Samsung Gear VR vs Google Daydream View: Which should you buy?

Which is better, Samsung Gear VR or Google Daydream View?

Discovering that your phone can act as the brain for a VR headset is pretty great. You drop the phone into a headset, strap that headset to your face, and suddenly you have access to hundreds of apps and videos all uniquely built for virtual reality. Transforming your phone into a pocket theater on the Moon, an arcade full of unique games, and a portal to see just about every part of the world as though you’re actually standing there is both incredible and surprisingly affordable.

If your current phone doesn’t support the best VR experiences available right now, there’s a good chance your next phone will. The big question you need to answer for yourself is which VR platform you want to be a part of, the Oculus-powered experiences in the Samsung Gear VR or the Google-built platform inside Daydream View. It’s not an easy question to answer, but here’s everything you need to know about making this decision!

Read more at VR Heads!

Save 50% on Scrivener for Windows for a limited time!

Ever try creating a really long document in Microsoft Word or an online notepad? It’s not ideal, and odds are it isn’t something you will want to do more than once. There has to be a better way to do it right? One with more features aimed at those writing in longer form? Well, there is.

Meet Scrivener for Windows, the great long-form writing app that comes packed with features. It allows you to view and edit different sections by themselves or switch to a storyboard to view and arrange your project. Sounds expensive, huh? Well, right now you can save 50% on the purchase!

Some of the other great features include:

• View & edit different sections of your writing in isolation or as a whole
• Take a “snapshot” of a document, then edit & rewrite knowing you can restore an earlier revision at any time
• Easily storyboard & rearrange your project
• Utilize the fully-featured outliner to take control of the structure of your work
• Switch to scriptwriting mode for automatic or custom formatting—then export to a dedicated scriptwriting program such as Final Draft
• Use the name generator to create pseudonyms for interviewees or names for fictional characters
• Automatically back up your projects as zip files each time you open or close them

Save 50% right now! Learn More

Normally this would all set you back $40, but right now you can save half of that. At just $20 this is a hard program to pass up. You may think your current workflow is just fine, but once you invest a bit of money and try this out, you won’t want to turn back!

The Best Android Apps

Looking for the absolute best Android apps, utilities, and games, the Play Store has to offer? You’ve come to the right place!

There are a lot of Android apps out there, and we’ve rounded up the very best across each of the Play Store’s major categories. Keep in mind that these are our subjective choices, and are always welcome to hear about what you’re digging in the comments, so don’t be shy!

Best book & reference app for Android: Kindle

Amazon’s Kindle remains the de facto standard for e-reading and offers the widest marketplace for books and reference materials. The app includes a wide range of features, including definition look-up, text scaling, contrast adjustment, and location memory. You can even load Mobi and PDF files to be read in the Kindle app (though not ePub).

Download: Kindle (Free w/ IAPS)

Best business app for Android: Splashtop

Splashtop is a remote desktop access app that allows users to get access to everything they need on your home or work PC. So long as your computer is on, the desktop client is running, and you have an active subscription, you can use your Android device to click around your desktop, open applications, browse files, and make use of touch shortcuts to get more done faster. Encryption is enabled for business customers concerned about security.

Download: Splashtop (Free w/ subscription)

• Need more app recommendations to make your business run smoother? Check out these apps to help streamline collaboration.

Best comics app for Android: Comixology

In no uncertain terms, Comixology made comics on mobile popular. Issues are made available to purchase the same day they’re out on print. There are a bunch of free issues available, and the selection spans major publishers like Marvel, DC, IDW, and Disney. You’ll also find related news and podcasts tucked away in there.

Download: Comixology (Free w/ IAPs)

• This recommendation just not cutting it? Check out Best comic reader apps for Android for more options.

Best education app for Android: Lynda.com

Lynda remains a top source for current, high-quality instructional videos. Though the bulk of the service relies on a hefty $25/month subscription fee, there are a lot of free videos available. Many of the areas of subject matter are technical and surround certain types of software, but you’ll also find photography, music, art, and other major topics covered.

Download: Lynda.com (Monthly subscription required)

Best entertainment app for Android: IMDb

IMDb is an invaluable tool for figuring out which films and shows actors are from, digging up obscure quotes, and seeing which shows are topping the charts. After watching an HD trailer, you can find showtimes at theatres near you, or mark it on your watchlist to catch it later. Between the full photo galleries, recent news, and information on every movie under the sun, IMDb is insanely useful.

Download: IMDb (Free)

Best finance app for Android: Mint.com Personal Finance

Mint.com is an outstanding organizational app to stay on top of your budget. It plugs directly into your existing bank accounts and identifies transactions across broad categories so it can visualize the information in helpful way. You can set monthly budget limits for different types of activities, and manually add in transactions that aren’t using any of your bank cards. Investment totals made through your bank are displayed here as well.

Download: Mint (Free)

Best health & fitness app for Android: Endomondo Sports Tracker

Endomondo is still one of the best all-around fitness trackers available on Android. You can track speed, distance, and time for running, walking, cycling, or any other overland activity and share the results to your friends on Facebook. If you’re willing to go with the pro version, you’re able to enjoy goal setting features, an audio coach, and view detailed graphs for your progress throughout a workout. You’ll also find that a wide range of popular fitness bands and accessories will feed data into Endomondo.

Download: Endomondo (Free w/ IAPs, or $4.99 for Pro version

Best lifestyle app for Android: Tinder

Tinder is a hugely popular location-based dating app. Users log in with their Facebook credentials, which populates a Tinder profile with all of their interests and a profile image. You’re then presented with a stream of potential matches based on those nearby and with overlapping interests and common Facebook friends. With a swipe, users anonymously decide if they like someone or not, and they get a notification when someone they picked has picked them as well. Then it’s just a matter of using the chat system to taking things from there.

Download Tinder (Free)

Best media & video app for Android: Plex

Plex is a widely-respected media-sharing app that helps you get content on your Android device from your PC. Just run the media server software on your computer, and you can access music, video, and pictures from anywhere. Extra features, like Chromecast support and cloud saving, are available with a PlexPass subscription.

Download: Plex (Free w/subscription)

Best medical app for Android: Medscape

Medscape is a rich medical reference library that allows users to pour over thousands of procedures, drugs, and news articles. Specialities can be tagged so that relevant information can be made more prominent. The data is pulled in through WebMD, which is highly reputable in the sphere. One of the more useful sections for everyday users is a drug database and cross-referencing for potential interactions. For those really into medicine, there’s an educational section where you can read up on the latest research and catch embedded videos going over the content.

Download: Medscape (Free)

Best music & audio app for Android: Spotify

Spotify is arguably the best music streaming service out there, featuring a massive library of tracks, as well as a station generator and some curated, mood and genre based offerings if you don’t feel like making a playlist yourself.

There’s also a social emphasis with Spotify, giving users the option to share and play friend’s playlists to help them discover music and share what they’re listening to on social media sites. You can stream shuffled music for free (with ads) or subscribe for unlimited access to everything Spotify offers.

Download: Spotify (Free, $9.99/month for premium)

• Need more recommendations? These are our other favorite streaming music services.

Best news & magazine app for Android: Flipboard

Flipboard has become the new way people take in web content on their phone. Users build up a list of subscriptions, and content is fed into a beautiful interface. Swipes cause each page to turn smoothly, and a single tap on the header image takes you into the full text of an article. Though reading through your favorite sites is great, you can build your own magazines built from web content and share them with the Flipboard community at large.

Download: Flipboard (Free)

• There’s more than one way to stay informed. Check out the best news apps for Android for other great app options.

Best personalization app for Android: Action Launcher 3

Action Launcher brings a ton of thoughtful features plus lots of additional tweaks that you expect from a custom launcher. Replace the traditional app drawer with a slide-in Quickdrawer, maximize on-screen real estate with Shutters and tweak the home screen search bar with the customizable Quickbar. Beyond that, Action Launcher also offers theming options, suggestions for app icon replacements and a beta feature to normalize icon sizes.

The best features of Action Launcher 3 require a paid upgrade to the Plus version, but it’s worth every penny.

Download: Action Launcher 3 (Free)

• Looking for different launcher options? Check out the best launchers for Android for some other great recommendations.

Best photography app for Android: Snapseed

Snapseed is a highly polished photo editing app built smartly for touch input. Tapping navigation buttons along the bottom allow users to switch between tools, such as rotating, cropping, color correction, and filters. Then, swiping up and down on the picture lets you select the type of adjustment, and going left and right changes the amount of adjustment. It’s a great interface for smaller screens, and provides all the major editing you might need to do.

Download: Snapseed (Free)

• There’s plenty of great photography apps for Android. Check out the best photography apps for Android for more great options.

Best productivity app for Android: Trello

Trello is a task app the can scale as large as company-wide project handing, to as small as grocery lists. Set reminders, add labels, organize in collections called boards, assign other members, attach pictures and documents, and much more. Trello has a very good-looking web client too, making it easy to manage your tasks by PC as well.

Download Trello (Free)

Best shopping app for Android: Amazon Shopping

Amazon is the granddaddy of online retail. If you’re shopping for anything at all, it’s worth checking out to see what Amazon’s offering. They have crazy deals all the time, just about every physical object you could possibly want to acquire, and with Prime, you’ll get it on your doorstep lickety-split. A separate price check app can help by scanning barcodes of physical products and seeing if you can get it any cheaper on Amazon.

Download Amazon (Free)

Best social app for Android: Facebook

Like it or not, Facebook is the most ubiquitous social network out there. Everybody’s on it, sharing everything they do. With the Android app, you can quickly post status updates, share links through the browser, upload and tag pictures, send instant messages, and leave likes on your friends’ status updates. On many devices, Facebook information is tied to your address book, ensuring that their information is up-to-date and the image is their latest profile pic.

Download: Facebook (Free)

Best sports app for Android: theScore

theScore remains a high-quality, broad-field sports app that helps you get all the news you could possibly want. NFL, NBA, NHL, EPL, UFC, and more are covered with news, scores, pictures, and video clips. Users can mark teams or players as favorites so they can track what’s up more easily.

Download: theScore (Free)

Best tool app for Android: Tasker

Tasker lets you set up a wide range of tasks to execute automatically given certain circumstances. You can set antenna to go off when you leave a certain location, turn on an app after tapping an NFC tag, or mute your ringer after connecting to a specific Wi-Fi network. With the help of third parties plugging into Tasker, you have a ton of options for if/then statements here.

Download: Tasker ($2.99)

Best transport app for Android: Uber

Uber has become such a force in the sphere of transportation that it has displaced the entire taxi industry in many major cities. Uber acts as the go-between for pedestrians looking for a ride and a legion of private drivers. Uber drivers are vouched for by users to ensure security, and thanks to GPS, you can find the closest one easily. Prices are dictated by supply of drivers, which means you can get some very reasonable fares, though there are occasionally surges in pricing during busy periods. Payments are made through Uber, so there’s no need for cash at any stage. If you’re lucky enough to be in a city with Uber service, this is hands-down the way to get around.

Download: Uber (Free, plus fare)

Best travel & local app for Android: TripIt

TripIt lets you store all of your travel plans, including information about your itinerary, hotel, and car rental bookings in one convenient location. It can import this information direct from your email box, and you can easily share your travel plans with your family and friends. It’ll even add your trips to your calendar.

TripIt is a free app and service for a basic set of features, but the real benefits come in when you subscribe to TripIt Pro for $49 per year. You get updates on any changes to your flights such as delays or gate changes, and it will also inform you when a better flight becomes available and will let you change your flight plans in-app.

Download: TripIt (Free or $49.99/year subscription

• Are you a jet-setting world traveller? Check out the best travel apps for Android for more great apps to help plan your next great adventure.

Best weather app for Android: Accuweather

You might be using Accuweather right now on your Android, whether you know it or not. The longtime weather service powers the weather data on many apps and widgets, including those pre-loaded on many handsets by manufacturers. They use Accuweather for a reason: it’s dependable and damn accurate.

And why should you use Accuweather? That accuracy here is combined with a clean, concise app that is easy to navigate and easy to understand.

Download: Accuweather (Free, or $2.99 for premium)

• Not satisfied? Check out the best weather apps for Android for more great app recommendations.

Best widget for Android: Beautiful Widgets

Beautiful Widgets is a full complement of home screen widgets, including weather, time, and battery. Though Android includes many of those natively, the real selling point with is that Beautiful Widgets has a whole store full of styles to chose from. Combination widgets which include multiple data types, such as weather and clock, can use different themes together to create a really unique look.

Download: Beautiful Widgets ($2.69)

• Want to customize the look of your phone? Check out the best theming apps for Android and tweak to your hearts content!

Best live wallpaper for Android: Muzei

Muzei is a simple, gorgeous way of livening up your wallpaper rotation. By default, the background is blurred, and with a double-tap, it leaps into focus. You can set how long it takes for a new wallpaper to come in, or decide to leave the wallpaper permanently in focus. An open framework allows other extension apps to find and pick wallpapers for you, either based on your location, social network, cloud collection, and many other sources.

Download: Muzei (Free)

Best keyboard for Android: Gboard

Google originally designed the Gboard for the iPhone, and they took their time making it available for Android. The wait was worth it, as Google Keyboard has been rebranded and updated with great new features including integrated web search. The Gboard is completely free, supports gesture typing for both individual words and entire sentences, a bounty of languages, and a modest choice of themes.

Download: GBoard (Free)

• Want more options to keep your thumbs happy? Check out the best keyboard for Android for more info.

Best podcast app for Android: Pocket Casts

Pocket Casts does what any good podcast player should do: it loads quickly, has great discovery tools, has effects for cutting down on silences, and it looks great doing it. Shifty Jelly, the company behind Pocket Casts, has put a lot of love into making the app as full-featured as possible without alienating beginners just looking for an easy-to-use podcast app.

With tablet support, Chromecast output, and easy ways to store content on microSD cards, Pocket Casts is our pick for the best podcast app on Android.

Download: Pocket Casts ($3.99)

• Looking for more podcast app recommendations? Check out the best podcasts for Android for more sound options.

Best arcade game for Android: PinOut

PinOut is a brilliant reimagining of the classic pinball action we’re all familiar with into an endless arcade format, created by the award-winning developers behind Smash Hit. The game features sharp, futuristic graphics and smooth controls as it pits you in a race against the clock to see how far you can make it on one ball.

PinOut is a free download from the Google Play Store, but you might want to spend $2.99 on the one-time upgrade to premium to unlock the ability to start from previous checkpoints you’ve reached.

Download: PinOut (Free w/ IAPs)

• Yearning to relive the golden era of arcade gaming? Check out the best arcade games for Android — no quarters required!

Best action game for Android: Sky Force: Reloaded

Sky Force Reloaded is, simply, one of the finest games on Android. Featuring frantic gameplay, dazzling graphics, and a deep upgrade system it will have you coming back and playing for hours on end.

The story picks up after the events of Sky Force 2014 with General Mantis’ daughter picking up the cause of her fallen father. Most stages feature an epic boss battle with her in a massive warship, but first you have to shoot and navigate your way through intense waves of laser-blasting tanks, turrets, and helicopters. New missions are unlocked by collecting medals, which are earned by saving all the humans, destroying all enemies, and staying untouched through a mission.

Download: Sky Force: Reloaded (Free)

• Want more action in your life (or on your phone, at least)? Check out the best action games for Android for more great game recommendations!

Best cards and casino game for Android: PokerStars Poker: Texas Hold’Em

Fans of Texas Hold ’em will be familiar with PokerStars. It stacked with features you’ll love: millions of online players, frequent tournaments, multiple game styles to choose from and in-game table chat. Actual gambling apps aren’t available through the Google Play Store, so you’re playing with play money here — which you can buy through in-app purchases, or you can hold out for a free spin at the slots to get some starting funds once you’re out.

Download: PokerStars Poker: Texas Hold’em (Free w/ IAPs)

• Looking for more card games to play on the go? Check out the best card games for Android for more recommendations.

Best racing game for Android: Asphalt 8

Asphalt 8 is an over-the-top, white-knuckled racing game for Android. Power-ups litter the fantastic courses set in real-world locations, which can help you launch off ramps for amazing (and physically unlikely) stunts. Hopefully in the process you can trash some of the competition in explosively cinematic crashes. Some freemium elements are employed, such as purchasable currency and premium power-ups, but on the whole, the game is entirely playable without spending a cent.

Download: Asphalt 8: Airborne (Free, IAPs)

• Got a serious need for speed? Check out the best racing games for Android for more recommendations.

Best sports game for Android: FIFA Mobile

FIFA Mobile offers all of the excitement of a live footie match to your Android device. There are four game modes to choose from: you start out with Live Events and Attack Mode, and unlock Leagues and Season once your profile reaches level five. Controls include the standard virtual button and joystick layout, or you can try out some great finger-friendly gesture controls. No doubt soccer fans will appreciate the top-notch graphics and real player models.

Download: FIFA Mobile (Free, IAPs)

• Are you a sports fanatic? Check out the best sports games for Android for more great options.

Your favorite Android apps?

Those are our picks for the very best apps for Android, but there are a lot of apps out there and new ones are coming out all the time. Leave a comment with your favorites!

The Pixel is selling out because Google finally got its ads right

The Pixel is off to a good, if not great, start.

Google’s Pixels made up 12.3% of activations at Verizon stores during the holiday quarter, a number that should make both companies very happy in the quest to unseat the dominance of Samsung and Apple.

According to data captured by several research firms and compiled by Bloomberg, Google reportedly sold 552,000 Pixels in the fourth quarter, which was higher than the company anticipated, and has made it difficult to replenish stock both online at at carriers.

Google reportedly sold 552,000 Pixels in the fourth quarter, which was higher than the company anticipated.

Most Americans still buy their phones through carriers, despite the availability of low- or no-interest financing options from the manufacturers themselves; it is an entrenched practice after years of purchasing devices through subsidies and contracts.

Of course, selling fewer than a million Pixels isn’t a triumph when compared directly to the aforementioned juggernauts of the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 7 series, both of which reportedly sold millions of units during the same fourth quarter period, but for a new brand with very little retail presence, there is much for Google to celebrate.

The mindshare was directly related to the ubiquity of ads shown throughout North America, from billboards to television spots to subway takeovers. And while back in November, some analysts predicted sales three times their actual amounts — three million as opposed to the approximately one million altogether — demand is still higher than availability, and will continue to be for some time.

Google reportedly spent more than twice its average TV budget — over $100 million — to promote the Pixel, with Verizon following with more than $50 million to grow awareness of the new brand for its stores.

Given that the Pixel is a high-end phone with the same starting $649 price tag of the Galaxy S7, it’s clear that Google is on to something, and will continue to reap the benefits of an ad campaign well run — even as it struggles to fill demand on the supply side.

Google Pixel + Pixel XL

• Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
• Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
• Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
• Pixel + Pixel XL specs
• Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
• Join the discussion in the forums!

Google Store
Verizon

Best Wall Chargers for Android Phones

The best charger for your Android depends on which phone you have.

Real talk: Android phone quick-charging standards are kind of a mess. Sure, just about anything which can supply power over USB will juice up your phone to full power, given enough time. But identifying the thing that’ll let you charge your phone as fast as possible — even if it’s packaged with your phone in the box — isn’t always easy. Sometimes you need a special charger. Sometimes a special cable. Sometimes both!

Fortunately, we’ve rounded up a handful of the best go-to chargers for some of the most popular brands. Reads on to find out how to power up as fast as humanly possible.

Best charger for Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, Moto (inc. Nexus 6)

(and other Qualcomm Quick Charge phones)

For phones using Qualcomm Quick Charge, we recommend Aukey’s dual-port Quick Charge 3.0 plug. It supports the latest rapid-charging standard used in LG, HTC, Sony and Moto phones, and is backwards-compatible with Quick Charge 2.0 (branded as “Adaptive Fast Charging” in Samsung phones.)

This charger has two Quick Charge 3.0-capable ports, so you can charge two devices at full speed simultaneously!

See at Amazon

Best charger for OnePlus 3 / 3T

If you’re rocking a OnePlus 3 or 3T, you’ll want to use the company’s Dash Charge setup for maximum energization, and the best place to get hold of the proprietary charger (and cable) is OnePlus’s own storefront.

Remember you’ll need both the Dash Charge wall plug and USB-C to USB-A charging cable for Dash Charge to work as intended.

OnePlus’s Dash Power Bundle includes both necessary components, with the choice of 100cm or 150cm leads.

See at OnePlus

Best charger for Huawei phones

The latest Huawei handsets like the Mate 9 use Huawei SuperCharge — a new charging standard that requires Huawei’s own proprietary cable and charging brick — that’s the one bundled in the box.

At present this isn’t readily available online, but the earlier Huawei Fast Charger — supported by Huawei P9/P9 Plus, Honor 8 and similar phones — is up for sale on Amazon, and will charge supported phones at up to 9V/2.1A. That’s not SuperCharge territory, but still pretty darn fast.

See at Amazon

Best charger for Google Nexus 5X/6P/Pixel/Pixel XL

The past couple of generations of Google phones are right at home of the USB-PD charging standard. The last generation of Nexuses will charge at 5A/3V, while the Pixels also support that, in addition 9V/2A through USB-PD.

The easiest way to get a reliable fast charging experience on these phones is to just stump up the cash for Google’s 18W power adapter, which can provide both generations of phone with enough juice to quickly reach a full charge.

See at Google Store

What’s your go-to charging method? USB? Wireless? Quick Charge? Hand crank? Psychic induction? Shout out in the comments and let us know!

ICYMI: Lasers of the future will create an atmospheric lens

Today on In Case You Missed It: A new company called BAE Systems is touting its Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens tech, which aims to use particles in the atmosphere to make a big magnifying glass. They admit we are many years from actual application of the idea, but that doesn’t make the video any less cool.

Meanwhile NASA is booking rides on Russia’s space transport vehicle, the Soyuz, through 2019, since SpaceX and Boeing are both behind on their plans for a vehicle to get American astronauts to the International Space Agency. The America’s Funniest Home Videos compilation is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

DirecTV will show soccer in 4K this weekend

NBC Sports and AT&T are teaming up to offer the first live American broadcast of a Premier League match in ultra high-definition. In fact, two games will be pumped out in 4K this weekend, assuming you’re a DirecTV subscriber with the right hardware. The first will be on Saturday, with Manchester City taking on Tottenham, while Sunday’s game is Arsenal’s deeply-exciting tussle with Burnley.

This weekend may be the first to showcase the higher-resolution format, but you can rest assured that it won’t be the last. For the rest of the 2016-2017 season, NBC Sports will broadcast “select Premier League matches” in 4K via DirecTV. That way you’ll be able to watch every bead of sweat dripping from a player’s hands as they cover their face in agony after feeling a strong breeze.

Source: NBC

The Engadget Podcast Ep 25: Black Hole Sun

Senior editor Chris Velazco, reviews editor Cherlynn Low and Social Media Editor Mallory Johns join host Devindra Hardawar to chat about the biggest stories of the week, including HTC U Ultra phone, which may or may not save the company. Moving on, they dive into the Nintendo Switch’s launch, and discuss President Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence.

Relevant links:

• ‘Final Fantasy XV’ tricked me into buying Cup Noodles
• Using Tinder’s swipe UI isn’t always a good idea
• HTC’s ‘U Ultra’ flagship phone pairs AI with a secondary screen
• Nintendo’s Switch makes a great first impression
• Playing all the games at Nintendo’s Switch event
• President Obama commutes most of Chelsea Manning’s sentence

You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.

Researchers make a graphene superconductor

Graphene is the miracle cream of the physics world, with scientists all across the globe looking to unlock its powers. Researchers at the University of Cambridge believe they’ve found a way to transform the substance into a superconductor. Superconductors are nothing new, of course, but they normally have to be cooled to very low temperatures to be effective. In this experiment, however, the materials were left at the current temperature. Now, like so many graphene projects, it’s still early days, but if it works, it could up-end the way we build electronics forever.

All materials have a level of resistance, which is a measure of the fight it puts up to stop electricity passing through it. A copper wire, for instance, has quite a low level, which is why it’s used a lot to build electronics and computers. Wood’s at the other end of the spectrum, at least when it’s dry, which is why your smartphone isn’t hewn from trees.

When electricity encounters a material with any level of resistance, it has to fight to get from one end of it to the other. Imagine trying to run down a crowded high school corridor when everyone else is walking the other way. Barging past all of those elbows and carried textbooks would cause you to expend energy, same as energy does in a wire. It’s why your smartphone gets warm, because the bulk of the wasted power is converted into heat.

Superconductors are like that high school corridor, but completely empty, so you don’t even break a sweat walking down them. That’s good for the environment, good for your energy bill and good for pretty much everything else, too. Computer chips, for instance, would no longer need heatsinks and fans, making it an ideal component for a quantum computer.

The superconductors that we use today are predominantly employed inside MRI machines and on MagLev trains. But, as we’ve established, they only develop their useful properties when chilled down to extremely low temperatures. A superconductor that doesn’t require a small nation’s worth of refrigeration would be an immensely powerful thing indeed.

Scientists had long suspected that graphene could act as a superconductor, but couldn’t work out a way to activate that ability. Previous experiments saw the substance “doped” with an existing superconducting material, which isn’t as effective. This time out, graphene was coupled to praseodymium cerium copper oxide, a superconducting material in its own right.

Pairing the two in this manner also produced a result that the scientists weren’t expecting: a possible p-wave form of superconductivity. This, again, could open up a new horizon in both scientific research and engineering. But, as with all of this, there’s still lots of experiments, tests and studies that need to be performed before we’ll know for sure.

Source: University of Cambridge, Nature

BT to start charging TV subscribers for BT Sport

In the coming months, things are going to get a little more expensive for BT customers. The provider confirmed today that it will be raising the price of its broadband and landline services, while BT TV customers will be charged for access to BT Sport. For some customers, it will be the first time they need to pay for BT’s sporting coverage, but others will see an increase in their subscription costs too.

BT says that TV subscribers will be asked to pay £3.50 each month for BT Sport from August 1st this year. Customers who have BT broadband and watch BT channels via Sky will see a £1.50 increase to £7.50. The standard subscription — i.e. anyone who doesn’t have BT broadband — will go up by £1 to £23 per month. Both of these will come into effect from April 2nd. If you just pay for app access, the good news is that the monthly charge will stay at £5.

Also on April 2nd, all basic broadband subscriptions will increase by £2 per month, while BT Infinity Fibre customers will see a slightly larger jump of £2.50 a month. BT says line rental will be frozen at £19, but Anytime calling plans will rise by 49p to £9 a month and evening and weekend call tariffs will be increased by 30p to £3.80.

“Customers will get a better package and improved service from us this year in exchange for paying a little more. Millions will have the chance to upgrade to faster broadband and almost a million will be able to upgrade to enjoy unlimited usage for no extra cost,” said BT chief John Petter. “As usual, we’ve taken care of low income customers by freezing the price of BT Basic and capping call costs. We’ve also frozen line rental, which will particularly help customers who only take a traditional phone service from us.”

Last year, BT announced price hikes in April before rolling them out in July. This year, they come a little earlier. The decision to raise prices by as much as 6 percent comes after the company spent hundreds of millions of pounds on Premier League coverage and securing access to the 2017-18 Ashes series. BT also promises to award automatic compensation if it fails on its service promises, which is something that Ofcom has been watching very closely.

Via: City A.M.

Source: BT