Michael Kors’ next-generation smartwatches are now available for purchase

Why it matters to you

Michael Kors’ new style-focused smartwatches are made especially for men or women, but its hybrid smartwatch takes a different approach.

Michael Kors, the luxury watch brand behind last year’s Access Bradshaw, announced a bunch of new smartwatches at the 2017 Baselworld conference in Switzerland in April. As of September 6, the Access Sofie and the Access Grayson are officially available for purchase on the Michael Kors website along with its retail locations.

Touchscreen smartwatches

On a technical level, they’re fairly comparable. Both the Sofie and Grayson boast colorful AMOLED touchscreen displays, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, and Android Wear 2.0, the latest and greatest version of Google’s Android Wear operating system.

Android Wear 2.0 is sort of a big deal. It’s a major upgrade over the last generation of Google’s wearable operating system, featuring customizable watch faces, a stand-alone app store, improved fitness tracking, and Google’s super-smart digital Assistant.

It’s also one of the only similarities between the Sofie and Grayson.

The Sofie is described as “sleek” and “feminine,” with a thin, lightweight case body, pavé, and full round display that comes in eight different color combinations.

Michael Kors describes the Grayson, in contrast, as a “luxury” watch with “sporty looks.” To that end, it sports a full-round dial with a rotating crown button that scrolls Android Wear’s lists and menus, and comes in four colors: Gold tone, stainless steel, and blue and black.

The Michael Kors Access smartwatches start at $350.

Hybrid smartwatches

For folks who prefer a simpler brand of smartwatch, there is Michael Kors’ new hybrid wearables. The brand is introducing new analog watches that feature vibrating alerts, fitness and sleep tracking, and pusher buttons on the side that remotely trigger selfies and control music.

The men’s hybrid smartwatches will arrive “holiday 2017,” and the women’s watches will land in fall. They start at $250.

Michael Kors Access app

The Michael Kors Access app is now available on both the Access Sofie and Access Grayson. Through the “My Social” section on the app, users pull from their Instagram feeds to create their watch face background. Using it is easy — simply sign into your Instagram account, pick your photo, select a filter and watch style, then set it for a fully customized look.

Michael Kors said that by the end of 2017, it will have released 15 new digital watch faces.

Update: Michael Kors Access Sofie and Access Grayson smartwatches are available for purchase, with the Access app included. 

Amazing (and slightly creepy) robotic mask changes in response to your emotions

Why it matters to you

Looking for an awesome Halloween costume that will appeal to your inner tech geek? This mask should do the trick.

Do you remember the character Rorschach in Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel, Watchmen? For those who have never read it (and you totally, 100 percent need to), he is a vigilante whose ink blot test style mask changes throughout the story, often as a way of cluing you in on his emotions at the time. Presumably, with a similar goal in mind, a team of designers from London’s Bartlett School of Architecture created a somewhat similar mask — courtesy of a combination of 3D printing and Harvard University’s Soft Robotics Toolkit.

The soft silicone mask changes its pattern depending on the expression made by its wearer. It does this using a MyoWare Muscle Sensor, an Arduino-powered, all-in-one electromyography (EMG) sensor, which measures the activity of muscles and then outputs a signal which triggers a response. In this case, it means that a smile, frown, or other facial contortion causes the mask to inject or extract colored liquid through special capillaries, resulting in a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of colorful designs.

Unless you are planning to take to the streets as a comic book vigilante, there is probably no practical use for a mask such as this, of course, but it is definitely a unique idea and application of some pretty cool technology. Generously, the students behind it — Sirou Peng, Adi Meyer, and Silvia Rueda — have made some of the project’s details available to everyone online so you can build your own. In addition to a 3D printer, Arduino Uno board, and other components, you need special software for the photogrammetry 3D-scanning process and digital sculpting — all of which is detailed in the associated blog post.

Right now, the instructions are still fairly limited, although co-creator Meyer told Digital Trends that the team is in the process of developing a short technical film that will share more details concerning the project. This is planned for release later this month.

With 55 days to go until Halloween, maybe now is the time to get thinking about this year’s trick or treat costume. Particularly if you live in an area populated by engineers and designers, we think this mask would be a hit!

New Surface device rumored for Microsoft Future Decoded event in London

Why it matters to you

If you’re waiting on a new version of the Surface Book, there’s a chance that the next iteration of the device could be revealed in the coming months.

It has already been a big year for Microsoft’s Surface brand, as the company unveiled both the Surface Laptop and a successor to the Surface Pro 4. However, it seems that there might be yet more hardware on the way before 2017 comes to an end.

Microsoft is set to kick off its annual Future Decoded event in London at the end of October, and Surface lead Panos Panay is scheduled to deliver a keynote to attendees. While the conference is largely aimed at enterprise users, it’s expected that Panay will unveil a brand-new addition to the Surface line during his address.

At least one new device is set to be revealed at Future Decoded, according to a report from The Verge. Microsoft has previously announced an LTE-enabled variant of the Surface Pro, but it’s thought that another new piece of hardware will also be showcased alongside that system.

All signs point toward a new version of the Surface Book being the new hardware that Panay brings to London. The first iteration of the device launched back in 2015, and Microsoft recently slashed the prices of the range on its official online storefront, according to a report from Tech Radar. This is definitely the kind of behavior that might suggest that a refresh is in the works.

There’s also a chance that we might see a revamp of the Surface Hub, the enormous, touchscreen-enabled digital whiteboard that costs as much as $22,000. Given that Future Decoded is an event that largely caters to the enterprise crowd, it might make sense that it would be the setting for the unveiling of a device that’s primarily intended for schools and businesses.

The Surface line has been an enormous success for Microsoft, allowing the company to gain a far stronger foothold in the hardware market than it has ever been able to accomplish before. It’s no surprise that we’ve seen such a steady expansion into different device categories following on from the initial success of the Surface Pro.

Microsoft’s Future Decoded conference runs from October 31 to November 1, and will be held at the Excel convention center in London.

These are the 6 best iPhone camera lenses you can get your hands on

The photographic capabilities of the iPhone have come a long way since the 2-megapixel camera found inside the initial iPhone. But, there are times when the onboard camera system might seem restrictive if your creative desires are outside the limitations put in place. As a response, there are plenty of third-party accessories that claim to unlock the iPhone’s photographic potential.

Some of the most capable accessories are external lenses, which are made specifically to provide iPhones with the lens flexibility that is common with DSLR and mirrorless cameras, whether it’s a wide-angle, telephoto, or macro lens. To help you narrow down your search for what lenses might best fit your needs, we rounded up six of the best iPhone camera lenses, with synopses on what they are and how they work.

Moment

Launched in August 2013, Moment has quickly made a name for itself as one of the best third-party lens manufacturers for iOS devices. Proof of this lies in the fact that Apple now sells Moment lenses inside its stores , an impressive feat considering how particular Apple is about its retail space.

Moment has a slew of lens offerings going back to the iPhone 4, with lenses ranging from macro to telephoto. The lenses themselves are made of glass optical elements and are housed inside a metal frame. This increases image quality and provides a durable piece of equipment that can probably take more of a beating than the phone you are putting the lenses on.

At $90 for a single lens and $190 for a starter kit (which includes the wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, and mounting plate), Moment is not the most frugal option. But it is a reasonable price for glass optics and sturdy build.

ExoLens

Another high-end lineup of lenses for iPhones is ExoLens. Based around Zeiss glass, the ExoLens system offers multiple professional-level lenses in a pocketable form factor.

Like Moment, the frame that houses the optical elements of each lens is constructed of milled aluminum. Currently, ExoLens offers three distinct lenses: A macro lens, a wide-angle lens, and a telephoto lens. The wide-angle has been one of our go-to lenses because of its ability to capture high-quality photos and videos with minimal artifacts and distortions.

ExoLens offers three means of attaching a lens to an iPhone: A minimal bracket, a more robust bracket, and a dedicated case. We like the larger bracket because it has a tripod screw mount and a cold shoe for adding an accessory, like an LED lamp or microphone, but we find it difficult to remove from the phone when it is no longer needed.

Lenses start at $150 when ordered a la carte, while a kit, which includes a single lens and a bracket, start at $200. Again, it is not the most affordable option, but you won’t find a better-constructed iPhone lens on the market.

Bitplay 7

All of these iPhone lenses are fun to play with, but they don’t do much to replicate the experience of shooting with a more robust camera. Enter Bitplay 7, an iPhone case and lens system designed to make shooting with an iPhone feel more like working with a point-and-shoot camera.

The pieces to the Bitplay 7 are sold a la carte. The case, which acts as a mounting point for the lenses and features a dedicated shutter button, sells for $50, while the lenses cost between $25 and $100. Like other lenses on the market, a few of the Bitplay 7 lenses feature a 2-in–1 design so you can get two uses out of a single lens.

In addition to lenses, the Bitplay 7 lineup includes a circular polarizer filter. Not usually seen on smaller cameras, this photo filter is designed to cut through reflections and highlights — similar to DSLR photo filters.

To sum up the experience of shooting with the Bitplay 7, we will reference the words of our own Hillary Grigonis, in our Bitplay 7 review: “The Bitplay 7 case takes all the positives of smartphone photography (convenience, simplicity, immediate sharing) and wraps them in a body that’s designed for actual photography.”

Olloclip

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Olloclip is the company that popularized external lenses. The accessory maker has been around since the iPhone 4 and was arguably the most ubiquitous add-on optics available for iPhones, until Moment and ExoLens came along. Even now, it holds its own, thanks to its compact design and more manageable price point.

The latest series of Olloclip products come in three different sets: The Core, Active, and Macro Pro. In addition to having the main camera connection system, which snaps onto your iPhone 7/7 Plus, each set includes a collection of dedicated lenses.

The Core set includes a fisheye, 15x macro, and a super-wide lens; the Active set includes both a telephoto and an ultra-wide lens; and the Macro Pro set includes 7x, 14x, and 21x macro lenses, as well as an InstaFocus hood to ensure you get tack-sharp images every time.

Olloclip sets start at $80, which puts them below the price of the Moment and ExoLens sets. They might not be made of milled aluminum, but Olloclip has made a name for itself, and rightly so. They are quality lenses at a comparatively affordable price.

Kamerar Zoom

If you are looking for something a little more budget-friendly than the previous products, look no further. The self-proclaimed “world’s first dual-optics lens solution” for the iPhone 7 Plus is a clever solution to making the most of the latest iPhone’s double-camera system.

The patent-pending lens system relies on a dedicated case that has a slot for slipping the lens modules into. The two set of lenses (one fisheye/telephoto and one macro) simply slide into place when you need to use them and slide right back out when you’re finished.

Normally, the Kamerar Zoom would set you back $45, but ahead of the next iPhone unveiling, the company reduced the price to just $25, making it an affordable option for stepping up your iPhone photography.

Aukey 3-in–1 Lens Set

Much like its expansive lineup of cables and cases, Aukey’s clip-on smartphone lens system is one of the best values out there. For just $12, you can pick up the 3-in-1 set, which includes a wide-angle, macro, and fisheye lens.

In addition to the price, Aukey’s lens system stands out because it is not dependent on a specific case or mounting point. Instead, it uses a simple clip-on solution, akin to a clothespin.

The lenses and clips are constructed of aluminum alloy and the lenses themselves include coatings to help reduce chromatic aberrations, ghosting, reflections, and lens flair. Each set comes with the lenses, the lens clips, a carrying pouch, a cleaning cloth, and a 24-month warranty in the event something breaks.

This set might not be the prettiest solution, but considering it is less than a tenth of the cost of Moment, it’s hard to beat.

Tempow Audio Profile Review

Boring old Bluetooth is being spiced up with some genuinely useful new technology inside the new Motorola Moto X4 smartphone, as we find in our Tempow Audio Profile review. While the vast majority of other smartphones  connect and play audio through a single Bluetooth device at one time. On the Moto X4, a world-first software feature lets you connect up to four devices simultaneously, and the same music will play through them all, with no loss of quality or range, and perfectly in sync.

That means you can have room-filling audio without splashing out for speakers that connect up to one another, or for a multi-room system like Sonos. With the Moto X4 you can call any Bluetooth speaker into action, new or old, regardless of brand, because the technology is built into the phone itself, and doesn’t require any alteration to the speaker at all. It’s easy to adjust the volume level on each speaker too, tailoring the sound profile to the room or personal taste.

Instead of connecting just one product, four can be connected at the same time.

To bring this technology to the Moto X4, Lenovo, which owns Motorola, signed a deal with French startup Tempow. We met with Tempow co-founder Vincent Nallatamby to see and hear the Bluetooth technology in action. Initially starting as an app idea around 18 months ago, it rapidly became clear this method would be impossible due to restrictions in smartphone operating systems — leading Nallatamby to take a whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley and Asia in search of a hardware partner. It only took a short demo meeting to convince Lenovo to sign up.

The result is a seamless experience that’s very similar to using the existing Bluetooth setup. This is imperative. We’re all familiar with the process, after all. Instead of connecting just one product, four can be connected at the same time, and managed under the Bluetooth settings. There’s no additional app or widget to make life complicated. Volume is adjusted individually under the usual Android volume control box, and each speaker is clearly marked so it doesn’t get confusing. It doesn’t only work for Bluetooth speakers either, it also connects up to four different pairs of Bluetooth headphones too.

Interestingly, more than four devices could in theory be connected; but four is the maximum before sound quality suffers. We saw a demonstration with speakers placed several meters apart without any connection issues, so range is no problem either. Listening to two pairs of headphones revealed there are no problems with syncing up together, so you and any listening friends will be at the same point in the track at the same time. Tweaking the volume controls of each adjusted the soundstage nicely, plus there’s the option to assign a speaker the left or right channel, for stereo audio.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

At the moment, Tempow’s Bluetooth audio technology is only found in the Moto X4; but it’s not an ongoing exclusive deal. Tempow’s actively looking for new partners. When it finds them, all it would take is a software update to bring the feature to existing devices. It’s not certain this will happen though; but we’re happy with the thought of seeing Tempow’s tech on a number of new phones released in the future. Additionally, Nallatamby told Digital Trends the company is also developing a version for smart TVs, where connected Bluetooth speakers could act as a soundbar or surround sound system.

On the Moto X4, Tempow’s audio technology is a slick, simple to use, and genuinely a useful feature. Many people have more than one Bluetooth speaker, yet only end up using one due to Bluetooth’s single-device restriction. Now, they’ve all become useful again. We’re excited to see it come to more smartphones.

Plex Live TV now available for web and Amazon Fire TV

Plex’s Live TV feature is now available on the web and on Fire TV.

Owning a Plex Pass just keeps getting better and better. In addition to longtime features such as being able to access your own content and accessing other content through channels, Plex recently added a Live TV feature. Users with a compatible antenna and adapter would be able to hook into over-the-air (OTA) TV broadcasts for free. Combined with Plex’s metadata, the interface looks just like you’d expect with channel listings and show information. The feature launched on Android TV before becoming available on iOS and Android smartphones.

Today, Plex has announced users will soon be able to browse OTA channels from the Plex website or an Amazon Fire TV. That doesn’t quite cover all the platforms Plex is available on, since the service is on every platform imaginable. Still, it will be a significant amount of users, and the feature will continue to roll out to new platforms as time goes on.

The Fire TV will also be able to access the DVR feature. As suggested, this feature lets Plex users record free OTA streams to their local hard drives to watch at a later time. The web interface does not have DVR support at this time. The Fire TV Plex application will also be updated with a new, more intuitive interface. The Live TV and DVR functionality is only supported when connecting to physical servers hosted by a computer or NVIDIA SHIELD TV, not from a Plex Cloud server that has media stored in a Google Drive, Dropbox or other cloud storage service.

Are you interested in Plex Live TV or DVR? Let us know down below!

Learn more about Plex!

George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ will soon be a video game

George Orwell pretty much invented the dystopian future genre, with novels like 1984 and Animal Farm still finding relevance and new readers today. The latter novel, however, is set to become an indie video game. The team includes gaming veterans who have worked on I Am Bread, Fable, The Witcher 3, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and will have the support of George Orwell’s estate. “Our our motley crew of multi-award winning game creators came together from various companies to create this one game together,” developer Imre Jele said in an email to Engadget.

The game is being planned as narrative-heavy management game. The adventure-tycoon hybrid will put you right into Manor Farm as one of the animals before the revolution, with a story that follows the journey of the farm itself. You’ll make both story decisions and choices on how to run the farm that will fit in the overall tale. “Our story and play mechanics will be about our deeply rooted, collective desires for liberty, equality and fraternity that are overshadowed by the absolute corruptive effect of power over individuals,” said Jele.

The adaptation is in the early stages of development, but Jele says he’s been thinking about making it for decades. “When we started this process in earnest, I found game design notes from the 1990s,” he told us. The team opted for a hybrid of genres to show that the story of Animal Farm isn’t only about the fate of Boxer and the other specific characters, “but also about the everyday choices Napoleon and the other animals make to run the farm,” said Jele. “There are pivotal moments of history hidden in the mundane.”

It’s hard not to make a political statement with a game based on a socially-aware novel. “Over the last decade, we’ve started to see some governments use language eerily similar to oppressive regimes of the past,” Jele said. “I can’t help feeling personally challenged to create a game adaptation of Animal Farm, as I myself grew up under a communist regime.”

Via: Polygon

Source: Animal Farm Game

The CW’s free Seed app is now streaming on Amazon Fire TV devices

The CW has just launched its CW Seed app for Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Edition television. The app doesn’t require a subscription, there are no added fees and you don’t need a cable service provider in order to access its shows. However, you will have to sit through ads and the app doesn’t have any currently running series.

Some of the content included on CW Seed are cancelled series like Pushing Daisies and Forever, older shows like Dynasty and Everwood, DC Comics-based shows and CW Seed originals such as The Elevator Talk Show and an animated series called Very Mallory that I’ve only now heard of but let’s be honest, I’m probably going to watch just because of the name. For currently airing series like Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Riverdale, you’ll have to go through the regular CW app.

CW Seed is available for Fire TV devices now. You can also access CW Seed through iOS and Android mobile apps, Roku devices, Chromecast, Apple TV, Xbox One, AirPlay and cwseed.com.

Via: AFTVnews

Source: CW Seed, Amazon

Water-based electrolytes promise safer phone batteries

It’s hard to completely escape safety issues with lithium-ion batteries, in part due to the nature of the electrolytes that charge and release energy when ions shuttle between electrodes. They usually have to be made of easily combustible chemicals to muster enough power. However, that might not be a problem for much longer. Scientists have crafted a water-based electrolyte that’s both considerably safer and manages enough voltage (4V) to be useful.

The key was a high concentration of salt that produces the same protective layer on electrodes (a solid electrolyte interphase) you’d get out of a conventional electrolyte, preserving the electrodes and letting the battery hold more energy.

There’s one main problem right now: batteries with these watery electrolytes don’t last very long. They hold out for just 70 cycles where many conventional lithium-ion batteries last for several hundred cycles or more. However, the very fact that researchers have overcome both safety and voltage issues is still significant. While this won’t guarantee that your devices will be completely immune to battery woes, it could be just a matter of time before you panic a little less when you drop your phone.

Via: The Verge

Source: Cell

Twitter Night Mode Now Available on Desktop

For the past few weeks, Twitter has been testing a Night Mode option for its desktop site, and as of today, the new Night Mode feature is rolling out to all Twitter users.

Designed to turn the Twitter interface darker to make it easier to read tweets at night, Night Mode can be enabled by clicking on your profile photo and choosing the “Night Mode” option from the drop-down menu. Turning it off is as simple as clicking the Night Mode setting a second time.

With Night Mode enabled, the traditional light colored interface is made darker with a black overall background and a darker blue background for tweets. Because Night Mode is enabled manually, it will stay activated until it’s turned off.

Night Mode has been available on iOS devices since August of 2016 through the main Twitter for iOS app.

Night Mode on the desktop is currently rolling out to Twitter users so you may not see the option under your profile right away.

Tag: Twitter
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