Samsung Galaxy S8 hands-on: The “Infinity Phone”

Until very recently, Samsung’s phones were at the top of the list for Android quality (at least in the eyes of the mainstream consumer). Now under pressure to bounce back from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung doesn’t just have to make the Galaxy S8 a success; it has to make it a resounding one. Today, we finally get to see Samsung’s version of the comeback. This is my first Galaxy S8 hands-on, and there’s a lot to get ahold of.

I’m Michael Fisher, AKA MrMobile, and yes, I’ve held the S8 and S8+ in my hand. I’ve tried their new cameras, I’ve played with DeX and Bixby, and I’ve clicked the new home button (that’s not a button at all)! Now, it’s time to tell you all about it. This hands-on is the beginning of our journey with the Samsung Galaxy S8. Start with the video above, and then check out all of Android Central’s coverage as I prepare the full MrMobile Galaxy S8 Review, coming soon!

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Score a free Gear VR and Controller with your Galaxy S8

Samsung is leaning on one of its greatest hits for the Galaxy S8 launch.

If you’re planning to pick up a Galaxy S8 on or near launch day, you should probably pre-order it. If you do, Samsung and its partners are going to toss in a Gear VR with the new Gear VR Controller for free.

This isn’t the first time Samsung has made this particular offer, but this is the first time that deal is far too good for anyone to pass up. The Gear VR has grown into its own incredible part of the VR ecosystem, complete with compelling games you can’t get anywhere else and a ton of streaming video apps for watching stuff in VR. It’s the first VR headset with its own functional social platform, making it an incredibly compelling VR experience over all.

But the real add-on here is the new Controller, which saves you from needing to tap the side of the headset for interaction and eventually plans to offer Daydream-like laser pointer navigation for a bunch of VR apps. When you add that $40 accessory to the $60 headset, it’s clear even if you aren’t totally sold on VR just yet this is something you want to get your hands on for free with your Galaxy S8.

Here are all the places you can pre-order the Galaxy S8 and get a free Gear VR!

Samsung Connect Home aims to be more than a Google Wifi competitor

It does more than mesh networking. Samsung Connect Home acts as a hub for all your smart home gadgets, too.

Samsung revealed its first Wi-Fi system today alongside its new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

Samsung Connect Home is a mid-tier system that comes in a pack of three, similar to Google WiFi and Eero. One unit connects to your existing broadband modem, while the other two units work in tandem as network extenders, the idea being you can create your own fluid Wi-Fi network without too much complication.

If you were a SmartThings Hub user, good news: you won’t need a separate hub if you bring home the Connect Home.

The Connect Home also features its own app, just like Google Wi-Fi. You can use it to manage your home network. At launch, you will need one of the newfangled Galaxy S8 devices to use Samsung Connect Home. Towards the end of the year it should be available to other Android devices — and maybe even iPhones.

If you were a SmartThings Hub user, good news: you won’t need a separate hub if you bring home the Connect Home. The device has Zigbee and Z-Wave compatibility built-in, so your house can stay smart. It’s also compatible with other smart home devices, including Philips Hue Lights and the Ring Video Doorbell.

There isn’t too much information about the Samsung Connect Home yet and the company has yet to settle on a release date or price point. There is a Pro version that will launch alongside the Connect Home, though as a single unit. We’ll hopefully have more details in the coming weeks.

How to use public transit directions in Google Maps

Google Maps is an amazing resource for finding public transit information.

In addition to driving directions, Google Maps offers a wealth of options if you rely on public transit for your daily commute. The service gives you a list of the various forms of public transportation for your journey, and it also offers the ability to set a departure time and see the options available at that particular time.

Google Maps catalogs public transit information — including bus, train, ferry, and tram schedules — from over 100 countries and 25,000 towns. Along with finding the optimal transport mode for your daily commute, Maps makes it easy for you to find transit information when visiting a new city.

How to use Google Maps for public transit

Enter the location you want to travel to in the Search here field.
Tap the blue navigation button in the bottom right corner.

Select the train icon to see public transit options.

You’ll be able to see options available currently as well as the weather.
To see if trains or buses are available at a particular time, select the Depart at field.

Enter your desired time and hit Done.

You’ll see a new list of options.
If you have a preferred mode of transportation, select the Options button.

Choose your preference and hit Done.

Do you rely on Google Maps to find bus and train schedules in your area? Let us know in the comments.

How to take a screenshot on the Galaxy S8

You’ve got two simple ways to grab a screenshot on the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus.

Your Galaxy S8 (or Galaxy S8 Plus, no judgement here) can do a lot of things no other Samsung phone has been able to do, but it’s also missing the big friendly button that has always been on the front of the phone. While Samsung has replaced nearly all of the features offered in that button with other tools across the phone, taking a screenshot didn’t make the cut.

Whether you’re new to Samsung phones or you’ve only ever used Samsung phones, knowing how to take a screenshot on the Galaxy S8 will making life just a little bit easier for you later on. Lets take a quick look at the different ways you can take a screenshot on the Galaxy S8, now that there’s no big friendly button on the front.

Method 1: How to take a screenshot using the button shortcut

This method works on just about every Android phone out there, but there are a few extra options on a Samsung phone.

Get the app or screen that you want to capture ready to go.
Press and hold the volume down button and the power button at the same time. You’ll hear the camera shutter sound, along with a short flashing animation, and that’s how you know you’re good to go.
You’ll now be able to see the screenshot in the Gallery app, or in Samsung’s built-in My Files file browser, or in Google Photos, if you use that instead.
If you need to find the screenshots from a command line or through the Android File Transfer tool, they’ll be in /pictures/screenshots.

Method 2: How to take a screenshot by swiping the screen

Samsung’s got another cool feature in its smartphones for taking screenshots. And some of us think it’s actually the easier way to take a screenshot when compared to the button method. (Though it does get a little more tricky if you’re using the larger Galaxy S8 Plus.)

Tilt your hand to the side a little, so your thumb is pointing away from the screen.
Swipe your entire hand across the screen from left to right.

Just like in the other method you’ll hear the shutter sound and see a short on-screen animation.

This method is enabled by default, but you can turn it off in the settings if you prefer, or if you find you’re accidentally taking screenshots.

Go into the settings menu.
Scroll down to Motion and choose Motions and gestures.
Tap Palm swipe to capture.
Hit the toggle button from on to off.

Extra Credit: How to take a scrolling screenshot on the Galaxy S8

Sometimes you need to capture more than just what you see on the screen. The good news is you don’t need to take multiple screenshots with the Galaxy S8. You can just take a scrolling screenshot instead and capture one giant long screenshot!

It’s a feature that has been around on Samsung phones since the Note 5, but here’s how it works on the Galaxy S8.

Take a screenshot, as before.
Tap the Capture more option to scroll down and grab more of the screen.
Keep on tapping until you’ve captured what you need or reach the bottom of the page.

Fair warning: Scrolling screenshots can get very large. Samsung helps with this somewhat. Single-screen grabs are output at full resolution — 1440×2690. But once you start adding them, the width is downscaled to 1080 pixels wide, and the whole screenshot is saved as a JPEG and instead of a PNG. Still, be careful. It’s not uncommon for these screenshots to get up to 6-7mb.

Now that you have a screenshot

You did it! Not as strange as it seems, right? Now that you have your screenshot, you can keep it for later or share it immediately.

If you want to share the screenshot immediately, tap the Share button that shows up after you capture the screenshot and choose from the list of apps that shows up how you want to deliver your photo. If you want to share it later, the Attach function in any app will be able to find your screenshot so you can add it to a social post or an email.

Once you take the screenshot it is treated like any other photo, which means it takes up space on your phone and will be added to your cloud backup through most photo apps. If you find yourself taking a lot of screenshots and don’t feel the need to keep them around forever, it may be worth occasionally going through your photo gallery and cleaning them out to save yourself some storage for later. Enjoy!

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ hands-on preview!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Super Mario Run Tips and Tricks

Best your friends in Toad Rally races with these tips and tricks for Super Mario Run.

As expected, Super Mario Run has quickly jumped up to the top of the Google Play Store app charts, as millions of Android users finally get a chance to check in with Mario’s latest adventure.

Once you’ve completed the main story mode, Toad Rally emerges as the core mode in which you’ll spend most of your time playing. Racing against other players from around the world, your goal is to collect as many coins and pull off as many epic jumps as possible. You can learn more about the basic controls in our Super Mario Run FAQ, but if you really want an edge on the competition, look no further than these seven great tips and tricks to get the most out of Super Mario Run.

Let coins and arrows to guide you to more coins

This one’s pretty simple, but it’s worth stating: when you see an arrow, take note and try to follow it’s path. It will often lead you to new heights, more coins… and maybe even a hidden Challenge Coin.

Coins also double when you’re enjoying a Coin Rush, so all the more reason to follow those arrows for maximum scoring!

Mastering the mid-air stall is key

Controls are incredibly limited in Super Mario Run, but there are a few ways you can tweak Mario’s jump. Perhaps the most useful and trickiest to pull off is the mid-air stall. This special move will pause Mario’s forward progress in mid-air and move you backward just a step.To perform it, touch the screen to high-jump, and then swipe to the left while in mid-air. This move is especially useful while playing as Yoshi and Princess Peach, as you can couple it with their floaty jumps to actually float a significant distance backwards. A great trick to pull in a Toad Rally if you just missed out on a treasure trove of coins.

Dying isn’t necessarily a bad thing

This kinda goes against all video game logic, but dying in Super Mario Run can actually be helpful. Sure, you lose a couple of coins when you die, but it can also put you back at the very beginning of the level without resetting the content or killing clock. So, if you want to go back and get that challenge coin you missed or want to check an alternate path, you can do so with little repercussion. Just remember the further you go back, the more likely you are to run out of time, so don’t dilly-dally.

Don’t forget that you can tap a bubble to rewind

Instead of letting Mario fall off a ledge, you can also tap the Bubble button at the top of the screen at any time to rewind the level. Miss out on a Challenge Coin? You can bubble back and make the magic happen. Just remember that you won’t get any extra time on the clock, so hurry!

Go into a boss battle powered up

Fact: It’s incredibly easy to defeat Bowser with a mushroom-powered Mario. To beat him as small Mario, you have to jump over his massive shell (or time a run when he jumps into the air) and grab the axe, which falls and busts up the bridge he is standing on. It’s really hard to jump over him as is, but especially when you’re small mario. But if you’re powered up with a mushroom, you can take a hit from Bowser and still make it to the axe. If you’re playing as one of the optional characters such as Toad or Yoshi, take a minute to study Bowsers attack and jump patterns, then take advantage of their unique jump skills to coast right past him.

Play longer by turning down the graphics settings

You can lower the amount of battery power Super Mario Bros needs by lowering the rendering and graphics settings in the game. To do so tap Menu > Settings > Options. From there, you can tap the rendering and graphics settings to toggle each from high to low. We only recommend toggling the graphics setting though, since lowering the rendering is super noticeable and might throw you off while playing.

Sign up for, or log into My Nintendo

You receive extra rewards for connecting your My Nintendo account. If you played Miitomo you likely signed up then, and you can use the same account for Super Mario Run. Rewards include extra coins, Toad Rally tickets, decorations for your kingdom, and you also unlock Toad as a playable character.

Got any tips of your own to share?

Have you figured out some great strategies or discovered any easter eggs? Let us know in the comments!

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Paralyzed man first to move his arm by thinking about it

Helping paralyzed people move on their own has been a lot tougher than 1970s TV shows led us to believe it would be. For what they believe is the first time, researchers used tech to bypass a quadriplegic patient’s severed spinal cord, helping him move his own hand with his mind and feed himself without aid. The work could lead to “a new generation of neurotechnologies that we all hope will one day restore mobility and independence for people with paralysis,” says research lead Leigh Hocherg.

The trial was done by Case Western Reserve University researchers and the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) center. “For somebody who’s been injured eight years and couldn’t move, being able to move just that little bit is awesome to me,” said the 56-year-old patient, Bill Kochevar, who became paralyzed from the shoulders down following a bicycle accident. “It’s better than I thought it would be.”

A lot of work has led up to that small but important win. Scientists have been working for decades developing an intracortical brain-computer interface (iBCI). At first, patients could only use the tech to control images on a screen, but researchers and doctors eventually got them to move robotic arms with the tech, allowing one patient to drink coffee on her own.

The other part of it is “functional electrical stimulation (FES),” a system that can stimulate nerves in your limbs to makes your arms, legs or fingers move. Such tech has previously been used to help paralyzed patients move their limbs, but so far, they’ve only been able to activate it by shoulder shrugs or nodding, and not brain signals.

The trick that the Case Western and Cleveland FES teams did was marrying the two. To get the brain interface working as accurately as possible, they put Kochevar in a special MRI machine, had him imagine moving different parts of his body, and tracked which parts of the brain lit up. “This kind of patient-specific structural imaging is the only way to get an accurate atlas,” study co-lead Bolu Ajiboye told Time.

The group used the data to implant electrodes at specific spots in Kochevar’s brain, and attached them to a custom computer interface that can decipher the commands. For practice, he used it to move a virtual limb on a screen, using similar thoughts that powered his real arm. “It went very well very quickly,” he said. “I learned how to do it right away and got better and better.”

At the same time, the FES center was using a remotely operated 36-electrode array to strengthen Kochevar’s atrophied arm and hand muscles. When the iBCI was finally married with the stimulating electrodes, he was able to eat, drink and scratch his nose using his own hand almost immediately. “To me, it feels exactly the same as it did before, except there is a little delay,” he said.

Kochevar has no perception of touch, of course, but surprisingly, it doesn’t bother him at all. “We actually did some experiments in which I closed my eyes while reaching and I was able to do it,” he said. However, some day it might be possible to simulate those feelings.

Though the system works well, it’s still too bulky and complex for the real world. The next step is to miniaturize the tech so it can be implanted within the body, and possibly adapted to the user’s legs, too. A key part of the study has been Kochevar’s “extraordinary” participation, the team said. “He’s really breaking ground for the spinal cord injury community,” said Case Western Reserve’s Bob Kirsch. “This is a major step toward restoring some independence.”

Via: The Guardian

Source: Case Western Reserve University

Google Calendar App Finally Released for iPad

Google today announced it has updated its Calendar app with long-awaited iPad support.

The app is essentially the same as the iPhone version, but it is now optimized for the tablet’s larger screen. Google said a Today view widget for Notification Center and the Lock screen is coming soon.

Here’s a quick overview of the app’s features:

• Different ways to view your calendar – Quickly switch between month, week and day view.
• Events from Gmail – Flight, hotel, concert, restaurant reservations and more are added to your calendar automatically.
• To-dos – Use Reminders to create and view to-dos alongside your events.
• Goals – Add personal goals—like “run 3 times a week”—and Calendar will schedule time for them automatically.
• Quick event creation – Smart suggestions for event titles, places and people save you time when creating events.
• All your calendars in one place – Google Calendar works with all calendars on your device, including Exchange and iCloud

Google Calendar can be downloaded for free on the App Store [Direct Link].

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