Show me a sign! Smart gloves translate American Sign Language into text

Why it matters to you

Low-cost smart gloves would make it much easier for signers and non-signers to communicate.

One of the areas where it’s been truly amazing to watch technology make progress over the past few years is in accessibility. From gadgets that are designed to help blind people to see the world around them, to assistive technology that can help paralyzed people to walk, it’s a pleasure to be able to write about technology that can profoundly transform people’s lives for the better.

The latest potential example? A low-cost smart glove created by researchers at the University of California San Diego, which promises to automatically translate American Sign Language (ASL) into digital text that appears on a corresponding computer or smartphone. To use the glove, the wearer simply signs letters in the ASL alphabet, which are then recognized by way of variances in the electrical resistance. These variances allow an onboard computer to work out which letter is being signed, and then to relay this information via Bluetooth — no cameras required.

“The key innovative element of our device is the use of a conductive polymer composite at the knuckles, which are highly sensitive to bending and stretching,” Dr. Darren Lipomi, head of UC San Diego’s Lipomi Research Group, told Digital Trends. “There are other gesture-recognition gloves out there, but ours is the first to use extremely simple components that can be replicated by other researchers in the field of stretchable, wearable electronics to test their materials.”

The components in the glove add up to less than $100 in cost, making this a potentially affordable solution to a challenging problem.

“The [biggest] challenge of the project was one of integration,” Lipomi continued. “My research team is made up of chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists — me included. We are not specialists in electronics. The key was getting advanced materials to interact with electronic components one might find at a hardware store.”

Lipomi says that “essentially all the credit” goes to his graduate student, Timothy O’Connor, who worked tirelessly for two years to complete the project.

As to what’s next for the project, Lipomi said the next step is to incorporate tactile sensations on the interior of the glove. In addition to signing, he said he thinks there are also commercializable aspects in both virtual and augmented reality, as well as robotic surgery, medical training, and gaming.

A paper describing the work was published in the journal PLOS One.

IFTTT data reveals what people are doing with Google Home and Alexa

Why it matters to you

Insight into how people use voice assistants, like Google Home or Alexa, helps developers shape the market for the future.

Voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are still a long way from being in every home, but sales and lowering price points are quickly changing that. IFTTT, a popular platform that connects multiple devices and services, has compiled data from over 1,500 platform users that shows how people are using their devices.

When it comes to devices, people tend to pick sides. Apple or Android, PC or Mac, and so forth. Currently, the two big competitors are Google Home or Amazon Echo. Based on the survey, 70 percent of users own an Echo, Dot, or Tap. There is some cross-pollination however as 8 percent of users own both brands. Of all these voice assistants, 70 percent were purchased within the last year.

So what are people using voice assistants for? The clear winner here is music streaming, but a majority of people are also using the devices to control smart lights, set a timer, or check the weather forecast. About 60 percent of users talk to their voice assistant at least four times a day. Of these users, 29 percent are even more active with seven or more uses a day.

The future for a connected smart home looks bright. A whopping 91 percent said they were more likely to buy a connected device in the future. Even more impressive is that almost 98 percent of users said they would still be using voice assistants five years from now. What devices do users plan to purchase most? Security seems to be a concern with almost 60 percent interested in smart locks, cameras, and more. Connected lights are not far behind with 57 percent.

IFTTT, or If This Then That, allows users to connect with more than 510 apps, services, and devices. Aside from the Amazon Echo or Google Home, IFTTT works with Facebook, Twitter, Philips Hue, Dropbox, Google, Nest, Fitbit, BMW, Slack, and more. The way it works is just as the platform title describes — users create little “recipes” called Applets that bring services together for new experiences.

The survey was conducted online last April and sampled more than 1,500 IFTTT users. According to the platform, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent, with a confidence level of 95 percent. For more information on the results, a full infographic can be found on IFTTT’s website.

Microsoft patent hints at possibility of a Type-C connection for Surface laptops

Why it matters to you

Microsoft is clearly thinking about USB Type-C connectivity, even if it doesn’t see a need to implement it on its flagship products as of yet.

Microsoft may one day bring USB Type-C to its Surface range of laptops, but not in the typical fashion. A new Microsoft patent that has been granted shows a Type-C port as part of a cable connector, but with a tapered and shorter connection. It is said to be magnetic, which is becoming a much-loved feature in some circles.

Although it’s far from ubiquitous, USB Type-C is gaining traction as a mainstream port for charging smart devices, as well as data transfer, so it has been notably absent from Microsoft’s Surface range. There are valid reasons why, but Microsoft may end up bringing it to future designs in a rather different guise, if that patent is anything to go by.

The patent describes an “electronic connector with C-shaped tapered extension,” which, based on images, appears to be a Type-C port built into the side of a thicker cable. The port is shallower and open-sided, which is perhaps where the magnetic connection comes in to play — otherwise, the cable could slip right out.

MicrosoftPatent/Patentsco

The cable connector will reportedly be able to charge and transfer data, though it is said to only support USB 2.0 speeds, which is quite basic functionality for a newly registered patent — even if it was filed in 2016. USB 2.0 is fine for small file transfers, but falls far behind USB 3.0 and 3.1 speeds, which are much better for transferring larger media files that are more commonplace in contemporary computing.

While Microsoft’s Surface range is a notable hardware lineup that does not offer USB Type-C connectivity, it’s important to point out that nowhere in this patent does it suggest that it is designed for any Surface products. Its compatibility with such hardware is entirely speculative, though, as OnMSFT points out, Microsoft has previously hinted at creating some sort of dongle for Surface laptops that enables Type-C connectivity.

MicrosoftPatent/Patentsco

As with all patents, it’s possible that Microsoft was merely shoring up an idea and has no plans to make this cable into a real product. Even if it does, it may be some time until it sees the light of day, but it’s always interesting to see what some of the giant tech companies could be working on.

LG X Venture review

Research Center:
LG X Venture

Looking for a rugged phone? Options are slim if you want a low price. Phones like Caterpillar’s Cat S60 — a hulking beast of a phone that can be dropped nearly two meters or left underwater for an hour — or the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active, which doesn’t sacrifice performance for go-anywhere, do-anything versatility, cost upwards of $600. Thankfully, LG’s approach strikes a balance between specs, features, cost, and durability. In our LG X Venture review, we put the smartphone through a few trials of our own to see how it stacks up.

Functional, sturdy design

The X Venture is a phone for the adventurer on a budget, and so form follows function. The grippy back cover isn’t made of glass or aluminum, but it allows you to grasp the large frame without fear of the phone slipping out of your hand. The large, physical hardware navigation keys flanking the fingerprint sensor aren’t pretty, but they’re textured and easy to locate.

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

The orange QuickButton, which by default accesses Outdoor Essentials mini-apps like a barometer, compass, and weather, is also textured and easy-to-access. It sits above the volume rocker on the left, and it can be customized to launch other apps; you can set shortcuts for one press, a double press, or a press and hold, which is convenient.

Speaking of buttons, you won’t feel the X Venture’s bargain price point in the build quality at all. All the keys feel solid and easy to press, with a satisfying tactile click and no wiggle.

We dunked and dropped the X Venture to find out if the phone really was as sturdy as it’s claimed to be — and it passed.

But we have a few minor gripes: The soft touch material that borders the display is a lint magnet that pulls dust into the small gaps between the glass and the rest of the phone. There’s also a rear-firing speaker which, while pretty loud, will produce muffled sound anytime you set the device down.

The X Venture has an IP68 water resistance rating, meaning it can withstand submersion up to 5 feet deep for a half hour — many high-end phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8 have the same water- and dust-resistance rating, so it’s nice to see it on a budget device. The front glass panel is made of Gorilla Glass 4, with anti-shatter, anti-scratch technology.

The smartphone goes a step further with military-grade (MIL-STD810G) dust and shock resistance. LG says the X Venture passed 14 different tests by a laboratory that conforms to U.S. military standards, which means it should fare a little better in circumstances that would distress lesser phones. That offers some peace of mind, but we wanted to know for sure. We dunked and dropped the X Venture to find out if the phone really was as sturdy as it’s claimed to be — and it passed.

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

Adam Ismail/Digital Trends

A roughly five-foot fall onto concrete left our device merely scuffed. There was some metal chipped away in areas of impact, as well as some pitted, roughened plastic right where the phone struck the ground. The damage was purely cosmetic, and there was zero harm done to the screen. After submerging the phone in a bowl of water for 10 minutes, it functioned perfectly fine.

Occasionally sluggish performance

Unfortunately, to hit that lower price tag and pack in all these durability features, LG had to make some compromises in the specifications department. The X Venture is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 435 processor, alongside 2GB of RAM. While the Snapdragon 435 isn’t tremendously underpowered, devices like the more affordable Moto G5 Plus  equip the more powerful Snapdragon 625 chipset, and offers double the RAM.

The result is underwhelming. Our X Venture stuttered and lagged a decent amount in day-to-day use and seemed to get easily tripped up juggling multiple tasks at the same time — like searching Google Maps while streaming Bluetooth audio, for example. It wasn’t unusual to be faced with a two-second wait anytime we opened a new app.

The benchmarks all told a similar story:

• AnTuTu: 41,501
• Geekbench 4: 634
• 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 233

The X Venture’s 3DMark score is distant from the Moto G5 Plus’ 463, which also handily defeated LG’s offering in Geekbench (803) and AnTuTu (63,190) scores. A flagship killer, this is not.

While the X Venture didn’t like switching between apps and multitasking, swiping between home screens, typing, and scrolling were all as quick as you’d hope. Google Assistant responded to voice queries without a hitch, and even the fingerprint sensor worked reliably fast.

LG X Venture Compared To

Moto Z2 Play

Motorola Moto E4

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

ZTE Axon 7 mini

Meizu Pro 6

Huawei Honor 8

Nextbit Robin

Huawei Honor 7

Huawei P8

Motorola Droid Turbo

Sony Xperia Z3

HTC Desire Eye

Motorola Moto X (2014)

Sony Xperia Z2

LG G2

The hardware fared much better in other areas. The X Venture features a 5.2-inch, 1080p LCD display with solid viewing angles, color reproduction, and brightness. In terms of storage, there’s only one option — 32GB — though a MicroSD slot in the SIM tray makes for easy expandability.

Exceptional battery life, capable camera

The X Venture comes fitted with a massive non-removable battery — 4,100mAh in size — and it simply doesn’t quit. Our unit lasted well over a day and a half following high usage — from streaming Spotify over Bluetooth, to navigating with Google Maps, to browsing Facebook, and taking photos.

You won’t have to wait too long to charge it back up, either. The X Venture supports Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 2.0 standard. Unfortunately, it works through MicroUSB rather than the newer, more versatile USB-C standard, but the upside is it’ll be compatible with any old accessories you might have lying around. We were able to recharge the drained battery to full in two hours.

The rear camera isn’t quite as impressive, though it was still a pleasant surprise. In proper lighting, the X Venture’s 16-megapixel shooter captured vibrant, balanced images with striking clarity and impressive depth-of-field. Low-light performance was predictably grainy and a little muddy by comparison, but that’s unsurprising from a phone of this price. The wide-angle 5-megapixel front camera was dependable, and well-suited for group shots.

But while the X Venture produces solid photos in daylight, the camera app gets tremendously laggy — and there’s the occasional shutter lag when you tap the capture button as well. It’s not a good experience overall.

LG adds outdoorsy features to Android 7.0 Nougat

The X Venture is a budget phone sold exclusively through a carrier, which means you’re going to get more than your fair share of bloatware. Including the AT&T software, we identified a total of 16 apps outside the standard gamut of Google, LG, and stock Android apps that could not be uninstalled, only disabled.

Our unit lasted well over a day and a half following high usage.

Bloatware aside, with the X Venture you’re getting LG’s UX 5.0 skin on top of Android 7.0 Nougat. It’s not the same as the 6.0 skin found in the company’s G6 flagship, but it still brings a number of changes to stock Android. The most notable one is the lack of an app drawer — though that can be corrected through an option in the settings.

LG has included a number of conveniences that stock Android can’t match, like a more comprehensive set of quick toggles in the notification tray, a variety of home screen layouts and themes, and programmable shortcuts for hardware buttons. There’s also the manufacturer’s suite of apps, which includes the aforementioned Outdoor Essentials collection as well as LG Health for guided exercise routines.

Additionally, LG has packed in a Glove Mode, which can be triggered through the QuickButton out of the box. This feature does what the name suggests, allowing for use of the touch screen even if you’ve got gloves on. It worked well in our testing, receiving taps and swipes through thin wool as well as heavy polyester and fleece.

Warranty, pricing, and availability

LG offers a one-year standard warranty, under which it will cover repair or replacement and labor — though you’ll have to foot the bill to send it to the company. It’s also important to note that while the X Venture is billed as water resistant and military-certified to survive adverse conditions, the warranty does not cover water damage, nor does it cover damage originating from what the company terms “abnormal use.” So if you plan on testing the phone to the limits of its durability, you’re unfortunately on your own should anything seriously go wrong.

The X Venture is available now from AT&T exclusively for $330 outright, or on contract for $11 per month for 30 months through AT&T Next.

Our Take

The LG X Venture won’t wow you with its performance, design, or software, but its toughness coupled with excellent battery life redeems its flaws.

Is there a better alternative?

If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, or your line of work puts you in situation where your phone might get easily damaged, the X Venture is worth a look.

In the category of tough phones that won’t break the bank, there’s really just one other option: The Kyocera DuraForce Pro. The Kyocera phone is considerably bulkier, and even more of a tank than the X Venture. It also features a better Snapdragon 617 processor as well as an extra gigabyte of RAM. The downside? You’ll have to make do with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, as the DuraForce Pro doesn’t support the latest and greatest version of Google’s operating system yet. The phone is also a little pricier — $400 from Verizon, and $419 from AT&T. That’s nearly $100 more than the X Venture through the same carrier.

Otherwise, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Active is an easy recommendation, provided you can find it for the right price. The S7 Active has been on the market for about a year now and will likely be replaced by Samsung’s next-generation rugged flagship, meaning secondhand and refurbished models cost right around what LG is asking for a new X Venture. We loved the phone when we tested it last year, and with its top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 chipset, you won’t have to compromise anything for all that added durability.

If ruggedness isn’t a concern, however, there are countless other affordable devices that would likely serve your needs better. The Moto G5 Plus starts at $230, for example, and still outclasses the LG in terms of power and performance. That’s not even half of what’s out there — our cheap smartphone buying guide runs through the top contenders.

How long will it last?

We don’t expect this device to get a lot of software updates, and it may slow down after a year or two — considering how we’re already seeing stutters and lag.

In terms of physical longevity, though, the X Venture should fare just fine. The build quality is solid, and the combination of shock-absorbing plastics, reinforced corners, and a metal exoskeleton mean it can survive repeated falls and spills.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re looking for an affordable, rugged phone that’s waterproof, the LG X Venture is a good option. It offers the most recent version of Android, and while you’ll have to deal with occasional sluggish performance as well as a slow camera, it’s tough to find an IP68-waterproof phone from a carrier that doesn’t break the bank. If your priorities are different, look elsewhere.

From cobblestones to gravel, the Flex-Eboard powers through

Why it matters to you

If your longboarding activities have been limited to smooth pavement and gentle terrain, your world is about to change thanks to the Rough Stuff electric board.

If you’re a true outdoor enthusiast, there’s nowhere your adventurous spirit won’t take you — and now, you can say the same for your longboard. Well, that’s if your longboard is of the Flex-Eboard Rough Stuff variety. This new electric longboard promises an incredibly smooth ride no matter what terrain you’re conquering, and features interchangeable wheels and a fully flexible deck for your riding comfort.

If you find yourself on poor tarmac, you can slap on your chunky Rough Stuff wheels for added stability. These wheels boast 85A hardness, which allows for smooth rides and fast speeds, and measure 110 mm in diameter (with 62 mm of ground contact) to help you cruise over bumpy surfaces. Their convex design ensures less resistance on smooth surfaces and more grip on rough terrain. And because they’re made from polyurethane material, you won’t have to worry about punctures.

If you find yourself on the road, just switch in the road wheels, which are smoother and have 52 mm of ground contact.

You’ll also have a choice between two different decks. There’s the bamboo deck, which has a symmetrical, rounded shape and central cutouts for more torsional flex and a more grounded ride. Conversely, the carbon composite deck works better with the Rough Stuff wheels. It’s made from seven plies of Canadian maple wood and fused with multiple layers of carbon fiber to ensure a well-controlled ride.

And while there will be times when you want to ride your longboard without the help of a battery, if you find yourself facing a long hill or just need to cruise without expending too much energy, the two 1200-watt motors will give you plenty of juice. The Flex-Eboard team promises fast acceleration, considerable torque, and the ability to control your board via a wireless remote control. You can set your board to drive mode (for acceleration), cruise control, or brake. And get ready, because this board will hit 22 miles per hour.

With just a couple days left in its Kickstarter campaign, the Flex-Eboard has already more than tripled its funding goal. If you’re interested in getting one for yourself, you can pre-order a board for about $770, with an expected delivery date of October 2017.

New artificial spider silk can absorb 70 percent of the energy in impacts

Why it matters to you

Artificial spider silk could have a number of unusual use-cases, such as making tomorrow’s crash helmets for cyclists.

Just as we’re all nerding out to the fictitious web-spinning adventures seen in the excellent Spider-Man: Homecoming, real-life researchers from the United Kingdom’s University of Cambridge have designed lab-grown artificial spider silk that’s not only super-stretchy and impressively strong, but also sustainable and nontoxic. The silk, which functions like miniature bungee cords, is described in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“[Making current] synthetic fibers requires a tremendous amount of energy – up to 1,500 C — and large use of solvents, that are difficult, toxic, and unpleasant to handle and dispose,” Dr. Darshil Shah, co-author of the paper, told Digital Trends. “On the other hands, we see that spiders have evolved over hundreds of millions of years to produce silk fibers with superb properties, on demand, from a gel with water as a solvent, at room temperature and pressure.”

That’s what the Cambridge scientists have developed with their method of spinning fibers at room temperature from a hydrogel that’s 98 percent water. (The remaining 2 percent of the hydrogel are made up of solid substances in the form of polymer-grafted modified silica and modified cellulose.) The chemical interactions between these different components allow for the long, extremely thin threads to be pulled from the hydrogel. The resulting threads are incredibly thin, measuring just a few millionths of a meter in diameter.

“What is most interesting is that this is the first ever, to our knowledge, ‘supramolecular fiber,’” Shah continued. “What we mean by ‘supramolecular’ is that there are no covalent bonds between the modified silica and cellulose polymers, but rather the interactions are all non-covalent. This dynamic cross-linking is important in giving the hydrogel the ability to stretch so much, and to form fibers in the first place. In addition, there is so much scope to modify the chemistry, by changing the cellulose polymer we have used, to make a whole family of fibers with interesting properties.”

This certainly isn’t the first example of artificial spider silk we’ve come across, but it does possess some fairly unique qualities. One of these is that it exhibits an impressive damping performance, referring to its ability to dissipate close to 70 percent of the energy in impacts. This is a property that real spiders need to have in their silk in order to absorb the impact of insects hitting their webs.

According to Shah, there are a number of possible applications for the team’s artificial webbing, ranging from textiles to biomedical applications. In particular, the ability to absorb impacts could make it a valuable material for future helmets for cyclists, football players, skateboarders, and assorted other extreme contact sports. And, hey, who wouldn’t want a bulletproof vest made out of fake spider webbing?

Now we just need someone to come along and combine fake spider silk with one of the cool spider robots we’ve been seeing popping up in research labs around the world. Or, at the very least, build us some Spider-Man-style web shooters!

BlackBerry KEYone on sale from Sprint starting July 14 for $528

A new carrier option for BlackBerry’s latest

Although we had a little bit of a heads up on the release date thanks to comments posted on the Sprint Community Forums, TCL and Sprint have now officially announced that the BlackBerry KEYone will go on sale at Sprint starting July 14.

Orders can be placed via Sprint.com or by calling Sprint customer care. Additionally, the KEYone will be available in Sprint stores later this month. When it comes to pricing, Sprint notes the KEYone can be picked for as low as 18 monthly payments of $22, which comes out to $528 in full.

BlackBerry KEYone

• BlackBerry KEYone review
• KEYone vs. Priv: Battle of the BlackBerry keyboards
• BlackBerry KEYone specs
• The latest KEYone news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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BlackBerry Mobile

Press release:

AWARD-WINNING BLACKBERRY® KEYONE AVAILABLE AT SPRINT BEGINNING TOMORROW

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. and IRVINE, Calif. – July 13, 2017 – TCL Communication, a leading global smartphone manufacturer and global smartphone licensing partner of BlackBerry Limited, is today announcing that Sprint (NYSE: S) will be the first carrier in the U.S. to offer the award-winning BlackBerry KEYone. This all-new BlackBerry smartphone will officially be on-sale beginning tomorrow, July 14, at http://www.sprint.com or by calling 1-800-Sprint1 for 18 monthly payments of $22.00 (SRP – $528 USD). It will also be available at Sprint stores across the country later this month.

“This is a highly anticipated launch as we partner with Sprint who is among the first U.S. carriers to offer the award-winning BlackBerry KEYone,” said Steve Cistulli, President and General Manager of TCL Communication, North America. “Expanding the availability of the BlackBerry KEYone is a significant milestone for BlackBerry Mobile, furthering our commitment to offer the best in mobile security and a distinctly different communication experience to customers across the U.S.”

“BlackBerry has a long-standing reputation for providing one of the most accurate and easy-to-use keyboards and incredible security features,” said Roger Sole, Sprint Chief Marketing Officer. “We are pleased to bring BlackBerry back into our device portfolio and we believe the BlackBerry KEYone will be a hit with our customers. It pairs perfectly with Unlimited Freedom, giving Sprint customers the convenience of unlimited data on an incredibly powerful and security-conscious smartphone.”

BLACKBERRY KEYONE PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

• Built to last with a durable and sleek aluminum frame with a soft textured back for extra grip. Includes a 4.5-inch touch display featuring impact and scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 offering the best in resilience and durability.
• Reimagined communication experience thanks to an innovative Smart Keyboard that allows you to set up to 52 customizable shortcuts and transform each letter key for quick access to your favorite apps and most important contacts. Includes the world’s first keyboard-embedded fingerprint sensor conveniently located in the spacebar and provides added device security and convenience.
• Distinct BlackBerry smartphone powered by Android, with the familiarity and functionality of Android™ 7.1 Nougat giving users access to the entire Google Play™ store and over one million apps.
• Includes the largest battery (3505mAh) ever found in a BlackBerry smartphone, offering up to 26+ hours of mixed use, and Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0 technology enables up to 50 percent charge in roughly 36 minutes.
• Pre-loaded with DTEK™ by BlackBerry, offering constant security monitoring and protection of your operating system and apps by letting you know when your privacy could be at risk and how you can take action to improve it. The BlackBerry KEYone will also receive regular monthly Android security updates, ensuring you have the safest and securest Android smartphone experience.
• Features a 12MP rear camera with an industry leading camera sensor (Sony IMX378) that captures sharp, crisp photos in any light. The wide aperture lens with large 1.55μm pixels and dual-tone flash ensures your photos will have superior color and clarity.
• At the core of this new BlackBerry smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform with the Qualcomm® Adreno™ 506 GPU. This means BlackBerry KEYone users will enjoy a powerful combination of optimized battery efficiency and usage, plus fast LTE speeds for super-fast file sharing.

For more information and additional details on the BlackBerry KEYone, please visit http://www.BlackBerryMobile.com.

SPRINT’S UNLIMITED FREEDOM

For a limited time, when a customer switches to Sprint, they can get four lines of unlimited data, talk and text for $22.50 per month per line with Unlimited Freedom. Plus for a limited time, your fifth line is free! This offer includes HD streaming for videos, gaming and music enjoyment and 10GB/month per line of mobile hotspot data.

Unlimited Freedom is the nation’s best value for unlimited among U.S. national carriers. T-Mobile charges extra for these HD and mobile hotspot perks. Verizon and AT&T unlimited plans cost 50 percent more

For more information on Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom, visit sprint.com/unlimited or your local Sprint store.

Did Samsung just accidentally reveal the Galaxy Note 8’s front?

Let’s not get too excited.

On the heels of new info pointing to an August 23 launch of the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung’s official Exynos Twitter account tweeted out a promotional message for its Exynos 9 series processor … with a device we’ve never seen before. Showing off a really big screen, curved edges and a tiny top bezel, it sure looks a lot like what we’re expecting the Note 8 hardware to be.

Do what you want. #Exynos will get things done. Learn more about #Exynos8895: https://t.co/xjBw74E39o pic.twitter.com/zzxH7NE3QU

— Samsung Exynos (@SamsungExynos) July 13, 2017

But let’s not get too carried away just yet.

While this is an official Samsung Twitter account, and leaks do occasionally happen this way, it isn’t unprecedented for social accounts to use generic phone renders as backgrounds for a promotional image that’s about a different product. Even in the past couple of months Samsung has used awkwardly tall and clearly Photoshopped renders of the Galaxy S8+ in tweets from official accounts — not to intentionally mislead, but simply because they’re not the focus of the ad, and these things get overlooked.

Considering the clarity of the image and the fact that it wasn’t immediately taken down, it’s hard to believe this is actually a view of the Note 8. But it’s fun to wonder — that thing looks nice.

It’s unlikely that the TRAPPIST-1 planets support life

Earlier this year, NASA made headlines when they reported the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets just 40 light years away. Three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are within the star’s habitable zone. But now, it’s looking unlikely that life will be found within the TRAPPIST system.

Two separate teams at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics say the behavior of the star makes it less likely than we’d thought (or hoped) that the system could harbor life. The star in question, TRAPPIST-1, is a red dwarf that is much fainter and cooler than the Sun. Therefore, to be in the habitable zone, planets must be much closer to the star than the Earth is to our sun.

The news is grim: The UV radiation the habitable zone planets experience is much greater than Earth’s. “Because of the onslaught by the star’s radiation, our results suggest the atmosphere on planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system would largely be destroyed,” says Avi Loeb, coauthor of a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology. The team estimates that the likelihood that life could exist on TRAPPIST-1’s habitable zone planets is just 1 percent, as compared to the likelihood for life existing on Earth.

A separate study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters examines the solar wind of TRAPPIST-1. While Earth experiences a stream of solar particles from the Sun, we’re mostly protected by our magnetic field. The TRAPPIST-1 planets also likely have magnetic fields, but the issue is their proximity to the star. Because they’re so close, the magnetic field of the star could actually be joined with the planets’. This means that the magnetic field wouldn’t be the barrier it is for the Earth; if the solar wind is strong enough, it could strip atmosphere from the planets. Without atmosphere, life has no chance of surviving.

It’s important to remember that “habitable zone” only means one thing: A planet is close enough to its star to be warm enough to support liquid water. It doesn’t take into account the myriad issues a star or planetary system might have. This doesn’t mean that there definitively is not life in TRAPPIST-1, nor that we won’t find life in other red giant systems. It just means that it’s less likely than we’d previously hoped, and that we should keep looking.

Source: International Journal of Astrobiology, arXiv, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

‘Gran Turismo Sport’ will finally launch on October 17th

The long awaited Gran Turismo Sport finally has a launch date — October 17th for North America and the 18th for Europe. Originally slated for launch in November of last year, the game’s release was delayed last August so as not to sacrifice quality for a quicker release date. But Polyphony, the game’s creator, just completed the closed beta phase it started in March and is now in the final stages of polishing the game.

Along with the launch date, Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi also announced that more information about the game will be unveiled in between now and its release, including creative tools and all of the cars and tracks that will be available. “We’ve strived to create something that delivers an unprecedented experience in terms of the graphics, sound, and physics simulation; an experience that can only be enjoyed on PlayStation,” said Yamauchi in a blog post.

There will also be a few other editions of Gran Turismo Sport in addition to the standard package. The Limited Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition will include additional avatars, in-game credit and other perks. They’re priced at $70 and $80, respectively.

Source: Polyphony