BenQ’s new 27-inch and 28-inch monitors protect your eyes and your budget

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for a midsized monitor with good specs and affordable pricing, BenQ has introduced two good options to look at.

High-end monitors with 4K UHD resolutions, fast refresh rates for gaming, and HDR for exciting color reproduction get most of the press lately. Not everyone is looking to spend huge wads of cash on a new display, however, and BenQ has a couple of new models that should more comfortably fit within modest budgets.

Today, the company announced the availability of the GC2870H and GL2706PQ. While both are modest in terms of specifications, they’re also more affordable options for anyone who doesn’t need a monitor for more than the usual productivity tasks.

More: Rise of HDR and 4K on display in the top 5 monitors at CES 2017

First up is the 27-inch VA GL2706PQ, which uses an LED backlit panel with QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. The display offers BenQ’s set of Eye-Care features aimed at reducing eye fatigue, including ZeroFlicker to reduce screen flicker and Low Blue Light mode to reduce stress when using the monitor for an extended time. The monitor also sports a 1ms response time that should be a nice advantage for gamers.

Other features include an ergonomic height-adjustable stand and built-in speakers. Connectivity is provided by DisplayPort and HDMI connections.

Next is the 28-inch GC2870H, with a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution LED panel. The monitor features an 85-percent NTSC color gamut, which according to BenQ is a significant improvement over the industry average 72 percent coverage. A 3000:1 contrast ration and 16.7 million color shades provide for both quality color reproduction and strong blacks and whites.

The GC2870H also offers the same Eye-Care technologies as the GL2706PQ and has 178-degree wide viewing angles. Connectivity is provided by HDMI.

Both displays are available now. The GC2706PQ has a retail price of $299, and the GC2870H is priced at $189.

Could text, not voice, be the best way to interact with smart appliances?

Why it matters to you

You may not need to buy an Alexa device to interact with your future smart kettle, just text it instead.

Although voice interaction is the technology de jour for many early adopters around the world, it may be that SMS text messages turn out to be the preferred method of telling your smart kettle what to do. As well as being less intrusive, texting makes the interaction method hardware agnostic, letting anything become part of your smart and connected home.

One of the biggest problems associated with voice commands is that they can be distracting or intrusive. If you’re having a conversation in your home and want to change the temperature on your smart thermostat, you don’t want to have to speak over people or wait for a break to do so. This was something Mark Zuckerberg highlighted in the creation of his Jarvis home assistant.

While tolerance for that level of intrusion will differ from person to person, people and companies are separately concerned about tying smart devices to specific hub hardware. As it stands, products like Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo, or Google’s Home hubs can interact with different products and services, but many manufacturers and developers don’t want to be tied to those particular pieces of equipment.

More: Alexa texts as you talk — Amazon’s AI assistant can now send SMS messages

With SMS messaging, even through third party services like Unified Inbox, these products are able to be more agnostic about the hardware and software they interact with. As Reuters highlights, this means that companies don’t need to make themselves compatible with industry giants, and can offer similarly connected services, but remain independent.

SMS messaging is also something that almost every person in the world can do. It doesn’t require smartphone power or a local Wi-Fi connection to achieve, nor a connection to a powerful cloud computing network.

Services like Unified Inbox can support a number of messaging applications, some which support encryption, which potentially offers better security than a voice recording being sent to cloud networks for processing and response.

Text messaging offers a unified standard of communication that has already proven to be popular with people all over the world of various age groups and backgrounds. It could well be the standard of communication we use for our connected machines of the future, too.

Samsung Galaxy Book user manual reveals some interesting tidbits

Why it matters to you

If you’re at all interested in Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Book Windows 10 tablet, we checked out the user manual to glean some interesting details.

Samsung has a new Windows 10 tablet coming soon, replacing the Galaxy TabPro S that arrived in early 2016. The Galaxy TabPro S sported an excellent OLED display with the usual deep blacks and vibrant colors, but had a cramped keyboard, limited connectivity, and poor viewing angles.

The replacement Galaxy Book will need to address those issues, and Samsung has faced the keyboard deficiency head-on with a new design. There is some weirdness on hand, however, according to the machine’s user manual, as MSPU reports.

More: Samsung’s Galaxy Book isn’t much of a book (or a Galaxy device)

The Galaxy Book will be coming in two versions, one with a 12-inch display and one with a smaller 10.2-inch panel. Both versions will utilize similar keyboard covers, and it’s this component that seems to have some rather interesting characteristics.

First, the keyboard can be attached at different points to allow for at least three different angles, from almost straight up to a roughly 45-degree angle to laying almost flat to make the best use of the supported S Pen. Next, the keyboard contains the NFC chip, meaning that if you want to use the NFC radio for some reason, you’ll need to have the keyboard on hand. Finally, the Galaxy Book will perform more slowly when the tablet is disconnected for a reason that’s not explicitly explained.

As usual, you can find out even more about how the device works by checking out the manual. Sections on the Samsung Notes and Air Command flow apps and functionality are included, and they highlight how the S Pen interacts with the device for controlling the user interface and writing on the screen. In addition, the Samsung Flow feature enabling the tablet to be connected to a smartphone is also explained.

If you’re interested in the Galaxy Book and want to get an idea of how it works, then you can download the manual here. Samsung hasn’t yet provided availability and pricing information on the new Windows 10 tablet, but at least now you have some additional information to keep you busy in the meantime.

Samsung Galaxy Book user manual reveals some interesting tidbits

Why it matters to you

If you’re at all interested in Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Book Windows 10 tablet, we checked out the user manual to glean some interesting details.

Samsung has a new Windows 10 tablet coming soon, replacing the Galaxy TabPro S that arrived in early 2016. The Galaxy TabPro S sported an excellent OLED display with the usual deep blacks and vibrant colors, but had a cramped keyboard, limited connectivity, and poor viewing angles.

The replacement Galaxy Book will need to address those issues, and Samsung has faced the keyboard deficiency head-on with a new design. There is some weirdness on hand, however, according to the machine’s user manual, as MSPU reports.

More: Samsung’s Galaxy Book isn’t much of a book (or a Galaxy device)

The Galaxy Book will be coming in two versions, one with a 12-inch display and one with a smaller 10.2-inch panel. Both versions will utilize similar keyboard covers, and it’s this component that seems to have some rather interesting characteristics.

First, the keyboard can be attached at different points to allow for at least three different angles, from almost straight up to a roughly 45-degree angle to laying almost flat to make the best use of the supported S Pen. Next, the keyboard contains the NFC chip, meaning that if you want to use the NFC radio for some reason, you’ll need to have the keyboard on hand. Finally, the Galaxy Book will perform more slowly when the tablet is disconnected for a reason that’s not explicitly explained.

As usual, you can find out even more about how the device works by checking out the manual. Sections on the Samsung Notes and Air Command flow apps and functionality are included, and they highlight how the S Pen interacts with the device for controlling the user interface and writing on the screen. In addition, the Samsung Flow feature enabling the tablet to be connected to a smartphone is also explained.

If you’re interested in the Galaxy Book and want to get an idea of how it works, then you can download the manual here. Samsung hasn’t yet provided availability and pricing information on the new Windows 10 tablet, but at least now you have some additional information to keep you busy in the meantime.

Hey photographers, AI is helping editors determine which photos make the cut

Why it matters to you

Getting an instant response to stock photo submissions is getting closer — AI could speed up response times by as much as 60 percent.

Artificial intelligence is now helping photo editors determine which shots make the cut. Dreamstime, a stock photography company shared on March 15 a new platform that’s learning from human editors which images fit the company’s parameters.

Dreamstime already uses AI to tag photos with relevant metadata to improve the search results. The newest machine learning software isn’t going to replace actual photo editors, Dreamstime says, but will help make the process faster by labeling submissions and continue learning from the editor’s choices.

More: AI photography studio highlights how robots are slowly hijacking nearly every profession

On the simplest level, the software can flag a photo of a person that wasn’t submitted with a model release and request the paperwork. The program can also recognize when a copyrighted logo is included in the image as well as other factors that trigger rejections. Flagging landmarks that can only be sold under an editorial license, marking duplicate submissions, and categorizing a submission as an illustration or a photograph also help speed up the process. The program then labels the images before they head to the actual photo editors.

But along with flagging potential problems, the system also recognizes a photograph’s subject and potential commercial value, Dreamstime says. As staff continues watching out for legal, aesthetic, and technical issues, the machine learning system will continue to improve the accuracy of the labels it assigns.

The company says the software will help photographers see a faster submission process, which in turn gets images selling faster. The system could cut review time by as much as 30 to 60 percent. In some cases, the computer creates an instant response.

“Constant innovation is a primary reason for our continued success in the stock image industry,” Serban Enache, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “With our AI solution, we have created a continually improving tool that will conduct instant image reviews, which will streamline our approval process. And we can layer on other types of metadata points such as customer behavior to build a truly intelligent solution that helps us improve the end-user experience.”

Dreamstime hopes to continue improving the program, with a goal of eventually factoring in sales data to better determine the type of images that are selling the most.

No more nagging: Family task management app helps both kids and adults

Why it matters to you

If you struggle to keep routine tasks and projects organized, this friendly tool could help.

Keeping track of your own life tasks is tough enough. Managing a family’s tasks can feel like a never-ending, impossible job. IGotThis, a new web-based task management for computers and mobile devices, lets parents set up and manage tasks for kids and for themselves. Currently in a Kickstarter campaign, IGotThis goes far beyond calendar reminders in the way it organizes tasks and keeps people accountable.

IGotThis is presented on Kickstarter primarily as a task management system for families who have kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Digital Trends interviewed founder and program designer Rich Schramm. When we mentioned the program didn’t seem limited to “ADHD families,” Schramm said, “Oh, it’s absolutely for whole families, any kind of families. The program has planning wizards for adults for ongoing tasks like car maintenance, or to set up reminders in advance of birthdays, anniversaries, and for holidays.”

More: Are fidget toys legitimately good for your brain, or pseudoscientific snake oil?

There are three ways to set up tasks in IGotThis: quick tasks, advanced options, and planning wizards. Quick tasks require minimal information: the person, the task, and the due date and time. Advanced options include creating tasks for one or more family members, setting reminder events and frequencies, simple or complex recurrence schedules, permission-based task skipping and rescheduling, oversight notifications, and more.

“IGotThis is focused more on tasks than calendars,” Schramm said. “It’s particularly powerful for adults who have trouble keeping tasks organized.” You can set up projects and subtasks. For example, you can have a party project with subtasks for different people. Subtasks could include creating the menu, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and invitations, each of which could have subtasks of its own.

Planning wizards help you set up yearly plans. There are wizards for “US Holidays,” “Important People” for birthdays and anniversaries, and a “Life as We Know It” wizard for categories such as car maintenance, household maintenance, and taxes. You can also use location-based reminders for tasks associated with a specific place. If a family member happens to be near the dry cleaner, for example, even though the task was scheduled for someone else at a later time, a notification can go out in time to stop and pick up dry cleaning.

One of the most appealing features of IGotThis for families, and for couples, is that it can offer hope for an end to nagging.  A dashboard screen gives a quick view of all scheduled tasks for the day as well as their current status. Whoever is assigned to a task is responsible for entering their progress. You can also see how successful any person in the system has been in completing the day’s tasks and how they trend over time.

The ability to track kids’ chores and homework via the dashboard can take the burden off parents who feel like they’re forever having to keep after their kids. For couples who want proof of who is (or isn’t) doing her or his part around the house, IGotThis can make the point without uncomfortable confrontations. And hey, if you just want to train yourself to be more diligent at keeping up with life tasks, the dashboard gives you quick feedback.

An additional feature in IGotThis for kids both with or without ADHD is a points and rewards system and badges. Future plans for the program include integration with home assistants, hyper-local reminders to do tasks in specific locations, and smart tasks that use machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to change existing tasks or recommend new tasks. There are still 19 days in the IGotThis Kickstarter campaign. The program is scheduled for delivery in May 2017.

Best VR games that don’t rely on teleportation

What are some VR games that don’t use teleportation?

If your VR legs are sturdy and you’re comfortable getting around a game without teleportation, you probably prefer standard locomotion. It’s usually more immersive, and it can really make horror games a lot scarier. If you have an iron stomach and don’t want to teleport anymore, here are the best VR games that feature natural locomotion.

Read more at VR Heads!

Get an eight-course Ethical Hacking bundle for only $39

It seems like every other day there’s another high-profile hack that puts thousands of users’ information into the hands of people who shouldn’t have it. To safeguard against these types of attacks, companies hire Ethical Hackers who expose security flaws. These Ethical Hackers are in high demand, and the profession can be quite lucrative,

Get eight Ethical Hacking courses for only $39 Learn more

Because this profession requires a broad range of knowledge, the courses needed to become an Ethical Hacker are generally quite expensive. Right now, however, Windows Central Digital Offers has a pretty amazing deal. You can get this 45-hour bundle for only $39; that’s 96% off the regular price of $1,273.

The eight courses in the bundle include:

• Ethical Hacker Bootcamp for 2017
• A to Z Ethical Hacking Course
• Learn Burp Suite for Advanced Web Penetration Testing
• Complete Ethical Hacking/Penetration Testing Course
• Intro to Ethical Hacking Certification
• Real World Hacking & Penetration Testing
• Learn Kali Linux and Hack Android Mobile Devices
• Learn Hacking/Penetration Testing Using Android From Scratch

Don’t worry about your skill level, as these eight courses take you from the basics to advanced tools used in the profession. After completing these courses, you’ll be more than ready to jump into the world of Ethical Hacking.

This Ethical Hacking bundle is 96% off! Learn more

Ready to take the plunge into a new, lucrative career? Ethical Hackers are in high demand, and this course contains everything you need to get started. Don’t wait too long, as this amazing deal won’t last forever.

Should you upgrade your headphones for PlayStation VR?

Great audio experiences are a huge part of VR.

No matter what VR headset you are using, you want to make sure you have decent headphones. That full immersion experience, where your physical world is replaced by the virtual one, has a lot to do with hearing things from all around you. Knowing that when you turn your head you’ll see something coming from the direction you just heard it is a big deal, but if you can hear the real world as well it takes away from this experience.

Killer headphones are going to be a big deal with PlayStation VR, so here’s what you should be looking for if you’re planning an upgrade.

Read more on VRHeads.com

Bootloop-affected LG G4 and V10 owners are suing LG in class-action lawsuit

Bootloops suck.

Fortunately, bootloops are a relatively rare occurrence unless you tinker with your software… or you own an LG G4 or LG V10. Bootloops were a notorious problem for these phones and at the beginning of 2016, LG acknowledged the defect and offered repairs and replacements.

Problem is, owners are claiming they didn’t work either. And now they’ve called in the lawyers.

In a new class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in a California federal court, one of the LG G4-owning plaintiffs claims LG replaced his bootlooping G4 twice, and the third freezes constantly, “manifesting signs of the bootloop defect and unmerchantable.” The suit also claims that LG knowlingly continued to sell the LG V10 with the bootloop defect and refused to repair LG G4s that failed outside the one-year warranty.

The suit claims both the G4 and its similarly-constructed cousin the V10 had processors which were inadequately soldered to their motherboards, causing them to fail in the heat of their regular operation, causing them to lag, freeze, overheat, randomly reboot, bootloop and eventually die.

If you didn’t have your data backed up, like photos of your kids or work documents, that data was lost forever when the phone failed as well.

These onerous owners are claiming unjust enrichment, unfair trade, and breached of warranty laws, seeking not only damages and legal fees, but demanding a federal judge order a comprehensive program to repair all LG phones containing the bootloop defect and customer restitution.

Will you be joining the class action? Let us know in the comments!

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