LG Watch Sport review: Where software steals the show

Today has been a long time coming. Android Wear 2.0 was originally announced last May, groomed for launch last fall and then delayed until, well, now. Since that first announcement was made at Google I/O last year, we’ve seen plenty of new Android Wear watches hit store shelves, but it was hard to get worked up over version 1.whatever when something better, faster and more functional was oh so close. Now the wait is over.

As rumored, Google and LG have teamed up on a pair of smartwatches to usher in a new Android Wear 2.0 era. You can find our review of the more basic LG Watch Style here, but with its bigger battery, larger screen and extra niceties, the $349 LG Watch Sport now seems like the Android Wear smartwatch to beat.

Hardware

When I think of sporty smartwatches, I think of bright colors, chunky bodies and outdoorsy looks. The LG Watch Sport, the company’s first crack at a fitness-friendly wearable, avoids most of those design tropes. There’s nothing particularly rugged about its clean lines and stainless steel, though the watch is nonetheless IP68 water- and-dust resistant. (I’ve been wearing it in the shower for nearly a week; no disasters so far.) In fact, I’d go as far as to say the Sport would look as good nestled under a suit sleeve as it would on the trails. The two available finishes — gray and dark blue — are similarly subdued. When taken in tandem, these design elements make for a smartwatch that’s handsome — in an inoffensive, dull sort of way.

There’s no getting around it, though: The Watch Sport is one chunky wrist computer. The problem doesn’t lie in the screen, a perfectly adequate 1.38-inch round P-OLED panel running at 480 x 480. No, the issue lies mostly with the body. At 14.2mm thick, the Watch Sport is one of the thicker Android Wear pieces out there — only slightly thinner than overtly rugged devices like Casio’s smartwatches and the Nixon Mission.

It doesn’t help that the polyurethane bands are wide and nonremovable. Google says some of the watch’s sensors extend into the band, which explains why those straps aren’t going anywhere. They’re comfortable enough (even though the plastic bit that holds the tail end of the strap in place moves around a lot), but they angle away from the watch’s body in a way that could be uncomfortable for big-wristed people.

You might expect the standard-bearer of a dramatically upgraded operating system to pack some impressive, fresh-off-the-line components. Well, not quite. On one hand, there’s a fairly common 1.1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset inside the Sport, paired with 4GB of storage. On the other hand, you get a whopping 768MB of memory. That chip has definitely been around, but we’re looking at the most RAM ever in an Android Wear watch — definitely handy for keeping everything running smoothly.

Then comes the laundry list of radios and sensors seen in other high-end smartwatches. In addition to Bluetooth and WiFi, there’s GPS, a heart-rate sensor, an LTE radio and nano-SIM slot, NFC for Android Pay transactions, an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and ambient light sensor. Phew. No wonder this thing feels so chunky.

New to the Android Wear formula is a rotating crown button, similar to what you’ll find on Apple Watches. The comparison to Apple is impossible to avoid, but I actually prefer LG’s approach; there’s just the right amount of friction as you turn the crown, and it juts further out of the watch’s body so that it’s easier to spin with two fingers.

I’m still convinced the spinning bezel from Samsung’s Gear S3 Frontier is the most elegant interface you’ll find on a smartwatch, but the combination of a big, touchable screen here and a rotating crown for more-precise control gets pretty close. Having two interface mechanisms that essentially do the same thing can get tricky, though, as I’ll explain in a moment. Anyway, the crown is flanked by two quick-launch buttons that fire up Google Fit and Android Pay by default. I’m still not sold on the look, but unless you’re really into thin watches, the Watch Sport packs more bang for your buck.

Android Wear 2.0

Love the design or hate it, the LG Sport is ultimately a vessel for a new version of Android Wear. If I were writing this six months ago, that would’ve meant a wearable with a smattering of new features that, while pretty nifty, didn’t do much to move the platform forward. Not anymore. During the week I’ve been testing the Watch Sport, there’s one thought I’ve kept coming back to: Android Wear is all grown up. More importantly, performance is mostly smooth now. Obviously, the robust hardware helps keep things running nicely, but Android Wear has never felt this fast or flexible, even on watches with basically the same components.

Take the apps situation, for instance. Developers have achieved some impressive feats on our wrist-screens, and now it’s easier to download and manage apps on the watch independently from a phone. The update packs the ability to download certain apps directly to Wear 2.0 watches over a WiFi or LTE connection. It’s quick and works well, and now there are plenty of apps that work well right on the wrist.

These past few days, Foursquare has made for a surprisingly able wrist app on day trips to New York City. The app Bring added a handy shopping list I could tap when I remembered to grab the eggs. More crucial to me is that we can now add complications from third-party apps to watch faces. It’s been a lifesaver. Consider the weather: Right out of the box, there isn’t a way to add a “current temperature” complication to the Sport’s six preloaded watch faces. Sure, there’s a standalone weather app, but who has the time to open the app launcher and scroll down to the Ws? With the 2.0 update in place, downloading the Weather Channel’s complications onto the watch (but not the phone) is dead simple.

The Watch Sport is also one of the first wearables to come with Google’s Assistant baked in, and most of the time it was an impressive performer. I spent most of the past week asking it to text my friends and answer mundane, random questions I couldn’t be bothered to grab a phone for. Think “how many cups in a quart?” or “how old is Vladimir Putin?” Alas, though, my home isn’t terribly smart, so I couldn’t test how the Watch Sport does at managing lights and firing up connected coffee makers.

In any case, my only real disappointment is how long it sometimes takes for the assistant to respond to my questions. The longest delay I’ve ever seen was 10 to 15 seconds when connected to a phone via Bluetooth; it was typically faster at returning results over WiFi or LTE.

Then there are the little things. The watch displays the time even while it’s booting up, so there’s never a moment — short of the watch being dead — when you can’t tell what time it is. Quick settings like screen brightness, volume, Do Not Disturb and Airplane Mode are all located in one menu when you swipe down from the home screen, unlike the multiple pages of options in older Android Wear versions. Notifications are color-coded based on the app, and the Google Inbox-style smart replies to messages have been mostly spot-on. As a whole, the Android Wear 2.0 package is impressively well-rounded.

My list of gripes is much shorter by comparison. While I think the new design is a big improvement, longtime Android Wear fans will need some time to get reacquainted. It’s mostly minor stuff, such as swiping to change watch faces instead of long-pressing. I also wish Google had applied some of these new interaction rules more consistently. Most of the time you have to swipe from left to right on the screen to go back one level, but that doesn’t work from the app list. Instead, you’re supposed to hit the crown button.

Speaking of, the crown could use more consistency too. In some situations, you can either swipe on the screen or spin the crown to scroll up and down. In others, you’re forced to use one or the other. The only way to know is to keep an eye on what kind of indicators appear on-screen; if you get a scroll bar that hugs the screen’s round edge, you can swipe or spin. For scrolling through things like watch-face complications, though, your only choice is to swipe. Why? I have no idea. To its credit, Google has taken note of the issue and has said it will address this in a future update, but it’s unclear when.

In use

I might not love the Watch Sport’s exterior design, but LG has otherwise nailed the basics. The display is crisp and decently bright even under harsh sunlight, though the always-on display mode is easily overpowered by bright days. Day-to-day performance, as I’ve noted, is generally excellent. Even the new fitness functionality, which can track indoor workouts such as using the elliptical and doing squats, is more precise than I expected.

It’s a bummer that the automatic activity recognition doesn’t work the way Google originally said it would. Early on, the plan was for Android Wear to interpret certain movements as exercise so you’d get the caloric credit for a workout without having to touch the watch. That didn’t pan out, as a Google spokesperson explained to Engadget: “After internally testing the auto-start feature as originally envisioned, we concluded that it wasn’t the best user experience for many situations (e.g., when you’re running to catch the bus).” Fair enough, since the feature still exists for strength training exercises, but here’s hoping Google figures it out later. In general, though, the new Android Wear is mostly excellent and runs like a charm on LG’s hardware.

Still, let’s not forget all the extras that the Sport brings to the wrist. I don’t know that talking into your wrist has become completely socially acceptable, but at least the Watch Sport doubles as a decent phone. It’s worth noting LG isn’t new to this; the second-edition Watch Urbane with LTE was the first Android Wear timepiece with a built-in mobile radio for data and calls. And now the Sport’s improved software makes it much easier to use. Sure, you can launch the Phone app and scroll through all of your contacts, but asking Google’s Assistant to connect me to someone usually seemed more accurate than relying on the voice commands of old. Audio quality is nothing to write home about, though. Max volume isn’t all that loud, but I could still hear most conversations pretty clearly on bustling New York streets.

Using the GPS can take a while if you’re using the watch as a standalone device, but performance improves quickly when the Sport is connected to your phone. Once that’s finished, you can load an app such as Google Maps — which isn’t installed on the watch by default, strangely — to get to your next destination. Getting Android Pay set up before the watch’s official launch was sort of a pain, but once that initial setup was complete, I had no problem using the Sport to make some purchases at my local drug store.

All of these extras require a powerful battery, though, and the 430mAh cell in the Sport doesn’t seem like enough. Yes, that’s a bigger battery than we usually see in Android Wear watches, but this updated software seems to be pushing the hardware much more than before. With an active Bluetooth connection to a phone, auto brightness and the always-on display enabled, the Watch Sport usually stuck around for about 13 hours before dying.

While that’s technically enough juice to get me through a full day of work, I always had to make a beeline for a power outlet once I got home. If you really want to see the battery meter plummet, use an LTE connection to download some apps or load up the watch face that updates its background image based on your location. I think a bigger battery would do more for the watch’s user experience than a persistent network connection, but it’s ultimately a matter of preference.

The competition

Not everyone needs every bell and whistle the LG Watch Sport offers, which is why the more basic LG Watch Style exists. It will launch alongside the Sport as one of the first Android Wear 2.0 watches on the market, which means the Style packs all of Google’s helpful tweaks and a similar rotating crown button for precise control over apps and notifications. The Style also uses the same Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset as the Sport (albeit with less RAM), and the performance there feels similarly smooth. It costs $100 less than the Sport too, though you’ll lose the LTE, NFC, GPS and heart rate sensor along the way. My colleague Cherlynn isn’t a fan, but it’s worth a look at least.

Then you have options like Samsung’s Gear S3 Frontier, which features many of the same Watch Sport tricks in a slimmer body. I dig the Frontier’s rugged look, but I appreciate its spinning bezel even more. In addition to being fun to use, the bezel also has distinct notches that click into place, making the act of scrolling through notifications and menus feel more satisfying. It costs $349 like the Watch Sport, but choosing the Frontier means you’re working with Tizen and its limited selection of useful apps.

If you’re looking for a smartwatch for your iPhone, meanwhile, the Watch Sport technically does the job. Still, we’ve experienced a handful of issues with getting standalone apps and notifications to work properly, to the point where we almost don’t recommend trying. It’s possible this is a symptom of non-final software (we’ve asked Google for comment), but don’t expect the Watch Sport to be much more than a second-class citizen as far as your iPhone is concerned. You’re better off with an Apple Watch, in that case.

One final note: If you’re in the market for a smartwatch, do yourself a favor and ignore every Android Wear 1.0 wearable out there. Their time has come and gone. Even if the LG Watch Sport falls short of perfection, it’s just one of many options that will soon be available, and the software improvements are notable enough that there’s no reason to look back.

Wrap-up

It’s rare that I find myself enjoying a device’s software more than its hardware, but here I am. Don’t get me wrong, not much about the Watch Sport as a package of parts is definitively bad. If you don’t mind the lackluster battery and thick body, it’s a perfectly fast, perfectly adequate smartwatch. It’s just that Android Wear 2.0 — even with its flaws — is such a marked improvement over earlier versions that it can’t help but steal the show.

While I don’t agree with every one of LG’s design choices, the Watch Sport’s greatest strength is how easily its technological trappings fade into the background, giving Google’s software the power and space to fully shine. In that way, the Watch Sport feels almost Nexus-like in its ambitions and execution. Ultimately, LG has put together a decidedly decent smartwatch, but I can’t wait to see where Android Wear 2.0 pops up next.

Android Wear 2.0 was worth the long wait

When Google introduced Android Wear back in 2014, the smartwatch industry was young. The only players worth noting were Pebble, Samsung (with its Tizen-based offerings) and a few other niche options (like Sony’s proprietary Smartwatch OS). Google, however, aimed to kick the door wide open with the same approach it had taken with phones: Instead of making both the watch and the software, it would court different hardware manufacturers, cultivating a diverse set of designs along with a robust third-party app ecosystem.

Three years later, the bet seems to have paid off. Although it’s had to fight off tough competition from the Apple Watch, Android Wear has survived and, according to Google, thrived. “If you compare the holiday season of 2016 with the holiday season the year before, we saw more than 70 percent growth,” says Android Wear VP David Singleton (Not that that’s necessarily saying much). And so with all of that success, comes time for the second iteration of Google’s wearable OS, Android Wear 2.0. It’ll be available first on the newly announced LG Watch Style and Watch Sport on February 10th, and will roll out to compatible existing hardware in the coming weeks.

This update, according to Singleton, is the platform’s biggest one since the birth of Android Wear three years ago. “With 2.0, we really looked hard at what people are using their watches for,” he said. “We saw that usage was really focused around watch faces, messaging and fitness. So we really optimized 2.0 for those things.” But Google improved a lot of other aspects of Wear as well, including the user interface, navigation and notifications.

First, let’s talk about watch faces. As with the previous iteration of Android Wear, you can swap in whatever face you like, either by selecting it on the companion Android Wear phone app or by adding it directly on the watch. But with Wear 1.0, there was often a tradeoff: You could either choose the stylish but barren design, or the complex but informative one.

With Wear 2.0, however, you can have the best of both worlds. That’s because any watch face, as long as it supports complications, can now be customized with data from any app. Swapping out the complications is as easy as long-pressing them and then picking its replacement, which can be anything from calories burned to an app shortcut.

As with Wear 1.0, tapping on each complication brings up the related information card. So for example, tapping the calendar launches the agenda for the day, while the step counter shows how much progress you’ve made towards your 10,000-step goal.

And say you want different complications for different times of day — you want the Nest function when you’re at home, but not in the office, for example — you can customize different watch faces for different use cases. Switching watch faces is as easy as swiping left or right on the active watch screen, so you can simply change from one to another depending on where you are.

Indeed, the Android Wear team took care to make navigation a priority with the 2.0 update. “We really condensed and simplified things,” said Jeff Chang, an Android Wear product manager. “We measured the number of taps and swipes between things, to get that down as few as possible.” So for example, oft-accessed settings are now combined into one display. Swipe down from the active screen and you’ll see toggles for airplane mode, Do Not Disturb and as a settings shortcut.

One press of the side button launches the app menu, and navigating through the list can be done either via a rotating crown (if your watch has one) or the touch screen. If you’d rather not scroll through your lengthy list of apps, you can also long-press a favorite to pin it to the top. The menu will list recently accessed apps first, followed by favorites and then the rest by alphabetical order.

Notifications have changed drastically as well. Instead of glaring white cards that take up the bottom half of the screen, there are now subtler notification icons. Also, the notifications themselves are now color-coded and contextual. So Gmail notifications have a red background, for example, while Hangouts are green. They only appear when you bring the watch up to your eyeline; a few seconds later, the watch face resurfaces again. If you like, you can access all of your recent notifications by swiping up on the main screen. The watch’s overall UI is also much darker. “It’s not only easier on the eyes, and it’s a lot easier on battery life as well,” Singleton says.

As for those incoming message notifications, replying is as easy as tapping; do it once and you’ll immediately be brought to the reply menu. (Though bear in mind this is the experience on Android; the feature is extremely limited on the iPhone.) In addition to using your voice or drawing an emoji, Wear 2.0 introduces a full-on touch keyboard as well. At first this sounds pretty ridiculous on such a small screen, but it’s surprisingly intuitive. You can either swipe through words like you can on Swype or Swiftkey, or you can use handwriting recognition. Either way, I found that the word detection to be surprisingly accurate, with only a few occasional errors.

Another way to reply to messages is through Smart Reply, which is powered by Google’s machine learning. You’ll see a list of what it thinks your reply will be depending on the context of the message. Much like the feature of the same name in Inbox, Smart Reply should be able to offer smarter and better responses over time as it learns more about you.

Speaking of machine learning, Android Wear 2.0 also finally brings Google’s Assistant to the watch. Say “OK Google” or long-press the power button, and you can ask all sorts of queries, like “How did the Warriors do against the Cavaliers?” or “How many tablespoons are there in a cup?” or “Is it going to rain today?” It can also be easily integrated with third-party connected devices like the Nest thermostat or Philips Hue lights, or services like Uber and OpenTable.

Now onto fitness. Android Wear 2.0 has Google’s preinstalled Fit app just as before, but the experience is much more improved. You can see your calories, pace, distance as you sweat it out, and if your watch has a heart rate sensor, you’ll see your beats per minute too. It’ also keeps track of how much you’ve been walking and cycling throughout the week, and offers gentle reminders to get going towards your goal if you haven’t met your mark. Plus, it will congratulate you when you succeed.

The new Google Fit is also a lot better-suited to indoor workouts as well. Simply say you’re on a treadmill or a stationary bike, and it’ll track your workout accordingly. Another great feature for strength-training fans is that it can also now count reps when you’re weight lifting and coach you through push-ups and sit-ups. “The watch actually recognizes that you’re doing it,” Singleton says. “So there’s no cheating.”

There’s also a special treat if your Android watch has LTE. With Wear 2.0, you’ll finally be able to stream music to the watch, without having to download the songs first. The default option would be with Google Play Music, but Spotify should be compatible soon as well. You’ll probably want to use Bluetooth headphones to listen to your tunes, unless you want to blast your playlist to the world around you as you’re running.

Oh, and say you’d really like a refreshing drink after you’re done with that run. Well, if you happen to be close to an establishment that accepts Android Pay, you’re in luck. That’s because Android Pay is finally coming to Wear 2.0. So if your watch happens to support NFC, you can just tap it to the reader to pay for that bottle of water.

Last but certainly not least, Wear 2.0 has a completely reimagined App store model. Before, the only way to load apps onto the watch was via a companion app. Not anymore. Now you can browse the Play Store right on the watch and even download certain apps directly, without the need for a corresponding phone app. This is especially useful if you have an iPhone — you’ll finally be able to download and use third-party apps regardless of what phone you have. Of course, not all apps can be operated as standalone — some will still require an Android phone for full functionality. But if you are an iPhone user, you won’t see them in the Play Store anyway; only compatible apps will show up on the watch.

On the whole, Android Wear 2.0 is a welcome improvement. It doesn’t just look better; it’s also much easier to use than before. What used to take several taps and swipes now just take one or two. The new messaging and fitness features are welcome as well. But it’s the introduction of Google Assistant and the standalone App Store that takes Wear 2.0 from good to great. Not only does it make Android Wear much less dependent on the phone, it’s also now that much more compatible with iOS — making it the toughest contender against the Apple Watch yet.

HBO Now racks up 2 million subscribers

HBO Now’s growth isn’t about to slow down any time soon, it seems. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes reports that the internet-only video service now has over 2 million customers — not bad when it hadn’t even reached 1 million a year ago. And a good chunk of that may have come recently, as the company’s financial chief noted that there was a “nice uptick” in over-the-top (read: online) subscriber growth as of late.

It’s not certain what prompted the rise in demand, although there are a few likely factors at work. Increased accessibility no doubt helps, as you’re more likely to spend that $15 per month if you know you can watch HBO on your PlayStation or Xbox. Gradually increasing internet speeds make streaming a more realistic option. And of course, good programming is key — the one-two combo of Game of Thrones and Westworld no doubt helped persuade some viewers.

As for extending the streak? Time Warner says it’s planning to add more digital distribution allies to reach people who wouldn’t normally see its marketing (think cord cutters and others who don’t watch much conventional TV). There’s no telling that this will be enough, but it’s clear that the focus is shifting away from the novelty of internet-only HBO and more on its merits.

Source: Variety

Six Flags and Samsung unveil ‘mixed reality’ rollercoaster

To many of us, roller coasters are just fine without extra visual stimulation. However, last year, several amusement parks introduced virtual reality devices, letting you fly through space or a gargoyle-infested dystopia. Six Flags and Samsung have done that one better now with the New Revolution Galactic Attack mixed reality experience. As before, Six Flags is using Samsung’s Gear VR headset, but now it’s using the passthrough camera on the Galaxy phones, letting you see the virtual content overlaid on the real world.

Samsung says the Six Flags experience “enables millions of consumers to experience virtual reality for the first time.” However, the passthrough camera on the Gear VR won’t deliver mixed reality that’s as good as something like Microsoft’s Hololens, which overlays virtual content onto the real world, not a camera view. However, it’ll at least give folks a view of the outside rather than locking them in a digital box.

On top of the virtual imagery, there’s a level of gamification. “As riders drop at high speeds, the mixed reality view changes to a completely immersive, virtual reality environment and a fighter spaceship cockpit materializes and envelops the riders into a tunnel of light,” the PR breathlessly explains. From there, you’ll be brought into one of three (virtual) drone bays, “each of which offer a completely different gaming experience and three different endings,” Six Flags explains.

As before, the VR is synchronized to the ride movements, so that you don’t experience any not-so-virtual puking. The featured ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA is the New Revolution, the first-ever looping roller coaster built in 1976. While not the park’s most diabolic ride, the LA Times advises riders to keep their heads back “or you’ll get your ears boxed.” At the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA, the New Revolution Galactic Attack will be available on floorless looping Kong coaster.

Source: Six Flags

Airbnb’s rehabilitation tour doesn’t end with a Super Bowl ad

Airbnb’s rehabilitation tour came to a dramatic climax on the evening of February 5th, 2017. In between downs of the 51st Super Bowl, as dozens of beefy men slammed their bodies together to the cheers of millions, Airbnb aired an advertisement presenting itself as a compassionate, socially conscious company.

“#WeAccept,” Airbnb declared over a slideshow of stoic faces, most of them people of color. Light piano music accompanied the white text, which read, “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.”

In the midst of furious public debate over President Donald Trump’s potentially unconstitutional travel ban targeting people from seven Muslim-majority countries, the Airbnb ad sent a pointed message. And it didn’t end with the slideshow: The company simultaneously shared a commitment to provide short-term housing over the next five years for 100,000 refugees, survivors of disaster, relief workers and other displaced people. It also pledged $4 million over the next four years to the International Rescue Committee. The Airbnb Twitter account has extended the life of the ad, continuing to share the #WeAccept tag alongside messages of inclusion in the days after the Super Bowl.

Add to that the story behind the video — three days before the Super Bowl, executives heard there was still open ad space and they rushed to craft this message — and for millions of football fans, Airbnb suddenly became a bastion of diversity, inclusion and social justice.

In reality, Airbnb has been working to build this reputation since early 2016.

The ad itself uses footage from a campaign that Airbnb launched last year to fight accusations of discrimination, racism and unfair housing practices that were hounding the company. By late 2015, stories of people being denied rentals because of their skin color were picking up traction online. A Harvard study found that housing requests from people with distinctly “African-American-sounding” names were 16 percent less likely to be accepted than guests with white-sounding names. Throughout 2016, users aired their grievances and personal experiences of discrimination on social media with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. One user sued the company, accusing it of violating the Civil Rights act.

Airbnb needed some serious reputation rehab.

By September 2016, Airbnb had announced plans to implement anti-discrimination policies that would apply to all users. CEO Brian Chesky and other executives made it clear that they would take a stand against racism and discrimination on Airbnb, vowing to fight these forces with every tool at their disposal.

The incident in NC was disturbing and unacceptable. Racism and discrimination have no place on Airbnb. We have permanently banned this host.

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) June 1, 2016

This included the HR department. In a sweeping report on its anti-discrimination efforts, Airbnb revealed that in September 2016, just under 10 percent of its US-based employees came from “underrepresented populations” (6.5 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2.9 percent Black or African American, 0.4 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 0.2 percent American Indian or Alaska Native) and 43 percent of its workforce was female. In technical roles, only 5 percent of employees were from these underrepresented groups. Note that nationally, 51 percent of the US population is female and 62 percent is non-Hispanic white.

Airbnb pledged to raise its overall number of employees from underrepresented minority groups to 11 percent by the end of 2017.

Eleven percent. For the US technology industry, this is a practical goal — companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter have famously struggled to diversify their workforces, even amid increased scrutiny on hiring practices in Silicon Valley.

It isn’t Airbnb’s fault that some racist people use the home-rental service — but it is its problem. And, it isn’t a problem that can be solved with an ad campaign, no matter how politicized or well-placed it is. Airbnb is clearly, publicly taking steps to combat discrimination on its platform, but birthing a hashtag doesn’t give the company a free pass in 2017.

Airbnb’s story demonstrates that public outcry can indeed change the tech industry’s policies and its approach to diversity. In a year, Airbnb proved it’s possible to shift a company’s reputation from “racist” to “inclusive.” However, reputation is one thing and reality is another.

It is Airbnb’s fault that its workforce is unevenly white and male, just like many of its Silicon Valley brethren. Ultimately, Airbnb will be judged on its policies, its response to claims of discrimination and its own hiring practices. In 2017 and beyond, Airbnb still has to prove that it is truly committed to fostering equality — not just hashtags.

Pinterest uses AI and your camera to recommend pins

Last year, Pinterest introduced the possibility of shopping for things just by taking a photo of it. Today, the company is ready to announce that feature to the world. It’s called Lens, and as you might expect, it uses your phone’s camera. Tap the camera icon in the Pinterest app, snap a photo of something you dig — say, your friend’s cool mid-century dining table — and it’ll be smart enough to churn out a list of pins with similar-looking tables.

But the idea of Lens doesn’t stop at shopping. For example, that picture of a table could list to a bunch of room decor ideas. Or you can take a photo of a pomegranate, for example, and it’ll spit out recipes that uses pomegranate as a main ingredient. A picture of a sweater could lead to different styles of it and how to wear it. Basically think of Lens as a way to search for something when you just don’t have the words to describe what it is you’re looking at.

Of course, the technology is imperfect. Not all of us take crystal clear photos on our phones, and blurry and awkward shots will probably churn out the wrong results. That’s why Pinterest says Lens is still in beta, and is considered somewhat experimental technology.

Pinterest launched a couple of other visual discovery features today as well. One is called Shop The Look, which uses object recognition to automatically detect and search for items in a photo. So a picture of a living room might prompt Pinterest to bring up a list of Buyable pins for the couch, the lamp, the table and the rug. The pins won’t be for that brand of furniture specifically of course, but just items that look very similar.

Pinterest says that Shop The Look will also give you styling and decor ideas too. So far, the company has partnered with folks like Curalate, Olapic, Project September, Refinery 29 and ShopStyle to curate the looks. Brands and retailers that are on board include CB2, Macy’s, Target, Neiman Marcus and Wayfair.

Last but not least, Pinterest also rolled out Instant Ideas, which is represented by a tiny circle at the bottom right of a pin. Tap it and you’ll see a list of related ideas. The more you tap the pins you’re interested in, the more customized your recommendations will be over time.

All of these features is live on Android and iOS starting today. It’s available in the US for now, with more countries to be announced at a later date.

Source: Pinterest

‘Brilliant’ Aims to Replace Your Home’s Light Switches With Touchscreens

Brilliant today introduced the Brilliant Control, designed to replace an existing light switch and provide homeowners with a range of smart home controls.

Brilliant Control has a 5-inch touchscreen with swipe-based lighting, music, and climate controls, and homeowners can interact directly with other smart home devices, such as the Nest thermostat, Sonos speakers, Philips Hue lights, Ring doorbells, and the Honeywell Lyric. It also works with IFTTT and SmartThings and Wink hubs.

In addition to touch capabilities, the Brilliant Control has both a built-in microphone and speaker for native voice control and Amazon Alexa services. The idea is that users can control their smart homes without taking out their smartphone, which Brilliant co-founder Aaron Emigh described as “clumsy.”

“While renovating my house, it was important to me that anyone in any room could adjust lighting, music, and climate control as easily as flipping a light switch,” said Emigh. “Requiring a mobile phone and apps to adjust your environment is clumsy, and for guests or children, it’s impossible.”

Nevertheless, Brilliant said it will offer a free companion app for iOS and Android.

The control features an LCD display with 720×1,280 resolution, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to interact with other smart home devices, a video camera with a physical cover for added security, motion detection, and compatibility with existing security systems. No mention of HomeKit support—likely not—but we’ve reached out to confirm.

Brilliant Controls cost $199 each and are available for pre-order beginning today. The first 1,000 customers will receive an early-bird price of $149. Two, three, and four switch models are also available for $249, $299, and $349 respectively. Shipping is expected to begin in late summer 2017.

Alternatively: Best Buy has the iPad mini 2 on sale for $215. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy.
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Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 23 With Bug Fixes and Feature Improvements

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 23 includes fixes and improvements for Gamepads, Pointer Lock, Media, Accessibility, and Web Inspector.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Tag: Safari Technology Preview
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Lenovo Chromebook N22 review

Chromebooks have been rising in popularity for quite a while now. They come in many different form factors and specs, but can all achieve essentially the same thing. Running Chrome OS, these notebooks can surf the web, use Chrome applications, and use Google apps in the specialized dock to do many of the things you would be able to do on a Windows or macOS notebook. Because of this, Chromebooks have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years, which is why they’ve made their way into the education sector, something that the Chromebook N22 was designed for in particular.

Read: Chromebooks vs other laptops – which should you get?

This is the Lenovo Chromebook N22 review.

Body

The Lenovo Chromebook N22 is made of a thin black plastic material, and weighing just 2.7 lbs, can be thrown in a backpack without having to worry about ruining your back. It uses a clam-shell form factor which houses the keyboard and screen, which is relatively recessed into the top half of the notebook. One thing to note – this is not the thinnest computer in the world. It is  bulky for a reason, likely due to the fact that it was made for younger students in education, who are not particularly careful with their hardware.

The Lenovo Chromebook N22 has a webcam built into the top of the device which can rotate 180 degrees. This allows users to show those they are chatting with what the world is like around them, though the video quality is not exactly great. It uses a 720p sensor, so one would likely be better off using their phone camera if they want to show things off, but it can still be helpful in a pinch, especially for younger students who may not have a smartphone of their own.

The body comes in at a footprint of 11.83″ x 8.35″ x 0.86″, so while it is relatively small in overall form-factor, it is a bit thick. For what it’s worth though, the size is made less important by mere sturdiness and lightness, so as long as you’ve got enough room in your bag, it shouldn’t be a worry to haul around. There is also a handle built right into the top of the device, which is really nifty, and should be useful for school kids moving it from class to class. Was in necessary? Probably not. Is it cool? Heck yes.

Keyboard

I have to admit I am extremely pleased with the keyboard on this device. There is a decent amount of travel on each key, and the ‘snap-back’ feeling is very welcoming to the fingertips. This keyboard is anything but quiet, however, so if you’re someone that needs something that doesn’t wake the dogs at nigh, this might not be for you. If you love the sound and feeling of a loud snappy keyboard however, this thing delivers.

If you’re a heavy typist, the keyboard will express a decent amount of flex, but if that doesn’t bother you, it should do just fine. Each key is pretty tall and separated, so it is pretty easy to feel what you are typing, and your fingers should not get too tangled. This would be a great keyboard to help students learn typing on however, which again is what this laptop is really designed for.

I/O

The Lenovo Chromebook N22 comes with (2) USB 3.o ports which each offer data and charging. There is a 2-in-1 card reader present so you can transfer photos to your Google account and edit them with online tools, and HDMI port for video out, and a combo 1/8″ stereo headphone output port.

We’re actually quite impressed with this selection of I/O present on the device, as it allows for file transfer, traditional image input, video output, and a simplified audio jack. This is essentially everything one would need for daily work and school, so as long as you’re not someone who needs more than 2 USB ports, this should suit you just fine.

There is Bluetooth 4.1 built into the device, so you can use things like exterior speakers and headsets, as well as a mouse. Since it uses 2 x 2 Intel WiFi a/c, you’ll have a decent connection wherever you are, but don’t expect the absolute fastest speeds.

Screen

The screen in the Lenovo Chromebook N22 is an 11.6″ TN panel with touch compatibility. It looks pretty great especially for the resolution (1366 x 768), but it’s touchscreen abilities is pretty lacking. The sensitivity of the touch is pretty low quality, and sometimes I felt like I was pressing into the screen before it would actually register.

As mentioned before, the screen is slightly recessed into the body. This is likely to save it from drops or impact, but it does look a bit weird and makes the bezel more noticeable. Overall though, the quality is fine for the price, and gets plenty bright when you need to turn it up. It is also anti-glare, meaning you should be able to use it outside with no issues.

Battery

The battery life on the Lenovo Chromebook N22 is fantastic. Lenovo touts up to 14 hours, and I have to say I reached about 11 hours every  cycle. This was with watching videos and writing articles with multiple chrome tabs open however, so if you’re a lighter user you may get even more time out of this thing.

The device charges at a moderate speed, but it’s not going to shock you with how fast you can top it off. It uses a 45W charging bring from Lenovo which has a decently slim profile, so you should be able to carry it with you without issue.

Performance

Consistent performance was the biggest issue for me when using this device. The notebook uses an Intel Celeron processor at 3 slightly different tiers, which is not exactly the highest performing chip in the world. Obviously it does quite a number for battery life, but performance is limited, especially since the notebook only comes with 2-4GB of RAM. Chrome is not exactly the most well optimized browser in the world, as it can use a huge amount of RAM and CPU usage. This is a pretty big issue in a lot of these notebooks, but especially using a processor like this can cause quite a bit of lag and stuttering. The first time I logged into Chrome, the device froze and wouldn’t do anything. It wouldn’t even turn off, so I had to wait for it to die to restart it. Fortunately, I never had this issue again, though I did experience some stuttering when I had too many tabs open.

For those using the notebook just for internet tasks, this will probably serve you well. If you’re a writer like me or a power user however, this laptop is probably not going to cut it.

Read: What are the best budget laptops?

Wrap-up

The Lenovo Chromebook N22 is a pretty decent device at an amazing price. The highest end model with 4GB of ram and 16GB of storage comes in at just $179.99, or you can pick up the slightly lower end model for $149.00. If you just need something to browse the web that is light and portable, this is a fantastic choice. Though it is designed for early education, it could be a great addition to anyone who uses their phone for most things but would like something to use that has a big bigger screen and they can type on at a coffee shop or while they’re out.

NVIDIA Shield TV (2017) review – come for TV, stay for the gaming!

The word ‘Shield’ has become synonymous with gaming, thanks to the lineup of NVIDIA’s entertainment-forward portables, tablets, and TV boxes. A little over a year ago, NVIDIA brought not only Android to the small screen, but their own version of gaming Netflix to let the masses experience video games in a different way.

Now, with a slimmed down design and a few upgrades both, under the hood and in the cloud, NVIDIA is looking to make the TV the companion home for Google and gaming to come together. Does it succeed? Here’s our review of the NVIDIA Shield TV (2017).

One thing I should mention before we continue – none of the televisions that I used while testing this new Shield TV are 4k capable nor can they leverage the HDR gaming that NVIDIA made such a big deal about. While I am sure that the 4K HDR features make this gaming box future proof for any users that may get a capable television sometime soon, I cannot share any opinions on one of the few features that truly sets this Shield apart from its earlier incarnations.

NVIDIA has taken a few steps to make the new Shield TV pack even more power in a smaller package. Though it retains a similar aesthetic to the original, the base model Shield TV has a smaller footprint that can also be stood up with an optional official accessory. The Shield TV Pro has a larger overall design that accommodates a built-in 500GB hard drive and a microSD card slot, both of which are absent in our regular unit.

The rear of the Shield TV sports all of the ports for connectivity – this includes an Ethernet port for wired internet access, an HDMI port, and two USB ports for charging devices like the Shield Controller and for connecting external drives. For that matter, external drives prove to be a necessity for this box because it only comes with 16GB of onboard storage with only 11 available to the user. Connected drives can be used as removable storage or can be formatted as actual device space for apps and app data. USB 3.0 drives are the bare minimum for reliability – in my case, a USB 3.0 SSD made even more sense and my Sandisk added over 200+ GB of storage that I have happily populated with games.

Users of the previous NVIDIA Shield TV will find the included remote control to be familiar, with the four way navigation circle closing around the selection button up top, the back and home buttons underneath, and a large microphone button that triggers voice search, upgraded in this new model to the full-on Google Assistant. What we thought was quite slick was the touch sensitive area that lines the bottom half, where users can slide finger up and down in order to increase or decrease the volume.

That volume slider is now found on the updated Shield Controller, which also comes in the package. Compared to the previous model, the Shield Controller is significantly smaller and falls in line with the NVIDIA design language utilizing angular shapes and lines. It is similar in layout to a Playstation 4 controller but uses the A/B/X/Y face button layout that is common for XBox or Windows games. The NVIDIA button in the middle still triggers Google Assistant, while underneath it are dedicated buttons for home, back, and a centered start button mainly used in games. The aforementioned volume slider replaces the touchpad that was used in the previous Shield Controller for moving a virtual mouse around various interfaces.

All parts of the Shield TV design delightfully scream ‘NVIDIA’ and will look exactly how gamers expect – the green trim on the controllers and the green light on the box itself are eye-catching without looking gaudy, making them worthy additions to anyone’s existing television setup.

Once the Shield TV is hooked up, you’re good to go. Holding down on the home button brings up the controls where one can take a screenshot, record a gaming segment with or without the microphone turned on (either the mic on the controller or on a pair of plugged in headphones), or even broadcast live to places like Twitch or YouTube Live.

There are virtually no places that are off limits for the recording, meaning that the homescreens and even the settings areas can be captured or streamed. It should be mentioned, however, that the voice recording stops when playing any Geforce Now streams. The quality of the video is quite good, recording Full HD footage that can be edited and uploaded to YouTube – the audio capture, however, is serviceable but far from the best sounding voice recording for this kind of application.

That adds to the crux of the NVIDIA Shield’s focus, which has always been an emphasis on gaming. Back when the original NVIDIA Shield TV was released, NVIDIA Grid was the company’s own gaming solution that was touted as the ‘Netflix of gaming.’ This meant that games could be streamed from NVIDIA’s own servers straight to your Shield device – a solution that was different but potentially added to any existing setups gamers had streaming their own games from NVIDIA GPU powered rigs. Well, Grid is now essentially known as Geforce Now, and marries the subscription model with the current method of video game purchases.

For $8 a month, gamers can instantly stream games from NVIDIA’s own servers with varying degrees of quality and latency depending mostly on the internet connection. What is impressive is the library of games included with the subscription – games range from early titles to more recent AAA franchises, like Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs to Batman: Arkham Origins. New games can be purchased for their full price but are only played via the Geforce Now streaming service – the most recent AAA title made available at the time of this review was No Man’s Sky. Not all PC games are made available through this service, but there is a good breadth of products for even seasoned gamers to enjoy – if they haven’t already bought their own copies on Steam or otherwise. That is the main issue I understand many gamers might have – why would they pay an extra full price on top of a subscription service for games they are already have? Personally, I didn’t suffer from this issue because I haven’t gotten around to many of the titles that are included with the Geforce Now subscription – basically, your gaming mileage may vary.

Playing games via Geforce Now, however, is about as easy as can be. Very little data storage is taken up on the device because the game is being streamed – the quality of the stream depends on one’s internet connection, and I have one main tip to get the most out of it: go Ethernet. Even fast routers may have problems getting the sheer amount of data needed for a good quality stream, as it did in my experience. Getting an Ethernet cable into the Shield made for an immensely better gaming experience that I could see myself using for full playthroughs without any issues. What surprised me the most was the input response time – you would think that inputs from the gamepad would take a noticeable amount of time to register on a streamed game, but when the connection is good, the game is virtually one-to-one to a local experience. Fighting as Batman or Wei Shen felt right – a feat that can be tough to recreate in a stream compared to local play.

While i did have a couple of drops in connection to NVIDIA’s USA servers, reconnecting simply required opening the game again and the stream was still available for me to pick up where I dropped out. You’re basically streaming a game from NVIDIA’s own computer – literally. Those drops were a little harrowing in Batman: Arkham Origins because the game kept playing while I was gone – this resulted in Batman losing a little life while I was stuck in the Android TV interface for a few seconds. Thankfully, these drops only happened those couple of times and haven’t been an issue since.

NVIDIA gaming is still about as good as ever, providing an actually reliable way for gamers to get their fix without needing a crazy rig or even the actual game in some cases. However, this is an Android TV box and, as such, much of the Google Play Store is at your disposal. Most games that are available for your smartphone can be converted to your larger television screen and with the Shield controller the gaming experience can be multitudes better. Games that have been adapted for Android TV also leverage the gamepad and this is far better than even the best touch controls. I focused mainly on RPG games with my Shield TV, installing and enjoying Final Fantasy 9 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I’ve made the point in the past – Android is a wonderful place to enjoy classic and retro games. So many past games have made the conversion to mobile that nostalgic players can enjoy them in an updated, current fashion and new gamers can see why we look back on titles like Jade Empire and Chrono Trigger so wistfully. And with the NVIDIA Shield TV, all of these games get a bit of new life in a format that is spiritually like a console. There is no shortage of power to play everything in the NVIDIA or Google library, as the powerful Tegra X1 and 3GB of RAM have been reliable and speedy throughout all experiences.

The Android iteration on the Shield TV isn’t without its holes – from the gaming standpoint, some games that have gotten plenty of play on my phones are still not adapted to the television. My main example is any 3D Grand Theft Auto game whereas Chinatown Wars is prominently shown in the NVIDIA Games hub. And even then, some games are available for installation but aren’t gamepad ready, so playing them is more of a nuisance than they really should be.

And from a purely entertainment standpoint, there’s little to fault Android TV for – so many of the expected video services make it here, from Plex to Netflix to Kodi to network applications like Comedy Central and ABC. There is no shortage of content available for one’s viewing pleasure. I was a bit miffed to find the listening experience quite lacking, in which applications like NPR Now and Pocket Casts didn’t seem to make the Android TV cut while Google Play Music is pre-installed; thankfully, the solution for this is to simply Cast the content to the Shield’s built-in Google Home capabilities.

So, the experience with the Shield TV is largely the same but definitely refined and updated for the current gamer or entertainment buff in all of us. NVIDIA made a big deal, however, of adding in a tool for even better utility – Google Assistant. Google Voice Search has always been a part of the Shield experience, but now it gets a facelift to look like the Assistant we’ve become used to since the dawning of the Pixel. Unfortunately, much of what I might end up using the Pixel Google Assistant for somehow doesn’t translate to the television experience.

One glaring difference is the lack of a ‘Daily Briefing’ voice trigger, which would give me the weather and then play one of many news podcasts on my smartphone. Instead, I get a number of YouTube search results regarding Donald Trump. The same lack of functionality shows even in the searches that trigger proper results – a search for actors or movie trivia only shows the same top splash screen that you’d get in a Google web search, without an accompanying voice dictation. For such a powerful Android box, the focus on entertainment and gaming seems to be a little bit too strong for NVIDIA to actually call it full-on Google Assistant – and I would use Google Assistant more if it was as capable on my television as it is on my smartphone.

All in all, the NVIDIA Shield TV is a ton of fun in a box, with a delightfully short list of caveats. NVIDIA continues to champion the gaming focus of their Shield products and it shows in their conversion of Android into a console experience. Built-in recording and streaming features help the more avid players tap into a now huge community of gamers sharing their playthroughs. Geforce Now is an effective but limited way to get a gaming fix and gamepad-ready games are a joy to play on a bigger screen and with the Shield controller, which is still the best one to use in the mobile space.

The actual Android iteration has a few growing pains that are at once mitigated by built-in Google Cast support but continuously frustrates due to some losses in translation. Google Assistant is great to have, on paper at least, but it has some ways to go if it is to compete with Amazon’s Alexa that is being injected in multiple products; in the new NVIDIA Shield TV, it simply doesn’t bring enough yet. Bolstering support for functions that Google Assistant relies upon is the first step, then Google Assistant can make those strides forward.

For everyone that is looking for a better way to play their Android games and to watch their streaming services, NVIDIA has continued to provide the best apparatus for doing just that. Anyone that still has the previous Shield TV may not find much to make them upgrade, but viewers and gamers who hesitated on pulling the trigger can do so now, with what we think will be great results. Come for the TV, stay for the gaming.

Buy the NVIDIA Shield TV now at Amazon