Emojis for zombies, T-Rex and Colbert are almost here

Your phone chats are about to get more… fantastical. Right on cue, the Unicode Consortium has released its promised batch of emoji and text characters. The finalized set of 56 emoji (up from 48 when we last reported) includes a slew of outlandish people and beasts, including zombies, vampires, fairies and dinosaurs. It also does more to accommodate women with emoji for breastfeeding and the hijab, while Stephen Colbert fans might be happy with the familiar-looking raised eyebrow (second from the upper left).

Outside of the emoji, the update also introduces a Bitcoin character and is more adept at handling less common languages or written requirements.

Don’t expect to use all these new characters right away. Your device operating system will need an update to recognize them, and there’s a good chance you’ll be waiting a while. You’ll likely have to wait until Android O to see them on a Google-powered phone, while the iPhone and iPad crowd will likely have to sit tight until iOS 11. There’s nothing stopping companies from adopting the new Unicode pack, however — it’s now just a question of everyone getting with the program.

Via: Emojipedia

Source: Unicode

First Apple Store in Taiwan to Open on July 1

Apple’s first retail store in Taiwan will open on Saturday, July 1 at 11:00 a.m., according to Apple’s Taiwanese website, which the company has been updating with new details on the store since it was announced.

To celebrate the store’s opening, paper-cutting artist Yang Shih-yi will showcase a huge and intricate tree cutout designed to welcome people into the store and highlight a tree as a gathering place theme. The same design currently decorates the boarding protecting the store from sight as construction finishes.

Image via AppleDaily
Apple’s Taiwan store is located on the ground floor of the Taipei 101 shopping mall in the Xinyi district, notable because Taipei 101 is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world. The new store will use the updated design that was first introduced at Apple’s flagship San Francisco location, with simple product displays, a repair area, gathering spots, and dedicated areas for “Today at Apple” classes.

Customers can begin signing up for Genius Bar repair appointments and Today at Apple classes starting today.

Apple has opened a total of 495 retail stores across 17 countries, including 270 in the United States since May of 2001. The Taiwan location will mark Apple’s 496th retail location.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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DJI Spark vs Yuneec Breeze: Which portable drone should you buy?

Buying one of the best drones on the market isn’t an option for everyone. Luckily, over the past few years, the cost of flying drones has plummeted as the market has expanded, allowing aviation amateurs to try their hand at capturing awesome photos and footage with an airborne robotic companion. Today, you can spend less than $1,000 — significantly less, actually — and still get a drone with tons of cool features and a powerful camera to boot. Yuneec and DJI, two of the top manufacturers out there, have each created UAVs that are simultaneously excellent and affordable. If you’re looking for a good drone, but don’t want to break the bank, your decision likely comes down to two competitors in one epic matchup: DJI Spark vs Yuneec Breeze.

The two manufacturers — architects of the Typhoon H and the Phantom 4 Pro, respectively — have recently begun to pay more attention to the midrange market, shrinking their flagship drones down to offer more affordable choices. The result? The excellent Breeze and Spark, two drones worthy of our best drones under $500 list. No longer is droning a hobby limited to the snootiest and most wealthy among us. The question is: Which drone is better? Well, we’re here to break down the differences for you.

Specs

Yuneec Breeze 4K

DJI Spark

Dimensions
7.72 x 7.72 x 2.56 inches
5.63 x 5.63 x 2.17 inches
Weight
13.58 ounces
10.58 ounces
Battery Life
up to 12 minutes (x2)
up to 16 minutes
Max Horizontal Speed
11.19 mph
31 mph
Max Climbing Speed
2.24 mph
6.71 mph
Included remote controller?
No
No
Camera
4K video at 30fps, 13-megapixel photo
1080p video at 30fps, 12-megapixel photo
FOV
117°
81.9°
Shutter speed
1/30 – 1/8000s
2 – 1/8000s
Gimbal
None
2-axis mechanical
Flight Modes
Quickshot (Rocket, Dronie, Circle, Helix), Tapfly, ActiveTrack, Gesture
Pilot, Selfie, Orbit, Journey, VisionTrack
Price
$370
$499
Availability

Amazon, Dell

Amazon, DJI

DT review
3.5 out of 5
4 out of 5

Design and controls

Both of these drones are ultra-portable, allowing you to easily fit them into any backpack and most purses. The Breeze is the bigger of the two, weighing in at about 14 ounces and clad in white plastic, with hinged props designed to reduce the drone’s storage footprint and to offer collision protection. The whole shebang packs neatly into a 10 x 10 x 2.5-inch carrying case, which should fit inside just about any backpack. The Breeze’s battery lasts for around 11 minutes, but it comes with two batteries (they take about 50 minutes to charge), so you’ll get upwards of 20 minutes of total flight time if you come prepared.

The Spark is a little bit more compact, weighing in at less than 11 ounces. It’s not just light, either; the Spark’s short arms and hidden camera make it a tiny tank, one capable of withstanding serious impacts without taking much damage. You can also buy it in five different colors — though, just the top plate will reflect your choice — injecting some personality into a field filled with blacks, whites, and silvers. The battery should last you about 13 minutes, though, unlike the Breeze, there’s no extra battery in the stock package. Allow for 45 minutes of charge time per battery, give or take.

Neither drone comes with a remote control; you’ll need to use your smartphone instead. This isn’t a big problem — in fact, it’s pretty standard for smaller drones — but a physical controller would be nice. You can buy an optional remote for the Spark, but not the Breeze. The Spark also includes obstacle avoidance software, which allows it to sense objects from up to 16 feet away. It’s not as robust as the software on more expensive drones, but the Breeze doesn’t have anything, so it’s still an advantage.

There aren’t too many design discrepancies between these two craft, but the Spark’s svelte frame and its ability to prevent collisions give it a leg up.

Winner: DJI Spark

Camera

Chances are, if you’re buying a drone, the camera is important to you. After all, if you just like flying, you can get an RC helicopter on the cheap. Considering their modest price tags, both of these bad boys are packing some photographic heat, but they both also have crucial drawbacks.

The Breeze comes outfitted with a 4K camera that records at 30 frames per second (or 1080p at 60 fps, or 720p at 120 fps), and can take 13-megapixel stills. The 117-degree field of view is an advantage as well, allowing you to capture wider frames. There’s one glaring omission, though: The gimbal. Unfortunately, the Breeze can only stabilize the camera along one axis- instead of the usual 3 that you’ll get on higher-end machines. The drone’s digital stabilization software works pretty well for lower resolutions, but it doesn’t work in 4K, which (along with the lack of a multi-axis gimbal) leads to some wobbly videos and blurry stills. Under the right conditions, the resulting video looks great, but a little bit of wind can make a big difference.

The Spark, meanwhile, doesn’t capture 4K video at all — instead, you’ll get 1080p in 30fps, and 12-megapixel stills. DJI did somewhat make up for this omission by including a two-axis mechanical gimbal, which drastically smooths footage (especially in windy conditions), and a Shallow Focus feature that lets you add some cool depth-of-field effects. Still, the gap in camera capability looms large here.

Winner: Yuneec Breeze

Flight modes and performance

So far, these two port-a-drones are neck and neck (or, if you will, rotor and rotor). To determine a victor, let’s look at the most important element in droning: Performance. It doesn’t matter how nice a drone’s camera is if it doesn’t have a satisfactory smattering of flight modes, and it definitely doesn’t matter if the drone can’t even fly straight or hover in place.

The Breeze is equipped with a nice selection of flight modes, with the autonomous Orbit, Selfie, and Follow Me modes that you’ll also find in the Yuneec Typhoon H. The drone beams live video back to your smartphone in real time, so you can see what it sees and adjust accordingly. An indoor positioning system also allows the Breeze to navigate inside buildings without biting it, and the virtual joysticks provide sufficiently responsive manual control.

The Breeze’s lack of obstacle avoidance abilities can get it into some hairy situations, which is presumably why Yuneec limited its maximum flight speed. Shooting in 4K works reasonably well indoors or in low-wind scenarios, but usually you’ll want to stick with lower resolutions (which will allow the digital stabilizer to do its job).

On the other side of the equation, the Spark is absolutely brimming with features, despite its inferior camera. From standard DJI modes such as TapFly and ActiveTrack, to new “QuickShots” like Rocket, Dronie, Circle, and Helix, the Spark simply has more ways to capture video, and its gimbal makes sure that recordings are buttery smooth. The Spark’s also got a few shooting modes for still photography, including burst shots and auto exposure bracketing, and it’s super stable; even in windier conditions, the Spark does an incredible job of automatically adjusting position and staying still until you tell it to move. You can even use hand gestures to control the Spark’s movements!

Winner: DJI Spark

Price and availability

Right now, the Breeze will run you $394 via Amazon. Alternatively, you can find it for $399 on the official Yuneec website. The Spark costs $499, whether you want to get it from Amazon or from DJI. The Breeze is cheaper, obviously, and it’s packing a 4K camera, but it’s also missing a few features that the Spark has. It’s difficult to call this category in either direction.

Winner: Tie

Overall winner: DJI Spark

Both of these drones are great buys for less than $500, but they’re not quite equals. Despite the sizable advantage that comes along with a 4K-capable camera, the Yuneec Breeze can’t compare to the DJI Spark when it comes to functionality, features, or flight stability. The Spark won’t capture footage in ultra-high definition, but its suite of flight modes and its collision avoidance software are generally hallmarks of far more expensive offerings. If you’re just looking for some cheap thrills, the Breeze might be a good choice, but for our money, the Spark is superior.

The Kodak Tablet is here — and it’s low in both megapixels and price

Why it matters to you

The tablets manufacturered by Archos and branded with Kodak may not be big on camera specs, but the price could be right for many users.

The first Kodak Tablet is coming but unlike the company’s smartphone, the latest mobile devices are focused more on photo editing than megapixels.

The Kodak Tablet, designed and manufactured by Archos but branded through a licensing agreement with Eastman Kodak, will go on sale in Europe by the end of July in 7-inch and 10.1-inch screen options. After sharing that the tablets were under development in February, the company announced the full specs on Tuesday.

The tablets’ biggest focus is on software and are pre-loaded with several imaging apps and 1 GB of RAM for processing, sharing and printing those shots. The tablet is preloaded with the popular (and already free) Google Snapseed, as well as Cyberlink Photo Direct for adjusting contrast and colors, Cyberlink Youcam for beauty edits, and Cyberlink Youcam Fun with live filters and photo frames. Those edits are made easier with a IPS HD screen designed for optimum color and a 64-bit Mediatek quad-core processor.

The preloaded Photobox app is designed for printing photos and includes 50 free prints.

While the Kodak Ektra smartphone focuses the specs toward the built-in camera, the camera on the new Kodak tablets are fairly standard, with an eight-megapixel rear camera and a two- megapixel front-facing option. Video is just 720p quality. The color options keep in tune with the Kodak brand with a characteristic yellow along with a standard black option.

The Kodak Tablets run on Google Android Nougat 7.0. The smallest version uses 16 GB of storage while the 10.1 inch model has 64GB and both offer a mini SD card slot. The larger version also has a longer battery life, rated at 5.5 hours over the 7-inch option’s 3.5. Both 3G and Wi-Fi are included, as well as a built-in GPS.

While fans may be disappointed the tablets do not have the same camera specs as the Kodak Extra, the tablets have one more redeeming factor — they list for about $89 and $134, though it’s unclear yet if the tablets will be sold outside of Europe.

The Kodak Tablet is here — and it’s low in both megapixels and price

Why it matters to you

The tablets manufacturered by Archos and branded with Kodak may not be big on camera specs, but the price could be right for many users.

The first Kodak Tablet is coming but unlike the company’s smartphone, the latest mobile devices are focused more on photo editing than megapixels.

The Kodak Tablet, designed and manufactured by Archos but branded through a licensing agreement with Eastman Kodak, will go on sale in Europe by the end of July in 7-inch and 10.1-inch screen options. After sharing that the tablets were under development in February, the company announced the full specs on Tuesday.

The tablets’ biggest focus is on software and are pre-loaded with several imaging apps and 1 GB of RAM for processing, sharing and printing those shots. The tablet is preloaded with the popular (and already free) Google Snapseed, as well as Cyberlink Photo Direct for adjusting contrast and colors, Cyberlink Youcam for beauty edits, and Cyberlink Youcam Fun with live filters and photo frames. Those edits are made easier with a IPS HD screen designed for optimum color and a 64-bit Mediatek quad-core processor.

The preloaded Photobox app is designed for printing photos and includes 50 free prints.

While the Kodak Ektra smartphone focuses the specs toward the built-in camera, the camera on the new Kodak tablets are fairly standard, with an eight-megapixel rear camera and a two- megapixel front-facing option. Video is just 720p quality. The color options keep in tune with the Kodak brand with a characteristic yellow along with a standard black option.

The Kodak Tablets run on Google Android Nougat 7.0. The smallest version uses 16 GB of storage while the 10.1 inch model has 64GB and both offer a mini SD card slot. The larger version also has a longer battery life, rated at 5.5 hours over the 7-inch option’s 3.5. Both 3G and Wi-Fi are included, as well as a built-in GPS.

While fans may be disappointed the tablets do not have the same camera specs as the Kodak Extra, the tablets have one more redeeming factor — they list for about $89 and $134, though it’s unclear yet if the tablets will be sold outside of Europe.

Microsoft’s extended Edge bug bounty program offers rewards up to $15K

Why it matters to you

Microsoft wants to keep you safe when using the Edge browser, and that means extending its cash rewards program for individuals who hunt down and report vulnerabilities.

Microsoft said Wednesday that it’s extending the Microsoft Edge bounty program indefinitely. The program rewards individuals who submit vulnerabilities discovered in a “preview” version of the Microsoft Edge browser served up to Windows Insiders (slow ring). Thanks to this bounty program — and the helpful “bug hunters” — the final builds of Microsoft Edge released to the general public are even more secure.

“Over the past 10 months, we have paid out over $200,000 USD in bounties,” the company said. “This collaboration with the research community has resulted in significant improvements in Edge security, and has allowed us to offer more proactive security for our customers.”

Microsoft first began dishing out bug bounties in 2013. The first paid up to $100,000 for “novel exploitation techniques” against the Windows operating system. Another paid up to an additional $50,000 for submitting “BlueHat” ideas for defending Windows against the techniques used in the first bounty. The third program paid up to $11,000 for the discovery of critical vulnerabilities in the Internet Explorer 11 Preview.

Last August, Microsoft established its Edge bounty program to help discover Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities in preview builds of Microsoft Edge that were served up to the Windows Insider program. Dishing out up to $15,000 in cash, the program was originally slated to end on June 30, 2017. But now that it’s an ongoing program, it will join the Bounty for Defense, the Mitigation Bypass Bounty, Online Services Bug Bounty, and two other ongoing bounties in Microsoft’s lineup. Microsoft’s bounty for Office vulnerabilities ended on June 15.

According to Microsoft, the Edge browser bounty was so productive that the deadline was lifted indefinitely at the company’s discretion.

“Microsoft is committed to delivering secure products to our customers, and this bounty program helped us achieve that goal,” Microsoft said. ”We received many high-quality reports in Edge during this 10-month program. which helped keep our customers secure.”

All bounties related to Microsoft Edge will range in from $500 to $15,000. If an individual submits a qualifying vulnerability already discovered internally by Microsoft (and not yet reported), then the company will hand over a maximum cash wad of $1,500 to the first qualifying submission. All vulnerabilities must be reproducible on the latest Windows 10 preview build provided on the Windows Insider Slow Ring. Vulnerabilities relating to older builds will be deemed ineligible.

Microsoft indicates that it’s capable of paying out more than $15,000 for the Edge bounty program. The larger sum will be at Microsoft’s “sole discretion” and based on “entry quality and complexity.” Otherwise, submissions with a “high” report quality will see up to $15,000 in payment, while low-quality submissions will see up to $1,500 in payment.

Bye, bye bills! Harvard’s HouseZero produces more energy than it consumes

Why it matters to you

This energy-efficient house could be good for the power grid, better for your wallet.

Anyone who has ever gotten an unexpectedly large heating bill will likely be interested to hear about Harvard University’s ambitious HouseZero project currently taking place in Cambridge, Massachusetts: To create a sustainable building that produces more energy than it consumes.

That may sound impressive enough on its own, but clear your mind of the kind of futuristic architecture that would be more at home as the dazzling headquarters of a Silicon Valley tech giant. Instead, what researchers from Harvard, architectural firm Snohetta and Skanska Technology have done is to retrofit a stick-frame pre-1940s house — which will serve as the new energy-efficient home of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities.

The idea is to demonstrate a transferable model of retrofitting that could be applied to the 14 million-plus residential houses of its type that currently exist in the United States. This stands in contrast to conventional thinking that similar levels of energy efficiency can only be developed as part of a new construction.

Harvard Center for Green Cities and Buildings

The so-called HouseZero project boasts a variety of nifty features. These include reducing the need for electric lighting by creating new, enlarged windows and skylights, designed to protect interior spaces from direct sun in the summer, while also encouraging winter sun. This means minimal cooling necessary in the hot summer months, while minimal heating is required in the cold winter months. Air quality and comfort levels in the house are permanently monitored, with ventilation controlled via smart algorithms and room sensors that are responsible for opening and shutting windows. Then there’s a glazed, solar chimney designed to generate thermal uplift to draw heat from the basement into the main living areas. In addition, expect energy generated by photovoltaic panels and then stored for use — with surplus energy fed back into the city’s power grid.

In terms of materials and design, the house consists of open-plan areas, glass partitions, and lots of exposed wooden beams; which will all contribute to a quiet, undisturbed living experience. Sure, you might feel a bit like you are living in an Apple store at times, but the lack of bills will presumably make up for it!

Should all continue to go to plan, expect more houses like this to pop up around the United States in the not-too-distant future.

These fully wireless Kickstarter earbuds offer graphene-based drivers, and a very nice price

Why it matters to you

The pairing of graphene and a powerful charging case may be the recipe to make the Liberty+ a pair of true wireless earphones worth your time and money.

The Liberty+, a pair of fully wireless earphones that serve as the first product from Anker’s audio brand, Zolo, hit Kickstarter this week to much fanfare. The campaign has already surpassed $600,000 at the time of writing, charging past its $50,000 goal with a full 32 days left to go.

So, why are people so excited for these earphones? After all, totally wireless earphones (those with no cords of any kind) are nothing new, with plenty of forgettable offerings to go with a few solid choices (here are our favorites). But the Zolo have a special ingredient that may be the key to their instant popularity: Graphene.

Graphene is a super-conductive metal made of pure carbon first created in 2004. It is extremely strong, light, and malleable, making it ideal for constructing components like audio drivers, which is exactly how Zolo is implementing the material in the Liberty+. The use of “graphene-augmented drivers” for the Liberty+ is intriguing, and could theoretically result in impressive audio quality, though the use of the material alone is not necessarily any assurance of high audio quality.

That’s not all they’ve got up their tiny sleeves, though. The Liberty will also be bolstered by AI assistant integration to control your music playback through voice commands, as well as provide information on weather, news alerts, traffic updates, and more. Zolo says they’ll be compatible with Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana.

As for battery life — the most important aspect of any wireless audio devices after sound quality — the Liberty+ boast about 3.5 hours of playtime, which is decent, but not amazing. However, Anker has used its battery know-how to develop a portable charging case for the Liberty+ which is claimed to offer an impressive 48 total hours of playback time. Rounding out the specs is the inclusion of Bluetooth 5 for wireless connectivity, which offers, among other things, faster data transfer that Zolo says helps prevent dropout. The company also assures pairing the Liberty+ to playback devices will be as simple as a single button press process.

According to the Kickstarter page, Zolo is aiming for an October 2017 release for the Liberty+. The earphones will retail for $150 on the open market, but backers can pledge to the Kickstarter campaign for a serious discount before it wraps on July 24.

To preorder your own pair, you’ll need to pledge at least $99 (the $79 early-bird backing option is already sold out), which nets you the Liberty+ earphones, the charging case, three pairs of eartips, four GripFit jackets for a customizable fit, and a Micro USB charging cable.

Coincidentally, the Liberty+ aren’t the only headphones with graphene-based drivers we’ve heard about lately. We recently went hands-on with Ora’s new GrapheneQ headphones, and came away impressed by the sound and excited about audio’s graphene-powered future.

Google is putting its display ads on a diet to help speed up browsing

Why it matters to you

Thanks to Google’s efforts to make ads less obnoxious, your browsing experience should be a little faster now, and your battery should last a little longer.

Google is on a quest to make online ads less obnoxious, which makes sense for a company that makes its living on web-based advertising. People hate videos that play automatically, glaring slogans, and ads that suck down bandwidth and slow down the browsing experience, and Google is serious about making a fix.

The company will be officially blocking some kinds of ads in its industry-dominating Chrome browser starting in 2018, and it’s already stopping ads that try to pop up in new tabs. Google is also taking steps to make its own ads less unruly, as ZDNet reports.

It’s doing all this by applying compression to its display ads using the Brotli compression algorithm. This specific compression scheme promises to reduce the size of Google’s ads by 15 percent compared to gzip compression, with a more than 40 percent reduction in some ads. While not every Google ad will enjoy this level of compression, Google says it’s applying Brotli compression “whenever possible.”

The benefits from putting its ads on a diet can be significant. As Michael Burns, a software engineer on Google’s Publisher Tagging and Ads Latency Team says: “[The use of compression] reduces the amount of data sent to end users by tens of thousands of gigabytes every day.” What that means for individual users is faster page loads, better overall performance, and, ultimately, lower battery consumption.

The Brotli compression algorithm is supported in the top web browsers today, including Chrome, Microsoft’s new Edge browser that’s featured in Windows 10, and Firefox. Only Apple’s Safari browser doesn’t support the new tool, which superseded the earlier Zopfli algorithm and provides up to 26 percent better compression.

In 2018, Google Chrome will start blocking any ads that don’t conform to the new Initial Better Ads Standards defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, including its own display ads. That means that users should gain a tremendous boost in their ability to enjoy the browsing experience without being subjected to the most obnoxious ads. In the meantime, Google will be working to make the ads that do show up just a little more efficient.

T-Mobile and Sprint are reportedly edging closer to a merger

Why it matters to you

If you’re a customer with Sprint or T-Mobile, this potential merger could mean that you will likely be seeing some major changes.

Although the plan has been bounced back and forth for a long time now, it seems that T-Mobile and Sprint could be that much closer to a merger, Bloomberg reports.

Deutsche Telekom — which controls T-Mobile — has begun to make strides in its plans for the merger. The company reportedly wants an all-stock deal with Sprint in order to continue to apply T-Mobile’s current marketing strategy after the two carriers are combined, German newspaper Handelsblatt reports.

When the merger was rumored months ago, SoftBank — Sprint’s parent company — reportedly had not pushed the subject due to strict U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting rival carriers from conspiring during airwave auctions.

Now, the report claims that final measures are being put in place to complete the merger and the all-stock agreement would eliminate transaction costs with a deal like this because both companies would be exchanging stock rather than actual money.

This news also comes right after Sprint introduced its new promotion to encourage customers to ditch their current carriers. Those who switched to Sprint would receive unlimited data for up to five lines for free — making it clear that the carrier might be in trouble.

Sprint has consistently been playing catch-up with its rival carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Last year OpenSignal reported the carrier took last place in all categories ranging from speed to latency. On the other hand, T-Mobile had an increase in 4G coverage at 81.2 percent — which was neck and neck with AT&T at 82.6 percent — trailing closely behind Verizon. Sprint came in last, yet again, at 70 percent.

T-Mobile has been making efforts to improve its service across the board after having rolled out LTE on the 700MHZ spectrum. The OpenSignal report also measured LTE speeds in 11 of the biggest metro areas where T-Mobile won in four cities — placing it ahead of Verizon’s three — but the two carriers tied in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Although Verizon still remains champion when it comes to coverage nationwide and reliability, T-Mobile is clearly working to toward getting ahead. If Sprint has any last chances of survival, merging with T-Mobile could potentially create a carrier stronger than its revivals.