Hurricane Maria wreaks havoc on Arecibo radio telescope

Puerto Rico is suffering on an unimaginable scale in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Many have been displaced from their homes, and the entire territory may go without electricity and reliable communication for months. And while the human tragedy is clearly the most important concern, it’s also having a terrible effect on the scientific community. Researchers have learned that the Arecibo Observatory and its signature radio telescope took significant damage when the hurricane passed over. All staff members are thankfully safe for now, but an atmospheric radar line feed and a 39-foot dish (used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry) were lost in winds that reached up to 155MPH. The gigantic central dish is intact, although the line feed’s collapse punctured it in places.

To make matters worse, the situation is dire for on-site staff. The National Science Foundation understands that team members have generators, a water well and food for a week, but the roads may be impassable for days.

The hurricane compounds what was already a difficult period for the observatory. The NSF doesn’t believe it can keep funding Arecibo itself, and has been looking for partners who could shoulder the burden. Now, the telescope’s future is even more in doubt. While it sounds like repairs are feasible, can the NSF or any potential allies justify funding those repairs? It wouldn’t be as simple as shutting down Arecibo (there are environmental considerations), so its fate is very much in limbo. The only certainty is that Puerto Rico needs help right now — please consider donating to a relief fund if you can.

Via: National Geographic, Washington Post

Source: USRA, Nadia Drake (Twitter)

Android One in the U.S. gives it a new lease on life, and that’s a big deal

Android One phones in the U.S. are an opportunity for everyone to have a Good Phone™.

Step into the Wayback Machine with me for a minute, as we head back to the Autumn of 2013. Amidst all the hype and furious pace of Android phone releases, one phone was unexpectedly great: the original Moto G.

The 2013 Moto G only had to do one thing: not suck. It succeeded.

The first generation Moto G was, at around $150, fairly inexpensive. It didn’t have the fastest and bestest processor or ungodly amounts of memory (it actually had 1GB of RAM, if you can believe it). It even had a mediocre 4.5-inch LCD display. If you placed it beside a phone like the Galaxy S4 it was clearly outclassed in almost every way. The thing that made the OG Moto G special is that it did not suck. Prior to 2013, you weren’t going to find a cheap phone that didn’t suck. The 2013 Moto G became the bar all cheap phones are measured against, even today.

And you know what? There are a lot of people who want a cheap phone that doesn’t suck. That’s where Android One and the Moto X4 come into play.

The Moto X4 will be the first Android One phone you can buy in the U.S. without importing it and wondering whether it will work on your network. We (that means you if you’re reading this on a Saturday) might buy phones that ship from other countries, might not work, and have no warranty, but most people don’t. Those (smart) people go to Verizon or Best Buy and pick something that they can see and touch. Even if they’re “only” spending $200 on a phone, they want things like warranties and compatibility. That’s smart.

At $400, the Project Fi-powered Moto X4 isn’t cheap. It’s also filled with high-end parts that a good cheap Android One phone doesn’t require. And selling it through Project Fi guarantees that hardly anyone will buy it, even compared to the meager sales the standard unlocked Moto X4 will gather. Fortunately, it’s the first Android One phone for the U.S. and not the only Android One phone for the U.S.

The Moto X4 isn’t cheap, but there are more Android One phones coming that might be.

Let’s hope Samsung and LG and all the other big names in the Android space get interested. Imagine something like the Galaxy J, a phone that sells in India for 5,000 Rs ($78 U.S.) and isn’t equipped with the guts to run the TouchWIZ software it ships with, instead running Android One. You would have barebones software that runs well on the device, updates for two years (three years for security patches) and fast updates to hotfix all the messy ways people find to hack into it. Sure, there would be things Samsung does that would be missed, but Google Play can help you with most of it and come on, it sells for 80 bucks!

Now throw away that dream because it will never happen. Samsung (and LG and HTC) aren’t likely to be interested in Android One anytime soon. They sell a brand, Android. But you know which companies just might be? Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu and (wait for it) OnePlus. All companies that know how to build decent phones that don’t happen to cost $900. Chinese phone manufacturers sell a brand much like the bigger U.S. names do, but they also are interested in selling a lot of phones in the United States. Selling phones under the Android One umbrella isn’t ideal for any company, but if priced right it just might be a nice cash injection as well as a way to get American consumers familiar with the names.

Who here wouldn’t want a OnePlus Android One?

I have no idea how popular Android One phones will be here in the States, nor do I have inside information about which companies might be building them. Hell, we might not ever see one besides the Moto X4 — Google says a lot of things that sort of never happen. But there’s a chance it happens and we can start buying good cheap phones that are well-supported again. A man can dream.

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

DHS finally reveals the states Russia hacked during the elections

State officials finally know if they serve one of the 21 states Russia tried to hack during the 2016 Presidential elections. Homeland Security and other agencies found out in 2016 that Russian government hackers tried to get into some states’ voting registration systems, but it took a year for the secretaries of state to convince the DHS to disclose its findings. The agency has only decided to tell authorities if they were targeted during the elections on Friday, because it “would help [them] make security decisions” way before the 2018 midterm elections begin.

Senator Mark R. Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: “Its unacceptable that it took almost a year after the election to notify states that their elections systems were targeted, but I’m relieved that DHS has acted upon our numerous requests and is finally informing the top elections officials in all 21 affected states that Russian hackers tried to breach their systems in the run up to the 2016 election.” The states affected by the hacking attempts include Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington.

According to Homeland Security, the attackers only got into the systems of a handful of states despite targeting almost two dozen. In some cases, like in Illinois, the attackers altered voters’ records and got away with their sensitive details, but investigators didn’t find any evidence that they tampered with actual voting machines. Office of Intelligence and Analysis Cyber Division acting director Samuel Liles once said, however, that the attackers might not have altered vote counts, because their real purpose was to look for vulnerabilities to exploit.

Source: The Washington Post

Watch the NFL’s London game at 9:30AM Eastern

You’re about to get a chance to watch an out-of-the-ordinary NFL game wherever you happen to live. The league and Yahoo (disclaimer: yes, they’re part of our parent company Verizon) are streaming a special game in London on September 24th at 9:30AM Eastern. Virtually anyone worldwide can see the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars take to the field in Wembley Stadium for free. In addition to tuning in on Yahoo’s website, you can catch the game through the NFL’s website and its apps.

Yahoo is also streaming the other London games, including the Dolphins versus the Saints on October 1st, Cardinals versus Rams on October 22nd and Browns versus Vikings on October 29th.

The web giant definitely doesn’t have a lock on NFL game streams — there’s been a fierce battle for the rights to air regular season matches. Between this and Amazon’s deal, though, there will be a surprising amount you can watch without paying for a dedicated streaming service or (gasp) a TV package.

Source: Yahoo

Microsoft and Facebook complete 4,000-mile ‘Marea’ undersea cable

Why it matters to you

With its massive bandwidth, the Marea cable ensures a reliable connection between the U.S. and Europe.

The first undersea transatlantic cable was completed in 1858, allowing communication between America and Great Britain with those newfangled telegraph machines. On August 16, President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged formal messages using the new medium. Unfortunately, it failed a few months later, but a  historic milestone had been reached. Now, more than 159 years later, a joint project between Microsoft, Facebook, and telecommunications company Telxius is complete with the 4,000 mile “Marea” undersea cable connecting Virginia and Bilbao, Spain.

The monsterous Marea cable (Spanish for “tide”) weighs more than 10 million pounds. Marea runs more than 17,000 feet under the sea in places, and it has encountered such obstacles as undersea volcanoes, earthquake zones, and coral reefs. It uses a route south of existing undersea cable systems to ensure a reliable, constant connection.

Microsoft touted the capabilities of the new intercontinental connection in a blog post, pointing out that the cable’s “open” design enables it to upgrade with more advanced technologies, with a massive bandwidth capability of 160 terabytes of data per second. For comparison, that’s more than 16 million times faster than your average home internet connection. You could watch 71 million high-definition streaming Netflix movies simultaneously through the cable, if you so desired.

“All of these applications, especially everything that is driven by video, consume a huge amount of bandwidth,” noted Rafael Arranz, chief operating officer for Telxius. “So everybody needs to be connected with a high-volume, high-bandwidth infrastructure. With its unique route, this cable is going to be able to absorb and deliver back-and-forth traffic to strengthen communications, not just across the Atlantic, but across the globe.”

The need for a reliable transatlantic connection was underscored by the damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2016. Widespread flooding disabled servers, knocked out websites, and disrupted the world economy. “The entire network between North America and Europe was isolated for a number of hours,” said Frank Rey of Microsoft. “For us, the storm brought to light a potential challenge in the consolidation of transatlantic cables that all landed in New York and New Jersey.”

This is not Microsoft’s first venture in undersea cables. In 2015, the company announced a collaboration to connect its North American data center to Ireland and England. Google is also getting in on the action, teaming up with five Asian firms for a trans-Pacific cable dubbed “Faster.” It recently extended the undersea cable to provide service to Taiwan.

Premium notebook knockout: ThinkPad X1 Carbon versus the Surface Laptop

Lenovo and Microsoft offer a selection of relatively high-priced notebooks in their ThinkPad and Surface lines, respectively. Both companies focus on providing excellent designs and quality builds. Yet there are some differences in their approaches, with Lenovo’s ThinkPads catering to conservative business tastes, and Microsoft’s Surfaces appealing to the modern creative mindset. Both have their strengths, so we pitted the ThinkPad X1 Carbon versus the Surface Laptop to see which traditional notebook was more deserving of its premium price.

Specifications compared

Surface Laptop

ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2017)

Dimensions
 12.13 × 8.79 × 0.57 (in)
12.07 × 8.5 × 0.6 (in)
Weight
 2.76 pounds Core m3, i5; 2.83 pounds Core i7
2.89 pounds
Processor
7th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7
7th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7
RAM
 4, 8, or 16GB RAM
8 or 16GB RAM
Display
 13.5-inch IPS PixelSense display
14-inch IPS display
Resolution
 2,256 × 1,504
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080)
QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800)
Storage
 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB (coming) PCIe SSD
128GB SATA or 256GB, 512GB or 1TB PCIe SSD
Touch
10-point touch display
No touch display option
Ports
USB Type-A 3.0, mini-DisplayPort, SurfaceConnect, 3.5mm headset
2x USB 3.0 Type-A, 2x USB 3.1 Type C with Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, microSD card reader, microSIM slot, 3.5mm headset
Webcam
 720p HD with infrared camera for Windows Hello support
720p HD
Operating System
Windows 10 S (upgradable to Windows 10 Pro)
Windows 10 Home or Pro
Battery
 47 watt-hours
57 watt-hours
Price
$1000+
$1,170+
Review
3 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5 stars

Design

Lenovo kept the ThinkPad X1 Carbon‘s basic design and build roughly the same for 2017. That means it’s the usual ThinkPad black with some iconic red trimming and the same purposeful build quality that favors durability over flair. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon remains one of the thinnest and lightest business-class notebooks with a 14-inch display, at 0.57 inches thin, and weighing 2.76 pounds.

Microsoft took almost the opposite approach in designing its first traditional notebook. The Surface Laptop is sleek, modern, and colorful, with Alcantara fabric making the keyboard deck extra comfortable, and adding some color coordination with the notebook’s all-metal chassis. The notebook is very thin and light in its own right at 0.6 inches and 2.89 pounds, while being within a few fractions of an inch of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in each dimension thanks, to its 13.5-inch 3:2 aspect ratio display.

Selecting a winner in this category is a bit of a challenge. There’s plenty to be said about a robust build like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s that can withstand some serious hard knocks, and yet we can’t discount a machine that just looks as good as the Surface Laptop. In the end, we give the Lenovo the win for sticking with a winning combination of materials that promises a long lifespan, and avoids some of the uncertainties around using a fabric-covered keyboard deck that could suffer from long-term abuse.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Performance

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon can be equipped with either a seventh-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, topping out as one of the fastest dual-core processors available in a notebook, the Core i7-7600U. Coupled with integrated Intel HD 620 graphics and a very fast Samsung PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), and you have a recipe for solid productivity performance.

The Surface Laptop also offers seventh-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 CPU options and integrated Intel graphics, although it tops out at the Core i7-7660U CPU, and the faster Intel Iris Plus 640 GPU. That, too, promises fast productivity performance, although Microsoft’s implementation of its chosen PCIe SSD storage solution is a bit slower.

Ultimately, both machines are likely to provide similar performance when getting your work done, and both are equally limited for anyone looking for anything more than the most casual gaming. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a faster SSD, but the Surface Laptop has slightly faster graphics. In the end, its Microsoft’s notebook that eeks out a win in this category.

Winner: Microsoft Surface Laptop

Keyboard, Mouse, and Pen

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn’t just old-school in its looks and design. It also utilizes the excellent ThinkPad typing experience and the red ThinkPad Trackpoint located in between the G and H keys, along with a touchpad that’s a bit smaller than the typical modern notebook, in order to make room for the Trackpoint buttons.

Another nod to the past is the lack of a touch display option, which offers some battery life and weight benefits, but definitely sets the ThinkPad X1 Carbon into an increasingly isolated class of machines. Windows 10 Hello password-less login is supported, with a fingerprint scanner located to the right of the touchpad.

The Surface Laptop, on the other hand, is chock-full of modern input options. The keyboard has good travel and a precise feel, although it might be just a step behind the ThinkPad’s, and the touchpad is large, smooth, and offers full Microsoft Precision gesture support.

In addition, there’s a super-responsive touch display and support for the excellent Surface Pen, although using the pen on the display requires some stabilizing with the free hand. Windows Hello support is provided by an infrared camera, and facial recognition and works reliably.

This is one area where holding onto the past is a detriment, and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon takes a backseat to the Surface Laptop. More input options are a good thing, and most people would likely trade the iconic ThinkPad Trackpoint for a touch display and active pen support.

Winner: Microsoft Surface Laptop

Connectivity

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a thin and light notebook, which often results in limited connectivity. Lenovo took a different tack, making good use of limited space to squeeze in a full complement of ports.

You’ll find two USB 3.0 Type-A ports for legacy support, two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support for full-performance support of future peripherals, an HDMI connection, and a 3.5mm headset jack. Plus, there’s a microSD card reader and a micro-SIM slot for cellular connectivity. Along with the obligatory 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, all of that describes a seriously well-connected machine.

Microsoft has maintained its minimalist stance when it came to equipping the Surface Laptop, including its usual stance of eschewing USB Type-C. There’s a USB 3.0 Type-A port, DisplayPort, and the proprietary SurfaceConnect port. That’s it, other than a 3.5mm headset jack, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. Overall, limited connectivity is a big weakness of the Surface Laptop.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Display Quality

Lenovo offers two 14-inch IPS panels on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080, 157 PPI) and a QHD (2,560 x 1,440, 210 PPI) option. In our testing of the Full HD display, we found it to offer excellent contrast and solid color accuracy. Even when compared to most modern notebooks, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon provides a solid viewing experience.

The Surface Laptop, however, offers the typical high contrast, brightness, and solid color support that you’ll find with all Surface displays. In addition, the 13.5-inch 2,256 x 1,504, 201 PPI) display is in the 3:2 aspect ratio that Microsoft has championed, meaning that it offers some extra vertical space for productivity work (with some letterboxing when watching videos).

We’re still waiting for another notebook — other than a MacBook — to offer a better display than a Surface. Since the ThinkPad X1 Carbon doesn’t quality, the Surface Laptop takes this round.

Winner: Microsoft Surface Laptop

Portability and battery life

Lenovo packed a 57 watt-hour battery into the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which isn’t a terribly large capacity for a 14-inch notebook. However, the company squeezed out some serious battery life, likely due to the relatively low-resolution 14-inch display. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon managed over eight and a half hours on the aggressive Peacekeeper web benchmark and fourteen and a half hours looping a local video. Those are some of the best results we’ve seen, and mean the Thinkpad X1 Carbon is virtually guaranteed to last a complete working day — with some overtime tossed in.

The Surface Laptop has a smaller battery at 47 watt-hours and a much higher resolution display. Even so, Microsoft did some magic and squeezed some good battery life out of the machine, specifically six and a half hours in Peacekeeper and 12 and a half hours looping our local test video. Those, too, are excellent results and promise all-day battery life.

As noted earlier, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Surface Laptop are almost exactly the same sizes, and both can be easily tossed into a backpack and carried around. Both offer great battery life, but Lenovo’s choice to fit a larger battery into that similarly sized frame made a real difference here.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Availability and price

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a premium notebook that starts out at a retail price of $1,560 for a configuration with a Core i7-7200U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SATA SSD, and a Full HD display. It tops out at $2,340 for a Core i7-7600U, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and a QHD display. However, Lenovo regularly provides steep discounts. For example, right now the entry-level machine is priced at $1,170 and the high-end model at $1,755 — which are much more reasonable prices for a very good business-class notebook.

The Surface Laptop is also a premium machine. It starts out at $1,000 when configured with a Core i7-7200U, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, but it ramps up quickly from there to a staggering $2,700 for a Core i7-7660U, a 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Don’t expect many discounts, either.

You can purchase a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon for a bit less than the Surface Laptop, but overall value is in Lenovo’s favor.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Conclusion

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Surface Laptop are equally thin, light, and well-built notebooks that offer similar performance. Microsoft’s machine offers up a superior display, and Lenovo has packed in far more connectivity. Both last a long time away from a power adapter, but the ThinkPad X1 Carbon manages a couple more hours of useful battery life.

Calling a winner here is a challenge, but for its extra durability, better longevity, and more impressive portion of ports, we’re giving the slightest nod to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Winner: Lenovo ThnkPad X1 Carbon

Here are OnePlus 5 tips and tricks to help you master the OxygenOS

OnePlus made its name for itself with phones that defied expectations, and the OnePlus 5 is no exception. It’s sleek, slim, and incredibly powerful, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor at the helm and 8GB of RAM to keep things humming. The curved AMOLED screen is bright and vivid, and the dual rear camera takes some of the best photos we’ve seen from a phone this year.

But one of the best things about the OnePlus has nothing to do with its hardware. OxygenOS, a custom layer on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat, exposes every nook and cranny of the OnePlus 5’s software experience. You can customize the home screen’s look and feel, apply awesome bokeh effects to your photos, and tweak shortcuts at a granular level. Wondering what other secrets the OnePlus 5 holds? Check out our OnePlus 5 tips and tricks for a full rundown.

How to personalize the OnePlus 5’s home screen

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

When it comes to the home screen, the OnePlus 5 keeps it simple. But if you’re not happy with the default settings, OxygenOS’s launcher menu lets you customize things to your liking.

Try tapping and holding on on any of the home screen’s empty spaces. The center screen fades out of view after a few seconds, and three buttons in the bottom row fade in: “Wallpapers,” “Widgets,” and “Settings.” Wallpapers and Widgets are pretty self-explanatory — the former lets you choose from (or add to) a gallery of background images and patterns, and the latter lets you select, place, and resize home screen widgets you installed from the Google Play Store. But the third option, Settings, is where things get interesting.

The home screen Settings menu is where you find toggleable gesture shortcuts like a top-down swipe that pulls up the OnePlus 5’s quick settings, and a left-hand swipe that brings up OxygenOS’s Shelf (more on that later). It’s also where you can find the app shortcuts gallery, which applies different styles to your home screen’s app icons, and OxygenOS’s layout tool, which lets you adjust the home screen’s column and icon sizes.

How to customize the ‘Shelf’

Running out of space for your app shortcuts, widgets, and memos? Try the Shelf, a digital pinboard on the OnePlus 5’s left-most home screen.

The Shelf is switched on by default, but if you need to enable it manually, long press a blank spot on the OnePlus 5’s launcher, tap the “Customize” button, and then tap “Enable Shelf.” From that point on, pulling up the Shelf is as easy as swiping to the left-hand side of your home screen.

Adding widgets and shortcuts is a cinch too. Tap the circle-shaped icon in the lower-right corner to get a list of choices, and resize them by pressing and holding until you see draggable “handles” at the bottom. Those handles help you shuffle things around — press and hold on a widget, and you will be able to move it up or down on the Shelf.

Don’t want a particular widget cluttering up your home screen? No worries. On your Shelf, scroll to the widget you want to remove, press and hold on it, and slide it slowly to the right. When you see three bars or a trash icon, continue sliding until the widget disappears from view.

Widgets and shortcuts aren’t the only things that can sit on your Shelf. Add a reminder or a note by tapping the circle-shaped button in the lower-right side and selecting “Memo.”

How to capture bokeh and shoot in RAW

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

One of the OnePlus 5’s most impressive features is its dual rear camera: A 16-megapixel sensor (f/1.7 aperture) and a 20-megapixel telephoto lens (f/2.6 aperture). It’s a lot of raw power, and OxygenOS’s camera app makes the most of it.

Opening the Camera app and tapping the “Menu” button in the top-left corner exposes the OnePlus 5’s various shooting modes, which range from the set-it-and-forget-it “Photo” mode all the way up to the complicated “Pro” mode.

Portrait mode is a good place to start. It’s sort of like the iPhone’s Portrait Mode — when a subject is within a few inches of the OnePlus 5’s camera, you can capture a DSLR-like effect that blurs the background. It takes a little finagling — you get an error message if the lighting conditions aren’t ideal or the subject of the photo is too far out of range — but the results speak for themselves.

Once you’ve mastered the Camera app’s basics, you can jump into Pro mode, which lets you tweak settings like ISO, white balance, focus, shutter speed, and exposure. This is where you see a toggle to enable RAW capture, which captures photos in a format that’s more amenable to photo-editing programs. It’s also where you’ll find a nifty “Preset” function that lets you save your tweaks to a custom profile.

How to optimize the battery

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The OnePlus 5’s battery lasts plenty long on a single charge, but a few tweaks here and there can squeeze a bit more life out of it.

OxygenOS’s “dark mode,” which inverts the color of every menu, is well-suited for the phone’s AMOLED technology — the screen’s pixels switch off to produce the color black, which saves power. To enable it, head to Settings > Display > Theme and tap the Theme button.

Adaptive brightness (Settings > Display) is another tweak that nets a few minutes of battery. When enabled, the OnePlus 5 optimizes the brightness for available light — the maximum brightness is still yours to control, but it won’t stay the same level at night as in bright daytime sunlight.

While you’re in the Display menu, you might as well disable “Ambient display,” a power-sucking feature that lights up the OnePlus 5’s screen when a notification comes in. Don’t forget to check the “Screen timeout” period, too — the longer your phone takes to switch off automatically in your pocket, the more battery it will consume.

How to recharge quickly with Dash Charge

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Lots of smartphones have fast-charging these days, but the One Plus 5’s Dash Charge is one of the best. OnePlus promises about 60 percent of battery capacity in 30 minutes, but you don’t need to take its word for it. In XDA Developers’ thorough breakdown of rapid charging standards on the market, Dash Charge came out on top in terms of speed, implementation, and thermal dissipation.

Unfortunately, Dash Charge is proprietary. The newest standard is incompatible with phones other than the OnePlus 5, OnePlus 3, 3T, and requires both a compatible wall adapter and USB cable in order to charge at full speed.

Wondering if Dash Charge is working properly? Plug your OnePlus 5 into a Dash Charge-compatible power adapter with a Dash Charge-compatible USB cable, and check the phone’s lock screen. If you see the words, “Dash Charging” near the button, you’re golden; if not, try using a different USB cable or charging adapter that you are absolutely sure is Dash Charge-compatible.

How to use the physical alert slider

The OnePlus 5 has a physical button that most phones don’t: A slider that switches between “Silent,” “Ring,” and “Do Not Disturb” modes. But it gets even better on the software side of the equation.

To customize Do Not Disturb, head to Settings > Alert Slider > Do Not Disturb. Don’t want to see reminders or events after you’ve enabled Do Not Disturb? Tap their respective toggles to hide both from view. Want to make exceptions for certain people in your contacts list? Tap “Manage favorite contacts” and tap the folks you want to let through.

How to program buttons and gestures

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

The OnePlus 5’s capacitive buttons aren’t as static as they seem. They can be assigned to just about anything.

Head to Settings > Buttons to get started. This is where you will find toggles for the phone’s backlight and on-screen navigation bar, and a “Swap buttons” option that switches the order of the recent apps and back buttons.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. You can assign the OnePlus 5’s power button to the camera (tapping it twice will launch the viewfinder). An assignable list of gestures for the home, recent apps, and back button let you program apps or actions to them. (You can tie the OnePlus 5’s voice search to a long press on the home button, for example, and the recent apps menu to a double tap of the back button.)

For even more controls, head to “Settings > Gestures.” The default options include “Flip to mute,” which mutes an incoming call when you flip the OnePlus 5 face down on a table, and “Three-finger screenshot,” which lets you snap a pic of the screen with a three-finger swipe. OxygenOS’s “Screen Off” gestures let you launch apps and open menus even when the phone’s locked — you can double tap on the screen to wake the phone, for example, or launch an app by drawing a letter-shaped scribble (like an ‘O’ or an ‘A’) on the screen.

‘Make it so!’ Amazon’s Alexa just got some cool new Star Trek Easter eggs

Why it matters to you

You can now test your Star Trek knowledge using voice commands with Alexa.

Jeff Bezos is a huge Star Trek fan, no doubt about it. Amazon’s voice-activated assistant Alexa was actually inspired by the show. “Our vision was that, in the long term, it would become like the Star Trek computer,” Bezos told the Washington Post in an interview. “It would be easy to converse with in a very natural way.”

Star Trek: Discovery premieres this Sunday, and to celebrate the new show, which takes place about ten years before the events of the original Star Trek, there are a few new Alexa Star Trek Easter eggs for dedicated Trek fans to discover.

As outlined by Trek News, using your Echo, Tap, or Dot, you can issue various commands from the series to get some cool results. Try “Alexa, open Star Trek” to get a three-part Star Trek quiz, introduced by a star from the new series. “Alexa, damage report” will deliver the latest weather and news headlines. You can add some sound effects with “Beam me up,” “Fire photon torpedoes,” or even “Red alert!”

Geek Wire has uncovered a few more, and there are undoubtedly many others still waiting to be found:

• “Speak Klingon.”
• “What would Scotty say?”
• “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
• “What is your mission?”
• “State Starfleet rank and class.”
• “What would McCoy say?”
• “Do you trust Klingons?”

Alexa has a ton of Easter eggs, funny responses that reference various films, television shows, video games, music, and lots more. Turbo Future recently compiled a list of more than 200 amusing questions and comments you can use with Alexa. Many have multiple responses, so be sure to try them several times.

Bezos is such a big Star Trek fan, that he even managed to score a cameo in the Star Trek Beyond movie. Bezos recounted how he got the role in an interview at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

“For years I had been begging Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, to let me be in a Star Trek movie,” he said. “I was very persistent.” He’s easy to miss, decked out in full alien makeup, so if you have the Star Trek Beyond DVD, check out his eight-second scene at the 13:12 mark.

Star Trek: Discovery premiers Sunday, September 24 on CBS, and immediately afterward the next episode will be available on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Canada, and on Netflix for international audiences.

‘Make it so!’ Amazon’s Alexa just got some cool new Star Trek Easter eggs

Why it matters to you

You can now test your Star Trek knowledge using voice commands with Alexa.

Jeff Bezos is a huge Star Trek fan, no doubt about it. Amazon’s voice-activated assistant Alexa was actually inspired by the show. “Our vision was that, in the long term, it would become like the Star Trek computer,” Bezos told the Washington Post in an interview. “It would be easy to converse with in a very natural way.”

Star Trek: Discovery premieres this Sunday, and to celebrate the new show, which takes place about ten years before the events of the original Star Trek, there are a few new Alexa Star Trek Easter eggs for dedicated Trek fans to discover.

As outlined by Trek News, using your Echo, Tap, or Dot, you can issue various commands from the series to get some cool results. Try “Alexa, open Star Trek” to get a three-part Star Trek quiz, introduced by a star from the new series. “Alexa, damage report” will deliver the latest weather and news headlines. You can add some sound effects with “Beam me up,” “Fire photon torpedoes,” or even “Red alert!”

Geek Wire has uncovered a few more, and there are undoubtedly many others still waiting to be found:

• “Speak Klingon.”
• “What would Scotty say?”
• “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
• “What is your mission?”
• “State Starfleet rank and class.”
• “What would McCoy say?”
• “Do you trust Klingons?”

Alexa has a ton of Easter eggs, funny responses that reference various films, television shows, video games, music, and lots more. Turbo Future recently compiled a list of more than 200 amusing questions and comments you can use with Alexa. Many have multiple responses, so be sure to try them several times.

Bezos is such a big Star Trek fan, that he even managed to score a cameo in the Star Trek Beyond movie. Bezos recounted how he got the role in an interview at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

“For years I had been begging Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, to let me be in a Star Trek movie,” he said. “I was very persistent.” He’s easy to miss, decked out in full alien makeup, so if you have the Star Trek Beyond DVD, check out his eight-second scene at the 13:12 mark.

Star Trek: Discovery premiers Sunday, September 24 on CBS, and immediately afterward the next episode will be available on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Canada, and on Netflix for international audiences.

Vertical forests are returning nature to cities, one skyscraper at a time

Who on Earth decides to plant a forest on the side of skyscrapers? Architects, that’s who. Two bold designers working on opposite ends of the planet are actively designing farms, gardens and forests designed to live on massive residential buildings. Far from simply putting a few houseplants in the office, these ambitious designs are meant to clean the air, reduce energy use to net zero, and maximize food production and quality of life.

Life is Sweet in these “Vertical Forests” in Milan, Italy

One of these projects is already complete. The Bosco Verticale (“Vertical Forest” in Italian) is a dual skyscraper project designed by Stefano Boeri that is covered in more than 21,000 plants—a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest spread over more than 1,200 square meters.

The project has just been named one of the best tall buildings in the world. It’s a completely green design that even supports its own moderate ecosystem, including more than 20 species of birds. The massive amount of vegetation helps reduce Singapore’s moderate pollution and carbon dioxide, cleaning up the air. The plant life also diminishes noise, boosts oxygen in the air, and helps regulate the temperatures between the two towers. Internally, a complex irrigation system directs “used” water back onto the forested terraces to sustain the vegetation and reduce waste.

It’s a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest.

“Vertical Forest is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory,” Boeri noted on his website. “It is a model for vertical densification of nature within the city. Vertical Forest increases biodiversity, so it becomes both a magnet for and a symbol of the spontaneous re-colonization of the city by vegetation and by animal life.”

The concept earned his firm second place in the 2014 Emporis Skyscraper Award, beating out more than 120 competitors including The Leadenhall Building in the United Kingdom, the KKR Tower in Malaysia, and the Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower in Abu Dhabi. Only the WangJing SOHO triple skyscraper in Beijing bested the Boeri design, awarded for “its excellent energy efficiency and its distinctive design, which gives the complex a harmonious and organic momentum.”

But this completed design isn’t the only plant-accented project on Boeri’s plate; he has a portfolio of potential and ongoing projects around the world that use urbanized plant life to make the world better for the people who live and work in his buildings.

Stefano Borei Architett

Stefano Borei Architett

Boeri has announced plans for two Vertical Forest projects in Nanjing, China, as well as “Liuzhou Forest City,” in mainland China, the Wonderwoods residential tower in the Netherlands, and the sprawling Guizhou Mountain Forest Hotel in Southern China. His new “Tower of Cedars” in Lausanne, Switzerland is a 36-story tower that features nearly 20,000 plants and 100 trees to protect residents from pollution and dust.

“All these projects together are important for us,” Boeri told Mashable recently. “It’s very important to completely change how these new cities are developing. Urban forestation is one of the biggest issues for me in that context. That means parks, it means gardens, but it also means having buildings with trees.”

Designing the Urban Skyfarm

Developing concurrently is one of the most dramatic building projects in the world. The Urban Skyfarm, designed by Brooklyn-based Aprilli Design Studio and to be located in Seoul, South Korea, will house nearly 25 acres of space for growing trees, tomatoes, and other sustainable crops.

The prototype building is modeled after the iconic design of a tree, with the “root,” “trunk,” “leaves,” and “branches” components to house different aspects of the sustainable farming operation.

The “trunk” of the Urban Skyfarm will contain an indoor hydroponic farm, while the “roots” provide a wide, environmentally friendly space for farmer’s markets and public events. On top of the tower, turbines provide enough power to fuel the building operations and farming spaces in a net-zero environment. The building will also capture rainwater and filter it through a synthetic wetland before returning it as fresh water to a nearby river.

The space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees.

“With the support of hydroponic farming technology, the space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees,” architects Steve Lee and Soon Yun Park recently told Fast Company. “Vertical farming is more than an issue of economical feasibility, since it can provide more trees than average urban parks, helping resolve urban environmental issues such as air pollution, water run-off and heat island effects, and bringing back balance to the urban ecology.”

Despite a location in crowded Seoul, the Urban Skyfarm will act as a living machine by producing renewable energy and giving residents improved air quality. Reproducing the biological structure of a tree gives the design certain advantages because it is light in weight but houses enough space to host a diverse range of farming activities. The design is also intended to reduce heat buildup, rain runoff, and carbon dioxide.

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The architects believe that their design can support hundreds of environmental projects and experiments and serve as a future model as to how buildings are designed, built, and used.

“We hope the Urban Skyfarm can become part of the discussions as a prototype proposal,” Lee and Park said. “Vertical farming really is not only a great solution to future food shortage problems but a great strategy to address many environmental problems resulting from urbanization.

Building Gardens in the Sky

Boeri and Aprilli are the furthest along in these wild, green experiments, but there are plenty of other firms thinking about how arboreal and greenery-inspired designs can help make life better and more sustainable for residents and tenants around the world.

In Southeast Asia, Vo Trang Nghia Architects are building a huge complex in Ho Cho Minh City that will feature a 90,000-square-foot facility with a rooftop garden. The firm is also working with FPT University to build a tree-lined campus that will raise an elevated forest over the 14-square-mile site.

Vo Trong Nghia

One Central Park in Sydney features massive creeping vines that climb the building’s face as well as nearly 200 native plant species.

Back on western shores, the Rolex corporation recently broke ground on its new Dallas-based headquarters, which features landscaped terraces and a tree-lined rooftop event space. The elegant design by architect Kengo Kuma was inspired by Japanese castles.

Under construction in Los Angeles is 670 Mesquit, a 2.6 million-square-foot mixed-use project that features two massive cubes that feature landscaped terraces. This is Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ first project in Los Angeles.

Other architects are pushing the envelope of what’s possible. Harmonia 57 is a building in Brazil designed by Triptyque that actually “breathes and sweats,” according to the designers. Plants embedded in porous concrete structures are watered with a mist that makes the building look like it’s returning to nature.

All this added greenery is a pleasant distraction from the densification of urban environments, but these designers are also redefining what it means to live in an urban landscape—and providing a fresh chance to build sustainable urban environments that help cut down on pollution while they simultaneously generate energy, biodiversity, and a breath of fresh air.