There are so many Moto G5 leaks that we need a napkin

Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, and that means the products that will be announced are leaking all over the internet. Today we get to see the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus in just enough detail for us all to talk about it!

We already know what to expect here. The Moto G line isn’t a new thing and Moto will deliver a quality mid-range phone at a decent price. We’ll all remark how well the inexpensive model runs and point at offerings from other companies in the same price range for comparisons. We’ve done that every year since the Moto G first became a thing, and the Moto G has always been one of the best cheap phones you can buy.

Thanks to @LSAwesome, @davidteixe and @evleaks we have a pretty good look at the phones themselves. They look similar to each other and have the iconic Moto look around back in what appears to be aluminum. Up front, they look the same as each other (outside of size) and most every other flat slab from anyone else. In other words, no surprises — which most of the time is a good thing.

Android Police has also found specs pages hidden for both models, and that gives us a look at innards to match up with what’s outside. While they are in Spanish, it’s not hard to see that the Moto G5 Plus has a Snapdragon 625 with 64GB of storage and NFC. The “regular” Moto G5 has a Snapdragon 430 and 32GB of storage. Both models feature 2GB of RAM. There will likely be different models released in other markets, so the storage and memory listings can certainly change.

We still want to have a good look at these once we get to Barcelona, but this certainly makes for a nice preview. Now let’s decide if we love ’em or hate ’em in the comments!

How to customize your avatar in Pokémon Go Gen 2

Pokémon Go has completely changed the way you customize your avatar in Gen 2. Here’s what you need to know.

Along with many, many improvements, upgrades and changes to Pokémon Go in version 0.57.2, also known as Gen 2, the game has overhauled avatar customization with a new UI, in addition to a number of new styles and clothing options.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new avatar customization in Pokémon Go Gen 2.

Everything you need to know about Pokémon Go Gen 2

Is it accessed from the same place?

Yes, accessing the customization menu is still done from inside the avatar menu itself.

From the main game screen, tap the Avatar in the bottom left corner.
Tap the three-line menu button in the bottom right corner.
Tap on Style. This used to be called “Customize”.

What’s new about avatar customization?

Well, things look a bit different, with a horizontally-scrolling carousel of items that can be selected. Niantic is likely opening up this system to allow for sponsored or purchased items, though right now there aren’t any of those options.

These are the categories that you can change on your avatar:

Female trainer:

• Hats
• Necklaces
• Tops
• Bags
• Gloves
• Belts
• Bottoms
• Socks
• Footwear
• Hair
• Eyes
• Skin

Male trainer:

• Hats
• Tops
• Bags
• Gloves
• Bottoms
• Socks
• Footwear
• Hair
• Eyes
• Skin

As before, it’s possible to change between male and female, as well as alter hair, eye and skin tone. Now, however, there is potential for much more granular choice, as items like hats, tops, bags, gloves, bottoms, socks, and footwear can be divided into separate styles and then, within them, colors.

I hear you can also remove items completely now.

That’s right, you can now go “naked” on some items, including hates, bags, gloves, socks, belts, necklaces and footwear. The only things you’re required to wear, in fact, are tops (shirts) and bottoms (shorts).

Go free!

Pokémon Go

• Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• Pokémon Go Gen 2 FAQ
• Pokémon Go tips and tricks
• How to deal with GPS errors in-game
• How to play without killing your battery
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!

The Sony Smartwatch 3 is not getting Android Wear 2.0

You can officially retire your old Sony smartwatch to the Box of Aging Tech Things.

Is this the official end of the SmartWatch 3 as we know it? The square-faced, athletic smartwatch will not be seeing its official update to Android Wear 2.0, much to the chagrin of the few die-hard fans who have stuck around because — well, it’s kind of a classic, not to mention it was equipped with one of the biggest batteries available in Android Wear (420mAh!).

The news of the SmartWatch 3’s expiration came from its official product page, which Xperia Blog found to contain the following annotation:

SmartWatch 3 SWR50 supports up to Android Wear 1.5. Android wear 2.0 and onwards are not supported

If you’re holding out hope, there’s still a petition going strong for Sony and Google to revert on their stance. But consider that the SmartWatch 3’s square face and bulky body are officially a relic of a different time in Android Wear. Although, let’s be honest, the future looks equally as bulky.

Android Wear

• Everything you need to know about Android Wear 2.0
• LG Watch Sport review
• LG Watch Style review
• These watches will get Android Wear 2.0
• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!

Microsoft reveals date and time of its Xbox E3 2017 event

Microsoft has announced when it will hold its E3 2017 event.

The company’s event, also known as its Xbox briefing, is scheduled for 11 June at 2 PM ET. Typically, in previous years, it is held on the Monday morning of E3 week. Although the date and time have changed, the venue is the same: the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. And remember, for the first time ever, E3 is open to the public.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has already teased Microsoft’s E3 2017 lineup, saying that Microsoft plans to focus on “new experiences with different IP”. And State of Decay 2 developer Undead Labs has confirmed it will show off something at the Xbox briefing too. We also expect to also hear more about Project Scorpio, considering the announcement tweet from Xbox included an old image of the system.

• READ: What is Project Scorpio? The future of Xbox explained

Brace for big news.#XboxE3 briefing will air Sunday, June 11 at 2 PM PT. pic.twitter.com/EWilMOb47s

— Xbox (@Xbox) February 15, 2017

Microsoft is the first company to officially announce the date and time of its E3 event. We’ll alert you when more details become available. Pocket-lint will also be at E3 2017, which is open from 13 June to 15 June, to bring you the latest.

PlayStation Now to be discontinued on PS3 and many more devices

Sony has begun alerting people via email that its PlayStation Now service will have limited availability soon.

The company said its game streaming service will only be available on PlayStation 4 and PC starting this summer. It is discontinuing the service on the PS3, PS Vita, PlayStation TV, and all supported smart TVs and Blu-ray players. The discontinuation will begin on 15 August 2017.

Sony also said that 2016 models of Sony Bravia TVs will be discontinued on 1 April 2017. You can see the full list of compatible devices going forward on Sony’s blog. Remember, Sony just launched the service in 2014, so many are wondering if this signals the beginning of an end.

• PlayStation Now: What is it and how does it work?

“After thoughtful consideration, we decided to shift our focus and resources to PS4 and Windows PC to further develop and improve the user experience on these two devices,” Sony explained in a blog. “This move puts us in the best position to grow the service even further.”

PlayStation Now is a cloud-based service much like Netflix or Spotify, but for gaming. It hosts a wide collection of PlayStation 3 archive titles initially (more than 350 games available in the US, over 150 in the UK).

PlayStation Now arrived for PC users last August.

Sony PlayStation

Microsoft will unveil Xbox Project Scorpio on June 11th

If you’re an Xbox fan who’s been anxiously awaiting more news on Microsoft’s Project Scorpio ever since it was unveiled at E3 last year, you now know exactly when you’ll get the full scoop. Microsoft has revealed that its customary E3 briefing will take place on June 11th at 5PM Eastern, and the teaser graphic makes it patently clear that the 4K-capable Scorpio will be the center of attention. There are no fresh clues, to no one’s surprise, but it’s safe to say this is a big deal when the Redmond crew is shaking up its usual E3 schedule to garner maximum attention. One thing’s for sure: we’ll be there to give you our first-hand impressions.

Brace for big news.#XboxE3 briefing will air Sunday, June 11 at 2 PM PT. pic.twitter.com/EWilMOb47s

— Xbox (@Xbox) February 15, 2017

Source: Xbox (Twitter)

Dutch town adds ‘Lightlines’ to alert distracted pedestrians

A city in the Netherlands is the latest to give distracted smartphone users an extra heads-up in the crosswalk. A pilot project in the city of Bodegraven called +Lightlines (or +Lichtlijn in Dutch) is the latest take on in-ground sidewalk crossing signals and it puts a bright, laser-like strip of green and red LEDs right where multi-tasking pedestrians can see them.

The concept isn’t entirely new: the German city of Augsburg is also testing embedded warning signals at train crossings, and in Australia city planners are testing a similar system at busy crosswalks in Sydney. Bodegraven’s +Lightlines are a little different in their implementation, however, with a thin strip of LEDs fit snug in the cracks between sidewalk blocks or paving bricks for maximum visibility anytime of day or night.

Naturally, the LEDs are synced up with the traffic lights but, for now at least, the pilot program only covers one intersection near some schools. The company behind the +Lightlines, HIG Traffic Systems, says they’ll make them more widely available if they start to catch on, but the Dutch road safety organization WN thinks they could be an imperfect solution. “‘What you are doing,” a spokesman for WN told the Dutch News, “is rewarding bad behavior.”

Via: Dutch News

Source: Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, AD.nl

McDonald’s has re-engineered drinking straws

Of all the tech innovations coming out of McDonald’s, we never would have expected the humble drinking straw needed a redesign. But that’s exactly what a team of robotic and aerospace engineers did as part of a marketing push for the burger chain’s new Chocolate Shamrock Shake.

For those who aren’t familiar: the new menu item is a layered fifty-fifty combination of McDonald’s standard chocolate milkshake with the minty seasonal favorite on top. The Chocolate Shamrock has actually enjoyed secret menu status for a while now, but Mickey D’s is bringing it to the mainstream for the minty green shake’s yearly St. Patrick’s Day appearance.

The redesigned STRAW — short for “Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal,” of course — is meant to alleviate the most basic of problems: having to wait for your shake to melt a bit before you can get the perfect mix of chocolate and mint flavors. While a conventional straw will only slurp up one part of the shake at a time, engineers from JACE Engineering and NK Labs carefully engineered the STRAW’s J-shaped snorkel design and side openings to suck in both layers at once. According to McDonald’s, their new tubular sipping device required some fairly complex computational fluid dynamics simulations to get the flow right and make sure it works just as well at the bottom of your shake as it did on the first sip.

The Chocolate Shamrock Shake was released alongside a couple other new minty, Shamrock-infused beverages earlier this month, but the STRAW itself is only available in limited quantities at select locations when you buy a Chocolate Shamrock shake. A representative for McDonald’s tells Engadget that anyone in search of the latest and greatest in straw technology can check McDonalds.com in the next two weeks to learn where to find them.

Why is Verizon offering unlimited data again?

As soon as Verizon dropped the unexpected news that it was bringing back unlimited data plans, I immediately started searching for the catch. The company has a rightfully earned reputation for nickel-and-diming its customers to death, even though some would argue its excellent network is worth the premium. But aside from being more expensive than T-Mobile’s offering, Verizon’s unlimited plan seems to be a good option. In fact, the new Verizon plan forced T-Mobile to do away with the incredibly annoying way it deals with streaming HD video on its network. It’s been awhile since T-Mobile was forced to follow another carrier’s lead, but Verizon appears to have learned from T-Mobile’s misstep.

That left an obvious question: Why now? It’s not as if Verizon has been hurting lately. The company’s financial statements for the past four years remind us that Verizon still generates more than twice as much revenue from its wireless business when compared to T-Mobile. It also has far more subscribers: 114 million in Q4 of 2016, compared to T-Mobile’s 71.5 million.

But things seem clearer when you look back to 2013, when T-Mobile did away with two-year contracts as the first of its “Uncarrier” moves. Since then, T-Mobile has more than doubled its quarterly revenue and subscribers, while Verizon has increased those figures by a more modest 16 percent in each area. As the company has been posting huge numbers for years now, Verizon would have a very difficult time doubling its metrics. But T-Mobile’s rapid growth shows just how compelling T-Mobile’s products and messaging have been to customers.

It’s worth remembering that there wasn’t much exciting to say about T-Mobile started its Uncarrier campaign. The company was in fourth place in the US wireless market and had just finished a 2012 that saw basically no customer or revenue growth. There’s no doubt that CEO John Legere has hit on a strategy that made T-Mobile relevant again.

Meanwhile, things have recently been getting worse for Verizon. The company has seen year-over-year revenue declines for the last four quarters, and subscriber growth has declined for eight consecutive quarters now. In Q4 of 2016, subscribers increased by only 1.9 percent year-over-year. If that trend continues, Verizon’s customer base might actually start shrinking before long.

The new unlimited plan seems designed to keep that from happening. The question is whether it’s too little, too late. Not only has T-Mobile been offering unlimited data for a long time now, but many of its other “Uncarrier” moves have included genuinely useful additions that other carriers still don’t offer (like free international roaming). T-Mobile also still has a price advantage over Verizon, and the carrier has made major upgrades to its network over the last few years. For customers who aren’t living in distant rural communities, T-Mobile is a reasonable choice.

Indeed, it’s probably quite galling for Verizon, a company that trades on the quality of its network, to see its competitors deliver services that it doesn’t. If its LTE network is as good as the advertising claims, it should surely be able to deliver unlimited, right? This week’s announcement makes it clear that Verizon has no real technical reason not to roll this out — it’s likely just been a business decision that the carrier now feels the pressure to go back on. (We asked Verizon for comment but have so far received no response.) Being able to say “unlimited on the best network” is something Verizon will surely enjoy touting in its advertising — it’s just strange that it waited until T-Mobile was a real threat to do so.

Sony plans to make PlayStation Now exclusive to PC and PS4

If you’re a PlayStation Now user that doesn’t actually own a PS4, get ready to cancel your subscription — Sony just announced that its cloud gaming service is going to drop support for everything but its flagship console and Windows PC users later this year. On August 15th 2017, PlayStation Now will stop functioning on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV as well as all Sony Bravia TVs, every Sony Blu-ray player and all Samsung smart TVs with access to the service. That’s a lot of devices to drop, but Sony is optimistic about the choice, explaining in a blog post that it will help it build a better user experience on the remaining two platforms.

The choice makes some sense from a development standpoint — between all the TV and Blu-ray player support, PlayStation Now was spread pretty thin across a huge list of supported devices. Still, it’s a move that might feel like a gut-punch to some users. PlayStation Now’s wide device support meant players could pick up PS3 games on the Vita, on their PlayStation 4 or potentially on any screen in their house. Now that accessibility is limited just to wherever users have a Windows machine or a PS4. Bummer.

Still, Sony has given users enough advanced warning for PS3 and Vita users to finish up any games they are playing and make sure their subscriptions are cancelled within the next six months. Unfortunately, buyers of last year’s Bravia TVs don’t have quite as wide as a window — any Bravia TV made after 2015 will have its service discontinued on April 1st.

Source: PlayStation