MrMobile’s Essential Phone impressions: Everybody just chill

The father of the Android platform just announced a smartphone, which is kind of a big deal.

It’s called the Essential Phone – not just because Andy Rubin wants you to think it’s indispensable, but because it represents the essence of what Rubin believes a smartphone should be: personal, open, premium, helpful and simple. The Essential Phone PH-1 was built to correct some of the problems Rubin says Android created, with an open ecosystem and intuitive software wrapped in a drop-resistant ceramic/titanium body bearing a magnetic attachment port for accessories.

Also, no Essential Phone would be complete without an Essential Home to go along with it; in addition to its smartphone showdown, Essential will be going head-to-head with the Google Homes and Amazon Echoes of the world. But such lofty ambitions sometimes bamboozle those who should remain skeptical – especially given the crowded graveyard of tech companies who’ve walked this path before.

So how excited should you be for the Essential Phone? MrMobile won’t know for sure until he gets a device in his hands; until then, join him for some early impressions from afar! And be sure to check out Android Central’s coverage!

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Watch Andy Rubin talk about the new Essential Phone tonight at 9 p.m. ET!

One of the pioneers of the smartphone revolution is on stage tonight.

Andy Rubin’s new company Essential has finally opened up for everyone to see what it’s been up to, dropping details on both the Essential Phone and Essential Home. Coinciding with the product launches, Rubin will be on stage for an interview with Walt Mossberg at the Code Conference tonight.

Rubin is scheduled to be on at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET tonight — and it’s streaming live on YouTube.

Of course Rubin’s new company Essential will be top of mind for the interview, but we can also expect to get some great perspective from Rubin on the entire technology industry. Rubin of course founded Android prior to its acquisition by Google, and has been instrumental in the growth of the modern smartphone.

Tune in for the interview tonight, May 30, or watch the recorded version at the same YouTube link above.

BlackBerry KEYone goes on sale in the U.S. on May 31, unlocked for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile

Get your thumbs ready for a return to a physical keyboard.

The BlackBerry KEYone is finally going on sale in the U.S., coming to Amazon and Best Buy for $549 a couple weeks after pre-orders started to open up in some other markets. In addition to the online stores, select Best Buy locations will also offer the KEYone.

We’ve known the pricing and launch date for some time, but it’s great to finally get to the point where we can actually click the “buy” button — it’s just a handful of hours away.

There will be two distinct models of the KEYone in the U.S., both of which will be sold unlocked without carrier involvement. One model will be a GSM version designed for use on AT&T and T-Mobile, with another that includes CDMA for use on Verizon. An announcement on Sprint support, BlackBerry Mobile says, will be coming later in the summer.

BlackBerry Mobile has also confirmed availability and pricing for the KEYone up in Canada, with pricing set at $199 on a two-year contract or $729 outright from Bell, Bell MTS, Rogers, SaskTel and Telus.

We’ll update this article as soon as Amazon and Best Buy have pages up for orders.

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Essential made an Amazon Echo-like device called Home, coming soon

Essential made more than a new Android phone. It also made Home.

Essential is a new startup headed by Android co-founder Andy Rubin. The company has been teasing for a while that it had some major announcements in store for 30 May, and while many assumed the news stopped after it unveiled the new Essential phone and its accessories, Essential surprised us all with yet another product up its sleeve: a rival to assistant products from Amazon and Google.

Home is an intelligent assistant. The device itself has a circular design with a round display. It physically reminds us of Google’s Nest thermostats. The “auto-display” is activated by voice commands, a tap of a finger, or when you look at it. Home lets you play your music, ask questions, set timers, and control devices like lights, but Essential promised Home will be more intelligent than existing competitors.

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It can detect when you’re talking to people and automatically turns down the volume, for instance. Right now, it’s unclear how Home works or compares directly to other assistant-powered devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo. Wired said Home isn’t done yet, will ship later this summer, and aims to bring “order to the endless standards, protocols, and systems wrought by the Internet of Things.”

Its system, it seems, will work with SmartThings, HomeKit, Nest, and even Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. However, we don’t know if all that technology will be available automatically at launch. Details on the Home, including its price, are vague at the moment.

We’ll keep you posted.

Essential

Apple Music-exclusive ‘Carpool Karaoke’ arrives August 8th

Fans of Late Late Night‘s “Carpool Karaoke” have a lot to look forward to. Apple’s newly-acquired exclusive series has been planned for a while now (though it’s already been delayed ), and will include celebrities like Ariana Grande, Will Smith, Alicia Keys and Metallica. Even with the possibility that Corden may not host, the fun-filled, joyous tone of the show shines through in the first trailer. Today, Apple’s own senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, tweeted that the show’s popular sing-along musical series will show up August 8th on Apple Music.

You’ll need an Apple Music subscription to see the 16 episodes planned, of course, which could bring quite a few more folks into the fold. Apple promises “many of today’s biggest names in music, television, film, sports and pop culture buckling up and belting out their favorite songs for a road trip filled with comedy, conversation and music.”

Apple’s on-demand music service has been adding various exclusives to keep people interested and paying for the privilege, with a video-centric redesign and celebrity content like Harry Style’s documentary with an included haircut. “Carpool Karaoke” has a much broader appeal, of course, with episodes like the one starring Adele going viral on the internet. The segments will continue to air on Corden’s own show on CBS late night, even as the network gives the go-ahead for a new faux-reality show on Snapchat. This convergence of traditional broadcast and internet-centered content is one that Apple really should capitalize on or be left behind.

Via: The Verge

Source: Eddy Cue/Twitter, Apple

Denny’s mobile ordering is your lazy ticket to bad food choices

Denny’s, which likes to think of itself as “America’s diner,” is making it easier to get its food without any human interaction — very American, indeed. The company announced today that customers can now order delivery or takeout on its website, with its apps or through Twitter DMs. The new service, called “Denny’s on Demand,” comes with revamped iOS and Android apps and 24/7 access to the restaurant’s menu.

More and more companies are offering online and mobile ordering. Taco Bell has been testing its Slack-based TacoBot, Starbucks is working on voice-based ordering, and in the UK, Domino’s launched an Xbox One ordering app. Facebook has also recently begun upgrading its food-ordering option, conveniently bringing all of the restaurants in your area that use its ordering service under one icon.

Along with its Twitter-based service, Denny’s will soon also offer a Facebook chatbot ordering option, which, according to the company, should be available in a few weeks. And for really hardcore Denny’s fans, a new set of Snapchat filters will let you properly share your all-day breakfast experience. The restaurant says it also has new, custom-designed take-out packaging that will ensure delivered food stays yummy, though what would keep boxed-up pancakes from getting soggy remains unclear.

While takeout ordering is available everywhere now, delivery is currently limited to just a few locations, which, until that expands, will likely limit much of the late-night bad decision orders.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Denny’s

Microsoft Office bug nags you with a pop-up every hour

Every software glitch is at least a little irksome, but Microsoft’s latest bug is driving some people up the wall. Office users running a recent update have noticed a bug that ever-so-briefly pops up a background task window… every hour. It’s annoying at best, and genuinely disruptive at worst — if you’re running a full-screen app like a game, it may kick you to the desktop. There’s thankfully a fix underway, but you may have to wait a little while to get it.

The company’s Jen Gentleman notes that there’s already a fix in place for Office Insiders who are on the Slow test ring (that is, the safest). That suggests that a patch is coming sooner rather than later, and you can get rid of the window bug right now if you’re willing to use a less-than-stable version of the productivity suite. Still, this is bound to be irritating — especially if you’re on a work computer and can’t try preview software.

@tomzorz_ @rohankops @MalwareTechBlog There’s a fix making it’s way through the #OfficeInsiders Slow ring – details attached https://t.co/YplFcR3Pw0

— Jen Gentleman 🌺 (@JenMsft) May 30, 2017

Via: MalwareTech (Twitter)

Source: Microsoft Community, Jen Gentleman (Twitter)

Fox Sports is airing the Champions League final in VR

Samsung just announced that it’s adding UFC fights and other events to its new immersive programming lineup. It’s the latest company to start broadcasting sports events in VR, but it’s far from the first. Fox Sports has been uploading virtual reality coverage of big-name events for years, most recently livestreaming this year’s Super Bowl. But the network is airing in VR a match that folks outside the US might consider just as massive: This Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Juventas.

The network is pairing with its usual partner LiveLike to livestream the match through the free Fox Sports VR app. Fans who download it and sign in with their TV subscription credentials can tune in before the game starts at 2PM ET this Saturday, June 3rd for pre-match material. The app doesn’t require any fancy equipment — just your smartphone, though it’ll be easier to watch with a simple headset like Samsung’s Gear VR or Google Cardboard.

Source: Fox Sports

Robot learns how to grab objects by analyzing them in simulated reality

Why it matters to you

More dexterous robots can aid with everything from factory work to helping pick up around the home. This AI system makes them better at it.

Our hands are pretty great at picking up all manner of objects, while our brains are fine-tuned at working out exactly where and how to pick up an object most securely. That’s not easy for a robot, however. Faced with a world full of strange-shaped objects to pick up and manipulate, there’s no easy way of programming a robot to be able to know the precise grip it should employ to deal with every single object it might encounter.

That’s where researchers from the University of California, Berkeley come into play. They’ve developed a system called DexNet 2.0 that works out how to perform this task not by endlessly practicing in real life, but by analyzing the objects in virtual reality — courtesy of a deep learning neural network.

“We construct a probabilistic model of the physics of grasping, rather than assuming the robot knows the true state of the world,” Jeff Mahler, a postdoctoral researcher who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “Specifically we model the robustness, or probability of achieving a successful grasp, given an observation of the environment. We use a large dataset of 1,500 virtual 3D models to generate 6.7 million synthetic point clouds and grasps across many possible objects. Then we can learn to predict the probability of success of grasps given a point cloud using deep learning. Deep learning allows us to learn this mapping across such as large and complex dataset.”

The most obvious application for DexNet would be to improve robots used in warehousing or manufacturing by enabling them to cope with new components or other objects, and be able to manipulate them by packing them into boxes for shipping or performing assemblies. However, as Mahler points out, the technology could also help improve the capabilities of home robots — such as those that can clean up items or be used for assistive care, such as bringing items to elderly folks who can’t otherwise reach them.

There’s still more work to be done, though. “The big thrust of research in the next year is related to having the robot grasp for a particular use case,” Mahler said. “For example, orienting a bottle so it can be placed standing up or flipping legos over to plug them into other bricks.”

Other specifics on the agenda include the ability to grasp objects in clutter and reorienting objects for assembly. The team also plans to release the necessary code to let users generate their own training datasets and deploy the system on their own parallel-jaw robot. This will take place later in 2017.

“We have some interest in commercialization, but are primarily interested in furthering research on the subject in the next 6-12 months,” Mahler concluded.

ROG Swift PG35VQ offers a high-end gaming display with great performance

Why it matters to you

If you need both a high-quality monitor for creative work and a super fast refresh rate for gaming, then Asus has a great option coming soon.

Computex 2017 is in full swing, and PC manufacturers are taking advantage of all the attention by introducing the newest machines and accessories. Asus has been busy this year, with a raft of new notebooks coming over the next few months and it also took some time to introduce a variety of other new products.

PC displays are another hot topic, in general, and Asus has another new monitor coming soon to join its growing line of gaming options. The ROG Swift PG35VQ is a new curved ultrawide display that Asus bills as its largest ever and it is clearly aimed at gamers with a super fast refresh rate.

To begin with, the PG35VQ is a 35-inch display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and UQWHD (3,440 x 1,440) resolution. It is also curved to bring the action closer and provide a more panoramic experience. Minimal bezels complete the immersive design by maximizing the percentage of actual display versus using multi-monitor arrays to achieve the same widescreen effect.

The PG35VQ also supports Nvidia G-Sync and offers a super fast refresh rate of 200MHz and an effective 5ms response time. That translates to the monitor’s ability to keep up with today’s fastest GPUs in modern gaming titles, ensuring that the display can maintain performance without perceptible stuttering and tearing.

Asus also paid attention to display quality with the PG35VQ. High dynamic range (HDR) support conforms to the HDR10 standard for a wide palette and high contrast. The monitor uses quantum dot technology for smooth gradients and support for the DCI-P3 color space, making the display of interest to creative professionals in addition to gamers.

The PG35VQ is also a bright display at 1000 nits while maintaining deep blacks via localized dimming. There are 512 individual LEDs lighting the screen, each of which can be controlled independently to pinpoint specific portions of an image. Finally, the integrated LED lighting system adds a splash of color to the design with Asus Aura Sync support.

Asus has not yet announced pricing or availability for the PG35VQ. When it does arrive, however, it is likely to be one of the more popular options for gamers who also like to get some creative work done — albeit only those with some serious money to spend.