What it’s like playing ‘Rez Infinite’ strapped into a synesthesia suit

At SXSW last year, Sony showed off a bunch of unusual and intriguing prototypes from its Future Lab division. In 2017, Sony’s going even bigger: a huge space called the Wow Factory has stuff from the Future Lab as well as a whole host of immersive VR experiences. I tried a couple out; the best way I an describe my reaction is confused but intrigued.

The first was space / music shooter Rez Infinite in PlayStation VR. But In addition to wearing the VR headset, I was strapped in to a “synesthesia suit” that had a host of haptic feedback sensors built into it. Once I was fully set up, I jumped into the game, and the whole thing was rather overwhelming. There’s just way more to concentrate on than there is in most games. I was in a 360-degree space trying to find all the enemies while music blasted into my headphones and the suit vibrated in time with the game. It was hard to identify exactly what the vibrations were supposed to sync up to, though. Sometimes it was music, other times shots hitting the enemy ships.

Once I stopped focusing on it and just enjoyed the game, it was all good — but I also don’t know how much the suit really added to the experience. Everyone loves Rez Infinite, and it works great in VR, and that’s about enough for me.

Across from the Rez Infinite experience was a Resident Evil booth where I was suited up in another haptic feedback outfit. This one was less complicated; it was more a vest than a full-body suit. From there, a fake but semi-realistic gun was planced in my hands, and a giant, wall-sized 3D display lit up in front of me. With my 3D glasses and automatic weapon in place, the screen lit up with a few of a ravaged city street filled with zombies that wanted to tear me to pieces.

I started blasting down the slow-moving creepers that were a good distance away, but then some dead bodies closer to me came to life — that’s when the 3D effects were put to good use. A few zombies near me “came out” of the screen as I blasted away at them, downing the menaces in the nick of time. I wasn’t so lucky when a few zombie-dogs sprinted out of the pack and attacked me. Each hit made the vest reverberate with the impact something that was amped up when a giant “boss” zombie came running down the street at me. The gun conveniently locked up and I was shredded to death, the sound effects and vibrations of the suit making it all a bit freaky.

Ultimately, both of these experiences were a bit of a gimmick, but that’s par for the course at SXSW. While I enjoyed my time gunning down zombies, though, it’s hard to top Rez Infinite.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from SXSW 2017.

NASA finds long-lost Indian lunar orbiter

India lost contact with its first lunar orbiter, the Chandrayaan-1, back in 2009. Now, NASA has revealed that the agency discovered its location in July 2016 after testing a method that can be used by future lunar missions. Chandrayaan-1 is a relatively tiny cubic probe that measures five feet on all sides, making it the perfect target for the radar experiment conducted by a team of Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists. The team wanted to find out whether a technique used to observe small asteroids can also spot spacecraft orbiting the moon.

This method relies ground-based radar, because optical telescopes can’t see anything against the bright lunar glare. Since Chandrayaan-1 was in polar orbit around the celestial body before it got lost, the team sent a powerful beam of microwaves somewhere above the natural satellite’s north pole. They used a 230-foot antenna at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California to accomplish the task. But they relied on the 330-foot Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to detect the radar echoes that bounced back.

The researchers were afraid they wouldn’t find anything, since the moon has areas with higher-than-usual gravitational pull that could have caused the spacecraft to crash into it. However, the scientists were able to detect two different objects using the technique: one matched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s well-known path. The other was a tiny object, which crossed the beam twice — the second sighting matched the time it would have taken the Chandrayaan-1 to complete one orbit.

Now that the scientists have proven that ground-based radars can be used to track probes in lunar orbit, NASA could use them for both robotic and human missions. The technique could also be used as a safety mechanism for spacecraft suffering from communication issues in the future.

Source: NASA JPL

MacOS isn’t immune to malware! Let these antivirus apps give your system a booster shot

Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, MacOS is just as susceptible to malware as Windows 10 — it’s just that Windows 10 is a more common platform, so more malware is coded with Windows users in mind. Apple’s operating system is far from invulnerable, and new threats appear regularly, so it’s important to keep up on basic security.

More: New to MacOS? Here are 30 of the best apps available

Fortunately, there are many fantastic anti-malware platforms designed to give your Mac a booster shot against the latest viruses, adware, and ransomware. Whether you’re looking to utilize the ever-popular Avast, the simplicity of Avira, or the balanced Sophos, there are dozens of freemium products on the market to secure your computer against potential threats. Combine one or more with a little caution, and you’ll have plenty of peace of mind. Below are some of our favorite anti-malware suites.

Things to do prior to installing antivirus software

Stay up to date — Keeping your Mac updated with the latest software is essential. When there’s a system update, make sure you pick it up as soon as possible, and make sure all your other apps stay up to date as well. Security patches are rolled out pretty regularly for most MacOS applications. Apple has always been keen to pinpoint potential threats, often issuing incremental updates that address system vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. Assuming you’ve opted for automatic updates, install them as their notifications arise, or manually install the updates from within the Updates panel located on the right side when viewing the main App Store window.

Turn on your firewall — Although not for everyone, turning on the built-in firewall can help secure network traffic to and from your system. If you haven’t done so already, navigate to the main System Preferences panel, select the Security & Privacy option, and click the Firewall tab located at the top of the window. Afterward, click the Turn On Firewall button, and you’re all set. Under Firewall Options, you can block connections from individual applications on your system, as well as give certain apps a pass.

More: Turn your bug-finding skills into more cash as Google, Microsoft hikes bug-bounties

Encrypt your data — MacOS may already secure important files on your behalf, but setting up FileVault’s full disk, XTS-AES 128 encryption adds yet another level of protection to your entire drive. It essentially prevents unwanted users from seeing and copying your files — setting a master password for your machine in the process — and allows you to specify which user accounts are allowed to unlock the encrypted drive. To turn on FileVault, navigate to the main System Preferences panel, select the Security & Privacy option, and click the FileVault tab located at the top of the window. Afterward, click the Turn on FileVault button, note the recovery key — or allow Apple to store the password on your behalf — and restart your computer when prompted.

Avast! Free Mac Security

Avast! is one of the most popular security suites available, and it’s easy to see why. It’s effective and free for non-commercial use, providing on-demand tools for quickly performing full-system malware scans as well as sifting through specific email threads, attachments, and various web activities (i.e., webpages, downloads, and Java scripts). Furthermore, it offers drag-and-drop scanning for individual files and phishing protection, along with the ability to scan external drives and attached volumes for potential infections.

More: Our quick-hit guide to password protecting a folder

The application’s interface is straightforward and self-explanatory, too, and features a navigational pane on the left that consists of five primary buttons and a real-time graph that aggregates shield activity and allows users to quickly check the overall stats of their computer. The free version also offers to install two other programs during installation: Avast Online Security ($40 per year) and Avast SecureLine VPN ($60 per year). Neither are necessary for detecting and removing malware, however, so pay attention during installation if you don’t want them.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac

Windows users have long turned to Malwarebytes’ free version, affectionately known as MBAM, as a backup for always-on malware software. If you’re a Windows user, it’s a great tool for scheduling deep-scans of your system. The Mac version started as an adware removal tool, but as of today, it’s also a fully-fledged tool for protecting your machine against malware. Plus, it’s just as effective in MacOS as it is in Windows.

The program is the creation of Thomas Reed, who blogged about Mac spyware and security for years at The Safe Mac. While running the site, Reed made a simple tool — Adware Medic — to remove the adware he so often wrote about.  Malwarebytes brought Reed onto the team, and re-branded Adware Medic as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac. The tool is just as fast as before, and still free, but it has a new name and a bigger team behind it.

Using the program couldn’t be easier. Just launch it, hit scan, and the software will quickly let you know if you’re infected with any Mac-specific malware. This is not an always-on solution, though, and is thus more suited for performing deep-scans and ridding yourself of particularly pernicious malware. It doesn’t provide “real-time” protection like Avast! or some of the other options on our list, either.

Sophos Antivirus Mac Home Edition

If offering an entire history of Mac malware dating back to ’82 isn’t evidence of a developer on top of its game, we don’t know what is. Straddling the line somewhere between necessity and excess, Sophos offers all the basic utilities you’ve come to expect from quality antivirus software, and a whole lot more. The utility offers custom, on-demand, and scheduled scans for specified files, folders, and drives, along with additional tools for deleting and quarantining any software Sophos deems a potential threat.

The software even incorporates a real-time protection features that will quarantine unknown files that are merely exhibiting suspicious behavior. Although the program has a tendency to scan slower than most, it’s fairly lightweight, and non-obtrusively performs vital background tasks while barely leeching or exhausting your system’s resources.

Despite its robust feature set, Sophos manages to cram all this functionality into a compact interface. Initiating a full-system scan can be done directly from the top of main menu, and you can configure exemptions quickly from easily navigable menus. Additionally, the malware definitions are constantly being updated, ensuring the program is never without the latest knowledge of potential threats. It’s one of the most hands-off antivirus programs on the market, and as such, sits among the best.

Bitdefender Virus Scanner

Built upon Bitdefender’s award-winning anti-virus engine, Bitdefender Virus Scanner features a host of scan options, allowing you to quickly perform deep scans of your entire system, or those targeting specific locations. If you grant it access, the streamlined program even provides an option for scanning critical locations — such as your Mac’s launch agents and the entirety of your system library — thus allowing you to bypass lengthier scans when pressed for time. Moreover, it automatically updates with Bitdefender’s hourly malware definitions prior to scanning, while providing a quick means for blacklisting specific locations from system scans.

Other features are limited, though. Bitdefender Virus Scanner automatically tries to disinfect and quarantine suspicious files it comes across, and though the feature is not unique to Bitdefender’s offering, the software can also quickly search for malware within various archives and file types (PDF, PKG, ZIP, RAR, etc.). Said functionality is housed within a sleek window that showcases the three scanning modes in addition to a sole Update button, the latter of which can be used in lieu of automatic updates.

Who says drones have to be land or air-based? Norway is testing autonomous boats

Why it matters to you

We’ve heard all about self-driving cars and are familiar with drones. But what about their sea-based counterpart? Those are being tested in Norway.

Autonomous cars are all the rage these days, but autonomous boats? While automobiles are certainly among the most popular forms of transportation, they’re not the only form. As we’ve begun to normalize the notion of a driverless future, other methods of transportation are looking to adopt the same concept. In Norway’s Trondheim Fjord, you can now find a testing site for water-based drones. Because land and air-faring machinery shouldn’t be the only ones having autonomous fun, right?

Despite officially opening late in 2016, it’s taken a while for business, which is to say testing, to pick up. But now, companies like Kongsberg Seatex, Marintek, Maritime Robotics, and Rolls-Royce Marine are all on-site to start putting their robotic and self-driving technologies to the open water.

More: PassivDom makes totally autonomous homes capable of withstanding zombies

Thus far, the fjord has seen tests for a variety of purposes, including navigation, collision avoidance systems, operational safety, and risk management projects. And as these tests continue, we may be drawing nearer and nearer to a human-less shipping industry, as large boats find their way across the ocean without the need for a crew. Perhaps this could even mean the automation of the fishing industry, or a whole host of other sea-based activities.

“As far as we know, there are no such test sites of this kind in the world so the Norwegian Coastal Authorities are taking the lead in a changing maritime world,” Kongsberg Seatex President Gard Ueland said last year upon the site’s opening, reports Engadget. “We will also see technology that has the potential to enable fully autonomous cargo vessels. Much of this will come from Trondheim, thanks to the unmatched maritime expertise here and our autonomous vehicles test bed.”

So get ready friends. Remote-controlled ships may soon no longer be toys that you sail in the park. Rather, they could be the transport that gets us from one country’s coast to another.

Socialize from the comfort of your couch with Rooms 1.2 on Gear VR

Why it matters to you

As exciting as virtual reality may be, it often seems to be a rather lonely experience. Oculus is looking to change that.

Last year, in an effort to introduce even more people to social VR experiences, Oculus began to roll out support for its highly anticipated Rooms and Parties features to the Gear VR. First introduced at the Oculus Connect event earlier in 2016, Oculus Rooms and Parties were said to be coming to the Rift headset in 2017, and now, Oculus had made good on that promise.

With the first iteration of Oculus Rooms, you could join your friends in VR and watch movies (and cat videos) together from anywhere in the world. Well, anywhere with an internet connection, at least. Using a Gear VR setup, you could share spaces with friends, interact, hang out, and even stream live from VR.

“The first wave of VR was all about the magic of presence, the immersive sense of actually being inside a virtual space. The next step is to let you feel that same sense of presence with other people in VR,” said the Oculus Team.

But this week, the company has launched Rooms 1.2, which allows you to do even more with your friends and family members in virtual reality, as well as Oculus Events, which lets you organize your experiences. With Rooms 1.2, VR enthusiasts can now watch 360-degree content with a wider community. Thanks to the “collective viewing dome,” which can be found in the middle of any shared environment, you and your friends can watch 360-degree videos on Facebook together.

More: Samsung’s new Gear VR is sleeker, blacker, and better than ever before

Also receiving an update is the search function for Oculus Rooms. Beginning this week, you can search for Facebook content using naught but your voice. With a new feature being dubbed Oculus Speech Recognition, your speech becomes your key to just about everything within Oculus.

The VR company’s parent company Facebook also had an announcement last week, noting that it’ll soon be rolling out VR Facebook Livestreaming by way of the Gear VR headset. Over the course of the next few weeks, your Gear VR software will add a “Livestream to Facebook” option, allowing you to share VR games directly over the social network.

Of course, there’s also the Parties feature, which hit the Gear VR last year. Using the new functionality, you’ll be able to make voice calls from VR, and even join each other in compatible multiplayer VR games like Dragon Front and Drop Dead.

There’s not much to the Parties functionality, aside from Rooms and a few games, but as Oculus is fond of pointing out, this is just the beginning. We’re still in the era of silent film when it comes to virtual reality, and with competition between the Rift and HTC Vive heating up, 2017 is poised to be the year of VR.

“This is just the beginning of social VR. We’ll continue building fun ways to share presence and take social interactions in VR to a whole new level,” the release from the Oculus Team reads.

Article first published in December 2016. Updated on 03-12-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added updates about Oculus Rooms, Events, and Facebook livestreaming. 

Alexa, why aren’t you a dude? How female digital assistants reinforce stereotypes

We find ourselves surrounded by helpful assistants these days, from Apple’s Siri to Microsoft’s futuristic Cortana to Amazon’s Alexa to … whatever the designation for “OK Google” is — and every one of them defaults to a female persona. In response, a lot of writers are asking if the tendency of postmodern digital assistants to skew female is a dangerous thing for society.

Sure, you can change Siri to a different gender and even a different accent — I was carrying around an Australian bloke for a while before switching to a Brit, preferring a digital Alfred Pennyworth — but digital assistants skew female and stay that way. It’s a perception that some think might be having a negative effect on society in training everyone to think of women as assistants, rather than as whole human beings and equals.

More: “Human, the milk has spoiled.” Soon Alexa will run your smart home, and your life

There are other factors at play as well. Some researchers believe we as human beings have a natural inclination to prefer a female voice. Historians and sociologists often point to history as a touchstone, hypothesizing that the preponderance of female voices in navigation devices dates back to World War II. Still others draw a direct line from the portrayals of women in Mad Men, looking back on a time when women were often secretaries and telephone operators. Just because you can find a historical precursor doesn’t make it okay to perpetuate a stereotype.

There’s even a school of thought that thinks the dominance of female voices is due to the instances of male robotic menace in popular media: think HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey or W.O.P.R. from Wargames. (Some might argue that GLaDOS from the videogame Portal is way scarier than any movie robot.) This one is also easy to dismiss, thanks to the strange, fascinating portrayals of female A.I.s in the films Hal and Ex Machina.

The linguistic engineers at Google and Apple must face a lot of hurdles; women and men not only sound different when they speak, but they also use different words. This can create a linguistic version of digital design’s “uncanny valley”: an artificial voice that sounds female, but uses male-sounding phrases, won’t seem authentic to the human speaking to it. This leads to an exchange where the user is focused more on the sound of the voice of the digital assistant than the information being relayed.

Nevertheless, digital assistants are certainly based on millions of dollars in market research, and the Silicon Valley giants who funded that research aren’t releasing statistics anytime soon. It’s certainly purposeful in design, as evidenced by the fact that A.I.s like Siri have built-in responses to resist gender identification. If you ask Siri what gender it is, the response is generally, “I am genderless, like cacti, or certain species of fish,” or a variation.

Women and men not only sound different when they speak, but they also use different words

Conversely, both Apple and Google have both stated a desire to make their digital assistants more sophisticated, giving users a sense of a relationship rather than a device. It’s a potentially troublesome phenomenon as the makers of anthropomorphic assistants to accent non-threatening and subservient qualities to achieve social acceptance. Scarier still is the idea that digital assistants are not only reflecting gender bias, but causing it. Kids are already anthropomorphizing their robot friends, and also bossing them around — a behavior parents don’t want them to extend to actual people.

Killer robot expert, Daniel H. Wilson, a roboticist and the author of Roboapocalypse and How to Survive a Robot Uprising, agrees with the flood of responses that urge caution as artificial intelligence gets more and more sophisticated.

More: The creators of Siri are now on a mission to destroy it

“The preponderance of female virtual assistants is proof that robots can be a reflection of human stereotypes,” he told Digital Trends. “As we continue to create technology that stands in for people, it’s crucial that designers work to avoid perpetuating human prejudice through their creations.”

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Gender bias isn’t a new phenomenon and it shows up in surprising ways — it’s the reason your kid couldn’t buy a Rey action figure when The Force Awakens came out, or why Tony Stark replaces his trusty A.I. Jarvis with a “Girl Friday” — but it is something that A.I. developers should consider as they continue tweaking their digital assistants. Dissenting voices, writers like Jessica Nordell and Soraya Chemaly, are asking the right questions.

“Many people dismiss issues like these, which are fundamentally about representation and its impact on self-image, ambition, and human potential, as inconsequential, but they are mistaken,” writes Chemaly at Role Reboot. “Naming and designing products in these ways is both a symptom of bias and a cause, and steps should be taken in the design of new technology to understand how social inequalities are related to technical ones.”

Over at the New Republic, Nordell also has some sage advice: “At the very least, the default settings for these assistants should not always be women,” she writes. “Change Viv to Victor, and maybe one fewer woman will be asked to be the next meeting’s designated note-taker.”

Alexa, why aren’t you a dude? How female digital assistants reinforce stereotypes

We find ourselves surrounded by helpful assistants these days, from Apple’s Siri to Microsoft’s futuristic Cortana to Amazon’s Alexa to … whatever the designation for “OK Google” is — and every one of them defaults to a female persona. In response, a lot of writers are asking if the tendency of postmodern digital assistants to skew female is a dangerous thing for society.

Sure, you can change Siri to a different gender and even a different accent — I was carrying around an Australian bloke for a while before switching to a Brit, preferring a digital Alfred Pennyworth — but digital assistants skew female and stay that way. It’s a perception that some think might be having a negative effect on society in training everyone to think of women as assistants, rather than as whole human beings and equals.

More: “Human, the milk has spoiled.” Soon Alexa will run your smart home, and your life

There are other factors at play as well. Some researchers believe we as human beings have a natural inclination to prefer a female voice. Historians and sociologists often point to history as a touchstone, hypothesizing that the preponderance of female voices in navigation devices dates back to World War II. Still others draw a direct line from the portrayals of women in Mad Men, looking back on a time when women were often secretaries and telephone operators. Just because you can find a historical precursor doesn’t make it okay to perpetuate a stereotype.

There’s even a school of thought that thinks the dominance of female voices is due to the instances of male robotic menace in popular media: think HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey or W.O.P.R. from Wargames. (Some might argue that GLaDOS from the videogame Portal is way scarier than any movie robot.) This one is also easy to dismiss, thanks to the strange, fascinating portrayals of female A.I.s in the films Hal and Ex Machina.

The linguistic engineers at Google and Apple must face a lot of hurdles; women and men not only sound different when they speak, but they also use different words. This can create a linguistic version of digital design’s “uncanny valley”: an artificial voice that sounds female, but uses male-sounding phrases, won’t seem authentic to the human speaking to it. This leads to an exchange where the user is focused more on the sound of the voice of the digital assistant than the information being relayed.

Nevertheless, digital assistants are certainly based on millions of dollars in market research, and the Silicon Valley giants who funded that research aren’t releasing statistics anytime soon. It’s certainly purposeful in design, as evidenced by the fact that A.I.s like Siri have built-in responses to resist gender identification. If you ask Siri what gender it is, the response is generally, “I am genderless, like cacti, or certain species of fish,” or a variation.

Women and men not only sound different when they speak, but they also use different words

Conversely, both Apple and Google have both stated a desire to make their digital assistants more sophisticated, giving users a sense of a relationship rather than a device. It’s a potentially troublesome phenomenon as the makers of anthropomorphic assistants to accent non-threatening and subservient qualities to achieve social acceptance. Scarier still is the idea that digital assistants are not only reflecting gender bias, but causing it. Kids are already anthropomorphizing their robot friends, and also bossing them around — a behavior parents don’t want them to extend to actual people.

Killer robot expert, Daniel H. Wilson, a roboticist and the author of Roboapocalypse and How to Survive a Robot Uprising, agrees with the flood of responses that urge caution as artificial intelligence gets more and more sophisticated.

More: The creators of Siri are now on a mission to destroy it

“The preponderance of female virtual assistants is proof that robots can be a reflection of human stereotypes,” he told Digital Trends. “As we continue to create technology that stands in for people, it’s crucial that designers work to avoid perpetuating human prejudice through their creations.”

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Gender bias isn’t a new phenomenon and it shows up in surprising ways — it’s the reason your kid couldn’t buy a Rey action figure when The Force Awakens came out, or why Tony Stark replaces his trusty A.I. Jarvis with a “Girl Friday” — but it is something that A.I. developers should consider as they continue tweaking their digital assistants. Dissenting voices, writers like Jessica Nordell and Soraya Chemaly, are asking the right questions.

“Many people dismiss issues like these, which are fundamentally about representation and its impact on self-image, ambition, and human potential, as inconsequential, but they are mistaken,” writes Chemaly at Role Reboot. “Naming and designing products in these ways is both a symptom of bias and a cause, and steps should be taken in the design of new technology to understand how social inequalities are related to technical ones.”

Over at the New Republic, Nordell also has some sage advice: “At the very least, the default settings for these assistants should not always be women,” she writes. “Change Viv to Victor, and maybe one fewer woman will be asked to be the next meeting’s designated note-taker.”

Truly driverless tests (those without humans) may soon take place in California

Why it matters to you

California’s move to remove the driver altogether is a large, albeit controversial, leap towards a truly autonomous future.

Sure, we’ve been testing self-driving cars for years now, but we haven’t really been testing them. After all, the whole point of having driverless technology is to see how a car would truly behave sans driver. Actually, no — sans human intervention altogether. But soon, we may be putting autonomous technology to the real test. California, the largest car market in the U.S. and the state that has been friendliest thus far to self-driving testing, says that it plans to allow autonomous cars take to public roads with no backup human driver by the end of the year.

Buckle up, kids. This could be a bumpy ride.

As it stands, driverless cars must have some flesh and blood being in the vehicle while they’re being tested, just in case something goes wrong. But now, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is looking for public feedback on proposed regulations that would not only allow for 100 percent driverless testing, but would also nix the requirements for traditional car controls like steering wheels and pedals (really, those become superfluous once you take out the human element).

More: This camera that sees in real time could mean safer driverless cars and drones

Over the course of the next 45 days, the public is welcome to comment on the new guidelines. After April 24, there will be a public hearing to further discuss next steps, and the final rules ought to be completed by the end of 2017. Should things go according to plan, California transportation secretary Brian Kelly says that self-driving cars could soon go on sale in the state.

27 companies already have permission to test autonomous cars on public roads — there’s BMW, Tesla, Alphabet, and Baidu, along with a number of startups that are all looking to make your morning commute something of a snooze fest.

But don’t worry — we won’t be taking humans completely out of the equation. Any self-driving car must come with a remote operator who would be able to monitor the vehicle’s operation and communicate with those taking a ride. But hey, sometime soon, those passengers may not have to know how to operate their own vehicles. At least, not in the traditional sense.

Save on a laptop, tablet, or desktop with these limited-time Acer computer deals

For a limited time, Acer is slashing prices on its lineup of laptops, convertible tablets, and all-in-one desktop computers, offering you up to $200 in savings. If you’re on the market for a new PC, check out this short list of our favorite Acer computer deals to save you some time and money. Our roundup features five different models to suit a variety of needs and budgets, from affordable netbooks to high-end two-in-one tablet computers, and these sale prices are valid until March 15.

Chromebook 13

If a compact, affordable, and reliable no-frills netbook is what you need, the Chromebook 13 fits the bill with its quad-core Nvidia Tegra K1 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of flash memory, and lightweight Chrome operating system. The 13.3-inch display boasts a 1080p resolution and the battery lasts for up to 13 hours on a single charge, giving you more than enough juice for your daily routine so you can toss it in your bag and go.

Normally priced at $300 on the Acer online store, the Chromebook 13 is available for just $220 until March 15, netting you a nice $80 discount.

Buy it for $220

Aspire Switch 10 2-in-1 laptop

Second on our Acer computer deal roundup is the Aspire Switch 10, a unique and versatile 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrid. The 10.1-inch Gorilla Glass 3 touchscreen has a resolution of 1,280 x 800 and can separate from the keyboard for stand-alone use as a tablet. When not in use, the keyboard can be reversed and used as a convenient stand for the screen. The Aspire Switch 10 runs on a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor and comes loaded with Windows 10 and 32GB of flash storage.

If you want a netbook-sized compact laptop that can double as a tablet, then the Aspire Switch 10 is currently $70 off, which brings this lightweight 2-in-1 computer down to just $230.

Buy it for $230

Swift 3 ultra-thin laptop

If you prefer a more traditional laptop size but want to keep the weight down, the Swift 3 ultra-thin laptop is a sleek option that weighs in at just 3.3 pounds. The 14-inch IPS display features a 1080p Full HD resolution and the computer comes equipped with a 2.30GHz Intel i5-6200U dual-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a speedy 256GB solid state drive. The all-metal body is both durable and attractive, and the backlit keyboard and 10-hour battery life let you keep working into those quiet evening hours.

Acer is currently offering a $100 discount on the Swift 3, bringing the price of this thin lightweight laptop down to $550.

Buy it for $550

Aspire U5 all-in-one desktop

The Acer Aspire U5 is purpose-built for those who need a more traditional computer form factor than a laptop or netbook can provide, but without the bulky footprint of a standard PC tower. This all-in-one desktop computer features a 23-inch 1080p display along with an integrated Intel i5-4200M dual-core processor, DVD drive, and 8GB of RAM. An internal hard drive provides one terabyte of storage for your apps and files. The IPS screen serves as a convenient 10-point touch display and is treated with an anti-fingerprint coating.

The Aspire U5 all-in-one PC retails for $900, but a $200 discount brings this versatile and lightweight desktop computer down to just $700.

Buy it for $700

Switch Alpha 12 2-in-1 laptop

If a 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrid appeals to you but you’d like a bigger display and more laptop-like specs than those found on the Aspire Switch 10, then the Switch Alpha 12 is a stand-out option in the Acer lineup with an Intel i7-6500U processor, 8GB of onboard RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. The 12-inch IPS 10-point touch screen offers a crisp QHD resolution of 2,160 x 1,440 and features its own flip-out stand which can easily adjust to the perfect angle for viewing and typing.

The Switch Alpha 12 2-in-1 laptop comes in at $800, giving you a tidy $150 discount off of its normal price from the Acer store.

Buy it for $800

Pinterest gives everyone in the US access to its Lens tool

Pinterest’s visual search tool isn’t quite ready to hop out of beta yet, but the company is giving a lot more people the chance to try it out. The new feature, called Lens, is now open to all Android and iOS users in the US after a month-long trial with a small group of testers. Lens is pretty much the app’s version of reverse image search, created so that you can easily shop for items on Pinterest by taking their photos.

Say, you want to look up your friend’s unusual vase that’s shaped like an upside-down human head — you only need to tap the search bar and take a photo of it using the camera icon that pops up. You can also use any image from your gallery. Your queries will surface other people’s pins and products you can purchase from within the app, though the company admits the feature isn’t quite as accurate as it would like it to be.

Pinterest says Lens, while excellent at looking up outfits and recipe ingredients, is still learning. It plans to keep the feature in beta until it gets considerably better at recognizing what’s in a photo, and you can help speed up that process by sending in feedback when you can.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Pinterest