The exciting world of credit card terminals is coming to VR

In maybe the most boring VR announcement to date, payment processing company WorldPay has decided to bring its services to virtual worlds.

The UK-based company, one of the leading payment processors worldwide, used the HTC Vive for its prototype. In their system, to pay for an in-game item you use the Vive’s controllers to pick it up, revealing a bubble with its price. Staring at the virtual price tag for a few seconds allows you to make the purchase, which you do with a virtual version of your real credit or debit card. You then hold your card over a VR payment terminal. And, if you need to type in a PIN, number bubbles pop up all around you in random order so that onlookers can’t guess your code.

All in all, this VR payment is almost exactly like real life payments, which doesn’t seem terribly innovative. As we’ve moved away from using credit cards in real life purchases, one would think that there would be a better option for buying things in VR.

Along with gaming purchases, WorldPay says it’s also interested in working with companies like Ikea that have started experimenting with VR in their own sales. A useful application once we phase out bulky VR headsets and controllers that would make real life payments cumbersome.

Market research conducted by the company suggests the demand for VR payments will vary a lot by country. While 93 percent of Chinese citizens surveyed said they could see themselves using VR payments, only 35 percent of UK participants did. And zero percent of the people writing this article envision making VR payments anytime soon.

Source: Bloomberg Technology

Almost every adult still watches TV the old-fashioned way

Surprise: an overwhelming majority of adults still watch TV on a TV despite cord-cutting and the prevalence of mobile broadband. 92 percent of those aged 18 and older according to a recent report from Nielsen, to be exact. “Sure, viewers have more options today, but when looking at platforms in a comparative fashion, it’s clear that consumers choose the television as the primary vehicle for [programming],” Tom Ziangas of AMC Research said in a blog post. The study found that of the gross minutes counted last year, 509,196,299,668 minutes (82.1 percent) were spent watching shows and movies via a flatscreen itself, and an additional 63,637,309,003 minutes (10.3 percent) came from TV-connected devices like game consoles.

Among adults, watching videos on their computer, smartphone or tablet accounted for under eight percent of all viewing time. “What we found was that contrary to the popular narrative that smaller screens were talking away time from the TV glass, when we looked deeper we found that overall time spent viewing on the TV had the most minutes among every age or ethnic demographic we looked at,” Nielsen’s Peter Katsingris said.

So, people really like watching stuff on a screen that’s too big to fit in their pocket or messenger bag despite having ready access to Netflix on the go. This potentially shows that even though cord-cutting has gone mainstream, a decent number of people either still have pay-TV subscriptions or use the smart apps built into their display versus a Roku device or a PlayStation. It’s almost as if folks took director David Lynch’s musing from a few years ago to heart without realizing it, too.

“If you’re playing the movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film,” the filmmaker said in Keanu Reeve’s documentary Side by Side. “You’ll think you have experienced it, but you’ll be cheated. It’s such a sadness that you think you’ve seen a film on your fucking telephone. Get real.”

Source: Nielsen (1), (2)

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

5coins

5coins is a simple, beautiful, and smart app for tracking your daily expenses. It lets you know how much you are spending, and when and where your money goes.

Available on:

iOS

PureBlock

Are you sick and tired of popup ads, unwanted page redirects and many more annoying advertisements on the internet? PureBlock is the perfect solution for you.

Available on:

iOS

Magic Window

Turn your iPhone or iPad into a window with a million-dollar view. Enjoy beautiful timelapse views with relaxing ambient soundtracks. Perfect for your desk, night stand, flat panel, or Apple TV. Includes weather, alarm clock, wake to music, sleep timer, and more.

Available on:

iOS

Adrian James Bootcamp

Adrian James Bootcamp has been named the toughest 15-minute bootcamp on the planet. Download the chart-topping app to increase strength, burn fat and boost your energy levels.

Available on:

iOS

Who Was?

How well do you know historical figures and pop icons? Download today and put your knowledge to the test.

Available on:

iOS

Smart Merge Pro

Smart Merge Pro easily helps you detect and merge duplicate contacts. Clean up, backup, and otherwise manage your address book with a single tap.

Available on:

iOS

Control your TV and much more with these five remote apps

Considering our smartphones are capable of so much already, you would think they’d be perfect replacements for our TV remotes. Unfortunately, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think. Every television, receiver, set-top box, or media platform is different, and not all of them can talk to our devices as easily as we would hope. To complicate matters further, every smartphone is also different.

This means that, depending on your hardware and the streaming solution you use, one app might better suit your needs than another. For example, many TV remote apps can interface with Wi-Fi-connected smart TVs from various manufacturers. But older sets lack network capabilities, which means you’ll need a phone with an IR blaster, or a Wi-Fi-to-IR converter to do the trick. None of Apple’s devices feature IR blasters, which will complicate things for iOS users.

It’s also important to note that whatever TV or entertainment device you own — provided it was made within the last few years — likely has its own first-party app on Google Play or the App Store. This is true of nearly all TV manufacturers, including Samsung, LG, Sony, and Panasonic, as well as devices like the Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and various Roku set-top boxes.

Bearing that in mind, this article will cover general TV remote apps designed to work with a wide variety of devices from different companies. Some are even able to control various aspects of your home beyond your TV, such as air conditioning, lighting, and other Internet of Things devices.

That said, if none of these work with your particular setup, it might be best to go with the safe option and check out your device’s associated app. With that out of the way, here are five of our favorite TV remote apps available for Android and iOS.

Peel

Peel is perhaps the most popular option in this category, and for good reason. For one, it can work both over your local network or through old-fashioned IR. If you have an Android phone with an IR blaster, you’ll have widest possible compatibility, no matter what your home entertainment situation is. Peel also sells a $50 IR extender called the Pronto, which will grant your iPhone or other devices IR capabilities if it lacks them. The app can even control your smart home devices, but make no mistake: This is a TV app first and foremost. It’s the only one on our list that features a guide based on your local provider, for instance, and it monitors your viewing behavior in an effort to curate better recommendations.

Download now for:

Android iOS

AnyMote

AnyMote is similar to Peel, only it trades some of that app’s more TV-centric features for neat automation tricks. AnyMote can power all your smart devices and allows you to set tasks called Macros, which are basically chain commands that you can send to multiple devices at once. For example, if you’re about to settle in for a movie, you can trigger a saved Macro to turn your TV on, change a channel or launch an app, and dim your lights simultaneously. If you have an IR-enabled Android phone, AnyMote has a separate app called Smart IR Remote that can directly control most devices; otherwise, like Peel, AnyMote sells its own hub. If you’re an Amazon Echo user, you can even tell Alexa to initiate commands through AnyMote.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Sure

Thanks to a recent update, Sure can control devices throughout your home — but it really focuses on your entertainment center. One of its more unique features is its ability to control media streaming hardware, and even push local files to those devices. For example, using Sure, you can send music, videos, and pictures to a Chromecast using an iPhone. The opposite also applies, meaning you can pull content saved on a DLNA server and play it back on your phone. But one of Sure’s most useful features is its backup capabilities, which prevents you from having to reconfigure everything in your home when you buy a new phone. Like previous apps, Sure also recommends a Wi-Fi-to-IR converter for compatibility with older hardware.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Unified TV

Unified TV takes a different approach from the other apps on our list. First, it only works via IR — meaning you’ll need one of a handful of Samsung, LG, or HTC phones or a network-connected IR blaster. Second, the developer, Unified Intents, has built handcrafted remote control profiles for more than 80 TVs, set-top boxes, receivers, projectors, game consoles, and media players. All this takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out which commands are supported by your devices, and having to build custom profiles for each one. It’s a simple solution to a simple problem, without any unnecessary features that might otherwise bog down the experience. Best of all, at $1, it’s currently cheaper than the paid versions of most of the TV remote apps in our roundup.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Mi Remote

Xiaomi’s Mi Remote app separates itself from the pack with an attractive and clean interface as well as easy setup. Opening the app for the first time allows you to automatically scan for supported devices and guides you through the setup process, which tells you right away whether your phone supports IR connectivity. Mi Remote is available on all Android devices, however, Xiaomi’s proprietary products will get the most out of it, as many of the manufacturer’s latest phones feature IR blasters. Additionally, if you’re using a Xiaomi device, you can link specific remotes to certain locations so they’ll automatically appear on your lock screen depending on whether you’re at home or at the office, for example.

Download now for:

Android

Google’s Data GIF Maker will make your facts and figures more palatable

Why it matters to you

Data is crucial to supporting a point or winning an argument, but understanding it can be hard. Google’s Data GIF Maker is here to help.

It may be useful, but if you can’t get anyone to look at it (or understand it), data doesn’t do anything for anyone. After all, how many numbers can you really look at before your eyes glaze over and you begin forgetting what you were looking for in the first place? Luckily, there may be a solution. Meet the Data GIF Maker, a new tool from Google that wants to help data scientists, journalists, and others who depend upon data to support their ideas better communicate their evidence to their audience.

Indeed, the Data GIF Maker was designed specifically with storytellers in mind, as Google notes, “Data visualizations are an essential storytelling tool in journalism.” And while much of this data, especially when it’s meaningful, tends to be highly involved, Google says that it doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated — at least, not to the layman.

And that’s where data GIFs come in.

Meant to help the mobile generation more easily visualize information formatted specifically for their smart devices, these data animations are meant to be used for a “variety of sophisticated storytelling approaches among data journalists,” Google says. And with this new tool, journalists will be able to show share of interest for two opposing topics.

So how does it work? First, GIF makers will need to enter two data points. “We typically use the tool to represent competing search interest, but it can show whatever you want it to — polling numbers, sales figures, movie ratings, etc,” Google explains. “If you want to show search interest, you can compare two terms in the Google Trends explore tool, which will give you an average number (of search interest over time) for each term. Then input those two numbers in Data GIF Maker.”

Then, you’ll add your text, choose your colors, select your explanatory text, and then click “Launch Comparisons,” and finally, “Download as GIF.” That’s all it takes to create an animated version of all that critical information you want to share.

So if you’re looking for a way to make your information more easily digestible, you may took a look at Data GIF Maker from Google.

Slow and steady wins the race: these robotic turtles will comb the desert for landmines

Why it matters to you

These robot turtles could safely tag landmines without risking human lives.

Detecting landmines is no easy task, but thankfully, a team of researchers at the Arizona State University is developing a fleet of robotic turtles to locate (and detonate) them in the desert.

Every year, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people are killed or maimed by landmines, according to UNICEF. Militaries around the globe currently use an array of both low- and high-tech approaches to remove them — ranging from rudimentary metal detectors and trained bomb-sniffing dogs, to sophisticated (and wildly expensive) minesweeping droids.

But these newly-developed robo-reptiles have many distinct advantages over current land mine removal methods. The robotic turtles are rather small — about “half the size of a drone” according to a report by New Scientist. Each unit is laser-cut from sheets of cardboard and then folded, origami-style, into a shape designed to accommodate a computer chip, motor, and fins. From start to finish, the entire process takes about three hours.

Unlike bomb-sniffing dogs, these robotic turtles have the ability to work independently in the field. Seeing as the current prototypes are intended for use all over the globe, researchers are programming them with algorithms that allow them to react and adjust to different environment. While a specific type of motion may be preferential in one desert, another region with varying sand grains and/or wet terrain might require a different approach.

The meticulous work of pinpointing landmines in the field in painstaking work with zero margin for error and dire consequences if things go awry. That said, these robot turtles cost roughly $80 each, so losing one unit in the field isn’t going to break the bank.

Joint leader of the ASU team behind the project, Heni Ben Amor, envisions a future in which a fleet of nearly 100 robotic turtles could comb the desert for mines and then tag each device for extraction. Amor will present his research at a pair of robotic conferences in July.

MIT’s shape-shifting noodles could soon hit a restaurant near you

Why it matters to you

Flat-packed, shape-shifting food could help save on space and shipping costs.

Engineers in MIT’s Tangible Media Group have created noodles that change shape when dunked in water. It might seem like a silly creation of idle minds but the researchers think their product could have real-world value, from decreasing shipping costs to thrilling diners.

Science fiction often inspires science and the case of the shape-shifting noodles is a prime example. “I got inspired by a movie,” Wen Wang, one of the researchers who developed the noodles, told Digital Trends. Wang had just watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens and had a sort of epiphany watching the scene where Rey turns powder and water into bread. “I wondered if it is possible to make a shape changing food through manipulating a foods water adsorption ability,” he said.

Wang teamed up with a colleague, Lining Yao, to develop flat sheets of starch and gelatin, giving them a special structure that allows them to take shape only when dunked in water.

Once dunked, the shape-shifting noodles may take many forms — from standard pasta shapes to flowers and horse saddles. Wang and Yao challenged a professional kitchen in Boston to cook and serve up their creations. The collaboration lead to some delicious dishes, like caviar wrapped in plankton and squid ink-flavored noodles.

The shape-shifting noodles may be fun to cook, but their more practical application could be in saving space and shipping costs.

“We found that lots of processed food, such as pasta, contains air in the package,” Wang said. “The 2D food reported in this project can be packed flat, so shipping costs will be saved. The transformation process from 2D to 3D will also provide the diners with great cooking and eating experience.”

Wang and his team presented a paper detailing the work was published this week at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2017 Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Sony ditches affordable flagship phones for high-end and midrange alternatives

Why it matters to you

Don’t expect Sony to release a high-end, affordable phone in the coming months — the company’s refocusing its efforts.

Sony’s Xperia X and Xperia X compact Premium may have turned heads when they were announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last year, but that hype never translated to sales. On Wednesday, the Tokyo, Japan-based electronics company announced that it would do away with its “Premium Standard” series of smartphones — including Xperia X and X compact — as a result of “weaker than expected” sales performance.

Sony’s “Premium Standard” brand aimed to deliver high-end hardware at an affordable price point, but the company struggled to ship phones at a sustainable clip. During its 2017 Investor Day this week, Sony said that it would aim to sell 85 percent of its high-end smartphone inventory outside its home country of Japan, but only managed a measly 31 percent — equating to dismal global performance of 43 percent of total sales.

That comes on the heels of news that Sony sold 15 million smartphones in 2016 — the lowest number of handsets it has sold in a full year since 2012.

Sony is planning a two-pronged approach to regain market share: differentiating its products “with technologies that only Sony can deliver” and focusing on developing markets where it’s confident it can regain profitability. It will target Japan, East Asia, APAC, the Middle East, and Europe, and hone in on flagships like the Xperia XZ Premium and XZs and midrange phones like the Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium (left) Sony Xperia XZs (right)

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Even given these moves, Sony is not done taking risks. It’s hoping to make a splash in the North American market in the coming months, and it mentioned India, which the company is cautiously optimistic about due to the “predominance of lower-value smartphones” and “razor-thin margins.”

Sony’s not the only firm that is rethinking its smartphone strategy. Earlier this year, HTC, which recorded an operating loss of $117 million last quarter and described the market as “ultra-competitive,” said it would focus its future efforts on pricier flagships like the U Ultra and U Play.

Doubling down on flagships is a well-founded approach, generally speaking. According to analysts at the International Data Corporation (IDC), high-end phones accounted for around 57.2 percent of the company’s smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2016.

But the competition won’t sit around waiting. Late last year, estimates showed that Apple took 103.6 percent of the profits from all smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2016. By comparison, Samsung, one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, took just 0.09 percent.

Still, things are turning around for Sony. Sony Mobile, the division responsible for smartphone research, design, and sales, posted an operating profit of $187 million on sales of $2.2 billion.

Red, white and blue sale: Save 25% on Android accessories!

In honor of the brave men and women who gave their lives for our country, we’re offering 25% off all Android accessories at ShopAndroid.

Starting today until Wednesday, May 31, you can pick up a new case, quick charger, screen protector or wireless charger for your Android device and enjoy a 20% savings by using coupon code: MD17 at checkout. There’s an extensive selection of Android accessories to choose from, along with a convenient 60-day return policy and free shipping on all orders over $50 in the US and Canada.

Save big on accessories for the latest devices including the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, Google Pixel and OnePlus 3. Haven’t upgraded just yet? No problem — we’re fully stocked on accessories for favorites like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S7, Droid Turbo 2 and many more!

Take your time, browse, and enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

• Let’s go shopping

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How to customize Hello Bixby on the Galaxy S8

Make the most of Hello Bixby with a little customization.

Bixby is Samsung’s take on the virtual assistant, offering a similar experience to Google Now on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. You can access Bixby either by swiping right on the home screen or by pressing the Bixby button (on the left of the S8, below the volume buttons) at any time.

But Bixby is only going to be useful if you make it your own. Here’s how to customize your Bixby experience.

How to customize your Hello Bixby cards

Feeling overwhelmed by all the content displayed when you check Bixby? It’s set to display content from all supported apps by default to showcase everything it can do. Fortunately, it’s quick and easy to customize your Bixby experience

Press the Bixby button or swipe right to access Hello Bixby.
Tap the settings icon in the top right corner.

Tap Hello Bixby cards.

Tap the switch next to all Apps

Tap the switch next to the apps you want to see on Bixby.

Bixby only currently supports a limited number of apps, and as you might expect, they’re mostly Samsung’s stock apps. If you use Google apps such as Gmail or Google Photos, you’re out of luck for the time being.

How to re-organize Hello Bixby cards

Want the weather card or any other card to be at the top of your Hello Bixby menu? You can customize the order of your cards to fit your needs.

Press the Bixby button or swipe right on the home screen to launch Hello Bixby.
Tap the menu button on the card you want at the top. It looks like three dots in a vertical line.

Tap Pin to top.

It’s just that easy. You can pin multiple apps to the top, but just know that the last card you pin will go straight to the top, so order your cards accordingly.

How will you customize Bixby?

Personally, I decided to turn off almost everything, even mostly useful features like Flipboard briefing. While I generally liked the content it was providing, I always find that Bixby cuts off the full headline and that’s really annoying.

What do you think of Hello Bixby so far? Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments!