Apple HomeKit and Home app: What are they and how do they work?

Apple is trying to streamline home automation.

In other words: Apple wants to make it easier for smart accessories – like Philips Hue lights, Wink lights, and other smart speakers, thermostats, detectors, plugs, blinds, locks, sensors, etc – to communicate, and for you to connect and manage all the smart accessories in your home, even if they’re from various manufacturers. HomeKit is basically Apple’s framework for home automation.

Any manufacturer can implement HomeKit technology into their smart accessories. It was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2014. The name is a combination of “home” for home automation and “kit” for software developer kit. HomeKit-enabled smart accessories are secure, easy to use, and work with iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod.

You can use the new Home app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to set up all your HomeKit-enabled smart accessories, and then you can use Siri to ultimately control them via voice commands. If you’d like to know more about HomeKit and the Home app, Pocket-lint has explained everything you need to know, including what they are, how to get started with them, and how they work together.

• Apple HomePod: Everything you need to know
• Apple TV review: Packed with potential
• Apple iOS 11: 11 new features coming to your iPhone and iPad
• These are the best iOS 11 features Apple didn’t announce
• Apple Watch major software update: What’s new in WatchOS 4?

Apple

What is HomeKit and how does it work?

So, you’re probably wondering to yourself: I’ve long owned smart lights and controlled them with their own separate iOS apps, so why is HomeKit necessary now? Well, imagine that you also own smart blinds. Without HomeKit, your smart lights can’t communicate with your smart blinds, meaning you can’t hook them up together, control them with a single interface, or set them to perform actions together.

Imagine being able to make your lights automatically to turn off while simultaneously making your window blinds close at 9 pm EST every night. Until HomeKit and the Home app, you had to manually control each accessory with their own separate apps, and you’d have to set every one to do a specific task at a certain time in order to give the appearance that they worked together. That’s all rather tedious, right?

HomeKit-enabled smart accessories, however, can speak to each other, and best of all, you can control them using voice commands through Siri. You can use Siri on your iPhone (say things like, “Turn on the lights in the garage” or “Good morning”) to trigger a bunch of actions. You can make your smart accessories turn on and do their thing. For instance, maybe your coffee can brew while your doors unlock.

Every HomeKit-enabled smart accessory automatically works with Siri once you set it up through its HomeKit-enabled app. Siri is just the unified interface you use to bark voice commands to the smart accessories. You still need to use their separate apps, which every smart accessory has, to gain full access to settings, touch controls, and more. So, HomeKit is not completely streamlined yet.

Now, the last thing you need to know about HomeKit is that it can enforce end-to-end encryption between all smart accessories and your Apple devices. That means hackers can’t steal your data, work their way into your communications, or take control of your home.

Apple

Is HomeKit available yet?

Manufacturers can already add support for HomeKit into their smart accessories, but they need to get their smart accessories approved by Apple in order to make them “HomeKit-enabled” and compatible with Siri. We’re just waiting on more HomeKit-enabled accessories to hit store shelves. HomeKit-enabled smart accessories are marked with a “Works with Apple HomeKit” badge on their product packaging.

Any manufacturer that wants to develop HomeKit-enabled accessories has to not only add support for HomeKit into their accessories and companion apps but also join Apple’s Made for iPhone (MFI) certification program. Manufacturers keen to bring their creations to market will still not only need to sign up for MFi license, but also go through certification and satisfy all of the HomeKit requirements.

At that point, Apple will either approve or deny the smart accessory. If approved, it will get the “Works with Apple HomeKit” badge. Apple also provides MFI logos on any certified device’s packaging, which tells you the smart accessory is both secure and compatible with Apple devices such as the iPhone. The first HomeKit-enabled smart accessories, like Elgato Eve sensors, burst onto the market in 2015.

If you own an older smart accessory, it won’t work with HomeKit. You need to buy the newer version of that smart accessory, and it must be HomeKit-enabled, of course. However, there is a workaround for old smart accessories: you could get the Insteon Hub or iHome SmartPlug, both of which are HomeKit-enabled and let you leverage Siri in order to voice control anything connected to them.

Apple

Which Apple devices work with HomeKit?

The following Apple devices work with HomeKit:

• Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (running run iOS 10 or later)
• Apple Watch (running WatchOS 3 or later)
• Apple TV (fourth generation)
• Apple HomePod

Apple

What is the Home app and how does it work?

Apple launched its Home app with iOS 10 and watchOS 3 in 2016. It serves as a centralised hub for managing Apple HomeKit-enabled smart accessories. These are devices that have been specifically certified by Apple. Many HomeKit-enabled smart accessories have their own separate apps, but the advantage of using the Home app is that you can access and control all of them from one centralised location.

With the new Home app in iOS 10, it’s easy to set up and manage all your HomeKit-enabled smart accessories. The app features integration with Control Center, 3D Touch quick actions, and of course, support for Siri. The app’s settings are also synced through Apple’s iCloud storage service, so any iCloud-enabled Apple device – whether that be an iPhone or iPad – can be used to control your Home.

Getting started

To use the Home app, you need at least one iOS device with the Home app installed. The Home app comes pre-installed on any Apple device running iOS 10, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system for iPhone or iPad. You can go here to learn more about iOS 10 and how it works. You also need at least one home, one room, and one HomeKit-enabled smart accessory.

Buy a smart accessory

You’ll need at least one HomeKit-enabled product to get started, such as the $69.99 Philips Hue Starter kit. It comes with a Hue bridge and two white bulbs. Philips currently dominates the connected home device space and sells many lighting-related products. We’ve listed a few other beginner smart accessories below. You can also go here to see a full list of options, or you can shop from here.

Apple

Launch the Home app

There is a pecking order when it comes to using the Home app, which is essential to understanding how the app functions: Home > Rooms > Accessories > (Groups, Scenes, and Automation). That last bit – groups, scenes, and automation – is optional, but we’ll get into that later. Once you launch the Home app, and you’ll be greeted with a “Welcome Home” screen that explains the Home app.

Tap the Get Started button to proceed. The initial smart accessory setup process in the Home app is easy to follow. In iOS 10, by default, you’ll see a new “My Home” screen, which allows you to start adding locks, lights, thermostats, etc. You can change the name of your Home, change the background wallpaper, and more. Also, notice that the Home app has three main tabs: Home, Rooms, and Automation.

But before we get into all that, add your first accessory.

Add an accessory in Home app

Tap the Add Accessory button. The Home app will then scan your Home network to find any HomeKit-enabled smart accessory. For this step to work, both your Apple device and your HomeKit-enabled device need to be connected to the same local network (like your home Wi-Fi). If you have the Philips Hue Starter kit, you will see the Philips Hue bridge appear under the list of available accessories.

Tap the accessory, and then you’ll be asked to enter an 8-digit setup code that’s either on the accessory or its packaging. The Home app will show a camera frame so that you can capture the HomeKit code without having to manually enter in the code. Once done, the Home app will pair with the HomeKit-enabled smart accessory and reroute you to the Add Accessory screen to complete the pairing process.

Now, some smart accessories are simple to pair to the Home app, but because the Philips Hue Starter kit includes the Hue bridge as well as two lights, it has an extra step: on the Add Accessory screen, tap the Identify Accessory button. This will cause the Hue bridge’s push-link button to flash. Other HomeKit-enabled smart accessories may have different ways to go about identification, but you get the point.

To rename your accessories, tap in the name box and adjust it. You can set a location for the accessory; Bedroom, Dining Room, and Living Room, are provided by default. To create your own location, tap the Create New button. You can also use the Include in Favourites option at the bottom of the Add Accessory screen to pin your accessory to the Control Center in iOS 10 and Home tab in the Home app.

Using an accessory’s separate app

It’s important to note that some smart accessories need you to use their own separate apps for initial setup, software updates, etc. Philips Hue Starter kit is one of those accessories. So, after connecting to the bridge, launch the Philips Hue app to pair the lights with the bridge. In this instance, the Hue app searches for the new bridge. You have to tap the Set up button to proceed with setup.

Then, press the push-link button on the Hue bridge to connect and tap the Accept button to finish the bridge setup with the Hue app. Next up, pair the lights on the Light setup screen. Tap the + button to add a new light and then tap the Search button to look for them. The lights must be connected to a lamp and powered on. These separate apps often have additional settings and customisation options.

Home tab in the Home app

Once you’re done in accessory’s separate app, you can launch the Home app. You should see your pair accessories listed on the Home tab. From here, you can also customise the Home tab. Just tap the Compass button in the corner, and then you can rename your home, see available Home Hubs, invite others to control your accessories, change home wallpaper, add notes for shared users, and so much more.

This is the screen you should go to when you want to edit anything related to each Home you have configured. You can additional homes by tapping the Add Home button in the corner. To add a new accessory to a home, tap the ‘+’ button in the corner while on the Home tab, and then tap Add Accessory. Of course, when adding a new accessory, you’ll be thrown back into the initial setup process we covered.

Rooms tab in the Home app

Once you’ve added and configured an accessory, the Home app adds a room by default. The Rooms tab can be adjusted to include multiple rooms. We recommend using rooms that reflect the actual rooms in your home. So, if you have a Philips Hue light in your living room, create a room called Living Room. Just tap the List button in the corner to edit the room, change its name or room wallpaper, etc.

You can take a picture of the room, for instance, and add it as your room wallpaper. Now, to add an additional room, tap the Add Room button in the corner of the Rooms tab. Once you’ve added all your rooms, you can swipe between them on the Rooms tab. To add a new accessory to a room, tap the + button in the corner, then tap Add Accessory, and you’ll be thrown into that initial setup process again.

Automation tab in the Home app

Th Automation tab allows you to automate accessory actions based on triggers like location or time. However, it requires a fourth-generation Apple TV an iPad running iOS 10, or a HomePod. When away from home, either of these can provide remote access and let you take advantage of the Home app’s Automation feature, which automates accessories based on the following triggers:

• My location changes
• A time of day occurs
• An accessory is controlled
• A sensor detects something

To create a new Automated task, tap the Automation tab in the corner of the Home app, then tap Create new Automation, and select one of the four automation triggers on the New Automation screen. Once you select a trigger, you can select the scenes and accessories to automate. You can play around with scenes to build a truly custom automated task, then tap the Done, and your automated task will be saved.

An example of an automated task would be having your living room lights turn on at sunset. You could have them turn on at a specific brightness level or colour even. The granular controls available to you of course depend on your smart accessory.

Customise and group accessories

Now that you’ve created rooms for each room in your home that contains a HomeKit-enabled smart accessory, you’ll also want to give your accessory a name to make it easier for you to access it. Just long-press on an accessory tile in the Home app, then tap the Details button at the bottom, and from the accessory customisation screen, you can rename it, set its location, include it in favourites, etc.

On this accessory customisation screen, you can also group an accessory with other HomeKit-enabled smart devices. This will make all the devices work together as a singular device. That also means you can control all your grouped smart accessories at once. This is the basics of home automation. However, accessories can be controlled in many different ways, which we explain in more detail below.

Create accessory scenes

But, first: scenes. These are actions that involve two or more accessories. You can create a scene called “Good Morning” that turns on all the lights in a room in the morning. Scenes are different from groups because each can still be controlled individually. You can invoke different actions for each device, so maybe one light will turn on and another will turn off. It all just depends on you and your preferences.

On the Home or Rooms tab, tap the + button in the corner, followed by Add Scene. You’ll then see a New Scene screen. Apple includes four suggested scenes to start with: Arrive Home, Good Morning, Good Night, Leave Home. You can of course create a custom scene, with a custom icon and name. Just tap Custom at the bottom of the New Scene page. You can also customise Apple’s suggested scenes.

Shortcuts to scenes will be available in the Control Center on your iOS device. You can also choose it to Show in Favourites, which is enabled by default. Scenes added to favourites will appear on the Home tab in the Home app and have 3D Touch quick action options.

Apple

Control your accessories

You can control a smart accessory through the Home app. So, if you want to turn your Philips Hue light on or off, simply tap on the accessory tile. Or, you can long-press on the tile will reveal additional options, such as a dimmer interface or maybe a colour-changing slider. This of course is different for every accessory, so it’s important to play around a bit to discover the type of granular controls available.

You can also control accessories through the Apple Watch. The Home app comes with an Apple Watch complication, which is a shortcut to the Home app. You can also add the Home app to your Dock in the Apple Watch. And in iOS 10 on iPhone or iPad, the Home app has its own spot in the Control Center. Just swipe up from your Home Screen to access the Control Center and then swipe all the way to the right.

You will then see all of your favourite HomeKit accessories and can tap on an accessory tile to toggle it on or off without having to launch the Home app. Once again, a long-press on an accessory tile in the Control Center will serve up more options. The Home section of Control Center also lets you select favourite scenes. Just tap the Scenes/Accessories button in the corner of the Home section.

Next, if you have a 3D Touch-enabled device, such as an iPhone 7, you can use 3D Touch quick action shortcuts on the Home app icon to quickly access favourite scenes. And, finally, you can control HomeKit accessories with Siri voice commands. Siri control works on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, fourth-generation Apple TV and Siri Remote, and the new HomePod speaker.

Siri control is probably the easiest method. Just say something like “Turn on kitchen light” or “Turn my bedroom light purple” or to “Turn my office light brightness up to 90 per cent.” Siri is smart enough to recognise all your accessories, rooms, and scenes. Just keep in mind you can only control HomeKit devices on your home Wi-Fi network, unless you have a hub like an Apple TV or iPad.

To use off-network remote access, make sure your devices are logged into the same iCloud account. You can see a list of your Home Hubs by opening the Home app, tapping the Home tab, and tapping the Compass button in the corner.

Invite others to control your home

You can share access to your automated home and its accessories with anyone who has an iOS 10 device with an iCloud account. To invite people to control your home, tap the Compass button in the corner of the Home app’s Home tab. The,n under the People heading, tap the Invite button to open the Add People screen. You can find people in your contacts or by using the “To:” field at the top of the screen.

Be sure to tap the Send Invite button to send the invitation. Invited users will receive a push notification about the invitation. They will need to accept the invitation to gain access to the accessories your home Home. Just tap on any invited person’s avatar to manage their permissions. You can also revoke invites by tapping the Remove Person button at the bottom of a person’s screen. Easy.

What about iOS 11?

Everything above explains how the Home app works in iOS 10. With iOS 11, which is set to release this autumn, there are some minor differences. For instance, there won’t be a Home app section in the Control Center for scenes. It will be a 3D Touch quick action from the Home icon on the single swipe-up Control Center panel. We will update this post with the changes when they’re available. 

Apple

Which smart accessories are out now?

When Apple first showed off HomeKit in 2014, it announced several HomeKit partnerships with various manufacturers, including iHome, Haier, Withings, Philips, iDevices, Belkin, Honeywell, and Kwikset. You can go here to see a full list of HomeKit-enable smart accessories. You can also shop from here. For now, however, here is a list of the first HomeKit-enabled smart accessories to become available:

• Elgato: Elgato and it’s Eve sensors went on sale in the Apple Online Store in July 2015. The first four sensors are the Eve Room (£69.95), Eve Weather (£44.95), Eve Door & Window (£34.95), and Eve Energy (£44.95). Additional Eve products are coming. The Eve app is now out as a free download from the App Store.
• Ecobee: Ecobee in the US is offering an intelligent thermostat with HomeKit integration. It launched in June 2015 and costs $249 (£163).
• Lutron: If you’re looking to control your lights Lutron will be releasing the Caseta Wireless system that allows you to bark orders like “lights off”. The Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit, with HomeKit-enabled Smart Bridge, is available for $229.95 at Apple Stores. The kit includes one Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge, two Caséta Wireless dimmers (compatible with dimmable LED, halogen, and incandescent bulbs), two remotes and two pedestals. To add more lights, you can purchase the Caséta Wireless dimmer/remote kits, also available at Apple Stores, for $59.95.
• iHome: The iHome iSP5 Smartplug fits into your standard wall sockets and will mean you can turn off connected devices via Siri.
• Insteon: The Insteon Hub will let you control a whole manner of things like cameras, switches, sensors and more either via an app, Siri, or schedules like configuring a single device to turn on and off at dusk and dawn or create customized groups of devices that turn on and off at various times throughout the day.

Want to know more?

Check out Apple’s HomeKit support page for more details.

Sling TV’s improved DVR won’t delete your recordings

You asked, and Sling TV answered. By popular demand, the live TV streaming service’s Cloud DVR now lets users protect shows from deletion and added the ability to record content on Fox channels. Plus, you can watch and manage recordings from your Xbox One.

There are a few other minor upgrades, too, including an improved interface that groups recorded episodes into show folders and the option to record straight from a franchise’s front page. This comes weeks after their last UX upgrade that introduced a streaming service-standard grid layout and improved algorithms to serve up trending content.

With live TV getting more and more crowded with YouTube TV, Hulu (which recently added live television) and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, Sling TV has focused on improving its standout DVR features. Back in April, it expanded its $5 for 50GB “First Look” offer to Apple TV, Android and Roku owners. But crucially, Sling TV now lets you protect content forever (or until you stop subscribing): As TechCrunch points out, PlayStation Vue only saves shows 28 days past air date, while YouTube TV holds them for 9 months

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Sling TV

Apple Aiming to Make iPhone ‘One-Stop Shop’ for Medical Info

Apple wants the iPhone to serve as a comprehensive health repository for every iPhone user, keeping track of medical data like doctors visits, lab results, medications, and more, reports CNBC.

Apple is said to have a “secretive team” within its health unit that has been communicating with developers, hospitals, and other industry groups about storing clinical data on the iPhone. With all of their medical data at their fingertips, iPhone users would have a better overall picture of their health, which could also be readily shared with doctors.

Apple has been hiring developers familiar with protocols dictating the transfer of electronic health records and has talked with several health IT industry groups, including “The Argonaut Project,” which promotes the adoption of open standards for health information, and “The Carin Alliance,” a group aiming to give patients more control over their medical data. According to CNBC, Apple VP of software technology Bud Tribble has been working with the latter group.

Apple is also rumored to be looking at startups in the cloud hosting space for acquisitions that would fit into its health plan.

Essentially, Apple would be trying to recreate what it did with music — replacing CDs and scattered MP3s with a centralized management system in iTunes and the iPod — in the similarly fragmented and complicated landscape for health data.

Such a move would represent a deviation in strategy from Apple’s previous efforts in health care, the people said, which have focused on fitness and wellness.

A centralized way to store all of a person’s health data would allow the medical community to overcome existing barriers that prevent the transfer of patient information between medical providers. Hospitals and doctors offices often don’t have a simple way to transfer patient information, and online medical portals are sometimes difficult to use with little info available to patients,

Apple already allows iPhone users to record medical data and health information gathered by the Apple Watch and other connected devices in the built-in Health app, and it has delved into health research with CareKit and ResearchKit, but based on these rumors, the company’s goal is to expand its health efforts far further in the future.

Tags: HealthKit, ResearchKit, Health Technologies
Discuss this article in our forums

Mystery internet company challenges NSA’s mass surveillance order

Thanks to a newly-declassified document, we know that an unnamed tech company refused to comply with NSA orders to let the agency spy on the company’s client users. It’s the first known case of an organization from the industry outright rejecting such a request.

The document, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling, was wrested from the government thanks to an ACLU FOIA request. But it’s so heavily redacted that we cannot identify the tech company who stood up to the NSA.

Specifically, the mysterious company didn’t comply with an NSA order under Section 702. That’s the legal structure supporting the PRISM domestic spying program, which forces companies to give the NSA access to Americans’ international communications.

The company refused because cooperating to grant said access would implicate its First and Fourth Amendment rights. In short, it took the NSA to Constitutional school over the legality of Section 702 itself (to be precise, the company took issue with an “expansion” of Section 702 surveillance, the details of which were redacted), since opening up its users’ international communications would eventually and inevitably expose those of domestic citizens. Ergo, if the NSA wanted access, it needed to get a warrant, the company stated.

Ultimately, the court rejected the tech company’s claim and ordered it to comply with the NSA request. Judge Rosemary Collyer, who presided over the case, said “the mere fact that there is some potential for error is not a sufficient reason to invalidate the surveillance” — in other words, prove misconduct or sit down. The document, only now made available to the public, is from 2014, so whatever surveillance may have happened as a result might already have happened.

Section 702 is set to expire at the end of this year, and debate rages on about whether Congress should renew it. The NSA already claimed back in April that it would stop even incidentally collecting domestic American emails in its sweeps, which its analysts were still accidentally doing in 2016. Regardless, this case is a sadly rare illuminating window into an intentionally shadowy world: Back in 2016, for example, the FBI reassured the public that it would be reforming how it accessed data collected by the NSA…but didn’t say how, because that’s classified.

Via: The Daily Beast

Source: ACLU

Plex update brings local video playback to its Android app

Plex’s last few big announcements include unveiling live TV streaming for its premium subscribers and launching Plex Cloud, which lets users pipe media stored on cloud-based services (like DropBox) to any device with Plex’s app installed. But the software provider hasn’t forgotten folks who like locally storing content. The newest version of Plex’s Android app now lets you play any video file on the device (or SD card) without needing to route it through a media server or a third-party app.

As the instructions point out, all videos are fetched automatically and listed alphabetically. Most playback features are supported, but you can’t fling a video to Chromecast or another Plex app yet and external subtitles aren’t supported. (Worst of all, it won’t remember where you left off if you exit the video. Ugh.) The app can play .MP4, .MKV, .AVI, .WMV and .WMD formats — just note that the first time you play a video of that type, you’ll need internet access for the app to update player support components. After that, watch offline to your heart’s content.

Source: Plex

Totto’s T-Track Backpack features smart-tracking and anti-theft technology

Why it matters to you

Well, wouldn’t it be pretty amazing to be alerted if you had forgotten something important before you left it behind?

We have all been there: You are looking for something important only to discover that you left it someplace else. People misplacing or forgetting items during the rush of a busy day is an unideal but incredibly common issue in today’s world. But what if your backpack was able to vibrate and notify you that you have forgotten something?

That is exactly what the new T-Tack Backpack from Totto does, thanks to technology that keeps track of the items you place in your bag and vibrates your phone that you have forgotten something. For individuals who have memory issues or are easily distracted, this sort of technology could be useful in limiting issues with forgotten or stolen items.

But the T-Track backpack does not stop there, Totto has packed this bag with more than 20 features designed to fit the needs of the modern business person, student — really anyone who needs to carry around their stuff with them. Among the bags other features are lockable zippers, a protective hard shell, a power bank pocket for on the go charging, water repellant design, and a security lock to attach the bag to a chair or pole to prevent it easily being walked off with.

The Achilles’ heel of this sort of backpack is the fact that it all depends on the user of the bag not being lazy about tagging and setting up the items that they place in their backpack. That said, there are certainly people out there who could benefit from a bag with this feature set.

Totto designed this bag in collaboration with Stanford Universtiy, among other universities, and the company has brought its prototype to Indiegogo seeking $25,000 in funding to help make the project a reality. The Indiegogo campaign launched on Wednesday and will run for 30 days. A $99 early-bird pledge will net you a backpack. The price jumps to $160 after the early-bird pricing runs out. If funding is achieved, Totto expects to start shipping the T-Track backpacks in November.

Here’s a fresh take on the ‘hoverboard’ concept that (probably) won’t catch fire

Why it matters to you

This smart new “hoverboard” design promises to redeem the tech after years of lesser-quality rideables.

Radical Moov’s name makes it sound a bit like a politically conscious 1990s electronic dance music collective. In fact, it’s a Mark Cuban-backed hoverboard which promises to be so good that it’ll banish all thoughts of lesser quality rideables that have sullied the good name of hoverboards over the years. Just don’t write it off as more of the same!

“Though Moov looks like a sleeker version of the hoverboard, the riding experience is very different since it’s a rigid platform and has weight-based steering,” co-founder and engineer EJ Williams told Digital Trends. “It’s a premium, American-made rideable that is both fun to ride and useful to get around.”

Moov differs to regular hoverboards in a couple of ways. At 9 inches in diameter and 3 inches in thickness, its wheels are bigger than those found on rival products. The result is greater stability, which is helped by a lower center of gravity for the part of the rideable that the user stands on. That’s a good thing because the Moov can travel faster than many hoverboards — at around 15 miles per hour — and is also designed for performing a number of sport-style tricks.

The other big change is the fact it boasts special sensors embedded into its floor mat, which let users control their ride by subtly shifting their weight. That’s a different approach to normal, but one that its creators hope will provide a more enjoyable riding experience.

“The current audience for rideables is pretty diverse,” Williams continued. “For urban commuting, you’ll see the young professional quite often. But for the recreational and sporty factor, you’ll get all ages. If you like to longboard, rollerblade, or surf and you’re into the latest technology, then this board is 100 percent for you. It’s just simply very fun to ride. Oh, and it’ll get you around if you need to commute.”

Radical Moov can currently be pre-ordered on Kickstarter, with prices starting at $1,099. Shipping is set to start this November.

Norway upgrading ‘doomsday’ seed vault to ready for warmer, wetter climate

Why it matters to you

The so-called doomsday vault may be less resistant to climate change than previously expected.

It looks like the so-called “doomsday vault” in Norway may not be as invulnerable as researchers had originally believed. After a recent flood, the seed vault is set to undergo a massive multi-million dollar renovation to reinforce the complex.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault — which is owned by the Norwegian government — houses nearly one million of the world’s most valuable food-crop seeds. The complex is buried more than 400 feet inside of the Svalbard archipelago — midway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole — and was designed to function as a “fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters,” per the official website.

According to a report by NASA and NOAA, 2016 was the warmest year on record. Due to these temperature shifts, melting permafrost and rainwater flooded the vault’s entry tunnel. Luckily, none of the seeds were damaged as result of this breach. However, the facility is now part of a $1.6 million investigation to determine ways to prevent similar incidents in the future. The conclusion of this report is expected in spring 2018.

For the time being, other preemptive measures have already been taken. For example, a transformer station — previously positioned in the tunnel — has been relocated due to its heat emissions, whereas a number of drainage ditches have been trenched into the mountain above the vault to channel water away from the tunnel.

One idea under consideration involves totally replacing the current entry tunnel. As it stands, this entry slopes downward towards the seed vault itself. An upward-sloping tunnel would more adequately combat flooding associated with melting permafrost. The Norwegian government has committed more than $4 million to cover the expected costs of these upgrades.

“The background to the technical improvements is that the permafrost has not established itself as planned. A group will investigate potential solutions to counter the increased water volumes resulting from a wetter and warmer climate on Svalbard,” explained the Norwegian government in a statement.

The seed vault is currently under constant monitoring with pumps in place to account for an additional flooding — which is certainly quite the ironic turn of events for a structure designed to exist long after an extinction-level event.

ZTE Blade V8 Pro review

Research Center:
ZTE Blade V8 Pro

While Samsung and Apple compete over high-end flagship smartphones, the mid-range business is lively with plenty of competition. Almost all smartphone manufacturers have solid mid-range offerings, but some rise above the rest. The Lenovo Moto G5 Plus is often considered the best phone in the sub-$300 category, while the $250 Huawei Honor 6X gets an honorable mention for its slightly larger display.

With the Blade V8 Pro, ZTE is vying to make the short list of mid-range kings. Debuting earlier this year, the Blade V8 Pro comes at the same price as the Moto G5 Plus, although with decidedly different specs. It also offers the same 5.5-inch display size you can find on the Huawei Honor 6X.

How does it fare? For its competitive price, the Blade V8 Pro certainly is capable, and it just may dethrone the Moto G5 Plus. Let’s take a closer look.

Uninspiring design

The Blade V8 Pro doesn’t look bad, but it’s not unique by any means. On the front of the phone, you’ll be greeted with a very standard look. There’s a home button on the front, and it doubles as a fingerprint scanner — we found the fingerprint scanner worked reasonably well most of the time. Perhaps once every five attempts, we would have to rescan – but that’s not a terrible strike rate.

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

On either side of the home button you’ll find two lit-up dots, which represent the back and multitasking buttons. If you’re new to Android, this can be a little confusing. The back button lives on the left, while the multitasking button is on the right – not everyone knows that by instinct, and it may take some time to get used to the layout.

On the bottom of the phone, you’ll find a USB Type-C port, along with speaker and microphone grills. On the left is a dual-SIM tray, while the right edge houses the power button and volume rocker – both are in easy-to-reach spots.

The back of the phone does away with the metal build found on other higher end ZTE phones in favor of a textured, plastic surface. We like it, not just because it’s scratch-resistant, but it also gives the phone a little more grip, ensuring that you won’t drop it easily. That’s helpful considering the device doesn’t have any official water-resistance rating, so you’ll want to be careful not to drop it around any pools. On the back, you’ll also find ZTE has jumped on the dual-lens camera trend.

There’s nothing really unique with the Blade V8 Pro’s design, but at least it looks better than the Moto G5 Plus.

Competitive specs and performance

You can’t expect to get a flagship-level specifications for $230, but you should expect to get something that’s capable for day-to-day use. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro more than achieves that.

The user interface is smooth, and standard functions like pulling up the app tray or accessing quick settings are responsive and quick.

Under the hood, the device comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, along with a healthy 3GB of RAM. You’ll get 32GB of storage, though you also have access to a MicroSD card slot for more storage expansion should you see the need. There’s also NFC, which means you can use Android Pay — something you can’t do on the U.S. model of the Moto G5 Plus.

The LCD display isn’t going to break any records, but it does the job. At 5.5-inches and a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080-pixels, the screen offers a respectable pixel-density of 401 pixels-per-inch. It doesn’t beat the 5.2-inch Moto G5 Plus’ 424 pixels-per-inch, but in real world use you’re unlikely to see a huge difference between the two. The screen offers plenty of brightness to see outside, even in direct sunlight.

On the performance side, you will run into some stuttering if you play power- or graphics-intensive games, but for general use it’s quite capable. The user interface is smooth, and standard functions like pulling up the app tray or accessing quick settings are responsive and quick, even after some serious multitasking.

When it comes to benchmarks, the phone performed as expected. Here’s a quick rundown of the scores we achieved:

• AnTuTu: 62,500
• Geekbench 4: 865 (Single-Core), 3,143 (Multi-Core)
• 3D Mark Sling Shot: 831

To put things into perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S8, which is one of the highest-performing phones out there today, scored a hefty 205,284 in AnTuTu. The Lenovo Moto G5 Plus, with 4GB of RAM, scored 63,190 – you can expect comparable performance. It beats out the Huawei Honor 6X, which scored 56,585 with its 3GB of RAM and Kirin 655 processor.

Games like Landing Confirmed run largely without a hitch, and while you may run into some lag every now and then, it isn’t enough to warrant alarm. The phone does run a little warmer with slightly more graphics-intensive games like Asphalt 8, but to our surprise we didn’t have many issues running it.

Decent camera

The dual 13-megapixel camera set up on the rear of the Blade V8 Pro allow for ‘bokeh’ and monochrome effects — there are better phone cameras out there.

Compared to high-end phones, the photos lack a dynamic range, and the camera suffers in low-light situations. Still, what ZTE lacks in camera quality, it makes up for in features. The camera app allows you to adjust the blur effect after the shot — though it’s not very good — or you can isolate colors in photos. There’s also a built-in Live photo mode, which lets you create a short GIF similar to Live Photos on the iPhone. A full manual mode allows you to adjust the parameters of your shot on the fly.

The camera has decent white balance, but it’s easy to see details aren’t as sharp in photos. Again, the camera quality here isn’t anything to write home about, but on a phone in this price range, it does relatively well.

Lightly-skinned software

ZTE has avoided going the route of a heavy Android skin by delivering a somewhat vanilla Android experience – that’s a good thing.

The battery will last you a little more than a full day of use.

There are a number of pre-installed ZTE apps on the device, including “Browser,” which also happens to exist alongside a pre-installed Chrome. The extra apps are often redundant — WeShare and Dropbox come pre-installed — and you can often find the Google equivalent. Still, a few extra apps aren’t anywhere near the level of bloatware you could find on a phone like this.

There are only a few tweaks to the user interface from stock Android, but they are useful. For example, you’ll have access to a huge range of quick-access settings in the settings tray, and the settings menu has a “frequently used” section that’s much easier to navigate through than the full settings menu. They’re small changes, but they help ZTE distinguish itself a little without being to intrusive.

The only major downside here is how the software is outdated. The phone comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and it doesn’t seem as though an update is in sight. If you’re looking for a phone that’ll get quick and regular updates, this is not the right one for you.

Battery

The battery on the Blade V8 Pro is a hefty 3,140mAh, and it’ll last you a little more than a full day of use. In our tests, the phone had around 30-40 percent of battery left after a full day – which is pretty good. We’re power-users too, so light to average users may end the day with more.

ZTE Blade V8 Pro Compared To

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X

OnePlus 3T

Google Pixel XL

LeEco Le S3

ZTE Axon 7

LeEco Le Pro3

HTC Bolt

Lenovo Moto Z

Alcatel Idol 4S

Meizu M3 Note

Moto G4 Plus

Oppo F1 Plus

Lenovo ZUK Z1

LG G4

OnePlus One

The device wasn’t necessarily as good when left on standby over a few days — around the third day, it had 30 percent left.

The Blade V8 Pro charges via a USB Type-C port, which is better than the MicroUSB port on the Moto G5 Plus. It’s a reversible port, and your phone should charge faster.

Warranty information, and pricing

ZTE offers a standard limited warranty for its devices that will cover your phone from manufacturing defects for one year from the date of purchase.

The phone comes in at $230 on ZTE’s website, but you can also buy it for the same price on Amazon. It’s a pretty good price for a phone with these specs – it even offers more than the Moto G5 Plus.

The Blade V8 Pro is only compatible on GSM networks, meaning it will work fine on AT&T and T-Mobile, but you’ll have to opt for another phone if you’re on CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint.

Our Take

The ZTE Blade V8 Pro proves that you don’t have to buy a crappy phone if you’re on a budget. It’s a good performer, and it helps that the battery lasts a decent amount of time.

It doesn’t have the latest version of Android, and it likely won’t get timely security updates, but it’s a fraction of the cost of flagship smartphones — some of which take just as long with updates.

Is there a better alternative?

At the $230 price point, the ZTE Blade V8 Pro can’t be beat. The Moto G5 Plus is better — if you get the 64GB storage and 4GB RAM variant, but that will set you back an extra $70. The $230 Moto G5 Plus comes with 32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM.

If you have the money to spare, decide whether you want a reversible, faster charging port, and the ability to use Android Pay — those are two features you’d lose with the G5 Plus. On the other hand, you get a better software experience with Android 7.0 Nougat, somewhat faster updates, and a slightly better camera.

How long will it last?

The ZTE Blade V8 Pro should last at least two years – which is the standard lifespan of a smartphone these days. Towards the end it may slow down, especially if ZTE doesn’t keep up with updates.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re on a tight budget and need a capable, reliable Android phone under $250, the Blade V8 Pro is the phone to get. If you’re into quick Android upgrades and security updates, this phone isn’t for you.

Staying stationary with MrMobile: Home is where the tech is

“MrMobile” isn’t just a name; it’s a lifestyle. That means I normally only cover technology that takes you from your doorstep to distant destinations. But there’s an awful lot of interesting tech made for the home that’s cropped up over the past year that you’ve been asking about … and frankly, I don’t know much about any of it! So I hopped a plane to Pensacola, Florida to meet up with someone who does.

Join me as Modern Dad teaches us all about the coolest home tech of 2017, from Amazon Alexa to Google Home to something called “netatmo.”

After the video, be sure to subscribe to Modern Dad on YouTube – because before you know it I’ll be back on the road, and you’re gonna wanna stay on top of all the stuff Modern Dad is filling his house with.

Featured Products

• Echo
• Echo Dot
• Amazon Tap
• Echo Look
• Nest cam
• Netatmo Weather Station (indoor/outdoor)
• Netatmo Rain Gauge
• Netatmo Wind Gauge
• Ring Pro
• Google Home

Stay social, my friends

• YouTube 
• The Web
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram