Swift Playgrounds Will Soon Be Able to Program and Control Robots, Drones, and Toys

Apple today announced that Swift Playgrounds, its iPad app aimed at making learning how to code interactive and fun, will be able to program and control robots, drones, musical instruments, and other toys when the latest version of the app is released at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

Swift Playgrounds version 1.5, set to be released on June 5, will support several popular Bluetooth-enabled devices, including LEGO’s MINDSTORMS Education EV3 robot, Sphero’s SPRK+ robotic ball and BB-8 droid, UBTECH’s Jimu Robot MeeBot Kit, Dash by Wonder Workshop, Parrot drones, and other toys.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

Apple invited a small group of reporters to its Cupertino headquarters to demo the functionality, including Engadget, which put together a brief video showing off the programmable toys in action.

Swift Playgrounds requires no coding knowledge to begin with. Kids and adults alike learn how to code by completing a collection of coding lessons and challenges, and the ability to program and control robots, drones, and musical instruments will make it all the more fun. The app uses Apple’s own programming language, Swift.

Swift Playgrounds is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, and iPad mini 2 or newer.

Tags: Swift, Swift Playgrounds
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New Nike Apple Watch Bands Now Available for Purchase [Updated]

Last week, Nike announced plans to release four new Nike+ Apple Watch bands in colors that match its line of Nike Air VaporMax Flyknit “Day to Night” shoes, and those watch bands are available for purchase as of today.

The new bands are available in four shades of pink and blue “inspired by the shade of the sky, from dawn to dusk,” and each one matches a Flyknit shoe. Nike has offered Nike+ bands since the Nike+ Apple Watch debuted in 2016, but this is the first time the company has made an effort to introduce bands that match its shoes.

Nike’s new Apple Watch bands are made of the same flexible fluoroelastomer material that’s used for Apple’s line of Sport bands, but Nike bands add perforations for ventilation purposes.

The bands are available from the Nike website for $49 each, and starting today, select Nike stores will also begin carrying them. Apple plans to start offering the new Nike+ bands in stores, from authorized retailers, and in specialty department stores in “early June.”

Nike’s matching Flyknit running shoes are also available starting today for $190.

Update: Many of the new Nike+ bands and Flyknit shoes have already sold out.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Seagate celebrates Xbox Game Pass launch with special external drives

Why it matters to you

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service is now live, and you’re going to need lots of storage space for those games. Seagate is here to save the day.

Microsoft’s new subscription service for the Xbox One console, Xbox Game Pass, has officially opened its doors to all Xbox One owners. To celebrate the event, Seagate will soon serve up a special bundle supporting the 100-plus titles Xbox One owners will be downloading to their consoles starting June 1.

Called the Seagate Game Drive for Xbox Game Pass Special Edition, the external hard drive(s) will be sold in 2TB and 4TB storage capacities. They will sport a white, rounded form factor with black Xbox and Seagate logos stamped on top, and connect to the Xbox One (or Xbox 360) using a single USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port: no additional power adapter will be required.

In addition to the white exterior, the drives will also come with a special bonus: a free one-month Xbox Game Pass subscription for the 2TB unit, and a two-month free subscription for the 4TB unit. That’s a $10 and $20 savings, respectively.

Seagate already sells three Game Drive external drives for the current consoles: the Game Drive for Xbox SSD (512GB), the Game Drive for Xbox HDD (2TB and 4TB), and the Game Drive for PlayStation (1TB and 2TB). However, just as it did during the Halo Wars 2 launch, Seagate is now offering special editions of its current two (and green) Game Drive for Xbox HDD models for the Xbox Game Pass premiere.

Unfortunately, the hardware specifications of both are scarce, but one product page states a performance of up to 140MB per second. The 2TB model is slightly thinner, measuring 0.58 inches in width while the 4TB model is 0.81 inches wide. Both are prime candidates for your pocket, and are quickly recognized by any Xbox One console once they’re connected.

“Super compact and designed for Xbox, gamers can take their favorite games and the hottest titles from the Xbox Game Pass catalog along with them — wherever,” Seagate said in a statement. “Simply unplug the Seagate Game Drive for Xbox and take an entire game library to a friend’s house,”

Unlike Sony’s PlayStation Now game-streaming subscription, Microsoft’s new Xbox Game Pass is a Netflix-type service, only subscribers aren’t streaming games directly to the console. Instead, games are downloaded and installed just like any other title offered on Xbox One. Microsoft plans to rotate games, too, just like Netflix, to keep the library fresh.

The subscription itself costs $10 per month, but if customers fall madly in love with a game before it’s shuffled off the subscription, they will have the option to purchase the game at a 20-percent discount, and all associated add-ons for a 10-percent discount. The service includes titles for the Xbox One console as well as the Xbox 360.

To start your free 14-day trial, head here. As for Seagate’s special edition external drives, both will be available this month via “select” Seagate retailers. The 4TB model will cost $130 and the 2TB model will cost $90. Remember, the average game weighs between 35GB and 50GB, so the extra storage space will definitely come in handy.

The M.Y. Misfit lets you mix and match your favorite fitness-tracker styles

Why it matters to you

Looking to buy a fitness tracker but wish you could create your own style? M.Y. Misfit could be the tracker for you.

Misfit has kind of dropped off the radar over the past few months, but the company is back with another wearable fitness tracker, called M.Y. Misfit. This tracker, however, is a little different from Misfit’s other fitness trackers — because it’s totally customizable.

The tracker is aimed at allowing users to mix and match the style, and as a result you can change the color of the device, the strap style, the material of the strap, and more. That can be helpful for many people — especially considering the fact that wearables are fashion items, and many people want their fitness trackers to match their personal style.

The new tracker isn’t necessarily totally new. When you’re building your own M.Y. Misfit, you can choose from the body style of previous trackers — including the Misfit Phase, Shine 2, Ra, and later this year, the Vapor. After choosing the body, you can choose from a range of different colors, including Jet, Rose Tone, Silver, Midnight, and Champagne. Then, you decide on strap material, with choices including silicone, field, paracord, leather “and more.” According to the company, in total there are a hefty 600 combinations of trackers you can choose from, and that number will apparently rise to over 1,000 before the end of the year.

After you customize your device, the tracker will be built and shipped to order — so while it may take a few days to get to you, it is custom built specifically for you. The price of the tracker isn’t all that bad either — the line will start at $80.

It’s nice to see a higher level of customization among fitness trackers, and hopefully that trend will continue — after all fitness trackers do benefit from being fashionable. And more customization is always welcome.

You can customize your own M.Y. Misfit fitness tracker at the M.Y. Misfit website.

Watch a Nintendo Switch survive a 1,000-foot fall from a drone

Why it matters to you

If you’re concerned about whether the Switch can survive a hefty drop, you needn’t be. It’s a tough little system.

The Nintendo Switch is a pretty durable little system, but some apparently weren’t convinced enough that the little plastic shell could protect its display from damage. In a rather extreme drop test, one YouTuber released a Nintendo Switch complete with joy-con controllers from a quadcopter drone to see if could survive a fall from 1,000 feet.

Drop tests are a rather common way for companies and reviewers to test the durability of products and for a number of shock-tubers to rile up their audiences by destroying expensive gadgets. Whatever category you feel UnlockRiver falls into though, this 1,000-foot drop test is an impressive one, because the Switch passes it with flying colors.

During its lengthy descent, the Switch flips back and forth through the air before hitting the ground with a rather worrisome crash. While the left joy-con was destroyed, the screen and right controller were absolutely fine. Although hardly scientific, the test suggests that Nintendo made a solid decision to leave glass out of the Switch’s design. The joy-cons also appear to have some measure of shock absorption, as the sacrificial controller in this case took the brunt of the fall.

Of course this test is somewhat redundant since the actual chances of a Nintendo Switch ever needing to survive such a fall are very slim. As portable as the system is, we wouldn’t recommend you play it on the edge of a cliff. This is UnlockRiver’s bread and butter though, as some of its most popular videos have involved dropping gadgets from drones at extreme heights.

A more worthwhile durability test may have been to see how the system’s bezel can stand up to repeated dockings. One of the cited problems with the Switch from some users is that putting the console back into its dock can result in abrasion on the bezel surrounding the screen.

Of course if you’re particularly concerned about that, you could just turn your old N64 into a Switch dock instead.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Preview 8

Preview 8 is an app that allows you download any file from the Cloud, and also happens to feature a music player that includes the ability to listen to music in background mode.

Available on:

iOS

Fuel

Want to know how much fuel your car is using? What kind of petrol costs your upcoming trip will involve? You can work all that out quickly and easily with Fuel.

Available on:

iOS

Remote Drive

Turn your iPhone or iPad into the wireless flash drive for your Mac. Have full access to your Mac files — use your iOS device to stream videos, and view photos and documents, from anywhere within your home.

Available on:

iOS

Time Manager

Time Manager is an easy way to keep track of your daily activities. With one touch you can access all your common tasks and edit them at any time. All your tasks will be totaled and broken down into reports and graphs for you to see how well you’re spending your time.

Available on:

iOS

Picture Perfect

Choose from a perfectly categorized collection of stunning effects such as Spot, Bloom, and Gloom to easily make your photos stand out.

Available on:

iOS

Skimmer

Skimmer is the most fluid speed-reading app to date, functioning on the principle of using your finger as a guide. You can adjust the speed and position without pausing and always see how much more time you have to read.

Available on:

iOS

HTC uses notifications to push the U11, and some customers aren’t pleased

Why it matters to you

If you’re an HTC owner who is being pestered about the U11, thankfully there’s a way to opt out.

HTC has quite a bit riding on its new flagship, the U11. So much, in fact, that the company is reaching out to previous customers to make sure they know about its latest effort.

A Reddit user shared this interesting screenshot from his friend’s Australian carrier-supported HTC One M8. It’s an ad for the U11, which would be ordinary if not for the rather ambitious placement: right in the notification feed.

It’s not unusual to see manufacturers supply their own apps with messages for new products. Sony, for example, has done it for years through its Xperia Lounge. But slotting it right atop all other notifications may have been a step too far, as evidenced by some of the responses in the thread.

“That’s pathetic,” one commenter said. “Looks pretty desperate,” added another.

Fortunately, HTC has made it easy to stop seeing these ads, and avoid any more like them in the future. The message itself contains a link to the company’s Australian site to learn how, but there’s no need to follow it — you can turn off all communications via the settings menus in two of HTC’s apps. Simply uncheck “Push Notifications” in Themes and “Notifications” in Blinkfeed.

It is interesting that the link is specifically for Australian customers. There have been no reports of similar ads from other territories on the Reddit thread, indicating that HTC could be testing this campaign on a relatively small number of users first. And that may have been a wise move, considering how it’s already rubbed some owners the wrong way.

We were generally pleased with the U11 in our review, calling it an excellent competitor to rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6 despite being a little dated in the design department. The U11 is one of the most powerful phones on the market today, while coming in at a price point significantly lower than Samsung’s offering.

Plex finally brings Live TV to its apps, coming first to Android TV

Plex is an incredible media server, but one thing, in particular, has been missing until now. Live TV.

You’ve been able to record over the air (OTA) TV for a while now with Plex DVR, but that has required the use of the web app and you haven’t actually been able to view things as they broadcast. That’s all changing as Plex is flipping the switch on live TV channels inside the Plex client apps, beginning withAndroid TV and iOS.

Plex Live TV and DVR fill a void in the current media consumption landscape by offering both major local and international network programming, with news and sports, at a fraction of the cost of traditional cable or satellite packages, skinny bundles, and other live TV streaming services.

Plex Live TV and DVR are available to Plex Pass holders at no extra cost, with a one-time purchase of an antenna and digital tuner from a wide variety of vendors.

Starting today, June 1, the Plex app on Android TV will be able to hook into OTA TV channels using a compatible tuner. We’ve looked at things like the HDHomeRun before used with an NVIDIA Shield TV, and it’s a similar idea here. Except you’re using Plex. This is a staged rollout, and the Android mobile apps won’t be far behind with them due to be updated to support the new feature sometime in June.

The feature requires Plex Pass, as much else does inside Plex, but if you already have a subscription there’s no extra cost involved. If you already use Plex DVR, it’ll feel very familiar. The same approach to organizing content has come across to TV inside the client apps. A ‘traditional’ guide is left out in lieu of a simpler way to watch TV. You can see what’s on now, what’s coming up, and break it all down into categories like sports, or movies.

Everything is incredibly visual, with Plex’s metadata functionality applied, so you’ll get artwork and associated information including IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Of course, the other big thing here is that you can finally interact with Plex DVR without having to resort to the web app. It feels like Plex maybe rolled out these features back to front, but what you have now is a single place to watch and record your favorite shows.

The same options already present in the Plex DVR web app are now in the client apps. You can record just a single show, or set a season link, and Plex will also give you TV recommendations based on what you watch and record.

Eventually, TV recommendations will make it to the home screen, but that’s something on a list for a future update. For now it’s a fairly steady rollout of the basic features, and it’s looking pretty sharp.

One bit of exciting news for Android mobile users that don’t have something like a Shield, is that Chromecast support will be coming down the road. The time frame is unclear right now, but eventually you’ll be able to send live TV from the Plex app on your phone or tablet to your Chromecast. Which is superb.

For now, it’s Android TV owners who get the best, and the graphic above shows which tuners Plex live TV currently supports and which it will support in the future. Initially, it’ll just be the HDHomeRun products, but in the future, it’ll be possible to use it even with a USB Tuner connected directly to the Shield TV box.

There are no shortages of ways to use your Android TV box like the Shield TV to watch live television, but Plex’s killer feature is now being able to handle that alongside all your own media in one place. For 40 bucks a year or $120 lifetime ($4.99 per month) you’re getting a ton of functionality from the Plex Pass subscription.

And if you’re using a Shield TV running Plex Media Server, you now have a box that can quite literally do it all.

Download Plex from the Google Play Store

Another new Pokemon game is coming to Android, but you can’t play it yet

Pokéland is out for Android now, as long as you’re one of the lucky few to have signed up already.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are pulling out all the stops with Pokémon on mobile this year. Immediately following the launch of the simpler Magikarp Jump, a new game called Pokéland has hit the Google Play Store. Before you get too excited, the game is currently in a limited beta, initially available only to the first 10,000 people to sign up. As you can imagine, that number was reached quite quickly, so the rest of us will be waiting a while.

Instead of wandering the real world in search of creatures to catch or swimming around with a single Magikarp, Pokéland is all about combat. The game is very much in the style of the Pokémon Rumble game, only aimed at phones instead of Nintendo products.

For the uninitiated, Pokémon Rumble features more polygonal, toy-shaped versions of Pokémon which break out of quarter vending machine-style capsules for you to collect and fight with. Matches are usually quick, and the “story” mode usually features increasingly complex battle mechanics with larger “boss” versions of the toys later on.

The most interesting thing we know so far about the game is that your Nintendo Account will be a part of the login process. This means your Nintendo Mii will be a part of the game and allow you to interact and fight with other players, but it may also mean some form of connection with previous games in this style.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one, but if you were one of the 10,000 to get in be sure to sound off in the comments!

Moto Z2 Play announced as Verizon exclusive in July, coming unlocked ‘later this summer’ for $499

The Moto Z2 Play is a solid upgrade over the Z Play in all but one area, and offers one of the best software experiences on any Android phone right now.

The rumors are true: Motorola has no intention to release a “plain” Moto Z this year — or at least it isn’t talking about it right now. What it is talking about is the follow-up to the successful and surprising performant battery leader, the Moto Z Play.

Aptly called the Moto Z2 Play, it will be available sometime in July once again as a Verizon carrier exclusive in the U.S., though this year it is wisely doing without the “Droid” addendum. It will also be sold unlocked through Motorola.com later this summer for $499, which amounts to a $50 premium over the Moto Z Play when it debuted last October.

More: Moto Z2 Play specs

The phone isn’t particularly different than last year’s Moto Z Play, and in one big way is a downgrade, but it’s still an impressive and well-rounded handset that achieves the company’s goal of consolidating two devices into one. We now have a smaller 3000mAh battery (compared to the original’s 3510mAh), but it’s also thinner, at 5.99 mm, and manages to maintain the beautiful aluminum back of the Moto Z and the popular headphone jack that phone went without.

The design is almost the same, but the new fingerprint sensor more than makes up for it.

While the design is largely unchanged from all of the other Moto Z products, the Z2 Play adopts the much-improved oblong front fingerprint sensor (and the useful One Button Nav feature that debuted on the Moto G5 earlier this year). It also features a slightly faster Snapdragon 626 processor, and a standard configuration of 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage
— slight bumps over the 2016 version.

On the back, a 12MP sensor with Dual Autofocus abilities and 1.4-micron pixels, along with an f/1.7 lens, promises vast improvements in the optics department. But camera aside, the real story this year is actually in the software: Motorola has done a fair amount, along with its upgrade to Android 7.1.1, to make the Moto Display and general Android experience that much better for the average user.

More: Fresh set of Moto Mods announced alongside Moto Z2 Play

Along with the announcement of the Moto Z2 Play, Motorola is launching a bunch of new Moto Mods, including a $79.99 JBL SoundBoost 2, a $79.99 Moto TurboPower Pack charger, a $39.99 Wireless Charging Style Shell and, later this summer, a very exciting $79.99 GamePad, which adds physical gaming controls to any Moto Z device.

See at Motorola