No $4,000 PC needed: To dominate mobile esports, you just need a phone

Seated in the front row, I had a prime spot for watching the opening rounds of the 2017 Vainglory mobile esports spring championships, and I was totally focused on the big-screen entertainment in front of the stage, where the players were seated. I leaned forward, along with the other spectators, as the action increased. The chatter in the event space intensified, turning into shouts and gasps, while fans yelled encouragement. A crucial move was executed, and I shouted with the crowd, clapping as one team neared its first win of the day. I was absorbed by the game, the experience, and the spectacle. Yet less than 48-hours earlier, I wasn’t even aware of its existence.

It came as a surprise to learn Vainglory is the world’s number one mobile esport, and this year is its second championship season; but that doesn’t mean it’s widely known. PC and console games may dominate esports, but to mainstream audiences the concept is still relatively niche. Mobile eSports even more so; but this may not remain the case for long. Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp, says the smartphone’s ubiquity will create “borderless esports.” Digital Trends spoke to him about it ahead of the first day of the Vainglory Spring Championships in London.

Vainglory is the world’s number one mobile esport, and this year is its second championship season.

“The opportunity with mobile, now the devices are capable of PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 level graphics and the networking has become very stable, is that real-time play is now possible,” he said. “Mobile is such a democratising device, and so many people have one, we are able to bring a form of entertainment that has been somewhat niche until now, to potentially billions.”

Comparing it to PC esports, he used traditional sports as an analogy to drive home the point. “It’s the difference between something like ice hockey, where you need skates and all the right equipment, and something like football, where all you really need is a ball.”

That makes it way more approachable than PC or console esports

“If you have a phone you can download the game, it’s free,” Segerstrale said. “We find a third friend and that’s it, now we’re a team. It’s that easy.”

However, anyone who follows mobile tech knows there’s still a performance difference between a smartphone that costs $100, and one that costs $800. Do Vainglory pro-gamers need to own the latest and greatest devices, or face a disadvantage when playing others equipped with them? Vainglory will run on pretty much any device made in the last four years, Kristian told us, before bringing Alessandro Palmarini, known as Palmatoro and a member of the Fnatic team in London, into the conversation.

Andy Boxall

Andy Boxall

Palmarini said the choice of device is more about gameplay style preferences than performance, in a similar way that many PC esports players use a particular mouse and keyboard to play. Palmarini’s device of choice? An iPad Pro, because of the extra screen real-estate.

Palmarini began playing Vainglory on an iPad, and despite trying, he cannot convert over to a phone. Others may not share his feelings, and will avoid a big-screen tablet because of the time it takes to move fingers from one side of the screen to the other. Milliseconds count here.

The majority of players I saw used a tablet, although one player was using his thumbs on a smartphone, and I was told of another major player who uses a finger and a stylus. It’s completely individual, but one thing was clear, the power of the device is largely irrelevant. This further democratises mobile esports, because there’s little incentive to rush out and buy the newest device the moment it’s released. The game runs on a server, so the phone is effectively just a controller. Network speed is considerably more important.

[Palmarini] never set out to be a pro-player, and hadn’t competitively played another game.

Palmarini’s got involved with Vainglory competitively after seeing the game during Apple’s 2014 keynote presentation, when it was used to illustrate the new Metal API to enhance game performance. He then promptly forgot all about it. Fast forward to when his parents took away his PlayStation, as he was supposed to be studying for exams, he downloaded Vainglory and started playing. He never set out to be a pro-player, and hadn’t competitively played another game.

Palmarini qualified for the first European championship in Poland aged 15, convinced his parents — who had never heard of Vainglory or esports — that he should attend, and went on to win. When asked about the amount of time he has to spend practicing, just to maintain this high standard of play, Palmarini said, “I’m not really practicing because I have to, it’s because I actually want to play.” Now part of Fnatic’s Vainglory team, he will take a gap year to concentrate on his pro-gaming career, before thinking about university.

The live Vainglory Spring Championship, which took place at the famous O2 Arena in London, has considerable importance. Not only is it the first time Europe met North America on home soil, but the European teams hadn’t beaten a North American team competitively at that time. There’s also the lure of a $75,000 total prize fund, and the potential for drama is obvious. However, for mobile esports (and esports in general) to become successful, it needs to engage spectators.

I went in as an almost complete beginner, never having even played the game. The night before attending the event, I spent a couple of hours watching YouTube tutorials, and reading up on the game’s characters, setting, and objective. That was enough for me to follow the proceedings, and understand the commentary. This was also a surprise. I didn’t want the commentators to be irritating, and it wasn’t. Instead, it was informative and fun, just like it should be. Having watched League of Legends competitive gameplay before, and finding it almost impenetrable, this event was refreshing, and Super Evil Megacorp has worked hard to make it happen. Kristian told us the team tailors every aspect of the game, “from how the camera moves, to how the characters communicate on screen” to make it as clear as possible.

Andy Boxall

Vainglory wasn’t really conceived as a competitive esport.

“You can’t make a new sport,” Segerstrale said. “What we can do is try to create the most fun competitive experience we can, that you can play with friends, and hope the community will pick it up and start playing it competitively.”

Today, there are more than 6,000 competitive teams registered with esports organizations around the world, and it’s growing all the time — it’s safe to say these ambitions are being met.

However, it’s what happened after leaving the spring championship that shows how mobile is on the cusp of bringing esports to everyone. Vainglory is now installed on my phone, and if my schedule had allowed, I would have returned to watch the finals a few days later. Instead, I caught up with the livestream. North American team Cloud9 took the title, but not before G2 broke Europe’s bad luck streak and won two games against North American teams.

I’d looked at esports before, and was interested in the concept; but found it too complicated, too exclusionary, and too time consuming to learn the associated rules. Vainglory captured my attention at a polished and enjoyable live event, and turned me into a fan after a few hours research. Not really as a player, but as a spectator, and that’s perhaps more important to the sport overall. Vainglory is leading the mobile eSports pack at the moment, but others are sure to follow, making this an ideal time to get involved.

Device turns your empty bottles into a hydroponic herb garden

Why it matters to you

This innovative Kickstarter project brings the joy of having your own garden to your home, even if you don’t have a yard or balcony.

Want to eat more fresh ingredients? Wish you could spend the Memorial Day weekend tending your very own garden?

A new Kickstarter project may be able to help with both of these desires. Billing itself as the World’s Smallest Garden, it promises to bring the joy of gardening to your home — even if you live in a tiny, top-floor apartment where the closest thing to wild vegetation is the leftover stir-fry in your fridge.

The World’s Smallest Garden is a small cylindrical device you place in the top of a regular bottle, transforming it into a self-watering herb garden in seconds.

“It’s perfect for growing fresh food in small spaces,” Nate Littlewood, co-founder and CEO of Urban Leaf, told Digital Trends. “What makes it so neat is its accessibility. From the outset, we wanted to create a product that was easy to use and affordable. There are a ton of other home-hydroponic grow kits on the market already, most of which are in the $200 to $3,000 price range. These are inaccessible and intimidating to most people — and certainly too complicated for the beginner. The World’s Smallest Garden is intended as gateway product, designed to welcome people into the field of home-growing for the first time.”

The Kickstarter kit contains three of the cylindrical devices, which resemble test tubes. Simply place one of these into a bottle filled with water, and you’ll create an optimal environment for seed germination, as well as a mechanism through which your plants can water themselves.

All you need to do is make sure the plants are put someplace sunny — or, at least, with access to the appropriate light — and then check on their water levels once a week. In addition to the World Smallest Garden device, kits will also come with a range of herbs, such as sweet basil (perfect for pesto or pizza topping) and mint (great for that post-work mojito).

The kits can currently be pre-ordered, with prices starting at $15. This includes 3 of the World’s Smallest Garden tubes with seeds, stickers for your bottles, and a quick start guide. Other price options — including one in which Littlewood and co-founder Robert Elliott will give you a private cooking lesson that allows you to put your herbs to good use — are also available.

Microsoft to bring Windows 10 Home and Pro to its new Surface Laptop

Why it matters to you

Microsoft wants everyone to purchase a Surface device, and providing a full-blown version of Windows 10 on its Surface Laptop is another enticement to buy one.

Microsoft plans to release its new Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Windows and Devices for the company, confirmed on Tuesday.

Launched at the beginning of May with a starting price of $999, the device currently ships with Windows 10 S, a new restricted version of the platform that forces users to install only Windows 10 apps sold through the Windows Store. However, offering models with the full-blown Windows 10 experience was always Microsoft’s “long-term direction.”

“We had to start somewhere,” Mehdi said. “The Surface Laptop, that was the right time to introduce the operating system. We had it on some low-end devices, and we wanted to put it on a premium machine to show the future. We don’t just think of it as a Chrome operating system. This is full-fledged.”

Microsoft is currently addressing the mobile computing market with three solutions — the detachable 2-in-1 (Surface Book), the standard 2-in-1 (Surface Pro), and the clamshell notebook (Surface Laptop). Of the three, the Surface Laptop is the only unit with Windows 10 S installed right out of the box. According to Mehdi, that will eventually change, although specific dates are unknown for now.

Mehdi indicated that Microsoft is in the planning stages of selling the Surface Book with Windows 10 S. There’s talk that Microsoft may be doing the same with the Surface Pro, but Mehdi didn’t mention or confirm Windows 10 S on that model. In fact, the latest model rolled out on Tuesday with no Windows 10 S in sight, but rather Windows 10 Pro instead.

With Windows 10 S, Microsoft is targeting a market dominated by Chromebooks. Laptops sporting the new platform start at $189, and are manufactured by Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Samsung, and Toshiba. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop serves the high-end education market, similar to what Google did with its high-quality Chromebook Pixel laptops.

Windows 10 S is touted as a highly optimized platform that runs exceptionally well on low-end hardware. Yet the Surface Laptop is nowhere near the low-end spectrum, packing either the Intel Core i5-6300U or Core i7-6600U seventh-generation processor, up to 16GB of system memory, up to 512GB of storage, and a 13.5-inch screen with a 2,256 x 1,504 resolution.

From a customer standpoint, there should be no problems in Microsoft selling the Surface Book and Surface Pro devices with Windows 10 S. Heck, the latest Surface Pro (5) has a starting price of $800 and begins with the seventh-generation Intel Core m3-7Y30 processor, 4GB of system memory, 128GB of storage, and a 12.3-inch screen with a 2,736 x 1,824 resolution.

Again, Mehdi didn’t say exactly when Microsoft will sell its sparkly new Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, nor did he indicate when the Surface Book will ship with Windows 10 S. But they’re on the board, and customers could see these solutions on Microsoft’s online retail space and in its brick-and-mortar stores before the end of the year.

Microsoft to bring Windows 10 Home and Pro to its new Surface Laptop

Why it matters to you

Microsoft wants everyone to purchase a Surface device, and providing a full-blown version of Windows 10 on its Surface Laptop is another enticement to buy one.

Microsoft plans to release its new Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Windows and Devices for the company, confirmed on Tuesday.

Launched at the beginning of May with a starting price of $999, the device currently ships with Windows 10 S, a new restricted version of the platform that forces users to install only Windows 10 apps sold through the Windows Store. However, offering models with the full-blown Windows 10 experience was always Microsoft’s “long-term direction.”

“We had to start somewhere,” Mehdi said. “The Surface Laptop, that was the right time to introduce the operating system. We had it on some low-end devices, and we wanted to put it on a premium machine to show the future. We don’t just think of it as a Chrome operating system. This is full-fledged.”

Microsoft is currently addressing the mobile computing market with three solutions — the detachable 2-in-1 (Surface Book), the standard 2-in-1 (Surface Pro), and the clamshell notebook (Surface Laptop). Of the three, the Surface Laptop is the only unit with Windows 10 S installed right out of the box. According to Mehdi, that will eventually change, although specific dates are unknown for now.

Mehdi indicated that Microsoft is in the planning stages of selling the Surface Book with Windows 10 S. There’s talk that Microsoft may be doing the same with the Surface Pro, but Mehdi didn’t mention or confirm Windows 10 S on that model. In fact, the latest model rolled out on Tuesday with no Windows 10 S in sight, but rather Windows 10 Pro instead.

With Windows 10 S, Microsoft is targeting a market dominated by Chromebooks. Laptops sporting the new platform start at $189, and are manufactured by Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Samsung, and Toshiba. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop serves the high-end education market, similar to what Google did with its high-quality Chromebook Pixel laptops.

Windows 10 S is touted as a highly optimized platform that runs exceptionally well on low-end hardware. Yet the Surface Laptop is nowhere near the low-end spectrum, packing either the Intel Core i5-6300U or Core i7-6600U seventh-generation processor, up to 16GB of system memory, up to 512GB of storage, and a 13.5-inch screen with a 2,256 x 1,504 resolution.

From a customer standpoint, there should be no problems in Microsoft selling the Surface Book and Surface Pro devices with Windows 10 S. Heck, the latest Surface Pro (5) has a starting price of $800 and begins with the seventh-generation Intel Core m3-7Y30 processor, 4GB of system memory, 128GB of storage, and a 12.3-inch screen with a 2,736 x 1,824 resolution.

Again, Mehdi didn’t say exactly when Microsoft will sell its sparkly new Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, nor did he indicate when the Surface Book will ship with Windows 10 S. But they’re on the board, and customers could see these solutions on Microsoft’s online retail space and in its brick-and-mortar stores before the end of the year.

Google finally matching in-store purchases to online activity, vastly raising value of ads

Keeping track of in-store purchases is the final step of measuring effectiveness of online ads.

Google is finally figuring out how to close the most precious link in the loop of online advertising: knowing when someone makes an in-store purchase in response to an online ad. Google has announced that it will begin using data from billions of credit and debit card transactions, matching the data to its anonymized profiles of Google users to whom it serves ads online.

By guaranteeing that a specific in-store purchase was made by a specific person to whom an ad was shown, Google could potentially be able to sell that information to advertisers to show the effectiveness of Google ads. That would put Google considerably ahead of other advertising systems, including the often loosely targeted TV advertisements that claim such a large portion of today’s advertising spending.

According to Google, through a complex set of algorithms it has been able to process through these billions of transactions for behaviors that can link individual purchase amounts with the specific people who most likely made the purchase based on other data Google has related to them. Google of course collects an often-surprising amount of data that’s tied to each individual person with a Google account — including phone location, app usage, online payments, Google searches, browsing history and more.

Google can now link individual purchase amounts with specific people who have Google accounts.

Correlating this own-collected data with a new trove of in-store transactions that it previously didn’t have access to, Google is able to create a profile and match the two sets together. Google naturally explains that it never sells personally identifiable information to advertisers, and each user is identified instead through a random string of numbers … though privacy advocates will argue that this correlation of metadata is just as good as (if not better than) knowing someone’s actual identity.

Google is not alone in its quest to tie in-store purchases to online advertising — knowing exactly who made a purchase, even in a store, relating to the display of an online ad is incredibly valuable. Because of this, we don’t have a great explanation from Google on how exactly it is acquiring such a large amount of data or how it’s being processed to determine who is making each purchase.

This is the future of advertising, whether it’s Google or some other company putting the data together is sort of irrelevant at this point.

Huawei gets serious about laptops with new MateBook devices

MateBook E takes on the Surface, while MateBooks X and D go after Apple’s MacBook line.

So, Huawei makes laptops now. Sure, it’s dabbled in tablets in the past, and even released a single 2-in-1 Windows convertible last year, in the form of the original MateBook. But today Huawei showed just how serious it is about making real, actual computers, with the launch of three new MateBook devices at an event in Berlin, Germany. None of them runs Android, but the new product line demonstrates Huawei’s growth

First up is the MateBook E, a direct successor to the 2016 model MateBook. While the design has been refined, and the internals upgraded, don’t expect anything drastically different from that device.

Like the original MateBook, the new MateBook E can be used as a standalone tablet, but realistically you’re going to want to use that folio case. Don’t expect to casually one-hand the E like you would an iPad. Doing so is clumsy, a product of its shape and size as much as its weight.

The good news is that the leather folio is impressively sturdy, covering all the parts that need covering when the MateBook E is in a bag, with built-in, backlit chiclet keys that don’t feel at all mushy. The hinge can now support the device at up to a 160-degree angle, allowing for more versatility when it’s propped up. (Which, let’s face it, will be most of the time.)

More: Huawei MateBook (2017) preview at iMore

The MateBook X and MateBook D line up against Apple’s MacBook (12-inch) and MacBook Pro series, through the X is the clear flagship of the trio, beating Apple on specs and coming close on build quality.

The bump in specs compared to Apple’s notebooks (which are also passively cooled, but uses less speedy Core M-series chips) is made possible by what Huawei calls its “Space Cooling Technology,” which uses unique materials in its heat pipe to more effectively dissipate heat. Questions remain over how well this kind of approach will handle extended heavy usage — eventually, you’ll just have to ramp down the CPU — but that’s a problem for another day. In every other sense, the MateBook X is a typical, well-designed Ultrabook.

There’s liberal use of “diamond-cut” chamfers around the tapered aluminum unibody, which is flanked on either side by USB-C connectors — so you can plug in to charge on either side. It measures just 12.5mm thick, and weighs 2.31 pounds, putting it in the same “barely there” ballpark as the 12-inch MacBook, though with a larger 13-inch display.

More: Huawei MateBook hands-on at Windows Central

Bottom line: Huawei is making clear progress outside of the smartphone space. And we’d sure like to see something like the new MateBook X running Chrome OS, or maybe even the rumored Andromeda OS, eventually.

Look for all three Huawei MateBook models to become available in China, Japan, the U.S., France, Italy and Saudi Arabia later this summer. For more on all three, check out coverage on Windows Central and the new iMore.

Ikea’s cheap smart lightbulbs will soon support Google Home and Amazon Alexa

Ikea is a huge name in inexpensive home furnishing, but its influence is extending to the smart home space, too.

When Ikea gets into a market, competitors stand up and notice. In the case of smart home tech, the company began offering wireless charging solutions built into desks and lights, it allowed for the average consumer to see the magical technology without going to a carrier store or tech retailer.

Ikea’s smart lighting solution, Trådfri, similarly undercuts much of the competition, including popular incumbents like Philips and LIFX, without sacrificing quality and options. The Trådfri suite includes regular bulbs, a dimmer, and a smart mirror light — priced for the average home.

Ikea is no stranger to undercutting the home furnishing market.

And while the nascent solution has always supported Android through an app, a press release issued in Swedish this week says that Trådfri will soon support Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit (via The Verge), which will add a comprehensive voice component to the ecosystem.

It’s coming later this summer, so you won’t need to wait too long, if you’ve already invested in the products. Or you could just wait until Ikea decides to take on another aspect of the smart home, because it’s definitely coming.

See at Ikea

Comcast sets its sights for the wireless market with Xfinity Mobile

The television and internet conglomerate has teamed up with Verizon Wireless in an attempt to become its own mobile operator.

In its ever-present quest for wireless superiority, Comcast quietly launched its own mobile network, aptly dubbed Xfinity Mobile. The service offers an unlimited data plan or you can pay by the gigabyte. It’s only available to those with existing Comcast internet service, however.

Xfinity Mobile began its nationwide rollout last week. It’s typically $65 a month for unlimited data access, but Comcast is currently offering a promotion at $45 a month. Speeds will be reduced after 20GB, however, which might not make it the best option for large family plans. The alternative is to pay-as-you-go at the $12 per gigabyte rate, but that option becomes quite pricey if you’re using more than four gigs a month. The subscription also garners you access to Verizon Wireless’s network, as well as access to Comcast’s Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S. and its TV streaming service.

All this this not without its caveats. Xfinity Mobile is available to Comcast’s internet customers only, so you’ll have to pay for internet in addition to the mobile service. And though the $45 a month rate will continue to apply to existing high-end X1 plan subscribers, that quickly adds up when you’re paying for the whole suite of offerings. You also can’t bring your own device to the network, though you can pick from a Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, or a low-end LG X Power at typical prices.

But for light data users who maybe don’t rely on their smartphones outside of the home as much as the rest of us do, Xfinity Mobile could be a convenient add-on when a tethered internet connection is already getting the most use. Just as long as you don’t mind being entirely beholden to Comcast.

Give your friends a reason to snap with Snapchat’s custom stories

Snapchat’s new feature isn’t a killer one, but it will certainly give its existing users another reason to keep using it.

A new Snapchat feature could help you when encouraging your friends to at least install the Snapchat app for the weekend. Snap has introduced custom Stories, which are designed to help friends and family groups collectively snap even the most mundane of events on the fly.

Custom Stories are easy to set up and don’t require that much planning beforehand. Tap the new Create Story icon in the top-right corner of the main Stories screen. Type in a name for the event, and then invite your friends. You can extend the invitation to anyone you’d like to participate in the as-it-happens festivities, regardless of their location. The new feature isn’t geofenced. You can also invite nearby Snapchat users to participate if it’s, say, a public event, like a high school prom or college graduation. Snapchat will create a one-block geofence around your current location.

Custom Stories will stay up on the main Stories page for as long as they are live, or until no one contributes for 24 hours. Each user is limited to three custom Stories at a time.

Is this a killer feature that will bring back hoards of budding Snapchat users? Not likely. It’s hard to ignore Snapchat’s declining numbers, especially when Instagram has all but run rampant with its own story-making features. But in the realm of mobile-first apps, it’s encouraging to see social networks attempting to become more of an extension of our social lives rather than a replacement.

The update is slowly rolling out to Snapchat users right now. If you don’t see it in the Google Play Store just yet, hang tight.

The Galaxy S8 iris scanner can be hacked with aging tech

Biometrics are becoming our next de facto security measure, and they’re supposed to be a vast improvement on easily-forgotten and hackable passwords. Yet a point-and-shoot camera, laser printer and contact lens is all it took for German hacking group Chaos Computer Club to crack the Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris scanner. “By far [the] most expensive part of the iris biometry hack was the purchase of the Galaxy S8,” the group wrote on its website.

They pulled it off by taking a photo of the target from about five meters away, and printing a close-up of the eye on a laser printer — made by Samsung, no less. A regular contact lens was placed on top of the print to replicate the curve of an eyeball. When the print was held up to the smartphone, the S8 unlocked.

“The security risk to the user from iris recognition is even bigger than with fingerprints as we expose our irises a lot,” said Dirk Engling, spokesperson for the group, which previously hacked the iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor using photos of a glass surface. “Under some circumstances, a high-resolution picture from the internet is sufficient to capture an iris.”

Biometric security is taking off, particularly with the rise of mobile payments. Mastercard has rolled out “selfie pay” in Europe, while Australia has introduced facial recognition to replace passports in airports, and Chinese ride-share company Didi helps passengers verify their driver’s identity using face scanning.

Sci-fi has told us that iris scans are so accurate you’d need to cut out someone’s eyes to fool them. But the disappointing reality so far is that stuff a hacker could rummage for on Craigslist is probably good enough.

Source: Chaos Computer Club