Apple’s Siri-Based Smart Speaker Has ‘Over 50% Chance’ of Debuting at WWDC in June

Apple’s widely rumored Siri-based smart speaker and home hub has an “over 50 percent chance” of being announced at WWDC, scheduled for June 5-9, according to often-reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.

The device is rumored to have a “Mac Pro-like” concave design (Image: iFunnyVlogger)
Kuo said Apple’s smart home product will likely launch in the second half of 2017 and cost more than the Amazon Echo, $179. The device will supposedly support AirPlay with “excellent acoustics performance” from one woofer and seven tweeters. Kuo said its performance will be similar to the iPhone 6/6s.

An excerpt from Kuo’s research note obtained by MacRumors:

We believe there is an over 50% chance that Apple will announce its first home AI product at WWDC in June and start selling in the ]second half of 2017] in order to compete with the new Amazon Echo models to be launched […]

We expect Apple’s first home AI product will have excellent acoustics performance (one woofer + seven tweeters) and computing power (similar to iPhone 6/6S AP). Therefore the product is likely to be positioned for: (i) the high-end market; (ii) better entertainment experience; and (iii) higher price than Amazon Echo.

Last week, leaker Sonny Dickson likewise said Apple’s smart speaker could be announced as early as WWDC. He said the device will run a variation of iOS with unspecified Beats technology, in addition to a Mac Pro-like concave top with built-in controls and speaker meshing covering the majority of its surface.

Apple’s plans for a smart home device and Amazon Echo competitor were first revealed by The Information in May 2016, and Bloomberg reported that the device had entered prototype testing in September.

The latter report said Apple’s smart home device would be able to control appliances, locks, lights, and curtains through Siri voice commands. It added that some of the prototypes in testing have facial recognition sensors, in line with a CNET report claiming the device could have a built-in camera.

Kuo said Taiwan-based Inventec will be the exclusive speaker supplier, including both the woofer and tweeters.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2017
Tags: AirPlay, KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, Amazon Echo, Siri speaker
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Domino’s and IFTTT Integrate Pizza Orders With Philips Hue, Smart Sprinklers, and More

Fans of Domino’s pizza will gain access to a collection of new mobile ordering advantages thanks to the pizza chain’s partnership with automation platform If This Then That, known as IFTTT. With the addition of new Domino’s “Applets,” anyone ordering a pizza from the restaurant who owns a few connected smart home products — like Philips Hue — will be able to receive notifications about their order update in interesting new ways.

As the first restaurant brand to join IFTTT and create an Applet, Domino’s has listed a few useful IFTTT commands of its own to celebrate the partnership. One of the most notable Applets sends a signal to a user’s Philips Hue bulbs, changing the lighting color at various intervals of the order’s progress, like switching over to blue when the pizza has been placed in the oven.

Other Applets will turn off a Rachio Smart Sprinkler system when the Domino’s order is out for delivery, preventing potential mishaps for the delivery person, and even activate a Samsung POWERbot vacuum when the order is being prepped to clean up the house before guests arrive.

“We understand how much people love using Domino’s Tracker, not only to know where their order is in the preparation and delivery process, but also to plan around that much-anticipated pizza arrival,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president – chief digital officer.

“And now we’re empowering customers to unleash their imagination as they create new ways to integrate some of our favorite innovations, like Domino’s Tracker, into their everyday lives. Thanks to the endless possibilities of IFTTT Applets, customers will be more connected than ever.”

To sync up IFTTT and Domino’s Tracker Applets, users can download the IFTTT app on iOS [Direct Link] or Android devices. Although Domino’s Applets are limited on the restaurant’s IFTTT page, users will be able to create any number of commands on the automation app platform, including text message-based alerts about orders.

Tags: IFTTT, Domino’s
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UK proposes fines for social networks slow to remove hate speech

A group of UK MPs is calling on the government to introduce “meaningful fines” for technology companies which fail to remove illegal content “within a strict timeframe.” The report, published by the Commons home affairs committee, slams Google, Facebook and Twitter’s efforts to curb the spread of hate, abuse and extremism online. While it praises their commitment to removing harmful content, it says “nowhere near enough” is being done to tackle the problem. “There are too many examples of social media companies being made of aware of illegal material yet failing to remove it, or to do so in a timely way,” the report reads.

The committee has recommended that the government consult on “a system of escalating sanctions” that would culminate in fines for social media companies which fail to act swiftly. It would be similar to Germany, which is considering new rules that include fines up to 50 million euros (54.5 million dollars). In addition, the group has suggested that Facebook, Google and Twitter pay for the monitoring and investigation work carried out by the Metropolitan Police on their platforms. British football clubs already pay for the policing around their stadiums, the MPs argue, so it makes sense for technology companies to do the same online.

The group points to effective tools that allow technology companies — YouTube specifically — to identify and, where necessary, take down copyright infringing content. That same level of early, proactive identification should be possible for videos expressing hateful and extremist views, they argue. Relying on user-submitted reports isn’t sufficient either. “They are, in effect, outsourcing the vast bulk of their safeguarding responsibilities at zero expense,” the committee says. “We believe that it is unacceptable that social media companies are not taking greater responsibility for identifying illegal content themselves.”

Google, Facebook and Twitter want algorithms, rather than people, to sift through the content posted by their users. The group argues that while they may be helpful, human judgement will always be needed for complex cases, and that it’s disappointed YouTube only uses its algorithms to help advertisers. It’s also called on the three companies to publish quarterly reports detailing their efforts to tackle the issue. They should include the number of reports received from users, how the company responded to them and the actions taken to prevent such content in the future.

“It is in everyone’s interest, including the social media companies themselves, to find ways to reduce pernicious and illegal material,” the group says. “Transparent performance reports, published regularly, would be an effective method to drive up standards radically, and we hope it would also encourage competition between platforms to find innovative solutions to these persistent problems.”

Via: The Guardian

Source: GOV.UK

Acer Predator 21 X: Our first take

We caught glimpses of Acer’s massive Predator 21 X at IFA in 2016, and again at CES in 2017, and both times, Acer insisted this Moby Dick of a system wasn’t just a white whale. Still, it was hard to believe until the humongous, rolling sea-ready case showed up at the Digital Trends office.

Granted, the price is a lofty $9,000, well outside the advisable price range for a single system. While we have one aboard, we’ll run it through our test suite, and see how a pair of GTX 1080s fare packed away under the top deck.

The bunker buster

Since the Predator 21 X is unlikely to fit into your laptop bag, Acer went ahead and included a rolling suitcase. Unlocking a series of heavy duty latches unveiled the system itself, nestled into a custom fit foam insert. Under that, we found more custom holes for the power chargers — of which there are two that fit into a rubber bracket — a palm wrest, which we mentioned to Acer would be a nice inclusion at CES, and the reversible numpad/touchpad.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Standing in front of it, the 21 X looks and feels more like a device built to control a drone or launch a missile, rather than play a video game. Marked by sharp lines and carved out edges, the Predator exudes gamer sensibilities from every panel. The keyboard only takes up the near half of the chassis.  The far half features an abnormally large power button, surrounded by a clear panel exposing a RGB-lit blower fan, so you can watch the fan spin up when the device turns on.

Then there is, of course, its crushing weight. The Predator 21 X tips the scales at a shocking 19.4 pounds. That’s far too heavy to carry around, hence the rolling luggage, and most users are likely to only cart the Predator around when totally necessary. Despite all that, it’s arguably easier to move than a desktop, monitor, and peripherals, at least in terms of simplicity and number of items.

Triple feature

The 21 X sports a full-size mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches. Each key has a deep well and standard replaceable keycaps, so any desktop PC gamers should feel right at home. The individually lit RGB keys shine a lot brighter around the edge than trough the characters, which makes for tough typing in the dark. The numeric keypad is reversible — turn it over and you’ll find the laptop’s trackpad. The reversible pad panel is held in place magnetically, locking in with a very satisfying clap.

That’s not the only special feature included with the Predator 21 X. It also has Tobii eye-tracking built in. We didn’t spend much time with it in this context, but our full review of Tobii’s stand-alone camera covers the possibilities the technology presents.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Finally, among a number of Acer control panels, users will find the Killer Doubleshot Networking application, which allows the system to split its network traffic between Ethernet and Wi-Fi, prioritizing important traffic on the wired connection, while pushing out extraneous communications to the wireless adapter.

A peek inside

The Predator 21 X sports a 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7820HK, two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI with 16GB of GDDR5X VRAM, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and room for up to four 512GB SSDs in Raid 0 configuration, alongside a mechanical disk (two SSDs and a 1TB hard disk are installed from the factory). It’s hard to think of a way for Acer to stuff more power into a mobile system.

The Predator has upper and lower maintenance panels, the top of which is user replaceable, with customized options available from Acer. The panels allow easy access to the memory and storage options, should users find a need to upgrade or replace them.

It’s hard to think of a way for Acer to stuff more power into a mobile system.

As implied by the name, all that power is attached to a 21-inch monitor with a 2,560 x 1,080 resolution. Ultrawide monitors have become a hot topic in PC gaming, and this is the first time we’ve seen one executed on a laptop. It’s a beauty, too, boasting a 120Hz refresh rate for buttery smooth gameplay.

There are also a few extra hardware bells and whistles. The 21 X has a six-speaker audio system — four speakers and two subwoofers — with Dolby Premium audio. While they pump out an enormous amount of sound for a laptop, Digital Trends staff members had mixed feelings on their clarity and bass response.

There is one slight internal hiccup — it has an 88 watt-hour battery, which is smaller than what we’ve seen in some new gaming laptops. Like the resolution, though, it is only a deficiency at first glance. One look at the 21 X, and it’s clear this machine isn’t built to travel often. We assume the 21 X won’t live much of its life away from a power outlet.

Speed demon

With all the best hardware possible in a gaming laptop, we expected nothing short of top-notch gaming performance across our test suite. We ran the Predator 21 X through a series of synthetic and real-world tests that should point out any performance issues or bottlenecks.

Simply put, the Acer Predator 21 X hauls ass. The CPU in particular is powerful, and unlocked, but in the base operating mode, it sits right alongside laptops powered by the Core i7-7700HQ, and the Dell XPS 15 even beats it out in terms of single-core performance. It takes a slight lead in multi-core performance, a benefit of its size and total system power.

The Predator claims back a lot of ground in the 3DMark synthetic graphics tests. It competes with the MSI Armor GTX 1080 Ti, which was equipped in our Intel Core i7-6950X test rig, even claiming a higher score in the Time Spy test, where DirectX 12 can make better use of multiple GPUs. It doesn’t quite match the power of two GTX 1080s in a desktop setup, but it certainly comes close, and is by far the most gaming power you can find in a laptop.

Ideally, the pair of GTX 1080s would keep the system running close to the built-in panel’s 120Hz refresh rate, but it only does so in For Honor and Battlefield 1, at least with the details cranked all the way up. It falls behind in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but still claims a very high score for this extremely demanding game. The only title that really trips the Predator up is, surprisingly, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, which doesn’t break 60 frames per second average, even with the settings turned down to medium. It speaks to the demands the Civilization series tends to place on processing power, where the extra cores provided by our desktop machines help bring the frame rate up.

That’s not to say the Predator 21 X is a slouch — far from it. The system pumps out an impressive amount of performance, rivaling full-sized desktop gaming systems in terms of raw frame rate. It takes all that power along with it, too, something that requires a hand truck and a lot of legwork with a traditional gaming machine. It may do it at twice the price, but that’s the cost of portability.

Pushing our luck

While the Predator 21 X comes out of the box operating at modest speeds, it has two modes, controlled through Acer Predator Sense, aptly labeled “faster” and “turbo” for both CPU and GPU. It isn’t clear from Acer’s software exactly how high it raises the clock speeds, although we did see the processor break 4.2GHz at Turbo, well over the chip’s 3.9GHz stock Boost Clock.

Kicking the system into faster mode provided a surprising performance bonus, raising the Geekbench score about 15 percent in single-core, and 25 percent in multi-core. The difference is less striking in games, but still ends up just shy of a 12 percent average increase across all four test titles. Not bad, for the cost of flipping a switch in a program.

Turbo mode raised the performance further, but not by nearly the same measure we saw moving from stock to faster. The synthetic tests barely moved, and at speed, it’s very unlikely users will notice any tangible performance boost during real gameplay. It also caused the system fans to kick up a lot more frequently than in faster mode, which was only slightly louder and hotter than the system under normal operation.

The biggest downside to overclocking a laptop is draining the battery, but the Predator 21 X has a lot going for it in that respect. It’s far too large to spend much time unplugged anyway, and changing the overclock without restarting means it’s easy to turn down the clock and carry it down the hall. Most of this system’s life will be spent in faster or turbo mode.

A buyer is out there

At an insane $9,000 price point, the 21 X is a showpiece, and a stunning one at that. It doesn’t offer anything even resembling a value proposition, as you could easily build two comparable high-end systems with multiple displays for less than the Predator’s list price. It does offer incredible swagger, the kind no high-end desktop would garner.

Users will have to ask a number of questions before considering the Predator 21 X. The first is whether they have $9,000 to spend on a computer, instead of spending that cash on a decent used car, or a high-end desktop and decently portable gaming laptop. The other is whether they really have a need for such an outrageous system, and places to show up with it where people are likely to be impressed with such an investment, rather than incredulous.

Highs

• Beautiful display
• Unbeatable mobile performance
• Full-size mechanical keyboard
• Serious swagger included

Lows

• Weighs almost 20 pounds
• Immensely expensive

Microsoft’s Edge browser to get direct updates from Windows store

Why it matters to you

More frequent updates to Microsoft Edge could help improve the user experience dramatically, providing more competition for the likes of Google Chrome and Firefox.

Since the software’s debut in July 2015, Microsoft has distributed major updates for its Edge internet browser alongside feature builds of the Windows 10 operating system. However, that’s all set to change when the company unleashes the Redstone 3 update later this year.

Internal sources at Microsoft indicate that users will be able to download Edge updates via the Windows Store following the next big update to Windows 10, according to a report from Neowin. While security fixes are already applied to the browser as and when required, this could mean that new features and other tweaks come at a steadier pace.

This decision seems to have been prompted by Microsoft’s ambition for Edge to better compete with Google Chrome. Given that the company is preparing Windows 10 Cloud to go head-to-head with Chrome OS, it’s imperative that its flagship browser doesn’t seem to lag behind its biggest rival.

Chrome receives regular updates throughout the year, which has contributed to its reputation as one of the best web browsers out there. Conversely, Edge seems like a relatively unimportant component of the wider Windows 10 platform, rather than a compelling browser that users might choose over other options.

The Edge browser was a prominent part of Microsoft’s attempts to hype up Windows 10 ahead of launch. It was pitched as a fresh start that would cast off the negative associations that had built up around its predecessor, Internet Explorer. However, slow progress toward modern browser features like support for extensions has impeded the growth of its user base.

Microsoft will hold its annual BUILD conference in Seattle, Washington later this month, and it wouldn’t be too surprising to hear more about Redstone 3 at that time. It’s not even been a month since the release of the Creators Update, but we’re already on the road to the next iteration of Windows 10.

AMD’s RX Vega 3Dmark result leak draws comparisons to GTX 1070

Why it matters to you

AMD’s Vega graphics cards could well offer solid competition for Nvidia’s top end, though maybe not at the bleeding edge.

AMD’s long-expected, high-end graphics card solution, Vega, may turn out to be pretty capable, though not as powerful as Nvidia’s top-tier offerings. A new leak of 3Dmark results which seem to come from an RX Vega card, suggest it would be roughly as powerful as a GTX 1070.

It’s been a long time since AMD truly rivaled Nvidia at the top end of the graphics card power spectrum, often preferring to offer competition at the midrange and entry-level. However, rumors over the past six months suggested that Vega could well do more than that and though these leaked results don’t make it a world beater, offering real competition for the GTX 1070 would still be quite a feat.

The 3Dmark result pairs a “Generic VGA” card with an AMD Ryzen 7 1800X. That card, however, has the Vega device ID (687F:C1), which is what tipped off Guru3D to its true identity. The card achieved an overall score of 5,950 and a graphics score of 5,721 in the TimeSpy demo. That’s comparable to the GTX 1070 test results Guru3D achieved in its own internal testing.

If the card is indeed an AMD Vega graphics processor (GPU), it’s not necessarily the world beater some expected. However, it comes with 8GB of (most likely) HBM2 memory and a clock speed of just 1,200MHz, which suggests there could be a lot more headroom. It could be that this isn’t a top-of-the-line Vega graphics card and AMD could have something else up its sleeve for the top end too.

The driver used in this test are beta, too, so post-release drivers with optimizations could also yield higher scores.

At the very least though, third party options with more impressive cooling and an aggressive overclock should make a card like this a viable contender for GTX 1080 performance. It’s also fair to assume that an Intel CPU could lead to an improvement in overall performance, though that wouldn’t do much to the graphics test score.

Much of this is speculation for now and it could turn out that GTX 1070 performance is the best we can hope for Vega. While that would be a shame, the market at the GTX 1080 and beyond level is very small and not something that offers much financial incentive to AMD, even though the moral victory of having the most powerful cards in the world can do a lot for a manufacturer’s image.

Google Home UK review: For all its potential, still mostly an early adopter gadget

Google Home is a great little connected speaker, but its smartest features will be lost on non-enthusiasts.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the home is a tough space to break into. Everyone’s home is set out differently, and we’re all looking for different things out of an internet-connected gadget for our living room, kitchen, bedroom or wherever. (Assuming we’re not creeped out by the very idea of this kind of always-listening product that we dismiss it out of hand.) And that’s to say nothing of the variety in tastes and services among people who are in the market for a connected speaker with internet-driven intelligence.

In the UK, Google Home makes its debut a good six months after Amazon’s Echo series. That device’s arrival shortly before the Christmas sales period, combined with heavy marketing, ensured Alexa had a substantial holiday-driven lead. Nevertheless, Google Home is here now, and after three weeks with the device, I’m mostly sold on it. Even so, I find I’m underutilizing Home’s higher functions, and on a day-to-day basis I’m mostly using it for audio content, as opposed to Google Assistant.

See at Google Store

Google Home is designed to blend into the background — unless you want it to stand out.

Physically, Google Home is an unassuming little matte plastic cylinder, sitting around six inches tall, with a slanted, touch-sensitive surface up top. It’s designed to look like furniture, not gadgetry, and it pulls off that look pretty well. The lower third makes up the actual speaker portion of this speaker. With the standard grey fabric base, it easily blends into the background. Other, jazzier colors are available for £18 from Google’s store if you want Home to match the aesthetic of a particular room. That includes one metal option (with others coming soon) that may be a better fit for rooms like your kitchen.

Google Home’s touch panel animates in the classic “Google” primary colors when you say the “OK Google” hot-word, and there’s a iPod Classic-style clickwheel volume with similar illumination. Should you wish to stop Google Home listening in, there’s a microphone mute button around the back. And that’s basically it as far as touch interactions go — everything else you’ll do directly on Google Home happens via voice.

Like Google Wifi, setup is quick and uncomplicated, handled via the Google Home app. In the process, you’ll pair your Google account with your Home, and set up news sources for your daily briefing. That app also gives you a non-touch way to manage anything casting to the device.

As a connected speaker, Google Home is surprisingly capable. You’d hope so for £129 — but Home, despite its diminutive size, manages to put out a great deal of volume, and does so with ample bass even at high volume levels. Thanks to the near ubiquity of Google Cast Chromecast support in popular streaming apps (with the notable exception of Apple Music), chances are whatever you’re using for music, podcasts and radio will just work via a phone or tablet.

On the device itself, your app options are a little more limited. Still, I was impressed by how well Home handled the multitude of commands I threw at it:

Stuff like “play the Android Central podcast”
… or “Skip ahead 60 seconds”
… or “Go back to the start”
… or “Play the previous track”

That’s only held back by the clunkiness of having to prefix everything you want to do with “OK Google.”

There have been a few mishaps along the way, too: Google Home once delivered me the BBQ Central Podcast instead of our own Android Central podcast — go figure. (I’m sure it’s a quality show!) And Home was repeatedly stumped by “play Chvrches” (pronounced “churches”), I guess because the written name doesn’t line up with the pronunciation. And of course there’s a non-zero chance it’ll accidentally spring to life if anyone nearby is talking about… well, Google.

Google’s far-field mics are sensitive enough to detect you a good distance away.

On that note, it’s worth underscoring just how good Google’s far-field microphones are in this gadget. (If you want to be creeped out a little, try whispering “OK Google” and see how quiet you can get and still have it respond.) The other side of that coin is that even in larger rooms, or situations where there’s a decent amount of background noise, Home has you covered.

In the smartphone world, we’re used to living in siloed apps. With Google Home, you’re supposed to just ask for what you want, without worrying about where it lives. Assuming it works with all the services you regularly use, as it does in my case, you’re all good.

Assistant is the other big tentpole feature of Google Home — and, as it has been since it first debuted on the Pixel phones, is a bit of a mixed bag. Bafflingly, Assistant on Google Home still can’t set reminders. There are issues with multiple accounts, where calendar entries from my Mobile Nations Google account wouldn’t show up in briefings and direct answers, because only my main Google account could be synced.

More: How to set up and use Google Assistant

Google Assistant is still a work-in-progress.

Besides that, Google Assistant is pretty much the same as the phone-based experience. It’s remarkably clever one moment, able to pull what you want from the web, even if it doesn’t exist in Google’s knowledge graph. (“What’s the tallest building in Berlin”, for instance.) Yet at the same time it’s undone by basic requests like “when will I next be in London”, and the long-running “reminders” thing.

That’s why I’ve mostly stuck to using Home as a glorified Google Cast target — albeit one with above-average intelligence, slick voice controls and a handy companion app. Google Assistant is still in its infancy, of course, and it’s almost certain the major functionality gaps will be plugged in the months and years ahead. Assistant on phones has had the same growing pains, and is slowly becoming smarter.

You probably already know whether or not you fall into the “early adopter” camp. If that’s you, there’s plenty of cool stuff to explore in Google Home beyond the core casting and streaming experience. If not, buy it because you want a good, stylish connected speaker that can occasionally tell you the distance between London and Edinburgh and remind you how many cups are in a quart.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy

How to fix Galaxy S8 battery life problems

Battery life on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is actually pretty good — but it can always be better.

After the first couple of week using a phone where battery life seems great, things can go south as we load up our new phone with all kinds of things and turn on every last feature. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ aren’t immune to battery shortcomings if you push them hard enough, and that means you’ll be looking for ways to scale things back and return to great battery life.

We have a handful of solid tips here to help you get the most out of your Galaxy S8 or S8+ battery, whether you’re currently happy with its longevity or not. Read on.

Use power saving mode

The easiest way to save precious battery power is to use one of the built-in power saving modes. You can find them in settings, device maintenance then battery. You can also toggle power saving mode in the quick settings area of the notification shade.

It’s all about finding a balance between features and battery longevity.

The power saving mode most people will use is the “mid” level, which tries to strike a balance between saving power and letting your phone do everything you need. When you tap “mid” you’ll see what it does — decrease brightness, lower the screen resolution, limit CPU performance and disable both background network usage and the Always On Display. It’ll add multiple hours to your battery life over the course of the day, but you probably wouldn’t want to use this all the time.

You can also tweak the parameters to maybe find a middle ground that works for you — just tap “customize” and see what you can change. For example you may keep the CPU speed limiter on, but also turn on background network usage so apps continue to sync when you’re not actively using them.

For the dire situations when you have very little battery or don’t have any idea when you’ll find power again, look at the “max” power saving mode. This mode dramatically turns down your screen resolution, limits performance further and turns off even more features — all in the name of letting the battery last as long as possible, while giving you the basic phone functions you need.

Finally, if you don’t want to delve all the way into the settings, Samsung has made it really easy to temporarily put an app to sleep straight from the launcher. Just long-press an icon on the home screen and tap Sleep. This puts the app to sleep — and saves it from eating battery — until you open it again.

Uninstall unused apps

This is one of the easiest ways to cut down on battery drain, and also one that so many people forget as they use their phone over weeks and months. We all install apps that we use once or haven’t touched in a month, and those apps can sometimes be using battery even though you don’t need them. Head into settings then apps and scroll through to see if there are any apps hanging out that you’ve forgotten about and don’t need any more.

Remember, you can always re-install the app later on down the road if you think you need it again. There’s little need to keep an unused app installed and potentially running on your phone.

Check for power-hungry apps

The last couple versions of Android introduced some really nice system-level features that take care of runaway apps, but every once and a while they can get carried away. If you notice your battery draining faster than usual, it could be one or two apps causing it — whether they’re running when you aren’t aware, or are just using more battery than they should even though you’re using them. Go to settings, device maintenance and battery to see what apps are using notable amounts of juice.

These settings are a bit confusing, but powerful if you want to tweak things.

This is best to do at the end of the day to get an accurate picture of just how much battery an app is using, but the bottom half of this settings screen shows what percentage of the day’s battery has been used by any given app. You’ll see usual culprits like social media apps or photo apps, but if something looks out of the ordinary you can tap on that app and hit “save power” to completely limit that app from running in the background. We wouldn’t advise you do this for lots of apps, but if something’s being problematic you can remedy that here.

For a bit of background, the system also automatically throttles back apps that haven’t been used in 3 days (customizable up to 7 days), so chances are any runaway app that you’re not using won’t be able to muck things up for too long anyway. If you don’t want an app to ever be throttled in the background, you can select it in the “unmonitored apps” area at the bottom of the settings pane.

Lower the screen resolution

One quick setting you can change semi-permanently to improve battery life without really hurting your experience is to reduce the screen resolution. Just go into settings, display and screen resolution to see your options. By default the Galaxy S8 and S8+ actually don’t run at their max resolution — they stick at “FHD+” instead, because the processor doesn’t have to work as hard to run the phone, which saves you battery lie.

If you’ve moved up to “WQHD+” for the best-looking screen possible, you can scale it back down to save a little battery life. We wouldn’t recommend going with “HD+” unless you’re really trying to save battery life … but in that case you may be better off considering the overall power saving mode instead.

Reduce screen brightness

Samsung’s AMOLED displays keep getting more efficient, but the screen continues to be a notable drain on a phone’s battery life. You can simply lower the screen brightness on your Galaxy S8 to save battery life — either by using the slider in the notification shade, or in settings then display.

If you want, you can also turn off automatic brightness here so that even in bright conditions the screen doesn’t ramp up and use up more battery. Just realize that the amount of battery you save by doing so may not be worth it when you consider you won’t be able to see your screen as well in those conditions.

Turn off unused radios

If you’re looking to save battery at the cost of convenience, you should turn off both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when they’re not in use. You can toggle either one from the notification shade quick settings, which makes the process easy.

Going a step further, you can also turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning, which is actually used to help with location services even when both radios are technically turned off. You can find this in settings, connections, location then improve accuracy. By turning off these two switches your phone won’t use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at all unless you have them turned on — the one downside being that it may take marginally longer to locate your phone in the world if your data connection and GPS aren’t functioning properly.

Last resort: a battery pack

No matter how much you tweak and change on your phone, sometimes that just isn’t enough — after all, the battery isn’t getting any larger either way. For those times when the power you need out of your Galaxy S8 or S8+ is more than you can reasonably achieve with the built-in battery, check out the battery pack and battery case options available out there.

Most of the battery cases out there are a pretty terrible compromise of bulk for not very much battery power, so we would recommend a compact external battery pack that offers fast charging instead. Samsung makes its own line of battery packs that will quickly charge the Galaxy S8 and S8+ while matching its look, but there are tons available out there from Anker, Aukey and more.

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Leaked specs of the HTC U 11 reveal Snapdragon 835 and 6GB RAM

HTC U 11 will be available with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage.

The HTC U 11 is slated to make its debut in just over two weeks, and we’ve already seen what the device will look like. Earlier rumors hinted at a Snapdragon 835 SoC along with a 12MP camera, as well as a squeezable frame that lets you perform various actions by squeezing the sides of the phone. Today’s leak out of Gear India gices us a detailed spec sheet of HTC’s upcoming flagship, which includes Bluetooth 5.0, IP57 certifcation, and much more.

As detailed in the image above, the HTC U 11 will feature a 5.5-inch QHD display backed by Gorilla Glass 5, Qualcomm’s octa-core 10nm Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage (along with a variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage), microSD card that can take up to 2TB cards, 12MP UltraPixel 3 imaging sensor with f/1.7 lens, OIS, and 4K video recording, 16MP f/2.0 camera, and a 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity.

Other specs include a fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Wi-Fi ac, HTC’s BoomSond and USonic, Hi-Res audio certification, 3D audio recording, and IP57 dust and water resistance. The HTC U 11 certainly looks enticing, and the company is focusing on the squeezable frame — dubbed Edge Sense — as the differentiator against the likes of the Galaxy S8 and LG G6.

What are your thoughts on the specs of the HTC U 11?

The Morning After: Monday, May 1st 2017

Welcome to your Monday morning. China is making its own giant fighting robot, hackers have pillaged a bunch of forthcoming TV shows, and we explain how The Circle takes anti-tech paranoia a little too far.

Monkey King expands the battle between enormous machines.China makes a giant fighting robot

MegaBots’ giant robot duel might just turn into a full-scale brawl. Beijing outfit Greatmetal has unveiled a prototype of Monkey King, China’s take on an enormous battle machine. It’s still human-piloted, but it has a distinct trick up its sleeve: it can either fight on all fours (good for stability) or stand on its hind legs to wield a staff. It’s all gone Pacific Rim.

‘New Girl’ and ‘Portlandia’ are among the shows reportedly affected.
‘Orange is the New Black’ hackers may have stolen 36 other shows

Hackers that swiped Netflix’s unreleased Orange is the New Black season warned that they had shows from other TV networks, and they weren’t kidding. TheDarkOverlord has reportedly provided DataBreaches.net with a “preview” of the shows it obtained from Larson Studios, and it looks like there could be 36 more titles in the mix — many of which you’ve likely heard about. The mix includes recent and yet-to-air episodes of Fox’s New Girl, FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, IFC’s Portlandia and CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles.

The “Metal Gear Solid” creator went deep at the Tribeca Games Festival.
Hideo Kojima on his cinematic influences, ‘Death Stranding’ and VR

If you’re starting a new gaming festival, having Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima aboard is a good way to prove you mean business. That was the case for the inaugural Tribeca Games Festival, which featured Kojima in a keynote conversation tonight with Geoff Keighley, producer of The Game Awards. The wide-ranging chat covered Kojima’s cinematic influences — of which there were many — and his progress on Death Stranding, his long-awaited upcoming project. He, er, compared it to an Italian restaurant,.

It might just prevent pain without nasty side effects.
Gene editing could lead to a vaccine for arthritis

Arthritis treatment tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition: the drugs you take affect your entire body, causing havoc with your immune system and leaving you prone to infections. But how do you narrow the treatment to just those areas where you feel pain? Genetics! Researchers have used CRISPR gene editing to turn stem cells into cartilage that releases a biological anti-inflammatory drug when they encounter inflammation. It not only limits treatment to the affected area, but responds only when there’s a pain flare. You only get relief when you need it — which is kind of incredible.

But wait, there’s more…

• ‘The Circle’ takes anti-tech paranoia to ludicrous heights (and it’s not that good either)
• DNA in dirt can reveal where human ancestors lived
• EPA pulls climate science web pages to reflect White House views
• Amazon’s free Android app program is nearing its end