OnePlus recruits tech fan Emily Ratajkowski to explain Dash Charge

How does Dash Charge actually work?

On the previous episode of OnePlus Marketing Extravagance, the high-profile smartphone maker unboxed its latest device, the OnePlus 3T, in a fighter jet.

Now, the company is back with a very informative explainer video for its Dash Charge fast charging technology starring actress and model, Emily Ratajkowski.

In just over two minutes, Ratajkowski succinctly explains the advantages of lower-voltage fast charging, which is achieved by using a more robust cable and a higher amperage. Other solutions, such as Qualcomm’s Quick Charge, vary the voltage depending on the phone’s temperature and battery percentage, which has its own advantages, but can also generate unwanted heat inside the phone.

Looking for a more in-depth look at how Dash Charge works in the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T? See below.

Dash Charge in the OnePlus 3 explained

OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T

• OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
• The OnePlus 3T is official
• OnePlus 3 specs
• OnePlus 3T vs. OnePlus 3: What’s the difference?
• Latest OnePlus 3 news
• Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums

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Honor 6X preview: ‘Mate 9 Mini’ delivers dual cameras for just £250

Honor made a big song and dance about its 6X smartphone ‘launch’ at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. Which was a bit odd for a phone that’s been available in China since the later part of 2016. George Zhao, Honor CEO, took to the stage and spent far too long reassuring us that Honor is the number one selling online-only phone brand.

Peel back the hefty marketing speak and shovel-loads of reassurance about sales volumes, however, as it’s largely irrelevant. Let the Honor 6X speak for itself and, as we found upon slipping our gold finish (with white front) model out of its box, the quality is immediately tangible. For a £250 phone this is one well made and good-looking device.

It’s also got its share of gimmickry, though, in the form of dual cameras on the rear: a 12-megapixel main snapper, accompanied by a 2-megapixel companion which is designed for depth-mapping so you can apply a pseudo-bokeh effect for ultra-blurred backgrounds.

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This feature is the same as you’ll find in the Huawei P9 (minus the official Leica partnership and software), meaning a software-based f/0.95 can fake shots into looking all arty and pro. Often it doesn’t work well, though, which is the gripe we’ve had with all these kinds of systems – from HTC to Apple and everything in-between. Just go take a normal photo, no?

That point aside, we’re rather taken by the Honor 6X’s looks. It’s like a Huawei Mate 9 in mini form, with a 5.5-inch LCD screen (not the 5.9-inch scale of the Mate 9), which ought to give it wider appeal. The resolution is Full HD (1920 x 1080) which is ample at this price point and scale and there’s plenty of brightness available.

The finish is similar between Huawei and Honor too: both have protruding camera units and a well-positioned recessed fingerprint scanner beneath (which operates brilliantly). The difference in colour between the main back panel and top-and-bottom bands (for the antennas and, therefore, reception) isn’t particularly well matched, but that becomes an aesthetic feature all of its own. Those soft curved edges and chamfered finish not only looks good, it makes for a comfortable hold too.

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The £250 price tag is around £60 more than the previous 5X model, which is quite a jump, but there are some additional features. NFC has been added so fingerprint payment systems ought to now work. The mid-level octa-core Kirin 655 processor is also under the hood, paired with either 3GB or 4GB RAM for the European model. We believe the lower RAM capacity will come with the 32GB storage model, the larger with the 64GB model (the latter which we have).

Unlike the Huawei Mate 9, the Honor 6X doesn’t run Android Nougat and the company’s EMUI 5.0 re-skin. Instead, the 6X comes loaded with Android 6.0 and EMUI version 4.1. If you’re an Android die-hard its software tweaks and nuances might take some getting used to.

Battery life looks set to be decent, too, with a 3,340mAh battery keeping things ticking along. We’ve only been using our review device for all of 15-minutes, so whether that’ll mean a decent day-and-a-half of use we’ll find out as we review the phone over the coming weeks.

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The Honor 6X is available to buy from 4 January in the UK and will be available from Three later in the month. Whether you’re into the dual camera arrangement or not, at this price and with this level of build the 6X is a great mid-level entry to the phone market.

This selfie-drone recognizes, finds and auto-records its owner

Look how happy I am in that photo below. Or am I scared? It’s hard to tell. Selfie technology just took a new turn, and I’m evidently not quite sure what to make of it. The source of the photo is Zero Zero’s Hover Camera. It’s a foldable, lightweight, 4K camera drone that we’ve seen before. The new trick that helped take this picture is that I just threw the drone up in the air. It then turned around until it recognized me (passing two colleagues along the way) and I just waved at. Boom: awkward selfie.

Hover Camera could already recognize and follow a target. Just previously you had to use the companion app on your phone, and pick out the subject you wanted to follow on screen. With the new feature, you essentially “register” your face via the app once, and then you can forget about the phone. The next time you launch Hover Camera, it will fly in place, turning around until it spots you. Once it has you locked, it’ll follow you as before. To grab a selfie, just raise your hand until the front LED flashes, and gives you a three-count.

We’ve seen selfie drones before, and visual recognition is becoming a more popular way of tracking subjects than GPS. Using the camera to track isn’t always as dependable as GPS , but it does solve a few problems. Namely, no need for a separate GPS device (or phone), one less thing to charge, and your chosen target is easier to keep in the center of the shot (GPS doesn’t always exactly where you are, but obviously the camera does).

While Zero Zero’s working hard to improve the Hover Camera, and keep it ahead of similar products like Dobby (or Kimon), the pocket-friendly drone category still faces other limitations. In general, battery life is fairly short. Expect about 10 minutes of air time from Hover Camera. Though with a charge time of about 40 minutes, it won’t be long until you’re back in the air again.

Perhaps a more significant limitation is the camera itself. Most of the small drones I’ve tested have cameras comparable to those you’d find in a mid-range phone. Zero Zero’s 13-megapixel shooter isn’t too bad — images come out looking pretty nice — but it’s all still a long way from the pin-sharp, goodness you’d get out of a Phantom 4 Pro, or a GoPro.

There are also general challenges with cramming a lot of software smarts into a small form factor. In my brief demo at the convention center here in Las Vegas, the company representative had experienced a few minor limitations due to the beta version of the app.

Many of these should be sorted by the time the update rolls out in the next few weeks though. At the very least, it’s nice to see an existing product getting care and attention after its release. But at $599, the Hover Camera doesn’t come cheap, so let’s hope these new features keep on coming.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Synaptics combines face and fingerprint recognition on your phone

Fingerprint readers and facial recognition techniques are good for adding a base level of security to your phone without sacrificing convenience. However, they have their limits. It can be hard to switch between methods on a whim, and dedicated intruders can get through if they either make you unlock your phone or develop convincing fakes. Synaptics thinks it has a solution: It’s unveiling a “biometric fusion engine” that can combine results from face and fingerprint detection before letting you into a mobile device or PC. Ideally, this makes it easier to sign in even as it adds an extra layer of security.

On a basic level, this lets you choose whichever security method works best at a given moment. If it’s the heart of winter and you’d rather not freeze your fingers, you don’t have to think twice about using facial recognition instead. Things get clever when Synaptics uses both technologies at once, though. Your device could combine less-than-perfect results from the two sensors to make a decision, for instance. If you misplace your thumb but your eyes, you might be fine. And if you’re accessing particularly sensitive data like your bank account, the fusion engine could require both sign-in methods to prove that it’s really you.

It’s not certain when you’ll see the engine in shipping products. With that said, it’s likely to be just a matter of time. Synaptics has a strong foothold in both the mobile and PC worlds, and its tech might be a strong selling point at a time when old-fashioned passwords are seemingly on the way out.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: Synaptics

UVify’s Draco drone is a racing quad for everyone

You might be pretty handy with your DJI Phantom, but flying a racing drone is something else. Most “consumer” drones are programmed to make flying a cinch, but the trade-off is a lack of agility and speed. Racing drones right now is akin to making your own gaming PC: You need to get your hands dirty, know how everything works together and labor over it to get everything optimized. UVify wants to democratize the burgeoning sport of drone racing with Draco. A ready-to-go speedy drone that can hang with the pros.

To make a crude analogy, you typical racer is a bit like Android. You can tweak it to your preference, all the hardware it comes on is different, and you can mod it to your liking. UVify’s Draco, then, would be more like the iPhone. The company designed every component of it from the ground up and optimized them to work together. Oh, it also looks pretty smart (no wires or ugly exposed batteries).

As someone interested in drones, racing (and the more niche freestyle flying) has always appealed to me. But I’m not handy with a soldering iron, and learning all the nuances of making a good racer, and maintaining it are just enough of a barrier. Draco, on the other hand, instantly appeals. There are other ready-to-fly racers, but they usually still need some level of tinkering, or ability to repair them.

Draco can reach speeds of about 70MPH in race conditions, and in a straight line get apparently get up close to 100. All the other necessities to hang on the race track are there, too. That means full 40-channel FPV (First Person View), so you can race from the drone’s perspective, and configurable racing lights. There’s also GPS, which is less common on racing drones (as it’s not generally needed), but it allows the Draco to include some assisted flight modes to help you get started.

Should you ding your drone while flying, you still won’t need to solder anything, as most of the parts are easily replaceable. If you break an arm, or motor, you can simply clip a new one back in and you’re good to go. Draco itself will cost about $499 (without transmitter/controller), while new motor arms should be about $30. Not cheap, but not a huge sum either. The drone’s carbon-fiber frame means it’s built pretty solid anyway, so breakages shouldn’t be too common if you don’t fly like an idiot.

Draco won’t be available until around summer this year, but you can pre-order it now, with two models to choose from: the Draco and Draco HD, with the latter sporting a better camera and real-time HD video streaming.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: UVify

LeEco brings Android-powered smart bikes to the US

LeEco is determined to add a dash of technology to just about everything, and that now includes old-school pedal power. The fast-rising tech company has unveiled two bicycles for the US, the Smart Road Bike (above) and Smart Mountain Bike (below), whose centerpiece is a 4-inch touchscreen box that runs a customized take on Android. The front-end gives you turn-by-turn directions from Here, music playback (including streaming), ride data and even chats with nearby LeEco bike riders. They have their own GPS and sensors, and you can track your own fitness by pairing ANT+ heart rate and power monitors.

Which bike you pick simply comes down to a matter of your preferred terrain. Both have Toray T700 carbon fiber frames and handlebars, as well as 11-speed drivetrains. The Smart Road Bike is the lighter of the two at 18.5 pounds, and clearly meant for the street with extra lashings of carbon fiber in the fork, seat post and wheels. The Smart Mountain Bike is decidedly heavier at 26.9 pounds, but it boasts a SR Suntour XCR Air front fork and other components designed to survive rougher trips.

LeEco hasn’t revealed the price for either bike at this stage, but you should see both of them arrive sometime during the second quarter of 2017. It’s hard to say how well they’ll fare when many cyclists either have dedicated bike computers or just use their smartphones, but look at it this way: If you don’t like burning your phone’s battery during your two-wheeled adventures, this promises a more elegant solution.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: PR Newswire

Scientists confirm a ‘new’ human organ

For centuries, the mesentery (which links the intestine to the abdomen) has been treated as a group of distinct structures in your digestive system. It wasn’t anything special. However, the medical world now has to rethink that belief. Scientists recently determined that the mesentery is really one, cohesive entity — that’s right, they confirmed the existence of a ‘new’ organ. Researchers first discovered the continuous nature of the mesentery through microscopic examinations in 2012, but the past few years have shown that it has enough function to be considered an organ.

This doesn’t mean that the scientific community understands exactly what the mesentery does. With that in mind, the very act of classifying it as an organ should have a far-reaching impact. On a basic level, it’s shaking up education. The medical field had to update its definitive Gray’s Anatomy textbook to account for the new findings, and students are already learning about the mesentery as a matter of course.

More importantly, it’s opening up a line of inquiry that hadn’t been available before — it’s a “whole new area of science,” the discovery team’s J. Calvin Coffey says. If scientists can learn more about how the mesentery interacts with the digestive system, they could develop better treatments for diseases and identify conditions that are specific to this part of the body.

Via: Science Alert

Source: The Lancet, University of Limerick

Get your CES 2017 liveblogs here!

CES 2017 starts here. Alongside reports, hands-on impressions, analysis and a live stage broadcast all week, we will be liveblogging all the major press events and keynotes. From Intel to Samsung, ASUS to Sony, these are the ones you can’t miss.

LG liveblog: 11AM ET/8AM PT

ASUS liveblog: 2:30 PM ET/11:30AM PT

Samsung liveblog: 5PM ET/2PM PT

Intel liveblog: 7PM ET/4PM PT

Sony liveblog: 8PM ET/5PM PT

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

New ‘Overwatch’ map lets you play in traffic

Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland event may be over, but Blizzard has one more present in store for players: a new map. Blizzard’s been teasing the new control point map for a few months now, promising a new control point map with new environmental hazards and traversal options. Indeed, that’s all here — Oasis features jump pads that launch players high in the air and an active highway filled with deadly traffic. And yes, getting in the way of a car is a one-hit kill.

The map is new to players on Overwatch’s main servers, but has actually been available on the game’s public test realm since late November. Still, getting early access meant downloading a completely separate version of the game — now it’s just part of game. The map is free to all players, including and is available starting today on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Source: Blizzard

LG’s Tone Studio neck speakers are less crazy than you’d think

When LG announced its neck-worn earbud/speakers, a collective groan went up in the Engadget Slack channel. The Tone Studio was ridiculous, or so it seemed. Well, about that: I just strapped on a pair and they’re actually a lot less ridiculous than you might expect. In fact, they do what they were designed to do surprisingly well.

Let’s start with the basics: There are four speakers here, two on the top of the neckband that blast out highs and mids, and two on the bottom that focus on delivering the bass. Once the Tone Studio is connected to an audio source — in my case, via Bluetooth to an LG tablet — all you have to do is start playing something. There’s no additional work on the software side needed to get everything working properly, which is a nice touch. Too onerous a setup process would have made this thing an utter nightmare.

Most importantly, it actually sounds quite good. Maximum volume is plenty loud for listening to tunes in a crowded press room, and it does a pretty great job of simulating surround sound (thanks to the integrated DTS support). Two demos in particular stuck out: While watching the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I could hear TIE Fighters whizzing around my head as though I were in space myself, and gameplay footage of Grand Theft Auto V was full of gunshots and corresponding vibrations whenever the player pulled the trigger.

The Tone Studio is surprisingly flexible too. If you don’t want to be that jerk walking down the street blaring music from your neck, you can pull out the tethered earbuds and listen more discreetly. And if you have a home theater system or a laptop that you want to connect to, you can use a standard 3.5mm cable with the Tone Studio’s aux-in jack. Using that physical connection has the added benefit of firing up the integrated 32-bit audio DAC, which is supposed to improve the quality of the sound bursting forth from those speakers. I didn’t notice a huge difference, but it might depend on the content.

Obviously, these speakers aren’t perfect. There’s a notable lack of bass here, so EDM fans craving thumping audio might want to consider a standalone Bluetooth speaker. I’ve never been a fan of LG’s Tone earbud tips either; they feel big in my ear canals but lack the kind of sturdiness you get out of higher-end in-ears. Still, LG managed to do pull off an interesting little audio coup for itself. These things ultimately might be a little silly, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless. We’ll take them for a proper spin when they officially launch. Speaking of the sort, there’s no firm price yet (I’m told in the $220 to $240 range), but LG confirmed the headphones will start shipping around March.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.