Dior Homme x Sennheiser: Fashion hits headphones hard with stunning results

Dior Homme and Sennheiser have announced the latest fusion of fashion and technology in a partnership being called Dior Homme x Sennheiser.

The fusion of Dior Homme’s serious styling for men and Sennheiser’s serious audio skills see some of Sennheiser’s best products given a luscious black and anthracite design with fine red highlights.

The special editions cover the Sennheiser HD 800 S headphones, the HDVD 800 headphone amp, PXC 550 wireless headphones and the IE 800 in-ear headphones. However, the partnership has resulted in more than just the audio products alone, as Dior Homme x Sennheiser offers collections with custom accessories. 

The home solution gives you all the headphones and the headphone amp, but you also get matching storage furniture comprising to units with drawers lined with calfskin leather, so you can store your HD 800 S in style. There are also leather pouches for the smaller headphones, so everything is perfectly protected. The home solution, wait for it, will cost you £7600.

For those on the go, the travel solution is suggested. This pairs the PXC 550 wireless and noise-cancelling headphones with a mini leather backpack to take on your travels and be a home to your headphones when they are not on your head, as well as giving you the space to carry your other essentials. The travel solution is £1750. 

Or there’s a daily solution, with a Dior Homme leather clutch to house your PXC 550 headphones, which is a little cheaper at £880, or the in-ear pocket solution which is also £880.

Yes, it’s a small mark-up over the normal prices you would pay for these high-end audio devices, but what price can you put on looking good?

OnePlus 5 launch: When is it and where can you watch it online?

OnePlus has confirmed the OnePlus 5 will be unveiled on 20 June.

The OnePlus 5 follows the OnePlus 3T, one of the best budget smartphones of 2016. It debuted with top-notch specs and easily rivalled high-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10, and LG G5. But will OnePlus’ next flagship be able to do the same? Can it give the new Galaxy S8 and LG G6 a run for their money, while still maintaining OnePlus’ flagship-killing price strategy?

Pocket-lint has rounded up all the latest rumours on the OnePlus 5 here, but if you want to know more about the phone’s actual launch event, we’ve got you covered there as well. Here’s everything you need to know about when it is and how you can watch it online.

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When is the OnePlus 5 launch event?

The OnePlus 5 launch event will take place at 12pm EST (9am PST/5pm BST) on Tuesday 20 June. You will be able to watch the event online.

In addition, the company will be holding pop-up launch events in many major cities, including London, New York, and Berlin, on 20 June and 21 June. The phone will be shown off to a live audience at each of these events. Check out OnePlus’ website to RSVP your spot.

Can you watch the OnePlus 5 event online?

Yes. Here (the video won’t be live until the day of the event):

Want to know more?

Are you prepared for the OnePlus 5? Focus on what matters and join our keynote live on June 20. https://t.co/uuWc1m3pz1 pic.twitter.com/KfbVfMyh00

— OnePlus (@oneplus) June 6, 2017

You can also visit OnePlus’ website to watch the live stream.

Sky Q now lets you record six programmes, while watching a seventh

Ever felt spoilt for choice? The latest update for Sky Q customers will bring the ability to record six programmes while watching a seventh.

That’s mind boggling news, but means that you really don’t ever, ever, have to miss out on recording something because you’ve run out of tuners and you can really take advantage of the power that Sky Q offers on the 2TB box. 

This update doesn’t happen automatically, however. Instead, you’ll be prompted to make the change if you have set a whole load of things to record and hit that record button on the sixth show. Or, if you fancy turning it on, head into settings > setup > preferences > maximum number of recordings and you can change from five to six. 

Be warned, however, as there are some compromises to be made in using this extra tuner for recording. For example, the mini guide won’t show a live image and you can’t have split screen on Sky Sports.

• Sky Q review: 4K, multi-room support, apps and more
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Sky is preparing itself for a bumper summer of sport and entertainment with test cricket, the British and Irish Lions tour, Formula 1 and the Open, as well as the forthcoming Premier League season.

You also have the start of Game of Thrones season 7 to look forward to. Now there’s no excuse for not recording everything you could possibly want to watch.

LG V30 could get August launch, LG G7 to move to earlier January 2018 launch

News coming out of Korea suggests that LG is preparing to turn up the heat on its rival by launching its next generation devices earlier in the year than the phones they replace.

Reporting the information, Aju News suggests that the LG V30 – expected to be a content creators’ flagship with a focus on video and audio capture – will be on sale in August 2017, rather than September, the launch month of the LG V20. 

The LG V models have been creeping forward through the calendar: the LG V10 launched in October 2015. As previously, we’d expect the LG V30 to have a limited release, most likely focusing on Asia and the US.

The shift in timescale is reported to give LG more time to sell devices before competitor launched, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or the iPhone 8. We know the LG V30 is coming, because Google confirmed it at Google I/O, saying it would be Daydream compatible. 

• LG V30: What’s the story so far?

But that’s not all. There’s news about the forthcoming flagship replacement LG G7 too. The LG G6 was announced at MWC 2017 at the end of February, but it wasn’t actually available for a while after that. 

The LG G7 is said to be in development already, focusing on launching a device with the latest hardware from Qualcomm, reported to be 7nm Snapdragon 845. The LG G6 launched early with Snapdragon 821, a platform that’s not as sophisticated as the 835 that’s now in a number of flagships.

Again, we could see LG launching at CES 2018 to beat the likes of Samsung to market. 

Of course, we’re a long way from these dates at the moment and there’s plenty that could change in the meantime. 

• Best smartphone: The best phones to buy today

Researchers are using VR to make dentist visits less painful

Like airlines, dentists understand that the more they can distract you from what they’re doing, the better off everyone will be. UK researchers wanted see if virtual reality can ease patient pain and anxiety, so they enlisted 79 people who needed a tooth pulled or cavity filled. Patients were divided into three groups: One that viewed a VR coastal scene, one a VR city, and the other, no virtual reality at all.

The result? Folks that viewed the ocean VR experienced “significantly less pain” than the other two groups, showing its therapeutic potential for stressful events. Furthermore, follow ups showed that the coastal VR patients experienced less “recalled pain” memories after the fact.

Notably, the city VR was no more effective at reducing patient pain and stress than no VR, so the trick seems to depend on using calming scenes. While that seems incredibly obvious, the psychologists thought VR could just be distracting patients from all the drilling and poking, much as a TV does, but that proved not to be the case. “Our findings are in line with literature, showing that contact with nature, even indirect contact through windows, can influence physical and mental well-being,” the paper explains.

The researchers note that in previous studies, VR has been shown to reduce patient dependence on pain medication. “Our research supports the previous positive findings of VR distraction in acute pain management, and suggests that VR nature can be used in combination with traditional [medication].” The next step, they suggest, would be to vary the content of natural environments (using a forest instead of a coastal scene, for instance) to see if the can determine exactly how it reduces pain. We’d recommend they check out the zen content out there, and avoid any games.

Via: The Register

Source: Sage Journals

The Morning After: Thursday, June 15th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

A beautiful Minecraft? The return of Beyond Good and Evil? A Firefox browser that can challenge the speed of Chrome? What’s happening?! Thursday’s Morning After still has a lot of important E3 news to deliver, but Facebook also made a bot that can lie for the sake of a bargain.

That water, though.‘Minecraft’ looks like a completely different game in 4K

The best demonstration of the Xbox One X’s 4K capabilities comes from an unlikely, blocky source: Minecraft. Behind closed doors at E3 2017, Microsoft showed off a handful of games it upgraded to 4K just for the Xbox One X, including Gears of War 4, but Mojang’s cube-based crafting game clearly gets the most drastic upgrade.

There’s also a 7.1-channel headset for PS4 and Xbox gamers.Razer’s Blade Stealth packs a larger display into a familiar frame

While the Razer Blade Stealth is a solid laptop, that 12.5-inch display isn’t for everyone. The company is setting things right, though. A new version of the Stealth stuffs a 13.3-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen into a similar body. Yes, the system is slightly heavier (2.93 pounds versus 2.84), but you’re still getting that half-inch thickness and a claimed nine hours of battery life. The most conspicuous change is the US option for a gunmetal gray color (shown below) with a much subtler logo on the lid. Meaning, you won’t have to explain Razer’s bright green touches at your next business meeting.

Has it really caught up to Chrome?Firefox finally unveils its faster, more memory-efficient browser

Years after its competitors added multiple process tech that sped things up and reduced memory usage, Mozilla has finally implemented the technology in Firefox. That means version 54 is more efficient than its predecessors, and according to VP Nick Nguyen “make better use of the hardware on your computer, so Firefox can deliver you more of the web … with less waiting.” He even claimed that it uses “significantly less RAM than other browsers on Windows 10, macOS and Linux” — is that enough for you to switch back?

The brand is duking it out for last placeEngadget editors prove skill is not necessary to enjoy ‘Gran Turismo Sport;

There’s video evidence.

Mario’s newest adventure is creative, fun and kind of weird.‘Super Mario Odyssey’ may look bizarre, but it feels just right

Super Mario Odyssey is an evolution on the now classic open-exploration platforming of Sunshine and Mario 64. Just like in those games, players have free reign to wander around myriad unique and interesting worlds, choosing if and when they want to continue the game’s story by hunting down collectibles and completing challenges. The difference here, on Mario’s true Switch debut, lies in the worlds Mario explores. They are much, much more vast — and often wildly different in style to one another.

Your very own character and a whole universe to explore.The ambition of ‘Beyond Good and Evil 2’ might exceed the hype

Arguably the biggest surprise of E3 2017 was a minute-long trailer teasing a game that barely seems recognizable to the original Beyond Good and Evil. But even the anticipated return of the cult hit might not match the vision that director Michel Ancel and his team has for the sequel. Ancel himself outlines what we can expect from the return of the quirky game.

Really?Netflix has more US customers than the cable companies

Netflix has more US customers than the cable companies
According to Leichtman Research, Netflix’s 50 million US subscribers make it bigger than all the major cable TV providers combined (estimated at 48 million or so). That doesn’t include the 30 million-plus and growing number who get their TV from satellite (or internet TV, of course), but it’s still an impressive mark.

This is no quick-and-dirty remaster‘Shadow of the Colossus’ was rebuilt from the ground up for PS4

According to Shuhei Yoshida, when SotC comes to your PS4, the only thing that will remain of the original is its core gameplay. Everything else has been revisited and recreated for high-res gaming.

But wait, there’s more…

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Marimba-playing robot crafts its own tunes

Georgia Tech’s Mason Bretan has built a robot that can not only play music, but is now learning how to compose its own tunes. Shimon is a four-armed, marimba-playing droid that draws upon its vast library of songs to help it write the music that it plays. The system was fed around 5,000 songs from composers such as Beethoven and Stefani Germanotta all the way through to acts like Miles Davis and The Beatles.

Those with long memories will recall that Mason Bretan, who is now finishing his PhD, is already a name in the world of musical robots. Back in 2012, he developed Shimi, a robotic smartphone speaker dock that could track the facial expressions and position of its listeners. In addition, if you clapped a beat in front of the ‘bot, Shimi would attempt to find a song that matched the rhythm that you have supplied.

Shimon is an advance upon that, and only requires a seed or the opening four measures of a song, after which it’ll use its knowledge to improvise a tune. As you can see from the clip, the device creates a cheery, pretty inoffensive tune that could easily be mistaken for library music. It’s not the only project around that’s doing this sort of work, with British startup Jukeblox building an AI specifically to compose background music.

Shimon is going to perform its first live gig at the Aspen Ideas Festival at the end of this month, so we’ll soon see if the robot can cut it under the hot lights.

Via: MIT Tech Review

Source: Georgia Tech

Sky thinks you need to record six shows at once

Before the internet and the rise of streaming, families across the nation would sit down at regular times each week to get their fill of television. It still happens now, but on-demand services have changed the way each family member views their favourite TV shows.

Sky knew this, so it designed its next-generation set-top box — the Sky Q — to not only handle linear programming, but also deliver it at a time when it suits you. In fact, it stuffed the box with a staggering 12 tuners that at launch delivered live TV, picture-in-picture and streaming, as well as allowing you to record up to five shows at while while watching a sixth. It’s an impressive selection, but it obviously wasn’t enough.

As part of a new update, Sky has announced that Sky Q 2TB boxes will soon be able to record six shows at once, while broadcasting a seventh. The company says the feature arrives in time for “the exciting line-up of sport, TV shows and movies that will be hitting screens this summer,” but really we think it’s doing it just because it can.

What Sky has done is allow the Q to repurpose some of its built-in tuners. If there happens to be a day when the stars align and you do decide to record six things you can’t possibly miss, the lack of available tuners will mean that Sky Sports’ Split Screen mode will be unavailable and the mini guide will display a static image rather than a live feed of the channel you’re selecting.

The feature can be enabled one of two ways. The first appears in a dialog when you hit the record button for that sixth programme. The other is a toggle in the settings, which is found under Setup — Preferences — Maximum Number of Recordings.

Writing App Scrivener Gains New ‘Dark Mode’ on iOS

Popular writing suite Scrivener received its first major update for iOS today. Version 1.1 includes a number of enhancements under the hood, but the most obvious requested feature is a new Dark Mode.

The new Dark Mode can be enabled from within an open project by tapping the gear icon in the footer of the sidebar. This opens Project Settings, where users will see a toggle option for the new theme. All elements of Scrivener will switch to the Dark Mode, which should be useful for writers who often work in low light environments.

Elsewhere in version 1.1, the custom icons set now allows users to select emojis as document icons. To access the emojis, bring up the inspector icon for any binder document and press on the icon option. Along with the list of existing markers to choose from, users will notice a custom field where they can type any letter (or combination to associate a character point-of-view), or an emoji into that field.

In addition to bug fixes, the Scrivener team has updated the API used by Dropbox. Dropbox is moving to a new API at the end of June 2017, so the underlying sync code has been revised to make it ready for the transition.

Scrivener for iOS costs $19.99 and is available to download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Scrivener
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Amazon Dash Wand Barcode Scanner Launched With Built-In Alexa

Amazon has launched a new version of its Dash barcode scanning device for Prime U.S. subscribers that includes the company’s ubiquitous virtual assistant built in.

Called the Dash Wand, the Alexa-enabled gadget allows users to scan grocery barcodes, convert measurements, and order essential household items from Amazon with the click of a button.

Pressing the button activates the Dash Wand, enabling customers to use their voice to ask about recipes and find local restaurants. It’s also possible to control smart lighting via the magnetic device, which is designed to be attached to a fridge.

With the original Dash, released in 2014, users could scan barcodes and add items to their shopping cart via limited voice controls, but checkout had to be completed on the Amazon site.

By contrast, the new $20 Dash Wand allows users to buy items directly. Prime subscribers also receive $20 off their next purchase once they’ve registered the device, so it basically comes free. In addition, buyers get a free 90-day trial of the AmazonFresh home grocery service.

Amazon is an affiliate of MacRumors and the site may benefit if you click product links in this article.

Tags: Amazon Prime, Alexa
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