Galaxy S8 review: Redemption in glass
From more than one angle, the Galaxy S8 is the most important Android smartphone of the year. To Samsung, it’s a chance to regain the public trust; to gadget nerds, it packs more cutting-edge features than any other mobile; and to normals, it’s the phone they’re gonna see plastered across every billboard from here to the holidays. Still, there are some important questions to ask before pulling the trigger on a smartphone that straddles the $800 mark. Does it deliver a big enough improvement over last year’s model? Are its new stretched screen and heavier-than-ever interface assets or impediments? And most crucially: does the Galaxy S8 even have a place in a world where you can get three quarters of its features for half the price, in phones like the Moto Z Play and OnePlus 3T?
To find out, I dual-wielded a Galaxy S8 review device and a Galaxy S8+ review device for seven days, toting them around Massachusetts to photograph the forests of Salem, take phone calls amid the gusts of Gloucester, and even Snapchat some seagull dive-bombs. To see what I learned, join me for the MrMobile Galaxy S8 Review / Galaxy S8+ Review … and then hop over to Android Central’s Galaxy S8 Review for the rest of the story!
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No more NES Classic Mini consoles to be made, if you missed out you missed out
After selling out prior to Christmas last year, the Nintendo Classic Mini consoles were much sought after – fetching high prices on reseller sites, such as eBay. Some preferred to wait for new stock, however, so they could get one for the original retail price of around £50.
Unfortunately, that is no longer likely. Nintendo has revealed that it will not be manufacturing any new NES Classic Mini units in Europe, America or Japan. If you missed out then, you missed out for good, it seems.
Speaking to Eurogamer, a Nintendo spokesman revealed that there are no plans to make any more Minis: “We can confirm that we are no longer manufacturing the Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System,” he said.
He did give a glimmer of hope, however: “If production resumes in the future, an update will be posted on the official Nintendo website.”
You will be able to keep up with that news on Pocket-lint or Nintendo.co.uk.
In the meantime, you can always build your own retro games console – one that’s not restricted to 30 games. We did so ourselves and have detailed the entire process in our handy how to guide here: Can’t buy a NES Classic Mini? How to build your own retro console for just £50
How to take a screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy S8, including smart select and smart capture
Samsung has made a major change to the Galaxy S8 and S8+, removing the physical home button, meaning that taking a screenshot is now a little different to previous models.
You have a number of different options when it comes to taking a screenshot, with some Samsung additions to make it more useful than your average Android device.
Here’s how to take a screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Galaxy S8 screenshot using buttons
Samsung supports the conventional Android method of taking a screenshot using button presses:
Make sure the content you want to capture is on the screen.
Press volume and the standby button on the right-hand side at the same time.
The screen will be captured, flashing and saving in the “screenshots” album/folder in the gallery.
Note that this is different to the Galaxy S7 and previous devices that used a combination of the standby button and the home button.
Galaxy S8 screenshot using palm swipe
The second method that Samsung offers is one that’s been offered on the past few devices, using a gesture. This is how to get it to work.
Head into settings > advanced features > palm swipe to capture. Make sure this option is toggled on.
Swipe the side of your hand across the display. You can swipe left or right, both work.
The screen will be captured, flashing and saving in the “screenshots” album/folder in the gallery.
Note that if you’ve mastered the button pressing and don’t want to swipe to capture, you can turn the option off so it never happens.
Galaxy S8 screenshot using smart select
This third method isn’t a complete screenshot, but it’s a very useful way of capturing information that’s on the display, using a feature called smart select. If you’ve been a Note user in the past, some of this might sound familiar.
Smart select is an edge panel, you can swipe into it from the edge screen.
Head into settings > display > edge screen > edge panels. Through this menu you can enable firstly edge screen itself, but also the smart select edge panel.
Head to the page you want to capture from.
Open the edge panel with a swipe until you get to smart select.
Choose the shape or type of selection you want to make – rectangle, circle or best of all, create a gif.
You’ll return to the capture page with a frame for making that selection. Resize or reposition the frame and press done. If creating a gif, hit record, then stop when you’re done.
You’ll then be show what you’ve been captured, with the option to draw, share, save and in the case of text, extract that text, so you can paste it elsewhere.
Galaxy S8 screenshot using smart capture
The final thing to know about screenshotting on the Galaxy S8 is that smart capture will do a whole lot more for you. This is something fairly unique to Samsung that lets you instantly do things to your screenshot, rather than having to go and open it up on your gallery app.
Ensure that smart capture is turned on in settings > advanced features > smart capture.
When you screenshot (using buttons or palm swipe), you’ll get additional options at the bottom of the page in a banner. You can draw, crop or share, but the most useful is capture hidden areas.
Tap scroll capture to include parts of the display you can see, for example on a long webpage.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 gives you a wealth of options for capturing content from the display, but is also packed full of other features. Check them all out in our full Samsung Galaxy S8 tips and tricks.
iRobot starts a patent war over robot vacuums
It’s getting nasty in the robot vacuum arena. iRobot has filed lawsuits against Bissell, Black & Decker, Bobsweep and Hoover for allegedly violating several patents for the concept of an autonomous room-cleaning robot. The company “will not stand by” as rivals “infringe on our intellectual property” by making similar competing machines, according to a statement. We’ve reached out to the companies targeted by the lawsuits and will let you know how they’re responding, although it’s safe to say they aren’t likely to roll over.
At first blush, the infringement claims appear to be part of a classic competitive strategy: if you’re an early participant in an industry that’s rapidly heating up, sue the competition to slow them down. iRobot effectively invented the robot vacuum category with its Roomba line back in 2002, but recent years have seen an explosion of alternatives, including Bissell’s SmartClean, Bobsweep’s Bobi and Hoover’s Quest series. While iRobot still has the best-known models, there’s a very real chance that it gets overshadowed by latecomers — especially anyone that can offer more for your money.
Source: Reuters
Tumblr’s Cabana app lets friends watch video along with you
Tumblr has released a new standalone app called Cabana, where you can hang out with your friends through video chat and force them to watch cute animal videos. It’s far from a being a new concept: Google already did it with YouTube party mode for Hangouts and Uptime. A simple search for “watch videos together” will bring up a lengthy list of choices, as well — there’s even an in-app option for Apple’s iMessage. Still, the company says the prototype was a hit among teens aged 13 to 18 during their tests. If you’re partial to Tumblr and you’re looking for a virtual party app anyway, Cabana might be worth a shot.
The app can accommodate up to six people, all of whom will have the power to pause and change what the group is watching. You’ll even have a ton of videos to choose from, since it comes with YouTube integration at launch. Cabana pulls your friends’ details from both Tumblr and your contacts list, so you can invite anybody you want…unless they’re outside the US. The app is only available in the country for now and only for iOS devices. The social network didn’t say if and when it’ll be available in other locations, but it’ll at least release an app for Android devices in May.
Source: Tumblr
UberEats now lets Brits schedule food deliveries
UberEats, like Deliveroo and Amazon Prime Now, can be useful if you don’t have the time, supplies or energy to rustle up some grub. When you’re really in a rush, however — the morning ‘I must not be late for work again’ dash, for instance — it can be a nuisance to open the app, complete an order and then wait for the courier to arrive at your front door. Now, in London, Birmingham and Manchester, it’s possible to schedule an UberEats delivery. It’s a small addition, but one that could prove useful if you’re time poor or like to have your meals organised in advance.
In the UK, Uber has some tough competition. Deliveroo, which also offers scheduled orders, is courting small restaurants with a network of small, delivery only kitchens called ‘Editions.’ Just-Eat, which hoovered up Hungryhouse last December, is still a household name, and Amazon Prime has the might of an e-commerce juggernaut behind it. In the food space, Uber is arguably the challenger. One that’s experienced in app development and managing a fleet of drivers, but a challenger nonetheless.
The fight for peckish Brits is the least of Uber’s problems, however. The company is losing a bunch of high-profile staff at the moment, including the director of its AI lab. There’s also “Greyball,” a program designed to deceive government officials from catching Uber cars, and “Hell,” an internal program used to identify and track drivers who are using Uber and Lyft simultaneously. Combine that with its self-driving car program, which was part of a crash in Arizona last month, and its ongoing court battle with Alphabet-owned Waymo, and the company has a lot on its plate.
Netflix finds ‘Carmen Sandiego’ for its latest reboot
In a bid to answer one of, if not the biggest unsolved mystery of Saturday morning kids’ TV, Netflix is making a new Carmen Sandiego show. Twenty animated episodes are apparently on the cards, with Gina Rodriguez, from Jane the Virgin, already cast to voice Carmen Sandiego — hopefully donning a crimson trench coat as she records her lines.
Carmen Sandiego started off as a live-action game show with awkward costumes, heavy word play and puns, and stealth geography lessons. Netflix’s remake sounds closer to Fox’s animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego that ran from the mid- to late ’90s. The show blended travelling the world with time travel, with early internet and computer game references a-plenty. For further temporal / third wall confusion, the entire show took place inside a video game, with the protagonists often talking and interacting with an off-camera kid and his giant, beige desktop PC.
In my still-developing tween brain, the original animated show struck the perfect balance between morning cartoon and, ugh, “edutainment”. Netflix appears to be making moves into this with its recent kids programming: The Magic School Bus is also set to be revived. hasn’t detailed when the show might arrive, but I’d offer one word of warning: don’t you dare ruin the theme song.
Panasonic can read your heart rate by looking at your face
Being a sports professional means keeping calm in high-pressure situations, or at least pretending you are when actually freaking out. Spectators are typically none the wiser, but Panasonic will be giving viewers some additional insight into the mind of golfers competing at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship 2017, which tees off in Japan later this month. Coverage of the tournament, which is being broadcast on Japanese TV and online, will show the heart rate of golfers on-screen, so you can watch the nerves kick in as someone steps up to attempt a clutch, chip-in birdie. It’s intended to add a bit more drama to the otherwise slow proceedings, but just as interesting is how Panasonic plans on making this happen, using what the company calls “contactless vital sensing” by way of a special camera.
Including heart rate measurements in sports broadcasts isn’t entirely new. Televised basketball, volleyball and rugby events, for example, have previously used this kind of data to make for more engaging viewing; but the vitals of players and coaches have always been measured by wearable devices of some form or another. At the upcoming golf tournament, though, Panasonic will instead use a kind of camera that estimates heart rate based on “the subtle color change on the player’s face caused by vascular constriction.”
If your immediate reaction is to be skeptical about the accuracy of such a measurement, we’re right there with you. But Panasonic isn’t messing around. The sensor technology was developed in collaboration with Kyoto University, and uses “millimeter-wave spread-spectrum radar” to track the minor changes in skin coloration. There’s even been a proper study done comparing the estimates of the sensor tech to readings from a traditional body-worn ECG monitor, with results confirming a “very strong correlation” between the two measurements. In other words, what you’ll be seeing on the broadcast will be a pretty reliable indicator of a pro golfer’s stress level as they compose themselves for a must-sink putt.
Source: Panasonic (1), (2), (3)
Apple Will Still Include a Lightning to Headphone Jack Adapter With This Year’s iPhones, Says Barclays
Apple will continue to include a Lightning to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter with the trio of new iPhone models rumored to launch later this year, according to Barclays.
“We believe it stays this year but goes away at some point, potentially in the 2018 model,” said Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis, and his associates, in a research note distributed today.
Cirrus Logic would remain the primary beneficiary within Apple’s supply chain, as it’s believed to provide some of the tiny audio-related components inside of the adapter.
Barclays contradicts Japanese blog Mac Otakara, which said Apple will no longer include the adapter in the box with the so-called iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone Edition.
Apple eliminating the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7 was a controversial decision, so it’s easy to see why it might want to include the adapter in the box for at least another year. But, unlike when the iPhone launched last year, Apple’s wireless AirPods and BeatsX earphones are now available.
Apple sells the Lightning to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter for $9 as a standalone accessory, which is cheap by its standards, so customers that still prefer to use wired headphones won’t be forced to pay too much extra whether the adapter is removed from the iPhone box this year or later.
Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: Barclays, Lightning, headphone jack
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How to get the S8 with the Samsung Upgrade Programme
Time was, you had two ways to upgrade your mobile phone. Wait until your two-year contract expired and wait to see what your network had to offer or put down a chunk of cash to buy the phone outright if you had a Pay-As-You-Go SIM.
Now, though, there’s a third way that promises a new phone every year if you’d like one and doesn’t require a huge upfront sum. It’s called the Samsung Upgrade Programme and it works like this.
How it works
When you buy the latest premium/flagship Samsung phone, like the Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+ via Samsung’s shop you can choose to opt for the Samsung Upgrade Programme as your payment option.
For a phone like the S8, which costs £689 upfront, you’d be able to break the cost down into more manageable payments. For the Galaxy S8 the total amount payable is £783.14 spread across a 24 month term at an interest rate of 14.9% p.a. (fixed) equating to monthly payments of £29.76 and an initial deposit of £68.90.
How you can upgrade ahead of time
The cool bit though is that after 12 months you can upgrade to the latest model and once you’ve done that you can send your current handset back in good working condition and the rest of your existing repayments are closed off.
This means you can have the latest Samsung phone – every year – without having a big upfront payment to deal with as you would if you bought the phone on day one.
It’s flexible, too. If, after a year, you decide you don’t want to upgrade again, you don’t have to, simply settling the existing credit agreement at any time.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+
The Samsung Upgrade Programme offer applies to the larger Samsung Galaxy S8+ as well.
Both of the new phones offer amazing screens which almost cover the entire front of the handset (so much so that the brand name is scooted to the back of the device!) and have slick sloping edges, the standout Samsung trademark. And because there’s so much less bezel around the display, the phone fits the hand perfectly.
Add in extra innovations like an iris scanner so the phone unlocks when it recognises your eyes, a super-fast camera with a Pro mode for greater control and more. There are software innovations like advanced split screen, made possible by the bigger display, so you can watch a video at the top of the screen while you send a text message from the bottom. Multi-tasking at its most useful.
An Always On Display means a clock is always displayed onscreen, without you having to wake the phone to check the time, and without affecting battery life noticeably.
With the Samsung Upgrade Programme you can ensure you have access to the latest phone every year, without spending silly money.
If you pre-order before 19 April, you’ll get the smart new phone up to eight days early ahead of those walking into a store.
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