High-tech trackable backpack does a lot more than just hold your laptop

Why it matters to you

We often keep all our gadgets in a backpack, and this high-tech model keeps them all safe, and even charged up

Knomo, a mobile accessories brand known for its cool designs, wants to make a high-tech backpack to overcome the frustrations felt by anyone who travels around for work, or just loves to take all their gadgets out and about. That means it needs to give power, keep everything inside safe, and make it very difficult to mislay. The result is the #LiveFree — yes, the name really is a hashtag — and it’s waiting for your backing on Kickstarter now.

It’s the #LiveFree’s wireless charging feature that’s really interesting. It’s Knomo’s own system called DropGo, and it’s not built into the backpack as such, avoiding complicated internal systems, and is a wireless power bank that slips inside a special pouch in a side pocket. That means it’s easy to take out and charge. It’s compatible with Samsung phones using the Qi wireless charging standard, or an iPhone wearing a special Qi charging case. Put your phone in the dock, and it charges automatically. Sadly, it’s not a universal system, so you have to order a bag that’s right for your phone.

More: 25 awesome laptop bags for everyone

The bag has a special compartment for a laptop up to 15.6-inches in size, a pocket for a 10-inch tablet, cable management pockets, various mesh pockets and storage spaces for headphones and all kinds of other accessories. Filled with all your equipment, you really won’t want to lose the LiveFree (sorry, the hashtag is just too much) backpack. In partnership with Chipolo, the LiveFree has Bluetooth tracking, with a tiny disc that slips into a specially made holder inside the bag. The bag’s last known location shows up on an in-app map, and an alarm can be sounded to help locate the bag if you mislay it, or warn off a potential thief. Knomo’s LiveFree backpack is made from a water repellent material, and even has RFID blocking to keep your bank cards safe from snoopers.

All this technology and security comes at a price, which varies depending on the specification of the bag itself. A version with only the Bluetooth tracking costs 190 British pounds (about $237) at the time of writing, but this is an early bird offer and is limited. Miss out and you’ll pay 203 British pounds (about $253). Early bird offers are also available on LiveFree bags with both Bluetooth tracking and wireless charging, with prices starting at 222 British pounds (around $277) for the Samsung version, and 251 British pounds (that’s around $313) for the iPhone version, which comes with a case.

The project is live now, and is close to its 50,000 British pounds ($62,300) target. If it’s funded, the bags are expected to ship in September this year.

Google Home + Google Wifi now available in the UK

Price starts at £129 for both devices from Google’s store and retail partners.

As previously announced, today’s the day Google Home and Google Wifi go on sale in the UK, as Google begins a broader international push for its connected speaker and wireless router products. Both are listed on Google’s own store and retail partners including high street names like Currys, Argos, Maplin and John Lewis. A single Google Home or Google Wifi will set you back £129, while a 2-pack of Google Wifi routers lets you kick off your mesh network for £229.

UK-specific partners for Google Home include the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sun, The Telegraph, Huffington Post, Sky News, and Sky Sports as part of the daily news brief. As for music, local partners include Google Play Music, Spotify, TuneIn, and live radio from the BBC.

Fabric bases are also available from the Google Store, with prices starting at £18.

Picking up any of Google’s new toys today? Shout out in the comments!

See Google Home at Currys

See Google Wifi 1-pack at Currys

See Google Wifi 2-pack at Currys

Xiaomi’s $75 Mi Smart Home kit is the easiest way to get started with home automation

The Mi Smart Home kit has everything you need to get started with home automation.

Alongside phones, robot vacuums, smart lights, and rice cookers, Xiaomi also makes home automation products. As is the case with the manufacturer’s other offerings, one of the main advantages with Xiaomi’s $75 Mi Smart Home automation kit is that it is inherently affordable. The kit comes with six components — a gateway that acts as a central hub, a smart wall plug, door and window sensor, motion sensor, temperature and humidity sensor, and a wireless switch. Everything is configured and controlled through the Mi Home app which requires you to set up a free Mi account to get started.

As the Mi Smart Home Kit is officially limited to Xiaomi’s home market, you’ll have to set China as the locale in the Mi Home app to add all the products and configure them. The device pages and all the instructions are in English, but Xiaomi’s storefront within the app defaults to Mandarin. Thankfully, you won’t need to bother with the store to use the products in the Mi Smart Home kit. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the individual components.

Gateway

The gateway is a Zigbee-powered hub that connects all of Xiaomi’s smart home products, featuring a built-in speaker and an RGB LED that doubles up as a night light. The gateway features a standard Chinese three-prong plug that needs to be connected to a wall socket or a surge protector. It is rated for 100V-240V, so if you’re looking to use it in the U.S., you would be able to plug it in directly provided you have a compatible socket. If not, you can pick one up for as low as $7.

Once plugged in, you need to use the Mi Home app to set it up. All of Xiaomi’s products are very straightforward to set up, and the Mi Smart Home gateway is no different. Once you plug the gateway into the socket ensure your phone is connected to your Wi-Fi network and sign in to your Mi account in the Mi Home app. Then simply press down on the power button located at the top of the gateway for three seconds, and the app will automatically detect the new device. If the gateway emits a solid blue light, you’ve managed to pair it successfully with the Mi Home app.

After installing the gateway you’re able to listen to internet radio via the built-in speaker (though you’ll only be able to access Chinese stations unless you do some tweaking) and also change the color and brightness of the LED from within the Mi Home app. Installing the other Mi Home components is simple. All sub-devices have a pinhole that allows you to easily reset them by holding them in for three seconds; the gateway should automatically detect the sub-devices soon after they’re reset. Pairing a component — like the motion sensor or the door sensor — takes under 30 seconds, and once it’s connected to the gateway, you’ll be able to set actions for it from within the Mi Home app.

Motion sensor

Xiaomi’s motion sensor is amazing. At 3cm tall, it’s tiny, but it does a great job of detecting motion in its immediate vicinity — up to 1.5 meters. You can pair it with the gateway by resetting the device (via a SIM card ejector tool in the pinhole) and connecting it to Mi Home. Once it’s paired, you can configure a series of actions for the sensor, such as turning on the lights, Xiaomi’s air purifier, or control any of the manufacturer’s connected products.

You have the ability to create custom scenes, and even set a specific time for an event to run. For instance, you can configure the motion sensor to turn on the lights if it detects activity after 6 p.m., or set up a scene to turn off the lights once you walk past the sensor in the morning. There’s also the option to send a notification to your phone each time the sensor is triggered.

Door and window sensor

As the name suggests, the door sensor connects to a door, and can be used as an alarm system. You can configure it to trigger an alarm and send you a notification if it detects activity when you’re outside your home. The window sensor offers a similar feature-set, but it’s smaller and has a magnetic base that easily hooks onto a windowsill.

Temperature and humidity sensor

The temperature and humidity sensor is the one I rely on the most. It is also the easiest to use. Just pair it with the gateway, stick it on a wall or on a surface, and use the Mi Home app to see the temperature and humidity in that room.

The sensor shows real-time temperature and humidity data, and also offers a chart breaking down the daily and weekly trends. If you’re living in a particularly hot or humid location, the sensor makes a lot of difference.

Wireless switch

As the name suggests, the wireless switch is a programmable button that gives you fine-grained control over a component. If you have Xiaomi’s Wi-Fi connected Yeelight bulbs, you can use the wireless switch to turn them on and off. You can do the same with the $30 Yeelight light strip.

Should you have several bulbs around the house, you can create a zone in the Mi Home app, and then configure an action for the wireless switch. For instance, I have two lightstrips in my office, and I paired them together so they’re the same hue at all times. I then programmed a switch to turn the lightstrips on and off with a single press.

Along with a single click action, the wireless switch allows you to set customize actions for double clicks and long presses. The Mi Home app offers a myriad of configuration options for the wireless switch provided you’ve already invested in Xiaomi’s hardware. There are options to switch the operating mode for the Mi Air Purifier, control the smart home gateway’s internet radio, toggle the company’s smart plug, and so much more.

Overall, the Mi Smart Home offers a ton of functionality for its $80 retail price. The best part about the system is that once you have the gateway up and running, you can install as many sensors as you want, with each sensor costing anywhere between $5 to $15. The downside is that there’s no IFTTT connectivity, but for now, the Mi Home app offers more than enough configuration options.

For its customizability, feature-set, and sheer affordability, the Mi Smart Home kit is an enticing option if you’re looking to get started with home automation.

See at GearBest

Twitter Lite is a Progressive Web App that’s designed for emerging markets

Twitter Lite is a 1MB Progressive Web App that has all the features as the native app.

Unlike Facebook, which is ubiquitous in India, Twitter hasn’t managed to gain mainstream acceptance in the country. With growth stalling in developed countries, Twitter is now looking to emerging markets, and its latest attempt at gaining momentum in countries like India is a Progressive Web App called Twitter Lite.

The app —designed in collaboration with Google — takes up less than 1MB, and has all the features as the native app, including the timeline feed, direct messages, media uploads, offline support, trends, push notifications, and more.

The app loads 30% faster than the native client, and has a data saver mode that lets you use up to 70% less data. The data saver mode automatically loads previews of images and videos, and you can tap on media to initiate the download. As the app is being aimed at emerging markets, Twitter has teamed up with Vodafone India to provide live sports updates on Indian Premier League matches.

Twitter Lite is a faster, data friendly way for people to use Twitter to see what’s happening in the world. 👉 https://t.co/AIUgyCAFj0 pic.twitter.com/9EIG7pgK6O

— Twitter (@Twitter) April 6, 2017

Twitter Lite is accessible via a browser at mobile.twitter.com, and although it is designed for markets where cellular connectivity is limited, it’s available globally. If you’re interested, you can read more about how the Progressive Web App was built over on Twitter’s blog.

Watch our Honor 8 Pro video review!

The 400 euro price point is where we’ve seen some of the most exciting phones of the past year, bringing about the rise of brands like OnePlus and Honor. 2016’s Honor 8 was a decent bet for anyone wanting a lot of phone for not a lot of money — but in many ways it was still a mid-range phone.

So what would happen if you took the DNA of the Honor 8 and applied it to a bigger flagship-tier product. Well — you’d get this: the Honor 8 Pro.

In a lot of ways, the Honor 8 Pro takes every aspect of the Honor 8 and cranks it up a notch or two. It’s bigger physically, with a larger, higher-res display. It’s more powerful, thanks to Huawei’s latest Kirin 960 chip. It’s got a whopping 6 gigs of RAM, up from 4 in the Honor 8. And the base storage has been bumped to 64GB, plus microSD. And fuelling all that is an enormous 4,000mAh battery, matching the two-day battery life of the Huawei Mate 9 in a much more compact body.

This is clearly Honor’s most high-end handset yet, so how does it measure up? Check out our video review for the verdict!

• Android Central on YouTube
• Honor 8 Pro review
• More on the original Honor 8

Early EA Access members get free 2TB HDD for Xbox One, have you got yours yet?

Electronic Arts is handing Xbox One owners free 2TB external hard drives. They are being sent to gamers who signed up to EA Access on the platform when it first started.

US EA Access subscribers have been receiving care packages, which include vouchers to extend their EA Access subscription and a 2TB Game Drive for Xbox by Seagate. The drive itself is worth £84.99 on Amazon.co.uk ($97.40 on Amazon.com). A 4TB version is also available on Amazon.co.uk for £139.99 ($149.99 on Amazon.com).

Just got an amazing care package from @EAAccess. You guys are the best! #Thanks #Grateful #Xbox #EAAccess pic.twitter.com/zbYrToKIjv

— Jordan Beach (@BeachHead34) March 31, 2017

The gifts are to reward the subscribers who have been with EA Access since its beginning, three-years ago. If you have been with the service since then but haven’t had a drive yet, you are advised to check your emails. The care packages are apparently being sent out in phases.

• How Xbox One backwards compatibility works: The Xbox 360 games list and more

It’s currently not know whether the incentive extends outside of the US. We’ve been with EA Access since the beginning here in the UK, but have yet to receive an email or package. We suspect it doesn’t, sadly.

EA Access is a monthly subscription service for Xbox One that provides access to historical Electronic Arts games as part of the monthly fee. It costs £3.99 a month or £19.99 for a full year.

There are more than 40 full games currently available on the platform, including Madden NFL 17, EA Sports NHL 17, Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge Catalyst. FIFA 17 is to be added soon.

Timed early access to new games is also on offer, including a timed version of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

The Morning After: Thursday, April 6th 2017

This Thursday you might have missed Netflix’s switch from star ratings to thumbs, giant robots committing to battle, and YouTube revealing its very own cord-cutting option.

Make a choice
Netflix switches its rating system from stars to thumbs

The next time your rate a movie or TV show on Netflix, you’ll only have two options: thumb up or down. Hopefully, your tastes can be limited to the nuance of a Siskel & Ebert review, which Netflix claims will create more accurate recommendations.

First month is free.YouTube TV’s slim bundle launches in NYC, LA, SF, Chicago and Philadelphia

Welcome to the future, where you can get cable TV channels on YouTube. Well, you can if you live in one of five US cities where YouTube TV is available. For $35 it promises the major broadcast networks, plus cable channels including ESPN and FX. Right now the only way to watch it on TV is via Chromecast, but it does have cloud DVR with unlimited space.

Why wait?How to get the Windows 10 Creators Update right now

If you’re not in the Insider beta program, but you still want the latest version of Windows 10 right now, you can grab the Creators Update before it’s officially released. Just download the Update Assistant utility from Microsoft, and you’re on your way. With the new update, you’ll have access to Paint 3D and its bag of tricks, although you’ll also want to keep an eye on the data Microsoft collects for diagnostic purposes.

Forget Huawei’s actual flagship P10 and buy this instead.
The Honor 8 Pro is Huawei’s best phone yet

There’s Huawei, and then there’s Honor. While both are technically the same company, the Honor brand takes some of the best bits of Huawei’s smartphones and packages them up in new devices that don’t take as much of a bite out of your bank account. That’s been the general distinction between the two, anyway, but the line has become blurrier as Honor has begun breaching the mid-range with smartphones like the Honor 8. And now, it’s been all but scrubbed out with the announcement of the £475 (nearly $593) Honor 8 Pro in the UK, which is every bit a new Huawei flagship.

Back again.
Watch SpaceX’s historic rocket re-landing

It’s all part of the company’s plan to launch something every two weeks.

You can (virtually) watch the grand finale.
NASA simulates the Cassini probe’s upcoming crash into Saturn

On April 26th, NASA’s Cassini probe will begin diving in and out of the gap between Saturn and its rings in what the agency calls its “Grand Finale.” The spacecraft will orbit the gas giant it’s been observing since 2004 22 more times before taking the final plunge into its atmosphere in mid-September. Since we won’t be able to get a front-row seat to that show, NASA has released a video simulating the probe’s last months, which you can watch below the fold. If that’s not enough, you also download the “Eyes on Cassini” app for Macs and PCs so you can virtually ride on board the spacecraft and experience its last orbits and final plunge yourself.

These pro-level drives will last 10 years under heavy loads.
Sony’s SSDs can withstand the torture of capturing 4K

Aspiring 4K filmmakers who want the best quality can buy pro-level RAW video cameras on the cheap, or use a DSLR with an external 4K recorder like the Atomos Ninja 2. However, the SSDs usually record and dump out high bit-rate 4K video multiple times a week, so they need to be much, much faster and more durable than the one on your laptop. That’s where Sony’s latest G Series Professional SSDs come in, which can write up to 2,400 terabytes without failing and use tech that prevents disastrous frame dropping.

But wait, there’s more…

• MLS has its first official eSports player: Christopher Holly
• Vote for Engadget R+D’s ‘Superhumans’ series to win a Webby Award!
• The Big Picture: Invisible infrared light reveals a hidden Alaska
• Patent reveals Apple could make a USB-C to MagSafe adapter if it wanted to
• Canon’s latest point-and-shoot helps you take solid selfies

E-volo’s electric ‘air taxi’ picks up passengers next year

The last time we’d heard about E-Volo’s 18-rotor electric helicopter was almost a year ago to the day. The latest news out of the company is that at AERO, an aviation trade show in Germany, E-Volo revealed its latest model, the Volocopter 2X. The firm says that the advantages of this version versus previous iterations (namely, the VC200) are that it’s a “consequent evolution” geared toward everyday use as an autonomous urban mobility vehicle. Translation: it could be a pilot-free, or remote-flown taxi for two.

“By 2018, the first Volocopter 2X models with special permit are set to be used as flying taxis in pilot projects,” a press release reads. E-Volo says that the 2X can be piloted by anyone with a Sport Pilot License and that the aircraft should be pretty easy to fly given its automatic height and position control.

The VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) is electric, so it runs incredibly quietly, which might give it an advantage over things like the Icon A5 personal aircraft. Next up? Getting the 2X certified for flight by the German government and, further out, developing a four-seater model with international approval. Somebody call The Jetson family.

Via: The Verge

Source: E-Volo

Monzo is now a proper digital bank

UK banking startup Monzo has been given the green light by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority to operate, well, like an actual bank. Until now, the company has been working with a restricted banking licence, which meant you had to have a connected, external bank account to use its pre-paid card and money-saving software. The mobile-first approach attracted plenty of fans, but there were limitations to the setup — Monzo could only hold deposits up to £50,000, for instance. For years, the plan has been to become a proper digital bank.

A mixture of crowdfunding and traditional venture capital has helped the company prove its worth to the regulators. To earn the necessary sign-off, it also had to prove that it’s back-end systems, which will be connected to major payment providers such as Mastercard, will be up to the task. Now that Monzo is a fully authorised, unrestricted bank, it can offer customers current accounts, bank-to-bank payments and direct debits. But don’t expect to get a sign-up invitation right away — Monzo says it’s testing the system with a small group of users at the moment, and will expand to a slightly larger group including investors and backers this summer.

“Please be patient,” Tom Blomfield, chief executive of Monzo said in a blog post. “This process will take several months and we’re still working out some of the details. We’ll share more precise time frames and details transparently as soon as we know them.” In the meantime, existing Monzo users are free to use their pre-paid debit card and banking app as before.

Source: Monzo

MGM spends $1 billion to take full control of the Epix channel

Epix has long been the baby of four studios (Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount and Viacom), but it’s about to have just one parent. MGM has bought out the stakes of its partners for just over $1 billion, giving it full control over the internet-friendly, movie-focused TV channel. The move will still see Lionsgate and Paramount supplying first-run movies as part of “multi-year” deals, so don’t panic about a sudden dearth of content — this is more about a changing media landscape than any kind of feud.

The acquisition should close later in April.

In unveiling the deal, Epix chief Mark Greenberg is quick to acknowledge that the “priorities have evolved” for some of its soon-to-be-ex partners. While he doesn’t go into detail, Lionsgate just bought Starz — why would it split its attention between two networks that accomplish similar goals, both online and off? Viacom, meanwhile, is backing away from offering its freshest content on streaming services as it worries about getting its finances back in order. You probably don’t have to worry about Epix’s long-term future, but don’t be surprised if you see a greater emphasis on MGM’s media offerings than before.

Source: MGM