B&O Play gets crafty with its newest product, a music-infused beer

Why it matters to you

B&O Play has been pushing the boundaries of music and science with experiments that may result in better tasting beer for everyone.

Danish audio experts B&O Play, quirky fun-loving sister company to the more serious Bang & Olufsen, has revealed a new music product. It’s not a Bluetooth speaker, or a pair of gorgeous headphones. It’s a beer. Not just any beer, but one infused with music played through the Beoplay A1 speaker. Don’t check you calendar, it really is the end of May, and not April 1.

Now we’ve established this isn’t a joke (at least, we don’t think it is), here’s what you should know about what’s being called the Beobrew. B&O Play worked with craft brewery Mikkeller to investigate the effect music has on how beer tastes. We imagine a fair amount of beer was consumed before this question was asked in the first place. To find out, a Beoplay A1 speaker was connected up to a classic third-generation iPod Nano, and submerged into a fermenting tank over the course of a two-week period.

It wasn’t just a case of streaming Spotify into the liquid. Both B&O Play and Mikkeller collaborated with Danish musician, DJ, and radio host Le Gammeltoft to create a special playlist that may eventually influence the desired flavor. Unsurprisingly, the playlist has a distinct Danish flavor of its own, and includes October Dance, Balvig, Kikos, and Louis Petri. Mikkeller’s head brewer, Kyle Wolak, says music is the “fifth ingredient that takes the beer to a new level,” and talks about the vibrations encouraging the yeasts to, “produce more flavorful esters.”

We have yet to sip the Beobrew, so can’t say how the music has influenced the beer’s taste; but Mikkeller describes it as refreshing, and calls it a 6.8 percent American-style IPA beer with a, “bright and aromatic taste with citrus fruit and floral notes.” Plus musical notes as well, one presumes. A special label, with a design by Philadelphia designer Keith Shore on it, will be pasted to the amber glass bottle.

Although the Beobrew sounds more like it should be the preferred tipple of Spinal Tap, you can actually try it out for yourself, either by visiting one of the Mikkeller bars in Denmark, German, Sweden, or Spain, or this summer in the United States at the Ace Hotel in New York and Los Angeles. Finally, if you’d rather take a sip of the musical beer in the comfort of your own home, Mikkeller will offer a mail-order service to Europe from its website soon.

Samsung Galaxy S9: News and rumors

Why it matters to you

The next Galaxy phone is as highly anticipated as the next iPhone, and the Galaxy S9 is already being discussed in rumors.

The Galaxy S8 may be the Samsung phone to have right now, but in 2018, it will likely be replaced by another phone in the company’s range, which we’d all expect to be named the Galaxy S9. Although the S8 is only just reaching store shelves right now, talk has already begun regarding its successor. It’s very early days, but here’s what’s already being rumored for the next Galaxy phone.

Name and release date

Samsung has apparently started developing the Galaxy S9 in earnest, and the code name it has given the device has been leaked by Korean publication The Bell. According to the report, the Galaxy S9 is code-named Star, and a larger version of the phone, which we can assume is the S9 Plus, is known as the Star 2. It’s also said development has started several months earlier than it did for the Galaxy S8, which may imply either an earlier release date, or the inclusion of new features and technology, which requires time to integrate. However, no official sources have confirmed this story, therefore treat it as speculation for now.

A release date during the first half of 2018 is anticipated.

Specs

The Galaxy S phones are among Samsung’s most powerful devices, so we should expect the S9 to follow the tradition. It’s being rumored the device will use the next top-of-the-range Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, known at the moment as the Snapdragon 845.

A report published by the Korean publication The Investor quoting sources speaking to the Aju Business Daily says Samsung and Qualcomm are teaming up again for the Galaxy S9, and the new phone may use a next-generation, and as-yet unconfirmed processor inside. It’s speculated the chip will be called the Snapdragon 845, and the two companies are developing it right now. Once the chip has been finalized, manufacturing duties may be given to Samsung or Taiwanese company TMSC.

Samsung worked closely with Qualcomm on the Snapdragon 835 processor, which powers the Galaxy S8. While other smartphone manufacturers are also announcing phones with the Snapdragon 835 inside — Sony and Xiaomi, for example — Samsung had the monopoly on the chip initially, and supply is low. The close working relationship between the two has clearly been successful, if these rumors prove to be accurate. However, another period of exclusivity on the new processor in 2018 won’t be well-received by Qualcomm’s other partners.

Little has been said elsewhere about a Snapdragon 845 processor. A rumor originating from a Weibo social network source at the beginning of 2017 said a future Qualcomm chip referred to as the Snapdragon 84x would be revealed during the final three months of 2017. Whether this will end up being an 840 or 845 remains to be seen, as does the authenticity of the rumor. Apparently, the chip will have eight cores.

Nothing else is known about the Galaxy S9, but we’ll keep you updated here as we hear more. For now though, if you want a new Samsung, phone grab yourself a Galaxy S8, because we’re still almost a year away from seeing a sequel.

Microsoft enables free wireless internet for Virginia’s rural students

Why it matters to you

Microsoft is making it possible for students in rural communities to have affordable access to high-speed internet.

Microsoft has launched a new “Homework Network,” offering wireless internet access to students in rural Virginia for the first time. Set to be made available to thousands of school-age children within Charlotte and Halifax counties, the wireless initiative makes use of free white space parts of the wireless spectrum, making it possible to offer the service for free.

White space is the designation of gaps in the the wireless spectrum which sit between existing broadcast bands. Often unused, the Homework Network leverages that space to extend existing wireless access from local schools to the wider communities. The technology uses a connection between base stations installed on towers or near fiber-connected schools, which link up with outdoor antennas attached to students’ homes.

Launched in collaboration between Microsoft’s Affordable Access Initiative and the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities group, the network is being installed by local service provider, B2X Online. It’s able to cover large geographic areas without much infrastructure, despite the hilly and forested local terrain.

So far 100 homes have been tested as part of a pilot scheme. Now the plan is to install it in a thousand homes by the end of the year. That should give around 3,000 students access to the high-speed wireless internet.

Microsoft stated that it hopes the FCC can allocate white space like this to local wireless internet initiatives across the country, but especially in rural communities where access to high-speed internet is far from common, if not impossible.

As it stands, some 5 million homes in the United States are said to be lacking fast internet access (as per MSPowerUser), which Microsoft and others claim leaves students behind when it comes to research and learning outside of school. That so-called “homework gap” is something it wants to close, to ensure that rural students have just as much access to information as those in more built up areas.

IFTTT advances smart homes by expanding its Applet platform for Makers

Why it matters to you

IFTTT serves the valuable purpose of linking devices, apps, and services that wouldn’t otherwise talk to each other. Now, it’s getting better at it.

If you aren’t familiar with IFTTT — short for “If This Then That” — it can be a little tough to wrap your head around. The basic gist of the platform, though, is this: It cleverly links together hardware, services, and apps that wouldn’t otherwise talk to each other. Using IFTTT, you can trigger a Philips Hue bulb to turn blue when one of your Twitter followers favorites a post, for instance, or update your Facebook status every time you post a new Instagram pic.

But those are just the basics. IFTTT’s growing platform, which includes more than 430 unique integrations and more than 200,000 developers, affords an almost endless degree of customization. And on Wednesday, May 24, IFTTT announced a new program that’ll allow developers to extend its capabilities even further.

“Each service you use is locked away in a silo — it has data about you, and that data has value,” IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets told Digital Trends. “We offer to facilitate the exchange between silos.”

To that end, IFTT’s expanded developer program builds on two components it introduced last year: Applets, or integrations bundled into single, configurable sets; and Maker, a suite of tools that lets developers build and publish sophisticated routines.

Applets, put simply, are pre-configured IFTTT connections users can enable with the flick of a switch. A IFTTT news Applet might save stories from the New York Times to Instapaper, and a smart home Applet might unlock your front door and switch on your living room lamp.

The goal with Applets was simplicity. Tibbets said. More than 60 percent of new IFTTT users start with integrations curated by the platform’s editorial team.

But simplicity necessitated limitations. Until Tuesday, users couldn’t build Applets that worked with more than two IFTTT services, making it impossible to publish an Applet that’d, say, post your tweets to Reddit and Facebook.

Now, developers in IFTTT’s Maker program can build apps that work with any service, including proprietary platforms like Philips Hue and BMW Connected. Makers and IFTTT partners can now build Applets that work with standard JavaScript code. And Maker developers can now build Applets with multiple actions — a capability previously exclusive to IFTTT partners like GE and Google.

Tibbets gave a few examples. Users enrolled in the Maker program can publish an Applet that triggers the garage door when a BMW pulls up to the driveway, for example, or an Applet that flips on the lights and turns down the blinds with a Google Home voice command.

Starting today, Maker developers will have a public profile page where they can showcase their Applets. And in the near future, IFTTT’s partners will be able to feature Applets built by makers on pages of their own.

“We’re constantly thinking about how access is handled today — and when to grant access. Users and services are at the same negotiating table.” Tibbets said. “They both have a say in how data can move. We want to make better use of the services and connections that you already have.”

Farming Simulator 18 heading to Android on June 6

As is now customary, the new version of Farming Simulator for mobile drops in alternate years to the desktop and console. Farming Simulator 18 is now official and will arrive on Android alongside iOS, PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS on June 6.

Become a modern farmer in Farming Simulator 18! Immerse yourself in a new, engaging Southern US environment, harvesting wheat, canola, corn, sugar beet, potatoes and, for the first time, sunflowers. Take care of your livestock with new animals to breed and transport, as pigs are now joining the indispensable sheep and cows!

As ever Farming Simulator comes packed to the rafters with licensing, with a wide range of meticulously recreated machinery making its way into the game from the top names in farming machinery. For the first time, too, legendary brands Fendt and Massey Ferguson are included.

Farming Simulator is one of those games that sounds incredibly dull until you actually play it. Then you get completely sucked in. Expect nothing less from the ’18 edition!

Get £25 off the Amazon Echo right now in the UK!

If you’ve got a hankering for an Amazon Echo but you were waiting for a deal, now would be the time to bite. For a “limited time” Amazon UK has taken £25 off the price of the big Echo, bringing it down to £124.99.

It’s valid on both colors and is a decent chunk off the usual £150 asking price. Though predictably Amazon isn’t saying how limited the limited time is, so it’s probably wise to jump on it sooner rather than later.

The bigger Echo has the advantage of being a much better speaker than the Echo Dot and it’s actually pretty great for listening to music through as well as engaging in all the connected goodness Alexa brings.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

Amazon

Top Kodi Tips and Tricks

Get the most out of your Kodi experience on Android!

Kodi is king when it comes to media centers.

Whether you’ve just installed Kodi from the Google Play Store on your Android phone or have it set up on an Android TV box such as the NVIDIA Shield, we’ve got some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Kodi experience.

It’s all about the add-ons

Kodi is a great option for organizing and accessing all your media: from photos and music, to your favorite movies and videos. However, the really interesting stuff comes when you start diving into the addons.

There’s a bustling community of developers who have created a whole slew of add-ons for Kodi which allow you to stream content from all sorts of places. You’ll find add-ons for popular sites like YouTube, twitch.tv and much more in the repository included within Kodi — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Independent parties have created their own repositories of Kodi add-ons that you may be interested in. Some of them offer illegal streams of content, so you’ll need to use your own discretion to keep things legal and safe You can find communities dedicated to Kodi addons which offer plenty of resources and support for new users just starting out using Kodi.

Add your favorite shows and add-ons to your favorites

Kodi is really great for storing and organizing your media, but having to navigate through the menus to find specific content can be a bit clunky.

Fortunately, there’s the Kodi Favorites menu, which lets you add quick links to your favorite stored media, as well as your favorite add-ons and even content from your addons. What you add to your favorites menu is entirely up to you — to lets you quickly access not only your favorite media stored on your device, but also lets you add not only your most used addons as well.

Screencast your phone to watch Kodi on Chromecast

Kodi doesn’t currently include native support for streaming from your phone to a Chromecast-enabled TV, but the screencasting function built into the Google Home app offers a quick workaround for streaming content from your phone to your TV without needing to buy a separate Android TV box or dealing with wires and adapters.

The benefits are that you’ll be able to keep touch controls for your media literally in-hand while streaming to your TV using only your phone and a Chromecast. This setup works even better if you’re able to dedicate it to an older Android phone you have laying around.

Explore the deep audio settings

Kodi offers deep audio settings for your media playback, and it’s something you’re definitely going to use if you’re streaming content or using the screencast tip above.

On top of letting you crank up the audio amplification if you need that extra oomph, the menu also includes subtitles also the option to fine tune the audio offset if you find the audio is out of sync with the video. These audio settings are easily available to you while you’re watching a video, simply tap or select the settings gear then select Audio Settings.

If you find the perfect audio settings for your home theater setup, you can choose to save them as the default for all media so you don’t have to continue to tweak them every time.

Change the skin

Kodi is open-source, which means you’re able to control nearly every aspect of your Kodi experience. Now, you may enjoy the default look and feel of Kodi, but you should know you have plenty of different skins to choose from, which offer different menu layouts and themes depending on how you intend to use Kodi.

For example, if you’ve installed Kodi on your phone or tablet, there are skins that are optimized for touch controls. With the Kodi 17.1 app for Android, the default skin is much easier to control on a touchscreen, however, there’s still a skin specifically for touchscreens that makes it even easier to use.

Use your phone as a Kodi remote

Kodi runs great on an Android TV box, but the remotes that ship with most of those devices are notoriously simplistic and cheap. You do have another option — you can use your phone to control Kodi.

Kore is the official remote app for Kodi which lets you control your Kodi media center using your phone. It works with Kodi 14.0 and includes a slew of smart features: it will show what’s currently playing including any relevant information, let you change and download subtitles, manage your playlists and more.

Arguably the best feature here is the ability to use your phone to enter text — a huge time-saver if you’re using an addon with a search function because using the on-screen keyboard for Android TV is brutal.

Kore will walk you through the setup process, which requires your two devices to be on the same wireless network and go into Kodi Settings > Services > Control and enable Allow remote control via HTTP.

Download: Kore (Free)

You’ll probably want a case for your Galaxy S8 after seeing these photos

Let this forum member’s sad story encourage you to buy a case for your Galaxy S8.

The Galaxy S8 series, beautiful as it may be, is covered in glass. And while Samsung is using Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides to protect against scratches, with enough surface area, and an impact hard enough to cause damage, the substrate can crack and break. Such is glass.

One of our writers, Matt Brown, already went through this with his five day-old S8, but now forum member jfreeusa has some brutal photos of a new Galaxy S8 with an extensive network of cracks after a fall.

jfreeusa
05-21-2017 11:48 AM

“

Bought the Samsung S8 and unfortunately dropped it the first day and it shattered like glass. I cannot believe Samsung is doing this to us. The screen is gorilla glass which is great then they have the nerve to charge 600-800+ for a phone made of something so fragile. Where I bought it they did not have a case for it. I say buy a case first then the phone.

Reply

It’s not clear how the phone was dropped, nor from how high, but there are three clear points of impact that spider out to the center of the back. It’s quite a sight to behold, actually.

There are ways to protect the Galaxy S8 if it’s dropped — we have a list of great cases for the S8 — but the best solution is just to be careful with the phone. If that’s not possible, a Galaxy S8 Active is likely on its way to AT&T in the next few weeks.

Have you had an experience with a dropped or cracked Galaxy S8?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active leaves behind the physical navigation buttons

An active Galaxy that doesn’t really look like it.

Leaks don’t get much more verifiable than this. The Wireless Power Consortium —the company in charge of the Qi standard — has posted what appears to be the front of the Galaxy S8 Active, a likely-AT&T exclusive that will debut in the next few weeks.

Though the phone shares the same basic design as the Galaxy S8, it doesn’t have the (fragile) curved glass, and a slightly larger side bezel buttresses the 5.8-inch screen, reinforced at the corners to protect against impact.

What’s perhaps most interesting about the design is what it lacks, the three physical navigation buttons that have been a mainstay of the Active line for years. Of course, to keep with the new 18.5:9 aspect ratio and general Galaxy S8 design language, the decision is not surprising, but it may come as a disappointment to those holding out hope that Samsung would maintain at least one flagship with physical keys.

As with previous Active versions of Galaxy phones, the Galaxy S8 Active is expected to be more robust, with a more extensive MIL-SPEC and IP water ingress rating. It’s also obvious from the leak that, like the Galaxy S8, there’s an additional button on the left side below the volume rocker, but it’s not clear whether this will be dedicated to Bixby or be customizable like on previous Actives.

What do you think? Would you buy a Galaxy S8 Active? Let us know in the comments below!

Icon Pack Studio is a neat icon mask maker with a bad name

Smart Launcher makes one hell of a launcher, and it just stepped up its theming game in a big, big way.

Smart Launcher released Icon Pack Studio last week, giving ordinary users with zero experience the ability to create icon masks that will evenly and beautifully apply to all of the apps on their home screen and app drawer. Even better, the way Smart Launcher made this move lets its victory come to other launchers as well, giving users a win and giving Smart Launcher a new way to try and coax users away from their long-time launcher.

I just wish they’d given it a name that wasn’t a lie.

See, icon packs like Whicons, Glim, and S_Eight leave gaps. There are millions of apps in Google Play, to say nothing of third-party app stores, and it’s impossible for icon makers to make specialized icons for them all in their packs. That’s why we have icon masks, to help smooth over the gaps an icon pack can leave in your app drawer. Some masks are better than others, depending on how well the developer codes them, but there’s no such thing as a seamless icon mask.

Icon Pack Studio is about as close as I think we’ll ever come, though.

Icon Pack Studio is a mask-maker, allowing you to set your mask’s shape color, and size; you can add strokes and shadows and lights. You can even pay to add fun textures and angles. The packs are easy to make, although the color picker can be a little odd, only letting you choose from a few basic colors during the initial mask creation and then letting you tweak them later in the advanced editor.

It’s also not initially apparent, but even though you have to begin with a shape on your icon pack, you can make that shape invisible in the advanced editor, allowing you to make an icon mask that themes the original icon in its original shape rather than slapping it inside a circle, or a pentagon, or one of those squircles everyone’s so in love with. You can also get more detailed with the FX on your icon mask, though things are still a bit sparse for now.

If you want to apply the pack within Smart Launcher 3, it’s easy to set right there, but if you want to use it somewhere else, you need to export your finished icon mask as an APK, install it the way you would any other icon pack, and then apply the icon pack in your launcher of choice. Because different launchers apply icon packs differently, your icon mask may work differently or not work at all. The icon masks worked perfectly in Action and Nova … but not in Aviate. That’s not Icon Pack Studio’s fault; that’s long been a problem of Android, and will continue to be so long as icon masking isn’t standardized across launchers.

Icon Pack Studio is an excellent start, and whenever they add more metallic and chrome textures for their masks, I might stay on it for most of my themes. Until then, Icon Pack Studio is a handy, if incomplete, tool … but please don’t call what it makes an icon pack.