Google Earth VR gets new Street View images

Google announced today that it’s adding Street View to the Google Earth VR experience. With a new update, users can check out Street View images from 85 countries provided by the Street View team as well as pictures shared by others from around the world. To get there, while in Earth VR, zoom down closer to the street level and see if your controller says there’s Street View imagery available. If so, you can then view the area within a 360 degree photo.

In a blog post today, Google suggested a couple of places to check out — San Francisco’s AT&T Park and the region of Croatia where Game of Thrones’ King’s Landing was filmed. The update is available today and users can experience it on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift as well as Daydream and Cardboard.

Source: Google

Apple’s Online Store Down Ahead of iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV Pre-Orders

Apple has taken its online storefront down in order to prepare for the launch of the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus, the Apple TV 4K, and the new Apple Watch Series 3 models. Pre-orders are expected to begin at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time or 3:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, September 15 in the United States.

In other countries, pre-order times will vary. Pre-orders kick off at 5:01 p.m. in Sydney, for example, 3:01 p.m. in China, and 8:01 a.m. in the UK. Apple has confirmed the time for the iPhone 8 and Apple TV 4K launch, and while the company has not listed a pre-order time for the Apple Watch, orders for the wearable device is likely to begin at the same time.

Pre-orders will be available through Apple’s website, the Apple Store app, several carrier sites, and from major retailers like Target and Best Buy.

Apple will accept pre-orders for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in first wave launch countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands.

Customers planning to purchase an iPhone 8, Series 3 Apple Watch, or a 4K Apple TV should order early. There were rumors suggesting that supplies of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus would be constrained alongside the iPhone X, and Plus models in particular are often in short supply. There’s no word on whether supplies of the new Apple Watch might be limited.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 8 is available in 64 and 256GB capacities for $699 and $849 in the United States. The 5.5-inch iPhone 8 is also available in 64 and 256GB capacities for $799 and $949. For customers using Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, pricing starts at $34.50 for iPhone 8 and $39.50 for iPhone 8 Plus.

Pricing on the Apple TV 4K starts at $179 for the 32GB model, and for the Apple Watch Series 3, LTE models start at $399 and non-LTE models start at $329.
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DARPA’s smart infrared sensor can watch for intruders or monitor for wildfires

Why it matters to you

A smart sensor that doesn’t require its own battery could help make embedded environmental sensors ubiquitous.

Researchers at Northeastern University have developed a next generation smart sensor for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is capable of identifying infrared (IR) wavelengths — without having to have its own always-present power source. Instead, it is powered by the same infrared wavelengths it’s designed to look for. The sensor was developed as part of DARPA’s Near Zero Power RF and Sensor Operation (N-ZERO) program and could be used for a wide range of things, including detecting approaching human bodies or fuel-burning cars, identifying wildfires before they become uncontrollable, or pairing with laser sources for new types of remote control and communication applications.

“In this work, we developed first-of-their-kind infrared digitizing sensors that do not consume any power in standby when the signal of interest is not present,” Matteo Rinaldi, an associate professor with the Northeastern Sensors and Nano Systems Laboratory, who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “Upon exposure to specific wavelengths of infrared radiation, the sensor absorbs the energy contained in the IR signal itself and uses it to trigger an output wakeup signal.”

The sensors are based on tiny mechanical switches that are triggered by specific wavelength of lights. When this happens, they utilize the energy contained in these wavelengths to mechanically close a pair of electrical contacts, creating a low-resistance electrical connection between a battery and a load. Through some clever design of the sensor’s metallic nanostructures, the device is able to absorb almost all of the energy contained in a specific wavelength, while reflecting other wavelengths. When an infrared signal of interest is not present, the switch contacts instead remain open and no power is consumed whatsoever. In this way, it could remain dormant for years before springing to life to detect an object.

Sensors such as this are interesting because they can be placed anywhere, without concern for a source of power or even access to other forms of energy, such as solar. The deployment of these zero-power sensors open up new possibilities for smart sensors being embedded into the environment. The result could be greater levels of real-time information gathered concerning environmental stressors, security threats, mobility, traffic, indoor and outdoor air quality and pollution patterns, and much, much more. It’s no wonder DARPA is interested.

A paper describing the research was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

How to use the Destiny Companion app

You’ve already beaten the Destiny 2 campaign, you’ve made a name for yourself in the Crucible, and you’ve beaten every strike a dozen times, but you might not be getting the most out of the game yet. While the game itself allows you to do plenty of micromanaging, the official Destiny Companion app lets you plan your next run when you’re away from your console. Once installed, the app allows you to keep up with game updates and use various chat features to better coordinate with your fireteam, among other things. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

Connect your account to the app

Once you’ve downloaded the official companion app for either iOS or Android — we’ll be using the iOS app in this guide — you’ll need to connect one of three accounts. First, open the app, tap the head icon in the upper-right corner, and sign in with your PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, or Battle.net credentials. Sign in with whatever platform you’re using to play Destiny 2, and all of your Destiny 2 information will automatically load into the app, including your Guardian’s power level, gear, and clan status.

Explore

The homepage for the companion app is called “Explore” — it’s marked with a globe icon on the far-left of the bottom menu. This section shows trending posts from Bungie, including the latest news on the game, fan creations, update information, and perhaps most importantly, the Destiny 2 forums.

If you click “communities” and select Destiny 2’s forums, you’ll be greeted with a list of the most popular posts, which discuss strategies for the game as well as various milestones, such as the recent completion of the “Leviathan” raid. If you want to reply to any individual forum post, just hit the arrow at the bottom and type directly in the app. You can also tap the “up” arrow at the bottom of a post to save it in your “favorites” tab, so you never have to search for it again.

You can even write your own forum posts from within the app by clicking the pencil icon in the upper-right corner. If you’re looking for help or want to give feedback to Bungie, head back to the “communities” section and you’ll find two options, labeled “feedback forum” and “help forum.”

Clan

Why wait until you get in front of your console or your computer to chat with fellow clan members? Hit the banner icon — located second from the left in the bottom menu — to head to the “clan chat” section of the app. Here, you can quickly send messages to your group asking them to take part in a mission, or let them know your schedule for the upcoming week. This section of the app also shows your clan’s progression toward weekly clan goals, which can give you additional glimmer and other benefits.

From the clan section, tap your emblem in the upper-left corner and you’ll see a few different options. “Season 1” will give you a detailed breakdown of your progression toward clan reward Engrams, as well as how much you’ve individually contributed to the clan in a given week. The “roster” tab will give you a breakdown of every member of your clan. There’s also a forum section specifically for the clan, so your group chat doesn’t get too messy.

Lastly, if you’re the clan leader, you can use the Destiny 2 companion app to customize your clan’s banner. This is actually easier than doing it on a computer, and you can choose various colors and symbols to make your clan stand out from the pack. Check out our guide on how to make a clan in Destiny 2 for all the details.

Milestones

The middle icon — aka, the spinning arrow — in the bottom menu will take you to a section called “milestones.” This gives you some of the same information you’d find if you were to pull up your milestones while in the director map in Destiny 2, including the progress you’ve made in patrol challenges, the Crucible, and the main story. Your Guardian’s power level is also visible at the top of this page. If you click on it, you’ll have the option to switch to any other character you’ve made in the game, allowing you to see their milestones instead.

Character customization

Think you have to wait until you’re actually playing Destiny 2 to switch out your weapons and armor? Think again. You can do this entirely in the app. The second option from the right in the bottom menu will take you to the character customization screen, which shows all the weapons and armor you currently have in your inventory, as well as the current sub-class you have equipped for your Guardian. Simply select any of these options and you’ll be able to equip them — provided you’re the required level — or click “details” to get a full breakdown on the statistics and mods of each piece of gear.

You can even click “3D” in the upper right of each item’s details page to view a moveable model, which you can zoom in on and inspect.

Recruitment

Looking to team up for a strike or a Crucible match as soon as you get home? Choose the “recruitment” option in the far right of the bottom menu, and you’ll be able to create a recruitment fireteam for any content in the game — and even content in the original Destiny. Just choose your platform and hit “create recruitment fireteam” to get started, or if you prefer to join someone else’s team, choose from the various missions and scroll down to find the group you’d like to join.

Next to the name of the mission, you’ll see how many spots are still available. If you click on one, you can immediately join the open fireteam (no invitation required).

Bonus: Stickers!

If you’re using iOS, you can also use the Destiny 2 companion app to send all sorts of stickers to your friends in iMessage. Just pull up the stickers section of iMessage when you’re chatting with someone and click the App Store icon. At the top of the screen, you’ll see this section labeled “manage.”

From here, just turn on the Destiny 2 app and you’ll be ready to send Guardians and Ghosts to all your friends! Just don’t overdo it, or they might not talk to you again.

Conductive rubber lets smart tires sense punctures, road conditions, tread depth

Why it matters to you

Ever wound up with flat tire because you could forgot to check their wear and tear? These self-assessing smart tires could be the solution.

We might be on the verge of owning autonomous cars and driving on high-tech “elect-roads,” but the tires that separate our vehicles from the asphalt haven’t changed a whole lot with new technology, right? Try telling that to car tire manufacturer Continental. At the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, Continental is showing off an impressive concept smart tire — one that’s capable of measuring tread depth and temperature using special sensors, and then alerting drivers of any tire damage they may have suffered.

“The ContiSense technology ‘senses’ all information from the road surface, as well the condition of the tire itself,” Kai Rühling, a senior PR consultant for Continental, told Digital Trends. “With its conductive rubber inlayers it can feel if there is a metallic obstacle puncturing the tire.

“It can also measure the tread depth because the conductive material realizes that the electric tension, which runs through the rubber, is dependent on the material thickness. Simply put, the more rubber material on the tread pattern, the lower electric tension, while the less rubber material on tread pattern equals higher electric tension.”

The electricity for measuring this comes from a sensor and integrated battery. In the future, however, the plan is that the system could also work by generating its own power through contactless movement, similar to a mechanical watch.

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“It is the next generation of intelligent tire for autonomous driving vehicles,” Rühling continued. “You as a driver don’t have to maintain the tire anymore as it will service itself. The tire will tell your car, ‘I need a service,’ and in the future, it will communicate as well with other cars.”

The ContiSense is just one of two tires being shown off by Continental. They have also created the ContiAdapt, which is a tire with four different tread patterns able to adapt depending on the surface it’s driving on. For snow, ice, and gravel, it will deflate the tire pressure with its integrated compressor, and widen the rim for a bigger and better footprint. It can also inflate to find the ideal rolling resistance for wet and dry road conditions.

There’s no word on when the tires might be available, but we’ll certainly keep you in the loop when an announcement is made.

Everything you need to know about the Nokia 2, a budget-friendly smartphone

It seems like only yesterday that Nokia, the fabled Finnish company behind the indestructible Nokia 3380, rose from the post-Microsoft grave with three new smartphones running Google’s Android operating system: The Nokia 8, the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3. But it’s just getting started.

Thanks to a strategic agreement with HMD Global, Nokia plans to release as many as six or seven phones in 2017. Leaks suggest the next might be the Nokia 2, a budget-friendly phone with a massive battery.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Nokia 2, including the rumored hardware, price tag, and release date.

Specs

Nokia 2 pic.twitter.com/IPp6Qvxp8o

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 14, 2017

The Nokia 2 won’t compete with flagships like the Apple iPhone X or Google Pixel, if leaked hardware specs are any indication. Instead, it’s shaping up to be Nokia’s answer to budget smartphones like the Lenovo Moto E4

Benchmarks in July suggest the Nokia 2 has a 5-inch HD (1,280 x 720 pixels) screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 or Snapdragon 212 processor paired with 1GB of RAM, and software based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Federal Communications Commission filings show it will pack a 4,000 mAh battery — the biggest on a Nokia handset this year —  and 8GB of internal storage.

Design

Product renders of the Nokia 2 (as first reported by Evan Blass) show a phone in line with Nokia’s new design language. Thick bezels pad the top and bottom, and a silver-accented band runs the length of all four sides. The corners are slightly curved, like the iPhone’s, and there is no home button to speak of; the only physical buttons are the power button and volume rocker on the right-hand side.

There is not much more to be gleaned from the renders, but the Nokia 2 appears to have a single front camera, a vertically oriented rear camera and flash, and a tiny back-firing loudspeaker in the lower left corner. The pic shows two colors, black and white. And if the LTE indicator on the screen is anything to go by, the Nokia 2 will support high-speed 4G cell networks.

Release date and price

We have a pretty good idea of what the Nokia 2 will look like, but we don’t know when it will be released.

Earlier rumors suggested that it would debut at Nokia’s London event on August 16 or its IFA press conference on August 31, but those dates came and went without an announcement. FCC filings tend to be a good indication that the launch date is not far away.

The Nokia 2’s pricing is easier to guess at. MySmartPrice claims the Nokia 2 will cost about $109, fitting squarely between the Nokia 3310 ($52) and the Nokia 3 ($157). That is a reasonable assumption — judging by the low-end hardware, it will almost certainly be cheaper than the Nokia 8 and Nokia 6.

Apple Watch Series 3 vs. Fitbit Ionic vs. Garmin Vivoactive 3

Wearables are getting smarter, more stylish, and now offer enhanced performance features, making your watch nearly as valuable as your smartphone. After Apple’s annual, world-stopping September press conference, the world now excitedly awaits the release of the Apple Watch Series 3, which adds built-in cellular capacity to an already impressive device. While it’s likely a revolutionary device upon its launch, there are other products capable of many of the same things — even if they’re not quite as smart.

The Fitbit Ionic is available for pre-order for a cheaper price and offers exciting new features of its own, including upgraded fitness tracking and music storage. In addition, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 is impressive with its contactless payment solution and tons of preloaded applications. So, is the most expensive smartwatch on the market worth all the hype? Let’s put these three devices side by side.

Specs

Apple Watch Series 3

Fitbit Ionic

Garmin Vivoactive 3

GPS-enabled
Yes
Yes
Yes
Processor
S3
N/A
N/A
Operating system
WatchOS 4
Fitbit OS
Proprietary OS
Body dimensions
38mm: 38.6 x 33.3 x 11.65 (mm)

42mm: 42.5 x 36.4 x 11.65 (mm)

29.21 x 21.0 (mm)
43.4 x 43.4 x 11.7 (mm)
Resolution
390 x 312 pixels
348 x 250 pixels
240 x 240 pixels
Weight
52.8 grams (1.86 ounces)
50 grams (1.76 ounces)
43 grams (1.52 ounces)
CPU
Dual-core
N/A
N/A
Screen
Ion-X strengthened glass (aluminum cases)

Sapphire crystal glass (stainless steel and ceramic cases)

Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Waterproof
Yes, up to 50 meters
Yes, up to 50 meters
Yes, up to 50 meters
Display
Second-gen OLED Retina display with Force Touch
N/A
Chroma
Battery
18 hours
4 days
7 days
Available ceramic casing
Yes
No
No
LTE
Yes
No
No
Base price
$330 (without cellular), $400 (with cellular)
$300
$300 (stainless-steel), $330 (slate and black)

Smartwatches are getting smarter — and the performance of your watch is beginning to matter as much as it does for your phone. With all three products featuring GPS, the only stand-alone spec is the Apple Watch 3’s LTE capacity.

Apple is the only company that’s released information on its engine, highlighted by a 70 percent faster dual-core processor. Without specific details on the other two, we can only surmise the Apple Watch 3 is the most powerful to date due to its necessity to keep up with a constantly developing Apple Store.

Winner: Apple Watch Series 3

Design, display, and durability

Apple has always been the innovator of design, boasting sleek and stylish interfaces combined with a variety of band styles and colors. The Apple Watch 3 also sees a welcome return of the rotating crown. This time, however, Fitbit goes head to head, matching the Apple Watch 3’s 1000 nit display. Though still not as sleek, Fitbit upped its resolution to 348 x 250, a huge improvement over its predecessor, the Blaze. Apple boasts two different resolution options: 340 x 272 for the 38mm and 390 x 312 for the 42mm, again inching away for first place.

Although Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 keeps up in certain aspects of performance, the fitness-based product lags in fancy display features. With a 240 x 240 resolution display, it trails its competition. Where the Vivoactive 3 makes up ground rests with its durability. All three products are rated to be waterproof to depths of 50 meters, with both the Ionic and the Vivoactive 3 utilizing Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Apple’s own strengthened glass is on par but this time around the Apple Watch 3 doesn’t stand out in terms of durability. We’re going to appoint Apple Watch 3 the winner in this category but by a sliver, due to its 3D touch display and fashionable options.

Winner: Apple Watch Series 3

Battery life and charging

With wearables gaining popularity in the outdoor realm, wearers now require more performance in terms of battery life. A weekend spent camping means two whole days without the opportunity to charge your phone and this is the category where Apple fails to leave a positive impression — and one in which Garmin absolutely shines.

Like the Apple Watch Series 2, the Apple Watch Series 3 only offers up to 18 hours of battery life — and even less when GPS is activated. The Fitbit Ionic leaves Apple in the dust with more than four days of battery life. Then there’s the Garmin Vivoactive 3 which stays charged for up to a week. Ideal for extended periods of time in the wilderness or otherwise remote areas, the Garmin’s wearable sets the bar extremely high, albeit with less power-requiring features.

Winner: Garmin Vivoactive 3

Software

While Fitbit and Garmin started out as primarily fitness trackers, Apple has long been reputed for its innovative performance technology. A huge range of WatchOS apps are already available on the Apple Store and the upgrade to watchOS4 features Siri and a ton of additional fitness applications.

Fitbit remains much more passive in this category, simply sending notifications to your wrist. The hardware lacks a microphone, handwriting, or voice recognition features and the new Fitbit OS needs time to build up its application library — though, it is still making promising strides. One of Fitbit’s strengths is automatic exercise tracking that doesn’t require user input.

Garmin developed its own proprietary OS that supports notifications from your phone similar to the Fitbit OS in a bold launch onto the OS playing field. The watch also supports applications downloadable via Garmin’s Connect IQ library. Health and fitness play prominent roles in all three products, which offer a varying range of preloaded fitness programs.

Although all three operating systems display tangible advances in technology, Apple’s Watch 3 again takes the nod here in terms of software capability and its new WatchOS4.

Winner: Apple Watch Series 3

Price and availability

While the Apple Watch Series 3 has proven to dominate in most categories, it comes with a hefty price tag — at least if you’re hoping to utilize that LTE technology. However, the price differences between these three aren’t nearly as drastic as you might think. The Apple Watch 3 with GPS costs $330 while the LTE-enabled model bumps it up to $400. The Fitbit Ionic lists for $300, which isn’t terribly far off from the solely GPS-enabled Apple Watch 3. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 also retails at s$300 for the stainless steel version but bumps up to $330 for the black or slate models.

The Apple Watch 3 and Fitbit Ionic are both only available via pre-order through Apple’s and Fitbit’s website, respectively. You can purchase the Garmin Vivoactive 3 in stores or online from Best Buy.

Overall Winner: Apple Watch Series 3

Comparisons aside, the revolutionary integration of LTE capability into a smartwatch earns the Apple Watch Series 3 the most notoriety. Fitbit and Garmin both offer impressive devices of their own, no doubt, specifically in terms of battery life and waterproofing capacities. The Apple Watch Series 3 is simply a sleeker, well-designed product with a more powerful operating system.

That is, as long as you have an iPhone. The Apple Watch 3 Series isn’t compatible with Android devices, so if you own an Android, the Fitbit Ionic might be the way to go.

Anamorphic app review

One of the many new features Apple is rolling out with iOS 11 is the ability for third-party apps to make use of depth data gathered by the dual cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus (and, presumably, on the upcoming iPhone 8 and iPhone X). Anamorphic, a new iOS app from visual effects software developer BrainFeverMedia, is one of the first to take advantage of this feature. The app is currently in beta (along with iOS 11 itself), and Digital Trends has been testing it. Beyond offering insight into the magic of how Portrait Mode works, we discovered in our Anamorphic app review that it opens new creative doors for iPhone photographers.

How depth information is gathered

The iPhone 7 Plus is the first iPhone to offer two camera modules: a standard wide-angle, plus a telephoto lens. In addition to two unique angles of view, the iPhone 7 Plus introduced users to Portrait Mode, which used computational photography to create a faux shallow depth-of-field effect — where the subject is in focus and the background is blurry.

Portrait Mode looks at the differences between the two images captured by both cameras and uses that information to determine the depth within the photograph — much in the way your two eyes help you determine depth in the real world. Essentially, with some AI assistance, the iPhone can tell which objects are in the foreground and which are in the background. A selective blur can then be applied to areas of the frame, and the amount of blur can even decrease with distance for a more realistic effect. Combined with facial recognition, the mode is especially useful for portraits — hence the name.

However, until iOS 11, Portrait Mode was only available through the built-in camera app, and users had no control over the strength of the effect. With the new depth APIs (application programming interfaces) in iOS 11, third-party developers now have the opportunity to take advantage of the same computational photography used in Portrait Mode.

Seeing is believing

From a purely technical perspective, Anamorphic offers a glimpse behind the curtain of how Portrait Mode works by actually displaying a live depth map next to the camera preview image. This lets you see exactly what the iPhone is seeing in terms of depth, and for those of us on the nerdier side, it’s a welcome bit of information.

Anamorphic offers a glimpse behind the curtain of how Apple’s Portrait Mode works.

For anyone just out to take pretty pictures, the visualization of the depth map may not matter as much, but it can still provide useful information. For one, as good as the iPhone 7 Plus is in determining depth, it is not perfect. By seeing the actual depth map, you can locate errors before you take the picture. Sometimes, just adjusting your distance or angle to the subject can help clean things up a bit.

But the depth map also comes into play after the fact. Once a photo is taken, you can actually adjust the depth map within Anamorphic, effectively shortening the available depth and determining where the blur will begin to set in. You can also control the amount of blur itself, akin to adjusting the depth of field by opening or closing the aperture on a DSLR or mirrorless camera lens.

And, true to its name, the app even gives an option for the style of blur: Regular or anamorphic, the latter being an imitation of anamorphic cinema lenses. All of this provides much more control than the built-in Portrait Mode (which is a simple, binary decision of “on” or “off”).

In addition to interacting with the depth data, Anamorphic offers a number of Instagram-esque filters as well as some basic editing options that let you adjust exposure or add film grain or a vignette.

Don’t throw away your DSLR yet

For as much as Anamorphic offers, it also makes clear the iPhone’s shortcomings. Basic, two-lens computational photography has some advantages over traditional cameras, such as the ability to adjust the amount of blur after the shot. However, there are still many limitations.

Portrait Mode users are undoubtedly familiar with the “Place subject within 8 feet” warning that displays when the camera is too far from the subject for Portrait Mode to work correctly. This is a result of the two camera modules being so close to each other, which means after a certain distance (8 feet, apparently) there is no longer a significant enough difference between the two images to determine depth.

Also, while adjusting the depth map and blur after the shot is a novel feature, this is not the same as refocusing an image. Anamorphic does have the option to invert the depth map (blurring the foreground instead of the background) but this only goes so far. The iPhone lenses natively have a very deep depth of field (meaning, most of the depth of an image is in focus), but it is not infinite. If you focused on something close to the lens, you won’t be able to dramatically change the image to make it look like you focused on the background.

Anamorphic also takes the artistic liberty of adding chromatic aberration (purple and green fringing) into the blurred part of the photo, which, at least in its current pre-release form, is not user-controllable. This applies to both images shot with the Anamorphic camera as well as those captured via the built-in camera app and edited in Anamorphic. While the effect is not inherently unattractive, we would like to see an option to toggle it on and off in a future release of the app.

An exciting look at what’s to come

While Anamorphic (and iOS 11, for that matter) is still in development, it’s exciting to see the potential of what it offers. It provides a much more robust version of Apple’s Portrait Mode. Frankly, we feel like Anamorphic’s depth map and blur controls should be part of the default camera experience, although we can also appreciate Apple’s desire for simplicity.

Anamorphic is the first of what will likely be numerous apps taking advantage of the new depth APIs in iOS 11, and while it’s not yet perfect, it is certainly promising. We look forward to trying out a final version after iOS 11 is officially available.

Essential team takes to Reddit AMA, promises Oreo update and Verizon certification

Andy Rubin hosted a Reddit AMA, and answered some burning questions the community had.

After a few delays, the Essential Phone was finally released last month to awaiting fans and critics. While the Phone certainly has a nice design and exotic materials, there are parts of the device that are a bit of a compromise at the retail price of $700. In our review we noted that the camera felt far from finished, and general issues with stability have been ongoing despite multiple OTA updates since.

In a Reddit AMA today, Essential co-founder Andy Rubin (as well as other Essential staff members) responded to numerous questions regarding the camera and stability problems the Essential Phone is facing, as well as other questions on the community’s mind. Rubin himself says the team is happy with the hardware of the camera, and they’re still working on tuning it in software. That’s fortunate since it means the issues can (technically) be fixed for existing users, rather than having to wait for a hypothetical Essential Phone 2 to get a great (or even acceptable) camera experience. But before they get there, they’re also nearing completion of an update to fix the major bugs and crashes users are currently facing.

The first goal is stability and bug fixes … then we get better performance and Oreo.

Elsewhere, the team says that kernel sources and factory images will be released in the next few days. That will be very beneficial for custom ROM developers to learn just how the phone ticks, while the factory images are always a great way to get back to safety after some experimentation. In the same comment, the Essential team said that Android 8.0 Oreo will be released for the device in the next month or two. Given how little Essential has customized in terms of interface, it should be pretty straightforward to build the upgrade. Interestingly enough, Oreo will also make the device compliant with Project Treble. There will also be a beta track for enthusiasts who want to test upcoming releases.

We may actually have cases to choose from soon — and you can buy it all in Europe!

One of the unique but currently underutilized features of the Essential Phone is the modular pogo pins on the back. The only shipping accessory at the time of writing is the 360-degree camera attachment. Next up will be the already announced charging dock, followed by a high-end 3.5mm headphone jack attachment (sigh). As far as third party accessories go, companies will soon have a reference design to build off of, and there will be cases from “several brands” soon — the latter being a real pain point of early Essential Phone buyers.

While the release of the phone is now mostly complete in North America, Essential is looking at releasing the device in Europe soon. A mark of progress is an EU-compliant power adapter being completed this month. Back in the U.S., the company is also in the process of certifying the device to work on Verizon. It already has all of the radio bands necessary, but without official certification the phone won’t work with Verizon’s advanced features like VoLTE. That should be finished in the coming days, Essential says.

That’s a whole lot to digest, but it’s great information. Surely it raised a few more questions as well — let us know what you’re thinking in the comments below!

Essential Phone

• Essential Phone review: First impressions
• Essential Phone specs
• The latest Essential Phone news
• Join our Essential Phone forums!

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Best Buy
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Facebook is testing a temporary unfollow option for your News Feed

Facebook is testing out a new feature that would let users temporarily unfollow a friend or a Page. TechCrunch noticed a Snooze option today, which a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to us is in testing mode. “We’re testing new ways to give people control over their News Feeds so they can stay connected with the stories they find most relevant,” they said.

If someone is getting on your nerves and you’d rather not seem them in your Feed for a little while, you can tap the drop down menu in the top right corner of their post. There along with Unfollow is a Snooze option that allows you to unfollow that person or that Page for a day, a week or a month.

Facebook hasn’t provided any information about when the test began or how widespread it is. And of course, there’s no guarantee that it will be permanently incorporated into the site. I’m a big fan of the permanent Unfollow, but for those that don’t want to break ties in the long-term, this would be a really useful option.

Images: Facebook / TechCrunch

Via: TechCrunch