Moto G5 review: If price is everything, this is the budget phone to buy

The Moto G has long been the king of affordable phones. But things have changed in recent years, with a wider array of choice and price points available. To combat the shifting market, the fifth-generation G-series comes in G5 or larger G5 Plus flavours, slightly bending the established affordable pricing in the case of the latter.

Key to the G5’s appeal is that it’s not bumped up its price point since the previous G4, settling at £169 (an increasing rarity in pending-Brexit UK). What it has done, however, is seriously bump up the build quality, with a removable metal rear now part of the phone’s make-up, giving it a teaser taste of a higher-quality handset. How chic.

Which, ultimately, positions the Moto G5 in a strong position; a spot in the market that’s now barely touched by the competition – such as OnePlus, among others – which have spent the last few years creeping into the mid-range space.

Does that set the stage for the Moto G5 to sweep the board in the budget phone ranks? Well, yes and no. It’s an impressive phone considering the price, but one that its G5 Plus bigger brother inadvertently gives a back hander.

Moto G5 review: Design

• Removable metal rear shell
• 2,800mAh battery
• 144.3 x 73 x 9.5; 144.5g

The design language used in the G5 is more sophisticated than earlier G-series models. The new model does away with fussy vent-like speaker grilles of the G3/G4 models and mimics much of the top-end Moto Z’s style, including its circular-enclosed camera on the rear (thankfully it does so without the litany of various sensor openings in that higher-end model).

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Then there’s that metal-clad removable back, which actually feels more like plastic but, hey, that’s a box ticked nonetheless. The physical buttons, on the other hand, do feel entirely metal under the fingers – which is something you wouldn’t expect to find on a phone at this budget level.

Size-wise we think Motorola has found the sweet spot too. The later-gen G3 was 5-inches, the G4 expanded to 5.5-inches, with the G5 shrinking back down to a more manageable 5-inch scale again (the G5 Plus is an in-between 5.2-inches). That screen is Full HD resolution too, so no worries in terms of visible quality.

Visually speaking the G5 is a far more accomplished product than previous Moto G products. It’s killed off the G-series’ cutesy image for a more grown-up look overall.

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The problem, however, comes from the G5 Plus: the larger-scale model doesn’t have a removable back, so it feels more solid and genuinely metal by comparison; and the way everything joins together is simply more elegant. But, of course, you’ll need to find an extra £80 for the Plus – which is almost half the cost of the standard G5 alone.

Lenovo Moto G5 review: Display

• 5-inch IPS LCD screen
• Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution

When it comes to the display, we think Moto has found the G5’s calling at the 5.0-inch mark. Sure, the G5 Plus is 5.2-inches, but with both phones side-by-side the difference isn’t hugely significant to look at, nor in the hand.

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The panel’s Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution is ample for this size, not that it could be called flagship. But there’s no need for any greater number of pixels at this scale, not with the limited processing power and battery capacity that’s available.

As the G5 has an IPS LCD panel the screen delivers decent viewing angles, so there’s none of that contrast fall-off you might have seen on cheaper devices – the kind that would otherwise leave you cocking your head from side to side. We’re yet to see the new Moto C handset and how well that will hold up for its £90 asking price.

As we said of the G5 Plus: compare the G5’s screen to a flagship’s panel and you’ll clearly spot differences, as it’s not as vibrant or punchy. But if you’re buying a £169 phone then you won’t have a cupboard full of comparisons, so you’ll never notice any shortcoming because there’s ample auto-brightness here to cater for all your needs, without things looking dismally drab by any means.

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Overall, then, the G5’s screen is as good as you could expect at this price point – and we’re particularly pleased it’s not lower-resolution than its bigger brother G5 Plus. There’s enough resolution to watch Netflix HD-quality flicks close-up to your face and, well, that’s one of the great pleasures of life unlocked right there.

Moto G5 review: Fingerprint scanner & One-touch Nav

• Front-faced fingerprint scanner (no NFC)
• Home key can be used to swipe to control device
• Traditional Android home/back/apps soft keys also available
• No NFC for payments (only available in Plus model)

One thing the G5 gets really right is its fingerprint scanner design. The awkward square-shaped one of the G4 has seen its last, with the new pill-shaped format not only great for quick fingerprint-based login, but also for a brand new trick: gesture control (or One-touch Nav as Moto calls it).

This mode takes the usual trio of Android soft keys off the screen – home, back and recent apps – and instead uses gesture input. Swipe to the left of the key to go back; swipe right to open current apps screen; press to return to home screen (or to lock the screen); press-and-hold to activate Google Now launcher.

When first firing-up the G5, fingerprint registration is prompted, but the gesture-control isn’t – you’ll need to dig into the pre-installed Moto app to switch this on. It’s activated along with a mini tutorial to help ease you into its operation, which is certainly helpful and, after a bit of practice, we think it’s among the better gesture-based Android systems that we’ve used.

The only problem, as such, is that gesture controls don’t speed up navigation. We feel that it’s marginally quicker to use the phone with the Android soft keys instead. That said, removing the need to touch the screen as often keeps it cleaner – both in terms of more real estate for content and fewer smeary fingerprints.

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The fingerprint scanner’s shortcoming is the lack of an associated feature: there’s no NFC (near field communication). That’s a shame, as it’d be handy for mobile payments and data transfer. Its absence is all the more apparent as the UK version of the G5 Plus does have NFC (few other regions offer it), so you’ll need to fork out the extra cash if it’s an essential to your daily life demands.

Moto G5 review: Performance, software and battery

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor
• 2GB RAM, 16GB storage (plus microSD card slot)
• Removable 2,800mAh battery
• Android 7.0 operating system

Phone processors are getting oh so powerful these days that you don’t necessarily need to have the best-of-best at the heart of your handset. And if budget is your goal then you’re not likely to expect one for under £170 either.

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The G5 opts for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor, delivering up to 1.4Ghz from its main four cores, while running other less intensive tasks on its remaining four cores. It’s less powerful than the G5 Plus model and that shows in use: it’s not nearly as snappy, load times are quite a lot longer and games don’t run with the same degree of fluidity. Everything works, however, so it’s not as if the G5 is incapable – again, it’s just knocked back a step by the Plus model.

Perhaps the biggest issue we had was the lack of on-board storage. A 16GB phone just isn’t ample for our needs nowadays, so it’s good to see an easy-access microSD card slot (found behind that rear cover, above the battery). We added 32GB, which Android 7.0 is able to assimilate as if it’s on-board storage – but beware slow card speeds, which the device will forewarn you about.

Speaking of Android 7.0 – which is Google’s almost-latest iteration of its operating system – it acts as a decent base for the G5. Lenovo/Moto don’t muck about too much with the software experience either, leaving it in familiar form without excess pre-installs and gimmicky apps.

Indeed, the Moto app – the very same access point for the aforementioned One-touch Nav control – also includes control for a variety of action-based gestures, which will further help you avoid touching and smearing that screen. There’s double karate chop to activate the torch; twist for a quick camera capture; swipe across the screen to shrink the interface; pick up the device to stop it ringing; or flip the phone over to auto-activate Do Not Disturb. Each of these actions can be switched on or off independently as you choose.

The other thing that Android 7.0 does is let the phone “go to sleep” when it’s not in use. Known as Google Doze, when the phone detects it hasn’t been moved for a given period of time, it will reduce strain on the battery. This will happen overnight, or when the phone’s set down for a couple of hours while you’re busy.

That helps to ensure battery life remains strong – an essential here, given the so-so 2800mAh battery capacity (given the scale of the phone, we’d have thought there’s space for a greater capacity) – and we’ve been seeing a full charge dip to around 20 per cent over 14-hours of use. Fairly good innings, helped along by the limited on-board processor not draining the battery as hard as in a flagship model.

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Charging is handled via Micro-USB, with the 10W charger meaning fast top-up times. Not quite as quick as the G5 Plus’s 15W TurboCharger, but ample. Avoid low power sockets, though, like those on planes, as it takes many hours to even tickle a little extra juice into the phone.

Lenovo Moto G5 review: Cameras

• 13-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 lens
• Lacks the G5 Plus’s Dual Autofocus Pixels
• No optical stabilisation present
• 5-megapixel front-facing camera
• Professional mode

Cameras in phones are an increasingly big deal and, well, the G-series has never been all that great. In the G5 there’s a 13-megapixel rear camera, complete with an f/2.0 aperture lens.

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It all works pretty well – but it’s not as high-performance as the camera in the G5 Plus. The reason for this is fairly simple: the sensor in the G5 lacks Dual Autofocus Pixels, which means when in Pro camera mode you won’t get the light-up autofocus areas quickly snapping subjects into focus.

That’s not the say the G5 camera is a write-off, though, it could just do with a few software nips and tucks to give it some extra oomph. The app is straightforward, so easy to tap-to-focus, and while the touchscreen is responsive enough the focus point isn’t always pinpoint accurate – in particular, it struggles with close-up subjects.

Get the right shot in reasonable to good light and the G5 shows it’s a step ahead of where the earlier G4 left off, however, but it over-sharpensshots so they don’t look great when looking at them in greater detail. And when the light really dips the results aren’t great, becoming smeary and lacking in detail.

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However, for £169 you couldn’t buy a decent standalone camera – and in the G5 you’re getting a perfectly serviceable one, along with a decent all-round phone, for the one price.

Verdict

With other manufacturers pushing into pricier brackets, the Moto G5 sticks to its £169 guns and delivers a fairly knock-out performance for the price point. It’s more sophisticated to look at than its G4 predecessor, will handle all manner of tasks easily, and has a nifty fingerprint scanner too.

In the same breath, the G5’s issue is that the bigger brother G5 Plus model knocks it down from being the budget king, given the larger handset’s more fluid performance, addition of NFC (in the UK), greater memory (3GB RAM) and storage (32GB), larger battery, better camera and more refined build quality. Sure, it’s £80 more – but if you can scratch together that extra cash then we’d thoroughly recommend you go with the Plus.

If price is everything to you, however, then for a quid shy of £170 there’s nothing else on the market that will offer such a breadth of features and performance. Don’t expect a flagship phone by any means, but the G5 is still royalty among affordable phones.

Alternatives to consider

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Moto G5 Plus

• £249

For the extra £80 the G5 Plus might not look dramatically different to its smaller brother, but it adds a bunch of small but important features and runs far better too.

Read the full article: Moto G5 Plus review

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Lenovo P2

• £199

Another from Lenovo’s stable, but also well worth the look. It’s only £30 more than the G5 and comes with a much beefier battery that will last on and on and on. It’s chunkier, too, but the design otherwise isn’t a million miles from the G5’s new sophisticated image.

Read the full article: Lenovo P2 review

Nokia 3310 vs Nokia 3310: What’s the difference 17 years on?

The Nokia 3310 is back from the dead, 17 years later. The iconic phone that was originally launched in 2000 has now been updated. As Nokia looks to launch a new range of Android smartphones, the only phone that people are talking about is this retro wonder, the Nokia 3310. 

But how does the new 3310 compare to the old?

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Design and build

• 2000: 113 x 48 x 22mm, 133g
• 2017: 115.6 x 51 x 12.8mm, 79.6g

Thin is definitely in as the 3310 has been on a crash diet. Nearly half the weight and thickness, but slightly taller and wider. But it’s not just about the weight: the new Nokia 3310 isn’t the chunky monkey that the original version was.

Gone are the squared corners, giving way to softer curves that makes the Nokia 3310 all the more comfortable to hold. At the same time, the profile of the new phone lacks the crude muscularity of the 2000 version. In the year 2000 Putin was elected; in 2017 Trump was elected. Go figure.

The Nokia 3310 is still plastic, but it’s now glossy in red or yellow, or matte in blue or grey. The original was usually blue, but often seen in that grey colour like a bowl of gruel. The 2017 Nokia 3310 has a removable back cover, so you can change it, or to access the battery. The 2000 3310 had Xpress-On covers, sold on every street corner (mostly fake and ill-fitting), meaning limitless customisation. 

On a serious note, the button layout across the middle of the new 3310 is entirely different, less linear, but still rather basic.

• Nokia 3310 review: Overpriced nostalgia hit?

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Display

• 2000: 1.5-inch, 84 x 48 pixels, 65ppi, monochrome LCD
• 2017: 2.4-inch, 240 x 320 pixels, 167ppi, colour LCD 

The original Nokia 3310 had a glorious 1.5-inch display that was monochrome. It was just about enough to read SMS messages, make out the numbers you tapped and play Snake. It was flat, offering great contrast, simple and to the point. 

The new Nokia 3310 has a huge (by comparison) display at 2.4-inches, stretching over the top half of the phone and curving away to the top. It’s also now colour, so the experience is rather different. The new Nokia 3310 is more like feature phones of the mid-2000s, rather than the pure monochrome glory of the original. 

The new display also has polarising layer to aid sunlight visibility. 

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Connectivity

• 2000: Dual band GSM 900/1800MHz
• 2017: Dual band GMS 900/1800MHz, Micro-USB, Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack, microSD, FM radio 

In 2000 there were few connections. On the base of the phone was the DC input to charge the phone, but there was no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, no nothing. 

Fortunately the new Nokia 3310 has moved with the times a bit more. There’s Bluetooth to connect to a headset or your car, there’s Micro-USB for charging – so no need for that bulky charger – the option for microSD to expand the storage, 3.5mm headphone socket to listen to music or the FM radio. 

Neither phone offers 3G though, this is strictly 2G all the way, so it’s a phone for talking and texting.

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Camera

• 2000: Why would you need a camera on a phone?
• 2017: 2-megapixel with LED flash 

In 2000 the notion of having a camera on a phone was slightly alien. Why would you need one? There were no social networks, the selfie didn’t exist and you’d never have been able to share it anyway. Ok, so Friends Reunited launched in June 2000, but really?

In 2017, most phones are judged by their cameras. It’s the central feature for many, replacing the cheap compact camera segment with social networks killing the notion of printing photos and making albums.

The new 3310 has a 2MP camera, but the experience is not really worth it. Stick to your iPhone.

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Battery

• 2000: 900mAh removable battery, 55 hours standby, 2.5 hours talk time
• 2017: 1200mAh removable battery, 31 days standby time, 22 hours talk time

The thing that the original 3310 was known for was battery life. In those days, of course, you weren’t playing Pokemon Go, snapping Insta selfies, hailing Ubers and streaming Spotify music. You just got the occasional message from a friend, or placed a few calls to arrange a night out. But the battery didn’t last forever, it just lasted days.

The new Nokia 3310 battery does almost last forever. With 31 days of standby, you’ll be hard pushed to drain this battery. This is a phone you can probably go away with for a week and not need to worry about the charger.

• Mobile World Congress 2017: Nokia, Sony, Huawei, smartphones and more

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Snake

• 2000: It was awesome
• 2017: It really isn’t 

Snake II was the iconic game of the 3310 and other Nokia phones. Eating apples while sitting on the toilet was about as much fun as anyone had in those days. And fun it was. Snake didn’t need to be any better, it was basic, but it worked.

The 2017 version of Snake isn’t the same thing. It’s been reworked by Gameloft, it’s full colour, smoothly animated and it seems, well, boring. It lack the retro charm of the original, that simple throwback wonderment of that old Snake game. 

Nokia 3310 vs 3310: Price

• 2000: £129.99
• 2017: £49

Phones used to be a lot more expensive. The Nokia 3310 was one of the more affordable at £129.99, and for many it was the first mobile phone they had, bringing freedom of communication away from landlines.

In 2017 you get a lot of phone for £129.99.  You can get a full-featured entry-level smartphone for that money, so it’s no surprise that the new 3310 is only £49. That’s almost disposable, it’s probably less that you’ll spend on a night out, but it’s still a lot more than you’d pay for the Nokia 105.

The old Nokia 3310 is available on eBay for around £20 refurbished, the new model will be widely available.

Blockstack’s decentralized internet browser uses bitcoin tech

Blockchains used to be exclusively associated with bitcoins until other industries saw how useful the digital distributed ledger can be. Walmart used it to identify expired food that needed to be pulled from its shelves, and at least one shipping company used it to track cargo as it made its way across the ocean. Now a startup called Blockstack is relying on the technology to power its decentralized browser that runs without existing infrastructure. It’s similar to Bittorrent’s Project Maelstrom browser in that it loads websites from peers instead of from servers, which can protect your privacy and safety online.

To note, Blockstack is actually a browser add-on, not a standalone browser: after you install it, you can load it on Chrome (like what I did in the image above), Firefox or Safari. Its current iteration is pretty empty, and unless you’re a hardcore fan of decentralized internet or Silicon Valley, it might not appeal to you just yet. The version you can download today was created with developers in mind, so they can easily make applications for the browser that you can use later.

Co-founder Ryan Shea told Forbes:

“I can’t think of any browser that’s come out that does all these things and allows the developer to just be plugged in and build an application without having to worry about any servers, worry about any databases, worry about building any identity management system. Just 400 lines of code — boom — you have a decentralized Twitter.”

Blockstack plans to release a version for users in six months, though it’ll probably be hard to convince most people that they need an add-on browser on top of their usual browser. If this is something you’d use, though, you can test it out by downloading the Mac or the Linux version from Github — a Windows version will be available in the future.

Source: Blockstack

Tech Hunters: the unstoppable, unbreakable Nokia 3310

Modern day smartphones may shudder at the mere thought of being dropped but for the Nokia 3310, it was just another day at the office. First released at the turn of the millennium, the impenetrable
candy bar handset wowed owners with interchangeable covers and its integrated antenna, a rarity for phones during that time. But it was T9 predictive text, customisable ringtones and, of course, Snake that left a lasting impression on the hundreds of millions of people that bought the “indestructible” device during its five-year run.

The phone left such a lasting legacy that HMD Global, the new owner of the Nokia brand, is bringing the phone back. But how easy is it to find the original? Is it really as tough as we remember? Can the 17-year-old classic still compete with today’s powerful smartphones? It’s our job to find out. Join Julia Hardy as she goes on a journey to find the iconic handset with one idea in mind: to subject it to some very rigorous torture tests.

Tech Hunters is a 10-part video series that uncovers the devices we were once obsessed with, looking at how they disrupted the tech industry, and what they’re worth today. From the pocket pet obsession with the original Tamagotchi, to mix-tapes and Sony Walkman, Tech Hunters explores the audio, visual, interactive and transport innovations that have shaped today’s culture.

PayPal sues Pandora over confusingly similar logos

Back in October, Pandora donned a new look and launched a new logo that looked very familiar to anyone who’s ever used PayPal before. Now the online payment system is taking Pandora to court, accusing it of ripping off its iconic logo to ride on its popularity. It had some savage words for the music streaming service in the lawsuit it filed, telling the court that Pandora decided on a logo design similar to its own to overcome “serious commercial challenges that threaten its very survival.” After all, the filing reads, “Pandora has no obvious path to profitability” as a streaming website known for free service, and it also faces “overwhelming competition from Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.”

The old “P” in the music service’s logo was distinct and was not at all comparable to PayPal’s like its new one pictured above (right.) It caused and still causes a lot of confusion among mobile users, since their apps began looking pretty similar after the logo was launched in October.

I have PayPal and Pandora next to eachother and they look the same so whenever I want to go on Pandora I always end up clicking PayPal 😶 pic.twitter.com/D5K3efsC2B

— A D L (@adolfo_lujano) February 25, 2017

PayPal or Pandora need to change their app icon. Forever opening the wrong one 👀 pic.twitter.com/TsUjSyf5em

— ♡ Vanessa ♡ (@babexruthless) January 20, 2017

Social media posts like the two tweets above became pretty common after Pandora’s rebranding. PayPal said it collected users’ concerns like those two and showed them to the streaming company in private in an effort to convince it to redesign its new logo, but the other party wouldn’t budge. The company told Gizmodo:

“The striking similarities were immediately the topic of news articles and social media commentary by confused customers. Since Pandora would not agree to resolve this matter amicably, we had no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect both our brand and the PayPal experience for our over 200 million users.”

PayPal is asking the court to order Pandora to stop using its new logo and to pay for damages. It also wants the streaming service to promise never to do anything that could lead people into believing that it’s connected to the payment platform again.

Source: Gizmodo

Here’s how Twitter aims to entice you into cosy DM exchanges with brands

Why it matters to you

Twitter wants you to engage more with brands and this latest addition to its service aims to encourage you to do just that.

No matter how much you engage with tweets on your timeline, it’ll never be enough for Twitter.

To please advertisers and brands, and encourage further spend, the social media company would love you to be glued to your timeline in every waking moment. Maybe some of you are.

In a bid to drive engagement and bring brands and users closer together, Twitter is now trialing Direct Message Cards — there’s a chance you’ve already seen one on your timeline as a promoted tweet.

The card asks you a question, so from the example below we see it focuses on the kind of place you might like to enjoy a cocktail. Although your answer may well be all of the offered responses, you’ll need to select just one. Doing so flips you into a DM session that could lead to a direct conversation with the brand or the presentation of a video linked to the response you just tapped on. In the example above, two “Bot-Tender” chatbots will show you the best cocktail recipe relevant to the location you selected, while some companies are also using the cards to offer special discount coupons to users.

Of course, if you’ve developed a knack for scooting straight past promoted tweets, then it’s going to have to be a pretty clever ad that catches your eye and prompts you to respond, which is very much what Twitter — and the advertiser — would like you to do.

Twitter is currently testing Direct Message Cards with select brands, though ultimately it’s users’ level of engagement that’s likely to determine whether they end up getting offered to more businesses, all of whom are extremely keen to engage with Twitter’s 328 million users.

Motorola’s first phone with dual rear cameras is the Moto G5S Plus

Motorola is bringing dual rear cameras to the mid-range segment.

It looks like dual rear cameras will be the defining trend this year. We’ve already seen Xiaomi roll out the feature in the Mi 6, and OnePlus is rumored to offer a dual-camera setup in the OnePlus 5. Motorola is jumping on the bandwagon, with the Moto G5S Plus set to become the first phone from the manufacturer to sport two cameras at the back.

Leaked renders by Gear India reveal a desing that’s identical to what we’ve seen yesterday with the Moto G5S, albeit with two cameras at the back. We don’t know if Motorola will resort to a similar implementation as Huawei — offering a monochrome sensor paired with an RGB lens — or if it’ll use the secondary sensor as a telephoto lens like the Mi 6.

The Moto G5S Plus is said to offer a 5.5-inch Full HD display, and an all-metallic chassis that will be available in three color options — grey, gold, and silver. It looks like that blue variant is limited to the Moto G5S. There’s no information on the rest of the hardware, but it is likely Motorola will retain the Snapdragon 625, or switch to the newer Snapdragon 626 chipset. The addition of dual cameras is certainly an interesting move, but it will undoubtedly raise the cost of the phone.

The standard Moto G5 Plus with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage retails for $299, and a variant of the G5S Plus with the same configuration could easily run up to $350, awfully close to the $400 price point of the Moto Z Play.

The G5S Plus won’t be the only Motorola handset with dual rear cameras, as a Moto Z2 Force leak from last week showed off two cameras at the back. With seven phones yet to launch, Motorola’s lineup is about to get very crowded.

We should know more about the Moto G5S and the G5S Plus in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Facebook’s latest journalism fix connects users with local news

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg and company announced the Facebook Journalism Project — an initiative to repair the social network’s reputation with journalists and help fight the spread of fake news. The project already introduced curated news digests and some general tweaks to the News Feed that will help cut down on clickbait, but the next journalism-focused effort aims to connect users with nearby news outlets and community groups.

In an email exchange with Poynter, a Facebook spokesperson mentioned three new local news products currently in testing: the first lets the moderators of community-linked Facebook groups add a dynamically populated local news section to the page. The content block will pull stories from local publications that can easily be shared into the group for discussion.

A second product will show up for users who have their current city set to public — if your location is set to the same metro area as the publisher of the story you’re commenting on, Facebook will ask you if you want a badge on your comment identifying you as a local.

Finally, a third product will push users to share local news articles with relevant local groups they belong to. The algorithm can also do the reverse and suggest local groups for you to join based on the articles you consume. In this case, Facebook defines a relevant group as one that shares at least three local news links per month, talks about local news and is located in the same metro area as the publisher links it discusses.

According to Facebook, the local badge is live today. The other two products are still in testing, so they may already start showing up for certain groups that fit the criteria. While Facebook does have a vague new mission to spread civility online by connecting people with their community, other hyperlocal social networks like Nextdoor have had trouble dealing with racial profiling, even on non-anonymous platforms.

Starz app streams ‘American Gods’ to your Samsung Smart TV

If you’ve wanted to watch the likes of American Gods or Outlander with little more than an internet connection and your TV, you no longer need one of Sony’s sets to make it happen. Starz has launched its streaming app on Samsung Smart TVs, bringing its $9 per month streaming service to a decidedly wider audience. You’ll need a fairly recent TV (“select” 2014 or newer models with the Smart Hub), but that’s about the only real requirement. Our main complaint is simply that this is arriving a bit late — between Android TV, Apple TV, Roku and Xbox One, determined viewers already have plenty of choices.

Source: Samsung Newsroom

Daimler bets big on luxury EVs with new battery plant

Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler is incredibly bullish about electric vehicles. So much so that it’s recently broken ground on another battery plant in Germany, a stone’s throw from its existing facility. It’ll begin operating around June next year and sounds positively massive. “The new plant will quadruple the production and logistics area in Kamenz to a total of around 80,000 square meters (around 262,000 feet),” a press release says. More than that, by 2020 the plant will have over 1,000 employees.

“The local production of batteries is an important success factor in our electric offensive and a crucial element in order to flexibly and efficiently serve the global demand for electric vehicles,” Mercedes board member Markus Schäfer said.

The new plant will also be environmentally conscious. Mercedes says that the facility will be carbon-dioxide neutral, achieving that with a combined heat-and-power plant and solar power.

As Ars Technica notes, Mercedes has been going pretty hard in terms of alternative energies and has invested in California’s Vivint Solar.

This new factory is an important step for Mercedes. It doesn’t want to sit on the wayside and let Tesla rule the road for high-end electric vehicles, and recently split ways with Elon Musk’s company; Tesla supplied batteries and drivetrains for Mercedes. Rather than paying someone else for their battery tech, Mercedes is investing in itself. And, if it wanted to, could use the expanded production to license the tech to others without impacting its own needs.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Daimler