Jay Z’s albums are disappearing from Apple Music and Spotify

If you were hoping to make Jay Z’s “Lucifer” part of your “getting ready to go out” playlist tonight that could be tricky depending on the streaming service you use. That’s because as MacRumors and 9to5Mac noticed, Beyoncé’s husband has started pulling his solo catalog from the likes of Apple Music and Spotify in favor of his Tidal service. As of press time, Spotify still had singles and his collaboration with R. Kelly Unfinished Business on offer, but a bulk of Shawn Carter’s albums are missing. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the move, saying that “some of his catalog has been removed at the request of the artist.”

Over on Apple Music in the UK, Carter’s catalog is a little sparse. Reasonable Doubt, Hard Knock Life, In My Lifetime, Collision Course (his 2004 collaboration with Linkin Park), Watch the Throne with Kanye West and the American Gangster soundtrack remain, but The Black Album and The Blueprint are missing in action. Domestically, though, all we’re seeing are singles and collaborations like “Big Pimpin’” featuring Pimp C and Bun B. When we reached out to Apple for more information, a spokesperson told us to check with Universal — signaling that this could be the start of a bigger trend.

Oddly enough, Google Play Music subscribers shouldn’t see a difference. Carter’s catalog on the search giant’s streaming service doesn’t seem to have suffered any casualties in what’s seemingly an attempt to bolster Tidal’s exclusive offerings. Which raises the following question: Does Jay Z not know Play Music exists either? SoundCloud Go hasn’t been too affected either, aside from Reasonable Doubt’s absence.

In 2015, we saw Prince pull his music from every streaming service aside from Tidal, only for it to return to the likes of Apple Music and Spotify this past February. As we enter this brave new world of streaming this is sadly becoming more and more common. There’s no word if this decision will be temporary, but given the timing of Spotify’s deal with Universal (this week) it could be that blackout is part of Carte renegotiating for a bigger cut of streaming profits. He has way more control over the business side of his music than other artists do, and he also has his own streaming service.

When Engadget’s Billy Steele wrote about Tidal and its business of exclusives back in 2015, he said that it’d be possible that fans — the folks paying for the music, legally — could end up losing out thanks to corporate suits deciding what was best for everyone:

“Fair compensation shouldn’t be consumers’ burden; it’s between the artists and the labels that handle licensing deals. Right now, though, it seems possible the streaming-music sandbox mentality could triumph over consumer choice.”

Consumer choice seems to be on the losing side today.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: MacRumors

Nvidia Shield is the ultimate Android TV device (Review)

Nvidia is known for their desktop GPUs but they also have their line of Shield-branded Android devices such as the Shield Tablet and the Shield portable gaming device. One device, the Shield TV set-top box, was recently added to the roster as an Android TV device that you can stream your media on as well as do some light gaming. The latest Nvidia Shield TV is a new model for 2017. It’s similar to the older model, but refined and enhanced for 4K and gaming in the living room with cloud-based streaming and more powerful internals.The new Nvidia Shield TV features an excellent redesigned controller as well, which is a dream to use for all game types.

The Shield TV is an Android TV set-top box, running the latest version of the OS. Nvidia touts this Shield TV as the “Ultimate Streamer for Gamers” and the most powerful streaming device available. The specs certainly support that claim, with the powerful Tegra X1 chip, the same that powers the Nintendo Switch. Does the day-to-day experience prove this claim to be true?

Setup

Setup for the Shield TV is easy, just plug it in, set it up with your internet and log into your Google Account when prompted. The controller and remote come pre-paired out of the box, so once you’re all logged in and set up with the internet, just enjoy.

Design and Specs

The specs for the Sheild TV are pretty robust for a set-top streaming box:

Specs:

• Nvidia Tegra X1 Processor
• 3GB RAM
• 16 GB storage (expandable)
• Ports: 2 USB, HDMI 2.0b, Gigabit Ethernet, proprietary power
• Connectivity: 2×2 802.11 AC MU-MIMO Wifi, Bluetooth 4.1, IR blaster
• OS: Android TV 7.0

Nvidia has made this new Shield TV smaller by a significant margin, reducing the size closer to a Roku or Apple TV. They also added the remote and redesigned controller to the bundle. The controller itself now feels much better in the hand and isn’t as awkward to use for long gaming sessions.

The remote and controller both feature voice search functionality, and the Shield is compatible with smart home devices like Samsung SmartThings as well. Notable hardware additions include an IR emitter for control over your TV and home theater. The Shield only has 16GB of internal storage but supports USB external storage and can connect to your NAS as well. The biggest new hardware features are 4K and HDR support, Dolby Atmos support, as well as the 4K compatible Chromecast built in.

1 of 7

Nvidia’s new Shield controller next to a Xbox and PS4 controller

The original Shield controller next to the new slimmer design.

Features and Performance

The Shield TV runs Android TV out of the box, which is either good or bad depending on who you talk to. It’s a perfectly functional set-top box software and has some excellent features like Google Assistant built in, and support for Amazon Video out of the box, a first for Android TV devices. Navigation on Android TV can be a bit wonky, and there is a limited selection of apps. The big players are all available, however, such as Netflix, Sling, YouTube, Hulu, and Plex.

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a 4K HDR screen at home yet, so I wasn’t able to test out the feature at home. I did, however, get to experience the 4K capabilities during the playtest at GDC I participated in and I found them to be excellent.

Streaming movies and TV aren’t the only things that the Shield can do, however, and if you’re buying this to only use it for that you may want to consider another device. The Shield TV is made by Nvidia, the makers of the most powerful PC GPU on the planet, so of course the Shield is going to be a powerful gaming machine as well. With the Tegra X1 processor powering the Shield it can handle even the most demanding Android games with ease, even better than your phone or tablet. Graphically demanding ported games like Resident Evil 5 on Android run well, but not as well as on dedicated gaming hardware of course.

The killer feature of the Shield is the inclusion of Nvidia GameStream and GeForce Now. GeForce Now is a monthly subscription service similar to the one offered on the Shield Tablet. Essentially a streaming game platform, GeForce Now lets you stream games from the cloud in high quality since the rendering is done by the cloud computing system. You get access to a select number of games for free, and other games are available for purchase as well. There are a ton of great new AAA titles like TitanFall 2 available as well as classics from years ago like Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The library for GeForce now is always expanding, and it allows you to play games as if you had a high-end gaming PC without needing to spend the money. Nvidia GameStream allows you to stream from your local PC with a Nvidia GPU inside to the Shield for couch gaming of your PC library up to 4K if your TV supports it. It works extremely well and supports a large library of games from all genres. The Shield is advertised as the ultimate streaming box for gamers, and it’s clear that they achieved that claim with these gamer-centric features.

Conclusion

Despite all of the niggles with Android TV as an OS, there is very little I had complaints about with the Shield TV. It is small, quiet and powerful with all the features and more that I look for in a set-top box.

The Nvidia Shield is a monster of a streaming device. The 4K HDR support, flexible control options, and powerful processor make it an excellent device for consuming media. Its wheelhouse is definitely gaming and offers great features for even the most demanding gamer appetite. It has done enough for me to replace my Xbox One as my dedicated media machine in the living room. If you’re looking for a robust, powerful streaming box with 4K HDR support and don’t mind the $199 price tag, then definitely have a look at the Shield.

Good luck finding a safe VPN

If you’re most people, you just found out about the FCC’s internet privacy rules by way of their untimely demise. Thanks to the FCC’s new chief, Congress, and Donald Trump, ISPs are now free to track you like crazy and sell your data to the four directions. As a result, interest in VPNs exploded overnight.

Before the Obama-era FCC’s privacy and security safeguards could go into effect, new FCC chairman Ajit Pai readied the hearse by suspending them indefinitely as his first big act. This ensured they’d never see the light of day, even if Congress didn’t come in for the kill with their anti-privacy-rules bill. Which they did. This was immediately followed by Trump signing that bill lickety-split, ensuring no one gets any of the protections they were promised.

When the attacker is your ISP

So, as you probably know from reading headlines over the past week, ISP’s are free to track you and sell your data to third parties. Less reported, yet equally disastrous to have taken away, is the part in the protections that gave consumers power to hold internet and cable providers accountable for data breaches.

Consumer security, the new FCC chief told Congress, isn’t the FCC’s area of interest anymore.

Ajit Pai – FCC Chairman

The headlines quickly went from Trump signs bill rolling back FCC privacy rules for ISPs, to “hey everyone protect your privacy from ISP’s with a VPN (Virtual Private Network).”

Using a VPN for cloaking your activity from your ISP is a practical solution — especially if you combine it with tracker blocking browser plug-ins like uBlock Origin, because ads are trackers too.

With a VPN the user’s internet connection travels encrypted from computer to VPN server; from there the user’s connection travels unencrypted to their final destination (a website). This way, websites only see the VPN’s IP address and not the user’s, and your ISP only sees you visiting the VPN. The ability of any attacker to spy, intercept, attack or steal information stops at the VPN. That’s why they’re essential for personal security when you use public wi-fi.

Once the idea took hold that VPNs were the magic solution to ISP spying, tracking, and data sales, suddenly everyone and their dog was publishing an article about it. Lots of these articles tell you to use a VPN service with “the hallmarks of a trustworthy service” but few explain what that means, exactly.

Many of these explainery-think pieces, not surprisingly, are profit-seeking endorsements for affiliate VPN services. Not all of which are VPN’s you can trust, even if they come from a trusted blog or source.

And fake VPN services rolled out in waves to cash in.

Trust issues

Selecting a VPN you can trust was already an issue that took research and consideration, weighing connection speeds and pricing, learning about who keeps records and for how long, and more. VPN services are also like any other in that they change their record-keeping policies and privacy practices over time, so that’s another thing to keep up with.

In addition, these services are easy to misconfigure. Just over a year ago, VPN provider Perfect Privacy found a massive security hole in many services called “Port Fail.” It was a bug that de-anonymized users, and most VPN services ignored the problem until the press made noise about it. Many took weeks to put in a fix. One of those was a service endorsed by Lifehacker, which just shows that anyone can have problems finding a reputable VPN.

It can be overwhelming. It’s not as simple as using whatever VPN the security cool kids say is “the one,” because even popular services have been behaving badly. For example, popular service Hola VPN recently got caught selling user traffic to a botnet.

Fortunately like most infosec topics, VPNs are a bit of a fetish unto themselves for people who are into them. Just take a look at this exhaustive comparison chart at “That One Privacy Site.”

If you want to know what the hallmarks of a trustworthy VPN service are, I have a controversial suggestion for you: Torrent Freak. Every year the site asks Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously?

In these extensive posts, TF talks to dozens of top VPN services and asks them what their record keeping policies are, as well as “various other privacy related issues.” If a VPN gets a great review one year, has a less great review the next, and then drops off the list completely (like TigerVPN did), then definitely take that as a “buyer beware.”

So if a VPN is recommended somewhere, do a little homework before you fork over your data (and your cash). Names that come up as trusted include Perfect Privacy, Freedome, TorGuard, Tunnelbear, Black VPN, and others.

Should you have one for your phone? Absolutely, and most VPNs have mobile apps — though look out for the bad ones. Google’s Project Fi (the company’s phone service provider) automatically secures users on a Google VPN in every public wi-fi situation.

The drawbacks? They can slow your connection down, and they may not work with services like Netflix that want to know where you’re physically located. Some public places block the use of VPNs, which should be your sign that the network isn’t safe to use anyway.

Once you’re set up, use the steps in this post to test your VPN to make sure the outside world can only see your VPN’s IP address, and make sure you’re not leaking your actual IP.

When the trend is people turning to VPNs for protection from their own internet service providers — in their own homes — it’s safe to say the privacy and security situation for most Americans has gotten pretty bad.

It’s not all terrible, at least insofar as general security literacy goes. But the trade off is probably not worth it.

The murder of the FCC’s privacy rules are a sign that any war for the soul of consumer protection in the era of the internet is lost. I just hope that someday we can find our way home from here, before it’s really too late.

Images: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Ajit Pai); Prykhodov via Getty Images (VPN)

Epson SureColor P400 review

Research Center:
Epson SureColor SC-P400

With more and more reasonably priced DSLR and mirrorless (and even some smartphone) cameras capable of capturing high-resolution images these days, it opens up the opportunity for high-quality outputs. Why buy art when you can print your masterpieces yourself, and hang them on the wall?

Of course, you’ll need an inkjet printer that can handle more than letter or legal-sized paper. What you want is a wide-format photo printer that’s designed for such a task (think, multiple color ink tanks). But many of these units are on the pricier side.

More: Epson SureColor P600 review

The Epson SureColor P400 ($600) is the company’s latest entry-level wide-format photo printer that brings down the price barrier to entry. With seven ink colors – including two blacks – and a Gloss Optimizer that smoothes out the flat spots in the print, you can produce near-gallery-quality photo prints with excellent color accuracy and saturation, and without completely breaking the bank

Features and design

From the low-end consumer all-in-ones to industrial machines, Epson makes a lot of photo printers or printers that are capable of printing photos. The SureColor series is where you’ll find Epson’s high-quality photo printers, ranging from models that can output advertisement posters to smaller 8 x 10s.

The P400 is at the very low end of the SureColor series, but that doesn’t mean it’s inferior.

The P400 is at the very low end, but that placement on the totem pole doesn’t mean it’s inferior. Think of it as the baby brother to the P600, one of our favorite photo printers. In fact, the two are very similar, except the P400 is less expensive because, mainly, it has one fewer ink tank.

And like the P600 (or any wide-format photo printer, really), the P400 is large. It weighs 27 pounds – not so heavy that you can’t unpack it from its ginormous box, but it is bulky.

The printer itself is rather nondescript: With the top-rear paper feed and the front output tray folded, it’s simply a large, black rectangular box measuring 31.4 x 24.5 x 16.5 inches. It will not fit on a desk, especially when the paper input and output trays are extended, so consider getting a small table or stand for it.

Physically, it looks almost identical to its P600 big brother, but the P400 lacks a color touchscreen. The SC controls run along a strip across the top of the front panel, and include (from left to right) a network status indicator, power button, Wi-Fi connect button, paper feed/cancel button, ink button (which moves the printhead to the “replace ink cartridge” position), and roll paper button for loading and unloading roll paper. There are also indicator lights for power and ink status.

Ted Needleman/Digital Trends

Ted Needleman/Digital Trends

Ted Needleman/Digital Trends

Ted Needleman/Digital Trends

The P400’s paper handling is also similar to the P600’s. The paper feed has a capacity for 120 sheets of plain paper, or 30 sheets of photo paper. It can accommodate paper up to 13 inches wide and 19 inches long. Another feed located on the printer’s rear panel can support 13-inch-wide roll paper. Also located at the rear panel is a place to attach the manual feed tray, used for fine art papers that are too heavy for the standard feed.

Finally, another feed is behind a pull-down panel on the front of the printer, located over the output tray. This input is used for feeding poster board or very heavy fine-art paper. This is also where you feed the tray used to print on printable optical disc media.

More: Home printer buying guide: How to choose the best printer

Similar to the other printers in the SureColor family, the P400 uses Epson’s pigment-based UltraChrome HD inks. The seven colors and Gloss Optimizer cartridges (Epson describes the P400 as an eight-color printer, although that includes the Gloss Optimizer) have a bit less capacity than the more expensive SureColor models – 17ml versus 25.9ml in the P600, for example.

Ink colors consist of two blacks (Matte and Photo Black), Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, and Orange. These provide the P400 with a wide color gamut. Pricing on the ink cartridges runs about $18 each. Epson does not provide yields for the cartridges, and the rating would be useless in most cases anyway since yields are completely dependent on what you print and what colors appear in most of your print. Depending on the size and quality of the prints you generate, figure at least several dollars per print – $1-2 for a 8 x 10 print, $3 and up for a 13 x 17 print – when the cost of the paper is figured in. This is true with just about every prosumer-class wide-format photo printer, not just Epson’s.

Setup and performance

Setup is easy: Plug it in, power it on, and load the ink cartridges. Before you can use it, the P400 goes through a priming process that takes 6-10 minutes. While this is going on you can download the print driver from Epson’s website, as well as any additional software or firmware updates.

When it comes to connecting the printer, you have several options: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (with WPS support), or wired Ethernet. You can also print to the P400 using a mobile device and Epson’s iPrint Mobile software. Unlike the P600, the P400 does not support Apple AirPrint or Google Cloud Print.

One word of caution: If you are using USB to connect the printer, be sure the cable you use is rated for USB 2.0 or 3.0, and pay attention to the cable length. Initially, we had a problem with some of our test prints freezing halfway through. With extensive troubleshooting and support from Epson, we finally discovered the problem was the 15-foot cable we were using. We didn’t have a problem with this cable in the past, but 15 feet is very close to the length limit for a USB cable (16.5 feet), and when we switched to a 10-foot cable, the problem disappeared.

You can produce near-gallery-quality photo prints with excellent color accuracy and saturation.

As with most wide-format photo printers, it takes a while. Printing an 8 x 10 photo can take a minute or two, and a Super B (13 x 19 inch) can take several minutes more. Print settings in the driver have a large influence on both print speed and quality, too. Furthermore, if the printer needs to switch back and forth between the two blacks, it can add considerable more time.

The P400 uses Epson’s Professional Print Driver, which has extensive settings for different aspects of the print process and comes with ICC Print Profiles for many of Epson’s Fine Art papers. Most paper vendors provide ICC profiles for their particular papers, but you’ll need to look those up – not difficult with a quick Google search. If there’s anything tricky about photo printing, it’s probably picking the right settings for the job.

We used Epson’s Cold Press photo paper for our testing and were very impressed with the output. Colors were very accurate, and saturation was excellent. If you want a bit more pop, you can choose the “Vivid” selection in the print driver, though our testing was performed with the default print driver settings for the paper type.

More: Canon Pixma Pro-10 review

Like in all our photo printer reviews, we didn’t bother with printing on regular paper. Why? Because this type of printer isn’t designed for homework, drafts, or any text documents. Not only would it be overkill, it would also be slow; you will, however, get some amazing-looking text documents. Stick to fine-art or photo papers.

What you get

The box contains eight 14ml “starter” ink cartridges (standard cartridges contain 17ml); mounting brackets to accommodate 13-inch-wide roll paper; a large plastic single-sheet guide that clips onto the rear of the printer (for fine-art media when using manual feed mode); a tray for printing onto compatible optical media (CDs and DVDs); and instructional guides. (A comprehensive 173-page user’s guide can be downloaded from Epson’s website).

Not included is a disc containing drivers and software; you will have to download them from Epson’s support site. This is common with many printer vendors these days, but it assures that you have the newest versions of drivers and firmware.

Epson SureColor SC-P400 Compared To

HP DeskJet 3755

Canon Maxify MB5420

Brother MFC-J885DW

Canon Pixma MX492

Epson WorkForce WF-2660

Brother MFC-J4420DW

Brother MFC-J870DW

Epson WorkForce WF-7510

Samsung Printer Xpress C410W

Dell C1765

HP OfficeJet 7410

HP PhotoSmart 8050

HP Photosmart 7760

HP 1100D

HP DeskJet 9670

Other than the power cord, the box contains no USB or Ethernet cables.

Our Take

As an introduction to “prosumer” wide-format photo printing, the P400 has a lot going for it. The seven color inks give a wide color gamut and excellent definition in shaded areas. The Gloss Optimizer smoothes out the finish so there are no flat spots in the output. And the ability of the P400 to handle pretty much any media type up to 13 x 19 inches, including printable optical media and roll paper, is a definite plus – although, given the fixed position of the roll paper brackets, if you’re using roll paper it’s 13 inches or nothing. Whatever cons we have with the P400, they aren’t deal-breakers.

Should you buy it?

Yes, the P400 is an excellent photo printer with a good balance of price, features, and performance. More importantly, it produces great-looking photos. When it comes to wide-format art photo printers, both Canon and Epson offer excellent models. It won’t produce gallery-quality prints, but it comes close, and you’ll be happy with the output.

Are there better alternatives?

The DT Accessory Pack

Epson Professional Media Premium photo paper

$44

Epson Premium glossy photo paper

$36.37

AmazonBasics USB 2.0 cable

$5

There are Canon printers that offer similar features – multiple inks and 13 x 19-inch media handling. The Pixma Pro-10 and Pixma Pro-100 are two of Canon’s prosumer printers. The Pro-10 is about $100 more expensive than the P400, offering 10 ink colors and a wider color gamut; the Pixma Pro-100 uses eight colors of ink and priced about $200 less than the Epson. However, neither of these Canon printers offer the ability to use roll paper, which may be a minus, if you anticipate doing a lot of 13 x 19-inch prints.

Of course, there’s also Epson’s P600 to consider. At $200 (MSRP) more than the P400, it comes with a few extras, like a touchscreen and support for mobile printing protocols. More enticing is the extra ink tank. But we think the P400’s output is damn good, and would be hard for many people to differentiate from the P600 unless pointed out. Doing without the other extras could yield significant savings.

You can certainly spend more money on a prosumer wide-format printer. But if you are dipping your toes in the water, the P400 is good step to take.

How long will it last?

While it’s difficult to predict this, we can use historical references. Keep in mind that the two competing Canon printers mentioned were introduced several years ago (we are still using our Pixma Pro-10), and the SureColor series was only introduced last year (the P400 was introduced just this year). Expect to have a useful life of at least four-to-five years of moderate use; add one-two more years for occasional use, but anticipate approximately three years for heavy-duty usage.

As for the ink, again, this depends on your usage. But it will cost you $18 to replace each color.

Warranty is the basic one-year. Epson does offer an extended warranty that adds another year, which covers replacement or repair, for $56.

South Korea is getting the Galaxy S8 Plus with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage

Why it matters to you

Samsung is dipping its toes into 6GB of RAM — so we can expect future Samsung flagships to push into new RAM territory.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are some of the most powerful phones out there right now, boasting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM. Our friends in Korea, however, are getting an even more powerful version of the device.

Samsung announced a new variant of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for sale solely in South Korea. Those specs are only available on the Galaxy S8 Plus — so those that want the extra RAM and storage will have to be fine with paying for a larger device.

More: Master your Samsung Galaxy S8 with these tips and tricks

Of course, the price alone might be enough to dissuade many people from buying the device — it will cost 1,155,000 won, which equates to around $1,017. That is no small price for a phone.

The 6GB of RAM is a figure we will likely start seeing more often. A number of phones have been released over the past year with that much RAM, including the OnePlus 3T. Some expected the standard Galaxy S8 to come with 6GB of RAM, however, in the end, Samsung opted for a more modest 4GB.

The storage option is a little less uncommon. There are plenty of phones out there with the option for 128GB of storage, including the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. An important thing to consider, however, is the fact that the Google Pixel doesn’t have a microSD card slot, while the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus do — allowing users to add to the storage they have in their phone without having to shell out for the device with more storage in the first place.

There is no word on a release of the new Galaxy S8 Plus variant outside of South Korea, but we are assuming that it will not come to the U.S. anytime soon.

High-tech standing desk comes with a light bar to help make you more productive

Why it matters to you

Kiss your boring, old work desk goodbye. The high-tech, feature-packed Aerodesk boasts hydraulic legs, plug sockets, USB ports, a bluetooth speaker and a Qi charger.

People will frequently justify spending some cash on a nice bed or mattress because it’s where we spend such a significant part of our lives. But what about desks? After all, with the average working week being somewhere around the 40-hour mark, this equates to about 2,000 hours per year that we spend at our workstations.

That’s where British designer John Tomalin-Reeves comes in. As the designer of the First Class lounge at London’s Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 (trust us, it’s nice!), Tomalin-Reeves recently turned his attention to reimagining the desk — with the resulting Aerodesk being both impressively high-tech and pleasingly minimalist.

More: Don’t just sit there, check out the best standing desks you can buy

“You’ve got to try and appeal to the Apple part of people’s brains,” he told Digital Trends. “When people buy an Apple product, it’s not a totally rational decision; they just really respond to the product. There’s a seduction to it. The automotive industry also does this really well. If you’re sitting in the cockpit of a high-end car, it’s glossy and slick. We want to be the Tesla of the desk world. When you’re designing a product, I think your goal should be to make people drool like a dog looking at a steak.”

Aong the highlights are the desk’s hydraulic legs, which allow it to raise and lower with the touch of a button, so it works equally well as a sitting or standing desk. According to Tomalin-Reeves, standing for just three hours each day is equivalent to running 10 marathons per year in terms of calories burned.

Another nifty selling point is the aptly named LightBar that runs the length of the back of the desk, and can re-create the entire spectrum of color to suit every mood. It can produce daylight frequencies, which have been shown to increase levels of energy and productivity.

Finally, there are plug sockets, USB ports, a Bluetooth speaker and a Qi charger, which combine to make Aerodesk a connected desk for the digital age.

“We’re now looking to further improve the product by adding things like inductive surfaces so you don’t need wires,” Tomalin-Reeves said. “We’re even interested in de-ionizing the air around your desk, a bit like an air purifier. The goal is to create a desk that doesn’t feel like a boring work desk. It’s not anonymous; you can really own it.”

For a starting price of around $1,850, that is.

Acer’s crazy expensive $9,000 Predator laptop is stalking PC gamers globally

Why it matters to you

PC gamers with $9,000 to spare now have a new option for playing their favorites on a high-end mobile solution sporting a 21-inch curved WFHD display.

For those who haven’t heard about Acer’s Predator 21 X gaming laptop with a curved screen, you are about to do a double-take. After first appearing at CES 2017 in January, the company said the high-end unit would hit the market sometime in the first quarter. However, that did not happen but instead, it officially launched on Wednesday in Taiwan as the global rollout starting point. The double-take? It has a starting price of $9,000. Yep, you read that correctly.

In Acer’s defense, the laptop is loaded with meaty components that probably have no problems sustaining a high framerate at 2,560 x 1080 on and off the 6,000 mAh battery. The list not only includes a curved 21-inch G-Sync-compatible screen, but two GeForce discrete graphics chips in SLI mode and a shiny new quad-core seventh-generation Intel Core i7 processor.

Here are the monstrous goods:

Model:
Predator 21 X GX21-71-76ZF
Screen size:
21 inches
Panel type:
In-Plane Switching (IPS), LED backlit, G-Sync
Maximum resolution:
2,560 x 1,080 @ 120Hz
Aspect ratio:
21:9
Screen curvature:
2000R
Processor:
Intel Core i7-7820HK @ 2.90GHz
Graphics:
2x GeForce GTX 1080
Graphics memory:
16GB GDDR5X
System memory:
32GB DDR4 (64GB max, 4x DIMM slots, 2,400MHz)
Storage:
1TB hard drive
1TB solid state drive
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Audio:
4x Speakers
Ports:
1x Ethernet
1x SD card reader
1x HDMI
1x DisplayPort
4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
1x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C
1x Headphone jack
1x Microphone jack
Battery:
8-cell 6,000mAh Li-Ion
Dimensions:
2.71 – 3.28 (H) x 22.4 x 12.4 (D) inches
Weight:
18.74 pounds
Operating system:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit

For starters, the display has a curvature of 2000R. The ‘R’ represents the radius of a complete circle, so the smaller the radius, the larger the curved form factor becomes for a screen. Curved screens are better on the eyeballs because your built-in optical orbs aren’t flat, and right now, a curvature of around 2000R seems to be the sweet spot, which this notebook gladly rubs the right way.

The screen is also based on IPS panel technology, which is known for its rich colors and wide viewing angles. The older Twisted Nematic tech is typically associated with gaming due to its response time and high brightness. However, Acer may have opted for IPS to better support the curved form factor.

More: Upgrade to ultrawide with the 34-inch Acer Predator curved monitor, now $200 off

Regardless, the huge cost of Acer’s new laptop likely resides in the large 21-inch curved display and the two $500 GTX 1080 graphics chips. Intel does not list the pricing for its i7-7820HK chip, but it shows an introductory price of $378 when the chip made its first appearance in January. The product page also shows that units will come packed with Tobii eye-tracking technology and there is G-Sync to consider as well.

When this beastly laptop will hit the North American market is unknown. However, Acer Taiwan president Dave Lin said customers will have the ability to customize the device, hence the massive “starting” price. The company will even send out engineers to help customers set up the laptop after purchase, he added.

Chiseled by light, Adidas’ Futurecraft 4D could bring custom footwear to the masses

Why it matters to you

Adidas and the innovative manufacturing company Carbon turned to Digital Light Synthesis and years of running data to produce a true breakthrough in running footwear

At a recent event in New York City, Adidas unveiled the Futurecraft 4D, a shoe it essentially chiseled by light. Created using an innovative manufacturing process known as Digital Light Synthesis (DLS), the German sportswear company teamed with Silicon Valley startup Carbon to produce what each hope to be a breakthrough in footwear. Though other sportswear companies utilize 3D printing to create running shoes — including Adidas itself — the Futurecraft 4D collaboration marks the first time anyone’s turned to DLS to make footwear.

Unlike additive 3D printing, Carbon’s proprietary CLIP technology leans on oxygen permeable optics, digital light projection, and programmable liquid resins to manufacture an object. To create the shoe, Carbon and Adidas projected light through a window in a pool of resin capable of instantly hardening via ultraviolet (UV) light. As UV images of the design project onto the resin, the material begins to take shape and solidify. Once this occurs, the team then bakes it in an oven to produce the finished, fully functional prototype.

More: Porsche lends engineering know-how to running shoes in collaboration with Adidas

With Futurecraft 4D, Adidas says it’s  “officially departing from 3D printing,” according to a press release. In the past, Adidas could only prototype the midsole of a shoe using 3D printing but still required the use of traditional molding and manufacturing to get the finished product. For its recent release, it combined DLS with 17 years of athlete running data to allow the company to customize even the most minute details of the shoe to fit perfectly. DLS allowed Adidas to create 50 fully functional prototypes while creating the Futurecraft 4D.

“Building a mold takes probably something like 35 days for one iteration. So, you can only have so many iterations. Here, we can make one iteration in a day, or sometimes two, or three,” Gerd Manz, Adidas’ vice president of technology innovation told Digital Trends.

Adidas ultimately desires a future where the average consumer simply emails Adidas their personal data to build them the perfect shoe

On hand at the announcement, Digital Trends had the opportunity to try Adidas’ Futurecraft 4D during the unveiling. As soon as we put it on, the elasticity of the intricately designed outer sole design is immediately noticeable in the heel. Even without running, it’s easy to feel the material almost push you forward when the heel of your foot presses on it. While running, the woven mesh upper allows for an enjoyable breeze to circulate throughout the shoe, helping cool off whoever’s wearing it.

To show off the technology in action, Olympic track and field athlete Tori Bowie tested out the Futurecraft shoes while simultaneously crafting her own.

“These [devices] on my feet will help me create my own shoes,” Bowie told Digital Trends while pointing at the two white Adidas devices latched onto her Futurecraft’s laces. “We get feedback from them on one of the iPads so we can create my own shoe.”

Manz says Adidas ultimately desires a future where the average consumer simply emails Adidas their personal data to build them the perfect shoe. As of now, Adidas has yet to officially announce how much the Futurecraft 4D intends to retail for. However, innovative advancements in technology such as this typically come at a price.

Keith Nelson Jr./Digital Trends

“In every technology, at the beginning, you have a certain price tag,” Manz added. “For us, this will be a premium level offer. But, we are working very hard to bring it further and further down in cost and increase our volume, as well as the availability of the product.”

Adidas is planning to release around 5,000 pairs of the Futurecraft 4D commercially this fall and winter, with the hope of having roughly 100,000 pairs in the wild by the end of 2018.

Google’s new AI solution will help make Android phones smarter, more secure

Why it matters to you

You may not notice the changes outright, but Google is putting privacy first with its new AI solution– while also ensuring that your phone is as smart as it can be.

Google is always looking to improve its mobile services, and its latest efforts will see the company turn to a new method called “federated learning.”

The method is being tested now by Google, and represents a pretty big change in how machine-learning systems work on Android. Right now, user data is sent to the cloud on a case-by-case basis, while federated learning would essentially download machine-learning models to the device, modify the model locally, then send a summary of the changes to Google’s servers. The main difference here is where data is mainly stored.

More: Google air conditioner design could let you see straight through the machine

The new method is being tested on Gboard, Google’s popular keyboard. Data stored on the device will include things like the timing and context of suggestions, according to Google. After that data is stored on the device, it is processed on the phone and will begin building an update for the machine-learning model, which will later be sent to Google’s servers.

There are some issues associated with the new system. For example, Google notes that higher latency and slower connections, as well as an uneven distribution of data, can all affect how well the system works. In order to better manage these issues, Google will use what it calls “federated averaging algorithms,” which help reduce the upload time of updates, as well as how much energy the phone uses. These algorithms basically compress data into smaller packages before it’s uploaded. Uploads will only take place when a phone is idle, charging, and connected to Wi-Fi.

There are some big advantages to federated learning. For example, Google notes that the method should help improve privacy. That’s because Google won’t have access to the processed data, but rather only the small update packages sent to Google’s server. Not only that, but users will experience improvements in machine-learning models immediately, rather than having to wait for Google to launch an update.

Google’s new AI solution will help make Android phones smarter, more secure

Why it matters to you

You may not notice the changes outright, but Google is putting privacy first with its new AI solution– while also ensuring that your phone is as smart as it can be.

Google is always looking to improve its mobile services, and its latest efforts will see the company turn to a new method called “federated learning.”

The method is being tested now by Google, and represents a pretty big change in how machine-learning systems work on Android. Right now, user data is sent to the cloud on a case-by-case basis, while federated learning would essentially download machine-learning models to the device, modify the model locally, then send a summary of the changes to Google’s servers. The main difference here is where data is mainly stored.

More: Google air conditioner design could let you see straight through the machine

The new method is being tested on Gboard, Google’s popular keyboard. Data stored on the device will include things like the timing and context of suggestions, according to Google. After that data is stored on the device, it is processed on the phone and will begin building an update for the machine-learning model, which will later be sent to Google’s servers.

There are some issues associated with the new system. For example, Google notes that higher latency and slower connections, as well as an uneven distribution of data, can all affect how well the system works. In order to better manage these issues, Google will use what it calls “federated averaging algorithms,” which help reduce the upload time of updates, as well as how much energy the phone uses. These algorithms basically compress data into smaller packages before it’s uploaded. Uploads will only take place when a phone is idle, charging, and connected to Wi-Fi.

There are some big advantages to federated learning. For example, Google notes that the method should help improve privacy. That’s because Google won’t have access to the processed data, but rather only the small update packages sent to Google’s server. Not only that, but users will experience improvements in machine-learning models immediately, rather than having to wait for Google to launch an update.