Amped Wireless Helios-EX RE2200T Range Extender Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Helios-EX range extender (left) and the Helios router from Amped Wireless

Dong Ngo/CNET

Amped Wireless today released a new type of Wi-Fi extender at CES 2017. The Helios-EX RE2200T is set to eliminate the biggest shortcoming of extenders in general: signal loss.

Signal loss happens because extenders have to do two things at once: receive the signal from the original router — a process often referred to as back-haul — and rebroadcast that signal to Wi-Fi clients. Having to do two jobs simultaneously, the extender’s efficiency is reduced by 50 percent. This means clients connected to an extender, like your phone or laptop, will have just half the real-world Wi-Fi speed compared to those connected to the original router.

The Helios-Ex manages to overcome this by having three Wi-Fi bands: two 5GHz and one 2.4GHz. It dedicates one 5GHz band to the job of receiving signal and uses the other two to rebroadcast it to clients. This means all of its bands only do one job at a given time, resulting in no signal loss.

DirectLink

Using a dedicated band for back-haul, which Amped Wireless calls DirectLink, is not new. The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi system uses this technique for its satellite unit to connect to the main router unit. However, while the extender unit of the Orbi system only works with the main Orbi router, the Helios-EX works with all existing routers on the market. This means instead of getting an expensive Wi-Fi system, you can get a Helios-EX to couple with your existing 802.11ac Wi-Fi router and achieve similar Wi-Fi coverage and performance.

In fact, Amped Wireless claims that the Helios-EX itself can cover up to 12,000 square feet — larger than any Wi-Fi system I’ve worked with — with speed up to 866 megabits per second on the 5GHz band and up to 399Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. The extender also includes four Gigabit network ports for wired clients. Overall, this seems a great addition to any home that needs better Wi-Fi coverage.

Keep in mind, though, I’ve never experienced any Wi-Fi product that performs exactly as the vendor claimed. Also, like any standalone extenders, the Helios-EX won’t offer seamless hand-off, meaning clients will not automatically switch between the extender and the original router without interruption. Seamless hand-off is generally only available in Wi-Fi systems where hardware units are designed to work with one another specifically.

Plus a new router

Apart from the extender, Amped Wireless also introduced today its latest tri-band AC2200 router, the Helios RTA2200T, which has two 5GHz bands (up to 866Mbps each) and one 2.4GHz band (up to 399Mbps), all of which are used for clients to connect to. This new router shares the same design and Wi-Fi coverage as the extender but is made for those wanting to replace their existing router.

The Helios-EX extender is slated to be available later this month while the Helios router will ship in the first quarter of the year. Both of them come with a suggested retail price of $180.

First Alert Onelink Environment Monitor Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

First Alert

First Alert’s Environment Monitor wants to keep your child safe and comfortable. It monitors temperature, humidity, and carbon monoxide and connects to your Wi-Fi network so you can check on any of the three via the First Alert Onelink app when you’re out and about. Now, you can even check on your child’s room with your voice.

With a new integration with Amazon’s assistant Alexa, you’ll be able to ask your Echo to tell you the status of your child’s room. Alexa will be able to tell you about any of the three criteria the First Alert device measures.

Available now for $100 on First Alert’s site, the Monitor’s Alexa integration should launch soon. First Alert is showing off the device as part of its CES lineup, even though the Monitor itself is already on the market. It currently works with Apple HomeKit’s Siri.

Hopefully, its readings and alerts are more responsive and useful than the disappointing Onelink Wi-Fi Smoke and CO Alarm.

iDevices Instant Switch Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Over the past few years, iDevices has slowly been expanding its roster of smart home devices — from smart plugs, to a thermostat, an in-wall switch and an outlet. Now it’s adding a device to draw them all together: the iDevices Instant Switch.

Unlike every other iDevices product, the Instant Switch doesn’t use Wi-Fi to communicate with users via their phones. Instead, it uses Bluetooth to pair with any other iDevices power device (such as its plugs and switches) and inject a little more control to them. And at $50, the Instant Switch fits right in with the pricing of the other iDevices products — which is exactly the problem.

You can affix the Instant Switch to any wall you want — no wiring necessary, thanks to the included Command adhesive strips.

iDevices

The Instant Switch basically works like this: you stick it to a wall (using included Command adhesive strips on the back), pair it with another iDevices gadget and use it to control that gadget. That could mean, for instance, sticking the Instant Switch beside your bed, connecting it to a lamp via the iDevices Switch and just punching it from bed whenever you’re ready to sleep.

Or if you have a more elaborate setup, the Instant Switch could control multiple products at once, turning off in-wall switches, outlets and plugs all in concert.

I like the usability of iDevices’ latest product. As someone who’s wasted countless hours on cumbersome smart home device installations, I appreciate the effort to streamline the experience. But the features offered by the Instant Switch seem a bit anemic.

You can control the Instant Switch on iOS or Android — with Siri or Alexa.

iDevices

First off, its convenience comes at the cost of independence: you can only use the Instant Switch as intended if you already have iDevices products. That immediately limits the audience. Plus, that convenience isn’t new: you can control the Instant Switch and other iDevices gadgets with Siri or Alexa, so as long as you have your phone, you can control the lights from anywhere already.

Secondly, the Instant Switch doesn’t integrate with other non-power devices — not even iDevices’ own Thermostat. That makes it far less appealing than, say, Lutron’s in-wall switches, which can integrate with platforms like IFTTT to perform much more complex tasks, or the Belkin WeMo in-wall switch, which also integrates with more devices and still clocks in at the same $50 price as the Instant Switch.

Unless the Instant Switch drops its projected $50 price to something that better reflects its feature set among the competition, it amounts to little more than an interesting failure. Here’s hoping when it becomes available in summer 2017 that it will boast more features or a more appropriate price.

LG SJ8 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The LG SJ8 (middle) alongside the SJ9 (front) and CJ98 boom box.

LG

If you’re not feeling LG’s all-singing, all-dancing fancypants new SJ9 sound bar, the Korean company is also unveiling the more demure (read: affordable) SJ8 here at CES 2017.

Looks-wise it’s very similar to the excellent-sounding SH7 but it’s had its profile reduced to just 1.5 inches in height. LG has designed this sound bar to integrate with its 2017 TVs by sitting flush, not 6 inches away, thanks to a curvy boomerang stand. LG calls this design “Perfect Fit” and includes a dedicated TV stand for these models in the box.

While it lacks support for the Dolby Atmos sound standard, the SJ8 includes many of the same features of the SJ9, including High Resolution Audio, 4K Pass-Through and the ability to stream via Google Cast.

Given that I was quite enamored with the SH7, I’m very much looking forward to hearing the SJ8. Pricing and availability for the SJ9 is yet to be announced.

Huawei Honor 6X Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

For the first time since Lenovo’s Moto G4 comes a budget handset that looks good enough to possibly take down the low-cost champ. The phone in question is the Huawei-made Honor 6X, a 5.5-inch device with two cameras on the back, a big battery meant to last two days and a price tag low enough for the cost-conscious or anyone shopping for a second, casual phone. It helps that the 6X looks pretty polished, too.

The Honor 6X, which Huawei quietly announced in China, pressures the Moto G4 and other affordable devices, with some impressive-sounding hardware for less — including those two rear cameras that you won’t find (yet) on any other cheap phone.

It’ll cost $200 in the US, after a $50 rebate, and will sell at stores such as Amazon, BestBuy and Huawei’s own HiHonor.com. In the UK it will cost £225 from Amazon, direct from Honor, or from Three later this month. Australian availability is yet to be announced, but the UK price converts to about AU$380.

Huawei Honor 6X wants to be your two-camera…
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In the time I spent with an Honor 6X (with not-yet-final software), it so far seems like you’ll have to weather the usual hardware trade-offs that come with inexpensive gadgets: an older version of Android, no mobile payments and photography that isn’t as good as you’ll find on costlier phones.

Honor 6X specs

• 5.5-inch, 1,920×1,080-pixel HD display (403ppi)
• 12-megapixel and 2-megapixel rear cameras
• 8-megapixel front-facing camera
• Android 6.0 with Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 software
• 3,340mAh battery
• 2.1GHz octa-core Kirin 655 processor
• Fingerprint sensor (no NFC or Android Pay)
• microSD
• Dual-SIM optional
• 32GB and 64GB options (US gets 32GB model)

‘Tomb Raider’ writer Rhianna Pratchett says goodbye to Lara Croft

Rhianna Pratchett is a veteran video game writer who most recently penned the scripts for Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but today on Twitter she announced her amicable departure from the series. Pratchett helped usher Lara Croft, the franchise’s legendary protagonist, into the modern era when Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series in 2013.

With Pratchett as lead writer, Tomb Raider was nominated for Best Narrative and Game of the Year at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards, while Rise of the Tomb Raider won Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing at the 2016 Writers Guild of America Awards and Outstanding Achievement in Character at the DICE Awards that same year.

So, I’m packing up my climbing axe plus a little venison jerky for the road, and bidding a fond farewell to Lara. Onwards to new adventures!

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) January 3, 2017

In a series of tweets, Pratchett thanked the Crystal Dynamics team and said she was off to new adventures. Crystal Dynamics, in turn, wished her the best.

“I like to think we did some good things. Maybe shifted the gaming landscape a wee bit. And that feels damn good,” she tweeted. “I also want to thank TR’s terrific fan community. You really are the best in the world. Constantly helping me remember why I do this job.”

There’s no word on what her next project will be, but in response to well-wishes from Owl Cave Games CEO Olivia White, Pratchett said there were exciting and terrifying times ahead. At least her new gig sounds like something that would make Lara Croft proud.

Source: @rhipratchett, @tombraider

Tesla narrowly missed its 2016 sales targets

At the start of 2016, Tesla set itself the ambitious goal of delivering “up to” 90,000 new cars to customers and almost, but not quite, achieved it. The company has revealed that it managed to get 83,992 electric vehicles out to people across the year, and would have been more but for some production hiccups in the Fall. It’s a big year-on-year boost for the relatively small automaker, since it only managed to deliver 50,580 cars in 2015.

If you can feel a “but,” coming, it’s because those numbers, while great, are nowhere near what Tesla’s going to need in the next two years. After all, the mass-market Model 3 has been reserved by more than 400,000 people since it was announced at the end of March. Delivery dates are currently being pushed back to 2018, with production expected to begin at the tail-end of 2017.

But even if half of those Model 3 pre-orders fall through, the company will still have to double, or triple its production capacity to meet demand. Tesla has already had to take extreme measures to deal with the looming issue, selling $2 billion in stock to raise cash and buying an automation company that’ll build robotic lines necessary of churning out that many cars in a year.

On the upside, the company says that it’s quite conservative when it comes to car deliveries, only counting them when the paperwork is signed. That means it’ll start 2017 with 6,450 extra transactions to count against its first quarter figures although, again, that’s pretty small fry compared to what’s going to be coming.

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

Via: CNBC (Twitter)

Source: Marketwired

Selfridges Apple Watch Pop Up Shop Shuts Down

Amid rumors that the Galeries Lafayette Apple Watch pop up shop will be shuttered this month, Apple also appears to have shut down its Apple Watch shop at the high-end Selfridges department store in London, England.

The Selfridges retail store listing, which previously showed the Selfridges store front along with store hours and location, has been removed from Apple’s website and now redirects to a list of UK stores.

Apple’s Selfridges pop up shop was first introduced in 2015 alongside the launch of the Apple Watch. It was located in the iconic Wonder Room, which is a 19,000 square-foot hall that houses a number of luxury jewelry and watch brands.

There was no warning that the Selfridges pop up shop would be shut down, but rumors have suggested Apple is planning to close the Galeries Lafayette Apple Watch pop up shop this month due to poor sales.

At this time, the Galeries Lafayette Apple Watch page is still intact, as is the Isetan listing for Apple’s luxury pop up shop at the Isetan department store in Tokyo, Japan.

There’s no word on whether the Isetan shop is shutting down, but Apple has reportedly been reducing the number of employees at Galeries Lafayette ahead of its closure.

If poor sales are the reason behind the end of the Galeries Lafayette pop up shop, it’s likely the Selfridges store suffered from similar problems. Both stores were originally set up to sell the high-end Apple Watch Edition made from 18-karat gold and priced up to $17,000, but Apple discontinued that model in September of 2016, replacing it with the lower-priced ceramic Edition models.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Tag: Selfridges
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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5 essential apps to take Android theming beyond the launcher

I love to theme my launcher.

Most of the theming we talk about here on Android Central takes place on the home screen, so theming the launcher is important. It is not, however, the only area of your phone you can theme. Even without system-wide themes on TouchWiz, Sense UI and the like, it’s possible — nay, easy — to theme many parts of your phone.

So, let’s get our theme on!

Texting — Textra

While Google’s Messenger app brings color to its conversations, the colors are random, and what’s more, Messenger is ridiculously bright. Textra is one of the best SMS apps on Android, and one of its many touted features is its theme customization.

Want a dark theme? Dark or AMOLED black, Textra’s got you. Want to make your text bubbles circle, square, or somewhere in between? Textra’s up for them all. Want to replace the manufacturer emoji you see with Google’s emoji? Or iOS emoji? Textra’s got some add-ons for just that.

Textra’s theming is about as close as you’ll get to iMessage’s look on Android, without the hassle of seeing green for non-Apple contacts. Textra’s colors and shapes are quite customizable and allow you to match Textra to your theme, which is great because it means that when you use the Textra pop-up to reply to a text, it’ll match the home screen it’s being overlaid on.

Download Textra (Free, $2.99)

Twitter — Talon

Talon is one of many great Twitter clients with a customizable layout and theme. Talon allows you to choose both a primary and accent color to your theme in addition to setting the light, dark or AMOLED black base theme. Another benefit here is the inclusion of a night mode, allowing you to use a brighter base theme during the day and a darker base theme during a user-set ‘night’ period.

The themes, as well as the ability to customize your feed layouts and swipeable home pages, allows Talon to fit quite nicely into any theme and use case you could have for Twitter, from saved searches for your weekly live Tweets to checking on the latest tweets from your favorite AC nerds.

Download Talon ($1.49)

Dialer — Simpler Dialer

Simpler Dialer’s ease of use and simple layout are what drew me to the app, but what drove me to buy Simpler Pro and use it over HTC’s dialer were its recent caller ID feature and its themes.

Simpler’s themes are a bit more basic than Textra or Talon, but you can still take a dark theme and pick one of 40 theme colors. If you don’t want your contacts without pictures being random colors, you can also set them to be a plain gray or your theme color.

Download Caller ID and Dialer by Simpler (Free)

File manager — Solid Explorer

Solid Explorer been my file manager for years thanks to its magnificent feature set, including the ability to stream my movies from Google Drive to MX Player.

Solid Explorer’s themes allow you to pick a primary color for the bars and icons, as well as an accent color for action buttons, subheaders, and progress bars. You can also customize the look of your icons.

Download Solid Explorer (Free, $1.99)

Weather — 1Weather

1Weather been a constant in my theming articles for its widgets, which are easy to theme, but the app itself is themeable, too. 1Weather allows you to choose a backdrop for the app, as well as an accent color and either white or black icons. These would be even better if you could choose a dark theme akin to what 1Weather had before their Material Design update last year.

Now, even if you choose dark icons and a dark background, you still have white cards to contend with in the app for any detailed information. Don’t get me wrong, you can still get a weather app that fits your weather, your theme, and your life, but it may be a bit brighter than you wanted.

Download 1Weather (Free, $1.99)

Snapdragon 835 debuts with Kryo 280 CPU, Bluetooth 5, Gigabit LTE, and much more

Qualcomm raises the bar with the Snapdragon 835.

Qualcomm offered up a quick look at the Snapdragon 835 back in November, announcing that it would be the company’s first SoC to be built on a 10nm node. At CES, we’re getting a detailed look at what’s on offer with this year’s high-end SoC.

The shift to 10nm means that the overall size of the Snapdragon 835 is 30% smaller than that of the Snapdragon 820, and the node shift brings improvements in energy efficiency to the tune of 40%. Qualcomm is also touting a performance increase of 27% over the previous generation. The smaller design allows handset vendors to build phones with larger batteries or devices with thinner profiles.

In other words, it’s a big deal.

We’ll go into detail on each aspect of the SoC, but in broad strokes, here’s what’s new with the Snapdragon 835: eight Kryo 280 CPU cores, Adreno 540 GPU, Daydream support, gigabit LTE modem, multi-gigabit Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, Hexagon 682 DSP, Spectra 180 ISP, support for HDR10 video, Quick Charge 4.0, and Qualcomm’s Aqstic codec with 32-bit/384kHz support and aptX/aptX HD Bluetooth audio.

The Snapdragon 835 features an octa-core semi-custom CPU design, with four brand-new Kryo 280 performance cores clocked at 2.45GHz and four energy-efficient cores at 1.9GHz. The SoC will rely on the energy-efficient cluster for over 80% of the time, with the 2.45GHz cores activated for intensive use cases like VR gaming. The SoC is also compatible with LPDDR4X memory.

On the GPU side, the Snapdragon 835 comes with the Adreno 540 with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan, and DirectX 12. The latter is interesting as the Snapdragon 835 is the first SoC to power the initial batch of Windows 10 devices powered by ARM.

Battery life is one of the tentpole features of the Snapdragon 835, with Qualcomm claiming at least a day’s worth of talk time, over 5 days of music playback, more than seven hours of 4K video streaming, and over three hours of 4K video capture. To put things into context, the Snapdragon 835 consumes half as much power as the Snapdragon 801.

The Snapdragon 835 is also the first SoC to offer Quick Charge 4.0. QC 4.0 supports USB-C and USB-PD (Power Delivery), and boasts 20% faster charging and up to 30% higher efficiency when compared to QC 3.0.

Battery life is one of the tentpole features of the Snapdragon 835, with more than seven hours of 4K video streaming.

In the imaging department, the Spectra 180 is a 14-bit dual ISP that supports up to 32MP cameras or dual 16MP cameras. It offers hybrid autofocus, HDR video recording, optical zoom, hardware-accelerated face detection, better video stabilization, and Qualcomm’s Clear Sight tech for devices with dual cameras. The ISP supports H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC), as well as 4K video capture at 30fps, and 4K playback at 60fps.

With virtual reality gaining momentum, the Snapdragon 835 offers low-latency (15ms motion-to-photon latency) and six-degrees-of-freedom for precise motion tracking. The Adreno 540 GPU displays 60X more colors and is 25% faster at 3D rendering than last year’s Adreno 530, leading to more immersive visuals. There’s also support for scene-based and object-based audio, HDR10 video, 10-bit color, and the SoC is fully compatible with Daydream.

On the connectivity side of things, there’s the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, which enables Category 16 LTE download speeds that go up to one gigabit per second. For uploads, there’s a Category 13 modem that lets you upload at 150MB/sec. For Wi-Fi, Qualcomm is offering an integrated 2×2 802.11ac Wave-2 solution along with an 802.11ad multi-gigabit Wi-Fi module that tops out at 4.6Gb/sec. The 835 will consume up to 60% less power while on Wi-Fi.

The Snapdragon 835 will offer Bluetooth 5, with the SoC being the first commercial product to be certified for the new standard.

The Bluetooth 5 spec was finalized last month, with the standard set to offer double the bandwidth, four times the range, and eight times the message capacity of Bluetooth 4.2. The Snapdragon 835 will offer Bluetooth 5, with the SoC being the first commercial product to be certified for the new standard.

The Snapdragon 835 also runs Qualcomm’s hardware-based Haven security platform, which has a secure execution environment for user authentication and device attestation. Another interesting addition is a neural software framework that now features Google’s TensorFlow library, enabling manufacturers that rely on machine learning to build better experiences when it comes to photography, security, personal assistants, and virtual reality.

Overall, the Snapdragon 835 marks a significant upgrade for Qualcomm. The SoC is slated to make its way into devices in the first half of 2017!