How to save what you’re reading on your phone for later

Sometimes, there is no time to finish that article. Stow it away for later with these helpful apps and services.

Smartphones are mobile, so naturally, you’re using your mobile device to get a bulk of your reading done throughout the day. I know I do — even if my tablet is nearby, I’m still reading the news, perusing Twitter, and delving into articles with the device that’s already in my hand.

But you can’t stay glued to the screen all day, which is where those “read it later” apps come in handy. Here’s what I like to use to keep track of what’s interesting on the internet, even when I don’t have time to digest it.

Pocket

I’d argue that this is one of the most suggested apps for saving articles to read later. It’s called Pocket (it used to be called Read It Later) and I’ve been using it for so long that my reading list is essentially an archive of what used to get me riled up. You can use Pocket to file away those articles you’ll merely skim through or longer narratives that require an afternoon accompanied by a cup of tea.

I like Pocket because you can easily use Android’s built-in sharing functionality to file articles for later. You can then go into the app and tag articles to organize them by categories of your choice. After you’ve been reading for a while, Pocket will start to email you a weekly summary of other worthy reads based on what you’ve already stored away. There’s also a social networking element to the app where you can follow friends with their own Pocket accounts to see what they’re reading when they can get to it.

Download Pocket (Free)

Instapaper

Instapaper is the other popular app for reading stuff later. I don’t use it daily, but that’s because Instapaper is more focused on the interface environment you’re reading around rather than the content. Its layout is simplistic and designed to appear newspaper-esque. Whereas Pocket is a fan of embedding images and media, Instapaper will keep those hidden so that you can more easily digest the diction.

Instapaper also offers myriad settings for customizing themes, fonts, and text size to your liking. And like Pocket, it offers a bookmarklet for pinning articles from Google Chrome.

Download Instapaper (Free)

Facebook Save

I see you scrolling through your Facebook feed during work hours. I get it: I don’t want to miss out on what my friends and family are talking about it either. I’ve curated my social network so that I want to engage in daily dialogue with my pals and a few others who enjoy the banter. But I also have a bad habit of getting into it when I should be working. (Sorry, editors!) Thankfully, there’s a feature that lets me save articles for later. I just tap on the more button of the post I’m interested in and select Save link. The article is then archived to my Facebook account, where only I can see the articles I’ve deemed worth reading later.

Go to your Facebook Reading List

Save to Inbox

Did you know that you can save links to your Gmail account? It’s true, and I’m glad for it considering I’m constantly emailing links to my best friend on the other side of the country.

If you’re already an Inbox user, you can file away links you read in your email or on Google Chrome to read later by using Android’s built-in sharing mechanism. You’ll immediately get a notification that there’s an email waiting for you — that’s the article you filed away! And the best part is that if you find the article you’ve read worth sharing with the world, you can easily forward it on with a few taps.

Download Inbox

Watch it later

I love watching YouTube and catching up on web shows, but I try to avoid going anywhere near that site during work hours. Unfortunately, that’s a difficult dance, but I’ve figured out a way to save the videos without getting sucked into watching them. When a pal forwards a video link with a persuasive headline, I’ll open it up on my phone and queue it up for later by adding it to my Watch it Later playlist. Simple as that!

Go to your WatchLater playlist

How do you save?

Do you use an app to save your reading for later? Which one do you use and why do you love or hate it? Let us know in the comments below.

Indian government is bringing free Wi-Fi to over 1,000 villages

Wi-Fi hotspots will be installed in 1,050 villages over the course of 2017.

Internet connectivity has seen a meteoric rise in India in recent years thanks to the proliferation of low-cost 3G- and 4G-enabled phones and wide rollout of data services. India’s internet users are in excess of 450 million, and while that number is second only to China’s 750 million, a mere 34% of the population is connected to the internet. In a bid to boost connectivity in rural areas, the Indian government has announced that it introduce free Wi-Fi hotspots in over 1,000 villages.

Dubbed Digital Village, the government has earmarked 423 crores ($62 million) for the initial phase of the project, which will be carried out over the next six months. The move is the latest in a series of initiatives taken up by the government to boost internet usage in rural areas. In 2011, the government introduced a five-year plan to roll out fiber optic cable to over 250,000 villages with the National Optic Fibre Network project, providing broadband access to millions of people. However, at the end of 2016, the government was able to connect just over 60,000 villages.

Providing basic internet access is the first step toward a cashless economy.

With the broadband initiative taking longer than usual, the government is now looking at Wi-Fi hotspots as a way to bridge last-mile connectivity. In a statement to Economic Times, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said:

The project is a public/private partnership, and will be driven through the common service centres (CSCs). We’ll be partnering with different service providers to do it.

We are looking at all options. We’re looking at a major WiFi push, which need not necessarily be only fibre optic but taking connectivity from the nearest place using WiFi to reach remote villages while fibre can take a little more time.

The country’s demonitisation push — which invalidated 86% of the currency in circulation — has led to an impetus in the adoption of digital payments and mobile wallets. The first step in going cashless is providing basic internet access, and with Digital Village, the government is doing just that.

This isn’t the first initiative aimed at providing free internet access to those in India. Facebook rolled out its Free Basics program in 2015, but it was eventually banned by the country’s telecom regulator for violating net neutrality laws. Free Basics was available to customers on a single carrier — Reliance — and Facebook had final control over the apps that would be allowed in the service.

Facebook is now tying up with local carriers and internet service providers to “help expand connectivity” to rural areas with its new Express Wifi service. Unlike Free Basics, Express Wifi is a paid service, through which customers will be able to buy “fast, reliable and affordable data” to access the internet.

Google is also collaborating with the government’s RailTel project to offer free Wi-Fi at train stations across India. Public Wi-Fi is now available at over 100 railway stations, and Google will be bringing the service to over 400 stations over the course of the year.

How to enable lock screen notifications on the Huawei Mate 9

Here’s how to add app notifications to the Huawei Mate 9 lock screen and fix one of the phone’s biggest out-of-the-box issues.

I really like the Huawei Mate 9. It’s a great phone with a lot of things going for it. But one of the things that, by default, is missing from the phone is lock screen notifications — those incredibly useful cards that let you know, when you turn on the display, what’s coming through.

By default, most apps have their notifications disabled in EMUI 5.0, as Huawei aims to keep the lock screen clean and to force people to unlock their device to see exactly what’s happening with their notifications. If you want to change that, and I suggest you do, you’ll need to enable lock screen notifications manually for each app you want to see.

Here’s how to do it.

How to enable lock screen notifications on the Huawei Mate 9

Swipe down on the notification shade from the home screen.
Tap on the Settings icon.

Scroll down and tap on Apps.

Select the app you want to change from the list.
Tap on Notifications.

Enable Display on the lock screen.

That’s it! There’s one more thing you can do to customize the experience: If you want the notification on the lock screen without the actual information, you can enable the confusingly titled “When locked”, right underneath the toggle above to hide the content until the phone is unlocked.

Huawei Mate 9

• Huawei Mate 9 review
• Huawei Mate 9 specs
• Where to buy the Mate 9 in the U.S.
• Porsche Design Mate 9 unboxing
• All Huawei Mate 9 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

Jet.com
Amazon

What is 5G, when is it coming and why do we need it?

We’re still in the middle of the 4G revolution in that the superfast mobile data service is still in its infancy in both coverage and speed capabilities.

With current technologies capable of offering internet speeds of up to 150Mbps in areas offering double LTE connections, and LTE-A (or 4G+ on EE) available in London and select cities in the UK, increasing that to 300Mbps, why on Earth do we need anything more?

In fact, Pocket-lint has been told that by the end of what is possible with 4G, we will be achieving mobile broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps – one gig. That’s staggering to contemplate, especially as we don’t even have fixed line broadband that fast yet. So why the need for 5G?

What is 5G?

5G is the name currently being given to the next generation of mobile data connectivity that will come after the last drop has been wringed from 4G.

It will provide unbelievably fast broadband speeds, but more importantly it will have enough capacity wherever you go to perform every function you want it to without a drop in speed or connection, no matter how many people are connected at the same time. 

5G will run on a new “high-spectrum band”, which uses higher frequency signals than 4G. The new band will be much less congested than at present, which will be vital for use with the Internet of Things. However signals won’t be able to travel as far, so there will be need to be more access points positioned closer together, more on that later.

EE’s principal network architect Professor Andy Sutton believes that the aim of 5G is to become invisible. It should be a technology that’s “just there”, like electricity. It will enable device manufacturers to realise the Internet of Things as it will always be on and able to be tapped into without regionalisation.

Why do we need it?

One of the main benefits of 5G technology over 4G will not be its speed of delivery – which admittedly could be between 10Gbps and 100Gbps – but the latency. At present, 4G is capable of between 40ms and 60ms, which is low-latency but not enough to provide real-time response. Multiplayer gaming, for example, requires a lower latency than that to ensure that when you hit a button, the remote server responds instantly.

5G’s prospective ultra-low-latency could range between 1ms and 10ms. This would allow, for example, a spectator in a football stadium to watch a live stream of an alternative camera angle of the action that matches what is going on the pitch ahead with no perceivable delay.

The capacity is an important factor too. With the Internet of Things becoming more and more important over time, where gadgets and objects employ smart, connected features that they have never had before, the strain on bandwidth will continue to grow.

Initial ideas behind 5G is that an infrastructure will be in place to avoid that. It will be more adaptive to user’s needs and demands and therefore able to allocate more or less bandwidth based on the application.

The Internet of Things

By the year 2020, it is predicted by analysts that each person in the UK will own and use 27 internet connected devices. There will be 50 billion connected devices worldwide. These can range from existing technology, such as smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, to fridges, cars, augmented reality specs and even smart clothes.

Some of these will require significant data to be shifted back and forth, while others might just need tiny packets of information sent and received. The 5G system itself will understand and recognise this and allocate bandwidth respectively, thereby not putting unnecessary strain on individual connection points.

The work has already begun for 4G implementation, but will become even more vital to a 5G future. As part of a “heterogeneous network”, the points, or cells, will be used for LTE-A and the technology will be increased and refined to adapt to 5G too. Cells will automatically talk to each device to provide the best and most efficient service no matter where the user is.

Larger cells will be used in the same way as they are now, with broad coverage, but urban areas, for example, will also be covered by multiple smaller cells, fitted in lampposts, on the roofs of shops and homes, and even inside bricks in new buildings. Each of these will ensure that the connection will be regulated and seemingly standard across the board.

Algorithms will even know how fast a device is travelling, so can adapt to which cell it is connected to. For example, a connected car might require connection to a macro-cell, such as a large network mast, in order to maintain its connection without having to re-establish continuously over distance, while a person’s smartphone can connect to smaller cells with less area coverage as the next cell can be picked up easily and automatically in enough time to prevent the user noticing.

4K video streaming

Capacity will also be important for the future of video streaming. By 2030, EE predicts that 76 per cent of its data traffic will be used streaming video. And a large amount of that will be at 4K or even 8K resolutions.

The data rates of 4G can cope with that – it is expected that a 14Mbps connection should cope with streaming 4K video, 18Mbps for 8K – but if everybody was to do that at the same time, like statistics suggest, the network would have difficulty keeping up with demand.

Other, non-consumer sectors will also be served better with 5G, but as EE itself admits, some of the applications of a low-latency, high capacity network are yet to even be thought of. You kind-of need the technology in place to figure out much of what to do with it.

And finally, another major benefit to 5G technology is that standards and which spectrum bands will be reserved for its deployment will have been agreed globally, by members during the World Radiocommunications Conferences. Your 5G phone in the UK, for example, will work on the exact same system and spectrum band as in the US, South Korea and wherever else.

Well, that’s the idea anyway.

What do I need to get 5G?

In order to connect to 5G networks, you’ll need the correct hardware. Just like at the moment, you need a phone that supports 4G in order to connect to 4G networks. The phone, tablet or any other device you use will need to have the right chipset inside, and Qualcomm has come up with the first commercial solution.

• Qualcomm’s X50 modem will make smartphone downloads lightning fast

Called the X50, Qualcomm says the new chip will be capable of download speeds up to 5Gbps, 400 times faster than the current average 4G download speeds. Smartphone manufacturers should receive samples of the chip by the end of 2017 to implement in their devices, with a rollout expected from 2018. Although, if you read below, 5G isn’t expected to rollout until at least 2020, so manufacturers are jumping the gun a little. 

When is it coming?

It is expected that standards for 5G will be agreed upon and set by 2020 and that business applications for the technology will start to appear in 2022/23. It could take another two to three years for consumer access to the tech.

Bournemouth has been selected to be used for a trial of how 5G can be rolled out across Britain. Ordnance Survey will create a full 3D map of the coastal town, complete with every tree, building, road sign and bus stop. It will even take into account predicted weather conditions and planned building works so nothing is left unaccounted for. 

From the 3D map, mobile network operators will be able to quickly see where best to place access points to keep interference to an absolute minimum, while making coverage and speed the best they can possibly be.

Devices connected to the 5G spectrum will need a clearer line of sight to the access point than devices on 4G do, so operators need to make sure they’re putting the points in the best possible place. Using a 3D map will be much quicker and cheaper than conducting real-life tests. Results from this test are expected to be published in May 2017.

However, Qualcomm has recently tweeted to say Telstra has delivered the first Gigabit LTE download speeds in Sydney using its X16 modem and Netgear’s Nighthawk M1. Telstra’s Gigabit LTE service will launch in Sydney from late February 2017. While it isn’t quite up to 5G standards, it’s seriously large step towards making it a reality. 

Of course, just because 5G is on the horizon, doesn’t mean 4G has already been forgotten about. Development will still continue on 4G as there’s still an awful lot of ground yet to be covered. “This is the decade for 4G,” said Professor Sutton. “The next for 5G.”

“4G can take us to 1Gbps,” he added. “5G is everything beyond that.”

And what about 6G?

“If we get 5G right, there won’t be a 6G,” said Professor Sutton during Pocket-lint’s lesson on the technology.

The idea is that if the correct infrastructure is put in place, unlike when 1G, 2G and 3G were devised, it will be based on a flexible system that can be upgraded rather than requiring replacement. In years past, mobile data technologies were built around hardware, while 5G will be software driven. Software can be updated easily, hardware less so.

The future is bright. And lightning fast.

Wi-Fi Calling: What is it and which devices support it?

With customers driving the demand for always on connectivity, mobile phone networks are turning to Wi-Fi to enable services that their own masts might not be able to provide.

That’s a good thing for those who want to remain connected in an area that perhaps doesn’t support a particular network, letting you take calls and get messages where the cellular network might not reach.

But what is Wi-Fi Calling, what does the service offer, who supports it and on what devices?

Apple

What is Wi-Fi Calling?

Wi-Fi Calling is exactly what you’re thinking: a feature that allows you to make and receive calls (and send text messages) over a Wi-Fi network instead of a traditional mobile network.

More specifically, with Wi-Fi Calling, cellular packets of a phone call or text message are transferred over the internet from your mobile device to your carrier (whilst utilising higher data speeds than most cellular connections), then piped through the cellular network, and finally delivered to the intended recipient. Simples, right?

It’s a handy feature should you find yourself in an area with poor signal, because it lets you take advantage of Wi-Fi so your device is connected. That might be in rural areas with no network masts by using domestic Wi-Fi, or a basement nightclub that has Wi-Fi.

What do I need for Wi-Fi Calling?

To use Wi-Fi Calling you need two things. You need a network that supports it (which we list below) and you need a device that supports it (also listed below).

However, there’s a slight catch in that you probably need a device sold by the network you intend to use it on, so you have the right software on it to access the network service. 

In the case of EE – the first network in the UK to launch Wi-Fi Calling – you will have to have bought your phone directly from them to use Wi-Fi Calling. If you have an unlocked handset you’ve moved from another network, or you bought a grey import, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to use the service. The same is true of Vodafone. 

For many customers on a regular monthly payment plan, with a handset from their network, there should be no problem at all, as long as that handset supports Wi-Fi Calling.

Pocket-lint

Aren’t there apps that do the same thing?

Several popular apps – including messenger apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Skype – allow you to send and receive calls/texts over Wi-Fi or your data network, but this isn’t Wi-Fi Calling.

• WhatsApp tips and tricks: Amazing features you never knew about

When using an app like WhatsApp, your calling activity is kept strictly within the app itself and between users of that app. Your phone number is used to verify your identity, but it has nothing to do with the network at all, other than the data you use.

Similarly, Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage hand off calling and messages to internet services using the device’s data connection, but that’s an Apple service, rather than from your network.

In some cases, like iMessage, you get unlimited messaging and it’s seamlessly integrated for use between Apple device users, but it’s distinctly different from the proposition around network Wi-Fi Calling, where messages you send and calls you make will (probably) be deducted from your talk plan.

Doesn’t my network already offer this service?

If you’re an O2 or Three customer, this might all sound familiar. O2 has had a service called TU Go for a while now, and Three has a service called InTouch which has now been replaced by full embedded Wi-Fi Calling on some devices.

These will allow you to make calls over Wi-Fi, but you have to be using the apps for it to work. It’s a separate solution and the beauty of Wi-Fi Calling is that it’s seamless and integrated, without the need for an additional app on your phone.

The idea is that it’s a lot simpler, because with network-enabled Wi-Fi Calling, you literally don’t have to do anything at all, it just works.

What happens when you get disconnected from Wi-Fi?

The major downside to Wi-Fi Calling is that ongoing phone calls cannot always transfer back to your mobile network when kicked off Wi-Fi, yet.

So, if you start a call on Wi-Fi while at Starbucks, but then wander out of range, your mobile network won’t be able to pick up the call. That is until the networks provision VoLTE (voice over LTE). 

Currently, when you place a voice call, your device switches to 2G or 3G and you cannot move a call to or from Wi-Fi. However, if or when your network supports VoLTE (also called 4G Voice) then you’ll be able to move that voice call from Wi-Fi back to the network without dropping your call.

In the UK, both EE and Three have rolled out VoLTE, the latter did so through a service with the snappy brand name “4G SuperVoice” which uses the lower frequency networks it rolled out in some rural areas. But despite promising a launch way back in 2015, neither Vodafone or O2 have yet pushed out their versions. 

Pocket-lint

Which networks actually enable Wi-Fi Calling?

Here’s a list of networks that currently enable Wi-Fi Calling in the UK and US:

UK

• EE enabled Wi-Fi Calling on its network in April 2015
• Vodafone switched on its Wi-Fi Calling service in September 2015
• Three powered up its app-free Wi-Fi calling service in January 2017

O2 hasn’t enabled Wi-Fi Calling yet, but it does currently offer an app called TU Go with similar functionality, as mentioned above. While Three has enabled Wi-Fi on some devices, others without the baked-in feature can make use of the service by downloading the InTouch app as before. 

US

• T-Mobile enabled Wi-Fi Calling when Apple introduced the feature with iOS 8
• Sprint enabled Wi-Fi Calling on its network after Apple expanded support with the iOS 8.3 update
• AT&T launched Wi-Fi Calling for iPhone customers in late 2015, with some Android devices following suit in June 2016. 
• Verizon launched Wi-Fi Calling on select Android phones in late 2015, with iPhone’s being added in March 2016

While T-Mobile and Sprint have had Wi-Fi calling available for some time, the big two network providers in the States didn’t launch their services until relatively recently. 

EE

What devices support Wi-Fi Calling?

Here’s a list of devices that currently available that support Wi-Fi Calling, with links to their websites for more information about the devices as well as how to turn on the feature:

• EE UK (website) – iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017 and 2016), Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017 and 2016), Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, Sony Xperia X, Sony Xperia XZ, Sony Xperia XA, Sony Xperia X Compact, BlackBerry PRIV, LG K8 LTE, LG G5, HTC 10
• Vodafone UK (website) – iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017 and 2016), Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017 and 2016), Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. 
• Three UK (website)- iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, LG G5. (Galaxy S7/S7 Edge coming soon). 
• T-Mobile USA (website) promised to enable Wi-Fi Calling for all its devices
• Sprint USA (website) – iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S, iPhone SE, iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, iPhone 7/7 Plus. 
• AT&T USA (website) – iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge/S7 Active, Galaxy S6 Edge, LG K10, LG V20, LG V10, LG G5.
• Verizon USA (website) – iPhone 6s/6s Plus, iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, Galaxy J3 V, HTC 10, BlackBerry PRIV, LG V20, LG G5, LG Stylo 2 V, Moto DROID Turbo 2. 

Naturally, this list will change over time, so you can expect wider support than just those devices we’ve mentioned. 

One of the important things to note about Wi-Fi Calling is that it needs carrier/network software to enable it. In the case of EE and Vodafone in the UK, you have to have bought your device from the carrier for it to work with Wi-Fi Caling. If you buy your device elsewhere, it lacks the network-specific software it needs for the service to function, as we talk about above.

iMore

How to turn on Wi-Fi Calling

Your phone should come with an instruction manual that explains how to set up Wi-Fi Calling, but you could just go to your carrier’s website (links above) to find step-by-step guides. Most of the time you’ll need to switch on an option under Settings, and perhaps notify your carrier that you plan to use Wi-Fi Calling.

• How to activate Three Wi-Fi Calling on iPhone

Once you’re set up, simply use your phone as normal. You should see a new symbol (see top image) at the top of your phone when using Wi-Fi Calling. Keep in mind the other person/recipient doesn’t need a device that supports Wi-Fi Calling (nor does he or she need to enable it with a carrier) for the feature to work.

The Morning After: Tuesday, January 31 2017

Over the last 24 hours, you might have missed electronic glasses that auto-focus for you, Google’s $4 million contribution to immigration organizations, and Gap’s augmented reality dressing room app.

An infrared distance meter adjusts the malleable lenses in just 14 milliseconds.
Electronic glasses auto-focus on what you’re looking at

They’re not pretty, but prototype eyeglasses from University of Utah scientists could make progressive lenses obsolete for older people. Using electronically-activated lenses and infrared distance meters, they can focus automatically on whatever you’re looking at, whether it’s far or close up. Once perfected, the device could eliminate the need for multiple pairs of reading or driving glasses for folks with presbyopia or farsightedness.

There’s also a graphics boost for PS4 Pro owners.
The ‘Fallout 4’ visual upgrade demands a monster PC

Fallout 4 is already a good-looking game (insofar as a nuclear wasteland can look good), but Bethesda is about to kick things up a notch with its High-Resolution Texture Pack that will add an absurd level of visual detail for PC players. You’ll need a meaty setup to do it justice, however: The developer recommends at least a 2015-era desktop Core i7 chip, 8GB of RAM, and a monster graphics card — you should have either a GeForce GTX 1080 or (until Bethesda pulled mention of it) the as-yet unreleased AMD Radeon RX 490. Oh, and 58GB of storage hanging around for all that new art.

Google isn’t the only tech company raising funds.Google donates $4 million to fight Trump’s executive order

In the midst of employee work stoppages and walkouts in protest of Trump’s recent executive order restricting travel and immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, Google donated $4 million to the cause. The money came in equal parts from the company and its employees, for distribution to the ACLU, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and the UN Refugee Agency.

And the Robin is no longer on sale
Razer buys Nextbit

After buying up Ouya and THX, the next acquisition on Razer’s list is …Nextbit? The gaming PC bros have decided they need something in the mobile space and promise that this acquisition will help Nextbit deliver on its cloud-connected smartphone dreams. Nextbit immediately shut down sales of its Robin Android device, but it says updates will continue to roll out through February 2018.

The company’s new app dresses up a mannequin in your size.

Gap envisions a future with augmented-reality ‘dressing rooms’

Until recently, technology has never played a major role in Gap’s business strategy. But as the company struggles with declining sales, it’s trying to find creative ways to engage with customers. That’s where Gap’s “DressingRoom” app comes in. Built in collaboration with Google and San Francisco-based startup Avametric, it uses augmented reality to let shoppers “try on” clothes without having to step into a store. After you add information such as her height and weight, DressingRoom places a virtual 3D model in front of you and lets you see how different items would fit. Then, the company hopes, buy them.

Guerilla’s next big Sony exclusive looks good
Four hours with ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’

Jessica Conditt took a four-hour trip into the robot-dinosaur-infested world of Horizon Zero Dawn and came away very impressed. On the PS4 Pro, it will render in not-exactly 4K 2160p checkerboard, and debuts a brand new engine “with built-in tools for artificial intelligence, physics, logic and world-building.” The player’s character, Aloy, is on a quest to learn about her mother in the remnants of a long-dead, technologically reliant society, but all we know so far is that it’s going to be a long wait for the game’s February 28th release date.

Only three teams qualified for a vacuum-sealed run
Hyperloop pods finally hit the test track

This weekend in Texas, 27 teams put their Hyperloop pods to the test. After qualifying through the Hyperloop Design weekend, their actual prototypes took a run on SpaceX’s 1.25-kilometer test track. Only three teams passed all the tests and got a chance at a run with the track depressurized and vacuum sealed, sending their magnet-levitated boxes flying at over 50km per hour.

But wait, there’s more…

• What’s on TV (other than the Super Bowl): ‘Powerless,’ ’24: Legacy’ and ‘Santa Clarita Diet’
• Study offers best evidence yet that we’re in a holographic universe
• Meet Gita, your personal cargo robot from the makers of the Vespa
• Explosions may be the answer to mass-producing graphene

More tech CEOs speak out against Trump’s immigration order

More tech leaders have voiced opposition to Trump’s immigration policy, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who attended the President’s tech summit just a month ago. Bezos said that Amazon has contacted congressional leaders, reached out to the new administration, and is backing state government in a lawsuit. “Our legal team has prepared a declaration of support for the Washington State attorney general who will be filing suit against the order,” Bezos wrote in an employee email. “We are working other legal options as well.”

Other leaders have also come out strongly against the suit, including Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price, Evernote’s Chris O’Neill, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Ohanian’s Reddit post inspired numerous emotional stories from users, many involving the flight of their parents or grandparents from oppressive regimes. Meanwhile, Y-Combinator partner Daniel Gross created a site called “Be In Great Company,” with a list of both tech and non-tech companies opposed to the immigration order. Corporations on the list so far include Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Ford.

Please read immigration order. Lmk specific amendments. Will seek advisory council consensus & present to President. https://t.co/qLpbsP4lEk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017

Leaders have stood up in varying degrees to the order with some, like Lyft, making forceful statements and donating money to legal defense groups like the ACLU. Others, including Intel, Tesla and IBM have been more equivocating. Elon Musk said he would “seek advisory council and present to President,” since there’s “no possibility of retraction” by the administration.

That drew criticism on Twitter from users who think it’s useless to negotiate with Trump, as it implies tacit support for an order many see as racist. Rather, they think tech leaders should make strong statements and get behind legal challenges to the order, as Bezos did. In any case companies, both tech and otherwise, will have to be wary of further executive orders. If they continue to anger large numbers of US consumers, it could lead to the expansion of boycotts and other corporate headaches.

Source: Be In Great Company

Walmart kills its Amazon Prime-style shipping service

After launching it less than a year ago, Walmart is scrapping ShippingPass, a subscription program meant to compete with Amazon Prime’s free shipping. Instead, it will offer free two-day shipping without a membership, provided you order goods worth up to $35, down from $50. By contrast, ShippingPass members got free shipping on all items with a $50 membership — half the price of Amazon Prime, but without major perks like same-day shipping and music and video streaming.

It’s probably fair to say that the program didn’t take off the way Walmart wanted, but the company spun it a different way. “In this day and age, two-day shipping is really just table stakes — people shouldn’t have to pay for it and certainly not a membership,” said eCommerce President Marc Lore, in a mild dig against his online arch-rival.

However, people are certainly willing to pay for it with Amazon, as the online retail giant now has some 50 million US subscribers, 90 percent of whom renew each year. And while the streaming, lending library and same-day shipping are nice perks, most folks say they do it because of the free two-day shipping, according to Kantar.

In this day and age, two-day shipping is really just table stakes — people shouldn’t have to pay for it and certainly not a membership.

Walmart’s $500 billion in sales still dwarfs the Amazon’s $110 billion figure, but Amazon customers tend to be loyal once then sign up to Prime and spend twice as much as non-members. Amazon also has 40 million products eligible for Prime shipping, 20 times what Walmart offers. Lore says, however, that “there won’t be too many products that you’ll want that won’t be available [with] two day shipping.”

Walmart was reportedly planning to offer a Prime-like service with the streaming service it purchased in 2010, Vudu, along with other perks. At this point, it’s not clear if such a program is still in the works, unless it’s using the free two-day shipping as a stopgap while it re-tools its own membership program. The company declined to say how many folks signed up for ShippingPass, but it will provide full refunds for all members, according to CNBC.

Source: Walmart

Dropbox Launches Collaborative Office Suite ‘Paper’, Plus ‘Smart Sync’ for Business Users

Dropbox yesterday officially launched its collaborative editing software called Paper, following six months of public beta testing.

Similar to Google Docs, the service offers Dropbox account holders a minimalist document editor and conversational tools for collaborative projects. Paper lets users review and revise work in a single, shared space which includes an image gallery feature, advanced search across files and comments, and a notifications system that works across both the iOS app and the web version of the service.

Users can see and add Dropbox files in a Paper document, while any changes made are synced automatically and team members are notified of the new version and the author of the changes.

Dropbox says the web version of Paper supports 21 languages, with similar support for the mobile apps in the pipeline. Mobile support for offline workspaces is also coming soon.

In addition to the launch of Paper, the company announced a new Dropbox Business account feature called Smart Sync, which allows users with low disk space to see cloud-stored files and folders on their desktop.

Users working with just 128 GB of hard drive space can easily comb through terabytes of files to find exactly what they need— right from Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder. Now, they won’t need to take extra steps—like switching to a web browser— just to view files. And whenever they need to access files stored in the cloud, users can download them with a quick double click.

Finally, Dropbox has announced new price plans for business customers. Its Standard plan costs $12.50 per month per user and offers 2TB of storage and collaborative tools, while the $20 Advanced plan includes additional administration features. A third plan is also available for larger businesses.

Paper is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Dropbox
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Apple Patents Detail AR/VR System Suitable for Smartphones, Explore Object Recognition Challenges

Apple was granted a pair of patents on Tuesday that depict a mobile augmented reality system that can detect objects in the surrounding environment and overlay them with virtual information.

Picked up by AppleInsider, the first patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is titled “Wearable information system having at least one camera” and describes an AR device with intelligent object recognition capabilities.

Combining cameras, a screen, and a user interface, the device is described as being ideal for a head-mounted display, but the patent also suggests a use for the system in future smartphones, owing to the power efficient way in which it monitors the environment.

The device is described as having a default low-power scanning mode for normal operation, with high-power modes activated for short periods – when downloading and displaying AR content, for example. The rest of the patent gets quite technical as it details methods of optical tracking and determining camera orientation, two areas of AR that will prove particularly difficult to perfect.

Detecting, matching, and describing environmental features quickly and accurately are two challenges that Apple suggests could be overcome using a combination of dedicated hardware and pre-learned data. One aspect of such a system would use depth detection, achieved via dual-lens cameras similar to those found in the iPhone 7 Plus, which also utilizes depth mapping algorithms to produce Portrait Mode photos.

The second patent, titled “Method for representing virtual information in a real environment”, details a way of labeling points in a topological real-world space while taking in environmental features such as object occlusion as the user moves around.

In one example, a user views an AR city map on a transparent display – or on a smartphone screen feeding a live image from a rear-facing camera – and pulls up information relating to nearby buildings or landmarks.

The patent goes on to suggest using geometry models, depth-sensing, positioning data and other advanced technologies to compensate for shortcomings in current visual modeling systems. The second patent also relies on a dual-camera system for creating a depth map of the immediate environment onto which the virtual data is superimposed.

The described technologies may or may not appear in future Apple products, but it’s worth noting that both patents were originally filed for by German AR specialist Metaio just before Apple acquired the firm in 2015. Existing staff would have likely joined Apple’s team dedicated to AR/VR research, to help explore how the technologies can be incorporated into future products.

Several times over the last year, Tim Cook has spoken of Apple’s deep interest in augmented reality. “AR can be really great. We have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We’re high on AR in the long run,” he said in July.

Related Roundup: Apple VR Project
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