Coin to shutter app, signaling the end for its universal credit card

Why it matters to you

Coin users will no longer be able to make changes to their account after February, and when your card’s battery dies, it’s gone for good.

Last spring, wearable company Fitbit acquired universal credit-card maker Coin to bolster its mobile payment efforts with future products, like smartwatches. In July, Coin announced it had ceased manufacturing and selling inventory. On February 28, the company will terminate its mobile app and support services, meaning assistance will no longer be offered through Coin’s website or social media accounts.

Coin published a list of frequently asked questions on its blog alongside the news earlier this week. The post stresses that the devices themselves will continue to work until their batteries die, which the company says is two years after the activation date. However, alongside the support shutdown at the end of the month, the iOS and Android apps used to sync, add, and delete cards will also be taken down and stop functioning. If you want to keep using Coin, the company recommends you make whatever changes are necessary over the next few weeks.

More: Fitbit slashes 110 jobs, but new wearables are on the way

Not surprisingly, the announcement also invalidates the warranties of existing Coin devices out in the wild, and all customer information stored on the company’s services will be wiped after February 28. Data stored locally on the cards will remain. Users will still be able to contact the support team if they wish to delete their account in the future.

The news closes another chapter on one of the most memorable startup campaigns of the past several years. When Coin burst onto the scene in 2013, it broke its initial funding goal of $50,000 in just 40 minutes. After a rocky start of delayed shipments, the company began to find its legs, iterating upon the original product with Coin 2.0. The second release added an E-Ink display, NFC for tap-to-pay, and EMV chip for pin readers, making the device much easier to live with on a day-to-day basis.

Coin 2.0 only released about a year ago, and the startup was acquired by Fitbit in May, so customers unfortunately didn’t have much of an opportunity to experience the improved product. Still, Coin had the odds stacked against it. The device was compatible with many but not all merchants, meaning users still had to carry around conventional cards to mitigate the risk of being left penniless, and that somewhat defeated the purpose.

Also, it didn’t help that payment via smartphones was beginning to take off right around the same time. Why would people fork over cash for another device to consolidate their credit cards when they already had one in their pockets? Coin was becoming a harder and harder sell.

Now a part of Fitbit, the team responsible for creating Coin will be asked to channel everything they’ve learned in their brief history toward the wearable company’s newest products. Having also acquired smartwatch darling Pebble last November, Fitbit says it has something waiting in the wings to challenge the likes of the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear series later this year.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

PDF Pro 2

PDF Pro 2 lets you read, edit, and annotate your PDF documents directly on your iPhone and iPad. Highlight text, take notes, embed shapes, or draw with your finger. You can even embed voice recordings or photo annotations.

Available on:

iOS

Compress Video

Compress video to free the space on your device Now! It re-encodes videos filmed on your device to smaller file size while keeping the same video quality. Also, it can compress videos in batch.

Available on:

iOS

Fizzy Dating Tips

Are you single? Are you new to online dating? Have you been using online dating platforms, but without much luck? Do you want to improve your success rate in online dating? This app is for you.

Available on:

iOS

Paper Keyboard

Forget Bluetooth, use paper! Just print a PDF file on paper and use it as a keyboard. Put your phone where marked on the paper and see the magic happen: the phone’s camera detects your fingers with state of the art algorithms.

Available on:

iOS

Worry_Bead

Restful and relaxing, this app lets you flip, spin, or fiddle the beads in a manner that suits you. Use a two finger motion to set the bead size and get lost in the motion.

Available on:

iOS

Instant Collage

Instant Collage is simple, fun Combine and clip photos to create awesome collages to share with your family and friends by email, Facebook, and Instagram.

Available on:

iOS

S. Korea may require smartphone makers to report phone fires ‘immediately’

Why it matters to you

The South Korean government may change its rules regarding smartphone regulation, hoping to ensure exploding phones are a thing of the past.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 controversy was a major headache, to say the least, and the South Korean government is doing all it can to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. According to The Investor, new safety regulations will require smartphone makers to report immediately when their handsets explode or burst into flames.

“When the new rules come into effect, phone makers will […] have to immediately launch an investigation — right after the submission of the report — to provide if the fires or explosions were caused by flawed parts or external force,” an official from The Ministry of Trade, Industry Energy told The Investor on the condition of anonymity.

More: Everything we know about Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 recall

“In the latest Galaxy Note 7 incident, it took 10 days for Samsung to report the first case to the government. At the time, there were no timeframe requirements in notifying the authorities,” the official said.

The new rules are expected to be announced as soon as next week, alongside the publication of the results of a government-led investigation into the Note 7 series.

In early September, reports of exploding Note 7 devices emerged online. Samsung issued a worldwide recall in the weeks following, blaming the problem on a “battery cell issue” and pledging to conduct a “thorough inspection with […] suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market.”

The company subsequently began replacing customers’ units with replacements, but several of those, too, caught fire.

More: Galaxy Note 7 broke basic engineering rules, says damning new report

The controversy reached a fever pitch in late 2016, when the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) banned Note 7 devices from public transit and commercial flights in the U.S. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) followed suit, issuing a mandatory recall of all Note 7 devices.

To encourage Note 7 owners to return their devices, major carriers in the U.S. including Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T deployed an update that disabled the battery on the phone, rendering it useless. An update distributed via Canadian and Australian carriers limited the phone’s capacity to 60 percent.

All told, Samsung received 96 reports of batteries in Note 7 phones overheating in the U.S., including 23 new reports since the September recall.

More: Samsung issues global recall of Galaxy Note 7 due to exploding batteries

South Korea’s new regulations come on the heels of Samsung’s tell-all press conference in January. The company revealed that flawed battery cells in the first and second batch of Galaxy Note 7 units were to blame for explosions and fires in some phones.

DJ Koh, president of Samsung’s mobile communications business, told reporters that the company would institute preventative measures going forward, including an eight-point visual inspection process, added staff dedicated to overseeing each battery’s safe installation, and the publication of its intellectual property around battery safety and standards.

Microsoft kicks off its second Windows 10 Creators Update Bug Bash

Why it matters to you

Windows Insiders looking for more ways to help Microsoft improve Windows 10 can embark on a bug-bashing quest starting Friday.

If you’re a Windows Insider, you’re accustomed to grabbing the latest Windows 10 preview builds and checking out the newest features, such as the 3D, gaming, and other new functionality in the upcoming Creators Update. You might also provide feedback to Microsoft on how well things are working, meaning that you’re contributing directly to making Windows 10 a better OS.

Periodically, Microsoft has events called “Bug Bashes” that let you get even more involved with improving Windows 10. The first Creators Update Bug Bash was in November 2016, and today the company is kicking off the second round just a couple of months before the update is expected in April.

More: Microsoft schedules the second ‘Bug Bash’ for Windows 10 Creators Update

As usual, the Bug Bash provides Windows Insiders with ways to interact with Microsoft staff and other participants on identifying bugs and providing guided feedback on new Windows 10 features. This particular Bug Bash kicks off Friday, February 3, and will conclude on Sunday, February 11, at 11:50 p.m. PT.

For best results, you’ll want to be on the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, 10525, for both PCs and mobile devices. You’ll keep up with event activities in the Windows 10 Feedback Hub app, where you’ll learn about the various Quests that are available to pinpoint your bug bashing efforts. You’ll be able to earn Achievements by completing quests that will demonstrate your participation to others in the Windows Insider community.

Two types of Quests will be available. Update Quests will help identify any issues with updating from Windows 10 Anniversary Update to the Bug Bash build. Developer Quests are intended for developers and can require coding. Once the Bug Bash is completely, Microsoft developers will spending a few weeks sifting through the data that’s accumulated and working on fixes.

Microsoft will be hosting live Beam webcasts with Insiders and special guests from the Windows Insider program, with the first one already scheduled for Tuesday, February 7, from 2-4 p.m. PT. Windows Insider Chief Dona Sarkar will be on hand to discuss the Bug Bash. A second webcast will be held on Saturday, February 11, from 7-9 p.m. PT with a guest appearance by former Windows Insider chief Gabe Aul. Both webcasts will feature engineers from the Windows Engineering Team performing Quests themselves. You can access webcasts here.

As always, Microsoft remains serious about making Windows 10 the best OS ever — at least, it’s that important to the company’s strategy. Windows Insiders are key to its efforts, and these Bug Bashes are perhaps the best way for the most active Insiders to make an impact on the future of Windows 10.

Add some smarts to any old pair of glasses with Kai, now on Kickstarter

Why it matters to you

If Google Glass and Snap’s Spectacles just weren’t for you, customize your own pair of glasses into smart glasses with Kai.

Thanks to Kai, you can turn any old pair of glasses into smart spectacles, because even if you’re not a fan of Google Glass or Snap’s Spectacles, you should still be able to get your connected-gadget fix.

Kai itself isn’t a pair of smart glasses. Instead, it’s a clip-on accessory that lets you transform your facial wear into a tech wearable. Complete with a microphone and a whole host of features, you can use your voice to tell your glasses to call or text a friend, find your way to the nearest bar, or order a Lyft back home.

More: Snap’s new Spectacles wearable is so hot it’s melting — literally

The technology behind Kai comes from Houndify, the company that promises to help you “add a voice-enabled AI to anything.” Its ever-learning independent platform appears to be doing the trick for Kai, which has leveraged the software to help wearers stay abreast of the news and weather, their notifications, and notes and reminders.

“Kai is like a personal assistant sitting behind your ear 24/7,” the team notes in its Kickstarter campaign, “You simply ask Kai to do something for you with the ‘OK Hound’ wake word, and it listens.”

The real differentiating factor for Kai, however, is its design. Because the little device is little more than an addition to your existing pair of glasses, wearers are able to customize their hardware to their liking, and as often as they want. Kai, after all, doesn’t care what it’s clipped onto, so you can stay tech savvy even as trends change. Designed to be discreet and unobtrusive, Kai is always there, but you might forget about it.

With 38 days left to go in its Kickstarter campaign, Kai still has quite a ways to go before it hits its funding goal. But if you’re looking to help make a dent, you can grab one of these devices for yourself for the Super Early Bird price of $130.

HawkSpex gives phone cameras CSI-like capabilities to see what doesn’t belong

Why it matters to you

Smartphones could soon be able to scan an object and tell if something doesn’t belong — like if that “organic” label is lying.

A CSI-like analysis of everyday objects could be coming to smartphones by the end of 2017. Fraunhofer Institute, a research company based in Germany, announced Thursday HawkSpex Mobile, an app that can conduct a spectral analysis without any accessories.

Traditional spectral analysis cameras use prisms and specialized sensors to read how an object reflects different wavelengths of light. Since different elements reflect light differently, that information gives the camera details on just what that object is made up of — like whether or not an apple has been sprayed with pesticides.

More: Pocket-sized gluten sensor aims to make life easier for celiac disease sufferers

Since smartphone cameras don’t have that prism, apps that can analyze objects require accessories, add-on cameras that are expensive and need to be carried around with the smartphone. Instead, the research group reversed the idea. Rather than using a prism to detect the different wavelengths, the smartphone’s screen emits a particular wavelength at a time, while the camera reads whether or not that wavelength is reflected.

If there is only red light, the camera object can only reflect red light, and whether or not that light is reflected gives the camera clues as to what that object is made up of. When the screen repeats that process at different wavelengths, the camera can analyze the object’s content without needing that built-in prism.

HawkSpex is currently only a laboratory model, but Fraunhofer says that by developing different applications based on the technology, a consumer version could be heading out before the end of the year. The group has to teach the app using reference scans what the reflected light means and program it for specific purposes. For example, to teach the app whether produce has been sprayed with pesticides, the group has to show the program what an apple without pesticides looks like first.

While the app could certainly come in handy in a number of applications, the program would require a different app or mode for each type of scan because it requires those reference scans. That means users would need to tell the app whether they are scanning an apple or a head of lettuce.

The company says the technology has so many different applications that it will launch a sort of Wikipedia-like platform where users can suggest what reference scans the company should use next to release a version of the app for a more specific purpose. While many types of scans require a reference some will not — like comparing two different items. To see if a car has been in an accident, for example, the company says users could scan the paint from one section to see if it matched another section, without needing a pre-programmed reference since the app is only comparing two different scans.

Fraunhofer says the app could be used for more than just checking the accuracy of an organic label — commercially, the app could be used for quality control or to allow farmers to see if their crops need fertilizer.

Experimental Zika virus vaccine shown to be 100% effective in animal trials

Why it matters to you

Researchers are hoping that the Zika virus may have met its match in an experimental vaccine found to be 100 percent effective in mice and monkeys.

Ever since the outbreak of the Zika virus epidemic in Latin America in 2015, scientists have been racing around the clock to find vaccines that may be able to fight it.

Now, it looks like an experimental new vaccine developed by investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is the best option yet — it has a 100 percent success rate at protecting mice and monkeys (and hopefully one day, humans) from the virus.

“We have developed a vaccine platform that uses nucleoside-modified mRNA complexed to a lipid-based particle,” lead researcher Drew Weissman, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Pennsylvania, told Digital Trends. “The mRNA is physiologic, as are some of the lipids used, which makes the vaccine very safe. A single immunization of a low dose resulted in complete and durable protection.”

More: CDC and WHO recommend no unprotected sex for six months after Zika recommendation

Previously, the most successful Zika vaccine was an adenovirus-based live virus candidate. However, this was not without its problems since the body’s immune system regularly attacks adenoviruses, and can shut them down before they’ve had the chance to work their medical magic. “Live virus vaccines, while being effective, are also expensive and laborious to produce, have difficulty with regulators, and have adverse effects,” Weissman continued.

By comparison, the vaccine developed by Weissman and colleagues offers a number of benefits. For one, it wasn’t thwarted by the body’s immune system, nor did it show any negative effects in the animals that it immunized. Like the live virus vaccine, it’s a single-dose vaccination, but it required a significantly smaller dose to work: just 1 to 4 milligrams, as opposed to 50 milligrams for DNA vaccines.

Next up, Weissman said he wants to extend the testing to clinical trials in humans, which he hopes will take place in the next 12 to 18 months. He said that a phase 2 clinical trial may then be carried out within the following year.

“In emergent situations, it could be used without completion of Phase 3 trials, but I doubt this would happen,” he said. “Our hope is that it will be on the market in about five years.”

Albums, upgraded — navigating Google Photos just got simpler on Android

Why it matters to you

Google Photos users on Android will no longer need to dig around in the menu for albums.

Finding an image on Google Photos just got a tad easier. In an Android-only update Thursday, Feb. 2, Google reworked the albums feature, adding enhanced organization to the ways albums are displayed.

The albums tab is now divided into three parts. Along with sorting your actual albums, the app now separates images based on what app you shot them with. A third category auto-organizes photos by location and what’s inside them. While the auto albums isn’t a new feature, the new organization makes them easier to find.

More: Google Photos is one year old — here’s what’s next for it

Along with the three new sections, the photos inside the albums are easier to search through. That’s because Google switched up the large cover photo at the top to take up half as much room. That small design switch allows users to see more albums on the screen at one time, speeding up the process of finding a specific one.

Version 2.8 of Google Photos is the app’s first significant update of the year. While this is a relatively small design change, the move aims to make navigating through albums faster. In the older version, navigating through the albums required going into the menu, but now the new tab and three sections cuts out a step.

The update is a design enhancement, not a feature addition for the popular app. Google Photos has between half a billion and a billion installs on Android alone, largely because the platform offers free unlimited storage to backup those photos, along with features for organizing and auto-tagging the images. The app also creates collages, animations and movies from photos.

On the iOS app, Google Photos moved to version 2.8 on January 25 with a few performance enhancements. The latest iPhone version also allows users to choose whether to use the original audio or remove music from videos as well.

LeEco is sharing some Valentine’s Day love with LeMall smartphone sale

Why it matters to you

Looking for a new phone? Or a Bluetooth speaker perhaps? LeEco is offering a slew of its products at slashed prices as part of its Valentine’s Day sale.

LeEco wants to show you some love on Valentine’s Day. How? With cheap phones, of course. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, LeEco is offering its phones and some of its Bluetooth speakers and accessories at much lower prices than usual.

For starters, the LeEco Le S3 and the Le Pro 3 are each being offered at $50 off — or $199 for the Le S3, and $349 for the Le Pro 3. You’ll also get a LeEco Letv Bluetooth speaker, a three-month trial of DirecTV Now, and an EcoPass, all at no extra cost.

More: LeEco continues U.S. expansion with introduction of TVs, phones on Amazon

Phones aren’t all thats on offer — you can also get a slew of accessories and speakers as part of the deal. For example, the Leme Bluetooth Headphones EB30A are $15 — down from $40, and the Letv Bluetooth Speaker is only $18, down from $30. The Letv Reverse in-ear headphones are $7, down from $15, and last but not least is the Letv Super Power Bank external battery, which boasts a huge 13,500mAh battery and is $22, down from $40.

So when can you take advantage of these sweet deals? The sale officially begins on Monday February 6, and ends on February 14 — so you’ll only get a week to get in there and get the things you want. In the meantime, you can check out our reviews of the LeEco Le Pro 3 and the LeEco Le S3 to help decide if you actually want to pull the trigger on one.

LeEco has been making quite a push into the U.S., and this sale is just the latest attempt.

How to replace your laptop with a tablet

If you’re looking for true mobility with your devices, sometimes even a laptop can be too much. Tablets are ubiquitous, and with the right preparation, can easily replace a laptop for your (lighter) work days. If you’re hesitant about making the move from laptop to tablet, let me assuage your fears.

I’m Michael Fisher, though you probably know me better as MrMobile, and yes, I’m writing this from a tablet. Sometimes all you need is to sit at a cafe, drinking coffee and typing on a device that can comfortably fit inside a SCOTTeVEST. I know that’s all I need. slurp ahhh.

Featured devices

• Pixel C
• Pixel C Keyboard
• iPad Pro
• Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro 9.7
• RAVPower 20100mAh Portable Charger
• Anker USB-C to 3-Port USB 3.0 Hub w/ Ethernet Adapter

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