Galaxy Note 8 now has the highest-rated Android camera, says DxOMark

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is now tied with the iPhone 8 Plus as the highest-ranked smartphone camera in the world.

With the release of every major flagship, a few different things happen. Reviews flood the Internet with varying opinions, drop/durability tests are conducted, people dig through to find every last new feature, and the cameras are tested out to their fullest potential. DxOMark has been testing smartphone camera quality for years, and it just gave the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 the highest score it’s ever given to an Android phone.

With a photo score of 100 and video score of 84, the Galaxy Note 8 ends up with a final result of 94 – only to be tied with the recently released iPhone 8 Plus. When it comes to still images, DxOMark praised the Note 8 for its noise reduction, preservation of fine details, fast autofocus performance, and high-quality zoom lens.

The Galaxy Note 8 also offers solid video output with a good amount of exposure, strong color rendering, and good noise reduction, but struggles a bit when it comes to autofocus and representation of textures. To put things in perspective, the HTC U11 received a video score of 89 and the Google Pixel eked out a 91 (both phones received overall scores of 90).

However, even with a slightly lower video score, that shouldn’t deter you from picking up the Note 8 if you’ve been considering it. The overall score of 94 is truly commendable, and although numbers don’t always tell the story of real-world performance, this is a solid reminder that the Note 8 has one of the best smartphone cameras on the market right now.

On the other hand, it’s worth pointing out that even with its revamped scoring methodology, it’s worth taking DxOMark scores with a hefty amount of salt. Phone companies increasingly rely on awards like this to help sell their products, and DxOMark has partnered with the likes of OnePlus, HTC and others to seed scores prior to phones being announced.

It’s also worth pointing out that giving a phone’s camera a single score out of 100 is counterproductive in that there are only so many objective ways to look at a photo or video. At the same time, DxOMark makes its money from selling camera testing equipment, which, as Alex Dobie points out in a recent editorial, could make manufacturers “teach to the test.”

Like a wily student preparing for a standardized test, manufacturers who partner with DxO, and get access to its hardware and software, can tune their image processing to ace the firm’s synthetic tests (within the limits of the hardware, of course). As a result, their review scores are higher when DxO eventually publishes them — because they’ve had access to the testing hardware all along. Manufacturers who don’t partner with DxO are at an automatic disadvantage in terms of their score, even though real-world, outside-of-the-lab image quality might not be substantially worse. When that happens, as it is bound to, consumers who put faith in comparisons between scores from partners and non-partners are potentially misled.

All that’s to say there are two sides to this conversation. High DxOMark scores are certainly indicative of a good camera experience, but just because the Note 8 gets a score of 94 doesn’t mean you should rule out the Pixel, HTC U11, or any other phone with a lower score.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• Galaxy Note 8 review
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• Join our Galaxy Note 8 forums

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Samsung’s Windows Mixed Reality headset will cost $499

A few days ago, images of what looked like a Samsung Mixed Reality headset leaked online. Today, at Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality event, both Microsoft and Samsung have officially unveiled it at last. It’s called the HMD Odyssey, and it’s the first Samsung VR headset to run on the Windows Mixed Reality platform. It’ll ship on November 3rd, and is available on pre-order today.

The HMD Odyssey has dual 3.5-inch AMOLED displays (1,440 x 1,600 resolution each), built-in spatial AKG headphones, inside-out tracking and a built-in microphone. It also comes with Microsoft’s motion controllers, which should work with the other Windows Mixed Reality headsets as well. According to Samsung, the HMD Odyssey will have a 110-degree field of view. Samsung’s HMD Odyssey marks the sixth Windows Mixed Reality headset we’ve seen so far, but it’s the first one with integrated headphones (which reminds us a lot of the Rift).

“Samsung is committed to working across platforms to build cutting-edge technology, and we’re excited to partner with Microsoft to shape the future of virtual reality,” said Alanna Cotton, the VP and General Manager for Samsung Electronics America, in a statement.

The HMD Odyssey will retail for $499, which is certainly up there in price compared to the other Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Other headsets like the Dell Visor and the Lenovo Explorer are about $350 each ($450 with the controllers), while the Acer is $300 ($400 with controllers) and the HP is $329 ($429 with controllers). The ASUS headset is more on par cost-wise, with a price tag of 449 Euros, which is around $500 USD. All of the above headsets are available for pre-order today.

‘Halo Recruit’ brings the Xbox series to mixed reality

Microsoft already announced that it was working with 343 Industries on Halo experiences for mixed reality, but today the company revealed its first one: Halo Recruit. The game will be available starting October 17th — you can either try it out in Microsoft Stores across the country, or download it from the Windows Store for free.

As you might expect from a free title, Halo Recruit isn’t meant to be in-depth. Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s Mixed Reality head, said that it’s designed to offer a first glimpse into what mixed reality and Halo can feel like. “It’s a fun, brief introduction into the world of Halo,” he said in a statement. “You’ll see several iconic characters in mixed reality for the first time.”

Halo is just one example of Microsoft investing in games for its nascent mixed reality platform. Indeed, aside from Halo Recruit, Microsoft also announced that developers will finally be able to access the preview for Windows Mixed Reality SteamVR (which it announced over a month ago) starting today. Consumers will get it this holiday season.

As a reminder, Microsoft is positioning Windows Mixed Reality as an all-inclusive concept that includes both augmented and virtual reality — HoloLens is for AR, while the other Windows Mixed Reality headsets would be used for VR. The idea behind the Mixed Reality term is so that AR and VR headsets could play well together, and have access to the same software and applications.

If you’re keen on finding out what the fuss is about, you can get one of the many Windows Mixed Reality headsets that are coming out this holiday season, and make sure your PC has the latest Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Microsoft buys AltspaceVR’s struggling virtual hangout

When AltspaceVR announced that it was staying open after threatening to close its doors, it said it was “deep in discussions” with people who were passionate about it. Apparently one of those people was Microsoft, because the software giant has just announced that it’s acquiring AltspaceVR, officially providing Windows Mixed Reality with a social VR solution.

“With the AltspaceVR team onboard we look forward to building the world’s preeminent mixed reality community,” said Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s Mixed Reality head, in a statement.

If you’re not familiar with AltspaceVR, it’s sort of like a Second Life for VR. Even though AltspaceVR has only been around for a few years, it already has competition in the social VR space. Its biggest rival is arguably Facebook Spaces, which is the social network’s attempt at a virtual hangout space. Of course, Spaces’ big benefit is that it makes use of your existing Facebook network.

But AltspaceVR has had successes too. It partnered with NBC to broadcast last year’s presidential debates in VR and it’s even hosted virtual comedy shows from Reggie Watts and Paul Scheer.

AltspaceVR is accessible with Google Daydream, Samsung’s Gear VR, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. With the Microsoft acquisition, it’s likely that AltspaceVR will be available on Windows Mixed Reality headsets as well.

Gundam fans can bring home a lifelike Haro next year

Gundam fans will no doubt recognize this adorable Haro robot from the anime, as did I on the CEATEC show floor in Tokyo. As it turns out, Bandai, Bandai Namco, IBM and VAIO have joined forces to bring us a lifelike “Gundam Concierge Haro” aka “Gansheruju Haro” — including a 19 cm-wide spherical body (pretty much the size featured in the original series), a variety of gentle movements (bobbing and spinning), glowing eyes and mouth, extendable arms and legs plus a pair of subtly flapping ears. Better yet, if you’re fluent in Japanese, you’ll be able to have Gundam-related conversations with Haro, courtesy of IBM’s AI software.

At the booth, the demonstrator asked Haro who would win in a battle: a Gundam or a Zaku? Haro replied with something along the lines of “Gundam would beat Zaku.” And if you tell Haro that you want to talk about Char Aznable, you may end up getting to the point where Haro tells you that “Char’s custom Sazabi is three times faster than a Zaku” — a nod to the famous line in the original Gundam series. Better yet, if you dare, Haro can quiz you on your Gundam knowledge. You can also ask Haro for the time and date (smartphone setup via Bluetooth required), but that’s as far as non-Gundam conversations go.

Haro is the recurring mascot in the Gundam anime series. Next year, you’ll be able to get a lifelike version of it. pic.twitter.com/OCHRIxcgwr

— Engadget (@engadget) October 3, 2017

Don’t expect Haro to be replacing Siri, Cortana nor Alexa any time soon, because Bandai actually wants this “BN・Bot Project” to be as faithful to the anime version as possible. Even this Haro’s cute voice is provided by voice actress Satomi Arai, who played the same character in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation trilogy and the more recent Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin movie series. The only thing that’s really missing on this Haro is the hovering capability (well, that only seems to work in low gravity in the anime, anyway), but that’s unlikely going to stop the hardcore fans from buying one when it launches some time next year for an unknown price.

‘Overwatch’ Halloween bash begins on October 10th

Overwatch’s Halloween event last year introduced the title’s first player-vs-computer co-op mode , a fun brawl featuring four heroes against a horde of enemies. Even if the holiday season only lasted a month, it was a delightful surprise that paved the way for later (tragically temporary) PvE game modes. If you were worried Blizzard would pass up another opportunity for spooky gameplay and new skins, don’t fear: Overwatch’s new Halloween Terror event goes live on October 10th.

The nights grow cold
And monsters appear
A great evil gathers
And Halloween draws near… pic.twitter.com/98CXWqQ0gc

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 3, 2017

We haven’t gotten much more than a teaser, so it’s unclear if last year’s player-vs.-computer co-op brawl Junkenstein’s Revenge will make a triumphant return (Blizzard would not confirm any further details). Judging by the above tweet, the game will get a new set of spooky skins (and likely all the stickers, emotes and victory poses that come in a new seasonal event) — but you’ll be able to buy last year’s event skins on the cheap, as Overwatch did for its recent second annual summer season. The game’s team will probably announce more details before it goes live on October 10th. Or you can, y’know, just wait til next week.

Source: Overwatch (Twitter)

Google’s mini Home speaker may ship on October 19th

If there was any doubt that Google’s October 4th event will include a miniature Home speaker, Walmart just erased it. The big-box retailer briefly posted a listing for the Google Home Mini that not only shows off the puck-like Assistant device, but gives an idea of what to expect when it launches. The Mini will reportedly ship around October 19th for $49, and you might not even have to pay that much. You see, Walmart has an tie-in with Google Express that cuts $25 off the price of orders until January 15th. That means you could be paying as little as $24 — not bad for a brand new alternative to the Echo Dot.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, Walmart’s imagery also includes a render of the Pixel 2 XL, the larger of the two Android Oreo phones Google is expected to announce on the 4th. It doesn’t reveal much that you don’t already know (Evan Blass recently had a closer look), but it’s one more confirmation of the Pixel 2 XL’s thin-bezel design and stereo speakers.

There’s not much mystery to the Home Mini, that’s for sure. Ultimately, it’s a cut-down version of the Home that drops any pretense of being music-friendly in favor of a lower price and that compact profile. It could be joined by the Home Max, a high-end speaker that focuses much more on quality and might rival the Apple HomePod or Sonos’ upcoming voice-guided speaker. Between the two Home models, it’s clear that Google wants to take on the broader smart speaker market, not just carve out a niche for itself.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Droid Life

Forza Motorsport 7 review: It’s everything you expected

By Joel Stocksdale

We’ve got some good news and some bad news about Forza Motorsport 7. First the good news: It’s exactly the Forza game you were expecting. Next the bad news: It’s exactly the Forza game you were expecting. This seventh entry in the series, and amazingly, the third example on Xbox One (each previous Xbox only saw two mainline Forza Motorsport releases), is very much an evolution of the games that preceded it, and that’s both good and bad.

Let’s look at the good side of this coin. Firstly, Forza 7 is stunningly gorgeous. The tracks and environments seem to have received the most graphical attention. In addition to active backdrops with crowds, helicopters and other set pieces, there are other details that bring the locations to life. The most visually stunning we found in our brief time playing was on the Dubai circuit, which is one of the introductory courses when starting the campaign. As you’re driving, you pass through sandy deserts where the wind is actively blowing sand onto the course, creating drifts, and you can see it all happening. Even on less drastically sandy tracks like Laguna Seca, you’ll see light clouds of dust wafting across the track.

The weather is more varied and challenging, too. Rainy conditions return, along with standing water, which will seriously affect your traction and handling. But there are also unusual conditions like early morning fog, which we experienced in an early race at Hockenheim. The fog not only cut down on how far forward we could see, but it caused the light to diffuse everywhere, making it tough to see when driving toward the sun.

The cars themselves haven’t been radically updated, compared with Horizon 3 and Motorsport 6, but they still look beautiful, and every single vehicle’s engine, interior, and trunk can be closely examined with Forzavista. But extra details have been added that bring you closer to actually driving these cars. For instance, many of the regular road cars’ windshield wipers begin to wiggle and shimmy as speeds increase, showing the affect of wind on them. And as you may have seen in the trailers, the various bundles of wires and hoses in some race cars also vibrate as you’re driving.

There isn’t much change to the gameplay, either. The physics model is just as spot-on as any previous Forza Motorsport game. There are also plenty of driver assists and the signature “Rewind” function to aid less experienced and less skilled drivers play the game. Many, many race series are available in the campaign mode to complete, and you will be required to complete various series in order to move on to new and more challenging events. Races in the campaign can also now be lengthened or shortened depending on preferences. You could give yourself an extra challenge in trying to win with fewer laps, or lasting longer. Adding more laps could also give you more time to beat tougher opponents. And of course you have the option of participating in quick single races, split-screen multiplayer, online multiplayer, and special challenges if you get tired of the campaign.

There is plenty to unlock and collect, too. There are over 700 of those beautiful aforementioned cars to collect and race. Interestingly, having enough credits isn’t enough to buy each car in the game. Forza Motorsport 7 employs a system in which you must have collected enough cars to unlock a new tier of vehicle. This sounds like it could be frustrating, and we can attest that some of the cars locked away early on seem like they should be readily available. But the positive part of this is that this system forces you to spend a little more time with some fun slower cars you might have missed if you could just buy anything you want. It also prevents you from getting cars that are too powerful, too fast.

There are loads of racing suits to pick from, too. They aren’t all just different generic colors and styles either. There are both full racing suits and full-face helmets, as well as outfits with jeans, leather jacket, and open face helmets with goggles. There are a bunch of special novelty suits, too, ranging from disco-era tuxedos to The Dude’s sweater and shorts from “The Big Lebowski.” Unfortunately, all of these suits are awarded by random chance. You can get them by reaching new experience levels by completing races, or by purchasing prize crates, which can contain cars, suits, or mods which can be applied during races to earn extra cash and experience by performing racing feats.

These are all the great things you would expect from a Forza Motorsport game. Now we should talk about the things that we expected — but aren’t exactly glad they still showed up. First among them is the homologation system. Most every race series is based on a style of car, rather than a performance class, for example hot hatches. It’s an idea that sounds cool, since you’ll get to pit a bunch of the same style of car against each other to see which is best. But the problem is that those styles span a wide range of performance. In the hot hatch category is both the Hyundai Veloster Turbo, and previous generation Honda Civic Type R. Those cars aren’t actually comparable in real life, let alone virtual, due in part to the roughly 100 horsepower difference between them. As a result, the only way Forza will let you use a car like the Veloster is if it’s hopped up to compete. For the average player, this isn’t too big a deal since the game can automatically upgrade the car to compete. But for somewhat nerdier players, which include many of us at the office, the system precludes the opportunity to race the car in stock form and experience how it feels and compares to similarly performing cars.

Returning to the topic of cars, though the car list is substantial, there are quite a number of strange holes in various automakers’ rosters. Looking at hot hatches once again, heavy hitters such as the Focus RS, Golf R, and Civic Type R all are present, some in multiple generations, but the Focus ST and any of the last three GTI generations are absent. And it’s still impossible to ignore the lack of any production Toyotas in the game.

Modifications are still lacking for many vehicles, too. When I went to modify a Mazdaspeed Miata, the only bodykit options were the generic Forza complement of tow hooks and canards. This is particularly frustrating when many more options were available on the same car in previous Forza Motorsport games. That said, more popular cars do still have plenty of visual modifications available, and every car has the same wide wheel selection and paint scheme editor.

Finally, the reward system has really become convoluted, and those prize crates are the culprit. They’re the only way to get items like custom racing suits, and they have to be purchased with credits you could’ve spent on upgrades and cars. And different boxes of different costs yield different random rewards. The more expensive, the better the chance at getting a rare item. But regardless, you’ll mostly be getting more “mods” to use in races to earn more money and experience. This does help you advance and have the chance of earning a new suit, new car, or credit bonus, but you’ll also probably just pour a lot of your credits back into more prize crates. It seems as though there could have been a simpler, more user-friendly system.

But when you look at the overall package, even with some of our gripes, Forza Motorsport 7 is still a superb racing game. It has loads of cars, spectacular graphics, lots of ways to tweak the experience for yourself, and it’s accessible to both newbies and veterans alike. It’s exactly what you’d expect from the series.

Supreme Court denies Kim Dotcom petition to keep $40 million in assets

Kim Dotcom, the founder of illegal file-sharing site Megaupload, was arrested in 2012 by New Zealand authorities on behalf of the US. He still has not been extradited to the US, however. In April of this year, the file-sharing maven asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 ruling that let US authorities keep $75 million in assets seized during the original raid on his house. The petition was denied on October 2nd, which allows the seizure order to remain intact.

The assets in question are currently being reported as worth $40 million. They include bank accounts in Hong Kong and New Zealand, Dotcom’s mansion home, luxury cars, jet skis, big-screen TVs, a $10,000 watch and an Olaf Mueller photograph said to be worth more than $100,000, according to Ars Technica. The reasoning behind the seizure is that Dotcom is a fugitive — he’s never appeared in American court and therefore cannot claim the assets the US government kept.

The US Supreme Court has just rendered International treaties with the US meaningless. Extraditions will become more difficult for the US 👍🏻

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) October 2, 2017

Of course, Dotcom’s legal team says otherwise, even though their appeals have thus far been unsuccessful. “Kim Dotcom has never been to the United States, is presumed innocent, and is lawfully opposing extradition under the United States-New Zealand Treaty—yet the United States by merely labeling him as a fugitive gets a judgement to take all of his assets with no due process,” Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken told Ars Technica. The defense now places its hopes at the feet of the New Zealand and Hong Kong Courts, said Rothken, who have the legal authority over the assets.

Fortunately most of my assets are in Hong Kong and HK courts won’t allow forfeiture of my assets simply because I legally oppose extradition

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) October 2, 2017

Via: Ars Technica, Bloomberg

Source: SCOTUS Blog

North Korea now has a second internet link through Russia

North Korea had previously gotten its internet through a hardwire to China, but that’s no longer the case: Now, it has a second link to the world wide web through Russia cybersecurity firm FireEye told Bloomberg. This confirms an initial report by site 38 North that claimed the secondary connection went active on Sunday.

This gives North Korea an alternative method of accessing the internet — which, aside from the obvious benefit of redundant access, might mitigate the damage from foreign attempts to block their service. A report on Sunday revealed that US Cybercommand had been harassing the North Korean government’s hacking group with denial-of-service attacks for six months. It’s unclear if their method would be as effective now that the East Asian country has a second line to the outside internet.

It also affects UN and US ability to diplomatically cut North Korea off from the internet. While the Security Council’s latest sanctions restrict oil and gas coming into the country, they could at some future date have threatened North Korea’s then-only link to the internet through China’s state-owned China United Network Communications. Now, the UN and US would have to pressure two countries. FireEye’s CTO told Bloomberg that Russia would also get something from the deal: Visibility into traffic going in and out of North Korea, giving them an idea what the country’s up to.

Source: Bloomberg