Amazon’s Fire TV Stick with Alexa is hitting the UK for £40

The latest iteration of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, first launched in the US last October, is finally UK-bound. While the little streaming dongle still won’t admit 4K is a thing, it boasts a quad-core processor that Amazon says makes it 30 percent faster than the previous generation of Fire TV Stick. Navigating around the new “cinematic” Fire UI should be pretty slick, then. The £40 steamer also supports the speedy 802.11ac WiFi protocol, but the biggest upgrade has to be the snazzy new Alexa remote.

By talking into the remote’s microphone, Alexa won’t just help you search for sci-fi B movies, open apps or skip through the opening credits of House of Cards. You get access too all manner of Alexa skills, meaning you can check the weather, control your smart home, play Prince’s greatest hits or order an Uber, all by barking into your new flicker.

The latest Fire TV Stick will be available at outlets including Dixons Carphone, Argos, John Lewis, Tesco and Maplin, but you can also pre-order one from Amazon right now for £40, with deliveries beginning April 6th.

Source: Amazon

Samsung will reportedly sell ‘refurbished’ Galaxy Note 7s

Even though Samsung has established a cause for those Galaxy Note 7 flare-ups, the device’s story is not over. Korean outlet Hankyung reports that the company will sell the “refurbished” phones, but with smaller, less-explodey batteries inside. It doesn’t sound like the devices will be returning to US or European markets (it’s tough to imagine regulators reversing course on bans after the first recall and reissue), but they could be sold in India or Vietnam instead.

According to the report, Samsung has some 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7s left over after using 20,000 or so up in testing to determine the cause of the problem. The refurbished devices will have new cases, and batteries with a capacity between 3,000 and 3,200mAh (the phones initially contained a 3,500mAh battery). Reuters reported last month that the sale of refurbs is a possibility, and ZDNet Korea says it will also help the company avoid trouble with the government over junking all of the unused and returned phones.

Source: ZDNet Korea, Hankyung

Images and retail listing of Sonos ‘Playbase’ leak out

It looks like Sonos is about to release a new home entertainment speaker system, judging by a deleted B&H Listing (via article on Zatz Not Funny), a tweet and an FCC listing. Reportedly called the Playbase, it appears to be a flat soundbar that, rather than going in front of your TV like the Sonos Playbar, goes under it. According to the B&H listing, it will cost $699, the same price as the Playbar and Sonos Sub. The idea may be to give folks a low-profile soundbar that elevates your TV a bit, not unlike LG’s SoundPlate.

Judging by the pictures (the side is shown above and other views below) it has an optical and ethernet port, just like the Playbar (still no HDMI, it appears). Like other Sonos speakers, it will likely support connectivity with your other Sonos speakers and voice control via Alexa at some point this year, provided you have an Echo or Fire TV device. There have been rumors that Sonos will build Alexa functionality into future devices (the Play:5 has a microphone that’s currently not used), so that’s a possibility too.

So far, all of this is just a leak and rumor, though there’s copious evidence, including an FCC listing that mentions the name “Playbase.” Sonos also deleted several posts on its forum about the product, as Dave Zatz points out. If the B&H listing is to be believed, it should be arriving in March for $699.

New Sonos Playbase pic.twitter.com/udu18n03lx

— Jon Maddox (@maddox) February 20, 2017

Source: Zatz Not Funny, Jon Maddox

Samsung will showcase C-Lab’s AR and VR projects at MWC

Samsung will exhibit four new augmented and virtual reality projects out of the C-Lab program at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. C-Lab or Creative Lab is the chaebol’s in-house initiative that gives employees time off to work on their most innovative ideas. For instance, the first of the four exhibits is Relúmĭno — a visual aid app for the Gear VR that can help visually impaired people watch TV and read again “with new levels of clarity.” The app does that by enhancing visuals, repositioning images to get rid of blind spots and correcting images that appear distorted for people with metamorphopsia.

The next exhibit is called Monitorless, which is a pair of ordinary-looking glasses that can replace PC and smartphone monitors that you can see in the image above. You can access work applications on them, but you can also use them for gaming. If you want to be as immersed as possible, you can use the virtual reality mode. But you can switch to augmented reality mode if you want to see your app or game superimposed on the environment.

Samsung will also be exhibiting VuildUs, a home furnishing solution composed of an app and a 360-degree depth camera. To use the solution, you’ll have to scan your home with the camera to create a VR version of it. Once you’re done, you can decorate your virtual home with various digital furniture through the app. It removes the need to measure space in your house before buying, and you can even make purchases within the app itself.

Finally, the company will be showcasing a 360-degree video platform for virtual travelers aptly called traVRer. Similar to Google Street View and Matterport, traVRer gives you a way to visit tourist spots and famous places without having to leave home. All four will be displayed at a platform for startup businesses at the event, together with other projects that have the potential to be released to the public in a few years.

Samsung Creativity & Innovation Center VP Lee Jae Il says:

“These latest examples of C-Lab projects are a reminder that we have some talented entrepreneurial people who are unafraid to break new ground. We’re looking forward to further exploring novel applications for VR and 360-degree video because there are endless possibilities in this area.”

Source: Samsung

Amazon Fire TV Stick With Built-In Alexa Coming to the U.K.

Amazon’s latest Fire TV stick, with Alexa built in, is coming to the U.K., after launching in the U.S. back in October.

The streaming TV dongle will make its debut in the country on April 6 and have a price tag of £40, with Amazon already taking pre-orders.

The device comes with a quad-core processor that Amazon says makes it 30 percent faster than its predecessor. The dongle also supports 802.11ac WiFi networks, but the biggest difference is the new Alexa remote.

Like the Siri Remote on the Apple TV, q built-in microphone lets users search for content like movies and music, as well as control playback, open apps, and more. Unlike Siri Remote, it also supports third-party Alexa skills, allowing users to control smart home devices, for example.

Apart from the aforementioned online pre-orders, the new Amazon Fire TV stick will be on sale in shops including Dixons, John Lewis, Tesco, and Maplin from April 6.

Tags: Amazon, Alexa
Discuss this article in our forums

Egg freezing has never been as accessible as it is with Extend Fertility

Why it matters to you

For women who want a family, just not right now, Extend Fertility and its egg-freezing options can be a crucial solution.

Sometimes, having it all is just about good planning. For the 21st century woman looking to balance her personal and professional life, timing can be everything. And now, there’s a new company to help stretch that timing just a bit more. Extend Fertility Medical Practice is branded as “a one-of-a-kind, specialty egg freezing practice” in New York City. By offering egg freezing services at lower prices, Extend Fertility promises a way to accommodate the lifestyle and goals of women looking to start a family … later. As of last Thursday, Extend Fertility opened its state-of-the-art egg-freezing laboratory, allowing the facility to freeze patients’ eggs immediately upon reception. This achievement marks the first ever fully operational practice dedicated to preserving women’s fertility in the U.S.

“Currently most practices that offer egg freezing are more focused on providing solutions for infertility,” says Ilaina Edison, co-founder and CEO of Extend Fertility. “We felt that women who are preserving their eggs for the future deserved their own dedicated space and a revolutionary goal-focused pricing model that makes egg freezing more affordable and accessible.”

How much more affordable? Extend Fertility offers its services at about half of the standard market price. Moreover, its pricing model allows women to freeze a minimum of 12 eggs, which represents a year’s worth of fertility through the course of four cycles. This, the company says, represents “a significant departure from existing pricing models, which charge per cycle.”

Related: Double whammy: These odd new beads could be used in both contraceptives and infertility treatments

Furthermore, the Cryotec method Extend Fertility uses promises a near 100 percent survival rate of oocytes. “The Cryotec process is superior to its slower predecessors, which introduced more opportunities for errors that can destroy the viability of stored eggs by damaging their cellular structure,” Embryology Laboratory Assistant Director Dr. Leslie Ramirez said.

But it’s not just cost and effectiveness that differentiates Extend Fertility from the competition. By placing a great emphasis on customer service, the company hopes to create “a personal experience in a dedicated space to encourage women to feel welcomed, comfortable and confident throughout the entire experience.” Patients will be guided by a personal Fertility Advisor throughout each step of the process, starting from a phone consultation through egg retrieval and recovery.

“Although social norms have evolved over the years and many people now choose to have children later in life, our biological clocks have stayed the same,” co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Joshua Klein said. “Fertility begins to decline quite meaningfully around age 30, and rapidly each year or two in the mid-to-late 30s. We are seeing more and more women seeking to preserve their fertility options through egg freezing, and as a clinical team, we welcome the opportunity to serve as a fertility specialist helping them save eggs for future use.”

Article originally published September 2016. Updated on 02-20-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added news of Extend Fertility’s full functionality. 

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2017) preview: Alexa on TV for £40

Since Amazon launched its own media streaming device, it has successfully refreshed the main set-top-box, adding faster processing, better remote access, 4K Ultra HD support and, in recent times, an all-new user experience. Its Fire TV Stick remained untouched, in the UK at least.

That’s about to change, however.

From April, Amazon will introduce an updated dongle that includes nigh-on everything above, bar the 4K video streaming. And, like the latest US edition, also adds Alexa support and a voice remote as standard, all for £39.99.

Pocket-lint

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2017) preview: Pre-order now

The new Amazon Fire TV Stick is available for pre-order now, with a shipping date of 6 April. We got to experience exactly what will be on offer though, during a briefing at Amazon’s London offices and we have to say, for the price and form factor, it could match its predecessor in sales figures.

We didn’t see the new design up close but it will look similar to the first device. It essentially has a USB-stick aesthetic, but with a HDMI jack at one end. You plug it into a spare port on your telly, connect USB power to the other end and Bob’s your uncle.

It tucks away out of view, with the new remote working wirelessly and not needing line of sight. It’s physically unremarkable for good reason. The magic happens inside.

Amazon

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2017) preview: Specifications

The 2017 model comes with a quad-core processor, so works much faster than its forebear. There is also dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi on board, so has a stronger, more stable internet connection – essential for playing video and downloading new apps as quickly as possible.

Amazon’s latest Fire TV UI also requires speedy connectivity as it provides content rich experience. The top bar on the home menu page, for example, streams preview video if you linger on it.

The speed is also important for quick-as-you-like Alexa access.

Pocket-lint

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2017) preview: Alexa on your TV

We were told that the new Fire TV Stick (and, presumably, the Fire TV 4K box) will have almost full Alexa support. Just about everything you can do on an Amazon Echo, you’ll be able to do on your TV through the Stick. Indeed, much of it will be better as you’ll also get Visual Skills on screen, with cards popping up to support the AI’s dulcet tones.

In our demo, we had Alexa pull up the latest Liverpool football score, Arsenal’s next fixture, a commute to work and a weather report. Each were coupled with an on-screen indication that gave us even more information than was verbally presented.

We asked if you could also control your Alexa-connected smart home through the Stick. You can.

This gives the Fire TV platform even more depth, and considering it is one of the best out there for services and app support, you get an awful lot for your penny shy of 40 notes.

You can also use the voice remote for in-depth, contextual content search and even skip through playback of shows and films. Bark “skip 10 minutes” and the footage will do exactly that, instantly. You can also rewind in similar fashion.

Pocket-lint

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2017) preview: Integrated Netflix

One thing that impressed us with the new UI when it arrived on our existing Fire TV box is the way it integrates other services into search results. For example, you search for Breaking Bad, vocally or by text, and it will give you the option to watch it on Amazon Video rival Netflix. You can also buy or rent it from Amazon if you don’t have a Netflix subscription, but to offer a competing service front and centre makes the hardware considerably more relevant to our viewing habits today.

Of course, you will get even more satisfaction from the Fire TV Stick if you are an Amazon Prime member, especially considering menu bars are dedicated to its own content. But as the company no longer prioritises it over others’, you no longer feel a Prime subscription is a necessity.

There are a lot of other apps on offer, including all of the terrestrial TV catch-up services in the UK. We’ve been told that some of the partners could soon have their content more deeply integrated too. The API is open to developers and we’re looking forward to seeing this further explored in the near future.

First Impressions

We will spend much more time with the new Amazon Fire TV Stick before casting final judgement, but as it stands it seems the company is onto another winner. It is clearly better than equivalent dongles and media sticks.

There’s no 4K support, which would have been the cherry on the cake, but you always have the main Fire TV box for that. And Ultra HD is not the Fire TV Stick’s raison d’être. It was always designed to be a simple, invisible solution for making a TV much smarter. And for as little spend as possible.

Even at this stage, it meets those requirements in abundance.

New Horizons scientists want to redefine what planets are

Alan Stern and his fellow New Horizons scientists really want Pluto to become a full-fledged planet again. The principal investigator of NASA’s mission to Pluto, along with a few members of his team, want to change the definition of planets. According to the proposal they intend to present at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, they want the word “planet” to define any “sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters.” In simpler words, they want the word planet to describe all “round objects in space that are smaller than stars.”

Under the new definition, Pluto will get its former status back. But it’s not just Pluto that’ll change classifications: even moons will be recognized as planets. Based on the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) current definition, an object can only be classified as a planet if it “(a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

Pluto was demoted because it doesn’t clear its orbit of asteroids and comets. Plus, it’s only around twice the size of its moon Charon. Stern thinks that’s “bullshit,” though, and he and his team argue that the current definition is technically flawed:

“First, it recognizes as planets only those objects orbiting our Sun, not those orbiting other stars or orbiting freely in the galaxy as “rogue planets.” Second, it requires zone clearing, which no planet in our solar system can satisfy since new small bodies are constantly injected into planet-crossing orbits, like NEOs near Earth. Finally, and most severely, by requiring zone clearing the mathematics of the definition are distance-dependent, requiring progressively larger objects in each successive zone. For example, even an Earth sized object in the Kuiper Belt would not clear its zone.”

It’s unclear if the team plans to formally submit their proposal to the IAU. But if they do and it gets approved, then we’ll potentially have hundreds of new planet names to memorize.

Via: ScienceAlert

Source: Universities Space Research Association, Spaceflight Insider

Claim your Nintendo Switch online account name right now

We’re a little over a week away from Nintendo releasing its next console, the Switch, and the company is prepping the launchpad. If you want to secure your Nintendo Account user ID for the system, now’s the time to do so. Apparently this replaces the Nintendo Network ID from previous consoles, according to the ever-vigilant Wario64. That’s not confusing or anything. If you manage to get your account set up (a few of us here are just being hit with password-reset pages), let us know in the comments.

Claim your Nintendo Account user ID now (replacing NNID for Nintendo Switch) https://t.co/EUQP83mTUz pic.twitter.com/KYF5P8O52t

— Wario64 (@Wario64) February 20, 2017

Source: Wario64 (Twitter)

‘Rogue Legacy’ studio returns with a retro co-op brawler

The developer behind hit indie game Rogue Legacy has a new title coming in 2017: Full Metal Furies. The teaser trailer shows off a brawler with a retro aesthetic, four unique classes of female protagonists, and a serious sense of humor.

Toronto-based Cellar Door Games has a history of reinvigorating older genres with its releases. Full Metal Furies looks to refresh the popular brawler genre with an emphasis on cooperative gaming by including a special “barrier system” that will force players to work together. Different enemies have their own styles of attack that can only be defeated by certain character classes. If you’re playing solo, though, you can quickly switch between the disparate personas to simulate the multiplayer experience.

Male protagonists are the norm in video games, so an all-female cast is worthy of note. The developers aren’t pushing the cast as a special feature, just as all-male casts aren’t typically touted, either. Unfortunately, though, we all have to wait until later in the year for the actual release on Xbox One and PC via Steam. Full Metal Furies will have Xbox Play Anywhere and Cross Play support so you can buy one copy and battle with friends no matter what device they play on.

Source: Cellar Door Games