Ford SmartLink brings WiFi, LTE-connected features to older cars
If you want new car features like the ability to remote start via an app or have a WiFi hotspot onboard without buying a new car, then Ford’s new SmartLink is one way to add them. Chrysler has offered WiFi and other features as a part of Uconnect since 2008, while GM followed on most vehicles in 2014 but Ford’s Sync platform leaned more on customer’s own devices. Now, owners of 2010 – 2016 model year Ford and Lincoln vehicles without a built-in modem can add a 4G LTE connection that plugs into the car’s OBD-II diagnostic port underneath the steering wheel.
It connects to Verizon’s wireless networks, but we’re not sure how much it has in common with the $15-per month Verizon Vehicle platform that launched a couple of years ago. The SmartLink promises a WiFi hotspot, plus smartphone-based remote start, lock and unlock, vehicle health and security notifications, and location assistance. Third parties like Samsung, Onstar and others also offer various devices, but not all of them have all of these features. There’s no word on the pricing, but it will be available via dealers starting this summer.
Source: Ford
Scientists found a way to bring back lost tomato flavor
Tomatoes don’t taste like they used to, because breeders have been prioritizing other traits like pest and disease resistance. To bring that lost flavor back, a team of researchers from the University of Florida went on a quest to find the chemical combinations that make tomatoes tasty. First, they sequenced the DNA and examined the flavor-associated chemicals of 398 modern, heirloom and wild tomatoes. After that, they selected 160 samples out of the 398 and had 100 subjects rank them according to taste.
By combining the taste panel’s results and the samples’ chemical and genetic analyses, the researchers were able to identify the missing genes associated with flavor. They were then able to replace bad genes in modern tomatoes with good ones that restore their taste. Besides finding a way to make tomatoes taste like tomatoes again, the study also provides breeders a thorough genetic analysis of the fruit.
Plant and microbial biology professor Adrian Hegemanat from the University of Minnesota told The Verge:
“A breeder can now simultaneously select for hundreds of these genetic markers to rapidly select new plants with as many of the desirable traits as possible. This will make it easier to cross two different tomato varieties and test the progeny from that cross at very early stages of growth to get rid of plants that lack key gene linked traits.”
Breeders can’t get everything they want, though — in some varieties, for instance, sweetness is linked to a smaller size. But, hey, they now at least have the choice to make delicious tomatoes. If you want to know more about how the researchers accomplished their mission, check out their paper on Science.
Via: The Verge
Source: Science, University of Florida
Samsung CF791 ultrawide curved gaming monitor review
Research Center:
Samsung CF791
When you’re seated in front of a curved ultrawide monitor, walking the neon-bathed streets of a futuristic Prague while rain pours in thick, heavy sheets, it’s easy to lose yourself. With a big enough monitor, with a deep enough curve, the display commandeers your entire field of view.
It’s no wonder these monitors started to really pick up steam in the latter parts of 2016 — and they’re poised to take over the market entirely in 2017. Prices are going down, performance is going up, and companies like Samsung are rolling out ultrawide curved monitors to match growing customer demand.
The Samsung CF791 is one such monitor. It’s a 34-inch, ultrawide monitor with a curve deep enough to wrap around your entire field of vision. Those specifications on their own would be impressive, but the CF791 has another trick up its sleeve: quantum dots.
More: Rise of HDR and 4K on display in the top 5 monitors at CES 2017
Yep, this monitor is filled to the brim with those nanocrystal semiconductors that bend light to their will and deliver unparalleled color depth, contrast ratios, and all sorts of other stimuli for your retinas. Quantum dots are supposed to deliver sharp, accurate colors at a much lower price than their OLED competitors, but the Samsung CF791 retails for $1,000. It’s not the most expensive ultrawide, but it’s far from the cheapest.
Is the Samsung CF791 worth the price of entry? Let’s find out.
Adjustable elegance
Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure. A broad aluminum-colored disc supports a glossy white armature that seems to effortlessly hold the display aloft. It’s not often that a monitor’s adjustable stand is appreciably different from all the others on the market. It has a simple job — hold the monitor up, keep it from wobbling, and don’t be a pain when you need to adjust the height or angle.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
It’s a straightforward, but thankless job, and you only ever really notice the stand if it’s misbehaving — if your display is wobbly, or if it never manages to stay at just the right height. Curved monitor manufacturers sometimes cut corners here, and offer stands that are nice-looking but inadequate, or stable but overly large. With the CF791, Samsung establishes a comfortable middle ground.
The base is large, but not too large. It provides stability without overreaching and taking over your whole desk. Despite the size of the base, it never seems overbearing, and the stability it brings to the monitor is a welcome addition. Ultrawide curved monitors have a bad reputation for being wobbly, due to their size, but the CF791 proves a steady hand.
A narrow, articulated armature clad in glossy white plastic sprouts from the back side of the base. This arm holds up the monitor, and accounts for the CF791’s impressive adjustability. Every monitor is adjustable in some way or another, usually just a little up and down with some give to tilt it forward or back. Usually, these adjustments produce audible clicks or require some muscle to get just right.
Even when bright, vibrant rose-reds contrast well against stark, snowy whites.
Again, the Samsung CF791 manages to improve on a simple aspect of the user experience that is very easy to ignore. Adjusting this monitor’s big, curved display is easy. Not just that — it’s pleasant, which is a weird thing to say. When you pull the display toward you, angling it up or down, the arm moves with just the right amount of resistance before settling into its new position.
Once adjusted, the stand is remarkably stable. Tapping or nudging the display doesn’t change its position, nor does bumping the table or desk it sits on. The display itself only wobbles noticeably when directly jarred, or if you start shaking the table.
Familiar faces
The CF791 features a standard array of connections and ports, including two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and one USB port, alongside built-in speakers. It’s also VESA compatible, another nice, standard addition.
More: LG OLEDs still reign supreme, but its SUHD LCDs got a major update this year
Basic configuration is handled with a set of familiar on-screen menus accessible via the jog button on the back-right side of the monitor. It’s responsive, and makes clicking through the menus easy enough, but like most jog buttons, you’re going to end up hitting the wrong setting now and then. It’s not exactly a precision instrument.
The menus themselves are easily navigable, clear, concise, and surprisingly robust. There are a lot of options here. You can adjust your brightness, contrast, and individual color levels, also configure which version of HDMI or DisplayPort you want the monitor to be running (1.4 or 2.0) on each of the input ports, and you can toggle AMD’s FreeSync on or off.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
The CF791 supports a 100Hz refresh rate, even without AMD’s FreeSync, in case you don’t have an AMD video card. It’s a nice addition and definitely puts the CF791 in competition with other gaming monitors.
The speakers get the job done, but they’re nothing to write home about. Playing music through them, you’ll end up losing most of the bass, and games don’t fare much better. Gunshots are sharp and snappy, but deep rumbly sounds get lost in translation.
In search of content
It’s impossible to discuss the Samsung CF791 without mentioning its overwhelming size. This is a big monitor. With a 34-inch diagonal wingspan, as well as a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, the CF791 has a comfortable 110 PPI. The deep curve makes the already impressive presence of the monitor even more dramatic. Just putting it on your desk makes your workstation look like a futuristic command center.
Before we even cracked open our colorimeter and set about calibrating the CF791, we had to find some video content to test it with. This isn’t a 4K display, and it’s not 1080p. Of course, 1440p content is easy enough to find, but at an appropriate aspect ratio to really leverage the CF791’s ample screen space? Not so much.
That’s actually something of a larger problem for the CF791. Games support its odd dimensions with ease, but streaming services like Netflix, HBO Now, and Amazon Video had trouble scaling video content without losing quality. HBO Now, in fact, had the most trouble scaling to the CF791’s enormous and unusual size, zooming in on one corner of the video and chopping off the rest.
You might have better luck if you hooked up a game console or downloaded your favorite streaming service’s official app instead of streaming from your browser.
This isn’t the monitor’s fault, and it’s a symptom you’re going to see on any monitor with a resolution a little outside the norm. If you’re in doubt, it’s best to just use 4K content on this monitor — browsers and streaming services are better at scaling down than they are at scaling up.
Other than a handful of user-created videos on YouTube, finding content at a native resolution large enough to fill the CF791’s display was pretty difficult. It’s something you’ll want to keep in mind, especially if you plan on using this monitor primarily for media. Worse comes to worst, you’ll just find black bars on either side of whatever you’re watching, or you’ll have to temporarily lower your monitor’s resolution to accommodate the video content.
Once we did track down some appropriately sized video content, 4K or 1440p, the Samsung CF791 exceeded our expectations in the most spectacular fashion. When you put it to work, this monitor is breathtaking.
Simply astonishing
From edge-to-edge, the CF791 delivers rich, velvety colors. Watching a movie trailer, colors just cascade across the screen, reds leap out against deep, inky blacks, whites are sharp and stark. These colors don’t run, they don’t bleed, they are precisely where they need to be and they never stray outside the lines. Even when bright vibrant beet-reds are contrasted against snowy whites, the CF791 never misses a beat.
It’s easy to see why — right out of the box, the CF791 sports an impressive 940:1 contrast ratio and displays 100 percent of the sRGB spectrum, and 85 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum. What does that mean in practice? It means this monitor looks great, without tweaking a single setting. Pull it out of the box, plant it on a desk, fire it up, and you’re done. You don’t need to mess around with contrast settings to pull the most out of this monitor — it’s not shy, it doesn’t need coaxing.
Compared to Samsung’s last 34-inch curved monitor, the S34E790C, the CF791 is an improvement on an already great product. The new design all but eliminates the bezels around the screen, deepens the curve, and shatters the S34’s impressive contrast ratio of 740:1 with its own 940:1 contrast ratio. Gamma is fairly middle of the road, coming in at 2.1.
Brightness maxes out at about 299 lux, and black levels are appreciably deep — moving up to only .33 at full brightness, and 0.0 at the lowest brightness setting. What does that mean for your display? Just that your highlights and lowlights, your bright patches and shadows will remain nicely differentiated no matter your brightness setting — a credit to the CF791’s fantastic contrast ratio.
Samsung CF791 Compared To
Dell U3417W
Samsung CFG70
LG 38UC99
Dell s2417DG
BenQ PV3200PT
Samsung CF591
Acer Predator Z35
LG 4K UHD 27UD88-W
Eizo Foris FS2735 gaming monitor
LG 34UC98 monitor
Dell S2716DG
HP Dreamcolor Z32x
Philips 276E6ADSS LCD monitor
BenQ BL3201PH
Samsung U32D970Q
How did Samsung do it? Well, that contrast ratio is the result of those quantum dots, which handle color much more efficiently than standard LCD displays. They’re essentially molecular-sized prisms that bend light to different colors (frequencies) depending on their size. These nanocrystal semiconductors act as a filter between the LCD’s backlight and the display, ensuring that colors go where they need to, when they need to, and nowhere else.
More: Asus ROG leaks announcement of a 4K HDR gaming monitor — the Swift PG27UQ
Those quantum dots manage to push the CF791 ahead of the competition, without inflating its price tag. For instance, the LG 38UC99 boasts an impressively high brightness level of 300 lux, and a 38-inch screen, but it’s 660:1 contrast ratio doesn’t come anywhere near the CF791’s impressive 940:1 contrast ratio.
Even with a lower maximum brightness, the CF791 just seems brighter. Its quantum dots make its colors sharper, more vibrant, and much more accurate. Let’s see if we can make them work a little harder with some calibration.
Wait, it gets better
Normally, calibration can help gloss over a monitor’s shortcomings — you can give that color accuracy a boost, and fix off-kilter gamma, but that’s usually about it. Expecting anything other than a minor improvement is unrealistic — most of the time.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
The Samsung CF791 is just full of surprises. While the out-of-the-box color accuracy is not ideal, coming in at 2.56 (anything lower than 1.0 is undetectable to the human eye), running it through a basic calibration lands you nearly pitch-perfect color accuracy — about 1.08, which is just a few decimal points away from professional-grade color accuracy. Thanks, quantum dots.
The CF791 also avoids a common pitfall of curved ultrawide monitors — the dreaded light bleed. Throughout our tests, even when we were trying to reproduce some common light bleed, the CF791 maintained its inky darkness even with a fully black — but active — screen. No light bleed around the corners, none along the top or bottom edges. In this regard, the CF791 is again able to run circles around some of its high-end competitors like the LG 38UC99, which fared better than most curved monitors, but still had some unsightly light bleed around the curvature of the screen.
Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure.
Calibration might ding your contrast just a bit, though. In our tests, the precalibration contrast ratio of 940:1 went down to 910:1, which is a fairly negligible loss given what you stand to gain in color accuracy. Brightness and black levels remained pretty much the same, pre- and post-calibration, but those gains in color accuracy are definitely worth the trouble of calibration.
If you don’t have access to a professional colorimeter, worry not. You can check out our calibration guide here for some tips on how to get the most out of this — or any other — monitor.
The Samsung CF791’s color accuracy manages to edge out a few rivals, including the Samsung S34E790C, which comes close, but doesn’t quite match the CF791’s stellar accuracy. In fact, the CF791’s post-calibration color accuracy actually comes close to the accuracy you’d find on a professional-grade monitor like the BenQ SW2700PT, which features out-of-the-box color accuracy of .84.
Warranty information
The Samsung CF791 comes with a standard one-year warranty for parts and labor, covering manufacturer defects in materials and workmanship, but only guards against noncommercial use. It’s not an unusual warranty, it’s just a little sparse. The Acer Predator Z35, for instance, features a three-year warranty, which is much more common for high-end monitors.
If you purchase a CF791, you might want to pick up some kind of device insurance or extended care plan from a trusted retailer — the included warranty has a lot of caveats.
Our Take
Ultrawide curved monitors are impressive to behold. They just look great. They’re aesthetically pleasing, they create a luxuriant workspace that supplants typical two-monitor setups, and they’re immersive. Size and scope often compensate for any shortcomings a typical ultrawide monitor might have.
The Samsung CF791 isn’t a typical ultrawide monitor. It doesn’t really have any shortcomings. It doesn’t need to compensate for anything, because it delivers in every way you need it to. It’s a gaming monitor that upgrades your workspace, and a workspace that delivers stellar gaming performance.
Is there a better alternative?
Simply put? No, there isn’t a better alternative. The CF791 sits comfortably in the Goldilocks zone when it comes to price, performance, and picture quality.
There’s the Acer Predator Z35, if you need a blisteringly fast refresh rate, but you’ll lose out on that deep curve and the rich contrast provided by the CF791’s quantum dot display.
The DT Accessory Pack
SteelSeries Rival 100 optical gaming mouse
$31.83
SteelSeries Arctis 5 gaming headset
$90
Razer BlackWidow Chroma Clicky Mechanical gaming keyboard
$130
Similarly, you could pick up the LG 38UC99, a 38-inch IPS monitor, which delivers an immersive experience with a massive panel, but less-than-impressive contrast. It’ll also run you an extra $500 more the CF791.
How long will it last?
We’re in a unique period when it comes to consumer technology, particularly monitors. Resolutions continue to ramp up, year over year, but for most uses, we’ve reached a comfortable plateau. For instance, 4K displays have trouble with icon scaling and text because of their overwhelming pixel density. On the other hand, 1440p is a happy middle ground between 1080p and 4K — it’s a safe place to be for quite a while.
The Samsung CF791 has two major advantages that will contribute to its longevity. Its size, which is unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon. After all, monitors might keep getting bigger, but desks sure don’t. You only have so much space available for a monitor, and the CF791 just barely scrapes the ceiling on that front.
Second, the resolution and pixel density are pitch-perfect for text. Pixel density is high enough that text and icons aren’t visibly pixelated — they’re sharp and smooth like a pen stroke — and the resolution is capable of approximating 4K content without too much difficulty. After all it’s only 400 pixels shy of 4K.
In short, the Samsung CF791 will last an awful long time. It’ll outlast most of the components in your PC, and continue to deliver immersive gaming experiences long after you replace your brand-new video card.
Should you buy it?
Yes, you should. It’s expensive, but for what you get, it’s a good deal. The Samsung CF791 will outlast your current gaming rig, and if you’re buying it for a general use PC, it’ll last even longer — as a workspace, 21:9 is fairly cutting edge.
Samsung has outdone themselves with the CF791, and with a slightly below average retail price, this is one monitor you don’t want to pass up.
Acer penalized $115k for leaving credit card info unprotected
It wasn’t nearly as bad as Yahoo leaking 500 million users’ data, but Acer had its own hacking scare last year. Back in June, the Taiwanese computer manufacturer admitted that somebody stole credit card information for nearly 35,000 individuals who bought from the company’s online store. The electronics giant finally settled with the New York Attorney General’s office to the tune of $115,000 in penalties along with an assurance to shore up their digital security.
During their investigation, the attorney general’s office discovered that Acer’s technical support had made serious security errors. First, they left Acer’s e-commerce platform in debugging mode from July 2015 until April 2016. This setting stores all data transferred through the website in an unencrypted, plain-text log file. Then they misconfigured the company website to allow directory browsing by any unauthorized user.
At least one hacking group noticed and stole data between November 2015 and April 2016. This amounted to leaked legal names, usernames and passwords, physical addresses and credit card numbers with verification codes for over 35,000 individuals in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. Thankfully, the haul didn’t include social security numbers, but it’s still a painful security snafu from a known computer brand.
Source: New York Attorney General’s office
New Legislation Aims to Make it Easier for Customers, Indie Shops to Repair iPhones
Lawmakers in Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and Kansas have introduced legislation aiming to legalize “Right to Repair” rules for electronic devices, including Apple’s iPhone, reports Motherboard. The laws would require manufacturers to sell replacement parts to independent repair shops and customers, and force them to make service and diagnostic manuals public.
The bills are aimed at diluting the “authorized repair” model that most tech products subscribe to, making electronic device repair more similar to the car repair. The legislation is modeled after the Motor Vehicle Owner’s Right to Repair Act, which passed in Massachusetts in 2012. That law effectively became national legislation as auto manufacturers didn’t want to bother dealing with different legislation in each state.
The legislators behind the New York bill say that authorized repair shops result in “high repair prices and high overturn of electronic items.” Additionally, many independent repair shops end up purchasing parts from Chinese grey markets or taking parts from recycled electronics to compete. This results in raids from the Department of Homeland Security as the independent shops end up unknowingly selling counterfeit parts.
Apple currently runs the Apple Authorized Service Provider Program, which allows companies to obtain Apple-genuine parts, reimbursement for repairs covered by Apple’s warranties, a performance-based bonus program, on-the-spot technical service, comprehensive repair information, inclusion on Apple’s website and more. However, the program requires businesses to allow Apple to review financial records, maintain high levels of customer service, establish a credit line with Apple and agree to promote the Apple brand and AppleCare. It also does not include individual customers who may want to repair their devices on their own.
The bills are being pushed by Repair.org, a lobbying firm representing independent repair shops. Repair.org tells Motherboard that it is focusing its effort on the New York bill since it’s being considered for the third year and even had momentum last year until lobbyists from groups backed by Apple and other manufacturers stepped in to kill the legislation.
Tag: Right to Repair
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‘Overwatch’ boasts over 25 million players
Last we’d heard, online shooter Overwatch had 15 million players. A little over three months later, and that number’s gone up by quite a bit. Developer Blizzard has just announced that the current count has crossed 25 million across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It’s pretty impressive and given all the moves Blizzard has made (announcing an eSports incubator, frequent seasonal events and doling out additional characters for free) perhaps it isn’t surprising that the number of players is growing. Now, if some of them would actually help move the payload we’d really be in business.
The world needs heroes, and over 25 MILLION have answered the call!
The fight for the future isn’t over yet, though… Are you with us? pic.twitter.com/aVoON7QwMB
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 26, 2017
Source: Play Overwatch (Twitter)
Apple’s ‘single sign-on’ feature now works with HBO Go
Apple’s “single sign-on” feature has only been live since mid-December but it’s already attracted some impressive services. In addition to A&E, Bravo, NBC, Syfy and USA, which launched with the feature, WatchESPN added the functionality in January and, on Thursday, HBO announced that its HBOGo app will now support it as well.
While it does now sport some popular content providers, the single sign-on system hasn’t, on the whole, been widely adopted yet. It requires both the user’s cable service provider — like DirecTV, Dish, SlingTV or CableONE — as well as the app developer to implement support before users can take advantage of the service. That said, the addition of both ESPN and HBO are likely going to drastically enhance its appeal to users which, in turn, should entice larger cable providers (looking at you, Comcast and Time-Warner) to implement it as well.
Source: 9to5Mac
Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in mice
Scientists have discovered a way of counteracting the proteins that cause Alzheimer’s-like symptoms including memory loss. In mice, at least. Whereas other treatments have focused on beta-amyloid clumps (which the University of Michigan recently discovered how to “fingerprint”), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri focus on tau protein tangles. Specifically, the genes that produce them.
By injecting mice with bits of antisense oligonucleotides — RNA — four times a month, tau levels dropped, existing tangles were seemingly obliterated and the protein stopped spreading through the brains of older mice. That’s according to New Scientist. It’s worth noting that the rodents had been genetically engineered to have Alzheimer’s-like symptoms at the experiment’s outset.
As a result, the scientists say that the treated mice lived some 50 days longer than those that weren’t injected with the antisense. More than that, compared to the control group, they were able to recall nest-making traits previously lost.
The researchers have begun tests in chimps, but not with the same results. Tau production dropped by 20 percent, but there’s worry that reducing tau levels might have an adverse effect on human brains. Further testing will be carried out on larger primates.
There hasn’t been enough information gathered yet to start human trials, but it might not pose a huge risk — up to a point. Mice that have been engineered to not produce the protein have been fairly healthy for “most of their lifespan,” according to the publication.
The question is how the lack of tau could alter how the human brain normally operates. One scientist, Michel Godert from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, posits that staying within a 30 percent decrease could still keep the benefits of the treatment without negatively changing anything.
Source: New Scientist
Airthings Corentium Home radon detector review
Research Center:
Airthings Corentium Home
A few years ago, Digital Trends senior editor Caleb Denison made the case for radon testing in your home. The stats are hard to argue with: The EPA says 21,000 people die of radon-related lung cancer every year, making it the second leading cause of the disease after smoking. Radon is a naturally occurring but toxic gas that is completely undetectable by humans. Whether you live in a house or a condo, you’d be well advised to measure radon levels.
Historically, consumers have had only one option to test radon levels at home: A small charcoal-based kit that must be sent away to a lab in order to get results. Often priced under $50, they are one-shot affairs. That’s what makes the Airthings Corentium Home radon detector such an intriguing product. At $199, it’s a lot more expensive than traditional charcoal-based home test kits, but given its unique ability to take radon measurements in multiple locations and provide real-time as well as long-term readings, we think it’s worth consideration. Here’s what it’s like to use it.
Just the facts
The Airthings Corentium Home makes no apologies for the fact that it is a radon detector. Its simple, black plastic housing and large LCD display give the device a no-nonsense vibe that reinforces the fact that it is, at its core, a scientific instrument. The only two buttons are tiny and recessed in the back, meant to be pressed only on rare occasions when you want to reset the detector or see how many days it has been in use. Besides the microUSB port — which is only there if Airthings needs to service the unit and not meant for users — nothing else interrupts the Corentium Home’s basic body. This unassuming, even boring design is actually a good thing: In order for the device to do its job, you’ll ideally need to leave it sitting on a surface that is as close to the midpoint of a room as possible, which means it will likely be quite visible. The black-and-grey cosmetics of the Corentium Home let it blend into the background, as does its size: It’s about the size of a first-generation point-and-shoot digital camera. There’s small keyhole on the back of the detector for wall-mounting too, if necessary.
Simon Cohen/Digital Trends
Simon Cohen/Digital Trends
Simon Cohen/Digital Trends
Simon Cohen/Digital Trends
Three replaceable AAA batteries (included in the box) power the unit, which Airthings claims should give about two years of continuous use.
It’s worth noting that the radon detector has no alarm feature; it won’t go off – like a carbon monoxide detector – if levels are high, so you should regularly monitor it.
What to expect
Using the Corentium Home is like using a thermometer. Once you pop in the batteries, it takes about a minute to calibrate and then anywhere from six to twelve hours to gather its first readings. Once that happens, the easy-to-read display provides a constant readout of two measurements: short-term average and long-term average. Both of these count the quantity of radon in the air using pCi/L (Picocurie per liter of air) as their scale, if you buy the U.S. model. Everywhere else uses the more common Bq/m3 (Becquerel per cubic meter) scale.
We were able to check radon levels in multiple locations, and the results surprised us.
If what you want is a very quick sense of radon levels in your home, the Corentium Home has just provided it — faster than any other consumer option.
By the seventh day of use, the short-term average will flash between a one-day and a seven-day reading, and these can be substantially different than the long-term average value. This short-term average reading is what really sets the Corentium Home apart from the conventional charcoal-based units that need to be sent away to a lab. Many factors can affect how radon collects in a room, such as weather, the use of heating or cooling equipment, and seasonality, but a charcoal test kit can’t give you any insights into these fluctuations.
How accurate is it?
Before testing the Corentium Home, we performed a long-term test using a charcoal test kit supplied by AccuStar. It’s a popular home test sold on Amazon. You get the single charcoal test device, a postage-paid envelope to send the device to a New York-state-based lab, plus the results themselves emailed after about two or three weeks. As instructed, we placed the detector in a basement and let it sit there undisturbed for a minimum of 90 days — in fact, we left it in place for 210 days. The result: 63 Bq/m3 — well below the threshold of action recommended by Health Canada of 200 Bq/m3. The U.S. EPA has set a lower threshold of 4 pCi/L (approximately 148 Bq/m3).
Simon Cohen/Digital Trends
After three weeks of letting the Corentium Home sit in the same location, it gave us a long-term average reading of 54 Bq/m3 — 14 percent lower than the AccuStar test. Is that an indication of a problem? We don’t think so. Not only was the test period much shorter, but a daily glance at the short term average readings showed that there were significant fluctuations in radon levels on a day-to-day basis, from 1 Bq/m3 on the low end, to 85 Bq/m3 on the high end. We suspect that a longer test, conducted over the same length of time and time of year as the Accustar would yield very similar results.
More: Breathe cleaner air indoors, thanks to uHoo
Airthings claims that its “measurement uncertainty,” is less than 20 percent over 7 days and less than 10 percent over 30 days, when exposed to 2.7 pCi/L or 100 Bq/m3.
Room for surprise
A charcoal test is limited by design. You’d need to buy one for every location in your home that you want to test, and we’re guessing that most folks will stick with a single test kit — likely placed in their basement or ground floor. But thanks to the Corentium Home, we were able to check radon levels in other locations too, and the results surprised us: Despite the fact that the highest readings were in the basement, as one might expect, readings on the second floor weren’t nearly as low as we thought, with short-term averages of 30 Bq/m3 and long-term averages of 38 Bq/m3, after six days of data collection. Again, these levels are well below the recommended action thresholds, but it’s worth noting that health authorities say there’s no such thing a safe level of radon — only levels below which your risk of lung disease will make it hard to justify going to extremes to bring them any lower.
Better than charcoal?
While it’s true that the charcoal-based tests are cheaper, and likely just as accurate as the Corentium Home for long-term readings, their disposable form factor means you only get one reading, for one location. That’s a problem because, as Airthings spokesperson Pippa Boothman points out, radon levels are not something you can simply deal with once and be done. Any number of changes to a home can affect radon levels, even something as simple as variations in weather patterns. The notion of having a disposable radon detector is a little like having a disposable CO2 detector – it can’t do its job if it’s not there.
No alerts
Curiously, despite the emphasis that Airthings places on knowing your short term or even daily radon levels, the Corentium Home doesn’t have any kind of built-in alert function for when radon levels are especially high. But clearly this is something the company thinks should be incorporated into a radon detector: Its new product, the Wave — which is available for pre-order now for the same price as the Corentium Home — is a radon detector that gives you a visual indicator of levels via its tri-color LED (green: good, yellow: temporarily high, red: time to get out of Dodge) and provides full stats via a Bluetooth-connected smartphone or tablet.
Warranty
The Airthings Corentium Home comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty against defects.
Our Take
The Airthings Corentium Home is a simple-to-use device with potentially life-saving benefits.
Is there a better alternative?
No doubt the Airthings Corentium Home’s $199 price will give people pause. After all, the one-time charcoal tests can cost as little as $15, and there’s no reason to think they’re any more or less accurate given enough time for absorption of radon. If your goal is simply to evaluate whether your home has dangerously high levels of radon, these one-and-done tests will do the job and cost very little.
The DT Accessory Pack
Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit
$248.87
AirSense Smart Air Quality Monitor & Ion Purifier
$149.95
Withings Home – Wi-Fi Security Camera with Air Quality Sensors
$155.99
If you like the idea of getting instant results or you’re prone to wondering about mix-ups at a lab you can’t see, you may want to check out the Safety Siren Pro Series3 Radon Gas Detector; it’s the only other consumer-grade reusable radon detector we could find. At $129, it’s a good bit cheaper than the Corentium Home, but there are two potential drawbacks: It’s AC-powered, with no battery option, so long-term readings could be interrupted, and some buyers have complained that the unit must be sent back to the factory (at the owner’s expense) for an annual calibration in order for accuracy to be maintained.
How long will it last?
The Corentium Home ships with three AAA batteries which will power the device continuously for two years. The device itself should be able to maintain its accuracy for much longer than that, according to the manufacturer, unless it is exposed to continuously high levels of radon (greater than 140 pCi/L) “over several years.”
Should you buy it?
Unfortunately, radon is a real health hazard and its effects aren’t detectable until the damage is done. Knowing how much radon you and your family are being exposed to may be vital and require medical attention. Charcoal-based tests should be considered a minimum level of monitoring, which will tell you if you have a severe, long-term problem to address, but they can’t provide ongoing results. Not only will a charcoal test not allow you to test multiple locations in your home, it’s not going to tell you if your remediation steps were effective.
At $199, the Corentium Home can feel like an expense you’d prefer not to take on, but when you consider how many charcoal tests it could replace and its ability to provide daily readings, the value becomes evident. The only thing that gives us pause is the company’s new alert-enabled product with Bluetooth Connectivity. If you want that peace of mind and think you’ll forget to regularly check your radon detector, it might be worth waiting for that model.
Xiaomi Mi 6 news and rumors
Rumors of a successor to Xiaomi’s 2016 Mi 5 flagship smartphone have begun to heat up, but the company has cooled off any hype by announcing that it will skip Mobile World Congress this year. The Mi 6 was expected to launch at the show, just like the Chinese company’s Mi 5 did at MWC 2016.
Still, there’s no doubt a successor is on the way — just not as soon as many had hoped. Here’s everything we know so far about the Mi 6.
More: Facebook’s new head of virtual reality is former Xiaomi, Google man Hugo Barra
Ceramic design
New leaks from MyDrivers suggest the Mi 6 could have a ceramic back — one of the prime features of the nearly bezel-less Mi Mix smartphone.
Previous leaks offer us a glimpse as to what the phone could look like. If the leaked pictures are actually of the Mi 6, the front of it will resemble Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge with a curved display and a similarly styled home button. The back is fairly different from the Mi 5, and is more reminiscent of the iPhone 6S.
There are reports that there will be three models of the Mi 6 — one with curved edges and one without, as well as a second flat variant with a different processor.
Rumored specs
The Mi 6 with a curved display is expected to be the premium flagship powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor. The flat Mi 6 is also expected to feature the same processor, but at a lower price, and the third Mi 6 variant will be flat but will house a MediaTek Helio X30 processor. The latter will be the cheapest option, if reports are accurate.
The flagship Mi 6 will likely have 6GB of RAM, while the other models may be stuck with 4GB. The flagship may cost around $363 for 6GB of RAM.
Information about the specs of the Mi 6 is sparse and often from little-known sources. There are conflicting reports that suggest a 3,000mAh battery, for example, while others say to expect a 4,000mAh capacity. If there are three models with various specs, it would certainly make sense as to why the information varies. All such information should be viewed with some skepticism until official announcements are made.
Other specs that have been suggested are support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4.0, as well as a fingerprint sensor on the front of the device.
Release date
As mentioned, Xiaomi is skipping Mobile World Congress, which means the Mi 6 won’t be revealed until a later date. Xiaomi Today says the company has postponed the phone’s launch until April, though the information seems to mostly be based on speculation about the availability of the Snapdragon 835.
We will continue to update this post as we learn more about the Mi 6.
AIVAnet 