Harmonix and Hasbro’s new card game mashes up hit music

The heyday of music games may have passed, but that hasn’t stopped Harmonix from experimenting with new ways for you to experience your favorite tunes. Sure, there’s a new Rock Band coming to VR, but for those who prefer something more a bit more old school, the company’s developing a new card game with toy company Hasbro. Dropmix is a music-mixing game about outscoring your opponent, building an awesome song collection and creating the dopest beats.

When you open the box, Dropmix doesn’t seem too different from other party games. There’s a board and a deck of cards. But the board is no mere piece of cardboard decorated with pretty pictures: It connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth and reads the NFC chips embedded in each card as you lay them down during a session. Each card represents a different song, like Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” or Childish Gambino’s “Heartbeat.”

While Dropmix has a free play mode where you can just mix and match songs to see what the app will come up with (it always sounds good), the game aspect is quite entertaining in its own right. The players take turns laying cards down on the board, matching them by color. Each card only plays a certain section of the song, so Ed Sheeran’s “Sing” will only play the vocals while Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” focuses on, well, you know. To push an opponent’s card off the board, the hand you play needs to have a higher point value, as indicated by the volume graphic in the top left corner of each card. There are some special cards with more multiple abilities, ignoring the basic rules and sometimes even taking over the entire song.

Although the board itself may not have fancy decoration on it, the cards are absolutely gorgeous. The front contains a wealth of information, including a point value and what section of the song it represents (bass, beat, loop or vocals). But the centerpiece is the original illustration, eye-catching enough to make the cards highly desirable as collector’s items. They’re nice enough that I found myself just staring at them while playing, and I’m excited to see the whole set when it’s available.

This attention to card design isn’t surprising when you consider that Hasbro also owns Wizards of the Coast. That company created the highly influential collectible card game Magic the Gathering, known for its beautiful artwork. But it’s the interesting and addictive game mechanics that will ultimately keep this new game going.

I was never really into collectible card games as a kid, but Hasbro and Harmonix may have finally found a hook that snags the kind of people who probably have a large collection of game soundtracks on vinyl. The basic Dropmix set will include the board and a set of 60 cards across multiple genres, and it will cost $100 when it launches in September. But, just as with Rock Band, more songs will become available throughout the year, with genre-based “Playlist Packs” going for $15 each while randomly assorted “Discover Packs” will cost $5.

ICYMI: Airbus and Italdesign exhibit a Pop.Up future

Today on In Case You Missed It: Airbus and Italdesign demoed yet another flying car concept at the Geneva Auto Show this week. Dubbed “Pop.Up” the modular and autonomous vehicle can transform from a four-wheeled car to a quadcopter, depending on your destination and habits. The Pop.Up system uses an AI to determine which form will result in the most efficient travel method, and will then attach itself to air or ground pod modules to get you there. While the broader idea is to produce a fleet of Pop.Up’s that can be summoned at will by users, the concept faces some significant challenges in actual development such as battery technology and legal regulations.

Meanwhile, Italian artist Norma Jeane and the engineers at Codame have introduced a robot with an unusual mission to the Sonoran desert. The ShyBot’s only objective is to stay as far away from human beings as possible, at all times. For six days, the six-wheeled bot roamed the Coachella Valley area and was able to successfully avoid everyone — even the drones being used to track the experiment. GPS technology was used to track ShyBot in real time, and a camera on it transmitted its point of view to a San Francisco art gallery.

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

Apple Tops ‘Tech Support Showdown’ List for Third Consecutive Year

Apple has topped Laptop Mag’s Tech Support Showdown list for the third year in a row, receiving praise as “the best tech support in the business,” and beating out nine other computer-making companies in the process. Laptop Mag said that its list is aimed at helping customers see who has the most reliable and clear customer service in the tech industry.

To conduct the research, the magazine sent reporters undercover to make calls, query support chat online, and ask questions on social media, and accumulated data on the following top ten notebook makers: Apple, Microsoft, Acer, Razer, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Samsung, and MSI. Each company was given a grade on a 100-point scale, and Laptop Mag weighted 60 points towards online support and 40 points toward phone support.

For Apple’s winning spot, the company received a 56 for its web support score and a 37 for its phone support score, resulting in an overall mark of 93 for the Cupertino company’s tech support in 2017.

Laptop Mag went more in-depth about its experience with Apple support in various forms, discussing a six minute response time from the @AppleSupport Twitter account and a positive, snappy experience with the new Apple Support iOS app. The site also put Apple to the test by calling three separate customer service reps to test their knowledge of the newest changes to macOS and the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro.

Call 1: Hayley then instructed me to disable iCloud Drive, and explained how to keep a local copy of the files. During the 2 minutes it took to download the files, I chatted with Hayley about the weather down in Florida, as he was positive and easy to talk to.

At the end of our chat, I asked if there was some way to turn iCloud Desktop and Documents off without disabling iCloud Drive. Hayley said there was not, which is, unfortunately, not the case. The call took 8 minutes in total.

Call 2: My next call connected me to Frank in Oregon, who explained that the physical fn key makes the Touch Bar show the Function keys. Frank also showed me how to set specific apps to use the Function keys in the Touch Bar, and he needed to place me on hold to ask colleagues if I could do the same for Finder.

After telling me that there was no such option, Frank directed me to a feedback page where I could ask Apple to add this option in a future version. In total, the call took 15 minutes, but Frank solved my main question in only 3 minutes.

Call 3: My last call connected me with the upbeat and chipper Letasha, who showed me the icon in the dock and menu bar that you click to activate Siri. Before we concluded, Letasha explained how to change the keyboard command used to start Siri. The call lasted 7 minutes.

On average, it took Apple’s reps 6 minutes per call to get answers — a minute less than its time last year.

Ultimately, Laptop Mag noted that while the customer service reps might have a few spots of incorrect knowledge about Apple’s software and hardware, they still “provided solutions in a speedy and positive manner.” While Apple’s web score was unrivaled at 56, the company’s phone score of 37 was beat out by Acer at 38 points. In total, Acer came in second with a total score of 88 points, making it the “top-rated Windows PC vendor for support” and gaining ground on Apple’s number one spot.

If Apple wants to improve its support, it should ensure support techs learn about all of the new features so that they can give completely accurate answers to questions on topics such as iCloud Documents. Its Twitter account could also improve by providing answers directly, instead of linking to posts where the content is found. Overall, though, Apple offers the best support of any laptop manufacturer, as it has for many years.

Last November, Apple won the “Gold” #Customer award for its helpful responses from @AppleSupport on Twitter. According to Twitter, Apple ranked #1 among support accounts for average engagements and average engagements for followers, racking up 150,000 likes and retweets since its launch in March 2016.

On Twitter, users can ask Apple questions between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and the company’s support team normally responds within a few minutes. Although Laptop Mag said that it didn’t award Apple “any points for finally creating a Twitter support account,” the site noted that it’s one of the best parts of Apple’s expansive customer support system and it applauded “the team running that account for the timely, helpful replies.”

Check out Laptop Mag’s full report on Apple’s customer service performance right here.

Tag: Apple Support
Discuss this article in our forums

Google’s Jamboard to begin competing with Microsoft’s Surface Hub in May

Why it matters to you

You’ll have another option in enterprise collaborative whiteboards when Google ships its Jamboard in May 2017.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub collaborative whiteboard has been available for purchase since July 2015, with 55-inch and 80-inch models actually shipping in March 2016. The Surface Hub has sold more units than Microsoft expected, and Google decided to jump into that market with its own whimsically named Jamboard announced in October 2016.

The Jamboard was expected to cost $6,000 for a 55-inch model when it shipped sometime in 2017. Today, Google announced at its Google Cloud Next ’17 event that the Jamboard will arrive in May 2017, and will actually be priced at $5,000, as Engadget reports.

More: Google’s Jamboard is a connected, collaborative whiteboard for enterprise

Google’s whiteboard uses a 55-inch display at 4K (4,096 X 2,160) resolution, with a soft-touch plastic touchscreen panel capable of picking up 16 touch points at once with support for an optional Bluetooth rubber-tipped stylus. That’s a higher resolution than the 55-inch Surface Hub’s Full HD (1,920 x 1,080), but Microsoft’s product supports 100 touch point at a time.

The Jamboard connects via HDMI and sports a built-in camera, speakers, and wheeled custom stand for customers who don’t opt to mount the whiteboard. Google has also packed in Chromecast support, meaning the Jamboard can easily mirror a remote device’s screen or stream content from YouTube, Netflix, and other Chromecast-enabled apps and services.

Android is at the heart of the Jamboard, although it’s a highly customized version that’s been optimized for the whiteboard’s large display and collaborative features. Add-on functionality includes “jam session” whiteboard spaces allowing users to sketch, draw, type, and scribble with handwriting recognition on or off. Images can be imported, a miniature web browser is available, and Jamboards can connect and communicate to enable multiple users to sketch from multiple locations.

Of course, collaboration is at the heart of the Jamboard. Google Hangouts provides chat capabilities, and iOS and Android apps let coworkers view sessions as well as add photos, drawings, and sticky notes. The G Suite productivity apps area also integrated.

With cloud services growing by leaps and bounds, and organizations obviously attracted to digital whiteboard solutions that allow teams to work together across global distances, whiteboard solutions like the Jamboard and Microsoft’s Surface Hub are becoming popular. Now, Google will be able to take Microsoft on directly in this increasingly lucrative space.

WikiLeaks won’t publish zero-day exploit details until developers can fix them

Why it matters to you

You can stop worrying: WikiLeaks is holding onto the zero-day exploits in its CIA trove of documents until developers can fix them.

WikiLeaks made history this week by releasing the largest trove of confidential CIA documents ever, including over 7,818 web pages, 943 attachments, and hundreds of millions of lines of code. Called “Vault 7,” the collection included a slew of hacking and cyber espionage tools used by the CIA between 2013 and 2016.

Among the tools that were leaked are various malware, viruses, and remote control systems capable of infecting Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. WikiLeaks released general information about the tools, but it also possesses the details of a number of weaponized “zero-day” vulnerabilities — which the organization isn’t releasing just yet, as Krebs on Security reports.

More: WikiLeaks releases documents chronicling the CIA’s hacking weapons

Zero-day vulnerabilities are bugs that have opened software up to active exploits and about which the software’s developer is unaware. Google has its own Project Zero, which identifies zero-day vulnerabilities, notifies the developer, and then waits 90 days before it publishes the vulnerability — whether or not the developer has fixed it.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange has indicated that his organization won’t be following Project Zero’s lead. In a WikiLeaks press conference, Assange said, “After considering what we think is the best way to proceed, and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them exclusive access to additional technical details we have, so that fixes can be developed and pushed out.”

Only when the vulnerabilities are patched will WikiLeaks publish the details. WikiLeaks posted a poll on Twitter, and the majority of respondents answered that the organization should work with technology companies on fixes. The next most popular response was, “No, they’re the problem.”

Tech companies are saying they need more details of CIA attack techniques to fix them faster. Should WikiLeaks work directly with them?

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 8, 2017

WikiLeaks didn’t provide any additional information on how it would be working with developers to ensure the zero-day vulnerabilities are fixed or on how long it expected the process to take. While the documentation that has already been leaked could lead to exploits, at least the details required to easily make use of these now-known vulnerabilities won’t be making it to the wild before patches can be created and provided to users.

Samsung Pay launches in Sweden

Samsung Pay Swedish beta now live, with a limited number of supported devices and payment providers.

Samsung Pay’s global reach continues to expand, with the payment service’s launch in Sweden today. Galaxy owners with a compatible phone, Swedish SIM and credit or debit card can get up and running by opening the Samsung Pay app on their device. Technically today’s launch is a beta with a relatively limited list of supported devices — the Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Support for the Galaxy A5 2017 and Gear S3 smartwatches will be added “soon,” according to Samsung’s landing page.

Supported providers include Nordea, Eurocard, MasterCard, SEB, and Visa, with Handelsbanken, ICA Banken, re:member, Swedbank and Rikskuponger coming soon.

Today’s launch comes a few weeks ahead of the anticipated Galaxy S8 launch event, where we may finally learn about a wider European rollout for Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay has ben live in the U.S. and Korea for more than a year, and recently expanded into Europe with a Spanish launch last summer. The service is set to go live imminently in India too, however so far it’s been outpaced by the global spread of Apple Pay and Android Pay.

How to set up the always-on display on the LG G6

Get quick stats on what’s going on with your smartphone by enabling this feature.

I love being able to glance over at my smartphone display to check up on the time or any messages I might have without having to actually reach over and turn it on. You can take advantage of this helpful ability on the LG G6 by enabling the always-on display. Here’s how to set it up.

How to set up the always-on display on the LG G6

Swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the notifications shade.
Tap the Settings icon in the upper right corner.
Tap Display.

Tap Always-on display.

Toggle the On button in the upper right corner.

Tap the Content option to choose whether you want a Digital clock, Analog clock, or a Signature as your scene.

You have the option to set up a daily schedule for the always-on display, as well as the ability to make it brighter if you can’t always see it, though this will affect battery life. You can also turn on an option in the Battery Saver menu, located in the main settings panel, to block the use of the always-on display when Battery Saver is turned on. The LG G6’s always-on display is nice, of course, but it comes with its own caveats.

Questions?

Curious about something else? Ask us below!

LG G6

• LG G6 review!
• LG G6 specs
• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
• LG forums
• Latest LG G6 news

Honor’s impressive V9 may launch next month in Europe as the Honor 8 Pro

Honor’s 2017 flagship could be heading to Europe on April 5.

Huawei sub-brand Honor sent out media invites to an event on April 5, with current rumors suggesting the launch event could turn out to be the European debut of the Honor V9. The phone was unveiled in China late last month, and offers exciting specs for the equivalent of $435 in the country.

The Honor V9 boasts impressive hardware in the form of a 5.7-inch QHD display with 2.5D curved glass, Huawei’s latest Kirin 960 SoC, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB storage options, dual 12MP cameras with 1.76-micron pixels, 8MP front camera, IR blaster, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, Wi-Fi ac, USB-C, and a 4000mAh battery. On the software front, the phone runs EMUI 5.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

According to Roland Quandt of WinFuture, the phone could be marketed as the Honor 8 Pro in the region:

Honor V9 (also to be known as Honor 8 Pro?) going international on April 5th 2017 – in gold, blue and black. This just went out to journos. pic.twitter.com/ys9wgqx9E6

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) March 9, 2017

The phone is sold in four color options — Midnight Black, Flame Red, Platinum Gold and Aurora Blue. The red variant in particular looks enticing, but from the event teaser it looks like that option won’t be heading to global markets. We’ll have to wait until April 5 to find out the pricing and availability.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to adopt facial scanning, ditch iris recognition

The Unpacked announcement event for the Samsung Galaxy S8 is just a few weeks away now, taking place in New York on 29 March, and the latest report that we’ll see an all-new security feature adopted by Samsung.

The company is reportedly ditching its iris scanning system used in previous Galaxy smartphones and will introduce facial scanning instead. Iris detection is apparently too slow in operation, while facial recognition is a quicker, more accurate alternative.

An unnamed Samsung official allegedly revealed all to a business publication in the firm’s homeland, the Korean Economic Daily. He claims that a face scanner will be on the new handset and its plus-sized variant: “Due to some limits of iris scanning such as speed and accuracy, we have decided to add facial recognition to the Galaxy S8. With a face scanner, it will take less than 0.01 seconds to unlock the phone,” he is reported to have said.

• Samsung Galaxy S8: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know
• New Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus leak shows two phones side by side
• Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus get official FCC certification

Apple has also recently been tipped to be introducing facial scanning, possibly on its OLED version of the iPhone 8. It could become a trend across the industry if the tech is proven to work effectively.

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus (S8+) at the event at the end of the month. You can find out how to watch it here: Samsung Galaxy S8 launch: When is Galaxy Unpacked 2017 and can you watch it online?

Garmin Vivosmart 3 shows up in pictures, there’s life in fitness trackers yet

Garmin is planning to update its Vivosmart fitness tracker, if leaked pictures are anything to go by.

Wareable claims to have got its hands on an image showing a Garmin Vivosmart 3 in three different poses. And as one of them shows the name on the rear, along with a QR code, there is no reason to doubt their validity.

Little else can really be gleaned from the images. There is a textured strap, similar to the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ released at the end of last year, and Wareable suggests that the screen will actually be different to the one pictured. That suggests these pictures are concept art rather than final press images.

• Garmin Vivosmart HR+ review: A fully-packed fitness tracker

It is thought to be pitched against similar devices from Fitbit, Misfit and Nokia (which is rebranding all future Withings trackers after a company acquisition). Price and release details are yet to be revealed, however.

We liked the Vivosmart HR+ so an update of some description is welcomed around these parts.

We would imagine the heart rate monitoring will be on-board again, and hopefully the GPS functionality too.

That device was released around the £170 mark, so we’d expect the Vivosmart 3 to be in the same ballpark.