Put Amazon’s Alexa to work with an Echo for just $100

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with an even more affordable way to get an Echo in your home!

If you’ve been considering picking up an Amazon Echo, now is the time. Currently, you can grab one for just $99.99 which is a savings of $80. This isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen on the smart speaker and if you missed out on the previous deals, this is the best you’ll find right now. The Echo allows you to use your voice to do tons of different tasks that you would normally need to pick up your phone or even computer to accomplish.

You can use the Echo to control various smart home accessories, check on the local news, and even order pizza if you wanted to. Amazon has been adding new features to Alexa just about every week so it continues to become smarter and smarter. If you’ve been interested in checking one of these out and have been looking for a discount, this is the perfect way to see what all the hype is about.

The Echo Dot is also down to $44.99, which is $5 off, and Amazon is offering $100 off when buying 2 of the all-new Echo Show when you use the coupon code SHOW2PACK. If you’re looking to take Alexa on the go with you, you can save up to $30 on select Fire Tablets right now!

See at Amazon

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

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• All about Alexa Skills
• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

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AT&T’s new Primetime tablet requires a DIRECTV subscription

AT&T has announced a new tablet that plugs into its DIRECTV service.

Cellular-connected tablets have been around since the first iPad, letting users connect to the Internet even when they’re not around Wi-Fi. This was typically associated with light web browsing, as streaming video over a cellular connection is a fast way to burn through a data cap. As more carriers have brought back unlimited plans and zero rating for certain services, the ability to use a tablet as an on the go streaming device has become easier than ever.

To that end, AT&T has announced a first party tablet centered around content consumption. The AT&T Primetime Tablet is designed specifically for DIRECTV subscribers. In fact, it requires a monthly subscription to DIRECTV for users to buy the device in the first place.

As for specifications, the only directly mentioned specs are the 10-inch, 1080p display, and the 9,070 mAh battery. AT&T does not list which version of Android the tablet runs, but based on the fact the product page mentions “built-in split screen features,” we can presume it uses some version of Android 7.0 Nougat. The tablet will use a custom home screen with gestures for quickly accessing DIRECTV when you just need to watch TV right this second. The spec sheet mentions users will be able to stream to two separate Bluetooth headsets of speakers, which is a very neat feature (but not necesarily part of the Bluetooth 5.0 spec) The device also features dual front-facing speakers with Dolby Atmos and 4 audio presets.

Existing AT&T Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Choice customers can add the Primetime tablet to their existing plans for an additional $20 per month. The device can also be purchased on its own for $29.99 per month for 2 years, totaling $719.76. The Primetime Tablet will be available on AT&T’s online store on in physical retail stores beginning August 25.

See at AT&T

Which unlimited plan should you buy?

Verizon uses Qualcomm’s new X20 modem to go beyond 1Gbps wireless speeds

Qualcomm, Ericsson and Verizon have successfully reached 1.07 gbps download speeds on LTE.

While 5G is a ways away, there’s still some growing room for 4G LTE. Qualcomm has been field testing its X20 LTE modem, which will allow for a theoretical limit of 1.2Gbps download speeds on cellular connections. Now, Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm have announced they were able to achieve a stable 1.07Gbps in lab conditions.

The test uses a combination of 12 separate LTE streams on 3X carrier aggregation, along with 4×4 MIMO and 256QAM, technologies that all carriers, especially T-Mobile, have been touting in their quest to eke as much speed out of the current 4G LTE spec as possible.

From Verizon:

This 1.07 Gbps achievement builds on Verizon’s recent announcement about Gigabit LTE with support for License Assisted Access (LAA). Also of significance, the 1.07 Gbps speed was achieved using only three 20MHz carriers of FDD (Frequency Division Duplex using separate transmit and receive frequencies) spectrum, achieving new levels of spectral efficiency for commercial networks and devices. These efficiencies will enable the delivery of the Gigabit class experience to more customers and lead to new wireless innovations.

The companies achieved the 1.07 Gbps industry milestone by using 12 simultaneous LTE streams, which allow for up to 20 percent increase in peak data rates and capacity with a corresponding improvement in average speeds. Ericsson’s Radio System and LTE software, in concert with a mobile test device based on the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, enabled these high speeds.

In the lab, the 1.07 Gbps speeds were achieved using all licensed band combinations with:

• 12 LTE streams with 3 cell carrier aggregation of FDD spectrum
• 4×4 MIMO per carrier (multiple in, multiple out), which uses multiple antennae at the cell tower and on consumers devices to optimize data speeds
• 256 QAM per carrier, which enables customer devices and the network to exchange information in large amounts, delivering more bits of data in each transmission, significantly enhancing data speeds

Even with this achievement, it will be a long time before consumers are able to see these high speeds. There are no consumer devices that include the Qualcomm X20 modem, but it may be included on next year’s flagship devices, following more successful tests. Even then, carriers will need to upgrade the cellular towers before customers can take advantage of the super high speeds.

What would you do with a super fast LTE connection? Let us know down below!

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Walmart may use a blimp to deploy its delivery drones

Hey, Amazon: you aren’t the only one who pictures blimps full of delivery drones. Walmart has applied for a patent on “gas-filled carrier aircrafts” that would serve as airborne bases, helping courier drones fly to homes they couldn’t reach if they flew from a fixed location. The concept isn’t completely new, of course (Amazon filed for a similar patent in 2016) but Walmart goes into exacting detail. Blimps would fly at altitudes up to 1,000 feet and talk to a remote scheduling system that indicates when drones should fetch packages from inside the blimp and head to their destinations.

The thought of ever-present Walmart blimps is more than a little odd, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll happen (this is just a patent), but it’s more plausible than you might think. Amazon and Walmart have been at each other’s throats recently as they try to dominate internet-based shopping, and they’ve frequently felt compelled to counter each other’s moves. If Amazon fulfills its Prime Air ambitions and delivers many of its orders using drones, Walmart might not have much choice but to deploy blimps if it wants to keep up. In short: the skies are about to get very crowded.

Via: Bloomberg, CNBC

Source: USPTO

Intel Launches First Eighth-Generation Core Processors, Paving Way For Quad-Core 13-Inch MacBook Pro

Intel today introduced its eighth-generation Core processor lineup [PDF] coming to notebooks later this year.

The first four eighth-generation processors launching today are U-series chips suitable for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. They’re all 15W chips with four cores and eight threads, paving the way for a quad-core 13-inch MacBook Pro should Apple choose to release one.

The new Core i5 and Core i7 chips have integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620, and support both DDR4-2400 and LPDDR3-2133 RAM.

Given the lack of LPDDR4 support, which allows for up to 32GB RAM, a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with an eighth-generation Core processor would likely remain capped at 16GB of RAM. Apple marketing Phil Schiller explained why last year.

Notebooks using the eighth-generation chips can get up to 10 hours of battery life, consistent with the current 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Intel said eighth-generation processors appropriate for desktops like the iMac will be available in the fall, while processors appropriate for the 12-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro are vaguely listed as coming soon.

The eighth-generation Core i5 and Core i7 chips are up to 40 percent faster than the equivalent seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors, according to Intel, based on the benchmark tool SYSmark 2014 SE on Windows 10. That tops Intel’s original claim that the chips would be up to 30 percent faster.

The test compared Intel’s quad-core Core i7-8550U processor, with a base frequency of 1.8GHz and Turbo Boost up to 4GHz, against its dual-core Core i7-7500U processor with a base frequency of 2.7GHz and Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz.

Intel also boasted that its eighth-generation Core processors are up to twice as fast as its equivalent five-year-old Ivy Bridge chips. It said users can output a 106-second 4K video in as little as three minutes with a new PC, for example, versus up to 45 minutes on an equivalent five-year-old PC.

Notably, the eighth-generation processors announced today are not part of the upcoming Coffee Lake family. Instead, they’re part of what’s being called Kaby Lake Refresh, an iteration of the seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors used in the latest MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac models.

Intel is expected to eventually announce chips based on Coffee Lake’s 14nm++ and Cannonlake’s 10nm manufacturing processes that join the eighth-generation Core lineup. In other words, a new generation of Core processors no longer immediately correlates to brand new chip architecture.

Intel said the first notebooks with eighth-generation Core processors will be available in September, but it’s unclear when Apple will refresh its Mac lineup — probably not soon. For perspective, Intel launched its Kaby Lake processors in January, and the first Macs equipped with the chips were released in June.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tags: Intel, Kaby Lake
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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Scientists recreate Neptune’s diamond rain using powerful lasers

While we’ve yet to fully explore Neptune and its fellow gas giants, scientists have a lot of theories about them based on the info we know. For instance, they believe that it rains diamonds on those planets — diamonds that sink into their interior and form a sparkly crust around their solid cores. Since it might take a long time before we can study our gas giants more closely, a team of researchers have decided to take matters into their own hands. They recreated Neptune’s conditions at Stanford’s SLAC Laboratory and successfully observed the formation of diamond rain, thanks to the help of some very powerful lasers.

The team used a plastic material called polystyrene to simulate Neptune’s methane-rich atmosphere. Both the plastic and methane, which is responsible for the planet’s blue cast, are made of hydrogen and carbon molecules. To create the high-pressure conditions that squeeze those hydrogen and carbon molecules into diamonds, they used SLAC’s Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument located inside the most powerful x-ray laser in the world, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). This instrument combines the beams emitted by LCLS with high power optical laser beams.

SLAC recently upgraded MEC to give it the power of 17 Teslas discharging 100 kilowatt-hour batteries in a single second. Scientists can now use it to recreate the extremely high pressure conditions of distant planets for study, which is exactly what this particular group did. They created shockwaves in the plastic using MEC’s lasers, which turned almost every carbon atom in the material into diamond structures a few nanometers in size. The stones Uranus and Neptune squeeze out can make Marilyn Monroe swoon, though: the researchers believe they could reach millions of carats in weight.

The lasers they used also allowed the team to gather data in real time, something previous attempts weren’t able to do because the conditions needed to create diamonds only last a fraction of a second in the lab. This gives the researchers valuable info on how diamond rains happen, and scientists could apply the knowledge gained from this experiment when studying exoplanets. In the future, people could also use this study’s results to manufacture nanodiamonds for jewelry, scientific equipment, electronics and other commercial purposes.

Now that they’re done recreating Neptune in the lab, the researchers plan to use the same methods to look into the interior of other types of planets. Team leader Dominik Kraus explained that since “[w]e can’t go inside the planets and look at them… these laboratory experiments complement satellite and telescope observations.”

A live-action reboot of ‘The Jetsons’ is headed to ABC

The Jetson family is coming back to television. ABC has ordered a put pilot for a live-action reboot of the animated series, Variety reports. The show is said to be a multi-cam sitcom set 100 years in the future and the project is being executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke while Gary Janetti — who has written for Family Guy and Will & Grace, among others — is set to write.

The original series aired from 1962-1963 and was revived in the mid-1980s. It’s also been given the feature film treatment twice with the 1990 Jetsons: The Movie and The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania!, which was released this year. Another animated Jetsons film is currently in the works via Warner Bros. and Sausage Party and Shrek 2 co-director Conrad Vernon.

That ABC has ordered a put pilot means the The Jetsons is likely to get picked up. There’s no word yet on casting.

Source: Variety

Any Tesla will soon pull your personal settings from the cloud

There aren’t a lot of formalities for new Tesla feature launches — if CEO Elon Musk decides to tweet something then it’s coming, and probably soon. A case in point is new cloud-based driver profiles. “We are going to move all info and settings to the ‘cloud’ (aka server) so any Tesla you drive in the world automatically adjusts to you,” Musk said on Twitter yesterday.

We are going to move all info and settings to the “cloud” (aka server) so any Tesla you drive in the world automatically adjusts to you

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2017

Musk’s reply was overkill to an owner who merely asked about making default work locations a profile, rather than vehicle choice. Obviously, moving that data to the cloud, where it could be loaded into any car would solve that issue and many more.

It would not only make your seat and steering wheel adjustments portable, but also map settings, regenerative breaking, temperature settings and more. That would give you a better estimation of your range — which wildly varies based on driving style — and other important data.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to drive strange Teslas right now, but that’s changing fast. The cheaper Model 3 might soon hit rental fleets en masse, much like the Chevy Bolt, and Tesla plans to introduce its own ride-sharing network at some point.

If car ownership declines in favor of renting or ride-sharing, as many predict, cloud-based driver profiles will become necessary industry-wide (and add another layer of privacy risk, of course). Tesla, as usual, is ahead of the curve by bringing it first.

Via: Techcrunch

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

Google Home’s Bluetooth audio feature is available to all

Google has opened up its Home smart speaker in a big way. Today the search giant has added Bluetooth audio to the device for everyone, after teasing it back at I/O in May and slowly rolling out to select users after that. This is perfect if your app of choice doesn’t support Google Cast. You know, like Apple Music, or maybe a legacy piece of audio gear. And here you probably thought that the recent music-related Google Home news would stop with Spotify.

AT&T’s latest tablet is basically a vehicle for DirecTV Now

AT&T would really, really like you to try DirecTV Now. So much so, in fact, that it’s releasing a tablet where its streaming video services are the centerpiece. The Primetime is a mostly unremarkable 10-inch LTE slate in terms of hardware (more on that later), but it includes a TV Mode with quick access to favorite video apps from your home or lock screen — naturally, AT&T hopes this means the preloaded DirecTV and DirecTV Now apps. You can use it to jump to the likes of Netflix or YouTube, of course, but the feature is clearly meant for the live TV crowd.

There are a pair of helpful hardware perks to support your video viewing, including dual Bluetooth audio streams (good for kids in the back seat on a road trip, AT&T says) and twin front-facing speakers with Dolby audio. After that, though, this is very much a run-of-the-mill tablet: you’re looking at a full HD screen, a 2GHz Snapdragon 625 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The price is right, though. When the Primetime arrives on August 25th, you’re looking at $200 outright ($10 per month over 20 months) or $30 on a two-year contract. If you just want a tablet for keeping up with TV while you’re on vacation, you probably don’t need to spend more.

Source: AT&T Newsroom