Google Pixel’s Assistant AI upgraded for smart home control

At Google I/O last May, the tech giant announced its own voice-powered hub to rival Amazon’s Echo: the Home, which would be powered by their AI helper, Assistant. The Siri-like software was promoted as a standard feature on the search titan’s first phone, the Pixel, which came out later in fall. But Google announced a plan weeks ago to bring the hub and the help back together, promising to bring some of Home’s connected device control to the company’s smartphone line. Today, they started rolling out Home Control for some versions of their mobile platform, allowing users to use voice commands to fiddle with their network of connected home devices.

It’s a little unclear which software can access the feature: 9to5Google and AndroidPolice got it working on Pixel phones running Android 7.1.2, Google Play Services 10.2.98 and the latest beta version of Assistant (6.12.19). Once you’ve loaded those up, just navigate within Assistant’s settings to find the new “Home control” tab to make your smartphone a hub for products from Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, Honeywell, Nest and Samsung SmartThings.

The new feature obeys the same voice commands that work on Google Home. Obviously, it’s a handy substitute for folks who don’t want to cough up $130 for the external hub. But given that Assistant is only live on Pixel and Pixel XL phones, it’s unclear when this feature will spread to the rest of the Android family.

First up on that list could be LG’s G6, which is reportedly dropping Alexa for Assistant. But then again, Hyundai’s connected cars got hooked up with Google’s voice-controlled helper, so who knows where Assistant’s hub capabilities will spread.

Source: The Verge

Viacom’s new boss nixes streaming services scheme

If you were hoping to see current Daily Show episodes on Hulu, you’re likely out of luck in the short run. Viacom’s new CEO, Bob Bakish, explained the company’s new strategy in an earnings call Thursday, saying that he wants to “reinforce the value of the pay TV ecosystem.”

This means that Viacom will only offer new stuff to established pay TV providers while continuing to release older content to places like Amazon, Netflix or Hulu. It’s not an unexpected move, either; other companies like 21st Century Fox do the same. PlayStation Vue, a console-based streaming service, has already dropped Viacom channels from its roster.

Bakish’s strategy to save a struggling Viacom relies heavily on an older model with pay TV providers like Comcast, Dish Network or Cox at the top. His words during the call were more reassurance that Viacom won’t compete with the traditional pay TV companies by offering new shows via streaming. That should keep cable companies happy which rely on original and timely shows to attract customers as ever. It also helps Viacom’s bottom line: cable companies already pay more than Hulu or SlingTV.

The move comes as pay TV continues to bleed subscribers and seeks to staunch the flow with odd partnerships like SlingTV joining Comcast. As broadband pushes into more US homes, cutting the cord is almost mainstream.

Hopefully, this is only a short-term solution, and cord-cutters can continue to watch new episodes of The Daily Show without a cable subscription.

Via: Recode

Source: Viacom

BlackBerry attempts to win back some love with this Valentine’s Day sale

Why it matters to you

BlackBerry may not be the mobile darling it once was, but at least it’s trying to win back some love with a Valentine’s Day sale on some of its phones.

BlackBerry may not be the mobile darling it once was, but it’s trying to win back some love. How? By offering its devices at a cheap price for Valentine’s Day, of course.

Most notably, the company will offer the BlackBerry DTEK50 and DTEK60 handsets at a discount price. These are two of the BlackBerry phones that were built by TCL and rebranded with the BlackBerry name. They also both offer BlackBerry’s version of Android, along with Hub and a few other features.

More: Beleaguered BlackBerry rolls out its latest plan to make some money

So what kind of discounts can you expect? The DTEK50 normally costs $299, but you’ll be able to get it for $40 off, or $259, and the DTEK60, which normally comes at $499, now sits at $449 — also $50 off.

The two phones may not be the most powerful around, but they’re certainly not bad. The DTEK50 is basically a revised version of the Alcatel Idol 4, which was also built by TCL. It features a Snapdragon 617 SoC, along with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage — although around 6GB of that is taken up by the system. You’ll also get a 13MP rear-facing camera and an 8MP front-facing wide-angle camera, which is one of the phone’s main selling points.

The DTEK60 is a slightly more powerful device, boasting a Snapdragon 820 processor, along with a cool 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. In true 2016 flagship fashion, the device also has a fingerprint scanner along with a 21MP rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture, and an 8MP front-facing camera.

While those two phones are the only ones being discounted, the BlackBerry store is also offering the BlackBerry Priv for $449, the BlackBerry Passport for $349, and the BlackBerry Leap for $199.

To get the phones for yourself, head to BlackBerry’s online store. It’s not known exactly how long these sales will last, so you may want to act quick.

Google wants Chrome to be a window for web-based VR on any device or headset

Why it matters to you

Google appears to be working on web-based virtual reality so it can bring more VR experiences to the masses.

A recent blog published by Google product manager Megan Lindsay seems intent on selling customers with the idea of purchasing a Daydream-ready phone. Her selling point is the use of Chrome for Android to access virtual reality content on the web that can be experienced in the new Daydream View headset. The drawback, of course, is that there are only three phones that currently support Daydream, with two additional phones listed as “coming soon.”

But the real message here is that Google is working to bring web-based VR content to all devices and headsets through its Chrome browser. “In the coming months we’ll add support for more headsets, including Google Cardboard,” Lindsay stated.

To access the VR content on a Daydream-ready phone, users first load up the Chrome browser, find the content they want to view, choose the VR option, and then shove the phone into the Daydream View headset. Otherwise, web surfers can view the same content on any phone or PC but are limited using their finger or mouse to interact with the content.

Here is a list of content highlighted in Lindsay’s blog:

Bear 71:
This is an interactive documentary that “blurs the lines between the wild world and the wired one.”
The Matterport Library:
It is a tour of over 300,000 celebrity homes, museums, canyons, and other interesting locations across the globe.
Within:
This is a library of 28 VR films such as Walking New York, Notes On Blindness, Vice News VR, and more.
Sketchfab:
This site offers a huge library of VR scenes to experience including the Mars One mission base, a motorcycle clubhouse, a Batman Begins set, and so on.
The WebVR Lab:
This is a demonstration of the capabilities of WebVR, allowing viewers to switch records on a record player, pick up dice, and move around the environment.

In these cases, the applications depend on an experimental version of JavaScript called WebVR. This enables the applications to speak directly to VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, and Google Cardboard. Support for WebVR was added to Google Chrome version 56 for Android and in experimental builds for PC. It is built into Mozilla’s Firefox browser too.

More: Waiting on a Google Pixel? Verizon may treat you to a free Daydream View

Just for kicks, we tested a few of these on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Gear VR, and the demos worked just fine using Samsung’s browser. Keep in mind that these experiences are entirely web-based, and given that WebVR is still “experimental,” performance will be lower than dedicated optimized apps.

For instance, the WebVR Lab demo by Playcanvas was jerky when looking around but showcased the capabilities of WebVR’s current state. The Mars demo was rather neat too, if not choppy in movement, and highly jagged along the edges. Still, the WebVR demo enables (mostly) free movement around the Martian base whereas the same demo offered through Sketchfab’s app for Gear VR limits visitors to five stationary points in the scene.

Circuit Cubes teaches kids basics of circuitry with Lego blocks, light-up LEDs

Why it matters to you

Circuit Cubes make it fun and easy for kids to understand electronic basics.

Tactile learning is one of the most powerful ways to teach a kid. Kids who touch and feel their way through a difficult subject tend to internalize — and articulate — the concepts better. And for a subject as abstract as circuitry, there’s perhaps no better way to convey the basics than with Circuit Cubes, snap-on modules that kids can use to build the machines of their dreams.

There’s a motor cube that drives a gear shaft at 1,000 RMPs, an LED module that lights up brightly when attached to a completed circuit, and a rechargeable battery module that last up to one hour of active play (and three days on standby).

It’s the debut effort of longtime educators Nate MacDonald and John Schuster, who spent years developing lessons with an interdisciplinary basis in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. MacDonald co-founded Sonoma State University’s Maker Certificate program and advised the White Hill Robotics Club, an elective at White Hill Middle School in Fairfax, California.

More: MIT’s new sensor-loaded duct tape makes DIY electronics a snap

Schuster, the former IT director at White Hill Middle School, teamed up with MacDonald to found Tenka Labs, a startup with a mission to design toys that are “as fun to play with and build with, but that along the way, enable kids to learn about basic circuitry.”

Legos + circuits = fun

Intuitiveness was a core consideration in the Circuit Cubes’ design. Each module measures two standard Lego bricks high and four Lego bricks wide and pairs via two silver terminals on the modules’ front.

“We wanted the form factor to be approachable, but small enough to build structures with,” Schuster said, “and we wanted the components to be visible so that kids could experiment.”

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

To that point, the base of the motor and LED module are made of a translucent material, and motor lines on the bottom show the flow of electricity. That’s to demonstrate the concept of polarity and resistance, Schuster said. Attaching a motor module directly to a battery module will cause it to spin quickly, but adding an LED module to the circuit will slow it down. Swapping the negative and positive contacts, on the other hand, will cause it to reverse its direction.

More: Kickstarter 3D printer will print circuit boards as part of your designs

“It teaches kids basic technology literacy,” he said. “It’s not about the blocks themselves but what you can make with them.” It’s not so complicated that kids couldn’t figure out how to build things on their own, Schuster was quick to point out. “The minute kids have to go ask their parents for help, they’ve lost ownership of it,” he said. As a result, the system is simple enough that kids can construct a simple gadget without much thought. “They can build a car in tens seconds or less.”

Different designs for all interests

Circuit Cubes ship in one of three $60 kits differentiated by pack-ins. The Whacky Wheels kit ships with building instructions for cars, trucks, bikes, bridges, and Ferris wheels. Bright Lights boasts templates for telescoping tools, light sabers, and superhero GOBO. The Smart Art kit comes with felt tip pens for drawing robots that produce swirling designs on canvases.

The kits don’t prescribe designs, though. “The core ones allow you to do so many things,” John said. “It’s a design driven by kids. Their inspiration is what it’s all about.”

“It’s a design driven by kids. Their inspiration is what it’s all about.”

Schuster showed off a few models early Circuit Cube testers put together. There was a cut-out butterfly that flapped its wings with the help of a motor module, a battery module, and a few moving Lego “limbs.” An AT-AT_inspired walker moved lumbered forward, and another simulated rotating lights that’d be right at home on top of a police siren.

One of the most inventive creations was a toy rabbit that’d been stuffed with a Lego “skeleton” comprising a “spine,” a battery module, and a motor module that caused it to nod its head as though it was acknowledging Schuster’s words. “It’s a bit creepy,” he said. “But that’s the beauty. The Circuit Cubes allow almost endless creativity. ”

Getting kids into tech

The launch of Circuit Cubes comes as the U.S. faces record growth in demand — 17 percent by 2024 — for STEM jobs. But there’s a shortage of qualified candidates. The country ranks 27th in math compared to the rest of the world, and only 36 percent of the country’s high school graduates are ready to take college-level science courses.

More: Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot review

“Kids need to be completely engaged first if they’re going to really absorb complex concepts on how things work,” Schuster said. He and MacDonald are developing a classroom curriculum for the Circuit Cube kits that are launching today, and are building an online community that’ll host “hundreds” of projects that kids will be able to “get ideas from.”

“When kids are having fun, they’re at their maximum learning curve to develop the skills needed to start building and designing things, and to go on their own adventure,” he said.

Schuster and MacDonald are focusing on the launch of the first-generation Circuit Cubes, but they’re already hard at work on a future iteration that will allow kids to control modules with a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

More: Hands on: LittlBits Gizmos and Gadgets kit

“It’s like the cheese on the broccoli,” said Schuster. “It’s forgetting about what the Circuit Cubes can do and creating some cool adventure.”

Circuit Cubes teaches kids basics of circuitry with Lego blocks, light-up LEDs

Why it matters to you

Circuit Cubes make it fun and easy for kids to understand electronic basics.

Tactile learning is one of the most powerful ways to teach a kid. Kids who touch and feel their way through a difficult subject tend to internalize — and articulate — the concepts better. And for a subject as abstract as circuitry, there’s perhaps no better way to convey the basics than with Circuit Cubes, snap-on modules that kids can use to build the machines of their dreams.

There’s a motor cube that drives a gear shaft at 1,000 RMPs, an LED module that lights up brightly when attached to a completed circuit, and a rechargeable battery module that last up to one hour of active play (and three days on standby).

It’s the debut effort of longtime educators Nate MacDonald and John Schuster, who spent years developing lessons with an interdisciplinary basis in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. MacDonald co-founded Sonoma State University’s Maker Certificate program and advised the White Hill Robotics Club, an elective at White Hill Middle School in Fairfax, California.

More: MIT’s new sensor-loaded duct tape makes DIY electronics a snap

Schuster, the former IT director at White Hill Middle School, teamed up with MacDonald to found Tenka Labs, a startup with a mission to design toys that are “as fun to play with and build with, but that along the way, enable kids to learn about basic circuitry.”

Legos + circuits = fun

Intuitiveness was a core consideration in the Circuit Cubes’ design. Each module measures two standard Lego bricks high and four Lego bricks wide and pairs via two silver terminals on the modules’ front.

“We wanted the form factor to be approachable, but small enough to build structures with,” Schuster said, “and we wanted the components to be visible so that kids could experiment.”

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

To that point, the base of the motor and LED module are made of a translucent material, and motor lines on the bottom show the flow of electricity. That’s to demonstrate the concept of polarity and resistance, Schuster said. Attaching a motor module directly to a battery module will cause it to spin quickly, but adding an LED module to the circuit will slow it down. Swapping the negative and positive contacts, on the other hand, will cause it to reverse its direction.

More: Kickstarter 3D printer will print circuit boards as part of your designs

“It teaches kids basic technology literacy,” he said. “It’s not about the blocks themselves but what you can make with them.” It’s not so complicated that kids couldn’t figure out how to build things on their own, Schuster was quick to point out. “The minute kids have to go ask their parents for help, they’ve lost ownership of it,” he said. As a result, the system is simple enough that kids can construct a simple gadget without much thought. “They can build a car in tens seconds or less.”

Different designs for all interests

Circuit Cubes ship in one of three $60 kits differentiated by pack-ins. The Whacky Wheels kit ships with building instructions for cars, trucks, bikes, bridges, and Ferris wheels. Bright Lights boasts templates for telescoping tools, light sabers, and superhero GOBO. The Smart Art kit comes with felt tip pens for drawing robots that produce swirling designs on canvases.

The kits don’t prescribe designs, though. “The core ones allow you to do so many things,” John said. “It’s a design driven by kids. Their inspiration is what it’s all about.”

“It’s a design driven by kids. Their inspiration is what it’s all about.”

Schuster showed off a few models early Circuit Cube testers put together. There was a cut-out butterfly that flapped its wings with the help of a motor module, a battery module, and a few moving Lego “limbs.” An AT-AT_inspired walker moved lumbered forward, and another simulated rotating lights that’d be right at home on top of a police siren.

One of the most inventive creations was a toy rabbit that’d been stuffed with a Lego “skeleton” comprising a “spine,” a battery module, and a motor module that caused it to nod its head as though it was acknowledging Schuster’s words. “It’s a bit creepy,” he said. “But that’s the beauty. The Circuit Cubes allow almost endless creativity. ”

Getting kids into tech

The launch of Circuit Cubes comes as the U.S. faces record growth in demand — 17 percent by 2024 — for STEM jobs. But there’s a shortage of qualified candidates. The country ranks 27th in math compared to the rest of the world, and only 36 percent of the country’s high school graduates are ready to take college-level science courses.

More: Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot review

“Kids need to be completely engaged first if they’re going to really absorb complex concepts on how things work,” Schuster said. He and MacDonald are developing a classroom curriculum for the Circuit Cube kits that are launching today, and are building an online community that’ll host “hundreds” of projects that kids will be able to “get ideas from.”

“When kids are having fun, they’re at their maximum learning curve to develop the skills needed to start building and designing things, and to go on their own adventure,” he said.

Schuster and MacDonald are focusing on the launch of the first-generation Circuit Cubes, but they’re already hard at work on a future iteration that will allow kids to control modules with a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

More: Hands on: LittlBits Gizmos and Gadgets kit

“It’s like the cheese on the broccoli,” said Schuster. “It’s forgetting about what the Circuit Cubes can do and creating some cool adventure.”

Intel’s 48-thread, 24-core Xeon superchip will cost nearly $9,000

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for the utmost in processing power for your server, then Intel has you covered with its new 24-core monster.

There is plenty of debate over whether AMD’s Ryzen release represents a real challenge for Intel’s CPU business. Recently leaked information implies that AMD is so confident about Ryzen’s performance that it may not be relying solely on lower prices to combat Intel.

That doesn’t mean that Intel doesn’t have any market segments where it can be fully confident of remaining the performance leader. Its Xeon line remains the stuff of servers and other high-performance applications today and Intel fully intends on maintaining its superiority with the new Xeon E7-8894 v4, according to The Tech Report.

More: MSI posted the specs of eight upcoming Xeon E3-1200 v6 Series CPUs from Intel

On Thursday, the Xeon E7-8890 v3 is Intel’s high-end option, running on the Haswell architecture and offering 18 cores and 32 threads with Hyper-Threading and a thermal design power (TDP rating of 165W). Now, Intel announced the E7-8894 v4, which manages to pack in 24 cores — running 48 threads given its Hyper-Threading support — at 2.4GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz, all of it staying within the same 165W TDP as the previous generation.

Intel pegs the increase at “3.69 times faster” than the Westmere Xeon E7 8870 and, compared more directly against the E7-8890 v3, performance increases of 25 to 50 percent can be expected. Regardless, the E7-8894 v4 will be a monster when plugged into servers supporting up to eight sockets and 24TB of RAM per node.

Of course, Intel’s new performance leader will be a price leader as well, coming in at a hefty $8,898. A fully stocked server with eight CPUs installed and plugging away crunching some serious numbers will, therefore, run more than $71,000 before any other system costs are considered.

Intel likely justifies that pricing level given support for all of the usual Xeon goodies such as NetBurst microarchitecture, along with the fact that anyone who needs this kind of performance will be willing to pay for it. For those people, the new chips are expected to be available for purchase in the first quarter of 2017.

Freaky experiment shows neuroscientists exactly how human brain processes fear

Why it matters to you

Analyzing the brain’s reaction to fear could help neurologists come up with better ways to treat anxiety disorders.

Neurologists at the University of California, Irvine want to scare the bejeezus out of you. And it’s for your own good, they promise!

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications describes an investigation designed to reveal how the human brain processes fear and anxiety — and how this data could be used to help treat mental health disorders.

As part of the investigation, nine daring participants were shown a series of unsettling scenes from horror movies, while deep brain electrodes were used to record their neural activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, the parts of the brain crucial for emotion and memory. Imagine a scientific version of a YouTube reaction video, and you’re not far off the mark!

More: MIT’s Nightmare Machine uses AI to make ordinary photos skin crawling

“Using this method, we can actually look at how the brain processes information millisecond by millisecond,” Jack Lin, Professor of Clinical Neurology, told Digital Trends. “What we found is that when someone sees a fearful image, the amygdala extracts the salience of that information to work out how important it is to that person’s daily survival. Then it sends that message to the hippocampus to make sure that it pays attention. This modulation only occurs when a person sees a fearful image. When they see a peaceful scene, it doesn’t happen.”

Lin said that previous studies have used still images to try and elicit fear, although these have not worked nearly as effectively. In future studies, he’d like to find ways of making things even scarier — although all within the ethical boundaries of such research, of course.

So how does this potentially help people? “We ultimately want to use this for therapy,” Lin continued. “We want to know how the brain operates at a circuit level. The brain, its circuits, and the code it uses to communicate are inherently rhythmic. If we know about this we can determine when the circuit is over-activated.”

More: Early trials suggest deep brain stimulation can significantly reduce heroin addiction

That could mean helping people with anxiety disorders to modulate fearful reactions, using the same kind of deep brain therapy already being used to treat Parkinson’s Disease. “Long-term, we could think about disrupting this circuit to undo the hyperactivity,” he said.

Finally, for our own interest as movie buffs, we asked Lin which footage turned out to be the scariest.

“It’s faces,” he said. “It’s not gore and blood that fills people with fear. People get used to that pretty quickly. But there’s something intrinsic about faces. We react to them every day, and when we see the facial expressions of people experiencing fear that’s when we get scared ourselves.”

Take note, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Marcus Dunstan, and today’s other horror helmers!

Someone at Intel drips coffee all over Twitter, teases upcoming eighth-gen CPUs

Why it matters to you

Customers just now purchasing a PC packed with Intel’s seventh-generation processor might be somewhat annoyed by Intel’s tease on Twitter.

Intel is such a tease. After spending for what seemed like forever talking about its seventh-generation “Kaby Lake” desktop processors, the company finally revealed the chips in January during the CES 2017 tech convention. Now, just mere weeks later, Intel is already teasing us with a new dangling carrot: Eighth-generation Intel Core processors.

The tease showed up on Intel’s official Twitter account revealing that its eighth-generation CPUs are on the 2017 roadmap for the second half of the year. However, the real meat of the story behind the social tease is that Intel “mentioned” its upcoming Core i7-8000 processor series during its investors meeting on Thursday. The chips will be based on Intel’s 14nm plus processing technology it used with the seventh-generation chips.

More: AMD isn’t afraid of Intel anymore, and its $490 Ryzen CPU proves it

If you’re scratching your head with this one, you’re not alone. Intel was expected to launch three 14nm+ processor families in the second half of 2017 and into the first quarter of 2018: Kaby Lake-X, Skylake-X, and Coffee Lake. The supposed high-end Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors are actually expected to launch during Gamescom 2017 in August supporting Intel’s flagship X299 platform for enthusiasts.

Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X will be based on the 14nm plus process node and marketed under the Core i7-7000 K-Series brand. Skylake-X will have a maximum core count of 10 and Kaby Lake-X will have a maximum core count of four. At least four SKUs will be made available at launch.

That leaves Coffee Lake, which was expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2018. These will be six-core mainstream processors based on the 14nm plus process node, and split up into Coffee Lake-U (ultra-low power), Coffee Lake-X (enthusiast desktop), Coffee Lake-S (mainstream desktop), and Coffee Lake-H (notebook) SKUs. They reportedly not only improve on the Kaby Lake design, but include “architectural enhancements.”

That’s supposedly everything Intel is expected to roll out from its 14nm plus process technology. The 2-in-1 device Intel showcased during its CES 2017 keynote was a Cannon Lake processor based on the company’s 10nm process technology. Cannon Lake chips are expected to arrive in 2-in-1s and similar products during the back half of 2017.

So what Intel is likely teasing on Twitter is Coffee Lake. That’s just a guess, and Intel wasn’t willing to talk about the eighth-generation lineup outside what it revealed through Twitter. Intel told us that the new chips were only “briefly mentioned” during Thursday’s investor meeting. Sigh.

Ultimately, customer will see 20-30 percent better performance with the eighth-generation Core i7-8000 Series chips than they did with the Skylake family. That’s due to a 10 percent performance increase when moving from Skylake to Kaby Lake, and a 15 percent performance increase when moving from Kaby Lake to Coffee Lake.

Since Intel won’t spill the official goods behind its Twitter post, we’ll have to wait for the Computex and/or CeBit tech conventions later this year. We already know Intel isn’t sweating AMD’s Ryzen invasion, and this is probably one of the reasons why.

Lenovo challenged developers to create new Moto Mods — here is what they built

Why it matters to you

The future of smartphones could be modular and these are among the first waves in making them a reality.

The Lenovo Moto Mod concept is perhaps the most popular modular smartphone concept to date and for good reason — Moto Mods are easy to use, powerful, and can add a whole lot more functionality to your device. Not only that, but Lenovo isn’t the only company that makes them — third-party developers have also added their concepts to the ecosystem and Lenovo has even run a competition for developers and entrepreneurs to create the best.

Now, that competition is coming to a close and the best of the entrants each have their own Indiegogo page and there are some interesting concepts. We already reported on the Edge mod that added notification lights and an external battery to your device. While the Edge may the most popular, it’s not the only offer.

More: Lenovo Moto G5 specs, news, and rumors

“So far, the Indiegogo campaign finalists have dreamed up ideas for Moto Mods ranging from wireless and solar chargers to smart home solutions, walkie-talkies, and health monitoring devices,” Lenovo said on the Motorola blog.

Apart from Edge, the most popular Mod seems to be a simple cover that gives your device wireless charging. One of the best things about it, however, isn’t that it brings wireless charging to the Moto Z — it’s that it does so in a super thin and stylish cover that only increases the thickness of the device by a tiny amount. The Mod is relatively cheap too — you can pledge $35 to get one or you can up that pledge to $45 to get one with an infrared emitter on top of the wireless charging. Pledge for yourself on the Indiegogo page.

The next most popular Mod is lagging far behind the Edge and wireless charging panel in pledges, but it’s still a cool concept. It’s called Mico, and it basically adds solar charging capabilities, along with a 2,200mAh battery, to your Moto Z. You can get it here.

There are a few other mods to check out, so if you have a Moto Z and are interested in checking out a few concepts, head to the Indiegogo Moto Mods finalists page.