Vinpok Bolt USB Type-C magnetic cable boosts charging for MacBook Pros

Why it matters to you

It’s not available yet, but this magnetic USB Type-C charging cable could be your one-stop shop for powering your devices.

Vinpok’s new Bolt USB Type-C magnetic cable is designed to be a one-stop shop for charging smart devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile handsets, by boosting the available power and connecting easily to the charge port. It makes use of a “snap and charge” design, and ups the ante over other magnetic Micro USB cables by offering up to 87-watt charging for 15-inch MacBook Pros. While its claims to being the first to offer such functionality in a magnetic cable could be debated, its ease of use is a significant feature.

Each cable comes with a USB Type-C plug that fits into the charge port of your laptop or smartphone and then the cable connects magnetically to that to enable charging. The magnetic grip is designed to keep it in place, without the need for plugging in and out, which can cause abrasion over time.

Currently available to pre-order for $30 — though said to be typically priced at $60 — the Vinpok Bolt comes in two color options: Black and silver. It’s compatible with all USB Type-C devices, though new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are specifically cited in the product listing.

The magnetic connection itself is said to make use of gold-plated needles for a durable and efficient charging with neodymium magnets binding the cable to the adapter, for a strong but easy-to-remove connection. As with other USB Type-C cables, it’s entirely reversible, meaning the age-old search for the correct orientation of traditional USB connections is a thing of the past.

Vinpok hasn’t made it clear when the Bolt cables will begin shipping out, though its PR push would suggest it’s not too far off. We’ve reached out to the company to confirm a launch date and details and will update this post as we hear back.

If you can’t wait for this one, Vinpok does sell other cables, like a 3-in-1 connector that combines Micro USB and lightning connectors to make a charger that is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices, though it’s not magnetized.

Of course make sure to check your device actually has a USB Type-C port before buying a cable such as this. If you’re running something like a Microsoft Surface, it won’t have one.

Vinpok Bolt USB Type-C magnetic cable boosts charging for MacBook Pros

Why it matters to you

It’s not available yet, but this magnetic USB Type-C charging cable could be your one-stop shop for powering your devices.

Vinpok’s new Bolt USB Type-C magnetic cable is designed to be a one-stop shop for charging smart devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile handsets, by boosting the available power and connecting easily to the charge port. It makes use of a “snap and charge” design, and ups the ante over other magnetic Micro USB cables by offering up to 87-watt charging for 15-inch MacBook Pros. While its claims to being the first to offer such functionality in a magnetic cable could be debated, its ease of use is a significant feature.

Each cable comes with a USB Type-C plug that fits into the charge port of your laptop or smartphone and then the cable connects magnetically to that to enable charging. The magnetic grip is designed to keep it in place, without the need for plugging in and out, which can cause abrasion over time.

Currently available to pre-order for $30 — though said to be typically priced at $60 — the Vinpok Bolt comes in two color options: Black and silver. It’s compatible with all USB Type-C devices, though new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are specifically cited in the product listing.

The magnetic connection itself is said to make use of gold-plated needles for a durable and efficient charging with neodymium magnets binding the cable to the adapter, for a strong but easy-to-remove connection. As with other USB Type-C cables, it’s entirely reversible, meaning the age-old search for the correct orientation of traditional USB connections is a thing of the past.

Vinpok hasn’t made it clear when the Bolt cables will begin shipping out, though its PR push would suggest it’s not too far off. We’ve reached out to the company to confirm a launch date and details and will update this post as we hear back.

If you can’t wait for this one, Vinpok does sell other cables, like a 3-in-1 connector that combines Micro USB and lightning connectors to make a charger that is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices, though it’s not magnetized.

Of course make sure to check your device actually has a USB Type-C port before buying a cable such as this. If you’re running something like a Microsoft Surface, it won’t have one.

Best Shooters For VR

What are the best shooters for VR?

One of the biggest genres in console and PC gaming is the shooter – an instantly recognizable concept with wide appeal. This appeal has also extended to virtual reality, putting players right into the center of the battle zone.

There are plenty of shooters on all VR platforms, but here are the ones we think are best suited for your library!

Read more at VR Heads!

Take a deep dive into Python with this boot camp bundle!

Python is one of the most popular programming languages out there thanks to a fast edit-test-debug cycle and wide versatility. Jumping into Python from a beginner’s standpoint isn’t exactly easy, as there are many routes you can take. The training required to become a Python expert is also generally quite expensive.

Become a Python master and save over 90% with this bundle! Learn more

What if there was a bundle of courses that included teaching for beginners as well as advanced users? What if, instead of paying over $800, you could pay under $50 and have access to the bundle for lifetime access?

Right now, Android Central Digital Offers has a great deal on the Python Programming Bootcamp 2.0, which includes eight courses that will take you from amateur to expert. Instead of paying the regular price of $1,293, you’ll pay just $50. That’s over 90 percent off!

Included in this bundle are hundreds of lectures in the following nine courses:

• Fast Track Python for Newbies
• Learn Python Image Processing by Making Instagram-Style Filters
• Create a Raspberry Pi Smart Security Camera with Python
• Master Data Visualization with Python
• The Complete Python Programming Boot Camp: Beginner to Advanced
• Learn Python with 70+ Exercises
• Python Programming for Beginners: Learn Python in One Day
• Machine Learning with Python
• Python for Finance: Investment Fundamentals & Data Analytic

Learn how to code with Python! Learn more

Even if you’re a complete beginner to Python, this bundle has what’s needed to become a true expert. At over 90 percent off, there’s no better time to get started on a new career. Don’t wait too long; this deal won’t last forever.

Brace yourself for winter with these Game of Thrones wallpapers

Winter has come.

Game of Thrones season 7 is upon us, and we all know what that means! Another few months of shocked gasps, heartbreaking storylines, and SO much death. Whether you’ve been along since season 1 (which feels like a lifetime ago now), or you hopped on the banddragon later on, it’s time to break out the popcorn and get ready to rumble! But before the new season and all its drama comes, let’s deck our phones in some Game of Thrones glory!

A number of things come to mind in this beautifully macabre scene. It’s lonely at the top. The road to the top stomps over a lot of bodies. But mostly to my mind what comes to mind is blood. That’s a whole lot of blood. Like put-the-Red-Wedding-to-shame whole lot of blood.

Winter Has Come by James Bousema

The Iron Throne is the subject for a lot of wallpapers, but this surprisingly simple symmetric wallpaper pulls me in somehow. And this DeviantArt user has a whole gallery of poster-type wallpapers for us to showcase our House pride with.

Iron Throne by jjfwh

Another series of wallpapers with German-style crests on parchment backgrounds stirs something within me. I dunno if it’s just how I was trained by Harry Potter or if it’s the helmets atop each crest (look at the Magneto-style helmet for House Martell!!), but if you’ve got to wear a House crest into battle — or work, more often work — it’s hard to go wrong with these beauties, originally from Reddit.

The Old Houses of Westeros

While deer are not my favorite animals, the ones used in the iconography for Baratheon house are just the most majestic animals on the show (and that quite possibly includes the dragons). And this illustration of a Baratheon stag, quite possibly with magical powers judging by the aura surrounding it and its glowing white eyes, is the most majestic I’ve come across yet. I look in those glowing eyes and I’ve never believed harder in OURS IS THE FURY.

Baratheons by Looksnookem

“You know nothing, Jon Snow.”

This may be one of the most quoted lines of the decade, and even if a lot has happened to the now King of the North since then, it’s still a quote that will forever be tied to one of Game of Thrones’ most recognized and loved characters. We’re a far cry from these woods now, and while Winter has finally come, this wallpaper will forever be a masterpiece. This mostly monochromatic piece uses a few splashes of red in some most dramatic and beautiful way possible; I can feel the murderous intent in those blood red eyes!

Amazon Prime Exclusive: Should you sell your lock screen?

How far would you go to save money on your smartphone? If you said “far enough to sell space on my lock screen for ads,” then you probably don’t care that Amazon Prime Exclusive lacks the flagship-grade smartphones your tech geek friends always gush about. The Moto E4 and IDOL 5 are hardly the most exciting devices on the block, after all. That said, the Nokia 6 is a hotly anticipated piece of kit if all of your review requests are any indication, and its arrival on Amazon Prime Exclusive coincides with its official U.S. debut.

Couple that with a $50 savings off the retail price in exchange for a few ads, and Amazon Prime Exclusive might just tempt the affordable smartphone crowd — assuming they’re already Amazon Prime members, of course. For all the other caveats (and cool bits), click on through to MrMobile’s test drive of Amazon Prime Exclusive!

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• Nokia 6
• Alcatel Idol 5S
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LG V30: Our wishlist for the next LG flagship

In a year of comebacks, the LG V30 could be the phone maker’s best handset to date. Here’s what we’re hoping to see when it finally breaks cover.

We don’t know a whole lot about the LG V30 just yet. (That’ll likely change in the run up to release, as more details inevitably leak out online.) But for the time being, all we have is a collection of CAD renders and some vague details around its rough proportions — expect a 6-inch screen and standard 2017 flagship specs.

1. A serious wide-angle camera

LG’s wide-angle camera is one of the G6’s best features, letting you capture dramatic shots with a fuller field of view. But there is one major downside: With its lack of optical stabilization, small pixels and f.2/4 aperture, the wide-angle camera just isn’t great in low light. In fact, even in daylight shots, fine details tend to get stripped away, particularly around the edge of the frame.

LG has the chance to make its wide-angle camera as good as its main shooter.

So, with Samsung reportedly including two OIS-equipped cameras in the Note 8, the time would be right for LG to pull out all the stops, with a wide-angle lens that’s on par (or at least close) to the main shooter. Doing so would raise the cost of the phone (to be expected for a higher-end model) and likely add a camera bump (which we’re already seeing in the current crop of V30 leaks). Nevertheless, the improvement in image quality would surely be worth it.

I also want to see what LG can do when it’s not hamstrung by a main camera with small 1.1-micron pixels. The LG G6’s camera takes great photos, but it’s way slower than the likes of the Galaxy S8 and HTC U11, which use sensors with larger pixels.

With the extra budget afforded by a true flagship phone, I’m eager to see what LG can achieve in both the V30’s cameras.

2. Phablet-class battery life

Nobody’s expecting the V30 to bring back the removable battery. Because of this, and the fact that the V30 is going to be a good deal larger than the G6, LG has an opportunity to excel in battery life. Samsung’s need to include an S Pen in the Note 8 has reportedly limited that device to a 3,300mAh cell, which basically guarantees inferior battery life compared to the Galaxy S8+.

With no S Pen taking up room inside the chassis, LG’s new phone has a chance to outlast the Note 8.

LG has no such limitations in the V30, and so the extra size of the phone gives it the chance to push battery life as a major feature. Considering LG managed to cram a 3,300mAh cell into the G6, we’d expect a figure somewhere north of that for the new model. And given the exceptional efficiency we’ve been seeing from Snapdragon 835 phones in recent months, a 3,500 or 3,600mAh cell could go a very long way indeed.

3. No more weird regional differences

It’s time for equality among LG phones, with the same feature set wherever you buy. That’s a given for the majority of Android handsets, but the G6 found itself in the odd position of having major features like the Quad DAC, 64GB of storage and wireless charging missing in some regions.

To confuse matters further, there was no single G6 SKU with all of these features — at least not until the announcement of the G6+ many months later.

With a meatier flagship like the V30, there’s no excuse for LG’s various regional offices to be allowed to lop off major features. Wherever in the world you buy it, the phone needs to ship with at least 64GB of storage, wireless charging and whatever fancy audio stuff LG and its partners have developed.

4. Android 8.0 out of the box

The LG V20 arrived at just the right time to be one of the first handsets with Android 7.0 Nougat — though some of its thunder was stolen by the Google Pixel. This year, with similar timings expected for the stable release of Android 8.0, we’re hoping LG is able to get in on the ground floor with the new version of Android.

Another ‘first’ with Android O would be a big win for LG.

Again, this would give it a small but important advantage over the Note 8, which is expected to ship with Android 7.1.1, while also giving the new phone all the battery life and performance benefits offered by Android O. With 8.0 out of the box, whichever battery capacity LG opts for should go even further.

5. A fresh direction for software

LG’s UX 6.0 looks fine and all, but it’s clear the UX conversation has moved on since the company’s last major visual refresh in 2016. Samsung has brought us a fresh, futuristic aesthetic on the Galaxy S8. Others like OnePlus have shown how best to build on the look and feel of vanilla Android. Even Huawei is finally making progress.

LG’s latest UX is solid, but feels incomplete.

So it’s time for LG to finally do away with the bits of legacy UI that’ve been sticking around for the past couple of years, and, from the ground up, show what really great mobile software should look and feel like in late 2017. The 2:1 split-screen visual style it pioneered on the G6 is a great starting point, but it feels incomplete, and has too many weird holdovers from ancient LG handsets.

So with the next LG flagship, we’re hoping to see what LG can do to build out the latest version of Android with unique, complementary visual flair.

What do you want to see in LG’s new flagship phone? Share your hopes (and fears) down in the comments!

Galaxy Note 8 to launch next month, perhaps as early as August 23

We could be just over a month away from the Note 8.

Samsung’s new top-end stylus-wielding smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8, could launch as early as August 23. While the specific date is still more speculation at this point, The Investor out of South Korea has confirmation from a Samsung executive that a launch by the end of August is absolutely the plan.

The late-August launch would line up well with the last two Note launches, though it also conflicts with some reports pointing to Samsung holding off the launch until the first couple weeks of September. This could simply be a misunderstanding of the time frame, as it’s likely an August 23 launch wouldn’t see the phone hit stores until at least a week later in September.

A late-August announcement and early-September retail launch makes sense.

It would also mean that once again Samsung would launch its latest Galaxy Note outside of the IFA trade show in Berlin, which starts on September 1, showing that the top-end phone has outgrown being a small act at a larger show. Particularly when rebounding from the Galaxy Note 7, we can expect Samsung to go all-out this year.

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ have already been out in the market for nearly three months, and another Note hitting the market should have the desired effect of bumping the entire “Galaxy” brand to head into the holiday season. We don’t yet have a clear picture of everything Samsung will unveil with the Note 8, but early leaks point to a larger version of the Galaxy S8+’s design with an upgraded dual camera and new S Pen features.

Best accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S8

The Galaxy S8 is a big deal on its own, but it’s even better with some fantastic accessories. Here are some of the best you can find!

A phone, naked, is just a phone. A phone, accessorized, is a… well, it’s a phone with a bunch of awesome stuff connected to it. From cases to battery packs to chargers, camera add-ons and other cool stuff, here’s what you need to know.

Samsung Clear View Standing Cover

A case that doubles as a kickstand isn’t anything new, but Samsung’s Clear View Standing Cover does it right. Not only does the folio case protect the screen when not in use, but the cover is translucent, so you can see and interact with the phone while it’s docked to answer calls and see notifications. When you want to watch some sweet music videos on the train home, the cover opens up and docks to a kickstand. Perfect.

See at Amazon

Spigen cases

Spigen is always on point with its lineup of cases for the latest smartphone releases, and it’s rolled out a full line for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+.

If you’ve tried and loved one of their cases before, you’ll be able to find the style that’s right for you.

A deep dive into Spigen’s Galaxy S8 case lineup

See at Amazon

Samsung Wireless Charger Convertible

Samsung has completely revamped its wireless charger for the Galaxy S8 and it’s pretty great.

The plush pad can charge the Galaxy S8 or S8+ wireless from pretty much any position, but the beauty of this new charger is in the name: you can prop up the phone on a desk to charge vertically, allowing you to peer at (and get distracted by) the Galaxy S8’s awesome new always-on display while you work. It’s really simple to change positions, and in either orientation the phone charges fast — almost as quickly as it would when plugged in.

And if you’re not all that interested in a convertible charger, last year’s fast wireless charger can be had for a steal over at Amazon.

See at Amazon

Anker PowerCore+ 21000

Your Galaxy S8 already comes with a pretty big battery, but if you’re the type to carry a backpack wherever you go, putting this slim, lightweight Anker PowerCore+ 21000 pack in there is a pretty good idea.

The charger comes with two USB-A ports and a dual-direction USB-C port for charging your phone and the charger itself. Genius! And because there’s so much room in the battery, it should top up your Galaxy S8 five or six times without needing to be topped up itself.

See at Amazon

Mophie Juice Pack

If a battery charging case is more your thing, Mophie has you covered. The Juice Pack line has been powering Galaxy devices for years, and this year’s model is slimmer and more intelligent than ever.

The Juice Pack plugs into your Galaxy S8’s USB-C port to top it up with 2950mAh of additional juice, and the case itself, like the phone, charges wirelessly using Qi technology, so you can use the same wireless charging pad you do for your phone.

See at Amazon

Gear VR w/ new Controller

If you’ve never tried Samsung Gear VR before, you’re in for a real treat. Samsung partnered up with Oculus to provide one of the best mobile VR experiences you’ll find, with compelling games to play alone or with friends, tons of streaming video apps and VR exclusive experiences, along with its own functional social media platform.

Making things all the sweeter is the inclusion of the new touch controller, meaning you won’t need to hold your hand up to the headset like you’re Cyclops from the X-Men.

Everything you need to know about Samsung Gear VR

See at Amazon

Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch

The Gear S3 doesn’t get enough love. It’s an amazing smartwatch with tons of features that work really well with the Galaxy S8. And, if you’re running it with Samsung’s latest smartphone, you get things like Samsung Pay, which isn’t available on other devices.

But more than that, Samsung has created a relatively affordable, long-lasting and feature-filled smartwach in the Gear S3, and one that, unlike most Android Wear products, will last more than a day on a charge.

See at Amazon

Which accessories have caught your eye so far?

What are your go-to accessories for a new phone? Anything you’ll be picking up for your new Samsung Galaxy S8? Let us know in the comments!

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

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Apple tosses in free Beats headphones for students buying Macs, iPads

Apple has offered student discounts on its hardware and services for awhile now, but now it’s taking that further. In an effort to make its gear even more ubiquitous on campus, Apple will throw in a pair of Beats headphones with Mac and iPad Pro purchases from now until September 25th, full details here (PDF).

Which ones? The recent Solo3 wireless on-ear, Powerbeats 3 wireless or BeatsX. If you’re trying to maximize your freebie, the Solo3 are your best option given their $300 pricetag. The Powerbeats come in at $100 cheaper if you’re looking for something a little lower profile and the BeatsX are available if you want a more traditional earbud. The offer extends to faculty, staff and students who are at the K – 12 level as well as those at colleges and universities.

Want to see how the whole Beats and Apple deal came to be? Check out HBO’s The Defiant Ones documentary about Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. All four episodes are streaming now on HBO Go/Now and it’s definitely worth checking out — especially if you’re a music nerd.

Via: The Verge

Source: Apple (1), (2) (PDF)