The portable FlexSafe will keep your valuables secure no matter where you are

Why it matters to you

Rather than hiding your wallet and phone in your shoe, keep it locked up with a lightweight portable safe.

Your whole vacation can get ruined if your wallet, phone, or tablet gets stolen while you’re enjoying a dip in the pool or relaxing at the beach. Aquavault hopes to ease your worries a bit with the FlexSafe, a portable security solution that attaches almost anywhere and lets you safely store your belongings. It’s got a programmable combination lock, a motion detector with an alarm, and it’s made from slash- and water-resistant material. It’s also got a waterproof solar charger, so it shouldn’t be easy to let it run out of juice.

After three college friends had their stuff stolen while at the beach, they turned their misfortune into an opportunity. “We tucked our things into our sneakers and went for a swim, and when we came back, everything was gone,” co-founder Jonathan Kinas told Entrepeneur. “When we realized several other people at our resort had the same problem, we said, ‘We need to invent something to prevent this.’”

The product was eventually called AquaVault, a portable lockbox that attaches to almost any piece of beach furniture. They sketched out the prototype on a napkin, and after a successful appearance (and funding deal) on Shark Tank, their sales skyrocketed.

“Shark Tank was a roller coaster,” co-founder Avil Samtani told the Miami New Times. “You have one shot at it, and you go out there and you have to really know your business and your numbers. And thankfully, it worked out in our favor.” Now, virtually every hotel on South Beach offers an AquaSafe as an amenity to their guests.

Sales of the AquaSafe topped $2 million last year and are projected to pass $10 million annually within five years.

The FlexSafe is a portable version, made of slash-resistant nylon with RFID blocking material layered throughout. There are other portable safes on the market, some specifically for your gadgets, but FlexSafe is specifically designed for outdoor activities, allowing you to secure it to a beach table or bicycle while you’re outdoors. It’s light, portable, and folds up into a package the size of a softball. After successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, it’s now available at Aquavolt’s online store for $60.

BlackBerry Motion announced with 4000mAh battery, IP67 rating

BlackBerry Mobile has a new phone and it looks a lot like the KEYone, but without its most important feature.

It’s been an open secret that TCL, the company behind the newly-revived BlackBerry handset brand, has been working on another device for a fall launch. Dubbed ‘Krypton’, the phone was expected to eschew a hardware keyboard for a traditional 16:9 touchscreen, emphasizing BlackBerry’s security prowess, stable software, and excellent battery life.

That phone is now official. The phone will come to market as the BlackBerry Motion, and it resembles the popular KEYone in many ways. The 5.5-inch Full HD LCD display is pretty standard for this price range — the phone will debut for the equivalent of around $450 — while inside the Snapdragon 625 SoC is paired with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 4000mAh battery, and IP67 water resistance. There’s also a 12MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture, an 8MP front-facing camera, and a front fingerprint sensor. It launches with the same version of Android 7.1 that came with the KEYone.

The rumored BlackBerry “Krypton” is not so rumored anymore. The BlackBerry Motion has been been unveiled at #GITEX in Dubai. Motion will be coming to “Select” markets in the weeks/months ahead from @blackberrymobile. It’s a full touchscreen BlackBerry with a freak’n MASSIVE battery. Swipe left for more! • • • #blackberry #bbmotion #android #blackberrymotion

A post shared by CrackBerry Kevin (@crackberrykevin) on Oct 8, 2017 at 8:02am PDT

The phone will only be available in select markets at first, and North America isn’t one of them. BB Mobile says that Middle Eastern markets like the UAE and Saudi Arabia will sell the phone shortly for the equivalent of $460 USD.

Interested? Check out CrackBerry for more coverage of the new device.

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BlackBerry Motion specs

What’s inside the BlackBerry Motion?

There’s a new BlackBerry coming to town, the Motion, and while it’s not quite as noteworthy as the return-of-the-keyboard KEYone, it’s a nice mid-range handset with some interesting features.

With a 5.5-inch HD display, a Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, 4000mAh battery and waterproofing, there’s a lot to like here.

Here’s the full spec sheet.

Get your first look at the dinosaurs in the new ‘Jurassic World Evolution’ game

Why it matters to you

With Universal providing access to 3D files from the film, this promises to be an authentic Jurassic Park experience.

If you’ve ever wanted to run a world-class theme park filled with deadly prehistoric dinosaurs, you won’t have long to wait. At the recently concluded Frontier Expo in London, the Jurassic World Evolution developers revealed more details about their upcoming prehistoric park management sim, including information about the game’s objectives and some great dinosaur footage rendered using the in-game engine.

Drawing on the success of Planet Coaster (and undoubtedly using some of the same foundations), you’ll be running a dinosaur amusement park, so in addition to creating new creatures in your lab, you need to manage your attractions and draw in new visitors. With Evolution, Frontier promises to deliver the “core fantasy that’s in the movie.”

When the game was announced back in August, Jonny Watts, Frontier’s Chief Creative Officer, said, “We’re excited to bring over fifteen years of management, simulation, and creature development expertise to a destination and franchise that remains an inspiration to us.”

While the announcement trailer used pre-rendered footage, this reveal shows the dinos in their environments using the in-game engine. Universal Pictures worked with the developers and provided access to the ILM 3D files from the films, allowing Frontier to alter the detail level to work in the game.

The career mode spans five islands, each one presenting some unique challenges. You can choose to specialize in Entertainment, Science, or Security (or a mixture of the three). You’ll also have to contend with the occasional disaster, such as tropical storms, earthquakes, or disease outbreaks.

Entertainment, of course, is all about packing in as many people as possible and keeping them entertained. For Science, undertake research expeditions and educational pursuits about the dinosaurs in their natural habitats. The Security specialty revolves around a park showcasing the world’s most dangerous dinosaurs … and really, what could go wrong there?

As you develop your park, you’ll also endeavor to fill up the “Ingen Database,” a repository for information not just about dinosaurs, but also about the Jurassic Park franchise itself, lore that’s sure to delight avid fans of the series. Discover DNA by sending dig teams to archaeological sites, and even bioengineer new dinosaur attractions for your park.

If you’d like to check out the entire Jurassic World Evolution presentation from Frontier Expo, it’s available on its TwitchTV stream (jump to about the 20-minute mark). Evolution will be available in summer 2018 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Best new songs to stream: Haim, Spoon, Sharon Van Etten, and more

Every week, there are thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves — and it’s just too much for your two ears to handle. With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks that deserve a thumbs-down click — you want the best new songs to stream right now.

But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

Here are our five best new songs to stream this week. And don’t forget to subscribe to our Spotify page for a playlist of our weekly picks, which can also be found at the bottom of this post. Not sure which streaming service is best for you? Check out our post about the best music streaming services, or go in depth and learn the differences between Apple Music and Spotify to better weigh your options.

HAIM — Little of Your Love

Los Angeles-based sister act Haim just released this Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video for their extremely catchy dance number Little of Your Love. The video boasts an extended dance scene and some pretty great on-screen moves, while the song itself features excellent vocal layering and a punchy drumbeat that comes in and out of the mix.

Spoon — I Ain’t The One

Indie rockers Spoon are best known for their more upbeat singles, but this recently released video for I Ain’t The One highlights one of their most beautiful new ballads — a tune off of the album Hot Thoughts. Band members appear underneath a dark escalator in the video, which is bookended by a simple — and very Radiohead-like — keyboard line.

DMA’s — Dawning

There are very few new acts as engaging as up-and-coming Australian rock group DMA. The band’s latest single, Dawning, is a near-perfect pop tune with a catchy vocal melody that joins layers of percussion and bass — an Oasis-like combination that will have you coming back again and again.

The Rural Alberta Advantage — Toughen Up

The Rural Alberta Advantage have maintained a punchy, down-to-earth aesthetic for some time now, with a history of combining introverted vocals and driving grooves to form powerful indie pop tunes. Their latest song, Toughen Up, is no different, with a kick-and-snare beat that’s held together by female backing vocals and wide, flowing synthesizers.

Sharon Van Etten — I Wish I Knew

Songwriter Sharon Van Etten recently announced that she’s prepping a deluxe reissue of her debut album Because I Was In Love, and she shared this special remastered version of the ballad I Wish I Knew this week. The revamped master remains simple and elegant, fueled by heartbreaking lyrics and and Van Etten’s equally heartbreaking voice.

That’s it for now, but tune in next week for more songs to stream, and check out the playlist loaded with our recent selections below:

Apple’s iPhone X leads Android manufacturers to embrace facial recognition

Why it matters to you

Soon, your Android could have the iPhone X’s latest and greatest feature.

Whether or not you are a fan of Apple, the Cupertino company remains one of the top leaders in the world of smartphones. Some of the recent editions of the iPhone have only featured minor upgrades, but that changed with the reveal of the iPhone X, which featured Face ID. Mac Rumors reports that industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple’s announcement will motivate Android manufacturers to move away from touch-based sensors to facial recognition software.

“While under-display optical fingerprint recognition is only a spec upgrade from capacitive solutions, 3D sensing embodies a revolutionary user experience and warrants a premium on gross margin,” Kuo’s research note reads. “3D sensing not only enables facial recognition in security applications and allows users to create fun expressions like Apple’s Animoji, on a more important level, it is a key factor in the development of AR. We therefore believe brand vendors are willing to spend more for related components.”

Current companies working on the technology for Android manufacturers are Qualcomm and Himax, Orbbec, and Mantis Vision. The offerings from Qualcomm and Himax are said to be the most advanced and thus the most popular.

Kuo says that within the next two to three years, he believes that Android phones shipped with 3D sensors will outnumber those with under-the-panel fingerprint scanners by a factor of two to three. Kuo cited the fact that 3D sensors are compatible with a wider variety of Android phones. 3D sensors can work with LCD screens whereas under-the-panel displays only work with OLED displays.

Beyond that, there are also the supply issues to consider. Kuo says that Samsung’s dominance in the area of high-end OLED panels means that supplies of such hardware will be significantly harder to find. The move to 3D sensors isn’t simply an attempt by Android manufacturers to copy Apple, but rather a move necessitated by the constants of hardware supplies.

That being said, it is likely that we won’t see widespread adoption of this technology for several years and, even then, it will likely only be available on premium phones. And it will be even longer when we see the feature on lower-end devices.

Why Google’s Pixel 2 XL will be my next phone

There have been a lot of great smartphones so far this year, but the Pixel 2 XL is easily the best choice for me. Here’s why.

In all of my years writing about Android, I’ve never once pre-ordered a phone on the day of its announcement. I typically wait for reviews to come out and to get hands-on time with a device myself before handing over my cash, but something changed this year. Despite heavy hitters like the Galaxy S8, LG V30, and Note 8 all begging for my attention and money, I ignored all of them (and my sensible instincts) and pre-ordered the Pixel 2 XL as soon as pre-orders went live on October 4.

Google absolutely killed it last year

It took a lot of strength and willpower to not purchase a Pixel last fall on the day of its announcement, but I decided to hold off and see what my colleagues had to say. As I’m sure all of you remember, response to the phone was overwhelmingly positive. Despite this, I still held off. The phone simply didn’t look all that interesting after the initial excitement wore off, but then I actually got one as my daily driver in June.

The Pixel was a perfect example of a phone that you had to actually use for yourself and carry as a daily driver to understand what made it so great. There’s nothing interesting or exciting about its hardware, but the software that’s powering the phone is still magical to this day. Last year’s Pixel still remains as one of the snappiest and most fluid Android experiences on the market, and Google’s expertise when it comes to camera software and performance remains as one of the industry’s best.

2016’s Pixel XL

Because of these things and so much more, the Pixel offered a user experience unlike anything I’d encountered before on other Android phones. The consistently smooth performance, tightened up UI, solid battery, and world-class camera turned a phone that seemed borning on the surface into one of the best the market had to offer.

Why this matters for round two

With the Pixel, Google proved that top-notch software is more important than flashy hardware. Sure, the latter is nice to have, but the former is so much more important when using your phone day-to-day.

With the Pixel 2 XL, Google is checking both of those boxes.

Google nailed hardware and software this time around with the Pixel 2 XL.

From a hardware point of view, Google included a narrow 18:9 display with 3D curved glass and considerably smaller bezels than last year’s model, front-facing stereo speakers, appropriately-placed fingerprint scanner, faster and more efficient processor, and a design that’s more refined and polished. As for the software, there’s still unlimited cloud photo storage, Google’s post-processing magic for the camera, and the ridiculously smooth performance that can only be had when hardware and software are made for one another.

Last year’s strong points make a return, but there are also new additions like the Pixel 2’s ability to automatically identify songs that are playing in the background and turn on Do Not Disturb when it detects that you’re driving, access to Google Lens so you can theoretically turn your eyeballs into Google Search, new ways to access the Google Assistant, and an AR feature-set that looks like worlds of fun.

Where the Pixel offered bland hardware with stupendous software, the Pixel 2 XL offers modern, eye-catching hardware with an even better software experience (presumably) than what we got last year.

Pixel 2 XL against the competition

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, the Pixel 2 XL does not exist in a bubble. Its two biggest competitors, for the time being, are the Galaxy Note 8 and LG V30. Both of these phones have their own set of strong suits, but they’re missing something that, in my opinion, makes them inferior – Google’s software.

LG V30 (left) next to Google Pixel 2 XL (right)

The Pixel proved last year that a near perfect software experience could outshine classier hardware, and now that we have a phone from Google that offers both of these things, I’m ecstatic to get my hands on the Pixel 2 XL to see if it lives up to its predecessor. The updated/modernized hardware is greatly appreciated and something that needed to happen for gen two, and while I’m certainly excited for that aspect of the phone, I’m more anxious to get up close and personal with Google’s vision of what Android should look and feel like in late 2017.

The perfect melding of hardware and software is what made the original Pixel so damn good, and when we get to combine that with new features like Google Lens and Ambient Services and hardware that looks appropriate for the year it’s released in, I think we’re going to end up with something truly special.

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• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL hands-on: Act two is great
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• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Pixel 2 vs iPhone 8: Camera Showdown
• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
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