Oppo’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray player is a tribute to physical media
Add one more Ultra HD Blu-ray player to the list, now that Oppo is ready to release its UDP-203. While the $550 deck doesn’t include any 4K streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon or Vudu, it’s all about high-end disc playback. It’s also able to play Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, DVD Audio, Super Audio CD and CD, if you just can’t let physical media go. There are two HDMI outputs (in case your receiver isn’t able to pass through 4K/HDR video) and one input.
Beyond support for current audio codecs (including bitstreaming for Dolby Atmos and DTS: X surround sound), Oppo is promising an “early 2017” firmware update to support Dolby Vision HDR. We haven’t seen movies released in that format yet, but if/when we do, it could provide even more detail than the HDR-10 format that this and other UHD players are mandated to support.
Of course, there are other options like the now-Atmos-ready Xbox One, as well as standalone decks from Panasonic, Philips and Samsung, while Sony’s first high-end player is due next year. Oppo is also planning another version of this player called the UDP-205, with a few tweaks intended for audiophiles. The first slate of preorders for the UDP-203 are already filled up, but the company says it expects to reopen them on December 16th.
Source: Oppo, FAQ, PR
‘Pokémon Go’ is live in India and South Asia
Pokémon Go has expanded to a new region about once a month, launching in Southeast Asia and Oceania back in August, parts of the Balkans and Central Asia in September and some of the Middle East in November. Today, the game is finally opening in India and these South Asian countries: Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
In a post announcing the expansion, Niantic specifically apologized to their Indian fanbase, citing “a few administrative challenges” that delayed the launch. Players in the country won’t just have Starbucks hotspots, either: regional LTE mobile network operator Reliance Jio has made 3,000 of their stores and partner locations into PokéStops and Gyms. This mobile provider partnership shouldn’t be a surprise, as Niantic partnered with over 10,000 Sprint stores last week to provide American users with the same hotspot action.
Source: Niantic blog
Amazon Debuts App For Shopping on the Apple TV
Amazon today introduced a new app called “Amazon App: Browse, Search, and Shop,” which is designed to let users look for and purchase items from Amazon.com.
Anyone can use Amazon’s new app to browse through and search for products using dictation, but to make a purchase, an Amazon Prime membership is required. Amazon Prime costs $99 per year and offers benefits like Amazon Video and free two-day shipping.
Amazon App includes product details, reviews, and “immersive” product images and videos, all of which can be viewed on the television screen. Purchases are made using the Apple TV remote, but users can also add items to a list to purchase later via an iPhone or computer.
Many Apple TV owners have long been hoping for an app that brings Amazon’s Prime Video offerings to Apple’s set-top box, but this is not that app. It’s limited to shopping only.
Amazon’s new app can be downloaded on fourth-generation Apple TV models for free.
Tag: Amazon
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Apple Pulls watchOS 3.1.1 Update After Bricking Complaints
Following complaints that the new watchOS 3.1.1 update is bricking some Series 2 Apple Watch models, Apple has temporarily pulled the update.
watchOS 3.1.1 is no longer available for download from the Watch app on the iPhone, with watchOS 3.1 listed as the most recent update for those who had not already downloaded and installed 3.1.1.
After installing watchOS 3.1.1, some Apple Watch Series 2 owners had their devices bricked. Affected Apple Watches are displaying a red exclamation mark on the screen that instructs them to visit http://www.apple.com/help/watch.
The site directs Apple Watch owners to perform a force restart of the Apple Watch by holding down the side button and the Digital Crown, and says that if a restart does not work to restore the device, it will need to be taken in for service.
Resetting the Apple Watch has not worked for customers who have had their watches bricked by watchOS 3.1.1, and replacement Apple Watches will be required. Apple retail locations cannot service Apple Watches in store, because access to the diagnostic port (something not done in-store) is required.
Most users who are affected by the problem own an Apple Watch Series 2, and it is not yet clear why the update failed on some devices and not on others. watchOS 3.1.1 will likely be made available again once the bug is cleared up. Customers with an Apple Watch bricked by watchOS 3.1.1 should visit an Apple retail store or contact Apple support.
(Thanks, Manolo!)
Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Jabra Elite Sport review – CNET
The Good The Jabra Elite Sport is a set of totally fully waterproof wireless sports earphones with a built-in heart-rate monitor that sounds quite good if you can get a tight seal. Works very well as a headset as single or stereo buds. Compatible with leading third-party fitness apps as well as Jabra’s companion fitness app. Charging case delivers two full charges.
The Bad May be a tad bulky for some people’s ears; pricey; battery life between case charges is only three hours.
The Bottom Line Despite some small drawbacks, the Jabra Sport Elite is one of the stronger early entries in the totally wireless headphone arena.
No, the Apple AirPods aren’t the only “true wireless” headphones you can buy. Several other competitors have trickled into the market for standalone left and right earbuds in recent months, including the Motorola VerveOnes, Samsung Galaxy Gear IconX, Erato Apollo 7, Earin and the upcoming Here One. And now Jabra has entered the zero-wire fray with its Elite Sport wireless sports earbuds. They’re available in the US ($250), UK (£230) and the EU (€250), with an Australian launch slated for later in the year (pricing not yet announced, but US price converts to approximately AU$330).
The Jabra Elite sports comes with a variety of eartips and fins to help you get the right fit.
Sarah Tew/CNET
What makes the Elite Sport so elite? For starters, the ‘buds are fully sweat- and waterproof. There’s also an integrated heart-rate monitor that provides “in-ear fitness analysis” and, as you’d suspect from a Jabra headphone, they work quite well as a headset for making calls, with built-in noise reduction technology. According to Jabra, the earbuds analyze external sounds and automatically switch to the earbud with least background noise. I had no problem making calls from the noisy streets of New York, which is a feat.
What also impressed me about these guys was their ability to maintain a steady, hiccup-free connection and stay in my ears while running. They also sound quite decent, though with in-ear noise-isolating headphones such as these, it’s crucial that you get a tight seal to get the best sound quality, and you’ll have to try out a few of the various tips and fins that Jabra provides before you settle into a fit you’re satisfied with.
Once again, none of the included eartips allowed me to get a tight seal. But I dug up an extra large silicone tip from the myriad tips I have lying around the office and — voilà — the sound improved by 25 percent, particularly the bass. The only problem was that with those larger tips, the earbuds didn’t quite fit in their charging case (I couldn’t snap the lid completely shut).
The earphones are fully waterproof.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Of course, there’s a good chance one of the tips will fit you perfectly and you won’t have this problem (my ears are admittedly tough to fit, but there are plenty of people out there with ears that are tough to fit with in-ear sports headphones).
Another downside is the earphones are somewhat beefy. And while they should fit most people’s ears pretty well — and fairly comfortably — due to their size and the shape of my ear, I didn’t find them supercomfortable, though I felt better about them once I found the right tip.
Like competing products, battery life isn’t great — they’re rated at just three hours of music listening — but it’s easy to get extra juice by slipping them into their charging case, which has an integrated battery that gives you two additional charges.
You can use the headphones with your favorite iOS and Android running and fitness apps, including Endomondo, RunKeeper, MapMy Fitness, Runtastic, and Strava, but Jabra has its own training-management app called Jabra Sport Life that’s good, too, and gives you in-ear coaching and feedback.
Facebook’s standalone Events app arrives on Android at last
It’s taken a bit more than two months, but Facebook has finally brought its standalone Events app to Android. Having debuted in October this year, Events lets you stalk see happenings that your friends are interested in attending, as well as affairs hosted by Pages you like and updates from parties you’ve already RSVPed to. You can also look for recommendations of upcoming things to do based on time, location and your interests.
Like the iOS version, Events for Android also lets you add your phone’s calendar to see if you have any conflicts with what you’d like to attend. Unfortunately, Play Store reviews indicate that users aren’t very pleased with the app’s UI so far, saying it looks like a poor port from the version made for Apple devices. You might want to wait just a tad longer before relying on the new app to organize and suggest items for your calendar.
To be clear, you could already look up happenings from your browser or Facebook app, but this service makes it easier to find something to do that might be more relevant to your location or interests. The social network said Events already sees 450 million users worldwide, making it a very useful tool that harnesses its massive footprint to provide comprehensive listings. That utility and potentially vast audience could give Events a longer shelf life than Facebook’s other short-lived standalone offerings.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Events from Facebook (Google Play Store)
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 is just $249 until Christmas
Get a great compact tablet for a solid price for the holidays.
Though it’s getting a bit old (about a year at this point), the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 is still a really solid tablet and it can be had for a full $150 off retail price from now until December 25. There’s no discount link or coupon code to follow, as the price has already dropped at Amazon.
The Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 has a fantastic Super AMOLED display wrapped in a strong and super-light metal body and powered by plenty of hardware to get you by. The camera isn’t great, the battery is a tad on the small side considering its size and it doesn’t have all of the latest features, but at this price you can probably look past that. (There also haven’t been that many great small tablets released lately.)
Amazon has all three colors — black, white, gold — available, but I’d personally recommend the black model in terms of reducing screen glare. But hey, it’s personal preference. The discount runs until December 25 and is “while supplies last,” so hit up the link below to get in on this great deal.
See at Amazon
Dealing with nausea when using Google Daydream
Dealing with nausea is a pain, but you can take precautions to avoid it.
For some people, enjoying time in VR can cause dizziness or nausea. While this doesn’t happen to everyone, or even happen every time you jump into VR, it’s still no fun. Google Daydream can cause you to feel sick, just like any other VR headset. That’s why we’ve put together a few tips to help avoid this problem.
Read more at VR Heads!
Google Home: Top 10 Tips & Tricks
Get the most from your Google Home by starting with these tips and tricks.
Using Google Home is fun. That’s not unique to just Google Home — telling any computer no matter what size or shape to do stuff by talking to it is just fun. And the more you talk to your Google Home the more things you’ll find out about what it does and what is doesn’t do.
Since a lot of us picked up a Google home during the holiday Black Friday sales and they are starting to arrive, here are ten things you need to do to get the most out of it.
1. Set up IFTTT
Home automation and the world of tomorrow will be really cool when everything finally works with everything else, but in the meantime, there’s IFTTT.
The IFTTT service takes the things you say to your Google Home and sends commands to the other smart things you have even if the two don’t talk the same language out of the box. Setting things up is easier than you think, and the list of smart devices supported by IFTTT is huge.
When I wake up in the morning, saying hello to Google Home has my Hue lamps (Hue applet) glowing a nice soft yellow, music playing through my stereo (Harmony applet) and a pot of coffee brewed, hot and ready (WeMo applet) when I step out of the shower. All because of IFTTT and Google Home. Your smart stuff can be just as cool if you set it up.
2. Find the settings
The settings for your Google Home are kind of hidden in the Google Home app. To find them, open the hamburger menu (the three lines in the upper left corner) and look for Devices in the list. You’ll see your Google Home there. Open it’s menu by tapping the three dots in the upper left corner and choose settings.
Everything you need to get the most from your Google Home is in there!
3. Set up Guest Mode
Your Google Home is a Chromecast Audio target, too. You can tell it to play a song and it will play through its own speaker if you didn’t tell it to play the music on another cast ready device.
Setting up guest mode lets anyone connect to your Google Home once they enter a four-digit PIN provided by the app. Do it while you’re poking around in the settings
4. Give it a new name
In the settings, you’ll see an entry for Name. It’s exactly what you think it is and you can rename your Google Home any time you like.
You can have fun with it, but if you have more than one it’s pretty handy for the name to describe where it sits like “Living Room” but you can name it whatever you like. Remember that anyone you give guest mode access to can see the name — even your mom.
5. Set up your preferences
We’re still in the settings here, and we’re looking at what’s in the More listing.
Here’s where you tell Google Home things like which music service to use when you want to play a song or two and which news sources to use when you want to know what goes on in the outside world. It’s also where you set your address and tell Home what to call you.
Look through them all to make sure Home does things the way you want it to.
6. Check your activity
One last thing in the More settings — scroll to the bottom and tap the My activity entry.
A web page will open with everything Google Home (and Assistant on your phone if you have a Pixel) has recorded, sorted by date and time. You can go through the list and play back exactly what Home heard, get the details about the recording or delete them.
As mentioned at the top of the page, only you have access to these records. But remember, Google “heard” what you said when Home tried to interpret it even if they can’t see the handy list.
7. Give your Chromecasts an easy name
You change the name of a Google Chromecast-ready device the same way you changed the name of Google Home. Now that you’re talking to send movies or music to them, make sure you give them a name that’s easy to remember and recognize.
Like Google Home itself, anyone with guest mode access will see this name so keep that in mind.
8. Play a movie
Settings can be boring so let’s close them.
Tell Google to play a movie from your chosen source or a video from YouTube on your cast ready TV, or tell it to play a song, playlist or genre from your music source on a cast ready device.
You can adjust the volume with your voice (say volume up or set volume to 50%) and tell it to stop playing when you’re ready to turn things off.
If you don’t have another Google cast device, you can always play music on your Google Home itself. They have a half decent speaker inside and they get plenty loud.
9. Mute the mic
Sometimes you might not want Google Home to be listening. It doesn’t care that you sing along to 80s music or about those sexy time sounds you make, but you might not want it to even be an option.
There’s a button on the back of Google Home — it’s the only button and it has a microphone on it — that toggles the mic. Press it and Home will tell you Microphone off and present four amber lights up top. Press it again and it tells you Microphone on and goes back to always listening mode.
10. Get your agenda
Google Home makes a pretty good assistant, too.
Ask Google to Tell me about my day and it digs through your data and uses the internet (and your settings) to tell you the time after a friendly greeting, give you your appointments for the day, tell you about any traffic issues if it thinks you might be driving to one of them, the weather and reads news from the sources you defined in step 5 above.
There’s plenty more things you can have Google Home do and say. Be sure to talk about what you’re doing with it in the comments!
Google Home
- Google Home review
- These services work with Google Home
- Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
- Join our Google Home forums!
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How the Google Pixel’s unlimited photo and video backup works
Unlimited photo and video backup is one of the Pixel’s marquee features.
Google Photos offers unlimited photo backups for everyone as long as the photos are under 16MP and you’re willing to save the files at “High Quality.” But with the Pixel and Pixel XL, you can store unlimited photos and videos (in 4K!) at full resolution and not have it counted against your quota. Here’s how photo backups work on the Pixel.
Which photos get unlimited storage?
Any photo or video uploaded from your Pixel won’t use up any storage space. Before switching to the Pixel, I used up 17.15GB on Google Photos. In the month since, Google Photos backed up over a thousand photos taken from the Pixel’s camera, as well as a few hundred from my Sony RX100 Mark IV — amounting to over 5GB — and my storage quota is unchanged.
Technically, the feature is valid only for photos and videos that are taken using the Pixel, but for now, it looks like all photos uploaded from the Pixel are eligible for free storage at original quality.
You can easily see if your photos take up storage. Head to the Google Drive desktop website, browse to Google Photos -> Select a photo or video -> Click the “i” icon -> Details -> Storage used, and all media uploaded from the Pixel should show as 0 bytes.
What if I switch to another phone?
All photos and videos backed up from the Pixel will continue to stay at original quality, and won’t count against your storage quota. So even if you switch to another phone a year or two down the line, the photos uploaded from your Pixel won’t be altered, nor will you have to upgrade your storage plan to access them.
For instance, if you’re on the free 15GB storage plan and have uploaded over 100GB of photos and videos from your Pixel, you’ll still have access to those files after you move to another device. That 100GB worth of media uploaded from the Pixel won’t be counted against your storage.
What if I buy a Pixel used?
You’ll still be eligible for unlimited photos and videos even if you buy your Pixel used. The feature is tied to the phone and not a specific Google account, so as long as you’re uploading your photos from the Pixel, you’ll be able to store images at original quality without taking up any space.
With unlimited photo backups, the 32GB variant of the Pixel isn’t a bad idea if you’re not fussed about storing your media locally. But if you’re running out of space on your phone, you can easily free up storage.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
- Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
- Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
- Pixel + Pixel XL specs
- Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
- Join the discussion in the forums!
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