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

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

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

Action Tasks

Action Tasks is an artisanal to-do list app that makes completing your tasks fun and rewarding with action sounds and force feedback.

Available on:

iOS

Weather Now

Amazingly beautiful 3D images of our planet draws your attention for so long that you may forget that this application has other useful features that grant you easy access to precise global weather information.

Available on:

iOS

7 Minutes Workout Program

7 Minutes Workout Program features more than 20 different exercises, and each workout lasts 7 minutes maximum. You can also customize your own workout settings, and exercise without even looking at the phone.

Available on:

iOS

Bokeh

There’s no need DSLR camera to create bokeh effects now. You can have bokeh photos instantly with this app. Just snap a picture on your iPhone and filter it through this easy-to-use tool.

Available on:

iOS

my.eggbite

This app, my.eggbite, tracks and records your activities and achievements. Record elapsed time, distance, altitude, speed, and minimum and maximum speed, no matter what you’re doing.

Available on:

iOS

Phoenix Photo Editor

Phoenix is a powerful and fast photo editor with a bunch of editing tools, and importing and sharing options. With Phoenix you will have all the freedom to customize your photos with pretty filters, effects, borders, and fonts.

Available on:

iOS

Nintendo Switch Online voice chat now works when your phone is locked

Why it matters to you

It’s a good start, but Nintendo needs to make more substantial changes to its chat service for it to be useful.

The Nintendo Switch uses a dedicated smartphone app in order to facilitate voice chat, instead of using a built-in program like just about every other modern console. Up to this point, the app has been severely limited, not even allowing users to continue talking if their phones went to sleep, but this is no longer the case.

The latest update for the Nintendo Switch Online app, which you can download now on both iOS and Android devices, allows you to continue talking in voice chat even if your device goes into sleep mode or its screen is locked. Previously, doing so would call your call to end abruptly. The same is also true for using other apps at the same time — you can now check texts or look at Twitter without ending a call with your friend in Splatoon 2.

The Nintendo support page stresses, however, that calls will still end if the app you’re using has audio output, so watching a YouTube video could cause problems. On newer Android devices using power-saving features, you’ll also need to disable battery optimization to guarantee that your calls aren’t ended prematurely, as well.

To some, however, this is still going to be a Band-Aid solution to a larger problem. Without a traditional voice chat program available on the Nintendo Switch, it’s impossible for players to chat if the two aren’t playing the same game. Given the size of the Switch’s library, this isn’t a huge issue right now, but as more games are released and players’ game collections begin to vary, friends won’t be playing the same games with each other as frequently. Right now, it still makes far more sense to just Skype chat with your buddies, as you don’t have to hook your phone up with a confusing series of wires. In many ways, the Wii U’s infrastructure was more convenient than the Switch’s, even offering a simple video chat application.

Will the recent update make you more likely to use the Nintendo Switch Online app to chat with friends, or will you stick with a third-party option? With Nintendo Switch Online transitioning to a paid subscription service in 2018, Nintendo still has its work cut out for it.

Upgrade your computer’s audio with this slim soundbar for just $22 today

Odds are the speakers that came with your computer or built into your monitor aren’t that great. Today is a perfect day to upgrade them by adding ELEGIANT’s USB-powered soundbar to your setup for just $22.49. This is the lowest price the soundbar has ever sold for, and about $8 less than its average selling price.

For $29.99 you can pick up the wireless version of the soundbar, which is probably worth the extra few dollars.

With over 700 reviews at Amazon, it maintains a 4.3 out of 5-star rating. Some of its features include:

• It offers users a low profile, stylish sound solution that matches the styling of various monitors with convenient USB power.
• The headphone jack that allows users to enjoy audio from their favorite games, music and movies, without sacrificing valuable desk space.
• The USB-powered device makes it easy to use your speaker through USB port, eliminating the need for batteries or a power cord.The cable is about 1.2 meter (4 ft) long. If you want to make it longer you should get the extension cords connected.
• You can simply plug in the speaker to an open USB port in your computer and get started using the drive without the need to install any software.
• It provides high-performance quality sound so you’ll be able to enjoy your speakers as soon as you plug it in. This sound bar is designed for computer according to the computer power which means 3Wx2 will be suitable.

This pricing is only good for today, so be sure to grab one before it jumps back up to the regular price.

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More from Thrifter:

• Tips for becoming an expert eBay seller
• How to maximize your Amazon Prime membership

For more great deals on tech, gadgets, home goods and more, be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

NVIDIA Shield TV vs. Apple TV 4K: Which should you buy?

It’s the battle of the best streaming boxes! Android TV vs. tvOS!

Sandwiched between the new Apple Watch and iPhone announcement, Apple announced the latest version of its streaming box, the Apple TV 4K. It’s a big improvement over the current generation of Apple TV boxes — but how does it stack up against the reigning king of Android TV, the NVIDIA Shield TV? Let’s take a look!

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Specs

Apple has significantly boosted the processing power in the Apple TV 4K compared to its predecessors, including the A10X Fusion processor that’s been powering the latest iPad Pro. But beyond the upgraded processor, how does the Apple TV 4K stack up to the NVIDIA Shield Pro’s impressive specs? It’s pretty balanced except in a few categories — internal storage and compatibility with accessories.

The Shield TV Pro includes two USB-A ports on the back that can be used to connect or charge accessories. It also supports expandable storage via the aforementioned USB ports or with the included microSD card slot.

Streaming content

Streaming video and music has completely changed the way we enjoy our favorite media, and there’s a ton of different ways to stream content — whether from Netflix, Hulu, Spotify or any of the countless other streaming services and apps out there. The benefit of owning a dedicated streaming box like the Apple TV or NVIDIA Shield is that it’s always ready to serve your streaming needs without requiring you to connect a laptop to your TV or sift through clunky apps on your favorite video game console. Both offer 4K streaming and HDR quality (as long as you have a 4K TV, too), so let’s look at the differences in the content offered.

Apple will be automatically upgrading all HD iTunes content to 4K where possible.

Apple TV’s offerings are largely centralized around what’s available on iTunes and Apple Music, so they typically lead with that content first. With the launch of the Apple TV 4K, Apple will be automatically upgrading any HD content you’ve bought through iTunes to the 4K version if you upgrade your setup to 4K, and that top-quality 4K content will remain the same price as the currently offered HD content. Beyond Apple’s offerings, most of your favorite streaming apps are available on tvOS, although Spotify and Amazon Prime Video are noticeably absent, though it is coming later this year.

Apple spent some time during the Apple TV portion of the keynote talking about the latest additions to the TV App, which gives you an all-in-one place for all your favorite streaming apps (excluding Netflix, for some reason). This app will be launching in seven new countries by the end of the year, starting with Australia and Canada in September. Apple also boasted the inclusion of live sports in the TV app, which will be compelling to those with a cable subscription — but a whole lot of nothing for those of us who’ve cut out cable completely. Both the TV app and Apple’s library of downloadable content is available across all iOS devices, too, so you can take things on the go with you if you’re fully bought into the Apple platform.

The NVIDIA Shield TV matches Apple TV’s available streaming options, with equivalent Google Play Movies & TV services for renting and owning digital content if that’s your thing. There’s also great support for all your favorite streaming services — Spotify and Amazon Prime Video included — and although Android TV lacks an equivalent all-in-one TV app (an admittedly cool idea from Apple) the Shield home screen does a pretty decent job recommending content from across your favorite streaming apps.

NVIDIA has gone a step beyond for cord cutters by including fantastic integration for setting up a Plex Media Server on the Shield TV Pro.

But NVIDIA has also gone a step beyond for those cord cutters out there who’ve stockpiled their own favorite TV shows and movies on external hard drives. Thanks to wonderful integration with premium Plex features, you’re able to set up your NVIDIA Shield to act as a Plex Media Server. There’s a Plex app for Apple TV, too, for streaming content from your Plex server, but the 500GB of internal storage on the NVIDIA Shield Pro makes it a compelling storage option for your favorite TV shows and movies — which you can then stream from your Shield to Plex apps on your other devices.

The Shield Pro also works great as a Chromecast, although Google Home won’t recognize it as such which is disappointing, and also offers support for OTA tuners for watching live TV without a cable subscription.

Really, you’re only better off with an Apple TV 4K if you already own and use other Apple devices like an iPhone or an iPad, or if you own a deep library of content through iTunes. Otherwise, Android TV lets you do more overall with better customization for how you consume your — and there’s no better Android TV box than the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro.

Gaming

If part of your consideration deciding between an Apple TV or NVIDIA Shield TV comes down to gaming, it’s no contest — NVIDIA markets the Shield as “the streamer for gamers” and has designed the Shield TV Pro with specs capable of playing (and streaming) a growing library of titles being ported to the Google Play Store as well as AAA titles via GameStream which allows you to stream games from your PC to your living room, not to mention the GeForce NOW subscription service that allows you to the latest games to your Shield.

While there are some great games on the Apple TV, the Shield TV offers a better experience out of the box.

NVIDIA simply offers the better gaming experience right out of the box, starting with the obvious stuff like including an actual honest-to-goodness gaming controller. Apple sells a quality controller made by SteelSeries, but only includes the Siri Remote with the box.

Whereas Apple really pushes its exclusive offerings via iTunes and Apple Music on the Apple TV platform, NVIDIA follows a similar strategy with gaming on the Shield. Sure, Apple does manage to use the clout of these keynotes to snag exclusivity on some games such as Sky, which was unveiled during the keynote. It’s a cooperative multiplayer game developed by the team behind the gorgeous game Journey — and an Apple-exclusive title for the time being. But as a company best known for making cutting edge gaming graphic cards, gaming really is NVIDIA’s bread and butter, and you simply won’t find better gaming options on another box TV console that isn’t a PS4 or Xbox One.

Another area that’s close, but ultimately where Apple takes the win, is when comparing the A10X Fusion chip with the NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor. While the X1 is still a fantastic, dynamic and gaming-focused piece of silicon, the A10X has it beat for absolute power and GPU performance, and that may count for something if you take your gaming seriously.

Price

If you’re after getting the bigger bang for your buck, Apple can’t be beaten. The NVIDIA Shield TV Pro is priced at $299, while the 16GB standard NVIDIA Shield TV box is still a whopping $199.

Compare that to Apple’s offering — $179 for the 32GB model and $199 for the 64GB model. Is the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro worth the extra $100? That will depend on your streaming and gaming habits. If you’re a heavy streamer that’s cut the cord and looking for maximum flexibility and customization for accessing your favorite content (including ample internal storage and optional expandable storage via USB or microSD), investing the extra money in the Shield might make sense — especially if you throw in all the cool features for gamers.

Which is better?

Sure, call us biased but we’ve got to give the nod to the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro as the superior option whether you rock an Android or an iPhone. Apple TV 4K is going to be a great upgrade for those already fully bought into the Apple ecosystem, as it matches the Shield’s 4K HDR output while also building on features for accessing content across iOS devices. Meanwhile, you can simply do more with the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro, with the convenience of the Shield’s Chromecast capabilities available whether you’re on Android or iOS.

The Shield is pricier, yes, but you get what you pay for with the extra storage space, included gaming controller and all that extra computing power available for top-quality game streaming. And while Apple may claim that the Apple TV 4K is pushing living room streaming into new territory with its 4K HDR output, in reality, they’ve only just caught up to the competition.

Do you agree with our assessment? Sound off in the comments.

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NVIDIA Shield Android TV

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UK students get free six-month trial and 50 percent off Amazon Prime!

Amazon UK is offering a six-month Prime trial to eligible students in the UK, followed by 50 percent off the price of Prime for a year. Here’s what you need to know.

If you happen to be returning to school or starting a new placement in the UK, you’ll want to check out this promotion currently underway at Amazon. The online retail giant is offering students the opportunity to sign up for a six-month trial of Amazon Prime, which is followed by an annual fee of just £39, a 50 percent discount on the usual price.

During the six-month trial, you get access to all benefits normal members enjoy, including:

• Unlimited one-day delivery.
• Stream thousands of movies and TV shows.
• Access exclusive student offers, including 10 percent off textbooks.
• Listen to more than two million songs.
• Early access to lightning deals.

And when the trial comes to an end you have the option to purchase an entire year of Prime for just £39. That’s impressive.

Sign up to Amazon Prime today!

Examining the differences between iPhone X Face ID and Samsung iris scanning

Using your face as a password just got a little more exciting.

At the September 2017 Apple event, the iPhone X was revealed. It seems like Apple went all out on its “Anniversary” model, and one of the new features is Face ID.

Unlocking your phone with your face isn’t exactly new. Android has had the feature for a while, and Samsung has used a special iris scanner since the Galaxy Note 7. But Apple is doing things very differently, as it is wont to do. Rather than use a pattern to create an unlocking token, Apple is using the shape of your face. And it has some pretty specialized hardware in place to do it.

I haven’t used the iPhone X just yet, but this is an area where I have a good bit of experience. Modulated acquisition of spatial distortion maps, then turning the acquired data into something a piece of software can use as a unique identifier has been around for a while, and products you have in your house right now were built, packaged or quality-checked using it. I’ve been involved in designing and deploying several systems that use depth image acquisition to sort produce (apples, peaches, plums, etc.) by grade, shape, and size and understand how the technology used in Face ID will work.

Let’s compare.

Android’s facial recognition

Face unlock debuted on the Galaxy Nexus in 2012.

Unlocking your phone with your face has been part of Android since version 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. This is the least complicated and least secure of the three things we’re comparing.

Using the front facing camera, your Android phone can grab an image of your face and Google’s facial-recognition software then processes it to build a set of data based on the image. When you hold the phone to your face to unlock it, an image is collected, processed and compared to the stored data. If the software can match both of them, a token is passed to the system so your phone will unlock.

Face unlocking came to Android in 2012, and Samsung has made it much better on their newest phones.

The data isn’t sent anywhere and is collected and processed all on the phone itself. It is stored securely and encrypted, and no other process is able to read the raw data. Android face unlocking also doesn’t need any special lights or sensors or cameras — it uses the same front-facing camera you use to take selfies with.

Samsung has improved the experience with the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones by starting scanning as soon as the screen is tapped, and the processing is faster and more accurate because of the better camera and CPU. Face unlock on the Galaxy S8 is fast and generally works well once you get a feel of how to hold the phone while you’re using it.

The biggest problem with face unlock is that it’s not secure. It’s not advertised as being secure, even by Google or Samsung. It’s a convenience feature that was built to showcase (and refine) Google’s facial recognition algorithms, and a printed photo of your face will defeat face unlock.

Thankfully, Samsung also offers an alternative way to recognize your face.

Samsung’s iris scanning

Samsung first brought iris scanning to the Galaxy line with the Galaxy Note 7. Having a computer scan your eyeballs to authenticate you is something we’ve all seen in movies, and it is used for secure entry in real government facilities. Samsung is using the same concept with its iris scanning system, just scaled back so it can work faster and work with the limited resources of a smartphone. It’s more than secure enough for your phone, even if it’s not 100% foolproof.

Every eye has a different pattern, and your right eye is even different than your left.

Every eye has a unique pattern in the iris.Your left eye even has a different pattern than your right. Iris patterns are actually more distinct than a fingerprint. Because every eye is unique, Samsung is able to use your eyes to identify you and act as your credentials. These credentials can be used for anything a fingerprint or even a passcode could. You hold the phone so the special camera can see your eyes and your phone will unlock.

To do this, Samsung is using specialized hardware on the face of the phone. A diode emits near-infrared light and illuminates your eyes. It’s a wavelength of light that humans can’t see but it’s fairly intense and “bright.” Near-infrared light is used for two reasons: your pupils won’t contract and you’ll have no change in vision, and it illuminates anything with a color pattern better than the wavelengths we can see. If you look closely at your iris you’ll see that there are hundreds of different colors in a distinct pattern. Under near infrared, there are thousands of colors and they contrast with each other very well. It’s just better for grabbing an image of your iris, because even though you don’t see any of this, your phone can and uses it to build a dataset.

Samsung uses near-infrared light and a special camera to collect and process data about your eyes.

Once the iris is illuminated, a specially tuned narrow-focus camera grabs an image. The regular front facing camera on your Galaxy S8 could register color information under infrared illumination, but it wasn’t designed to do it. That’s why a second camera is needed.

This image is analyzed and a distinct set of data is created and stored securely on your phone. All the processing, analyzing and storage of the data is done locally and is encrypted so only the process of recognizing your iris has access to it. This data is used to create a token, and if the iris scanner process provides the right token a security check was passed — those are your eyes, so any software that needs your identity is able to proceed.

Of course, Samsung also collects some data about your face using the normal front-facing camera. Most likely, the facial data is used to help position your face so the iris scanner has a clear view.

Your eyes need to be in the right spot to setup and use the iris scanner.

There are some inherent drawbacks. Because using iris scanning to unlock your phone needs to be very fast, not as much data is collected about the pattern in your eyes. Samsung had to find the right balance of security versus convenience and since nobody wants to wait five or 10 seconds for each scan, the iris scanning algorithms can be fooled with a high-resolution photo laser printed in color and a regular contact lens to simulate the curvature of an eye. But, honestly, nobody is going to have a photo of your eye that is clear enough to unlock your Galaxy S8 or Note 8. If they do, you have a much bigger problem on your hands.

Samsung’s iris scanning works well as long as your eyes are in the ‘sweet spot.’

The bigger issue is accuracy. Enough of your irises need to be analyzed to pass the software check, and because the camera that grabs the image for recognition has a very narrow focus there’s a “sweet spot” your eyes need to be in. You need to be in that sweet spot long enough to pass the checks. The system is of no use if it doesn’t collect enough data to prevent someone else’s eyes identify as you, so this is just how it has to work.

It’s a good system as far as biometric security goes, and for many it’s great. Only your eyes will work (ignoring the off chance some spy agency has photos of your eyeballs) and it’s fairly fast. You just have to learn to use it correctly — and yes, that typically comes as a result of many times holding your phone unnaturally high with your eyes wide open.

Apple’s Face ID

Apple has entered new territory when it comes to biometric security on a phone. It wasn’t so long ago that you needed specialized lighting, multiple cameras with special lenses and a very expensive image processing computer board for each of them to collect enough shape data for unique recognition. Now it’s done with some components on the face of the iPhone X, Apple’s new A11 chipset, and a separate system to crunch the numbers.

Face ID projects an intense infrared light to illuminate your face. Just like the light used by Samsung’s iris scanner, it’s a wavelength a human can’t see but it’s very “bright.” It’s like a flood light — an equal amount of light across a wide area that washes your face and will fall off quickly at the edges of your head.

Apple is trying something very different with Face ID and how it gathers data about your face.

While your face is illuminated, a matrix of infrared LED lasers is projected over your face. These LEDs use a wavelength of light that contrasts with the light used for illumination and thousands of individual points of light cover your face. As you move (and we can never be perfectly still) the points of light reflect the changes.

With your face illuminated with the infrared lamp and a light matrix is projected over it, a special camera is collecting image data. Every point of light is marked and as you move and they change, those changes are also logged. This is known as depth image acquisition using modulated pattern projection. It’s a great way to collect data that shows shape, edge detection, and depth while an object is in motion under any type of lighting conditions. A ton of data can be collected and used to show a distinct shape that can be recreated in 3D.

The data is then passed to what Apple is calling the A11 Bionic Neural Engine. It’s a separate subsystem with its own processor(s) that analyzes the data in real time as it is being collected. The data is used to recreate your face as a digital 3D mask. As your face moves, the mask also moves. It’s an almost perfect mimic, and Apple does an excellent job showing it off with its new iMessage animated emojis in iOS 11.

Face ID uses some of the same technology as Android phones with Tango.

For authentication purposes, the data set is also used to calculate a unique identifier. Just like Samsung’s iris scanner, Face ID securely stores this data and can compare it against what the special camera is seeing while Face ID is actively running. If the data set matches what the camera can see, the security check is passed and a token that verifies that “you are really you” is given to whatever process is asking for it.

While Apple is also making a few concessions to ensure Face ID is fast and easy, there are some clear advantages from a user perspective. Face ID is actually more secure because you’re moving (more data is being analyzed) and there is no “sweet spot” as all of your face is being used and the camera uses a wider field of view. The matrix projected on your face contrasts well against whatever is in the background because a sense of depth is used to isolate your face’s shape.

As a bonus, the shape data of your face in real time can be used for other purposes using what Apple calls the TrueDepth Camera system. We saw an example of this with the new portrait mode for selfies, the animated emojis, and Snapchat masks. Apple has built the Bionic Neural Engine in a way that it can share simple shape data with third party software without exposing the data it uses to build a secure identifying token.

Which is better?

We can’t say anything is really better until we’ve tried it.

Better is subjective, especially since we’ve not yet used Face ID or the iPhone X in the real world. For authentication purposes, the important thing is that the process is accurate and fast. Samsung’s iris scanner can be both as long as you point the phone so it can find the data it needs, but on paper, Face ID will be easier to use because it doesn’t need to lock on any particular spot to work. And for many of us neither is better and we would prefer a fingerprint sensor, which the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 both still have.

Whichever you prefer, there’s little doubt that Apple has outclassed the competition in this regard. Extensive hardware to build and collect data about your face’s shape and features, combined with its own processing system to analyze it all more akin to Tango than any previous facial recognition we’ve seen on a phone. I’m excited to see this level of technology come to mobile devices, and can’t wait to see how future products build on what we see from Apple.

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A robot conductor led a live orchestra performance

Just a month after humanoid robot Pepper conducted a Buddhist burial ceremony, a robo-contemporary has conducted the world-renowned Lucca Philharmonic orchestra alongside opera great Andrea Bocelli. Do robots need a heart to complete tasks of passion? As shown by YuMi, the robotic maestro designed by Swiss Firm ABB, maybe not.

Under the fresco-covered ceiling of a theatre in Pisa, Italy, the two-armed YuMi directed a program titled “A breath of hope: from the Stradivarius to the robot” for guests attending the first International Festival of Robotics. YuMi’s movements are incredibly fluid and nuanced — as you’d expect the gestures of a world-class composer to be — with the orchestra’s resident conductor Andrea Colombini saying that “everything was perfect, especially in the length and in the speed of the gesture, which is very important.”

The robot’s performance was developed in two stages. Firstly, Colombini’s movements were captured in rehearsal through a process called “lead-through programming”, where YuMi’s arms were guided to follow the motions. Then the movements were fine-tuned and synchronized with the music.

“I think tonight we’re truly making history and writing the future of robotics applications,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer after the performance. “YuMi demonstrated how intuitive, how self-learning this machine is — how wonderful our software really is in learning the movement of a conductor, sensing the music, and really conducting an entire team.”

YuMi isn’t designed to replace orchestral conductors, of course. The machine is a proof of concept, demonstrating what’s possible with ABB’s software. However, Colombini and his orchestra have said YuMi could play a great role during rehearsals, when the conductor is absent.

Source: ABB

Sony’s big idea: Get fans to make its next hit

A tiny San Francisco art gallery isn’t where you’d normally find a group of hardware beta testers, much less for a major consumer-electronics company. But on August 26th, 2017, Sony held an event for exactly that at The Laundry, a small and intimate exhibition space in the city’s Mission District that’s so hidden, you have to walk through a cafe in order to get in.

Nevertheless, at around 5 p.m. on a Thursday, the place was filled to the brim. That’s because this was the fourth and final meetup for participants of “Program N,” a project where volunteers tested a hands-free open-ear audio device (called, appropriately enough, Concept N) for Sony for almost a year.

It’s a project within Sony’s Future Lab, a special research and development arm that comes up with new and innovative approaches to hardware. One of those approaches? Instead of developing products secretly, these prototypes would be open to the public for feedback.

Future Lab came about in early 2016, and the key difference between it and other R&D groups within Sony is transparency. “We had never disclosed concepts and technologies under development,” said Naoya Okamoto, a program director for Future Lab. “But [with Future Lab] we opened up for the first time.”

Makoto Murata, the project team lead for Program N,
shows the Concept N prototype on the screen.

To be clear, these aren’t consumer-ready products. Not all Sony projects are eligible for the Future Lab treatment, and very rarely are they anything more than just concept prototypes, which rarely ever make the transition over to store shelves. Instead, Okamoto said that Sony hopes to use the feedback to accelerate its R&D activities in general. “It’s a very rare case, sort of an experiment, for us to share our prototype devices under development with the public,” he added. “And to let people use it at their leisure and away from our premises.” It was a big risk.

Yet, it’s a risk that Sony might be forced to make. Even though Sony was once the mainstream electronics brand of choice, it’s waned quite a bit in recent years. Its Xperia brand of phones has failed to capture the market the same way that Samsung and Apple has, and its Vaio brand of PCs proved so unsuccessful it had to sell it off a few years ago. Sony’s unfortunate insistence on proprietary media formats like Memory Sticks and Minidiscs didn’t help it either.

Sony’s Future Lab made its first public debut at SXSW last year, where it introduced a series of different concept prototypes for the first time. One was a projector that transformed any surface into a touchscreen interface (this would later be known as Concept T), an “aim-able” projector wand that could make it seem as if sound was coming from whatever area it was pointing at, and an advanced haptic controller that provided surprisingly realistic touch feedback.

From left to right: Kengo Yoshii (engineer), Angie Park (UX researcher)
and Makoto Murata (project lead)

But the product that got most of the buzz was Concept N, the aforementioned audio device. It’s essentially a wearable neckband equipped with four microphones and acts as a hands-free way to interact with your phone, like asking for directions or finding out the local weather. It even has a built-in camera to which you can command to take photos.

The best thing about the N, however, is that it can play back audio in your ears without the use of intrusive earbuds. Instead, it uses innovative speaker placement to beam audio around your head. And if you want better audio quality, Sony also made a pair of unique open-ear earbuds to use with it. Rather than sticking in your ear canal, these earbuds clamp over, behind and onto the inside of your ear, so that you can still pay attention to your environment while listening to your favorite tunes.

“We had a round of discussions about how people were using their smartphones and devices,” said Kengo Yoshii, a Sony engineer who gave a presentation at the San Francisco meetup. “Was there a way to create an experience that allowed us to communicate and have access to information while still being able to engage and be an active participant in life?” Based on questions like these, Concept N was born.

Concept N as seen at the SXSW festival in 2016.

Makoto Murata, the project team lead for Program N, said that the team tested the product internally, but only received positive feedback. “We didn’t believe it,” he said. “To solve this problem, we [decided to] open the innovation up. Co-creation is the best way.”

“We found we need to share the actual, real voice of the customers,” Okamoto added.

So in September of 2016, Sony started to accept applicants for Program N. However, there were a few caveats. It was open only to people living in San Francisco and the Bay Area — Okamoto said this was specifically done to attract participants with an “innovative mindset” — and participation was by invitation only. What’s more, in order to sign up, applicants had to cough up $100 of their own money as a non-refundable fee.

To kick the program off, Future Lab held a sales pitch event in the offices of Wired Magazine, which also served as the first user initiation meeting. “It was a very diverse crowd,” said Erik Hartley, a Program N participant who attended the event based on a friend recommendation.

“It wasn’t just a bunch of tech people,” he added. “They were bike messengers, photographers, professors, and people from all different backgrounds. The people really brought me into it, moreso than the device itself.” Still, he didn’t make the decision to sign up until he tried it for himself. “The headphones sold me on it. This is something I want to spend a bit of money on.”

He wasn’t the only one. According to Okamoto, by the end of the program, Sony had about 300 participants testing Concept N.

And if you think this is just a glorified focus group, think again. Aside from paying their own money for the hardware, Program N participants were invited to attend several meetups throughout the year, where they interacted with Sony engineers directly. Future Lab also attended the Silicon Valley Bike Festival and Bike To Work Day SF in order to talk to cyclists and bike commuters about how N could improve their experience. Sony also flew out engineers and designers from Tokyo to San Francisco for the sole purpose of in-person feedback. This feedback would then shape future updates.

“The first version of N didn’t have a calling function,” said Okamoto, adding that most people in Tokyo don’t use headsets to make calls, so it was an afterthought. Understandably, it was the most highly requested feature right from the start, and was the very first update they made to the product.

Makoto Murata and Kengo Yoshii next to three Project N participants:
Erik Hartley, Qianhe, and Brian Mikol .

In addition to bug fixes, Sony introduced more features over time. Some of the more interesting ones include a personalized radio service that read the latest news to you, turn-by-turn directions, a local neighborhood guide that would recommend nearby attractions and NBA scores.

A particularly amusing addition was Lost Dog, an augmented reality game where you try to help a ghost dog reunite with its owner. “They put enough thought into it, where it worked exactly where people would be walking their dogs in San Francisco,” said Hartley. It’s an app that would only work in the city, he added, and yet Sony had actually hired actors to do voices for the game.

“They gave us dedicated support,” said Hartley. “There were actual engineers responding to us on a regular basis. For Sony to go out and crowd source this research and development, I’ve not seen that from other companies before. I’d love to see other companies do that.”

Eventually, the work that Sony was doing with Program N got noticed by Sony’s mobile communications department. “We saw what they were doing, and thought there might be something there for us,” said Don Mesa, the Vice President of Marketing for Sony Mobile Communications in North America. “We saw a connection between smartphones and the ear, and started to work behind the scenes on it.”

A Future Labs participant trying out the Xperia Open-Ear prototype.

The result is the Xperia Ear Open-Style, which we just got a sneak peek of at this year’s IFA. Instead of using a neckband, it consists of two separate earbuds that you clamp onto your ears, similar to how the Concept N earbuds work. And unlike Concept N, which uses its own voice assistant protocol — the N assistants’ names are Nigel and Anna — the Xperia version will be compatible with your phone’s existing AI, be it Siri or Google Assistant.

But perhaps more importantly, unlike Concept N, the Xperia Ear Open-Style will eventually be a product that consumers can buy.

At the fourth and final meetup, users got together to talk about what they liked and didn’t like about the headset. Most seemed to really love the open-ear concept, and the ability to listen to music while also being engaged with the world around them. “For the first time it actually allowed me to relax at work,” said Hartley. “Because I could listen to music and function at work at the same time.”

“I had all kinds of voice interfaces at home. Amazon Echo, Google Home, Cortana,” said Qianhe, a senior researcher working in health and wearables. “But I didn’t have any voice interface that I can use in a wearable device […] N is the only device out there like this with a voice interface.”

A mockup of what Sony wants its Xperia Open-Ear earbuds to look like, as seen at IFA 2017.

Thomas Harp, a cyclist, said he loves being able to listen to the environment while listening to music. “I’m typically riding around with a single headphone, but now I can get a stereo effect,” he said. “I use it everyday.”

Of course, there were complaints too. Most of the people in attendance agreed that the four to five hour battery life of the hardware was far too short, while others said the voice recognition could be better. In particular, one user said that he wanted the N dictionary to recognize more words.

Svante Rodegard, a user who was in the program from the start, said that he joined because he was a Sony fan. “There was a time when Sony had the coolest products around,” he said. “Ah, I thought. Sony is trying to get back on top with the cool products. That’s what brought me into this gathering.” More users chimed in at this point, and reminisced about their memories with the Walkman and the Minidisc player. One user by the name of Deborah said she “grew up in a Sony home.”

“When I was growing up, Walkmans were a big deal,” said Hartley. “Later in my life, I bought a Sony CD Mavica Camera. I had that for three years! It was only 1 megapixel but I liked it because I could have my pictures on my computer almost instantly.”

Future Lab participants gather at The Laundry for the fourth and final meetup for Project N.

As of September 2017, Program N has officially ended, as its legacy continues with the Xperia Open-Ear concept over at Sony Mobile Communications. As for other Future Lab devices, Sony is now gathering applicants for the Concept T projector, though since it’s regarded as a B2B device, it’s a program that will be tested with developers and manufacturers rather than end-users.

As N drew to a close, Okamoto reflected on lessons learned during Future Lab’s first public-facing project. Unsurprisingly, he said he found real user feedback incredibly valuable, and that having over 300 participants in the program is far better than the usual small-scale test Sony does internally.

Perhaps the biggest lesson Okamoto took away from Program N, however, was that it changed the way the engineers thought about the hardware. “The engineers and R&D group, are usually separated from actual, real users,” he said. “Normally we are working in our lab, far from the real world.”

But when Sony had the engineers who made the prototype meet with testers face to face, Okamoto said that this changed their mindset. “They found the reality. The communications changed their minds. It was a more realistic way of seeing the user’s daily life.”

A Future Labs participant testing the latest Project N iteration.

As valuable as this open and transparent way of R&D was, however, Sony said it won’t be using this approach with everything that the company makes — instead, it’ll plan an “appropriate program for each concept.” That’s understandable, of course, as doing this sort of project just for one product already requires a lot of resources and time.

But if there’s anything that this program shows, it’s that listening to users — some of whom are still very passionate about the Sony brand — can be very beneficial to a company that’s getting increasingly left behind in the consumer electronics wars. Even if the Xperia Open-Ear concept doesn’t become successful, Sony would have learned a few lessons from the back-and-forth process of talking to users directly; lessons that it could use with other products in the future.

Still, it’s not clear if doing this will actually give Sony its cool back. That vision of the company’s history might be long past rescue. Future Lab could end up like the Aibo; another failed Sony experiment.

But as long as Sony is still surviving, it’s trying its hardest to stick around. “The next concept prototypes are under way,” said Yoshii as he ended his presentation at the meetup. Later that evening, he announced that he had moved from Tokyo to San Francisco, to work closer with the Future Lab team in the US. “We hope that we can continue our relationship,” he told the crowd. “We hope to co-create our future together.” And, perhaps, Sony’s future too.

Images: Andrew Eggers for Sony (Neckband on screen); Crowd shot; Man with glasses looking down); Nicole Lee (Three Sony employees; Panel group; Side profile of man wearing prototype); Nathan Ingraham (Neckband on pedestal); Edgar Alvarez (Earbuds in case)

Amazon’s next docuseries follows the U of M football team

Not content with its NFL bragging rights, Amazon now wants in on college football. Instead of livestreaming games, it’s settling for a docuseries. The eight-part show from Big Ten Network will offer a comprehensive look at the University of Michigan football program.

The docuseries will follow team members throughout the 2017 season as they balance classes with practice, and their lives in the local Ann Arbor community. Sounds like Friday Night Lights (the college years), right? Maybe. If Amazon wants a truly memorable show, however, it will aim for something in the vein of ESPN’s 30 for 30 episode The U — which chronicled the rise of the University of Miami football team in the ’80s. Either way, Wolverines fans should be happy. The currently untitled show hits Amazon Prime Video in January.

Amazon scooped the rights to 10 NFL simulcasts earlier this year for a rumored $50 million, replacing Twitter in the process. It also debuted a behind-the-scenes series from NFL Films last summer.

Source: University of Michigan Wolverines

British warships will soon have Siri-like voice controls

British warships will soon integrate Siri-like voice systems into their controls, according to the head of the UK’s Royal Navy. Speaking at the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition — one the biggest arms fairs in the world — First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Phillip Jones said the Royal Navy wanted to embrace the speed at which warfare is being transformed by IT, and pointed to new Type-31 frigates as an example.

“The Type 31e will feature different app-based tools which can access the ship’s data. These will be operated from a series of touchscreen displays, Siri-style voice-controlled assistants and perhaps even augmented reality technology,” Jones said. “This is not a gimmick or a fad. As modern warfare becomes ever faster, and ever more data driven, our greatest asset will be the ability to cut through the deluge of information to think and act decisively.” The warships are scheduled for deployment in 2023.

Via: The Guardian