Moto G5S Plus goes on sale September 29th for $230

We said the Moto G5 and G5 Plus were “still the best budget phones” when we reviewed them earlier this year, and now Motorola is rolling out the upgraded version of its larger device. The G5S Plus improves on its predecessor with a larger screen (5.5-inches compared to 5.2), a rear camera module with dual 13MP sensors instead of just one, a front-facing camera that’s 8MP (up from 5MP) and a new all-metal body that replaces the original’s plastic frame that had metal tacked on.

Unfortunately, other features like NFC or USB-C are still left out, for the price they’re still very good phones. That’s why it’s so good to hear that these upgrades don’t change the price, as the G5S Plus launches at the same $230/$300 mark (for 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage) as the G5 Plus. It’s currently available for preorder from Motorola, and starting September 29th will go on sale from Best Buy, B&H, Fry’s, Motorola.com, New Egg, Ting and Walmart.com.

Source: Motorola

Kodak’s app and chatbot will scour your photos for forgotten gems

If you’re like me, you have thousands of photos on your phone, most of which you will have long forgotten. And let’s be honest, you probably don’t scroll through all of them often, if at all. I certainly don’t. Well, Kodak Moments — the photo-printing division of Kodak Alaris — has updated its app and introduced a new Facebook chatbot, both of which will pore over your photos on Facebook or those stored in your phone’s camera roll and pick out images that qualify as a “Kodak Moment.”

Both the updated “Kodak Moments” app from the company and its Moments Assistant Facebook bot use algorithms and AI to figure out which of your photos might be worth resurfacing. They take into account things like location, facial recognition, quality, relationships, engagement and photo tagging in order to find meaningful photographs that you might want to see again and, more importantly, buy prints of. “Once we display images that people may have forgotten about on premium products with an option to immediately physically share, we expect to make money from the prints and the photo-products that we sell,” Kodak Moments’ Chief Marketing Officer Rob Smith told Fast Company.

Some have found that these services don’t do a particularly good job at finding photos you might want to see again. But if you want to check them out, the app and chatbot are available now.

Via: Fast Company

Source: Kodak Moments (1), (2)

Turnout for iPhone 8 Launch in Australia ‘Bleak’ as Customers Hold Out for Upcoming iPhone X

Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are already available for purchase in countries like New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and China, and in Sydney, one of the first cities where the two devices became available, lines were short and there was little demand for the new smartphones.

The iPhone 8 launch in Sydney saw “a bleak turnout,” reports Reuters, with fewer than 30 people lining up outside of the Sydney Apple Store on George Street. In past years, hundreds of people have lined up for new iPhones on release day.

Apple customers on Twitter have also noted shorter lines in other locations.

This is the extent of the line up for the new iPhone in Brisbane. Just a dozen deep. Clearly not as much excitement as in previous years. pic.twitter.com/iJGg6S3k3Z

— S Marshall-McCormack (@ShannonMM9) September 21, 2017

The perceived lack of demand for the iPhone 8 and mixed reviews about the device caused Apple stock to fall as low as $152.75 on Thursday. Hints of demand issues first popped up last Friday, when iPhone 8 pre-orders kicked off.

Ahead of a standard launch, pre-order supplies of new iPhones often sell out online, but that was not the case with the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. Hours after the two devices became available for sale, there was still plenty of stock, with September 22 delivery dates available either online or with in-store pickup.

Many customers appear to be waiting for the higher-cost iPhone X, Apple’s new flagship device that will become available for pre-order on October 27. Priced starting at $999, the device features an edge-to-edge OLED display, upgraded cameras, and a new facial recognition system.

Supplies of the iPhone X are rumored to be extremely constrained, and it’s been suggested that Apple will not be able to supply adequate amounts of the devices to meet demand until well into 2018.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone X
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Buy Now)
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Run the Jewels’ video game tour continues in ‘FIFA 18’

Killer Mike and El-P, collectively known as Run the Jewels, are no strangers to video games. Previously they appeared in Gears of War 4 as multiplayer characters, and now the duo are lending their talents to FIFA 18. Or, at least, their iconography. You can outfit your virtual footballer in kit featuring the group’s trademark fist and gun logo on a teal jersey reminiscent of the album art for Run the Jewels 3, and there’s also a black variant. More than that, the soundtrack features and exclusive track from the group, “Mean Demeanor.”

Holy shit @runjewels kits in #FIFA18. Take my damned money. Take it all. @KillerMike @therealelp this is amazing. pic.twitter.com/U52V66W21i

— Dominic (@Dibble75) September 21, 2017

Now, this isn’t the first time RTJ has graced a game from EA (“Blockbuster Night Part 2” was in Battlefield: Hardline), but FIFA soundtracks are a bit different, hitting a huge audience around the world. More people probably are probably familiar with Blur’s “Song 2′ thanks to FIFA ’98 than other means, for example. If this keeps up, the RTJ’s “Call Ticketron” dreams of playing at Madison Square Garden might come true next tour.

Source: Dibbie75 (Twitter), Electronic Arts

Netflix for iOS Updated With HDR Support for iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X

Netflix today updated its iOS app to add support for iOS 11 and Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) video on compatible devices.

According to Netflix, Dolby Vision is available on iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, and the 12.9 and 10.5-inch iPad Pro models. Netflix’s HDR content is also available on the new Apple TV 4K.

Netflix first promised to introduce HDR quality content for mobile viewing back in March, and support comes just as the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are launching.

HDR titles can be found on Netflix by searching for “HDR.” There is a limited amount of HDR content available on Netflix, and much of it limited to Netflix-created television shows and movies.

To view HDR content, Netflix requires subscribers to have a premium plan, priced at $11.99. The $11.99 price provides access to HD and Ultra UD content along with the ability to watch on four screens at once and download videos on four phones or tablets.

Netflix can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
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Expanded watchOS 4 Heart Rate Monitoring Features Not Available on Original Apple Watch

watchOS 4 introduces an expanded Heart Rate app that’s able to track your current heart rate, your resting heart rate, average heart rate while walking, and your recovery rate after exercising, providing more information about your overall health. It’s also able to send alerts if it detects a heart rate above 120 when you’re not exercising.

These features are available on the new Apple Watch Series 3 models and the Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 1 models that were introduced in 2016, but some of the features are not available original Apple Watch models sold in 2015.

As Twitter users discovered after downloading watchOS 4 earlier this week, the original Apple Watch is only able to display current heart rate with a much simpler interface for the heart rate app, with no sign of resting heart rate or average walking heart rate. The app does offer the heart rate graph with a tap on the display, though.

Original Apple Watch image via @jgirl125a
It’s not entirely clear why the original Apple Watch doesn’t offer the full range of heart rate features, but it may be due to hardware limitations. The first Apple Watch offers an original S1 processor, which has since been significantly upgraded in Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 updates, and its battery life is not as robust.

Apple discontinued the original Apple Watch in 2016 when the Series 2 was introduced, replacing it with the Series 1 Apple Watch. The Series 1 model is similar to the original Apple Watch, but features an upgraded S1P processor. The Series 2 Apple Watch uses an S2 processor, and the Series 3 Apple Watch uses an S3 processor.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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How to Hide Text Previews for Every App Notification on iOS 11’s Lock Screen

iOS 11 has introduced a simple blanket solution for those who want to hide text previews for all of their apps at one time, bringing about a quick remedy for anyone concerned about privacy on iPhone and iPad. In previous iterations of iOS, you could only toggle the “Show Preview” notification setting on or off for select apps, and the feature was largely exclusive to a few of Apple’s own first-party apps, like Messages.

With iOS 11, that option has extended to individual third-party apps, and Apple has now introduced an overarching “Show Previews” toggle for all apps installed on your iOS device.

Hiding Text Previews for All Apps on the iOS Lock Screen

Open the Settings app.
Tap “Notifications.”
Tap “Show Previews.”
Tap “When Unlocked.” With this setting turned on, every app that you have notifications enabled for will appear on the Lock Screen, but without the actual content of the notification displayed. You can quickly make that content appear with a simple press (but not tap) of your finger on Home Button to activate Touch ID, unlocking your device and confirming it’s you who wants to read the various messages.

If you choose “Never” in the same area of Show Preview settings, these notification previews won’t show notification content even when the iPhone or iPad is unlocked.

Preview notifications hidden (left), and then shown after the iPhone is unlocked (right)
The same options are also available for each individual app, allowing for more granular control over your notification privacy settings in iOS 11. If you don’t want the same setting for all of your apps, visit Settings > Notifications > scroll to the desired app > and then scroll to the bottom of the app’s notification page to find Show Preview settings for that specific app.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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Using cellphones and sewage, scientists can tell what drugs you’re taking

Why it matters to you

A new waste-sampling technique lets researchers more accurately pinpoint population drug use.

Asking people about their drug habits — whether perfectly legal pharmaceuticals or those on the more illicit end of the spectrum — unsurprisingly doesn’t always result in reliable data. You know what does? Analyzing waste products in the form of sewage, since that’s where ingested drugs ultimately end up in some way, shape, or form.

This is where a new study comes into play, as researchers analyzed both sewage and cell phone signals as a means of finding out more specific information about the inhabitants of certain areas — from what they use medicinally to a census of who is in a certain area at a certain time.

“Through combining measurements of drug residues in sewage with counting the number of mobile devices in the area to [indicate] the number people there when we collect our sample, we have developed a tool for knowing the per capita drug use for the population with a relatively low level of uncertainty,” Professor Kevin Thomas, from the faculty of Health of Behavioral Sciences at Australia’s University of Queensland, told Digital Trends. “What’s exciting is that we are able to deal with highly dynamic populations, yet still say with confidence what the level of drug use is. This is a really exciting development as it significantly reduces the uncertainty associated with population weighting that has been a weakness of many wastewater-based studies. [It] opens up the opportunity to look at spatial and temporal trends with much more certainty — a really important development as we start to look at new biomarkers in sewage.”

For their proof of concept, the researchers looked at Oslo, Norway, where they found that the population in one area can change by more than 40 percent in one 24-hour period. That pretty much renders any survey limited to local residences enormously inaccurate, even if they all did tell the truth about their habits. The researchers also noted some intriguing details related to seasonal drug usage, like finding that ecstasy is most heavily used during weekends, while illegal drug use in general peaks in June and July.

“We are currently working on expanding the biomarkers in wastewater that we measure to cover chemical exposure, different health effects, and nutrition,” Thomas continued. “We hope to be able to develop a suite of biomarkers that will tell us about the health of a population in a particular area with the overall goal of protecting human health.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Benjamin Brush plays popular music to keep kids brushing their teeth

Why it matters to you

A clean mouth is an important way to keep people healthy. Benjamin Brush makes it easier to form good brushing habbits.

Brushing teeth is easy, but almost everyone can agree that it’s not the highlight of their day. The dentist recommends we brush twice a day for two minutes, but busy schedules or laziness can shorten the time actually spent brushing. Wouldn’t it be easier to brush more if it was entertaining?

Benjamin Brush, the latest product from BleepBleeps, is a smart toothbrush for the whole family. This cute connected device makes brushing teeth more fun with the aid of music and games. Users can download their favorite music from millions of available tracks on the BleepBleeps Music Store. Each song plays for two minutes, giving everyone reason to keep brushing. As a reminder, Benjamin Brush vibrates every 30 seconds to signal when it’s time to clean the next section of teeth.

“As a parent I know it’s difficult to get kids to brush properly – or even at all,” company founder Tom Evans said in a statement. “We made Benjamin Brush to get everyone more excited for brushing their teeth and to encourage good brushing habits.”

By pairing the toothbrush with the BleepBleeps app, parents and kids can keep track of their brushing. Everyone earns points based on how long and how often they brush their teeth. Siblings can compete or parents can reward children for good habits.

Depending on a user’s age, there are two different brush heads to choose from. The Pom-Pom Brush has bristles in every direction, making it easier to clean a toddler’s little teeth. As children get older and grow their permanent teeth, they can upgrade to the Big Brush head. Both brushes are made from soft, flexible, and hygienic silicone bristles. These prevent over brushing and protect the tooth enamel.

Inside the waterproof base is the speaker and a sonic motor that produces thousands of pulsations per minute for cleaner teeth. Recharging Benjamin Brush is as easy as plugging in a USB cable.

Just like BleepBleeps other kid-friendly products, Benjamin Brush is available for pre-order on Kickstarter. The campaign runs through October 12 with prices starting at $55. After initial shipments go out in January, the toothbrush will be made available to the mass market for $89.

Parallels 13 review

Maybe it was the best-in-class build quality, or the pleasant MacOS user experience, but one way or another you decided to invest in a Mac.

As enjoyable as MacOS is, a day will come when you might need to open up a Windows exclusive application. When that day comes, you’ll be faced with a decision. Do you partition your drive, fire up Boot Camp, and install a full-fledged version of Windows? Or do you just buy Parallels 13?

There are other solutions, but these two rise to the top of any Windows-on-Mac discussion. During our Parallels 13 review, we saw firsthand why that is — and why Parallels might be the best option for most people.

Living in parallel

The divide between Windows and MacOS isn’t as stark as it used to be. Outside of gaming, you can find an analogous version of most Windows software nestled in the warm embrace of the MacOS App Store, or elsewhere online. All the major productivity suites are on MacOS and Windows — Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, and of course Google’s G Suite.

There’s still cases where you’ll need a regular install of Windows, though. A number of specialized software tools only support one platform or another, and software developers often need access to a Windows environment for testing. That’s where Parallels comes in.

Installation is quick and painless, and it doesn’t require any messing around with hard drive partitions or boot loaders. You install it like any other MacOS application — after you pay the entry fee of $80, or $100 per year, for the Pro version. Click through a few menus, and that’s it. The rest of the installation goes on auto-pilot, downloads Windows 10, and breezes right through all the setup.

Parallels is great at doing heavy lifting in the background, out of sight.

Installing a Twitter client requires more interaction than installing Parallels 13, and that’s a good thing. Parallels is great at doing heavy lifting in the background, out of sight.

Contrast the installation process to Boot Camp, and it’s easy to see why Parallels 13 is the more attractive — if expensive — option for some. To install Boot Camp, you’ll need partition your hard drive, reboot your Mac a few times, and then deal with installing Mac-specific drivers on your Windows install. Even then, the trackpad never feels quite right.

Windows when you want it, MacOS when you don’t

Once it’s installed, Parallels 13 offers the full functionality of Windows 10 in parallel with MacOS. You can fire up Parallels from your applications menu, or you can just click your new Windows folder from the dock, and jump right into any Windows app, as if it were just a part of your MacOS experience.

The seamless transition between Windows and MacOS has long been the draw of Parallels, and the latest version upholds that storied tradition. Windows 10 is never more than a click away, and your Windows apps even live in your dock, just like your MacOS apps.

On top of that, Parallels 13 goes one step further. With the “Coherence” mode, Parallels actually does a decent job of merging with MacOS proper. The Windows 10 panel goes away, and your Windows taskbar icons jump up on your MacOS menu bar. Your Windows apps even live inside your MacOS desktop environment, just like your regular MacOS apps.

All right, what’s the catch?

Parallels and its Coherence mode are very cool, but they require a substantial amount of system resources. We did our testing on a 2016 MacBook Pro 15 — with an Intel Core i7-6820HQ and 16GB of RAM — and Coherence mode caused significant slowdown over time. Sites had trouble loading, while Excel and Word started to cry for mercy, exhibiting substantial input delay.

If you do need it, you’ll find Parallels 13 is nearly perfect solution.

That said, slowdown was the only real issue we encountered during our testing, and Parallels does an admirable job of managing system resources when you’re not actively running Windows apps. When you tab out of a Windows app, Parallels puts it on the back burner. Your Mac won’t be quite as slow, but there’s still a bit of input lag.

Other than that, Parallels ran every Windows 10 application flawlessly during our tests. Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and even Steam ran without any issues. In fact, when we had Photoshop open in MacOS and Windows 10 with Coherence mode active, it was hard to tell which one was which.

It’s important to point out that running Windows 10 through Parallels is a bit more limited than running Windows 10 through a Boot Camp install. Parallels is a virtual machine — an emulation of a Windows machine — and Boot Camp just installs a regular version of Windows 10 on your MacBook or iMac hardware.

The Boot Camp version of Windows 10 can interface directly with your hardware, so it’s always going to be a quicker, more robust option and the best option for gaming on a Mac or MacBook. Gaming through Parallels is… ill-advised.

Advanced, graphics-heavy games like Overwatch — if you can get them to run at all — will be unplayable. That’s not what Parallels is meant for, so remember that if you were hoping Parallels might offer an easy path to gaming on your Mac.

A solution in search of a problem

Overall, Parallels 13 does an excellent job of integrating Windows 10 into MacOS. It’s seamless, fast — usually — and reliable. If you need access to a Windows 10 environment for software testing, or just one or two applications, Parallels is an excellent choice.

With that said, for most users, the price of entry will be too high for what you get. Parallels 13 is an excellent piece of software, but the utility of the software for most users is debatable. Parallels targets a set of power users that need frequent access to both operating systems.

For most people, Parallels is an answer in search of a question – but if you do need it, you’ll find Parallels 13 is nearly perfect solution.