Samsung Galaxy Note 7 vs. Galaxy S8+: Total recall

The Note 7 may be the butt of every bad joke right now, but ignoring it altogether leaves a huge gap in the history of Samsung’s design language. Many of the design traits that make the Galaxy S8+ — the company’s latest big-screened superphone — so great, can be traced back to its explosively flawed predecessor. Though it’ll forever be associated with faulty batteries and an embarrassing global recall, the Note 7 was the first to showcase a true symmetrical glass and metal design, and organic curves that went a step beyond the “edge” phones of old.

The same is true on the software side, with the Note 7 debuting the “Grace” UX — a significantly refined interface that paved the way for the clean lines, rounded rectangles and brilliant whites we see on the S8+. And as the last Samsung flagship to feature traditional physical home keys and a 16:9 display, it’s an interesting stepping stone between the old and the new.

Check out our video comparison above, as Russell takes a look at Samsung’s most infamous phone next to its latest and greatest.

• Android Central on YouTube
• Samsung Galaxy S8 review
• Galaxy S8 + S8+ video review

OnePlus 5 confirmed to feature dual rear-camera, possible embedded fingerprint sensor

OnePlus has always produced phones that offer flagship specs and features without the flagship prices. The OnePlus 5 looks set to be no different, and the latest report from India Today Tech suggests it will come with a dual rear-camera, a feature that many of 2017’s flagship have.

• OnePlus 4/OnePlus 5: What’s the story so far?

It’s not clear what image sensors will be fitted to the upcoming “flagship killer”, but it’s thought the front-facing snapper will be the same 16-megapixel sensor as found on the OnePlus 3T.

India Today Tech has also come up with an image of the OnePlus 5, which is based on information from people who have either seen it or worked on it, and it shows no rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

This, says India Today Tech, means the upcoming device will have a sensor under the screen on the front where you would normally find a physical button. This could mean the OnePlus 5 will have a screen that takes up the entirety of the front, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 and possibly even the iPhone 8 if rumours are to be believed.

The image also shows no antenna lines on the rear, and the seamless look could eliminate the slight variation between the screen and rear as seen on the OnePlus 3T. It’s claimed the OnePlus 5 will have a 5.5-inch display, but it’s not clear if it will stick to full HD 1080p, or take a bump up to 1440p.

Other specs are thought to include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor that features in many of the 2017 flagship devices, at least 6GB of RAM, as the 3T had 6GB, and 64GB/128GB storage options.

• OnePlus 3T review: The best mid-price phone, now with Nougat sweetness

There’s no word on pricing just yet, but we can be sure it will be a fraction of the cost of several 2017 flagships. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei told India Today Tech: “”Some people think we have the best product while some think we have the best product at a given price. This caveat is something I don’t want. We just want to create the best products. Period. No caveats”.

“We don’t want consumers to see the price of the phone”.

The next OnePlus phone is said to skip the number 4 and go straight to 5 as 4 is seen as unlucky number in Asia.

This real-life Dawn of War III power fist can punch through toilets, oh yes!

With Dawn of War III released tomorrow, Sega has created something unique to promote it. It has built a real-life, fully-working power fist.

Based on the pneumatic gloves space marines have worn since Games Workshop first unveiled Warhammer 40K, the working version was partly 3D printed but utilises weapons-grade aluminium for the fingers and punching fist itself.

It weighs almost 10kg and is capable of delivering a maximum force of 3300 Newtons. Basically, it can punch through a brick wall. And ceramic toilet.

The power fist was built by UK production company Rewind and requires a harness to support its weight. The harness also contains two air canisters, which power parts from an old industrial pneumatic cylinder. It can deliver up to 3,000 PSI to the first in order to augment the user’s strength.

Sega used the working version on a number of hapless targets, including a dolls house, but it eventually gave up the ghost after ploughing through a series of computers and other metal objects. It expects to have it up and running again soon and Pocket-lint is hoping to give it a test in the coming days.

Dawn of War III will be available for PC from Steam and Amazon.co.uk from tomorrow, 27 April.

The Morning After: Wednesday, April 26th 2017

In case you missed it yesterday, one Google cofounder is making a flying (kinda) car, while the other has a secret blimp, Uber is having a pretty awful year (already), and there’s a for-real tricorder. The makers of it reckon it’s better than the Star Trek one. Bold claims.

It’s not even May.
Uber’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2017

Uber could be the world’s most valuable startup, with estimates pegging the company as being worth around $70 billion. Its business, and its CEO, have always garnered controversy, but Uber has been able to survive whatever slings and arrows were thrown its way. So far. This year, however, has been, well, tough.

Wouldn’t you?
Of course Sergey Brin has a secret zeppelin

Since his Google co-founder Larry Page is working on a “flying car,” it only makes sense that Sergey Brin has an aerial hobby project too. In this case, Bloomberg reports that the mission is a dirigible, with an ex-NASA director leading the project. Even if it flies, however, the biggest hurdle could be explaining the difference between helium and hydrogen.

The X keeps it fresh
LG has OLED, Samsung has QLED and so Vizio has XLED

Vizio has finally unveiled its new for 2017 4K sets, and like Samsung, it’s rebranding LCDs to compete with OLED. Whatever you call it, the new P- and M- series televisions should bring high picture quality at value prices, but without that tracking scheme the FTC fined it for.

The XPrize Tricorder winner is half real medical device, half Dr. McCoy.
XPrize winner says its Tricorder is better than ‘Star Trek’

The Tricorder XPrize finally has a winner. The Final Frontier Medical Devices’ DxtER isn’t so much an all-in-one scanner as collection of noninvasive medical-diagnosis gadgets. Even so, its creators claim the DxtER package is better than Star Trek’s fictional tricorder. Unlike the fictional tricorder, the winning XPrize entry is actually a small collection of specialized and smart medical devices that interact with the user’s tablet. This includes a compact spirometer that can measure the strength of a patient’s lungs, a Mono test kit, medical-grade heart-rate and respiration monitors, and devices like the DxtER Orb, which doubles as a thermometer and stethoscope. Perhaps most importantly, it’s designed for patients to use themselves.

Fight as Rocket Racoon, Chun Li, Hulk and more this September.
The Avengers take on gaming icons in ‘Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’

After a year of silence, Capcom has announced eight new characters for its crossover fighter — Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Doubling down on Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Ultron and Rocket Racoon join the playable roster. On the Capcom side, you’ll be able to duke it out as Street Fighter’s Chun Li, Resident Evil’s Chris Redfield, and Strider’s Strider Hiryu. It launches on PS4, Xbox One and PC on September 19th for $59.99.

An artificial womb could transform care for extremely premature infants.
Scientists successfully grew fetal lambs inside ‘uterus-like’ bags

Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have developed a new artificial womb that could benefit the tens of thousands of critically preterm (younger than 26 weeks) births in the US each year. According to a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the research physicians successfully kept fetal lambs alive inside a “uterus-like” plastic sack for up to four weeks — longer than any similar device before it.

It didn’t take long for the supercomputer to figure out how anxious I am.
IBM’s Watson looked into my soul and ‘drew’ my portrait

IBM’s “Art with Watson: Hidden Portraits,” is an exhibit featuring portraits of historic personalities like Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla, which Watson helped artists create by feeding them data collected using its natural language and personality insights APIs. IBM also had a Watson cognitive photo booth, where the supercomputer made portraits of visitors based on five different aspects of their personality: anxiousness, openness, agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness. Watson asks a set of personality trait questions, then draws a cognitive portrait represented by tiny icons of each of those aforementioned traits.

Come spend some time in the Genius Grove.Apple sees its redesigned retail stores as community spaces

Apple is banking on the (vaguely) social aspect of its stores. It’s both redesigning its 100 largest stores and launching new workshops to turn its stores into community spaces of sorts. The shops are still very much geared toward sales, but you’ll have more reasons to swing by on a frequent basis. The workshops revolve around new in-store Creative Pros who host free sessions based around Apple tools and Apple-friendly devices.

But wait, there’s more…

• Sling rolls out new bundle pricing for its AirTV box
• ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ ends the trilogies on May 24th, 2019
• A peek inside a Juicero reveals why it costs so much money
• A Doritos bag is all you need to play the ‘Guardians 2’ soundtrack
• These Japanese drones are the first ones to carry spherical LED displays
• ‘Treehugger’ VR project lets you become one with a giant redwood.

Pioneer and Onkyo slip Chromecast support into more audio devices

Owners of some recent audio products from Onkyo and Pioneer don’t need a dongle for Chromecast support anymore. At CES in 2016 Google announced a push for Chromecast support in more audio products, but it’s taken until now for updates adding the feature in many of last year’s receivers, Hi-Fi systems and other devices. Once they’re updated, all it takes is being on the same WiFi network with your smartphone, laptop or Google Home and they’re ready for all kinds of casting or multiroom audio — check below for a full list of supported model numbers.

Onkyo:

PR-RZ5100, TX-RZ3100, TX-RZ1100, TX-RZ810, TX-RZ710, TX-NR676E, TX-NR656, TX-NR575E, TX-NR555, TX-NR474, HT-S7800, TX-8270, TX-L20D, LS7200, LS5200, R-N855, NS-6170, NS-6130, and NCP-302.

Pioneer:

SC-LX901, SC-LX801, SC-LX701, SC-LX501, VSX-1131, VSX-932, VSX-832, VSX-831, VSX-S520D, VSX-S520, SX-S30DAB, NC-50DAB, N-30AE, FS-W50, FS-W40, XC-HM86D, X-HM86D, X-HM76D, X-HM76, MRX-5, and MRX-3.

Source: Onkyo, Pioneer

Twitter is gaining more users, losing less money

Twitter has updated us on the state of its business and, if you squint, you can almost see that things are picking up for the service. The company revealed that while revenues fell by $164 million, it managed to trim its quarterly losses down to just $62 million. By comparison, Twitter burned $167 million in the last three months of 2016 and $80 million in the same quarter last year.

Twitter’s also had a problem with perma-stagnant user growth, with the number of monthly users hovering around the 310 – 320 million mark for the last year. Not so this quarter, which saw the number of daily users spike in the last three months, taking the total to 328 million.

User numbers are up, losses are down, but Twitter can’t yet make its advertising service work, and that’s a problem. The company saw ad engagement fall, as well as the amount of money advertisers spent with the service. But, as a counter to that, Twitter beat its own estimates, raking in $548 million when it expected to earn $511.9 million.

In his remarks, CEO Jack Dorsey says that he is “encouraged by the audience growth momentum,” and believes that profitability is coming. He does concede, however, that the company will face “revenue headwinds,” as the service struggles to carve out an identity for itself in the face of so much competition.

Twitter doesn’t speculate on why, suddenly, user numbers are up so high, but we can, and it’s probably down to you know who. Since the current incumbent of the White House uses the service as his own personal megaphone, people are likely to tune in.

Another reason for optimism is that Twitter lost a lot of cash last quarter thanks to restructuring charges and severance costs. In October, the company let around 350 employees go in the hope of trimming costs, as well as shutting down the 6-second video platform Vine.

Not to mention, of course, that Twitter has started to make some changes to its platform to address its abuse problem. It has instituted automatic blocking of abusive accounts and has moved to restrict users who misuse the platform to spread hate speech. Oh, and it blocked noted assholes Martin Shkreli and Tila Tequila, so it’s clearly doing something right.

Source: Twitter, (2 .PDF)

Day One Journal App Now Offers to Print Journals as Bound Books, Starting at $14.99

The company behind Mac and iOS journaling app Day One this week began offering U.S. users the chance to create printed, bound books using the content of their digital journals.

Day One Books can be designed from within the Day One iPad and iPhone app, with options to customize the cover, and include maps, stats, and full-color photos in the content.

The journals can have a flexible amount of pages (up to 400 max) and are printed on “high-quality paper” with a “coating material”, according to Day One, although no other details on the specific stock are given.

The journals can be purchased through the iOS apps using Apple Pay, and prices for the journals start at $14.99 for 50 pages, rising to $49.99 for 400 pages, with the option of a hard cover for an extra $5.

The company says all digital files are “securely transferred” to the printing facility and printing is automated without any manual handling of the files, after which the digital files used are automatically deleted.

Day One Books ship to their destination within 7-12 business days after ordering within the app, and tracking codes are not provided. Day One is also promising support for international orders in the future.

A full pricing breakdown for Day One Book options can be found here.

Day One is a $4.99 app on the iOS App Store and costs $39.99 on the Mac App Store.

Tag: Day One
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China to Get Netflix Originals in Content Deal With Local Streaming Service

Netflix has signed a licensing deal with a Beijing-based video platform in order to avoid regulatory restrictions and get its content into China’s huge entertainment market (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The streaming giant announced the news of its content agreement with iQiyi on Tuesday at the APOS industry conference in Bali, Indonesia.

“China is an important market for obvious reasons; it’s also a challenging market for obvious reasons,” said Robert Roy, Netflix’s vice president of content acquisition. “Right now what we will do is look to license content into China. We closed a deal with iQiyi, which is exciting.” 

“For us, it does a couple of things,” Roy added. “It gets our content distribution into the territory and builds awareness of the Netflix brand and Netflix content.”

A subsidiary of Chinese giant Baidu, iQiyi is currently switching from an advertising-supported streaming service to a subscription model in the same vein as Netflix. The subsidiary reportedly commands the largest customer base and content portfolio in China, however it has been looking to broaden its appeal as rivals like Tencent Video and Youku Tudou compete for viewers in the country’s market.

It is understood that Netflix will make some of its upcoming original content available on iQiyi at the same time as it appears in other Netflix-serving countries, but further details on which shows would be included in the deal were not forthcoming.

Both Amazon and Netflix have been unable to enter China’s market because of regulatory hurdles, although Netflix’s House of Cards briefly achieved viral status in China thanks to a deal with local service Sohu. The show was apparently even known to Chinese president Xi Jinping, but it was later withdrawn from local streaming services by regulators.

Last year, Apple faced its own issues with Chinese state regulators regarding a controversial independent movie which led to the shut down of iTunes and iBooks in the country.

Tags: China, Netflix
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LG OLED TV 2017 explored: Wallpaper, G7, E7, C7 and B7 compared

LG is staying committed to OLED in 2017, introducing another Signature model at the top of the range, expanding to five OLED models, each in two sizes. The fight against top-level LED TVs continues, with Samsung particularly turning up the heat with its new QLED models.

Although the likes of Sony, Panasonic and Philips have all added OLED TVs to their respective offerings, it’s LG who is still leading the charge with a line-up of sets for all types of customer, and particularly those interesting in premium TV, where OLED sits. 

LG OLED improvements in 2017

Before we start, one thing to note is that all of the OLED TVs use the same panel. Unlike a company like Samsung that has slightly different configurations across its range, the OLED panels in LG’s 2017 range are all the same. There’s no 3D support, a feature dropped from 2016.

Brightness

Targets for improvements in 2017 over 2016 come in a number of areas. The biggest change is in increasing brightness. This has been the biggest criticism of OLED in the era of HDR, as it’s less bright than LED. LG now says that its OLED panels are 25 per cent brighter, meaning it can deliver greater punch for more impactful highlights, a real benefit for HDR.

Black performance

Black is what OLED has always been about. Because each pixel creates its own light, rather than relying on a lighting source arrayed behind or to the side, the panel can turn off the light more precisely. That means no bleed from an area that’s black into a neighbouring area that’s supposed to be not black. LG’s target in 2017 has been to improve the performance of the picture just above black, where sometimes the very dark shades crash into black, losing low level gradation.

New polariser

There’s a new polariser layer that aims to boost blacks too. The real aim is ensure that the panel looks even across its entire width and that there’s no lightening toward the very edges. This should give a more universal look across the TV and make sure that stays correct no matter what the viewing angle is.

Active HDR with dynamic data insertion

HDR is always pitched as an “as the director intended” technology. The pursuit of HDR has resulted in improved colours, increased contrast and the ability to push brighter highlights alongside deeper shadows, it’s very much the wow feature of modern TVs. But LG is now looking to improve the performance of those HDR standards that aren’t as well placed as others. HDR10 and HLG, for example, use static metadata, whereas Dolby Vision provides data for each frame. 

Say hello to Active HDR on LG’s 2017 TVs. This aims to insert data to boost the performance of those lesser formats, meaning that you should effectively upscale your HDR10 and HLG content (when it eventually appears).

• What is HDR, what TVs and devices support HDR, and what HDR content can I watch?

LG

LG Signature OLED TV W

• Screen sizes: 65in, 77in
• OLED, flexible, 3840 x 2160 pixels, Active HDR with Dolby Vision
• Price: £7,999 (65in), £24,999 (77in) 

The W, or Wallpaper, is one of the most distinctive TVs currently available. LG refers to it as picture on wall, because it’s basically just an OLED panel, on your wall and only 2.57mm thick. When magnetically mounted, it’s only 4mm thick. 

It’s a high-end design piece for sure, coming with a separate Dolby Atmos soundbar to provide the sound. This soundbar also has all the connections for the TV as the panel has no connections itself. Connecting the two is via a flat cable, which is the only input for the TV that you need to consider.

The panel itself, however, is the same as LG uses in across its other OLED TVs, ensuring fantastic quality, support for a wide range of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, and all powered by webOS. Stunning, but expensive.

• LG Signature OLED W preview

LG

LG OLED G7

• Screen sizes: 65in, 77in
• OLED, picture on glass, 3840 x 2160 pixels, Active HDR with Dolby Vision
• Price: £6,999 (65in), £19,999 (77in) 

The LG OLED G7 updates and replaces last year’s flagship, the excellent OLED G6, but steps down a little in price to accommodate the Signature W that now tops the range. LG still calls this a Signature model, so it’s very much still a flagship, only a little more conventional. 

It uses LG’s picture on glass design, meaning it’s still super slim and it looks frameless, blending with the wall behind it as the only bezel elements are translucent. The big thing about the G7 is the integrated soundbar stand. This folds out of the way when you mount the TV on the wall, making it an elegant and versatile design.

You get all the connectivity and the webOS user interface with satellite or terrestrial broadcast tuners and Dolby Atmos support again. Here you have that 60W 4.2 soundbar integrated, attempting to create those Atmos immersive audio effects.

• Dolby Atmos explained: What is it and how do I get it?

LG

LG OLED E7 

• Screen sizes: 55in, 65in
• OLED, picture on glass, 3840 x 2160, Active HDR with Dolby Vision
• Price: £3,499 (55in), £4,999 (65in) 

The OLED E7 likewise updates the OLED E6 of 2016. It sticks to the picture on glass design and like the G7 has an integrated soundbar. As we have said previously this uses the same panel as the other TVs, but notably drops in size down to a 55-inch model, which for many average households will increase its practicality, as well as pulling the price down. 

Here the soundbar stand drops to a 40W 2.2, although the TV will still aim to create immersive Dolby Atmos sound, but the design is very close to the Signature G7 that sits in the position above it.

LG

LG OLED C7 

• Screen sizes: 55in, 65in
• OLED, 3840 x 2160 pixels, Active HDR with Dolby Vision
• Price: £2,999 (55in), £4,999 (65in) 

The OLED C7 heads towards the entry point for LG’s OLED TVs and as such steps down from the picture on glass design with its translucent frame, to a design that’s still very thin, but with a little more of a noticeable bezel and a central elegant stand.

There’s also no integrated soundbar on this TV, so if you’ve already got a sound system you want to use, then it’s perhaps the TV for you. The internal speakers however are 40W 2.2ch and again will attempt to create a Dolby Atmos effect. 

As we’ve said for each of the these TVs, the panel is the same, so even though this is a couple of steps into the range, you’ll still get stunning picture performance from the C7. The OLED C6 in 2016 was curved, but now this model is flat, so it its even closer to the B7 in terms of specifications.

LG

LG OLED B7 

• Screen sizes: 55in, 65in
• OLED, 3840 x 2160 pixels, Active HDR with Dolby Vision
• Price: £2,999 (55in), £4,999 (65in)

The LG OLED B7 would logically be the starting point to the range, although this TV – as well as having the same panel as all the rest, is the same price and spec as the C7. It also comes in the same sizes. 

The B7 is flat and the thing that separates it from the C7 is in design, with the curved stand making it a little different from the “Alpine” stand of the C7.

Otherwise you have that glorious UHD panel with support for lots of different HDR formats, you have the really slick webOS interface with a whole stack of connected services and you again have support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. 

LG’s main points of differentiation are in design and audio, with all these TVs offering the same visuals. With that in mind, we suspect that the lower prices of the C7 and B7 will prove hard to resist.

All-electric Nissan Leaf AT-EV to attempt 10,000 mile Mongol Rally

There’s no doubt that all-electric cars are getting better all the time, and definitely here to stay, but there’s still a big question mark over range – how far they can travel between charging.

Electric vehicle advocate Plug in Adventures hopes to put some of those concerns to rest by proving that it’s possible to not only get to the shops and back in a Nissan Leaf, it’s possible to get one from the UK to Mongolia with as few stops as possible.

That’s because it has entered a modified Nissan Leaf Acenta, dubbed AT-EV, into the Mongol Rally. Drivers will race the car 10,000 miles (16,000 km) this summer.

• All-electric cars UK 2017: All the battery powered vehicles available on the road today

It has been customised with Speedline SL2 Marmora wheels and Maxsport RB3 narrow tyres. It has also been fitted with a roof rack and Lazer troiple-R 16 LED light bar to continue driving in dark, remote locations.

The rear seats have been removed, so the car is 32kg lighter than a consumer model, but as the Mongol Rally isn’t a timed race, the driver and passenger positions remain relatively unchanged for comfort sakes.

The Nissan Leaf is capable of up to 155 miles on a single charge, but that means it will still need plenty of top-ups along the way.

It was chosen specifically because it is compatible with one of the largest networks of rapid charging options in Europe. It also accepts 240v Commando connections, so can be charged when no charging station is available.