MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Sport Strap for the Apple Watch From Nomad

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Nomad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Sport Strap for the Apple Watch.

Nomad’s Sport Strap is designed for 42mm Apple Watch models. It’s constructed from a soft, pliable silicone for a comfortable, molded fit on any wrist. The silicone it’s made from is antimicrobial and hypoallergenic, but it’s also durable and water resistant, making the band ideal for a range of activities on land and sea.

The Sport Strap has a stylish two-tone design in either Black/Volt or Black/Gray, and each color matches both the stainless steel and aluminum Apple Watch models in Silver and Space Gray.

Subtle crosshatching and a tapered design add visual appeal, and the buckle, made from polyamide, is designed to hold up in all environmental conditions. While it’s designed to be a sport watch, it looks nice enough that it can be worn for any occasion.

Nomad sells the Sport Strap at $49.95, but we have five to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (September 1) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 8. The winners will be chosen randomly on September 8 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Tags: giveaway, Nomad
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Review: Sonicare’s DiamondClean Smart is a Premium Toothbrush That Connects to Your iPhone

Philips recently released the DiamondClean Smart, a new iteration of its top-of-the-line toothbrush with all the bells and whistles.

Not only does it connect to your iPhone using a Bluetooth connection to help you brush better than ever before, but it’s also been redesigned to decouple brushing mode from intensity. There are new smart brushes for more tailored brushing, additional modes to meet different needs, and other small refinements that bring overall improvements.

I’ve been using Sonicare toothbrushes for more than 10 years, and for the last five, I’ve had a DiamondClean. This new DiamondClean toothbrush is going to make your teeth whiter, healthier, and squeaky clean, but with prices that start at $230, it’s not cheap, and the app is sometimes more gimmicky than helpful. All in all, though, you’re not going to find a better brushing experience.

Design

The DiamondClean Smart adopts design elements from the original DiamondClean, but it also introduces both new and refined features. The brush is sleek with clean lines and the traditional look of the DiamondClean, but instead of a single button to turn it off and on, there are now two buttons.

The top button continues to function as an on/off button, but there’s now a second button that controls the intensity. Below the two buttons, there are a series of LEDs denoting the different brushing modes, and at the bottom, there’s a light-up base that fits into the charger.

Philips sells the new DiamondClean Smart in a range of colors, but the one I tested is white with silver accents and gold lettering at the top. The mix of gold and silver is a somewhat odd choice, but it looks elegant on the bathroom counter.

A small metal prong at the top of the toothbrush base holds the brush in place, and the brush head can be popped off the top so you can switch brush heads. If you’re familiar with Sonicare toothbrushes, you know the brush heads need to be changed out on a regular basis – approximately every three months.

Brush heads for the DiamondClean Smart come in a range of different styles to meet different needs and are priced at about $10 each, but you can often find them cheaper in bulk on sites like Amazon. The brush heads aren’t cheap, but each one lasts for several months. And with this Smart model, the app will let you know when it’s time to replace a brush.

All in all, the DiamondClean Smart’s body is a lot like the DiamondClean and I have no complaints. Philips has used this design for years, and it works well. It’s ergonomic, easy to hold, and it looks great on the countertop. Unlike some of the other Sonicare brushes, there are no grooves — it’s all one solid piece — which means there’s no mold and little toothpaste buildup. It stays clean, as a toothbrush should.

Features

There are five brushing modes, each with a different duration and intensity to achieve specific brushing goals. The modes are as follows: clean, white+, gum health, deep clean+, and tongue care.

Switching between modes can be done without turning the brush on by pressing the second button. After selecting a mode, the brush is turned on by pressing the power button, and the intensity can be changed by pressing again on the power button.

Each mode offers a different brushing time and intensity. Clean, for example, lasts for two minutes, while gum health adds additional time to allow you to focus specifically on your gums. I tend to use the gum health mode and the clean modes more than anything else as part of my general cleaning routine, but the other modes come in handy when I want a longer brushing experience or more focus on my front teeth.

It’s nice to have different modes that can meet a wide range of brushing needs, and if your dentist is like mine, they can suggest the best brushing modes based on the state of your teeth and where you might need improvement.

The DiamondClean Smart also has a new set of features dedicated to tongue care. There’s a tongue care mode that specifically works with the tongue care brush to make sure you’re also brushing your tongue for the freshest breath. This tongue care setup is new to the Smart and wasn’t available in the previous DiamondClean models.

Brushing Experience

The toothbrush itself offers quiet operation. It’s not silent by any means, but it’s lower pitched than the original DiamondClean and nearly inaudible outside of the bathroom when you’re brushing your teeth.

With the DiamondClean Smart, regardless of which brush mode you choose, brushing is divided into sections so you can make sure you’re getting all of your teeth clean. Brushing is broken up as follows: bottom right, bottom middle, bottom left, top right, top middle, and top left. The brush will buzz when it’s time to move on to a new section so no teeth go without a full brushing.

To keep you from applying too much pressure, the base of the brush will flash when you’re brushing too hard. Brushing too hard can damage your gums, so this is a nice feature if you’re someone who doesn’t pay attention to how much pressure you’re putting on your teeth when brushing.

As for the overall brushing experience, the DiamondClean Smart is unparalleled. Two minutes with this toothbrush and my teeth are as clean and as shiny as if I’ve just been at the dentist. If you haven’t used a Sonicare before, there is a world of difference between how clean your teeth feel compared to brushing with a manual brush.

Accessories

Brush Heads

Philips ships the DiamondClean Smart with a selection of smart brushes. Smart brushes have a small chip that communicates with the DiamondClean Smart to let it know what kind of brush is attached. Through this connection, the DiamondClean automatically selects the optimal brushing mode and intensity to go along with the brush head, but you can change it if you want.

The DiamondClean Smart will also work with “dumb” brush heads that do not have the smart chip capabilities — you’ll just need to select mode and intensity on your own.

Each smart brush has unique properties to address a specific issue in the mouth. There are brushes for plaque control, gum care, and whitening, all with different designs and brush hardness. The gum care brush, meant for your gums, is the softest of the bunch, while the plaque control and whitening brushes have firmer bristles.

Charging Cup

The DiamondClean Smart, like the DiamondClean, uses inductive charging. It charges in a glass cup that’s connected to a charging base, so when it needs to be charged, you just stick it in the cup. Philips suggests this cup can also be used for rinsing, but I’ve never really used it for that purpose. It does get toothpaste goop in it, so plan to wash it out on a regular basis.

Design wise, the cup is a high-quality thick glass vessel that’s similar to any drinking cup, and its design has been tweaked to be slightly more round than the cup that shipped with previous DiamondClean models.

When charging, the DiamondClean Smart toothbrush has a few new features – it makes an audible sound when it’s placed on the charger so you know it’s in the proper position and the base glows more brightly when it’s first stuck in the cup. These are welcome changes because it is difficult to tell when the standard DiamondClean brush is charging. There’s no confusion with the DiamondClean Smart.

The charging cup method is simple and convenient because you just have to drop your brush in the cup when you’re done with a brushing session, but it can be a hassle if you prefer to keep your toothbrush tucked away in a medicine cabinet or a drawer because it’s a little bit bulky.

Travel Charger

The travel charger is meant to store and charge your toothbrush when on a trip. It’s made from a quality soft-coated plastic, and inside, there are cutouts for the toothbrush and two additional brush heads. At the bottom of the travel charger, there’s a built-in cable that can be plugged into any USB-A port for charging purposes. When not in use, the cable tucks in underneath a piece of plastic that hides it from view.

This travel charger is an upgraded version of the travel charger that comes with the standard DiamondClean. That version does not include a built in cable.

App

You can use the DiamondClean Smart entirely without the app, but this is a “smart” brush, so it is designed to be used with the Philips Sonicare app. The toothbrush connects to your iPhone using Bluetooth, and with the app, you can see your progress brushing your teeth in real time.

Simply open up the app, remove the DiamondClean from the charger, and press the power button to start a brushing session. The app displays a model of a set of teeth on the display, and as you brush, it keeps track of how much time you spend in each area, lets you know if you’re moving the brush too much, and makes sure you aren’t applying pressure.

Essentially, it walks you through brushing your teeth step by step, making sure each tooth is adequately cleaned. To track where the brush is in your mouth, there’s a built-in accelerometer in the base of the DiamondClean Smart. The tracking works well for the most part, but it can only track a single quadrant at a time, and depending on how you hold the brush, it might not register. I seem to hold the brush in a way the DiamondClean doesn’t like when brushing my top teeth, so it sometimes doesn’t pick up the correct amount of time I’ve spent brushing in a specific area.

When each brushing session is done, the app lets you know which areas you missed and adds extra time to the timer so you can go back and get those areas. It also asks if you’ve brushed, rinsed, and brushed your tongue, and records that data.

In addition to monitoring each brushing, the app also stores data over time on your brushing habits so you can see how you’ve improved. If there’s an area that hasn’t received enough cleaning time or has been subjected to too much pressure or scrubbing, it’ll show up in your progress chart so you can rectify the problem.

The app’s tracking features are useful, but I’d like to see more expansive charts and graphs that let me see data like how many times a day I brushed, how long I brushed, areas I missed, and more. At the current time, figuring out this data just from a picture of a set of teeth is a little difficult.

Along with tracking your brushing habits, you can also set specific goals in the app and get reminders to brush. Goals include fresh breath, gum care, whitening, plaque removal, and more. There are also options in the app to designate problem areas like plaque buildup, bleeding, gum recession, and cavities, and the app will then guide you through giving those areas extra attention. Finally, the app can be used to share your brushing progress with your dentist and order additional brush heads.

As far as the app goes, I don’t necessarily think it’s something people are going to want to use day in and day out. It’s useful for getting into a brushing routine and learning how to brush, but it can be a hassle to open up an app and monitor your brushing when you’re in a hurry to get out the door.

Unfortunately, if you’re not using the app, the brush is not fully tracking your brushing sessions and collecting complete data, so the app is a requirement if you want to monitor your dental health over time. There’s also some kind of points system, but this doesn’t feel fleshed out at all, and I’m not sure what the points contribute to.

All in all, I’d really like to see some improvements to the app’s design, the data tracking, and the way that data is displayed, but it’s useful for establishing and maintaining good brushing habits.

Models

There are three distinct DiamondClean Smart models. The unit I tested is the DiamondClean Smart 9500, but there are also 9300 and 9700 models, all of which have different accessories and different prices. All of the models share the same general design and features, however.

The Sonicare 9300 is $230 and comes in four colors: white, black, pink, and a blue gray shade. While the higher end models have five brushing modes, the 9300 has four, doing away with the tongue brushing mode that pairs with a tongue brush. This model ships with three brush heads (plaque control, whitening, and gum care), and it does not include a travel charger with a built-in cord (it requires a separate charging cord like older DiamondClean models).

The Sonicare 9500 is $270 and comes in black, white, silver, and pink. It has five brushing modes and ships with four brush heads: plaque control, whitening, gum care, and a tongue brush. It also comes with a higher-end travel charger with a built-in cord.

The Sonicare 9700, priced at $330, is identical to the Sonicare 9500 but it comes in an exclusive “lunar blue” color and instead of four brush heads, it includes seven: three plaque control, two gum care, two whitening, and a tongue brush. It also includes the high-end travel charger with built-in cord.

Aside from the number of brushes, the travel charger, and the lack of a tongue brush mode on the Sonicare 9300, all of the DiamondClean Smart models are identical in function, so you can save some cash if you don’t need the tongue brush or a more convenient travel charger.

Bottom Line

The DiamondClean Smart 9500 that I tested is priced at $270, with additional brush models available for $230 and $330. That’s a lot to ask someone to pay for a toothbrush when you can pick one up at the drugstore for $2, but this kind of upfront investment has the potential to save you money at the dentist in the long run. Even adding in the cost of replacement brushes over time (and you will need to replace them every 3 months), it’s more affordable than dental work.

As a longtime Sonicare user, I freely recommend them to anyone and everyone. These brushes offer a much better clean than you can get with a standard brush, they’re gentler on the gums, and they’re great at encouraging you to brush for an ideal amount of time. With better mouth maintenance, you have a much better chance at keeping your mouth healthy and free from cavities, plaque, gingivitis, and other problems.

The DiamondClean Smart in particular is an excellent choice if you have troublesome areas in your mouth, need reminders to brush, or simply want to track your brushing habits. With the new design, brush heads, and separate intensity modes, this is one of the most advanced brushing experiences you can get, but at the same time, it’s foolproof. Stick the brush in your mouth, move it where the app tells you to, and you’re guaranteed a complete clean. It comes with extra brush heads, a travel charger, and all the features you could possibly need.

I think in the long run, most people aren’t going to want to hassle with the app two or three times a day, but it’s nice to have it there if you need it. I tend to use it at night rather than in the mornings and afternoons, and while I’m not getting a complete tracking experience, I have enough data to know if there are any ongoing problems I need to address. I do wish the app offered up better tracking over time and was able to collect data without being open.

If you don’t need an app to motivate you to brush properly, Philips has a much wider range of more affordable Sonicare brushes that are worth checking out, but if you want a top-of-the-line brushing experience, the DiamondClean Smart is the brush to get.

How to Buy

The Philips DiamondClean Smart models can be purchased from the Philips website. The 9300 Series is priced at $229.99, the 9500 Series (the model in the review) is priced at $269.99, and the 9700 Series is priced at $329.99.

All of the models can also be purchased on Amazon, often for lower prices than Philips offers.

Note: Philips provided MacRumors with the Sonicare DiamondClean Smart free of charge for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: Philips, Sonicare
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Labor Day Apple Deals: Save on iPhone 7, iPad Pro, Beats, Belkin Accessories, and Philips Hue

With Labor Day coming up in the United States on Monday, September 4, a collection of retailers have launched notable discounts on a variety of Apple and Apple-related products and accessories. Companies like Best Buy, Staples, and Belkin have debuted savings on select MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, Beats products, Apple accessories, and more, so we’ll list some of the best deals below.

Many of the Labor Day deals come from Best Buy, which is running a four day sale beginning today, September 1, through Monday, September 4. As with past Best Buy sales, customers can take advantage of price matching, in-store pickup, and free shipping on sale items.

Apple Products

The discounts start with as much as $300 off of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for Sprint customers who also sign up for the carrier’s 24-month installment plan.

There are three colorways of the 128 GB Wi-Fi only iPad mini 4 on sale for $299.99, down from $399.99. Not directly part of the Labor Day sale, Best Buy this week is also offering $100 off of the latest models of the Wi-Fi only 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Best Buy is offering up to $500 off of select MacBooks during the sale. Customers can buy the late 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and 256 GB of storage for $1,499.99, down from $1,799.99. The 512 GB version is also marked down to $1,599.99 from $1,999.99. The early 2016 12-inch MacBook with an Intel Core M3 processor and 256 GB of storage is priced at $899.99, down from $1,299.99. A higher-end version of the same device has been discounted as well, including an Intel Core M5 processor and 512 GB of storage at $1,099.99, down from $1,599.99.

Those with an authorized student email address can get an additional $125 discounted off of Best Buy’s MacBook deals. For a full list of Macs under the student discount banner — including MacBook Air and some iMac models — visit Best Buy’s website here.

If anyone is looking for a deal on an older MacBook model, DailySteals has a refurbished version of the mid 2011 11-inch MacBook Air for $379.99, down from $1,199.99.

Customers can also purchase the now-discontinued 16 GB iPod touch from Best Buy for $179.99, down from $199.99.

Accessories

In terms of accessories, the Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones in eight colors are just $179.99 during Best Buy’s Labor Day sale, reducing in price from $299.99. Staples has the newest version of the Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker, in Black and White, marked down by nearly 50 percent right now, running for $119.00 instead of the traditional $229.95.

For anyone looking to beef up their smart home setup, Best Buy is also offering a combo pack discount on a Google Home and Philips Hue Color Starter Kit Package, which is available for $188.99 instead of $308.99. Verizon has the Google Home and Hue White Starter Kit Bundle on sale for $159.99, down from $199.98.

At Belkin, customers based in the U.S. and Canada can take advantage of a store-wide Labor Day promo that is taking $10 off orders $50 or more; $25 off $100 or more; and $50 off $200 or more.

These discounts will be applied automatically at checkout and don’t require a specific promo code, and will last today through September 4. The only items excluded from the promo are Belkin’s Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock, and any Wemo and NetCam products.

Apps

There are a few notable applications on sale in the iOS App Store this week; here are a few worth checking out:

• Bumpy Road – $0.99, down from $2.99

• SPL-T – $0.99, down from $2.99

• Beat Sneak Bandit – $0.99, down from $2.99

• Year Walk – $0.99, down from $3.99

• Device 6 – $0.99, down from $3.99

• Beholder – $1.99, down from $4.99

• Lighten Brainstorming – $0.99, down from $2.99

• Typic – Free, down from $3.99

• 8mm Camera for iPad – Free, down from $1.99

• 8mm Camera for iPhone – Free, down from $1.99

• Clean Text – $0.99, down from $2.99

For more information on the best deals, be sure to check out the MacRumors Deals Roundup.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
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Review: Griffin Survivor Glass tempered glass screen protector for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

One of the best, and the most noticeable, features of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is the massive, 6.2-inch curved display. To my eyes, it’s the best display on the market and there’s no real competition for the crown. How Samsung managed to cram a screen that big into the phone is beyond amazing. But, when you’re shelling out over $900 at launch for such a device, you want to make sure it’s protected. Normally, that comes down to finding a nice case and screen protector, but the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are unique.

See, that curved edge display is incredibly hard to protect. Since the display curves, there’s a lot more surface area to protect and it’s very hard for companies to make curved tempered glass screen protectors. There are a ton of screen protectors on Amazon right now, but it’s hard to find any with good reviews, especially without spending an arm and a leg.

Griffin is a name that you might know. They’ve been around forever and make some excellent cases. Now, it’s trying its hand at curved screen protectors for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. I was initially skeptical because this has been so hard for other companies to pull off, but I have to say that I’m pretty pleased with the Survivor Glass that Griffin sent over for us to review.

A friend picked up a tempered glass screen protector made by another company from a Verizon Wireless brick and mortar store at launch. He experienced what many others complained about, missed touches. This is a terrible issue with tempered glass screen protectors on curved displays because if you don’t get the screen protector dead on, it can leave gaps between the protector and the glass it’s protecting. Those gaps cause missed taps. There’s no adhesive in the middle of these screen protectors, they only hold onto the sides of the device so positioning is important. I’m happy to report that I’ve never had a missed touch due to the screen protector on my Galaxy S8 Plus.

The fit, for the most part, is pretty good. The Survivor Glass does NOT reach across the entire display, but it does get damn close. You will see clear-ish lines on your display while looking at it due to the end of the screen protector not reaching, but you get used to it quickly. I don’t even notice them anymore. If you’re the type of person who will not accept anything on your screen, then you’re probably not going to find a tempered glass screen protector for your Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus.

The Griffin Survivor Glass stops before the top of the device

Since the Survivor Glass doesn’t reach all the way, you will be able to feel the edges of it. It doesn’t feel super sharp or thick, but you can definitely tell it’s there. Much like the lines, I didn’t mind it at all and found myself from running my thumb over the edge from time to time. A nasty side effect of the screen protector ending before the edge of the phone is that sometimes you’ll get hair or dust sticking to the side or slightly underneath the screen protector. It’s annoying but I’ve been able to get everything out from under it easily. It does feel messy though.

The display will also feel messy because this thing is a fingerprint magnet. I don’t know exactly what Griffin coats the Survivor Glass with, but it doesn’t do a great job of resisting finger grease and my phone looks noticeably worse with it on. It’s a quick wipe away from looking great again, but I hate that I have to do it so often.

I’ve tried several cases with the screen protector and since case manufacturers are generally hesitant to go much past the buttons on the side of the device, there have been no issues. If you’re going to grab a full coverage case like a Lifeproof case, there could be some conflicts but everything I’ve used from Caseology, Spigen, and Samsung has worked wonderfully.

The glass stops short of covering the entire display but works well with cases like this ultra thin case.

All in all, I love the Griffin Survivor Glass. I paid a lot of money for my Galaxy S8 Plus and I’d like to keep it for years and years. We all know that glass scratches even when we’re trying to baby phones so I’d much rather put a decently thin, clear glass screen protector on to protect it. While the screen protector isn’t perfect, it does the job as well as any other screen protector I’ve seen on the market today. I definitely recommend it.

You can pick up the Griffin Survivor Glass tempered glass screen protector for the Samsung Galaxy S8 on its website and Amazon and for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus on its website and Amazon.

Sticker Market: Emoji Keyboard lets you get creative while you chat (Review)

Overview

If you like to spice up your online conversation with creative stickers and GIFs, then you’ll be glad to know there are dedicated apps out there which offer access to entire libraries of fun stickers. This is the case of Sticker Market: Emoji Keyboard, a fun little app designed to replace your standard keyboard in order to give you access to all kinds of emoji while you’re using your favorite social media apps.

Getting started

Just head on to the Google Play Store and download the Sticker Market: Emoji Keyboard for free on your Android device and install it. The app is also available in the App Store and can be accessed as a Chrome extension on your desktop computer.

Overall experience

Once you fire up the app, you will be asked to sign in either with your Facebook or Google account (or register with another email). After you’re done you’ll have to go through the keyboard setup tutorial which shows you the simple steps you need to take to activate the keyboard.

Sticker Market

Then you should be transported to the main screen, where you’ll be able to check out your profile and from there, access the Sticker Market which comes packed with stickers, GIF images, and templates. The interface feels quite familiar, as it’s reminiscent of the Google Play Store which means you’ll be able to find your way with ease.

From the Sticker Market, you can download all the stickers you want. Just bear in mind that for some you’ll have to pay. You can browse them by categories including “Top Free”, “Trending” or “Top Paid”.

There’s always a search function, so you can find stickers by searching for keywords in the search box. You can also activate different search filters to sort stickers by your preferred creator, pricing, sorting, and animation.

The app stores the stickers, templates, and GIFs you’ve downloaded in the cloud for later access.

Sticker Keyboard

The second major segment of the app is the Sticker Keyboard which is laid on top your phone’s regular keyboard. You’ll notice a dedicated Sticker button on your keyboard which once tapped will give you access to all the stickers you’ve downloaded so far.

You can use the keyboard in concert with all your social media and messaging apps including WhatsApp , Facebook or Snapchat. The keyboard is customizable as you can choose between a Light Theme and a Dark Theme. It also supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Armenian and French.

Sticker Cam

But that’s not all, the app also includes a feature called the Sticker Cam. Here you can either add masks or templates and superimpose them on your selfie pictures (similar to Snapchat), or create your own face emoji. How do you do that? By taking a self-portrait and then cropping the part which you want to turn into an emoji. All these custom-made emojis will then be saved under the emojis category in the menu.

Speaking of which, if you’re the creative type Sticker Market invites you to become a sticker creator. Designers and illustrators can submit their work and start selling them on the market.

While the app is easy and fun to use, using the Sticker Cam would at the times result in freezing. I couldn’t load certain templates and some would just force the app to shut-down.

Loading up some types of emojis takes longer than others, but in order to prevent such issues, you should make sure you’re on a stable Wi-Fi connection.

I would also have liked the app to provide more keyboard customization options, not just the light and dark themes, but who knows maybe they will be added later on.

Conclusion

All in all, Sticker Market: Emoji Keyboard is a fun, easy-to-use app that delivers tons of stickers right at your fingertips. The best thing about it is that you no longer have to switch between apps and keyboards to get your daily new emoji fix. Just download the app and start chatting.

Visit the Sticker Market website or;

Download the Sticker Market: Emoji Keyboard app from the Google Play Store

Ras Al Khaimah will soon be home to the world’s longest zip line

Why it matters to you

Looking for a new thrill? The world’s longest zip line, soon to open in the UAE, may fit the bill.

Adrenaline junkies, pack your bags. It’s time to take a trip to the United Arab Emirates. In December, the city of Ras Al Khaimah will have a new bragging right — it’ll become home to the world’s longest and highest zip line, which will be located on the nation’s highest peak — Jebel Jais. So if you’d like to fly through the air and live out your wildest superhero dreams, this may just be the zip line for you.

While it’s unclear as of yet exactly how long the zip line will be (the Jebel Jais websites notes that this information is a “closely guarded secret”), given that the project allegedly costs multiple millions of dollars, we can bet that it’ll be quite a lengthy ride. Currently, the longest zip line honor goes to the Monster in Puerto Rico, located in Toro Verde Adventure Park in Orocovis. This ride is 7,234 feet long and about 1,200 feet high.

But Ras Al Khaimah hopes to put even this line to shame, noting that the opening of its own thriller will “propel [the city] into the major leagues of global adventure tourism and cement Jebel Jais as the region’s leading active adventure tourism destination.”

In creating the zip line, the UAE city partnered with Toro Verde, the same folks behind the aforementioned Monster in Puerto Rico. Heralded as the world’s leading zip line operator, Toro Verde will help Ras Al Khaimah break the current world record.

But this isn’t just about thrills and Guinness World Records. Rather, the Jebel Jais team points out, the zip line will use solar energy and locally sourced natural materials, thereby exposing visitors to a largely natural experience (despite the decidedly man-made zip line) in the mountains.

Folks of all ages will be allowed to take a turn on the ride, though eager participants must meet a weight minimum of 35 kilograms (77 pounds), and a height minimum of 120 centimeters (just under 4 feet). The maximum weight the zip line can sustain is 150 kilograms (330 pounds). So if you don’t have any Christmas plans just yet, you may consider making an end-of-year trip to the UAE.

Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive: Prices are lower, but our favorite remains the same

HTC and Oculus remain at the forefront of PC-based virtual reality. When first released, the Rift and Vive had some stark differences. Now that the Rift has Touch controllers, however, is that still the case?

Check out our Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive spec comparison below for an in-depth look at how we think the two kings of VR stand up against one another.

Oculus Rift

HTC Vive

Display
OLED
OLED
Resolution
2160 x 1200
2160 x 1200
Refresh Rate
90Hz
90Hz
Platform
Oculus Home
SteamVR, VivePort
Field of view
110 degrees
110 degrees
Tracking area
5 x 5 feet (two sensors), 8 x 8 feet (three)
15 x 15 feet
Built-in audio
Yes
Yes
Built-in mic
Yes
Yes
Controller
Oculus Touch, Xbox One controller
Vive controller, any PC compatible gamepad
Sensors
Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer,  Constellation tracking camera.
Accelerometer, gyroscope, Lighthouse laser tracking system, front-facing camera
Connections
HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0
HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0
Requirements
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 / AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater

Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD FX4350 or greater

8GB+ RAM

Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

2x USB 3.0 ports

Windows 7 SP1 or newer

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 /AMD Radeon RX 480 equivalent or greater

Intel Core i5-4590 equivalent or greater

4GB+ of RAM

Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

1x USB 2.0 port

Windows 7 SP1 or greater

Price

$400 on sale ($500 after)
$600
DT review
2.5 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5 stars

Design

Neither the Rift or Vive are going to win any fashion awards. Both are bulky, yet lightweight devices you strap to the front of your head like a wearable brick, which then allow you an unobstructed view into the world of virtual reality.

The Rift and Vive both utilize adjustable Velcro straps and comfortable padding on the interior faceplate. The Vive is still the heavier of the two, which makes sense given it touts 37 visible sensors on the front, designed to connect to wireless cameras within the tracking space. Getting the Vive on and off can be a bit tricky. The Deluxe Audio Strap improves that, and adds headphones — you have to use your own, otherwise — but it’s an extra $100.

The Rift, on the other hand, showcases a sleeker, fabric-coated exterior design and smaller footprint. It’s easier to get on and off, and may feel more comfortable over time due to its lighter weight. While the Vive still looks a bit experimental, the Rift looks like a futuristic device you’ll be happy to show off.

Both models accommodate glasses (though with some added discomfort), and connect via USB and HDMI to your PC.

Display quality, field of view

Virtual reality headsets are only as good as the display they utilize. The Rift and Vive both come outfitted with vibrant OLED displays, each of which offers 1,080 x 1,200-pixel resolution for each eye. Said displays bring the final resolution to 2,160 x 1,200, with 90Hz refresh rates, thus ensuring the frame rate is high enough to prevent motion sickness and provide a smooth experience overall.

By the specs sheet, both headsets also offer a 110-degree field of view (FOV), though in actual usage there’s a lot of subjective evidence (and some slightly more scientific) to suggest that the Vive offers a slightly wider and certainly taller field of view. It’s not hugely noticeable when you’re in the midst of gunning down robots or exploring abandoned buildings, but it’s there.

One aspect that does affect the visuals of each headset is their lens designs. While there are some differences in manufacturing style, the only time it’s noticeable is when bright objects appear on darker backgrounds. The Vive has somewhat obvious concentric rings that appear due to the lens’ machining. In comparison, the Rift has a more general aura around the bright objects.

Both detract from the visuals in that particular setting, though neither ruins the experience in any meaningful way. Overall, the two headsets are evenly matched in visual quality.

Controls and tracking

As important as the headset is to your virtual experience , the way you interact with it is equally so. The Rift and the Vive both utilize custom, motion tracked controllers — known as Oculus Touch and Vive Controllers, respectively. Although an Xbox One controller initially shipped with the Rift, the Touch controllers now come as standard. Read our hands-on for the details.

The Touch controllers have a joystick and button setup. They utilize the same low-latency tracking technology that determines the relative position of the headset, and allow for some simple gesture mapping based on how you’re holding the controller. The design allows the pair of controllers to function more like your real hands when gaming, capitalizing on internal tracking sensors and haptic feedback. They help differentiate between different kinds of impacts in game and translate them to your real hands.

The Vive takes a different approach. The device’s controllers, available at launch and bundled with the headset, function much like a modified Steam Controller. They sport touch-sensitive, circular pads under your thumbs, and trigger buttons that act as primary selection buttons. There’s also a pair of grip buttons on the sides, which some developers have used for in-game grasping mechanics.

Two “lighthouse” sensors track the Vive controllers and headset and when placed in opposite corners of a room can track a space that’s 15 x 15ft. They were designed to offer roomscale tracking from the get go, so the two bundled sensors are all that’s needed for it. With a combination of pulses and sweeping lasers and the 70 sensors on the headset and controllers, the Vive tracking works near flawlessly most of the time.

In comparison, the Rift set up uses a Constellation tracking camera, which uses infrared light to offer 360-degree positional head tracking in a short, but broad and deep play area. The second camera bundled with the Touch motion controllers improves that tracking space depending on placement. However, three are still recommended for a solid playspace and even then, Oculus only recommends a maximum tracking space of eight by eight feet to avoid occlusion.

Despite their external sensor differences, both headsets utilize magnetometers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers built directly into the headsets to handle tilt tracking.

While the Vive offers a larger and, in our experience, more reliable roomscale experience, both headsets support a digital safety grid to prevent you bumping into anything. The Vive has its Chaperone, while the Rift has its Guardian. Both throw up a translucent grid near the edge of your playspace so you don’t hit the walls when trying to take out your next VR enemy. The Vive’s Chaperone is a little more customizable, and can also make use of its front-facing camera to give you a better view of the real world outside the headset.

Performance and requirements

So, how do the Rift and Vive perform in real-world scenarios when stacked directly against one another? That’s a difficult question to answer, since virtual reality is really one of those technologies you have to try before you really understand how immersive it can be. That said, there are some differences between the two offerings from the industry’s biggest players.

When it comes to minimum requirements, Oculus has the lowest, but there is a caveat. To get the Rift running comfortably on your PC (and face), Oculus recommends an Intel i3-6100 or AMD FX4350 or better processor, at least 8GB or RAM, and Windows 7 SPI. You’ll also need a GTX 960 or AMD RX 470 graphics card and a few USB ports.

The caveat is that, with this hardware, your PC will likely have to make use of something called asynchronous spacewarp, which essentially renders the games at half the minimum frames per second and uses some clever guess work to make it feel like it’s running at the typical 90 FPS. This is great for comfort, but if you want the full experience, you need similar hardware to that recommended for the Vive.

The Vive’s requirements are a little heftier and more in line with what the Oculus Rift requires for solid, 90 FPS gameplay. You’ll need either an Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD RX 480, along with an Intel i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 processor, at least 4GB of RAM, and Windows 7.1 or later.

If you need to build your own VR rig, check out our PC build guide to see the hardware we suggest.

Software

The Oculus Rift is compatible with software through the Oculus Rift store, as well as supporting games through Steam — though, the latter took some “encouragement.” The headset currently comes with seven games: Lucky’s Tale, Medium, Toybox, Quill, Dead and Buried, Dragon Front, and Robo Recall.

The Rift store has a decent library of titles, though the total is noticeably less than that of the Vive’s catalog.

Oculus has been helping to develope the WebVR standard too, which makes it easy to jump into quick VR experiences such as 360-degree photos and videos from within your browser. Oculus also hopes that developers will begin using its React, a Javascript interface that aims to make the web a comfortable place to browse while in virtual reality.

HTC’s Vive, meanwhile, is designed to primarily work with Valve’s Steam platform. Steam does have a catalog of more than 400 games and experiences to enjoy, and ultimately gives the Vive the most extensive content library of any VR headset right now. When you buy the headset, you also get free copies of Richie’s Plank Experience, Everest VR and Tiltbrush.

For those not wanting to buy games up front, HTC also has its Viveport subscription service with a rotating library of available titles.

Pricing and availability

The Rift headset bundle is currently at its lowest yet, thanks to a $400 special offer as part of the Rift Summer Sale. You do still need to spend $60 for each extra Constellation camera, however. In comparison, the Vive is sold at a base price of $600. Both headsets now come with motion controllers and roomscale tracking as standard, though the Vive’s tracking has fewer problems with controller occlusion.

That means that for now, the Rift is the cheaper option, even factoring in the cost of an additional sensor. However, that price gap will narrow when the Summer Sale comes to an end, as the bundle price at that point will increase to $500. The $500 bundle will also include less hardware — it’ll be missing the Xbox One controller, for instance. When you factor in the cost of a third sensor for the Rift, which is recommended for large roomscale VR, the price difference will be negligible.

Of course, none of this factors in the cost of the powerful PCs required to run them.

Conclusion

The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the still the two flagship VR headsets, even now that the PlayStation VR is available for $370.

Many of the hardware specs, such as the internal display and field of view, are comparable between the Rift and Vive. Other facets — notably the controllers and tracking system on each device — differ, even if they aren’t that far apart in price.

While the specifications make it difficult to declare a winner, our personal experiences with the Vive have been more favorable, as you can read in our review. Even though the Oculus Touch controllers bring the experience up to par with the Vive, the room-scale focus of the HTC headset still feels like the better choice. Even with comparable hardware, the Steam setup and game library are better on the Vive, with a larger array of motion-tracked, room-scale content available.

Meet Unistellar, the next evolution in backyard telescopes

Why it matters to you

With Unistellar, backyard stargazers can study the sky in more detail and even generate scientific data while doing it.

For centuries, astronomers have explored the cosmos through personal telescopes. And, although these devices have grown stronger over the years, they have remained relatively simple in both form and function.

Now a French startup unveiled a powerful new evolution in personal telescopes that make the act of stargazing brighter, clearer, and more engaging. Dubbed Unistellar, the new telescope enhances the image of objects in the sky by accumulating and amplifying the light that they are emitting, according to its creators. They’re demonstrating the device at IFA 2017 in Berlin.

They’re calling Unistellar an Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope), which uses electronics and optics to magnify a cosmic object’s brightness in real time. Distant galaxies go from blurred to crisp and colorful.

“Apart from the four main planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, for which they are a great tool, classical telescopes, even high-end [ones], don’t really allow you to really see colors and details of other objects. So even if astronomy is a popular subject among the population, many people tend to be disappointed,” Arnaud Malvache, Unistellar president and co-founder, told Digital Trends. “Our first goal was to solve this problem. As scientists we also wanted to foster more interest about astronomy and science in general, so we also focused on finding other ways to make astronomy easier and more exciting.”

The eVscope feature can be turned on and off for stargazers who would rather use the Unistellar as a traditional telescope, or for those wanting to compare just how powerful the technology is.

The telescope also comes equipped with an automatic field detection algorithm that allows it to identify celestial objects in its field of view.

“This allows for two features,” Malvache said, “it can be used for automated pointing of unprecedented accuracy and can provide overlayed information to the user.”

The Unistellar team also made an effort to engage citizen scientists in generating useful scientific data. This initiative caught the attention of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, who recently partnered with Unistellar in its hunt for alien life.

“They felt a huge potential for research applications for planetary defense, supernovae, and more,” Malvache said, “and they were as excited as we were to transform astronomy in such an interactive and popular science.”

The telescope will be available for pre-order this fall and will retail around $1,000.

Journalist claims Google used strong-arm tactic to get story taken down

Why it matters to you

Google might be a tool we all need, but this story will naturally raise concerns about the firm’s scope and reach.

A journalist has come forward to protest the monopolistic power of Google in the online world, claiming that a few years ago she was silenced by the search giant. Supposedly, the Google gag forced the author to remove an article from the website she was working for because it was critical of Google’s actions.

Give3n how crucial some web services are to our lives, it’s becoming a matter of increasing concern that they’re all run by companies with their own agendas and goals. One of those is invariably making money, so it’s not too surprising when we occasionally see governments and regulatory bodies clamp down on some internet giants for anti-competitive or shady practices. In the case of Gizmodo writer Kashmir Hill, though, it was not the government, but Google that cracked down on her.

Back in 2011, Hill was writing for Forbes. That was during the era when Google+ was launched, and Google was keen to make it a major part of the web, encouraging websites to offer comment links on content as they do for Facebook and Reddit. Purportedly, Google staffers asserted, in no uncertain terms, that if sites like Forbes didn’t do that, their search engine rankings could suffer.

When Hill reported on this, pointing out the clear conflict of interest involved, Google wasn’t happy. In fact, she claims that the search giant demanded she take the story down. While Google didn’t claim it was fake news, it did state that the meeting had been confidential.

Hill claims that that wasn’t something she was aware of or had agreed to, nor had she signed any form of non-disclosure agreement. Oddly enough, she suggests that at that time, Forbes didn’t have a traditional editorial team, so the onus to take the article down, or indeed, to keep it up, was on her.

Under pressure from Forbes staff and Google, she took it down, something she still regrets to this day.

However, that wasn’t to be the end of the story. Cached versions of her report still existed after she removed the original story, but those copies quickly disappeared, too. Although it can only be speculation, it appeared that Google had removed those cached versions , or at least made them much harder to find.

While Google claims that it was Forbes that removed the story, Hill doubts the technical know how to do so existed at the site at that time, pointing out that more recently removed articles can still be found in search results.

This story comes to light as Google is in the spotlight again for possibly leaning on an organization to fire someone who was critical of the search giant. If confirmed, this would only raise additional questions about the overwhelming influence of some of the internet’s biggest corporations.

No, it’s not cuddly, but the Pup scanner makes document scanning painless

Why it matters to you

If you do a lot of document scanning and hate how time-consuming it is, then the portable Pup scanner is for you.

Whether you’re scanning a big pile of receipts for your expense report, digitizing an old book, or capturing your child’s latest artwork to share, the Pup scanner makes the process quick and painless. Compared to something like the Epson DS-320, this device takes portability to a whole new level. It’s a stand-alone scanner that’s just 5.3 inches long, 1.26 inches wide, and weighs 7 ounces (200g). All you have to do to scan is hold it over the document you want to capture, line up the red laser frame with the edges, and press the button on top.

The document is automatically uploaded to the cloud via Wi-Fi and stored or shared based on your preferences. Use the smartphone companion app and you can configure precisely what you want the Pup scanner to do with your scans. There is also a small touchscreen for quickly changing settings directly on the Pup scanner. Although it works via Wi-Fi, the Pup does have storage onboard, giving it enough space to record 10,000 pages if you’re offline.

You can send documents to one or more email addresses, store them on a server somewhere, or print them out. The Pup scanner also supports optional character recognition, or OCR, so you can export text directly into Word or Excel if you want. By mapping the document in 3D, the Pup scanner can remove curvature or deformation, and it has a built-in LED light to ensure your target is perfectly illuminated. You can also choose to automatically crop, rotate, and compress documents, set your preferred sharpness, and decide between color or black and white.

We tried the Pup scanner out for ourselves at IFA in Berlin and found it really fast and easy to use. You can scan multiple pages in seconds, and it has a comfortable, rounded design, so you can scan with one hand and change pages with the other. The built-in battery gives you 12 hours of scanning time, and there’s a USB-C port for recharging. Just make sure you have a good USB-C cable.

The Pup scanner comes from the most successful French startup ever to run an Indiegogo campaign — they raised $620,000, more than triple the original goal. It’s set to ship in December and if you want one, it will cost you $199. Check out the website for more information.