Xiaomi zooms, Fitbit falters in latest wearables market report

Why it matters to you

The success of Xiaomi’s super-cheap yet feature-rich fitness trackers may drive other companies to innovate with lower-cost devices.

Xiaomi may be a name that’s not well known in the United States, but the company has just risen to the top of the wearables food chain. The Chinese tech giant has finished off the second quarter of 2017 with the highest market share of any individual wearables brand, according to data from Strategy Analytics.

Xiaomi reportedly shipped 3.7 million wearables in the second quarter, compared to Fitbit at 3.4 million, and Apple at 2.8 million. This is a vastly different picture than the one from the same time period last year, when Fitbit far and away led the industry with 5.7 million shipments in the period, and Xiaomi could muster only 3 million.

In terms of market share, that means Xiaomi currently leads with 17 percent, while Fitbit stands at just under 16 and Apple at 13. The industry has grown eight percent year-over-year, Strategy Analytics reports.

How did Xiaomi manage this ascent? It was all thanks to the success of its inexpensive Mi Band fitness trackers. The Mi Band 2, in particular, can be found for under $25 and yet still boasts a better feature set than many more expensive devices. Although they’re not officially sold in many parts of the world directly from the company, they’re extremely popular in China and can be easily imported.

Because Xiaomi has been able to come into the market at such a low price point without significantly sacrificing quality, it has been able to steal market share from juggernauts like Fitbit. At the same time, Apple’s high-end smartwatch has displayed some healthy growth of its own. One million more Apple Watches were shipped in the second quarter of this year compared to last, indicating consumers are still willing to pay top dollar for premium wearables.

The story is as encouraging for Xiaomi and Apple as it is dire for Fitbit. The company has lagged behind its competitors in offering a viable mainstream smartwatch. The device was supposed to launch in the spring, but lengthy delays have pushed it back to the upcoming holiday season.

In the interim, Fitbit has lost a sizable chunk of the market and earlier in the year was forced to cut its workforce by six percent. With so much riding on its upcoming product, we could be looking at another big shake-up in the industry by this time again next year.

‘Grand Theft Auto V’ mod makes lighting and weather look like real life

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for a good reason to replay Grand Theft Auto V, it’s worth taking the time to install this mod.

Grand Theft Auto V hit the scene almost four years ago, but it remains one of the highest-earning video games around, clearing 75 million units sold earlier in 2017. What is more, fan-made mods let players tweak the title’s graphics to put it on a par with new releases.

A mod called NaturalVision was released in 2016 with the intention of making the game’s visuals look as close to real as possible, according to a report from Tech Spot. Now, a significant update overhauled its adjustments to the game’s weather, lighting, color palette, and tone mapping.

Wisely, NaturalVision Remastered does not attempt to make big changes to the 3D models and textures that are used in Grand Theft Auto V. While that sort of approach is not uncommon when it comes to graphical mods, this particular example focuses on visual effects, which helps maintain the game’s established art style.

Razed, the modder behind the project, has made some marked improvements to the way that the game renders all kinds of different graphical flourishes. You can notice that sunlight reflects off the water more realistically, sunsets look a little more beautiful and grand, and neon lights pierce through dark nights with even more contrast.

In all, these changes introduce a far-reaching upgrade to the game’s graphics. Rockstar added plenty of its own improvements when Grand Theft Auto V was re-released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2014, but this mod adds a whole new sheen that belies the open-world adventure’s age.

Indeed, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V made its debut several months after the HD re-release for consoles, but the wide array of mods that have been developed by fans over the years makes it the definitive way to play the game. There are plenty of crummy mods out there, too, but the best of the best offer some really tangible improvements over the base game.

Players can get their hands on NaturalVision Remastered by downloading it from GTA5 Mods. However, they will first need to download VisualV, another graphical upgrade mod that is a prerequisite for Razed’s advanced weather and lighting effects.

New AMD Vega cards may be best yet at cryptocurrency mining, could sell out fast

Why it matters to you

If you want an AMD RX Vega card, it would be a good idea to order one early, as they could sell out fast.

AMD’s upcoming generation of RX Vega graphics card may be destined to have the same fate as its predecessors — selling out quickly due to the interest of cryptocurrency miners. A source has claimed the cards could be as much as four times more efficient than previous AMD mining cards, meaning we could be heading for another graphics card gold rush.

One of the most frustrating trends for gamers and hardware enthusiasts this year have been price rises for cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, which have caused midrange graphics cards — particularly those from AMD — to sell out or sell for ridiculous prices. Miners love graphics cards because they are by far the most efficient way to mine cryptocurrency, easily beating even the quickest CPUs from AMD and Intel.

Because miners make a profit, they can afford to pay more for a graphics card. With the AMD Vega generation of cards looming, that problem may be about to repeat itself.

While not confirmed by AMD or its partners, this rumor stems from a statement made by British hardware retailer OCUK’s purchasing manager, Andrew Gibson. He said that based on statements made by an AMD partner he’d spoken to, the “rumored hash rate on Vega is 70-100 per card.” As PCGamesN highlights, that’s between three and four times what an RX 580 is capable of.

This would be quite a surprise if true, as the Vega Frontier Edition card that let down a number of excited AMD fans with its gaming performance was said to have quite middling mining performance. It’s possible with tweaks and driver optimizations that Vega RX cards are far better than that, but that has yet to be shown.

Although Ethereum prices have come down in the past couple of weeks, it’s still possible that even if Vega isn’t as good at mining as the rumors suggest, it will still be a popular buy for those building huge mining rigs. That could lead us once again to gamers being out of luck when it comes to upgrading.

Some steps to combat the problem suggested by other OCUK forum members fall in line with moves made by Gibson and OCUK when we spoke to him previously about graphics card pricing. The main one people want to see is restrictions on the number of cards people can buy, though forum members also want to reserve their Vega cards in advance.

It may be that we’ll see mining-focused Vega graphics cards released in the future, though there hasn’t been much word of that. AMD has said it wants to launch Vega with a lot of stock so that no one misses out. Only time will tell if that plays out.

AMD Vega cards are set to go on sale on August 14.

Transparent ‘window into the brain’ lets sound waves through the skull

Why it matters to you

A transparent skull implant is designed to make ultrasound brain surgery easier.

The words “hole in the head,” as in “[insert organization] needs another reorganization like a hole in the head” is a colorful way of describing something that there is absolutely no requirement for. But sometimes a hole in the head is necessary — and researchers from the U.S. and Mexico want to help deliver it. With that in mind, they invented a skull implant that serves as a literal window into the brain — with the goal of making ultrasound brain surgery easier.

This pioneering surgical technique has lots of potential for treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, as well as being used to kill cancer cells, dissolve blood clots resulting from strokes, and even “jump starting” the brains of comatose people. However, the big challenge until now has been getting sound waves through the skull of subjects and into their brain. This is because the human skull is between 2 and 8mm in thickness and relatively dense, meaning that sound waves either reflect off it or are absorbed before they can reach the intended target.

“This new study opens up new possibilities for neurosurgeons and their patients, since it facilitates optical and, now, ultrasonic access to the brain,” Guillermo Aguilar, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Riverside, told Digital Trends. “New materials of this kind may also find applications in different arenas.”

UC Riverside

Aguilar and colleagues previously developed a cranial implant four years ago. It was made of an opaque biocompatible ceramic that is used for medical applications such as dental and hip implants because of its high fracture toughness. What the team has achieved with this latest project is to build on that prior work by making a skull implant that retains the strength of the previous unit, but is also optically transparent and allows ultrasound waves through. It means that patients with the implant fitted could undergo ongoing diagnostic and ultrasonic therapy without needing to undergo repeated surgeries in which part of their skull is removed.

“This project is a multi-year, multi-investigator and multi-disciplinary one,” Aguilar continued. “There are a lot of very challenging aspects that a core [group] of nine researchers — six in California and three in Mexico, and sometimes more — are tackling collaboratively with several postdocs, more than a dozen graduate students, and various undergraduate students. Our end goal is that implants of this kind become the standard of use in neurosurgical [operating rooms], given the broader range of pathologies and neurological disorders that neurologists could help control or cure by having recurring diagnostic and therapeutic access to the brain in a minimally invasive way.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.

Best Places To Buy A Refurbished Phone

Phones are expensive, but they don’t have to be that expensive.

Everyone wants a high-end phone, but the problem is bringing yourself to actually pay the high prices required for one. Some people are happy to pay retail, but others are looking for a deal — and one of the ways to find discounts is to look for refurbished phones.

But as you’d expect, buying a refurbished phone isn’t as simple as walking into a store and asking for one — it takes a bit more research and understanding. To help you navigate it, we have all of the information you need right here to make a good choice in buying a refurbished phone.

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What does ‘refurbished’ mean?

Even though we see “refurbished” thrown around a lot, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a standardized term. You may often see it used interchangeably with “recertified,” “reconditioned” or just “open box” or “pre-owned” as well. No matter the exact word, in general it means it’s a product that was manufactured to sell as new, but for whatever reason was returned to the manufacturer — either by a store, reseller or customer — and is now ready to be sold again. They’re sold at a discount, and that’s why people are interested in them.

The terminology changes, but the idea is the same.

Refurbished devices could have simply been opened and returned to a store, but could have also been returned to the manufacturer for a malfunction that was then fixed before selling again. Most of the time, depending on the country where you’re shopping, a product that was been purchased and opened — and possibly not even removed from the packaging or powered on — can no longer be sold as “new” and must be sold as refurbished instead. Stores, resellers or companies themselves then have to discount the device because it technically isn’t new-in-box and therefore can’t command the same price as a new phone.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to know when shopping for a refurbished phone why exactly the phone has made its way to refurbished status or what was done to the phone to then certify that it was refurbished.

What to look for when shopping refurbished

The issue with refurbished phones is that you don’t necessarily know which of the possible pathways it took to be refurbished in the first place. And the truth is, you may never know even after you have the phone in your hands. But there are some good tips to follow when shopping for a refurbished phone.

• Buy from the original company or reputable store whenever possible. They do the best refurbishing process, and can actually offer some sort of guarantee that the phone is in good, working condition.
• See what warranty, if any, is offered for the refurbished phones. Some manufacturers will offer a full warranty for refurbished phones, while third parties typically won’t.
• Read the fine print on the sale — even though it may be hard to find. Most refurbished or open-box phones are sold “as is” with little or no option for returns or refunds.
• Keep in mind the age of the device you’re looking to buy. Sometimes companies won’t be selling refurbished versions of the latest phones, but instead a model or two older. It may be nicely discounted, but much of that discount is likely due to it just being old.
• If the price is too good to be true … then it probably is! If you see a retailer selling a late-model “refurbished” phone for something like half the retail price or less, there’s likely some sort of catch you’ve yet to find. Refurbished phones will be cheap, but they won’t be a steal.

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Where to buy refurbished

If you’re doing your researched and are ready to buy refurbished, here are some great places to look that often have refurbished, recertified, pre-owned or open-box phones.

• Best Buy sells refurbished, pre-owned and open-box phones from a variety of companies at discounts ranging from 10-30%. Open-box deals in particular are great because they’re typically devices that have just been purchased, opened and returned, not even used. Because of this, you can typically find the latest models of phones for sale, rather than just old models.
• Samsung sells certified pre-owned devices, typically at least one model year old, at solid but not substantial discounts. The upside here is getting a full one-year warranty as if you bought it new.
• Gazelle refurbishes and sells phones it buys from consumers, and typically offers up popular devices from Samsung that it can turn the biggest profits on. This means there’s a small selection, and it may not always offer the latest devices, but has some great prices.
• Verizon has certified pre-owned devices, but the selection is small and isn’t always the best deal. Buying certified from the carrier gives you a bit of security, though, as Verizon will guarantee you’re getting a working device.
• T-Mobile also sells certified pre-owned devices at deep discounts, generally limited to the most popular models out there from Samsung. The carrier will also offer similar support to that of a brand new device, so you do have a safety net there.
• AT&T technically has certified pre-owned phones, but they’re only available online and at any given time you may find just one or two models. You’re likely better off buying an unlocked refurbished phone elsewhere.
• Sprint lands in the same situation as AT&T, having certified pre-owned phones in theory but often have just one or maybe no phones available depending when you look.

Do your research, pick the right store and compare prices before buying, and you’re likely to come away with a good phone at a better price than you would ever find on a new-in-box phone.

You won’t want to miss your chance to grab an Honor 8 for just $259

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time scoring you a sweet deal on the excellent Honor 8 smartphone!

Odds are that you’ve heard of the Honor 8 by now, and if you’re in the market for one you won’t want to miss this deal. Right now you can pick up an unlocked 32GB version of the popular smartphone for just $259, which is a savings of around $140 from its normal price. With its 5.2-inch screen and dual camera setup, the Honor 8 has features that beginners and advanced users will love. The phone offers great battery life and recharges via USB-C, and it was recently updated to Android 7.0 and EMUI 5.

This price is only available for the Sapphire Blue version of the phone, but some of the other colors are on sale as well. Stop delaying and pick one of these up for yourself today!

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For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Enjoy your music wirelessly with the TREBLAB X11 earbuds for just $33!

Go wireless with the TREBLAB X11 earbuds!

Wireless headphones are here to stay. One by one, phone manufacturers are removing the trusted 3.5mm headphone jack from their latest flagship devices as wires are replaced by a Bluetooth connection. Many people are resistant to this because, for the longest while, Bluetooth earbuds were very expensive. But there are deals to be had!

That’s why you need to take advantage of this great offer by from Android Central Digital Offers. You can get these stylish and sleek wireless headphones from TREBLAB for just $32.99. Whether you’re running, working out, doing chores, or just going about your commute, these buds will deliver your favorite soundtrack over Bluetooth audio, with features like passive noise cancellation and a built-in mic so you can answer calls without breaking your stride.

You’re able to use these earbuds as a pair, or individually as a single earpiece while driving in your car. You can expect about 6 hours of continuous playtime on a single charge. They’re fully recharged in around 2 hours using the included micro USB charging cable.

The TREBLAB X11 are made in the USA and come with all the accessories you need including six different eartips to choose from, a carrying case and charging cables. You can get your pair in your choice of color: Red/Black, White, Teal, and Pink.

Originally, these earbuds sell for $200 but you can [save 83% with this deal from Android Central Digital Offers! Act fast — with a price this good, this deal won’t last long!

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YouTube Music finally gets the robust offline functions it needed at launch

YouTube Music can finally go oflline with the songs you choose rather than songs an algorithm picked.

It’s hard to believe YouTube Music has been around for almost two years now, and that for most of that time, the service’s offline offering have been so paltry compared to YouTube proper’s ample offline options. Before this week, if you wanted to download songs to listen to in YouTube Music, you were at the mercy of the Offline Mixtape, a random assortment of songs based on your listening history. Offline mixtapes are clunky, often don’t flow well if you listen to diverse genres, and run out quickly. Luckily, we don’t have to put up with that anymore.

YouTube Music finally has save offline support for playlists and single songs. Hallelujah.

That’s right, you can kiss that dreaded Offline Mixtape goodbye and make your own Offline songs mixtape. Saving videos in YouTube Music works much the same as it does in YouTube proper, though you still can’t set your download quality at a per video level, just set a quality for all offline downloads. The beauty of downloading songs here in YouTube Music is that you have an option to save the audio only, cutting down their download size and just how many of them you can fit on phones with sparse storage.

You still can’t kick YouTube Music to an offline only mode unless you go into airplane mode, but getting offline support that’s more than a box of musical chocolates is a step in the right direction, to be sure. YouTube Music’s selection still isn’t as good as YouTube proper, but it’s nice to see the app getting meaningful updates. It’s also nice to see a YouTube app with a dark theme, because we’re still waiting for the one from the new desktop UI to come to YouTube for Android.

YouTube for Android: Everything you need to know

What tech gear goes into your bag for a weekend trip? [Roundtable]

Just the necessities.

Whether it’s spent in the city or camping under the stars, Android and all other sorts of Google tech can make a weekend getaway even better.

This week we’re going around the table and sharing what goes inside our travel gear when we’re out of town for a quick trip.

Jerry Hildenbrand

When my wife and I take a weekend getaway, I am the dedicated gadget transportation engineer and charge wrangler. That means I not only have to tote a bunch of stuff but I also have to plan in advance to make sure I have whatever it is that we might need. I’m good at the toting part but pretty much suck at the planning part so I just cram everything that will fit into a nice Kenneth Cole leather messenger bag (for some reason my wife hates my gigantic regular messenger bag that’s kind of torn and ratty and may smell funny) and hope for the best.

On to the stuff. We each carry a phone, of course. Right now that would be a Nexus 5X for her and a BlackBerry KeyONE for me. In the bag, I manage to fit her Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and my Chromebook, which has been the Acer R13 lately, and a 30,000 mAh Aukey battery pack along with a slew of cables of all different types. Everyone tells me I can leave my real camera at home, but I still carry it — a Sony a6000 that was totally a step backwards from my old NEX-6 and its viewfinder with a couple lenses and countless SD cards, adapters, thumb drives and clutter that’s just too good to throw away.

Add in a good flashlight and a 4″ S&W Model 629 if we’re going somewhere outdoorsy with bears and/or alligators, and we’re set.

Daniel Bader

When I jaunt, I rarely do so without a bag full of gadgets. Sure, the phone stays in my pocket, but like any good entourage, the supporting cast is never too far away. These days, most of my electronics charge via USB-C, so I always have a couple extras on hand just in case. Those cables plug into my trusty Aukey 6-port USB charger, of which two of the ports are Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0-compatible. When I’m not able to plug into a wall, my 9000mAh Nomad PowerPack juices my phones or USB-C laptops and lets me track anything nearby with a built-in Tile.

Because I’m a bit of a phone clean freak, my travel bag always has at least one canister of Whoosh! Screen cleaner, which is non-toxic and smells like citrus. And if I’m traveling by bus, train or plane, I bring my Kenu Stance USB-C tripod, which props up any phone in portrait or landscape for Netflix binges.

Lately, my bag has been the OnePlus Travel Backpack, which has been annoyingly out of stock for a while now, but is well worth the investment if you can find one. When I really need to protect my stuff, I turn to my Booq Pack Pro, which is $295 and not for everyone, but it’s built like a tank.

In the car, I am loving Belkin’s USB-C car charger with an extra USB-A port for the times I need to use a Micro-USB or Lightning cable.

On my head, I alternate between AirPods (come at me) and my new favorite wireless headphones, the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless 2, which are not only portable but sound amazing and last 15 hours per charge.

Oh, and this isn’t tech, but it’s just as important: when I travel I bring my Espro Travel Coffee Press and a baggie of coffee grinds so I can drink good-quality brew wherever I am. Because without good coffee, none of the stuff above does anything.

Andrew Martonik

I try to keep things as simple as possible for a short weekend away from home. I’ll usually bring just one phone, actually, which is the Moto Z2 Force right now. But I’d feel just fine heading out for a few days with any of the flagships I’ve used so far in 2017.

Then I bring my typical zipper bag with the essentials: my Anker two-port wall charger, a compact Anker 10,000mAh battery and two USB-C cables (and a USB-C to Micro-USB adapter). Most of the time I’ll also clip the waterproof JBL Clip 2, Bluetooth speaker on my bag, just in case the weekend calls for tunes. Of course, I’ll have my MacBook Pro if I have to get any work done, but for any pure leisure trips, I pack my Galaxy Tab S3 with the keyboard case just to have something I can comfortably type on and have a bigger screen to look at.

For a trip that’s only going to take me away for two nights, I can typically pack it all up in a backpack. Right now that’s the Peak Design Everyday Backpack, since it’s big enough to carry clothes and necessities alongside all of my electronics and accessories in separate, safe compartments.

Ara Wagoner

Let me begin by saying what comes with me when I leave the house, be it going to work or a day trip anywhere: My ThinkGeek Handbag of Holding holds one QC 3.0 charger (from the Samsung Galaxy S8), one 2-port USB charger (from the 2013 Moto X), two Micro-USB cables, one USB-C cable, one portable batteries, my Kinivo BTH260 Bluetooth headphones, my emergency Sony earbuds in an Altoids tin, a charger for my Chromebook and my Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook.

Oh, and in my other bag for work, a BoltPower 18,000mAh Portable Battery and Jump Starter, because I drive a 2002 Honda and you never know when you’re going to need a jump at midnight.

If I’m going home to my parents for the weekend, I add in the charger for my LG Watch Style and the QC 3.0 charger and USB-C cable from my HTC 10. If I’m going to be doing any photo editing, I also bring a Surface Pro 3 and its charger.

If I’m going to Disney, I bring a couple of small batteries so I can swap out during trips back to the room, extra cables, and a Dakine crossbody tablet purse to hold my tech, my snacks, and my Mickey umbrella while I run around the parks like a giddy schoolgirl.

Jen Karner

I don’t really go all in for accessories, and I drive a smart car, so traveling light is absolutely essential. This means that I only take what I need, which means my phone, and the chargers I need for it.

This means my Samsung Galaxy S8, along with my Belkin car charger since I use my phone for navigation and music on trips. I like to travel light, but I also bring the wall charger that came with my phone and my latest pair of toss-away earbuds.

Harish Jonnalagadda

I carry a lot of gear whenever I travel, and that typically includes two phones, a Bluetooth speaker, headphones, my trusty Kindle, a battery pack, and lots of cables. I’m currently using the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 as my primary phone, and I can easily count on the 5300mAh battery lasting at least two days. The second phone is a Galaxy S8+, which struggles to make it through the day on a full charge. That’s where Xiaomi’s 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 comes in handy.

Other accessories include a two-port Aukey wall charger with Quick Charge 3.0, Tronsmart USB-C to USB-A cables, a generic USB-C to Micro-USB adapter, a Bluetooth speaker — which currently is the $49 Mi Bluetooth Speaker — and Sony’s incredible MDR-1000X headphones.

I use a Grid-It Organizer to keep everything tidy, and just slot the organizer into the Xiaomi travel backpack. The $45 pack accommodates all of my electronics with room to spare, and there’s also a compartment for a 17-inch laptop and a tablet if I have to bring my MacBook Pro along.

Marc Lagace

What convenient timing, I’m just headed to Montreal for the weekend. For this trip I’m packing fairly light, and that’s reflected in the accessories I’m bringing along.

I’m going to be rocking the Galaxy S8 for its outstanding camera, so I’ve made sure to pack a couple USB-C charging cables and wall chargers, along with some microUSB cables for my family. I’m also super excited to try out the Frankenstein travel wallet (pictured) I created by using a 3M adhesive strip to attach a Ventev Powercell 3015c battery pack to my new wallet, the Artmi Credit Card holder. Sure, it compromises the wallet’s slim size, but it’s still no bigger than my old wallet and now I have the added benefit of having a full day’s charge in my back pocket.

Beyond that, I’m bringing the Anker SoundCore 2 to handle all the music, a Chromecast in case there’s a TV at my Airbnb, and my MacBook because it travels so nicely in my new laptop backpack I picked up on Amazon.

Your turn

What are the things you have to bring along when you’re out and about? Fire off in the comments and let everyone know!

Netflix HDR playback comes to the Sony Xperia XZ Premium

Netflix HDR supported devices is an exclusive little club, and it has a new member.

Netflix has been ridiculously picky about what devices and formats for ultra-high-definition it supports, and as such Netflix has been slow to allow it on any device, with the LG G6 being the sole phone supported for Netflix’s HDR playback… until now, that is. Another phone is crashing the party, and it’s the Sony XZ Premium.

HDR playback on phones might not be the biggest deal for users or for Netflix, as most phones probably don’t have the resolution for it to matter, but for bleeding-edge flagships that have both the resolution and the supported HDR standard, Netflix will let them stream the good stuff. Why do we still need Netflix to okay it for each device that supports it? That could have to do with how picky Netflix is being with the HDR standards it supports, and it could also be at Netflix doesn’t want to send out a bunch of HDR streams to phones that can’t display them properly.

Whatever the case may be, we have now doubled the available phones with Netflix HDR from one to two. That’s a 100% increase! If you’re the proud owner of a Sony XZ Premium, you need to have a Premium Netflix subscription, internet speeds around 25Mbps, and video quality in the app set to high. Enjoy all those pixels, and make sure you don’t blow your data limit.

Netflix has doubled mobile streaming quality in the last year