Samsung DeX does a pretty good job turning the Galaxy S8 into a desktop

Samsung’s “desktop experience” is not only a curious concept, but it’s quickly becoming something I like to use.

There’s more to the Galaxy S8 an S8+ than its vibrant screen, cascading glass edges, and shiny back cover. Samsung would also like you to try its new Android-powered phone to unlock a desktop operating system that can be used on a whim.

The Samsung DeX — which stands for desktop experience is a hockey-puck shaped dock with a pop-up cooling fan for the Galaxy S8 and various ports for the necessary peripherals. We’ve talked about Dex before, but we haven’t been able to actively try one until now.

I’ve been using the $150 device for casual tasks for the last few days, and it’s already got me fooled. I keep turning to my monitor thinking that it’s my Mac plugged into it — and then I start using it. DeX looks and feels like Mac OS (it’s more like Windows 10, actually), but it’s when you attempt to deviate off the path that you realize there are limitations.

The Samsung DeX dock.

The honeymoon period

Samsung DeX is exceptionally easy to set up and it’s way easier than setting up a brand new computer. Granted, I’ve already put in the leg work of setting up the Galaxy S8+ in the way that I like it, and downloaded the apps that I like to use, but isn’t it neat to be able to set up something once and then have it work like a desktop, too? DeX is definitely meant for anyone who thinks so.

Various ports on the DeX include an Ethernet port, USB Type-C, and HDMI.

As I was saying, DeX requires no learning curve to set up. I paired the Galaxy S8+ with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and then plugged in the HDMI cable from the monitor into the dock. Once the interface appeared on the monitor, my trained computer-brain instinctively knew what to do from there.

It’s neat to be able to set up something once and then have it work like a desktop, too.

DeX uses the same navigations buttons and imagery as its Android interface to denote the different parts of the operating system. For instance, there’s the apps drawer icon in the corner, right next to the recent apps screen icon and the Home button, in its simple squareness. Move your eyes a bit to the right, and you’ll start to see squircles populated with the icons of any apps that were already fired up and ready to go before the Galaxy S8+ was plugged in.

Click for a closer look at the DeX interface.

There are also some apps that won’t even launch at all, like Spotify.

As you launch apps, they’ll pop up in their own individual windows just as they would on any regular desktop operating system. You can minimize and maximize the windows, too, though you can’t resize all apps. Any apps that are coded specifically for smartphones will remain in that form, while apps that were coded for multiple screen sizes will have an easier time conforming to the DeX interface. There are also some apps that won’t even launch at all, like Spotify, because they aren’t optimized for anything like the DeX format.

Some of the apps are properly optimized for DeX, though, and those are pleasant to use. Adobe Lightroom Mobile, for instance, lets me work in a variety of window sizes, and the Slack app, which is optimized for tablets, lets me use a mouse right-click in the selection field like on the desktop version.

Multiple apps screens on the DeX interface!

Any apps that don’t work well with DeX just go unused, for the most part. Or, I’ll turn my chair the other way and get back to work with the MacBook Pro. I’m still uneasy about the concept of getting work done with this sort of desktop experience, especially since I’m still have trouble finding a productivity groove with the Chromebook Flip.

I don’t think that Samsung intends for DeX to replace your full computer, however – not in this implementation, at least. But I do intend to explore what else a DeX can do besides help you get some work done.

See at Amazon

Got questions?

If you’ve got questions about the Samsung DeX experience, let us know below! We’ll be posting our review in the coming weeks.

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How to manage who gets notified when you stream your Gear VR to Facebook

For now, everyone is going to know when you are livestreaming to Facebook.

The update which brought the ability to livestream your Gear VR adventures directly to Facebook. While this feature allows you to easily share many of the games, apps, and experiences on your Gear VR. There is one small issue. That being that when you livestream, everyone that you are connected to gets a notification. While there is a way around this, it definitely isn’t ideal, and won’t let your friends watch while you play.

Read more at VRHeads.com

Moto X returns in Motorola’s leaked 2017 phone lineup

Motorola is going to have a very busy 2017, if you believe tipsters. Well-known leaker Evan Blass has obtained a presentation photo that purports to show the Lenovo brand’s phone roadmap for the year, and there will be no less than nine devices by the time it’s all said and done. Most notably, the Moto X (apparently called the Moto X4) is finally slated to return after a long absence. This image doesn’t reveal much beyond the 5.2-inch “3D glass” display and a “SmartCam,” but details gleaned from a video hint that it’s an upper mid-range phone with the shiny new Snapdragon 660 processor, a hefty 3,800mAh battery, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of built-in storage and a fingerprint reader.

Other parts of the roster are a little more familiar. There will be new Z Play and Z Force phones at the top, complete with mods and (on the Z Force) gigabit LTE data. We’ve already seen a leak for the just-the-basics Moto C line, too. However, the middle is more interesting: the roadmap suggests there will be an upgraded Moto G (yes, despite the G5 launch) with a dual rear camera on the Plus version. There would also be two Moto E phones, including an E Plus with a 5.5-inch display and a massive 5,000mAh battery.

There’s no timetable explaining when each new device will appear. If this slate is accurate, though, it’s not exactly a simple lineup — we can see some customers struggling to decide between a larger screen or a faster processor. Still, this at least shows that Motorola has some room to flourish under Lenovo’s wing.

Via: Pocket-lint, SlashGear

Source: Evan Blass (Twitter 1), (2), Reddit

Airbnb tries its hand at tour-guiding

Airbnb has always wanted to be more than just the app you use to rent someone’s spare bedroom for a night on the other side of the world. That’s why the company is beefing up its Trips feature to help you get the most out of your excursions. Specifically, Airbnb is changing the way its For You tab works in order to ensure that you know what’s going to be hot when you land.

Historically, For You just recommended things for you to do based on your current location, showing you what was good. Now, the service will highlight activities that you should plan in advance of arriving, like a super-cool bus tour that’s sold out months ahead of time. In addition, you’ll be able to try out curated experiences that are based around a theme.

The new features are rolling out today, although only for English-language users in a handful of cities, including Cape Town, Florence, LA, Miami, Paris and Tokyo. In addition, those going to Barcelona or SF can find whole trips suggested for you, based on your particular interests. So, for instance, if you’re a foodie, you’ll be shown a potential schedule that’ll let you get through as many well-rated eateries as possible.

Source: Airbnb Blog

The ridiculous Not Hotdog app from ‘Silicon Valley’ is real

Our long national nightmare is over: Thanks to HBO and Silicon Valley there’s finally an app that will tell you if the object you pointed your phone’s camera at is a hot dog or not. For fans of the show, it’s a cute joke, but everyone else might be a little puzzled. As a brief bit of background, T.J. Miller’s character Erlich Bachman accidentally invested in an app he thought had something to do with Oculus, when, in actuality, it was an application with recipes for preparing octopus rather than anything to do with virtual reality. A common mistake, to be sure.

That led to pivoting the app to become the “Shazam of food.” In practice, the app is actually a lot more useful than Shazam. It correctly identified that my Zippo lighter wasn’t a hotdog the first time. Same goes for when I pointed my camera at an acorn squash. I didn’t have any hotdogs in my apartment this morning, though, so I tried the next best thing: pre-cooked bratwurst.

The app successfully determined that even though they look similar — I even angled my sausage to how it appears in the app — that my brats were in fact not hotdogs. It’s incredible. I’ve had more success identifying food with the app in 20 minutes than I have had tagging and identifying songs with Shazam in the past two years. I’m trying my best to feign surprise here.

Anywho, if you want to judge the app’s efficacy for yourself, it’s a free download on iOS. As per usual with the show, HBO has blurred the lines between fiction and reality by crafting a listing page for the app on Product Hunt (Not Hotdog creator Jian-Yang even jumped into the comments) and there’s a video interview with Jian-Yang on Bloomberg, too.

If this doesn’t put a smile on your face and acid reflux in your throat on Monday morning, I’m not sure what will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bratwurst and pile of salt and vinegar chips to get back to.

WATCH: @EmilyChangTV chats w/ Jian-Yang about his “Not Hotdog” app.

Download it today (really): https://t.co/7N6a1Asfge #SiliconValleyHBO pic.twitter.com/99TBhaiHYk

— Tech At Bloomberg (@TechAtBloomberg) May 15, 2017

Via: Mashable

Source: iTunes, Product Hunt

Delta will test face-scanning for checked baggage this summer

This summer, Delta will test a facial recognition system for checking luggage. The airline says that the move is an effort to save customers time and further streamline the pre-flight process. “One machine will be equipped to test facial recognition technology to match customers with their passport photos through identification verification,” the press release says.

The $600,000 pilot program’s four machines will reside at the sprawling Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The news comes after recent word that domestic airports would start using biometrics for registering travelers when they leave the US and return.

However, when Customs and Border Protection used facial recognition to try catching imposters a few years ago, it said that photos would be deleted once its experiment concluded. Earlier this year, Australia said it wanted to use biometrics to make international travel easy enough that you’d no longer need to talk to anyone or even show your passport upon arrival, which suggests long-term storage.

There’s no word of how long the photos will be stored here, or what types of privacy safeguards are in place, so we’ve reached out to Delta for more information. The idea of your luggage being used to up-sell you on a new suitcase or some sort of frequent flyer mile promo would be annoying at best, but it isn’t hard to see how this type of data could be used for nefarious purposes too.

Source: PR Newswire

Decor as dystopia at a Singapore robotics training center

What you’re looking at is not an art installation or set from the next Tron movie. It’s the new RACE Robotics Lab in Singapore, used to display the latest industrial robots and train engineers working on automated assembly lines. According to architect Ministry of Design, the aim was to create “an engaging and future-forward spatial experience that denotes the idea of industrial automation and precision.”

The design team succeeded in that goal. The experience starts in the minimalist, all-black lobby that features just the lab signage (also created by Ministry of Design) and LEDs running at various crazy angles. A door leads to the highly unusual lab’s black interior that’s clad with a “second skin” of aluminum tubes and custom LED strips, also set at random-seeming angles.

There is a method to the madness, beyond just wowing potential clients. The lab required a continuous interior with small hands-on training clusters, so the open-space plan is divided into smaller, multi-faceted interiors.

At the same time, the panels also “cloak the necessary but unsightly mechanical and electrical services while allowing ease of access for operation,” says Ministry of Design. As such, each work cluster has separate access hatches, allowing easy access to the services hidden behind.

RACE Robotics is a collaboration between Nanyang Technical University (NTU) and PBA Group, a Singapore-based firm specializing in contract manufacturing. The lab started running in January, offering novice and advanced training sessions in robotics and automation. It’s working with industrial robotics giants, including Delta Electronics, Universal Robots and Kawasaki.

We’re not sure what it’s like to work and learn in such a dizzying interior, but if there’s any place that justifies such a design, it’s a robotics lab. “Overall, the space provides a suitable future-forward backdrop to usher in an age of automation and robotics,” says Ministry of Design. Hopefully, its clients agree.

Apple Maps Transit Directions Now Available in Adelaide, Australia

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data in Adelaide, Australia, enabling iPhone users in the city to navigate with public transportation, primarily including Adelaide Metro buses and commuter trains.

Apple Maps gained a Transit tab in iOS 9. The feature lags several years behind Google Maps, but Apple’s public transportation support is exhaustive, mapping all station entrances and listing departure times.

At launch, the feature was limited to Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. Since then, Apple has been working to expand support for public transportation to other cities around the world.

Newer additions include Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Montréal, New Orleans, Paris, Portland, Pittsburgh, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C.

A complete list of cities that support Transit in Apple Maps is available on the iOS Feature Availability page of Apple’s website.

(Thanks, Bernd!)

Tags: Australia, Apple Maps, transit
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Philips Hue Announces New White Ambience Table Lamps and Light Fixtures

Philips today announced a new line of fixtures and table lamps for its Philips Hue White Ambience bulbs, which are specifically designed to provide users with various hues of white light that can be dimmed or brightened throughout the day. Like with all Philips Hue products, the new fixtures and lamps will be HomeKit-compatible, allowing users to control the lights with an iPhone, iPad, or Siri.

The new products include the Philips Hue White Ambiance Being Flushmount and the Philips Hue White Ambiance Fair fixture, which both have a White Ambience bulb built-in with light output of up to 3,000 lumens. The Fair fixture can be purchased in three different styles including flushmount, semi-flushmount, and suspension, all of which are attached to a ceiling.

The Philips Hue White Ambience Wellness Table Lamp
A few new free-standing table lamps have also been announced, called the Philips Hue White Ambiance Wellner and Wellness table lamps. These come with White Ambience bulbs capable of outputting light at 800 lumens and will fit “with any interior,” according to Philips.

Enjoy decorating your kitchen, dining room or bedrooms with the brushed aluminum Philips Hue White Ambiance Being Flushmount or three different styles of the Philips Hue White Ambiance Fair fixture (Flushmount, Semi-flushmount and Suspension). The products have the Philips Hue White Ambiance connected lighting technology built-in and feature powerful light output (up to 3000 lumens).

The Philips Hue White Ambiance Wellner and Wellness table lamps are smartly designed to fit with any interior. They come with a Philips Hue White Ambiance A19 light bulb (800 lumens) for customizable white light to support your daily activities.

After announcing a candle bulb for its main Philips Hue line earlier this year, Philips Hue White Ambience is now also gaining a 40W-equivalent candle bulb with 450 lumens of brightness. Philips said that the candle bulbs are built for ceiling fans, chandeliers, and decorative table lamps, and the new bulb will join the White Ambience line that already includes the A19 bulb, GU10 spot light, and BR30 downlight.

Starting today, anyone interested can pre-order the Philips Hue White Ambience Being Flushmount ($199.99), the Wellness table lamp ($99.99), and the Wellner table lamp ($99.99). The full range of products is expected to begin shipping mid-June, while the candle bulb will be up for pre-order in June and launch in July for $29.99.

Tag: Philips Hue
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Lighthouse home security camera intelligently recognises family members and pets

Smart home security cameras are nothing new, they’re able to detect motion inside or outside your home and send you a notification. The new Lighthouse security wants to take that further by intelligently recognising different people and even pets, using 3D-sensing technology.

• Nest Cam Outdoor review

The project has been backed by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, so it really does mean business. You can set up commands to send to the camera, such as asking it to let you know when the kids get home from school. The camera will then recognise the kids when they walk through the door – it uses facial recognition to store images of each family member – and send you an image as proof.

To set up these kind of commands is simple too, as the Lighthouse camera can understand natural language. It means you can literally say “tell me when the kids are home from school”, and it will understand.

The Lighthouse camera can even identify pets, so you can ask the companion app to let you know if the dog went outside while you were away, and you’ll get all dog-related activity, specifically near the door, for the day.

And if the camera detects movement from an unidentified person, it will let you know through the app and gives you quick-access options to sound a siren, call the police or to talk through the camera to politely tell the intruder to go away.

• Logitech Circle review: The portable home security camera
• Nest Cam review: The next step in home security?

As with some other home security cameras, you can also talk through the Lighthouse camera using the app. It will even recognise hand gestures, so your kids could wave to it to get your attention, you’ll get a notification on the app and then you can speak to them to ask them how their day was. Of course, this is only really useful if you’re away from the home, and not just sitting in the other room.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse says all camera footage and data stored on the camera is encrypted, and footage is automatically deleted after 30 days.

You can now pre-order the Lighthouse security camera in the US for $399 with a year of Lighthouse Intelligence software, but you can increase this to four years for $499 or five years for $599. Once your subscription has run out, you can pay $10/month to keep it running.