Alexa is coming to your phone: Huawei adds the Amazon assistant

Amazon’s Alexa is creeping into just about every facet of our digital lives and it looks like it’s making an important step with Huawei – into your smartphone.

Huawei announced the US launch of the Huawei Mate 9, it’s big-screen Android phone at CES 2017, with one of the features listed as integrated Alexa. Not only that, but the first phone to land with Amazon Alexa.

• Huawei Mate 9 review: The big-screen boss

The Huawei Mate 9 is a great phone in its own right, but’s also claiming this world’s first with an interactive Alexa app.

As the Mate 9 is an Android phone, you could arguably say that Google should be able to handle all the things that you might ask Alexa to do, but Google’s relatively slow movement on Google Assistant may have lost them this early advantage.

Huawei has confirmed that it’s not just new phones that get the app, but that it will be rolling-out to existing Mate 9 owners too.

Huawei goes on to state that: “Huawei and Amazon will collaborate to develop rich voice activated consumer experiences for mobile users,” but at this time it’s unclear of how this collaboration will develop.

We’ve asked Huawei what this means for future devices and are awaiting a response; we’re also investigating to see whether you’ll be able to get the sort of seamless hotword response from Alexa that you can from Ok Google.

We will keep you posted.

New Nvidia Shield TV is the 4K Android entertainment centre and smart home hub of the future

Nvidia took to the stage at CES in Las Vegas to announce a bevvy of updates to its Shield console-come-TV streamer. It’s not only faster than the last model, but way smarter and supports the latest in 4K visuals. 

While its physical appearance looks identical to the previous version of the Nvidia Shield, the new model’s internals and software are being given a significant update. 

• Nvidia Shield Android TV review: 4K and gaming meet in powerhouse box

Inside, there’s a new Tegra X1 processor, which Nvidia claims makes the Shield up to three times faster than its nearest competition, the Apple TV.

Perhaps more importantly, the Shield now supports 4K HDR visuals, and you’ll be able to watch Amazon video in 4K HDR right out of the box. If you have a compatible TV, that means your video will look more vibrant and have a higher dynamic range than plain old regular 4K. There’s also 4K content from Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies and Vudu.

• What is HDR, what TVs support HDR, and what HDR content can I watch?

The Shield box will also be compatible with Nvidia-powered gaming in the cloud, thanks to GeForce Now, and can stream games from your PC. 

The most intriguing update to Shield is coming in a future update. At some point in the near future, the Nvidia Shield will have Google Assistant built right in, replacing the current standard Google Voice support. That means your Shield console will very much be a smart home hub, similar to Google Home, but plugged directly in to your big screen TV.

• Google Assistant tips and tricks: Master your Android assistant

With support for SmartThings coming, you’ll also be able to control a huge number of smart home products from the Shield. Whether that’s switching on lights, central heating, door locks, or anything else that’s compatible. 

Jen-Hsun Huang, the company’s CEO stated that he wants to “turn your home in to an AI”, by offering a simple, natural way to control everything through your TV, he’s certainly taken a big step towards that. 

You can pre-order the new Nvidia Shield in either a standard 16GB or “Pro” 500GB flavour from now. Those cost £189 and £279 respectively through Nvidia’s own direct channel. 

Nvidia Shield Spot extends the 4K console’s reach through your home

Along with having announced that its new Shield console would soon support Google Assistant and 4K HDR content, Nvidia has announced another new product called the Nvidia Shield Spot.

The Shield Spot is essentially a small, round mic and speaker unit that connects to the Shield via Wi-Fi. It can detect your voice from up to 20 feet away and plugs directly in to the power outlet, so no messy chords everywhere.

This small object acts as an audio portal to your Shield box from anywhere in the house, enabling you to dish out voice commands to your Shield from any room in the house that has a Shield Spot plugged in. 

It’s similar, in some ways, to the way the Echo Dot works with the bigger Amazon Echo, although it’s completely incapable of working independently. It’s just a wireless mic that connects to the brains of the Shield TV box. The Shield does all the brain-work. 

• Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Echo Dot: What’s the difference?

Once the update adds Google Assistant and Smartthings support to the Shield, you’ll be able to use the Spot to interact with your smart home products. 

Of course, Nvidia’s vision is that you have a handful of these dotted around your house, making the Shield the real digital hub of your connected home.

Whether you want to play a game of “I’m feeling lucky” with Google Assistant, shut your garage door, turn up your heating or dim your lights, the Spot can take your command and the Shield will make it happen. 

It’s not available to order, or pre-order, just yet, but when it is, one of them will set you back $49 in the US (that’s roughly £40). Sadly, we don’t know when it’s going on sale, but our guess is that Nvidia will wait to deliver the relevant features to the Shield console before offering the Spot for sale. 

New Balance RunIQ Android Wear smartwatch and PaceIQ headphones are all about runners

The New Balance smartwatch rumoured for sometime is finally here in the form of the RunIQ. The company announced the Android Wear-powered device along with the PaceIQ wireless sports headphones at CES 2017, with availability for both starting in February. 

The RunIQ smartwatch has been built in collaboration with Intel, Google and Strava and New Balance claims it is “made to run”. Built-in GPS allows for course tracking along with pace and distance measurement, while the partnership with Strava enables runners to upload and share workouts quickly with other runners in the Strava community.

There is real-time heart rate monitoring on board, a lap button, interval functionality and New Balance claims the RunIQ offers marathon distance battery life, though this actually means five hours with continuous GPS and heart rate monitoring. With normal use, the battery life is claimed to last 24-hours.

The RunIQ smartwatch has a 1.39-inch AMOLED display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and it is waterproof up to 5 ATM. When connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, users will be able to see and respond to smartphone notifications and sync, store and listen to Google Play Music.

The PaceIQ wireless headphones have been designed to fully integrate with the RunIQ smartwatch, featuring a dedicated Sports Button that delivers real-time in-ear audio updates from the watch. They are said to offer premium sound quality, which has been created in association with Jabra, along with a secure fit and quick charging capabilities.

The New Balance RunIQ smartwatch is available to pre-order now for $299.99, while the New Balance PaceIQ headphones are available to pre-order for $109.99. Both will be available from 1 February.

• Best of CES 2017
• Best smartwatches and fitness trackers of CES 2017

LG confirms the G6 smartphone will have no modules

The Wall Street Journal has cited an LG spokesman as saying the company will be “scaling back the modularity” for the G6 smartphone. LG designed modules for the G5, believing them to be an innovate design solution, but instead they turned out to be a bit of a flop.

• LG G6 may ditch the modules, but hold on to the headphone jack

The company has listened to feedback from customers and will instead focus on the overall design aesthetic of the G6 and its usability.

It’s also been reported that LG posted a 23 percent drop in quarterly sales for its mobile division, but when asked if LG would ever consider selling off the mobile arm, Chief Technologies Skott Ahn said: “Spinning off the smartphone division is not something we would consider”.

We’ve already heard rumours that LG would be ditching the modules for the G6 flagship, so this is yet more fuel to the fire. The G6 is expected to instead feature a unibody design with no removable battery. Interestingly, it’s rumoured the G6 will retain the 3.5mm headphone jack and not go down the route of USB Type-C for charging and audio uses. We’re still on the fence about this particular rumour, so will wait until its official unveiling to find out for sure.

As for when we can expect to see the new phone, that’s still anyone’s guess. The most obvious date is Mobile World Congress at the end of February, but a separate LG spokesman has said the company is still considering another couple of dates, but didn’t say what they were. The good news is that the phone will initially launch in North America, Europe and South Korea as well as online in China.

HTC’s new Vive hardware will make any object a VR controller, offer Deluxe Audio integration

HTC has unveiled a couple of additions to its Vive hardware line-up, designed to enhance your VR experience.

The first of these is the Vive Tracker a small gadget designed to be added to any real-world object so it can be used as a controller for games – this could be anything from gloves to fire hoses, guns and bats.

Don’t get too excited just yet though, you can’t just buy one of these trackers and stick it to any household object. Game developers will first have to build compatibility with the tracker into games, but this will open up a new world of possibilities in terms of future controller options.

Improved audio with the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap

The second hardware update announced by HTC is the Vive Deluxe Audio strap.

This strap adds adjustable headphones to the headset to offer more comfortable and convenient audio, rather than having to use your own headset. This addresses one of the minor concerns we highlighted in our HTC Vive review.

There’s a new sizing dial so you can easily adjust the fit of the headstrap, so you’ll be able to find the perfect fit for your personal VR experience.

More rigid and durable than the current strap, this new bit of kit should ensure comfortable gaming but with a hinge to allow you to quickly remove the headset without taking the whole thing off.

There’s no official pricing just yet, but HTC say they will be shipping later in 2017.

‘Star Trek’ fan film loses fair use case, moves to jury trial

It’s been a long journey for the makers Axanar, the crowdfunded Star Trek fan film that ran afoul of CBS and Paramont’s lawyers. After successfully raising over a million dollars to to create a professional-grade homage to the Star Trek brand, Axanar’s producers were threatened with lawsuit, assured that lawsuit would be dropped, and then, sued. The filmmakers stood their ground and argued a case of fair use, but ultimately lost. Today, U.S. District Court Judged Gary Klausner ruled that Axanar is just too faithful to Star Trek canon to avoid copyright infringement.

In a series of extrinsic tests, the court pitted the Axanar project against the tenets of fair use law, and ultimately found it to be “substantially similar to the Star Trek Copyrighted Works.” Specifically, the ruling cites the accurate portrayal Klingon and Vulcan physiology compared to official works, the clothing and culture of fictional species, locations from the original series such as specific planets and starships, and more. Klausner spells it out pretty clearly, stating that the Axanar crew “expressly set out to create an authentic and independent Star Trek film that [stayed] true to Star Trek canon down to excruciating details.”

For Klausner, the case is pretty cut and dry. The work is clearly not a parody, clearly uses the Star Trek brand and, according to the judge, does not qualify as nonprofit because — although it was going to be distributed for free — was intended to drive non-monetary benefits for the creators such as future job opportunities.

This places the ruling of copyright infringement clearly in favor of Paramount and CBS — but the issue isn’t closed. Despite settling the question of fair use, the question of intent still hangs in the air: Did Axanar’s Alec Peters show a ‘reckless disregard’ or ‘willfull blindness’ to copyright, or did he genuinely act in good faith? That decision will move on to a jury trial. Here’s hoping Peters’ peers don’t come down on him too hard for loving Star Trek too much.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

The Morning After: Thursday, January 5th, 2017

Welcome to Thursday!

Another busy day at Engadget as CES hits its stride. If you’re interested in the future of TV, there’s a whole lot to take in from LG, Samsung and Sony. We saw ASUS smartphones aimed at photographers and early adopters. Plus, we took a nap in the bed of the future. Our CES live stage broadcasts start today, so expect plenty of interviews as well as a little bit of frivolity along the way.

No more charging padsTrue wireless charging is almost ready

Energous’ ambitious wireless charging system is coming closer to reality. The startup, which uses RF to charge gadgets from a distance, is finally showing off actual products instead of just talking about some vague future. While the dream of wireless charging at 15 feet is still a while away, its Chipolo Sticker is the start of it all, offering contactless charging… albeit from just a few inches away. At least it’s something.

Car sculptures, anyone?BMW looks to the future of sitting in cars

Most automotive startups want to be exactly where BMW currently sits. “Act like a startup, deliver like a grown-up,” said Klaus Frolich, a member of BMW’s board of management, at an event at CES in Las Vegas today. It helps explain its “i Inside Future sculpture” we saw here at CES.

Follow the leaderSony and Panasonic have OLEDs too, but LG is still showing the way

4K OLEDs were everywhere yesterday at CES. Panasonic brought a version with deeper calibration settings than ever, while Sony took advantage of new tech that uses an OLED screen as a speaker. Meanwhile, LG is not only building the super sharp panels for everyone, but it also showed off its slimmest version yet, with a “wallpaper thin” W edition that mounts flush to the wall.

It’s like a non-sliding PrivTCL “Mercury” prototype features a classic BlackBerry keyboard

Now that TCL owns the BlackBerry brand, what’s next? Judging by the prototype Cherlynn Low tried out, it plans to build some of the Android-powered phones we wanted to see from RIM. This prototype model features a familiar-looking physical keyboard that doubles as a touchpad and comes pre-loaded with BlackBerry apps.

The first Chromebooks with Google Play preinstalledSamsung’s Chromebook Pro and Plus are beautiful laptops built with Android in mind

So what does it look like when someone takes Chromebooks seriously? Probably a lot like the new Chromebook Pro and Plus, two new 12-inch convertible laptops from Samsung featuring an Intel Core M3 and ARM processor, respectively. Otherwise, they have matching high-res touchscreen displays, 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, plus access to Google’s Play Store full of Android apps right out of the box. Pricing on the Plus starts at $449; there’s no word yet on the Pro.

Watching a Let’s Play is cheaper and lasts longerGeForce Now offloads PC gaming to the cloud

NVIDIA Shield owners could already stream PC games for $8 a month, and now gamers on PC and Mac have a similar option. Their version of GeForce Now doesn’t rent games. Instead, users buy the games, then rent access to the server that handles the heavy load of rendering them. At least in the demos, it felt a lot like playing a game locally, except this time it costs the price of the game, plus $25 for 20 hours of playtime. How many hours make up the difference to your next GPU upgrade?

But wait, there’s more…

• “Mass Effect: Andromeda” has a new trailer and a release date: March 21st
• Nikon’s D5600 DSLR hits the US this month for $800
• HDMI 2.1 spec should improve 8K, HDR and gaming
• The next stop for Google’s Assistant AI: Android TV
• Samsung will explain the cause of those Galaxy Note 7 fires “soon”
• Toyota’s Concept-i vehicle is for people who still love driving
• ASUS’ ZenFone AR handles both virtual and augmented reality

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

Sky Mobile is now available to everyone

Sky finally got around to launching its mobile service last month and, despite being such a latecomer to this crowded market, has managed to cook up quite an interesting offering. Only existing Sky TV customers and those who had pre-registered interest were invited to bed the new network in, but as of today, anyone can now sign up to Sky Mobile. Perhaps the key feature of Sky’s service is data rollover. Any unused megabytes go into a “piggybank” at the end of the month, which customers can draw from in subsequent months whenever they hit their cap.

Flexibility is another feature of Sky Mobile. Theoretically, three different 12-month contracts are offered: £10 per month for 1GB of 4G data, £15 for 3GB and £20 for 5GB. But you can jump between tiers whenever you fancy, choosing the cheapest plan one month when your piggybank is bursting and a more expensive plan the next when you’ve little rollover data left.

The one catch is you’re only buying data, with calls and texts charged on a pay-as-you-use basis. An extra £10 per month will get you an unlimited calls and texts package, unless you’re a Sky TV customer. They get this add-on for free, alongside a couple of other benefits related to their TV package.

Even if you’re not a Sky customer, the company’s new mobile offering is competitively priced and as flexible as they come. The simple, SIM-only setup won’t be staying that way for too long, though, with Sky gearing up to fold handsets from Apple, Samsung and others into the mix later this year.

Source: Sky

Kwikset goes keyless with its ‘Obsidian’ smart lock

Most app-enabled smart locks like the August or any of the Schlages will still include a traditional cylinder mechanism, you know, just in case. The new Obsidian lock from Kwikset, however, has no need for your puny keys. Like, at all.

The Obsidian operates exclusively via its touchscreen. To unlock the door, the user first taps the exterior screen to activate it, then press two randomly illuminated keys to bring up the full keypad. This is done to prevent would be burglars from gaming the system by looking for signs of wear or use on the pad itself. Once the full keypad is illuminated, the user can then type in their personal code to unlock the door and gain access to their house. What’s more, by eliminating the traditional cylinder assembly, Kwikset has managed to produce what it calls the “lowest profile smart lock in the industry”.

The Obsidian is available as both a standalone or a Z-wave connected lock, which is compatible with Apple’s HomeKit. The standalone version will retail for $180 when it goes on sale later this spring. The Z-wave enabled Obsidian will set you back $230.