Electric shock risk forces Barnes & Noble to recall faulty Nook Tablet 7 adapters

Why it matters to you

If you have one of these adapters, stop using it and send it back for a free replacement.

It’s been a rough ride for Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Tablet 7. Just weeks after it suspended sales of the $50 device in response to reports of the power adapter’s casing breaking off, the company has now issued a total recall of those adapters.

The budget 7-inch tablet launched at the end of November 2016 to go up against Amazon’s cheapest Fire tablet. When the fault with the adapter was discovered last month, Barnes & Noble told owners to stop using it until a replacement could be provided.

However, it appears the company has since concluded that the adapter is, in fact, a little on the dangerous side, prompting it to post a recall page on its website.

The company more famous for selling books than tablets fails to mention the reason for the recall on its Help Center page. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), however, has been good enough to furnish owners with a little more information, explaining that the adapter, which doubles as the device’s charger, could potentially cause an electric shock.

“The power adapter casing can break when plugged into an electrical outlet, exposing its metal prongs, posing an electric shock hazard,” the CPSC says on its site. It adds, “Barnes & Noble has received four reports of the power adapter breaking or pulling apart exposing the metal prongs. No injuries have been reported.”

More: DT’s pick of the best tablets

Just under 150,000 of the China-made adapters are included in the recall, which Nook Tablet 7 owners are told to “immediately stop using.”

If you have one, hop over to the company’s special webpage to take the first step toward obtaining a free replacement. You’ll also receive a $5 Barnes & Noble gift card for your troubles.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be prompted to print a pre-paid UPS label to return your adapter to Barnes & Noble, after which you’ll receive a replacement in the mail.

The good news is that while you’re waiting, your Nook Tablet 7 needn’t become a paperweight, table mat, or indeed a projectile in a fiery family dispute, as you can still charge it through your computer using a USB cable.

The guys who made smartphone photography possible just picked up a huge cash prize

Why it matters to you

The incredible achievements of these talented inventors paved the way for smartphone cameras, selfies, Instagram, and plenty more besides.

Next time you whip out your smartphone to snap a selfie, spare a thought for the guys that made it all possible.

For without the groundbreaking research of Eric Fossum, George Smith, Nobukazu Teranishi, Michael Tompsett, and the late Willard Boyle, your smartphone camera might not even exist.

This week, the four surviving engineers were rewarded for their work in digital imaging technology across three decades, work that besides smartphones has also had a huge impact in other fields such as medicine and space research.

The prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which celebrates world-changing innovations in engineering, awarded the four inventors a £1 million (about $1.25m) cash prize at a special event in London on Wednesday night.

Three of the four winners: Michael Tompsett (U.K.), Nobukazu Teranishi (Japan), and Eric Fossum (U.S.)

This from the judging panel:

Together, this image sensor technology has transformed medical treatments, science, personal communication, and entertainment – from Skyping, selfies, computer games, and feature length digital movies to reporting live from wars using the small camera on a smartphone. It saves lives by using non-surgical pill cameras and endoscopes inside our bodies to diagnose medical problems, as well as helping to reduce X-ray doses to patients and improving dental care.

Image sensors inside cars increase driver safety, enhance security on the streets, and expand our knowledge of the universe through images from the surface of Mars or a comet, from spacecraft in orbit around other planets, and the breathtaking pictures of some of the billions of galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.

More: DT’s pick of the best digital cameras for any price range

The engineers are responsible for three digital imaging breakthroughs: the charge coupled device (CCD) found in early digital cameras; the pinned photodiode (PPD) that helped to scale down the size of light-capturing pixels and enhance image quality; and the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor used by most of today’s digital cameras and imaging equipment.

Mike Tomsett, who invented the first color digital camera, joked that he sometimes has mixed feelings about the technology he created, telling the BBC, “I have a sense of pride but I’m also somewhat frustrated by all the people that have cameras taking pictures of everything in sight, selfies on sticks … you’re walking along and the stick suddenly appears in front of you. I sometimes think, ‘Whoever invented this imaging technology should be dealt with.’”

Recycled smartphones will be used to make medals for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics

Why it matters to you

It’s a great reminder to have a rummage through your closet and recycle any long-forgotten tech gadgets.

Winning athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be presented with medals made from metals recovered from discarded smartphones.

The idea was first mooted last summer as a way to deal with all the e-waste created by the tech-loving country. Or, as Japan’s three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura put it this week: “Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be made out of people’s thoughts and appreciation for avoiding waste. I think there is an important message in this for future generations.”

Keen to move ahead with the plan, the organizing committee announced Wednesday the official launch of a campaign to encourage people to recycle their old smartphones so they can make medals using the metals inside the devices. Many tech gadgets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and nickel.

Partnering with Japanese cellular giant NTT Docomo and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, the aim is to gather at least eight tons of metal from discarded mobile phones, the Japan Times reported, with “millions” of mobile devices needed in order to gather enough material for the 5,000 medals due to be presented at the sporting extravaganza.

While a number of recent Olympics used recycled e-waste for medals, Tokyo 2020 claims it’ll be the first where all of the gold medals are made entirely with recovered metal.

To make it as easy as possible for people to offload their old devices, the organizers are installing drop-off points at NTT Docmo’s nationwide network of more than 2,400 stores, among other places.

More: Tokyo 2020’s opening ceremony may include a man-made meteor shower

“A project that allows the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals is really good,” Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi said. “There’s a limit on the resources of our earth, so recycling these things will make us think about the environment.”

Japan itself doesn’t have many natural resources to speak of, though the gold and silver found inside its consumer electronics “is equivalent to 16 percent and 22 percent of the world’s total reserves, respectively – surpassing the reserves of any natural resources-abundant nation,” Nikkei noted in a report last year.

And with Japanese consumers’ love affair with tech showing no signs of easing up, it shouldn’t take long for the 2020 Olympics’ e-waste initiative to hit its target.

Recycled smartphones will be used to make medals for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics

Why it matters to you

It’s a great reminder to have a rummage through your closet and recycle any long-forgotten tech gadgets.

Winning athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be presented with medals made from metals recovered from discarded smartphones.

The idea was first mooted last summer as a way to deal with all the e-waste created by the tech-loving country. Or, as Japan’s three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura put it this week: “Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be made out of people’s thoughts and appreciation for avoiding waste. I think there is an important message in this for future generations.”

Keen to move ahead with the plan, the organizing committee announced Wednesday the official launch of a campaign to encourage people to recycle their old smartphones so they can make medals using the metals inside the devices. Many tech gadgets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and nickel.

Partnering with Japanese cellular giant NTT Docomo and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, the aim is to gather at least eight tons of metal from discarded mobile phones, the Japan Times reported, with “millions” of mobile devices needed in order to gather enough material for the 5,000 medals due to be presented at the sporting extravaganza.

While a number of recent Olympics used recycled e-waste for medals, Tokyo 2020 claims it’ll be the first where all of the gold medals are made entirely with recovered metal.

To make it as easy as possible for people to offload their old devices, the organizers are installing drop-off points at NTT Docmo’s nationwide network of more than 2,400 stores, among other places.

More: Tokyo 2020’s opening ceremony may include a man-made meteor shower

“A project that allows the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals is really good,” Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi said. “There’s a limit on the resources of our earth, so recycling these things will make us think about the environment.”

Japan itself doesn’t have many natural resources to speak of, though the gold and silver found inside its consumer electronics “is equivalent to 16 percent and 22 percent of the world’s total reserves, respectively – surpassing the reserves of any natural resources-abundant nation,” Nikkei noted in a report last year.

And with Japanese consumers’ love affair with tech showing no signs of easing up, it shouldn’t take long for the 2020 Olympics’ e-waste initiative to hit its target.

YouTube for iOS gets Chromecast lock screen controls

It can be annoying having to unlock your phone screen and sift through all the open apps to pause, forward or rewind what you’re casting on TV. Good thing YouTube has finally made things easier for iOS users. The latest version of the app for iPhones and iPads adds lock screen controls not just for Chromecast, but also for smart TVs and other devices. If you have an Apple Watch, you’ll now be able to access play, pause, prev, next and volume controls on your wearable, as well. The upgrade is now available from iTunes, just in time for this weekend’s YouTube binge watch session.

Source: iTunes

Google’s self-driving cars are getting better at autonomy

Perhaps more than any company (with the possible exception of Tesla), Google’s autonomous driving record has been under close scrutiny. Today the company bears news that while dramatically increasing the number of miles tested, the number of times a human had to grab the wheel because something went wrong — “disengagement” — actually decreased. As Waymo’s blog post (and California-DMV-mandated report (PDF)) tells it, these disengagements fell from 0.8 per thousand miles to 0.2 from 2015 to 2016.

In 2015 the cars ran 424,331 miles with 341 disengagements, and last year mileage increased to 635,868 while disengagement sharply fell to 124 times. Comparatively, General Motors’ Bosch logged 9,895.21 miles and 568 disengagements. Tesla only tested (PDF) in California last October through November and its 550 miles on public streets resulted in 182 disengagements.

Waymo says that all of its testing time has taken place on “complex” urban and suburban roads versus testing facilities and that its these conditions that’ve caused the increase in performance.

“This has given us valuable experience sharing the road safely with pedestrians and cyclists,” head of Waymo’s self-driving tech Dmitri Dolgov writes on Medium. “For each [disengagement] event we can create hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of related scenarios in simulation, varying the parameters such as the position and speed of other road users in the area.”

As Bloomberg notes, however, these tests aren’t standardized and because automakers are also logging miles outside of the Golden State, the data isn’t anywhere near comprehensive.

For Waymo’s full report and those from BMW, GM, Ford, Honda and others, hit the links below — just be prepared to not find a lot of uniformity in the papers’ organization.

Source: California DMV, Waymo (Medium)

Facebook’s friend-based Recommendations come to the UK

We’ve all been there. It’s late and you’re wandering around town, aimlessly looking for a place to grab dinner. Where do you turn for suggestions? Foursquare? Google? Maybe Facebook? The social network is a popular choice, given you know the people who will be commenting on your post (and therefore trust their advice). Now, the company is making it easier to crowdsource information with a new Recommendations tool. Write a status update and Facebook will “convert” it automatically, giving your friends a chance to chime in. All of their comments will be saved in a simple list, with a complimentary map to show you how close they are.

The useful feature was launched in the US last October, but now it’s available in the UK too. A recommendations bookmark is also available on the web, should you prefer writing questions on your laptop or PC.

Facebook Adds New ‘Discover People’ Section to Mobile App

Facebook is rolling out a new section to its mobile app called “Discover People”, which is designed to encourage connections between people who aren’t yet Facebook friends (via TechCrunch).

The new feature, which can be found at the bottom of the navigation section of the app, allows users to scroll through a list of upcoming events to see who else is going, as well as browse through lists of people in the local area or those who share the same employer.

Image via TechCrunch
Entering “Discover People” for the first time, users are asked to introduce themselves by updating the various sections of their public profile. Once the profile is set, a list of upcoming events appear below, featuring any events the user plans to attend, has registered an interest in, or has been invited to. Users can also check out the profiles of others similarly linked to the event.

True to the feature’s billing, profiles of people already befriended on Facebook don’t show up in the lists, only people who don’t know each other – though whether this “discovery” mechanism will sit comfortably with all users is unclear. For example, not everyone automatically wants to make their interest in an event public knowledge, and currently there’s no way to control privacy settings when a user registers such interest.

Facebook has tested similar features in the past, only to roll them back following users’ privacy concerns – “Friends Nearby” being one example. TechCrunch suggests that with the latest attempt to connect people, Facebook is pushing back against dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, two apps that recently expanded their dating remit to include finding new friends to hang out with.

“Discover People” was first launched late last year, but was initially restricted to New Zealand and Australia. Facebook says the feature is rolling out now and should appear for all iOS users in the coming days.

Facebook is free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

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Apple Pay to Coming to Taiwan ‘Soon’, Says Apple

The Apple Pay mobile payment system will be available in Taiwan soon, Apple announced on its regional website today.

A total of seven banks, including Cathay United Bank, CTBC Bank, E. Sun Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, Taishin International Bank and Union Bank of Taiwan, will join Apple to launch the mobile payment service initially, Apple said.

Taiwan becomes the 14th region to gain access to Apple Pay, following the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, China, France, Russia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Spain, Singapore and Japan.

During Apple’s 2017 first quarter earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said Apple Pay was “setting records”, with transaction volume up over 500 percent year over year. Apple Pay on the web is also seeing great results, said Cook, with nearly two million small businesses now accepting the payment system online.

(via DigiTimes.)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 vs. Moto G4 Plus: Same price, different strategies

Two of the best budget phones go head-to-head.

The Moto G series paved the way for affordable phones. The current-generation Moto G4 Plus offers significant upgrades from its predecessor in the form of a fingerprint sensor and a vastly improved camera, while sticking to the same pricing model.

The same holds true for the Redmi Note 4. Xiaomi’s meteoric rise in recent years is because of the success of its budget Redmi series, which catapulted the manufacturer to third place in India’s handset segment.

The Redmi Note series, in particular, has led the way forward for the brand, with the Redmi Note 3 becoming one of the best-selling phones in the country last year. With the Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi introduced subtle improvements in the imaging and design departments, turning the device into a more compelling handset.

India is Motorola’s largest global market, and as such there’s a lot at stake. Read on to find out if the Moto G4 Plus can hold its own next to the Redmi Note 4.

Hardware

The Redmi Note 4 has an all-metal aluminum chassis, while the Moto G4 Plus is made out of plastic. The soft touch plastic on the device makes it grippy, but it doesn’t look nearly as premium as the Redmi Note 4.

The Moto G4 Plus is also unwieldy to use one-handed. Although both phones offer 5.5-inch displays, the Moto G4 Plus is larger, wider, and thicker than the Redmi Note 4. The larger dimensions wouldn’t have been an issue had the device offered more battery capacity, but that isn’t the case. The 9.8mm thick Moto G4 Plus has a 3000mAh battery, whereas the Redmi Note 4 fits a 4100mAh battery in a slimmer 8.5mm profile.

Round the back, the Moto G4 Plus has an oblong camera strip that houses the camera sensor and the dual-tone LED flash module. The camera housing protrudes slightly from the back, which leads to a wobble when using the device on a flat surface. The camera module on the Redmi Note 4 sits flush with the body of the device, and the fingerprint sensor is located at the back.

The always-on fingerprint sensor on the Redmi Note 4 lets you unlock the device even when the display is switched off. The sensor is quick to authenticate and works well as long as there isn’t any moisture on your fingers.

The Moto G4 Plus has a fingerprint sensor at the front, which also lets you unlock the device when the panel is switched off. The square sensor is smaller than those you usually find at the front, but it does a good job of recognizing your fingerprints. That said, the major drawback of the fingerprint sensor on the Moto G4 Plus is that it doesn’t double up as a home button. You can use it to unlock the phone, and that’s pretty much it. That’s a design fail as the sensor takes up valuable real estate at the front, and it would’ve been a better idea to use a rear-mounted sensor instead.

There isn’t a traditional notification LED light on the Moto G4 Plus — the Redmi Note 4 has one — and you’ll have to rely on Motorola’s Moto Actions to preview incoming notifications. The Moto G4 Plus also lacks 2.5D curved glass at the front, with the frame jutting out over the outer edge of the panel. While the device has certainly picked up much-needed upgrades when seen against its predecessor, it falls short next to the Redmi Note 4.

On the plus side, the removable back comes with a provision for two SIM card slots and a dedicated slot for the microSD card, allowing you to use two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time. The Redmi Note 4 has a hybrid slot, which means you can use just one SIM card if you want to expand storage via a microSD card. Though the back cover is removable on the Moto G4 Plus, the battery is sealed.

Aggressive pricing has been Xiaomi’s forte from the beginning, and as a result the Redmi Note 4 undercuts the Moto G4 Plus. The base model of the Redmi Note 4 offers 2GB of RAM and 32GB storage, and is available for ₹9,999 ($150). Then there’s the model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage, which costs ₹10,999 ($165). Xiaomi is also offering a variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage for ₹12,999 ($190), which is one of the best deals in this segment. In contrast, the Moto G4 Plus with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage costs ₹12,499 ($185), with the model offering 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage available for ₹13,999 ($210).

Software

It’s a one-sided contest on the software front in favor of the Moto G4 Plus. Motorola has been offering a pared down UI that’s close to vanilla Android for some time now, and the move has worked out very well for the manufacturer. The Moto G4 Plus doesn’t come close to the Redmi Note 4 in terms of specs, but the uncluttered UI and Motorola’s optimizations give it the edge when it comes to the software.

MIUI has steadily picked up features over the last three years, and as a result, MIUI 8 feels bloated in comparison to Motorola’s UI. You get a ton of customizability and several useful features — like Dual Apps and Second Space — but there is a steep learning curve.

Moto G4 Plus has a clean uncluttered UI. Redmi Note 4 does not.

If you want a phone with a clean UI and hassle-free software experience, you should get the Moto G4 Plus. The phone has already picked up the Nougat update, becoming the first phone in the country to do so. Xiaomi is offering a Nougat beta build for the Redmi Note 4, but a stable release is likely some time away.

With Nougat, Motorola rolled out a new one-handed mode, which shrinks the display down for easier one-handed usage. MIUI has offered a similar mode for some time now, which is accessible with a swipe across the navigation keys. As you can imagine, MIUI’s implementation is more customizable, and you have the option of shrinking the screen down to 4 inches, 4.5 inches, or 3.5 inches.

Although there isn’t a whole lot in the way of customization on the Moto G4 Plus, you do get Motorola’s proprietary Moto Actions, a series of gestures that make it easier to interact with the phone. With Moto Actions enabled, you can do a double-twist motion to open the camera, put the phone face down on a surface to activate do not disturb mode, make a chopping motion to toggle the flashlight, and more. There’s also a display setting that lets you view incoming notifications without turning on the screen.

Battery life

Battery life on the Redmi Note 4 is outstanding. A 4100mAh battery combined with an energy-efficient 14nm SoC makes the device one of the best in this segment when it comes to battery longevity. It isn’t hard to consistently get a screen-on-time of over seven hours from the Redmi Note 4.

The Moto G4 Plus also has a decent battery, and you’ll get a day’s worth of usage from a single charge. But it doesn’t last nearly as long as the Redmi Note 4. That said, the Moto G4 Plus has fast charging in the form of Motorola’s TurboPower, which lets you get up to three hours of usage from a 15-minute charge. Fast charging on the Redmi Note 4 is limited to 5V/2A, and you’ll have to wait an agonizing two hours for the battery to fully top up.

Camera

With the Moto G4 Plus, the Moto G series finally has a camera that doesn’t fail miserably. In fact, its 16MP camera is now one of the best in this segment. The camera app itself is simplistic, but it offers a surprising amount of features. You get toggles for HDR, flash, timer, shooting modes, and for switching between the front and rear cameras, and there’s the ability to adjust exposure on the fly. There’s also a manual mode that lets you tweak the shutter speed, focus, ISO, exposure, and white balance.

One of the key areas of focus for Xiaomi with the device was the camera, which has been overhauled for the device. The camera doesn’t hold up well when it comes to low-light imagery — that’s still a limitation for budget devices — but in bright conditions, you’ll get great shots from the Redmi Note 4.

Redmi Note 4 on the left, Moto G4 Plus on the right.

Images taken from the Moto G4 Plus offer true-to-life colors, and the camera does a much better job of taking photos in low-light conditions. When it comes to ease of use and image quality, the Moto G4 Plus wins out.

Which should you buy? Redmi Note 4

The Redmi Note 4 wins out when it comes to the overall design and hardware, but MIUI 8 is cumbersome to use. The phone is made for nerds, so if you’re comfortable tinkering with MIUI and are looking for tons of customizability, the Redmi Note 4 is a great choice. It offers a lot for its asking price, and is currently the device to beat in the budget segment. Considering the minor difference in retail cost, you should opt for the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage, which is available for ₹12,999.

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The Moto G4 Plus doesn’t have a lot of the hardware prowess and is missing a few features, but for the most part, it gets the basics right. You get a decent Full HD panel, all-day battery life, and great camera, all tied together with a software experience that’s unmatched in this segment. That said, Motorola is rumored to launch the Moto G5 later this month, so you’re better off waiting to see what’s on offer with the newer model.