Keep your screen on in Pokémon Go (or any app) with Tasker

The moment your screen goes unexpectedly black is gut-wrenching.

You’re getting to the juiciest details of an e-book when the story cuts to black. You’re looking at some breath-taking artwork and a wet blanket of darkness kills the mood. You’re trying to find an elusive Pokémon before its spawn window ends and your screen times out just as an outline appears. Sure, this horror is momentary, and a simple press of the power button ends your blackout, but its effects can be devastating, and we don’t need our screen timeout cranked up all the time; cranking it up for specific apps can let us fight back against the darkness.

This is also a great way to introduce yourself to Tasker.

What is Tasker? Read this first!

This is a simple Tasker profile with two one-action tasks and no plugins needed. We’ll take advantage of the automation app’s ability to change basic system settings to change our Android phone’s screen timeout setting when we’re in a particular app and when we exit it.

If you’re looking to just reap the rewards without going through five full minutes of setting it up yourself, here’s the finished profile for changing the display timeout length while in Pokemon Go for you to download before you open Tasker.

Long-press Profiles to open a menu.
Tap Import.

Navigate to and select the Pokemon Timeout profile you downloaded.

If you’re looking to get down and dirty in Tasker, welcome to the club! We’ll make some jackets one of these days, but for now let’s get down to making your first profile, shall we?

Open Tasker.
In the Profiles tab, tap the + in the bottom right corner to create a new profile.

Tap Application.

Tap the app you want to crank up your screen timeout for.
Tap the back arrow in the top-left corner of the screen.

You’ll need to turn on Tasker’s Accessibility function so it can see which app is open. Tap OK to be taken to the needed settings screen.

Tap Tasker.
Tap the toggle to turn it on.

Tap OK to allow Tasker to see which app you have open.

Tap the back button twice.
Tap New Task.

Name your task. You can name it whatever you like. Tap the enter key on your keyboard when you’re done with your name.

Tap the + in the bottom right corner to add an action to your task.
Tap the text box in the actions list and type in Display Timeout.

Tap the Display Timeout action.

Drag the Mins bar to 10 for a 10 minute timeout value. You can set the value lower or higher if you want, but some devices won’t recognize a value about 10 minutes.
Tap the back arrow in the top left corner of the screen to add your action.

Tap the back arrow in the top left corner of the screen to finish your task.

Long-press the green arrow to bring up a menu.
Tap Add Exit Task.

Repeat Steps 11-16 with your exit task.

Drag the Secs and Mins bars to set your normal screen timeout length when not in your desired app.

Tap the back arrow in the top-left corner of the screen to add your action.

Tap the back arrow in the top-left corner of the screen to finish your task.

Tap the checkmark in the top bar to commit your changes.

You can now create profiles to do the same with other apps easily now that the two tasks are already made. While I initially made this profile for Pokémon Go, it’s also quite handy while reading and while enjoying red-light artworks.

What apps could you use this for? Your work email? Your calculator app? Your favorite game? Tell us in the comments! And if you have any other Tasker projects you’d like us to tackle, tell us those, too!

The Morning After: Tuesday, August 8th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

All kinds of items are up for sale, including Google Glass, HBO’s emails and a unique comic-book company. Just another Tuesday, we guess.

Put your credit card down.The new Google Glass is on sale

Google Glass is back, and you can buy one of the new headsets for a bit over $1,800 from Streye. Of course, the device’s new focus means that unless you have a job where its hands-free augmented reality capabilities can really be helpful, you’re probably better off avoiding this version for now.

Threats.HBO hackers return with exec emails and a ransom demand

Hackers trying to extort HBO leaked some emails they’ve obtained, sending them to media outlets along with a ransom demand. In a letter to CEO Richard Plepler, the hackers demanded an unspecified amount of money to prevent further leaks. For its part, HBO continues to maintain that it hasn’t had its entire email system breached.

When internal company discussions go viralGoogle employee behind ‘echo chamber’ diversity memo fired

Over the weekend, a Google employee’s internally-shared 10-page document attacking a supposed echo chamber around diversity and inclusion went viral. Now, the employee has emailed media outlets saying he was fired for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.” CEO Sundar Pichai sent a letter to employees saying that “To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK. It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct,” and scheduled a company town hall meeting on Thursday.

More superhero flicks?Netflix acquires Mark Millar’s comics publishing house

Mark Millar has penned many now-classic comics, which is probably why Netflix made his Millarworld its first acquisition. The purchase doesn’t include his work with Marvel, or already-produced franchises like Kingsman and Kick-Ass, but will fuel more Netflix Originals in the future.

You can drop this one.Samsung’s rugged Galaxy S8 Active launches this week on AT&T

If your lifestyle is a little more action oriented (or if you’re just clumsy), then this is the Galaxy S8 for you. The Active version is shatter-, water- and dust-resistant, plus it has a larger battery than the standard version.

Even the tread is custom printed.Michelin’s 3D-printed tire is as stunning as it is futuristic

The Vision is both a wheel and airless tire all-in-one.

But wait, there’s more…

• What’s on TV: ‘GotG Vol. 2’, plus the ‘Orphan Black’ and ‘Carmichael Show’ series finales
• Vizio finally adds Amazon Video to its list of SmartCast TV apps
• Intel’s most powerful CPU ever was built for superfans
• Google cuts up to $200 from the price of its Pixel phones

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

Leak shows the iPhone 8 is all screen and no home button

Much of the recent talk surrounding the iPhone 8 has focussed on its hardware. Now, courtesy of a new leak, we can go back to speculating its design. The latest image — via the web’s resident handset leaker Evan Blass — indicates Apple’s next flagship will be mostly screen, and very little bezel.

iPhone 8 (encased) pic.twitter.com/9LpARCAML2

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 8, 2017

The render shows the new iPhone within a neon yellow case, much like the Urban Armor Gear shell for the iPhone 7. Unlike the exclusive leaks Engadget obtained in May, the latest image is just of the front of the phone. It suggests the top of the phone will have a notch for the dual camera sensors and central earpiece — the rest of the front will be taken up by the phone’s display. As usual, it’s best to greet this latest render with a dash of skepticism. For starters, the date on the iPhone is March, which indicates it could be a few months old.

If it does turn out to be accurate, however, that means Apple is following the screen-dominated designs spearheaded by Samsung, LG, and the Essential Phone. Blass also pointed out the similarities with Android co-founder Andy Rubin’s device, going so far as to say he preferred the look of the Essential Phone. Rubin’s former company, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be following the pack. The latest leaks of Google’s upcoming Pixel phone suggest it won’t cut down on its top and bottom bezels.

The new image should get fans talking as they anticipate the next iPhone’s release. Your feelings will likely betray which camp you reside in: pro-, or anti-bezel.

Source: Evan Blass (Twitter)

Sharp’s edge-to-edge AQUOS S2 is a glimpse at your next phone

Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone may have wowed us with its edge-to-edge display recently, but let’s not forget that Sharp has been driving this design with many of its previous Android phones — 28 of them, to be precise. Today, the Japanese brand unveiled its 29th release dubbed AQUOS S2 which, funnily enough, looks rather familiar. From afar, the S2’s screen and the Essential Phone’s screen share the same front-camera notch at the top, except the former is a smaller 5.5-inch panel with a slightly lower 2,040 x 1,080 resolution. The more notable difference here is how the corners at the top appear to be hastily trimmed, which is a bit of a letdown, but at least you’re still getting a nice 135-percent sRGB gamut plus a handy 550-nit brightness.

Thanks to Sharp’s very own Free Form Display technology, the S2 has an impressive 87.5-percent screen-to-body ratio. It’s also a much smaller device: we’re talking about tucking a 5.5-inch display into the body of a conventional 4.9-inch smartphone. And don’t worry, you still get a 3,030 mAh battery which is plentiful, especially considering that the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 660 (8x Kryo 260; 2.2GHz + 1.8GHz; 14nm) or Snapdragon 630 (8x ARM Cortex A53; 2.2GHz + 1.8GHz; 14nm), depending on which of the two price tiers you’re going for.

While the S2 is no powerhouse, it comes equipped with a pair of nice cameras. The front imager has an 8-megapixel 1.4um sensor with f/2.0 aperture, which is pretty good given how compact the module is. The f/1.75 dual camera on the back consists of a 12-megapixel sensor plus an 8-megapixel sensor, both also feature efficient 1.4um pixels and together offer a seven-level bokeh effect.

Compared to previous Sharp smartphones, the S2 has ditched the old bone conduction actuator in favor of a conventional earpiece that’s hidden underneath the screen, next to the front camera, with its audio channeled to a thin pipe placed along the top edge of the screen for clearer sound. While the front camera is no longer placed on the chin, there’s now a fingerprint reader centered there — an interesting choice when both the Essential Phone and Xiaomi’s Mi Mix opted for a rear fingerprint reader instead.

Another interesting engineering feat here is the use of a “3D” single-sheet glass back on the premium model: it’s named as such because not only are the four edges curved, but it’s also molded with the camera bump to give a more elegant finish. As a bonus, the “Sharp” logo is engraved near the bottom, which is a much nicer touch than the usual silk-printed branding. For those who are wondering, Sharp claims that the S2 has passed its “rigorous” drop tests for all six sides and four corners thanks to its aluminum mid-frame design, but we’ll believe it when we see it.

It’s unclear which other markets will the AQUOS S2 enter, but for now, Sharp is already taking pre-orders in China. The standard model with Snapdragon 630, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage is priced at 2,499 yuan (about $370), and it comes in black, white, blue or mint green. The premium model due to arrive later is asking for 3,499 yuan (about $520) and packs a Snapdragon 660, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage plus the aforementioned “3D” glass back, but it doesn’t have the mint green option.

Source: Sharp

Lonely Planet’s Trips app is Instagram for travel junkies

If you’ve ever planned a vacation abroad, you’ve probably spent some time with Lonely Planet. The company is the largest travel book publisher in the world, and it also has plenty of free resources on its website and in its Lonely Planet Guides app. The latter provided the inspiration for the latest Lonely Planet project, a new iPhone app called Trips (also coming to Android this fall). At its core, it’s a crowdsourced version of the Guides app. But instead of featuring contributions from Lonely Planet experts and contributors, it’s all about what regular users have to say and the sights they see on their vacations.

Trips walks users through building their own travel guide by combining photos with text and maps in a very simple but flexible format. When you open the app, there’s a big plus button at the bottom that starts the creation process. From there, you can select photos to add to the guide. The app uses geolocation tags to automatically group the pictures by where they were shot and puts them in chronological order, though it’s simple to rearrange things yourself.

While you could just hit publish and blast those photos out into the world, Lonely Planet included extensive options for adding captions, headers and text to your creation. It’s all extremely intuitive and there’s only a small number of ways to customize the layout (tapping a photo to show it full-bleed versus with a border around it, for example). After picking some photos, I had a quick journal built from my trip to Seattle and Vancouver earlier this month. Sure, the text wasn’t terribly engrossing, but if I spent a little extra time on it I could have polished it into something pretty nice — and a lot more in-depth than the average Instagram vacation photos.

With Trips’ focus on photo sharing, it’s easy to compare the app with Instagram, and wonder how Lonely Planet will get people to use it. “We don’t expect people to abandon other photo-sharing apps,” CEO Daniel Houghton said. “We even built functionality in Trips so you can link back to your Instagram and show those photos. But this is a more in-depth product from a travel point of view.” He’s hoping that users put effort into the text, not just their photos. “Instead of posting one photo or blowing up your Instagram feed with 10 in a row you can do a gallery or write your own magazine-style travel story,” Houghton said.

Of course, there are plenty of apps and services (Medium, Google Photos, VSCO’s Journal) that let you build similar projects, but those don’t have the specific travel focus of Lonely Planet. That focus on community is how Houghton sees Trips standing out. “If you do share your creations publicly, it all gets exposed to the rest of the community and hopefully encourages you to share more,” Houghton told Engadget. “There’s a lot to be said for being in a community of people specific to travel.”

For starters, Trips lets users browse nine different categories for story submissions (road trips, adventure, cities, hiking and so on), though Houghton said that Lonely Planet will add more over time. When you pick a particular trip to view, you can save it to your favorites or follow the author. Eventually, once you start following enough people, your feed will start filling up with trips to explore. But it almost certainly won’t ever be like Instagram, where users post multiple times a day. Though if you find the right set of travel junkies to follow you could get a pretty active feed — it’ll just depend on whether or not Lonely Planet can attract people to its platform.

As one of Lonely Planet’s first forays into user-generated content, Houghton is expecting the company’s community to make the app a success. “We’ve never really had anything like this before, short of Thorn Tree, which has been around for 21 years,” Houghton said, referencing Lonely Planet’s long-established travel discussion board. “It’s just a forum, but it’s a successful one.”

Getting those active users over to Trips might take some work, but Lonely Planet made it easy to jump into the app and start publishing. The company didn’t put in unnecessary features, which makes the creation process quick. You can’t do any photo editing in the app, for example: “Photo editors exist, people all have their favorites, and they integrate with Trip,” Houghton said. “We didn’t want to distract people from their process.” And from a design standpoint, Trips looks nearly identical to the content found in Guides, as well as what’s on Lonely Planet’s homepage; there’s a simple consistency that makes the new app feel familiar.

Of course, things aren’t perfect at launch. When adding photos to a story, it shows the most recent at the top. That’s logical if you’re in the middle of or just wrapping up a vacation that you want to post about. But for me, I had to do a lot of scrolling to get to some pictures worth sharing. If you have images that are months or years old, they won’t be easy to find. Lonely Planet should definitely look into supporting the album structure in the iOS Photos app so images are easier to find. The test version of Trips that I tried also lacked a search feature; I’ve asked Lonely Planet when that’ll be added but haven’t heard back just yet.

Ultimately, Trips is a well-designed app that can really show off photos well, but that doesn’t make it unique. What will make it stand out is if travelers start using it to show off their adventures in different ways than many already do on Instagram. But Lonely Planet is in the comfortable position of not needing this app to be a hit to survive. Even if it just ends up as an app used by frequent travelers who love to shoot on their phones, those users should have a solid time using it.

Nintendo’s ‘Samus’ 3DS XL is perfect for that ‘Metroid’ reboot

Huge Metroid fan? You’ll be thrilled to know that Nintendo has designed a New 3DS XL to go with the upcoming Metroid II reboot, then. The Samus Edition console will be available on September 15th, the same day Metroid: Samus Returns lands on shelves. It features an orange and yellow case with a print of the armor-bound intergalactic bounty hunter on the front.

You’ll have to buy your own copy of the side-scrolling adventure, because the console doesn’t come with the game. But since it will only set you back $200 — same as a standard 3DS XL — it’s not a bad deal at all. You need to act fast if you don’t want to pay jacked-up prices on eBay, though. Like many 3DS consoles designed to be released with specific titles, this one’s limited edition only.

‘Metroid: Samus Returns’ plays like a modern classic

For a brief moment, a number floating in space overshadowed everything else during Nintendo’s E3 digital showcase. The announcement of Metroid Prime 4 heralded the return of a franchise that, with the exception of a single spin-off, had been dormant for seven long years. Less than an hour later, Nintendo dropped another announcement: A remake of the Game Boy’s Metroid 2 would be coming to 3DS by the end of the year.

Fans were left to wonder if either title could make up for the series’ absence over the past decade. Today, we can say that at least one might. Metroid: Samus Returns is everything you could ask from a traditional 2D Metroid game.

In recent years, that’s a lot. The franchise’s last two games fell flat with many fans. In Metroid Prime: Federation Force, the series’ iconic protagonist was relegated to a non-playable supporting role. In Metroid: Other M, her character was weighted down by a disappointing, frustrating narrative. Samus Returns takes the hero and the franchise back to its roots — from level design that encourages exploration and satisfying enemy encounters to the traditional 2D platforming style that helped birth the term “Metroidvania.”

For veterans of the franchise’s more traditional games, it feels like coming home. Samus Returns builds on the tight, exploration platforming of Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission, and then adds to it. Samus can still shoot up, down and diagonally, but holding R activates a precision-aiming mode with full range of motion and a targeting laser. There’s also a new counter-attack move that can knock back an enemy. Time it just right, and it’ll throw an attacker off balance and set them up as a perfect target.

These little revisions are important — not only are they unique features that help the game stand out from other Metroid titles, but they’re features that help drag the title Samus Returns is based on into the modern era. Metroid 2 may have been a classic, but not everything about it aged well. The goal is still the same: Samus needs to plunder the depths of planet SR388 and exterminate the Metroid, but this time players have extra tools to keep the experience from being frustrating.

It was easy to get lost in the original game’s grayscale caverns, for instance, but Samus Returns’ new map system helps keep players on track. There are also shrines scattered throughout the game that serve to unlock new areas based on how many Metroids you’ve defeated — giving players some direction as what part of the planet they need to explore next. If that’s not enough, there are also new Aeon abilities that can clue lost players in to where a secret is, or where the next Metroid might be hiding.

Finding those Metroids leads to progressively intense battles. Encounters with the series’ titular enemy can be a stressful, but rewarding challenge — albeit one slightly changed by the new mechanics in Samus Returns. Pulling off a counter attack on a Metroid is a little tricky, but doing so offers the player a chance to unload missiles into the beast’s belly in an epic slow-motion attack. It looks and feels awesome. Failure comes with a high risk, however — miss the counter mark by just a moment, and Samus takes heavy damage.

Our short demo of the game also made excellent use of the console’s namesake 3D feature — both in beautifully painted stereoscopic backdrops used in the game’s epilogue and in the general level design. The illusion of depth helps fill in the backgrounds behind the game’s main stage, breathing a life into planet SR388 that just wasn’t possible on the original Game Boy’s monochromatic display.

This all adds up to an experience that feels streamlined without losing the essence of what makes a Metroid game a Metroid game. The core mechanics of the experience feel like it’s returning to the franchise’s roots while still ironing out the leftover kinks. Remember how frustrating it could be to backtrack all the way across the map to go to a new area? You don’t have to do that anymore — there are fast travel points. Not sure where to go next? Use your Aeion ability and get a hint. At the same time, these features are optional. If you want a more more challenging Metroid experience, it’s still here.

I could go on about how, as someone who grew up on Super Metroid, the latest entry represents what I’m looking for from the series — but at the end of the day, I don’t need to. With a title like Samus Returns, the game says it on it’s own. Metroid is back. And it’s good.

Tile Pro helps you find your stuff from 200 feet away

We’ve held up the Tile as the best Bluetooth-connected fob to keep track of your stuff since its second, refined version launched in 2015, and more recent versions have gotten better and smaller. The latest additions to the lineup released today, Tile Pro, respond from 200 feet away, twice as far as older models — and both new gadgets are waterproof, too.

The first of the new duo, Tile Sport, has a rugged design and dark slate look, while the Tile Style goes for a satin white finish. Both have holes to loop them in with your keys. The app has been updated to support the Tile Pro series’ additional features, like volume control and a couple additional ringtones. Sport and Style retail individually for $35/£30 or in a combo pack for $60/£50 and are available today on Amazon and Tile’s online store, as well as at Target and Best Buy in the US and retailers including Argos, John Lewis and Maplin in the UK.

Noted Mobile Leaker Shares Image of ‘iPhone 8’ in Protective Case

Serial mobile phone leaker Evan Blass posted an image on Twitter this morning offering his followers a glimpse of what Apple’s finalized “iPhone 8” design will look like when wrapped in a protective case.

The image shows a render of the 5.8-inch iPhone with the now-familiar edge-to-edge display sans physical Home button and a notch along the top of the device housing the camera, infrared sensor, and speaker components. The handset is enclosed in what looks like a rugged Urban Armor Gear case sporting cutouts for volume controls and a mute switch in the regular places.

iPhone 8 (encased) pic.twitter.com/9LpARCAML2

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 8, 2017

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a third-party case for the upcoming OLED iPhone, with several accessory makers producing case molds based on allegedly official leaked CAD designs and details from “factory sources”. In fact, what’s arguably more noteworthy about this particular image is that it came from the well-regarded Blass, a typically reliable leaker of official mobile assets.

Since the picture was shared, however, fellow leaker Benjamin Geskin has taken to Twitter to claim that the UAG case image uses assets lifted from renders he released back in June based on his own sources. Geskin also provided comparison shots to bolster his argument, and they do bear a striking resemblance.

Wherever the image came from, what we can be fairly sure of is that the handset shown closely resembles Apple’s finalized design, which was apparently unintentionally confirmed by the company itself when it shared early HomePod firmware to public servers last week.

Developers quickly unearthed assets in the smart speaker firmware that are clearly associated with the as-yet-unreleased OLED iPhone, including a reference drawing that mirrors the rumored edge-to-edge display and top camera notch as shown above.

Apple is expected to launch the so-called “iPhone 8” next month as a “premium” alternative to its regular iterative iPhone updates – in this case an expected “iPhone 7S” and “7S Plus”, which are thought to retain standard LCD displays. Rumors suggest the OLED iPhone will be available to order as early as October but may be in short supply as the holiday season draws close.

As well as the OLED screen, the higher tier model is expected to include additional features such as wireless charging, a facial authentication system (possibly called Pearl ID) to replace Touch ID, a front-facing dual-lens camera with 3D sensing capabilities, and longer battery life.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
Tag: Evan Blass
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple TV tvOS Simulator Shown Running in 4K Resolution

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith today shared the spoils of his latest hacking efforts by tweeting screenshots of Apple’s tvOS Simulator running in 4K – the screen resolution said to be supported in a rumored fifth-generation Apple TV.

tvOS is officially made to run in the standard 1920×1080 HD resolution, but what Troughton-Smith’s hack shows is that the Apple TV operating system is perfectly suited to running at double the pixel density (3840×2160), commonly referred to as 4K resolution, thanks to user interface assets like text and icons that are made to scale cleanly given the same aspect ratio.

Hello tvOS@2x pic.twitter.com/EnNdo1xCOY

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) August 8, 2017

The simple scale doubling is reminiscent of the 2x iOS asset resolution requirement that Apple introduced back in 2010 with the arrival of Retina displays, and comes at a time when Apple is rumored to be readying a new, fifth-generation Apple TV capable of streaming 4K video.

Just last weekend iOS developer Guilherme Rambo discovered a reference to a 4K HDR display mode in the HomePod’s firmware, which has proved a trove of hints related to Apple’s upcoming hardware releases. MacRumors subsequently discovered the string J105a in the HomePod firmware, consistent with the fifth-generation Apple TV’s internal codename first revealed by Bloomberg in February. Additional strings unearthed in the code also suggest a forthcoming Apple TV could support both the Dolby Vision and HDR10 color formats for high-dynamic range video.

tvOS Simulator scaled to 2x resolution for 3840×2160
Adding further fuel to rumors of an imminent 4K-capable Apple TV, Apple recently listed selected movies as 4K and HDR in iTunes purchase history. While the content is still only playable in standard definition or HD, the change suggests Apple is preparing to offer the higher definition formats for a new TV box.

The launch date is unclear for a possible new Apple TV, which has been rumored since December 2015, but given the recent uptick in references to 4K resolution by Apple, it’s not unreasonable to suggest the company could be readying a release for the new TV box before the end of the year.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Tag: 4K
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
Discuss this article in our forums