Samsung Notebook 9 Pro preview: Flip screened laptop with built-in S Pen

Samsung announced its latest iteration of the Notebook 9 series at Computex this year and it comes with something extra. The Notebook 9 Pro has an embedded S Pen stylus and we got to go hands-on with the device on the show floor.

As the device was on the Microsoft stand – having first appeared on stage at the Microsoft keynote on Tuesday 30 May – some specs were missing. However, we could see that it’s a 15-inch 2-in-1 convertible with some pretty convincing power going on under the hood.

t was running on Windows 10 and is Hello capable through facial recognition. There is no fingerprint scanner though.

Inside, the CPU is an Intel Core i7-7500U with AMD’s Radeon TM 540 GPU providing the graphics. The Computex model showed 16GB of RAM, plus a 256GB SSD.

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It sports a Full-HD touchscreen and the display we saw was bright and crisp. It has a rather generous lower bezel, reasonably slim bezels on the sides and an acceptably wide upper bezel to accommodate the camera.

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The most immediately notable aspect, aside from the switch to convertible format, is the addition of the S Pen – Samsung’s own peripheral which has previously only been seen on their mobile devices.

It is neatly contained in a dedicated slot on the right-hand side of the base, which we assume handles the charging aspect. We did notice that the exposed end had already been scuffed, but this is perhaps more an issue of a busy show floor than poor quality workmanship. The S Pen worked smoothly when we played around with it and, according to the Microsoft staff, supports 10 touch points. It also supports Windows Ink.

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In terms of ports, there are two USB 3.0 ports, a microSD card slot and the power button on the right-hand side.

The power button placement is a little odd – we accidentally switched the screen off a couple of times while we were handling it.

The left side has a USB Type-C port, HDMI, audio jack and a power-in slot. It wasn’t apparent if the Type-C could be used for fast charging, but we’d hope this is an option.

This is a 2-in-1 convertible and we found that the all-important hinge movement is smooth when switching into tablet mode. Overall, it handles quite well and while the weight wasn’t given at the time, it feels reasonably light enough to hold in one hand. That’s great bearing in mind that this is a 15-incher.

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The keyboard is a fairly standard affair with plastic keys and regular spacing and we found no issues in our brief test. There’s a large buttonless touchpad situated just below the keyboard too.

There are two speakers on either side of the curve of the base and we quickly popped on a spot of the KLF to test them. We were pretty disappointed with the volume and the sound quality. It’s not the worst we’d heard but it was nothing special.

The Samsung Notebook 9 Pro also comes in a 13.3-inch option and we’d look forward to getting a chance to review both fully.

At present, Samsung has not announced availability or pricing.

Tablo’s new Dual DVR is ready to record right out of the box

The original Tablo box debuted in 2013, pitched as a DVR for cord-cutters that could stream TV nearly anywhere, and now the company is back with a second generation version. The Tablo Dual is redesigned to fit everything in a smaller case with no fans for quieter operation, and also manages to squeeze in 64GB of memory. That means new users can start recording TV right away, without needing to plug in extra storage (although it does support to 8TB).

A “headless” tuner, it doesn’t need to connect directly to your TV, instead it’s ready to place wherever your antenna can get good reception, then serve up video streams viewable by apps on a PC, mobile device (iOS/Android), video game system (Xbox One) or connected TV setup (Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, LG webOS).

Just like its predecessor, accessing friendly features like guide data or the ability to stream while away from home will require paying a fee, $5 per month, $50 per year or $150 lifetime. The Tablo Dual itself will retail for $250 when it goes on sale June 4th exclusively through Best Buy’s stores and website.

Source: Tablo Dual

Mobile is helping The Pokémon Company make tons of money

It’s not every year that a mobile game becomes a genuine global phenomenon — but as I’m sure you all noticed, that’s exactly what Pokémon Go was. For a good few months, Nintendo and Niantic transformed most of the world into wandering cellphone zombies, and now, The Pokémon Company is reaping the benefits. In the previous fiscal year, the house of Pikachu found itself in a bit of a slump, turning over a middling profit of just $5.6 million dollars. Now, a report spotted by analyst Serkan Toto reveals that this financial year The Pokémon Company’s profits exceeded $143.3 million — more than 26 times what it made the previous year.

With Pokémon Go reportedly generating over a billion dollars worth of revenue by February, for many, the news won’t come as a huge surprise. A huge chunk of that profit has undoubtedly come from in-app purchases, but even more crucially for The Pokémon Company, its blockbusting app has helped to reignite brand awareness in a big way. From CG Pokémon trailers gracing the Superbowl to clothing brands seemingly revealing a new Pokémon merch collaboration every other week, Pokémon Go has seen the brand enjoy the most exposure it’s had since the 90s. Surprisingly, even the traditional handheld games have enjoyed a resurgence. While many assumed a free Pokémon game on mobile would cannibalize the franchise’s usual gaming entries, last year’s Pokémon Sun and Moon went on to become the third best-selling titles in the series.

Unfortunately, there is currently no breakdown of profits, leaving us with little information on how exactly merchandise and game sales contributed to The Pokémon Company’s lofty turnover. Yet, despite 2016’s impressive success, it’s hard to imagine the nostalgic brand capturing lightning in a bottle for a second year in a row. Pokémon Go’s AR-powered gaming offered something genuinely different, combining a powerful blend of social gaming and nostalgia that is near impossible for the brand to replicate.

With the rumored Pokémon Stars likely coming to the Nintendo Switch, the next financial year will see whether the brand can still continue to stay relevant with just a traditional game and the bizarre-looking Magikarp Jump propping it up.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Serkan Toto

Javascript creator’s browser raises $35 million in 30 seconds

You may remember Brendan Eich, the former CEO of Mozilla who stepped down amid political backlash surrounding his support for an anti-gay marriage bill in California. Well, he’s back, and he has cash to burn: His new browser startup, Brave, raised $35 million in under 30 seconds, reports TechCrunch.

He was able to accomplish such a dramatic feat because of initial coin offerings, or ICOs. It’s similar to an IPO (initial public offering) that occurs when a private company sells stock to the public for the first time. An ICO fundraises for a company but uses cryptocurrency rather than traditional cash.

Brave actually created its own coin, the Basic Attention Token (BAT), and priced it based on the cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH). One ETH is equal to 6,400 BAT. The company then offered a maximum of 1.5 billion BAT tokens for sale, hoping to raise 156,250 ETH, the equivalent of just over $35 million. They sold out in under 30 seconds, breaking records in the process. That’s in addition to $7 million that Eich has already raised from investors.

It’s important to note that, unlike an IPO, consumers are not buying shares or ownership in Brave. BAT are the equivalent of digital coupons; they can be traded and sold, but grant the holder no ownership rights. People purchased BAT tokens because they hope that Brave will be successful, causing the value of their cryptocurrency to rise.

The Brave web browser emphasizes privacy, with powerful built-in ad blocking features. What sets Brave apart from the rest, though, is its promised browser ad network. Eich maintains that if users opt into seeing ads from Brave’s internal network, the browser will actually pay you. This intriguing feature hasn’t yet been implemented, but it’s worth paying attention to the browser to see where it goes — especially considering how much money they now have for development.

Source: TechCrunch, Basic Attention Token

littleBits’ latest kit is ready to teach kids coding skills

In March, tech startup littleBits announced the Code Kit, which would make it a little easier to teach kids how to code, both at home and in the classroom. Today, the Code Kit is finally on sale for a price of $300 (educators can email education@littlebits.cc for a 5 percent discount). Code Kits are aimed at ages 8 and up — third through eighth graders — and the company estimates that one kit is good for three people.

The Code Kit puts an emphasis on fun, rather than learning — while the final goal is to teach kids how to code, littleBits aims to do so by showing kids that it doesn’t have to be boring. The Code Kit comes with 16 bits, from a pressure sensor to a slide dimmer, and 32 accessories, such as screws, USB power adapters and a mechanical arm; the idea is to give kids the resources to make four different games.

Kids program their games though a free app, and coding is based on Google Blockly. The bits are also reusable, so kids can improvise once they’ve built the games in the box. It’s an attempt to teach kids the value of STEM and STEAM to encourage interest in tech and engineering.

The Code Kit is designed for use at home or at school, though littleBits’ classroom aims are apparent: It was designed in consultation with 29 educators and comes with comprehensive educator resources. It’s clear that littleBits wants to make it as easy as possible for teachers to use the product in their classrooms; hopefully they can help reiterate the importance of STEAM education in our schools today.

Source: Business Wire, littleBits

Discover NYC’s ‘Lost Arcade’ on your go-to video library

The polish of modern gaming has nearly killed off the arcade era, but at what cost? The Lost Aracade, a documentary about Chinatown Fair, New York City’s last true arcade, captures the camaraderie, grit and sex that was all part of that culture. “There was a melting pot of a community that congregated there,” says director Kurt Vincent, “where all walks of life came together and shared one common interest: video games.”

A big part of the film’s charm is the grime of New York City, and the “CF,” as locals called it, looks like every seedy thing you ever imagined about the Big Apple. Founded at an unknown time, but came to prominence in the ’70s with coin-op games like Space Invaders, Ms. Pac-Man, Defender and Asteroids. It was around that time it was purchased by Pakistani immigrant Sam Palmer, who said the arcade “came to him in a dream.”

The story is told via its two protagonists, Local Chinatown resident Henry Cen and Akuma Hokura, a foster home runaway who found some peace by gaming. The core of the film is about the culture, relationships and vibe of the place, which attracted prostitutes and drug dealers as well as gamers. “That’s what this movie is really asking,” says Vincent. “How did this arcade manage to break down all social barriers that usually prevent seemingly disparate people from connecting with one another?”

When it closed in 2011, Chinatown Fair was the one of the last true arcades in New York. Its bittersweet fate is offset a bit by a section on the resurgence of “barcade gaming,” a trend Engadget’s Jessica Conditt reported on last year.

The film played to decent reviews, and should appeal to fans of gaming history as well lovers of old-school New York culture. It’s now available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, VHX, Vimeo and Vudu $10, or $3 as a rental. To get the links, check here.

Google Sheets uses machine learning to built you better charts

Google spent plenty of time at its I/O developer conference earlier this month talking about how we’re entering the age of AI. Today, the company’s humble spreadsheet app Sheets is getting an upgrade thanks to Google’s machine learning smarts. Sheets has long had an “explore” tool that analyzes your spreadsheets and builds charts automatically, but as of today you’ll be able to ask for charts using natural language.

Hitting the “explore” button brings up some default charts based on your particular spreadsheet. But if you want to get custom, you can just type things like “histogram of 2017 customer ratings” or “bar chart for ice cream sales” (two examples Google provided).

Another handy new feature closely links Sheets with Google’s presentation app Slides. Last year, Google added the ability to automatically update data from Docs into Slides with one click. Now, Google’s adding similar syncing features that go from Sheets into both Docs and Slides. That is, if you’re using the same table for data between these apps, you can just click an “update’ button to pull in the latest information from the master source.

Google also added a bunch of new functions to Sheets, bringing the total to more than 400. There’s also a new chart editor sidebar that should make building the right graph a little bit easier; this will also be available on Sheets for iPad and iPhone today as well. And for those of you who still need to put your spreadsheets on dead trees, there are a few new tools that make it easier to print your document. If you want to give these new features a shot, Google says they’re live today.

Lego Boost coding blocks arrive during summer vacation

In January, Lego announced a new line of products called Boost aimed at teaching kids aged seven and up how to code. Now, Lego Boost is available for preorder at a price of $160. Units will begin shipping in late July.

This first Lego Boost kit is called a “creative toolbox” and containing Boost bricks, Lego blocks, a Move Hub with a six-axis tilt sensor and instructions for building different Lego creations. But it’s not limited to what’s in the box — kids can use their own Lego bricks with Boost, encouraging creativity and teaching coding at the same time.

Much like littleBits’ Code Kit, which is available to ship starting today, Lego Boost uses an app to program kids’ creations. The Boost set contains five possible creations — from a robot to a cat to an Autobuilder, which builds its own Lego works — but the app also contains activities to encourage additional building and coding.

There’s been a trend of toys geared toward teaching kids to code. The aforementioned littleBits’ Code Kit focuses on teaching coding skills to elementary and middle school kids. And Apple’s Swift Playgrounds is a free iPad app designed to help kids program drones and robots. The abundance of coding apps and kits makes clear that getting kids interested in coding doesn’t have to be a laborious process.

Source: Lego Boost

Apple users have spent over $100 billion in the App Store

Apple announced today that app developers have earned over $70 billion through the App Store since its launch in 2008. As ever, the revenue split between Apple and its app developers is 70/30 for most purchases, meaning users have spent over $100 billion in the App Store.

The company also announced that app downloads have increased over 70 percent just in the past year, with photo and video apps nearing a 90 percent growth rate. Apple’s ever-increasing camera quality and everyone’s love of photo-sharing likely play into how well these types of apps continue to do.

Additionally, active paid app subscriptions are also up 58 percent year over year. Last June, Apple changed how it shared revenue coming in from subscriptions. While first year subscriptions are still subject to the 70/30 split, Apple’s take from those maintained longer than that drops down to 15 percent. And in November, rumors circulated that the 85/15 split might soon be applied to all subscription video apps with no increased take in the first year — but only if those apps were integrated with Apple’s TV app.

Companies like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube often pass Apple’s take onto the customer, making it more expensive to get the service through the App Store than through the providers themselves. Spotify has even gone so far as to encourage customers to cancel their iTunes subscription of the service and sign-up directly through Spotify to avoid higher fees. So, such a move could be beneficial to both those shopping in the App Store and Apple itself.

Apple’s announcement comes days before its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off Monday. Engadget will be live-blogging the event along with any additional information on App Store growth.

Via: Business Wire

Source: Apple

Intel’s Compute Card could transform the world of smart devices

It doesn’t take too long before your typical “smart” gadget becomes dumb. After a few years, the hardware inside of your TV or connected refrigerator will be hopelessly out of date. And if you want to upgrade, your only choice right now is to buy a whole new device. Intel is hoping to change that with the Compute Card, a credit card-sized device that packs in all of the hardware — a processor, memory, storage and networking capabilities — needed to make any device smart.

I got my first glimpse at the Compute Card in action at Computex today, and while the demos are still pretty rough, they were certainly intriguing. There’s a definite need for a modular computing platform like this, after all. The current approach to smart devices — that is, making them built for obsolescence — can only last for so long before consumers revolt. And it goes beyond today’s wares: the Compute Card could also pave the way for an entirely new approach to connecting everything.

“[It’s] about bringing computing to new types of devices, not about replacing traditional ones,” Intel’s Bruce Patterson said during a briefing with reporters.

After testing out Intel’s Compute Stick and flagship NUC (its family of miniature desktop replacements), I didn’t expect to be wowed by the the Compute Card. Still, it was smaller and thinner than I anticipated, about the size of a typical mobile battery pack. Under the hood, the Card packs in either Celeron or Pentium processors with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage; or seventh-generation Core m3 or i5 processors with 128GB of storage. Intel expects them to retail between $140 and around $450, depending on the model you choose.

I was more impressed by the ways manufacturers are already experimenting with the Compute Card. LG, for example, has a large display that turns into an all-in-one PC when you drop it in; Seneca is using it to power a digital media player; and Sharp has embedded it in an intelligent display. Intel also created a dock for Compute Cards that functions similarly to its NUC devices — it’s basically a modular desktop replacement.

Foxconn, the company that actually builds devices for the likes of Apple and Dell, also had a few intriguing mockups to show off. There was the expected, like a thin convertible laptop powered by Card. And then there was something completely surprising: A monitor stand that turns into an all-in-one PC when you plug in the Card and add any display. It’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t have made much sense before the availability of a modular computing platform. But now, it’s something that I imagine plenty of consumers would be interested in.

When it comes to the education market, the Compute Card could be used in an inexpensive, Chromebook-like laptop. That could make it easier on schools when kids inevitably break their computer shells, as well as for when they need to upgrade their fleet of computers. Intel also brought up the possibility of having students move the Compute Card from their laptop to a smart screen in the classroom, or bring it to a more capable laptop shell at home to continue their work.

Of course, Intel faces plenty of pitfalls ahead with the Compute Card. Its viability as an entirely new computing platform depends on manufacturer adoption, for one. While the company has the likes of Dell, HP and Foxconn aboard, it’s hard to judge how enthusiastic they really are about the Compute Card until we start seeing their devices ship. Intel also has to remain committed to supporting the existing Card platform for several years. At this point, Intel says it’s planning to keep this version of the platform going for a decade, but that could easily change at a whim.

Intel admits that it’s currently more difficult for device makers to integrate Compute Card than existing methods. But, that should change as they gain more experience. And Intel’s Patterson also noted: “Once ODM (original device maker) partners get it down, everyone will be able to do it.”

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