Samsung’s newest app rewards kids for showing smartphone self-control

Screen time is good, but it can be quickly abused. Samsung wants to help parents monitor it.

Samsung has introduced a new app for users in the U.S. called Marshmallow (via Android Police), and it has nothing to do with the aging version of Android. Instead, it’s an app aimed at helping parents monitor and limit their kids’ smartphone usage, with kids gaining self-empowerment over how long they spend staring at a screen.

The app is installed onto a compatible Samsung phone (pretty much any Galaxy from the last couple of years, including the cheaper A and J lines) as an administrative controller, so it cannot be disabled or deleted without a parent’s password. Once installed, it allows parents to limit the apps that can be opened on the phone, as well as set limits for how long the device can be used.

Using Samsung Marshmallow, a child learns how to use a smartphone naturally by making his or her own smartphone usage plan, achieving goals, and getting rewarded. Also, parents can use the Marshmallow app to talk about smartphone usage habits with their children.

Perhaps more interesting is the ability to parents to allow children to set their own targets for limiting screen time; the app rewards them with Marshmallow points when the phone is used less than the allotted amount, and points are removed when the phone is used too much. The points, once accrued, can be put towards gift cards sold in the Marshmallow store.

The app is free, and available in the U.S. right now. It seems like an interesting concept that, if properly incorporated into a daily routine, could be useful to parents looking to monitor and limit their kids’ screen time. As a parent, would you use Marshmallow?

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

You can now buy the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch for under $300

A better deal on a great smartwatch.

Samsung’s Gear S3 was unveiled in late 2016, and it quickly became one of our favorite smartwatches. Slightly bigger than its Gear S2 predecessor, it has battery life for days and a great circular rotating bezel that, in the context of wrist watches, makes a lot of sense. But at $349, it was also an expensive proposition.

Now, 5 months after its debut, the Gear S3 Classic and Frontier have dropped to $299 permanently, which puts the series in better standing with the latest run of Android Wear devices, as well as the Apple Watch. In his review, Andrew Martonik said that it’s worth the price if you love doing a lot on your wrist instead of your phone:

The Gear S3’s hardware and design is great, so long as you can deal with the size of it. Its display and always-on watch faces are top notch. Notifications fully sync with your phone, keeping the bigger device in your pocket more often. S Health fitness tracking is good for casual observation of your activity throughout the hours you have a watch on. Samsung Pay is a fantastic technology, and is truly useful for quick purchases on the go.

Does it all add up to a smartwatch experience that’s worth $349 and potentially $10 more per month on top of that for LTE? Well right off the top, I’d say skip the LTE if you’re considering a Gear S3 — there just isn’t enough there to justify the price. But when it comes to buying the standalone watch, that’s a tougher decision. If you’ve already made the decision that $300+ is an acceptable price for a smartwatch, the Gear S3 is worth looking at for all of its redeeming qualities. For others who may not have spent much more than $349 on their phone itself, it’s a tougher sell — the Gear S3 is nice, but when you consider what you’ll actually use it for, it’ll be hard to spend the money. You may just land on buying last year’s Gear S2 or a fitness-focused Gear Fit 2 for far less money and end up being much happier.

Now that the watch is $50 cheaper, it may be an easier sell. The new price should be reflected at all major retailers, including Best Buy and Amazon. It also looks like the Gear S2 has been discounted a further $50 to $199, which is an even better deal if you’re looking for a similar smartwatch with a smaller footprint.

Samsung Gear S3 vs. LG Watch Sport: Which should you buy?

See at Best Buy

Slip this thin 10000mAh power bank into your pocket for just $15

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a slim portable battery that puts 10000mAh of power into your pocket for less!

We continue to demand more and more out of our phones these days, and that means battery life sometimes takes a hit. No one wants to sit attached to a wall all day to keep their phone charged, and luckily you don’t have to. Aukey has recently released a new 10000mAh dual-USB portable power bank that is super slim, and right now you can pick one up for just $14.99 with coupon code AUKPBN51, a savings of $5. This power bank is 14mm thick, which is less than twice the thickness of a Google Pixel.

You can charge two devices at the same time using the cables of your choice, and at 10000mAh of capacity, you’ll be able to charge most phones and tablets anywhere from 2 to 4 times per charge of the power bank. The side of it has four LEDs to show you how much power is left at a glance.

See at Amazon

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Facebook promoted ads targeting teens with low self-esteem

It won’t shock you to hear that Facebook customizes the ads you see — in some cases, it’s vital. However, the social network’s Australian office appears to have pushed that personalization too far. The Australian has learned (subscription only) through a leak that Facebook was touting its ability to target teens with ads based on their feelings, including when self-esteem is low — say, when they’re feeling “stupid,” “worthless” or like a “failure.” It did promote ego boosts in those moments (such as “body confidence”), but it’s hard to deny the exploitative nature of selling products to teens at their most vulnerable.

Facebook hasn’t said whether or not this ad model has been used outside Australia, but it was quick to apologize when asked by The Australian for comment. The company is investigating the “process failure,” it says, and plans to take “disciplinary and other processes as appropriate.”

This doesn’t mean that Facebook violated the law, either in Australia or elsewhere. The leaked document only talks about aiming ads at teens 14 years old and up, which fits in with Australian regulations. Nonetheless, it’s bound to reinforce beliefs that Facebook still has work to do when it comes to responsible ad targeting. While it’s legal to pitch ads to teens, that doesn’t make it acceptable to take advantage of their weaker moments.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: The Australian (subscription required)

Get ready for a wave of TV mergers and buyouts

20th Century Fox is reportedly looking to buy Tribune Media, potentially sparking a wave of consolidation in the TV business. The news comes via Bloomberg, which believes that the media giant has entered into secret talks to buy the broadcaster. Tribune Media is a potentially prize asset, owning 39 stations in 31 markets, including affiliates for all of the big five TV networks.

What’s interesting here is not the rumored deal, but what will happen afterward, and how that’ll affect the TV that we watch. In the face of cord-cutting and dwindling profits, consolidation is one way that companies can try to stay alive. Of course, that means that consumers have less choice as the field of businesses you can buy from dwindles.

Tribune Media is almost certainly going to be the subject of a bidding war, with the Sinclair Broadcast Group also reportedly considering a move. Doing so would give Sinclair a toe-hold it doesn’t currently have in markets like New York, LA, Chicago and Cleveland. And one fewer broadcaster for everyone to deal with when it comes to negotiating fees.

The reason for this sudden interest in Tribune, and potentially a wave of further purchases, stems from a decision made on April 20th by Trump’s FCC chief, Ajit Pai. If you’re unaware, the rules around media ownership say that you can’t own stations that reach more than 39 percent of US households. The rule is designed to prevent one company from gaining undue influence over the flow of information to people.

But stations that use UHF to broadcast their channels were entitled to only count half of their broadcast footprint, a so-called “UHF Discount.” That meant that there were owners who reached more than 39 percent of US households, but were essentially given a free pass.

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, that made sense, since UHF was a weaker signal than VHF, but with the switch to digital, the positions were reversed. As a consequence, Tom Wheeler suspended the discount to ensure that broadcasters weren’t swallowing their rivals in pursuit of a monopoly.

Unfortunately, on April 20th, the FCC voted on party lines to restore the discount, potentially sparking a wave of new buyouts. With the news that Tribune Media is being eyed by both Fox and Sinclair, it’s clearly becoming true.

Source: Bloomberg, FCC

MacRumors 2017 Blood Drive

MacRumors is pleased to announce the Eighth Annual MacRumors Blood Drive, throughout the month of May 2017. Our goal is to save lives by increasing the number of life-saving blood and platelet donations. While most blood drives are specific to a geographic location, our blood drive is online and worldwide. MacRumors routinely reports on Apple’s support for charity, as summarized in our Help Center, and the MacRumors Blood Drive is our own community effort.

Over the past 7 years, the MacRumors Blood Drives have recorded donations of 381 units of blood, platelets, and plasma, and noted new signups for the organ donor and bone marrow registries. We’ve heard from many forum members whose lives were affected by blood, platelet, or bone marrow donations.

How to participate

1. If you are eligible, schedule a blood or platelet donation (see FAQ), in May if possible, at any donation center near you. Register for the bone marrow registry in your country and/or register as an organ donor in your state, province, or country (see FAQ). Then post in the MacRumors 2017 Blood Drive! thread to tell us about it and to accept our thanks.

2. If you aren’t eligible to donate blood for reasons of health, age, height/weight, a recent donation, or because you are deferred as a donor, please encourage someone else to make a donation, and let us know. If they donate, you belong on our Honor Roll! If you are a sexually active gay man deferred from donating, join our Blood donor eligibility discussion, with its debate over deferrals based on sexual orientation but not on monogamy.

3. Share our message and help this cause by convincing friends and relatives to participate as well. The Honor Roll lists this year’s donors. Please congratulate them for their altruistic acts to help strangers.

Tag: MacRumors blood drive
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple’s Siri-Based Smart Speaker Has ‘Over 50% Chance’ of Debuting at WWDC in June

Apple’s widely rumored Siri-based smart speaker and home hub has an “over 50 percent chance” of being announced at WWDC, scheduled for June 5-9, according to often-reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.

The device is rumored to have a “Mac Pro-like” concave design (Image: iFunnyVlogger)
Kuo said Apple’s smart home product will likely launch in the second half of 2017 and cost more than the Amazon Echo, $179. The device will supposedly support AirPlay with “excellent acoustics performance” from one woofer and seven tweeters. Kuo said its performance will be similar to the iPhone 6/6s.

An excerpt from Kuo’s research note obtained by MacRumors:

We believe there is an over 50% chance that Apple will announce its first home AI product at WWDC in June and start selling in the ]second half of 2017] in order to compete with the new Amazon Echo models to be launched […]

We expect Apple’s first home AI product will have excellent acoustics performance (one woofer + seven tweeters) and computing power (similar to iPhone 6/6S AP). Therefore the product is likely to be positioned for: (i) the high-end market; (ii) better entertainment experience; and (iii) higher price than Amazon Echo.

Last week, leaker Sonny Dickson likewise said Apple’s smart speaker could be announced as early as WWDC. He said the device will run a variation of iOS with unspecified Beats technology, in addition to a Mac Pro-like concave top with built-in controls and speaker meshing covering the majority of its surface.

Apple’s plans for a smart home device and Amazon Echo competitor were first revealed by The Information in May 2016, and Bloomberg reported that the device had entered prototype testing in September.

The latter report said Apple’s smart home device would be able to control appliances, locks, lights, and curtains through Siri voice commands. It added that some of the prototypes in testing have facial recognition sensors, in line with a CNET report claiming the device could have a built-in camera.

Kuo said Taiwan-based Inventec will be the exclusive speaker supplier, including both the woofer and tweeters.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2017
Tags: AirPlay, KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, Amazon Echo, Siri speaker
Discuss this article in our forums

Domino’s and IFTTT Integrate Pizza Orders With Philips Hue, Smart Sprinklers, and More

Fans of Domino’s pizza will gain access to a collection of new mobile ordering advantages thanks to the pizza chain’s partnership with automation platform If This Then That, known as IFTTT. With the addition of new Domino’s “Applets,” anyone ordering a pizza from the restaurant who owns a few connected smart home products — like Philips Hue — will be able to receive notifications about their order update in interesting new ways.

As the first restaurant brand to join IFTTT and create an Applet, Domino’s has listed a few useful IFTTT commands of its own to celebrate the partnership. One of the most notable Applets sends a signal to a user’s Philips Hue bulbs, changing the lighting color at various intervals of the order’s progress, like switching over to blue when the pizza has been placed in the oven.

Other Applets will turn off a Rachio Smart Sprinkler system when the Domino’s order is out for delivery, preventing potential mishaps for the delivery person, and even activate a Samsung POWERbot vacuum when the order is being prepped to clean up the house before guests arrive.

“We understand how much people love using Domino’s Tracker, not only to know where their order is in the preparation and delivery process, but also to plan around that much-anticipated pizza arrival,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president – chief digital officer.

“And now we’re empowering customers to unleash their imagination as they create new ways to integrate some of our favorite innovations, like Domino’s Tracker, into their everyday lives. Thanks to the endless possibilities of IFTTT Applets, customers will be more connected than ever.”

To sync up IFTTT and Domino’s Tracker Applets, users can download the IFTTT app on iOS [Direct Link] or Android devices. Although Domino’s Applets are limited on the restaurant’s IFTTT page, users will be able to create any number of commands on the automation app platform, including text message-based alerts about orders.

Tags: IFTTT, Domino’s
Discuss this article in our forums

UK proposes fines for social networks slow to remove hate speech

A group of UK MPs is calling on the government to introduce “meaningful fines” for technology companies which fail to remove illegal content “within a strict timeframe.” The report, published by the Commons home affairs committee, slams Google, Facebook and Twitter’s efforts to curb the spread of hate, abuse and extremism online. While it praises their commitment to removing harmful content, it says “nowhere near enough” is being done to tackle the problem. “There are too many examples of social media companies being made of aware of illegal material yet failing to remove it, or to do so in a timely way,” the report reads.

The committee has recommended that the government consult on “a system of escalating sanctions” that would culminate in fines for social media companies which fail to act swiftly. It would be similar to Germany, which is considering new rules that include fines up to 50 million euros (54.5 million dollars). In addition, the group has suggested that Facebook, Google and Twitter pay for the monitoring and investigation work carried out by the Metropolitan Police on their platforms. British football clubs already pay for the policing around their stadiums, the MPs argue, so it makes sense for technology companies to do the same online.

The group points to effective tools that allow technology companies — YouTube specifically — to identify and, where necessary, take down copyright infringing content. That same level of early, proactive identification should be possible for videos expressing hateful and extremist views, they argue. Relying on user-submitted reports isn’t sufficient either. “They are, in effect, outsourcing the vast bulk of their safeguarding responsibilities at zero expense,” the committee says. “We believe that it is unacceptable that social media companies are not taking greater responsibility for identifying illegal content themselves.”

Google, Facebook and Twitter want algorithms, rather than people, to sift through the content posted by their users. The group argues that while they may be helpful, human judgement will always be needed for complex cases, and that it’s disappointed YouTube only uses its algorithms to help advertisers. It’s also called on the three companies to publish quarterly reports detailing their efforts to tackle the issue. They should include the number of reports received from users, how the company responded to them and the actions taken to prevent such content in the future.

“It is in everyone’s interest, including the social media companies themselves, to find ways to reduce pernicious and illegal material,” the group says. “Transparent performance reports, published regularly, would be an effective method to drive up standards radically, and we hope it would also encourage competition between platforms to find innovative solutions to these persistent problems.”

Via: The Guardian

Source: GOV.UK

Acer Predator 21 X: Our first take

We caught glimpses of Acer’s massive Predator 21 X at IFA in 2016, and again at CES in 2017, and both times, Acer insisted this Moby Dick of a system wasn’t just a white whale. Still, it was hard to believe until the humongous, rolling sea-ready case showed up at the Digital Trends office.

Granted, the price is a lofty $9,000, well outside the advisable price range for a single system. While we have one aboard, we’ll run it through our test suite, and see how a pair of GTX 1080s fare packed away under the top deck.

The bunker buster

Since the Predator 21 X is unlikely to fit into your laptop bag, Acer went ahead and included a rolling suitcase. Unlocking a series of heavy duty latches unveiled the system itself, nestled into a custom fit foam insert. Under that, we found more custom holes for the power chargers — of which there are two that fit into a rubber bracket — a palm wrest, which we mentioned to Acer would be a nice inclusion at CES, and the reversible numpad/touchpad.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Standing in front of it, the 21 X looks and feels more like a device built to control a drone or launch a missile, rather than play a video game. Marked by sharp lines and carved out edges, the Predator exudes gamer sensibilities from every panel. The keyboard only takes up the near half of the chassis.  The far half features an abnormally large power button, surrounded by a clear panel exposing a RGB-lit blower fan, so you can watch the fan spin up when the device turns on.

Then there is, of course, its crushing weight. The Predator 21 X tips the scales at a shocking 19.4 pounds. That’s far too heavy to carry around, hence the rolling luggage, and most users are likely to only cart the Predator around when totally necessary. Despite all that, it’s arguably easier to move than a desktop, monitor, and peripherals, at least in terms of simplicity and number of items.

Triple feature

The 21 X sports a full-size mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches. Each key has a deep well and standard replaceable keycaps, so any desktop PC gamers should feel right at home. The individually lit RGB keys shine a lot brighter around the edge than trough the characters, which makes for tough typing in the dark. The numeric keypad is reversible — turn it over and you’ll find the laptop’s trackpad. The reversible pad panel is held in place magnetically, locking in with a very satisfying clap.

That’s not the only special feature included with the Predator 21 X. It also has Tobii eye-tracking built in. We didn’t spend much time with it in this context, but our full review of Tobii’s stand-alone camera covers the possibilities the technology presents.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Finally, among a number of Acer control panels, users will find the Killer Doubleshot Networking application, which allows the system to split its network traffic between Ethernet and Wi-Fi, prioritizing important traffic on the wired connection, while pushing out extraneous communications to the wireless adapter.

A peek inside

The Predator 21 X sports a 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7820HK, two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI with 16GB of GDDR5X VRAM, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and room for up to four 512GB SSDs in Raid 0 configuration, alongside a mechanical disk (two SSDs and a 1TB hard disk are installed from the factory). It’s hard to think of a way for Acer to stuff more power into a mobile system.

The Predator has upper and lower maintenance panels, the top of which is user replaceable, with customized options available from Acer. The panels allow easy access to the memory and storage options, should users find a need to upgrade or replace them.

It’s hard to think of a way for Acer to stuff more power into a mobile system.

As implied by the name, all that power is attached to a 21-inch monitor with a 2,560 x 1,080 resolution. Ultrawide monitors have become a hot topic in PC gaming, and this is the first time we’ve seen one executed on a laptop. It’s a beauty, too, boasting a 120Hz refresh rate for buttery smooth gameplay.

There are also a few extra hardware bells and whistles. The 21 X has a six-speaker audio system — four speakers and two subwoofers — with Dolby Premium audio. While they pump out an enormous amount of sound for a laptop, Digital Trends staff members had mixed feelings on their clarity and bass response.

There is one slight internal hiccup — it has an 88 watt-hour battery, which is smaller than what we’ve seen in some new gaming laptops. Like the resolution, though, it is only a deficiency at first glance. One look at the 21 X, and it’s clear this machine isn’t built to travel often. We assume the 21 X won’t live much of its life away from a power outlet.

Speed demon

With all the best hardware possible in a gaming laptop, we expected nothing short of top-notch gaming performance across our test suite. We ran the Predator 21 X through a series of synthetic and real-world tests that should point out any performance issues or bottlenecks.

Simply put, the Acer Predator 21 X hauls ass. The CPU in particular is powerful, and unlocked, but in the base operating mode, it sits right alongside laptops powered by the Core i7-7700HQ, and the Dell XPS 15 even beats it out in terms of single-core performance. It takes a slight lead in multi-core performance, a benefit of its size and total system power.

The Predator claims back a lot of ground in the 3DMark synthetic graphics tests. It competes with the MSI Armor GTX 1080 Ti, which was equipped in our Intel Core i7-6950X test rig, even claiming a higher score in the Time Spy test, where DirectX 12 can make better use of multiple GPUs. It doesn’t quite match the power of two GTX 1080s in a desktop setup, but it certainly comes close, and is by far the most gaming power you can find in a laptop.

Ideally, the pair of GTX 1080s would keep the system running close to the built-in panel’s 120Hz refresh rate, but it only does so in For Honor and Battlefield 1, at least with the details cranked all the way up. It falls behind in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but still claims a very high score for this extremely demanding game. The only title that really trips the Predator up is, surprisingly, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, which doesn’t break 60 frames per second average, even with the settings turned down to medium. It speaks to the demands the Civilization series tends to place on processing power, where the extra cores provided by our desktop machines help bring the frame rate up.

That’s not to say the Predator 21 X is a slouch — far from it. The system pumps out an impressive amount of performance, rivaling full-sized desktop gaming systems in terms of raw frame rate. It takes all that power along with it, too, something that requires a hand truck and a lot of legwork with a traditional gaming machine. It may do it at twice the price, but that’s the cost of portability.

Pushing our luck

While the Predator 21 X comes out of the box operating at modest speeds, it has two modes, controlled through Acer Predator Sense, aptly labeled “faster” and “turbo” for both CPU and GPU. It isn’t clear from Acer’s software exactly how high it raises the clock speeds, although we did see the processor break 4.2GHz at Turbo, well over the chip’s 3.9GHz stock Boost Clock.

Kicking the system into faster mode provided a surprising performance bonus, raising the Geekbench score about 15 percent in single-core, and 25 percent in multi-core. The difference is less striking in games, but still ends up just shy of a 12 percent average increase across all four test titles. Not bad, for the cost of flipping a switch in a program.

Turbo mode raised the performance further, but not by nearly the same measure we saw moving from stock to faster. The synthetic tests barely moved, and at speed, it’s very unlikely users will notice any tangible performance boost during real gameplay. It also caused the system fans to kick up a lot more frequently than in faster mode, which was only slightly louder and hotter than the system under normal operation.

The biggest downside to overclocking a laptop is draining the battery, but the Predator 21 X has a lot going for it in that respect. It’s far too large to spend much time unplugged anyway, and changing the overclock without restarting means it’s easy to turn down the clock and carry it down the hall. Most of this system’s life will be spent in faster or turbo mode.

A buyer is out there

At an insane $9,000 price point, the 21 X is a showpiece, and a stunning one at that. It doesn’t offer anything even resembling a value proposition, as you could easily build two comparable high-end systems with multiple displays for less than the Predator’s list price. It does offer incredible swagger, the kind no high-end desktop would garner.

Users will have to ask a number of questions before considering the Predator 21 X. The first is whether they have $9,000 to spend on a computer, instead of spending that cash on a decent used car, or a high-end desktop and decently portable gaming laptop. The other is whether they really have a need for such an outrageous system, and places to show up with it where people are likely to be impressed with such an investment, rather than incredulous.

Highs

• Beautiful display
• Unbeatable mobile performance
• Full-size mechanical keyboard
• Serious swagger included

Lows

• Weighs almost 20 pounds
• Immensely expensive