Apple Supplier Foxconn Considering Wisconsin Plant

Apple supplier Foxconn has been considering opening a facility in the United States, and the company is investigating Wisconsin as one possible location, reports The Associated Press.

According to an unspecified person with “direct knowledge” of the negotiations, the state of Wisconsin is currently in talks with Foxconn. Michigan is also said to be pursuing the Foxconn plant.

President Donald Trump alluded to negotiations with an unspecified company during a visit to Milwaukee on Tuesday, saying [Wisconsin Governor] Walker might get “a very happy surprise very soon.” Trump said “we were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions.”

Rumors suggesting Foxconn might open a United States factory first surfaced last November, after Apple reportedly asked suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron to look into the feasibility of producing iPhones in the United States.

Foxconn in January confirmed that it was mulling $7 billion joint investment with Apple for a U.S. factory that would produce displays. Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said that a U.S. display facility could make sense given the increase in demand for larger display panels, but he did express some concerns over the skill of the workforce in the U.S. and negotiating a deal with the government.

Foxconn has reportedly been in talks with both the U.S. federal government and individual state governments for several months over the facility, which, if established, could be used to manufacture displays for the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

Gou in January also said Foxconn is planning to establish a new molding facility in the United States, with Pennsylvania cited as a possible location. It is not clear if Wisconsin will be the home of the molding facility or the display facility built in partnership with Apple.

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Keep your house safer with ASMO Charger (Review)

If I would run a poll asking how many of you leave their chargers plugged to the outlet after your charging duties are done, I’m pretty sure I would get a pretty high number. It’s such a common thing to do that you probably don’t think about it that much.

However, there has been multiple accidents throughout the world caused by careless charging practices. Most of them occur while charging phones during the night, but there have also been cases in which a seemingly harmless charger connected to an outlet has caused big consequences.

This is the case of Asmo Saloranta, creator of the ASMO charger. His fiancée’s house suffered severe damage thanks to a charger that was left plugged into a power outlet. So, what’s the idea? Very simple: when you plug your ASMO charger to the outlet and connect your phone, it turns on. When you unplug it, it turns off. Sounds simple? That’s because it is. This charger does not aim to reinvent the charging experience (which is something kind of hard to do anyways). It tries to let you do exactly what you’re doing right now, but in a more secure way.

Specs

I never figured out why don’t we all have the same plugs and voltages all over the world. For being the only intelligent species on the Earth, we are such a mess regarding basic stuff. Anyways, ASMO charger tries to get around this fact by providing a universal voltage charger.

• Input: 100V – 230V
• Output: 5V – 2A
• Port: microUSB
• Plug: Type-C
• Cable length: 1.5 m

There are two things that are notably absent from this charger. The first one is the ability to charge a device with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge capabilities. The other one is the lack of a USB Type-C option. For now, only microUSB phones are supported. Also, because ASMO Solutions, the company behind the charger, is based in the lovely country of Finland, the plug is tailored to European markets. However, there are plans to remedy two of these shortcomings, but more on that later.

Packaging and Initial Impressions

Packaging for the ASMO Charger is very interesting because it has a huge “Stay Safe” label at the front. It really gets the message across in an impactful way. Contrary to such a high amount of chargers and accessories these days, especially from American brands, ASMO Charger’s packaging is made fully of cardboard, so it is not as harmful to the environment and easily recyclable.

Straight and to the point packaging.

When taking the white charger out of its package, you can clearly feel that a lot of attention has been put to deliver a high-quality product. This is especially true for the cable, which is so much better than the pitiful chargers that OEMs usually ship with their devices. It is not as thick as, for example, Anker’s nylon cables, but this is a cable that will probably last you for years. If you don’t believe me, then believe ASMO, since it offers a five-year warranty on the device.

The cable is fully attached to the charger itself. It’s not like chargers these days that have a USB plug, and you connect a cable to it. There are benefits and disadvantages to this, but, because of the nature of the charger, it was probably made this way to provide more security.

Usage

Connect your charger to the outlet, plug in your (microUSB) phone, and forget about everything else.

So how does it work? Plug in your device and if it supports USB On-The-Go (commonly referred as OTG), it will detect it automatically and turn itself on. If your device does not support USB OTG, then the charger has a green button that will turn on the charger manually. It is very easy to determine if the device is actually on or off because it makes a click sound on both occurrences.

Unfortunately for me, my Honor 7 Lite (called Huawei Honor 5C in other markets) does not support USB OTG, so I had to turn on the charger each time. Once I forgot to turn it on, but when I remembered my mistake, it was already too late: I had to leave my place with an almost discharged phone. The horror.

I have an LG G Pad 8.3 laying around though (sorry, Android on tablets is just not up to par to iOS on the iPad), so I could test this and it works flawlessly. As soon as I plug in my tablet, the charger clicks and starts charging.

Upon unplugging any device, the charger takes approximately 3 seconds to turn itself off. A click will make sure that your flat is safe and that the house lady won’t have to enter your room because the fire alarm went off.

Charging my devices with the ASMO Charger took the same amount of time than using its unsafe, non-clicking counterparts, so the added security layer does not create a slower charger. On a small side note, I found the microUSB plug to be just a bit on the bigger side, which sometimes causes some very minor clashes with my phone’s protection case. Not a big deal, though.

What’s next for the ASMO Charger?

Future ASMO Chargers will support USB Type-C and US plugs.

Even though they have a solid product right now, ASMO Solutions is already thinking about the future. I was in contact with an ASMO Solutions rep, and she was eager to explain the company’s upcoming plans.

With the dawn of the USB Type-C era, fuelled by the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8, accessories companies have to embrace the new standard in order to stay relevant. ASMO is aware of this, so they have a roadmap for developing a Type-C solution in Fall of this year. As more and more phone incorporate this plug, it is imperative companies start working on it.

The other shortcoming that ASMO is already working on is in offering a charger with a Type A socket (the one used in the United States, Canada, and almost all countries in Latin America). Sure, you can use an adapter right now and it will work well, but it’s much better to have a native solution and not deal with workarounds. This would also be introduced in Fall 2017.

Other products in their vision deal with laptops. Two things that are always plugged into a socket when not in use: a phone charger and a laptop charger. It makes sense, then, to bring to the market solutions for laptops as well.

Conclusion and where to buy

That green button is there for you if your device doesn’t support USB OTG.

There’s small stuff that you do every day that might be dangerous in the long run but you keep doing it anyways. One of these bad habits is leaving your charger connected all the time, which, not only adds up some cents to your electric bill but also can become a fire hazard under some circumstances.

Sure, this is not something that happens every day, but why should you risk it? And come on, you won’t ever start to unplug your charger.

Now, the weakest point of the ASMO Charger is its price. At €49.95, it is not exactly a cheap device. The quality and the safeness aspect make up for some of the price, but it is still a fairly expensive accessory. Perhaps, at a lower price, it would be a bit more appealing.

If you want to learn more about the device itself and buy it, you can head over to Asmo Solution’s website and order yours today. You can also check the (successful) Indiegogo campaign to see how the charger came to be.

Buy the ASMO Charger from ASMO Solution’s website.

Ulefone Power 2 (Review)

Smartphones are an ever-evolving beast pushed by technology with new processors, better cameras, more RAM, and storage capacity and constantly updated operating systems. One tech area within smartphones that has unfortunately been put by the wayside has been smarter, larger and more efficient batteries. As manufacturers try to squeeze more power from thinner devices, total use time has been diminishing over the past few years.

Enter the Ulefone Power 2; a smartphone that accentuates and embraces its heavier and bulkier frame all in the name of power. Not processing power or graphical power–but battery power that can get any user through a heavy-use day, and then some. Ulefone has positioned the Power 2 to sell to smartphone users that are fed up with charging their devices at the most inopportune times.

The Power 2 comes in a high quality, sleek black box with a generic logo on the front

Packaging: The Power 2 comes in somewhat non-traditional packaging that doesn’t quite attain the feel of a high-end electronics device. Ulefone ships the Power 2 in a simple black box with a ‘POWER II’ logo that adorns the front side. Ulefone’s Power II logo reminded me of something you’d see on a generic car battery or hardware battery pack. Upon opening the box I found a nicely packaged device with all seemingly all the right accessories.

Ulefone has packed the box full with all the accessories you need. Along with the phone, you get a charger, screen protector, case, manual, charging adapter and holder ring

Inside the box:

• Ulefone Power 2 Smartphone
• International charging brick
• 3-foot red micro-USB cable
• USB to micro-USB adapter
• Protective case
• Screen protector
• Carrying ring
• Multi-language Manual
• Sim ejection tool

Ulefone does not include a regional power adapter, as this is not for my local region, but thankfully any standard micro-USB charger works just fine. Also not inside the box: earbuds. Considering that I now have a half a dozen cheap headphones lying around and that I normally prefer a good set of Bluetooth headphones, I was not upset by Ulefone’s decision to ship the Power 2 without a set of earbuds.

The Power 2 uses micro-USB to charge and has a single speaker at the bottom

Hardware Design

Body: Sleek, Dark, Bold. The Ulefone Power 2 has a very traditional look and feel that is both classic and modernized. The metal body pairs well with the 2.5D glass and feels great in the hand. I definitely noticed a premium feel the first time I picked up the phone. The curved edges are different from both of the recent offerings from Samsung and Apple, which makes the Power 2 feel unique while retaining a more traditional overall look.

The Power 2 feels hefty with the massive internal battery but never caused any wrist or hand fatigue over extended periods of use. It harkens back to more of a blocky, brick feel of some earlier smartphones, but with the large screen, the size is definitely emphasized. The chamfered back edges of the Power 2 feel great in the hand and add to the overall ergonomics.

I was surprised to find both a protective case and screen protector in the packaging with the Power 2. The case is sturdy plastic with a pseudo-leather styling that reminded me of something Motorola may offer in its Moto style line. I’m normally the type of person that keeps a case on my daily driver, but with the Ulefone Power 2, I felt just as comfortable with the case on as I did with the case off.

The Power 2 feels great in the hand and the high-resolution screen is sharp and vivid

The fingerprint scanner is built into the physical home button found in the middle of the bottom bezel and it works incredibly well. It was just as fast, if not faster that the best scanners from Apple and Samsung. One additional feature that I found very handy was the ability to just touch the fingerprint reader to turn on and unlock the device from an off-state. It’s quick and accurate–just as a fingerprint scanner should be.

Here’s the Ulefone Power 2 next to a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge [LEFT] and an iPhone 5s [RIGHT]Screen: The Ulefone Power 2 has a 5.5-inch full-HD display that is neither stunning nor underwhelming. It’s a simple IPS LCD with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 that auto-adjusts with a light sensor and proximity sensor just above the screen. I found the auto-brightness feature to not work as well as some other phones, but in general, the Power 2 does a fairly decent job of adjusting to changes in environmental lighting.

Not once did I notice the screen to seem too saturated, too glossy, too cool or too dithered. Honestly, this is a great screen especially when you consider the Power 2 is a budget-friendly device. The biggest drawback to the screen size is the fact that it’s in a traditional 16:9 layout while new devices are experimenting with high aspect ratios to allow for more screen real-estate without making the device feel too large. Samsung and LG both offer higher aspect ratios that make their flagships large without being too wide for most users’ hands. Ulefone Power 2 retains a more historically common 16:9 ratio that may change in future iterations.

The Power 2’s screen is ultra glossy and reflective in direct sunlight but otherwise, does a respectable job in adjusting to changes in surrounding lighting

Sound (speaker, headphone, Bluetooth):

The Power 2 has a single speaker at the bottom of the device which plays fairly loudly but does not overly impress with quality nor overall volume. Yes, it gets loud for its size, but, like most smartphones, it will not fill a room with booming sound. Thankfully a universal 3.5mm headphone port sits at the top of the phone if you wish to get full stereo sound from a set if headphones or auxiliary speaker. The Ulefone Power 2 also has Bluetooth 4.0 out of the box to support a multitude of Bluetooth headphones, speakers, car and home device connections. I was able to easily connect a multitude of devices to the Power 2 over Bluetooth with no issues.

No worries here for avid headphone users. The Power 2 has a standard headphone jack for all your audio needs

Camera: With a 16MP rear-facing and 13MP front-facing selfie camera, the Power 2 has you covered in megapixels. The lenses feature 14 different light filters as well as what Ulefone calls 100-stage beautification–just imagine how beautiful you will look on this phone. In all seriousness, the Power 2’s rear camera has an auto-HDR mode that requires a steady hand but offers some better shadow processing for more natural looking photos. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of photos in well-lit environments, however, low-light shots left a lot to be desired.

The 16MP camera lens sits dead center on the back of the Power 2, right above the LED flash/light

With the budget friendly pricing, I expected very little from Ulefone in the camera department. Thankfully, most daytime shots turned out great with no over-saturation and a great amount of detail. Night shots and low-level indoor shots were fairly grainy and often-times blurry. The Power 2 is not a smartphone for users looking for a great way to take photos but does a fair job for most common daytime photography.

Click to see samples of the Power 2’s camera capabilities

The Ulefone Power 2 has a huge 6050 mAh, built-in battery. This large battery is non-removable but considering the size and capabilities, this should not be an issue. The massive size of the battery adds some heft to the overall feel of the phone but also affirms that you’ll rarely need to charge the device. Ulefone advertises that most users could make it four full days without needing to charge and power users should make it through two days without issue.

The Power 2 is thick, especially when adding on the included case–but that’s a small price to pay for a long-lasting battery

I found that I was able to make it through about three days of normal use before I felt the need to charge. I was amazed every time I went to check my battery status. Smartphones I’ve used in the past have had a hard time staying charged through one day of extensive use, but the Power 2’s ability to get me through multiple days was a real surprise–and I don’t know if I ever want to go back. In most instances, while checking the Power 2 throughout the day, I was surprised to notice that the battery had dropped only a few points from the last time I had checked.

The “Power” name designation perfectly accentuates the main selling point of this smartphone from Ulefone–it really is a game-changer. I commend Ulefone for pushing overall battery power considering one of the main drawbacks of the most popular smartphones today, is the lack of overall battery capacity. Ulefone includes a 2 amp fast-charging adapter that can give you a full day’s charge in just a half an hour which is perfect for times when you only have a few spare minutes to recharge.

The Ulefone logo splashes across the screen during the power-on process

Processing: Inside the Power 2 is an MT6750T from Mediatek, which is an Octa-core processor running at 1.5GHz. While this chipset is not widely known or utilized in more common smartphones, it is plenty capable of running virtually any application available today. MediaTek advertises the MT6750T as a mid-tier system on a chip that incorporates an ARM-A53 cluster running at 1.5GHz paired with an ARM-A53 cluster running at 1.0GHz.

Booting up! I was surprised to see an update available right after the first boot-up

Paired up with the MT6750T is the MT6176 modem that covers worldwide 4G spectrum and includes Carrier Aggregation. This is just a standard way for mobile carriers to combine separate LTE carriers for higher bandwidth capacity–nothing special to this device. I was very surprised to discover that the Ulefone Power 2 has a dual-sim slot that allows for multiple connections to the GSM band. One minor drawback to this capability is that only one connection will support full speed while the second slot will be downgraded to standard voice while in use.

Memory: Inside the Power 2 you’ll find 4GB of dedicated memory that’s great for running multiple applications smoothly. I was able to quickly switch between a couple dozen apps with no slow-down. I felt the Power 2 did a wonderful job of memory management as well, considering each application loaded back into an active process with no visible issues. Having 4GB of memory available was a smart choice and another surprise from Ulefone.

Storage: Ulefone offers a whopping 64GB of storage with the Power 2. This is double of what most smartphone manufacturers provide as a base starting point unless a customer is willing to pay more for extra storage. On top of that, the Power 2 also includes a micro-SD card slot that supports an additional 256GB of storage space.

I was able to load all of my common day-to-day applications and still retain over 75% of my allocated 64GB. This is great for users that don’t want to immediately purchase an extra micro-SD card for photos, videos, and additional large applications. You could literally put a couple thousand songs from your music library on the Power 2 without issue.

User Interface

The Ulefone Power 2 features Android 7.0 (Nougat) out of the box and has been optimized to function as smoothly as possible. While navigating between screens and across different apps I found that the Power 2 responds to every tap and swipe perfectly. The operating system never chugs or stutters; Ulefone did a great job here.

Ulefone Power 2 features Android 7.0 with a unique, and somewhat ho-hum, overlay

The Ulefone Power 2 integrates Android 7 very nicely but unfortunately, it’s skinned with something called ‘Cooler OS.’ Cooler OS skins familiar Android icons with ugly aberrations that remind me of a teenagers Microsoft Windows icon pack from 1999. This was my least favorite part of the entire Power 2 experience, but fortunately, since this is Android, I was able to download and set a new launcher with a much more visually pleasing icon pack. The strange octagonal icons remain in the settings menus, but I found them much less jarring than the standard home screen icons.

Cooler OS functions almost identical to stock Android but adds a few functions that are also unique and useful. The usefulness of these included software features may vary between users but I discovered that most of them were worth checking out. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Float Gesture: Float gesture places a permanent, floating button on the screen that allows for quick access to floating applications like ‘Float Music,’ ‘Float Video,’ ‘Read Mode’ or quick access to locking the device’s screen. I found this feature to be more obtrusive than beneficial in most instances, so decided to leave it off.

One Hand Floatview: One Hand Floatview turns on the ability to swipe up from the bottom, right corner to get quick access to device shortcuts. Initially, I had some issues with this feature, but after some extensive research, I was able to fully use One hand Floatview.

Smart somatosensory: Smart somatosensory is designed to allow a user to swipe through designated applications with just a wave of the hand to change through songs, photos, launcher screens, etc. This feature was the most inconsistent of all additional Power 2 features as I had a hard time registering swipes to execute any changes.

Gesture Motion: Gesture Motion is designed to add features within the system and telephone categories by allowing designated gestures as functions. If enabled, these functions allow you to silence a call by turning the phone on its face, answer a phone call by swinging it up to your ear or to turn off the speaker by placing it close to your ear. While I did try most of these functions to see how well they worked, I decided to leave most of them off as they offered very little in overall usability.

Gesture Motion has two sub-categories that include ‘Telephony Motion’ and ‘System Motion’

There were also options to turn on three-point screenshots, three point camera entry, two point volume adjustments and a double-tap of the home key to lock the screen at any time. These require some experimentation to fully understand but still offered a varying degree of usability and function depending on a users devotion to understanding each feature independently. Personally, I ended up using the double-tap feature to lock the screen as well as the related double tap function to unlock the screen while it was off.

Gesture Unlock: This feature can be turned on or off to allow for a multitude of specific gesture-based shortcuts (which can be enabled or disabled individually). Double-click to wake was the feature I found most useful within this list. Here’s the full list of gesture unlock options:

• Double-click to wake
• Slide up to unlock
• Slide down to camera
• Sideslip cut songs
• Gesture ‘m’ to start music
• Gesture ‘c’ to start phone
• Gesture ‘e’ to start browser
• Gesture ‘o’ to start assignable application
• Gesture ‘w’ to start assignable application
• Gesture ‘z’ to start assignable application

The final three gestures (o, w & z) can be set to any installed application, which is a great bonus to the entire Gesture Unlock feature.

The Power 2 offers plenty of varying gesture unlock functions that rival almost any other smartphone

Parallel Space: Parallel Space was the most interesting item from Ulefone within its dedicated feature settings. Parallel Space allows you to run an application separately from the normal instances of your apps as a new or different user. Essentially this allows you to have two different logins for one application without setting up and switching logins. This can be beneficial to users that have separate personal and work logins for certain applications.

Use Parallel Space to launch applications from secondary accounts–how handy is that?

Conclusion

The Power 2 really accentuates its name by offering a ton of battery power. This device provides days of power on a fully charged battery. Outside of its emphasis on battery power, the Ulefone Power 2 is a fully capable smartphone that keeps stride with any other budget phone but at an even better price. As of review time, it’s possible to purchase a Ulefone Power 2 for well under $200 USD. This places it in an exclusive, low-cost price bracket that makes it incredibly enticing.

While there are definite areas to improve upon, Ulefone has designed something unique and empowering with the Power 2 smartphone. I’d love to see what’s next in line for the Power series of devices from Ulefone. If the Power 2 successor can improve on the processor and the camera without adding too much to the overall cost, it may just have become a major competitor in the budget phone arena for next year.

We’d like to thank GearBest for supplying the unit for this review. You can find
the Ulefone Power 2 for sale on GearBesthere.

‘Pro Evolution Soccer 2018’ continues to be a pleasure to play

Every year, there’s the ongoing debate about which football game is the best: EA’s FIFA or Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer. And the truth is they’re both great in their own right — FIFA traditionally has the better graphics, PES the better gameplay — so no one would blame you for picking one over the other. This year, with Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, Konami says it has made its best football title in over a decade, and I’m happy to report that, at the very least, it is noticeably better than the 2017 version. Just as you would expect.

For one thing, the gameplay feels smoother than ever before, something you’ll notice the moment you start a match, pass the ball around and try to score some goals. The players are much easier to control and their general body movement isn’t as stiff as in past editions of the game. Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 is still powered by Konami’s Fox Engine, which has been featured in franchises like Metal Gear Solid. This time around, though, the company says it wanted to focus on more than simply improving the gameplay. As such, the menus are now much easier to browse and look at, while the new “enhanced visual reality” makes the players closer resemble their real-life appearance.

Usain Bolt in ‘Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.’

In what’s a marketing plot more than anything, Konami is bringing none other than Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt into PES 2018. What that means is you’ll be able have him on your My Club team, playing alongside Messi, Neymar and the rest of the football stars in the game. Bolt, a Manchester United supporter, has always said he wants to be a pro soccer player, so at least now he’ll have that chance in a virtual world. “We wanted to do things differently, a little bit crazy,” says Adam Bhatti, the game’s product and brand manager. That’s the reason Argentina legend Diego Maradona will also be a part of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.

I don’t know if I’ll be playing it over my football game of choice, FIFA, as I have done in the past. But, based on the few matches I played here at E3 2017, it’s great to see Konami’s franchise continuing to get better every year, even if it may not even on the same level as FIFA yet. You can make that call for yourself when Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 arrives September 14th in the US, and a couple days later in Europe. The game is going to be available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Engadget at E3: VR is here — so what’s next?

For gamers, 2016 was the year of VR. But now that the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR are already on the market, with an ever-growing library of titles, where does the industry need to go from here? Most consumers don’t seem that compelled by VR yet, so what will it take to get more people aboard? At our E3 stage, we tackled that problem with Daniel O’Brien, general manager of HTC Vive; Samantha Gorman, co-creator of the VR art collective Tender Claws; and MatPat, host of Game Theory.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Nearly a third use smartphones and tablets for creative projects, study shows

Why it matters to you

While desktop programs aren’t going anywhere, mobile devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous for creative professionals.

Computers may still be the preferred device for creative projects, but a new study shows that 29 percent of creatives use a smartphone or tablet at some point in their creative process. The data comes from a VideoBlocks study of 1,500 creatives that use the stock video platform.

Photography tops the list of mobile creations with 64 percent of respondents saying photos were part of their mobile projects. That is followed closely by video at 62 percent while half of creatives use mobile for social media projects. Design (37 percent), audio (32 percent), blogs and personal websites (26 percent) and advertisements (16 percent) are less common on mobile platforms.

“Creating on mobile isn’t the norm yet, but it’s growing fast,” said TJ Leonard, CEO of VideoBlocks. “About 30% of users rely on mobile devices for their work and that subset is incredibly active—74% use mobile at least daily or weekly for creative projects. As devices become more powerful and apps improve, these numbers will go in one direction: up.”

More survey respondents also used mobile platforms for both the shooting and editing content at 31 percent, while a quarter only shot the photo or video on a mobile device. Photo is the biggest creative project edited on mobile platforms at 84 percent, followed by video at 67 percent. Less than half of mobile creatives edit graphics (49 percent), audio (34 percent) and illustrations (23 percent) on smartphones and tablets. The 1,500 users surveyed named Adobe Spark, Canva and Pic Collage as the top creative mobile apps.

Both browsing for inspiration and searching for content sit at 15 percent of the survey’s mobile use.

Content created on a mobile app is most often destined for Facebook, the survey suggests, followed by YouTube, personal blogs, Instagram, Vimeo and Snapchat. Users younger than 45 were 60 percent more likely to use a smartphone or tablet for creative projects than those 45 and older.

VideoBlocks conducted the study after noticing a jump in mobile traffic to the stock video platform. While the study only encompasses VideoBlocks users, the data could offer insight into the way mobile devices are becoming integrated into the creative process.

“There’s a crystal clear use case for mobile among a growing subset of creators: digital marketers who need to maintain social channels and blogs,” Leonard said. “The better mobile editing gets, the better these users can do their jobs. That’s where we see the biggest opportunity in the coming years. But if Apple or Android can deliver the speed, processing power, and storage to match a desktop within a mobile device, there is definitely room to expand penetration in creative markets. The final obstacle will be finding the Goldilocks of screens–one that’s not too big, not too small, but just right.”

RadioShack’s liquidation auction is both a sad coda and an odd treasure trove

Why it matters to you

RadioShack’s online auction will allow you to pick up a cheap piece of (slightly oddball) tech history.

RadioShack, the onetime consumer electronics giant that started out in 1921, was pretty much gutted in recent years when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If you want to relive its heyday, however, you can now do so courtesy of a massive estate sale that’s running through July 3.

Want to pick up the GRiDPad, the world’s first touchscreen tablet, which arrived 21 years before the iPad first shipped? How about a TRS-80 Model 100, a notebook-style computer with a liquid crystal display that dates all the way back to 1983? Maybe some Tandy computer software is more your thing? If that’s not enough, what about a bust of Charles Tandy himself, the Tandy Corporation founder who passed away in 1978? You might even want to cap it off with a massive RadioShack metal sign to hang over your desk?

If those are a little bit too obvious for you, you can also bid on your very own, lovingly painted portrait of George W. Bush (yes, really!), some framed magazine covers from 1995, your very own photo of a now-defunct RadioShack board of directors, or a mystery box of “historical artifacts” — which may or may not include pictures of ex-presidents, magazine covers, and RadioShack executive boards.

In essence, it’s the world’s geekiest flea market, full of assorted miscellanea that reminds you just how depressingly quickly things can sometimes move in the world of tech. Sure, some people are going to remember RadioShack as being the Blockbuster Video of electronic gadgetry, but nothing says “sad end to a once-respected company” like its possessions being sold off to the highest bidder by an auction house that specializes in business liquidation.

If you’ve got any nostalgia for the days in which we went into brick-and-mortar stores to buy things, rather than just hitting them up on Amazon, this is well worth a look. Best of all, you don’t need to go to a physical auction house, since you can do the whole bidding process online. (And, yes, we get the irony of that!)

RadioShack’s liquidation auction is both a sad coda and an odd treasure trove

Why it matters to you

RadioShack’s online auction will allow you to pick up a cheap piece of (slightly oddball) tech history.

RadioShack, the onetime consumer electronics giant that started out in 1921, was pretty much gutted in recent years when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If you want to relive its heyday, however, you can now do so courtesy of a massive estate sale that’s running through July 3.

Want to pick up the GRiDPad, the world’s first touchscreen tablet, which arrived 21 years before the iPad first shipped? How about a TRS-80 Model 100, a notebook-style computer with a liquid crystal display that dates all the way back to 1983? Maybe some Tandy computer software is more your thing? If that’s not enough, what about a bust of Charles Tandy himself, the Tandy Corporation founder who passed away in 1978? You might even want to cap it off with a massive RadioShack metal sign to hang over your desk?

If those are a little bit too obvious for you, you can also bid on your very own, lovingly painted portrait of George W. Bush (yes, really!), some framed magazine covers from 1995, your very own photo of a now-defunct RadioShack board of directors, or a mystery box of “historical artifacts” — which may or may not include pictures of ex-presidents, magazine covers, and RadioShack executive boards.

In essence, it’s the world’s geekiest flea market, full of assorted miscellanea that reminds you just how depressingly quickly things can sometimes move in the world of tech. Sure, some people are going to remember RadioShack as being the Blockbuster Video of electronic gadgetry, but nothing says “sad end to a once-respected company” like its possessions being sold off to the highest bidder by an auction house that specializes in business liquidation.

If you’ve got any nostalgia for the days in which we went into brick-and-mortar stores to buy things, rather than just hitting them up on Amazon, this is well worth a look. Best of all, you don’t need to go to a physical auction house, since you can do the whole bidding process online. (And, yes, we get the irony of that!)

SIM-swapping fraud is real and Payfone may have a solution

Why it matters to you

Your bank account can be accessed by thieves who utilize SIM swapping.

Your cell phone can be a gateway to identity theft and now there is a new threat: SIM swapping. Fortunately, a solution is on the horizon. Mobile security provider Payfone has secured a patent involving technology that detects when a SIM card has been swapped and can notify the bank of the person whose number has been switched.

SIM swapping is not inherently bad — you may well have done it to yourself a few times in your life. It involves having a phone number transferred to a different SIM card and it usually happens when people misplace their phone and need to transfer their number to a new SIM.

The common practice becomes exploitative when hackers requests a mobile carrier to transfer your phone number to a SIM card that is in in their possession without your knowledge. Typically fraudsters involved in SIM-swapping fraud use a variety of means to cull personal information about their potential victim. Once the fraudster has the information, they use it to answer the security questions mobile carriers ask to safeguard accounts. And once the mobile carrier deactivates your phone and associates your number with the new SIM card, the fraudster can gain access to your bank account in a number of ways.

SIM swapping is a relatively new threat, but it has already claimed a number of victims. In 2016, Chris Sims (and yes, his name is a bit ironic in this context) had more than $1,500 stolen from his bank account in 75 minutes. Sims says the fraudster called his bank, Halifax, impersonating Sims in order to have his online bank settings reset. Halifax refunded Sims all the money he lost, but the experience had a lasting effect on him. “I’ve been contacted by another woman who this has happened to twice” Sims said. “I won’t be using mobile banking again.”

The Federal Trade Commission noted the number of complaints regarding people hacking into someone’s cell phone or opening a mobile account in a victim’s name more than doubled between January 2013 and January 2016.

SkyX plans remote charging stations that will give drones near-indefinite range

Why it matters to you

Thanks to remote recharging stations that greatly increase their range, SkyX drones will be able to monitor infrastructures more efficiently.

Drones built by Canadian company SkyX may never have to return home now that the company has developed xStation, a remote recharging platform that allows drones to hop from station to station while working out in the field. These stations could give the drones a near-indefinite range, as New Atlas points out.

The new recharging stations are intended to be used with SkyX’s SkyOne unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane. These autonomous VTOLs (short for vertical takeoff and landing) are used for long-range infrastructure monitoring, particularly pipelines in the oil and gas industries.

SkyOne already boasts an impressive range of 62 miles on a single charge, but that range is quickly limited if the drone has to turn around halfway and return to base to recharge.

With xStation, SkyX hopes to keep its drones in action indefinitely, hopping from intermittently placed platforms out in the field. The company has fitted its drones with a custom operating system that monitors its battery level and directs it to the nearest charging station when charging levels are low.

At the xStation, the SkyOne drone slides in for a soft landing before a canopy closes to protect it from the elements during charging. SkyX says its platforms have been built to last, with an estimated life span of 10 years in the field.

Drones are finding more and more applications beyond fun for hobbyists and better angles for photographers. Organizations like the Lindbergh Foundation have plans to deploy UAVs to help fight illegal poaching, while conservationists in Tanzania have used hobby drones to scare elephants away from problem areas. Meanwhile, farmers in Japan have tested the Yamaha RMAX as a crop duster.

After the completion of what it calls a “massive project,” SkyX says it plans to start installing xStations for clients in July.