Samsung MS750 Soundbar Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Samsung

Samsung has announced its first “all-in-one” sound bar with subwoofer on board — the MS750 sound bar — which will be unveiled at CES 2017.

The sound bar is visually similar to the HW-K950 that was released last year and also features upward-firing tweeters, though it lacks that speaker’s Atmos capabilities.

Like the competitive Zvox SB500, the subwoofer-less Samsung also has DSP and other mechanical technologies on board to prevent low bass from distorting, especially at volume.

Samsung has designed the sound bar to integrate fully with the TVs the company is set to announce at this year’s show by way of a dedicated wallmount system which also includes a power socket for the TV. Using Samsung’s Smart Remote Control, the sound bar is able to be controlled from within the TV itself.

• Samsung’s UHQ 32-bit audio
• HDMI input
• “Distortion cancelling” and “wide-band tweeter” technology
• Pricing and availability to be announced

Samsung UBD-M9500 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Samsung

Following on from last year’s UDB-K8500, Samsung has announced its second 4K Blu-ray player, the M9500. Features get a bump on this model with Bluetooth streaming and tighter integration with other Samsung Smart Remote-compatible products.

Like LG Blu-ray players and the Roku before them, the M9500 now features a Private Cinema Mode that enables audio to be streamed to Bluetooth headphones.

In addition, Samsung’s new player will automatically flag HDR content so that your (Samsung) 4K TV switches automatically, which is something that should have happened from day 1, if you ask us.

Samsung also promises improved mobile integration with the ability to “enjoy their favorite Blu-ray titles on their mobile device,” but whether this means the company is using UltraViolet or has managed to circumvent or renegotiate copy protection is unclear.

If you’re sick of having to look at 360-degree photos on Facebook, the M9500 now offers the ability to view them on your Blu-ray player.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced.

Blizzard marks 20 years of ‘Diablo’ with events across its games

Believe it or not, Diablo is turning 20 years old on December 31st. Yes, the classic clickfest has been around for long enough that some adults weren’t even alive when the first game launched. It’s a historic moment for gaming — and Blizzard is marking the occasion by bringing Diablo-themed events and extras to several of its games. Diablo III, unsurprisingly, gets the most lavish treatment. It’s going to get a Darkening of Tristram event that lets you visit a “reimagined” version of the original game’s cathedral, including some familiar pick-ups.

That’s not to say that you won’t see some pleasant nods to the hellish action RPG in other games. Overwatch will get a slew of in-game sprays and a player icon, while World of Warcraft will have Diablo creatures wandering into Azeroth. Hearthstone will introduce a “dark wanderer” (read: the first game’s corrupted hero) with a “grim deck,” Heroes of the Storm will have a new brawl map and portrait, and StarCraft II is getting a Diablo-themed worker portrait. No, it’s not the same as a fourth Diablo game (please?), but it is an acknowledgment of the series’ influence over the years.

Source: Battle.net

Best laptops and tablets of CES 2017: What to expect

The Consumer Electronics Show, which takes place in Vegas every January, is almost here – and that means a bunch of new laptops are coming.

Companies usually use CES to showcase the latest updates to their laptop, hybrid laptop/tablet device, and tablet ranges. Pocket-lint plans to attend the show this year, as we do every year, to bring you the latest and breaking news as it happens, including hands-on reviews. In the meantime, we’ve rounded up what you can expect in terms of laptop and tablet announcements.

Here’s everything you need to know.

• Best laptops and tablets of CES 2016: Lenovo, HP, and more

CES 2017: Best laptops and tablets

Dell

Pocket-lint

Dell has confirmed that it’s working on a convertible version of its XPS 13 laptop and will announce the new device at CES 2017 in January. Dell said the new 2-in-1 will have the same InfinityEdge display as the existing XPS 13 and XPS 15, meaning you can expect a nearly bezel-free screen. The company also said that it’s planning a convertible version of the Latitude 13 business laptop, which will be unveiled at the same time.

Dell also teased on 2 November that it plans to unveil its vision for the future of desktops. It’ll probably unveil the Smart Desk, a PC with a second screen and a peripheral. It’s basically Dell’s take on the Microsoft Surface Studio and Dial.

Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo’s announcing nine new laptops – mostly updates to the existing ThinkPad line. These all have “the latest Intel Core i processors” and are equipped with a Precision Touchpad, MilSpec durability, and bloatware-free Windows 10.

• Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 370: A convertible with a 13-inch FHD touch display. It features Thunderbolt 3, integrated Intel HD 620 graphics, up to 16GB RAM and up to a 1TB SSD, and a 10-hour battery life. It’ll launch in March 2017 with a starting price of $1,264.
• Lenovo ThinkPad T470: A laptop with a 14-inch FHD Touch display. It feature 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, aNVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics, and both a fingerprint reader and IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition login. It’ll launch in February 2017 starting at $914.
• Lenovo ThinkPad T470s: A version of the above laptop with integrated graphics, a 24GB RAM cap, and no fingerprint scanner nor IR camera. It also has a WQHD IPS display option and is set for February 2017 availability with a price of $1,099.
• Lenovo ThinkPad T470p: Another version of the T470. It has some added weight and thickness in order to deliver a 12-hour battery life. It’ll also launch in March 2017 but will cost $1,049
• Lenovo ThinkPad 570: A laptop with a 15.6-inch display available in 1080p touch or 4K non-touch options. It features 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, a Windows Hello-compatible IR camera and fingerprint reader, and a battery life of up to 16 hours. It’ll launch in March 2017 for $909.
• Lenovo ThinkPad L470: A laptop with switchable graphics (integrated Intel HD graphics and a discrete AMD Radeon R5 M430 GPU). It features 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch HD IPS display. It’ll cost $799 when it launches in March 2017.
• Lenovo ThinkPad L570: A laptop with a 15.6-inch display (768p TN or a FHD IPS option). It features 32GB of RAM, 1TB HDD or 512GB SSD, and 11 hours worth of battery. It’ll start at $809 when it launches March 2017.
• Lenovo ThinkPad X270: A 12.5-inch laptop with an HD IPS, FHD, or FHD Touch display. It features 16GB of RAM, 2TB SSD or 512GB SSD, and a 21.4-hour battery life. It surprisingly only has a price of $909 and will launch in March 2017.
• Lenovo ThinkPad 13: A budget 13.3-inch FHD IPS touch laptop that features up to 32GB RAM, a 512GB SSD option, and Intel HD 620 Graphics. It’ll cost $674 when it launches in January 2017.

LG

LG

OK, so this isn’t a laptop or tablet, but it does go with desktop setups..

Ahead of CES 2017, LG has announced its latest monitor range. It hasn’t shared all the details, however, as it plans to reveal that news at CES. The highlight is its LG 32UD99, a 32-inch 4K display (that’s a 3840 x 2160 resolution) with HDR10 standard compatibility. It will display 95 percent of the P3 color gamut. It also comes equipped with USB-C support. We’ll have more on the full range of LG monitors when CES 2017 kicks off.

LeEco

LeEco

LeEco recently launched in the US, and shortly after, CEO Jia Yueting took to Chinese social media site Weibo to confirm the company will be at CES 2017. Yueting’s post featured a number of LeEco products, but it was removed soon after. LeEco hasn’t said why.

Xiaomi

Lenovo

Xiaomi has confirmed it will be at CES for the first time ever. Considering the broad range of products Xiaomi makes, there’s a strong possibility that a laptop or hybrid or even tablet could be announced. However, it did just launch the Mi Notebook Air and Air 13 Pro this past summer.

Want to know more?

Check out Pocket-lint’s guide to learn more about CES, including what it is and when it is and what else you can expect to be announced.

Best smartwatches and wearables of CES 2017: What to expect

The annual Consumer Electronics Show will likely be all about virtual reality and augmented reality and of course cars this year, but there will likely be a few surprises in store specifically for your wrist or some other part of your body.

That’s right. We’re talking about smartwatches and wearables. Now, keep in mind that Apple and Google — two of tech’s biggest players — don’t normally attend the show. There will be hundreds of Apple Watch apps and accessories on the floor, but no new Apple Watches. As for Google, it is planning to launch flagship Android Wear watches in 2017, but they’ll be branded by whatever company is manufacturing them.

While we don’t expect to see Google unveil watches in January, it has said other Android Wear partners will debut new devices running Android Wear 2.0 at CES 2017. But you should know there is a lot of criticism going around about existing smartwatches and fitness trackers. Some studies show they’re stuck in a rut. Because of that, don’t expect a lot in January in terms of new hardware.

In fact, we’ll probably see more advancements in the form of smart clothing or smart glasses. Companies are being quiet at the moment about what they have planned, so little is known about what we can expect from them in Vegas. 

• Best smartwatches and wearables of CES 2016

Fitbit

Pocket-lint

Fitbit is number one in the US in terms of wearable sales. The company has refreshed almost its entire portfolio over the course of the year, so we aren’t expecting much, but we could still see an update to the Fitbit Surge GPS smartwatch, which first released over two years ago. 

Fossil Group

Fossil

Fossil Group has confirmed that its brands, including Diesel, Fossil, Misfit, Michael Kors, Skagen and Emporio Armani will all unveil new wearables at CES 2017. Fossil also said there’ll be announcements from a brand that’s not currently in the wearables market.

Garmin

Pocket-lint

Garmin makes niche sports watches, and we could see a new one these devices appear in January. Garmin has announced new watches at CES in the past, such as the Fenix 3 multisport watch in 2015, followed by the Fenix 3 HR in 2016. Maybe we will see a Fenix 4 in 2017.

Samsung

Pocket-lint

Samsung will present at CES 2017, but don’t expect any new wearables. The company will likely focus on televisions, appliances, and the smart home instead, though it may also promote existing wearable products, such as the Gear Fit 2 and Gear S3.

LeEco

LeEco

LeEco recently launched in the US, and shortly after, CEO Jia Yueting took to Chinese social media site Weibo to confirm the company will be at CES 2017. Yueting’s post featured a number of LeEco products, but it was removed soon after. LeEco hasn’t said why.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has confirmed it will be at CES for the first time ever. Considering the broad range of products Xiaomi makes, there’s a strong possibility that a smartwatch or wearable of some type could be announced. However, it did just launch the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 this past summer.

Want to know more?

Check out Pocket-lint’s guide to learn more about CES, including what it is and when it is and what else you can expect to be announced.

Exoplanets may have carved dusty tracks around a young star

Astronomers have spotted what they believe are two Saturn-sized planets carving “tracks” through a young star’s protoplanetary disk. Although scientists have found plenty of exoplanets ranging from gas giants like Jupiter to rocky, Earth-like worlds, most orbit mature stars. However, the not-yet-fully-formed worlds imaged by the ALMA telescope array show that stars can possibly spawn planets at an earlier age than previously thought.

The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope has spotted plenty of young stars that still have protoplanetary disks, many with similar gaps that could mark the presence of planets (see the video below). “However, since we were only looking at dust in the disks with sufficient detail, we couldn’t be sure what created these features,” says lead author Andrea Isella.

This time, the team used ALMA to create a composite image showing both dust and carbon dioxide gas. The dust image revealed three gaps, one at 60 astronomical units (AUs) or about twice as far as Neptune is from our sun, and the others at 100 and 160 AUs.

The CO2 sensor didn’t pick up the inner gap that the dust sensor saw, indicating it may have been formed by something other than a planet. However, it did see gaps about the size of Saturn in the same two outer locations, providing evidence that planets knocked both gas and dust out of the way. “Our new observations provide intriguing evidence that planets are indeed forming around this one young star,” Isella says.

Scientists figure that the star, dubbed HD 163296, is about five million years old, making it one of the youngest seen with evidence of a planet. (Kepler recently spotted a Neptune-sized world around a star about the same age.) The discovery could shake up planetary formation theory, though Isella advises some caution. “We certainly believe that these structures could be the work of a nascent planet plowing through the dust, but we simply can’t rule out other possible explanations.”

Via: Space.com

Source: NRAO

Apple Watch goads you into getting some post-holiday exercise

Guilt over holiday eating might just convince you to hit the gym in the coming weeks, but Apple wants to offer some motivation of its own. On December 28th, the company pushed a notification to every Apple Watch owner encouraging them to participate in a Ring in the New Year Challenge starting January 2nd, 2017. If you complete all three of your activity goals (Move, Exercise, Stand) every day for at least one week in January, you’ll get a special achievement medal (above) and an iMessage sticker pack to help you brag about your performance.

The concept of seasonal Apple Watch achievements isn’t strictly new. Apple introduced a Thanksgiving Day 5K challenge on November 24th with similar rewards. However, the Cupertino crew is being more aggressive about notifying users. Also, you’re much more likely to realize that you can get achievements like this — there’s now a dedicated section in your iPhone’s Activity app that shows seasonal medals, including a placeholder for the not-yet-active New Year’s competition.

Not every Apple Watch owner is going to appreciate the campaign, to be sure. The alert could easily rub you the wrong way if you can’t (or just don’t care to) take up the challenge. However, it’s not shocking to see Apple go this route. In addition to promoting good health, the seasonal events offer an incentive to keep wearing your watch. You may be more likely to use the Apple Watch every day if you know that you’ll have something to show for that commitment, and that increases the chances that you’ll be interested in a future model instead of letting your current watch languish in a drawer.

Source: Mashable

Amazon plans a big digital-only sale for December 30th

You can call Amazon’s Prime Day an excuse to clear out slow-moving products, but there’s no question that it was a success — and now, the internet retailer is hoping to replicate that success for online-only sales. It’s launching a Digital Day sale on December 30th at 3AM Eastern that will offer discounts of up to 50 percent on apps, e-books, games, movies and music. The extent of the bargains isn’t clear, but it’s already teasing a few of the items on sale. You’ll get breaks on games like Destiny: Rise of Iron, Rocket League and Titanfall 2, multiple Amazon music and video titles, comic books at Comixology, numerous productivity apps and some mobile titles.

The sale lasts for 24 hours, and it’s quite clearly US-centric given the emphasis on digital game codes and other products you can’t officially get in many countries. It’s logical for Amazon to test the waters this way, though. Many people who got gadgets over the holidays are looking for something to do with those gadgets, and a well-timed download sale might get them to splurge right away instead of waiting for price cuts sometime in the new year. Digital Day might well become a yearly affair if it proves to be even a minor hit.

Source: Amazon

Nevada site bug leaks medical marijuana applicant data

Nevada residents applying to sell medical marijuana got just got an unpleasant surprise. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed that a vulnerability in a website portal leaked the data of more than 11,700 applicants, including their driver’s license and social security numbers. Officials have taken down the relevant site until they fix the flaw, but there’s a concern that fraudsters might have seen the info and used it for malicious purposes.

The scale of the leak might be modest. A spokesperson tells ZDNet that the data represented just a “portion” of one data base among several. And when Nevada voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2000, it’s possible that some of the information is outdated. Even so, this underscores a common problem with government data: frequently, agencies are their own worst enemies thanks to avoidable security holes and imperfect policies.

Source: ZDNet

Takata expected to settle deadly airbag scandal for $1 billion

For their part in the largest US auto recall ever, the Takata Corporation is expected to pay up to a $1 billion financial penalty and plead guilty to criminal misconduct, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The National Highway Highway Traffic Safety Administration recalled some 42 million vehicles in the US alone after discovering Takata’s faulty airbag systems could deteriorate over time and risk causing an explosion of hot metal shrapnel upon inflation. The Takata systems were responsible for 11 deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide.

In addition to the criminal misconduct charges, prosecutors at the US Justice Department may also try to hit the company with wire fraud, claiming Takata faked test information and intentionally hid information about the dangerous airbags. While the settlement is not finalized yet, the Journal notes that Takata will like be allowed to pay part of the penalty up front and spread the rest out over time. The final cost could range anywhere from the “high hundreds of millions” up to a billion and the Justice Department is eager to wrap up the case in January before the new administration takes over.