People are looking up VPNs after the House voted away internet privacy rules

Why it matters to you

The spike in search queries shows that some people are thinking about extra online protection, for this week at least.

A few days removed from a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives on internet privacy, there has been a notable boost in search queries for virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Congress voted on Tuesday to repeal FCC internet privacy rules that would have prevented internet service providers (ISPs) from selling customer data without a clear opt-in. The rule change is a cause for concern for ISP customers who will now potentially see their data sold on to third parties, which has led to a spike in searches online for privacy tools like VPNs.

Torrent Freak pulled Google Trends data from 2012 to 2017. While there are ups and downs month to month, the overall trajectory is on the up, especially after the Snowden leaks. But there has also been a noticeable uptick in March of this year.

More: Congress agrees to nuke the FCC’s privacy rule but your data remains safe

We looked at some of the data available from the last seven days. You’ll see that there is an obvious leap on March 29, the day after the vote, and the next day also.

NordVPN told Digital Trends that it has seen an 86-percent increase in inquiries from American users this week. A spokesperson for HideMyAss, another VPN provider, which is owned by Avast, said it too has seen a spike in traffic to its site.

“Such spikes in user interest in VPNs are not unusual,” said NordVPN CMO, Marty P. Kamden. The VPN provider saw similar upticks after the passing of the U.K.’s Snoopers Charter for instance and the recent CIA/WikiLeaks revelations.

“We are worried about the global tendency to invade internet users’ privacy, and we are glad we can offer a reliable tool that helps people keep their information private,” he said.

Many VPN providers were opposed to the rules being changed and many campaigned against it. One VPN, Private Internet Access, even took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to name and shame the senators that first voted for the repeal last week. However VPN providers may stand to gain business from this controversial rule change.

Google queries are one thing, though, as they only show us that there is interest in VPNs at a particular moment. Time will tell if this is just a burst of interest or if it will lead to a market shift in response to this legislative move.

Samsung’s Bixby isn’t a reason to buy the Galaxy S8

Bixby, Samsung’s new artificially intelligent assistant, will come installed on the new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, and it’s proof we should never believe the hype. Samsung has made such a big deal about the potential of AI — from the purchase of AI experts Viv Labs to the early announcement of Bixby itself; it has built up some huge expectations.

None of which have been fulfilled at the Galaxy S8’s launch, the first product Bixby will call home. Although it has been presented as a feature that will enable a world of cool things in the future, it came across more half-baked, filled with features already available elsewhere, that isn’t close to being ready for the public. This was further compounded by almost no demonstrations of Bixby’s voice functions at the launch event.

More: Read our first take impressions of the Galaxy S8

This is a massive problem. If you believed the hype, you need to be prepared for disappointment, and Samsung needs to prepare itself for Bixby’s obsolesce if it doesn’t turn it around in the very near future.

What does Bixby actually do?

This is an excellent question. Bixby integrates with 10 Samsung apps on the Galaxy S8, and seeing as that list includes Samsung’s Themes app — we’ve never wanted voice search there — we’re going to call it nine. That means no support for apps you probably use most often. The only third-party app support announced was Google Play Music, where Bixby can be asked to play a particular track — though Samsung never mentioned when that integration would roll out. So the answer to the question of what can it do is not much at the moment, unless you’re using Samsung’s apps.

Bixby is a voice assistant that really doesn’t want to be spoken to in the way you speak to Siri or Google Assistant. There’s a button on the side of the Galaxy S8 that must be pressed to wake up Bixby. In an interesting twist, Bixby wants to talk only to you, rather than the world around you, and is designed to chat away through the phone’s earpiece when it’s held to your ear. A bonus for privacy and the embarrassment factor of virtual assistants, but a fail for ergonomics. Lift the phone to your ear, then down again to tap the screen, then up again to listen to a response ad infinitum.

This odd way of interacting with Bixby continues. Samsung gave the example of asking Bixby to find a photo to share with friends, editing it, and sending it. That’s cool, except it’s broken up by you using the phone to edit the photo, and actually sending it. Bixby’s role in the process is minimal, and almost certainly won’t save time or effort. So why would we use it? Bixby’s like an extra step in the process we don’t actually need.

Google Assistant, and a hundred other apps

If Bixby isn’t useful immediately, it runs the risk of being forgotten by Galaxy S8 owners and instantly replaced by Google Assistant. Google’s own AI is also installed on the Galaxy S8, and is a more well-rounded, more useful tool. Add Assistant to the wealth of apps out there that can duplicate Bixby’s functionality, and you can do all the things you wish Bixby could do from the beginning, without bothering Bixby at all.

Samsung showed off how Bixby will integrate with the camera to identify items in the real world, and lead you to places online where you can buy or investigate them further. It’s like Google Goggles, or Pinterest’s visual search tool — in fact, it uses Pinterest’s Lens tool to help identify objects. It’s one of those “visions of the future” tools that sounds brilliant in principle, but requires a massive amount of data and crucial partnerships to operate usefully. When I show Bixby a bike I love, I want to know it’s a Specialized Roubaix Elite, not “generic bike” available only from Dave’s Bike Emporium. What partnerships did Samsung announce? None. Goggles is another of those cool Google products that has been forgotten, and perhaps there’s a good reason for that.

More: The Galaxy S8 vs. the LG G6

The camera is important to Bixby’s functionality elsewhere, but it doesn’t offer anything we haven’t seen before. It’ll recognize wine labels to make recommendations, thanks to a partnership with Vivino, and it’ll translate text into another language, just like Google Translate. It’ll remind you of your schedule, and provide other alerts, just like Google Now and Google Assistant. There’s no compelling feature to make you want to use Bixby yet.

Internet of Things

This is where Bixby will suddenly become useful, at least, potentially. One day, you’ll be able to ask Bixby to turn on the lights in your house, your multi-room audio, and change channel on your TV. That makes Bixby part of the Internet of Things, and that’s where everything falls down. The Internet of Things is difficult to explain, complicated to promote, and nigh-on impossible to convince people they should actually use it, or to invest any money in it. Mainly thanks to the fragmentation, something that Samsung is contributing to even further with Bixby.

We do know you’ll have to own SmartThings-supported products to really make the most out of the assistant. Yes, welcome to the Bixby ecosystem. It’s the same deal as Amazon Echo, Google Home, Philips Hue, Samsung’s own SmartThings, and the hundreds of other confusing systems promising to revolutionize our homes.

Why bother?

Bixby needed to really impress, because it’s up against some considerably well-established products with wider appeal that don’t depend on you always owning a Samsung phone or buying Samsung products. Google Assistant works with Google Home, many Android phones, your Android Wear watch, and your Android TV. It’s more useful right at this minute, let alone in the near future. Samsung hasn’t even released a software developer kit for Bixby yet, so third-party app support is a long way off.

It’s clear Bixby as we see it here is only the beginning, and before the year is out, it may have transformed into something more useful. It will inevitably be included on more Samsung phones, and in other Samsung products; but the Korean company’s track record with going off on its own isn’t good. Just look at Tizen, or its Milk music app for proof. Big ambitions, little actual impact.

For now, Bixby is most definitely not a reason to buy the Galaxy S8. If nothing changes when the Note 8 (or whatever the next phone will be called) arrives, or a catalog of apps are rapidly introduced with support, it won’t be Bixby anymore, it’ll be Bixbye.

The Apple of customers’ eye: Survey dubs iPhone maker “most intimate brand”

Why it matters to you

Apple wants to maintain a sense of emotional connection with people — so it will likely continue to build beautiful products.

We know people love their iPhone. Like, they seriously love their iPhone. Now, we know exactly how much. Apple has been voted the “most intimate brand” in a survey of 6,000 participants across three different countries. In the survey, a number of questions were posed in an attempt to measure the emotional connection people feel with a brand — and Apple took the top spot.

Right behind Apple were the likes of Disney, Amazon, Harley Davidson, Netflix, Nintendo, Samsung, Whole Foods, BMW, and Toyota — which rounded out the top 10.

More: Apple bars price references on new titles appearing in the App Store

There’s an interesting trend here. As MBLM — the company behind the survey — notes, the top-ranked “intimate brands “continued to outperform the S&P and Fortune 500 indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years. In other words, the more consumers have an emotional connection with a company, the more economic growth that company is likely to experience.

In the survey, the firm measured positive feelings respondents had for each brand, as well as how much the companies are associated with six different factors. Fulfillment is tied to how much the companies exceeded expectations and delivered a superior quality. Identity had to do with how much the companies reflected an aspirational image or admired values and beliefs. Enhancement related to becoming a better person through the use of the brand. Ritual had to do with integrating the brand into a person’s daily actions. Nostalgia focused on the memories associated with a brand. And finally, indulgence related to creating a close relationship centered around gratification.

It really isn’t all that much of a surprise to see the Apple and Disney up there in the top two spots — both of the companies are so ingrained in Western society that it would be more of a surprise if they didn’t make an appearance.

AMD Ryzen chips see big performance improvements with gaming optimizations

Why it matters to you

If you’re not sure about Ryzen hardware, know that it’s going to get better at gaming as time goes on.

The first optimizations for AMD’s Ryzen hardware have begun to arrive, starting with Oxide Games’ Ashes of the Singularity. In testing with a Ryzen 7 1800X at 1080p resolution, average framerates are said to be improved by as much as 33 percent, suggesting we haven’t seen the best of Ryzen yet.

Although AMD’s Ryzen processors have been impressive, especially in multithreaded tasks, the one area they fell down a little compared to Intel, was in gaming. We were told, though, that with optimizations, that could change. Although some speculated that that was wishful thinking on the part of AMD, early reports following the Ashes of Singularity optimization seem to suggest otherwise.

This update to the game comes as part of the v2.11.x build, which will hit Steam on Thursday for all owners and saw big improvements in a variety of tests. Using the high-graphical preset and a 1080p resolution, an average of batch results saw framerates go from an average of 64 to 84 frames per second.

This was based on a test system fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU, 16GB of 2,933MHz DDR4 and an Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card running on Windows 10.

More: AMD’s new Ryzen chips are available for order, still in stock at most retailers

To make sure that these results were driven by improvements in the way the CPU handles information, AMD also conducted a CPU focused benchmark within Ashes of the Singularity, which looks to de-emphasise the graphics card. In that test, framerates improved from an average of 34.7 to 39.6.

As part of this release, AMD also highlighted some changes to DOTA 2, which Valve implemented in the March 20 update. Those tweaks were tested in conjunction with the Evil Geniuses pro team and found that the AMD Ryzen test system was able of delivering 91 FPS on average after the change, compared with 79 FPS before.

Alongside these gaming optimizations, AMD has also made some changes to the AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) system that works alongside the system’s BIOS for booting. These have meant a reduction in DRAM latency by six nanoseconds, which should improve performance in latency-sensitive scenarios. It’s also fixed the overclock sleep bug which was causing problems for some users and fixed another system hang issue.

While we would urge caution when it comes to accepting benchmarks conducted by the hardware manufacturer itself at face value, Toms Hardware has jumped at the chance to conduct its own testing and found similar results. Also of note is that the Ashes update also leads to small performance gains for Intel hardware too.

Creative Assembly is one developer which also announced the intention to optimize its engine for Ryzen, so it will be interesting to see what can come of that and whether it will encourage other developers to do the same.

Microsoft Arc Touch Bluetooth BlueTrack review

Research Center:
Microsoft Arc Touch Bluetooth BlueTrack

While there are plenty of innovative wireless pointing devices available, few are as light, compact, interesting, and mobile as Microsoft’s Arch Touch Bluetooth Mouse. It’s designed primarily as an accessory for the company’s Surface Book PCs (it’s the same light-gray color), but since it’s a standard pointing device, it also works with most laptops or tablets running a recent version of Windows (and some MacBooks) that support Bluetooth. The Arc Touch mouse is, when turned off, ultra-thin, making it easy to slip in to your pocket or some other tight spot.

More: Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse review

The Arc Touch mouse is unique in design. Even so, just about any other small wireless “travel” pointing device, such as Logitech’s M535 Bluetooth Mouse ($39.99) or Microsoft’s own Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 ($29.99), is a direct competitor. You can pick up the Arc Touch mouse for about $40, which is a bit high for a small mouse like this, especially considering that you can buy the EasyGlide Wireless 3-button Travel Mouse, and several others, for as little as $20. That said, you’ll have trouble finding a mobile mouse as easy to carry around with you than the slim and petite Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse, and like most Microsoft peripherals, it’s well-built, durable, and somewhat elegant.

Slim in use, even slimmer when stowed

At 0.6 inches high (when turned off) by 2.3 inches across by 5.1 inches long (also when turned off) and weighing only 2.3 ounces, the Arc Touch mouse, while not in operation, is much shorter in height, but longer than most other mice—until you turn it on, that is. You power it up by curling, or arcing (hence the word arc in the name), the tail end of the device downward, thereby shortening its length and increasing its height. But arcing the mouse isn’t merely a unique way of turning the device on. When arced, it fits the curvature of your palm and fingers, similar to any standard small travel mouse.

William Harrel/Digital Trends

William Harrel/Digital Trends

The arc increases the height to just over two inches and shortens the length by about an inch or so, which brings its dimensions more in line with competing products. Logitech’s M535 Bluetooth Mouse, for instance, measures 2.4 inches high and just under 4 inches long; although, at 2.9 ounces, it outweighs the Arc Touch mouse by more than half and ounce.

Up front, where the controls are located, the Arc Touch mouse is encased in hard gray plastic, and the back end, the part that arcs, is coated with a slightly darker gray rubber-like material. The controls consist of left and right buttons separated by a plastic strip that acts like a depressible scroll wheel, and, as with most mice, you can change the behavior of the buttons and wheel, as well as alter the scroll speed, pointer, and so on, from an app you can download from Windows Store. While the mouse itself will pair with MacOS 10.10 or higher, alas, there is no such app for Macs. It will not work with any Android device.

Arc and away

As mentioned, you bend the Arc Touch mouse to turn it on. A small blue status LED on the underside indicates when its running and ready to pair.

The Arc Touch mouse is light, small, and when turned off, ultra-thin.

You pair it as you would most Bluetooth pointing devices, by pressing and holding a small button (also on the underside) for a few seconds to make it discoverable. It paired with both our Windows tablet and MacBook immediately, without any fuss.

Many competing mice, including the Logitech M535 Bluetooth Mouse, come with (often proprietary) Bluetooth dongles that enable use on machines without Bluetooth built-in. With the Arc Touch mouse, your computing device must already have Bluetooth available. The advantage is that if your mobile device has Bluetooth, you won’t have to use a valuable USB port. If, on the other hand, your laptop, tablet, or smartphone doesn’t support Bluetooth, you won’t be able to pair the mouse.

On the go

While we found the Arc Touch mouse comfortable enough, it’s not quite the same as holding a standard mouse with finger contours on each side and a raised scroll wheel. In other words, it takes a little getting used to. It was easier to move around, and to press and hold buttons, when we used it on a bare desktop, rather than a soft mouse pad. That’s because due to the arc, the Arc Touch mouse touches ground in only two spots. When holding a button down, the pressure dug into the mouse pad, making mouse movement a bit difficult.

As mentioned, you can reconfigure the buttons and other behavior from the downloadable app. The app gives you extensive control over the center “touch strip” used for scrolling. You can assign a behavior for when you tap it, such as “Browser back” or “Start menu,” as well as turn on audible and vibrating feedback when scrolling. Using the tap function was difficult to master. Despite its odd appearance and unorthodox configuration, though, after spending a little time with it, we found the Arc Touch mouse comfortable and efficient to use.

For the long haul

The Arc Touch mouse is powered by two (included) AAA batteries housed in a compartment on the underside of the non-arcing portion of the device. Microsoft says that with regular use you should get about six months from a set of batteries. To turn the mouse on, it must be fully arced, making it difficult to accidently activate in your backpack or pocket.

Microsoft Arc Touch Bluetooth BlueTrack Compared To

Razer Turret

Evoluent VerticalMouse C Right

Cougar 450M gaming mouse

Razer Diamondback (2015)

Razer Mamba (2015)

Mionix Castor

Razer Mamba Tournament Edition

Cougar 300M

Cougar 550M

Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop

Genius Gila GX

Logitech G600 MMO

Roccat Isku and Kone+

Apple Magic Trackpad

Motormouse 2.4G

Warranty information

Microsoft offers a three-year limited warranty that provides for replacement of the Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse if it fails under normal use.

Our Take

Microsoft’s Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse is light, compact, and stylish, and when powered down (un-arced), it can slip neatly into your pocket. It’s reasonably comfortable to use for so small of a device, and the company’s three-year warranty allows you to buy it with peace of mind.

Is there a better alternative?

The DT Accessory Pack

Leadpo GIM waterproof mouse pad

$9.49

Microsoft Surface keyboard

$92

Dust-Off compressed gas (4-Pack)

$19.08

Most travel mice, including Logitech’s M535 Bluetooth Mouse or Microsoft’s Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, are small and light, but few are as light and compact as the Arc Touch mouse, especially in its flat, or turned off, position. While the Arc doesn’t have many rivals in terms of size, Logitech’s MX Anywhere 2 is competitive in terms of features, and remains our go-to recommendation.

How long will it last?

The Arc Touch Mouse feels a lot more durable than it looks. It would take some real effort to break it, and the flex (arc) on/off mechanism seem sturdy enough. And if it stops working in the first three years, Microsoft will replace it. Three years of use is a good value from a $40 peripheral.

Should you buy it?

Only if you’re traveler. If you don’t like using a touch pad or poking a tablet screen with your finger, and you need something light and easy to carry around, the Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse should serve you well. It’s easy to pair, to use, and you don’t have to take up a valuable USB port.

However, should you prefer a standard palm-shaped mouse with a more tactile scroll wheel, there are plenty to choose from. The Arc is meant for people who need to lighten their load, and works well there, but it’s not the best choice for general use.

Phonemakers battling over production contract for the Pixel 3, report claims

Why it matters to you

The competition over who will get to produce the future of Google’s flagship phones could make those phones better and more readily available for purchase.

As Google prepares the successor to the Pixel and Pixel XL due for release later in 2017, the battle has apparently already begun over who will get to manufacture the third iteration of the flagship Android phone.

HTC is once again in the running, along with LG, current Blackberry producer TCL, and Coolpad, according to Chinese publication Commercial Times by way of Digitimes. Google’s existing contract with HTC will expire after the release of the Pixel 2, so says the report, opening up an opportunity for other hardware companies. LG is purportedly leading the race, though Commercial Times does not elaborate as to why.

More: Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus vs. Google Pixel XL: Two plus-sized phones battle it out

Since September, HTC has reportedly shipped more than 2.1 million Pixel devices, but Google may be looking to ramp output up to 5 million in time for the Pixel 3. Meanwhile, most variants of the original Pixel — especially the XL — remain out of stock about six months after the phone’s launch, as HTC continues to struggle to fill orders quickly enough.

Remember, too, that HTC may not have been Google’s first choice to build the Pixel, but rather Huawei, according to the accounts of multiple executives from the Chinese tech firm last fall. Keeping this in mind along with the supply-side constraints, it’s possible Google is more confident in LG’s manufacturing capabilities, given that the companies have worked together on multiple Nexus phones in the past.

Commercial Times’ report comes shortly after rumors that Google could be planning a third, larger version of the Pixel 2 for release, codenamed “Taimen.” This article only mentions the “Muskie” and “Walleye” devices we’ve already heard about, which lends credence to the theory that Google is simply testing a variety form factors for the next Pixel, but still only plans to release two of them.

There is also the chance of a lower-end Pixel phone named the 2B that broke early in the rumor cycle, though more recent reports — including a statement from Google’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Rick Osterloh — suggest that the Pixel brand will stay premium, and the 2B could instead fit into the Android One family.

SpaceX will try to launch the first recycled orbital rocket on Thursday evening

Why it matters to you

A successful launch of the first recycled orbital rocket could pave the way for more affordable space exploration in the future.

SpaceX is set to make history Thursday evening by launching the first recycled orbital rocket. Scheduled for launch at 6:27 p.m. ET, the “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

As per usual, the launch will be accompanied by a SpaceX webcast that starts about 20 minutes before the launch window opens.

The rocket’s cargo is a communications satellite for SES, a Luxembourg-based company, which will deploy about 32 minutes after launch. Last year, this same Falcon 9 delivered an unmanned Dragon cargo ship to space before returning to a drone ship for landing. Tonight’s mission will also attempt to land the Falcon 9 on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship.

More: Watch SpaceX safely land a Falcon 9 rocket after space station resupply mission

SpaceX has successfully landed eight of its rockets — five at sea and three on land — in an attempt to cut launch costs. With each Falcon 9 launch carrying a $61 million price tag, the reused rockets are expected to decrease expenses by about 30 percent, according to Agence French-Presse.

Recycling and reusability are goals for space companies like SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origins, but it nonetheless carries concerns about the safety and security of the rockets (and cargo) involved. These worries aren’t calmed by events like the well-publicized explosion of a Falcon 9 in September, although SpaceX has since claimed to have determined the cause.

But these issues don’t seem to bother Martin Halliwell, the chief technology officer at SES, who said at a press conference, “I think we are on the edge of quite a significant bit of history here. Now we are here to be the first-ever mission to fly on a pre-flown booster. This is obviously hugely exciting.”

Should unfavorable weather or technical troubles arise during the two-and-a-half-hour launch window, a backup launch window will open on April 1.

More room to reply: Twitter excludes usernames from its 140-character limit

Why it matters to you

Next time you reply to someone on Twitter, you will have more room to do it.

Twitter’s defining feature is the 140-character limit it imposes on tweets and retweets. It forces a level of succinctness that is sorely lacking from — ahem — unfettered social networks. But it’s also really annoying sometimes, especially when you’re trying to reply to someone — since Twitter’s inception, usernames have counted against the limit. But no longer.

On Thursday, the company announced usernames will no longer count toward the 140-character maximum. The change, which is rolling out to users on iOS, Android, and the web, will see usernames appear above the text of your reply — when you compose a reply, you will see the recipient’s profile picture and Twitter handle highlighted outside of the text box. In threads involving more than one person, you’ll see a username followed by “and 1 other,” “and 2 others,” and so on.

More: Twitter’s fightback against abuse is off to an underwhelming start

Twitter is also rolling out a new “Replying to” feature that will make excluding users from replies a little easier. When you contribute a new tweet to an ongoing thread, you will see checkboxes next to usernames in the conversation. Excluding them from the reply is as easy as unchecking the box next to their username.

Twitter Product Manager Sasank Reddy said that the initial feedback was promising — “people engage more with conversations on Twitter,” he said — but that there’s work to be done. “We will continue to think about how we can improve conversations and make Twitter easier to use,” Reddy wrote in a blog post.

It’s not the first time Twitter’s excluded items from its long-standing 140-character limit. In August, it bumped the character limit for direct messages from 140 characters to 10,000. September of last year, it made an exception for media attachments (images, GIFs, videos, polls, and more) and quoted tweets.

More: Twitter expands muting and filtering tools, uses algorithms to track abuse

CEO Jack Dorsey has historically praised the 140-character limit, calling it a “beautiful constraint” that encourages “creativity, brevity, and speed.” But more recently, he has walked those statements back a bit. “This is the most notable change we’ve made in recent times around conversations in particular, and around giving people the full expressiveness of the 140 characters,” Dorsey told The Verge in May. “I’m excited to see even more dialog because of this.”

Twitter’s latest changes have been met with mixed results. In February, negative feedback forced the network to shelve a plan that would have gotten rid of list notifications, the notifications users receive when they are added to a list. A new Explore tab, a curated collection of ongoing and breaking news, was launched to mixed reviews.

They have contributed to an ongoing dilemma: Stalled growth. In the last fiscal quarter, the company added just 2 million monthly users to end the year with 319 million, and in the U.S., the monthly user number was flat. It is the 10th consecutive quarter Twitter’s revenue growth has declined.

Niryo One is an open-source 6-axis arm robot for your home, school, or business

Why it matters to you

Hankering after a trusty robot helper? Kickstarter project Niryo One is an open-source, six-axis robotic arm that can meet a variety of needs.

Industrial arm robots have been around for years, but similar technology is only just starting to trickle down to the consumer market.

That is where Kickstarter project Niryo One enters the frame. It’s an open-source, six-axis robotic arm targeted at makers, developers, and students. Using technologies like 3D printing, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Robot Operating System, it is intended to be both affordable and easy to use, while still giving you the powerful, internet-connected robot arm assistant you always dreamed of.

“Mostly, Niryo One will be used for education purposes and to reproduce industrial use cases,” Edouard Renard, one of the project’s creators, told Digital Trends. “Anyone can use it from a child to an advanced engineer.”

More: Robot arm can be controlled with thoughts, no brain implant needed

In the home, Renard said that Niryo One could be used to carry out “pick-and-place” tasks or to automate boring day-to-day chores. Users can easily program it using an accompanying app, or even just directly moving the robot to learn a sequence in what they are calling “learning mode.”

At school, meanwhile, Niryo One can be used to teach students new technologies and robotics, while companies can use it as a more affordable alternative to pricey industrial robots.

To make it a versatile tool, the robot arm uses attachments like a suction pump, gripper, or electromagnet — thereby giving it a wide range of possible applications. Sharing use cases for the robot can be carried out easily using its custom mobile app and it’s even possible to synch up multiple robots for complex tasks, or as part of a mini factory production line.

Renard said the goal of the project is to contribute toward “robotics democratization.” If Niryo One turns out to work as well as he suggests, this could be one heck of a useful tool. Or, at the very least, let us pretend to be high-tech mad scientists from the comfort of our bedrooms.

You can pre-order the robot on Kickstarter, where prices start at 119 euros ($127) for a four-axis mini kit. The full Niryo One experience starts at 549 euros ($587) or a bit more if you don’t want to 3D print a few of your own pieces. Shipping is set to take place in September.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money, and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

Repost’n’Roll

Repost’n’Roll for Instagram let you share and repost your favorite Instagram posts from your friends, including the newly released Stories. Repost’n’Roll is the only app that allows you to repost Instagram Stories.

Available on:

iOS

Six-Pack Abs

Six-Pack Abs by VGFIT helps you get in shape, lose belly fat, improve your core strength, and stay fit. Get your six-pack abs with the most intensive range of exercises you can perform at home, outside, and at the gym, with four levels of difficulty.

Available on:

iOS

SwunMath

The Swun Math Model provides a math-facts application to reinforce foundational math skills and algebra readiness. This highly successful basic facts approach emphasizes the commutative property, inverse operations, and fact families to promote “automaticity.”

Available on:

iOS

aTimeLogger 2

aTimeLogger 2 is the right solution for everyone — whether you’re a businesswoman with an intensive daily routine, a sportsperson training for an event, or a parent looking to control your children’s daily activities.

Available on:

iOS

Coyn

Coyn is a simple, secure, and stylish way to manage your cash balance. Manage your money like it’s no one else’s business, and make sure you’re the only one who tracks your cash expenditures and earnings.

Available on:

iOS

Relax Rain

Designed with simplicity in mind, Relax Rain is the simplest way to enjoy the relaxing and soothing sound of rain falling. Open up the app and sounds start playing automatically so you can relax, unwind, meditate, or just get some quiet time right away.

Available on:

iOS