Mophie Launches $150 ‘Powerstation USB-C XXL’ Aimed at New MacBooks

Mophie today announced the release of a new high capacity mobile battery called the Powerstation USB-C XXL, which is aimed at the latest MacBook and MacBook Pro models. The accessory includes a 19,500 mAh battery, which Mophie said will provide up to 14 hours of extra battery, or “more than one full charge” to a MacBook.

The Powerstation USB-C XXL includes one USB-C port and one 5V/2.4A USB-A port, so users can simultaneously charge an iPhone or iPad as they charge their MacBook. The top of the accessory is wrapped in a soft-touch fabric, which Mophie said helps keep other devices in a bag safe from scratches when traveling.

Mophie’s new accessory can charge a MacBook at full speed thanks to included USB power delivery technology in the USB-C port, which can charge a connected MacBook at rapid charging rates of up to 30 watts. While 30 watts isn’t enough to keep up with a MacBook Pro under heavy load, the battery can still recharge a MacBook Pro in sleep mode or at least slow the battery drain while the computer is in use.

Like other Mophie products, the Powerstation USB-C XXL also includes priority charging, so when it’s connected to a wall adapter the battery pack will send power to a connected device first, then recharge itself.

Mophie’s PowerStation USB-C XXL is available to buy for $149.95 on Mophie.com, Apple.com, and in Apple retail stores beginning today, although it hasn’t yet appeared on Apple’s website at the time of writing.

It’s worth noting that there are other options on the market if you’re looking for USB-C battery packs with power delivery specifications, all of which offer higher capacities at prices lower than Mophie’s accessory, although Mophie’s design standards and favored relationship with Apple contribute toward its products’ popularity with consumers.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook
Tag: Mophie
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now), MacBook (Buy Now)
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Amazon removes Blu smartphones over ‘security concerns’

Budget Android phone manufacturer Blu Products has been suspended from selling its handsets on Amazon. Citing “security concerns,” the online retail giant is removing Blu models from Amazon.com until the company “resolves the issue,” reports CNET. The move comes less than a week after security firm Kryptowire revealed Blu’s devices were still covertly sending user data to China.

Privacy has proven a stumbling block for the Miami-based seller in the past. Back in November, Blu admitted that a third-party app had been collecting info in the form of text messages, call logs, and contacts on a limited number of devices. At the time, Blu confirmed to Engadget that the Adups software (used for OTA updates) had affected 120,000 phones. It also claimed it was replacing the Chinese tool with Google’s OTA and servers for future products.

Blu is refuting the latest allegations. Although its older phones still use the Adups app, it claims they contain “absolutely no spyware or malware or secret software.” Blu adds the data currently being collected is “standard for OTA functionality” and “does not affect any user’s privacy or security.”

In an emailed statement to Engadget, Blu said the following: “Since November 2016…Amazon has been aware of the Adups and other applications on our BLU devices which were deemed…by BLU, Amazon, and Kryptowire to pose no further security or privacy risk.”

It continued: “The devices are still behaving in the same exact way…There has been absolutely no new behavior or change in any of our devices to trigger any concern. We expect Amazon to understand this, and quickly reinstate our devices for sale.” We reached out to Amazon for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Despite serving as an early partner on Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phones program, Blu’s handsets are no longer listed on its page. The manufacturer’s phones have also been a mainstay on the site’s unlocked cell phones best sellers chart.

Via: CNET

Amazon snatches ATP tennis rights from Sky

After winning numerous awards for its TV and movie originals, Amazon has set its sights on adding coverage of various popular sporting events to its Prime subscription. In the US, the company has already wrestled Thursday-night NFL game streams away from Twitter, but has been slow to lock in similar deals on the other side of the Atlantic. According to The Guardian, Amazon has now finally made a move, outbidding Sky and ITV to secure the UK rights to tennis’ ATP World Tour for the next five years.

Until now, Sky and the BBC have shared coverage of the ATP World Tour, a deal that ends in 2018. Sky is rumoured to have paid £8 million for the privilege, but Amazon reportedly beat its rivals with a bid of around £10 million per year this time around. The deal includes ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and Masters 500 events, which are hosted in places like Monte Carlo, Madrid, Paris, Miami, Indian Wells and Shanghai.

As Sky gets to grips with a new way of delivering sports broadcasts, the company has scaled back its investments and become more choosy over what events it covers. Tennis appears to be one of the sports it deems less important. Last year, it decided not to renew a sub-license for rights to the US Open from Eurosport and dropped the tournament after 25 years.

Premier League football has a lot to answer for, in that respect. Alongside BT, the broadcaster paid a record £5.14 billion to secure rights to three top-flight seasons from 2016-17. However, it also spent big to secure exclusive rights to all Formula One races until 2024 and continues to invest in cricket, golf, boxing and rugby.

Source: The Guardian

SteelSeries says it’s nailed ‘true 1-to-1’ mouse tracking

Gaming peripheral brand SteelSeries has expanded its mouse lineup with an offering that could prove to be the Holy Grail for serious esports gamers: true “1-to-1” tracking. The company’s new TrueMove3 sensor means your mouse movement will match up exactly with movement on-screen, regardless of the CPI setting (counts per inch, or the number of pixels your mouse moves in a single inch). Engineered in partnership with PixArt — the team behind the Wii Remote — the sensor is the product of the company’s 15-year quest to make the perfect gaming mouse and is available exclusively in the newly-designed Sensei 310 and Rival 310 models.

Tracking latency and ineffective jitter reduction are bane of gamers’ lives, but SteelSeries claims its new 12,000 CPI, 350 IPS optical sensor offers the most natural and accurate mouse movement available. In fact, from 100 to 3,500 CPI the sensor delivers the true 1-to-1 tracking that the mouse world has so far failed to deliver. From 3,500 to 12,000 CPI the sensor uses a new and advanced jitter reduction technology, while its SROM reduces response time and increases accuracy. Of course, it’ll be the hardcore gamers who have the final say on these claims. Both mice are available on the SteelSeries website for $60 (€70) each.

Source: SteelSeries

Your face might do more than just unlock the new iPhone

Apple’s latest secret leak was from its own documentation — and it’s given plenty for developers to chew over. The latest code snippets shared by Guilherme Rambo and Steve Troughton-Smith offer all kinds of tantalising details that may (almost certainly) come with that new iPhone — whichever model that may be. Not only are there further suggestions that the physical Home button will be ditched, but according to Troughton-Smith, some pointers inside the firmware for Apple’s incoming HomePod suggest that a new iPhone could have a screen with a resolution far beyond that found existing models, as well as mentions of facial expression detection.

Snippets of code suggest that the new iPhone could have a screen with a 1,125 x 2,436 resolution. Compare that against the existing iPhone 7 ( 1334 x 750), and it illustrates the jump in pixels; over three times the resolution of the “Retina’ iPhone 4. If this does happen, it would also bring iPhone screens closer in line with its biggest rival, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and its 2,960 x 1,400 display.

The Home button may live on, but not as we know it. Inside the leaked firmware, there’s a value for whether a device has a Home button or not: for this new mystery device, a “0” means it does not, while other code unearthed suggest that a “home indicator” is how Apple will tag its virtual home button of the future — one that might not always appear when using the entire screen, like watching video or playing games. A tap-to-wake feature, already found on the Apple Watch, is also likely to make an appearance.

There’s also a lot of new references to facial expression detection pic.twitter.com/8PsPVj1QqU

— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 1, 2017

While we’ve already heard about an infra-red based face unlock function, Apple appears to be adding even deeper functions to it front-facing sensors. An array of facial expression tags suggest that cameras could be registering your mouth positioning, while elsewhere “attention detection” suggests the iPhone will know if you’re focused elsewhere. (Samsung and other Android phone makers attempted to do this with eye detection years ago, but it was heavily dependent on decent lighting to ensure phones could see your eyes.)

The company’s augmented reality efforts (its next big thing) will be bolstered by new functions, including a “face anchor” that will presumably help with those face-changing filters we’re all familiar with… and hopefully something a little more meatier later down the line. It rounds out a pretty interesting glimpse of what might be going on inside Apple’s next phone — even if the company doesn’t like how it all came to light.

Source: Twitter (@stroughtonsmith), (@_inside)

Apple Removed Some Risky Trading Apps From App Store in Accordance With New Guidelines

Apple and Google have recently removed over 300 binary options trading apps from the App Store and Google Play store respectively, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

A spokesperson for Apple said it removed the apps globally in accordance with its recently updated App Store Review Guidelines:

Apps that facilitate binary options trading are not permitted on the App Store. Consider a web app instead.

MacRumors easily discovered at least five apps that still appear to facilitate binary options trading on the App Store. Apple’s guidelines clearly state that binary options trading apps are no longer permitted on the App Store, so it’s unclear why some remain available to download, and whether they’ll soon be removed.

The trading apps encouraged users to make bets on whether instruments like shares or currencies will rise or fall, according to Bloomberg. However, many of them were unlicensed and failed to outline the risks of trading binary options, and some merely collected personal information, according to ASIC.

Many of the trading apps subject to surveillance by ASIC contained statements which appeared to be misleading about the profitability of trading and the amount of profit that could be made, the regulator said. One of the apps, for example, advertised that users could profit in as quickly as 60 seconds.

“In an age where technology can hide who is offering and controlling a product, buyer beware has never been so important,” said ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour. “If something appears too good to be true, it probably is.”

Tags: App Store, App Store Review Guidelines
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References to New Skiing Workout for Apple Watch Uncovered in HomePod Firmware

Firmware for Apple’s HomePod has already given us glimpses into the unreleased iPhone 8, including a glyph representing the basic front-facing design of the smartphone, as well as code that supports rumors of a “split” status bar.

Apple Watch has yet to be mentioned in the discoveries, but recently developer Jeffrey Grossman shared a few pieces of information on Twitter that are potentially related to Apple’s wearable device, which he discovered when looking through the HomePod’s IPSW files.

At one point, the firmware includes a few references to a “Skiing Workout” alongside multiple strings that describe items like “Downhill Snow Sports Distance,” “Ski Data,” and “Workout Activity Type.”

I’m digging through the HomePod IPSW and found something that may interest @parrots pic.twitter.com/Y8xgq1Dn5B

— Jeffrey Grossman (@Jeffrey903) August 1, 2017

Apple has been consistently adding new exercises to the Workout app for Apple Watch over the past few years, including swimming exercises in watchOS 3 (which requires Apple Watch Series 2) and new High Intensity Interval Training exercises in the upcoming watchOS 4.

As such, it’s likely that there are various unannounced workouts that will be introduced in future watchOS 4 updates, which now might include sessions for skiers. Coming in the first public release of watchOS 4 are a number of UI improvements for the Workouts app, making it easier to start an exercise and string together different types of exercises.

Upon release, HomePod will run a version of iOS, and the firmware released by Apple that’s been dissected by developers this week corresponds to iOS 11.0.2, lending credibility to all of the bits and pieces of information that have thus far been uncovered within the files.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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A drone came uncomfortably close to a United Airlines jet landing at Newark

Why it matters to you

The rules have been clearly laid out by the FAA, so it’s hard to understand why a handful of drone owners are still operating their machines in a such a dangerous way.

Despite plenty of publicity pointing out that it’s really not a good idea to fly drones close to airports where large passenger-filled planes tend to gather, there are still a handful of people willfully ignoring the advice for reasons unknown.

Another serious incident occurred on Sunday morning when air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport spotted a drone getting uncomfortably close to a United Airlines passenger plane coming in to land after an eight-hour flight from Zurich, Switzerland.

Controllers alerted the pilots to the drone when it was spotted close to the plane’s flight path about two miles out, United said. Flight 135’s pilots then monitored it before safely landing the Boeing 767-400 a short while later.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now investigating the incident.

Growing problem

The problem of rogue drone flights close to restricted areas such as airports is a growing one. Data compiled by the FAA between February and September 2016 listed 1,274 possible drone sightings by U.S. air traffic facilities, compared to 874 for the same period a year earlier.

The issue isn’t just confined to the United States. With remotely controlled flying machines increasing in popularity around the world in recent years, incursions have been occurring at airports everywhere. An incident involving a drone last month at London Gatwick — one of the United Kingdom’s busiest airports — forced air traffic controllers to temporarily close the runway and divert several flights to other airports in the region.

In response to the drone boom, the U.K. government is preparing to launch a nationwide drone registry that it believes will improve accountability and encourage drone pilots to fly their machines more responsibly. Owners will also have to pass a written test to demonstrate that they understand safety and privacy rules relating to drones.

The pressing need to stop drone flights in restricted areas has spawned a new industry, with a growing number of companies offering mostly high-tech solutions to take down rogue drones. Systems include everything from net-firing bazookas to electromagnetic defense shields. In the Netherlands, they’ve even trained eagles to tackle illegal drone flights by getting them to pluck the machines straight out of the sky.

Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Action Tasks

Action Tasks is an exciting and fresh take on the to-do list. Action Tasks makes completing your tasks more enjoyable with customizable action sounds and force feedback.

Available on:

iOS

Weight Tracker

Weight Tracker provides a quick and easy way to enter and track your weight. It uses HealthKit to save and store your weight information.

Available on:

iOS

Star Rover

Do you love the starry night? Do you want to know everything in the sky? Just hold up your iPhone and Star Rover will tell you exactly what you are pointing at.

Available on:

iOS

CastingMOB

With thousands of active professionals on their platform, Casting Mob claims to be the number one portfolio application for professional models and photographers in the fashion industry.

Available on:

iOS

TodoCal

TodoCal lets you manage, organize, and control your daily tasks. Organize your tasks with to-dos and sub to-dos, and rearrange them with a simple drag and drop interface.

Available on:

iOS

Timetrack.io

Spending only a few minutes a day on this app, you will get daily, weekly, and monthly statistics in the form of diagrams and graphs. Using this data, you’ll be able to control and manage your time.

Available on:

iOS

Play your way to success with Pokémon Go on Android!

Prepare to raid!

Pokemon Go introduced raids just over a month ago, and it’s become clear that Android users are going to run into some issues. From lag to needing to restart to the ever-dreaded battery issues, there are problems that you should be aware of. That doesn’t mean that it’s time to jump ship, though, because there are plenty of ways to help yourself out.

Equipment matters

When it comes to raiding in Pokemon Go on Android, your equipment really matters. The best phone for Pokemon Go on Android is without a doubt the Samsung Galaxy S8. The taller screen gives you better odds of catching Pokemon when you come upon them in the wild, and with a super bright mode, you’ll be able to see what’s going on no matter how sunny it may be.

You can easily top your battery back off and get back to the game without having to stay plugged in indefinitely.

Everyone knows what a battery hog Pokemon Go can be — especially if you’re using AR to see Pokemon in the world around you — and plenty of people have invested in a decent battery pack. While this can be mandatory for longer Pokéwalks, you’ve also got a few other options. If you’re running a Galaxy S8 or a different phone that charges off of USB-C, then you’re in luck.

That’s because with USB-C, your phone charges at a faster clip. This means that even when your battery percentage starts to get low, by rocking a portable charger you can easily top your battery back up and get back to the game without having to stay plugged in indefinitely.

We recommend the Anker PowerCore+. It’s super light and has a huge 20100mAh capacity. It’s a little pricey at around $66, but it’s worth it!

See at Amazon

Be prepared

Pokemon Go is notorious for lag and the occasional software issues that crop up. Rather than pretending that you aren’t going to run into these problems at all, it’s better to go in knowing that there are some things you can do to help yourself out along the way. Being prepared means that when these issues do happen, you’re prepared to deal with them.

By tweaking your settings a little bit, you can help yourself out in the long run.

Reboot!

When you’re getting ready for a raid, rebooting your phone is a solid call. Frustrating, but if you go out of your way to reboot before jumping into a raid then you can be sure that you’ll have less of a chance of running into issues. Likewise, by tweaking your settings a little bit, you can help yourself out in the long run.

Stay connected

Make sure you’ve turned off your Bluetooth, and that your location is turned onto high accuracy. Additionally, if your phone has access to a game performance mode, then you definitely want to turn it on. These little things will help you out in the long run, and help to cut down on the lag that you experience.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

For the most part, the bugs and issues that crop up on Android are small and, while irritating, they aren’t deal breakers by a long shot. You may lose out on a few seconds at the beginning of a raid, but provided you’re prepared for the fight — and in the case of Legendary raids, you aren’t trying to pull it off solo — then it shouldn’t make much of a difference.

These small issues may be deal-breakers for some hardcore players, but to be honest it isn’t that huge of a deal once you’re used to it. Technically, iPhones do get the better deal, but it’s nothing worth jumping ship or switching phones over.

Pokémon Go

• Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• Pokémon Go Gen 2 FAQ
• Pokémon Go tips and tricks
• How to deal with GPS errors in-game
• How to play without killing your battery
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!