AT&T tweaks its unlimited data plans to offer tethering

Remember when AT&T announced that it would once again offer unlimited data packages, and they were a little underwhelming? Sensing its error, the company has taken the opportunity to roll out a tweaked plan to ease the pain of your wallet. AT&T Unlimited Plus offers unlimited calls, texts and 22GB of high speed data before you hit the throttling wall for $90 a month. Even better, the plan now offers 10GB tethering data per line — something that was omitted from the prior set of plans.

AT&T’s also keen on tying folks in to both its mobile and TV packages, with juicy incentives for those who pay for both. Subscribers to Unlimited Plus will get a $25 monthly credit towards their DirecTV, DirecTV Now or U-Verse TV packages. In addition, AT&T is proud to offer zero-rating for its video packages, so if you watch DirecTV Now on your mobile connection, it won’t count against your data.

Naturally, the pricing schedule is increasingly complicated the more lines you pay for, but you can get four lines for $185 a month. You can also add on other devices, like a tablet, wireless home phone or hotspot, for another $20 a month. For most people, the easy calculation is that you’ll get the main data plan and DirecTV now for $100 a month once you’ve taken credits and incentives into account.

The company is also rolling out an unlimited data plan without the extra bells and whistles, so long as you’re happy with capped speeds. AT&T Unlimited Choice will set you back $60 a month (for the first line) with the speed limited to 3Mbps and video held at 480p resolution. Both plans however, will allow you to roam into Canada and Mexico without incurring additional charges.

Source: AT&T

Oppo’s clever, zooming dual camera was inspired by periscopes

The dual-camera craze is real at Mobile World Congress, but Oppo decided to break from the pack with its own, very clever implementation. Long story short: the company managed to build a 5x lossless zoom system for smartphones using two sensors and a zoom mechanism inspired by, believe it or not, periscopes.

See, Oppo’s telephoto lens is actually mounted horizontally inside the camera module and moves sideways through the top of a phone’s body. When you’re taking a photo, light enters the module and gets reflected by a prism into that waiting lens. Oppo’s optical image stabilization is similarly impressive, the prism and the telephoto lens move around to compensate for shaky hands on the fly.

Just keep this in mind: the telephoto lens itself is capable of 3x optical zoom, and Oppo gets to 5x zoom with some proprietary “image fusion” with a more typical digital zoom setup. One wouldn’t normally associate digital zoom with “lossless” quality, but Oppo swears up and down that the system works like a charm. We’ll be the judges of that, thanks very much.

Anyway, Oppo’s design — which it licensed from another company and worked on independently for more than a year — makes for a camera module that’s only 5.7mm thick. It takes up a decent chunk of space in modern, super-slim smartphones, but we’re told many other 2x optical zoom lens setups are slightly thicker anyway. If Oppo’s photographic results are as good as the company claims, smartphone junkies in the company’s native China will probably go nuts. (Don’t forget: Oppo currently holds the number one spot in Chinese mobile market share.)

Chances to such a camera making it to parts of the world Oppo doesn’t service — like, say, the United States — aren’t nil. After all, the company licensed the original design from someone else, so it’s possible a more globally minded smartphone maker could take the same route. Then again, Oppo has filed about 50 patents to keep this particular approach locked down, so who knows. Hopefully we’ll get lucky someday.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

Twitch goes after Steam with direct game sales

Twitch has a dilemma — it can get you fired up about a game, but then you’ve got to head off to Steam or another site when it comes time to buy (insert sad trombone sound). However, the Amazon-owned streaming outfit has some big news that changes all that. Starting this spring, you’ll be able to purchase games directly from Twitch — if you’re watching a stream about Tom Clancy’s The Division, for instance, you can click on a “buy now” button directly below the stream, as shown above.

Games can also be purchased on the “details” page for a given title. They can then be downloaded and played via the existing Twitch launcher desktop app (which arrived with Twitch Prime) or via publishers’ services like Uplay. Buyers will also get “Twitch Crates” rewards that differ from standard loot boxes with Twitch-centric emotes, chat badges and “Bits for Cheering.”

Twitch says it will make “dozens” of games available from both AAA and indie studios including Telltale Games, Ubisoft, Digital Extremems, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Paradox Interactive, and others. (There’s no comprehensive list of titles yet, however.)

Developers get 70 percent of the money, streamers earn a 5 percent take and the rest, we presume, goes to Twitch. “By allowing viewers to help support their favorite streamer just by buying a game on Twitch, we’re able to help strengthen the community that has done so much for us,” says Telltale Games SVP Steve Allison.

Amazon has been using the Twitch launcher to sell indie and other titles, but it was pretty clear that it would eventually become a Steam competitor. Amazon has been making a steady foray into gaming with its Lumberyard game development engine, for instance, and already hosts a large number of social gaming platforms on its massive AWS server network.

One of the perks of Amazon Prime is free access to Twitch Prime. Given the large number of Amazon Prime users and Twitch streamers in general, it’s not hard to see how Twitch games sales could become a headache to Steam and other distribution platforms. On top of that, Twitch is promoting it as a way for its community to pay both streamers and developers (as shown in the video above), something that might motivate gamers to buy from Twitch, all else being equal.

Sales will launch in spring 2017 for English language versions of games only, in US dollars, with the service rolling out to other countries “later in the year.”

Watch Samsung’s MWC 2017 event in under 15 minutes

Samsung’s MWC 2017 press conference opened with quality control assurances before moving on to the Galaxy Tab S3, Galaxy Book and a new Gear VR. We save you the trouble of watching an hour-long video with all the important details in a 15-minute clip. Don’t forget: We’ll be spending more time with Samsung next month as it’s set to reveal the Galaxy S8 on March 29th.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Says Trump Administration Will Be ‘Catalyst’ for Self-Driving Tech

In a bid to reassess self-driving car guidances following the Obama administration, the Trump administration’s newly appointed Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao, said this weekend that she is reviewing the guidances while urging companies “to explain the benefits of automated vehicles to a skeptical public.” Chao said that there’s a lot at stake in improving and regulating the technology, and ensuring that passengers are safe when they use the new self-driving systems (via Reuters).

The guidances referenced by the Obama administration asked carmakers to voluntarily detail each of their self-driving systems by using a 15-point “safety assessment” precaution. Most regulations were also urged to be looked at by the federal government and taken out of the hands of the states. As a new administration approached last November, automakers concerned about the guidelines — citing a need to give up “significant data” and likely facing months-long delays in testing — asked the incoming Trump staff to re-evaluate.

Google tests out its “Waymo” self-driving technology
Earlier in February, automakers faced Congress to request a few legislative changes that they hoped would “speed self-driving cars to U.S. roads.” According to Chao, the Trump administration will do everything it can to be “a catalyst” for the industry and not become a blockade to progress in self-driving vehicles. Chao’s thesis hit on asking Silicon Valley companies to first and foremost figure out a way to “educate a skeptical public” about why self-driving cars would be a good thing in the first place.

“This administration is evaluating this guidance and will consult with you and other stakeholders as we update it and amend it, to ensure that it strikes the right balance.

She said the Trump administration wanted to ensure it “is a catalyst for safe, efficient technologies, not an impediment. In particular, I want to challenge Silicon Valley, Detroit, and all other auto industry hubs to step up and help educate a skeptical public about the benefits of automated technology.”

Vehicle automation has become a hot topic over the past few years, and even Apple hasn’t escaped the rumors of working on a self-driving vehicle. The hopes for an “Apple Car” have largely been dashed after vans roaming around the country were debunked as data-collecting vehicles for Apple Maps, and any of the company’s efforts to build a full Apple Car have since shifted towards focusing on an autonomous driving system. In a letter to federal regulators last year, the company further confirmed its interest in “machine learning and automation” as it relates to motor vehicles, hinting that Apple wouldn’t be averse to creating self-driving software that’s used in another manufacturer’s vehicle.

The letter was sent to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and some of it aligns with other automakers’ concerns over the established self-driving guidances. In its letter, Apple referenced an issue with delayed testing for companies entering the automobile industry with automation technology, as well as an agreement that companies should share sufficient data in relation to crashes and near-misses, but it should never come at the expense of breaching privacy.

Both of these suggestions, and a collection of others, are points that Chao aims to evaluate as the administration updates and amends the guidance for self-driving vehicles, “to ensure that it strikes the right balance.” The Transportation Secretary also mentioned a concern over potential employment loss in the context of vehicle automation growing, as well as promising to help the Federal Aviation Administration develop drone regulation standards “to ensure that drones can be safely integrated into our country’s airspace.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tag: Donald Trump
Discuss this article in our forums

Berkshire Hathaway More Than Doubled its Stake in Apple in January

In an interview with CNBC today, billionaire investor Warren Buffett revealed that his holding company Berkshire Hathaway held around 133 million shares in Apple prior to the company’s record-breaking earnings results on January 31.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it held 57.3 million shares in Apple as of December 31, 2016, so it more than doubled its stake in the iPhone maker in January. The holding, which reflects about 2.5% of Apple’s outstanding shares, is worth over $17 billion if the shares are still held today.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a nearly $1 billion stake in Apple last May, which led the iPhone maker’s stock to soar 9% once the investment became public knowledge. Apple stock has been on the rise since then, closing at an all-time high of $137.37 last week just nine months after setting a 52-week low of $89.47 in May 2016.

Tags: AAPL, Berkshire Hathaway
Discuss this article in our forums

With a 4,000mAh battery, Energizer’s Energy E550LTE should keep going and going

Why it matters to you

Energizer is best known for its batteries, but its Energy E550LTE looks to be for road warriors looking for a phone that won’t die in a day.

It might come as no surprise that the likes of the BlackBerry KeyOne, LG G6, and Huawei P10, just to name a few, have taken center stage so far at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Because of this, some lesser-known phones from lesser-known companies might fly under the radar, such as Energizer’s recently-announced Energy E550LTE.

Even though Energizer is mostly known for its batteries, the company has had its name on a few phones in the past, all of which feature rugged designs. The Energy E550LTE does not do much to get away from that design ethos, though that is not a bad thing — its IP68 rating means the phone is dust tight, and water-resistant to a maximum depth of just under five feet for up to 30 minutes. Furthermore, thanks to its rubberized corners, the phone can also withstand drops, though you might not want to test that on purpose.

More: ZTE adds more options to its Blade series with the V8 Lite and V8 Mini

The exterior tour continues on the front, where you will find a 5.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display below the 8-megapixel selfie camera. Around back, the Energy E550LTE features dual 13MP and 8MP sensors, with an LED flash module on the side and a fingerprint sensor right below the two cameras.

Under the hood, MediaTek’s 2GHz octa-core MTK6755 chipset and 4GB RAM power the phone, and though there are 64GB of native storage, no mention was made of any MicroSD card slot.

As with the company itself, however, the Energy E550LTE’s focus is on battery, and its large 4,000mAh battery looks to answer the bell. Not many smartphones include such a large power pack — only the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active and LeEco Le Pro 3 come to mind — so expect to be able to use the Energy E550LTE from sunrise through sunset and then some.

If the phone has done enough to catch your attention, the Energy E550LTE will sell for 449 euros (roughly $479) when it becomes available sometime this summer.

HTC Vive gets new financing options, Vive Tracker and Vive Deluxe Audio Strap will cost $99 each

Here’s when you’ll be able to buy HTC Vive’s latest accessories.

HTC announced two new accessories for the Vive last month at CES, and today at Mobile World Congress the company is revealing pricing and availability information. The Vive Tracker — which lets you turn real-world objects into VR peripherals — will be up for sale for developers starting March 27 for $99, with a consumer version coming later this year. HTC has also detailed new financing options for customers looking to pick up the VR headset.

The Vive Tracker lets developers turn objects like a baseball bat or motion control gloves into VR controllers, relying on motion tracking to accurately map the object’s movements in virtual reality. The tracker also allows you to create mixed reality videos by attaching a camera to it. HTC will showcase expanded tracking capabilities this week at MWC and GDC in San Francisco.

Here’s how HTC’s Vive Tracker works

Meanwhile, HTC has also mentioned that the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap will go up for pre-order starting May 2 for $99, with deliveries set to kick off sometime in June. The accessory provides integrated headphones, offering a sturdier strap and an adjustable dial at the back.

Finally, those purchasing the Vive from Vive.com in North America and JD.com in China are now eligible for new financing options:

North America:

• 0% Financing for 6 months for a total monthly cost of $138.00 (plus tax and shipping)
• 0% Financing for 12 months for a total monthly cost of $66.58 (plus tax and shipping)
• 7.99% Financing for 24 months for a total monthly cost of $40.13 (plus tax and shipping)

China:

• 0% Financing for 3 months for a total monthly cost of ¥2,296 (tax and shipping included)
• 0% Financing for 6 months for a total monthly cost of ¥1,148 (tax and shipping included)
• 0% Financing for 12 months for a total monthly cost of ¥574 (tax and shipping included)

HTC has said that it will roll out similar options in European markets shortly.

Casey Neistat delivers a powerful message in Samsung’s Oscars ad

“We’re the makers. The directors and creators of this generation.”

At last year’s Oscars, Samsung showcased the Gear VR with William H. Macy, while YouTube personality Casey Neistat took the 360-degree camera out onto the red carpet. For this year’s Academy Awards, Samsung is once again partnering with Neistat in a commercial titled, “The Rest of Us,” where he talks about the increasing role played by YouTube and smartphones in general in shaping the content of the future.

In the spot, Neistat says that even though most YouTubers don’t have huge production budgets or expensive camera gear, they create videos because they love to share their ideas with the rest of the world.

Neistat also offered a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the commercial, stating that all the cut away shots were shot using the Galaxy S7.

How to set up payments with Google Home

Now that payments are built into Assistant, your Google Home can not only keep your shopping list but order from it, too.

As of this writing, payments only work for Google Express. Google Express is an online market built from more than 40 nationwide retailers. You’ll find companies like Target, Toys R Us, Costco, Walgreens and more. Shopping through Google Express is just like shopping most anywhere else. You can also pay a membership fee for extras like free shipping and no Costco access fees for people without a Costco membership.

Before you can do any of this from your Google Home, you need to set up payments. these payments are separate from anything you might have in Google Wallet or Google Pay but they’re easy to set up through the Google Home app.

Open the Google Home app and get into the menu by tapping the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner.
Make sure the Google account you want to be tied to your payment methods is the one shown. If not, tap the triangle beside the account name to change it.
Tap More settings and go to the bottom where you’ll find Google account settings.
Tap the Payments entry then tap Get started.

After you agree to the terms and conditions (be sure to read them because this is your money we’re dealing with here) you’ll set up a default payment method. If you have already set up payments for another Google service, like Google Play or YouTube, you’ll see that card listed. If you want to use the same card you can tap Next to continue.

If you don’t have a payment method listed or want to use a new one, tap Add credit or debit card to add the card details. You’ll need to give the correct name and billing address like you would for any other online payment method, and when that’s done tap the Save label. This is now your default payment method and you can tap Next to continue.
Next, you’ll need to provide a delivery address. Just like the card information in the payment method section, if you already have an address on file you’ll see it here and be able to choose it. If that’s the case, tap Next to continue.
If you don’t have an address on file for a Google service or want to enter a different one, tap Add new address and enter all the details. Tap Save to store it and Next to continue.
Now you need to let Assistant know which Google Home(s) is allowed to take voice orders and pay for products. If you have more than one Google Home you’ll see each listed with a toggle switch that you can turn payments on or off with. If you only have one, you’ll see a switch to turn payments on or off.

Now you’re all set up to take payments and order things with your voice. Try asking Google Home “OK Google, how do I shop?” to get an idea of how to let Home know you want it to buy something for you. Visit this Google help page for more details on managing your shopping list and making orders through Google Home, or to chat with someone who can help.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy