Fox’s impulse-buy Movie of the Day app comes to Apple TV

Fox is always open to new ideas on how to goose digital movie sales, and one of its recent developments has been the “Movie of the Day” app on iOS. Starting tomorrow, it will also be available on Apple TV, which should provide a fitting home for its rotating selection of content. Via the app, prices are usually deeply discounted from their usual purchase prices, to somewhere between $5 – $10 per movie. To go with the new launch, Fox has revealed the lineup over the next few days, which will include Kingsman: Secret Service, Deadpool and a few others.

• 2/14: Kingsman: The Secret Service
• 2/15: Deadpool
• 2/16: Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters
• 2/17: Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates
• 2/18: Epic

Source: iTunes

Fox’s ‘Movie of the Day’ App Offering Discounted Titles Expands to Apple TV

20th Century Fox today announced that its popular Movie of the Day app is expanding to the Apple TV ahead of Valentine’s Day, giving Apple TV users an opportunity to get iTunes movie titles at a discounted price.

The app offers a different movie each day at prices that are generally more affordable than other online sources. Each deal is available for 24 hours.

Tomorrow’s movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service, will be available for purchase for $7.99. The Movie of the Day app normally keeps upcoming titles a surprise, but Fox is offering a sneak peek to celebrate the release of the Apple TV app. This week will include the following titles:

2/14: Kingsman: The Secret Service
2/15: Deadpool
2/16: Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters
2/17: Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates
2/18: Epic

To help users decide what’s worth purchasing, the Movie of the Day app provides user reviews, information on a movie’s cast, and a film synopsis to help users

The Movie of the Day app can be downloaded for free on the Apple TV, and it’s also available on iOS devices. [Direct Link]

Tags: iTunes, Fox
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MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar review

Research Center:
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar

Update 2/13/2017: We’ve updated the battery life to reflect our most current testing conducted after MacOS 10.12.3 was released. The new figures are not substantially different from those originally published.

Have you grown bored of seeing your local Starbucks awash in silver, mid-sized laptops, all sporting that glowing Apple logo? We don’t blame you. Apple has remained committed to the MacBook Pro’s design over the last four years, counting on engineering excellence to persevere through multiple product cycles. That decision drove Mac fans wild, as many itched for a newer, faster Pro – and ended up with “new” models that looked the same as what they already owned.

Now, the wait is finally over, and it’s unfortunate that Mac fans have been left starving for an update – because the new MacBook Pro’s price is hard to swallow.

The base 13-inch model without the Touch Bar is $1,500, a $200 upcharge over the old entry-level Pro. If you want the Touch Bar model we reviewed, you’ll have to shell out $1,800, though you at least get a processor upgrade as part of the deal.

$1,800 is a lot for a MacBook Pro 13 with a Core i5 processor, even by Apple’s standards. The sharp increase in price means you can only obtain a Core i5 MacBook Pro at prices that used to get you a Core i7, and perhaps a RAM upgrade as well. Can the new model live up to the expectations set by its price?

Still the most luxurious laptop

One look at the new MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar is all you need to know it’s a Mac. That’s even more impressive now that Apple has decided to take attention away from its branding, ditching the glowing white apple in favor of a slick, subtle gloss logo similar to what’s on the MacBook, the iPhone, and the iPad.

As before, the MacBook Pro 13 features an all-unibody design lacking any visible seams aside from those on the bottom. But the new version is slimmer and trimmer, shaving weight down to 3.02 pounds from 3.48 pounds, while thickness drops from 0.71 inches to 0.59 inches.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

And that’s not all. Apple, like Dell, has aggressively shaved space from the display bezels to reduce the overall footprint. The new MacBook Pro 13 remains slightly larger than the Dell XPS 13 overall, and a couple tenths of a pound heavier. Users with the older Pro model will appreciate the improvement.

Oh, and the new model comes in Space Gray, which hopefully is the beginning of a wider color selection. The 12-inch MacBook comes in Silver, Space Gray, Rose Gold, and Gold. Color choices may seem petty, but they add a touch of personality.

There’s no arguing with the new MacBook Pro’s elegance. The beauty of Apple design has always been subtle, which is why the company is sometimes accused of being safe, or boring. The new Pro doesn’t even try to side-step those criticisms. It’s not the smallest 13-inch laptop, or the lightest, and its materials feel much as before. There’s something to be said for design that works, though, even if it’s not innovative, and the new MacBook Pro remains the most luxurious laptop around.

Any port you want, as long as it’s USB Type-C

While the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has a headphone jack, it makes another connectivity choice that’s just as controversial and, functionally, more important. Apple has decided that USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3 is the future, and has ditched every other port.

Yes, USB Type-C is all you get. The MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has four of these ports, two on each side. Even the card reader is missing. Crazy as it sounds, the decision has it benefits. The simplicity of the port selection is hard to argue with, and every port is a charging port, so you can plug the wall adapter into whichever is more convenient. The ports are quick, too, so you can hook up multiple displays or use fast external SSDs without worry about connectivity bandwidth.

You’re going to need adapters, and you might need lots of them.

Now, for the bad news – you’re going to need adapters, and you might need lots of them. Do you use an external display? That’s an adapter. External hard drive? Adapter. Wired input of any sort? Adapter. Ethernet? Adapter. SDcard? Adapter. At best, you’ll need to purchase one or two dongles. At worst, you’re going to need a dock solution, which can add another $100 to $200 to the price.

The greatest irony? Even Apple’s iPhone can’t plug into any MacBook Pro 13 without purchasing an adapter.

At least it can communicate wirelessly. Speaking of which, the new Pro 13 has the usual 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter paired with Bluetooth 4.2. It’s good to see the latest version of Bluetooth here, as it’ll help connect with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The keyboard of the future isn’t very good

The 12-inch MacBook, released last year, debuted an all-new “butterfly” switch that’s much thinner than any used in a laptop keyboard prior. Though Apple touted it as having great feel, we complained that “typing for more than an hour [left our] fingers with a dull ache,” due to the keyboard’s stiff feel and limited travel.

Now that same keyboard can be found on the MacBook Pro. Well, not exactly the same.  The Pro’s keyboard has a “second-generation butterfly mechanism,” with slightly more travel than the first. And it is an improvement. If you’re a writer, the MacBook Pro 13 will serve you better than the MacBook Pro 12.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

That’s not to say it’ll serve you well. While travel has improved, the keyboard continues to suffer a stiff, abrupt bottoming action that can make long typing sessions tiresome. The degree to which this will bother you is a matter of preference. A few Digital Trends writers thought it was perfectly acceptable, and most thought they could learn to live with it. No one said they preferred it over the previous MacBook Pro 13.

And it’s not clear why this sacrifice was made. While the new MacBook Pro 13 is thin, it’s as thick or thicker than many competitors with better keyboards, such as the Acer Swift 7, HP Spectre, HP Spectre x360, and Dell XPS 13. Whatever the reason, it’s clear Apple had to make a compromise between size, performance, and keyboard quality, with the latter getting the bad end of the bargain.

The keyboard suffers a stiff, abrupt bottoming action that can make long typing sessions tiresome.

Below the keyboard is a revised, plus-sized touchpad. Unlike the keyboard, this is an unmitigated plus. The spacious surface improves the ease of using multi-touch gestures, which work consistently well. While the new, larger surface means constant contact between it and your palms, we didn’t notice a single instance of unintended input throughout our testing.

And don’t forget Force Touch. The haptic feedback system, which uses vibration to simulate a click, is so good at emulating real movement that most users never notice a difference. It also offers force sensitivity, which can enable special interface functions – just like the iPhone. The feature isn’t widely embraced, even by Apple’s own software, but it’s great when offered.

The Touch Bar searches for purpose

In May of 2014, Apple Insider published an article talking about upcoming Macs with “in-key displays,” a rumor that began to snowball in early 2016. After several misses (the rumormills thought it might appear in early 2016, then in summer), it’s finally here in all its OLED glory.

If nothing else, the Touch Bar is great to look at it. It boasts Retina-equivalent pixel density, which means icons are rendered with crisp, vibrant graphics. And because it’s OLED, blacks look inky black – so dark it’s often hard to find the Touch Bar’s boundaries.

As a conversation starter, then, it holds up. As a functional tool? Less so. Apple tries to integrate the Touch Bar in a way that makes it relevant even in everyday web browser, note-taking, and photo-viewing. Its display changes constantly as new apps are opened, and old ones closed. It performs well, keeping up no matter how quickly apps are switched, or how many are open.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Yet there’s rarely much use for it. At best, it provides a quick way to scroll through lists, such as your Photo Stream. It can also be useful if you’d like to scroll through a video – and it’s great at picking up on such content, activating a scroll bar even when browsing YouTube.

In other cases, though, it’s clearly a solution searching for a problem. Take typing, for instant. As you input text in Safari, Word, and other apps, the Touch Bar constantly flashes word suggestions. It’s a feature that works well on the iPhone, where typing is often slow and cumbersome.

More: Macbook Pro 13-inch with Retina review

On a laptop, though, it’s pointless. Type in “office,” for instance, and the Touch Bar will suggest alternatives. Did you mean “officers”? Or, perhaps “off-season”? This happens whether a word is spelled properly or not. Even if you do slip in a typo, it’s hard to imagine why a user would look to the Touch Bar for help when MacOS already presents a correction on-screen and, in most cases, will correct the spelling automatically.

If nothing else, the Touch Bar is great to look at it.

Even where it might be useful, the Touch Bar is limited by its size. It automatically displays open Safari tabs, complete with miniature content previews, a feature that could prove helpful. Yet the previews are so small that it’s often hard to tell the tabs apart, even with just three or four open. If you open six, or eight, or ten tabs, then the previews become smaller still, until they’re so tiny that it’s hard to even tap the right one. Similar problems trouble its photo preview and video preview capabilities. In theory, you can scroll through photo collections. In practice, it’s harder to do than with the touchpad.

In short, the Touch Bar isn’t great. But giving the function row over to an OLED display does come with an important perk called Touch ID. Yes, you can now log in with your fingerprint, and it works as seamlessly as it does on iPhone. Fast, secure login authentication methods are a great way to improve security for the average user. And Touch ID integrates with Apple Pay, so you can use it to securely make online purchases – from stores that accept Apple Pay.

Display

A quick look at the specifications could make you think Apple’s new MacBook Pro 13 had an old display. It’s still Retina, which means the resolution is still 2,560 × 1,600. That was stunning in 2012, but today it seems mediocre next to QHD+ (3,200 × 1,800) and 4K screens.

But don’t worry, Mac faithful. You can banish any concerns about the display from your mind. It’s fantastic.

We measured a maximum brightness of 548 lux. That’s ridiculously brilliant, and complete overkill for use indoors, but it can help make the screen, which is still very glossy, usable in extreme situations. By comparison, the Dell XPS 13 with QHD+ display only hits 278 lux, and the HP Spectre x360 hits 355 lux. Both those systems can have a problem with glare in bright conditions, though Dell gives you the choice to combat that with a matte display option.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Brightness is only important in a bright room. What’ll stun you, no matter where you use the MacBook Pro 13, is its color. The display can achieve 100 percent of the sRGB gamut, as well as 91 percent of AdobeRGB. It also delivered an average color error value of .72 (lower is better). Anything below one is generally unnoticeable to the human eye, and this reading is the lowest we’ve ever recorded from a laptop. The previous record holder, Dell’s XPS 15, boasted an average error value of .78.

Even the contrast ratio of 1,200:1 is excellent. The Pro can deliver dark blacks next to brilliant colors without trouble.

The only flaw we found is gamma, which came in at a reading of 2.3. The ideal curve is 2.2, and the MacBook Pro 13’s result indicates it portrays content a bit darker than it should. But this is a very minor fluctuation, and plenty of competitors miss it, too.

The Retina display may not be this Pro’s headline feature, but it remains its most attractive trait.

When the numbers are tallied, the new Retina display comes away a winner. It defeats the Dell XPS 13, Acer Swift 7, Asus Zenbook 3, HP Spectre x360, and Lenovo Yoga 910, beating all of them in color gamut, color accuracy, and contrast ratio.

That’s not to say it lacks competition, though. Microsoft’s Surface Book can go toe-to-toe with it. Though our tests found the Surface Book had a narrower contrast ratio of 1010:1, its gamma curve reading was the proper 2.2.

There’s also a small handful of Windows systems, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga, available with OLED displays. These clobber the MacBook Pro 13’s strong contrast ratio, and deliver an even wider color gamut, all with accurate gamma. But they don’t match the Mac’s out-of-the-box color accuracy.

Numbers aside, the display on the MacBook Pro 13 is excellent, and looks it in everyday use. Games and movies are crisp and vibrant, and high-quality photos render with such detail that you might think your display was switched with a canvas print. The Retina display may not be this Pro’s headline feature, but it remains its most attractive trait.

Pump up the bass

Apple has always shown an affinity for audio quality rarely found elsewhere, and the MacBook Pro is no exception. In fact, its speakers are the best we can recall hearing in a 13-inch system. That’s saying a lot, because a few recent laptops in this category, like the Asus’ Zenbook 3, have surprised us with their quality.

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar Compared To

Lenovo Ideapad 710S

HP Spectre

Acer Aspire S 13 S5-371-52JR

Dell XPS 13 (Skylake)

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with…

Apple Macbook Pro 13-Inch (2013)

Apple MacBook Air 13.3-inch…

Apple MacBook 2009

Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2008)

Apple MacBook (2.4GHz, 2008)

Apple MacBook Air (80GB)

Apple MacBook Pro 15″ 2.4GHz

Apple MacBook Pro 2.33GHz

Apple MacBook 2.0GHz

Apple MacBook Pro 15.4-inch 2.16GHz

The MacBook Pro 13 offers a wide range of volume and, at maximum, it’s far louder than most people will need in normal use, and capable of filling a large room with tunes. Bass is present and accounted for in minimal but noticeable amounts – the thump can be felt through the keyboard at higher volumes. High and mid-range sound remains clear and free of distortion.

External speakers will be an improvement, as always, but the audio quality present here is surprising, and may convince you there’s no need to plug anything into the headphone jack.

A fast processor, facing stiff competition

Specifications have never been Apple’s area of focus, but that used to be a marketing concern, rather than an indication of the company’s preference for hardware. Over the last few years, though, that has changed. The MacBook Pro fell behind, adopting new Intel processor lines late, or not at all.

The new Pro only partially addresses the problem. Our entry-level MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has an Intel Core i5-6267U. As the numbers suggest, it’s part of Intel’s sixth generation Core line, rather than the newer seventh generation. Can it stand up to Intel’s latest hardware?

For the most part, yes. The system’s Geekbench 3 multi-core score of 7,638 is not the best we’ve seen, but it’s certainly in range of competitors. The Lenovo Yoga 910 hit 7,973, and the Dell XPS 13 hit 7,835. Both were tested with Intel’s Core i7-7500U. The MacBook Pro 13 scored even better in Geekbench 3’s single-core metric, beating all competitors, if only by a hair.

You might wonder how the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar can keep up, given it has an older architecture. The secret is the specific processor used by Apple. It has a 28-watt Thermal Design Power, while most Intel Core mobile chips are designed under a 15-watt Thermal Design Power. Put simply, the MacBook Pro 13 keeps itself competitive by drawing more juice under load.

While the Pro does keep up, it’s still disappointing to see it stick with an older generation of hardware, especially given the price. The faster Core i7 competitors we tested can be had for hundreds less than the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar. Though quick, this level of performance is typical in laptops priced above $1,000.

The hard drive to rule them all

Drive performance is often overlooked by consumers, but it’s important to a system’s overall capability. Apple knows this, and has been a leader in storage performance for years. The new MacBook Pro line is no exception. It quotes read speeds of 3.1 gigabytes per second, and write speeds of 2.2 gigabytes per second.

We can’t do an apples-to-apples comparison with Windows competitors here, because the tools we normally use to test performance aren’t compatible with MacOS. However, we did test using two benchmarks that run only on Apple’s operating system.

First up was Blackmagic, a test designed to tell professionals if a drive is up to the task of handling content at specific framerates and resolutions. It produced a write speed result of 1,348 megabytes per second, and a read result of two gigabytes per second (annoyingly, this appears to be the maximum result the benchmark can show). That’s a big improvement over the MacBook Pro 13 with Retina (2015). It hit a write speed of 647MB/s, and a read speed of 1,056MB/s.

We also fired up DiskMark. It spat out sequential read performance of 1,826MB/s, and sequential write performance of 1,289MB/s.  We hadn’t tested with that benchmark before, so take the numbers with a grain of salt. Still, they’re good figures, and reasonably consistent with Blackmagic.

Again, these benchmarks do not run on Windows, so we can’t make an apples-to-apples comparison of hard drive performance. But numbers we have from CrystalDiskMark, our Windows test, suggest Apple is at the head of the pack.

The Dell XPS 13 with 512GB solid state drive scored a read speed of 1,285MB/s and a write sped of 572.8MB/s. The best drive performance we’ve seen from a Windows laptop came from the Vaio Z Flip. It scored read speeds of 1621.7MB/s, and write speeds of 1565.3MB/s.

If this all sounds confusing, don’t worry. While the numbers are outstanding, you don’t need to obsess over them. It’s clear the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has outstanding drive performance, and it’ll handle any workload you ask of it. This is the most future-proof component in the entire system.

Mac gaming is still a bad idea

As in most past incarnations, the Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar relies on Intel integrated graphics. If you want a more powerful discrete graphics solution, then you’ll need to accept the MacBook Pro 15’s larger footprint.

With that said, our review unit did boast Intel Iris Graphics 550 which, in theory, should be much quicker than standard Intel HD graphics. Compared to Intel HD 620, the solution most common in modern Windows laptops, Iris Graphics 550 has double the execution units (48 vs. 24) and a higher maximum clock speed (1,100MHz vs. 1,050MHz). Better still, Iris Graphics 550 has 64 megabytes of dedicated eDRAM, something you’ll never find with Intel HD 620.

But does that mean you can play games better than with a typical Windows ultrabook? To find out we fired up Civilization VI, testing it at 1,440 x 900 resolution on the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar, and on the same resolution on HP’s Spectre x360, with minimum detail and memory consumption selected.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The game performed identically – and poorly – on both, delivering 21 frames per second through the in-game benchmark. But the HP was the better experience, as the Mac suffered graphical glitches that weren’t present on the HP Spectre x360.

If you’re curious why the game performs poorly despite greater technical capability, blame Apple’s OpenGL support, which hasn’t been updated significantly for years. Instead, the company prefers Metal, its own API which can be used on both iOS and MacOS devices. The problem? Porting a game from Windows’ popular DirectX API to Metal is unfamiliar territory. Developers of Windows PC games don’t have a good option for porting to the Mac, and the result is often performance that’s less impressive than you’d expect.

You’ll have better luck with games ported over from iOS, such as CSR Racing Pro 3, Super Octagon, and Limbo. There’s a fair selection of such games on the Mac App Store. These also tend to suffer problems, though, especially in control, which is often poorly converted from touch to keyboard and mouse.

A smaller battery leads to adequate endurance

While the MacBook Pro 13 takes a step forward in processor performance, it takes a significant step back in battery capacity. The previous model had a 74.9 watt-hour battery, but the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar has 49.2 watt-hour battery (the model without Touch Bar has a slightly larger 54.5 watt-hour battery). That’s a reduction in capacity of almost 35 percent.

Despite that, Apple quotes the same battery life as before. The company obviously thinks that efficiency will make up for the smaller battery, but we didn’t find that to be the case.

Peacekeeper, a looped web browsing benchmark, drained a full charge in five hours and three minutes. That’s not a bad result, but it’s not amazing, either. The Dell XPS 13 with Core i7 lasted five hours and seven minutes, while the Acer Swift 7 lasted five hours and 56 minutes. The HP Spectre lasted a tad bit less at four hours and 54 minutes.

We also tested the system in a video loop, using iTunes. It drained the battery in ten hours and 17 minutes. That’s another solid result, though behind the HP Spectre x360, and barely ahead of the Lenovo Yoga 910. The Dell XPS 13 with Core i7 comes up a bit short here, hitting nine hours and 12 minutes.

In real-world use, we found battery life to be average. Most 13-inch laptops priced about $1,000 can last through nearly a workday of a use, and the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar can, as well. But this assumes your “normal” use isn’t constant use, and that you stay away from demanding applications.

Some users have noted that Safari seems to drain the battery more quickly than hoped. We’ve noted that, as well, even after the 10.12.3 update, which fixed a bug that caused Safari to use more graphics horsepower than needed.

If you want amazing portability, you should aim for Dell’s XPS 13 with 1080p display and Core i5 processor. It lasted an outstanding six hours and 12 minutes in Peacekeeper, and twelve hours 43 minutes in our video loop. The MacBook Pro 13 used to be the last word in battery life, but the new model — or, at least, the Touch Bar version — has lost the crown.

MacOS or Windows 10? You’ve probably already decided

The MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar of course runs MacOS, while most other laptops run Windows. For some, that’s all the information needed. If you prefer MacOS, then you’re going to need to buy a MacBook, and the new Pro models are the most powerful Mac laptops available.

More: What’s the best MacBook for your money?

If you’re not familiar with Windows 10 and MacOS, give our reviews a read. We generally recommend Windows 10 over Apple’s operating system. It offers better task management, superior notifications, a more versatile digital assistant, and extensive cloud integration. MacOS does have strengths, though. It remains intuitive to use, and it works extremely well with iOS devices, as users can quickly share content between them or send text messages through the MacOS iMessage app.

The usual warranty terms, with Apple Store convivence

Apple ships every MacBook with a one-year warranty that includes 90 days of phone support. The terms are typical for the industry. The company’s retail stores give an edge, though, because owners can stop by for in-person support. That’s much more convenient than calling a hotline or shipping a system back – if you live near an Apple store, of course.

Our Take

Apple’s new MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar is a beautiful machine, but it has several flaws, and it’s far too expensive.

Is there a better alternative?

That depends on if you’d consider a Windows computer. If not, the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar is an attractive option – though you should consider the model without Touch Bar first. It’s more affordable, and has a larger battery. The processor is not quite as fast, but the downgrade won’t be significant for most people.

If you’re open-minded about choosing between Windows 10 and MacOS, there are numerous competitors. They include the Dell XPS 13, HP Spectre x360, Lenovo Yoga 910, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga with OLED, Surface Book, and Razer Blade. Many of these are a bit quicker, some have better battery life, and all offer a better keyboard. The Windows alternatives also offer an optional touchscreen, and some are 2-in-1 devices usable as either laptop or tablet.

The main sacrifice you’ll make with these alternatives is display quality. Only Microsoft’s Surface Book, and the handful of OLED laptops currently available, can go toe-to-toe with the new Pro in that area.

The DT Accessory Pack

ProCase Sleeve Cover

$16.99

Kensington SD4500 USB-C Docking Station

$179.99

Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Wireless Mobile Mouse

$35

How long will it last?

Apple has control of each Mac’s lifespan by dictating which systems will receive MacOS updates. Since the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar was just released, it’s safe to say it’ll last as long as any Mac currently available.

Should you buy it?

Probably not, even if you prefer a Mac.

The MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar is not a bad laptop. On the contrary, it’s good. But the $1,800 price tag demands more than just good. A laptop sold for that, as an entry-level model, must be among the best of the best.

Former MacBook Pro models achieved that comfortably, but the new model is lacking. It doesn’t have a performance edge over alternatives in any area aside from hard drive speed, and battery life is merely competitive. Even the gorgeous display, which is very, very nice, just matches the best alternatives.

We’re disappointed with Apple’s vision of cutting-edge computing. With the new MacBook Pro, Apple has ignored the best features offered by its competitors, while also introducing a Touch Bar of questionable use. The MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar is a great Mac – but it’s no longer a great laptop.

This mesmerizing video isn’t just cool — it offers clues on how atmosphere works

Why it matters to you

A video of blue lightning is prompting further studies that could help astronauts better understand how the atmosphere protects the Earth from radiation.

Airline pilots have long shared tales of a blue lightning above the clouds, and now there’s a new way to study the phenomena — from outer space.

European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen filmed a series of electrical discharges while aboard the International Space Station in 2015. Now, the National Space Institute has published the results of Mogensen’s work.

More: Astronauts will attempt to control an Earth-based rover from the ISS next month

According to the video and a corresponding study, the blue lightning flashed around 18 kilometers (about 11 miles) above the earth, often in flashes that were several kilometers wide. Mogensen’s video, a first of its kind, also captured a pulsating blue jet that raced for 40 km — nearly 25 miles — across the sky. In only 160 seconds of video, 245 blue flashes were recorded from the top of the cloud turrets.

Mogensen shot the storm while traveling about 18,000 miles per hour over the Bay of Bengal near India. He was asked to see if he could capture the phenomena using the ISS’ best camera while over a thunderstorm.

Besides confirming the existence of blue lightning, the ESA says the video is also important because it confirms that space station based studies could gather the data needed to better understand the phenomena. While satellites have attempted to investigate it, the ESA says the viewing angle wasn’t optimal. Because of that initial video, the Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor is expected to launch later this year to continuously monitor similar thunderstorms.

“It is not every day that you get to capture a new weather phenomenon on film, so I am very pleased with the result — but even more so that researchers will be able to investigate these intriguing thunderstorms in more detail soon,” Mogensen said.

Electrical storms like the ones Mogensen captured carry implications for how the atmosphere protects the earth from radiation, something that’s still not very well understood, according to the ESA.

Nokia’s Android phones 2017: Rumors and news leaks

Nokia is back — and it’s back with a vengeance. The Finnish company finally launched its first Android-powered smartphone, the Nokia 6, but we’re expecting to see a lot more action this year. While these devices won’t be made by Nokia, they will follow the company’s design guidelines and will retain the brand name.

HMD Global will be exclusively manufacturing these devices. Originally, we thought there would be up to four new phones in 2017, but the rumors suggest there will actually be as many as six or seven. The rumors come from Malaysian distributor Avaxx, which said Nokia will aim to launch phones in all price ranges.

Here’s everything we know about Nokia’s 2017 Android phones so far.

Nokia 6

The Nokia 6 is the company’s first Android smartphone, which debuted late last year. It packs some pretty decent specs — including 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and the “latest version of Android.” On top of that, the device boasts a 16MP rear-facing camera, and an 8MP front-facing camera — all for only $245.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news — the device comes with a somewhat disappointing Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, and it’s only available in China. Evan Blass, also known as @EVleaks, said the company will introduce the Nokia 6 at Mobile World Congress this month for a more global audience.

Nokia 5 and Nokia 3

Blass also said Nokia’s MWC announcement would include three other devices, two of which will be the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 3. Don’t expect flagship specs, though, as the two Android 7.0 Nougat smartphones will have lesser specs than the Nokia 6 to hit lower price points.

HMD Global will launch the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 at MWC, plus a 3310 homage https://t.co/lYHtSoagIt pic.twitter.com/GhZXuB0E5u

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 13, 2017

The Nokia 5 is rumored to have a 5.2-inch screen with a 1,280 x 720-pixel resolution, and it will be powered by the same Snapdragon 430 processor but with 2GB of RAM. The rear camera will pack 12 megapixels, but the rest of the specs are expected to match the Nokia 6. It’s why the device is rumored to cost only 199 euros, or about $211.

The Nokia 3 will be the runt of the litter and will only cost 149 euros, or $158. Detailed specifications for the device were not mentioned by Blass.

Nokia 3310

A feature phone may also be a part of the MWC announcement, according to Blass. It’s rumored to be a modern iteration of the popular Nokia 3310, a phone that was known for its long battery life and indestructible build quality. All we know is that the phone will cost about 60 euros, or about $64.

An Android Lumia 1020? ‘Nokia 8’ surfaces

A YouTuber uploaded footage of alleged Nokia devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 and 835. The device was at Qualcomm’s booth at CES 2017 and the chipset manufacturer reportedly asked people not to take videos or photos of the device. The YouTuber, whose account is named Total Tech, didn’t comply.

Before we take a look at the video — it should be noted that we can’t verify this information, and the devices do not have any “Nokia” branding, so we’re casting a heavy dose of skepticism here. The YouTuber says Nokia and Qualcomm “have been working together on the Snapdragon 835 and the 10 nanometer process for the chip with Samsung for a while, according to inside sources, and Nokia has been their hardware reference provider for the 821 and 835.”

More: BlackBerry CEO John Chen and Rudy Giuliani sat down to talk cybersecurity

Again, we can’t verify these insider sources’ claims, and whether or not Nokia has been in partnership with Qualcomm. Total Tech claims the device in his video is an upcoming device named the Nokia 8.

The video shows the difference in camera stabilization between a Snapdragon 821 processor and the Snapdragon 835. Total Tech says both devices are the Nokia 8 with the two processors — the one with the Snapdragon 821 will come with 4GB of RAM, and the Snapdragon 835 variant will have 6GB RAM.

Both allegedly also feature electronic image stabilization, a 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, MicroSD card support up to 256GB, 64GB and 128GB internal storage options, dual front-facing speakers, and LED notification lights.

Total Tech also says the Nokia 8 will have a 24-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization, as well as a front-facing camera with 12-megapixels — it’s unclear if this applies to both models.

What’s interesting is the back of the device, which Total Tech briefly shows in the video. There’s a large camera, like the one found on the back of the Lumia 1020 Windows Mobile device. That camera packed 41-megapixels and featured Carl Zeiss optics — it’s quite possible the partnership could come into play again.

Gear up for Mobile World Congress

In a Facebook post, Nokia Mobile teased the already announced Nokia 6 and said more announcements will come on February 26. That date is a day before Mobile World Congress begins in Barcelona — it’s usually the day smartphone manufacturers announce their flagship products for the year.

We’ll have to wait and see what to expect, but if Blass is correct we can expect the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3, as well as the modernized Nokia 3310. Stay tuned.

The Nokia E1 could be on its way

HMD just launched the Nokia 6, but it already looks as though the company is prepping another release. The new E1 was just leaked online, with both specs and photos appearing in a post from Nokia Power User. This could be the rumored Nokia 5 mentioned above, but some of the specs don’t match.

Design-wise, the phone looks pretty different from the Nokia 6, taking a much more rectangular approach that’s similar to some of Sony’s handsets. The only photo we have is blurry, so we’re looking forward to a slightly more detailed look.

Unfortunately, the leak doesn’t show the flagship device we’re all waiting for from Nokia, but rather a more budget-friendly device. Under the hood, the phone will feature a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, along with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 13MP rear-facing camera. It will run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

If accurate, we should expect this device to be priced at around $200 or lower — that’s considering the fact that the Nokia 6 comes in at $245, and features slightly better specs than the E1. While the Nokia 6 is only going on sale in China, it’s not yet known where the E1 will be launched.

Nokia Pixel

It’s highly unlikely the Pixel name will be used on any version actually put on sale, but an unreleased Nokia phone used in a benchmark test has that name attached. Sadly, it’s not the most exciting phone we’ve seen, and definitely occupies the lower end of the smartphone scale.

The Nokia Pixel, as it’s known here, has a basic dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor inside with 1GB of RAM, resulting in a very ordinary performance test on the Geekbench website. The good news is it has one of the newer versions of Google’s operating system, Android 7.0.1, installed. No other specification details are revealed in the test, so the screen size and resolution are a mystery, but don’t expect it to challenge the Galaxy S7 on either.

Earlier leaks have detailed more technically impressive phones, indicating that the company will launch a complete range of smartphones, with models suited to all wallets, and for all markets around the world.

Flagship Nokia phones

According to a report in Nokia Power User, there are two Nokia-branded Android handsets bound for 2017, and alleged images have leaked of both.

“Trusted sources” told the publication that the two handsets, one smaller (5.2 inches) and one larger (5.5 inches), have “sturdy” metal bodies characteristic of Nokia’s historical designs. And one of their rumored features has the potential to break new smartphone ground. The phones’ cameras are being described as the “most sensitive ever” to come to market, and are reportedly the product of a years-long, $1.35 billion graphene development effort. Another reported innovation is a “touch & hover” interaction that might, much like Microsoft’s scrapped McLaren project, use a combination of sensors to respond to finger gestures.

More: Phoenix from the flames: Nokia’s coming back to mobile

Other highlights include water and dust resistance up to IP68, fingerprint sensors, and OLED displays with QHD (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) resolutions. In terms of software, the handsets will reportedly sport an improved version of Nokia’s predictive Z-Launcher — a newer version than the beta available in the Google Play app store, apparently — atop the very latest version of Android, Android Nougat.

Under the hood, both Nokia Android N powered phones will pack the Snapdragon 820 processor. We don’t know details regarding RAM, storage and camera at this point of time, but the leak suggests that sensors on the two phones will be the most sensitive ever and will be based upon Nokia’s extensive research on wonder material “Graphene.”

Built by HMD Global, designed by Nokia

It won’t be Nokia at the helm of the forthcoming devices’ development, technically speaking. HMD Global, a Finnish company co-founded by former Nokia executives Arto Nummela and Florian Seiche, acquired the rights to the company’s mobile brand from Microsoft in May. HMD has a contract with FIH, a subsidiary of iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, and under a strict licensing partnership, follows Nokia’s design and hardware guidelines in exchange for access to the company’s extensive patent library.

More: Nokia may be cooking up a giant 18.4-inch tablet for MWC

In recent years, the company has struggled to gain a foothold in the high-end mobile market. Following the company’s adoption of Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system in 2011 and its acquisition by Microsoft in 2014, sales of its handset suffered — shipments in 2013 alone were down 22 percent year on year, according to Strategy Analytics.

Following Nokia’s divestiture from its parent company earlier this year, things haven’t looked much better. In April, thanks in part to lower-than-expected smartphone shipments, it announced 900 million euros in downsizing measures — a plan which in part involved the layoffs of 1,400 staff members in Germany, 1,300 in Finland, and 400 in France.

Despite the Finnish company’s woes, though, it’s setting its eyes on the future. It teamed up independently with Foxconn to produce the N1, an Android-based tablet. It dipped its toes in virtual reality with the Ozo, a $60,000 professional-grade 360-degree camera. And it acquired French fitness device company Withings last year.

“We have been reinventing ourselves for 150 years using this amazing brand,” Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia’s consumer Nokia Technologies division, told Digital Trends in June. “We’re starting to focus on people’s happiness and health in a way that wasn’t possible before because the technology wasn’t possible before. You can expect some really surprising products in the next year or two directly from this company as we turn a new chapter.”

Article originally published in July 2016. Updated on 02-13-2017 by Julian Chokkattu: Added rumors about the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3, and Nokia 3310.

New dating app requires you to share a phone call before sharing anything else

Why it matters to you

Many dating app users are frustrated by the lack of response to their messages, but Hotline attempts to solve that by forcing users into a phone call before allowing text conversations.

If you found sending your Tinder match a noncommittal “hello” anxiety-inducing, you might want to stop reading now.

Here to invade the nightmares of introverts, commitment-phobes, and most communicators of the 21st century is a new dating app called Hotline. It requires you to share a phone call with a match before sharing anything else. Look, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Founded by 27-year-old Sam Ballantyne, the app attempts to solve the problem of conversationless matching by sprinting headfirst in the other direction (some might say, a bit too quickly and perhaps too far). For $9 a month, you can subject yourself to a dating service in which your first conversation must be one that utilizes your voice. In order to even exchange a text message, you have to first have a five-minute phone conversation with your match (but don’t worry — your phone number won’t show up on their caller ID or anything).

More: Haters gonna date: This app finds you love based on your dislikes

Hotline attempts to help its users quickly discern whether a prospective partner is actually interesting enough or interested enough in you to really pursue. In fact, Ballantyne told CNNTech, he came up with the idea for Hotline after he matched with someone on Tinder last year. “She wouldn’t message me [again] until I called her,” Ballantyne said. “The call itself ended up being a good way to break the ice.”

So now, the classical musician turned app developer has taken that concept and turned it into a whole new business. And apparently, it’s one that’s working. Calls happen within the app so that Hotline can keep your number safe and track how long these calls actually last. And thus far, most calls are taking a lot longer than five minutes. In fact, the average call spans 25 minutes, with some users speaking for more than 40 minutes.

Sure, it might not be for everyone, but if you’re tired of messages that seem to go into a black hole, or of endless swiping without any really meeting, then just maybe Hotline is for you. The app is currently available only for iOS and in New York.

Google is being investigated in South Korea for anti-competitive practices

Why it matters to you

If Google has indeed hindered Samsung’s development of another operating system, it could have limited the software options you’ve had access to.

Google is in a bit of hot water in South Korea over yet another anti-competition investigation. In this case, the Fair Trade Commission, or the FTC, is investigating whether or note Google has hindered Samsung’s development of its own operating system.

In 2011, Google and Samsung both signed the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement, which basically states that all of Samsung’s Android smartphones have to use Google as the default search engine. Not only that, but Samsung’s devices also need to have Google apps — like Gmail, YouTube, and the Google Play Store — pre-installed. In addition, an anti-fragmentation agreement was reached, and under that agreement, Samsung can’t develop its own Android-based operating system.

More: Google Fiber, AT&T Fiber turn Kentucky city into gigabit battleground

This isn’t the first time Google has faced antitrust charges in South Korea. The company was also investigated when South Korea’s top search engines, Naver and Daum, claimed Google’s agreement with Samsung violated antitrust laws. Those charges were eventually cleared in 2013.

The bad news for Google is that on top of the newly opened investigation into whether or note the company obstructed Samsung from developing its own mobile operating system, the FTC has also said that it will be reopening the 2013 case, suggesting that since the case was closed, the market has changed.

It could be problematic if Google is found guilty, as the company could face a hefty fine. Of course, this is all par for the course for Google, which was fined $6.75 million in an antitrust case last year by Russian regulators.

It will be interesting to see how this case affects Google and its relationship with Samsung. The South Korean firm has long been trying to reduce its dependence on Google, and has been developing Tizen, its own operating system, for some time now. Is that operating system not on Samsung’s phones because of its agreement with Google? Only time will tell.

The Oculus Rift unofficially supports modern MacOS machines via a new app

Why it matters to you

While the Oculus Rift VR headset is not supported on MacOS, this new app provides a workaround for “modern” MacOS devices.

Developer Cindori released a MacOS app called VR Desktop for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. This app creates a virtual multi-monitor workspace for machines running MacOS 10.11 or higher that is viewed specifically through the Oculus Rift Development Kit v2. A version for the retail release of Facebook’s VR headset isn’t expected to arrive until later in 2017.

Costing $20, the new app enables Mac owners to strap on the Oculus Rift and view their MacOS desktop across up to three virtual displays. The catch is that the app will work on “modern” Macs that include discrete graphics chips. That is quite an amazing feat given the Oculus Rift isn’t officially supported on Mac machines.

More: Oculus Rift replacement accessories are finally available in its online store

Why? Because Macs typically don’t have the graphics chip component required to run the Rift. For example, the 21.5-inch iMac relies on Intel’s integrated graphics while the 27-inch models have an AMD Radeon R9 M300 Series component, which isn’t advertised as VR-ready. The latest MacBook Pros rely on integrated graphics as well and the expensive cylinder-shaped Mac Pro desktops sport dual AMD FirePro D-Series graphics chips, which don’t meet the Rift’s requirements either.

But it seems that Cindori is working around the current limitations. The company said it created a custom “state-of-the-art VR framework” promising a smooth experience on recent Macs with a discrete graphics chip. That rules out all models that rely solely on integrated Intel graphics.

The actual hardware requirements to run the app are unknown. However, here are the minimum and recommended specs needed to use the Oculus Rift:

Minimum
Recommended
Processor:
Intel Core i3-6100
AMD FX 4350
Intel Core i5-4590
Graphics card:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
AMD Radeon RX 470
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
AMD Radeon RX 480
Alternative graphics card:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
AMD Radeon R9 290
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
AMD Radeon R9 290
Memory:
8GB
8GB
Video output:
HDMI 1.3 at 297MHz
HDMI 1.3 at 297MHz
USB ports:
1x USB 3.0
2x USB 2.0
3x USB 3.0
1x USB 2.0

Oculus VR placed its plans to support MacOS and Linux on hold a while ago. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey said in March 2016 that Oculus would resume its efforts to support MacOS again when Apple releases “a good computer.” He clarified by adding that Apple may release a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700 discrete graphics chip but it still doesn’t meet the Rift’s requirements.

“It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritize high-end GPUs,” he said. “If they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for a while back in the day, we’d love to support Mac. But right now, there’s just not a single machine out there that supports it.”

For now, it seems, VR can be enabled on modern Macs with discrete graphics through the new app. Users can play games, watch movies, work on spreadsheets, and more in a VR environment. Support for the HTC Vive headset is planned for sometime in 2017.

Urine luck! Stanford just developed a pee-based, super-efficient battery

Why it matters to you

A new ultra-low cost battery could prove a cheap and efficient means of carrying out grid storage of electricity from renewable energy.

The secret ingredient for developing cheap, effective batteries could turn out to be urine, according to researchers from Stanford University.

In a new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford physicists describe a battery that works efficiently using urea, the central component of urine, after water. The battery is designed to work for grid storage of renewable energy electricity.

Batteries involve three main components: an anode, cathode, and electrolyte. Electron transfer happens around an external circuit between anode and cathode, and the corresponding ions transfer between anode and cathode through the electrolyte, which separates the anode and cathode in space to prevent a short circuit.

More: Belgian scientists just built a solar-powered machine that turns urine into drinkable water

“In this battery, the cathode is a graphite powder bound together using a polymer binder, the anode is aluminum, and the electrolyte is a mixture of urea and aluminum chloride,” Michael Angell, one of the co-authors of the paper, told Digital Trends. “While urea and aluminum chloride are solids at room temperature, when mixed together they produce a mixture of complex ions that is a liquid at room temperature, allowing for the conduction of ions between the anode and cathode. During battery discharge, aluminum metal gives its electrons to the graphite, from which electrons were removed during charging of the battery.”

The battery is pretty darn impressive. Under lab conditions, the prototype the team built reached 1,500 charge cycles. It is also likely to have an extremely long life cycle, based on its 99.7 percent Coulombic efficiency: referring to the amount of charge you get back from the battery, divided by the amount of charge you put in originally. Due to the low cost of urea, it would also be very cheap to produce.

As to what’s next, Angell said the goal is to increase the capacity of the battery, as well as the speed at which it can charge and discharge.

“Commercial viability is high, due to its low cost,” he said. The technology has been licensed by a startup, which is aiming to produce commercial prototypes within the next few years.

We think it’s a golden opportunity!

Blu’s Tank Xtreme 5.0 is built like a tank — but not priced like one

Why it matters to you

It might not look fancy, but Blu’s Tank Xtreme 5.0 was built to take a beating while not breaking the bank.

Having already announced several smartphones in the new year, U.S. manufacturer Blu announced the Tank Xtreme 5.0, the latest in the company’s line of rugged and affordable phones.

Unlike the Vivo XL2, which looks flashy with its rear-panel micro pattern, the Tank Xtreme 5.0 was not built to please the eyes. Instead, the latter was built to take a beating, and its IP65 certification for dust protection and water-resistance help with that billing. More specifically, while the Tank Xtreme 5.0 is completely protected against dust and water jets from any direction. This does not mean you can fully immerse the phone and expect it to survive the ordeal every time, though it should stand up to rain and the occasional drop just fine.

More: Blu unveils its shiny-gold midrange smartphone, the Vivo XL2

Going back to design, the Tank Xtreme 5.0 can only be described as functional. The phone’s looks might not catch the eye, but that rubber frame does a better job with shock absorption than the plastic utilized for its peers. The rubber frame and plastic body house a 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 resolution display, as well as the 5-megapixel selfie and rear cameras.

Under the hood, MediaTek’s 1.3GHz quad-core MT6580 chipset and 1GB RAM power the phone, with the meager 8GB of native storage augmented by up to an additional 64GB through the MicroSD card slot. Blu promises that the phone’s 3,000mAh battery will last two and a half days with “standard usage,” and given the humble specs, we are inclined to believe that metric.

Not as impressive is Blu’s decision to ship the Tank Xtreme 5.0 with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a disappointment given Nougat’s availability since August 2016.

If you want the latest and greatest from Google, however, it is doubtful you will settle for the Tank Xtreme 5.0. Rather, you’ll want this phone for its rugged and affordable nature. Speaking of the latter, the phone is currently available through Amazon for $130 unlocked, but keep in mind the phone will only work on GSM carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and others.