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

At just $18 you won’t be afraid to try some tricks with this mini drone

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a great deal on a mini drone!

Update: This popular deal is back again with a new coupon code. Be sure to use code AUKEYUA2 at checkout for the savings!

Right now you can pick up Aukey’s mini-drone for just $17.99 at Amazon with coupon code AUKEYUA2, a savings of just under $10. You can control this drone with your smartphone, allowing you to fly it just about anywhere, and once you get good at flying it you can even start performing some tricks as well. It takes off and lands easily with just a single tap, and the controls are super responsive so you won’t have to worry about delays. It comes with two extra sets of propellers, just in case you happen to crash and break one.

Being so small you can pack in just about any bag so you can keep it with you at all times. Remember to use coupon code AUKEYUA2 for the full savings. Will you be learning to fly with Aukey’s drone? Let us know in the comments!

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Budget vs. Mid-range vs. Premium: Exploring the different phone categories

The budget and mid-range phone space is full of great phones, so does that make you less likely to buy a flagship?

The Android space is saturated. There are great phones at every price point, from the $70 Moto E4 all the way up to the $800+ Galaxy S8+. And while the premium phone segment will always have a place in the market for early adopters and tech enthusiasts, it’s not clear whether the returns are worth it.

Case in point: the Moto G5 Plus, which costs around $230 but can be found for less, is a fantastic budget device with very few compromises. And the OnePlus 5, which costs $479, is a premium phone at a mid-range price. How do they stack up to the aforementioned Galaxy S8+? Our resident video guru, Jacklyn, explores this question in her latest video.

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Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
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• Complete OnePlus 5 review
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• Which OnePlus 5 model should you buy?
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Here is the first live look at the Google Pixel 2

This is our best look yet at the smaller Google Pixel 2, known internally as Walleye.

We’ve been talking about the new Pixel phones for months now, as the behind-the-scenes drama has been not only engrossing but highly divisive. Earlier in the year, we heard that HTC would be making both Pixel sequels as it did the first generation, but subsequent rumors suggested that Google decided to partner with LG, likely for access to its OLED panels, for the larger Pixel XL 2.

Now, thanks to Evan Blass of @evleaks and VentureBeat, we know what the smaller Pixel, codenamed Walleye, will look like. In fact, if you’re an OG Pixel owner, you already know what it looks like, as the sequel bears a striking resemblance.

The image above, which we’ve lightened to expose the darkened front of the phone, reveals a device that looks like a slightly squarer (Note-ier?) version of the Google Pixel, with ample bezels above and below the screen, a dual-toned back with a glass inlay near the top, and an aluminum chassis. The camera appears to be in the same position as the 2016 Pixel, but the sensor and lens module is quite a bit larger. A rear fingerprint sensor, also centered, is now below the glass area, and a single “G” Google logo sits, also centered, near the bottom.

Blass points to at least one significant improvement over the Pixel: dual front-facing speakers, which should help somewhat justify (but not totally excuse) the front bezels above and below the screen. The first-generation version only contains a single down-port speaker on the bottom of the device.

The report also, unfortunately, confirms that in adding a second speaker, Google has opted to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack, a controversial decision that may keep some people away from this year’s Pixel lineup.

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How to change the language and speaking style of Bixby Voice

How do I change the language or speaking style of Bixby?

Bixby Voice responds to your queries as a virtual assistant that lives in your pocket. Some folks might not want to listen to the Bixby voice “Stephanie” or you might be hoping to switch those responses to another language. This is a pretty simple process from within the settings of the Bixby app, and it should only take you a few moments to do.

Get the details here!

• How to change the language of Bixby Voice
• How to change the speaking style of Bixby Voice

How to change the language of Bixby Voice

Launch the Bixby app on your phone.
Tap the menu button in the upper right corner of your screen. (It looks like three vertical dots).

Tap Settings.

Tap Language and speaking style.
Tap Languages.

Tap the language you want Bixby to speak in.

How to change the speaking style of Bixby Voice

Launch the Bixby app on your phone.
Tap the menu button in the upper right corner of your screen. (It looks like three vertical dots).

Tap Settings.

Tap Language and speaking style.

Tap on the Bixby icon next to the speaking style you want Bixby to use.

Questions?

Do you still have questions about changing the language or speaking style of Bixby? Do you prefer one speaking style over another? Be sure to drop us a comment and let us know about it!

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Want to win the highly rated ErgoChair from Autonomous? We’re giving one away!

Autonomous makes some great office products. Whether you work from home or in a corporate setting, or somewhere in between, you will definitely want to add at least one of them to your space. And we are here to help you do just that! One of our readers is going to take home an ErgoChair to make his or her office not only more comfortable but stylish as well. Keep reading for all the info and to get entered!

The ErgoChair is Italian designed, fully-adjustable, and has a tilt tension mechanism that allows you to tailor the support and resistance of the chair to suit your needs. Pair that with the breathable and responsive Korean mesh back and you have the perfect harmony of materials and tools to find the balance you need throughout the day. The aerated chair back is cool, firm and flexible responding to your individual shape while providing support. Carefully selected materials, world-class manufacturing, and rigorous testing all add up to the perfect ergonomic design.

It’s the ultimate chair:

• Foam seat molds to your body as you move throughout the day.
• Customizable tilt tension and seat position to perfectly balance your weight and lock into place or adjust for a change in posture.
• Wide five-wheel base for mobility and stability.
• Arm rests adjustable on three axes: up and down, back and forward and right to left, for tailored support.
• Adjustable Lumbar Support meets the curve of your back to reduce strain and fatigue.
• Wide curved ergonomic headrest tilts at an angle of up to 45 degrees and can be raised or lowered to suit you.

It’s so awesome that our own Modern Dad Phil mentioned it in his office toys video! You can check that out below. We also want to mention that through August 8th you can save $50 off the cost of any color ErgoChair with coupon code SUMMERSALE. Make sure you take advantage of this rare opportunity to save some money!

On to the contest!

The Prize: One lucky reader will win an Autonomous ErgoChair, in their choice of color!

The Rules: There are multiple ways to enter, each with varying point values, in the widget at the bottom of this post. Complete all of the tasks by clicking each option in the widget for maximum entries and your best shot at winning! Keep in mind that all winning entries are verified and if the task was not completed or cannot be verified, a new winner will be chosen. The giveaway is open until August 17th, and the winner will be announced right here in the widget shortly after the close date.

PRO TIP: As you’ll notice, you can come back DAILY to earn MORE entries by simply sending out a new tweet. Make sure you tweet daily AND log your entry in the widget to maximize your odds of winning!

Good luck everyone!

Don’t just sit there, enter to win an Ergochair 2!

Magnetically mount your phone with this $4 Aukey car mount

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a killer deal on Aukey’s magnetic car mount!

The Aukey Car Mount is currently on sale at Amazon for only $3.87 in gray or $4.05 in black when you enter promo code AUKEYHD8 during checkout. This saves you $5 off this item’s average price.

Many car mounts tend to be bulky in one way or another, some can even obstruct your view while driving. Aukey’s car mount fits neither of those descriptions and is actually hardly noticeable. About double the size of a quarter, this mount clips into your air vent and doesn’t obstruct anything except a bit of air flow.

Instead of holding your phone conventionally, two metal plates are included so you can attach the appropriate one to the back of your phone and then have it magnetically hold to the mount whenever you wish. The mount has a soft rubber padding to ensure that it doesn’t scratch your phone.

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Volkswagen’s head of compliance pleads guilty in emissions scandal

Last September, Volkswagen’s James Robert Lang pled guilty in federal court on charges of conspiring to defraud US regulatory agencies and consumers. The veteran Volkswagon AG engineer admitted to his part in creating software for the EA 189 engine that would essentially cheat on emissions tests. The car company itself agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle federal criminal and civil charges over the emissions-cheating technology this past January. According to Reuters, yet another executive has entered a guilty plea. Oliver Schmidt faces up to seven years in prison and a fine of $40,000 to $400,000 for his part in conspiring to mislead US regulators. His sentencing is set for December 6th.

Schmidt was initially charged with 11 felony counts and could have faced a sentence of 169 years in prison. The guilty plea led to prosecutors dropping most of the charges. Volkswagen told Reuters that it “continues to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters.” The car company has also agreed to pay up to $25 billion in the US to resolve claims from consumers and regulators; it has also offered to buy back about 500,000 diesel vehicles.

Source: Reuters

Study Finds AT&T and Verizon Have Slower LTE Speeds After Launching Unlimited Data Plans

In its semi-annual State of Mobile Networks report this week, OpenSignal claims that both AT&T and Verizon have experienced a decline in 4G LTE speeds since each carrier reintroduced an unlimited data plan in February. OpenSignal blames the slowdown on an increase in data demand now that caps have been removed.

From April through June, AT&T’s average LTE download speed was 12.92 Mbps, while Verizon averaged 14.91 Mbps, according to crowdsourced data from thousands of users with the OpenSignal app for iOS or Android.

By comparison, OpenSignal’s last report measured average LTE speeds for AT&T and Verizon at 13.86 Mbps and 16.89 Mbps respectively, based on crowdsourced data collected from 169,683 users with the OpenSignal app for iOS or Android installed between October 1 and December 31, 2016.

August 2017 Report

AT&T: 12.92 Mbps
Verizon: 14.91 Mbps
Sprint: 9.76 Mbps
T-Mobile: 17.45 Mbps

February 2017 Report

AT&T: 13.86 Mbps
Verizon: 16.89 Mbps
Sprint: 8.99 Mbps
T-Mobile: 16.65 Mbps
T-Mobile was declared as the fastest network in the United States during the testing period. The carrier’s average LTE speed was 17.45 Mbps, up from 16.65 Mbps in OpenSignal’s last report. Sprint’s average LTE speed also rose to 9.76 Mbps, up from 8.99 Mbps in the previous study.

AT&T or Verizon remained the fastest network in select U.S. cities, including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and San Francisco.

OpenSignal says its data is collected from regular consumer smartphones and recorded under conditions of normal usage, be it indoors, outdoors, in a city, or in the countryside. For this particular report, it said 5,073,211,200 data points were collected from 172,919 users between April 1 and June 30, 2017.

Tags: AT&T, Verizon, OpenSignal
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The best mechanical keyboards

By Kimber Streams, Dan Frakes, and Ryan Whitwam

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

If you spend most of your day typing, a mechanical keyboard can be a worthwhile upgrade: Mechanical keyboards are more durable, responsive, comfortable, and customizable than other types of keyboards. The best for you depends a lot on personal preference and what you’re using it for, but after spending months testing 31 top-rated keyboards with a four-person panel, we unanimously agree that the WASD Code 87-Key is a great place to start because of its fantastic key feel, build quality, and elegant design.

How we picked

Mechanical keyboards are best for people who spend most of the day typing, and want a keyboard that’s durable, comfortable, and pleasant to use. For the most part, we focused on Cherry switches in this guide, because they’re by far the most prevalent and have a decades-long reputation for reliability. But we also considered some of the clones that have appeared since Cherry’s switch patents expired in 2014, as well as other, completely different types of mechanical switches, such as Topre and Alps clones (the latter found in our Mac pick).

Each of Cherry’s switches is named after a color, with the Cherry MX Browns, Blues, and Clears being the most popular according to GoMechanicalKeyboard’s survey of enthusiasts. Because everyone has different preferences, we can’t recommend one particular switch that’s best for everyone. We recommend buying (or borrowing) a switch tester, trying a friend’s keyboard, or going to a store and poking some mechanical keyboards for yourself. And be sure to reference our handy chart detailing the types of Cherry switches in our full guide.

There are three common sizes of mechanical keyboard: full, tenkeyless, and 60 percent. Full keyboards have all the keys: letters, numbers, modifiers, function keys, arrow keys, and a number pad. Tenkeyless (often abbreviated TKL) keyboards lack a number pad, but have all the other keys. Lastly, 60 percent keyboards—popular in the mechanical-keyboard enthusiast community—include only the essential block of letters, numbers, and modifiers, and have no function keys, no arrow keys, and no numpad.

If you need the number pad all the time, you should stick to full keyboards, but most people are best off with a tenkeyless board. We recommend a 60 percent keyboard only if you’re very sure you don’t need the arrow or function keys.

Our pick: WASD Code 87-Key

The WASD Code 87-Key looks great on a desk, and feels great to type on.
Photo: Michael Hession

If you spend most of your time typing, the WASD Code 87-Key is a fantastic option. This keyboard is available with all the most popular switch options for general use and typists: Cherry MX Brown, MX Clear, MX Blue, or MX Green. It’s available in international layouts, too. But it lacks multicolor backlighting and can’t record or store macros.

Our panelists universally loved the Code because of its subtle, elegant design and unmatched build quality. The keycaps feel smooth but not slippery, and make a solid clacking noise when depressed into the steel backplate. The trade-off for the Code’s superior build quality is that it weighs 2 pounds, but we don’t think this is a dealbreaker.

With a number pad: WASD Code 104-Key

The Code 104-Key is identical to the 87-Key, but with the addition of a number pad.
Photo: Michael Hession

If you need a full-size number pad, get the Code 104-Key instead. It’s exactly the same as our main pick, but includes a number pad and weighs a bit more (2.42 pounds). The Code 104-Key is available in all the same switches: Cherry MX Brown, MX Clear, MX Blue, and MX Green.

For Mac enthusiasts: Matias Tactile Pro

The Tactile Pro gives you a fully Mac-standard layout, Mac-specific keys and labels, and a great typing experience. Photo: Michael Hession

If you’re looking for a mechanical keyboard for your Mac, we recommend Matias’s Tactile Pro. This full-size keyboard offers an unmatched combination of a Mac-standard layout, great custom switches, Mac-specific function keys, solid construction, and exceptionally useful key labels for accessing alternate characters. It also has a three-port USB 2.0 hub, with ports on each end and one in the back.

Rather than using the popular Cherry-class key switches, the Tactile Pro incorporates the same Alps switch mechanism used in the original Apple Extended Keyboard. The switches aren’t a perfect match for those on the Extended Keyboard, but they’re very similar.

Full-size budget: Logitech G610 Orion

If you want a full-size keyboard for under $100, the Logitech G610 Orion is the best we found.
Photo: Michael Hession

If you want a budget mechanical keyboard with a number pad, get the Logitech G610 Orion. It’s a full-size keyboard available with Cherry MX Brown or MX Red switches, and it has a fun volume-control wheel. You can assign and record Macros for the F1 through F12 keys using the Game Center software, and choose keys to disable when Game Mode is toggled. It also had one of the least-gaudy designs of the budget keyboards we considered. Most of our panel members liked the Quick Fire Rapid-i, even though it requires software to change backlight effects and has a nonremovable USB cable.

For gaming: Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma

The Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma is the best option if you want macros and fun lighting effects. Photo: Michael Hession

If you want a gaming keyboard with programmable macros and multicolor LEDs, you should get the Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma. The BlackWidow TE Chroma is available with Razer’s proprietary Orange and Green switches that are roughly equivalent in feel to Cherry MX Browns and MX Blues, respectively. It has customizable RGB LEDs, allows macro recording for nearly every key, and has a gaming mode to disable keys and key combinations that can throw you out of the game. We don’t love the edgy sci-fi font or the glowing Razer logo on the front, but overall the design is more compact and elegant than that of other gaming keyboards we looked at.

Full-size gaming: Corsair K70 LUX RGB

The Corsair K70 LUX RGB is the best full-size gaming keyboard, with all the bells and whistles.
Photo: Michael Hession

If you want a full-size gaming keyboard with media keys and Cherry switches, the best option is the Corsair K70 LUX RGB Mechanical Gaming keyboard. It’s available with Cherry MX Brown, MX Blue, MX Red, and MX Speed switches. Though the K70 LUX was one of the more expensive full-size gaming boards we tested and doesn’t have the most tasteful design, it was still the favorite of our panel testers because of its superior build quality and flexibility, and handy media keys. You can assign macros to any key, and experiment with a whopping 13 lighting effects. And unlike our other picks, the K70 LUX has two sets of feet to prop up the board. By using only the front pair, you can achieve the slight negative slope recommended by ergonomic experts, unique among our picks.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

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