Mars probe crashed because it misjudged where the ground was

The European Space Agency believes that it knows what caused its Schiaparelli lander to crash on the surface of Mars. It turns out that the spacecraft was hurtling towards the ground perfectly well until it, uh, forgot where the ground actually was. A sensor tasked with determining its altitude failed for a single second, but that was long enough to wreck the entire mission. Since the vessel believed that it had already arrived, it ran through the rest of the landing process and activated the on-ground sensors.

The inquest as to what caused the failure is still ongoing and may not be resolved for the better part of a year. But officials believe that, specifically, Schiaparelli’s inertial measurement unit was oversaturated for a second, which told the system that it was already below ground. As a consequence, the lander fired its parachute, ejected its heat shield and fired its braking thrusters all at once while still 2.3 miles above the surface.

It’s the second time that Europe has attempted to land a vessel on Mars, only for something to go wrong at the last minute. Beagle 2, from 2003, which successfully arrived on the red planet, but failed to deploy its solar panels to power transmissions. In fact, the craft was only found in 2015, when a NASA spacecraft shot detailed images of the proposed landing site.

Europe’s space bods aren’t too worried about the failure of Schiaparelli, and will continue to work on the ExoMars program. It’s hoped that the next mission in the series will launch in 2020, hopefully with a computer that double-checks its math during a landing procedure.

Via: The Guardian

Source: ESA

First look: BLU Vivo 6 delivers metal body, fingerprint, 64GB storage for £185 on launch day

BLU’s UK debut is an attractive mid-ranger — available on Black Friday for £45 off.

Today Florida-based BLU announces its first entry into the UK market, with the mid-priced BLU Vivo 6. The phone sees the upstart manufacturer bring an attractive metal unibody and a handful of premium features like fingerprint security and USB-C connectivity to a phone with a standard price of £239.99. But pick up the phone on launch day — Black Friday — on Amazon UK, and it’s yours for a mere £184.99.

So what does that get you? Let’s take a look.

A good-looking phone at any price point.

On the outside, the Vivo 6 sports a curved aluminum unibody with a brushed finish, and a subtle curve that fits comfortably in the hand. Chamfers around the front and back give it a premium look and feel, similar to an old favorite of ours, the HTC One M7. It’s a trued and true design that many have emulated over the years, but nevertheless it looks good at any price point.

Around the front, the rose gold model we’ve been using has a white border around its 5.5-inch 1080p LCD display. It’s a good-looking panel that’s easily visible in daylight, and vibrant but not over-saturated. We have noticed some subtle ghosting in day-to-day use, though — significantly more than most other Android phones with LCD panels.

The Vivo 6’s button setup will be familiar to anyone who’s used a recent Samsung phone. There’s a central home button, which also houses the phone’s surprisingly quick fingerprint scanner, sandwiched between two capacitive keys. (These buttons aren’t labeled, because you can choose which is used for the back key and recent apps functions.)

On the inside, there’s a solid collection of mid-range hardware. The Vivo 6 is powered by MediaTek’s Helio P10 processor — a chip that hasn’t made it into many phones in the West, but with four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.8GHz, there’s plenty of power to go around. The inclusion of 4GB of RAM and a hefty 64GB of internal storage is also welcome, plus there’s the option of dual-SIM support or microSD expandability via a hybrid slot.

Other highlights include…

BLU’s software is fast, colorful and feature-packed, but the UI won’t fit everyone’s tastes.

The 13-megapixel rear camera follows a familiar pattern for mid-range Android phones: In daylight or well-lit conditions, it does pretty well. In low light, not so much, with plenty of noise creeping into darker indoor shots and low-light photos. The phone does sport a full-featured camera app, though, with a range of photo filters, along with HDR and beauty modes for agumented selfies.

That’s part of BLU’s highly differentiated Android experience, which sits atop Marshmallow. The firm says an upgrade to Nougat is planned, but there’s no timetable in mind just yet. In any case, BLU’s interpretation of Android 6.0 is a combination of Material Design and its own flattened, geometric UI. In some places it’s a relatively light touch of customization atop the OS. In others, things have been completely rearranged — for example, quick settings now live behind a swipe up from the bottom of the screen, as in iOS.

BLU has also baked some genuinely useful additions into its software — a quick app shortcuts menu that lives behind a sideways swipe of the fingerprint scanner, scrollable screenshots for longer captures, and a “fake call” button for getting out of awkward situations. There’s also an optional floating button widget, which makes one-handed use a little easier.

Besides which the phone is incredibly quick in day-to-day use — there’s not a hint of lag or stuttering to be seen when jumping between apps — and thanks to the ample 4GB of RAM, we didn’t notice any multitasking issues either.

A mix of Android and iOS design influences.

But there are also changes that may rub Android purists the wrong way, like the aforementioned iOS-style quick settings, and the springboard-style home screen with no app drawer.

Software quirks aside, the BLU Vivo 6 looks like a solid mid-ranger, especially at its Amazon launch day price. However, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to help BLU break into a new market — particularly in the wake of the recent spyware scandal which reportedly affected some of BLU’s other phones. (BLU tells us the Vivo 6 is safe, and affected devices have been patched.)

The BLU Vivo 6 is on sale on November 25 for £184.99. From November 26, the price will revert back to the standard £239.99.

See at Amazon UK

Drop some beats and start the party anytime, anywhere with the wireless Minim mobile music maker by Livid (32 per cent off)

You won’t want to pass up this addicting little mobile instrument designed for making complex music on the go – you’ll be the hit of all the holiday parties without even breaking a sweat.

Called an “engineering masterpiece” and “really brilliant device” by Ask Audio, this highly portable creativity-boosting device made by Livid Instruments (creators of Guitar Wing) is available right now for £81.09 ($99.99 USD), 32 per cent off the retail price.

The Livid Minim mobile music maker features 8 expressive pads, a fader, 3D motion control, and touch-sensitive technology that will sync up with your smartphone, tablet, or computer wirelessly via Bluetooth LE MIDI so you can create and play music from wherever you are. Its non-slip rubberized bottom will ensure it stays put, even if you get a little overly enthusiastic about your masterpiece. Once you’ve dropped some tracks, you can loop up to 8 of them together for a whole new sound.

With the free Minim Music Lab app, you can intuitively create incredible music. It features a variety of built-in sounds, from synths to drum kits, for you to play around with. Maybe you already have a preferred music app? No worries. The Livid Minim integrates with whatever your personal favorite is, such as Garage Band, Ableton Live, or any other software that recognizes MIDI message.

Compatibility with Mac OS X 10.10 or later, iOS 8 or later, and Android 6 or later make this a great gift for any music lover or budding audio artist (or yourself—we won’t judge), even if you don’t know which device they’re on.

Including a charging cable and carrying case, this deal is worth £120.83 ($149 USD), but you can get the Minim Mobile Music Maker today for just £81.09 ($99.99 USD). Grab one now before they’re gone!

Major improvements to Audials MovieBox for Windows give you the best stream-recording experience yet, and now it’s 50 per cent off

Streaming movies and TV shows is great, but there’s not much you can do with that when you’re without an internet connection. Audials MovieBox 2017 solves that problem, legally.

When you’re planning a trip to the middle of the woods or a remote tropical island, and finally have the time to catch up on Dr. Who, the MovieBox will be your new BFF. For just £16.17 ($19.95 USD), you’ll be able to record media from any streaming, video-on-demand source—really—and save it to watch later, on any device, without needing to be online.

With a Windows 10, 8, 7, or Vista computer, you can record legal media streams of movies and TV shows from services like Netflix, SkyGo, and Amazon, thanks to the MovieBox’s new Generation 2017 abilities. Video streaming services use what’s called “adaptive streaming” to bring you content on demand in high quality, which previous versions of MovieBox weren’t so great at recording. Audials has now figured out how to record all the different types of stream protection among the various platforms, even recommending the right settings for a specific recording, so you’ll have access to practically anything you want.

Management of your media library is easy and worry-free; you can convert, edit, and store your video files for PC, smartphones, and tablets; you can edit movies from DVDs, TV, or protected online videos; and the Audials team pushes weekly updates to MovieBox to ensure you can always record in the best possible quality. In addition, you can set up recordings to begin automatically in the future, as the program keeps an eye out for legal playback of whatever you’re on the hunt for.

If you’ve been debating cutting the cord, debate no more. For Pocket-lint readers, the user-friendly Audials MovieBox 2017 is just too good a deal to miss: normally £32.34 ($39.90 USD), get it today for £16.17 ($19.95 USD).

5 things you didn’t know you could do with a Tile

Find your Keys, wallet, phone, anything with Tile.

Tile is a tiny Bluetooth-enabled tracker and companion app that allows you to locate your items, fast. And now this best-selling device comes in two different forms designed to work with all your favorite things:

●      Tile Slim is as thin as two credit cards so it fits perfectly into any wallet or purse.

●      Tile Mate has a convenient hole to attach to your keys or bags.

Attach Tile to anything you’d hate to lose and you can always find it fast.  Use the free Tile app to make your Tile devices ring when you’re within Bluetooth range so you can find them by sound. If you’re out of Bluetooth range, the Tile app remembers the last place you had your things and even shows you where they are on a map.

If you still can’t find your lost item, use Tile’s Community Find feature. Now anyone in Tile’s global community of users can automatically update you on your item’s most recent location just by passing by it! The update is automatic and anonymous!

The most common uses of Tile devices are hanging one on your keychain or slipping one in your wallet, so that you can find your keys and wallet, at any time, but there are several other ways to use Tile. In fact, hereʼs five clever uses for this helpful little device.

Use Tile Slim to track a lost jacket.

Have you ever left your jacket at a bar or restaurant? Well, with a Tile Slim, you can still locate it wherever it is. Simply slip the ultrathin Tile Slim into your jacket pocket and use the “Last Place Seen” feature. If your Tile app is running, it is constantly scanning for your Tiles nearby. If a Tile goes out of range, like when you leave it somewhere, the app will mark it on the map so you can go back to that last known location, including the exact spot your jacket was left.

Take advantage of the Tile network

Tile’s competitive advantage over other Bluetooth trackers lies in its massive “lost and found” network. When something goes missing and it’s not where the Tile app last saw it, you can ask the Tile community for help. Tile uses a “passive network”, so any phone running the Tile app is anonymously looking for other “lost” Tiles all the time. So, if you leave your Tile in a purse at a store, another Tile user will walk by your purse in the next hour and can notify you through a passive text message. Then, once youʼre within Bluetooth range, they can “ring” that object through the app to locate it by sound.

You can build your own network to increase your chances of finding something you’ve misplaced too. Every person who downloads the app becomes a node in your network – they don’t even have to own a Tile. Tile lets you retrace your footsteps There is another feature you can use to find Tile. You can retrace your steps with the Tile app, then use the Tile’s proximity sensor to help you locate it. Imagine having a Tile in your camera bag, but then you lose your camera while out. This feature can help you retrace your steps and find your camera. 

Find your car in the parking lot

Have you ever come back from a shopping trip only to realize that you totally forgot where you parked your car? The solution? Place a dedicated Tile in your car, then run the Tile app to remember where you parked. And if your vehicle happened to be towed, the location of your Tile could be anonymously updated by another member of the Tile community – just by running the app in the background on their phone. You merely need to open the Tile app and then follow the directions to your car.

Find a lost stuffed animal

People use Tile to track all sorts of objects – like keys, wallets, cars, or laptops. Almost anything can be tracked, including stuffed animals.Imagine your daughter has a stuffed teddy and youʼre on vacation somewhere and notice several hours later thatʼs missing. If it has a Tile attached, you can find it.

Amazon Echo just £120 for Black Friday, Echo Dot just £40

Amazon has been rolling out big discounts for its own tech devices all week, but it might have saved the best for a Black Friday reveal. It has slashed £30 off the price of the Amazon Echo, as reviewed here.

The Amazon Echo Dot has also been reduced by £10.

That means you can get the Alexa-powered Echo speaker for £119.99 and the Dot for £39.99. They will also be available at those prices up to the end of play on Tuesday 29 November.

• Buy the Amazon Echo here
• Get the Amazon Echo Dot here

The sale comes a couple of days after the Echo was crowned both best smart home device and product of the year at the EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2016 gala held in London on Wednesday evening. It has received critical praise far and wide, and is set to be one of the biggest gadget gifts to be found under trees this Christmas.

And with the healthy discount, you can even save yourself a few bob when buying one for friends or family.

• Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?
• Amazon Echo tips and tricks
• Amazon Echo: First 7 things you should do to get Alexa started

Amazon has been running Black Friday deals for the last couple of weeks, with thousands of products being dropped in price for the duration. Another of its homegrown devices to get an attractive new price point until next week is the Amazon Fire tablet, which presently costs just £30.

Blu Vivo 6 hits Black Friday sales: Impressive 5.5-inch metal unibody Android phone for £185

Going metal often means digging deep into your pockets. Brands like Huawei and OnePlus have been pulling down the price of premium metal devices, but few will be as affordable as the Blu Vivo 6.

Blu is one of the largest providers of unlocked phones in the US and you can now buy Blu devices through Amazon.co.uk. Usually priced at £239.99, it’s launching on Amazon.co.uk and immediately going on sale as a deal of the day, priced at £184.99. 

• Click here to buy the Blu Vivo 6 on Amazon.co.uk

The Blu Vivo 6 has a metal body finished to an impressively high standard, with neat chamfering for that premium look, and a subtle curve to the rear to make it fit nicely into your hand.

There’s a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display on the front offering 401ppi, there’s a home button with fingerprint sensor flanked by capacitive keys for navigation.

There’s a 13-megapixel camera on the rear offering phase detection autofocus, and an 8-megapixel front camera.

Sitting at the heart is a MediaTek Helio P10 octo-core chipset with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage, with microSD card support. 

Running Android 6 Marshmallow, the Blu Vivo 6 has a collection of bundled apps from Amazon and some tweaks to the user interface. There’s a neat Chameleon app that will let you quickly change the colours as well as a theme app to change the look of your phone. 

The Blu Vivo 6 is available from Amazon.co.uk from 25 November, hitting the online retailer at £184.99 for a limited time period. It is available in gold, rose gold and grey.

Grab a Sonos Play:1 for £139 from Black Friday to Cyber Monday

The Sonos Play:1 is the entry point to Sonos’ range of multi-room wireless speakers. It may be small in size but the sound it can deliver will likely take you by surprise upon first listen.

• Buy a Sonos Play:1 for £139 from Sonos.com

It’s a versatile speaker too and will be at home in the living room, kitchen, bedroom or anywhere else you want to play some top quality music.

The good news is getting in on the Sonos action is now even more affordable from now until Cyber Monday, as Sonos is reducing the price of the Play:1 from £169 to £139.

A £30 saving may not seem like a lot, but Sonos rarely discounts its products, so act quickly while you can.

Sonos works with the vast majority of music streaming services available in the UK, including Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and the recently released Amazon Music Unlimited. TuneIn radio is onboard too and everything is streamed via Wi-Fi, so you only use your phone, tablet or laptop as a controller, helping to save on battery life. Plus it means music can be beamed around the room in the highest possible quality.

• Sonos tips and tricks: Get the most out of your multi-room system

You’ll be able to pick one up from Apple Stores around the UK or directly from Sonos.com. And once you’ve got your speaker, you can read our handy tips and tricks guide to get the most out of your new speaker.

• Best Black Friday UK TV deals: 4K, HDR, OLED TVs and more
• Black Friday UK laptop deals: the best laptop deals online
• Best Black Friday UK fitness tracker deals: Garmin, Fitbit, Polar and more
• Best Black Friday UK games deals: Amazing PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo deals
• Best Black Friday UK camera deals: DSLR, compact and system camera bargains
• Best Black Friday UK phone deals: Apple, Samsung, Android phone deals galore
• Black Friday UK smartwatch deals: The best smartwatch deals online
• Best Black Friday UK tablet deals: iPad, Android, Surface, Amazon and more

Plex’s machine learning tech auto-tags photos for you

Plex has made it easier for premium users to organize their photos and to unearth specific snapshots from their massive collections. The service now auto-tags photos based on what its new machine learning technology sees. If the tech detects a dog in a photo, for instance, it could tag that image with the words “dog” and “puppy.” Since tags are useless if you can’t sort your images with their help, Plex has also updated its web app’s interface to be able to search tags. Further, the interface will now display related images based on the tags you look up.

While only Plex Pass subscribers will be able to take advantage of its new tagging features, the service has updated its service for everyone. The Photo library now combines both videos and images to make searching for files much easier. Finally, has Plex tweaked its app to make importing photos thrice as fast as before.

Source: Plex