Everything we know about the Vive Tracker

HTC recently introduced the Vive Tracker – a new way of bridging the gap between VR and the real world. Here’s everything we know about the device so far.

One of the HTC Vive’s most promising technologies in 2017 is the Vive Tracker – a device designed to add a new level of immersion to movement input in VR. Here’s what you need to know about the Vive Tracker ahead of its launch later this year.

Read more at VR Heads!

Sprint makes third, fourth, fifth lines on its new Unlimited plan free

You get a free line, and you get a free line, and you get a free line!!

In Sprint’s latest push to haul in new customers, the yellow carrier announced a new Unlimited talk, text, and data plan that was $50 for one person, $40 for the second line, and $30 for each line after that. Well, lines three, four, and five just got a lot cheaper for a limited time. 100% cheaper, to be exact.

Sprint has announced that it is making five Unlimited lines cost the same as two, making it much more enticing for families to make the jump. Now, if you recall from the plan’s announcement two weeks ago, this is a plan that is not without compromise. It’s only available for new customers, and if you don’t have autopay set up, it’s an extra $5 per month. Sprint has also joined the “mobile optimized video” club of reducing video to 480p to help keep data use down, and can bump down your data speeds during heavy usage times and on congested cell towers, so if you live in a busy area, this might not be the plan for you.

If you live in an area with good Sprint coverage and are looking to switch, this promotional offer could be quite a steal. If, however, you live somewhere where that “1% reliability difference” matters, then it doesn’t matter how cheap the unlimited plan is. It’s still Sprint.

Best Sprint phones

Adidas miCoach merges with Runtastic’s app, no longer accepting memberships

Sports giant Adidas bought mobile fitness startup Runtastic in August 2015 in a deal worth a reported $220 million (£153 million). At the time, Runtastic said nothing would happen to its own app and services. Today, that promise has been confirmed as Adidas has revealed it is shutting down its own miCoach service and focusing on Runtastic’s instead.

• Adidas buys European fitness app startup Runtastic, will remain as if for now

If you’re a MiCoach user, you’ve still got plenty of time to use the service, as it isn’t going anywhere until 31 December 2018, but you won’t be able to sign up to a new membership with it from today.

Instead, you can sign up to Runtastic, which you can use to set running goals based on weight loss or distance, and the service also has GPS tracking and voice coaching functions. You can compete with friends to see who has run the furthest distance each week or month, and those same friends can even send you messages of encouragement during your own workouts.

Adidas has set up a transition service for any miCoach users who wish to migrate to Runtastic. You’ll still need to sign up to a new Runtastic account, but you can link your miCoach account and sync all your workout data across to the new service. 

Runtastic currently boasts 200 million downloads and 100+ million registered users, following Adidas’ takeover and subsequent commitment to the service, expect those numbers to rise.

• Runtastic Moment smartwatches show that fitness tracking and style can go hand-in-hand
• Android Wear 2.0: What’s new in the major software update for watches?

Runtastic has also been announced as one of the standalone apps that will work with Android Wear 2.0 watches that have built in GPS and cellular connectivity, so you won’t need to take your smartphone out with you when running.

How to enable WhatsApp’s two-step verification on iPhone and Android

WhatsApp recently implemented two-step verification in its popular messaging app for both Android and iOS, and you’re going to want to enable it as soon as it’s available for your phone. 

Two-step verification, also often called two-factor verification, is a feature implemented in many popular communication apps and services. Most email providers have it, as do Twitter and iTunes, and it essentially buts an extra obstacle in the way for people wanting to log in to your personal accounts. It does this by requiring a second step to logging in to your account, usually through sending an SMS to a verified phone number of your choice. 

Needless to say, having it switched on is much safer than not having it at all, even if it makes logging in take a few seconds longer. 

Enabling WhatsApp’s two-step verification on iPhone

Open WhatsApp on your iPhone, hit “Settings” in the bottom corner.
Go to “Account” then “Two-Step Verification”.
Tap “enable” and then you’ll be asked for a six-digit passcode.
Type in your chosen passcode, then repeat it on the next screen.
In the next screen you’re asked for an email address, which you also have to repeat just in case you need to reset your password. 

Enabling WhatsApp’s two-step verification on Android

Open WhatsApp on your Android phone, hit the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner, then tap “Settings”.
Go to “Account” then “Two-Step Verification”.
Tap “enable” and then you’ll be asked for a six-digit passcode.
Type in your chosen passcode, then repeat it on the next screen.
In the next screen you’re asked for an email address, which you also have to repeat just in case you need to reset your password.

That’s it, you’re done and have added an extra protective layer on to your WhatsApp account. 

Once you’ve enabled the security measure on your phone, you carry on using your WhatsApp as normal. The only thing that changes now is that if you register WhatsApp on a new phone linked to the same phone number, you’ll be asked to type in your Passcode. 

ICYMI: MIT built a water claw and there’s a new VR rollercoaster

Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT’s Soft Active Materials Lab showed off its gold-fish-catching hydrogel claw. The robot hand is made entirely of water and is completely invisible when submerged. The lab is hoping the hydrogel hands will be able to conduct delicate surgeries inside humans.

In stuff-inside-humans-but-probably-not-for-long news, Six Flags is debuting the New Revolution Galactic Attack mixed-media rollercoaster. Riders will wear Samsung’s Gear VR headset while on the coaster. The amusement-park company says that the headsets and ride are in sync so people won’t get sick. Hopefully they’re right because nothing ruins a day at the park like flying vomit.

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @engadget or @mskerryd.

Valve is working on three ‘full’ VR games

Valve is still making video games! But they’re probably, almost certainly not Half-Life 3 (I know it’s hard, but we have to let it go.) During a media roundtable, Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed that the company is working on three new titles for VR. Not just little experiments either, like the room-scale mini-game collection The Lab. Real, proper video games. “When I say we’re building three games, we’re building three full games, not experiments,” he said, according to Eurogamer. Few other details were disclosed, such as whether the team was working on new or existing IP.

Newell did explain why the company had returned to video game development, however. Now that the HTC Vive is on the market, Valve is in a position to develop hardware and software simultaneously. Like Nintendo, this gives it an advantage over typical game studios. “This is something that [Nintendo designer Shigeru] Miyamoto has always had,” he said. “He’s had the ability to think about what the input device is and design a system while de designs games. Our sense is that this will actually allow us to build much better entertainment experiences for people.”

Valve’s support makes sense. For VR to thrive, it needs compelling software. Headset sales are low right now, so it can be tough to persuade developers to make new, tailored games for the platform. Valve, on the other hand, has a huge incentive to make VR a success given its role with both the hardware (the Vive) and distribution (Steam). The company is passionate about VR, so it should come as no surprise that it has teams working on software. The question, of course, is what those new games will look like. It’s been a while since Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 came out…

Source: Eurogamer

Android Wear 2.0 uses offline AI for its smart replies

One of the new features on Android Wear 2.0 is Smart Reply, which suggests responses to messages that you can quickly tap if you’re busy doing something else. In its research blog, Google explained that the feature uses on-device machine intelligence, so it works even if you don’t have an internet cloud connection. While the researchers initially thought doing that would be impossible, the “Expander” AI team saw it as a unique opportunity.

“[We] returned to the drawing board to design a completely new, lightweight, machine learning architecture — not only to enable Smart Reply on Android Wear, but also to power a wealth of other on-device mobile applications,” the team wrote.

It tried using current neural net tech and so-called graph learning, but the models didn’t fit on a smartwatch and attempts to limit the number of replies “did not produce useful results,” they wrote. In an attempt to make it more compact, the researchers built a simpler system that groups messages requiring a similar responses, like “Hey, how’s it going?” and “How’s it going buddy,” rapidly and with a low memory hit.

From there, it uses “semi-supervised graph learning” that checks your replies to messages, word and phrase similarity and other factors to predict the best possible replies. The entire model, including the training, resides and performs “completely on device,” the team notes. “The model can also be adapted to cater to the user’s writing style and individual preferences to provide a personal experience.”

The researchers were surprised at how well it works on Android Wear devices, which aren’t renowned as computing powerhouses, and plans to use the AI algorithms behind it to “enable completely new applications in the months to come.” As with Google’s very similar Gmail-based smart replies, however, be sure to only use it when needed — even with AI smarts, the person on the other end can tell it’s not you.

Source: Google Research

Sprint offers five unlimited lines for $90, but only for a year

Sprint’s latest subscription deal makes a great headline: Get five lines of unlimited data, talk and text for just $90 a month! But, as usual in the mobile world, there’s a catch. That great pricing will only last until the end of March 2018, according to the company’s press release. After that, you’ll be pushed back to Sprint’s current pricing: $190 a month for five unlimited lines.

At the very least, we can give Sprint credit for actually acknowledging when the discount pricing will end. It’s not unusual to see companies tout promotional subscription prices without actually admitting that they’ll eventually go back up. And if you’re just looking to save some cash for the next year, Sprint’s offer is a pretty good deal. In comparison, you’d have to pay $180 a month for five unlimited lines on T-Mobile, or $270 a month for AT&T.

If you just need one unlimited line, you can save $10 on Sprint for the next year ($50 a month). It’s also worth remembering that the company’s unlimited offering comes with some compromises. In particular, streaming video is limited to a 480p resolution and streaming music is limited to 500kbps.

Source: Sprint

iPhone 8 Said to Feature Iris Scanner to Authenticate With Your Eyes

Apple is widely rumored to launch a high-end iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display this year, which has been variously called the “iPhone 8” or “iPhone X” to commemorate the smartphone’s tenth anniversary, and rumors suggest the device will an include iris scanner to authenticate with your eyes.

iPhone 8 concept by visual designer Moe Slah
Taiwanese website DigiTimes, citing unnamed “industry sources,” claims the so-called “iPhone 8” will include an OLED display, wireless charging, and iris scanning technology, the latter of which would presumably enable iPhone users to unlock their device or use Apple Pay by authenticating with their eyes.

A person’s iris, or the circular colored muscle of the eye, contains a complex and random pattern that is unique to each individual.

DigiTimes has sources within Apple’s supply chain, but it has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple’s unannounced product plans, so this latest report should be treated with a proverbial grain of salt. The publication previously said iPhones with iris scanning capabilities would not debut until 2018.

DigiTimes previously cited a Chinese website that said 2017 iPhones will include iris scanning capabilities, but today’s report is based on its own sources. The original report claimed Taiwan-based supplier Xintec, an affiliate of Apple manufacturer TSMC, would begin mass production of iris-recognition chips this year.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the more reliable sources of iPhone rumors, believes Apple is leaning toward facial recognition technology rather than iris recognition, based on the bio-recognition patents it has filed. Way back in March 2016, he said the “iPhone 8” will include either facial or iris recognition.

Kuo said he believes Touch ID will “ultimately be replaced by a facial recognition system” for enhanced security, in line with rumors Apple will remove the Home button; however, if the technical challenges cannot be overcome, he noted a “combination of fingerprint and facial recognition” is another possible solution.

Last month, Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri said the “iPhone 8” could include facial or gesture recognition technology powered by a laser sensor and an infrared sensor located near the front-facing camera. The feature could allow users to control their devices with simple gestures for tasks such as adjusting volume.

Lending credence to these rumors is Apple’s trademark for “Iris Engine” and the acquisitions of companies such as Faceshift and PrimeSense.

iPhone would not be the first smartphone with an iris scanner, as Samsung included the technology on its now-discontinued Galaxy Note7.

DigiTimes also said the “iPhone 8” will enter production earlier than in previous years, in line with a report from earlier this week.

Apple has requested its chip and component suppliers start trial production, inspection and prepare inventories for the new iPhone series earlier than usual, said the sources. Deliveries of chips and parts for the new models are expected to kick off in the second half of first-quarter 2017, the sources indicated.

Apple’s trio of new iPhones, including more iterative “iPhone 7s” and “iPhone 7s Plus” models, are still expected to launch in September per usual. The “iPhone 8” in particular may cost upwards of $1,000 in the U.S. due to its significant redesign and features that require more expensive parts.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: wireless charging, digitimes.com, iris scanner
Discuss this article in our forums

Instapaper Back Online After 31-Hour Outage, Full Content Restore Will Take a Week

Popular bookmarking service Instapaper faced an extended outage this week, beginning at 12:30PM PT on February 8th and remaining offline for 31 hours. Although the service is now back online, users only have access to the last six weeks of saved articles, running back through December 20, 2016.

The company said it chose to restore just the last six weeks of articles right now “in the interest of coming back up as soon as possible.”

A full restoration of Instapaper will take a week, so users can expect access to the rest of their data by February 17 “at the latest.” Instapaper noted that the reason behind the outage appears to be a system limit that was hit for its hosted database, which prevented new articles from being saved by users.

The company apologized for the outage in its series of blog posts on the topic. It also reassured users that they “haven’t lost any data” that was previously saved on Instapaper, saying that “anything you’ve already saved to Instapaper is safe.”

We pride ourselves on being a reliable service with minimal downtime (we were up for 99.3% of 2016), and know many of you rely on Instapaper every day. We apologize that this issue has resulted in an extended period of downtime.

Last summer, Instapaper was acquired by Pinterest with the intent to use Instapaper to encourage Pinterest users to save more articles to the site. A save-for-later feature has existed for several years on Pinterest, but wasn’t used very often by those on the popular pinning site.

Instapaper is available for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Instapaper
Discuss this article in our forums