Xiaomi’s modular Mi TV 4 is exactly the kind of innovation we need in the U.S.

It’s just too bad this amazing television is limited to China.

It’s funny how life works. Last week, I rushed out in a hurry to purchase a new television in time for our friends to come over and watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve.

The backlight to our Samsung TV had burned out, but it took swapping the various logic boards and tweaking of wires before we realized what was happening. And now, I’m writing about Xiaomi’s modular television, the Mi TV 4. Not only is it equipped with its own AI-based suggestion engine and Dolby Atom surround sound, but you can choose to swap out the base or the screen depending on the situation.

What’s more, Xiaomi says that about 80 percent of the Mi TV 4 is actual screen, while the other 20 percent is components. That’s the way it is with traditional flat screen TVs, for the most part, but the way that its insides are laid out and integrated into the chassis doesn’t make it an easy fix for novices.

The Mi TV 4 is also an impressive 4.9mm thin. It looks like it’s supposed to stand up on a TV stand, however, rather than be mounted to the wall for the sheer fact that all of its components live on the bottom. But we won’t know anytime soon because the Mi TV 4 is only slated for release in China.

TVs and other gadgets aren’t a new product category for Xiaomi. The company has invested in 77 different incubating companies in an effort to establish itself as more than just another Chinese smartphone brand.

Huawei joins the list of Daydream-ready manufacturers with the Mate 9 Pro

Huawei is keeping their promises, and adding even more!

Shortly after Google announced Daydream View and the Google Pixel that powers it, several manufacturers announced support for Daydream would be on the way eventually. Among those early to announce, Huawei made it clear Daydream would be a big part of their future plans.

Today the company is making good on that promise by announcing Daydream support for the Mate 9 Pro and Porsche DesignMate 9 will be available very soon! Unfortunately, that leaves out the regular 5.9-inch Mate 9, which, ironically, was announced to be coming to the U.S. this week.

Huawei Mate 9 specs

Huawei joins a short list of powerful phones all now able to take you into higher quality VR with the help of a Daydream View headset and Daydream controller. It was Google’s hope that manufacturers would quickly move to support Daydream in order to create an ecosystem that closely mirrored their efforts with Cardboard VR. If Google can offer a single VR platform that works with many different Android phones, instead of just one manufacturer with a locked down ecosystem, Daydream has the potential to be the most significant VR platform available in a very short time.

We’ll have more details for Daydream on the Mate 9 Pro and Porsche Design Mate 9 soon!

Huawei Mate 9

• Huawei P9 review
• Huawei P9 specs
• Porsche Design Mate 9 unboxing
• All Huawei Mate 9 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

B&O Play BeoPlay M5 preview: Woolen-clad woofer

B&O Play likes to do things in a Danish way. That’s probably why the new BeoPlay M5 comes clad in a wool-blend coat, as if it could go camping in the hills of a Troldeskoven.

But no, the M5 isn’t designed to leave the house. It’s a wired speaker after all, one that fits into the small-medium size bracket, so would be ideal for adding some warming sounds to your kitchen or bedroom.

That woolen coat – which is sourced from high-end Danish manufacturer Kvadrat – is removable, too, so you can choose a variety of colours to mix things up. Its various pastel tones are understated and should fit comfortably into any home. It’s not soft like petting an animal, but it’s easy on the eyes rather than the fingers.

Pocket-lint

As ever with B&O Play, the BeoPlay M5 comes from a heritage of serious materials and craftsmanship. The top disc of the speaker – which can be partially rotated in a jog-wheel like way to control the speaker volume or pressed to pause – is made from anodised aluminium for a matte appearance. Strangely it doesn’t look like metal, given how soft its appearance.

The cylindrical design of the M5 means its array of speakers within are positioned to deliver sound through a full 360-degree surround. So wherever you’re stood things sound great. There is a sweetspot to the front, perhaps, but it’s not like walking in and out of a field of sound like some directional speakers.

With its woolen jacket peeled off, the M5 reveals its three tweeters, front-facing midrange driver and 5-inch downfiring woofer. For a speaker of this scale the sheer volume and clarity is quite something. 

Pocket-lint

On the tech front, the M5 comes with Chromecast built-in, so you can stream up to 96KHz/24bit lossless files from all kinds of sources: Spotify, Google Play Music and more. There is multi-room functionality with other speakers such as the BeoPlay A6 and A9, should you own them. Or go simple and connect via Bluetooth or AirPlay.

Given its small-ish scale, the BeoPlay M5’s £599 price point might come as a large surprise. It’s not cheap, but we can see why B&O Play has positioned the speaker here, as a direct rival to the Naim Mu-so Qb.

Like the sound of that? The M5 is on sale right now.

Samsung Galaxy A5 preview: Premium feel at a mid-range price

Samsung announced that it will be bringing two Galaxy A series phones to the UK in February, with pre-orders starting on 20 January and we’ve had a chance to play with the larger of the two in a private briefing.

The Samsung Galaxy A5 will be available at a mid-range price but when you check out the specs it seems like a bit of a steal. Much of the tech from the company’s premium handsets, including the Galaxy S7, have bled down the range and now reside in the A5.

Samsung Galaxy A5 preview: Specifications

• 5.2-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen
• 1.9GHz octa-core processor
• 3GB RAM
• LTE Cat 6 network connectivity
• 16-megapixel cameras front and rear
• 32GB storage with microSD card slot (up to an additional 256GB)
• Fingerprint scanner
• USB Type-C connection
• IP68 water and dustproofing
• Android 6.0.16 (Marshmallow)
• Dimensions: 146.1 x 71.4 x 7.9mm
• 3,000mAh battery with Fast Charging

Pocket-lint

Samsung Galaxy A5 preview: Design

The first thing that strikes you about the phone is how nice it feels in the hand. Samsung has adopted its glass backed design aesthetic, with a metal bezel around the edge. This ensures it feels premium even though it is in the mid-range.

There’s no curved screen, of course, but it definitely feels like a quality Galaxy device. There are four colour options too, with two new schemes added from last year’s A series outing: light blue and pink. The others are black and gold.

This year’s model also adds IP68 water and dustproofing. There’s a fingerprint scanner too.

Samsung Galaxy A5 preview: Features

This 2017 Galaxy A5 has a couple of interesting stand-out features. It is lightning quick, thanks to the 1.9GHz octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, both in operation and to turn on. There is also an always-on display, which shows the time and notifications on a black background by just lifting the device. This is not as battery intensive as turning the phone on completely.

Pocket-lint

And with front and back 16-megapixel cameras, it is ideally suited for photography and especially selfies. One new software addition even makes taken selfies easier, with a floating shutter button able to be moved around the screen.

A USB Type C port is included to bring the series up to date with modern standards, and fast charging also makes its debut in the range.

First Impressions

With a while to go before Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S8, the A5 is a good shout for those looking for a very capable handset. And it won’t break the bank either.

We’re still awaiting full pricing details, as it will be ranged by several carriers and retailers, but we’re not talking S7 levels.

In fact, the only compromise we can see at this stage is in its Full HD 5.2-inch screen when higher resolutions are fairly widespread. But the display is still sharp and vibrant, so we doubt many will notice or care.

We’ll fully review the Samsung Galaxy A5 soon, and from our hands-on it shows great promise.

Dell built a huge 27-inch ‘Canvas’ display for artists

If Microsoft’s Surface Studio proved anything, it’s that companies are less afraid to break with desktop traditions these days. In that vein, Dell introduced the Canvas today at CES, a sprawling 27-inch touchscreen device that’s meant to take on Wacom’s devices for digital artists. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen from Dell so far, and it’s yet another reminder that there’s still plenty of room for innovation on the desktop front.

The Canvas sits right below your standard monitor, and it can either be laid flat or angled up like an easel. It’s basically an articulating quad-HD (2,560 by 1,440 pixels) second screen for artists. It supports up to 20 points of touch, 100 percent of Adobe’s RGB color gamut and naturally there’s stylus support (it can even work with Wacom’s pens).

Dell is also packing in an accessory it’s calling a Totem, a circular off-hand device that resembles the Surface Dial. In fact, it’s tapping into the same APIs Microsoft created for the Studio, and you’ll be able to use the Surface Dial on the Canvas if you’ve got one. The Canvas is also running an exclusive version of Stardock’s Fences software, which lets you easily organize your desktop and workspace.

While the Canvas looks a bit unwieldy for a 27-inch display, especially with those large bezels, Dell reps tell us that artists prefer having enough room around their drawing surfaces to rest their palms. That’s particularly important when working along the edges of the screen.

If it were announced any other year, the Canvas would seem like a baffling curiosity. But now that we’ve seen how useful the Surface Studio can be, it’s a lot more intriguing. Dell says it was working on the Canvas long before they even had an inkling of the Surface Studio, so it’s not just a case of the company being a follower either. You can snag a Canvas for $2,000 on March 30th.

We’ve already seen Dell’s attractive 27 Ultrathin monitor, but the company also has plenty of other intriguing displays at CES this year. There’s the 32-inch 8K (7,680 by 4,320 pixels) monitor, which could be useful for artists and photographers working on massive files. It supports 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut (just like the Canvas), 98 percent of the DCI-P3 range and 80 percent of Rec2020. Basically, it’s one of the most accurate monitors on the market. But, of course, it’ll cost you a whopping $5,000 when it launches on March 23rd.

Dell’s 24 Touch display is another intriguing addition, since it’s an easy way to bring touchscreen support to a desktop. Its 24-inch screen only has a 1080p resolution, but it can articulate up and down like Microsoft’s Surface, which could be useful for some touchscreen apps. At $400, it’s a bit more expensive than similarly sized monitors, though.

Honda’s amazing self-balancing motorcycle defies gravity

Keeping a motorcycle upright at high speeds is simple. Mostly you just have to hang on. Yet, when a bike is slowly cruising through a parking lot, in traffic, or at a stop, balance is handled by the rider. That can be difficult on larger, heavier cycles like cruisers. Honda’s trying to make bike stability easier with its new Riding Assist technology.

But it’s not just showing off a bike that helps a person keep a bike upright. Instead, the motorcycle keeps its balance even without a rider. The researchers even have the bike drive itself without a person. If you’re thinking that Honda has outfitted their research bike with gyroscopes you would be mistaken. Instead the company has taken its Uni-Cub mobility research and applied it to a real-world problem.

When the bike transforms from regular riding mode to balance mode, the forks (the metal bars that connect the front wheel to the rest of the motorcycle) extend the front tire away from the rest of the cycle. No word on when the a bike with the Riding Assist technology will actually end up in production, but we’re hoping it happens soon for the sake of our side mirrors and grips.

Source: Honda

Amazon is opening a Manhattan bookstore this spring

Amazon is opening a brick-and-mortar bookstore in the middle of Manhattan sometime this spring, the company told the WSJ in an email. That confirms a rumor from last summer that it would launch a New York City location, though the retail giant is opening it sooner than expected and in a different spot. Rather than being at the upcoming Hudson Yards development, projected to open in late 2018, it’ll be located at Time Warner Center in Midtown at the edge of Central Park.

The company could still open another location or move to Hudson Yards once the development is complete. It may have been tempted by the Central Park location because Manhattan rents are dropping due to pressure from online stores like, well, Amazon.

Amazon currently has three bookstores, all on the west coast, in Seattle, Portland and San Diego. However, it’s planning to head eastward by opening two in Chicago and Massachusetts. Interestingly, the company charges Prime members less for books at its physical locations, but kindly lets you sign up for a membership in-store. As with other products like Prime Video, Prime Music and the Lending Library, the goal with brick-and-mortar stores is not necessarily to just sell you books, but entice you to sign up for its real moneymaker — Prime.

Source: WSJ (paywall)

Google bought a company to improve Hangouts call quality

Google is taking the acquisition approach to solving audio quality problems with Hangouts and other communications apps. It acquired Limes Audio, a Swedish company with technology that can reduce speech quality issues caused by a poor environment or slow internet speeds. “Limes audio has been building solutions that remove distracting noise, distortion and echoes that can affect online video and telephony meetings,” Google Cloud Product Management Director Serge Lachapelle wrote in a blog post.

Google singled out Hangouts and its enterprise equivalent, Chromebox for Meetings, as two products that could benefit from the tech. Since it’s now targeting business clientele with Hangouts, and focusing on consumers with Allo and Duo, the news is mostly business oriented, on the face of it. However, there’s no reason why it won’t trickle down to consumers, as the tech is exactly the same.

On its website, the Limes Audio team said it was “grateful to all of our customers, suppliers, partners, investors and other supporters.” That suggests it might be shutting down its main operation and moving in with Google, as is normally the case with companies acquired by Big G. In any case, if you use Hangouts or other apps, expect to see, or rather hear, the tech in later Google product rollouts. Terms, of course, were not disclosed.

Source: Google

Xiaomi unveils a TV that’s thinner than the iPhone

Scrappy young electronics maker Xiaomi is hosting its first-ever CES press conference since it was founded in 2010, and the hype about what it will unveil has been feverish. In addition to unveiling the highly anticipated white version of its stunning Mi Mix bezelless phone, the Chinese company is showing off a new TV that’s insanely thin — in fact the company says it’s thinner than the Mi Mix and iPhone. At its thinnest point it’s only 4.9mm wide, and the display has barely any bezels, too. The Mi TV 4 adds to its Mi Ecosystem offerings, which includes gadgets from fridges and robot vacuums to electric folding bikes, scooters and drones.

The Mi TV 4 runs the company’s own Patch Wall, which is a software skin on top of Android that learns from your browsing history to make “intelligent recommendations that are tailored to you.” The system draws recommendations from what Xiaomi’s vice president Hugo Barra says is a vast library of content.

In addition to its skinny profile and internal smarts, the Mi TV 4 is also modular. Its components, such as the display, motherboard and sound system, can be easily swapped out for upgrades. Barra says modular TVs are more compact than their conventional counterparts, making them look less cluttered on your console. The new television is compatible with previous versions of the company

The Mi TV 4 also ships with an independent home theater system that supports Dolby Atmos surround sound technology that lets you hear sound in 3D. That means you can hear a helicopter overhead or a person approaching from behind, just as you would in real life, instead of from the bottom of your TV where your speakers are.

Superthin TVs are a clearly trending product category here at CES 2017. LG also showed off a TV that’s so thin it has to be hung up on a wall, but it’s not modular like the Mi TV 4. The 65-inch version of the Mi TV 4 with Dolby Atmos will ship for “well under $2,000” later this year, said Barra, while a version without the Dolby Atmos enhancement will cost under $1,500. There will also be 55-inch and 49-inch models available, presumably for a cheaper price.

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

Samsung at CES 2017: Everything you need to know

Samsung’s grand CES media conference was actually pretty short — especially for an electronics giant that makes so many different things.. The company’s execs took to stage to note the “challenging” year Samsung’s had — and there were no new phones for plenty of reasons. (You can probably expect something around Spring.)

So no exploding phones?

Like I said. However, It didn’t stop commenters on the company’s own live stream tearing into Samsung for the entire show.

So what did Samsung have for CES?

A stylish Chromebook Pro, some incredible-looking 4K QLED TVs and a very interesting “no-gap wall mount”…

If you find wall mounts interesting.

Well, sure. Oh and a ridiculous washer-dryer that combines two washers with (wait for it) two dryers.

How filthy does Samsung think we are?

Well the secondary dryer is passive, stationary one that’s ideal for drying your plushies and pillows. So there’s that.

Hot take: No phones, but more big beautiful 4K TVs.

Don’t say: Wait, didn’t a Samsung washing machine explode last year? Why would you want two?

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