How to install and set up a VPN on the NVIDIA Shield TV

No more region restrictions! Installing a VPN on your Shield TV is easy.

There are plenty of reasons to use a VPN. Security and privacy come to mind, but when you’re talking about a streaming device like the NVIDIA Shield TV, regional restrictions are right up there at the top, too. You don’t turn into a pirate just because you’re on vacation.

The issue is that setting up a VPN sounds intimidating. And it can be if you have to dig into the network settings and do it manually. Thanks to Google Play, you don’t have to. All you need is a valid VPN subscription and a couple of apps installed on your Shield TV and you’re halfway there.

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A dedicated VPN app

The first thing you need to do is see if your VPN company has an app in Google Play. There are a good many of them available, and even if you can’t find one through your Shield’s Play Store, sideloading is easy.

Once you get an app for a specific VPN installed, whether through the Play Store or from an SD card/USB Drive, open it and sign in with your credentials.

You’re done. Pick a server and off you go!

What to do if your VPN doesn’t have an Android TV app

OpenVPN

There are more VPN companies that don’t have their own app than there are ones that do. A lot more. The good news is that almost every VPN company has a set of OpenVPN profiles and a certificate that you can use on any device. You’ll find this information at your VPN company’s website, and you’ll need to download at least one server profile and the certificate.

The files are small so it’s not a bad idea to download all the server profiles. They will all use the same certificate so you only need to download it once.

The Shield TV doesn’t come with a web browser (that’s so silly) and if you haven’t sideloaded one, there’s no need to for this because we’re going to use a utility every Shield TV owner should have: WiFi File Explorer Pro. It’s a 99-cent app that acts as an FTP server for your Shield TV so you can connect to it through any web browser and transfer files.

You’ll find it in the Shield TV’s Play Store so it’s easy to install. There’s also a free version, but it is limited to 50 uploads; you’ll burn through those quickly once you see how easy it is and know you’ll never have to reach into the back of your entertainment cabinet and plug in a thumb drive again.

Fire WiFi File Explorer up on your Shield (or use whatever method you like to transfer files) and create a folder on the device to put your server profile(s) and the certificate in. Copy those over, and close the app by pressing back on your Shield TV remote.

Next, head back into Google Play on your Shield and search for the OpenVPN for Android app. Search for VPN if you’re using voice search because for some reason it turns OpenVPN into two words and can’t find the app. If only Google was a search company …

OpenVPN for Android is free (awesome) so go ahead and install it. When it’s done installing — it will only take a few seconds as the app isn’t very big — open the app. Don’t get freaked out by the ugly interface with a bunch of stuff you might not understand. All we’re going to do is “click” in a few places and use the files you transferred to automagically set everything up.

In the upper right corner of the app, you’ll see four icons. The box with the arrow is the import button and it’s the one we want. Click on it and in the file browser window that opens, find the VPN Server profile(s) you transferred over. Click on one of them. If you transferred more than one, you’ll need to do this for all of them individually.

It will start the import process and end with an error. That’s because it can’t find the certificate, but there’s nothing to worry about — we never told it where the certificate was. Click the button to let it finish importing and it will take you back to the main interface screen.

Now it’s time to point it to the certificate, so click the pencil icon for the entry on the right side. A window where you can choose the certificate and enter your VPN credentials will open.

You’ll see a button marked Select on the right side of the screen. Click it and browse to the certificate you transferred earlier and choose it. Now the authentication certificate and server profile(s) are both set up and all you need to do is enter your VPN username and password.

You can enter those here, or leave them blank to enter them each time you start a VPN connection. You can ignore the other settings unless your VPN company has instructions for you to change them. It probably doesn’t.

Once you’re done on this tab, switch over to the Server list tab at the top of the screen. Click the entry you just set up and it will automatically connect. You’re now tunneling your traffic through your VPN server and your real IP address and location are hidden.

Besides getting around region locking, you’ll be able to stay private if you do anything where you’d like some privacy. Another bonus is that beacons, trackers, and all the other tricks companies like Facebook use to monitor everything you do online become useless data. Remember that your ISP can see you’re connected to a VPN, and the company running the VPN can monitor your connection, though.

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It’s just another computer

We love the Shield TV. it’s powerful for gaming and 4K HDR video, NVIDIA keeps it updated with all the latest stuff for Android as well as NVIDIA-specific apps and games, and it’s hands-down the best set-top box you can buy because it’s not shackled to iTunes and the App Store. But at its heart, it’s really just a computer like any other computer.

That means using it through a VPN, or installing apps you got from somewhere other than the Play Store app or even importing your own certificates of trust are simple and work as expected. And that makes us love the Shield TV even more.

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The $75 HDHomeRun Connect is essential to a cord-cutting setup

Watching live TV without cable starts with OTA antenna. The HDHomeRun Connect is the next piece of the puzzle, and it’s on sale right now!

The HDHomeRun Connect over-the-air tuner is down to $74.99 at Best Buy and B&H. This device normally sells around $100, and the next best price anywhere is $90 through a third party at Newegg.

The HDHomeRun Connect is a simple device made for people who don’t have cable TV anymore. Combined with an OTA antenna and your home Wi-Fi network, you can watch live TV using any of your favorite devices, including your phone or tablet.

The Connect is a simple to use device that should be a part of any cord cutter’s home. We break down the advantages of HDHomeRun Connect in this article, and here’s another one about using an HDTV antenna.

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More from Thrifter:

• How to add a DVR to your OTA antenna setup
• The Best Amazon Sample Boxes

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Google app likely getting a big redesign soon, here’s what it looks like

A new interface for the Google app adds additional navigation buttons and spotlight for Google Lens.

The Google app has seen a lot of different looks over the years, with changes both big and small helping to add features and clean things up. The 7.13 beta of the Google app recently went through a teardown by the folks at 9to5Google, and a brand new interface for the application was discovered while doing so.

Right now in the Google app, you have three main pages – Home, Upcoming, and Recent. The Home page acts as a place for your Google Feed cards to keep you up to date on the latest news, trends, etc., Upcoming houses cards for stocks that you’re following, tracking numbers for packages, and travel times to frequent destinations, and the Recent page shows a timeline of searches and websites you’ve recently visited. The current interface is perfectly functional, but its new UI looks to add more features and make things easier to navigate.

Current Google app (left), New Google app (right)

At the bottom of the Google app, there are now a total of 6 icons for Home, Upcoming, Assistant, Search, Recent, and More. Home, Upcoming, and Recent all work in the same way that they do already, but you’ll notice that the Home page has a few subtle differences. Feed cards have rounded corners, the shortcuts underneath the search bar have been removed, and the microphone for voice searches on the right of the search bar has been replaced with an icon for Google Lens.

The new Google app UI will likely debut with the Pixel 2

As for the new icons near the bottom of the app, Assistant simply launches the Google Assistant, Search brings up your keyboard for a typed Google search, and More houses the settings and other options that were previously accessible by swiping from the left of the app.

Google hasn’t officially said when this new layout will be available for all Google app users, but our guess is that it’ll be making an appearance alongside the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

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Amazon’s all-new Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus make their debut in India

Alexa is now available in India, and Prime Music is coming soon.

Amazon refreshed its Echo lineup last week, and the company is now bringing the products to India, including the all-new Echo, the Echo Dot, and the Echo Plus.

The Echo Dot is the most affordable of the lot and retails for ₹4,499 ($70), the second-generation Echo is available for ₹9,999 ($155), and the Echo Plus will set you back to the tune of ₹14,999 ($230). All three devices are currently available on an invite-only basis for 30% off, and will be released in the last week of October.

The Echo Dot is the smallest speaker in the series, with the puck-sized device featuring a single 0.6-inch tweeter. The Echo has a fabric design that’s available in three color options — black, white, and grey — and comes with a 2.5-inch down-firing woofer along with a 0.6-inch tweeter, designed to produce 360-degree omni-directional sound. It also has an array of seven microphones, and Dolby sound processing.

The Echo Plus, meanwhile, has an integrated ZigBee smart home hub, and features a 2.5-inch woofer and a 0.8-inch tweeter. Like the Echo, the Echo Plus delivers room-filling sound. All three Echo devices feature music playback controls at the top.

The Echo devices are powered by Amazon’s Alexa platform, and Amazon has customized the assistant to better understand local pronunciations and intonation. All three Echo devices have far-field microphones, which means Alexa will be able to hear you from across the room. It can also recognize non-English places, music titles, and names.

Amazon has customized Alexa for the Indian market.

Amazon is working with the developer community in India to provide localized skills for the platform, including the ability to book a cab on Uber and Ola, order takeaway from Freshmenu and Zomato, and getting the latest sports scores from ESPN Cricinfo.

You’ll also be able to get news updates from the Times of India and NDTV, book flights on Ibibo, control Philips Hue and Syska Rainbow LED lights, and so much more.

Considering that the Echo devices are internet-connected speakers, you’ll be able to stream music from the likes of Saavn and TuneIn, with Prime Music slated to make its debut in the country shortly. Over 10,000 skills are available for the platform at launch, and Amazon says that more will be added continually. In addition to its website, Amazon will make the Echo devices available at large format retailers, including Croma and Reliance Digital.

Who’s looking to pick up an Echo in India?

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Google Home can now be assigned to specific rooms for smart home controls

The latest update for the Google Home app now allows you to assign Google Home speakers to rooms of your house for easier smart home controls.

The Google Home app can do a multitude of things, and at times, its functionality can be a bit daunting. Google recently pushed out a big update for the application to make navigating its main functions a bit easier, and along with that, one of Google Home’s long-running pain points has been corrected in the process.

One of the best parts of Google Home is using the smart speaker to control all of your connected light bulbs, outlets, thermostats, and more with just your voice. The Google Home app allows you to see all of the smart home gadgets that are connected to your Home speaker, and along with this, lets you give them nicknames and assign them to certain rooms. For example, saying, “Ok, Google, turn off the bedroom” will turn off any connected devices that are assigned to the bedroom.

You couldn’t previously assign Google Home speakers to rooms, but this has finally been changed. If you open up the Home control section of the Google Home app, you’ll now see a message prompting you to assign devices to rooms that don’t currently have one. All of my regular smart devices already have assigned rooms, but as you can see in the screenshot above, my Google Home (named Living Room Home) now shows that it isn’t currently assigned to a room.

This added functionality is nice to have, but what’s so great about it?

Although not a game-changer, being able to assign Google Home speakers to rooms means that you can say “Ok, Google, turn off the living room” to shut off not only your smart lights at nighttime, but also your Google Home if it’s playing music. It seems that Chromecasts should work in the same manner, and while we would have loved to see this added months ago, we’re just glad that this addition is finally here.

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Sonos finally brings Alexa integration to its speakers in public beta form

Alexa is finally arriving on Sonos speakers in a new public beta!

Sonos has announced that a new public beta software update that will become available today will finally bring the long-awaited Alexa voice controls along with it. The feature has been in testing in private beta until this point but will work on all current-generation Sonos speakers.

You will need an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or another Alexa-powered device in order for this to work. There will be an Alexa skill that you will have to enable through your Alexa app. The firmware update and Alexa skill should be available shortly. Tidal, iHeart, Audible, Pandora and other streaming services will be adding direct controls for the integration, and AirPlay 2 will make its way to Sonos in the future.

Sonos also announced that its platform will be completely open in 2018, featuring a “Works with Sonos” system to enable anyone to add their service to the Sonos experience.

Sonos One — with Amazon Alexa — arrives October 24 for $199

Sonos has finally made its long-rumored Alexa-powered speaker official.

We’re live today from Chelsea in New York City, where Sonos has just unveiled the highly anticipated Sonos One — its first speaker that integrates Amazon’s Alexa assistant. The speaker will be available on October 24 for $199. Pre-orders start today.

Sonos One looks and a lot like (and is very much based off of) the Play:1, which has been Sonos’ entry-level — but still excellent — speaker. The big difference here is the inclusion of a six-microphone array — and the inclusion of Alexa, of course.

Sonos One will also be able to control all of Sonos’ other speakers. But really Sonos sees it as the one speaker to rule them all. In 2018 it’ll be a fully open platform, allowing any music service to work with Sonos. And any existing application will be able to tie in to Sonos, much like Google Play Music does already. Sonos also will support Apple’s AirPlay 2, so anything you can play on an iOS device can also be played over your Sonos system. Support for Google Assistant will also arrive in 2018.

Pre-order the Sonos One

Networked self-driving cars are smarter and safer

You know what’s better than one self-driving car on the road? Two, because then they can pool resources. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication isn’t anything new, of course, but researchers at Switzerland’s federal institute of technology, EPFL, are taking things one step further. By wirelessly connecting the LIDAR, sensors and navigation systems of two cars in convoy, both can get a fuller picture of the world around them.

Put simply, if two autonomous vehicles are driving down a road, then all they can “see” is the data from their own systems. But if you can connect your car, say, to the one immediately behind you, then both systems get a wider field of view and better situational awareness. In an overtaking situation, the car behind can use its counterparts systems to scan for hazards out in front, including cars in the opposite lane.

The team at EPFL have worked to iron out the kinks in such a system using a pair of Citroen electric cars equipped with Mobileye sensors. Both vehicles had WiFi gear and computers in their trunks, which helped the pair co-ordinate with each other on the road. One big issue, early on, was that both systems would count the same obstacle twice, once from each data source.

Now that those problems have been resolved, bigger issues, like the fact that all of this computation has to be done on the fly, can be tackled. The hope is that, eventually, every autonomous car on the road will be talking to one another to ensure that crashes and angry fights at merge points are kept to a minimum.

Magnetized particles could solve our data storage problems

Scientists have discovered an unusual magnetic behavior that could solve one of the biggest problems faced by our data-hungry world: data storage. In recent decades we’ve been getting progressively better at storing data but unless we find new and more efficient ways to store the increasing volume of data we’re producing every day, it won’t be long until data centres reach their capacities and progress grinds to a halt. The new discovery, which has the potential to store data in fast-moving magnetic particles, could remedy that.

Traditional magnetic disks read and write data one bit at a time by altering the orientation of magnetized particles on a surface. The new concept focuses on storing data in the tiny disturbances within the magnetic orientation, called “skyrmions”, which occur on a thin metallic film sandwiched against a different, non-metallic metal. Electric fields in the non-magnetic layer influence the magnetic one, so the skyrmions can be controlled and manipulated, while intentionally-added defects in the magnetic layer cause the skyrmions to become pinned to specific locations. The surface then becomes a fact, efficient and controllable writing surface for data encoded in the skyrmions.

According to the researchers, the system has the potential to encode data at speeds high enough to make it suitable for faster memory systems used in Random Access Memory (RAM), as well as a substitute for magnetic media such as hard disks. However, the team has yet to come up with an effective way of reading the data once it’s been stored — the current equipment is too expensive and complicated to be used as part of an everyday computer system. Nonetheless, the findings herald a potential step change in the way data could be stored in the future, so you don’t need to worry about reigning in your data habit just yet.

Source: MIT

Alexa voice control comes to Sonos speakers in public beta

Well that took awhile: Sonos just announced that a public beta is incoming for Alexa support, a year after saying it was coming. At an event in New York today, the company said that the functionality will be rolling out to all current models of its speakers. Alexa support is provided by your Echo, Echo Dot or other enabled gizmo. With the firm saying Alexa is but the first voice control system, maybe don’t be surprised if Google Assistant or Siri show up as well. Sonos is also working to get more developers onboard for its ecosystem, with a “Works with Sonos” certification program.