, May to July and August to Election Day.
With this analysis, Silverman was able to show that the 20 most popular fake posts were “engaged with” (Facebook’s term for likes, shares and so on) 8.71 million times in the lead up to the election, compared to just 2.97 million times in February to April. Mainstream news showed the opposite pattern: Starting at 12.4 million, and falling to 7.37 million in the final period — 1.34 million less than the fake news. The overall number of engagements is fairly steady, too, suggesting that, at least to some extent, Facebook users were sharing fake news instead of real stories.
Last year, a group of researchers from Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, analyzed 70,000 articles from four major news organizations (BBC News, Daily Mail, Reuters and The New York Times) to measure the correlation between headline sentiment and popularity. Although results varied from publication to publication, the general finding was that the more extreme the emotion in a headline, the more likely it is to be clicked on.
This runs both ways, the group said: “A headline has more chance to be successful if the sentiment expressed in its text is extreme, towards the positive or the negative side. Results suggest that neutral headlines are usually less attractive.” You’re more likely to click on a story that says “This is the best” or “This is the worst” than “This is quite okay.”
“A headline has more chance to be successful if the sentiment expressed in its text is extreme.”
Could sentiment analysis explain fake news’ popularity? As Silverman made the statistics he gathered public, I asked the researchers to run the same dissection on all of the stories in the dataset. Their script uses multiple methods (including valence scoring) to determine the positivity (or negativity) of each word in a headline, before giving it a final “sentiment score.”
The scale we’re using runs from -4 (negative) to +4 (positive). A few examples: Vox‘s “The smug style in American liberalism” got a -1, while The Guardian‘s “Millions of ordinary Americans support Donald Trump. Here’s why,” is one of the more positive, scoring a +0.75. Few stories get higher or lower than a full point away from neural. Washington Post‘s “Max Lucado: Trump doesn’t pass the decency test” was one of the most extreme mainstream stories, scoring a. -1.37.
The key finding from the team’s analysis was that, on average, the fake news headlines were more negative than the mainstream ones in each period. Of course, that just shows “that fake news headlines contain more negative words in the title than real news,” research scientist Haewoon Kwak told Engadget.
Inferring meaning from this requires some guesswork, and there are two possible explanations, according to Kwak. Either fake news writers are intentionally doing this for “clickbait” purposes, or they “naturally use more negative words” because of the topics they’re writing about. An in-depth qualitative study might show which of the explanations is valid, but given the fake news writers were generally trying to make money from clicks, the former seems likely to be a driving factor.
Looking across the three periods, something else becomes clear: The average sentiment of real news became slightly more negative (from -0.14 to -0.2) while fake news became more positive (from -0.4 to -0.23). “This contradicts with our expectation that fake news became more aggressive over time,” said Kwak. Look at the stories themselves, though, and you can see the problem with the sentiment analysis. The fake news headlines in the pre-election period are atypical. Unlike those of traditional news, these headlines are complex, long and often switch viewpoint.
Take the fake story “BREAKING: Hillary Clinton To Be Indicted… Your Prayers Have Been Answered.” The first half of this headline is clearly negative, the second half, clearly positive. As the sentiment scoring ascribes an average for the entire headline, the story was given a +0.29 score. There are other examples of this: “Thousands Of Fake Ballot Slips Found Marked For Hillary Clinton! TRUMP WAS RIGHT!” Kwak explained that things like Trump endorsements “could boost the sentiment score slightly to be positive.”
This mixture — very positive with very negative — is something of an anomaly and would require a new method of sentiment analysis to really dig into. But, it would appear, it does make for a very clickable headline. Kwak also noted that the dataset mixes headlines about Trump and Clinton. “If there were separate datasets for each candidate, it may bring a more interesting result.”
Sentiment analysis can’t be used to show whether news is true or false, but it does show the way headline writers, like marketers, manipulate our emotions to inspire us to click, like or share a story.
Headline writers manipulate our emotions to inspire us to click, like or share a story.
Jonah Berger is a Wharton professor and the bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, a book that attempts to unearth the science behind “going viral.” What makes an advertisement, a YouTube video or a tweet catch on?
According to Berger, virality comes down STEPPS, a backronym of six ideals. There’s Social currency (we share things that make us look good to those around us), Triggers (the nugget of a product or idea), Emotion (a message with an emotional component is more likely to be shared), Public (the more public something is, the more likely people will imitate it), Practical value (useful things get shared), and Stories (if you want to spread an idea, embed it within a narrative). A good piece of marketing will hit as many of the STEPPS as possible.
Look at BuzzFeed News‘s dataset — with the assumption that these Trump-positive stories were shared by Trump supporters — and you can see the fake news ticking every marketing box. You have a piece of breaking news that hasn’t been reported elsewhere (Social currency, Practical), that’s positive for Trump (Emotion, Stories), with the crux of the article in the headline (Triggers), all shared — often by people they know — on a trusted public forum (Public).
Berger’s findings differ slightly from Kwak’s. “People are more likely to share more positive content, in part because what people share is a signal,” Berger told Engadget. “Most people don’t want to be seen as a Debbie downer, always sharing negative news.”
BuzzFeed News‘ data isn’t complete. We don’t know if people were actively sharing stories, liking them, or commenting. The net result is the same, as Facebook will surface those comments and likes among a user’s social circle, but the intention may not have been to share. “Negativity may certainly drive clicks,” said Berger. “We pay attention to negative things, even if we don’t share them. If it bleeds, it leads.”
It could be that many people were simply reading these stories because they were there, and they seemed interesting. We interact with fake news in much the same way as real news, or advertising, then. The same things that make a news story too tantalizing to ignore, make people at least click on them.
“Clickbait” is a term that, to me, originally meant a story with a misleading headline — a click-bait and switch, as it were. It’s now more difficult to define. Cataphoric headlines — titles that refer to something within the article — are now often branded as clickbait: “You won’t believe why police arrested this 102-year-old woman” is a classic example while “Nintendo’s Super Mario Run for iPhone and iPad now has a release date and price” is a more subtle take. They’re withholding all or some of the news from the potential readers, in order to get them to click.
Many of the fake stories highlighted by BuzzFeed News employ similar tactics. The top story in the lead-up to the election was “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement.” Much of the news is there, but the author has appended “releases statement” to the headline to ensure you click. Next is “WikiLeaks CONFIRMS Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS… Then Drops Another BOMBSHELL!” This follows the same pattern: valuable information up front, cataphora later.
The third-placed story, “IT’S OVER: Hillary’s ISIS Email Just Leaked & It’s Worse Than Anyone Could Have Imagined” is the most cataphoric, offering way more tease than information. Berger calls this a curiosity gap. “It raises awareness of a gap in knowledge, where clicking on the link is the only way to solve the puzzle.”
Preposterous stories are inherently more clickable than believable ones.
This suggests that preposterous stories are inherently more clickable than believable ones. Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. Humans are easily manipulated: With only a meager understanding of our psychology, politicians, journalists, marketers, filmmakers, authors and, yes, news scam artists, are able to make us think and feel pretty much whatever they want.
Applying quantitative analysis to our actions feels dehumanizing, as no one wants to be told they don’t have agency over their behavior. But in this case, it’s important to do so. It’s vital that Facebook, and other companies that have become the gateway to current events on the internet, understand how easy it is for our emotions to take over.
“Fake news is becoming a bigger and bigger issue,” said Berger. “But to solve it we can’t blame people for being silly, dumb or biased. We have to understand why people click and share, and use that science to encourage people to engage with the important, true information.”
Image credits: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia (Donald Trump campaigning in Phoenix, Arizona); NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory / Flickr (Bald Eagle).
The best white noise machine
By Doug Mahoney
This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.
After 20 hours of research and testing, including interviews with one sleep researcher, two audiologists, and a sound engineer, we’re confident the LectroFan by ASTI is the white noise machine you’ll want to fall asleep with. Thanks to its electronically generated, nonrepeating white noise options—which sound a bit like soft static—it worked as well as or better than the five other tested machines at masking squalling cats, barking dogs, and snoring roommates. Its simple controls are easy to use (even in the dark), its range of volume is wider than that of other devices we tested, and its small size is convenient for travel and won’t dominate your nightstand.
Who is this for
If your bedroom isn’t as quiet as it could be, and you think the noise is affecting your sleep, you may want to try a white noise machine. Medical studies have shown that white noise machines can help people stay asleep in noisy environments. If you already use a sleep machine with prerecorded sounds such as waves or rain, consider one of our picks, which produce random, constant white noise. Such invariant white noise is better at blocking sounds and is less likely to itself disturb your sleep.
How we picked and tested
We tested six white noise machines (from left to right): the Marpac Dohm DS, Homedics Deep Sleep II, ASTI LectroFan, Sleep Easy Sound Conditioner, Marpac Hushh, and Marpac Rohm. Photo: Michael Hession
The best type of white noise machines for sleep create noise that is random and meaningless and will block disturbing noises without itself creating noticeable sounds that could wake you. For that reason, we stuck to machines whose primary sound offering was random white noise, dismissing machines that offer recordings of birdsong, rainfall, crashing waves, or other natural sounds.
We eliminated machines that were too large to fit on a bedside table, or had bright displays that could compromise the darkness of the bedroom. After comparing reviews of white noise machines, we narrowed our list down to six machines to test. Using a sound-level meter, we measured the decibel range of each machine, from quietest to loudest. Next we set up recordings of common nighttime nuisances: barking dogs, fighting cats, and snoring. With the recordings playing in an adjacent room behind a closed door, we sat 18 inches behind the sound machine. Starting at the lowest volume setting, we slowly increased the loudness for the machine until we could no longer perceive the intruding noise, noting the decibel level required to block the sound.
Our pick
The LectroFan’s noise-masking abilities, simple interface, and small size make it the best machine we tested. Photo: Michael Hession
We think the LectroFan by ASTI is the white noise machine you’ll want on your nightstand. Our testing showed that the LectroFan’s random, nonrepeating white noise settings allowed it to mask intruding noises as well as or better than the other machines in the group. It’s the second-smallest machine we tested, too, so you can pack it for travel in addition to using it at home. The LectroFan is also one of the easiest models to use, with a simple three-button interface to toggle among 10 random, nonrepeating white noise offerings and 30 volume settings in one of the widest volume ranges we found.
The LectroFan’s 10 white noise settings, ranging from “dark noise” (low frequency) to “white noise” (high frequency), sounded like variations of low rumbles, rushing wind, or static—neither pleasant nor unpleasant, and definitely random and meaningless.
A machine that allows for fine volume control, like the LectroFan, can be at its lowest possible setting yet still block noise. By comparison, some of the other machines we tried had a narrower volume range that we found more difficult to adjust. To be clear, we didn’t notice a huge variation in the sound-blocking performance among the machines, and they were typically within a few decibels of one another for the minimum volume required to mask the offending noise.
With its minimalist, three-button interface, we found changing noise settings and volume on the LectroFan easier than on the other white noise machines. The LectroFan takes up little room on a nightstand, and can fit into your luggage for travel. It conveniently uses a USB cord and wall-power adapter, which you could swap for your USB wall charger to save more space when you’re packing. We do wish it had a built-in battery, which would be helpful for travel or if you don’t have an outlet nearby.
Runner-up
The Marpac Dohm DS features a fan encased in a smooth, domelike plastic housing with cutouts that you open and close to adjust the noise level. Photo: Michael Hession
The Marpac Dohm, which the company touts as the original white noise machine, has had a devoted following for more than 50 years. Relying on a fan to make noise, the Dohm DS (the two-speed version) produces a slightly more pleasant sound than the LectroFan, something akin to what you hear when you hold a shell over your ear, or to the sound of wind rushing through a field. In contrast, the LectroFan and other electronic white noise machines produce sound that is more like a soft static or “shhh.”
We found that the Dohm DS performed slightly poorer in our sound-masking tests than the white noise machines that generated noise electronically. We also noticed a slight whining undertone when running the Dohm DS on its high setting. Still, the Dohm has had many thousands of satisfied owners over the years, and it boasts an overall 4.5-star (out of five) rating across more than 9,000 reviews on Amazon.
Apps for occasional use
Although white noise apps aren’t a great choice for nightly use, because the sound quality isn’t as good, they can come in handy for travel or if you need to mask sounds only occasionally.
After testing four iPhone apps, we like myNoise (created by the sound engineer we spoke with for this guide, Stéphane Pigeon). In the “White Noise & Co” setting, you can use a color-coded slider to adjust white noise frequencies to create a customized white noise mix.
For Android, we’d go with Noisli. You can layer multiple white noise sounds and adjust their volumes to create a custom blend. Of the eight Android apps we tried, Noisli has the least-distracting and easiest-to-use interface.
The volume and clarity of the apps will depend on the quality of your smartphone’s speakers, and pairing your phone with a Bluetooth speaker will produce better results.
This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Note from The Sweethome: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.
President Obama doesn’t plan on pardoning Edward Snowden
With President Obama’s term nearly up, infamous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and his supporters have been campaigning for a presidential pardon. It sounds like that isn’t in the card, though. In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Obama said that “I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves.” Even if Snowden had, though, it sounds like the president believes that whistleblowers can’t go rogue and expect not to face repercussions, even if what they reveal is substantive.
“I think that Mr. Snowden raised some legitimate concerns,” President Obama said. “How he did it was something that did not follow the procedures and practices of our intelligence community. If everybody took the approach that I make my own decisions about these issues, then it would be very hard to have an organized government or any kind of national security system.”
However, despite that potentially chaotic scenario, it doesn’t sound like the door would be entirely closed for some sort of leniency. “At the point at which Mr. Snowden wants to present himself before the legal authorities and make his arguments or have his lawyers make his arguments,’ Obama said, “then I think those issues come into play.”
It’s worth noting that Snowden’s decision not to present himself for trial doesn’t legally exclude him from being pardoned — The Verge points out that plenty of pardons have been handed down for people who were indicted but who didn’t stand trial. This even happened under Obama’s administration.
Unfortunately for Snowden, getting a pardon will get exponentially more difficult under the incoming administration. President-elect Trump has selected Mike Pompeo to run the CIA; Pompeo has called Snowden a traitor and said that he believes he should be executed for his crimes.
Via: The Verge
Source: Der Spiegel
The 11 best tech gifts for movie buffs
We’re guessing this person on your list already owns a TV. (And if they don’t — or you just love them very much — we have a couple suggestions.) But there are other ways to help your movie-loving friend round out their home theater setup. If money is tight, why not go for one of Roku’s recently released media streamers? They come in at different price points, but we ultimately recommend them all. Alternatively, perhaps your friend could use a sound bar or a 4K HDR receiver for better audio, or a projector to make movie nights at home feel that much more cinematic.
Or, you know, you could just get them some Blu-rays. Just make sure you exercise good taste. Here at Engadget, we recommend Lone Wolf and Cub, the Horace and Pete digital box set and the Mad Max “High Octane” edition.
For our full list of recommendations in all categories, don’t forget to stop by our main Holiday Gift Guide hub.
Tesla’s SolarCity acquisition is a done deal
When compared to most major business mergers, the union of Tesla and SolarCity happened about as fast as a Tesla launching to 60MPH in Ludicrous Mode. The two companies announced their intent to merge back in August and got shareholder approval last week. This morning, they confirmed that the deal is complete, TechCrunch reports. The news comes just a few weeks after Tesla unveiled its solar roof and PowerWall 2 home battery.
Given that both companies are aiming for the same well-off, eco-conscious audience, it makes plenty of sense for them to merge. Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped start Solar City with his cousins, Peter and Lyndon Rive, and also served as chairman. Musk originally positioned the combined firm as an “end-to-end clean energy” solution, and later noted that SolarCity would add $1 billion to Tesla’s revenues next year. Naturally, Tesla expects the merger to also lead to savings in marketing, R&D and overhead costs.
Source: TechCrunch
OnePlus 3T review: A satisfying update to a fairly new phone
Remember the OnePlus 3? It came out barely six months ago and was the best phone you could get for $400. Well, it’s about to be replaced by a faster, slightly more expensive version of itself that the company is calling the OnePlus 3T. (The T doesn’t stand for anything; it’s a cheeky take on the typical “S” suffix denoting many flagship sequels.) The new $439 device uses the latest Snapdragon 821 processor to achieve even faster speeds, and packs a beefier battery and sharper front camera — improvements in areas where the original sort of fell short. I say “sort of” because other than battery life, the OnePlus 3 didn’t need much improving. But OnePlus made it better anyway, and now it’s one of the best phones on the market, especially at this price.
Hardware
There isn’t much of a difference, at least externally, between the OnePlus 3T and its predecessor. Indeed, a lot of what I’m going to describe here was covered in greater detail in our review of the original. The most obvious physical change is the new “gunmetal” color, which is a slightly darker shade of gray-silver than the OnePlus 3. A “soft gold” option is also available, just like with the original.
Color aside, the 3T looks exactly the same as its predecessor, which itself is impressive, given that it has a larger battery. It sports the same 5.5-inch full HD Optic AMOLED display, which was sharp and bright enough to watch videos on indoors and outdoors. It also has the same single speaker at the bottom that was loud enough to fill my living room with sound, although it got tinny at top volume.
You’ll find the same fingerprint sensor, USB-C charging port and physical mute switch here as on the OnePlus 3. Just like the previous version, the OnePlus 3T has a dual nano SIM card slot, but no room for a microSD reader. Those who want more storage will have to opt for a new 128GB option, which costs $479. Neither phone meets widely accepted water-resistance standards, though the company says the handsets will survive wet weather. It didn’t rain during my review period, so I unfortunately wasn’t able to test that claim.
Software
You probably won’t notice many differences between the OnePlus 3’s version of OxygenOS and its successor’s; the changes here are very subtle. The company resized its app icons so they’re consistent across the home, all apps and Shelf pages, and added some new gestures, such as three-finger screenshots and flip-to-mute, to make the phone more convenient to use.
The OnePlus 3T also gets new apps for weather and voice recording, and allows you to lock specific apps with your fingerprint. It also features a quick-settings panel that’s more similar to what you’ll find on Android Nougat. The changes here aren’t major, but they do make getting around the system slightly easier.
Cameras
I don’t generally need an excuse to go on a selfie-taking binge, but I did appreciate having “testing the OnePlus 3T’s 16-megapixel front camera” as a reason to do so. The new setup is much sharper than the one on the OnePlus 3, which the company says makes for better low-light performance.
This was indeed true when I casually snapped dozens of portraits while traipsing around Manhattan one night, and the camera delivered several crisp images, despite all the motion. Not only were they sharp, but the pictures were also bright and relatively noise-free. I had to take a picture in a dark, poorly lit warehouse before I started to see any graininess. The one thing I wish the OnePlus 3T’s front camera had was some form of flash, for taking clear shots in near-darkness.
Just because they have the same megapixel count, though, doesn’t mean that the front and rear cameras are the same. They differ quite vastly on color quality, thanks to their different sensors and pixel size. The same scenes shot with the front camera looked washed-out and pale compared with those taken with the rear camera, which generally captured vibrant, richly colored images. OnePlus 3T also added a layer of sapphire glass to the back camera to protect it from scratches that could forever mar your shots.
As we mentioned in our review of the OnePlus 3, the rear camera is capable in most lighting conditions, but won’t impress the way the iPhone 7 Plus or many other smartphone cameras would. It delivered sharp, accurately colored exterior shots on sunny days, and rendered a respectable amount of detail in low light, but images looked flat indoors. Still, it’s perfectly adequate, and that front camera will please selfie fans like myself.
Performance and battery life
Most flagship phones released this year use the Snapdragon 820 processor, rather than the newer 821 chip that Qualcomm started offering later in the year. So, only the Google Pixel and LeEco Le Pro3 have it, which makes the OnePlus 3 slightly less competitive on specs (the LePro 3 costs the same as the OnePlus 3). I imagine this is one of the biggest reasons OnePlus decided to drop a new flagship so soon after unveiling its previous one, but still, it’s a smart move.
LeEco Le Pro3
Google Pixel
AndEBench Pro
14,399
13,841
13,354
14,941
Vellamo 3.0
6,144
5,202
6,559
5,343
3DMark IS Unlimited
31,691
30,058
31,753
28,645
GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
50
48
30
46
CF-Bench
51,262
41,653
42,572
30,997
The Snapdragon 821 processor makes the OnePlus 3T faster than the original, which was already pretty speedy. It’s hard to tell the difference in day-to-day performance, because I’m not a robot and can’t detect minute differences in app-launch times, but overall the 3T was very responsive. Its Vellamo score of 6,144 beat the OnePlus 3, the Samsung Galaxy S7, the HTC 10 and the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, while its AndEBench result trumped the OnePlus 3 and the Galaxy S7 but fell short of the Pixel phones and HTC 10. The OnePlus 3T also bested the field in graphics-performance tests.
This means you’re mostly going to see similar speeds across these phones. Considering the Pixels use the same chip (albeit with less RAM) but cost hundreds of dollars more, the OnePlus 3T really delivers on value here.
The OnePlus 3T has the same 6GB of RAM as the original, which makes for swift multitasking. OnePlus says it also improved the launch speed for large apps and games, so you won’t have to wait quite as long to open these programs. I also found call quality to be perfectly adequate. I called a friend who was in Queens (on T-Mobile’s network), and he was able to accurately repeat a string of numbers that I recited, despite his dog barking in the background, which I heard as well. Unfortunately, as with previous OnePlus handsets, the 3T works only on GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.
One area where the company says it received the most negative feedback about the OnePlus 3 was battery life. In addition to simply bumping up the battery capacity to 3,400mAh from 3,000mAh, OnePlus tuned the power efficiency of the CPU so that despite its faster speed, it sips power at the same rate as the previous handset.
I was expecting a slight increment on endurance and wasn’t quite prepared for the 3T’s epic stamina. It lasted 16 hours and seven minutes on Engadget’s battery test, which involves looping an HD video with the screen set to 50 percent brightness until the device conks out. That’s almost six hours more than the OnePlus 3’s runtime, and two hours longer than the Google Pixel XL, which has a 3,450mAh bank.
When the phone does eventually run out of juice, it charges back up to offer what the company says is a day’s worth of power in 30 minutes. After the OnePlus 3T finally died on Engadget’s battery test, I plugged it in and was able to take it on a quick video shoot just 15 minutes after, because it already got back up to 20 percent in that time. Not only is this fast, but that’s enough juice to last at least two hours.
The competition
The OnePlus 3T faces direct competition from the LeEco Le Pro3, which uses the same processor with less RAM for $400. But the Le Pro3 suffers from unintuitive software, has a less vibrant display and doesn’t last as long as the 3T.
Google’s Pixel phones also use the same processors, offering similar (if not better) performance in a premium frame. These handsets have better cameras and run the latest version of Android (7.0 Nougat), offering a cleaner interface and helpful new features like Google Assistant. But the Pixel lineup starts at $800, which is nearly twice the OnePlus 3T’s asking price. Indeed, the latest OnePlus handset is probably the best handset you’re going to find for around $440.
Wrap-up
The OnePlus 3T improves things about the original that were slightly lacking, such as battery life, and amps up on performance and software, making it a strong option for power users. I particularly love the sharper front camera for its solid performance in low light. I’d also argue that the boost in endurance alone is worth the $39 price hike, but the previous iteration offered enough stamina for the average user who may not want to shell out for a few extra hours of juice. As a replacement for an existing flagship, the OnePlus 3T is a refinement that not only feels timely, but also well-planned and executed. You’d have a hard time finding a better phone for the price.
Google Maps will help you avoid Black Friday hordes
For over a year now, Google Maps and Search have been telling people when stores, bars and restaurants are likely to be busy. Now, it’s going one step further. From today, searching for a business via Google will not only show you when it’s typically crowded, but also an estimation of how busy it is right now. So if you see that a particular store is very full you can plan to head somewhere else. It’s hoped that the feature will help users avoid the worst of the crowds over Thanksgiving long weekend, and beyond.
There are a couple of other additions rolling out today. Place listings in Search and Maps will now tell you how long the typical stay is at a location, so if you people usually spend two hours at a restaurant, you can plan the rest of your day accordingly. Finally, Maps will now list more complex opening hours. “You’ll know what time to pop by the pharmacy at your local drugstore or supermarket, when food delivery begins at a nearby restaurant and what the service hours are at the auto dealership,” said Google.
Twelve South Debuts ‘HiRise Duet’ Charging Stand for iPhone and Apple Watch
Twelve South today introduced a new product in its HiRise line, called the HiRise Duet, which provides charging stations for an iPhone or iPad, as well as an Apple Watch. The stand supports the Apple Watch’s Night Stand Mode, which displays an alarm clock and turns the device’s Digital Crown into a snooze button.
The stand has a 3.75” square footprint and includes an integrated Lightning charger for iPhone and iPad, as well as a Magnetic Charging Disc for the Apple Watch, all of which are powered by a single AC cable. The bottom of the stand is lined with a layer of leather to protect the Apple Watch from scuffs.
Unlike plastic stands that get dragged across the nightstand from the weight of the power cord, the all metal HiRise Duet stays put. This mighty one pound, dual charging stand weighs as much as three iPhone 7’s. So when you reach for your iPhone in the middle of the night, or go for the snooze button in the morning, both devices will be right where you put them – atop HiRise Duet. You’ll also notice the curves on HiRise Duet mirror the beautiful design of iPhone and Watch.
The HiRise Duet is available from Twelve South for $119.99. The stand supports the iPad mini, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and any recent Lightning-enabled iPhone generation.
Tag: Twelve South
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Review: Zhiyun’s Smooth II 3-Axis Gimbal Gives iPhone Video Footage Better Stability
Digital image and video stabilization features have been included in modern smartphones for a while now, with each new generation offering improved correction for jumps and jitters that typically occur during handheld shooting.
Still, even the latest handsets can’t quite match the benefits that can be gained from using a motorized mount specifically designed to reduce vibration and unwanted shake.
Smartphone gimbals are made for just this purpose. Phone gimbals look similar to selfie sticks, but incorporate special motorized axes that keep shooting balanced and steady by adjusting for tilt, roll and tracking movements.
One brand that’s been steadily gaining plaudits for its gimbals is Zhiyun. The Chinese firm’s gimbals in its Smooth range have been noted amongst video aficionados for their robust design, multiple operational modes, and relative affordability compared to the competition. Here, we looked at the company’s latest Z1-Smooth II ($329) to see what advantages a gimbal offers for iPhone owners.
Design and Features
The Smooth II 3-axis stabilizer is designed for phones with screen sizes up to seven inches, and comes supplied with a counterweight to balance phones with a lens attachment or those with weightier screens (5.5-inches and above).
Also in the box is a USB to micro-USB charging cable, a 3400mAh rechargeable removable battery, a quick-start user manual (English), a foam camera protection sticker, and a set of ‘contact us’ QR codes.
The mount is made from a tough aluminum alloy that feels sturdy yet surprisingly lightweight. The axes flop about a bit when the device is powered off, so it pays to be careful when you’re carrying it around (especially with a phone attached), but it still feels like it could take a few knocks.
Phones are mounted using the manually adjustable clamp that runs off the tilt axis, which extends from the central roll axis. A thumb screw on the back of the mount lets you tweak the level, based on your phone’s center of gravity. The clamp has quite a bit of force, so I wouldn’t recommend putting an iPhone into it without a bumper or case, but there’s plenty of give to accommodate for this.
The gimbal has three operating modes that work in different ways to counteract your movements and create smoother, more stable video (more on these below).
The operating modes are controlled from the handgrip by pressing down on the joystick, which also functions as a standby button. There’s a separate power switch (which can also start/stop video recording when connected to the iOS app over Bluetooth), an LED power indicator, a micro-USB port, and a shifter lever for camera zoom and front/rear camera switching when using the app.
A cap at the end of the handle screws off to provide access to the replaceable 18650 battery, which charges inside the gimbal when the device is plugged into a power source via USB. At the bottom of the handle is also a 1/4-inch screw thread for attaching the gimbal to a tripod, extension rod, or other camera equipment.
Performance
Getting going with the gimbal was easier than I expected, and the quick-start guide was clear and helpful. Sliding an iPhone 6s into the mount was simple, and didn’t require me to use the supplied counterweight, which is needed if you want to use any of Apple’s 5.5-inch iPhone Plus models. I extended the clamp with my hands, slipped in the handset in the correct orientation, and was good to go.
Pressing and holding the power button for three seconds turned on the device, which raised the phone into a level horizontal or “landscape” position. Repeating this turns off the gimbal, which makes the mount fall down limply. This is why it’s important to apply the foam camera protection sticker to the pan motor axis, because the phone screen can knock against it unless you power off with the gimbal pointed down towards the floor.
The default Pan Following mode offered instant, no-fuss video stabilization, enabling 360-degree freedom of movement at the lower (pan) axis while keeping the horizon level. This allowed me to control the panning direction of the shot from my wrist while the tilt and roll axes corrected for any unintentional wonkiness.
From there, a single press of the joystick enabled Locking mode, which locked the left and right panning motion and kept the camera forward facing regardless of which direction I moved my arm. Panning in this mode is controlled via the joystick, so as long as I didn’t press left or right on it I was able to move around freely without affecting the shooting angle, and even come into shot for a selfie, before completing a full 360-degree rotation around the static upper mount.
Pressing up and down on the joystick in both the above modes allowed me to control the vertical tilt of the camera and move the shot up towards the sky and down to the ground. The only drawback is that there isn’t any way of controlling the speed of the tilt in these two modes, however the Smooth II compensates for this lack with a third mode, activated with a double press of the joystick.
This activates Pan and Pitch Following mode. Now if you bring your wrist in up towards your face or lower it towards the ground, the tilt axis smoothly adjusts to follow the angle of the gimbal at the same speed. The roll axis compensates similarly if you rotate your wrist left and right.
This mode also changes the function of the joystick’s up/down direction, which now allows you to manually adjust the angle of the phone. This gives you some degree of rotational control either side of the standard landscape position (about 25 degrees, give or take). It doesn’t quite roll the camera into a portrait position, but you can use the gimbal to shoot portrait if you hold it parallel to the ground in any of the three modes.
Pressing the joystick once again takes you back to the default mode, while pressing and holding puts the device into standby mode, which can be used to calibrate the gimbal if the tilt/roll/pan angle of the camera deviates slightly from a level position. The calibration process is simple: place the gimbal on a level surface and keep it stationary for 30 seconds. This was performed once and I didn’t have to do it again.
Pressing the joystick again from standby immediately returns the device to normal operation. This proved useful for conserving battery between shots without having to constantly power on and off, which involves a few seconds’ delay as the gimbal configures balance. On that note, I found the battery more than capable of standing up to a couple of days’ use, and Zhiyun’s stated five- to seven-hour battery life actually felt quite conservative.
While it’s not a complicated device to operate, there is a moderate learning curve involved in making the most of the Smooth II’s functions – I dedicated an afternoon to playing with it (see videos), and came away feeling like I had a fair enough grasp of its modes to use them in test shooting. All of the motors and modes functioned silently throughout, so there was no risk of picking up mechanical sounds on my footage. Bear in mind the device has no specified waterproofing, so I would advise against using it in wetter climes.
Bluetooth and Apps
The Bluetooth functionality of the Smooth II is supported by the company’s iOS apps, Zhiyun Camera and Zhiyun Assistant (both English), although there’s relatively little instruction included on how to get the best out of them. That said, they’re not cryptic by any means, and with a bit of fiddling I soon figured out the controls.
The camera app is for shooting video/photos, includes ISO, balance, and exposure settings, and has an option to turn on/off the iPhone’s built-in stabilization mode. With the gimbal connected to the app via Bluetooth, the buttons on the handle control your iPhone’s camera, which turned out to be a lot more convenient than tapping the phone’s touchscreen. Just be sure to give the app access to your photos, otherwise it won’t save your footage. Meanwhile, the Assistant app features an axis monitor and lets you upgrade the firmware, as well as offering finer calibration controls, but these weren’t something I had to bother with.
Bottom Line
Smartphone gimbals are still a niche device, but the Smooth II is a solid, attractive option for anyone wanting to enhance their home/family movies or add a more refined look to video projects. It definitely steadied my test movies over the course of a single afternoon and gave the footage a more watchable, professional feel without the need for any post-processing, and the learning curve wasn’t too difficult either. With additional testing and a better grasp of gimbal technique, I’m sure production values could be raised a lot further.
The device’s performance was impressive overall, as was its battery life, and the price, while not exactly cheap for a phone accessory, is very competitive compared to other gimbals, especially considering the technology this one packs. My only real gripe is that no stowing/carry case is included in the box.
Pros
- Strong, lightweight design
- Very good stabilization modes
- Bluetooth connectivity via app
- Great battery life
Cons
- Sparse app instructions
- No case included
- Expensive for a phone accessory
How to Buy
The Zhiyun Smooth-II 3 Axis Handheld Gimbal Camera Mount comes with a one-year warranty and can be ordered on Amazon for $325 or directly from Zhiyun for $289 plus shipping via the company’s Facebook store.
Note: Zhiyun supplied the gimbal to MacRumors for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
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