HTC Vive’s VR headset designer is now working on Google Daydream

The same day it was revealed Hugo Barra is leaving Xiaomi to head up Facebook-Oculus’ virtual reality efforts, HTC’s now-former design lead announced he is begun working on the Google Daydream platform.

Claude Zellweger, according to his Twitter (where he first announced his new gig), is the maker of the HTC Vive VR headset and HTC 10. HTC has now confirmed to The Verge that Claude has left the company to presumably help Google with designing Google Daydream-related projects. Keep in mind Google is rumoured to be developing a high-end VR headset along the lines of HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

@vladsavov I am joining Google Daydream, so you can redirect your criticism:).

— Claude Zellweger (@Claudibus) January 26, 2017

At Google I/O 2016, Google showed us it was interested in going beyond Google Cardboard by introducing a new mobile, approachable to VR in the form of Google Daydream. Since then, we’ve seen Google introduce a Daydream VR headset, Pixel phones with Daydream support, and other manufacturers add support for Daydream. We’re hoping to see more hardware announcements at Google I/O 2017.

Unlike the Daydream View, which is essentially dumb headset that relies on the software and processing power of a Daydream-enabled phone, Google’s full-fledged headset would be an all-in-one experience that doesn’t require a phone whatsoever.

Check out Pocket-lint’s rumour round-up for more details. We suspect more leaks in the coming months if Zellweger is indeed working on the secretive project.

• Google’s next VR headset might ditch the phone and include AR

The Wirecutter’s best deals: The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar drops to $2,100

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (15-inch, late 2016)

Street price: $2,400; MSRP: $2,400; Deal price: $2,100

This $300 drop is the best price we’ve seen to date, and for the top of the line MacBook Pro, it’s quite a good deal. It’s available in Space Gray and Silver, with limited quantities available.

The MacBook Pro 15-inch is our absolute performance pick in our guide to which MacBook Pro you should buy. Dan Frakes wrote, “The 15-inch MacBook Pro is Apple’s flagship laptop, designed specifically for people who need the best possible performance: In addition to its 2880×1800, 15-inch Retina display—which has the same increased brightness and color gamut as the 13-inch 2016 models—the 15-inch MacBook Pro is the only Mac laptop with a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, and it has faster graphics processors (including both integrated and discrete GPUs), faster RAM, and faster storage.”

Oculus Rift VR Headset + $100 Gift Card

Street price: $700; MSRP: $700; Deal price: $600

This is a nice deal on the Oculus Rift Headset. While the headset itself is full price, this deal includes a $100 Best Buy Gift card. That $100 gift card would represent half the cost of the touch controllers, a strongly recommended Rift accessory.

The Oculus Rift headset is a top pick in our upcoming VR Headset guide. Signe Brewster writes, “The Oculus Rift hits the sweet spot for accessibility and ability, especially now that the Touch controllers are available. Its sensors track you as you move around, and the controllers accurately and intuitively replicate your hand movements in virtual worlds. There are plenty of games, movies and other experiences in the Oculus Store, and it can play most SteamVR games as well. Compared to the HTC Vive and Playstation VR, the headset is lighter and the controllers are smaller and make more sense to use. Its on-ear headphones sound great and require zero thought, unlike the competition’s earbuds, which tend to fall out.”

Garmin Oregon 600 Handheld GPS

Street price: $285; MSRP: $400; Deal price: $200

This is the best price we’ve seen on our top pick for best handheld GPS by far, coming in stover $80 below the recent street price. While we’ve been seeing the street price gradually drop over the past year, this is a huge deal and a great price to pick up this handheld GPS.

The Garmin Oregon 600 is our top pick in our guide to the best handheld GPS. Kit Dillon wrote, “If you’re serious about charting and waypointing the unknown, the Garmin Oregon 600 is the backcountry GPS to get. It has the best touchscreen display of any stand-alone GPS device we’ve tested, and is chock-full of all the standard and advanced features of any great backcountry GPS, including microSD slot for extra maps, 1.7 GB of built-in memory, and GPS/GLONASS dual-system antennas.”

Vantrue R2 2K Ultra HD 2.7-Inch LCD Dashboard Camera + $10 Gift Card

Street price: $140; MSRP: $210; Deal price: $90

This is a nice deal on the Vantrue R2 dash cam and matches the lowest price we’ve seen. In addition, like one of the past Newegg deals on this dash cam we’ve posted, it includes a bonus in the form of a $10 Newegg promotional gift card. Shipping is free to most states.

The Vantrue R2 is our runner-up pick for the best dash cam. Eric Adams writes, “Its packaging, instructions, and general usability are on a par with the Z3, and its image quality is also top notch. While just as crisp as the Z3, the R2’s images have slightly more contrast. This makes them more attractive, but not quite as useful as they could be in different scenarios, as some areas tend to be too dark, and the night vision is also a hair darker.”

Adams turns to quality and value, “It also has a slightly wider 170° field of view, which exceeds our preference just a bit. But we’re hair-splitting here: Both the R2 and our top pick, the Z3, are sensational cameras…. If you like its slightly better photographic output or you need a dash cam right away and the Z3 is unavailable, we recommend the R2.”

Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

Alphabet’s moonshots are making more money, still aren’t profitable

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, continues to rake in money hand over fist. In its fourth and final quarter for 2016, the company reported $26.02 billion in revenue, which is a growth of 22 percent compared to this time last year. According to a press release, this performance was led by “mobile search and YouTube,” which makes sense since advertising continues to be Google’s bread and butter — $22.4 billion of that revenue came from advertising.

This time however, even Alphabet’s non-Google properties improved revenue-wise — it reported $262 million revenue from its Other Bets this quarter, which is an improvement over the $150 million from this time last year. Indeed, Other Bets made $809 million in the entirety of 2016, which is up 82 percent over 2015.

CFO Ruth Porat said during the earnings call that a lot of this can be attributed to the performance of Nest, Fiber and Verily. She specifically called out Nest, saying that Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of the connected home products nearly doubled during that time.

That said, its Other Bets properties are still operating under a loss; it lost over a billion dollars this part quarter.

And even though CEO Sundar Pichai wouldn’t reveal just how much Google hardware was sold, he did say that the “early signs are promising.” He specifically pointed out that Google Home was a “very popular present” over the holidays, though he refused to divulge actual numbers. Pichai attributes a lot of this success to the improvements in machine learning, and how that informs every product Google makes — everything from search to maps to, yes, its hardware too.

“Computing is going from mobile first to AI first,” said Pichai. “Machine learning is central to who we are as a company and the products we make.”

FCC approves $170 million for New York broadband rollout

The FCC’s first action under new Chairman Ajit Pai will direct up to $170 million in federal funding to help ease the digital divide in New York State. The commission voted Thursday to approve the funds as part of the Connect America program, which is designed to invest in broadband deployment and infrastructure in rural and underserved areas.

“Broadband is critical to economic opportunity and job creation,” Pai said in a statement. “This is a first step of many to fulfill my promise to empower Americans with online opportunities, no matter who they are and no matter where they live.”

According to the FCC, the money will be combined with another $200 million in state funds and private investments. The state’s New NY Broadband Program will be in charge of distributing the funds and insuring “ongoing oversight” of the service.

Last year, under Chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC actually backed down from its attempts to protect municipal broadband after those efforts were stymied by local regulations that blocked city- or county-run services from expanding beyond their borders. While the FCC wanted to protect municipal broadband in order to foster competition in those areas, additional broadband penetration was often a positive side effect. The Connect America funds, on the other hand, are federal subsidies given to the private sector to deploy broadband in areas where they would otherwise be “unable to make a business case” for providing the service.

Source: FCC

Chrome warns you when a shopping site isn’t secure

Paying bills and shopping online is great, but sometimes it’s difficult to tell when the site you’re using is protecting your sensitive information. The latest update for Chrome should make that a bit easier. Now, when you’re on a site that asks for a password or credit card info and it isn’t using HTTPS, it’ll be flagged as “not secure” in red type and with a caution sign in the address field. It seems as though Google is using these literal scarlet letters as a way to advance its “HTTPS for all” initiative. Hopefully the shaming pushes more places into action.

A post on the Chromium blog also notes that page reload speeds have been boosted by as much as 28 percent on mobile for one specific site. Chrome on mobile now “has a simplified reload behavior to only validate the main resource and continue with a regular page load. This new behavior maximizes the reuse of cached resources and results in lower latency, power consumption and data usage.”

Google’s Takashi Toyoshima writes that Facebook contacted the company and said that Chrome was using triple the validation requests of other browsers. Implementing the changes has resulted in that speed boost for reloads on the social network, but it isn’t clear if those performance boosts apply across the web as a whole. We’ve reached out for more information and will update this post should it arrive. In the meantime, you could always see if the difference holds true with the video embedded below.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Chrome Releases, Chromium blog

Second ‘celebgate’ hacker sentenced to nine months in prison

For his part in the “celebgate” celebrity hacking scandal, 29-year-old Chicago man Edward Majerczyk will be sentenced to nine months in federal prison. Last July, Majerczyk agreed to plead guilty to felony computer hacking charges, admitting that he scammed more than 300 people, including 30 celebrities, in order to steal their Gmail and iCloud account info.

As Reuters reports, none of the celebrity victims were actually named in the court documents, but the investigation was launched after the iCloud breach crudely known as the Fappenning made headlines across the web. According to his attorney, Majerczyk “consistently expressed remorse” for the hacking and had been suffering from depression at the time. Even though he pled guilty to the charges, the Justice Department’s investigation never found a connection to the leaks themselves and in a memorandum filed last week, Majerczyk’s attorney insisted that the hacked material was for “personal use.”

36-year-old Ryan Collins of Pennsylvania was also tied to the hacking. Collins pled guilty to one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Misuse Act, and another count of illegally obtaining access to a computer. For his part in Celebgate, Collins will serve an 18-month sentence.

Source: Reuters

Ticwatch 2 review – Will this be your first smartwatch?

In the world of smartwatches, Android Wear and the Apple Watch tend to be king. Despite the efforts of Samsung and their Tizen powered wearables, we have few other third parties that actually make a splash and end up on users’ wrists. Especially with the recent loss of Pebble in the market. They do still exist, however, and one that we are looking at here is a successful Kickstarter device that tries to marry premium features with a not-so-premium price. Does this smartwatch actually tickle our fancy? Let’s find out in this review of the Ticwatch 2.

Despite all that makes this smartwatch different, there is plenty that is familiar. The Ticwatch 2 is very display forward, putting its 1.4 inch OLED display as the bulk of the watch’s face. There are a few different versions available but the one we are working with is the Oak edition, sporting a stainless steel construction and a nice brown leather band that fits right into the standard 20mm lugs on either end of the body.

On the back side is the heart rate sensor that can be used at will or during workouts when using the watch on the go. Notice that there are no charging contacts on the back – this is because the Ticwatch 2 uses wireless charging, of which can be done via two different charging docks. The one that comes with this Ticwatch is flat and relies heavily on the magnet to keep it in place, as it is pretty easy to make it move when it is sitting on the charger.

You might notice that the crown is in a different spot than other smartwatches or even watches in general – that is because its location on the left allows for the touch-sensitive area on the right to be open for ‘tickling.’ Touching on the right side yields a different form of navigation, and it works pretty well despite some sensitivity issues. It doesn’t seem to respond as consistently as we would like, compared to just touching right on the screen itself. However, after a couple of swipes up and down the rhythm and pressure required is easy to acquire – even better, you’re scrolling through the operating system without covering anything. What’s nice is that in the Ticwear settings the effective location of the crown can be changed if that is better for the user.

The only place that we can feel a little differently about the Ticwatch 2 quality is in the weight of the body, as it feels a bit lighter than other wearables that are similar in dimension. That doesn’t take away from the fact that this watch definitely sports its lower price in a pretty premium way.

As mentioned before, the 1.4 inch OLED display mostly makes up the size of the Ticwatch 2. It comes in 400×400 resolution, which is plenty for a smartwatch and provides good sharpness for all the text you’re inevitably going to read on it. We’ve had very few issues with the display in bright daylight, too. The Ambient Display mode is nice, making watchfaces go into a lower state that is still readable and useful. The only problem with it is the hit it makes on battery life.

That battery life is based on a 300mAh unit that is a little paltry compared to some higher spec smartwatches we’ve seen this year. The result is a watch that can go for a day and a half if Ambient Display is turned off and notifications are kept at a minimum, like with Do Not Disturb or Airplane modes activated. That is a bit of a bummer but not something that we are totally surprised by considering the price of the Ticwatch 2.

Performance, on the other hand, has been reliable and smooth. Though it doesn’t have the unabashed snappiness and low touch latency of devices like the Samsung Gear S3, there is really little to complain about when it comes to notifications and navigation, especially when the touch-sensitive side works well. There is the matter of the low amount of apps in the Ticwatch ecosystem – the lack of extra applications means that users won’t be installing a lot on the watch and thus potentially overloading it. This is something that we can only test as the Ticwatch gets more developer support.

One surprise for users might be the extras that are installed in this device, like the 4GB of RAM that can be used for mainly playing local music files and listening to them via Bluetooth headphones connected straight to the Ticwatch. GPS is available for use in mainly the fitness tracking applications, and it works in conjunction with the pedometer and the heart rate sensor to provide information during and after workouts.

Even more rare to find at this price bracket is a microphone/speaker combo – this is, indeed, one of the only smartwatches I have ever used that uses notification sounds on top of the vibration feedback that is normally relied upon. Getting that audible ding from my wrist was a different experience, and though I think it’s nice to have, switching to vibration-only mode happened fairly quickly.

The combo is also useful for taking calls on the watch – yes, you can take calls on the Ticwatch 2, a sub $200 wearable! With the audio coming through the Bluetooth connection, the dialer app just pulls recent calls and gives a full number pad. The quality of the calls is good enough, considering the small speaker that is on the Ticwatch – we expect that if you have your phone nearby, you would just be reaching for it anyway, but in a pinch it can prove to be a useful feature. The sound could use a bump up, as I felt like I had to yell at my wrist, despite my voice coming in pretty clear on the other end.

And finally, the software, which is a full version of Android morphed into what is called Ticwear. The app in the Play Store is simple enough to set up, as the watch connects to the phone just like any other smartwatch. Once connected, Ticwear provides a good hub for changing the different settings and features of the watch, but all that the user can do in the app is limited by the very low amount of watchapps currently avaialble. Ticwear is a very young ecosystem, and though there are a few to choose from in the Mobvoi Store, the only additions that we’ve seen since getting the watch are more watchfaces. Without app developer support, the Ticwatch 2 is more or less a capable notification hub that happens to take calls.

Speaking of notifications, they are all bundled together in the watch via a swipe up from the watchface, where they are lined up much like they would be in a regular Android iteration. Actions and responses on these notifications are similar to Android Wear – canned responses or voice dictation are the main methods of response. Quick settings are available via a swipe down and getting to either the voice control or the installed apps requires swipes from the left or right, respectively.

Though we would love to see more development in the Ticwear ecosystem, we don’t think it hinders the core experience of the Ticwatch 2 that much. It manages to get the basics down pretty well, with many of the features that you’d expect in a premium wearable coming at an affordable price. There are even a couple of surprising additions like the built-in ability to take calls and get notification sounds on top of vibrations. For those reasons, we think that the Ticwatch 2 is a very worthy selection for anyone looking for either their first functional smartwatch or an alternative to the Android Wear devices that we see all the time. For what it’s worth, Ticwear works on iOS as well, making this one of the only cross platform smartwatches you can get today.

The Ticwatch 2 does a great job of providing much to users who want to spend little

And all that comes in at a starting price of $179, for the base Charcoal edition. This Oak version is priced at $249.99, though the price is a little lower on Amazon and looks to be staying that way. With all its features to boast, the Ticwatch 2 does a great job of providing much to users who want to spend little. It isn’t the best smartwatch we’ve used mainly because of its lack of developer support, but what it manages to do for the core functions that users want puts it pretty high up in our list of wearables that you should consider. If you are looking for a new smartwatch in the new year, you might want to take a good look at the Ticwatch 2.

The cloud and Office keep Microsoft afloat during PC slump

It’s been clear for a while that a big part of Microsoft’s future is ensconced in the cloud, and its latest (Q2 2017) earnings report just drives that point home. Wall Street types have been paying close attention to the company’s Azure cloud services, and with good reason — Microsoft almost doubled its Azure revenue since this time last year, making up a considerable chunk of the Intelligent Cloud unit’s 8 percent revenue bump.

Wall Street types have been keeping a close eye on Azure as more people flock to it, and rightly so: usage has nearly doubled since the year-ago quarter. Azure has always played second fiddle to Amazon’s more widely used Web Services, but it still packs potential for big growth (and lots of extra dollar signs). We’re seeing similar jumps when it comes to many Microsoft cloud segments, too: the company’s lucrative server and cloud services business is up 12 percent over last year and in the Productivity and Business Processes bucket, money generated from Office consumer products and cloud services was up 22 percent.

Speaking of productivity, a note for your avid earnings watchers: Microsoft’s report looks a little different this time because it fully factors in the costs of the LinkedIn acquisition. That means there are two sets of numbers to consider if you’re looking at how Microsoft’s productivity division is doing, but more interesting than that is how LinkedIn — the world’s most valuable/obnoxious social network — generated a cool $228 million for Microsoft in just three weeks.

Meanwhile, the stuff we generally consider more fun didn’t do quite as hot. Take the More Personal Computing division, for instance — it’s the wondrous place where Microsoft lumps its Windows license revenue, along with money garnered from gaming and device sales. This business unit as a whole took a five percent hit (down to $11.8 billion) compared to the last year, and Microsoft was quick to point out in its earnings release that slumping phone revenues were to blame.

Despite Surface Phone rumors that never seem to die, Windows Phones like the Lumia 950 and 950 XL have failed to moved the needle the way Microsoft always hoped they would. And speaking of Surface, Microsoft pulled in slightly less money off its line of high-powered convertibles than it did this time last year, but only just — we’re looking at a 2 percent hit, but sales could rally thanks to a juicy (but temporary) price cut. Then again, this quarter includes all of our frenzied holiday shopping, so there’s no way Microsoft doesn’t wish it did better. The one silver lining is that Microsoft’s revenue from licensing Windows 10 to PC makers was up 10 percent; too bad Gartner says we’re in 5th straight year of declining PC sales.

LG’s latest mobile photo printer is now as light as your smartphone

Why it matters to you

Mobile photo printers are getting even lighter — making them a bit easier to take anywhere.

LG wants you to get your photos off your phone and onto a phone-sized printer. Announced in international markets Tuesday, the LG Pocket Photo PD261 is a sleek update to the company’s small printers with an even lighter profile.

Weighing it at about four ounces, LG says the PD261 brings the small printers down to the weight of a typical smartphone, shaving a few ounces off the earlier model. At about an eighth of an inch thick (22 millimeters), the printer is certainly deeper than a smartphone but has a similar width and height, about three by five inches.

More: Print photos straight from your smartphone with HP’s pocket-size Sprocket

Like earlier models, the LG PD261 doesn’t use traditional ink cartridges but instead uses paper with embedded ink crystals that are heat activated. The mobile printer spits out mini two-by-three-inch Zink prints with a solid 313 dpi resolution. Each photo takes about 60 seconds to print.

The printer works with both Android and iPhone smartphones, wirelessly connecting using Bluetooth. An app allows users to edit their shots before printing. Inside the app, you can add a QR code to link to your social media pages — or even use it to hand out your phone number.

More: This printer searches Instagram for your #hashtag, then prints out free photos

The printer is powered by a rechargeable li-ion battery that takes about an hour and a half to fully recharge.

While the PD261 isn’t LG’s first attempt to create a photo printer you can take with you, it weighs less than earlier options. The printer is available in both white and pink and sells for around $119, with 30 pieces of Zink paper for about $13. Introduced first in South Korea and international markets, there is no word yet if — or when — the photo printer would be available in the U.S.

Lenovo Moto Z 2017 news and rumors

Why it matters to you

Lenovo’s original Moto Z was a big hit last year, and the next iteration could see some security improvements, including an iris scanner.

Lenovo is already preparing the launch of the 2017 Moto Z, following in the footsteps of last year’s flagship Moto phone. Rumors have started circulating about the device and what it will look like, and it looks like while the phone may not be a massive upgrade over last year’s it will have some interesting new features to offer.

We even have some information about the specs of the phone, and that the device may include heightened security in the form of an iris scanner.

More: Motorola’s new fully wireless earbuds are its most affordable yet

Here’s everything we know about the 2017 Moto Z so far.

Security

Lenovo could be looking to make its Motorola smartphones a little more secure. The company found quite a lot of success with the Moto Z, and it will reportedly keep the design of the phone for its next iteration. There might however, be a small change to the phone — an iris scanner.

According to a report from Tech Droider, Lenovo has filed a patent for the use of an iris scanner on the second generation of the Moto Z. Interestingly enough, it looks like the patent will use a front-facing fingerprint scanner that will also double as an iris scanner, meaning that there’s no need for extra hardware elsewhere on the front of the phone.

Lenovo won’t be the first to include an iris scanner on its phones. Samsung included an iris scanner on the much-loved but short-lived Galaxy Note 7, and it’s likely that the same tech will show up on the Galaxy S8 too.

Specs

We also have a first look at what might be the specs on the phone in the form of a listing on Geekbench, which was spotted by Android Pure. A device with the code name Motorola XT1650 has been listed on Geekbench with the Snapdragon 835 as well as 4GB of RAM. The phone achieved a single-core score of 1930 and a respectable multicore score of 6207.

Still, if the specs are accurate, some may be a little disappointed. While 4GB of RAM certainly isn’t bad, but most flagship smartphones this year are expected to push on to 6GB of RAM.

We’ll keep this article updated as we learn more about the upcoming Lenovo Moto Z.