What’s on TV: ‘Master of None,’ ‘LocoRoco Remastered’

This week we’re anticipating the second season of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None on Netflix, as well as a 4K remastered release of Heat on (1080p, unfortunately) Blu-ray. Sports fans, of course, have the NHL and NBA playoffs, but should also keep an eye out for the cartoonish NBA Playgrounds game on the way. Other notable videogame releases include LocoRoco Remastered on PS4, and on Xbox One, the Hot Wheels DLC for Forza Horizon 3. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Heat – Director’s Definitive Edition
• Fifty Shades Darker (4K)
• Fifty Shades of Grey (4K)
• Serial Mom
• The Accidental Tourist
• Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Criterion)
• Orange is the New Black (S4)
• Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels DLC (Xbox One, PC)
• Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (PS4)
• Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS4)
• NBA Playgrounds (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)
• Blade & Bones (PS4)
• Narcosis (Xbox One)
• Moonshot Galaxy (PS4)
• LocoRoco Remastered (PS4)
• Minecraft (Switch)
• Lethal League (Xbox One)
• Butcher (PS4, Xbox One)
• Human: Fall Flat (Xbox One, PS4)
• ACA NeoGeo The King of Fighters ’95 (PS4)
• World to the West (Xbox One, PS4 – 5/5)

Monday

• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Dancing With The Stars, ABC, 8PM
• Kevin Can Wait (season finale), CBS, 8PM
• Gotham, Fox, 8PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
• Young & Hungry, Freeform, 8PM
• Man with a Plan, CBS, 8:30PM
• Baby Daddy, Freeform, 8:30PM
• Lucifer, Fox, 9PM
• The Twins, Freeform, 9PM
• Superior Donuts (season finale), CBS, 9PM
• The Great Indoor (season finale), CBS, 9:30PM
• The Wall, NBC, 10PM
• Better Call Saul, AMC, 10PM
• American Dad, TBS, 10PM
• Scorpion, CBS, 10PM
• Quantico, ABC, 10PM
• The Therapist (series premiere), Viceland, 11PM
• Angie Tribeca, TBS, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Tuesday

• Norm Macdonald: Hitler’s Dog, Gossip & Trickery, Netflix, 3AM
• Victorian Slum, PBS, 8PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Pretty Little Liars, Freeform, 8PM
• The Flash, CW, 8PM
• The Manns, TV One, 8PM
• Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 8 & 8:30PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• The Middle, ABC, 8PM
• American Housewife, ABC, 8:30PM
• Famous in Love, Freeform, 9PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• iZombie, CW, 9PM
• Prison Break, Fox, 9PM
• Fresh off the Boat, ABC, 9PM
• The Challenge (season finale), MTV, 9PM
• Switched at Birth, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Outsiders, WGN, 9PM
• Imaginary Mary, ABC, 9:30PM
• Great News, NBC, 9 & 9:30PM
• Fargo, FX, 10PM
• Problematic with Moshe Kasher, Comedy Central, 10PM
• Cooper’s Treasure, Discovery, 10PM
• Team Ninja Warrior, USA, 10PM
• The Americans, FX, 10PM
• Rebel, BET, 10PM
• Imposters, Bravo, 10PM
• Truth & Iliza, Freeform, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu, 3AM
• Harlots, Hulu, 3AM
• Shots Fired, Fox, 8PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 8PM
• Catfish, MTV, 8PM
• Arrow, CW, 8PM
• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8PM
• Survivor, CBS, 8PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30PM
• Are You the One: All Star Challenge, MTV, 9PM
• Empire, Fox, 9PM
• Criminal Minds (season finale), CBS, 9PM
• Law & Order, NBC, 9PM
• The 100, CW, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
• Black-ish (season finale), ABC, 9:30PM
• Archer, FXX, 10PM
• The Comedy Jam (season finale), Comedy Central, 10PM
• Designated Survivor, ABC, 10PM
• Chicago Justice, NBC, 10PM
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CBS, 10PM
• The Expanse, Syfy, 10PM
• Nobodies, TV Land, 10PM
• The Quad, BET, 10PM
• Suits, USA, 10PM
• Underground (season finale), WGN, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• The Big Bang Theory (season finale), CBS, 8PM
• Supernatural, CW, 8PM
• American Race (series premiere), TNT, 9PM
• Chicago Med (season finale), NBC, 9PM
• Riverdale (season finale), CW, 9PM
• Mom (season finale), CBS, 9PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 9PM
• Scandal, ABC, 9PM
• The Amazing Race, CBS, 9PM
• Life in Pieces (season finale), CBS, 9:30PM
• Beerland, Viceland, 10PM
• Inside the FBI, USA, 10PM
• Dark Net, Showtime, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM
• Impractical Jokers, TruTV, 11PM

Friday

• Anne (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Master of None (S2), Netflix, 3AM
• Sahara, Netflix, 3AM
• I Love Dick (S1), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• All Hail King Julien, Netflix, 3AM
• Get Me Roger Stone, Netflix, 3AM
• The Originals, CW, 8PM
• First Dates , NBC, 8PM
• Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM (season finale)
• Motherboard (series premiere), Viceland, 9PM
• Toy Box, ABC, 8PM
• You the Jury, Fox, 9PM
• Tattoo Age, Viceland, 9PM
• American Race (season finale), TBS, 10PM
• Vice, HBO, 11PM
• Animals., HBO, 11:30PM
• Amy Schumer presents Mark Normand: Don’t Be Yourself, Comedy Central, 11:59PM

Saturday

• Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final, Logo, 3PM
• Sinister Minister, Lifetime, 8PM
• Doctor Who, BBC America, 9PM
• Training Day, CBS, 8PM
• The Son, AMC, 9PM
• Class, BBC America, 10PM
• Samurai Jack, Cartoon Network, 11PM
• Saturday Night Live: Melissa McCarthy/Haim, NBC, 11:30PM

Sunday

• F1 Spanish GP, NBC Sports Network, 7:30AM
• Promposal (series premiere), MTV, 7:30PM
• Once Upon a Time (season finale), ABC, 8PM
• Sunday Night Baseball: Astros/Yankee, ESPN, 7:30PM
• Miss USA 2017, Fox, 8PM
• NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 8PM
• White Princess, Starz, 8PM
• American Gods, Starz, 9PM
• Guerrilla (season finale), Showtime, 9PM
• The Leftovers, HBO, 9PM
• Family Guy, Fox, 9PM
• The Last 100 Days of Diana, ABC 9PM
• Madam Secretary, CBS, 9PM
• Silicon Valley, HBO, 10PM
• Into the Badlands, AMC, 10PM
• United Shades of America, CNN, 10PM
• Shades of Blue, NBC, 10PM
• Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
• Talking with Chris Hardwick, AMC, 11PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM

Qualcomm’s new mid-tier mobile chips are good news for gaming

Qualcomm’s latest mid-tier mobile chipsets, the Snapdragon 630 and 660, are designed to give smartphone users more processing power, crisper photos and improved connection speeds over LTE or WiFi, among a few other fresh features. The 630 upgrades the 625 processor, while the 660 follows the 653.

Here’s the good news for gaming fans: The 660 improves the 653’s CPU performance by 20 percent and its GPU by 30 percent. Compared with the 625, the 630 marks a 10 percent improvement in CPU performance and a 30 percent upgrade in terms of GPU. That means prettier, smoother games and other entertainment options.

Both the 630 and 660 are 14nm chips that support 4K playback and recording, much like their predecessors, and they use the Spectra 160 ISP — the camera that debuted with the Snapdragon 820 — for improved picture quality. The 660 gets an extra boost in visual and audio processing from the Hexagon 680 DSP.

The 630 and 660 combine a Snapdragon X12 LTE Modem with a new RF transceiver for downlink data rates of up to 600Mbps. Meanwhile, the 660 also features 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Qualcomm says these upgrades should make it easier for phones to communicate through brick and concrete walls.

The 660 and 630 support Bluetooth 5 and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4, which promises to refill 50 percent of a battery in 15 minutes. They also support the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK, enabling developers to play around with machine learning and neural networks on the platforms.

Source: Qualcomm

‘King’ smartphone charges its 10,000mAh battery in three hours

Chinese phonemaker Oukitel is releasing a new Android phone June, according to The Verge and Android Headlines, and its slogan is apparently “To be the king.” You’ll be hard-pressed to recognize the device as “the king” when you see its specs. However, it does have one impressive feature: a 10,000 mAh battery that only takes three hours to charge, just like Oukitel’s $240 K10000 smartphone launched a couple of years ago. In fact, this one’s its direct successor called the K10000 Pro. The company showed the phone off at MWC this year, but it hasn’t officially announced its details and availability yet. We can probably expect to hear something similar to the 10 to 15 days per charge claim it made when it revealed the K10000, though.

One of the biggest issues with smartphones today is that manufacturers tend to load them with all sorts of features without giving their battery life the proper boost it needs. That why compared to most smartphone’s batteries today, 10,000 mAh is massive. Even Asus ZenFone Max only has 5,000 mAh. Google’s Pixel XL has a 3,450mAh battery, while Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Plus has 3,500 mAh. The downside is that the K10000 weighed a ton. This one is reportedly lighter at 292.5 grams, but it’s still much heavier than, say, the iPhone 7 Plus, which weighs 188 grams. Whether it can actually last 10 to 15 days is another story, but it’s worth noting Android Headlines got 24 hours of on-screen time out of it at MWC.

Despite its enormous power source, the K10000 Pro is far from the ideal phone we’ve all been dreaming of. According to The Verge and The Hans India it will sport a 5.5-inch 1080p Gorilla Glass display, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and will be powered by a MediaTek octa-core 1.5Ghz processor. It’s definitely no tech titan flagship material. If you think it’s the perfect phone for camping trips, though, keep an eye out for Oukitel’s announcement.

Source: The Verge, The Hans India, Android Headlines

Amazon’s touchscreen Echo with video calling could launch this week

Amazon’s next Echo device will probably have a 7-inch touchscreen, and it could be announced within the next 24 hours.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon might announce a new Echo as early as 9 May. The device is expected to feature support for video calling. It might also support internet-based phone calls, sort of like how you can place calls through Skype. These calling features could be rolled out in stages, however, as Amazon is also testing intercom capabilities between other, existing Echo devices.

The new Echo will also support Alexa voice commands. It might also support some of the features found in the Echo Look, another Echo device Amazon announced earlier this month. That product, which helps you make fashion choices with the help of artificial intelligence, is currently available via an invite-only scheme, whereas the new touchscreen Echo will likely be widely available at launch.

• 12 best Amazon Echo compatible devices you can buy today
• Amazon Echo tips and tricks: Getting a grip on Alexa
• Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?

The WSJ seems to think Amazon will price the touchscreen Echo, images of which leaked out last week, at more than $200 (£154). Keep in mind the original Echo speaker launched in 2014 and currently sells for $149, while the Echo Tap and Echo Dot have cheaper price tags.

Amazon’s employees have been testing the new Echo for several months. It should start shipping in June.

• Buy Amazon Echo (UK), Buy Amazon Echo (US)
• Buy Amazon Echo Dot (UK), Buy Amazon Echo (US)
• Buy Amazon Echo Look (US)

Don’t expect a Surface Pro 5 from Microsoft anytime soon

Microsoft will not use its Shanghai event to announce a Surface Pro 5.

In an interview with CNET, Microsoft’s devices chief, Panos Panay, said Microsoft doesn’t plan to introduce a new Surface Pro 5 model until there’s “an experiential change that makes a huge difference in product line.” Panay explained a “meaningful change” doesn’t just mean the latest processor or a similar hardware upgrade. He also made it clear that “there’s no such thing as the Surface Pro 5” right now.

Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled a new Surface Laptop at an education-focused event, and then a couple days later, it invited the media to another hardware event in Shanghai, sparking rumours that the company is planning to finally update its Surface Pro line, but now we know that’s officially not the case. Panay’s recent comments lead us to believe the Surface Pro 4 will be around for a while longer.

• Microsoft unveils the Surface Laptop, a Windows 10 S device
• What is Microsoft Windows 10 S?
• Windows 10 S is a streamlined version of Windows for education

“What I’m super, super sure of is that the people using a Pro 4 have a product that’s going to be competitive for five years,” Panay said. So, what does that mean? We think you shouldn’t expect a Surface Pro 5 anytime soon. But there may be some Surface news at Microsoft’s next event. Current reports even think Microsoft may refresh the Surface Pro 4 with Kaby Lake processors.

We’ll know for sure later this month.

Citymapper to trial its own smart bus transportation service in London

Citymapper, the popular route-planning app, now makes smart buses.

In an attempt to improve mobility in cities, it’s basically “reinventing the bus”. The company’s new buses are designed to collect route data, with the goal of helping improve public transportation around the city. It’s working with Transport for London on a trial in London. On May 9 and May 10, Citymapper will begin running the CMX1 on a circulator route around Blackfriars and Waterloo bridge.

It will use existing London bus stops, and arrival times will appear on the standard departure boards. Citymappers’ buses, however, are green and smaller than regular buses. They only have 30 seats. But passenger will have access to USB ports for charging their phones, while a screen toward the front of the bus will display the current location in real time as well as upcoming route stops on a map.

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• Amazon is now the latest tech giant exploring self-driving cars

The company plans to collect information for passengers and drivers and will analyse the harvested data to understand how people travel. Citymapper said it’s “reinventing the bus for the smart city era”. In fact, it’s reinventing “the entire software stack for running and operating a bus”. It’s built software for everything – “including real-time operational control to driver management to scheduling systems.”

CityMapper

Citymapper said it will eventually explain in more detail how smarter bus tech leads to better mobility and cities, but obviously, the main point is that it wants to “solve urgent problems of congestion and infrastructure.” It also wants to turn a profit. Speaking to Wired, Citymapper CEO Azmut Yusuf said: “This makes money. So we think if we can do this well, it will pay for itself.”

In other words, with this trial, Citymapper may be taking the first steps toward becoming a public transportation company.

Narrate your own commute with Waze Voice Recorder

You think you’re better at giving directions than John Cleese and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Well now’s your chance to prove it with the “Waze Voice Recorder”. Waze debuted the new feature on Monday, though it’s currently only available on Android and there’s no word on when it will be ported to iOS.

To put your vocal likeness in control of the directions, you’ll first have to open the app settings, tap on “Sound and Voice” then select the option to record a new voice. You’ll have to record a bunch of generic phrases first like numbers, “Turn Left” and “In 100 feet” first but after that, you’re free to customize the instructions as you see fit. While the potential uses for localization (and pranks) is nearly limitless, the feature is currently can’t be shared. So if you want to show off your fancy navigation voice, you’re going to need to go for a drive.

Source: Lifehacker

This video takes nature time lapses to a whole new realm — outer space

Why it matters to you

Most of us will probably never see thunderstorms from space — but this time lapse offers a glimpse from that vantage point.

Lightning storms and the Northern Lights are popular inspirations for time lapses, but capturing that same phenomenon from outer space puts the popular technique on an entirely new level. SmugMug Films recently compiled images from the International Space Station into several incredible time lapses that are designed to commemorate Nikon and its 100th anniversary by highlighting the brand’s presence aboard every manned NASA flight since 1971.

Using about 30 photos per second of footage, the time lapse highlights some of the incredible views from the space station’s cupola, the only spot from where astronauts can see the entire earth at once. From city lights at night to lightning flashes above the clouds, the time lapse offers a glimpse while speeding up Earth’s rotation to just a few seconds. The ISS only needs about 90 minutes to make a complete trip around the world.

Anton Lorimer, a SmugMug FIlms videographer, said the time lapse took about a week to compile, including gathering the photos and organizing the images. Finding the shots was one of his biggest challenges, since time lapses need to be shot from the same position over a period of time. With some help from NASA, Lorimer was able to locate enough photos for several time lapses from different perspectives, which he compiled into a single video.

Adjusting the images to get the best quality was also a challenge, said Lorimer, who was inspired to create the time lapses by an earlier film about astronaut and photographer Don Petit. “There were some time lapses already created in the NASA archives, but the quality of most were not up to par in terms of the image quality,” he said. “So, I decided to create my own time lapses using the original photos.”

The first Nikon entered outer space aboard Apollo 15 in 1971 — prior to that, NASA used large-format (70mm) film cameras, but found that something more portable was needed. That’s when the astronauts took up the Nikon Photomic FTN, chosen based on the company’s reputation for durability. Nikon says its cameras have been on every manned mission since, with the latest missions using the D4.

Those space cameras are the same models consumers can buy for themselves, Steve Heiner, Nikon’s senior technical manager, says, except the cameras mounted on the outside of the ISS are modified to withstand the extreme temperatures and zero-gravity conditions.

Nikon uses SmugMug for photo storage, a partnership that inspired the time lapse.

Parrot’s Bebop and Disco drones are reimagined with thermal, 3D capabilities

Why it matters to you

Parrot’s Disco and Bebop drones have added packages designed for 3D mapping, thermal imaging, and agricultural inspections, with a lower price for small businesses.

Parrot’s popular consumer drones, the Bebop and Disco, are getting a sleek upgrade with features like thermal imaging and 3D cameras. The company announced Monday, April 8, the launch of several new options, upgrading existing consumer drones for commercial use in agriculture, real estate and several other industries.

Industrial drones with cool cameras designed for things like thermal readings and 3D mapping aren’t new, but by modifying their consumer drones, Parrot is launching industrial-grade drones without the industrial-grade price or learning curve. The company is calling the solutions “end-to-end tools” that are reliable and affordable enough for small to midsized businesses.

The Bebop, a small but affordable consumer drone, is getting even more flexibility with two new package options. The first is the Bebop Pro Thermal which adds a thermal camera to the Bebop Pro, designed for inspection and construction trades as well as for fire departments. The kit adds a FLIR One Pro camera as well as a thermal app, which gives an aerial heat map view in real time.

The second variation on the Bebop adds the software to enable the drone to create 3D maps from the air. The Parrot Bebop Pro 3D Modeling includes the Bebop 2 drone as well as a one-year license of the Pix4DModel software that allows the drone to create interactive 3D models. The package is being targeted towards real estate professionals, architects, craftsmen and property insurance brokers.

The Parrot Disco

The Disco, Parrot’s glider-style drone, has also been reimagined, but for agriculture. The Parrot Disco Pro AG is designed with sensors and analytic software to map crops, quickly determining data on how well the crops are faring. The package includes the drone along with the Skycontroller 2, Pix4Dcapture app, a one-year license to Airinov First, three batteries and a backpack to put it all in.

The commercial modifications are the result of the company’s shifting focus to commercial drones, a move the company shared earlier this year along with cutting a third of it’s workforce but something that has been in the works since 2012 through a mix of acquisitions and investments, including the Airinov and Pix4D software used in the latest announcements.

Leave your life jacket on shore and swim safely with this inflatable collar

Why it matters to you

Ploota is neck-worn device that could save your life from drowning if you’re under water for more than 30 seconds.

When you drive a car, you put a seat belt on. When you go cycling, you wear a helmet. But unless you’re a kid young enough to swim with inflatable water wings, there is not really an equivalent when you go swimming.

That is what a new Kickstarter campaign for a product called the Ploota wants to change. Ploota is a neck-worn device that deploys airbags filled with CO2, designed to keep a person’s head upright, if they’re under water for more than 30 seconds. Just don’t forget about it and decide to challenge a buddy to a breath-holding contest!

“Back in 2014, two close family members of mine almost drowned in the ocean during a holiday in South Africa,” creator Rainer Fakesch told Digital Trends. “Only with luck and a huge effort did they manage to reach the shore after 30 minutes of struggling. The next year, I read in a German newspaper that during the first two summer weeks, nine people drowned in a lake. They were mostly good swimmers, but they didn’t make it back to the shore. That was the initial spark that made me start developing Ploota.”

According to the World Health Organization, 372,000 people per year die from drowning around the world. That is significantly more than the 265,000 casualties caused by fire and smoke. However, while billions of dollars and countless laws address the importance of making buildings safer in the event of fire, the budget for drowning prevention is virtually zero.

At the time of writing, Ploota is one-fifth of the way toward raising its 50,000 euros ($55,000) funding target, with 44 days remaining.

A single Ploota can be pre-ordered for around $70, although other price tiers are available. The inflating mechanism is achieved using a single-use CO2 cartridge, although these can be easily swapped out. The airbags can also easily be deflated and tucked back inside the casing.

Shipping is set to take place in October.